Skin Deep

by Evans, Anna J.

  It was Jackson. He’d always had a way of making her feel safe, apparently even when he was the thing she had to worry about.

  “Thanks. I designed it, with the help of a friend of mine.” He finished with the lights and came back to fetch the suitcase he’d left by the door. “The bedrooms are upstairs.”

  Nicky followed him, finally noticing the circular staircase that was hidden behind the bathroom to their right. Jackson had no trouble navigating the narrow stair, even with his bulk and carrying a massive suitcase, but Nicky stumbled twice in her heels. She told herself it was just her normal klutziness coming through, but the truth was, she was nervous.

  Touching herself in a dark car or succumbing to maddening lust and leaping out for a quickie on the side of the road was one thing. But starting something from nothing, especially with a man who suddenly seemed all business, was something else entirely.

  “Hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to give you the smaller room. It has a great view of the gorge, and you’ll have to come through my room if you decide to make a break for it in the middle of the night,” he said, tossing a friendly smile over his shoulder.

  “And I suppose you still sleep light,” she said, finding the entire situation oddly amusing again. But then, if given the choice between fear and funny, she knew which one she preferred.

  “I wake up if a pinecone drops outside,” he said, tramping through a decidedly masculine master bedroom, into a bathroom, and through a door to another bedroom decorated in deep pinks and bright greens. Those had been her favorite colors in high school, and for a second Nicky wondered if Jack had remembered.

  “My interior decorator made all the decisions for the furniture and fabrics.” He set the suitcase down on the floral bedspread and opened it. “Hope this isn’t too girly for you. I know you’re not a big fan of flowers.”

  “No, it’s beautiful. Much nicer than what I’ve got on my bed at my apartment. Watch out or I might steal the bedspread when we leave.”

  “You can have it,” he said, turning to her with a dead-serious expression on his face. “Hell, you can have the entire cabin and the fifteen grand I’ve got in the cupboard downstairs. All I want to do is work on that tat.”

  Nicky sighed, tempted for a moment. Fifteen grand would pay for a lot of legal advice and jump-start her and Abby’s new life, but for some reason she couldn’t bring herself to take Jackson up on his offer. She’d meant what she’d said in the car—she believed the tattoo was vital to resuscitating her flagging career—but there was something more to her reluctance. The tattoo meant a lot to her, always had and always would. It reminded her of a time when she’d felt truly loved, like the most important thing in the world to one boy.

  “Come on, Nick,” Jackson urged, as if he sensed her hesitation. “Don’t make me use force.”

  “But you’re a dom, right? Don’t you enjoy using force?” It was now or never, time to get Jackson thinking about her skin in a way that had nothing to do with ink. Holding his dark eyes, she moved her hands to her shirt, undoing the buttons one by one.

  “What are you doing?” His tone was casual, but his every muscle was tense as he put his hands on his hips and moved a step away from the suitcase.

  “I like force, myself. If it’s used properly.” She slid the shirt off her shoulders, letting it fall to the floor as she began working on the front of her bra, her own excitement building so fast it made her head swim. Damn, but she was going to have to be careful or she was going to get in way over her head. “I like to be forcibly restrained.”

  “Nicky, stop.”

  “I like to be forced over a man’s knee and spanked.” Her hands shook as she fumbled with the button and zipper on her skirt and her pussy gushed fresh heat onto her panties. Just thinking about being turned over Jackson’s knee, feeling his strong hands reddening her ass, his fingers slipping between her legs to see how wet his punishment had made her, made her entire body ache.

  “I’ll tell you one more time. Stop.” Wow. He’d whipped out the silky dom voice, so deep and commanding, promising retribution if she continued to disobey. It was nearly enough to make her come without him laying a finger on her.

  “I like to feel a hand fisting in my hair, forcing my head back as I get fucked from—”

  He moved so quickly that, afterward, Nicky couldn’t even remember seeing him move. He was simply across the room one minute and slamming her into the wall the next, every inch of his hard body pressed tightly against hers, his lips claiming her mouth in a bruising kiss that made her bones melt.

