Not His to Touch: a Forbidden Virgin, Guardian & Ward Dark Romance

by Piper Trace

  Holy hell, he was negotiating their sexual encounter.

  Yet, though she’d been close to climax moments before, somehow his taking charge had shifted the potential of her orgasm to another level. A level she didn’t even know existed. And she wanted that orgasm.

  Ford’s voice was low and intimate. “Evie, after I’m done taking care of you, you will want to please me. I’m willing to guarantee your satisfaction.” Amusement played around his lips, quirking them into that bad-boy, pursed smile of his that made her crazy. She had to close her eyes to block it out so she could think as he continued. “If you don’t have the best orgasm of your life, you are free to forfeit your end of the bargain. Do we have a deal?” He lowered his lips back to her neck and nuzzled her skin as he waited for her answer.

  The best orgasm of her life?

  God yes, we have a deal.

  Actually, she’d agree to anything if he’d keep talking to her like that and touch her again. Her frequent fantasies of Ford involved him spending a lot of time with his head between her legs, his face wet with her juices. And she could use that “guaranteed” climax.

  Only Ford would negotiate a sexual transaction the same as he would any other business deal. How many times had they sat at that table and planned negotiations together for Ford’s development deals? The only difference here was that Ford was sucking her earlobe and bartering to exchange orgasms. Could she approach it with the same kind of business mindset?

  She’d have to, given that she and Ford couldn’t have a relationship, each for their own good reasons.

  Taking a deep breath, she got down to business, concentrating on the terms and attempting to analyze whether she was getting a good deal. It was hard to put thoughts together with Ford nibbling under her ear, but she didn’t become a top paralegal without learning how to think fast under less than ideal circumstances.

  It felt like a win-win. Maybe even better than a win-win. Evie truly enjoyed giving blowjobs—relished it, even. But what kind of negotiator would she be if she took his first offer? “I will agree to your deal,” she spoke the words next to his ear, her head thrown back as she fought to keep her voice steady. “But only if you use your mouth to make me come, not just your fingers. I want the full treatment.”

  He pulled back, beaming a smile at her, his dimples triggering a sensuous twinge between her legs. He looked proud. “I knew you wouldn’t let me down, love. And I will happily agree to that concession.” His deep voice vibrated through her, his lips so close to Evie’s she could feel his breath on her. “That had been my plan all along. I can’t wait to taste you.” His eyes practically blazed. She’d never seen him so vitalized. It was almost as if…

  Yes. This was really doing it for him—bargaining over their sexual encounter.

  It was certainly a first for her, and, she had to admit, it held a unique appeal in its candidness. Everything clear up front. Everyone gets what they want.

  Licking her lips, Evie tried to let out a slow, controlled breath in an effort not to look rattled. “Then, Mr. Hawthorne,” she said in her best, professional voice, “I believe we have a deal.”

  She’d just negotiated an oral contract for oral sex with the hottest man she’d ever laid eyes on. She could have laughed out loud. It made her feel powerful and risqué, and the combination was quite an aphrodisiac, so said her hard-as-pebbles nipples and her throbbing pussy.

  “Excellent.” He sat back, eyes dancing with delight. “Let’s establish a safe word.”

  “A safe word?” Her stomach twisted as she tried not to sound as stunned as she felt. Certainly she knew what a safe word was, but something like that was for people into extreme sex. It wouldn’t be needed for anything like what she’d just agreed to. Would it?

  “Love, we’ve made an agreement in which you’ve promised to do everything I ask. It’s important for both of us that you know you can stop at any time if you’re not comfortable or if I’m hurting you. Do you understand?”

  “That sounds reasonable.” And it did. A safe word. Something she could blurt out that would make any discomfort or pain cease immediately. A swell of warmth sparked to life in her chest. Something about Ford establishing this kinky-sounding safe word made her feel protected. He was concerned for her, putting her choices first. She liked the concept of a safe word.

  If only life had a safe word. She’d scream it in John’s face.

  “Good. Do you have a safe word you normally use?”

