Put him on the front of a god damned card with a heart and a flower and a puppy—the whole works. Flynn Maguire was memorizing this moment. The one where he and Sierra had sex for the first time.
Because it mattered.
So, yeah, he opened his eyes to see the pine trees mixed with whatever the other ones were with fat, green leaves. The brown and white speckled birds pecking in the dirt. The gray clouds skidding across the sky like the tumbleweeds he’d watched during their brief stint in Utah. Flynn filed away the damp breeze lifting his hair, the distant rumble of thunder.
The crazy spectacular beauty of Sierra’s painting right in front of him. The orchids that looked so dainty but stood tall with an impossible curve, weighed down by the purple and yellow blossoms. Just like Sierra. Small, delicate even, but ten times stronger than he was.
Thunder didn’t just rumble. It crashed this time. “We’d better go in,” Flynn said.
“Good. That’s where the bed is.” Sierra unwound herself from him, then took his hand.
“Wait a sec.” Flynn tugged free. He picked up the painting and the wooden board with paint daubed all over it. Only then did he let her lead him inside. Sierra took her supplies from him. She tucked them into a little closet next to the front door, and propped the painting below.
“Thanks for remembering the painting.”
“It’s important to you. So it’s important to me.”
“You make this all so . . . easy for me, Flynn. I didn’t expect that.”
“Because I’m such a complicated guy?”
“You seemed that way, when I first met you. Closed off and, um, secretive. No, haunted. Unapproachable. But also amazingly hot and interesting and kind.”
Man, she nailed that description of him. That observant artist’s eye thing she had going didn’t miss a single thing. “Glad you came around to hot. That’ll make what happens next easier, too.”
“Actually, ridiculously good-looking, I believe, was the first thing I registered about you. Tall, dark, and brooding. No woman can resist that.”
“I don’t care about other women.”
Sierra took a whopping three steps past the couch to the stairs and pulled off her light blue tee shirt printed with the letters MIAD stacked into a fat block. It gave him a jolt to realize it must be the logo for her college. To know her secret, and be able to put the pieces together.
Then he stopped thinking about her holy-shit-complicated past—another get to that later—because she was standing there in just a white lace bra and shorts.
It was simple. Not that fancy, expensive stuff the women in Chicago dolled up in. But the lace cradled breasts that he fucking yearned to touch. And pink showed through the lace from her nipples, poking straight out. Her breasts called to him. Flynn could spend all night with his mouth on them.
As he moved toward her, his leg brushed against the handle of a mug on the end table and sent it crashing to the floor. Flynn spared it a quick glance. Couple big pieces. Nothing that couldn’t wait, since it looked to have been empty. “I’ll buy you an even dozen to replace it if you just keep standing there.”
“Here? I thought I’d head up to bed, actually.” After tossing him a teasing smile, she moved up two more steps.
A hamster could’ve caught up with her in a house this small. Flynn didn’t bother to even lunge. He just leaned out a little and grabbed for her shorts as he made it onto the first step. Except that motion connected his shoulder with a shelf, and his head with the one above it. A picture frame tumbled off and onto the couch. A plant clocked him right above the eyebrow.
Flynn threw out the opposite arm to catch himself . . . just in time to remember the stupidly steep staircase didn’t have a bannister.
“For being so tiny, this house is one giant cock block,” he grumbled.
Sierra’s hand flew to her mouth. “You’re bleeding.”
He thumbed off the couple of drops beading along his eyebrow. After all the hits he’d taken in the ring, a simple clay pot to the head wouldn’t slow him down one damn bit. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll clean all this up later. Myself included. I need you now, Sierra.”
At the top step she dropped to her knees. The sight of her crawling onto that mattress would stay with him for the rest of his life. Her tight little ass twitched beneath the denim. Long legs straightened then bent again, just like they would when he was between them. Those just-big-enough breasts hung down, swinging a little from side to side in a way that dried his mouth out. Hell. It was the sexiest god damned thing Flynn had ever seen. Punctuated by the look—half-lidded eyes, one cocked brow, pink lips parted just a little—that might as well be her hand around his dick pulling him forward.
