All the Pretty Lies

by M. Leighton

  I want her. I want to take what she’s given to no one else. I want to be the first to show her everything. And to be the one she can’t forget. She’s like the blank slate I so crave for my art. I want to be etched onto her. Permanently. Something about that thought appeals to the primal man in me, to the animal and the conqueror.

  I take a step toward her and, as if sensing the stalk of a predator, she opens her eyes and they focus immediately on mine. Her lips curve the slightest bit. A provocative half grin that makes me think of pushing her onto a bed, rolling her onto her stomach and ramming into her from behind.

  I grit my teeth. My patience is stretched to the point of breaking.

  When I stop in front of Sloane, she takes a shot glass from my hand and grabs the salt from the bend of my arm. “I’ll go first again,” Sloane says, a dangerous glint in her eyes. Before I can argue, she’s wiggling her tongue over the skin of my throat then standing back to shake a little salt on it. I feel it sprinkle down my arm and chest, doubting that much hit the spot she prepared, and not caring either way.

  With her lips and tongue, she licks salt from my neck, tosses back her shot and sucks on the lemon wedge. I see the challenge in her eyes as she watches me over the yellow slice she’s holding between her lips. My patience dissolves like the salt on her tongue.

  “You know what?” I ask, pulling her close so she can hear me. And so I can feel her.

  “What?”

  “I’ve got tequila and lemons and salt and music at my house.”

  I lean back to look down at her. Onyx eyes search mine. She knows what I’m saying, what I’m asking. “Then let’s go.”

  I hand my shot to the guy standing behind me and I take Sloane’s hand, leading her to the door. I can’t get home fast enough.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE- Sloane

  When I opened my eyes and saw Hemi watching me, I knew tonight would be the night we’d take the next step, whatever that might be. But I want it. More than anything.

  I want him. I want tonight. I want right now. I want the impulsive, the spontaneous. I want the passion. And I’m about to get it.

  The music is just loud enough that we don’t speak the entire way back to Hemi’s house in the posh Atlanta suburb. When he cuts the engine, he gets out, comes around to my side and helps me out, leading me quietly to the front door. Once inside, Hemi takes my purse from my fingers and throws it on the sofa. He turns back to me, cupping my cheek with his palm. “How’s your head?”

  “It’s fine. It’s perfect,” I answer with a smile.

  “Not too fuzzy?”

  “No, it’s just a little…light.”

  “Then how about the sauna? The heat will intensify the buzz you feel now, but I’ll take some water so it doesn’t get out of hand.”

  “The sauna sounds good,” I say. And it does.

  “I was hoping you’d say that,” Hemi confesses with a grin. “Be right back.”

  A couple of minutes later, Hemi returns with an ice bucket full of ice and an assortment of other things. He takes my hand and leads me down the hall and through a door. The hardwoods turn to beautiful travertine tiles that lead into a short corridor that’s filled with big pots filled overflowing with exotic plants. I can smell chlorine, so I know the pool is close.

  Hemi stops in front of a solid wood door with a tiny window at the top. He fiddles with a dial on the wall and then sets the bucket down.

  “Have you ever been in a sauna before?”

  I shake my head. “No, but I know what they are.”

  “Then you know they’re hot and humid. And we’ll sweat.”

  “I know.”

  “So it’s better to go in with no clothes on.”

  I feel like smiling and moaning at the same time. Something about Hemi’s face and his voice and this night is pleasing to me in so many ways, I’m almost confused by the onslaught of feelings and anticipation.

  “Well, it’s not like you haven’t seen me naked before.”

  His eyes darken, from cool blue to dark, steamy midnight. “How can I forget?” He reaches for the hem of my shirt. “Let me help you,” he says, raising the material.

  Hemi pulls my shirt over my head and drops it onto the floor. Beneath it, because of the cut of my top, I’m wearing a strapless bra. Hemi’s eyes rove over me like I’m wearing nothing. Taking me by the shoulders, Hemi turns me to face the door and presses me up against it, raising my arms above my head, palms flat against the wood.

