He bent to take one nipple into his mouth and she surged into him. He licked until it was hard, began to suck while she moaned and held his head, her fingers digging into his scalp. When he bit her she only sighed. And began to stroke his cock.
“No.”
He grabbed her hand and pulled it away, and before she could protest he turned her around, had her on her hands and knees at the bottom of the stairwell.
“Can’t wait to be inside you,” he said from between gritted teeth, picking her up and moving up a few steps.
“Don’t wait, Mick. Come on.”
She reached back for him, digging her fingernails into his thigh as he gripped her hips with firm, hurting hands. She welcomed the pain, welcomed his command. She spread her thighs wider.
“Hang on, baby,” he ground out as he plowed into her.
“Oh!”
But it was all good—the pain and the pleasure as he thrust into her in one long, hard stroke. The hard surface of the old wooden stairs pressing into her knees. He pulled back, stabbed into her. She swore she could feel the tip of his cock ramming against her G-spot over and over. Pleasure speared through her, desire rising to a dizzying height instantly.
“Come on, baby. I’m going to fuck you so hard. You can take it. Tell me,” he demanded.
“I need you, Mick. Fuck me hard. As hard as you can. Please,” she gasped.
He bucked into her so hard she would have collapsed on the stairs if he hadn’t been holding on to her. And along with the exquisite pleasure was the warm sense of yielding to his command, like lightning filtering through her veins in small electric jolts.
“Oh, fuck, baby girl. You feel so. Damn. Good.”
He rammed into her, again and again, bringing her to the edge.
“Not yet,” he ordered her. “Don’t come yet.”
“God . . .”
But she bit it back, forcing her climax to hover at the precipice. He reached around her and pinched her clit.
“Oh!” She shook her head, her hair flying around her face.
“Not yet,” he ground out, his body shivering so hard she knew he was fighting it, too.
She inhaled, struggling against sensation that threatened to overload, her sex squeezing his big cock with every punishing stroke.
“Gonna come.”
“Please,” she begged.
“Wait.”
To her surprise he turned her over until she was sitting on the stairs. He wrapped her legs around his waist, pausing with the tip of his cock at the opening of her hungry, aching sex.
“Mick,” she breathed.
“Look at me, Allie.”
She locked her gaze to his as he reached under her, lifted her, and impaled her.
“Mick . . . oh . . .”
Her arms went to his shoulders and she hung on while he surged into her.
“Ah, baby girl.”
Something shifted. He tilted his hips, in, then out. Slowly. Excruciating. Wonderful, as pleasure coiled inside her, waiting. And his glittering, gray gaze never left her face.
One big hand cupped her ass, and with the other he reached between them to press on her swollen clitoris.
“Now, baby. Come for me now.”
His voice, his command, triggered her climax. She came, and came apart, her orgasm rippling over her skin, deep into her belly, her sex. Sharp and soft all at the same time. Hard yet liquid. She was shaken by the intensity of his gaze on hers.
“Say you’re mine. Allie,” he demanded, his voice rough. “Say it.”
“Yes. God . . . yours. Always.”
“Mine.”
His body went stiff all over and he plunged into her, shaking as he came.
“Mine, my girl,” he muttered, his mouth going beautifully soft with pleasure.
The reverberations seemed to go on forever as they trembled together, coming and coming. And she saw it in his eyes, in his pleasure-torn expression.
Love.
There was no mistaking it—naked on his face, all of it written there as if in indelible ink, as stark and raw as she felt at that moment herself.
Love him. Always.
She loved him. With all her heart, with every cell in her being. And it was a love strong enough to hold up to the years, the times he’d broken her heart. But even broken, the love had remained. Had only grown stronger in knowing the man he’d become.
Tears stung her eyes. She blinked them away even as her heart dared to soar.
Love him so damn much.
He loved her back.
She’d known it in some cerebral way. But now she felt it. And that was something entirely different.
She blinked. Blinked again in wonder. “Mick.”
He tilted his head, his brows drawn together as if he were thinking very hard. Then he leaned in slowly and kissed her mouth. He pulled back a few inches, then kissed her lips once more. Then her cheek, over and over as she melted into his touch. Then her temple, her ear, her hair, before pulling back to look at her again.
His hand went around the back of her neck, cradling her head in his palm.
“Allie . . .” He paused. Started again. “I love you, Allie girl. My girl.”
Her heart twisted in her chest, wanting to sing, to leap. “I am your girl.”
“You love me,” he said. It was a statement, not a question.
The tears welled in her eyes, making his face swim before her. She blinked them away. She needed to see him. “I do. I love you.”
“I never stopped,” he told her. “Never. I was just . . . stubborn. Stupid. I never gave you enough credit.”
She pressed a fingertip to his lips. “Shh. Don’t. You never gave yourself enough credit, either. But we’re here now. That’s what’s important.”
He nodded, kissed her fingertips, took her hand in his and held it to his cheek. “How can I ask you to forgive me for what I did to you? You loved me, and I didn’t believe in either of us enough. I fucking hurt you.”
“Yes. You did. But it’s time to put all of that behind us. We have to if we’re going to be able to hang on to each other. If we’re going to be able to love each other.” She slid her hands down over his shoulders, gripped the bulging muscles of his biceps. “Mick, tell me you can do that. Tell me you’ll try.”
Suddenly her heart was thundering in her chest. What if he didn’t know how to let himself love her? What if he couldn’t let the past go and move forward with her? Simply saying he loved her was only the first step.
“I don’t have any other choice. Not now. I love you, my baby girl. I love you. I don’t know how I’ve lived without you all these years.” He stroked her hair from her face, his fingers lingering there. “You’re mine now. The way you always should have been.”
“Mick . . . can we really do this? Can we really start over? I’m not foolish enough to think we’ll be starting with a clean slate. No one does that. We can’t pretend the past never happened—”
“I don’t want to. You’re as much a part of my past as you are my present. As I hope you’ll be of my future.”
She smiled, stroked his cheek. He turned his face into her palm and kissed her there. Softly. Lingeringly.
“But things may come up that we’ll have to deal with,” she said. “We have to communicate with each other.”
“You know I kind of suck at that sometimes. If it’s kink related, I’m all about the transparency, but the emotional stuff . . . that’s a lot harder.”
“I know. I promise I’ll cut you a little slack. For being male, if nothing else.”
“Oh, will you now?”
She grinned up at him. “I will. I’m generous like that.”
“I’ll show you generous, my girl. I’ll be generous all over your fine ass.”
“Promises, promises,” she teased.
She yelped as he picked her up, threw her over his shoulder and started up the stairs.
“You’re a caveman, Mick Reid!”
“Tell me you don’t love it.”
“I . . . plead the Fifth.”
“Ha!”
“Where are you taking me?”