Page 34 of Hell Bent (Portland Devils #5)

MY PATENTED TECHNIQUE

Sebastian

I didn’t normally go to bed at nine o’clock.

But when a woman with the kind of curves that work for you best—and the kind of mind that keeps you laughing and guessing and frustrated as hell—walks out of your bathroom wearing a sort of T-shirt dress that barely reaches the tops of her thighs and nothing else you can see?

When that T-shirt is falling off one shoulder, and her hair is tumbled around her again? You get ready for bed. Fast.

This time, she wasn’t asleep when I came out of the bathroom, and only the light on my bedside table was on. She was sitting up in bed. And looking … a way I couldn’t read.

“Hey,” I said, sliding in beside her.

“You should tell me more,” she said, talking fast. “About what your sister said to you, if anything. What you expect going forward. So I can help Ben.”

“Mm. Or you could help me, of course.” I had a hand on that bare shoulder again. How could I not touch her?

“Which is …” she said. I moved the backs of my fingers al ong her skin, barely under the top of the shirt, and she gasped and said, “The point. That I help you.”

“Uh-huh.” I was pulling her down in the bed so she was lying flat.

Much better. And, finally, was able to kiss her on that bare shoulder and right below it, in that sweet, tender place at the top of a woman’s breast. How could she be so tough at times, and still be so soft here?

She shuddered, and I remembered her asking if her whole body could be an erogenous zone.

I ran a hand down to her waist just to feel that springiness again, back up to her shoulder, and down her arm.

Slowly, shoulder to wrist, feeling the softness and the strength of her.

Her hand twisted under me, and I laced my fingers through hers, slowly still, tunneled the fingers of my other hand through her soft, shiny hair, and kissed her deep.

My body was over hers, her mouth was opening under mine, and she felt so good under me.

She was making some little noises in her throat now. Hard for her to do more than that with my tongue in her mouth, but that was fine by me. Her hand was on my shoulder, then wrapped around the back of my neck, her legs were parting, and …

She pulled her mouth away and said, “Sebastian. Wait.”

Not the words I wanted to hear, but I did it. I rose on my elbows, kept my fingers threaded through hers, and asked, “What?”

“Uh …” She squirmed a little in a half-of-me-wants-to-get-away-because-you’re-too-much-for-me kind of way, at least I hoped that was it.

Her brown eyes, which already took up half her face, looked bigger than ever, and her mouth was a little open.

I brushed her hair back, kissed her forehead, and said again, “What? Tell me, baby.”

“Oh, man.” It was a moan. “I should hate you calling me that. I’ve always— Why can’t I hate that?”

“Because the part of you that only comes out at night wants to be my baby?” I suggested.

“It can be our secret. I’ll never tell.” Another kiss, on her temple this time, then brushing my cheek against hers and feeling that shudder again.

I hadn’t even touched her breast, and she was already shuddering.

What would it be like when I was inside her and she was wrapped all the way around me?

What would it be like to part her thighs and …

Wait. I was supposed to be being sensitive. “What else?”

“Uh …” she said again. “That I wasn’t going to do this. And that you have condoms in your bathroom.”

“Yeah, I do. And I want to use them.” Somehow, I’d let go of her hand, shifted a bit, and was finally touching that thigh.

Firm. Round. Smooth. Then I was shoving the duvet aside so I could see.

My thumb was on her inner thigh, stroking a little, and she was doing some more of that shifting.

“But first,” I said into her ear, feeling her squirm a little more, “I want to pull up this shirt you’re wearing.

Slowly. I want to kiss you all the way down your body, and then I want to turn you over so I can kiss all the way down your spine and touch your skin everywhere.

And then I want to flip you over again, hold your thighs apart hard, and give you the kind of orgasm that’s going to have you remembering me tomorrow. ”

“Uh … condoms. We were talking about … condoms.” She had her hand on my back, though, stroking over my shoulder and moving on down, clearly wanting to do some exploring of her own.

Which was fine by me. Like I’d said—two strong-willed people having a bit of a power struggle wasn’t any kind of a bad thing.

“I promise to wear one,” I said.

“The box is open.” A different kind of shift in her now, a stilling of her hand, so I stopped moving my own hand on her thigh.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’ve used some of that box. In the past.”

“How far past?” Eyes dilated to hell, but leveled on me. Mouth pink and tempting, but talking, not begging to be kissed.

