32. Hailey
I hold Arlo’s face in my hands. “I don’t want my world without you in it.”
His dark eyes close. A breath shudders his chest. He presses his hand to the outside of mine and nestles into my touch. When his eyes open, it’s as if joy, sorrow, and lust all fight for dominance.
Arlo kisses the tips of my fingers and the edges of each nail, where that fucking ring of blood would not scrub off. His lips travel over every vein and ridge in my hands, front and back, and then ever so slowly, he makes his way up my wrists. His thick fingers unbutton the cuffs of my blouse, allowing his mouth to pay homage to my forearms and the dip on my elbows in a way I didn’t know was possible.
I love the way he loves me. I know he does, though he hasn’t said it, and I have no right to claim it. He shows me every day with his exquisite care, carnal need, and generous heart.
By the time we pull up to my building, he’s released the first two buttons on my chest, working his way to Smokey. My dragon. When the car stops, Arlo gives that guttural breath of his own that reminds me of a dragon.
“The sooner we get out. The sooner we can get up.”
“I’m up. In case you haven’t noticed.” His lips trace the line of my collarbone as he speaks.
“Believe me, I’ve noticed.” I shoot my hips forward, pressing his erection that I’ve been gently massaging with my cunt harder between us. “Which is why I want you out of this car and up…in my apartment.”
Reluctantly, I pull his mouth from my skin, grab his hand, open the door, and drag us onto the sidewalk, and then across it.
“Miss? Your painting?” his driver calls.
“Keep it safe for me.” I wave him off. “I’ll get it later.”
I hate that I’m being rude, but I need Arlo to myself immediately. I need him like I need my next breath. Having him rushing to keep up behind me is too far away. Now that I’ve cracked open my chest, I need him inside it. I need him as close as he can possibly be.
“Yes, miss.”
One hand up, I push through the rotating door and drag Arlo in behind me. We weave our way through the light crowd perpetually taking up space in the lobby and score an elevator without waiting. There are several other people inside, but I don’t see them. My gaze is only for Arlo.
We’ve made this journey from a car to my apartment many times over the last two weeks. This time feels different. It is different. I’m different.
I lean in, rise onto my tiptoes, and whisper into his ear. “When we get to my apartment, I don’t want you to tie me up and torture me with my toys.”
His gaze narrows as he leans back to study me for a second. He dips his head low and kisses my cheek. “Okay. Do you want to order in, snuggle up with Plink, and watch trash TV?”
“No.” I smile up at him.
“What do you want, Hailey?”
The elevator jars to a stop, and a young couple gets off.
“I want you to fulfill your promise.”
His gaze bloats, then turns to intense slits as though he knows exactly what I’m saying. The elevator rises again. “Use precise words and clear communication, Doctor.”
“You said that you’re mine.”
“I am yours, Hailey.” He says it so easily, as though it doesn’t mean the world to me.
I squeeze his hand. “I am yours, Arlo.”
His hand wraps around my throat, and he pulls me close. “Say it again.”
“Hey man, there are other people on the elevator,” a guy in a suit, holding a briefcase, whines.
My stomach jerks, scared of how Arlo will react.
The corners of his delicious mouth tilt up. His gaze stays locked on me. “I only see you. I only feel you.”
The guy grumbles, but we ignore him. It’s not hard when I’m staring at the most captivating man on earth. His fingers tighten on my neck, sending a rush of moisture between my legs.
“Say it again.” His voice rumbles in my ear.
“I. Am. Yours.” I nibble his earlobe into my mouth and nip it with my teeth. “When we get to my apartment, I want you to fuck me face-to-face. I want you to shove your big beautiful cock into my needy cunt, and I want you to pound me so hard, you tattoo your initials into my uterus.”
The elevator stops once more, and the last of the hotel guests filter off, leaving us blissfully alone.
Arlo hoists me into his arms and slams my back against the wall. “My fucking pleasure.”