Flynn took what was left of the staircase at a combination crawl and climb.
Then his knee hit the brass rail that kept the mattress from falling out of the loft space. A space he couldn’t even kneel in without hitting his head.
“No. No way. This isn’t going to work.”
“You mean because of what I told you tonight?”
“I mean because your house wouldn’t even fit a hobbit.” Flynn was pretty sure he got that right. Hobbits, elves, dwarves—all creatures with a shit-ton of hair in movies he’d mostly slept through. But he thought he remembered a round door that had intrigued him in a house where the human-sized wizard couldn’t stand up straight.
He looked over the railing. Assessed his options. They’d make this work here, tonight, if he had to stand on one leg in the shower to make it happen.
If there was a shower.
“Back downstairs. I’ve got a plan.”
“Should I take off the rest of my clothes first?”
“Don’t you dare. That fun’s all for me.” But Flynn did yank his own shirt over his head. He pressed on the cut to soak up whatever blood was still there so that it wouldn’t scare Sierra, or give her a reason to worry.
Her head needed to be focused on one thing, and one thing only.
By the time he tossed the shirt onto the mattress and crab-walked back down the stairs, Sierra stood in the middle of the living space, arms loosely at her sides. Flynn dropped to his knees. Unbuttoned her shorts, but left them hanging at her hips.
He feathered a line of kisses where the waist gaped open. That creamy skin soaked up each kiss. Her fingers dug into his skull.
“That’s where you’re starting?” Sierra said on a half laugh, half gasp.
“We started weeks ago, when we met. This is where I’m finishing it. Now. Here.” Flynn tipped his head back to watch a smile bloom across her face. “If that’s okay with you.”
Sierra nodded so hard that her hair fell over her face. Kind of hiding behind it, she said in a very small voice, “I, um, don’t have any condoms. They seemed like an unnecessary expense. Until recently, that is.”
Now that Flynn knew the depth of her struggles and her journey? The reason behind why she couldn’t spare the cash for a six-pack of condoms flayed him. The woman had had one hell of a tough road. One that would’ve broken other people. But no way would he let her feel bad for not splurging on a rubber.
“No worries.” He tossed her a wink as he dug a foil packet out of his wallet. “A man who doesn’t always carry a condom is a man without hope.”
Her soft giggles proved that he’d taken the right tack.
Flynn stood to toss the condom onto the kitchen counter. Then he crowded up close behind her, with his balls nestled right at the top of her sweet, tight little ass. He tucked his arms around hers to squeeze those lace-covered white mounds. Looking over her shoulder at them, his dick jerked against his zipper painfully. She was perfect. She was everything good and bright and beautiful and so damned kissable.
Flynn circled her nipples with his thumbs, knowing the rasp of the lace would make them even more sensitive. Sierra jolted back against him, then reached up to hang on to his forearms. Using his chin, he moved her hair out of the way to get at her neck. His tongue traced the tendon s
tanding out sharply on the side of it. At her earlobe, he flicked it fast before taking it in his teeth and tugging.
Sure enough, her breath ratcheted up into pants. The woman responded to wherever, however he touched her. And that response filled Flynn with such satisfaction. Drove his need painfully high, too.
But his didn’t matter. Not yet.
Flynn popped open her bra with one hand. Immediately, she shrugged it off her shoulders and shimmied it to the floor. Which treated him to one hell of a view of jiggling, pink-crested breasts. “God, you’re beautiful, Sierra.”
“No.” She whirled in his arms. When her breasts connected with his bare chest, they both inhaled sharply. “I’m average. You’re . . . you’re like a statue of a Greek god.”
“Don’t contradict me. Out of the two of us, I’d say I’m the expert on assessing a woman’s beauty.”
“I’ll bet.” Her face fell.
What had he said? “What’s wrong?”
“I just . . . I figure you’re much more experienced than me. I don’t want to disappoint you.”
How badly had he screwed this up? Did she really not know? “My experience will make you feel good. What we did with other people doesn’t matter. What we do together, you and me, that’s what matters. There’s only here and now. And I’m going to fucking worship your body. If that’s okay.”
