by Sara Whitney
He followed the cues her body gave him, slowing down when her movements slowed, speeding up when they became frantic, sliding his fingers inside her when she started to whimper. The more she lost her mind, the more he lost his, and before he knew it, his unfiltered thoughts came spilling out of his mouth.
“Like one of my cakes,” he said after he’d given her a long, hard suck that practically levitated her off the couch.
“H-how so?” Her eyes had fluttered shut as he worked, but he wanted her to know that he was the one doing this to her, so he took his mouth away and replaced it with his fingers, delivering a light spank that made her whole body jolt. She hissed a curse as her eyes flew open, and there was a chance that she’d actually driven one of her pointy heels straight through his couch cushion. She panted out, “Please please tell me how I’m like one of your cakes.”
Two “pleases.” Fuck if a compliant Josie Ryan wasn’t the biggest turn-on yet.
“The slogan. The business cards.”
She shook her head helplessly, her face a mixture of confusion and arousal, so he took the opportunity to remind her.
“Delicious on the outside.” He reached for her hand and pressed a kiss on her palm before twining their fingers together. Then he rewarded her sweet obedience with a long, slow lick down her center that ended with another hard suck where she most wanted it. “Delicious on the inside.”
The combination of his talk and his touch pushed her over the edge. She gripped his hand and fell apart against his mouth, and the sight of her, half in and half out of her fancy dress, her hair a vibrant, disheveled mess and her cheeks glowing pink because of him, was too much. With a groan, he gave in to the demands of his straining dick, yanking open his zipper and stroking himself in time to her ragged gasps until his breaths matched hers and he came hard and fast with her name on his lips.
After a few long moments, Josie’s eyes fluttered open to survey the mess he’d made, her mouth curving with a lazy, well-pleasured smile. “Delicious,” she agreed, and he bit his lip to keep from saying anything more. Because he was starting to wonder about the shape of his life once she’d moved on with hers. Would any future sexual encounters ever live up to what he’d just experienced? Likely not, and for one simple reason: he’d never find another woman like Josie.
Twenty-Two
It took a little time for Josie’s soul to return to her body after Erik was through with her. Seriously, what woman could be anything but boneless and satisfied after that experience?
“I think we ruined your couch.” The words emerged from her mouth slightly slurred, but that was only because their shared marrow-rattling orgasms had temporarily shut down her fine motor control. She’d be okay in a few minutes. Probably.
“No regrets.” He was reclined against the arm of the sofa, looking relaxed and maybe even a little smug. He still wore his suit jacket over his unbuttoned shirt, and he’d straightened but not refastened his pants.
She’d never imagined she’d see him looking so undone, and all she wanted to do was drape herself across all those thick muscles and big, heavy bones. Yet when she tried to shift off the back of the couch, she found her right foot stuck.
“Um.” She tugged at it, but the heel had actually sunk into the nubby orange upholstery. “Shit, Erik, I really did ruin your couch.”
“This couch was ruined long before you stabbed it.”
He leaned forward, the muscles in his stomach rippling in intriguing ways, and gently circled his hands around her ankle, tugging until she was free from the predatory furniture. Then his big, blunt fingers fiddled with the straps, loosening first one buckle and then the other. There was nothing overtly erotic about his actions, yet she could barely breathe as he slipped the shoes off her feet and set them to the side. As soon as he straightened, she gave a little growl and launched herself at him, driving him backward. Just as her brain was processing “warm” and “strong” and “man,” the sofa gave a loud crack and the bottom hit the floor with a jarring thud.
Erik broke the startled silence first with a burst of laughter that rippled through his body. “Okay, you definitely just ruined my couch.”
“I’m so sorry!” She rolled off the cushions and onto the floor to see one of the arms sticking out at a crazy angle, a splintered couch leg underneath. She slapped her hands over her eyes and curled into a ball of embarrassment, aware that she was witnessing an unusually literal manifestation of her penchant for chaos. “I’ll… buy you a new one?” She cracked open one eye and found his face still alight with laughter.
“This was a one of a kind, babe.” His matter-of-fact tone made her giggle, and with a graceful movement he stood and pulled her up alongside him, adjusting her dress so she was fully covered again. Her skin heated as his hands brushed the tops of her breasts. This quiet, self-contained man had just assumed total control of her body and then shamelessly worked himself until he came, his eyes on her the whole time. She’d already known that his everyday stillness hid depths, but she hadn’t expected him to be so commanding once he had her naked from the waist down.
She cast a playful glance in his direction, and what she saw hit her like a spray of cold water. The enthralled, passionate man from a few minutes ago was gone, replaced by the stranger she’d met on the train: aloof, bored, indifferent.
She crossed her arms over her chest, the uncertainty from the past two weeks kicking its way into her psyche. With any other guy, she’d either have him in bed already, or she’d be on her way out the door. Of course, most other guys probably wouldn’t have bothered moving off the busted couch before doing the not-so-subtle “nudge your head south” move on her for round two. But Erik’s whole vibe was screaming that one round was enough and he was ready for her to get gone. He definitely wouldn’t be the first guy to hit his limit with the Josie show, but it hurt to think he’d already gotten there so quickly.