  Oh. Hell. Yeah.

  Looks like they wouldn’t be making it to the bed after all, but Nicky sure wasn’t going to complain. This was exactly the way she wanted the night to end. In Jackson’s arms, getting ready for a second helping of the kind of pleasure she knew she’d never get enough of.

  But you will get enough. And then you’ll get the hell away from him and get your life back on track.

  The voice of reason. What a pale, sad little thing that was when a man like Jackson was slipping his hand between her legs, shoving his fingers up and inside where she was already desperate for him to be.

  Chapter Six

  Jackson pushed inside Nicky’s mouth, demanding entrance, claiming her with firm strokes of his tongue against hers. God, but she tasted as amazing as she always had, like spring rain and spice and something all Nicky that made him feel the kiss with his entire self—body and soul.

  Kissing Nick was nearly as intimate as fucking her. She communicated things with those lips, teeth, and tongue that were beyond words. Mating his mouth with hers had always felt like they were rubbing souls, sharing dreams, devouring a little piece of each other with every press of their lips. All the things they were too young or afraid to tell each other in the old days had been said in those hours spent kissing in the backseat of his Impala. Just kissing, not taking things any further, neither of them willing to risk that the perfection of those stolen moments would be destroyed by going too far too fast.

  “Jackson.” She moaned his name into his mouth, her desire clear as her fingers dug into his shoulders, silently imploring him to get even closer, to shove something more serious than his fingers between her legs.

  “Do you want me to fuck you again, Nick?” he asked, moving his thumb to her clit even as his other two fingers continued to drive inside her molten heat with slow, even strokes.

  “Do you really have to ask?” She hooked one leg around his hips, granting him even greater access to her pussy.

  “No, I don’t,” he said, slipping a third finger inside her, drawing another moan from the woman in his arms. The sound vibrated against his lips, making his head spin. “But I’d still like an answer.”

  “Yes. God, yes. Please.” She bucked into his hand, sheathing his digits inside her again and again. “I want you.”

  “How much?” he asked, feeling how close she was to the edge by the way her cunt gripped his fingers.

  She was nearly irresistible when she was like this, so abandoned, so desperate for her pleasure. But he was going to have to resist. If he couldn’t manage to stay the hell away from Nicky, he’d have to do the next best thing—show her who was in control. It was what she secretly craved, any dom with the sense god gave a donut could see that. More important, it was what he had to do. He had to show her he meant business, in the bedroom and out, and that this weekend would be proceeding as he had planned.

  What happened to being Mr. Nice Guy?

  Fuck Mr. Nice Guy. He’d be Mr. Nice Dom, it was a role that suited him much better.

  “Tell me, Nicky. How much do you want me to fuck you?” he asked again, finally getting an answer when he withdrew his hand from between her legs.

  “More than anything.” Her words came out on a moan, making it clear how much she lamented the loss of his touch.

  “Show me.” Jackson pulled away from her addictive lips, ignoring the slight tremor that rocked through both of them at the l
oss of contact. Breaking off a kiss with Nicky was like breaking off a piece of himself.

  All the more reason to get them back on the right track, the track to mutual pleasure, not the one feeding his own foolish infatuation.

  With his hands firmly on her shoulders, Jackson urged her down to the ground. She obeyed without saying a word, though there was a question in her eyes as she looked up at him once she knelt at his feet.

  It was a question he answered by flipping open the button of his fly and drawing down the zipper. He tugged his jeans and boxer briefs a little lower on his hips, freeing his turgid length. His cock was already as hard as if they’d been at their little make-out session for hours, not simply a few minutes. All nine inches were thick and aching, the head nearly purple from the massive amounts of blood rushing to his groin. It was amazing he still had enough flowing to his brain to form words, let alone exercise the restraint it took to wait as Nicky devoured him with her eyes.

