“I don’t care what Kyra said to make you change your mind about me,” she muttered. The mutinous look in her eyes said she was more than ready to do battle with him on the subject. “I do not want pity sex from you!”
“What? ” he grunted this time.
She huffed and jerked her wrists free, crossing her arms over the gentle swell of her breasts. The soft mounds looked suspiciously free beneath the soft cotton of her T-shirt, making his mouth water. “You heard me.”
“Will you stop repeating yourself?” he growled, moving even closer against her.
She answered with a step back. “Then stop saying ‘ What? ’.” Mark took a deep breath, held it, then blew it out slowly, resting his hands on his hips to keep them out of trouble. “Okay, let’s start at the beginning. What the hell made you think I didn’t want to get your sweet little ass in bed? I’ve wanted to sink my dick into you, lady, from the first time I set eyes on you, and I’ve wanted it more every 85
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goddamn day. But I’ve never wanted it as much as I did after spending the evening with you, getting to know you…realizing that I’d—” She cut him off, muttering, “You were surprised when I asked.”
“Only because I’d been trying so hard to control myself that my damn hard-on was ready to explode,” he gritted through his teeth, feeling the vein in his temple tick with his temper. “I didn’t want to fall all over you like some sex-starved maniac and scare your sweet little ass away.”
“You got angry!” Melanie argued, refusing to be intimidated by his attitude.
He made a sarcastic snorting sound that was utterly male. “Because I felt stupid as shit. When you blurted out that crap about my reputation, I thought you only agreed to go out with me because you wanted a one-nighter. I thought you didn’t care a goddamn thing about me—that you just wanted my body.”
“Well, I do want it,” she huffed, fluttering her hand at him, before crossing her arms back over her chest. “But I’d like everything else that goes along with it.”
“Yeah, well, that’s good then, sweetheart, because you’ve got it. All of it. In fact,” he rumbled in a low growl, narrowing his green eyes on her with a primal, savage intensity that made her want to pinch herself to see if this was really happening, “I’d be willing to bet my life on the fact that this body isn’t ever going to want anyone but you, not ever again. And that’s not just some line I’m throwing at you. It’s the honest-to-god truth.”
A deep breath staggered in her lungs, a shivering spike of excitement racing beneath the surface of her skin. He cupped her cheek, staring down at her with so much tenderness, she didn’t know how she kept from simply melting at his feet. “Honestly, Mel, I don’t know how you could think any man wouldn’t give his soul for the chance to be with you,” he rasped in a smoky, black magic voice.
“It wasn’t just you.” At his puzzled expression, she struggled to explain. “Kyra told you the truth. That’s what guys have always wanted from me—conversation. It’s like 86
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I’m nothing but a set of ears. Normally it doesn’t bother me so much, but with you… aargh,” she growled, trembling as she struggled to explain. “I couldn’t take it from you, too. I wanted to talk to you and get inside your head and learn everything, every single intriguing little detail about you, Mark. But I wanted…I needed…”
“It’s okay,” he murmured, gentling her with the warm press of his rough-silk lips against her temple as he pulled her close, the animal heat of his body making her jerk with shock, as if she’d pressed her wet fingers to a live wire. “I get it now,” he breathed against her hair, his strong arms wrapping around her in a possessive hold, while her hands clutched at his powerful biceps and her nose pressed into his chest, the sinful scent of his skin making her feel drunk with pleasure.
“I was an ass, baby, but not anymore. You wanted this too, didn’t you, sweetheart?” he asked in a whiskey-rich voice, moving his hot palms down to her shorts-covered backside and lifting her into the hard evidence of his arousal, his cock an impossibly long, breathtakingly thick ridge within the thin confines of his running shorts. “Unlike those other jerk-offs you’ve known, you wanted me to rip off your conservative little clothes and fuck your beautiful brains out. Wanted me to cover you with my hungry body and shove my thick, heavy cock hard into you, inside you, didn’t you, angel? It’s okay, you can talk to me,” he coaxed with a deliciously wicked grin as he trailed his hands up the sensitive line of her spine, long fingers sifting through her hair as he cupped them around her skull. Using his possessive grip on her curls, he pulled her head back, demanding she hold his stare. “Tell me everything, all of it. There’s nothing going on inside you that I don’t wanna know about, Melanie. Whatever you want, I can promise you that I want it more.”
