“Okay?” he asked.
Her teeth were buried into her lower lip as she nodded but when he carefully withdrew from her nearly all the way before gliding back inside, her eyes widened. Another stroke and her lips were parting as she released a heavy breath. She was unbearably tight around him but with every thrust, the liquid heat of her body made sliding in an out of her more and more effortless and within minutes he was sweating as he worked their bodies together over and over. When she began lifting her hips to match his thrusts, he knew her level of desire was quickly rising to match his.
“So good,” he ground out as he reached beneath her and shifted her so that he could get even deeper.
Mia cried out at the change in position and he knew every upstroke was hitting that place inside her that was edging her closer and closer to release. It took just another slight adjustment of his own hips to get the perfect angle so that his pelvis grated over her clit and within seconds she was screaming his name and her body clamped down on his like a vise. He shouted against her shoulder as his orgasm rocked through him and he wrapped his arms around her as his hips continued to bump against hers. He had no idea how long he lay in her embrace, but when he finally found the energy to move, he was stunned to see tears flowing down her cheeks. He opened his mouth to say something but she shook her head slightly and pulled him down for another kiss. It was then that he realized she wasn’t crying because she was in pain. No, she was crying for a whole other reason and it was scaring the shit out of him.
Chapter 7
Mia knew her tears would freak Vin out but she hadn’t been able to prevent them as her emotions began to overtake her as Vin had continued to thrust gently into her long after he’d given into his orgasm. She’d instinctively known that Vin wouldn’t hurt her when he talked about fucking her rather than making love to her, but if what had happened between them wasn’t making love, she wasn’t sure she’d survive it if and when it did happen.
But it didn’t matter because even if Vin had just been fucking her, she’d been doing more than that. Which left her completely confused and terrified because now walking away from him would be harder than ever. Maybe if he’d been unkind to her afterwards she could have found a way to build up her walls, but he’d kept kissing her until her tears ended and then he’d gently pulled out of her body and disappeared into the bathroom attached to his office. He’d returned a moment later, still naked and carrying a washcloth which he’d used to clean her off. And then he’d kept right on kissing her as they dressed and by the time she was fully clothed she was ready to pull them all off again.
There’d been no additional words though and as Vin pulled out of the parking garage, her anxiety increased. They were back to where they’d been before she’d goaded him and she knew that sex wouldn’t change that. For whatever reason, he didn’t want her around. She wanted to rail at him because he’d been the one who’d started it last night when he’d grabbed her wrist as she left the den after the movie. She’d thought it had been a turning point in their relationship – and it had been, just not the one she wanted. Her feelings for Vin were a jumble since she’d never had a boyfriend or even a childhood crush. So she couldn’t tell if what she felt was just some infatuation because it was new or if it was something more. Maybe it was that white knight syndrome people talked about. But then wouldn’t she feel something for Dom since he’d been the one to get her out of the hospital and set her up with a fresh start? And if it was hero worship, wouldn’t it have started to wane by now?
Mia clenched her hands together in her lap as she watched the city lights begin to fade and her heart leapt into her throat when she realized where they were headed. She cast Vin a quick glance but he kept his eyes on the road. Even when they pulled into his driveway, he remained stoically silent and gave Bane and Briego only the briefest of pats before he let her in the house. She had no idea what to do or say so she headed for the safety of her room, ignoring the sound of Vin trudging up the stairs behind her. It was still too early for bed but there was no way she could spend any more time in his company without becoming emotional again. Food wasn’t even on her radar either since it felt like she could throw up at any moment. As she turned at the top of the stairs to go to her room, she felt a hand close around hers and then she was being pulled in the opposite direction towards Vin’s room. He tugged her into the dark room and carefully pushed the door closed to keep the dogs out, but before she could ask him what was happening, he sealed his mouth over hers.
***
He had no idea what the hell he was doing but it hadn’t been enough. Whatever shit storm going on inside of him that was supposed to have disappeared the second he buried himself inside of Mia’s hot, welcoming body was a thousand times worse now because he just wanted more. He’d known the second he saw those fucking tears that he wasn’t going to be able to drop her off at Dom’s tonight and his brain was already warning him that it wouldn’t happen tomorrow either. She was his. For however long he needed to get her out of his system, she was his. He’d just need to make sure she understood what it was and what it wasn’t.
Mia didn’t protest when he backed her up to his bed and pressed her down on it. He knew she had to be sore but his desperation overtook common sense as he stripped her and himself of their clothes. Luckily her body proved itself to be ready for him and after he managed to pull a condom on, he slipped into her with little resistance. He watched her carefully for any signs of pain but she just wrapped her legs around him and lifted her hips to meet every stroke. Forcing his own orgasm back, he took pleasure at feeling her shatter in his arms. Next time he’d remember to turn on the fucking light so he could see the look in her eyes too, but at least he could hear her pants and whimpers as he drove her to a second orgasm. And the way she cried out his name each time – he’d never get tired of hearing that. Or the way her body consumed his and milked every drop of his release from him.
