by Marie James
“Keep that up, London and the only thing you’re going to get is fucked.” She wiggles again, and I do the only thing I can. I place my hand flat on her lower belly and pull her tighter against me. I groan, feeling my cock nestle right between her cheeks. I slide my hand lower; my middle finger is brushing her clit and the outside fingers roaming over her decadent lips.
Just as the tip of my finger dives into her wetness, she wiggles out of my grasp and jumps out of the bed.
“Twizzlers!” She exclaims happily.
Alright. Two can play that game.
Holding her gaze, I lift my finger to my mouth and lick the tip. Resisting the urge to buck my hips at her taste, I suck the wet digit into my mouth. Her eyes darken, and she looks like she’s going to take a step towards me, changing her mind about being a tease.
I stand on the side of the bed and catch her eyes as they wander down my chest to the erection I have no luck of hiding, even if I wanted to. Her tongue snakes out over her lips when I reach down and adjust myself over the fabric of my sweats.
Clearing my throat, I turn toward the door. When she grumbles something incoherent, I turn my head back to her. “I’ll get changed.” A quick wink and I’m leaving the room.
“You’re just fine naked,” I hear her say as I close the door behind me.
Less than half an hour later we’re bundling up to head outside to the truck. London looks annoyed, clearly not happy with how her teasing backfired. I’d love to tell her my cock is just as annoyed, but I hold off. Knowing it and thinking it are much different than verbalizing it. If I give it too much credit, we’ll never make it to the store because I’ll end up stripping her down in the truck.
“You ready?” I ask as she wraps a scarf around her neck.
I pull the door closed behind us and guide her with my hand on her lower back. I instantly hate the multiple layers of clothing that separate my skin from hers.
I tug open the passenger side door and stare at her ass as she climbs inside.
“Nice,” I praise quietly.
Just as she was about to ask me what I said I close her door and make my way to my side of the truck.
I get in and shut the door quickly. Even with the speed we got inside the cold has crept in and obliterated the heat that had been building the last fifteen minutes. I rub my gloved hands together and hold them to my mouth, angling my hot breath over my chilled fingers.
I cut my eyes to London and see her raise an eyebrow at me.
“What?”
“Just thinking about how warm those fingers would be if I hadn’t gotten out of the bed.” She frowns playfully.
Trying not to think about the wet heat of her core, I put the truck in gear and begin to roll down the driveway. The plowing company did a great job, leaving the truck with an extra wide berth.
“Have you given any thought to my offer?” I finally speak as we turn right out of the driveway, heading into Poison proper. I told Lisa to make sure the plow driver left the gate open because the last thing I wanted to do was get out any more than I had to since I had no idea if the gate opening app on my phone would even work.
“I don’t think I have any other choice at this point than to move….I mean stay in your guest room. As far as the job,” she cuts her eyes at me, “I’d need to know more about it before I make a decision on that.”
“I imagine it’s just like any other office job.” I shrug my shoulders.
I glance at her and see her roll her eyes. “Not all office jobs are the same, Kadin. What role do you hold at your company?”
Shit. I don’t want to complicate things even more than they already are and for some reason I like her thinking I’m some regular old Joe. Regular? Yeah right, you saw how her eyes bulged when she stepped foot in the cabin that first night.
Avoiding the whole CEO conversation I give her the basics. “I work for a company that builds log cabins. They built the one we’ve been staying in.”
She laughs; it rolls out of her mouth straight from the bottom of her stomach.
Her laugh is contagious even though I have no idea what she finds so funny. “What?” I ask with a chuckle.
“You’re a lumberjack?!?” The laughing continues, “Like you use an ax and cut wood.” She snorts in the most unladylike manner and abruptly covers her mouth with her hands, her eyes dancing.
“I use an ax to cut firewood, but we use machines and saws when we build.” I turn my attention back to the road.
“It suits you. Especially with the beard, Lumberjack.”
