Decadent (46 page)

Candlelight glowed golden in the room. And damn, Kimber smelled downright edible. Still, he hesitated. He wasn’t in a hurry to have his failures exposed, if that’s the way the night went.
But
eating dinner first isn’t going to help you keep your dick
stiff if you
freak out, either.

429

Deke exhaled, searching for calm. “Or. Definitely or.”

“Good call. Let me turn the oven down…”

Kimber disappeared for a few moments. He heard her in the kitchen, adjusting dials, opening the oven, closing it again. When she emerged again, she handed him a cold beer and held a glass of wine in her hand. Taking the bottle from her, he downed half of it. Kimber gnawed on her bottom lip as she watched.

“We could talk first.”

“Nothing to say that’s going to change the outcome of tonight.” He just needed to wrap his head around the fact Kimber was exclusively his and act accordingly.

Determined to make their first time alone together as right as he could, Deke set the beer down, plucked the wineglass from her hand and set it next to his bottle.

Then picked Kimber up and stalked down the hall to her bedroom.

Shayla Black Decadent More candles everywhere reflected off the shades of cream, sage, and cinnamon on the bedspread and walls. Really nice. Really her. And they were really alone.

He pushed thoughts of everything but Kimber aside as he eased her down to the mattress. Her hands fluttered nervously, one landing across her stomach, bringing into focus the row of neat stitches across her forearm. The sight sobered him.

Kimber had been through so much: a ménage that wasn’t her heart’s desire, attempts on her life, a pregnancy scare, his subsequent blowup and revelations about Heather—and she was still strong, so amazing. What could have happened with Call served as a stark reminder that life was too short not to reach out and grab the woman he wanted and loved. All he had to do now was touch her, take her, and never let go.

In about two seconds, he had her out of everything but thigh-high stockings and a smile. His own clothes were casualties of the ache inside him in the next heartbeat.

430

But once he laid his hands on her bare skin, he began to shake again. What if he was an utter fucking failure? Letting out a troubled breath, Deke covered her body and kissed her feverishly, sinking deep into her mouth, branding her. Failure wasn’t an option. Truth was, he never wanted to be anywhere else. Never wanted anyone else with them or near her.

He was going to have to make this work. She was his. The enticing creamy skin, his. The pretty berry nipples, his. The addicting taste of her cream on his tongue, his. The cries of delight when she gripped the sheets while he licked her into bliss, his. All his. Just his.

Working his way back up her body, Deke sighed over her delicate female curves, then groaned as her hand suddenly enveloped and stroked his erection. Hell, she didn’t need to prime him. He felt hard enough to drill through concrete. But he wanted to caress her, celebrate the fact she was in his arms, protect her, shelter her. Love her. He also wanted to fuck her—in every way he could.

Shayla Black Decadent He took that as a good sign. Fear edged the arousal…but not the usual fear. It wasn’t the panic of worrying about an unexpected pregnancy. This was the fear of letting her down. But every other cell in his body was focused on the scalding need to be inside her and the burning determination to make that a reality.

Easing into the cradle of her thighs, he brushed his lips over hers, then sank in, sampling the desire and hope on her tongue. He seized her mouth again. And again.

Damn it, one more time because he couldn’t taste her enough. Couldn’t believe his good fortune after a decade of believing himself unworthy of a woman of his own, much less one this wonderful. All he had to do now was claim her…

“I—I want to make love to you tonight. Every night, kitten. I’m glad you’re mine. I feel so damn lucky.”

“I’m the lucky one. When you look at me like that, I feel loved.” 431

“You are.” Deke gently worshipped her mouth. “You are.”

“Feel like demonstrating that?” She lifted her hips to him in blatant invitation.

“God, yes.”

Kimber nipped at his shoulder, kissed her way up his neck.

“I’m still on the pill, but if you’d rather…condoms are in the nightstand.” They were really going to do this, just the two of them. He hesitated, fearing the nasty sideswipe of panic. But it didn’t come. “Whatever happens we’ll handle it together, right?”

“Yes.”

The reassurance in her voice went straight to his chest, where he felt all damn mushy. The rest of him…taut, tense, every bit rigid. Everything from his shoulders Shayla Black Decadent to his toes was juiced with adrenaline. Nerves. Anticipation. He’d never needed and feared something so much at once.

“For three days, I’ve been thinking about nothing except how you’d feel inside me.”

Then she lifted her legs high on his hips. Damn, her pussy pressed right against his cock. And she was wet.
Oh, hell.
Deke started to sweat. His heart took off like a jet trying to reach new speeds. He’d thought about her, too. Obsessively. What would it be like to finally take her alone? Claim her as his very own?

Kimber nipped at his lobe, sending a new shiver across his skin. “You’re going to feel so good. I’ve missed you. I look at you and I ache.” Yeah, he knew exactly how that went. He reacted to her the same way. He was reacting that way now, so damn hard he could swear most of the blood in his body 432

had flooded the same nine inches of flesh. He grimaced, then probed until the head of his cock held right against her entrance.

Shit.
Sweat poured off of him now. Deke swallowed. Kimber had to feel the heavy pound of his heart against her chest, couldn’t miss the harsh grip of his fingers on her hips. He meant to ease off, be gentle…but every muscle in his body was wired.

