She hesitated when she drifted lower, and her eyes flew impossibly wide when she accidentally brushed over the head of my cock with her wrist.
I groaned, clenching my hands into fists to keep them off her.
Her cheeks flushed pink, and her gaze flew up, enough heat in those baby blues to tell me she hadn’t been afraid of what she’d seen there. Her lips trembled slightly, that motion telling me she was aware that she’d bitten off a little more than she was ready to chew.
I cocked an eyebrow at her, then turned around, giving her my back.
She washed the expanse of my back, and it took every ounce of willpower I had not to arch back into her touch. Fuck, I wanted her. The need I felt for her was more than these months of abstinence, and more than the temptation of a fantasy that had come to life. It was so much deeper than that. My very soul wanted this woman, not just physically, but in every way possible.
I ached for her.
She lingered over a scar that was hidden in the pin of a grenade along my shoulder blade.
“Belt buckle.” The words echoed off the stone, and I braced my hands on the wall in front of me.
She simply stroked over that scar again, then moved to one on the left of my spine, disguised in the scales of a sugar-skulled mermaid.
“Edge of a table.”
She washed that spot gently, then continued her trek, soaping down my spine, over my ass, and down my thighs and calves. When she stood and reached the loofah around to my chest, I turned and stepped through the spray so it ran down my back.
Drops of water clung to her skin in a way I longed to, lingering before giving in to gravity and racing down the curves of her body. Fuck, I had to get out of here—had to get away before—
She ran her fingertips over the small, circular scar on my right pec, hidden in the inked ribs that led to the hands and heart in the center of my chest. Her eyes met mine in question.
“Cigarette,” I answered simply.
Her eyes squeezed shut as she drew a ragged breath.
I took her hand in mine as the loofah hit the floor, then pressed her fingertips to the half dozen others that raised the skin around the same spot.
Her lips pursed tight, but she followed each and every burn scar. Then she pressed her mouth to the centermost one and erased some of the pain in that memory with a simple kiss. My heart slammed so hard that I knew she had to be able to hear it as she kissed each scar in that region.
Her fingers quested over my rib cage on the opposite side, finding the raised, puckered flesh that formed a tight spiral.
“Stove burner.”
I expected to see pity in her eyes, but there was none there when she lifted her face to mine. No, they were filled with anger and a touch of the rage that lived inside me.
“He pushed. I fell.” I shrugged.
She lowered her head and ran her lips over the horrific pattern that the tornado disguised within its swooping vortex. Again, some of the memory felt lighter to carry, as if she had somehow washed me clean.
When she rose, she moved forward until my cock rested against the smooth, warm skin of her belly. I hissed at the contact, pleasure shooting through me, sharp and sweet.
“You’re still the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen,” she said as her hands rested on my chest. “I get it now. You didn’t just cover them up. You reclaimed your body. You took back control.”
“Yes.” My hands cupped her face. “But I have little to no control when it comes to you.”
Her gaze flickered to my lips, and my blood heated another degree. She rose on the balls of her feet as her hands traveled to my shoulders, and she tilted her face back slightly, waiting for my choice.
I should have walked away. The better man would have.
I was never the better man.
That last tether on my self-control unraveled, and I brought my mouth to hers. The kiss started soft, but then she opened under me. I growled, sinking into her kiss with deep, swirling thrusts of my tongue against hers. She arched, her fingers digging into my shoulders.
I swept my hands down her body, bending slightly so I could reach her ass. She gasped with surprise as I lifted her easily, bringing her mouth level with mine. Her arms looped around my neck as her legs wrapped around my waist, her ankles locking neatly behind me.
She kissed me like she was starving for it—like she had to take every second of it just in case I changed my mind. The kiss moved from sinful and sexy to carnal as hell as I fucked her mouth with my tongue the way my cock ached to take her fully.
I turned toward the wall and anchored her against the smooth stone. She didn’t blink at the change in position, merely used the wall as leverage to push harder against me, rolling her hips so the head of my cock brushed over the wet lace of her thong.
“Fuck,” I groaned, shifting so one of my hands stroked over that same patch of lace from the cleft of her ass to the peak of her sex.
“Cannon!” She threaded her hands through my hair and held me still while she took her turn with my mouth, darting that little pink tongue against my teeth, the roof of my mouth, and my tongue.
I slid my fingers under her thong and found her soaked, wet with more than just the shower. She was slippery and swollen with need, with want for me. She made me feel powerful and weak, all in the same heartbeat.
“Please,” she murmured against my lips when I hesitated.
Her plea broke me in a way nothing else could, and I sank two fingers inside her pussy slowly. Fuck, the woman was soft, wet, silken fire.
She cried out, then tightened her thighs around me and lifted slightly, only to fall back on my fingers, riding me.
I was going to fucking lose it right here and now if I didn’t get away from her. This was it—the breaking point I’d tried so hard to keep from finding. My body rebelled at the thought of leaving hers, but my head knew it was the only way to keep her safe.
“We have to stop.” I barely recognized my own voice for the deep, sandpaper-rough way it came out.
