Her eyelids fluttered a little and I saw her bite down on her bottom lip. She shivered in my grasp and I could see that indecision that was so weighty start to creep into her eyes as she watched me. Her chest rose and fell against my own, which had my dick kicking painfully behind my zipper. I wasn’t going to let her doubt interfere with what had been so long coming, so I dropped my head and pulled one stiff peak into my mouth. She was tall, even in her running shoes, and I couldn’t remember any other time I had lined up with anyone else quite as well. I still had to bend down, but the new position meant I could pull her hips tightly into mine and that there was room to work one of my hands under the elastic top of her workout pants.
She moaned and I heard her head thunk back against the wall as I gripped her naked backside and ground my erection against her soft center. I was happy to find that there was nothing, not a single stitch of clothing, between my questing fingers and her baby-soft skin.
I brushed my beard softly across her chest and scraped the edge of my teeth lightly over the velvety nipple I had trapped between my lips. “No underwear?” To say I was surprised was an understatement. She seemed far more proper and buttoned up than that. I let my fingers glide over the firm swell of her ass and then danced them around the front under the stretchy fabric. I wanted to give a little cheer of victory when she moved her leg to the side to give me more room. She had to know where my final destination was and she was all but giving me the green light to keep going.
I moved my mouth to the other breast and her hands fell from my hair to my shoulders. Her fingernails bit into the taut skin there and she was breathless when she replied. “I wasn’t planning on anyone finding that out. I couldn’t find anything else to wear that seemed suitable. I don’t keep things around that I can ruin, because I never really get dirty.”
She was wrong about that. She was about to get all kinds of dirty, and not just because she was covered in paint.
“Getting dirty is fun, Sayer.” I put my mouth on the pulse that was fluttering like a trapped bird on the side of her neck. I let my teeth sink into it at the same time as my exploring fingers found that hot, damp place between her legs. I leaned in closer to her and her entire body jerked as I slid my fingers through her slick outer folds. Not only did the woman look flawless, she felt that way, too. Silky, hot, slippery, and smooth. She was made up of all kinds of tempting things I couldn’t wait to feel around more than just my fingers.
She gasped my name and I heard the question in it. There was no answer I could give her other than that this was bound to happen, so I just moved my head up to kiss her again and let my fingers slip all the way inside her grasping body. It was a hold I never wanted to pull away from.
I ravaged her mouth, knowing my facial hair was again going to leave its mark. I pulled her leg up around my hip so I could go deeper, feel more of her around me as she throbbed and pulsed in time with our synchronized heartbeats. I rubbed my chest against hers and sighed into her mouth when I felt her hands start a quest of their own.
Her touch was featherlight, barely touching my skin as she worked her palms over the tattoos on my pecs, down across my ribs, pausing a second to rub across my tense abdomen, and then tentatively hitting my belt buckle. My cock strained against the denim and metal of my zipper, but since my hands were otherwise occupied, it was up to her to set it free and move this from dirty to downright filthy.
To encourage her I put my thumb on her clit and pressed down hard. When she gasped into my mouth and her whole body jerked, I grinned in satisfaction as she started to work on my buckle. Her inner walls were quivering around my fingers and she was lava hot. Her breathing was getting more and more jagged, so I kept up the pressure on that little center of pleasure right at the heart of her until she had my pants all the way undone and was working on pulling them down and out of the way. She was getting all liquid and pliable around my twisting fingers and her breath was starting to come in short, choppy pants against the side of my neck. She was so close to the edge, but I wanted to be inside of her when she went over. I wanted all of that pretty perfection wrapped up tightly around me and hammering against me.
She was reaching for my dick, but I pulled my hand out of her body and out of her pants and caught it in my own. While I liked the slide of her paint-covered palm across my chest, if she got that shit on my cock it was going to be game over, and if that happened I knew there was a chance I was never going to be able to have her like this again. Once I was in, she was going to have a much harder time pulling on that goddamn mask of hers when she was around me because I had already seen all the kind, thoughtful, passionate things she was trying to hide underneath it. Maybe it was selfish to want her with the same desperation that I needed her for other things in my life, but she wanted me just as bad and I knew I could make her need me, too.
