Fighting for Irish

  She turned her face toward him and exhaled a “yes” just before locking their mouths together. That she took even that small of an initiative made him burn hotter. He made quick work of removing her clothes while managing to not rip them off like a crazed Neanderthal. He pulled his T-shirt off so he’d be able to feel her, skin to skin, but kept his jeans on in case that would seem too far, too fast for her.

  Aiden only had a few moments to look his fill so she wouldn’t have time to let her fears creep back in. Slender, with pert breasts and hair flowing around her face and shoulders, she resembled a graceful pixie.

  He returned to her neck and whispered words of encouragement between kisses. He told her how beautiful she was, how special, how brave. And while he did and said all that, his hand caressed her stomach and inched its way toward her breasts. Finally, he stroked the underside of one as his head dipped down to take the other hard peak in his mouth.

  The previous night, he’d devoured them. Now he teased them. Kat arched her back, a clear sign that she was in the moment, her body encouraging him. He licked circles around her areola and lightly tweaked her other nipple. Logically, he knew a person couldn’t taste like candy, but hell if he knew how else to explain it. Her skin was smooth as silk and sweet and pliant as saltwater taffy. And damn if he didn’t want to eat her up.

  “Stop,” she cried, her palms pushing against his shoulders.

  His stomach dropped as his world halted on its axis. Instantly, he lifted up to find her eyes shut and her teeth clamped on her lower lip. “Hey, come here.” He gathered her in his arms and rested his cheek on the top of her head. “Talk to me. What is it?”

  “It started happening. When things get to a certain point, I shut down. It’s like something in me can’t tell the difference between then and now.”

  Aiden ran a hand down her hair, trying to soothe her as best he could. He wracked his brain trying to find a solution or even a clue of something that would help her get past this.

  “The big difference between then and now is me, right?”

  “Yes,” she mumbled into his shoulder, “but my stupid body isn’t getting the memo.”

  “Hey, your body happens to be one of my favorite things right now, so I’ll thank you not to insult it.” She gave him a weak chuckle and an equally weak slap on the chest. Better than tears. “I don’t think your body’s the problem. I think it responds pretty well, if you know what I mean. So, I don’t know, maybe it’s your brain.”

  “That doesn’t make sense. I know it’s you.”

  “Yeah, but you’re not seeing me.”

  She pulled back to look up at him. “I see you just fine.”

  “Not when we’re doing things. Your eyes are always closed. But what if…” He held her gaze and swiped the rough pad of his thumb across her pebbled nipple. She inhaled sharply, and her pupils blew wide again. “What if you kept your eyes open?”

  Kat swallowed thickly and licked her lips. “I don’t know.”

  “Then let’s give it a shot. Worst that can happen is you stop me again. Okay?”

  “Okay,” she whispered.

  He gently pushed her down on her back with her head resting on the pillow and positioned himself between her legs. Keeping eye contact, he moved down so his head was level with her breasts.

  “Eyes stay open and on me,” he ordered.

  With the flat of his tongue, he lapped at her nipple, reveling in the way her breath hitched and her pelvis rocked against his hard stomach. He circled it a few times, then sucked it into his mouth, watching her face as the pleasure replaced the frustration. Experimenting, he nipped the side of her breast. She moaned.

  He wasn’t a shrink, but until he saw otherwise, his theory seemed to hold water. And, holy shit, if that wasn’t the hottest thing ever.

  Sliding lower, he kissed his way down her soft belly until he reached her bare mound. He stood corrected. That was the hottest thing ever. Tearing his eyes away, he glanced up and made sure she was still following the plan. “You still with me, kitten?”

  …

  You still with me, kitten?

  His voice rasped over her senses, the low and throaty sound causing shivers to race up her spine. That simple phrase made her knees weak every time he said it.

  Kat answered with a nod, but then remembered the speaking rule and offered a timid “yes.” She’d never been more “with” anyone in her life. Irish made her more aware of her body than she ever thought possible. Until him, it had just been a vessel. A shell to walk around in and use as a tool for basic survival.

