On The Ropes (Tapped Out 3)

p and circumstance to go with the effort he’d shown with the candles, but no way was I going to put on the dress he’d given me. Either of them. The strawberries…um, no. And the navy wrap dress, absolutely not. I couldn’t take the chance he’d get too enthusiastic, as much as I hoped he would.

My gaze landed on his dresser. One of his shirts would work perfectly.

The top drawer was just socks and underwear. I was about to shut it and go to the next one when a shadow in the back corner caught my attention. Without thinking, I slipped my hand inside—

And picked up a gun.

Sixteen

I sensed the change in her the moment I went back into the bedroom.

She was on the bed, spread out. Wet hair draped over the pillows, long pale legs curled seductively. She wore one of my white dress shirts half-unbuttoned over the bra and panties I’d given her, and she was absolutely stunning.

But her eyes were dark, too dark, and even the flickering candlelight didn’t lighten them.

“Carly?”

She said nothing, just waited for me to come to her. So I did.

Shedding my towel, I crawled across the mattress and took her face in my hands. I didn’t know what had changed in the five minutes I’d been gone, but goddammit, I wanted one night where there was nothing between us but skin.

No lies, no secrets, no denials. Just her body under mine.

I almost expected her to reject my kiss, but she opened her lips and drew me inside greedily, her hands coasting down my spine. She kneaded the sore muscles along my lower back while we fed on each other’s mouths. I flipped apart the shirttails of my shirt, unspeakably aroused by the sight of her in my clothes. Smelling like my soap, my shampoo. I wanted her to taste like me too.

As much as I’d hoped to go slow, to make love to her the right way, it wasn’t going to happen. My need was far too great.

When I moved aside to kneel next to her head, her big eyes swallowed me before her mouth did. She didn’t hesitate, taking me deep between those glossy wet lips. I tried not to thrust, to demand before she was ready, but her throat acquiesced to my invasion and the heat and wetness were too much. I fisted the damp hanks of her hair and positioned her where I wanted, driving forward to the keening sounds of her moans. She rubbed her thighs together in obvious distress, and I couldn’t keep from alleviating it any more than I could stop myself from taking her mouth.

Twisting sideways, careful not to lose the link with her, I parted her thighs and groaned at the stickiness already coating her brand new panties. She’d made them hers, just as I would soon make her mine. While I was inside her, I owned her. Every bit as much as she owned me.

I pushed aside the lacy panel guarding her from me and skimmed my fingers over her lower lips. Puffy and soaked, they lured me farther into the inferno inside. I plunged into her, registering her cry around my dick with another groan of my own. Tipping my head back, I pushed into her again and again, judging from the canting of her hips that she wouldn’t take long.

At this rate, neither would I.

Breathing hard, I forced myself to pull back. Some primal urge caused me to paint her overused lips with the moisture beading at the head of my cock, just for the pleasure of watching her licking up every drop. She didn’t shy away from anything sexual. Anything, period. I was the one who’d lived in a cage of my own making for the last two and a half years.

Not Carly. She was deliriously open to all experiences, as open as I would make her for my mouth.

Pressing her thighs wide open, I moved between them and covered her with my lips. I couldn’t get enough of her on my tongue. I wanted to be coated with her. To taste her every time I swallowed.

She locked her feet behind my back and rose up, offering every bit of herself to me. I took it in greedy gulps, fingers and tongue working, driven to make her come. I scraped my teeth over her plump clit and she jerked, her body shuddering. Close. So close. I added another finger, using three to hold her open while I lapped at the arousal slipping from her onto my hand, onto the bed.

Growling at the underwear that was now in my way, I started to do as I always did—rip them away—and she bowed up, shaking her head frantically. She was already fighting to shove them down her hips. “No. For God’s sake, save the panties!”

Even with my chin smeared with her, I started to laugh. Hard.

She made such a gorgeous picture with her hair all wild, and her mouth abused from me. Her legs spread, her breasts trapped by the bra that pushed them together against the confines of my shirt.

I helped her take them the rest of the way off and grinned as she folded them carefully and set them aside. Then she lifted her brows at me and gestured between her legs. “As you were.”

“Jesus, woman.” I nipped her belly and enjoyed her hitching laugh before I bent down to finish my task.

I opened her up once more and decided to ratchet up the stakes. Slipping in three fingers once more, I covered her clit with my lips and sucked without cease until she started to squirm. Her hands knotted in my hair, pulling hard enough to make my cock throb against the bed. It wanted inside the tight wetness around my fingers. Now.

“Fuck me. God, please, fuck me. Before I come.”

I wanted both—for her to come in my mouth, and on my dick. I wanted her writhing and lost, delirious to anything but her oncoming orgasm. For as long as I kept her in that state, I could keep her. As soon as the sex-haze faded, we’d be back to where we started.