“I’m just unsteady with . . . weight on top of me, with not being able to move.” Or get away. “But I want you. I need to believe we can do this.”
“I’m so sorry, baby. All you had to do was say so. We’ll work with it. We’ll get there. It’s fine.”
“But I’m frustrated! How many accommodations should you have to make for me? It’s been years. I wasn’t the one raped.”
“Physically, no. Mentally, you were. You saw something really ugly when you were still a kid and it lingered. It disturbed you. It affected you. I don’t blame you for that. You shouldn’t blame yourself.”
Maybe not, but blaming Canton didn’t make her feel any less frightened or more normal.
Lily cast the thought aside. “You’re so patient.”
That almost made her feel more guilty. Tears pooled in her eyes. One or two even hit her cheek. As usual, though, she couldn’t seem to have a gut-deep, heartfelt sobfest. That frustrated her as well.
“I have a feeling you’re going to be worth it.” He sneaked a hand up under her shirt, caressing the curve of her waist and wrapping his arm around her. “Where were we? Wasn’t I kissing you?”
Slowly, Lily nodded. Obviously Stone didn’t see the point of dwelling on what she couldn’t change right this instant. He would never enjoy sex with her if she kept worrying and whining about it, too.
She forced a smile. “I think so.”
Lowering herself against his chest, she took his big face in her small hands, her pale skin a sharp contrast to his bronzed cheeks, and layered her mouth over his.
Unlike the way he kissed, she hesitated, at first barely more than a sharing of breaths. It wasn’t enough—not even close. So she tilted her head and laid her lips over his, pressing her breasts against him, reveling in the way he cradled her against his more powerful body and moaned.
“Open to me, baby.”
Lily didn’t think twice about complying. She felt safe now, so she parted her lips to him with abandon, seducing him with a slight curl of her tongue and a coy retreat. He surged deeper, stalking her, forcing his way into her mouth as he grabbed handfuls of her shirt, ensuring she couldn’t pull away this time.
Beneath her, he bent his knees, spread them apart, and surged up. His thick erection prodded her slickening flesh, causing her to gasp.
“That’s it.” He trailed his lips down her neck, making her shiver. “I want to see you come apart for me. I want you unraveled and tousled and out of your mind with desire.”
“I’m halfway there,” she panted.
“Good. Now let’s get to the other half.” His fingers snaked around her back. A couple of strokes later, the band of her bra loosened. The garment fell away from her body.
“How did you do that with one hand?”
Stone grinned. “Determination. I’m going to touch you everywhere, baby. You tell me when it’s too much.”
He didn’t wait for her to say anything more before he sat her up straight again and reached into the short sleeve of her blouse, then pulled one bra strap over her elbow and off her arm. He did the same with the other, his dark stare focused on her, watching carefully. When he eased his fingers under her shirt and up her abdomen, he pulled her bra away and tossed it across the room. She gasped at the sudden freedom, at the friction of her nipples against the starched cotton.
Through the fabric, Stone cradled her breast in his hand, lightly pinching her nipple. “This sore?”
She panted and arched into his hand. “A little. But it feels so good.”
“Want to add to the sensations?”
“Yeah.” She nodded, losing herself in his touch, in the mounting bliss.
“That’s a good girl. Hmm . . .” He withdrew his hand from her breast. Before she could protest, he unfastened the first two buttons of her blouse.
When he reached for the third, she gripped his thick wrist to stay him. Damn, she could even feel his muscles flex and bunch there. “Can you leave this on for now?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Absolutely. But I want to see those breasts. I want to take those nipples in my mouth and hear you whimper.”
Even if he left her shirt on, she didn’t think whimpering would be any problem. “Please.”
Stone tugged the two halves of her shirt as far apart as he could without busting the buttons. Lily looked down to see her breasts entirely exposed. He stared raptly.
“They’re not big,” she said in apology.
He scowled at her self-criticism, then pounced on the twin mounds. Cupping them as if riveted, he dove in, his thumbs capturing and pinning the twin points against his thick fingers.
“They’re perfect,” he muttered. Then he took one of the tight buds in his mouth.
Lightning hissed down Lily’s spine. She arched and balanced herself as best she could for his onslaught. She’d barely absorbed those sensations before he switched to the other breast, tonguing her taut bud, nipping at it with his teeth.
“Stone,” she moaned. “Oh my god . . . Yes!”
Though she knew he could be capable of great tenderness, he ate at her as if he were starved, as if he couldn’t wait another moment to taste everything she offered. Over her flesh, his lips dragged, tongue swirling. He sucked, tugged, moaned.
