by Naomi West
I run a hand through my hair and slam my laptop shut. Fuck. The bubbling feeling is rising inside of me again but this time it’s tinged with panic. I need to get a hold of myself. I’m getting sloppy and that’s not like me. I was in the military, for fuck sakes. Order is the creed by which I live my life. Nothing can get in the way of that. Especially if it means putting Alessia at risk.
I head back to her room and open her door. She jumps as it swings open but I see that she hasn’t moved from where she was perched on the bed.
“All clear,” I say and she immediately jumps down from the bed and sweeps past me to the kitchen, her nose in the air like a queen.
I follow her, not bothering to take my gun off as I take a seat on one of the bar stools and watch her cook. She’s gonna have to get used to seeing me wear it at some point. Her movements are stiff and she’s doing her best not to look at me. My job as her bodyguard is sitting like a rock in between us.
“I assume everything was in order when you checked it?” she asks stiffly.
“Of course. The system is designed to function even in spite of human error, like last night.”
She freezes over the sink. The tomatoes she was washing go still in her hands. I immediately realize my mistake but she’s already turning to me, lightning flashing in her eyes.
“Error?” I barely recognize her voice.
“Fuck,” I say and stand up from the stool, dragging a hand through my hair. Something I’ve never felt before is coursing through my veins. “This is ridiculous, Alessia. Look at me.”
She turns to face me but her eyes are cast down. I cross the kitchen in three steps and take her by the chin. “Gorgeous, as your bodyguard, last night was an egregious error. One I should be fired for. I won’t apologize for saying that.”
She jerks her chin out of my hands and steps back from me. She’s trapped between me and the sink.
“I didn’t set any of the security systems, I was completely distracted all night, my phone was in the other room. I fucking fell asleep before you did. Fuck!” I say again, lacing my fingers over the top of my head, completely disgusted with myself, “if anything had happened last night, it would have been entirely my fault.”
Tears are welling in her big eyes. I soften my voice and drag my hands through her hair, I palm the back of her scalp with one hand and make her look at me. “As a bodyguard, last night was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. But as a man,” I say as I stare into her eyes, willing her to hear everything I’m trying to put into the words, “last night was the best decision I ever made. And I won’t apologize for that either. Not to your father, not to myself.”
The tears fall to her cheeks but she immediately brushes them away. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that last night was one of the best nights of my life. But I can’t sacrifice your safety again.”
Her mouth tightens into a little line and she suddenly shoves me back again. “Oh, isn’t that convenient! You get what you want from me and then just go back to ignoring me, huh? Is that how it’s gonna be? You didn’t have a problem breaching security last night, did you? It’s now. In the morning, when you’re all mindful of your job, of your duties.” She sneers the last word at me and tries to leave the kitchen but I don’t let her.
I pick her up around her waist and set her struggling body on the counter. I spread her legs and stand in between them, grabbing her by the shoulders. “Alessia, listen to me. God. I’m fucking this up. That’s not what I meant. I was just saying that I’m going to have to move all my security equipment into your room for tonight.”
“Tonight?” she asks, her body stilling and her eyes wide.
“Yes, tonight. When I lick you from head to toe and make you come so hard your voice gives out. I want to be able to keep an eye on the house once you fall asleep. I have to monitor your security. I’m not going to sacrifice your safety.” I drop my forehead to hers. “But I know myself well enough to know I won’t be able to stay away from you either. Now that I know what it’s like,” I say as I drag my hands over the hourglass of her waist, “I have to be near you. With you.”
Her eyes glimmer and she opens her legs even further to me, pressing herself into me. Her legs clasp me around my waist.
“I thought you were trying to explain to me why you weren’t going to be with me anymore,” she whispers, the pain of that idea evident in her voice.
I shake my head. I don’t like thinking about that. The thought of turning away from her makes my stomach curdle. “You’re going to have to help me sometimes,” I say. “If I get carried away like I did last night. You have to promise to help keep me on earth. In reality. You might need to help me keep the protocols in mind so I know you’re safe at all times. So that I don’t hate myself the next day.”
She nods solemnly and reaches up to press her lips to mine so sweetly, so innocently. A great protective instinct that has nothing to do with being her bodyguard rears up inside me. It hits me like train. I would die for this woman. In a second. I break the kiss like it’s causing me pain. In a way, it is. Something flutters in my chest and breaks away, leaving its cracked open shell behind.
“Breakfast,” I growl. I need a second to catch my breath. She’s making me feel too much. More than I have in years. Maybe my entire life.
“Okay,” she chirps, but she leans forward and catches my mouth with hers again, sucking my lip in between her teeth and biting down slightly. She runs her tongue over the bite and does it again. Her hand tangles in my hair and I can feel the heat of her pussy against my stomach. She moans softly and licks at me again. I’m completely in her web. Whatever she wants to do to me right now, I’m in. Mortal men don’t turn down Aphrodite.
