Consent (The Loan Shark Duet Book 2)

by Charmaine Pauls

  Then came his phone call today. There was something in his tone, a faint tremble in the deep timber of his voice. My hands shake as I fit the new red dress and twist my hair into a bun. What if he doesn’t want to see us, any longer? No, I have to be positive. Gabriel may not love me like I love him, but he needs me. He wanted me alive, enough to make me pregnant. That counts for something, doesn’t it?

  Connor cooes on the play carpet. I pick him up, burying my nose in his hair. “I love you, baby. So much.”

  A pang of sadness invades my heart as it always does when I have to leave him, even for a few hours.

  “He’ll be fine,” a voice says from the door.

  I turn to take in Kris’ soft, compassionate smile. Wonderful Kris who always understands.

  She holds out her hands. “Give him here and go have yourself some fun.”

  I kiss my baby’s head before handing him over.

  Kris looks me up and down. “You look beautiful.”

  Absentmindedly, I rub a finger over the stub of my thumb. “You think so?”

  “Perfect.” She gives me an encouraging nod. “You’re running late.”

  She knows I’m stalling. I’m stalling because I’m nervous. How will this night turn out for us? For me, Gabriel, and Connor? When she leaves with Connor, I slip the gift I kept for Gabriel in my bag. Depending on what he says, I’ll offer it to him or bring it home. A part of me wants to put tonight off, but we can’t carry on living in our make-believe world.

  I say a quick goodbye to the guys. It’s pizza and movie night, so Charlie is sorted. Then I drive to Gabriel’s house.

  He waits outside, dressed in dark slacks and a white shirt. As always, my mouth goes a little dry. He’s perfect in every physical sense, but to me he’s still the scarred man I fell in love with. On the inside, he’s as torn up as I am, and that pain is a bond we share.

  Instead of getting the door for me like he usually does, he remains standing on the lawn, drinking me in with a hungry expression as I walk up the path. We don’t need words. I know what he’s thinking just as he knows what I am, because his eyes drop to the hard points of my nipples under my dress. I stop short of him. My emotions are raw, but so are his. A war rages in his green eyes, the color so wrong and so right. His hands flex as if he’s trying not to touch me, but then the fragile cord of his restrain snaps.

  Grabbing a fistful of my hair, he jerks me closer. The action makes me stumble into the hard barrier of his chest. He catches me with one arm around my waist, trapping his erection between us.

  “Fuck.” He buries his nose against my neck and runs it along my jaw. “Just one touch.”

  That hurts. He says it like a farewell greeting.

  “I need you inside the house. Now,” he whispers in my ear.

  Taking my hand, he leads me to the door. When it’s locked behind us, he turns on me, one hundred percent Gabriel. “That’s a very pretty dress.” For all of one second, he looks indecisive, as if he’s fighting an internal battle, but then he takes my face between his hands and kisses me hard.

  “Aren’t you going to tell me to take it off?” I ask when he sets me free.

  “There are things I need to say.”

  I want to hear, and I don’t. I’m afraid of losing him, forever, this time, but I’m not afraid to fight for what I want. I’m not giving up, yet. I push the straps from my shoulders and let the dress fall to the ground. Not wearing underwear, I stand naked in front of him, except for my shoes.

  His gaze caresses me with approval, but the battle continues to rage in his eyes. “You came here like this?” He closes the distance, staring down at my mouth. “Why?”

  We both know why, but he wants me to say it. “I want you to fuck me.”

  The taught skin of his cheekbones darkens. “How?”

  “Hard. Rough.” I deal my trump card. “While you spank me.”

  The lines of his face turn rigid, and the green of his eyes becomes smoky. “Why?”

  “Because it makes me come harder.”

  His chest deflates with a breath of defeat. “I can’t deny you.”

  “Then don’t.”

  He cups my breast, flicking a thumb over my nipple. “Lie down on your back and spread your legs.”

  I shake my head. “If you want it, you’re going to have to take it.”

  His body tenses. “I don’t want to hurt you, not any––” He bites back the rest of his words, giving me a pained and needy look.

  “It’s what I need.”

