by Mina Carter
“Before we go any further,” he whispered by her ear, his fingers tangling in the ties at the sides of her panties. “Are these your favorite?”
“Yes. They’re part of a collection that was made especially for me.” The dryness in her throat increased with every breath she puffed out. “I have a few favorites.”
“Good.” His grip tightened, then the sound of fabric tearing filled the air as he ripped the panties away, leaving her completely naked and open to him. Using a foot to kick hers farther apart, he wound his fingers in her hair and tugged her head back.
“Look,” he ordered, and she did. With the curtains open, the darkness outside turned the window into a mirror.
She gasped. The scene before her was purely erotic. His body hovered over hers, pinning her to the table while he held her hair in his grasp. The strong lines of his muscles were clear in the glass.
“Oh, my. That’s sexy.”
“You like that, huh?” His breath whispered over the sensitive skin at the side of her neck, sending hot and cold shivers over her skin. “You like being held down and taken? Fucked?”
He pulled back a little and unsnapped her bra. She gasped as it gave, the fact there were no straps allowing him to remove it without her help. Her gasp became a moan as he whipped the bra away from under her and she was pressed against the cold glass.
Her breaths fought their way out of her lungs. Their fiery struggle added a new dimension to the urgency in her core.
“I do like it. I...” She loved it. He roamed his hands over her skin, sure, strong. So damn possessive and sexy. Every slide of his calloused fingers kicked her nerves into overdrive. She licked her lips and watched him. She’d never thought this would turn her on so much.
He kept his hand in her hair, holding her head back. A firm grip, but not hard or cruel, just dominant. And she loved it. His other hand swept around her body, sliding between her and the glass. Strong fingers tweaked at her nipple, causing her to gasp and buck back against him as pleasure-pain shot straight from nipple to clit.
“Do something,” she moaned. “I need some relief soon or I might burst into flames.”
He pinched her nipple again, then eased the ache by cupping her in his hand. The girls weren’t the smallest, but his big hand covered her with ease.
“Something else?” he asked, a teasing note in his voice. “And here I was thinking I was doing all the running…”
Even as he spoke, he kicked her feet wider apart, using a thigh to nudge her forward until her weight was on the table. His hand slid down her side, caressing the curve of her waist for a second, then disappeared. She was about to pout and complain when he slid two fingers down between her pussy lips.
“Yes!” She wiggled closer to him. “Now we’re talking.” Air froze in her lungs. She bit her lip and waited. And wanted. Anticipation brought a new euphoria, and she almost went lightheaded.
He moved his hand, cool air replacing his touch. She went to pout, but then he slapped her ass, a hard, sharp crack that brought stinging pleasure.
“That was a warning,” he purred by her ear, his big hand smoothing over the rounded globe of her ass. “Carry on issuing orders, and I won’t do it again.”
She gulped. She wanted to say something but knew better. All she could hope for at this point was that he could read her mind, because she wasn’t taking any chances on speaking.
“Good girl,” he rumbled in approval, rubbing his hand over her once more. He lifted his hand, and she sucked a breath in, anticipation coursing through her. He didn’t disappoint. His hand descended in a sharp spank that made her melt inside. He knew what he was doing...everything about him said that he’d done this before, and that knowledge excited her beyond measure.
He rubbed the sting away, then moved, sliding his hand around her hips and down to stroke two fingers between pussy lips slick with arousal. His soft chuckle made her cheeks burn.
“You’re wet for me already. Soaked. Slick.” He stroked a finger over her clit, and she gasped, the tiny bundle aching for more. Instead, he drove those two fingers deep inside her.
“Oh, my…” She moaned. Her pussy tightened around his fingers. The feel of them stretching her body and fucking her the way she wanted him to sent her desire for him, for more, soaring.
He pumped and twisted, scissoring his fingers to prepare her slick channel for him. She closed her eyes, biting her lip as pleasure scored her veins from the inside. She wanted this. God, she needed this. Nothing but a soft moan escaped her lips, but she urged him on in other ways—a tilt of her hips, a push back of her ass. Small signals that she wanted more. Wanted everything he could give her.
