Chapter 22 #2
A.J. stopped them just outside their tent, exchanged a quick word with Finn she couldn’t hear, then headed over to his own tent as Finn quickly pulled her inside and sealed the door shut with their only line of defense. A freaking zipper.
He was breathing hard when he righted himself and faced her, and a hand went through his hair, disheveling the locks. What was he going to say? Do?
Why did her stomach hurt so much at the idea that he’d say this was a mistake? She didn’t want to overthink anything. She didn’t want to overanalyze for once. She just wanted to live in the moment. The freeze-frame movement she’d mentally captured outside beneath the stars.
“I think I’ve been right, and there is a storm coming,” he said while stalking closer to her with confident strides until she bumped into the bed, not realizing she’d been walking backward. “But I think that storm is you, Jewels.”
The way he said Jewels, she knew he meant it like jewelry, not Jules. It was like she was precious to him. Priceless.
But she also knew . . . “I know there are reasons why we can’t be together.” She started to turn to escape the rejection she felt coming, but he snatched her wrist and spun her into him.
Her palms went to his muscular chest, finding his heart beating almost as erratically and wild as hers.
He leaned in and brought his mouth to the shell of her ear, her body shuddering at his proximity.
“You’ve misunderstood, Jewels. I want you.
The rain. The thunder. Whatever you bring, I’ll take it.
And the sunshine after the storm, too.” The huskiness and total honesty in his voice had her closing her eyes and nearly crying at his tender words. “I need you tonight.”
Her free hand slid up to his shoulder and around to his back so she could draw herself closer to him. “You have me,” she confessed, and he groaned at her words, freeing her wrist only to hoist her legs up and around his hips.
Finn turned and walked them to the tent wall, finding a hard surface beneath the sheer white material, thank God.
She tightened her thighs and rolled her hips, desperate to feel his body moving against hers.
That seemed to be the go-ahead he needed because, in the next instant, he palmed her ass and lowered his mouth to hers in a bruising kiss.
He drew her lip between his teeth for a moment and pulled, which did something to her erogenous zones she didn’t know was possible.
Her body was about to explode with his hard cock pressed into her as he kept her pinned to the wall.
His tongue slid between her lips and danced with hers. The music still pulsed outside, and she’d swear they were matching the rhythm with their kissing the way the dancers had moved their hips to the beat.
“You taste like heaven,” he murmured against her mouth between kisses before he untangled her legs from his hips and set her feet to the floor.
And then he dropped to his knees and placed his hands on her waist, the heat of his touch warming her all the way to her core.
Not breaking eye contact, he slowly undid the tie at her waist, letting the panel of fabric fall to expose the tie on the other side.
But this time, he leaned in and worked the knot free with his teeth, and her dress fell open.
Finn placed his lips to the inside of her knee and kissed a trail up her thigh to her center, his facial hair scratching along her skin and heightening the sensation.
“You smell like sex,” he gritted out, sliding her barely there lace thong down her legs and helping her step out of it. “And you’re so fucking wet. I could eat you all night and it still wouldn’t be enough.”
“Yes, please,” she cried out, feeling sexier and more turned on than she ever had in her entire life.
The fantasies she’d had about him in the last few weeks wouldn’t hold a candle to this man based on his kiss alone.
His tongue slowly skirted her sex like a delicious tease, and she bucked against his mouth, remembering those beautiful full lips of his.
Two fingers went inside of her as he lapped at her sex with his tongue.
And she’d swear the “One Night in Dubai” song she’d heard on the radio the other day played outside.
This was her one night in Dubai. It was far better than any moment captured by a camera. It was a memory she’d hold on to forever.
“Yes,” she cried, trying not to be too loud with people outside and a tent on the other side of theirs. “Oh, yes. Finn.”
He paused for a moment and said, “Call me Dalton tonight,” before kissing her wet center again, playing with her folds with his talented tongue as if he hadn’t just asked her to call him by his given name for the very first time.
She didn’t want to get into her head and out of this moment to decipher what that meant, so she squeezed her eyes closed and sank into the pleasure that was quickly working its way through her body, making her moan before saying, “Make me come, Dalton.” And the moment she said his name was all it took.
Her sex pulsed and her legs tightened as she came.
He continued to touch her and pleasure her even past her orgasm before coming out from beneath her dress.
“Do you have protection?” she almost panted out as he stood, still trying to catch her breath. Did that really happen?
He slipped his hand into his pocket and produced a condom. “Just the one. I wasn’t prepared but, um, A.J. carries them for our rifles in the event we ever . . . forget what I said.” A sheepish grin cut across his face.
“Condoms and rifles? Kind of hard to forget.”
“Snow. They help with snow. Hell, maybe even a sandstorm if, ya know . . .”
“Hm.” She began to work his buttons undone, enjoying this man, a master with his tongue, appearing to grow flustered talking about condoms. Or maybe it was bringing up rifles in the bedroom? “I thought I was the storm.”
“Right.” He hooked his arms behind her back once his shirt was open. “See? So, I’ll be needing it.” He angled his head. “If you want it, that is?”
“Oh, I do.” So, so much. “I want you. I need you.”
“You need me?” Why did his voice break when he asked that as if surprised by this?
She brought her hands to his face and framed his cheeks between her palms. “I never thought I needed anyone before. But I find myself needing you. Needing this moment with you.” She’d define and figure out the “everything” else part she was leaving unsaid after Dubai and their missions were both complete.
“You’re full of surprises, Julia Sophia Maddox.” Ah, right. He knew her middle name, but he’d never said it until now.
