The Painter's Passion

by Dr. Rebecca Sharp

  This time, his left hand worked its way underneath her shirt, trailing over the soft skin of her stomach to close over her bare breast. She arched against him, basking in the pleasure that he was giving her non-damaged breast. His fingers rolled and tugged on her nipple. The tingling torture on the erect bud shooting straight to her core.

  She hadn’t been touched like this… ever.

  The reality crashed over her like a tidal wave. Shane had never touched her like this – he’d only ever been concerned with himself.

  And right now, Pierce’s only concern was her.

  She felt him push two fingers inside of her, gasping at the invasion. They began to stroke inside of her as his tongue worked over her sex and she felt another orgasm about to shatter her. His fingers curled against her G-spot and his mouth pulled on her sex demanding her body to explode underneath him one more time.

  All at once, she felt everything and nothing as her exquisite release consumed her.

  Pierce groaned against her sweet, supple flesh. There would be a night when he lost himself inside of her, but it wasn’t tonight. As much as his erection protested, throbbing angrily inside his sweats, tonight was for her.

  Well, not just for her.

  He’d enjoyed this almost has much as she had. He’d been aching to taste her since, well… for a while now. He wondered if the fire she showed him in the conversations would extend to this.

  Oh, and it had.

  Hearing her moan his name was like a caress in and of itself, begging him for more. He’d never wanted to pleasure someone so much in his life.

  And the way she came… Just like the other day in the hall, it was like she was experiencing it for the first time. Tonight, when she’d spread her legs for him, revealing those glistening folds that he’d asked to kiss… it had been seductive as all fucking hell. But he hadn’t missed the tiniest hazy of uncertainty in her gaze – as though she wasn’t sure what to expect.

  Maybe he’d fucking imagined it.

  Especially after he’d lost his shit.

  Fuck.

  It had never been that bad before. Then again, it had also never been that good.

  His tongue gently lapped over her, bringing Ana back down from the release that had decimated her body. Pierce was now very aware of how much of his body was touching the bed and how little it seemed to matter.

  The only thing that seemed to matter to him right now was her and he wasn’t sure if that should be more or less frightening to him.

  Somehow, she had made his horror ok. Maybe because he’d wanted her more than he’d wanted to play it safe.

  Wasn’t that the fucking truth, he thought wryly. He’d given the finger to every safe decision the second that he’d touched her. And somehow, something that, on the one hand, felt wrong in every way, somehow seemed to be making everything right.

  He groaned and slowly pushed himself away from her, making sure he trailed his hands along the firm muscles of her legs and not releasing them until he was standing free of the bed.

  Just in case.

  He watched as she blinked, her golden eyes shining in the shadows. Pierce bit his lip as her legs slid shut, hiding from him the delicious view that he’d been tempted to partake of again.

  “I should go, Princess,” he said softly.

  She pushed herself up to sit, bending her legs to the side. Her beautiful face flickering with confusion. “Why? What about…”

  She didn’t need to finished her question and the direction of her gaze didn’t need to suggest her thought; he knew that his arousal was blatantly obvious and unaddressed.

  “I’m good, Ana.” He watched her legs slip over the edge of the bed and then she stood in front of him. “You need to get some rest. You have to meet with your brother and Tash tomorrow; I don’t want you to have to explain why you were up all night.”

  She raised an eyebrow at him, leaning in towards him. “Just because you had your tongue on me doesn’t mean you get to tell me what to do.”

  A laugh erupted from him. That was his Ana.

  “Will you stay with me?” Her words were so soft, he almost hadn’t heard them.

  He brought his hand up to her face, tracing over her lower lip as his gaze bored into hers.

  “Princess, if I had my way, I’d stay with you forever.” But that wasn’t possible, not tonight. And probably not ever.

  She read the unspoken words in his gaze and she knew as well as he did how true they were saying, “Just a little longer.”

  “Just a li—” He broke off with a curse as her hand wrapped around his hard length, pleasure searing through him. “Christ.”

  His hand slid down underneath her chin, tipping her gaze up to meet his dark piercing stare. “Do you enjoy torturing me, Princess?” he rasped as she continued to stroke him.

  He sucked in a breath as the most beautifully seductive and satisfied smile came over her face. “Yes.” Her expression became serious. “Do you trust me?”

  “Yes.” There was no hesitation even though he could see what was coming.

  Grabbing his arms, she turned him one-eighty, pushing him back until his legs hit the edge of the bed. And then she kept pushing, forcing him to sit.

  Pierce sucked in a breath, his hands coming up to grip her naked ass, holding onto her to keep all thoughts of where he was at bay.

  She bent over and his hands moved to cup her breasts through the flannel.

  God, why hadn’t he taken her damn shirt off?

  She hooked her fingers underneath the waist of his sweatpants and he rose up slightly so that she could pull them down over his hips. And then she dropped to her knees in front of him, taking his sweats down to the floor with her.

  Before he had another chance to protest – not that he wanted to – the hot heat of her mouth closed over him.

