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Taking Chances: A Donnelley Brother's Novel

Page 15

by Carbonneau, Alannah


  Curling my fists in the pillow, I watched the screen through squinted eyes as the bedroom door creaked open and something unseen lifted the bed sheet before grabbing the girls ankle and dragging her quickly, screaming, from the bed.

  I screamed loud, burying my face in the pillow as I winced at the sharp pang in my back from my quick movement. Collin chuckled, touching my shoulder. Again, I jumped. “Turn it off!” I commanded, and he laughed again.

  He protested. “We can’t turn it off, it just started.”

  “I don’t care, turn it off.” I cried. “Now!”

  He shook his head. “No.” Then his hand was hooking around my butt, against my hip at the only place I hadn’t been burned, and he was dragging me closer.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Keeping my chicken safe.”

  “I’m not a chicken!” I barked. “And I didn’t know I was yours.”

  “You are a chicken, beautiful.” He quirked a grin and I stared down into his face. “And I didn’t know you were mine either. Until now.”

  My breath caught and my eyes widened. “What?”

  “You’re always going to fight me aren’t you?”

  “I...”

  “You will.” He smiled. “You’re always going to challenge me, and fuck if you don’t have a quick reply to everything I say, but I love that about you, Hadley.”

  Oh God...he loved something about me.

  “Go on.” I whisper-pleaded.

  He chuckled and then his eyes turned serious. “You said I’d be worth it to you, Hadley. Did you mean that?”

  What was he asking, exactly?

  I didn’t ask. Instead, I replied with the honest to God truth. “Yes. You would be worth everything to me.”

  “Then I want...” he closed his eyes and I waited for what felt like eternity. “Then I want to have this night with you - and then I want to have breakfast. And maybe, tomorrow we could repeat the entire scenario minus the sunburn?”

  My breath was coming in short. “Can we take it slow?”

  “Baby, I’ll try to be everything you need. If you want slow, we’ll take it slow.” He quirked a teasing grin. “So no breakfast then?”

  Oh, baby steps.

  I slapped his shoulder teasingly. “We’re doing breakfast.”

  “Damn, you’re hot when you get bossy.”

  I smiled. “Can you turn off the movie?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “I like having an excuse to hold you.”

  “Do you really need one?”

  He stilled for a moment, and then he reached for the remote. Silence filled the room as the screaming in the background was killed. “No, beautiful. I don’t need an excuse.”

  “Good.” I moved my head down to rest over his chest, pressing a small kiss to the place over his heart, I announced. “You smell good.”

  “You smell like me.” He replied huskily.

  “You didn’t have any girl stuff in there.” I defended myself. “I had no choice.”

  “I like you smelling like me, baby.” He pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “I like knowing my scent is on you.”

  “Caveman.” I jabbed playfully as I closed my eyes, and fell into the bliss of sleep against a man I loved - who had decided it was worth it - to see where things could go if we gave into our fears and let down our guard just enough to let each other in.

  Chapter 16

  Thunder clapped loudly in the sky and I startled awake against a hard, warm body. Perching up on my forearms, I gazed out the bedroom window into the night as a bright flash of light lit the sky and illuminated the darkness of the room fleetingly before not even three seconds later, loud thunder roared.

  “What are you doing awake?” Collin’s deep voice was husky with sleep and his arm tightened around my waist.

  “It’s storming.” I whispered, feeling excitement burn deep inside.

  “You’re afraid of storms?” He asked in surprise, shifting up onto his elbow beside me while still leaving his arm to rest over the small of my back.

  “Not even close.” I replied. “I actually have a thing for storms. They’re just beautiful to watch - so unpredictable and powerful.”

  “You amaze me.” He breathed. And despite the mesmerizing storm raging outside, I felt Collin’s eyes on me rather than on the storm raging above us.

