I bit the corner of my lip. Yeah, I appreciated her endorsement, but she didn’t know what I knew. She didn’t know about how things had gone down with his parents. And I had a feeling neither she, nor anyone else, had a clue about Katherine.
There was something there he was still holding onto.
It would be foolish to take the leap and hope he would notice me falling in time to catch me.
Wouldn’t it?
“What if-”
“I’m stopping you right there,” she said. “You know how short life is, probably better than anyone. Don’t make me write the words you need to hear on your face. I’ve got a permanent marker in my purse and I know how to use it.”
The sun always rises on a new day.
Mom’s painting filled my head.
She had finished it shortly before the end, when she was in the kind of pain I could only guess at. And she did it anyway. Knowing it might be one of the last pieces she ever completed, and carrying on with strength in the face of everything.
That same strength filled me then, solidifying my resolve.
I grasped the stone hanging around my neck, and through its warmth I swear I could feel her there with me. Cheering me on the way she always did no matter what.
Lynn linked my arm with hers. “Knew you’d make the right choice. Oh, wait. One more thing.”
I lifted my gaze to the ceiling. “What now?”
She waited for me to look at her before she smirked. “Did you wear your good underwear today? Because if you mess this up by having on those lame cotton things I’m going to-”
I left her standing there and made my way back to our table. There was a sort of weird tension hovering while Tone and Matthias eyeballed each other from their respective corners.
What is it with these two? I wondered briefly. But Tone turned as if he could sense my approach, and the dazzling smile directed my way made their alpha male contest seem unimportant.
He rose from the chair smoothly and stood to his full height, towering over me. So why didn’t I feel the least bit nervous when his huge hand splayed across my lower back, guiding me closer to him?
“Ready to get out of here?” he asked.
“Yeah, sure.” I glanced down at the table. Searching. “Did the check come yet?”
“Already took care of it.” He gave me that insufferably patient look when I glared at him. “Treat me next time and we’ll call it even.”
“Deal,” I said, mostly mollified. The hand on my back helped his case.
Kayla walked up and gave me another hug. “Don't do anything I wouldn't do,” she said against my ear.
We filed out into the parking lot together before going our separate ways. The moment they were gone, Tone spun me around and brought his lips to mine. Those huge hands slid down my back, finding anchor on the globes of my ass so he could haul me against him.
I moaned in response to being brought into the sanctuary of his arms where nothing could reach me.
“You taste like ice cream,” he murmured against my lips, making me smile into the kiss.
“A girl's got to indulge every now and then,” I whispered back, linking my fingers behind his neck and letting him take my weight.
He kissed a hot path across my jaw and my legs trembled. When he pulled back, his eyes were dark and heavy. “You don't know the meaning of indulgence yet, Naomi.”
God, I need a soundtrack of him saying my name.
Feeling bold. Wanting to give into this temptation. I said, “Why don't you show me then?”
Tone groaned, dragging his beard up the column of my throat. “My house. Now.”
Yessss, my body urged, and I nodded my head so he could feel it.
When we were back on his bike, my hands naturally drifted lower on his waist, sitting right above his belt. I loved the way his hips shifted and the careful tension he held himself with afterwards.
Like he didn’t trust himself not to rock into my touch.
We made it back to our sleeping street in half the time it should’ve taken, and my legs threatened to not hold me when I stood.
Tone chuckled dryly. Then his hands were on me again, sweeping me up and into his arms, over his shoulder. He strode forward, carrying me with him as if there wasn’t an extra hundred-plus pounds on his back.
For a moment, I imagined the incredulous, horror-filled look on Law’s face if he saw this, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
At least until a huge palm landed on my butt with a noisy crack that banished any thoughts other than the sharp bite of pain radiating from that area. Pain that blossomed into something exquisite when it reached my core. I moaned, wiggling my hips while Tone opened the door.
“Need more already, Smoothie Girl?” His voice was exquisitely low. We passed the threshold and I glanced around for only a moment before his hand landed on my other cheek. “Don’t worry.” Strong fingers massaged soft flesh, easing the sting while making the need climb ever higher. “I plan on seeing my handprints all over this ass soon enough.”
Tone marched through the darkness with ease granted by familiarity, never loosening his grip on me until we had reached our destination. His bedroom. He lowered me to the floor slowly, and I took a moment to look around, a small smile curving my lips. The space matched the man perfectly.
White walls with black trim. Everything from the dresser to the tv to the bedside table was black. Set up in ways to maximize space. I was sure that if I had a level with me, they would all be perfectly even.
His bed was made for giants. Four-poster, sitting right beneath the window that was currently spilling moonlight into the room. Black sheets, yellow pillows, and so tidy it looked like it had never been slept in.
“Tour later,” he rumbled, bringing my focus back to him.
I blinked, because his jacket and shirt were nowhere to be seen and look at those abs.
My hand ran down the center of them, following the sparse trail of hair across the muscular ridges. He was so cut that his veins showed, disappearing beneath the waistband of his jeans, and I found myself wanting to trace them with my tongue.
Wanting to follow that happy trail to the true treasure that was already making an indentation down his thigh.
