Desire: A Contemporary Romance Box Set

by R. R. Banks

  "Hello?" he said into the darkness and I reached beside me to turn on the small lamp on the end table by the couch.

  The light cast a soft yellow glow over me, fully illuminating my body, but I did not stop the intoxicating movements of my hand. A look of surprised pleasure washed over Sam's face and he stepped the rest of the way in the room, reaching back to close the door behind him and turn the lock.

  "Well, here you are," he said, his voice silky and low, "I was wondering where you disappeared to. Apparently, the issue with the sound system wasn’t fixed. Half of our equipment went out in the middle of our second song. I keep saying that we shouldn’t let our bassist book the gigs. They’re using the speaker system to stream a few of our tracks, so I’m taking a bit of a break.”

  As he spoke, Sam unbuttoned his shirt, his eyes moving from my hand to my face, then back to my hand.

  I whimpered in affirmation, knowing that he had some time making me even more eager for him to see how much he had turned me on.

  Sam tossed his shirt aside and unfastened his belt.

  "Maybe you aren't as innocent as I thought you were," he said approvingly.

  I looked up at him and bit my bottom lip.

  "Does that feel good?"

  The question came out sounding like sex and power, and it made me moan as I responded to the ache in my core by moving my fingers down and slipping two into my body.

  Sam lowered his zipper and let them fall to his feet so he could kick them aside. In one swift movement, he pushed his trunks off and his erection sprung away from his body.

  "It feels so much better when someone else does it," he whispered and climbed onto the couch with me.

  He paused at my feet and ducked his head to kiss the side of my ankle right beneath the buckle of my shoe.

  "You should never, ever take off these shoes,” he said.

  The way that they were making me feel, I couldn’t help but think that I agreed with him.

  He kissed his way up from my ankle along the inside of my leg until his mouth nestled on the juncture between my hip and my thigh. Sam's teeth nipped lightly at my skin and I felt my hips rise in response, encouraging him to touch me. He took his mouth away and brought it to my hand. I felt him gently take my fingers in his teeth and then draw them into his mouth, sucking away my fluids.

  I withdrew my hand from his mouth and Sam dipped his head forward, allowing his tongue to replace the movements of my hand. I cried out at finally getting what I had wanted, my hips bucking up into his mouth to encourage more of the attention. Sam responded by tucking his hands under my pelvis to take hold of my ass and hold me in place so he could push his tongue deeper and harder into the curves and tucks of my body. The tension in my belly and thighs was becoming nearly overwhelming and I lifted his chin to pull his mouth away from me.

  "I thought that there was more to this lesson plan," I panted.

  Sam smiled and moved up the couch to briefly stretch his body across mine. I felt the length of his erection brush against my clit and I arched toward him.

  "You're right," he said through his own deepened breath. “Should we continue?”

  "Yes."

  He dropped a kiss to my mouth and I returned it passionately. Sam slid off of me to tuck himself at my side. He took my hand and dipped it down between my legs to collect more of the hot, slick fluid. Once it was slick and shimmering, he brought it to his erection. I sighed as he tucked my palm against his hard shaft and wrapped my fingers tightly around it. He used his hand to guide mine, moving slowly, allowing me to feel every velvety inch of his hardness beneath my hand. It was hot and impossibly hard, and I concentrated on each of the veins and ridges.

  "You like that, don't you?" he murmured and I moaned in affirmation. "Do you want my cock in your mouth?"

  "Yes, please."

  I surprised myself with my immediate answer, but Sam groaned and pumped my hand harder.

  "What a good girl," he said and pulled my hand away from him.

  He pulled my hand until I sat up and then guided me off the edge of the couch. Turning, he draped his legs off of the side so they were positioned on either side of me. He leaned forward and kissed my stomach, then brought his mouth to one of my breasts, drawing the hardened nipple between his teeth and biting down on it so that a deliciously new blend of pain and pleasure coursed through me. I buried my fingers in his hair and let my head fall back as I enjoyed the feeling of him immediately switching back to soothing my skin with soft sucks and kisses.

  After a few moments, Sam rested his hands to my hips and pushed me down to my knees. I complied willingly, the excitement building in my belly as his long, beautiful cock came level with my face. I didn’t need to wait for instructions. I drew my tongue quickly along the underside, smiling when his erection jumped in response to my touch. I licked again, slowing down so I could enjoy the taste of his skin as I traced from the base to the tip. Then I remembered that I was supposed to be allowing him to teach me and I looked up at him.

  "Open your mouth," Sam whispered, returning to his role as my instructor.

  I did as he asked, parting my lips and allowing him to touch the smooth, silky head of his cock between them. I left it where it was for a moment and flicked my tongue along the slit at the tip, savoring the salty taste of the drop of fluid there. Craving more, I parted my lips further and he pushed forward until I held him fully in my mouth. He whispered instructions to me, cupping his hand around my head to guide the movements of my mouth until I was sucking smoothly and quickly, reveling in the feeling of his erection against my tongue and lips.

  "Stop," Sam gasped suddenly, and I pulled my head back.

  "Did I do something wrong?"

