Staking His Claim (16 page)

Matt’s mouth stopped and he straightened, thumb running over her bottom lip as she gasped for air. “You bit down. Now we have to try again.”

“Matt,
please
.”

“Shh.” His hand dropped from her mouth to massage the bulge behind his fly. With his other hand, he replaced the ruined grape with a new one in her mouth. “Trust me to make you feel good. Trust me to be obsessed with making you come, Lucy.”

Her pulse jackhammered in her ears. Not just from what he’d said, but the way he looked at her. Could this be enough? This irresistible man wanting her simply for her body? Right now, she didn’t have a choice. Her body was making decisions for her. “Yes, Matt.”

Firm hands spread her thighs wider on the counter as his skilled tongue brought her to the precipice of climax once more. Half her focus went toward finding that desperately needed peak, the other half concentrating on keeping the grape whole between her lips. Not breaking his rule. She found herself sucking on the fruit, mimicking the movements of his mouth, moaning as her tongue skated over the smoothness. Her orgasm rolled over her in a blissful ripple, making her body tremble and cling to him, riding out every ounce of perfection. Still, she wanted more. Needed to feel his skin moving against her own.

She let the grape fall. “Please. I want you inside me, Matt.”

His mouth collided with hers in a hot, wet kiss. “I decide when I’m going to fuck you.”

Oh, Lord.
Renewed heat coursed through her, suffusing every inch of her body. “Fine. As long as it’s now.”

Amusement leaped into his eyes, but was quickly extinguished by determination and desire. Keeping his focus locked on her, he unhooked his belt and whipped it through the loops of his pants. The
whoosh
ing noise sent her pulse tripping over itself, a whimper falling from her mouth. She tried to relax as he reached behind her, bringing her wrists together and securing them tightly with the pliable strip of leather, but the pulse between her legs had begun beating out of control once more. Being restrained felt foreign, yet handing over her trust completely to Matt felt freeing. The position made her back arch, displaying her stiff nipples, filling her with seductive power. God, she needed to be filled.

As if he’d heard her internal plea, he drew down his zipper and rolled on the condom he’d removed from his pants pocket. In one swift motion, he dragged her off the counter onto his waiting erection. Lucy screamed in her throat at the sudden fullness. Matt bit into her shoulder and groaned, but wouldn’t allow her to wrap her legs around his waist, pushing her knees down when she attempted to bring them higher.

With their height difference, her toes barely scraped the floor, Matt’s erection the only thing keeping her upright. She screamed at the sensation, her bound hands scrambling behind her for purchase, but they weren’t close enough to the counter. He wrapped her hair around his fist to keep her still, and even the sting of pain was welcome. The anchor she desperately needed. It distracted her from the fullness that had become the center of her universe, filling her, supporting her entire weight. Her nerves felt strung as tight as piano wire, body screaming for relief. Words with no meaning fell from her lips, most of them his name.

“Who decides when you need to be fucked, Lucy?”

“You,” she sobbed, attempting to plant her toes on the floor and failing. “You decide.
Please
.”

“Please, what?” He bit her ear and tugged. “Please prop you up against the counter and pound into you like the madman you’ve turned me into?”

“Yes.
Yes
.”

“When I’m ready.” His teeth grazed her bottom lip. “I’ve been imagining you bound and begging every minute since I met you. Maybe my whole life. And I’m damn well going to enjoy it.”

In a move of desperation, she tried to climb his body and wrap her legs around him once more, but he pushed her sweat-slicked knees down. The heavy fall of her legs impaled her on him even further and another scream ripped from her throat. She tugged at her restrained hands and saw Matt’s eyes flare, a groan escape him, when she couldn’t get free. It ratcheted her need even higher, tightened the growing ache in her belly. The realization that she could orgasm just like this, watching Matt want her, flitted through her buzzing head. She forced herself to still, even though her breaths were coming out sounding more like gasps. Tension built in her belly and she let her head fall back, still being held up by Matt’s grip in her hair. She could feel her climax looming like an oncoming storm.

“No, you don’t. Not until I allow it.” He tugged her head back up with a growl. At the same time, he walked her backward toward the counter. As soon as the hard surface met her lower back, she wrenched her legs high and circled his hips with a cry. She was heedless of anything but chasing relief. The feel of Matt’s unyielding body. Again and again, she rolled her hips, her thighs shaking from gripping his body so fiercely.

“Ah fuck, baby, I love it when you work me like that.” He pressed his forehead against hers and drove into her
hard
. His gruff moan filled her ear. “Christ. This is why I make you wait. One thrust and you’re already clamping down around me. It makes me goddamn crazy.”

When he stilled inside her after only that single drive, she cried out. “No.
No
. Please don’t stop.”

