Convenient. Right.
While they waited for the slow-moving motel clerk to wake up his ancient computer, he decided it would be safer to book her a separate room. He didn’t trust himself having her within reaching distance. Throw in a convenient bed and time to kill…he’d be screwed in more ways than one.
Right on cue, the clerk lifted his head. “One room?”
“Yes,” Sasha chirped.
“Two,” he answered at the same time.
Doing his best to ignore the way her tempting lips pursed in disapproval, he handed the clerk his credit card. When he saw the man eyeing Sasha with not-so-subtle interest, he nearly snatched it back. He didn’t like the look on the clerk’s face. In fact, it kind of bothered the shit out of him, especially since he’d brought it on by claiming they required separate rooms. So much for retaining his sanity.
“On second thought, just one room,” he said, holding on to the card until the clerk met his eyes. Hopefully, a room with two double beds and a decent enough cable hookup would keep him distracted. Matt almost laughed out loud at that. A teeming swarm of locusts couldn’t distract him from her. She stood beside him silently, chin set with unflagging positivity, enveloping him in that cinnamon-vanilla scent that seemed to get more noticeable with each passing minute. He wanted to mingle that scent with his own, drag her down onto a flat surface and smell every inch of her skin to determine where it radiated from the strongest. Then…God, then…he wanted to hear several screamed apologies, back to back, for making his cock hurt so badly.
You can’t do it. Remember the damage you’ve caused.
The clerk cut off his disturbing thoughts by handing him back his credit card. He stared at Sasha the entire time. “All set for room number fourteen.”
She smiled. “Thanks. Is there somewhere to eat around here?”
“Not within walking distance, I’m afraid.” His hands moved furiously over his desk before handing her a stack of glossy, colorful menus. “Lots of takeout choices. Or I could take you to pick you up something. I get off in—”
“Thanks, we’ll manage,” Matt interrupted. Apparently the clerk was as slow as his computer. Putting his hand on the small of Lucy’s back, he led her out of the office. A glance at a mounted blue sign had him turning right. “If you want something to eat, I’ll get it for you.”
She held up a Domino’s menu with a flourish. “I swore after grad school, I’d never order another Domino’s pizza. Didn’t even make it one full day.”
“I’ll let you pick the toppings.”
“Oooh. A humorist and a gentleman.” She grinned up at him, blissfully unaware of his sudden desire to hand-feed her, bite by bite, watching her mouth accept the food he offered. “Be careful or you’ll be stuck with me longer than a night.”
“Don’t jinx me.”
“I’m growing on you. I can tell.”
Matt bit back a sudden smile. How many times had he been required to do that today? As they walked, his thumb eased under her shirt of its own accord, finding a dimple at the base of her spine. He almost groaned out loud, wishing he could drop to his knees and explore the valley with his mouth. Bumps raised along the skin of her neck as he watched, telling him she felt it, too. It was alarming, how quickly the pulsing need had risen. He could usually keep it leashed until it came time to engage in the actual physical activity. With this girl, his leash had been pulled taut since the moment he laid eyes on her in the coffee shop. Now it threatened to snap. He desperately needed to keep himself in check, for the entire night. But in his current state Matt worried he might not even make it to their room.
He took a deep breath and removed his touch from her skin, wanting to feel the shifting warmth again instantaneously. Green eyes watched him curiously, as if she wanted to say something, but she held out her hand for the key instead. When he followed her inside, it was a struggle not to drag her down to the floor and erase that curiosity once and for all.
Donovan, you’re losing it. Reel it back.
Sasha set her purse down on the bed and picked up the telephone. “Pepperoni and black olives?”
He hated black olives. “Your choice.” As she placed the order, Matt was painfully aware that he paced the motel room like a starved lion. When she finished her call and flopped back on the bed, he came to a standstill. Jesus, he needed a distraction. Something to keep his mind off her exposed stomach. “So how do you know Lucy?”
She sat up slowly. “Right, Lucy. Um, we met skinny-dipping, actually.”
Perfect. Just the distraction he needed. “How’s that?”
