Forbidden Fling (Wildwood Book 1) (22 page)

The fire inside his body flared. His thrusts grew harder, his passes over her clit and her anus more deliberate and drawn out, his assault on her nipple harsher.

And she thrived on it. Her fingers opened and closed in his hair, creating a thrilling burn along his scalp. Her body writhed and shivered, growing as taut as a wire, her sounds of pleasure audible aphrodisiacs.

She cupped his face, turned his head, and took his mouth in fervent, wet, erotic kisses that amped his fire, while her other hand found its way inside his pants and stroked his cock beneath the thin cotton boxers.

She broke their kiss, pressed her temple to his. “Don’t stop. Don’t stop. Jesus . . . so good. Ah . . .”

Her pussy clamped down on Ethan’s fingers, and he shook his hand hard, rocking her whole pelvis and drawing a short scream of ecstasy.

Ethan basked in the silent moments of her aftermath—her heavy, quick breaths, the quick beat of her heart, the way she leaned on him with abandon. But he breathed deep of her musky, thrilling scent of arousal and couldn’t keep his fire banked for long.

As soon as her grip on him eased, Ethan pulled back. Delaney’s face was flushed and sated, her eyes heavy-lidded, her body lax. Her sex was full and plump, glistening and gorgeous.

And Ethan was starving.

He dropped straight to his knees.

Delaney gasped. “Eth—”

He scooped his arms beneath her thighs, pulled them wide, and covered her with his mouth. A high-pitched sound vibrated in her throat.

He licked her soft skin, sucked at her, lapped up the excitement he’d just created, loving the way having her bare gave him such intimate access.

“Oh my
God
.” Her hand slid around his head, pulling him in as she spread her thighs wider. “Mmm . . . So good . . .”

Ethan opened his eyes and looked up at her. She looked gorgeous in the shadows, body tense, head dropped to the side, hair spilling everywhere, her other hand gripping the edge of the wooden ledge beneath her.

He pulled back and drew her thighs over his shoulders to free his hands. With one hand, he parted her folds to expose her plump clit. With the other, he stroked her opening, teasing her with shallow thrusts.

She mewled and lifted her hips.

He licked at her fully exposed clit, so swollen and sweet.

“Ethan,” she begged.

Oh, the rush. The woman gave him an honest to God head rush. The whole light-headed-dizzy-blurred-vision package. And it only made him want to go that extra mile to give her all she was begging for.

He pulled his mouth from her pussy and blew on her wet tissues. Her body sagged, and she dropped her head back against the glass with a sound of both pleasure and frustration. As her hand combed through his hair, Ethan flicked his tongue against her clit and slowly pushed two fingers deep into her heat. Deep, deep, deep. Delaney’s hands fisted in his hair, and her body tensed up again.

“Yes, yes,
yes
.”

She brought her other hand to his head and tried her best to pull him into her pussy, which only made him wish he were in a position to roll her over and let her ride his mouth to orgasm. For now he’d have to bring the orgasm to her.

His fingers slid over the swell inside her, and she caught her breath. God, he was so hungry. Hungry for her pleasure. Hungry for his own.

He covered her pussy with his mouth and worked her from the inside out and the outside in. Licking and sucking softly, rubbing and flicking gently. Exciting her slowly, lifting her to a peak where she could see forever before he let her fly. And he lost himself in the erotic thrill of pleasuring her into a frenzy of writhing hips and tense, needy sounds.

Ethan ate it up, every last rock of her hips, every last sip of her juice, until she was shivering on the edge of orgasm, and her big eyes looked down at him, heavy with need and lust. She uttered, “Please . . . Ethan. Need . . . it. Need . . .”

And all it took to get her there was taking her clit between his lips and her G-spot beneath his fingers and giving her that final push.

“Ah . . . ,” she cried out and bowed with the orgasm’s intense rush. One hand dropped back to the sill, giving her leverage to lift into him, and she rode out the rest of the climax against his mouth, where he continued to lick and suck and Delaney bucked and shivered through orgasm after orgasm after orgasm until he’d lost count.

