by S. M. Butler
He buried his face in her neck, even as he palmed her breast with one hand and played with her clit with the other. “Whatever you want, Penny. It’s yours. I’m yours.”
“Fuck me,” she hissed at him. “Like this.” With a powerful move, he pulled his hips back and slammed inside her, his free hand cupping her pussy. She groaned. “Yes. That’s what I want.”
Goddamn but he was helpless to deny her what she wanted. He repeated the hard thrust, loving the sweet sound of her moan as he held her body against his. The slap of flesh against flesh was loud. He continued to slide his finger against her clit while he moved inside her.
As she came again, his need overwhelmed him. He growled and shoved her body forward, holding her hips in a punishing grip as he fucked her. She met him thrust for thrust with a push back of her own, but it wasn’t long before he was totally gone, pounding away at her. When she started to sit up, he put his hand on her upper back, holding her down. She cried out again, her sex constricting around him as another orgasm washed over her.
For a moment, he was afraid he’d hurt her. When he started to ease up, she shook her head. “Don’t stop. Harder. Faster.”
Encouraged by her words, he shoved her back to the mattress, holding the back of her neck lightly as he leveraged her hip with his other hand. Lightning heat raced all through his body. Then his release barreled down his shaft and into the condom. He swore he came for hours as he fucked her, thrusting erratically until finally, he collapsed on top of her.
Rolling to the side, he slipped out of her. He didn’t even have the conscious thought to remove the soiled condom from himself. Luckily, she was in much better shape.
He winced as she pulled it from him and left the bed. He didn’t have the presence of mind to do anything other than lay there. Of all the times he’d fantasied about having Penny again, this experience had completely blown him away.
When she came back, he had regained enough strength in his limbs to pull her into him, resting her against his chest. He frowned and glanced down. Her hand was on that shit on his chest. Her eyes were closed, but surely, she could feel the raised skin there, the ridges of his scars. He covered her hand with his, then interlaced them together.
Penny glanced up at him with a frown. “Why are you embarrassed of this?” She glanced at his chest, at the shit that marked him.
He blew out a breath. “I just… I don’t want to think of you anywhere near that.”
“What is it from?” she asked him.
“I…” he trailed off. He closed his eyes. He couldn’t tell her, could he? He didn’t even know why he’d honored her request to get naked with her. Beyond that maybe he was thinking with his dick and not the way he was supposed to.
“Jordan…” she said. “Please?”
He hated when she used that tone with him. Because it meant that he was about to give in to her. He sighed. “All right, but let me get through it first. I mean, don’t talk. Just let me get through it.” If he couldn’t get it all out in one go, he was liable to never be able to. He didn’t want to burden her with that shit from his past, but he was incapable of denying her anything.
“I promise. I’ll wait for you,” she whispered as she gave him a soft kiss on the lips.
“My father was a real son of a bitch.”
“Was?” He frowned at her. She closed her eyes. “Sorry.”
“I’m not a good man, Penny,” he started. “In fact, I’m a thief. Or I was up until a few years ago.”
Penny sat up a little so she could look into the eyes of her lover. He avoided her gaze though, concentrating instead on where their hands were joined together. He played with her fingers, running his thumb over her skin. “My father was also not a good man. He was a con artist. A thief. One of the best I’ve ever known. He taught me everything, from the simplest lock to pick to the most complex safe. My oldest memories are of him teaching me the tricks of his trade.”
Though he still avoided her gaze, she was glad that he was still talking.
“A few years ago, I got sucked into one of his schemes again, after promising myself I wouldn’t. He wanted to… he’d broken into a house with a key he’d taken from the woman who lived there—” he paused and looked at her. “The married woman who lived there.”
Penny sat stock still as Jordan made sure she knew that detail.
When he laughed, it wasn’t a happy laugh. It was dry and self-deprecating. “Yeah, my father fucked her and managed to get access to the house. He never had problems screwing people over. It’s where I get it from, actually.”
