At Any Turn, Page 21

  “What?”

  I took a deep breath and let it go, hoping the answer to the question I was about to ask was what I thought it was. “How long has it been for you?”

  “Hmm. Let me think…” she started counting on her fingers. What the fuck? She cast a coy glance at me and burst out laughing. “You should see the look on your face right now. ”

  My grip on her tightened. “It’s not fucking funny,” I growled.

  She smiled wryly. “You know the answer to the question already. The last time I had sex, you were there. ”

  Better. That was much better. Thank God. The thought of some other man—like Dick, for example—touching her had almost brought the blind rage to the surface. I expelled a long, slow breath and ordered myself to calm down.

  I bent to kiss her and she wiggled out of my arms. “I’m going to wash this shit off my face,” she said, squirming out of her ridiculous fairy wings. “Unless you want to be the glittery kilted man. ”

  “You don’t want me to take the kilt off, then?”

  She turned back to me before walking through the bathroom door. “Fuck no. ”

  And I laughed. The reaction to the kilt was making it well worth the effort—annoying interns or no. I followed Emilia into the bathroom and washed my face in one sink while she slowly washed and wiped her face clean in the other.

  “You aren’t gonna puke, are you?” I asked.

  She looked at me in the mirror. “No. Are you? It’s not like you drink. Ever. ”

  I shrugged as she patted her face with a towel. She turned to me and there was an awkward silence between us. Then I lifted my chin at her. “Come here. ”

  Instead, she threw me a cheeky look and turned, walking out the door into the vanity area. I followed her and she stopped in front of the floor-to-ceiling mirror on the wall. She caught my gaze in the mirror and it wasn’t an innocent or passing glance, either. It was focused, intense.

  I slowly came up behind her, still watching her. She swallowed and raised her head to keep my gaze.

  My hard-on was getting painful. I hooked my arm around her waist and pressed myself into her backside. “You were asking what was under the kilt…”

  She laughed. “You need to wear that more often. ”

  I bent and kissed her neck. “Maybe I will, depending on the night’s results. ”

  She shivered in my arms. I’d hit just the right spot. And then she turned, but instead of returning my kiss, she reached out and ripped my shirt open. The buttons went flying. She pulled the thing off my shoulders. “Ohh. So much better,” she said, smoothing her palms across my pecs. Her touch was electric, sending thrills down every nerve. Goddamn I wanted her. And I didn’t want to wait another second.

  I pressed against her, pushing her up against the mirror, a hand placed on either side of her head. “I’m not very happy with you,” I said.

  “Oh?” she said, a sly smile spreading across her lips. “Certain parts of you seem very happy right now. ” She ground her pelvis against mine to emphasize her point.

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  I groaned as a streak of pleasure zinged through me. I pushed back, pressing her against the mirror. “Are you going to tease me now? Like you did with the guys down on the dance floor?”

  She sobered. “You aren’t going to let that go, are you? Don’t tell me you kept your hands off Jordan’s model friend, because I don’t believe it. ”

  I pulled my head back and looked at her. “I told you. I haven’t had sex with anyone since you. ”

  “So you didn’t do anything with her at all?”

  I paused and she scowled. “Ahh. I see. So Rich can’t put his hands on my ass while we’re dancing, but you can grope and kiss a model…”

  I tensed. “If he touches you again, I’m going to rip his arm off and then fire him. ”

  “Hmm. Not sure he’d want to work for you after you’d ripped his arm off. Maybe don’t even bother with that second part. ”

  I bent and pressed my mouth to her neck. “I mean it. No one touches you. ”

  “Except you…” she added drily.

  “If you want me to. ”

  “I don’t know…you make a lot of violent threats when you’re drunk. ”

  I continued to taste her neck, tried to block that negative rage from my mind. I’d never felt this possessive of her before and that was likely because of the wretched fear that I had lost her. “I don’t like people fucking with what’s mine. ”

  “But I’m not yours,” she said quietly, a slight tremor in her voice.

  Steely determination hardened in my muscles. She felt me tense against her. I’d spend this entire night convincing her otherwise.

