by Cat Johnson
Until tonight.
With Mike.
In her mind’s eye she saw herself tearing off the conservative cloak she kept wrapped around herself and stepping wildly and boldly into Mike’s physical world. He was a basic man. His world revolved around responsibility and work, mostly an abiding love for the earth beneath his feet.
That’s the kind of woman he deserved. Earthy.
You’re never going to forget tonight, she silently told him. Neither am I.
When he spread his fingers over her ass cheeks and drew her hard against him, she wondered if he’d read her mind. Delighting in her newfound daring, she slid her hands up his chest and scratched the top of his shoulders.
He lightly slapped her buttocks. “What was that about?”
“Getting your attention.”
“It sure as hell worked.” He slapped her again.
Not for a moment did she think Mike intended to punish her. Neither was his treatment an attempt to remind her of who held the other hand. Rather, as she was doing, he wanted tonight to be about animal action and response.
She might be wrong. Maybe Mike regularly participated in rough sex.
No, he didn’t. A man capable of helping an animal give birth respected all living things.
Unless the woman wanted wild.
With a mental shake, she shut the door on trying to figure Mike out.
She might have scratched him again because he spun her around so her back was to him. He caught her arms to her sides as he did, and although she could have broken free, she had no desire to. Holding her in place with a workman’s arm, he captured a nipple between his thumb and forefinger.
“I believe in the gentle touch when it comes to training a bronc,” he told her. “I keep one I haven’t worked with before in a corral because I don’t have the time or inclination to chase it all over creation, but I’ve fired hands who were too rough.”
He was drawing comparisons between horse breaking and the way he now rolled her nipple about? No matter how exciting a rodeo’s riding events were, she’d always had misgivings about how the bucking stock was handled. If they’d been treated the way Mike was treating her, the riders would never get one to buck.
Buck? Collapse was more like it.
Her head sagged back until it rested on Mike’s chest. After a disinterested look at the ceiling, she closed her eyes and slipped into the world he was creating for her. It didn’t matter that he was focused on a single nipple, the sensation spread through her until her knees threatened to buckle. His hold on her tightened so she wouldn’t fall. She thought he might make fun of her or take advantage. Instead, he released her breast.
Curious, but not alarmed, she stopped breathing so she could better concentrate. After too long, his hand returned. When his fingers settled around her other nipple, she could tell he’d wetted them with his saliva.
Body fluids exchanged.
Seduction taken up another notch.
Sparks radiated through her as he continued his feathery assault. Her body was becoming something new, pieces and parts she had no knowledge of or control over. She wanted. That’s all she knew, she wanted.
She couldn’t say whether her eyes were closed and didn’t remember how to move her arms. At least she’d infused her knees with enough strength to keep her legs under her, but it might not last.
Didn’t matter. Mike had hold of her.
Just when she acknowledged she didn’t care whether he ever stopped working her unbelievably sensitive breast, he flicked it in dismissal. A half second later, his palm ground against her belly. She jumped and squealed when he raked his short, smooth nails over her there. No matter that she didn’t want to be free, her overworked nerve endings had her reaching back for his buttocks.
“No getting loose.” Powerful fingers clamped around her right wrist and dragged her arm to her side.
“Not fair.” She pressed the tips of the fingers of her left hand into his flank. “You’re taking advantage of—”
“Of course I am.” He again scratched her belly, separated her from everything except sensation.
“Oh, God!” She shuddered. Her fingers went slack. “You’re killing me.”
“Never. Tonight’s about pleasure for both of us. Speaking of, I want your reaction to what I’m about to do. Thumbs-up or -down?” Once more his nails abraded her flesh. The embers deep inside threatened to burst into flames.
“Shit, shit. I . . . I don’t know.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
He attacked her stomach, hips, the fronts of her thighs, breasts, and middle, keeping her so off balance she could barely drag enough air into her lungs to remain conscious. She squirmed in his embrace because movement was the only thing she could think to do to keep from falling off the cliff he’d created.
Mike had melted her down. If he wanted her back together, he’d have to do it.
That’s all it was. Gone. Lost. Needing.
To her shock, he abruptly backed away and then pushed against her buttocks, forcing her to stumble forward. She was still off balance when he snagged her and again hauled her against him. “You’re getting to me. Making it too damn hard to concentrate.”
“I’m getting to you?” she managed. “I’ve barely touched you.”
“Oh?” As he rocked from side to side, his cock felt as if it was trying to push into her from behind. To become part of her. Take over. “What do you call this?”
Crazy making.
When he once more released her, fear he’d changed his mind about tonight brought her to the verge of tears. Then, reminding herself that he wouldn’t have gone this far if he’d had any hesitation, she brought her hands to her breasts and massaged them. Her attempt to quiet whatever was happening to them failed. Much as she needed to slide a hand between her legs and acknowledge the hunger there, she didn’t dare. When she climaxed—and she would, she would!—she wanted Mike to make it happen.
“You aren’t a green broke mare,” he said as he settled his hands over her shoulders. “If that’s how you think I treated you, I’m sorry.”
