Chapter 15
Demanding?
Demanding?
I’ll give him demanding. I start right now, slamming my lips over his and taking a taste of his stubbornness. I’m done with his critique of me, one I never asked for in the first place.
I don’t sample any stubbornness or resistance in this kiss. He bends to my will immediately. With a sexy growl, he lurches forward, sealing his lips over mine with a driven hunger. I gasp at the realization he’s not against me in this. He meant it. Dalton really does want me. He wasn’t making it up.
I feel it in the softness of his lips brushing against mine. I hear it in the growls and grunts he releases to match my needy whines and mewls. I taste it, too, as he traces the seam of my lips then darts his tongue in to find mine.
Oh, damn. I wasn’t prepared for this. I’m not ready. Giving in to the desire I have for him threatens to overwhelm me, and I don’t know if I can keep up. If he’ll be the one insisting on more from me, instead of the other way around.
I’ve never experienced such a total wave of wanting and yearning and clamoring for someone like him. Love sounds like such a sweet and deep emotion at the same time, but this beast of need is something more powerful and impatient. What I am struggling to overcome is lust. Potent and primal lust is driving me now. I’m not a virgin, but it’s been a while, and I’ve never been so thrown by the urgent need Dalton inspires in me.
I reach out for him, needing to ground myself with more contact. I can’t get close enough. He hauls me into his arms, knowing that it’s not enough. I’m crushed within his strong arms, and every point of contact between us fuels me to want him even more. Each inch of him is hard and firm against me. The contrast of him so solid and hot excites me. I’ve never considered myself short or petite, but in his embrace, fighting to kiss him back just as roughly, I feel so small and protected. Nothing could come between us. We started this, and I want it all.
He cups the back of my head, taking control of the kiss to secure me where he wants me, then slides his tongue even deeper into my mouth. I duel, relishing the wicked warmth of him, and each thrust of his tongue makes me want to feel more of him pushing against and into me. I claw at the back of his shirt, desperate to truly appreciate his body. Seeing him shirtless earlier, I felt the initial flush of desire take root within me. Of course, I was attracted to him. I have been since I first met him, despite my anger with him. It’s taken me this long to surrender to the irrefutable fact. Witnessing that brief show of his skin when he corrected his shirt gave me a memory I will never forget. Cast in the glowing light of the fire, he looked otherworldly and sexy, like a dream or apparition that would never be mine.
Dalton can be mine. Tonight, and when he slants to the side and lowers us to the floor, I can’t wait to make it happen.
“If I say please…” I say when he breaks the kiss to suck in heaving lungfuls of air. I gasp, starving for oxygen in the kiss that went on forever.
“Fuck that. I don’t need you to beg.” He presses hot, wet kisses along my jaw, nuzzling me until he sucks on my neck.
I giggle, both charmed and amused by his rabid desire. “If I say please, would that still make me demanding?” I contradict myself, gripping the hem of his shirt and tugging upward to make him reveal those chiseled abs and sculpted pecs again.
“Just tell me. Please or not. Tell me what you want, Aubrey,” he grates against my sensitive skin that’s covered in goosebumps. His breaths whip against the kisses he just gave me, and the wetness on my skin teases me.
He doesn’t give me a chance to reply, covering my mouth with his and growling into a brutal kiss that goes straight to the ache low in my belly. His greedy need for me claims all of me. My nipples peak beneath my shirt. My heart races with excitement and yearning. I can’t catch my breath, desperate to indulge in the temptation of this man. I already feel wet, and with the evidence of my need for him, I push against the bulge that presses in delicious friction where I throb for relief.
“Because I want you,” he vows hotly, sliding his hand under my shirt and seeking out my breasts. “I’ve never wanted someone as badly as I do you, Aubrey.”
I wriggle my arms free and try to yank my shirt up. His eyes darken, glittering with lust as he rears up and gazes down at me. He licks his lips and removes the garment. I didn’t bother with a bra, assuming I would stay in my room all night, hiding from the allure of being with this man because I knew I wasn’t strong enough to stay level-headed.
“Fuck, baby,” he whispers as he stares at my breasts. I can feel his hot gaze on me, and I shiver under the thrill of knowing I do this to him. Right now, I am his. And it feels so damn good and right. No reservations. No holding back. I’m all in for a wild night of passion. The tension has been building and sparking between us for so long, I have to let it take over or else I’ll lose my mind. I’m delirious with lust, thinking only of right now, this raw and bold moment alone with him as the storm batters the earth outside. It’s a perfect analogy, the weather crashing and ordering us to heed just as this chemistry between us insists we fall together.
“You want to know what I want?” I ask. I can’t believe I strung that many words together to actually form a real, coherent question.
“Tell me.”
I reach for his pants, hooking my finger under his waistband. “I want you to take me. Hard. Fast. Slow. Gentle. I don’t care. I need you, Dalton.”
He growls and the sound turns me on more as he dips his head to tease my breast with his lips. I cry out at the intense sensation of his lips pulling on my nipple, then the soothing heat of his tongue licking. When he nips with his teeth, I clutch his head to me and fist his hair.
“Yes.”
“More?” he asks.
I nod, too lost to speak as he gives my other breast the same attention while he cups the first one that’s still wet from his mouth. He doesn’t rush, tasting and tormenting me with his talented hand and mouth. I writhe beneath him, damning his position as he hovers over me, preventing me from reaching for him. For his jeans. Or mine. I regret the fact that I wear panties because it’s one more layer, one more obstacle that holds me back from having him fill me.
