Hadn’t he existed within it for far too long?
As he inhaled a sharp breath, the living air filled his lungs, and he felt like a dying man, having received another chance at life. At once, the heavens opened, bringing both light and rain to his lonely soul. Somehow, he found strength to speak. “Olivia---” he whispered in an unsteady voice. “I---”
She laid a finger against his lips. “All along, it’s been you who’s been lost, and because of my amnesia, I thought it was me. But, it has always been you instead.” Her tear-filled gaze bewitched him. “Aren’t you tired of running, Jarrod? Running from yourself, me, and the things that we’re both feeling?”
Weakened by his own resolve, he swallowed against the hard tears burning his green gaze. “Olivia--”
“Yes,” she whispered, drawing her face close to his, and cried freely. “I’ve caught you. I’ve finally caught you, and I’m not going to let you run from us any longer. I won’t let you do it anymore, do you understand me?”
The hard sobs racked his body.
Ashamed at his own weakness, trembling violently, he buried his face in her abdomen.
“All these unspoken truths---we’re finally going to say them out loud,” she sobbed, holding onto him tight, and then, pulling back, she forced him to look at her. “And we don’t have to be ashamed or afraid of how we feel.” Her eyes searched his. “Baby, it’s not wrong for us to love one another.”
Looking away from her, he sucked in a painful breath. But, wasn’t it, he mulled, feeling the fear creeping inside of him again. After the promise that he’d made to Caitlyn, that he’d never love another—
Obviously noticing his distress, she forced his tortured gaze to hers again. “No,” she said firmly, grasping his chin. “Not this time. I won’t let you hide from the truth.”
Overhead the lights flickered, and finally went out all together on the yacht, and the darkness became their safe haven. Still, though, some faint light slivered through the porthole overhead, casting some visibility into the cabin.
“The storm’s worsening,” he said hoarsely, pulling her onto his lap, and for once embraced their closeness.
“No more powerful than the one brewing between the two of us, and my gut feeling tells me that it’s been raging since the first day we met.” She gave a resigned sigh. “Isn’t that fitting? Now, we’re physically in the dark. But, haven’t we both stood within its trenches, loving each other, but too afraid to say it?”
Leaning into him, she placed his hand against her chest. Underneath his touch, her heartbeat raced. “See how fast my heart is beating---I can’t think when you’re near me, and all I want to do is breathe you in. Jarrod Sabatino, I’ve fallen for you---I’m in love with you. Deep down, I know that I’ve always been.” She cried softly. “I know that you don’t want me to love you. I know that you don’t want to hear me say it out loud. But, it’s true. Nothing will ever change it.” Her words were a whisper. “I’m in love with you.”
Numbed by the inevitable truth, he stayed silent.
She sobbed openly, unashamedly. “I’d give anything to take that fear away from you---the fear that won’t let you be loved. With everything in me, I’m going to try to do just that.” She squared her shoulders. “I’m prepared for the long fight because you are worth loving, Jarrod Sabatino. You deserve to love and be loved. Somehow, someway, I’m going to prove it to you.”
Inside, the inner pain crippled him, and as he tried to speak, his voice broke. “Olivia---”
“I know that there are a lot of things that I don’t remember. But, I’m not going to live in the past. I’m living in the here and now. The only thing that’s real to me is the love that I feel,” she whispered, drawing closer until a breath separated their lips, and as she spoke, her sweet essence tempted him to sin. “And this dangerous passion that’s beckoned me since I first laid eyes on you. Somehow, I know that it has always been this way between us.”
“Olivia---”
“I don’t want to talk or think about the past. Here and now is all that matters,” she whispered, her lips nearly touching his. “It’s just you and me, Jarrod. Nothing and no one can touch us here. Can’t we just realize that we’re the only thing that matters in this precious moment? Please.”
No longer having the will to fight, he released a shuddering breath.
“Baby, I can’t breathe,” he rasped, threading his fingers in her thick tresses, and then whispered against her lips. “I’m so full of nothing but you. Only you.”
