And I felt my eyes roll back in my head as that metal barbell passed over a bundle of nerves that I’d heard of but hadn’t believed existed.
“Ohmygod!” Squirming beneath him, my fingers digging into the hard muscles of his ass, I couldn’t tell if I was trying to get away, or trying to move closer. Pulling back just an inch, he glided forward again with exquisite control, and then the delicious tension that had been coiling in my belly all night exploded.
I screamed as my vision went white, then filled with millions of tiny stars.
“You are so sexy when you come.” Slowly out, faster in. Before I had full use of my faculties again, I found myself arching up to meet Levi’s thrusts, urging him to take his own pleasure.
I sank my teeth into his shoulder, let my nails bite his skin, giving him all the little points of pain that I now knew would turn into his pleasure. He groaned, his pace speeding up, and I lost myself in the amazement of my body bringing this beautiful male creature to this state.
“Close... I’m so close...” he muttered. His eyes were wide open, fixed on me.
Sucking in a deep breath, gathering the little strength that I had left, I delivered one final smack to his ass. The clap of flesh on flesh echoed through the small space, and Levi’s eyes glossed over, animal taking over the man.
He thrust once, twice, then unexpectedly pulled out. My eyes went wide as he stripped off the condom, clasped his shaft in those long, talented fingers, and stroked himself the last seconds to completion.
Liquid heat streamed onto my belly, my breasts. Lost in the sensation of the moment, I closed my eyes, threw my head back, and let myself be marked.
A long time later, or it might have only been minutes, I had no way of telling, I felt Levi rubbing something soft over my skin. Cracking open my eyes, I saw him drying away his release from my skin with his discarded T-shirt.
“Thank you,” I whispered, though in truth I still felt marked.
Bending, he took my mouth in a slow, sensuous, sleepy kiss. I murmured against his lips, feeling an utter relaxation that I’d never before known claiming my mind and body.
I thought I heard him whisper “mine” as I let him pull me back against him.
I couldn’t be sure.
LEVI
“Where’s the rest of your band staying?” Mercedes asked sleepily, shifting slightly in my arms. A strand of her golden hair fell across my throat, tickling my skin, but I ignored it, moving in closer.
“We have rooms booked at a motel down the road,” I murmured into her hair, not ashamed to inhale her scent. “But we can crash here. No one will bother us.”
“Good.” Her voice was a murmur, accompanied by a soft sigh, and then she was asleep, her head pillowed on my shoulder.
Reaching out blindly in the dark, I found the big blanket that we kept in the back of the van to protect some of the more fragile pieces of our equipment. Pulling it over top of us both, I tucked it in around us both, making securing the edges under her sleeping form.
Lying down again, I lay awake in the dark, my mind turning over the events of the night.
I’d never thought that I would be able to experience what I wanted—needed—with a woman. Had always felt like I’d have to push it down, lock it away, to have a chance at really making a go of it with someone.
I thought back to earlier in the night, the way I’d felt so confused when I’d seen Dorian and Adele and Mal, all locked together in that embrace.
I’d wanted what they had. Not that kind of relationship, not for me, but rather the freedom that they seemed to have found by accepting one another the way they were.
Pulling Mercedes in close, I tucked the top of her head beneath my chin, matched my breathing to hers, let myself be lulled by the stranger comfort of it.
We’d only just met tonight, but I was going to ask her to come with me on my trip. And after that, I was going to ask her to stay with me forever.
I just had to find the best way to ask her. She may have exploded in my arms—and never, ever would I forget the sensation of my skin burning beneath her palm—but she wasn’t like any other girl I’d ever met. There was something fragile inside of her.
If I pushed too hard, she just might break.
Chapter Three
MERCEDES
I was woken by the early morning sun, striping through cheap blinds that covered the windows of the van.
I froze for a moment before it all came back to me.
Breaking up with Trey. Meeting Levi. Having my first one night stand ever, and a kinky one at that.
Cautiously, I sat up, looked down at Levi as he slept. He seemed softer in repose, that bad boy smirk of his smoothed out.
Something quivered in the area of my heart.
Last night had changed something in me, and I would always be grateful for that. But no matter what I’d felt the night before, what had happened between us had been so strong...
I wanted more.
But would he?
“Get a grip, Carson.” Before I could over think it, I shoved the blanket off of me, reached for my tank top, which was lying in a heap by my head.
What had happened between Levi and I had been intense. Caught in the little cocoon that we’d created last night, my mind had started whirling.
Why did my wild ride have to end with one night?
In the dark, it had been easy to imagine that it didn’t have to.
But with the morning light came doubt. How was I supposed to keep the interest of someone as fascinating as Levi Sinclair, drummer for Three Little Words?
I talked a good talk. But after Trey’s stone cold rejection the night before, I was feeling more than a little sensitive.
Fully dressed now, I cast one last look down at Levi. Unable to stop myself, I pressed a quick kiss to his lips, then quietly snuck out the back door of the van.
I had some thinking to do.
LEVI
Mercedes was gone.
The click of the van door closing behind her had woken me up, a shot of adrenaline straight to my heart.
