Blackout: A Romance Anthology

by Stephanie St. Klaire

  “You have experience—you just said so. Dancing. While it may not be in shows, I’m almost positive there are dance studios all over looking for trained instructors. Or offer private lessons; that can’t possibly be a foreign concept over here. If it is, I know it’s a thing in England.” A thought filtered through my mind just then, but I quickly ignored it, too preposterous to even consider.

  “I guess you’re right…it’s always an option if I decide to escape.”

  “What’s holding you here?”

  “The lights.”

  I laughed, I couldn’t help it. “Yeah, they’re so bright, aren’t they?”

  “Shut up,” she giggled and lightly smacked my arm with the back of her hand. “You know what I mean. The people, the thrill, the everyday pace. It’s hard to feel down in Vegas, not while you’re among faces that are frozen in awe or standing next to someone whose dreams just came true?”

  “You’re absolutely right, Jenny.” I released her hand to push up on my elbow so that I leaned over her. “Where else can a man turn a quarter into a million dollars, blow a decent chunk of that on a quick, Vegas wedding to a fit bird he’s known less than an hour, spend his wedding night in a presidential suite while being treated like a king, wake up and lose it all—including the bride? Yeah, this is the place for dreamers. But you have to ask yourself…are you a dreamer or a doer? And more importantly, do you want to live the rest of your life as a dreamer…or as a doer?”

  “I don’t know. Right now, I’d settle for being someone who didn’t feel like she had shackles around her ankles, a prisoner to a city she’ll likely die in.” She shook her head, probably regretting the truth that rolled off her tongue in a moment of thoughtless speaking. “I love it here, but it would be a lie if I said I didn’t, at times, feel like a junkie…Vegas being my drug.”

  “You want to leave, but at the same time, you don’t because you love it.”

  She stared at me for several long seconds before she rasped, “Yeah.”

  “Like I told you before, you’re a free bird now. Fly wherever you want. You aren’t restrained by bars or cages or shackles or anything else. The only thing keeping you here is you. If you truly want to leave, maybe it’s time you start to think about the possibilities beyond the lights. Now might be a good time do so, considering you don’t have to look so hard to see beyond them.”

  There was always a moment in most conversations that warranted a joke, and it was nice to see that she agreed based on the way she laughed at nearly every one I’d tossed at her.

  She ran her hand over her face and mumbled, “Good idea, but right now, all I want to do is sleep.”

  “Right, chick. Night-night. But if you think this conversation is over, you’re wrong. And don’t even think about sneaking out in the morning; I’m a light sleeper. That also means I’ll wake up before you can get your hand down my pants past your knuckles. So no funny business.”

  Again, she laughed, curling into the moat of pillows that separated us. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

  “Exactly. Why dream it when you can do it?” I rolled away before she could slap me again.

  If I expected sleep to come easily, I was sadly mistaken.

  On the other hand, the insomnia provided lots of time to listen to Jen’s soft snores and contemplate if I could be ready for something like this again.

  CHAPTER 10

  Jen

  I opened my eyes to bright light, and after a second of coming to, my heart leaped into my throat.

  Swinging my legs to the side of the bed, I reached for my cell, which I’d left on the table next to where I slept. The first call couldn’t connect. The second spent ages trying to no avail. And when the third attempt failed immediately, my hope deflated. Then it vanished when I still couldn’t send or receive texts.

  “Power’s still out.” Beckett’s hoarse morning voice drifted over my shoulder, calling me back to bed.

  Thank God I wasn’t in the middle of speaking, because as I turned around to face him, I would’ve lost my train of thought and stopped talking mid-sentence. Then I really thanked God for preventing me from seeing Beckett last night. If I had, there was a very good chance I wouldn’t have followed him to his room.

  This man was the epitome of sex.

