Tempted by a Sinner (Seven Sinners Book 4)

by A G Henderson

  Wasn’t his style though. My man did things for reasons I might not always grasp right away. Yet that made those reasons all the more memorable.

  We were here because I needed to be here. Because he wanted to show me that my choices would always count when we were together.

  I stepped towards him, moving slowly. He didn’t hold his breath, but I could feel the uncertainty he was broadcasting like he was shouting it with a megaphone.

  I stopped in front of him, knowing that I could ask him to give me more time and he would.

  Knowing I could tell him I wasn’t ready, and he would nod, accepting my decision.

  Knowing there wasn’t a chance in hell I was going to say either of those things.

  It had been my choice to test him. Test us. To see if we could really withstand the realness of what we were doing. And we could. I knew it like I knew he would never do anything to jeopardize this thing between us ever again.

  Licking my lips, I said one word I knew he would translate into a full sentence. One word I knew would say everything I needed to without me rattling my foggy, love and lust-fueled brain to try and come up with something elegant and pretty when we were neither of those things.

  We were imperfect.

  We were perfect within those imperfections.

  We were us, and that was all I needed.

  “Gimme,” I whispered, spreading my arms wide.

  Tone filled them in the next heartbeat, moving so quickly I barely had time to draw a breath filled with his manly scent. Then he was there, kicking the door shut behind him with a loud bang. I didn’t have a chance to be startled because he was already kissing me again. Kissing me with the need he had somehow restrained when we were interrupted earlier.

  There were no interruptions here. Nothing but his body and mine, our souls singing as they fused together once more.

  “Up,” he barked, eyes black as sin when he drew back and pinned me with them.

  I shivered and obeyed, jumping and wrapping my legs around his waist. Tone didn’t kiss me as he walked us back towards my bedroom. He barely even looked where he was going.

  His eyes were on mine the entire time, both of us throwing out so much heat that the air between us sizzled and popped.

  He stopped at the foot of my bed and gave no warning before tossing me onto it. I landed with a smirk and sat up on my elbows. That smirk withered and fell away at the serious expression on his face.

  “Too damn long without you,” he muttered, scrubbing a hand down his jaw. He looked tortured, and I wanted to soothe him. To hold him up and support him the way he so often did for me. “I wanted this to be different, gentle.” Then he growled, “But I can’t. I fucking can’t.”

  I got to my knees and crawled towards him, beckoning him closer with a finger. He only took a small step in my direction, but it was enough. That put him in range.

  Before he could react, I reached out and grabbed him by the belt, yanking him closer. He probably could’ve resisted me. There was more strength in one of his thighs than my entire body put together.

  But I was his weakness, and he was mine.

  There would always be a tug of war between us that neither of us could ever actually lose.

  “Have I ever asked you for gentle?” I unbuckled his belt. Loosened the top button of his pants. Ran my fingers along the warm, dark skin along his waist that flashed and teased me.

  Tone stared down at me, eyes unreadable in the darkness of the room. We hadn’t bothered to turn on any lights, and the moon wasn’t full enough to provide any of her own. It didn’t matter. We didn’t need light between us. Rolling around in the dark would suit what was about to happen just fine.

  “No,” he uttered on a ragged exhale as I tugged his jeans down. Reaching in to grasp the thick length of him. He was hot and hard and long, and Jesus I had missed the feel of him.

  “Then don’t choose now to hold back,” I said softly, stroking as much of him as I could given the odd angle. Thankfully, he wasn’t content to let me take the lead for long. He had only needed a little nudge.

  Tone grabbed my throat, lightning-quick, and threw me backwards again. When I sat up to glance at him, the look in his eyes said everything.

  That look said, I’m gonna make you remember that you’re fucking mine, baby. And I’m not gonna be nice about it.

  I tipped my chin up, egging him on. Loving the growl that rumbled from his chest while he threw his jacket down and yanked his shirt over his head.

