Chapter Three
He’d never been uncertain about being naked in front of a woman before. It was a weird sensation. His throat tightened as Hayley checked him out. Why did he want her to be impressed so much? He wasn’t one of those blokes who manscaped and fretted over the way he looked, nor was he the kind to hang his worth on the size of his dick and muscles. Hell, that kind of bloke didn’t survive the harsh Outback life, and Lacky and his mates would give him shit if he even thought about it.
Until now, he’d never given a rat’s arse what one of his sexual partner thought of his physical appearance.
His heart thumped fast as Hayley slowly ran her stare over him, from the Southern Cross tat on his chest, down to the boner jutting up from his balls, to his thighs—paler than his arms and marked by more than one knotted, jagged scar thanks to his short-lived flirtation with the professional rodeo circuit—and back up to his chest again.
Did she like what she saw?
Fuck a duck, Kerrigan. Does it matter?
Yeah. It did. Because he liked her. On a level beyond just sex. He liked her.
Which was a problem, given he wasn’t planning on sticking around in the States for much longer.
When he couldn’t handle the silence any longer, he gave her a sheepish grin and held his arms out to his side. “Do I pass muster?”
“I think I had an orgasm just looking at you.”
His body—hell, his soul—reacted to her statement. His cock twitched, eager to get on with the action. His heart hammered faster.
Another first for him. He’d been horny before, but how he was reacting to Hayley Miller was more than just horny.
Get in. Get out. Get gone.
His chest squeezed and he dragged his hand over his mouth. He recognized the place the ugly, unpleasant thought came from: the dark place where the kid abandoned by his parents dwelled and festered.
Dropping his hand, he drew a deep breath and smiled at Hayley. He wasn’t rushing this. Fuck that. Whatever this was, he wasn’t pissing off the second he’d shot his load.
“Orgasm number four, coming right up,” he said, closing the distance between them.
“Wait wait wait.” She halted his progress with a smile and a palm. “I think it’s only fair I chalk one up for you, don’t you?”
She reached for his cock, her fingers brushing its engorged length.
He pulled away, shaking a finger at her. “Gorgeous, I am so fucking horny for you right now, I will blow my fucking load if you so much as touch me.”
“Oh, you really know how to make a girl feel incredible.”
“You feel more than incredible.” He caught her wrist in a gentle grip and tugged her from the table. “Now, I want to make you come by just sucking your amazing tits. Reckon I can do it?”
Her eyes closed as a soft moan fell from her. “I don’t know, but I’m not going to stop you from try—”
He scooped her up off her feet and strode across the room to the closest sofa. Laying her on her back, he smoothed his hand over her belly and closed his lips around her right nipple.
She arched beneath him, snagging a handful of his hair and balling her fist tight as he sucked harder.
He fingered her clit with teasing pressure, feasting on one nipple until she began to pant and whimper, and then moving to the other nipple, doing the same.
The sounds of pleasure she made, the way she openly and uninhibitedly responded to his touch, drove him wild. He’d never really gotten off on the sounds of sex before—he rarely made a sound himself during the deed—but Hayley’s moans and pleas in his ear turned his cock harder and harder with every second.
He worshipped her breasts, over and over. Licked her nipples, flicked them with his tongue, nipped them, suckled on them. Her flesh felt made for his mouth. Her nipple nestled in the curve of his tongue perfectly. With every suck, with every draw, his cock throbbed more. With every moan from her, his heart smashed faster in his chest. With every whimper of his name, his hunger for her grew more potent, until he could barely stop himself climbing on top of her and sinking his dick into her tight, wet heat.
When she began to tremble, when she began to claw at his bare back and shoulders, when she began to mew his name, he knew she was as perilously close to eruption as he was.
Fighting to control himself, he laved her right nipple with his tongue and reached for his straining cock, choking it with a fierce hand.
Not yet. Not yet…
“Oh fuck, Baz,” she cried, hips bucking upward into his other hand. “Yes, yes!”
His fingers grew warm with her release. He growled his approval, happiness and hunger rolling through him.
Lifting his head from her breast, he smiled. “Reckon I did alright, eh?”
