by Lili Valente
Why did those men have to ruin what was on its way to being one of the best nights of my life? Every minute with Jake tonight was perfect—better than perfect—before those masked creeps came out of nowhere.
But the fact is that we were attacked, and Jake isn’t handling it well. He’s being ridiculous, dangerously ridiculous, and I can’t let it slide. He can stay on the crazy train if he wants, but I’m getting off.
I’m about to tell him so when his palms flatten on the door on either side of my face, pinning me between his arms. A moment later his voice is in my ear, deep and sexy and filled with so much need I can feel it vibrating across my skin. “Don’t do this, princess. Don’t shut me out. Please.”
My eyes slide closed, the world spinning as his chest presses against my shoulders and his smell swirls through my head.
“All I’ve thought about since the moment I left you is being with you again. And not just because you’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever met. It’s because you feel right. Being with you, I…”
I cover his hands with mine, silently encouraging him to keep going, that simple touch enough to make my blood pulse faster and my body ache.
“I feel right,” he whispers. “But if we can’t make it through our first fight without you running from me again, this isn’t going to work.”
I let out a breath, long and slow, knowing he has a point. “But I don’t know how to fight through this. Not when you won’t even consider my side.”
“I have considered it, Shane,” he says. “I swear, I have. Do you feel like you’ve honestly considered mine?”
I ponder the question as my fingertips slide down the back of his hands to his thickly muscled and perfectly fuzzy forearms. “I like that you’re a little furry right here,” I say, petting the crisp hairs. “Have I told you that?”
“No.” His breath is warm on my neck, but it still makes me shiver.
“Well, I do. If your forearm were a ferret, I would name it Fergus.”
He hums thoughtfully. “You can name my forearm Fergus if you want.”
I pet his right arm. “Thank you. That’s nice of you to give up naming rights so freely like that.”
“You’re welcome.” He kisses my jaw as his left arm wraps around my waist, pulling me tighter against him, sending a fresh wave of longing rushing through me. “Does this mean we’ve made up?”
“I guess so.” I bite my lip as his erection presses against me through my jeans, nudging at my tailbone. “You’re right. They wouldn’t be able to identify the men based on what we saw. But I want us to write down everything that’s happened to either of us so far, so that we have a record of it all. Because there will come a time when we need to go to the police, Jake, and if you don’t keep your promise to go with me, then I’ll go alone. And I’m not sure making up will be an option after that.”
“We can make the list right now.” He reaches past me to turn the key in the lock. “And I promise I won’t let you make that trip alone. If we ever need help from law enforcement, I’ll be right there with you.”
He steps inside, half-carrying me over the threshold and closing the door behind us. I drop my purse on the entry table and turn in his arms, threading my fingers together behind his neck.
“And I want it noted that I think that time was when Keri came at you with a kitchen knife.” I pin him with a hard look, even though all I want to do is kiss him and keep kissing him until we’re naked and he’s inside me and everything feels perfect again.
He nods, backing us both deeper into the room. “Noted. But that was before I met you.”
I arch a brow. “And that matters because…?”
“I wasn’t as concerned about safety at that point,” he says, cupping my bottom in his hands. “And I hadn’t fallen hard for this ass. I fucking love your ass, princess. I’ve been having filthy dreams about it all week.”
“Yeah?” My breath hitches as he lifts me, holding me with his hands beneath my sit bones as I link my ankles behind his back. “How dirty?”
“So dirty I would wake up hard and so desperate to be inside you my balls felt like I’d taken a slap shot to the nuts,” he says, making swift progress toward the bedroom.
“Not sure what a slap shot is,” I say, kissing his cheek. “But I’m sorry you had to go through that. Poor dragon.”
“It was torture.” He moves into the bedroom, kicking the door closed behind him. “I had to jerk off to memories of being inside you to get back to sleep, but I didn’t have nearly enough memories, princess. I need more.”
