Headstrong (34 page)

“How does it feel?”

He grinned, wicked. “A bender’s looking pretty bloody tempting right about now.”

Libby studied his mouth and hands, so possessive just seconds ago. She wanted to know if the rest of him would feel that way too. His strong arms, the weight of his body, the words he might say. She registered the smell of microwave popcorn and knew it would forever be hardwired in her brain now, an unlikely trigger programmed to make her knees shake.

She reached out and touched Colin’s waist again, smoothing her palms over his sides.

“What are you thinking, Libby?”

She kept her eyes on his chest. “I’m not really sure.” She was thinking about that silly nickname she’d given him. It made sense now, looking at his powerful body, seeing that predatory glint in his eye, hearing that growl in his throat. She curled her fingers into claws against his ribs.

“You want me,” she said.

“Of course I do. I want you more than any woman I’ve ever met.”

His sincerity and fierceness made her skin heat.

“I’d take a bullet in the brain for you,” Colin said. “I’d marry you tonight and give you a house full of obnoxious, leggy children if you wanted it.”

Libby laughed.

“I’d put on a suit and tie and get a sedan and a job in a bank the second you asked me to—”

“God, don’t do that.”

“Whatever you asked, I’d do it.”

She nodded. “It should have been you. You, this entire time. And I was too stupid to see it. Or scared.”

“Scared of what?” he asked.

“Of…you. Of someone who won’t hold back with me.”

He shook his head. “No, I wouldn’t.”

“What would you do if I asked you to take me to your room?”

“Pinch myself.”

Her eyes posed the question a second time.

“I don’t know, Libby. You’d have to just find out. But if I scare you
now
, think twice before you cut me loose.”

She nodded and let go of his body. She craned her neck and grabbed the glass from behind her, draining the last of the wine in one gulp as he watched.

“You want an invitation or an order?” Colin asked.

She considered it, so sick to death of patience and kind assurances and permission. Sick to death of running away from this fear.

“Order.”

His mouth twitched into a smirk. He pressed his body against hers again, lips at her ear. “Get in my fucking bed.”

She sucked in a fearful breath, but instead of fighting the sensation, Libby let it flow free in her veins, let herself feel it until it transformed into excitement. She slid from between Colin and the counter and walked to his dark room, sitting on the edge of his bed. He followed, shutting the door behind him. She heard footsteps, then the Christmas lights around the window came on, bathing them in a soft glow. There was fire in Colin’s eyes. Hot. So very different than the icy lake of his brother’s steady gaze. He looked down at her and grinned.

“What are you smirking at?” Libby asked.

“I have no idea. I don’t know how this is possibly happening.”

Libby reached out and grabbed his belt, pulling him down next to her. A strong arm pinned her against his chest, their legs tangling, mouths reconnecting. She slipped her hand under his shirt and ran it up his side.

Colin groaned, and she thrilled at his easy reaction. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Touch me.”

Damn, it was nice getting ordered around. She pressed her palm hard against his skin, dug her short nails into him. He responded with a thrust of his hips that stroked his arousal against her thigh.

“Colin.”

No hesitation. No seeking of assurances. He let her feel him again and didn’t hide his moan.

Libby shoved at his shoulder until he was lying on his back. Straddling his thighs, she pushed his shirt up over his chest, and he peeled it off for her. Again, like his brother, and yet not. Hard, but accessible. Welcoming. A playground. She touched his belly and traced her fingers up over his heart.

“Exactly where did you get your body from?” Libby asked, gazing across that tight torso. “The legs and ass makes sense…”

He smiled. “Sit-ups, I guess. And we’ve got a punching bag in the basement. I wail on that when I’ve had a bad day.”

“You must have a lot of bad days.”

“I suppose I did. Until about a month ago.” He watched her hands as they explored him.

Libby had a minute to play before Colin’s impatience got the better of him. He reached up, and she helped him take her shirt off. His palms ran over her stomach, her breasts, her shoulders.

“Jesus, you’re beautiful.”

“I’m yours,” she said. “Do what you want.”

“God, where to start.”

