Phoenix Rising (10 page)

“I know you need more. You need it faster, harder, my balls slapping your ass while I pound my cock inside your cunt.”

Another gasp she couldn’t catch. Jessa was burning with the need for climax.

“Beg me, Jessa. Say the words.”

Jessa squeezed her eyes tightly shut. A crest of heat burned her spine, trickling painfully down the backs of her legs. She was going to die. Connor was killing her.

Her eyes snapped open. Connor’s black gaze fumed with unholy fire. “Please, Connor. Fuck my pussy; make me come.”

Her words unleashed a torrent of brutal masculine power from deep inside Connor. Every protest, every inhibition, every reservation Jessa had ever experienced went up in the flames of Connor’s utter possession of her body.

The rhythmic pounding drove her over the edge. It forced her to another peak and past, until she was mindless to anything but the feel of his hot cock sliding in and out of her vagina with ruthless intensity.

The crescendo burst over them with one last thrust that made Jessa scream. Connor gripped the sides of her face, and Jessa trembled at the hellfire mirrored in his eyes as his pulsating cock branded her with a thick stream of hot cum.

“Mine.” His growl was almost too low for Jessa to hear. She couldn’t even be certain he’d said it. But the possibility sent a new kind of heat lancing straight to Jessa’s belly.

Chapter Ten

Connor braced one hand against the cool white porcelain sink and turned on the water. He splashed the ice-cold liquid liberally over his sweat-covered bare head. Droplets slid over his neck and pooled between his shoulder blades before slipping down his spine.

He was surprised they didn’t sizzle.

Teach her to let loose. Make her leave her damned sense of propriety at the door. That had been a great plan.

But somewhere along Connor’s carefully plotted route, things had gone completely awry. He was not only affected. He was damn near as affected as Jessa. Never had he so completely let loose with a woman. And he thought he’d been so in control. Connor hadn’t felt such an intense desire for a woman in years. Every stroke was heaven.

Then he had to go and make her beg.

It had seemed so natural. He’d forced Jessa to let go of her pretensions, rendering her unable to cry coercion later on. She could never look back and say she was swept away. Not when he’d made her beg so prettily for him to finish it. But Connor had been wholly unprepared for his response to the sound of her sexy voice aching with need, asking him to take her to the heights of passion.

And that was when he totally lost it.

His knuckles gripped the sink until they were white with strain. Not even the icy water could cool the heat raging inside his body. He didn’t just want this woman. Fucking her pussy wasn’t enough. Connor wanted more. He was like an addict. A little taste would never be enough.

She was strong and stubborn and beautiful and smart. She was a woman Connor could never grow tired of. And deep inside his scarred and twisted psyche, an urge to keep her forever was quickly taking over his rigid good sense.

Because keeping her was such a great idea.

Connor pushed away from the sink and reached for the clean T-shirt draped over the shower curtain. The thin fabric was cool against his flushed skin. Avoiding a glance at his reflection in the mirror, Connor turned off the light.

“Connor?”

Connor glanced at the luminescent face of his watch. “Isn’t it time for you to go home?”

“It’s only two a.m.” Alex flopped onto the couch. “Used to be, we would just be getting started.”

“I’m too old for that schedule, Alex.”

Connor dropped to the floor and began a series of one-armed pushups. The exercise usually helped him wind down on a regular night. After tasting sweet heaven between Jessa’s thighs, Connor was just hoping to get himself back under control.

It was hard not to feel the frank evaluation in Alex’s stare when Connor grunted his way to fifty, switched arms, and kept going. If Alex thought any louder, Connor’s ears would start ringing.

“She’s an interesting puzzle, isn’t she?” Alex commented after several minutes of prolonged silence.

“If you say so.”

Another pause and then, “I think I’ll dip my hand in the cookie jar tomorrow night.”

The vicious stab of fury caught Connor completely off guard. His arm crumpled and his body hit the wood floor with a dull thud. His eyes slid shut and he rested there for the span of three breaths before even trying to rise.

He could not kill Alex. He had every right to have an interest in Jessa. She was just another woman. And God knew the two of them had enjoyed similar tastes in the past.

“You okay, Connor? Have you gained a few pounds or something?”

“Or something,” Connor muttered.

