The Cornerstone (11 page)

There was a second where I nearly lost my balance, where I almost dropped all the balls I was juggling. That tiny drop of decency from him threatened to bring me down right here, and I was this close to sobbing in his lap.

I was lucky; I had incredible therapists who helped me escape the mental stranglehold of my father’s abuse. They taught me to conquer the degradation and crippling powerlessness, and they made me believe that I deserved a healthy sex life. It required years of reminding myself that sex wasn’t dirty or wrong, and there was no shame in wanting it, either.

That didn’t mean the paralyzing fear never paid me a visit. It stayed in the background, always reminding me to protect myself.

Until Will told me I was safe with him.

“Use your words, peanut. I know you have them.”

I fought my way back from that dark corner of my mind to focus on the heat of his cock against my belly, the security of his arms, the desire throbbing in my veins. He was right; I had the words now, and with those words, I was always in control.

Even when I let him take charge.

Pumping his cock twice, I shifted and sank down over him. “Yes.” My head lolled back on my shoulders and I released a deep, starved moan that had been burning for the satisfaction of feeling Will seated inside me again. “This.” My nails raked over his scalp and fisted around his hair, jerking his head back. “You.”

Will’s eyes drifted shut as I started rocking into him. His hands found my waist and held me, letting me take everything I needed.

“I hope you’re enjoying this,” he said on a shuddering breath.

“Not going to last?” I asked.

“All right, peanut, that’s it,” he murmured, his palm connecting low on my ass.

The moment I was about to grind into him, he lifted me off his lap and tossed me on the bed. I landed in a contorted pile of girl, my body folded in the least sexy pose imaginable, my hair sliding from its tie, and my head buried between a stack of pillows. Before I could right myself or hit Will with a bitchy comeback, he yanked the blankets and sheets out from under me. He spanked my ass
hard
, flipped me over, and anchored my hands above my head.

“You’re done talking. You’re done thinking. Close your eyes and shut it all down.” His other hand trailed down my inner thigh, and with one quick movement, he slapped my pussy.
Slapped.
“I’m the boss here.”

Oh.

Yes. Yes he was.

WILL

Fifteen months ago

R
egardless of which
country or time zone I was in, I woke up with the dawn. It was a habit that annoyed the shit out of me when I was on leave, but today was different.

Today I opened my eyes and found Shannon’s head on my chest, her hair spilling over her shoulders and her lips pursed in the sexiest pout I’d ever seen.

Spending the night with her wasn’t part of the plan. Neither was fucking her again. Hell…I didn’t even think I’d see her. It was within the range of possibilities when I’d landed in Boston, but I figured she’d have her hands full disemboweling slow-talkers or castrating banker boys or hosting a regatta gala. Why would I expect Shannon to show up at my sister’s place on a Thursday night when she could be out serving up verbal gut punches to her minions?

Yeah, I was going to keep telling myself that. It was pure coincidence.

But then she stepped onto the terrace last night, shot me one of those looks intended to fry testicles, and the bell sounded for round two. Nothing could stop us from going hard at each other, even with her brother and my sister as an audience.

Waiting for her outside the bathroom made all this about much more than fighting words. It made this tangible, and I knew where it would go from there…but I wasn’t letting that comment about submission go down easy.

I didn’t care whether she had the world by the short hairs. She didn’t scare me with her balls-out attitude or her cobra venom glares. If anything, that shit turned me all the way on. I’d spent the better portion of last night with one of my sister’s lime green cloth napkins over my lap because my belt was strangling my dick.

By the time I made it to Shannon’s apartment, I was ready to throw the fuck down.

None of this was part of the plan. This was supposed to be an easy weekend, some time to unwind before leading a string of training ops. A quick visit to keep an eye on my sister’s new husband followed by lots of beer, surfing, and sleep. That sequence of events didn’t involve bullshitting with a doorman, picking a lock, or watching Shannon put a showerhead to work.

I’d spent a solid minute with my jaw on the ground, and another five convincing myself to keep my pants on. Only the structured brutality of football was enough to stop me from getting into that shower and giving her what she needed.

Instead, I wanted Shannon to come to me.

I thought about leaving after she fell asleep last night. I wasn’t the guy who stayed over, but there never came a point when it felt like we were finished. Every time I got her off, I was thinking about what I wanted to do to her next.

Right now, I wanted to grab her ass and go back to sleep. I was in no rush to leave this bed.

Hours later, I stirred when Shannon murmured something incoherent and rested her hand an inch from my dick. He was a good sailor and snapped to attention, lengthening and twitching and just fucking desperate for her touch.

A part of me knew it would always be that way.

I rolled Shannon off my chest and positioned myself between her legs. She tasted different after a night of rowdy sex, and I liked that shit. It was a wicked kind of heaven. Her hips stirred as my tongue circled her clit, thrusting against me as her body found its natural rhythm. A raw moan slipped from her lips, and I glanced up to see her watching me with sleepy eyes and a rosy flush on her cheeks.

It was a good look on her.

I licked and sucked until she came against my tongue, then I pushed inside her and we rocked together, slow and gentle and the complete opposite of everything we did last night. No demands, no spanking, no swearing. Just sighs and hums and the subtle language of bodies that understood each other.

It didn’t matter that we hated each other. My cock craved this little spitfire.

We stayed tangled together, kissing and stroking while morning light filled Shannon’s bedroom. I was half hard again and fully convinced that I wanted
this
for the next four days. Beer, surfing…they could wait.

“Mmmm, that was nice,” she purred, stretching beneath me. She glanced at the clock and groaned. “Fuck, it’s late. Time to get up. Busy day. I’m going to shower first, and then you can hop in.”

