Leave Me Breathless

Chapter Nine


So, yeah, it was mostly his fault this had been delayed. But Ghost didn’t think they were ever going to get back to Macy’s apartment.

She’d made him proud tonight, though, and it had been worth it. “See? They’re not so bad.” He braked to turn in to her building’s parking lot and chuckled. “At least, not all of them.”

“No, not all of them.” A little movement out of his peripheral vision caught his eye, and he glanced down to see she had twisted her purse strap practically into knots.

“Hey, I’m sorry about that. I really didn’t think there’d be any danger of her being there tonight. I saw that a couple of her friends were there but ordinarily, that’s not her crowd.”

“Maybe her friends let her know you were there with someone.”

“That’s a possibility. You okay?”

“Yeah.” Her voice was bright. Too bright.

“Are you sure?”

She nodded. “But I do want you to know that I left the whole fighting-over-a-guy thing back in middle school.”

“Okay…”

“I don’t know what the deal is with that girl, but I don’t want any part of it.”

“There’s no deal with that girl.”

“Well, just so we’re clear. If that’s some ongoing off-and-on thing—”

“Hell no. It’s off. It’s been off.”

“—I don’t need the drama.”

“You think I do?” He pulled to a stop in the same space he’d taken earlier. “What, are you having second thoughts?”

“No, but frankly? I don’t see how you can go from that to…me.”

“Yeah, I’d love to get a look at whatever dude you hooked up with last too. See how we compare.” He gave her arm a nudge and grinned when her jaw snapped closed, but he knew it wouldn’t stay that way.

“But…well…it leads me to wonder if something she said might hold at least some merit.”

“What did she say?”

“Basically that I was a rich-bitch revenge f*ck for you.”

He hoped she didn’t notice—or that she couldn’t see—the way those words made his jaw clench. Damn you, Raina. “Yeah, that sounds like something she would say. Don’t worry about it.”

“Well…am I? I just want to know what I’m getting myself into here. I don’t like surprises.”

He sat back and stared straight out the front of the windshield, sighing heavily. “Macy, I can tell you with absolute honesty that you are not a ‘revenge f*ck’. I don’t screw people indiscriminately, so the very fact I’m here means I like you. Beyond that, I don’t know what to tell you. Am I going to put a ring on your finger any time soon? Hell no. But you strike me as the type who wouldn’t be looking for that from a guy like me, so it’s all good, right?”

She only lowered her head, watching her fingers toy with the purse strap, and something surged in his chest.

“Macy? Is that cool?” As soon as the words left his mouth, he wondered if it was cool with him. A minute ago “no strings” would have been music to his ears. But in that split second when he’d asked and she’d faltered…a world of dreams had exploded in his head, an entire universe of what ifs.

But whatever alternate universe had just infringed on their reality receded back into place, and she looked at him. “No strings, just fun?”

Now she made it sound so casual, too casual. There was nothing casual about the intensity of his want, his need, for her. Sitting in the dim light, she was stunning. Absolutely cover-girl gorgeous, and he knew in his heart this was another girl who could shred him all over again, really do a number on him. She could stamp her number right in the middle of his f*cking forehead, and laugh about it.

Was he a fool of the biggest magnitude?

“Yeah.”

“Cool,” she said, sounding relieved. He was relieved by her relief. Whatever it took them to get out of his car and into her bed. Apparently his dick didn’t care how big a fool he was.

“Sit tight.” He felt her gaze on him as he jumped out and ran around to open her door, but hopefully she wasn’t watching so closely that she could tell it almost pained him to walk. Excited was an understatement. He was threatening to bust the fly on his jeans. It was almost embarrassing.

After she got out of his car, she took his hand. Something about the simultaneous simplicity and enormity of her supple fingers curling around his f*cked him all up inside, made something wild and protective ignite inside him.

Trust. She trusted him. Everything about him and his world was the opposite to her and hers, but she was willing to take this crazy gamble on him.

“What is it?” she whispered when he’d only stood there staring down at her like a dope for the last ten seconds.

He snapped out of it and shook his head. “Nothing.”

“You can come in,” she said, as if afraid he thought he wasn’t welcome now or something. She dug in her purse with her other hand and came out with a jumble of keys. Together, they strolled toward her first-story apartment door.

For a second, he hoped things wouldn’t get weird. Then he bitched himself out for acting like a little girl.

Of course things were about to get weird. He lived for weird.

But nothing prepared him for the “weird” that greeted him when Macy flipped on a lamp inside her place.

Okay, in all fairness, this was Texas and the country-and-western décor was, if not the norm, then pretty damn acceptable. But not among anyone he associated with. Everywhere he looked was leather and brown-and-white cowhide patterns. And the trophies. Jesus. She had a special lighted display case for them. He knew she rode horses a lot, but she must have been competing since she could walk to accumulate all of those.

Rows of them. Trophies. Medals. Framed pictures of her holding them as a snaggle-toothed little girl, then a gangly teenager, finally the gorgeous woman he knew. An older couple beaming with pride flanked her in most of them. Parents, probably. She bore a striking resemblance to the woman.

