Sinful Southern Hero: 2 (12 page)

“Well, you either think I’m too fragile, damaged, or you
simply don’t want me the way I want you,” Lucy said, knowing she was goading
him but feeling liberatingly unafraid.

Dalton leaned away from the wall, towering over Lucy and
causing her to bend backward to hold his heated gaze. His nostrils flared, his
breathing fast and shallow, he slipped his hands from her hips to the small of
her back and ground the hard line of his erection against her. “Tell me what
you want, Lucy.”

She swallowed hard. “You.”

He shook his head without taking his eyes off hers. “No, darlin’.”

Her heart sped to bursting. The flush in her cheeks began to
drain away with all the confidence she’d mustered. He didn’t want her. She slid
her gaze away from his piercing stare and focused on a point over his shoulder.

One hand stayed at the small of her back while the other
traveled up to cup her chin and force her focus back to Dalton’s face. Lucy
wanted to disappear. Drop right through the floor and fade away. Preferably
before he said something more terrible than “no”. Like, “let’s be friends.”

“Look at me, Darlin’.”

With reluctant slowness, she met his gaze, shocked to find
no pity staring back at her. Desire alone shone bright within Dalton’s navy
eyes.

“Tell me what you want. Exactly. Tell me exactly what you
want me to do to you or I’ll do nothing at all. I want to hear you say the
words, Lucy. I need to hear you say them before I touch you the way I’ve been
dying to since the day you walked into Hart’s Ink for the first time.”

Lucy felt blood rush back into her cheeks as she blushed.
She’d never talked dirty and didn’t know if she could say aloud all the private
things she wanted to experience with Dalton. “I…” Nervousness and embarrassment
made her mouth close before she could do as he asked.

Running a gentle touch over the side of her neck, Dalton
must have sensed the reason for her silence. Placing his warm lips against her
ear, he whispered, “Do you want me to slide my hand inside your jeans, rub my
thumb against your hard clit while I fuck you with my fingers until you come
screaming my name?” He nodded to one of his chairs. “Or maybe you’d like me to
sit on one of those chairs, push my jeans down to my thighs and stroke my cock
while I watch you undress before you straddle my lap and I feed every inch of
my cock inside you.”

A moan escaped Lucy’s throat and she decided to throw
caution, modesty and embarrassment out the window. She knew exactly what she
wanted and all she had to do to get it was say the words. This, she could do.

Dalton knew he should put a stop to this before it went too
far, but two weeks’ worth of nights with Lucy’s soft body tucked against his,
in his damn bed, had pushed him to the breaking point. He watched her breath
quicken and her eyes go wide as she struggled to say the words he’d demanded of
her.

Fuck, but this was what he needed, what he craved. A power
exchange, push and pull, dominance and submission. He’d been an idiot to think
Lucy couldn’t satisfy this dark part of him. With Lucy, it wasn’t about the
stinging edge of pain, though he hoped to introduce her to the fine edge between
it and pleasure. No, he wanted this woman’s absolute trust. Dalton knew the
courage it would take for Lucy to offer her sweet submission, to drop her
guards and give herself to him in this way. Suddenly, being worthy of this gift
was the most important thing in the world.

The first step would be to get Lucy to speak the words he
instinctively knew she’d never spoken aloud. With the words, she would show her
trust in Dalton. Trust that he would give her what she needed, tend to her,
coax and steady her while she stepped outside her comfort zone.

He carefully straightened and stepped away from her. Not
because he intended to walk away if she didn’t do as he asked, but to give her
room to make her choice. He almost couldn’t hear her quiet words.

“I want you to touch me, Dalton.” Her eyes shone with a
wildness Dalton yearned to capture.

“Where?”

Lucy held his gaze while reaching for his hand. She closed
the space he’d put between them and pressed his hand to her breast. “Here.” Her
heartbeat pounded a rapid rhythm beneath their palms. She used her hand to
guide his down the length of her torso to the apex of her thighs. “And here.”

Dalton pressed the heel of his hand firmly against her mound
and groaned at the heat and dampness he could feel even through her jeans.
Lucy’s eyes slid closed, her head tipped back, she pressed her hand against the
back of his and rocked her hips against the pressure.

Seeing her like this, feeling her small touch guiding him in
her pleasure, nearly unmanned him. She hadn’t actually spoken any direct
request, hadn’t used the dirty language he couldn’t wait to hear spill from her
lips, but it was enough for now. Still…

“Are you sure about this? I’m not an easy lover, darlin’.
What happens between us, it won’t be quiet, in the dark, under the covers.”

He watched, glad to see Lucy hesitate before giving her
answer. She wasn’t too far gone with lust she couldn’t think this through and
give an honest answer. Glad or not, he held his breath while he waited.

