by Stacy Gail
“I’ve never tried it, but I’d love to learn. Uh, but if it’s anything like camping—”
“It won’t be like camping.” Score. At last he’d found the hem of the shirt. Without hesitation, he slid his hands under it to caress a path along her thighs and hips, before cupping her gorgeous, well-toned dancer’s ass. “It’s got a cabin, complete with facilities and a tiny galley, electricity and all the Wi-Fi you can stand. I’ve got a feeling you’re strong enough to survive a day out on the water with nothing but me and the gulls and fish to keep you company.”
“Sounds like paradise,” she whispered before leaning in to kiss him.
Damn.
It was crazy, how everything inside him exploded in a kind of frenzy whenever she kissed him, like all the cells in his body instantly began to party. She might have referred to his kisses as somehow being magical, but it was Sydney’s kisses that were the true magic.
And he was under her spell.
“My turn to play Twenty Questions.” To tease both her and himself, Styx kept the caresses feather-light over her silken skin, fascinated by the firm roundness of her ass. “Have you ever had a multiple orgasm?”
Her eyes widened. “Uh, strangely enough I’m not sure what that is…?”
“So that’s a no.” He couldn’t help the grin that curved his mouth, while the heaviness in his dick grew to a full-fledged throbbing. Oh, yeah. “For your information, a multiple orgasm is where you come more than once while having sex.”
“Aha. So, like I almost did when we were on the couch?”
“Almost? Multiple orgasms aren’t like horseshoes, Fun-Size. Almost doesn’t count.” He smoothed one hand across her hip to draw lazy patterns over her lower abdomen, loving the silken texture of her skin. “The most important step in achieving multiple orgasms is what I like to call priming the pump.”
“Priming the pump,” she drawled, looking like she was about to burst out laughing. “I believe the rest of the world calls that foreplay.”
“Yeah, because the rest of the world has zero originality, so it can kiss my ass. If you prime the pump just right, you get those juices flowing long before you get to the main event. “
“Uh-huh. And the so-called main event is the act of intercourse? Sorry, I’m just trying to learn Styx-speak as we go along.”
“Don’t ever apologize to me.” He gave her a tiny swat on her bare ass, just hard enough to make her squeak. “And yeah, smartass, the main event is me getting inside you where I belong and fucking you so hard and deep and long it feels like I’m a part of you. That’s definitely the main event.”
Her eyes darkened in the most erotic way, and suddenly nothing seemed very funny. “Wow. I like the sound of the main event.”
“You and me both, baby.” The throbbing in his cock intensified to a pleasant distraction, and he knew by the way she fidgeted that she could feel it as well. “If I do things up right, by the time the sun rises tomorrow, you’ll never have to question what a multiple orgasm is. You’ll be such an expert on the subject you’ll be able to go on lecture tours.”
“I’m all for becoming an expert.” Her hips twitched just a bit, as if she could already feel him plunging into her. The very thought was so hot he almost groaned aloud. “I’m willing to put the work in. Are you?”
“If you think it’s work, you’re doing it wrong.” The hand caressing her belly dipped lower. The catch in her breathing thrilled him when he slid exploratory fingers into her heated, wet slit. “Guess I’m going to have to show you what I mean.”
“I’m willing to be…educated.” Her breath caught again while he concentrated on slicking up his fingers with her juices and massaging his way to her clit. When he found the hard little nub, he pressed against it and smiled when she moaned. “Oh, damn. That feels so good.”
“Glad you like it, because we’re just getting this party started.” He increased both the pressure and speed of his stroking, and when her head fell back and her hips began to pump, the need that had been smoldering inside ignited to burn through his blood. His muscles tensed with it, his skin felt too tight to be his, and the throbbing of his cock was enough to make him grit his teeth in pained pleasure. “You’ve already been through a couple lessons already tonight, but this time I need you to pay attention. Can you do that for me, baby?”
“Pay attention?” The words came out between shallow breaths, and her eyes had closed with dizzying bliss. “God, yes. I’m paying complete attention to you.”
