by Shandi Boyes
His hair is spiked at the front from his fingers constantly running through it, and his beard isn’t the only thick thing on his body. His biceps. . . God. Men could train for three hours a day for over a year, and they still wouldn’t compare to his. They’re mouthwateringly scrumptious and barely hidden by the short cuff of his t-shirt.
“You don’t like what I’m wearing?” Alex’s hand makes the trek my eyes just traveled. “You didn’t mind it when you chose it for me to wear this morning.”
“That was different. One, that was this morning. Casual chic is perfectly acceptable for early wear. Two, the concierge didn’t have many options at his disposal. When forced to pick between jeans or cargo shorts, only one choice can be made.” I gag for real this time. No grown man should wear cargo pants. “And three, one way or another, I’m determined to see you naked. If that can only be achieved by demanding you change your clothes, so be it.”
Alex drags his hand across his beard, hiding his shit-eating grin. “For a drunk lady, you certainly have a way with words.”
“I’m not drunk. . . “ My words trail off when he slings his arm around my waist and guides me toward a hidden stairwell on my right. “Where are we going?”
Please say guest bedrooms. Please say guest bedrooms.
For once, my prayers are answered when Alex answers, “To the guest bedrooms.” His eyes lower to mine to take in my gleaming eyes and the sultry curve of my lips. “Supposedly I need to change.”
I got Alex naked. It was for barely ten seconds, but his stacked abs, tight V muscle, and mouth-watering guns have kept the furnace in my belly nicely stoked the past three hours. That, and the female members of his family. They tease Alex and his older brother Grayson nearly as relentlessly as me. I’ve laughed so much tonight, the vigorous activities Alex and I undertook last night aren’t the sole cause for my aching stomach. His family is a hoot, as laid back and down to earth as Alex could be if he’d just let go of the reins for a second.
He doesn’t need to drink. I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol since we joined his family for dinner, and I’m having a blast. I’ve always assumed family gettogethers would be a snooze fest without a bottle of wine. Alex’s family proves that isn’t the case. They downed the booze while my veins thrived off their dynamic.
I love how close-knit they are. Watching Alex dote on his mom and sister amplified the crush I’ve had on him since we bumped heads in the elevator. There is nothing more sexually appealing than seeing a man treat a woman right. Alex can be a little aggressive, and his domineering outside of the bedroom frustrates me, but the respect he shows his mother makes him ridiculously hot.
I’ve given in to my temptations many times tonight. We’ve laughed, shared sneaky kisses, and even a handful of feather-like touches have occurred under the table. Usually, I’m against touchy-feely PDA’s, but just like the bricks I’ve attempted to rebuild around my heart, Alex knocks them down. I want him to smother my neck in kisses, feel his hot breath on my skin as he makes me melt underneath him. I want everything he is willing to give me, and then I’ll return the favor in a way that will blow his mind.
I squirm in Alex’s lap when I fantasize about the hungry, frenzied kisses we’ve shared so far in our relationship. In the past forty-eight hours, we’ve experienced them all. The tender ones, the ravenous ones, the ones that make you forget what day of the week it is. I thought our first one was so fire-sparking as it was fueled by pent-up lust. I was wrong. Every one we’ve had since then strengthens what I’ve always known: Alex can kiss. His plump lips and the power he has over his tongue is mesmerizing, but his beard. . . god, it adds an element I’ve never experienced before.
I hate the wiry hair covering his jaw because it hides an asset he should exploit, not conceal, but the more times he runs his scruffy Viking beard down my neck, the more I fall in love with it. I want to feel it scratching every inch of my skin, to have it coated in both my scent and my arousal. I want it to tickle my neck before he drags it through the wet dampness between my legs. I want it so bad, and I want it now.
I wonder if Alex can hear my private thoughts when his cock throbs in his trousers. He grows against my thigh, teasing me as insistently as I’ve badgered him tonight. His thick fingers dig into my hip as if he’s lassoing a rope around me, tethering us together with invisible bindings I’ll never be able to unknot.
