18. Chapter 18 – Sloane
Chapter 18 – Sloane
I giggled. Again.
God, I hated giggling. Yet around Peyton and Olivia, I couldn’t stop it. Especially when they were picking on Tamen to make me laugh. It didn’t hurt that Tamen didn’t act like the stick in the mud he usually did when his sisters-in-law picked on him.
Since we got to the loud sports bar and found a table in the corner to sit down and people watch from, he had been almost—likeable.
Sure, don’t get me wrong, unfortunately I had always actually liked Tamen. But my like for him was usually outdone by my irritation with him and his snarky, pompous attitude. It was like one minute I’d be intrigued by his brilliant business savvy mind and plans, and then the next I’d want to beat him over the head with a vase for something he said in the very same breath.
It was wild to have such a swinging pendulum of emotions around a man for me. And tonight he was holding that pendulum to one side.
The side where I actually liked him.
Or tolerated him, maybe.
Watching him interacting with Peyton and Olivia, with actual affection and caring even through his crass and sass, was making it impossible to want to pummel him.
Fuck him, yes. Pummel him, no.
And God, did I want to fuck him. But I wouldn’t. Nope. I could not sleep with Tamen Bryce.
Ever again.
The man had starred in every fantasy I had when I closed my eyes since that night at the private event, maybe even before all of that. But since knowing his touch, knowing how my body reacted to him physically, not just mentally, left me unable to think of anything else.
Maybe I was just ovulating and desperate for dick, or something else. It didn’t change the fact that I was horny for Tamen Bryce.
“Okay,” Peyton slapped her hand on the table and giggled when a piece of popcorn shot out from under it and hit Liv in the nose. “We have to leave before we get a drunk in public ticket.”
“How are you getting back to Hollowbrook?” Tamen asked with a smart mouth glare. Did that make sense to anyone but my drunk brain? It was like I could hear his glare.
“I figured we’d jump on our brooms and fly back, duh.” Liv rolled her eyes as Peyton checked her phone.
“Dane is here to drive us home. How are you getting home?” She asked, looking over at me, and I hiccupped like a fool.
“Uber.” I drank another sip of water. “I’m good.”
Peyton laughed and rolled her eyes, “Oh, I’m sure.” The girls stood up and waved goodbye as they giggled and weaved their way out of the crowded restaurant. As soon as they were gone, the loud cheers and noise from the merry crowd faded away to a buzzing noise in my ears. Tamen stared at me from his spot across the table, over the rim of his glass as he finished his drink.
The silence between us built, lingering longer and longer as we just stared. Finally, I caved and gave in. “Okay, I’m leaving. Thank you for a weird but entertaining afternoon.”
“Sit down.”
Nothing more. Just one command consisting of two words. There wasn’t even a change to his facial expression as he said it.
“Why?”
“Because you refuse to communicate with me in any other way. So while I have you here tonight, I have things to say.”
“Is that what the other night was?” I snapped, letting my buzz talk for the emotionless girl that pretended not to care for hours. “Did you stumble upon me there and say, ‘What the hell, while I have her here’?
“You don’t believe that, so don’t play dumb.” He countered, finally leaning forward on the table between us to level me with his dominating gaze.
“I don’t know what to believe when it comes to you, Tamen. Nothing ever adds up or makes sense. Every time I think that maybe for one second, I might actually have a peg on you, you flip the script, do a complete one eighty in personality and leave me dumbfounded.”
“Why do you care?”
Scoffing, I let my built-up anger seep out of my lips. “Because you forced your way into my life! You bought the Den and then demanded that I play a role in your reopening. You demand, demand, demand, demand, until I have no choice but to comply! And when I don’t, you threaten me and those that I work with to get what you want. You’re like a spoiled little brat with all the money and power in the world to make everyone bend to your will! And the other night was a perfect example of how far you’ll take things to serve yourself!”
