Intrigue Me

by Lacee Hightower

  He climbed in behind me, kissing my neck and shoulders. “So beautiful,” he mumbled against my ear. “Your skin feels just like silk.” His lips were warm and sensitive, and he groaned against my nape, his fingers caressing every square inch of my body until they ended up on my clit. I relaxed into the mattress as he rubbed my swollen peak, his tongue purging inside me ear. He was already hard against my back, but he hadn’t rolled on a condom. Then again, why would he?

  Tage knew I was on the pill. He hadn’t forgotten I’d asked for no condom before. Chances of me getting pregnant were slim according to my female doctor. I’d had issues since I was thirteen.

  “You’re mine,” he mumbled, his finger rolling delicious circles over my clit, the smell of his woodsy cologne mixed with my arousal filling my nostrils with the scent of sex and pleasure, as his steel-hard erection teased my back entrance. “Every inch of you.” He lowered both hands and lifted my hips, hoisting my ass in the air. Oh God, could I do this? “Don’t you move a fucking inch.”

  I stilled at the fierceness in his voice, my whole body a jumble of shaking nerves. He rolled off the bed for a few short seconds, digging around inside a drawer before covering himself with lube.

  A sob choked me as he moved back between my thighs, parting me, and rolling his finger through the crack of my ass before sinking it inside. “No, I’m not ready.” I was so aroused, so achingly turned on. I wanted him inside me so I could come more than I wanted my next intake of oxygen. But damn, this scared me.

  “You’re more than ready,” he mumbled against my neck, sliding his finger from my ass and sinking deep inside my sex with the thick head of his cock, filling me to the brim. I cried out, my toes curling into the sheets. He was beautifully deep inside me, and I whimpered, conceding in surrender, arching my hips toward him. It felt so good. I was already seconds from unraveling, blistering satisfaction constricting in my core. I wanted to come so damn bad. But right as I felt that tingle beginning to ignite in my belly, he slid out of me, and taunted my asshole with his rock-hard, bobbing erection.

  My whole body tensed. “T—Tage?”

  “It’s okay. I’ve got you,” he uttered, gently sliding right through the agonizing ring of muscle.

  “Fuck,” I gasped, holding my breath and burying my face into the pillow.

  It hurts. I’ll never recover. He’ll tear me to pieces.

  “Stop fighting, kitten. Relax.”

  Relax? With eight inches of cock buried inside my ass?

  He slid deeper, the natural reaction of my muscles fighting to disrupt the foreign attack of something that didn’t belong. In less than ten seconds, he was sliding in and out, murmuring against my ear. “You’ve got a beautiful tight little asshole.”

  I was whimpering through the strange fullness while my fingers curled into the sheets. He pushed deeper, the invasion callous and unequivocal, driving harder into me with each thrust. His arms circled around my hips and lifted me higher. I couldn’t move. I was holding my breath so hard, sounds coming from deep in my throat as I fought each impending unnatural thrust, waiting for it to end. Praying he would orgasm before I died an agonizing death from being savagely fucked in the ass.

  “Relax, Ava. Take deep breaths. Just trust me and do as I say.”

  “Tage.” His name slid from my lips in a whimper, as hot tears fell from my eyes. I was so damn tired. Every inch of my body was fatigued and spent. No fight remained in me. I was at his mercy—unconditionally.

  “Breathe, Ava. Release all your tension. Relax. Open up to me. Let me in, baby.”

  I blew out a long breath, my body unclenching and letting go. Relenting and surrendering to submission … and Tage Morgan. A fingertip was suddenly between my legs, rubbing softly at my clit. Holy shit, it felt so good. I was unusually relaxed, lifting into his thrusts without realizing it, and still wanting to come. Aching for release. Chasing an orgasm.

  “My God, you are so beautiful,” he uttered against my neck. “You submit to me so perfectly.” His finger worked my clit to utter precision, softly, then firmly, then soft again. “Feel good, doll?”

  I mumbled a soft yes, the overwhelming need to come almost torturous.