  “No!” she practically shrieked. His green eyes appeared momentarily wounded at her sharp exclamation. “I’m sorry, I’ve just… No, I don’t have one.” She shifted uncomfortably.

  “You’ve never used one?” She shook her head and an unreadable look passed over his face. “Okay,” he said gently. “Then let’s come up with one for you. Most importantly it should be something memorable, but something you would never normally say or think about during sex.”

  “Like jellybeans?” As soon as the word came out of her mouth, she felt her face flush hot. She’d said the first inane word that came to mind and was mortified at how cutesy it sounded. She should have picked something urbane or edgy, like “sommelier” or “mosh pit”, not a word associated with the Easter Bunny.

  But Ford grinned, dimples beaming. “Yes, exactly like ‘jellybeans’. I love it.” In spite of his assurances, her face grew even hotter. Had he just mentally compared her ridiculous safe word to all the others he’d “worked with” in the past?

  Leaning in, he brushed a kiss on her cheek and whispered next to her ear, “You’re even prettier when you blush, Evangeline.” And suddenly her blush felt like that of a schoolgirl’s with a crush.

  This is a transaction, she reminded herself, not a date. Keep it together.

  In an effort to focus, she took a deep breath, forcing down her misplaced affection for the completely unavailable man in front of her. The man whose cologne, mixed with his natural, male scent, made her heady as he pulled his face back from her cheek.

  His flirtatious smile disappeared and his face grew serious. Her stomach flip-flopped. They had begun.

  Hammering to life again, her heart was in her throat. She’d just put herself in Ford’s hands with no idea what he’d ask her to do. Could she do it?

  “Stand and pull up your skirt, love.”

  Chapter Three

  FORD GAZED LEVELLY at Evie as if he had every confidence she would not defy him. She bit her bottom lip, a gesture she’d always thought she hated in women but realized maybe she’d just never truly been put in a situation that warranted it.

  And this was definitely a bottom-lip-gnawing situation.

  Standing up, her face still feeling flushed pink, she raised her skirt slowly until the hem inched up to reveal her panties, displaying for Ford her bare legs and the vee between her thighs, covered with red satin. She felt exposed, but she watched in fascination as his eyes traced lazily down her form. Pursing his lips in that sexy way of his, he cocked his head, taking his time in examining her. He wasn’t going to make this easy.

  Over his shoulder she could see her reflection in the huge windows against the blackness of the night as she stood in front of him in the library flashing her panties. The shock of that sight alone would have made her call the whole thing off if she hadn’t needed the release he promised so goddamned badly.

  With Ford still seated and Evie in her tall heels, he was nearly at eye-level to her crotch. He wrapped his long fingers around the outside of her bare legs. Though his fingertips felt hot against her, she shivered at the contact. The nerves of her skin felt raw, sensitized to the slightest touch.

  His eyes fixed to the small triangle of red fabric that comprised the only barrier between her tingling core and Ford’s face. He curled his hands around to her butt, her cheeks naked due to the thong she was wearing. Squeezing her ass, he pulled her toward him and ducked to bury his mouth and nose against the damp, scarlet satin, breathing deeply before mouthing her folds from over the fabric.
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  She moaned, hardly even aware she’d made the sound. What Ford had done in smelling her—tasting her—through her clothes without any prelude seemed somehow animal, instinctual. It was as if he meant to claim her. The thought made her sigh, but it wasn’t a noise brought on by the actions of his lips against her. It was a sigh of pleasure, knowing what was coming.

  Ford wouldn’t hold back the way many people did during their first encounter with a new partner, feeling them out before they felt comfortable enough to really let loose, if they ever did. No, as he’d said, Ford was an overachiever, and she was about to reap the benefits of his drive for excellence, if she could just play along and keep up.

  Between her legs, he nuzzled his lips against her. It was decadent. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been treated to oral sex. Though John appreciated the blowjobs Evie loved to perform, he wasn’t generous with reciprocation. The few times she’d talked him into it, he’d performed the act with such apathy she’d stopped him out of boredom.

  In contrast, Ford’s lips clutched at her and drew her in as if he couldn’t wait to devour her. A delightful throb steadily gained momentum in her core as he coaxed her closer toward ecstasy.