But she pulls back. Licking her own lips like she’s trying to catch all of my flavor. She has a satisfied expression on her face as she surveys me. I stare back at her dazedly and realize it was her intention to stupefy me a little bit.
“You temptress,” I growl at her and she grins, hopping down from the counter.
“That was just in case you got any ideas about leaving me alone. I wanted to show you what you’d be missing.” She reaches into the sink and pulls out the tomatoes. “Dice these up.”
I do as she says, glancing up at her every so often to watch her competently dicing the potatoes, adding spices, stirring it all on the sizzling skillet. Her thoughts are obviously wandering as she hums to herself, lost in the world of cooking.
I’m a goner. As sure as the sky is blue, this becomes apparent. If I’m getting hard just from watching a woman stir onions in a pan, there’s no hope. All I can do at this point is ride the wave and try to keep doing my job well. I sigh as I slide the tray of diced tomatoes over to her and she shoots me a little smile while a little voice inside me prays to God that old man Patrizzio doesn’t find out that I’m fucking his daughter.
Chapter Sixteen
Alessia
“Stop looking at me like that,” I growl at Dare across the table. We sit in a dusty back corner of the secluded graduate library. One of the least used places on campus, but I’ve always liked studying here. Nobody ever interrupts you. But I realize my mistake now, as I have barely gotten any studying done.
We’ve been sleeping together for a week now, and the only time Dare ever keeps his hands to himself is when we’re in public. If anyone else can see us, he instantly resumes his cool, professional bodyguard facade. Occasionally he’ll surreptitiously clasp my hand under the desk or shoot me a private message.
During one of my morning discussion seminars I receive a text as the instructor fiddles with the overhead projector.
Stop doing that, Dare texted me.
Doing what?
Making me hard.
I feel myself blush down to my roots and tilt my phone so none of my classmates can see the screen, especially Chris, who continues to dutifully sit next to me even though things had gotten unbearably awkward since the night we were supposed to go on a date. I h
ad explained the next time I saw him that I had a complicated relationship with someone else that I had thought wasn’t going to be an issue when I asked him out, but it had been. He’d been totally gracious, if not visibly disappointed. But since then he’d barely spoken to me. Only when we absolutely had to discuss our class materials.
But honestly, I barely think about Chris sitting next to me anymore. Not now that the palpable sexual tension between Dare and I has wiped out any other auras in the room. I barely even remember that Chris is sitting there with Dare sexting me from the back of the room. Which, I have to admit to myself, is probably part of Dare’s intention.
What could I possibly be doing right now that could be making you hard?! I’d text.
Filling out that shirt like that.
Touching your hair.
Leaning forward.
Crossing your legs.
Licking your lips.
Breathing.
Blushing.
Existing.
I get all these texts from him in rapid succession and bite back a laugh as delight blooms like a balloon inside me. I love that I can make cool calm Dare Guinne lose it like that. I love that he is attracted to me. I love that he can’t even make it through an hour-long discussion section without making sure I knew how crazy I made him. I love making him crazy.
In an intentional move, I turn to where he sits in the back of the class and press the eraser of my pencil to my lip, widening my eyes and pulling my lower lip down. His eyes darken and his mouth draws into a dangerous scowl as the instructor calls the class to attention. I swivel back around and started taking diligent notes, even though I can feel his eyes boring into me for the rest of the class.
Later we make our way to the library but it’s all a pretense and Dare knows it. The bastard smirks at me as his eyes drop to my mouth, my breasts. He licks his lips, but leans back in his chair, lacing his fingers over top of his head as he watches me across the broad library table.
He hasn’t so much as touched me in an hour. He hasn’t spoken a word since we got here. I made a big old deal about him leaving me be while I studied, but I’ve been staring at the same page for forty minutes and haven’t absorbed a word.
I slam my textbook, making myself jump at the loud noise, and he smirks even harder. “Can’t you read a book or something?” I hiss.
“Am I distracting you, Alessia?” He cocks his head to one side, his eyes sliding up and down my body. I can feel his gaze as if it is a physical caress.
“Of course you’re distracting me!” I whisper.
“How so? I’m not talking or making noise.”
“You know what you can do with your eyes, you smug bastard.” I rifle through my bag and select a different textbook. Maybe if I try and study for a different class I’ll get more work done. Yeah, right.
A look of satisfaction crosses his face. But also one of curiosity. “What can I do with my eyes?”
I wave my hand through the air, searching for a way to describe it. “You know, the whole black hole, just-try-and-look-away thing.”
“Excuse me?” He looks genuinely confused, like he doesn’t actually know what I’m talking about.