  The sight of him naked was equally as distracting as it had been the first time. Then he hissed at me, and I got with the program.

  “Strip! Now!” His teeth were bared in a savage, primal display. “Anything still on your body when I come for you is getting ripped the fuck off.”

  I removed layers as quickly as I could, heart thundering inside my chest. I managed to get most of it on the floor next to me, and I was shimmying my last leg out of my leggings when he pounced. Literally. Pounced.

  He landed on top of me, bed dipping beneath his weight.

  “Too slow,” he said, getting right in my face. “Too fucking slow.”

  His big hand reached out, skating down my stomach. He took my light blue panties in hand and pulled, snapping them free from my body with enough force that I knew marks would be left behind.

  I didn’t mind.

  Every mark he left on me I would cherish.

  Eyes sliding down my front, he glanced at my sex and popped his neck like he was about to go to battle. My bra received the same treatment a moment later, and my heavy breasts spilled free, drawing his heated gaze to them instead.

  For the longest minute of my life, he didn’t touch me. He just hovered there, beautiful and proud, gaze slicing up and down my body. His cock hung heavily between his legs, and even in the bare amount of light afforded to us I could see precum dripping from the tip.

  How I affected him so strongly was a mystery for the ages, and not one I was interested in solving. I was simply glad it was true.

  “Tone.” I arched my back, raising my body. Seeking his.

  His palm splayed across my stomach and he pushed me down hard enough that my breath left me.

  Arching a brow, I stared up at him, close to asking exactly how long he was going to keep this up before giving us what we both wanted.

  Which is when his lips curved in that camera flash smile that had spelled my doom in the parking lot on the very first day we came across each other.

  Tone wrapped his arm around my back, scooting me further up the bed to make room for himself between my thighs. Finally, he lowered himself close enough for his hot flesh to kiss at mine, and he found my entrance without needing to be guided.

  It seemed like every muscle he possessed flexed at once as he drove his hips forward, plunging inside me. I was wet, but he was huge. Bigger than I remembered him being. The hot glide of his cock forcefully stretching my walls, opening me up to accommodate him, took my breath away.

  Something I was at a lack of today when it came to him.

  I was breathless when he looked at me. Smiled at me. Loved me. And him filling me was no exception. My body only remembered its need for oxygen when the burn in my lungs started, and by then he was seated as deep as he could go. Filling me in more places than I knew I had.

  “Sweet, sweet temptation,” he rasped, pulling out and slamming back into me. The sound of our bodies slapping together echoed in the room. Then he did it again, pulling a strangled noise from my throat. “Barely even lived without you. Fuck!”

  Tone rose above me, eyes glittering like dark jewels. He was a long line of impressive muscle, going from the straining forearms on either side of my head to the shadowy dance of his abs moving in tandem with his lower body.

  I exhaled when he drew back, and sucked in sharp breaths every time he came forward again. My breasts bounced, and he dipped his head long enough to suck one into his mouth and bite down, making me scream. “Tone!”

  “Tha
t’s it, baby.” He rolled his hips, working himself against the most sensitive places. He controlled my body with such ease it felt like I was flying, hurtling towards an explosion. “Let go. You know I’ve got you.”

  I pulled my lip between my teeth, but I didn’t bite down. The pain might’ve grounded me, and I didn’t want to be grounded. Glancing up at him from beneath heavy-lidded eyes showed me a man wild and reckless. Determined. Sweat soaked his skin and mine. I wasn’t the only one up above the clouds with no clue where the Earth might be or when we would come back down. And I wasn’t the only one who didn’t give a damn.

  We were lost.

  But because we were lost in each other, we were found.

  Tone pulled out suddenly, flipping me onto my stomach. He grabbed me by the hips, raising my ass in the air, and I wiggled it for him. Letting him see the swollen folds of my desire. Letting him see however much of me he wanted, because it all belonged to him and no one else.