As the words left his lips, she whimpered weakly.
The feel of his lips against hers….
It was almost too much to endure---
“Kiss me,” she pleaded, staring into his eyes. “Please----”
When his lips claimed hers, she thought she’d die from the sinful pleasure. A low moan erupted from deep inside her as she leaned into him for support. Like a strong band, his arm tightened around her waist while he cupped the back of her head with his free hand. His lips were like hot fire, branding every inch of skin that they touched.
She shivered against him.
But, her womanly response only made him deepen the kiss.
On instinct, she parted her mouth wider, and as she did, his tongue surged in.
A daring dance…
The tango…
Drinking from each other, satiating their thirst, their tongues danced a dangerous duel. Within the cavity of her mouth, his tongue swept it, wringing another deep cry of satisfaction from her. Again, he intensified the moment, bracing his palm firmly against the back of her head, holding her close to him, and fed their hunger.
“Jarrod,” she breathed raggedly through passion-swollen lips, stealing air between their broken kisses. “I love you---I love you.”
Wounded, lost, he stared back at her. “Olivia---”
“No,” she whispered, shushing him with a finger against his lips. “Don’t think, don’t talk---just feel.”
For a few moments, their eyes now adjusted to the darkness, they just watched each other, reveling in what they’d found.
Pulling free of him, she stood.
Not breaking eye contact, she grabbed the tail of the white tank top. In one fluid movement, emboldened, she peeled it off. Underneath it, she’d worn nothing, and her full plump breasts spilled free. Already, her nipples were hardened, now rose-colored pebbled nubs, begging for his taste and touch.
He didn’t disappoint…
Releasing a ragged breath, he hauled her forward.
As she slammed into him, he closed his mouth fully on her right breast. Like an innocent babe, he suckled it before tugging on its pebbled nub. Being the expert lover that he was, he fanned his hot breath over it, teasing it, before nipping it gently between his teeth. With his mouth and tongue, he laved it, sucked it in, laved it, sucked it…
She closed her eyes against the delirious pleasure.
“Oh, Jarrod,” she whispered, distraught with need, and clasped the back of his head to draw him closer. “That feels so good. Don’t stop, please, don’t stop.”
Drugged with passion, she followed his ministrations with half-closed lids, and took in another broken breath as he moved to the other breast. Again, he repeated his onslaught of pleasure against her naked breast. Lave it, suck it in, lave it, suck it in…
Weakened, she collapsed against him.
As he breathed her name, his lips fell away from her breasts, only for his tongue to scorch a forbidden path along the middle of her abdomen. When he reached her navel, he paused before dipping his tongue wickedly into its little cave.
His touch---
It burned her skin.
Set her afire in all the naughty places.
In one fluid movement, he stood, and while he did, he lifted her up. Mesmerized, she clung to him, holding on for dear life. Their gazes held as he walked, and within the dark silence, they fully understood their obsession.
She breathed again once her back hit the wall, and the
n, as if it were second nature, she wrapped her legs around him as he hoisted her up. Their lips met again, this time with a fervency that was nearly uncontrollable.
His mouth…his sweet hot mouth, she mulled, drugged, inhaling ragged breaths. It was doing the most wicked things. Finally, unable to withhold her pleas, she released them in a string of breathless cries. “Please,” she begged through swollen lips. “I want you…I need you….”
“Sweet baby…you’re both my heaven and hell,” he breathed hoarsely against her lips. “My paradise and torment… Touching you…kissing you…being with you…it will haunt my soul till the end.”
“Jarrod...” she sobbed.
Capturing her mouth again, he shattered her senses. Like broken glass, her world splintered into tiny pieces, and nothing made sense but the feel of him, what he was doing, what he was saying, how he was touching her---
Gripping her thighs tightly, pinning her against the wall with his hard body, he grinded against her, and hit the very spot that begged for his possession. A deep spasm of pleasure split at the core of her, causing her to cry his name again. “Jarrod…” she breathed into his nape. “I need more. Please…I need more.”
He answered her call.
