“You could,” Carter starts as I round the back corner, aiming for a section of Cabernet that Addison and I are both fond of. My breathing halts when I see the cream throw blanket laid out on the floor. Two glasses of red are already poured, waiting next to the blanket and chocolate covered strawberries are piled in a balanced stack on a silver tray. “Or we could make the most of tonight.”
Carter’s whispered answer forces me to turn from the scene and stare up at the man I love so dearly.
Taking one step closer to me, he asks, “Do you remember that spot? When you were first here and what you told me, drunkenly as you stared up at me wanting things to change?”
Tears prick my eyes and I shake my head. I try not to remember those times if I’m honest. I don’t tell Carter that, I only shake my head. It’s not often my Beast turns into a Prince. This is so unexpected, so sweet and it takes me by complete surprise.
“I don’t.”
An asymmetric smile picks his lips up, “It doesn’t matter, really, what matters most is that I never wanted you to leave. And now I have you forever.”
Shaking off the wave of emotions, I gaze into his dark eyes watching the flecks of gold that brighten when I smile up at him. “Forever and always,” I whisper as I get on my tiptoes to plant a kiss on his lips.
There’s a groan that escapes when I lean back just slightly. A deep sound of approval but also of want.
“Lay on your back and close your eyes,” he gives the command with his own eyes closed. Restraint showing in the way he lets go of me and his body goes still, waiting for me to obey.
I don’t hesitate, quickly finding my spot on the already smoothed out throw blanket. With a slight chill in the air, my nipples are already hardening. I’m careful not to knock the glasses or tray as I lay down, and wait.
Anticipation rolls through me, from my toes up to my neck and then higher, forcing my breathing to come in faster.
“Dessert tonight is going to be exquisite,” Carter comments as he pulls the button-down shirt over his head, only unbuttoning the first few. He’s eager. In past times he’s made me watch as he’s undone every button, showing off his taught skin and muscles that coil beneath the expensive fabrics of his shirts and suits. Not tonight.
Tossing the shirt behind him carelessly, he comes closer, taking his time to round my body but never taking his eyes off of me, as if I’m his prey. He takes more time undoing his pants and letting them fall along with his boxers. Towering above me, naked and with a deep hunger etched in his expression, my heart picks up its pace, no longer wanting to stay where it should. The thump, thump, thump heats my entire body.
He kneels at first, letting his deft fingers linger on my collar and then slipping down the strap to my nightgown. He exposes one breast, groaning once again that deep primitive sound, before sliding the remainder of my nightgown down to my hips. He pauses then, dipping his head between my breasts and letting his tongue run hot circles along my tender skin. He bites down ever so gently around my nipple and my back arches involuntarily.
“Still, songbird,” he commands, not lifting his head and only pausing in the torturously pleasurable act enough to remind me that I’m to stay still.
I already know, but my body doesn’t obey. It takes focus to ignore the need to writhe under him as he plays with my body. His fingers just barely touching my skin as he glides his hands down my curves and removes the garment completely.
Still on his knees he rakes his gaze along my body, balling the silk fabric and then dropping it to be nothing more than a puddle on the floor behind him. Naked beneath him, I should be cold with the chill of the cellar, but I’m hot and greedy for more.
He takes his time, leaning over me, but not touching a single inch of skin to mine to take the first chocolate covered strawberry.
“One small bite,” he demands, tracing the tip of it along my bottom lip. The chocolate is sweet and decadent as I bite into it and the strawberry even sweeter. It’s heaven on my tongue.
But what Carter does next is even more delightful. Letting the bitten part of the berry travel down my skin to leave a trail of juice in its wake, he licks behind it. Starting at the tender under-side of my chin and working his way down my neck and chest, the cool touch of the berry is quickly followed by his hot tongue. When he gets to my breast, he pauses placing the strawberry at my lips again and once again I take a small bite, but he commands me to take a larger one and so I do. As I swallow, he finishes off the fruit and takes another, repeating the act over and over, half a dozen times, causing every nerve ending in my body to spark.
He works me up, but never finishes me, never touches the one place I ache the most for his mouth to linger.
“Tell me what you want songbird,” he commands, the last strawberry in his hand as he stares down at me.
“I want you,” I beg him and even to my own ears I sound as if I’ll die if he doesn’t enter me right this second. My hands clench at my sides, hating that I can’t simply take from him, but knowing it’s so much better if I’m patient.
“Don’t bite it,” he tells me, sliding the strawberry halfway into my mouth. I keep my gaze on him as his broad shoulders travel lower, his strong hands gripping my inner thighs to part them. He settles between my legs, his shoulders propping up my thighs until the balls of my feet are on the floor. His warm breath trailing along my most sensitive area.
He takes one languid lick of my pussy and my head falls back from the wave of pleasure.
“That sound,” he groans at my heat, “I fucking love it when you make that sound.” With the statement still in the air, my sex-driven mind slowly comprehending his words, Carter sucks on my clit, massaging his tongue against it and I disobey him, biting into the berry and pushing myself into his face.
He grips my ass, pinning me down and continues to suck and lick and dive his tongue inside of me as the waves build and the pressure mounts and then finally, all at once and so much faster than I expect it to, pleasure erupts inside of me. Rolling from the tips of my fingers down my body and back up again.
With my heavy breathing making my chest rise and fall, I stare up at Carter, ready to apologize for biting into the berry. But he doesn’t give me the chance.
My beast of a husband parts my legs wider and thrusts himself inside of me without warning, to the hilt. My palms hit the ground as my back bows and the orgasm I thought had subdued rages inside of me, growing hotter with every pounding thrust of his hips.
“Carter!” I scream out, feeling the overwhelming loss of control as he pistons himself inside of me.
“Yes,” the word falls from his lips as a hiss and he drops his body to lay across mine, although his forearm, braced above my head, supports his weight. “Cry out for me, Aria. Scream my name.”
Losing all sense of control, my heels dig into his ass and my hips tilt, letting him fuck me deeper and harder as I scream out his name like he told me to and like everything inside of me wants to do.
He’s ruthless and relentless as he takes me, fucking me until we find our release together.
Lying beside him, I wince when I turn over, still feeling him inside of me. “I bit the strawberry.” I whisper and the small admission awards me a chuckle from the spent man beside me. Deep and masculine and everything Carter is.