He watched me with those piercing blue eyes for a while before he finally blinked and broke the silence. “I won’t apologize for sleeping with you. You were for hire, and I hired you. Paid bloody damn well for your time, too.” He started and my mouth fell open at how out of touch he was when he held his hand up to silence me before continuing. “But I shouldn’t have hidden my identity from you to do it.”
I snapped my mouth shut so hard my teeth clanked, and I fell back into my back rest. “No. You shouldn’t have.”
“Trust should be something you always have with your clients. And I broke that by lying.”
“You did.” I deflated even more, shocked by his admissions. Wasn’t that all I wanted from him all week long? Validation that what he did and how he did it was wrong?
Then why the hell did it feel lacking now that I had it?
Still holding my stare, he rested both elbows on the table and tilted his head to the side. “But like I said, I won’t apologize for finally breaking that tension between us and pushing us both into ecstasy. Because I haven’t felt that kind of high in years,” His pupils dilated until the blue was a thin line around the black inky depths. “And I’m guessing by the marks in my flesh that still burn when I think of you, that it was just as different for you. Despite whoever you let touch you after me.”
“I didn’t.” I shook my head slowly, letting the alcohol rule my lips instead of my brain. “No one has touched me since. Not since I met you.” He growled, the darkness of it matched everything about him I knew so far. “Show me.”
“What?”
“The marks I left on you.” I swallowed, “Show them to me.” He leaned back in his chair, tempted but unconvinced. “Please, Tamen.”
“Fuck it.” He hissed, giving in to my pleas, and pulled me to my feet before dragging me through the crowded party scene at a breakneck pace.
I had provoked the bear, and I knew what was about to happen, even though I was buzzing like a light socket and high on the sexual chemistry of being in Tamen’s presence all night long.
There was no turning back for me. No stopping it. No changing my mind.
I wanted whatever I was about to get.
Tamen shoved his way through the bar and out the exit without a word spoken, and when we made it to the dark parking lot, I could think of nothing more than the need burning inside of me.
This should have been how our first time together went. It should have been raw and rushed, hungry and angsty, ruled by need and excluding thought.
This was us.
“Come here.” His husky voice cut through the darkness as he spun me around and pushed my back against a dropped ladder from a fire escape in a dark alley. There was an old outdoor light behind me, giving him an ethereal glow that highlighted the sharp angles of his features. “You want to see my scars, Rainbow?”
“Only the ones I gave you.” I panted as he caged me in, pressing the front of his body against mine.
“Do you think I have any others?” I could make out the glow of his smirk in the darkness as he lurked over me.
“Dozens.” I whispered as he took my hand in his and slid it under his shirt to his hard abdomen and I let my fingers trail over the ridges of his abs. “You’re the kind of guy that doesn’t go through life without getting marked by it.”
He chuckled and then reached up behind his head and pulled his long sleeve sweater off over his head, revealing his upper body to my eyes. Immediately, I soaked in every defined muscle in his shoulders and thick arms, down to the veins that protruded under the thick black ink that covered every inch.
“Here, Rainbow.” He guided my hand to his side, curling my fingers into claws as he ran them over the raised scrapes that were healing. My heart felt like it was going to explode in anticipation as he flattened my palm against his stomach and rubbed it up to his strong, defined chest. “And here.” I dug my nails in over the marks that I could just barely feel under my fingertips.
“Damn.” I licked my lips, and his eyes fell to them as I leaned forward and ran my tongue over one particularly deep gash, running straight to his nipple and bit it. His fingers buried themselves into my hair, tightening, and we both groaned. “This is how it should have been, Tamen.”
“I know.” He growled, tipping my head back with the hand in my hair, and his lips hovered right over mine. “I know.” He hadn’t kissed me before. The man had fucked me and ate my pussy like a sweet, delicious treat, but he had never kissed me. For some reason, I hesitated to lean in for it too, because it felt personal. And I wasn’t sure I was ready to be that personal with him. Finally, he moved my hand to the center of his chest and pressed my forefinger over a scar that was deeper than the others, more raised and tactile.