One picture in particular caught his eye. She was astride, turning a barrel in a cloud of dust. The photographer had caught the fierce, determined scowl on her face perfectly, and it didn’t do any favors for his current erection.

“I had no idea I was in the presence of the Queen of the Rodeo.”

“Obnoxious, isn’t it?” she asked, wrinkling her pert nose and tossing her purse on the pale leather loveseat.

“Oh, sure. Totally obnoxious,” he joked.

She laughed. “Well, I sort of…can’t bring myself to get rid of them. For a long time after I quit competing, I packed them away. I didn’t want to look at them, but in the end, I cracked. I guess it’s my inborn competitive streak—I have to have the reminder that I accomplished something. Silly, right?” She actually seemed to be blushing.

It was insanely sexy.

“I get it,” he said. “I feel the same way when I wake up and see the unconscious hookers and the tower of empty beer cans I built the night before. It’s so hard to let go.”

He struggled to keep the statement dead serious, and sure enough, he was gifted with an alarmed look from her wide hazel eyes.

Then, suddenly, she got it. Without him having to say a word or crack a smile, her body went off alert, and she laughed. “God, you’re bad.”

“So is there some reason why you quit racing?”

Her gaze flickered from the relics of her glory days to his face. There was a directness in that stare that threatened to undo him. “Candace never mentioned it to you?”

Racking his brain and coming up empty, he shook his head. “Nope.”

“I was competing in Conroe when I was eighteen. I’d just made the last turn when—I don’t know what happened. I don’t even remember. But apparently, something spooked my horse, and I was thrown. Cracked a couple vertebrae among a dozen other things. I was black and blue all over. Ten weeks in a brace, plus surgery and physical therapy…it was…scary. My mare, Sugar, broke her leg and had to be put down.” She nodded toward the picture he’d been contemplating earlier. “That’s her there.”

“Damn, girl.”

Her lip quirked. “After I came out of all that, I just didn’t have the fire for it like I used to. I still ride, still love it, but I’m way more cautious than before. In all things, I guess.”

“I can see how that would happen. Do you still have problems?”

“Sometimes. But overall I’ve been really lucky. Very lucky. So I don’t complain too much.”

He opened his mouth to say he found it pretty incredible she would even want to look at a horse after something like that, but then being pulled from the mangled wreckage of his parents’ car at six years old hadn’t made him swear off vehicles. Just the opposite, really. He spent his spare time trying to fix them. The bigger the job, the more he liked it. But he’d never be able to mold that shredded mass of metal in his memory into anything resembling an automobile, even in his dreams.

She had caught him. “Were you about to say something?”

“Just that”—he struggled to contain the emotion threatening to crack his voice—“maybe we can compare scars.”

There was little else he’d seen in his entire life more beautiful than Macy’s smile. Maybe that was because, now that he thought about it, it was a fairly rare thing. “You’ll show me yours if I show you mine?”

He winked at her. “That and other things.”

The inquisitive way she was looking at him drove him nuts, made him desperate to know what was going on behind those pretty eyes. One thing he knew for certain: there were depths in her he hadn’t even begun to fathom. She intrigued him. Sorting her out would be no simpler than twisting that hunk of distorted metal back into mint shape.

“I’m going to get you used to me before it’s over, you know,” he said.

Her pink tongue swept across her top lip. Maybe her mouth was just dry, but he took it as an invitation. The tap dancing around each other was over. They were here. Alone. She was his and he was hers, if only for tonight.

“I’m getting a little used to you already,” she said softly as he stepped closer.

“Just a little?”

She gave a slow nod, never taking her gaze from his. “Mm-hmm.”

“It’s a start.”

Whisper-soft, he leaned down and brushed his lips across hers, savoring her intake of breath and the way it made her chest graze his. She was perfectly endowed. Way more than the handful most guys claimed was ideal—he’d always said f*ck that; he liked the soft flesh to overflow his hands. He liked room to explore. Ample area to kiss and lick and suck. He didn’t discriminate based on his preference, but he rejoiced when he found perfection. She was it.

A whimper escaped her throat when his tongue flickered against her lips, questing for entrance. She gave it, allowing her hands to creep up around his neck. Her flavor exploded on his tongue, sweet and sultry as a damn aphrodisiacal fruit. God. He hadn’t counted on this gentleness. It was throwing him off, making him unbalanced. He groaned and sank his fingers into her silky hair, molding his palm to the back of her head. Reaching for the fire he knew was burning inside her, even if she was afraid to show it to him yet.

Breathless, she broke away, and the smolder in her eyes as she looked up at him nearly sucked the oxygen from him in turn. “My bedroom is…over there.” She nodded to an open door across the room from them.

“Yeah? What awaits me in there? A genuine cow skull?”

She snickered. “Maybe. But most importantly, a really big bed.”

“Mmm. In a hurry, are you?”

Judging from the glint in her eyes, the flush in her cheeks, she was. He’d never noticed before that she had freckles, just a light dusting under her eyes and across her nose. Her fingers stroked down his nape, sending gooseflesh down his back. “Don’t you think we’ve waited long enough?”