Daringly, I press my lips to his ear and murmur, “I want to rip your clothes off and fuck you so bad.”
He continues his conversation with his brother without a single hitch in his breathing, but I know he heard me. His fingers flexed against my hip, and don’t even get me started on the region my mind can’t be deterred from.
“I’ve been a good girl. I played house. Now give me my reward.”
My comment is in jest. We’ve spent the last several hours surrounded by his family, but not once did I feel uncomfortable. I didn’t even balk when his mom slung her arms around my neck to hug me goodnight. I may have even initiated the farewell with his sister. I’m not suddenly overcome with friendliness, I just knew the faster they called it a night, the faster I’d get Alex naked. My plan went off without a hitch until it hit a snag I never saw coming: Grayson and his inability to take a hint.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear he’s purposely foiling my ruse. I’ve waved a white flag in his eyes many times tonight, but not once has he seen it.
With a grin, I stuff the figurative white flag into my pocket before replacing it with the more risqué, you’ll never be able to miss it flag. This one is red and fiery, as obvious as the sexual tension teeming between Alex and me.
Alex’s eyes stray from Grayson midsentence when I twist in his lap. “Don’t mind me; I’m just slipping under the table to help myself to dessert.”
My last two words come out in a purr, the sting of Alex’s fingers as he struggles not to respond to my tease too pleasurable to ignore.
Staring down at me, his gorgeous face strains as his nostrils flare. He seems conflicted, as if he can’t decide whether to spank the sass straight out of me or strangle his brother for not taking a hint.
I’ll take either. The friction between us is so great, someone is bound to get massacred no matter what. Although I’d prefer the torture be inflicted on my needy pussy, Alex doesn’t just destroy my horniness when he’s burrowed inside me, he screws up my heart as well. You’d think that would dampen his appeal. It doesn’t. Not in the slightest. If anything, it makes me want him even more.
Besides, didn’t he tell me to run to him when I need him? I need him.
As if he heard my private thoughts, Alex returns his eyes to Grayson. “Say goodnight.”
I assume he is talking to Grayson until he squeezes my hip. My eyes bounce between two pairs of identically devastating blue eyes for several seconds. I’ve missed something. I have no idea how, but I’m not surprised. Even the most important men in my life flee to the back of my mind when I’m transfixed by my desires.
“Goodnight, Grayson,” I murmur like a good, obedient puppy.
With a smirk that reveals he didn’t miss the cheek in my tone, Grayson dips his chin. A stab of urgency bolts through my body when Alex plucks me from my chair. He races through the dining room at The Manor, his focus on the hidden servant stairwell we used earlier today.
“Do you know how hard your teases made me? I’ve been pitching a fucking tent all night long.”
The gruffness of his words tugs the coil in my womb, giving it a rough yank.
“I sat across from my mom with a swollen cock. Fuck, Rae!”
I shouldn’t smile, but I do.
Seeing my smile, Alex works his jaw side to side. “If I weren’t dying to hear you scream my name, I’d tie you to my bed, step back, then wait for you to beg me to touch you.”
My steps slow to half their natural stride. That doesn’t sound like fun at all.
Before I can voice my utter disgust, Alex ducks his head to align our lips. He do
esn’t kiss me like I’m hoping. He keeps his mouth a half an inch from mine, teasing me as I have done to him all night. The sweet scent of his breath fanning my lips adds to the chaos low in my stomach, but it’s only to blame for one-tenth of my turmoil. His eyes, my god. They render me completely and utterly speechless. He stares at me like he’ll never take another breath if his air isn’t shared with mine. Like he doesn’t see the barriers I do. As if he wants me as badly as I want him.
Spurred on by the power his eyes radiate through me, I close the distance between our lips. Our kiss is cruel and vicious, and I love every fucking minute of it. It is one of those kisses that scores your heart, ensuring you’ll never forget it for decades to come.
My body tenses as the thrumming sensation strives to break free of its restraints. I groan into Alex’s mouth, my throaty moan a warning of how close to detonation I am.
“God, yes,” I moan over his lips when he bands my legs around his waist.
