She’d already brushed her teeth with a spare toothbrush Stone had found in a drawer, so all she had to do now was comb out her hair and throw last night’s clothes back on.
The bathroom convinced her once again that Stone had a shitload of money. She’d bathed in the most elaborate shower she’d ever been in. It was huge, surrounded in glass from floor to ceiling, but what impressed her the most was that there were two showerheads on opposite sides, so if she’d felt like turning them both on, she wouldn’t have had one chilly spot on her body. And the shampoo and conditioner—she’d never heard of the brand, but her hair had never felt so pampered and silky. There was also a humongous tub in that large room, but the bathing facilities were separate from where she stood now, which was a smaller bathroom with a toilet and large sink, counter, and medicine chest. She wrapped the towel around herself and tucked in a loose corner to keep it hugged around her body while she combed out her hair in the quiet space.
She heard Stone in the bedroom. “Kory?” He tapped on the door.
“Yeah?”
“Everything okay in there?”
“Yeah.”
“You need anything?”
“No, I’m good.”
She started combing out her hair, amazed that the tangles weren’t difficult to work out. Then Stone said, “Can I come in for a minute?”
She frowned at herself in the mirror. She still had residual makeup on—she wore her eyeliner so heavy that it would take lots of scrubbing to get it all off her eyes—but her face looked strange and naked. Still, she had nothing to hide.
Stone had amazed her. When she’d gotten up, he’d already had a workout (but she didn’t know if he had workout equipment or had just jogged around his property), shower, and said he’d worked on some drawings. She wondered if he did that every morning or if she’d simply made it impossible for him to sleep.
She supposed she should maybe feel weird around him now, but she didn’t. She only wondered what his huge fucking secret was…and then felt a little stupid, because she wasn’t ready to give up her own secrets anytime soon. “Yeah, sure.”
He took his time as if to give her a moment to collect herself, and the door pushed open slowly. She continued pulling the comb through her hair, though, and she didn’t have to force a smile when he came in.
What was that look on his face? She couldn’t read it. Surprise, maybe? He grinned. “You sure everything’s okay? You’ve been awfully quiet since breakfast.”
She couldn’t help the smirk. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you wanted me shouting to you from the shower.”
He laughed. “No, that’s not what I mean.”
She finished running the comb through her hair and pulled the few strands in its teeth out so she could throw them in the trashcan next to the toilet. “What do you mean?”
Stone Bowman at a loss for words. Yeah, he was. He shrugged and got closer to her. Shit. She knew it. She must look like a fucking teenager without the makeup. Yeah, that had to be why he was staring at her.
Or…not. He cupped her neck and rubbed his thumb on her cheek. “Did you know you are gorgeous? Why do you cake your makeup on like you do?”
“Cake it?”
“Yeah. You’re hiding the best parts of yourself.”
“Ha. Bullshit.”
“Not bullshit.” He leaned over and brushed her lips with his. She felt a buzz pulse through her body.
She took a deep breath. “You are distracting the shit out of me.”
That smirk. God, that would be infuriating if it wasn’t so goddamned sexy. “I am?”
Kory swallowed, unable to mask her emotions from him. She simply nodded her head. His eyes searched hers, almost unbelieving, and then he grinned and said, “Your first class is at nine?”
A small breath escaped her lips as she considered him. “Yeah.”
“That’s a little less than two hours from now. I can still get you there on time…with a latte in hand.” She laughed then. He was obsessed with getting her that damned coffee. But then he touched her neck with his lips and the laughter ceased as her nipples pebbled under the damp towel in anticipation. He looked at her then, placing a warm finger in the dip just under her neck and tracing it straight down till it hit the edge of the white towel, and he followed his finger with his eyes. “I still want to lick you till you come.” He raised his gaze slowly, drinking in every detail of her skin, up her chin, until he burned holes in her eyes with the intensity. “Do you feel like you could let me try?”
At that moment, pinned in place by his laser stare, he could have done whatever he wanted. Having spent a secure night in his arms, in his bed, in his fortress had somehow made her feel stronger, had filled her with unforeseen trust for this man. Yes, he still had abundant secrets—the entire bottom floor of his house lay testament to that fact—but she felt like he had been as open and honest with her as possible. She had never in her life felt this kind of connection with a man before—hell, with any person—and she wanted to give herself to him, to prove to herself she could…to scale that wall of fear in her life and leave it behind her.
She couldn’t find the words to answer, though. Her tongue was woefully mute. She managed to nod her head ever so slightly, and he understood that. He hooked a finger inside the towel and kissed her again, and she expected him to pull it apart so it fell from her body. Not so. Instead, he pulled it like a harness, just enough that she used that momentum to propel her body forward.
He led her back into that spacious bedroom, now flooded with sunlight, and once they were beside the bed, he kissed her again. Part of her wanted him to be demanding, but there was no roughness, no hard kiss. Instead, he was as gentle as the air drifting down on her shoulders from the ceiling fan, causing a shiver to race down her spine.
