Determination straightened her shoulders and glittered in her eyes. “I want you to leave.” Her voice was rough, ragged with emotion. “Leave and don’t come back, Reno.”
A mocking smile twisted his lips. “Yeah, I guess you do.” He crossed his arms over his chest again, restraining the need to hold her, to promise that everything would be okay. “If I leave,” he continued, “you’ll keep hiding your head in the sand, pretending that somehow, someway, if I’m killed in action, then it won’t hurt. You’ll survive it without a bottle in your hand and your heart will remain intact.”
He watched her pale, the color leaching from her face as she stared back at him in shock.
“Do you really think you can do it, Raven?” he asked softly. “Do you think it won’t hurt? Do you think you have your heart packed away nice and tight where nothing or no one can break it?”
“Stop.” Her voice shook, breaking his heart. But her rejection hurt worse. It seared his soul.
He moved toward her then, gripping her shoulders before she could evade him, staring down at her as he fought his own raging emotions.
“Will it work?” He wanted to make her see the truth. “Look at me, Raven. If I die tomorrow, will it hurt any less than it would if we had a year or twenty together? Will you lay me in the ground any easier?”
“Oh God!” She shuddered, her eyes filling with tears as she stared up at him in misery. “I couldn’t stand it. Don’t you see, Reno? I couldn’t stand it if something happened to you.”
Those tears. He couldn’t handle her tears. God, don’t let her cry—it made him want to kill someone. And since he was the one causing the tears, that didn’t leave many options.
“You don’t understand,” she said, dashing away her tears. “What if I’m like my mother? I don’t have the courage to face that.”
“The hell you don’t,” he said, and swooped down, taking her lips, forcing her head back against the wall as he took the kiss, as he needed to take her heart. Fully. Completely. And her response was everything he knew it could be, everything he knew she kept hidden inside her soul.
Her lips opened, her tongue reaching out for his, suckling him inside the warmth of her mouth as she lifted to him, pressing the hard tips of her nipples into his chest as her arms wrapped tight around his neck, her hands gripping his head.
With a ragged growl, he pulled her closer, lifting her into his arms and turning for the staircase. If this was all he would have, then he would take it. But by God, he would show her. If it was the last thing he managed, he would show her exactly what she was throwing away.
Chapter Seven
The expression on his face was like none she had seen before. Powerful, dominant, the hard planes and angles tightened into sharp relief as he moved.
“Reno.” The protest was halted by the simple means of his lips covering hers again as his hands gripped the rounded curves of her buttocks, pulling her up and flush against the thick cock ridged behind the fly of his jeans.
Heat flared instantly, spreading from her pussy through the rest of her body as her hands gripped his shoulders and she arched closer. She couldn’t imagine never knowing this again, never being held by him, loved by him.
Twisting in his grip, she fought him for the kiss, as desperately hungry for him as he seemed to be for her. His hands clenched the flesh of her rear, pulling at the curves until an erotic, sharp little tingle pierced the small entrance of her anus at the separation of the flesh.
“Feel it, Raven. Feel how sweet and hot it is. That doesn’t just go away, baby; it haunts and eats at the soul and makes you so fucking hungry for it, you think you’ll go crazy without it. That’s how I’ve been. That’s what tears at me every minute we’re apart. Needing this. Your taste, your touch.”
She stared up at him, knowing she couldn’t refute his words. The memory of those brief, heated kisses in the past, his arms surrounding her, had tormented her. She needed him, needed him until it terrified her, but it made her aware of the weakness of her heart and the battle she was losing to hold it aloof.
Then the world spun around her as he lifted her in his arms, ignoring her instinctive protest as he strode across the room and quickly upstairs.
“Reno . . . you’re taking over again,” she gasped as he stepped into her bedroom, lowering her feet to the floor before pulling her back against him once again.
“I’m not taking you fast enough.” He growled, bending his head as he tilted hers back, catching her lips in a kiss that stole her objections, just as it stole her breath.