Gentle. A blessedly light touch on flesh that had been rubbed raw. “You didn’t,” she whispered.
“I hope not.”
She sensed he wanted to say more, but for reasons he wasn’t ready or willing to share with her, he’d decided not to. Her breasts still pulsed, but thanks to her gentle handling of them, she felt a little more in control. The longer his hands rested on her shoulders, the calmer she became. She could do this, hold herself together until they were both ready to let go.
Maybe.
“I want to have sex with you,” she told him. “If you have any doubt, if that’s why you’ve slowed down—”
“It isn’t that.” He sighed and ran his fingers over her upper arms. “It isn’t easy for me to put away the hat I wear during the day and remember that lovemaking needs to be about more than me getting what I want.”
Lovemaking. Not just sex. Weak from what she’d just heard, she turned and faced him. He was more shadow than reality, a man in the most basic terms.
“We’re going at this fast,” she told him. “Maybe that’s why we aren’t sure how tonight is supposed to play out.”
He brushed his knuckles over the side of her neck, setting fire to her there as he did. When she whimpered and dipped her head in that direction, he again took hold of his cock. Shadows were good. Without them, he’d only have to look into her eyes to know she was lost. Tonight his cock existed for her pleasure, nothing else mattered.
Maybe.
“Do you want us to put on the brakes?” he asked. She hadn’t heard that rough tone from him before. “Not wind up in bed after all?”
“No,” she blurted. Desperate to let him know how much she meant it, she settled an unsteady hand over the base of his throat. There it was, his strong pulse. Her other hand, driven by heat and need, brushed his cock head. “I need you in me.”
The way he worked at drawing in a
breath, she understood how much he’d hoped she’d say that. Do that. So neither of them had control over their emotions, so what?
Let loose. Be what he deserves.
She lifted his hand off his erection. Then, fighting to draw in a decent breath herself, she cradled his cock in both hands.
There. That’s what he deserves.
“I like the way this room smells,” she said to keep silence and anticipation at bay. “Earthy. Leather and grass, a hint of hay.”
He straightened and settled his hands over her wrists. No matter that he was little more than a hazy outline, she was aware of how hard he had to work at breathing. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be in control after all, if she was. Mike’s life revolved around doing what needed to be done. He was comfortable with the role. Even more to the point, he already knew a great deal about what turned her on, how far he could take her.
“That’s you,” she whispered. “Earth and leather.”
“Maybe. It doesn’t matter.”
Much as she’d wanted to slide her fingers over his hard length, she couldn’t stop shaking. Modern women were supposed to be able to hold their own in sexual encounters, darn it. She’d been nervous before, but never like this.
He spread his fingers over the backs of her hands and gently tugged her off him. Her palms ached from the loss, prompting her to try to free herself. When he refused to let go, she started to sink to her knees hoping to at least touch her lips to him.
“Not now,” he whispered as he drew her arms over her head. “You’re asking too much of me.”
That couldn’t be. Surely Mike Moss was capable of handling every attempt at seduction she threw at him. Despite the argument running through her, however, she curled her toes into the carpet and waited.
Waited.
“I want it simple,” he told her. “The two of us keeping things basic.”
“What do you mean?”
His chuckle should have warned her, but he stood too close for her to focus on anything except his body. Almost before she knew what was happening, he started guiding her backward via his hold on her arms. With every step she became more unbalanced and was grateful when the backs of her legs encountered the side of his bed. Not content with what he’d just accomplished, he scooped her up and deposited her on the spread. Mouth slack and legs splayed, she stared at him.
“The way you are right now,” he said, “is my idea of what constitutes simple.” He reinforced his point by sliding his hands between her legs.
“Yes,” she whimpered. “Yes.”
“I know. I know.”
Any second now he’d do more than cover her inner thighs. He’d head for her sex and discover how wet she was, how ready for him. How far gone.
“We haven’t talked about something important.” He leaned so low that his words moistened her breasts. “I’m sure you know what it is.”
Touch him. Cradle his cock again. Make him stop talking.
“Safe sex.” She tried to lift her arms off the bed but couldn’t; she lacked the strength to move a single muscle.
“Yeah, doing the civilized thing.”
At least one of them could think. “I have an IUD,” she told him.
“And I have rubbers.”
No! she nearly screamed. Don’t cover yourself! But saying that would be irresponsible, nearly as insane as everything else that had happened tonight.
“I want to see you,” he said. “Really see you.”
“I want you to.”
Just like that he was gone, leaving her sprawled on his mattress in his bedroom in a house filled with history and meaning for him. He’d imprinted her inner thighs with his heat, making her core weep in anticipation. From the sounds he was making, she guessed he’d gone into the adjacent bathroom. Looking at nothing, she imagined him opening a drawer and pulling out a box of condoms. Much as she needed to believe he hadn’t used one for a long time, his personal life was none of her business.
Second by second, strength returned to her muscles. Beyond caring what he’d think, she cupped a hand around her mons and began massaging it. Just like that, her pussy muscles tightened.
She needed so little, knowing fingers near or on her sex, a measured invasion.