“Damn,” she moaned thickly, knowing her dazed expression mirrored every fascinating reaction zinging through her body, from her scalp down to her toes. Hot and thick, the love and lust pulsed through her system. She could feel it in her eyelids and the fierce heat of her earlobes, down to the tight, aching tips of her breasts…and 87
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lower, where it all centered deep inside, her inner muscles clenching with want while her needy flesh went slick with hot, violent desire. “Oh god.”
“Just call me Mark, sweetheart,” he drawled with a teasing smile, using his hands on her backside to rub her over the hard mass of his cock, making her breath catch at the mouthwatering, head-spinning sensation, even while she laughed at his comeback.
Then his smile faded, replaced by a smoldering, serious look in those soft green eyes.
“I’m going to be honest with you and tell you what I should have told you that night. I want more with you, Melanie Green, and…uh…I should’ve made that clear from the very beginning, honey. I want a woman I can talk to and share my life with, who makes me ache to take her with a long, rough ride from nothing more than a smile, and that’s you. You turn me inside out, twisting me up inside, and I’m…I…shit, this isn’t easy,” he muttered, “and I’m making an absolute ass of myself, but I’ve never done this before.”
She smiled up at him, deliciously lost in the moment. Lost in him. “Done what?”
“Mel, I want you. In my life. Permanently. Not just for sex, though the sex is an absolute given. Uh, actually, if I don’t get the sex soon, there’s every chance I might actually start begging here, but—”
“Yeah?” she sighed, pulling his head down so that she could press a kiss to the hot, silky skin of his cheek, trailing her lips along the hard angle of his jaw.
“I want it all,” he growled. “I want you to move in with me. Live with you, be a part of your life every damn day. Have you be the most important thing in mine.
For…hell, forever, Melanie. Which…uh, means that someday, when you’re ready, I’m going to want my ring on your finger and my name after yours.” Shock nearly made it impossible to speak, but she managed to gasp the words out of a tight throat. “You think you’ll want to marry me someday?”
“Not think, honey. Know. But I won’t rush you into anything, I promise. We’ve got plenty of time.” His arms pulled her tighter into the heat of his body, wrapping around her until she felt wonderfully crushed…needed. “I’m in love with you, Melanie Green, 88
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and if there’s any chance at all that someday you’ll feel the same way about me, then I’m—hell, I’ll do anything, Mel. Just tell me what I have to do.”
“But…you…” she mumbled into his chest, “all those other—” It seemed he knew what she was going to say before she even said it. “Forget my dumb-ass reputation. I know I can’t change it, but it doesn’t mean anything, sweetheart.
I don’t know how to make you understand what you’ve done to me, but I’ve changed,” he struggled to explain, a dull wash of color burning across the sharp angles of his cheekbones as she peeked up at him. �
��That’s not who I am now, and I…uh, you gotta believe me when I tell you that, because it’s true.” He stared down at her, the look in his mesmerizing green gaze begging her to believe in him. “I thought I was content with the way things were, and then I met you and it damn near knocked me on my ass. Hell, it was like being hit upside the head with an I-beam. I want you, Mel, and it just isn’t going to be enough until I’ve got you. That one taste last Friday damn near drove me outta my mind. I’ve done nothing but think about it…but live it over and over in my head until it’s driving me crazy.”
“I can’t believe that you’d want me,” she thought, surprised when she realized she’d said the words out loud, watching as his beautiful mouth twisted with emotion.