  I feel his fingers tickle down my sides, skating to the center of my back to release the clasp of my bra. I gasp when he runs his hands up my stomach and cups my breasts where they’re smashed between bra and door. I groan and arch my back. When he moves his hands away, taking my bra with it, he leans into me, pressing my naked skin against the cool wood of the door. I gasp. “Does that make your nipples hard? The cold door against that hot skin of yours?”

  He doesn’t wait for an answer. And I don’t give him one. I’m too focused on his hands as they travel back down my sides, to the edge of my shorts.

  When Hemi’s tongue touches my back, I lean further into the door for support. He licks all the way down my spine as he drops to his knees behind me. His fingers curl in the waistband of my shorts, dragging the material over my hips and down my legs, leaving me standing before him in only my panties and heels.

  “You have a mouthwatering ass,” he groans, stroking one cheek with his tongue and then biting it lightly. I exhale, feeling more lightheaded than I did when we arrived. He eases the silk of my panties to the floor, running his hands back up the insides of my thighs. “And the most beautiful legs I’ve ever seen.” His hands stop just shy of where I’m beginning to ache. “Every time I look at you from behind, I want to come all over your ass and watch you shiver when it runs down between your legs. Like this,” he says, pushing my legs apart to trace a path from the base of my spine to the tops of his fingertips. But he stops when he’s so close. So close…

  I feel a whimper build at the back of my throat.

  “But not yet,” he says, dragging his hands slowly away, leaving me feeling empty and unsatisfied.

  Hemi pulls me away from the door and opens it. A gush of steam wafts out from the sweetly scented interior. “Have a seat. I’ll be right in.”

  I kick off my shoes and step inside the sauna, moving to the wide top ledge and sitting primly on the edge. When I look back toward the door, it’s to see Hemi stripping off his clothes and grabbing the ice bucket. His movements are quick as he steps into the sauna and turns to close the door behind him. It’s when he faces me, the ice bucket and some towels tucked against his hip, that I see what true masculine perfection Hemi possesses.

  I’ve seen him mostly naked before anyway, at the beach and then again in the hotel. But to be able to look my fill, to see him standing before me wearing nothing but an intense look and the ink that I’ve helped apply to his skin is breathtaking.

  My eyes travel from his square jaw to his wide shoulders and down his muscular arms. I make note of his flat, rippled stomach and his lean hips before my eyes pause on the excited appendage nestled between them.

  I’ve seen a naked man in real life before, but never one like this. Never one so amazingly constructed. Or so…big. It gives me a thrill that Hemi is excited, very obviously so. His erection is long and thick and lies firmly against his lower abdomen, stretching all the way to his navel. My mouth goes dry just thinking about him trying to fit that inside me, but my body aches for him to try. And soon.

  My gaze skims Hemi’s strong thighs before returning to his. “Don’t worry, little girl,” Hemi says hoarsely, “I’ll show you how to use it before the night’s over with.”

  Heat gushes to the throb between my legs and I nod.

  I watch as Hemi sets the bucket on the first ledge and kneels at my feet. He spreads out three thick towels on the wooden seat beside me. “Lie back on these. They’re softer,” he says, tucking one under his knees, too. When I do as he
says, he reaches for the bucket, taking a bottle of water from inside it and twisting off the top. He takes a sip then throws a little on the hot coals, causing a burst of steam to fill the room. Then he turns back to me. Hemi holds the bottle to my lips and I lean up onto my elbows. “Drink. I don’t want you to get dehydrated.”

  Doing as I’m told, I close my lips around the end of the bottle. Hemi tilts it up just enough that the cool liquid touches my tongue and then he lowers it. It tastes incredible—cold and refreshing, especially in contrast to the hot environment.

  “More?” he asks. I nod and he tips up the bottle again, this time further, so I can get a bigger drink.

  Liquid spills from the corner of my mouth and dribbles down my chest, leaving a cool trail behind it. I gasp at the shock of it.

  “Cold?” he asks. I nod again.

  Dipping his head, Hemi puts his tongue to where the drop stopped half way down my stomach and he licks its wet trail all the way back up to my throat.