Her lips stretched, her eyes shut, her cheeks flushed. “I’ve never had an orgasm that way before. Can I keep you?”
A band clamped around his chest and he pulled in a slow breath. “You remember the seat on the loo thing, right?”
She waved her hand and shook her head, eyes still closed, smile stretching wider. “It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”
He chuckled, even as the pressure on his chest grew heavier. It would be easy, so easy to just bring his US trip to an end here; to stay put in Baltimore until he was due back home. Lacky was due for his next round of chemotherapy in a fortnight, however, and Baz had to get back to his uncle’s pub. Even though Lacky’s mates—Evan, Charlie, the doc, and Ryan—said they’d run the pub if Baz didn’t get back in time, he wasn’t going to let that happen.
He didn’t turn his back on the only family he had, no matter how amazing and incredible the sex…no, not just the sex, the girl was.
“I think,” he pushed himself to his feet, raking his hands through his hair as he scanned Hayley’s living room, “I might have a shower, if you’re okay with—”
He stopped as she closed her fingers around his erection in a warm, firm grip.
“You’re not going anywhere, Bartholomew Kerrigan.”
She grinned up at him, and then leaned forward and slid her mouth over the crown of his dick.
Pleasure sheared through him. Robbed him of his ability to move, to stop her. He ground his teeth, the sight of her soft pink lips rimming his cock flooding his body with urgent need.
Fuck a duck, he was screwed.
His hips rolled before he could stop them, driving his length deeper into her mouth.
She moaned, her gaze holding his as she cupped his balls with one hand and cinched the root of his erection with the other. Her tongue slicked over the sensitive glans beneath his crown, igniting a deeper need, a carnal response.
With a muttered “fuck me,” he fisted his hands in her hair and slammed his cock fully into her mouth.
She sucked, kneading his scrotum, her eyes fluttering closed.
Words of rapture and appreciation filled Baz’s head, leaving him as inarticulate grunts and groans. He tried to rein in the lust, the raw pleasure propelling his hips, but every touch of Hayley’s tongue, teeth, and fingers on his body denied him. It was too fucking good. Too amazing.
When the icy-hot tingle began at the base of his spine, when the soles of his feet began to itch, he knew he was about to erupt.
Tightening his fists in her hair, he pulled his cock free of her mouth. “No…”
“No?” she echoed, frowning up at him, her fingers stilling on his balls.
“Not yet.” He shook his head, half smiling, half panting. “I still want to give you more.”
She chuckled, resting her forehead on his abs. “Goddamn it, Baz. I don’t know if I can survive you.”
He closed his eyes. There was fear in her voice as well as happiness. He got it. Understood it. He’d had more than a few hook-ups but none had affected him like this one. How the hell was he going to walk away from it? From her?
“Focus on the always-up loo seat,” he suggested, giving her a playful grin.
He would walk away. He had to. Lacky needed him. His life was in Australia, not here.
She shook her head against his stomach, and then looked up at him, closing her fingers gently around his straining erection. The fucker actually hurt, it was that hard. “If you want to give me more, give me more. Now. Not later.” She squeezed his cock a little. “Give me more with this. Fuck me, Baz Kerrigan. Hard and fast and without any preamble or tenderness.”
Hot greed ripped through him at her blunt order. An impatient spasm made his dick jerk in her grip. His chest tightened. His balls rose up.
“Are you sure?”
She nodded, holding his stare. “If I asked you that question, how would you answer?”
“Fuckin’ oath I’m sure.”
That devilish light gleamed in her eyes again and her lips curled. “Fuckin’ oath I’m sure.”
Her Australian accent was atrocious. It didn’t matter a damn iota. He dipped his head in a single nod. “Alright.”
He followed her from the living room, pausing only to scoop up his jeans from the floor. She opened her mouth to ask why but stopped when he pulled his wallet from one of the pockets, and then a condom from his wallet.
“Ah.” She smiled.
He grinned and wiggled the packet at her.