“I can’t wait to have your hard length inside me, stretching, driving me insane.” Didn’t she know her words were only ramping him up more? He was going to lose the last threads of his sanity if she went on like that.

“The feel of you deep inside me…” She groaned. “I need it.” It was all he could do not to groan with her. Yeah, he remembered. How the hell could he forget how perfect she felt all around him?
Not in this lifetime.

Shayla Black Decadent She lifted to him again, and the head of his cock eased inside her.
Oh, damn. Oh,
wow!

“Then you nudge that one spot, and I scream for you. Every time, you make me come apart.”

Just like those hot words of hers were doing to him—dismantling his reserve, his hesitation, arousing him past thought. His head swam with her scent, her whispered come-ons, and the feel of her pussy trying to latch onto his dick. He couldn’t stand it. God, he couldn’t hold out. Couldn’t wait…

Deke gripped her hips and slid home in one delicious, endless thrust, sealing their bond. All the way to the end, as tight against her cervix as he could.

He drew in a shuddering breath at the wild sensation that pounded at him. Tight, wet, hot, silken, perfect; Kimber was everything. What he didn’t feel was panic or 433

worry about being responsible for whatever happened. As she cried out underneath him, Deke realized that he
wanted
to take care of her. More than anything. The very thought of doing that felt almost as good as making love to her.

As he retreated then sank deep again, Kimber moaned once more. Around him, she tightened.

Home. His.

“Hush, and I’ll make you come now,” he murmured, fitting his hands underneath the firm cheeks of her ass and lifting her tighter against him.

Then he took her mouth, filling it with his kiss at the same time he filled her sex with his cock. Slowly. Even, measured strokes.
Oh, hell yes!
Friction was definitely his friend. His best damn buddy, in fact. Every rasp of his flesh against hers was like an electric charge running through his body. All the sensations burst through him, short-circuiting any thoughts he might have had. It was all body, baby. The Shayla Black Decadent ever-tightening clasp of her sheath, her nails in his back, her bucking hips under him, her breathless begging in his ear. The way his heart wrenched at each one.

The thrill of knowing he was pleasing her.

Moments later, she cried out… His name. That was it, and in the same sentence with God. Her words were a litany, a plea. And he felt her pulse down on him, milking him, melting him. He careened out of control, racing toward the finish line too rapidly to stop. Deke grabbed her, his arms tightening around her, like a lifeline. She
was
his lifeline.

Damn, he felt like a volcano. The pressure brewing in his balls stopped his breath.

The amazing pleasure stunned him. After years of shared sex, having Kimber to himself completely was like a revelation. An amazement. He almost expected the heavens to part and start singing or some shit.

Instead, ecstasy ripped through him with such force, he thought his body would 434

explode into a billion pieces. He clutched her, cried out for her, emptied himself inside her in a series of jolting spasms that devastated him. Changed him.
Forever.

#

Under the hard protection of Deke’s body, Kimber clasped him tighter. He’d already owned her body tonight. There was no question he owned her heart. Tears seeped from the corners of her eyes.

Still panting, he raised his head. Sweat clung to his temples, rolled down his neck.

Veins bulged, muscles bunched. He looked so big and invincible. Except when he opened his eyes and looked down at her. Every vulnerability lay bare in those dark blue eyes, and her heart opened for him even wider.

“Hi,” she murmured.

“Hi.”

Shayla Black Decadent

“That was…beautiful. You moved me.”

He grunted. “Yeah, I’m really trying not to cry like a baby here.” Kimber couldn’t help but laugh as her heart lit up. Had she ever been happier?

“Just the two of us, was it difficult?”

“Not as much as I thought it would be. Once I convinced my mind it was you and I focused on how I felt about you…everything was all right.”

“It was perfect,” she corrected with a caress of her fingers up his cheek.

“It was.”

“You know, when I came to you for help, I was a girl stupidly chasing a boy for some silly daydream that didn’t exist. You gave me something real. You treated me like a woman, taught me about sex, showed me love. Thank you.” 435

“Thank
you
. I put you through hell, and I hate that. But you still healed me and cared about me. You didn’t give up on me. I love you so damn much, kitten. I always will. You going to marry me someday?”

Clearly, the question surprised her—pleasantly. “You going to ask someday?”

“Yeah.” He brushed auburn curls away from flushed cheeks.

She pressed a soft kiss on his lips and teased, “I don’t know. When I first asked you to teach me about sex, you said there would be no emotional bonds.” Deke snorted. “I was an idiot. I need the bond between us. It’s essential like air, baby. I’ve got to have it.” He pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “I—I’m hoping you still want to have babies with me someday.”

She nodded. “I’m glad we can, that you never, um…” Shayla Black Decadent

“Had a vasectomy? I really thought about it. Hard. But Luc was right; I didn’t because I couldn’t give up on the hope of someday being a father. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I didn’t want the past to have that kind of power over me for the rest of my life.”

“You took a huge step tonight in letting go of the past. Would it be too weird if I told you I was proud of you?”

A flash of tears glossed across those denim blue eyes. He did his best to blink them away. “Nah. Hell, I’m proud of me, too,” he joked. “And now you’re mine. All mine. Just mine.”

Under him, Kimber smiled. “Yours. Always.”

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