Jesus. It was from the cut I gave him with his knife that first night in a dark parking lot. His display of all the places I’d branded him left me soaked and aching.
“Thank me for them.” I purred, repeating a phrase so similar to the one he demanded of me when I was unaware of his identity at the event. “Thank me for leaving my mark on you.”
I didn’t think he would, in fact, I was sure he’d throw some power move over me to regain control of the situation.
His hot breath tickled my lips as his fingers expertly pulled the button on my jeans apart and slid the zipper down, all the while his eyes stayed locked on mine. My heart raced as he slipped both hands in at the sides of my jeans and pushed them and my panties down while he whispered, “Thank you, Rainbow.” I didn’t breathe as he pushed my pants to my ankles and off one foot before gently forcing me to sit back on the ladder step as he slowly sank to his knees in front of me. “Thank you so much for branding me with your touch.”
It was like everything was happening in slow motion as he pushed my thighs apart and brought his lips to my wet center. I didn’t get to watch him the last time he did this to me, and now I felt cheated out of it. Because watching Tamen Bryce feast on me was a sight to behold.
The man had a talented mouth.
Sweet, mother divinity, he was good at that.
“Yes.” I hissed, grabbing the railing for support as I arched into him, dragging my nails down the back of his scalp to hold him tighter to me. Tamen growled and bit my clit before sucking it into his mouth.
I rode his face, crying out in ecstasy as I came on his tongue, I realized that my broken Duke got off on pain. Between my marks on his skin and the way he nuzzled into my tight hold on his hair, he loved the burn of pain as he pleased.
He also was a giver, which was not expected at all.
Was he a giver with all of his past partners, or was there something different about our dynamic that made him fall to his knees? Shaking my head, I brushed that thought away as he kissed my inner thigh, looking up at me from under hooded lids.
“Good boy.” I praised and his body shuddered before he rose to his feet, once again towering over me as I dropped my feet to the step under my ass and sat up straight. I refused to fall beneath his power as he tried to exert it to prove he could.
He wiped his lips with his hand and lowered his face right above mine again, so I tipped it back to match. “If anyone else muttered those words to me, they’d bleed for it.”
I smirked and seductively ran my nails up the tightly restrained bulge in his jeans I knew would be there, waiting for my touch. “Yet they make you drip when they come from me, don’t they?”
“Guess that means we’re both dripping tonight.” He countered, unable to let his ego go long enough to appease me.
“Do something about it.” I challenged, shaking my disheveled hair over my shoulder and hooking my bare leg around his, pulling him into my body the last inch.
“Here?” He smirked, glancing around us like suddenly a public alley wasn’t suitable for fucking me.
I shrugged and pushed him back a step. “What? I’ve already got lines in my ass from the steps, if we change positions now, it can look like a waffle fry when we’re done.”
He snorted and shook his head, but pulled me up off the step and turned me to face it. “Feet up here.” Taking my ankle, he lifted one foot up onto a step near my waist and I put the other one next to it, holding onto the railing for support while he kept me from standing up. I was in a weird, squatted stance with my feet spread apart, but as he pulled his zipper down behind me, I understood the game. “You want me to fuck you, Rainbow?” He asked against my ear as he tore a condom open.
Every noise was more powerful as they hit my ears. The noise of his jeans as he pushed them down, the slide of the condom as he rolled it on, the traffic on the busy city street a few hundred yards away, the erratic beating of my heart when he effortlessly lined up with my soaked entrance.
I turned my face against his, so my lips brushed his cheek as he ran the head of his cock through my arousal, coating it. “If you don’t, I’ll go find someone else to do the job you started.”
His swift and forceful movement interrupted my words as he entered me in one abrupt and deep thrust. He was so tall; he didn’t have to move at all as he pulled my hips back toward him and pushed inside of me. I couldn’t let go of the railing, or I’d fall into him, and I wasn’t willing to do that.