He chuckled, the sound rough and strained as she worked her hands between them, moving for the buttons that held his cock prisoner. She wasn’t going to stand there, allowing him to control her, to dominate her so easily. She couldn’t deny the pleasure, but she could make him just as crazy as he was making her.
“No, no. Bad girl.” His hands caught hers as he turned her around quickly, pulling her back against his chest as one hard arm locked around her waist. “Look in the mirror. Look how pretty you are, Raven.”
She blinked at the image in the large mirror that sat atop the chest. Reno’s hand moved along her shoulder, lowering the strap of her dress down her arm until the draped bodice fell away from the swollen curve of her breast.
The red lace of her bra showed up clearly against her pale skin, the picture reflected back at her was one of a forbidden taste of sensual excitement. He stood head and shoulders above her, staring down at her as he stripped the dress from her upper body, his lips moving over her neck and shoulder as the material dropped to the floor.
Raven stared into the mirror, seeing him as he surrounded her, a broad, powerful male animal intent on possession. His gaze met hers in the mirror, his gray eyes nearly black, his expression tight, the skin stretched tight across his high cheekbones, the fight for control blatantly evident.
She felt the breath lock in her chest at the image he presented. Boldly, unapologetically male. Possessive. Dominant. He held her and meant it.
“Such a pretty little bad girl,” he whispered then. “Do you know what happens to bad girls, Raven? Bad little girls who refuse to admit what they see staring them in the face?”
She almost came from the sound of his voice alone. She felt her womb convulse, stealing her breath and her senses as his hands smoothed up her waist and cupped her engorged breasts in a firm, heated grip. Devilish thumbs rasped over the peaks, sending flares of brilliant heat washing through her.
The sight of those broad, darkly tanned hands cupping the swollen mounds of her breasts was highly erotic. He was so strong, yet his grip was firm, gentle. There was no pain, no sense of force, just pleasure and hunger and need that spread from those hands to her body and left her trembling in arousal.
“You really are a pervert.” Unfortunately, it was turning her on more than it should.
“Oh baby, you have no idea,” he whispered, his eyes, so filled with emotion and lust, meeting hers in the mirror as he loosened the catch of her bra. “But I intend to show you. I’m about to let you get very well acquainted with every perverted fantasy I’ve ever had about you.”
The bra dropped to the floor.
Raven gasped at the sight of the bare skin as his fingers, the backs of his fingers only, traced the curve of her breasts, rasped over the hard points of her nipples. Electric pleasure sizzled though her nerve endings, sending pulses of sensation whipping over flesh. She could feel her juices easing past her vagina, dampening the bare folds of her pussy as she pressed closer, rubbing her buttocks against his erection.
He wasn’t the only one who could tease. She might not have his experience, but her arousal made up for it. She needed him, needed his touch, his kiss, the flames of pleasure that surrounded her and struck into the core of her being as he held her.
“Vixen,” he growled roughly, pressing his cock tighter against her rear. “You keep teasing me with that little ass and you’ll get more than you bargained for.”
Her
eyes widened as she blinked at his image in the mirror. He looked serious.
“You wouldn’t.” She arched against him as one hand slid down her stomach, his palm cupping the heated contours of her pussy through the lace and silk of the thong that seemed more a tease than any actually covering.
She stared at the image they made—sexual, hungry. His hand cupped her possessively, his fingers curving between her thighs, rasping against the material of the panties over her swollen flesh.
“Don’t bet on it,” he growled at her ear. “But first, I have to show you how I punish bad little girls.”
She had only a second to gasp in shock as he lifted her from her feet, backed to the bed and sat down heavily before pressing her over his legs.
“You wouldn’t! Dammit, Reno!”
His hand landed on the upraised flesh of her butt, sending sensation shooting to her clit. She jerked, shocked, amazed. She had known, that first time he spanked her so long ago, that a little pain could be an incredible turn-on. But this was different. His bare hand applied to her naked ass sent her flesh blooming with heat, and her pussy spasming in pleasure.