“A group of my friends sneaked in after hours to the college pool. Illegally, I should add. We thought we were total badasses. Until we walked in and saw Lucy already swimming a naked breast stroke.”
Matt felt a tug at the corner of his mouth, even as his body reacted to the image of Sasha, dripping wet, emerging from a pool. “Sounds like the Lucy I’ve heard about.”
In what seemed like an absent gesture, she ran a hand over the comforter. “How come you’ve never met her? From what Lucy told me, it sounds like you’ve been friends with her brother for a while.”
He leaned back against the table and crossed his arms. “I’m not big on family barbecues.”
“No sightseeing, no barbecues. Are you sure you’re American?”
This girl made him want to smile and snarl all at the same time. If that had ever happened before, he sure as hell couldn’t recall it. Since her question didn’t require an answer, he used the opportunity to ask something that had been weighing on his mind since his car had broken down. “Where am I dropping you off tomorrow?”
A long pause. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, when we reach the city, who are you staying with?”
“A friend,” she answered too quickly.
Something dense and dangerous settled in Matt’s belly. The arrival of jealousy was unwelcome and inappropriate. They didn’t have a relationship beyond driver and passenger. He knew that, but rationalizing with the feeling didn’t make it go away. “Male or female?”
“Marsupial.”
“Sasha.”
She visibly winced and the feeling only increased. This girl he was lusting after, feeling territorial over, had a boyfriend. “Female,” she answered finally. Matt wasn’t sure he believed her, but her softly spoken word calmed him relatively. At least enough to keep at bay the images of her with another man. Delivering her to that other man.
He nodded toward the remote control attached to the bedside table with Velcro. “Why don’t you find something to watch? I’m going to rinse off.” In the ice-cold shower.
Looking relieved that he hadn’t pursued the subject of where she’d be staying, she nodded, flipping on the television as he passed. Matt walked into the bathroom, turned on the light, and pressed his forehead against the door. Without hesitation, he dropped his hand to the front of his jeans to massage his weighty erection. He had to bite his lip to keep from moaning. Since he’d walked into the damn coffee shop, he’d needed to relieve the pressure and now he’d finally get his chance. He couldn’t stop himself from picturing Sasha’s teacup-sized breasts. The way her nipples had beaded in the air-conditioning of his car. The pale smoothness of her inner thighs. How he’d like to mark them with his teeth.
When he heard a gasp, followed by a groan, outside the bathroom door, it took Matt a moment to realize the sound hadn’t come from his fevered imagination. He held his breath and listened, frowning when he heard it again. Before he even registered his own movement, his hand closed around the doorknob and flung the bathroom door open.
Sasha squealed and dropped the remote control like it was on fire. He realized then, the sounds were coming from the television. A man and a woman, in the throes of orgasm, writhed and bucked on a four-poster bed, cheap art hanging in the background. Porn? She was watching porn?
He pinned Sasha with a look, but she was too busy searching for the remote underneath the bed, ass poin
ted straight up in the air. “It was the first channel that came on, I swear.” Her voice was muffled, but he could just about make out her rambling words over the screams of ecstasy coming from the television. “And it’s the weirdest thing because I don’t even watch porn, but it came up this morning over coffee with a friend. Crazy how things work, isn’t it? No porn for years, not a hint of it, then bam, it’s everywhere.”
Matt stood very still, trying his best to find humor in the situation, because she was so clearly lying. Porn definitely got her motor running. But at the end of the day, he was a man. When a gorgeous girl in jean shorts is waving her ass at you, an ass that has been haunting you all day, against a backdrop of moaning and slapping flesh, any attempt at maintaining control is compromised. Desire, thick and urgent, arm wrestled with his willpower as his feet started to move. Toward her? Toward the door? He didn’t know.
Finally, she sat up on her knees, face flushed from embarrassment and exertion. Her lips were parted and chewed-on. Beautiful. So fucking beautiful. And clean. He shouldn’t.
With his control hanging by a string, Matt strode for the door. Just before he reached it, he felt her push up behind him. Hand frozen on the knob, he sucked in a breath as her hands coasted over his ribs and ran up his pectorals with just enough pressure to make his eyes close.
