You Own Me (10 page)

He’d fought and brawled his way into making people believe he wasn’t worth messing with and that had been the case most of his life, even before he’d gone to jail and it hadn’t changed. His body was a tool.

But for the first time, his body felt like it had some other worth. Well, other than protecting Lizzie—and that, in and of itself, was a worthwhile thing.

Watching her intently, he reached up and stripped his shirt away, letting it fall to the floor beside him. Pride flooded him as her eyes went soft, almost dazed with heated, female hunger. She reached out with both hands and rested her palms on his chest, lightly raking her nails across his skin. "Your tattoos. You're covered in them."

"You can run out of things to do in..." He didn't finish. One of those things they tried to avoid. He didn't talk about it because it hurt her, and now, as he saw the understanding in her eyes, he wished he could take it back.

"But you kept getting them." She swallowed and he could see her steeling herself to finish it. "After you...got out. Once they let you go."

She stroked her thumb over the tiger that covered most of his chest, a tiger crouched behind bars. He caught her hand, pressed it flat. "You can get to needing it—that bite of pain, letting it make you forget things."
Pretending to let the ink and needles take and hide your secrets…

She didn't ask what he meant. He suspected she thought she knew. But she didn't.

"Did it help?"

"No." He pressed her hand flat against his chest. "But the things I wanted to forget were the sort of things I'd never be able to forget...things I shouldn't forget. Things I need..."

He'd lived so much of his life without what he needed, but now...

She leaned in and pressed a kiss to the tiger and the feel of her mouth on his skin sent fire lancing through him. He caught her thighs and shoved them apart, moving in to press against her.

She gasped, her back arching and then she bit her lip to hold back a sob as he slid his hand between them, circled her clitoris. It was a tight, hard little knot.

"I'm going to lick you here," he said, keeping his voice calm through sheer will alone. "I'm going to spread your thighs and lick and suck on you until you're crazy with need. Until you're burning for me to fuck you."

She moaned as he sank to his knees, his hands sliding down the backs of her legs to catch her ankles. He draped her legs over his shoulders and leaned in, nuzzled folds that already gleamed.

He caught her clit between his teeth, tugged.

She gasped, her spine bowing up off the desk.

Using his tongue to open her, he caught his first real taste of her—the first taste...and he was an addict already.

"I'm going to eat your pussy until you beg me to stop," he muttered against her.

She was shaking as he pressed his mouth to her, and when he thrust his tongue inside, a garbled, muffled cry filled the air.

She was covering her mouth, using both hands to hold back the sounds she made as he used his mouth and tongue to fuck her over the edge.

"Please," Elizabeth begged, her voice hoarse.

She didn't know how much time had passed and she knew she'd come at least twice. She also knew she couldn't take much more—except she
needed
more...just...a different kind of more. Him.

"Please what?" Decker muttered, his words muffled. Then he dragged his tongue up between her folds again. It was like a whip of lightning had licked her, right there, and the shocking pleasure of it rippled through her entire body.

"Please...stop... No. I need..."

He lifted up, his long, muscled body bent over hers as he pressed his mouth to hers. She tried to turn her head away from his kiss, a kiss that tasted salty and different—her. He tasted like her, but he didn't let her turn away and the hunger of his kiss bled into her until she was clutching at him, her hands tangled in his wavy hair.

When he stabbed his tongue into her mouth, she caught it with her teeth and bit down, then began to suck.

A growl rolled out of him.

He gripped her hip in one hand as he broke the kiss, his chest rising and falling against hers. The light dusting of hair across his pectorals teased her nipples, a sensation that was diabolically delicious. "Please what, sugar?"

"I need you."

"I'm right here."

"In..." She gulped and then rushed the rest of it out. "I need you inside me."

"Inside you." A low grunt of appreciation escaped him. "Yeah. I like the sound of that."

He straightened and any embarrassment she might have felt faded as she stared at him, golden skin and brilliant tattoos rippling across tight muscles as he reached down and dealt with his belt, then his jeans.

