by Taryn Quinn
He leaned against the door jamb of a room at the end of the hall, arms crossed, watching me in a predatory way that made every part of me stand at attention. But I wasn’t about to let attraction silence my voice. Not again.
I came to a stop in front of him. “I think we need to get a few things straight, McGuire.”
His eyebrow lifted. “That so?”
“That’s so. I don’t want you to misunderstand me. I might have come here for sex, but that doesn’t mean you can ignore my questions and dismiss me. If you don’t want me to ask anything, I understand. It’s your life. Your business.”
His lips quirked. “Glad you see reason.” I let him drag me closer and brush his lips along my jaw. “I’m also glad you came here for sex, because I’ve been devising new ways to fuck you all goddamn week.” I shivered as he slid his large hand down my back to cup my ass through my short dress. He stayed above the fabric for a second before dipping his hand beneath to palm one bare cheek. “Shit, a thong?” He eased back to stare at me. “You?”
I shrugged.
“Since when do you wear thongs?”
“Since I meet random men for sex.”
“You better be using the plural incidentally.”
Again, I shrugged.
“Playing that game, are we? I don’t tell you what you want, you shut me down.”
“It’s not a game. I’m offering you the same thing you’re offering me.” I wet my lips, lingering on the gesture until his gaze dropped to them. “Your rules, but I’m going to make sure we adhere to them.”
He spun me around and pressed my spine against the doorframe so fast that I didn’t have a chance to counter the move. “My rules are you fuck me and only me while we’re doing this. Non-negotiable. That includes any dalliances with your ex.”
“Oh, you’re so lucky I don’t clean your clock for that one.” I jutted out my chin. “Besides, two-way street. You better give back what you ask for.”
“You think I’ve touched anyone else since you?” He braced his arm above my head and cupped my throat with his other hand, his thumb tracing my pulse. “You think I even could?”
I said nothing. While he was away from me, I had no clue how he lived his life. I knew so little about him. By his choice, it seemed.
God, I was so out of my depth here. True, I thought I was semi-holding my own, but it was like a goldfish trying to hang with a shark. At any time he could lean over and swallow me whole.
I wasn’t even entirely sure I would mind.
“Three fucking weeks I’ve ached for you. Then you come in here and Christ, I can’t even breathe from wanting you and you’re asking me questions. Like I can think. Like I can imagine anything but getting this dress off you and your pussy in my mouth.”
He tugged my short jacket down my arms and tossed it on a chair just inside what appeared to be the master bedroom. The room was light and airy, bigger than my mind could comprehend. Giant bed, huge windows, and heavy, expensive furniture everywhere.
Not right now. Worry about that later.
His hungry gaze latched on my face as he licked the inside of his lower lip. That predatory expression made my thighs quiver.
I couldn’t wait any longer. Right, wrong, good, bad—I needed this.
Him.
Slowly, I slid my arms up and gripped the door jamb. Not knowing what the hell I was doing or if I should be standing my ground. All I knew was Kellan’s jaw clenched as he raked his gaze over me. Without a word, he reached behind me to drag down my zipper. The sleeveless dress slipped down my body, revealing my white strapless bra and sheer lacy thong.
I’d never worn a thong before. Definitely hadn’t owned one. I wasn’t sure I was a fan of the whole butt floss thing, but I was on board with Kellan’s low groan as he devoured me with his eyes.
Still watching me, he crouched and closed his mouth over the wet spot on my panties, sucking me through the material. His tongue flicked hungrily while he pulled the narrow strip of fabric aside to rub my slick folds with his callused fingertips. Then he licked me without even the shield of my panties between us and I dropped my head back against the wood, seeing stars for more than one reason.
Stars? I saw a whole constellation of them at the feel of him sliding one long finger inside me where I was already soaked and clenching for him. Desperately craving what only he could give.
Even without a ton of experience, I understood that this guy was somehow the key in my lock. How I knew that with such certainty defied logic or explanation. I wasn’t going to try to make sense of it, even to myself.