“I think that can be arranged.” I dig my fingernails into his shoulders, holding on tight as he lengthens us both onto the bed, his body warm and heavy on top of mine. “Thanks for not letting me run.”
“Thanks for putting up with my stubborn ass.” He pulls my sweater up and over my head and cups my breasts through my bra. “I love your breasts, too, you know. Almost as much as your ass. I especially love the sounds you make when I bite your tits.”
My breath rushes out. “I love your mouth on me. You feel so good.” I arch into his touch as he tugs my bra down and his tongue circles my nipple, sending the ache inside me building to critical levels with just a few teasing strokes.
“I love feeling your nipple get hard in my mouth,” he says, rolling my other nipple between his fingers. “And knowing I’m getting you wet. You’re wet already aren’t you, princess?”
“Yes.” The word becomes a moan as he drives one hand down the front of my jeans, under my panties, finding where I’m slick and hot.
He curses as he begins to fuck me with his hand. “I’m going to make you come so many times tonight, baby. I’m going to make you come until you forget you ever wanted to go home alone.” His mouth closes around my breast, sucking me deep, so deep I cry out as I rock into his touch, seconds from coming with my jeans still on and only a few deep strokes of his fingers.
His magic fingers, magic hand—this magic man who brings me over crying out his name. Seconds later, he’s stripped off my jeans and tossed them to the floor. Before I’ve come down from my first orgasm, he’s between my legs, licking and sucking and biting.
He bites my clit, bites it, applying the perfect amount of pressure—not too soft, not too hard—and I cry out again, without words this time. There are no words, just hot, hungry, sexy sounds that spill from deep inside me as I come on his tongue and he moans against my swollen flesh, making it clear he loves the way I taste, loves bringing me pleasure, loves everything we do to each other when we’re like this.
And then he kisses me, the taste of my sex still salty in his mouth and his Jake taste sweet and strong beneath it, and I know that nothing will ever taste as good as this man. This man who groans in relief as he pushes inside me, like being buried in my body is the only thing he needs in the whole wide world.
He drives all the way to the end of me, his cock so thick it hurts a little as it fills me full and then some, but it’s a sweet pain.
It’s the pain of getting everything you ever wanted and more. Of finding out that pleasure isn’t a river, it’s an ocean—a vast, endless sea of bliss and sensation. And as he fucks me into a third orgasm and announces his intentions to have a fourth from me before we’re finished, I realize just how much I’ve been missing.
This man is everything, everything I could ever want, and no matter how scary it is to look into his eyes and see a man who could be The One demanding I let him in, it’s scarier to think of no Jake, no Dragon, no strong arms holding me tight, assuring me there’s no reason to run.
Not ever again.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Jake
She’s so good. So beautiful. So perfect.
She feels even better than she did the first night I had her, and something in my gut tells me it’s only going to get sweeter, hotter, sexier. Every time with Shane will be better than the last because every time she’s going to let me get closer.
Closer to her, this woman who takes me
to places I’ve never been and makes me so intensely aware of the way we connect that I swear I can feel the echo of her pleasure pulsing through my body when she comes.
And fuck, it’s incredible. A burst of nirvana that throbs through my balls and dances up my spine, lighting me up even as it takes the edge off the need to spill myself inside her. I’ve never had any trouble with stamina in the bedroom, but tonight I set a new personal best.
By the time I flip Shane onto her stomach and slide into her from behind, she’s come for me three times and I’m determined to have one more. One more before I go, before I come so hard inside her sweetness.
“One more, baby,” I whisper against her neck as I ride her, my balls slapping between her legs as I drive in hard. “I want to feel you go one more time.”
“I can’t,” she gasps, even as she arches her hips, taking me deeper. “I’m already buzzing all over. It’s so amazing, Jake. Like I’m high.”
“I’m going to get you higher.” I reach beneath our joined bodies, finding her clit while I thread my free hand through her fingers, pinning her to the mattress. “One more. Let me feel this sweet pussy tight on my cock, princess. I want you to come with me, come with me.”
