Their eyes locked and something shot through him. This is the one, a voice in his head said. He lifted his head back an inch as the realization crystallized in his brain. And then something made her break eye contact and look away. Maybe it’d been the look on his face, he didn’t know, but he couldn’t let her get away with it, with hiding from him.
His right hand released hers and slid to her throat. He pushed up, just enough to bring her jaw back up and her eyes back to him. He held her like that, his hand around her throat. Just enough pressure to have her complete attention, to show her he was in charge. He felt her pulse beating under his thumb, watched as her eyes dilated further. Then he lowered his mouth to hers. He kissed her for a long time. She tried to move, but he wouldn’t let her. His mouth moved along her neck, from her collarbone up to her ear, nipping, licking, kissing.
Gradually, he felt her relax under his hold, melting back into the bed in total submission. “Tell me you’re mine, baby. Say it,” he whispered in her ear.
She moaned, his name escaping on her breath, “Cole.”
“Say it,” he demanded softly.
“I’m yours, Cole. You know I am.”
“You want my cock, baby?”
She nodded. “Yes, baby. You know I do.”
His hand slid from her neck, returning to her hand, and he laced his fingers back with hers. He held her pinned to the bed as he pushed between her thighs and plunged into her in one thrust.
She reared her head back, her hips lifting to meet him.
He slid his hands between them and played with her, stroking her exactly as she liked, not giving her any respite until she was thrashing beneath him.
“Oh, Cole, baby.”
“Want to see you come, sweetheart. Show it to me.”
She only lasted a few more strokes before the torrent he was building in her burst free, and she gave him what he wanted, her head falling back, her breath coming out in half sigh, half moan.
He let her settle a moment, and then he pulled out, and rose up on his knees. “Turn over, babe.”
“What?” she asked still dazed from her orgasm.
“Babe, turn over,” he repeated the order.
She rolled, and his arm slid under her stomach almost immediately. She gasped as he yanked her up to her hands and knees.
His arm still locked tight around her stomach, he pushed her forward. “Grab the headboard.”
She rose up and did as he said.
His knees moved between hers, pushing them wide, and he slid back into her, his palm resting on the wall near her head. He slammed into her, holding her tight with his arm locked around her stomach.
She gasped, readjusting her grip on the headboard.
“Hang on tight, babe,” he growled in her ear as his hips thrust against her sweet round ass.
She tilted her ass up, giving him better access, letting him in deeper.
“Fuck, baby doll. You take my cock so good. Every time. Every damn time,” he growled, powering into her again and again. The arm locked around her waist dropped, and his hand moved between her legs, his fingers delving, finding her sweet spot.
Her head fell back against his shoulder, her mouth falling open. “Oh, God, Cole. Don’t stop.”
“Not a chance, Angel. Not a chance.” His mouth moved along her exposed neck as he worked her into a panting frenzy. When he felt her reaching for it, he clamped his mouth down where her neck met her shoulder.
It pushed her over the edge, and she screamed her pleasure as she came again, hard.
Her response snapped his control, and before he could stop himself, he was pounding into her, exploding his own release inside her. He slid his other hand up on the wall, his shoulders trembling, his chest heaving as he tried to slow his breathing.
Angel arched back against him like a cat, her head falling back on his shoulder again, and one hand coming up to stroke the side of his neck.
Cole dipped his head and kissed the mark on her shoulder he’d made. His arm returned to her waist, and he slipped out of her.
She moaned, not wanting to lose him.
He grinned, pulling her back down to the bed. “Don’t worry baby. I’m not done with you yet. Not by a long shot.” He rolled her to her back and came down on top of her, nuzzling her neck. He whispered in her ear everything he wanted her to do to him, promising her everything he was going to do to her.
Her eyes slid closed, and she moaned.
He kept every promise.
***
Cole jerked awake, breathing hard. It took him a minute to separate the nightmare from reality. He looked at the woman in the bed with him, and he had to shake the cloudy feeling away and realize where he was.
He slipped her arm from his chest and got out of bed. He slid into his jeans and grabbed his pack of cigarettes from the bedside table. He walked to the door and opened it, staring through the screen door at the rain pouring down. Thunder rumbled in the distance. A cool breeze blew in through the screen, carrying with it a spray of mist that fell on his chest and arms, cooling him off.
He lit a cigarette, his hands shaking. His heart was still pounding. He had lived with death these past few years, and lately the demons of those deaths had infiltrated his sleep and plagued his nightmares. Battling those demons had become a burden he knew he couldn’t escape. He knew he wouldn’t sleep again tonight.
He leaned against the door jam and breathed in the fresh scent of rain. He only wished it could cleanse his soul like it cleansed the earth. Sometimes he felt like his sanity was hanging by a thin wire, like he was just waiting for that one thing that was going to come along and make that wire snap.
His gaze drifted back to the bed. Angel lie curled up in the sheets. She had given herself to him with such sweet surrender, soothing the beast in him. He would have liked to take away all the pain she’d suffered. He wanted to protect her, care for her. Keep her.
He shook himself. He couldn’t let her in. Not when he was just a shell of a man with a black hole for a soul, a man that had nothing to give her. The realization dawned on him that he could only cause her misery and heartache. So he did the only thing he could do, he denied the feelings she was stirring in him, pushing them down. It was easier and safer not to feel anything. She was just another lay, he told himself. What he felt for her was desire, nothing more. Even as he thought it, he knew it was a lie.
He looked out through the screen and took a hit off his cigarette. The tops of the tall redwoods swayed with the wind. There was a bright flash of lightning in the distance, lighting up the dark sky. Thunder cracked with a boom. He heard the bed creak behind him, but he didn’t turn around.
He felt her arms slide around his waist, her face press against his back. He closed his eyes, trying to deny how good it felt.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered, pulling the sheet she’d wrapped around her more tightly.
“Nothing,” he responded, shaking himself free of the feeling. He looked out the screen door.
“Is something troubling you?”
He shook his head, taking another hit off his cigarette.
“Cole, please. I know something’s bothering you.”
“A lot of shit bothers me. Some of it comes out in my dreams. Don’t worry about it.” The screen door creaked as he opened it and tossed his cigarette out into the night. The downpour was tapering off to a light rain.
“Dreams or nightmares?”