Shattered Bonds: Book Seven of Wicked Play (9 page)

The stoic man had carried them through the day with his logic and forethought. He’d been a step ahead on everything from the hospital, to the police, to the media and then the club. His supposed detachment hadn’t fooled her though. That was just one of the reasons she’d agreed when he’d offered his guest room to her.

He needed to let the pain out. If not in tears, then in anger or passion or simple comfort. His angry outburst had confirmed that and now, finally, he was letting it out. She told herself that, meaning it, while soaking up the relief of being surrounded by him.

They sat like that until her tears stopped. She wanted to protest when he straightened, but she bit her tongue and let him go. He kept his hand on her neck, his thumb caressing the sensitive spot below her ear. It was her cue to move.

With reluctance, she lifted her head and met his gaze. The locked-up pain that had maintained the distance in his eyes was gone, replaced by a heated wonder.

He wet his lips, his tongue pausing a second before it disappeared again. “Do you know what you’ve done?” There was a mystery in his inquiry that turned the deep rasp intimate. It raced through her in a rush of desire.

He wiped the tears from her face, his touch gentle and lingering. She moistened her own dry lips, sucking in air that seemed to have disappeared from her lungs.

“Offered you comfort,” she finally answered because that was what she’d intended. “Gave you a place to let go.”

“If only you understood,” he whispered before closing the distance between them. His lips were on hers before she could process his words or actions.

Soft and searching, she opened on instinct. The kiss was tender nips and soft licks that had her head spinning with the slow assault when she’d expected aggression. There was nothing hesitant about it though, just like him.

He cupped her face and brought her up until she was kneeling between his legs, and she willingly followed. She leaned into him, circling her arms around his waist to hold him closer. But it wasn’t enough.

He thrust his tongue into her mouth, tangling with hers before he eased back to nibble on her lip. Her moan came from deep in her chest. It rumbled between them before he caught it with a press of his mouth on hers once again.

Heat ran liquid and scorching down her neck to peak her nipples before settling in her sex. She clutched at his back, scrambling to get closer, to hang on as he demolished her thoughts with nothing more than his lips and tongue.

She followed him when he tried to lean back.

“We should—”

She closed her mouth over his before he could say more. What they should do was finish this. They both needed it.

He didn’t protest when she cupped his face and deepened the kiss. Everything was focused on him. His firm lips, the rough stubble under her palms, the gentle press of his hands as one slid down her neck, the other into her hair.

She was gasping for air when he finally yanked free to trail a line of kisses down her jaw. Her chest heaved in time with her racing heart and she didn’t want it to slow. Not one bit. She dug at the hem of his sweater, tugged his shirt free from his pants to skim her palms over his back. His hiss rang in her ear and encouraged her to explore.

“We should—”

She shook her head and nipped his earlobe. He grunted then tugged her up, her knees leaving the floor so fast she could only gasp when her back hit the bed. He rolled on top of her, his weight holding her down with its welcomed confirmation of life. This was real. Here. Right.

He buried his face in her neck, his teeth grazing over the flesh in a hot line of teasing torture.

“Noah,” she panted, her legs locking around his hips. There were too many clothes between them. Too much distance. She wanted nothing but skin on skin, hot breaths and urgent cries.

“Liv.”

Her name was a throaty plea that only encouraged her to grind her hips into his. The hard outline of his arousal met the juncture of her hip and leg, and she shifted so it ran between her legs the next time. The shot of pleasure sang through her to flush her hot with abandon.

“We should—”

“Finish this,” she snarled. She yanked on his hair, his head jerking up to show his startled anger under a hard frown and curled lip. It didn’t deter her. If anything, it fueled her determination. “We both want it. Need it. So don’t you dare stop over some misplaced sense of guilt.”

Their breaths panted between them, faces inches apart in a moment of indecision that seemed to go on forever. His nostrils flared with each harsh inhale that pumped his chest. She tightened her grip around the silky strands of his hair and silently dared him to deny her.

“Damn it.” His curse sliced through the tension with a cutting edge before he claimed her mouth with a forcefulness that had her silently begging for more.

