Stretching, I stood and started down the hall to my bedroom when a thump against my front door startled me. I rushed back and pulled it open, only to gasp at the sight before me.
Kieran Stone, who I had thought had gone hours ago, was sitting on the floor, his head leaning against the wall across from my front door. He looked exhausted, his eyes that were bloodshot with dark circles underneath stood out all the more because he was so pale. His short hair looked as if he had been repeatedly running his fingers through it.
“Hi,” he muttered, his voice hoarse.
“Hi.” I knelt down beside him. “Shouldn’t you be in bed? Or working out?”
He shrugged. “None of that matters right now. Getting you to listen to me, talk to me, that is what matters. If I have to sit here forever, then I will.”
“Kieran…”
“You’ve been crying,” he murmured and traced a finger down the tracks the tears had made through my makeup. “I can’t stand that I’m the reason for your tears, Reese. I don’t deserve them. I’m such a fuck-up.”
“Don’t say that.” Even as hurt as I was, I hated for him to put himself down like that. I stood and offered him my hand. He climbed to his feet, and I led him into the apartment. I sat back down on the sofa, and he followed, sitting close.
“Reese, I’m sorry.”
“What for? You were just being you. I’m the one who was stupid enough to imagine that this was different, that we had something special.”
“No! That isn’t what I’m sorry for. We do have something special. Damn it, I want to be with you. You are different from any other woman I’ve ever met. You are not a groupie, or whatever else it is that you imagine I want you to be. You’re the first woman I’ve ever cared this deeply about. Even though I have only known you a short time, I know you’re going to be a big part of my life. Hell, Reese, you are the only woman I have ever considered introducing to my parents.” He raked his hands through his hair, disheveling it even more. “I told you more about them and myself than I have ever told anyone.”
I bit my lip. His words, along with that voice I loved so much, were touching those new walls I had erected the night before. And the more he spoke, the more I remembered the things he had told me about himself and his family. Along with those memories came the realization that he had been so gentle with me, had been taking things as slow as I needed them to be. Those weren’t exactly the things a man did when he was just looking for a few nights in a new bed.
“I care about you, Reese,” he said with a groan and pulled me into his arms.
I went, meeting his lips willingly. He tasted sweet, just the way I remembered. But the kiss was nothing like I remembered. His gentleness was gone, replaced by an almost desperation. I held on tight, met each demand of his mouth. His teeth nipped at my bottom lip, his tongue delving deep.
I whimpered as his fingers drifted down my arms and caressed my breasts. The sound made him raise his head. “Okay?” He was out of breath. “Want me to go slower?”
“No,” I whimpered, knowing that if he stopped now, I was going to die. “Don’t stop, Kieran.”
His eyes locked with mine, and he tried to read what I was thinking to see if I was really ready for what was about to happen. After a few seconds, he seemed to find the answer he was searching for. With me still in his arms, he stood. I wrapped my legs around his waist and leaned into him. He felt so hot, so strong, so…
Devastating.
I trailed little kisses down his neck as he walked. The door to my bedroom opened, and then my back was against my mattress. For a split second, I was glad I had remembered to make my bed, but then all thoughts of being tidy vanished as he followed me down. His weight felt both comforting and delicious, his lips warm and wet against my collarbone.
“Are you sure, Reese?” he murmured as he reached for the hem of my tee. His eyes were liquid metal, and I found myself lost in their enthralling depths.
“I’ve never wanted anything more than I want you, Kieran,” I told him honestly. My shirt disappeared in an instant, but I stopped him before he could reach for my jeans.
“What’s wrong?” He was concerned but a little impatient.
“I need a minute. Let me shower. I smell like booze, and my makeup is like dry mud.” I pushed him onto his back, and he reluctantly let me go. “Ten minutes,” I promised as I got up and moved toward the door, walking backward so that I could continue to feast my eyes on him. He looked good lying there on my bed, his head on my pillows.
