by Lisa G Riley
He didn’t say a word, and in the position she was in, she couldn’t see him. All she heard was the hiss of his zipper and the rustle of jeans that he was no doubt removing from his body.
From her side vision, she saw him remove a condom from a wrapper and smooth it over his rock hard erection. The dip in the bed told her he’d joined her and seconds later, he’d taken a pillow and, lifting her by the waist, he’d placed it underneath her belly.
“Are you okay? Are the restraints too tight?” he asked against her ear. Lilliana refused to speak to his crazy ass, and only gave him a short nod telling him she was fine.
“Are you saying ‘yes, I’m okay, sweetheart?’ Or ‘the restraints are too tight, you asshole?’ Hmm, Lilly? Which one is it?” he asked and bit down lightly on her earlobe. When she yelped he suckled the small sting.
“I’m fine…you asshole,” she said, refusing to allow him to pull her in.
He laughed and she caught her breath when he lifted her ass high in the air and bit down on one of her cheeks.
“You really have an ass fetish, don’t you?” she taunted him, and hoped he didn’t see the cream she felt easing down her thighs when he bit the other cheek.
“No. Not just any ass will do. I need a big spankable ass to set it off for me,” he told her as he spread her cheeks apart and lightly massaged each round, firm globe.
She felt self-conscious as hell with her hands tied behind her back, feet trussed up like a Thanksgiving Day bird and her fat behind raised high in the air while he stared and played with her.
Lilliana thought she’d die if he didn’t do something soon. Either let her go or stop playing with her—the anticipation was killing her.
Within moments, she felt the long hot glide of his tongue against her anus and she stifled the moan of delight, and instead cussed at him. “Damn it…let me go! I don’t want this, or you, now let me up!” she yelled.
He laughed and ignored her as he continued to lap at her and when his fingers worked around the front of her and started to play with her clitoris, Lilliana gave up the fight and gloried in the feel of him playing both ends of her.
“You like that, sweetheart? Do you like the way I make you feel?” he asked, and when Lilliana felt the tip of his dick against her opening she automatically bucked against the restraints, no longer comfortable with his form of play.
“Yes…” she murmured and waited to see what he’d do next.
“Do you trust me, Lilliana? Do you trust that I would never hurt you or do anything to you that you wouldn’t want done?” he asked and continued playing with her clitoris as his cock touched the opening of her anus.
Although the feelings he was arousing in her made logical thinking fly out the window, Lilliana thought about what he was asking. Did she trust him?
She’d only known him for a few short weeks. She’d known Marcus for over ten years. How could she trust someone she’d only known for such a short time not to hurt her? How could she believe that he wouldn’t take her for granted or manipulate her? She didn’t have the answers to those questions.
“I don’t know. I…” She stopped speaking when she felt the broad head of his penis enter her vagina and she let out a long groan of pleasure. If she felt disappointment that he didn’t finish what he’d started, she shoved that thought to the back of her mind as he plunged and stroked her, giving her mind-blowing pleasure.
“Umm,” she moaned. “That feels good.” Lilliana glanced down to see Josh give her a toothy grin. Seconds later, he’d lifted her foot from where it lay against his chest and take her big toe into his mouth. He swirled his tongue around it before he allowed it to pop back out. Lilliana nearly came from the caress.
After their explosive lovemaking he’d untied her and they’d lain together, silent, for long, contented moments, allowing the sweat to cool on their bodies before he’d lifted her and brought her into his bathroom, sinking down with her in the oversize Jacuzzi-style bathtub. After a leisurely scrub, rosy and content from the bath, he had put her down on the bed and stretched out beside her.
“You like that, Lilly?”
“God, yes,” she moaned and slumped further down in the bed, against the overlarge pillows lining the headboard. He chuckled and took each of her toes into his mouth, licking and lapping them, gobbling them up like they were candy.
