Branded: You Own Me & The Virgin's Night Out (8 page)

“Um...” She blinked, heat suffusing her face—no, it was her whole body, like she'd suddenly started to rage with a fever. A dangerous sort of fever, dangerous in a certain way.

Fatal in his case. It had been killing him slowly for years.

“Yeah. I get that.”

He slid his hand inside her panties, shuddering as he reached the juncture of soft round thighs. Her curls were damp already as he slid his fingers through her folds, and when he found her entrance, she was slick with want. Her eyelashes fluttered closed as he teased the entrance to her pussy.

“No, Lizzie. No closing your eyes.” Decker dipped his head, bit her lower lip. “I said I want you to watch me. All of me. All of this.”

“Okay.” It was a dazed, weak whisper but she forced her lids

back up, locked almost sightlessly on his face and the dazed need there

brought blistering satisfaction to him.

He pushed one finger inside her, his muscles going tight with anticipation as she closed around him. “Now, tell me what you want—what we're doing. Do I stop? Or am I going to lay you down on that desk and fuck you?”

She gripped his arms and then, as disappointment threaded through him, she backed away.

But then, she settled her hips against the desk as she shrugged out of her bra and top. “Come here, Decker.”

He made himself count to ten first.

And then he looked around, spied her bag lying near the futon where she'd first dumped it when they came in.

Grabbing the straps, he placed it on the desk and then turned her around until she faced away, the purse in front of her. “Selah gave you something when you started messing with that damn website. Where is it?”

“How...” Her breath hitched. “How did you know about that?”

Because she told me.
“Because she's my best friend, too. And I saw that grin she flashed you after she swiped your purse. What did she give you?”

“You already know.”

He pressed his lips to her neck, the skin flushed hot with her blush. “Get them out. And I hope there's more than one.”

While she fumbled with the purse, he caught her hips in his hands and pumped against her.

A weak moan escaped her, one hand falling away to grip the desk.

“Hurry up,” he ordered, bending his head to rake his teeth down her shoulder.

A minute later, she dumped a box of condoms on the desk and he grabbed the purse, dropped it back on the floor. Selah, that nosy bitch, was going to get a giant hug from him at some point. Slowly turning Lizzie around, he studied her face for a long moment and then stepped back. “Take off your panties.”

She went to push her skirt down and he stopped her. “Your

panties.” He reached out and fisted his hands in the loose, flowing

material of her skirt. “I missed seeing you in these...I used to think about what you wore under them, and then I'd pretend you were naked. Naked for me and I could come up behind you, pull up your skirt and drive my dick inside you, maybe while you were in the storeroom...”

Her eyes widened.
Oh, Lizzie...that's just one fantasy
.

“Or I'd follow you in here and do just this,” he murmured, watching the way her pupils flared, listening as her breathing kicked up. “I’d pull that skirt up and have you, up against the door, or right here like this. I'm having my dream, sugar. Now take off your panties.”

Her throat worked as she swallowed, and then she reached under her skirt. He watched her hands disappear and his cock gave a demanding jerk as she pulled off a pair of pale pink silk panties.

He held out a hand for them and she blushed, shoving them into his hand.

He shoved them into his pocket and moved in closer, cupping her still-covered hips in his hands. “Now you're naked for me, under that skirt, just like I dreamed you'd be. A hundred times. A thousand times...”

She moaned as he caught her lip and bit down. He soothed the hurt with his tongue and then he caught the material of the skirt, gathering it in his hands until it bunched around his wrists. Boosting her up on the desk, he settled her there. It was a physical exercise to get his fingers to uncurl from her ass. That ripe, lush curve, so soft and full...

But...condoms. He needed a condom and he thought he just might have a zipper imprint on his dick at this point.

He went to loosen his belt, but Lizzie stopped him, her hands resting on his wrists.

He shot her a look.

She toyed with the hem of his shirt. “I...” She caught her lower lip between her teeth, then let it slide out before she said, “Can you take this off? I want to see you, too.”

His body was a tool to him. He was big and he was strong, facts

he’d known for a good long while. He’d used his strength and size in

high school to kick ass on the football field and in wrestling, hoping to use one or the other to break free from the shit he’d known growing up.

That strength had served him well in the times he needed it, although that strength was why he’d landed his ass in prison. Of course, that strength had also saved Lizzie, and that had made it bearable.

He’d fought and brawled his way into making people believe he wasn’t worth messing with and that had been the case most of his life, even before he’d gone to jail and it hadn’t changed. His body was a tool.

But for the first time, his body felt like it had some other worth. Well, other than protecting Lizzie—and that, in and of itself, was a worthwhile thing.

Watching her intently, he reached up and stripped his shirt away, letting it fall to the floor beside him. Pride flooded him as her eyes went soft, almost dazed with heated, female hunger. She reached out with both hands and rested her palms on his chest, lightly raking her nails across his skin. “Your tattoos. You're covered in them.”

“You can run out of things to do in...” He didn't finish. One of those things they tried to avoid. He didn't talk about it because it hurt her, and now, as he saw the understanding in her eyes, he wished he could take it back.

“But you kept getting them.” She swallowed and he could see her steeling herself to finish it. “After you...got out. Once they let you go.”

She stroked her thumb over the tiger that covered most of his chest, a tiger crouched behind bars. He caught her hand, pressed it flat. “You can get to needing it—that bite of pain, letting it make you forget things.”
Pretending to let the ink and needles take and hide your secrets…

She didn't ask what he meant. He suspected she thought she knew. But she didn't.