  His hands sunk into her hair as her name ripped from his lips. He stared down, watching as his hard length disappeared into the heaven of her mouth over and over again. It was barely a few minutes before he was ready to come. If he wasn’t blinded by pleasure, he might have felt a moment of embarrassment at how easily she made him lose control.

  She was too damn good at this.

  And then that sharp tongue of hers ran firmly up his length, swirling around the head of his arousal and sent him over the edge. His hips jerked forward, his hands flexing to hold her head steady as his release poured into the warmth of her mouth.

  Ana sucked on him, riding out the undulations of his hips and the pulsing of his cock until he was completely dry. Her mouth gently pulled off of him, licking her tongue over his tip once more to catch the last bead of his orgasm. Her hands grabbed his sweats and pulled them back up and gently over his sensitive cock as she came to stand in front of him.

  “You were saying?” she asked innocently.

  “Fucking minx,” he swore, standing to roughly claim her mouth one last time.

  When he broke the kiss, their chests were both heaving and he knew that it was time to go before he ended up staying the entire night.

  Not like that would be enough…

  “You are incredible, you know that, Princess?”

  She bit her lip and he knew just how much his compliment affected her; it made him want to do it again.

  “I thought I was bossy and demanding,” she teased back, her arms crossing over her chest.

  “Well, there’s that, too.” She playfully smacked his arm.

  She lost herself in the dark depths of his eyes.

  “I should go, Ana,” he said again hoarsely.

  . She didn’t want him to go. She wanted him to stay – to sleep with her. It wasn’t possible though – not with her brother so close

  So, instead of asking for what she wanted, she whispered instead, “Are you ok?”

  His hand came up to cup her cheek, his thumb brushing over the soft skin. She sucked in a breath at the tender movement.

  “Only when I’m with you,” he confessed with tortured awe as thou
gh he struggled to believe it himself. Her body hummed with the knowledge that she was able to make him ok, that she was able to keep back the pain from his past.

  She bit her lip. “Goodnight, Pierce.”

  “Goodnight, Princess.”

  She wasn’t even embarrassed, following him to the door without underwear, closing it after he slipped out. In a trance, she made her way back to her bed, her fingers running over the sheets, reliving every moment of what just happened.

  Pleasure and pain fought for her attention; pleasure at the memory of his touch and his parting words, pain at the memory of hearing about his past and seeing the effects that it had left him with.

  Her head touched the pillow the same moment the tears began to fall, her ache for him winning out.

  How could someone leave their own child to die?

  She knew the answer: a person on drugs was never in their right mind. Still, her heart throbbed for the poor boy, not only having to see his mother, someone he loved, live with an addiction like that, but to watch as she chose it over him and at the expense of his own life.

  Now, she understood why he pushed people away. He could say it was for their benefit all he wanted. He could joke that it was because he had no soul and that they’d cut out his heart.

  She knew the truth.

  They hadn’t cut out his heart – it had been ripped out by the one person who was supposed to love him and care for him. And it was no wonder why he didn’t want it back.

  Piece had buried those memories, allowing them to eat away at him rather than face them and face having to feel again.

  Until her.

  As she closed her eyes, his words ‘only when I’m with you’ lulled her to sleep. For the first time, Ana felt special. She felt completely and wholly wanted by someone and for more than just pleasure.

  They were here to find a stolen painting but, at this moment, if she wasn’t careful, she could wind up having to search for her stolen heart along with it.

  Chapter 19

  Knock. Knock.

  Pierce groaned, his muscles protesting from their cramped position on the couch.

  Who the hell wanted him at this hour?

  The pounding on his door persisted. Dragging himself up, he ran a hand through his hair, walking over to the door to his room and yanking it open.

  “What the hell…” He grumbled, seeing Morgan standing outside with a look of irritation on his face.

  “We need to talk.” And then Morgan pushed past him into his room.

  “Come on in…” he muttered in annoyance. If his mouth hadn’t been pleasuring the man’s sister only a few hours ago, he would have had more to say about his friend’s barging into his room.

  He shut the door and turned to meet Morgan’s gaze. His body hummed, thinking about a very similar gaze that had been on him last night.

  “Is there something going on between you and my sister?” he demanded.

  Fuck.

  “Of course,” he replied with a casual smile. “In fact, we’re going on a date this weekend.”

  “Goddammit, Pierce. That’s not what I fucking meant and you know it,” Morgan growled. “I don’t know what game you are playing, but whatever it is, you need to leave Ana out of it. She’s been through enough. I fucking warned her about you and your damn games, but she doesn’t know you like I do; she wouldn’t even see them coming.”

  Pierce scowled. This was the second time Morgan had said something to him along those lines and this time, he wasn’t going to just let him brush it off.

  Now, what was the best way to get Morgan to tell him what the fuck he was talking about?

  “Bullshit,” he called, crossing his arms over his chest, his dark eyes daring Morgan to contradict him. “Your sister seems like she can hold her own just fine without big brother having to intercede on her behalf. Honestly, I don’t know who she gets more annoyed with – me for disobeying her or you for always jumping in to rescue her.”

  “Pierce,” Morgan fumed. “You have no fucking idea what you are talking about.”

