by Nana Malone
Our kiss was a clash of tongues and teeth and lips, and I squeezed her ass as I positioned her the way I wanted her. Lyra rolled her hips against mine, sliding her sweet heat over my cock, and the next thing I knew I was blindly moving. I needed some place flat. Any flat surface would do.
My first option, obviously, was the bedroom. But I hadn’t expected this. I’d thought I’d take her home to her place, and I wasn’t sure exactly what was lying around my bedroom so taking her there might be a mistake. So, next best thing? The balcony. The daybed out there was plenty big enough, and besides, this wasn’t going to get that far. This was just a kiss.
Sure, keep telling yourself that.
Lyra kept working her hips against mine as we kissed, my tongue sliding into her mouth, orally fucking her like I was so desperate to do with my cock.
Fuck. Me.
The night was warm, the air balmy, when I stepped out onto the balcony. I sat down on the daybed, dragging her to face me and fitting her perfectly so she could brace herself and use me if she wanted.
Once we were settled, we fought for dominance. Lyra’s inner thighs squeezed my hips as she rolled up and down over the length of my dick and made me see stars.
After the taste of her on the Ferris wheel earlier, feeling her sweet, slick heat, my hands were shaking as I slid one up under her skirt, enjoying the silken feel of her firm thighs.
My hands pushed up the fabric as they teased her skin. When I reached the edge of her panties, I held my breath, giving her time to stop me.
She didn’t.
When my thumb slipped under the elastic she gasped. “Marcus.”
“Do you want me to stop?”
She pulled back, her dark gaze on mine. “No. Please, no.”
I already knew how wet she’d be, the sweet slickness I would find. But still, I wanted so much more. I wanted to make this so good for her.
“Just—please—Marcus—touch me.”
“Oh, trust me. I am.”
Slowly I traced my thumb over her slick flesh until I reached that sweet button and pressed ever so lightly. Lyra threw her head back, groaning. I took full advantage then. With one hand under her, I embraced her back and guided her just where I wanted, leaning forward and wrapping my mouth over her nipple through the thin cotton of her top and the outlines of the lacy bra that had been teasing me all night.
Lyra’s hands dug into my hair, holding me close to her as she rocked her hips even more against my thumb. It wasn’t enough. I needed to see her too. I knew I could make her come just like this, but I needed more.
With a frustrated growl, I pulled my hand from her panties and ripped my lips off her nipple. She groaned in frustration, trying to pull me back. Her insistence made me chuckle. “Oh, don’t worry, I’m coming back.”
But first, she needed to be wearing a lot less clothing. I reached for the hem of her T-shirt, gently easing it up, and she urged me along by raising her arms, helping me to get it off.
When she was bare to me, I saw that her bra was this mint green, lace, half-cup situation that barely covered her tits. A hint of dusky cinnamon nipple peeked out, taunting me, and I muttered a curse. “Bloody hell, God is a woman, and she’s a fucking tease.”
Lyra’s eyes had been searching mine, but my low, husky words seemed to make her smile. I wasn’t really paying attention to her smile at that moment, even though I knew how brilliant it was. I couldn’t quite tear my eyes off the prize. “You are so fucking gorgeous.”
She reached behind herself, unclasping her bra and letting it fall off of her shoulders.
I stared. That was the only way it could be explained. All higher brain functioning was lost, all blood having vacated to the organ that needed it the most. My dick. High and firm, peaked with cinnamon-tipped nipples, her tits were my new obsession.
My hands slid up her ribcage until I palmed both breasts, squeezing gently until she moaned as I murmured, “Your skin is so fucking sensational.” Or at least I think I said something to that effect. I was too distracted. My thumbs rolled over her nipples as I watched her reaction closely, ferreting out what she liked and what she didn’t like.
And because I couldn’t help myself, I leaned forward again, this time wrapping my lips around her sweet flesh. Then I groaned, the sound low and guttural and completely primal. It felt like someone had struck my dick with lightning.
“Oh my God, Marcus.”
A harsh laugh tore out of my chest.
“Okay, love,” I murmured. “I’ll keep going.”
I wanted to leave no stone unturned, no part of her skin unexplored. I worshipped both breasts, from the pebbled peaks to the sensitive full curve underneath, and I took my time. Used my tongue, teasing those pretty tips, occasionally scraping them with my teeth. Lyra started to thrash, and I held her steady. Her hands left my hair, and she began tugging at my shirt.
I dragged it up my back to oblige but then realized I was going to have to let go of her nipple to get the damn thing off.
With a frustrated growl, I released her, making a smacking sound.
As soon as my shirt was off, her hands began rolling over my muscles, my shoulders, my pecs, all the while riding over the one organ she wanted most. “Lyra, you’re going to have to stop grinding on me, or I’m going to blow inside my jeans. I really don’t want that, and I think you’re not going to enjoy that either.”
“I want to see you lose control.”
“Are you kidding me? I’m riding the edge with you right now.” How could she not see how badly I was shaking? How could she not understand how desperate I was?
“Marcus, please.”
She wanted to see me lose control. She wanted me to let go. “Lyra—”
Her hands caressed my face. “Just let go. You’re safe with me.”