She moans, her spine bowing even more. “Oh God, Jake. Oh God…”
“Yes, you’re almost there. I can feel you.” I shift my angle until the head of my cock grinds against her inner walls as I move. “Come on, baby. Come for me. Come, Shane. God, yes. Fuck, yes.”
She comes with a wild, shameless cry that goes straight to my dick, and I’m a goner. I slam home, burying myself deep inside her as she takes me the rest of the way, her body contracting around my cock, squeezing me tight as I come so long and so fucking hard.
So hard that my vision blurs and my mind and body separate and for a few seconds I’m outside myself. I don’t know where I go or what I think while I’m there, but when I come back down to earth, I’m lying heavily on top of Shane with the flesh of her shoulder trapped between my teeth and my arm wrapped so tight around her waist I can feel the bones of her back hard against my ribs.
I start to lift myself off of her, worried that she can’t breathe, but she reaches back, slapping my ass.
“Stay,” she demands, fingernails curling into the flesh she just spanked, making me grunt with approval. “Just for a few more minutes.”
“I’m not crushing you?”
“Yes, but I like it,” she says, sighing. “It’s keeping me from floating away on an orgasmy cloud.”
I relax onto her, smiling as I nuzzle her hair, clearing a path to her neck. “You can float away if you want.”
“No, I want to stay here. With you.” She pats my ass affectionately. “You do good work, dragon.”
“You, too, princess.” I kiss her neck before flicking my tongue across the damp skin. “And your sweat is delicious. Almost as delicious as your pussy.”
She laughs softly.
“What’s funny?” I ask, when no explanation is forthcoming.
“You’ve gone down on me twice, and I still haven’t given you a blow job,” she says. “That’s never happened to me before.”
“Then you’ve been dating the wrong men. I love tasting you, feeling you come on my mouth.” I hum appreciatively. “Just thinking about it would get me up again if I hadn’t just come so hard my dick almost fell off.”
She laughs harder, and the contraction of her inner muscles forces my spent cock from inside her. “Oh shit. Sorry.”
“Had to happen sooner or later.” I roll onto the mattress, smiling at her as she curls onto her side, looking up at me through wild blond curls. I smooth the strands from her face. “Is it possible that you got even more beautiful in the past few minutes?”
She grins. “Orgasm-colored glasses. That’s what my girlfriends call it.”
“I didn’t realize orgasms had a color.” I scoot closer so I can run my hand over the tempting slope where her waist becomes her hip, the need to touch her a compulsion I don’t care to resist. “I don’t think it’s that. I think it’s just you.”
“You’re pretty beautiful yourself. And I think I could become addicted to your body. Seriously addicted.”
My smile stretches. “Good.”
“But the withdrawal would be terrible,” she says, draping her leg over mine. “Worse than giving up refined sugar, which I did for two months and did not enjoy at all. Losing three pounds wasn’t worth it.”
“There won’t be any withdrawal because I’m not going anywhere. And you don’t need to lose weight.” I let my eyes play over her curves. “You’re perfect the way you are. Especially your fucking gorgeous ass. Have I mentioned how much I love your ass?”
She laughs. “Yes, I think you might have mentioned it a few dozen times, Mr. Ass Man.”
“I’m not an ass man. I’m a you man. I’m a fan of all your parts. Inside and outside.”
“You think my liver’s sexy?” she asks, wiggling her eyebrows.
“Hot as fuck. But I was talking about the way you make me laugh. And the way you show who you really are to the world, no matter who’s watching. You’re always you, and that’s special.”
“Thanks,” she says, eyes softening. “You know me pretty well for a guy I just met.”
“It doesn’t feel like we just met,” I say, letting my heart speak before the afterglow fades and I lose the courage. “It feels like I’ve known you for a long time. Or like I’ve been waiting to know you.”
“Me, too.” She reaches out, laying her hand flat on my chest. The tenderness in the touch makes me ache with something sweeter than lust. “So talk to me, dragon. Fill me in on all the things I missed while we were waiting.”