Desperate, mindless, she kissed him without holding anything back. Showing him with her mouth how badly she needed him to move. Requiring oxygen, she finally broke away. “Harder. More. I want all of you. Everything.”

Matt’s eyes were intense, breathing harsh. “When you kiss me like that, I’ll do anything you want.” His throat worked. “Maybe I should have kept that secret to myself.”

She struggled to focus on his words. “No. I like knowing you have a weakness.”

He shook his head. “You have no idea, do you?”

Lucy was growing restless. His body was locked inside hers, thick and throbbing. Her nerve endings snapped everywhere their skin touched. The longer he remained unmoving, the more the ache grew. It was dense and demanding, crying out to be assuaged. On top of it all, possibly more potent than anything, were his eyes. They were coated with lust, but somehow darkly excited by the control he had. In turn, it made her feel powerful. Made her question who was really in control after all. With that thought in mind, she arched her back on the counter and tossed her head back, putting her stomach, her breasts, her throat on display. Tempting him.

Matt growled. “Mine.”

“Prove it,” Lucy whispered.

Chapter Seventeen

Possessiveness, furious and consuming, laced through Matt’s system. She was spread out in front of him like a goddess and he had the honor of being buried inside her. Every second that passed made him hotter, heightening the anticipation of that moment when he would fuck her into the screaming orgasm she deserved. He’d taken her too quickly the first three times and he’d regretted it afterward, wishing he’d taken time to savor her. Even now, his body shook with the need to slide his cock out and ram it back into her slick heat. Knowing she’d love it, would whimper and writhe for more, only made it twice as difficult to deny the urge.

The physical nature of his need was only heightened by the connection he felt to her. Beauty shone out of her and wrapped around his throat. She was the one thing that had been missing his entire life without him realizing it. How had he been walking upright, talking, accomplishing things this long without her?

Savor.
He ran his fingertips up the center of her body to tease her nipples. “You asked me what the extent of my need for control is…” Unable to stop himself any longer, he eased his hips back and rolled them forward, memorizing the way her hands clawed at the counter, her lips parted on a moan. “When I walk in the front door after a shift, Lucy, I want your mouth on mine before I even get my jacket off.”

Matt let one hand circle her delicate neck lightly as he drove into her again. And again. He couldn’t stop now, not with her clenching around him like that. Not with her tasty little nipples pointing straight up as her chest heaved, her body undulated.

“I want to punish you in the mornings, so I can spend the day thinking about your sweet, pink ass, thinking about ways to soothe it when I get home.” He reached behind him and grabbed her ankles, raising them above her head. His Lucy liked that. It put him right where she needed him to be, bumping against her luscious clit. He could see the tremors race across her abdomen, feel her feet flexing in his hands. God yeah, she was close.

“Faster, Matt,” she gasped. “Please,
please
.”

A growl broke from his throat. He’d never get used to her begging for him. Or the fact that she
loved
doing it. Loved submitting to him the way he needed.

“I want to tie your delicious little body up and fuck you. For hours. Until the goddamn sun comes up.” He rolled his hips inward, then pressed down, rubbing the base of his erection against her sensitive bundle of nerves. “I want to fall asleep with your gorgeous ass cradling my satisfied dick. Your breasts in my hands. I
need
it, baby.”

“
Yes
.”

The way she continued to encourage him…warmth expanded in his chest. Made him want more of her.
Damn.
He couldn’t go as fast as she needed at this angle. With each drive of his body, she inched back slightly on the slippery surface. With a growl, Matt yanked her off the counter and wedged her against the cabinet, supporting her hips with his forearm so she wouldn’t be hurt. The position bent her in half and put her ankles up around his ears. Matt shouted a curse at the ceiling it put him so goddamn deep. Every slick inch of her was like a manacle around his driving cock.

She threw her head back on a sob and began to shake.
Almost there. Come on, pretty baby
. “Oh, Jesus…
Matt
…”

Just a little more, and she’d blow. “Lucy, if I wake you up at two a.m., dying to eat your pussy, I want you to open your thighs and say
yes, please, Matt.
Do you
understand
me?”

“
Yes
, yes…
oh
.” He felt the telltale squeeze grip him and pushed hard into it, holding deep so he could feel her quake all around him. It was the closest to heaven he would ever get and he absorbed every shudder, every word. Eyes appearing blind in the dim light, she chanted things that made no sense, still pinned to the counter by his hips. “
Matt
.”

After a moment, the tension in her lessened slightly, but not completely. He was still hard enough inside her to break through steel. Seeing his woman rosy and satisfied in front of him shot a fresh surge of hot, pulsing adrenaline through Matt. Her chest rose and fell on gasping breaths when he twisted his hips, to let her know they weren’t finished.
Oh no. We’re far from done. You’re going to get it again.
She must have read his thoughts on his face because her lips parted on a breathy moan and she nodded.