As if in tune with her body and the very air itself, Stone kissed her neck and then her shoulder, and that was when she felt his finger inside the top of her towel again, just above her cleavage. This time, he tugged at it until the hold it had on her gave and it loosened at his command. He pulled a little more until she felt it give way and then it fell to the floor.
She stood in front of him, naked and for the taking, and she could sense that he wanted to see her—all of her—in full daylight, but he was resisting his baser urges. He must have known that she needed him to move slowly, needed him to make her comfortable. Kory was not ashamed of her body in the least, but she still had horrible associations of being gawked at. Someday she hoped she’d feel at ease having someone like Stone drink her in through his eyes, but right now it would not have done what it should have. If he’d risked it now, she just knew she would close herself off. She needed new memories, good memories, healthy memories to replace the poison inside her brain.
Fortunately, Stone seemed quite happy keeping his eyes focused on what was close. He wasn’t standing back to admire her. Instead, his hands had brushed past her breasts to her back, and they had skimmed down until they met her ass, and he cupped a cheek in each of his hands, heating up her skin, sensitizing it, begging for him to continue touching him.
She felt a little vulnerable and awkward because he was fully clothed and she was not, so she pulled at the bottom of his shirt. Again, she knew he could have insisted upon keeping it on, could have made a huge deal out of denying himself any pleasure, but he was following her lead and let her pull it up and over his head. Then he consumed her with a kiss that melted her to the core, and she was ready for him to do whatever he wanted to her.
“You okay?” he asked.
She nodded, still unable to find any words in her brain. She focused on his eyes, those eyes that she knew could be trusted, and she took a shallow breath.
Another kiss, this one light and sweet, followed by another and then another that demanded all her attention. His hands were on her shoulder blades then and he kissed her neck. Her body arched forward, pressing her breasts closer to him, and his lips moved lower then. But he paused and took her in
his arms and then lay her on the bed next to him.
Her nipples were hard and ached for his touch, and the pain from that longing was partially satiated by brushing up against his warm skin. That wasn’t the kind of attention they were begging for, but it was enough to tide her over. He kissed her one last time on the lips, a lingering kiss that left her wanting more, but then his lips moved down her chin to her neck. His tongue drew a line down from there, but his hand was in the lead and he let his fingers drift over her breast, and she felt a loud breath pour out of her mouth. He kissed up the swell of her breast then as she sucked air back into her lungs quickly, and she felt a sound in her throat as her skin seemed to leap toward him. He obeyed her body’s call, cupping the underside of her breast and taking her nipple into his mouth, flicking his tongue against its rigid shape and then taking it all into his mouth, sucking on it until she moaned again and arched her back against him.
As if to assure her that she’d be taken care of, he moved his hand behind her, stroking her back in the gap between her body and the bed. He slid his hand down from there to her ass and squeezed before moving back up her side, sending new shivers charging through every nerve of her body.
He moved to her other breast, giving it the same loving attention he had its mate before moving down her body with his tongue once again, and, while the trail his touch left was cool, she could feel her nether regions on fire, waiting for him to quench them or, at the very least, quell them enough that she could concentrate on something other than her desire. While his tongue played with the piercing on her belly, his hand moved to her inner thigh, stroking along the inside, and she felt every muscle in that region grow taut with expectation. He continued brushing the skin with his fingers, teasing, tantalizing, making the ache grow. She needed him, and she recognized that he knew what he was doing. He was creating the ache, the unquenchable desire, and then she wouldn’t have any kind of weird memories to move past or ignore. No, instead her focus would be solely on him.
And it was.
His lips continued their journey, moving down to the area that would normally be covered by the black panties she always wore. She wasn’t the type of girl to shave, had never seen the purpose of it, and now she was wishing she’d listened to Lacey about landscaping her lady garden. Jesus. Why did that shit have to pop into her mind now? Last night, she’d been flooded with memories that would scar a grown man, and today she was fretting over not looking like a typical woman.
But fuck. What if he found that to be a turnoff?
Well, he hadn’t said anything the night before, and he wasn’t saying anything now. In fact, he placed his index finger at the top of her slit and slid it down, brushing past the entire sensitive area and ramping up her desire once more. He was teasing her, making her want him to get down to business, and he brought his face close then, so she knew he wasn’t going to fuck around for long.
It wasn’t like last night. Now she could only think of him.
He touched her clit with the tip of his tongue then, and that was when she became aware of how wet she was down there. The residual moisture from her shower couldn’t account for the slickness she felt between her legs. No, that was for Stone, her body’s way of inviting him in, letting him know she was primed and ready.
As though she were a lollypop, he glided his tongue down the length of her clit slowly, achingly slow, so that by the time he reached the bottom, a low, almost painful moan flowed out of her mouth and she grabbed that damned comforter in her fists. His left hand was splayed on her belly above his head, but she could feel his other hand by his face, and she wondered what he was doing. It wasn’t until he dragged his tongue back up her slit—still at a snail’s pace—that she could feel him moving a finger around the opening to her pussy. He hadn’t slid it in, was instead teasing the entrance.
The anticipation was killing her.