“Literally.” I giggle.
“Yours too.” His devious fingers toy with the seam of my ass through my pants.
I buck against his touch. “Absolutely.”
His hand is back on my throat, hot and firm. He pulls me to him, and his mouth crashes to mine. His slick tongue invades, ready to pillage and plunder. My fingers delve into his hair, holding him impossibly close.
When the elevators stops, I don’t know whose floor it is, but Arlo seems a little more aware. He rushes us off and to my door. I roll my hips up his length, and then down. My head dances with desire, spinning wildly out of control. I’ve had to be so good for so long, not tempting him too much because I wasn’t ready. But I am now.
“Fuck, where are your keys?” The words are garbled against my lips.
I shrug and buck against his cock, not giving a shit who might see. In fact, I hope my farthest neighbor on the floor does. She’s been eye-fucking him for a week but crossed the line the day before he left. The bitch giggled and slapped a hand onto his arm.
I’d never experienced real jealousy before. It turns my inside to pure hate, and I envisioned stealing Arlo’s knife from his pocket and stabbing her…in the hand only. Still, it wasn’t a pleasant feeling.
He’d handled her with much less violence. Though the look he’d given her and her reaction to it worked like a slap across her cheek.
“Hailey, please.”
My smile is huge and a little devilish. I love when he begs. Of course, I love when he makes me beg too.
He pries me from him and ignores my grasping fingers. He’s so strong, he turns me to face the door and urges me forward. “Open the door, now.”
I quake at the command in his shredded voice. My hands shake like they did the first time I opened my apartment door for him. Like the first time his hand came up and steadied mine.
As soon as the door opens, Plinko’s meows assault us. They’re louder than usual, and when he blows past me to get to Arlo, I realize he’s missed his new friend.
“Hey, Plink.” Arlo scoops him up and nuzzles him close. He pulls a toy from his pocket and shakes it in front of my cat’s dark nose. He’s reluctant to leave the cleft of Arlo’s chin. Who can blame him? By the time I’ve closed and locked the door, his paws swat at the small feathered mouse. “I’ll play with you later, Buddy. I promise.”
He tosses the jingly toy toward the living room and sets Plink onto the floor. My cat takes off after the mock mouse as though it’s his job to secure his own dinner.
“You’re a softy.” I can’t help but smile at Arlo, the big brute with a heart of fucking gold.
His hand snags the massive dick misshaping the crotch of his pants. “Hardly.” He stalks toward me and I dash to my bedroom. He is hot on my heels.
When I reach the end of my bed, the door slams closed and I’m trapped exactly where I want to be.
I kick my shoes off and wrestle out of my pants.
Arlo stalks forward, shedding his jacket and his shoes. “I know you remember your safe word.”
I nod and frantically unbutton my shirt.
“You’ll need it.” He unfastens his buttons and rips his shirt off, revealing the most stunningly gorgeous and abused skin I cannot get enough of. I’ve mapped every line and puckered surface with my tongue and lips. I want to do it again and again, until forever.
“Do you remember the last time we fucked at Crave, before I knew who you were?”
My thighs clench, remembering the strap at my hips and the force of his thrusts. They nearly jarred me off the bench. “Yes.”
“That was me holding back.” His belt whines from between his belt loops. The edges of his pecs, the bulge of his biceps, and the cords of his forearms flex and my body turns to jelly. He snaps the leather between his hands. I moan.
“You don’t need that today.” He unbuttons his pants. “My cock will punish you enough.” The zipper whines and I do too.
I don’t need the belt, but I’m ready for everything he’ll give me. I wait for him to order me onto the bed, but he doesn’t. I’m too mesmerized by his etched abdomen, black boxer briefs, and thick thighs to care overly much. My mouth waters.
“Your clothes, Hailey. If you value them at all, I suggest you take them off.”
My gaze drops to my shirt, bra, panties, and low socks I forgot I had on. I rush to strip, leaving a pile beneath me. He crooks his finger, and I go to him.
