She was dismissing him.
What could he do? He couldn’t force her to want him, to want to spend time with him. And why the hell did it feel like she was tearing his heart out?
This made absolutely no sense. None of it.
Dex waited another minute, hoping, but she was obviously done talking. He couldn’t just stand there staring at her while she said nothing, so he strode to the garage and let himself in. Giving her the space she wanted while still being close enough to make sure she was safe.
He heard the sound of a car pulling up, of a door opening, and Hattie’s voice greeting her driver. “Fuck.” Dex paced to the other side of the garage, shoving his fingers in his hair. The echo of the door closing came next, then they drove away.
She was gone.
Why the hell did he open his big mouth? God, no wonder his last girlfriend dumped him. He had no fucking clue. Not one. He said all the wrong things at all the wrong times. Either pushed too hard or held shit back.
“Fuck,” he said again, breathing heavily. He felt like his damn world was ending. He hadn’t even felt this much when Chloe had ended it, not even close. What the hell was wrong with him?
“Dex?”
He spun around.
Hattie stood at the door to the garage, looking at him in that same wide-eyed way. She bit her lip and shook her head. “I’m sorry. That was…I guess I freaked out again? Nothing you said was…I’m not sure what happened. I…um, yeah, I reacted kind of badly.”
He waited, not sure what she was going to do, what she wanted.
“I ran away last time, and I regretted it. I don’t want to run away again.” She hugged herself. “I don’t want to go home, Dex. I want to be here with you.”
Dex almost fucking collapsed with relief. “Okay,” he said, voice like rusted steel, afraid to say more in case he fucked things up again.
“But can we just maybe slow down a little? Keep things more…casual, for now?”
He nodded, swallowing hard, relief making his mouth dry and his palms sweat. She hadn’t gone. She was here. She wanted to be there with him.
Hattie took a step closer, and Dex couldn’t hold himself back. His boots ate up the distance between them and he scooped her up in his arms, taking her mouth in a hard soul-searing kiss that screamed a fuck of a lot more than casual. But that’s how it always felt when he kissed this woman.
He could wait, though. He’d give her as long as she needed.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and moaned when he tilted his head and slid his tongue deeper, growling at the taste of her. God, he’d missed this. He’d kissed her just hours before and he’d missed it. How was that possible?
He spun, strode the few feet to the tarp-covered car behind them, set her on the hood, and leaned in, taking Hattie to her back. He covered her with his much larger body, pressing deeper.
Fuck, she was soft and so sweet.
Her scent filled his head, and he kept at her mouth, her perfect lips, sucking on her little tongue. Her thighs parted and she wrapped her legs around his hips. He ground against the heat of her pussy and almost lost his damned mind.
Fuck, yes.
Dex dragged a hand up her rounded thigh, taking her skirt with it. He groaned at the feel of her smooth, warm skin and tilted his hips back enough to slide his fingers over the scrap of fabric right there. Her panties were damp. The woman was as hot for him as he was for her.
“Can I take these off, sweetness?” he choked out.
“Yes. Get them off,” Hattie said, reaching for the front of his jeans at the same time.
Dex growled and pulled away. His need to touch her outweighed his own desperation to be touched. Shoving her skirt higher, he bit back a curse at the sight of her underwear. They were green and red with fucking snowmen printed all over them. The sight impossibly turned him on more. How could snowman panties be sexy? He guessed on Hattie everything was sexy.
Dex tore them down her legs and shoved them in his jeans pocket. He covered her with his hand again, pressing his middle finger deep into her wet heat, and his dick fucking throbbed.
“This pussy loved my cock, didn’t it, Hattie? I only had a little trouble getting inside you after I made you come, but yeah, fuck, you spread so good for me. Gonna taste you, sweetness, then I’m filling you up. You want that, Hattie? You want me deep inside you again?”
He’d never been much of a talker, but having Hattie spread out for him like this, knowing how good being inside her was, he couldn’t shut the hell up.
