Branded: You Own Me & The Virgin's Night Out (9 page)

The climax tore into her, greedy claws that left her breathless, left her reeling…and then helpless.

His phone buzzed.

Ten minutes had passed and Decker still wasn’t sure if his muscles were anything more than noodles.

The phone buzzed.

Fuck the phone
, he thought blearily, his head still resting between Lizzie’s breasts. He loved her tits, round and big and full enough for even his big hands.

He reached up, cupped the left one in his right hand—the tattoo, hidden in plain sight on his palm—seemed to mock him.

You own me

What would she say if he told her?

Sighing, he lifted his head.

Her lashes were low, shielding her eyes but as their gazes met, a faint, nervous smile curled her lips.

Cupping her face, he stroked his thumb over her lower lip.

And the damn phone buzzed…
again
.

Swearing, he stood up and fought with the tangle his jeans had become around his hips. When he saw Selah’s name, he was ready to throw the phone.

The first message:

I hope you all remembered that box
.

The second message:

Are you two coming out?

The third message:

I’m putting up the closed sign. Too many funny looks happening in here. Tell Liz to yell at me later.

He thought about putting the phone away and then just turned it over with a sigh.

As Lizzie read the messages, he dealt with the condom, turning to look at her when he was done. She’d sat up, a look of mortification on her face.

“People…” She stopped, pressed her lips together. She lowered the phone back to the desk. “People heard us.”

Decker caged her in with his arms when she would have clambered off the desk.

Head cocked, he said gruffly, “Listen.”

Distantly, through the door and the walls, they could both hear music. The loud, throbbing alternative beat that Selah preferred and tried to blast whenever she was running the shop solo. The clientele was amused by it, because it was a running war between manager and assistant manager—who would win control of the music that day.

“She probably turned it on as soon as she figured out what was going on, you know her. She’s really good at distracting people.”

He brushed a kiss against her damp mouth.

“Don’t be surprised if you find out she was giving away free stuff with the coffee.”

Groaning, she wiggled and pressed against him. “I can’t believe I…”

She stopped.

Cupping her chin in his hand, he guided her face to his. “Can’t believe what? Had sex here? Or with me?”

As the silence drew out between them, a hundred different answers danced on her tongue.

The
honest
answer was
both
.

But staring into Decker’s eyes, she saw something she hadn’t seen

there in…well, ever. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him vulnerable. Reluctant, nervous, scared, determined, arrogant, angry…and now, hot, hungry and ferocious.

But had she ever glimpsed that vulnerability in his eyes?

No.

She didn’t think she had.

Hesitantly, she reached up and rested a hand on his chest. “Well, my brain is still spinning over…this.”

He cocked a brow at her lame explanation. Then he closed his fingers around her wrist. “It’s okay, sugar,” he murmured. He pressed a kiss to her palm and then backed away. “If you want to forget you let me fuck you on that desk, you go ahead.”

He turned away.

She leaped off and caught his arm as he went to fasten his belt.

He tensed, but didn’t turn.

So she went around him.

“I said my brain was spinning,” she said. She wished, and not for the first time, she had his confidence. His strength. Even a tenth of it.

But she didn’t.

But she had to find the guts to say this.

“And it is.” Instead of looking up into his eyes, she focused on his hands. The tail of the Chinese dragon curled up around his right wrist before ending over the back of his hand and she reached out, trailing the tips of her fingers over the scales, almost delicately done. “But I can tell you, I’m not ever going to look at my desk without thinking about…this. I can’t believe we did that.”

She covered his other hand with hers and tugged his hands from his belt buckle, moving in closer. She pressed a kiss to his chest, to the flicking tail of the tiger, along the lean, powerful body there. “And yeah…I’m kinda embarrassed thinking that somebody out there heard. But that doesn’t mean I regret it, or want to forget.”

Decker caught her upper arms in his hands.

A hard knock landed on the door. Elizabeth jumped, but Decker didn’t so much as look away from her face.

“Yo!” Selah shouted through the door. “I’m gone. You can say

thank you by closing up when you’re done…if you ever finish.”

“Get the fuck out of here, Selah!” Decker shouted.

“Touchy, touchy, Decker!” Her laughter carried through the door.

The air in Elizabeth’s lungs seemed to squeeze out of her as Decker moved his hands to her waist. He caught the skirt and started to tug, the pointed look on his face clear.

He was waiting for her to tell him to stop.

No.

Oh, no…

She held still as he dragged the skirt down, but as he stepped back to stare at her, self-consciousness flooded her. She’d seen the women he’d dated. He didn’t go for a
type
, unless it was the sexy and confident—that was all he needed.

But confidence was something she lacked and under that hot, molten stare, she felt herself wilt.

Nervously, she shifted, half-thinking to cover herself.

As though he’d read her mind, Decker caught her wrists. “No. I want to see you. Just like this.”

She shook her head. “I need to lose weight…I…”

“Shut up.” He caught her behind the neck, pulled her in for a hard, deep kiss, while the other hand went to her ass and tugged her against him. “You’re beautiful. You don’t need to change a damn thing.”