“That’s a different kind of dirty than I’m after, doll.” I leaned forward so that the entire lengths of our bodies were pressed together and my dick was trapped against the soft skin of her stomach. I felt a drop of moisture bead up at the tip and she must have felt it, too, because her eyes went wide in her face. I put her trapped hands on the wall over her head and leaned down so I could whisper in her ear, “In the next minute your pants are coming off, my dick is coming all the way out, I’m getting suited up, and then I’m going to be so deep inside of you that all those fears, all that hesitation you’re watching me through, won’t have any room to fit. There’s only going to be room for me and the way we feel when we’re together.”
Her pale eyelashes fluttered a little bit and some of that bright flush that had filled her cheeks disappeared. I could see her brain starting to work again, starting to tell her all the things I was refusing to listen to behind my own rampaging desire. We both knew she deserved better than a hard fuck up against the wall, but knowing and doing were two separate things and it was well past time I started the doing with this complicated and irresistible woman.
“That wasn’t a warning, Sayer. That was a promise.” She opened her mouth to say something back to me but I knew I wasn’t going to like whatever it was, so I bent forward to kiss her again and used the hand that wasn’t keeping her hands trapped to dig my wallet out and find the condom that had been languishing away in there since the first time I saw her. It took some teeth to get the wrapper open and some patience to get my jeans down while putting the latex in place with one hand. I was afraid if I gave her too much time to analyze, she’d bolt, so I worked quickly as I kept her pinned to the wall with my body.
Since our height similarity had all the best and needy parts of our bodies all lined up and rubbing together nicely, I decided to take advantage of the situation and gently nudged her around so that she was facing the wall like I was going to strip-search her and frisk her. She had her hands flat and slightly above her head as I stepped up behind her. She looked over her shoulder at me with a lifted eyebrow and now the curiosity in her gaze was more heated and less terrified. I smiled at her as the impeccably heart-shaped curve of her backside was bared and filled my hands. She was so soft and yet there was strength there as I ran my hand up the slight bow of her spine and wrapped the rope of her braid around my hand. I pulled her head back a little as I kissed her shoulder and worked my way up to her mouth. I had to pull her hips back and bend her over slightly so I could get the tip of my now aching erection lined up with her slick opening.
I moved my hips just the slightest bit to drag my hardness through her soft folds. It made both of us groan and I felt tremors start in her legs and it made my gut go tight.
“You ready for me?”
Her eyes drifted closed and she turned her head back around so that she was facing the wall away from me. She dropped her forehead so that it was resting on the back of her stacked hands and whispered, “I don’t think I could ever be ready for you.”
I knew she was talking about more than the thick slide of my body into hers. I also knew the catch in her breath had as much to do with
that innate hesitancy she had around me and the pull that vibrated between us as it did with the way I filled her all the way up. Her body clenched around mine in a squeeze that made my balls ache. I blew out a long breath and pushed into her until my front was resting against the elegant bend of her back even though it had white paint smeared all across it. I buried my face in the curve where her neck met her shoulder, wrapped my hands around her rib cage so I could fill my palms with the heavy swell of her breasts, and started to move.
There was no other girl I could have this way. No other girl that fit me, matched me, lined up with me like that’s what she had been put on this earth to do. There was no other girl that not only moved with me, but moved on me in the most perfect back-and-forth that had ever been created. I could feel every stretched-out inch of her from the inside out, could feel the heat and the friction we generated, and every time her heart beat or her lips let out a whimper of delight I felt it all along my pistoning cock.
She burned on me and I thrust in and out, in and out. She fluttered across me as I tried to catch my breath and to appreciate the beauty of the moment. I’d never had much, but what I did have I cherished and took excellent care of. Sayer fell firmly into that category. She was like the best treasure, the greatest gift I had ever been handed, and I absolutely planned on appreciating every single part of her.
