by Marie Harte
“Houston,” I sighed. Please never let this stop. He abandoned my breast and slid his hand down my stomach.
“If you touch me I’m going to come.”
“Nothing wrong with that, baby.”
Except instead of continuing the trail, he flipped me over so I faced the wall.
“Put your leg right here on the bench.” He lifted my thigh and placed my foot on the tile. “Good girl. Now grab that bar above your head.” He guided my hands and I did as instructed.
“Perfect, now don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
He jumped from the shower and left me. As much as that made me want to turn around and see what he was doing, I waited, pressing my forehead to the wall in front of me.
The sound of him tearing open a package made me sigh. Shit. I was so into this he could have screwed me without one and I probably wouldn’t have noticed.
“I’m hard as a fucking rock, Princess. I hope you’re ready for that.” He stepped back into the shower and pressed his front to my back, his hands grabbing the backs of my thighs to spread me wider. “Balls deep, baby.”
A second later he lined up the head of his cock to my entrance and shoved straight into me without another word. My world tilted and I might have screamed because his mouth was at my ear whispering about how hot and tight I was.
The weight of his body pressed me into the wall and every inch of me felt invaded. I really loved it. And then it got better. His clever fingers sought out my clit and began a rough back and forth slide. With pressure building in my belly at an alarming rate he began massaging my insides with long, slow strokes.
“Ohhh.” I bit my lip to keep from screaming again.
“Fuck, baby.” He grabbed my hips, his fingers digging into my flesh and pulled me on and off his cock. Unlike the last time, he took his time, building my orgasm in a slow steady climb. My heart was beating out of control, and my legs shook with need.
He leaned over me and peppered kisses along my back, making me wiggle every time he touched a sensitive spot. My muscles clenched.
He groaned. “You’re killing me, Princess.”
I liked that I had the power to do that even in this position so I did it again, tightening my muscles around his cock. If I wasn’t already out of my mind I would have smiled when he stiffened and moaned behind me. I let go and squeezed again.
“Shit.” He lifted my hips and thrust harder at a slightly different angle.
“Ohh. Ohh.” The slow burn of an orgasm exploded within me, robbing me of air. My muscles tightened, freezing me in place, unable to even scream.
The guttural groans behind me melded into short, rough grunts as he slammed me harder, filling me entirely. He grabbed my shoulder with one of his hands and held me to the wall, while he banged into me several more times. After countless strokes he buried deep and held, his body shuddering behind me.
Neither of us moved or said a word, the only sounds the falling water and our heavy breathing. When the water turned cold I jerked free from my sex stupor, attempting to shift out of the spray.
He must have felt it too as he slid from me and lowered my leg. He quickly reached past me and turned off the water. I collapsed on the bench unable to stand any longer. Again, I sat shocked by the overwhelming sensations still fluttering through me.
In a vague sense of reality I watched him remove and discard the condom before grabbing a towel and returning to me. As if sensing I had no energy to move my arms or legs yet, he took the time to dry my skin and alternately kiss my bare skin.
“Is it always like this?” My voice cracked but I finally got the question out that was burning my brain.
“Sex is almost always good, but no it is not always this fucking hot.” He dropped a quick kiss on the top of my head before scooping me into his arms.
Chapter Seven
Isabella
‡
HE CARRIED ME to the bed and set me down against a stack of pillows. “You need to eat. Good thing for us dinner was delivered right after I returned.”
I nodded. “I don’t have any clothes.”
He reached behind him and dug through his bag. “Here,” he handed me a grey T-shirt with USMC emblazoned across the front. “I’d be happy to keep you naked and in my bed tonight, but if there’s any hope for getting you fed then you need to cover up.” He wagged his brows at me.
I looked down a little shocked to discover I was naked from head to toe and not bothered by it. Still, I took the shirt from him and swept it over my head, sighing at the soft, lived in feel of worn cotton caressing my skin. It became even more delicious when I imagined the shirt hugging the sleek and sexy muscles of his chest.
Because of our height difference, it easily covered my butt and some of my thighs.
“I gotta say I didn’t expect you to be a Marine.”
He paused from uncovering all of the food. “What did you expect?”
“I thought for sure you were some kind of bad boy badass. You had the whole package going. Old leather jacket that probably saw lots of action, torn denim, cigarette dangling from your lips. You also said something about a bike. I had this whole fantasy going.” I tugged nervously at the hem of the shirt even though I knew I was covered.
“Really?” he asked. “You don’t think Marines are badasses?”
“Well, yeah. If I think about you overseas with a big gun in your hands defending the country from some crazy, I definitely get a badass vibe. Just different.” I took the plate he offered and put it down on the bed in front of me.
“Beer okay or you want something else?” He held up one of the long necks I ordered and tipped it my way.
“Beer’s good.” I took the offered bottle.
“I want to hear more about this badass you thought I was.” He scooted onto the bed directly across from me and folded his legs indian style. I have no idea why his posture or seating position struck me, but I realized we were about to share our first meal and what should have been some weird after sex awkward date was completely comfortable.
