Even Better (Stripped 2.50)

“It’s you, beautiful. You make me this way. Always have.”

I shudder. “Need you.”

He freezes for a long moment. When his hips move again, they snap with an urgency he didn’t have before. He’s lost some of his rhythm, some of his charm. He’s only a rutting animal now, a beast. I feel mounted, I feel violated, and it’s so hot I have to bite the pillow to keep from making a sound.

“No.” His hand wraps in my hair and pulls. “Let me hear you. Let him hear you too. Give him something good to listen to while he works himself raw.”

I don’t want to, I’m fighting it, but then the angle changes and his cock hits that place inside me—the one that makes me cry out. There’s no one to cry to, no one to save me. Only Blue with his beautiful, merciless cock. Only West on the other side of the wall, probably getting off to the agony.

Chapter Four

There are a couple of ways I wake up. One is with Blue over me, between my thighs, thrusting inside me, my body slick, already prepared for him while sleeping.

This morning I wake up with his tongue buried in my folds, legs spread wide. He swipes over my clit, and I moan, rocking up to meet him in sleepy undulations. My orgasm is swift and powerful, leaving me shaking and begging him wordlessly to stop.

He gives me one more lick that has me gasping with too much sensation.

Then he pulls himself up beside my collapsed body, his cock still hard. “Morning,” he says in that low sleep-roughened timbre.

I can only sigh out a response and hope it sounds coherent.

He strokes my breasts, plucking at my nipples, playing with them idly. “I was thinking, since West has to go to the club today and he doesn’t have a car yet, maybe you can go with him. Show him around a little.”

Even in my drowsy, sex-drenched state, I have to laugh. “You’re just saying that because you have a meeting across town.”

I go back to the Grand on the regular because my best friends are there. Well, mostly Candy. Blue isn’t a fan of my trips there, and he usually finds an excuse to visit the club on those days so he can watch over me. The men who work for him run security in the club, and they do a great job, so it’s completely safe.

He shrugs. “Better than me pulling up the security cameras from the Grand when I’m in the middle of a meeting.”

“That’s a little creepy.”

“A little,” he says. “But damned if I’ll trust those assholes with you.”

Any annoyance I might have had melts away. It says something about how much he trusts West that he would let him be a substitute guardian for when he’s not around. But then, last night said something about how much he trusts his friend too.

He trusts him with me, and that makes me feel strangely precious. “Fine, I’ll take West. But it’ll be awkward for the both of us.”

He pushes up and studies me. “You sorry about last night?”

I can’t help that my cheeks heat. Damn, have I regressed? Actually I’ve been taking my clothes off for boys for about as long as I can remember. It was a survival mechanism when I grew up in a shitty part of Tanglewood, bounced around in the foster care system like a pin ball. Maybe this is some kind of delayed shame mechanism, now that I don’t need to expose myself to live.

“Not sorry,” I say slowly. Because I’m not. And I can’t deny that it excited me, that I was a little extra wet to be watched. “West is a good guy. He didn’t make me feel…cheap.”

Darkness flickers behind Blue’s eyes. “I want to smash the face of every man who ever made you feel cheap. Except I’m one of them, aren’t I?”

Cheap would be too simple for what he makes me feel. Hungry and humble. Beautiful and raw. “It’s not like that. I guess I just…”

He waits like he’d wait forever for me to speak, patient and still. “What, baby?”

“I guess I just don’t know where I stand. With you and him. With this place.”

“Fuck.” Before I can blink, he pulls me into a tight hug, all the air pushed from my lungs—and I wouldn’t drag it back for the world. This is what I want, to be wrapped up tight. This is what I need, to know he won’t let go. “I’m a fucking asshole if I ever let you doubt it for one second. You’re with me. That’s where you stand. He’s my friend, and if we want to have some fun with him, that’s fine. There’s not a chance in hell that can come between us, got it?”

My heart is pounding. “It’s just…you didn’t tell me about him staying here. You told me after the fact. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful but…well, even the doorman knew to let him up.”

There’s utter silence while I hold my breath. His expression is hard, unforgiving. Then it cracks like granite—and underneath, I see remorse and a painful hint of uncertainty. As if he isn’t sure I’ll forgive him. “You’re right. I should have told you. No, I should have asked you. I’m sorry.”

I shrug, feeling uncomfortable in the face of his genuine apology. I’ve never really been apologized to before. No one’s cared enough to do that until Blue. “It’s okay. I mean, it’s not really my place.”