17. Chapter 17
Cole
Her mouth is the best kind of wrong. She tastes like salty tears and the last trace of fear she hasn’t quite shaken. I sweep my tongue in her mouth knowing this is a want we both haven’t let ourselves name until now.
Our movements turn quick, urgent. Kara presses against me, fingers digging into my shirt, and with every second we kiss, I remember less about why restraint ever seemed like a good idea.
I pin her gently to the wall because I cannot help it, because the line between protection and possession has blurred, and I am not sure I want it back.
She gasps into my mouth, and I swallow the sound.
My hand moves from her cheek to her jaw, then down the column of her neck, my thumb tracing the tense line of her throat as her body arches toward mine.
There are a hundred logical reasons to stop. I have used most of them already, but none survive contact with the heat rolling off her.
Kara pulls back just far enough for her voice to slip between us, ragged and soft.
“Is this a terrible idea?” she whispers.
“Maybe.” I kiss her again, slower this time, more deliberate. If I am going to burn my life down, I want to feel every second of it.
One of her hands finds the hem of my T-shirt and slides beneath it, her palm hot and trembling against my skin. She is bolder than I expected, less fragile than I ever let myself believe. She pushes the shirt over my stomach, and I raise my arms because I want her to want me as much as I want her.
The cotton catches on my chin. I drag it the rest of the way off and toss it aside. She makes a sound that is half laugh, half moan, then leans in to kiss my chest, her breath warming skin that has not mattered to anyone in a long time.
Her hair brushes my sternum, and the tenderness of it nearly undoes me.
“You do not have to be gentle,” she says, and the words are a dare.
So I stop being gentle. I lift her with my hands beneath her ass, and she wraps her legs around my waist. Her mouth finds my jaw, then my throat, teeth and lips and tongue moving as if she means to memorize me.
I brace her against the wall, and for one reckless minute there is no safe house, no threat, no future beyond the one blowing open between us.
Kara tugs at the waistband of my pants, and a low laugh breaks out of me, half disbelieving, half feral.
“You sure?” I ask, because I have to. It is the last outpost of discipline reminding me that checking is still my job.
“I am sure.” Her eyes flash. “Stop making me say it.”
I dig my fingers into the back of her thigh, feel her shiver, and carry her to the bed. Her hands are already working at my belt. I don’t stop her. I want to see what she does when she gets exactly what she wants.
She gets it. She gets me. Kara works quickly, unfastening and tugging until I am half out of my mind and completely out of self-control. She pushes my pants down, her hands needy. I’m so hard it almost hurts when she frees me.
I don’t know whether it is her urgency or the way she looks at me, hair wild and cheeks flushed, that makes something inside me snap.
I pin her wrists over her head and kiss her until she whimpers.
Then I drag her tank top upward, baring pale skin and a beige lace bra that almost disappears against her.
Kara arches as I mouth the line of her ribs and the swell of her breast. Her nipples tighten beneath the lace, and I tease one gently with my teeth just to feel her squirm.
She makes a needy sound when I slide my hand between her thighs.
Her hips grind up, desperate, and I keep my other hand flat on her belly, pinning her with nothing but my weight.
Kara glares up at me, furious and aroused, and the combination is so fucking beautiful.
I peel her shorts past her hips and knees.
She lifts her ass to help me, never breaking eye contact.
When the fabric is gone, she lies beneath me in nothing but matching lace panties, breathing hard, thighs parted, the tiny triangle already wet through.
“Take them off,” she says. It is not a request.
I hook my fingers beneath the waistband and pull slowly, watching her squirm.
Before the lace clears her ankles, I lower my mouth between her legs.
She tastes of salt, heat, and something that lights every nerve in my body.
She jerks beneath me, fingers knotting in my hair and dragging me closer with enough force to make my head spin.
I stroke her clit with my tongue, slow at first, then suck gently until her thighs tense around me. When I pull back, her green eyes are fixed on mine.
“I want to slow this down,” I tell her. “I want to taste every inch of you.”
She catches my wrist and squeezes. “Then feast.”
I do. I take her with my hands, my mouth, my tongue, slow and selfish.
I draw it out, savoring every tightening muscle, every broken breath.
Her belly flexes beneath my palm. Her thighs clamp around my head, then tremble when I press them open again.
Her clit is swollen and close when I lift my mouth once more.
“You are fucking delicious, Kara. I could stay here for hours.”
Her eyes widen. Then her head falls back, and both hands fist in the bedding.
I return to her clit and slide one finger inside her, curling it as my tongue moves faster with more force.
Her orgasm hits sharp and sudden. Her whole body bows off the mattress, thighs locking around my head.
For one suspended second she does not breathe.
Then she collapses, trembling, my name breaking apart on her lips.
I crawl over her, the need to be inside her so fierce I cannot remember ever wanting anything this much.
Kara wraps her hand around my cock and looks up at me. “My turn.”
She pushes against my chest until I lie back beside her.
She raises her body and settles between my thighs.
Her wet heat brushes my leg while I reach behind her and unhook her bra.
Her breasts spill free, full and beautiful, and I barely have time to wonder how I have neglected them before her mouth closes around my cock.