“Good point.” He stepped back slightly and swept his arm toward the door. “After you.”



He’d been the last person she’d had sex with, and it had been the better part of a year. That was the longest she’d gone without having sex since she started having sex. Was that why she couldn’t stop trembling? Should she say something before he got the wrong idea?

She’d never been this excited, this aroused. It couldn’t all be him.

Taking the plunge, she tore her gaze from his and walked toward her room. She sensed him moving behind her, following closely. Between her legs, she was already slick and needy from his kiss, and if she didn’t get out of this damn constrictive bra, she was going to scream. She needed his hands on her, soothing away the aches.

One lamp had been left on in her room for ambiance. Big ugly scar or not, she wasn’t a lights-off kind of gal.

Some crazy compulsion made her turn around to close the door after he came in behind her—she didn’t know why. It wasn’t as if someone would be in the living room to overhear them. It just felt more…intimate. More—

The breath rushed out of her as his hard body pressed her roughly against the closed door. He swept her hair aside and fastened his hot mouth to the side of her neck, sucking hard. The outline of his cock branded her ass. Her heart rate soared out of control.

“Oh God,” she gasped, grinding back against him. The movement gave him enough room to slide his hands under her sweater, up her quivering belly, and cup both of her breasts, kneading them with a gentleness that belied the hard-and-rough everywhere else. She only wished she were already naked for him. “Take it off,” she pleaded.

His hands slid around to her back and deftly unfastened her bra. He lifted his mouth from her neck and sought her lips. She turned her head back and drank in his kiss like a starving woman as his fingers journeyed back around and played with her bare nipples beneath the loose bra cups. Dammit, she wanted the thing gone, but this was better than nothing.

It was all too much, and she couldn’t get close enough. She couldn’t see enough. He gave her space to shed her sweater and her bra; then he planted her right back in place, raining kisses over her shoulders and the back of her neck as his fingers worked the button on her jeans. She wriggled her hips as he stripped them down her legs. Thank God she hadn’t worn boots or complicated shoes—she kicked off her flats and couldn’t step out of the denim fast enough.

That left only her panties. Just as he’d promised on the phone last night.

Seth’s breath gusted hot against her shoulder as his hand brushed the small of her back. Judging from the movements, he was unfastening his belt, wrenching at the button and—oh God, yes—yanking down his zipper.

“Let me see.” She tried to turn, but he moved up so close behind her there was no way she could, not when every lean inch of his body pressed her against the door. And he was strong enough to stop any further efforts on her part. Not that she tried very hard.

“You’re shaking,” he murmured. He leaned into her, his nose nestling in her hair. She heard him inhale, felt his chest expand at her back.

There was no refuting his observation. No explaining it either. She shook as if it were twenty below in the room, but she was burning up.

His hands slid down her spine, fingertips grazing the thin seven-inch ridge of flesh nestled in the indentation. It had never had much sensation since it healed, but now…oh, it did. She felt his touch there more intensely than any other she’d ever known. Amazingly, she wasn’t self-conscious about it, not with him. She opted out of bikinis these days, but Seth…in a way he carried his life story in his skin, right? He believed in that. He would merely see her scar as a little piece of hers.

His hands came to rest at the waist of her silk panties. Without conscious effort to move, she pushed back against his groin again, feeling the hard, smooth length of him press against the bare skin above her waistband. If she couldn’t see him, dammit, she would feel him.

She gasped as the tip of his cock rubbed silkily across the flesh above her panties. The head was tipped with something cooler and even harder than his turgid flesh.

Her knees nearly gave. His piercing. She still didn’t exactly know her feelings about it. But she did know it felt damn good.

He chuckled, a sound that made her think of a serial killer about to slip a garrote around her neck. “What’s the matter?”

“Your…nothing.”

“Hmm? My what?”

“Your piercing. It’s…different for me.”

“Different isn’t always bad.”

“No. It’s just different.”

“Okay.”

“I mean, honestly I might run screaming if—”

“Macy?”

“What?”

He thrust his hardness between her legs so the bead rasped her *. “Shut up.”

His methods proved effective. She even spread her legs to give him better access, her forehead pressed against the door as she panted.

“Wait a second,” he said. “Holy shit. What are you wearing?”

Until that moment, she’d almost forgotten. After his turbocharged fantasies of leaving her panties on, she’d donned a pair of crotchless. “I thought you might appreciate it.”

“Appreciate it? I think I’m in love.”

It was said in jest, but an odd pang went through her.

“So wet for me,” he murmured, keeping up the delectable movements that drew even more wetness from her core. One motion, one thrust from those powerful hips, and he could be inside her. So easy. She was almost mindless enough to beg him to do it. “Goddamn,” he whispered as she undulated against his tip. “You’re full of surprises, aren’t you?”

“I’d rather be full of you.”

He chuckled, and his teeth nipped her shoulder. She gasped. “Don’t move,” he said. “I mean it.”

