by Stacy Gail
“Are these your favorite animals?”
“They’re me, West and Brody. Our spirit animals from our old basketball days.” Faint humor sounded in his voice as his lips skimmed over her skin. “I was the fox. No one knew what I was going to do, because I liked to take the crazy kind of risks that either bombed in a big way or became legend.”
“Sounds like you.” She didn’t want him to think of his family now, or his maverick risk-taking tendencies. She wanted all of his focus on what they were doing and nothing else.
She could make that happen.
His long, lean torso was sculpted with the muscles of a natural athlete, and she wanted to run her hands over every inch of that exposed flesh. But before she could move, he caught her hands and brought them to the top of his sweatpants hanging low off of his hips.
“You do the rest. I’m busy unwrapping my own present.”
A whimper of excitement escaped her even as he pulled the zipper of her jeans down. Her intimate flesh at the juncture of her thighs tingled and throbbed with need, while low in her belly her muscles tensed in heady anticipation. Wanting him was such a sweet ache to bear. Her eyes almost closed against it, but she didn’t want to lose sight of him. He was too beautiful to look away from, too perfect for her to shut out, even for a moment. If she could watch him while she gave him whatever pleasure she could, that would be enough.
But she hadn’t been lying when she’d said she was greedy. She wanted more.
So much more.
Her hands slid under the waistband of his sweats and pushed them down, her palms sliding over smooth, heated skin and nothing else. “Ooh. Commando.”
“I like sleeping naked, even in the winter. But I didn’t want to run the risk of freaking out my houseguest or making her uncomfortable.”
“I’m not uncomfortable.” Touched that he’d thought of her, her mouth softened as she pushed the material past his hips and let them fall, revealing the long, thick column of his cock, and her breath caught in her throat. Damn, he was even bigger than she’d expected. Fully aroused with the crown dark with hot blood, she couldn’t stop herself from curling her fingers around him and wasn’t surprised when she couldn’t wrap around him fully. She tried, giving the stiffened flesh an experimental squeeze. He groaned and pushed into her hold before he shoved at the remainder of her clothes, and she helpfully kicked them aside moments before he fell back onto the bed, taking her with him. He rolled so that he was almost completely over her while she let her hands explore his chest, before moving to the smooth, masculine plain of his back and down to the rock-hard contours of his well-toned ass.
“Beautiful,” he muttered against her skin, then dipped his head and latched his mouth onto her sensitized nipple.
She arched off the bed, her hands coming to his head to hold him there. The suction of his mouth was insanely spectacular; her nerves were suddenly attuned to that one spot while her skin sizzled with invisible fire. More heat uncoiled between her legs, her intimate folds throbbing with a sweet ache and the need to be filled. That need made her squirm as the edgy, achy tension weighed down on her. She bit her lip even as she moaned, and the urgency to have him inside her was almost too much to take. He was making her crazy, and he’d barely even begun. She was going to fly to pieces by the time he was done with her.
She couldn’t wait.
“You know what I want.” The words whispered out of her as he moved to her other breast, and the caress of his long hair over her heated skin made her shiver uncontrollably. “Don’t you keep it from me.”
“I’m going to give it to you. I’m going to make you come so hard you’ll never forget how good it is to be fucked by me.” Suddenly he rolled to reach for the nightstand, opened a drawer and retrieved an unopened box of condoms. “Put it on me.”
She didn’t expect the command, and her fingers were clumsy with the anticipation that hit so hard it knocked the breath out of her. But she finally managed the task, and she trembled at how the movement of her hand over his hard shaft caused a broken groan to rumble out of him.
He was such a man, she thought, letting him move her onto her back while he positioned himself over her. Such a man. And she loved how he showed her how she made him feel.
“Look at me, Mia.” He kept his body suspended over her, his weight caught on his forearm while he settled his hips between her thighs. His free hand slid up to her chin to make sure that her eyes met his. “Say my name.”
“Quinn.” She was so breathless she could only whisper it. “Boom.”
His eyes blazed and the hand at her chin left to trail down her chest, over her breast and past her belly, to slide between her legs to cup her intimately. His fingers stroked her, delving into her channel, and as her head pressed back into the mattress she almost missed the hot smile that crossed his face.
“You get so fucking wet for me, baby. Do you know how much I love that?”
“Show me.” If he wanted her to beg, she wasn’t too proud. Anything to fill the emptiness inside her. “Please, Quinn.”
“That’s my Mia.” His hand stroked her while his mouth closed on hers for a quick, hot dueling of tongues. Then he broke the kiss and settled more of his weight on her, the press of his body spreading her thighs wider. “I want you to watch this. Watch me go inside you.”
Her lower belly quivered. “Shit, you’re making me crazy.”
“Watch me fuck you, love.”
Oh.
God.
Helpless to do anything else, her gaze followed his down her body to where he held himself at her threshold. He continued to stroke her clit as he lowered himself in a slow, smooth thrust, merging their bodies into a perfect, single unit.
It was the sexiest thing she had ever experienced.
