10. Carson
“Ithink I am, too.” Mallory”s confession delivered with a determined smile sends my balls straight up into my stomach. God, there’s nothing I love more than a confident woman who knows what she wants. Especially when what she wants is me.
It’s the opening I’ve waited for all day. Verbal confirmation of the signals her body has sent for hours, despite the fact she’s still in public relations and I’m still press.
I step closer, one hand landing on her hip and the other lifting to brush my thumb along her jawbone and across her lower lip. Then I lean down, close enough to kiss her again. But I don’t. Not yet. Even though I want to more than anything.
“Good,” I murmur instead, weaving my fingers through hers. But rather than head back toward the hotel, I steer us forward to the resort’s pristine, hand-crafted wooden boathouse.
I noted its perfect, private location and surprisingly lavish interior yesterday when we returned from that failed attempt at trout fishing late in the morning. Despite coming up empty-handed, the outing was the highlight of my day until meeting Mallory.
But now that I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know this woman, a fierce intuition has awakened. A certainty, based on pure instinct, sits in my chest as sure as my beating heart. But I brush aside the sensation—and plan that’s been forming in my head—to focus on slipping inside the dimly lit structure, the mineral fragrance from the water blending with the earthy cedar scent.
“It’s gorgeous in here.” Mallory’s gaze is lifted as she admires the arched beams and curved braces of polished wood. “But let’s be clear,” she adds, spinning to face me. “We both know this is a onetime thing. Never to be spoken of again.”
There’s no way in hell I’ll agree to either of those things. So instead, I distract her the best way I know how. By tugging her into my arms the second the door closes.
Fortunately, the quiet click of the latch echoes in the silence, matched only by a hitch of her breath, which I catch with my lips. I press her against the hardwood, savoring the taste I’ve been craving since we were interrupted earlier.
The kiss washes through me like a tidal wave, drowning every fiber of my being in the best possible way. I sink my fingers into her hair, deepening the connection as I tilt her head. Our tongues circle frantically with a spiking need. I sweep my tongue possessively, assaulting her senses from above.
She pushes my jacket off my shoulders, her fingers twisting the front of my shirt as she answers my deep moan with one of her own, an unapologetic indication of the sensations surging through her veins.
I want her, more than I’ve ever wanted any woman. Not that I need to announce it. My erection digging into her belly sends the message loud and clear. I’d give anything to surrender to my need to pin her against the wall, tug up her dress, yank her panties to the side, and bury myself inside her. But I wouldn’t last long enough to ensure she came, which is the only target I can zero in on. The only thing that matters at the moment.
And a sight I can’t wait to watch. So I pull away from her lips that are now swollen and somehow even more tempting.
“That prove it?” I growl, my chest heaving.
A sly smile. “It was a start.” As if she hasn’t had enough, she draws me back down, refusing to let me stop. Lust, hot and sharp, seizes the lowest region in my stomach as she swipes at my lower lip, nipping with her teeth until I open and kiss her soundly again.
Her hands slide south to my pants, making quick work of my belt and fly, while I lick my way over to her ear and then down her neck.
“Condom?” she murmurs, more focused on the ultimate goal than I am at the moment.
”Not yet,” I whisper against her skin. ”I”ve got plans.”
”Plans?” The single word falls on my ears like a breathless question. One that I answer by dropping to my knees and dipping under her dress with my head. Her legs are gorgeous. Long and smooth as I tug her panties down to her heels. She steps out of the thong and widens her stance.
I can barely see in the darkness under here but it doesn”t matter. I bury my face in the juncture of her thigh and inhale a deep breath, relishing the delectable scent of her need as my cock twitches.
”Mallory,” I murmur, nipping at her thigh as I work my way center. Then, holding her thighs open I part her lips and swipe down the moist valley with one long lick.
Her thighs quiver and a hand lands on my head through the satin of her dress but I”m here to deliver. And I know exactly what it will take. I sweep back up and find her clit, greeting it with a kiss before tonguing it hard. She starts moaning my name and a sweeter sound I”ve never heard.