She fisted his shirt at his stomach tighter, trying to tug him closer. “Dex, I need you to make me come.”
That was all he needed to hear. Gripping her hips, he slid her higher on the hood, threw her legs over his shoulders, and buried his face against her pussy. Fuck me. Heaven. The woman was heaven. He slid his tongue through her center, lapping her up, tasting her, loving how much she was getting off on it.
Her cries echoed around the garage, her fingers tugging on his hair, pussy grinding up against his mouth.
He shuddered when he opened his mouth and slid his tongue inside her, moaned and growled as he worked her like that. Then he moved higher and got his finger in on the act while he circled her tight little clit, brushing over it, playing with her.
Hattie’s grip on his hair tightened and she lifted her hips, trying to get more.
Taking a lush ass cheek in one hand, he wrapped his lips around that sweet little nub and sucked it while shoving two fingers inside her pussy. Hattie cried out and arched against him.
Then she was coming. So damn good, just for him.
Dex waited until she’d finished shuddering under him and came up over her, covering her. His hands went to the hood of the car either side of her head as her fingers attacked the front of his jeans, yanking open the button and sliding down the zipper. She shoved them below his ass.
Christ, he loved how much she wanted him. How she wasn’t afraid to show him.
His cock sprang free, and Hattie, looking down between their bodies, made a kind of startled sound.
He wasn’t surprised. He didn’t think he’d ever been this hard. He barely recognized his own cock in that moment.
Taking his wallet from his pocket, he took out a condom, rolled it on, and fisted his dick, lining up. “I know how well you can take me, Hattie. You don’t want it easy this time, do you, baby?”
She licked her lips and shook her head.
“Hard and fast and deep, that’s what we both need,” he said between clenched teeth.
Her breath exploded past her lips in a rush. “Yes, I want that. Give it to me.”
Ah, shit. His damn brain short-circuited. He was bone and muscle, hunger and heat. He was a rock-hard cock, and the only thing filling his head was Hattie and how much he wanted her.
Fist around the head of his dick, he fed it into her tight pussy, ignoring the need to slam in deep right away. He might have wanted that beyond all reason, but he would die before hurting her. Yes, she could take him, all of him, so damn good, but he still needed to work her up to it, let her adjust to his size first.
That first inch went in nicely, and he puffed air in and out of his nose like a wild bull as he stared down at her beautiful face, the way she bit her lip, eyelids heavy. She squirmed under him, adjusting, wanting more but needing time as well.
Dex gave her a little more, then eased out. And when he slid back in, he gave her another inch. Hattie’s mouth dropped open on a husky moan, and Dex growled. “More?” he bit out.
She nodded, that wild dark hair spread out around her. “More.”
This woman. Jesus fucking Christ. “You love the way I fill you up, don’t you, Hattie?”
“Yes, God, so much.”
Dex gave her more, advancing and retreating slowly, driving them both insane, until he finally sank in that last inch.
Breathing heaving, Dex dropped down, face buried against her throat, and tried to gather his control.
Hatti
e’s legs wrapped around him tighter, holding him to her. She was trembling again as she turned her head, mouth going to his ear. “Fuck me, Dex. Like you promised. I want it. I need it.”
Hearing those words from her sweet mouth—he broke. The reins of his control snapped, and he came up, yanked his shirt up and off, and flung it aside. He didn’t want anything in the way, anything between them.
Gripping her hips, he looked down between their bodies and watched his cock slide out, glistening and slick from how turned on she was having him inside her. When he was almost all the way out, he thrust heavily back in.
Hattie cried out, hands flying back over her head and pressing against the windshield. “Oh shit.”
He looked up at her, worried he’d hurt her, but her eyes were glassy with hunger, cheeks flushed, lips swollen and dark. Christ.
Dex let loose in a way he never had before, because he could, because Hattie wanted it, too. His gaze moved over the woman laid out in front of him, moving between her gorgeous blue eyes, the expression of pleasure on her face, and his cock filling her over and over again.
