Terms of Desire: Tempt Me Twice, Part One, Page 2

  “Me? I’m Callie.” My tongue darted out to lick at my dry lips. “Callie Mahone. We’re on our way to Montana.” I didn’t mention that the other half of the ‘we’ was my husband, though all Liam would have had to do to find out was to look at my ring finger, where the etched gold band shone brightly.

  Liam replaced the cap, twisting it until we both heard the click, then stood and stretched. Reaching for a rag to wipe his now black stained hands on, he smiled at me again, and I was struck dumb by the evenness of those teeth, at the sexy twist of that mouth. I wanted nothing more than to launch myself into his arms, to wrap my legs around his waist and rub my clit against his denim clad cock, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted Austin to come back and save me from myself, or to stay away so that I could do it.

  “Well, the car should work for now, Callie Mahone.” I tucked a wisp of hair that had escaped from my ponytail behind my ear and tugged at the hem of my top, which had ridden up at the movement.

  “Thanks.” It might have been wishful thinking, but I thought that I saw his eyes drop to the band of naked flesh that was briefly exposed. I shuffled my feet, nervous energy rolling over me in waves. “So… are you a mechanic, or something?”

  “Or something,” he agreed, and when I stuck my tongue out in exasperation, he let loose with a deliciously throaty laugh, one that tickled low in my belly. “Actually, I have varied interests. My brother, however, is a mechanic, and he taught me the basics when we were just kids.”

  “Which is why you carry a box of ground pepper in your trunk,” I added, smiling despite my nerves.

  “Exactly.” The thread of conversation died off, leaving us staring intently into each other’s eyes, black into gold. Even had I wanted to, I was fairly certain that I wouldn’t be able to look away.

  Austin chose that moment to return. “Sorry about that.” His gaze sharpened as he looked from me to Liam and back again, and nerves rioted throughout my frame.

  What was wrong with me, that I was so drawn to someone other than my husband?

  I felt dirty and guilty as hell, even though nothing had happened. Hanging my head, I let penitence wash over me before forcing myself to push it away.

  I rose my head to find both men staring at me. I couldn’t quite interpret either man’s stare.

  Liam turned abruptly, remaining silent as he tucked the cardboard box of pepper back into the black case that I now assumed was his roadside emergency kit. He was packing up to leave, and I didn’t understand why every cell in my body was screaming, yelling at me to beg him to stay.

  Truth be told, it scared me a little. Enough that I took a deliberate step back, far enough away from him that I could no longer smell the masculine tang of his sweat as it mixed with the spicy notes of his aftershave. Far enough away to at least fool myself that nothing had happened here, that our knight in shining armor hadn’t twisted my innards into knots.

  I could feel Austin’s presence beside me, and I cringed inwardly, certain that he knew the traitorous thoughts that were rioting through my head.

  He said nothing to me, instead extending a hand to Liam.

  A jolt of heat shot through me when the two men clasped hands. My mouth went dry.

  “Thank you so much for your help.” Austin extended a hand, and I murmured an assent, reflecting that therein lay the problem. Liam was our knight in shining armor, me and Austin’s. Because of that, I couldn’t express my feelings. Couldn’t slyly slip him my cell number, or ask for one in return. And I really wasn’t sure what to do with the fact that that disappointed me so, to the point that tears were stinging the backs of my eyes.

  “Not a problem. Get that car into a shop as soon as you can.” He swung his long body up into the driver’s seat of his truck. “Later.” He nodded at Austin. To me he simply said my name, the two syllables rolling off of his tongue like they’d been dipped in chocolate and he was savoring the taste.

  His dark eyes burned with enough intensity as he said my name that I knew I hadn’t imagined it all. He felt the pull too.

  I was a disloyal slut. I chastised myself as I buckled the belt back over my lap, settled my sticky skin against the prickly upholstery of the seat again. I felt tired, listless as Austin gunned the engine and the Crown Vic roared out of the dingy parking lot. And I was slightly pissed off at myself for the extremities of my emotions.