  He fucked into my ass deep and hard. Controlling me. Intriguing me. I blew out long breaths, just as he commanded, relaxing into the mattress and submitting to him completely, stunned at the strangely good sensation that had only seconds ago felt like a hot poker inside me. One moment I had been writhing in pain, and now I was lifting my ass, wanting deeper and harder. Yet, every time I came to the brink of orgasm, he slid his finger from my clit and kissed the back of my neck, underneath my ear, uttering Swedish words. Heightening my needs, intensifying the throbbing need to orgasm, and driving me out of my ever-loving mind with sheer, anal-induced agony. I bucked my hips against him, whimpering, urging him to let me release, and brushing the edge of my clit against the comforter underneath me. I lifted my body again and again, sighing each time the soft material caressed my swollen peak. If he wasn’t going to get me off, I’d do it myself.

  “Don’t worry, kitten. You deserve an orgasm. You can stop rubbing your pussy on the linens.”

  He released a deep groan, his pulses quickening as his hand dropped back underneath me, stroking at my clit. Slowly, then faster. Harder, then softly. Oh, it felt good. Better than good. It was sensational. His thick cock buried in my ass had become pure pleasure.

  “Kitten.” He jerked, a jarring tremor tearing through his strong body, followed by a chest-filled sound of ecstasy as he thrust deep inside, spilling into me, my own body climaxing right along with him. “Ava … fuck. Fuck.”

  Still inside me, still panting, he shifted me onto my side and eased out, his arm around my waist and tracing over my pulsing stomach. Both of us were silent, both breathing heavily and still shuddering from the most earthshaking experience of my life.

  For long minutes, neither of us moved, me still on my side, while his hands caressed the curve of my stomach with a warm gentleness.

  “Are you okay?” He eased me onto my back and pushed the hair from my face, pressing his lips to my temple.

  Thoroughly spent and utterly exhausted, I barely had the strength to answer him, much less move my body unassisted. Tears stung at my eyes, a lump lodging deep in my throat as I only managed a soft nod in response. My body felt heavy, like lead. I tried lifting my head, hit with dizziness that felt like I was flying in the clouds. Everything was a hazy, beautiful blur.

  Tage pressed a warm kiss against my forehead. “Be right back.”

  The next thing I knew, I was being lifted from the bed and carried to the bathroom and lowered into a tub full of warm, relaxing water that was soft and silky from some kind of heavenly smelling bath oil. We lay there for long minutes in silence with his legs encircling me, both sipping on chilled bottles of water as he washed me with a soft cloth with a tender, caring gentleness, kissing the back of my neck and smoothing my hair. We were silent, except for a few exchanged words about Melli and her school. By the time we got out, I felt drunk, stoned out of my mind, jet-lagged.

  “I’m so proud of you, baby.” He helped me into bed and slid in beside me. “Close those beautiful eyes and relax. I’m right here beside you. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Emotion blurred my vision. Despite being bone-fucking tired, I felt like a child at Christmas or a teenager receiving her first car. I let my eyes slide shut, feeling new and alive, listening to the sound of sweet, sensual Swedish whispers against my ear.

  “Du ger mig fried.”

  “Du bor I mig.”

  “You bring me peace, Ava Montgomery. You elate me.”

  ****

  Tage

  She looked so fragile and small beside me—her face still beautifully flushed, her eyes closed in slumber. She had just confirmed how willing she was to please me, to submit to me, to understand my world.

  But what was my world now?

  Everything, though I hadn’t realized it at the time
, changed the instant I knew I was a father. I leaned down, played out and unduly satisfied, and kissed the delicate skin of her neck and brushed the damp strands of hair from her face. With a heavy sigh, her eyes blinked open, red and heavy with fatigue. I wanted to kiss her sweet lips, then kiss them some more. I wanted to hold her against my body until she awoke from slumber. I wanted to make every single doubt in her head dissolve.

  I was so damned in love with this woman.

  “You’re mine, doll.”

  Nodding as she let her eyes slip shut, she whispered, “Yours.”

  “I love you, Ava.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Tage

  “You’ve known you had a motherflippin’ daughter for over six damn weeks? And you didn’t bother calling your awesome big sister? Holy crap, Tage. I can’t believe you’re a father. I can’t wait to meet her. I’m planning on coming home for Thanksgiving. Maybe for good.”

  “For good? What the hell, Issy? I thought you loved your job?” Cursing silently, my thoughts went directly to one person.

