A Secret to Die For, page 14
“Told you that you had a G-spot.”
And there were the tears. “I had no idea…no idea it could be like that.”
“We’ve barely gotten started, Cinderella.”
I dragged my shirt over my head and crawled back up the bed. I needed to feel her skin on mine, needed to soak in her sweat-slicked heat. She rested her head on my chest and wrapped an arm around me, and in that brief moment, everything was right with the world. I wiped her tears away with a thumb.
“Don’t cry.”
“I can’t help it. Everything’s just so…so…overwhelming.”
“Yeah, I know the feeling.”
“Do you? Nothing ever seems to faze you.”
“Maybe my mask is just fixed on tighter.” I’d promised her no lies. “This is out of character for me. I’ve never done this before.”
“Which part? The stalking? The abduction? Trespassing on private property?”
“Any of it. You’re the first woman who’s ever gotten under my skin enough for me to care.”
A long pause. “Why? I’m a nobody.”
Honestly, I struggled to put it into words. “As I said, you’re real. A regular—but beautiful—person with flaws and hang-ups and opinions. Sometimes you fight me, and other times…” I trailed a fingertip down her cheek. “Other times, you submit.”
“You could probably have any woman you wanted.”
“I know, which is why I’m in your bed right now.” I palmed myself through my jeans. “Fuck, I need to do something about this.”
Sara swallowed hard, and it looked as if she was steeling herself.
“I’m ready.”
She didn’t sound ready.
“Are you sure?” I freed her lip from her teeth with a thumb. “You’re the one with the power here.”
“I am?”
“Give me a safe word.”
“A…safe word?”
“If you say it, I’ll stop whatever I’m doing in a heartbeat.” I laid a hand on her chest. “Because that’s what I need to protect: your heart.”
She thought for a moment, then smiled. “Shark.”
“Shark?”
“Fish and sex don’t mix. You’ll really stop?”
“I promise.” Shark? I loved that even amid her uncertainty, she hadn’t lost her sense of humour. I captured her mouth for a searing kiss. “I promise.”
I didn’t bother to take my jeans off completely, just unzipped and shoved them low enough to free my painful cock. I couldn’t wait. Not any longer. There was a condom in the wallet in my back pocket, and I ripped the foil open, then rolled it on. Sara watched me carefully, and that lip was between her teeth again. She’d make a terrible poker player.
We locked gazes as I slid my cock into her, inch by desperate inch. She was so fucking tight, and the way her walls gripped me, I almost joined nineteen-second-guy in the losers’ corner. But I wanted more than a participation trophy. I gritted my teeth and held still until the urge to explode subsided.
Instead of chasing my own pleasure, I focused on her. On her silky skin, on those pink buds, on the full lips I’d never get enough of. I brushed fine hair away from her eyes with one hand and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“Okay?”
“Yes.”
This time, she was telling the truth, and I began to move with smooth strokes, never breaking eye contact. Her eyes gave so much away. When she finally relaxed, they unfocused slightly, and despite the fading light outside, they seemed to brighten. Sara burned from the inside out. As her hips started to buck against me, I slipped a hand between us and found her clit again. She gripped my arms, her fingers digging in.
“Don’t fight it, Cinderella. Just give in and let it happen.”
“I…I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because—”
I shifted the angle of my hips, and her eyes widened as she gave a soft, involuntary cry. A curse slid from her lips, and not “heck” or “darn.” The loss of control made me smile. If I could get Sara to shed her inhibitions, to unleash the sense of adventure that she’d locked down deep inside, there was nothing we wouldn’t be able to achieve together.
Another thrust, and her walls pulsed around me, shuddering as she came for the second time. I couldn’t hold out any longer, didn’t want to, and I followed her over the edge with several curses of my own. The periphery of my vision went black, and I peppered kisses across her flushed cheeks as I waited for my pulse to steady.
“You were saying?” I murmured when I could speak again.
“I…I have nothing.”
“A lie. I’m going to give you everything. I’m going to give you the world, and don’t you dare ask any dumb questions like ‘why?’ You know why.” Reluctantly, I withdrew from her snug warmth. “I have to get rid of this condom.”
I lost the jeans too. We weren’t done yet. I’d give Sara a few minutes to recover before I made her come again, but tonight, she was mine, and I intended to remind her of that fact in every possible way.
21
SARA
Whenever Brooke and Addy and Romi—not Brie because she’d never kiss and tell—would sit around and giggle about how one of them couldn’t walk properly or laugh that they’d been thoroughly ruined in a pleasurable way, I’d smile and nod along, but I didn’t truly believe it. Until now. Who knew? Who knew that sex could be so utterly and splendidly mind-blowing? I was thirsty as heck, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to make it to the kitchen, so when Charming reappeared from the bathroom, this time completely naked—oh my—I just curled into his side and rested my head on his shoulder.
Which gave me a terrific view of his abs. I thought they only looked that way in movies, all that chiselled perfection. And was his dick hard again already?
