“It’ll feel good soon,” I hummed against her lips. “I promise.” I kissed her slowly, tasting her tongue and twisting it with mine as one hand roamed her supple body, the other holding me caged above her, unwilling to let her go. Finally, I had her.
My patience severed with that thought and my hips began to move in slow, tantalizing rhythm once her grip relaxed at my shoulders and her hips followed my lead. I grasped one of her calves and wrapped it around my waist, anxious to feel her all up and down my body. I needed her naked and against me, all of me, now.
With both of her legs wrapped around my waist, her ankles locked above my bare ass as I held her head in my hands and moved slowly, trying to contain the raging beast that wanted to unleash hell on her sweet body.
I groaned. “You feel so damn good. I can’t go slow for much longer.”
“Please, more.” She pushed her hands into my wayward hair and caught my eyes. “I want all of you, Kyler.”
My heart sped with her words and my mind fritzed.
“Madison—Madison.” I repeated her name as my hips took on a more sporadic rhythm and I felt her body relaxing into me, allowing me to push farther, deeper, longer. “Jesus.” I choked on the word as I bottomed out inside of her, holding myself still as I lost myself to her. My heart pumped and my breathing racked. I held still, feeling the quakes in my thighs down to the tips of my fingers, buried in her soft waves. My release shuttled through me like a rocket, all sense of reality evaporating in favor of only us, the complete fucking perfection of us.
I slowly pulled out of her, my eyes devouring the soft curves of her body as I tucked her under my arm, all rosy flesh and creamy skin. She was decadent; the sudden urge to shelter her from harm for every moment after this one was powerful.
My thoughts vaulted back to a time long ago, remembering what it felt like to be the victim of someone’s hand. I flinched, and Madison’s hands were immediately running across my scalp and down my inked muscles, bringing me back to the present and soothing me back into focus.
“Are you okay?” Her soft lilt sent my heart stumbling a few beats. I wasn’t used to a woman’s concern, or anyone’s, for that matter. It made me feel special for the first time in too long.
“Better now.” She looked up at me, wide, innocent doe eyes, and my mind eased a little. The anxiety of the past fell away and I was suddenly focused on the beautiful woman in front of me. Keeping her happy, that was my only focus now.
Happy. It was a novel idea. I felt it in her warm eyes and her soft smile. She was mine; on some level, maybe I hoped she was sent here to thaw my cold heart. I just had to be the man she deserved.
“Will you tell me about the scars, for real this time?” catching me off guard as her fingertips whispered across the angry slashes on my knuckles.
Her dainty fingertips ran over the hate and pain tattoos.
My eyes flickered away as my thoughts were pulled back into the past, to a time I’d spent years trying to forget. “I’d rather think about only you tonight.”
“I’d rather get to know you,” she replied easily, like someone without a secret to hide.
“Someone hurt me a long time ago and I swore I’d never be the weak one again.” My fists tightened at her shoulders before I recognized that I might be hurting her and I released, clenching them instead at my sides. I swallowed the heavy feeling in my throat, thinking that at some point I’d have to tell her everything. No way was that time now, not when I had to worry about her.
She was suddenly in my space again, her arms wrapping around my naked torso. Oddly, the feeling of her was the only thing keeping me in control. My body seemed to rage like a wild animal in her presence, while for the first time in so long, my mind seemed to quiet. It was peacefully quiet. I found being around her was like inhaling fresh air for the first time. She kept the anger at bay.
Sort of.
“That’s why I don’t do people. I’m one of those people that’s better off alone. Hard to feel taken advantage of by a dog,” I mumbled, thinking I had to add something to help her understand, without sharing too much, too soon, and scaring her, or worse.
“Right. Your pound puppy best friends.” She traced a fingertip along the arch of my eyebrow. “You’re so innocent down deep, Sinclair. I can see it in your eyes.”
I shook my head, adamant that she was wrong. “Wrong. I’ll prove it to you, ask me anything.”
“Fine.” She smirked adorably. “Favorite color?”
“Black.”
She frowned. “You don’t say. Okay, bad question. Favorite female heroine in a classic novel?”
I paused, not expecting that question. I swirled a finger around the naked tip of her pert breast. “Joan of Arc.”
She burst into a giggle. “Joan of Arc?”
I shrugged. “She went into battle and slayed real monsters, not fictional ones. She confronted the beast and when the beast bit back she didn’t back down. Who needs fictional heroines when there are real life ones running around on earth every day?”
She smiled thoughtfully, snuggling into the crook of my arm before sighing softly. “I haven’t seen any heroes running around Black Mountain Academy lately.”
I threaded my fingers in her hair and placed a kiss on her head as she yawned. “I’ve got my eye on one. Now go to sleep, and dream of how sweet it will be when I kiss you awake in the morning, little mouse.”
Chapter 23
“I have little left in myself -- I