Fingers still buried deep inside her, his thumb joined the party, rubbing side to side over her swollen clit. His skin wasn’t soft. The pad at the end of his thumb was callused from his work, but she didn’t care. The sensation of rough over smooth was delicious. Alluring. Irresistible.
“Please…” She hated that she begged but wanted him bad enough that she’d do it again. The buzzing in her veins turned to a raging fire with every movement of his fingers. She wanted him inside her. “I need you.”
He leaned down to press a kiss between her shoulder blades. The tender caress was so out of place in the heat of their encounter that she blinked, concentrating on that rather than him slipping from her. But then he returned, the thick, broad head of his cock fitting against her, and her attention snapped back.
Then he pushed, and her thought processes fried.
“Oh, God!” She struggled to breathe. Her focus zeroed in on the stretching of her body with his slow glide. A light throbbing pulsed as she relaxed her muscles to allow him in. She bit her lip, loving and hating how big he was but, at the same time, how good he felt stroking her walls.
“You’re tight,” he panted, but didn’t let up on the pressure until he was fully seated inside her. He paused, his hips perfectly still as he trailed gentle fingertips down the center of her spine. “You okay?”
For a second, she didn’t speak, his slow finger caresses holding her attention captive. She hadn’t expected these gentle moments from him. What she loved even more was that he probably didn’t realize he was doing it. Not that she’d stop him to discuss how his finger tracing felt like a flame was traveling down her spine, or that she hoped he could multitask by moving some time soon. Being so turned on had its disadvantages. For one, she couldn’t think straight. And for two...she wanted to come.
“Yes, I’m good,” she cleared her throat. She wanted to come really fucking bad. “I would be better if you moved. A heck of a lot better.”
“Your wish is my command.” The soft chuckle was preceded by him pulling back. She felt it all, every inch of his long, thick cock where it was pressed against her inner walls. Then he thrust forward again, and her eyes crossed. He didn’t stop this time, setting up a hard and fast pace that rocked the table beneath them.
Dear God! His cock felt like scalding steel inside her. He plunged into her repeatedly, reaching areas no other man ever had. Blazing lust grew to the point it clouded her mind to anything but the sound of their skin slapping, the sound of his rough breaths at her back. Her urgency grew and grew for the man fucking her. He took her to new heights, scorched her brain cells, and pulverized her muscles, destroying her ability to stand upright. Thank goodness for the table. “Yes! Yes! That feels so good. So good.”
He growled in response, a feral answer that called to the primal part of her brain. This was a claiming, a branding, and she reveled in it. He shifted behind her, pulling her hips away from the table, and slid his hand down between her legs to stroke her clit.
That’s it. That’s exactly what she needed. His cock deep inside and his finger rubbing her clit. He slipped the digit over the tight little bundle in quick circular strokes. The pounding of his cock into her pussy turned harsher at the same time his finger increased speed. She gasped, clawing at the table under her palms. “Oh, God, yes!” She wiggled her hi
ps, pushing at his thrusts and his finger. “More. Fuck, yes!”
“Less talking,” he growled, adding a twist of his hips that pressed his cock inside her in all sorts of new and interesting ways. “I want you to come all over my cock.”
“I’m so close,” she moaned. Just a little more and she could feel her muscles tightening. Tension twisted into a knot at her core. With every plunge into her body, he pushed her to the edge. Her breaths came in choppy spurts. “Don’t stop. So close…”
“Never going to stop, sweetheart,” he whispered in her ear, driving hard into her again. “I want you to hear you scream.”
He tapped her clit at the same time he rammed her harder.
“Oh! Oh! Oh, God!” Oxygen rushed out of her lungs, pushing out of her lips in a choked scream. Tension unraveled in a whoosh. Pleasure charged out from her pelvis and shot up through her limbs, searing her with the intensity of a bomb. She gasped and tried to get air into her deprived lungs, her body almost liquefied from the orgasm blasting through her system.
