HisMarriageBargain (8 page)

“Where are you going?” he asked against her temple.

“I don’t know,” she mumbled.

Sammi kissed her cheek several times in quick succession.
Autumn’s smile flickered and she laughed.

There she is.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her onto his
lap. There was no telling how long he’d have this kind of strength, so he might
as well use it while he could.

“What are you doing?” Autumn continued to laugh, which he
preferred to her brooding silence. She twisted around until she could face him,
legs stretched out on the couch to one side.

“Saying good morning,” he replied.

“That’s not how you say good morning.” Autumn cupped his
face and her gaze dipped to his lips. “This is how you say good morning.” She
lowered her face to press her parted lips against his.

Sammi hauled her closer. Autumn’s fingers dug into his hair,
twisting and tugging. He let his hands rove over her back, feeling her smooth
skin, the occasional raised line of a tattoo. Autumn shifted in his lap until
she straddled him. She moved her hips, grinding against his cock.

“Oh yeah,” he murmured against her lips.

“Like that?” she purred, still holding his face.

“Yeah.”

He fisted the delicate material of her cover-up, pulling it
up until he could touch more of her, skin to skin. Was she serious about having
sex with him?

She kissed him again, but this time her hands coasted down
his shoulders and over his chest. Why had he put a shirt on? He was overdressed.

Autumn grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it up.

“You read my mind.” He grinned and she laughed as she tugged
the shirt over his head and tossed it on the couch. Again, she ran her hands
down over his shoulders, chest and stomach.

She’d touched him a hundred times, at parties, during a
tattoo or just hanging out, but this time every inch she connected with burned
with desire. He wanted more.

“I’m just good like that.” She shrugged and leaned back. The
taut muscles of her abdomen rippled as she undulated once, twice. It was dirty
and sexy as hell.

Autumn pulled a packet from her bikini top, a sly smile on
her lips.

Sammi laughed and took the condom from her. “I’d call you a
Girl Scout but I don’t think their motto is the same.”

“I always played better with the boys anyway.”

He left the condom on the couch next to him and slid his
hands up under her sheer cover-up to palm her breasts. Autumn’s boobs had
always captured his attention. They defied gravity and taunted him. And now
they were all his.

Autumn placed her hands over his and squeezed, showing him
how she liked to be touched. He rubbed his thumb over her nipple and she
hissed, so he rolled the peak between his fingers.

She winced and grabbed his wrist. “Careful.”

“Sorry,” he said quickly.

“It’s okay.” Autumn leaned back and drew the triangles of
her bikini to the sides of her breasts. “I don’t think I ever told you they
were pierced.”

Oh hell.

Not only did Autumn have little stainless steel bars through
each nipple, but tattooed around her areola in red, orange and green were
little curly designs, making each breast look like a beautiful unfurling
flower.

Sammi passed his thumb over the hard nub and Autumn’s hips
did an interesting swivel. He glanced up at her face to find her watching him
with parted lips and half-hooded eyes.

“How does it feel?” Sammi rubbed both nipples with his
thumbs, back and forth, in little circles, tweaking the ends of the piercings.

Autumn’s fingers dug into his shoulders. “Makes them more
sensitive and it turns me on,” she got out between little pants and moans.

“What else do you have pierced?” He’d seen the list of
piercings the shop offered, which included a few things he’d never known could
be modified.

“Where’s the fun in telling you?” Her cheeks dimpled as she
grinned mischievously.

So there are other piercings…

“There’s four in your ears. One in each nipple.” He tweaked
those gently and she moaned. “Your bellybutton. Where else have you been
pierced?”

Autumn groaned. “I used to have my dimples pierced, tongue
and superficial piercings down my back.”

Sammi didn’t even know what a superficial piercing was or
how one would pierce dimples. He filed those away to ask her about later. Much
later.

“Any others?” He released her breasts and smoothed his hands
down over her stomach.

“Nope. Not telling.” She shook her head and closed her eyes,
fingers digging into his shoulders.

“Fine. Let’s find out.”

The ties to her bikini bottoms came apart with a single tug
on each side. Autumn steadied herself with a hand on each of his shoulders and
rose up on her knees.

