by Tessa Bailey
He nodded once. “Among other things.”
She wanted to blow off the line of questioning, but a glance toward the pool had her remembering all the times she’d woken up at the crack of dawn to drive her father to physical therapy. Half the time, she’d passed out on one of the leather benches until he’d finished swimming and wanted to leave, but it had made her feel useful. Like she’d made a difference in his recovery. “I’m welcome there. I just…” I’ve served my purpose. “You don’t know what I was like before. It’s a wonder they’ll bring me around polite company at all.” When Beck only watched her with quiet patience, she sliced a hand through the water. “Aren’t you going to ask me what I was like before?”
“I don’t care about before. I care about now.”
Kenna stared. “Why do you care at all, Beck? Shouldn’t it tell you something that my own parents have moved on and done their best to forget the portion of their life that includes me? They would erase me if they could. I’m a necessary evil to them.”
“No.” His harsh tone brought to mind the metal she worked with. “I don’t believe that.”
“You probably believe there’s good in everyone,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “That’s you. Discarding people is a foreign idea when you’re a big, fat war hero.”
“I’m no hero, Kenna.”
She scoffed. “I’ve been here a long time. I can separate out the good men, and you’re one of them. It’s why you can’t just let me go.”
He didn’t look happy. At all. “Explain that statement.”
Fear dripped slowly into her chest. Fear that once she outlined the reality for him, he’d see the truth in her explanation and bail. “My mother trapped my father into marriage by getting pregnant. She worked herself to the bone trying to earn his love and it never happened. Never. He doesn’t have it in him to love someone. His relationship with Tina is all about convenience.” She sucked in a breath. “I represent failure to both of them. My mom thought I could fix what was broken in my father, and I couldn’t. My father sees me as a product of his one and only fuck-up. Now he only makes room for me in his life when it’s convenient.” Her laughter held no trace of humor. “And yet, here I am. Living within walking distance of them both, wondering when I’ll see them next, like some masochist. The truth is, they found something better.”
“You’re not a masochist. You want them to love you the same way you love them.” Kenna didn’t realize he’d come closer until he cupped the side of her face. “You still haven’t explained why I can’t let you go.”
Common sense commanded she push him away. This closeness was too personal and he saw too much, but she couldn’t move under the intensity of his focus on her. It surrounded her like a hot whirlpool. “There are a few reasons.”
He caressed her bottom lip with his thumb, appearing fascinated by the curved feature. “Let’s hear them, so I can shoot them down one by one.”
“You’ve gotten a lot more confident since we first met.”
Beneath the water, their bodies brushed. “I managed to get the beautiful girl to come back for more. That does something to a man.”
Holy shit, she was turning into a straight-up junkie for his touch. The flesh at the juncture of her thighs contracted, seeking fulfillment. From him. Only him. Still… “We’re two different types of people, Beck. You ring the doorbell to meet your date’s father. I climb out my window and hitchhike to Florida while everyone’s sleeping.”
His sculpted lips lifted at one end. “You’re worth shaking hands over. Worth the time it takes to be read the riot act, Kenna. I’ll always be the guy who wants to show you that.” He dropped a hand beneath the bubbling water and stroked her belly with his knuckles. “That doesn’t mean I won’t choose to show you a different way once we’re alone. And darlin’, I wouldn’t make it to Florida before that happened. Not even half a mile.”
An image of her straddling Beck in the backseat of a car made her short of breath. “Not everyone needs a hero, Beck. Not everyone wants to be repaired.”
“Good. Because you’re not broken.” He gave her a hard look. “I’m sorry the people who love you made you feel that way. They’re the ones who need fixing.”
The precipice beneath her feet had nearly corroded, so she played her trump card. “You’re leaving. Going back to Georgia.”
“You let me worry about that right now.” His stare didn’t waver. “Don’t think about it tonight.”
Not so impossible when he appeared intent on consuming her thoughts. “What do you want me to think about instead?”