She cried out when he reached her pinky toe. With a final swirl of his tongue he allowed her foot to slide out of his mouth and land on his lightly furred, muscled chest. He then began to crawl up her body, on all fours, eyes hot, his erect penis brushing against her inner thigh on the way up.
“You know, no one should have toes that taste that good. If your toes taste like that, I wonder what the rest of you tastes like. Hmmm. How about I find out?” he all but purred.
In that moment, Josh looked to her like an oversized hungry cat and she was the big old bowl of cream he wanted to lick.
He kept his gaze trained on her and the look he gave her was scorching hot. It was mingled with lust and some other emotion she didn’t want to examine too closely. The intense stare, the way he felt rubbing against her overheated body, the feel of his dick rubbing along her skin, forced Lilliana to tightly close her eyes, unable to contain the anticipation.
“Uh-uh, Lilly…you don’t get to look away. I want you to see what I’m about to do to you,” he chastened and she forced her heavy lids to open.
When his big body came to rest lightly against hers, she moved her neck to the side, her nostrils flaring as he sensually rubbed his nose, his face, up and down her neck and inhaled.
“I love your smell. Have I told you that before?” he asked and numbly she nodded her head. He leaned away from her, spread her legs gently apart and placed them over his forearms.
“Ummm, yeah. I think so,” Lilliana answered although she didn’t think he wanted an answer. Good thing he wasn’t requiring intelligent conversation. The way he was staring at her mound filled her with such anticipation she could barely get the words out of her mouth.
She had to close her eyes when he raised her lower body to his face and stroked her aching pussy with a slow, heated lap of his tongue.
Lilliana arched her back in sharp response, fisted his crisp linen bed sheets, and held on for dear life as he separated her folds with his tongue and began to suckle and grazed his teeth on her clit.
He gently held on to her hood, ferreting out her nub, and carefully worked it with his tongue, lips and teeth. Lilliana lost it completely.
“Oooh, Lord! Boy, you’re going to have me speaking in tongues if you keep that up!” Sharp little flickers of delight electrified her entire body as she accepted his oral loving. Long, delicious glides of his tongue over her clit forced moans and whimpers from her throat, with her head tossing back and forth against the soft pillow in sweet agony.
When he placed two fingers alongside the inside lips of her vagina, spreading her wide and completely covered her entire pussy with his lips and sucked…this time she did lose her mind. Utterly, completely, lost it.
“Stop—please, Josh. This is too much.” She barely choked out the words.
“Sshh. It’s okay, Lilliana. I’m not done with you yet,” he promised and lowered his head back between the juncture of her thighs.
As he laved her with his tongue, he eased two of his big fingers into her wet entry, and pumped them in and out, fingering the swollen folds of her pussy lips so slowly she ached.
He continued to suckle her clit, while he eased his fingers out of her streaming pussy, and one by one, inched them into the tight opening of her anus, carefully working them in, not wanting to hurt the tender tissue inside.
When she moaned in distress, he stilled his fingers.
“It’s okay, baby. Trust me, it’ll feel good.” He lifted away from the nectar between her thighs to croon. He waited until she nodded her head before he continued his journey, until his fingers were embedded second-knuckle-deep inside her ass.
She screamed from the exq
uisite pleasure/pain.
He played both ends of her, clit and ass, working her, pumping his fingers in and out in smooth rhythm with his tongue, suckling her turgid clit until she broke.
She came long and hard, screaming his name until her throat ached, and he had pulled every last bit of energy she had from her body. Her orgasm was so prolonged she had absolutely no strength left in her body. She had to force her lids to stay open or she would have slid right into unconsciousness without a care in the world.
She lay quiet and content in the candlelit bedroom until Josh finally withdrew his dark blond head from between her thighs.
When he kissed her lightly on her lips she smiled, tasting her own essence on his lips. She watched in languid satisfaction as he rose from his position between her legs and lay down behind her. He cuddled her close. She was near sleeping and almost missed his whispered words. “Lilliana…I think I love you.”
