by Lucy Gilmore
“Tilt your head up a little?” she asked when she reached the bottom of his jawline. Her voice was oddly quiet, but her face was so near to his that he didn’t have to strain to hear her. “I need to get your neck.”
“Uh-oh. That’s where the danger is. I’ll try not to breathe.”
“You laugh, but I can see your pulse.” She stopped her index and middle fingers on top of the gently throbbing beat of his carotid. “One wrong move, and I could end you right here and now.”
“You could end me at any point, Dawn, and you know it. You’ve known it from the start of this.”
She opened her mouth to protest but wasn’t sure how to set about doing it. Mostly because he was wrong on every level. Not only was she physically incapable of getting the better of this man, but she doubted she had much emotional sway, either. That kind of power required him to feel something for her. Something real. Not this temporary, meaningless fling.
Even though she hadn’t yet finished with the scruff on his neck, she clipped the razor back into its place on the shower wall. She also straightened her legs so that she was no longer halfway propped up by Adam’s arms. She was on her own two feet again—on familiar ground, so to speak.
“I don’t want to end you, Adam,” she said, watching him. She’d missed a patch on his left cheek as well as his neck, but she wasn’t about to let that bother her. Especially since she had every intention of turning her attention—and her hands—elsewhere. “What I want, and what you’re making very difficult, is to enjoy you.”
She punctuated this statement by running her hands down the smooth, hard lines of his abdomen, stopping just shy of making contact with his cock. Every part of her yearned to grab him, to show him how easily she could end him. Or that part of him, at least.
“Believe me,” Adam said, groaning softly. “The feeling is mutual.”
She didn’t have time to ask which part of that sentiment he shared—the desire or the frustration—because he grabbed her around the back of her neck and pulled her in for a long, demanding kiss. Dawn imagined that must be what the cows felt like when they felt the heavy rope land squarely around their heads. It was a shock, yes, but it was also compelling.
Come to me, it said. Don’t fight. You’re mine now.
She gave in to all three. As the water sluiced down over their heads, Dawn allowed herself to be pulled into Adam’s hard embrace. She didn’t fight the insistent press of his mouth, and she didn’t question where she belonged. Like poor Dawn the cow trying to enjoy her few blissful stolen moments of freedom, she knew when the battle was over.
Well, mostly.
She dropped her hands the last tantalizing inch before she had Adam firmly in hand. Without waiting to see how he intended to react, she slid her hand up the length and back down again, her movements aided by the water and soap and steam. Adam wasn’t slow to return the favor, dropping his hand between her thighs. There was no need for water or soap to ease that friction, since she’d been in a state of high desire for days now.
“I was going to make you do this yourself so I could watch,” Dawn said as Adam slid a finger inside her. He crooked that same finger and pulled her forward, so close their bodies were now touching almost everywhere. Her legs slithered up and down his, her breasts pressed against his chest. Even seemingly innocent parts like shoulders and elbows took on new meaning as they slipped and slid together.
A gasp escaped her as Adam slid his finger out and back in again, his thumb expertly grazing her clit.
“If you don’t start behaving, I still might make you take over,” she added, but they both knew it was a lie. His erection was a hard, insistent pressure between their bodies—a hard, insistent pressure she was powerless to ignore. She drew her hand up and down between them, pausing only when his own careful movements took her breath away.
As it turned out, that was most of the time. Adam’s hands were one of his best features, which was saying a lot considering how well crafted the rest of him was. But his hands were large and rough with work, and dexterous in ways that defied human nature. They were also intimately familiar with Dawn’s body. Adam knew when to push and when to pull away, exactly where to hitch her leg so he could plunge his fingers deep.
He didn’t hesitate to do any of those things now, forcing her to brace herself on the shower wall or risk having her legs give way underneath her. Her eyes were closed, her back pressed against the cold tile, one palm flat against the side wall to keep herself from toppling over. She was, in a sense, pinned against the wall and unable to escape, but she didn’t mind in the slightest. Especially not when he stopped with all the teasing and began to focus his attention on sending her over the edge.
“I thought you were yelling at me for always being in a hurry,” she said between gasps.
“Do you want me to stop?” came his strained reply. She flicked her thumb over the head of his cock, delighted when his entire body gave a convulsive twitch. “Because I can stop. All you have to do is say the word.”
“You know, I don’t think that’s true.” She flicked her thumb again, this time without pausing before pumping her hand steadily up and down his length. His breathing was growing labored, his entire body a thrumming chord waiting to be plucked. One or two more thrusts, and he was done for. “I think there’s nothing you can do right now but finish the job I started. Go ahead. You can come first. I don’t mind.”
“Like hell I will.”
