In a fiery second, she cupped my cheek and drew me to her mouth. Although I could’ve tried to convince myself she started it, that was an irrelevant detail. Because just as she arched up, I leaned down.
When our lips met, my body took that hit like a jolt straight into my veins. Mari was a drug for me. She was mine and mine alone, and I was already addicted.
Her lips were soft and warm when she teased her tongue against mine. I scrambled to grasp the reins of my control. I pulled back, just a whisper away from her.
“Are you sure this is what you want, Mari?” I asked in a gruff whisper.
It felt as if everything in me was leaning forward, just about to fall over the edge of a waterfall. The force of the current pushing me was almost impossible to withstand. I waited for her answer as her lashes swept up, and she caught my gaze.
“Absolutely.”
That single whispered word in Mari’s sexy, raspy voice, tipped me over the edge.
And then, we dove into our kiss together, a tangle of lips, teeth, and tongue. In a matter of seconds, I pulled Mari into my lap. She was a warm, silky soft bundle of curves, and I couldn’t get enough of her.
Tearing my mouth free from hers, I pressed wet, open kisses along her jaw, and caught her earlobe in my teeth. Satisfaction washed through me when she shivered, and her skin rose in goosebumps in the wake of my touch.
Mari’s hands gripped my shoulders, sliding down over my biceps before one palm hooked on the hem of my T-shirt and skimmed against my skin under the fabric. I never even thought much about the subtle feel of a woman’s touch. Her touch was like the sparks from flint striking against stone, every spark falling into the fire already threatening to engulf us both.
Meanwhile, I slid my palms up her sides, savoring her ragged gasp and the murmur of my name. I already knew what she felt like at her core, but I needed to touch her desperately. Pressing her thighs apart, I expected to encounter her silky panties.
I knew she wore silk. I lost my damn mind at the bar earlier tonight when I felt that wet silk between her legs. Perhaps I’d simply tricked myself into thinking I saw the silhouette of her panties when she stood in the doorway only moments ago. I was startled to find nothing but her bare, wet pussy.
“Fuck, Mari,” I murmured against her skin as I was tracing her collarbone with my tongue.
“What?” she asked on a gasp when her hips arched into my fingers.
“You’re so fucking wet.”
I drew my fingers out and lifted them. I needed to taste her essence.
Her eyes were on me, her lips parted when I sucked my fingers, savoring the sweet elixir of her desire. I roughly yanked her shirt up and over her head. I needed to feel her against me.
“You have too many clothes on,” Mari murmured, her tone bossy.
“We can remedy that right quick.”
Shifting, I hooked my hand on the back of my T-shirt behind my neck and tossed it aside. Mari shimmied back onto my lap, yanking my boxers down just enough for my cock to spring free. Her palm curled around it, lightly gripping at the base before sliding up. Her eyes locked to mine as she swiped the drop of pre-cum rolling out the tip with her thumb before she licked it clean.
It was a fucking miracle I could think at all. Through the haze of raw need driving me, I reached for my jeans, where I’d draped them over the edge of the sofa. I yanked out my wallet and a condom so fast that everything else in it fell across the floor.
“Hurry,” Mari demanded as she rocked her hips, her slick folds sliding over the underside of my cock.
I rolled the condom on ruthlessly fast. In another second, I was gripping Mari’s hips when she rose up. Reaching between us to position my cock at her entrance, my fingers pressed into the soft give of her flesh as I held her still. “I want to feel every inch,” I murmured.
In return, Mari let out a low cry as I slowly breached her entrance. It took every ounce of discipline I had not to slam into her, but I wanted it slow.
Her core sheathed my cock slowly in a tight, silky clench. She finally settled down over me, wiggling her hips slightly and almost pushing me over the edge, an edge which I was barely clinging to with my fingertips.
She let out a satisfied little hum. “Oh, Nash,” she murmured. “I needed this. I needed you.”
My heart tumbled in my chest. I didn’t quite know what to do with the sense of raw, pure satisfaction that gripped me at hearing her say aloud that she needed me.
Chapter 18
Mari
I needed this. I needed you.
In the shadowed light, I stared into Nash’s eyes, my words reverberating in my mind. We were joined as intimately as two people could be with my core stretched to its max and my heartbeat racing. I could barely catch my breath and felt as if I’d been tossed into the air and was free-falling.
I was awash in sensation, and I didn’t know how to get my bearings, the feelings were so intense. The only thing I could hold onto, the only touchstone in this swirling storm of sensation, piercing pleasure and need, was Nash.
I could feel the calloused surface of his palms, where they pressed against my hips. His hold both secure and steadfast. “You’ve got me. All of me,” he rasped.
My nipples, so tight they ached, grazed over the muscled planes of his chest. The dusting of his hair was yet another sensation spinning into the rest of them. The feel of him filling me was incredible; the stretch decadent and intense.
In tune with each other, we held still for a beat as I adjusted to the feel of him inside me. Nash leaned forward and pressed a hot, open kiss against my neck. Then, we began rocking into each other, a slow, sensual fuck in the darkness. It should’ve just been sex, but it felt like so much more.
My orgasm was racing upon me quickly from the friction of my swollen clit as it rubbed against the base of Nash's cock. Each deep nudge of his shaft inside of me pushed me closer and closer. The slow pull and glide was intoxicating, the friction sending pleasure spiraling in sharp streaks through me.
“Mari.”
The sound of my name in Nash’s gravelly drawl brought my eyes open. I watched him as he arched back once and filled me yet again. My orgasm shattered me. I felt as if I were flying to pieces as he held me tight. My entire body shuddered from intense waves of pleasure.
Nash cried my name again in a rough growl. His body went taut as a bow and he trembled against me. His arms wrapped around my back as I fell against his chest and frantically gasped for air.
Pleasure pinged through me and slowed to little eddies. I gradually became aware of the feel of his hands sliding through the ends of my hair.
In the aftermath, Nash carried me into bed. As I lay languid in his arms, I wondered about how easy this felt. Part of me wanted to tell myself this was nothing more than a rebound, something to soothe my stinging pride. I tumbled into sleep, wrapped in his warm, strong embrace.
Yet, it felt so easy, so right. My tendency to worry things to pieces was subdued, if only because I simply couldn’t even bring myself to go there. The last thought flickering through my mind before I fell into a deep, comforting sleep was that I couldn’t recall ever feeling this good with someone. As restless and as unsettled as I’d been for weeks now, I slept better that night than I had in months.
The following morning, I had a relaxing breakfast and coffee interlude with Nash. In spite of the stressors I was facing—my financial situation, and the news that Brett appeared to have stupidly made arrangements with a loan shark that put me in direct danger—I actually felt good.