by Ranae Rose
It shouldn’t have been possible, but his dick got even harder.
Then she put her arms around his neck and pulled him close, so his face was pressed against the cleavage her bikini top showed off.
Jesus. There was no hope of being chivalrous now.
He laid his hands on her waist and held her there, tracing the curve of one hipbone. Her breasts were soft and he could feel her heart beating. It made him feel alive.
“It fits,” she said. “Now help me take it off.”
His cock twitched, and in that moment, he’d never hated anything more than he hated his jeans. They restrained him painfully, now that she’d set him on fire with her words.
“I can’t untie the knot with just one hand,” she said.
He gladly slipped his hands behind her back and pulled at the knot over her spine, untangling the tied strap that kept her top molded to her body. Her nipples were poking against the silky fabric, and when the knot finally unraveled all the way, the cups sprang out of place, revealing the perfect curves she’d pressed against his face moments before.
He couldn’t resist pulling her close again, returning to his original position. This time, he could tease her nipples with his mouth, press kisses against her smooth skin.
God, she looked good. And felt good. He was a genius for suggesting the bikini.
And yet, when her bandaged hand bumped his arm, the feel of gauze against his skin made him worry.
She didn’t think she had to sleep with him, did she? That he would be mad, or lose interest, if she didn’t? The things she’d told him over the past 24 hours cast her thought processes in a new light, and thinking that she might be trying to anticipate his wrath, like she’d had to do with Brad, made him sick. Immediately, he straightened, pulling away from her body and meeting her eyes.
“You sure you’re up to this?” he asked. “Don’t feel pressured. We can just go to sleep, if you’re not ready yet.”
She frowned. “So much for seducing you with my new bikini. I thought it was working, too.”
“It is. Hell…” He took her good hand in his and laid it against his thigh, where his dick was trapped, hard and aching. “It’s about killing me. But that’s not the point. The night before last, you were in the hospital. I don’t want to do this if it’ll hurt you, or you don’t feel ready.”
He didn’t know everything about what Brad had done to her, how he’d scared her. Threatened her. And he didn’t want to do anything to bring that fear back.
“I instigated this because I am ready,” she said. “I want it. I want you.”
He paused to let her words sink in, to search her eyes for any sign of doubt.
“You have no idea how good it feels to hear that.” He laid his hands on her hips again, rubbed circles against the small of her back. “Let’s go back to the bed though.”
Before they went, he swept her hair aside and finished removing her bikini top, leaving it on the couch cushion.
Once they were in her room, he eased her onto the edge of the bed and peeled the bottom half of the swimsuit off her, revealing her soft, pale and pink skin, her dark hair. The sight of her naked had him tearing at his jeans button, unable to stand the restraint anymore.
When he was naked, he felt like a new man. His clothes lay forgotten on the floor as he wrapped his arms around Kerry, pulling her into his lap.
Even the sensation of her hip pressing against his erection felt unbearably good, like something out of a wet dream.
“How do you want to do this?” he asked. “I’ll feel better about it if you choose a way that’ll be comfortable for you.”
She pressed her lips against the side of his neck and exhaled slowly. “Any way that doesn’t put pressure on my arm.”
“So no handstands then. You’re hard to please.”
“More like no hands and knees,” she said, laughing, “and no handcuffs.”
The mental images her words inspired hit him like a ton of bricks. “Were we going to do those things?”
“I’d kind of hoped. Someday, I mean.”
“I knew it – I knew the uniform would help me with the ladies at some point. It’s just hard to find excuses to wear it around in social situations, you know?”
She laughed again. “You mean to tell me it’s never helped before?”
“Like I’d bring it up now if it had. And like I said, I can’t exactly stroll the beach in uniform. It looks like I’m trying too hard. So, I’m left to fall back on my incredible physique.”
“It must be hard for you.” She smirked.
“Yeah well, don’t take this the wrong way, but hanging out with you and your friends does wonders to keep other women away. Before Liam and Henry and I met you three, we were a lot more likely to be approached by females when we were hanging out together.”
“That makes sense,” she said, “considering that the reason we met is because Sasha conspired to make it happen the second we first saw you three together.”
“See what I mean? We were irresistible until you started intimidating all the other females.”
“You really think anyone sees me as intimidating?”
“As someone who’s been on the receiving end of your mysterious looks and slightly cold shoulders, yeah, I do. Do you have any idea how many times you would’ve crushed my soul if I was a more sensitive man?”
“No.”
“So many times.” He groaned. “I was starting to think you’d never realize how irresistible and perfect for you I am.”
She laughed, the corners of her eyes crinkling. “I always thought you looked irresistible. And I have to admit, you seem pretty great. I just wasn’t sure how perfect I was for you, or anyone.”
He wrapped his arms more tightly around her, pulling her more closely against him, until he could feel her heartbeat again.
“Come on,” he said. “You’re perfect for me. It’s your jackass ex-husband that’s the problem, not you. And he’s not enough to keep me away.”
“Well, it’d be enough to keep most guys away, I’m sure.”