NINE

Once the orgasms subsided, Delaney melted like butter, sliding right off the ledge and into Ethan’s lap, where she locked her arms around his neck and pressed her face to his skin.

Something sweet and soft and completely foreign expanded inside her. Something beyond the simple satisfaction of sexual release. Something that created a sting in her chest and a burn in her eyes.

And even as she caught her breath in his arms, she knew she was in trouble. Deep trouble. Because she didn’t just like him; she cared about him. Cared about him in a way she never allowed herself to care about men.

She squeezed her eyes closed and jumped into denial to create a fence in front of the cliff directly in her heart’s path. She couldn’t fall for him. Absolutely couldn’t. This was sex. Off-the-charts, mind-blowing, religion-altering sex. But just sex.

Her mind pivoted back in the right direction, and she kissed his throat. “I have no words.”

He wrapped his arms around her and straightened, carrying her with him toward the stairs.

When he took the first step without putting her down, she smiled and lifted her head. “I can walk.”

“Nah, I missed my workout today.” He tilted his head and closed his mouth at the base of her neck. His teeth grazed her skin and shot tingles across her shoulders. She laughed and pulled back. He was smiling, his lids were heavy, and he looked . . . happy.

Really happy.

That odd pull tightened her chest again. She pushed off his shoulders and wiggled out of his arms. “Save your energy for the bedroom.”

She started up the stairs, and he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her back against him. The bulge of his cock fit the curve of her ass. He swept her hair off her neck, kissing her there again. Delaney couldn’t keep herself from rocking against that substantial erection. Couldn’t keep her hands from reaching back to stroke him and do a little more work on his pants. He groaned, spread his hands over her belly, and let them roam up her body.

“We’ll never make it to the bedroom,” he said against her neck, his voice low and lust-roughened, “if you don’t stop that.”

She dropped her head back against his chest. “Bedrooms are overrated.”

He made a sound in his throat and covered her mouth with his. God, she loved the way he kissed, his lips so lush, his tongue downright artistic. And when he nudged her up the stairs, she sighed and obeyed. His mouth roamed her neck and shoulder, his hands traveled underneath her skirt and stroked her ass, squeezed her cheeks, dipped in between . . .

Her feet stumbled on the last step, and Delaney gripped the door frame to the bedroom as pleasure rolled through her pelvis. She couldn’t decide which she liked better between her legs—his mouth, his hands, or his cock. They were equally amazing in different ways.

Ethan Hayes was quickly climbing her list as one of the best lovers of her lifetime.

“Can’t wait to slide inside you,” he rasped against her skin.

The thought of him filling her, stretching her, made her moan. She dropped her head against the door frame and rocked her hips back and into his hand. “Then don’t wait.”

“Baby, if I had a condom on me, I’d already be inside you, making your nails carve patterns in my railing.”

Oh, Christ.
Her body responded to the vision his words created with a flood of heat through her pelvis, pooling between her legs where her sex opened like a flower, aching to take him in.

On the landing, she turned and met his eyes with a suggestive smile. “We can always get one and go back. Stairs aren’t going anywhere.”

He held her gaze as he lifted a hand to her jaw, slid it into her hair at the back of her neck, taking a possessive hold. “Neither is my bed. And if you like the stair idea, you’ll
love
what I have in mind.”

The devilish heat in his eyes, the edge of naughty in his smile made everything inside her sizzle. This was exactly the kind of lustiness she needed to push the longing, the sweetness, the affection into the shadows.

He pressed his other hand over her head on the jamb and lowered his gaze to her mouth. Using the hand at her neck, he pulled her to him, and, without moving an inch, he brought her within reach to nip and lick at her lips. And the slow, wet slide of his tongue along her lip as his eyes held hers felt wildly intimate and heavily laden with the symbolism of ownership.

Which didn’t fit him at all.

Then again, maybe she just didn’t know him as well as she thought she did.

He lowered the hand on the frame and followed the path of his tongue with his fingers. Lord, he was so sultry and sensual and sexy. She was already pounding for him again.