“Five,” he countered with that smile I had hated so much just a few hours ago. Now it just made me want to jump back into bed with him and forget about anything and everything else.
But I didn’t want our first time—my first time ever—to be with my hair smelling of smoke, my clothes stinking of alcohol, and Goth makeup caked on my face. “Seven,” I revised and rushed across the hall to my bathroom.
I had shampoo in my hair when I felt the shower door open, and big, strong hands pulled me into a hard, naked body. I gasped, the only sound that was allowed to leave my mouth before he captured it with his lips. My momentary fear disappeared before it even had time to register. I kissed him back, loving the feel of his hard body pressed so intimately against my own.
“I couldn’t wait two minutes,” he rasped in my ear. “What is it about you that makes me just want to be close to you?” I didn’t know, and he didn’t give me time to even attempt an answer before he lifted me off my feet and pressed me against the shower wall.
My legs wrapped around his thickly muscled waist, his erection pulsing against the inside of my right thigh. It was hot, hard, and trembling against me. I wanted to reach between us and caress it, but I had no clue what to do with it once I did touch it. Instead, I held on to his shoulders and let him devour me with his scorching mouth.
When his teeth scraped across one aching nipple, I cried out. He rolled the hard nub around with his teeth, and with each little bite, I felt a tug on nerve endings deep between my legs that had never before come to life. I couldn’t stand it, wanted him to stop—yet at the same time, feared that he would. Dreaded the end of such mind-numbing pleasure.
When he lifted his head, I whimpered, wanting his mouth on me once more. He smiled a new smile, this one full of longing and desire that told me he wasn’t done giving me what I wanted. “Let’s get you clean, baby. And then I swear I will make you all dirty again.”
He pushed me under the shower spray and gently rinsed the soap from my hair before he added my conditioner. He washed me from neck to feet with my vanilla-scented body wash, lingering on my breasts. When his hands drifted lower, across my stomach and pausing at the junction between my thighs, I caught my breath. His steely gaze locked with mine as he urged my legs apart and skimmed his fingers across my red and gold curls. I didn’t have time to be shy as he parted my folds and skimmed his thumb along the bundle of nerves hidden there.
Any fear I might have had lingering from when The Pervert had touched me so intimately didn’t rear its ugly head. Not one thought of that period in my life when I had feared a man’s hands on me in such a way popped into my head. Something that I wouldn’t realize until hours later.
My legs turned to jelly, and Stone caught me against his chest but didn’t stop his gentle administering. His middle finger teased my opening, while his soapy thumb continued to torture my distended clit. “Like that?” he whispered, watching my face as he continued.
“I…Love…It!” I gasped out, caught up in the sensations he was tormenting me with.
“Tell me you forgive me,” he commanded, his middle finger sinking into me slowly. “Tell me you believe that I care about you, and only ever you.”
“I…” I couldn’t think with his finger deep inside of me.
“Tell me.” His finger stopped, his thumb pressing down roughly on my clit, making me moan. “Please, Reese. I need the words.”
I swallowed my next whimper and nodded. “I forgive you. I believe yo
u. I-I care about you too.”
“God!” He kissed me, deep and hard. His lips feasted on mine while he continued to stroke between my legs.
A new tension was building. My body began to shake, my breathing growing ragged. Just as I thought I was going to fall, he stopped, turned off the water, and lifted me out of the shower. He dried me just as tenderly as he had washed me, combed his fingers through my hair, and then lifted me into his arms once more.
“Do you want me, Reese?” he asked in that deep voice of his, and I shivered. “Do you want this?”
“So much,” I moaned as he placed me in the middle of the bed. I didn’t have time to feel self-conscious about being naked because he carefully covered me with his still-damp body. “I need you, Kieran.”
His hands cupped my breasts, pinching each rosy pink nipple with thumb and forefinger. “So beautiful,” he groaned. “Tell me you are mine, Reese.”
“Yours,” I breathed, loving the attention he was showing my aching nipples. “Only yours.”