He spun her around and she caught her breath as he gripped her hips and pumped himself against her butt. “I love everything about you, Lizzie. Your every smile, your every curve...” His hands came up to plump her breasts together. He tweaked her nipples and she felt that all the way down to her toes. “Your tits and your ass. The way you smile.

A hungry whimper escaped her as he rocked against her again and he swore, nudging her forward. “I want you again,” he said, his voice a growl in her ear. “I’m going to take you like this. Here. Now.

Unless you say no.”

She shivered and then shoved her butt back against him in

response.

Decker bent her over her desk, unable to look into her eyes just then.

She stripped him naked, left him raw, and he’d almost said it. Just then. He’d almost said it.

He practically tore the rubber in his haste to get it on and she pushed up onto her elbows, staring over her shoulder at him, her breaths coming in hitchy little pants.

He moved in, closing his hand around his cock, arrowing it at the wet heart of her. She was swollen, tighter around him. She went to spread her legs and he used his knees to stop her. “Like this,” he murmured.
Slow
, he told himself.
Go…slow…

Feeling her gaze, he looked up.

“Lizzie, I…”

He had to snap his jaw shut, lock the words down.

No. Not like this. Not until…no. Just…

He stretched out his hand, pressed it between her shoulder blades and pressed her down, down, until she was flat against the desk. Then he pressed his hand to the back of her neck, keeping his hold light, but steady. That look in her eyes, hungry and open…somehow it ripped out all the secrets he’d kept hidden so long.

Unable to give up
that
part of himself, he gave her everything else, pumping into her with deep, slow strokes that had her twisting back on his dick, while she pleaded and moaned, her hands scrambling against the surface of the desk.

She wanted him.

She moaned his name as she came.

It was more than he thought he’d ever have…and now he realized it wasn’t anywhere close to enough.

It was a bittersweet knowledge to carry and he swallowed down the pain it brought as he climaxed with vicious intensity. There he was, buried inside the woman he loved, and he hovered on the brink of both heaven and hell.

• • •

He took her home.

And then he took her again.

Elizabeth might have lost track of how many times they came together, except…well, up until that night, she’d realized she’d only
thought
she understood what a climax was.

She’d used her hands, the showerhead, the occasional vibrator and found pleasure.

She’d
thought
she had good sex with Noel.

The two awkward encounters before that were too embarrassing to think about.

But she had
thought
she understood what a climax was.

Now, thanks to six mind-blowing orgasms from Decker, she realized just how wrong she was.

She fell asleep in his arms, her mind half-focused on those thoughts she’d refused to let herself linger on for so long.

That day she’d gone to the ramshackle house where he’d lived with his dad—not for much longer, though. He’d won a scholarship and was heading to Alabama soon.

He’d leave and he’d never know…

The back door wasn’t closed, but then it never was. It hadn’t closed well for a long time, Decker had told her and then, in a rare fit of openness, he’d told her why.

His dad had been drunk on the porch. Decker had gone outside to help him in and the bastard had hit him—or tried to. They’d ended up tumbling into the door frame, knocking the door uneven and it hadn’t shut right ever since.

That had been when Decker was fourteen.

“When I’d started to get bigger,” he’d told her. “It wasn’t much longer before he finally started to leave me alone. Once I could kick his ass, I wasn’t worth the effort to him.”

She hated his father.

Hers was a cold man, more concerned on
appearances
and
propriety
but

he wasn’t violent. He’d never hit her before. She didn’t have scars on her. Decker

did.

Easing inside, she darted a look around. Austin Calhoun wasn’t likely to be here. He’d managed to land a job—whether or not he could hold it was a different story. But Decker was here. He didn’t go in to his shift at the YMCA until three.

She heard a noise, soft, low…

Her face flamed. Instinct whispered,
Get out…

But she couldn’t.

Gripping her purse, she eased down the hall, and there, she froze. Stared. Horrified.

She should have backed away. Immediately. But she couldn’t.

Decker stood over the brunette, his hands holding her thighs wide. She lay on the rickety table and it squeaked with every thrust. Mesmerized, Elizabeth stared, watched as his cock disappeared. He was thick. And the girl moaned, reaching down to stroke herself.

Elizabeth’s gasp lodged in her throat.

Decker’s head flew up. Through his bangs, his eyes locked on her and he froze.

“Lizzie…”

“What the—” The girl on the table tensed.

Decker shoved away, fumbling with his jeans.

Elizabeth turned and ran.

He shouted her name.

She ignored him.

She couldn’t get away fast enough. And to think she’d come to tell him that she loved him.

I love him…

The thought was there, in her mind, even as Elizabeth stretched her way into wakefulness.

That truth she’d hidden away for so long.

“What were you doing with Hamilton, Lizzie?”
Dark blue eyes staring at her from behind a thick plate of glass.
“Why were you with him? I warned you about him.”

Guilt lodged in her belly liked a stone and nausea churned, a brewing storm that was determined to break free.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. She had to tell him.

Every time he’d tried to talk about that that night, she’d shied away. It was one of the things they never talked about. Oh,
he
would try. But she never would, pulled back every time he tried. Because she was afraid, and because the guilt still haunted her.