“I’ll be honest and say I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to
handle whips or spankings or anything crazy. I have a slight aversion to being
struck.” She huffed a self-deprecating laugh which made Dalton want to gather
her in a hug and soothe away the memories. “But I want this, whatever we have
between us. More than that, I trust you enough to know you’ll never harm me or
force me to do anything I don’t really want.”

Something clenched in Dalton’s chest and a feeling he didn’t
know he was capable of flashed through him like a lava flow. With her cautious
words, she’d just sealed his fate.
Fuck.
He’d gone and fallen in love
with the curly-haired nymph. A grin broke across his lips and he watched with
fascination as an answering smile sparked on Lucy’s, tentative at first then
growing to match his own.

“Ah, Lucy, you’ve just bought yourself a whole mess of
trouble.” He waggled his eyebrows as he stalked forward, nudging her backward
toward the sofa.

An indelicate snort was Lucy’s response. “Yes. Trouble with
a capital ‘D’.”

“You’ve no idea, darlin’. But you’re about to find out.”
Dalton swooped down and captured her lips in a kiss full of desperate need and
possessive heat. He nibbled her lower lip before thrusting his tongue inside
her welcoming mouth. Her nails dug into his shoulders enough for him to feel
the sting and his cock responded by twitching against the confines of his
jeans.

Pulling back, he held Lucy at arm’s length when she would
have swayed forward. She looked a bit dazed and stared at him as if mesmerized
while he removed his shirt and popped the button on his jeans. He hesitated
with his fingers clasping the zipper before dropping both hands to his sides. “Set
me free, Lucy.”

She licked her swollen lips and he almost asked her to drop
to her knees right then. Dalton clenched his hands into fists at the first
contact of her trembling hands on the front of his pants. They both watched
with rapt attention as she lowered the zipper tine by tine. The metallic sound
seemed overly loud, the room otherwise silent except for their labored breaths.

With growing confidence, she pushed his pants down until
they rested on his thighs, paused for only a moment, then hooked her slim
fingers into the waistband of his boxer-briefs. After tugging the elastic band
up and over the straining tip of his erection, she swiftly guided the material
down to rest atop his jeans as his shaft sprang free. He heard her gasp and
hoped it was one of pleasure.

Before Dalton could take control of the situation, Lucy
dropped to her knees with a look of wonder on her flushed face. “Oh, my,” she
breathed, reaching out to trace the silver balls at either end of the barbell
piercing his cock just beneath the head. “I’ve never… This is…”

Her warm breath caressed his aching flesh and he could stand
no more. Wrapping a fist around his length, his voice deep, he said, “Open.”

Lucy snapped her eyes to his face as if startled, then,
without taking her eyes off of him, she parted her plump lips.

A shudder stole through Dalton and before he could stop
himself, he’d fisted his free hand in her hair and guided the head of his cock
into her mouth with the other. She rolled her tongue over the tip, exploring
the slit then moving to probe his piercing.
Sweet baby Jesus!

Dalton used the grip on her hair to pull her tempting mouth
away from him before he came like some inexperienced teenager. His voice
sounded harsh but he couldn’t help it as he pulled her to her feet. “Take off
your clothes, Lucy.”

He pumped his fist up and down his shaft in a slow rhythm
while he waited for her to comply. Lucy looked around the room, worrying her
bottom lip between her teeth while studying the windows—the blinds were drawn
over but still allowed quite a bit of sunlight through. It looked like she
might protest getting stark naked in his living room in the unforgiving light
of day, then her gaze landed on the action of his hand. The head of his cock
was a deep red and slick with excitement as his fist squeezed and worked the
length.

He chuckled as he watched her strip in what must’ve been
record time. A curse spilled from her lips as she hopped on one foot,
struggling to remove a clinging sock. Her red-blond curls surrounded her face
in wild abandon, her breasts heaved with each breath and her soft belly
trembled as she stood naked before him. Timid but determined, Lucy Ellingsworth
was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

Dalton grasped her hand and drew her with him until he was
sitting on the sofa, then urged her to straddle him. He traced the moth tattoo
on her thigh before taking time to study every exposed inch of her.

“Dalton…” Lucy wrapped her arms over her chest, trying to
shield herself from his study.

He shook his head and forced her hands to rest on her
thighs. “Let me see you, darlin’.”

Small circular scars dotted her delicate skin in a line that
began between her breasts and continued until it reached her belly button. Rage
boiled within him and he worked hard to tamp it down, wanting this moment to be
perfect for Lucy and unmarred by that bastard Ross. Dalton knew what those
small round marks meant. Lucy had been burned, repeatedly, treated like an
ashtray instead of being given the love and respect she deserved.

He wanted to inventory every last scar Ross had left on her
beautiful body and make her tell him exactly how and when each injury had been
dealt. Now, however, was not the time. Instead, he cupped her heavy breasts and
thumbed the tips until they were hard and wanting.

