“Yeah, but loving you makes it easy to be a good boyfriend.”
“Not good. The best,” she corrected before her eyes went wide. “Wait. Did you just say ‘loving you?’ As in, you love me?”
“I did.” I brushed my lips against hers and whispered, “And I do. Love you, that is.”
“Mark,” she gasped.
“Just in case that wasn’t clear enough; I love you, Ariana Valenti.”
“When I came to Chicago, it was to help my sister and get away from my mom and her mess for a little while. I thought my life would be about the same as it was in Vegas, just a little bit colder.” Her pretty green eyes filled with tears. “But even when it’s freezing outside, my life here is warmer than it ever was back there. It’s richer. Fuller. And so much happier. All because of you.”
I brushed the wetness from her cheeks. “I hope these are tears of happiness, then.”
“These tears?” She smiled up at me, her damp eyes shining with a depth of emotion I’d never seen aimed my way before. “They’re ones I’ve never cried before. They’re tears of love.”
“You love me, gorgeous?”
“I’m madly in love with you, Mark.”
My heart felt like it was so full it was going to burst out of my chest as I claimed her mouth in a brutal kiss. My lips crashed against hers, and my tongue swept inside. I slid my hands up her back and into her long hair. Tugging on it, I tilted her head back further to give me better access to her mouth.
It didn’t take long for our kiss to spiral out of control. With our tongues tangling and teeth clashing, I was lost to her. To our love. And my need for her.
Nipping at her lips, I ended the kiss and nibbled the pulse point at the base of her throat. “I want to leave my mark on your body,” I growled. “Love bites here, and my come on your tits.”
“Don’t expect me to argue.” She shivered in my arms. “One of my favorite things is looking in the mirror in the morning and seeing the evidence of our lovemaking from the night before.”
Her response fueled my desire to a fevered pitch. I bit down gently on the sensitive skin where her neck and shoulder met, sucking it into my mouth. Releasing her skin with a pop, I smiled in satisfaction when I saw the red mark I’d left there. But it still wasn’t enough. I’d fantasized about splattering my come all over her tits ever since she’d told me I could do it another time our first night together. Sweeping her off her feet, I brought her into the bedroom and laid her down on my bed.
She levered up with her elbows pressed into the mattress. “You really like to pick me up and carry me in here.”
“Because this is where you belong.” I worked her pants over her hips, taking her underwear with them, and dragged both down her legs. Then I helped her out of her shirt and bra. “Spread out naked on my bed where I can see every inch of your gorgeous body.”
“I hope you’re going to do a whole lot more than just look at me.”
“I plan to do a fuck of a lot more than that, gorgeous.” I ripped the button of my jeans open and yanked the zipper down. Stepping out of them, I whipped off my sweatshirt. Since I’d gone commando, I stood in front of her naked. Fisting my cock, I gave it a few good pulls while my gaze drifted up and down her body. “It’s a good thing we slept in and are well fed, because we’re going to need energy for everything I plan to do to your body today. Since Alec is in town and I don’t need to go to work, we have all day and night.”
“What do you want to do first?”
My gaze landed on her chest. “Jack off on your tits.”
She fell back against the mattress and said, “They’re all yours.”
“Damn straight they are,” I growled as I crawled on top of her body. “Every bit of you is mine and only mine.”
Pressing one hand into the mattress, I brought the other to her tits and tugged on her nipples. I pinched and rolled them until she thrashed beneath me. Then I straddled her stomach, my hands going back to her tits. My eyes blazing down at her, I stared down at my rock-hard cock as it nudged between the perfectly rounded globes of her tits. I pushed her breasts together and inched my hips forward, enjoying the soft, snug feel of being surrounded by her creamy skin.
After a half dozen slow glides between her tits, I demanded, “Open your mouth, gorgeous. Let me slide between those pretty lips of yours.”