She said my name again and turned around to look at me and the blue in her eyes was so bright it felt like it could light up the entire room. I grunted as her body pulled on mine, and captured both of her nipples between my fingers. I tugged on them harder than I probably should have, but it made her bite her bottom lip, which of course made me want to bite her bottom lip. I was inside of her as deep as I could go and I knew things weren’t going to last much longer for either of us.
It was my turn to say her name on a broken sound as I smoothed a hand down across her belly and aimed right for the honeyed spot between her legs. She was drenched and opened wide to accommodate the insistent length that was pounding in and out of her. I found that hot button of pleasure and started rubbing firm circles around and around with my index finger. I made her entire frame tighten up and the walls inside of her that were milking my dick in the sexiest of caresses clamp down and hold tight. The drag and pull in and out of her as she locked up in pleasure made my blood thunder and my balls draw up tight.
I kissed her on the back of the neck, continued to hammer into her, and moved my lips to the delicate shell of her ear so that I could tell her, “I changed my mind. This is the greatest date that has ever happened in all of time.”
She let out a gasp that could have been a laugh but in the next instant she went loose and liquid all around me. She threw her head back so hard that I had to jerk back to avoid getting a broken nose, and one of her hands clamped down on my wrist as she continued to come all across my cock and fingers. Watching how beautifully she broke apart for me was enough to have me letting go and slipping over the edge of completion myself. Everything I felt for this girl rushed out of me so fast and hard that I was barely able to stay on my feet once it was all said and done.
We were both panting, sweaty, stuck together, and covered in sex and paint. I’d never seen such a lovely mess, one I never wanted to clean up.
When I pulled out of her she immediately pulled her pants back up and turned around so that she was leaning with her back against the wall. She had white streaks on her naked breasts and flecks of paint on her flushed face. Her eyes darted around like she was looking for the shirt I had long ago discarded, and when she didn’t immediately see it she heaved a huge sigh and sort of wilted and folded herself down the wall until she was sitting with her back against it. Behind her was a clear imprint of a female body, including where her hands had been left in the wet paint. Damn if I wasn’t going to hate covering that up before the crew showed up in the morning. It was proof that this was all real and not the best dream I had ever had.
I turned away so I could get the condom off and situated myself back in my jeans. I found my shirt where I had tossed it earlier and hers where I had literally chucked it across the room. I handed her the flimsy item of clothing and then sank down on the floor next to her. Some of the primer she had spilled had dried up, but most of it was still in a puddle on the tarp, which immediately soaked into my jeans.
I looked at her out of the corner of my eye and could see the wheels turning in her head. She was thinking again.
“Sayer. This has been headed straight for us since the beginning.” I leaned over so I could bump her shoulder with mine. She pulled her braid out from where it was trapped behind her and fiddled with the ends of it.
“I usually try to avoid impending disaster, Zeb. I’m a problem solver, not a trouble maker. I’m supposed to be helping you make your life better and helping you get what you want, not making it more complicated.”
I sighed. “We are not a problem and this isn’t trouble. How can you not think the way we are together doesn’t make both our lives better? Are you really going to tell me that wasn’t the best sex you’ve ever had?”
She threw her head back so that it hit the wall with a thud. “We might not be a problem, but I sure as hell am. I need to go.” She climbed to her feet and made a face when her shoes swished in the spilled primer. “I’ll see you in my office before court on Monday.”
I ground my teeth together when she purposely didn’t respond to my question about the sex. She might not want to admit out loud how amazing we were together but the evidence was all over—the red marks on her skin, the bite marks on her neck, and the nail marks she had left on my shoulders.
I grabbed her hand as she started to walk away from where I was still sitting. “You can put the lawyer mask on and tie it on as tight as it’ll go, but I know what’s under it, Sayer, and even if I didn’t, I still would’ve had you up against the wall. You are more than one thing to me and I want all of them.”
