My Rose

21. Rose

Chapter 21

Rose

"And he sets his mind to unknown arts.” ― Ovid

I couldn’t even say the words, but I knew I wanted Briggs in a way that was making me ache. Everywhere. His gaze lingered over where I was exposing my thighs, and when I put my hand on the hem and started inching it up slowly, I saw that muscle in his jaw work .

But then he leaned over more, and instead of catching my lips with his, he reached down for the blanket and lifted it back up to my waist. My lips turned from ready for a kiss to an intense pout. When he turned away to start watching the movie, anger boiled to the surface.

“So you can put your hands on me, but when I want to touch you, I’m not allowed?” His smirk, his damn smirk , made me angrier. “You think it’s funny that I want to touch you? That I want to know what makes you…finish?” I folded my arms across my chest, not missing how his head turned to take in the way my shirt shifted beneath my arms. Or maybe it was the word I used.

“What is it you want me to do, Rose? Finish this movie?” I pushed my tongue into my cheek, scowling back at him. “You want me to finish asking you more questions?”

“You know what I mean.”

“I don’t think I do.” He mimicked my pose, crossing his arms over his chest. I watched as his muscles shifted with the movement, the unobstructed view of his chest making me weaker. His brows raised as he waited for me to say words I wasn’t sure I knew how to say without sounding more ignorant than I already felt.

“ Finish . You know. Like what you did to me in the shower,” I said, exasperated.

“Let’s talk about what I did to you. What you begged me for. You wanted me to touch you, yes?” I nodded. “You wanted me to push my fingers inside your perfect little cunt? To rub your clit until you came for me like the good girl I knew you’d be?” My cheeks heated, but I nodded again as I bit the inside of my cheek. I didn’t notice that I started to raise the blanket to cover myself more until I felt it yanked from my body.

“What was that for?!” I shouted at him, then remembered Rhonda was somewhere in his massive house, so I repeated it in a softer tone as if she hadn’t heard me moaning Briggs’ name earlier, nearly singing it from the rooftops.

“You keep trying to hide things you aren’t secure about. Your teeth, your tits, and now you refuse to say come .” My cheeks heated more, and I brushed the warmed skin with my fingertips. “Tell me you want to make me come, and I’ll let you.”

I scowled harder at him. “Oh, you’ll let me . Is that how this is going to be?”

The heat of his gaze traveled down to where my legs were now spread wide open. At some point, I’d crossed them with my feet bent inward and tucked under my knees in the chair as I faced him. Probably when I also crossed my arms, only doing so left me more exposed.

“Yes, Rose. If you want to learn how to please me, then you need to say the words. I bet once you get over the shock of saying those words, you’ll have quite the filthy mouth.” He seemed to get excited by the idea of my mouth being just as filthy as his. I didn’t know how hot that could be until him. Really, I didn’t know how incredibly mind-melting any of it was until him. And I needed more.

“Fine.” I rolled my lips in and he shifted in his chair, waiting. “I want to make you…” I took a deep breath in and let it out through my nose, glancing at Pretty Woman playing on the screen. If Julia Roberts could lean into a car and offer more than just directions to a stranger, why couldn’t I simply say the word 'come?'

“ Come on, Rose,” Briggs taunted, and I stuck my tongue out at him. His tongue swept across his bottom lip as he grinned, and I watched in deep fascination, wondering what that tongue would feel like on every inch of my skin. “I can’t wait to see you use that mouth—to see how dirty my girl can get.” I batted the thoughts away and tightened my hand into a tight fist. “Just say the words, babe.”

But I wanted all of what he said, too. I wanted to see him without those sweatpants on. I wanted to be the reason he lost control like he did to me. I wanted to see if he could bring out something in me that I didn’t know existed before. I wanted to claw my nails down his back as he made me erupt again. I wanted—

“I want to make you come, Briggs.”

His smile widened until that gorgeous dimple popped. The armrest between us flipped up under his touch, and seconds later, he was pulling me into his lap, spreading my legs until I was straddling him.

Briggs’ hands splayed as they slid up my thighs, relishing in simply touching me.

Feeling me.

In making me his .

My palms flattened on his chest, his heart beating in a way that matched my urgency. I’d never felt so wanted in my life. When I started moving down, feeling and admiring the hard planes of his stomach while avoiding the bruises on his side, he shifted his hold on me and cupped my ass roughly .