“Wow,” I had time to mumble.
Then Tone was on me, his mouth and hands everywhere, a man possessed.
Whatever carefully crafted workings kept his emotions and that smooth, purposeful swagger in place had obviously collapsed beneath the weight of his need.
I wasn’t sure I could explain what it did to me. Knowing I was the reason for the frantic way he moved against me.
I was responsible for those big hands urgently tugging at my sweater, untucking it from my jeans.
I was responsible for the way he sucked at my neck while those same hands dragged across my sides and left me barely breathing.
This was something no one could take away from me. Because I was the cause of it. The eye of the storm. The chamber heating up the magma. The shifting of the earth that caused waves to rise and roil.
Me.
Me.
Me.
I raised my arms over my head, letting him pull the cream fabric over and off. A shiver went through me when he pressed his forehead against mine and stared down at my bare breasts, barely contained by the lacey, blue bra I was wearing.
“Look at you.” His voice was full of awe. “Holy fuck.”
His hands skirted up my sides again and I closed my eyes, holding onto the loops of his belt to keep from being swept away.
Tone grasped my breasts in both hands, fingers tightening by slow degrees. With my eyes closed, I could feel the slight tremor in his touch. The shreds of restraint he was still clinging to.
I didn’t want restraint.
I wanted him all over me.
I wanted him to unleash that hungry, wild part of him onto me. Into me.
After all, I’d survived everything else. I could take it.
My hands went t
o his jeans and he paused for a single beat. When he kept going, lips dragging over my bare shoulder like a lighter held against my skin, I licked my lips and started unbuckling his belt.
The clasp gave way easy enough, but the button on his jeans eluded me long enough to be frustrating.
And it was really hard to focus when his lips continued to find so many places to plant sweet and hungry kisses.
Breathing hard, I pushed at his shoulders. It was a testimony to how lost he was in me that he didn’t remember to so much as pretend like I could budge him. When I did it again, he took a step back, eyes flashing so hot I could feel the rest of my clothes melting.
“Take them off,” I ordered, hands on my hips.
His head tilted, camera flash smile detonating. “You first.”
“Race you,” I said instead, smiling when his hands flew to his jeans.
Except I didn’t play fair.
The sound of his zipper going down filled me with awareness. But it wasn’t nearly as loud as his jaw hitting the floor when I reached back and unhooked my bra. Letting it slide down my arms so I could throw it to the side.
My heavy breasts swung free, nipples two tight points, and Tone closed his eyes for a second and opened them. Then did it again for good measure.
He took a step forward and I took a step back, raising a finger in his face. I didn’t know why I felt so comfortable being naked in his presence. Engaging in this easy back and forth we had going. I wasn’t going to question it either.
“Off,” I told my knight, letting my eyes linger on the golden-brown skin already exposed.
There was a good chance I would combust upon seeing the rest. Or soak straight through my jeans. I was betting on the former because the latter had already happened.
Releasing a dark chuckle that had my pulse speeding up, Tone spread the top of his jeans, revealing dark, curly hair. He slid his jeans down, but I wasn’t sure if he finished taking them off fully.
My attention was mostly occupied by the thick, throbbing length of him that swung into view, aimed towards me. Wetness glistened at the tip of the blunt head and my body responded, flooding my tight channel.
Tone wrapped his fist tight around his cock, giving it a slow, lazy stroke I could almost feel inside. Prodding. Stretching. Molding my body so I fit him like a glove.
“Your turn,” he reminded me.
Moving on autopilot, my stare focused on the delicious sight making my mouth water, I shimmied out of my jeans and panties at the same time. They had barely left my hand to fall by the wayside before Tone closed in on me, a sculpture of living muscle.
He pushed me back and onto the bed, once again maneuvering me with ease so that I was in the center of it. It was thrilling, how easily he could control my body.
Would he screw me like that?
Did I want him to?
Yes, I decided, watching him crawl atop my body, the brand of his erection burning against my stomach when he laid himself across me and captured my mouth again.
He kissed me breathless, then started working his way down, the rasp of his beard against my flesh mixing with my hitched breathing.
I never knew facial hair could be a weapon, but it was a night for learning new things.
Tone dragged his beard across my chest, setting the skin there on fire before his tongue cooled it back down. He did the same thing to one breast and then the other. I squirmed in the sheets, feeling my wetness coat my thighs.
His hands kept mine pinned against the bed, and the resistance he provided only made the whole thing hotter.
I was at his mercy.
He traced a circle around my belly button with his tongue and I cried out, needing so much more. “Tone!”
“I’ve got you baby,” he whispered against my mound. I lifted my head before I knew what a mistake it would be.
The sight of him disappearing between my legs?
Hooking my thighs over each of his shoulders?
I almost came then and there.
He teased my overheated core with his breath. With his nose, he made tiny circles in the tuft of dark hair above my mound. And when I saw his nostrils flare, heat flooded my cheeks. I closed my eyes, hiding from the stirring of embarrassment.
“Don’t.” His voice was dipped in chocolate and three times smoother.
