The lamp went off and the sound of movement preceded his silhouette emerging in the frame of her window. Tipping her head back to look at him, Zara couldn’t make out his features, but could tell that he was taking off his tee shirt.
“Uh, what do you think you’re doing?” she asked, but he had already dropped onto the bed beside her.
One of his arms came around her ribs and he hauled her closer while his head fell to sample the line of her throat exposed beneath her supporting arm. “You opened the door,” he said, tracing his lips back and forth on her jaw line. “Until you tell me it’s closed again. You’re fair game.”
“I’m fair, what?” she asked, smacking his shoulder.
“You get as physical as you want,” he said. Rushing forward, he tackled her onto her back and pinned her down. With his hands on her upper arms, and his shins over her legs, she couldn’t move.
“You’re a physical guy,” she said. “You understand the physical.”
“Want me to teach you?” he asked, letting his jeans rasp the length of her exposed legs. Lowering himself, he kissed her jaw again.
“You can talk me through it,” she said and finished by muttering his words, “I’m fair game.”
His statement didn’t offend her. Having such a direct guy in her bed was something Zara needed. Questions existed in too many areas of her life. Conceding to simple sexual desire without extraneous stress in the equation was alluring.
“Is it words you want, baby?” he asked. “Is that what turns you on?” No man had asked her that question before. Usually actions took the place of words. “You want to hear what I’m gonna do to your fuckable body?”
That was another question no man had asked her and she was still pondering it, and the growing pulse in her muscles, when Raven’s mouth moved over hers. Zara parted her lips and let him kiss her. She hadn’t been objecting to the sex. Her objection had been to his presumption, and that complaint hadn’t been particularly convincing even to her own ears.
“You lay it all out for me,” he said. “I was thinking sex and you came in ready to perform. You’re a good girl, Zara.”
“I thought I was naughty,” she asked, and he caught her chin in his teeth.
The grip on her arms grew and she got a glimpse of just how strong this man was. His fingers cut so deep, she thought they might bruise her, but that ache stoked the fire smoldering low in her gut and she parted her legs to draw up her knees.
“Is that what you like, baby? You want me to talk? To get rough with you?”
Her heart pounced up to her throat when they made eye contact, and in its place was a hollow haven of arousal that bubbled and simmered, popping and spilling lower, descending through her guts. Her head moved in a nod of its own volition and when his shrewd smile became lewd, she wondered what kind of brute she’d just unleashed.
“Push back,” he murmured and she wasn’t sure what he meant. “Show me what you’ve got… Fight.”
Under normal circumstances, she would never try to fight anyone, especially someone with Raven’s stature. But she tensed and tried to push up. Wriggling left to right, she got her feet to his hips and tried to push him away while pulling her arms back and forth, trying to work them out of his hold.
“Stop,” he said. Although he hadn’t had any difficulty in subduing her, she complied and went limp. “You see how that worked?”
“What? I—”
“When I said stop, you stopped.” She nodded. “If we’re gonna play games, if you want me to… take control. If no is gonna mean yes, I have to know when stop means stop.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m happy to play with you,” he said, lowering to kiss her and run the tip of his nose down her cheekbone. “I’ve been thinking about nothing else since I left you here naked with that gun the other night.”
Exhaling her impatience, she tried to stem her frustration because somehow she knew he would enjoy getting a rise out of her. He had kissed her, started to stimulate her, and then stopped to have a damn conversation. But she had to appreciate that he was being responsible because she hadn’t realized that sleeping with him once would make her fair game, as he’d put it.
Now that she’d told him she wanted him to get rough, God only knew what door she had opened.
“What word will you use if you mean no?”
A safe word. As ridiculous as it made her sound, she had read about this. For couples who liked to get rough or push boundaries with each other, they came up with a word that could be used in place of a refusal. The possibilities began to flood her mind. The freedom this could give them in the bedroom provoked her hormones again until her toes tingled, forcing her to curl them into his hips.