  Collin and I had been seeing each other - in secret - for almost two weeks. Thankfully, my sunburn was gone, but I wouldn’t change falling asleep that day in the sun for anything. It was that horrific sunburn that had aided to evolve my relationship with Collin into what it was now - and God, I never wanted this to end. There was something so beautiful about life with Collin - so wonderful - I couldn’t imagine ever going back to the way I had been living without him.

  “Do you want to go outside?” I whispered, watching his emerald gaze glow with an excitement I knew I would forever cherish. “We could watch the lightning show until the rain starts coming down.”

  “We could.” He leaned into me, pressing his warm lips against mine.

  My stomach ignited with a swarm of butterflies as I moaned into his mouth. Then, before I knew it, I was on my back and he was perched above me. His mouth on mine was hungry, his kisses fierce and hot. I didn’t think about what I was doing as I wound my hands around his neck, pulling him closer, while arching my back to press my chest tight against his. A moan sounded from deep in the back of his throat as he parted his lips, sliding his tongue between mine. His hands gripped my hips as his body slammed flush against mine, his hips grinding into me. I felt the hard, swollen length of his cock against the booty shorts I wore beneath his long t-shirt and I moaned into his mouth, feeling wetness pool between my legs as fire spread over my skin.

  Then he pulled back on a growl, “You want to watch the storm?”

  “What?” I gasped, feeling disorientated from the drug of his kiss.

  “Baby, if we don’t stop.” He paused. “We need to stop if you’re still wanting to take this slow.”

  Slow? Oh God, I didn’t want to take this slow if it meant losing his mouth on mine, his hands from my body, his cock against my core. No, I didn’t want slow if it meant stopping this.

  I shook my head. “I’m good, we don’t have to go anywhere.”

  He chuckled before dropping his head against my shoulder, kissing me there before nipping gently. “Come on, beautiful.”

  “Collin.” I protested as he pulled himself away from me. Sitting back on his haunches between my spread legs, I could see his desire for me standing proudly against his boxers. My belly fluttered and I struggled to keep my moan locked deep inside. Goodness me, did I ever want this man - desperately.

  “Baby.” He quirked a soft grin at me. “I don’t want you to do something like this spur of the moment. I want you to think about it and be certain.” He reached down to grasp my hand in his. “When I take you, and I will, I want it to be something you’re certain of.”

  If he kept talking to me like that I’d be a hopeless cause. I wanted him now. As a matter of fact, my body had never before wanted a man the way I wanted Collin in this moment, but I could also see how much this meant to him, that I not make this decision rashly. So, instead of pleading with him the way I so desperately longed to, I nodded and allowed him to pull me from the bed.

  We walked downstairs, through the house, and onto the back porch. As we closed the sliding door of the house, the three dogs lying on the living room floor looked at us as though we were crazy. They’d whined at the door before bed, obviously sensing the oncoming storm, and they had no desire to join us in our craziness to watch the lighting scattering the ebony sky on the open deck.

  Collin led me to the chaise that had been covered obscenely with blue throw pillows he informed me Gracie had made. After tossing all but two onto the floor of the deck, Collin pulled me down onto the cushion with him. Pulling me into his arms, I lay back and watched the sky throw its fascinating temper-tantrum as the man I was so i
nsanely, deeply, madly in love with, held me tight.

  After a few minutes had passed, I spoke. “I’m ready - and I want it to be you.”

  “What?” I felt his body tense as he waited for my reply.

  “I don’t want to wait any longer, Collin. I want you to...” I felt my breath catch as I thought about my next words. “I want you to make love to me.”

  I felt the trembling of his breaths as he answered. “Are you sure?”

  I nodded. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.” I let my eyes flutter closed a moment. “You’re everything I’ve been searching for - and I didn’t even know I was searching.”

  His breath caught in his throat. “Hadley.”

  “Please.” I whispered. “I want this - you. I want us and I’m ready.” I hurried to assure him when he still didn’t seem convinced. “I’ve thought about it. Before tonight, I made the decision.”

