Strong eyes met mine. “Don’t be sorry. I’m not.” His thumb brushed over my cheek. “I mean, I’m sorry they died, but I didn’t know them. We were so young. And I’m not sorry for what happened to my life because of it.”
My throat constricted. “Do you think people will ever look at me and not see my family? Not see the girl who gave up her castle?”
His hands began to knead my hips, moving lower to massaging the top of my ass with long, steady strokes.
“I think, people are goin’ to look at you and see the woman who built her own castle—her own life.” His words worked their way into my strained muscles, the ones pulled taut between everything I was supposed to be and everything I was. “Kids always used to joke in school and whatnot that ‘you can’t choose your family.’ And sure… I couldn’t choose those people who were addicted to drugs and got behind a wheel with two small kids no more than I could choose that Jim and Donna adopted us.”
I gave a small nod. I wasn’t to blame for who my parents were. I was only responsible for the choices I made and was making because of it.
“But I disagree. Because family means unconditional love and support. And just like the sun can be shinin’ but it’s still cold outside, family can be related to you by blood but not bring any warmth to your life.” He reached up and cupped my cheek, his thumb brushing away a tear that managed to slip free. “So, I think you can choose your family, you can choose the people who warm your heart and strengthen your soul, who want the best for you and are there for you no matter what. You can choose the people you let into your heart.”
I blinked rapidly, though Mick caught the tears I couldn’t stop.
I didn’t know if I chose to let Mick into my heart. All I knew was that one day he was there, with all his sexy strength and quiet possessiveness, and it wasn’t long after that I realized he was the one responsible for every beat of my heart.
“Certain kinds of families are tied together by the strings of letters in our cells, but letters… words…they aren’t strong like actions. And I think it’s actions—actions like you and Laurel riskin’ your lives to try to save one another, actions like Gwen helpin’ you get ready for school—”
“And actions like you always being there for me when I needed you and even when I didn’t?” I couldn’t stop myself from interrupting breathlessly.
Mick’s mouth thinned as desire rolled and crashed inside his eyes. He gave a slight nod.
“Actions like you encouraging me to always say what I want? To always speak up for myself? Or how about actions like teaching me how to bake cookies and bringing me home to meet your family?”
My wavering voice began to steady as the confession that had been swelling inside my heart was now too big to hold on to any longer.
“Or maybe actions like all the firsts you’ve given me over the past several weeks?” I smiled tremulously. “From the very start, you’ve encouraged my soul, the one I’ve kept silent for too long, but you’ve also filled my body with safety and sureness.” I paused, feeling heat rise to my cheeks. “And with desire unlike anything I ever thought was possible.”
“Jules…” His hand on my waist slipped onto the soft flesh of my ass, gripping and pulling me tight against his thick erection wedged against my aching sex.
“And you’ve filled my heart.” Here my voice cracked and gave way to what I felt. “I love you, Mick.”
The last was barely a whisper for words that barely described how I felt. Just like the ocean, it was the kind of sensation that could both make you feel like you were floating but also drown you in its depths.
I felt more nervous at that moment than when I went to tell my parents I wanted nothing else to do with Rock Beach. And it made perfect sense—this man wasn’t just my future, he was my everything.
He growled and claimed my lips, his tongue sinking deep into my mouth, wanting to taste the truth of my promise.
“What did I do,” he spoke hoarsely against me. “What did I do to deserve you, darlin’?”
I whimpered and pressed myself harder against him, the need for physical connection burning hotly inside me to carve the emotional one into my body… into my soul.
“You were you. You were strong when I needed you. You were there to hold me when I thought I might fall apart. You encouraged my voice when I thought I’d lost it. And although that voice has gotten stronger, there’s still a part of me it has no say over, a part that is already spoken for…”
I shivered as he trailed kisses along my jaw, unable to stop himself from showing me how much I was affecting him.
“My heart is bespoken for you.”
There was a moment of stillness as his eyes dragged back up to mine, eyes that had always seen through the glamour and glitz, the sparkle and shine, to the woman beneath it all who had strength and purpose for more than what a pretty face and a familial fortune suggested.
“I love you, Jules,” he swore and his lips crushed mine.
This man. Strong and sweet when necessary. Unbridled and consuming when I needed it.
My tongue crashed into his as my arms wound around his neck, locking me tight against the man who was my source of sound and the beats of my heart. His mouth devoured me, licking and stroking the kind of love that completely possesses you into every corner of my mouth.
His hands kneaded my ass roughly, pulling and tugging as he encouraged my hips to grind harder against him. He took everything I threw at him and made it burn hotter, brighter, until I felt like a star ready to explode.
What had I done to deserve him?
My fingers pulled on the fabric of his shirt on the back of his neck until, with a growl, our lips broke apart and he yanked the offending fabric over his head. Divesting me of my shirt and bra, he reclaimed my mouth like he’d been holding his breath underwater for too long and my lips were the only source of air.
My nipples scraped against the coarse hair of his chest as I rolled my hips harder against him. Each one of his grunts and growls soaked my panties further, knowing I held such power over such a man.
