Keep Me Closer (A Dangerous Tides Novel) Page 22

  “Wanna bet?” she whispered, her pink lips twitching with a provocative smile that he felt all the way down in his damn balls.

  “This isn’t a fucking game,” he growled, gripping her hips. He knew damn well where she was pushing him, and was scared shitless it would be too much for her. Send her running.

  Her hair fell like a veil around their faces as she leaned over him, bracing her delicate hands on his hard shoulders. “Come on, Alex. You know what I’m like. I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it. If it wasn’t something I wanted. But it is.”

  Fuck it. He couldn’t fight this. Not when it was Brit, the woman who turned him inside out. Who he wanted more than any other. Who he would have kept for-fucking-ever if he’d been a different man.

  With a guttural sound ripping up from his throat, he suddenly reversed their positions, putting them in the middle of the bed with her voluptuous little body trapped beneath him. He pulled his hips back, his hooded gaze locked tight on her wide one as he slowly fed his broad shaft back inside her, his mind churning with the possibilities, his dick somehow getting even harder when he was already hard as a fucking rock. Lowering his head, he gave himself a moment to suck on those mouthwatering tits that tasted like sweet, honeyed sin on his lips, his hands pushing the mounds up high, the throaty moans she gave as he sucked and tongued her plump nipples driving him wild.

  From the corner of his eye, he spotted a flash of metal, remembering he’d left his handcuffs sitting on his bedside table after taking them from his belt the last time he’d carried them, and he knew exactly what he wanted from her generous offer. He didn’t deserve it—sure as hell didn’t deserve her—but he was taking it anyway.

  Bracing his weight on one arm, he leaned over her as he lifted his other hand, pushing the damp strands of auburn hair at her temple back from her flushed, beautiful face.

  “You sure about this, Doc?”

  “Mmm,” she moaned, her lashes fluttering. “I want you. I want it all.”

  Gritting his teeth, he pulled his dick from her succulent hold, the flushed rod drenched in her cream as it sprang up against his stomach. Kneeling in the middle of the bed, he jerked his chin toward her, and said, “Then roll over and put your ass in the air, hands behind your back.”

  She didn’t waste any time doing as he said, and Alex scrubbed a rough hand over his mouth as he took a moment to stare at the provocative picture she made, kneeling on the bed before him with her ass presented to him, the side of her pink face pressed to the sheets, hands exactly where he’d told her to place them. Reaching over, he snagged the cuffs off the table, hearing the small catch in her breath when she realized what he was going to do. He couldn’t stop his damn hands from shaking as he clicked the metal cuffs around her slender wrists, his heart pounding like a fucking jackhammer.

  Bondage games weren’t something he ever messed around with, because it wasn’t something he wanted. Not from the women he’d been wasting his time with. Women like Chloe. Good women who deserved a hell of a lot more than what he’d given them. He didn’t care about earning their trust on a deeper level. Didn’t care about pushing the limits with them or taking them to a higher level of pleasure than anything they’d ever known.

  But the doc . . . Fuck, she was different. He cared about so many different things when it came to her, he was afraid to look too closely at them for fear of what he might find.

  With the cuffs clicked into place, he trailed his hands up either side of her spine, the feminine length of her back arching into his touch. He’d expected her to be tense at first in the restraints, but if anything, her reaction was the exact opposite. She relaxed into them, into the moment, her body soft and perfect beneath his hands as he stroked his way back down her back, curving his hands over the gorgeous globes of her ass. She was peachy and firm and soft, a delicious handful as he pulled her cheeks apart, opening her up so that he could see her pretty little pink asshole and the plush, glistening seam of her pussy.

  Another rough, guttural sound rumbled up from his chest, and his fingers tightened. “Christ, Doc. Do you have any idea what the sight of you like this does to me?”

  She shivered, pushing her ass up into his hands as she pressed her knees a little wider, and his dick pulsed so hard he was surprised it didn’t burst. He slid two fingers through her drenched folds, getting them wet, then touched his slippery fingertips to that tight ring of muscle. “I’m giving you two fingers in your ass tonight,” he warned her, applying steady pressure until she opened and took the tips of his fingers inside her.

