by Alice Ward
“When I opened my eyes again, all I knew was pain and horror. I could hardly breathe from the pressure of Nate on top of me, and the mangled piece of metal on top of him. When we were finally freed, I was rushed into surgery for my face and leg.”
Roman was silent now, holding my hand as the dam he’d opened streamed down my face.
“Afterwards, the police told me he lived for twenty minutes, laying on top of me. Protecting me.”
Roman kissed my hand. “That’s what you do when you love someone. You protect them any way you can. Sometimes with your life.” His eyes were so raw that I had to look back out at the lake.
We sat there for a long time while I thought about that night and everything that had come after.
Was I ready to let Nate go? Let Roman in? How would I know?
“After we met at the club…” I wasn’t sure what I was starting, but even though I was shaking a little on the inside, I wanted to see it through. “I dreamed of you.” I took a sip of water to calm my nerves as I waited for his reaction.
He laughed, the sound muffled and uncomfortable sounding.
“Well…” I backtracked, “I mean it was—”
He squeezed my hand tighter. “I’m laughing because I dreamed of you too.”
I linked my fingers through his. “Seriously?”
“Yes. Well, it was a little more than a dream…” He licked his bottom lip then bit down on it as his eyes traced over my body.
I met his stare when his eyes returned to mine and swallowed hard. “I guess if we’re being honest, mine was a little more than a dream too. You told me I was beautiful and made me promise to let you love me.”
“Did I? How smart I am.” His eyes dropped to my lips.
“I’m not what you think I am. You haven’t…” I bit back my words. I couldn’t bring myself to highlight the fact that he hadn’t seen my face yet. I knew all the illusion would rain down on me once he did.
“I think I know enough about you not to care too much about what’s under your mask. I’m assuming that’s what you’re worried about?”
I nodded, more tears coming to the surface.
“I’ve been wanting to do this since the moment I first saw you.” He leaned in and scooped me out of the chair, depositing me on his lap.
Slowly threading his fingers through my hair, he pulled my face down to his, his gaze grabbing mine with the spark of desire in his eyes. A delirious breath escaped me as his sensuous lips pressed against mine, softly, gently.
I opened for him, and heat radiated through my body as his tongue played with mine. He tasted of mint and beer, and all I could think was that I wanted more.
Pulling back, he gripped my face in his hands, giving me the intent stare that sent shivers down my spine. “I want you, Adara. Let me love you.”
Emotion choked me, and all I could get out was, “Yes.”
He surged to his feet with me in his arms and carried me inside, laying me on top of the bed as he slid in beside me.
“Are you sure you’re okay to…” His chest heaved in an effort to tame his need and remain in control, his erection pressing against my hip.
“Yes. Please. I want this. Want you.”
He positioned his body closer to me as his fingers ran through my hair and his mouth returned to mine. This time, he laid his leg across me, so there was no denying the rock-hard cock throbbing against my thigh.
His hand massaged my scalp, sending tingling sensations all over my body as his mouth and tongue explored my neck before making its way back to my mouth. Our tongues danced, swirling, growing familiar with the other. I moaned at the loss of his lips when he nibbled down my jaw and neck, licking at my collarbone. I squirmed beneath him, wetness blooming between my legs.
My hands flew to his hair and laced into the silky strands as he lifted my gauzy shirt up and unclasped my bra, freeing my breasts to his mouth. All the pent-up energy and sexual tension we’d held at bay ignited.
His wonderful mouth found my pert nipples standing erect, and he tugged on one with his teeth, his tongue flicking first one then the other. I held onto his shoulders and arched up, wanting him to take more, then shifted closer to him and ground myself onto his erection, pressing as close as our bodies would allow.
He stroked his tongue over one nipple and moved to the next, sucked and nibbled and my entire body tightened. “Oh my god,” I gasped, my fingers fisting in his hair. I was forced to release him when he lifted my shirt over my head and shimmied my bra off my shoulders.
“I want your shirt off too.” Wanted to see all the muscles that teased me as I pressed up against them.
