by Anara Bella
“I love the detail they used to put into their work back then. These grape and leaf carvings are beautiful.” She ran her fingers along the top. “There’s some pretty serious water damage here. But something can be done about that.”
“That was the main thing I was worried about.”
She nodded. “With good reason. But my grandmother’s a genius with this kind of thing. And if it turns out she can’t do it herself, she’ll know who can.”
He moved in close beside her, brushing against her as he bent to take a closer look at the chest of drawers. She was always so hyper-aware of him. If it had been anyone else, she would barely have noticed. But with Marcus she noticed everything. The heat radiating off his skin. His intoxicating scent, which was a combination of soap and clean male. The fresh stubble of beard darkening his chin, which only made him look hotter than he already was.
He stepped forward to examine the water damage and she immediately missed his closeness. It was official, she was in serious lust.
“So you think it’s worth restoring?”
“From what I can see here, definitely. We’ll know more about what needs to be done once we get it into our workshop. The lighting’s better there.”
He straightened and turned the full impact of his gorgeous blue eyes on her. “I appreciate you coming out here to have a look.”
Their gazes locked and the now familiar longing she felt around him increased tenfold. “No problem. I’ll arrange for the guys to come with the truck and pick it up on Monday.”
He didn’t break eye contact. “Perfect.”
Oh yeah. He was perfect all right. Unbidden, she leaned toward him, wanting what she shouldn’t have. Because kissing him would be a really bad idea.
She jerked back. She had to leave. Right now. Before she said or did something to humiliate herself. Like jump his bones. “Okay, so we’re done here. I’d better go before that storm hits.” She couldn’t keep her enthusiasm for escaping his tempting presence out of her voice.
He nodded but didn’t comment.
She had just turned toward the stairs when the first crack of thunder rent the air. She jumped. Hand to her heart, she gasped and then laughed. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
“Looks like the storm’s already here.”
The moment the words left his mouth, the rain came down in a torrent, pounding the roof shingles with enough force as to make it impossible to hear each other.
Marcus pointed at the stairs and led the way back down. Out in the hallway the pouring rain was more muffled, but there was no mistaking that it was coming down with a vengeance as it lashed against the windows.
Lightning illuminated everything, quickly followed by more booming thunder. It sounded like the storm was right overhead.
When they reached the first floor, Marcus turned to her and shook his head. “I don’t think you should go out in that. Why don’t you stick around for a bit? I’ll make us some coffee while you wait it out.”
It was a reasonable suggestion, she knew that. But reason had nothing to do with her desire to get away from his oh-so-tempting presence. Just looking at the man made her want to throw herself at him no matter how determined she was to keep her distance.
The problem was, her reactions to him had nothing to do with logic and everything to do with raging hormones, rampant desire and raunchy sex. None of which she was going to engage in or even allow herself to think about. No sirree. But the only way to accomplish that was to get away from his broad shoulders, sexy bedroom eyes and mighty fine ass.
And the last thing she should be focusing on was his ass and how great it looked in his well-washed threadbare jeans. But being in close proximity to Marcus always had this dismaying effect on her. And when the hell had she gotten so damned horny anyway? Was it the storm? The atmosphere? Her crazy out-of-control hormones?
Whatever it was, staying was a bad idea. She chanced a look his way. He was still waiting for her to tell him if she was going to stay for coffee but she was feeling more panicky by the second.
Breathing hard as if she’d been running, she fought the urge to run her fingers over his soft-looking denim shirt. The cuffs were turned up, exposing his strong, mouth-wateringly sexy forearms. And when had forearms become sexy?
Damn it. She was really losing it.
Her seesaw of emotions must have shown because his pupils expanded until they were almost black, his lids dropped to half-mast. He stepped closer and her lips parted.
When her tongue touched her bottom lip, he drew in a harsh breath at the same time as he reached for her, cupped his hand around her neck and pulled her forward.
Before she could react he was savaging her mouth, kissing her with an intensity she’d never experienced before. The storm raging outside echoed the storm raging inside of her, making her senses soar in response. She threw her arms around him and pulled him closer, needing to feel his hard length against her.
His tongue swept inside her mouth, learning her, tasting her. God, she’d never felt like this from just from a simple kiss. Then again, there was nothing simple about this kiss. Nothing innocent, or forgettable either. She was already getting wet for him, and judging by the erection pressed against her belly he was hot and ready for her too.
How the hell had this happened? They’d gone from zero to a hundred in no time flat. No man had ever taken her to heights like this, not even during full-out sex. And this was just a kiss.
She didn’t want it to end. Her tongue thrust into his mouth, dueling with his, tasting his essence. Devouring him. The sound of the torrential rain fueling the intensity of the moment.
His one hand speared into her hair and the other slid down her back and squeezed her behind, pulling her closer to him, harder into his already rock-hard cock. A cock that was more than ready to fulfill its intended purpose in life.
And there was no denying she wanted it. Wanted it with a pure hunger like she’d never known before. Wanted it with longing because she’d missed being this way with a man. Wanted it because she was undeniably a glutton for punishment.
Because pain was the only thing this would lead to.