She looked down at my hand; it was the one that had a skull tattooed on the back of it with a set of screwdrivers underneath for the crossbones. Her eyes flicked back up to mine and I could clearly see the storm clouds hovering over the sea. I didn’t want to let her go, we needed to talk about this, about what was going on between the two of us, but I could see if I pushed her she was going to break apart and I didn’t want that. She was strong and resilient, and I was just starting to get hints of why she had to be that way. The more she opened up about her past the more I understood why she shut down and pulled away when I asked her about it. I didn’t want to be the thing that made her shatter. She might be a problem solver but I was Mr. Fixit. I didn’t break things, I repaired them.
So quietly I almost didn’t hear her she told me, “I’ll see you before court.” She shook off my hold and was gone before I could get to my feet.
When I did get up it was to turn around and stare aimlessly at the impression her body had left on my wall.
The woman was good at leaving an impression, on more than just my wall. I think my heart was starting to have a Sayer-shaped spot in it and I wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about that given the current chaotic state of my life.
CHAPTER 9
Sayer
I couldn’t remember a single time in my life when I had forgotten to be me as thoroughly as I did the moment Zeb touched me. There was no second guessing, no worrying about the outcome and inevitable fallout of handing everything over to him. There was only the moment and being consumed by all the feelings and emotions that he brought to life in it. It was enough to get lost in, enough to blur common sense and a lifetime of warnings about what happened when you opened the door to those kinds of attachments.
When he handled me, moved me, invaded my mind and body, there wasn’t room for doubt, fear, or anything else. He took up too much space and the way he made me feel, the way we felt together, was so much bigger and more expansive than all the other things that typically filled me up. There was no room to worry about what would happen after, to t
hink about the fact that I was spread out naked and exposed, revealing any and every flaw I had to him. He was everywhere, took all the accessible air and capacity my body had to give him. All I could do was respond and melt in his skilled hands and across his insistent heat.
Sex had always been a chore, something I had to get through to make whoever my partner was happy. It was what was expected, so I complied. I instinctively knew it wasn’t going to be that way with Zeb. Even in my dreams, sex with him was explosive, unforgettable, and intense . . . but dream sex didn’t hold a candle to real sex with him. Real sex with him was transformative and wholly terrifying. His touch made me feel like a different woman, a desirable woman, a fascinating and intriguing woman with so much more to offer him than my skills in the courtroom. It made me want to let the reins slip on all those emotions I kept such a tight hold on.
I couldn’t handle feeling so out of control, so absorbed in the emotions and passion that he brought out with nothing more than the brush of callused fingers and the touch of soft lips surrounded by rougher facial hair on my skin. It terrified me, the swell of feelings, the rush of desire toward him, toward us together, so I ran like a coward.
I wanted nothing more than to collapse in a heap in my walk-in shower when I got home. I still had paint all over me and there was no mistaking the large handprints that were smeared across my skin in places. It was a visual reminder that I had royally screwed things up and needed to figure out a way to put them back to rights as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, as soon as I came through the front door, Poppy was waiting for me and couldn’t wait to tell me all about her adventure out with Rowdy. Apparently it had all gone so well that when my brother asked her to accompany Salem and him on a quick weekend getaway to the trendy ski town of Breckenridge, she had agreed to go.
I plastered a stiff smile on my face and told her how proud I was of her and the steps she was taking. Admittedly my mind was elsewhere—namely up against a wall with a big, tattooed body covering it—so I missed it when she asked me to go with her. I must have blindly agreed because the next thing I knew I was embraced in a warm hug, which I returned with tears in my eyes. Poppy had been living with me for months and I could count the number of times she touched me on one hand with most of my fingers left over. I didn’t have the time or the desire to go to the mountains for the weekend, but if it made her happy I could get on board with the spur-of-the-moment vacation.
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