His groan wasn’t unheard behind her as he slammed into her one last time, then stiffened, but there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it other than hang on for the ride. Pleasure coursed through her, each pulse of his cock deep within her triggering another seemingly endless cascade of pleasure.
Holy Mother of Orgasm. She blinked, trying to get the stars dancing in her vision to dissipate. Her lungs burned. “Where...,” she panted, but her dry throat stopped her from finishing the sentence. Fully laying on the table now, she licked her lips, cleared her throat, and tried again. “Where the hell did you learn to do that?” she asked, each word struggled between harsh breaths. “And more importantly, can we do it again?”
He pulled out of her with a grunt, his breathing as ragged as hers. “How quickly can you get to the bedroom?”
Chapter Five
“And twist, bring the knee up, hard...harder!” Drew ordered, his voice sharp as Amanda drove her knee up into the pad he held over his groin. The resulting impact was satisfactory, but she’d hesitated, which wouldn’t do.
“Don’t pause. Don’t think. Just hit and hit hard,” he said, stepping back, bringing the pads up to shoulder height again, and holding them out toward her.
“Again? We did this already.” She flipped her bangs back out of her eyes and fixed him with a look of near hatred. He hid his grin. He didn’t blame her. For the last three days they’d been going over self-defense moves. Relentlessly.
“We did, sweetheart, and we’re going to do it again, and again, until you don’t think, you just hit.”
She swore under her breath, something uncomplimentary about his parentage, and his grin flared wide over his lips. Just for a second, then he quashed it. When it came to teaching her to look after herself, he was deadly serious. “Tired yet?”
“What do you think? Tell me again why I’m paying you?” Her voice was sharp, but she brought her fists up into a guard position anyway. One was a little low. He snapped out a roundhouse with the pad to test it, and she brought the arm up into a smart block. Approval radiated through him, and he nodded.
“You don’t pay me sweetheart, not for this. This is all part of the service.”
She huffed out another breath. “Do you ever, oh, I don’t know, stop? I feel like I’m doing all the exercise I haven’t done in years in one sitting.”
He arched an eyebrow. “This? Chickenfeed, sweet stuff. I’ve not even broken a sweat. Hit me harder and I might.”
She lifted a knee with a growl, going for his groin without hesitating this time. “Asshole!”
He only just got the pads in place in time, absorbing the blow with the ease of long practice. “Better! Much better. Try it again, but don’t back off this time. Your aim is to drop your attacker, incapacitate him, then run like hell. With me?”
She rolled her eyes. “Right now, my aim is to get you to stop telling me how to kick you in the balls. For a woman, you think this would come naturally. Yet, there you stand, annoying me with your smirk.”
He stepped back out of range and rolled his shoulder until it clicked. An old injury flared up at times. “Yeah, well. I need to get you comfortable actually hitting me. Then we move onto the advanced stuff.”
She wiped the back of her hand over her forehead. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be comfortable making you incapacitated down there.” She grinned, glancing down at the padding on his crotch. “What if I want to use it again?”
He let a grin slip through at that. She did this, tried to distract him, when he threatened to push her out of her comfort zone. “Believe me, if I let you land an actual blow there, I deserve all the pain I got. Besides…” He winked. “You could always kiss it better…”
“That’s true,” she said, lifting her arms up into position. “What made you get into this to begin with? I don’t imagine you said to yourself one day ‘oh, I think I want to have women kicking me in the balls in the future for a living.’”
“Self-defense?” He deliberately misinterpreted the question, moving in to reset her footing on the mat before stepping back and motioning her on again with the pads. “I like to see sexy-as-hell women work up an appetite.”
She muttered a curse and threw another kick at his crotch. “You know, now that you mention food, can we take a break any time soon? I feel like my lungs are going to sue me for cruel and unusual punishment in the very near future.”
