Chapter 21
Emerson
I must have dozed off, because the next time I was aware of anything I was alone in bed and naked.
And sticky. Very sticky between my legs. The scent of sex still lingered in the air. A contented smile spread across my mouth as I rolled onto my back. I wondered where Ace had gone. How long had it been since we’d collapsed, sweaty and exhausted, and Ace had curled around me? A pleasant tingle prompted me to reach down to my pussy, which was still swollen and slightly sore, but not as sore as my bottom. It was a good kind of hurt, though, reminding me of the intimacy with Ace that I’d been yearning for for so long.
I'd never been interested in anal sex.
But with him I wanted to experience it all.
My apartment was quiet. Had Ace left? I rolled from the bed and padded out of the bedroom, hearing a noise coming from the kitchen area the closer I got. I could make out the low murmur of Ace's voice and realized that he was talking on the phone. As I rounded the corner into the main living area of my apartment, my gaze instantly sought him out. He was in the kitchen; his phone was in one hand up to his ear, a cup of coffee in the other.
He was naked. I let my gaze roam down his magnificent body with appreciation. He was heavily scarred in places down the right side of his body, drawing my eye there, but the disfigurement didn’t take away from the sexy, muscular shape of him. Ace was built like a bronze statue, hard, dark, and defined all over. The scars only emphasized his masculinity in my eyes. His long hair, which was loose, drew my interest to his thickly corded neck and shoulders. From there my eyes skimmed down his thick pecs and washboard abs.
My mouth began to water as I took in the ropey cord of his Adonis belt, the thick muscles creating that enticing V that ran down both sides of his lean hips to his impressive cock. And it was impressive--thick and long, even while soft.
It took effort to pull my interest away from said cock, especially since it was moving and growing hard right before my eyes. My gaze continued down his thick, powerful thighs, pausing briefly on a horrendous-looking wound on his leg, before shooting down to his feet.
Everything about Ace turned me on, leaving me tingling with need all over. And when my eyes returned to his semi-hard cock, my core clenched and fresh wetness gathered between my legs. I caught my breath and bit down on the corner of my bottom lip as arousal surged through my veins.
I met Ace’s knowing smirk. He lowered his phone to the counter behind him. His cup of coffee was already there. I hadn’t even noticed him end his call or make any move. He didn’t have to say a word. The look in his smoky eyes beckoned me to go to him. I did so without hesitation, stopping only a few inches away, feeling so small and vulnerable against his imposing bulk.
“Hi,” I finally said with a slightly nervous smile.
He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me flush against him. “Come here, woman,” he growled huskily.
He slammed his mouth down on mine, taking my lips with a hunger that signaled his arousal. I opened willingly, meeting the thrust of his warm, coffee-coated tongue with a whimper of need. Instant lust erupted between us, and I couldn't stop myself from wrapping my arms around Ace's neck and moving my hips against his hot cock. He'd possessed my body completely, and now it appeared that my body wanted more.
Needed more.
I was disappointed when he finally pulled back, but his harsh breathing took that feeling away. The intensity of the arousal that was stamped on his face said it all. Would he fuck me again? Lift me up onto the counter and slide between my legs and take me hard? Like I wanted him to? I'd waited so long for Ace to fuck me, and now that he had I was insatiable.
"Fuck, baby girl, I'm going to hurt you."
His comment caught me by surprise, and I pulled back with confusion, meeting his frown. I wasn't afraid that Ace would hurt me physically, but he needed to explain his words. "Explain, biker man," I said, trying to keep it light.
He growled, sliding his hands down to cover my bottom. "I want to consume you, Emerson." His hands squeezed my cheeks as if he were kneading bread, parting the cheeks as he ground his cock against me. "I want to fuck you into tomorrow. Is that plain enough for you?"
I laughed softly, realizing that I wanted the same thing. "Is that so bad?"
"Fuck yes, it's bad," he rasped. "Right now I want to pound you into that counter, and then I want to pound you up against the fucking wall. I want to fuck you senseless in the shower, before we go back to the bed and do it all over again."
His words turned me on, and I wanted to reach between us, take the hard cock that was rubbing against my sex, and impale myself on it. I quivered all over. "Then do it," I whispered up at him. He stiffened against me, and I sensed his concerns. "You won't hurt me, Ace. You'll only hurt me if you don't."
His grunt revealed the level of arousal that gripped him. It was no less intense for me. My sex was soaked and my clit was thrumming. When his hands took hold of my waist I thought he was going to lift me up onto the counter. Instead he swung me around and slammed me up against the wall next to the front door. I gasped at the impact. Our eyes met and clung for an instant, and after that there was no time for thinking.
Only action.