He dragged the zipper down and she felt her heart stutter to a stop as he wrapped his hand around his cock and fisted it. Then, in front of her, he dragged his hand up, then down.

Memory danced, bright and jagged, in the back of her mind.

Watching him—

He stared at her, almost daring her to say anything.

But she didn't.

"Give me a rubber," he said, his voice lower, savagely harsh.

Her hands shook as she fumbled with the box and when she tucked one foil packet into his hand, she saw that his fingers were trembling.

I’ve dreamed about touching you a thousand times and now I am and my hands are shaking… And you think I don’t want you.

"You want me," she whispered, the dazed realization swamping her.

He just stared at her as he donned the rubber and then he bent over her, his mouth touching hers. "Lizzie. Want is
easy
compared to what I feel for you. But...yeah. I want you. I've wanted you for what seems like my entire life. And even if this doesn't mean the same thing to you...remember this." He kissed her, so soft, so tender, so sweet. "Nobody will ever want you, need you, like I do."

Her head spun.

Part of her wanted to grab him and tell him to wait—wait while she thought. While she figured this out.

Just...wait.

But as he tucked the head of his cock against her, she knew the time for
waiting
had come to an end. This was something she'd wanted for forever...wanted, but she'd made herself forget.

No more waiting.

His eyes held hers as he surged slowly forward.

The pressure grew and grew—he was thicker, larger than Noel and she was sore from the debacle a few nights earlier, but he was slow, and so patient—it was like he knew exactly when to pause, when to start moving in those slow, teasing thrusts that brought whimpers to her lips.

And then, with a snarl, he seated himself completely inside her and it was...perfect. So beautifully perfect. She gasped, her hips rocking against him while her body struggled to adjust. She sank her nails into his shoulders. His head rested on the desk above hers and she opened her eyes, hardly able to see anything except the flames on his throat.

He filled her, surrounded her.

And then, he started to move and the bliss that rolled through her was unlike anything she'd ever known.

"Lizzie..." There was a question and a sigh and a plea in his words.

"Please," she demanded, rocking her hips up to meet his.

He moved faster, harder and fire blazed through her. Too much—too much.

Need, everything she’d shoved down inside and tried to forget, tore its way to the surface.

He fisted a hand in her hair and jerked her head back, his mouth coming down on hers, stealing her breath away with a kiss that threatened to destroy her. Heart. Mind. Body. Soul.

With his other hand, he caught her hip and canted her upward—

She cried out, the noise caught by his mouth and he swelled inside her—she felt it, the head of his cock stroking deep, deep, deep—

The climax tore into her, greedy claws that left her breathless, left her reeling…and then helpless.

His phone buzzed.

Ten minutes had passed and Decker still wasn’t sure if his muscles were anything more than noodles.

The phone buzzed.

Fuck the phone
, he thought blearily, his head still resting between Lizzie’s breasts. He loved her tits, round and big and full enough for even his big hands.

He reached up, cupped the left one in his right hand—the tattoo, hidden in plain sight on his palm—seemed to mock him.
You own me
…

What would she say if he told her?

Sighing, he lifted his head.

Her lashes were low, shielding her eyes but as their gazes met, a faint, nervous smile curled her lips.

Cupping her face, he stroked his thumb over her lower lip.

And the damn phone buzzed…
again
.

Swearing, he stood up and fought with the tangle his jeans had become around his hips. When he saw Selah’s name, he was ready to throw the phone.

The first message was
I hope you all remembered that box
.

The second message was
Are you two coming out?

The third message was
I’m putting up the closed sign. Too many funny looks happening in here. Tell Liz to yell at me later.

He thought about putting the phone away and then just turned it over with a sigh.

As Lizzie read the messages, he dealt with the condom, turning to look at her when he was done. She’d sat up, a look of mortification on her face.

“People…” She stopped, pressed her lips together. She lowered the phone back to the desk. “People heard us.”

Decker caged her in with his arms when she would have clambered off the desk.