“What are you going to do to me?” she asked, grinning past her pout. Trying to push up to kiss him, she was planted back on the bed. If this new chapter meant their kissing would cease, she would be disappointed. Kissing him was a wonder. The memory of it alone dampened her.
“Pick a word and then I can do whatever the hell I want until you use it.”
Odd as it was, he was actually being respectful; he was taking care of her. In that moment, she stared up into his eyes and decided that there was no way he could be a terrorist. Terrorists wanted to terrorize and took pleasure in the suffering of others. She wasn’t suffering. Granted, she wasn’t his prey… except from the depth of his intensity now, she could be mistaken for it.
“Dagger,” she said. “Because you’re so cloak and dagger.” He shook his head. “Why not?”
“Because I might bring one of those to bed.”
That sent another shudder through her. Zara tried to free her arms so she could touch him, but he kept her pinned. “Taxicab,” she said, growling in frustration. “Taxicab is our safe word. No chance of you bringing one of those into bed, is there?”
His eyes got heavier. “Excellent choice,” he said and with that formality out of the way, he became fixated on her lips. “Taxicab it is.”
Pressing down on her, he impelled his tongue into her mouth. The motion of his kiss relaxed her and she opened and closed her fists. Still unable to touch him, she used her feet to do the touching for her. Coiling her legs around his thighs, she rubbed her feet down his hard calves, pushing into them with the balls of her feet, massaging the muscles until her toes hit his bare heels, then they ascended again.
He’d obviously removed his socks and boots while he was seated in the corner. Now all she needed to do was get rid of his jeans. When he loosened his grip on her, she slid her hands up his arms, expecting to get her chance to explore his body. Except he cut her chance short by picking her up in a bear hug. Coiling her legs around his hips, she locked her ankles at his lower back and stretched her arms out behind him, crossing them over, and linking her fingers.
Raven’s wide kneeling stance gave them a good foundation and he didn’t wobble once. Their eyes met and she leaned in to kiss him. While he was pampering her mouth, he shuffled forward and fell onto her. Zara caught the full weight of him for a split second before he shifted himself to one side, so that his body was still covering hers, but he wasn’t above her anymore.
When he reached over her for the drawer, she assumed his intention was to retrieve a condom. Taking her chance, while he was on a mission, Zara combed a hand through his hair. She kissed his neck and shoulder while stroking his torso. Every inch of him was hard and she wanted to explore each of his muscles with her tongue. But knowing that her time might be limited, she chose instead to unbuckle his belt to try to get ahold of him.
The belt was as far as she got. He closed the drawer and returned his focus to her, squashing her roving hand in place with a slant of his pelvis. Stealing her mouth, she was basking in the fervor of his kiss when she heard the buzz. Still kissing him, she opened her eyes and tried to see what was making the noise.
She didn’t see it, but she felt the tingle on her knee and she recognized the pinch of that cool metal. Gasping the air fr
om his mouth, she grabbed his shoulders to force him away from their kiss. But he was already trailing the metallic object up the inside of her thigh.
“That’s my…”
“Yes, it is,” he said and licked her bottom lip. “You know what you have to say if you want me to stop.” They had just made that agreement, and as mortified as she was at the thought of what he was going to do to her, she’d invited it. Asking him to push her boundaries had given him free rein to deliver her new experiences, even those that might fluster her.
“You’re not gonna say no,” he said, pressing kisses to her cheek, jaw, and neck. “You’re naughty. You’re a naughty girl who wants a bad boy to do naughty things to her. Aren’t you?”
The pulse of her vibrator had paused high on her thigh. With his mouth open on hers, Raven moved the unyielding object higher to let it just touch her clit. The stab of pleasure made her cling to him, still their mouths remained open together, yet they didn’t fuse.
“Relax,” he said. “Let yourself feel it.”
Sliding the cylindrical agitator south, he let it just enter her to tease her juices. Keeping it just on her threshold, Raven ducked down to kiss and tease each of her nipples to a point with his mouth.