“Don’t go,” she whispered.
The leash inside him snapped.
…
Lucy’s breath got trapped in her lungs when Matt reversed their positions and threw her up against the door. It shook behind her on its hinges, but she didn’t feel any pain or alarm. How could she when the man in front of her captured every ounce of her focus? When she’d looked up at him from her kneeling position between the beds, she’d been startled by his expression. Torment had greeted her and she’d known that somehow she was partly responsible. He’d wanted her, too. There had been no mistaking that, thanks to the unmistakable bulge behind his partially unbuttoned jeans, his dilated pupils. She could feel his arousal now, rigid against her belly. He pressed their bodies together, head to toe, his mouth drawing oxygen from hers. Her wrists were manacled by his hands, held against the door at her sides.
Between her thighs, dampness spread. This incredible show of dominance…she liked it. A lot. It was what she’d been sensing under his cool surface all day, even if she hadn’t recognized it at the time. It’s what she’d been responding to in the coffee shop, during the drive. What she’d unconsciously been craving since they’d locked eyes that afternoon. Possibly even before.
Layered beneath the longing, the overwhelming stretch and buildup in her stomach, existed a need to calm whatever she’d seen raging inside him. It felt like a responsibility. One she wanted. One she’d be damned if anyone else got before her.
She attempted to search Matt’s eyes, but they were closed tight, the lines between his eyebrows deeply furrowed. His body felt ruthlessly taut, like the string of a guitar. All his strength, held back with firm resolve. “Matt, what’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” he repeated, his lips moving hers as he spoke. “I want to turn you the fuck out. That’s what’s wrong, baby.”
Her exhale came out sounding like a moan. She’d known he desired her, but hearing just how much she’d turned him on was a potent aphrodisiac. His voice had taken on a new, rougher quality, crumbling the final illusion of calm, collected Matt. This Matt wanted to take her. Hard. But for some reason, he didn’t want to want that. Why? “No objections here. I want that, too.”
“You don’t.” He dropped an openmouthed kiss onto the curve of her neck. When she whimpered her enjoyment, it turned into a bite. “You don’t know what that means. Not with me.”
She was going to lose him if she didn’t act. Her hands were immobile, held tightly in his grip, her body flattened so completely against the door, she couldn’t move her hips. Taking a deep breath, she leaned forward and bit his ear, tugging it hard. His growl sent shock waves through every corner of her system. “Show me, then.”
In one swift motion, he curled his hands around her knees and yanked her legs up to circle his waist. “Squeeze your thighs around me—tight—or I’ll put you over my knee.”
Lucy felt every vital muscle below her waist clench. Holy hell. What had she managed to coax to life inside this man? Why did it excite her more than anything in her recollection? She thought she understood what he meant, but wanted, needed, to hear him say the words. “Why would you do that?”
“Because,” Matt enunciated, “I want to pleasure your sick little body. I want to make you scream and shake and lose your fucking mind.” He surged up between her legs. “But before that, I want to erase any doubt as to who is about to take ownership of you, good girl. Have I scared the hell out of you yet?”
Oh, God. A little. Not enough to want to stop, though. “No.”
“Liar. You know what I do to liars?”
“Kiss them?”
“You want to be kissed?”
Lucy nodded eagerly, her gaze dropping to his mouth. More than anything in the world.
Matt licked his lips. “You going to rub that tongue against mine and turn me into a madman? Be ready to drive yourself crazy in the process.”
“I’m ready for anything.” She held her breath as he leaned in slowly, all that wild intensity focused on her mouth. Back and forth, he rubbed their lips together, tasting her in small, sampling licks and bites. Her eyelids refused to support themselves even as she struggled to keep them up, to watch him. As if each bite of his teeth was injecting her with venom. Not the poisonous kind, though. The kind that attuned every cell in your body to whoever had administered it. Matt.