“Good, because multiple orgasms don’t just happen. You’ve got to be dedicated to the mission.” He was losing track of what he was saying, because damn, she was the hottest thing he’d ever seen as she writhed on his lap like she’d been born to pleasure herself against his hand. “It takes the skill of a man knowing just how much his woman can take, and I’m willing to bet you can take every damn thing I can throw at you. Take that shirt off and let’s find out.”
It was amazing, how fast she followed his orders.
With the shapeless veil of his shirt removed, his gaze roamed over her. Damn. If he’d had the ability to stop time, he would have done it then and there, because every instinct he had told him this moment was one of the few perfect moments he would ever be granted in his lifetime. Before he’d met her, he’d never really understood the true meaning of breathtaking.
Now he knew. Now he understood.
She was the embodiment of the word.
Her living-silk skin was pale gold and flawless, and the tattoo artist in him itched to enhance the inherent beauty of her lithe, ethereal frame with art he wanted to craft just for her. The pale globes of her breasts, tipped with deep rosy nipples, were the perkiest damn things he’d ever clapped eyes on. He leaned his head in even as he claimed one subtly rounded globe with his free hand and closed his lips over the rose-colored peak.
If heaven could be a taste, this had to be it.
But since his goal was to turn her inside out in the best possible ways, he tried shutting out his growing excitement by focusing on heightening hers. With great deliberation, he timed the stroking of his fingers to the suction of his mouth on her nipple—rubbing and suckling, circling and swirling. He wanted every part of her to be locked in on where he touched her, until her mind melted and the world disappeared.
“Styx.” Her sighs grew into moans. Moans became whimpers. Her skin grew damp as he turned his head to focus lavish attention on her other breast, while simultaneously sliding two of his fingers in past her threshold. “Styx… Oh God, baby. I’m coming…!”
“Not yet.” Though it was agony to put the brakes on, he leaned toward the nightstand and grabbed the nearly depleted box of condoms. “Hold it back, Syd. Don’t you dare come without me.” With an economy of movement, he slid the protection in place, gripped her hips and lifted her over him. “You come only when I’m inside you. Then you’ll never forget it’s my cock that gives you pleasure, and that I’m the man who loves feeling your pleasure happening to you from inside.”
“I need you.” She was almost crying as she reached for his cock and brought it to her pussy’s threshold. “I need you inside me now.”
She didn’t have to ask twice.
With his fingers biting into her narrow hips, he plunged her downward, impaling her on his rock-hard shaft. His grunt of bliss mingled with her soft cry, and it was like music to his ears. The pleasure of being sheathed in her hot wetness nearly made him lose it then and there, but he had a job to do. Fiercely he rolled his hips, thrusting into her while he slammed her down again and again on his cock, driven to fill her all the way to his hilt.
It was so damn beautiful he thought he might die of it.
The tight, wet sheath that gloved his dick contracted almost painfully a heartbeat before her head flung back. A breath-starved scream burst from her as the pleasure overtook her, her body bucking as if in agony, but he knew all too well that wasn’t it. He watched her revel in her orgasm for as long as he could take it, her ecst
asy nearly pushing him over the edge to join her. Resolutely he pulled her off him and flipped her over before she was done, then jerked her hips up while getting on his knees behind her.
“You don't get to come down yet, baby,” he breathed, and he could hear the jaggedness in his tone. Separating from her, even for a few moments, had brought him a kind of emptiness he hated, so he reached between her thighs to find her threshold once more. “I want you to keep going higher and higher, and I won’t stop until you get there.”
“Styx.” His name was a love-drunk moan that nearly broke him in two. “Fuck me.”
“Jesus, you really are a treasure.” Thanking whatever lucky stars he had for bringing her across his path, he thrust into her once more. The moment her tight depths clenched around his cock, he knew there was no holding back from this point on. Furiously he plunged into her, and with each thrust the pleasure grew. His balls contracted and his skin started tingling, but he didn't want to go over the edge alone. With the last of his control, he reached around to slip his fingers into her soaked and swollen cleft, and again found her clit.