Head cocked, he said gruffly, “Listen.”

Distantly, through the door and the walls, they could both hear music. The loud, throbbing alternative beat that Selah preferred and tried to blast whenever she was running the shop solo. The clientele was amused by it, because it was a running war between manager and assistant manager—who would win control of the music that day.

“She probably turned it on as soon as she figured out what was going on, you know her. She’s really good at distracting people, although…” He brushed a kiss against her damp mouth. “Don’t be surprised if you find out she was giving away free stuff with the coffee.”

Groaning, she wiggled and pressed against him. “I can’t believe I…”

She stopped.

Cupping her chin in his hand, he guided her face to his. “Can’t believe what? Had sex here? Or with me?”

As the silence drew out between them, a hundred different answers danced on her tongue.

The
honest
answer was
both
.

But staring into Decker’s eyes, she saw something she hadn’t seen there in…well, ever. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him vulnerable. Reluctant, nervous, scared, determined, arrogant, angry…and now, hot, hungry and ferocious.

But had she ever glimpsed that vulnerability in his eyes.

No.

She didn’t think she had.

Hesitantly, she reached up and rested a hand on his chest. “Well, my brain is still spinning over…this.”

He cocked a brow at her lame explanation. Then he closed his fingers around her wrist. “It’s okay, sugar,” he murmured. He pressed a kiss to her palm and then backed away. “If you want to forget you let me fuck you on that desk, you go ahead.”

He turned away.

She leaped off and caught his arm as he went to fasten his belt.

He tensed, but didn’t turn.

So she went around him.

“I said my brain was spinning,” she said. She wished, and not for the first time, she had his confidence. His strength. Even a tenth of it. But she didn’t.

But she had to find the guts to say this.

“And it is.” Instead of looking up into his eyes, she focused on his hands. The tail of the Chinese dragon curled up around his right wrist before ending over the back of his hand and she reached out, trailing the tips of her fingers over the scales, almost delicately done. “But I can tell you, I’m not ever going to look at my desk without thinking about…this. I can’t believe we did that.”

She covered his other hand with hers and tugged his hands from his belt buckle, moving in closer. She pressed a kiss to his chest, to the flicking tail of the tiger, along the lean, powerful body there. “And yeah…I’m kinda embarrassed thinking that somebody out there heard. But that doesn’t mean I regret it, or want to forget.”

Decker caught her upper arms in his hands.

A hard knock landed on the door. Elizabeth jumped, but Decker didn’t so much as look away from her face.

“Yo!” Selah shouted through the door. “I’m gone. You can say thank you by closing up when you’re done…if you ever finish.”

“Get the fuck out of here, Selah!” Decker shouted.

“Touchy, touchy, Decker!” Her laughter carried through the door.

The air in Elizabeth’s lungs seemed to squeeze out of her as Decker moved his hands to her waist. He caught the skirt and started to tug, the pointed look on his face clear.

He was waiting for her to tell him to stop.

No.

Oh, no…

She held still as he dragged the skirt down, but as he stepped back to stare at her, self-consciousness flooded her. She’d seen the women he’d dated. He didn’t go for a
type
, unless it was the sexy and confident—that was all he needed.

But confidence was something she lacked and under that hot, molten stare, she felt herself wilt.

Nervously, she shifted, half-thinking to cover herself.

As though he’d read her mind, Decker caught her wrists. “No. I want to see you. Just like this.”

She shook her head. “I need to lose weight…I…”

“Shut up.” He caught her behind the neck, pulled her in for a hard, deep kiss, while the other hand went to her ass and tugged her against him. “You’re beautiful. You don’t need to change a damn thing.”

He spun her around and she caught her breath as he gripped her hips and pumped himself against her butt. “I love everything about you, Lizzie. Your every smile, your every curve...” His hands came up to plump her breasts together. He tweaked her nipples and she felt that all the way down to her toes. “Your tits and your ass. The way you smile. You don’t need to change anything.”