Is this really happening?

Sammi pulled the bikini bottoms from between them and
stared. Her mound was perfectly smooth. Not a hair to be seen. Just a tattoo of
a cat curled up to the left side, just inside the crease where her leg joined
her torso.

Autumn had a pussy…on her pussy. He would have laughed at
the pun, but she arched her back and did what he could only describe as a
stripper body roll. It wasn’t just an undulation of her body. It was a rolling
and curving, a grinding against him.

He almost missed it. Her boobs were still pretty
distracting, but he kept being drawn back to her mound and, when she leaned
back, he glimpsed something silver, metallic, between her legs.

Sammi wrapped an arm around her and hauled her up against
his chest. She laughed with her head tossed back, hair and the sheer cover-up
caught in the wind.

“What?” she asked.

“I think I found it.”

He held her gaze and reached between them. Her folds were
soft and slick with arousal. That was until his fingers brushed something hard
and warm to the touch.

Autumn gasped, her fingernails scraping tracks on his
shoulders.

Sammi watched her face, fascinated by her complete abandon
and the way she never once looked away or played coy. She was fucking
turned-on. By him. And she didn’t care who knew it.

Carefully he traced a ring that pierced delicate skin just
above the hard nubbin of her clitoris. If he held the piercing with two
fingers, he could gently flick the erect button back and forth.

“Oh fuck me,” Autumn said on a whoosh of breath.

Sammi wanted to. His balls ached and his dick was painfully
hard.

“What do you call this piercing?” he asked first.

“Clitoral hood,” she said between clenched teeth. “Sammi.”
She drew out the last syllable for several seconds, turning it into a plea.

He couldn’t say no to that.

Sammi grabbed the condom with one hand and used his teeth to
rip it open.

“Oh yes.” Autumn sighed and sat back on his knees. She
slipped her fingers past the waistband of his shorts and tugged them down.

Between Autumn and him they got his shorts off, leaving him
buck-ass naked on the balcony. It was crazy, and he’d never thought himself the
fucking-in-the-outdoors kind of guy, but he only had one life.

Autumn watched him roll the condom on with that same
half-lidded, predatory gaze.

Sammi had seen her flirt with other men, give them big doe
eyes, but this was different. He could feel it. It wasn’t a random fuck, but
neither was it love. Whatever it was he’d take it.

He wrapped his arm around her waist, urging her closer while
grasping his cock with the other hand.

Autumn tossed her hair over her shoulder and lowered onto his
cock. She was tight and slick. His head fell back on the couch as she lifted
and lowered, fitting their bodies together like puzzle pieces.

“Oh. Oh that feels good.” Autumn coiled her arms around his
neck and he took her mouth. Her inner muscles squeezed him.

She rode his cock. Up and down, her breasts bobbed with the
movement. He shoved the fabric and her bikini top up and caressed her nipples.
The peaks were tight beads, and when he touched them Autumn’s body tensed. Her
hips swiveled in a circle, grinding their pelvises together while she lowered
her mouth to his for a kiss.

He dug a hand into her hair and thrust up, swallowing her
gasp of surprise.

Sammi stared into her green eyes as their bodies moved in
unison. Her mouth dropped open on a silent shout and her fingers dug into his
shoulders, her nails biting so deep there were bound to be marks on him. Her
spine bowed and though she stared at him she didn’t see him.

Sammi thrust again, then once more and Autumn exploded. She
tossed her head back, groaning, and her pussy hugged his cock so tight he came
suddenly. The rush from his balls brought him upright, gripping and hugging her
as their orgasms subsided.

Autumn collapsed against his chest, all the sounds and
smells around them coming back into focus.

“Holy shit.” He kissed her forehead and smoothed her hair
down, but the breeze tossed it back in his face.

“Is that a good ‘holy shit’?” She peeked up at him with the
same mischievous smile on her face.

“Fuck yeah.”

Somewhere beyond the wall separating the balconies a door
banged open and the squeals of children pierced the morning calm.

Autumn met his gaze, her eyes large.

A few seconds earlier and they might have been asking Mommy
and Daddy what that noise was.