His eyes blazed smoking holes in me. He growled and straddled me as he unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged it off his incredible chest. My hands smoothed over the hard ridges and valleys that knitted his abdomen, then up the tattoo across his shoulder. He didn’t have an ounce of fat on his body. His skin was silky, and he smelled of the outdoors with a hint of musky male.
I sat up to take his nipple in my mouth, swirling my tongue around the tiny tuft of hair that encircled the deep brown bud. He growled, the low rumble of the sound vibrating against my lips, urging me on. I didn’t need the encouragement as I took the other nipple between my teeth, then moaned as he leaned down to kiss my ear, running his tongue around the edge. I sighed as he gripped my hair harder, pulling my head back until he could take my mouth again.
I clutched at him when he abruptly broke away and propped himself up on his knees as he looked down on me, his eyes darkened with lust. He was so strong and powerful, it was a bit unnerving to see him devour me with his gaze, but then he was caressing my thighs, stroking closer to my heated center and nothing else mattered. I wanted to touch him, could see the bulge where his cock begged to be freed from the thick denim.
“Is this okay?” he asked as fingered the button on my jeans.
“Please, yes.” I bit my lip as my heart cartwheeled in my chest and I laid back onto the bed.
His voice rumbled out a long, low purr while he unbuckled my brace, then began to slide my jeans and panties together over my hips. Panic picked at me. I wasn’t on the pill, and worse, without the jeans, the long line of scars that coursed down my twisted leg would be revealed.
As if he could sense what I was thinking, his hands paused, and he met my eyes. “You’re beautiful exactly the way you are.”
Tears burned, and I nodded, giving him permission to expose me. If he was going to reject me, it was better for him to do it early in our relationship before my heart got any more involved.
But the desire in his eyes never wavered as my thighs, knees, shins were laid bared. He sucked in a sharp intake of breath, but his attention was on the apex of my legs, the scrap of dark hair that peeked at him. His hands continued their gentle massage, moving over my inner thighs, teasing me as if the twisted and puckered skin didn’t exist.
My voice trembled with both fear and desire. “I’m not on the pill.”
He looked up at me, and his face lit up with humor. “I make sure anyone who stays here is stocked. The last thing by sister needs is more kids.” Then he dipped his mouth down into my navel, and I gasped and arched as he swirled his tongue in small circles around it.
“Yes.” I exhaled sharply, unable to believe how close I was to orgasming with only his touch. He was driving me crazy with his wandering hands and mouth. And it had been so long since I’d allowed anyone to do more than shake my hand.
He stopped momentarily and looked at me, his face open and sincere. “Adara, I’ve wanted to make love to you from the moment I first met you. I want you to feel loved.” He leaned down and kissed me again. “Today is all about you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Roman
I couldn’t believe I was here with Adara. Touching her did something to me that had never happened before. She made me want to give her everything I possibly could. Make love to her body. Make love to her mind. I sincerely didn’t care what was under her mask. I thought I
already knew what was in her heart.
Kissing her breasts, I watched her beautiful nipples peak under my ministrations. Danced my fingers and thumbs over them until the berries puckered into rosy pink buds. She was divine, her body amazingly crafted with strong, lean muscles strengthened by challenging nightly performances. I kissed her lips again and tasted the sweetness of her mouth, my cock begging to be released from my jeans.
I couldn’t recall ever feeling so rigidly constrained in all of my life. It actually pained me to move, yet I ignored my needs, only focusing on her. I wanted to show her how I felt. Show her how precious she was, how incredibly beautiful. I knew that I was falling in love with the woman in front of me, and for the first time in my life, I didn’t turn away. I loved her music, her story, and her ability to create a new life from ashes. She was so unique and multidimensional. I wanted to help her succeed. Make her writhe. Make her scream.
I peppered kisses down her beautiful abdomen, across her sloping hips to the upper part of her thighs. She wriggled as I neared her center. I could feel the heat radiating from her flushed skin and smelled her ambrosia in the air. All of it made my dick pulsate, and I had to clamp down on my desire with an iron will.