“I don’t know. I have kind of a warped view of the world. I never seem to see things as they really are. You could kind of say I’ve lived a not so innocent sheltered life. So when I think badass it’s more like what I see on television.” Or the kind of guys my father kept on his payroll. I might have been sheltered, but I certainly wasn’t blind. No man guarded his secrets like my father unless they were the kind that could get him in a lot of trouble.
“Sheltered huh? You don’t fuck like you’re sheltered.”
I blushed hot and fast at the vulgarity of his statement. Yet, the blunt language kind of appealed to me in a way I wasn’t used to.
“I’ve never done—it—like that before. But I did say not too innocent.” I took a bite of my club sandwich to keep from saying anything else idiotic for at least the next thirty seconds or so.
“Fuck too ugly a word for it? Cause in my world fucking is a very good thing. Hot like that the best.” He tipped his beer back and took several swallows while I watched his throat work. I bit my lip.
“Your world? You mean the Marines?”
He leaned his beer on his leg and started rubbing the edge of the label. “No, babe. Me and the Marines… We broke up. Got injured on my last assignment and they decided I wasn’t fit for duty anymore.” He pulled up the leg of the sweats he’d put on after his shower up to his knee and showed me several scars. They weren’t old and faded, so I guessed this injury wasn’t that long ago.
“I don’t understand. Your knee didn’t seem to bother you on the roof or in shower.” I blushed again from thinking about it.
“The Marine Corps has rigid standards for physical fitness that I can’t meet one hundred percent of the time. That means I’m out even if I am quite capable of just about anything.”
I nodded, not exactly understanding the justification on the behalf of the Marines when it came to letting a near perfect specimen like him go. But I suppose if events were different
we would have never met. Like if I got married to the jerk my father gave me to.
“So what do you do now?”
His eyes narrowed a little, some of the light leaving them. He took another tug on the beer. “Don’t know yet. Just got home…” He glanced at the clock on the nightstand. “Yesterday.”
“Oh.” What else was I supposed to say? Sorry about losing your job? Not like I could judge. I’d never worked a day in my life. Not because I didn’t want to though. However, my father wouldn’t allow it. He insisted I grow up differently than he and his sisters and when I followed his carefully laid out plan, I would marry a wealthy man and be a great support to my husband and his family.
“Yeah,” he said. “I saw myself staying in the Corps until retirement, not going back to my old life.”
His eyes narrowed again and made me curious. “Old life? What was that?”
“You sure you want to know? I was as far from sheltered as I could get.”
Now I was intrigued. I set down the rest of my sandwich and shifted a little closer until our knees touched. “I definitely want to know. Anything has to be more exciting than home school and security guards.”
His brows lifted. “Fine. I’ll tell you, but then you owe me.”
I grinned, imagining exactly what I would owe him and hoping it meant more of those amazing orgasms he kept giving me. “Whatever you want it’s yours.” I cringed a little right after I said that. Hopefully, I could handle his whatever.
“You sure you’re ready?”
I laughed. “Lay it on me. I’m a big girl.”
“I grew up in an MC in the tiny but scenic town of Sultan, Washington only a couple of hours from here, but as far from city life as you could imagine.”
“MC?”
“Motorcycle club.”
I grabbed his thighs. “Oh my God. Like on television. I knew it. You are a badass.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “Badass Marine remember? And no, living in an MC is not like what you watch on television. Even reality television isn’t reality let alone some scripted show where the bad guys do so much crazy shit any real person would be dead or rotting away in prison for life.”
“Awww. Don’t ruin it for me. I like watching it. It’s the perfect show for a drinking game. Every time someone gets shot, drink. Every time someone tells a lie, drink. Every time someone cheats on their girl, drink. And so on. Thanks to my best friend, Brenda, I’ve never made it through an entire episode sober.”
“You’re a nut, babe.”
“I am not a nut. Sheltered remember?”
“You are a nut. But I want a kiss anyway.”
He pulled me into his lap and covered my mouth with his. The instant shot of heat and lust made me almost melt. His hand wrapped around the back of my neck, holding me close with a firm grip. His tongue touched mine and I had to place my hands on his chest to steady myself.
Heat flared between my legs, but I wasn’t ready to go there quite yet. I wanted to hear more of his story. I was fascinated about this club of his. With great effort, I pulled free and sat back. “I want more story. No fair distracting me with a kiss.”
“Okay, fine. But don’t forget you offered quid pro quo.”
I didn’t care what I had to do in return as long as he kept talking to me in that rough low voice. Him getting turned on by me was the most attractive sound I’d ever heard.
This time he didn’t let go as he cleared the dishes before he turned to the side and spread us out on the bed with my back to his front. He even grabbed my hips and nestled me against his already hard cock. With that tucked between my cheeks I was already growing slick. I had no idea how long I could hold out before I begged him for sex and I had a feeling that was all part of his plan.
“You’re like the devil.”
A rumble of laughter vibrated through my back. “Then we’re perfect together. The princess and the devil, a match made in lust.”
I was going to resist as long as I could. “Story, please.”