She felt her heart leap at his words. Silly words. There was no way on God’s green earth that he could mean them.
“Lilly, baby…did you hear me?” he asked in his sexy, do me voice.
“Yes,” she finally answered.
“That’s all you’re going to say. ‘Yes?’ Damn, Lilliana…”
“What? What do you want me to say, Josh?” She turned around to face him fully when she felt him try and move his body away from hers.
“An ‘I love you too, Josh’ would work,” he laughed without his usual humor. “Forget it, I was being stupid. Just a silly boy. Isn’t that what you think?”
“When I said that, I didn’t mean it, Josh. I was pissed off. I thought you were manipulating me, just like—”
“Don’t say it, Lilly. I’m serious. Don’t say his goddamn name.” The fire in his eyes was intense, reminding her of how he’d looked when he was angry with her. But Lilliana had no fear of him. He’d proven that she could trust him. Although…
“In the future, I don’t want you taking care of me, Josh. I don’t want or need that in a relationship.”
“I’m sorry, Lilliana. I just wanted to help. But I should have told you. I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to manipulate you, I promise.”
“I don’t think that now, Josh. I never really did. But can I ask you a question?” she asked.
“Yes, of course.”
“What is it you love about me?” she asked quietly.
“Why? Don’t you think you’re lovable?” He gave her a small kiss in the hollow of her shoulder.
When she didn’t answer, she heard him take a deep breath.
“Why wouldn’t I love you, Lilliana? There’s nothing about you I don’t admire, don’t crave. I love the way you smell, like cinnamon and nutmeg,” he said. She shivered when he leaned impossibly closer to her and inhaled long and deep.
“I love how your hair feels against my skin, between my fingers when you let me play with your hair,” he went on. She groaned out loud when he placed his hand into her “kitchen,” as her grandmother called the back of the hairline, and massaged her scalp.
“I love your body, your pretty breasts, your plump ass, your sexy smile, your intelligence, your loyalty, your shyness, your boldness…your everything. I love you,” he finished simply.
“God, you make it so easy to love you, when you say things like that,” she laughed shakily.
“It’s the truth. So what is it, then? Do you think you’ll ever develop those type of feelings for me?” he asked. Josh sat up and moved to the edge of the bed. He ran a hand through his dark blond hair in frustration.
Lilliana smiled at the way he looked. He was all man, he’d proven that to her several times over the last few weeks, but she couldn’t help but smile at the way he sulked right then, thinking she didn’t care about him. She crawled toward the edge of the bed and when she reached him, she lightly rested her head on his back and wrapped her arms around him.
“I’ve never told a man that I love him,” she admitted in a low voice.
“No? Not even—”
“Nope. Not even…” She allowed her sentence to dangle and smiled against his back.
“Did he say it to you?” He grasped her hands as they lay lightly on his chest.
“He did. I don’t think he meant it. It was just another way for him to try and manipulate me. It was one of the things that made him so angry. The fact that he couldn’t force me to say those words to him; that I loved him. No matter how pissed off he’d get, no matter how he threatened me, I never gave that to him,” she said.
They sat that way for long moments, neither saying anything, until Josh pulled her around and sat her in his lap. He took her face between his hands and stared at her so long she grew nervous and licked her lips, waiting for him to say something. He caressed the undersides of her full bottom lip with the rough pads of his thumbs before he leaned down to capture the lush flesh and draw it into his mouth.
“Where do we go from here, Lilliana?” he asked after he’d reluctantly released her lip.
She settled into his lap and rested her head on his chest. “I don’t know, Josh.” She felt the way he took a deep breath and laughed shakily. “I have to be honest with you. I won’t lie. This is all new for me.”
“It is for me, too. I’ve never fallen for anyone this soon,” he interrupted.
“Josh, there are so many things we don’t really know about each other. Not to mention the differences.” She sighed and suddenly felt all thirty-two of her almost thirty-three years.