Another almost frantic series of nods.
Flynn skimmed his hands down her spine, over to her narrow rib cage. Her skin was smoother than butter. He flipped his hands so his knuckles dragged back up her sides, along the curve of her breasts. Her shorts would have to stay on until the very last second to keep him in check. Because he was practically ready to come just from touching her.
He laved his tongue in a wide circle around her nipple. Then another one, slightly smaller. Another that just touched the row of tiny pink bumps right at its edge. When he finally closed his lips on the erect nub, Sierra mewled. Like a kitten when you rubbed its belly, but a hundred times sexier. The sound curled through his balls before spiking desire straight to the tip of his dick.
“Do you like that?”
Another nod.
“Honey, I need you to talk to me. This only works if you let me know what does and doesn’t get you off.”
“Everything you do is good. But . . .”
“But what?” Flynn moved his ear closer to her mouth to hear over the sharp drill of the rain against the roof.
“I want to touch you, too,” she murmured.
“You don’t ever need to ask. Trust me when I say there’s nothing I want more in the world right now than your hands on me.”
Sierra brushed those long, delicate artist’s fingers along the edge of his collarbone. Lightly, so light it almost tickled.
Except that it didn’t.
That light caress fired him up more than his last blow job. It was the way she touched him. With so much tenderness and care. And then her nails scraped down the center of his chest to the start of the line of dark hair that went beneath his waistband. That wasn’t tenderness.
Flynn saw the teasing, sultry glint in her eyes, the half upturn to her lips. That was lust. That was heat matching heat.
God, his dick throbbed with wanting her.
“Sweetness, can we take turns later? We’ve got all night. But I want you too damn much to wait.”
“That might be the absolute best thing you’ve ever said to me.” A vertical line formed between her eyebrows. “But if you can’t fit on the bed, what are we going to do?”
A laugh burst out of Flynn. “We don’t need a bed.”
“Sure we do.” She turned in a slow circle, eyes darting about the tiny space. “Um, the couch unfolds flat to sort of an extra bed.”
Flynn eyed it skeptically. Maybe a half-inch foam cushion, at best. Might as well kneel right on the damn floor. This entire house was a giant chastity belt. “Do you remember when I told you at the Gorse how I wanted to take you? On the bar. Braced, bent over the end, on your tiptoes. Me behind you. Holding on to your hip with one hand and your breast with the other.”
Her cheeks turned the same pink as her nipples. “Of course I remember that. Every single word.”
“Ever since I got that picture of you in my mind, I knew I needed to make it come true. Replaying it in my head’s no good. We’ve got to do it for real.”
“Standing up?”
“Yeah.” He’d have to crouch over her, surrounding her. It’d be so damn hot.
“Are you sure it’ll work?”
Flynn fished his wallet from his back pocket and dropped it on the floor between them. “I’ll put all my money on it.”
“Okay. I really like the idea of my first time with you being another first, too.”
Fuck. So did he. Flynn was no seventeenth-century knight jonesing for a virgin. Talk about no fun and too much pressure. But he loved the idea of opening Sierra’s eyes to something new. Of being the one to show her a new way to experience pleasure.
He wondered how many other firsts he’d get to have with her. However long the list turned out to be, he didn’t intend to leave a single one undone.
“C’mere.” With one finger, he beckoned her to join him at the counter. Flynn unzipped her shorts the rest of the way and shoved them to her ankles. Then he lifted her up and sat her on the counter.
Sierra kicked her clothes off onto the floor. “What are we doing? This isn’t bent over.”
“I’m indulging in a sweet treat, first.” Flynn dropped to his knees. Wedged her legs apart with his shoulders and saw the triangle of . . . blond? . . . hair. As he looked up at her in surprise, Sierra tugged at the dark hair lying across her breast.
“I’m on the run, remember? I dyed my hair as soon as I hit Chicago.”
“You’re full of surprises today.” Then he leaned in to blow gently on the patch of fine blond hair.