As his body began to recover, he rolled them over so that she wouldn’t have to carry all of his weight since his limbs were too weak to do any good. She wasn’t much better off since she was splayed over him like a wet noodle. Long minutes passed as their bodies began to cool and he forced himself to sit upright, taking her with him so that she sat astride him. She winced when his cock slid free of her body.
“Go take a bath,” he said against her lips before letting his tongue slip into her mouth for a long, languid kiss. “I’ll take care of the animals,” he murmured. He put her on her feet and stood but when she headed towards the bedroom door, he grabbed her hand and dragged her to his bathroom, hoping like hell his message was clear that she wasn’t going anywhere tonight.
***
Mia stuffed the last of her clothes into the garbage bag she’d found in the kitchen. She wasn’t sure which was sadder – that her luggage was a trash bag or that she didn’t even have enough earthly possessions to fill the whole thing. She grabbed the kittens that were playing with the plastic ties on the bag and carefully put them in the large dog crate that kept them out of trouble when she wasn’t around to watch them.
“Asshole,” Percy said softly as she urged him onto her arm from his play perch and put him in his cage. She really hoped Dom and Logan would be as patient with the bird as Vin had been. Glancing at the clock behind her, she saw that she only had a few minutes to run out and feed Georgie and say her goodbyes to the sweet little pig. Vin hadn’t given her any details about when Dom would bring her back to get the animals but since she wasn’t sure who would be taking Georgie and when, she wanted to make sure she got to see him one last time.
“Mia,” she heard from behind her. Her heart did that flip flop thing whenever she heard his voice. “You ready to go?”
Mia forced herself to finish securing Percy’s cage as she nodded. “I just need to go out and feed Georgie,” she said.
“I already took care of it. We need to get moving – I’ve got an eight o’clock meeting.”
Tears pricked her eyes
but she forced them back. “Okay,” she managed to get out as she turned to grab her stuff off the bed. This was hard but it was still easier than forcing herself to leave Vin’s bed this morning after he’d gone into the bathroom to shower. She’d pretended to be asleep as he extricated his arms from where they’d been wrapped around her and she hadn’t opened her eyes until she’d heard the water running. It had been cowardly but she didn’t want to ruin what had happened between them the night before with having to sit through Vin explaining to her why it had been a mistake.
The bath in Vin’s giant tub had done wonders for her sore, sated body and she’d nodded off in the warm water. When she’d finally managed to open her eyes, she’d nearly had a heart attack at the site of Vin leaning against the doorframe watching her. She’d instinctively started to cover her exposed breasts but his hungry look had stopped her and she’d watched in silence as he drank his fill of her. And when he’d reached out his hand to help her out of the water, she hadn’t hesitated. He’d taken his time drying her off before leading her to his bed and covering her with one of his big T-shirts. Vin had handed her a sandwich which she’d sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed and eaten while he’d disappeared into the bathroom. He returned within a few minutes, his hair damp and just a towel covering his lean hips.
Her mouth had gone dry at the sight of his amazing body and she’d watched in silence as he removed the plate from her lap and put it on the nightstand. Seconds later he was pushing her down and covering her body with his, his mouth seeking hers out. As sore as she was, she gladly opened herself completely to him but he didn’t enter her. Instead, he’d slid his cock slowly back and forth over her clit until she came and then he’d shot all over her stomach as his mouth captured her moans of pleasure. In the shower that followed, he’d dragged one more orgasm out of her when she didn’t think it was possible and everything after that was lost to her until she woke up this morning in his arms. Besides the few words of praise he murmured against her ear as he pleasured her, they hadn’t spoken at all.
“What is that?” Vin asked her as she grabbed the half-full garbage bag.
“I thought I’d take my things this morning so I’d have less to grab when Dom brings me back to get the animals,” she said as she moved past him.
He snagged her arm and took the bag from her, his eyes darkening momentarily. Before she could question him, he tossed the bag back onto her bed. He grabbed her hand as he walked past and practically dragged her towards the stairs.
“Don’t ask what it means because I can’t promise you’ll like the answer,” he said in warning.
She already suspected the answer because she was struggling with something similar. Except where he was trying to find a way to work her out of his system, she was trying to figure out how to work him out of her heart because she no longer had any doubt. She was already starting to fall in love with him.
***
“Talk to me, Vin,” Dom said as he closed the door to Vin’s office. “Twenty-four hours ago you were begging me to take her and now you just happened to change your mind? Just like that?”
“What do you want me to say, Dom?” Vin said with a sigh as he pushed the keyboard in front of him away.
“I want you to say that whatever is going on between you and her isn’t going to do end up breaking you like Elise almost did,” Dom said as he sat down.
“She’s not like Elise,” Vin automatically said, his need to defend Mia greater than his need to deny what his brother already clearly saw.
“I know she’s probably not going to fuck around on you-” Dom began.
“Elise was pregnant.” Vin could tell he’d managed to shock his brother into complete silence so he continued. “She told me it was mine,” he said quietly. “I knew she was fucking a couple other guys but I didn’t want to risk losing the baby if I was the father so I paid for everything for her – apartment, doctor’s bills, car...everything.”