  Had my marriage really deteriorated that far? Had it gotten so bad that I was using some stranger, a handsome stranger but a stranger nonetheless to drive a wedge into the gap that already existed between me and Austin?

  I couldn’t, I told myself. More so, I wouldn’t. Sneaking a glance at my husband, I reminded myself of how handsome he was. How desirable. Maybe the romance had faded, maybe he deferred to me a little more often than I liked in recent years, and maybe I questioned him more than he cared for.

  Fantasy was normal, wasn’t it? Could even be healthy, if used appropriately. Well, I was worked up and then some right now, thanks to sexy Liam with the tattoo around his hard arm. Why couldn’t, indeed, why shouldn’t I transfer some of that excitement to my husband?

  Keeping our earlier debacle in mind, I kept my hands to myself. Instead I began to inch the soft cotton of my tank up, bit by bit, exposing skin for Austin to look at, to lust over.

  He didn’t notice. I coughed and raised my top higher, offering a view of my braless breasts, small but firm. Austin glanced over, did a double take and swore.

  “Dammit, Callie! Why do you always do this when I can’t do anything about it? You never do when we’re alone. Always creating a barrier. Do you even want to have sex with me anymore?”

  “I do too do it when we’re alone!” I retorted sharply, before realizing that his outburst had startled me, hitting a little too close to home. Was he that frustrated as well?

  “Name one time in the last six months.” His voice was grim. I opened my mouth; closed it again. He had a point.

  I had stopped approaching him, because I was no longer comfortable in our intimacy. I wanted him to be the aggressor, to know that he found me as hot now as he once had. I wanted him to make the decisions, to take control.

  I had always been jittery, my mind full. Though I loved my husband, and though he had at one time come closer to emptying my mind of that never ending stream of consciousness, he no longer did. We were so far out of our groove, had been for so long, that I wasn’t entirely sure that we would ever find our way back.

  I knew that I could continue to argue, could press the fact that the past didn’t matter, but the fact was that it did. Somewhere along the line we’d screwed up, we meaning me as well, and it was up to us, both of us, to fix it.

  If only I knew how. Probably it would have been helpful to probe at this point, to search for an answer or two. But both of us knew that it would inevitably lead to an argument, and figuring in the enclosed proximity, the stress of driving a car that could break down at any minute into the middle of nowhere, the fact that we couldn’t afford to fix the car, and the oppressive heat, heat, heat indicated that the argument wasn’t likely to be a productive one. Taking a deep breath, I tried to diffuse the situation.

  “It was really nice of that man to help us out,” I offered, reluctant to call Liam by name, lest that give away the secret that I clutched inside.

  “Yes.” Austin’s response was terse.

  “Pepper as a car repair. Who’d have thought?” The only reply that time was a grunt, and I pressed my lips together tightly. He was still angry, though he hadn’t told me why.

  Deep down, I knew that I deserved it. With a soft sigh, I leaned back again and tried to doze off.

  I couldn’t relax. Dammit, now I was pissed off and turned on, all at once. The combination made me queasy. Wishing for an aspirin and some ginger ale, I tilted my seat back and pressed my clammy forehead against the lukewarm glass of my window. And shut my eyes and begged the universe to let me sleep.

  As I drifted off on a fitful trip to dreamland, my thoughts were
of Liam, of his hard body and intense eyes. Of Liam, and of what it would be like to be with him.

  ***

  “Callie.” The word whispered against my neck made me shiver. Shy, I turned my head away, but a finger under my chin tilted my face back, back until I had no choice but to look into his eyes.

  On some level, I knew that I was dreaming. Still what I saw in his eyes, the feral gleam that glinted deep in the velvety black, melted my very core. When those lips were placed on mine, and a rough tongue swept out to taste, I whimpered and my body began to hum, begging for something— it wasn’t sure what.

  His hands clasped my waist and sampled the warm flesh there before moving up to flick lightly over my breasts, the cherry tips of my tits naked under his questing fingers. When I hissed out a breath and moved against him restlessly, the hot hardness of his cock pressed into the softness of my belly; my mouth watered as I hungered for a taste.