At his first touch, she cried out and came again, rearing back into him to meet his thrusts, her movements so intense he had no choice but to let the pleasure swallow him whole. It exploded everywhere inside him and filled his world with such mindless euphoria he never wanted it to end. Blindly he pumped into her, chasing that beauty for as long as he could until it at last played itself out, and he collapsed with her under him.
“Multiple orgasms,” she muttered long after his breath had evened out and he’d pulled her to curl into him like a little spoon. “I definitely feel like quite the expert on the subject now.”
He brushed his mouth against her hair. “Thought you might. What’s your opinion?”
“My opinion is that I’d like to have another one of those again… after I recover from this round, of course.”
There was nothing he could do but chuckle and hold her closer.
Chapter Fourteen
“This is crazy, Styx.” Torn between excitement and awe, Sydney entered House Of Payne’s large, open lobby with Styx, trying to look everywhere at once. From gleaming black marble floors to a bustling gift shop, to towers of flatscreens showing some kind of art that looked like graffiti, and a whole section that looked like an elegant art gallery, it was a veritable feast for the eyes. “I just don’t get why you brought me here.”
“I already explained this, Syd. You have the day off, but I don’t. Dragging your ass down here was the only way I could keep an eye on you.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to hang out here all day.”
“If you don’t want me going crazy—or calling up Trey or my old man so they can put some uniforms on you to dog your every step—that’s exactly what you’re going to do. Scout,” he suddenly called over to a Rockabilly-type tower of a woman who made Sydney feel approximately three apples high. “Who’s heading up security today? Steele and Echo?”
“Echo’s in-house today, along with my foster brother.” The woman, Scout, sped over to them on a pair of kickass stilettos, a sleek-looking tablet clutched in her manicured hand. “Rude wanted to be around today so he could laugh at his brother-in-law while he gets inked up. Why? Is there a problem?”
“Someone’s trying to kill my girlfriend, so that’s kind of a problem. Syd, Scout. Scout, Syd,” he went on blithely while both Sydney’s and Scout’s eyes bugged out at his casual statement. Though Sydney honestly couldn’t say which issue got to her more—the fact that he was letting the world know she had a target on her back, or how he claimed her as his girlfriend. “With everything that’s going on with her, there’s no way in hell I’d be able to concentrate on my work without knowing where she was and if she was okay, so today has become Take Sydney To Work day. Put her to work if you want, but whatever you do, don’t let her go outside or allow her to stand next to any windows.”
“This is ridiculous,” Sydney felt compelled to say even as Scout looked to a breathtaking specimen of a man standing near the revolving door, his café au lait shaved head gleaming in the overhead lights. As he approached, Sydney noted how the man’s dark brows hooded shockingly light gray eyes. His face, dominated by high cheekbones and lean, clean-shaven cheeks, looked like it didn’t know how to smile and wasn’t going to learn any time soon. “I’ll just hang out in the gallery or gift shop. If I get bored or thirsty, I’ll head over to that little diner across the st—”
“No, you won’t. You won’t step foot outside this building without an obvious bodyguard or police presence, and that’s not open for any goddamn debate. Here,” Styx went on to the man who had joined them, pulling out his phone and tapping the screen a few times before handing it over to the newcomer. “This is the first attack on my lady, Sydney Bishop, taken from various cameras on I-90. Saturday night she was attacked again while at a restaurant with me, which is where she got that cut on her cheek. I need to make sure she doesn’t go near windows, and she doesn’t step outside.”
“This is ridiculous,” Sydney muttered again, while Scout moved to stand by the man to watch what had to be the video of the Caddy chasing her down the freeway. She figured they witnessed the moment of impact when the unsmiling man’s brows quirked and Scout gasped and put a hand to her heart, before they both looked up at her.
Ugh.
If a spotlight had suddenly shone down on her, she couldn’t have felt any more self-conscious.
“So, uh, yeah,” she said somewhat lamely. “That happened. But it was a while ago.”
The man glanced back at the phone. “Timestamp on the video is four days ago.”
Had it only been four days? It seemed a lifetime ago. “Right. That’s a while.”
