Hardline (31 page)

  
Catching my foot, he lifted it to his lips and pressed a kiss to the pad of my big toe. I lay back, letting my body relax into the soft comforter as he worked his way up my calf, tracing a decadent path to my knee and up my thigh. Stopping just short of my pussy, he traveled the other side.
 

  
The craving I’d been battling for days was now impossible to ignore, impossible to resist. My earlier orgasm had done little to quell it. I wanted to beg, but he’d take his time now regardless of what I said. Nothing would push him past the limits of his control. He followed his path with his hand, and my eyes flew open. I caught his hand mid-thigh, stilling his journey. Breathing through the rapid beating of my heart, I struggled as a different kind of rush worked its way through me.
 

  
His eyes widened, every muscle frozen in place. I searched for words as he waited for me to speak.

  
“Don’t use your hands, okay?” My voice was small. I hated what the words implied, but I couldn’t
not
tell him and risk this moment between us.
 

  
The line of his jaw hardened, the muscle below twitching. I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.
 

  
“It’s okay,” I said, avoiding the real reasons, reasons he’d likely already deduced. One of the least pleasant memories I’d had lately was of Max’s hands on me that night. I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut until the image went away, but instead I focused on Blake.
 

  
He’d let my foot fall back to the bed. Now he stood, penetrating me with his stare. He wouldn’t miss a trick tonight. Most days, he was more tuned to my body than I was. Knowing what we were up against now, nothing would get past him.
 

  
“Erica, I’ve said this before, but we need a safe word. If you didn’t think we needed one before, I need you to have one now.”

  
I rolled my eyes.

  
“Think of it as giving me peace of mind too.”

  
“I’ll tell you when to stop. I always do,” I insisted.

  
“No. It’s harder to tell me to stop and explain why. All you need is one word, and that says it all. It tells me to stop. It tells me I’m pushing you too far, that your mind is screaming at you to tell me to stop enough to say it. We need one now, or we shouldn’t go any further tonight because I won’t risk pushing you. Not tonight.”

  
I sighed, unconvinced that we needed one, but if it meant that much to Blake, I’d relent. “What should it be? Just pick something.”

  
“You have to pick it. It’s your safe word. Pick a word that you won’t hesitate to say if I’m pushing you past your limits. I don’t intend to, but—”

  
“Limit.”

  
He raised his eyebrows.
 

  
“That’s it. I’ll say
limit
if you’re doing anything that I can’t handle.”
 

  
“Okay, that works.”

  
He seemed convinced. He released a breath, and the worry in his eyes subsided. I had no idea that choosing the word would give him so much reassurance, because I’d always thought of it differently. As if saying it meant I couldn’t take all he could give me, or that I was fully subscribing to the submissive role that I had slipped further into than I’d ever imagined.

  
Silence settled over us, an empty expanse that threatened our moment. I hooked my heel behind his thigh and pulled on his hand to coax him over me. Instead of settling between my legs, he lay beside me. I turned into his body, bringing us flush. Both our heads on the pillows, we stared into each other.

  
“I want this,” I whispered. “Please don’t let me ruin this or scare you off.”

  
“Tell me exactly what you want.”

  
“I want you to make love to me, Blake, and never stop. For the rest of our lives, I want love in our bed. Nothing can come between us like this again, no matter what.”
 

  
Before he could respond, I kissed him. It was a kiss full of frustration and determination and more than anything, love. Our love was what could pull us through this. He met my passion, angling me how he wanted me. We breathed each other’s air and drank each other until the seconds turned into minutes. Until my lips were tender and swollen. The heat between us had made our skin sweat. My hesitations weren’t gone, but they were far in the background. I circled the hard thickness of his erection between us, stroking him to the tip.
 

  
He groaned, arching his hips upwards into my grasp. I slid to the base and back to the tip, pumping him gently.
 

  
“This is what I want. Come here.”
 

  
I pulled his hip toward me and rolled to my back. He moved with grace, hovering over me, but we barely touched. Hands on either side of my head, he lowered. The heat of our bodies met. He kissed my shoulder and nuzzled into my neck.
 

  
“Put me inside you.”

  
Trembling slightly, I found the hot flesh of his cock again and guided him to me until the head barely penetrated me. I pulled again at his hip and arched, signaling him to push into me. Inch by inch, he slid inside with no hint of resistance from my body.
 

  
“Oh my God.” My eyes rolled back, a wave of relief and pleasure flooding me. Every cell in my body seemed to sigh, because he was with me again, where he should have been all this time. This unbearable chasm between us had finally been breached, and nothing had ever felt more right.
 

  
“Look at me,” he whispered.
 

  
When I opened my eyes, Blake’s were dark, hooded with lust. But the usual intensity that could barely be reined in had somehow been subdued behind his concern for me. He’d rooted in me, nestling there until I spoke.
 

  
“You feel amazing, Blake.” My voice wavered, thick with emotion. “I feel like I could come already, but I want this to last.”
 

  
He released his breath, rocking into me gently but not thrusting fully.
 

  
“You know I’m not opposed to making you come as much as you want. No need to hold back.”
 

  
I smiled and wrapped my legs around his waist. Gripping his hips between my thighs, I coaxed him to push into me again. He did, again and again, each movement a little more sure, each press of our bodies unwinding me and washing away every thought that could haunt me in the midst of this perfect moment.
 