Beck slid his knuckles down her belly, over her mound to rub them between her legs. “I can tell you what I’m thinking about.” His breath bathed her damp forehead. “You told me nothing we do is wrong. Does that extend to my mouth, darlin’?”
“Yes,” she breathed.
“Thank God.” He ground his closed fist against her core and she gasped. “Kenna…I’m thinking I fucked this and now its mine.” She swayed forward and landed against his wet chest. “Before I met you, saying those words would have horrified me,” he grated at her ear. “But when my dick gets hard to be inside your body, I don’t second-guess anything. When we’re not fucking, I will treat you like gold. But right now, all I can think about is wearing out my little bad girl. I want to carry your limp body out of here in my goddamn arms. Do you understand me?”
He pushed two fingers into her pulsing heat, ripping a gasp from her lips. It felt so unbelievably good. “I-I guess that means we’re done talking.”
My girl. Mine.
A category five hurricane tore through Beck and he didn’t bother trying to weather it or minimize the damage. He’d considered himself a reasonable, generous man. A man who saw everything from an objective standpoint. Yet there was no objectivity when it came to Kenna. He wanted to give and take so many things from her, all at once. Wanted to give pleasure, security, reassurance. And he wasn’t too proud a man to admit he wanted those things from her in return.
He looked down into her upturned face and saw the final brick in her wall tumble to the ground, leaving nothing more between them. Good Lord. She had no idea that her guard falling had sealed her fate, did she? Before she’d confided all her secrets, he’d already fallen for her, but the vulnerable girl she’d revealed called to the protector in him. His muscles ached with the need to go to battle for her. Protect her. Make her feel worthy, the way she’d done for him. And God, he was possessive. If she only knew how badly he wanted to beat his chest right now at having won her trust, would it scare her? No. No, she’d tell him nothing he felt pressed to do was wrong. Another reason he wouldn’t be letting her go. She accepted every damn thing about him.
Emotion built in his throat until he had no choice but to stop staring at her gorgeous face and kiss her. Her pussy tightened around his fingers when their tongues licked together. Christ. The knowledge his mouth on hers could affect her between the legs rocked him, encouraged him to deepen the kiss. She undulated her hips, riding his fingers as he drew them in and out. So warm and wet. Someday soon he would make her come into his palm, but not now. The driving need to be inside her, have her body wrapped around him, demanded satisfaction. His hoarse groan must have betrayed his thoughts because Kenna’s hand found his cock, stroking it beneath the water.
“Harder,” he ground out. “Rough and fast. The way I’m going to take you.”
“Yes,” she moaned. “That’s what I need.”
Beck rose from the water and savored the sight of her beneath him on the seat, her hand eagerly working his cock. Redness suffused her cheeks, mouth falling open as she perused him, head to toe. As he reached for his pants on the tile behind her to retrieve a newly purchased condom, her green eyes roamed over his pectorals and stomach before landing where he wanted them, on his heavy erection. It swelled larger under her regard while he applied the latex.
She moistened her lips. “You’re sexy as hell, Beck. You know that?”
&
nbsp; Surprise laced through the lust. He’d known she was attracted to him, but to hear it straight from her mouth made him confident and desperate at the same time. Unable to battle his baser urges any longer, he banged his fist against his chest. “Stand up and climb on then.”
Water traveled down her body in streams as she stood on the seat, passing over her pointed nipples, her flat stomach…fuck, her bare pussy. Beck found himself jealous of the water itself. Nothing should touch her but him. She dug her fingers into his shoulders and slid up his body, legs wrapping around his waist like a vise. Beck’s head fell back on a moan when she reached behind her and led his cock to her slippery entrance. “I’m going to ride you so hard.” She licked up his neck, sending a wave of heat straight to his groin. “All you have to do is watch.”
When she eased down on his length, Beck moaned long and loud. Couldn’t help it. The perfect tightness of her combined with her open-mouthed expression of pleasure blew any other experience in his life right out of the water.
“You know what’s so hot,” she whispered, giving a slow buck of her hips and releasing a shaky breath. “You could walk around with me like this all day without breaking a sweat.”
