by Joan Swan
“All they had? Where did you go, a gas station? And only three?” They would need so many more. “Are you on a budget or something?”
He laughed and looked up. “I grabbed ten bucks from Teague on the way out the door and, no, not quite a gas station, but it was a mini-mart with limited options.”
“You couldn’t have bought two packages?” She poured the contents into her hand. “Or did they sell out? I can imagine multicolored, tropical flavor condoms are in high dem—”
Luke’s strong hands closed around her waist and flipped her on the bed. He cut off her squeal with his mouth, kissing every thought right out of her brain.
When he pulled back, he was breathing hard, his eyes fierce and hot. “There are plenty of things I can do to you that don’t require a condom.”
One hand pushed between their bodies, slid down her stomach, and stopped at the thin strip of hair. His fingers feathered the edge, making her hips rock toward the motion, searching on a moan.
“I will give you as much as you want. As fast or slow as you want. As hard or soft as you want. In any goddamned position you want. Condoms or no condoms, you will want for nothing. I promise.”
“Show me,” she whispered. “I’m starting to think you’re all talk, Ransom.”
With a slow, sexy smile, he slid his hand lower. Keira held her breath as he brushed his fingers past her pounding clit so gently she almost believed she’d imagined the touch. Then one finger made a deep sweep over her opening and pushed inside.
Oh, God. Her eyes squeezed closed. Body clenched around his touch. Hips lifted to drive him forward. A sound emanated from her throat, followed by a long, drawn out, “Yeeeees.”
With slow, deep movements, Luke thrust and rubbed until she was panting. He purposely stayed away from the very spots that would have led her to release three times by now. If he’d wanted to he could bring her from zero to climax within sixty seconds. He’d done it countless times before—in the hushed back row of a movie theater, a temporarily deserted engine bay at the fire station, the center table in a crowded restaurant.
She broke their kiss, where his mouth mirrored the movement of his hand. “Luke,” she growled through gritted teeth. “Come on . . .”
“Baby, you’re tight. Spread your legs.”
The order spit lust into her bloodstream. Her need to have him inside her climbed toward anger. She spread. And she lifted, too. “The only thing that’s going to help is getting your dick in there and working me over.”
His head lifted from her shoulder, eyes serious as they settled on hers. When he pulled his hand from her body, she couldn’t tell if her dirty talk had excited him into moving forward or disgusted him into pulling back.
He shifted his body, lying half on her, half on the bed. Down the length of his body, his scar drew her attention. Pale purplish lines and curves created the outline of a phoenix across his hip and down his strong thigh. So sexy. She reached down to trace the pattern, but he grabbed her hand.
“How long has it been since you had sex?” he asked.
A twinge of fear burned in her chest. “Where did that come from? What difference does it make?”
“How long?”
She hesitated, considered lying. “You already know.”
“I want to hear you say it.”
“Why do you want to talk about this now?” She was torn between mortification over the subject, fear of his rejection, and the physical and emotional need to reconnect with him. “I just want you. I want to make love with you. I want to be with you.”
“Which is why you should be able to tell me. I told you.” His brows lifted. “And in a very similar situation.”
Why did it feel so different?
Because she held back, just like he’d argued last night. Because it was safer to be closed off than open and vulnerable.
She drew a deep breath. Best to just do it fast. Like removing a Band-Aid.
“Over two years. Okay, let’s mess around.” She pushed on his chest and rolled him onto his back.
Before she could get her mouth on his, he got hold of her wrists and pushed back, throwing one heavy thigh over her legs and pinning her in a twist. “Good try. Why so long?”
“Um . . .” She rolled her eyes in thought. “Because men are pigheaded imbeciles?”
He smirked. “True, but not the answer I’m looking for. Try again.”
“Haven’t I made enough confessions for one day?”
“Sounds like we’ve got years and years to make up for.”
She scowled, licked dry lips, dropped her gaze. “I first tried three months after I left.” She released a nervous breath of pent up air. “A friend of a friend of a friend at the academy. I was so beside myself without you I was about to flunk out.”