  “More?” he asks.

  I nod yet again.

  Hemi holds the bottle of water over my mouth without letting it touch my lips. He pours some onto my waiting tongue then lets some splash onto my collarbone. I suck in a breath as Hemi moves the bottle further, tipping it up and letting cool water cascade over my puckered nipple. It runs down my stomach to the crease of my thigh.

  Pressing his lips to my chest, Hemi follows the liquid trail, licking his way down to my nipple and pulling it into his mouth. “Mmmm, doesn’t feel cold to me,” he murmurs around my flesh, sending chills down my arm. He gives my nipple one hard suck, letting it pop out of his mouth as he moves on down my stomach. “Let me check elsewhere.”

  Hemi’s lips and tongue make their way down my body to the crease where my hip and leg meet. He delves his tongue deep into it, following it in toward the apex of my legs. I feel the heat of his mouth against my skin and I spread my thighs, craving closer contact. Craving Hemi.

  “This isn’t cold at all,” he whispers. “But if you’re hot…and you need it to be cold…”

  Reaching into the bucket, Hemi takes an ice cube and puts it in his mouth. I see him hold it there for a few seconds before the action of his throat tells me he swallowed. Then, parting my legs farther and using the fingers of one hand to spread my folds, he bends his head.

  Pleasure floods me when he touches his cool tongue to me, swirling it over my clit and then down to thrust it inside me. It feels like he’s touching me with wet ice, burning-cold, wet ice. “God, I love the way you taste. Sweet, like honey.”

  Hemi reaches beside him for the water bottle. Holding it over me, he pours cool water between my legs, letting it run all the way down before he laps it up with his tongue. The hot and the cold, the trickle of the water and the pressure of his tongue, I’m about to spiral out of control when I feel Hemi’s fingers, cool from the ice, enter me. Just once. One sharp thrust and then he withdraws them.

  “You’re so tight,” he says against me. “And I’m gonna stretch you so much tighter,” he moans, bending back to me, his lips and tongue devouring me while he penetrates me again with his fingers. “This first time, I won’t go deep. I don’t want to hurt you. But the next time? Next time, I’ll show you no mercy. And you’ll love me for it.”

  Hemi’s words are a better aphrodisiac than anything in that club. They seep into my body and heat it up from the inside, making me writhe beneath his skilled mouth.

  My body is awash with sensation—his cool tongue slipping in and out of me; his lips as they suck my flesh into his mouth; his teeth as he rakes them gently over me. And his fingers when they push deep into me.

  Then he’s picking up my hips, holding me in his palms, up to his mouth. Feasting between my spread legs.

  Sound fades, like it’s receding into a tunnel. Breath catches, like it’s been consumed by a vacuum. Eyes close, as if pleasure is pulling the shades on my vision. And then, under Hemi’s exquisitely agonizing touch, I fly up through the ceiling and out into the night, breaking apart and falling back down to Earth in a million tiny pieces.

  I’m not even aware of burying my fingers in his hair. Or holding his head to me. Or moving my body against his mouth. Or screaming his name over and over again. I can only feel. Feel Hemi.

  When he sets my hips back down, I look down. Hemi takes one of my legs and lifts it, rolling me slightly onto my side. He tucks my calf under his arm and moves in over my other leg, settling between them. I watch, fascinated, as he guides his thick head to my entrance. I feel it there, my body sucking at it as Hemi moves it in small circles, round and round, slightly in and back out again. I’m helpless to make him slide farther in. I’m forced to wait, anticipation curling every muscle in my body into a tight fist.

  I feel the difference in the way he slips in and out of me in those shallow strokes, barely penetrating my entrance. I can feel how slippery he is now, coated in my desire. He eases it up, moving it between my folds, rubbing the slick head over my clitoris, making me breathless all over again. I feel a tightness in my chest. Maybe a whimper. Or a moan. Or a plea.

  “Mmm, you like that, don’t you? Can you feel how wet you are? Can you feel how slippery my cock is?” I make a strangled sound. It’s all I can muster at the moment. “That’s all you, baby. This time, when you come, I want that dripping off my balls. I want to feel it pouring out of you onto me.”