  Sam growled low in his throat and pulled me to my feet by my shoulders. Though he had sounded frightening, there was nothing but arousal in his eyes when I looked at him and I felt at ease again.

  "Not at all," he answered, the smoothness gone from his voice so that it now sounded gravely with desire, "but if you keep going like that, I won't be able to move on to the final lesson."

  Sam reached over toward a box sitting on the end table and withdrew a condom. As he opened the package I noticed it declared that it was ribbed. As he put it on, I saw that the texture of the surface of the condom was different from the one that Lee had used, intriguing me. I reached forward and brushed his hand away, taking control over the process and rolling the condom into place. When I was finished, I lowered my mouth to his, gaining courage from the pressure of his lips and the indulgence of his tongue sliding across mine. Sam pulled back and looked into my eyes.

  "How do you want me?” he asked.

  I tilted my head at him.

  "What do you mean?" I asked.

  All I knew is that my body was aching for him and I desperately wanted him inside me. Sam slid further back on the couch and he used one hand on the back of my hips to pull me forward toward him. He led me until my knees hit the cushions and buckled slightly. As my knees bent, he caught the backs of my thighs and guided me up so I straddled his thighs. My core cradled his erection and I rocked my hips slightly to glide along it.

  "Do you want me to make love to you, or do you want me to fuck you?" he asked and my stomach clenched.

  My body was trembling and I felt like I was on the brink of losing control.

  It was a question that I fully understood, but one that I wasn’t going to answer.

  "You are supposed to be the one who is teaching me," I said, trying to control the shaking in my voice.

  Sam smiled.

  "I am. I'm teaching you to know what you want and how to ask for it so that you can get every bit of pleasure and enjoyment that you deserve.”

  "I want you," I said.

  "You could lift your hips just a little right now and I could plunge right inside. Or I could lay you on your back and take it a little slower."

  I brought my mouth to his ear and licked his earlobe.

  "You can do anything you w
ant to me," I said.

  As soon as the words were out of my mouth Sam's hands clamped down on my hips, lifted them, and brought me down hard on his erection. I screamed at the sudden mixture of pain and pleasure so much like him biting down on my nipple as he suddenly filled me. I could feel every ridge of the condom as it stimulated my walls, creating unique sensations that made me more aware of the depth and shape of my body.

  "Then I am going to fuck you like I promised I would," he growled against my ear, reaching up to grab a handful of my hair and he wrapped his other arm around my waist to hold me in place.

  I felt my pleasure spiraling upward as he used his hands to bring me up and down in hard, intense thrusts. The speed gave my body little time to stretch to accommodate him and each stroke brought both delicious pleasure and sharp pain. I stopped trying to control my reaction and let out a sharp cry. Sam slowed and I opened my eyes to look at him.

  "No. Don't stop," I said, grinding down against his pelvis to bury his cock deeper inside me.

  "Don’t worry. I'm not going to stop," he said. "Wrap your legs around me."

  I did as he asked, and Sam stood, bringing me up with him, then turned to lower me to my back on the couch. He took my legs from around his waist and placed them on his shoulders, immediately driving him deeper into me. I gasped as he leaned forward to rise over me, his hands coming to rest on the couch beside my shoulders.

  I groaned at the incredible sensation this completely new position created. Sam withdrew slightly, then plunged forward. At the sound of my pleasure, he started to move at a frenzied pace, pounding into me harder and faster. Suddenly I felt the tension building in my thighs and stomach again. I moaned and writhed against the bed.

  "Don't fight it," Sam whispered.

  I let myself surrender to him and almost immediately my body contracted around him. A loud scream poured from me as tremors rolled through my walls, drawing him deeper into me. That moment pushed Sam into his own oblivion and he let out an animal cry, slamming into me a final time as he spilled hot streams into me with a series of hard pulses.

  When his body relaxed, Sam lowered my legs and rested his head to my chest briefly before looking up at me and laughing. I could feel his sweat dripping off of his face onto my skin and his breath rippling down my chest and stomach. I felt a laugh bubbling up from my chest. I wasn’t sure why I was laughing, but it felt like a release as much as the orgasm.

  Noah was leaving my room when I finally got back to the retreat that night. He looked me up and down before he said anything.

  “I baked some cookies today,” he said. “I left some for you.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “How was the concert?”

  “Loud,” I admitted. “The type of music wasn’t really my cup of tea.”

  “Oh, I also left you a cup of tea.”

  I laughed and Noah joined me. Our voices quieted and I suddenly didn’t want him to walk away. I gestured toward the door.

  “Do you want to come share the cookies with me?”

  Noah’s eyes slid toward the door as though he was tempted, and then he shook his head.

  “Thanks, but I should probably get to bed. I have to get up early to bake bread in the morning. Maybe tomorrow, though.”

  I nodded.

  “I don’t know anybody who makes bread. My mother never even made bread. I look forward to trying it.”

  Noah gave a slightly tense smile.

