by Opal Carew
The doors opened and she walked down the hall to her apartment, then opened the door.
She shouldn’t lie to herself. She’d pushed him away because she was afraid. She’d always wanted Shock—even back in college. What happened to her back then still affected her profoundly. But even if that weren’t true, she feared what would have been unleashed in her if she’d allowed him to continue. If she and Shock had wound up here in her apartment, she might have gotten past her fear, letting him take her on the couch or maybe even against the wall.
That thought frightened her, for more reasons than she wanted to admit.
* * *
Shock tossed another rock across the water, watching it skip across the sunlit surface, then disappear.
“What are you doing?” Raven sat down beside him on the grass along the shore of the lake and clasped her arms around her knees. Her long, black hair cascaded over her shoulders as she leaned forward, watching him.
Raven was Rip’s woman and had joined the group about a year ago. She was the first woman to join the crew, and she’d fit right in. She was fun and supportive, and she loved sharing her body with all of them.
A few months later, Wild Card had wound up accidentally kidnapping another woman, Tempest, then they were all pursued by the police. In the end, they had saved Tempest from an abusive ex-boyfriend and their leader, Steele, had fallen in love with her. Now the two women rode with them and had sex with all of them, making for quite a friendly, intimate group.
He leaned back against the tree behind him. “Thinking,” he said in answer to her question.
“Yeah? You’ve been doing a lot of that lately.”
He picked up another stone, a nice, flat, smooth one, and flicked it sideways over the water’s surface. This one skipped five times.
“Have I?” he asked.
She leaned against him. “Yeah. Most of the time you seem a million miles away. Anything to do with a woman?”
“Why do you ask that?”
“Well, Wild Card told me about the woman you’ve seen in town. Two nights in a row.”
“Yeah? And what did he tell you about her?”
“Just that you knew each other in college, that you lectured the poor girl on hanging out alone in rough bars in the middle of the night, then you drove her home. Both nights.”
“Are you going to tell me that’s not good advice? Did you know she got attacked the first night?”
Raven’s smiled dis appeared. “No. What happened? Is she okay?”
He picked up another stone, rubbing his thumb over the warm, flat surface.
“Yeah, she’s fine. I was with her. Some jerks tried to pick her up in the bar, then when I drove her home, they forced us off the road.”
Raven gazed at him, her expression serious. “Did they hurt her?”
He compressed his lips. “There was no fucking way I’d let them hurt her.”
Her smile returned. “So you took on the lot of them and then carried your lady off into the night.”
“Sure, something like that.”
She leaned close and stroked her finger over his lower lip. “I thought your lip looked a bit fatter than usual.” Her eyes glittered. “I’d assumed that was from kissing.”
The light brush of her fingers on his lips reminded him of Liv’s lips on his. Of that devastating kiss they’d shared, and need rose in him.
He wrapped his hands around her waist. “Fuck, Rave, it’s been quite a while.”
Her round, perfect breasts, showcased in the fitted black T-shirt she wore, beckoned to him.
Her eyebrows arched. “You mean your lady didn’t reward you?”
“We don’t have that kind of relationship.” Then he pulled her against his body and found her lips, plundering them with passion.
Her tongue matched his stroke for stroke, and when he drew back, her eyes gleamed.
“Oh, wow. That kiss tells me that maybe you should rethink your relationship with the woman.”
Shock took her lips again.
Raven flattened her hand on his chest and pressed him back. “Shock, sweetie, you know I love you and that Rip doesn’t mind sharing me, but if he saw you kissing me like that …” She shook her head.
Damn, even Raven was turning him down.
But then he felt his zipper glide down. He glanced at her and she giggled when she saw his expression.
“You didn’t think I was going to leave you all frustrated, did you?”
She reached inside his jeans and wrapped her fingers around his aching cock.
Aching because he couldn’t stop thinking about Liv. And somehow that didn’t feel right.
She stroked him and blood pulsed through him.
“Rave, you know, it doesn’t seem fair to you—”
She squeezed him, stopping his words. “What? That you’re going to be thinking of her?”
She leaned down and licked the base of his shaft. “Don’t worry about that. When I’m doing this to you”— she licked him again, from base to tip, sending his hormones fluttering— “you can think of whoever you want.”
Then she wrapped her mouth around his tip and sucked. He groaned, then reached out and stroked her hair, gliding his fingers through the silky strands. He leaned back against the tree and imagined it was Liv’s long, honey-blonde hair curled around his fingers. That it was her mouth gliding down on him, taking him deep.
Her soft hands that fondled his balls. Her that sucked him.
God, he was so revved up, his yearning so powerful, that he already felt it … that heat deep within him that concentrated in his belly, then burned hotly as it spread through his entire body.
It was heaven feeling Liv’s lips around him. Feeling her hands on him. Feeling her touching him intimately. Pleasuring him.
She squeezed her hand around his shaft, then sucked harder.
“Oh, God,” he groaned as his balls tightened, then pleasure jolted through him as his cock pulsed, releasing steaming liquid into her mouth.
