He dropped his head and stuck his hands in his pockets, looking absolutely humble—so out of the ordinary for him that she waited with bated breath for what he might say. Either that, or for him to bolt.
Finally he lifted his head. “Okay. You’ve got me there. I was the troublemaker in my family. Neal pulled some pranks, but it was normal teenage stuff. I’ve always been a little darker. Not just the kink, although that probably had a lot to do with how I viewed myself back then. But the staying out late, cutting school, stealing my dad’s good Scotch.”
She couldn’t help but smile. “I always did like a bad boy. But Mick, none of that was really that terrible. You weren’t stealing cars or dealing drugs. You were just a kid with a bit of a wild streak. So what?”
“So you were the A student with aspirations and virginity intact.”
“And you were a high school man-whore. Again, so what?” she countered.
“Only until I met you,” he said, his gaze softening. “Once I met you . . .”
God, he had loved her so much once. She remembered the way he looked at her. The way he held her. As if nothing in the world mattered but the two of them being together.
“Mick, there was an innocence to you back then, too.”
“Me?”
“You were just a kid! Think about a sixteen-year-old now, from an adult perspective. If your nephew cut classes or slept with a few girls, would you think he was a terrible person?”
“What? No, of course not.”
“Then maybe it’s time you cut your teenage self some slack, too.”
“Fuck, Allie . . .”
He looked away, but she could tell she’d gotten through. She waited for him to absorb what she’d said.
He turned back to her and there was the edge of a grin on his handsome face. “But if he tied a girl up, we’d have to have a talk.”
“Yes, you would. And when he was eighteen you’d show him how to do it the right way. The safe way.”
“Yeah.”
“So, maybe not so terrible, are you, Mick? And if it’s the kink issue—”
“No, I’m starting to get that.”
“Okay. That’s good, especially because I feel like that’s what’s brought us back together.”
“I think so, too.”
“And you’re here. You came for me, and that’s important to me. But Mick, there’s still the damn fighting.”
“Sometimes I need it, Allie.”
She shook her head. “You are so stubborn, Mick Reid! You just make me want to . . .” She shook her head again. “And would you just . . . God, you really are dense!”
He moved in and grabbed her, pulling her in tight. The still-mad part of her wanted to scramble away from him, make him work for it, but she melted right into him, as she always did. Nothing in the world felt better than Mick’s arms around her, his scent, the feel of him. The mad faded away.
He held her head close to his chest, his fingers buried in her hair. She laced her arms around his waist, her palms smoothing his muscled back.
“Hey,” he said softly.
“What?”
He grasped her hair just hard enough to tip her head back until he caught her gaze with his.
“This,” he said before kissing her gently.
“I don’t want to hurt your lip,” she whispered.
“I don’t care.”
He kissed her again, harder this time. She felt the swelling on his mouth, and it made her want to cry. But Mick was there and he wanted to be with her, he was willing to talk stuff out, and the crying was over.
He slid his tongue along her lower lip and she opened to him, her tongue darting out to soothe his injury.
He groaned deep in his throat.
She pulled back. “Did I hurt you?”
He smiled at her, a crooked grin. “Yeah. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like it.”
“You’re so kinky.”
“Luckily—thank the fucking heavens—you seem to like that about me.”
“I do.” She smiled back at him, stepped away from him and took his hand. “Come over here and let me show you, Mick.”
He gripped her hand and yanked her back into him roughly, making her gasp. “Oh, no. I’ve had enough of you trying to be boss, princess.”
She yelped when he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. “Hey!”
He gave her ass a sound spank. “Don’t argue with me.”
He carried her into the bedroom and flopped her down on the bed and immediately started to undress her. Her yoga pants came off, followed by her tank top, then her underwear. With only a few fingertips, he pressed between her breasts, using one finger to make a hard pressure point that told her in no uncertain terms to do what he wanted. She lay back and watched as he tore his T-shirt over his head.
She never got tired of looking at his muscled chest, the ridges of his abs. The narrow line of dark hair leading into the waistband of his jeans. She bit her lip as he unzipped them, knowing he always went commando. In seconds he was kicking the denim away and, naked, he lowered himself over her.
She reached for him, her hands hungry for the weight of his already hard cock, but he took both wrists with a low growl and spread her arms out to the sides. He lowered his mouth, and she felt the heat of his breath on the side of her breast before he bit in savagely.
“Ah! Mick . . .”
But the pain was immediately washed away in a flood of endorphins and that sense of being his she craved down to her bones.
She moaned quietly, and he licked at the sore spot, sucked the tender skin. She was going wet, loving his mouth on her, his teeth.
“God, when you bite me . . .” she said, groaning.
“When I bite you, what?” he murmured against her skin.
“It makes me feel . . . owned.”
“Do you want that? Do you like it when I leave marks on you? Tell me, Allie girl.”
“Yes. I love to be marked. I love to look at them and remember it was you.”
“Did you look at your marks while I was gone, baby? Did you want to remember me?”
She licked her lips. “Always. Always, Mick.”
“Allie . . .”
He moved down to her stomach, kissed her there softly, his mouth hot and lingering before he nipped at her flesh.
“Oh . . .”
He paused for a moment, blew onto her skin, tickling her, then he bit. Hard.
“Oh!”
She reached for him, buried her fingers in his hair, but he pushed her hands away and she knew she was to try to hold still. She lowered her arms, spread out on each side, a lovely, liquid sense of obedience flooding her.
He moved to another spot and bit again, and once more she cried out but she didn’t move.
It hurt like crazy. Her body was lighting up with need.
He bit her again and again, moving lower until he was at that tender juncture between hip and thigh. He bit down hard, pulled back just long enough for her to take in a gasping breath, to fist her hands in the duvet. Then he did it again.
“Fuck, that hurts!”
He chuckled. Held her down with both hands on her thighs and did it once more, biting her so hard she didn’t know how much more she could take.
“Ah!”
“Is it too much? Tell me.”
“It’s . . .” She was panting hard from the pain, from the pleasure. “It’s almost too much. And not enough. Please, Mick. I need more.”
His voice was a guttural growl, rasping steel on gravel. “Do you have any idea what it does to me to hear you say these things?” He grabbed her by the waist and picked her up, shoved her farther up the bed. “Do you know how fucking rock-hard I am for you right now?” He got on his knees, sitting back on his heels, shoved her legs apart and yanked her body in, his arms wrapping around her back as he lifted her until she was straddling his lap, his fingers digging into her flesh. She grabbed onto his arms to steady herself.
“This is why,” he gasped as he pressed her hips into his, her open, soaking wet sex coming up against his solid shaft. “This is why I was always so damn careful with you. Because with you . . . Fuck . . . You unleash the beast inside of me, Allie girl. And now it’s been pushed too far to contain.”