“Beautiful,” his fingers trailed over the rounded flesh before his hand lifted, falling again on the opposite cheek with the same devastating effect.
“Reno, this isn’t a good idea.” Her pussy was creaming furiously as she shuddered in his grip.
He slid his fingers slid under the silken strap of material that ran between the cheeks of her rear. “Are you sure, Raven? I think it’s a very good idea.”
Raven groaned as she felt the silk of the thong rasping over her cunt, caressing the swollen nub of her clit as she writhed on his lap. Just when she thought he must have surely forgotten his previous intentions, his hand rose and landed on her bare butt again, causing her womb to convulse as she felt her juices flowing from her pussy.
She was quivering, shuddering with a fiery pleasure as he spanked her with an erotic precision that had her screaming out with each strike against her flesh. The pleasure whipping through her body seared her from the inside out and left her gasping, nearly screaming in arousal.
“Reno, this isn’t fair.” She moaned, jerking against him as one blow nearly threw her into orgasm, the pleasure-pain was so intense.
“No, Raven, what isn’t fair is your denial.” His hand landed again, making her burn as she screamed out beneath the fiery lash. “What isn’t fair is aching for you, loving you and having to fight you every damned step of the way—” Smack! “—when we both—” Smack! “Know—” Smack! “Exactly how you feel. . . .”
She was arching back to his hand and begging for more, so close to climax, she could feel it shuddering through her, clenching in her womb as he suddenly lifted her, tossing her to the bed as he rose to his feet.
Rolling to her back Raven came to her knees aggressively, baring her teeth in an arousal so deep, so hot, she knew it was burning her out of control. Before he could loosen the first metal button of his jeans, her fingers were there, pushing his out of the way, loosening his jeans until the rigid length of his cock jutted through the open fabric.
Thick and heavily veined, the flared head broad and ruddy, it was a treat Raven couldn’t refuse any longer. Her eyes lifted, meeting Reno’s stormy gaze as her head lowered, her tongue swiping over the small pearl of liquid that collected on the tip. His fingers threaded through her hair as her lips parted, covering the hot flesh with greedy hunger.
Her lips and mouth moved on him as her fingers enclosed the silken length. He was like iron encased in silk, hot and heavy, an erotic weapon of such sensual destruction that she was left helpless in the face of their combined needs.
Her mouth enclosed him, tightened as her tongue flickered over the sensitive head and she began a smooth, firm, sucking action that had a harsh groan ripping from his throat as his fingers tightened further in her hair.
A sense of power filled her, a heady feminine thrill that she held such a sensual, sexual force in the very palm of her hand. It was exhilarating, shattering, more arousing than anything she could have imagined.
Her mouth moved on him in ever increasing demand, feeling the hard throb of blood just under the flesh, feeling the thick erection pulse and throb as he groaned her name in a thick, guttural tone.
One hand moved to the heavy sac just below the straining shaft, her fingers cupping the taut flesh as her other hand stroked the length that her mouth couldn’t consume. She moaned around the fullness that thrust demandingly between her lips, hungry for the heat and taste of him.
“Enough,” he suddenly growled, his hands tightening in her hair as he pulled back.
But not before he spilled a few precious drops of semen on her tongue. Hot, salty, male, the taste sent her senses spiraling as she fought his hold, eager for more.
“That’s not fair,” she gasped as he held her out of reach, his hands catching her wrists to keep her from tempting him further.
“Of course it is.” He turned her quickly, pushing her upper body to the bed as he raised her hips, coming to his knees behind her. “Especially when I intend to do this.”
In one smooth, fierce stroke he filled her. Raven arched, a strangled scream escaping her lips as she felt his cock fill her to overflowing, powering into her with a force and pleasure that left her helpless.