Barely restraining a low growl, sweating and breathing hard, he parted her thighs wider. “Is this what you want?” he taunted, thrusting against her real deep, moving his hips in a slow, timeless rhythmic motion. Digging his fingers harder into her thighs, he gave three fast thrusts before slowing his movements again, punishing them both with the intense pleasure. His ragged breathing revealed that he was barely in control, and his hard body shook against hers violently. “Tell me that it is, damn it.”
“Yes, it’s what I want….you’re all that I want,” she gasped sharply, burying her face deeper into his nape, and sucked in a deep breath. As he increased the pace again, she held on, fearing that she’d shatter in any given moment. Somehow, her desperate moans pushed past her frantic breathing. On her sensual horizon, she sensed her violent release.
Oh, she was so close to it---
When he halted, she cried out in protest. “No, please, no….”
Rather than speaking, he pivoted around, still holding her all the while, and the air caressed her skin as he retreated for the bed. When the cool covers touched her back, she reached for him, but met only thin air. “Jarrod….” she breathed, writhing on the bed. “Please….oh….oh…”
His hands….
They were everywhere at once…
Sliding across her, burning her skin…
Teasing her in the naughtiest places….
Bending slightly, he unsnapped the denim shorts, and in one swoop, he’d pulled them from her hips, and her silk black panties followed. “Ready for me as I am you, I see,” he said huskily, crumpling the panties in his large hand before bringing them to his face. With a subtleness that was equally suggestive, he rubbed them across his lips before inhaling a long slow whiff of them. In the shadowed darkness, his green eyes shone with unbridled lust, and after giving a deep satisfying groan, he dropped the panties to the floor.
And oh, that look of pure pleasure, she mulled, breathless, biting her lip, and released a deep moan while returning his heady stare.
It was enough to make her----
“I love how you look right now,” Jarrod muttered thickly, and his deep husky tone invaded her passion fogged state. “So fucking open, bare, and waiting for me. Even from here, I can smell your sweet honey…so damn sweet, baby,” he rasped, and his voice was so sexy and sensual that a shiver skated along her spine. “Damn you, Olivia Lange, I want you so fucking much. More than I ever have anyone.”
So caught up in the moment she was, she couldn’t even speak. Breathless, drugged with passion, still lying flat on her back, she watched his shadowed figure as he moved to the bed’s foot. The sensations rippled through her as he grasped her by both ankles, dragging her until her legs dangled over the bed’s end. After spreading her legs wide apart, he stepped between them.
As he watched her, she nearly convulsed from pleasure at his close perusal. Studying her close, he ran both of his large hands up her thighs and on upward until he met the apex of her thighs. Giving her a heady look, he paused briefly before sliding his hands further. A satisfied growl left him as his fingers met the fine hairs covering her mound, and she nearly came apart as he teased them with, oh, such a sinful caress.
In response, unable to hold back her moan, her mouth opened wide, and she released the torturous sound. “Jarrod…please,” she gasped, biting her bottom lip before placing a trembling hand over his, the one that threatened to spiral her world completely off its axis.
“You want me there, don’t you, my sweet baby,” he rasped, releasing a torturous groan. “I’m already hard as hell anticipating being inside you. I’m going to make love to you until I wring every drop of sweet honey from between those thighs. And I promise that I’m going to savor the taste of you.”
Helpless, she gave a breathless gasp at his sensual promise. Chest heaving, body writhing on the bed, she watched him with unabashed hunger.
Never taking his eyes from her, he slowly peeled the t-shirt over his head. The khakis and his briefs followed….like a perfectly sculpted Adonis, he stood before her. And down below…well-endowed wasn’t an apt enough description, she mulled, panting hard.
Whimpering a soft, but desperate plea, she reached out for him. “Jarrod, I need---”
“I want you to need and crave my touch as much as you do breathing. I want to be your obsession,” Jarrod murmured, spreading her legs further apart, and his green eyes glinted in the darkness. “Day and night, 24-7, I want the feel of my touch to haunt you. Because that’s how fucking much I want you.”
