Chapter Twenty-One
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H e purposely made the kiss hard, bordering on forceful to drive the point home. To punish her for pushing him past his limit.
She’d deliberately baited him into this. Now she was about to find out there was a price to pay for unleashing the beast inside him.
But instead of tensing in his hold or trying to stop this, Bristol melted into him. Her lips turned pliant beneath his, and she wound her arms around his back. Clinging to him, her lush breasts pressed into his chest.
Her unexpected reaction shifted something deep inside him. He couldn’t help but soften the kiss, unable to hold onto the frustration and anger in the face of her response.
She was so damned soft everywhere, from her heart and generous nature, to the luscious curves he couldn’t get enough of. Her pliant lips parted, allowing his tongue to delve inside and touch hers. Her soft moan went straight to his head, sending blood rushing from his brain to his groin.
It had been a long time for him. Well over a year since he’d had sex, with someone whose name he couldn’t even remember. His whole body craved release. But he wanted to get Bristol off first. Needed to. Wanted to watch her surrender completely to him before he sank deep into her soft warmth and took care of his own needs.
He spun her around so she was facing away from him, jerked her back against his body and held her there, her breathless gasp fanning the flames burning inside him. She shifted restlessly in his grip, rubbing her ass against the hard ridge of his erection trapped in his jeans, her arched position pushing up the outline of her breasts farther.
His mouth found the side of her neck. He nipped the soft, smooth skin there. Soothed the little sting with the stroke of his tongue as he moved his hands up her belly to the tempting mounds of her breasts. He cupped them through her shirt, savoring the feel and weight of them, the way they filled his palms.
A soft, broken moan escaped her when he found the hard nubs of her nipples and squeezed them between his thumbs and fingers. She shuddered, reached down impatiently to grab the hem of her shirt and started to peel it upward.
TJ pushed her hands aside and did it himself, reveling in the way she raised her arms and let him drag it over her head. His hungry gaze locked on the sight of the sheer black lace bra encasing her full breasts. He teased the hard pink nipples straining against the fabric, nipped the edge of her jaw when she gasped.
Too impatient to find and undo the fastener, he tugged a lace cup down and tucked it under the curve of one breast, then the other. He bit back a groan at the way it pushed the plump mounds up higher, the tight pink centers begging to be touched.
He slid his thumbs over them. Locked one arm around her hips when she moved restlessly, caught a nipple between his thumb and forefinger, squeezing and twisting gently.
“TJ,” she whispered, rubbing her ass against his erection.
He was so hard. Half desperate to plunge into her heat, he could all but taste the release waiting for him.
With an iron will, he shoved the sharp edge of need aside, kept playing with her nipple while he slid his other hand inside the waistband of her jeans. It was a snug fit, not much room to maneuver, but he wedged his hand down until he could cup her center in his palm, adding pressure to the top of her sex with the heel of his hand.
Bristol moaned in approval and grabbed the fastener of her jeans to undo them and shove them down her hips. He looked down the length of her body to find that her panties were the same sheer black lace as her bra. He eased up on the pressure of his hand, nipped the side of her neck again when she groaned in protest and arched her hips, seeking more.
Just getting her off wasn’t enough for him now. He wanted to push her past her control. Wanted her mindless with the need for release before he gave it to her, to show her without words that he was the one in control here.
He stared at his hand as he slid his fingertips up and down the center of her panties, a dark thrill shooting through him at the way she whimpered and squirmed in his hold. He could feel her dampness through the lace. Knew she had to be aching as much as he was.
When his patience thinned, he eased his hand into her panties and curved his fingers along her slick folds. She was soaked, the swollen knot of her clit peeking through the top. Breathing faster, he stroked her slowly, up and down, drawing out each motion to make her crazy before he teased the edge of her clit with a fingertip.
Bristol gasped and stiffened in his arms, a broken moan spilling free.
“I can feel you melting all over my fingers,” he rasped out, rewarding her with slow circles.
Her hips followed his fingers, moving with his touch, rubbing her ass against his cock while she reached up to wrap an arm around his neck. With her head tipped back to rest against his shoulders, rounded breasts thrust out and her eyes closed, she was the picture of erotic surrender. Hotter than any fantasy he’d had of her.
He rubbed her clit until her breathing turned choppy, then eased his hand lower to push two fingers into her heat. Bristol made an unintelligible sound of pleasure and twisted her face toward his, seeking his mouth.
He released the nipple he’d been playing with to grab a fistful of her hair and plunge his tongue between her lips, his other hand working the slick flesh between her thighs. He could feel the tension building in her, feel the little tremors in her muscles as her breathing grew shallow.
“You gonna come for me?” he said against the side of her jaw, struggling to control the raging need to plunge inside her. She had stripped off his emotional armor. He wanted to do the same to her.
She nodded, grabbing hold of his wrist between her legs to hold his hand snug to her slick folds. “Don’t stop,” she breathed shakily.
He wouldn’t stop. Couldn’t, even if he’d wanted to. She had him spellbound, completely wrapped around her little finger with her incredible sensuality. But he didn’t want her to know it.
“What if I did?” he said, something inside him feeding off her desperation.
