BARE SKIN: A Dark Bad Boy Romance

by Callie Pierce

  Hands, hot, rough, and callused, chased down her back, his thumbs moving over the dip of her spine until she shivered.

  “Oh, Cody…” She rolled her hips over his crotch until she could feel the thick press of his need against her. She grabbed the back of his head and brought his mouth to hers for a third time. He was like a wine that she couldn’t get enough of. The kiss became more battle than pleasure, a wildness of teeth and tongues that left her frenzied and desperate.

  His hand splayed across the lowest part of her back, guiding her movements on top of him until they found a rhythm they both enjoyed. She could feel his length pressing against her cleft through their clothing, and she purred against his lips.

  “I thought you didn’t want me.”

  “Shut up and touch me,” she growled.

  He hefted her up as if she weighed no more than a pillow. She hooked her legs around his hips, locking her ankles around his back. She felt every muscle in his back move as he pushed her against the couch. With more need than thought, she gripped the edge of his tank top and tugged it over his head. His hair made a curtain around the pair of them as he laid his body over hers.

  Her back met the cheap fabric of the rental couch. He gave her a slow smile, those glorious eyes glittering in amusement as he laid a kiss on her chin, then another on her neck. A third trailed over her collar. His lips parted and she felt the flick of his tongue across her collarbone. Then she felt the first caress of teeth. It wasn’t a bite, not exactly. He was asking her with his mouth if she wanted something a little… rougher.

  “Do it,” she groaned.

  His mouth dipped lower, until the sun-kissed color of his lips pressed against the swell of one breast. He kissed the mound of it, slowly licking a perfect circle before his teeth dug in. He went slow, slow and steady until it rode the line between pain and pleasure. Her hips lifted up in approval. When he reached the very limit of her enjoyment, she squeezed his shoulder and he released immediately.

  “Ohhh yes,” she gasped. “Do it again.”

  He did, going back and forth from one breast to the other until she was purring beneath him. Then his mouth went to her nipple. Everything in the world but the pair of them vanished as he worked the rough tip with his tongue. All she could do was revel in the wet pleasure he offered that sensitive peak. Her legs tightened around his hips and her body arched in response, driving herself against him from below.

  “God, Donna,” he groaned huskily, releasing one nipple so that he could explore the other.

  “Didn’t I tell you to shut up?” she asked, writhing her body again. He groaned in response. He wrapped one ardent hand around her hip to hold her in place. When she tried to move again, he dug his fingers in.

  “Wait,” he said, more plead than demand.

  She tilted her head to the side and studied the angular lines of his face. He had closed his eyes and tipped his body away from hers.

  She stuck her tongue in her cheek. “Here I thought you were the big tough biker boy”

  He opened his eyes to fix her with a blithe look. “Woman.”

  “Man,” she shot back.

  “Why are you testing my patience?”

  She jerked her hip out of his grip and ground her body against his from below. Her ankles tightened around his back so that she could dance beneath him. His eyes watched the natural bounce of her chest as she moved. She trailed one hand down her body to cup her mound, gripping it hard enough to make the flesh pucker between her parted digits.

  “Because you test mine.”

  He made a strangled sound and buried his face against her shoulder and the couch. When he lifted his head his face was rich with masculine desire. “You are too much.”

  “Honey,” she whispered back. “I’ve hardly started.”

  She let him hold himself above her while she unlinked her ankles. Her mouth began to explore his chest and shoulders with an enthusiasm that could only be called ferocious. It was all tongue and teeth and lips, memorizing the tattoos, the lines, the musculature of him until the arms that held him over her were starting to shake.

  “Donna…” He groaned.

  “What?”

  He looked like he was drowning. “I don’t normally let the woman lead like this.”

  “Too bad,” she said, “I only lead.”

  “Then tell me what you want, damn it. Let me… let me pleasure you.”

  She gave him a long look, sure that he was teasing her, but there was something in his gaze, something lost and desperate that she couldn’t name. It took her a moment to realize that he wasn’t going to enjoy this unless he got to pleasure her. Well, that was fascinating.

  With alacrity, she laid herself out on the couch and stretched until she filled up the space from one armrest to the other. “Go ahead,” she said, more challenge than anything else. “Explore me.”

  He did. His bent his long body over her and slid further and further down. The satin curtain of his hair trailed over her bare body as his mouth made a gentle trek across her stomach. He didn’t, as she had assumed he would, go right for the place between her legs. He took his time getting there, drawing little circles with his tongue over every sensitive patch of skin.

  “Jesus, Cody,” she muttered as she tried to catch her breath. “Maybe you do know what you’re doing.”