Curling her hand around his neck, she drew him closer, holding him against her as if she couldn’t stand for him not to have her sensitive tip in his mouth. Then she tossed her head back and felt her caution begin to break.
With a growl, he switched to the other peak. She felt every one of the muscles in his arms and chest bunch with effort as he pulled her in tighter, dragging her down on top of him.
Her nipples tingled as they drew up tighter than she’d ever felt them. As he left one to torment the other, the tip he’d just abandoned throbbed and ached. She could get used to this every day. In fact, she wondered how she’d live without this heaven if he didn’t want to touch her again tomorrow.
He released her breast, panting wildly. “Fuck, Lily. I’ve got to touch your pussy.”
She whimpered at his words. But Stone was a man of action. He used all his brute strength to roll her over. He leapt to the side of the bed and tugged her to the edge, then tore her shorts from her body, yanking them down her thighs. Her panties didn’t fare any better. He all but shredded them in his hands.
Stone stared at her bare mound, his chest rising and falling as he dragged in deep breaths. “Oh, I need that.”
Even with her heart pounding against her chest and an anxious ball knotting her belly, Lily wanted to give it to him.
Slowly, she parted her thighs. As he pulled her drenched folds apart with his thumbs, she hissed at the feel of his hands on her. He was touching her right there.
Discreetly, she tugged her blouse down to her hips and anchored it in place. It might look like a nervous reaction to him—if he even considered it. As focused as that melting chocolate stare of his was, she didn’t think it crossed his mind at all.
“This is mine.”
That had to be the most caveman thing any guy had ever said to her. What had sparked so much possessiveness on his part? “What do you mean?”
“Your pussy.” His nostrils flared as he dragged her scent in. “That fucking delicious scent.”
“You can . . . smell me?” The thought horrified her.
“Oh, yeah. You don’t understand, do you?” When she shook her head, he just grinned. “Baby, sex isn’t polite or sanitary. Done right, it should be dirty and intimate. That scent serves a purpose. It tells me that you’re aroused. And it only makes me ache for you more. So don’t you dare wish I couldn’t breathe you in. Ever.”
“Really?” If he enjoyed it, then she wanted to give him more.
Lily spread her thighs a bit wider.
“Yes,” he groaned. “Those pretty, pouting lips. That tight clasp I know I’ll feel once I work inside you. That pussy may be between your legs, but make no mistake. It’s mine.”
An irrational zip of th
rill whisked through her. She should correct him since they would probably only be together until the danger died down or he got bored, whichever came first. But she didn’t want to refute him. She liked the idea of being his.
“Yours.”
Triumph lit his face. “Give it to me. Hold it open so I can take it.”
A voice in the back of her head shouted that this was too intense, happening too fast. The woman inside Lily didn’t care. She wasn’t listening to fear anymore. She was sinking into ecstasy. Stone would take care of her.
With her elbows, she pressed the fabric of the shirt down to cover her abdomen. Then she lowered her trembling fingers to her flesh and held herself open for Stone.
His stare felt like an inspection, as if he was cataloging everything about her. Desperately, she waited for his next move, finding it hard to breathe without gasping, to lie still without shaking.
Then Stone lowered his head and kissed her thigh. As she moaned, he swiped a pair of fingers right over her most sensitive spot. Her body jerked. Heat scalded her veins. The ache under his touch tightened viciously, gripping her in a thrall she never wanted to escape.
“You like it.” He slanted an arrogant stare up her body, sounding proud. “Tell me.”
He didn’t touch her again until she complied.
“I like it,” she whispered.
“You want more.”
She gave him a shaky nod. “I want a lot more.”
“Remind me who your pussy belongs to. Who you belong to.”
“You.” For now.
He smiled in satisfaction. “Yes, you do.”
Then he said nothing else, just rubbed her sensitive nubbin in small, lazy circles, ogling her. She couldn’t look away from his eyes, falling under his spell as she writhed under his talented fingers while he slowly dismantled her composure and restraint.
Pleasure swirled and gathered, coiling, tightening. The familiar grip of need made her body tense, her breath hitch and catch. She ached for him to hurry her to orgasm. Ironically, she wanted this slide of bliss to go on forever. For so long, the delicious build to an explosion of desire had been a rarity. If she stayed with Stone for long, Lily suspected she’d be regularly bucking and keening and crying out his name.
“Touch your nipples. Keep them nice and hard for me. Good . . . The moment you come, I’m going to get inside you, baby. And I’m going to suck those pretty peaks while I slide deep. It’s going to feel so fucking good.”
Lily had no doubt about that.
As he dragged those ruthless fingers over her swelling bud, her folds grew slicker. They plumped. Sensations mounted. Her nipples stood at rigid attention, and every time she touched them, heat suffused her, lingered, spread. She nearly crawled out of her skin with need.