“I haven’t really done very much,” she reminded him. “But don’t be too gentle with me. I want you how you normally are, in bed. Pretend like I’m any other girl.”

Colin laughed, shaking his head. “Impossible.”

“You know what I mean.”

He nodded. He coaxed her to lie next to him, and she luxuriated in his kissing and the feeling of her bare skin against his. She let him take off her bra and cup her small breasts in his broad hands.

“Turn around,” he breathed.

She rolled over, and he pulled her back and shoulders against his chest. His hand snaked around her waist to pull the drawstring of her pajamas free of its bow. She gasped, barely recognizing the sound as her own. She felt his labored breathing in her hair, listened to the muffled sounds of his excitement as he slipped his hand between her legs, touching her through her panties. Her body seized and arched, craving this feeling—the touch of a man who wanted her this badly.

“I’ve thought about this so many times,” he murmured. His other hand lifted her hair off the back of her neck, replacing it with the graze of his lips and the heat of his breath, the flick of his tongue. His fingers against her flash point made her gasp.

“I want to know everything you think about, Colin. Tell me.”

“About this. And about you touching me.” His hand pulled her thigh wider, and his fingers began to rub her, explicit.

She moaned.

“I can feel you getting wet for me.”

Her breath caught again, from the words and the touch and the truth of it.

“Are you big?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said matter-of-factly. “Is that what you like?”

“In theory. Are you hard?”

“You have no bloody idea.”

“Let me feel you,” she said.

He took her hand and drew it behind her, between their bodies, cupping it over his jeans against his erection. He grunted and his hips pushed him against her palm. His fingers slipped back between her legs.

“What do you want me to do to you?” she asked.

“Any filthy thing you want.”

His voice so close to her ear gave her the most wonderful goose bumps imaginable. “What do you fantasize about me doing to you?”

He groaned. “Using me.” He slid his hand under her panties, slid his finger inside
her
, making her gasp and buck against him.

“Taking me. In your greedy hands and your mouth and between your legs, right here.” His fingers delved deep. “I fantasize about you tying me down and fucking my brains out.”

She bucked again, from the shock his words sent through her body. “Even now that you know I have no clue what I’m doing?” she managed to ask.

“Even more. I want to give you everything you’ve missed.”

She considered telling him she’d never climaxed but held her tongue. The thought of him trying and failing, thinking his inability to make her come was
his
shortcoming…that was one pain she could spare this wonderful man.

He moaned against her neck. His hips were pumping in tandem with the thrust of his fingers, pushing his erection into her palm, locking their bodies together.

“I need to taste you,” he said.

She froze. “I’ve never done that.”

“No?” There was surprise in his voice. “Well then, you’re in for a treat.” His hand withdrew and he stood from the bed. “Stand up.”

She complied, holding her pajamas at her waist. He cupped her breasts and kissed her mouth, and she reached between them to touch his cock, hard and insistent behind his fly.

“Unbuckle my belt,” he whispered.

She did. She tugged his button open and lowered his zipper, pushed his jeans down his hips. He grabbed her hand and wrapped her fingers around him.

“Feel what you do to me.” He held her hand tight and pumped his hips, each thrust showing her how thick and hot she’d made him behind the cotton.

Libby felt a rush of power. “You’re so hard.”

“Thanks to you.”

She swallowed. “Tell me what you want me to do.”

“Nothing, yet. You’ve already made me suffer this long. Ten more minutes and I’ll get my revenge.”

She liked the sound of that threat. She let him ease her other hand away and her pajamas dropped to the floor. He took a step back, studying her. “Take your knickers off.”

She obeyed, standing naked in front of him.

“Holy hell.” Colin’s face took on a look of dirty reverence. “You are the hottest woman I have ever seen.”

She smiled. Objectification felt good with the right person. “Thanks.”

His eyes roamed her entire body, seeming to memorize it. “Sit down.”

She perched on the edge of the bed and watched Colin kneel between her legs. He ran his palms over her thighs, and there was a wildness to his energy, that intensity that had scared her so many times.

“Doesn’t the floor hurt your knees?” Libby asked, dogged by apprehension.

