Hearts in Darkness Read online

  Experimentally, she dropped her fingers from teasing his nipples and drew lazy circles over his abdomen, enjoying the way his muscles flinched and clenched under her light touch. His breaths quickened when her fingers swirled in the line of brown hair disappearing under his waistband. Without pausing, she continued down over the denim and cupped his considerable length in the palm of her hand.

  "Christ,” he groaned, then thrust against where she was rubbing him.

  His fingers returned to her nipples. She whimpered and tilted her head back to look up at him. His eyes blazed. He leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers, then pushed his tongue into her mouth.

  She went from rubbing him to squeezing him through his jeans.

  "Makenna,” he rasped, his voice soft and seductive, “I want you so much.” He pulled back until they could see one another, then reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear. “What do you want?"

  Reluctantly, she pulled her hand away from stroking him and brought both hands up to cup his face. “Everything. I want everything with you."

  Blood pounded through Caden's body. His senses were on fire—her incredible scent, the sounds of her needy whimpers and moans, the satiny-soft feel of her skin under his fingers, the salty-sweet taste of her nipples. As he kissed and touched her, he watched her intently, eager to learn what she liked, finding pleasure in what gave her pleasure.

  But when she started exploring him, he thought he'd lose his fucking mind. She'd tugged in silent demand for him to remove his shirt, which he'd done more than willingly, then she started devouring the skin of his chest after drinking him in through her eyes. Every movement of her mouth and hands was playful and sensual and set his body to throbbing, to begging for more.

  And she'd given it to him. The press of her small, strong hand around his erection was irresistible. He hadn't held back from using the incredible friction he'd so badly needed and she'd so willingly provided.

  And then she confirmed she wanted him too, just the way he wanted her. Her words resonated everywhere—a long-sought satisfaction calmed his mind and a comforting heat filled his chest. Those feelings were magnificent, life-giving—and more than he ever expected to experience.

  In that moment, though, it was his cock that most reacted to her words, to the fulfillment they promised. And, as if her words weren't enough, she dropped her hands from lovingly holding his face and hooked the fingers of her right hand into his waistband, then turned and led them from the kitchen.

  Caden smiled at her methods and followed her eagerly as she guided him past the small dining table, through the living room, and into her most private sanctuary. The room was square and dim, the distant kitchen light and the filtered light of the moon through the sheer curtains providing the only illumination.

  She turned to face him, but didn't drop her fingers. Instead, she added her other hand and easily worked the line of buttons open. Looking him in the eye, she shoved at the heavy denim fabric where it hugged his hip and at the same time snaked her other hand inside his snug boxers until she gripped him skin-to-skin.

  Caden's mouth fell open at the thrilling sensation of her soft fingers stroking his hard length. He held her gaze, pleaded with his eyes for her to continue on.

  "Fuck. What are you doing to me?” She couldn't know it, but his question was about so much more than the wonderful movements of her little hand.

  When she tugged at his jeans with her free hand, Caden quickly pushed them and his boxers down over his hips. He followed her gaze as she admired him. Her hand looked so good stroking him. He had to close his eyes against the erotic image so he could conjure up more control—he wanted this to go on for a long time. And she was already pushing him.

  She let out a moan that dragged his eyes open again. He wasn't the only one squirming at the picture of her hand around his cock. Makenna's mouth hung open. A flush expanded out across her heaving bare chest. Every few seconds, her tongue darted out across her bottom lip.

  Out of nowhere, she gripped his length more firmly and wrapped a hand around his waist, then walked them backward until her legs hit the bed. She sat down and pulled him another step closer until his groin was even with her face.

  Caden gaped. Desire had never looked more beautiful than when she tilted her eyes up to him and sucked his head between her pink lips. He gasped as the wet heat wrapped around him.

  "Christ, Makenna..."

  He clenched and unclenched his hands and was surprised when one of her hands found one of his. She pulled his palm to her head. Drawing back from him for just a moment, she said, “Show me what you like."