My whole body felt like I’d been out exercising in the cold and now, as the blood tried to rush and warm through my chilled cells, it caused each and every one of them to tingle and itch. And his fingers, strong and coarse from life, were the only things that could make it feel better.
He reached up to cup my breasts, weighing each one in his grasp before he tore his lips from mine and kissed down my throat, following my thudding pulse until he reached my swollen breasts that were begging for his attention.
He took his time with each, licking and sucking the sensitive peaks until I could barely catch my breath.
“Mick, please,” I begged.
“So damn sweet.” The ragged words tore from his chest as his hands slid to the waist of my pants, yanking them undone.
I whimpered as he pushed me off of him so that the last layers between us were removed, his eyes glazing over like he was drunk as they scanned down my naked form.
Meanwhile, my own were stuck on the hard length that lay heavy between his legs. My heart skipped a beat, my body remembering the stretching ache his massive size had caused, but also the indescribable pleasure—a pleasure which made my core clench and drip with want.
Reverently, his hand rose, cupping my right breast and thumbing over the nipple that was still wet from his mouth. I moaned and his palm disappeared down over my stomach, leaving smooth shudders in its wake.
I gasped and reached for his shoulders as one finger dipped into my sex.
He grunted. “This is breathtakin’.” His finger slid easily over my clit. “Your pussy so warm and wet and ready for me, takes my fuckin’ breath away.”
I struggled to breathe, my heart hammering in my chest the way his raw need came out in his words and heightened the electric pleasure his finger tortured over my clit.
With a growl, his other hand reached behind my knee, lifting my foot onto the bed.
I doubled over wit
h a gasp, my tits bouncing in his face as he pushed one blunt finger inside me at the same time. There was no pain. I’d expected some, but it was completely foregone in favor of what was to come.
“Oh, fuck,” Mick rasped, turning his face and biting on the sensitive skin on the inside of my knee as his finger began to move inside me.
Gently, he massaged my tight inner muscles. In and out. Unlike my breaths that seemed to go in and then never come out. Fast then slow. Just like my heart that was quickly losing its pre-programming on how to work. Push then pull. Just like us. Mick pushed me to find myself and the more I learned, the more I was pulled back to him.
My eyes squeezed shut as my grip on his broad shoulders turned brutal, trying to hold myself steady on legs that shook so badly I thought I might bring an earthquake to Aspen.
“Mick…” I whimpered when a second finger joined the first and stoked the flame inside me.
Then, he poured straight gasoline on the fire as his thumb began to rub circles over my clit.
“That’s it, darlin’.” His hand tipped my chin so I could meet his heavy stare. “Need you to come for me so you can take my cock, alright?”
I couldn’t even nod, pinned by his stare just as surely as my body—and my pleasure—was pinned to his hand.
Then there were three fingers now. Wide and long, stretching and curling inside me. Three fingers preparing me for the invasion my clenching core pleaded for with each rush of moisture. Three fuses set to a bomb that would be detonated by the pressure on my clit.
He spoke to my body and in return, my body begged for him—screamed for him. My heart had its own voice but knew only one word—one name—and it thumped it loudly in my chest as my body spiraled toward oblivion.
Mick. Mick. Mick.
My whimpers turned to cries as the waves of release exploded around me. My body felt like it was flung to the sky and bathed in the brightest, hottest starlight as pleasure crashed over me. My hips jerked against his hand as my sex clamped down around his fingers, pulling hard to feed my orgasm.
The next thing I felt was the kisses on my neck, their tender but insistent trail crossed my chest and climbed to the peak of my breast. I clung to the soft suck of his mouth on my nipple when his fingers slipped out of me, leaving me empty and aching.
Slowly, as though one wrong move could shatter such a man, my gorgeous Goliath rested back on his elbows and captured my foggy stare.
“Sit on me, darlin’,” he commanded, his voice velvet-coated steel.
My mouth parted, looking down at his cock once more as my brain put together what I was supposed to do. A wave of heat rushed through me, my sex pooling with wetness and anticipation once more.
Sliding my knees over the rumpled duvet on either side of his hips, I stopped when his length pulsed under my wet sex.
His eyes shot to the ceiling, a silent prayer that he would survive this.
Enjoying how it drove him mad—and the rush of power I felt being in control—I splayed my hands on his chest and began to rock my hips back and forth, rubbing his molten hard heat between my folds. Each bump over my sensitive clit sent a shudder through me.
“Christ, Jules,” he grunted, falling onto his back so he could reach up for my breasts, tugging and tweaking my nipples as I slid over him, my juices making everything slick between us.
After a minute or so of torture, his hands shot to my waist, halting me with steel-like strength.
“Need to be inside you now, darlin’, or I won’t be when I come,” he bit out.
Biting my lip, I rose up on my knees and reached a hand between us, my grip unable to completely clasp his cock.
I rubbed his engorged tip along my slit from base to clit, reveling in the low, strained hiss that erupted between his lips. His eyes flashed. I was playing with fire.
“Jules…”
I paused and it felt like time stopped. “I love you.”
His grip on my waist tightened ever so slightly. “I love you, too, darlin’.”
Angling his blunt head to my entrance, I sank onto him, my mouth dropping wide at the exquisite feeling of being impaled by his body.