He gripped my leg and pulled it over his shoulder. That would have scandalized me enough, but he wasn’t done. He grabbed the other one and did the same. I was held up against the wall, supported only by his broad shoulders, his face inches from my slit.
“Stay still,” he murmured, and dove in.
Right. As if I could be still while he ate me as if he was dying for my taste. Fingers pumping—two now—lips and tongue working my clit, teeth grazing my swollen flesh. His groans rumbled against my skin, inflaming me even more. I arched, gripping the door frame for purchase, fighting not to panic that he’d drop me. I couldn’t stop moving. Hips flailing, thighs trembling, heels beating against his back.
All the while, his mouth and fingers never stopped their sweet torment.
“I’m going to—”
“Yes,” he growled against me, and I shattered, letting out a cry as my body fisted and released. I grasped his fingers deep, bending forward to clutch at his hair with one hand while my nails scrabbled at the wood. I was losing my balance, sliding down the wall, so close to falling. Just slipping away.
He wouldn’t let me. Even as I lost track of myself, I knew he’d be there to catch me. It didn’t make sense, the trust I had in him. It was dangerous. But I couldn’t turn off my feelings in his direction.
Any of them.
I was still shaking from the aftershocks when he rose and enfolded me in his arms. “Shh,” he said against my hair while I struggled to hold on to him. My limbs weren’t functioning properly. My brain was a haze.
Orgasms weren’t supposed to leave you broken afterward, were they?
“Only the best ones, Red.”
My spine hit the bed an instant later, and he followed me down to the mattress. I hadn’t even been fully aware that he’d carried me.
“Some potent shit,” I mumbled, and he laughed, pressing his face into my hair.
I wasn’t even capable of fretting that I was saying what was in my head. So be it. He wanted the part between my legs, he’d just have to deal with the rest. As would I if I wanted that hard length pressing against my stomach.
And oh, I did.
He kneeled beside me and stripped off his button-down, each opened button revealing the tanned, muscled, inked chest beneath. My heart picked up speed at the sight of that meandering happy trail of hair that led down beneath his belly button to his unbuttoned jeans. Unzipped too. They gaped open, the outline of his stiff cock clearly visible against his dark boxers. He stood to kick off his boots and haul down his jeans and boxers and I stared, my mouth watering.
Without conscious thought, I sat up and undid my bra, letting the cups fall away from my breasts. He swallowed audibly, raking a hand through his hair. Messing it up further than I’d already done with my hands.
Before he got out of this bed, he’d be back to the Kellan I remembered. Scruff growing back in, hair wild, no part of him slick and savvy and meant to be palatable for the masses.
Mine.
Slowly, I kicked off my heels and slid the panties down my hips that he’d just shoved out of his way. His gulp for air was probably the sexiest thing I’d ever heard.
No, I was wrong. When he yanked open a bedside drawer and withdrew a strip of condoms, then tore open the first, that was the best sound ever.
He braced his knee on the bed and rolled on the latex, his gaze intent on mine. The expression in his eyes was so much softer than the ri
gid planes of his face. As if he was studying my reaction, wanting to make sure I was still with him.
I reclined on the bed and reached back to grip the spindles of the headboard. Ones meant to hold during a wild fuck.
He’s had other women here. You’re not the first. Definitely won’t be the last.
But that I managed not to say aloud. Somehow. Probably because some truths were too painful to deserve breath.
He grabbed my calf and yanked me toward him, spreading me open like a wishbone so he could settle between my legs. Without prelude, he captured one eager nipple, drawing it between his sharp teeth while he focused on my face. Always so careful to make sure I was right with him. The pleasure was too keen, pulling a moan from my throat. He switched to the other breast and offered it the same attention, tonguing the tip to a rigid peak. Alternating the pressure from rough to gentle. Watching me, he pinched both nipples. Again and again.