Her head whipped back and forth as she bent her knees and settled her hands over her core. She found heat and hunger, promise and impatience. Madness beckoned as she lightly stroked her labial lips. Unable to hold back, she slipped a finger into her core.
7
Sudden light invaded the room. Even if she’d been capable of stopping what she was doing, it was too late because Mike stood a few feet away with his hand on the bedside lamp. A rubber sheathed his cock.
He inclined his head at what she was doing. “I left you alone too long.”
“Yes, you did.”
He abandoned his station near the head of the bed and walked around to the side. His gaze remained on her as he drew her hands off her sex and placed them over her belly. She started to straighten her legs, but he pressed down on her knees, holding her in place.
“You belong to me now,” he whispered. “At least until I can’t hold back anymore.”
What he’d said unnerved her a little, but she appreciated his honesty. If only she could reach up and touch him, but he’d laid out the framework for what was going to happen between them. His leadership. Whatever it took, she’d fulfill her role.
He bent his dark head over her, slid his hands under her buttocks, and lifted her ass off the bed. Her fingers twitched. Something, a cry maybe, tried to burst free.
Be silent. Wait. Experience.
Mike lowered his work-honed body until he became a blur. Not sure what he had in mind, she trembled. It was her doing. If she hadn’t started playing with herself, he might not be taking over there.
Something wet and warm touched her labia, making her jerk and sob. She didn’t know how she lived through that first god-wonderful contact, was both relieved and disappointed because it lasted only a moment. Then he again licked her sex. She grabbed handfuls of his hair and arched herself up and against him.
He was tasting her, maybe teaching himself about her, drinking in her hot juices, breaking her into wonderful pieces, and all she could do was cling to his hair and whimper.
Had Mike been born knowing what she needed? Maybe her body had whispered the truth without her mind knowing what was happening. Whatever the truth, this near stranger had already taken her beyond where she’d ever been. A climax hummed just out of reach. Much as she craved the incredible release, she understood he was determined to keep it at bay. Let her pleasure hang and drift. Every time her inner muscles started to contract, he stopped tonguing her and gave her enough breathing space to keep going.
She was his captive, his pet. She’d been some wild thing living on his land, but he’d found her hiding place and gone into it after her. He’d hauled her out, thrown her belly down over his horse, and brought her back to his place. Hour after hour and night after night, he’d broken down her barriers until she crawled to him for a touch every time he entered the room he kept her in.
This was going to be the night. For the first time he hadn’t locked the door behind him. She was naked, of course, because that was how he kept her. Saying nothing, he stripped off his clothes, folded his arms over his chest, and waited.
No, she chided herself when Mike’s mouth settled over her breast, this wasn’t the time for some capture fantasy. She needed to live in reality.
He sucked and nibbled, licked and touched his teeth to her nipple. Whimpering again, she reached out blindly. Her seeking fingers brushed his cock, and she clasped the head. His flesh there was so smooth, nature’s gift to hungry women. To her.
When, still tonguing her breast, he pressed his hand against her pussy, she started shaking even more. Sweat broke out on her back and threatened to seal her to the spread. She should have taken at least a moment to study his room so she could learn more about what mattered to him, but it wa
s simply space, unimportant. An occasional puff of cool air slid over her shoulders to let her know a window was open, but that’s all she knew.
No, not all. He’d placed her on a queen-sized bed.
She wasn’t his prisoner, his wild captive, but neither was she free. He knew everything important about her, how her breasts responded to a drawing sensation, the way his finger plundering her sex channel made the muscles there grab hold. If she put her mind to it, she could respond with an attack on his cock, but she simply lay there and let him do.
The breast he’d claimed began to ache, but she dismissed it and concentrated on the finger slipping into her channel. All too soon, however, the delicious throbbing crossed into discomfort. His mouth was so strong, so determined. Her head thrashing again, she forced herself to release Mike’s cock, take hold of his shoulder, and dig in.
“What?”
Before she could begin to try to answer, winter air chilled the moisture he’d deposited on her breast. She shivered, released his shoulder, and covered what he’d abandoned.
“You . . . it was too much,” she admitted.
“Too much?” The way he stared at the juncture between her legs, she should have known what he had in mind, but his teasing tone and the sparks radiating throughout her made that impossible. “What’s the saying? Something like it being a river down there.”
His finger traveled deeper into her, slid out a scant inch, reached a new depth. When he began a rhythmic thrusting, his pace was so slow she barely paid attention. Just experiencing was enough, the delicious loosening inside, the ever-blooming heat. Then he planted his free hand over her stomach and pressed down. The finger inside her became part of her. It felt as if he was surrendering something of himself to her, joining them together. The weight on her belly increased. Her hand started to slide off her breast. She tried to hold on, to massage herself, to shelter and stimulate both mounds.
In and out, advance and retreat, work-rough finger soaked with her juices gliding over her inner walls and taking her deep, deeper still into herself. Her eyes closed, opened, closed. Darkness surrounded her, promising a sensual ride, but she needed to see Mike’s expression, so she forced her lids up. The effort exhausted her, compelling her to rest her palms on her hard nipples.