Chapter 18
Noah gripped her nape, turning her head firmly so her gaze met his. Satisfaction blazed blue and true. Against the small of her back, his cock jerked as if responding to her revelation. “Sweetheart, I’m going to give you so many of those orgasms, you’ll beg me to stop. But I won’t. You know why?”
“Because you like it when I beg.”
He smiled. “No. You like it when you beg. As to what I was thinking before… I was thinking about my ex.”
Her spine snapped as if she’d been shot. For a moment, Leia wondered morbidly if that was how it felt like. His hand tightened in her hair, staying her in place when her senses screamed for space to handle the confounding emotions.
“I know we agreed to leave our ghosts locked tight, but I don’t want you wondering about why I drifted off.”
She swallowed. Thought about not asking the question and decided the not knowing was way worse than the knowing. Which was crazy considering how long she’d known Noah King.
“What was her name, and why were you thinking of her?”
“Her name was… is Ashley. I was thinking of her because I was hoping you weren’t like her.”
“Why, what was she like?” she blurted before she could convince herself she was better off not knowing.
He frowned. “She knew she had a power over me. And she used it.” A wave of mingled disgust and bitterness washed over his face, making Leia’s senses scream. The hard bite to his voice was clear evidence that his ex wasn’t a specter in the past.
“I don’t have that sort of power over you, Noah,” she murmured.
He refocused on her and slowly, his expression cleared. His gaze dropped to her mouth, then traced over her chest, lingering at her breasts. “You don’t think so?”
She shook her head.
His free hand drifted down her shoulder and under her arm, his fingers brushing the curve of her right breast before his large thumb grazed her nipple. She caught her lower lip between her teeth and bit down hard to stop from moaning out loud. The corner of his mouth flicked as he noted the action.
“Yes, you do,” he rasped. “Every time I touch you like this and you gasp, every time your body sings to my demands, you gain more power over me. Because I crave those things. More than you know. More than is wise. It doesn’t matter that we’re doing this for only seven days. You have the power.”
“Having power and misusing it are two different things. Especially if the latter is used deliberately to hurt.” She should know. Her mother was dead because of it.
“I know, but so is having power and not knowing its true and full force. That can be equally as dangerous.” He slowly withdrew his finger and slid it back in.
Her ragged inhalation made his eyes darken. “I’d never use it deliberately against you. Is that what she did?”
A small smile twisted his lips. “Let’s just say she loved to play with her power.”
She licked her lips, and his eyes dropped to her mouth. “If she’s your ex, then…”
He dropped his head to the crook of her shoulder, rubbing his stubble hard into her skin. “She played her hand one too many times. The results were… ugly.”
Again, she heard the odd note in his voice, the one that flared across her instincts, warning that he could be a merciless opponent, even if she somehow gained the dubious upper hand.
She tried to think a bit more about what he’d said, but her mind was fraying in the heat of what he was doing to her.
Against her back, his cock pressed insistently, its demand reminding her how much power he had over her.
Gripping his thighs in the water, she scoured her long nails over the taut muscles. That earned her another finger inside her wet sheath. When she dug her nails in, he groaned.
“Are you sure you can handle another fuck, sweetheart? I can’t guarantee it’ll be gentle.”
“I want to try.”
He released her hair, hit the button that stopped the water’s frenzied swirling. In the clear pool, she looked down and groaned at the sight of his hand firmly between her legs. “Does that turn you on?” He slowly withdrew his fingers and plunged back in.
“Uh-huh.”
He cursed and his fingers stilled.
Her senses screamed. “Please don’t stop.”
“I don’t want to, baby. But we don’t have any condoms in here.”
The thought of him stopping almost tipped her over the edge. “We don’t have to… I mean I don’t—” She stopped and shook her head, her senses fighting the battle for common sense and barely winning. Sucking in a deep, fortifying breath, she swallowed. “Okay. I’ll wait.”
He kissed her neck and slid his fingers out of her.
She sensed his curious gaze as he stepped out of the bath and went into the bedroom. He returned with a handful of condoms and dropped them on the side, ripping one open to slide it over his cock.
Helplessly caught in the fever of need, she watched him approach and step back into the water. But he didn’t resume his previous seat. He moved to the far side of the tub where the view of the trees was at its most advantageous. “Get on your knees.”
Her limbs heavy with lust, she positioned herself at the end of the bath, her knees splayed in neat grooves in the tub.
He got in behind her, his body easily towering over hers even though his knees were two steps below hers. He loosened the knot in her hair and speared his fingers to hold her in a tight grip. Her scalp tingled, and waves of feverish anticipation blanketed her.
He pulled back her head. “What were you going to say?” he demanded in her ear.
She fought against the blazing need that continued to play havoc with her loose tongue.
“I took the mandatory blood test before I joined the trip.”
His grip tightened and his cock nudged her ass. “So did I. Are you saying what I think you’re saying, Leia?” His voice was low and rough.
“It’s not as reckless as it sounds.”
