Page 36

Our lips met in a heated kiss and I groaned, tasting myself on his tongue. A rush of excitement skittered down my limbs, tingling in my veins. Lukas was going to fuck me here in his hallway.

While I worked at getting him free of his trousers, he changed the angle of the kiss, taking it deeper, until the electric current coursing through my body threatened to set me on fire.

He nipped at my throat, and the salty sting made me think he might have broken the skin, but I was too mindless to care. All I wanted was to satisfy the throbbing ache that was rekindling between my thighs, the desperate clawing desire to have him inside of me.

I pushed his trousers and boxer briefs down over his fine ass, and they fell to the floor. His cock sprang free, long and thick.

Lukas’s ice-blue eyes glowed in the hallway’s dim light. He lowered his gaze to the front of my dress. My pebbled nipples poked at the fabric. Without even taking my dress off, he pinched them. Hard.

“Oh, God.” Lightning shot from my breasts straight to my core, but I had the wherewithal to slap him just as hard across the face. I didn’t do it because I was offended; I did it because I thought he’d like the sting. I was right, and he’d spoken the truth. Lukas liked it rough.

He smiled triumphantly, then lifted me up, so high my head was several inches above his own. The strength of him… Jesus. I’d be adding that to my growing list of the Sexiest Things About Lukas Bakken.

I wrapped my legs around his hips, but I’d barely gotten my ankles locked when he slammed me down around his thick cock.

My mouth opened in shock. My flesh burned from the sudden stretch over his size. Our gazes locked. His teeth clenched, and I saw him struggling for control.

“Don’t hold back,” I said, knowing this might be our one and only opportunity.

A responding muscle jumped in his jaw. “This could be rough.”

“I can take it,” I promised.

Lukas practically growled, but he gave me a nod. And then it was on. He held my ass and pounded into me with perfect rhythm.

What was he talking about, losing control? He was in total control—of himself, of me.

The power of him was intense. He was—in fact—a little unhinged with the speed of his fucking. But I loved every second of it, and even heard myself demanding that he fuck me “harder.”

“Boring my ass,” Lukas grunted as he complied with my demands.

“Oh, God,” I whispered against the side of his neck. “God.”

I took his thrusts. He readjusted his hands under my ass.

I moaned again. It was coming. My second orgasm was going to hit me like a thunderclap.

“Let go, Elli,” he growled against my lips. His whole body trembled, but he obviously wanted me to take my pleasure first. He ground in and pinched my nipple.

My head flew back, thumping off the wall, and I let out a scream of pleasure that was sure to disturb the neighbors .

Lukas kept moving through my orgasm, grunting with each of his thrusts, his fingers digging into my ass as he held me to him.

“Enough,” I cried as the last tremors rolled through me. “That’s enough.”

Lukas drove deep and groaned, holding me tight against him and releasing a sound of male satisfaction.

When he was done, he held me against the wall, his face tucked into my neck. His body was rigid and unmoving, as if he were holding his breath. I didn’t know how that was possible; I was panting like I’d just finished a marathon.

“Well,” I said. “That wasn’t so scary.”

Lukas’s lips curved into a smile against my neck, and he burst out laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“That you think we’re done.”

He carried me into the darkened bedroom, set me on my feet at the edge of the bed, then grabbed the tiny metal tab on the hidden zipper that ran under my arm and down the side of my dress. The fact that he knew exactly where it was made me wonder when he’d first noticed it.

He lowered the zipper to my hip, reached down, and grabbed my hem. I lifted my arms, and he ripped off my dress, tossing it unceremoniously to the floor.

I sucked in a breath when the cool air hit my belly, and my muscles tightened at the thought that this was really going to happen. Again . In his bed.

Lukas slipped one hand behind me and with a skillful flick, unclasped my bra. The barest tips of claws scraped at the skin between my breasts as he tore my bra away.

Gently, he pushed me onto the bed and turned my body so my head was on the pillow. He remained standing beside the bed, so this was the first time there’d been enough space between us for me to get a good look at his whole body, all at once.

He was beautifully built, of course, I’d always known that, even with his clothes on. But to see him utterly and gloriously naked… I whimpered at the sight of him—every part anatomically perfect, his dark outline haloed by the fading sunlight seeping through the crack in his thick curtains.

The sight inspired a spontaneous third orgasm, the likes of which I’d never known possible. My nipples hardened and my thighs shook.

