“You choose.”
“That won't be necessary, thank you,” she said stiffly. “I'm over it. Being mean and boorish and bad in bed is not a capital crime, Seth. You do know that, don't you?”
'Things change, sweetheart.” His voice was as soft as a kiss, and he slid his hand beneath her shirt and trailed his fingertips across her belly again. “Being mean and boorish to you has just become one.”
He was making her very nervous. She clapped both hands over his hand, and held it still. “Seth, you
He pulled her into his arms again. “Sure I am, sweetheart,” he said soothingly. “Only one time. Jesus. I wish I'd known. I would have been so different with you.”
The warm caress of his breath against her ear sent a melting, shimmering sensation racing across the surface of her skin. “I liked the way you were,” she told him. “All except for the last three minutes.”
His lips dragged across hers, demanding and seductive, and his arms tightened. “So you forgive me, then?”
The intensity in his voice put her on guard. “I'm not sure yet.”
“Make up your mind, babe, because I'm burning up here.”
“Don't you dare push me, Seth Mackey,” she said, with as much austerity as she could muster. “You are still on shaky ground.”
He laughed. “I'm at my best on shaky ground, sweetheart.”
She knew that the long, sweet, skillful kiss was calculated to make her helpless and giddy, but even when it worked, even when she felt his triumphant smile against her mouth, she couldn't be angry at him. He stroked her hair back and gazed into her face.
“I'm sorry about what I said, Raine. I wish I could take it back.”
His sincerity made her heart ache, hot and soft. Made her want to cover his face with soothing kisses as if he were a baby, to make up for the loneliness she sensed behind his rough facade. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face against his hair.
Her soft embrace provoked a frightening flare of heat in him. He spread open her jacket and shoved her T- shirt up over her collarbone, rough and urgent. She twisted against him in protest. “Seth, don't.”
Her breathless words lost their meaning as his warm hands stroked and soothed. “Just this. Just let me rub my face against your skin. I'm starving for it. So soft. I love the smell of you. Please, Raine. I need this.” His voice was a pleading rasp, and he caressed her breasts through the spandex sports bra. His tender, ravenous mouth tongued the hollow of her throat, licking the soft skin above her bra.
It was easier to just let herself believe that he was giving her a choice, she thought, as he discovered the zippered front of the sports bra and growled in approval at the convenience. He yanked it open, folded the flaps back and bent his head to her naked breasts.
That was it. She was lost. He held her breasts, one in each big hand, suckling both nipples in turn, licking the plump curves. His breath was a warm caress that generated a wild chaotic heat There was no stopping him. He could take whatever he wanted, and make her beg him to keep taking and taking, until he'd taken everything.
He lifted his head. “Quit Lazar.”
“What?” She was disoriented, the moist skin of her breasts cool where his suckling mouth had been. “What?” “You heard me. Quit the bastard. It's not a healthy place for you. Don't go back there at all. Don't even call. Just blow them off.”
She shook her head, bewildered. “I can't just—” 'The place is poison for you, Raine. You know I'm right” Hah. If he only knew. Her mind raced, seeking a plausible excuse. “I can't just leave. Where would I go? Even this house belongs to—”
“Come with me. I'll take care of you.” He slid his hands under the waistband of her leggings and delved inside her panties, his fingers tangling in the warm nest of curls between her thighs.
She squeaked, grabbing his wrist with a nervous laugh. “And what do you want in return for taking care of me? Do I get to be your, um, mistress, or something? Your little love slave?”
His tongue slid along her open lips, probing and dancing against hers, drinking in her nervous, panting breaths. His hand probed deeper, his gentle fingers seeking the wet, silky heat hidden in her soft folds, and finding it. “That sounds good,” he said huskily. “Mistress, love slave, either one works for me. Never had a mistress before, but it sounds like fun.” “Oh, please, Seth. I was just kidding. I can't possibly—” Her words cut off in a sharp gasp as his hand thrust deeper. “It would be perfect,” he said. “I want to look after you, I want to protect you, and I want to have sex with you. Every chance I get Front, back, sideways, up against the wall, in the shower, everything. Call it whatever the fuck you want. Just come with me.”
“Seth, slow down,” she said, wiggling. “Wait. I—” “Humor me,” he muttered, biting her throat. “Please, Raine. It'll be OK. I've got lots of money. Ill make it worth your while.”
His words were like a splash of ice water. She shoved him away and yanked his hand out of her leggings. “You bastard!”
“What?” He sounded completely bewildered.
“Worm my while? All that carrying on about how you're so sorry, you were wrong about me, and now you're trying to... to buy me!”
He let out a sigh of disgust. “Raine—”
“Let me out of this car.” She flailed in his tight embrace.
“I wasn't calling you a whore.” He pulled her back against his chest. “I just phrased it wrong. I guess I figured having money might be relevant information to put forward while trying to persuade a woman to abandon her livelihood and become my mistress. All I mean is that you'd be covered financially. Money is not a problem for me. Got it?”
She stopped struggling, but her whole body still shook with anger. “You are rude and crass,” she informed him.
“Yeah. I've been told that I lack social skills,” he said sourly.
“You were told right.”
“OK. Sorry. I swear to God, I didn't mean to insult you again. It's the last thing I wanted to do. Forgive me. Please.
The frustration in his voice was very real. She studied his taut profile for a long moment, nodded and slowly took his hand in hers.
His sigh of relief was audible. “OK. Rewind, erase, and let's take this again from the top,” he said. “Never mind my money. Forget about it. Do it for the sex. Do it for pleasure, Raine. You know I can satisfy you. I can make you come until you pass out And I will. Remember how it was today? You all spread out on the bed, sweet and sticky like taffy, with your legs draped over my shoulders? You liked that, didn't you? That’s how it'll be. All the time. As much as you can take.”
His hand slid into her leggings again, easing them over her hips. His hands were cupping her bare bottom. The reality of her situation finally hit her. All night she'd been lecturing herself about how stupid she'd been to throw herself at a stranger. Seth Mackey was still a stranger, and here she was, nearly naked in his car, about to be ravished all over again. God, was she ever a slow learner.
“Wait,” she tried to say, but his tongue was thrusting into her mouth, his hand between her legs. She clenched her thighs around his probing fingers and he murmured something in a low, approving tone against her trembling mouth. She struggled in his grasp, but he held her still, his thumb circling her clitoris. He was as slow and deliberate as he was ruthless, driving her before him straight into the heart of unknown sexual sensation.
She came, violently. Hot bursts of pleasure jerked through her repeatedly, jagged and intense.
She lay in his arms, astonished. Seth cradled her limp body, and drew his hand out from between her thighs. He raised it to his face, inhaled, and licked his fingers, one after the other. “That was heaven.”
A burst of shivery, tearful laughter shook her. “That's my line.”
He untied the laces of one of her running shoes and pried it off. “Say it the next time I make you come.”
“Wait, Seth. I don't think we—”
“You're so juicy and sweet down there.” He struggled with the laces of her other shoe. “I want to go down on you. Right now.” The shoe thumped to the floor. “I could eat you for hours.”
His feverish intensity alarmed her. “Seth, wait. Wait,” she protested, pushing at his chest. “Slow down, please.”
