by Paige North
He starts walking toward me, and I can’t keep my eyes off of his tanned, powerful torso under the gape of his button down. He moves like a savage thing, prowling and famished.
“You’re killing me, Serena,” he whispers. “You fucking take me over whenever you’re near me. You drive me crazy.”
Yes, I think, my veins trembling. Come closer. Touch me again. Possess me…
I realize that I’m backing away from his slow, intense approach, but I’ve gotten off track and I’m retreating toward his window, not out the door. In the dimness of the room, Colt looks like a brutish shadow, and my breathing slices through me.
He keeps on coming. “Has there been anyone since I left? Tell me, and don’t lie about it.”
“No.” I lick my lips. “There’s never been anyone but you.”
“Good.”
My back hits the floor-to-ceiling window, making it shiver. I paste my hands against the glass as he stands in front of me, imposing and compelling. I hear my choppy breathing, my heartbeat, the purr of electricity in the air between us. The same vibration travels around my pussy, a wicked buzz, a whisper of agony that only he can make disappear.
He braces his hands above me on the window, bending down to bring his mouth so close to mine that I wince, needing him to just kiss me already. He smells so damned good—clean and musky—and my head spins. But now that he’s only inches away in the dimness, I see the same rage and fury in him that I saw earlier. I don’t know if he loves me or hates me.
Suddenly, he reaches down and grasps me by the waist, turning me around so that I’m panting and pressing my hands against the window, as if in surrender. He slips a palm to my belly and begins to rub me there and…dammit, he remembers how I used to get off like this. He remembered it the other night too.
“You should’ve gotten out while you could,” he whispers into my hair.
My pussy bangs in an achy, steady rhythm as he massages me. I gasp again as he slides his other hand up to my breast, possessively kneading it. He buries his face against my neck, and I press my cheek against him as he gnaws at my tender skin like he wants to feast on me.
“No more secrets,” he murmurs against me. “You’d better not hide anything again.”
“I won’t.”
He aggressively bites my neck, and I groan and fall all the way against the window. At the same time, he keeps rubbing my belly and working my breast. Through my half-open eyes, I faintly see people far below us strolling beside the river. Can they see us up here in the penthouse, writhing and getting all worked up?
No secrets, I think. Colt has got me against a window that definitely offers full transparency…
When he presses his long, hard body against the back of me, I can feel how excited he is; his stiff cock prods me, and I grope in back of me to cup him. But he thwarts me, taking his hand from my breast and wrapping his fingers around my wrist, then putting my hand back up to the window.
The glass is getting moist and slick from my heavy breathing. “Colt, I—”
He grasps the front of my dress and pulls it apart so hard that it rips. I lower my arms as he pushes my dress down, taking my panties with it. Boneless, I slump against the window again, my naked breasts crushed against the glass.
Bared to the world below us, I make a scared and exhilarated sound, still looking out the window down at the people taking a walk who are clueless about what’s being unleashed up here in the penthouse. Colt pushes my hair away from my neck, roughly kissing my nape and making me squirm and moan. He nips and gnaws his way down my spine until he gets to his knees, then cups my ass in his hands. Wild, wet tingles fly through my clit and whirl up to my belly as he lightly bites the curves of my cheeks until I’m slapping the window.
He grips my hips tightly, quieting me down, and just when I think he still might be angry at me—this time for being so loud—he presses his face against my bottom, running his hands down the front of my sensitive thighs, then clasping me above my knees.
My pulse takes over my pussy, blasting. I wonder if I’m getting the window all wet.
“You told me to move on,” he roughly whispers against my skin. “And I thought I’d never forgive you for that. How do you think you should be punished, Serena?”
“Just like this,” I say, clawing at the window.
“Just like…this?”
He turns me slightly, and with his mouth still against my ass cheek, brings one of my legs up and over his shoulder. I gasp at the slick sound of my pussy, at the feeling of being so open and exposed. I’m sure he heard how drenched and hot I am because he makes a low sound like a hungry beast. I groan, encouraging him, then feel him adjust his position below me so he can press my front against the window again. Then…
Oh my God.
