Chapter 16
Cash
I slide my hands up her arms and over her shoulders until I cup Marina’s pretty face. As if the anticipation in her eyes didn’t tell a novel worth of information already, I still need to start with the basics. “Will you stay?”
“You couldn’t kick me out after the promise you just made.” I grin, but hers falls too fast for my liking. She fists my shirt and whispers, “I’m nervous.”
“You don’t need to be.” I keep my eyes on her lips, then dip my head and lick the corner of her mouth.
“Not with me, babe. Not ever.” I suck in her breath as her body falters.
I’m quick to catch her. It’s not the first time a woman has fainted in my presence, but she was a stranger.
I have no intention of letting Marina pass out before making her come so hard that she’ll never forget it.
Her legs are steady, and her eyes open, meeting mine. The length of her hair falls over her shoulders as she looks up at me like I hung the moon in the sky just for her. I would. For her, I would do it just to see her smile. So I won’t let her down now.
I kiss her, knowing nothing could stop me from giving her everything she deserves. Our lips part before we get too heavy, and I brush the hair from her eyes.
She asks, “The bedroom?” This is one invitation I would never turn down.
As I take her hand and lead her down the hall, I’m at a loss for words.
There’s no reason she should be here. No reason for her to waste her time on me.
No reason that I’m being given the chance to be with such an incredible woman.
Marina’s everything I don’t deserve based on my bad deeds in life. So I won’t take her for granted.
She stops in the bedroom and then looks back at me. “You have very good taste.”
Leaning against the doorframe, I give her a once-over, taking in every inch of her and debating where I’ll begin to unravel her. “I agree.”
Her cheeks pinken, noticeably even in the dimmer light of the bedside lamp. “I was referring to the furniture and decor.”
“I was referring to you.”
She clasps her hands in front of her, innocence straining in her posture. Licking her lips, she takes a breath and says, “So . . . here we are.”
“Here we are.”
“In your bedroom.” She looks around again as if seeing it in a new light this time. “This is where all the girls come. Oh God. I didn’t mean it that way, though it’s probably correct in both entendre.” Rubbing a hand over her face, she shakes her head. “Please put me out of my misery and kiss me.”
Although I’m amused by the rambling, I won’t make her suffer any longer.
I cross into the room and go straight for her, running my hands around the base of her neck and bending to kiss her.
It’s gentle at first, the tension still felt in her shoulders.
But when I encourage her lips apart, and our tongues meet, her body loosens under my touch.
I walk until the back of her legs meet the bed, then stop everything. “I want you to take your clothes off. Will you do that for me, babe?”
A thousand thoughts cross through her eyes as panic sets in. “Like, just strip right here with you staring at me?”
“Yes.”
“Whew,” she exhales loudly with her hands planted on her hips. I expect her to start pacing at this rate or throwing jabs in the air. “I can do that. Yep, no problem.”
As entertaining as this is, it’s not exactly what I intended. “You psyching yourself up there, champ?”
Her eyes find mine again. “Sure am.”
“If you’re not comfortable—”
“No,” she starts, on the verge of another run-on sentence, and nods while staring at the floor. “I can do this. It’s like acting. I’ll just get into character—” She gasps when I capture a whirling hand, stilling it.
When her gaze reaches mine, I say, “I don’t want you in character. I just want you, Marina.” My voice is firm, but she appears to find understanding in the direction.
Her body stills, but her breathing remains steady. “Okay.”
“Will you allow me?”
Her wordless reply comes in another nod, but no nerves are attached this time.
“Turnabout is fair play.” I start on my shirt first, tugging it off over my head and dropping it at our feet. The tips of her fingers, the slight edge of her nails start on my chest and lightly scrape lower over my abs. Her eyes follow the trails, then she lifts to kiss just under my collarbone.
Her touch, her lips, the kiss, her . . . it’s all so sweet that I can’t stop myself from holding her to me, even if just for a moment. I kiss her head, rubbing her back.
She steps out of my hold, and with her eyes locked on mine, she unbuttons her shirt.
My gaze dips lower when the shirt travels over her shoulders, exposing her bra and the bare skin of her abdomen.
The uncertainty that lived briefly in her eyes has vanished, replaced with determination, intrigue, and conviction as she starts on my jeans.
Pushing my fingers into her hair, I caress her scalp, keeping her eyes up as she goes lower. Not that I’m shy. Far from it. “I can’t get enough of how fucking sexy you are, babe.”
“In the paddock, I got even madder when you took your helmet off.”
I smirk, outlining her lips with my gaze. Fuck me, she’s hot. “Oh yeah? Why’s that?”
She continues on my zipper, then stands up again. Leaning against me, she says, “I wasn’t expecting you to be so attractive.”
Laughter escapes me. “It would have been better to argue with me if you didn’t find me so devastatingly handsome?”
Running her hands over my shoulders like she already knows I’m hers, she laughs. “Your words, not mine.”
“Are you calling them a lie?”
“No, the truth is in there. I just hate that you already know it.”
I work on the clasp at the back of her bra, popping it. “Hate is the opposite of love. Is that what it’s going to be with us? Love or hate with no in-between?”
Peeling the straps from her arms, I watch the bra slide off her body to the floor. “Seems that way.”
She steps back again, standing before me like a present I don’t deserve. As she slides her jeans down, there’s no shy girl left, only a confident woman before me. She even pulls the lace wrapped around her hips down with the denim.
Placing her hand against me, she steps out of them and looks up at me. “Breathe.”
I release a heavy breath that had been trapped in my chest. I’m never nervous about sex. It’s second nature to me, but with her, this feels like more than two people enjoying each other’s company. I touch her neck and bend to kiss the same spot. “You stole it.”