  Dark hair that went every which way, but rather than offer him a comb, I wanted to run my fingers through it, fist it, tug on the inky strands while screaming in ecstasy. The short hairs of his five o’clock shadow that I’d explored in the dark last night were longer, offering promises of what it’d feel like to have his face between my legs. And the sexiness didn’t stop there.

  He had big blue eyes, but not bright blue—they were more of rich sapphire. And his kissable lips were moist from where he ran his tongue along them while watching me study every part of his fuckable face.

  I’d been thankful last night that he wore a shirt, but now, I wanted to curse every fiber that covered his sculpted body. At least there were still parts of skin I could see, such as his arms, which were lined in ink. I bit my bottom lip and suppressed a moan, the mere thought of those arms around me, holding me to him while he fucked me from behind, was enough to bring me to the cusp of coming without ever being touched.

  “You done?” he teased with a coy smile I wanted to kiss off.

  “Done with what? I have no idea what you’re talking about. You said something, so I turned around to listen, but then you stopped. I’ve been waiting patiently for you to continue. So really, I should be the one asking if you’re done.”

  He laughed and rolled his eyes. “What I was saying was…I wish I could give you an update, but it seems no one has one—at least, no one I’ve spoken to.”

  I pulled myself onto my knees and balanced myself over him with a hand pressed into the mattress on either side of his torso. “Who have you talked to, and how? Does your phone make calls? Is it some extraordinary British cell service? Or do you get special privileges for being in the UK’s equivalent to the CIA?”

  With a broad smile on his sleepy face, he grabbed me by the hips and flipped me over, his large body now hovering over mine. “I went downstairs to see if I could get some tea, and while I was down there, I asked around.”

  “That’s the best story you could come up with?” I rolled my eyes, fully playing up this flirty banter between us. “It’s okay, Beckett, you don’t have to lie to me unless…” After pulling one finger to my lips in a hush gesture, I ran my hands over the front of his white T-shirt, down his sculpted abdomen, and around to his lower back, then I whispered, “Are we being recorded right now?”

  The gleam in his eye was dangerous for the needy spot between my legs, but there was something about Beckett first thing in the morning that made me desperate for the danger. And when he lowered his mouth to my ear, it seemed he felt the same.

  “Yes, we are, but it’s not only audio.” He pulled away and raised one brow. “How do you feel about being recorded, Jenny?”

  That was a waste of breath to even ask, considering he knew the answer before whispering into my ear. My body has some involuntary reaction to the thought of being recorded, and when I first mentioned it while feeling him up, there was no way he could’ve missed the signs.

  I wasn’t shy about initiating something, as long as it was obvious that I wasn’t the only one who wanted it. I wasn’t the aggressor, nor did I have the desire to be—with anyone, not just with Beckett—but there was something about this sculpted god that had me going further than I was used to. It was clear he was into this as much as I was, so I didn’t hesitate to give him the green light, which was in the form of dragging his shirt up his body and then over his head.

  “Wait, Jen. I promised—”

  I shushed him while raking my nails down his chest, effectively silencing his gentlemanly protests. I didn’t want a gentleman. I wanted a beast. And based on the way he bored holes into me with his gaze, I had no doubt he was exactly what I wanted.

  “That was last ni
ght, Beckett. This is a new day. New rules.”

  “And what rules are those?”

  “There are no rules.”

  Fuck me, the growl that erupted from him lit a match and tossed it on my need for him, igniting my entire body in heated desperation.

  It seemed that was all the information he needed. From one breath to the next, Beckett had me pinned beneath him. An excited gasp left my lips when he deftly pulled my arms above my head and restrained my hands with one of his. And then a moan vibrated through my throat as he nibbled his way from my ear to my collarbone.

  “I’ve wanted to taste you for hours. I laid here dreaming about how you’d taste, the noises you’d make while I licked, sucked, and fucked you in every conceivable way,” he whispered into my ear as he used his other hand to trail his fingertips across my stomach, working his way toward my breasts.