“I don’t know how you could doubt it, Melanie. You’ve haunted me, woman. Your taste, your scent,” he whispered, his beautiful voice rough with want. “The way you feel in my arms…the way you shatter when I make you come. God, Mel, it’s been all I could do to stay away from you. To stay away and not come begging you to want me for more than just a one-shot deal. To want me forever, because the only woman I’ll ever want again is you. I knew it all along, baby. I just didn’t know what the hell to do about it.”
“I…oh god,” she breathed out again on a shaky breath, words simply failing her at the burning honesty she could see written upon the rugged beauty of his face, hear within his husky words. “So you really— I mean, you honestly want more from me than just some good conversation?”
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A sharp laugh jerked out of his throat, but he choked it back when he saw the bruised expression on her face. “God, Mel, how could you even think such a thing? As much as I love talking to you, nothing can compare to having you in my arms.” His voice lowered once more, rough and raw as he added, “To having you under me, surrounding me while I sink deep inside you.”
“But you haven’t even done that…yet, Mark. How do you know it’ll be enough?” How do you know I’ll be enough?
The look in his eyes was so wicked and warm, she felt as if he’d read her mind.
“Just because I haven’t had my dick in you yet, sweetheart, doesn’t mean I haven’t been inside you.”
She blushed so bright she felt sunburned, and he laughed, a low, wicked chuckle that melted down her spine, making her weak and strong at the same time. “You feel so soft inside, baby. As soft and sweet as you look on the outside, and I know it’s gonna burn me alive when I finally get in you.”
“If you fit,” she murmured wryly, shifting back to glance down at the stiff, thick evidence of his massive cock pressing against the thin material of his shorts.
“I’ll fit. I’ll make sure you’re so ready that I’ll sink right in. It’ll be a tight squeeze, but nothing will ever be more perfect.”
Melanie cocked her head to the side as she studied the determined, intent lines of his expression. “You seem really sure of yourself.”
“I am. Your sweet little pussy was made to take me…all the way to the hilt, Mel,” he growled, the sexy sound making her shiver with excitement.
“But I…I’m, well, I mean, I don’t have nearly your kind of experience when it comes to this, um, kind of stuff,” she mumbled. “I hate to say it, or even think it, but there’s probably a really good chance that you’ll get bored with me, Mark.” The green of his eyes was feverishly bright as he stared at her through the thick fringe of his lashes, the pattern of his breathing coming harder, as if he was as turned on as she felt. It was a heady, electrifying thought that nearly had her moaning aloud.
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“You’re gonna have to trust me, Mel,” he said huskily, “when I tell you that there’s not a chance in hell that could ever happen. Damn, just talking to you makes me hard.
I’m almost afraid to think of what fucking you is going to do.” Her lips trembled into a soft grin. “Conversational foreplay, huh?”
“You can laugh, but do you have any idea what you did to me that night?” he asked with a wry smile. “I was hard under that little table the entire damn time we were at Caza’s, Mel, from nothing more than the sexy, sinful sound of your voice. When you told me about your last trip to Milan, I got so turned on that I ached. Watching the way your eyes sparkled when you described Paris damn near turned my dick inside out. If we hadn’t been in a restaurant full of surfers who were all sneaking looks at you, I’d have thrown the table out of my goddamn way, pulled up your skirt and shoved my face in your perfect little cunt right there, eating your hot little juices for dessert, while you just kept talking about the Seine and the Louvre and that little café with the pain au chocolat and café au lait. The entire night was like some deviously designed torture session to see how far you could push me, ‘til I lost it and ended up scaring your sweet little ass away. So don’t ever, ever doubt my desire, sweetheart. I want to sink inside you every time I set eyes on you. Every time I think about you. And only you, Mel.” She frowned as a sudden thought occurred to her. “I don’t want a man who’s faithful simply because he thinks it’s right, like it’s some kind of noble sacrifice.”
“It isn’t like that. I’ll be faithful because you’re all I want,” he said with far more tenderness than she would have ever thought an utterly alpha male like him could show or feel. “That’s a fact that isn’t ever going to change. So you had better fucking accept it.”