Her green eyes were filled with passion as she tilted her head up and parted her lips. On the next thrust of my cock, her mouth closed over the crown. Her tongue circled the tip and then she sucked me into the hot, moist confines of her mouth. I threw back my head and struggled for control, desperately wanting to savor the moment and make it last as long as possible.
My hips thrust back and forth, gliding my cock between her tits, into her mouth, and back out again. Over and over until I couldn’t hold out any longer. My cock swelled and a tidal wave of pleasure ripped through me as I rose up on my knees, my hand wrapped around my length as I exploded. Thick jets of come splashed onto her skin, covering her tits.
“Holy fuck,” I panted when my balls were empty. “That was even better than I imagined.”
“Watching you use my body like that was so fucking hot,” she agreed, dragging her fingertips through the wetness before lifting them to her mouth. “Mmm.”
“I need to taste you, too,” I growled, crawling down her body and gripping her hips as I lifted her up to my mouth. My tongue delved between her pussy lips and swiped upward to stroke her clit. “So damn sweet.”
I kept at her, reveling in her flavor as her hips tried to jerk up and her cries filled the room. Just when she was on the brink of an orgasm, I pulled away. Waiting it out until desire ratcheted down a notch before I devoured her again. Over and over again, I played with her clit and thrust my tongue into her pussy. She begged and pleaded with me, but I was determined to prolong her pleasure until she couldn’t take it any longer.
Once I’d finally had my fill, I released my hold on her hips. She dropped down onto the mattress while I thrust two fingers deep inside her pussy and grazed her clit with my teeth at the same time. Twisting my hand, I searched out her G-spot and stroked the spongy flesh until she was screaming my name while she came all over my fingers. I gave her one, last lingering lick and pulled myself away from her pussy.
Falling onto the mattress beside her, I rolled onto my back, lifting her up so she straddled my waist with her legs on either side of me. My throbbing cock was positioned right at her entrance, and I nudged the head inside. “So fucking wet. Do you want me to bury my cock in your drenched pussy, gorgeous?”
“Yes, please,” she panted.
I took a moment to enjoy the sight of her gorgeous body perched above me. Her eyes were closed, her cheeks were flushed, and she was biting her plump, lower lip. Her hair was a wild tangle of blond waves around her face, flowing down her back. She looked like she’d been thoroughly fucked, and I couldn’t wait any longer to make it true.
I shifted my grip, palming her ass. Then I pulled her down and slammed home, balls deep in one forceful thrust. Her eyes popped open, and I began to pump my hips with deep, hard thrusts.
In and out.
Over and over.
She didn’t waste any time moving in slow circles, whimpering every time my cock hit the perfect spot. Sliding my hands up, I cupped her tits. Each pinch of her nipples made the walls of her pussy clench, and seeing my dried come on them brought me closer to the edge.
“Fuck, that’s so good,” I gritted through clenched teeth. Her tight little pussy gripped me harder each time I slammed inside, and it was taking everything I had to keep from coming.
“More,” she pleaded, starting to bounce on my cock. My hips bucked up into her, and my fingers twisted and plucked her nipples.
“Take whatever you need from me, gorgeous.” Her pussy convulsed around me, and my cock was so hard it was painful. “You ready to come again?”
“Yes, please!”
Our gazes remained locked as I cont
inued to plow into her, the connection between us feeling deeper than ever. I circled her clit with my finger until she exploded, taking me with her. I watched her eyes grow hazy with satisfaction as she shattered in my arms. Her pussy squeezed me tighter, triggering my own release. My come spilled into her, marking her as mine from the inside like I’d already done on the outside.
When our tremors ceased, she slumped against me. We lay there limply, wrapped up together as close as we could get. As I sucked in air, trying to get my heart rate to return to normal, I thought about how I was the luckiest bastard alive because I had a lifetime of days like this to look forward to...and this one wasn’t even close to being over yet.
Chapter Seventeen
Ariana
As had become our habit on Friday nights, Mark and I sat at the end of the bar at Ice. Except this time I wasn’t there just as his girlfriend, but also as the new Front of the House Supervising Manager.
