Page 27 of Forever After All (Pine Harbour #2)

Alice

W hat. The. Hell?

Throwing my phone up in the air in a panic, I sit up on the bed in my underwear, shaking from the loud banging on the door.

It was an automatic reaction to grab the heaviest, closest thing to me I could find.

Which is the plugged-in phone that doesn't work.

I pull my knees to my chest and clutch the phone to my body, squeezing my eyes shut, waiting for someone to hammer the door down.

"Alice!" The voice booms through the door. "Open the door. I'm not going to ask you again, princess."

Princess. Oh my god.

"Carter? Is that you?" I shout into the dark room.

I scramble off the bed towards the door and yank it open to be met with Carter's giant body blocking the frame, and holy hell, he is naked, hot as ever, and shaking with desire.

Grabbing my arm, Carter yanks me towards him, and I let out a startled gasp as he ducks down, and I feel my body leave the floor as he swings me over his shoulder. My legs flail a little in the air as I try to stop myself from falling over his back and face planting the floor.

"Stop it! What are you doing here?" I squeal and involuntarily slap him on the back. "Put me down. It's next to impossible to carry me like that." I kick my feet again and he slaps my ass, the sound echoes down the hallway.

"Difficult, princess. Not impossible," he grumbles under my flailing legs.

"Miss Barretta, oh—" A voice startles me. The lovely concierge who was trying to sort out my door walks around the corner as Carter is manhandling me in the hallway.

"She won't be needing another room, don't worry." And Carter, butt naked and all, carries me into his room and slams the door behind him.

"I'm fine, thank you!" I yell, with my hair trailing down Carter's back, before the door swings shut.

"Put me down!" I protest again as Carter lowers me to my feet and I hit the carpet with a thud. I didn't expect to be standing in his hotel room, in my lingerie, yet here we are. "Why are you here? I don't understand. What is going on?"

He walks me back until my knees bump the back of the bed, and I stumble, landing on the soft mattress beneath.

Dropping to his knees in front of me, Carter spreads my legs and presses kisses on the insides of my thighs, his beard hair tickling my soft skin.

My insides squeeze and I feel a prickle of heat everywhere.

"I told you that you were safe with me. I was never going to let you do this alone." He presses his face to my centre, and through the lace of my underwear I feel his hot breath against my skin, and over the lace, he sucks my pussy.

I yelp a little and jump.

"I can taste you. I know how wet you are for me." He swipes two fingers over my underwear, and brings them up to the light, to see them glisten. I try to move away, still reeling from him being here with me in England.

"Carter, get up." I moan a little at feeling him between my legs, and I tug on his hand, urging him to stand, but he pulls it away and looks into my eyes as he presses his palms into my thighs.

"Princess, I am so up." Pulling my underwear to the side, Carter latches onto my clit and sucks. I roll my hips instinctively and press myself harder into his face.

"Carter, I—" I pause, wanting to tell him so much and nothing at all. And then, without warning, I burst into tears.

Pulling away from me, Carter sits in front of me, and rubs my thigh, looking worried. "Alice?" he asks. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong, I just can't believe you care so much about me that you'd come here." It has been so hard for me to form lasting relationships, and so hard for me to trust a man fully. I am rendered speechless that a man, this man , has flow halfway around the world just for me.

"Alice, there is nowhere I wouldn't go for you, and if it isn't completely clear, I am so fucking in love with you.

You make me crazy." I don't know what to say, so I stay silent.

"Just so we're clear, you don't have to say it back.

I don't need you to say it back, but I need you to know.

And when you do say it back—because you will—I'm going to marry you so fucking hard.

" I can't stop the look of dread that crosses my face.

Don't tell me you love me, I'm not ready to hear that.

"Carter, get up. Please just get up on this bed with me, right now." I ignore the last bit he says altogether. The thought of marriage makes my younger self shudder.

"Why would I do that when I'm having so much fun down here?"

"Because…" I pause. "I know you love me, but right now I need you to touch me like you don't." I press my hand over his as it rests on my thigh, and I squeeze it so hard his fingertips flex and dig into my skin.

"I want to be hurt by a man who won't hurt me.

I need you to touch me like you think I won't break.

I-I—" I don't even really know what I'm asking for, but the words keep coming.

"I need you to talk to me like you don't care about me at all.

" Instinctively, Carter stands and pulls me up by the wrists, then turns me around to face the bed.

"You don’t know what you’re asking me to do, Alice." He hesitates at my request.

"I do. I really do," I beg him, desperate for him to be rough with me.