My nails dig into the hard slabs on the top of his shoulders when he rocks his hips forward. While grinding his rock hard shaft against my begging clit, he carries me across the room. His steps are as hurried as my fingers are working on unfastening the buttons of his dress shirt.
By the time he breaks through the curtain hiding the servants’ stairs from regular guests, I have his shirt off his shoulders. The stairwell is dim, but it doesn’t hinder my eyes’ ability to absorb his wide shoulders, tattooed pec, and the tiny sliver of leather stopping us from becoming one.
“Not here,” Alex groans in pain when my hands shoot down to his belt. “My family uses this stairwell. They like midnight snacks.”
His words are telling me no, but his body is saying the opposite. Every word he speaks coincides with a rock of his hips. He’s torn, and for once, it doesn’t fill me with worry. I know he wants me so bad, he’ll take me any way he can get me. Family hallways included.
“Then hurry. I’m dying.”
He moves faster than I expect. He climbs the stairs, throws open his childhood bedroom door, tosses me on the bed, then frees his cock from his pants in a record-setting pace.
I stop smiling at his eagerness when he positions his glistening crown between the seams of my pussy, which is clinging to my damp panties. I wiggle, hating the thin piece of cotton separating us. I was pro-latex before Alex, but now condoms won’t be the only thing on my shit list. Panties will be scribbled on the line beneath them.
Who knew a sexy undergarment could be a cockblocker?
Spotting my agitation, a smug grin crosses Alex’s lips. I buck my hips upward, trying to seize some of the control he always steals when my smarts are trapped by lust.
“Still,” he growls through clenched teeth, his struggle as real as mine.
“I will when you me give me what I want!”
“Not yet.”
Pulling my panties to the side, he rubs his cock through the folds of my pussy, coating himself in my juices. Considering we did nothing but kiss, I should be ashamed about how wet I am. Unfortunately for all involved, I’ve never heard of the word “timid,” much less used it to describe myself.
A long, quivering moan simpers through my lips when Alex’s engorged knob breezes past my clit. I arch my back, seeking more direct contact. I nearly beg when he pins my hips to the bed by splaying his hand across my stomach, but I stop short—thank god. I don’t need him to get me off. I have everything I need right here.
My lips part to suck in much-needed air when my hand slithers to my soaked center. After lubing up my fingers, I move them to the little nub seconds away from imploding. My clit is thrumming, dying to crash through the lust cloud surrounding me. A few flicks and I’ll be done, my greatest desire taken care of.
I toy with my clit for barely a second before Alex snatches my hand away. The fury roaring through my body triples its heat when he pops my glistening fingers into his mouth. He growls a menacing groan as his tongue laps up evidence of my excitement.
Once my fingers are sparkling clean, he raises my arm above my head to join its lazy counterpart. While one of his hands holds both mine hostage, his other makes quick work of the clothes dividing us. Since I’m only wearing a skirt and a blouse, the process occurs a lot faster than I expect. We’re back to his cock teasing my slit within seconds, the clear liquid seeping from his crown revealing he is struggling as immensely as me.
“Please—” I stop myself again. I will not beg.
Alex doesn’t give in so easy. “Please. . .?”
He dips his cock an inch inside of me before withdrawing it, rubbing it against my clit, then reinserting it again.
He does this another five times before shameful plea after shameful plea spills from my lips. “Please. Please. Please.”
Each beg gets me another inch, but it’s still inches away from what I need.
“Please, what?” he pushes, his tone as thick as his delicious cock.
I grit my teeth from the mirth in his tone. If I weren’t so goddamn horny, I’d knee him in the nuts, throw him off me, and take care of business myself. Regrettably, he isn’t the only one aware my self-pleasing mojo disappeared the instant he arrived in the picture.
With that in mind, I growl, “Please fuck me.”
“Hmm.” Alex twists his lips as if he is contemplating my suggestion. “I might consider it if you use a few more manners.”
The gall of him!
I knock his ego down a few pegs by snarling, “Fuck me or bring in someone more capable of doing the job.”