  “Ahh, it’s nothing really. Just missing Texas. My friends. My family. But, let’s forget me and get back to this daughter of yours. Do Mom and Dad know?”

  Hit by a weird feeling, I lowered my feet from the desk, shifting in my chair. Shit, my sister loved that job and loved living on the coast even more. But then, she was a grown woman capable of making her own decisions. Even if that meant returning to Dallas … and Adam fucking Matthews.

  “They do,” I snapped, the mere mention of my father still leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

  “Tage, I know how you feel about them, but they’re still family.”

  “Family? Are they, Issy? Really?”

  “Well, either way, I have a niece now. Someone to go to the mall with and check out the hot men. Get manis and pedis. Massages. Do all kinds of girly shit. I need to get back to Dallas and teach Melli how to make the perfect eye contact with a man. How to hold her head high and give them that perfect glimpse of her neck. Then…”

  “Enough, Isabelle,” I ordered, protectiveness purging through my chest.

  For fuck’s sake, she was seven.

  Isabelle didn’t yet know that Melli had Down’s. That she had tremendous hurdles to leap. A life full of trials and tribulations that I couldn’t do a damn thing about.

  It’s only a condition, Tage. Not a death sentence.

  Twelve o’clock noon Dallas time, Ava was still sleeping in my bed. While rest hadn’t come easily for me, the poor girl barely moved an inch all night.

  I ended the call with my sister, and rubbed at my temples, still confounded by the fact that a woman—any woman—was sleeping in my house, in my bed, and thoughts of touching another seemed like a long-lost hindsight.

  Fuck. Fickle emotion filled my chest.

  I wasn’t exactly sure where we were headed as a couple. We were parents. We had a daughter to raise. Obstacles to face. We were always going to be close in that sense. But, could this lifestyle be good for Ava? Could I be good for Ava? Fuck, could I really be good for anyone? Please don’t leave me. Every minute we spent together, I could feel my priorities shifting a little more. My needs changing, my thoughts altering. I wanted my daughter in my life. I wanted Ava in my life. Not just on weekends. Not once in a blue moon. But every day. Every minute.

  Blinding sunlight streamed through the long row of open windows in the bedroom, the sun at its high point. The edge of the comforter was pulled up over her head. How the hell was she sleeping in this bright room? Even under the damn linens? Had I worn her out that badly? Fuck, was she okay? My heart rate was rising as a silent panic hammered in my chest. I eased the edge of the Dynasty Down linen spread from her face to see her eyes widely open, her cheeks wet with tears.

  The look in her eyes was torture. Regret. Confusion.

  Fuck! Fucking fuck!

  What was going on through her mind? Had I overdone it? Was she disgusted by me? Had she decided this relationship was no good for her? Was I going to end up being another part-time father to my daughter, and return to uncommitted, faceless encounters with strangers?

  Don’t leave me. Sleep beside me every night.

  I pushed the damp tresses of rumpled hair from her face. “What is it? What’s happened?” Heart pounding behind my chest, a cold, sick dread slid through my gut.

  For a minute that seemed like an hour, she was silent, sniffing back emotion. I reached for her hand as she wiped her eyes, and lifted it to my lips. “Talk to me, angel. Tell me what’s wrong.”

  She stared at me nervously, her bottom lip quivering. “It’s just that…” Her voice was pin-drop quiet. “God, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I just feel off. I can’t stop crying. Sometimes I still find myself wanting to blame you for all of this, instead of my dad, and I don’t know why.” She bolted up in bed, covering her face with her palms. “Jesus, Tage, I just need to go home. I know I must look like a monster, and I have to pick up Melli in a few hours.” She shifted, trying to roll out of bed.

  “Hey.” I caught her by the arm and pushed the falling hair behind her ears. I needed her to know that I wasn’t going to let her leave without talking to me first. She may have been finished with me, but we still had a daughter raise. Don’t go. Don’t go. “First, you have plenty of time to get Melli,” I said, lifting her hand to kiss her knuckles. “And you could never look like a monster, Ava. You’re a beautiful angel. My angel. And if you need someone to blame, then use me as long as you need.”