She’s perfect for me. I want to be perfect for her.
He released one of her legs and let it drop to his side, continuing to hold the other by the ankle. Keeping his eyes trained on her face, he moved it across his body, slowly turning her around so she faced the counter, remaining inside her the entire time. A sweat broke out on Matt’s forehead at the twisting sensation, the inside of her body stroking him sideways as she turned. By the time he had her completely shifted around, he’d gone a little insane.

He forced her up against the counter, unable to stop himself from sinking his teeth into her neck. Lucy tilted her head on a cry. “I’m going to fuck my little spinner now. She’s had it too easy so far.” With a hand on the back of her neck, he urged her facedown onto the cool surface, hands still secured behind her back with his belt. It put her ass on display for him and he had no choice but to slap that tempting flesh, once, twice, before surging into her. Her knees gave out, slamming into the cabinet beneath them as she screamed. “Feel that, Lucy? That’s as hard as it fucking gets.”

“
More, please
.
Again
.”

His vision blurred around the edges at her husky request. Never. He’d never had this part of him accepted before, countered so perfectly, and it felt like coming home. He wanted to shout at the rightness of it, but his body was begging to be relieved. Everything before now suddenly felt insignificant. This is where he belonged.
She
was where he belonged.

Matt reached down and gripped her shoulders as he rode her. His hips bucked against her hard, bringing him in and out of her with blissful friction. Their groans mingled with the sound of smacking flesh, sending him toward his peak quicker. With a final drive, he came with a roar, feeling as though his soul were expanding even as his body depleted. He fell on top of her, giving in to the compulsion to hold on to her. In fact, he couldn’t hold her tight enough. In his current state, the irrational fear slipped in that she could be taken away from him and he actually bared his teeth over the thought, tightening his grip.

“My Lucy,” he whispered fervently into her hair, kissing the fluttering pulse at her neck.

Words he’d had such a hard time coming by in the past swirled around his head now, bumping into one another at breakneck speed. They wanted to pour out of his mouth for Lucy to hear, but he determinedly kept them in check. He’d said enough for now. Bravely and beautifully, she’d accepted his need for control. Embraced it without question. He couldn’t ask her for more now. If she knew what he wanted with her, what he
intended
to have with her, she might get spooked. He needed to take it slow. More importantly, he needed to do this right.

That’s why first thing tomorrow, he was going to find his best friend and tell him the truth. He’d fallen in love with Brent’s sister and there wasn’t a goddamn thing in this world that could keep him from trying to make her love him back. His life, the happiness he’d never hoped for or expected, depended on keeping her. Her keeping
him
.

After kissing her hair one final time, Matt released her hands from the leather belt, cradling her against his chest and carrying her to the back bedroom. He wanted more than anything to lie down beside her and sleep, but he wouldn’t allow himself the privilege yet. Not until he’d done the honorable thing, thereby giving legitimacy to their relationship, even if
relationship
was a puny word to describe what they had.

They were connected.

Eyes closed, she snuggled into the pillow, already appearing half-asleep. Jesus, he could have stood there all night looking at her, reveling in the fact that he’d exhausted her energy.

“Matt?”

Lucy calling his name from bed, all rumpled curls and flushed cheeks. He tucked the memory of it away for later and leaned down to kiss her forehead.

“I’m going to go now, baby.”

“You are?” She sat up, holding the comforter over her breasts. “Oh…I’ll let you out.”

“Stay here. Sleep.” Matt tugged the bedding back down and tried to communicate with his eyes what he wouldn’t allow himself to say out loud yet. When he finally slept with her in his arms, there wouldn’t be a hint of doubt or wrongness lying between them. “We can’t keep sneaking around like this. I need to do the right thing, Lucy.”

With a nod, she started to lie back down, then changed her mind and leaned up to kiss him. It wasn’t a see-you-later kiss. No, she obviously had something else in mind. She appealed to his dominant nature by letting her head fall back on her shoulders, so that he towered above her where she lay vulnerable in the bed. Her mouth parted on a sigh, tongue sliding into his mouth like an offering. Matt nearly lost his balance, her taste, her surrender had such influence over him. A split second before it became impossible for him to do anything but follow her down into the pillows and never leave, she eased back.

Matt took a final inhale of her scent. “I’ll be there tomorrow. At the bench.”

“You will?”

If he hadn’t gotten so lost in her, he might have spent more time scrutinizing the odd expression on her face, but all his focus went into leaving before he could no longer manage it.

He nodded, commanding himself to stand. “Bye, Lucy.”

She watched steadily him from the pillow. “Bye, Chuckles.”