He filled his hands with the smooth flesh of her rear, separating it as he began to move, creating a brilliant shaft of electric sensation as he parted the entrance to her anus. His thumbs smoothed down the crease until he reached the point where he filled her. There, his fingers slid in the slick cream that flowed easily from her body. He smoothed it back, dampening the little hole over and over again as she bucked beneath him, the pleasure so intense, she wondered if she could survive it.
One hand held her buttocks spread as the other began to spread more of her juices back along the crevice. Below, his cock thrust slow and deep inside the sensitive, hot depths of her pussy. He was making her crazy, moving so slowly, teasing her with alternate deep, fast strokes, then slow easy ones. All the while his fingers played at the tiny entrance above, relaxing her, easing her.
“Do you want to throw this away, Raven?” The question was delivered in a hard possessive voice. “This as well as everything else we’ve ever shared?”
“No!” She couldn’t stop the protest, the need that filled her. Not just sexual, not just the hunger for the biting pleasure of having his cock fill her. But something more, something that went deeper, that grew more intense each time he touched her. It wasn’t just sex, no matter how desperately she wished it were.
“Good girl,” he whispered, thrusting harder inside her, thrusting against delicate tissue and nerves as she cried out at the pleasure.
She was gasping, crying, begging for more when she felt his hand tighten on her hip. The thumb massaging her anus paused for just a second before it began to push inside with slow devastation.
Raven’s back arched, a strangled scream escaping her throat as the piercing pleasure-pain shot up her back before arrowing back down to strike the core of her womb as he began to fuck her in hard, deep thrusts. He stretched her, filled her, thrusting inside her in counterpoint to his thumb as it raided the tender entrance of her ass.
The dual penetration broke the last threads of her control, both physical and emotional. A shattered wail escaped her throat as she clamped down on him, exploding with a force that drew every muscle taut as it shuddered through her body in hard, heavy pulses of release.
Behind her, she heard him groan, felt him swell inside her, then felt his explosion, the hot splash of his semen filling her, branding her. She collapsed beneath him, groaning heavily as his thumb slid from the tight grip of her anus. Seconds later, she heard him breathe in heavily as his cock slid free of her wet vagina and he collapsed on the bed beside her.
“Hell, we’re going to kill each other at this rate,” he panted as he pulled her into his arms, one hand smoothing back the perspiration-damp hai
r that fell over her brow.
Raven opened her eyes, dazed, relaxed, knowing she was losing the emotional battle she was fighting, and fighting to make sense of it. He wasn’t giving her a chance to think, to consider, to come to terms with the emotions tearing through her heart.
“It hasn’t changed anything,” she whispered then, watching his eyes darken with emotion. “How am I supposed to deal with this, Reno, when you keep clouding my mind with sex?”
“I’m not clouding your mind, baby.” He then pulled her closer in his arms as he sighed deeply against her hair. “You’re clouding it yourself. Either you want there to be an ‘us,’ or you don’t. Think very hard before you make that decision, Raven. Fear can be dealt with, but you have to face it before you can defeat it.”
She frowned.
“I love you, Raven.” He tilted her head back, staring down at her, his eyes dark, filled with emotion, with a savage intensity that clenched her chest and brought tears to her eyes. “That won’t change in a day, a week, or a century. But I won’t destroy myself chasing after you. You have to decide what you want, and once you do, you have to stick to it. Either way it goes, there’s no going back.”
Chapter Eight
“We really should get out of bed,” Raven muttered drowsily the next morning as Reno smoothed his hand over the rounded curves of her rear and watched her quietly.
She lay on her stomach, her head turned away from him, the long tangled locks of her dark hair flowing around her. Reno trailed his hand from the rounded flesh of her buttocks to her back, his fingers tangling in the rich mass of curls. She looked so delicate, small and tempting as she lay beside him, exhausted from their lovemaking.
This was the picture he would keep in his mind of her. Her beside him, tired and replete, her hair fanning over her back as he touched her, stroked her.
He kissed the curve of her shoulder, allowing himself to breathe in deep, to fill his senses with the scent of her.