“Kiss me first,” he whispered the demand, in no way diminishing the power in his voice. It sent a shiver down my spine—knowing he could command my body to feel the way it was. I was practically humming with desire stemming from the gnawing pit sitting low in my stomach, reaching up to my head and down to my toes. I leaned into him, brushing my lips across his, relishing the way his breath fanned over my parted mouth.

“Stop teasing me, or you’re going to pay for it later,” Briggs growled, then gave no time for me to react before he pulled me to him. My lips crashed onto his, our tongues colliding the second I opened up more for him. I couldn’t stop my body’s response as I began to grind down on him, his firm erection becoming more difficult to ignore. He groaned against my lips while I kissed him like he alone supplied my very essence of existence, the vibrations of his sounds felt on my palms through his chest. Reaching my hands to the back of his head, I tugged on his hair like he did to me, and he groaned deeper.

Briggs’ swollen lips turned up as he pulled back. “So you are learning, huh?”

“It felt…good earlier.”

“That's my girl.” His hand smacked across my ass, and I squirmed uncontrollably. “Do it again, Rose. Do whatever makes you feel good . And don’t hold back.” I wanted this to be about him, but the more pleasure he saw come from me, the more pleased he became. Like my pleasure was feeding into his own.

It was enthralling .

So I did it again, rotating my hips as I tugged on his hair until he started breathing harder. “Fuck, okay.” He looked down between us, and I followed his gaze. I was exposed and could feel heat warming my cheeks again, but the other part I noticed was…him. Feeling it on my thighs and along my core was one thing, but the visual strain of it tenting his pants from this angle was…it was unimaginable. How he kept that in his pants, in any pair of pants really, I had no clue. “Take me out.”

“Take…what?”

He removed his hands from my ass and tapped the edge of his waistband with his thumbs. One of his hands shifted down to his considerable length, cupping himself through his sweatpants, and my mouth watered. “My cock, Rose. Move my waistband down and take my cock into your hand.”

I glanced back up at him, my brows scrunching together as I whispered, “What if I hurt you?”

He reached up to tuck my hair behind my ear. “You won’t hurt me, babe. Trust me.”

Before I could overthink it more, I fervently reached my hand into his pants and pulled the fabric down. His hips shimmied, allowing his…

“Oh my…” My eyes flicked up to him, then back down at his—

“Give me your hand.” I did because my body had gone numb, and I was hardly registering anything. His hand wrapped around mine, which wrapped around his…

I shook the numbness away, watching him take a sharp inhale of breath through his teeth as he guided my hand up slowly, his focus just as intense as mine was on the space between us. Every inch was met with more fascination. The smooth part where he guided me was veiny and firm, like his forearms, but softer. He let go of my hand when we reached the top, and I felt a warm, slick wetness seep from where my thumb had settled.

“You’re doing so fucking good. Now, rub that all over my cock, Rose.”

Cock. Cock. Why was it so hard to even think of the words, yet looking at one and holding one made it feel so right to call it that?

“Do I need to make you say cock , too? You’re flushing all over.” I glared, tightening my hold around him, and he moaned, tossing his head back into the chair. “Fuck, I don’t care what you call it right now, just keep going.”

I moved my hand slowly back down and then up again, squeezing him gently like before. Leaning into him, I moved to kiss the curve of his neck, biting and sucking as he had done to me. I stroked his velvety length again, and when I squeezed a little more right under the tip, I bit down harder on his neck. He was turning me feral for him—a rabid animal with no clue what I was doing but enjoying every second of it, letting my body’s desires guide my movements and actions. I wanted to bite him more, kiss him, and claw along his skin. Anything that would get me closer to him.

“You do learn fast, don’t you, baby?” His voice was a low growl that made warmth spread between my thighs.

“Mmhm.” I repeated the action, reveling in the way his hips jerked up, causing my perfect little cunt to rub against the thick ridge of his cock. “Is this how I make you come, Briggs?” I whispered beneath his ear, making him pulse in my hand. It was odd that saying those words aloud—in the moment—came out more naturally than it had when I was overthinking it.

“Keep going and find out.” He jerked me forward, rubbing my clit in all the right ways. “Show me how wet you are for me.”

I moaned as his cock slid against my drenched slit, the noises of what we were doing proof of how aroused I was. “So fucking wet, Rose.” Briggs’ eyelids were hooded and heavy as I adjusted myself against him. “You know what would make me come harder?” I shook my head and pushed back further, giving me access to stroke him again. My hand slid along the top of his length, my arousal making the movement easier than before as I continued to grind my hips down against his base, my body and hands working together to draw those primal, animalistic sounds from his throat.