  Hooking his fingers under each side of her thong, he peeled it off, dragging it down the length of her legs until she stepped out of it, her bare sex now flaunting what she was sure were engorged, rosy lips for his attention. Picking up the discarded lingerie, he stuffed it in his pocket.

  “Hey, I’m gonna need those back.” Evie plucked at the hem of her skirt, inching it down slightly. She felt awkward standing in front of him stripped of her panties while he raked his eyes over her.

  “We’ll see,” he murmured. Cupping his hands on the sides of her legs, he slid his fingers up under her skirt to her hips, and looked up at her. Eyes sparking and voice alive with the same controlled excitement, he said levelly, “Miss Evangeline, I don’t recall telling you to pull down your skirt. Now lift it back up or I’ll have to remove it entirely.”

  Evie’s mouth dropped open at his nerve, yet her hands obeyed him instantly, lifting her skirt as she was told, to expose herself again.

  What was this man doing to her?

  Normally so independent, she stood in front of him on knees weak with desire, displaying herself to him and hungry to obey his sexual demands. Clenching her vaginal muscles, she shivered at the potential there, the taut focusing of the nerve ending toward their instinctual, ultimate goal of blissful oblivion.

  She longed for that oblivion. If she just gave herself over to him and let Ford take control—take his pleasure with her—then maybe she wouldn’t have to think for those glorious moments when he was in charge. And maybe for the first time in six months, or perhaps ever, she could stop feeling so exhaustively alone. Let someone else take care of her, think for her. Right or wrong, it sounded so refreshing and free.

  Being on her own, by default, meant she was always in charge—always the one responsible—whether she wanted it or not. And she was so tired of it. She couldn’t remember a time when she was taken care of, though she knew she must have been, at least when she was a baby. When she was five years old, she’d make herself cereal in the morning, sometimes with milk if they had any, and then would dig through her mom’s purse while the woman slept, passed out, hoping to find enough change so she wouldn’t have to beg for a free school lunch again.

  Growing up that way had created strength inside Evie, but also a powerful weakness. And it was just the leverage John had needed to use her. As a trial lawyer he knew how to read people, spot their wounds and exploit them. And that’s just what he’d done to her. He’d dangled the promise of the safety and security in front of her until she’d let her guard down.

  How ironic that ending up hurt and alone had only fueled her desire to let someone else be in charge. That need burned stronger than ever in her gut, and Ford was pushing all the right buttons. She’d never connected sex with a longing to relinquish control before, and the combination was like a powerful drug to that deeply unsatisfied part of her psyche.

  She wasn’t just ready to do whatever Ford asked her, she was excited to do it, hot to do it, wet to do it. This was a temporary solution with no strings. Perhaps giving Ford control and abandoning herself to the pleasure he promised could allow her to forget. Forget her responsibility, forget to be afraid, maybe even let her feel safe and protected in someone’s strong hands for at least the time it lasted.

  Still seated in the library chair with his hands on her hips, he pulled her to him, his gaze pinned to her naked mound.

  Can he see how wet I am?

  Moving his palms around to cup her buttocks, he squeezed her ass cheeks and pulled her against his face again, burying his nose and mouth into the neat strip of hair that disappeared between her legs. She gasped when his warm lips brushed her sensitive labia. Nothing except her own fingers and her vibrator had been this close to her clit in half a year. She had to fight the urge to clamp her fingers in his dark hair and crush his face between her legs until he brought her to climax again and again. She suspected he could do it.

  He snaked his strong tongue out to explore her, and she groaned and gave in to the urge to place her hands on his head. His hair was so soft. Looking down, she forgot to breathe. Ford Hawthorne’s face was between her legs, his tongue licking her, just like she’d fantasized about so many times. But this was so much better than her fantasies. She didn’t have a vivid enough imagination to have come up with the way this felt. Closing her eyes, she shook her head. She didn’t even know how to process the pleasure and joy that was bubbling in her, but she could lose herself in it.