Already half crazed, I circled my hips in a vain attempt to alleviate the ache. I could feel myself readying for him again. Slickness saturated my inner thighs. I needed so much more than fingers this time. Soon I’d beg for his cock.
“So greedy,” he breathed against my breast. “So am I.”
He rolled me on my side and moved up behind me, cradling me close. His palm covered my breasts, trying to contain them. His hand wasn’t large enough. Not even close. He grunted against the side of my neck and squeezed them with almost painful force as I threw my leg over both of his. Opening up my pussy so he was right there, the heat of his erection a whisper away.
“Now,” I pleaded, beyond embarrassment.
Kellan lined up his dick with my slit, taunting me with shallow thrusts that heightened my arousal without giving me any relief. He inched inside me enough to make my walls clutch at him, shifting me half on my belly so the friction of the sheets teased my swollen clit. His lips skimmed my ear as he stopped trying to cup my breasts and strummed his thumb between my legs.
“Want to come again?”
I nodded, incapable of words. He chuckled and bore down harder with both his thumb and his cock, causing me to shake and strain for what loomed so close.
Still. Again.
“First deep stroke,” he said, his thumb moving faster now. Sliding audibly in the wetness he’d created. “You’re gonna cream on my dick.”
I shut my eyes and rocked back against him, gaining another inch of his length. My sigh of relief made him push me harder against the mattress. I was half on my belly, half on my side, completely beneath him. At his mercy. Under his control.
Never had anything felt so damn good.
“First deep stroke,” he said again, and it sounded like a promise.
Then he pulled back on the trigger and slammed into me, so full and hard, hitting that spot only he seemed to know how to find. And I exploded around him.
“Fuck, yes. Fuck.” He rolled on his back and drew me with him, still embedded inside me, his large hands guiding my hips as he lifted me up and down. Using my body for his enjoyment while my climax spun out and went on and on.
I couldn’t do anything but loll against him, squeezing him on each thrust. But then I started to push back against him, my hands bracing against his tensed abdomen as I raised and lowered myself on his thick dick. He might be using me but I was using him too, nearly drunk on the power of destroying his will.
He might have decimated me, but I intended to do the same right back.
He swore ripely against my shoulder and fumbled between my thighs to play with my clit, his caresses no longer sure. I was so slippery and he was shaking too, his big body tense and straining beneath mine. He thickened inside me and I moaned, throwing back my head as the pinprick lights in the ceiling multiplied and swam.
“Hell yes. So goddamn tight. Work me with that sweet pussy.” He shoved my legs apart and surged up into me, so roughly I feared I’d break.
I loved it. I craved it. Just like this.
Poised on the brink of another orgasm, I reached down to grasp his cock, seating it more firmly inside of me. I whimpered at the hot, hard feel of him drenched with my arousal. I’d never been so wet in my life.
He reached up to grab a handful of my hair, yanking my head back so I stretched out flat on top of him. And he finished us both off, rearing up and pushing into me at just the right angle for me to come again. That shoved him over too, his cock jerking as he spilled himself into the condom and he roared out his pleasure into my hair.
“Maggie. Goddammit, Maggie.”
Coming with him shouting my name—and sounding so absolutely pissed about it—made me contract around him again. I couldn’t stop coming.
I might be screwed, but so was he.
Half blind, nearly deaf, I slumped on top of him. His arms came around me, banding tight. “You’re not leaving this time,” he said gruffly, and I nodded without even being fully aware of what I was agreeing to.
I didn’t know how I’d ever leave again.
13
Kellan
I’d never had a woman in my bed. Not in my house. Not here.
It was probably not much of a triumph, considering I’d only been renting this place for about six months. But I’d always been careful to keep the lines separate.
Women were for backstage hallways and green rooms. Add in the occasional hotel room, bar bathroom or club VIP area. I wasn’t a saint, and didn’t pretend otherwise.
Now there was Maggie, who’d blown every rule I’d ever set for myself to hell.