Finally, blessedly, he swept his tongue into her mouth, groaning and pressing closer as he did so. Then he quite simply melted every bone in her body. He released one of her hands to tug down her chin, tilting his head to make as much contact as possible. Their mouths melded together eagerly, tongues seeking and brushing. He was huge between her thighs and she used every bit of mobility she had to grind into him, while kissing him past the point where she needed to draw breath. Pulling away to suck in oxygen didn’t seem worth it.
Matt released her mouth, but stayed close as they drew breath. “Did that feel nice? You like the way I kiss your sexy mouth?”
“Yes.”
“The sting of my hand wouldn’t feel nice. Not the way you want.”
“How do you know what I want?” He didn’t answer, just took another long pull off her mouth. He shook his head as he did it, as though he was battling some inner demon she couldn’t see. “Where do you want to…make it sting, Matt?”
Conflicted eyes shot to hers, causing her heartbeat to falter. His jaw clenched but he said nothing. She took his hand from her chin and kissed his knuckles. In the absence of the light pressure, she realized she’d liked it. “Show me where.”
With a tortured growl, both hands cupped her bottom and jerked her against him. At the same time, he bit down on her shoulder, just beside the strap of her tank top. “Please, don’t let me do it, baby.”
Her mind raced, along with her overloaded senses. She couldn’t think of anything but the truth. “Saying things like that only makes me want it more.”
“Fuck. Fuck.” Her words had pushed him past his breaking point. In a blur of motion, he dropped her legs from around his waist and spun her toward the door. “Palms flat on the door. Don’t move unless you’ve been instructed. Is that understood?”
She nodded, unable to force words out of her constricted throat. Her pulse raced like crazy, excitement blooming in every erogenous zone of her body. It occurred to her that someone with a little more common sense might be scared of this particular unknown. Being struck, willingly, by a man she’d just met. Not Lucy. She raced toward the experience with open arms, the thrill seeker she’d buried two years ago doing cartwheels in her belly. Bring it.
A gasp slipped past her lips when he fell to his knees and tore the jean shorts down her legs. His
shaking hands and labored breathing added a new layer to the thrill. This darkly passionate man wanted her so badly he shook. She wanted to ease the ache she knew he felt. Felt the answering ache inside herself. His pleasure was equally important as her own.
“While we were driving, your ass kept squirming around in the seat. Never fucking stopped. Not for a minute.” She cried out when his teeth scraped over her flesh. “Someone needs to hold you still. Someone needs to give you a reason to move that ass around.”
One of Matt’s fingers slipped under the material of her thong and traced the valley of her bottom before cupping her sex from behind. A whimper broke from her throat as she pictured him crouched down with his hand between her legs, eye level with her bottom. The image, combined with his touch, made a rush of liquid gather under his massaging hand.
He pressed the heel of his hand tight against her core. “That good-girl body gets wet nice and fast, doesn’t it? Maybe you’re not such a good girl, after all.” Through her panties, he pushed his thumb against her clit and twisted it in a circle. She laid her forehead against the door, clutching the cool surface for support. “I know the best way to find out.”
“Do it,” she pleaded.
He swatted the underside of her bottom, making her cry out, eyes flying open to stare at the door but seeing nothing. Exhilaration raced across her skin, concentrated on the spot his palm had connected with her flesh. The sting had dissipated too quickly and she wanted it back. Bracing herself against the door, she tilted her backside in a silent request for more. Matt was suddenly standing behind her, flush against her back. His stubbled jaw scraped over the hypersensitive skin of her neck, big hand petting her bottom like a precious object.
“Jesus. You’re begging me for it, aren’t you?” he rasped at her ear, wrapping her hair around his fist and tugging her head back. “Beg harder.”
“More, Matt. Please.”
He obliged her broken request with another, harder spank of her bottom. She didn’t know which one of them made the strangled noise that followed. Maybe they both did. She’d grown so incredibly damp between her thighs that her legs slipped against each other when she attempted to squeeze them together. Barely conscious of her actions now, she pushed her bottom into his hands, shuddering as he slapped her again.
Staking His Claim (A Line of Duty Novel) (Entangled Brazen) Page 3