How To Tame Beasts And Other Wild Things (8 page)

“Matilda, Christ, what are you doing to me?” he says alongside my mouth as he walks us up the stairs.

The pounding of my heart is eclipsed by his.
Balthazar…please, yes.
We reach the landing seconds later.

His lips are hot, full, and wet when they rest on mine. His tongue slides into my mouth, making urgent demands that have him groaning and me moaning. We pour ourselves into each other, my hands finding his sweaty curls at the back of his neck as his skim under the shirt, onto my back, then over my bottom as he squeezes handfuls of me. As he pulls my body onto his, I spread my legs, wrapping them around his hips.

“I want to kiss you everywhere,” he says, backing me into my room. “Everywhere,” he echoes as he closes the door most of the way. “And then I want to be inside of you. I can’t fucking resist you any longer.”

I try not to panic, as sweat pours out of me, and things that I can’t identify skid their way through my insides. I’m upside-down and soaring through a passageway that’s filled with vigor and desire and temptation. I’d call it a Ferris-wheel-is-going-fast-but-I-love-it feeling.

“That would be okay with me,” I answer through a whirlwind of butterflies, “and I mean everything.” This, what we’re doing, this is a bad idea, but it tugs at my forgotten needs. What if he loses the farm because of me? What if I lose my trust? What if we fall for each other…we could have it all. We could lose it all.

“Matilda, you’re so beautiful,” he says in a throaty low voice. “Tell me where you want my lips. Tell me where you want them first before I lick you where I want to. Taste what I’ve been dying for. Because if you don’t I’ll be burying my face between your legs in seconds.”

“My neck.” I groan.

“How do you like it, love?” he asks, undulating his tongue against me. Perfectly.

“Lick… Oh god, suck, mark me,” I ramble as he makes love to my neck with his mouth. Who knew that was possible? Apparently, he did. “Make it wet…”

“You sure we’re talking about your neck? I’m guessing you’re already pretty wet.”

I’m being shy for fuck’s sake? I know where I want him, I’ve just never had a man’s face between my legs. But this is him, and it’s all I’ve imagined, this. Us.

“C’mere.” He leads me to the edge of the bed to sit.

When he kneels in front of me and parts my legs, there’s no need for thought of any kind. When a handsome man named Balthazar Cox opens your legs with a hooded seductive eye that’s eating you up, you stop thinking.

“Matilda, so fucking sweet and beautiful,” he says while kissing the insides of my thighs.

I breathe in as my stomach muscles flutter and his hand splays across my belly then slides down it. He sits on his heels and gazes into my eyes. It’s a look that makes my toes curl in anticipation, not to mention how it sends sparks shooting across all of my nerves inside and out.

“Balthazar, oh fuck,” I whisper as his palms kiss my inner thighs. Gently he pushes them farther apart. I grip his neck, pulling his mouth to mine. His hands shift and move smoothly, as his mouth controls mine with shameless pressure while his groans fill me with more want than I ever thought possible.

“Here’s the thing about you and me, love.” His voice is hoarse and deep. “There’s no going backwards from here. Once I taste your sweet pussy, then fuck it until you’re begging me not to stop, we will not go backwards.”

God help me, I hope to hell that he’s right.

“Take it off.” He nods to my shirt. “All of you—need all of you.” His open mouth slides across mine then down the length of my neck and onto my breasts as he sucks me through the fabric.

I grab the edge of the shirt, meeting his fingers there as they stroke me. Together, we pull the shirt over my head. His breaths are long and deep, filled with something so luxuriant I almost don’t recognize it. It’s a longing, which I appreciate as he seals his lips over mine. A need to feel wanted, rescued, and touched. His hands ride my shoulders as he pushes me back onto the bed, after throwing the tampons and batteries to the floor. Then he crawls over me to cage my body as he dips his face to my breasts. When his lips close around one nipple, I arch up to meet him. His mouth releases my nipple, and I gasp at the absence of his tongue and the cool air surrounding my skin. He smirks and then blows over my wet, puckered flesh, which he follows up with decadent pinches from his fingertips. I drag my hands over the length of his back, needing more of him. Dying to feel his naked skin against mine, to feel him fill me.

“Soft… So soft and…” He licks a line up the side of my neck then plunges his tongue deep into my mouth, taking my air and replacing it with his own.

A swirl of something intoxicating zips through me as I wonder where his mouth will travel next when he falls to the side of me. He lands on his forearm, and his other hand grips the back of my neck.

“Spread for me, love,” he says, sliding his palm from my jaw ever so slowly down the middle of my body, between my breasts, over my undulating belly, and farther until he reaches my thin strip of hair. He strokes me there for a few seconds while his lips suck mine into his mouth.

I melt as his fingers glide through my wet arousal and his body goes down to meet them. As he settles between my legs and forces my thighs apart with ease, he looks up to my face.

“This is what I do to you?” he asks as he dips one finger into my core. “This fucking wet?” he whispers, sliding in and out of me with gentle strokes.

I nod and mutter, “God yes.”

My breaths are jagged as I run my fingers through his hair. His face dips, and he sucks the crease of my thigh. My hips rock as my heart pounds, ready for his tongue, aching to feel it land on me where I need it most.

Just as thoughts regarding his touch, his mouth, his tongue licking everything, everywhere…whirl in abundance, I hear, “Daddy?”

“God save the queen!” I squeal as Balthazar flies off me. My thighs slam shut as I roll the duvet over my naked body.

Casual. Be casual, Matilda. He has no idea what Daddy was doing. Dear god!