  I reached down to pull her tank top over her head, but she clamped her arms down. “Don’t—”

  My head came up to look her in the face again. “You don’t want to…?” I hoped I managed to keep the childlike disappointment out of my voice.

  “I don’t want to take my shirt off. ”

  I paused, puzzled. Did that mean no sex? Or she just didn’t want to get naked? Or what? “Okay. And…?”

  She watched me, then put her hands very deliberately on my chest again. I closed my eyes, savoring the hot touch. Then she leaned forward and she was kissing my chest. I let out a long groan, savoring the feel of her hot mouth on me.

  “I want—I need you naked, underneath me,” I growled between clenched teeth.

  She continued to kiss me. “No. The shirt stays on. Everything else goes. ”

  I pushed back from the mirror and she stared at me, wide-eyed. “You aren’t fucking around with me, are you? Like you are going to change your mind or something? Because there’s no point in continuing this if not and I have no desire to leave this town with blue balls. ”

  She laughed. “I do that to you a lot, don’t I? One way or the other…paintballs or lack of sex. ”

  I reached out and ran my thumb over her bottom lip. It trembled and her eyes fluttered. Another burst of hot desire burned through me. I traced her lips, then pushed my thumb into her mouth. Her lips closed around it and her tongue caressed the pad of my thumb. My breath quickened with excitement.

  I bent my head to caress her earlobe with my lips. “You had better be sure,” I whispered. “Because if I get you on that bed, then I’m getting inside you. ” I pushed my thumb in deeper and her mouth opened around a gasp. I pulled it out again.

  “I’m sure,” she said.

  The anger, the resentment, the games were too much and I was seizing control. I grasped her chin in my hand, jerked her head to the side and sank my teeth into her neck. I wasn’t gentle. She barely moved. I moved my mouth to her ear. “Turn around and put your hands on the mirror,” I growled.

  She did exactly as I told her. Another surge of hot lust shot straight to my cock. I could lift up the kilt now and get under her skirt in seconds. Part of me, still panicking that she’d change her mind, wanted to do just that.

  With one hand hooked around her neck, I brought the other one around her waist, pulling her to me. I took her earlobe in my mouth and she shivered against me, gasping, her eyes half closed.

  “You like that…”

  “Yes,” she breathed.

  “I’m going to fuck you. Hard. And you’re going to like it. ”

  “Yes,” she repeated.

  “You’re going to beg for more. ”

  She closed her eyes, squeezing them. She released her hold on the mirror and grabbed my wrist that was clamped over her belly, holding her against me, and sank her nails into my skin. The pain of the needle pricks felt so good.

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  “On the mirror. Now. ”

  And with only a slight hesitation, she slowly complied. My hand tightened and released its hold on her neck.

  “I’m gonna watch you come, Emilia. I want to hear your pretty little sighs, your desperate moans. I want to hear you scream
my name. My name. Because you are mine. ”

  My hand slipped under the waistband of her tutu and directly into her underwear. I pulled her mouth to mine and I kissed her as my hand found her sensitive, swollen clit. My fingers glided across her, and she was wet and ready. I could barely restrain myself from pushing her to the floor right there.

  She moaned into my mouth, her hands curling around the edge of the mirror. But she never pulled them away again. “Open your eyes,” I said, my voice hoarse with want. She looked at me. “Watch yourself. In the mirror. Watch what I’m doing to you. ”

  For a long moment she didn’t move, resting her head on my shoulder, looking up at me. So I grabbed her chin again and angled her head. Her eyes found mine in the mirror and I deepened the pressure of my hand on her.

  “Oh,” she gasped.

  “Say my name, Emilia. Who do you want?”

  “You…” she breathed, her lids falling again. “Adam. ”

  “That’s right,” I said, my voice tight. My other hand went to her waist to hold her against me as her knees buckled. “You. Are. Mine. ”

  She let out another long moan that struck me to the deepest center. It was painful. A pleasurable, painful ache in my cock. But I knew that once we got going it was going to be so good. So worth it.