I raise my hand up and rub the scruff on my chin. “You have a problem with my beard?”
“Not one bit,” she answers seductively. I glance over at her, catching her watching my mouth. “I’ve already told you how handsome you are. Are you fishing for compliments?”
Instead of answering I just wink at her. I had thought about shaving; change of plans.
The short trip into town ends when I pull up in front of a Mom and Pop store. It seems to be one of the only places open in town, which won’t be a problem since I’ve only seen a handful of people since leaving the cabin.
London puts her hands in front of the vents, warming them before facing the cold once again. I just watch her, mesmerized by her beauty. Her bright green eyes shine behind the layers of her scarf and the hood on her jacket. Her cheeks are flushed from the cold, pinking them ever so slightly.
“What?” she asks eventually.
“He’s a fucking idiot,” I say without thinking. “Why on Earth would he think he could find something better than you?”
I watch the shimmer leave her eyes, and I immediately regret saying something so insensitive.
She turns her head and focuses out her window. “I’ve been asking myself the exact same thing the last few days.”
I lift my hand twice to reach out to her; to comfort her somehow. I’m a complete asshole for saying what I did. I didn’t mean it the way she apparently took it, and I feel like shit now. I want to beg her to come back to Spokane with me, let me show her how a real man treats a woman as precious as she is, but I don’t. I’m just now considering not killing myself, and I know without a doubt that jumping from my grief to London wouldn’t do either one of us any good.
“You ready?” she asks, breaking into the internal struggle going on in my head.
I look at her, and she has managed a small smile, so I take it and run with it, hoping I can actually make it become legitimate joy. I need to see the shimmer and sparkle in those amazing green eyes.
“You feigning for Twizzlers?” I wink at her. She grins just a bit wider, but it’s genuine. “I hope they have dark chocolate,” I say as I lean in closer to the windshield and look at the weathered sign, not feeling hopeful at all.
“Only one way to find out,” she says and pops out of her side of the truck and runs into the store.
I do what any decent man would do when a beautiful woman runs away from him; I chase her.
The more I’m around him, the more I want to be around him. We’ve been trapped in his cabin for days, and we spent less than an hour apart yesterday, yet it seems not to be enough. I crave him. I yearn for his touch. I covet every caress. The most alarming thing about this entire situation is that although the sex is out of this world amazing, it’s the embrace after the orgasm that causes the wildest beating of my heart.
His hot and cold is giving me whiplash. Well, maybe not cold; he never just shrugs me off. Sometimes I wonder if it’s only because we were stuck together and he knew there is no real way to get completely away from me. We hold each other all night yet we say that this is only sex. I’m just as guilty. I was the first one to bring up the fact that I can’t get involved any more than just the physical. It needed to be said, but now I think I should’ve kept my damn mouth shut.
The smell of moth balls hit me the second I open the door to the little country store. The smell is not completely off-putting, but the muskiness causes me concern for the snacks the
y have. I remind myself to check expiration dates on everything I get. I grab a hand basket and venture in further.
The gust of frigid air at my back informs me that Kadin has made it inside. I don’t acknowledge him; I just begin to wander up and down the aisles. The merchandise is as eclectic as the empty flower pots that were sitting on the small porch, and I do mean porch. This store has apparently been transformed from an old wooden house. The selections range from diapers and dog food to detergent and diamonds; that’s at least what the sign on top of the glass case claims anyways.
I stop in the food section and immediately notice the lone bag of dark chocolate Kisses. I plop them in the hand basket. From what I can tell they don’t have Twizzlers but they do have the generic ‘Vines.’
“This will have to do,” I mutter to myself, grateful to have anything remotely close to my favorite candy.
I turn down the next aisle and see Kadin crouched low looking at items on a bottom shelf.
He notices me, grabs items off the shelf, and stands. “What do you think?” He asks holding the boxes in front of him. “Barely there or ribbed for her pleasure?”