She laughed, and then turned and walked to her bedroom, removing her dress as she went. She’d never been one for dramatic undressing, but there was something about Baz that brought out the devil in her. She let the soft garment shimmy down her arms to the floor with seductive flourish, giving him a glance over her now bare shoulder as she did so.
“Struth, your arse is hot.”
Her cheeks filled with warmth at his compliment. “Thank you.”
He ran his stare over her ass. “No, thank you.”
She wriggled her hips a little and continued into her room. Okay, normally by now she’d be feeling nervous and conscience about her weight. She’d be trying to hide her curves and sucking in her stomach. So why wasn’t she now?
Because you don’t need to. Not with Baz.
Heart thumping faster, she flicked another look at him over her shoulder. He was either the perfect salve, the perfect rebound, or heartbreak waiting to happen. God help her.
Crossing the floor to her bed, she climbed onto it in the most provocative, sensual, I’m-a-sex-kitten-come-fuck-me way she could, looking at him over her shoulder the whole time.
So of course, not paying attention to where her knee landed, she totally miscalculated where the end of the bed was, and tumbled—boobs first—onto the mattress with a far-from-sexy oof.
Fuck.
Her cheeks burned hot as she scrambled to recover.
Behind her, Baz chuckled, low and throaty. And then his hard, warm hands were smoothing over her hips, her waist, and he gently turned her to face him.
Her breath caught at the open desire in his hazel eyes. “Sorry,” she muttered. “Way to make a fool of my—”
He kissed her silent, pressing her backward and onto the bed.
A fire swept through her, hot and eager. She moaned into his mouth, every molecule in her body straining for him. He nestled between her thighs, his cock nudging her folds. Fresh pleasure rushed through her at the intimate contact and she arched beneath him, wanting more.
Scraping her nails down his bare back, she squeezed his ass cheeks and pressed her sex harder to his.
Oh god, I want him in me…
He moved his mouth to her chin, her cheek, and up to her temple, his hands roaming over her waist and rib cage and breasts. “I’m not going to last much longer, gorgeous. I want you too fucking much.”
“Then get your ass into gear and—”
He scrambled off her with a grin, snatched the condom packet from the bed and opened it with his teeth, watching her the whole time.
She caught her bottom lip, her pulse wild. Was this really happening? Was this hot, sexy Australian about to—
He sheathed his erection in a green-and-yellow-colored condom, the glistening surface and taut latex emphasizing just how big he was.
“Oh wow,” she murmured.
“Bit jingoistic?”
She dragged her stare from the impressive sight, up to his face. “I’m not going to complain. I think it’s perfect.”
He removed the small distance between him and the bed with a single step and nudged her thighs a little wider with one knee, running a slow gaze over her. “Perfect doesn’t even come close.”
Damn it, was it possible to fall in love with a guy so quickly?
Holding her stare, he slowly, slowly lowered his body to hers. She wrapped one leg around his hip, granting his erection easier access to her sex.
He rested his upper body on one elbow, trailing the fingers of his other hand over her cheek, her temple, her lips. His cock parted her folds, dipping into her willing flesh a little.
“Hard and fast and without preamble,” he said, voice husky. “That’s what you wanted, right?”
She nodded.
“Guess I’ve stuffed up the without preamble bit, with the whole hey, check out my Aussie green-and-gold condom thing,” he grinned, following the line of her right eyebrow with his fingertip, “but I can do the hard and fast. Fast probably isn’t negotiable anyway at this point in time, with how much I fucking want you.”
She wrapped her other leg around his hip and locked her ankles together at the small of his back. “Hard and fast it is th—”
He sank into her with one fluid, powerful thrust.
Pleasure detonated through her, hot and exquisite and absolute.
“Fuck a duck, Hayley,” he groaned, his eyes closing as he embedded himself deeper inside her, “you are so tight and hot.”
She arched beneath him, pulling him closer with her legs and arms. The fine hair on his pecs tickled her nipples, the delicious sensation shooting licks of pleasure into her core.
“Go the green and gold,” she rasped, clawing at his back as he began to move inside her. “Isn’t that what you Australians chant at the Olympics?”
He laughed, the vibrations from his body radiating into hers. “I think you mean Aussie Aussie Aussie.”