  “Please, Hemi,” I manage. I don’t even know what I’m asking for. I just know I need something. And I need it now.

  Air and sound and my heart jam up in my chest when Hemi moves back down to my entrance.

  “I don’t want to hurt you, but I’m probably going to. But only for a second.”

  “Do it. Now. Please.”

  With one sharp flex of his hips, Hemi enters me and then he goes completely still. I feel a tearing pain that radiates into my thighs. It lasts for a few long heartbeats. Hemi doesn’t move. Neither do I. Finally, the pain eases into an incredibly, pleasurably full sensation.

  I wasn’t aware of squeezing my eyes shut until I open them and look down at Hemi. He’s perfectly still, the veins in his neck standing out in his efforts not to move. I look down to where our bodies are joined. I see most of him is still not inside me, but the sight of such an intimate connection gets me excited all over again.

  I feel my body twitch around him, then I feel an answering throb from where part of him is inside me. “Ffff—” Hemi hisses through his gritted teeth, throwing his head back and growling for a second. “Don’t do that.”

  “Don’t do what?” I ask.

  “Don’t move yet. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “You’re not hurting me. I want you to move,” I confess, feeling the urge to swivel my hips against him. I don’t fight it. I just go with it.

  “Grrr,” Hemi snarls, the fingers of one hand biting into my raised leg. “Sloane.”

  I feel him inside me, hot and thick. And I want more.

  “Please, Hemi. I want more. I want all of you. Inside me. All the way.”

  Hemi glares at me. For a second, I think he must hate me. But then, he nudges his hips forward a little more and his expression eases into one of pained pleasure.

  “How does that feel?” he asks.

  “It feels so good,” I pant, angling my hips to accept more of him.

  “Oh, God!” he groans, withdrawing and then thrusting a little farther in. “You’re so tight. Oh. God.”

  He sounds like an animal, snarling and growling, but it doesn’t scare me. I want his claws. And his teeth. I want his wildness.

  “Hemi, put your cock in me, all the way,” I say, instinctively.

  “Oh God…damn…that mouth.”

  After a short pause, I hear his breath hiss through his teeth just before he gives in. To me. And then he gives me what I want.

  Hemi eases back a few inches and then slams his body into mine, stealing my breath. I feel him all the way into my abdomen. He stretches me to a pleasure-pain place that I
never want to leave.

  “Hemi…more!” He rotates his hips and I feel the tension within me increase exponentially. “Just like that. I want it just like that.”

  “You want my cock?” he asks through gritted teeth. “I’m gonna give you my cock. I’m gonna give it to you so hard, you’ll feel it all week. Every time you close your eyes, you’ll feel me coming all up inside you.”

  As he speaks, he works his body into mine, harder and deeper, winding me up like a pocket watch. It’s when his free hand finds my clit again that I tumble over the edge, my body squeezing and pulsing around him.

  I’m panting and nearly blinded by pleasure as Hemi rolls me onto my back, pulling my hips to the edge of the ledge. He presses his palms to the insides of my thighs, spreading my legs wide and easing back into me.

  Each thrust sends me toppling over a new wave of pleasure, prolonging my orgasm until I’m nearly crazy with it. “Can you take it deep, baby?”

  I nod, unable to speak past my dry lips.

  Hemi slides his hands up the backs of my legs, folding my thighs onto my chest as he leans over me.

  “Good, ‘cause I wanna bury my cock deep. So. Deep.” When he withdraws and plunges into me, I wonder for a moment that I might die from the pleasure of it. Just when I think there is nothing better, no more to experience from his body, he drives me to a new level. “And then you’re gonna watch me come. On you. All on you.”

  Hemi slams into me two more times and then I hear him moan into the small, hushed room. Quickly, he pulls out of me, spreading my legs as he guides the slick and swollen head to my clitoris. I watch with fascination as he winds his fingers around the wide base of his shaft and arches his back, spurting hot fluid onto me.