Three Little Words (13 page)

            I wasn’t the only one who’d changed. Two and a half years ago, Mal would never have been demanding, would never have been so in charge of his own sexuality.

            I’d never known, but there was control in surrender. And looking at his fingers wrapped around his own cock was hotter than hell.

            With fingers hooked in the elastic, I slowly lowered my spandex skating shorts to my knees, then let them fall the rest of the way. I heard Mal’s sharp exhalation of breath as I stepped out of them, then moved towards the bed.

            I’d been naked underneath those shorts, which meant that I was entirely naked now. Naked and bared to him.

            “You’re the most beautiful woman in the world.” Releasing his cock, Mal held out both hands for me as I approached the bed. I took them, climbed up onto the mattress so that I straddled his hips, and felt an answering surge of wetness in my pussy.

            I didn’t know what this was between us, or where it was going to go. But in that moment, I knew that he spoke the truth as he saw it.

            “What do you want to do?” His fingers twined with mine, then released when I edged his T-shirt up. He stripped it off for me, then placed his hands on my hips, his thumbs rubbing over the sensitive skin in small circles in a way that drove me wild.

            “I want you. All of you.” I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted anything in my life. Straddling him while I was so naked and open, having him look at me like that, made me want to feel him thrusting inside of me with a ferocity that made me ache.

            But when my hands found the waistband of his jeans and tried to pull them down, he clasped his fingers around my wrists and stopped me.

            “We have all the time in the world. So let’s try this instead.” He again clasped me by my hips, but this time he gripped me, his fingers digging in lightly.

            With sure hands and strong arms—God, when had he gotten those arms?—he lowered me until the length of his cock was nestled lengthwise through my slick, hot folds.

            “Oh.” The feel of skin against skin, of his hardness right where I wanted it most, had me rocking my pelvis forward, sliding along his length without him actually being inside of me. “Oh, God.”

            “Yes.” Taking his glasses off and dropping them off the side of the bed, Mal looked up at me and smiled, slow and serious. “You’re in control, Adele. Always in control. Move how you want to. Use me.”

            I almost came from his words alone. Who was this confident, masterful, sexy as hell man between my thighs?

            I wanted to sink down onto him and never let him go.

            “Don’t you want to...” My voice trailed off. I couldn’t say the words.

            “Oh, I do.” Mal assured me, and to show me how much he wanted me, he thrust his pelvis up, which made his cock slide through my folds again. The head of his erection pressed against my clit, then released, and I cried out at how good it felt.

            “I want to lay you down on this bed, hook your legs over my shoulders, and lick you dry.” He thrust again, and my thighs trembled. “I want to drink you down when you come in my mouth. I want to lick and kiss every inch of this tight little body. I want to spread your thighs as wide as they’ll go and fuck you until you scream my name. I want to slide my finger into your ass and feel it contract as I spill inside of your tight pussy.”

            “Jesus, Mal.” My entire body spasmed at the erotic picture his words created. Without consciously thinking about it, I found myself sliding my naked pussy against his rock solid erection, pressing my clit against the steel shaft, giving soft cries of pleasure with every jolt of sensation.

            “There will be time for all of that later.” One of the hands that had clasped my hips slid up my torso, skated over the side of my breast, then palmed the heavy weight. Sure fingers caught my sensitive nipple, rolled the hot, tight bud, and I felt a streak of pleasure all the way down through my womb.

            “Right now is all about you.” Mal’s voice was husky with need, and if I’d had any doubt about how much he wanted me, it was erased with every stroke of my pussy over his shaft, which continued, impossibly continued, to thicken and harden between my thighs.

            Bending to brace my hands on his chest, I upped the pace, his flesh unyielding against the tight bundle of nerves that was my clit. Later, I thought, later I would explore this hard, wide chest, the flat planes of his belly, the sexy hipbones. Later I’d sink my teeth into arms so strong I couldn’t help but feel safe in them.