She let out a little sigh as I passed up the place she wanted me to be. I continued trailing kisses down her inner thigh of her good leg, to her knee then calf. I kissed across her foot then the bottom of her sole before moving to the other foot.
I wanted each sensation I was creating for her to spark emotional responses that awakened her to how exquisite she was.
When I reached the beginning of the scar, I stopped and took a moment to take her in, trying to gage what her reaction would be to what I was about to do.
Compassion bloomed in my heart when I met her eyes and saw her discomfort.
“Do you mind if I touch you here?” I asked, tracing my fingers around the contours of the twisted muscle and puckered flesh.
Her breath hitched, and her body shifted as if to alleviate the discomfort my question brought.
“It’s ugly.” She shrank away from me a bit before taking deep stabilizing breaths.
“Nothing on this beautiful body of yours is ugly,” I countered, ready to go head to head with her till the end. “You can argue with me about that, but you won’t win.”
She would see her beauty. She would know herself as well as I was getting to know her.
“But—”
“This scar is not ugly, it’s a part of your story.” I traced my finger gently along the line, weaving in and out of the stitches as if restitching them with my care.
She relaxed beneath my touch, and I smiled and continued to kiss up her leg, inching my way ever closer to her glistening pussy, moist and ready for me.
She gasped as I licked the top of her thigh, my tongue dipping into the depression where her leg met her hip. Her hands flew into my hair, clenching, holding on as I moved closer to her center. I almost dove right in, nuzzling my nose into the well-manicured tuft of dark hair guarding her entrance.
I kissed across her hip line and back to her mound, teasing, until I moved lower and brushed the flat of my tongue up her slit. Pushing her legs farther apart, I admired her sex until she squirmed from my appraisal. “Beautiful,” I murmured, and it was. Soft peach-colored lips, rosy-pink folds. Her deep rose center was silky and inviting. I kissed around the edges of her entrance as she wiggled her hips and let out a long, low whimper.
“So ready.” With one finger, I stroked lightly down her center to her tiny opening, sending bolts of sensation through my own body. She shivered and bucked.
God, I wanted her. Couldn’t remember wanting anything, anyone so much.
My control slipped, and I buried my face in her and lapped her petals, sending her body writhing and making her cry out. A rumbling moan filled my chest as her body begged for more beneath me. But I was going to enjoy every minute of this. I spread her wider with my thumbs so that I could taste her inside and out.
Finding her engorged clit, I flicked my tongue across it several times before taking the nub inside my mouth, sucking hard. I wanted to devour her, she tasted so good. Moving lower, I dove in, reaching as far into her as possible with my tongue. She bucked, and her hands fisted in my hair, her breath coming between low moans. I loved making her come unglued.
As soon as my finger joined my tongue, circling her clit, tracing her boundaries, dipping inside, her hips thrusted upward, and she screamed out my name. As she shuddered and bucked, I worked her harder, faster, wanting to push her until she could think of nothing but me.
My own straining member was begging to get out of its prison and into her heaven. My breathing, which had been stable and in full control, now began to heave as I couldn’t sustain myself much longer.
“Oh my god,” she breathed, her arms flopping down by her sides.
I wiggled my eyebrows when she opened her eyes. “I’m pretty good, huh?”
She laughed, which was the response I was hoping for. “It’s hard to tell, I have nothing to compare it to.”
“What?” I was genuinely surprised. No one had pleasured her like this before now? Why the hell not? I found the answer in her eyes. “Adara, you deserve to have this done to you every single day. Maybe more than once. I may, as a matter of fact, put that on my daily schedule.” I waggled my eyebrows again. “But only if you tell me how damn good I am.”
She slapped my head playfully, that sweet laugh filling the room once again. “Okay, you’re damn good.” She moved up on her elbows. “I know you said this day was just for me, so does that mean I can have anything I want?”
I kissed her inner thigh. “Anything.”