Penny wanted to argue, but that hard look on his face offered no arguments. As much as Jordan talked, he didn’t usually say much, so she was disinclined to distract him as he continued his story.
“We cleaned her out that night. The jewelry, the stuff in her safe, everything we could carry.” Jordan let out a shuddering breath. “We were out and back at the safe place we met when my father—”
Jordan stopped and his eyes went distant. Without thinking, she squeezed the hand that held hers, trying to encourage him to talk. His eyes shot to hers like he’d forgotten she was there. Inside them, she saw such sadness and regret.
He cleared his throat. “Well, I woke up some time later with a splitting headache and my father was gone. I was… I was tied up, trussed up spread eagle.” His arm tightened around Penny, pulling her close even as they held hands. She doubted he even realized that he’d done it, that he was craving that closeness. “The woman he stole from… she was part of the Giroux family. Do you know who they are?”
She shook her head.
“Of course, you don’t,” he murmured, almost to himself. “Someone who shines like you wouldn’t ever know about the darkness of the criminal underworld.” He let out a loud, frustrated sigh. “Anyway, by the time she was done with me, this shit was all over my chest. Messy business it was. So much blood and sweat. She wanted to know where my father was. But I didn’t know, because he’d sacrificed me to make his escape.”
“That’s horrible,” she whispered, wanting to comfort him.
“I’m pretty good at escapes, you know. I am my father’s son, after all. I managed to get out. I ended up on a rooftop… well, anyway, I made it out.” He cleared his throat. “Met my current boss shortly after that and been here since.”
She glanced at his chest, eying the stark white scars against the swirly black ink and frowned. There was more to it, she guessed, but getting this much from him when previously he would have hidden behind his charm and his jokes… it was more than she’d expected. She lifted her head. “You didn’t deserve that.”
Another derisive laugh. “Oh, love, I’m not the man you think I am.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You are exactly the man I think you are.” She felt the pull away more than she saw it. One second, he was right there with her, and then the next, emotionally, he’d erected a wall between them.
His breath was shaky as he released her hand long enough to rub his sternum. Something he did when he was fending off his demons inside, she realized. His chest was a reminder every time he saw it that he’d been betrayed, lied to, hurt. He used it as a shield, holding the world at bay as he ran through life at top speed.
Before she realized what she was doing, she lifted her body over his, straddling his hips. She caged him with her arms as she leaned down and kissed him. This kiss was lingering, soft, and it said all the things she wanted to tell him. Like how proud she was that he’d survived that mess, how grateful she was that he was here with her in that moment, and… shit, how much she loved him.
She wasn’t sure when it happened, from that moment in the club when he’d pinned her against the wall to him showing up at Betty’s clinic with a stray to this moment right here. But it had. Love. She hadn’t wanted that. She still wanted to deny that it was true. But the truth was in that kiss she gave him, the one meant for comfort rather than pleasure.
His hands slid from her thighs up to her h
ips as she pulled back from him, watching his expression. There was an earnest hopefulness in his face, like he’d never dared to believe that something this good could happen to him. His voice was husky when he said, “You’re so beautiful. Blindingly so.”
She smiled and leaned down to kiss him again. Beneath her, his cock twitched to life, hardening and lengthening as they kissed. He moaned against her lips, tightening his arms around her even as his hips pressed against her hot center.
As his big hands kneaded her breasts, she leaned to the nightstand and grabbed the other condom, ripping it open. As she stroked his erection to life, he thrust up into her hands and she enjoyed the sight of him sprawled out on this bed, staring at her with a fire in his eyes while she stroked him.
“Penny, love,” he whispered, a question in his eyes.
She rolled on the condom, eliciting another groan from him.
“Please, Penny,” he said.
She gripped his cock between her legs and slowly lowered herself, gently making soft back and forth motions until he was seated once again inside her fully. His fingers bruised her hips with how hard he held her in place.
