Chapter 11
SAVAGE
I let the words come out of me, but I don’t bother explaining. Something about holding Aurora, watching her crawl on the floor of this compound spare room. I don’t know that I have space in my fractured heart to care for anyone for longer than a few nights, but I’m willing to try.
This woman cracks open every defense I have and sets every dark part of me loose.
And somehow, as much as I want to ride, as much as I want to pretend that everything that broke me is locked in a box where it can never hurt me again, she makes me face things, look at things.
I can’t explain it. It’s like she’s a storm that blew in on a soft breeze and she’s shaking up everything I am.
She doesn’t say anything in response to what I said, and I don’t wait for her to speak.
I reach for the cute little sleeveless thing she’s wearing, and I untie the black bows on her shoulders.
The ties fall down, exposing the straps of her bra, and I caress her bare shoulders, my thumbs working the delicate divots above her collarbones.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” I tell her.
“I’m—”
“Don’t,” I tell her. Emotion sweeps over my heart.
“I never want to hear you turn away a compliment I give you. I never want to hear you deny what I know about you. I see you, Claire. I see the love you have for your baby.” I shove the bra straps off her shoulders while I talk.
“I see the care you have for me. The respect you give everyone.” I lean forward and plant hot kisses on her shoulders.
“When I tell you you’re beautiful, I want you to believe me.
I want to make you forget every man who made you doubt that. ”
Both straps are down, and I tug the top of the fabric low enough that the tops of her breasts are exposed.
I was right to save Claire. To take her away from Mad Dog and the Hellfires and all the other shit that she went through in her old life.
I’m also right to be careful what promises I make.
What I give of myself. I’m damaged, and while some wounds heal, scars never go away.
I’m not her hero, but I can help. That’s all I can promise anybody. That’s all I can promise her.
Her eyes flutter closed, and she has a sweet smile on her lips. I lay her back against the pillows and thank the heavens my ribs are healing day by day. I position myself beside her, fighting through the discomfort.
“Today was tough?” I ask, shoving the top of this one-piece outfit thing to her waist.
She squirms a little when her nipple hits the air. “My day is getting so much better now,” she sighs.
I was wrong about Claire. Seeing her lying here, her eyes closed, her long hair tangled over the pillows, her nipples erect, and a small smile on her lips…
She is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
I’ve dated a lot of women, but I’ve never known someone’s story, understood their past, and learned what matters to them before I took pleasure in their body.
Somehow, caring about Claire before we did this, seeing her so exposed, the vulnerability and the intensity all wrapped up in one stunning package, makes me so much harder.
It’s like I want this woman on levels that I’ve never experienced before, and it’s terrifying. Yet I’m powerless to stop it. I see her lips part, and the tip of her tongue darting over her lower lip to wet it sends my blood into a frenzy. All thought leaves my brain.
I lower my mouth to her breast and kiss my way around her hard nipples. I hover my palms over those tender peaks, not touching them, but teasing her with the heat of my hands and the hot flicks of my tongue along the fullness.
Her hands find my shoulders, stroking my skin while I kiss my way across her ribs. I breathe hot kisses against her belly, then reach my fingers back up to pinch her nipples and knead the flesh between the pads of my fingers.
She moans, and I work my mouth up to her neck, thanking my ribs for cooperating with every pivot and shift of my body.
I kiss her neck, inhaling the combination of sugar and flowers, memorizing it. I move my hands from her breasts and grab her face, angling her toward me so I can kiss her lips.
She grabs my head and fists my hair, and we tear into each other’s mouths, our breaths hot and fast, our lips pressing and brushing as we feast on each other with greedy need.
When I pull my mouth away from hers, I’m breathless.
I get off the bed, shove off my briefs, then climb back onto the bed, only for Claire to get up.
“Your turn,” she tells me. She points at the pillows, so I lie back, my erection on full display.
She looks at it and smiles, then runs the palm of her hand along the side of my shaft. “You’re the beautiful one,” she says shyly.
She touches the underside of my cock, and a thousand white lights blast behind my eyes as pleasure rockets through me. Her touch is gentle until I feel her grasp the length of me. She nudges my legs open, then lies on her stomach between my legs, my dick in her hands.