I’d sat down with Andrew the day after meeting Mark’s mom and hammered out the details for the position before I accepted it. I’d been a little worried that he was only giving me the job as a favor to Mark—the same way he’d offered me my choice of cocktail waitress positions when his brother had asked—but he was genuinely excited to have me on board. He’d mentioned that it would make it easier for him and Mark to scale back some at the office while they focused on more important things than work. And then he’d proceeded to show me pictures of his adorable baby girl, Julia. The implication had been clear—and an odd mixture of surprising and thrilling. He expected Mark and I would have baby pictures of our own to share someday in the future, too.
When Mark had asked me how my meeting with his best friend had gone, the baby part of the conversation was the first thing that popped into my head. My cheeks had heated while I avoided all talk of babies and told him how great it had been...and that I’d gotten the ownership stake in future deals he’d told me to ask for.
With my fancy new job where I got to work alongside my man, I was settling into Chicago quite nicely. And in two days, I’d have a new-to-me home, too. Thinking about everything I needed to do to make that happen, I turned to Mark and asked, “What’re you doing this Sunday?”
He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Whatever you want to do is fine by me.”
“You may regret that response,” I warned.
“Am I spending the day with you?”
“As long as you’re willing to work up a sweat and get a little dirty, then yeah.”
His dark eyes heated with desire. “Then I definitely won’t regret it. Working up a sweat and getting dirty with you are two of my favorite pastimes.”
Hot damn, they were mine too. But I might have oversold my plans with that choice of words. What I had in mind was hard work and not much fun at all.
“Alessia and Alec close on their house tomorrow, and I was hoping you could help me get settled in their apartment.” His sexy look turned to one of frustrated disappointment, and I hurried to explain, “The movers are going to do all the heavy lifting, but I have a bunch of boxes to unpack. The whole thing is going to take hours, so your options are either help out or spend your Sunday missing me.”
“I’ll unpack each and every one of them if you move them in my condo instead of Alec’s old place,” he offered. “You wouldn’t have to lift a finger; you could just sit back and relax while you tell me where you want everything to go. There’s plenty of room for all your stuff.”
I almost fell off my bar stool at his answer. “Wait. Are you asking me to move in with you?”
He wrapped his hand around the back of my neck and pulled me closer as he leaned in to whisper, “Yes, gorgeous. That was my not-so-subtle way of asking you to move in with me.”
The loved-up part of me wanted to jump up and down, do a cartwheel, and shout out “yes.” But the logical side had a couple of concerns. “Do you think it’s too soon?”
“Fuck no. It seems like perfect timing to me since it’s the four-week anniversary of the day we met.”
Since I hadn’t even blinked when Alessia had moved halfway across the country to move in with Alec after about the same amount of time, it was difficult to argue with his logic. Plus, it was so damn sweet that he’d called today our four-week anniversary.
“What about the lease on Alessia’s apartment? If I bail on moving in, it might mess things up for them.”
He shook his head. “That won’t be a problem. Their lease went month-to-month back in September.”
“How do you know that?”
“Alec told me.”
“Isn’t he just a fount of information with you,” I snorted. Too bad he wasn’t quite as forthcoming with me. “Wait! How did I not know that if I’m the one who’s supposed to move into their apartment? Month-to-month means there’s no lease for me to take over.”
“You know how Alec is with your sister.” I nodded and smiled, thinking about how lucky the two of us were to have found guys who treated us so well. “He knew she wanted you to stay, so he worked to make it happen and opted not to fill you in on the details. A lot of guys on the team rent there, and Alec has been a model tenant. The apartment complex was fine with you moving into their place on a month-to-month basis and offering you a lease in a few months like theirs had just ended.”
“Sneaky, sneaky. I never would’ve known he did all that.”