She started a slow, easy rhythm, listening to his pleasured moans. As she fucked him, he rose up to thrust harder into her. From this angle, his cock stroked all the right spots inside her, her own pleasure ratcheting up with every slide of him.
His hands burned across her skin as they settled on her waist. Then his thumb brushed low, against her sex. He flicked her clit, then rubbed the little nerve. “Come for me, love.”
He kept fingering her while she fucked him. She didn’t know what to do with her hands, so she pressed them against his thighs, just above his knees to balance herself while he touched her, while she rode his dick.
“I love the way you fill me,” she murmured. Voicing that had as much of an effect on her as the cock stoking up her insides.
Her world spun as he flipped them so she was on her back. He never missed a beat, continuing to press his hips into her in a slow, easy rhythm. He never changed, never sped up. Unlike their fevered pairings before, this was unhurried and somehow, made her burn all the more.
Before long, her control snapped. She cried out as she came, and he swallowed her moans as he kissed her. And he kept on with his rhythm. Soon, he was following her down that cliff, groaning out her name as he came.
He buried his head into her neck, breathing hard. She slid her fingers through his hair, holding him close to her. He lifted his head, his eyes spearing her with restrained emotions. Then he kissed her briefly and murmured, “Give me a minute.”
She let out a soft protest as he left her warmth, but he wasn’t gone long. When he came back, he pulled her up against his warm chest. “If I fall asleep, will I wake up alone?”
She glanced at him. “You want me to stay?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“Then I’ll stay,” she whispered.
He sighed, content and lust sated, he squeezed her to him. “This is so much better sober. Just sayin’.”
She giggled. “We still didn’t make it through one night without sex.”
“Regrets?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Not at all.” She loved the power in his arms, the way his muscles tensed when she came, like he couldn’t withstand it. Lying together in the bed, the whole thing was perfect. Picture perfect.
“I feel warm with you,” he said, somewhat sleepily. She glanced at him, lifting up her head. His eyes were closed, but a soft smile she’d never seen on him dominated his expression. Like he’d found peace. But wasn’t that a weird thing? To find peace with a virtual stranger?
He’d told her a lot tonight, so maybe he was worn out.
“Do you think less of me now that you know what… I did?”
She frowned as she looked up at him. “Why would I?”
“I stole from people. I lied and cheated.”
She slid her fingers along his strong jaw. “I think you’ve punished yourself enough for that. You don’t need me to do it for you as well.”
His throat worked hard, and his voice was strained when he spoke. “I don’t deserve you.”
Instead of answering him, she kissed him. Tonight had well past her expectations. She hadn’t realized the effort he’d make, or how he’d open up to her. She’d fallen for her sexy one-night stand, and though it broke all the normal rules of one-nighters, she couldn’t bring herself to send him away. She wanted him, wanted to stay like this. He made all the bad parts of her life disappear. Here, she didn’t have to think about Tessa. Here, she could forget that she’d been the cause of her mother’s death. Here, she could just focus on Jordan, on her love for him, on her happiness.
As she drifted away, she did focus on that, surrounded by his warmth, his strength, all of it lulling her into a deep sleep.
20
Penny’s chestnut hair had a halo on it, Jordan mused as he squinted in the sunlight. At least, it appeared that way as she walked his dog. As Ralph squatted for yet another shit, Penny’s eyebrows pinched together. She glanced over at Jordan, realized he was looking right at her, and her cheeks flushed pink.
He loved that she blushed when he looked at her. He’d never look away if he could see that faint little color on her cheeks all the time.
“Your dog is a pooping machine. What the hell are you feeding him?”
“Dog food,” Jordan said with a shrug. “There’s nothing wrong with being regular.”
In the last few days after the dinner, he and Penny had spent pretty much every second he could spare with her. Being grounded from missions meant he suddenly had a lot of time on his hands. And though his leg was already healing nicely, he still walked in that stupid boot. Not only would it be odd for him to start walking better so fast, but he had a nice hole in his leg, and he didn’t want to explain that one.