When the invisible strings keeping her body together began to tighten, he shifted higher to lie the length of her with his weight braced on one elbow. The other hand moved the tormenting tool in circles, widening her entrance in preparation for him.
In no apparent hurry, he used a fingertip to circle the nipple closest to his supporting arm and kept on playing. Turning her body toward him, Zara tried to kiss him again. But he kissed her chin and rose over her only to then descend out of her vision, leaving a chill in the place his body had been. Parting her legs, he kissed her hip and ran his tongue across to unite it with the vibrator he’d moved onto her clit. Kissing each side of it, he moved the toy up and down over her and trusting it to do its work, he dropped his mouth and dipped his tongue into her.
Zara didn’t know what to do with the rush of heat and arousal that was making it difficult for her to remain static. To aid his work, he rested a forearm across her pelvis to pin her down. The buzz of stimulation made her yelp, and he reared up to kiss her. Experiencing her own taste on his tongue made her clutch his hair to force him closer. When she arched up into the toy, Raven pressed it into her sensitive spot, showing no mercy, and she yelped again.
Her unsteady breaths made her heart rate grow erratic. It thudded so hard that each pulse shook her throat. So squeezing her eyes closed, she sealed her mouth and swallowed hard.
But Raven’s tongue glided through the seam of her lips, giving her no time to regain her equilibrium. “Pretty baby,” he muttered. “Open those big browns for me.” Letting her eyelids relax, she thought she was looking to him, but her world was one big blur, so she couldn’t be sure what she was seeing. All that existed now was the panting gasp that scraped the back of her throat.
“I’m gonna watch you come,” he said, running his mouth to her ear and sliding the vibrator through her heat to undulate it against her opening. “Nothing sexier than watching the way you breathe when you’re hot for me. You want to come? Do you? Tell me.”
“I want to come,” she said, and he moved the toy in circles.
“I’m gonna watch you come like this…” Tracing the vibrator up and around her clit, he let it touch every intimate part of her. “Then I’m gonna fuck you until you come again. You’ve got a sweet pussy, baby. I’m gonna get to know it real well… Say it again.”
“I want to come,” she said, clenching her teeth in resistance to the building pressure that made her lightheaded.
Noting her defiance, he stroked her cheek with his stubble-roughened jaw. “Relax,” he breathed and opened his mouth over hers. Distracting her with a kiss at the same time he massaged the toy over her again. Her forbearance failed and she was sent into a blind fog of endorphins that made every part of her spasm into a tense ball. “That was a good one.”
The vibrator went off, but she didn’t have time to register that before he was kissing her and running his hands up and down her torso. While trying to blink, Zara couldn’t breathe because her throat was so dry. But he kept on kissing her until her extremities began to tingle and she regained feeling.
Wrapping her hands around his shoulders, she spread her fingers and was impressed at the girth of his definition. Sliding them down his arms, she squeezed his elbows, then they shifted and she was flipped onto her face.
Grabbing her hair in a fist, he pulled it off her back, and kissed the nape of her neck. Then with the slightest of touches, he ran his tongue down her spine, sending a shiver through her that brought her to the brink of the precipice again.
“Rave—”
He smacked her ass, then kissed the globe and drove a forearm under her hips to pull them up. “This is gonna be fast and dirty,” he said, insinuating a finger between her thighs to dip into the well he’d created in her with her previous orgasm. “You need to be fucked good and hard… it’s gonna make everything feel all better.”
She wasn’t sure what it would make feel better, but she didn’t care. She’d do anything he asked of her at this point. “Lift up that ass,” he said and she pulled her legs under her. Both his hands came to the insides of her thighs and he forced her knees apart, giving her a wider center.
“Are you going to—?”
“I’m going in right here,” he said, squeezing two fingers into her sensitized passage. “Hold on to the bars on the headboard. Don’t let go.”