" Fuuuuuck ," he moans. "You're not gonna break, princess, but if you want me to, we can try." Gripping the back of my neck, he tugs me backwards, hard, and I stumble a little. He forces my face down into the bed sheet and my knees bump into the bed frame as I fold onto the mattress.

"Are you sure you want this, Alice?" he asks, pressing me down a little firmer.

I say nothing, but nod and whine a little at being manhandled on Carter's hotel room bed.

Reaching underneath me to palm my chest through my bra, he squeezes my skin so hard that I yelp.

He leans down to whisper in my ear. "I can treat you like the princess you are or I can treat you like I feel nothing for you.

But you can't have both. How do you want to be treated, Alice?

" He squeezes my breast a little harder—so hard in fact that I think it might bruise.

I groan a little under his touch. "Use your words. "

"I want you to treat me like you feel nothing for me," I cry out in frustration, so ready to be taken by this man.

Releasing his grip on my tender skin, Carter grabs me by the hips, pulling me into the air so I’m face-down, ass-up. I try to balance on my forearms and I turn my face to the side so I can breathe.

As he yanks my underwear down, I try to look at him before he slams his dick all the way inside me with no warning. I gasp as he drives into me unrelenting, and I cry out in a mixture of pleasure and pain. He reaches down to cover my mouth with his hand.

"Shut up," he whispers menacingly. "Nobody gets to hear my dirty girl make noise.

Nobody but me, you got that?" He slaps my ass so hard that it stings and my body clenches.

His hand pressed against my mouth stops a muffled shout escaping and my thighs tremble a little at experiencing a shock of such pleasurable pain.

Then he slaps me again—harder. I feel his hand bounce off my cheek, and I jolt forward as the satisfying noise of his palm against my skin cracks like lightning and reverberates around the room, but I refuse to make any more noise, knowing what to expect.

"You can fucking listen then?" he sneers and pushes his index and middle fingers into my mouth. I almost heave from the invasion, ready to gag. With his fingers in my mouth, Carter yanks against my cheek, turning my head so he can look at me, then thrusts into me again, pushing harder each time.

"Yes," I try to say but his fingers depress my tongue and it prevents the noise from escaping. I have never felt more free. Being taken so relentlessly by Carter is exactly what I need, and, even though he acquiesced at my request, he did it for me.

"Are you ready to break yet, Alice?"

I shake my head as best as I can, and my eyebrows pull in at the centre as I beg him to continue without using the words.

"You like this, don't you? Being treated like you're nothing."

"Yes." I try again to form a word, and my insides constrict once more.

"Well, you don't get to like it. It's for me, not for you.

Keep your pretty mouth shut so I can come inside of you.

" He slaps me again for the final time, and in an instant I come, moaning around his fingers.

I come so damn hard that it gives me a headache.

Still pressed into the bed, a tear rolls off my nose as the sting from the last slap races up my spine and neck, warming my face as it makes my eyes prick.

I buck and moan underneath him. Carter holds me in place, quickening his pace, until he follows me over the edge and a guttural moan fills the room as I take everything he gives me.

My back is drenched with sweat. I suck his fingers as he releases them from my mouth, then I collapse into the bed, and he falls next to me.

Both spent and breathing heavily. And I start to laugh .

"Are you okay, princess? Fuck, did I hurt you?" He checks my skin for marks and caresses my ass where a bruise already threatens to form, then kisses me on top of the head. "There are welts in your skin." An unfeigned look crosses Carter's face.

"No, you didn't hurt me. No more than I asked you to, anyway." I feel the skin where he’s touching. It’s tender and raised, but I smile and Carter rolls over onto his back.

My underwear still around my knees and my bra still on. I grabble a little and reach behind me to unclasp my bra. Pulling the straps down over my shoulders, I throw my bra off the bed then kick my underwear off.

I look up at him as he props himself up against the headboard and he looks down at me, brushing the hair out of my face. My face presses into his hand and I kiss his palm.

"Come, sit with me." Patting the space next to him on the bed, I scramble to sitting and press my back to the headboard next to him. Carter extends his hand out to me and I lace my fingers through the spaces in between his own. He brings my hand to his mouth and kisses each one of my fingertips.

"Next time, we do it my way, and I fuck you like I love you."

We slide down in the bed. I turn to my side, hooking my leg over his as he wraps an arm around my back, gently brushing his fingers up and down the curve of my spine.

Not giving a shit about lying in our own mess, I fall asleep curled up in his arms.