He understands, though, reaching his hand lower to pop the button to my jeans and slipping the fabric down over my hips. I shouldn’t be so surprised he can tell what I want. This is Dalton, the quiet and guarded billionaire who I think enjoys getting on my nerves. He is reserved about speaking up, but he is always paying attention. Of course, he can tell where I want him.
We shimmy and shift beneath the blankets. The floor is hard and unyielding at my back, but I don’t care. I only focus on his body covering mine as I stretch against the glorious warmth. We’re naked before I can fully register it, too addicted to holding him close and never letting go. Not for a single second.
Behind him, the fire burns away. It casts him in shadows, but he isn’t a threat claiming me or a danger coming at me to ruin anything. Like a bold and sturdy block, he shields me from the heat and strokes his hand up my side.
“I thought you said I don’t need to beg,” I say when the suspense lingers too long. He’s staring so intensely I wonder if he’s committing this night and the sight of my surrender to memory.
He grins, a slow, wicked smile that makes me want to kiss it right off him. “Impatient?” he taunts as he drags his hand lower to the area that throbs for him. I part my legs, letting him stroke those rough fingers up and down the slit to my entrance.
“Very,” I confess. “It’s been a long time.”
He grunts and catches himself midway of rolling his eyes. “It’s been a long time for me too.”
I hate that. I hate that he has to be thinking back to the last time he’s had sex. With his ex. Any reminder of her worsens his mood, and I’m eager to bring him back to the present. With me.
I widen my legs and run my hand up his thick, muscled arms.
“I’m clean,” I say, desperate for him to enter me.
He nods. “I haven’t been with anyone since…her.”
Dammit. Not now. Not here. I don’t want him going back to that sadness. I don’t want him focused on anything and anyone but me, now that I’ve lowered my guard to really let him in. I drop my hand to wrap my fingers around his long, thick erection that bobs and teases me. He’ll hurt. It will stretch, but I trust he can make it good.
He sucks in a breath and stills me with a grip on my wrist. “No. I’m too close.”
“Then hurry,” I taunt.
He smiles slowly and dips his finger into me, stroking and thrusting until I want to cry at the pleasure of his touch.
“I’m clean,” he reassures me as he fingers me.
I nod, straining to catch my breath as the coil of tension low in my belly torques tighter and tighter. He pushes me and urges me closer to a mind-blowing climax. It’s right there, just beyond my reach, and I struggle to let go. To finally let go.
“Shh,” he says when I whine in frustration. “I’ve got you.” He proves it, kissing me deeply as he keeps up with his finger, dragging my wetness over my sensitive flesh. When he presses his thumb to my clit, the dam bursts. Stars explode behind my closed lids as I squeeze my eyes shut tight. I gasp and cry out, jolting my hips up and trembling as I come.
“I’ve got you,” he repeats against my lips.
“No.” He doesn’t. I’m mindless with pleasure, but I know he hasn’t come. And I refuse to be greedy like that. It turns me on to know I make him this ravenous for me, and I damn well plan to see him come too. “Take me, Dalton. Now.”
He groans as I arch my back and thrust at him, seeking his erection. Then he shifts a bit, making room for himself between my legs. Still, he hesitates. I ride wave after wave of pleasure, lost to the freeing sensations and euphoria of coming so hard. But I refuse to do this solo. I’m always alone and making it through life solo, but not in this.
I widen my legs further. Despite my quivering thighs, I line us up better. He closes his mouth over mine, and then he’s at my entrance. Already, I know it will stretch. And in one swift thrust, he fills me to the hilt.
I moan into his mouth and cling to him, wrapping my arms around his neck as he pulls out and then slams back in.
A glorious dozen or so more pumps, and he comes, jerking deep inside me and giving me a second, even more powerful orgasm.
It’s in his arms, just like that, that I fall asleep. After a pair of intense, shattering climaxes, I couldn’t have moved even if a damn tree did fall on the house. And I’m so exhausted after the intensity of his loving that I don’t stir and slip out from his hold.
I wake like that hours later. Sticky and sore. I’m disoriented at first. We’re tangled in the blanket. The fire has disintegrated to nothing but faintly glowing embers. It’s lighter out now, and the house is quiet. Save for the light snores of the man who oh so totally made me sore there, all is still.
Whoa. I blink, wiping away the sleep from my eyes as I realize we’re still on the floor, and that’s what is causing the overall achiness of my muscles unused from slumber on polished planks of hardwood.
It’s lighter out, and with that increase of light, I realize it’s morning.
Not any old morning, but the morning after. Shocked that it wasn’t a dream, but thatI—we—really did that last night, I clutch the blanket to hold it up to my naked body.
“Dalton.” I shake him awake. He’s naked too, but I can’t let my gaze linger on the forbidden sight of all that taut, tan skin.
“Hmmm?” He wakes up slowly, peering at me sleepily.
I tug harder, freeing the blanket from him to hold it close to cover my nudity. Shock propels me to my feet. Nerves and disbelief stun me even further, but I stand, leaving him lying there with the other thinner blanket if he wants to cover up.
“I—this can’t happen again.”
He arches a brow.
“You hear me?”
He slowly smiles. I can’t stay there. I can’t talk. I have to come to terms with what I gave in to. After I frantically scramble and collect my clothes, I run upstairs to hide.
Again.