I gape against the glass, slumping as he lifts my leg and buries his mouth against my sex, breathing me in, making me whimper and shiver. Then, as if satisfied that I’m nearly begging, he runs his tongue through my slit.
I stand on my tiptoes as a violent bolt splits my sex apart. “Colt!”
He starts kissing my sex with wild abandon, licking the wetness from me, thoroughly eating me while holding me up and slipping his fingers from the front of my thigh to my clit where he massages me until my legs wobble. Before I can fall all the way to the carpet, he strengthens his hold beneath my leg and presses that hand against the window, all the while voraciously going at me, making me insane and totally high from the sounds he’s making against my soaking sex.
He consumes me, makes me half blind with delirious need and fever. I use the window to hold myself up, not knowing how long I can take this. Every cell inside me is thudding like the bass of a sound system turned up to blast. I feel my pulse pounding into the window, shaking it, causing tiny tremors around me. When Colt presses on my clit with his fingers and thrusts his tongue into me, every tremor zings to the center of my body, gathering in force, rolling into one rumble after another, growing and growing then clashing together in a peal of thunder so loud that I cry out for mercy then tumble toward the floor.
In a fog, I feel Colt catch me and heft me over his shoulder as he stands. I barely even know what he’s doing as he deposits me on the bed, then strips off his shirt and jeans. Even without much light, my gaze focuses on his wondrous body: his chiseled torso, rocked arms, slim hips, long legs and…that cock. Big, thick.
I suck in a breath. It’s been a long time…very long…and I feel as nervous as a virgin.
He crawls onto the mattress, bracing his hands on either side of me, caging me with that crazed gaze that’s still mostly anger, but also something else.
Desire. He wants me just as badly as I want him, and the hot spots that’re still pulsing in my clit and belly scream for him. I’m already ignited and sensitive, and when I look again at how huge and hard he is, I blow out a shaking breath.
He rubs his cock over my inner thigh, cruelly teasing me. “I’ll bet this is what you’ve been really missing, Serena.”
He’s pushing me, taking his bitterness out on me, but as I feel him against my skin, I remember the sweet pain of the first time we were together, the heartbreaking anguish when we were apart. I want him in me, a part of me again, forever, always.
He leans back on his haunches, his thighs strong and lean, and as he unwraps the rubber he had in his hand, I pant for him some more. He sheathes himself, then reaches between my thighs again, inserting two fingers into my sex, priming me.
“So ready for me,” he whispers.
“Yes…oh, God, yes…”
I undulate with him, holding back tiny little pleading cries for him to just fuck me…fuck me now…
“No matter what, you were always mine,” he rasps. “Always.”
His territorial words almost make me come again, but then he slides his other arm under me, pulling me up to him with possessiveness, making me straddle him as I suck in a breath. He pumps me some more with his fingers as I move with him, faster, harder, then h
e slips them out. In another unexpected move, he drives me back into the pillows at the headboard, and I gasp as we come to stare at each other, anger and lust, fury and need in his eyes.
“Colt…” I whisper.
Just as I think that his frustration with me might disappear, his gaze flares, and he pulls my hips toward him, thrusting into me with his huge cock.
“Oh!”
I arch my hips and grip his hair as he keeps looking into my eyes. Time suspends with him inside me, and just as the blazing domination in his gaze sears into me, my eyes roll back. He rams into me again, and I groan and take him deeper, digging my fingers into his skin and hair. Then, with a growl, he begins to really fuck me, desperately banging me into oblivion, taking total control of me and owning me completely with wet, wild, merciless strokes. My core is flaming, the flames turning into a roaring inferno so fast that when I orgasm, it’s like I’ve never done it before. I go to pieces and fall from the great heights of my ecstasy, and after I steam up inside, expanding, pulsing, then coming again, I finally feel him explode inside of me with the same unrestrained blasts.