“Yeah, we have differences. So what? What’s that got to do with it? Race, age difference…what the hell does that have to do with us? With how we feel about each other? And no matter what you say, I know that you care about me as well. Nobody could fake that kind of passion you show. No damn way,” he said grimly.
“Baby, I’m not saying I don’t care about you. I’ve never felt like this before. I just need some time to think about all of this. I don’t want to make another hasty decision.”
“Don’t compare me—us—with anyone else, Lilly. It’s not fair. You already know I wouldn’t treat you like he did. I know it’s only been a few short weeks, but you know I would never hurt you, don’t you? Don’t you, baby?” With desperate attention he latched on to her lips and kissed her with more feeling than he’d ever given her before.
She felt it. It was all in his kiss.
When he withdrew from her, he rested his forehead against hers. “What are you so afraid of? Won’t you at least give us a chance? A chance that you could come to care about me as well, Lilliana? Don’t you think you could love me? That you’d trust me with your love, with your body, and know that I would never hurt either?” A small muscle ticked in his lower jaw. He clenched his teeth, his fingers tightened fractionally on her as he held her face inches away from his.
Lilliana completely came undone when she saw the threat of tears in his eyes. To see this strong, vibrant man so strongly affected crashed down even more of the walls she had erected in her heart. The remaining barriers crumbled like the useless waste they were and Lilliana realized this man was for real.
They’d known each other for a few short weeks. Her girls would probably laugh at her, maybe even think she was foolish.
Hell, maybe she was a bit foolish. But damn it if she wasn’t going to believe.
Damn it if she wasn’t tired, beyond tired of wishing, hoping, dreaming, that she’d find someone just like the man in front of her. She had no idea where this journey with Josh would take her, but suddenly her heart felt lighter than it had in years. She grinned at him, barely able to still her excitement at what she was about to say, and mean every word of, for the first time.
She covered his large hands with her much smaller ones and smiled. “It’s already too late for that, Josh.”
“What…what is it too late for? You don’t think you can ever love me?”
She turned her body fully to his and and smiled into his handsome face. The look in his eyes was real, and honest. Lilliana knew she was about
to make the best decision of her life. She reached up and kissed him with all the leftover fear, excitement and love she felt for him.
“It’s too late to go back,” she said and cleared her throat around the sudden restriction before she could continue, “because I love you, too.” As soon as the words tripped from her mouth, Josh grabbed her and crushed her body against his naked chest and hugged her hard.
Lilliana wasn’t ashamed of the tears she felt easing down her face. Her tears weren’t due to sadness, not due to someone hurting or mistreating her. These were plain old-fashioned tears of joy. Josh was special and she knew it deep down in that place that defied common sense or description. The same place that insisted that she give this man…this relationship a chance. And Lilliana intended on doing exactly that.
She was done running, hiding and crying. That was over. Been there, done that, time to move on.
She intended to enjoy the journey and give them the chance to explore, love and learn…together.
Caught
Lisa G. Riley
Acknowledgments
Thank you to all of my family and friends who supported me through this process. I love you and your support was more appreciated (and needed) than you realize.
To my agent Cori Deyoe and my editor Hilary Sares. Thank you guys for being so thorough.
LGR
1
Melinda closed her locker with a soft click, trying to save her pounding head from more pain. “Okay, God, I’ll make a deal with you,” she whispered from a dry throat. “If you’ll just let me get through the next ten hours without falling on my face, I promise that I’ll never again let myself be convinced that mixing margaritas and white wine has never hurt anyone.” She turned to the mirror to check herself one last time, wondering just when all the water with lemon she’d drank was going to kick in. She needed to drink to replenish what the alcohol had depleted.
“Eesh,” she said, looking at her face. She just looked so…well, hungover. She took another huge swig from her water bottle. She couldn’t believe she’d drunk so much—she generally didn’t drink at all, really. She didn’t like the false sense of reality people got from alcohol and the loss of control it could cause.