I gape at the merchandise in his hands and then look around the store for the clerk I saw lurking around earlier.
We both take steps toward each other, closing the distance between us. We should never have had sex the first time without condoms, but now is as good a time as any to begin.
I tap my finger on the bottom of my chin in contemplation. “I think the ribbed for her pleasure will be best.”
“Are you disgruntled, lover?” He asks with a smirk. I raise an eyebrow at him. “Sex isn’t pleasurable enough with me; you need ribs now too?”
I snort an unladylike laugh. “No, lover. The ribbed ones are magnums, and well,” I cut my eyes to the front of his pants, “you have a big cock.”
Now it’s his turn to drop his jaw and look around for the creepy clerk. “Who knew you had such a dirty mouth, London.”
I smile wide at him and his playfulness. He places the box we don’t need back on the shelf and steps close to me, his body almost flush to mine. I can feel the heat coming off of his body and my thoughts suddenly run impure.
He drops the box into the hand basket I’m holding. “You sure that’s enough,” I whisper huskily to him.
“More?”
“You never know. Several days until we leave.” We can also use them when we get to your place in Spokane. I don’t say it out loud, and it’s not until the thought comes to my head unprovoked that I begin to have concerns for what we will look like once he returns to reality.
Sarcastically he grabs the two remaining boxes off of the side-counter and drops them in the basket.
“Thirty-six may be pushing it,” I huff playfully.
“You never know,” he says, repeating my words and walking past me with a wink.
An hour later we are back at the cabin, both of us in his home gym. I’m on the treadmill watching him hang up an impressively large punching bag. I lick my lips at the sight of his back flexing and rippling as he picks it up and hangs it from the massive hook he installed into the exposed beam of the ceiling.
I offered to help him, and he laughed at me, which honestly pissed me off a bit. Truthfully I’d never be able to lift that bag, and now the anger has completely subsided at the image of him doing all the work. I’m grateful running is like second nature to me and requires no real thought; my body just performs from years of developed muscle memory.
Next, he wraps red, athletic tape around his wrists and palms and tugs on a pair of simple fingerless gloves. I nearly stumble and fall face first on the treadmill as he strikes at the bag. I wish I could see the pure beauty of the action, the training and strength it takes to make the enormous bag shift the way it did. Instead, my skin gathers a sheen of sweat that wasn’t there a second ago, and I begin to tremble.
I know Kadin and Brian aren’t the same persons, but seeing a man do something that my body reads as violent is unnerving. I quickly hit the red stop button on the treadmill and hastily exit the room. My pulse is fluttering harder than I know it would if only the exercise on the treadmill was warring in my body.
I enter the guest room across the hall from Kadin’s and strip my clothes off, leaving a trail behind me as I make my way to the bathroom. I found some bubble bath at the store when we were out and sinking into a hot bath sounds perfect right now. I don’t get the vibe from Kadin that he’d ever strike me, so I don’t know why my body had the reaction it did earlier.
I’m naked by the time I reach the tub to turn on the water and pour in the bubbles. The water flow in this house is amazing, and the tub is ready within just a few short minutes. I slump into the tub and close my eyes the second I step in. Gardenias, which happened to be the only scent they had at the little store, is not my favorite smell, but it works in a pinch.
The faint touch of Kadin’s hand on my face pulls me from my calming thoughts. My eyes go wide, and I audibly gasp, not hearing him come in. He holds his hands up beside his head in mock surrender.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” he admits.
I notice his hands are free from the tape and gloves and the thin layer of sweat glistening on his chest and arms is the only thing that even hints at his workout.
“I turned around, and you were gone. Did you get the seven miles you said you were going to do done that fast?” He stands from the edge of the tub where he’d perched when my eyes were closed.
“I kind of freaked out when you started hitting the bag,” I confess, deciding to lay it all out there.