Just as Dawn was ready to enjoy the sensation of Adam losing his control, he slid his hand out from between her thighs and grabbed her around the ass. Without giving her time to consider what could possibly come next, he whirled her around so she was pressed face-first against the wall instead. The tile was a surprise of cold against her nipples and belly, bringing to the surface of her skin a tingling, almost electric shock. A gasp—partly of outrage but mostly of delight—escaped her lips as Adam brought his hand between her legs again, this time from behind. His other hand gripped her around the wrist and brought her arm straight up above her head.
If she’d been trapped by Adam before, she was imprisoned by him now. His body was holding hers at every pressure point, his hold like a shackle that allowed her no room to escape. In fact, the only movements she seemed capable of making were the repeated undulations of her hips.
He dropped his lips to the back of her neck and kissed her—long and hard and deep, not to mention likely to leave a hickey of the kind she hadn’t enjoyed since high school.
“There’s nothing you can do now but finish the job I started,” Adam murmured into her ear. He ground his hips harder against her, restricting her movements even more. “Go ahead. You can come first. I don’t mind.”
It would have brought Dawn immense satisfaction to thwart him. The press of Adam against her backside was likely to be causing him just as much agonizing delight as it was giving her, and she was sure that if she could hold out a few seconds longer, he wouldn’t have any say in the matter of who was the first to give in. But everything about this position—being pinned against the wall, Adam’s hand between her legs, nowhere for her to go—had her spiraling closer and closer to release.
And then he bit her.
Dawn had read plenty of vampire erotica in her lifetime, so she knew, in theory, how powerfully sexual a well-timed bite could be. She wasn’t saying she wanted to bleed or anything, but there was something deliciously possessive, something ruthlessly primal about the whole thing.
Adam seemed to know it. Whether because he’d also spent his fair share of time in the erotic vampire library or because he simply couldn’t help himself, he sank his teeth into the sensitive skin on the side of her neck. She cried out as that final sensation was added onto all the rest, the strength of her orgasm outstripping any other considerations. There were too many parts of her body being stimulated at once—too many parts of her being told what to do and how har
d to do it. She was so overpowered with sensory overload that her orgasm throbbed longer and harder than any she’d experienced before.
Her only saving grace was the fact that as soon as the cry left her lips, Adam proved himself just as far gone as she was. He changed the bite to another one of those long, hard kisses, pressing his mouth against her neck as he gave in to the pull of his own release.
Her legs were weak and her breathing labored, but neither of those things seemed to matter as he continued cradling her from behind. He was holding her up without even trying, supporting her simply by being near.
Shower sex had always been one of Dawn’s favorite kinds in terms of cleanup, since the mood remained unbroken. Cuddling in the heady afterglow had never been one of her strong points, but the act of soaping one another off under the continued spray of the water was a pure delight.
“What was that bite all about?” she said as she ran her hands up and down Adam’s abdomen, rubbing soap far more thoroughly than was necessary. “I’m going to be walking around like the victim of an animal attack for weeks.”
A guilty flush arrested his expression. “Is it bad?”
“I can tell what great orthodontic work you had done as a teenager, if that’s what you’re asking.”
The guilty flush didn’t abate, and his hand shot out to trace the line of her neck where he’d planted his teeth. He missed, grazing her shoulder instead, but he managed to find the location by running his fingertips over her skin. It remained unbroken, but there were clear indentations. “Oh shit. I didn’t mean to—”
She laughed and turned off the shower spray. “Don’t worry. I liked it.”
“You did?”
With the water turned off, an immediate chill overtook the bathroom. Dawn used this as an excuse to wrap her arms around Adam’s naked torso, basking in the warm, wet lull of him for a moment before dropping a kiss on his lips. It was meant to be a quick kiss, but there were still so many naked parts touching, she got a little carried away. Her mouth softened as she gave in to the kind of slow, leisurely tangle she normally found a waste of time.
“It’s been a long time since a man has felt the need to visibly mark me as his territory,” she teased as she drew her lips from his. “Aren’t you afraid of what Zeke and Phoebe will say if they see it?”
“Not really, no. I think they know you well enough by now to accept signs of depravity as part of the complete Dawn Vasquez package.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “Gee, thanks. You paint such a lovely picture of me.”
She stepped out of the shower and was reaching for one of the oversized towels on the opposite wall when Adam reached out and grabbed her around the wrist. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
Leaning down, she dropped a quick kiss on his hand before disentangling herself from his grip. “I know you didn’t. I just think it’s cute, that’s all, how obsessed you are with making sure you brand your herd.”
“I wasn’t—”
“First Dawn the cow, then Dawn the human… I’ll warn you right now, there’d better not be any marks on those puppies, or I’m hauling you in for animal abuse.”
“Dammit, Dawn, I didn’t—”
“Hey, Adam. I know.” She cupped the side of his face, aware as she did that she’d done a deplorable job of shaving him. “I told you already that it’s fine. It felt good, I don’t mind the marks, and I like that you’re uninhibited enough with me to go where the moment takes you.”