He wraps his arms around me. I’m instantly warm and safe.
“I’m so thankful for your touch, Arlo. I can’t imagine going without it.”
His hands delve into my hair. An insistent tug on the strands pulls my head up, and I meet his weighty gaze. “You never will.”
He attacks my mouth, engulfing me in desire. His fingers work down my body. My skin is plied to the fit of his hands. The pointed flesh of my nipples thrum against the backs of his knuckles.
Slowly, his mouth works down my neck and seals over my right nipple. The elasticity of my knees snap, threatening to topple me. My hands thread through his hair. The silky strands and the torment of his mouth make my eyes roll back into my head. He pinches my free nipple and rolls it, sending shock waves through to my core.
“Arlo.” It’s a beg and a chant.
“Huuuuuuh?” The vibration radiates through my breast, and my memories collide with reality. All the nights I’ve already spent with this man, molding my body’s pleasure to his whims. I may not have known who he was, but he knew how to send me over the edge time and again with nothing but focused bliss.
“I love your hands.”
His lips pop off my nipple and shift to my left, swallowing it back as though it were his food source. I feel the tug at my clit.
“And your mouth,” I nearly shriek.
He folds my already sore nipple back on itself and then flicks it while maintaining the vicious suction on my other nipple. My hips buck. The impending swell of orgasm builds, higher and higher, until I can’t draw a full breath.
When he bites down, I crest and crash.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” I hold him close to me and practically hump his forearm as ecstasy cracks me into a thousand tiny pieces.
“Hearing you come, watching you come has been the best part of my life for the past year and a half.” He holds me upright and kneels at my feet. “Knowing you and really seeing you is better than I ever thought possible.”
He grabs my thigh, lifts it, and sets my foot on the end of my bed, fully exposing my pussy.
I hold on to his shoulder. “It’s not bad for me either,” I pant.
The edges of his mouth tip upright, giving devil vibes. “Let’s see if I can do better than not bad.”
“You already have!” I scream the second his tongue slips between my slick lips. I’m so sensitive, it almost hurts, but he’s careful to stay away from my clit. So careful that just a minute later, I’m shifting my hips to get him where I want him.
A smack resounds in the room a second before I register the sting on my ass. I moan outright, like a good little slut.
He leans back from the nook he’s made between my sprawled thighs. His lips glisten with my arousal while his eyes glint with desire and determination. “Do you know how long I’ve waited for this, Hailey?” He doesn’t wait for my response. That’s good because I can’t formulate coherent thoughts right now. “Don’t rush me.”
I whimper but hold still. Actually, I hold his head as it shifts and writhes against my intimate flesh. My pussy feels so heavy and hot. I cup my breasts. They’re so tender, my hips jerk.
He spears me with a single finger, wraps his lips around my clit, and sucks deep.
“Yes, Arlo! Fuck, babe!”
With a few easy flicks of his tongue over the flat of my clit, I bow, my legs shake, and my vision narrows until I snap my eyes closed. I come down, melting into his arms. My legs bracket his hips.
He kisses my shoulder to my neck, then finds my mouth. I taste myself on him and moan. I’ve never wanted to mark my territory until now. This seems like a good way to do it.
“You called me babe.”
I blink him into view. There’s a smug smile on his pretty face. “Did I?” I let my gaze flit left and right. “Must have blacked out. I don’t remember.”
He snarls and stands, holding me to his chest. “Looks like I’ll have to remind you.”
“It looks that way.” I grin down at him.
Arlo presses a chaste kiss to my lips, then lays me on the bed. His wide chest touches mine.
That’s when it hits me. Like truly smacks me between the eyes. “Babe.”
His smile goes megawatt.
“This, in a real way, is my first time.”
His smile doesn’t fade so much as it shifts to a serious warmth. “It’s the same for me.”
All the flare and finesse go out the door as we stare at each other, more raw and more exposed than ever before.
