Claimed by my Best Friend (Men of Valor Springs #7)

Chapter Five

Darrell

I almost ruined things between us. I’m a man who craves control, but when it comes to her, I have none.

Paula makes me feel things I never have before. Around her, my heart beats differently. It’s faster and louder and jackhammers all over the place. I can play the cool guy all I like, but with Paula, I am nothing but a man who is helplessly in love with his best friend. A man whose thoughts, actions, and feelings revolve around her.

Only her.

Fuck, but there are secrets between us, most of which are on my side. At some point, I will have to explain that the thought of confessing everything to Paula and then losing her once she learns about my past is what caused my panic. Christ, will she want to be with me once she finds out that I have a permanent record?

“I love you,” I growl as I slowly lower her to her back on her bed. She’s naked, perfect from head to toe, and I can’t wait to make her mine. After so many long nights of imagining this moment, it’s here now. “You are mine now.”

“I love… Oh!” She gasps when I snag her ankle and pull her to the edge of the bed, my eyes locked on hers when I drop down to my knees on her pink rug. Her cheeks pick up a pretty hue when I take her knees and settle them on my shoulders, exposing her pink heaven, glistening with arousal. “Darrell…”

“You’re wet,” I say with amazement. “I haven’t even started touching you, angel, and you are dripping.”

She flushes at my words, clearly embarrassed by them. “I…I never thought I would be in this position with you…”

“And what position is that?” I rasp, leaning in and kissing her inner thigh.

“This,” she whispers, a shudder running through her when I kiss a path up her thigh. “Doing this. Hearing you say that you have feelings for me. It’s unreal.”

“Let me make it real for you, angel.”

That is all the warning she gets before I’m dragging my tongue over the wet valley of her sex. She cries out, hips bucking off the bed, but I am only getting started. I’m starved. For her. For everything. For the taste of her pussy, the noises she makes when I pleasure her, and how fucking good it feels to do so.

Mine!

Her body and her pleasure all belong to me. And I take all that to heart as I lose myself in her scent of peach and the sugary slickness of her pussy, lapping at her arousal like a starved man. I feel every bit like one. I feel her grow wetter by the second, her juices coating my mouth and chin, her clit swelling under the fast stroke of my tongue.

“Darrell!” she sobs, her fingers clenching and unclenching over her sheets, rocking and rolling her hips feverishly with the need for release. Her stomach shudders and her thighs begin to shake as I lick and fuck her with my tongue. “Oh God…Darrell!” She’s close. I can tell with the way she whines my name and how her movements grow feverish as she grinds into every stroke of my tongue. The way she tears at her sheets, bucking on the bed wildly. Her pussy begins to quiver against my tongue, her body shaking as she braces for a storm. I reach up and fondle her tit in my palm as I lick her wet folds, wanting and craving her release just as much as she does. Perhaps even more.

“Mine!” I growl against her sex, closing my mouth hungrily over her swollen bud in slow suction before increasing the pressure as I pinch her nipple between my knuckles, and that is what sends her over the edge.

She orgasms with a scream, her hips bucking and body thrashing on the bed. She turns into a babbling, gasping mess, rocking and arching into my stroking tongue. Her arousal trickles down my mouth and chin, her sex pulsing wildly as I work her through the climax. “Darrell… Oh God. Oh!”

Mine! I think again as I rake my tongue over her trembling sex as she sobs, rough tremors coursing through her body. My dick is as hard as stone, poking angrily at my sweatpants and begging for release. She’s still trembling when I pull away, her face flushed and tits shaking as she heaves her breaths.

“Fuck, I need to be inside of you,” I say raggedly, pushing to my feet. I shrug off my sweats and step out of them before climbing into bed with her. Her eyes are dazed as she backs up on the bed and I follow her, my cock throbbing. Something akin to need crosses those beautiful green eyes when I settle over her. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this, Paula.”

“Me too,” she breathes, her eyes dropping to my cock. “It’s big. Not that I have anything to compare it to, but, Jesus, Darrell. Are you sure about this?” For the first time since walking into her apartment, I read worry in her eyes.

“Scared?”

