Out of Control (Untamed #2) (5 page)

Something all Dare.

Being here in his arms again, even though I knew he would never have touched me like this consciously, made me miss him even more. It brought all that I’d lost front and center, giving fresh intensity to the gaping hole in my heart. I couldn’t stop the silent tears from slipping down my face as I lay there listening to him breathe, the pain of all that I’d never have again nearly splitting me in two.

I’d been so fucking stupid. How could I have let him go?

Why hadn’t I been stronger? Why didn’t I fight tooth and nail for us?

If anyone was worth sacrificing everything for, it was Dare.

I slowly turned my head so that I could glimpse his face. Three years had changed him. Made him rougher around the edges, even in deep sleep. But he was still Dare—arresting beauty of an art masterpiece and striking hardness of a sculpture.

My Dare.

How painful those two tiny words were to even think now that I was right in the middle of everything I so desperately needed and wanted in my life…and all that I no longer had. Not having him was the worst feeling in the world, like trying to exist without a vital organ.

My Dare wasn’t mine anymore.

I turned away again, and he shifted in place, his hand tightening around me. I reached down and slowly lifted it up. I stared at it for a moment, studying the length and thickness of his fingers, the lines of his palm. I’d always liked those hands, was easily mesmerized by them—especially when he sketched—and had once known the feel of them so well.

The faint smell of turpentine still clung to his skin as I brought his hand closer to my face and pressed my lips against his palm, breathing him in. At my touch he drew in a quick breath. I could feel his shoulders stiffen, his whole body going rigid.

Shit, shit, shit. I had not meant to wake him; I’d just wanted to bask in his nearness. I froze, anticipating the loss that was surely coming.

Was he going to pull away? Would he get up and move to the couch?

To my surprise, Dare didn’t remove his hand. He stayed as still as me, like he was waiting for my next move. So I opened my lips and slid my tongue along his palm, tasting him. He exhaled sharply and groaned. As I pressed another kiss to his hand, I could feel him hardening against my lower back. So I kissed him again. And again.

He moved then, leaning up on one arm and pulling my shoulder toward him so I was facing up. My heart raced and my head spun at the sight of him looking down at me. I opened my mouth to speak, but no sound came out. I was too afraid to say anything, too scared to break the spell. He just kept looking at me, searching my face, hungry want pulsing so clear in his eyes—the same want I felt deep within my soul.

Slowly, he reached out and trailed his fingers over my cheekbones and along my jawline as if making sure they were exactly how he remembered them. When he traced my lips, I parted them. His eyes were fixated on my mouth, his fingers just skimming the rim, driving me wild. The tip of his index finger slid toward my tongue and I closed my lips around it, sucking it deep into my mouth.

He grunted and lifted his gaze, his eyes scorching mine. Slipping his finger out of my mouth, he stared at my lips for a moment, then leaned down and crushed his mouth to mine with so much unbridled desire I saw stars behind my eyes.

And I met him. Just as eagerly.

His hand gripped my chin, keeping me locked to him while his tongue consumed me. Dare kissed me as if he were dying of thirst and I was life-giving water. He drank me in—hard and fast—and then drank some more.

And I drank him. Just as greedily.

He left my lips, kissed down my jawline to my neck, sending shivers over my whole body—the body that was waking up in places that had been dormant since the day he’d left. Pulses of pleasure shot through me, heating my skin and making me wet with want.

Still not saying a single word, he grabbed hold of the t-shirt I was wearing and ripped it right down the middle, exposing me to him. His mouth found my breasts, licked and kissed around them, getting maddeningly closer and closer to my nipples. When he finally claimed them, sucking, nipping, making me ache for him, I cried out and arched my back, rubbing my throbbing core against him.

I tugged on his shirt, needing to feel his skin against mine, needing to feel
all
of him. He yanked it over his head and threw it to the floor. Overwhelmed by the sight of him, I ran my hands over his chest and stomach, caressing every ridge of hard muscle. He watched me as I explored him, his eyes turning darker still. Feeling the familiarity of him under my hands was almost too much to handle. I lifted my hips to press against him again, and his gaze shot straight to my panties.

He sucked in a sharp breath and ran a hand down my stomach, his fingers skimming the lace as he leaned down and took one nipple into his mouth, and then the other, licking and teasing them into tight buds. Leaving my breasts, he kissed and bit his way down the center of my chest and stomach, then reached down with his other hand to pull my underwear off, tossing it down next to his shirt.

His kisses grew rougher and fiercer as he made his way along my inner thigh, lingered right above my ache without touching me, and trailed a path of kisses to the other. Then he did it again. And again. Almost like he was punishing me by purposefully depriving me of him. The next time he paused at my throbbing center, I wove my fingers into his dark hair and lifted myself up to his mouth. His tongue flicked out and licked me. Once. Twice. Three times. Then he lowered himself down, took me into his warm, wet mouth, and sucked.

And I became completely lost, totally absorbed by him. The rhythmic feel of his mouth on my clit sent electric bursts spreading out from my core, building up to a feverish charge that pulsed through my body. I was almost at the moment of bursting into flames when he pulled his mouth away, leaving me a raw, writhing mess, aching with so much want.

I looked up at him, pleading with my eyes for the release only he could give, but he’d gotten off the bed to pull a condom out of the bedside table. He slid out of his shorts, his erection so strained and huge it caused a whole new throb within me. Every muscle on his body was its own masterful work of art, so beautifully sculpted he almost seemed unreal. As unreal as what was happening right now in this room.

A small sigh of relief escaped me when he returned to my side. I didn’t want to be separated from him. Ever again. Dare was my answer to a three-year-long call, a fire that ignited feelings and emotions after a lifetime of cold, harsh nothingness. He wreaked havoc on my body, but soothed my mind and healed my soul.

