Burned: Black Cipher Files #3 (Black Cipher Files series)

by Lisa Hughey

  It was crazy, insane, completely unexpected.

  And he could no more stop the feeling than he could stop kissing her. Because he wanted her with an unprecedented fierceness, he knew he needed to take extra care.

  Zeke pressed kisses along her jaw, swirling his tongue against her skin in a subtle caress until he reached the tender spot behind her earlobe. “Any time you feel uncomfortable, just say stop.” He sucked at her soft skin as she tilted her head back, and granted him better access.

  Zeke was suddenly struck by her unconscious beauty. The graceful curve of her slender neck, the haughty arch of her cheekbones, and with her eyes closed, the dark fringe of her eyelashes against her milky white skin. Arousal flushed her cheeks and reddened her lips.

  Her response was to nuzzle the same spot under his ear and then she dragged her tongue down the cord of his neck until she reached the curve between his neck and shoulder and bit him gently.

  Jesus. His cock surged at the light nip.

  The need to plunder, to invade, pounded in his blood. But he knew he had to proceed slowly. She couldn’t have much experience. Zeke pressed small kisses along her jaw, tracing his former path until he got to her chin, then he pressed three open mouthed kisses on her lips, with each kiss his tongue slid a little further inside her honeyed mouth. Then Zeke traced his lips along the other side of her face, giving her right side the exact same treatment he’d given her left.

  Sunshine’s fingers burrowed under his thin t-shirt and explored the muscles in his back. The hard points of her nipples stabbed into his pecs as he continued with his lazy journey, pressing kisses along her neck and then the curve of her bare shoulder. Her sweater slid off her left shoulder and exposed the delicate line of her collarbone. He was trying to savor each step. Trying to treat her with care. And tenderness.

  Underneath the slow, gentle journey, his blood pulsed with an urgent demand to take.

  Sunshine grabbed his hand and pressed his palm against her breast. Zeke groaned into her mouth and brushed his thumb over her distended nipple.

  She melted, her body going soft, pliant against his. She sank back onto the bed, pulling him with her. Zeke pressed his knee between her spread thighs and leaned over Sunshine as she lay back on the pastel bedspread.

  His hand trembled as he brushed a curl from her cheek. He opened his mouth to ask one more time if she was sure.

  Sunshine grabbed his shorts and tugged. With the element of the unexpected, he tumbled on top of her. The heat from her sex was like an inferno, and he rubbed his cock against the concave curve of her stomach.

  Sunshine moaned and wrapped her legs around his waist, her bare heels dug into the back of his thighs and made him aware of all the ways he was a hard man and she was a soft, welcoming sexual woman.

  He wanted her. Bad. He’d wanted her since he’d regained consciousness in this same position yesterday. Zeke wrapped his arms around her, unable to halt the spiral into frenzied desire, as if drawn by a rare earth magnet.

  But just like that extra strong magnet, without a protective coating she would be brittle and susceptible to crumbling under the force of his hunger.

  The same unexpected and forbidden feelings were rushing through him and he realized he was equally susceptible to crumbling.

  He stared into her intense gray gaze looking for answers to all the questions in the Universe. And saw what he needed to see. No hesitation, no fear, only anticipation and arousal. And dammit he wanted to partake of her offering.

  With reluctant restraint, he held back. Her sensual pull was nearly overwhelming, but Zeke knew that he needed to handle her with care. And he needed to approach with caution.

  So he dove into the joy of discovery.

  Zeke scraped her loose sweater up over her ribcage, his callused fingers explored her soft skin as he bent and dragged his tongue along the sensitive bow of her belly. Her stomach contracted in response. But Zeke gave no quarter and kissed his way up her ribcage. He wanted to roar in triumph as she responded to his sensual touch.

  He pushed her sweater up and bared her breasts, perfect handfuls, to his avid gaze.

  “You’re flawless,” he breathed as he bent to the distended coral bud.

  “Actually, I’m a little small proportionately,” she said breathlessly as a flush spread across her chest.