“Oi Oi Oi,” she finished on a moan as he slammed back into her again.
Once again, he laughed, the sound turning into a groan as she clenched her inner muscles around his length and scraped her nails down his back to his ass.
“Fuck,” he growled into the side of her neck. “Here we bloody go.”
His rhythm grew quicker, more erratic. He caught one of her wrists and pinned it to the bed beside her head, holding it and her stare as he drove into her over and over.
With every thrust, with every stretch of her lips by his girth, Hayley grew closer and closer to the edge. Her whole body thrummed, tingling with awareness and pleasure.
“Fuck,” Baz groan against her neck again, hips growing faster. “Fuck, fuck, I’m…I’m…”
His grip on her wrist tightened. She bucked her hips upward, meeting his thrusts with a ferocity she’d never experienced before. His chest crushed her breasts, his breath burned her flesh, his balls slapped against her.
It was so good. Amazing. Incredible. It propelled her towards the precipice. Towards eruption.
He closed his lips around the side of her neck and, his rhythm beyond wild, sucked hard on her flesh.
Pain and pleasure seared her nerve-endings, and she cried out, her orgasm shattering her.
Baz threw back his head, spine bowing, and roared, the primal sound flooding her with rapture and lust anew.
They rode the waves of their mutual orgasms together, stares locked on each other, breaths mingling, fingers threaded, until, with a panted chuckle, Baz rolled onto his back, taking her with him.
She dropped on top of him, reveling in the feel of his spent cock still buried in her sex. The fading throbs of her orgasm pulsed around his length and she smiled, cheek pressed to his chest. “Whoa.”
He laughed, hands smoothing up and down her back. “Whoa is right.”
His heart beat in her ear, fast but growing slower. She closed her eyes, enjoying the fading thump-thump. She’d never been one for snuggling after sex—the clammy sensation of skin on skin wasn’t to her liking—but lying there on Baz, with his heartbeat in her ear and his warmth seeping into her body…
She pulled a slow breath. It was nice. Beyond nice. Surely it wasn’t meant to be this good? Not with a rebound?
Her chest tightened and, making sure his condom stayed where it was meant to, she climbed off him.
A faint frown pulled at his eyebrows as he watched her move off the bed. “What’s up?”
“Nothing.” She walked to the door. “Just going to have a shower.”
She didn’t turn back to see his response. Her heart smashed into her throat. She needed to get a grip. Baz Kerrigan was a one-night stand. Okay, a four-night stand. That was it.
Maybe it’s better to end it now? Before the best sex of my life messes me up for the rest of it?
She scowled, hurrying for her bathroom.
“Get a grip, woman. Get a grip. Enjoy the amazing sex. Treat yourself. And then wave goodbye when he goes. Don’t make things complicated.”
Complicated? Did possibly falling in love after just a few hours constitute as complicated? Or insanity?
“Both,” she muttered, turning on the shower.
Cold water only.
She needed to be clearheaded for when she faced him again.
Fifteen minutes later, chilled but far from calm, she strode back into her bedroom.
Baz sat on her bed, elbows rested on his knees, his lips curled in a shy smile. “You’re going to kick me out, aren’t you?”
She swallowed.
He straightened from the bed and rubbed at the back of his neck.
Mouth dry at the sublime masculinity of him, Hayley licked her lips. “I…why do you think that?”
His chuckle was wry. “I don’t know about you, but that wasn’t anything like anything I’ve experience before. Sex-wise, I mean. That was…”
“Life-changing?” she offered.
His eyes flickered with an unreadable light. “Yep. And it’s freaked you out.”
“A little.” The confession turned her throat thick.
“Me too. So I’ll go. I suspect neither of us are ready for,” he waved a hand back and forth between them, “this.”
She licked her lips again. Damn, why was it hard to breathe? “Okay. Thanks. For,” she waved her hands between them this time, “this.”
He laughed. “No worries, gorgeous. It was my pl—”
She destroyed the distance between them, buried her fingers in his hair and shut him up with a kiss.
Goddamn it, who the hell was she kidding? She didn’t want him going anywhere.