She chanced a glance from beneath her lashes. Luke’s smile dropped. His fingers slid from her wrists to thread with hers.
“I was determined to prove to myself that I could get over you. I’d be damned if I’d fail because of a guy.” She sank her teeth into the flesh of her inner cheek as heat rose in her neck. “I had to get so drunk just to work up the nerve to go back to my apartment with him that I blacked out. Passed out. I don’t know. I have no idea what happened. I don’t know if we did, if we didn’t . . .”
Luke’s leg slid down hers; he shifted his body so hers uncoiled from the awkward position and dropped one hand over her waist, pulling her up on her side and against his body.
Good. Now she wouldn’t have to look at him when she explained the next one. She could stare at his shoulder.
“Six months after that, I met a really nice guy. Another friend of a friend thing. Treated me like gold. We dated a few weeks but there was nothing for me, no spark. My friends told me I’d never get over you if I didn’t try.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. Tried like hell to pass over all the painfully awkward memories of his fumbling foreplay, drooling kisses, selfish focus.
“So I tried. And . . . well . . . I finally learned where women came up with that remark about, you know, counting ceiling tiles.”
Luke barked out a laugh he obviously hadn’t expected, making Keira smile. Almost washing away all those terrible memories.
“But since I’d always had the best lover, I’d never known what in the hell they were talking about.” She lifted her chin, relished the clear, intelligent blue eyes that looked back at her. “You ruined me, Luke. Ruined me for any other man on the planet. Since then I haven’t tried to get over you. I haven’t tried to have sex with other men. I knew it was a waste of time.”
His eyes softened. He rubbed a thumb over her cheek, and under his touch, she felt wetness there for the first time.
“Give me those.” He reached for the condoms.
She jerked them out of his reach. “No.” She sniffled and ripped a package open. “That’s my job.”
He rolled to his knees over her, that shaft jutting out, stealing the spotlight. She wet him with her mouth, not anywhere close to the blow job he’d get later, but enough to make him close his eyes, sway, and lose his balance. Then she rolled the piña colada condom over his length, taking her time, stroking him as she went.
As soon as her fingers hit the base of his erection, Luke gripped her by the waist. “Roll over.”
“Why? I want to—”
“Because.” He leaned down, keeping his hot blue eyes on hers as he licked her bottom lip, then her upper. “That’s the best position for . . . as you so nastily put it . . . getting my dick in there and working you over. Besides, it’s hot as hell and I happen to remember—one of your favorites. You come so hard you nearly cut my dick off. Flip over and I’ll remind you.”
He twisted her toward her stomach, and she didn’t resist. He was right on all counts. Just the thought of it turned up the heat between her legs until she was burning.
Flat on her stomach, she felt vulnerable, exposed, out of control. The fact that those were all things Luke loved about the position made h
er stomach flutter. She pushed pillows out of her face and pressed her nose to the sheets, inhaling deeply of Luke’s unique, masculine scent.
His hands swept down her legs, reached between her thighs, and pulled them open. He pressed the inside of his knees to hers, slowly opening her wide. Baring her.
“Beautiful,” he whispered.
Cool air stroked all the overheated, oversensitized tissues. Tantalizing and teasing.
“That is much better.” His voice was deep and appreciative. “So much better. God, you are so hot.”
His warm fingers traveled up the insides of her thighs, pulling her knees up, opening her further. Then he stroked her, slow, one finger, two. Palmed her. Sparks speared her core. She lifted her hips, pressed into his touch, and whimpered. Both hands covered her ass, squeezed.
“Luke—” She fisted the sheets. “Don’t make me wait. Play later. Fuck me now.”
“I like that talk. But we’ve got work to do.” He leaned over her, skimmed his teeth over her shoulder as his hands caressed her ass to the rocking movement of her hips. “That’s it,” he murmured against the back of her neck. “Let’s get you good and wet.”
With one hand on her breast, the other slipped between her legs from behind and caressed a scream from her throat she hadn’t known was coming.
