Wild (Wildwood #2)

Chapter 7

7

E verything seemed to speed and spin around Avery, yet details stood out in relief. The thick, silky feel of his hair between her fingers as she held him close. The spicy, clean scent of his skin as she pressed a kiss to his jaw. The heat of his body warming her everywhere.

He closed his mouth over the side of one breast and worked his way around to the other side before pulling her nipple into his mouth and sucking with a deep moan of pleasure in his throat. Her breath caught, her back arched, and Avery was instantly lost in a swirl of lust that had been repressed for far too long.

His hands gripped her hips and pulled her into him, starting that mind-blurring grind again, rocking her against his erection while his lips moved to the other breast. And when his mouth closed over her nipple, Avery dropped her head back as if it were too heavy to hold up. Another surprised sound of pleasure rolled out of her. Trace growled, digging his hands into the flesh at her hips to intensify their rhythm, his lips tugging hard on her nipple.

“Ah...” Avery realized an orgasm was right there too late to stop it. She fisted his hair, uttered a confused, “Trace...?”

He lifted his mouth from her breast long enough to kiss her mouth and murmur, “Gonna come for me, baby?”

“I . . . God . . .” The sensations just layered and deepened, and her body slipped from her control. So quickly. So easily. “Trace . . .”

“That’s it,” he murmured, biting her neck. “Easy, sugar. Relax. Let it come.”

But when his mouth slipped back to her breast and bit gently, there was no relaxing and nothing easy about the orgasm that shocked her body into a tight bow, bending her backward over his arms and pulling a scream from her throat.

Avery shuddered and fisted her hands in his T-shirt to hold on. Her hair fell from the bun, spilling everywhere. Even though she struggled to rein it in, her mind slipped right out from under her. Her body rippled with sensations she’d never experienced—not with David or her own hands.

And when her mind slowly returned, and Avery found Trace’s heavy-lidded, sparkling-blue eyes watching her, embarrassment flooded her in a heat wave.

She closed her eyes and lowered her head with a confused, “Jesus.”

His hand cupped her face and lifted her head. “Look at me, Avery.”

She opened her eyes but could barely meet his gaze.

“Don’t second-guess your body. It’s telling you what you need, however, whenever you need it. There is no right or wrong in sex, and that was the hottest, most gorgeous thing I’ve seen in a long damn time.”

Her chest released and emotions flooded in, wetting her eyes. She wrapped her arms tight around his neck and kissed him hard and deep. Tears spilled from the corners of her eyes and before she could wipe them away, Trace licked them. He then stood, lifting her with him, and set her on her feet.

Steadying her, he let the dress fall to the floor, leaving her in nothing but pink lace panties and heels. His gaze devoured her, while his hands stroked her arms, then threaded their fingers.

Avery’s mind drifted to all the light in the kitchen, to the darkness outside. “Should we turn off the lights?”

“No one could see us unless they were standing on the porch,” he murmured, distracted. Then added a soft, “You take my breath away.”

Another wave of emotion pushed through her. God, it had been so long since she’d felt wanted. And to be wanted by a man like Trace, when he could have any woman, when he’d seen her at her worst...

Avery had the sudden and urgent need to live up to her own promises. She stepped into him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and offered her mouth, open and eager. He enveloped her, crushed handfuls of her hair in his hands, and kissed her as if he could never get enough.

With a groan, he lifted her off her feet. Avery held his shoulders tight as he spun and dropped her ass on the butcher block. She gasped at the cold hitting her backside, steadied herself with her hands, and found them sliding in mango juice.

Trace didn’t seem to notice or care. He hooked his fingers in her panties and dragged them over her hips and down her thighs, then let them drop to the floor. His hands slid back up her thighs, his fingers tense and sinking into her flesh. His fiery gaze scoured her legs, then settled on her pussy.

Avery’s nerves started to rise again. She wanted to ask him what he wanted, what she could do for him, but was embarrassed because she should already know.