I’d also never been balls deep in a woman one minute and dreaming about her the next. Her hair clinging to my mouth, her soft breasts pillowed against my chest. Evidently that wasn’t close enough. She had to be inside my head too, so I woke up with her name on my tongue.
I opened my eyes to find her asleep in my arms, her long dark hair spread all over me. Owning me just as her body did.
What the hell was happening to me?
I couldn’t remember getting up to turn out the lights, but the room was now dark. A thin path of moonlight highlighted her delicate features. Her inky lashes, her freckled nose, and her soft mouth, swollen from mine. Her pearlescent skin glowed against the navy sheets, and I stroked her arm just to see the stark difference between our flesh.
She was the light to my dark in every goddamn way.
The contrast between her pale skin, bright blue eyes, and near-black hair would be gorgeous on canvas. In the picture I wanted to paint, her ruby red nipples would peek past the barely closed lapels of the silk robe I’d purchased on a whim yesterday. I’d found myself at the counter of a fancy department store, the satiny fabric clutched in my hands. I’d wanted her in clothes I’d bought and smelling like me again.
Now she did. Our combined scents mingled in the room, dirty and lewd. But her hair still smelled of strawberries, fresh and sweet.
She stirred in her sleep and I fought the urge to roll out of bed. The need to move, to escape, was nearly stifling.
I slept alone. Always.
Once was an accident. Twice was a plan.
Three times would be setting us both up for a fall.
I sat up in bed and rested my head in my hands. I had to get out of here. Just get in my car and go. She had her roundtrip ticket. If I didn’t come back, didn’t call or contact her, she’d get the message and leave. Go back to her family where she belonged.
She didn’t belong with me. I didn’t know how to be faithful, just like good ol’ Dad. Sleeping with her twice in a row was the longest streak I’d been on since high school.
And if that wasn’t pathetic, I didn’t know what was.
The sheets whispered behind me and I braced. I still wasn’t capable of steeling myself so that the hesitant brush of her lips against my shoulder didn’t affect me. I knew she was uneasy, that she’d never experienced any of this before.
Only a bastard would leave her in the dark without any comforting words. Even something as simple as telling her she meant more to me
than a good fuck.
Instead I told her about my father.
“My dad didn’t stay with us,” I said, somehow shocked to hear my voice break the stillness. She must’ve been surprised too, because I felt her body jolt. “Having a family wasn’t in his plans. So he pretended to do the right thing. But it was just going through the motions.”
She didn’t respond right away. “Some people aren’t suited for family life, I suppose. Or they won’t let themselves be. Which is pretty much the same thing.”
“Your world was the exact opposite of mine.” I let out a brittle laugh. “I’m not saying I had it rough, just that I didn’t grow up with the same wide-eyed innocence toward life. It changes you. Hardens you.”
Even as I tried to explain, I didn’t want her to understand. I didn’t want her to be harder. I wanted her exactly how she was.
I owed her those simple, sweet words about what she meant to me. Something more substantial than a random tidbit about my father that didn’t matter jack shit. What mattered was how I treated her when it was just the two of us. Without the excuses and the bullshit that I thought justified me acting like an asshole.
She didn’t deserve anything but the best.
But I was a bastard, and I’d come by it naturally. So I turned to her and pushed her back against the pillows, gripping her wrists in one hand over her head. My hard dick nestled between her damp thighs. In the dark, her huge eyes tracked mine.
My hips snapped back and I sank into her, one punishing thrust that ripped a breath from her throat.
Immediately, I knew my mistake. I was inside her bare, and she was like heaven gloving my dick. Slick, hot, so giving. Her pussy opening up to me the deeper I went. I drew back and slammed home again, even harder before.
I was taking her raw and I didn’t even care. It didn’t matter.
She yanked her wrists free and shoved at my shoulders. I thought she was trying to stop me—as she should—so I started to pull back. Both of us scarily silent except for our tortured breaths, as if even speaking required too much effort.
Then she rolled me on my back and climbed on top, her grip on my rock-hard cock so certain as she guided it back inside her. Where it belonged.