  She was panting, her entire body rosy with a blush—but she didn’t try to shy away from his hand or tell him to stop. Instead, she arched her hips a little higher, taking his fingers even deeper, and Alex couldn’t stop the primitive growl that shot from his throat.

  “That is so fucking sweet,” he grunted, pulling his fingers back a few inches and then pumping them back inside, the erotic sight of her taking the thick digits in that pink, puckered hole making him so hot he had to shake the sweat from his eyes.

  When he finally slipped his dick back inside her, he thought he might have had a religious experience. It was that . . . shocking. That . . . life changing. She gave a raw, keening cry, panting hard as he pumped into her, grinding himself against her juicy cunt, her inner muscles holding him like a fucking vise.

  He knew he was a big man, both his overall physical size and the size of his dick. It wasn’t bragging or ego, just fact. And he knew he was more than a little jagged and rough around the edges. But he’d never, never, felt as primal and male as he did when he had Brit Cramer’s lush little body beneath him. She was so soft and feminine and sweet. So pale and smooth and impossibly perfect.

  What he didn’t know was why she worried about the size of her thighs or her ass or her tits. They were fucking works of art that brought him to his knees. He wasn’t a spiritual man by any means, but he worshipped this woman. Her sheer existence made him believe in things that were beyond his grasp and experience. Did he like it or welcome the way he felt? Hell no. It scared the living shit out of him, being drawn to a woman this way. But he couldn’t walk away. Not anymore. He just . . . he just needed to find a way to control it. To measure his reaction to her. To somehow master it, though now was clearly not the time to figure out how. There was no way he was finding any measure of control right now. She’d stripped him of it completely the moment she gave him more trust than any other woman had ever done. Even the one he’d been married to.

  The doc was a goddamn miracle, stubborn and smart and so selflessly giving, and he wanted to bury himself so deep inside her that she felt him for days. For a fucking lifetime.

  Shoving that staggering, terrifying thought from his mind, Alex gritted his teeth and let go.

  Loving that she couldn’t control how hard or how deep he took her, he pulled his fingers from her backside and curled that arm around her hips, fisting his other hand in her silky hair, and laid his big body over hers, her hands trapped between them as he buried his hot face in the curve of her shoulder. Then he cleared his mind of everything but the stunning feel of his hips pounding against her sweet ass, his cock ramming into her snug heat again and again, while he licked and softly bit at her smooth skin like an animal.

  “Alex!” she cried, her fist-tight cunt starting to convulse around him as she climaxed, and he pulled her with him as he went up on his knees, her head falling back to his shoulder as he held her in a tight hold and shoved himself into her, pounding into her so hard her knees left the mattress. He came in a powerful eruption of cum and heat and pleasure that felt so intense it was almost agonizing, the sounds he made raw and rough and pained.

  “Oh, Jesus . . . Oh, God,” he gasped, dropping his head to her damp shoulder as he clutched her against him, never wanting to let her go. “That was fucking incredible.”

  “Mmm,” she slurred, and he forced himself to lay h
er down and leave her body, knowing he needed to get the cuffs off her before her shoulders became sore. Using the extra key he kept in his bedside table, he unlocked the metal cuffs and tossed them aside. Then he gently massaged her shoulders and arms while she lay on her front, her body boneless and flushed with heat. But there was a small smile on her sensual mouth as she turned her head to the side, and he couldn’t resist lying down beside her, drawing her into his arms.

  “You okay?” he asked, tilting her face up to his with his fingers beneath her chin.

  Her smile spread, beautiful and blinding. “Perfect,” she whispered, reaching up to stroke her fingertips across his stubbled jaw. Keeping her drowsy gaze locked with his, she asked, “So what now?”

  His arms tightened around her, and he pushed one hairy thigh between her legs, loving the way he could feel his cum slipping out of her as he pressed up against her swollen pussy. “I want you in here with me,” he said in a low voice. “All night. In my bed.”