Ace moved in and gripped my leg and brought it over his hip. At the same time I reached for his heavy cock and brought it up to my pussy. He slammed forward, and I threw my head back against the wall as the pleasant, intense feeling of being filled by him held me paralyzed. I'd never felt anything half as good, until he began thrusting fast and hard, all the way to my aching core, not giving me a chance to catch my breath.
His grunts and the sound of our bodies slapping together both filled my tiny apartment. Every time Ace slammed inside of me I moaned, clenching around him in a pitiful effort to hold him inside. I was pinned against the wall by his hard body. His hands were against the wall on either side of my head as he pounded into me with a ruthlessness that bordered on savagery. And I liked it. I liked how he possessed me with an animal-like superiority that an alpha in the wild possessed.
I brought my hands down upon his shoulders, but he surprised me by grasping my wrists and slamming them back against the wall over my head.
"No!" he practically snarled against my face. "You'll take it the way I want to give it. I want you helpless and vulnerable, baby girl. I want to fuck you hard, fast, and deep, and leave no doubt about who owns you after this." He pulled out and plowed back in, breathing hard. I could feel our hearts pounding against each other. "You want this as much as I do."
He was right. I grunted with every slam of his body into mine, almost mindless with the pleasure that was holding me captive. I couldn't touch Ace the way that I wanted to, but I did clench my muscles every time his cock was trapped deep inside my pussy. His groans revealed that he was feeling just as much pleasure as I.
"Are you going to come for me, Emerson?” he grated in a guttural tone, mercilessly hitting my clit with every downward stroke. "You going to put some cum on my dick, baby?"
I could only whimper in response, the sweaty hair that had fallen into my eyes blinding me. My whole body jolted with his every thrust, my breasts were smashed beneath his unyielding chest. When my leg began to slip down his sweaty hip, he quickly grabbed it and wrapped it back around him. Before I could bring my arm down, he effortlessly took both my wrists in one of his big hands.
I was on the cusp of an orgasm, and when Ace leaned down and took a nipple between his teeth I lost it. With a scream I let my body fall apart in tremendous waves that rippled through me, screaming as uncontrollable convulsions caused my body to twist and wraith helplessly against him. My body clamped down on his cock, dragging a savage groan from Ace, and then he was coming, too. The force of his ejaculation shocked me, and my eyes snapped open in time to see how truly beautiful his face was when he lost control.
This man had no idea. As he grunted his way through his release, everything he was feeling, everything he was experiencing was there on his face. He was no less shattered than I was as pleasure so intense, so powerful, claimed more than just our bodies. We may have been locked in the throes of our orgasms, but still I sensed that this was so much more. I willed Ace to open his eyes to me, and when he did I felt tears gather at what I saw in his.
He was a beautiful, broken man.
Stunned.
Almost, but not quite, vulnerable.
For only a second.
He closed his expression to me so fast that I was sure I'd imagined everything.
I wanted to kiss him, soothe the beast, but knowing Ace, he'd never go for that. No, he wouldn't want chaste kisses. He needed the passionate, hungry kind that fed the unrest in his blood. For just a second I'd seen enough in his eyes to recognize the darkness and pain that he lived with.
"You're going to be the death of me, baby girl."
I smiled, and then groaned when his spent cock slipped out of me. I lowered my leg and then reached for Ace's shoulders to steady myself. "How do you think I feel?"
He surprised me by asking, "I don't know. How do you feel?"
"You want the sappy words, biker man, or do you want the cold, hard facts?" I teased.
"Cold, hard facts every time, baby."
I took a breath. "You filled my pussy with your seed, biker man. I feel totally fucked by you. I feel owned."
He growled before giving me a hard, brief kiss. "Exactly how a man wants his woman to feel after he's done fucking her."
His woman? I contained my happiness, because I was afraid that his idea of what being "his woman" was wasn't the same as mine. Men like Ace were possessive. I'd seen it time and time again with other Sentinels and the way they treated their women.
"Why, Emerson?" he asked me unexpectedly. I was confused by his question until he continued with, "Why did you let me treat you like a fucking whore?"
I knew that he was referring to all of the months that I’d serviced him at the bar, getting nothing but his dirty money in return. He could not understand how I could have allowed him to treat me so carelessly for so long.
I shrugged. "Isn't that what you wanted?” He frowned. "For months I watched you take a different woman out back. I knew what you were doing. Everyone knew. The Sentinels don't exactly keep their sexual conquests to themselves." Neither did the women. They loved bragging about their victories.
"You could have told me the truth the first time I dragged you out back, baby. You took my money."
I blushed hotly at that. "Yeah. I was stunned the first time you handed me money. By the time I was able to talk, you'd already gone back inside." I smiled and stepped around him, walking to a cupboard in the kitchen.
"That doesn't explain why you let me treat you like that." He'd turned and followed me.