He tilts his head, momentarily confused; then understanding hits him. I love that he’s paid enough attention to what I’ve told him that I don’t have to explain my reaction. “Fuck, London. I wasn’t even thinking about it.” He looks like he wants to reach for me and I hate that he doesn’t, unsure of where we now stand. “I’d never hit you. Fuck, I’d never hit any woman.”
I reach my hand out to him. “Join me?”
He gives me a tentative look proving he’s undecided about how to proceed. Finally after glancing from my hand to my eyes several times he kicks off his shoes and strips unceremoniously out of his sweats and socks. Even though his cock is soft it remains incredibly impressive; apparently he’s a shower and a grower.
I scoot forward in the tub when I can tell his intention is to climb in behind me.
“No jets?” He asks as he pulls me back against his chest.
“I didn’t want to deal with the mess the bubbles would make,” I answer honestly.
He chuckles. “I never would’ve even thought of that.” After a few minutes of silence, he says, “I seriously didn’t mean to scare you earlier.”
I squeeze his arms tighter around me. “You didn’t frighten me. It was the situation for some reason I responded to. I honestly thought I was over all of that shit that happened with Brian. I never thought I could be triggered like that.” I turn my head when I feel him dip his mouth closer to my neck. “I was watching you work, and it was incredibly sexy, and then all of a sudden it wasn’t.”
I feel him nip my shoulder with his teeth, then lick the pain away with a hot sweep of his tongue. I also feel him thicken behind my back which makes me want to squirm against him.
“Let me remind you what else these hands can do,” he says unwrapping his arms from around my waist. One hand travels north to cup a breast, and the other slowly glides down my wet stomach, skating tenderly over my already swollen clit.
“Fuuuck,” I hiss through my teeth, opening my eyes to find London’s amazing mouth wrapped around my straining erection. My hand instinctively reaches out to grip a handful of her hair as her sinful mouth slowly glides up to the tip.
“Good morning,” she whispers before she engulfs me again.
I can only nod my head in answer and smile like an idiot. That is until she forms a tight suction and her cheeks collapse, my throbbing cock getting the full effect of her amazing mo
uth. If she keeps it up, I will be the only one having a ‘good morning.’
I sit up and sweep my hands under her arms, forcing her to release me from her mouth. I slide down as I pull her up until my face is at the apex of her thighs staring at her swollen cleft. It appears she’s been awake and needing for much longer that I’d originally suspected.
She hisses and bucks violently at the first harsh swipe of my tongue. Holding onto the headboard, she looks down, meeting my eyes as she bites down on her lip to keep from whimpering so loudly. I want her out of control. I want her so lost in her pleasure that she doesn’t have the wherewithal to even try to be considerate of the noise level. I get my wish when I suck her clit into my mouth and flick it with my tongue.
She reaches down with one hand and tangles it in my unruly hair, rotating her hips and grinding harder against my mouth. I close my eyes and welcome the sound of her moaning and erratic breaths.
“Oh God. Kadin!” I shift her forward an inch and sink my tongue into her heat just as the first convulsion of her core begins. I nearly come myself when her delicious pussy grips my tongue in waves of pleasure. She grows languid and relaxed as her orgasm ebbs, and she settles petal-soft onto my chest.
I wrap one arm around her to keep her from falling and shift my weight so I can reach into the open box of condoms on the bedside table. I’m thankful one is loose from the rest, and I make quick work of getting it open and rolled down my cock.
London is practically dead weight from her apparent earth-shattering release. I glide her further down my body, positioning myself at her entrance.
“London? I need to…” Before I can even continue to beg, she suddenly shifts her weight backward and takes me to the hilt. We groan simultaneously, and I’m thankful for the desensitization the condom provides because if I just went into her bare like this, I would’ve come immediately.
I grip her hips preventing any movement that she may have in mind. I keep my hips static, my cock buried deep and nuzzle her neck with my nose, licking at her pulse point which is surprisingly more accelerated that I would’ve imagined with her calm appearance.