“Damn right.” A shudder passed through him. “Part of me would love it, too. Letting you milk me everywhere I go.”
She lifted and swiveled her body on the way back down. “What about the other part of you?”
Beck was fast losing focus on anything but the spot their bodies connected, but he pressed their foreheads together, making sure she was looking him in the eye. “The other part of me already wants to kill anyone who will covet what’s mine.”
Her breathing grew choppy. “You fucked this, now it’s yours?”
“That’s right,” he growled, his hands lifting to grip her flexing thighs, barely restraining himself from throwing her down and thrusting until she screamed. “I’m giving you one minute to play, Kenna, then it’s time to start wearing you out. I’ll be making up for lost time with that sinner’s body.”
“Yes, Beck.” Holding on to his shoulders, she leaned back and gave him an earth-shaking view of her writhing body, the spot where his cock appeared and disappeared into her smooth pussy. Around him, her legs increased their hold as she began sliding up and down his length. Her addicting whimpers were almost carried away by the frothing water, but he grabbed and savored them. The faster she moved, the more his sanity threatened to desert him. Needing her close, he crushed her against his chest, taking her mouth in a punishing kiss even as she continued riding his sensitive dick. Can’t hold off any longer. He needed to pin her, gain leverage. Thrust as hard as possible.
Without knowing if her minute had expired—and no longer giving a damn—Beck waded toward the hot tub steps, climbing out of the water while Kenna continued to buck and moan, nails digging into his shoulders. Jesus, he loved the pain. It proved she was real and not a trick of his imagination.
His attention snagged on a mirrored wall, stretching along one end of the physical therapy area. The sight of Kenna clinging to him, her back and ass rolling sensually, nearly brought him to his knees. Closer. He had to get closer. See the perfection of her up close while experiencing the heaven of her wet heat taking him shallow and deep. Shallow and deep. Teeth gritted, Beck crossed the room at a brisk stride, stopping in front of the mirror. “Damn. Damn, Kenna. Look at you.” He gripped her right ass cheek—watched the reflection of his hand squeezing the flesh below her sexy barbed wire tattoo—until she cried out. “If I’d known you existed, coming in my own hand would have been fucking impossible. All those years…” He threw his head back on a groan. “Nothing would have compared. I would have been miserable without your pussy.”
She started to put on a show then. Watching his face as she treated him to a hot bump and grind, her body glistening in the muted light. “The way you squeeze my ass. It’s like you’re trying to prevent yourself from doing more with that hand.”
There was a heady truth behind her words. A desire he struggled to acknowledge because he’d pushed it so deep, ignored it for so long. He took her mouth in a furious kiss, pulling away only when air was required. But even that delicious distraction couldn’t tear his mind away from the invitation in her voice. “What do you mean by something more?”
Her eyes were bright, her voice seductive. “You want to spank me, Beck?”
CHAPTER TEN
The breath fled Kenna’s lungs as Beck lifted her off his stiff arousal and whirled her around. He hadn’t responded to her question, but his expression had been answer enough. Just when she thought all of Beck’s layers had been peeled back, another was revealed and she loved it. Loved being the one to liberate his repressed sexual nature. A nature that was turning out to be insatiable and filthy. To her, sex had always been enjoyable, but tended to feel choreographed. Nothing about sex with Beck felt planned—it was down and dirty, honest-to-God slaking of lust. Nothing felt off limits. And for someone like Kenna, who didn’t open up easily, it was freeing. Like she’d taken flight for the first time.
She faced away from Beck now, her stomach pressed against the edge of a leather therapy table, made slippery from her dripping body. His restraint was obvious as he breathed heavily into her hair, hands flexing at her hips. “I don’t lay hands on women,” he said, voice like gravel.
Exulting in the privilege of being the one to correct his misconception, give him the extra push, Kenna flattened her palms on the table, bent forward and tilted her hips. As if he had no control over his actions, Beck dragged his hard cock up and down the valley of her bottom, making her moan. “This is for my pleasure, Beck.” She tossed her hair, meeting his tortured gaze over her shoulder. “Don’t you want to give me pleasure?”
