“I do.” I brushed my lips over hers, unable to resist any longer. I could taste some kind of fruit lingering on them and she smelled of fresh air and an ambrée perfume. My dick hardened. “And you’re about to get wetter.”
Everything had been going phenomenally. If I’d thought our first few times together were a fluke, this was proving otherwise. After she led me to her large bedroom that overlooked the water, we’d gone at each other like savage animals. Perhaps we’d settle soon enough into our attraction, but once we’d pushed past Aria’s insecurities that first night, we were too bloody hot for each other to slow down.
Until five seconds ago, when I’d stopped midthrust, suddenly desperate to have Aria on her hands and knees. I’d made the demand and tried to manhandle her into position, lost to my lust for her. However, her shoving my hands off in distress was like a bucket of ice-cold North Sea water being thrown over every inch of me, including my cock.
“Hey, hey.” I reached for her arms. “It’s okay, we’ll stop, we’ll stop.”
She grew still, her wide eyes and vulnerable countenance making my chest ache. I kneeled between her thighs as horror and embarrassment filled her expression. “Oh, God. Let’s just … I’m gonna … I’m …” She tugged on her wrists but I held on.
“Talk to me. What just happened?”
Annoyance now seeped into her embarrassment, and I watched the telltale signs of her getting ready to throw up her barriers. “Maybe this is just too much work for you. I’m sure you can find one of the members to satiate your needs.”
“I’m sure I could,” I agreed patiently.
Her eyes dimmed, but she stubbornly tilted her chin. “Then you can go.”
I wanted to kiss the stubbornness right out of her. “If that’s what I wanted, I would have been in a different woman’s bed every night since I got here.”
“Brag much?”
I shrugged. “I’m just stating facts. But it’s not what I want. You see, my cock has very particular tastes, and right now he’s only satisfied by a complicated, prickly estate manager. In fact, he was in the middle of finding something well beyond mere satisfaction when everything went fucking pear-shaped. We’d both quite like to know exactly what happened.” I smoothed a hand down her arm. “If you don’t like a certain position, it’s fine. We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. But just tell me that. Don’t shut me out.”
Aria’s lips parted as she studied my face. I wondered at the bastards who’d bedded her, how they’d treated her. It made me want to rip off their dicks. Absurdly, not just because they might have treated her so poorly, but because they’d touched her in the first place. I didn’t think of myself as the alpha caveman type, but I certainly experienced a tight, horrible feeling in my chest that pointed to possessiveness.
“I … um …” She lowered her eyes, looking mortified. “I … it’s not that I don’t like that position … I …” Aria covered her face with her hands and every part of me wanted to cuddle her against me. Tugging on her wrists, I gently eased her hands down and ducked my head so she had to look at me.
“Talk to me, gorgeous.”
She exhaled slowly, shakily. “L-Lucas made a few comments about my ass and now I’m worried if you take me like that, all you’ll be thinking about is how fat my ass is.”
Lucas Grant was a dead man.
I didn’t know how or when, but I was going to make him pay for what he’d done to Aria. No one would know the confident, efficient, capable, strong, smart woman who strutted around the castle like she owned it hid a well of insecurities and fear. All because of Lucas Grant and his ilk.
Sheep shite in a Portaloo off a fucking cliff was too good an end for the bastard.
Trying to rein in my anger, I sat back on my heels. “Show me.”
Aria looked horrified. “What? No.”
“I’ve seen your arse, Aria. We’ve had sex several times and I’ve buried my face in your pussy.” I grinned at the dirty look she gave me. “But we need to deal with this face-on, so to speak. Turn around and show me that fine arse of yours.”
She crossed her arms under her tits, and my cock twitched at the sight. “Nope.”
“I’ll go first.” I offered, spreading my arms. “I’ll show you mine.”
Amusement glittered in her eyes. “I’ve seen yours and it’s rock hard from the gym—you know, the place you spend half your day in. Maybe if I did more than swim a few times a month, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
The irritation and fury at Lucas still lingered, so I stated, “Let’s get this straight. I am not Lucas Fucking Grant. He’s an arsehole who more than likely got off on trying to make you feel like you weren’t worthy of him. You’re probably not the only woman he’s done it to. That’s about him. Not you. So turn around and show me your arse so I can prove that I love it.”
Her lips twitched as she huffed out a groan of acceptance and then reluctantly, so slowly it only made my heart race harder, turned around on her knees and sat back on her heels. I swallowed hard at the sight of her exaggerated curves. At the long, graceful line of her back as it narrowed, then swooped down into her perfect heart-shaped arse. Her dark hair tumbled in silky disarray across her smooth olive skin, and my fingers twitched, desperate to touch her.
“North?” She glanced over her shoulder.
Heart pounding, dick throbbing, I bridged the distance between us until my chest pressed to her back and she could feel how hard I was. She gasped as I slid my hand around her belly and down between her legs to find her clit.
As I tormented her, her breathing grew shallow and fast. I rubbed my cock between her ass cheeks, grinding on her. “If I have to tell you this every time I take you to bed, I will … But you are perfect. A fucking goddess. And you and your body set my blood on fire, woman. I can’t get enough.” I kissed the side of her neck as my fingers moved faster, harder over her, and she whimpered with her coming orgasm. “Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever get enough of you,” I confessed, and suddenly Aria cried out, shuddering against my touch.
As she tried to catch her breath, I smoothed a hand up her back and whispered in her ear, “Can I fuck you on your hands and knees now?”
There was a moment’s hesitation, then, “Okay.”
“Are you sure?” I pressed. “I only want this to be good for you.”
“I’m sure,” she said with more conviction seconds before she moved forward on her hands and knees, presenting her luscious arse to me.
I groaned as I caressed the curvy globes, my thumb slipping until she gasped in surprise and glanced over her shoulder at me. My voice thickened with need. “Maybe one day you might let me take you here?”
“I’ve never …” She shimmied her arse against me, and I grunted. “Maybe. But for now, don’t be greedy.”
Chuckling on a huff of desperate need, without preamble I guided my cock to her pussy, then gripped her arse cheeks, and thrust in.