Explosive (The Black Opals) (18 page)

Jayce’s cock answered that intimate call with a sudden bob.
He felt the rise of his semen moisten the top of his smooth head and choked back the unexpected demand of release. Shit, she had him already on the verge. And like hell he’d slam home inside her against this wall when she’d just granted him the right to have her through the night. Summoning his willpower, he eased his finger from within her and guided her off the wall, back into his arms.

Sheer force of will allowed him to climb the stairs and shut her bedroom door behind them, before he set her on her feet at the edge of her bed.
He pulled his pistol from the waistband of his jeans, set it on her nightstand, and reached for the hem of her shirt. Her hands wrestled with his, both vying to undress the other first. Despite the urgency, their tangling fingers gave Jayce the bit of distance he needed, and he chuckled. Gathering both her wrists in one hand, he held her fingers at bay and grinned. “You’re slowing me down, baby.”

A heartbreaking smile spread across her features, and she let out a husky laugh.
“You always did like to be in charge.”

Jayce shook his head, reaching for the hem of her shorts.
“No.” He gave the material a yank that dragged the lightweight cotton down her thighs. “I just like to undress you.”

“That’s all?” she asked coyly, lifting her arms as he tugged on her shirt.

He pulled the T-shirt over her head and tossed it carelessly on the floor. Bending forward, he traced his tongue around one distended nipple. “No. I like the way you shiver too.” He closed his lips around the hard little bud and gave it a firm suckle, producing the shudder he desired.

Her hands latched into his hair.
“That’s…it?” she asked between soft gasps.

With a wry smile, Jayce licked his way to her opposite breast and treated it to the same deliberate pressure of his mouth.
As he suckled, he dipped one hand between her legs and pressed his fingertip to her swollen clitoris.

Alyssa wobbled on her feet.
Her nails scraped pleasantly against his scalp as she struggled to stay upright.

“No,” he whispered.
“I like it when your knees buckle too.” He swirled his fingertip around her sensitive nubbin, provoking her into another shudder. When she swayed dangerously, he supported her back with his opposite arm and guided her down onto the mattress.

A smile played on her lips.
“I told you, you like control.”

“Mm.”
He shucked his jeans and stretched out over her pliant body. “Maybe you’re onto something.” Curving his palm around her calf, he bent her knee as he pressed a kiss to the juncture of her thigh. His gaze flicked up to hers, held it as he dragged his chin down the thin patch of curls there. His eyes crinkled with contented amusement, then he dipped the tip of his tongue over her sensitive little nubbin. “Come for me, Alyssa.”

Breaking their locked gazes, he closed his eyes and slid his tongue through her wet folds.
As a groan slid from her throat, she parted her legs.

T w e n t y – o n e

T
hose four words were all Alyssa needed to tumble headlong into sweet oblivion.
Come for me, Alyssa.
So many times she’d heard Jayce’s voice in her head. So many times she’d fantasized about him, just as he was now, his head between her thighs, his hair tickling her skin with each thrust of his masterful tongue. But nothing,
nothing
compared to the reality of Jayce Honeycutt.

Alyssa clutched at his shoulders and tried to hang on.
There was only one reason Jayce would coax her into orgasm so quickly—so he could make the second one last longer and hit her harder.

He probed deep, flicking in and out, alternating each blissful stroke with a press of his thumb against her clitoris.
Pressure built inside her, her body strained against the heavenly torture, her hips lifting to his mouth so he could thrust deeper.

“Alyssa,” Jayce whispered.
His breath teased over her quivering flesh. She writhed beneath him, desperate for contact. “I said, come.” He gave her one slow lick from her opening to her clitoris and dragged his teeth over the throbbing bud.

God, he knew just how to play her, how to fine-tune her body to the point she wasn’t certain it belonged to her at all, but rather an extension of his will.
Her back arched off the bed, and with a muffled cry, she shattered around him.

The pressure and demand of his mouth eased as he gently closed his lips around the soft outer folds of her pussy.
But dear Lord, she was so sensitive, she couldn’t lie still. Her legs jerked at the light fall of his breath, her breath came in short, sharp gasps. She’d climaxed, but just as she knew he intended, he left her primed and needy for more.