Sammi and Autumn erupted in laughter, dissolving into a
tangled heap of limbs, hair and clothing on the couch.

It was a good day.

Labret—This can be either a stud or a hoop that pierces
below the lower lip.

Autumn dropped onto the lounge chair and flashed a smile at
a pool boy. The uniformed staff hurried to put the umbrella up over their
chairs and offered Sammi and her drinks. It was seriously like having a small
army of people do everything for you.

I could get used to this.

“Thank you.” She accepted what appeared to be water with
fruit floating in it decorated with a little umbrella. It was festive and she
was a sucker for the tropical fruit they’d had so far.

Sammi dug into the tote full of their stuff she’d hauled
down and pulled out the sunscreen.

“You actually use that stuff?” She pulled a piece of orange
out of the water and sucked the juice out.

“This tan?” Sammi held out his arm and squeezed out a line
of sunscreen. “It’s natural Persian, baby.”

She rolled her eyes. “Please don’t start with the Persian
stuff. I don’t think I’m ready for that.”

“Too bad. You married all this.” He slid his palms down his
chest, smearing the lotion on unevenly and grinning at her ridiculously.

“Oh my god, please don’t remind me.” She laughed and set her
water on the table. “Here, let me do your back and then you can help me.”

Like many heavily tattooed people, Autumn took good care of
her skin, always using sunscreen, lotions and exfoliating to keep her tattoos
as beautiful and fresh as possible. Just as the sun damaged skin, so it damaged
tattoos. She was frustrated when people ignored this little fact or were
completely ignorant about it, despite receiving aftercare instructions.

“Thanks.” Sammi turned his back to her.

Autumn kept her smile firmly in place as she ate up the
sight of him. She squirted lotion into her hands and slicked it down over his
skin. God, she loved touching him, and to think, he’d been inside her an hour
ago. The lotion made his skin glisten, the tattoos turning glossy. Though he
hadn’t asked, she slicked it up his neck and down the backs of his arms.

Fucking him had been as good, if not better, than she’d
thought it could be. With his take-charge attitude, once they got started, he’d
moved her where and exactly how he’d wanted. And it had been hot.

Her pussy tingled with the memory of how he’d felt, the way
he’d learned her body so fast, playing her as though she were an instrument.

“There you go,” she said at last, wiping the excess on her
thighs.

“Your turn.” He took the bottle from her and squirted a
liberal amount of sunscreen in his palms.

“Sammi…” She eyed the globs.

“Relax.” Neither his tone nor his grin inspired serenity.

Autumn scooted down her chair. “Sammi, I don’t know what
you’re doing—”

He stood, white lotion dripping off his hands.

She jumped to her feet and backed away, visions of sunscreen
covering her, matting her hair and all over her clothing. “Sammi, no.”

“What? I’m just going to put some lotion on you.” He prowled
slowly, grinning mischievously.

Autumn backed into a member of the hotel staff taking an
order from another patron. “Sorry,” she said to them while watching her
husband—oh lord, he was her husband—stalk her.

She giggled and adrenaline coursed through her veins.

There were times to stand and fight, and there were times to
run.

Autumn grabbed the trailing bits of her cover-up, turned and
bolted for the beach.

“Hey, come back here,” Sammi yelled.

She wove through the people set up to sunbathe, kicking up
sand and earning more than a few terse words. Every few steps she glanced over
her shoulder at Sammi jogging easily behind her, an evil grin on his face.

Autumn ducked through a volleyball game, which gave her a
small lead over her pursuer, who was forced to skirt the volleyball court. She
took her chance and bolted down the beach, but where to go? There wasn’t
anywhere to hide. Still, she laughed despite the absurdity of the situation.

Again she glanced over her shoulder to find Sammi bearing
down on her. She screamed and giggled as he swept her up and carried her into
the breaking waves. They laughed and stumbled as the water battered at their
legs and she tripped him up trying to get her feet back on the ground. They
toppled sideways, landing in the wet sand as the ocean surged up onshore,
washing over them and breaking the fall somewhat.

They spat sand and seawater between gasping for breath.

“You’re going to pay for that,” she vowed despite laughing.

