Steal My Heart (Swoon Series Book 7)

by J. H. Croix

  Our kiss was an instant conflagration. Ash arched up into me, pressing her soft, supple body against mine. Having her in my arms was a dizzying form of heaven. I simultaneously wanted all of her at once while trying to frantically absorb every sensation and not miss a single second of this, of her.

  Kissing her was madness—a sensual twining of our tongues. My teeth finally got to assuage their earlier envy when I drew away and nipped at her bottom lip before diving back in. One of her hands slid slowly over my chest while the other slipped around my neck, and her fingers teased my hair.

  My arousal was insistent. I was so hard that I ached. Untangling my fingers from her hair, I slipped my hand down her back to cup her bottom, letting out a rough groan when she rocked her hips into me. I needed more, and I needed more now.

  With a growl, I broke free from our kiss. I lifted her against me, a wave of satisfaction crashing through me when she curled her long legs around my hips, and I could feel the heat of her arousal pressing against my cock. Turning, I took two strides until we reached one of the beds, and I lowered her hips on it.

  I was struggling with a unique problem. I wanted her so badly, I almost couldn’t bear not to be plastered against her. Yet I didn’t want this to be a rushed coupling that would do little to slake the ferocity of my need for her.

  As I eased her on the bed, a piercing sense of missing the feel of her against me struck me hard when I rested my hands on either side of her hips. When our gazes collided, my heart started jackhammering again, and I lost my breath. She snatched it right out of me with the look in her eyes—dark, stormy, and sultry.

  Lifting a hand, I trailed my knuckles lightly over her collarbone. “Beautiful,” I murmured.

  Ash held still, watching me quietly. I let my fingertips trace along the curve of her tank top before lightly cupping a breast, loving how her nipple puckered even tighter when I teased it with my thumb. I couldn’t resist and leaned forward to close my mouth over it, right through the cotton.

  She gasped sharply, arching up into me. The weight of her breast felt so good in my palm. I let my teeth graze lightly over her nipple as I drew back. “Ash,” I said, my tone reverent. My voice was rough on the edges, my need having worn down any effort to speak clearly.

  Ash curled her fingers around the hem of her tank top and lifted it off in one swooping arc. It fell to the side of the bed. I’d been up close and personal with Ash for weeks now, but I hadn’t seen her naked. The sight of her caught me by the throat and seized my lungs again.

  Ash was tall but curvy. She didn’t have a bra on, and her breasts tumbled loose, her nipples a deep, dusky pink. My breath finally came out in a tortured groan. My hands fell to either side of her hips again with my head dropping into the crook of her neck.

  “Damn, Ash. You’re not supposed to be this fucking sexy.”

  Ash murmured something I didn’t catch. Leaning back, I asked, “What did you say?”

  Her lips were puffy from our kisses, her cheeks flushed, and her hair in a wild tangle around her shoulders. She literally took my breath away. I was no stranger to sex, but the fierceness of my need for Ash was unfamiliar. Our need was almost a separate force shimmering around us.

  She didn’t say anything, but I saw uncertainty flickering in her eyes, and she shrugged. I filed that away. Somebody had done a number on her. Anger blazed through me, but I didn’t linger on it, and the feeling only spun into the rest of the storm thrashing inside me.

  “Don’t think. I’m an expert on these matters,” I said, managing to lighten my tone.

  Ash’s lips kicked up in a slight smile. “Are you now?” she teased in return.

  “You know it.”

  Ash licked her lips, and I couldn’t resist leaning forward to kiss her again, letting my tongue tease with hers before drawing back.

  “You’re so beautiful and so sexy I can hardly stand it.” I punctuated that statement with another long kiss. Lifting my head, I held her gaze. “Now, sugar, I’m going to make you forget everything.”

  “Do your best,” Ash challenged.

  That little comment was something she used to say all the time when we were kids and dared each other to do whatever ridiculously scary thing we’d concocted. Although lust was laying claim to my body at this moment, my heart gave a funny little tumble in response.