“Yes. Constantly.”
“Then take yours and watch me find mine, too.”
She leaned down and pressed her cheek to the cool leather, her face turned so she could watch him in the mirror. His barrel chest shuddered once, twice, his right hand lifting and flexing in the air. Finally, as if the final barrier had crumbled, his huge hand landed on her backside with a satisfying slap. “Oh, God,” she breathed, the flesh between her legs tightening like a fist. Beck’s erection bulged against her backside, telling her without words how affected he’d been. Her vision cleared and she saw him in the mirror, watching her with a mixture of concern and arousal. Sweat had broken out on his forehead, the muscles in his arms straining beneath his skin. Fuck hot. “That made me feel so good, Beck.” She licked the saltiness from her lips. “Did you like it?”
“Too much.” His voice had dropped to such a deep pitch, it set off a dark, dangerous throb beneath her belly button. “I’m not sure about the things it made me feel…the things I want to do.”
Kenna started to remind him nothing they did was wrong, but his hand colliding with her still-damp backside had her gasping instead.
“I know what you’re going to say. That nothing between us is wrong,” he grated, smacking her buttocks with increased force. “What if I want it to feel a little wrong, darlin’. What then?”
Turned on to a level she’d never encountered, it became difficult to get air into her lungs. Was that her making the table shake? “It’ll only be wrong if you stop.”
In the space of two seconds, he’d fisted his erection, guided the thick head to her entrance and plunged every merciless inch inside her, roaring as he went. Kenna screamed into the table’s leather surface but was cut off when he started to drive himself home, again and again. The buildup had been so great, the anticipation so intense, an orgasm stripped her from the inside out. It seemed never ending, bolstered by Beck filling her to capacity with each thrust. The table rocked beneath her, its wooden legs scraping on the ground, but Beck grabbed it by the sides and held it still, kept it from moving forward. Pinned. She was pinned at the hips by his swollen arousal and the knowledge was indescribable.
Kenna thought the force of Beck entering her couldn’t get any greater, but she was
wrong. He used his white-knuckled grip on the table to jerk her—and the table—back, to meet his drives. Scrape, scrape, scrape. She became part of the heavy piece of furniture, bent over its edge, existing to service him. Behind her, Beck growled, the sound mingling with the scrape of wood on tile. “You need this, don’t you, Kenna? Need my cock to be the only one that gets you from now on?” He moved faster. Faster. “That’s what I need.”
Her muffled reply got lost in the sound of wet flesh connecting. She had no idea what her response had been, anyway. Didn’t care. Could only concentrate on the pleasure teasing her loins, getting ready to go off like a camera flash. Almost there. Almost there.
Abruptly, Beck ceased his tireless drives, removing one hand from the table to reach between her legs. “You need me to touch you here, don’t you? I’m a fast learner, Kenna.” The callused pads of his fingers dragged over her clit, then circled, his hips delivering deliberate, slow thrusts. “I watched every move you made our first night. I know you like when I use my size against you. When I bounce you up and down like a little doll.” His fingers moved faster, rougher. “And now I know a good slap on your perked-up ass gets you the wettest of all, don’t I?”
To emphasize his point, he pulled out until only the tip of his arousal remained inside her, then slammed back inside, demanding an answer. “Yes!”
“I know everything you need. Everything.” His chest aligned with her back, pressing her down into the leather table, his stubble rasping over her ear. “I’m your daddy now, Kenna.”
The force of her climax ripped a scream from her lips, the sound bouncing off the tile floor and echoing throughout the room. Her fingernails clawed at the leather, struggling to gain purchase, even though she never would again. She was given no time to process Beck’s words or their impact on her before he gripped the table’s sides once more and heaved her backward onto his waiting erection. Once, twice, three times, before shoving to the deepest recesses of her womanhood and loosing a primitive shout. One that made her feel claimed—owned—as he came. Beck’s body was wracked with tremors that vibrated through her when his huge frame collapsed onto her back.