“Honestly, if I worked all night and then came up here to punish myself with a few hundred crunches and pushups and God knows what else you torture yourself with, I’d hit rock bottom too.”

Connor flung himself onto the loveseat. “It wouldn’t hurt you to do a few exercises to keep in shape, Alex.”

“Oh I exercise. In fact, I did about a million pelvic thrusts tonight with Isabel. That’s got to be worth a couple thousand calories.”

Connor rolled his eyes. “I didn’t see Isabel come in.”

“Yeah, you were too involved with Jessa.”

“Don’t you think Isabel will get pissed if you’re fucking around with Jessa behind her back?”

Alex shrugged, “If she’s pissed about it, then our relationship has run its course.”

“One of these days you’re going to get yourself into trouble.”

“It’ll be a vengeful husband, not a woman scorned.”

“I still don’t think you should try to start something with Jessa when you haven’t finished with Isabel. Jessa won’t understand. She hasn’t been around long enough.”

Connor tried to remain still beneath the appraising look Alex raked over him. He knew it was completely out of character for him to try and talk Alex out of a woman. But Connor couldn’t help it. The idea of Alex and Jessa having a casual fling was unacceptable to him. And if he had to use Isabel as an argument, so be it.

“Connor,” Alex began quietly, “what’s going on?”

There wasn’t an answer to that question, so Connor didn’t even try. He levered himself off the loveseat and silently left the room instead. Alex didn’t try to call him back. Connor was glad.

It was cool and dark inside his bedroom. Connor stripped naked and slid between the cotton sheets. He spent several minutes trying to get comfortable before heaving a great sigh and flopping onto his back, hands stacked beneath his head. Normally, the bed seemed on the small side. Tonight it felt empty. Connor didn’t even want to examine the why of that phenomenon.

Jessa’s expression had been mixed when she left after their erotic love play against the bar. Connor knew she’d been relieved that it was only she, him and Alex in the bar when their arousal abated and the world stopped spinning out of control. And though Connor wanted to awaken her understanding of just how erotic it could be to exhibit raw passion and desire in front of a roomful of people, he didn’t want to push her too far. It had been a huge concession for Jessa to let Connor spread her legs and take her there in front of Alex and the few remaining customers at one a.m. on a slow night. Any more would’ve been a setback of epic proportions.

But when the passion had burned away and left the woman and the man still locked in a sensual embrace, Connor hadn’t wanted to let go. And that wasn’t the normal way of things for him.

A good thorough fucking, down and dirty, as fulfilling as sex could ever be, was followed by a casual word and a wave. That was the way Connor operated. Alex wined and dined and made promises nobody expected him to keep. Connor simply left.

So why had he lingered to help Jessa dress before making certain she made it safely to her car? He’d even watched her taillights disappear into the darkness of night. How was he supposed to interpret that? It’d been damned uncomfortable. Neither of them had known what to say. He was no good at idle conversation. And Connor had been preoccupied with fighting the urge to pull her close for a thorough kissing before dragging her upstairs and keeping her busy in his bed all night long.

Kissing her would be the equivalent of flirting with insanity.

Personal hang-ups rarely made sense. And Connor’s unspoken rule about kissing on the mouth was no exception. It was a simple rule. He didn’t do it. How a simple kiss on a woman’s mouth was more intimate than a slow, languorous taste of her feminine core was beyond Connor’s ability to explain. But it was true.

Although, considering the way he wanted to kiss Jessa, it wasn’t hard to comprehend.

Kissing Jessa wouldn’t be intimate. It would be soul searing. He’d nearly lost the war raging in his mind when Jessa had asked him to kiss her. It was a simple request that nearly torn him in two.

He needed a new plan, preferably something that took perspective into consideration.

Jessa needed to let loose. She needed to forget the asshole husband who’d turned his back on something he couldn’t possibly understand the value of. She needed someone to unleash the fiery temptress locked inside her. She needed Connor. And Connor needed to keep his head.

He blinked in the darkness, eyes staring unfocused at the ceiling. Seducing Jessa was fine. It didn’t matter where or when. Connor couldn’t let her continue to deny her own innate sensuality.

But it had to stop there. Seduce her, fuck her, and get her out of his system. Because when it was all said and done, Connor wasn’t the man for her. And therein lay the double-edged blade. Jessa was beauty and light and passion personified. And when she realized that, it would be time for Connor to step away.