“Hell, no.” Bolting upright, I didn’t bother searching for my clothes, instead wrapping the blanket around my midsection and scrambling for the door.
No way was I losing this woman, right after I’d found her.
The rally grounds were eerily quiet, like the silence that followed a storm. Beer bottles, paper, cigarette butts littered the trampled grass, pale in the fluorescent morning light.
I whirled, looking around wildly. She couldn’t have gone far.
“Looking for me?” Her voice, smoky and full of sex even at this ungodly hour, echoed out from behind me.
What I saw when I turned around took my breath away.
Mercedes straddled my bike, her hair a tangled mess from my fingers fisting in it last night. Leaning forward with her elbows propped on the chrome handlebars, she was my wet dream come to life.
“You’re here.” Smooth, Sinclair, real smooth.
“I started to leave,” she said thoughtfully, swinging one leg back and forth. The movement made her breasts jiggle, and my cock started to rise, undeterred by the fact that I was in the middle of an open field wearing nothing but a blanket. “I’ve had my wild ride, after all.”
I could feel a scowl pull my features tight. “And?”
After all the casual encounters I’d had, I supposed it served me right for the one girl I thought I might be falling for to make me work for it. Still, I didn’t like it, not one little bit.
Sliding one leg over the bike, Mercedes slid off, then sauntered across the grass toward me. Something had changed in her since last night, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
But last night she’d seemed focused on doing something because she felt like she should. This morning...
“Last night you told me that I should just do what I feel like doing.” Closing the distance between us, she wrapped her arms around my waist, and I felt my heart do a slow roll.
&n
bsp; “Are you going to show me what you feel like doing again?” I couldn’t stop the smirk, and enjoyed the way that creamy skin of hers flushed as we both remembered her slapping me, and what had happened after.
Then she tilted her head back, looked me in the eyes, and her smile was like the sun.
“Well, I like you. And whatever is under this blanket seems to really like me.” She gave me a lopsided smile, and I shrugged, unabashed.
“You look really fucking good on my bike.”
“Be that as it may,” she continued, her voice prim but vibrating with suppressed laughter. “If we’re both into one another, then... what’s wrong with seeing where this goes? Even if that’s maybe not what either of us were looking for?”
Her voice got smaller at the end, weighed down by insecurity. Grabbing her chin, I tilted her head up and claimed her lips, swiping my tongue over the seam of her mouth until she parted and let me inside.
No, I hadn’t been looking for this—she was right about that. But I had a lot of places inside that needed filling, and until her, I’d never met anyone who could fill those gaps.
Breaking the kiss, I wrapped my arms around her and held on tight, letting my chin rest on the top of her head.
“You sure you’re not just saying all this because you need a ride home?” I whispered this into her ear, following it up with a good sharp nip that made her squeal. The wicked grin that curved her lips made me decide that I should pull her back inside the van.
“No way.” A mischievous glint in her eyes, she whirled and ran back to my bike, straddling it once more. “You said I looked good on your bike. And I’ve never had the chance to drive myself. So I think we should plan a lesson planned for this morning.”
Arching an eyebrow, I straddled the front tire, so that I was facing her. “You think I let just anyone drive my bike, woman?”
“Smartass.” Leaning over, she pulled the blanket off of me, leaving me naked in the sun. Following that cheeky move with two hard spanks to my ass, I groaned at her touch, shifted, and felt damned near to worshipping at her feet.
“Of course I don’t expect you to let just anyone drive it.” The smirk on her lips was about the cutest thing that I’d ever seen.
“But I think you just might let me.”
“I’m heading to the East Coast for a month this afternoon.” I blurted it out. Smooth, Sinclair.
But there wouldn’t be a better moment.
“If you came with me, you’d have lots of time to practice.”
Shading my eyes, I watched her closing. She was startled, certainly. But she didn’t look appalled.
Points for me.
“A whole month?” I could see that clever little brain of hers start to turn. I thought about distracting her with a kiss.
But if she came with me, it had to be wholly her choice.
“I can’t go traipsing around the coast for an entire month. Who does that?” She looked genuinely puzzled, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“I do.” Giving in to the urge, I dipped my head, kissed her soundly on the lips. “People who want some freedom do.”
“But... I can’t.” Her words said one thing, but my spirits rose when I saw that her face was saying another.
“You’re done school for the summer, You don’t have anything tying you down, am I right?” Something she’d said came back to me, and I scowled possessively. “Unless you’re wanting that job with your dad’s mate? And the son?”
“No!” She shouted, her voice echoing across the quiet field. Biting her lip, she giggled.
I fucking loved that giggle. It made me want to do all kinds of nasty things to her.
“I... I guess I really could, couldn’t I?” Looking up into my face, she studied me. “But it’s probably not very smart to head off with a complete stranger.”
“After last night, I hardly thing we’re strangers.” My voice was wry—I wasn’t referring to the physical act of the sex we’d had, though it had been, in a word, awesome.
But I’d shared something with her that I’d never told a soul before. And she’d connected with me too.
I didn’t feel like strangers at all.