Zara wasn’t sure she had the strength to provide much of a lever point of resistance against what Raven could be capable of. But she lifted herself and did what he said. His fingers slid out of her and she glanced over her shoulder to see him lick them clean. His proceeding wink almost made her arms buckle, but her grip held true after she noticed that he had himself in hand.
Her excitement only faltered when she caught sight of his jeans, riding low around his thighs. Leaning over her, he pressed her cheekbone and forced her to look ahead. Scrutiny while screwing obviously wasn’t one of his turn ons.
With one hand on her hip, Raven yanked her, angling her body to his liking, giving no thought to any preference she may have. But Zara was already panting and writhing in anticipation of what he was going to provide and had no desire to participate in the decision-making, not when Rave was so skilled.
The provoking pressure of him pushing inside drenched her with sensation. Displaying a lack of patience, Zara inhaled and closed her eyes. “Rave—”
He smacked her again, and she realized that he always cut her off when she used his alias. Sucking her lips into her mouth, Zara wriggled back against him, enjoying how his mass felt against her inner muscles.
“Now I’m gonna make you scream,” he said, skimming his palm up her back, pushing down on his return to make her arch her ass up. “That’s it, baby. Purr for me.”
Drawing back, he left her body, so she held her breath and waited for him to return. The head of his dick stretched her threshold, and when she could bear it no more, she dragged in a breath and whined though she dug her teeth into her lower lip in an attempt to dam the whimper.
“That’s all I wanted,” he said.
One arm swooped under her and he caught her when he slammed into her. His pace was so furious that she had to cling onto the headboard even when he drove her forward enough to bump the top of her head into it.
With his steadying arm, he thrust deep and tilted her pelvis to a perfect position for optimum penetration. His bruising force pummeled her cervix and she clenched to slow his fury, but it didn’t work. Except the speckles of her orgasm emanated outward and she tossed her head back to scream out. She had never experienced such breakneck bonding before. The pose, each of his actions, the urgency of his thrusts, all of it belonged in a cave somewhere thousands of years ago.
Losing her grip with her sweaty hands, she let go and he smacked her
ass. “Hands!”
Despite the frenzy, he was aware of her every move and that attentiveness only increased her excitement. Keeping up his movement inside her, he lunged forward to grab both of her hands, which he picked up to plant on the headboard. Going back to his task, he held her hips and shoved into her once again before she heard his curse stream, this time hissed out from between his teeth.
Flopping onto her face, Zara made no attempt to speak or even move. Hyperaware of every cell, she closed her eyes and experienced every tremor and throb until their completion. She didn’t know exactly where Raven was, but he stroked her arm, provoking her into turning her head toward the other side of the bed.
With her face still buried in the pillow, she was pleased to see that he was lying beside her. Although, he was on his side and wearing a frown that didn’t suggest he was a man basking in the bliss of pleasure comparable to what she was experiencing.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, lifting a hand to reach for his face, but he didn’t let it get that far.
“I came here to earn your trust,” he said, pushing her body away from his. “This was not how I intended to get it.”
“You’ve never screwed a woman for information before?” Zara asked.
Rolling onto her side, she dug her elbow under the pillow he’d just vacated and rested her temple on her fist. For her, this was more than the mission he was on. He was pushing her boundaries and awakening desires in her that she never knew she had. Raven was special.
But she was getting the impression he didn’t feel that way, from his anger and his inability to relax when he was having sex or trying to joke, she knew he felt damaged, that something in him held back because maybe he didn’t believe he deserved having anything good in his life.
“I have,” he said, sitting up on the far edge of her bed, facing the window. Not that he would see much. There was nothing but darkness beyond the curtain and even if it was daytime, all that was out there were the dumpsters.
“Why am I different? Why not screw me and ask me your questions when I’m half-asleep? When I’m languishing in the endorphins of orgasm and my guard is down?” Hoping he might admit some vulnerability that would let her confess her own care for him, she asked leading questions.
Raven (Kindred #1) Page 11