After all, a woman like Jessa didn’t belong with an ex-convict like Connor.

Chapter Eleven

Jessa had stopped keeping a tally of her own inappropriate behavior. It was too exhausting. She was going to have to accept that when she was anywhere near Connor, everything from her vocabulary to her self-image got downright sassy.

She could still smell him all over her body when they were getting ready to close for the night. The scent of his sweat and cum permeated every cell of her body until Jessa was enveloped in Connor’s essence.

Of course, there was no better place to be. He’d fucked her until she couldn’t imagine not being completely satisfied. But she wasn’t. All night long, Jessa saw him from across the room, met his eyes, and caught him staring shamelessly at her as she worked. It was all she could do not to stride across the bar, flinging off her clothes as she went. Jessa wanted to bend over the nearest table and beg him to do it all over again.

“Hey, sex kitten, have a drink.” Alex pushed a bottle of beer into her hand, interrupting her daydream.

“Rough night, huh?”

Alex took a long swig from his own bottle. “Not really. It seemed pretty normal to me.”

“All I want is a nice hot shower.”

Alex paused, bottle against his full, curved lips. “Well, you’re the one who decided to start your shift sporting the freshly-fucked look.”

Jessa blinked in surprise.

“C’mon, don’t act like you thought it was a secret, Jessa. You were loud enough to bring down the house.”

She flushed scarlet to the roots of her brown hair. “Please shut up.”

“Actually, I don’t mind listening to
your
screams.”

Jessa set the bottle on a table and covered her flaming face with her hands.

“But I have to tell you that Connor’s yells and groans just don’t do it for me.”

Jessa made a valiant effort at a comeback, “No guy-on-guy for you, huh?”

“Not unless there’s a sweet piece of feminine ass between me and him.”

“Speaking of Isabel,” Connor interjected as he approached with a frosty bottle of water in his hand. “Where is she tonight?”

Though Alex seemed unbothered by Connor’s implications, Jessa was fascinated. Did they actually share women like that? And why did that thought excite her instead of disturb her?

Alex shrugged and took another long pull from his bottle. “I kind of thought she’d be here by now, but you know how it is.”

“He might, but I don’t,” Jessa prodded, hopping up and settling her backside comfortably on the table.

Alex ran a hand through his already tousled blonde curls. “It’s just a casual relationship, Jessa. No strings, no agreements, no attachments, you know.”

No, she really didn’t. But Jessa kept silent and took a swallow of beer. She was feeling pleasantly buzzed. Not just because of the beer, but also the shots she’d done with a customer only fifteen minutes before close.

“I have to say, Jessa, I’m rather impressed with the amount of alcohol you’ve put away tonight.”

She flushed, wondering if it was pathetic to be flattered by such a backhanded compliment. “I wasn’t always a good girl, you know.”

“No,” Alex drawled. “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”

The moment of bravado passed, leaving insecurity in its wake. “I had a year of college before I settled down.”

Alex nudged her arm. “Aha, so the reformed party girl is backsliding, hmm?”

“I suppose even boring women like me were young once upon a time.”

“Young and old have nothing to do with it, Jessa,” Connor rumbled.

His uncanny gaze ripped right through her defenses and left Jessa utterly exposed. The air between them snapped with electricity. But just when things began to descend into that place just beyond her comfort level, Alex fidgeted.

“Well,” Alex leapt to his feet. “Since we’re all here with nothing better to do…”

He let the sentence hang, but Connor rolled his eyes and chuckled. “What’s it going to be this time?”

“There are breasts in the room, Connor. What do you think I want to do?”

“Better ask her first.”

“Would the two of you stop talking about me as if my breasts didn’t come with a brain?”

Both Connor and Alex smiled and laughed. But it wasn’t the sound of Alex’s laughter that made butterflies explode in Jessa’s stomach. Feeling slightly drunk and more than a little reckless, Jessa reached out a hand to Connor.

His long fingers laced smoothly with hers. Jessa tugged him toward her seat on the table.

“What?” he asked, warm black eyes gazing into her face.

“Tell me what he’s doing.”

