“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU doing?”
She pulled off her shirt and tossed it on the floor. All the blood rushed from my head right down to my cock. Her pearl white skin against the black lace bra covering her breasts left me speechless. Fuck. Everything about her threw my usual steady composure into unchartered territory.
I wanted to fuck her. Hear her scream and beg, and I wanted it over and over again.
The sound of the zipper on her jeans had my heart slamming like a freight train into my ribs. I swallowed. Why was I just standing here? Why couldn’t I react? I should grab her and fuck her to get it out of my system. I’d never expected it would be her doing the instigating and me the hesitating.
I grabbed her arms. “No.” What the hell was I doing? I hadn’t been laid in months. I’d stalked her; watched her for months and now . . . now I was pushing her away.
But I was selfish and harsh and she’d said it herself . . . I was an asshole and suddenly I didn’t want her to see me that way.
“Why not? You want me and I want you. It’s sex. I’m not stupid enough to think it’s anything more, Jasper.”
I jerked at her words. For some reason, Max’s words bothered me—big time. That should be even more of a reason I should fuck her and prove to myself this was just that—sex. “How long since you fucked a guy?”
“What?” Her arms moved as if she was about to cross them over her breasts and then decided against it and put them back at her sides. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Because when I fuck you, it will be hard. I need to know if you can take it.” I’d expected her to grab her shirt and put it back on. That was what I had intended. To scare her. Instead, she stared at me as she undid her bra and let it fall to the floor.
Fuck.
I was a guy. A guy that didn’t give a shit if a woman hated me in the morning, but they never did. I may be a selfish bastard but I never left a woman unsatisfied. And it was more a self-serving reason as I could always get seconds when I wanted. But this was different. Everything about it was different. Max was different.
And that should’ve scared me enough to walk away.
But Max . . . staring at her milky white, naked skin . . . her handful of breasts with nipples erect and waiting for my mouth to suck on them. I should’ve walked back into the bathroom, shut the door and jerked myself off in the shower.
I didn’t.
She wiggled her hips, slid off her jeans and stepped out of them.
Jesus. It was that word for two reasons. She was fuckin’ gorgeous even with scars all over her legs and a few on her stomach. Some of them were faint lines like what would come from a knife, but others looked raw and raised, maybe burns from something.
And that fucked me right up imagining her being held down and burned and cut, her screaming with pain, thrashing against the very bastard I was protecting her from. I could picture it, hear it and it was fucking with my head because I’d lived it. Watched as a child had been thrown carelessly into a grave after hearing the screams.
Shit, Max deserved more than me. I couldn’t do it. I wanted to prove to myself that I could and still walk away from her, but I knew I was already feeling more for her than I should. For months I tried to convince myself it was nothing, but it was something. It was a fuck of a lot of something. “Put your clothes on.” I turned away from her, walked around the other side of the bed and lay down. I put my hands beneath my head and closed my eyes. Unfortunately, all I saw was Max standing naked and willing in front of me.
“Is it because of my scars?”
Now, that pissed me the fuck off. “Jesus, Max. No. That’s not fuckin’ it.” And it wasn’t. Her scars made her more beautiful because they made her real. Not some fake piece of ass I didn’t give a shit about.
Fuck.
Fuck.
I didn’t give a shit about Max. This was a job. She was a fuckin’ job. But she wasn’t. She had never been a job. She was Max. The girl I watched for months because I couldn’t stay away.
The mattress sagged and creaked and then—
My eyes flashed open when her hand brushed across my thigh. She had one knee on the bed and the other leg lifted and went over top to straddle me. My hands flattened against her naked thighs and I groaned. I didn’t have to ask what she was doing. I knew damn well what the hell she was doing. And I’d given her an out . . . that out expired the moment she straddled me.
I couldn’t resist. Not anymore. “Fuck, sunshine.”
My palms slid up her thighs, curved around to her hips and then over the bare flesh of her ass. A finger slipped into the string of her thong and I pulled upward—hard.
Her breath hitched and her body tensed with her head slightly titled back. I fisted the strap in my hand and pulled up again so the thong was tight in her ass and panties putting pressure on her pussy. I tugged upward again. She pushed back against the pressure. There was defiance in her eyes mixed with the smoldering desire I had craved since the day I met her. It was for me. She wanted me just as much as I wanted her.
“I’m not nice, Max.”
She raised her chin a bit. “I know.”
I looked away for a second, nodding and said quietly, “Don’t hate me in the morning.” I’d never said that to a woman before because I never cared whether she did or not. But Max . . .
