Fixing Justice (20 page)

The sensual storm that had overpowered them didn’t lessen in intensity for a long time after that. Drae rolled onto his back, bringing Victoria with him, as she lay sprawled in a boneless heap upon him. He was aware of the warm, sticky wetness, where it clung to both their bodies. Something about that bold awareness struck him between the eyes with a powerful slap of reality. Not only had he taken her with an animalistic ferocity that made him cringe, he’d done so without any thought of protection. He was stunned by the realization of how he’d behaved. A tirade of self-loathing accusations attacked his consciousness. What the hell had he done? Jesus Christ. She deserved better than to be fucked by an out-of-control madman.

“Are you alright?” he muttered cautiously when she began to stir. If she started to cry or turned away from him, he didn’t know what he’d do. Pretty much the last thing he expected was for her to put her mouth on his chest and gift him with a sweet, moist kiss. “Is that a yes?” he asked hopefully.

“Shhhh,” she replied. “Don’t say anything, please.” Her voice sounded small and hesitant.

“Victoria,” he rasped, “I’m serious. Did I hurt you?”

The concern in his tone brought her head up from his chest to look him straight in the eye. He shouldn’t have been so surprised. She may be small, but she was a feisty little spitfire. Not even an episode of rough, demanding sex was going to make her cower. She searched his face for a long time and then laid her chin on the hands she’d folded upon his chest.

“I’m fine,” she murmured. “Maybe a bit sore, but …..”

When her silence led nowhere he was forced to consider every possibility of unspoken words imaginable and didn’t like where his thoughts led. She said she was fine but sore. The part left hanging made him feel like a prick.

Laying her gently to his side, Drae sat up and smoothed his hands down her arms reassuringly. “Sit tight,” he prompted as he climbed off the bed. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Hurrying from the room, he made for the massive en suite, gathering an armload of towels along the way. It only took a few seconds to switch on the digital controls that operated the multi-head shower and then he was sprinting back to her side. She was lying curled on her side in a fetal position that struck at his conscience like a sledgehammer. “God dammit”, he muttered quietly as he scooped her from the bed and stomped toward the shower.

“What are you doing now?” she shrieked in surprise.

He didn’t answer. After all, what could he say? There weren’t any words to cover the self- loathing he was heaping upon his head. The emotions racking his body and mind would have to wait for another time to be picked apart and considered. All that mattered at this precise moment was taking care of Victoria and making sure he hadn’t been too damn rough with her.

Tori was in shock. Or something very close to shock. When she’d returned from her workout, the last thing she expected was wild, unrestrained monkey sex with Draegyn. Everything had happened so fast. And now, here he was, carrying her, god knows where, and all she could think of was how soon they could do it all again. He was freaking her out though with his somber demeanor. Instead of enjoying the afterglow, he was behaving as if he’d committed the ultimate sin. Had she missed something?

Realization of where they were struck as he lowered her gently to the tile floor of the massive shower. Steam had already gathered inside the glass enclosure, snaking warmth along her limbs as feeling and sensation returned to her sated body. He stayed close, keeping an arm around her while he played with the controls, giving her a chance to find her footing.

Confusion battered her sense of well-being at the solemn note to his voice. “A warm shower should help,” he murmured. Help what exactly, she wondered? His hesitation baffled her. Standing naked, as they were, inches apart in a steaming shower, there wasn’t any way she was going to miss the way his sex hung at half-staff. She wanted to reach out and coax his manhood back to throbbing life. The soreness she felt was nothing next to her desire to do it all again. And again.

He wasn’t meeting her eyes, and Tori felt a rapid escalation of anxiety invade her senses. Had she done it wrong? Was he disappointed, or worse, turned off by the way she’d gone crazy in his arms? Oh God, she felt ill.

“Would you like me to help you, uh,” he stuttered. “What I mean to say is, well…” He was all over the place and clearly struggling. “God dammit Victoria,” Draegyn groaned like a man in the throes of agony. “I shouldn’t have been so rough with you! What can I do?”

Ohhhhhh
, she thought. I get it now. He thinks he manhandled me or some sort of ridiculous crap like that. Was he kidding? The look on his face suggested he wasn’t. How could she let him know that what they’d done, while raw and uninhibited and yes, a bit demanding on his part, had been nothing short of amazing? Hell, amazing wasn’t a good enough description. It had been transcendent. Opting for audaciously cheeky, she turned and bent forward to grab a poof from the shower bench knowing full well she was giving him a direct view of her bottom.

Turning back to Draegyn she quickly noted the way his lashes lowered in an attempt to shield his reaction but not before she caught the glint of awareness light up his eyes. Handing him the poof she gave a melodramatic sigh and asked, “Will you do my back, please?” She almost laughed when his hands shot out to grab a container of shower gel with all the awkward clumsiness one would have expected of a teenage boy experiencing his first co-ed shower.

Whirling away before he saw the laughter in her eyes, Tori leaned her hands onto the dark tile wall and let a stream of water slide down her back, over the swell of her backside. She sensed when he shifted closer to her. Even in the steamy waterfall, she could feel his heat. The scent of spicy citrus wafted in the humid air as he began swiping the length of her torso with foamy suds. It really did feel wonderful. The small sigh of contentment that rushed out was no lie.

