Page 9

Linzey

Fire seared through me as soon as Adler’s lips touched mine.

And when he deepened the kiss, I didn’t care that he was over me, my back to the mattress.

I wasn’t frightened. With Adler, I was pretty sure, I’d never be frightened.

Still he wasn’t quite over me, staying to the side and giving me the room to push him away.

I pulled him closer, darting my tongue against his.

He groaned, his sweeping inside my mouth.

“Adler,” I said against his lips, turning my body to him and pressing closer. Need throbbed through me, stronger than any desire I’d ever had. Everywhere he touched electrified, my pleasure centers coming to life.

With deft fingers, he stripped away my pajama top, and his mouth descended on one breast. I cried out, arching, my hands clutching his shoulders. While I watched him, he drew on one needy peak. Our eyes met, his wary, and I nodded to assure him I was okay.

“Yes, Adler,” I gasped, my breathing uneven. “Oh, God, it feels so…”

My leg lifted around him while I tried to get closer.

His fingertips trailed over my side, down to my thigh, pulling it higher on his waist.

“I want to touch you,” he said against my skin.

“Yes. Please. Please…”

He nodded, kneeling back. My gaze devoured him, his bare chest with chiseled pecs and abs. His slim hips and the erection that jutted out, tenting his pajama pants.

He curled his fingers in my waistband and tugged down my silky pants. In a moment, I was bare to him. I waited for fear to descend. Nothing. Just burning need.

I grabbed his hand as he hesitated. “Touch me.”

“Baby…”

“I’m good. I promise. Touch me,” I demanded.

He didn’t need to hear more. His large hand cupped my mound, his thumb sliding in and stroking along my drenched folds. “Damn, you’re so wet. So hot. So perfect.”

“I want you. God…I’ve wanted you for so long. Please.”

Adler leaned over me, his mouth covering me while his fingers explored.

Two fingers curled inside me and I cried out into his mouth, my hips jolting up into his touch.

Slowly at first, he slid the digits in and out.

I canted into every thrust until he was finger-fucking me in earnest, his thumb circling my clit.

Tension coiled like a wild cyclone in my core, lightning sizzling along my skin.

Suddenly, it unleashed and slamming through me and I scream, clutching at his arms.

“Oh my God, oh God, oh!” I cried, my first real orgasm tearing over me like a tsunami of unexpected pleasure. I felt him move over me, knew when he notched his cock to me. He paused and I pulled at him.

“Yes, now, please,” I begged.

“You’re so beautiful. Oh fuck,” he swore as he sank into my slick, pulsing walls, stretching them wide, filing me as I’d thought I’d never be filled. He remade me, creating something new. “Linzey…Linzey. You’re mine. Mine. God, you’re so perfect.”

“Fuck me then,” I demanded. I was half out of my mind with the climax still rolling over me. “You’re the only one who’s right. The only…one.”

“Damn right, I’m the only one. Never letting you go. Never.”

His hips crashed into me as we both gave in, and this time when the bliss shoved me over into mindless oblivion, I felt Adler coming with me…and in me, claiming all of me with the warm wash of his release.

I love you. I love you. I love you, repeated over an over in my head, in my soul, but I didn’t say it aloud. Not yet. But I hoped someday, I could. It was the only thing that would make this intimacy with him more perfect than it already was.

* * * *

“When I was little, I was afraid of the dark,” I whispered as I lay on my side, cuddled into Adler.

My head was on his chest while his arms wrapped around me.

I wasn’t sure what caused me to reveal that, where I was going with the statement.

Maybe, a little, I did know. I just hadn’t meant to say anything aloud.

I didn’t want to ruin this moment. Being with Adler…

it was so different from Rod. Tender instead of terrifying.

Caring instead of evil. Pleasure instead of pain. Fulfilling instead of destroying.

Full of love not hate.

I loved him.

“Yeah?” he asked, running his thumb along the scar on the arm I’d rested on his chest. The mark on my wrist was one of the reminders of what Rod had done to me while I’d been his captive.

“Yeah. But I think I’ve figured out that worse things often walk around in full light. You know?”

It was a rhetorical question. I knew if he answered, he could tell me otherwise. I also knew he wouldn’t. As a SEAL, he’d spent years hunting things that skulked in the inky black of night. He didn’t need to tell me that. I didn’t live under a rock. I watched the news; I’d seen movies.

“I always feel safer when I’m with you,” I continued, murmuring into the silence that had settled around us, while we lay there with our limbs tangled, almost as close as we could be.

“You are safe. I’d kill anyone who tried to come for you. Hell, I might hurt any man who tries to get near you,” he growled.

I shivered, so turned on by how possessive he sounded, how protective, as if he’d do anything necessary to ensure my happiness.

“The gala’s gonna be hard for you, huh?”

“We’re still going?” he asked, sounding as if we’d be going to a couple’s root canal.

“Yes. You know Marigold’s going to insist.”

“God, is there anything I can do to get out of it. What would you do if I kidnapped you and hid you away in a remote cabin, just for me?”

“Mmm…” I hedged, feeling my body softening, begging for him to take me again. With my past, his question should not turn me on. But the idea of being alone with him, belonging to him, made me tingle. My pussy contracted while he spoke, wetness sliding into my throbbing slit.

Ready for more, I trailed my fingers along his torso, aiming for the thin line of hair that led to his already hard cock. Thick and long, just how I liked it.

He clasped my hand, stilling it. “Forget I said that. Even if I’ve thought it a million times, I never would. Stealing you away would make me no better than…him. I would never force you to submit to me.”

“I know, Adler. Don’t worry about that. I know you’re not like him. And I don’t want you to hold back your, um, more dominant side because you think I might be scared. Please give me all of you.”

He threaded his fingers through my hair, massaging my scalp. “How are you so strong?”

“Trust. You earned my trust. Four years and you’ve never touched me in a way that may me uncomfortable, never said inappropriate things, never let anyone else bother me. I’d even think of you as my friend.” I bit my lip, wondering if that sounded dorky. “Is that okay?”

“It’s…yes. I want to be everything for you.” He sighed. “But do you really want to go to this gala thing? What if I just flew us to Paris instead. We could go see the Eiffel Tower.”

“Sounds nice,” I hummed, my pointer finger making circles on his chest, “but I don’t have a passport.”

“Okay…we can go to Vegas and see the one there on The Strip.”

“You really don’t want to go to any of the galas, do you?”

“I really don’t,” he admitted.

“You know, the women will go crazy for you. You’re so handsome. You know that, don’t you?”

He chuckled. “I’m just a man who dresses nice, keeps in shape, and has a good haircut. Besides, I don’t care what any other female thinks. Just you.”

I turned, resting both arms on his chest and looking down at him.

“Oh, come on,” I scoffed. “You know you’re ridiculously hot. Don’t be fake modest. Admit it.”

“Then you admit you’re gorgeous.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m really not.”

“Says you. I’m hard for you all the damn time. Now that the seal’s been broken, you might find yourself on my dick every chance I can get.”

“No complaints from me.” I resumed my position with my ear over his heart. “You’re good for my ego.”

He chuckled. “You’re good for me.”