  A beautiful angel, Morgan? Have you officially become a pussy?

  She stared at me with her inscrutable blue eyes, arching an eyebrow. “Beautiful angel? Where did that come from? Where is Tage Morgan? Did he become someone else since last night?”

  Just like that, all the fear I’d just felt behind my chest ceased to exist as we both began laughing.

  “You must be hungry?” I asked, knowing I was ravenous, and that she needed refueling, and wouldn’t be leaving without something in her stomach. She cringed, hesitating.

  “Not really. Or maybe. My stomach feels a little queasy. I don’t really know if I can eat.”

  “Ava, you’ve been asleep for over twelve hours. Your body needs nourishment. You’re going to eat. Omelets here, or we can go get our daughter and all go out for cheeseburgers. Your call.”

  “Not sure I’m ready for Melli to see me around you wearing wrinkled clothes and looking like a mess. She might be a tad curious. I’m thinking that omelet sounds delicious.”

  “Well then prepare yourself for a treat, sweetheart. You haven’t eaten a real omelet until you’ve tasted the Morgan ham and cheese masterpiece.”

  She flashed a quaint smile. “Masterpiece, huh?”

  “Bona fide, baby.” I motioned to the corner chest of drawers. “T-shirts and sweats are in the second drawer. Meet you in the kitchen in fifteen?”

  “Sure.”

  I smiled at this beautiful woman and her crazy bed hair, smears of mascara underneath her eyes, and the lack of makeup covering her face.

  Christ, I felt better right now than I ever had.

  ****

  Ava

  Standing in Tage’s bathroom, I pulled on the oversized t-shirt and took a long hard look at myself in the mirror after using a finger to brush my teeth and rinsing off my face. Every last inch of my body ached. Beautifully so.

  Except my stomach.

  An uncanny shiver slid through me, icy cold goose bumps peppering my skin. I felt strange. Off-kilter. Moody and overly emotional. Last time I was in a man’s bathroom, he had eventually become my husband.

  I love you, Ava.

  Had Tage really said that? Had he meant it?

  For a moment, I stood in a still daze, my mind poring over pastimes as my fingertips rubbed my lower belly underneath the Briand Security shirt. Positively sizzling with jumpiness, my belly churned like demons and angels at war with my insides. I felt unnerved, shaken, queasy. Probably just run down, I hoped I wasn�
��t coming down with something. I didn’t do sick. There was no time for that nonsense.

  “Jeez, don’t be ridiculous, Ava. You’re simply tired from the best sex of your life. And you’re hungry.” My voice broke as a tear slipped down my cheek, emotion churning inside me over the simple realization that ham and cheese mixed in eggs was one of my all-time favorite breakfast foods. Good lord. It’s only eggs. Everyone eats them.

  I swiped the tear away, feeling silly and over dramatic.

  Some twenty minutes later, I was sitting at the kitchen table, fluffy eggs with cubes of ham and warm bubbly cheddar cheese oozing onto the plate. “God, this looks amazing.”

  “Au contraire, ma cherie. Amazing doesn’t begin to cover a Morgan omelet, doll. It’s a masterverk. A piece de motstand. It all begins with the way the eggs are whipped.” He winked, humor flashing behind his bright eyes.

  Well on my way to share my first ever breakfast with Tage, my stomach rumbled viciously. I hoped I could keep his famous masterpiece down.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Ava

  What started as a visit to say goodbye had evolved into a second, third, and was now headed toward three months of being together. Wanting to be nowhere else, with no one else. Tage still needed to hurt me to get off. I still needed to submit to his aggressive, reprehensible sex acts to prove what I had known for weeks. Not only did I want to please him, impress him, love him, but I needed this as well. Somehow, I believed I always had.

  He called me his angel. He’d been doing it for weeks now. Tage felt something. Even though he hadn’t told me he loved me again, he did. I just knew it.

  Please don’t let me be wrong. Please love me.

  Briand Security was growing every day—and quickly. The last couple of weeks, he had been stressed more than ever. Hiring new staff. Restructuring offices. Holding employee meetings that carried over into the early evening hours. Two hours ago, I had arrived with dinner in hand, expecting gratitude, only to discover him in a mood darker and uglier than I’d yet witnessed.