I peeked with only one eye and found him watching me steadily. Looking way too serious despite the wetness already glistening in his beard.
“You smell like a fucking dessert, Naomi. Even here.” He kissed my mound, lips lingering over my clit. “Sweet tooth or not, I’m tempted to eat you for days. Lapping at all this sweet cream until I know I’ll never forget the taste.”
Flame bloomed in my cheeks again. This time, it was because of the way my thighs fell open, granting him full access. His answering grin was pure, savage male.
Tone spread his tongue flat, pressing the whole thing against me at once. Pleasure crashed into me, starting at my core and working its way outward. When he pressed harder, I threw my head back, eyes closing. Sensory overload in full effect.
He made hungry noises while he lapped at my folds, and I could hear how wet I was when he spread me, pointing his tongue to delve into my entrance.
My inner muscles clamped down, forcing him out, but his low chuckle carried its vibrations straight through me.
“Don’t stop,” I pleaded.
“Never,” he answered.
He let go of my hands and wrapped his arms around my outer thighs, looping them over to rest on my hips and stomach. I couldn’t get over how small he made me seem.
How safe and protected I felt beneath him.
Tone spread my folds with his tongue, teasing my entrance. Pleasure lit up my nerve endings, singing songs of oh God, yes. Blindingly quick, he took me into his mouth and sucked.
An orgasm crashed into me like a meteor, scouring my thoughts clean as it detonated. My body bucked, throat opening wide on a loud scream. But he wasn’t done.
He kept licking and sucking at my sensitive flesh, making me whimper and thrash my head back and forth. My hips shifted from side to side, seeking escape only he could grant.
Finally, he drew back.
My eyes fluttered open, taking in the way the moonlight played happily across his form. Mouth covered with my essence, he never looked away and never stopped touching me while he opened a drawer by the bed and removed a foil packet.
I paused at the sight and he felt it. Long fingers squeezed my hip.
Instead of impatience, Tone tucked the packet in his fist and climbed my body again, bringing us eye to eye. Dark brown met my hazel with a question.
I pressed my swollen lips together to keep from begging while I nodded, hands roaming shoulders made of stone.
Did he actually think I would lose my nerve now? When I was so close to having him inside me? When we were right on the edge of what was bound to happen between us from day one?
If I had blinked, I would’ve missed it. But he was my sole focus in that moment. So when a shadow of uncertainty passed through his gaze, I saw it.
Cherished it.
He didn’t say a word, and he didn’t need to. That look said it all.
It said, This is...more. I feel it too.
I cradled his face between my palms, knowing there was no going back. Knowing I wouldn’t want to even if there was.
Packaging tore. Tone sheathed himself. Then the wide, blunt head of his cock nudged against my entrance, pressing into me slow and careful when I wanted wild and free.
I sat up, pulling the lobe of his ear between my teeth. “Gimme.”
He groaned like I was killing him, and I pressed my face into his neck, smiling against his skin.
My body clenched on its own, squeezing him tight, and he cursed quietly, sweat beading. I looped my legs around his waist, ankles perched on his firm butt.
“Naomi,” he warned. As if I would actually listen.
I arched my back and pulled him down on
to me. For an instant, he resisted, and that impressive strength kept him still.
But only for an instant.
“Fuck!” Tone roared. Then he was pushing inside me in a hot rush, filling my body totally and completely.
I opened my mouth to scream while a lightshow played out in my vision, but nothing came out because I was just that full.
He drew back and I managed to pull in a ragged breath while my body clung to him, refusing to let go. The oxygen turned to fire in my lungs, burning me from the inside out. Tone bucked his hips, pushing himself so, so deep.
Hitting places inside me no one else had ever known.
Pain and pleasure mixed, the end of one becoming the beginning of the other. My fingers turned to claws seeking purchase across his back while it flexed in time with his thrusts.
Our bodies slapped together, the smell of sex and sweat and pine mingling in the heavy air. Lips pressed against mine, followed by a tongue, and I opened without hesitation, sinful awareness making me burn when I tasted myself.
Tone raised himself above me, hips never stopping their assault. I held onto the pillars of his arms to keep from sliding across the bed. Heavy-lidded eyes met mine before I got distracted by a bead of sweat running between the dips of his chest and down his stomach. Then he spoke, and I lifted them again.
“Knew you were trouble,” he grunted while my toes curled. “Still couldn’t stay away.”
A shiver took me, and I let it. Same way I let my response roll from my tongue. “Good thing you didn’t,” I breathed.
Thank God, he didn’t.
He pressed himself against me again and I took his weight, pressure building at the base of my spine. “Tone,” I said. But he knew. Of course he did.
His hand found its way between my legs, locating the sensitive nub below my mound with ease. He didn’t rub or stroke or do anything other than apply consistent pressure, and it was heaven.
Solar flares went off across the surface of my brain, bathing my body in mind-numbing heat. Small, unintelligible noises slipped from my mouth to land between us, making no sense at all. My body pulsed and spasmed, walls milking his length, and I knew by his rough groan and the way he expanded inside me that his own release followed right behind mine.
Tempted by a Sinner (Seven Sinners Book 4) Page 15