“So, um, should we call it a night?” She was aiming for breezy lady-about-town, giving her casual hookup an easy way out. Instead, she remembered the last time she’d stormed out of his apartment, how utterly rejected she’d felt, and it made her voice emerge creaky and small.
He tucked his hands into his pockets. “If that’s what you want.”
“Is that what you want?” she shot back.
When he didn’t reply, her heart sank. He did want her to leave. Jake’s question had an answer: Erik wasn’t a second-date guy after all. He looked thoroughly uninterested in the prospect of her coming and then going, and she wanted to sink back onto the floor and howl at the unfairness. But just as the buzzing started to build in the base of her skull, threatening to sweep through her body and propel her out the door in a frenzy of bad feelings, she realized how ridiculous she was being.
“Oh my God, I’m so not this girl.” When he raised his brows in a question, she clarified. “You know, the girl who doesn’t say what she really wants. That’s not what I do. That’s what you do.”
He shrugged. “I took your shoes off.”
“What does that have to do with anyth—” It took her a second, but once she realized what he meant, it spun her sideways. He had told her what he wanted, but he’d done it in his wordless Erik way. She slowly turned to face him.
“Just so we’re clear,” she said, “you took my shoes off.”
“Yes.”
“You took my shoes off because you want me to stay.”
“Yes.”
“For sex.”
His throat rippled as he swallowed. “If that’s what you want, yes.”
His strangled response made her grin. “Okay then. Well, that’s awesome because I very much want to do bad things to all this.” She waved a hand from the top of his dark blond head down to the tips of his cordovan shoes.
“I’m good with that,” he deadpanned.
“Well, why didn’t you say so?” She grinned saucily at him as the tension drained from her body.
He rewarded her by literally, physically upending her o
ver his shoulder and giving her ass a light slap. “Josie Ryan, I’m taking you to bed so I can fuck you properly, and you don’t get to leave until I say you can. How’s that for direct?”
She almost burst into flames at his words. “It’s good. It’s so good.” Tell me you don’t ever want me to leave, she wanted to add, but even she wasn’t that honest. Instead, she dug her fingers into his back as he carried her to the bedroom. If she wasn’t careful, she’d get addicted to being hauled around like a sack of flour.
When they reached his bed, he tossed her onto the center of it, where she bounced up to a kneeling position.
“Fair warning, I’m planning to destroy this piece of furniture too.”
A smile spread across his face as he gazed down at her. “You can certainly try. Take that off.” He lifted his chin to her dress.
“So bossy,” she murmured, unzipping her dress and pulling it over her head to send it sailing into a corner. It was the kind with a built-in bra, which barely provided enough support for someone with her “ample endowments,” as her mother once phrased it. And while she’d been slightly concerned that she might burst through the seams during that afternoon’s ceremony, every second of worry was worth it to be instantly naked under Erik’s gaze right now. His chest expanded as he sucked in a giant breath, and when she gave a little stretch, causing her breasts to shift, his eyes tracked their movement. To test just how carefully he was watching her, she leaned back on her left arm, her breasts swaying with her. A millisecond later, Erik’s eyes followed the same path.
Oh, this was fun. Actually maybe too fun. Although she was tempted to abuse her power over the poor boob-drunk male, she redirected his focus. “Man Bun. Off with it,” she ordered, twirling a finger in his direction.
And Erik being Erik, he lifted a brow and wordlessly followed her directions. Of course, he did it in his own Erik way, taking his sweet time to peel off the jacket and kick off his shoes before slowly pulling off his shirt. Her eyes followed his hands as they moved to his pants; and the clink of his belt buckle, the rustle of fabric, the slide and tug as he pulled them off launched her anticipation into overdrive. His movements were sure and unhurried, and it was all a special kind of torture that had her running her tongue over her lower lip in her eagerness.
Once he was naked, she leaned back and looked her fill at his body: powerful, tense, seemingly carved of stone. “That’s it. You should never be allowed to wear clothes again.”
“Health code violation,” he replied as he joined her on the bed.
She reached for him with grabby hands and pushed him on his back, following him down to kiss him until they were both gasping for air. Only then did she allow herself to explore the rest of his body with her hands and mouth and tongue, revealing details he’d kept hidden: the freckled skin of his shoulders, the faded scar bisecting his ribs, the lion tattoo on his chest. She wanted to own all his stories, to know what sun under what sky had kissed those tan specks into his skin, to identify the sharp objects that had pierced him and dared to leave their marks on his body. At the reception, he’d promised her time, and she planned to take everything that he’d give her.
She moved lower and ran the tip of her finger down his cock, which she hadn’t gotten a satisfying glimpse of before. “Oh, thank God. You’re proportionate,” she said rapturously.
His hips twitched forward, and he gave a strained laugh.
“What?” she asked. “It’s a compliment! Everything about you is big, and now I know for a fact that it’s ev-uh-ree-thing.”