  “Flawless.” Zeke licked her nipple into his mouth and suckled on the erect tip. He swirled his tongue around her tight bud, while he squeezed and plumped her other breast in his palm and pinched the nipple until she was arching beneath him, nearly bucking him off her.

  She was so sensitive.

  All Zeke’s blood thundered to his cock, until he was harder than the volcanic rock he’d climbed as a kid. He rolled her nipple on his tongue and then pressed hard, flattening his tongue against the roof of his mouth, and drawing with intense pulls.

  Her soft moans filled the hotel room.

  Sunshine clawed her short fingernails against the muscles of his back and then scraped along the edge of his waistband and pushed his shirt up until his bare skin rubbed hers. He wanted to go slow, show her through his actions that he respected her, treasured her. But as her hands moved restlessly, her strokes sure and confident as if she was trying to imprint the tactile feel of him, his vow to go slowly was sorely tested.

  The scent of the sea and the sharp bite of cucumber rose from her heated skin as Zeke nuzzled the underside of her breast. He was harder than he’d ever been in his life, and he hadn’t even gotten her undressed yet. Only the flat plane of her stomach and the pale rounded globes of her breasts were bare.

  Zeke’s practical experience was limited. Of course, he’d had sex before but he’d never been in a relationship. The Hawthorne curse had preceded him.

  He’d actually never really wanted a relationship. He’d been in college at fifteen, a total nerd, and years younger than his classmates. He was jailbait. And no college girl was going for a pimple faced teenager when she could have an older, experienced guy. Kind of like his clumsy pursuit of Jamie. She’d chosen Lucas. Not that he could blame her. If he was a girl, he’d have chosen Lucas too.

  So his sexual experiences consisted of drunken one night stands and random hook ups until he’d started working for the NSA. Then he realized that because of his work and his security clearance and the fact that he was a total nerd, he was a prime espionage target for female agents willing to use their body and sex to get secrets. So every time a woman came on to him, in the back of his mind, he wondered if there was something else going on. Some other reason why she wanted to have sex with him.

  Crazy as it seemed, Sunshine’s reluctance and worry that he had an underlying motive actually freed him from those concerns. He had gone after her. Not the other way around.

  That relief that she wanted him for him was immense.

  And because he loved that she wanted him for him, he was determined to show his appreciation in a measured physical way. If he didn’t slow things down, take time to learn her body’s secrets, take time to learn what made her gasp and what made her sigh, this would be over in a nanosecond.

  But she seemed to want nothing to do with slow and easy.

  Her legs moved restlessly beneath his larger, heavier body as she explored his skin. His cock was hard and insistent against the V of her legs. He couldn’t wait to be inside her.

  Sunshine lay beneath him, one foot on the bed, knee propped up, the other leg flat, spreading her open for him. Zeke groaned into her neck, and circled her ankle with his thumb and forefinger. Then he sensuously slid his fingers along the back of her leg, skimming her soft flesh and pulling her skirt up slowly. He bared her legs to the cool early evening air with questing fingertips until he reached the elastic of her panties.

  She was so freaking soft. She had muscles but they were sleek and smooth, banded to her feminine frame and infused with an innate sensuality. Her hips were rounded, and her ass would be a handful.

  He slid his hand beneath the waist of
her simple cotton briefs, and caressed the dimple in her lower back before he circled around to her front, his fingertips brushed along her skin delicately. He feared if he pressed too hard, she would skitter away. Her stomach contracted and a soft moan whooshed from her mouth.

  He eased his fingers into her wiry curls and teased her plump flesh. He slid his fingers along the outside of her sex; she was already slick with arousal. Her body had primed for him with impressive speed. And fuck him but he couldn’t wait to slide inside her and plunder her spoils like a conquering hero. But with a previously dormant sense of perception, Zeke forced himself to go slowly after he noted her slight tensing.

  Zeke rolled off Sunshine and to his side, pulling her with him, until they lay on the bed facing each other. He pressed a calming kiss in the hollow of her neck. With a gentle glide, he eased her loose sweater over her head and bared her upper body.