I wasn’t experienced enough to know if what we were doing was normal or desirable for others, but he seemed to love it as much as I did.

“This.” His thumb found that spot he touched before, only this time he was flicking it with ferocity, pausing only to pinch it between his two fingers, making me cry out. I tried to focus on my hand and movements, but it was getting harder and harder to do so.

And then my phone rang on the seat beside us. My seat. It was flipped up, flashing a name that made me frown, and Briggs damn near growl, but not in pleasure. He pulled his thumb from me, and I whimpered at the loss as my body stilled.

“Ignore it,” I begged. “I meant to block his number.” I’d just been too preoccupied with the man beneath me to do it .

“Actually, I’m happy you didn’t.” He glared at the phone, and then his hand moved.

I cocked my head in confusion. “What?”

He answered my phone at the same time his other hand replaced the pressure he’d taken from me. It was so unexpected, I released a guttural moan at the contact, my eyes rolling back so hard, making spots dot my vision.

“That’s it, Rose.” His other hand came back, and he slapped it across my ass, making me moan louder. I was sure my ass was as marked as my neck at this point, but I didn’t care.

“You like it a little rougher, don’t you, baby?” His thumb picked up the pace while his other hand guided my ass to slide and grind down on his cock.

“Yes,” I breathed out, unable to hold on much longer. I reached between us to take his tip between my fingers and thumb, loving the way his cock hardened like steel in response.

“Whose cock are you riding, Rose?” If his hands didn’t send me over the edge, his voice would certainly do it. Nothing had ever sounded more sexy in my entire life than the way his voice dropped several octaves, sounding sinister yet completely in awe at once.

“Yours—” Briggs smacked my ass again, then forced my shirt to the side and pinched my nipple, and I screamed his name at the contact. “Again. Say my name again.” His hands smacked back down on my ass, and I did as I was told over and over as I ground against him. I fell forward on his chest, his corded forearms continuing to push and pull my body as an orgasm began to build inside me .

He chuckled darkly. “That’s right.” He shifted his hips and moved my knees back until they were at the edge of the chair, making the head of his cock rub my clit instead. I bit down on his shoulder as an intense wave surged, prickles of sweat forming along my forehead. “Fuck, Rose. You feel so good.” I mumbled something incoherent as he picked up the pace, his cock slick with my arousal as I continued to move back and forth, and my body started to shudder.

“Now, come on my cock, and then lean back.” I nodded against him as the world started to spin. His hips jerked harder, rubbing against my clit to the point where my knees were shaking uncontrollably on the chair.

That heat uncoiled in my stomach, surging and exploding into a million different sensations. “Briggs!” I screamed his name as I shattered for him. He continued his thrusts, pushing my hair back from my face with one hand as the other held firm to my ass, letting me ride out my orgasm.

“You're such a good girl, baby. Drenching my fucking cock like the good little slut you are for me. But you’re not done, are you?” I whimpered and shuffled my knees forward as much as I could on still-shaky legs, letting my body lean back like I was told to do. My eyelids fluttered open as he lifted my shirt and held me by my waist with one hand while the other took my hand and wrapped it back around him. “Wrap your fingers around me and stroke until I come all over you.” His hand covered mine, both of us bringing him to his climax.

I felt the warm spurts over my stomach as he groaned out for me to keep pumping him. I continued and watched him as my ragged breaths became moans all over again, just watching him come undone. I kept going until his hips stopped lifting and his head rolled to the back of the chair, his hair a beautiful, tousled, and sweaty mess that I wanted to run my fingers through.

“Fuck, I could do this all day,” he whispered as I fell forward on him once more, but as I turned my head to respond to him, I gasped.

“He’s—oh god.” I started to reach for the phone, but Briggs grabbed it before me, lifting it above my back and moving it to his other ear.

“Rose’s phone,” he said with what sounded like the biggest smile spreading across his face. “She’s a little busy right now.”

I turned my head and sighed into his neck, too limp to move and too high from my orgasm to care that August Coleman just heard Briggs and me come together among all the dirty words that came from the adonis beneath me.

I heard a slew of incoherent noises through the phone before Briggs pulled it from his ear and tossed it back down on the chair, the call no longer active.

I finally righted my head enough, so much so that I got angry all over again. “Am I just someone to help you get your revenge?”

“What?” He rushed out like he couldn’t believe what I accused him of. Briggs immediately took my face in his hands, staring at my lips before he pulled me to him and kissed me, even as I tried to pull back. He kept me there for a few seconds, breathing me in while kissing me like his life depended on it until I softened against him, those electrical zaps almost irritating as I submitted .