  But the first time he touched her, she’d felt a zing of electricity that breathed life into her cells after years of dormancy.

  “Good girl.” Positioning his hands under her thighs, he angled her pelvis up toward his mouth. He used his thumbs on the outside of her lips and spread her open to his view. The catch with her keeping her eyes on him was that he wasn’t required to do the same. He could look his fill wherever he wanted, and apparently right then what he wanted to see was right in front of him.

  Kat had spent a lifetime feeling vulnerable, but this was a different kind of vulnerable. It didn’t frighten her or make her wish for superpowers to escape it. The vulnerability Irish made her feel was one of excitement and wonder. Everything with him was new and thrilling with an edge of apprehension for the unknown.

  But now, as she lay naked in the most vulnerable position imaginable, the edge of apprehension was more of a cliff and she was dangling by her fingertips. Would it feel good? Would he like doing it to her? What if she reacted wrong or didn’t like it? Would he be disappointed? The uncertainty of it all was almost too much to bear.

  Looking down her body, she watched as he placed kisses on the inside of her left thigh and trailed them down until he was inches from her center, then he repeated it on the right. From this vantage point, all she saw was his mussed black hair and tanned muscular shoulders covered with the beautiful art of his tattoos. To see so much power between her legs was intimidating.

  He paused, hovering over her slick flesh as though committing every detail to memory…

  Or maybe unwilling to go any further… A fluttering of nerves and insecurity kicked up in her belly. “Irish?”

  “You’re so beautiful.” Peering up at her, he gave her a firm reminder. “Eyes stay on me.”

  He lowered his head and held her gaze as he licked one fold and then the other. She forgot to breathe. Feeling the wet heat from his tongue while watching the act was a carnal combination that shot fire through her center.

  She expected his next move to go right up the middle, but he stayed at the top, where his tongue probed and flicked the sensitive bud nestled there. Her hips jerked, and she felt a rush of warmth in her center. Using the flats of his hands, Irish opened her completely. Hunger flashed in the deep blue of his eyes, then he dipped his head and lapped up every drop her body spilled before tonguing her opening like a man starved.

  Her body writhed on the mattress as though possessed, but his mouth never broke contact. Sensations, indescribable to her inexperienced body, filtered through her in waves that grew more intense with each passing second. She had to fight to keep her eyes from rolling into the back of her head when he pushed two fingers inside her and sucked on her clit in pulses he timed with every thrust.

  Vibrations hummed in her extremities—her fingers and toes and at the roots of her hair—then rushed in toward her center, gathering strength. Was a second time even possible? This was insane. It was—was—

  “Oh-God-oh-God-Ohhhhh!”

  Every muscle in her body seized while the blood rushed through her at warp speeds. The inner walls of her channel convulsed involuntarily, ticking off the seconds it took for the euphoria to ebb little by little.

  Irish kissed his way up her body until his hips were cradled between her legs and his forearms held most of his weight on either side of her head. Despite feeling short of breath, Kat fused her mouth to his.

 
Breathing was now a luxury.

  Kissing him had become necessity.

  Slow and sultry, they explored each other as though for the first time. Her hands framing his face, their heads moving from side to side to center. Lifting her heavy lids, she found herself gazing into the fathomless blue of his eyes. The connection between them hummed in her veins and sank deep in her bones.

  Kat slipped her hands down his neck, trailed them over his chest. She fingered his nipple piercings, causing him to suck in a breath and the tendons in his neck to stand out. Watching such a visceral reaction on him from something she did bolstered her confidence. But could she bring herself to use it?

  Making a decision, she reached for the button on his jeans. He stopped kissing her and stared. She wished to hell her hands weren’t shaking. It made it damn hard to strip Irish properly, not to mention convince him that this was something she truly wanted. Leave it to her to make a bumbling fool of herself while laying naked in front of the first man she’d ever wanted.