I nodded toward it. “I thought we just fixed that?”
“Deflation lasted about three seconds. Around you, this is situation normal.”
Twenty-six years old, and this was the first time I’d cuddled properly after sex with a man, and the fact that the man was Garrett Van de Kamp shocked the crap out of me. I hadn’t expected him to have a tender side. A soft snort escaped as a memory came back, and I buried my head against his chest.
“What? You think it’s funny that you make me hard?”
“No, no, no. I was just thinking, uh, you probably don’t want to know.”
“Tell me.”
Well, he asked for it… “So, I was just thinking that the last time I was in this position, the guy said he had to run home and feed his cat, but the week before, he’d told me he was allergic to cat dander. That was when I began to realise I’d made a really big mistake.”
“Was that the nineteen-second asshole or the jackass with the telescope?”
“The jackass with the telescope.”
“And how big was the mistake?” Garrett held his thumb and finger half an inch apart, smiling. “This big?” He widened the gap infinitesimally. “This big?”
“Definitely kiddie-sized.” I realised what I’d said and clapped a hand over my mouth. “Shit! I mean, shoot! There was no paedophilia involved, none. He was five years older than me. I’m so bad at this whole snuggling-pillow-talk thing. Truly terrible. I’m so sorry.”
Garrett was openly laughing now. “See what I mean? You’re real. For the record, I don’t have any pets of my own, and if we’re talking about our pasts, then every single one of my exes would have been in the bathroom at this moment, fixing her make-up.”
“I don’t wear much make-up. Only when I’m working, which is never these days.”
“Because of your cousins? Kayleigh and Lillian?”
I let out a decidedly unsexy groan. “Please don’t remind me that I’m related to them. I do my absolute best to forget.”
“You have the twins; I have Trey.”
“Do you work with him?”
“Not really.”
“That’s not a proper answer.”
“Dad gave him an office and a fancy title, but he rarely shows up more than once a week.”
“That sucks.”
“It’s better for both of us that way.”
“That also sucks.”
“It does. And do you know what else sucks?”
“What?”
Before I could blink, I was on my back underneath him again.
“Allow me to show you.”
My head fell back as Garrett went to work with his tongue. He took over my senses, my body, my mind. I got lost in him, and what was more, I loved it. For so many years, I’d fought in vain to retain some semblance of control over my life, and only now did I discover that giving in to his mastery and obeying his soft commands to drop my knees to the side, to hold on to the cool iron of my bed frame, to turn over and raise my ass in the air could bring relief. Relief that I was finally able to surrender responsibility to somebody who wanted to give rather than take.
I barely knew him, and nothing about what we were doing could be described as normal, but in a strange way, I trusted him. Trusted him not to screw me over. Well, of course he was screwing me, but we’d waited until the third date, so that was good, right? Respectable? Third sort of date, anyway. Was this even a date? He’d just shown up and—
The sting of his hand on my ass sent that train of thought skittering into oblivion.
“If you’re thinking of anything but my cock right now, stop.”
“Sorry.” It came out as a whisper.
He ran a hand up my back slowly, ass to neck, then fisted it in my hair, tilting my head and turning it so he had access to my mouth. Instead of kissing me, he pulled my bottom lip between his teeth and nipped hard enough to sting, watching me closely for a second before he let it go.
“I’ve needed to do that for a long time.”
I wasn’t prepared for the rush of heat that burned through me at his words and the tiny bite of pain. That wasn’t normal either, was it? To enjoy that sort of thing? The ache between my legs didn’t lie, and with that feeling came shame because I was learning so much about myself tonight and I wasn’t sure—
“When we’re fucking like this, you think of me and only me, Cinderella.”
This time, there was no gentle easing. He slammed into me, and I gasped at the sudden intrusion. He was bigger, I was fuller, and there was room for nothing else.
“Fuck!”
“Better.”
I heard the smile in his voice as he pulled on my hair, arching me up against him. He cupped my breasts in both hands, first caressing gently, then surprising me with a hard pinch as he caught my nipples between thumb and forefinger.
“Oh!”
One hand moved downward, and the release was like nothing I’d ever experienced. In a good way. The best way.
“What’s your safe word?” His lips brushed against my ear, and the vibrations went straight to my core.
“I—”
“Tell me.”
“Sh-shark.”
“Do you want to use it?”
And have him stop? Have this dark journey of discovery end? “No.”
A hand came to my throat, but he didn’t apply any pressure, just held me against him, my back to his front, while he circled my clit maddeningly slowly with those magic fingers of his. I clenched around him, and this time, the groan was his.
“You’re everything I hoped,” he whispered.
Before I could process that, he lowered me back to the bed so I was on all fours, and he began to move in short, measured thrusts, all the time working me with his fingers. Who said men couldn’t multitask? My legs began to tremble, and my breath came in short gulps as those first little tendrils of an orgasm wrapped around me. I gave myself over to him. Let him do whatever he wanted because I knew I’d want it too. When that heady bliss finally rocketed through me, Garrett held me up with an arm around my waist, and that was the only thing that kept me from collapsing into a sweaty heap when he pulsed into me a moment later.