So she did what came naturally and fisted the soft cotton tee in her hands, pulling it toward his head. Trace lifted his arms and let the shirt come off effortlessly, exposing all that tan skin, all those roped and ribbed muscles, and the dusting of dark hair across his chest that tapered into a line down the middle of his abdomen.

And even though she’d seen his upper body dozens of times when he’d been working around the café, somehow he seemed so much bigger now, so much stronger, so much hotter . Far more... real . Probably because she’d become the queen of denial and suppression, and hadn’t given him adequate room in her conscious mind.

The pressure of his hands on her thighs dragged her thoughts back as her legs slid open easily, lubed by the juice covering the wood. And when he got a clear, pornographic view of her pussy, he groaned. He rubbed one hand through the juice, then stroked the cool, sloppy liquid over her skin until he reached her opening and sank one finger deep.

Avery pulled in a sharp breath and gripped the edge of the butcher block until her fingers stung.

I can’t believe I’m doing this.

I can’t believe I’m . . .

“Jesus Christ...” She barely heard her own words over the buzz building in her ears. That felt so good .

Trace watched his own hand as he single-mindedly fingered her so slowly she wriggled toward him.

“Hmm, you like that.” His lips twitched into a grin, his tongue licked his bottom lip, followed by his teeth, but those eyes stayed on her pussy. On his fingers stroking and sinking deep and stroking again. On the way his touch made her shudder and tense and pant.

And when the pleasure pushed outside her boundaries of control, her hands clenched a little more, back arched a little more, thighs tightened a little more, and the sounds escaping from her throat grew higher, louder, longer, and far more needy. But he kept one big, wet hand on her thigh, holding her open. “No, no. Let me see. Let me watch.”

Then he pulled his hand back, met her eyes deliberately, and held them as he took his fingers into his mouth and sucked. Shock burned straight down Avery’s chest and zapped her pussy like a current.

Trace’s eyes fell closed on a long groan. “Mmmm, fuck that’s good.”

Fire leaped through her body. Her chest was so tight, she could barely breathe. He was even further beyond her sexual expertise than she’d realized. Until this moment, she hadn’t recognized just how naive she was. Hadn’t understood just how much she didn’t know. Hadn’t comprehended that even the dirtiest conversation she’d listened to among other army wives hadn’t prepared her for this.

For Trace .

His hand slid between her legs again, rubbing in the juice before sliding two fingers inside her. Avery gasped, tensed, and writhed into delicious pressure. “God, Trace...”

“I love hearing that.” He released a heavy breath and leaned in, pushing her thighs wider and lowering his head to stroke his tongue across her mouth. “I love hearing my name on these lips.”

She opened to him, but he just hovered there, out of reach, his gaze drilling into hers as he moved inside her, driving her a little closer...a little closer...a little closer to the promise of ecstasy. To the promise of sweet oblivion for several long, delirious seconds.

She was getting so much more than she’d expected. So much more than she knew what to do with.

Yet she still heard herself say, “More, Trace...” Her voice came out shaky and weak, and she reminded herself of an addict searching for a hit. “I want more.”

He pressed his forehead to hers. “Oh, you’re gonna get more. Plenty of time, Cupcake. We’ve got all night.”

The wicked promise lighting his eyes shot twins streaks of excitement and alarm across her nerves. Holding tight to the wood with one hand, she reached out and tugged his belt through the buckle. “I can’t do this all night.”

He chuckled. “Well, now I’m going to have to prove you wrong.” He pushed deep, creating heat and pressure and wild, mind-numbing pleasure that halted Avery’s hand. Her mouth fell open, and a surprised cry rose from her lips. “And you know how stubborn I can be.”

He covered her open mouth with his and stroked her tongue the way he was stroking his fingers inside her until she was struggling to lift into his hand. “Ah, God, Trace...”

“Tell me to make you come.”

