21. Chapter 21
Chapter 21
After an initial gasp of surprise, Mallori didn’t waver for a single second. As soon as my lips met hers, she was in. All fucking in .
The tip of her tongue darted in and out for tiny tastes of my lips, and I latched onto it, sucking it into my mouth before gliding my own tongue over it. She liked that move, allowing a sultry moan to escape. The sound vibrated all the way down to my dick and had me hard in an instant.
Her head felt so small beneath my splayed fingers, and when my other hand reached for her waist, she needed no other urging. Swinging her leg over me so she was straddling my hips, she shifted, searching for the spot she wanted. When she found it, she lowered herself firmly onto my cock, thighs splayed wide.
I’d forgotten how goddamn flexible she was. And how sensually she could move. But I was soon reminded when she rolled her hips in slow circles over me.
We devoured each other like we were about to be executed and this was the last time we’d ever eat. Mallori moaned into my mouth, and I gobbled it up, tasting the sound and reveling in it .
And all the while, she continued those lazy, tortuous rotations of her pussy over my steely erection. God, I wanted to grab hold of that ass and jerk myself off with the lips of her cunt.
But I somehow had enough sense in my foggy brain to consider the subject matter we’d just been discussing. I still didn’t know exactly what had happened to Mallori, so I refused to grope and paw at her like my hands were itching to do.
Instead, I kept one on the back of her head to hold her in place for my ravaging mouth and allowed the other to drift up and down her spine.
Since she was wearing a dress, the only things separating us were my shorts and her panties, and the heat between her legs rivaled my own, scorching and wet. I could feel the rigid points of her nipples against my bare chest—through her dress, of course—though I wanted to rip it down and taste those sweet little titties in my mouth. Suck on them until they were raw. Until she cried my name and begged me to fuck her.
As if reading my mind, she whimpered against my mouth, my name like sugar on her lips. “Tate.”
God. Damn.
No other woman had called me that for years, since before my time in the Navy. Hell, none of the women I’d been with even knew my real name.
They called me Hawk; I called them honey .
I never called them by their real names, just honey . Did that make me an asshole? Yeah, probably, but it was better than saying Keely when her name was Kylie or Kaylie or some shit. I’d made that mistake. Once. Didn’t end well .
For some reason I couldn’t fathom, it felt wrong to call Mallori by the same thing I used for the nameless women I’d fucked. No. She was…
“Little Bee, your mouth is so fucking sweet.”
She pulled back a fraction, laying several soft pecks against my lips before opening her eyes and smiling. “If I’d known how good you could kiss, I would have done it sooner.”
I laughed at her pure cheekiness. “I’m pretty sure I kissed you, Bee.”
“Yeah, well. I kissed you first.” Her eyes lowered and her fingers sifted through the hair on my chest. “We probably shouldn’t have done that though, right?” When her aqua gaze returned to mine, she worried her bottom lip with her teeth, looking so fucking vulnerable.
I probably should have agreed that it was a mistake, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that when she was looking at me like that. So I lifted her drooping chin with my fingers and pressed another kiss to her swollen lips.
“We didn’t do anything wrong, Mal. We’re both adults, and we just needed a… break… from what we were talking about.”
She blinked twice and then her face broke into a smile. “Like a coffee break?”
“Yeah, but that was a lot better than Starbucks.”
“Agreed,” she said with a giggle, swinging her leg over and settling beside me. But not before I caught a flash of light-blue panties that matched the sundress she was wearing. More lace ones. Fuck me.
Mallori had left a wet spot on the front of my shorts, and I quickly shifted my legs beneath the cream-colored covers so I could cover my lap—and the unmistakable bulge of my cock. She did the same, leaning into my side.
I wasn’t a big snuggler, but the feel of her warmth against me felt good, so I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. “Will you finish telling me what happened?” she asked, looking up at me.
“Not a lot more to tell. I was taken to the police station, and the prosecutor came in to talk to me. His name was Paul Browning, and he’d gotten out of bed to meet with me because he knew my dad. After listening to my side of the story, he sat back in his chair and stared at me for a long time. I was so fucking scared.”
“I imagine,” Mal said, her hand resting lightly on my chest. “You were just a kid.”
“I was, but I was already pretty huge. I probably wouldn’t have garnered much sympathy from a jury. Luckily, Paul had a sister that he was very fond of, so he told me he understood why I had lost my shit. He decided not to prosecute but said I needed to learn to harness my strength and energy into something more worthwhile.”