She’d never had a man take the upper hand the way he did. All of her lovers had been obsequious. Maybe that was what she’d always gravitated to, guys she could control. It wouldn’t fly here. But she wanted to try, wanted to test him, to see just what he’d do if she disobeyed. Instead, she clung to the door and trembled as she felt him moving behind her.

There was the crinkle of a foil packet. The unmistakable sound of him unfurling latex down his cock with quick strokes. She moaned when his heat pressed against her again and two of his blunt fingertips zeroed in gently on the enflamed passage between her legs. She rose on her tiptoes when he pressed inside, testing, stretching. Her inner muscles had felt like liquid, but they gripped his intruding fingers with a strength that surprised her. His breath was ragged against her ear.

“Do you always get this wet?” he whispered.

She shook her head. It was the truth. If anything, there’d been times her lack of arousal with someone new distressed her. With him…it was the exact opposite. Her willingness, her need, her body’s response to him, was a cause for major concern.

She didn’t like the way he made her admit it to him. She didn’t want to give him more power than he already had over her.

Suddenly, he removed his hand from between her legs and reached down to catch her knee, lifting her leg and fitting himself between her thighs. Her muscles went rock hard in anticipation.

“Seth…” She tilted her hips back to meet his broad head, so ready for him to fill her. She’d take him all even if it hurt.

Could it be as good as it was before? It couldn’t. Nothing could ever be that good again.

He rubbed the tip over her lips, down one side of the lace lining the slit in her panties, and up the other. She groaned and shifted, trying to capture him. There was no point in getting her any more wet; she was drenched. But he continued the elusive movements, teasing, making her beg. Making her open even wider in wantonness. Every time he passed it over her *, his piercing wreaked havoc. Her body jerked, and she whimpered. He rubbed there, once, twice, harder…pressing…pushing up…

Desperate, nearly sobbing, she squirmed until he nestled into her entrance. Relief exploded through her, but then he didn’t push right away. What the hell was he waiting for? “Seth!”

The low chuckle in her ear told her exactly what he’d been waiting for. Pressure built behind his thick head, slowly parting her. She tossed her head back against his shoulder and her fingernails dug into the wood of the door. Her breath seized. Her body locked. But he was relentless, taking her in one slow but persistent thrust she was powerless to stop even if she’d wanted to.

Oh yes. It was as good as before. Better.

“Holy f*ck yes,” he breathed against her neck. “Oh my God.”

She choked out his name again. She felt…everything. Every nuance. The thick ridge of his corona. The bead underneath, now in perfect position to stimulate her G-spot. He was everywhere, all through her. Her body struggled to adjust, overwhelmed tissues quivering. She turned her head so he could kiss her with those gorgeous lips, and it was…

“Perfection,” he murmured against her. “Have you thought about this as much as I have?”

As slowly as he’d entered, he began to withdraw. Sensitive flesh that had fought to accept him now fought to keep him in. Her only means of reply was a series of tiny whimpers.

“Have you?” he pressed, and she realized he wasn’t going to give it back to her until she answered.

“Yes! Please…”

“Good. That’s what I like.” He filled her hard and fast, again and again, slamming her hips into the door. “You could’ve had me anytime you wanted, Macy.”

If she made it through this alive…well, she wasn’t sure what she’d do to atone for her survival but it would need to be something pretty momentous. Especially when his free hand squeezed between her body and the door and his fingers drew tantalizing circles around her *.

When she grew so weak her legs wouldn’t support her, he maneuvered them to her bed, laying her sideways across it. As hot as it had been having him behind her, she needed this. Face-to-face. His weight on her. So right.

She struggled to strip him of the shirt he was still wearing, but they didn’t have time to bother with the jeans clinging to his hips. She’d have him naked before the night was over. He slid into her body again and she arched off the bed, wrapping her legs around his waist.

“Finally got you in bed,” he murmured, capturing her trembling lips with his.

The kiss, deep, desperate, so heart-stoppingly real, ushered in her first orgasm without warning. He felt it, groaning into her mouth as she contracted around him. She loved how he stopped thrusting and grinded into her then, so in tune with her needs it was almost as if their minds melded as surely as their bodies.

Thoughts like that, she had to banish. But she couldn’t, not when her brain was mush and her body quickly followed suit. Seth gentled his movements as she held on to him, letting her recover.

She knew from experience he wasn’t anywhere near done. He was freaking Wonder Boy when it came to stamina. If by some miracle this became long-term, she was afraid there might be nights she just wouldn’t have the energy to match him.

He grinned down at her. “That was sweet,” he murmured, giving a twist to his hips that had her contemplating round two. “Took the edge off?”

“Mm-hmm.”

He laced his fingers through hers and pinned her hands to the mattress, easing down to kiss and lick a path to her breasts. As he did, his cock slipped from her, and she gasped, her body clenching against the emptiness he left behind. Her nipples tightened in anticipation of his mouth. As he’d promised, he didn’t tease her, this time taking one taut crest into his mouth and sucking deeply.

He released one of her hands, and a moment later, his finger slid into the lacy slit between her legs, and her thighs shuddered and closed against his sides. The sensations were just too acute, still sensitive from the ravages of her orgasm. “Mmm. Open up, babe.”