She grinned and licked her bottom lip. “Take off your pants.”
My cock pulsed in approval, pressing painfully into the zipper of my jeans. Pushing off the bed, I unfastened the button and wrangled them down my legs, kicking them to the side. “Better?”
Her grin grew wider. “No. Boxers too.”
I loved this playful side of her and wondered how long it had been since she felt this comfortable with another person. And I was glad she was this comfortable with me. I watched her watch me push my boxers down, her eyes widening as my cock popped free. Her gaze was almost a caress.
“Oh my. I think you have a freaking monster between your legs.”
I laughed, ridiculously pleased. Not just at the compliment, but at how comfortable she seemed to be with me. “The better to make you come over and over, my dear.”
She rolled her eyes and kicked me in the thigh as a pretty pink spread to the exposed part of her face I could see. How I wished she would let me take the mask off. Trust me with all of her. But I could wait. I would wait until eternity if needed.
Reaching into the nightstand, I pulled out a box of condoms and tossed a couple on the bed. She raised an eyebrow. “More than one?”
I ripped a packet open with my teeth. “Yeah… many more.”
Her eyes flared, and she watched me roll a condom down my length. I hated using it, hated the barrier it would create between us. I wanted to bury myself inside her heat, feel her wetness slide across my bare skin.
She ran her hands down my arms, and I felt the answering twitch in my overactive groin. A soft moan escaped her lips, and the sound spreads like a salve over my soul. She touched a place so deep inside me that I never even knew it existed. Since Savie’s tour bus broke down on the country road, my whole life’s been imploded and what I thought I knew has been replaced only with a riot of sensations.
I stared down at her beautiful face, only made more alluring by the mask she wore. But despite the intoxicating exotic quality of the mask, I wanted more and more for her to reveal herself to me. I wanted all of her.
“You ready?” I kissed her again, taking her bottom lip into my mouth and running my hand down her abdomen, letting one finger dip into the line of her sex. “Or do you want a little more prep time?” I teased as I trailed all my fingers down the sens
itive skin of her pussy, playing along the folds, smoothing her juices over them.
Begin thicker than most men, I worried my size would give her some discomfort, so I made sure I got her ready. When her breath was coming in pants and she couldn’t keep her legs still, I moved over her and positioned myself at her entrance. Gliding my cock over her folds was sweet torture. Her hips undulated as I rocked myself against her pussy, clenching every muscle in my body to keep from taking her fast, rocketing deep inside her.
She was so slick and ready. Her hands grabbed my buttocks and brought me in closer as her tongue delved deeper into my mouth. I groaned as I pushed just the tip into her.
Damn, she was like a vice, so I spread her legs wider and lifted her bottom up to change the angle. I slid in slowly, watching her face as I fed her inch by inch. I was shaking by the time I was seated completely inside her. Holding myself there, I took her face in my hands, forcing her to meet my eyes. Wonder was what I saw there first, then a connection leaped between us that took my breath. When I’d recovered, “Beautiful.”
I pulled back, glide out to the tip. She arched her neck, throwing her head back, her mouth dropping open. Faster this time, I pumped into her, rocking my hips, filling her. Her hips ground against mine, tiny mewls expression her pleasure. I took her mouth again as I withdrew, working my hips to the place I was looking for.
When she gasped, I angled harder, giving her more pressure.
“There,” I whispered as she began to clench around me.
She bit her lip and threw back her head, her fingernails digging into my arms. I couldn’t keep the devilish smile from my face as I pulled out and hit her there again, watching her body quake with arousal.
I continued to pump into her with small thrusts, making sure to hit her G-spot until I couldn’t take it anymore. Her tightness sheathed me so beautifully, her pussy hugging my dick. I loved it, but my groin was twisting with heat, and I could feel the tension in my balls. I needed harder, or I thought I’d go mad.
I brought her knees up to my chest and thrust all the way in. She bit her bottom lip and said my name on a gasp, arching up to meet my next stroke. So perfect.