Quantum Boxed Set: The Complete Series

by Force, Marie

  I lay my hand on his face and kiss him. I can tell that I’ve surprised and pleased him by initiating the kiss.

  He kisses me back, but there’s no urgency, no flashpoint of desire like there was last night. This kiss is about safety and comfort and taking steps forward together.

  I break the kiss and close my eyes, needing some distance from him for what I’m about to say. “You’ve probably already figured out that I was raped. It happened when I was fifteen.” The words, once I decide to release them, tumble forth in a rush. “It was a particularly vicious and brutal assault that left me damaged in every possible way. There’s a lot more to the story than that, but the rest is stuff I don’t talk about. Ever. It’s in the past where it belongs.” I take another minute to collect my emotions before I open my eyes to find tears in his.

  “I… I’m so sorry that happened to you, baby.” He takes a deep breath that rattles in his chest, and I can tell he’s fighting hard to maintain his composure, which only makes me fall that much faster and harder for him. “I’ll never ask you to share things that are too painful for you.” With the soft flutter of his fingers over my cheek, he slays me with tenderness. “Thank you for telling me. I can’t begin to fathom how hard that was for you.”

  “I wanted you to know… What happened last night, it wasn’t your fault.”

  “It wasn’t yours either,” he says fiercely.

  I love him so much for saying that. “It took years of therapy for me to acknowledge it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t do anything wrong. This was done to me.”

  He gathers me in even closer to him, his arms tight around me, and all I feel is loved and protected when only a week ago I would’ve freaked out if a man had tried to hold me so possessively. There’s no place for fear when I’m in his arms. “We’re going to figure this out together. One day at a time, one step at a time. Whatever you need, whenever you need it. I’m in this so deep, Nat.”

  “So am I. A week ago… The thought of something like this would’ve been impossible to imagine. And now… Now everything seems possible.”

  “Please don’t leave me. Don’t walk away. Give me a chance. Give yourself a chance. If anyone deserves to be happy and loved, it’s you.”

  He’s a dream come true. He’s my dream come true. He’s the dream I never dared to have all sewn up into one irresistibly wonderful package.

  “Will you kiss me again?” I ask him. “Please?”

  “Only because you asked so nicely.”

  We’re both smiling when our lips come together. I can feel his caution, his hesitancy. He’s worried about pushing me too far, about losing control of himself and the situation. I already know him well enough to gauge these things just from the way he kisses me. There’s none of the heat that nearly consumed us last night, and I miss it. In spite of my fears, I want it back but I know it’ll never come from him after what I’ve shared with him.

  Summoning the courage to take what I want so badly, I run my tongue over his bottom lip and experience the profound pleasure of feeling his entire body react.

  “What’re you doing to me?” he asks on a gasp.

  “Kissing you.”

  Laughter rumbles through his chest and makes his lips vibrate against mine. “Sure you are, you little vixen.”

  I use my tongue again to tease and entice him.

  “Natalie.”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m so afraid I’ll do the wrong thing here. Help me.”

  To hear this strong, confident, capable man asking me to help him give me what I need is awe-inspiring. “Just kiss me the way you did last night. You can’t do it wrong. I’m prepared now for what it’ll be like.”

  “Tell me to stop, at any point. Just say stop, and it’s game off.”

  “Okay.”

  He looks at me for a long, intense moment, his eyes burning with desire and affection and so many other things I can’t begin to process. And then he takes possession of my mouth. There is no other word for it than possession. Complete and utter possession. As his tongue strokes against mine, the fire ignites the way it did before, and I’m carried away in a sea of heat and desire.

  He fists a handful of my hair to keep me anchored in place, but he doesn’t touch me anywhere else yet. This is all about lips and tongues and teeth and raw, desperate need. His leg sneaks between mine as his hand moves down my back to pull me in closer to him, so close my sex is pressed tight against his muscular leg.