Sierra jumped. “You are, too. Wow.” She patted with more than a little force on the back of his head. “Do it again.”
“You bet.” He blew a little harder this time, and enjoyed the hell out of her corresponding wriggle. Then he took both his thumbs and opened her up wide. His tongue lapped a long, slow stroke the length of her hot, sweet crease. Sierra tasted fantastic. Like he could eat her all night and never want to move on.
And yet, the ache to be inside her was so strong his balls were practically cramping. Yeah, this first time had to be fast and fucking soon to take the edge off. Then he’d take his time with her. To learn her. To learn her tells and what every sigh meant—faster, or stay right there, or if she just couldn’t hold on another minute.
Flynn eased one finger inside of her, just to the first knuckle, as his tongue flickered over her clit. Sierra was bouncing on the counter now, arching up to meet him in a fast circle. She was so tight, and he didn’t want to hurt her. So he swallowed hard and counted backward from forty to force himself to take his time.
The noises coming from her throat were that mix of adorable and sexy that fucking drove him right to the edge. One finger all the way in now, Flynn added another. Sierra went wild. Her ankles locked around his back. More sweet moisture gathered on his tongue.
“Flynn. Oh, Flynn, I . . . I don’t want to without you.”
Still pumping two fingers inside of her, crooked just enough to hit her G-spot, Flynn licked his lips to look at her flushed and beautiful face. “Let yourself go. Let me make you feel good. Please, let me take care of you, Sierra.”
Then he scraped his teeth across her clit before sucking hard. Sierra shattered, with one, long high scream as her thighs trembled violently on his shoulders. It was the hottest thing he’d ever seen.
With little licks and kisses, he eased her down a bit before removing his fingers. Flynn stood up and he loved that she didn’t move. Just kept her legs splayed wide and that lazy smile of satisfaction on her lips. Flynn suddenly wished he could draw as well as Sierra, to be able to put that utterly feminine and boneless look of pure pl
easure down on paper forever.
“Now can it be your turn?”
This woman and her selflessness. How did he get so lucky? “Now it’s our turn.” He started to unbutton his shorts, but her fingers got there first. Nimbly, they undid him in record time. Flynn ripped open the foil packet with his teeth. And practically inhaled it when Sierra cupped his balls in her talented fingers before squeezing his entire length.
“Christ almighty, I have to get inside you.”
“Good.”
He helped her off the counter, then turned her around. For someone who didn’t seem convinced this position would work, she braced her elbows without any prompting. The sight of her waist flaring out to hips perfectly shaped for his palms made Flynn impossibly harder. Then she wiggled her ass for good measure. Like he’d needed any more visuals to pop him off in two seconds.
Condom on, he pushed inside of her. Just the tip. Just enough for them both to know this was happening. He got the impression that sex had been blander than tap water for her in the past. Flynn intended to make her see stars.
“Stop me if it’s uncomfortable.”
“I’m uncomfortable that you’ve stopped,” she said tartly.
A woman who sassed him and made him laugh in the middle of sex? Nothing better, as far as Flynn was concerned. Slowly, and then slower still because of her obvious tightness, Flynn eased in the rest of the way. It drew guttural moans out of both of them.
“Sierra, you’re beyond my wildest dreams. I want to stay in you all night. But I also want to come right the fuck now, it’s so good.”
“Do it,” she urged. “I won’t be able to again.”
“The hell you won’t,” he growled. “Insults don’t count as foreplay, babe. Have a little faith.”
“In you? I’ve got nothing but faith.”
The sweetness of her words almost did it. But Flynn gritted his teeth and held on. He reached around to squeeze her nipple, which made her squeal. Twice more, after that response, before moving down to palm right above where they were joined. Sierra immediately stiffened and rose to her toes.
Yeah? He could do better. Hands on her hips, he shifted her angle just a little to drive even deeper. Then Flynn lifted, taking her feet off the floor, and let himself go. Fast, hard strokes that had her alternating whimpers with a babbled repeat of his name. At least, he thought it was his name. The two ounces of blood that weren’t in his dick were pounding in his ears.
Never Been Good Page 17