“I haven’t used them,” I said, “since before I met you.”

“You’re kidding,” she said, and I was torn between laughing and smacking my forehead.

“Not kidding,” I said. “It’s been feeling a little empty lately. Whereas you were presumably having sex until …”

“Oh. Huh.”

“Yeah. I realize consent’s a thing, so I’m having this conversation, but after that? Here’s what I want to know.”

“Wait. I’m not done.”

I sighed, rested my forehead against hers, and laughed a little. “OK. Go.”

“The box says ‘for the lady’s pleasure.’ I wasn’t looking for them. I was looking for pain relievers for Ben’s hangover. But I couldn’t help but notice.”

This was more like it. “Yeah, it does. Because that texture seems to make it feel extra good, at least among the research subjects I’ve encountered.

Have I mentioned that I want to make you feel good?

I want to do more than that. I want to make you crazy with wanting it.

I want to make you make noises you didn’t know you could.

I want to eat you until you think you can’t come anymore and all you can do is gasp and beg me, and then I want to fuck you every way there is.

If you don’t want all that, maybe we should have a conversation after all.

Talk about your needs. And your limits.”

She was staring at me, a flush creeping up her neck to her cheeks like that old-fashioned lady she wasn’t, and, yeah, my hand was moving on her thigh again.

Just a little, because the skin of her inner thigh was so soft, and she was shifting under me.

I was still wearing boxer briefs, and I wished I weren’t.

I wanted to feel her skin against me. I wanted …

I said, “If you want to tell me what you wish I’d do or what you definitely don’t want me to do, this is your chance. I’d love to hear it.”

“What,” she said, “I can’t tell you in the middle of things? I’ve got news for you. I get to tell you in the middle of things, too. Is this your patented technique? Because it has a big old hole in it, and that’s it.”

Geez, she made me smile. “Not sure I have a technique, other than doing my best. And yes, you get to say. Of course you get to say. It’s all for you. Just trying to make this foreplay and not a committee meeting, is what we’re doing here.”

“Oh. Why didn’t you say so?”

“I just did,” I pointed out. “You know … sometimes the first time is more like, grab the girl, pull each other’s clothes most of the way off, and fuck her up against the wall. That’s fun too. I’m just saying.”

“Well,” she said sweetly, “I guess you’d better find a woman with fewer boundaries, then.”

“Mm.” I dropped a kiss on her mouth. Then another one, because she did have one tempting mouth. Full lips, and that bow to the upper one that made you want to lick it. “How about this? I try some things, and you tell me how you like them. Or, you know, show me.”

“How? How will you know? I haven’t had all that— I’ve never been all that— All right, I know it’s stupid. But I haven’t wanted to give up control like that. Plus, you know, I can’t be hit, or have anything too rough, or …” She swallowed. “Even if I wanted that, which I don’t.”

“Baby.” Now, I had both hands in her hair and was kissing her face again, because I loved her face.

Broad forehead. Soft cheeks. Lush mouth.

And when she closed her eyes and sighed, I was kissing the delicate skin of her eyelids, too, exactly as gently as I could do it.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” I promised.

“I’ll go carefully, and I’ll go as slow as you need.

I just want to feel all of you and know all of you, and yeah, I want you underneath me while I do it.

Can’t help it. I do. And how will I know?

I’ll feel you responding, that’s how. Just like I’ve been feeling you for a while now. ”

“All right,” she said. “As long as I get a turn too. To be in charge.”

“Mm.” I kissed her mouth again, then moved down to her neck, and she sighed and turned her head, so she wasn’t exactly hating this. “How about this? Fight me if you want. A dominance struggle works for me.”

OK, that had done it, because her eyes were dilating again. “F-fight you?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Go for it.”

“You are a confident man.”

“And you’re a confident woman.” I kissed her again, putting some effort into it, then pulled away.

“I told you, I don’t do second-guessing.

If I see something I want …” My hand took a trip up that inner thigh, because I had to know.

When that hand slid straight over smooth skin and got to something much more interesting without any resistance at all?

I gave her a quick little rub there, and she gasped.

“I tend to take it,” I said. “And I want to take you. So let’s stop negotiating and let me do it, because you’re wet as hell, and you need me. ”

Which was when Ben yelled. And Alix jumped. And banged her nose against mine.

Alix

All sorts of things happened at once.