She had to do it by increments, or she would fly into pieces. He waited patiently as she slowly let her knees drop apart.

His finger worked gently, maddeningly between her lips, swirling through her wetness but avoiding her * altogether. All at once, she couldn’t get enough of his touch. Her eyes flew wide as he slid down the length of her body, dropping kisses as he went down her tummy. His tongue flickered into her belly button, and then his lips teased the flesh at the border of her panties.

“These are so f*cking sexy,” he murmured. His lips skated over the lace that covered her mound. Her body clamped so hard on to his finger as he withdrew it that he cursed again. And squeezed in another.

By now his mouth was nuzzling her just above where his fingers disappeared into her body, and it was driving her wild. She throbbed, ached, writhed. His breath bathed her, each one a cooling burst just as searing as the heat. “Please,” she whispered, not even knowing what she was asking for anymore. The slow thrust and drag of his fingers was only a miniscule reminder of what was to come.

“You want me?” he breathed. “You want my mouth on your p-ssy, sucking it until you scream, or my cock back inside it? Tell me how you need it, and I’ll give it to you.” His tongue darted once over her *. She nearly had a seizure. Her hips wouldn’t remain still, undulating against his plunging fingers in a perfectly sensuous and torturous rhythm.

As good as it was, it wouldn’t compare to a blinding climax with him buried deep inside her, impossibly thick, impossibly hard. She needed it. “Your cock,” she whispered.

“Hmm?”

Oh no, was he really going to make her do this?

“I want you inside me,” she said. There could be no mistaking it that time. “Now.”

He didn’t seem to mind the order. Quickly, he stripped his jeans the rest of the way off. At last. When he stretched out over her again, she cradled him between her legs and wrapped her arms around his naked flesh, her breathing harsh and irregular. Her trembling had never really subsided—now it doubled. His lips sought hers. She sighed as their tongues swirled around each other, tasting the faintest hint of herself on him. When he glided back into her body, the cry that wrenched from her throat must have sounded deceptively painful.

“Okay?”

“Don’t stop.”

That was the beauty of this, knowing he wouldn’t, knowing he would take her there as many times as she needed to go. Confident now in her well-being, he unleashed his strength on her. She was more than ready for it, locking her ankles behind his back and hanging on for dear life, letting him exorcise all these months of accumulated frustration. She clung to him, taking it all and giving it back to him. Ecstasy had made her blind, but when he rolled them over so that she was on top, she vowed it wouldn’t make her weak too.

A very fine sheen of sweat coated his chest, glistening in the lamplight. His body was nothing short of a work of art from his hard lines and planes to his ink; she’d only caught a glimpse of all of it but already knew she wanted desperately to run her tongue along those hip dips.

Later. The wicked glint in his eye was too enticing, and he felt too damn good inside her.

She squeezed her internal muscles and grinned at his reaction. His fingers bit into her thighs, and his chin tilted up. “F*ck, woman.”

“Don’t forget how much I like to ride.”

He groaned in agony. “Crap. I’m dead.”

She leaned down and grasped his chin, locking gazes with him. “I’ll go easy on you.”

His laugh sounded pained, and she couldn’t help but enjoy the amazement in his expression. “Where the hell have you been all my life?”

She rolled her hips, and his voice became lost in a growl. His hands roamed up to cup her breasts, and she covered his fingers with her own, keeping up the pace and the angle that had him hitting all the right spots inside her. She’d wanted to deny there was something to be said for the piercing, but she’d have to be a fool—or a liar. When she leaned back just so…

Oh. My. God.

She gasped his name. Her rhythm became erratic, lost to passion. Pleasure, hot and molten, pooled low in her belly. Her first orgasm was usually her most intense, but he was going to shatter everything she thought she knew about herself and sex. One of his hands slid down so his thumb could circle her *, and there was no fighting it. Her thighs locked down on his hips; her body clamped hard on him. The world exploded.

She collapsed over him as wave after wave swept through her, each contraction seeming to allow him deeper. So deep she didn’t think she could take any more, but she did. He murmured insanely wicked things in her ear. And just as the maelstrom was ending for her, he was caught up in his own.

He flipped her underneath him as if she were nothing more than a rag doll, crushing her to the mattress. His sexy growl in her ear as he pushed deep and shuddered had her thinking enough naughty thoughts to keep them both occupied all night long. She stroked his back as he came, scoring him lightly with her fingernails. Judging by his shivers, he loved it.

“God, Macy,” he groaned. Slowly, his hip movements subsided. She missed that rhythm immediately, didn’t want it to end. So when he made a move to pull away, she locked her ankles around him and mewled.

His laugh sounded breathless. “It’s okay. I’ll just sleep here.”

“Good.”

“I’m not too heavy?”

She shook her head against his shoulder. Truthfully, she knew when she let him go…it was over. Reality would set in. She would have to look at him and know that he saw just how shaken she was. Who knew what naked post-coital vulnerability was showing on her face right now? She felt like crying. She couldn’t speak.