  She squeezed her eyes shut. “God, I’m so bad at this.”

  “What’re you talking about?”

  “I don’t know how to be sexy. I can’t even get your pants undone.”

  “Look at me.” She did. “The fact that you don’t know how incredibly sexy you are makes you that much sexier.sexier. And don’t worry about getting my pants undone. I’ve been doing it for years, and I’m more than willing to help out.”

  His crooked smile was contagious. “My hero,” she said.

  Irish pushed himself up to his feet and unbuttoned his fly. The glow of the neon bathed his body in light and shadows. From this vantage point, he appeared even more massive. A giant looming over her with blue lightning in his eyes.

  He dragged his zipper down. She held her breath and listened to it cut through each of its teeth holding back her ultimate reward. Finally, his thumbs hooked the top and pushed them down and off completely, taking with them the boxer briefs underneath. When he straightened, the breath she’d been holding took advantage of her shock and made a break for it.

  While he retrieved a condom from his wallet and did his thing, she studied his impressive size and briefly panicked about him fitting. She already felt so tight and swollen. As he lowered himself between her legs again, the concern must have shown on her face.

  “What’s the matter, baby?”

  “At the risk of inflating your ego to mammoth proportions…”

  “I like where this is going,” he said.

  “You’re really…big.”

  He chuckled and buried his face in her neck. “I’ll fit perfectly.”

  “But—” She gasped as two fingers slid deep inside her. “How do you know?”

  “Because you’re already wet again for me.” God help her, she didn’t think it possible, but she was. “Your body wants mine. It’ll open up for me, I promise.”

  Kat dragged out a moan and rocked her hips as he added a wicked twist to his thrusting fingers. How much longer did he plan on teasing her? She’d had enough foreplay. She wanted the main event.

  “Then prove it,” she said, the challenge clear.

  He lifted his head and held her gaze. Bracing himself on one forearm, he used his other hand to pull her knee up close to his body. She felt the head of his erection slip into place. Then he flexed forward and breached her entrance one millimeter at a time.

  The ripples flowing through her gained in strength the more he filled her, the more he stretched her. Never had she imagined she’d ever welcome an invasion of her body so completely.

  Sweat broke out on his forehead, his jaw worked, and his nostrils flared with every breath. The effort it took him to hold himself back was impressive. She was as equally glad for his control as she was frustrated with it.

  She felt his cock hit the back wall of her vagina and assumed that was as far as he could go. But then he adjusted the angle of her hips and slid in another inch, releasing a keening cry from her lips.

  “Ah, fuck, that feels good,” he ground out. “Eyes on me, baby.”

  Kat didn’t realize she’d raised them to stare sightlessly at the ceiling. She refocused on his beautiful, strong face.

  “That’s my girl. Now stay with me. Nice and easy.”

  He started to withdraw from her body. She wanted to weep. At the loss. At the intensity of the heat swirling in her belly. At the tenderness he offered with every move, every look. He’d been right. She fit perfectly around him, as though her body couldn’t bear not doing the impossible to welcome him, hold him.

  Every stroke felt better than the last. Every push a new revelation of pleasure.

  Seconds melted into minutes. Minutes stretched into eternity. An eternity of connecting with this man on levels she never knew existed, never imagined reaching even if they did exist.

  Irish changed the pace. Still just as deliberate, but with an added urgency. Soft grunts came from the back of his throat with every thrust. Her breaths mixed with moans. Fingernails dug into the hard muscles of his back.

  Kat’s vision started to blur. She was almost certainly suffering from sensory overload. No human could possibly take this immense amount of pleasure and survive. But he showed no signs of slowing, no signs of stopping. She was a goner. There was nothing for her to do but ride the wave and pray she washed up on land somewhat intact.

  Having had two orgasms only minutes earlier, she recognized standing at the precipice of another. Only this time all she could do was look over the edge. Something held her back from achieving that explosion of perfect release and the serene fall back to earth. And the longer she stood at the edge, the more the line between pleasure and pain blurred.