  My nipples ached from being so hard, desperate to feel his touch, feel the heat of his breath as his sucked and bit them. But before he got there, he worked my shirt off my body and discarded it without a care as to where it landed. My desire for him ramped up more than I thought possible; my core pulsated, as if desperately trying to reach for him.

  I’d never been one to talk dirty, always felt weirded out by it. Yet now, out of nowhere, my head became filled with things I wanted to say to him. Vulgar things. Like, what I wanted him to do, how I wanted him to do it, and where it needed to be done, all while he commanded me with his British dominance.

  “I need to feel you on my tongue, Jenny,” he growled against my throat before working his way down my body. He stopped to nip at each nipple, pulling a throaty groan from me and causing me to squirm against his torso, seeking friction where I needed it most. I should’ve been embarrassed about how desperately I needed him, feeling like I’d go out of my mind if he wasn’t inside me soon. I’d never felt this intensely for another person, and that should’ve scared me.

  But it didn’t.

  With a quick tug, both my shorts and panties were gone, nothing separating his gaze from my freshly waxed sex. I lay in front of him, completely bare, completely vulnerable. The way he regarded my body gave me a high I’d never felt before, not even on stage.

  “Open yourself for me, Jen.”

  Beckett had the ability, the skill, to make me give in. It was all in the delivery. While yes, it was a command, he didn’t make it feel like an order. His tone lacked any element of threat, nothing remotely close to leaving me scared to say no. In fact, I felt confident that he wouldn’t press it if I did tell him no, which made it even more odd that I actually wanted to give him what he asked for.

  I reached between us and held my lips open, just like he’d asked me to, and the reward I got washed away any insecurity I might’ve had about it.

  “Fuck, I can smell you already. I can tell how wet you are; you’re dripping for me, aren’t you, love?” He leaned forward and inhaled deeply before swiping his tongue in a smooth line from my opening to my clit and back again. A quiet keening sound was the only thing to be heard other than his soft groan.

  He had me so twisted up in desire that I couldn’t bite back my words. “I need you, Beckett. Fuck, I need you so bad.” The deep rasp brought a heated blush to my cheeks, even though he didn’t seem to care—either that, or he enjoyed the hedonistic way I begged.

  “Tell me…” He licked me again. “How bad?”

  I threaded my fingers through his hair and rolled my hips into his face. I didn’t want him to stop, but I wanted him inside me. I needed him all over me—his hands, lips, tongue, body. I needed to feel him, to touch him, to lick and taste him. But I couldn’t find the strength to make him stop to do any of that.

  “Beckett, fuck, please. I need you inside me. I can’t wait.” I panted while grinding my core against his face, bucking while gripping his hair. I felt like I’d implode if I didn’t feel him now.

  He pulled away and licked his lips, staring right at me. “Patience, love. I could eat you all day and still want more.” Then he expertly inserted two fingers into my opening, causing me to clamp down on him and writhe on the bed.

  I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d last; tingles spread throughout my body, my blood feeling like lava coursing through my veins, and a steady thrumming pounded against my eardrums. With a burst of light, like a kaleidoscope exploded in my vision, I tightened around his fingers, pulled his hair, and rode out my orgasm while crying out the heavens.

  As soon as my vision cleared, I knew I had to have more. Even though I’d just had an orgasm more intense than I’d ever experienced, I wasn’t even close to being done. Using my feet, I pushed his track shorts over his hips and down his thighs, freeing his erection. I was seconds from begging when Beckett slowly began to kiss his way up my body before settling his massive frame between my thighs.

  “That was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.” His whispered words filled my ear as he gently thrust against me. His heavy cock, so long and thick, slid between my drenched folds and over my aching clit with each pass.

  I couldn’t withhold my moans as I grinded against him.

  But I needed more.

  I pressed against his shoulders and coaxed him onto his back, then I straddled his thick thighs like I had last night in the club. The whole time I’d ridden his fingers while on the velvet stage sofa, I’d imagined this. And now I got to have it—no regrets, no worries, just utter bliss and deep, carnal need. With my hands flat on his hard, chiseled chest, I lifted my hips and hovered over the crown of his dick.

