Inked in the Steel City Series (28 page)

He kept his hands wrapped in her hair, but he didn’t force her, didn’t even guide her, just anchored her to him in a way that let her feel his tension, his anticipation.

When she took him deeper of her own volition, he groaned, and the sound vibrated through all of her, making her nerves buzz. As she continued, she braced one hand against his hip. His muscles were like steel beneath her hand, and feeling that sent little shivers up and down her spine as she took him as far as she could.

He tightened his fists in her hair, but he’d gripped large enough handfuls that it didn’t really hurt. Heat raced through her as she slid up and down his shaft, running her tongue along the underside, caressing him and enduring every wrenching contraction that rippled through her core as she imagined what it would be like to have him there.

For the first time, he utilized his hold on her hair, exerting gentle pressure to still her as he pulled back his hips, easing out of her mouth.

He didn’t say anything, but she read the signs of what would come next in his touch – the way he withdrew his hands from her hair but placed them just as purposefully against her shoulders – and in the way he looked at her.

His gaze was so intense it felt like he was looking deep into her, divining secrets that made her heart beat faster just to think about. Did he know how badly she wanted him, how she’d made so many excuses to see him over the past six months, how thoughts and fantasies of him had lingered in her consciousness for days after each time she’d left Hot Ink?

Maybe he did, and maybe he’d felt the same way about her, because as he eased her down onto the bed and laid his body flush against hers, he sighed like he’d just gotten something he’d waited an eternity for.

She made a similar sound, wrapping her arms around him and pressing her hands to his back as he settled between her thighs.

He fit perfectly there, and she fought a tremor of anticipation as the head of his dick nudged the still-damp lips of her pussy. For half a second, they were still that way, with his hardness hot at the threshold of her ready body. And then he flexed his hips, pushing past her slick skin and into her aching core.

She’d dreamed of feeling him inside her, and the tight bands of muscle that embraced him now had been contracting in anticipation ever since he’d first laid hands on her. But the reality of feeling her body yielding to the broad shaft of his cock shattered her fantasizes and stole her breath. He slid deeper and deeper, going all the way on the first stroke. The unrelenting pressure of the head of his dick so far inside her ached in a way that permeated her entire body, not just the core of her, where he was.

For a few moments, she was still as pleasure made her dizzy. Breathing in a deep lungful of his scent, she dared to rock her hips, urging him to continue.

He pulled back slowly, retreating some but remaining firmly inside her, and rocked deep again as he bowed his head, pressing his mouth against hers.

She arched against the mattress as the softness of his lips and scrape of his short facial hair teased her into borderline-madness. When she let him in, he let his tongue delve into the far depths of her mouth.

Letting her fingers curl, she dug her nails into his back and clung to him as coherent thought faded away and some primal, happy part of her took over. Faint bolts of warning arced through her belly and she welcomed them, focusing on the promise of ecstasy they carried.

Each time Jed rocked into her, he hit a place deep inside her, and his body rubbed against her ultra-sensitive clit. Between the physical stimulation and the mental high created by his embrace, his scent and the sound of the bed groaning beneath them, she was amazingly, breathlessly sure that she’d reach climax.

They were still kissing when the first tell-tale ripple rolled through her, causing her pussy to seize up around his dick. She gasped and he groaned at the same time, causing their mouths to slip apart. She hardly had time to miss the pressure of his mouth against hers; her second orgasm pulled her in like a riptide, and it was all she could do to ride out the wave, unable to spare a thought for anything else.

He thrust harder into her, sighing her name as the contractions intensified.  

Coming with his mouth against her clit had been amazing; climaxing with him inside her was a million times better. The rock-hard presence of his cock gave her pussy something to tighten around, something to embrace as her body reciprocated pressure for pressure and pleasure for pleasure. As she continued to gasp, his breath rushed against her face and rippled through her hair, hot and ragged.

After a few breathless moments at her peak, she crashed back down into the reality of still being in his arms and still experiencing pleasure, though she was suddenly exhausted. Her breathing slowed a little and hitched as he continued to rock into her with steady but increasingly fast strokes. Everything inside her seemed to melt as he breathed her name again, punctuating it with a hard thrust that sent echoes of her recent orgasm through her body, making her arch beneath him.

The aftershocks of her climax continued as he came, driving himself into her with unmistakable purpose. His pleasure was her pleasure, too; feeling him lose himself wasn’t the same sort of bliss as a climax of her own, but it rivaled that sort of satisfaction.

They stayed together for a few moments after he stilled, locked in the position in which he’d stolen her breath so many times that she’d lost count. When he withdrew, he settled beside her and cupped her face in one hand, gently turning her head until their gazes locked.

His eyes were intense, maybe even curious, almost as if he was searching for something in hers. Maybe he found whatever he’d been looking for, or maybe not – he didn’t say, just wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close.

Quiet moments passed by, warmed by the heat of their bare bodies. Karen let herself sink into the feeling of intense satisfaction that lingered inside her, her gaze sweeping idly over Jed’s perfect body. Even after what they’d just done, the sight of him naked still made her spine tingle. She traced swirling lines of ink with her gaze, and one pattern – one word – in particular captured her attention.