  “Are you sure this is what you want?”

  “Yeah. I’m sure, Doc.”

  She touched her fingertips to the dark smudges he knew were under his eyes. “You look tired.”

  With a snort, he said, “That’s because I couldn’t sleep for shit without you last night.”

  She looked at him with a question in those big, beautiful eyes, and he heard himself saying, “I wish I could explain, but I can’t. Just . . . let it go, Brit. Please.”

  He could feel her waiting for more, but that was it. He had nothing more to give her. He already felt scraped raw just from making such an uncharacteristic confession. Reaching behind him to turn off the bedside light, he pulled the sheet up over them, then pulled her close again, until he could feel her against the heavy pounding of his heart. “Stay with me,” he murmured against the top of her head, the husky words like a plea. “All night. Let me hold you.”

  “And when it’s over?” she whispered, her soft lips moving against his chest.

  He swallowed thickly, and closed his eyes. “Just sleep now, baby. Let’s not borrow trouble.”

  * * *

  LET’S NOT BORROW TROUBLE . . .

  It was probably good advice. But as she burrowed closer to his heat, breathing in his heady scent, Brit had a feeling she was already neck-deep in trouble.

  And wrapped up tight in his arms.

  15

  AFTER A HECTIC AFTERNOON SPENT UP AT THE WESTVILLE POLICE STATION, talking to the detectives who were working Clay Shepherd’s case—the case which dealt with the attack against Shepherd himself a few weeks ago—Alex came through his front door, expecting to set eyes on Brit. He hadn’t been happy about leaving her at the condo with one of Ben’s deputies for protection but hadn’t had a choice. It was too important that he talk to the detectives himself, and he was glad that he’d gone, the conclusions they’d come to shedding a grim light on the situation.

  Now that he was home, he was trying hard not to think about how excited he was by the prospect of seeing her . . . or how much he was looking forward to it.

  But Brit wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Instead, the only person waiting for him in his living room was Ben.

  Scowling at his brother, who was looking tanned and a bit tense as he sprawled in one of Alex’s leather chairs, he asked, “Where’s Brit? Upstairs?”

  He hadn’t had much of a chance to talk to her that morning, and though she’d seemed fine, he was still worried about how she was feeling after what had happened between them. Not just the bondage, but the other things that had taken place in the middle of the night. Things that had probably had her sweet ass cheeks feeling a little tender today, like his palm.

  And one thing was for damn certain: the doc didn’t just like having her ass spanked—she loved it.

  Alex hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her, and everything they’d done, all day, which had made concentrating during the meeting with the detectives hard as fuck. But he didn’t have a clue what she was thinking . . . or if she was feeling all right. God only knew she’d probably had trouble walking after the way that he’d ridden her, and he had to shake his head before he got wrapped up in the heated memories all over again.

  Forcing his attention back to his brother, he watched as Ben leaned forward in the chair and tossed the sports magazine he’d been reading onto the coffee table. “I know you’re not going to like it,” Ben said, “but there was an emergency with one of her patients and Brit needed to go to the hospital to see the woman.”

  He stood there and stared, unable to believe what he was hearing. “You let her leave? What the fuck were you thinking?”

  “She’s with Mike,” Ben murmured, his green gaze steady and direct. “Which means she’s okay. So why don’t you try staying calm?”

  “Calm?” he muttered, his insides knotting with tension. “Fuck, Ben. The asshole already tried to shove her off the road once. You don’t think he’d try it again?”

  Moving to his feet, Ben said, “He still doesn’t know who you are or where you live, so he couldn’t follow them from here. And just so you know, there was no stopping her. This is about more than her work, Alex. She’s been patient, taking your advice and not going out, but this was someone she cares about. No one was going to keep her from doing it.”

  “You should have,” he bit out, his deep voice thick with frustration. He glared at his brother from beneath his brows. “If it was Reese, you would have.”

