Burning Ember (42 page)

He reaches up behind him, lifts his shirt over his head, and drops it to the floor at our feet. My eyes skate over every inch of his revealed body. Like a kid in a candy shop, I can’t decide what to taste and touch. What to sample first. His tattoos or his gorgeous skin, or the dark hair that travels from his navel to the hem of his jeans.

He moves our hands up over his chest to right over his heart, which is beating rapidly under my palm.

“This doesn’t beat like this for anyone else.” He tilts his head down and meets my gaze. “Do you understand what I’m sayin’?”

Nodding slightly. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Good, because I’ve been waiting a long fuckin’ time for you to come into my life. Too long. I got fuckin’ impatient and paid the price for it. But I’m ready to be patient now, Doll.” His eyes flicker to my lips. “And I’m gonna spend a long time makin’ it up to you, erasin’ the bad memories with good ones.”

His lips land softly on mine, teasing them before he parts my mouth. When our tongues slide against one another, he growls low. He angles my head and takes my mouth more aggressively.

Any remaining bitterness dissolves, and what’s left of my fight to keep him at a distance crumbles.

Moving my hands up his chest, I appreciate the feel of him, the warm flexing muscles under my fingertips. But when I pause, he breaks our kiss to grate out, “Don’t stop.”

So I don’t. I let my hands roam over his chest and explore every ropey ab, his ribs, and every inch of skin between us. His other hand skims down my shoulder and arm. It slides around my waist. When it palms over my ass, he steps closer, bringing our bodies flush. I moan against his mouth as I get my first feel of his hard-on pressed against me.

Knowing how much I affect him sends a shot of arousal to my core. My nipples harden as they rub against the material of my bra, shirt, and his chest.

His mouth leaves mine but only to kiss the corner of my lips, and my jaw. He nips at my skin there, making me gasp as a shudder of pleasure rolls through me.

My heart is trying to escape my chest. The beat of it is pounding in my ears. The ache between my legs is building to a tormenting degree.

Mav must sense it, because his kisses venture down, closer where I need him to be. He spends only a second sucking lightly on my neck before his mouth finds my collarbone. The pressure and moisture of his lips feels amazing. So amazing that my fingers leave his chest so I can hold his head to me.

He slowly unbuttons my shirt at the back and opens it, granting him more access to my skin.

“Do you want me to stop? Am I going too fast?”

God, no.
I shake my head.

“Good. Take this off.” He pulls at my shirt and helps me remove it, revealing the white strapless bra I have on underneath.

From there things escalate quickly. His mouth runs all over my chest, except for where I need him the most, almost as if he’s intent on torturing me slowly. My skin’s on fire, and I need his mouth to cool me down.

After a few moments, I can’t take it anymore. “Please,” I beg.

Mav’s eyes flicker up to my face. He stands and I think he’s going to stop, but instead he reaches around me and unsnaps my bra, never once taking his gaze from mine. The second it drops, his eyes sweep down.

We’re even now. Naked from the waist up. And he takes his time looking at me.

The delicate touch of his hand slides up my ribs, tickling my side. It rises further until his hand is cupping me and his thumb strokes my peaked nipple.

In a voice dripping with reverence, he breathes, “I imagined you bare like this. But never did my imagination do you justice.”

Then his lips are cooling my skin, and his tongue is slowly taunting me with torturous explorations, running over the top of my breast, circling my nipple twice, before sucking and drawing it into his mouth. His mouth on such a sensitive part of my body sparks the first hint of an orgasm.

My nails sink into his back and a desperate whimper, a sound I’ve never made, comes from deep inside my chest.

His hand leaves my chest and trails down my stomach. Tingles ignite everywhere he touches. When he reaches the button of my shorts, he stops.

“We don’t have to have sex. But I want to see you unravel, Doll.”

I nod and his mouth takes mine as he unbuttons my shorts and slides the zipper down. His fingers sink below my panties and slide between my legs.