How could she have known how desperately I needed those gentle words? I met her gaze to understand the truth of what she was saying to me.
And for the first time in three years, I loosened the reins of my control.
* * *
Lyra
It was almost as if Marcus had been waiting for permission to lose control. He changed our positions so that he was laying over me but shifted most of his weight to the side so he wouldn’t crush me. Then he let out a whoosh of air.
The man who had been so gentle and delicate and careful with me now wasted no time. He shoved a hand in my hair, tugging my head back while gently forcing me to arch my back and put my breasts on display for him.
With a feral growl, he wrapped his lips around one and sucked. Hard. The motion sent shockwaves of need and pinpricks of aching desire straight to my sex. Before, his lips had been teasing, but this time he meant business. As I lay under him, squirming, he laid loving siege to both breasts, licking them, sucking them, teasing them with his teeth, making me squirm and beg.
“Oh my God, Marcus.” My hips rose with the need to be touched. “Please. I just need—”
Against my breasts, he mumbled, “Oh, I know what you need.”
Those six words had my panties completely soaked. He knew, all right. With his mouth busy, his one free hand slid down my torso and back to the edge of my panties, dipping his fingers in and finding the slick button he was more than a little acquainted with now.
My hips bucked. As he sucked on my nipples, he slid two fingers deep inside me, and I gasped. “Holy shit.”
If I didn’t know better, I would swear the man chuckled. But I was too preoccupied with the delicious things his fingers were doing to me as his thumb circled my clit and his mouth sucked on me and his hand gently fisted in my hair. Marcus Black meant business.
I could feel it coming, the impending orgasm, the electricity crackling up my spine and making me start to shake. Marcus just kept up the onslaught, driving me to the outcome with a quick efficiency that was terrifying. He absolutely knew what he was doing. And he knew how to get there.
He released me abruptly, and my nipples ached in the cool air.
> With quick, deliberate movements, Marcus unzipped my skirt and pulled it down along with my panties. His kisses down my body were lingering, teasing, until he reached my clit.
All I heard was a muttered curse from him before he pulled his fingers from me and replaced them with his mouth. I couldn’t really form coherent thought after that.
He showed the same kind of expertise with long laps of his tongue, teasing around my clit but never quite giving me what I wanted.
My legs started to shake and thrash on the daybed. “Please, I’m begging you, Marcus. Please.” What was that song? I wasn’t too proud to beg. Nope. I would beg all day if it meant Marcus would give me another orgasm. In that moment, I didn’t care how I got it, but I really, really wanted to make love to him.
He lifted his head and gave me the devil’s own smile. “This is what happens when I lose control, Lyra. I do the thing that I have been dreaming about doing since I first saw you. I’ve been desperate to know how you taste.”
“Can I taste you too?”
His icy blue eyes had gone so dark that they were nearly black. His tongue licked over his bottom lip. “Fuck yes. But first I need to be inside you, or I might actually die.”
I didn’t need any convincing. I sat up, and with shaking fingers, I helped him with his belt and tried to help push down his jeans. But it was more of a comedy of errors, so finally he just did the honors. As soon as they were off, he chucked them over his shoulder, but not before grabbing his wallet and a condom.
He tossed the wallet on the table he had next to the daybed and then turned back to me. My gaze immediately landed below his waist, and my mouth fell open. “Jesus, Lord. Wow. You are seriously…”
The grin he gave me was wickedly playful. And I realized it wasn’t often he grinned like that in a sort of carefree, swagger kind of way. When he hooked his thumbs in his boxers and took them down, my mouth went dry. He was huge.
Sure, maybe my horniness was making me exaggerate, but I didn’t think so. Marcus Black was like my birthday and Christmas rolled into one.
He sheathed himself quickly before climbing back into the daybed and settling between my thighs. “You okay?” he asked as he rubbed his nose on the column of my neck, making me shiver.
“You recognize that you’re huge, right?”
There was that grin again. All swagger and big-dick energy. “Something tells me we’re going to fit just right.”
Marcus took his time revving my engines back up, albeit easily. He started with slow kisses, the ones intended to drug me into a stupor with his skill, and then he began kissing my breasts again. Note to self: Marcus Black was a boob man. And with every lick and nibble and caress, I was raising my hips, begging him to sink inside me.
When his dick was notched against my slippery wet sex, he dropped his forehead to mine. His voice was a raspy whisper when he spoke. “We can go slow if—”
But I didn’t let him finish. Instead I lifted my hips, taking him to the hilt. We both froze.
“Fuck, Lyra.”
“Oh my God.”
He lifted his head immediately. “Too much?”
What the hell was he talking about? This was… wow. “Stop talking so much.”
On his retreat, he chuckled low. “Yes, love. Whatever you say, love.”
When he drove forward again, I gasped. Holy hell. This was what I’d been missing out on all this time?
His face was a mask of grim determination and concentration. His slow slide and retreat, slide and retreat, was driving me insane. I just wanted to—
The shaking started in my toes and traveled up my body like a shock wave. When it hit my spine, I was done for.