He jerked her hands from their hold on his hair to slam them over her head. He drove his hips down, his erection marking a solid line up her pubic bone. She arched into him, helped by the position of her arms and the raging drive to get more.

His eyes were dark as midnight when he lifted his head to stare down at her. Everything in her quaked with hunger for the promise in that one look. He switched his grip to hold her wrists in one hand. His other drifted down her arm to cup her throat.

“I want this,” he ground out. The cold words were countered by the fire in his voice.

She gasped, her chin lifting at the slight pressure of his hand. Images cycled rapid-fire through her mind of floggers, bonds, being held down, then skidded on to the terror she’d always envisioned if she was forced to submit.

But he wasn’t forcing her.

And she wanted it. It was reckless and stupid and everything she wasn’t, but she craved it right then, which was why she wet her lips and said, “Please.”

Chapter Ten

The soft plea almost gutted Noah. There was no fear in her dark eyes. No hesitancy or nerves either. He was ten times the fool to follow through, yet the option to stop was ripped away by her single word. “This is—”

“Right,” she broke in, her insistence snapping out to bite at the dominance he was battling to control.

Fuck. It wasn’t, but he was done with logic. Done analyzing and resisting and denying. His kiss was hard, a way to declare what he was taking. She made him lose control, almost demanded that he did, and for once he let go.

The blood roared in his ears to compound the thump of his heart. But he caught every sigh and whimper and breathy moan that came from her. Each sound was an exclamation of her passion. He wanted to hear her scream in pleasure. To give her everything she needed.

He could do that for her.

He released her wrists to shove her sweatshirt and bra over her head. He had to touch her everywhere. Absorb her heat until it singed the hair on his arms. Burned away the darkness that edged his life.

His breath stuck in his lungs, and her clothing was tossed aside without thought as his gaze ran down the sight of her. Wrists crossed over her head, lips parted, swollen and red with invitation. Her full breasts forced up, nipples peaked on dark tips that begged to be sucked. Savored. Bit. So he did.

The bud was a tease on his tongue, and he rolled it over and under before sucking it between his lips. Her cry was soft and timed with a short thrust of her breast toward him. He tried to hold back, to slow it down, but it was impossible. He devoured the tip, a final hard suckle ending with a firm grip of his teeth that had her curling in with a hiss.

He glanced up, his hold still solid on her tender flesh to gauge her reaction. Her eyes were wide, mouth open in a silent exclamation. He narrowed his eyes, his challenge leveled in the heartbeat it took her to inhale and flop back to the bed.

A surge of satisfaction shot right to his hard-as-nails dick with a dose of desire that forced him to release his prize for fear of hurting her too badly. That wasn’t his intent. He balanced the freed beast of his dominant nature with his equally strong drive to nurture.

“God, Noah.” Her voice had deepened, bleeding with the desire he’d created in her. It was so fucking sexy. “That was...intense.”

He cupped her other breast and dove in to lavish it with the same attention. She tasted sweet and salty with a hint of spice, just like her.

She bucked, her hips rotating in a seeking circle that he answered. He got her jeans undone, his mouth still working her nipple, and drove his hand under the thin material of her panties to find her heat.

Her strangled whimper matched his. She was wet and so hot he almost came simply from touching her. Patience shot, he sat up and yanked the rest of her clothes from her body. The intoxicating scent of her arousal slammed into him, upping the urgency that already clawed at him. Her jeans and underwear were barely over her feet before he spread her legs and ran his tongue through the heady track of her sex. The musky flavor burst to life in his mouth, urging him to find more. Suck harder, open her wider so he could get at every inch of her.

“I’m gonna—” Her muscles clenched around him, and he drew the swollen bud of her clit into his mouth while penetrating her tight channel with his fingers. She exploded around him, a high cry ringing through the room. She curled up, gasped, twisted beneath him as her arousal coated his fingers. And still he didn’t relent.

He drove her harder. Kept the pressure on her oversensitive clit and teased the sensitive bud of her anus. She flinched, cheeks clenching at the touch before he thrust his fingers back into her channel. She flew into another orgasm on a silent contraction of muscles.

