He grins, leaning in to nip my lips. “How many alter egos do I have?” His voice is breathless and rough.
Drawing his mouth closer to mine, my lips layer with his, tasting his minty flavor. “Mr. Sexy Voice I met in New York. Mr. Arrogant that first night at The Hill. Mr. Cocky when we had breakfast together, and yes, he is different from Mr. Arrogant. Mr. Wonderful was the guy I ate subs with and talked to on the couch. And Mr. Surly pops his head in from time to time too.”
“What about Mr. Hottie? Mr. Deliverer of multiple orgasms? Mr. Rock Your World So You’ll Never Want Another Man Again?”
I tilt my head, tapping my lip as I pretend to think about that. “Huh. I don’t think I’ve met them yet.”
“Liar.”
He reaches around, swats my ass, and then kisses me hard with reckless abandon, lifting me back into his arms and walking us over to the bed. He drops me down, standing between my parted thighs, staring intently into my eyes as he holds himself up with his hands that are on either side of my head.
“If you’re good, I’ll let all my alter egos come out to play. Especially the ones you say you haven’t met yet.” He dips down, running his nose against mine, licking my lips. “I hope you weren’t planning on sleeping anytime soon. It’s going to be a long night.”
20
brecken
With punishing, bruising kisses, I claim her mouth as mine. Like a king claiming land, it now belongs to me and therefore any who try to take it from this point forward will have to come through me. But first, I have to make my angel come for me.
Something was off when I arrived. The wide, terrified look in her eyes held me in place when she flung that door open. I wasn’t expecting it. Sure, I assumed the storm and loss of power would make anyone uneasy. But it was more than that. And despite the battle I fought with myself in showing up—because fuck, I knew she had been stalked—regrets flew out the window the second she dragged me by the coat inside her house.
I realized in that moment, I never wanted to see that look in her eyes again.
Now she’s this girl again. This woman. The one from the bar that night in New York. Wild. Brazen. Unabashed. A total temptress. My siren. The one I never was able to put out of my mind.
Her.
Yes, this stunning creature beneath me who kisses greedily and tastes like wine and cherries. But is she here with me for the right reasons or simply because she was scared and didn’t want to be alone? I’m here for her. Whatever she needs from me, I’m here. But this is not some one-and-done thing to me where she can run out the next day or push me away.
I want her.
I want to be with her.
I think I’ve made that pretty damn clear, but I can’t say any of that has been reciprocated until now. It makes me wary. It also means I might have to fight just a little harder for her. I want to chase her nightmares away. Slay each and every instance of fear from her mind. And with someone like Rina, that’s not so easily done when she’s so reluctant to let anyone—especially a man—in.
Cupping her face in my hands, I breathe in the scent of her and meet her eyes. “This isn’t just tonight.”
“Brecken—”
“I mean it, Rina. I know you’re worried about Aria and the fact that I’m only here for a year and you don’t want a relationship ever again and whatever else you can throw at me. I know all of this. I just don’t care. Problems are only insurmountable if you allow them to be.”
She stares up at me as she contemplates exactly what I’m telling her. That if she’s not into trying this with me, then I can’t do it. I’ve had enough one-night stands to fill my lifetime. I’m done with that. Hell, one look at her three years ago in a bar and I was done with that. It just took me another three years to find her again.
But now that I have…
“Okay,” she says. “We can try. For now. But I don’t know if I want—”
I silence her with my lips. She needs to get out of that pretty head of hers. My world is a mess too, so I get it. My job is crumbling all around me and for so long, that’s all I’ve had. All I’ve been. Her trust is shit. My trust is shit. Nothing about us is easy, but that doesn’t mean we’re not worth fighting for.
“I won’t hurt you, Rina.” I’ll make damn sure of that.
I don’t give her a chance to argue with me, my mouth shuts up any further argument. She’s still wearing her bra and panties and I still have on my wet jeans. I need her naked and then I need to taste every inch of her body.
The soft illumination of the flashlight isn’t much to see by. It’s like a headlight on an empty road on a moonless night. But it’s all I have for now because I’m a bit too impatient at the moment to get up and start a fire in her bedroom fireplace.
That will come later because it’s already freezing in here. Fucking Boston and its weather. It’s October for Christ’s sake.
I take her mouth like I want to eat her alive. My tongue a reckless force as it dominates hers, compelling her mind to shut off and her body to submit. A soft sigh finds its way from her lips to mine, and I think we can do better than that. I stand, removing my unfastened jeans as she watches, her eyes at half-mast. I kick the wet material away and my boxers go next because they’re wet too.
Her eyes feast on me, taking in my chest and abs that clench under her intense gaze, all the way down to my hard dick. I give myself a few lazy strokes, loving how those eyes widen. She sits, reaching for my hips, and I step into her.
Soft lips meet my lower abdomen as warm hands trail up from the backs of my thighs, along my ass, and up to my lower back. She inhales my skin, kissing, licking, and taunting. I take her long mane of blonde hair and brush it back from her face, fisting it up into a makeshift ponytail so I can see her better. Stare into her gorgeous eyes.
But the moment she goes to take my cock in her mouth, I drop to my knees, shaking my head. I’m dying for her mouth on me, but not now, not yet.
With the flat of my tongue, I meet her neck, trickling a wet trail down the length of it to her collarbone. She shivers against me as I blow a cool breath against her, my fingernails scraping the skin along her spine until I reach the clasp of her bra and unhook it. Where we were all frenzy downstairs, now I want to take my time. There is no rush, and I don’t want to fuck her like that. That’s how we did it in New York. Savagely. Drunkenly. Out of control.
This time, I want to savor every second.
The straps slip from her shoulders, my mouth dragging the cups from her breasts until it falls away completely and she tosses it to the foot of her bed. Perky, peach nipples, hard and delicious, get sucked into my mouth, one and then the other. My hands taking over where my mouth can’t be all at once, cupping and squeezing each perfect globe, kneading and loving how they overflow my hands.
Rina’s hands clasp the back of my head, holding me in place as her head falls back, her hair splashing behind her as a moan flees her lips. Her addictive scent and taste floods my senses, making me dizzy as I trail lower, pushing her by her shoulders back onto the mattress.
Deep breaths mixed with sharp gulps of air make her tits jiggle and sway in my palm as I continue to toy with her nipples. Pinching and rubbing, rolling them until her hips shoot off the bed, begging for attention. My teeth scrape along her belly, lower, grazing her hip bone, one then the other until I catch the thin string of her thong in them and remove them altogether.