With his tongue, Dalton teased and licked and suckled until
Lucy writhed on his lap, panting and begging for more. Her hands clasped either
side of his head while he worked her breasts. Wet heat slid insistently against
his cock. It took a bit of persistence and creative maneuvering but he was able
to retrieve a condom from his wallet without removing Lucy from his lap or
removing his mouth from her nipple.

Dalton sat back, blowing a breath across the wet peaks of
Lucy’s breasts. He used his teeth to rip open the condom package then held the
rubber circle between them. “Put it on me.”

Lucy looked a bit uncertain but took the condom and set to
the task, albeit with excruciating slowness, of rolling it over his throbbing
cock. Once it was in place, she rose onto her knees and locked her eyes on his
as she placed the head of his shaft at her entrance. They both drew in sharp breaths
at the first contact.

Dalton gripped her hips, holding her aloft and keeping her
from sliding down the length of his cock. With a tenderness he’d never
displayed, he took her mouth in a melting kiss meant to give her the love and
encouragement he dared not speak aloud.

Moving from her mouth to her jaw, then spreading kisses down
her neck, he kept her restless hips from impaling her on him. When he closed
his mouth around her nipple once more, she panted, “Please, Dalton. Please.”

He sucked the bud between his teeth, flicking it with his
tongue while she wriggled and writhed her wet heat over the tip of his cock.
With a grip he knew would probably leave marks on her hips, he pulled her down,
sliding the head of his cock inside. He felt her walls spasm at the invasion
just as he bit down on her nipple with enough force to administer a small
amount of sensual pain. She moaned, her entrance slick with lust, as Dalton
pulled her hips down and slammed his cock upward until he was fully seated.

Knowing he wouldn’t last long, he released her nipple and
tucked his head into the curve of her neck while settling a thumb against the
hard bud of her clit. Mindless with pleasure, Lucy moved atop him with a skill
he hadn’t anticipated. She tightened around him, her back arching, thighs
squeezing, and broke apart just as his balls drew up and he too exploded with
release.

Lucy shook against him as he wrapped his arms around her,
gathering her to his chest.

The house phone rang, startling them. When she tried to pull
away, Dalton kept her snug against his chest and seated on his lap. He hadn’t
even bothered to pull out of her yet. Whoever was calling could just fucking
leave a message. The answering machine kicked on and Jed’s gravelly voice
echoed through the house.

“Tried your cells, y’all didn’t answer. Better get your ass
over here, man. Lucy’s parents are at the shop lookin’ for her and I smell
trouble.”

* * * * *

Lucy drew in a sharp breath as her heart sped into an
erratic rhythm having nothing to do with the incredible orgasm she’d just
experienced.
My parents? Here? Shit. Shit. Shit. Oh, God. What if Ross is
with them? I have to get away. Get away before he finds me and hurts me. Or
worse, he could hurt Dalton.

She twisted within Dalton’s grasp, her gaze flying over the
room, searching for her clothing. She tried to scramble off of his lap but
Dalton held fast. “Let me go. I have to get out of here. My parents… You don’t
understand. They’ll have me committed, locked inside some psych ward like a
prisoner if that’s what Ross convinces them is ‘best’ for me.”

Lucy knew her wide eyes, panicked expression and naked
struggling weren’t the best behaviors to showcase her sanity but having her
parents in town, looking for her, triggered her flight response and there was
no stopping it. She pushed against Dalton’s chest but his grip was solid.
Though his eyes blazed with emotion, he outwardly remained calm despite the wiggling,
naked woman on his lap. He wasn’t getting it. She had to
run
. Why
wouldn’t he let her go?

Then, the oddest thing happened.

Dalton’s lips twitched and a smile began to draw up the
corners. The act was so out of context, out of sync with her feelings at the
moment, it stilled Lucy’s struggles. She watched in wonder as his chest began
to shake and husky laughter erupted from the mouth which had so recently been wrapped
around her tender nipples.

“Why are you laughing?” She slapped his shoulder without worry
of retaliation. “This isn’t funny. My parents actually think I’m crazy. They
think I hurt myself for attention. They drove all the way down here from
Cincinnati and I guarantee it’s not because they’ve come to their senses and
want to apologize over scones and tea.”

Another burst of laughter filled the room. Lucy glared.

“
Scones and tea
? Where the hell did that come from?
Did you forget to mention your mother is the Queen of England?”

Lucy bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. Now
was not the time for grins and giggles. At least it wasn’t until Dalton messed
it all up with his damned levity. “This is serious, Dalton. I never told them
where I was moving and I didn’t leave a forwarding address. I pay Abigail and
Jed in cash for the office space and use a post office box two towns over for
my mailing address. Ross had to have told them where to find me. He’s up to
something and they’re going right along for the ride like they always do.”

Dalton’s smile faded and though it had irritated her only a
second before, now she wanted it back. He cupped the side of Lucy’s face with
one hand, the rough surface of his palm and fingers helping to ground her in
the present. She searched his gaze and hoped she could absorb even a tiny
amount of the quiet strength she found there.