Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
WINNIE
What Is Soft Is Strong
My body aches and drips all at once for the man who stands naked before me like a glorious tanned, scarred god. Perfect and imperfect, proud and unashamed.
Glorious.
He’s everything I want and need and yet unattainable all at once.
West’s hand wraps around mine, his hold firm as he leads me into the living area. My lips still feel the indent of his fingers pressed between them where I sucked them, but the indecency of that action is the least we will do tonight. I know that, and I’m prepared.
That’s what I came here for, after all.
What I’m not prepared for is the silence that pervades the room. His silence. When he turns to me, still unspeaking, I’m afraid to break it. Afraid of what it might mean if I do. His rules seem more impenetrable than ever tonight.
West cups my cheeks with those scarred hands, his thumbs curving around the planes of my face as he dips his head and grazes his mouth across mine.
My breath stutters between us, a moment held, and then he descends on me in the sort of kiss made for romance novels.
Or movies I’ll never watch because my shattered heart can’t take that sort of rubbish.
The stuff that has never been real for me. That doesn’t exist.
A moan works its way along my throat the moment our mouths make contact, and his tongue slices across my bottom lip. Everything sweet is gone, even though his actions are still slow and precise.
This is the West I know and understand, different from the man who waited for me to come to him.
I open for him, tipping my head back, and let him take over. The sound that rumbles in his chest isn’t quite a moan, more an echo of approval I didn’t know I so desperately sought from him. His hands drop to my waist, tugging gently at my dress. A smile breaks across my lips.
Do you like it? I wore it for you.
My unspoken question doesn’t go unanswered, the clench of his fist as he pushes me against the table hard enough to bruise my hip.
Love it. Now take it off before I fucking shred it.
A breath that might birth a giggle bursts between us before his mouth crashes down over mine again. And every question he asks is answered in tongues and touches instead. My dress is pulled over my head—in one piece, I think—and his hand claps down on my bare flesh in a resounding smack.
Ow, I mouth against his skin as his head dips, trailing kisses and licks across my throat and lower.
Another spank flurries across my bare ass. I wiggle for him. That earns me a grab, squeezing the warmed flesh he’s just tortured. I clamp a hand over my mouth to prevent the whimper that escapes but it’s too late—
“Sorry,” I whisper as West straightens.
The look in his eyes is formidable. Unforgiving.
One hand rises into the air, one finger circling.
I turn around, my eyes burning. Anticipation stalls my heartbeat, my breath still.
The table is sparsely populated. His laptop sits on the kitchen’s stone benchtop, his charger wrapped around itself.
One pen and a pad lie at the other end of the table, its hardwood surface clean and polished.
Not a mark on it. I stare at my reflection in the high gloss, the lights glittering from the sleeping city beyond, but even those seem dulled here.
Not so when his touch drifts along my spine.
It’s a tease, at first. Just a touch, then firmer.
I gasp as he presses me forward, one hand splayed between my shoulder blades.
I hold my hands out before me, but he knocks those away, tucking my wrists to my sides.
Not holding me in place, but asking me not to stop him.
I swallow hard, and don’t.
West presses me down until my turned cheek meets the cold glossed table.
I close my eyes, unable to deal with the overwhelm.
His breath brushes my nape a second later where he slides his fingers through my hair, tucking it away to expose all my sensitive places.
Kisses trail over my flesh, warm and reassuring.
His hand along my spine never disappears, the pressure never changing.
Constant.
I breathe, like I did when he kissed me.
Frantic at first, trying to find my rhythm to match his, then soften as I let him dictate his terms. I could keep battling it out, but with West there’s no need.
Fighting against a boulder only ends in my shattering against him.
I’ve learned that lesson time and again.
Tonight isn’t about fighting him. That’s not what I came here to do.
Tonight is about surrender.
I hold my breath as he backs off, and then, as West taps my legs apart, I let go.
Of everything.
Tension slides from me. Muscles release along my neck, easing the tautness that has gathered along my spine beneath his hand that never moves. It slinks across my hips, loosening me and drifts…
Away.
I sigh, resting comfortably on the table where West has placed me, as though waiting for this moment.
His hand traces up to squeeze my nape, recognizing the momentum, acknowledging what this means for both of us.
My trust in him is rewarded with a lick along my spine that leaves me gasping—a sound I’m not punished for.
Then his fingers dip between my legs, toying with the slick of need there that’s welled since he dragged me into his rented room.
Even then, his gaze was wreathed in dark embers from the moment he saw me.
I let my moans out now, softly, knowing he’ll do as he likes anyway. My flesh betrays me, or gives him what he wants. Either way I look at it, one of us wins, or perhaps tonight isn’t about that at all.
Those clever fingers toy with me as I try my best not to wiggle for him like I did before. His moves were designed for teasing. Staying still is that much harder when I’m actually trying. My hands flex at my sides, but hopefully that’s the only signal he needs that I’m more than ready for him.
One finger, then two probe my entrance. I arch without meaning.
The pressure between my shoulder blades increases, and I find myself flat to the tabletop again.
My cheek meets the warming surface. I let my eyes drift open as he withdraws the blunt force at my slick hole and rubs around me, tracing my clit.
My teeth sink into my lip as I rock with him, unable to help the motion. West leans his body over mine, hot breath on my cheek as he kisses the corner of my mouth. I’m so close I’m dripping into his palm. And then—
Bliss rolls over me, urgent and indulgent all at once. My cry strums the silence between us filled with panting breaths and unspoken endearments. West presses against me, my swollen flesh opening, more than ready as he sinks inside me.
I grip his cock tight, sheathing him as he presses all the way to the hilt. My moan strangles in my throat as I pulse around him, and he bears down on me. My legs buckle but he’s there, holding me up one-handed, like my weight is nothing to him.
West’s thrusts are steady, long withdrawals designed to let us breathe.
When he fills me again, my hands flare on my thighs.
Blunt nails rake the back of my leg, slow and torturous, until I’m on my toes so the sensation never ends.
His breath huffing against my back is the closest thing to a laugh I know he’ll give me tonight. I need more of what he gives me.
Please let there be so many more nights like this. Let me earn them with him.
Whatever I need to give him for this kind of adoration and love.
My heart splits as I find his hand with mine, entwining our fingers and gripping him tight, trying to communicate everything I feel. This is so far from just sex, more than anything primitive and mating or some kinky, dirty night, that my chest feels overfull, like it could explode on demand.
And West is there for me.
His hand closes tight on mine like he’ll never release me.
I cling to him as his thrusts increase, letting him rail me.
I hope he doesn’t have neighbors, as my whimpers and cries fill the room in a symphony.
I clench about him, drawing him deeper as my orgasm rushes through me, too fast to savor.
As though being safe with West is everything I need to finally breathe and just…
Let go.
His hand clamps around the back of my neck, and he seats himself deep inside me. Everything whites out or darkens. A void born of sensation and overwhelm, and him.
Hands on my neck and hips, clamping me tight like he’s so deeply embedded in me that we will never part. I rock back, needing him deeper, taking the heat where he inscribes his mark on me. Never wanting this moment to end.
Wanting more of them.
West’s mouth seeks mine, twisting me to kiss him. I arch as he demands, giving him everything as he invades my mouth, opening for him, my ears ringing with his strained roar that shatters our unspoiled promise.
My name, over again, into the silent night as I fall, but he’s already on his knees.
To catch me.