  Her back arched and she was showing all the signs that she was very near to climax. The hoarse breathing, those delicious little sighs and pants. She was watching us in the mirror and her amber eyes locked on mine.

  “Adam,” she moaned and I closed my eyes, savoring the sound of my name on her lips, drenched with her own lust. I slipped my hand over her hot flesh, coaxing music from her like a musician from his instrument.

  “I want you, Adam. I want you inside me. ”

  I buried my face in her hair, nipped at her ear. “Very soon. But now, I think, it’s time for you to come, Emilia. ”

  And just like that, as if she’d been waiting for my permission, she stiffened against me and I felt the convulsions of her orgasm against my hand. She gasped, her eyes rolling into her head as she closed them. I tightened my hold on her waist to keep her from falling, but I didn’t give her long to enjoy the afterglow. Instead I bent, scooped her up and carried her into the next room to the bed.

  “That night in Yosemite I fucked you four times. I think tonight I’ll go for five,” I muttered.

  She nestled against me, one hand hooked around my neck. She started kissing my chest and I didn’t want to put her down. There were questions rolling around in my mind. I was still wondering why she wanted to keep her clothes on. But my body just wanted to turn it off, enjoy the pleasure of this night together without thinking. I could get on board with that.

  Words, conversations, entire monologues and declarations had been left unspoken between us. And I knew that this one night in each other’s arms wouldn’t solve our problems. But maybe at this point what we needed was to communicate in another way—in the basest, most primal way.

  Or maybe we were both just badly overdue for a damn good fuck.

  I could barely contain myself when her hot mouth found my nipple and she sucked on it. Then, without warning, her teeth sank in. I gasped at the sharp pain, pulling her away. She had a wicked smile on her face. “I thought we were using teeth now. ”

  I tossed her on the bed. “We are doing whatever I want us to do. Take off your skirt. ”

  As before, she did exactly what I told her to do, staring up at me, her eyes wide. I watched her slide her skirt and lacy blue underwear off. My hands clenched at my sides. She was breathing hard, her skin flushed. After a long moment where we only looked at each other, she put her hands above her head, her wrists together, as if tied that way, and then opened her legs, tilting her head back and baring her neck.

  Oh God, if I wasn’t careful, I was going to shoot my wad before I ever got inside her. Watching her like this, submissive, open to me. I didn’t get off on the bondage thing. I’d had a sexual partner once who’d wanted that from me and we found we weren’t very compatible.

  But seeing Emilia like this, after all that had gone on with us the previous month—it brought out all the ferocious aggression and the fierce protectiveness I now felt toward her. I unbuttoned the kilt and let it fall to the floor and stripped off my underwear.

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  “Turn over,” I said without touching her.

  She opened her eyes and looked at me. I thought she might resist, so I reached down and grabbed her arm and flipped her, facedown, on the bed. I pulled her arms behind her back and held her wrists together with one of my hands. Then I lay on her to pin her beneath me.

  She gasped and wriggled beneath me, sending bolts of electricity through me, straight down to that ache in my balls. This past month and a half had been a long time. But my body still remembered hers. Still craved hers.

  I put my mouth to her ear, sank my teeth in. She said nothing besides giving a small whimper that only fired me up more. “I hate your fucking hairstyle,” I said.

  “I don’t care,” she answered.

  “I’m going to punish you for those hideous colors. ” I shifted to the side, still pinning her down crosswise, then I bit into her neck again, harder this time. At the same time, my hand landed on her ass, hard.

  She stiffened underneath me. I thought she might protest, but before she could, I spanked her again. “That was for changing your beautiful hair. ”

  She was breathing hard now. My hand tightened around her wrists and I slapped her again. She gasped.

  “That’s for denying me your sexy body. ” I kissed the back of her neck. I relished the smell of her mixed with her sweat, her salty taste. Closing my eyes, I gave her one last slap. “That’s for making me see only you whenever I’m with anyone else. ”

  She wiggled again underneath me, as if trying to roll onto her back but I prevented her. “Adam—stop fucking around, goddamn it!”