Alice
, the scrolling, loopy script that had been inked up his right side read. It was a simple tattoo, pretty and perplexing. Who was Alice? She wondered for a few brief moments before dismissing the thought.

There was a story behind every tattoo – Jed had told her that once – and the story behind a woman’s name obviously wasn’t one she was going to request as she lay naked in his arms. Instead, she brushed a fingertip lightly over the first word of the phrase that curved around his left ribcage, from front to back. “This is Latin, right?”

He nodded.

“What does it say?”

He swept a stray lock of hair out of her eyes, letting his fingers linger behind her ear. “
Sic transit gloria mundi
. Thus passes the glory of the world.”

CHAPTER 5

The whisper of Karen’s bare feet against the hallway carpet might as well have been gunfire. It captured Jed’s attention that effectively, reminding him that he wasn’t alone. He was so used to having the apartment to himself that any foreign sound rushed through the rooms and bounced off the walls, echoing inside his head.

“Morning,” he said, pulling an electric skillet out of the cupboard beside the fridge. He’d been up for maybe five minutes – long enough to pull on a pair of jeans and brush his teeth. She’d been sound asleep when he’d left her curled in his bed, tangled in the sheets.

“Morning.” She swept through the living area and into the kitchen, her thighs bare beneath the hem of one of his t-shirts.

“Thought I’d make breakfast.” He glanced at her over his shoulder as he reached blindly into a cupboard and pulled out a box of baking mix. He didn’t need sight to find it – no one but him touched anything in the kitchen; he always knew where everything was. “You like pancakes?”

“Love them.” She approached the table with a little twirl, faltering slightly on the slick tile and steadying herself with a hand on the back of one chair. “Need any help cooking?” she asked, half laughing.

“Morning person, are we?” he asked, taking in the bright shine of her green eyes and the straightness of her spine as she stood poised beside the table, her hair cascading over her shoulders in rumpled auburn waves. He teased, but she looked more alive than anyone else he’d ever seen less than a minute out of bed.

She awoke something in him, too – namely, his cock, which stiffened a little at the sight of his t-shirt clinging to her breasts and her mile-long legs bared beneath.

“I like mornings.” She let her hand slip from the chair and approached the counter, where he stood. “It’s the most peaceful part of the day, if you ask me. Not tired peaceful, though – exciting peaceful. When I get up, a part of me sort of feels like anything could happen.”

“Wish I could say the same.” Exciting wasn’t exactly how he’d describe his feelings while brushing his teeth, shuffling around the normally quiet kitchen and finding something to eat while blinking the grit and heaviness of sleep out of his eyes.

“Want me to put some water on for tea?”

Her words went through him cold and fast, like a mouthful of ice water. Gripping the box of baking mix in one hand and a bowl in the other, he turned to see her holding the red teapot aloft, her slender fingers curled around the handle as she eyed him and then the nearby faucet.

“Actually, I drink coffee.” He set the bowl down on the counter, and the sound seemed absurdly loud.

“Oh.” She lowered the teapot back onto the rear left stove burner, the one he never used.

“I’ll put some coffee on. Do you drink it?”

“Yeah. I just saw the teapot and figured you didn’t.”

“It was my wife’s.” He poured too much baking mix into the bowl, then turned away to fetch eggs anyway, leaning into the fridge as the chill crept over his skin. He knew damn well that Karen probably didn’t know about Alice, and that sticking his head in the refrigerator was an idiotic thing to do. Still, he didn’t want to watch her face transform when he dropped the bomb on her.

“I didn’t know you were ever married.” Already, her voice was a little softer than before.

“For ten years. Lost Alice five years ago.”

“Oh, Jed.” The whisper-soft noise of her feet against tile rang in his ears again, strangely loud. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

She was so close now that he felt the heat radiating from her body. Straightening, he stood and closed the fridge, a carton of eggs cradled in one arm. “It was cancer.” 

“No one ever mentioned it. I—” 

“It’s all right.” A pang of guilt struck him deep in his chest as he met her eyes. They were so wide, still shining, but not with her early-bird cheerfulness. “I just didn’t want to keep it a secret. Everyone else knows.” Most or all of Hot Ink’s staff, anyway. Maybe not Mina, who’d only been working in the shop for a few months, but the rest… James and Tyler had known Alice, and the others had been there long enough to hear the stories.

“I feel terrible for bringing it up.”

“Don’t. If I couldn’t bear thinking about her, I’d have put the teapot away. You’re fine.”

“Okay.” She didn’t say anything else about it, but she stayed close by his side and helped him make the pancakes even though it was so easy that two people complicated the process more than simplified. He didn’t mind the closeness, the rubbing of elbows and the soft whip of her t-shirt hem against his thigh. But he minded the way her sunniness had disappeared, replaced by a more somber version of the Karen who’d twirled up to the table just minutes ago.

As they ate the pancakes and sipped coffee together, she blushed a little when she told him how much she’d enjoyed the night before. Her words and the way she looked up at him from beneath her lashes were enough to make him fully hard beneath the table. Still, he didn’t dare take her in his arms and loose himself in loving her again, because the sunlight that filtered through the nearest window illuminated the way she checked her smiles, the way she glanced at him every now and then as if searching his face for something that worried her.