She frowned at her phone.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Text from my sister. Asking about dinner.” Penny hadn’t said much about her sister, but he gathered the relationship was strained. Another reason they had spent so much time together. Penny hadn’t wanted to be home any more than he wanted to be sitting alone in his apartment.
As said poop machine bounded back toward Jordan, Penny allowed the little guy to pull her along. Five days since that dinner, and Jordan still couldn’t believe Penny was right there with him. He soaked up every inch of her in that gorgeous little sun dress. It was sleeveless, baring her slender arms and hugged her waist, flaring out at the hips. The dress was a light pastel blue, with pink and yellow blooms over large sections of it. What he really liked were the white Converse she wore with it. He hadn’t seen her in heels since the dinner, but somehow seeing her in those was twice as hot. Maybe because he’d quickly learned they were not her favorite thing, nor were the shapeless suits she had worn to work, and he loved the beautiful dichotomy it made.
He shuddered as anxious energy slithered through him. She was to go back to work soon. Her vacation time was ending. It was possible that once she left Jubilee and rejoined the world, she’d learn what he did, find out that her codes had been used.
As soon as she was within reach, he gripped her waist and pulled her body between his legs. She wasn’t super tall, more like average height for a female. But his eyes were level with her collarbone so all he had to do was lift his face to touch her lips with his.
But he didn’t, because together, their appetite for sexual activity tended to run away with them. One touch from her sent him out of control. Sheriff Hannigan had already caught him with his hand up her skirt once, on this same bench. Or nearly he did. He’d pulled out of her as soon as he’d heard the sheriff coming and smoothed down the material just as he’d shown up. But there was no hiding the bright pink of Penny’s embarrassment.
He’d never really been into sex in public places but with her… he just couldn’t help himself, couldn’t stop himself from touching her, no matter where t
hey were.
Slowly, he ran his thumbs up her inner thighs, feeling the heat of her body amplify the closer he got to her sex. He eyed the grass as if he were ready to take her down there and fuck her right there. He wasn’t a hundred percent though and he didn’t want to aggravate his leg, as much as he wanted Penny.
There was also the idea of her sitting on his lap on the bench, but the thing was old. He wasn’t sure it could take the exertion. As if she could read where his thoughts had strayed, she purred into his ear, “You’re going to get us in trouble again.”
“We’re not doing anything,” he said. He pulled her down to him by the nape of her neck, covering her lips with his. He loved how warm her lips always were, so soft yet firm. So willing to be kissed at every moment. As they separated, he grinned at her. “Yet.”
As she let out a soft breath of oh-yes-please, he was again tempted to take her down to the grass. But he didn’t want to ruin that pretty dress of hers. And his senses were working overtime. There were too many people around and that always made him paranoid.
Just then, Ralph barked and yanked on the lead, pulling at Penny. She frowned as her attention went to the dog. Jordan glared at the dog. “Spoilsport.”
Penny chuckled as she extracted herself from his arms and he felt the loss deep inside his fucked-up chest. “It’s okay. I need to get home soon.”
“Are you coming over tonight?” he asked, trying to keep the hopefulness out of his voice. She’d spent several nights with him this week and none of it was enough to get his fill of her.
“I can’t. I need to pack,” she said slowly. “I leave tomorrow.”
Wasn’t that like a bucket of ice water. His heart sank deep into the pit of his stomach. She was leaving tomorrow, going back to her life in the city. And he would be stuck here, alone, waiting for that moment when she’d figure out his betrayal and hate him.
“Hey, now. None of that. You’re going to visit me. And I’m going to come back more.” She smiled and lifted the hand that held hers to her lips. But instead of kissing it, she took two of his fingers into his mouth and sucked them. Her tongue slicked along the digits as she slowly drew them into her mouth and then out. Then back in, tantalizingly slow.