He sighed, but continued. “My father was the president.”
“Ooh like—” He covered my mouth with his hand cutting me off.
“You want me to tell the story or not?”
I nodded my head, his hand still wrapped around my mouth.
“My father was the president and at the time of my birth, my mother was not his old lady, although he eventually did claim her and me.”
I stopped trying to interject and got lost in his story of growing up with a motorcycle club. The two of us lying in bed was as natural to me as if I’d known him for years instead of hours. Some of the violence and danger he witnessed reminded me of my own family. Early on I was a nosy child and I used to sneak around the house listening to my father.
Those were stories I could never share with anyone. I barely comprehended them myself.
By the time he got to the part about his mother’s accidental death, silent tears were streaming down my face. We were two totally different people with different backgrounds, yet we shared many similarities. I lost my mother too. Except she suffered through cancer before she died…
“Shhh. It’s okay, Princess. You don’t have to cry for me.” He was rubbing his hand up and down my back trying to soothe me. And it did. I wanted to tell him about my mother too, but the memories were still too fresh. My mother had been gone less than a month when my father informed me that I was getting married. I thought I was going to start college.
That memory dried my tears. The man I called father did not deserve them.
“It’s three in the morning, beautiful and we’ve been talking for hours. I think we should get some sleep.”
“Okay,” I whispered. I did feel drained. And for the moment I was safe. My badass biker Marine would make sure of it. I smiled and tucked his hand under my chin. I closed my eyes and savored his warmth. I was sleepy…
“Hey, Princess.” His voice sounded so far away.
“Hmmm.”
“Why did you run away from your wedding?”
I was wrapped in a nice safe cocoon where nothing and no one could get to me. I was even floating…
“Because I was afraid of the man I was being forced to marry.”
Chapter Eight
Isabella
‡
I PEEKED OUT the hotel window and soaked in the sunshine blanketing Seattle. Summer was supposed to be long gone by now and the gray days of Fall settling in. Mother Nature obviously had something else on her mind today.
Houston walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, tucking my head under his chin. “Morning again, Princess.”
“Why do you keep calling me that?”
“Because that’s what I thought of the first time I saw you. Wish you could have seen how it looked when you appeared out of the mist and fog on that pier. Big flowing dress, long silky dark hair framing your face. The way you moved and searched the area. I thought I’d tripped and fallen into a movie set.”
His honesty shocked me and warmed my core. But he’d seen someone who wasn’t me. A charade my family put together to parade out in public when it suited my father’s fancy. I turned in his arms and tipped my head back to meet his gaze.
“And now? What do you see? I don’t have a fancy dress anymore or a hairdresser to blow out my hair. Hell, right now I don’t even have makeup.”
Houston smiled, sifting his fingers through the massive length of curls I called hair. I knew what I looked like now. Plain.
“I like you better this way. Your hair is gorgeous like this, especially when it falls across your naked ass. I think it’s been made pretty clear how much I love your fantastic body, and I could give a fuck about make up.”
I smiled. “So hair and ass. Good to know what you like.”
He smirked and pinched my nipple through his shirt. “I like it all, babe. You’re going to always be a princess to me whether you’re in a fancy gown or a pair of tight jeans on the back of my bike. Makes no difference to me.
”
My stomach flip-flopped. He made it sound like there was more to this than just a day or two in his hotel room. God it would be so easy to get attached. Except I was currently homeless with few prospects ahead. Not to mention my plan was to get as far away from Seattle as I could.
“Tell me more about this Sultan, Washington. Where exactly is it?”
He grinned. “Have you really never been to Stevens Pass? Or Leavenworth? To get to either of those from Seattle you have to go right through the heart of tiny Sultan.”
I shook my head. “I don’t travel. Although I do sort of remember that Stevens Pass from my required Washington history class. Something to do with the Northern Railroad in the 1800s, right?”
“Yep. Sounds like you and I need to take a day trip.”
Again, he referred to us spending more time together after today. I wanted to harden my heart from his kindness, but it was impossible. I closed my eyes, preserving this very moment in vivid detail. I had a feeling one day soon I would need the memory. Although I wholeheartedly believed I would never forget him and his kindness.
“I would love to make that trip with you.” Even if I never believed it would happen.
“How about today? Do you have time?” He wrapped one of my curls around his finger as he looked at me with those startling blue eyes.
“I don’t have any clothes with me remember?”
He backed away and grabbed his cell phone from the table. “No problem. We can exchange numbers and when you get home call me and I’ll pick you up. But wear something warm. It’s cooler up in the mountains and when the sun goes down it gets much chillier on the back of the bike.”
He was talking so fast my head spun out of control. None of what he said made sense because I had no home to go back to. If I returned, the least that would happen was a rushed wedding. The worst I didn’t know. I could only imagine how angry my father was and what that might lead him to do.
“I—I can’t.”
He stopped abruptly. “What’s wrong? You look pale.”
I brushed off his concern. “Nothing, and kind of everything. I can’t go home and change and I can’t go on a ride with you. I’m supposed to leave town today.”