  
We loved that way, without words, his motions guided only by my own. We were in tune, as if his body heard me. With every surge of our bodies meeting, the fire inside me grew. I rushed my hands over his skin, wishing I could hurry his movements to sate this consuming hunger but loving the slow climb. The flame was no less intense, and the need to come no less potent.
 

  
“Tell me when you’re going to come. Tell me what you need.”

  
The desperation of his voice, his breath against my neck pushed me to the edge.
       

  
“Oh, God. Now... I’m coming now.”
 

  
The flash of heat rushed over me as the orgasm took hold. I marked his skin with my nails when I needed more. I crushed down around him, creating an acute friction between us. He drove deeper, pushing me to that oblivion where no one else had ever taken me.
 

  
“Erica...”
 

  
Over the pounding in my heart, I heard the question in his voice. He wanted to know I was with him, that we were okay to let go. He didn’t need to be so careful. I was mindless now, immune to the terrors when we were this close to rapture.
 

  
“I love you. I love you so much,” I whimpered, tears forming in the corners of my eyes. Everything was incredibly right now, finally. The words left my lips again and again.

  
He took my hand in his, pressing it into the bed above my head. With the other, he gripped my hip and lifted me off the bed. He drove hard, and I cried out. The pleasure vibrated through me, soaring right over the climax that already had me breathless and weak.
 

  
“No one can take this away from us,” he rasped, surging into me. He stole my next breath with a devouring kiss. Tightening his grasp where he held me, he came.
 

  
* * *

  
I opened an eye to daylight peeking in through the window. Another morning greeted us, and with one glance at the clock, I decided it was time to get moving. Blake’s warm body curled behind me. Half the pillows had made their way to the floor. The sheets tangled around us. When I went to rise, he moaned, tugging me back so I was locked against his muscular chest.
 

  
“It’s getting late. We should get up.”

  
“Don’t care,” he mumbled, nuzzling into my hair. “You’re too pretty to leave.”

  
I smiled. My heart swelled, and I relaxed into his embrace. He caressed a soft path down my arms, down the tops of my thighs, and back up to the jut of my hips. He caught me there and shifted me back. Enough that our bodies were molded together. Enough to feel how hard he was. The fact wasn’t surprising, but it did threaten my ability to get to work on time.
 

  
We’d had an amazing night, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Not just the sex, which as always left me nothing short of boneless and satisfied in the most wonderful ways. But we’d broken through a barrier, and we’d done it together. I refused to let my past keep us apart, and we trusted each other enough to rise above the fears it had planted in both of us.
 

  
Something had changed between us over these past few weeks. Over all the push and pull, the snags in the road, we were learning to move forward together. Sometimes we were out of step and stumbled, but we were finding a new kind of rhythm. Every time we trusted each other, we moved with a little more grace.
 

  
The way Blake had made love to me last night had embodied that grace, and I couldn’t have been any more relieved and fulfilled. I squeezed the arm that hugged around my waist, unable and unwilling to resist.
 

  
He made his way to my shoulder, raining kisses over my back and up to my neck. There his tongue darted out, licking and sucking gently at the sensitive skin. I closed my eyes and arched back into him before I even realized what I was doing. Encouraging him, leading us down a path I had no hope of turning away from.
 

  
I caught his hand and guided him to my front, down toward the V between my thighs. He stopped before he could touch me where I wanted him to, and I didn’t have the strength to push him any further.

  
“Touch me. It’s okay.”

  
“You sure?” His voice was rough from sleep, making it all the more sexy as he released the muscle that was keeping him away.

  
“I’m sure,” I said.
 

  
Slowly he lowered his touch until he reached my pussy. With tentative strokes, he teased my clit. I added pressure to his fingers, urging him, even more sure that we were fine and this was absolutely what I wanted. Slowly and then more rapidly he moved over me until I could hear the wet sounds of his motions. A soft moan escaped my lips. Tension rippled through my core, the part of me that wanted to be filled.
 

  
Behind me, Blake lifted up to his elbow. He curled my hair around his hand and gave it a soft tug. I arched my neck, exposed as he continued his assault. His breath tickled my sensitive skin as he sucked and licked, and nibbled.
 

  
“Blake,” I whimpered. I pushed back against the heat of his erection.
 

  
“Something you want?” He kissed along the line of my jaw and behind my ear, his diabolical fingers working their magic over my clit.
 

  
“Yes.”

  
He left my clit to rub his cock against my entrance, teasing me. Against every instinct, I resisted the urge to push into him, to take him inside me all at once. He’d call me greedy, because I was. I wanted all of him, and I hated to wait for it.

  
If that wasn’t enough, he gripped tightly at my hip, securing me in place, ensuring that I’d move only when he wanted me to. My skin burned under his dominant touch.

  
“Tell me what I like to hear, and I’ll give you what you want.”

  
“Fuck me, Blake. Make me yours.”

  
“Ah, I love your dirty mouth,” he murmured before pushing in a bare inch. “Do you have any idea what it does to my cock when you beg me to fuck you?”

  
I fisted my hand in the sheets. Already my longing was razor-sharp. He thrust in and out that small, maddening amount. Patiently I waited for more. Then he rolled his hips with a short thrust and pressed deeper. I gasped at the sensation of his small reward.
 

  
“I love you, Blake. Please...please.”

  
“You have no idea how much I love hearing you tell me.”

  
Still he took his time, sinking into me inch by inch, driving me wild with the need to be fucked. His grip tightened and released. Then, without warning, he released me. His palm found contact with my ass a second later. I cried out, clenching helplessly around his cock, warmth rocketing through my limbs.