She continued to suck him, drawing every last drop from his body.
He caressed her hair, drawing it back from her face, then opened his eyes.
Raven stared at him with her big green eyes.
It wasn’t Liv. He’d known that, but his heart ached a little.
But he drew Raven in for a kiss.
“Thanks, Rave.”
She smiled and stroked his whisker-roughened cheek with her soft hand.
“Hey, that was the fantasy. Now I think you should go after the real thing.”
* * *
Liv tossed and turned all night, both regretting having asked Shock to loan her money and hoping that he would be Julia’s savior. She spent the day puttering around the apartment, including spending a futile hour trying to clean the rust stains off the yellowed shower tiles in the bathroom.
Late in the afternoon, she got a text from Shock telling her he’d pick her up in fifteen minutes. He had an answer for her.
She waited for him at the front of the building. He said nothing when he arrived, just gestured for her to get on the back of the bike. She climbed aboard and he drove to the highway, then let out the throttle. The wind rushed against her face as she clung to him.
Finally, rather than taking her to the diner to talk, he turned onto a side road, then pulled off on a country lane and followed a smaller dirt path to a grassy field by one of the small lakes in the area.
“Nice view,” she said as she dismounted and glanced around.
He glanced over the water. “I like the outdoors. Better than a stuffy diner, don’t you think?”
She nodded. She didn’t care where he told her his decision, as long as it was the right one.
“So you have an answer for me?” she asked.
He nodded curtly. “I do.” His steely gaze pierced through her. “But I don’t think you’re going to like it.”
Liv’s stomach clenched. “Oh.” Her heart sank. “I take it that you won’t loan me the money, th
en.”
“I didn’t say that.”
Liv stared at him in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
“I’ve decided I will lend you the money … but there’s a condition.”
“What is it?”
He moved close to her and dragged her into his arms, driving his tongue into her mouth so deeply that she almost choked in panic. She pressed her hands flat against his chest and pushed halfheartedly, but he tightened his muscular arms around her, pulling her tight against his hard body. Her arms grew limp as she became mesmerized by the heat of his body and his mouth ravaging hers so thoroughly.
Then he eased up and became more seductive. He stroked her tongue with his while he glided his hand along her back. Remembering their last two encounters, she feared he’d cup her breast again, but he didn’t. His hand slid down and pressed on the small of her back, pulling her pelvis tightly against his big body. So tightly that she could feel the ridge of his growing erection.
This time she found the strength to push back, at least a little, then sucked in air.
“You want me to…”—she stared into his steely brown eyes— “… to date you?”
“Sweetheart, it’s not a date I want from you.” He leaned in closer, his hot breath stirring her hair. His groin pressed against hers, the hard bulge of his erection telling her exactly what he did want.
“I want you naked and moaning,” he said, “my hard cock driving into you. I want your hands all over me,”—his gaze dropped to her lips— “your mouth all over me. I want to fuck you so hard, you scream my name at the top of your lungs.” The hand on her lower back pulled her tighter against his pelvis, so she could feel exactly how long and hard he was. “And after you do that, and you’re lying gasping on the bed, I want to do it all over again.”
She stared up at him and gulped, her eyes wide. “But …” She shook her head, his erotic words searing through her. Did he really think she’d repay him with her body? “You know I would pay you back every cent of the loan. With interest.”
“Of course you would. But your interest … doesn’t interest me.” His dark, lust-filled eyes captured hers. “This would be a better … incentive,” he murmured. “To make the arrangement worth my while.”
“Surely you don’t handle your business deals this way?” She didn’t know what she was saying. She was just trying to think of any way to dissuade him from this crazy demand.
“Of course I don’t. Because those are just business. What you’re asking for is a favor based on a personal relationship.” His hands stroked her down to her ass, then cupped it and pulled her forward, causing the ridge of his cock to dig deeper into her belly. “So I think it’s appropriate to ask for something more personal in the way of incentive.”
She began to tremble. “So you’re suggesting we spend the night together?”
He laughed harshly. “Sweetheart, for fifty grand, it’s going to be a hell of a lot longer than one night.” He raised an eyebrow. “And I expect you to be one exceptional fucking lay.”
His harsh words were like a slap across the face. Her stomach clenched and she drew in a shaky breath. Could she actually do this?
“If I agree, then you’ll loan me the money?”
His eyes narrowed. “That’s right.”
“Do I have any other option?” She knew asking that didn’t put her in a good negotiating position, but what did it matter? He clearly knew what he wanted and she doubted she would be able to quibble about the details.
“No,” he said flatly.
Anxiety quivered through her, but she drew her shoulders back and met his gaze, then nodded.
“Good.” He released her and suddenly turned all business. “I’ll have my lawyers draw up a contract.”
Her gaze shot to his face. “You’re kidding.”
“I never kid about a business deal.”
“But you said this was personal.”
“I said it’s not just business. I’m loaning you a shitload of money, so I’ll be laying out the terms in writing to ensure we both know exactly what’s involved in this deal.”
* * *
When the brown envelope arrived by courier the next day, Liv signed for it and took it from him, then sat on the couch and stared at it.