  I squirm to get even closer, to gain relief from the ache between my legs. Every part of me wants every part of him, which is a startling discovery for someone who has avoided any contact with men for the last eight years. But all he does is kiss me and kiss me and kiss me until my lips are tingling and my lungs are about to burst.

  When I can no longer deny the need for air, I break the kiss and suck in greedy deep breaths as he turns his attention to my neck. The plane hits a bump that knocks us out of the sensual haze we’ve slipped into. He raises his head to meet my gaze and smiles at me. I love that smile. It’s so sexy and potent. I could look at it all day and never get tired of seeing it.

  “How’re you doing?” His gaze is so tender, so totally focused on me.

  “Great. You?”

  “Never been better.”

  I snort out a rather unladylike laugh. “Sure you haven’t.”

  “Nat.”

  “Hmm?”

  “Look at me.”

  I do as he asks, and what I see there… God. All of that for me.

  “I’ve never been better than I am in this moment with you.”

  Though it’s against my better judgment and my inner cynic is crying out to be heard, I believe him. Whether that will prove to be a mistake remains to be seen. “Do you think we could…”

  “What, sweetheart? What do you want to do?”

  “I’m feeling kind of warm in this sweater.” I wore a black sweater with a skirt to school that day, hoping I’d look sophisticated enough to take this trip of a lifetime after school.

  His gaze shifts to my chest. I can almost tell he’s trying to gauge whether I have anything on under it. I don’t, except for a bra, of course. “Do you want me to do something about the cabin temperature?”

  I shake my head.

  “Natalie… I want to do the right thing here. If we start taking clothes off, it’s going to get even warmer in here.”

  I can hear the torture and inner turmoil he’s struggling with in his tone. It’s much more rigid than normal, as are the muscles that are pressed against me. He’s waiting for some sign from me about what’s going to happen. Reaching for the hem of my sweater, I pull it up and over my head. I’m left in only the black bra I wore under it.

  “God, you’re beautiful, and that was about the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

  Once again my first thought is that can’t possibly be true, but I keep it to myself this time. I want to believe him so badly. I want to believe in him. I dip my hand under his sweater and encounter the warm skin underneath. “Take yours off, too.”

  After a slight hesitation, he complies.

  I love the way his chest hair feels against my skin. My eyes close as I take a moment to enjoy the simple pleasure that comes from being close to him this way. It fills a void inside me I didn’t know existed until him.

  “Could I ask you something?” he says after a long period of silence.

  “Of course you can.” Whether I’ll answer is another matter.

  “Has there been anyone since that happened?”

  I shake my head. “No.”

  “I feel like the luckiest bastard in the world that you’ve chosen to be with me this way. But I’m also so scared of doing something to upset you. I can’t bear to see you cry again. That killed me.”

  “I’m sorry about that—”

  “No,” he says, kissing me softly, “don’t apologize, baby. You didn’t do anything wrong. You’re beautiful and perfect in every way. I feel like you’ve given me a price
less gift by letting me in, and I want to be so careful with you. But then you kiss me, and I forget all about being careful.”

  “What do you think about when I kiss you?”

  Smiling, he shakes his head. “Can’t tell you. If I do, you’ll find the emergency parachute and jump right out of this plane.”

  I know I’m playing with fire, dangling red in front of a bull, but I can’t resist the need to know more. “Tell me anyway. I promise, no parachutes.”

  “You’re not ready to hear those thoughts.”

  “Can you give me a hint? A little sneak peek?”

  Groaning, he buries his face in my hair, and his lips find my neck. “I think about what it would be like to be completely naked with you, to have your long smooth legs wrapped around me and your gorgeous breasts pressed tight against my chest while I make love to you. I think about what it would be like to be inside you, so deep there’s no way to tell where I leave off and you begin. I think about what it would be like to be able to do that every day and every night, to know you’re mine and I’m yours and there’ll never be anyone else for either of us.”