  He could see her instinctive need to cover her exposed breasts when her arms twitched. “Don’t.”

  She’d averted her gaze, her lashes lowered to hide her shyness from him.

  He couldn’t help but stare at her beautiful form. Her breasts were high and tight and round, not overly large, but they fit her. Her coral areolae were the size of silver dollars and her nipples had puckered when exposed to the cool hotel air. She was beautiful.

  And for right now, she was his.

  Twenty-Three

  Oh my Goddess.

  So many different sensations. His fingertips were rough as he reverently caressed my skin. The skim of his pointer finger along my ribs elicited a tingle in my sex. The pinch of his fingers on my nipple send a sharp zing through me. He seemed determined to test and measure each section of my body with almost scientific precision.

  Which might have amused me, except with every new touch amazing sensations grew inside me. Each light stroke, each pleasurable cup of his palm and firm embrace, and my body blossomed under his attention like the marriage of two scents into a perfume. His exploration caused my body to expand and contract. My breasts plumped while my nipples tightened. My sex softened even as my womb clenched. The two contrasting forces created a subtle tension as the tingle grew into a buzz that grew into a swell of lust so powerful, so crazy intense that I couldn’t hold it in anymore.

  I moaned.

  The sensual sound startled me out of the haze of arousal fogging my brain. I blinked, forcing my eyes open, marking the awareness of where I was and who I was with. His body was tan, he clearly spent a lot of time out in the sun. Blond hair dusted his forearms and roughened his thighs. He had smattering of hair on his knuckles, his fingers dinged up, and I had the strangest urge to buss my lips over the small cuts and calluses. The desire to express that bit of tenderness took me off guard and left me feeling over-exposed.

  To protect myself, I wanted to cross my arms over my naked flesh, feeling stripped bare by the emotions Zeke was eliciting from me. But as if he sensed my reaction, he trailed his fingertips over my shoulders and skimmed them down my triceps and along my forearms until his palms were flush with mine. He lightly held my hands at my sides so that I was incapable of covering myself. “Don’t,” he whispered again.

  My body tingled and goose bumps raised on my arms as his tactile touch activated nerve endings I didn’t know I had. My nipples, wet from his mouth, peaked to an insistent hardness, and a throb centered low in my belly.

  I moved my legs restlessly, aching and needy, yet unable to ask for what I wanted. What if I asked the wrong question and Zeke figured out how little experience I actually had?

  I’d managed to deflect his question the last time but I wasn’t sure I could do it again. I was truly afraid that if he knew I was a virgin, he’d stop. He seemed to have a core gentlemanliness. He was just a tad bit old fashioned underneath that surfer dude exterior, and that inner chivalry might force him to stop before he deflowered me.

  And I really wanted to be deflowered. In the worst damn way.

  He nibbled a path along my naked collarbone. I shuddered. So he did it again.

  His palm was hard and thick and solid in my hand. As hard and thick and solid as his body had been between my legs. I wanted that again. The heavy weight of him on top of me, holding me down and yet burning me up.

  Zeke guided my hand to his chest, placing my palm on his pectoral, right over his heart. As if asking me to guard the organ for him. Treat it and him with care.

  Which was fanciful and not at all like me. Plus, he was a guy. He didn’t need me to treat him carefully.

  Then he took my mouth with gentle, sipping kisses following the same pattern again, top, left, right, bottom.

  With his free hand, he stroked along my arm and across my waist in what should have been a seriously un-erogenous zone, but the tingling in my sex was back with a vengeance.

  He skimmed his fingertips up the curve of my calf, twirling a lazy pattern along the back of my knee. The back of my knee! And my body clenched. He continued his sensual journey along my hamstring and I parted my legs again.

  His palm cupped my butt, rubbed my skin, his fingers trailed along the crease of my ass, but didn’t go anywhere near the part that ached for him.

  I wanted him to touch me. To slide between my swollen sex and penetrate me. With every caress, his fingers crept closer but he never quite touched me where I needed it most. My hips rocked in insistent little jerks. I begged without actually begging. Until my breath stopped in my chest and expanded my lungs as I held there waiting, waiting for his intimate caress.