“A little,” she admits before wrapping her arms around my shoulders and pulling my head down to hers. Our breaths mingle between us, her eyes locked on mine. “I’m a little nervous, but it’s you, and I’ve wanted you since…forever.”

“I’ll take care of you, angel.”

“I know. I trust you,” she whispers. “I love you.”

There is no getting used to hearing these words from her. It’s not like she’s never told me she loved me before, but it was never in this context. It always had an effect on me, but it never sent my heart beating out of control.

Mine!

I crush my mouth down on hers, and I am like a madman in the way I kiss her. Our tongues twine in a fever of need, the sweetness of her lips nearly pushing me over the edge.

With my mouth locked on hers, I grip my cock and guide it to her wet hole. She whimpers into the kiss when I nudge the crown of my shaft into her opening, and there is little resistance before she relaxes a bit and allows me in. My balls ache, threatening to explode if I don’t slam forward and jackhammer into an orgasm, but I restrain myself. This is her first time, a precious gift she’s letting me claim. A part of her she’s never let another man have. Only me.

Only ever me!

Paula is mine, and I will do everything I can to make sure she doesn’t hurt. Even if it kills me, and God, it feels like it just might.

“You are so fucking tight, angel,” I grind out, my muscles tense and my pulse drumming wildly under my skin. Her hot channel is cinched hard around my cock, making it difficult for me to move an inch, and it’s a fucking test of my control. “It’ll hurt less if you let me in, sweetheart.”

“H-how?” she pants.

“Need you to relax for me.”

“Okay,” she nods, her breath coming out shakily as she rakes her nails up and down my shoulders nervously. It takes her a second, but I feel her relax around me. Her eyes are trusting, and goddamn, she wrecks me with the way she looks at me.

“It’s fine, baby. I’ll take care of you,” I rasp, my mouth colliding with hers in a searing kiss. I inch deeper into her, swallowing her gasp and giving her time to adjust before pushing in another inch, and that’s when I feel it. The thin layer protecting her innocence. With my mouth locked on hers, I punch forward and tear through her virginal barrier.

Paula cries into the kiss, her nails digging hard into my shoulders and no doubt bruising my skin, but I barely notice. No, my entire focus is on the connection between us and how tight she feels wrapped around my cock like a fucking glove.

“So big,” she whimpers shakily. “God, you’re so big!”

“Fuck, angel, are you okay?” I say hoarsely, my breathing heavy against hers. The moment is so intimate it sends my heart swelling with love. More affection than I have ever felt for any other person wells inside me. “Does it hurt?” I push back to look into her eyes, and God, I could get lost in those beautiful greens of hers. The thought of hurting her sends physical pain coursing through me. “How bad does it hurt, Paula?”

“A little,” she whispers, rolling her hips experimentally. “Not too much. I…I like it.”

“The pain?”

She giggles, “No, silly!” Her cheeks darken, and she bites into her lip as she pulls her gaze from mine. “Feeling you inside of me. It’s… God, I know this sounds crazy to say, but it feels like we’re one. Like the same person.”

“You’re right, that does sound crazy,” I counter, and she giggles again, which quickly turns into a moan when I roll my hips, positioning the base of my shaft to rub over her clit as I stretch her walls with my cock. She whimpers, her back slightly arching off the bed at the friction between us.

“Oh, that felt good. Do it again!”

“I don’t want to hurt you—”

“Again, I want to feel it again,” she whines, rolling her hips restlessly under me. “It hurts a little, but it feels really good. Do it again, Darrell.”

“I’ll do better,” I say, grabbing her hands and pinning them down over her head as I begin to ride her pussy, my thrusts slow and shallow at first. Her snug little sex threatens to push me over the edge too soon, but I have no plan to spill three seconds inside the most gorgeous woman I have ever seen.

“Oh!”

Her mouth falls open with a moan when I start riding her faster, watching her face for any sign of discomfort, but her expression is twisted in pleasure. I release her hands, and she claws my back as I drill into her, slowly losing the grip on my control with every slam into her snug sex. Paula whines, opening her legs wider for me, the wet sounds of our lovemaking filling the small room. “Good?” I rasp, picking up speed as I start to hammer harder and faster into her.