            Right now I could feel myself careening towards a climax I’d never thought I’d feel again.

            And I wanted it. I was greedy, and I was going to take it.

            My thighs tightened on either side of Mal’s hips, and I began to tremble.

            “That’s it, baby.” He’d never talked dirty to me before, and I fucking loved this surprise side of him. “Rub yourself against my cock. I want to watch you come. Want to hear it.”

            By that point I couldn’t have stopped it. I moved frantically back and forth, my hips rocking down, as I sought that pressure of his hard cock against my clit. Feeling the way he swelled beneath me, hearing the grunts and sharp exhalations he gave, were my undoing.

            When I cried out, pressing down hard against the head of his cock, my back bowing and my breasts jiggling with the movement, I saw him grind his teeth together and fist his hands in the sheets in an attempt to restrain himself.

            I couldn’t believe he was doing this for me, just for me, and that was what made me shatter. I cried out, my voice echoing throughout the small room, as the searing heat of my first climax in two years took me over.

            As my shudders began to subside, I watched through heavy eyes as Mal untangled his fingers from the sheets and clasped me by my waist. When he moved to lift me off, I protested.

            “You haven’t come yet.” I was tired in the aftermath, but my body felt alive. “I want to give you what you gave me.” To demonstrate, I squeezed my thighs together.

            “Adele!” Mal’s groan was loud and harsh, like I was hurting him, and I slid slowly down the length of him. My flesh was so sensitive from my own release that the movement almost hurt, but it was a hurt so good kind of feeling.

            He thrust up against me once, twice, and then with a sound like he’d been stabbed, Mal bodily lifted me off of him, laying me down on the bed beside him.

            “This is all about you.” He turned to me to my side, pulling me back against him so that his erection nestled in the crevice of my ass. I pushed back against him, but he just chuckled and wrapped an arm around my waist.

            “I wanted to show you I’m serious about getting to know you again, Adele.” His words whispered over the lobe of my ear and made me shiver, even as my mind tried to process.

            He was aroused, painfully so—I could feel the evidence of it against the small of my back.

            But he was holding back, making it all about me. And I’d even offered, and truthfully, would have enjoyed bringing him pleasure.

            The gesture floored me, and unexpected tears stung the backs of my eyes.

            I was silent in the dark, listening to his breathing. I had no words.

            His fingers began to move over my back, and I murmured at the pleasure of the touch. But he traced certain places repeatedly, his fingers making a design, and I stiffened as I realized what he was doing.

            “These are new.” Mal traced the outline of one of the ravens that was tattooed onto my back. I held my breath, waiting for him to ask what they meant, why I’d chosen to mark my skin with a conspiracy of ravens, a bird that most people saw as an omen, a harbinger of bad luck.

            I knew better. Countless cultures saw the raven as a symbol of tomorrow, of the future.

            I’d gotten the ink to remind myself that I had one.

            But Mal didn’t press. Instead he bent his head, pressed his lips to first one bird, and then another. I held my breath as he pressed gentle kisses over each bird that flew on my skin, before tightening his arms around me and resting his chin in my hair.

            I heard him sigh, was about to ask him what was wrong, when he spoke.

            “My parents have disowned me.” His words matter of fact, even as I hissed in a shocked breath.

            “Oh my God, Mal.” I struggled to turn, to look at him, but his arms held me in place. I knew how important his parents were to him, how he’d badly he’d wanted to live up to the family name, to please them.

            But when I craned my neck to look back over my shoulder, I found Mal shaking his head.

            “No, it’s not a bad thing, and it was a long time coming.” He was silent for a moment, like he was gathering his thoughts. “I... my father was a controlling man. Everything in his life had to fit together exactly the way he thought it should, and that included me. When I didn’t do what he wanted me to, I was... punished. Which is why I always tried so hard to be the way I was.”

            I opened my mouth, then closed it again. Was he saying what I thought he was saying?

            “What do you mean, punished?” My voice was wary.

