by Shayla Black
“Then let’s make sure you’re good and wet before I fuck you. Because I’m going to tonight. Hard.”
Tim had never talked dirty. Never been edgy or blunt. For years, sex with him had been mechanical and automatic. Silent. Her stranger brought an intensity to the bedroom that drove her wild. Well, that and the way he touched her. The way he noticed her flushing skin, responded to her fresh waxing, cared about her part of the experience.
Whoever he was when he wasn’t seducing her, he must be at least a somewhat decent guy.
If that was the case, why would he resort to sneaking into her house and cuffing her to her bed to get her attention?
Good question. And she really ought to get an answer now. Many answers, actually. Caving in to ruthless seduction by a breaking-and-entering seducer? Some rational part of her brain reasserted itself and insisted she wasn’t ready to raise the white flag. Begging a stranger to claim her body and take her as he pleased? Stupid.
“Do I know you?”
“No questions now.”
“Yes, now. Right—”
He glided a thumb across her clit, the sweet, hot friction robbing her ability to speak.
“Ohmigod!”
“More?” he taunted.
No, get the hell out—of my body, my bed, my life; it should be the automatic response. It wasn’t nearly as automatic as whimpering and lifting her hips to him.
She fought to whip up her defiance. But why fight everything she’d been wanting since her divorce? Hell, since her marriage to Tim had gone south? Lauren wanted passion, hot and wild with no strings attached. This stranger was giving it to her, as if he knew her body intimately, perfectly.
“Yes,” she gasped.
“Good girl. I’ve got a reward for you…”
The fiery press of desire burned between her legs. His hot exhalations grazed her clit, sending her temperature spiking.
Before she could berate and beg him in the same breath, he settled his head between her legs, wiggled those fingers still impaling her, and ran the tip of his tongue right over her clit.
Lauren screamed with the livewire sensation. Shockingly hot. Wickedly destructive.
The sensations magnified when he sucked her clit into his mouth. The wet blade of his tongue stroked her sensitive nubbin, shredding her self-control.
With a loud cry, Lauren arched to him, gripping the headboard in her fists.
“That’s it,” he urged. “I’ve thought about doing this to you so many times…” he murmured against her slick folds.
In an insistent pace, he kissed, nipped, suckled, thrust—and utterly possessed her. Pleasure soared. Blood engorged her flesh, making every swipe of his tongue even more sensitive than the last. Her heart roared like a wild gong in her ears. Boom, boom, boom. Tighter, tighter, the ache coiled, building into something beyond big. Huge was too small. Gigantic. Phenomenal. Mind-bending.
“Oh! Oh my…” she panted.
“Now,” he demanded, thrusting his fingers into her depths and finding just the right spot as another lash from his tongue had her ache peaking, her pleasure skyrocketing.
With a scream, she exploded in a never-ending series of spasms and clamped down on his fingers, ecstasy saturating her.
Lauren had barely caught her breath before the stranger wound his way up her body, covering her. Every inch of his body was rigid with hunger, taut with holding back. She shivered, knowing what he’d want next.
Feeling how much she wanted it, too.
“Are you still on the pill?”
Still? He knew she had been? Did he know about her irregular periods, too? “Yes.”
“Good. Got to fuck you. Now,” he growled. “Nothing between us.”
“Nothing?” She panicked. No condom?
“I’m healthy. I promise.”
“I can’t just take the word of a stranger.” Even if he sounded so damn sincere.
“I swear, I haven’t touched a woman without a condom in twenty years. I just had a physical, and I’m clean. You’re safe. I would never endanger you in any way. Please.” His grip tightened on her. “Please.”
Odd and crazy, but she believed him. Or maybe she was just melting from the inside out from the passion he was so adept at giving. It made her hunger, made her weak. It made her do one of the most wild, impulsive things she ever had in her life.
Panting, craving him, Lauren sent him a shaky nod.
Hell, she’d just come more spectacularly than she ever had in her life, but his intensity and determination alone were enough to renew her arousal.