“Oh, I already hate you, so sex won’t make a difference.” I saw the slight twitch at the corners of her mouth and that did it. All resistance and doubts crumbled.
I grabbed her around the waist and in one motion, tore off her panties and had her flat on her back. I locked her wrists above her head with one hand, my legs straddled her, weight pinning her beneath me, helpless and unable to do anything but submit to me.
That was what I wanted—submission. I wouldn’t get it completely, for that I needed her to trust me and that wasn’t in the cards. But I’d take what I could like I always did.
And at the moment—that was her.
I reached over the side of the bed and searched inside my bag for a condom. Quickly, I ripped it open with my teeth.
I didn’t take off my jeans, but unzipped them, pulled out my cock and rolled the condom on. This was sex—raw, uncomplicated and without the intimacy of kissing. From the hard look in her eyes, she knew exactly what I was going to do and I didn’t need to check if she was wet. I knew she was. Her body quivered with anticipation beneath me. Her skin flushed. Her pulse thumped frantically in her throat.
I held my cock as I slid it up and down between her legs, her wetness clinging to the condom. Her legs bent on either side of me and I let her wrists go to put one leg up on my shoulder. “You’re soaking.”
“Must be your glowing personality,” she replied.
I cocked a smile, ran my hand down her leg, over the raised scars to her thigh, across her abdomen, then lower. The second I touched her clit and put pressure on it, her body tensed and I thrust my hips forward and drove my cock inside her.
It was a harsh move, knowing she was already tense and clenched, but I never said I was sweet and gentle, just the opposite and I saw her expression, heard her sharp intake of breath. Shocked at the sudden intrusion. Pain. And then acceptance as desire blazed from the depths of her eyes.
She was fuckin’ tight as hell, clinging to my cock as I moved. I put more of my weight on her, jeans rubbing up against her, my pelvis rocking so it hit her clit with every thrust.
I pulled all the way out then hesitated and pounded back into her over and over again. She was panting, eyes closed, hands curled into the pillow on either side of her head.
I watched her tense with every shove of my cock deep inside. The pain, the relief and then the ultimate pleasure as I did it over and over again until her body quaked and knew she was close.
I pulled out. Her eyes opened and met mine. It was in that second I knew I couldn’t do what I was hired to no matter the consequences. Maybe I’d known all along, but tried to convince myself otherwise. Prove to myself I could if I had to.
But this wasn’t just raw fucking. This was her—Max. And no matter what went down with Drake, I knew killing her wasn’t an option.
“You going to finish me off?”
I flipped her over so she was on her stomach. “On your knees.” She did as I ordered and I ran my hands over her ass. Jesus, it was perfect. A little plump so I had something to hold, to grab, to slap if I wanted to.
I groaned and my finger slid down her ass crack and then between her legs where she was soaking wet. Fuck, that was the best turn on. A woman who was wet as hell. I shoved my finger inside her and she moaned, her front end lowering like she was a cat stretching.
“Hurry.”
I grinned and then pulled my finger out of her and looped my arm in front so I could slap her clit.
“Fuck,” she cried and tried to move away.
I tugged her back hard against me and hit her clit again with two fingers. She tried to sit up and I shoved my hand down onto her neck. “Stay there.”
“That hurts.”
“Yeah. But you like it. You want it. Right?” I didn’t have to ask because I knew she was like me—hiding a part of herself.
But sex was where I’d found release and whether she knew it or not, so would she. It was where I could let go and finally just feel. I wanted Max to experience that. To drop the shield and let the pain in, and with it, the pleasure.
She didn’t say anything and I did it again. This time her body trembled after the pain. I knew she could take it. “Scream, sunshine.” I rubbed her clit back and forth and she moaned. Then I flicked it and her back arched. She was giving in to it, pleading for it, wanting the pain.
“Let go, baby.” I grabbed my cock and slid it down her ass crack. Then with a hard shove, I pushed inside her and at the same time tapped hard on her clit.
She screamed.
“That’s it.” She gave herself to me as her cheek pressed into the pillow and all the tension in her body released, becoming mine to do with as I wanted. The denim of my jeans rustled as I thrust faster and faster into her, my fingers playing with her at the same time.
“Jasper. God.”
Was that her begging? No, not yet. Not fuckin’ yet. I wanted more from her. I stilled my hand, but kept my hips rocking back and forth harder and harder, her body moving forward so hard she placed her palms on the headboard to keep from banging her head into it.
I saw the second her hand left the pillow and moved down between her legs. “Not a chance.” I was sunk deep when I stopped thrusting and latched onto her wrist. “Only I do that.”
“I need to come.”