She whimpered, caught between ecstasy and the awareness that when he touched her again, it would shock through her system like live current applied to her nerves.
A fleeting sense of fear whispered around her, and she shut her eyes, falling into the habit of conjuring whatever safety she could find by summoning Brice’s face. But as his laughing eyes began to emerge in her mind, she pushed him aside. No. She didn’t want Brice intruding on this tonight. Jayce would never bring her harm. She breathed deeply and centered herself by sliding her fingers through Jayce’s thick hair.

Jayce smoothed a delightfully roughened hand over her thigh, feathered light kisses over the base of her abdomen, just above the rise of her pelvis.
He inched forward, scraping his chest over her sensitized skin, pressing her into the mattress.

“Perfect,” he whispered against the base of her ribs.
“I think you might be right. I am pretty fond of that.”

“Fond?” She let out a tremulous chuckle.
The niggling of amusement faded as he took one nipple between thumb and forefinger and gave it a tweak. Heat raced through her veins, leaving her so wet that had he been anyone else, her body’s reaction would have embarrassed her.

His gaze flicked up to hers.
An unnatural shadow fell over his expression. For a moment, the fire of desire in his gaze dimmed, and his jaw tensed. He drew the back of his knuckles down the centerline of her body, his eyes following the path of his hand. When his fingers casually dipped between her legs, he asked in a tight voice, “Does McTavish get you off like that?”

“No,” she answered quietly.
The honesty, however, inflamed her cheeks. She turned her head aside, unable to confront the truth of her less than fulfilling relationship with Brice.

Jayce’s hand slipped between her cheek and the pillow.
With gentle pressure, he turned her focus back to him. Gone were the dark lines that had haunted his expression only moments earlier. The burning light in his eyes had returned, only now it was brighter, hotter.

“Kiss me, Alyssa.”

She didn’t have to—his lips were already on hers, coaxing her into the thoughtless place of sensation and emotion that somehow managed to make all the time and distance between them disappear. Alyssa slid her arms around his neck and reveled in the warmth of his chest grazing hers. The weight of his body compressing her into the bed.

He braced his hands on either side of her shoulders and eased the kiss to a close.
His own breathing had become labored, and in the stillness of her room that rasp sent goose bumps sliding over her skin. Tenderly, he pushed her tangled hair away from her face and cupped her cheek in his large palm.

“You have no idea how much I want to make this last all night.
But I’m pretty damn close to worthless right now.”

She smiled softly.
“You’re never worthless.”

Easing his hips forward, he stroked the length of his cock between her moist folds. Pleasure crept over her, the promise of feeling him deep inside her body turning the hum of arousal into keen anticipation.
She arched her back, lifting into him, parting her thighs to accommodate his.

He bent his head, pressed a kiss to her hairline.
“I’m not going to go easy on you,” he rasped. “I can’t.”

A hint of apology lingered in his rough voice, but Alyssa didn’t need to sentiment.
One thing she could say with absolute certainty—he was never a selfish lover. More than that knowledge, however, was the understanding he had reached the point where need replaced desire, and he was rapidly losing his control.

She ran her hands down his spine, gripped his tight buttocks in her fingers, and held him in place as she rubbed her throbbing center against the hard ridge of his cock.
“Take me, Jayce. However you want me.”

A low, throaty groan rumbled from his chest, and his mouth crashed into hers.
Against her shoulders, she felt the twitching of his muscles that evidenced the fight between his will and his body. He pushed his hips forward, easing the tip of his cock inside her, stretching her wider. Her eyes closed. Her pussy clenched and released, guiding him deeper. Inch by inch, Jayce possessed her.

“Ah, fuck, Alyssa,” he croaked.
His body jerked, his hips slammed forward, driving the last few inches of his cock inside her hard. “Christ, you feel so fucking good.”

So did he, but she was beyond words now.
Like an expensive designer drug, ecstasy slid through her veins. She drew her feet flat against the mattress and gripped his shoulders. Dimly, she realized her nails bit into the hard muscle there, but it was all she could do not to claw into his shoulder blades as Jayce began to move inside her.

Slow, easy strokes sparked an unrelenting burn.
She twisted beneath him, as pleasure blistered through her veins. Broken cries tumbled off her lips.

