Easy Little Lick (Copperline #3) (20 page)

“No,” she whispered, and I felt hot tears seeping into my skin. “I can’t. Not this.” Her voice was thick, choked with sorrow. “You should probably go, Cody.”

For some reason, her words struck me dumb. I guess I thought we’d gotten beyond some stuff when I’d found out about Max. Evidently there was more. Something else that she was hiding, some skeleton in her closet, something bigger than Max.

“I don’t want to. Besides, I’m not going to leave you alone when you’re feeling like this,” I said stubbornly.

“It’s better to be alone. Safer.”

“Safer?”

“For everyone. So nobody gets hurt… Max, me… or you.”

She drew back and studied my face, her fingers tangling in my hair. For a second, she looked like she might say something. Like she might confess whatever the secret was that had her so scared.

Instead, incredibly, she kissed me.

She kissed me with a powerful sense of love and loss and heartbreak. She poured all her emotion into holding me close and making love to me.

My fingers skated up the back of her thighs, up into her shorts, cupping the smooth skin of her ass and making her moan softly into my mouth. She tugged at my shirt, freeing the buttons and stripping it from my shoulders, caressing my arms, my abs, and my chest with a tender scrape of her fingernails.

With dreamlike movements, I undressed her, pulling her shirt over her head and removing her bra. I laid her back on the couch, unbuttoning her shorts and pulling them off together with her simple cotton underwear. I leaned over her, stroking her deep inside with two fingers, growing harder every time she constricted her hot, wet pussy around me.

My dick was throbbing, aching with the need to be inside her. With a clawing grasp, she urged me over her body, spreading her legs wide and pressing her hips up into mine. Grinding her bare sex against the rough fabric of my jeans.

“Please, Cody,” she gasped. “Please, I need you inside me.”

Hearing those words on her lips, her raw demand, was overpowering. I realized she was using sex to avoid talking, but,
God
… I needed her. Her and only her.

My hands tangled with hers as we tugged at my jeans, freeing my stiff, broad cock. She lifted her legs, drawing up her feet to catch the denim and shove it down my legs. In doing so, her wet pussy stroked my pulsing length, and it burned through my body. That skin to skin contact was like nothing I’d ever felt before.

I wanted more.

Ilsa seemed to feel the same way. Even after I’d kicked my jeans from around my ankles, she tilted her hips, rubbing her slick arousal up and down my shaft. Small sobs broke through her kisses. She continued with the movements and gasped when, with a slight twist of my hips, the head of my dick was tucked right up against her sweet, wet entrance.

“Fuck me,” I breathed out, my voice shaking with need, “please tell me you’re on the fucking pill.” My voice sounded strange in my own ears, frantic and desperate to take her bare.

“I am,” she whispered against my lips, and I slid home.

“Jesus, Ils,” I moaned, “your pussy feels like fucking silk.”

She clenched her inner walls around me as I withdrew and pushed firmly back inside, making her gasp and cry out.

I kissed her hard, filling her up with my cock and holding her body steady. “We’re never using condoms again. Just you and me, skin on skin.”

Her fingernails skated up my back to dig into my shoulders. I pulled back and slammed into her, swallowing her fragile cry.

“I want to come inside you, all over your body, to mark you as mine,” I growled as I pumped into her a second time, the force of my body rocking hers. “I want you to ache when you walk, knowing my dick did that to you.”

“Yes,” she whispered, meeting my pounding thrusts with sharp slaps of our skin.

Every word I said made her more wet, made her pussy grip me tighter. She started to tense up, reaching for her release.

“I fucking love you enough to take your fear away.”

As I growled those words, she shattered around me and burst into tears all at once.

“Cody,” she sobbed. “Oh God, Cody.”

Two more strokes and I let go inside her, feeling my hot, thick cum mixing with her own wetness. The rush of my orgasm shot into her in bursts, triggering her body to shake and tremble around me. I held her tight, soothing her tears, feeling the power of this connection between us.

A connection she didn’t want, but it was there all the same, and I wasn’t about to just let it go. To let her go. Wasn’t happening. I tried to say it without saying it, kissing her eyelids and holding her tight as her tears began to fade.

I rose up on my elbow to look down between us as I slowly withdrew, still semi-hard, mesmerized by the glistening wetness all over my dick. Almost completely, and then pushed back inside. Again. Over and over, watching the cum collect around the edge of her pussy.

It was fucking beautiful… and mouthwatering. That twisted thought ripped through my brain and, before I could stop myself, I pulled out, knelt before her, and closed my mouth over her sex.

“Cody,” she moaned, her fingers wound tight in my hair, pulling hard as I licked her clean. The salty taste of my own cum and the sweetness of her orgasm exploded on my taste buds. I swept my tongue deep inside, swirling around and around, and my cock began to stiffen again at the carnal abandon of this act. Ready and alert, throbbing with a sudden renewed need.