He fitted his hands beneath her, then cupped her ass in the hot scald of his hands and whispered to her. “I’m going to get inside you, so damn deep you won’t remember what it’s like without me there. I’m going to make you ache, make you beg. Make you mine.”
* * * *
Noah took a deep breath, determination to do exactly as he said washing through him. And by the time tonight was over, she was going to feel his possession all the way down to her heart.
Under the soft golden light beside her bed, she flushed a pretty pink once more and bit her lip, now swollen from his kisses. Her soft blondish curls tumbled around her shoulders, longer strands caressing the pale column of her neck and curling toward her breasts.
God, she was gorgeous. And he couldn’t believe that tonight—finally—she was his.
A fact that wasn’t going to change—not if he could help it.
Lauren Southall was about to experience what ten years of a man’s pent up lust felt like.
Hell, he’d tried everything—every woman—to take away the edge. He’d known the first time he met Lauren, shaken her hand and saw those brown eyes dancing with life and humor, that he had to have her. But Tim’s wife had been off limits. Over the years, he’d seen her happiness dim, known the divorce was inevitable. And he’d bided his time, occupying it with women like Misty, who expected nothing more than good sex and a nice parting gift.
Now, his waiting and planning—the biting ache for a woman he could see and talk to, laugh with and touch casually, but never have—was all about to be over.
Noah swallowed hard, gripped her hip with one hand and guided himself to her steamy entrance with the other. He eased in an inch, gritting his teeth against the hot silk of her wet sheath tightening on him, still rippling with gentle aftershocks.
The blindfold shielded her eyes from him, and he cursed the necessity of protecting his identity so she could feel him—and not be weirded out by the fact she was fucking Tim’s buddy and her boss. Damn it, he wanted to see her expressive eyes widen as he filled her.
He would, he promised himself. Someday, he’d look right into those saucy dark eyes as he gave her every inch he had, every bit of love he’d been feeling for years. First, he had to own her body, prove he could master it. Surely, her heart and her flesh were connected. Once he’d conquered one, the other couldn’t be too far behind, right?
The claiming was going to start—and end—tonight.
She gasped at the feel of him breaching her, and he watched a sweet flush creep down her cheeks, between her collarbones. Already she was scalding him, killing him with her heat. What a way to go…
He covered her lips with his own, penetrating her mouth as he pushed his way inside her body, inch by torturous inch. Under him, Lauren moaned, her sex clamping down on his cock, her heels in the small of his back.
Slick. A smooth glide. Down, down. He tunneled into her in a seemingly endless stroke until he was finally seated to the hilt. God, she was tight. Silken. Better than any woman in memory. Better than any fantasy.
He groaned, throwing his head back as she took him completely, the head of his cock pushing against her womb.
“That feels so good.” Her voice fluttered.
Understatement of a fucking lifetime. Especially when she tilted her hips up to him and he slid in another half inch. Even his testicles rested tight against her now. He’d never felt anything like the electric
pleasure pulsing through him.
Noah took a deep breath. “Hang on.”
She sent him a shaky nod. And he pulled back until just a fraction of his head remained inside her, then he drove deep again. Lauren cried out. The sharp note echoed through the room, throwing a shiver down his spine. And she closed around him, her body sucking him back in and clinging.
Jesus, two strokes into this, and she was already blowing his mind. He had no doubt a third would feel every bit as good.
Better, Noah soon found out. Pleasure shot up his cock, coiling heat low in his belly, curling his toes.
On the fourth stroke, he invaded her mouth again, mimicking the action of their bodies with their tongues. Lauren melted around him, opening, accepting, smelling so damn good. And meeting him with every downward stroke, tipping up to him, ripping through his control.
But he couldn’t stop, even though he felt like he was driving a hundred miles an hour down a twisting road while blindfolded. He was destined to crash—hard.
But not until Lauren crashed with him.
