by Melody Anne
Chloe ran her hands across his strong shoulders, relishing the feel of his muscles. He continued tracing her lips with his tongue while his hands moved down and squeezed her butt. He pulled her next to his arousal and thrust his hips upward. They moaned together.
Chloe wrenched her lips from his and trailed them across his jaw, loving the feel of him clenching it as he tried to maintain some amount of control. It was a losing battle for both of them. She scooted back on his lap and bent down, circling her tongue around his hard nipple before she sucked on it.
His gasp of pleasure encouraged her to keep going. Sliding from his lap, she found herself kneeling in front of him, his covered thickness inches from her face. She needed to have a taste of him.
“Chloe,” he warned. She wasn’t sure what he was asking for―her to come back to him or to take his pants off. She chose to believe it was the latter.
She took her time sliding her hands across his thighs, edging closer and closer to where she most wanted to touch him. His fingers wound into her hair as he tugged her closer to him. She didn’t resist.
Chloe leaned in and kissed his thickness, feeling him jump within his pants. She was floating in a happy delirium. Opening her mouth, she gently bit down on his covered erection and he groaned. Looking up she loved the sight of him with his head thrown back, a layer of sweat beading on his hard abs. He was magnificent.
Chloe quickly grew tired of teasing him and reached up to undo his pants. His breathing was labored as she pulled his zipper slowly down, finding his arousal straining against the black cotton of his underwear.
“Lift up,” she told him. He didn’t hesitate. With a quick tug, she pulled his pants and underwear away, his magnificent erection jumping out, inches from her watering mouth. Circling her fingers around his thick shaft, she pumped her fist a couple times before running her thumb over the bead of pleasure dripping from him.
A shudder passed through his entire body at her touch. He was so solid and hot. She used his excitement to lubricate him so she could move her hand more quickly up and down his thickness.
Chloe was wet as she continued playing with Nick. He was all man, his injury forgotten even as she felt the brace against her side while she drew closer to him. Nick wouldn’t be kept down for long.
Unable to wait any longer, Chloe leaned forward and took his large head into her mouth, tasting his salty flavor as he pulsed against her tongue. She squeezed around the bottom of his shaft as she sucked him deep into her mouth, moving slowly up and down his velvety smoothness.
“Your mouth is so hot,” he groaned.
With her lips fastened securely around him, she looked up again. This time his eyes met hers, fire burning from his dark gray depths. The look made her stomach tremble as she watched him while sliding her mouth farther down his shaft, taking him into her throat and squeezing all that she couldn’t fit with her hand.
His lips tightened at the pleasure she was giving him, and she couldn’t tear her gaze away as she continued to suck on him. She slid her lips back to his head, swirling her tongue around his tip before taking him deep into her throat again—over and over she did this, growing even more excited as his eyes darkened to almost black.
“Stop!” Nick cried as she took him even deeper and flexed her throat. She felt a gush of warm fluid slide down the inside of her throat, and she would have smiled if her lips weren’t tightly locked around him.
He pulled hard on her hair, forcing her to release him from the warmth of her mouth. She looked up and smiled while she licked her lips.
“You didn’t like that?” she teased.
He growled at her as he gripped her beneath her arms and pulled her back up, turning her once again so she was against the desk. With a fast movement, he undid her pants and pulled them down her legs, leaving her bare to him. Easily lifting her up, he set her on the desk, then scooted between her thighs.
“Nick . . .” she groaned as he pushed her down on the desk, her body draped across the wood. He began kissing the insides of her thighs.
Chloe tried to lift up to watch him, but one of his hands pressed against her stomach, keeping her down. His hot breath washed across her opening before she felt the pressure of his tongue circling her sensitive heat.
She cried out as he sucked her into his mouth before laving his tongue across her folds. She was writhing on the desk as he brought her closer to the pleasure she so desperately wanted.
His fingers easily slipped inside her heat, and he pumped them in and out while his tongue tasted every delicate centimeter of her swollen flesh. His murmurs rumbled through her, and she was lost in the pleasure he was giving.
“Please, Nick, please,” Chloe begged him.
With a hard thrust of his fingers, he sucked her swollen flesh into his mouth, and she screamed with the intensity of the release he gave her. She was shaking as her body clenched repeatedly.
Nick stood up and tugged on her legs, pulling her butt slightly off the desk. She barely acknowledged the movement. Then, he gripped her legs and thrust forward, sinking inside her as a spasm rocked through her, turning one orgasm into a second. It was almost more than she could take.
She whimpered as he began thrusting hard in and out of her body, her insides squeezing him tightly as he groaned and pushed faster and faster within her. He paused, buried deep inside her.
“You feel so amazing,” he groaned as she clenched around him.
“So full, I’m so full . . .” she moaned, her breathing difficult as her body continued to fly higher and higher in her pleasure.
He began moving again, and their moans mingled in the air as he reached forward with one hand and squeezed her breast. The other gripped her leg as he thrust in and out of her.
Her body was so wet, he easily slid within her folds as he pushed her leg up, connecting them even deeper than before. She began to squeeze him again as another orgasm ripped through her. Never before had she felt such intense pleasure. She cried out, begging for mercy. But he wasn’t willing to give her any.