So I tell her about the start of my career and how weirdly stressful it was to have all my dreams come true, almost like my brain wasn’t ready for success to come a few years ahead of schedule. She tells me about switching majors as an undergrad so she could study veterinary medicine instead of pediatric medicine and how her aunt supported her completely, even though Shane had never even cared for a pet of her own at that point.
“But I was afraid working with sick kids would make me sad all the time, and I knew I loved animals,” she says. “Ten cats and hundreds of hours of vet school later, I still did.”
“You miss practicing.” I push on before she can answer because the truth is written all over her face. “You should get certified and go back to doing what you love.”
“But then I’d have to find someone to run the charity, and it’s so much more complicated than it looks. I know all the ins and outs because I helped Aunt Tansy with it for years.”
“So, you take the time to find the right person and train them,” I insist. “Life’s too short. You should love your work. And you should bring your cats to the city.”
She laughs. “Oh my God. Can you imagine this apartment with ten cats in it? I kid around about it, but in reality it would be a madhouse, and they’re happier in the country. Though, I would love a dog someday. I think little dogs can be happy in the city. I just have to convince the HOA to allow animals in the building. They haven’t for the past fifty years.”
“Well, if anyone can change their minds, I’m betting on you,” I say, kissing the back of her hand.
She smiles and tells me about the time she convinced her high school to change their mascot from a Trojan to a Fighting Pumpkin, just because it made her friends laugh. I tell her about dressing up as my school’s mascot for a job fair to earn extra money and passing out in the summer heat. She confesses that she is bored to tears by most sports, but thinks she could learn to like hockey. I confess that art puts me to sleep, but that I enjoyed the statues and drinking champagne with her on the museum roof.
We put on a few clothes—boxers and an undershirt for me, pajamas for her—and move to the couch to watch some mindless T.V., but end up talking some more instead. I tell her what a cocky little shit I was as a kid, and she says that she was shy when she was little a
nd didn’t really come out of her shell until after her parents died.
“It’s like you said about life being too short. It hit me not long after the crash that I might not have as much time as I anticipated,” she says, her fingers playing back and forth across my chest. “One morning I woke up and everything I was thinking started coming out of my mouth. At first Aunt Tansy thought I was having a mental breakdown, but eventually she realized it was the new me and embraced it. Word vomit and all.”
“I like your word vomit.” I hold out my arm, surveying it seriously. “And I like Fergus. I can’t believe I made it to thirty without naming my forearm.”
She hums in agreement. “Serious oversight. Especially since Fergus is so much fun to stare at and stroke lovingly.”
She strokes my forearm, and it’s sweet and silly and just right. Something that feels a lot like love swells inside of me, and I figure now is as good a time as any to tell her about the uglier parts of my childhood
“As far as what Bash found out about me… When I was six, my dad starting bringing me along on jobs,” I say. “And by jobs, I mean to the places where he stole things. My father’s definition of ‘work’ was figuring out ways not to get caught taking what he thought the world owed him.”
Shane shifts in my arms, lifting sad eyes to mine. “I’m sorry. That’s terrible. You were just a baby.”
I shrug. “Yeah, well, babies have small bodies that are good for getting boosted through windows. Dad was practical. He probably would have let me out of the family business once I got too big, but about six months in, my mom found out what was happening. They got into a huge fight, and he hit her. It wasn’t the first time he’d done it, but it was the first time I saw it happen.”
Shane pulls back, sitting on her heels on the couch beside me as she takes my hand and squeezes tight.
“She hit her head on the kitchen counter on the way down to the floor.” I’m still able to see it in my mind, as clear as the night it happened. See it and feel that tidal wave of fear rushing over me as I realize I might be losing the person I love most in the whole world. “There was blood all over the linoleum and Dad was still screaming… I got so scared that I ran. I ran and ran until I was lost in a neighborhood even rougher than mine. Two cops on patrol picked me up, heard my story, and told me they would help.”