“And then there was the brick thrown at her while she sat having dinner with me on Saturday, so it’s not over. Police are investigating, and since most of my family is on the job, they’re highly motivated to find who’s fucking with my woman. But in the meantime, since you’re working security today, you and your people need to have a heads-up as to what kind of potential security problem Sydney brings with her.”
“Much appreciated.” The man handed Styx his phone back before focusing those beautiful eyes on her. “Miss Bishop, yes?”
“Uh, yes.” Staring into his eyes made her slow to respond, and she could feel herself blushing. “Or Sydney, if you prefer.”
“Miss Bishop, this is how your day is going to go. You will stay in my line of sight at all times. You have to go to the bathroom, you’ll tell me about it. I will then walk you to the facilities, clear it for you, then wait for you outside. If you’re not back out in five minutes, I come in and get eyes on you whether you’re done or not.”
Eek. “Uh, really, that’s not—”
“Miss Bishop, while you’re within these walls, you’ll think of yourself as a guest in my house. Nothing will happen to you in my house, as long as you follow my orders—and make no mistake, you will follow my orders. Everything I tell you now is not negotiable. With me so far?”
She almost saluted. “Yep.”
“My name is Ethan Echols, though I prefer to be called Echo. My partner patrolling the House today is a man by the name of Rudy, or Rude, though I think only his foster sister, Scout, can get away with calling him that. I need to fill him in on your situation, so you will stay here with your man until I get back. Do not move from this spot.” With that, the man named Echo stalked away.
“Holy crap,” Sydney said faintly, doing a little pearl-clutching of her own. “That man should be in charge of all the Armed Forces and the International Space Station, because holy crap.”
“He’s from the best private security agency in Chicago,” Scout said, looking very much like she wanted to laugh at Sydney’s shock. “In addition to all the usual security issues they deal with on a daily basis around here, they’re all trained bodyguards. You were just given the same security protocols that the Prince of Wales would get. If he were
a House Of Payne client, that is, which may or may not be true.”
“Holy crap,” Sydney said again, making huge eyes at the other woman.
“I’ll get to work as soon as I know Sydney’s locked down,” Styx told Scout, glancing toward a metal and glass brick staircase that led to an airy mezzanine level overlooking the lobby. “Do I have a full roster today?”
Scout whipped up the tablet she’d been holding. “Looks like you’ve got a gap around two. Do you want me to plug in any walk-ins, or do you need some private time with Sydney?”
“I was thinking I could spend whatever spare time I had on Sydney’s phoenix tattoo. My dime, so no worries on that.”
“Wait, you were serious about that?” Sydney blurted, blinking. She’d forgotten all about it.
He gave a look that told her he couldn’t believe she’d even ask. “I’ve sketched out some designs, and I’m probably going to call in Angel as a consultant on the coloring. She’s our main colorist,” he expanded when she just stared at him. “I think I want to keep the black outline of the phoenix down to a minimum, and have Angel do her watercolor techniques to create the fire feathers that will rise up along the trapezius muscles and shoulder blades. If I can get it the way I’m seeing it in my mind, it’s going to be a masterpiece.”
“That sounds great, but, uh, do you remember I said that if I get a tattoo, it would be small? Like, tiny. Maybe even wee.”
Scout snorted while typing busily on her tablet. “I like you, Syd. Okay, I’ve got Syd down for a two-hour sesh with you, Styx, and I’ll let Angel know she’ll be needed for a consult around that time.”
“Awesome, thanks.”
Dear God, Sydney thought dazedly. She had a sesh. A House Of Payne sesh.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” she muttered to no one in particular while her stress level inched up another notch.
“Look,” Styx said in what he probably thought was a reasonable tone. “You said you wanted a phoenix tattoo. I’m going to give you the most beautiful phoenix tattoo that ever existed, custom-made by me, and it’s going to be colored in part by our internationally famous colorist, Angel. This kind of thing can’t go small, Syd. More than that, I know your story as to how you got here and the shit you’re dealing with now, so your phoenix needs to be larger than life and the greatest masterpiece I’ve ever produced. Cool,” he went on, his gaze on a returning Echo while Sydney tried to get a word in edgewise. “I’ll hand you off to Echo after I show you my booth upstairs.”