  Her offer astounded him and he grew in her mouth. Need led him to twist his fingers into her hair. But there wasn't anything she was doing he didn't love the hell out of. “Trust me, baby, you know what you're doing. I can't believe...your mouth is perfection."

  She moaned around his length. He shivered at the sensation. The suction of her mouth and the teasing flicks of her tongue melted his insides. He gave in to the urge and applied the lightest pressure against the back of her head with his fist. He resisted thrusting into her mouth though, not because his body wasn't screaming for him to do so, but because he wanted to let her lead this, and he didn't want to finish this way. And he was walking a very fine line.

  Too fine, in fact.

  If he didn't make her stop now, he wouldn't be able to resist the pleasure she was drawing out of him. He tugged at her hair, gently urging her to let go.

  She released him and looked up with wet, shiny lips and a self-satisfied smile. He smirked, then leaned down and kissed her.

  Still attacking her mouth, Caden dropped to his knees, and his hands fell to her thighs. After a moment, he walked his fingers up to her waistband.

  "Lift,” he ordered.

  After he had peeled the last of her clothing from her, he sat back on his heels and drank in the beauty of her femininity. Very deliberately, he raked his gaze over her, over the plump rounded swells of her rising and falling breasts, over the soft curve of her porcelain stomach, down to the patch of damp red curls at the top of her sex.

  Makenna's heart slammed against her breastbone. Each progression of their actions stretched her jangling nerves more taut and further readied her between her thighs. Once she'd had him in her room and in her hand, she knew she had to taste him.

  She reveled in the warm heavy weight of him in her mouth, in the way his jaw dropped in pleasure, and in the deep groan that filled the room the first time she'd taken him all the way in to the back of her throat. The blaze in his eyes was so intense when she looked up at him it drove her harder. She wanted to bring him the pleasure he'd been bringing her all night. And, when she'd noticed a jagged four-inch scar just above his right hip, she redoubled her efforts, sucking him in deeper and running her tongue over him more vigorously.

  This man had been through hell and back at a very young age. Yet, he'd survived without succumbing to the bitterness and resentment and despair that must've sometimes lured him. Instead, he was the kind of man who helped other people—for a living and as a matter of course. And he was relentlessly kind and quietly funny and more goddamned sexy than any man had a right to be.

  So she wanted to do this for him. She wanted to concentrate all her efforts on bringing him pleasure. Again and again she hollowed out her cheeks and sucked hard as she brought her mouth up his entire length. Just as she reached his head, she'd abruptly stop sucking and plunge her mouth down around him again, taking him into the back of her throat. His ragged breathing and muttered curses were thrilling.

  She almost whined when his gentle tugging pleaded with her to release him. But she was so eager to see where they'd go next she didn't think on it long.

  Soon, she was watching Caden rake his eyes across her naked body. They were barely touching, but the moment felt so erotic. It was more than just sexual, though—Makenna was almost certain that within the mask of desire he wore was another emotion—adoration. And it made her fe
el so safe and secure to be with him this way.

  God, he looked so freaking sexy kneeling between her legs. Caden Grayson was a big man, in every sense of the term. To see him before her like that...

  And then he crawled closer. She had the distinct impression of a predator stalking his prey.

  "Lie back,” he encouraged as his hands walked up to her hips and his body settled between her thighs. She complied and reclined onto her elbows so she could watch him.

  Then, with no pretense at all, his head dropped to the cleft of her legs. He laved a long hard stroke of his tongue through her wet folds, boring his eyes into hers all the while.

  "Oh, Caden!” She felt his tongue all the way down to her curling toes.

  "You taste as good as I knew you would,” he murmured right against her. He lowered his face to her red curls and kissed her softly, then he further separated her thighs with his shoulders and licked her most sensitive skin over and over again.