  His resolve crumbles like a dry piece of bread. His carefully guarded lust unravels, giving me a part of the true man as he folds his fingers around my neck and pushes me to my knees. Holding me in place with one hand, he unzips his slacks with the other, leaving the waist buttoned but freeing his long, heavy cock.

  He lets go of my neck to grip my hair. “Touch it.”

  Our position turns me on beyond anything I’ve ever experienced with me naked on my knees and him towering over me, fully clothed. Gathering the drop that spills from the slit, I rub the wetness around the crest before dragging my nails along the underside. His skin is hot velvet, his flesh hard granite. I catch his eyes as he stares down at me, reading me like the open book I am, knowing exactly what I need.

  “Lick it.”

  At the permission, I drag my tongue over the head, all the way down and back up. I don’t want to play nice, today. With a look of defiance, I suck him deep into my mouth.

  His expression is approving even as he gives a small shake of his head. “Naughty, greedy girl. Did I tell you to suck my cock?”

  Instead of replying, I gently rake my teeth over him.

  He shivers. “We’ll take care of your punishment later. If you’re going to suck, do it like you mean it.”

  I do. I curl my tongue around him and touch his length where my mouth doesn’t reach. Taking him as deep as I can, I urge him wordlessly to remove the last barrier between us, the point to where he hasn’t pushed me, yet. I need this. I want everything from him. I want him to understand he healed me, and that I’m willing to go anywhere for him. He pulls out and shoves back faster. I let him fuck my mouth like I’ve never done with any man, savoring every stroke he pushes into my mouth. I want to swallow for him. I want to choke and have my eyes water. I want him to take me all the way. Changing the angle of my head, I make him pierce my throat instead of my cheek. My reward is magnificent. His eyes grow large with a heated light, and his erection twitches in my mouth. He pushes harder and deeper, stretching my jaw to the limits.

  “Breathe through your nose, baby.”

  This is all the warning I get before he snips the final cord of self-control he’s always maintained while fucking my mouth. Gripping my head between his large hands, he holds me still and starts fucking my lips in all earnest. When I gag he pulls back, giving me only a brief reprieve before continuing his grueling pace. The way he uses me is so hot. I’m salivating around him, making disgusting noises in the back of my throat, and he loves it. Blinking away the moisture in my eyes, I focus on taking deep breaths through my nose.

  “Look at me,” he grits out.

  I lift my eyes to his, letting him see my smeared mascara and lipstick, laying my vulnerability at his feet.

  “You love this, don’t you?”

  I can only moan around him, feeling him tighten in the way he does before he comes. Instead of giving me his seed, he pulls out. I want his taste in my mouth, but he keeps his cock inches away from my face, taunting me.

  Gently, he massages the joints of my jaw until the ache subsides, and then he folds his strong fingers around my throat and pushes my back to the floor, my legs bent under me. Resting his weight on one arm, he stretches out over my body and takes my lips in such a delicious and languorous kiss that my toes curl. While his tongue soothes my brutalized mouth, his hand explores my breast. He kneads the soft flesh between needy fingers, a bit too rough to be comfortable, until moisture coats my folds. Soft kisses land on my
cheek, jaw, neck, and collarbone while he grips my nipple and pulls. The sting is delicious. His fingers trail over my stomach to my mound, lightly grazing my clit. We moan into each other’s mouths when the pad of his thumb slips through the wetness gathered there for him.

  A soft nip on my bottom lip announces the end of the kiss. He pulls away a fraction to look at me. “I’m going to take everything you’ve got.”

  I can barely manage a hoarse, “Yes.”

  He lifts my arms above my head and arranges my hands with my palms showing up. “Keep them there.”

  He moves down my body, kissing every inch of my skin until I writher in need. When he finally reaches my pubic bone, he doesn’t press his lips on my clit like I crave, but straightens my legs, relieving the pull of my muscles. Taking his time, he massages my thighs and calves. Just when my muscles start to relax, he pushes my legs open, exposing my pussy. He pulls my folds apart with his thumbs and sits back on his heels to study me.

  “So pretty,” he muses. “So perfect.” He thrusts his middle finger inside, burying it up to the knuckle. “So tight.” A few hard pumps make my hips lift off the floor. “So wet.”