  Ben started to respond, but cut off whatever he was going to say when Reese herself came out of the kitchen carrying a glass of iced tea. She offered Alex an apologetic look, as if she knew he didn’t want her there. Not when he’d been getting ready to lay into his brother some more for acting like a know-it-all asshole.

  Damn it, he should have been here with Brit. If he had been, he sure as shit would have been able to stop her from setting foot outside the condo. He’d have done whatever was necessary, even if it meant tying her little ass down, to make her stay put, where she was safe.

  Pulling his keys from where he’d shoved them in his pocket, he said, “I’m going to the hospital.”

  “There’s no need,” Ben argued, hooking his thumbs in the front pockets of his jeans. “They won’t be much longer. You’d probably drive past them on their way home.”

  Fuck! It was going to kill him, sitting here waiting when he knew damn good and well that she’d put herself in potential danger by going out there, where Shepherd could all too easily get to her.

  “I’d tell you to have a drink,” Ben drawled, cutting into his thoughts, “but I don’t think that would be a good idea. Wanna play a game of gin rummy while we wait, instead?”

  Choking back the words he really wanted to say, since Reese was there, he curled his lip and muttered, “Piss off.”

  “Um, I’m just going to use the restroom,” Reese murmured, setting her tea on a coaster on the table before quickly making her escape.

  Alex noticed the warm look in Ben’s eyes as he watched his wife disappear down the hallway, and let out an explosive curse that drew his brother’s attention. “How the hell do you survive it?” he grunted.

  “What? Being in love?” Ben asked, as strangely intuitive as he’d always been.

  Alex jerked his chin in response.

  His brother sat on the arm of the sofa and grinned like a cocky jackass. “It’s pretty much paradise on my side of the pond, brother. You should stop fighting so hard to tread water and just come on over.”

  “Fuck you.”

  Ben sighed in response. “You’d listen to me if you were smart, Alex. I know what I’m talking about.”

  He ground his teeth together, saved from having to listen to any more of Ben’s bullshit relationship advice when Reese came back into the room. Changing the subject, his brother asked him how things had gone with the detectives up in Westville, but Alex was too furious t
o get into it then. He muttered something about needing to do some work, telling Ben that he’d fill him in on everything later, then left the room. Once in his office, he left the door open so that he’d hear when Brit came in, and paced the floor, listening to Ben and Reese murmur to each other.

  Christ, the glow on those two these days was so bright it was blinding. He kept waiting for it to wear off, but if anything, they looked more in love now than they ever had. And they’d already been nauseatingly head-over-ass for each other right from the start of their relationship.

  Pacing from one side of the small room to the other, Alex pressed his fingertips to his temples, feeling like his damn head was splitting in two. Or maybe that was just his fucking personality. What the hell was happening to him? He was so goddamn angry and on edge, he wanted to put his bloody fist through the wall.

  He pulled off his shoulder holster, setting it on his desk, then tossed the pack of cigarettes in his shirt pocket down beside it. He’d been surprised when he’d reached for a smoke while on the drive to Westville and found the pack he always kept tucked behind his visor still half full. He hadn’t realized until that moment how little he’d smoked since Brit had come to stay with him. He normally would have already been through several packs by this time of the week, and there he was, with the same damn pack from the week before.

  Taking his phone from his pocket, he started to call her, then stopped and tossed the phone on his desk along with the other things. He didn’t want to yell at her over the fucking phone. What he wanted was to put her across his knee and spank her beautiful little ass for scaring the hell out of him.

  Flicking a dark look at the clock mounted on the far wall, Alex continued to pace, counting down the seconds until she was finally back where she belonged.

  * * *

  EVEN IF SHE HADN’T ALREADY SEEN HIS BATTERED RANGE ROVER parked out on the street when Mike had dropped her off, the minute she came in through the front door and saw Ben and Reese’s expressions, Brit would have known Alex was home. She tried to mentally prepare herself to deal with him, but was still stunned by the look of fury on his hard face when he suddenly came in from the hallway, a muscle pulsing steadily in the grim set of his jaw.