He dotted kisses along her jawline, eventually finding her lips. She sighed as she opened to let him in, thinking it funny how a kiss had ignited her and now it was soothing her. Bringing her down. Calming her ragged breath, her racing heart.

They ended up lying on their sides, facing each other, legs a tangle she didn’t even want to begin to figure out. She only wanted to enjoy the lazy, gentle brush of his fingers up and down her arm. Silence stretched out for a long time while she just looked at him.

“You must think I’m the biggest prude,” she said after a while.

His dark brows dipped. “What in the hell makes you say that?”

“You having to shut me up.”

“Naw. Prudish wouldn’t be getting dirty in the backseat, having phone sex and…showing up tonight in crotchless panties. Damn, if I’d known you were wearing those all night…” His eyes closed as if savoring the mere thought of what he’d have done to her. “Let’s just say we might’ve had to find a closet or something at my buddy’s house.”

She laughed. “I guess when you put it like that…”

“But, I can let you in on a secret. The little reservations and hang-ups you do have turn me on. Immensely.”

“Really? Why?”

“It’s a bigger challenge to get you to let go. And far more rewarding for me when you do.”

So that was what all this was about. A challenge. Even that Raina girl had insinuated that. Oh well, how could she really be offended? At least he knew what he wanted, what he liked. At least he was honest. “I can see how it might be an ego stroke for you.”

“That really has nothing to do with it. And don’t get me wrong. I love a woman who loves sex and talking dirty.” He reached up to rub his thumb across her bottom lip. Her eyes fell closed as his fingers trailed over her chin and down her throat. “But there’s just something about hearing dirty talk coming from a nice, clean mouth. Any girl who says ‘f*ck’ every other word can tell me to f*ck her, and it’s hot, but it doesn’t mean as much as when you say it. If I can get you to tell me to f*ck you, Macy, f*ck you harder, f*ck you faster…you’d better believe you’re going to get it. You’re going to get everything I’ve got, and then some.”

How did he get her blood racing so fast so soon? Those very words he wanted to hear from her were crowding in her throat right now. She even pulled her bottom lip between her teeth to form the f. Just to test him. He seemed to be holding his breath, waiting. When she opened her eyes, she found his face so close their lips were almost touching.

“I do cuss, you know. I’m not Snow White here.”

He exhaled in a frustrated rush, his warm breath tickling her mouth. “Dang and heck? You racy thing.”

She lifted her chin, meeting his dark eyes head-on. “You’ve heard me cuss. And I have, believe it or not, been f*cked before you came along.”

Those eyes went even darker. “Oh, you’ve done it now.”

Macy almost laughed as he rose over her, and his mouth descended on hers again, but two seconds later, all humor fled in the assault of blind lust that attacked her. He felt so good against her, strong and hard. She ran her palms over his smooth, marked skin, marveling at it.

She’d imagined him naked many times. But not knowing what lurked beneath his shirt, she’d neglected to fill in the tattoos in her fantasies. They covered both arms completely—that much she’d realized. Unlike Brian’s vibrant riot of colors, Seth’s tattoos were mostly black. The patterns swirled across his chest, a few tendrils meandering up his neck. Both his nipples bore silver hoops that glinted in the dim light.

“Why am I gonna get it? What have I done?” she asked innocently.

His reply was to don another condom and throw her knees over his shoulders. “You’ve been f*cked before, huh?” he asked, angling her so that his piercing slid over her G-spot when he entered. “By the time I’m done, you’ll have reassessed your definition.”

She already had.



Hours later, he stirred beside her, and she reluctantly relinquished her legs’ hold on his to let him get up. If she spent a little too much time admiring the view as he did so—damn!—well, who could blame her?

Tight butt. Firm thighs. The lingering ache between her thighs was testament that he knew how to use those muscles. The ink…well, she wasn’t into it, but was it a deal breaker? Not in the least. She propped her head up on her hand and tried not to salivate as he moved toward the door.

“Got anything to drink?” he asked.

“All kinds of stuff. Help yourself to whatever you find.”

“Want something?”

“Maybe I’ll have a sip of whatever you’re having.”

She traced the ivy pattern on her sheets as she listened to him rummage around the kitchen. Searching through her cabinets, presumably for a glass, opening the fridge. It was strange having someone around. Strange, but nice. Even if he would be gone by tomorrow.

He walked back in a moment later with a glass of something—she couldn’t see what. He handed it to her as he slid back under the covers, and she caught a glimpse of the glint of silver on his cock and the tattoo just above his pubic area, but she couldn’t make out what it was.

The scent wafting from the glass she held reached her nostrils, and she took a sip, looking at him in surprise. “Apple juice?” she laughed.

“Yeah, so?”

“I just figured you’d go for something a little stronger.”

“It was tempting. Actually, just so you know, I don’t drink that much anymore. Every now and then I’ll have a good time with friends, but not like I used to. Waking up in strange places with strange ink will do that to you.”

“Good to know.” She handed it back to him. He took a drink and set it on her nightstand, settling next to her again. “I didn’t get to see. What did you cover up Casper with?” she asked. She tried to lift the covers, but it was too dark underneath.

