by Hazel Hunter
“I want that…” she whispered, and his soft laugh raised goosebumps on her skin.
“Just that?” he asked. “I'm for you, Sophia, and whatever you want tonight, that is what we're going to do.”
“I want all of you,” she said, and a moment of shyness made her press close to him.
His arousal was plain against her, but she could also feel the restraint in his large, muscular frame. There was power there, but it was bent towards pleasing her, to protecting her, and in that moment, she knew that it was true. She did want all of him, and right now, nothing else would do.
He groaned and pressed closely against her. His fingers sought and found the hem of her tank-top. Slowly, surely, he pulled it over her head. She blushed a little. It wasn't like she had been expecting anything even vaguely like this to happen, and the bra she wore was tan and dull. He grinned at her, and he showed her that it made no difference at all by unfastening it with swift sure motions.
Her breasts were round and heavy, resting against her body. She had always thought that they were too big, too boxy to be sexy, but it was clear that Dominic didn't feel that way. He lifted one up with reverence, cupping it in his hand. His calloused thumb caressed the skin by her nipple, bringing it to a hard point. Sophia sucked her breath in with surprise when he brought his other hand up to lightly touch the side of her breast. He ran just the edge of his nails over it again and again, until she was squirming in his lap, needy and wanting more in a way that she couldn't explain.
“My breasts aren't that sensitive,” she said in surprise, and his grin was devilishly sexy.
“I think you're wrong on that one,” he said. “It just looks like you never took the time to find out before now.”
She couldn't help but agree. After the disaster that occurred the last time she had tried to do something like this, there had been precious little time for anything that looked or felt as good as what Dominic was doing. She closed her eyes and let his touch set fire to her.
The only word that she could think of as appropriate for it was worship. He was worshiping her shoulders, her breasts, her belly, and he was bringing her to life in a way that she had never experienced before. It felt like the walls of an ancient and guarded place were coming down, and she welcomed every part of it.
“Gods above, you are so beautiful to me, darling,” he whispered
He bent his mouth to her collar bone, tracing the skin there with the tip of his inventive tongue. By the time his mouth drifted to one brown nipple, she was twisting, pressing herself against his thighs. She rocked against him, and when that made him moan, she did it again.
“You want me?” she found herself whispering. “Do you want me, Dominic?”
“How can you even ask that?” he said, half-laughing, and he squeezed one breast gently, making her sigh.
“Here, let me…”
She was surprised to feel him lift her up, and for a moment, she thought he had remembered she was too small, too plain, too dull. The moment passed, however, and she found herself turned around and settled on his lap again. This time, her legs were draped to either side of his, and her back was snugged against his chest. She blushed when he drew the skirt up her thighs, and fingered the edge of her worn cotton panties.
“How attached are you to these?” he asked her, and she shook her head.
“Not at all.”
That was all the warning she got before he knotted his fist in the elastic and ripped them right off her hips. The rasp of the fabric against her flesh stung for a moment, but then her underwear was in tatters and her flesh was spread and bare to the world.
“Oh god,” she whispered, and he paused.
“Good?” he asked, and she nodded fast.
“Oh yes, please…”
His clever fingers stroked the dark, curly hair between her legs, sliding along her lips until she was squirming with pleasure and they were slick. Only then did he open her slightly, revealing her sensitive clit.
“Oh please…please more of that,” she whimpered.
She could feel how hard he was against her rear. Purposefully, she rocked her hips against him. Though he growled in her ear, he made no move to hurry his motions.
“I'm going to give you everything you like, honey. Just be patient.”
He circled his fingertips over her clit, lightly at first and then with increasing pressure. The pleasure rose and fell through her like waves, making her thighs shake and her body stiffen against his.
“I…I take a while,” she muttered, resisting the urge to hide her face, and she felt him snort.
“Do you think I give a good goddamn about how long you're going to spend like this?” he asked. “You could stay like this all night if you wanted.”
The idea of the pleasure being drawn out for hours, until dawn, made her keen, and she thrust her hips up towards his fingers.
“Take as long as you want,” he said. “You know I won't stop until you tell me to.”
The motion of his fingers sped up, became a little firmer, but then it steadied. In response, she fell into a deep and primal rhythm. The trembles that ran through her thighs flowed through her whole body. She shook and shook, and there was something inescapable about it. She couldn't stop the sensations from rushing through her body. She couldn't stop them from taking control. It was out of her hands, and the thought was both terrifying and electric. She was moaning, pressing her body back against Dominic's solid frame while pushing her hips against his maddening fingers.
She pleaded with him in broken whispers. He told her it was fine, she was gorgeous, oh so gorgeous, and so fucking sexy, so beautiful writhing on his fingers. His words and the hot murmur of his lips against the cup of her ear took her over the edge. Her climax cascaded through her, running down her body and causing her to shake. She tried to clamp her legs together, but she couldn't, as spread as they were. Instead, she reached down to dig her fingers into Dominic's arms, looking for stability in a world that was suddenly rocked by light and sensation.