I was stretching sore muscles… used muscles… muscles that were sure to scream at me in the morning but I loved every bit of it. I should’ve gone slower, but the ripples of my last orgasm demanded more. Digging my fingers into his chest, I let my hips drop the rest of the way down his long length, my gasp melting into his groan.
This position was different. This position was deeper.
And it felt so good. So natural. The fullness. The way my body sucked in every inch of him until he bumped against my womb.
Mick felt like a mountain undergoing an avalanche beneath me—so taut and tense and yet quaking dangerously. There might be bruises on my hips from his grip tomorrow but the thought warmed me—fueled me.
I didn’t know what prompted me, but I circled my hips, savoring the shock of pleasure it sent bursting through my limbs.
His head arched back into the bed with a strangled groan. “Oh, damn, Jules.”
My sex contracted at the encouragement and his hips thrust up uncontrollably, pushing him farther inside.
“Mick…” My toes curled as his cock settled against that spot along my front wall that made every nerve go haywire.
I felt him pulse inside me. “I know, darlin’. I know.”
His jaw pulsed along with his heart underneath my palms. He was waiting for me—until I was okay. But I was more than okay.
“Now, ride me, darlin’,” he begged.
Rising up, I let him slide partially out before sinking back down again, earning me a satisfied grunt from my Goliath and a burst of blind pleasure as he nestled into the spot that was set to detonate.
My pace should’ve stayed slow, but I didn’t want slow. I wanted him. All of him. In me. On me. Claiming me from the inside out.
I moved with urgency and desperation, need making up for inexperience as I slid smoothly up his wide cock all the way to the tip before grinding back down.
It was too fast and too good for him to wonder—to question if I was okay. Whatever restraint was there, he’d given me the power to demolish it. I knew I was moaning his name, begging him for what I was giving us. They mixed with the slick slaps of my hips against his, driving him impossibly deep.
Suddenly, my coordination shattered, my body too overwhelmed, fighting for another release to work in sync to reach it. And then his hand was around my neck, yanking my face down to his so he could devour my mouth. His tongue shoved inside as his hands held my shaking hips so he could shove himself rabidly into me.
I’d brought him to this—to the point of need so bad that he lost all control—and the sensation almost sent me over the edge.
My wetness leaked out and around him as my core tightened. I swallowed his feral growls, letting them fuel my orgasm as he shoved into me like his cock was marking every inch of my sex with his name.
Spots and stars exploded behind my eyelids as I detonated around him, crying out into the silent safety of his mouth.
My whole body shook from the force of it, like every atom had been ripped from its cell and now tried to find its way back inside. I knew my body gripped him in a way that was almost dangerous as he slammed into me a few more times before I felt the warm rush of his release flood my insides, his groan muted in the corner of my neck.
Our chests heaved in sync, catching up on all the missed oxygen of the last several minutes.
My thoughts moved in an incoherent jumble, noticing only distinct bursts of events—the moment his hands moved from my hips to wrap completely around me, holding me tight to his chest, the feel of his cock pulsing inside me, stretching me and connecting me to him in a way there were no words for.
“Most breathtakin’ sight in my whole life,” he crooned.
I peeled my eyes open to look up to his, finding him staring down at me.
“When you come, darlin’, your whole body lights up bright
er than the damn Christmas tree. And your face… Jesus, I’ve never seen anythin’ shine so beautifully before…”
Heat flooded my cheeks. “Is… this… what you were thinking about upstairs when we were looking at the tree?”
He chuckled. “You were breathtakin’ then for a whole different reason. Though, I’ll admit that something along these lines crossed my mind.”
I loved the way I caught him off-guard, the way he always tried to be a gentleman until I asked him about something he wasn’t sure was quite gentlemanly and there was just a hint of pink underneath the day-old stubble.
“Just thinkin’ that next year, we’ll have our own tree and while you light it up, I’ll light you up underneath it.” His eyes darkened and my mouth went completely dry. “First with my tongue. Then with my cock.”
My heart fought over what words affected it more—the thought of having sex under a Christmas tree, or that he was already imagining the Christmas we would share a year from now.
“You’re mine,” he swore.
I wiggled against him as my smile bloomed. “I don’t think there was ever any question.”
“Good.” He nuzzled my neck. “Now let’s get to bed before you start somethin’ that I have to finish. And if I do that, you know what that means…”
I pulled back. “What?”
The lopsided dimpled smile should have told me I’d played right into his hand. “It’s Christmas Eve, darlin’. If I keep you up any longer, Santa won’t come.”
I kissed him, laughing in the process—the kind of laugh that comes freely with the beats of a heart that is not only spoken for but loved.
Mick
I was dying.
I was in love, but I was dying.
It was Christmas morning and I’d woken up with the most beautiful woman in my arms. And if losing my breath wasn’t enough, I struggled to regain it when the memories of last night came rushing back, taking my morning wood and turning it to steel.
There were a lot of fibers in my large being, but each and every one of them was completely in love with her. And it wasn’t just now, it was always.
Bespoken: An Opposites-Attract Standalone Romance (Carmel Cove Book 2) Page 29