She rose and fell again, moaning sweetly as she took my fingers to the hilt. Fuck, she was so god damned tight. When she rode up again, I thrust harder, then dragged my fingers along her inner wall as I retreated, only to push back in again and again.
“Fuck. I mean it. Persephone, you have to stop. We have to stop.” I pulled my fingers from the heat of her body and carried her from the shower while she protested.
“No, we don’t. Please, Cannon.” She looked at me with such stark need in her eyes that I nearly came undone. Instead, I set her on the counter and grabbed a soft, fluffy towel from the cabinet and wrapped her in it. Then I backed away, grabbing my own towel and wrapping it at my waist, which did nothing to disguise my erection.
“It’s for your own good.” My heartrate spiked at the effort it took to keep the five feet between us.
“My own good?” She hopped down from the counter, then dropped the towel.
I was stronger than this. I wasn’t some horny teenage boy. I was a fully grown man with a man’s appetite, and man’s ability to walk the fuck away.
Then she held my stare and pulled off her thong, stepping free of the lace and throwing the lace toward the hamper. I didn’t look to see if her aim was true.
I was too busy nearly swallowing my tongue.
She was all dips and curves that lead to thin strip of pale blond hair just above her sex. My mouth fucking watered.
“I’m a big girl, Cannon. I’m capable of deciding what my own good is.” Her chin rose.
“You’re tiny, Persephone. And I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I’m pretty fucking huge.”
Her gaze dropped to my towel. “Oh, I’ve noticed.”
“That’s not what I mean,” I snapped. “Do you know how easily I could hurt you?”
Those blue eyes flared in understanding, and her lips parted. “Cannon, you’d never hurt me. Not in a million years. If you don’t trust yourself, then trust me, because I know that I’m always
safe when I’m with you.”
I felt the countdown start. My cock pulsed, protesting the pressure of the towel. My breath hitched. My mind started mapping her body and planning my assault.
Three.
“You deserve someone far more gentle than I am to be your first,” I protested.
“I deserve you. I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for this—for you. I don’t want anyone else. I never have. Just you.” Her breasts rose with every breath. I’d start there first, maybe.
Two.
“You can’t take this back,” I tried again. “This isn’t something you can do over.”
She smirked. “Oh, I’m planning on doing it over and over again. With you. But I’m done chasing you.” She licked her lips. “So, I’ll make myself as clear as possible. I want you, Cannon. I want your body on top of mine, hot and insistent. I want to know how you feel inside of me. I want you to make love to me, and if that’s too gentle for you, then I want you to fuck me however you want.”
One.
“But you’re going to have to come to me this time.”
I snapped.
She was in my arms in a heartbeat, her mouth on mine, her legs around my waist as I carried her to my bedroom—our bedroom. I was going to worship her until she was so limp with pleasure that she’d have to crawl out of this bed.
I laid her down in the center of the bed, made sure she was comfortable, then I spread her knees, slid down the bed, and set my mouth on her.
She arched, crying out loudly as I licked her from pussy to clit, groaning at the sweet, heady taste of her. I teased her mercilessly, swirling my tongue around her, but never getting her there until her head writhed on the pillows above me.
“Cannon!” she demanded, her fingers sinking into my hair.
I sank my tongue inside her.
She groaned, rocking against my face as I filled her again and again. Her sensuality and open acknowledgment of her need took mine up to a painful level. I needed to be inside her. Needed to feel her come around me.
I licked back up to her clit, flicking and lashing the small bud, and when her moans turned to high-pitched, keening cries, I pressed against her with the flat of my tongue and rubbed over her with slow, steady pressure.
She came with a scream, her hips bucking sharply. I gripped her hips and held her still, pulling every wave of pleasure from her body, then working her up again, refusing to let the need ebb. I tested her with my fingers and found her drenched. Good.
“Cannon,” she pled, rocking against my tongue. “God. What are you doing to me?”
“Getting you ready.” I licked and sucked at her until her moans came in time with her breaths.
“Ready for what? Death? God, you feel so good!” Her hands twisted in the covers.
When her thighs started to tighten around my head, I rose over her and took in every detail of the moment. The flush that ran from her cheeks to her breasts. The quick pulse in her neck. The taste of her on my tongue and the sweet scent of apple blossoms filling my head.
I rolled to the side, reaching into my nightstand for a condom. I never fucked women here. This was my haven, but thank God I’d kept my stock there anyway.
“No,” she shook her head when I rose above her again.
“What?” I froze. “Did you change your mind?” My balls were going to be as blue as her fucking eyes, but I wasn’t going to take—
“No!” she startled, her hands cupping my face. “I want you. I just don’t want a condom.”
I blinked. “I’m sorry?” I’d never taken a woman without the thin barrier of rubber.
She tugged her lip between her teeth and shifted her legs on either side of my hips. “I don’t want this halfway. I want to feel your skin against mine. I want you to feel me.”
Holy shit, did I want that. My cock throbbed in agreement. Nothing but soft, wet, Persephone. “Princess, I’m not sure you want everything that comes with that.”
She nodded. “I do. I’m on the pill.”
Her pills were on the bathroom counter, where she’d taken them every night as we got ready for bed.