Jayce lifted her legs so he could possess her more deeply, and took her with hard, heavy strokes.
In a blissful haze, she stared at his handsome face. His expression tightened, twisting into harsh lines of needy hunger. His dark eyes glittered in the faint light of a distant streetlamp, sparking with the intensity of his desire. A tiny bead of sweat trickled down his temple.

“Jayce,” she murmured. “Oh, God, Jayce.”

“Need you, Alyssa,” he managed between ragged gasps. “Need you, so…fucking…bad…”

He began to move within her harder.
Faster. Pumping into her with abandon and impaling her with sensation that went beyond pleasure. Beyond ecstasy. Fulfillment that had only ever come at his hands. It built inside her, expanding and contracting as her orgasm rose. She twisted her head side to side, fighting the intensity that held the power to destroy her, and yet needing it all the same. “Jayce, please. Please.”

“I’ve got you,” he groaned.

He wrapped his arms around her trembling body, and her legs encircled his waist. Her thighs gripped tight as Jayce pounded forcefully into her, flesh slapping against flesh, each thrust driving her body into the soft mattress.

Climax exploded through her.
Alyssa bucked into his powerful thrusts, his name tearing from her throat in a high-pitched keen. Heat saturated her awareness, buoying her on a riptide of pleasure. She felt his body convulse, felt the swell and pulse of his cock as release stormed through him and he filled her with his seed.

As her senses gradually returned, she held Jayce to her.
His lips moved against the side of her throat, feather-light presses that accompanied the whisper of his voice. Again and again. So quietly she had to strain to make out the solitary word he softly repeated.
Alyssa.

He shuddered in her arms one last time and turned his cheek against her shoulder.
Warmth cocooned her. Not just the heat of his body, but a deeper intangible warmth, and for the first time in more years than she could remember, she felt safe.

That was the terrifying part.
Like this, she felt safe with Jayce. Removed from the possibility of shame and sheltered from the past.

She turned her head aside to escape the sudden tightening of her lungs.
If only it were so easy to erase the memories. And if Jayce knew she had deliberately gone against his wishes and attended that long-ago party after promising she wouldn’t, he would shun her as her parents had. He too would turn his back and send her away.

Jayce stroked her cheek.
Ran his thumb over her swollen lower lip. “Sweet Alyssa,” he whispered. Another twitch possessed his body as he eased himself out of her and rolled onto his back, his head resting on the pillow she faced. He lay quiet for a long moment, his gaze tracking across her bedroom ceiling. Then, with a heavy sigh, he shook his head and let out a humorless chuckle. “I don’t know what to say anymore.”

Neither did she.
In these quiet moments, they had planned their future. He was to go to Chicago and get things settled. He’d apprentice in the carpenter’s union, secure an apartment for them, and she’d join him after graduation. These quiet, intimate conversations were always positive. Always included forever.

His dark gaze slid sideways and locked with hers.
The same shadows she’d witnessed earlier haunted his eyes. “You are protected, aren’t you?”

She swallowed hard and nodded.
Reaching out hesitantly, she smoothed her hand down his perspiration-slicked chest.

He eased onto his elbow, looking at her thoughtfully.
“Alyssa, I—”

This was what she’d feared—that he’d corner her into a conversation she couldn’t engage in.
Unable to bear the idea of arguing with him yet again, she pressed her index finger to his lips. “Sometimes, words aren’t necessary.”

Jayce answered with a slow, reluctant nod as she lowered her arm.
“Yeah. Probably best,” he murmured.

As if an invisible shutter lowered over his face, his expression cleared.
The shadows disappeared, the uninterpretable light in his eyes faded. She could no more guess what he might be thinking than she could predict the lottery numbers. Just like that, he locked himself away. Where he’d developed that talent, bewildered her.

Jayce turned onto his belly, his preferred way to sleep, and tucked one arm beneath his pillow, bunching it up to support his head.
He slid the arm closest to her down the mattress and captured her fingers. Lifting them, he brought her hand to his lips and placed a kiss against the fleshy part of her palm. Then, as he had every time they’d had opportunity to sleep beside each other, he twined his fingers through hers and tucked their joined hands beneath his cheek.

Alyssa’s heart melted.
Stripped bare emotionally, she let instinct and habit have free reign and curled up as close to his side as she could get. She slipped her leg over his, tucked her foot between his calves, and shut her eyes.