The pressure centered deep in her body. A wild kind of need that would have had her begging if she didn’t feel such a sense of shame about it.

“Trace...” She was so close, wanted it so bad.

He put his mouth near her ear and whispered, “Beg me, order me, do it however you want to do it, but I’m not going to let you come until you ask for it.”

She squeezed her eyes shut and bit out, “Fuck.”

Trace laughed. A hot, nasty laugh as he kissed a trail down her neck. “It’s so hot to hear such a dirty word from such a pretty mouth. I can’t wait to see the other dirty things that pretty mouth can do tonight.”

“Oh, God...” she moaned. Her arms burned from lifting her body into his hand, searching for another delicious peak. And his dirty talk was hitting some crazy place inside her, turning her on in a way she’d never believed possible. “Trace...please.”

“Open your eyes, Avery. Look at me and say it.”

She gritted her teeth, frustrated with need, angry he was pushing her to uncomfortable limits. And opened her eyes to his. “Fucking make me come, goddammit.”

The lust that flared in his eyes burned through Avery, and the smile that glittered across his face could have come straight from the devil. “Well done. Now keep your eyes open and on me.”

“Trace—”

Her angry warning was cut off by the thrust of his fingers inside her and the following rub and push and grind of whatever he did. “Ah...”

Her eyes started to close, but Trace ordered, “Eyes on me. I want to see the orgasm slide through your beautiful face just before it rips through your body.”

The climax was so deep, so big, so all consuming, and so slow to come, Avery swore it felt like excruciating moments with her gaze locked with Trace’s. She felt as if he saw all the way inside her soul. She felt exposed and vulnerable. She felt controlled and absolutely owned by the time the peak broke.

Her body convulsed and jerked. The sounds that came from her weren’t anything she’d ever heard before, not in her greatest pleasure or her deepest despair.

And when the peak broke, all her muscles gave and she fell forward. Trace caught her and held her close.

“So fucking amazing,” he murmured in her ear as she shivered down from the peak, sinking into his support, boneless. He kissed her hair. “You’re crazy sexy, baby. You have no idea.”

With her head against his chest, she heard his heart thrumming hard and fast beneath her ear. “Let me do something for you.”

That low, hot laugh tickled her ear again. “Sweetheart, this is as much for me as it is for you.”

She didn’t understand that at all but couldn’t make her mind try to figure it out as he let her rest there, his hands gently stroking her back, her hair, her thighs while she wondered how many showers it would take to get all this juice and sugar off her body.

Then he straightened, chuckling when Avery didn’t try to do the same but just lay against him. “I love the feel of this.” He used both hands to pull her hair off her face and look into her eyes when he asked, “Will you lie on me after I fuck you? Drape yourself over me? Fall asleep there?”

That whole “after I fuck you” twisted something inside her, and she suddenly found strength she didn’t think she had. She tipped her mouth to his and kissed him, so exhausted her mouth was loose and sloppy, and Trace ate it up, licking her, eating her.

When he gave her the chance to breathe, she said, “I’ll do anything you want.”

He stroked her hair, and a new softness came into his eyes, but he just hummed approval, then leaned over the butcher block, easing her onto her back. He stroked his hands up her arms, and back down her body, his eyes following, drinking her in, making her feel more beautiful than she’d ever believed she could.

His hands slipped behind her knees, and he lifted her legs to his shoulders. Another flicker of unease sparked, and she rolled her head to the side and tried to prop herself up on her elbows, but Trace was already threading her fingers with his and pinning them at her hips.

“What are you doing?”

“Preparing for a meal I’ve wanted so long, I could swear I already know your taste.” With his shoulders wedged between her thighs, his gaze scoured her pussy. “And I’m really hungry.”

Her body tensed. She’d barely gotten her mind around what was coming next when words spilled out of her mouth. “W-wait.”

His gaze jumped to hers.

