Love Of A Lifetime

by Murphy, Riley

  He didn’t say a word, but the angry set of his features should’ve caused her, or warned her at the very least, to tread lightly here. Unfortunately, his look had no effect on her as she continued getting more upset by the minute, “And you took it upon yourself to make the ultimate decision for us? Skewer me in that bed all night long hoping that I didn’t remember too soon and we’d fulfill the prophecy. You stupid, selfish—” She stormed over and wished she had enough nerve to slap him. Lord knows she wanted to.

  He didn’t take his eyes off her. “You like mean, selfish and vile, remember?”

  That’s it. She was really going to do this. She lifted her hand ready to physically lash out at him, but sensing her intent as he caught her arm before she had a chance to connect with anything on his person. “Hey, let go.”

  “Easy there, blue eyes, you know how pain has a way of turning me on.”

  Turning him…She drew in a breath and tried to twist her arm away from him, but it was no use. His iron-like grip held her firm so she fumed, “Well, then, you’re in for a good time there, Jack.” She started to struggle in earnest now, determined not to give up. “Because once I have my arm free, I’m going to smack you one, I swear.”

  He laughed. That low and dirty one she hated. “I wasn’t talking about my pain, babe.” To highlight his point, he leaned down and huskily whispered his next words into her ear, “I was referring to yours. Your suffering gets us both hot.”

  “No.”

  “Oh yeah, you like pain.” He opened his mouth and bit down on her soft lobe, just enough until it hurt.

  Finley shivered right to the bone when she experienced the sensual tug on her skin. The heady shockwaves of unbridled ecstasy that washed over her brought her up short. He was right. She did like it.

  Oh. My. God.

  Well, she’d never openly admit that she did so with that decided, one of them needed to die. And if she got her way, it was definitely going to be him.

  Chapter Eight

  Finley attempted to knee Jack in the groin again. Only this time she wasn’t fast enough as he anticipated the move and blocked it.

  “It’s true.” He nodded and stared down at her. “You like to suffer, babe. For me.”

  “Let go!” she screamed. Really frightened now, as she spied the lust darkening his eyes that turned the jade color to emerald, causing her treasonous body came to life. Did she want this kind of brutal attention? Sure she’d fantasized about it a few—oh all right thousands of times, but that didn’t make her a sadist or masochist. Dammit, she always got the two mixed up, but this didn’t lessen the shock that she might be one of those things and he’d known this about her before she did. The idea got her flustered. “You have no right to hold me here against my will. I want to leave,” she swore. Helpless to stop him when he adjusted his grip until he had both her wrists captured and held immobile in one of his strong hands. That’s when it came to her that demanding was getting her nowhere. Time to throw down the weaker sex card. “Ouch, you’re hurting me,” she made sure to add a dramatic whine to her cry.

  “So?” That tiny word sounded huge and ominous by the disregarding way he’d intoned it. What the—? She left off with that worry and moved onto her next because in a flash he yanked on her belt, ripping it from around her waist and dangled it in front of her like a prize. “I have every right, blue eyes. You’re mine and I think it’s time I remind you of what belonging to me means.” After tossing the belt aside, he momentarily released her wrists to unceremoniously pull the rest of the robe off her. He was so fast she had no time to escape, as he quickly secured her arms down to ‘v’ in front of her before he bent and hoisted her up over one of his shoulders.

  “Put me down. I mean it.”

  He wasted no time as he stalked over to the bed and turned sideways to dump her on it. She landed, but it was as if she’d met a spring board. No sooner had her body hit the mattress, than she bounced up into a standing position on the bed. She didn’t question her good fortune. Instead she jumped toward him, ready to claw, kick and if need be, bite.

  “You vicious little witch,” he ruefully growled as she’d given into her urge and bit him hard on the chest, right over his heart. The small red crescent-shaped indent left a telling welt and she shot a look up. His smile was grim which prompted her to scramble away. She wasn't quick enough though, as he lunged for her. “Oh, no you don’t. Come on, come back here.”