  “No. You don’t get to take over. I’m not touching you until you say you’re mine. ”

  There was a long silence. I released her wrists.

  Well I’d put that out there and I had to be prepared to follow through if she didn’t comply. I took a deep breath and held it, hoping I wouldn’t have to stop this.

  “You said if you got me on the bed, you were getting inside me. ”

  I ran my hand up her soft thighs and breathed, “Only if you’re mine. ”

  She moved against me again and I took in a gulp of air, trying to get control of myself. I bent, sucked her neck, her ear. “Say it,” I said.

  She gasped, turning her head to the side, trying to look into my eyes, but she couldn’t because I didn’t let her up. “Tonight, I’m yours. ”

  I hesitated only a moment. For now, it would have to do. Soon, she’d be mine forever and she wouldn’t hesitate a second to tell me. I vowed to myself that I’d make that reality.

  “I’m going to bury my cock in you. ” I shifted, working her legs open beneath me. And I slid into her. She fit me like a hot, wet glove, so tight, so unyielding. I pushed in as deep as I could go and she cried out. Her body closed in around me, almost suffocating me with pleasure.

  The feel of her soft body under mine was driving me insane. I ran my hands down her legs, over her ass. She was so soft. And the smell of her skin—I was as intoxicated by it as with the alcohol in my blood.

  I began to move, pushing into her, again and again. I reared up on my knees, pulling her up in front of me so that I could increase the pace. Emilia braced both hands against the headboard for leverage.

  There was a slow build toward that orgasm. Emilia came again, her gasps and moans ripping right through me. And the feel of her spasms tightening her around me brought me, finally, to my own climax. When I finally came, it was incredible, so intense I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think of anything else but the sensation of pumping myself into her. She still moved underneath me and
I reached out to hold her still, the burning pleasure making me so sensitive that every movement after was almost painful.

  I collapsed, lying halfway across her as our legs tangled together, sticky with sweat. It was minutes before I could even talk and Emilia hardly moved. I turned my head and kissed her lips slowly. Her mouth moved against mine in shallow, affectionate kisses. It might have been enough to get me going again if I wasn’t so exhausted.

  I was drifting off to sleep when I felt her push against me, wriggling out from under me to get up and go to the bathroom. The shower came on and I figured I could use a shower too, so I got up to join her. Always did enjoy a nice post-sex shower with her, which a lot of times ended up becoming a pre-sex shower to the follow-up. Or even a during-sex shower. Those were good, too.

  I was brought up short when I turned the knob and it didn’t open. I rattled the door, in case it was stuck but no, it was clearly locked. She was in there, in the shower, and she’d locked the door to me.

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  I thought about that weird insistence on keeping her shirt on. What the hell was going on with her? Would she tell me now? Would this lead to us talking again? I hoped so, but deep down I doubted it.

  Goddamn it.

  I showered quickly after she got out, half-expecting her to be gone when I exited the shower, but no, she was curled up in the bed asleep. She looked so small and alone, like a little girl. I lay down next to her, pulled her to my chest and wrapped an arm around her waist, kissing her neck. With her warm body settled against me, I drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

  I woke up at 3 a. m. disoriented, in the dark and with a headache threatening. Emilia’s breaths came in a long, slow rhythm, indicating that she was still asleep. Her bottom was pressed against my cock, which was hard as a rock. My subconscious must have woken me up, seeing this as a perfect time to get lucky. I pressed myself against her ass, enjoying the feel of her against me.

  She wore her top, but she was naked from the waist down. And the baser, more animal part of me saw this as an opportunity to get while the getting was good. I gently rolled her onto her back, resisting the urge to put my hand up her shirt. I wanted her breasts in my hands so badly, to feel her nipples harden under my touch. But I had to respect her wishes, even though I burned to ignore them.

  Instead I maneuvered my way between her legs, opening them wide enough for my shoulders. I kissed her hips, her thighs, the soft mound above her sex. Then I parted her and tasted her there, licking and sucking against her hot flesh. I loved the taste of her—more spicy than sweet. Like she was.