I can’t open my eyes, because I feel her hot breath against my cock and if I open my eyes and see her lips near my dick, I don’t know that I’ll be able to hold back.
My resolve is tested the second her lips press featherlight kisses along my erection.
I feel her mouth everywhere. She caresses my balls in her hand and cups them with the perfect amount of pressure as she laps her tongue along the head of my cock.
I suck in a breath and suppress a stream of curses.
She feels too good and too right.
She is unhurried, flattening her tongue along the sensitive underside.
She strokes the surface of my balls, lightly scratching patterns against the skin, and I feel like I’m on a speed train to fucking ecstasy.
I see light behind my closed eyes and feel every sensation as though it’s the first time anybody sucked me off.
It’s not, of course, but fuck, the way this woman takes her time. She acts like the only thing she has to do all night is lick me and suck me, and I’d be okay with that plan.
When she finally brings my entire cock into her mouth, she leans over me, her bare nipples hard, her hair hanging down, and I have to watch now.
As much as I want to get lost in the pleasure, to shut my eyes to everything in the world but this feeling, the more she sucks and the deeper she takes me, the closer I get to that cliff.
“Claire,” I grit out. “Claire…”
She pulls her mouth from me, reaches toward the bedside table, and grabs one of the condoms I bought.
“Safe.” She smiles and tears open the packet.
She rolls the condom down my wet cock. She meets my eyes, her chestnut hair falling over one breast, a wicked, playful smile on her lips.
“This is the very best way to end a rough day.” She angles herself over me and then lowers herself inch by brutal inch.
She must be soaked because I slide in almost too fast, and she gasps and freezes, her thigh muscles tightening.
“Savage.” Her eyes blaze, and I don’t think my name has ever sounded so fuckin’ sexy on any other woman’s lips.
In fact, she’s ruined me for other women.
The image of her rosy nipples, hard and firm, her long, wild hair, her lightly freckled thighs…
Claire is ruining me, and all I want is more. All of it. All of her.
She tightens her pussy a little as she lowers herself, the tiniest little clench that squeezes the head of my cock. Another wave of intense pleasure washes over my weak limbs, and I lie there, her willing toy.
“Ride me, babe,” I tell her. “Claire, I need you to fuck me, baby.”
She lowers herself down until she’s fully seated on my cock, and for a minute, it’s as if she loses all her strength. She sags forward, her eyes shut and her hands around my face. She breathes kisses into my mouth, purring and whimpering. “You. Feel. So. Good.”
I kiss her back, my dick reacting to her hot, sweet mouth and my cock deep inside her. I start to move my hips, needing more, needing her friction, but I force myself to stop.
She pulls her mouth from me and sits upright, her small, firm tits right at my eye level.
“Claire,” I groan. “I need a framed picture of this. God, I could never get enough of this view.”
She laughs and leans back, proving me immediately wrong. She tilts her hips and lifts off me, then sits back down so I have an almost unobstructed view of my cock disappearing inside her.
“Scratch that,” I croak. “That’s the sight. That’s the view.”
She smiles but closes her eyes and seats herself fully on top of me. Then she starts to rock her hips gently, back and forth. I reach for her tits, twisting her nipples between my fingers.
“Oh my God,” she cries out. “Don’t stop, Savage.”
I have to close my eyes, because God help me, I’m not gonna last. The pressure of her grinding on my cock makes my balls heavy, and I have to thank past me for getting those condoms, because if we were bare, Claire’s thighs clenching as she rides me, her swollen lips parted with every pant and gasp, her nipples hard and firm, I’d be fuckin’ done for.
She rides me for what seems like forever, writhing against my cock, tossing her head back, her hair growing damp with sweat and my fingers going numb from twisting and tweaking her nips.
She tenses, and she cries out so loud I bet the entire fucking compound hears her, but I don’t care.
Claire comes apart for me, crying my name, and trembling as I find my own release.
Finally, she stills and collapses against my chest. She falls hard with almost her full weight, and I laugh, wrapping my arms around her and holding her while she cools.
I plant kisses against the top of her head and hold her tight until I think she falls asleep, her fingers stroking the muscles of my pecs.
My dick is going soft inside her when she murmurs against my bare chest, “Can you fuck me from behind?”
Fuck yes, I can!
“You sure?” I ask.