“I . . . I . . .” Holy shit. Look what you’ve gotten yourself into, Avery. Her face burned with embarrassment. Heart pounded with angst. “I don’t know . . .”

“You’ve never had someone go down on you?”

God, the way he phrased things sounded so dirty, and it still shot sparks through her blood. “Uh...no.”

He grinned. “You’re in for a treat, sugar. Having my fingers inside you will pale in comparison to having my mouth on you.”

A shiver trembled through her, and she closed her eyes. “Jesus...”

The warm brush of air over her pussy made her body tense and her eyes pop open.

“I’m betting my job”—he paused to blow on her again—“you’re going to be writhing against my mouth within thirty seconds.”

Her fingers flexed against his, knowing instinctively he was right.

He lowered his head and kissed her inner thigh and squeezed her hands, then met her gaze again. “You say stop, I stop. Deal?”

Avery dropped her head back with a quiet, “Fuck.”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he said, just before his tongue stroked over her pussy.

The warm, wet, softness was so unique, so different, so bizarre, Avery made a little sound of surprise before he licked her again and again and again. And just like that, Avery was arching against the wood. “Holy fuck .”

In less than ten seconds she was using his shoulders as leverage to lift her hips to his mouth.

Her fingers strangled his as she half moaned, half cried, “Trace, Jesus.”

He growled, opened wide, and covered her completely.

Avery choked out a moan, unable to believe she was rubbing her pussy against his mouth. “Fucking crazy.” God, it wasn’t enough, and now that she knew the kind of pleasure he could bring, she was greedy for it. “More, please, God, more .”

He lifted his mouth from her to rasp, “That’s fucking music to my ears, baby.”

He circled his tongue over her entrance, and sensation washed over her pussy, her pelvis, deep into her core. “Yes.”

He closed his lips and sucked, shooting an electric current through her, and she shuddered. “Don’t stop. God, that’s so good.” She was fighting a frenzy of lust-laden need. “Ah, God, yes .”

His mouth closed with suction, massaging her gently with a moan of utter bliss.

“ God , Trace . . .”

The orgasm hit her like a tidal wave, swift, intense, overwhelming. She tumbled and tumbled, the ecstasy dragging her under. And while she was struggling to find the surface, another wave hit, spinning her head over ass again.

She was still shaking when Trace released one of her hands. She threw her forearm across her face, panting, spinning, floating. “Jesus . . . fucking . . . Christ . . .”

Then Trace was pulling her legs around his waist, dragging her up by the arms and lifting her against his body. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on the best she could. “Where...are we...going?”

“Shower.” He started out of the kitchen, and Avery lifted her head from his shoulder.

“What shower?”

“I finished the shower in the apartment.”

She pressed her forehead to his temple to stop the spinning. “When did you do that?”

“Yesterday. I’m going to wash all this sticky off and finally get inside you with water spilling over your gorgeous body.”

“Mmm. Love the sound of that.” As he started up the stairs, she released his neck and felt for his jeans. Popped the button, forced the zipper down.

Trace stumbled. “Fuck.” He leaned against the rail. “Don’t do that while I’m trying to get up the stairs, baby.”

“Oh, I’m sorry—does that make it hard to walk?” She lifted her head and grinned at him while stroking a hand inside his boxers and getting a handful of long, thick heat. “Oh,” she laughed the word. “You were saving the best for last?”

He covered her mouth with a groan and a heavy sweep of his tongue before pulling back with a breathless, “Stop it. Let me get you upstairs.”

Now she was having some fun. “Is it hard to think while I’m touching you?” She wiggled out of his arms and pushed more clothes out of the way while Trace settled a death grip on the railing. “How hard do you think it will be to think if I were sucking you?”

A growl rolled out of Trace’s throat. He grabbed her around the waist with his free arm and looked directly into her eyes with a clear and predatory sparkle of dominance. “The first time I come, it’s going to be inside you.”