He didn't pull his hand away immediately; instead, he simply slowed his motions before ceasing them all together. He left his hand over her intimate parts protectively, and it wasn't until she began to move again that he pulled them away.
“That was…that was…thank you.”
Sophia fell back against his body, craning her neck around to look at him. There was a pleased and proud expression on his face, but she could tell that there was awe there too. It was like he knew how much he had shaken her, and just how much she had enjoyed him.
As she came back to her body, she became more aware of him. Then quickly she realized he was still aroused. If anything, his cock underneath her was harder than before, and when she shifted her weight, he stifled a groan.
“You…you didn't,” she said softly.
“I don't have to–” Dominic began, but she touched his mouth with her soft fingers.
“I want you to.”
She stood up, slightly wobbly from her orgasm and from the slight pain in her injured ankle, but she turned to face him. Slowly, so slowly, she drew her skirt down her hips, and reached out to touch his face.
Her fingers were gentle when they traced over his lips, and when they parted, she slid them into his warm wet mouth. It made her realize something, and she bit her lip before asking.
“Can I kiss you?”
Dominic looked startled, and he responded quickly. “Of course you can.”
She leaned down, and their first kiss, while she was naked, and he had her wetness still on his fingers, was gentle and sweet, a mere brushing of her lips over his. He tasted good to her, his mouth shockingly soft. She opened her mouth and shivered when his tongue slipped between her lips, tasting her just as she was tasting him.
“Take off your clothes,” she murmured.
He broke the kiss long enough to strip naked in a matter of seconds. Clothed he was handsome, but naked, he was beautiful. His body was lean and hard, and when she saw his cock, h
er eyes widened. The foreskin had pulled back completely, and she saw the delicate drop of clear liquid at the tip.
Dominic groaned when she touched his cock, and he took her in his arms. He was still gentle when he lay her down on the bed, but there was an urgency to his movements as well, something that told her that he needed her in a primal way. He pressed her gently down, and when he rose over her, she shivered with delight. She felt his cock slide over her thigh, and she remembered.
“Um…you can't do that without a condom,” she blurted out.
The words sounded crude and loud to her, and she cringed, suddenly convinced that she had ruined everything. However, instead of being angry or confused, Dominic only looked chagrined.
“Gods, I'm sorry,” he said, reaching over to where his jeans lay. There was a plastic case in his wallet, and when he popped it open, there was an intact condom inside. “I'm sorry,” he repeated. “I always use them, I just…”
He shrugged helplessly, and she reached up to pull him in for another kiss. There were very few things she wanted to talk about right then, especially when there were so many more things they could be doing.
Dominic spread her knees apart with just the barest hint of pressure, and she opened herself willingly. She was not as sensitive as she had been a few moments ago, but there was still a delicious echo of the pleasure he had given her. It was still there, and it rose when she saw him use those beautiful fingers to slide the condom over his erect cock.
“Okay?” he asked, and she knew that even this moment, if she told him to, he would stop.
Instead she smiled, and instead of speaking, she held her hands out to him, welcoming him as completely as she knew how.
He came over her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. She couldn't get close enough to him, and when she felt the tip of his cock nudging against her slit, she moaned with pleasure. He moved slowly, and for a long moment, all he did was push the tip of his cock between her lips, spreading the moisture there and making her squirm with need for him.
“Tell me you want me,” he growled, and she knew it wasn't him asking permission.
He was hard against her, and she knew that he needed to know of her need, of her arousal. She bit her lip. She had never been the most bold woman in the world, but somehow, with Dominic hovering over her like a storm god, she knew that she could be.
“I want you,” she said, arching her back so that they pressed even closer together. “I want you…I want you inside me. I want you with me. Oh, Dominic, I do want you…”
The sound he made was somewhere between a groan and a growl, and Sophia could feel him shake as he pressed inside her. She caught her breath at how he pushed against her most intimate flesh. She was wet, and he slid against her easily.
“So good,” he murmured, leaning down to drop a kiss on her mouth. They were still kissing when he slid all the way inside her.
It had been years since she had given herself to a man in this way, but the pain that she expected never came. Instead, there was only a drugging sense of fullness, of completion and perfection. It seemed to take an age before he was flush against her. He filled her completely, and her eyes drifted open to see him gazing down at her.
“Yes?” he asked, and she nodded.
“Oh yes, Dominic,” Sophia murmured, and he began to thrust into her.
She had never felt anything like it, not this beautiful feeling of completion or the iron control that this man had over his body. He thrust into her slowly and steadily, drawing almost all the way out before surging back in. Sophia lost herself in the rhythm, spreading her legs wider and digging her fingers into his shoulders. They were both lost to the ancient rhythms of their bodies, and she didn't realize she was crying out softly until her throat was sore.
“Please,” she whispered incoherently. “I need…”
He seemed to understand what she was asking for, and he tilted his hips and started pushing into her faster and faster. She could feel the unleashed strength of his body, how it was a force on its own. There was something amazing about giving herself up to him, and she did it with all her heart.