  She yelped, unable to help it. The beast had grabbed a handful of her hair and was even now winding it around his hand, forcing her to follow its pull all the way back to him. If she wasn’t so upset, she probably would have been impressed to discover that they were nearly of height, now that she was standing on the bed and his feet were planted on the floor. One quick check and she was desperate. Time to pull out the sympathy card. “I’ll hate you forever if you do this to me—to us. You don’t want that so don’t do it.”

  “Mmm...” he purred and bent toward her. His heated lips touched her cheek, branding her. “If your earlier words were to be believed, you already hate me.” He jammed his hand between her legs and lifted, scooping her up before he brought her down forcefully onto her back.

  His one hand was still secured in her hair, while his other shifted as he braced himself, leaning forward. His hard muscles bunched and rolled as he straddled her and when she felt the hard length of his arousal against the inside of her thigh, she went completely still.

  “Are you really going to rape me?” she whispered. She forgot about the hurt, the anger, and everything that came before and concentrated solely on the moment. If they were going to salvage any future they were destined to have in this lifetime, he needed to stop right now.

  “Rape you?” His sigh, when it came, sounded like he was insulted or maybe disgusted she couldn’t be sure. “I could ask you the same thing.”

  His words made no sense. She would have questioned him, but he shifted and rolled off her. Letting go of her hair, he sat up. “Give me your arm. No, not that one, mia lei, your left one,” he softly instructed.

  Finley thought this was the least she could do, now that he’d decided to let her go and appeared to more reasonable.

  “You have the softest hands, babe,” he murmured and rubbed his thumb over her palm, massaging the area in a deliberate circular motion that heated her skin. “So fucking silky.”

  Those words caused her to shiver and the fact that the rest of her body quickly responded to his touch made her nervous. Gingerly she sat up and tried to remove her hand from his grasp as she reached back with her other to search over the mattress for some covers. Unfortunately, she was unsuccessful in both of those endeavors as he didn’t let go and the sheet was nowhere to be found. Not good because she was sinking again.

  “Please…” She couldn’t look away as he crowded her. He was male perfection from head to toe while his thick, whipcord muscles, taut and tanned, rippled as he moved. She was helpless as his dark head bent and his mouth descended to taste the heel of her palm. Her heart skipped a beat when he sucked a good portion of her skin between his lips.

  The wet heat. The velvet warmth—she shuddered and pressed her bottom into the mattress in an attempt to stem the heavy ache that suddenly flourished. The tingles that tortured the most sensitive bundle of nerve endings between her legs pulsed like the rapid thrum of a vibrator on high and jammed up against them. It was too much or not enough.

  “So silky.” He licked and nipped, priming the soft flesh of her hand with care. Over and over he tasted and when he opened his mouth and swirled his tongue one last time across the trembling area, she nearly passed out. But then she experienced the drag of something sharp there, creating a familiar pressure and her adrenaline soared. Over the heavy beat of her heart and the hammering of her pulse she heard his satisfied growl and experienced the gentle give of her vulnerable skin collapsing in blissful surrender under the force of his fangs sinking into her. Penetrating deep and deeper still. Her mind may have b
een processing all this, but her body was on pure reaction mode as she shook from inside and out.

  Breathe.

  Had he said this out loud? She didn’t think so, but then a wave of earth-shattering euphoria swept through her and she forgot about thinking. She gasped, ground her bottom down hard, flex, pivot and cry out as she came harder than she ever had before but…but she had no time to recover. Another wave of ecstasy began to push her upward. “Oh no—”

  Her world was flying apart again. The intensity was too much. The sight of him at her hand, drawing out her blood so seductively sapped everything from her, but the need to be with him. She moaned and groaned and had to fight the burning desire she had to climb on him. Over him. To taste him. Pleasure him. Become a part of him...take him into her body until he touched her soul. Screw fighting it. “Jack…” Vaguely, she realized that she was attempting to straddle him, but he wouldn’t oblige.