  Ash and I had history. Lots of it. Jackson would fucking kill me if he knew what was happening right now, yet I couldn’t even summon the energy nor the will to give a damn.

  I dusted kisses along the side of her neck, loving the feel of her goose bumps rising on her skin. I savored the plush weight of her breasts in my hands. I let my palm glide over the soft curve of her belly and lower, a growl of satisfaction coming from my throat when I encountered the drenched cotton between her thighs.

  “Somebody’s all wet,” I murmured as I drew my lips away from her nipple yet again. Because I couldn’t fucking get enough of her nipples and the way she arched into me every time I caught them with my lips and nipped. Ash seemed to enjoy the edge of pain.

  “It’s all your fault,” Ash murmured between ragged breaths. “It was bad enough before you kissed me, and then you kissed me.”

  Her tone was accusatory, and I lifted my head, letting my eyes drift over her face and down her body. Fuck me. Ash was wearing nothing but a pair of pink cotton panties sitting on the edge of the bed with her knees splayed and her breasts rising and falling with each heaving breath. She had a flush of passion all over her skin, and her eyes were dark and wide. She looked thoroughly kissed. I needed more.

  “It’s all your fault, sugar,” I countered.

  “I don’t think so. You’re the one who kissed me first.”

  “Whatever. Back to my point, you’re too damn sexy. I’ve been cooped up with you for weeks, and I can’t take it anymore.”

  I hooked a finger over the edge of her panties and delved into her slick, swollen folds. “I need these off,” I muttered.

  I didn’t even want to take my fingers out of her sweet, hot core, but I had bigger plans, and her panties were in the way.

  Ash lifted her hips as I tugged them off. When I looked down, and my eyes landed on her pink and glistening pussy, my knees nearly gave out.

  “You’re wearing too many clothes,” she gasped. Her words ended on a moan when I tugged her hips closer to the edge of the bed and brought my fingers right where they needed to be.

  “In a minute,” I murmured in reply. Then I was kneeling and pressing her thighs apart. I dropped kisses on the insides of her thighs, satisfaction washing through me at the way she shivered and trembled under my touch.

  By the time my mouth made it to her center, Ash had one hand gripping my hair and the other clutching the bedspread in her fist. I teased my fingers through her arousal, circling my thumb over her clit before finally bowing my head and tasting her.

  She was sweet with a hint of tang. Her sharp cry punctuated a long, low moan. I explored every inch of her pussy until I felt her tightening and her channel rippling around my fingers. Only then did I bring my tongue to swirl around her clit again and give it the slightest bit of suction. She came apart with a ragged cry, her entire body trembling as her pussy clamped around my fingers.

  I needed inside her. Now.

  Rising, I kicked off my shorts and pulled her hips closer to the edge of the bed again. My cock was aching and hard in my fist as I gripped it. I was just about to bury myself inside her when I realized I needed a condom.

  “Fuck,” I muttered as I swung away quickly, striding to find my wallet. A few bills fell to the floor when I yanked out a condom and returned to the bed.

  I had it on in a hot second. Ash’s legs were already curling around my hips when I forced myself to hold still. I didn’t know why, but I needed to see her face when I filled her.

  With the crown of my cock resting at her entrance, teased by the kiss of her arousal, I lifted my head. “Ash.”

  Her dark lashes swept up. Alth
ough everything about this was bordering on the edge of insanity and driven by raw lust, when I reached to brush her sweat-dampened hair off her cheek, an acute sense of gentleness gusted through me like a soft breeze. It wasn’t an emotion I was familiar with, and it twined like a vine around everything else I was feeling.

  “What?” she asked, her question a ragged whisper.

  “I need to see you.” Even my answer surprised me because it was honest and unvarnished.

  Sex was just sex, or so I told myself every single time I’d had it before. Including the very first time when I lost my virginity to an older girl in high school. I’d always believed it was a choice to ascribe any more meaning to it. I hadn’t realized how thoroughly I’d absorbed that belief until Ash.