  “Goddamn, I’m close. I can’t hold back anymore, Kat. I need to feel you come around me.”

  “I can’t,” she said. “It won’t work.”

  “Hell, yes, it will.”

  Reaching between them as he continued pumping inside her, he found her clit with the rough pad of his thumb and rubbed.

  “Irish!” Her hips jerked hard as a current of vibrations blazed straight up her center.

  “Aiden.”

  “What?”

  “My name is Aiden,” he growled as he pushed into her again. “Say it, Kat.”

  Aiden Murphy O’Brien. He gave me his whole name.

  And he wants to hear it from my lips.

  Something new swelled inside her in the vicinity of her heart, but she’d have to process that later. Every available brain cell had been taken hostage for the myriad of sensations firing through every nerve, every cell in her body.

  “Oh, God, yes,” she cried. “Aiden!”

  His muscles tensed, becoming smooth skin over stone, as he buried himself to the hilt one last time and succumbed to his release. He pressed on her swollen bud and she followed him happily into the ether.

  In the minutes that followed, Kat was vaguely aware of him saying he’d be right back. All she could do was lie boneless on the mattress. If her life depended on her running or even standing at this point, she’d be a dead woman.

  Irish knelt down next to her—wearing his damn jeans again—and helped her into his gigantic T-shirt. His scent comforted her almost as much as he did. Closing her eyes, she lifted the soft cotton to her nose and breathed in deep.

  “Take it easy or you’ll need a lint trap up there.” Lying next to her, he pulled her into his strong arms. He kissed her on the top of her head, ruffling her hair when he spoke. “Everything okay?”

  Kat sighed and nestled herself farther into his embrace. “Everything is perfect.” Tipping her head up to catch his gaze, she said, “Thank you…Aiden.”

  She watched him swallow thickly, then offer a hint of a grin. “It was entirely my pleasure, kitten. Now get some shut-eye.”

  Just as she tucked her head on his shoulder, Murphy climbed onto Irish’s chest and curled himself into a tiny ball where their bodies pressed together. She laughed when he grumbled, “You’re lucky I’m in a good mood
, fur ball.”

  And with that, Kat awarded that moment as the happiest she’d been her entire life.

  Chapter Thirteen

  He was covered in sweat and smears of blood and not all of it belonged to him. His right eye had started to swell and the cut on his lip from the week before had been reopened. The invisible injuries, like the one over his left rib cage and the one on the inside of his right calf, would turn shades of purple later. And yet he barely felt any of it. Not yet. Not while the rush of adrenaline coursed through his veins and fueled his muscles. Not while he still had a job to do.

  The crowd’s deafening cheers echoed in the old arena, but like the pain, the sound was diluted, nothing more than a muffled din in the back of Aiden’s mind. A fighter couldn’t afford distractions. A fighter was trained to focus all his senses on his opponent while keeping his ears open just enough to hear instructions from his corner. Everything else was a blur, like a lens out of focus.

  When it was done right, every part of a fighter’s mind and body worked together to accomplish a single goal: win.

  The air horn blast sliced through the roars, signaling the end of the second round. The ref broke apart Aiden and the other fighter known as Bulldog and sent them to their corners in the black octagonal cage. Breathing heavily, Aiden dropped his ass onto the stool and accepted the bottle Xander offered him. He took out his mouth guard and squeezed some water into his mouth. He swished, turned his head to the side, and spit it onto the mat. The next squeeze he greedily swallowed.

  Xan had fought earlier. He had a gash over his left eye and a swollen jaw, but that was nothing compared to what the other guy looked like. Xan had passed to the next round and would be fighting in a week. Now Aiden had to do the same thing or else—

  Smack! Aiden’s head snapped to the side before he brought it back to center and glared at his best friend.

  “Do I have your attention now, mate? Because you looked like you’d danced off to La La Land, which is exactly where you’ll end up if you don’t bloody finish that fucker in the next five minutes!”