“Holy freaking hell,” I murmured, mostly to myself.
“My sentiments exactly.”
Garrett withdrew smoothly, and with one soft kiss to my cheek, he morphed into his usual sweet self. Gone was the Prince of Darkness. Charming was back.
“Am I allowed to think about other things now? Because what the heck was that?”
Rather than answering, he fluffed the pillows and settled me against them, then retrieved the quilt from the floor and tucked that around me as well. I got an excellent view of his ass as he walked to the bathroom, and the toilet flushed a moment later.
“Are you hungry?” he asked when he reappeared. “Thirsty?”
“Thirsty.”
“What do you want to drink?”
“Anything but alcohol.”
He returned with a glass of orange juice and another of those dangerous forehead kisses, totally unashamed of his nakedness as he studied me. Not that he had a thing to be ashamed of. He was so beautiful I had to pinch myself. No, really.
“What was that for?” he asked.
“Just checking you’re real.”
“In that case, shouldn’t you be pinching me?”
“I wasn’t sure you’d appreciate that.”
The bed dipped as he settled onto the edge and took my hand. “I’m very real.”
I took a sip of juice and tried to gather my scattered thoughts. “You didn’t answer my question. What was that?”
“That… That was a little more of myself than I’d intended to show you tonight.”
“Oh.”
“I need to know how you’re feeling.”
How could I tell him when I didn’t even know myself? “Mixed up?” Dirty, slightly guilty that I liked it, sated in a melting-into-the-mattress way, scared that I’d never get to experience Charming’s magic again. Scared that I would. “Is it always like that?”
“Do you want it to be?”
Did I? What happened, it had been so intense. So incredibly, deliciously wrong that for one blessed evening, everything was right in my world. When I’d walked away from the men of my past, all I’d felt was relief. If I had to walk away from Charming, my soul would be wrenched from my body.
Slowly, I nodded. “Yes, I do.”
He let out a breath I hadn’t realised he’d been holding. “You have no idea how happy that makes me.” His grip on my hand tightened. “I’ve never wanted any woman the way I want you.”
Was he serious? Or did he say that to every woman he bedded? “Is that just a line?”
“It’s anything but a line, Cinderella.”
“But what if…what if I’m not enough? If in a month or two months, you discover I’m really not that interesting and—”
“Are you talking about breaking up before I’ve even had a chance to take you white-water rafting?”
“White-water rafting? I’m not the best swimmer, and what if—” I realised he was joking and shoved him in the chest. “It isn’t funny.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“We barely know each other.”
“So, let’s change that.”
“I’m a perpetual screw-up. My life has basically been one big mess since I was nine years old. I don’t have a job, or—”
“Good. No job means you have no excuse not to come back to Roseburg with me tomorrow. Now, what do you want for dinner? I have two dozen cookies from the Coffee House in the car, or I can pick up takeout, or I can cook.”
Charming liked to call the shots, that much was clear, and not just in the bedroom. I could have fought, but what was the point? My mouth watered at the thought of Mary’s cookies, and I was in no state to make dinner myself, not when I couldn’t even walk to the kitchen. I didn’t hate the idea of escaping Baldwin’s Shore for a day either.
“Okay, you win. Let’s see how good you are with a stove.”
Losing an argument had never felt so good.
22
SARA
There was something thrilling about all the subterfuge. About throwing clothes into a duffel bag and sneaking away from The Lookout without a word to my family. About texting Brooke to let her know I was being whisked away for a dirty break and not to worry. About spending time with a man I suspected had as many skeletons in his closet as I did.
This morning, Charming was sitting opposite me in a diner halfway between Baldwin’s Shore and Roseburg, eating scrambled eggs and checking emails on his phone as I covered my pancakes in maple syrup. It all seemed so normal when last night had been anything but. I smiled inwardly. We each had our own secrets, but now we shared some too.
“What do you actually do?” I nodded at the phone. “For work, I mean.”
“I took over running the family business three years ago when Dad decided on a change of direction.”
“And what’s the family business?”
“Investing. Dad made a bunch of money in software when he was younger, and after he cashed out, he began financing other entities he believed showed promise. I basically oversee a family office, albeit a fairly complex one.”
“Like a bigger version of Baldwin Estates? That’s our family company. Well, not mine—I don’t have anything to do with it. My cousin Parker is in charge now.”
“Not your uncle?”
So, Garrett had done at least basic research on me.
“Uncle EJ isn’t business-minded. His wife used to run things with Parker, but she won’t be getting out of prison any time soon.”
“She’s in for murder?”
“Google is your friend, huh?”
“Just doing my due diligence. I’m surprised you haven’t googled me.”
“I tried. There was nothing.”
His eyebrows dipped in puzzlement. “Did you spell my name right?”
“Maybe not? I tried Kamp with a K and a C, but neither of them got any hits.”