  Makenna's hands fisted against the soft green comforter under her. Weakened by the pleasure he so expertly provided, she dropped all her weight back against the bed and luxuriated in the play of his tongue against her. She uttered a near-constant string of encouragements and pleadings, but couldn't find it in herself to be the least bit self-conscious.

  She'd had guys go down on her before, but no man had ever seemed as responsive to her body's cues as Caden. The way he paid attention to her soon had him treating her to an alternating rhythm of long hard strokes from her opening to her clit and intense bursts of flicks and sucks concentrated on the latter. Every once in a while the metal rings on his lip dragged across her labia. She found the unexpected sensation surprisingly decadent.

  He was playing her body, commanding her pleasure, eliciting the same notes from her again and again. When he added his thumb to his efforts, stroking repeatedly over her clit while his tongue circled and dipped into her opening, every nerve ending concentrated itself at the center of her body.

  "Caden, oh my God. Oh my God.” Pure white-hot energy was flowing through her, rising in her, threatening to break her apart.

  He responded to her words by rubbing her harder, faster, drinking from her more deeply.

  "I'm...oh, I'm...."

  She lost her words to a loud moan as a glorious explosion of sensation began under Caden's talented mouth and ricocheted through every cell in her body. Muscles flexed and contracted throughout her in a wave. She groaned as he refused to let up one bit, continuing to stimulate her over-sensitive skin in a way that extended her orgasm endlessly.

  "Holy shit,” she squeaked out between shuddering breaths.

  When Caden pressed a line of kisses from her right thigh over her right hip, she felt the smile curling his lips. Then he playfully bit her hipbone. She screamed out a throaty laugh.

  She liked someone who didn't have to be serious during sex, who could smile and laugh. It was just one more thing they had in common.

  But she wasn't done with him yet.

  Saving them the awkward conversation, Makenna flopped her right arm out on the bed and pointed to her night stand. “Drawer. Condom. On you. Now."

  "Mmm. Yes, ma'am.” He pushed himself into a standing position and kicked off his jeans which still hung around his knees.

  Makenna licked her lips as he strode the three steps around her bed and reached into the drawer. His body was all taut lean muscle and moved with a quiet power. There wasn't enough light to make out the details of the designs, but she could see more ink decorated his shoulder blades.

  Later, she planned to explore every inch of his amazing body. But just then, she needed him with her, in her. She needed a resolution to the hours of build-up between them.

  Caden tossed the silver wrapper aside and unrolled the condom over his thick length. Makenna blushed though she couldn't look away—she'd always found that action particularly erotic. When he looked at her and smiled, she pushed herself back up to the pillows and held out a hand to him.

  He crawled over top of her and lowered his weight onto her. She'd always loved that feeling, the weight of a man's body covering hers, and it never felt better than when Caden's tall muscular frame encompassed hers so fully, so lovingly.

  Taking her head gently into his hands, he pressed closed-mouth kisses against her lips until she pushed her tongue out and encouraged his lips to part. She could taste herself on him, something else that had always driven her mad because it was like tasting the pleasure he'd given her all over again. When Caden groaned around her probing tongue, she kissed him more deeply and sucked hard on his tongue until he broke free of her and playfully bit at her jaw in punishment for her teasing.

  He stroked his fingers over her hair, then rubbed her cheekbone with his knuckles. “Are you sure?"

  She smiled and nodded. “I'm very sure. You?"

  He chuckled. “Um...” He pursed his lips and looked up at the ceiling, putting on what she assumed was supposed to be a thinking face.

  She reached her hand around him and not so lightly smacked his ass.

  His eyes dropped back to her. His mouth fell open.

  Makenna cocked an eyebrow. “I told you I would smack you."

  The laugh he let loose sounded so purely happy she grinned even though she was trying to look put out.

  "That you did. I like a woman who keeps her word.” He kissed her again, softly this time. “Yes, I am very sure I want you, Makenna. Can I have you?” He gazed so intently in her eyes she almost thought he was asking for more than just permission to possess her body.