“Jesus,” he muttered. “Starting again without me? That’s not fair, babe.”

He moved over me and between my legs, giving me just enough of his weight to push me deep into the soft cloud of his mattress.

“I’m still surprised a big, tough, alpha berserker sleeps on a feather bed.”

“What can I say? I like soft things.” His mouth traced a path from my ear down to my nipple, which he sucked into his mouth.

I cried out, my fingers diving into his hair. “Lukas!”

He sucked harder while pulling my knees up against the sides of his rib cage. I thought he meant to fuck me again, but he didn’t. Instead, he merely nudged my slick opening with the tip of his cock.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Are you sore?”

“A little,” I admitted.

“Then I’m going slow,” he said. “I have to have you again, but this time gentle.” He pushed in, just an inch and finding—in my estimation—a surprising amount of resistance given all that went down before. But then again, not so surprising given the sheer size of him.

He slowly slid through my wet channel, taking his time until he was fully seated, only to draw himself out with patient, mind-blowing control.

Out…then in. Hold. Breathe. Out…then in.

“Lukas,” I whispered, squeezing his ribs with my knees. Tears leaked out of the corners of my eyes, but there was no other way to describe what was happening. Lukas Bakken was making love to me.

“Tomorrow…” he said, “you’ll forgive me for this, right? For being so damn weak?”

“You’re not weak,” I said, feeling the strength of him as my third climax started to coil deep inside my sex.

“You’re better than I imagined,” he said, then grunted when his slow rhythm faltered and he thrust deep. “Oh, God. Sorry.”

“You fill me so completely.”

A shudder rippled over his shoulders, as he held his weight in his hands. “Tight as fuck. So incredibly slick.”

He groaned as he pulled out again, resuming his languid slides.

“I’m going to come again,” I said as if I needed to warn him.

“I can feel it, Elli. You’re like a vise around my cock. Squeeze me.”

I had to take his word for it, because from my side of things, my muscles were numb. If I was squeezing him, it wasn’t consciously done. Still, I tried to do what he commanded.

I rose up to meet him, wrapping my arms around his shoulders, and holding on tight. I moved my hips in sync with his, rocking so the base of his cock rubbed against my clit.

“Faster,” I said.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Thank God.” He thrust forward—harder and faster than before, given he now had the leverage and didn’t have to worry about holding me against the wall.

I clung to him. “Oh, God. Oh!”

My fourth orgasm ripped through my body just as Lukas found his own finish and released an achingly satisfied groan of pleasure.

We came down together. I held onto his shoulders, refusing to let go.

Lukas kept his face buried against my neck, his hands planted in the mattress, both of our torsos raised off the bed.

Not surprisingly, neither of us moved, both of us startled by our shattered realities—namely, his belief that restraint was sustainable, my belief that love was unrequited—and now we were left with the reality of what we’d done.

Because Lukas had been right before. Imagining what this would be like was one thing. Knowing made everything worse.

He lowered himself on top of me, then rolled so we were on our sides, facing each other. Miraculously, we remained joined.

“That was amazing,” I said.

He wrapped me tight in his arms and kissed the top of my head.

I snuggled in close and breathed, drinking in the musky scent of him.

When I’d woken that morning, this was the last place I thought I’d be ending the day.

But here I was. Here we were. Together. All our cards on the table.

And while we might not end in a happily ever after, at least we had our happily for now.

Or at least I thought we did. It suddenly occurred to me that Lukas had gone alarmingly quiet.

“Uh...Lukas?”

“Yeah?” he answered huskily.

“What are you thinking?”

He tipped his chin down to look at me, then stared up at the ceiling. “Right now, I’m wondering how you ended up in my bed.”

“Oh,” I said brightly, pretending like I wasn’t simultaneously bracing for the reason behind his statement. “I know the answer to that one. I’m in your bed because you carried me in here and pushed me onto the mattress.”

“Oh, right,” he said, and I thought I saw the corners of his mouth twitch.

The glimpse of humor made me brave. “The real question,” I said, “shouldn’t be how. It’s why. Everyone will be wondering why I’m in your bed.”

“Who’s everyone?”

“Everyone who hears about it.”

“Nobody’s going to hear about this,” he said, and my heart withered.

He was embarrassed by what we’d done. He was wondering why I was in his bed because—no matter how he felt about me—I was not the kind of woman an alpha pro athlete took to bed.

“Get that out of your head,” he ordered.

“Get what out of my head?”