Damn. He lapped up her juices, driven to make this the best for her. She huffed a tortured moan that was both pleasure and pain, and it slicked over him in a tide of satisfaction.

He lifted his head, his face wet from her release, her scent filling him on every inhale to take in the full vision of her. Stunning was his first thought. Her arms were spread wide, eyes closed, breasts heaving with each rapid inhale. She was floating, exactly how he wanted her.

How he loved his submissives to be. Drowning in that satisfied state that let them drift in a plane of simply being.

He wiped his sleeve over his mouth then yanked his sweater off. The rest of his clothes followed in an urgent need to bury himself deep within her. He had the condom out of the bedside drawer and on his dick before he crawled back over her.

Her eyes cracked open when the mattress jiggled, a smile curving over her red lips. Her lazy, sated perusal of him left his skin burning. He tracked her tongue when it peeked out, wanting to dive in and grab it with his teeth.

“Now I know what’s in that drawer.”

The husky grate of her voice and teasing light in her eyes stole the last of his thinly held control. He tapped her hip. “Roll over.”

Her brows drew together, but she didn’t resist when he helped her along. The line of her back was long and pristine. Not a freckle or mole to mar the creamy surface that brought the two tiny dents at the arch of her ass into full relief. He groaned, the sound rumbling from deep in his throat.

He fucking loved back dimples. They were secret little teasers usually hidden to everyone, and that made them even more attractive.

He pressed a kiss to each one. The divots were worth worshiping, yet it would have to wait.

Her skin glided under his in the softest of caresses under his palms. He wanted to touch every inch of her until all of her secrets were revealed, but the demand to lose himself in her was too strong for that now.

Her arms were limp in his hands when he moved them over her head to cuff her wrists in his hand. He nuzzled her nape, her scent laden with the musky tinge of sex. She gasped when he nipped her earlobe then sighed as he sucked it into his mouth to sooth the sting.

Bracing himself between her legs, he lowered his chest to her back. He savored the sweetness of first contact before she arched up, her ass rolling into his pelvis in an undeniable invitation.

His erection throbbed with the necessity to be sheathed within her. But even more, his heart pounded with the need to be fully connected with her. She was warmth and light and hope unspoken in his arms.

He closed his eyes, his hold contracting on her waist as he eased in. She tilted her hips just enough for him to slide into her heat on a glide of pure ecstasy. Her walls gripped him, stoked the edges of the sensitive head and seemed to bring him home. Waves of tingling pleasure rippled up his spine and down his limbs.

It was...too much. Not enough. Everything he’d been avoiding for years. It was more than simple sex and release.

“You feel so good,” she whispered, her breath kissing his lips.

Sweat beaded down his back, his restraint tested, but to move was to lose it.

“I’m going to take you,” he rasped into her ear. “I won’t be easy on you.” He added the last to prepare her.

Her eyes fluttered open and she appraised him over her shoulder. There was a smile or maybe it was a dare on her lips when she said, “Good.”

Fuck. A full-blown growl tore from his chest, and the animal within him burst free. He sunk his teeth into the juncture of her neck and grabbed her hips to lift her on to her knees. He was back in her before her cry ended.

Her hot channel clamped around him, and he withdrew to sink deeper into her.

“God, yes,” she whimpered, pushing back. “Harder.”

The bed creaked when he slammed his hips forward, skin slapping as he upped the pace. His fingers dug into the flesh on her hips, but her spine arched and dipped when she met every one of his thrusts.

She drove him insane. There was no other word for the mad clash that raged inside him. She was a wild goddess spread out before him, hands fisted in the covers, biceps flexing with every push back to meet him.

He snaked an arm around her waist to hug her close, slowing his hips just enough to drag out their building climaxes. Their skin was slick where it met, her hair damp at her nape when he nuzzled it.

“You’re...” He couldn’t finish his thought. There were so many things she was, none of which he could voice.

“Close,” she finished. “Just...” She tilted her hips, rocked them to his slower rhythm that was the best dance he’d ever had. “Yeah...” Her sigh was one of pure satisfaction and borderline rapture.