A shudder rippled through him as he embedded his shaft slowly into her, seating himself fully. She felt her body stretch to accommodate him, and that stretching was so deep, so exquisite, a curl of satisfaction bloomed inside her so that she couldn’t help but whimper in response.
He was made for her. In that instant, as she reeled from the pleasure that washed through her simply from his entry alone, she was convinced of it.
“So good.” His eyes closed tight, as if he too was engulfed in a small release of ecstasy, before he looked into her eyes and rolled his hips, a fluid undulation that moved his hardened flesh inside the tight grip of her body. “Baby, you feel so good. Perfect.”
“That’s you, not me. Perfect.” They were the last words she was capable of uttering consciously, as she turned all her attention to the ebb-and-flow waves of sensations he created as he fucked her. Feverishly she ran her hands down the small of his back to his ass, filling her hands with the bunching and contracting muscles and pushing him deeper while pulling her knees up on either side of him to increase the angle.
Yes.
He was inside her so deep, so magnificently deep…
She barely heard the low sounds coming from her with every shallow, panting breath. She was too fixated on the growling grunts he made as he buried his fingers in her hair and brought his mouth to her neck. The sting of the suction of his mouth was delicious, and the rhythm of him filling her again and again became a feverish cadence that held her world together.
She couldn’t get enough.
She’d never get enough.
She wanted it to go on forever.
Desperately she rolled her hips, seeking more pleasure, more sensation, more everything, and if she didn’t get it the wildness inside her would drive her insane. Tension twisted tighter in her muscles, and it was so excruciatingly rapturous she never wanted it to end.
His breath bordered on tortured and his thrusting rhythm increased, impaling her again and again in a kind of driven madness. Frantically she chased after the elusive bliss that teased her by matching him movement for movement, until the heat from the friction they created burned her beautifully alive.
So close. So close.
Yes…
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All at once the ever-tightening tension deep inside of her released in every cell. She cried out at the force of it, and tears—actual freaking tears—leaked out of the corners of her eyes to dampen her hair while she was pierced with the sweetest ecstasy she’d ever experienced. This wasn’t just sex, or a really spectacular orgasm. This was madness. Otherworldly pleasure. It sent her right out of her mind and showed her unequivocally that perfection could truly be found.
And she’d found it, amazingly enough, in Quinn Kingfisher.
Her breathing was still labored when he collapsed against her, though he shifted just enough so that he didn’t crush her. She wouldn’t have minded taking the weight of him in the least. There was nothing about him she didn’t approve of in the most emphatic way, a fact which belatedly reminded her of one of his earlier statements.
“Just so you know,” she offered breathlessly, looking up at the ceiling and wondering if she’d ever felt this outstanding, post-sexy times, “I don’t mind if you sleep naked. You’re very sweet to think of my comfort level, but really, I’m good with it.”
“Glad to hear it.” His voice was muffled as he fit his face into her neck and blindly pulled the covers over them. “Because we’re both going to sleep bare-ass naked from this point on.”
Chapter Thirteen
The last thing Quinn wanted to do was get out of bed. All the priorities on his To-Do list had been shoved aside the second he heard Mia on the phone, and spending the day with her in the sack had become his number-one goal.
There were worse goals to have.
The weather was cooperating with his plans. The howling of the wind could be heard even through the thick, insulated windows of the chalet, and the world beyond had once against turned a stark and unrelenting white. It was obvious to him that it was the perfect day to stay under the covers and fuck each other until they could fuck no more.
As if that could ever happen.
With that in mind, he was drifting off to sleep with Mia curled into him, those sexy, long legs of hers tangled with his, when his phone went off. Half-asleep, he plucked it off the nightstand out of sheer habit, then was fiercely sorry he did when he finally hung up about a minute later. What he wouldn’t have given to say to hell with everything, bury his face in Mia’s wild fall of hair and sleep until they were ready for round two.
Instead…
“Mia.”
She stirred, nuzzling her face into his neck before kissing him there.
Shit, that felt sweet.
“Red.” Turning onto his side he faced her, enjoying how she hitched a leg up over his hip to accommodate his new position and giving him a kind of cozy, cute leg-hug. Ah, damn. She was such a good sport. “You awake?”
“Huh-uh.” She stretched, her body moving against him, and he closed his eyes to better enjoy the sensation. “Sleep, Boom.”
It was crazy, how much he loved it when she called him that. “I want to. Then I want to wake up and get inside you again, then sleep some more, then do it all over again.”
He could feel how her eyes remained closed while her mouth curved in a smile. “Nice.”
“But I can’t do that.”
Her smile turned into a sleepy chuckle. “Don’t doubt yourself, champ. I don’t.”
A sassy redhead, he thought, shaking his head. What a gift. “No doubt on that score, Red. I could do that and more, until you didn’t have a voice left from screaming and your legs wouldn’t be able to hold you. But as of now, I don’t have the time to do that, and neither do you.”
At last she pulled her face out of its hiding place and blinked sleepily up at him. “What are you talking about? Why don’t we have time?”