“Only if you make me.” He stared down at her and she wished
she could see past the sunglasses.

Water rushed around them and the sand tickled her skin as it
was swept out to sea.

“Oh I’ll make you.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and
pulled him down for a kiss just as waves surged up to lap around their bodies.

Sammi sank against her, taking her mouth in a possessive
kiss. A thrill shot through her screaming,
Yes!

“Hey, this is a public beach,” a shrill voice called out.

Shit.

Sammi simply groaned and jumped to his feet, showing none of
the previous day’s exhaustion. He helped her to her feet and they turned to a
woman wearing capris, a t-shirt and a shrewish cast to her face.

“Sorry, ma’am. Just got carried away,” Sammi said to her.

He wrapped an arm around Autumn’s waist and ushered her back
up the beach. Not twenty feet away they dissolved into laughter and giggles,
leaning heavily on each other. Somehow they made it back to the chairs, worse
for the dip and random patches of sunscreen everywhere.

Autumn pulled the cover-up off and proceeded to apply her
own sunscreen.

“What? You don’t want my help now?” Sammi asked as he sipped
what appeared to be a mojito.

She stuck her tongue out at him. “Not really, but thanks.”

“Fine. I see how it is.” He settled in and watched her
unabashedly.

What is he thinking?

She couldn’t get her mind off repeating that morning. The
way he’d thrust into her and tweaked her nipples. A shiver stole down her spine
despite the heat.

Autumn hid her reaction by clipping her hair up and
continuing to slather on lotion.

She didn’t know how to act or what to say. Though she’d had
plenty of guys in her life start out as friends and turn into fuck buddies or
even relationships, she hadn’t married any of them. Marriage changed everything.

“You have the best breasts I’ve ever seen,” Sammi said,
breaking into her thoughts.

Autumn glanced up. “You do realize they’re implants?”

If he thought they were quality he was sadly mistaken. She’d
always been self-conscious of the slight size difference, and how one nipple
pointed more up than the other. While she liked having bigger breasts, she
didn’t like hers. Maybe she’d actually take a chunk of the money Sammi was
giving her and get a proper boob job.

He shrugged. “So? They’re pretty awesome. You should keep
rubbing sunscreen on your chest for a little while longer so I can watch.”

“You are such a guy.” She rolled her eyes and moved on to
her legs.

“I am. Thanks for noticing.”

“Not hard to miss, thankfully.”

He left her alone while she finished what she could. Then he
wordlessly took the bottle, moved to her chair and did her back without any of
the childishness they’d enjoyed earlier.

“How are things at the shop? I haven’t been by since we
finished my back.” He pulled the thin strings of her bikini around, rubbing his
strong hands over her muscles, kneading them as he went.

“Okay. Pretty routine.” She let her eyes drift shut and
enjoyed his touch.

“What are they going to think about us?” From his tone it
was impossible to guess what the real intent of his question was.

Autumn blew out a breath. Right now she didn’t want to think
about the girls and all the trouble she’d be in later.

When a girl got married, everything else took a backseat,
right?

She’d worry about the consequences later.

“I would guess Mary will be pissed because everything I do
pisses her off. Kellie will bitch about me flaking out again. Pandora won’t
know I wasn’t there ’til I get back because she’s been off doing a Sucker Punch
Sunday memorial with Brian. Carly will be ticked I didn’t tell her I was
leaving. We were supposed to go to the movies tonight.” The four girls were
Autumn’s best and only girlfriends. Sometimes it felt as though they had her in
their crosshairs, waiting for her to mess up. She was always screwing up
without meaning to.

“What about the trial?”

Autumn’s stomach clenched and she glanced around.

There was what Sammi really wanted to know. She could tell
by the way he slid the question in there when she wasn’t expecting it, asking
as casually as he would if they were talking about lunch.

A little over a year before, Autumn’s coworker and bestie
Pandora had become the fixation of her ex-boss and former fiancé, Robert. It
had escalated quickly from stalking to straight-up attacking Pandora, then to
driving his truck into the old So Inked shop and torching it in the middle of a
going-away party for Carly. The incident had left Carly partially paralyzed and
in a wheelchair. Autumn had walked away with scratches, a dislocated arm and
nightmares for weeks. How Pandora and Carly slept knowing Robert was alive,
even if he was behind bars, was beyond her.