Could this really be happening? The terms of a sexual relationship with Shock laid out in a dry, legal document, stating what was expected of her?
She ripped open the flap and pulled out a manila folder with a couple of documents inside. Stark white paper with black words in a sterile typeface. She tried to read the words, but she found the phrasing and the long paragraphs written in legalese daunting. And she couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that he’d sat down with a lawyer and laid out the salient points and pertinent details to draw up this contract.
Oh, God, when her gaze scanned over the phrase “agrees to submit to” and “including, but not confined to, sexual acts,” she slammed the folder closed, unable to read any further.
She picked up the phone and dialed the cell number Shock had given her if she needed to contact him.
* * *
Shock sat on a rock with his legs stretched out in front of him. Raven and Laurie, who now went by the ride name Tempest, were swimming in the lake with a couple of the guys. He was pretty sure the skimpy bikinis the girls were wearing would soon disappear, since the sexual banter had shifted up a notch. He watched Raven as she adjusted her strap, which had slipped off her shoulder, then his gaze locked on the single sparkling droplet of water gliding down between her wet breasts.
Fuck, his cock insisted he strip off his clothes right now and dive into the water, but what he wanted was a woman of his own, not to share someone else’s. And the woman he wanted was Liv. He wanted to taste her sweet mouth again, to stroke her smooth flesh. And for her to be willing and pliable in his arms.
Or fighting and struggling, if that was the way she liked it. And part of him hoped she did. At least sometimes.
“Hey, you can do more than look, you know,” Rip said as he sat down on a fallen tree trunk beside him.
“Why aren’t you out there with Raven?” Shock asked.
“What, and spoil her fun? She usually likes me involved in her group play, but occasionally she likes to be with the guys solo.”
But Rip was clearly turned on. Shock couldn’t help but notice Rip’s jeans stretched taut over a thickening erection. Shock glanced at Tempest, Steele’s woman, standing knee-deep in the water, her gorgeous body on display.
“There are other options,” Shock said.
There was a light buzzing sound, and Rip reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. It was the only one they had. As a group, they’d elected to have limited interaction with the outside world.
“Yeah,” Rip said, gazing distractedly at Tempest. “Just a sec.” Rip held out the phone to Shock. “It’s for you.”
Shock took the phone. “Yeah, Shock here.”
He watched Rip head toward the water, shedding his clothes as he went.
“Hi, it’s Olivia.”
He arched an eyebrow. “So formal, Liv? I take it you received the contract.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Is there a problem?” he asked, sensing it in her tight voice. He wasn’t really surprised. Seeing everything all laid out in black and white was bound to shake her up.
“I’m not really comfortable with the contract.”
“So you want to cancel the whole thing?”
“No,” she answered quickly. “It’s not that. It’s just … well, I’m not a lawyer and … it’s a little overwhelming.”
“Okay, I’ll come over and discuss it with you in person. I’ll be there in a half hour.”
When he arrived at the front door of her building, she buzzed him up. A few moments later he knocked on her apartment door.
She opened it, then stepped aside to let him in. She sat on the couch, her head hanging as if she’d lost her best friend.
“So
what’s the problem?”
“I’ve taken a closer look at it since I called you.” She raised her head and glared at him. “There’s a whole list of sexual things you’ve listed that I have to do, and I’m not comfortable with that.”
“Liv, that’s a standard sexual contract. Many couples draft this kind of thing before they enter into a relationship these days. In the short-term relationship we’re about to enter, I thought it was especially important to make sure our terms are clear.”
“But you’ve ticked off every sexual act,” she cried in exasperation.
“True. What’s your point?” Of course, he was going to give her a contract that gave him exactly what he wanted. One that was designed to give him the most freedom to explore a wild, sexual adventure with her.
She stared at him in shock. “There are some I just … can’t.”
He was surprised. Liv always seemed to act in such a rash and fearless manner, he didn’t think there’d be anything on that list she would find objectionable. She might not have done them all, but he figured she’d be game to give them a try. The point of putting them on the list was to get her thinking wild and incredibly erotic thoughts. Pushing the limits beyond anything she’d done before.
“Like what?” he asked.
She bit her lip and gazed down at the contract. It seemed painful for her to scan the page of words.
“Well, this thing called fisting. I don’t know what that is, but I don’t like the sound of it.”
He lifted his hand and pinched his fingers together. “Fisting is where I make a fist, or just press my fingers together like this, and push my whole hand—”
“No,” she blurted. “Don’t tell me. I definitely don’t want to do that.”
“Okay. What else?”
“There are things about …” She frowned and gazed at him helplessly. “Uh … anal stuff.” Her cheeks had darkened to a deep rose. “And handcuffs, gags … sex toys.”
At his silence, she continued.
“And it even says that … oh, God, that you can tell me to have sex with other men. And watch.”
Her emphasis on the last word was almost comical. Was she really so staid sexually? Sure, maybe she drew the line at more than one lover, but no sex toys? Nothing anal? He’d really thought she was more adventurous than that.