She wiggled out from underneath me, tossed the sheets off, and sat up, and if there was any doubt about whether I was a greedy prick, it was put to rest when I wrapped my arm around her waist and hauled her back. “That won’t be happening.”

I trapped her on the mattress with my legs on either side of her torso and my cock between her breasts. With my hand fisted around my shaft, I dragged myself over her nipples, and those sweet little peaks perked up for me. A thin streak of fluid painted her skin. “You’re staying right there.”

“You’re cute. This is really charming, the whole jerk off on my tits and brand me with your spunk routine,” she said, a disapproving look aimed at my dick. “But I have to work today, and you’re not on the short list of people from whom I take orders.”

“You took plenty of orders from me last night,” I said. I kept stroking, slower now but much, much harder.

“Will,” she sighed. “Seriously. I have appointments. My brothers are going to wonder where I am.”

“Your brothers have already taken off for the weekend.” I pulled her hand away from twisting in her hair and placed it on my cock. She threw a sour scowl in my direction but immediately caressed me like she was trying to prove a point. “Yeah, I got the whole rundown from Matt last night,” I said, groaning. “You’re the only one punching in today, peanut.”

I knew what I was doing when I tailed Shannon home and convinced her doorman I was one of her brothers last night, and I knew what I was doing right now.

I wanted her all to myself.

And this didn’t require analysis. I mean, fuck…after three years of near-continuous deployment, wasn’t I
supposed
to drown myself in pussy? It was probably listed in the Navy’s official Rest and Recuperation Policy as a suggested activity.

Visiting loved ones, hunting and fishing, comfort food, consensual sex.

But I couldn’t blame this on post-deployment horny anymore. The past three months hardly qualified, considering they were spent in the scorched Nevada desert, teaching a team of rookie SEALs how to survive the dry heat.

This was—oh, hell, her fingers were fucking incredible—this was too complicated to figure out right now. My only priority was hidden somewhere between prolonging this as much as possible and exploding
right this second
. “I’m leaving for Montauk this afternoon. Come with me.”

She stared at me, her brow furrowed and a frown pulling at her lips. “What? Why?”

Her hand stilled, and I covered it with mine, urging her to continue.

“I have a buddy who has a house there. He’s away for the weekend,” I added.

I could handle her saying no, but I could also throw her over my shoulder and kidnap her. It wasn’t like her kicking and screaming didn’t turn me on.

“Why?” she repeated. Our hands were moving together, fast and firm.

“Don’t you ever want to disappear? Leave this all behind for a few days?”

I didn’t know where those questions came from, but they were the right ones. She blinked at me twice, that fierce poker face dissolving, and I saw the same flash of vulnerability I’d seen months ago. Her eyes shifted to her phone—the one that didn’t stop vibrating and chiming all damn night—and her teeth sank into her bottom lip. There were instances when she dropped the bitch boss act, and even though the bitch boss was hot as hell, the real Shannon was addictive. I couldn’t get a taste of her like this without wanting it again.

Something snapped inside me, and those hot, prickly sensations clawed their way down my spine. I couldn’t even choke out the words to tell her I was coming.

Gripping her velvet-upholstered headboard for support, I groaned and panted until my eyes were capable of focusing again. I couldn’t look down yet. I couldn’t see my seed splashed over her creamy skin and not spend the rest of the day worshipping her sassy little ass.

Shannon’s phone skittered across the bedside table, singing with alerts for a minute straight. Snatching it up, I keyed in her password and powered down the device. “You’re not turning that thing on again until Tuesday.”

“How did you unlock my phone?” she snapped, trying to tear it away from me. I held it out of her reach and tossed it under the bed.

“Commando tactic,” I said, scooping her up and marching toward the shower. “We’re leaving in half an hour. Don’t pack any underwear.”

*

“I would like
my phone back,” Shannon said, her voice cold and shrill. “Now.”

I admired how hard she worked at that attitude. She put everything into being pissed off, and it made me want to throw her up against any of the cars in this underground garage and fuck her while she insulted me.

“Not happening,” I murmured.

“Motherfucking meathead,” she huffed, stomping away.

“Could you change that to lawyer-fucking meathead? I really prefer precise insults.”

It was a prime opportunity to study her ass in a tiny pair of yellow shorts. And those legs. Fuck me, those legs.

I was almost too preoccupied with the thick freckle clusters on her hamstrings to notice she’d opened a Range Rover’s rear gate and was busy piling her things inside. Stopping beside her, I grabbed the bags from her and stowed them myself.

“Hand over the keys, peanut,” I said while I tossed my backpack beside her brightly colored quilted bags. “Unless you’d like to see some more commando tactics.”

Shannon chucked the keys at my head, growling and murmuring to herself as she pivoted, marched to the passenger side, and flung the door open. She was still fuming when I settled beside her in the driver’s seat. She really wanted that phone.

“What?” I asked, gesturing to the car’s tricked-out interior. Why a little girl needed a badass SUV was beyond me. “No up-armored Humvees available?”

She crossed her legs and stared out the window. “You can suck my dick, William.”

Fuuuuuuck.
She made furious look too hot for words. I was ready to blow off Montauk and drag her upstairs for angry sex, but we’d agreed upon a disappearance. We both needed a reprieve from who we were every day, and we weren’t going to get that in the middle of her city.

“I would, Shannon,” I said, “if you didn’t have it shoved up my ass at the moment.”

She leaned back, tapping her finger against her lips, a predatory smile breaking across her face. “Hmm. I’ve heard your sister enjoys ass play too. Like,
really
enjoys it.”

My groan vibrated through the car and Shannon covered her mouth as evil giggles spilled out. “You didn’t fucking go there.”