Then she wiped away his laughter by stroking her hand down the whole glorious length of him, which was hot and hard and ready for her. She punctuated the motion with quick pulses of her fist that had him arching his back with a strained grimace.
When she leaned closer, he spoke through gritted teeth. “Wait. Stop.”
She paused with her mouth inches from the tip of his cock, which looked to her like it would welcome the flat of her tongue running across it. “No?” She spoke in a challenging voice but backed away when he shook his head.
“Condoms. In the drawer.” He gasped the words, and this time she didn’t argue, instead reaching over to fish around in the bedside table drawer until she found a packet.
“Let me guess.” She quirked a smile up at him, loving the flush on his cheekbones. “Even though you already got off once, the sight of my mouth on you would’ve been too much and you would’ve embarrassed yourself?”
The instant she finished rolling the condom on, he surged up and reversed their positions, rolling her onto her back and using his knee to push her legs apart. “Essentially.”
Heat bloomed in her center at his honesty, and she offered the best smug smile she was capable of. Then he reached for her, and all teasing fell away when she realized what was finally happening between them. But there was something else. She needed something else…
“Wait. Stop.”
He froze, his forehead knotted in concern.
“This first.” She reached up and released his hair from its elastic. At last. Months of dreaming about those golden-brown curls, and she was finally tangling her fingers in all that softness.
Her fantasies hadn’t come close to the real deal. His hair was thick and warm, and her fingers tightened at how right it felt to hold him in place like this, his eyes burning into hers. She used her grip to pull him down until his scruff tickled her chin and his hair caressed her cheeks.
“Now you can go,” she whispered.
He didn’t need to be asked twice, barely even waiting for her to finish her command before he slid into her in one swift motion, stretching her with a sweet burn.
“You,” he murmured into her ear. Her hands fell away as he pulled back and surged forward to claim her again. “You’re perfect.”
“You’re pretty okay too,” she panted as he started to move even faster.
Her hips rose to meet each of his thrusts. His big body was hot and heavy against her, but instead of feeling crushed, she was consumed, like he’d absorbed her and had taken control of both their bodies. And in a way, he had. He set the pace, and he wrapped his arms around her back to lift her off the mattress, bringing her breasts to his waiting mouth. It thrilled her to let him move her body where he wanted it; each new position brought a new wave of sensation, all of it adding to the growing wave of pleasure building deep inside her. She loved his stubbled jaw scratching against her breasts almost as much as she’d loved it abrading her thighs earlier.
With one last swipe of his tongue across her nipples, he lowered her carefully to the mattress and wrapped his big hands around her thighs, spreading her wider, and just the sight of his blunt fingers digging into her skin almost sent her over the edge completely. Oh, she loved watching this powerful man keep his strength in check, giving her just as much as she could handle.
He must have noticed the stutter in her breathing because he reached down and pressed his thumb just above where they were joined. The thickness of him moving inside her combined with the steady pressure he was applying outside caused white-hot static to crackle through her brain, and before she could process it, she was shuddering and pulsing and grabbing his shoulders.
Then she witnessed something incredible: Erik, the most self-contained person she’d ever met, coming apart molecule by molecule. He buried his hands in her hair and filled her ear with the sound of his broken breaths until he drove into her with final, frantic thrusts, pulling back at the last moment to hold her gaze as he came with a groan. Then he collapsed onto the mattress next to her and dropped his head onto her shoulder until their breathing returned to normal. Afterward he disappeared into the bathroom briefly and returned without the condom, dropping heavily onto the mattress and pulling her against his chest.
“The bed survived,” he said into her hair.
“We’ll get it next time.” She burrowed against him. It had to be well after midnight at the end of a crazy busy day, and she was about to pass out. “
You’re okay if I stay the night?”
“I didn’t say you could leave yet, did I?” He nipped at her ear, and she realized that those tiny bites were his way of disciplining her for minor insubordination. She’d simply have to increase her backtalk a thousandfold, if only to keep the soft little reprimands coming.
“Oh fine,” she said on a yawn. “But I’m only staying because I’ve discovered your twin superpowers.”
His arms tightened around her. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“Making cakes and making women come.” She snuggled into his broad chest, which shifted under her cheek as he laughed softly.
“Should’ve put that on my business card.”
She placed a kiss over his heart and murmured, “I’ll redesign it in the morning.”
Twenty-Three
Erik woke up braced for a freak-out, although he wasn’t sure whose was more likely. Josie was a woman already given to high emotions, and he had no idea how adding sex to the mix would affect her. And then there was him, with his lifetime of keeping his emotions on lockdown. How would mixing in feelings affect him? Because he was fairly sure that’s what was ricocheting through him as he looked down at Josie’s body pressed against him in sleep. Warm feelings. Tender feelings. Feelings that made his chest glow and his lips press against the crown of her head.
“Mmmpf.” The woman in question stirred and stretched, then blinked up at him sleepily. “Good morning.”
“Morning,” he replied, sliding a hand down her exposed shoulder. She wiggled closer and folded her hands on his chest, propping up her chin to look past him to the rest of the room.