“Turnabout is fair play.”
Bringing her against me and feeling the heat of our bodies surging through the shared connection, I say, “It sure is,” then kiss her. Deep. Tangling tongues. Kneading her tits until a moan is solicited.
She pulls back to slip my jeans down the rest of the way, my boxer briefs coming with them. Her eyes cover my body before she wraps around me, shamelessly teasing my cock with her body.
Getting a good handful of that beautiful ass of hers, I ask, “Now that you have a new phone, what are you going to hold against me this time?”
“It’s not what I’m holding to you but you’re holding to me that I’ll remember most.”
“Trust me, sweetheart, this won’t be what you remember most about tonight.”
“Prove it.”
I lift her and toss her on the mattress.
Coming around, she’s lost in laughter when I climb on next to her.
That quietens her real quick. She reaches out for me, her fingers running along the hills of my bicep and higher as I go lower.
Spreading her legs, I settle between them and kiss her lower belly.
Her lips call to me with the smoothest skin and sweetest scent.
I dip my tongue between them and taste her for the first time.
When she reaches so the tips of her fingers scroll over my shoulders, I look up and whisper, “I’m going to make you feel so good.” I slide my hand over her belly and between her tits. “Lie back for me like a good girl.”
Her head falls to the pillow, and her hands rest on the cover that she fists her fingers around. I kiss her inner thigh and say, “Relax, baby, okay?”
“Okay,” she says, her voice coated in staggering breaths.
Lifting her leg up by the knee, I position it over my shoulder so I can go deep for her.
I don’t tease. I go right in with my tongue, then lick the length of her entrance and suck her clit.
She bucks beneath me, so I reach up and hold one of her hands to the bed.
She holds tighter to it as I do another round.
But it’s when I dip two fingers in and slowly drag them out again that her body lifts, her back arching, her moans begging for more.
I kiss her sweet bud and fuck her with my fingers until she’s pulling my hair. “Cash. Pleasesse.” The words are dragged from a carnal yearning that taints her voice with desperation.
Please is my weakness, like she is. I suck harder, flick faster, and pump quicker until I feel the tremors quaking her body and taste all of her as she comes on my mouth.
When she sinks into the mattress, all fight gone, I move higher, anchoring my hands on either side of her head before lowering to kiss her just as deep as I did her entrance. The heat of her hands warm everywhere she touches as her arms come around me, and she kisses me with just as much fervor.
I break away and pull a condom from the nightstand drawer. The peaks of her nipples are on display against the pinkish areola, tempting me back to her. I kiss one and then the other, leaving each with a swirl of my tongue before rolling to my side to put the condom on.
Glancing at her, I ask, “How do you feel?”
“Free.” She smiles, stretching her arms above her head. “I don’t have a better word to describe it.”
“You don’t need a better word. I get it.” I settle back between her legs, this time positioning my dick instead. Kissing her, I bend toward her ear and whisper, “You know what’s better than free? Coming together. I want you to come with me, baby. You understand?”
I kiss her cheek as she nods, and when I reach her lips, I kiss her and push in. Her mouth opens, and she sucks in a breath, followed by a calming moan. “Oh wow.” The words slip from her lips.
The heat.
The way she stretches for me.
The hold she has.
I’m consumed by her. Obsessed with her. “So tight, baby.”
“God, please move. It’s too much.”
“Since you put it so nicely . . .” I pull out and thrust back in.
I kiss her neck and under her jaw, squeeze her tits, and fuck her like I don’t know her name.
Her body writhes wildly under mine, chaotic in the bond as we both thrust together.
But then she pushes me over and slides on top by straddling me.
Pressing her palms to my chest, she finds the stroke that feels too good to stop, and her eyes can barely stay open.
I grab onto her ass, encouraging every grind and thrust as I watch her perfect tits bounce on her chest and feel the heat of her body taking over mine . . . “Fuck, I’m going to come.”
“Wait. Wait. Wait,” she says, panic striking her tone.
The rocking slows down, every move both delicious torture and pushing me closer to the edge.
When she finds her stride again, she leans forward, her touch light but nails sinking into my chest. She holds her breath, and under a curtain of her hair, she cries, “Oh God, yes. Yes. Oh yes.”
The sound of her pleasure and the grip of her body around my dick sends me careening off the cliff with her. I squeeze her hips and shove upward several times. “Fuck,” I shout, gritting my teeth right after until I hit that purgatory of peace found in the aftermath.
My body gives in, and I lie, eyes closed, with my arms spread wide. Marina cuddles to my side, her leg draping over my thigh. I wrap my arm around her and pull her closer, reaching to kiss her. I’m met with welcoming lips and a blissful sigh.
We lie together in the quickening of our breaths until they regulate along with our heartbeats again. When I look and see her languid smile, my heart beats hard in my chest. I like this . . . this with her.
I like her.
She opens her eyes, her smile widening as she sees me already staring at her. Running her fingers along my temple and jaw, she says, “That was the best sex I ever had.”
I’m out of snappy comebacks or arrogant remarks.
I’m stuck in the beauty of this woman and how easily she’s accepted me despite the rough beginning.
I’m mad that I need to leave in less than seven hours to make my flight to France instead of having the privilege of waking up next to her.
She feels so right. Her arms are where I belong, and she belongs in mine.
She kisses my shoulder. “I set you up for the perfect comment, and you say nothing?”
Choking down the words that would be utterly ridiculous to admit to her, I reply, “What can I say? It was the best sex of your life.”
I catch her little fist and bring it to my mouth to kiss. “And the best night of my life as well.”