  I whimper, needing more of that friction, but he removes his finger. A smile tugs at his lips at my protesting moan. His head lowers slowly until his tongue teases my clit, mercilessly gentle. I lift my hips, trying to make him take more, but am rewarded with a bite that sends a shard of pain through my clit. My cry bounces off the walls, a plea to stop and give more. Then he starts eating me in all earnest. His tongue, teeth, lips, and fingers are everywhere, until I can’t tell the nips of pain from the carnal pleasure. A finger eases into my ass, not carefully, but urgently, without holding back. I strain down to claim that feeling, making it mine as he fills me with everything but his cock. A few pumps and my release starts coiling, pulling my lower body tight. He growls with satisfaction as I come in his mouth, my pleasure exploding around his tongue and finger. My arousal coats his lips as he pulls away, giving me a possessive and victorious grin. I’m his, not only in this moment, but always. I want him to drive into me and fill me with the physical knowledge.

  “Take me,” I manage on a croak.

  “I’m the one giving the orders.”

  To emphasize the statement he flips me on my stomach and lifts my hips. My ass is high in the air, an offering to him, and I already know what’s coming before he gathers my moisture and massages it into my asshole. An involuntary moan escapes as he stretches me impatiently with two fingers. I breathe in and out as two becomes three. One hand caresses the globe of my ass cheek as the other punishes me inside.

  Bending over me, he kisses my shoulder. “You’ve been a bad girl, coming here naked under your clothes. The wind could’ve blown up your dress, and someone could’ve caught a glimpse.” Possession is thick in his tone as his fingers trail over my exposed folds. “And this is mine. All mine.”

  I revel at the declaration, knowing he’ll claim me regardless of what his guarded expression meant when I arrived. No, I don’t want to think about that, now. All I want to focus on is him inside of me, around me, fucking me.

  The slap that falls on my naked butt comes unexpectedly. My ass clenches, trapping his fingers inside. The heat scorching my skin sets every inch of my body from my waist down on fire. I push up, offering him more, and he takes it, spanking and pumping. My cries are fierce and desperate. I already need to come again.

  “My greedy, beautiful girl,” he groans. “You want my cock in this tight asshole, don’t you?”

  The last time he took me like this was on our wedding day. I know it’s going to hurt and that I’ll love it, but right now I’m craving the sting of his palm too much to focus on anything else. My breasts are heavy, swaying with each slap he delivers to my bottom. The pattern moves from right to left and back again, firing up the skin on my backside and turning my pussy plump and wet. My folds swell and throb. My clit feels overheated. The spanking stops, but not the fingers pumping in and out of my dark entrance.

  “You won’t walk around without underwear again unless I tell you to.”

  “No,” I whimper. My thighs quiver.

  “Good girl. I’m going to take this beautiful, spanked ass.” The fullness of his fingers disappears, leaving a burn behind. “Keep still.”

  Leaning my forehead on my intertwined fingers, I try to oblige, knowing it will be impossible. The broad head of his cock teases the tight ring of muscle.

  “I’m going to take you like you asked me,” he says in a voice thick with lust. “Fight me.”

  I know what he means. He doesn’t want me to give anything. He wants to take my ass, showing me his true nature without holding back, and he wants me to do the same. Carefully, he stretches me, driving the broad head of his cock past the first barrier of muscle. God, it burns. Perspiration beads on my forehead as he prepares me with shallow strokes, giving me just a taste, and then he spears into me, making my back arch and forcing a choked cry from my throat. He gave me permission to fight, so I try to make my body flat, escaping the harsh pace by lowering my pelvis to the ground, but his arm wraps around my waist, holding me in place. Fueled by my resistance, he slams harder, jamming his cock into my forbidden entrance until my eyes water and my backside burns like the fires of hell. I try to crawl away, but his grip tightens, and his fucking intensifies. His balls are slapping my pussy, and his cock hammers inside of me, driving my need higher with an animalistic mixture of pain and pleasure. The farther I try to move, the harder he fucks me.

  “You’ll take my cock,” he hisses before kissing my shoulder.