“Hey, mate,” Balthazar says, cool as a cucumber, while he swoops Jax into his arms and I wiggle into the T-shirt beside me.

My eyes meet Balthazar’s and we burst out laughing as he wipes the back of his hand across his mouth. He nods, and Jax plants a big kiss on his cheek.

“We’ll be downstairs,” Balthazar says, a huge grin on his face as he walks out of my room.

We motor around the lake after having fished for an hour. So far, we’re at two dozen medium-sized fish—perfect for a boil. Balthazar thinks we need more, but Jinx and Jax have had their fill of fishing based on the way they’re starting to whine, and yank at their life vests. We decide to dock the boat at the pier and go swimming.

“What on earth happened to you, princess?” Alfie says as I whip my cover-up off.

I only have bikinis in my swimsuit arsenal, so my
prizes
from having launched my way down the staircase earlier are beautifully showcased for everyone to view.

Balthazar cracks up as he reaches into the cooler for something, but not without peeking back at me as I scramble to explain my multiplying-by-the-minute bruises.

“I was taking a bath. Then I flew down the steps naked and landed in the kitchen. That’s all. No biggie.” I marvel at my ability to not crack a smile.

Duke says, “So, did he impale you at the top of the steps or did you get your fill at the bottom?”

We all laugh, and Alfie throws in an, “I told you so.”

Balthazar shrugs and grins as he opens a beer. I’m dying to know what’s going through his mind. We haven’t had five minutes to talk since our short-lived indulgence. So, what was that, exactly? A weak moment on his part? Or an acknowledgment of his buried feelings for me? I wish to hell I could remember everything he said, but I was too nervous. Too excited about what was happening to record the moment.

“Don’t get ahead of yourselves, mates,” he scolds the guys as he looks down to Jinx.

“Dat dint feel wight, Daddy,” Jinx says, dancing around.

“What didn’t feel right? Was that a fart?” He chuckles as he kneels down to Jinx and peeks into the backside of his diaper with a nod.

“Fat wif fuitcase!” he sings.

“A fart with a suitcase. Now that’s a new one!” Duke laughs. “A poop in toddler speak?”

“Very good, doc. You guys might want a couple of little ankle biters along the way, huh?” Balthazar lays Jinx on his back to change him.

“I got him this time,” Alfie says, strolling over to them. “You two go skinny-dipping or something along those lines on the other side of the boat. Duke and I can hang out with the munchkins on the shore.”

Balthazar waggles his eyebrows at me, but when he turns his back then sits in the captain’s chair, I’m not convinced he’s up for what Alfie’s suggesting. I pass him then slip out of my bikini and jump into the lake.

So maybe that kissing was it between us. Maybe he got something out of his system without going too far and that’s enough for him. Bummer.

Or maybe not. He cannonballs naked, over my head, with a whale of a splash, then comes up spitting out water and arranging his eye patch.

My eyelids flutter as his lips land on mine in a rough kiss. “This kiss feels like we’ll be fucking later,” he says against my mouth as he presses me to his body. His bare-naked… Hmm.

He grabs my hand and swims us away from the crew until we’re on the other side of the pier. Our feet touch the ground, settling into the silty bottom of the lake.

“Touch me,” he says, taking my wrist in his hand. Then he places my palm where he wants me. Where I want to be.

“Balthazar.” I moan against his mouth, feeling lips and teeth and tongue along with his erection in my hand.

“Matilda, Jesus. To be with you… I can hardly stand it, I need your bare wet pussy on my lips, need my cock inside of you,” he murmurs, then pants into my mouth as our tongues tangle and his hand slides between my legs.

I don’t know what comes from my mouth, but I do hear him agree with whatever it was. He says my name over and over—sweetly, in that deep tone and his gorgeous accent I want to drown in. His lips meet my ear, and he nibbles on my lobe then sucks it in and out as our hands come together underwater.

“Matilda, need you…more of you…later.”

“Are you sure?” Why did I ask that? He’s putting himself out there.
Need more of you later?
My god. Is this pent-up desire? Or…hell… What is this? I want it, have wanted it. He does too?

“Yes. You?”

“I would, yeah… Later, then,” I say softly, imagining how our night might play out. Will he come to my room, or will he ask to meet me somewhere? Will he make love to me or fuck me against a wall the way I’ve imagined him doing too many times to recall?

He clamps his mouth to mine in a kiss wrapped with a groan that makes me spin. I want it to last for hours, his lips on mine. His breath my oxygen-filled elixir.

“We should probably go back,” he says after rimming my mouth with his wandering tongue.

I nod as he kisses my forehead, then takes my hand and leads me to the ladder of the boat. His hand in mine shatters me beautifully.

“You go up first. Throw my towel over, okay?”

“Not a chance.” He chuckles. “You think I’d miss this?”

Tossing my hair with a flip of my head, I climb the ladder as a sexual hunger grips my gut, knowing he’s watching me, knowing just where his eye is. He follows then leans against my body, wrapping his arms around me as he whispers into my ear,

“Die without me, never thank me.
Walk right through me, never feel me.
Always watching, never speaking.
Always lurking, never seen.”

I gaze up at him as I spin in his arms. His face drips, rivering everywhere. Tanned and larger-than-life, his cheekbones protrude to create a landscape for his dark, thick stubble, which I’m out-of-my-mind dying to feel everywhere against my skin. The subtle smile on his face is filled with something I don’t recognize. Something I’ll need to find out. But, there’s no question about the desire that is lighting his one blue eye, when I say, “Air.”

              He nods and responds so quietly that I have to watch his lips to comprehend him.