  But first things first. Button by button I undid his shirt, revealing inch upon inch of flesh that I hoped tasted as good as it smelled. But shortly after I nuzzled my nose into the crisp hair that was dusted lightly over the dark coins of his nipples, had sampled only a preliminary nibble of his flesh, I felt his hands wrap around my wrists, binding them together with something that felt like soft rope.

  I gasped at the sensation of being restrained. As I did, he slid his shirt from his shoulders, allowing it to fall to the floor with a whisper. I nudged at him with my shoulder, until her raised an eyebrow and stretched out his arm. There it was, the black ink that swirled over his tanned arm, a pattern that I couldn’t make out but that fascinated me nonetheless. Without thinking about it, my tongue darted out to lick, to trace over the short, spiky lines.

  He looked down sharply; looked at me. Then, with a hunger in his eyes that I’d never before been able to bring out in a man, he pounced.

  A cry of surprise issued from my lips as I was pressed back against the pebbled surface of the wall; the jolt of its coolness against my fevered skin had my nipples tightening painfully. My skirt, the frothy swirl of pale pink that I loved because it made me feel so feminine was hiked up around my waist, and I cried out when two rough fingers made their way past the elastic of my panties to invade the wet heat that waited there. One dip, then two, and his fingers were moving again, sliding around to slip into the crevice between the cheeks of my ass. I shivered at the dangerous sensation of his hand exploring the darkness, and nearly choked when a firm digit pressed against the tight ring of muscle that was hidden deep inside.

  I tugged at my bonds, desperate to touch, and frightened that I couldn’t do anything to stop Liam if I wanted to.

  I was bound, pinned between the wall and a man double my size.

  I was helpless. The realization had fear skittering along my skin, but with it came undeniable arousal.

  Frantic to be shown passion, to experience the heat between two bodies that I had hungered for for so long, I bucked against him, my restrained hands hitting the wall painfully as I squirmed.

  “Be still.” Pressing me back against the wall, Liam looked into my eyes, his own probing until I felt he saw the very depths of my soul.

  “Are you certain you want this, Callie? Once you submit to me, there will be no return.” I swallowed thickly and found that I was having trouble breathing.

  “Yes, Liam.” I broke his stare—it was too intense for comfort. Instead I nuzzled my face into his neck. “Yes, I want this.”

  I cried out when he fisted his hands in my hair and dragged my head back until I again had to look at him.

  “You call me Sir.” When I remained silent, he tugged my hair yet again, and I choked on my words.

  “Yes… yes, Sir.” A delicious thrill worked through me at the words, though they sounded strange to my ears.

  Satisfaction curled over Liam’s lips, and I felt incredibly happy to have pleased him.

  Bracing me against the wall, he worked his zipper down, his own hand closing tightly around his long shaft and enjoying the sensation of the silky skin as it pulsed. I longed to trace my fingers over the veins, the hot smoothness, wanted to linger, to sip, to tease.

  “I won’t be gentle with you, Callie.” Raw need played over his face, and I responded to it eagerly. That I could make him feel this way filled me with heady power. “I’ll push you further than you think you want to go.”

  I nodded, breathless. “Yes. Sir.”

  Then there was no time to linger, no time to sip slowly and sample the entire feast. No, there was a fever raging between us, one that I knew only a hard, fast fuck could quench, and I worried that I’d be consumed by the flames if it didn’t happen fast.

  That we both would.

  With a low growl deep in his throat he used his large hands to cup my ass, lifted me so that my legs could wrap tightly around his waist. When I was clinging tightly, my naked breasts rubbing shamelessly over the hard muscles of his chest, he ripped my panties to the side. With a hand unsteady from need he guided his cock to the entrance of my cunt; after a moment in which he adjusted our fit, he slammed into me with a ferocity that left me breathless.

  I cried out as he possessed me with his body.