I needed him. So fucking badly. And I wanted to make sure he knew it.

Before he had a chance to unwrap the condom, I reached for him, filling my hands with his hardness, running my lips over the hot, smooth velvet of his skin. Even in the dimness I could see his eyes flash dangerously, but he didn’t resist, allowed me to slide my tongue over him and take him into my mouth.

God, I’d forgotten how good he felt, how perfect he was.

I took him deeper into me, all the while keeping my gaze locked on his. His jaw tightened and his hands fisted at his sides as if trying to resist the urge to grip my hair and agitate the bump on my head. I rewarded his concern by licking and sucking faster, taking in as much of him as I could. His head fell back and he groaned, his hips starting to move with me.

But then he stopped suddenly, gripped my shoulders, digging his fingers in, and pushed me back onto the pillows.

My heart sank at the brutality, feeling the rejection to the depth of my soul until I heard the sound of ripping foil. One glance at Dare erased every worry and kicked my pulse up ten notches. He’d opened the condom packet with his teeth and rolled it on. Before I had a chance to make a move, he spread my legs wide and buried his hard length in me without hesitation. I cried out from both the pleasure and pain of being this close, this tight, this full of Dare.

He took hold of my hips with both hands and thrust into me over and over again, like a man possessed by need, completely out of control. I gasped at the feel of him, so hard and hot and deep inside of me.

Rolling his hips he pumped slowly once, twice, then groaned and began moving faster and harder like he couldn’t help his need for me, like he was functioning on raw, primal instinct. His eyes burned into me as he took me higher and higher, increasing the intensity of his movements.

It was almost as if all the caged emotions he held behind that deep, fathomless gaze erupted and engulfed him, shooting out of his body and into mine. In this moment, Dare possessed every part of me—all my senses and thoughts, every bit of my happiness and pain.

And he knew it.

His body melded with mine, his eyes imprisoned me, his mouth consumed me, his scent filled my nostrils, his sounds flooded my ears. Every thrust brought me closer and closer to the edge, until my body was tingling all over and about to burst forth with a vengeance that was three long years overdue.

Sensing my oncoming orgasm, Dare’s fingers threaded into my hair, his pace quickening to match the beat of my own sprinting heart. My hands gripped his back and my nails dug into his skin as he brought his mouth down on mine again, crushing and impatient, our tongues tasting each other as we climaxed together.

Little lights burst like fireworks on the backs of my eyelids as the orgasm rocked through me. My whole body tingled. From head to toe and everywhere in between. I hadn’t felt this alive in so long. And I’d NEVER been so wholly claimed and devoured by another person the way Dare consumed me.

Spent, he collapsed on top of me, breathing heavy, his body glistening with a slight sheen of sweat in the soft light that filtered through the window. I wrapped my arms and legs around him, not wanting to let go, but knowing that I’d eventually have to.

Our breathing calmed and Dare shifted. I reluctantly released him and he pushed himself up, pausing above me. I looked up to find his dark eyes boring into mine.

There it was again, that expression on his face that I didn’t know how to interpret. It was filled with years of unspoken…
everything
.

Anger. Hurt. Tension. Desire.

Neither of us spoke. Maybe, like me, he feared that words could break this maddening trance we were in. He got up, walked across the room to dispose of the condom, then came back and slid under the covers. I wasn’t sure which way to turn, whether he’d want to sleep alone on his side of the bed, but then he reached for me, pulling me into the crook of his body, skin to skin, and holding me tight against him.

I squeezed my eyes shut, but the tears slid out again.

Silent. Scared. And grateful.

When I finally relaxed into Dare again, we both drifted off to sleep.

six

T
he sun woke me, shining in through the window, filling Dare’s room with bright morning light. We hadn’t moved the rest of the night, and were still cuddled up together, his body so warm and alive against mine. I squeezed his arm, hugging it close to my chest, relishing the feel of his nakedness.

And I sighed, happy—truly happy for the first time in what felt like forever.

I was whole again here with Dare. Right. Complete.

He stirred behind me and I nestled in a little closer.

But then he stiffened. And my heart plummeted, fleeing my body entirely.

Without a single word, Dare pulled his arm out from around me and rolled away, sitting up at the edge of the bed. I turned to watch as he rubbed his hands over his face, then leaned down to pick up his jeans and quickly slid them on. He didn’t even spare a single glance my way.

I closed my eyes and shoved the pain in my now-empty chest away. Of course it was this way. Why would I expect anything else?

“You should get dressed and go,” he said from the doorway, one arm up on the frame, his back to me. “I have to work.”

I sat up, clutching the sheet to my body, feeling way too naked in the light of day. God. I hadn’t thought this through last night. At all. Staying here, waking up with him. Leaving.

I didn’t want to leave. But I couldn’t stay.

He didn’t want me anymore.

Fuck.

Dare didn’t turn around, like he couldn’t even bear the sight of me in his bed, and after a moment he started to walk away.

“But…” I said, not quite believing these words were coming out of my mouth. How many guys had said this to me? Karma was a vengeful bitch. “But…what about last night?” It was all I could do to not cringe. I was so fucking pathetic.

He turned and looked at me then, and I immediately wished he hadn’t. His face was emotionless, his eyes stony and uncaring.

“Last night?” He shook his head. “Last night was a mistake. It won’t happen again.”

The harsh words hit dead center, and I could feel the anger rise in my chest. I scrambled off the bed, the sheet barely wrapped around me, fuming.

“You know what? I didn’t ask for last night. I didn’t ask for your help. I’ll be out of your way in about five minutes.
Three
,” I said as I snatched my dress and panties up off the floor, “if you get out of the fucking doorway and let me get to the bathroom.”