A taut tension seized the room, and it was so strong that she was afraid to breathe. Through half-closed lids, gasping, mouth-gaped wide, she eyed him as he went down on his knees between her thighs. He flicked a drugged gaze over her naked form before giving another satisfied groan. As his hands clenched the sides of her thighs, she nearly came undone.
Helpless, anxious, needy, she offered no protest as he pulled her body towards him, fully anchoring her calves along his broad shoulders. His hot breath teased the fine hairs as he planted a wet kiss, oh, so right there, she mulled, sucking in a tortured breath.
With the flick of his tongue, he stole a single taste of her sweetness from her slick folds. “Fuck, Olivia, you taste as sweet as I knew you would---so fuckin’ sweet,” he rasped, clasping her hips firmly, holding her in place against his dangerous assault, and under his hold, she buckled against him. “I want you to give me all of you. Relinquish all control over to me.”
As his mouth closed over her mound, she released the earth-shattering scream. The waves of intense pleasure rolled through her, and nothing existed outside that sweet mouth, the one that was tearing her apart. But, her pleas and cries only increased his sensual fury, and she became the aggressor, urging him own. On the horizon, through the haze, she found the paradise she sought. “Jarrod,” she sobbed raggedly, clenching her thighs against his head, and as his tongue thrust inside her again, she shattered. “Jarrod!”
Breathless, dazed, she embraced the storm, riding its high tides, and finally came crashing back down to earth.
In the darkness, she had no defense, she realized, watching his shadowed form as he moved.
For he was all that she breathed---
Now, he stood alongside the bed. “Look at me,” Jarrod demanded softly, closing a firm hand along his hardened shaft. “Look at what you’ve done to me. You’ve stripped me fucking bare---I have nothing left to hide.” He sucked in a tormented breath. “I need you more than I’ve ever needed anyone.”
Hair wild and untamed, she rose up on the bed, unaware of the bewitching sight that she made. She was a siren, a well-loved woman, on a drugged-high, panting, needing, and wanting more---
Barely hanging onto any sanity, body naked and flushed, she moved
to the bed’s edge before giving him a long appreciative look. Six feet of hard raw male, she thought, inhaling a sharp breath, and slid a glance along his fine, well-built body. Naturally tanned skin, broad shoulders, a six-pack abdomen, strong muscled thighs, calves, and a male organ that was so full and engorged…
Her green-eyed lover was the only thing that she craved, wanted, or needed.
His eyes met hers in the darkness. “I want you.”
“No more than I need you,” she admitted breathlessly, leaving the bed, and stepped before him. She closed a hand over his, the very one holding his shaft. As the hard shudder racked through him, she leaned into him and closed her eyes tight. “And I know that you need and want me just as much.”
Fisting his hands in her hair, he held her closer to him, only fueling the fiery danger between them. With reluctance, he pulled her hand free from his shaft before making a deep husky sound. “Trust me, baby, I’m barely holding on as it is,” he admitted, still holding her flush against his hard body, and tightened his hold. “I don’t want to rush things.”
Then, the truth dawned.
Though he fought to hide it, she sensed his quiet desperation.
She closed her eyes against her own tears.
It was if he were afraid to let her go---that she’d flit away into nothingness.
He was deathly afraid of losing her.
Not only that---
It wasn’t just the physical intimacy that he sought, but their emotional closeness as well.
My poor baby, she mulled, tearing up again.
Hadn’t he suffered in a world of loneliness for too long?
And for the longest, they stood there, holding each other, and absorbed each other’s strength. But, pleasure soon overrode the calm, and their bodies began responding to their natural call.
On a tormented groan, their lips met again, surprisingly, with a gentleness that she hadn’t anticipated. The kiss was long, drugged, and slow, and with each taste, she embedded him deeper into her memory and soul. “I love you so much it hurts,” she whispered against his lips, pulling back. Staring into his face, her tear-filled gaze searched his. “I never want this night to end. Please don’t let it.”
The Pawn (Shattered Series Book 1) Page 30