  The lust clear on her face made him crazy, and the tip of her pink tongue sweeping over her top lip made him even crazier. She looked like she couldn’t wait to get his cock in her mouth, to suck him between those full lips and show him what he’d been missing in those eight years away from her.

  But she didn’t reach out to take his length in her hands, or lean forward to take him into her mouth. She simply knelt at his feet, waiting for him to tell her what to do, showing she wasn’t nearly as inexperienced with being a good submissive as he’d suspected. In fact, submissive behavior seemed to come completely naturally to Nicky. It was the other stuff that was forced, the defiance, the testing the limits of the man who would dominate her. A bad habit learned from living with a man who couldn’t handle her, no doubt.

  Good thing Jackson was sure he was twice the dom her ex-husband had been, or he might have been nervous himself. Nicky wasn’t an easy woman to top. Of course, that’s what made the experience so intoxicating. He was going to have to earn every last ounce of submission he coaxed from the woman at his feet. It was a strangely exhilarating and empowering experience. One he feared might ruin him for any other woman.

  How could he go back to those silly girls who hit the BDSM clubs once a week to play when he’d had the chance to test the boundaries of a woman like Nick?

  “Do you want me to take you in my mouth?” she asked, licking her lips again, the sight making a pearl of pre-cum leak from the tip of Jackson’s cock.

  “Yes,” Jackson said, his voice deeper, rougher than he could ever remember it sounding.

  “With pleasure, sir.” A naughty smile flitted across Nicky’s face as she leaned forward, pausing only centimeters away from his swollen tip.

  Slowly she rolled her eyes up to meet his and parted her lips, letting her breath warm his eager flesh for one second, then two, before finally taking the plumped head of his cock into the wet heat of her mouth. Jackson did his best not to groan as she lingered there, suckling him, running her teeth lightly over the ridge where head became shaft. For what seemed like hours she played with him, pulling just his tip between her lips then moving away, running her tongue around and around the slit at the end of his cock until he genuinely began to leak.

  But even then she didn’t intensify her efforts, only moaned as she lapped away the evidence of his need, as if his cum was the best thing she’d tasted all day. If that was the case, he was certainly going to give her more of what she was craving. Very soon. But when he did so, he’d prefer it to be after he’d fucked that pretty mouth in earnest.

  Gritting his teeth to maintain control, Jackson reached down, threading his fingers into Nicky’s hair. He caressed her gently for a moment, sliding his fingers through her silky locks, marveling that anything could feel so soft. Only when he felt the muscles in her neck begin to relax did he fist his hand, claiming control of her in one swift movement.

  Nicky sucked in a swift breath, surprise and lust mingling in the small sound.

  Jackson looked down into her eyes, holding them as he tightened his grip in her hair, making it clear he was now calling the shots. Then, without a word of warning, without asking permission he tugged her forward. His cock disappeared between her lips and within a few seconds he hit the back of her throat. He paused there, giving her a moment to adjust, to relax the muscles barring his deeper penetration. Then he thrust even deeper. And deeper still, forcing her to take over half of his length. Once he was there, buried as deeply as he thought she could handle, he held absolutely still, watching Nicky’s face.

  Her eyes squeezed closed and she seemed to struggle for breath, but only for a moment. Seconds later, she was moaning around his cock, her pleasure in being filled with him obvious. So obvious he wasn’t surprised when he saw her slip a hand between her legs, clearly intending to take care of herself with her fingers while his cock was busy in her mouth.

  “No, Nick. Don’t touch my pussy,” Jackson said, accentuating his point by pulling away and then thrusting back inside her wet heat. “You can play with your tits if you want, but don’t touch my pussy.”

  He’d done it again, but this time Jackson didn’t regret claiming her pussy as his own. He wasn’t going to fight the rightness of what was happening between them anymore. For the next two days, she would belong to him, every last part of her, from those hazel eyes swirling brown and green to that sweet little pussy he was going to teach another valuable lesson about delayed gratification.

  But first, he was going to enjoy a little gratification of his own.

