Chapter 35
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
S omething was wrong. Lucy couldn’t put her finger on what, but that didn’t dissipate her certainty that something had happened during the evening that had caused this…desperation now consuming him.
They’d stayed until the end of the engagement party, and he’d given another heartfelt, romantic speech that left every woman in the room with wet eyes. And very likely, wet panties too. Hers sure were.
“Where the fuck did this guy come from?” Natalie had hissed in her ear as Joel spoke. “He’s like Jesus, but without the celibacy clause. Seriously, I need one. He’s fucking perfect.”
And he was. Adored by many, respected by most. He carried an undeniable gravity that compelled people not only do everything he said, but to want to. No one wanted to be Joel Morgan’s disappointment.
But when he was like this—frantic in his need, his restraint tethered only by her request that he get through the evening—it was hard not to let that kind of power go to her head .
By the time they’d climbed the stairs to the apartment at the end of the night, they were both beyond reason. Joel fumbled with the keys as he shoved them into the lock, missing his first attempt entirely. He muttered a heartfelt “fuck”, made it on the second attempt and then Lucy was up against the other side of the door, pinned between hardwood and hard muscle.
“Lucy, I—” He broke off, his lips finding her neck, her jaw, the underside of her ear.
His passion would have been alarming if it didn’t match her own. Her hands clawed up to his shoulders, clinging, clutching, dragging her body along his, searching for any friction she could find.
Joel hoisted her up, making her dress bunch around her waist as he guided her thighs around his hips, then ground her against the door. “So fucking pretty. So perfect.” And then he was kissing her again in that all-consuming way that made her feel like he was mapping out her mouth, tracing every corner with his tongue. “Mine,” he rumbled as his hands smoothed over the underside of her legs. “Mine to keep, mine to love, mine to fucking worship.”
Her pulse slammed in her ears as her head tipped back against the door. His words jumbled in her mind as his lips dragged across her neck. Mine to love . His words echoed in her brain, but she had no time to process them because his large hands were on her ass, massaging her cheeks before slipping his fingers between, creeping them forward, closer to her apex. Everything about the way he did this, from his words to his touch, was hypnotizing, and she willingly lost herself under his spell.
“I don’t think I can—” His voice was thick, raspy, a little unhinged. “I need to?—”
When she raised her head enough to meet his eyes, she understood what he was trying to tell her. There was going to be nothing gentle about tonight. Joel spent most of his life holding everything together for everyone, but when it was the two of them like this, he could truly let go. Here, like this, she was his safe space, and she reveled in it.
Threading her fingers through his hair, she stroked through the strands. “Do whatever you need to do.”
His eyes darkened, a storm coming in rough and wild, and before she could register what was happening, she was being carried through the apartment, to the nearest surface, the couch. Joel peeled her off his torso, turning her so her stomach pressed the back of the couch and with the slightest pressure on the small of her back, he guided her over the top.
“I’ve been watching your ass in this dress all fucking night,” he murmured against her ear before he took a step back from her. His fingertips grazed along her ankles, lifting the material of her dress as he worked it up her calves, over her knees, her thighs.
She sucked in a breath when he lifted the material over her hips and dragged her thong down with a jerk. A low groan, a filthy muttered curse, and then his palms, hard and biting, were spreading her cheeks apart.
Lucy gasped at the sensation, squirming under his intimate caress.
“Don’t move,” he rasped against the nape of her neck.
Was he going to—? He wouldn’t?—?
When she didn’t stop wiggling, he responded with a warning slap on her backside followed by his palms sliding up her spine to her neck, gripping her as he leaned forward and growled, “Be good.”
Easy for him to say. He wasn’t bent over a couch, bare ass in the air .
“Look, I’m all for being good, but if you plan to just drill in there without any lu?—”
His slap came harder this time, stinging.
“Luciana,” he chided against her ear. “Everyone keeps telling me you’re a good girl.” He soothed his palm over the hot skin he’d just smacked. “So why are you being such a bad one for me?” Another slap, softer this time, sent tremors of sensation up from her belly to her throat, and the tingling made her mouth water.
She bit back her moan, swallowing it as she let her forehead drop onto the couch, giving herself over to him. He’d never disappointed her, not once, so whatever he had planned, he could bring it on.
“Lucy.” He drew her name out, guttural and vibrating. The kneading of her flesh, followed by more light slaps, left her backside deliciously sensitive, and then—and then, his tongue touched her, warm and wet in the most intimate way. He licked without hesitation, full, lapping strokes that at first had her tensing in embarrassment but soon had her groaning as the repeated strokes sent lightning streaks of color bursting behind her scrunched eyelids.
She’d experienced nothing like it, and she’d experienced a lot with him.