She takes me slowly at first, tongue circling the head before she slides lower. Heat closes around me, and the world goes white at the edges. One hand wraps the base while the other steadies her against my thigh. She works me with a confidence that steals every coherent thought from my head.
Her nipples brush my skin as she moves. I lift my head and take in the sight of her, the lush curve of her ass rising and falling with every stroke of her mouth.
“I want all of you, Kara. Not just tonight. Do you hear me? Not just this.”
She pauses and lifts her gaze to mine. For a second, neither of us moves.
“Then do not make me regret believing you,” she says softly.
“Never.”
She pauses and looks at me with my cock still in her mouth, but says nothing. Her eyes, though, say it all. Kara wants that too.
Despite feeling how much I want to fuck her now, I lie back and let her have her way with me.
She makes a low, hungry sound and I lose the battle instantly.
The feeling is too much, too good. I want to last, but I want to come in her mouth.
I want to feel her swallow and moan around me, to know that the pleasure is hers as much as mine.
I hold out as long as I can, but she works every inch of me with heat and hunger, pausing only to look up and watch my face twist. I know what she’s doing.
She wants to see me break. She wants to see if she can.
I give her that—fuck, I want to give her that—fuck, I want to give her everything.
I come in her mouth, hard and full, and she takes it all, swallowing without hesitation, her lips still wrapped around me. She doesn’t let go until my body stops shaking, until I am raw and open, and then she grins, licking her lips.
I pull her up to my face and kiss her, slow and deep. I want her to know there’s nothing about her that could ever displease me — not the hunger, not the need.
“I want to explore every part of you, Kara. We’re not done, right?”
“Cole, it was hard for me not to be selfish. I loved getting you off like that, but I wanted you inside me so bad.”
“Good.” I turn her beneath me. “Because I want your ass in my hands and your breasts in my mouth before I give you exactly that.”
Kara kisses me as I cup her bottom. She is soft and generous and so goddamn warm. I knead the lush curves while she straddles my hips, her breasts swinging over my mouth. I draw one nipple deep, rolling it with my tongue, and she shudders as she rides my thigh for friction.
Her hands knot in my hair. When I graze a nipple with my teeth, she yelps and bucks against me, her wet heat slicking my skin.
I’m hard again before I can think again.
I roll her under me, gathering her wrists in one hand, and position myself at her entrance.
She’s slick and open, and I want to force my way in, but I don’t.
Instead, I rub the head of my cock against her, up and down, until she’s sliding it against her clit.
I lean back on my knees and put my thumb on her clit with two fingers inside of her.
She moves on the bed as if I had tuned it to her exact frequency.
She writhes, moans, and then I can’t keep myself out of her any longer.
I guide my cock into her, slow, savoring the stretch and slide, the impossible heat of her.
She whines a little and bucks up as I go slow and deep. I keep the rhythm that way for quite a while, feeling the heat build between us. I could swear someone had started a fire in this bed.
“Do you feel that, Kara. Do you feel how hot I am for you?”
“Cole, I’m on fire for you. Keep doing it just like that.”
I try to keep it slow, at least at first, but Kara’s nails rake down my back and she wraps her legs around me and that is the end of that. I let go, driving into her, slow at first but then deeper, harder, the sound of our bodies colliding.
I want to make her come again, want to make her shake with it. So I reach down and rub her clit as I thrust into her, feel her get tighter, wetter, feel her start to lose control.
Kara cries out with a force that makes me want to fuck her until neither of us can remember the last time we felt this alive.
She bites my shoulder, hard enough to make me grunt, and digs her heels into my back as she shakes apart quickly, coming so hard she nearly sobs.
Her body pulses around me, and I follow her over the edge, driving deep once more as her name tears out of me.
I don’t let up, not until she’s grabbing my shoulders and pushing me away, panting, her whole body trembling.
For several seconds, I can do nothing but hold myself above her and breathe. Then I ease away, walking into the bath and returning with a warm wash cloth. Kara watches me clean her gently, her expression softer than anything I have seen from her yet.
When I lie beside her, she curls into me as if she has always belonged there.
“That was not a terrible idea,” she murmurs.
“No.” I brush damp hair from her cheek. “The terrible idea would be missing out on how good it could be.”
Her eyes meet mine. “I feel safe with you, Cole. Even with everything that has happened, I feel instantly at home with you.”
I pull her closer, my heart feeling heavy with her words. But an old habit tugs my attention toward the floor. My phone is still turned off. I never turn it off while I am on assignment. I should not have tonight. But for a little while, I wanted nothing outside this room to reach us.
“I have to turn my phone back on,” I say. “I do not want you to think I am being crass.”
“Cole, Rafi has my phone for forensic examination. I understand.”
I reach down, find my phone among our clothes, and hold the power button until the screen lights. I brace myself while it reconnects.
No missed calls. No messages.
I let out a breath and place the phone on the nightstand with the volume turned high, and draw Kara back against me.
“All clear?” she asks.
“For now.” I kiss the top of her head. “Go to sleep.”
She tucks herself closer. Within minutes, her breathing evens out against my chest, and mine follows.
For the first time in several nights, sleep finds us before fear does.