Bracing his hands against her hips, Noah forced himself to slow down, deliver each thrust with deliberate impact and maximum friction. Gritting his teeth, he growled as he filled her to the hilt again. Beneath him, Lauren’s little pants as she tried to catch her breath were driving him out of his mind.
As he found her magic spot, the one guaranteed to fast-forward her into orgasm, she writhed.
With short digs of his cock, he worked her, dragging the head, which felt as if it had ballooned ten times its normal size, right where she needed it. She rewarded him quickly, breath catching, flush spreading across her fair skin, thighs latching on, pussy tightening.
“I—oh! I need…”
“I know what you need,” he rasped into her ear. “I’m going to give it to you.”
He did. He lengthened his strokes again to deliver friction, rub her G-spot, then nudge her clit with his pelvis at the end.
“Yes,” she cried out.
He did it again and again, thrusting deep, jolting her cervix with every fierce downward stroke until her vaginal walls fisted him and rippled with the pending explosion. Balls deep, he rocked against her again.
“Yes.” Her fists gripped the headboard. “Yes!”
One more long, calculated plunge inside her and she came apart.
So did his self-control.
The feel of her squeezing him, milking his cock as she screamed and grabbed the bed posts…too much for his overwrought body. He needed her too much. Needed to mark her somehow. It was crazy and primitive and he’d never felt such an urge in his life, but Noah wasn’t about to deny it, not when white fire shot up the length of his erection, starbursting ecstasy through his body as he shouted in satisfaction and came deep inside her fluttering pussy.
Slowly they caught their breath. A minute slid by. Another. Noah didn’t resist the urge to kiss her cheeks, the tip of her pert nose, her swollen mouth. He caressed the line from her hip to her waist until he wandered up to her breast, settling over her shoulder. He held her close. And didn’t move.
He could stay like this, with her, forever.
Being with Lauren was beyond anything he’d ever known. He wanted to grab her, blurt everything, especially his love. Then make love to her again.
But she lay still under him, growing tense. She unhooked her legs from around his waist. Unease skittered down his spine, disturbing his perfect bliss. Even though his half-hard dick was still inside her, he could almost feel her pulling away physically—emotionally—and shoving her defenses back into place.
Well, hell…
“Who are you?” she murmured.
Before coming here, he’d planned to make love to her, then reveal his identity. Let her deal with it so they could start having sex, start sharing their hearts. But now…he had a bad feeling it was going to require more than one tango between the sheets to make her completely his.
What if taking her to bed once wasn’t enough to erase her qualms about getting involved with him? What if she still just saw Noah Reeves, boss, buddy, and all-around good guy?
“Who are you?” she demanded again. “I could swear I know your voice…”
He hesitated, his insides clenching as he tried to listen to his gut. It told him revealing all now would not help his cause. At all. It also chided him to try even harder to disguise his voice.
“Later,” he whispered, moving in to kiss her again.
She tore her mouth away. “Now.”
He heard the panic in her voice and held in a curse. “Shh.”
“No, I won’t shush. I can’t believe I just—just…”
“Made love with a stranger?”
“Did I? I can’t make love with someone I don’t know.”
“You know me,” he admitted quietly, careful to disguise his voice. “But you don’t know me. You don’t see me.”
“Then let me see you now.”
Noah hesitated. She had perfectly valid points. Good ones, even. But she wasn’t ready. If she turned away now, he’d never get another chance. Lauren could be frighteningly closed and private when it suited her. She’d shut him out completely.
He wasn’t about to let her go.
“Didn’t you like it?”
Between her forehead and the set of her mouth, Noah knew she would have given him an incredulous stare if she could have. “Like it? I don’t think I’ve ever climaxed so hard in my life. You’re good. Obviously. But you…took me.”
“Yeah, and I’m going to do it again. But make no mistake, I made love to you, too,” he protested gruffly.
Damn, it was hard to change his voice every time he opened his mouth, especially with his mind racing. He wished he could just talk to her as himself, rip off her blindfold, show her who he was, tell her what he felt. Figure out why she was resisting the idea of making love.