To her surprise, she felt that familiar tightness start up in the pit of her stomach again, and when Dominic shifted, the sensation bubbled up like a witch's cauldron, sending runners of sensation down her limbs. She had intended to watch Dominic come, to see the pleasure spread over his face as he took what she was offering. But the pleasure that he was building up in her again was too great. She could only focus on the sensations running through her body, the way she clutched at Dominic's tall form, and the way that she was chanting his name.
Dominic's heavier thrusts sent her up through some plateau of pleasure, and the tension throughout her body released all at once. Her climax was fainter than the first, but it still took her over, making her close her eyes. All she wanted was this man, like this, for always.
Dominic groaned when he came. He gathered her into his arms and crushed her to his chest. It was amazingly intimate when he buried his face in her hair, when he whispered her name against her ear.
Sophia lay still as the tension drained out of both of them, and slowly, his grasp lessened so that he could roll them to their sides. Sophia felt a deep sensation of wellness and peace swell through her.
“Thank you,” Dominic said softly, and she laughed a little.
“I feel like I'm the one who should be thanking you.”
Dominic laughed and placed a kiss that was far more sweet than sensual on her brow.
“That's probably a good sign,” he said with a sigh, and before she could ask for what, Sophia yawned hugely and felt a deep sleepiness take her over. She struggled to keep her eyes open, but the stress of the attack and her rescue, followed by what she and Dominic had just done got the best of her.
She drifted off to sleep. She was only faintly aware of Dominic getting up to dispose of the condom before returning to cradle her against his chest in the tiny bed.
On the floor, inside Dominic's pocket, the quartz crystal suddenly lit up a bright red, but neither of the people on the bed noticed it.
CHAPTER SIX
SOPHIA WAS A restless sleeper, but it hadn't always been that way. When she was younger, her mother had said that she slept like a rock, waiting for the end of the world and in no hurry at all. Then she turned twenty, and everything had changed.
In her dream, glass was shattering, there were two male voices raised in what she could only describe as battle roars, and she was running, running, running. The palms of her hands and her knees were shredded and leaking blood, but she knew she had to get away. She would be safe if no one could see her. She knew that. As long as no one knew where she was, she would always be safe.
Sophia opened her eyes, suddenly confused as to why she was awake at five in the morning. There was a little bit of light streaming through her closed blinds, but everything was still a muted pearly gray. It would have been lovely if she was a morning person, but in general, she was not.
Then she realized that there was a man cradling her, one heavy arm flung over her hip, snoring softly in her ear. She froze, but then the events of the past day came rushing back to her. She remembered the man in the alley and her rescue. Sophia blushed when she remembered how they had looked at each other, how they had pleasured each other until they couldn't take it any more. She had never had a one-night stand before, and the idea that at any moment, Dominic would open his eyes, perhaps give her a good-natured kiss and be out of her life forever, made her ache. She wondered how a sophisticated woman would handle this, but instead, all she felt was a sense of panic. She slid out from under his arm silently, and she saw Zora sitting on the chair across the room, watching her with wise green eyes.
Stay calm, her cat seemed to say. Just stay calm, everything else will follow.
Or you just want to be fed, Sophia thought wryly.
Silently, she went to her closet to get dressed, and then she went to the kitchen to make sure that her cat
's bowl was full. When she returned to the bedroom, her eyes were drawn to Dominic's large form, big enough to take over her bed and then some. She realized that he must have been fiendishly uncomfortable in the narrow bed, but that he had stayed anyway.
Her mind was awash with conflicting thoughts, but her heart was already warming to the man. As for her body, well. There was a faint and pleasurable soreness to her body that made her smile, and there was no doubt that if Dominic woke up and wanted more, she would be happy to return to bed.
Absentmindedly, she reached down to hang his shirt and jeans up over the chair, and to nudge his boots over to one side. Living in a small space made her want to keep everything out of the way, but as she did so, she realized that his boots were far heavier than they should have been. Without thinking about it, she looked closer and stared at what she saw.
The boots were of a kind she knew very well, tall and suited for field work or construction. However, the daggers that were sheathed to either side of the boots were another thing, and eyes wide, she drew one out.
It was half-again as long as her palm, delicate and beautiful as a ballerina. The hilt was leather, worn down with long use in Dominic's hands. When she touched the tip of the dagger timidly, she was shocked to see a bead of red blood well up almost immediately. She hastily re-sheathed it, nearly bumping into Zora, who had come to investigate what she was doing.
She pushed her cat away, but then she saw her cat pawing lightly at Dominic's jeans.
Taser, he had said carelessly, and when she went to look, she could find nothing but a strange piece of crystal jewelry, a phone and a wallet. She wondered wildly if the name on the wallet was even the one he had told her it was, but then Dominic groaned, shifting, and she hastily replaced the items into his jeans.
Sophia cringed when Dominic rolled up to a sitting position, and all of her fear and apprehension crashed into her like a wave. She froze when he blinked sleepily, and she saw him scan the tiny room, obviously looking for her.
“Sophia?” he called.