“So good,” she whimpers, writhing helplessly under me, and goddamn, she’s a fucking sight to behold. I almost wish I could capture this moment of her, but a mental picture will have to do. Her eyes are glassy and her body flushed, her tight little pussy squeezes around my cock, and her mouth is parted as she moans in pleasure, begging for more. “Faster, Darrell.”

I give it to her. Burying my face in her neck, I pound into her like I am possessed. I dig my hand into her hip as I jackhammer into her, and soon, the room is filled with her pleasured sobs mixed with my hoarse grunts. “So close, baby,” I growl, smacking harder into her tightness, something burning inside me with an intense need for release, but goddamn if I am going to come before her. I drop my hand between us and strum her clit with my thumb in rough circles as I thrust unevenly into her, and it only takes a few strokes before she’s screaming her release. She trembles violently under me, her pussy cinching so hard, it pushes me off the edge. The base of my spine pulls tight and all my muscles tense up a second before I am flooding her pussy with a hoarse roar, coming harder than I ever have my entire life.

There are dark spots behind my eyes as her pussy clenches hard around my cock and milks me of every drop. I pound into her until my muscles begin to burn and I have nothing left to give, and only then do I collapse on top of her, my breath coming in heavy pants and matching her own labored breathing.

It takes several long moments for my heart to stop drumming in my ears. I roll off her and out of bed before walking to her small bathroom. I search around for a small wash towel and wet it before walking back to her room. She blushes when I walk into the room with the cloth but lets me clean her thighs. My heart clenches tight when I spot the evidence of her lost virginity on the cloth.

Mine , comes the unbidden thought once again.

I’m careful as I clean her before depositing the cloth in the bathroom, then I clean myself as well before climbing back into bed. I wrap my arms around her and pull her flush against me so she doesn’t fall off her small bed. But I also do it because I want to feel her heartbeat in tune with mine.

There are thoughts and feelings of fear, but I push them down, unwilling to let them ruin this beautiful moment between us. Christ, it would wreck me to lose this girl. As dramatic as it sounds, I live and breathe for Paula.

She is my kryptonite.

“Are you okay?” I manage, brushing my lips over her temple and breathing in the sweet, fruity scent of her shampoo clinging to her hair. “Did I hurt you?”

“No, it was perfect,” she whispers, and I feel the soft trace of her fingers on my side where my tattoo for her is. “What were you thinking when you got the tattoo?”

“That I am in love with this girl and I want whatever part of her I can have.”

“Okay, scratch that,” she says with a laugh. “What were you thinking when you got your first tattoo?”

I mull over the question, wondering how to answer it without revealing much of my troubled past. I remember the day like it was yesterday, but in actuality, it was more than a decade ago. I’d just fought with my old man—nothing new there—and I’d stormed out of the house. At sixteen, I had every intention of skipping town and living on my own, but I had no money. I was arrested a few towns over for petty theft and returned to my father’s custody. A hundred hours of community service weren’t enough to make me change my ways, but the few days I stayed in juvie turned a troubled kid into a reckless one who got good at hiding his mischief. I got my first tattoo right after completing my community service. I wasn’t even seventeen when I got it.

“I wasn’t thinking,” I finally say, and wasn’t that always the problem?

Paula must sense that I don’t want to talk about it because she hums and changes the subject to something else. “Did I ever tell you my parents’ love story?” She nuzzles my neck, her hot breaths fanning my skin, and my cock starts to take notice, right along with the fingers trailing my skin. “My mother was my father’s one true love. He never remarried after she died...”

I hum, kissing her forehead. She’s told me this story before. About a home invasion gone wrong, and how her mother was caught in the crossfire. It’s another reason why I keep my past hidden from her. Christ, I’m sure it would hurt her if she saw my record. In my case, no one was hurt, but will she see it that way?

“…I’ve always wanted to find a love like theirs,” she whispers, brushing her lips over the side of my neck in a small kiss. “I’m glad I’ve finally found it.”

“Me too, angel.” I wrap my arms tightly around her, afraid that if I let go, she’ll disappear. “Me too.”