“Did it help?”

“No.” He pressed her hand flat against his chest. “But the things I wanted to forget were the sort of things I'd never be able to forget.

Things I shouldn't forget. Things I need...”

He'd lived so much of his life without what he needed, but now...

She leaned in and pressed a kiss to the tiger and the feel of her mouth on his skin sent fire lancing through him. He caught her thighs and shoved them apart, moving in to press against her.

She gasped, her back arching and then she bit her lip to hold back a sob as he slid his hand between them, circled her clitoris. It was a tight, hard little knot.

“I'm going to lick you here,” he said, keeping his voice calm through sheer will alone. “I'm going to spread your thighs and lick and suck on you until you're crazy with need. Until you're burning for me to fuck you.”

She moaned as he sank to his knees, his hands sliding down the backs of her legs to catch her ankles. He draped her legs over his shoulders and leaned in, nuzzled folds that already gleamed.

He caught her clit between his teeth, tugged.

She gasped, her spine bowing up off the desk.

Using his tongue to open her, he caught his first real taste of her—the first taste...and he was an addict already.

“I'm going to eat your pussy until you beg me to stop,” he muttered against her.

She was shaking as he pressed his mouth to her, and when he thrust his tongue inside, a garbled, muffled cry filled the air.

She was covering her mouth, using both hands to hold back the sounds she made as he used his mouth and tongue to fuck her over the edge.

“Please,” Elizabeth begged, her voice hoarse.

She didn't know how much time had passed and she knew she'd come at least twice. She also knew she couldn't take much more—except she
needed
more...just...a different kind of more. Him.

“Please what?” Decker muttered, his words muffled. Then he dragged his tongue up between her folds again. It was like a whip of lightning had licked her, right there, and the shocking pleasure of it rippled through her entire body.

He lifted up, his long, muscled body bent over hers as he pressed

his mouth to hers. She tried to turn her head away from his kiss, a kiss that tasted salty and different—her. He tasted like her, but he didn't let her turn away and the hunger of his kiss bled into her until she was clutching at him, her hands tangled in his wavy hair.

When he stabbed his tongue into her mouth, she caught it with her teeth and bit down, then began to suck.

A growl rolled out of him.

He gripped her hip in one hand as he broke the kiss, his chest rising and falling against hers. The light dusting of hair across his pectorals teased her nipples, a sensation that was diabolically delicious. “Please what, sugar?”

“I need you.”

“I'm right here.”

“In...” She gulped and then rushed the rest of it out. “I need you inside me.”

“Inside you.” A low grunt of appreciation escaped him. “Yeah. I like the sound of that.”

He straightened and any embarrassment she might have felt faded as she stared at him, golden skin and brilliant tattoos rippling across tight muscles as he reached down and dealt with his belt, then his jeans.

He dragged the zipper down and she felt her heart stutter to a stop as he wrapped his hand around his cock and fisted it. Then, in front of her, he dragged his hand up, then down.

Memory danced, bright and jagged, in the back of her mind.

Watching him—

But she didn't.

“Give me a rubber,” he said, his voice lower, savagely harsh.

Her hands shook as she fumbled with the box and when she tucked one foil packet into his hand, she saw that his fingers were trembling.

I’ve dreamed about touching you a thousand times and now I am and my hands are shaking… And you think I don’t want you.

“You want me,” she whispered, the dazed realization swamping

her.

He just stared at her as he donned the rubber and then he bent over her, his mouth touching hers.

“Lizzie. Want is
easy
compared to what I feel for you. But...yeah. I want you. I've wanted you for what seems like my entire life. And even if this doesn't mean the same thing to you...remember this.” He kissed her, so soft, so tender, so sweet. “Nobody will ever want you, need you, like I do.”

Her head spun.

Part of her wanted to grab him and tell him to wait—wait while she thought. While she figured this out.

Just...wait.

But as he tucked the head of his cock against her, she knew the time for
waiting
had come to an end. This was something she'd wanted for forever...wanted, but she'd made herself forget.

No more waiting.

His eyes held hers as he surged slowly forward.

The pressure grew and grew—he was thicker, larger than Noel and she was sore from the debacle a few nights earlier, but he was slow, and so patient—it was like he knew exactly when to pause, when to start moving in those slow, teasing thrusts that brought whimpers to her lips.

And then, with a snarl, he seated himself completely inside her and it was...perfect. So beautifully perfect. She gasped, her hips rocking against him while her body struggled to adjust. She sank her nails into his shoulders. His head rested on the desk above hers and she opened her eyes, hardly able to see anything except the flames on his throat.

He filled her, surrounded her.

And then, he started to move and the bliss that rolled through her was unlike anything she'd ever known.

“Lizzie...” There was a question and a sigh and a plea in his words.

“Please,” she demanded, rocking her hips up to meet his.

He moved faster, harder and fire blazed through her. Too much—too much.

Need, everything she’d shoved down inside and tried to forget,

tore its way to the surface.

He fisted a hand in her hair and jerked her head back, his mouth coming down on hers, stealing her breath away with a kiss that threatened to destroy her. Heart. Mind. Body. Soul.

With his other hand, he caught her hip and canted her upward—

She cried out, the noise caught by his mouth and he swelled inside her—she felt it, the head of his cock stroking deep, deep, deep—