“Yes, it does.” He smiled, apparently relishing such a punishment. His eyes took her in. “I’m so thirsty, Libby,” he murmured, and the words cut into her core like a blade, releasing the fear.

“Lie back.”

She reclined. Strong hands eased her thighs open, and she felt the heat and closeness of his lips, his chin, his nose, his hot exhalations against her skin.

“You smell amazing.”

She gasped as his tongue traced her lips, quick and firm.

“Colin.”

He made a happy noise. “Keep saying that.”

His hands held her tightly, and his tongue lapped her again, then again, faster. Each time she said his name, he gave her more. Each flick of his tongue seemed to excite him further, until he was moaning, rhythmic and guttural. One of his hands slid up her thigh. Between kisses, two fingers traced her clitoris and the seam of her lips.

“Oh,
wow
.” A current rushed through her, a flash of warmth in her feet that spread up through her legs and belly.

He slid his fingers inside her, the pleasure making her hips jerk.

“Colin.”

His mouth devoured her as his touch went deeper. Libby pushed herself up and ran her short nails over his scalp, wanting to pull him closer, wanting to
own
him. She let her heels rub frantically against his back.

“God, Colin, don’t stop.”

He took her rougher. A warm, strange sensation began to build, tensing her body then releasing it. His tongue was winding her up, tight as a spring and so urgent it nearly hurt. He moaned, deep and long, the vibration of his voice compounding her pleasure.

“Colin.” She wanted to shout it. She wanted to scream, to choke him and make this feeling stop before it suffocated her, but he was relentless. Ravenous.

Her entire body clenched as everything came to a sudden head. She grasped for any inch of his skin she could find as the climax ripped through her—flashes of pleasure more exquisite and more violent than she’d dreamed her body capable of experiencing. His mouth and fingers slowed. Colin drew the sensations out, letting them fade, bringing them back. As she came down, he held her thighs tight against his head, as though he wanted to drown in her. When she finally stopped twitching, he let her boneless calves flop from his shoulders.

Dizzy, Libby managed to drag her tingly legs up onto the bed. Colin joined her. He pulled her against his chest, tangling a possessive hand in her hair.

“Thanks,” he said.

She smiled. “You’re welcome, I guess.”

He licked his lips and kissed her sweaty forehead. “I can die a happy man now.”

“I’d prefer if you didn’t just yet. I’m not done with you.” She paused to let a long breath ooze from her body. “My God. That was incredible.”

“That’s
my
super-power.”

“That’s the greatest thing I have ever felt.”

“I have no doubt,” he said cockily.

“No, I mean…really. That was literally the greatest thing I’ve
ever
felt.” She looked him square in the face and grinned. “That was my first orgasm.”

Libby didn’t think she’d ever seen a pair of eyes that round before.

“No
fucking
way.”

She nodded. “My very first.”

Colin flopped back on the bedspread. “Sweet Christ, shoot me now. I’ve peaked. There’s no point going on.”

“Oh, you’re not done yet. Not even close.” A burst of energy took her. “I want to do that to you.”

He sat up and nodded. “You can do anything you want to me.”

“But I need instructions. I’ve never done it. I might be really crappy at it.”

“Libby, I could probably come just watching you do your taxes right now. It’s not
your
performance you should be worried about.”

She laughed.

“So, by all means, be as crappy at it as you want. It’ll still be the most amazing head I’ve ever gotten.”

“Okay.” She looked around them, unsure how to begin. “Tell me what to do.”

“Well, would you like me to wear a condom?”

“I don’t know… Should you?”

He shrugged. “I’m clean, but it’s your choice.”

“I think I’d prefer to take you as you are.”

He nodded. “Whatever you like. You want me lie down or stand or…?”

“God, I don’t know.”

“Here.” He piled a couple pillows and lay back. “This is probably the most comfortable for you.” He pushed his boxer briefs off and spread his thighs, inviting Libby to kneel between them.

She studied him for a long moment, all that bare skin laid out for her to do with as she liked. She wrapped her fingers around him again to feel his hard excitement, listened to the happy sounds he made. But even though he was the one on his back, she couldn’t help but feel vulnerable.