            Mal exhaled loudly, and I felt the warmth of his breath on the back of my neck.

            “I’ve never told this to anyone before. Ever.” He pressed a soft kiss to the nape of my neck. “My mom doesn’t even know how bad it was.”

            “He beat you.” I whispered, horrified. Mal didn’t have to say it. I knew.

            I felt a shudder pass through his body, felt the quiver in the arms that were wrapped around my waist as I spoke.

            “He did whatever he had to do to feel that he’d gotten his point across.” Though Mal’s tone was flat, I didn’t hear any bitterness there. “This summer, he decided that it was time for me to propose to my girlfriend. Her dad owned a company that my father wanted to do a big deal with, and our engagement would have sealed it.”

            My stomach rolled over at the idea of Mal being with someone else. I swallowed against the jealous fit that wanted to explode from my lips.

            I’d left. I didn’t get to pass judgment for anything he’d done since I had.

            But I sure didn’t like it.

            “Would it have been such a big deal? She was your girlfriend. You must have had... feelings for her.” I’d never met the girl, but I wanted to pull her hair out for having ever touched Mal.

            He chuckled against me, his lips ruffling the waves of my hair.

            “I never loved her, if that’s what you’re asking. I liked her, sure, but there was always something holding me back. I could never figure out what.”

            His hands stroked through my hair, and I wanted to purr, it felt so good. Dipping his head, he whispered his next words into my ear.

            “Could never figure out what, until I saw you again. I couldn’t love Emma, because I still loved you.”

            My pulse stuttered, and I stiffened in surprise. What was he saying?

            I wasn’t brave enough to ask. But I
was
brave enough to share something of my own with him. Not
the
story, but a story none the less.

            “My family was very much the same.” I hadn’t thought about them in a long time—I’d had other things on my mind. But two years ago I knew that I sure as hell could have used the support of a mother who gave a shit.

            “When I was little my mom was my hero. She’s the one who taught me how to roller skate.” A memory flew through my mind’s eye, me in overalls with pigtails in my hair, my mom behind me, holding me upright as I wobbled on my skates.

            I shook my head; that woman had died the day she’d met my stepfather.

            “I never knew my biological dad. My mom remarried, and my stepfather... he was controlling. The more he tried to reign me in, the wilder I got. Finally he decided to teach me a lesson. He invited several of his business associates over, and told me that I was going to do whatever they wanted, for as long as they wanted, so that I learned I wasn’t in charge.”

            “Christ, Adele.” Mal’s hands slid to my hips, digging into the flesh. “What did you do?”

            “I stabbed one in the leg with a letter opened and told the rest of them that if they touched me, I’d cut their balls off. I told my mom what had happened, and that she had to choose between him and me.

            She didn’t believe me, which was a choice in and of itself. So I left. Got a scholarship, came here.”

            The strokes Mal made on my back were meant to soothe, and I realized he was shocked at what I’d said. Knowing him, he wanted to fix it.

            I hadn’t told him so he would feel sorry for me. I’d told him to show he wasn’t alone. And as we lay together in the dark, I realized that if that was true, then I wasn’t alone anymore, either.

            The knowledge made my heart feel like he had it caught in his fist. Like he was never going to let it go.

            We lay there, wrapped in each other’s arms and in silence, until I felt my lids begin to grow heavy.

            Mal lifted me up to the head of the bed, and even in my sleepy state I appreciated the way his biceps rippled as he did. Settling my head on the pillow, he pulled my quilt up to my shoulders, covering me up, and I realized that I’d completely forgotten I was buck naked.

            “Good night, Adele.” I was already half asleep as he kissed me on the forehead, then left, assuring me he’d lock the door behind him.

            I trusted that he would.

            From across the room I heard an unfamiliar ringtone sound. Frowning, I cocked my head, listening, my mind sifting through sleep to see what the strange sound was.

           
I still had Dorian’s cell phone
. I could have given it to Mal to pass onto the other man at any point tonight, and I wondered why I hadn’t.