“I didn’t mean that kind of appetite.” He deflected the wild kick with ease, resisting the urge to trap her leg and step in closer. “Nope. No breaks until I’m happy. Keep working.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, pursing her lips. “Fine. Jerk. If you’re going to kill me with all this exercise, you could at least entertain me and tell me why you got into this stuff. And I’m not talking about teaching chubby CEOs how to kick a man properly in the balls.”
“Hey, hey,” he chided. “No dissing the curves. I happen to like them, a lot.” He paused as she went through the combination again, noting that when she was distracted, she hit harder. “I was a soldier. Did my bit, Queen and Country and all that.”
“Okay, Mr. Balls of Steel, I’m not dissing my curves. I’m a big girl and proud of it. I learned a long time ago I can’t please everyone, and my body is one area where I don’t care what others think.” She raised a brow. “And doing your bit isn’t really saying much. Where’s your family? What do they think of you being a badass who likes to get tortured by short women?”
He laughed, backing off and dropping the pads. “They’re back home in good old Blighty, and they’re used to not asking questions about what I do.”
She froze and laughed. “Is that your way of telling me I’m being nosy?”
He lifted a hand and hooked a finger in a come-on motion. “Nope. I was a soldier. I went places and did things that most people don’t want to know about, that I couldn’t talk about with normal people. Then I left the army and got paid better for what I’m good at.”
Her smile dropped into a frown. “Do you miss your old work? I mean, I bet you had friends there, no?”
“Dead.” He smiled to take the sting out of his words. “Occupational hazard.”
“I’m sorry. I bet that’s something you hear all the time, but I am. It must suck to lose friends. I remember losing my parents. It was hell.” She moved forward a step and stopped.
“Like I said, occupational hazard. When the first bullet flies, you’re dead anyway. You just have to take as many of the wankers with you as you can. Who dares wins and all that.”
“What made you move to the states?” She moved through the combination at half speed, obviously more intent on quizzing him, and he let her, using his hands to bat away her kick.
“I didn’t move to the States, not permanently. I’m more freelance, shall we say? Tom called me in, and I was between jobs, so...here I am.”
“Does that mean you’ll be leaving here once you teach me to stop inviting danger into my life?
”
He looked away, rolled his shoulder again even though it hadn’t locked. That wasn’t a question he wanted to consider. Not even in the privacy of his own mind.
“I couldn’t imagine that kind of life. That sounds so...dangerous.” She bit her lip and moved her hands to her waist.
“Dangerous?” He choked back a laugh. “Did you miss the definition of soldier? That’s kinda what it’s all about.”
“You’re back to the jerk, I see. I know soldiers are in constant danger, but the way you said it made me feel like you were some kind of super-secret navy seal.” She laughed. “I have an overactive imagination.”
He stopped, giving her a look. “I’m British. So Navy Seal is out. You’re along the right lines though.”
“Don’t get testy. I’m not up to date on all the different military brands in the US, much less Britain. I have bigger things to worry about, like how I’m going to kick you in the balls and make it hurt while still making sure you can use them again.”
He spread his arms wide. “Then try. Manage it, and I’ll let you have a break. Don’t…” His grin widened. “And more punishment.”
“I don’t know what I could have thought was sexy about you,” she mumbled. She perked up suddenly, smiling wide at him. “You know, you have really pretty eyes,” she said, combining her words with a swift kick to his crotch.
He moved swiftly, turning to the side to wrap her leg with an arm. A half turn took her off her feet, and he fell backward. His back hit the mats, but he had her safely cushioned against his chest. Her breath left her lungs in a rush at the unexpected impact. He didn’t stop there, neatly flipping her over and pinning her to the mat before she could react.
“An insult and a compliment as distraction?” He grinned, amused at the annoyance flaring in her eyes. “Child’s play sweetheart, to distract me you’d need to put a bullet in my leg. Maybe not even then.”
***
Amanda stared deep into his gorgeous blue eyes. He mentioned being shot, so it made her curious to see if he had any bullet wounds. She grinned, watching his brows rise. “I bet I can figure out a way to distract you. And I won’t have to shoot you.”