It was a sight he would never forget. A sight he devoured, locking it away. Hattie had been made for him, every part of her. Her beautiful soft, curvy body, her perfect pussy.
But it wasn’t just her body. It was so much more.
He slammed his hips forward, filling her deep, grinding down on her clit. “Not gonna last much longer, sweetness, the way that pussy’s gripping me tight.”
Hattie reached down between her thighs and started rubbing her clit. Holy fuck. She was so hot, so sexy and gorgeous, and Dex thought he might pass the hell out. “Fuck, baby, that’s it. Work your little clit for me.”
Hattie arched suddenly, a scream tearing from her throat. Her inner muscles clamped down on his dick so hard his head spun.
“Dex,” she cried, still coming.
Dex fucking fell on her, covering her smaller body, when the head of his cock felt like it was about to blow off. His hips pistoned, body shaking, taking her hard and deep, over and over.
His spine torqued as pleasure rocked through him and his hips pumped wildly. A roar exploded from him as he came so hard light danced at the edges of his eyes.
He didn’t stop, though, not yet. He moved slower as he worked every last shudder from them until they were both spent.
Dex tried to keep some of his weight off Hattie while his breath sawed in and out of him, but he wasn’t sure how good a job he was doing. “Okay?” he said, voice nothing but grit against her ear.
“Yes,” she said and kissed the side of his neck, her hands sliding up and down his sides.
He didn’t want to move. Never wanted to leave this spot with her, inside her, her taste in his mouth, her scent filling his head. Her soft pants hot and sweet against the side of his throat.
The silence stretched out, then Hattie kissed his neck again. “You want to go upstairs?”
Moving sounded like an excellent idea after all. “Yeah, sweetness, I do.”
If it meant more of the woman under him, he most definitely wanted to go upstairs. At that moment, he’d have followed her anywhere.
Chapter 8
When Dex texted Hattie the next afternoon while she was at work, she let out the breath she’d been holding for what felt like a full day. After the way she’d freaked out the previous night, before finally coming back—and they’d had the hottest sex of her life on the hood of a car—she thought he might not contact her for a few days. After all, she had told him they needed to slow things down.
She was glad he had anyway.
Yes, the reasons she’d taken off in the first place were still there, but then the call she’d gotten from her mother yesterday morning and the twenty-minute lecture on what a failure she was to her family had probably contributed to her extreme reaction to Dex’s suggestion that they take things beyond the bedroom, in part at least.
That call had also reinforced her reasons to keep things casual with him. Thankfully, they were on the same page now.
She couldn’t deal with complicated, not at the moment. She had enough of that in her life already. Having fun with Dex, though, as often as possible, she could handle.
Her gaze moved back to her computer screen and the email she’d received from her parents earlier. The calls weren’t getting them the expected results, so they were applying more pressure.
Their immense disappointment was a heavy theme, as were their feelings of betrayal. Their betrayal? Seriously? Of course, they’d added how they had paid for her to go to law school and this was how she’d repaid them for everything they’d done. And at the bottom, the not-so-subtle threat of cutting her out of their family. But if she came back now, they could move past this little indiscretion. And if not? Well, she’d gotten the whole this is not Sutton behavior. If she couldn’t act like a member of this family, then perhaps she didn’t belong in it.
That hurt the most. It always did. How could you threaten to cut someone out of your life because they didn’t fit some preconceived notion they had of you? Why didn’t they just want her to be happy? They’d always wanted her to fit into some mold they’d created, an ideal they’d come up with when she was born, and they refused to waver.
Yeah, that definitely hurt most.
“You okay?” Shay said from the couch on the other side of the office, Gracie in her arms. Gracie spent a lot of time in the office with them since Shay was still breastfeeding. Hugh and Shay had help during the day with the other kids, but Shay liked to be close.