I reached for a box, turned and faced him again as I set it on the counter in front of him. I was tempted to lie to him until I remembered that he had asked for the cold, hard facts. "I wanted you," I said simply. I pushed the box toward him. "Every cent you gave me is in this box. I never meant to keep it, or spend it."
He paid the box no mind, a frown still set on his rugged face. "You wanted me enough to let me treat you like a whore?" He crossed his arms.
I didn't understand his growing anger. "At the time I thought that's what you wanted, biker man. The women you, ah, associated with had questionable reputations." I shrugged. "I had developed a, ah, big crush on you, and when you finally noticed me I thought it was best not to reveal that I was a good girl." He snorted at that. "Well, it's true, I am a good girl."
His lips quirked in mild humor. "Yeah, baby girl, you're good at some things."
His meaning wasn't lost on me. The way his eyes swept down my body caused me to go hot inside. Suddenly I was reminded of how wet I was below. I needed a shower, but first I wanted the answers to some questions. "Why did you treat me so differently? I knew you'd fucked those other women when you took them out back. Was it that you didn't want me bad enough to fuck me too?"
"Christ, after the last twenty-four hours, how can you ask me that?" Ace grumbled. "You were so fucking good with your mouth that I was afraid to take things any further with you. Since you seemed willing to continue that way, I took advantage. And when you weren't sucking my dick, I ignored you altogether." He took a breath, releasing it with a look of regret. "I didn't want to see or think of you as anyone I might need in my life."
I just stared at him, not sure of what to do with his explanation. Even though it made him sound like a selfish bastard, I appreciated his honesty. I could almost understand it. I knew some of Ace's story; I knew that of all the Sentinels, he was the most dangerous and unpredictable. He wasn't lovable; he wasn't friendly, except to his brothers and their families. He used women because they allowed him to. I'd heard some of them bragging about being with him, but because he was one of the Sentinels, a biker, and not because of who he was as a man.
Some had made disparaging remarks about his scars when they'd thought that no one was around to hear. But if I had heard them, I was almost certain that Ace had, too. I wondered how deep his scars went, and if that was the reason that he stayed away from women unless they were willing to satisfy his physical needs only. I wondered if any of those women had offered him more than just her body.
"And now?" I finally asked softly, thinking back to his last remark. "How do you see me now, Ace? You don't do repeats. You men--" and by that I meant the Sentinels, "--are so worried that every woman is out to trap you into something that you're not ready for that your ‘hit it and quit it’ rule is known to just about everyone in town. Is this it for us?"
Amusement filled the darkness in his eyes.
I didn't like it, and I slapped my hands on my hips. "I swear if you toss any more money at me I'm going to cut your dick off and hang it up at the bar." Apparently my threat didn't worry him in the least, because his expression didn't waver.
"Calm down, baby girl. Though I like the way your tits bounced when you slapped your hands on your hips." In spite of my obvious annoyance, he wrapped a hand around the back of my neck and pulled me closer. I opened my mouth to protest, but he swooped down and covered it with his, thrusting his tongue inside and effectively shutting me up.
It didn't take long before I was melting against him again and the only thing that I was feeling was his hard chest against my breasts, his hardening cock poking into my belly. Why was I allowing him to have this much power over me? I knew the answer already--because I'd waited so long for him. As the passion ignited between us, he gripped my hair and pulled my head back, placing his mouth against the arch of my vulnerable throat with a groan. His teeth clamped down on me, causing a shiver to go through me.
"I thought I'd made myself clear earlier, baby. Consider yourself claimed."
"You claim all the women you fuck?"
He snorted. "Fuck, no, but I'm claiming you, Emerson. And in case that's not clear enough that means you belong to me."
I was the one snorting now. "Just like that?" Inside I was secretly thrilled. "Sounds kind of barbaric."
"Baby, you've been around the Sentinels long enough to know our practices where women are concerned. When we fall, we fall hard."
Wait, what? "Are you saying that you've, ah, fallen?"
He grew quiet, as if he’d just realized what he'd admitted. I could practically see the wheels turning in his head. Disappointment began to replace my momentary happiness. I took a breath, reminding myself that things were moving too fast, and maybe Ace had just come to the same conclusion.
"Maybe you'd better explain what being claimed by a Sentinel means, biker man." His lips quirked at the corners. "Because I'm getting mixed signals."
His phone buzzed and he reached for it with a slight frown. "This conversation will have to wait, baby."
I waited a minute while he answered. It didn't take long before Ace was scowling at the caller, turning his back to me, and walking away. I got the impression that he didn't want me to hear what was being said. He kept his voice low when his responses required more than the obligatory grunt.
I smiled at his magnificent backside, which looked just as toned and defined as the front of him. He literally had buns of steel, and below that his thighs were thick and powerful. My mouth began to water at all of his sexiness, and I realized that the visual of him was stimulation at its hottest.
I giggled and spun around, deciding that it was the perfect time for a shower.
A cold shower.