Her moisture drips down my chin as I keep working that bud, my grip holding her tight as she rocks against me, her pussy taking as much as I”m giving.
”Carson,” she groans. ”Don”t stop.”
I”d never. Beads of sweat are rolling down my spine but there”s no way I”m pausing. Not when she”s so close.
”Don”t stop.” This time it”s a command as the quiver becomes a full blown tremble and her hips rock back and forth.
I give it all I”ve got—give her all I”ve got—lapping up the orgasm seconds later when it explodes and her juices flow as her body pulses. And all she can say, over and over again, is, ”Yes, yes, yes.”
Barely able to contain myself, I press a kiss to her thigh and lean back on my heels. Drawing out from under her dress the air is cool as I rise.
”That,” she says, her eyes hazy and her voice languid as she reaches for me, ”proves it.”
”Glad to hear it.”
But as I swipe the back of my hand across my mouth her fingers connect with my cock, freeing its steely length. I suck is a sharp breath as my palms land flat on the cedar on either side of her head.
My teeth clench tighter than a locked safe as I try my damndest not to come on her dress when she grips me with both hands. Her touch is kryptonite, so distracting I nearly forget my own name as she strokes from base to tip.
This has got to stop.
I step back, digging for the condom in my pocket. I tear it open and slide it on in record time. Then, with my hands on her waist, I lift her, wedging my hips between her thighs because there’s no more holding back. I’m barely going to last with this goddess as it is.
I sweep under her dress to grab her ass, her groan and squirm as I massage those cheeks thickening my cock even more.
“Please,” she pleads, her fingers digging into my shoulders as her thighs squeeze my waist.
“Ready?” I choke out through gritted teeth.
Her lower lip is tucked between her teeth, and her eyes are dark with need. She nods and holds my gaze as I position myself at her warm, wet entrance.
“Aah,” she cries out, accepting every inch when I sink deep inside her.
The world—or my world, at least—tilts on its axis, my vision clouding at the edges. It takes every ounce of concentration to pull out then fill her again.
“Oh my God,” she murmurs. “Carson, yes…yes.”
Her enjoyment and the way her body clenches me from base to tip ripples down to my toes, and I can’t hold back any longer. I pound into her, the wall shaking from my strokes. Her head falls back as her thighs spread wide.
The thump of her head against the wall is my undoing. I squeeze my eyes shut and burrow my face into the hollow of her shoulder, my hips continuing to pound up into her because she’s close, and there’s not a single thing on God’s green earth I want more than Mallory’s orgasm.
“Come on, darling,” I urge, rocking hard and fast.
Her back arches, and her heaving breasts thrust against me. “I’m close, Carson.”
I pull back to watch, grinding into her. My joke from last night, with the shocker, and the flush that crept up her lovely cheeks when I flashed it and she knew exactly what it was, surfaces through the haze in my mind. I slide one hand down between the wall and her ass to find that hollow, moist from the juices flowing from her body, and press against it.
Her hips writhe and quake. Barely a second later, a tremble rolls through her as every muscle in her body clenches. And not a minute too soon. The sight of this beauty coming undone shoots straight through me like never before, and I follow, relieved I was able to hold on long enough to please her first.
I press a kiss to her lips as her eyelids flutter open, her pupils adjusting to the dim light. I’m still inside her, still pinning her against the wall, the air filled with the mixed scent of us. Her body sags, and she shoots me a wry smile.
“I fell for it, didn’t I?” She sounds defeated.
My brows knot. “For what?”
“The Carson Bennett trifecta.”
The way she utters the words twists my gut.
“What, pray tell, is that?” I ask through clenched teeth.
“Sweet talking mixed with a panty-melting smile and a dose of sparkling, crystal-blue eyes for good measure,” she says, with a lift of her shoulders. “I’m just like all the others.”
Fury, like I’ve never experienced, jabs my heart like the red-hot tip of a poker.
“You,” I implore, staring deep into her eyes to convince her of the truth, “are nothing like any other.”