  “Mine.” His hand smacked my ass and I shifted forward on a choked cry before coming back for more.

  “Mine.” The second smack was harder, landing in the same exact spot.

  It was less pain and more heat that radiated out from that point of contact, making my legs quiver. I looked back over my shoulder at him. At my knight who was so, so right when he told me what kind of armor would truly fit him.

  Black from head to toe, covered in shadows.

  People would be right to be afraid. But never me. Not of him.

  So when he glanced at me, assessing whether or not I could take more, I laughed a deep, throaty laugh I knew would poke the beast he was still holding onto and said, “That all you got?”

  His hand came down again, and oh how I felt it. I dipped my head forward, staring at the sheets. Tears pricked my eyes at the sharp sting, but then his palm was rubbing soothing circles. He smacked the other cheek, the loud crack filling the room as he made sure to give it the same treatment.

  Despite the roughness of his actions, his voice was gentle when he said, “Missed you so fucking much.”

  And mine was truthful when I turned and told him, “Missed you too.”

  Dark, endless eyes met mine and stayed there. He didn’t let my gaze go as he placed a soft, wet kiss on my hip and then mounted me. His hand disappeared between us, lining his cock up with my needy center.

  He didn’t make me wait.

  Tone filled me slowly, taking his time. He pushed in inch by inch until both of us were shaking from the intensity of it, and his fists were clenched in the sheets on either side of me.

  He fucked me at that same measured pace, dragging it out. Driving me close to insanity.

  “Tone.” I tried to throw my body back against his. To change our tempo back to what it was. He was having none of it.

  Saying nothing, his front hit my back, pressing me down on the bed with his weight. I squirmed beneath him, but it was no use. I would’ve had better luck picking up a mountain and running away with it.

  I could only lay there, moaning and screaming and maybe even crying as he continued to work his body inside mine. His huge hands wandered. Cupping the back of my neck. Fisting my hair. Tracing a solitary path down my spine and between my flaming ass cheeks before going back up.

  I couldn’t take it. The growing pressure was going to make me pop.

  “Please,” I begged, writhing beneath him. “Please.”

  “Whatever you need,” he whispered into my ear.

  He shoved his hand between me and the mattress, rough fingers finding the sensitive bundle of nerves at the apex of my thighs. He made contact and sent bright arcs of electricity racing through my core.

  Tone dipped his fingers to the area our bodies met, gathering wetness that he brought back up. He applied the most delicious pressure, and I threw my head back, already crying out before he started to work his fingers in smooth circles, pushing my body through the clouds. The ground rose up quickly and my toes curled, anxious to meet it.

  Heat passed through me everywhere. In waves that came and went like rain in the summer. Unbearable for a moment and vanishing in the next. Then my body hit the peak, and when the waves came again, they didn’t stop.

  “Love you,” I managed on a choked breath.

  Tone’s teeth sank into my shoulder with a growl at the same moment I came apart around him, body tensing and clenching. He swelled inside me and I smiled into the bed, happy to take what he was about to offer.

  “Love you too,” he rasped, and I felt the first hot pulse of him finding his release. He groaned in complete satisfaction, the sound music to my ears. His body rested against mine, heavy and comforting while we recovered.

  And when he finally slipped free from my body and rolled beside me, I was limp. Beyond boneless. It took the last bit of energy I had to turn my head and look his way. He had been an earthquake, and aftershocks kept spreading out from my core, leaving me dazed and off-balance in the best way.

  I reached for him. At least, my hands twitched where they were and started slowly sliding across the sheets. He saw my predicament and grinned. There was a joke in his smile, and I let myself be the brunt of it.

  He had earned this moment of basking in the glory of his talents. I didn’t want to move. For like, days, if I could help it. It was going to be at least that long before my legs decided they wanted to cooperate.

  Tone chuckled and grabbed me, pressing us close together. His strength was my strength. I found the energy to curl up into a ball, my head on his chest, my toes absently running up and down his shins. He tensed when I did, and I kept my snicker on the inside. My toes were probably cold, even after everything.