“The military.”
“Yeah. That’s what he suggested. Of course, I was familiar with military life because of my dad, so it was a natural fit. I enlisted as soon as I graduated a few months later, and I finally felt like I had found my home.”
“And it helped you?”
I looked down at her and kissed the spot just between her eyes. “Yeah, it did. I learned control. Came to depend on it. And I knew I couldn’t ever have any kind of normal relationship because I didn’t ever want to go through what my dad did. I’d be gone on deployments and shit, and… I don’t know. I guess I never would be able to trust anyone I left behind.”
Mallori nodded. “I get that. What happened with your parents?”
“They divorced. I was angry with my dad for a long time because if he’d never taken her back the first time, maybe what happened wouldn’t have happened.” I sighed, my hand moving slowly up and down Mallori’s arm. “He and I eventually mended our fences, but I still don’t talk much with my mom. She was actually pissed at me for going overboard that night.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yup. I know she felt bad about what happened to Jennifer, but she said I should have controlled myself better. Punched him once and kicked him out of the house. I think she thought if the police hadn’t been called, then maybe Dad never would have found out about her affairs again.”
“It was her own damn fault,” Mallori raged. “Bringing a strange man into your home? God, what was she thinking?”
I didn’t respond because there was no good answer to that question. Finally, I asked, “When you’re ready, will you tell me what happened with Moreau?”
She flinched at the mention of his name, and I tightened my hand around her upper arm. “Yeah. Like I said, he was my professor. He’s very famous in the dance world, and it’s an honor to be chosen to work with him.” A disgusted snort escaped her. “At least that’s what I thought at first.”
I kept my eyes on her face, but she seemed lost in her story, gaze focused on the far wall. “I was to have private lessons with him. He only worked with senior level students, and only a few were selected each year. Our first lesson was at night. He made what I thought were some inappropriate comments, but I told myself he was just eccentric.”
“Did he touch you?” I asked, my voice low and dark.
My heart almost split in two when she nodded. “My arms and neck. And my face. It felt creepy as hell. Then…” She swallowed hard. “Then, when I was on my knees, he unzipped his pants. He tried to… to make me…”
Her breath was coming hard and fast, and I sunk down in the bed, dragging her with me so we were lying down facing each other. My fingers traced her face, feeling the dampness of her tears. Each one burned into my flesh, leaving invisible scars there.
“He tried ?” I asked, emphasizing the last word.
“I twisted his hand back and then punched him in the face.”
I wanted to whoop with pride. “I wish I could have seen that. Did you make him bleed?”
Mal almost smiled at that as she bobbed her head up and down. “I broke his nose.”
Nuzzling my nose against hers, I whispered, “I’m really fucking proud of you, Bee. Was he prosecuted?”
She stiffened and rolled onto her back to stare at the ceiling. “No one believed me. Not the dean, not my mother, not my boyfriend.”
When a tear slipped down the curve of her cheek, a lump of sorrow swelled in my chest. Finally, her head turned, and she looked into my eyes, searching for something. For someone to accept her story as the truth.
I fucking gave that to her. “I believe you, Mallori. Every goddamn word. ”
Her face crumpled in a combination of distress and relief, and I hauled her against my body, holding her while she let all her emotions loose into my chest. I didn’t let go until every sob and tremble of her shoulders was complete, and then I tilted her face up to meet mine.
“You’re the bravest fucking person I know, Bee.” She shook her head in denial, but I pressed a finger against her lips. “Yes, you are. What you did that night and tonight took balls.”
Her forehead creased in a frown. “How can you say that? I sprayed you with pepper spray.”
“I’m almost twice as big as you, and you took me on to save another person.”
“Who didn’t need to be saved,” she retorted.
“But you didn’t know that.” I kissed her lips softly and then rested my forehead against hers. “You’re so goddamn brave.”
Then my lips were on hers again. It was a kiss I didn’t think I was capable of, tender and sweet. Filled with the mixed emotions of the night.
When her mouth eventually slowed and her body seemed to melt into the mattress, I rested my cheek on the top of her head after flicking off the lamp beside the bed.
Breathing in her sugary scent while she slept, I told myself, just a few more minutes, and then I’ll carry her to her room.