“Fuck.” How had she forgotten? She grabbed her drink to
moisten her mouth.

“What?”

“The pretrial shit. It started today. Fuck me.” Autumn put
her glass down and ran a hand through her hair, except she had it up in a clip
so she pulled locks out. Sometimes she had the brain of a goldfish. Give her
five seconds and she forgot everything.

“Damn. I knew it was coming up soon, but I didn’t realize it
was this week.” His face creased in worry.

“We were going to close the shop today and go in for
whatever they were doing. Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck.” She pulled the clip out
of her hair and wound it back up.

Sammi reached for her hands, holding them between his. “Hey,
you guys went through a lot because of that asshole. You don’t really want to
be there.”

“No, but Carly and Pandora are going to have to be part of
the whole mess.” And she wasn’t going to be there to sit beside Carly.

I’m a shitty friend.

“Hey.” He tugged on her arms. “You can’t do anything about
that now. When the trial starts we can both go. He’s going to get put away for
a long time.”

Autumn nodded. There was no doubt that Robert would be out
of their lives, but the whole process just seemed to drag that inevitability
out.

“Let’s get something to eat, okay?” He grabbed a menu from
their side table and held it out between them.

* * * * *

Sammi watched Autumn put away a whole sandwich. She’d been
quiet while they ate, but the way her foot bobbed in time to the music made him
think she had moved on. He hoped so. This trip was supposed to be about fun.
They could figure out the details back home later. As much as he wished things
could be different, trying to solve them now would only ruin the remainder of
the trip.

He ate the rest of his grilled no-frills sandwich and
relaxed into the chair. Recently he had been having some nausea after eating,
but it hadn’t bothered him since yesterday. It was a pleasant surprise, and
he’d take it while it lasted.

In fact, he felt pretty damn good.

“Want to go for a walk down the beach?” he asked Autumn.

“Sure. Should we take our stuff with us or run it up to the
room?” She swung her legs off the side of the chair and dug her toes into the
sand. The bikini she’d worn to the beach had more coverage than the one she’d
worn that morning, and there was an iridescent quality to the pink fabric.

Part of him was glad she was more covered up, that he was
the only one who got to see those swirling tattoos around her nipples. He
wanted to trace the lines with his tongue, find out just how sensitive the
piercings made her and what the clit ring did for her. She certainly orgasmed
harder than many women he’d been with, and he loved making her scream like
that.

Sammi cleared his throat and grabbed the beach tote. “Nah,
we can leave it with the beach bellhop.”

“Beach bellhop?” She stared at him from behind oversized
sunglasses.

“Yeah. One of the resort’s perks.” They headed toward a tiki
hut where the servers were bustling around.

Their server spotted them instantly and jogged across to
them. “Can I help you?”

“Can you check this for us? We’re going to take a walk.”

“Absolutely, sir.” He nodded and accepted their bag.

“What was your name? I didn’t even ask earlier.” Autumn
wrapped her hand around Sammi’s elbow, sliding it up and down in a gesture
she’d done a hundred times. Except now it sent prickles of awareness through
him.

“My name is Timothy, ma’am.”

Autumn extended her hand. “I’m Autumn and this is Sammi.
Thanks for watching the bag for us. Lunch was really good.”

Timothy glanced at Sammi, but he merely shrugged. The hotel
staff were used to affluent people who didn’t see them but used them daily.

People like Sammi.

Autumn was a different kind of person, and standing in her
shadow made Sammi a little ashamed of himself.

“Thanks, man.” Sammi handed the tote over and made a mental
note to leave a bigger tip.

“What’s with the face?” Autumn asked as they strolled toward
the shoreline.

“I was just thinking about how you see people.” He shoved
his hands into his pockets and stared off to sea.

“How I see people? Do you have a fake eye I don’t know
about?” She peered at him, bits of her hair flying around her face. She’d piled
most of it up in a clip on top of her head after their quick dip.