  For a moment, I’m too stunned by the raw desire in his voice to formulate a reply. But then I realize he’s waiting for me to say something. “All that from a kiss?”

  Nodding, he touches his lips to mine in a tentative caress. “And that’s just the sneak peek. There’s so much more where that came from.”

  “I want that. I want all of it. I want to be the woman you described. I want to be her with you.”

  “You can have anything you want from me. Anything at all. You only have to ask.”

  “That’s the hard part for me.”

  “Tell me what you want, sweetheart. Tell me so I can give it to you.”

  “What we did the other night…”

  He cups my breast and runs his thumb back and forth over the nipple. “This?”

  I nod because he’s stolen my words with the subtle gesture that sets off a firestorm inside my body.

  “You liked that?”

  “Yes,” I say, covering his hand with my own when the sensations become too intense. After a deep breath, I remove my hand, hoping he’ll continue.

  “More?”

  “Yes.” I’m finding I don’t possess more than that one word to tell him what I want. I’ve never had to say the words before.

  Flynn runs his finger along the top slopes of my breasts. “Bra on or off?”

  I look up to find him watching me in that intense way that has all my walls crumbling down around me. “Off.”

  He reaches behind me to release the hooks, and my breasts spill free of the tight confines of the cups. Leaving a trail of goose bumps in his path, Flynn pushes the strap down my arm.

  My only goal is to get through this without having another meltdown. I want to be like any other woman being touched by a man she’s come to care about. I don’t want to be a victim. Not anymore. But then he cups my breast, dragging his thumb back and forth over the sensitive tip, and my mind is wiped clean of every thought that doesn’t involve the sublime sensations that spiral through me. I arch into him, wanting to be closer.

  His lips close over my nipple, drawing it into the heat of his mouth as his tongue swirls around it. The sensory overload is intense, but I stay focused on the present rather than spiraling into the past the way I did the last time we got this far. I want more. I want everything, but I’m so afraid I won’t be able to follow through when the moment is upon us.

  “Why did you just get all tense?” he asks.

  “I… I don’t want it to happen again.”

  “Do you feel like it’s going to?”

  I draw in a sharp deep breath. “No, but I’m still afraid.”

  “If it happens a hundred times, we’ll keep trying until it doesn’t.”

  Here, in my arms, looking at me with affection and tenderness and desire, is the man I never expected to find. He’s patient and kind and understanding. Despite my intense desire to get through this without them, my eyes fill with tears anyway.

  “Hey! What’s this? What happened?”

  “It’s… It’s you. What you said. It was perfect.”

  “So these are good tears?”

  “The best kind.” I close my eyes, keeping them tightly shut until the tears are contained. And then I open them to find him watching over me. “Could we…”

  “What, sweetheart? Just say it.”

  “Could we keep going?” I told him I wouldn’t have sex with him unless we’re married, and I meant that. That’s been my rule for eight long years, a rule I’ve hidden behind because I never expected to get close enough to any man to actually consider marrying one. But now… Now, everything is different, and he’s the reason.

  “Help me out here. How far are we talking?”

  “A little further?”

  “I can do that.” He arranges me so I’m lying flat on my back and settles between my legs, leaning over me to give my other breast some attention.

  I grasp a handful of his hair, needing to hold on to something as he sets off another frantic wave of desire. Then his hand is on my leg, moving from my knee to my inner thigh, opening me. I hold my breath, waiting to see what he’ll do next.

  “Breathe, sweetheart. Try to relax. I promise I’ll never hurt you. Not in a million years.”

  I do what I’m told, drawing in greedy breaths as his hand creeps closer to my core. I don’t know whether I want to pull him closer or push him away. While his hand tortures me with the slow slide, his lips pull and tug on my nipple, splitting my focus squarely in half. I suspect that’s his intention, to scramble my brain so completely there’s no possibility of going to the bad place. There’s only pleasure and desire.

  “Doing okay?” he asks gruffly as his tongue swirls around my nipple.