This is the rawest sex I’ve ever had. The best.
And it was with the man I’ll never be able to get enough of.
Chapter 5
As the after-burn of my orgasm curls through me, Colt and I lie next to each other in the huge bed, our breathing smoothing out. I’m sticky all over with his cum mixed with my own sweat. Cream coats my thighs, and I rub my legs together, reveling in the slippery, carnal sensation. My body is satiated, but my heart is restless, my pulse unsure, because all I want is for Colt to pull me to him and hold me all night, just like he used to do by the lake.
Dare to dream. He’s distant as he gets himself together, then sits up in bed and turns away, giving me a view of his muscle-banded back and wide shoulders. It’s as if he’s angry with himself now, and I don’t know if it’s because he gave in to me or if he thinks he revenge fucked me and he regrets that.
I reach over to him and rest my fingertips right above the sexy indentation where his perfect ass and lean hip meet. He goes still. Then he blows out a breath and slowly looks over his shoulder at me. His hair blocks part of his gaze, but I can see the puzzlement in him, the confusion of what just happened.
After a loaded heartbeat, he gets up and walks toward the bathroom. My heart fists, and there’s a wad of emotion in my throat, but when I realize that he’s coming back with a towel in his hand, I hold my breath. He moves with such fluid, muscled grace, so tall, so high on the pedestal I’ve put him on that I fall in love all over again.
Without a word, he sits on the bed, the mattress dipping with his weight, then offers me the towel. I think he’s wary of touching me again—afraid of what might happen. Afraid of how angry he still is with me, even though I know he’s fighting it.
As he watches me with that contained passion, I ease the towel between my thighs then look away from him. I’m aching again, not just physically, but deep inside where our beautiful, magical summer together still lives.
I finish wiping myself off and hold onto the towel. “I have to go back home to do some school work and watch Sebastian.”
A moment passes, then he reaches over to me and gently slides the back of his knuckles over my cheek. As if burned, he backs off, not saying another word as he turns away and waits for me to sit up and leave the bed.
We’re silent as I put on my clothing. The top of my dress is shredded from where he tore it, but the bottom is fine, and I end up buttoning my thin sweater over myself so that no one will know the difference. Then he follows me to the door that leads out of the suite. It’s only when I open it that he says something.
“I swear to you. The next time I see you, we’re going to talk. No games.”
I nod, my heart fluttering like a mad thing as I leave him, already counting down the seconds until we meet again in secret.
Just as we’ve always done.
When I arrive home, my brother’s BMW is parked at the curb. After I pull my car into the driveway, I take an extra minute to tidy myself, making sure there are no signs of what went down with Colt and me tonight.
I’m still under his erotic spell, still high on adrenaline and him as I replay every moment of his hands and mouth on me, his fingers and cock in me…
But you’re home now, I think. Time to put on a mask so no one will know you were with the one guy your family never wants to see you with again.
I lock up the car and walk into the house. Through the patio’s screen door, I can hear Mom and Dad in the backyard, enjoying the cool night next to the roaring outside fireplace, as well as each other’s company. They usually kick back out there after they put Sebastian down in his crib, and they’ll have the baby monitor with them, listening for any cries or sounds. I don’t hear my brother talking outside with them, though, and as I make my way into the family room toward the patio, I find out why.
Jack is sitting on a couch in front of the blank TV, his button down loose at the collar and untucked from his trousers. His auburn hair is slightly disheveled as he swipes with one thumb over the screen of his phone. He doesn’t even look up at me when he speaks.
“Another long night studying?” he asks.
“One of many.”
I wish I could brush off Jack and just go outside to hug my parents hello, then scamper over to my room to see Sebastian, but then my brother shows me his phone screen. On it, there’s a picture of Colt with his hair tied back, dressed in a white tee shirt and jeans. He’s standing in front of a table in a bar with his massive arms crossed over his wide chest. Everything in the dark background around him is washed out as if he’s the one thing in every room that draws all the light.
