by Shayla Black
sourdough and chased it with a gulp of the stout, he watched her flit to the cabinet to find his favorite shampoo, then disappear. He’d scarfed most of the sandwich and downed the beer by the time she returned with a big plastic cup and knelt by him at the side of the tub again.
Without a word, she turned on the tap once more and filled the cup with water. Liam watched her as she rose and protected his eyes with her hand, tilted his head back, and sluiced warm water through his hair. He groaned at the slice of heaven.
Raine lathered his hair, massaging his scalp, lingering at his temples, easing the knots at the base of his neck. Everything she did somehow soothed and invigorated him at once. He’d been wiped out when he’d arrived at Shadows, but the longer she touched him, the less he had any interest in sleep.
After long minutes of her luxurious care, she rinsed the suds from his hair, then swept the empty plate and glass onto the counter. She stood on her tiptoes, reaching into the cupboard above the toilet for a fresh towel. He smiled. Such a wee thing, and so willing to please.
When Raine turned back to him, she held the towel open, inviting him to walk inside. “If you’re ready…”
Beyond ready. Liam jumped to his feet, displacing the water in the tub with a mighty whoosh. He stepped out and into her open arms, every part of him softening to her touch except one. She patted the water off his shoulders, chest, and back before he ducked to let her soak up the excess moisture from his hair. Circling around him, she dried off his back, his buttocks, his legs, even dabbing at his feet before she crawled around to the front and dragged the towel down his abdomen, up his calves and thighs, circling his impatient cock.
The moment she dragged the terrycloth over his raging staff, he moaned. Jesus, the woman pushed every one of his buttons. He wanted the chance to push hers.
Raine set the towel aside, then prowled in the cabinet again. Her little robe whispered up the back of her thighs, barely covering that lush ass.
“Almond or honeysuckle lotion?” she asked over her shoulder.
“Fuck the lotion, lass. I want you in my bed.”
She flushed a sweet, rosy pink. “Any way you want me.”
Liam grabbed her by the hand. He couldn’t lead her out of the bathroom fast enough. Even that seemed too slow, so he turned and lifted her against his chest, fusing their lips together. Automatically, her legs wrapped around his waist as she opened to his hungry onslaught. God, she was such a tiny thing against him but so full of passion.
He begrudged the dozen steps it took to reach the bed before he set her on her feet and sprawled across the mattress. He propped his head up on one hand and stroked his cock with the other.
He heard her breath hitch and smiled. “Raine?”
At the side of the bed, she sank to her knees and bowed her head. “Yes, Sir.”
There she went, pushing his buttons again. She’d never bowed for him voluntarily, and here she was, offering him all of her so beautifully. He watched her, roughing his hand up his cock a bit faster, trying to assimilate all his thoughts and yearnings into a coherent sentence. Bloody hell…
“You say you love me?”
She lifted her head long enough to meet his stare…and sneak a glance at him palming his cock. Then she jerked her head down again. “I do.”
His breathing picked up, and his heart beat so fast already Liam wondered if it would rattle out of his chest. “Show me. Make love to me. Tell me how you feel with your body.”
Chapter Sixteen
Light spilled from the bathroom, illuminating Raine as she rose. She trembled and bit her lip, looking vulnerable as she stared at him stretched out before her. The little furrow appeared between her brows. He’d given her a command that wasn’t easy, and anticipation tightened Liam’s chest as he waited to see what she would do.
She slipped onto the bed next to him, and he released his cock. He couldn’t do anything to it that she couldn’t—and make him feel much better. But Raine didn’t start there; she merely braced herself on his chest and gazed into his eyes.
“I’ll do my best,” she murmured. “Because I love you.”
Liam absorbed her vow as she dropped a kiss to his chest, his jaw, one cheek, then the other. A fleeting press of her lips in each spot had him closing his eyes… He barely had time to process how moving he found every touch before she gave him another brush of a kiss elsewhere.
Raine climbed farther up his body until her face hovered over his. Dark obscured her expression. Liam hated that he couldn’t see what lay in her eyes.
“Turn on the lamp,” he insisted.
She didn’t hesitate before she did as he bid. Soft light poured from the fixture on the nightstand, spilling over the bed.
“Better?” she asked.
He nodded. “Come back where you were.”
When he held out his arm to her, she settled into the crook instantly. Now he could see all the curves and delicate lines of her face. Her expression held nothing back. Raine wasn’t sure how to give him what he’d asked for, but that stubborn chin and her determined mien told him that she’d give her all trying.
That effort alone warmed him. She wanted to please him. Hell, she already was. But he let her continue because he needed to feel her love in the most tangible, visceral way.
Raine eased closer, her warm breath spilling onto his lips. “Because I love you.”