  When his forehead pressed to mine and our breath mingled I thought that perhaps we would take it slow after all, that there was enough restraint left for that. It wasn’t to be, however, which I soon discovered. I found arching my back, unable to do anymore than take what he gave me as I truly began to understand the meaning of the word ‘fuck’. Flesh slapped, an incredibly unsexy sound in itself, but the most erotic sound in the world when it is your lust that is creating it. Pressure began to build within me again as he thrust his cock into me again and again, and I rotated my hips, the better to feel the friction of the coarse hair that sprang up in wild curls around his cock on my clit.

  I was almost there. So close. And when I looked into his face, saw it contorted with want, with need, need for me, I was sure that I would tilt off, over the edge. My voice cried out in anticipation, echoing off the naked walls of the room. His joined mine, mingling in a sexy mating call as I felt his cock contract rhythmically within me, dancing to the song of our voices. But something in me froze, stilled the onslaught of sensations. As I screamed in frustration over the loss of the sensation that I so badly craved, I saw shadowy figures begin to form across the room, writhing and undulating and crying out with more and more heat as I stared.

  It was Austin. Austin, and some nameless, faceless yet still gorgeous woman, fucking right in front of me. Scarlet hazed my vision and Liam hissed as I involuntarily dug nails curved by rage into his flesh.

  Who was she? I’d kill her for touching my husband. I’d murder them both with my bare hands.

  Even as the thought seeped rapidly through my brain, trickling into all of the spots that lust had emptied, I felt shame flush me over from top to toe. How could I be upset when my legs were wrapped around Liam’s waist, his cock still embedded deep inside my cunt?

  Yet I was, and the feeling only intensified as Austin and the woman began all over again.

  I hissed when Austin’s fingers flirted with the surface of her thigh and reached up to skim lightly over a nipple. His grip closed in a pinch that should have hurt and instead had a grunt of pleasure escaping her lips.

  This wasn’t right. This couldn’t be real.

  Austin, the husband that I knew so well, wore pants of black leather, his hard chest bared and slicked with sweat. The woman beneath him was naked, save for a collar that ringed her neck, and a rope around her wrists.

  A rope like my own.

  Though the visual also made me sick, it had slickness pooling between my thighs, even as I struggled fruitlessly to disentangle myself from Liam’s embrace and found myself locked in place.

  “No.” The word escaped my lips on a gasp as Austin’s fingers trailed lower and began to toy with the curls fuzzing the woman’s outer lips. She cried out when a finger found the sweet bud of her clit, circled it firml
y once, and moved on.

  Meanwhile, Liam leaned forward, the close fit of our bodies blocking the view of his faintly veined cock. Lifting the dense mass of my hair up in a fist, he nuzzled at the back of my neck, trailing hot, wet kisses up and down the slender arch.

  Shock and red hot arousal jolted through my system and I was rendered speechless. How could I be aroused by Liam, aroused by the sight of my husband fucking another woman, and both guilty and furious and betrayed at the same time? I couldn’t possibly hold all of those feelings inside; I’d split wide open and drown in the waterfall that rushed out. Yet out of the corner of my eye I saw them moving, sinuous and snakelike, and felt a resultant gush drench Liam’s hard again cock; when I tilted my head back frantically to meet his gaze I realized that he did indeed still hold me in thrall.

  Austin chose that moment to rise from his knees, to step closer to the woman, and the sight of his engorged flesh mere inches from her lips had rational thought flying from my mind, to be replaced with blinding rage and, impossibly, sheer lust.

  What was wrong with me?

  A salty tear leaked from my eye as, clambering to her knees, the woman opened her mouth wide and allowed Austin’s flesh to fill her mouth. He groaned and grasped her by the back of the head. Seemingly drunk on the tang of salt and man, it took her a moment to realize that he was tugging on her hair, trying to disengage himself from her lips, and for a moment I struggled between the feel of victory and that of disappointment. The rage/ lust returned in a rush when instead Austin pushed her backwards, turning her at the same time, until her shoulders and face were pressed against the grooved wood of the floor and she was pinned between it and his body. Spreading her legs wide, he stroked sure hands over the roundness of her ass, then parted the cheeks with eager fingers.

  I felt disgust and red hot need burst through me as he pressed his cock, still slick from the woman’s mouth, to the pucker of her anus and pressed slowly past the tight ring of flesh.