That untwists his lips by hardening them into a firm, straight line.
Not so smug now, are you?
The minute I return to Ravenshoe, I’m sending the chatty baker a dozen roses. Jealousy can make men stupid, insolent little boys, but it can also bring out their dominance. Alex won’t fuck me into submission, though. He’ll utterly destroy me for every man after him.
Goodie.
His destructive path starts at my breasts. He kneads and fondles them until my nipples harden into points. After he’s caressed them long enough I’m on the brink of insanity, his attention drops a few inches. My moans urge him toward the area weeping for his attention. Thankfully, he doesn’t keep me waiting for long. With one hand needed to pin my arms to the bed, he spreads the lips of my pussy with his index finger and thumb before circling his lips around my clit. He sucks it into his mouth gently, causing my thighs to shake.
My eyes stop rolling to the back of my head halfway when he growls against my slick sex, “Don’t come.”
Huh? He didn’t just say what I thought he did, did he?
He does a long lick to the area mere seconds from shattering before locking his eyes with mine. I don’t need him to repeat his demand to know of its existence—his eyes say it all—but just in case they don’t, he reiterates, “Don’t come. If you do, it will be the only orgasm you’ll have tonight.”
Before I can announce my utter disgust at his request, he pushes two fingers inside of me. I know what he’s doing. He wants me to defy him, to show I have no control over my body when it comes to him.
The only thing I’m going to show him is how stupidly wrong he is.
No one controls me. Not the man finger-fucking me to the point of oblivion, or the one who ensures my tummy never goes hungry. I might work in a male-dominated industry, but I don’t work for them. I make them who they are. I make them better people.
The grunt Alex releases matches mine when I use all my strength to curl my legs around his waist and flip him over. He acts surprised by my grapple for control, but the faint grin tugging at his lips gives away his true feelings. He wants me to fight, because he doesn’t want a wallflower. He wants an equal, so that’s precisely what I’ll give him.
With my now free hands spread across his sweaty pecs, I lower myself onto his cock. A pleasurable burn overwhelms me as I take what I need.
When my backside hits Alex’s chunky thighs, I swivel my hips, taking even more of him inside of me. Even wi
th my spikes hackled, it feels unbelievably good to be filled by him. This is sex. It makes me feel dirty. Wanton. Downright fucking filthy. But it also makes me feel incredibly free.
I feel the latter more than anything when I’m being consumed by Alex. In this moment, as I’m blinded by the raging inferno brewing between us, I could imagine myself falling in love with him. Not just a fleeting fling that burns as fiercely as my lungs do when he enters the room or my pussy aches from taking a man his size. A long commitment. A mutual devotion. True love.
After taking an unsteady breath to calm the nerves taking flight in my stomach, I rise to my knees. Alex’s fingers flex against my hips. “Not yet.” His words are more like groans. “I need a moment. You have no idea how fucking sexy you look right now. Fierce. Strong. You’re making me so unhinged I’ve lost my fucking mind, Rae, but I don’t give a shit. They can have it all, everything I have, as long as I never have to give you up.”
See? That’s what I was talking about when I said he destroys both my pussy and my heart. The look on his face as he relishes being surrounded by my heat is as sexy as fuck, but it does weird things to my insides. Things I’ve never felt before. Things I’m scared of. It makes my earlier statement not a possibility, more a certainty.
I thought I was incapable of love. Only now do I realize I’ve always had the ability, I just never had the right man.
That’s all set to change now. . . maybe?
12
“You’re braver than me.” Ralph, local hooligan/rifle range manager, doubles his grin before handing me a loaded gun. “She’s got that killer gleam in her eyes your dad always told me to watch for. As far as she’s concerned, the target isn’t the only fool standing in this range, waiting to be shot.” He nudges his head to the paper silhouette. “Do you want me to draw some coconuts on his crotch? Make sure her aim is real precise?”
Rolling my eyes at the jest in his tone, I ensure the safety on my gun is on before making my way to Regan. She’s standing at the entrance of the firing range, looking as out of place as she did last night when I forced her to take the reins in our exchange.