My lips itch to tell him that I love him, but I’m scared, still, in spite of everything. I tell myself it’s okay. That everything will be fine, in time.
Arlo straightens and lowers his underwear.
I gulp at the sight of him. He’s a dichotomy. Abuse and success. Vulnerability and strength. Humility and wealth. Jagged scars and utter beauty.
My body shakes without my permission.
He shucks his boxer briefs, then presses his warmth onto me, gathering me close. “Talk to me.”
I grab his face and bring it to mine. “You’re perfect.”
“Hardly,” he rasps.
“You are perfect. Perfect to me. Perfect for me. It’s like you were made for me.”
“That, I’ll never argue with.” Arlo slips a hand between us. He grabs his cock and positions his bare skin at my entrance.
“We’re both clean and have only been with each other for the past year.” Since, I safed out. Thank God I safed out. “I’m on birth control. Have been forever it seems.”
“Tell me how much you want me,” he demands.
“I want what’s mine, and you’re mine, Arlo.” My hand wraps around the back of his neck. “Don’t you want what’s yours?”
His fat head breaches my body.
My pants are so loud and fast, I might pass out. My hips arch off the bed, seeking every glorious inch.
He invades me slowly, completely, as though making it known that I’m conquered. His hips flex, seating himself inside me fully.
“I am yours, Hailey.” His mouth covers mine, regulating my breathing.
Stupid tears slip from my eyes. My insides go all squishy. I wrap my arms around him and hold him tight. His hips withdraw slowly, then push forward even slower.
“Yours,” he snarls.
“Mine,” I moan. The gentle touch is so different than I’m used to. His bare skin slides against mine, in me, and coaxes my orgasm to the surface with each measured pull. “Arlo, oh God.” I grab at his back, pulling him closer, arching higher. The striations of his corded abdomen strum my swollen clit. “Yes, please. Mine.”
“Yours.” He shoves deep, so deep. His hips jerk, and I come on his cock.
Shocking warmth spreads through me. My eyes pop open, and I find him looking at me, at where our bodies are joined. Cum coats the base of his cock.
That was fast, and we only have each other to blame.
My nipples go hard at the sight of our hasty ardor. “Fuck.” I gasp. “I’ve never been more turned on than I am right now. See us, feeling us.”
“Coated in desire?” He juts his hips forward, mashing the slick heat against the lips of my pussy.
“Yes.”
“Good.” He nips a line across my collarbone and across my breasts. “In just a minute, I’ll fill you up again. When I do, I want you to give me one more.”
“Yes.” My moan turns into a squeal as he flicks my nipples and tweaks them between his thumb and forefinger. His weight pulses deep in my cunt, and I squeeze him with my muscles.
He groans.
I’ve never felt more powerful.
His hands bracket my middle, and he levers up over me. The fans of his lashes are wet, telling me I’m not the only one on this emotional ride.
“You’re so fucking beautiful, Hailey.”
He eases back and rams hard, stealing my breath for a response. All I can manage is a gasp. His abdomen stretches and flexes with each withdrawal and thrust. They grow in tempo and force. His grip tightens around my middle in an effort to keep me close.
It’s not enough. I’m jutted up the bed with each snap of his hips.
He leans forward, snakes his arms up my back, and clamps onto my shoulders from behind. His hips hammer back and forth, spreading our cum over his cock and slicking it over my pussy.
The sounds that come out of us are barely human. We sound more like the animals inked into my body, which ratchets my desperation for him even more. He is my beast, and he’s marking my body as his.
“Fuck me. Mark me. Please, Arlo.”
He slams into me, stealing my breath as I come apart in his arms. His grip holds me together, and his cum fills me to overflowing.
“Mine, Hailey.” I nod my agreement. “You’re mine.”
His heart slams against mine as though it’s trying to convey a message via Morse code.
I think I know what it’s saying because mine is saying the same.