  For the next few minutes, the world disappeared. There were no thoughts of Nicky’s tattoo, there was no stress about what this weekend would hold for the two of them, there was no worry about the wisdom of indulging in dom-sub play with the least suitable woman he could have chosen. There was only Nicky.

  Nicky’s mouth, hot and eager, sucking him impossibly farther inside. Her tongue rolling against his engorged cock, her hands sliding around to cup his ass, fingernails digging into the muscled flesh until he groaned. Her little moans as he fucked her mouth, the hint of tears glistening in her eyes as his penetration grew more intense, the silent urging of her hands on his buttocks, telling him not to back off, not to stop until he was shooting himself between her lips.

  Finally, the combined stimulation was too much. A deep cry ripped from his chest as he came, his cock jerking inside her mouth, cum gushing from his body in thick, hot jets.

  “God, Nick,” he groaned, his voice hoarse with desire as he watched her jaw work. She was swallowing him down, every last bit of fluid, milking his cock dry with a look of such bliss he knew he would have been hard again immediately if nature had allowed it.

  After a few moments, she pulled away, slowly, letting his cock slip from between her lips with obvious regret. Only then did she lift her eyes back to his, a new question in their expressive depths.

  “Hell, yes. It was the best blow job of my life. Bar none,” Jackson said, his hand softening in her hair again, then moving down to cup her cheek. God, she was beautiful. The face of an angel and the mouth of a dirty little slut.

  He laughed softly as he tucked himself back in his pants and zipped his fly. “Do you like being called names?”

  “What kind of names?” she asked, her breath coming fast, her brow furrowing as she watched him put away his cock. She wasn’t pleased to see it go, which pleased him far more than it should have.

  “Slut. Whore. Things like that.”

  She blushed at his words and dropped her eyes to the ground, but a small smile twisted her lips, belying the shy expression. “It depends.”

  “On what?”

  “No, on who.” She lifted her eyes to his once more. All humor had vanished from her features, replaced by a look of such intensity it made him shiver. Jackson would have sworn at that moment she was seeing into his soul. “If you called me your dirty slut, your whore . . . I think I’d like it very much.”

  Jackson struggled to breathe past the wave of lust inspired by her words, and wasn’t surp
rised to feel his hands tremble slightly as he moved them to his hips. “Is that so?”

  “Yeah. That’s so,” she said, her voice pure, aural sex.

  “Well, then, is my little slut horny?” he asked, his words not much more than a whisper. “Does she want to get fucked?”

  “Yes.” Her breasts were as flushed as her cheeks and her nipples were so tight Jackson knew they had to be aching uncomfortably. She’d been genuinely turned on by what she’d done to him, a fact that blew him away. It was a rare woman who got off on giving a blow job. But then, a true submissive got off on anything that gave her lover pleasure, as did a true dom, for that matter.

  Unfortunately, what gave a submissive pleasure could be a little more complicated.

  “Good. Because I’m going to fuck you,” Jackson said, staring into her eyes, feeling his cock thicken slightly at the heat he saw there. “First I’ll eat that wet little pussy, and then I’m going to fuck you until you scream. First your pussy, and then maybe I’ll fuck your ass. Would you like to have me inside your ass, Nick?”

  “I want to have you everywhere.” Nicky’s breath came even faster and her hands balled into fists at her sides. It was getting harder for her to wait, to keep from reaching for what she wanted. For a second it made him rethink his plan. But then, the fact that she was nearing the edge of her control was all the more reason to test it.

  “I promise it will be more than worth the wait.” He turned back toward the suitcase on the bed, but not before he saw the shocked expression on Nicky’s face.

  “Wait?” she asked, in a tone that left no doubt how little she relished the idea. It made Jackson smile, but he was careful to wipe the grin from his face before he turned back to her.

  “I’m going downstairs to take a shower,” he said, calmly pulling a pair of white cotton panties and a green sleep shirt from the clothes he’d packed for Nick. “You’re welcome to take a shower up here at the same time. There’s plenty of hot water for both of us.”