A threat. A seduction.
“Come here,” he repeated, and she surrendered, her feet shifting forward, carrying the rest of her with them until she stood in front of him.
His heat, his cedar-and-musk scent, his almost tangible sensuality called out to her, enticed her to eliminate those scant few inches and bury her face against his chest. Inhale himandfeel him. Somehow she resisted. But just. And even now that resistance was pockmarked, and so thin one touch would shred it.
“What do you want?” he asked, the sharp blades of his cheekbones and the hewn line of his jaw only emphasizing the blaze in his eyes. “Why did you come in here?”
“To thank you for today,” she murmured. “For...everything.”
“You’re welcome,” he rumbled, and as if in slow motion, he lifted a hand and rubbed the back of his fingers down her cheek. “Now tell me why you really came to find me.”
She parted her lips to deliver a stinging reply, but it didn’t come. Before she could contain it, the truth that she hadn’t even acknowledged burst free.
“For you. I want you.”
Another blast of flames in his eyes, and then her world tipped upside down. In one breath, she stood trembling before him, and in the next her back met his mattress, and Darius loomed over her. Her world narrowed to his big body and starkly beautiful face.
He tunneled his fingers through her hair, the blunt tips pressing against her skull. His gaze burned into hers, capturing her. Not that she wanted to be anywhere but here—his breath tangling with hers, his chest and legs covering hers, his cock branding her stomach through their clothes.
“Take it back,” he ordered. When she stared up at him, confused, he lowered more of his weight onto her. She felt claimed. His flesh ground into her, teasing her with the promise of the pleasure only he was capable of delivering. “Take back your condition. Tell me you don’t want me to fuck anyone else,” he growled. “Tell me the thought of me touching another woman would drive you insane. Tell me I’m allowed to have you and only you.”
She dug her nails into his shoulders, the words he demanded to hear crowding the back of her throat.
“Isobel,” he growled.
The sexy, primal rumble unlocked her voice. “You can’t touch another woman except me. You’re not allowed, because it would drive me crazy,” she finished on a gasp, with the wordcrazybarely out of her mouth before he swallowed it, his tongue thrusting forward past her parted lips and taking her in a kiss so blatantly carnal, so wild and possessive, it propelled the breath from her lungs.
But that was okay, because he gave her his.
He devoured her. It was wild, a clash, an erotic battle where both seized and neither lost. An ache opened wide in her, like a deep chasm that could never be filled. And yet she would never stop trying.
Did it register somewhere underneath the turbulent, consuming need that he hadn’t asked her to make the same request? Yes. Did it also occur to her that he didn’t ask because he didn’t believe she would honor his demand of faithfulness? Yes. Did it hurt like a nagging, old wound? God, yes.
But right now, with his mouth working hers like he owned it, she didn’t dwell on the pain. She submerged it beneath the waves of passion crashing over her. Later, when his hands didn’t tilt her head back to receive more of him, that’s when she’d think on it. But not now.
Darius abruptly straightened, tugging her up with him. With hurried hands, he balled the hem of her sleep shirt and yanked it over her head, leaving her clad only in a plain pair of black boy-short panties. Definitely not the expensive, seductive lingerie he was probably used to, but as he stared down at her, unchecked desire lighting his amber gaze, it didn’t matter. Not when, without uttering a word, he told her he wanted her with a hunger that rivaled the need grinding her to dust.
Slipping a hand behind his neck, she drew his head down to her as she arched up to meet him. This time their kiss was slower, wetter. Somehow hotter.
He eased her back to the bed, his chest pressed to hers, and she undulated under him, rubbing her breasts over him, dragging her nipples across the solid wall of muscle. Correctly interpreting her message, he tore his mouth away from hers and blazed a path down her neck to the flesh that tightened in anticipation of his wicked attention.
As he cupped one breast, he nuzzled the other. She cradled his head, silently demanding he stop toying with her. And with a rumble that vibrated against her abdomen, he obeyed, parting his lips over her and drawing her in. She cried out, bowing so hard, her back lifted off the mattress. The strong pull of his mouth set off sparks behind her closed eyelids and matching spasms deep inside her.God, the ache. She wrapped her legs around his hips and ground against his cock, shuddering at the swell of pain-tinged pleasure. Whimpering, she repeated the action. Coupled with the mind-twisting things his mouth was doing to her breasts, she teetered close to the edge of release. So close...
“Not yet, sweetheart,” he rasped against her skin.
Treating her nipple to one last kiss, he trailed his lips down her stomach, pausing to lap at her navel before continuing to the drenched center of her body. With an abrupt tug, he had her panties down her legs and tossed behind him.
Mortification didn’t have time to sink its sharp nails in her as he lodged himself between her thighs, which were perched on his shoulders. She didn’t have the opportunity to inform him that she’d never cared for oral sex, had never understood the allure of it. Didn’t have a chance to tell him she’d just rather have him inside her because she didn’t want to disappoint him.
No, she didn’t say any of that because the second his mouth opened over her sex, shock and searing pleasure robbed her of the ability to think, to form coherent sentences.
“Oh, God,” was all she could squeeze out of her constricted throat. He stroked a path through her folds, lapping at her, his growl humming against her. Grasping his head, she fisted his hair, to hold on and to keep him right there. He circled her clit, blowing on the pulsing knot of nerves, then he tortured her with short stabs and long sweeps. She writhed against his worshipping lips. Bucked into each stroke. Begged him to suck harder, faster, slower and gentler. She went wild.
And when release rushed forward in a flood so strong, so sharp, so potent, she didn’t fight it. She surrendered to the undertow with a loud, piercing cry, chanting his name like an invocation.
Dimly, she registered the mattress dipping. Heard the soft shush of clothing over skin. Caught the crinkle of foil. Didn’t have enough energy to turn her head and investigate. But when Darius reappeared over her, his big, beautiful body crouched over her like the gorgeous animal he was, desire rekindled in her veins, burning away the post-orgasm lassitude. It was unbelievable. She’d just come hard enough to see stars, and now, when it should’ve been impossible, her sex trembled and clenched, an emptiness deep inside her begging to be filled.
She lifted her arms to him, and without hesitation, he came down over her, one hand curving behind her head and the other cupping the back of her thigh, holding her open. With her eyes locked on to his, she waited, her breath trapped in her throat. Even when he pushed forward, penetrating her, stretching her, she didn’t look away. The inexplicable but no less desperate need to see his face, his eyes, gripped her. She longed to see if they reflected the same awe, rapture and relief that surged within her. To determine if she was alone on this tumultuous ride.