“No,” she gasped out, gripping his wrist harder. “Don’t. I need—” Her words cut off on a sharp inhalation when he pressed on her clit, then transformed into a beautiful moan so erotic he almost came in his jeans from the pressure of her ass against him.
Fuck.
He released her hair to cup her breast, fingers toying with the nipple while he continued his relentless strokes between her legs. Stroking her clit with exquisite care before plunging two fingers back into her heat.
Slow and tender around her sweet spot, then hard and quick inside her. Over and over and over until her upper thighs squeezed tight around his hand and her spine bowed in a beautiful, erotic curve. She shattered in his arms with a wild cry of release that sent a thrill of triumph through him.
TJ squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his face into the tender curve of her neck, holding her tight with his hand still buried between her quivering thighs. He felt every pulse that rippled around his invading fingers, his cock throbbing in desperate tandem. When she finally came back down to earth she sagged into his body, her gratified sigh music to his ears.
Easing his hand from between her legs, she turned around to face him, her eyes heavy-lidded with a deep satisfaction that had a growl forming in his chest. “I knew you’d be like that,” she murmured, winding her arms around his neck and lifting on her toes to kiss him.
TJ grabbed hold of her and pulled her tight to the front of his body, savoring every single point of contact between them. He was starving for her, so fucking hungry he couldn’t think straight as he backed her up and shoved her flat on the couch. Just the sight of her like that, bare breasts shoved up by her bra, nipples pointing at him and her panties wet from her release, was like a whip flaying the frayed edges of his control.
He ripped his shirt over his head rather than bother with the remaining buttons. Heard a seam pop as he yanked it over his head and tossed it aside, then yanked his jeans open and shoved his underwear halfway down his thighs. And oh, fuck, the look on her face as she pushed up on her elbows to study him, those big blue eyes eating him up like he was the most delicious dessert she’d ever seen.
There was just enough blood left in his brain to remember something vital and stop him from pouncing.
Condom.
He plunged a hand into his jeans pocket, managed to come up with his wallet and get the single condom out without fumbling it, but then her hand closed around him. He sucked in a breath, suppressed a growl as scorching pleasure streaked up his spine.
“Allow me,” Bristol said, her voice as sultry as the look on her face as she took the condom from him. She wrapped one fist around the base and rolled the condom down the length of his shaft with the other.
TJ gritted his teeth and tipped his head back as he fought to hold on, feeling like he was on the verge of dying. But then her arms were drawing him down into her embrace, the soft curves of her body cushioning the hard planes of his as she pulled him into her.
Struggling to breathe, he eased his hips between her spread thighs, the head of his cock lodged against the slick, heated place he couldn’t wait to bury himself in. Bracing his weight on his elbows, he stared down into her face, then entered her with one long thrust.
His breath hissed out, every single inch of contact an exquisite agony. Ecstasy burned up his spine, blazing in the pit of his belly and his groin, so hot he was already on the verge of exploding.
She was perfect. So goddamn soft and warm, melting around him, drawing him deeper, deeper until they were fused completely together. He buried his hands in her hair and gripped tight. Fisting it as the need took over.
He surged in and out of her in an unstoppable rhythm, the searing need for release blinding him. Blocking out everything but the feel of her, her scent, her soft little whimpers he gobbled up with ravenous kisses. He couldn’t slow down. Couldn’t get enough.
He was vaguely aware of her wedging an arm between their bodies. Realized hazily that her hand was between her thighs, fingers stroking her clit, her rising cries of excitement burning him alive.
Balanced right on the knife edge of release, he felt her tense beneath him. Heard her liquid moan of ecstasy as she clenched around him. He plunged deep, buried himself to the hilt in her warmth, and raw pleasure exploded through him.
He pulled his mouth from hers, a guttural shout of ecstasy echoing through the room. The release tore through him in agonizingly delicious pulses that left him gasping, sagging over her on trembling arms.
Bristol relaxed with a sexy, humming sound and drew him down to blanket her. He lay sprawled out on top of her like a dead weight, trying to get his breath back and half afraid he was crushing her, but he was too weak to move.
She’d destroyed him. Fucking ruined him.
Sex had never been like that before. And deep down, he knew it never would be with anyone else ever again. Only her.
This thing between them had gone way beyond physical need. And if he was honest, their connection had been anything but superficial from the start.
She’d seen him when no one else had. She’d gone out of her way to help him so many times, had touched a part of him he hadn’t known existed until her. Tonight, she’d given herself to him completely. Offered herself up to him and been completely vulnerable, trusting him with far more than her delectable body and physical needs.
She was everything that was good about the world. Everything he’d thought he didn’t believe in anymore. God knew he didn’t deserve it. Didn’t deserve her. He didn’t know what the hell he was supposed to do now, but he knew for damned sure that she deserved far better than him.
She cut off his thoughts by stroking a hand down the damp length of his back, the other playing lazily with his hair. His eyelids drooped, exhaustion pulling at him.
“You okay?” she murmured close to his ear.
No. He wasn’t even remotely okay. He was in too deep, the water already over his head and rising fast—and not just because of the threat from the cartel hanging over them.
The only real way to protect Bristol was to walk away from her. But he knew in his bones it was already far too late for that.
She was the one threat he wasn’t going to fight.