Drae tried to concentrate on what he was doing but the sensation of his hands on her wet skin replaced his conflicted thoughts with ones of a more lascivious nature. When she winced as his fingers swept across her hips and thighs he zeroed in on her slight curves, making out faint outlines of bruised flesh. Releasing a self-castigating tirade, he spun her around so fast she wobbled in his arms. His attention was riveted on the physical proof that he’d behaved like an animal. The thought made him ill. He’d done a lot of things, the kind of things that smack of life or death, but he’d never raised a hand in anger to a woman and had never gotten so completely out-of-control that he’d been aggressive. Until twenty minutes ago.

Dropping to his knees, Drae grimaced as his mouth went dry at the sight before him. She was so damn slender that he could nearly span her waist with his hands. He remembered gripping her hips in desperation while thundering between her open thighs. A quick glance confirmed his worst fears. An imprint from his domination was evident on her smooth, creamy thighs and across the flesh of her ass and hips. Her hand touched the side of his face, making him look up into the mesmerizing depths of her beautiful eyes. “Draegyn,” she whispered softly. Nobody ever called him by his full name. He liked hearing her say it. “I’m fine, really,” she said emphatically.

“These bruises tell me otherwise, Victoria.” He couldn’t feel worse or sound more bummed if he tried. “I don’t know what to say that will make this better,” he groaned.

He was being his arrogant self again, as if he’d been the only one grunting and groaning in that bed. Even though she kinda liked the down on his knees thing, she was starting to feel weird about it. He didn’t have a damn thing to apologize for. She’d been with him the whole way, clinging to his shoulders, devouring his mouth. It had all been so intense, so wild and hot, that all she could do was hang on. The way he’d cried her name when her orgasm exploded had excited her. She’d been exquisitely aware of his cock buried deep inside her and every pulse and throb when he came with shuddering groans. The knowledge that she could be so primitive was shocking enough. Having him apologize for it was not what she needed right now.

“How ‘bout you don’t say anything?” she bit out. “Really Draegyn, I’m fine. You going on like this is ruining everything!” Was that her wailing? Shit. It was. She hazarded a look at the man on his knees before her. He looked, well - he looked a bit stunned by her outburst. Thinking she could explain, Tori shook her head and frowned. “Look, what just happened? Well, it was amazing.” She felt a blush coming on but plowed ahead anyway. Now was a moment for total honesty. “Don’t apologize, please. That was a first for me.” She quickly dispelled his look of confusion. “No, I wasn’t a virgin but that was another kind of first.” When his eyebrows quirked at her statement she rushed the rest before she chickened out. “Orgasm,” she offered. “First.” Now that really did get a raised eyebrow from him. “Clinically speaking, I‘ve experienced a climax of course, but never during sex.” She coughed to clear her throat.

He stood up in slow motion, never letting go of her eyes. When he loomed over her she felt consumed by his size and presence. “Let me get this straight.” A muscle in his jaw flexed. “Just now, when you came,” his expression suggested he was remembering in fine detail the moment when her body had clutched at his invading cock, “That was the only time you’d had an orgasm with a man?”

“Don’t look so smug!” she cried. “It just happened that way, is all.”

“Oh, no you don’t!” Draegyn crowed. “Do not rob me of the satisfaction from knowing I not only made you come but got you to scream while doing so.”

She thumped him in the middle of his chest. “Shut up!”

“Make me,” he murmured silkily, leaning his hips against the shower wall.

She took a deep, calming breath that didn’t do much to help her careening emotions. “I suppose we’ll have to get into this at some point, but right now we both need to finish showering and get dressed. “ She hoped the change of subject worked.

Draegyn smiled slowly but not before raking her body with a look that was hot enough to sear her skin off. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. You win this one for now, little lady, but know this. At some point we
will
talk.”

Checking his watch for the umpteenth time, Drae was relieved to find the workday coming swiftly to an end. He’d been hovering near Victoria all day, keeping his distance but having her in his line of sight at all times. If she moved to a different area, so did he. Not wanting a repeat of the previous day when he’d found her half-starved and cranky as shit after being left to her own devices for hours, he’d resolved to keep an eye on things but do it in a way that didn’t totally piss her off. She liked thinking she was in charge. He snorted at the thought.

Scraping his chair back to stand, he looked around the command center for the hotel complex, which was laid out in a series of spaces separated by glass walls. Monitor lights and blinking screens were visible all around but nothing could obscure the sight she made, standing rooms away from him. He didn’t think anything could top the astonishment he’d felt at the first sight he’d gotten of her yesterday morning in her smart designer outfit and high-heeled shoes. Just one more thing he’d been wrong about. She’d taken his breath away after their shower. He vaguely remembered mumbling something about how nice she looked when
nice
didn’t even come close to the fantastic sight she made in an eggplant colored sweater dress with a wide leather belt that highlighted her trim waist and lean figure. A pair of sexy knee-high suede boots completed the mouthwatering picture. She’d blown her hair out so it tumbled in soft chestnut colored curls against her shoulders. How could this be the same woman who’d been scurrying around for weeks, hiding behind ugly glasses and bland, baggy clothes?

He watched as she rolled her shoulders and let her head loll back tilting her chin up, shaking her hair back and forth. God. Even when she didn’t know he was watching her, everything she did seemed like a sexual provocation. He wanted her. Again. Just as hard and demanding as that first time until she begged for release. He’d never wanted anyone like this. Now that the genie was out of the bottle, he couldn’t think of anything else.