“You feel amazing,” he whispered against her shoulder, taking small bites where he could, his fingers continuing to pull mewls of excruciating pleasure from her throat. “Tight and wet and hot. How many times do you want to come, baby? You name it, I’ll deliver. Three? Five?”
“One. How ’bout just one, Luke?” She gritted her teeth. Their chemistry had always been good; now it was explosive. “Like now.”
He laughed, low and throaty. “I am loving this . . . whatever the hell this extra boost between us is. Damned amazing, baby.”
He took her whole breast in his hand and squeezed hard. Bit the sensitive flesh at the base of her neck and did, God, something with the hand between her legs. What, exactly, she wasn’t sure, because she couldn’t think. He pressed a thick finger deep inside her while others continued to stroke and roll and slide easily. As she thrust her hips against the pressure, Luke penetrated and withdrew, rubbed and pinched and squeezed Keira right into a toe-curling, mind-melting, full-body climax.
Electricity still arced and buzzed through her cells, fingers still fisted in the sheets when Luke whispered, “Oh, yeah. That’s what I’m talking about.”
She wasn’t following. Couldn’t make her mind pull from the beautiful buzzing white cloud to pay attention. Until he lifted her hips from where she’d melted flat to her stomach after that wickedly delicious orgasm. She was about to complain about giving her a minute . . . until his body slipped between her legs and his knees pushed hers apart again.
“Oh, my God,” she groaned, unable to believe she was ready for him. Wanting to feel him inside her after that rush. But she was. She did.
With one hand on her ass, he held the head of his cock to her opening and rubbed it over her. “So hot,” he murmured. “So wet.”
“Not . . . enough.” She hadn’t caught her breath from the last climax and yet she was already panting again, careless of her hair falling in her face, blowing with her breath. “More.”
“Demanding,” he crooned in a voice so sexy her heart skipped. “Have I ever told you how much I love that?”
He pushed in, just the head, but his size was enough to make Keira suck in a breath. Delicious stinging pressure slid through the lower half of her body.
“Oh, yes. God, yes.” She pushed back, searching. “More. Lots more.”
Instead of obliging, Luke pulled out. Keira opened her eyes, was about to turn and say something filthy to rile him enough to slam that cock into her, but he pushed back in on his own before she had a chance. And he continued the maddening pattern until Keira thought she’d go insane.
“Deeper, Luke. Harder.” Impatient, needy, she lifted her hips, and hurried the process. A sultry burn erupted along the walls of her vagina, and the bite pushed a long moan from her chest.
Luke leaned over her, pressing his chest to her back, big, strong hands gripping her hips, husky voice in her ear. “Like that?”
Before she could answer, he dug his fingers in to the flesh at her hips and rocked into her, pushing deeper. Deeper.
She gasped. Held her breath until the burn transitioned into pure pleasure, then moved against him, the rock of her hips dragging him out and driving him back in. The pleasure of it swallowed her. So intense. So consuming. She bit down on the corner of a pillow with a throaty growl.
“What about that?” His voice came at her earlobe, clearing her mind and bringing back the reality of their positions, of his dominance, his control. “That’s right, baby. You’re mine. I’m not letting go. Now answer me.” He made another powerful, purposeful thrust, driving a rippling level of pleasure Keira had never experienced through her body until she screamed against the pillow. “Do you like that?” he asked deliberately in her ear.
She turned her head and dragged in air. “Yes.”
“Want more?”
“I want more.” She arched the small of her back, tilting her pelvis, trying to take him deeper. “I want it all.”
“It’s all for you.” Luke made a low growling sound in his throat and pushed his hips forward, filling her another inch.
They picked up a quick, perfect rhythm. With each of Luke’s thrusts, Keira angled her hips up and back. Inch by inch, he drove deeper on each push. By the time he finally filled her, sweat dripped down her temple and stung her eye.
Wedged deep inside her, Luke pushed up on his hands. “My negotiation skills . . .” he panted, wiping his forehead on his bicep, “have been exhausted. Time to rock and roll, baby.”