  “Mmm.”

  “Words, Nat. Give me the words.”

  “Yes! I’m okay. Flynn…”

  “What, honey?”

  “Touch me. Please touch me.” I’ve never been so desperate for anything in my life as I am for his touch.

  His hand is warm and large as he does exactly what I want, pressing his fingers against the place that throbs for him, with only the thin silk of my panties between us. He knows exactly where I need him most, and I cry out from the pleasure that scorches me.

  Lifting my hips, I silently ask for more, but he distracts me with another deep pull on my nipple. The combination has me climbing toward some sort of summit, something dark and mysterious and altogether out of reach until right now. He doesn’t do anything more than press rhythmically against me as he continues to torment my nipple. The pleasure builds and grows until I feel like I’m going to explode from within. “Flynn…”

  “It’s okay, baby,” he whispers. “Let it happen.” He doesn’t stop until I’m crying out from the overwhelming pleasure that detonates from between my legs and travels through my body like a lightning strike. “God, that was amazing. You’re so beautiful. I can’t wait to be inside you when that happens.”

  I cling to him, breathing hard as he brings me down with gentle strokes of his fingers. His words permeate the fog that has invaded my brain, and for the first time since I was attacked, the thought of allowing a man inside me doesn’t make me cringe with horror or disgust. It makes me burn with longing, especially as I feel him hard and throbbing against my leg.

  “Talk to me, sweetheart. Tell me what you’re thinking.” His voice is rough against my ear, making me shiver.

  “I think you’ve wiped my brain clear of all thoughts that don’t involve you.”

  “Excellent,” he says, chuckling. “Then my work here is finished.”

  I push my pelvis against the hard thrust of his erection. “Not everyone got to finish.” Running my hand down the muscular contours of his chest, I summon the courage to take what I want. “Could I… Would it be okay…”

  “Natalie,” he says through gritted teeth, “Christ, do whatever you want to me. T
ouch me anywhere. Any time you want.”

  “Any time?” I ask, smiling up at him.

  He responds with a savage kiss, seeming to pour every ounce of pent-up desire into one blistering kiss. I’m so distracted that, for a second, I nearly forget what caused him to kiss me this way. Then the insistent press of his erection against my leg reminds me of what I wanted to do. Without breaking the kiss, I slide my hand down over the front of his well-worn jeans where I find him long, hard and thick.

  Groaning, he comes up for air wearing an agonized expression I’ve never seen before. He covers my hand with his and shows me how to touch him, his eyes rolling back in his head when I follow his lead. I’ve never willingly touched a man there before, and it’s a revelation to watch such a strong man become powerless because of me.

  Then he pulls my hand away. “I can’t.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

  “Why did you stop me?”

  “I can’t take any more.”

  Suddenly, I’m swamped with regret and dismay. How long can a vital, virile man like him deny his desires? How long before he loses interest in the traumatized woman who can’t give him what he needs?

  “Whatever you’re thinking right now, knock it off.”

  His terse tone takes me by surprise, and I try to pull away from him.

  He holds me closer. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said it that way. I can tell you’re putting thoughts in my head that simply aren’t there. I’m not thinking about anything other than how much I love being with you. I swear.”

  “But you want more.”

  “Of course I do, Natalie. You’re sweet and gorgeous and sexy and smart. I’m only human. I want you. I’ll never deny that. But I’m on your schedule here.”

  “How long will you wait for me to get over my issues?”

  “I don’t expect you’ll ever completely get over what happened to you. Who would?” As he speaks, he runs a finger over my cheek. “There’s no timetable. We’ve known each other a week, and I’ve loved every second I’ve gotten to spend with you. The physical stuff is only part of it. I like talking to you as much as I like kissing you. I can’t wait to introduce you to my family and to spend this weekend with you. I can’t wait for everything with you. It doesn’t matter if it takes a week, a month, a year… I’m not going anywhere for as long as you want to be with me.”