  It was a curse.

  But he didn’t pull away or say anything.

  He held me in his arms and pulled the covers over us both. There was barely even a semblance of light to see with from underneath them, but I stared at the outline of his face anyway. Felt his stare on me. For now, we were content to huddle together in the dark.

  Because very, very soon we were going to burst into the light of a new day, and there wasn’t going to be anything that could stop us.

  Not now.

  Not ever again.

  Like he said earlier, having echoed thoughts I was sure I had kept to myself. The two of us? We were inevitable. Whatever sought to get in our path would be making a terrible mistake.

  And I didn’t feel a bit of sympathy for whatever fool tried it first.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Naomi

  Waking up in the middle of the night wasn’t a surprise.

  As much as I enjoyed lazing around in bed for most of the day with my man’s hard muscles wrapped around me, my body was trained to a routine.

  Getting up for bathroom breaks, food, and the occasional shot—which Tone had watched carefully so he would know how to do it if need be—wasn’t enough to ease the restlessness turning around inside me.

  I shifted onto my back in slow motion, trying not to wake the sleeping man beside me. I should’ve known better. He was always aware of me. By the time I turned my head, glancing at him, he had one eye open as he peeked out at me.

  “Sorry,” I whispered, playing with the long fingers of his hand splayed across my stomach. It made no sense how good it felt whenever he was touching me.

  “Don’t be,” he rumbled in a deep, sleepy voice. The watchful eye fell closed, but I knew he hadn’t gone back under that quickly. “What’s wrong?”

  I sighed, wishing I didn’t have to ruin this relaxing moment. “I want to see.”

  He tensed, only for a moment. It was enough to make me sure he knew what I was talking about. Tone was quiet for a bit, and I didn’t press. This would be hard for both of us in different ways. While I waited on his response, I brushed my fingertips across his scarred knuckles.

  “Right now?” he asked finally, pushing himself upright.

  The covers fell away, revealing acres of cut muscle and dark skin. I wanted to add to the raised, red scra
tches across his chest. Feel his beard brushing between my thighs.

  “Right now,” I said instead.

  His head dipped in acknowledgement and he slid from the bed, grabbing his clothes. I did the same, heart heavy. Honestly, this was the last thing I wanted to be doing, but I had to see the damage for myself. I had to see what I was going to need before I opened again.

  It was going to be a long, difficult road. Best to get underway now.

  We made it out the door in record time and got on the road a minute after. He held my hand as we rode through town, and I tried to keep the nerves fluttering in my stomach at bay. I stared out the window, taking in this cozy slice of the state I now considered home. Letting the familiar sights give me comfort I was desperately going to need.

  The little trio of shops came into view, and I forgot to breathe as I stared at the boarded-up windows of the one sitting in the middle. Tone pulled into the parking lot and turned the car off, glancing at me.

  “You sure about this?” The low timbre of his voice stroked along my back, a gentle caress. “We can do this in the light of day if you want. Doesn’t have to be now.”

  I nodded. “It does. If I ignore it for too long, it’ll only make facing the end results that much worse. Kind of like handing in a test you weren’t prepared for and being too scared to check the grade when it gets back to you.”

  Tone grabbed the back of my neck, pulling me towards him. My eyes widened in surprise, and then he was right there, inches away, staring deeply into them. “You’ve got this, Smoothie Girl.”

  I gave him a smile I hoped wasn’t as shaky as it felt. “You know...that nickname won’t actually fit until I can get this place set up again.”

  “Bullshit.”

  I blinked.

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “Your hands stop working or something? Unless that’s the case, I fail to see how that title isn’t yours. If this was the wild west, you would be the coolest smoothie slinging cowgirl in all the land.”

  “You’re just saying that because you want me to ride you cowgirl again.”

  The bark of his laugh reinforced my grin, turning it into a real smile.