  “Good night,” he said. He started down the steps and then turned back to me. “I was right about that dress, by the way.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Snow

  I took the dress that I wore the concert out of the dry-cleaning bag and hung it in my closet beside the jersey. Someday I might wear it again. Maybe. One of the songs that Sam had played at the concert echoed through the house, streaming off of my tablet where I had placed it on my bed. I still didn’t love the genre, but I was getting used to it. There was something different about it having witnessed the musician himself perform the song. I thought back to the rehearsal that I had watched. Sam had been confident and sexy as he gripped the microphone and sang, his body moving in time to the music that played around him. I hadn’t known it then, but it was a preview of what I would experience that night, his hard body pressed against mine on the dancefloor, and then filling me in the lounge.

  When I closed my eyes, I could still feel the adrenaline rush of standing in the crowd after the power problem was fixed and the band was able to take the stage. The fans around me screamed and reached up toward them, some of the women calling out suggestive pleas of what they would like the men to do to them. I hadn’t been able to withhold the smile that came to my lips as I thought about the fact that, if even for that one night, I was the woman that they all wanted to be. At the end of the show I had joined them in the lounge and then enjoyed the rush of running out of the venue with Sam’s hand gripping mine, the fans screaming and cheering around us.

  I was still dwelling on the memory of the cheering when I heard a knock at my door. I turned off the music and walked toward the door, expecting to see my new date box waiting for me. Instead, when I peeked through the peephole I saw Lucille standing on my front porch.

  “What are you doing here, Lucille?” I demanded through the door, not bothering to release the chain lock or the deadbolt.

  “Aren’t you going to open the door, Snow? I just want to talk.”

  I was familiar with the saccharine-sweet tone that she was using. It was the same manipulative way that she had spoken to every man I had ever heard her interact with and the way that she tried to convince people to trust her. Unfortunately, there were times when it worked, but I knew it too well to be swayed by it.

  “I have nothing to say to you,” I said.

  I was starting to turn away from the door when she spoke again.

  “Open the door, Snow. You don’t want your neighbors to see me standing out here and hear me demand to know why you’ve been sleeping with my husband when I’m pregnant with his child.”

  She had lifted her voice slightly to emphasize her point and I tore the door open, the fury pushing in my chest until I felt like it would burst through.

  “You are a fucking liar, Lucille.”

  She flattened her hand on my door to push it open further and stepped into the house, forcing her way past me.

  “Am I now?”

  “Who told you that I’m sleeping with Walter?”

  “Walter? Don’t you think that’s a little bit personal for a subordinate? You should probably get accustomed to referring to my husband only as Mr. Royal.”

  “You might be pregnant, but I’ve known your so-called husband for far longer than you have.”

  Lucille scoffed as she perched herself on one of the backed stools that stood at my elevated dining room table.

  “Get serious, Snow. I’m not pregnant. Do you honestly think that I would let that man get anywhere near me without a condom? I might have to suffer my way through the occasional wifely duty, but I can guarantee you that I won’t be producing any heirs for him. That won’t stop me from telling him that I will, though.”

  “You’re disgusting.”

  “Am I? I’ve gotten everything that I’ve wanted so far. Why not go for a little bit more? He’s more than happy to give it to me.”

  “Almost everything,” I said.

  “What do you mean ‘almost everything’?”

  “I still work for the company.”

  The smug expression that her face had held since she stormed the house faded away, replaced by searing anger.

  “Not for long, Snow.”

  “There’s nothing that you can do about it. You already tried.”

  Lucille stood and took a threatening step toward me, but I refused to back down.

  “Why don’t you just give up, Snow? I’ve won. You may have been Walter’s pet, but I’m his wife. He’ll do what I say eventually, and if it takes too long, it’s not l
ike he’s going to live forever. I can make your life miserable until then. Why don’t you just make it easier on yourself and go away?”

  “You haven’t won anything, Lucille. You might think that you have, but you haven’t. You’re going to ruin your marriage just like you have ruined every other opportunity you’ve had because you are a greedy, conniving bitch who nobody can stand to be around. I’m not going to give up my chance to watch you crash and burn.”

  For a brief second, I thought that Lucille was going to attack me and I could only hope that one of those neighbors that she had just threatened me with would be able to hear me screaming if it happened. After a tense moment, though, Lucille brushed past me and left, the squeal of her tires against the road the final punctuation on the conversation. I strode over to the door and closed it. I had just turned the deadbolt when I heard another knock on the door. My fists clenched beside me and I wrenched the door open, ready to confront Lucille again. Instead, I saw my date box sitting on the porch and the tail end of a car sliding down the street.

  Letting out a breath to try to blow away the aggression, I reached down and picked up the box. I carried it back inside and immediately brought it to the living room, feeling like I needed this little bright spot to get over the confrontation. The customary white box was tied with a brown satin ribbon that held the note in place. I took the envelope and opened it.

  “Saddle up”

  “Well, that could go a couple of different ways.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Lucille

  I wove in and out of traffic, pushing my foot down harder and harder on the gas pedal, forcing my car along the road at ever-faster speeds. The growl of the engine and the pull of the wheel in my hands helped to draw the anger out of me, the frantic reactions of the other drivers as they swerved to get out of my way assuaging me as I went. I didn’t care about any of them. They were less than me and they knew it. Just a look at our cars or their appearances could tell anyone that. They should get out of my way when I wanted them to and let me go first. At least they knew their place.