When she shifted her hips restlessly, he pinned her to the bed with his free hand and resumed his unrelenting torment. “There you are. Your clit is hard, baby. Waiting and pouting and desperate. I love to watch your skin turn rosy for me. God, you’re fucking gorgeous.”
She’d always felt like the “cute” friend. Callie was a striking beauty, so of course she’d found love. Axel had taken one look at Mystery’s exotic features and fallen hard. Even playboy Xander, whom she’d never pictured settling down, had surrendered his heart to a curvy siren of a blonde. Together with his brother, the threesome now had the most precious bow-lipped baby girl.
Until Stone, no one had really looked her way and seen a desirable woman. Of all females on the planet, why her?
“No. I’m just me,” she gasped out.
“Yeah, gorgeous. You’re delicate at first glance. Petite. Your lipstick and stockings and tiny waist sitting on top of those stacked hips made me hard the minute I saw you. A man who isn’t looking closely would think that sweet high-pitched voice belongs to a little girl. But underneath, you’re a woman. And a survivor. You may be quiet, and I think you fool a lot of people, but you’ve got gumption, baby. I can only imagine what you were thinking when you pulled a gun on an ex-con. I dig a chick who can hold her own, and you definitely can.” The hand anchoring her to the bed glided down her hip and stole across the inside of her thigh.
Without warning, he eased two fingers inside her, filling her up completely. And he groaned. “Jesus, you’re so fucking tight. And crap, you’re begging me for this orgasm with those fuck-me eyes. Your whole body is shaking, working for it. You’re right there, aren’t you?”
Lily nodded frantically. The way he talked to her turned her inside out. Axel had always coached and encouraged, ever helpful and gentle. He’d never verbally seduced her or made her feel as if he couldn’t wait to get inside her. Even when he’d given her climax, she’d felt more like a science experiment than a siren unleashing her sexuality.
Stone’s fingers inside her felt intimate. He stretched her flesh with a gentle burn. The thumb still working her clit ramped up the sweet ache even more. It climbed, overtaking and overwhelming her. This orgasm, even though it hadn’t crested yet, blew yesterday’s away. Up, up, she soared until the cataclysm seized her entire body. She no longer belonged to herself but entirely to him. He toyed with her flesh, wielded it against her, then manipulated her until she jolted, froze, and wailed in startling, sparkling bliss.
She stopped breathing, thinking—bathed only in feeling—as the deluge of ecstasy encompassed her, sweeping her up in its path, tossing her around in a dizzying swirl, before sending her tumbling back down.
Lily dragged in air as she melted into the mattress with a moan. Her eyes drifted shut as Stone bent to press a kiss to the expanse between her breasts as he slid his fingers free. A moment later, she heard cardboard ripping, then a tear of something with a slightly metallic sound.
When she cracked her eyes open, she found Stone standing between her legs, rolling the condom slowly over his impressive girth and length. Axel had probably been big but she hadn’t really looked, just reacted, mostly focusing in on her thoughts when he’d asked questions.
The way Stone stroked his erection, he clearly wanted her eyes on him. He was obviously aroused by touching himself while she watched his every move.
Finally, he rolled the condom in place. “You still good to do this?”
After that monster orgasm? Eager was more like it. “Yes.”
He smiled and it brightened his entire expression. But nothing would erase the dark fire of his stare penetrating her as surely as he intended to with his body. “How do you want to do this, baby?”
“Can I be on top?”
“That sounds perfect.” He laid his big body across the rumpled bed, and Lily was amazed at how much of the space he consumed. He looked all bulging arms and rock-hard thighs as he stretched his wide torso across the mattress.
As she began to climb on the bed, he picked her up, plopping her down on top of him until she straddled his hips. Beneath her slick sex, his steely erection prodded her, a silent demand. After the climax she’d just had, she shouldn’t be able to feel arousal for weeks, maybe months. She was certainly used to going without. Anxiety should be returning. Sanity, too. But no. The moment she felt him hard and ready and impatient underneath her, she wanted him.
“Hurry,” she implored.
“Yeah, I want it, too, baby. One question before I go any further. How long has it been for you?”
Chapter Eleven
AT his question, Lily shrank back. Stone clamped down the urge to damn the consequences and start pounding her deep. Instead, he gripped her hips, forced himself from one rough breath to the next, and waited.
“Um . . . A few months.”
With that vague tone, he didn’t believe her for an instant. And that pissed him off. “How many is a few?”
She wouldn’t meet his gaze. “I don’t remember exactly.”
More bullshit. She might be sitting above him now, but he didn’t want her forgetting who was on top.