He broke the kiss and stared into my eyes as he caressed my jaw, the rest of his fingers wrapping around the back of my neck, keeping me close to him. “Hell no,” he finally answered. He kissed me again as I went languid in his hands. “I just want him to leave you the fuck alone. And he has impeccable timing. That’s it.”

“So I’m not some girl you’re using to get back at August for what he did with your ex?”

“How'd you know it was him?” he asked.

“August admitted it. It’s amazing how much he didn’t care.”

Briggs scoffed, not amazed at all. “No. You are not just some girl to me. Not to use, not to manipulate or make anyone jealous.” He rolled his eyes dramatically, then smiled weakly as he stared back at me. I felt a renewed warmth flood through me at the way his face softened and at the way he was still holding me—firm, yet gentle all at once. “I would never do that to you.”

He reached over for the blanket and wrapped it around my back, then pulled it tightly to him so that we were both covered as my body pressed to his. “I don’t want you to feel like you are anything less than what you are. Not with me.” He pulled the blanket taut, pressing my body completely to him. “That asshole made you feel like that too often. He never valued you.”

I decided against telling him that August had been a good friend at some point in time because, just like when Jasmine asked me why I was into him, I had no evidence to support that claim. August never proved to be a good friend, and I didn’t realize that until I found people who did treat me right .

I let my body go limp against his, melting into him as he rubbed soothing circles on my back under my shirt. His shirt. A shirt that was now rather wet in the front. “I think I need another shower. Or maybe an entirely new shirt.”

He chuckled as I twisted away from him to keep him from getting wet, but he locked his arms down, keeping me there. “I like you like this.” His fingertips slid down and dug into my ass. “But if you want me to join you in the shower again after this movie is done, I’m up for negotiations.”

“Spoken like a true businessman.” I felt him go still for a second, his breathing stopping before I brushed a kiss to his neck.

“I guess,” he replied quickly.

“What would you do if you didn’t…if you weren’t…”

“The heir apparent , you mean?” His brow cocked as I pulled away to meet his gaze. “I heard your grandfather through the phone.” He smiled, but it wasn’t his true smile. I sat up straighter, placing my hands on his cheeks and pushing them back until he gave me a real smile.

“Yes,” I said. “That.”

He sighed through his nose, and I released his face. “I didn’t know how much you knew about my family and our business.”

“Well, I know that your dad is an aggressive asshole, that he makes more money than a king, and that your car is worth way too much money to drive, so he must just flaunt cash like it’s no issue. Yet, you don’t seem to be the same way.”

“You know all that, huh.” His jaw worked, and he glanced behind me at the movie before replying, “Did your grandparents tell you? ”

“Uh-uh, you didn’t answer my question. That’s how this works, right?”

“Yeah.” He cupped the back of his neck as he thought. “I don’t know what I’d be. I used to like writing in school.”

“Before he stopped letting you go?” He nodded, his fingers brushing my skin like I was too delicate to hold. I noticed then that his sweats were still down, so I pulled them up and tapped on the waistband over his semi-hard cock. He smirked. “I’m going to answer your question so I can ask one more. Yes, my grandparents told me because I hate watching the news and didn’t know you were…well, newsworthy .” I felt my nose scrunch up. “But you’re, what, twenty-three? Can’t you leave?”

His soft touch spread up to my waist. “No, Rose. I can’t. Not permanently, at least.” His eyes darkened as he seemed to get stuck on the thought, like maybe he had tried to leave before, and it didn’t work out. My chest ached for him once more—he was either being forced into staying and had no other options or hadn’t found something that would make him choose another path. Maybe he had to be a certain age to make the decision to go, and twenty-three was still too young.

“Is there something you were waiting for?” I pressed. I wanted to know—to help . I couldn’t help if I didn’t know what would fix it.

“If I answer this question, that will make it two for you. Does that mean I get two later on?” My eyes fell between us to where his sweats couldn’t conceal how he still felt and heat rose along my neck. “Two questions, I mean,” he clarified, clearly seeing where my thoughts had been going, and I blushed harder at the realization. Though both questions and orgasms were welcome.

“Sure. That works for me.” It wasn’t like my life was that interesting to begin with. Although his interest in my life made it seem more interesting lately.

“You.” He reached up to brush my hair behind my ear, and I leaned into his touch. His face softened, then twisted like he was confused before he righted it again, pressing his forehead to mine. “I believe I’ve been waiting for you, Rose.”