  But he seemed content to rub his palm and fingers over my aching flesh, arousing without ever fondling my most intimate place. Every glide ratcheted my tension to another level.

  Anticipation fluttered in my belly, and my body wept preparing for his penetration.

  “Touch me,” I finally pleaded. Needing more.

  Anticipation fizzed in my blood as he slowly unbuttoned the waistband of my skirt and eased the cotton down my legs. Finally I was going to experience what felt like every other twenty year old the planet already had.

  Sex. It might not be romance or love or affection. But that was fine. At least I would finally get close to a man physically. Which was more than I’d had to this point.

  In the dark of night, when I couldn’t sleep, perhaps I had dreamed of letting someone get close enough to share my body. But it had always been more of a fantasy because in the morning reality would return and I’d remember my circumstances, suffer the death of that hope, and tumble back into reality.

  But right here, right now, Zeke Hawthorne knew my deepest darkest secret. I didn’t have to guard against spilling my secrets because he already knew.

  And that truth gave me the freedom to let go. The freedom to relax, allow him entrance into my other deepest darkest places.

  Finally he slid his fingers beneath the elastic of my unsexy panties and against my slick wet lips.

  I moaned into his mouth as the rough pad of his fingers spread that slickness against my clit. My head went dizzy and my knees went weak at the sensual caress. And in taking, I wanted to give as well.

  I wanted to touch him the way he was touching me, intimately, to arouse his passion. I slid my fingers over his hard chest and rippled abs until I connected with the waist of his shorts. With fumbling fingers I untied the thick lace and then pulled. The rip of his Velcro fly as it separated was loud in the heated stillness of our hotel room. I spread the placket of his shorts open and curled my fingers around his erection.

  He pulsed hot and hard, his arousal like a living breathing entity.

  “Fuck.” Zeke pressed his forehead into the curve of my neck. “That feels fantastic.”

  I really didn’t know what I was doing. Of course, I’d read about this, so in theory I knew the mechanics. But the reality was so different from my imaginings that my confidence shriveled.

  His skin was smooth and hot as I squeezed. He was hard, and yet, not.

  “A little harder, babe,” he commanded. Then he gro
aned when I swiped my thumb over the head of his penis.

  As he gave me directions, he curled his middle finger just inside me. I held still, my body shaking, tremors rippled through me as I waited on the precipice for him to push inside all the way. But he curled his fingers, teasing my outer lips and barely penetrating me.

  I was empty. Desolate. I needed more.

  And yet I was afraid of more. My body had tensed, I couldn’t help it. I was just hoping that he hadn’t noticed. In desperation, I pushed his shorts over his hips and down his thighs. If I could just get him naked, maybe he’d come inside me then.

  “Please,” I whispered as he lifted his hips to help me get rid of his shorts.

  Too many sensations bombarded me at once. His hairy thigh holding my legs apart, his fingers rubbing my sex, curling lightly inside but not coming all the way in, the smooth planes of his chest against my diamond hard, sensitive nipples. We shared breath through open-mouthed kisses and dueling tongues.

  His cock was thick, long, and pulsed in the wrap of my fingers. I kept trying to ignore the worry of how he was going to fit inside me. Scientifically, I knew it had worked since the beginning of time, but personally, I kept wondering how? I knew that my soft would yield to his hard but it still seemed nearly impossible to imagine that we could fit together.

  And that it wouldn’t hurt.

  Finally Zeke slid his finger all the way in. His palm cupped my swollen sex even as he did something with the finger inside that caused my whole body to jerk. Sensations bombarded me.

  “Damn, you’re tight,” Zeke murmured against my lips.

  I didn’t want him to focus too much on that. If he started thinking, he might realize that I didn’t have much experience. Or none.

  My head was swimming. And my sex clenched. I just wanted him inside me. I curled my fingers around his cock and squeezed, not so subtly letting him know what I wanted from him.