“But—”
“Don’t worry. If you ever overstep a boundary, I’ll make sure you know it.”
He didn’t appear to be comforted by this, worry puckering his brow.
“What is it?” she asked as she reached for the towel again. She took only a moment to wrap herself up before handing a second one to him. “Why do you look so upset?”
Instead of wrapping himself up, as most people would, he used the towel to dry his hair. He was supremely indifferent to the picture he made as he did it, all naked and chiseled and gleaming.
“You’re not like anyone I’ve ever known, that’s all,” he said. He finished toweling off his hair and started drying his body. Dawn could have easily pointed out that he wasn’t like anyone she’d ever known, either, but she was too busy enjoying the show. “I don’t think you realize how rare it is—or how useful—to find a woman who says exactly what’s on her mind.”
The words he was saying were a compliment, she knew. Forthrightness and honesty were things Adam valued, and they also just happened to be values that she possessed. But something about the way he said them made her feel like she was being pushed away.
“Well, what’s on my mind right now is food. Between the ranch work, the puppy training, and the shower sex, I’m ravenous.”
Adam laughed obligingly, but that worried pucker was still evident. “Right. I can promise to feed you, but I don’t know how much more time we’ll have before… Well, until…”
“Until one of your siblings comes home and sees me all bitten and sated.” She nodded. The action made her feel better somehow, more in control. “Noted. We’d better get me spirited away before our devious deeds are uncovered.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Yes it is, but that’s okay. It’s all part of the charm, right?”
She reached for her pile of clothes, which were still incredibly dirty and not at all what she wanted to put on after such a thorough and satisfying shower, but there wasn’t much she could do about it unless she started packing spare underwear in the trunk of her car.
Which, to be fair, had been something she’d done for the bulk of her early twenties.
“Out of curiosity, what would you want to do?” he asked. “Besides eat.”
It took her a moment to work out his meaning. “If I didn’t have to slink off into the night, you mean?”
He nodded, looking boyishly shy. It might have been because of the single damp lock of hair that curled down his forehead like he was a wet Superman, but Dawn thought it had more to do with the hesitant way he reached for her before dropping his hand again.
“Do you want the fun, sexy answer I’d give to the man I’m sleeping with, or would you prefer the real one?”
“The real one, please.”
She didn’t have to think about it. “I’d put on one of your oversized work shirts and nothing else. I’d pour us each a huge glass of that disgusting butterscotch schnapps out there and lounge with you on your couch watching Netflix until we fell asleep together.”
“Netflix?”
“It’s not as selfish as it sounds. They have really good audio description tracks on some of their shows.”
“I know that,” he said carefully. “But I didn’t know that you knew that.”
She turned away, even though he couldn’t see the blush that had crept into her cheeks. “I got curious and googled it one night.” Since she was still feeling oddly exposed, she added, “And strange as it seems, having someone to watch Netflix with is every woman’s dream.”
“You lie.”
“Okay, some women might prefer to binge-watch their favorite shows alone, but I’m not one of them. I watched all of the American Horror Story seasons a few weeks ago, and I still have to sleep with the lights on. I’m pretty sure there’s a ghost trapped in my basement.”
Adam clearly assumed she was making another joke, so she let the subject go. How could she explain to him that she wasn’t kidding, that the sum of all her hopes and dreams was to find a place where she could comfortably loll about, half-dressed and half-drunk, with a man who accepted her for who she was?
It was a truth as bleak as it was simple—she’d never be as professionally driven as Lila, and she’d never be as sweetly determined as Sophie. She’d never reach any great personal heights or distinguish herself in any way. The only thing she was good at was
enjoying herself, and even that was a struggle these days.
“He’s a friendly ghost, though,” she said, careful to insert a smile into her voice. “Like an erotic Casper. His moans are a little too enthusiastic, if you know what I’m saying.”
“Considering what you just did to me in that shower, I know what you’re saying.”
It was as good a segue as any. The flirtation was back on, the lighthearted note returned to the air. There would be no lounging and no Netflix, but that was okay. She hadn’t really expected him to take her up on the offer.
After all, that was the sort of thing real couples did. If there was one thing Dawn had learned in this lifetime, it was that real couple stuff—real love—wasn’t designed with women like her in mind.
Chapter 8
Adam wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or disappointed when he woke up the next morning to find that Dawn had already come and gone for the day.
“I was up and about at an obscene hour, so I’ve taken the puppies to Bea’s to help me garden,” Phoebe read aloud from the note that had been left on the kitchen counter along with an oversized box of pastries. “If I’m not back after lunch, assume I’ve been murdered and used as fertilizer. One of you can have my vintage movie-poster collection.”
The sound of whooshing paper filled Adam’s ears as Zeke swept in and plucked the note from Phoebe’s hand. “I call dibs on the posters,” Zeke said.