There was no holding back. In fact, the louder she got, the more enthusiastic his movements became. There was no thinking, no breathing under the magic of what he was doing to her. Her hips jerked against the couch, her clit searching for friction. A little more and she’d explode.
Reading her mind, Joel reached around her and slid his thumb over her aching flesh, and an unhinged sound, something between a guttural moan and a scream, tore from her mouth. Stars burst behind her closed eyes like fireworks. Sensation, quaking and unadulterated bolted through her entire body like electric shocks. The orgasm left her shaking, her limbs completely useless.
And before it ebbed, he flipped her to face him. He stood with his hands pinning her hips to the back of the couch. The material of her dress dragged up along her body, over her torso. He nudged her arms, and when she didn’t move, lifeless from her orgasm she’d just experienced, his eyes pinned to hers.
“Lift,” he commanded. Her arms went up like he’d pressed a hidden button on her body. “I’ve been thinking of taking this off of you the second I saw you in it. It had to be gold, didn’t it?”
A smile quirked her mouth. “In honor of my moneybags fiancé,” she quipped, tipping her head forward to nuzzle his jaw. “Win gold and wear it,” she purred against his cheek.
Joel whipped forward, nipping the side of her neck where her jugular was thumping wildly against her skin. “That’s husband to you,” he growled. “Never forget it.” With a last tug, he had the dress off her body, so she was in nothing but her engagement ring. With a cocky grin, he took a full step back, his gaze lingering on her body. In that way, that made her feel he saw every part of her.
“Win gold and wear it, indeed,” he murmured.
Before she could protest, he lifted her up under the knees and carried her to his bedroom.
“Is this how you treat your trophy?” she squeaked. Her question earned her a firm smack to her bare ass.
“You’re not my trophy, Lucy.” He chuckled as he caressed the back of her thigh. “You’re just mine.”
He lowered her carefully onto the bed, like she was something precious. “Mine to carry however I like,” he said as he stepped back, toeing out of his shoes. “Mine to care for.” He removed his tie. “Mine to protect.” He removed his shirt, and crawled over her, forcing her backward onto the bed as his knee came to the mattress beside her. “Mine to fuck, just how I know you like it.”
His mouth found the ultrasensitive slope of her neck, where he spent some time riling her up again before he kissed his way to her collarbone, nipping and biting in a way that stole her breath and every thought in her head at once. The rest of his clothes came off in a few frenzied tugs. There was no holding back, no gentle caresses or lingering touches. Every movement had purposeful intent, like they were claiming each other once and for all. Each taste a vow, every stroke a pledge, as if they were branding each other into their souls.
Hooking her legs over his shoulders, Joel brought his mouth down on her, his teeth grazed her clit, his tongue found her opening, and he worked her over until she was nothing but trembling sensation, so intensely brutal that she peaked quickly and violently. Her hands scratched at his scalp as she pressed him closer, trying to draw out every drop of her climax.
Loud, panting breaths ripped from her lungs as she tried to reconnect her mind to her body, but before she even caught her breath, she was being flipped, her hips dragged up as her palms sunk into the soft duvet.
A slide of a drawer, the ripping of a box, then the tear of a wrapper, and he nudged against her opening. Lucy glanced over her shoulder, taking Joel in as he loomed behind her, and she wasn’t mistaken when she saw his hand tremble as he gripped his cock. His eyes trained on the spot between them, the space that was soon to be filled, and she thought she saw a look of anguish cross his face, but when he caught her staring, it disappeared.
“Yours,” she murmured, because somehow she sensed he still didn’t believe it. That he couldn’t trust what they had wasn’t still cloaked in a fa?ade. And she wanted him to know that she was done with pretending. After years of living his life for others, she wanted him to have something for himself. She wanted him to have her. “ Per sempre.”
On a roar that sounded a lot like the word “mine,” Joel hammered home and rocked her halfway up the bed. The force made her arms fold until her elbows pressed the mattress. His fingers gripped her hips in a way she knew would leave marks, and she relished it. Her nipples dragged across the covers, sending little shocks skittering down her chest and to the muscles in her core, causing her to tighten around him.
“Fuck,” he groaned. “It’s so good, Lucy. The way you take it—” His praise went to her head like a drug, and she rocked back into him, urging him deeper. “I can’t believe I get to be here again,” he choked out. “You’re perfect. It’s such a fucking perfect fit. I could live the rest of my life just like this.”
His hips rammed against hers, over and over, until her muscles were clenching so tightly against him, she wasn’t sure he could fully pull out anymore. “That’s it baby, keep it in. Take all of it, just like that.”
Lucy groaned, her throat hoarse and spent from her earlier cries. His words, his hard body, his heart, his soul. Everything about Joel was hers to keep—forever. And with that single thought in her head, she barreled over the edge, his hoarse cry of release not far behind.