“That was kind of the whole point. If you knew he was setting you up with an apartment, you might’ve been less likely to agree,” Mark pointed out. “But it turns out that all his maneuvering wasn’t necessary because you don’t need a place to live. You have one with me, right where you belong.”
He was right. We loved each other, so there was no reason for me to turn down his offer—not when it was what I wanted, too. “So it sounds like we have our Sunday planned. I’ll have a nice, relaxing day directing everyone while you and the movers do all the hard work.”
My Sunday ended up being the furthest thing from nice and relaxing. But I didn’t mind. Not in the least. Even with the cold weather and all the hard work, it was an amazing day because I was taking the next step in my relationship with Mark.
“You know what today taught me?” I asked him as we hung my clothes up on one side of the master, walk-in closet. “I’d rather do manual labor with you than spend the day with anyone else.”
“You’d better,” he growled. “Living together means I get to be even greedier about your time.”
“I’m sure it’ll be an adjustment since I’ve never lived with anyone before, but you’re welcome to be as greedy about my time as you’d like.”
“Neither have I.”
“You better not have, or else that would’ve meant you skipped telling me about an important part of your dating history.” The thought of him being that close to another woman pissed me off, and I tossed a padded hanger in his direction.
He snagged it out of the air, dropped it on the floor, and stalked towards me. “And you’d better not have or else I’ll have to borrow Jason’s family’s private plane again. I’d have an urgent need for another unplanned trip to Vegas so I could kick some ass—without getting a black eye this time. I’d have a damn good reason for smashing any of your ex’s faces in, and the odds would be even this time around.”
His rant took the steam out of my sails. “And what reason would that be when I’m madly in love with you?”
“Because you’re mine.”
“Yeah, well. You’re mine, too.”
His lips kicked up in the corners. “If you want to hunt down any of my exes to make sure they know that I’m yours, feel free. None of them meant even a fraction of what you do to me, so it’s completely unnecessary. But you’d be hot as fuck all riled up, ready to kick ass and take names.”
“I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” I huffed. “Unless we happen to bump into one of them and I feel the need to mark my territory.” I traced my fingers along his jaw and down his neck. “Maybe I should get into the
habit of leaving love bites on you to warn other women off.”
“Mark away, gorgeous. You’re the only woman I want. Forever.”
Forever
“I love how that sounds.”
“There’s another way we could leave a permanent mark on each other,” he suggested.
I traced my fingers over the fabric of his shirt where it covered his tattoos. “Do you want to get matching ink or something like that?”
“That’s not what I was talking about.” His dark eyes flared with heat. “But I’d love to be inked on your creamy skin.”
“And I’d love to be added to yours.”
“That can definitely be arranged. I’ll call my tattoo artist and book us some time. He’s usually booked pretty solid, but he’s worth the wait. And he’s the only one I’ll trust with your virgin skin.” He trailed his fingers down my arm. “But only with me in the room. He’s the best in the business, but he’s also a flirty bastard. I wouldn’t put it past him to try to make a move on you even while he’s inking me on your skin.”
“I’d want you there anyway.” And I’d love to see him getting a tattoo. With as hot as I found his ink, it was bound to be a major turn-on. “But if that’s not what you were talking about, then what was?”
“Give me ten minutes in the living room, and I’ll show you.”
“Okay.” I couldn’t think of anything that would mark each other that was as permanent as tattoos, so I was dying of curiosity to find out what he was talking about.
The next ten minutes felt like they crept by in slow motion. I only managed to put away a few more pieces of clothing because I was too busy straining to hear any hints of what he was up to in the living room. But finally the time was up and he called out my name.
When I walked out of the bedroom, I heard low music playing. I found Mark standing in the middle of the living room with one long-stemmed, red rose in his hand. There was a huge bouquet with a few dozen more of them in a case on the coffee table. Petals were scattered on the carpet, and a row of candles were lit on the mantle above the fireplace.
Chased into Love (Bachelorette Party Book 4) Page 11