But she wasn’t ready to deal with any of what he wanted.
Lauren shook her head. “No.”
“You want it softer and sweeter, so you know I’m making love to you?”
“No.”
Now she sounded positively panicked. Noah frowned.
“You just want sex? Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am?”
She hesitated, drew in a ragged breath, and sent him a shaky nod.
He froze as a suspicion took shape in his mind. Was Lauren against having a man in her life for anything more than sex? Against love? If so, he didn’t need a PhD to know her divorce had to be the cause. She’d never acted bitter. Sure, she’d been sad, reserved for a while, but resolved to move on with life. Her rejection of love surprised him. Was she scared? Of loss? Of more pain? He’d get to the bottom of the issue…just as soon as he made a point.
“I want more,” he murmured against her neck. “I want love.”
* * * *
The stranger’s sandpaper whisper reverberated in Lauren’s belly, rattling her self-control.
No love. Absolutely not. Love didn’t last. Love hurt when the relationship was over. Ali MacGraw had been really wrong when she said love meant never having to say you’re sorry. Lauren had apologized to Tim for everything she could think of…but in the end, she’d played second fiddle to a shiny new job, another promotion, trips to far-flung places. Men weren’t built for lasting love.
She hated the broken hearts and dreams left behind.
This man above her, still buried balls deep, would be no different. He might want her now, but his desire wouldn’t last. Neither would his “love.”
But his skill with her body, the way he could make her flush with a word and ache with a mere kiss…all dangerous—to her self-control, to her psyche. Even to her heart, since he could use her body to get to her emotions. And when the game was over and the challenge was gone, where would she be?
Alone and broken hearted. No thanks.
Lauren tensed, squirmed under him, wriggling her hips to dislodge him from her sex.
The friction of his cock rubbed the sen
sitive inner walls, igniting flickers of sensations. She gasped. Those flickers turned to sparks when he moved against her, bumping her clit, creating more delicious friction. Inside her, she felt him engorge. He grew thick, long, until he occupied every part of her sex again, pushing all the way against her cervix. So hard, as if he hadn’t come at all. As if he was completely prepared to go full throttle again.
But he didn’t. Instead, he stunned her with a leisurely withdrawal, easing out one torturously slow inch at a time. The head of his cock scraped against her slick flesh with every breath.
He touched his mouth to hers. A soft brush of lips, a tangle of sighs. With a firm, gentle stroke of his mouth, he urged her lips wider, tempting her to accept him deep. Lauren didn’t have the will to stop him, and he didn’t waste time before possessing her mouth in a velvety wet embrace. His tongue lazed its way inside, catching her own. The kiss was so unabashedly intimate it made her toes curl. It compelled her to respond, flooded her with not just heat, but warmth.
With a helpless ache, she writhed under him as he eased back inside her, and she squeezed his cock with her sheath. Sensations tore past her awareness and buzzed in her brain.
Oh my God.
He ripped his mouth away and moaned against her neck, into her ear. The sound sent flashes of pleasure dancing down her spine. His five-o’clock shadow rasped against her jaw. And his hands… Help me now! Those hands of his swept down from her shoulders, lightly tracing her collarbones before caressing straight to her breasts. Despite her mammoth orgasm a few short minutes ago, Lauren felt the blood rush to her nipples. They stood up and welcomed his fingers, which accepted the invitation immediately and toyed with the sensitive tips.
Gentle, teasing strokes over the hard points. Unhurried. Like he wanted to learn her, find out exactly what pleased her. The warmth from his fingers as he brushed and plucked at her nipples became heat. The ache seeped past her defenses and multiplied.
Even as he withdrew again nearly all the way, he touched her like she was fragile and precious. A soft sweep of fingers here, a tender caress of his lips there. Her body swelled under every touch. But what she felt was more. Much more. The longing to touch and be touched had been there, but now a desperation to matter to someone—to this man—swathed her in sweet longing.