The pleasure was excruciating as he continued filling her. Her arms were too weak to reach for him. She tried lifting them to no avail. He knew what she wanted, though, and he leaned down, stretching her leg even farther, giving her a whole new level of pleasure.
His lips clasped around her nipple, and he sucked while he pushed within her, grunting around her breast, his hot breath and warm tongue circling her.
With a cry, Nick pushed forward, the heat of his pleasure filling her. It sent her into another orgasm, and she squeezed him, taking every ounce of him deep inside her.
Nick fell forward, his body still connected with hers as he ran his fingers through her hair. They were both damp and spent. With a moan, he pulled from her, and she whimpered her disapproval. He sat back on the chair, tugging on her until she lifted up.
He pulled her into his arms and cradled her, his hands running softly up and down her back as he sucked on the tender skin of her shoulder.
“You are amazing,” he said in awe.
She couldn’t even form words to describe what had just happened. As the aftermath began to wash away, she tried to tug against his hold.
“No.” His word was firm. She stilled in his arms. “You aren’t running away this time.”
She settled down in his arms and wondered what she was going to do. She wasn’t quite sure. In the moment, it felt so right. But after she was satiated, she remembered who he was. No, he wasn’t the monster she’d once thought he was, but his family was the enemy. Her father would never approve of her being in a relationship with him. Chloe didn’t know what to do.
“We’re going to go to bed together without any regrets,” Nick told her.
Chloe wanted to do exactly that, but she couldn’t voice her opinion aloud. He gently pushed her from his lap and then he stood. Taking her hand in his, he began walking slowly, leading her through the house to his bedroom.
She hesitated only a moment before entering his q
uarters. She stopped fighting as he pulled her into his bed. When she was tucked securely into his arms, her eyes drifted shut, and she fell into a deep sleep.
The next day Nick didn’t allow her to pull away from him, and she appreciated it. That night, she again went to bed, falling asleep in his arms after they were both sated. It’s how the next few days and nights went and those regrets Chloe felt she should be feeling never came.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Chloe was trembling as she hid beneath her bed. Terror filled her as she heard the footsteps coming closer. The only sound was that of deep breathing―controlled, almost excited.
She shook as she tried not to make a sound, but it was no use. The chattering of her teeth were like shotgun blasts, and her falling tears sounded like splashes in the lake, clearly giving up her hiding position.
Scooting back, her body scraped against the hardwood floor, and she had to put her hand over her mouth to keep from whimpering as the footsteps stopped at the edge of her bed. Maybe he wouldn’t notice. The feet turned and she sighed in relief. Then he quickly dropped to the floor to check under the bed. She screamed when his face appeared, an evil smile overtaking his lips.
She struggled to get away from him as his hand reached for her. Pain was promised in his expression, and she kicked as she resisted. Normally she just accepted it, but this time, she wasn’t going to cave so easily. She was stronger now, bigger. She didn’t have to allow him to hurt her.
“Please, no!” she shouted. “I haven’t done anything. Please.” Her words turned into a sob as he pulled her from beneath the bed and pinned her to the ground, holding her arms in place. She kicked at him, bit down on his chest when he leaned into her.
“Dammit, stop!” The thundering voice shook Chloe as she snapped from sleep. Her eyelids lifted. Her body violently shook. Her vision was blurred by tears and she blinked several times, trying to focus. The man before her came in and out of her hazy focus.
“Please don’t,” she begged, half in and half out of sleep. She couldn’t distinguish between her dream and reality.
“Chloe . . . Chloe . . . you need to wake up. It’s me.”
Tears streaking down her face, Chloe continued fighting, but her movements were growing weaker. She couldn’t hold him off. “It’s me. It’s Nick,” he said, his tone soft.
The voice finally registered as the last of her nightmare faded away. “Nick?” she said, the single word coming out as barely a whisper. “Nick.” She said it again, trying to stabilize herself.
She felt immediately that it didn’t matter how angry Nick was with her, he’d never hurt her―not physically at least. She was safe. She was safe. She was safe. She repeated that phrase over and over again in her head. She was safe.
Finally, the shaking in her body stopped, her tears dried, and she focused on the face hovering above her. He was looking down at her as if she were a rabid animal. Maybe she was. Years of abuse would do that to a person.
“What in the world happened in your dream?” he asked. He was still holding her. She wondered what she’d done to him that he was afraid to release her.
“It doesn’t matter. It was just a nightmare. I’m okay now,” she told him. “You can let me go.”
He eyed her mistrustfully. “You hit me a few times. I’m not sure I should,” he told her. His lips tilted up the slightest bit in a teasing grin. He was lucky he hadn’t released her because she might have slugged him for that.
“I told you I’m fine. Let me go,” she demanded, though her voice was still weak.
“What happened?” he repeated.
“It was nothing, just a nightmare,” she said as she turned away. There was no way she was telling him she’d been reliving a real moment―the time she’d decided to defy her father.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “That appeared to be more than just a nightmare. I have the wounds to prove it.” He pointedly looked down to his naked chest, and she saw the bite mark there. She was horrified she’d done that. Her cheeks flushed as she looked away.