It’s a photo from when he stormed Lala’s in Portland the other night.
Anxiety bites at me. Please don’t show me a picture of me in that bar too.
Jack lowers the phone. “I didn’t know Colt was in Lala’s on the same night you were.”
I don’t say anything.
He goes on. “Some of the comments on the tabloid sites say that he was real interested in some girl with reddish brown hair wearing a black dress with fringe. A cute, wholesome girl-next-door type, they say. I can’t find any pictures of her, though.” Jack shrugs. “Weren’t you wearing a dress like that the same exact night?”
This calls for a lie, but I’m so tired of them. Lies have brought me nothing but grief. Still, I’m not about to tell my brother anything.
“Let’s just file this in a None of Your Business folder,” I say, already walking toward the patio.
“Wait, Serena.” He stands from the couch, still holding his phone. “This has been my business from day one when I realized you had a thing for Colt when you weren’t even out of elementary school. I thought you’d grow out of it, find a decent guy, realize that Colt wasn’t worth your affections, but you never did. I worried like hell that you’d get into trouble with him some day, but much to his credit, he never seemed interested. Not until he and I started going our separate ways.”
I’m standing there just listening, because even if it’s Jack saying it, I need to hear it.
He shakes his head. “After you did get into trouble with him, you swore this family to secrecy. I was so angry with that asshole that I stopped speaking to him for good—”
“As you said, you two were drifting apart long before then.”
“But I went along with your plan because you’re my little sister, Serena. I’ve only wanted the best for you, and now the same stands true for Sebastian.”
I shake my head, asking him to stop, but he won’t.
Jack spreads his hands out, nearly pleading with me. “Colt has been screwing up his life for years, and just because he’s come back into town as a Hollywood golden boy, that doesn’t mean anything has changed. He’s still getting into fights, popping off, and it’s only a matter of time before he’s back where he started. God, Serena, you were the girl Colt was seen with th
e other night at that bar, weren’t you?”
At my silence, his shoulders go rigid again.
“This family has supported you and Sebastian completely,” he says, “but if you take up with Colt we’ll—”
“You’ll what? Write me and my son off?”
Sadness falls over my brother. He loves his nephew so much, but he just can’t understand what I see in Colt. No one has ever seen what’s actually deep inside of the man I love, and if he would only let them discover how good, smart, and sensitive he is under all that bad boy, things would be so different.
Jack’s gaze doesn’t waver from mine. “Yes, Serena. If you let that asshole into your life again, you shouldn’t expect any support from us. Think of that little boy sleeping down the hall in your room. Think of how Colt would mess Sebastian up too.”
Anger kicks through me. Jack didn’t see Colt with Sebastian this afternoon. He has no idea.
I lift a finger, walking closer to my brother. “You’re talking about my child’s father.”
“Father? He’s a fucking sperm donor.”
My hand whips out, connecting with my brother’s face. As both of us stare at each other, I hold my hand to my mouth, on the edge of tears. Jack stares at me with growing frustration and disgust in his green eyes as his cheek starts to turn red.
Then he walks away and out the front door.
I brace my hands on the back of a leisure chair, my emotions splicing through me, choking each other out, because I don’t know what to feel, what to do. If Jack feels this way about Colt, I’m sure my parents do too, and—
When I look over my shoulder, I see them standing outside the patio’s screen door, utterly silent: my mom with her smartly styled banker’s hair, my dad with his slightly graying software engineer hair, both of them with their older and wiser gazes… They heard everything between Jack and me, and they don’t even have to say a word to tell me what’s going through their minds.
They hate Colt for knocking me up and obviously hate him again for daring to leave LA and come back here to prey on their innocent little girl. I almost laugh, because nothing could be further from the truth. All I have to do is think of how I shamelessly reacted to Colt earlier tonight.