Her thighs were quivering already, waiting for him to make his next move. It wasn’t that he was pausing, but he was going so slowly that she felt as though she were in pain.
Her heart was thudding in her chest, her breathing jagged, and then he picked up the pace a little. He was still taking his sweet ass time, torturing her, but he was at least moving a little more quickly, and she felt herself get even closer to the edge of pleasure—or disaster. She wasn’t sure which. She only knew that she’d never given herself over to a man like she was giving herself to Stone right now, and she knew it was dangerous, because having that kind of control over her meant he could destroy her completely.
That thought was gone as he stroked her with his tongue again, sliding his finger inside her, and she began breathing heavily, gulping deep breaths of air as she got close. She couldn’t focus on anything because her whole world was that little area down below, the one that Stone was setting on fire. None of the boyfriends she’d fucked in high school had ever managed to give her an orgasm (not that any of them had even tried), and Stone was going to manage to do it on his first try. Well, technically not his first, but the first time Kory was relaxed enough to let it happen. Again.
And it was going to.
She took another deep breath and Stone changed the direction of the way his tongue was moving and sped up a little more again, all while twirling that finger inside her, and she felt everything grow tighter, tighter, until she was ready to break. And break she did. She cried out as the enormity of a long-overdue orgasm overtook her, flooding her world with light and sound and pure feeling, pure ecstasy, nothing but bliss…
she didn’t know that she’d ever felt that way before
…and Stone kept up the pressure until she melted into a little pool of nothing.
But it was damn good nothingness.
Chapter Fourteen
THE DRIVE DOWN the mountain in the bright sunlight had been spectacular. Kory had had no idea they’d been so high up until they were driving down, and she was amazed and left breathless from the beauty of her surroundings. Winchester wasn’t a bad little town, but Stone’s place blew her away.
God, she wanted to ask him a million questions, the first being How the hell much money do you have? followed by Did you earn it or was it given to you on a silver platter?
Thing was…Stone didn’t act like he came from money. Not even close. Kory had gone to school with a few who’d been born into it, and she’d been around those kind of people enough to know that they were a different breed—entitled, spoiled, and clueless when it came to how the rest of the world felt. Stone wasn’t like that. In fact, Stone felt a lot like her kind of people—like he came from low- to middle-class, people who had to struggle for every goddamned penny just to make ends meet.
He might not have those roots, but he felt like he did. He felt like he belonged in her world.
It wasn’t that Kory wanted or liked the struggle and, in fact, she hadn’t been around the lowest the last few years she’d lived with her foster parents, but it was the world she’d come from, the world she knew.
The universe she’d never forget.
And it made her appreciate what she had now.
It also made her almost chuckle when Stone took her into one of the coffee shops downtown and tried to convince her that it was perfectly normal to pay more than five dollars for a cup of coffee.
“Just look at the menu, Kory, and try to find something you’d like.”
Her voice was low and she talked out of the corner of her mouth, but she said, “How the fuck would I know what I like? I don’t even know what a latte is. In fact, seeing how it’s spelled, I probably would have pronounced it wrong if I hadn’t heard it before.”
He grinned. “Mind if I order for you?”
She forced herself not to roll her eyes. “Fine.”
He ordered two tall caramel macchiatos with whipped cream and then asked, “Wanna blueberry muffin or something?”
She scoffed and started laughing. “We already ate breakfast.”
“I did. You ate a piece of bacon.”
“I ate more than that.”
He handed the cashier a credit card. “That’s all.” Then he turned back to Kory. “I ate a lot more than you did. And I even had dessert.” He licked his lower lip before biting down, and it took her a second to realize he was teasing her…and bringing up the insanely wicked cunnilingus he’d performed on her earlier—in public, no less.
But Kory wasn’t the type to blush, and she certainly wasn’t the type to get rattled…although if anyone could do it, it would be Stone. She couldn’t help the half grin her lips formed. She thought of several things to say, but none of them were funny or clever, so she just kept her mouth shut. Stone wrapped his arm around her playfully and pulled her close.
She watched the barista make their drinks. It seemed like an awful lot of work for coffee, just as she’d said before, and the creations the barista ended up with looked very pretty…but then she covered them with opaque lids, so Kory couldn’t even appreciate what they looked like. Stone said, “Take a sip. I want to make sure you like it before we go.” She took a deep breath. She was going to feel like an asshole if she didn’t. And what about the poor girl who’d just made their drinks? That wouldn’t be very nice. But Kory relented, raising the paper cup to her lips. “Careful—it’s hot.” Stone was already taking a drink of his.
Kory tilted the cup and sipped, pulling just a little of the liquid into her mouth. She gave it a second and then couldn’t help but smile. Yeah, okay, so it was really good. Very sweet, lots of flavor, unlike any coffee she’d ever had before. Stone asked, “So what do you think?”
Her grin hadn’t wavered. “Hmm. It’s like sex in a cup.”
They started walking toward the door. “That good, huh?”
“Oh, my God, yeah.” She was trying to think of a clever punch line to jab him, but she wasn’t as quick witted as he was…that, and she was beginning to think she liked him even more than she had before.
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