  Instead, he kept her hand against his mouth as he moved to the side of the bed, pulling her with him. She let him guided her, as he continued to draw her blood while he helped her off the edge bed to kneel between his legs. And when he tugged on his laces she knew what he wanted her to do.

  Somewhere in the back of her mind the idea surfaced that he was taking advantage of the situation, but right now Finley didn’t care. She boldly pressed forward and rubbed her hardened nipples against his leather pants. Just to feel him was heaven. Any part of him connecting with her nearly brought her to orgasm. With her one hand captured and currently owned by him, as he consumed and drank, she used her other hand and made short work of those laces. Hastily, she undid the ties and spread the butter-soft fabric wide, fully exposing him. So hard. She took hold with a satisfied sigh and worked her way down his silken-steel length in a series of fist pumping squeezes until she’d almost reached the base and he moved. Opening his legs and spreading them wider in clear invitation for her to get closer...and she accepted.

  Jack momentarily closed his eyes as her lips wrapped around his cock. He growled the instant her hot, wet mouth slid over him and the succulent velvet of her tongue laved to cover and cloak him in rich, moist heat. It was a perfect sexual agony and he growled again, but this time the deep sound was muffled against her palm as he latched onto her flesh more firmly. There was no use holding back his hunger for her. The heavy yearning went beyond bone-deep, it was his soul calling to hers and hers was listening. Singing. She was more turned on than he was.

  He opened his eyes and shifted so he could watch as she eagerly forced more of his length down her throat. Fucking beautiful, he decided as he continued to feed sensually on her palm, driving her to the edge. And when he felt her relax, depress her tongue, and open that juicy passage to shove him hard, almost jamming his length against the delicate tissues deep down, crashing against the sides of her throat, his heart slammed against his rib cage. She had no caution and he was empowered by that trust.

  “God I’ve missed you.” Jack withdrew from her palm and kissed it. “Easy. Easy,” he repeated when she greedily took that hand back and used it to stroke the base of him, cradling the heavy sac between his legs while she continued to work the rest of him with her mouth. Up and down she pumped, licking his length, swirling her tongue over the head, nipping—he sucked in a breath—when she forced her tongue in the small opening at the tip. “Jesus.” He sank his hands in her hair and gently pulled back. He wasn’t sure whose breathing was harsher, his or hers. But one thing he was positive about, he needed her consent. Her talk of rape had cut him deep. “Should we stop, mia lei?”

  “No.” She fought the hold he had on her hair, leaning forward, and when he relented and eased her head back down between his legs, her tongue eagerly darted out and she traced the length of his cock in a slow upward drag. Never taking her eyes from his. The view of her like this was one of the hottest things he’d ever seen.

  “Come here,” he ordered soft, but firm and when she hesitated he reached down and hoisted her up to stand. Eyeing her from head to toe and back again, his heart swelled with pride. Joy. She was a trembling sexy mess. Yeah, she was. His own beautiful wreck. And she belonged to him. Only him.

  Finley searched the hard and proud lines of his face, the squarely set jaw, his thickly corded neck before her gaze slid down and traveled from one side of his massive shoulders to the other. His deltoids bunched with barely restrained power and it seemed every inch of him was tight with waves of rippling muscles. Even his chest, especially his chest, she decided as she stopped to admire how superbly sculpted he was, but her appraisal of him was cut short when her eyes roved over the spot just above his left nipple. Spying the half-moon bite mark she’d made on him, she swallowed. Without thought or hesitation, she leaned forward, ready to kiss the wound she’d thoughtlessly—

  “I didn’t forget about that, babe.” He rubbed his hand over it as he stared at her. “You still owe me.” Grinning, he wedged her legs open with one of his knees and spread her. She didn’t resist as he took hold of her arms and pulled her forward until she was intimately straddled over one of his thighs. She captured her lower lip between her teeth and was almost breathless as he boldly shifted, anchoring her so her open and swollen flesh drenched the surface of his leathers in a telling slip. She was instantly mortified. Ashamed and then?