Rising to my knees, I lifted her body and flipped her over like a rag doll, then grasped her hips and pulled her pussy back up to my lips. With her legs in the air, her mouth found my dick, and she moaned loudly with the first taste, sucking me deep down her throat. I lay back on the couch as she rode my lips and sucked my dick. The moment was so hedonistic, so wrong and forbidden. Swiveling her hands up and down my cock as she licked me, making me hard as fuck all over again, and sucked me off.

And there was the beautiful little bud of her ass, right there before my eyes. I slid a finger inside her soaking wet pussy, then pressed it against her rear entrance and pushed inside.

She bucked her hips and groaned. With my cock at the back of her throat, the vocalization sent vibrations straight to my balls. The beautiful curve of her ass shook, tremors coursing through her legs as we feasted on each other.

I twisted her around again, back upright and sitting on my lap with her back to me. I lined her up and plunged back into her pussy with a hoarse growl. She bent her knees, tucking her feet alongside my thighs in the couch and leaned forward, giving me the most incredible view of our connection as she rose and fell on my hard length.

Pressing my finger back in her ass, I caressed us both through the thin walls, feeling the touch in my dick. I could feel the motion of every stroke as she fucked me, as she broke around me. Sobbing softly, shaking violently, digging into my thighs with her fingernails. The pulsation of her pussy around me ripped another orgasm from my body, pulling it up from deep inside my soul, giving it all to her.

I could barely move for a few minutes. Ilsa fell back against my chest in exhaustion, breathing in harsh gasps.

“I love you,” I whispered against her ear.

Her response was hazy, barely audible and sounded almost delirious. I almost wondered if I dreamed it.

“You can’t, Cody,” she murmurs dazedly. “You can’t.”

In the gray morning light, I stood and pulled my T-shirt down over my chest, then leaned over to grab my work boots. It was only about six o'clock, but I had to drive back to Ophir for work, and I really needed to stop at home and take a shower, especially after all the sweaty sex. I almost took a shower in Ilsa’s bathroom, but she was sleeping so soundly, and I didn’t want to wake her up.

I glanced over at her as I laced up my boot, though, and saw her eyes open. Watching me with a sleepy, solemn gaze.

You can’t…

Her breathy whisper echoed in my ears.

I wanted to ask her why, but I knew she wouldn’t tell me. I’d slept fitfully, trying to figure her out. Wondering when she would give in. She had to feel the way I did. Her mind fought this thing between us, but her actions—her body and the way she pulled me to her and kissed me last night, the way she looked at me and the way she held me—everything else said this was real and strong.

So what was she afraid of?

I rested my elbows on my knees, sitting in a chair angled up by the couch, and looked straight at her. I didn’t want there to be any confusion about how I felt.

“I wasn’t just saying that last night,” I began.

She dropped her eyes and scooted upright a little, holding the plush blanket up to cover her breasts. I stood and moved closer to the couch, sitting by her legs and lifting her chin with my fingers.

Her lip quavered when she met my gaze, and I gave her the most honest, heartfelt expression I could possibly make.

“I love you, Ilsa.”

“Cody—”

“I’m not sure what you’re afraid of, but I know there’s something powerful between us,” I said and cupped her cheek in my palm. “I know you feel it, too.”

Tears filled her eyes and her entire body began to tremble. I leaned forward, brushing her lips with mine in a soft kiss. Rather than releasing her, I held her still and dipped my head so our foreheads touched.

“Ilsa, you touch the deepest parts of me,” I whispered. “I think about you all the time. Something happened to you, something that has you running scared, I know that. But you need to know that I’m patient. I’m stubborn. I’ll wait and I’ll love you. I’ll protect you and give you time because I know with every fiber of my being how good we can be together. Just give us a chance.”

Her arms lifted to wrap around my neck and, as the sun rose over the mountains and a faint golden light glowed in the room, I held her close to my heart.

I could love her through this. I had to.
I didn’t have any other choice.

“Why do you want me?” she whispered. “Why me? You could have anyone, and you set your sights on a barmaid mother with a boatload of issues.”

I combed my fingers through her hair and drew back to press a soft kiss on her nose.

“Because you’re you,” I replied. “You’re soft and sweet and kind and warm. You have an adorable kid, and you’re a gentle and patient mom. But more than anything, I've never known a soul that made me feel like you do, that made me want to be a better man like you do.”

“I don’t think you could get any better, Cody,” she whispered. A wistful cast lit her eyes for a split second, so quick I almost missed it before she dropped her eyes.

“I’ve gotta get to work,” I murmured, “but I’ll see you tonight at the Copperline, okay?”

She gave a hint of a nod and lowered her arms to rest her hands on my chest.

My heart simply ached as I pulled away and stood. I walked to the door and met her sad gaze one last time before I left for work.

I had no idea what to expect after those couple nights. I wondered which Ilsa was going to come into work. The new, sweet Ilsa that I’d held and loved, or the timid, evasive one that pushed me away.

Every time I’d made headway with her before, she avoided me after. I hoped this time would be different, that she wouldn’t pull back, at least as much as she had before. For all I knew, though, she could just up and disappear. She sure didn’t have much to pack.