  Then I felt his mouth on mine as his body rolled over me. He slipped an arm beneath the crook of my neck while his other explored the skin of my belly beneath his t-shirt. His hands were everywhere and nowhere at once. His fingertips were searching, but they were teasing too. Because not once did he find the swollen bud on my breast that I ached for his fingers to find. Instead, his fingertips grazed the underside of my breasts until they throbbed with painful need I ached for so deeply inside, that I thought I would explode with yearning. Every part of my body felt as though it were alive. My flesh was burning, tingling with sensation as the thunder crashed violently around us.

  And with the thunder, all the pretenses fell away. Our guards were down, crumbled into dust. As he kissed me and I kissed him, we were so perfectly and completely exposed to one another.

  “Hadley.” Collin breathed my name on a strangled moan as I pulled his hips down against mine, wrapping my legs around his firm waist to keep him there against me. “You’re killing me.”

  “Please, I want you.” I kissed him between my words. “I need you. Only you.”

  He pulled back, pressing a small kiss to my forehead as his green eyes met with my blues. “I’m not hurrying this, beautiful. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted you - how many times I’ve fantasized about losing myself inside of you, about you coming undone around me, beneath me, and in my mouth. I’m not hurrying this, love.”

  Oh God...

  My heart slammed in my chest, and somehow I found the strength to nod my consent - or silent plea.

  I watched as he moved back to balance on his haunches. He was so beautiful. Every inch of him had been crafted in utter perfection. There wasn’t an angle I would change about this man. I loved him. Every part of him. I hadn’t told him yet - not with words, but sometimes words weren’t nearly as powerful as their counterpart in actions. And tonight, I would be giving this man the thing I had held dear to me for twenty years. I would be gifting him my innocence - and he knew.

  There were no words as he moved his hands to the hem of the shirt. Slowly, he pulled it upward, over my belly, then my breasts, and then over my head. The material landed beside the pillows on the floor of the deck.

  “You’re so beautiful.”

  “You tell me all the time.” I whispered in reply, loving the fire burning through my veins at the excitement and uncertainty I felt building for whatever this man was going to do next. Whatever he did, I knew I’d love it.

  “Because you are.” He didn’t smile, but I could see the gentleness in his eyes and hear the wonderment in his voice. “You catch me off guard when I least expect it.” His eyes swept over my body, and not even once did I feel the need to hide myself from him. “You have this beauty about you, and it doesn’t exist only on the outside, Hadley.” He leaned down to plant both his hands on either side of my head and my heart pounded a hard, unsteady rhythm against its cage as he lowered his lips to my left breast, caressing my pebbled flesh with his soft lips. “Your beauty shines from within. The very first day I saw you, I was captivated by you. I was awestruck, Hadley, fucking lost in you and I didn’t even know your name.” He kissed the flesh around the rose of my nipple and I breathed in a raspy breath. “I just knew you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen and ever would see.”

  I never thought, for even a moment, that this man held the capacity for such romantic words, but I was so glad that he did - because if I hadn’t already been head over heels for him, I sure was now. In that moment, I knew that I would swim even the most dangerous of rapids to find him. I would climb the most dangerous of mountains and I would fight anything that stood between us with every ounce of strength I possessed within.

  Diving my hands into his hair, I whispered into the night. “I love you, Collin Donnelley.”

  I felt his head lift from my breast and silence met my words. For a moment, fear pulsed, and then it was gone as his lips closed over mine. He kissed me with a passion that held only lovers abandon and I lost myself in him, around him, as our essences blended together.

  Then, on a gasped breath, he breathed. “I’ve been in love with you since I saw those bright blue eyes looking up at me in the cafeteria that day you...”

  I sobbed a happy sound as I stilled his words with my lips. “Don’t say it.”

  I felt him kiss his way down my throat and between my breasts before he pulled my right breast into his hand, massaging my swollen, aching flesh with the rough pads of his fingers. Heat seared through my insides as he dropped his mouth over my breast, sucking my flesh into the warmth of his mouth. Twirling the tip of his tongue around my nipple, I felt something building within my body that needed release. Arching my back, I pressed my breast into his mouth and gasped a strangled moan when he sucked hard. Pain and pleasure tore through my body in equal portions, I didn’t know which was supposed to prevail, before I decided I didn’t care.