“Call me Jewels,” she reminded him, then brought her mouth to his neck and kissed his throat by his ear.
Before she had a chance to do what she wanted to do—feel and taste him—he took back the control.
He guided her dress down her arms and scooped her up before positioning her on her back on the bed.
His quick movements and alpha behavior in the bedroom were more than appreciated, and her arousal was heating right back up again as if she hadn’t had his mouth on her moments ago.
She still had her sandals on, and he knelt at the edge of the bed, which wasn’t high off the ground, and carefully removed them. Then he stood and kept his eyes framed on her face as he took off his shirt and finished undressing down to his boxers.
Her lip went between her teeth as she sat up on her elbows to take in the view. Rippling abdominal muscles. A deep V that disappeared beneath his boxers. Strong quads she couldn’t help but wonder how they’d feel caging her on the bed as he buried himself inside of her.
The man was vascular. Veins in his arms prominent as he stared at her while slowly moving his hands to the waist of his boxers. And wow, the veins on his . . .
She blinked in surprise at his hard length very much alive after he rid himself of his boxers.
He worked his hand from root to tip a few times before joining her on the bed, and her fingers twitched with the desire to take him into her hand.
He climbed over her, and she felt safe and secure beneath him.
“Bra.” He cocked his head, eyes falling to the only article of clothing she still wore. “Off.”
His caveman-like orders made her sex even wetter.
She sat up as much as his body hovering over hers would allow, and she only now noticed he’d tossed the condom at some point onto the bed, and it was near her hip bone.
Using her core strength thanks to Pilates, she kept herself at an angle, unhooked her bra, and then fell back down to the mattress.
“Beautiful.” He slanted himself over her, shifted down her body a little, and placed her puckered nipple between his teeth.
“You really are a biter, huh?” she whispered, remembering the love bite of her lip.
“A little pain—”
“Is good with me.”
He lifted his eyes from her breast, and that broody, dark look had transformed the green into something beastly. Something so damn hot, too.
One brow cocked as if pleased by her response, then he lowered himself to his forearms, his cock pressing perilously close to her center. He teased one nipple between his fingertips while sucking the other, which had her gripping his back and arching into him.
“I’m going to slip inside you if you keep moving like that,” he said darkly.
She wanted that to happen. To feel him in such a raw and primitive way, but she knew that’d be dangerous for so many reasons. One being she wasn’t on the pill.
“I want your mouth on mine,” she cried a moment later, missing his kiss and the connection she felt with him when his tongue had touched hers. “And I want you inside of me. I-I don’t want to wait.”
“We only have one condom and one night,” he said, his tone deep as he lifted his face closer to hers.
One night? “How’s your stamina?”
He grinned, and that brow rose once again as if that were a challenge, one he’d gladly accept. “I guess you’ll soon find out.”
His lips crashed to hers once more, and she clung to his shoulders as they kissed passionately and for so long that she’d nearly forgotten her need-it-now plans because his kiss truly gave her a connection she’d never known she’d been so desperate for until now.
“You ready for me?” he whispered into her ear as he slid a hand between their bodies, his cock still heavy against her. His hand skated over her seam, drawing her slickness onto his finger. “You’re really, really ready.”
She swallowed and nodded, unable to get the words loose.
He sat back onto his knees, freed the condom from the wrapper, then rolled it over his rock-hard cock, which glistened in precum.
“I want you on top.” He swapped their positions without waiting for her answer.
She shimmied against him without placing him inside of her yet. Her hands went to his abdomen, careful of the bruises on his chest, and she did her best not to let her thoughts drift to ones of worry about his safety. About future bullets and future bad guys he might encounter.
“What if I want you to take me how you want?”
He reached for her and twirled a lock of her hair in his hand.
“You struggled to get yourself off for months. I think it’s important you take the control back.
” He held her captive with those green eyes, and she understood what he was saying.
What he was trying to give her. “I need this for you. Trust me, I’ll enjoy it. And there will be another time.”
Thank God for that.
“And I promise to—”
“Fuck me hard?” she finished for him, surprised by her dirty words, and his cock jumped in response. Yeah, they were on the same page.
She reached between her legs, positioned his tip at her center, then she slowly sank onto his length inch by inch. Her eyes squeezed tight from the momentary pain of his girth. So thick.
Her eyes peeled open, and there were tears there. She wasn’t sure if it was from the shock of his size or the sense of ecstasy at having him inside her.
“You okay?” he rasped as if he were barely hanging on.
“I’m amazing,” she whispered before lifting up to slam back down on him. He grabbed hold of her hips as she remained sitting upright, her back arched and breasts on display, which turned her on that he was able to soak in the sight of her while she took control.
She ground against him, and between the friction and being so full of this man, it was seriously going to test her stamina.
“You might get to take over soon because I’m already going to come,” she cried a few minutes later, barely able to hang on to a steady breath as she grew sweaty and tense, her body on the verge of orgasm.
“Sweetheart, I’m biting down on my teeth right now to hold back from coming. I’ll save the stamina for next time. Just waiting on you.” And his jaw really was clenched, his brows drawn tight. Eyes broody as if he was almost in pain.
That look. That pensive, sexy look was what sent her right over the edge.
She did her best not to scream as she rocked her way into orgasm, feeling the warmness inside of her despite the condom as he released.
Totally sated, a bit confused and scared from whatever she was feeling for this man, she collapsed on top of him. Their bodies were sticky from sex and the desert heat, but this moment was as picture-perfect as it got.
And she prayed there really would be another one.