“I’m going to make you feel so good, baby.” His words were a promise. One hand left my breast to trail down my stomach. He teased my navel, playing with the little skull charm that hung there. “Cute.”
“You like it?” He nodded, seeming fascinated by the difference between his golden fingers against my peaches-and-cream stomach. “I really like your tats.” I traced one on his bicep, causing him to shiver as little goose bumps rose on his arms.
He kept stroking my stomach, making me squirm. The sensations he was awakening inside of me were begging for him to finish what he started. I didn’t know if I could handle much more. “Kieran, please.” I caught his hands. “What are you thinking about?” I asked, frowning at the look in those incredible eyes of his. He looked tormented, and I hated to see it on his face.
“I’m nervous. More than I have ever been before or since I became sexually active. This is your first time, and I want to make it special.” He brushed a soft kiss across my lips. “But I want you so damn bad, I hurt with it.”
The fact that he was nervous, that it was because he wanted to please me, pushed any lingering doubts about his feelings for me out of my mind. I opened up my heart to him then and there and pulled him into my arms. “Make love to me, Kieran,” I commanded against his ear. “Make me yours right now.”
nine
I trembled from the sheer power of desire emitting from those beautiful gray eyes as he gazed down at me. My body ached to have his possession. My mind screamed that nothing could be more right, while my heart whispered to me over and over again that I was his.
That knowledge didn’t terrify me as it probably should have. Didn’t make me want to scream, throw things, or let all my buried anger take me over. If anything, loving Kieran Stone made me want to let it all go. When he didn’t speak, didn’t move, I leaned forward and brushed a kiss across his open mouth. “Don’t be nervous. I trust you with every ounce of my being. In this moment, I’m yours. And I want you to be mine.”
“I am.” His voice was husky, full of desire and other emotions I couldn’t decipher at that moment. I hoped one of those emotions was love, the same gut-wrenching, heart-aching love I was feeling. “You are everything I didn’t even know I wanted, Reese.”
I gave him a smile full of everything I was feeling. “Will you make love to me, Kieran?”
“Are you sure?” He was shaking now. With the force of holding back? With his emotions? All I knew was that he was making sure I knew what I was doing, and I loved him for it.
Instead of answering him, I reached between us and grasped that part of him I knew couldn’t hide how much he wanted me. He was long, thick, and heavy in my hands. His heat scalded me, made me yearn for that heat somewhere deeper. The thick head was damp and sticky with his pre-come, and I was captivated as I spread it over his impressive length. With the first stroke of my fingers, he jerked in my hand, pulsing with a need only I could fulfill.
The dark blue veins seemed to come more to the surface as I continued to stroke, pulsing with the rushing blood that was making him harder. The heavy sac beneath tightened, and I reached out to give it a gentle tug. I was going on pure instinct here and hoped I was doing everything right. The groan that escaped him told me he enjoyed it, and I lifted my blue eyes to clash with the molten steel of his. “I want you, Kieran.”
He didn’t need another word of encouragement. He pressed me back against the pillows and kissed me until I was breathless. His lips traveled all over my body. I didn’t think there was so much as an inch that he didn’t kiss, didn’t worship with his talented lips. Kieran avoided my breasts, my pulsing clit, the sensitive part of my neck that we had discovered made me cry with pleasure. By the time he was done exploring my body with his lips, I was begging for him.
He sat back on his heels and urged my thighs apart. I watched, unable to form words, I was so far past the point of no return. He ran one finger down the center of me, spreading my folds apart so he could see everything that no one else would ever be witness to. Those gray eyes turned to liquid as he took all of me in for the first time. “So beautiful,” he rasped out and rubbed his thumb against the pulsing bundle of nerves that was my hardened clit.
“Ahh!” I sobbed. The pleasure was so strong, so intense, I couldn’t hold back my cry.
He grinned knowingly as he continued to investigate what gave me the most pleasure. His thick middle finger teased my opening as it had in the shower, making my inner walls clench. As he slowly slid that digit inside, I nearly fell apart. “So tight. So wet.”