Connor turned to look at the bar. Alex was already rummaging around for clean shot glasses, his favorite top-shelf liqueur, and a bottle of Tequila.

“Give it a minute and he’ll tell you.”

“What on earth does it have to do with my breasts, Connor?”

Connor chuckled, low and deep, the sound drawing forth a shiver of sensation from deep inside Jessa’s body. How had he managed to take over her senses so fully in so short a time? They’d only had to fuck once, and she was so gone, Jessa wasn’t sure she’d ever recover.

“Trust me when I swear I would never let any harm come to your breasts,” Connor murmured.

As if to reinforce his point, he slid his cool hands beneath her shirt and cupped the body parts under discussion. Jessa closed her eyes and let the sensations wash over her like warm rain.

Alex cleared his throat. “I’m not interrupting anything am I? Do you guys need another private meeting in the office?”

“No.” Connor grinned wickedly. “Anything we need to do can be accomplished right here.”

“Okay, I’ll just ignore that since I don’t think it included me.” Alex pouted. “Can we get on with the shots?”

“What shots?” Jessa still didn’t understand why they needed breasts for their little game.

If Jessa had been a little more sober, she might have protested in earnest when Connor drew her top over her head and tossed it aside. As it was, the shock of cool air against her bare skin was distracting enough.

“What in the world are you doing, Connor? Give me that back!”

“That’s the game, Jessa,” Alex explained. “We compete to see how many shots we can drink from between your breasts without spilling.”

“And if you spill it?”

His grin was pure orneriness. “We lick it up.”

Jessa slanted Connor a curious look to see what he thought of this idea. But his face was calm. “What about me? Neither of you have breasts. I think it’d be kind of hard to try and grab a shot glass out of your crotch with my mouth.”

“Oh, but the joy of watching you try,” Alex quipped. “You don’t have to participate in this contest. It’s just for me and Connor.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Love, with Connor’s tolerance for hard liquor you’d be too passed out for us to finish our little contest.”

“I don’t think I want to be sober for this anyway,” Jessa mused. “It sounds embarrassing.”

“Never that,” Connor rumbled.

It was heady and arousing and dirty and raw and she should’ve been dying of embarrassment. But Jessa couldn’t bring herself to tell them no or stop. She wanted this. It was a feeling of feminine power she’d never experienced before.

Connor and Alex were ridiculous. They threw their efforts into the contest with the eagerness of men with little boy egos. Even as they both took turns bending over her half-naked body at absurd angles to put shot glass after shot glass into their mouths. Jessa couldn’t help but laugh. But when one of them spilled and the liquid would stream over her skin only to be lapped up by a male tongue, Connor was the only one who truly affected her.

Jessa could’ve sworn he was losing on purpose. And every time his tequila dribbled down her chest, he would tilt her over his arm and lovingly lave the cleft between her breasts. Without fail her heart would pound, her palms would sweat and her pussy would clench with desire. She wanted more than his tongue between her breasts. She wanted his cock between her legs.

By three a.m., Alex was three sheets to the wind and Jessa was right there with him having consumed more than her share of Alex’s sweet orange liqueur. Connor alone was still coherent, though he’d downed almost a fifth of tequila.

“You know Jessa,” Alex mused from his resting spot across three bar tables they’d shoved together. “It’s really not fair that Connor’s the only one who gets to see how sweet you really are.”

“Wow Alex, was that a pickup line you just tried on me?” Jessa said through a fit of giggles.

Connor lifted his head. “No, I think he was just whining. He’s always been good at that.”

“Oh look, Jessa.” Alex rolled toward her. “You’ve got some liqueur on your bra. Let me help you take it off.”

Jessa didn’t expect him to reach over and unclasp the thing. But he did. It fell open, spilling her breasts into the open. Jessa blinked stupidly in surprise as Alex dropped his half-empty bottle of liqueur to the floor, palmed her breast, and popped her nipple into his mouth.

Time froze briefly as Jessa watched, fascinated, while Alex hungrily devoured first one flushed areola and then the other. Still dazed, she turned her head to search for Connor.

He was stretched out along her other side. His black eyes sought hers and held. It was odd, but Jessa sensed he was letting her decide. That this was her choice and he would let it go until she decided it was enough. But there was something else in that gaze as well. An unknown stirring that told Jessa in no uncertain terms that there would be a point where Alex might cross the line and Connor would vehemently voice his objections.