He’d barely comprehended her whisper before she layered her mouth over his. Liam tasted her solemn vow as he parted her lips and climbed in deeper. Yes, he’d asked her to give to him, but he found himself impatient for more—for all of her. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to mind, just complied with his wordless demand, stroking his tongue with her own and cradling his face in her small palm.
Liam couldn’t keep his hands to himself. His fingers found their way into her hair, tugging slightly to change the angle of their kiss. The other curled between them to yank at the belt of her robe until it slithered apart.
As he reached under the silky garment and skated a palm down her hip, she pulled back with a little grin. “Because I love you.”
Then Raine eased down his body, lying half atop him, and bent her head to take one of his nipples in her mouth, flicking it with her tongue and teasing him. A jolt of desire buckled him. He’d never thought of the nubs as particularly sensitive, but he’d been damn wrong. The minx had proven him wrong.
She eased one thigh between his, and he felt her knee barely graze his balls. The heat of her naked pussy blasted his hip. She pressed her soft breasts to his side and wriggled her damp folds against him with a little moan. A blaze of need flared inside him, and Liam grabbed handfuls of her silk robe, trying not to tear it off her body and mount her. Letting her love him in her way was sorely testing his control.
With a hiss, he cupped her nape and pressed her head into his chest. She took him deeper, laving his sensitive flesh. Liam groaned hoarsely. He’d already been hard. Now, Raine made him ache for her touch and the sharp, divine release only she could give him.
In his arms, she squirmed until he eased up on his hold and kissed her way to his other distended nipple. As she worked it into her mouth, another jolt of sensation zapped him. Desire pooled low in his belly, revved his blood. God, the woman drove him mad.
With another lap of her tongue, she pulled away. He wanted to protest. The Dom inside him ached to take over and command all her satin flesh for his pleasure. But he needed to know how else she intended to make love to him.
Raine gave him a shy smile, then dropped her gaze to his chest and started feathering her lips down his sternum, down his abdomen, down even lower…
She nipped and licked at the skin around his navel, avoiding his cock throbbing for her attention. Every muscle in his body went taut as she teased the skin of his stomach, dipped her tongue into his belly button, then breathed over the sensitive head.
Dear fucking hell, how long did she expect him to lie back and do nothing? Was she proving her love or sim
ply tormenting him? It felt like a fine line. He began to sweat.
Propping herself up on her hands and knees, Raine shimmied down his body. He caught a mere glimpse of the bite marks on her breasts, saw a few on her neck. They’d infuriated Liam when he’d been convinced she’d never love him the way she loved Hammer. But now that she’d invited him to leave his own, Liam found himself staking out her skin, seeing where he could brand her as his, too.
Then she chased all thought from his head as she caressed one of his thighs and dipped her head to drag her teeth over the other. She sucked at him, giving him a little love mark. Then another farther up. Another inward. And another just under his balls.
Unable to stop himself, Liam tangled his fingers in her hair. “The amount of teasing I’ll take has its limits, love. Remember the expression about paybacks.”
She tipped her chin up, resting it on his belly. If she turned her mouth, it would be right on his cock. Damn it, woman…
Instead, she simply grinned. “I’ll keep that in mind, Sir.”
Suddenly, the door opened. A shadow darkened the portal. Liam would have recognized the shape anywhere.
Hammer dragged a chair into the room, at the side of the bed, and stared at Raine on top of him, putting her little mouth all over him. “Work your magic, precious. Bring him back to us.”
Liam couldn’t miss the approval on Hammer’s face. His acceptance and Raine’s openness touched him. After the meltdown earlier, instead of rubbing his nose in his mistake, they’d simply cared enough to understand, forgive him, and love him back.
Emotion lumped in his throat, clogging him. He loved them both. The two most important people in his world.
Liam sent Hammer a grateful nod, then the man plopped into his chair with a wink.
“I asked Hammer to join us because you’re a part of us,” Raine murmured. “There’s nothing of mine that belongs exclusively to him, especially my heart.”
“I can feel that in your touch,” he managed to choke out.
“Good. Take whatever you need from me, Liam.” She wore every emotion in her big, blue eyes. “Because I love you.”
A few days ago, she hadn’t yet told him what was in her heart. Now she couldn’t seem to say it enough, and that moved him more than he had words to express.
And then he didn’t think anything because she took his cock in hand. Her eyes fluttered shut as she closed her lips around him with a moan. Her tongue swirled. Liam felt her devotion as she worshipped him with her mouth.
All the blood left his head, rushing south, right to the center of the pleasure she heaped on him. Her head bobbed as she laved him up and down, sucking him deeper with every pull, then stroking his crest with the flat of her tongue, only to ease back and work the little spot just beneath before starting the cycle all over again. Liam gritted his teeth and shoved his hands into her hair once more, so fucking ready to throw her onto her back.
“Raine…” he growled out, desperate to urge her faster.