“That was Olivia on the phone. A spontaneous family brunch-slash-gathering is happening over in the main building, and since it’s my building and lot of the people who are currently over there haven’t seen either the resort or me for the past two years, my presence is sort of required.”
She was silent for a heartbeat. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope.”
“It’s blizzarding.”
“I seriously don’t know if that’s a word.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yeah.” He sighed and kissed her temple. “I gotta admit, my life was so much more peaceful when no one was speaking to me.”
She rose up on one elbow. “So… let me get this straight. Everything is supposed to go back to normal and everyone pretends you weren’t thoroughly dissed for two frigging years? Just like that?”
“Ah, there she is, my sweet, raving redhead who goes from zero to bloodthirsty in half a second. And it’s not just like that,” he went on when she opened her mouth to no doubt inform him that she was neither bloodthirsty nor a redhead. “I’m still pissed. And I’m not going to forget who supported me from the get-go, and who did their damnedest to pretend that I’d suddenly disappeared off the face of the earth. But if they’re willing to try, I have to set aside my issues and man up, not dwell on the past and move forward, because that’s what matters.”
“You’re willing to be the bigger man, and I appreciate that. But after the way they’ve treated you, how do you know that they’re going to appreciate it?’
“They will, because they’re here. Their willingness to meet me on my own turf is their way of conceding that they were wrong. They’re showing up in person, and that means they’re taking that first step in bridging the gap. I might still be pissed as hell, but I’m not such an epic asshole that I’d throw their offered olive branch back in their faces. Hostilities have to end at some point, and if they’re big enough to offer a cease-fire, I’m big enough to accept it.”
“I suppose you’re right,” she muttered, looking torn, and it made him grin. “It was probably hard for some of them to come to you today to admit that they were wrong and idiotic for thinking only of their own problems, and selfish, disloyal jerks for not supporting you as you worked your ass off to build your dream.”
“I kinda doubt anyone’s going to use those exact words, babe, but let’s go with that.” Laughing and feeling a crazy lightness in his chest, he wrapped his arms around her and rolled so that she was on the bottom and he was on top. “I’m glad I have your support, Red. You’ve got the damnedest talent for making me feel like I can do anything.”
Her eyes widened in what looked like surprise. “You can do anything, Boom. I have nothing to do with that. It’s obvious to me that you were born that way.”
He lowered his brow to hers and closed his eyes as the lightness ballooned inside him. “God help me, you’re cute.”
“I thought I was bloodthirsty.”
“That too. From my point of view, that’s an irresistible combination.”
“I think that makes you weird.”
“I’m good with that.” He kissed her long and deep, then groaned when she stroked her silky, long leg over the outside of his. He rolled away before he could give into temptation and settle himself more firmly into the welcoming cradle of her hips. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”
“Wait a minute.” More tousle-headed than ever, she peeked up at him from the edge of the comforter with those ice-chip eyes of hers, looking so damn cute it took all his strength not to rejoin her. “What do you mean, let’s? Isn’t this a family thing?”
“Lady, you’re out of your frigging mind if you think I’m going into that lion’s den all by myself.” He reached down and flung the covers back, then grinned when she gave a high-pitched girlie squeal when the cool air hit her naked flesh. She was one hell of an eyeful, and his self-control nearly buckled right then. Flawless porcelain skin stretched over a graceful, feminine frame that made him finally understand why some women were described as willowy. He couldn’t help but be mesmerized by the subtle curve of her hipbones and the delicate flare of her breasts tipped with rosy nipples that felt so fucking good in his mouth...
She tried to dive back under the covers. “Remember, I can’t be
trusted to not go batshit crazy around your father and brother. You don’t want me there, trust me.”
Before she could make a grab for the blankets, he hauled her up and held her tight, rubbing her against his hardening cock to torment himself. “Yeah, I do, and you’re going to behave yourself, just like I expect you to. They want to make nice, and I’m cool with that. But I want to have someone by my side who I know is in my corner, and that someone’s you. Like it or not you’re going, so get a move-on. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can get back in bed and be all over each other. Deal?”
Her eyes went soft before she smiled up at him, and it was the sweetest smile she’d ever given him. Then she rested a hand against his cheek and brought her mouth close. “Deal,” she whispered a scant second before her lips closed over his.
His arms tightened fiercely on her, and he had to consciously remind himself that crushing her into him wasn’t physically possible. Walking away from the family business and knowing he was probably letting them down had been hard. Building his dream out of nothing while most of his family and friends either ignored his existence or told him it couldn’t be done had been damned near impossible.
But not heading back to bed with his armful of sweet, responsive Mia almost broke him.
Mia didn’t have much time to get nervous about meeting more of the Kingfisher family, but she did take extra care in getting ready. Aside from putting on full makeup, she wore the thin ice blue blouse with the infinity scarf to cover the hickeys Quinn had given her—and took a precious minute to read him the riot act for marking her like a horny teenager—skinny jeans and her much-adored high-heeled boots. She left her hair down to cover up whatever marks the scarf didn’t hide, so in the end she wound up with half-casual elegance, half-Merida without visible weaponry.