  He looked up at her through the obsidian shroud of his hair. “There’s more.”

  She sat up and wiggled off the couch. For a moment, he looked dumbstruck as she sauntered away from him and toward her bedroom. His gaze followed her, and when she crooked her finger for him to follow, he vaulted over the couch after her.

  She shut the door behind them, and he wrapped his arms around her, gripping the swell of her backside and hauling her close.

  “I want you,” he growled.

  “Good, because I plan on having you.” She dragged her hands up his back to fist in his hair and tugged until he made a sound and lifted her bodily off the floor. She felt the wild scratch of denim as he carried her to the bed and fell with her to the mattress.

  He made quick work of her pajama bottoms, hauling the red fabric down the fullness of her thighs. He banished them to the other side of the room. In moments, she was naked, and he was only halfway there. That didn’t seem at all fair to her.

  When she reached for his jeans, he gripped her wrist.

  “Not yet,” he said, his voice uneven.

  “Why not?”

  “Because when they come off I will not be able to control myself.”

  She ran her tongue over the fullness of her lips “Maybe I want you to lose control. Maybe I want you to be my wild lover.”

  “I thought you liked control.”

  “I like being in control. Part of that is driving you wild.”

  The words made his entire body shiver next to her, and she bent and nipped the curve of his neck as his fingers skimmed heavily over the curve of her hip. “I want you to climax first.”

  It was the second time he’d alluded to her getting her pleasure first. She wondered what was behind that. Was he the kind of guy who didn’t last long once he got to thrusting? Maybe. But if he really wanted her to get hers first, she certainly wasn’t going to argue.

  “How do you want me?”

  He told her. She ended up in the center of the bed, laying out on her belly. It wasn’t her favorite position, but she was willing to give him a little in the way of leniency. For a moment, nothing happened; then she felt the bed shift as he straddled the back of her legs, keeping them pinned and closed. She wasn’t entirely sure she approved, but she was curious, and not uncomfortable.

  “What exactly are you doing back there, biker boy?”

  His fingers brushed down her back so lightly that she barely felt them. He did it a second time, and goose bumps formed in the wake of his caress.

  “You know, you are a lot smaller than you seem,” he said quietly. “I mean, you always seem like you are taking up so much space.”

>   She turned her head just enough that she could see the outline of his body in the near darkness of her room. “Gee, thanks. You do get second dates from time to time, right?”

  He chuckled, but it wasn’t an entirely happy sound. Cody seemed a little distant, and a little distracted. She wondered where his mind was. His weight shifted and his next words were spoken against her recently teased skin. “I need to do this.”

  “I need you to be a little more specific about what it is you want.”

  “I need to…” He waved his hand around at the corner of her vision. “You know, please you.”

  That was the third time he had said something about making sure she was enjoying herself here. She had a thought, crazy enough to be true. “Are you afraid you won’t?”

  He didn’t answer her at first, which was answer enough. “I need to make you feel good.”

  She understood, and she didn’t. He was clearly afraid that she wasn’t going to enjoy this moment. Was it the fact that she had pushed him away for so long? Had his pride taken that much of a hit, or was there more to it than that? She was leaning pretty heavily toward the latter, though she had almost nothing to back it up with.

  “Cody, you know I want to be here, right?”

  He pressed his forehead against her shoulder. “Say it again.”

  She wiggled herself until she could roll over just enough to face him. “Cody,” she said, taking his face between her hands and planting a single kiss on the mouth made fuller by their passionate kisses. “I want to be here. I want this, and I want you. I am not the kind of woman who stays where she isn’t wanted.”

  It was as if some great tension had left him. He moved over her, mounting her backside once again, pinning her between him and the mattress. All the talking and thinking serious thoughts had caused him to grow soft, but she could feel the length of him waken as she moved up to match his movements.

  His lips were gentler than they had been before now, gliding across the soft skin of her back. Cody kissed and touched until she was shivering all over again. Her hands gripped the bedsheets as he alternated between being gentle and being rough until her mind was spinning.

  His mouth went lower, teasing along the firm softness of her curves until his tongue could play along the swell of her backside. Giddy waves of pleasure rippled outward from where he touched. Never had her body felt so awake.

  “That’s all well and good, but it isn’t going to finish the job,” she teased.

  He didn’t answer out loud. Instead, Donna felt the firm pressure of his hand part her thighs. One callused finger swept along her cleft, reminding her of how deliciously wet she was. She suddenly understood the power of this particular position. With her body pinned between him and the bed, she couldn’t see him. She couldn’t even watch. All she could do was feel as he explored her folds with a single digit.

  He, however, could watch her. She opened her legs as far as was comfortable and lifted her back end toward him.