“Can you stay tonight?” His question came whisper soft. But he didn’t wait for an answer before he added pressure to her lower lip and drew her mouth open, then slipped his finger inside, and said, “Suck me.”

And another shock of heat cracked through her body.

She closed her lips around his finger, stroked it with her tongue. He tasted salty and musky, and the fire in his eyes created the same heat between her legs. When she pulled his finger free, he cupped her face, his grip firm. “Can you stay so I can have you all night? And wake you with my mouth?”

Her belly fluttered. Confusion clouded her mind. She couldn’t tell if he was sending mixed messages or if she was just receiving them that way. Either way, they kicked off a deeply ingrained self-preservation response.

“Your neighbors shouldn’t see me here. No telling who knows who, you know?”

She tried to keep it light, but the spark in his eyes dimmed and something in that look shot her mind back to that day of the walk-through. That look reminded her that no matter how good the sex was between them, no matter how much they liked each other or even respected each other, there were other forces at work. And as long as the bar was between them, they would be, essentially, enemies.

“Ethan,” she started, a chill stealing over her gut in fear of his answer, “what if . . . what’s going to happen if I decide to renovate the bar?”

His expression changed again. She couldn’t say how, exactly. Just a nuance she couldn’t label, but one that didn’t alleviate her concerns.

He pushed back, taking a lazy stance a foot away. And as he stared at her, thoughts and emotions passed through his eyes that seemed to thicken the air between them.

Then he turned away and sauntered toward his bed. The move created a physical shift in Delaney’s body. One that didn’t feel good, but one she knew they both needed. They were getting in way over their heads.

She waited to see if he still wanted her or if reality would crush their little fantasy world. And in those moments, Delaney realized that going forward in the renovation without Ethan’s affections to look forward to disappointed her in a way she hadn’t experienced since she’d left Wildwood a decade ago. And that was a serious warning sign, because she didn’t let herself get close enough to anyone to be disappointed.

Her logical side was battling to leave while her emotional side was mired in concrete. Before she’d built up enough rationalization to overcome her desire, he planted his hand on a post of the footboard, turned, and met her eyes with a new guard protecting his own. He heaved a troubled breath. “Let’s just deal with that if it happens.”

Now she felt guilty. Guilty for all the trouble she’d brought into his life by coming back to town. “I’m really not trying to—”

“Don’t apologize for taking care of yourself,” he said softly, his gaze thoughtful and serious. “Or for taking care of your family. That’s what you
should
do. That’s how families
should
act. No one’s family is perfect, but at the end of the day, they’re still your family. And I agree that family members should stand beside each other. But I’ve also learned something about family from you.”

She leaned her shoulder on the doorjamb. “Well, that can’t be good.”

“It’s very good. Good for me anyway. You’ve taught me that there’s a difference between family loyalty and abuse.”

She nodded, thinking of Avery and Chloe and her father. “Sometimes there’s a very fine line between the two.”

“Would you be angry with someone doing the same thing?”

“Taking care of their family?” Her gaze lifted to him again. “No. Never.”

His shoulders rose in slight shrug. “Neither would I.”

This.
This was why he’d slipped past her barriers so quickly. This was why he stoked strange emotions in her chest.

He was different. So very different. Open-minded, nonjudgmental, and accepting.

He knew all her sides—good and bad. And he still wanted to be with her because he wanted to be with her. Sure, he wanted sex. But he didn’t want it as a notch on his bedpost.

“And right now,
you
are my grounding force,” he said, dropping to the side of the bed and leaning back on his elbows. “My reality.” His smile was slow and edged with awe and joy. “Delaney Hart is standing in my bedroom with nothing on under her dress. The only way life could get better is if she took it off.”

Delaney laughed.

Ethan’s smile slowly faded as he turned thoughtful again. “I want to watch you undress for me and memorize the sight.”

Those uncomfortable tugs moved from her stomach to her chest, and fear crowded in like soldiers going to battle. Her mind filled with excuses to leave, but Ethan grinned and started swinging his feet as he waited, like a kid on the playground. The sight was so adorable, her fear dissipated, and what remained was affection and desire.