That was his final undoing. He lifted up and drove into her with crazed thrusts that were far from the tender moments of seconds before. He had enough presence of mind to find her clit. The nub rolled beneath his finger for only a breath before she was thrashing, clamping down on his dick in spasmed grasps that yanked his orgasm from him.

He ground into her, tried to get closer as his world went black then exploded with light. His muscles went tense, strained to breaking before it all crashed. Pleasure screamed over him. Skittering lines of joy radiated from his groin to bathe him in the sensation.

His arms and legs shook. Liv heaved a last sob and collapsed to the bed. He followed her down, unwilling to lose the connection, but he had enough brain particles working to catch himself on his elbows to keep from squashing her.

His head sagged against hers. Their chests moved in sync with deep pants, and the world slowly came back into focus one sense at a time.

Her sexy whimpers reached him first, followed by the heavy scent of sex and sweat that overpowered the fruity fragrance of her shampoo. Next was the sticky slickness of her bottom cradled beneath his pelvis, which led to the warmth that still engulfed his softening dick.

Shit. He had to move.

It was the very last thing he wanted to do. Any distance from her was unwanted, but it couldn’t be avoided. He eased out then rolled to the side to swipe a tissue from the box on the nightstand. He took care of the condom, only to stall on where to put it. The trash was in the bathroom, and getting up would take more energy than he had.

“Just drop it on the floor,” Liv mumbled. His head snapped around to find her watching him with the one eye not buried in the pillow. “Go on. Be daring.”

The sassy little minx. But she’d read him right. He opened his hand and let the wadded-up ball fall to the floor without a sound. He raised a brow at her, and her lips quirked with a barely contained smirk.

“Was that so hard?”

“More than you think,” he answered honestly. Just like the piles of clothing that lay thrown across the floor. The disorder burrowed into the back of his mind to pick at the quietness he’d finally found.

“Hmm.” Her eye drifted closed again, and he studied the contented softness of her features. “I don’t think I can move.”

A sense of fulfillment expanded in his chest. He’d given that to her. It’d been so long since he’d cared this much. He rolled to his side and pressed his lips to the damp baby curls on her temple. Her skin was slick beneath his palm as he trailed a hand down her back to the two dimples that had somehow become his.

“Did I hurt you?” He had to ask. Now that the lust had faded, he had to acknowledge how roughly he’d treated her. He’d been almost crazed, and it shamed him to think he’d given her pain when she hadn’t wanted it.

Her eyes flew open and she popped her head up to shoot him an
are you stupid?
look. “Seriously? Do I look like I’m hurt?”

He chuckled. “No. But there might be bruises on your hips in the morning.”

“Really?” She whipped around to try and peer at her hips then blessed him with a stunning, full-watt smile. “Cool.”

His laughter shot from his chest to startle them both. He didn’t care though. It felt too good, like the sex they’d just had. He simply couldn’t dismiss the bit of joy after the shit-filled day they’d endured and the one that was waiting for them tomorrow.

She shoved him in the chest then flopped back down. “Jerk,” she said, her tone light. The disgruntled look she tried to keep lasted less than a second before her own laughter mingled with his.

“Only for you,” he chided right back.

She quieted, her face going serious as she reached out to stroke his jaw. His breath hitched at the tenderness. “Wrong. Defensive sometimes. Quiet. Reserved. But never a jerk. I doubt if you even know how to be.”

And what did he do with that? Panic flamed to life with a quick kick to his chest and churn of his stomach. He smacked her ass and rolled away. “Just give me time.”

She didn’t respond as he flicked off the light then tugged the covers down so they could crawl under them. When she curled in to snuggle beneath the crook of his arm, her hair freed from the band and flowing over his chest, he swallowed back the contented sigh that rode in his throat.

“I’m not leaving,” she said then threaded her leg between his.

He kept his groan silent by burying his face in her hair and hugging her tightly. There was a roughness to his voice when he answered. “I don’t want you to.”

That was the problem. Now that she was here, he didn’t know if he could let her go. It was wrong, right and something in between that he was too exhausted to analyze.

Body sated, mind tapped out, he let his worries go. Tomorrow would be filled with more questions, doubts, stress and—God forbid—grief. He’d soak up Liv for a few more hours then let her go in the morning, too.