“You’ll come when I say you do.” I knew she wouldn’t like that, but I didn’t give a shit. I was holding onto my control by a fuckin’ thread. I was betting my cock was shouting profanities at me for holding off this long.
“Get off me. I’ll finish this myself.”
I kept my voice steady. “Put your hands back where they were.” She tried to elbow me in the ribs, but with my arm snug around her waist, my cock inside her and my weight pushing her into the mattress, she didn’t have a chance. “Put them back.”
The moment she gave in, her body relaxed and she slowly slid her arms back over her head. She hadn’t fought that hard, and I knew it was because she was feeling exactly what I was—teetering on loss of control. This was the only place both of us could let go and she had yet to learn that. I had to push her until she broke, not to hurt her, but to set her free.
“Are you going to use that cock or let it go soft inside me?”
I snorted and did what I had been dreaming about doing since the day I’d met her. I pulled out of her, pressed my hand into her lower back and then with the other hand smacked her hard on the ass.
She screamed and tried to wiggle away, but I was stronger and determined as hell. I smacked her again.
“Jasper. Stop.”
Smack.
She managed to get hold of the top edge of the headboard and with one yank pulled herself out from under me and to her feet. Before she could jump off the bed, I was on her and slammed my body up against her, pushing her into the headboard.
“Let me go, asshole.” She tried to kick back, but the mattress was soft and she lost her balance. I seized both her wrists and locked them on either side of her head against the wall.
“I feel you quivering. Do you like this? The fight?”
“Fuck you.”
“No. I’m fucking you.” She pushed back into me and I chuckled because she didn’t have any leverage—just the way I liked it. “Open your legs like a good girl and let me fuck you, Max.”
What I got in response was a heel to the knee cap which had me grunting and growling. I grabbed her around the waist and threw her down on the bed then fell on top of her. She tried to clock me in the face with her elbow and I managed to jerk back before she made contact.
“You’re not fucking me anymore. I don’t fuck guys who spank me.”
“You’ve never been spanked. How would you know? And right now, I’m betting you’re so fuckin’ hot for me that your pussy is throbbing and wetter than it’s ever been.”
Max was a fighter. She may have remained quiet and reclusive for years, but she was a rebel, and that was dying to get out. And I was going to be the one to release that part of her.
“Don’t ever lie to me, sunshine. Not when we’re fucking. Not when we both can win here.” I ran my finger up and down her through the moisture and then brought my finger to her mouth. She was breathing hard and her eyes were wide.
Uncertain.
Passion blazing.
Need and want.
All of it.
“Taste how wet you are.” I caressed my finger over her lower lip and then her tongue darted out as she licked my finger.
I just about came right then. “Fuck. That’s hot.” And then I did what I hadn’t planned on . . . I replaced my finger with my mouth.
It wasn’t just a kiss. It was the assault of our mouths—bruising, craving, tasting, what we’d been starved for. The vibration of her moan beneath my lips erupted a fierce need inside me. I kept her locked down with my body and my mouth as I grabbed my cock and pushed it back inside her—where it fuckin’ belonged.
Her legs wrapped around me and then I was kissing and fucking her and everything was exploding. Hand clenched in her hair, I thrust faster and faster, the taste of her mouth giving in to my fierce possession and then . . .
She stopped kissing me. She stopped breathing. Every muscle in her body tensed, shivered and trembled.
“Fuck,” I groaned as my final thrust inside her drove deep. I came harder than I ever had and it was almost painful.
I fell forward, my head in the crook of her neck, breathing in her scent, filling me up until I was on the brink of giving her more of myself.
It was then I noticed I still had my clothes on. What the fuck was I thinking fucking her with my clothes on? It was what I normally did with one-nighters. I wanted to be naked and have her curled around me.
“Please, get off me.” Her hands pressed on my chest.
I frowned, and for a moment, I thought of shutting her up by kissing her red, bruised lips. Instead, I sat up, tugged off the condom and tied the end in a knot, then shoved my cock back in my jeans and did them up. She tried to escape by sliding out from beneath me, but I saw her movement and clamped down on her arms.
What the hell? “We had sex. We both wanted it. And it was great fuckin’ sex. Why are you running?” Fuck. I should’ve just got off her and let her go, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t let her go.
She stared at me, and for a second, I thought she was going to tell me as her mouth opened and then she clamped it shut. I saw the change in her, how she stiffened and then the turmoil in her expression. “Let me go, Jasper.”
For some reason, there was a hell of a lot more meaning to those words than me just crawling off her, but I slipped away, and the second I did, she was off the bed.
“Max?”
She ignored me, snatched her clothes off the floor and went into the bathroom.
I heard the lock turn.