His free hand resumed its torture between her legs. “No, but is the issue of birth control up for debate? A clean bill of health is one thing. Pregnancy is another?—”
“I can’t get pregnant,” she blurted. In that moment, she realized just how vulnerable she was when it came to Noah King. How very effortlessly he wrung her deepest, darkest secrets from her without so much as lifting a finger.
His shocked inhalation made her squeeze her eyes shut. “Damn…”
“Open your eyes, Leia.”
She opened them but kept her gaze on his chest, afraid to look up, heart lurching sickeningly at the pity…
or worse, indifference, she expected to find blazing in his eyes.
“God, why the hell do I do that around you? I don’t know why but there’s something about you that makes me blurt out the most intimate details?—”
He caught her chin and tilted her head upwards. “Stop. I’m going to fuck you now. But afterward, we’ll talk about this if you want to.”
A trace of apprehension fizzled through her. She’d exposed more than enough to make any man think twice about having anything to do with her. What if her next revelation sent him running? “Or we can forget I said it.”
“We’ve gone past pretending we can keep this to the physical. Do you know you’re the first person besides my shrink I’ve voluntarily spoken to about my ex?” he ground out, his tone a touch dazed.
“I am?”
He nodded as his hand drifted down over her tattoo to grip her waist, hard.
“So I’m thinking maybe we just let things roll out naturally.
You tell me whatever you’re comfortable with telling me.
” He positioned himself behind her and slid the head of his cock along her pussy.
“As long as it doesn’t involve any other guy doing anything remotely close to what I’m about to do to you. ”
Her shocked laugh turned into a scream at his brutal penetration. He buried himself as far as he could go and grunted his pleasure. Her internal muscles, which had spasmed with his entrance, grappled to accommodate him.
Frenzied need burned through her as he moved within her. She gave a sharp cry as he withdrew, and his hand tightened on her waist. “Were you about to say something, sweetheart?”
Her arms shook from her death grip on the edge of the tub.
Squeezing her eyes shut against the sensations bombarding her, she tried to remember what she’d been about to say.
“Nothing comes close… I’ve never done anything like this before,” she stuttered, then cried out again when he pushed back in, adding another inch, making her eyes water. “Oh God!”
“You’re shaking, baby. Is this too much?”
“Yes! But I want more.”
“You want me to make you even more sore? Shall I make you burn, baby?” His voice held a compelling promise, a dark relish that pushed her closer to a hypnotic abyss.
Sublime bliss rolled over her with each relentless thrust. Noah King fucked her with an expertise that fueled her craving for him with each penetration.
By the time he lifted her left leg and draped it over the side of the tub, opening her wider to his invasion, she was almost at the edge of the abyss.
Gladly contemplating throwing herself into the unknown.
He pounded her hard, wrenching a scream from her with each breath. The fingers in her hair jerked her head back, exposing her throat to the vicious kiss of mouth and teeth. She didn’t care that she would be marked from head to toe by the time he was finished with her.
All she wanted was to drown in the beckoning paradise, insulate herself from the horror she’d inadvertently unearthed.
He gripped the back of her neck and pushed her forward until her torso hung over the tub. With each thrust, her stomach dug into the edge, knocking the breath from her lungs. Still he came at her, unleashing power and vitality that fried her brain.
“Holy fuck. I can’t get enough of you. You’re like one of those impossible dreams you never think will come true.”
“I’m not a dream,” she gasped.
“No, you’re not. The way you’re turning me inside out, you have to be real. But I’m still terrified to stop in case you disappear.”
His next thrust was so hard, so deep, a tidal wave of water surged over the side, drenching her torso on the way down. Bent almost double, blood surged into her face, her windpipe cloying for breath as a flash of pain sizzled through her pleasure.
“Noah!” she screamed, the sensations almost unbearable.
“You’re real. Please tell me you’re real,” he pleaded hoarsely.
“I’m real. I’m real!”
His fingers dug into her hips and he leaned into her, his torso blanketing her in sexy, fiery heat. She jerked when his teeth bit into her shoulder. “You better fucking be. Or there’ll be hell to pay. Now come for me, baby. Give me everything you’ve got,” he growled.
Whether it was the dark command that undid her or the simple fact that she was at breaking point, she was too far gone to tell. A small part of her reeled in stunned surprise as she flew apart a second after his command.
Leia came with an explosive scream, the air sucked from her lungs. Unending convulsions shuddered through her, milking his thick, heavy length over and over until he shouted his own release.
Sliding an arm around her shoulders, he raised her up and held her against his chest, his cock pulsing hard and deep inside her, his breath harsh and ragged in her ear. “You’re real.”
Her hands curled over his arm, gripping him tightly as she fought to catch her own breath. “Yes.”
His free hand drifted up her side and whispered over her tattoo.
“I don’t know who did this to you or what happened to propel you here, but I’m glad you’re here.
With me. I may not be able to fix you, but you need to know that you’re amazing, Leia.
No matter what happens to you, don’t let anyone or anything lead you to believe otherwise. ”