Her sexual high came crashing down around her. Hadn’t Davis taught her that all men wanted was sex? Didn’t matter with who as long as they could stick their dick into a willing woman. Didn’t matter who else was in their life. Didn’t matter whose heart was ripped clear out of their chest in the process. Nothing mattered except what they wanted.
She tore her lips from his, gasping for breath as if she’d just run a race. Thunder and lightning cracked overhead and rain hammered against the windows in a violent downpour that echoed her inner turmoil.
Backing away, she tried to make sense of what had happened, of how she felt. She touched her fingers to her still-tingling lips. “You shouldn’t have done that.” Her voice barely whispered past her lips and she hated that she sounded so weak.
His gaze pinned her to the spot, eyes blazing with banked passion. “Why not? We’re both free and single. I’ve wanted to kiss you for weeks.”
Panic took a stronger hold of her, dragging hyper-awareness in its wake. Something had shifted inside of her. Something she’d worked long and hard to bury deep and keep locked away safe where it couldn’t be damaged. Where it couldn’t be trampled under careless boots.
Safe from predatory men. Men like Marcus who wanted nothing more than to sample every female who came within their orbit. That vulnerable something was now exposed.
And it was all Marcus’s fault.
Damn it. She didn’t want to feel this way. Not ever again. And certainly not for someone like him. Her friends had almost convinced her to just go for the sex, and she’d been sorely tempted, but now that she was here she knew the truth. She wasn’t ready for this. She just wasn’t ready.
She’d already been with a cheater, a guy who couldn’t stick to one woman at a time. Being eviscerated by someone like that once in a lifetime was more than enough for her, thank you ve
ry much.
“I have to go.” She frantically searched for the door.
“You can’t go now. It’s dangerous out there.”
Not as dangerous as it is in here. “I’ll be fine.”
Safer than if I stay anywhere close to you.
Before he could stop her, she turned and raced for the front door she’d finally spotted. She yanked it open and was smacked in the face by a wall of wind and cold rain.
But it wasn’t enough to stop her. Nothing could stop her. She had to get away.
Chapter Six
Plunging headfirst into the maelstrom, Asia was immediately soaked to the skin.
Rain streamed into her eyes in a constant torrent so that she couldn’t see where she was going. She tried to divert the rain away from her eyes without much success, but it was enough so that she could see where her car was.
Heading straight for the vague red shape, she sloshed through puddles and wet grass, slipping and sliding as she went. Her soaked sandal-clad feet slid around within her now-slippery insoles, making it even harder to keep her footing.
It was treacherous and impossible to get solid footing because she couldn’t see where she was stepping. It didn’t help that the ground was uneven. Marcus seriously needed to get someone out here to roll the lawn.
Not letting any of it slow her down, she kept going, stubborn determination the sole impetus keeping her on her feet.
One second she was moving forward, the next her feet flew out from under her and she landed flat on her back in the mud with the wind knocked out of her.
She gasped for breath.
What the hell had happened? She looked down and saw one sandal dangling off her foot with only the strap keeping it on. She must have tripped when the sandal slid off.
The cold rain still came down in buckets. It didn’t matter that it was late June, she was soaked through and she was freezing. She needed to get up and get to her car, but instead she sat there and started to shiver. She couldn’t move. Breathing was the paramount thing on her to-do list at the moment, but rain was running into her mouth, making it harder to catch her breath. And now that the shivering had started it just kept getting worse. She couldn’t stop it and it made everything harder.
She needed to get out of the rain and into her car. Once she got the heater going she’d warm up in a hurry and she’d be fine.
Scrambling to get up, she struggled for a foothold in the slippery mud and lost the battle, slipping on her useless mud-soaked sandals. She fell back again. A dull pain throbbed through her foot. Damn it, what had she done now? She gingerly felt around her ankle, relieved to find that it only seemed bruised. But really, was nothing going to go her way today?
Adrenaline roared through her system a mile a minute. She wanted to get up and go, but it wasn’t happening. Frustration roared through her too. Already stirred up from the kiss, still trying to catch her breath, and shivering uncontrollably, she had never felt so miserable. All she wanted to do was get away from Marcus, get home to the safety of her own place and weld the armor around her emotions back in place. But even the elements were keeping her from her goal.
She swallowed hard and fought back the tears that threatened to make her humiliation complete. That was all she needed now. She had to get to her car. Once she did, everything would be fine.
She tried once more to get up, but the mud made it impossible for her to get her footing. Only she would manage to fall into the one mud puddle in the entire yard. What the hell else could go wrong today?
Despite how ridiculous she’d look, she contemplated crawling to her car on all fours. At least it would get her away from here.
Before she could put thought to action, strong arms swooped out of nowhere, picked her up and carried her back to the house.
The heat from Marcus’s body was unbelievably welcome but he was taking her the wrong way. “P-put me down.”
He scowled at her, water dripping off his nose. “Don’t be foolish, I have to get you inside.”
“Just t-take me to my c-car, I can get home f-from there.”
Ignoring her, he kept striding toward the house, not slowing until he’d gotten them both back inside and slammed the door with his foot. Without hesitation, he headed up the stairs.