The ferocity of his tone and the underlying innuendo of ownership in his words ripped away the veil of playfulness. He could tell himself whatever he wanted, but Avery had spent every day around the man for two months, and somewhere between sitting on the kitchen floor and now, this had shifted out of the casual arena. She didn’t fool herself—or scare herself—into thinking that meant whatever this was would last beyond tonight, but it exposed his layers. Layers that only made him more attractive.

To balance his intensity, she kept it light, twisting to loosen his grasp with a teasing, “Maybe you’re not in control anymore, Hutton.” She licked her lip and scraped it between her teeth the same way he had. “Because I’m hungry now.”

When she finally pulled his cock from his jeans and lowered to take him in her mouth, Trace stepped down a stair, wrapped his arm around her waist, and turned her away from him, then trapped her between the banister and his body. His swift movement and sheer strength whipped a thrill through her chest.

With his mouth at her ear, he rasped, “I’m not going to make it to the shower if you put your mouth on me here. And I told you.” He slowed his words, speaking deliberately. “The first time I come, it’s going to be deep inside you .”

Okay, maybe she had tipped back one glass of wine too many, because somehow, she found this little power trip both sexy and amusing.

She leaned her head back against his shoulder, bit his jaw, and used a jaunty little voice filled with attitude to ask, “Does someone have control issues?”

A low growl sounded in the back of his throat and transitioned into, “Fuck it.” He released the banister and reached behind him. “Forget the shower.”

“What? Wait, I want the shower?—”

“You’ll get your goddamned shower.” The unique crackle of a foil pouch sounded just before his hips moved away, and he rolled on a condom. Then he gripped her waist and pulled her back against him. His cock rode the curve of her ass, long and thick and hard. “You’ll just get it after I get you.”

He covered her hands and pressed them to the rail, then pulled her hips toward him and used his knee to push one thigh up a stair.

Nerves tangled with excitement. She glanced over her shoulder but didn’t get any words out before his cock stroked along her opening. Her breath froze in her lungs, and her fingers tightened around the rail. She dropped her head back against his shoulder. “Oh, yes .”

Trace stroked both hands down her hips, over her ass cheeks, then one slipped between her legs, stroking her, opening her, and guiding the head of his cock inside her.

The pressure was instant and both alarming and thrilling. He growled near her ear, and the sound in the dark as he penetrated her was the wickedest thrill she’d ever known. Her body sang with sensation, with excitement, with lust. Avery lifted her ass and opened her thighs wider.

“Mmmm, that’s my girl, make room for me.”

That rough voice rippled through her like a stone in a pond. And as he inched his way inside her, insanely patient as he met resistance, his kisses and whispers tightened her chest with something more than sweetness. In the dark, trapped against the stair railing with this mouthwatering man working his cock inside her from behind, this moment overwhelmed Avery with a sense of possession. Of ownership. Of precious, gentle, but demanding domination.

And as much as her mind rejected the idea, her body responded to the carnality. To Trace’s self-confidence. To his physical and emotional power. Even to his control. He was only halfway inside her, and she was shaking with the effort to hold back another orgasm.

He kissed her neck. “Fuck, you feel so good.” Bit her shoulder. “So tight. So hot.”

She whimpered his name. “Trace . . .”

“Right here, baby.”

He wrapped one arm around her waist, slid his hand between her legs, and started those movements that made her push her hips into the pressure.

“Trace, don’t.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m going to come again.”

“Yes,” he hissed in approval. “Perfect.”

“I want to wait.” But he already had her on the edge of climax again, making her wonder where in the hell this body had come from. “I want to come with you.”

“You will.” His breath was quick and hot on her shoulder. “Right now I need you slick and juicy so I can push deep.”

The indirect pressure circling her clit was maddening. Her sex opened and took him deeper.

“That’s it,” he murmured.

The pressure brought the orgasm closer, and she opened more, took him a little deeper. The excruciating cycle of pleasure continued with his rough voice against her skin.