  He drew away from her and she groaned at the loss of his hot mouth against her flesh. “On the table,” he demanded. Standing, he lifted her easily and dropped her bare bottom onto the development contract they’d been word-smithing not twenty minutes prior. He pulled the chair in front of her and helped her brace her heels on the armrests on either side of him. Reaching under her leg and around her ass, he scooped her toward the edge of the table, forcing her legs wide, until she was spread open in front of him, laid completely bare.

  “Mr. Hawthorne…,” she said, self-consciousness swelling again and allowing her nerves to find purchase.

  “Shh. None of that, Evangeline.” His tone was firm and the message clear. He wouldn’t hear protests or allow her to entertain embarrassment. Laying his hands on the sensitive skin of her inner thighs, he pressed her legs wider, his eyes traveling slowly all the way down from face to her naked pussy. “Your body is so beautiful,” he said softly. Leaning in, he laid a kiss above his hand on her thigh, inches from where she really ached for him to be. “But this part is especially pretty,” he murmured, sliding his hand all the way up her leg and stroking a finger into her folds. She sucked in a breath as his touch sent shock-waves through her. “God, Evie,” he nearly moaned her name. “You’re so wet. You’re ready for more than just my tongue.”

  She tensed, not sure whether she wanted to wrap her legs around him or remind him to stay on task. Without more delay, he pushed a finger inside, studying her as if he intended to memorize her reactions, adjust to her cues. “So tight.” He looked up at her, grinning mischievously. “When is the last time you’ve been thoroughly fucked, Miss Radmin?”

  She blinked at him and couldn’t make her mouth work. The only response her brain could produce was that she wasn’t sure she’d ever been thoroughly fucked. That sounded like something she’d remember.

  Thankfully, Ford didn’t wait for her answer. He slid his finger in and out of her slowly. “No worries, love. I’m going to make up for some of the fun you’ve missed.”

  With his other hand, he tucked his first two fingers in a vee around the sides of her pussy, trapping her labia tightly against the finger he still had inside her. Her firm clit was caught snugly between her folds so that every movement of his finger dragged her own engorged lips against her clit.

  Damn. He is good
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  Letting her head drop back again, she closed her eyes and whispered, “Oh god,” as she rocked her hips, not able to remain still with so much pleasure building inside her. Exhaling, she realized she was holding her breath as she anticipated whatever fabulous thing he’d do next.

  Lowering his mouth to her heated core, he removed his finger. He was taking his time, making her wait in agony for every new treat. He replaced his finger with his strong tongue, snaking it between her folds to dip in and taste her.

  Evie moaned and let her head loll, her brain struggling to keep up with the intensity of the feelings he brought to life in her. Maybe it was her sexual dry spell or because she was so hot for him, or perhaps it was Ford’s skill, but she’d never experienced anything like the mind-bending rush of desire coursing through her from his touches.

  Abandoning all thought, she leaned back and shifted her weight to her arms, pressing herself more firmly into his face. He’d guaranteed her satisfaction and it had taken him less than five minutes to convince her he’d have no trouble over-delivering on that promise.

  Ford moved his tongue up and down rhythmically on her, finding her clit and flicking it. She was almost embarrassed at how much she was enjoying him. Fighting the urge to squirm against his mouth, Evie arched her back, eager for his tongue to bring her over the edge and ease her need.

  She should drag it out, relish it, but she was too desperate. She just needed the satisfaction of an orgasm brought on by a man who worked only to please her. It had been too long. That hunger combined with her lust for this man, and she was in over her head. Her only choice was to enjoy the ride.

  He released her folds from the clench of his fingers and wrapped his arms under her legs and around until he had an ass cheek in each hand.

  “Damn,” he whispered against her, “I’m so hard for you I’m tempted to throw out this whole agreement and just fuck you until I’m satisfied.” Evie whimpered and flexed her fingers against the solid wood of the library table, wondering if her nails could dig nicks into the oak. She looked down at him, intending to burn the sight of him between her legs into her memory for future uses on lonely nights. He met her eyes, his lips curling into a sexy smile, wet from her juices. “But a deal’s a deal, Miss Radmin.”