  "Yes,” she whispered, intending her answer as the reply to every way he might've meant his question.

  Pushing himself up onto one elbow, Caden reached a hand down between them and stroked his fingers over Makenna's soft folds. He wanted to make sure she was ready. She was. Her responsiveness to him was thrilling. He centered his cock over her opening and met her eyes. And then he slowly pushed himself into her.

  He groaned at the feeling of being inside of her, at the idea that maybe, just maybe, he'd found a place, a woman, he could belong to for all time.

  The tight walls of her most private place gripped him fiercely, surrounding him in white-hot heat and velvet softness. He moaned low in his throat. “You feel so good."

  When he filled her completely, he stilled and let them both savor the sensation.

  She clutched at his shoulders. “So do you. God, I feel..."

  He studied her face when she trailed off and watched a blush bloom on top of the flush their activities had already brought out in her skin. Now he was intrigued—he really wanted her to finish that sentence.

  "What? What do you feel?” He strained to resist the instinct to move his hips.

  She shook her head and flexed her hips, driving him deeper into her. It felt incredible, but he recognized the diversionary tactic for what it was.

  He pulled his cock out until just the tip of his head was still inside her. Tremors shook his shoulders with the effort it took not to sink back into her. “Tell me."

  She groaned. “Caden, I need you.” He smiled at the pleading in her voice. She wrapped her legs around his hips and pressed her heels into his ass. But he was too strong for her to be able to force him to move. She pouted, but relented. “I felt so incredibly full."

  His ego buoyed, he didn't hesitate to recreate the feeling for her, and plunged immediately back into her gripping heat. “Like that?"

  "Yes, just like that,” she moaned. “God."

  He remembered his earlier desire to see her when he took her and pushed himself up onto his arms. His hands settled on both sides of her ribs. He grunted appreciatively at the full view the position gave him.

  He moved in her then, flexing his hips over and over, driving his rigid length into her slick tightness. Her muscles sucked at him as she shifted positions. He finally hooked his right arm under her left leg to force her more open underneath him. The change allowed him to plunge even deeper.

  He shook his he
ad at how good it all felt. “So tight. Christ, so wet."

  She clamped her teeth down on her bottom lip and groaned as his repeated thrusts rocked into her. Her blue eyes were hooded with desire and flashed with a wondrous affection for him.

  Caden returned her intense gaze. He caught her every movement, her every reaction to their joining. His mind began a catalog of information on Makenna he hoped he'd be fleshing out for a long time to come.

  When she reached her wandering hands up to cup her own breasts and stroked her fingers over her nipples, he hmmed in approval. “That's right. That looks so good."

  He liked that she had the confidence to seek out pleasure during sex. She wasn't reserved. She didn't play games. Instead, she was real and completely guileless in the pursuit of their pleasure. Her honesty made her even sexier to him.

  When Makenna's eyes dropped down to where they were joined, his eyes followed.

  "Fuck,” he murmured as he watched his wet cock slide in and out of her.

  "We look...good...together,” she panted softly.

  "We look so fucking good together,” he rasped. He gazed back up at her face. “You're so damned beautiful."

  She blushed and smiled. The combination beckoned Caden to kiss her. He released her leg and lowered himself back onto his elbows, then cupped his hands under her shoulders for leverage. He claimed her mouth until their need to breathe made it too hard to continue.

  The room filled with the sounds of their lovemaking. The shifting of bodies moving together. Their panting breaths and impassioned moans. Every single sound reverberated directly to his cock and made him want her even more.

  Enjoying the closeness of their bodies, Caden hunched himself possessively over her and slammed into her again and again. He rolled his pelvic bone into her clit with each thrust. The sound of her whimpering when he hit it spot on was the best reward.

  "Sweet Caden,” she whispered as she pressed a few open-mouthed kisses to his yellow rose. He lowered his head and reverently kissed her forehead.