There wasn’t much to her sundress, so she started by toeing off her sandals, then moving on to the belt sitting high on her ribs in the A-line style. With her gaze on his, Delaney took hold of the silver buckle centered just below her breasts and unhooked the thin metal. She let the belt fall away, then dropped it to the floor.

“How long have you lived here?” She took two steps closer to the bed and lifted her hand to the bow of the dress strap on the same shoulder and pulled.

“About three years.”

“I saw your renovations in the bathroom.” She did the same with the other strap and stood directly in front of him. Her breasts were all that held the dress up now. “You do good work.”

“Coming from the historical renovation guru of the West Coast, that’s quite a complime—”

She gave her dress enough of a tug to pull past her breasts, and it slid to the floor. His last syllable hung on his lips while his eyes scoured her like an intimate touch, over and over again, as if he’d never seen her naked. Like he couldn’t take it all in. He exhaled heavily, and the hunger carved in his features mirrored the craving eating her alive on the inside.

“Now me.” His voice was so heavy with lust, it sounded completely different. He lifted his gaze from her body to meet her eyes. “Undress me.”

Delaney grinned. That was an unusual request. She wasn’t sure she’d ever had a man ask—or order—her to undress him. But she liked it. At least she liked it coming from Ethan.

She lifted one knee to the bed alongside his thigh, expecting his gaze to slide down over her body again, but he kept his eyes on hers as she reached for the last button on his shirt and slipped it open. Delaney was the one to break eye contact to appreciate the view. His chest was wide with light-golden hair across his pecs. His belly was tight with a shallow six-pack.

Hunger surged. “Mmm. I’ve been thinking about this.”

She ran her hands over the indentions of his abdomen as she lifted her other knee to the bed, straddling his thighs. Stroked her hands up and over his warm, hard chest and sighed.

Ethan leaned on one elbow and slipped his hand between her legs, but he only touched her with one finger, a featherlight touch that created a disproportionate amount of need. “I love the way you let me look at you”—he stroked her—“eat you”—pushed inside—“touch you.” He pulled out and drew her wetness around her clit in that incredibly gentle way that made her want to writhe.

With a moan, she circled his wrist and pulled his hand away. “Sit up.”

He pulled himself upright, then framed her face with both hands and took her mouth in a searingly sensual kiss. His tongue swirled with hers, and he ate at her mouth like a starved man. Delaney gave back, thrilling with every rush of lust he pumped into her blood. She was beginning to think she’d never felt like this with anyone before. This excited, this connected, this needy. Surely she had, but damn if she could remember who or when.

She pushed his shirt off his shoulders and forced his hands away from her face to pull the fabric off his arms. Then he surrounded her again and rolled her beneath him.

Oh, skin on skin. Beautiful.
The delicious feel of his full weight. The pressure of his rigid cock. She pushed both hands into his hair just as he broke the kiss to lick and bite his way down her body. But Delaney was suddenly ravenous to have him inside her. Filling her.

“I can’t undress you like this.”

She tried to sit up, but he cupped her breasts in both hands, molding and squeezing, brushing his thumbs across her nipples. His tongue licked across one. Then the other. Delaney dropped back against the bed and arched into his mouth. Sensation built and pooled everywhere in her body.

“Ethan.” She lifted his mouth from her breast. “I need you inside me.”

“God, you’re demanding. Nightstand. Condom.”

She reached for the nightstand, but it was too far away, so she rolled to her side and pulled open the drawer. By the time she found the condom, Ethan had ditched the rest of his clothes and was kissing his way down her back with his rigid cock pressed against her ass.

He slid lower, bit her waist, and she flinched and laughed. “I can’t put this on you unless you let me roll over.”

Instead of moving off her, Ethan snatched the condom from her fingers. “I’ll take care of that. And I’ll also take care of you.” He ripped the package, and his hands disappeared as he put on the condom. Then he stroked warm fingers down her arms and covered her hands with his, pressing them to the rail of the footboard. With Ethan’s chest at her back, his cock nestled at the low curve of her spine, he murmured at her ear. “Let me take care of you the rest of the night.”