  I can say stop, and he will, but instead I clench my asshole, pushing him out. The act of defiance triggers the response I want. His hand curls around my throat, cutting my airflow. Oh God, I missed this. I don’t care that it’s deprived or strange or fucked-up. I want to give him my air, pleasure, pain, and ecstasy. I allow him to half-strangle me while he slides in and out of my ass, feeling nothing but trust and a deep sense of peace, knowing he’ll take care of me. As I start seeing white spots, he eases his hold marginally, allowing me to breathe, and then his fingers are on my clit, pinching, rubbing, spanking. A twisted sound escapes my dry throat as I explode in shards of painful pleasure, my pussy contracting around empty air. I reach behind me, trying to find his cock. I need him where I’m empty.

  He grabs my wrist and lifts my arm above my head. “Not until I tell you.”

  He runs a finger around my asshole, making the muscle contract, and then he pulls my globes apart, his fingertips digging into my ass cheeks. Glancing over my shoulder, I see him standing on his knees, his cock rigid and thick. He points it at my pussy and spears my folds. My inner muscles shudder as he drives home, giving me all he’s got. Over and over, he takes me, all the while rubbing circles with his palm over my clit. He changes his angle and finds the sweet spot that sends me over the edge every time. It doesn’t take long for another orgasm to build. When it breaks, I clench down on his cock, squeezing him until he curses and jerks, but he doesn’t come. He thrusts into me, hard and unapologetic, taking because I asked him to. He fucks me bone and senseless, until I lose track of time and place. I’m hardly conscious of my body being used, because I’m drifting in a space of belonging and pure Gabriel. Pure, warped us. I only realize I collapsed flat on my stomach when the force of his fucking shifts me over the tiles. He carries on, pounding into my pussy and palming my breasts until his cock swells and twitches, and warm jets spurt into my channel.

  “Fuck.” He falls over me, holding his weight on his arms. “Sweet Jesus.” Desperately, he pumps twice more, deeper, hitting the barrier of my cervix. “Valentina.” He kisses my neck and rests his forehead on my shoulder. “Fuck, Valentina.”

  My body feels bruised and thoroughly loved in the most delicious way. A lethargic relaxation claims me, turning my muscles to jelly. My lover pulls out of me, causing warm semen to run down my thighs. If I had the strength, I would’ve pushed up on my arms to look
at how he marked me, but I know he’s watching.

  “Beautiful,” he mutters, running his hands through the stickiness gathered on my inner thighs.

  Incapable of doing anything but lying on the cool floor, I focus on his hands as they rub over my ass, back, and shoulders. He covers me in gentle kisses and whispers words of praise for how good I’ve been. Then he gathers me in his arms and shifts me onto his lap, rocking me gently while he strokes my hair and keeps on showering me with compliments. We come down from our high in each other’s arms. The aftercare is as much part of Gabriel as the fucking, and I love him for showing me how much he cares. His approval seeps into my skin and past my defenses, making me feel safe and cherished in my own warped way.

  When I’m sated on his lingering kisses and soft caresses, he carries me to the shower and washes my body and hair. Afterward, we lie naked on the recliner in the dark, listening to the sounds of our breathing and the crickets outside. The earlier peace is starting to slip, because I have to get back to Connor, soon.

  When I stir in his arms, his hold tightens.

  “I promised Kris I’d be home before midnight,” I say reluctantly, simultaneously eager to see my baby and wishing I could stay the night.

  “Valentina…”

  The way he says my name is a warning, and somewhere in that tone lies damnation. This is the moment where he either tells me the truth or chooses omission. If he sends me away with a goodbye instead of the truth, my battle of wooing my husband is lost. I shiver, feeling the weight of our future settle on my heart. It makes me feel cold. I turn to face him. I want to look into his eyes, his unreal green eyes, in our moment of truth.

  His finger traces my jaw. “Valentina, I have something to tell you.”

  Despite the gentleness of his touch, his body is tense, his muscles hard and stiff.

  I wait silently for him to continue.

  He hangs his head for a moment before meeting my eyes again. “I lied to you.” When I don’t reply, he says, “I deceived you in the most unforgivable way, and I don’t want to be that man any longer.”