“So fucking sweet, Jessa,” Alex murmured against her belly as he followed the trail of alcoholic residue.

Connor stirred at Jessa’s side. He slowly reached out to unfasten the button and zipper on her slacks. His eyes never broke contact with hers. One large hand slid maddeningly beneath the waistband and rested on her mons.

Jessa had the odd sensation that Connor was subtly defining boundaries. Because while Alex ran his hands and tongue all over her breasts, belly and neck, he never once ventured lower.

“Get a move on, Connor,” Alex murmured hoarsely, her nipple still clenched between his white teeth. “I want to see the whole package.”

Connor lifted her hips and slid her slacks and panties further down her legs. Aching for his touch, Jessa’s legs fell open immediately. Her eyes sought his again, pleading for him to satisfy her one more time.

She would always need one more time with Connor.

“She’s begging for it, Connor.” Alex groaned. “Touch her.”

Connor’s long fingers slid between her labia and dipped deep inside her creamy center. Jessa arched back, thrusting her nipple further into Alex’s mouth as Connor finger fucked her sopping wet pussy.

She’d never been so turned on. Connor’s clever fingers drew magic circles around her clitoris and Alex’s mouth tormented her taut nipples. It was a short trip to her first rocking orgasm.

“C’mon, I want to smell her. Let me taste her just once, Connor.”

“No.” His answer reverberated around the bar and reached through Jessa’s pleasurable haze.

The intense satisfaction Jessa received from Connor’s possessive nature tossed her instantly into another orgasm. She writhed on the tabletop and began convulsing around Connor’s hand while whimpering and pushing her heavy breasts into Alex’s face.

“Then fuck her, Connor,” Alex demanded in a strained voice. “I want to see her cum again.”

Connor stood up and pulled Jessa roughly away from Alex to the edge of the table. He tugged her into a sitting position before her panties and slacks slid to the floor in a little pile over her discarded shoes. He hastily pulled his cock from his trousers and without further preamble, Connor buried himself to the hilt in Jessa’s hot slit.

Jessa was on fire. Connor’s thick, fully engorged cock stretched her pussy beyond limits. Every inch of her vagina was screaming from the sudden invasion. He had always begun with his fingers to make her ready for his huge shaft. Jessa sensed on some level that Connor was making a bold statement with his abrupt claiming. But she was too swept up in the passion to make sense of his reasons.

Alex crouched behind Jessa. He used his hands to knead her swollen breasts before sliding them lower to grasp her hips. Rocking with the pace set by Connor’s cock inside Jessa’s pussy, Alex dry humped the cleft of her ass. Murmuring erotic nonsense into Jessa’s ear, his desperate cries thrust Jessa into another climax.

A primal hum from deep inside Connor rattled Jessa’s bones. Hands clutching his biceps, she felt his muscles bunch before he lifted her off the table and away from Alex.

“Finish on your own,” Connor ordered in a low growl.

Jessa didn’t have time to linger on Alex’s dazed expression before her back was slammed against the wall. She automatically wrapped her long legs around Connor’s waist as he braced himself and began to fuck her in earnest.

“Look at me, Jessa.”

She tried desperately to focus on his face.

“Who’s fucking you?”

“You are.”

“Say it!” he roared.

“Connor! You’re fucking me, Connor. OhmiGod, please don’t stop!” she wailed.

Heat flooded her sex and the muscles of her vagina clenched tightly around the throbbing hardness of Connor’s cock. Jessa’s breath caught in her throat and stars burst behind her eyelids.

Finally, with one forceful thrust Connor ended it. Jessa could’ve sworn she felt his cum spraying the inside of her vagina. The sensation snapped her into another climax, and both she and Connor rode the undulating waves of her pussy as the frenzied feeling began to subside.

Connor pressed his forehead to hers. “Look at me, Jessa.”

She couldn’t have looked away if she wanted to.

“Some other man might touch you. He might even bring you pleasure.” Connor’s voice was almost an animalistic growl. “But he will never fuck your pussy. No one but me ever will again. Understand?”

Jessa nodded. But confusion swamped her insides. If Connor and Alex didn’t do commitment, why was he so possessive?