“Oh,” she sighed dreamily, wondering if she looked as love-struck as she felt.
“And?” Mark prompted, the hard, yet ridiculously sexy line of his mouth twitching with humor.
“And what?”
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“I’d like to hear the same from you,” he said with a stifled growl. “Forget like. I have to hear it, Mel. I need to know, damn it.”
Melanie blinked in fascination. “From me?”
He stared at her so intently, she felt as if he was trying to sneak into her mind.
“Don’t sound so damn surprised. I want to know that you’re mine—and only mine—
woman.”
“Mmm…” she moaned, melting from the evocative heat in his darkening gaze.
He shook his head with exasperation, another wry smile playing at the corner of his lips. “You gonna give me an answer?”
Warm satisfaction curled heavily within her, drowsy and replete. She wanted to bask in the glorious heat of his expression, but sexual urgency pulsed too fiercely beneath her skin, setting her to a fine tremble, and all she could do was grin in return.
“Tell me you want me, Mel,” he said, his voice shaking in a low rumble. “I’m hanging by a thread here, and every second I spend without you hurts like a son of a bitch. Tell me you’re mine. Tell me that no other bastard is ever setting his fucking hands on you.”
“You know,” she teased, shaken by the depth of emotion in his words, “you and your talented brother have practically taken cursing to an art form. It’s amazing.”
“I don’t want to talk about Cain,” he growled against the sensitive skin beneath her ear, nipping the tender lobe. The hungry urgency in his voice told her that he’d reached the limit of his control. “I want to talk about us. I want you to tell me what you want.” There was only one answer, simple and perfect and pure. “You, Mark. I want you.” 92
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Chapter Seven
“Aw, thank god,” Mark groaned, and before she could blink, he had Melanie plastered against the feral heat of his body. His hands clutched at the lush softness of her backside, grinding her against the raging ache in his cock, her soft breasts flattened against his chest. “This first time won’t be easy, Mel.” He’d tried to soften the vicious thread of hunger in his tone, but knew he’d failed when she trembled against him. “I’ve waited too long for you. Hell, this first month might not be easy, but after that, I…uh, promise I’ll be able to give it to you however you want it. You name it, honey. But right now I h
ave to be in you.”
“Any way you want it, Mark,” she said breathlessly, pressing the damp heat of her mouth to his, and the stroke of her eager tongue past his lips damn near turned his cock inside out. “Just so long as I’ve got you, I’m good. Great. Freaking spectacular.” With a low growl, he broke the kiss to preserve what little of his sanity he still held, and his eyes tracked over the grace of her flushed face, absorbing all the beautiful, purely unique details of her. Lingering over the individual features that made her glow—made her so perfectly special to him. All of it, each soft curve and shape, affected him in the same way as an artist might feel when standing in awe beneath the majesty of Michaelangelo’s frescoes adorning the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The dainty, dark freckles that decorated her nose and cheekbones. The gentle sweep of her brows and the feminine line of her nose. The angle of her jaw and the soft curve of her chin.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered achingly as he carried her the few feet it took to reach her dining nook. With uncharacteristically trembling hands, he pushed her back against the gleaming surface of her small table. She trembled, too, beneath the press of his eyes, shivering as he trailed one callused palm down the center of her shirt-covered chest, over the smooth plane of her stomach, the feminine flare of her hips. Then he 93
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turned inward, burrowing into the humid warmth of her cloth-covered sex, parting her knees with his thighs.
He leaned over her, and Mel’s hands clutched at his shoulders, fisting handfuls of his shirt, struggling to pull it off. A low laugh rumbled in his chest and he straightened, watching her desire-filled expression as he ripped the stained T-shirt off over his head, his cock jerking in his shorts at the drugged look of pleasure that fell over her face. Her eyes were heavy, lambent, cheeks pink with a warm wash of color, soft pink lips parted for her soughing breaths. She jackknifed upright, running her palms eagerly over his heated skin, and his breath sucked sharply into his chest.
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