  Beckett released an animalistic snarl, deep and ferocious like a desperate, starving lion staking claim on his prey. His grip tightened on my hips, his fingers digging into the meaty flesh of my ass cheeks, and I had no doubt I’d be left with ten temporary reminders of this moment. He gently rocked me against his length, lining the tip of his thick cock with my entrance. And then he stopped.

  When our eyes met, he stared at me, silently asking the most important question…am I sure. It stirred something within me, something in my chest. Awe, maybe. Or possibly a deep respect I hadn’t expected to experience in this moment. Whatever it was, I appreciated the cautious concern he asserted.

  My response was lowering myself over his dick, feeling him stretching me almost to the point of pain. I was slick with the orgasm his tongue had pulled from me, but with his girth and my lack of sex life, I needed a few seconds to relax and adjust to the invasion. The entire time, we maintained eye contact, forging a connection so strong it pushed the air out of my lungs. I noticed a glimmer in his eye as his abs contracted with the sheer force of trying to remain still long enough for me to adjust.

  I slowly dragged myself along his thick shaft until just the head remained inside, and then sank down to the base. My eyes closed, head fell back so that my hair brushed across my bare skin, and a long sigh of appraisal slipped past my lips. I couldn’t get enough of the pinch of pain that last inch caused and the fullness I felt with him completely inside me. I moaned softly and rocked my hips front and back, over and under, the rhythm much like rowing a boat.

  “Goddamn, Jenny…” His strained voice called to me, forcing my attention back to his face. The sight before me almost halted my movements while, at the same time, urged me to go faster, deeper, harder. Pure, unadulterated pleasure covered his face from his hooded eyes to the faint snarl on his lips. It was hot and sexy and heightened my desperation.

  His hand strayed from my hip to my breast, his other slipped around to the base of my spine, his palm flat and hot against my lower back as he guided my movements. It felt like he touched me everywhere, all at once. My pace sped up in time with his groans, another orgasm building deep and quickly. But I didn’t want this to end.

  He pinched my nipple between his fingers, and then used it like a leash, pulling me down until my lips met his. He kissed me with such force it was like he wanted to possess my mouth. And I let him. If he wanted to own my lips and tongue…they were his to do with as he pleased. He had
me so close to coming that I might’ve contemplated robbing a bank for him if he asked.

  The feel of his tongue, his hands on my skin, his dick inside me…I couldn’t hold back. No matter how much I wanted this to last forever, I couldn’t refrain from letting go and taking what I could, even if it meant it would be over soon.

  I rode him with wild abandon, making sure he stroked the perfect spot deep within me. And the higher I climbed, the more active he became until he topped me from the bottom. He dug his heels into the mattress, bent his knees, and drove into me from beneath, meeting me thrust for thrust.

  “Fuck…you’re so tight. I need you to come, love.” Just hearing him talk brought me closer and closer to the edge. There was a good chance he could read me the dictionary and I’d get off. “That’s right, come for me.”

  It was obvious he had a lot of experience with women. There was no way someone could elicit this kind of carnal need without years of practice—or expert training. Either way, I didn’t care so long as he kept doing what he was doing and successfully got me off. Which wouldn’t take long if he continued to coach me using that sexy, hoarse whisper that covered me in a thin layer of heat and filled me with unimaginable desire.

  “Come on my cock, love. I want to feel you come on my dick.”

  That was all I needed to let go.

  His tongue tangled with my own as my orgasm barreled through me, knocking the air from my lungs as I squeezed my eyes shut. He gripped my hips, held me still as he pumped himself in and out, groaning, and then followed me off the edge of ecstasy.

  He cradled me against his chest while we tried to calm down, but even if his arms weren’t around me, I still wouldn’t have moved. I was drowning in bliss and I never wanted to find the surface.