  “I need to see you,” I repeated as she stared back at me.

  With every breath, Ash’s breasts pressed against my chest. We were plastered together with her on the edge of the bed and me gripping the side of her hip with one hand and cradling her cheek in the other.

  I nudged at her entrance, breaching the very core of her slightly. On another breath, I slid all the way home into her silky, clenching sheath.

  “Oh, God,” I muttered, my words actually slurring.

  Her eyes widened when I settled in deeper. I stared into her gaze, watching the color darken and her lips part on a soft gasp. I couldn’t think over the drumming of my heart.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Ash

  My pulse thundered through every cell in my body, and all of my focus zeroed in on where I was joined with Mack. I looked up into his face, his liquid blue eyes. Mack was an intense man all on his own.

  But being this close to him overpowered everything else until there was nothing but him, and us, and this moment. He invaded and permeated every part of my body, taking over my senses and holding me captive.

  Given how big he was everywhere else, it didn’t surprise me that Mack was well endowed, but it was… much. Enough that there’d been a subtle burn when he stretched and filled me. He held still as my body adjusted to him. One of his hands gripped my hip tightly, and the feel of his fingers digging into my skin felt so good.

  Everything felt beyond good. His hard, muscled chest, the light abrasion from the dusting of his hair against my breasts, strong muscular thighs where they rested between mine. One of his hands cradled my cheek, his touch almost gentle and making me feel things I didn’t want to feel. I was made of sensation.

  He drew back slowly and then sank in again, asking, “Is this okay?”

  Although the question was polite, his words were rough with a hint of dirty to them.

  “Oh God, yes.” I let out a rough moan as he drew back and filled me again.

  His low chuckle sent a prickle down my spine, and then his hand tangled in my hair as he began to fuck me, hard. I needed it that way, hard and fast.

  He met me stroke for stroke as I arched to flex against him. My orgasm raced toward me rapidly. The friction was just right where we were joined as he held my hips in place with each stroke. The pleasure swirled faster and faster inside like a wheel about to spin loose. It finally reached a breaking point and snapped free. Pleasure scattered like sparks through my body as I shuddered roughly against him.

  Mack followed me over the edge almost instantly, his hand tightening in my hair to the point that my scalp stung. I savored the burn of it in the relief of my own pleasure. I heard him cry my name in a rough shout over the thundering of my heart as the waves of pleasure slowed into eddies and ripples. Before I could even catch my breath, Mack was lifting me and striding into the bathroom with me in his arms.

  I had to pee. With the insistent pressure in my bladder finally dragging me out of my sleep, I felt the warmth of Mack cocooning me. Good lord, he was a big man. His presence was like a giant bear in the bed with me—a muscled, sexy, hot bear I wanted to lick all over. Again.

  Our hotel room was dark. Opening my eyes, I was facing the empty bed I hadn’t slept in last night, and I didn’t want to get up. It felt good—oh, so deliciously good—to be held in Mack’s warm embrace. I’d discovered last night that he was a cuddler.

  My bladder repeated its protest, so I slid carefully out of his arms. I was afraid he’d wake up, and the reality of what we’d done last night would come crashing over both of us. I wasn’t ready for reality to poke its way into this scene yet.

  I tiptoed across the carpet and scurried into the bathroom. I was relieved the door closed soundlessly. I took care of business and held my breath when I flushed the toilet. Flicking on the light over the mirror, I took stock.

  My hair was messy, and my lips were still swollen from our endless kisses last night. It hadn’t ended after the first round in the bed. After he carried me into the shower, the kisses began all over again while the hot water rained down around us, and Mack’s nimble fingers teased me to another breathless climax. Then I took him in my mouth, gratified when his fingers gripped my hair and he cried my name in a growl as he came.

  Staring at myself in the mirror, I realized I looked like a woman who’d been thoroughly fucked. Oh, how my ego needed that. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath. When I let it out in a soft sigh, I turned out the light. No matter what happened now, at least I’d felt like the center of a man’s world for one night and maybe it wasn’t such an impossible feat for a man to lose himself in me.