Christ, wasn’t that what they’d been doing?
He pulled out slowly, made a few shallow thrusts, then drove deep, burying himself once again. The slide was electric, the pressure luxuriant. Keira arched, clenched her fingers in the sheets, tasted that sweet moment of anticipation just before release. With Luke buried inside her. So long. It had been so damn long.
Then Luke pulsed his hips. The head of his cock rubbed on some hot button she hadn’t known existed. His shaft stroked her tender walls with fire. And the resulting strikes of pleasure shot her toward the edge of a canyon, with the sun overhead, beckoning.
“Luke.” She barely managed his name. Every muscle contracted, one fiber at a time, preparing her for liftoff. “God, Luke.”
“Right here, baby.” His chest pressed to her back, his cheek to her cheek. “Rock into me, Keira. Hard. Going to be so good.”
With her hands fisted in the sheets, teeth clenched around the corner of a pillow, Keira tilted her pelvis back and up. Luke met it on a strong thrust. Pleasure spiked through her pelvis, straight up her chest. She cried out against the pillow.
“Harder,” he rasped against her ear.
Luke pulled out. She rocked again, squeezing her glutes for punch.
“Come on,” he taunted. “Use that gorgeous ass. Give me some goddamned power.”
She tried again. Harder.
“Ah, yeah. That’s it. Again, baby.”
Each thrust pushed her another step toward the cliff, the slap of sweaty flesh like quick footsteps until Keira took a running leap off that canyon ledge and flew directly into the blinding light of the sun.
FIFTEEN
Keira felt someone watching her as she bubbled to the surface of consciousness. But she wasn’t scared or anxious. A deep, soothing sense of well-being warmed her right down to the core. She cracked her lids to peer through her lashes.
White wall. Afternoon light coming from a window somewhere else in the room. She flicked her gaze down. Rich navy blue comforter.
“Thought you’d never wake up. Had to count your freckles twice to keep from prodding you.”
A slow smile lifted her mouth as she turned toward Luke’s voice. Then muscles pulled
and joints rolled and skin rubbed.
She winced. “Ow.”
He laughed, slid an arm over her middle, and scooted close, pushing one long, warm thigh between hers.
She only turned halfway before she gave up and sank back into the bed. He was propped up on one elbow, looking down with those light eyes, an easy smile on his face. But something hung in the shadows as if he was covering some sort of unease.
Searching her senses, she came up empty on a source and decided to stall the impending, inevitable step back to reality. “How many do I have?”
“Eighty-nine.” He leaned in and kissed the tip of her nose. “Picked up a few extras in the last three years.”
She glanced around the room with a leisure she hadn’t had the first time she’d come in. Everything was exactly the same as she’d first thought, only now the towel they’d dragged from the shower lay on the floor beside the bed, as did all three empty condom wrappers.
“What time is it?” she asked, reluctant to leap back into life, yet already feeling guilty about the amount of time she’d spent away from Mateo.
“Does it matter?”
“I wish it didn’t.”
Her eyes followed the swath of light beaming from the window and a memory clicked. Her gaze swung toward the blank wall she’d been looking at when she woke up.
“That’s it.” Her stomach plummeted.
“What’s what?”
“That’s what’s missing.” She stared at the spot where the light dissipated into a soft pool, lightening the hardwood two shades. “I knew something was missing as soon as I came in the house, but I couldn’t figure out what.” She pushed up, twisted in that direction. “Kat’s bed.”
Keira could still see the little girl napping there, the late sun hitting her dark hair and making it shine like patent leather. Could still see the warm glow of her porcelain skin under the light, reminding Keira of a perfect angel.
“Her toys, her books, the crayons she left everywhere.” How many times had Keira stepped on one of the crayons Kat had eternally gripped in her chubby little fist? How many times had she repainted these walls where Kat had gotten creative in a rare moment she wasn’t being constantly watched? “That’s what’s missing.”