My hips lifted, wanting him to travel deeper, but he wouldn’t be rushed. With his free hand against my abdomen, he pressed me into the mattress. “Just enjoy this, baby.”
“I can’t handle much more,” I whimpered as he extracted his finger and rubbed its wetness along my throbbing clit. “It’s too much!”
“Not even close,” he muttered and thrust his finger in once more.
The force of the thrust, the sweet wetness against my aching clit, that fiery look in his incredible eyes, and I was lost. My body took over and arched against the pleasure as it stiffened, pulsing, clenching around his finger. He continued to thrust as my walls squeezed his finger. I heard his choppy breathing, knew that I was turning him on painfully with each convulsion from my orgasm.
Slowly I came down from the high Kieran had taken me to. But instead of satisfying my desperate need for him, he had only made me ache more. I reached for him and pulled him down beside me. My lips found his, and I let instinct take over as I pushed him back against my pillows and climbed onto his chest.
“Reese…” He trailed off as I took his vast length into my hands. He was so thick that one of my hands couldn’t close around him completely. The pre-come coated the pink head, and I spread it down his entire length before I moved to position myself over it. “Reese, slow down. Oh God!” He cursed and thrashed his head from side to side as I slid down his length until I could go no farther.
He stretched me in an almost painful way. My inner walls squeezed him, locking him in place while I adjusted to his size. Kieran’s hands balled into fists at his sides, but he didn’t reach for me. Through my desire-fogged mind, I realized he was letting me have this control, knew I needed it. My heart expanded with so much emotion, so much love, I couldn’t keep it bottled inside.
“I love you, Kieran,” I whispered.
But he was so lost in his own need for fulfillment that he didn’t hear me. His hips bucked, his body finally taking over where his mind had refused to earlier. I held on to his shoulders as he flipped me onto my back and thrust deeper, but still not all the way to the hilt. “So good,” he groaned against my neck as he nibbled along my jaw. “Want you so bad.”
He pulled out and thrust deeper. Even in his driving need, he was still tender, still considerate of my size and lack of experience. But he needn’t have been. I met him with each thrust. My nails scraped down his back, taking skin with it, drawing blood. He
cried out in pleasure, urging me to do it again with pleading whispers at my ear.
I was so close, tense as a bow. But I didn’t want this to end. Wanted nothing more than for it to go on and on until we both died from it. Sweat coated his back and chest; his mixed with mine and caused us to slide against each other with each thrust. It was so good, so good. So. Damn. Good.
“Reese!” He roared my name, and with the first gush of molten hot come against my inner walls, I fell apart in his arms. My nails dug deep into his shoulders as my muscles milked him until he was spent.
Exhausted, out of breath, but completely content for what had to be the first time in my existence, I curled up against him as he moved so his weight wasn’t crushing me. He didn’t pull out of me, was still half aroused, but he didn’t move beyond kissing the top of my head and holding me closer. “Love you,” he muttered as he drifted off into a deep, satisfied sleep.
I grinned happily against his chest. “Love you.”
***
I was woken twice more to Kieran’s lovemaking before it was time for me to get ready for work. For the first time, I was tempted to call Mel and ask her to cover for me that night. But we couldn’t hide under my covers making love indefinitely. We would die from all that pleasure.
Reluctantly, I crawled off the man I loved, who groaned his protest, and took a quick shower. I was making a larger than normal pot of coffee, munching on some granola, and frowning down at my phone which held a text from Mel, when a freshly showered Kieran wrapped his arms around my waist from behind. He kissed the side of my neck just under my left ear, causing me to shiver deliciously.
“Sleep well?” he asked with a smile in that sexy voice of his.
“For the most part.” I leaned back against him and met his gaze over my shoulder. “You?”
There was a wicked look in those mesmerizing eyes of his. “Best rest I have ever had.” He dropped a kiss on the end of my nose. “Can I come back when you get off of work?”