  Swinging the door open quietly, I tiptoed back to bed, relieved to hear Mack’s breath still coming in steady, even gusts. I slid carefully under the covers, holding my breath as I hoped not to wake him. He’d rolled onto his back while I’d been in the bathroom, and I was a little bit disappointed. I didn’t know a trick to gracefully get him to spoon me again, so I gingerly pulled the covers up and tried to relax.

  After a moment, I heard him mumble something and then roll toward me, his arm coming around me. His hand landed just under one of my breasts, and my nipples perked up shamelessly.

  “Where’d you go?” he murmured, his voice slurred and frayed from sleep.

  “Bathroom,” I whispered.

  My lips were curling into a smile. Hell, it felt like my entire body was smiling.

  “Mmm.” He dragged me closer to him effortlessly.

  Even half-asleep, Mack’s strength easily pulled me against him. My knee hitched over his thigh as I curled into the crook of his shoulder.

  “There,” he murmured. I felt his lips press a kiss against my hair as his big palm smoothed down my side and came to rest cupping my bottom.

  My body was already responding with arousal, a little spin of heat shimmying through me. Mack murmured something unintelligible before his breath instantly shifted back into sleep.

  In my whatever relationship with Kyle, he was not a cuddly guy. My ex-fiancé hadn’t been either. With my heart smiling along with every other cell in my body, I didn’t know what to think of just how much I loved the way Mack held me in his sleep. Utterly relaxed and sated even though my body was already clamoring for more, I fell asleep quickly.

  Days passed, and I finished my last show. Back when I had originally scrabbled things together and booked these small shows, I’d envisioned myself traveling alone, and I didn’t really know how it would feel. Everything was so different now. Ever since that first fateful night three nights ago, I hadn’t been able to stay away from Mack. We carried on the way we had before during the days, being friendly and occasionally chatting in the truck because we’d known each other for years and had that kind of comfort.

  At night, we gave up all pretense. We didn’t even try to get rooms with two beds anymore. It was only three nights. Every single night was hotter than the night before—or so it felt—and I kept telling myself we’d burn this madness out of our systems. But no. Every time we came together, the fire burned hotter and hotter. I was made of fire and flames the second his mouth claimed mine and his hands began mapping my body.

  That morning, I woke wrapped in Mack’s strong embrace. Even though I knew this w
as crazy and reckless and perhaps the stupidest thing I’d ever done when it came to men, I didn’t want this to end. It felt too good.

  Mack’s big palm shifted where it was resting on my belly to slide up and over the curve of my hip. He murmured something unintelligible.

  “Mack?” My voice was raspy from sleep.

  “Mm-hmm?” he murmured into my hair.

  I rolled onto my back and looked toward him. He opened one eye. “Are you awake before me? Are pigs actually flying?”

  His lips curled slightly at the corners, and I felt my own tugging into a smile in return. Even before we succumbed to our desires, his preference to hit the road early and my preference to sleep a little later had turned into a joke.

  I nudged his abdomen with my elbow, which was like bumping my elbow into a wall. Even at rest, the man was in ridiculously good shape.

  “Be serious,” I admonished.

  He opened his other eye. “I have to be serious?”

  I bit my lip and rolled my eyes. “What are we gonna do?”

  “I need you to catch me up here. About what?”

  I felt my cheeks heating slightly. “Um, this,” I said, gesturing back and forth between our naked bodies.

  “I know what I’d like to do about this,” he murmured.

  A teasing, hot look entered his eyes as he lifted his head from the pillow to press a string of hot kisses along my collarbone. My nipples perked up in greeting, and my belly did a little shimmy.

  “Mack,” I protested.

  Of course, then he gave one of my nipples a sweet suck. My body arched reflexively into his touch, and something between a moan and a needy gasp escaped.

  I forgot my plan to discuss us. Whether it made sense or was stupid, what mattered was once Mack got his hands and his mouth on my body, he played me like an instrument made just for him.