  He leaned back and looked down. After examining his handiwork his gaze lifted and the level of need that poured off him took all her insecurities away. He didn’t ask for permission, but she gave it to him anyway when she nodded. She didn’t blink as he wrapped his large hands around her hips and carefully slid her up the length of his leg until their noses were mere inches apart.

  “Ride me,” he whispered and rubbed his stubble-roughened jaw across her shoulder. The erotic scratch sent shivers waterfalling down her spine.

  “Yes.” She tried to move off his thigh but he stopped her.

  “No, babe,” he breathed in her ear, “Ride my leg. Come on it. I want to feel your heat when you shatter.”

  She was thinking about it. Trying to image being that bold. Could she do it? Could she—the decision was taken from her a second later when he took her hand and sank his teeth into her welcoming flesh so deep she gasped. Then all her muscles relaxed of their own accord, her lower body melted and fully spread and she eased down completely on the expanse of his thigh to unabashedly grind. The sensations were so delicious that she began to move, slowly at first, in a rhythm that licked at her insides, building and teasing. Her breath quickened while tension coiled inside her and, when her nipples contracted, her world spiraled away. She didn’t open her eyes, she couldn’t, as she gauged he was there possessively watching her while he silently encouraged by pulling and pushing on her hips as she rode over the smooth leather. Sliding, with friction humming, she moved again and again, in endless passes, until she felt the delectable tremors start. One rolling wave crashed over another until she couldn’t tell them apart.

  “Mmm…” she panted as the waves converged to lift her, while her heart rate surged and pure adrenaline pulsed in her veins. Pushing her upward, higher and higher, until she reached a breathless plateau.

  Thankfully, he gave up the hold he had on her hand, but now he shifted and moved to clasp her more firmly against him. “Not so fast, babe,” he warned. “Payback’s a bitch and you still owe me for this, remember?”

  Finley felt more than saw his hand rub over the mark she’d made on him. This should have concerned her but it didn’t because something was happening to her. She closed her eyes to concentrate and that’s when she experienced the need inside her building. A want for something she couldn’t name was nearly suffocating her.

  “Jack, I—” She felt as if she were spinning, no spiraling out of control. Falling, but then suddenly all movement stopped and the harsh breathing between them a moment ago was gone. Replaced by a profound and utter silence. A peace so far reaching she had no choice but to collapse into it.

  “God, you tempt me,” she heard him say. His
words sounded as if they traveled from a distance. Yet how could that be? His lips were right against her ear.

  The mist. That fog like substance swept through her mind’s eye until it disappeared, leaving only crystal clarity with this vision. A vision of them in their room. With her naked and captured in his arms as he held her against the wall. Pinning her with his hands and body. Crowding her as he’d done earlier tonight. Only in this image it was springtime. The sun shone through the open French doors and drenched them in comforting warmth. Caressing them with heated rays until she felt protected and safe. So safe.

  She stared over his massive shoulder to the hills and valley beyond the glass. To the sharp cliff on the right, where the vibrant green tips of the cedars swayed. Their dance was hypnotizing. Was this why she was feeling exhausted? Bone weary. Drowsy as she attempted to keep her blurring eyes open. Just a little more time...she needed to stay focused, but it felt so good to slip. Oh yes, just the thought of slipping had the blood traveling to her center. To the only place that wasn’t numb which made that intimate area hypersensitive. Achy. Needy. On fire for him. For his touch and attention.

  It was all right—her lids took forever to drop and eons longer to open again—but when they did and his dark features swam in front of her, she knew that she could slide. It was safe to let go.

  “God, my beautiful little wreck,” he fiercely whispered against her temple. “Go ahead. Fall for me. I’m always here to catch you when you come apart in my arms.”

  She wanted to answer him. To say yes but she had no breath. No oxygen. Her lungs were empty and her limbs useless, having forfeited their share of air to the more vital parts of her that needed it.

  She was floating and it felt so nice…

  “Tell me.” She heard his voice clear and calm, yet she somehow gauged that he wasn’t speaking in this moment. It was them in another lifetime sharing secrets. “Tell me what you want and I’ll give it to you. All of it. Anything.”