That couldn’t possibly be true. I thought it was one of the weapons in his arsenal that he used most willingly. “Dare, your eyes are completely penetrating. I can’t move or think when you look at me. I’ve never been able to. Even when I was young and there wasn’t anything sexual in your stare. You’d make me babble on and stop me in my tracks. You’d make me forget what I was doing. Forget my own name. I used to think it was creepy.”
He grins for a hot second and cocks his head to the side again. “And now? What do you think about it?”
“You know exactly what I think about it now,” I grumble and open my textbook.
He chuckles but his eyes drop to my breasts again. He gives a small growl when my nipples harden and press against the fabric of my shirt as if he’s willed them to call out for him. That does it. There’s only one way I’m going to get any peace around here.
I lean back in my own chair and stare at him across the table. I’m clearly not going to get my studying needs met until he gets his sexing needs met.
I quickly glance around the library and triple check that no one is around and he automatically follows my gaze. I’m reassured when I realize that Dare is hyper aware and would never let anyone walk in on what I’m about to do.
Licking my lips, I lean back in my chair and run one hand over my breasts. My tight nipples tighten even further and a small gasp escapes me. I really am turned on, wound up tight just from sitting across from him at a table.
Dare’s eyes narrow but his gaze darkens and I’m suddenly confident that he’s not going to stop me. I drag my hands down the side of my body and let one trail in between my legs. I let my fingers linger over top of my crotch and even through my jeans, a little spark of electricity jumps to my clit.
His mouth comes open to say something, but before he can, I quickly duck under the table and crawl over to him. I gently spread his knees apart and kneel between his legs.
“Alessia,” he growls.
In another situation, I might try and drag out the foreplay a little bit, but I can feel him one step away from making me get out from under the table. I quickly unzip his slacks and deftly pull out his enormous cock, straining and hard for me. His hips shift involuntarily on his seat, pushing subtly toward me, and I know I’ve won. He’s going to let me do this.
I’ve never done this before. With him or anyone. But over the last week, I’ve realized I’m not a sexually shy person, at least when it comes to Dare. To me, there couldn’t be a more perfect specimen in the whole of humanity. The head of his cock is wide and smooth and the shaft is too thick for one hand to encircle; hard veins protrude, showing his urgent desire for me.
In videos I’ve seen, sometimes women go slowly, licking up the side and teasing and I desperately want to do those things to him but I also want to destroy him right now.
I swirl my tongue around the head as I swallow as much of him as I can all at once. I use both of my hands to work his shaft as my head bobs up and down on him. His salty pre-come mixes with my spit and lubes his cock under my hands and it doesn’t take long for me to find a rhythm. I’ve heard girls talk about their gag reflexes before, but mine doesn’t really seem to be a problem as I swallow him down further and further.
“Holy fucking God,” I hear Dare whisper as his hips come up off the chair for a second. He starts thrusting up and down just a little. Fucking into my mouth a tiny bit. It delights me. I moan on his cock and suck him in even further.
“Alessia,” he hisses and I wish I could see his face right now, but I wouldn’t change positions for anything in the world. I feel his hand come to the back of my hair. Tangling there. He gently holds my head in place as he thrusts his cock another inch into me.
My panties are completely soaked. I can feel my juices on my legs. I don’t know if I’ve ever been this turned on in my entire life.
Suddenly, he grips my hair and tries to pull me off of him but I push forward, sucking even harder and squeezing with my fists.
“I’m gonna come, gorgeous,” he whispers and the fact that he had to say that out loud in a public library has me creaming even harder. I want him to come. In my mouth. Suddenly, I want nothing more than to taste him on my tongue.
I bear down on him and swirl my tongue like a tornado, sucking and swallowing. And once he realizes that I’m not stopping, his hand doesn’t pull my head away, but rather he pushes me forward, down onto his cock. I moan again, swallowing and swallowing around his swollen cock as he shoots inside me, releasing his pleasure in hot, steady spurts.
I give a satisfied grin as I swallow everything he gives me. He quivers while I lick him clean and tuck him neatly back into his pants.
“Come here,” he growls and drags me out from under the table. He arranges me on his lap and unbuttons my pants. Plunging his hand inside my
panties, he immediately penetrates my wet, ready pussy. He strums across my clit like a mad man and as hot as I am for him, it only takes seconds for me to detonate in his arms, his lips slanted across mine, swallowing every sound of pleasure I make.
He zips me back up and swings my legs around into a more socially acceptable version of lap-sitting, if anyone were to stumble upon us. Leaning his forehead on mine he looks into my eyes.
“Jesus Christ, Aphrodite,” he murmurs “what the hell are you doing to me?”
“I take it you enjoyed that?” I ask dryly, nipping at his lips.
“Enjoyed it?” he scoffs. “You ruined me. I’ll never be the same after that. I’ll never be able to look at a book without getting hard. Or a desk.”