  “You are so goddamned beautiful, Donna,” he said as his finger continued its languid caress. “Do you know that?”

  She did, but it was lovely to hear it. He said it with such honest reverence that she went pliant as his finger slid home, that first delicious penetration bringing a sound from her throat. Her body went from lax to hyperaware. She felt the sheets bunching beneath her clenching palms, the sweep of his long hair against her skin as he leaned over her body.

  As he began to pump that one finger in and out of her opening, she felt it all… and then her awareness narrowed down to the single point where his fingertip brushed the dampness of her. She started to move, keeping her mind on just that point. She felt, or maybe saw, the light of the apex of pleasure forming. Her body grew hot, and for a moment she felt like she was chasing the ecstasy, a teasing hope.

  “Oh God,” she whispered into the mattress. “Don’t stop. Don’t you dare.”

  He didn’t. His hand moved faster as he found that exact place she liked most. He pushed his fingertip against it over and over again.

  “So beautiful,” he groaned. “You are so damned beautiful.”

  “Cody…” She purred his name like a prayer. “Oh yes, yes!”

  Ecstasy, hot and voracious, cracked through her like a whip or a lightning strike. Maybe both. It didn’t matter—nothing mattered. It was a primitive sensation that drew sounds she didn’t know she could make from her throat. She buried her head against the pillow and cried out for him. She was flying, she was almost sure of it.

  “Oh! God, yes!”

  When she came back down from the high, her body didn’t feel entirely like her own. Languidly she rolled over onto her back and reached out for him. He laid against her, his hand settling on her hip.

  “That was good,” she whispered, not sure if she was talking to him, herself, or the sensual memory that she would treasure forever. She said a small prayer of thankfulness for the air-conditioning since a thin layer of sweat had formed along her front from being pushed against the bed.

  He rolled over her suddenly, and she blinked. “Your turn now?” she asked teasingly.

  “I am not done yet.” His soft mouth formed a mischievous smile and ventured down, and down and down, his hands slithering along the sides of her body like he was going to memorize her very shape. Anticipation built inside of her as he pushed himself between her slick legs and gave her an impish look.

  “I’ve thought about doing this,” he admitted.

  “Have you really?” She wasn’t entirely sure that she believed him, especially with that devilish air to him.

  “You are all prim and confident and sure of yourself. Don’t get me wrong,” he said, laying a series of kisses that started at her knee and worked their way up. “I love it when you glare at me.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him until he laughed, and she could feel the brush of his breath against her moistness.

  “Yeah, just like that.” He gave her a quick, light lick, and her toes curled in a shock of pleasure. She was so soon off her first high that everything felt sharper, more brilliant. She started to shift back, and he placed a single hand on her belly. “I wanna see you lose control, Donna.”

  Donna wasn’t sure that she wanted to lose control. Going wild meant making mistakes, and mistakes meant a lot of time cleaning up your own life. She knew the look showed on her face because he pillowed his cheek against her thigh, keeping those big blue eyes on her. His hair was a blanket down her leg.

  “What is it?”

  “I like being in control,” she said flatly.

  “Even… now?” He motioned between them.

  “Especially now.” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. She clapped her lips shut and shook her head. Lust was quickly fading, and she started to pull away from him. He didn’t stop her, but he didn’t help her move either.

  “Donna, I don’t know what happened, and you don’t need to tell me. But I want you to know that I won’t let anything bad happen with you.”

  “How can you say that if you don’t know?” She pulled her legs up to her body. She wanted to pull the long-forgotten robe around her body, and a blanket or two. She felt more exposed now than she had when he’d been working his hands over her. It was not a sexy feeling.

  He slid up next to her but didn’t touch. He seemed to understand that she needed space. It made her think a little better of him.

  “I’ve got sisters, you know. I can tell what the difference is between the ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ that means that you should ask her anyway, and the ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ that means she actually truly doesn’t want you to pry.”

  It was weird that she’d never thought of him as having a family, or sisters. What did that say about her that she hadn’t been thinking about him as coming from something? That made her a pretty crappy human being. Her shoulders hunched.

  “You make a very astute observation.”

  He reached out slowly, and when she did
n’t move back he laid a strong hand on her shoulder. She was transfixed by how warm he was, the striking difference in the hues of their skin. Silence blossomed between them, but it wasn’t the hard kind of silence that came with awkwardness. It was a comfort.

  “Well,” he said after a moment. “We’ve got three choices.”

  “Oh?” She raised her brow.

  He ticked them off on the fingers of the hand that wasn’t currently touching her. “One, we get dressed and heat up the leftovers from dinner and watch horror flicks until the sun comes up.”