Instead, I held on for dear life as he pushed me forward again, forcing my feet further apart so I was more open to his intrusion. “Careful, Rainbow.” He hissed against my ear as I moaned unashamedly. “Or my chaos will break free and wash away your pretty little colors.”
“Mmh,” my head fell back against his shoulder, and he bit my earlobe as I gave into the urge to lean into him. “Whatever you say, Tamen. Just don’t stop fucking me. Don’t ever stop.”
It was probably the realest I had ever been with the man, brushing painfully close to pathetic and needy, but I couldn’t stop the words as his punishing thrusts rocked my body perfectly. The big bulbous head of his cock pressed against my G-spot with every thrust, and he knew it.
“Tell me something no one else knows.” He whispered in my ear, reaching under my leg to run the pads of his fingers over my swollen clit. God, he knew every secret to my body’s pleasure, and I edged toward an orgasm that would leave him triumphant as I crumbled in his arms.
“No.” I shook my head deliriously, “That’s not what this is.”
“Would you tell me if I begged?” He countered, slowing his thrusts and giving me only that thick, flared head repeatedly. “Or should I praise you to get what I want? Which route will make you squirt for me when you come, pretty girl?”
“Fuck.” I moaned, tightening my hold on the railing as I fought the comfort I got from the heat of his body against mine.
“Mmh,” He pushed my chest forward, so I was bent over more, presenting better for him. “I bet it’s the praise.” Gathering a handful of my hair in his fist, he slammed in deep, holding me still by my hair so I didn’t topple forward into the stairs and bust my face as he fucked me hard. “Good girl, Rainbow. You listen to me so bloody well. You know exactly what to do to make me happy.”
“Tamen.” I cried, trying to bring my feet together to relieve the pressure on my g-spot that was going to make me squirt, just like he had demanded me to do. “You’re a bastard.”
He chuckled, and then spanked my ass cheek powerfully, before wrapping one hand around the front of my throat with the other still in my hair, holding my head down so I had no choice but to take his punishing cock. “Actually, I’m the legitimate son. But you bring out the worst in me.” His tone changed to a dark, harsher voice as he bit my ear once more, bending over my back. “Come on my cock, Sloane. Give me what I fucking want.”
“God!” I screeched, losing control of my body as he dominated me and I fell headfirst into a cataclysmic orgasm, riding the waves of pleasure as I gave him what he wanted.
“Not even close, baby.” He grunted and then pulled out, seconds before the scorching hot spray of his come covered my ass and lower back. “Not even close.”
I hung my head between my arms, gasping for breath, and then shimmied to lower my knees to the stairs, relieving the ache in my hips. I looked over my shoulder when he ran his finger across my ass, rubbing the come he covered me with into my skin. “Why do you do that? I’m not a canvas, you know. It’s gross.”
“Would you prefer I mark your skin in a more brutal way?” He asked, wiping my skin with his discarded shirt before pulling my pants back up so I could turn around and sit down. My white jeans were destroyed by the grimy fire escape and ground, but it was worth it for the ecstasy I got in exchange.
“Like what? Cutting me open with your spiky dagger?” I scoffed, raising one brow at him as he rolled his eyes at me.
“Funny.” He droned, “You’re not into receiving pain. So, I use a painless brand.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and squinted at him. “You can’t brand something that isn’t yours.”
“Sure.” He nodded, and pulled his keys from his pocket, seconds before the headlights on his sporty car flashed in the lot at the end of the alley. “Whatever you say, Rainbow.”
“God,” I stood up, adjusting my clothes as my irritation with him started building again in place of the connection we had a moment ago. “Stop calling me that.”
“Make me.” He put his hands in his pockets and stared me down.
“You’re insufferable.” I shoved past him on the way to his car, considering I had no intention of getting into a stranger’s car looking like I just got wrestled on a soccer field in April. Instead, I’d get into the Devil’s car and make him drive me home after being the one to make me look that way.
Maybe I’d let him do it again before kicking him to the fucking curb once and for all when I got home.
Maybe.