She answered him by scraping his sensitive head with her teeth ever so gently, cupping his balls…and pulling away.
“Am I proving my love to you?” she asked in a husky voice.
He fisted her hair and dragged in deep breaths. “You’re proving how well you can test my restraint.”
“I might be. But it’s only because I love you. I don’t want you to ever doubt it again.”
It was all he could do to hold in a groan. “Our wee lass has turned into a tease, Hammer.”
His best mate laughed. “She’s teasing the fuck out of me. I can only imagine how you’re feeling. Good luck with that, man.”
“I’d have better luck if she lost the robe.”
“I’d be more than happy to.” Raine pulled it off her shoulders in a slow caress, then tossed it to the floor.
Liam groaned. Hammer did the same. Then Liam heard the hiss of a zipper and saw Hammer freeing his own cock to stroke its length. Then Raine eased one of her thighs over his body, straddling him, and leaned forward until the tip of his cock nudged her opening. He stopped thinking. God, he’d give anything to take her bareback.
But she leaned forward and braced her hands on his shoulders, bending until her plump breasts swayed in his face. Liam’s mouth watered. He loved her nipples something fierce—big and hard and sweet.
He captured one between his lips and gave it a mighty suck. Raine gasped and threw her head back. Liam watched her arousal climb, transfixed. Her lips and cheeks turned rosy. She softened everywhere. He couldn’t wait to be inside her.
But Hammer’s telltale bite mark taunted him, a red beacon mere inches from his mouth. He found himself nipping at the flesh just beside it.
“Yes,” she panted. “Yes. Please let me feel your teeth, Sir.”
Everything inside him jerked to plant his mark on her. He gripped her arms as his mouth hovered just over the pristine spot he wanted to call his own, the territory he wanted to look at tomorrow and know with pride that she wore a part of him.
“Aren’t you sore, love? I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You’ll hurt me far more if you don’t. Please…”
Fuck, how was he to say no to that? And why would he bother?
Liam sank his teeth into the firm flesh of her breast, right beside Hammer’s brand. He sucked hard, bit deep—and felt need grip him mercilessly by the balls. Raine whimpered and dug her fingernails into his scalp. Her whole chest moved as she breathed with him, his teeth still steeped into her skin.
He fucking didn’t want to let her go, but he pulled back to ensure that he wasn’t hurting her. The rapture on her face made his restraint vanish.
Raine did want his marks, didn’t only want Hammer’s. Liam couldn’t wait to give her more.
“Scoot forward and lean closer,” he demanded.
She did it without question. Liam gripped her hips and bit at the underside of her breast, nipped at her ribs, dragged his tongue up her belly. Then he caught sight of the impression of Hammer’s teeth on her pussy. Instead of feeling jealous that another man had left his brand on their girl, Liam imagined how erotic it must have been the moment Hammer felt her most tender flesh giving way to his unyielding need.
Liam wanted that for himself and almost thanked Hammer for the excellent notion.
“Closer,” he barked at Raine. “Give me your pussy.”
She rushed to comply. “Thank you, Sir.”
Her heartfelt reply and total appreciation for even the idea of his teeth on her tender pussy ratcheted up his ache even more. He couldn’t get his mouth on her fast enough.
Stroking her clit with his tongue for a long moment and hearing Raine catch her breath sent a heady rush through Liam’s bloodstream. She was a goddamn drug, and he’d become a fucking addict. He didn’t care. The moment her flavor hit his tongue, something in him snapped. The most primal part of his nature roared.
Easing back, he let his bottom teeth barely graze her clit. He kept her hanging there, balancing on a knife’s edge. Her thighs tensed. Wetness gushed. Her pleading moans rang in his ears.
“I need this,” she whimpered. “I need you. Liam…”
He planted his teeth in the fleshy pad above her clit and bit down ruthlessly. She screamed. Her body jerked as if he’d hooked her up to a live wire. For a moment, he worried that he’d hurt her. Then she reached for her nipples and pinched them hard, tugging, twisting, squeezing.
The sight had him sucking at her mound, then testing the fleshy pad with his bite once more.
“Yes. Yes!” she cried. “I want to see you there tomorrow. Because I love you.”
“I love you, too, Raine. I need to be inside you.” He sounded gruff, impatient.
She didn’t care at all. She slid down his torso. Liam caught sight of the fresh marks in an angry red directly above the most vulnerable place on her body.
That damn near made him berserk.
He clutched her hips, anticipating that moment he could thrust deep and lose h
imself inside her. All he needed was a bloody condom and…
But Raine kept inching down, then arched back, unerringly setting her swollen cunt against his naked cock. He dug his fingers in deeper, resisting the urge to sink in and damn the consequences.
In the back of his head, Liam knew that was the most animal part of him wanting to mark her in the most human way by filling