“I got an email from my parents.” Hattie had filled Shay in about their messed-up relationship. She’d had to when she’d first started working there, because her mother had called almost nonstop, demanding she come home.
“You okay?”
Hattie smiled, or tried to. “I will be. I just never thought it’d come to this, losing my parents completely, and that’s how it’s looking.”
“Oh, hon, that’s awful.” She looked furious on Hattie’s behalf. “I really don’t get what the hell their problem is,” Shay said, adjusting Gracie in her arms now that she was asleep. “Is there anything I can do?”
Hattie shook her head. “Thanks for asking, though.”
Shay came over and squeezed her shoulder. “I’m here, okay? If you ever need to talk.” Shay gave her another shoulder squeeze and left the office, taking Gracie into the house and to bed.
When she was alone, she pulled out her phone and looked down at the message from Dex.
Dex: Free tonight?
There was nothing anyone could do to make this okay, but there was one person who made her feel amazing whenever he was near. She needed another dose of Dex. Was desperate for it, for him.
Hattie: Sure am. Just tell me where and when.
Hattie stood at Dex’s door and ran her hands over her hips. For some crazy reason her palms felt a little clammy and nerves were flapping around like demented hummingbirds in her belly.
Not to mention excited. She’d looked forward to seeing him all day, especially after the phone call she’d had with her father that afternoon. The increased frequency of their calls and emails meant they were getting desperate.
The fury in his voice had proven it. His anger and disappointment were still ringing in her ears. There was no happy ending on their horizon, no compromise.
And now she just felt more determined to prove him and her mother wrong.
Hattie pushed that from her mind and knocked.
The garage was locked up for the night, but Dex had ended up working late so she’d told him she’d come to him.
The door opened and she bit her lip, almost moaning out loud. Dex stood in front of her in only a damp towel, his hair sticking up all over the place, the huge expanse of his tattooed upper body on full display, and a sheepish expression on his face.
God, he was lovely.
Everything about him, inside and out. It was the word that sprang to mind most often when she thought of him.
“Won’t be a minute. Let me just get dressed.” He walked to his dresser and whipped off the towel, giving her an eyeful of his insanely gorgeous ass, before covering all that glory with a pair of cheek-hugging boxer briefs followed by jeans.
Clothes? Who needed clothes? She wanted him to lie on the bed at her mercy so she could worship every bit of that enormous body slowly.
“Takeout? You okay with pizza?” Dex asked as he tugged a shirt on.
Hattie frowned. “Pizza?”
“Gotta eat, sweetness. Haven’t had time to buy food this week. Worked through lunch. I’m ready to chew off my own arm.”
The sudden desire to cook for him hit her like a foreign object hurtling through the air. She had never in her life wanted to cook for a man. She barely cooked for herself. But the idea of feeding Dex, of watching him eat, moan in pleasure, and sit back satisfied after devouring a meal that she’d prepared, had warmth washing over her.
“Yeah, of course. Whatever you’re in the mood for,” she said distractedly, stunned by the direction her thoughts had taken her.
He turned to her, and his gaze was suddenly dark and hungry. “I’m in the mood for you, and I’d already have you on that bed, my mouth on your pussy, if my body hadn’t started cannibalizing itself.”
She swallowed at the way he growled those dirty words at her and forced a chuckle. “Let’s get some food in your belly. Then we can come back and indulge our, um…other cravings.”
“Yeah?” he gritted out.
“Most definitely,” she said, a needy pulse building between her thighs.
He strode across the room, his long legs eating up the space between them, and tugged her into his arms. “Haven’t kiss you hello yet.”
Hattie stared up into his gorgeous brown eyes and felt a little weak at the knees. “No, you haven’t.”
His mouth came down on hers, and he kissed her thoroughly, sucking on her lips, her tongue, wet and deep and in a way she felt everywhere within seconds. Every time they kissed it was the same: a full body experience, mind-blowing, earth-shattering. God, fireworks.
Spark (Boosted Hearts Book 4) Page 7