I squeezed my eyes shut, wanting to ride out the wave of intense pleasure as it took over all my nerve endings, but Marcus’s demand was sharp. “Look at me, Lyra. I want you to watch me lose control. All because of you.”
As waves of pleasure sent me cascading in bliss, the edges of my vision grew bleary as my body vibrated with ecstasy. Marcus scooped his hands under my ass, bracing me in position, as he continued to love me with a relentless slide and retreat as he watched me.
“C’mon Lyra, give me one more. One more and I’ll lose control. I promise.”
“Oh God, I don’t know if I can” I whispered on a pant.
Marcus dipped his head, watching where we were joined. “Something tells me you can.” He changed his hand position, holding my ass with only one hand, the other reaching around me so he could slide his thumb over my clit.
And sure enough, I broke again on a muffled scream, my whole body convulsing and quaking. With his thumb still on my clit, his voice was gravel when he said, “Fuuuuck, why is this so goddamn good?”
And then he chased me into oblivion as his release shook his body.
Chapter 13
Marcus
I stared at Michael. “This is the second or third mission in the last two weeks where The Firm has also been there. Do you want to tell me what the fuck is going on?”
Michael was a master of not showing emotion, as if his agents failing was an occurrence that he would accept. Except he and I both knew better. He didn’t tolerate failure. And someone was going to be held responsible for what happened at the Bacchanal.
It was no one else’s fault but mine. If I had been watching, I’d have seen Mads. Instead, I’d been watching Lyra. I needed to keep everyone safe. For the integrity of my team and the safety of Lyra, I needed to mitigate this risk. “How did we not know Stannis wasn’t going to show up? What happened to him? It’s not like he would get cold feet.”
Michael sat back. “Unless he made his arrangement at another time. Or it’s entirely possible they got spooked for some reason. Maybe they changed the time that they plan to meet. It might still be on. So we have to figure out a way into that mission.”
I ran my hands through my hair. “I was the problem, sir. I didn’t see Mads.”
Michael looked bored. “My understanding was that the meet happened early. Becker caught him in her scope by accident.”
“Still, sir, I should have been more vigilant. My team depends on me.”
“That they do. Is there something in particular that you’re trying to say? Because right now I see you trying to accept accountability for something we couldn’t have known. We don’t have all the pieces, and we’re missing something. So let’s backtrack, find out the last place we saw Stannis, and figure out where he went from there. And let’s get someone to wrangle us an invitation to that very private party that Mads is having. I don’t care what we have to do to get that weapon.”
“But sir, I worry that we won’t have enough details. We’re flying blind.”
Michael rubbed his jaw. “I have a source. You know they’re not always the most trustworthy, but I think I’ll get the honest truth out of him for this. I’ll find out. And Marcus?”
“Yes, Michael?”
“This isn’t like the Simone situation. We don’t know for certain if The Firm is involved.”
Michael might not believe The Firm was involved in all this, but I certainly wasn’t accepting that answer. I walked out of his office even more confident in the truth. The Firm, a rival agency, had killed my fiancée, and someone from my side was feeding them intel about missions. It was the only explanation for why they’d shown up at so many of our jobs lately. They had to have an inside track, which meant I might not be able to trust my own people.
* * *
Lyra
I learned long ago not to trust Roz’s calm voice. It usually meant that there was rage simmering somewhere inside. And you were better off getting the rage over with right away. Because simmering rage, that shit was going to go nuclear.
“Explain to me what happened.”
It didn’t matter how many times I had gone over this; she was going to make me repeat it and repeat it until she was either satisfied or I was blue in the face and dead. Whichever came faster. “I’ve told you. Comms came on. Addie let me k
now locations. I was on the Ferris wheel on watch. I could see everything. As Mads approached, there was a woman waiting. To most it would have looked like a date or something. They hugged and kissed. And then he handed her something silver, small. Like a credit card. Kira clocked the exchange and made the note. And then, once we found out who she was, I chased her down.”
She nodded slowly, as if all that sounded correct, but something was still very, very wrong. “But explain to me again how you lost this fight.”
So it was going to be that kind of a day. Nothing was going to satisfy her. “I said I’m sorry. But haven’t you noticed? We’ve had a series of failures lately.”
“Yes, and the common denominator seems to be you.”
“I’ve been working missions to the best of my ability. Having Tyler here isn’t exactly easy.”
It was a good thing I had long since given up on finding real understanding with her. “Don’t give me excuses. I want answers. And why the fuck was Exodus there?”
I stared at her. “We have a confirmed sighting?”
“We do. After all, Kira wasn’t the only sniper on the roof. I want to know why Exodus agents are all over my people.”
What the hell? “I don’t know. I didn’t even see them. I was on the Ferris wheel to do my job. Remember?”
“What is it your boyfriend does again?”
“Marcus? He’s a video game designer.”
“And he was with you the entire time? I just want to make sure that any mistakes of yours aren’t a reflection of him. Because he will be removed from your life if necessary.”
I wasn’t backing down though. She used that tactic on me a lot when I was still in college. Threatening to take away my favorite outfit, or threatening not to give me missions because I had failed a class. She didn’t understand that her coming down on me like that just made me work harder. I was my own worst critic. “You can count on me. I will get the job done.”