“I’m sorry, Nick. I guess I didn’t wake up quickly enough that time,” she said.
“This has happened before?” he questioned. Her cheeks flushed even more.
“How would I know? I am asleep when it happens,” she told him, tugging against his hold.
He finally released her arms, but he didn’t move from where he sat on her thighs. The feeling of being trapped was beginning to make her panic again. She had to get away from him, and quickly. She didn’t want to tell him anything.
“Quit struggling,” he snapped and she stopped moving. “You are constantly trying to run as soon as there is light in the sky. This time you’re going to talk to me.”
His commanding voice made her automatically want to obey him, and that instinct infuriated her. She was no longer that helpless child, and she wouldn’t ever be controlled like that again. Ironically, there was a part of her brain that mocked her because she was only with Nick because her father had placed her there.
She was still obeying, and she hated herself a bit for it. The difference between her father and Nick was that she trusted Nick. That was a humbling and terrifying thought. If she trusted him, then he had the power to hurt her. She couldn’t afford to be injured any more than she already had been.
Their wrestling match had shifted the blankets, and now that Chloe was calming down she realized they were both naked. Her eyes drifted down his chest to his torso before she blushed and looked back up. She reached for the blankets in a tangle next to them and tried covering herself.
At this, Nick glared at her and yanked the blankets from her hands. Naked once more, he traced the curves of her body and then looked back up to hold her gaze in a defiant way.
“There’s nothing showing I haven’t already seen many times,” he pointed out. She glared back at him.
They’d been on the couch earlier that night. She remembered falling asleep after another incredible sexual experience. He’d bent her over the couch and been so deep inside her she hadn’t known where he ended and she began. Her cheeks flushed as she thought about it.
“How did we get up here?” she questioned. She tried to take her mind off the sex that she couldn’t seem to stop having with him.
“We both passed out after our workout,” he said with a smile. “When I woke up, you were shivering, so I carried you to my room.”
“You could have injured your leg doing that,” she chastised him. He raised his brow.
“You’re the one who said I’m so much better that I really don’t even need therapy anymore, so what are you worried about?”
“Just because you don’t need me babysitting you daily doesn’t mean you should act foolish and cause yourself to backtrack on your progress,” she told him.
“Are you worried about me, Chloe?” he asked cockily.
“No!” she snapped. “Now let me up right now.”
“Even if you say it in that forceful tone, it doesn’t make me want to change my mind,” he said with a chuckle. She wanted to smack him. He was making her far more violent than she ever had been in the past.
“Quit acting like an ass and let me go,” she said, her tone calming.
“So you can run away?” he questioned.
He was right. She blushed again. They were getting nowhere with this conversation.
“Look, we’ve been sleeping together for the past few nights, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is completely inappropriate,” she told him.
“Maybe I want to be inappropriate,” he told her.
“My feelings matter, Nick!” she snapped.
“Of course they do, but I don’t think you have any idea what you want. You keep going hot and cold, dammit. Now tell me about your dream.”
“We’re back to that again?” she huffed.
“We never were off it. You just thought you could distract me, and I’d forget about it. I have the war wounds to prove it happened,” he said.
“You’re sitting on my bladder and I have to use the bathroom,” she told him, embarrassed. She was horrified saying it. He chuckled, but finally released her as he turned over. She threw the blanket across him as she jumped from the bed, fleeing the room, but not before turning back to glare at him. The look of satisfaction in his eyes as they traced her naked body was unmistakable.
“I’ll be waiting when you’re done,” he called out after her.
Chloe shut the bathroom door with satisfying force before she sagged against it and took in several deep breaths, trying to get her bearings. She was entirely unnerved. The nightmare had wrecked her. The conversation after had made it even worse.
The shaking in her body returned as her mind flashed through the images of only one scene of her father’s abuse. Living with the man had been a nightmare, and it seemed she couldn’t even get away from it in her dreams. Maybe it had been the stress she was under that had brought it all up again. She didn’t know. All she knew for sure was that she wanted to get away, go somewhere, and curl up into a ball for a while.
Whenever she’d been young and frightened, she’d rolled her blankets tightly around her and rocked back and forth. She’d had her brother, but he’d been on the receiving end of their father’s fists more often than she had been. She often wondered if Patrick blamed her for that. She’d always been too afraid to ask him, and now she’d never be able to.
Taking her time in the bathroom, she climbed into the shower and let the hot water relax her tense muscles. She didn’t want to leave the safety of the closed room. She had no doubt Nick would be right outside waiting with more questions. What was she going to say to him?
She tried to formulate a story that would satisfy him. If she could just get through the morning, then maybe all this would end. Maybe she’d be able to walk away from this thing she had with Nick without getting scathed any more than she already was.
When she finally came out, Nick was sitting on the bed in a pair of low-riding sweats, his beautiful chest still bare, his eyes wary. Two cups of coffee sat on the nightstand, and Nick patted the spot next to him on the bed.