“Ghostface.”

She burst into laughter, and he followed suit. “From Scream? You did not.”

“Naw, I didn’t. It’s still a ghost, but it’s a scary-ass ghost.”

“Oh, great. Now I have to come face-to-face with him whenever…”

“You’ll learn to love him. It’s a package deal. The monster in my pants and the monster lurking above.”

“You have a lot of pride in your, erm, endowments, don’t you?”

He cut her a sideways grin. “Am I hearing a complaint?”

“Nope, not from me.”

“All right, then.” She liked the way he looked at her, his gaze drinking her in from her eyes to her lips to the tumble of her hair down her arm. He reached out and touched a strand of it, curling it around his finger.

She didn’t know if she should ask the questions burning in her brain, but she wanted…no, she needed…to know more about who he was. He’d already shut her down once in the car. She glanced down and watched her fingertip trail around a curl of ink on his arm, taking the plunge. “How long were you together with Raina?”

“Three years.”

Eyes widening, she lifted on her elbow and stared down at him. “Three years? How long ago did you break up?”

“About six months before you and I met.”

Well over a year ago, then. That was somewhat of a relief, though she wondered why it had never come up before. “What happened?”

“You met her, didn’t you?”

“But she didn’t get that way overnight. You put up with it for that long, so there must have been something else. I’m sorry, I’m just insanely curious.”

“It was cool to be that needed.”

“Oh, come on.”

“But I got over it.”

“After three years.”

“All right, you want the ugly truth? The girl was insane in the sack. She was insane in every other aspect too. She would go off on someone, or on me, in a heartbeat. It was fun. I got a kick out of wondering what the hell she would do next. We were like the death of every party, because we would get into a gigantic fight, and things would get destroyed…mostly by her as she threw them at me.”

“So domestic violence is a turn-on for you.”

He laughed. “Damn, when you put it like that, it sounds terrible. It wasn’t that bad. She weighs all of ninety pounds. And it’s mostly a front. She can cuss you six ways to Sunday, but if you say something that cuts her, she’ll cry for hours.”

“How did you meet?”

“Our lead singer introduced us. He knew her from Austin, where she used to live. She was in another band, but it was falling apart, and she did some guest vocals with us. When she and I hooked up, she moved here with me. She’s hung around ever since.”

“What happened? I mean, if it was all so much fun for you then—”

“She got pregnant.”

Macy’s heart skipped a beat as everything else froze. Not entirely certain how to proceed, she watched him closely and let him go on in his own time.

“The only other person on earth I’ve told this to is Brian, and I think even that was from shock. He was the one who was right there beside me when she called to tell me. Raina…she was excited. It scared the shit out of me. I mean, I might want to be a dad someday, but not any time soon, right? And I wouldn’t wish her as a mother on anyone. Still, it was my responsibility too, so I wasn’t going to run from it. But it made me realize how little I wanted to be with her. I mean, marry her? Or even deal with her for the next eighteen years while we raise a kid? That’s what freaked me more than anything. Turns out it didn’t matter. She had a miscarriage.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. It was brutal. Sent her into a tailspin.”

“What about you?”

“I guess I’d gotten used to the idea. It’s a shock when suddenly everything you’ve been planning for and worrying about is gone just like that.” He snapped his fingers. “I was pretty messed up too. But I knew by then I wanted out, right, but it only made her cling to me more, and I knew I couldn’t leave her like that. I stuck it out with her a few months until I thought she was in a better place; then I had to bail. She had started talking about trying to get pregnant again, and I just couldn’t deal with it.”

Macy was silent while she digested what he’d just told her. Wow. She’d been expecting petty drama, not the life-altering circumstances that had led to their demise. And all at once she was ashamed of herself for making the crack to Raina about skipping her next dose. For all she knew, the girl was still dealing with the emotional fallout of losing her baby and the guy she loved in short order.

“I feel bad for her, and for a while I tried to be there for her if she needed me, but she would never take it for what it was. She wouldn’t give it up. Then in typical Raina fashion, she started getting crazy on me and my friends, so…f*ck her. It’s done, I’m done. She’s a big girl; she needs to deal with it.”

“What about the other girl she mentioned?”

He’d been absently stroking her hair, but at her question, his hand froze. “Nothing to tell. I was a stupid kid. It wasn’t what I thought it was.” He scoffed and muttered, “Obviously,” so low she could hardly hear it, shifting so that he lay on his back, staring straight up at the ceiling.

“Stupid kid or not, it sounds like it had a pretty serious effect on you.”

“Listen to you, getting all deep.” He grinned. He was a pretty good actor, she decided, but not that good. “Like I said, I was a dumbass. She was hot. I thought I was in love. I thought maybe she was too. She wasn’t. End of story.”

She sighed and laid her head on his shoulder. “What was her name?”

“Brooke.”

She wanted to ask more, but the brusqueness of his reply clearly stated he considered the subject closed without even divulging the girl’s last name.

“I was with my first boyfriend for a long time,” she said instead. “We grew up together, so it wasn’t really that I loved him in that way. He was just always there, you know?”