“Jesus,” Dom whispered.
“Within weeks she was demanding more and more money and when I finally told her no more, she threatened to have an abortion. We reached a deal – I gave her half a million up front with a guarantee of another half a million once she carried the baby to term and signed away her parental rights when it was born. Two weeks after I gave her the first payment, she aborted the baby and sent me an It’s a girl birth announcement card. Bitch actually had the back alley doctor do an ultrasound to determine the baby’s sex before he did the abortion. She was almost five months along.”
“Oh God, Vin,” Dom muttered.
“Mia is nothing like her,” Vin repeated.
Dom nodded but Vin could tell he was still struggling with what Vin had told him. “But at some point Mia’s going to want everything that a young woman her age wants.”
“And you don’t think you can give those things to her?”
As much as he loved his brother, Vin was too tired and too fucked up from the events of the last twenty-four hours to deal with this. “If you think you can convince her to stay with you, have at it,” he muttered. “I’ve got work to do.”
He forced himself to ignore his brother’s probing stare and didn’t say anything when Dom finally got up and left. He spent the rest of the day locked away in his office. Telling himself he didn’t care if Mia was sitting at her desk or not, he took his time putting his own desk back in order and tried really hard not to remember the vision of Mia draped across the middle of it. When he did finally leave his office, his step faltered when he saw Mia typing away at her computer. A quick glance at Dom’s darkened office had a rush of relief going through him that was so powerful, it nearly knocked him to his knees. Mia glanced up at him with a smile and quickly locked her computer and stood.
It took everything in him not to grab her hand as they headed towards the elevator and even more not to kiss her once the elevator doors slid closed and they began their descent to the parking garage. Neither of them spoke on the way home but when he reached for his door handle after he parked the car in the driveway, Mia suddenly stopped him with a hand on his. He settled back in the seat and looked at her questioningly but before he could ask if she was okay, she reached up and dragged him down for a kiss. Before he could even grab her to pull her onto his lap like he wanted, she was releasing him.
“I don’t need to know what this means...not yet,” she said. “It’s enough for me right now.” With that, she got out of the car and by the time he came to his senses, she was already in the house and heading up to her room, presumably to take care of the animals.
She’d told him exactly what he needed to hear so why the hell didn’t he feel more relieved?
***
“Hi, Vin,” the young woman said with a bright smile as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Hi sweetheart, how are you?” Mia heard Vin ask as his eyes passed briefly over the woman’s baby bump. A strange look swept over his features but it quickly disappeared when he reached out to shake hands with the large man standing behind the woman.
Mia clenched her hands together as the woman glanced her way. The last time she’d seen Riley Sinclair, the woman had been out cold on the floor of her father’s shed.
“Mia, this is Riley Maddox,” Vin said as he came to stand next to her, his hand coming to rest on the small of her back.
“Hi, Mia,” Riley said as she ignored the hand Mia managed to extend and dragged her into a huge hug.
“Hi,” she managed to squeak out.
“And this is Gabe,” Vin said. To her shock, the big man also hugged her though he must have sensed her discomfort because he kept it very brief. They were a startlingly good looking couple and the second Gabe released her, he was seeking out his wife’s hand. Even when they both took turns greeting Bane and Briego, they continued to hold onto one another. Envy went through Mia at the sight and she wondered if she’d ever find someone she was so connected to that maintaining a physical connection became as natural an occurrence as br
eathing or eating. She couldn’t help but glance at Vin who also happened to be watching her. But she refused to read too much into the look because she’d caught him doing a lot of that in the past three days since she’d told him what they had was enough.
He’d been like a man possessed ever since. She’d lost track of the dozens of times and ways they’d had sex. And she hadn’t spent a night in her room since. But as much as she’d like to believe he kept her close because he couldn’t bear to be apart from her, the logical part of her brain reminded her that he was desperate to put an end to the crazy chemistry between them. He always made sure to wring every ounce of pleasure from her body that he could, but it always seemed like there was a wall between them. Even when he held her afterwards, it was like he wasn’t there. As close as they were physically, they were miles apart emotionally. And as she fell for him a little more every day, he seemed to withdraw more and more.
“Mia, you want to show Riley the animals?” Vin asked as his fingers pressed more firmly into her back. She realized he was trying to jar her from the thoughts she’d been getting lost in so she nodded. Something knotted in her throat when she saw Gabe lean down to brush a kiss over his wife’s lips as he settled his big hand on her belly. Vin’s hand tensed on her back and then withdrew entirely. She forced herself to step away from him and waited for Riley to follow her up the stairs.
“Asshole!” Percy shrieked as soon as they stepped into the room and Riley laughed as she walked up to the bird and held out her arm.
“He looks so good, Mia,” Riley said as Percy finally settled himself on her arm and she carried him over to the bed so she could sit on it.
Loving Vin (Barretti Security Series, #1) Page 8