He drew in a deep lungful of air, savoring the scent of her hair. It smelled like sand and saltwater, with hints of some fruity shampoo. Hearing the note of doubt in her voice, he sighed.
“You seem to keep forgetting what I told you about me being a badass,” he said. “Do I need to stay in uniform 24/7 to remind you? I could wear my PERT gear – I assume you haven’t forgotten about me being a member of the highly badass Prison Emergency Response Team.”
She laughed. “Be my guest, if that’s what you want to do. But no, it’s not necessary. You’re clearly the badass you claim to be.”
“All right then – if you really believe me, I don’t want to hear anymore crap about you expecting me to run in the opposite direction just because you happen to have your own personal psychopath. It might deter a lesser man, but not me. And it’ll be over soon – he’ll be gone. Then it’ll be just us, and I swear, Riley County will have hit its limit on violent psychopaths for the next decade.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and tipped her head back, meeting his eyes. “Okay. You’d better be right.”
He was. He had to be. He’d spent most of the summer trudging through fields and pine forests in his PERT gear, searching for a pair of escaped convicts while the body count mounted. It’d been a clusterfuck of a summer, but at least it’d prepared him for dealing with Kerry being targeted by her ex-husband.
After the past few months, he knew: anything could happen. Even here, in Riley County, to people he cared about.
It was a fact he was powerless to change but fully ready to react to, and so he pushed his worries away. Right now, he had it good. And that was what he was going to focus on.
Kerry’s skin was smooth and still smelled like coconut, from the sunblock she’d worn at the beach. He ran his hands all over her, cupping every curve as he pressed his lips against her neck. Something like awe struck him when she moved against him, pressing
her pussy against the bare shaft of his dick.
Anything could happen – even this, which was something he’d been longing for all summer. Now that he knew why Kerry had been so gun-shy with him, he realized how lucky he was to have her in his arms. It was a wonder she hadn’t sworn off men completely, unwilling to risk being victimized by another asshole like her ex.
It was obvious that no one had ever treated her well before she’d started over in North Carolina. She was always tallying and calculating what she thought she owed people in return for their love, like she’d lose it if she didn’t earn it. And she clearly carried around a list of reasons why she thought Grey might want to turn his back on her.
Did she have a list like that for everyone in her life?
The thought was sad as hell.
He wanted to show her not just how much he cared about her, but why he did – why she deserved it. He wasn’t sure how, but he wanted to just the same.
She shifted in his lap, slipping a leg on either side of him and sitting that way, straddling him. The position put her pussy right up against his shaft and paralyzed him with lust for a split second.
He groaned. The sight of her sitting like that – with legs spread and wrapped around his hips, her pussy lips kissing his dick – was the best thing he’d ever seen. He took a mental image he knew he’d flash back to again and again. Then he rocked back onto the bed, lying on his back, careful not to unbalance her from where she sat, straddling his hips.
He could reach the bedside stand from where he was lying. He did it, grabbing the box of condoms they’d put a dent in and tearing a fresh one from the strip.
He rolled it over his dick, his gaze glued to her breasts. He’d be able to watch them bounce this way – he could already see it, in his mind’s eye.
“No handstands or handcuffs,” he said, placing a hand on her hip and squeezing the smooth, round curve of her ass. “Think this’ll work?”
She was staring down at his hard cock, and he could’ve sworn he could actually feel the weight of her gaze.
“Yes.” She met his eyes as she laid her hand – her good one – on his dick.
She was rising up a little higher on her knees, putting a gap between him and her pussy. A gap he planned to plow right through on his way into her hot, tight body.
He laid a hand over hers and helped her guide the head of his dick to her lips. Then he thrust up, sliding into her.
It was like standing with one foot on earth and one in heaven. He was still alive – had never felt more alive – but the feeling was practically supernatural. Pleasure gripped him like a vise, made his balls draw up tight and close against his body. God, somehow, sliding inside her always felt even better than he thought it would.
She sucked in a breath, braced herself with a hand against his belly.
“You all right?”
He was halfway inside her, the rest of his shaft gleaming wet from where her pussy had pressed against it.
“Yes.” Her reply was more breath than words, and she drew even tighter around him, her nails scraping his abs.
He pushed the rest of the way in, and she gasped.
The sound made it impossible to stay still, but he went slow, watching her as he thrust into her. Her entire beautiful body moved with him, and he couldn’t tear his eyes away.
He couldn’t keep his hands off her, either. Besides the view, that was the best thing about this position: how easy it was to touch her, teasing her nipples, her clit. Touching everything in between.
She sighed when he pressed his thumb against her clit, moving it in slow circles. She tensed up too, giving him an internal squeeze, hitting him hard with the desire to come.
Her pussy was so tight. When he was inside her, that heat and pressure consumed him, made him sorry he’d ever wasted time doing anything but pursuing her. He couldn’t imagine life getting any more pleasurable than this.
He could tell when she got close to coming, mainly because his abs burnt where her nails were burrowing into them. She’d probably leave marks. He couldn’t have cared less. Anticipation gripped him like a fever, making him sweat as he continued to work her clit.