  “Well then enlighten me because the way that I see it, I always get what I want except when I come up against her.” He shrugged. “Seems like she’s pretty fucking strong to me.”

  “Yeah, well, she wasn’t a few years ago when her ex-fiancé abused and almost destroyed her. If it hadn’t been for me… Well, I won’t even go there. I’m here because I know how much you fought against us working with her to fix this situation and I know how much you seem to want to do this all on your own, which means that I also know that you probably have some sort of scheme to make that happen. All I’m here to tell you is that you need to leave my sister out of it or so help me God…” Morgan ran his hand over his mouth. “She may look strong, Pierce, but she’s not – not deep down. And if you do something that hurts her, I will kill you.”

  Pierce felt like his jaw was about to break he was clenching so hard. He’d barely registered the words out of Morgan’s mouth after hearing that Ana had been abused by someone.

  “Promise me that you will leave her out of it.” Morgan let out a harsh laugh. “I don’t even care what you are going to do; just leave Ana alone.”

  Pierce’s eyes narrowed on his friend, but the gaze that stared back sent a wave of nausea through his body.

  He nodded and jerked his door back open, a silent demand for Morgan to leave.

  The other man strode purposefully to the door, pausing just in front of him.

  “I want your word.”

  His mood darkened even further. “You have it.” The hard edge in his voice was sharp and unrelenting. “Now get the fuck out.”

  Pierce slammed the door behind him, hearing Morgan’s footsteps pound down the stairs towards the sister he was intent on protecting.

  He wanted to scream. He needed to punch something. And for some reason, the only thing he could think to do was the one thing that never would have crossed his mind before last night.

  It wasn’t just some reason – it was Ana.

  Walking over to the untouched bed, he dropped to one knee and began to pound his fist into the mattress over and over again. His arms fell to the comforter, his head dropping onto them as his chest heaved, trying to replenish oxygen and sanity into his body.

  The worst part was that he wasn’t mad at Morgan for what he had said; Morgan had every right to be concerned that Pierce would end up hurting his sister.

  The worst part wasn’t even that he knew he had to leave her alone – and not just out of his schemes.

  The worst part was that someone else had hurt her. He didn’t even know the extent, but he had a feeling that it wasn’t the emotional abuse that she had alluded to; he doubted that Ana would confide in her brother that her fiancé had never given her an orgasm. No, now his gut told him it was more than that – it had been physical as well.

  Out of everything that had happened to him in his life – his mother forsaking him, Sanchez killing her, being abandoned over and over again by foster families – none of those people who had hurt him had ever inspired such rage as whoever this ex-fiancé of Ana’s was. And knowing what surviving all of those things had done to him, he would go through it all again, every fucking fucked-up moment, if it meant that he could take away what happened to her.

  But, he couldn’t.

  He couldn’t take it away which meant the only thing that he could do was to make sure that she wasn’t hurt again and being involved with him would only guarantee the opposite of that.

  He groaned, pressing his forehead harder into the mattress as his hands gripped the back of his head.

  He was touching a bed.

  Without Ana.

  And he felt only minor discomfort, a dull reminder from his past – nothing like what usually happened. He closed his eyes and all he saw was her, her eyes begging him to trust her, her lips red and swollen from his kisses, her thighs spread before him, revealing the sweetness between them. She’d given him that. In those few moments,
she’d managed to help to heal him.

  He would never be able to give her that.

  Morgan was wrong about one thing though. His sister wasn’t weak; she didn’t need him to save her. Ana was strong and independent and stubborn and demanding.

  He let out a cynical laugh, remembering her words from the night before as he shook his head.

  After whatever she had been through, she was beautiful and bright where he’d remained dark and cold. She deserved to be with someone who wouldn’t dim – or worse, extinguish – that.

  Whatever that motherfucker ex-fiancé had done to her hadn’t broken her. But, that didn’t mean that she deserved to go another round with the heartbreak guaranteed by his presence – because that is what it would inevitably come down to. No matter what he had done, no matter how hard he had tried, even his own mother couldn’t love him enough to even want to keep him alive.

  How could he expect anyone else to?

  “Everything ok, Ana?” Tash’s voice broke through her distraction. They were both sitting downstairs waiting for Morgan who was five minutes late; she was about to go upstairs and yank him from bed if he had overslept.

  Her eyes met the blonde’s. “Yeah. Fine.” She grimaced as her words came out too quickly. “Sorry, just wondering what is taking my brother so long.”

  Tash nodded, but her expression said that she didn’t believe her. Her next words confirmed it. “I just wanted to make sure. I heard some… noises… from your room last night. I almost came to check on you, but…”

  She trailed off because Ana knew exactly what she was about to say. Her face flushed beet red – an obvious admission of guilt.

  “You don’t think…” Her mind immediately went to Morgan whose room sat partially above hers.

  Tash shook her head. “I don’t think so. Plus, I don’t think he would have waited until the morning to find out what was going on.”

  Ana let out a huge sigh of relief.

  “Sorry,” she mumbled, shaking her head. “I didn’t realize we were… that you could…”