But then she nodded, her mind clearly made up. Though I could read her decision on her face, I still held my breath, waiting anxiously.
“Have I mentioned that I took karate when I was a kid?” When she turned in my arms, I clasped her around the waist, wanting to feel her skin.
Before I could even blink, she’d kicked me like a mule, not hard enough to hurt but enough to jolt me backwards, then elbowed me in the ribs, knocking my breath from my lungs.
I wheezed, looking up at her with incredulous eyes.
“Noted?” She asked calmly, though she couldn’t hide the fact that she was grinning from ear to ear.
I rubbed my palm over my ribcage, absorbing the delicious jolt of pain. I felt my eyes dilate as she took in my reaction, and her skin flushed pink with heat.
“Noted.” I rasped out. When I straightened, I grabbed her wrist, tugged her in for a kiss. “And you can do that anytime.”
She laughed, the sound the sweetest thing I’d ever heard, and then I swallowed her mirth with my lips.
I’d found my dream girl. And I was never going to let her go.
Epilogue
MERCEDES
“You sure you want to do this?”
Levi looked me over appreciatively as I leaned back in the tattoo chair. Beside us, the tattoo artist laid out a row of small plastic cups on a tray.
I hissed out a breath between my teeth when the artist rubbed alcohol over the skin of my left shoulder blade, pressing a sheet of paper to the damp skin.
I craned my neck to see the design left behind. Catching only a hint of the blue outline that would become my tattoo, I still grinned with triumph.
“I’ve never been so fucking ready.” I beamed up at him. We’d been together for nearly three weeks now, like twenty-four seven together, and it had been the best time of my life.
We woke when we wanted, ate what and where we wanted. Made love whenever the mood struck us... which was a lot.
He’d taught me to drive his bike, trusting me enough to sit behind me on the bike, his arms wrapped around my waist.
And that was what had led me to decide on this particular design for my ink. Something that would always remind of this wild time in my life, no matter what happened... after.
I had moments when I wondered if things would change once we got back to reality. If he would lose interest once I stopped giving in to my impulses and took a job in my field, while he still played gigs, still got panties thrown at him onstage.
But as the first sting of the tiny needles embedding ink into my skin hit me, when I caught Levi’s stare and saw the arousal on his face—an appreciation of pain, even though it was happening to me—I knew that what stretched between us was stronger than that.
I couldn’t predict the future any more than the next person. But I thought we had a fighting shot.
The pain radiated throughout my body, and I ground my teeth together, felt it turn from something uncomfortable into heat and need. I met Levi’s stare, held it.
He’d been right. I had a bit of appreciation for pain myself... even more now that I knew what it could do to him.
“All done.” The tattoo artist set down the gun, peeled off her gloves. Grabbing a small handheld mirror, she turned the swivel chair so that I faced the big mirror, angling the smaller own at my back.
And there it was. A small black and white motorcycle with angel’s wings, launching off of my shoulder blades. A reminder that I could be the person that I wanted to be, if only I stayed strong enough.
“What do you think?” I looked at Levi in the mirror, couldn’t hold back the grin when he examined the fresh ink with lust clear on his face.
“I’ll leave you two alone for a minute.” The tattoo artist smirked before stepping out of the room. The second we were alone, Levi grabbed my hair i
n a fist, pulling it away from my neck.
When he slowly ran his tongue over the white hot skin that surrounded the new marking, I cried out, felt my nipples contract and wetness surge between my thighs.
Raising his head, he studied me in the mirror. The overhead lights caught on the ring in his eyebrow, reminding me again that this sexy as sin man was one bad boy.
And he was mine.
“I think,” he started, whirling the chair back around, then bending to sink his teeth into the cord of my neck. I gasped, but retaliated, grabbing hold of his ass, where I knew the skin would still be sensitive from the spanking he’d gotten the night before.
He groaned, and watched with satisfaction as his cock thickened, pressed up against the denim of his jeans.
We really were made for one another. And his next words were a reassurance that I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
“I think you’re a bad girl. And I think that you’re mine.”
Stay tuned for Kiss Me Twice, the conclusion of Adele, Mal and Dorian’s story.
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Other books by Lauren Hawkeye
New adult romance
A Bride for a Billionaire
Three Little Words
Spring Fling (with Julia Kent, Sara Fawkes and Cathryn Fox)
Love Me For Me
Love Me If You Dare
Contemporary BDSM romance
Linger
Breathe
Blush
Surrender to Temptation
Fling (With Sara Fawkes and Cathryn Fox)
Historical romance
Seduced by the Gladiator
My Wicked Gladiators
See her websites for complete booklists!
www.laurenhawkeye.com
www.laurenjameson.com
About the author
Lauren Hawkeye/ Lauren Jameson never imagined that she'd wind up telling stories for a living... though when she looks back, it's easy to see that she's the only one who is surprised. Always "the kid who read all the time", Lauren made up stories about her favorite characters once she'd finished a book... and once spent an entire year narrating her own life internally. No, really. But where she was just plain odd before publication, now she can at least claim to have an artistic temperament.
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