“Take all of me, baby.”

The visuals that flashed in her head with his words pushed her to the peak. The orgasm rushed in on a swift upstroke. Avery cried out as her back arched, pushing Trace deeper. She shuddered through another wave of ecstasy, and when her slick walls released, Trace thrust deep with a grunt of supreme satisfaction joining her moan.

Her breath stuttered in and out of her lungs. Her fingernails bit into the wood banister. And, thankfully, Trace remained perfectly still.

“Sweet Jesus,” he rasped between pants against her neck. “Never felt anything...so fucking perfect.”

His hands roamed her body again, his mouth kissing her shoulders, her neck, her temple. “Tell me when you’re ready, baby. Once I start moving inside you, I won’t last long. Just too fucking good.”

She took a deep breath and blew it out, then rocked her hips away and pushed back into him. The movement brought pleasure beyond description. Pleasure she couldn’t quite comprehend. His thickness and length seemed to spark sensations everywhere. The pressure spilled a foreign kind of pleasure through her body and tightened her throat.

Trace bit into her shoulder just enough to pinch. “Do it again.”

She tilted forward and added force when she pushed back. The head of his cock hit something inside her that was like a pleasure-release button, and sensation washed through her hips. “Ah...God...”

“Good?” he asked.

“So good.”

With a long, low moan, part relief, part need, he wrapped his arms around her, one at her hips, one at her breasts, and whispered, “Fuck me, Avery.”

That dark, feral tone shivered over her, and what started as a slow, careful rhythm quickly escalated into a frenzy of pounding hips, slapping flesh, heavy breathing, and moans of pleasure.

“Trace...” Exhausted, she paused, even though her body screamed for the orgasm he promised.

But Trace wasn’t having it. He tightened the arm at her hips, picked up the rhythm, and added power. Three perfectly placed thrusts, and Avery shattered. Her body shivered so hard, her hip muscle cramped. The pain blended with the pleasure to intensify the orgasm, while the strength of Trace’s last few thrusts slammed Avery against the banister.

The tremble of his strong body against hers, the guttural sounds of pleasure vibrating through his chest and into her back were the most intense, most beautiful, most real things Avery had ever experienced.

Trace grabbed the banister with both hands, his body wavering in the wake of his release. His hot breath bathed her back, and his sweaty forehead dripped on her shoulder.

An inexplicable smile spread across her face and filled her chest. So many emotions, past and present, combined to sting her eyes with tears again. Happy tears. Deeply satisfied tears. Life-altering tears.

“Holy fuck, girl,” he finally whispered, breathless. “That was wild .”

Avery laughed, curved an arm around the back of his neck, and pulled his head down for a kiss. The meeting of their mouths was solid and warm and lingering.

When she finally pulled out of the kiss, Trace eased from her body. Then, instead of taking the perfect opportunity to break away and disappear into the bathroom, he wrapped his arms around her, and pressed his face to her neck. There he sighed, long and satisfied. Then just held her.

A torrent of emotions eddied inside her. Avery didn’t know how to feel or what to think. Considering this was supposedly nothing but a hookup, or whatever people called casual sex nowadays, this affection wasn’t how she’d envisioned the end of their tryst. And when all she’d ever known was a man who rolled over and fell asleep before Avery had even come close to finding satisfaction, she wasn’t sure what to do with this kind of emotion.

To stem her automatic instinct to grab on and hold as tight as she could, Avery stroked a hand along his arm and tried for a light, “Somehow, even at twenty-five, I feel confident saying that I already know nothing in my future will ever top that.”

He chuckled, then pressed his lips to her neck and let the kiss linger, in no hurry to escape her. The gesture was so sweet, and her need to be wanted so strong, she closed her eyes against a hard squeeze in her chest.

Trace finally lifted his head and whispered, “Hold off on that premonition, sugar. We’ve still got all night.”