He loved to see her come.
When she came, there was no trace of the wariness that sometimes seemed to put up walls between her and the rest of the world. There was only her, writhing on his dick, so obviously not caring about anything else.
Watching her was like a high, one he felt sweeping over him now as she cried out.
He went deep with each stroke, watching her rise and fall. His fingertips were slick and her clit was hot and swollen beneath them.
When she came, she pulsed around him. He worked it, moving to the rhythm he could see and feel rippling through her. By the time it stopped, he was on the edge of climax too.
A few more hard strokes, and he could’ve finished. But he wasn’t done with her yet.
He took it easy, savoring the hot, slow slide of his shaft inside her. The feeling of her walls gripping the sides of his dick was phenomenal. Tension pooled at the base of his spine, white-hot and promising.
Just when he was getting himself under control – going harder – she started to move with him.
Jesus. She was really bouncing now, killing him with the impact that resulted from their combined efforts, their rhythm. She was breathing harder too, whether from the effort, pleasure or both, he didn’t know.
If she felt half as good as she looked, she had to be burning up with bliss.
Like he was. Damn, he couldn’t take it any more – no more pacing himself, no more holding back. His willpower had been shot the moment she’d started fucking him back.
He came hard, like he did every time with her. He held her by her hips, breaking her rhythm, and poured himself into her. Every second was deeper, harder, more intense than the last.
The seconds afterward were intense too. His heart was still slamming against his ribs when she climbed down off his dick and sprawled across his chest, pressing her mouth on his.
He kissed her like he’d never seen anyone more beautiful, never wanted anyone more. Because he hadn’t.
CHAPTER 22
Alicia walked into the room like she was on some sort of mission. It was the first time Kerry had seen her scowl.
“Sasha told me everything. I can’t believe no one got in touch with me and Liam to let us know what was going on!”
Kerry looked up from the long, besequined length of tulle spread across the table in the makeshift Halloween decoration factory she and Faye had set up. Sunlight streamed through the mansion window behind her, illuminating her work.
It was Monday, Kerry’s first day back on the job. A week had passed since her wreck and the slice of insanity that had ensued, but somehow, it felt like much longer.
“You and Liam were on your honeymoon,” Kerry said. “We didn’t want to ruin it.”
Alicia stood with her hands on her hips, looking like a skinnier, brunette version of Sasha. “I’d applaud your courtesy, if you hadn’t been kidnapped. My God, Kerry…” Alicia hurried across the room, catching the toe of her shoe on a box but managing, for once, not to actually trip.
“I had no idea,” she said, her voice low. “About your ex-husband, I mean. That you’d even been married. Why didn’t you tell us?”
Kerry shook her head. “I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I didn’t know where to start. And to tell the truth, I was ashamed.”
Alicia frowned as she settled on Faye’s empty stool, pulling it close to Kerry’s side. “You shouldn’t have been, you know. After what we’ve all been through this summer, you could’ve told me and Sasha anything.”
“You and Sasha just have it so together.” Words rushed to the tip of Kerry’s tongue, surprising her despite their truth, despite how many times she’d thought them before. “I’m not like you two, and I know it. You plan people’s weddings and corporate retreats, and she’s a gourmet chef. I clean up people’s messes. We’re different. But onl
y I really knew how different.”
Heat flared in her cheeks as she met Alicia’s eyes. “You still didn’t know that I was just a teenager from a little coal mining town when I married the world’s biggest jackass straight out of highschool. And you didn’t know that landing a housekeeping job here – my first job, ever – felt like the biggest accomplishment in the world to me. But now you do, and I still feel embarrassed. I can’t help it.”
“Kerry…” Alicia grimaced. “First of all, what you do for a living has nothing to do with our friendship. Second of all, Sasha and I both know how hard you work and how much Faye relies on you. Third of all… Wedding planning isn’t very glamourous. Half my clients boss me around like I’m hired help… Which I am. Don’t tell anyone that though.”
Kerry smiled. “Thanks. But somehow, I’d feel more like your equal if you hadn’t walked in on me gluing a bowl of sequins to this stuff.”
“Halloween decorations?” Alicia asked.
Kerry nodded.
“I’ll have you know,” Alicia said, “that as event planner, this would’ve been my job if I’d been here last week. So technically, you’re doing my work for me. I don’t look so great on my high horse now, do I?”
Alicia grabbed a sequin and a bottle of glue and started helping. “I don’t have to see any clients until this afternoon. Looks like this’ll keep me busy until then. How much more of this stuff is there?”
“I don’t want to answer that question. I’m afraid it’ll crush your spirit too early in the game.” Kerry moved the sequin bowl so that it sat evenly between them. “How was the honeymoon?”
“It was amazing. Everything was so different in the mountains – it was about ten degrees cooler than here, and the leaves were starting to turn on the trees. We did a lot of hiking. And a lot of… Well, you know. The cabin we stayed in was gorgeous.”