“Where are you t-taking me?”
“You’re shivering so hard your teeth are rattling and your lips are blue. I have to get you warmed up.”
“If you’d just t-taken me to my c-car I’d have been f-fine.” She couldn’t stop stuttering to her utter annoyance.
“I’ve never met a more stubborn woman in my life. I should have left you out there.”
“Why d-didn’t you?”
He didn’t even bother to answer. Heading straight into the bathroom at the top of the stairs, he unceremoniously dumped her on the edge of the tub and turned on the water in the shower stall.
Turning back to her, he whipped off the purse still miraculously draped around her neck and threw it on the floor. When he grabbed her foot to remove a sandal, she gasped, more from surprise than pain.
“What is it?”
“M-my ankle’s a little sore.”
He gently removed the sandal and felt around her ankle, but the pain was now minimal. “It doesn’t look bad, probably only bruised. We should put some ice on it once we have you warmed up and dried off.”
Asia nodded, not really listening, instead mesmerized by his strong hands as he removed the other sandal.
He moved to unbutton her top and she jerked back, trying to push his hands away. “What do you think you’re d-doing?”
His face was as black and stormy as the clouds outside. “I’m trying to keep you from catching your death of a cold. We have to get your clothes off and get you under the flow of hot water to warm you up. Besides, you’re covered in mud. We both are.”
She looked down and realized he was right. Her hands and legs, as well as her clothes, were covered in splotches of mud that even the torrential rain hadn’t been able to wash off. Leave it to her to get covered in mud and get it all over him too. She acquiesced and let him continue.
He had finally managed to unbutton her top and was pulling it past her shoulders when she realized with horror that he could see her nipples through the now see-through wet fabric of her bra. With great difficulty, fighting with the resistant wet fabric and her incessant shivering, she pulled her arms free of the sleeves.
And shoved his hands away again. “I c-can do the rest m-myself.”
He leaned back and held up his hands. “Prove it. If you can, I’ll leave the rest up to you.”
She threw him a dirty look and reached for the zipper on her skirt. It took a great deal of effort but she managed to capture the zipper’s tab and tug, but the damn thing wouldn’t budge.
After watching her struggle with it for a bit, he made an impatient sound and pushed her hands out of the way. “I’ll do it.”
In no time he had the zipper down, put his arm around her and lifted her enough to slip her skirt off. And, oh God, now she was standing there, holding onto the towel bar with one hand for support, wearing nothing but see-through underwear that showed everything she owned.
And Marcus had noticed.
Boy, had he noticed.
His heated gaze rested on her nipples, making them swell even more than they already had been from the cold, then it flicked down to the apex of her thighs. She no longer had any secrets from Marcus Thorne, that was for sure.
He swallowed. His fingers twitched as if wanting to reach out and touch her. Instead, he swiped his hands over his face to get rid of the water still dripping down. When his gaze met hers, his pupils were black with ferocious intent.
Heat flared to life between her thighs and she couldn’t look away. His hot gaze flicked down to her pebbled nipples again, and damned if she wasn’t getting wet in a whole new place.
He reached out and ran his knuckles across her hardened nipples, and suddenly she wasn’t shivering from the co
ld anymore but rather because of his caressing touch.
Her breath caught and held as she watched him lean down and brush his lips across one nipple, then take it into his mouth, fabric and all.
He sucked. Hard.
Her pussy clenched.
God, she’d forgotten how good this could feel. She clung to the towel bar for dear life, not because of her ankle but because she was afraid she’d topple over if she didn’t. The dull throb in her ankle had all but disappeared. Either that or she was feeling no pain right now, which was entirely possible, because the only sensation she was aware of was his lips on her breast making her all hot and shivery inside.
She resented the barrier of fabric like she’d never resented anything else. Before she could verbalize it, he reached behind her and with a deft flick of his wrist undid the hooks. Her bra slid down and hit the floor.
She knew she should put a stop to what he was doing but couldn’t seem to make herself do it. The next instant his tongue circled her right nipple before he took it into his hot mouth, sucking and licking, while his hand cupped her left breast, massaging it to delicious sensitivity.
All at once, stopping him was the last thing on her mind.
Awash in need, she suddenly realized just how much she’d missed being with a man in this way. How much she’d missed sex. Nothing short of an earthquake would have made her move from that spot. And maybe not even that.
While he kissed and suckled her breasts, his hands skimmed past her waist and continued on down her hips and thighs, dragging her underwear in their wake. The next second, he trailed his fingers through her nether curls and she sucked in a harsh breath.
She hung on a precipice of anticipation.
He was so close. All she wanted was for his fingers to breach that final inch, to touch her where she needed his touch the most. But he persisted in teasing her, coming closer and closer, so close but not close enough.
“God, just touch me already.”
Marcus grunted in satisfaction. “I thought you’d never ask.”
He dipped his finger and touched her clit, circling it with sensual strokes before sinking into her slippery folds. A moan escaped her lips at the sweet ache his caresses incited within her. But the ache quickly turned into so much more. In no time she was naked, wet and ready for him. More ready than she could ever remember being before.