“Why are we tossing around the L-word so much?”

“Hey, you said it first.”

“Then I’ll be the first to shut it down.”

“Fine by me.” She searched her brain for another topic maybe he wouldn’t shut down. Speaking of obvious love… “How long have you and Brian known each other?”

“Freshman year. I knew of him before, but we officially met in art class. He was like the big class star, at least in there. I got sick of it, so I went over to his table one day to tell him I thought his still lifes were okay but his perspective sucked. He said, ‘Hey, f*ck you.’ After class, we beat the shit out of each other in the hallway and landed in detention together. Started talking about music. And a dysfunctional friendship was born. We still argue to this day over who won the fight. There’s been more than one rematch.”

She snickered. “Sounds like you two.”

“We’re a good team, though. Especially at work.”

“How are you a team at a tattoo shop?”

“Well, see, he’s stellar at portraits. When Brian draws someone’s face, it looks more like them than they do. You’ve seen his work, right?”

“I saw the drawing he did of Candace. It’s incredible.”

“But he’s not all that great at lettering. It’s his dirty little secret, and I love to give him shit about it. I’m just the opposite. No way in hell I want to f*ck up the face of someone’s loved one on their body, you know? Shit makes me twitchy to even think about. So I draw up all his lettering, and he never throws any portraits my way. Give me a scorpion or a gecko or something any day, I’ll bang it out in no time. But not Grandma Lucy.”

Macy smiled at the way enthusiasm seeped into his voice whenever he talked about his and Brian’s work. “That’s really neat. I wish Candace and I had a story that exciting, but I can’t even remember the first time we met. Our parents are friends. She was homeschooled, and I was pretty much the only person her mom would let her hang out with.” She quieted for a moment, frowning, thinking. “Like with my first boyfriend, probably the only reason she puts up with me is that I’ve always been there.”

“Oh, shut up. There you go again. Although I do hope for your sake that your parents aren’t anything like hers. I don’t know them, but I’ve heard Brian’s horror stories.”

“They’re not. Just your typical nosy, meddling, occasionally embarrassing parents.”

“Huh. I guess you’re lucky to have parents around to be nosy and embarrassing. Mine didn’t hang in there long enough.”

She cringed inwardly. Another touchy subject. “I’m sorry.”

He waved a hand. “It’s all right. It was a long time ago. I’m not gonna go to pieces talking about it or anything.”

“So your grandmother raised you after…”

“Yeah. She always said I was the only thing that pulled her through after the accident. My grandpa died when I was a baby, and my older brother was a dick from birth, so she was pretty much all alone except for me and my sister. Made me feel like there was a reason I walked away from the wreck with hardly a scratch, you know?”

“Of course there was a reason. Did you ever doubt it?”

“Through my teen-angst dumbassedness, I think I threw a few ‘f*ck the world, I wish I’d died instead of my folks’ tantrums, but I got over that. Brian would always be there to kick my drunk ass if I needed it. Believe me, I f*cking needed it.”

“Sounds like he’s been a really good friend to you.”

He was silent for a moment. When he spoke, revulsion twisted his voice. “Brian is the brother I should’ve had. Instead of that sorry-ass motherf*cker I got strapped with.”

“What’s the deal with your brother?” She racked her brain but couldn’t recall him ever telling her why he hated the guy so much. He barely talked about him at all.

“He’s an a*shole. It needs no other explanation.”

“There’s got to be more to it than that. I’m pretty sure everyone has a relative they can say that about. But you…you take it to a whole new level.”

“Yeah? Well, he takes being an a*shole to a whole new level.”

“It’s just that I would think after the tragedy you guys went through, you would, I don’t know, pull together.”

“You’d think wrong.” The chill coming off him was palpable. She lifted her head and frowned at him.

“What did he do to you?”

“Let’s change the subject, all right? I don’t want to f*ck the night up now.”

Stung, she settled her head back on his shoulder. “Okay.”

He was right. She didn’t want that either. She’d just gotten carried away putting together all his many scattered puzzle pieces. Something told her there wouldn’t be a complete picture for a long, long time, if ever.

God, in the past few minutes they’d covered death, pregnancy and heartbreak—and his brother was the deal breaker? Weird. If she kept asking questions, he was probably going to get dressed and bolt.

She definitely didn’t want that. Even more disturbing, she found herself wondering what it would be like to have this every night. The warm solidity of his shoulder under her cheek, his fingers lazily traveling up and down her arm.

It couldn’t work. He’d made the terms clear in the car, and she’d agreed. Now that she’d let him in, she had to be on her guard. Lately she’d often thought he was different than he’d seemed when she first met him—the wisecracking, don’t-give-a-damn-about-anyone-or-anything tattoo artist—but it was distinctly possible he wasn’t. At least when it came to her.

How would she compare to the mystery girl who obviously splattered his heart all over hell, or even to the one he’d kept around because she was “insane” and exciting?

Macy had wanted to explore her wild side a bit with him…that’s why she was here. She’d wanted to discover if she even had a wild side. She hadn’t expected to feel duller than ever afterward.