  The sensations moving through my body were unspeakable, indescribable and addicting. I knew I was changed. I would never be able to turn back and live as I had for twenty years. This man had changed me in more ways than one, and I was so thankful to him for that.

  With a popping sound, he released my breast from between his lips before flicking the sensitive nipple of my other breast with the tip of his wet, warm tongue. Again, I gasped audibly. My fingers gripped his shoulders, feeling the muscles flex beneath my hands as he moved under my palms.

  “So damn beautiful.” His words were gravelly as he pulled back once again. His hands moved to the lacy band of my panties, his fingers hooking beneath the fabric as his eyes met mine. There was a question in their depths - one last chance to turn back. I didn’t want to turn back.

  “Yes.” I whispered. And then my panties were gone and I was entirely naked beneath him.

  Never in my life had I felt a need like the need I now knew. It was consuming. My entire entity was hot, burning up for him.

  Collin placed his hands on my knees, spreading my legs wide for his taking, before he dropped his hands slowly down the inside of my thighs. My stomach jumped and fluttered with anticipation I couldn’t seem to find the reins for. Hell, I didn’t want to find the reins.

  Looking down at me, he spoke through husky tones of deep desire. “You’re so soft.” His hands moved back up over the insides of my thighs to then hook around the back of my knees. He swept one leg up over his shoulder, and then the other, as he knelt down onto the deck floor before pulling me down the length of the chaise. I instantly knew what he was about to do - and where he was going to kiss me - and I didn’t feel even an ounce of shame or uncertainty. I wanted this. I wanted his mouth on me, tasting me, learning me, and showing me the ways he could send my body over the edge.

  His green eyes connected with mine and then an earth shattering clap of thunder broke through the breathy silence of the night right on queue with Collin’s mouth covering my moist core. Everything inside of me exploded into a thousand stimulated fragments as the word pleasure took on a whole new meaning.

  Broken moans escaped my lips as Collin gripped my hips tight,
locking me in place against his devilishly teasing mouth. His tongue darted in quick motions against my clit, before turning slow and taunting - then, he repeated the cycle again. Pleasure pulsed through my entity, begging to be released from the prison that was my body. I felt it lingering on the cusp, the orgasm rioting deep within - and then Collin brought me there.

  Flattening his tongue against my throbbing clit, he held me there against his mouth as I panted and fought to move against his mouth - and then I felt his teeth against my very delicate flesh, nipping ever so gently - and then I fell into utter bliss as my body bowed, my back arching to lift from the chaise, as a cry of unbridled pleasure fell from my lips.

  Collin didn’t stop working my orgasm until he had taken me for every last drop. Only then did he climb back up the length of my body, settling me once again onto the chaise. His eyes were heated and the bulge in his boxers pleaded to be released.

  “I knew having you come undone in my mouth would be fucking hot, beautiful, but I never imagined...” his words were ended abruptly as I slammed my mouth against his - tasting myself on his mouth. I never expected the taste of me would turn me on, but knowing that I was on his mouth, was way hot.

  “I want to feel you.” I breathed against his mouth. “I want to feel you against me, inside of me.”

  “Shit, baby.” He groaned a tortured sound. “You’re everything I wanted and never thought...”

  I didn’t want to hear him finish that sentence. “Make love to me.”

  Breathily, he nodded as he pushed himself up once again from the chaise. This time, I watched his hands move to the waistband of his boxers. Then, I watched as his thumbs hooked the band - and then he pushed his boxers from his body, allowing his very large, very hard cock to spring free.

  The storm chose that moment to release its heavy drops of rain from the heavens. Water poured down over his perfectly carved body, running in shimmering rivers through every crevice his magnificent body housed. His always messy hair was plastered against his forehead, dripping against his face, until he shook it free. He grinned as he lowered himself over me once again.

 

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