His chest rumbles, and at finding me wet, he groans, “Sweet Jesus.” Then he rests his forehead against mine. Stares into my eyes. “Is this for me?”

“Yes.”

“You were wet just like this that first day too, when I touched you here, was that . . .”

“I’ve only been like this for you.”

“Fuck.”

He crashes his mouth to mine and he kisses me. This kiss is greedy and frenzied. He plunders my mouth like he did the first time. I love it. How he’s both savage and careful not to push me too far.

I gasp in pleasure as he plays with my clit. My orgasm builds with each stroke. Then his thumb takes over teasing my clit and his finger slowly slides into me. So deep. I tense but not because I don’t want him inside me. I tense because I’m so close to losing control.

He stills and draws his hand back.

I whisper, “No. Don’t stop. If feels so good.”

He thrusts gently back in, and as my pleasure builds, he goes deeper, and the slow push and pull starts to drive me mad. When he fills me with two fingers instead of one, my head falls back and I sigh, “Oh my God.”

Mav’s mouth leaves mine. “That’s it. Let go and grip me. Let me feel you.” His fingers pump harder and his tongue imprints on every inch of my mouth.

I hold onto him for dear life and pray this delicious torture never ends. Rocking into him, over and over again, I seek a climax that’s going to blow my world apart, if he’ll just give it to me.

My lust heightens his, as his kiss grows almost brutal and his chest rises heavily and falls against mine.

The spot he’s touching on every thrust has my insides coiling. I close my eyes and lose myself in the feeling. “Mav,” I say his name and nothing else, because my thoughts become jumbled inside my head. The ache he’s stirring inside me builds higher and higher still. Until like a snapped elastic band, it reaches its breaking point, snaps and sends a full-body shudder through me. A river of sensation that takes over every muscle.

Mav’s fingers don’t stop moving inside of me. He’s prolonging the orgasm, the carnal kiss, until he wrings out every bit of it from my body.

And when my knees weaken, he catches me.

His mouth feathers kisses over my jaw, my neck, and my ear. His hot breath has goosebumps spreading over my skin. “Fuck. I’ve never seen anything more fuckin’ perfect.” He grins wickedly and pecks my mouth.

Holy hell.

“I can’t wait to see it again.”

His fingers withdraw from my core. Instantly, I feel wetness pooling between my thighs. But I don’t have time to be embarrassed as Mav brings his hand up between us and slips his fingers coated with my arousal into his mouth. He hums around them, closes his eyes and sucks them clean.

When his eyes open, they’re liquid gold. “Now, I’m gonna be daydreamin’ about fuckin’ you with my tongue for the rest of the night.”

Those words send my core muscles tightening all over again. It sounds like a threat. But the idea of his mouth on me there is a delicious assault I’m sure to be thinking about for the next few hours too.

There are times in life when you see something so beautiful that it leaves an impression on your soul. Those unforgettable moments stay with us for eternity.

MAVERICK

I don’t think I’ll ever recover. That was fuck. Just fuck. I thought I knew what I was getting myself into. But I didn’t. It’ll never compare. Kissing her. Feeling her under my hands. Tasting her. Nothing else will ever come close.

What was I thinking?

This girl will ruin me. If she ever leaves me like Dana did, I won’t just be left with a black heart. Because it will be dead. Ash and dust.

I’m still reeling as I pick her up and place her on my bed. “Lie with me,” I say because I can’t tell her that I’m so fucking hard for her right now that there’s no damn way can I walk through the clubhouse. And the mere thought of any of my brothers seeing her like this, flushed cheeks, glazed eyes, and mussed hair, has my hackles rising.

She’s mine now whether she knows it or not. I’ve fallen so fuckin’ deep into her there’s no going back.

After lying down, I pull her to lie on my chest. I rub my hand over the silky smooth skin of her back. She sighs and it sends flurries of pleasure shooting through me.

“I’ve never done that before.”

My hand stills on her back, and I tilt my head to the side to look at her face. “Never done what?” Then it hits me. “Orgasmed?”