“Okay, but—”
“I’m clean,” she promised like I didn’t already fucking know that.
“Of course you are.” Fuck, I couldn’t think when I was close enough to feel the heat of her pussy with the tip of my dick.
“And you are, too,” she assured me.
“I am?” Why the fuck did that come out as a question?
“You are. First, because you told me you always use those,” she motioned at the condom in my hand. “And second, because if you weren’t, you never would have touched me. You wouldn’t put me in danger like that.”
My chest swelled with a sweet kind of ache. She was incredible. She was mine.
“You’re right,” I assured her.
She plucked the condom out of my hand and threw it.
Guess that settled it.
The head of my cock nudged her entrance as I settled between her thighs, careful to brace my weight on my elbows as I kissed her deep and hard.
“You’re sure?” I asked, my hips flexing instinctively and seating my cock flush against her. One push, one thrust, and I’d be inside her.
“I’m so sure,” she said with a bright smile and hazy eyes.
“Tell me if it hurts too much. You understand?” Sweat beaded on my skin, and my muscles trembled with restraint.
“I understand.” She kissed me, wrapping her arms around my neck as I pushed forward gently.
Her pussy strangled the head of my dick with exquisite pressure, and I groaned as I took that first inch. Her muscles protested, clamping down and nearly pushing me back out. I would have laughed if I hadn’t been so fucking turned on that I couldn’t see straight.
“You have to relax, Princess,” I whispered against her mouth.
“I’m trying,” she promised with a little nod. “God, you feel massive.”
This time the laugh slipped free, and I reveled in the simple joy of having this woman beneath me, even as she looked as frustrated as I felt.
“Hold on to me,” I told her as I held her tight and rolled. With her ass in my hands, I sat up and leaned back against our headboard, leaving my cock at her entrance as she kneeled above me, one knee on either side of my hips.
“What are we doing?” She rocked, sending a warm rush of heat over my dick.
“This way, you control it,” I told her. “Now, give me your mouth and lower yourself at your own pace.” I gripped the back of her neck with one hand, held her hip with the other, and kissed her senseless.
She panted through the kiss, rocking back and forth over my cock, taking me inch, by inch, by inch, until she took my entire length inside her.
Pleasure ripped through me, stripping my defenses. She owned me in every single way that I owned her. Totally, completely, and without reservation.
“Oh my God,” she groaned against my lips. “You feel so damned good, Cannon.”
“You feel like heaven,” I whispered, lowering my hips slightly and pushing back up into her with a tight, smooth glide. “Fucking flawless.”
She cried out when I stroked her again. Then she picked up the rhythm, rising and falling above me with slow, deep strokes that made me see stars. I pulled the cloth band from her hair, and it fell in a cascade of silk over my thighs as she threw her head back and rode me.
I was so fucking lost in her. The feel of her was beyond anything I’d ever known, and I clenched my teeth to hold back. When she leaned forward slightly, I took her breast in my mouth, sucking and licking at the peak while my hand shifted from her hip to her cleft so my thumb could stroke her clit.
“Cannon,” she began chanting, her movements growing jerky and slow above me as her thighs clenched my hips.
“That’s it, Princess,” I praised her as she gave in to the pleasure and fell over the peak, coming around me in waves that gripped my cock in a velvet vise. At that first squeeze, I flipped us s
o she was under me, rippling with her orgasm.
Then I pumped into her with deep, hard, steady thrusts, prolonging her orgasm as I chased my own, both seeking it and holding it off as long as possible. I wanted to live here, inside her, in this moment.
When she screamed my name again, clutching at my shoulders with those sharp little nails, my orgasm hit me like a freight train ripping me from my body with its intensity. I fell into her arms as I emptied myself inside her in three long thrusts.
We both shuddered, and I rolled us to my side so she could breathe. I cradled her head with one arm, and stroked down her back with long, sweeping motions with the other. That hadn’t been sex. It was something far beyond it. Something that transcended all the definitions in the world. It was beyond anything I’d ever experienced or read about in my entire life.
“You know what I’m thinking?” She asked with a sleepy laugh, tilting her head back so I could see her eyes.
“What?” Fuck, she was so beautiful.
Her grin stopped my heart. “At least I waited for marriage, right?”
I laughed. “You sure did.”
Then I cleaned us both up and started all over again. I was never going to get enough of her, and since I was never going to be allowed to keep her, I’d better savor it while it lasted.
It lasted all night.
10
Persephone
Early morning light filtered through the blinds, casting the bed in a soft glow. I couldn’t stop the smile that shaped my lips as I stretched in the bed, my mind waking up.
Cannon’s tongue working me into a tangled fury of nerves.
Cannon’s muscled arms, encasing me, guiding me, showing me.
Cannon’s lips on my skin, his kiss like a brand.
The massive size of him and the way he’d been gentle, caring, as he made love to me for the first time.
Then the way he’d let me take control again and again throughout the night.
Memories and sensations hit me in hot waves of need, so much I had to shift my legs to ease the ache. The soreness between my thighs was not at all unpleasant, and the thought of exploring more with Cannon had my heart racing.
Cannon (Carolina Reapers Book 5) Page 13