She does that little nod she always does. “With myself, yeah, but not with . . .”

“Someone else?”

She nods again. Mother of Christ. If that doesn’t send murder rushing through my veins, I don’t know what does. “Your ex was a piece of shit,” I growl.

“Yeah, I know.”

I make a mental note to coax some information out of her about this ex of hers. Then I can find the fucker, and my brothers and me can go say hello. And goodbye.

I pinch her chin and make her look up at me. “You okay? You know, with what we just did?”

She cuddles into me and brushes her nose against my chest, making my cock throb that much more. “I didn’t know it could be like that.”

Oh, fuck. This girl is gonna wreck me.

I wrap my arms around her and squeeze her to me. “I have a feeling it’s only gonna get better from here.”

“You think?”

Her teal eyes flicker up to mine. “I know it will. I’m not fuckin’ this up. You feel good right where you are. Don’t want you anywhere other than right here.”

As silence stretches around the room, I bask in the feel of her, how perfectly we fit together, almost as if she was made by someone upstairs just for me. Each second I hold her makes me achingly aware of my erection. It’s pulsing with the need to be inside her, but I have to ignore it. I can’t rush this. Not like I did the last time.

I pushed Dana into a relationship she didn’t want. Truth be told, I pushed the pregnancy on her too. I thought she wanted all of it. Me, a family, a house, a future. But I was projecting my own dreams on her, and that’s where shit went wrong. This time, I’ll pay attention to Doll’s needs and wants, not just my own.

She doesn’t realize this, but in less than an hour, she’s turned my day, my life, my world upside down, and changed the course of both of our tomorrows. She’s brightened my future and given me so much to look forward to.

A verse springs to mind and without filtering my thoughts, I quote it, “Life will be brighter than noonday, and darkness will become like morning.”

“Mmmm,” she’s says dreamily. “What is it? Its sounds like a poem?”

“It’s from the Book of Job.” I reach down and lock our fingers together. Then bring them up to my mouth. I kiss the back of her hand before resting our joined hands on my chest.

“The Book of Job?”

“From the bible. Verse eleven-seventeen.”

She raises and gives me a curious look. “You’ve read the bible?”

“Yep, I’ve lost count of how many times. Some parts more than others.” Her forehead furrows. So I go on to explain. “My stepdad was . . . one of those religious freaks you hear about and he was strict.” Her eyes widen. “My mom married him when I was ten.”

“Where was your dad?”

“He died while working on a construction site the day before I turned two.”

“Mav . . . I’m sor—”

Moving our joined hands, I place a finger over her lips. “It’s all right, Doll. I don’t even remember him. All I know about him is the stuff my mom’s told me.” I let our hands drop back to my chest. “Paul’s been my father for all intents and purposes, and besides the fact he made sure my life revolved around church and nothin’ else from the day my mom and I moved in, he was decent and more than provided for us.”

“But you sound like you’re angry with him.”

I shrug. “That’s ‘cause I am.”

She raises an eyebrow.

It’s hard talking about my parents. It’s hard voicing my frustrations when I’m so used to keeping them to myself. But maybe, by opening up to Doll, she’ll be more inclined to open up to me.

On a sigh, I say, “It was a big change for me to fall in line with his rules at first. I rebelled. We fought. My mom cried all the time. And around and around we went.” I pull our hands up and raise my fingers. She does the same. Then I slide my longer fingers through her small dainty ones.

“I could never take it when my mom cried though. So eventually, I stopped fighting. I went to church, prayed, read scriptures, and became the perfect son they both wanted me to be. But the older I got, the more I started to question things. I realized some of his beliefs didn’t sit right with me. And I began to see how much in life I was missing. Instead of causing a riff again with him and my mom, I kept my thoughts to myself. I decided to bide my time. When I turned eighteen, I’d be able to choose what kind of life I wanted to live. Maybe, finally spread my wings in college and find my own compass to judge right and wrong.