She barely stirs. “Hmm?”
“Lift your head for me, babe.”
“Sorry.”
She rolls to her back and tosses her leg over mine. Surprisingly, she’s very touchy-feely for someone who’s slept alone the last four years.
I rotate my arm at the shoulder and flex my hand to help improve circulation, but I think time and blood are the only things that are going to fix this.
She reaches out in the dark and places her hand on my bicep, massaging it. “Is it gettin’ better?”
“A little. It just needs another minute or two.”
She lifts her head and strains to see the clock over my body. “What time is it?”
“Almost five.” Feels like I just shut my eyes.
“Mmm… two or three more hours to sleep.”
“We’re not churchin’ it after we told your parents we would go?”
She cackles. “No. And if Michael and Rachel call for a report, I’m lying.”
“You have my full support.”
Adelyn stretches and moans, catches my dick’s attention. “I wish you hadn’t woken me. I was dreaming of you. Of us.”
She has my full attention now. “You were?”
“Yeah. It was a good dream. An awesome one and I’m sad it’s over. I think you should make it up to me.”
I believe I know what she’s saying but I need to hear her confirm it. “How would you propose I do that?”
“You robbed me of the orgasm I was about to have. I think you owe me one in its place.”
“Tell me how I was giving you an orgasm in your dream.”
“I’m not sure you want to know. You might not be up for it.”
I need to experience the things Adelyn likes if I’m to know whether I’m capable of satisfying her. “Show me.”
“I’m afraid you can’t handle it.”
I don’t like hearing her say that. It makes me sound weak and I already know that isn’t what she likes or wants. And I very much want to be what she likes and wants.
She thinks I can’t handle it? Challenge accepted.
“Take off your clothes and show me how I made you come.” My voice is stern to let her know I’m the one in control. “Now.”
The mattress dips with her movement and there’s no further argument. She’s getting naked.
“You need to be naked too.”
I start shedding my clothes. “On it.”
She gets on her knees between my parted legs after she’s finished stripping. “Come down in the bed a little.”
“You give a lot of orders for someone who likes to be controlled during sex.”
She laughs as she leans forward and grasps the headboard. “This is just the first part of my dream. You’ll get to exert power and control over me in a minute. And when you do, I’ll come like a firecracker.” She moves her knees to the mattress on each side of my head.
Fuck. She’s straddling my face.
“I think you know what you were doing to make me come.”
She’s on her knees, but too far away for me to lick, so I dig my fingers into her ass and force her to come down over my mouth. I lick once. Twice. Three times. “I love the way you taste. And smell.”
I tickle her clit with my tongue and she rocks her hips in a back-and-forth motion against my mouth. Her body shudders and a moan is released when my tongue works her in a circular motion. “Omigod, you do some awesome things with that mouth.”
There is nothing on earth like this. Pleasing Adelyn. Hearing her moans. Licking her until she comes.
I suck and release her clit until she arches her back and cries out. “Oh God! Right there. Just like that.”
Her body spasms in a rhythmic pattern at least a dozen times. One sign of a good orgasm. A second is her calling out my name. And she does.
She goes lax and grabs the headboard to steady herself.
“Was it as good as the dream?”
“Even better but we’re nowhere near done. There was so much more to my dream.”
“I’m not mad about that.”
She grabs the back of my neck and summons me to move with her. She lies on her back and pulls me on top, between her legs. “We were like this.”
She kisses my lips and moves her mouth over my jawline and down my neck. She nibbles the skin, lightly sucking on it.
“I need to get a condom before we get rolling too fast here.” Except I don’t have any. I left my supply at Adelyn’s house the night we fucked at her place. “Son of a bitch.”
She groans when I pull away. “What’s wrong?”
“No condoms. They’re at your house.”
“Oh.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. “I guess I’m getting dressed and making a rubber run to your place.”
“You may think I’m nuts but I sorta-kinda-wanna say fuck the condom.” She sucks her bottom lip as she runs her hands over my shoulders and down my chest. She grasps my cock and pumps it a few times. “I want you inside me right now. I don’t want to wait.”
She’s offering herself to me, wholly, and it’s tempting as fuck.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure.” She parts her legs wide, giving me full access to her body. “I’m yours. Every part of me. If it’s what you want.”
If it’s what I want? How the fuck can she think it isn’t what I want? “It is.”
She positions my cock at her entrance and I enter slowly. Deeply. Pure heaven. “Fuck, Max. I didn’t know it would feel this good.”
I move slowly, wanting this to go on forever. I want to be between Adelyn’s legs all day. We may miss lunch with the family.
I grasp behind her thighs and push her legs back and apart. I continue to move in and out of her without hurry because the position is so intense. “Does this feel good for you?”
“Mm-hmm. I love the way you feel inside me.”
“Tell me what you want and I’ll give it a try.” She’s silent. I think too nervous to say the words. “Show me.”
I lower my upper body and rest my weight on one arm so I’m able to free the other. She wraps her hand around my wrist and moves it to her neck. “Cup your hand around the side of my neck but don’t press on the front of my airway.” She puts her hand on top of mine. “Apply gentle pressure on the side this time so you can get a feel for it.”
I thrust in and out while my hand holds her neck, and it doesn’t feel at all like what I imagined. It’s so much better.
She’s giving all of herself to me, submitting to my control, and it’s hot as fuck. Erotic.
Adelyn was right. This has nothing to do with cutting off her airway or hurting her. This is about claiming her as mine. Taking care of her needs. Being the strong alpha male she wants but with gentle hands.
And making her come hard.
Adelyn closes her eyes and tilts her hips upward. I know what she’s doing—positioning so my dick will hit her in that sensitive area beneath her pelvic bone. And I’m hitting it. I see it on her face.
I thrust with fierce domination. “You are mine, Max. No one else’s.”
I feel the onset of my orgasm. I slow my speed in hopes of prolonging the pleasure but it’s too late. I’m too fucking turned-on by what we’re doing to not detonate.
I hold her in place and thrust deep as I explode inside her. Coming. So hard.
This surpassed any and all of my expectations.
She smiles when I release my hold on her neck. Because she’s perfectly fine. Completely unharmed and utterly happy. We both are.
I rub my fingers down the side of her neck. Dub-dub. Dub-dub. Dub-dub. The pulse I feel beneath my fingers is beating so hard.
Adelyn pushes away the fallen hair covering my forehead and eyes. “See?”
I trace my fingertips over her neck. “It doesn’t leave bruises? Or marks on your skin?”
“It does if you applied enough pressure.”
Oh hell no. I’m not having that. “Did I squeeze hard enough to mark you?”<
br />
“Absolutely not.”
She seems convinced but I’m not. I need to see the proof for myself. “Your skin is so fair. I’m already worried that I’ve marked you.”
I stretch toward the nightstand and turn on the lamp so I can inspect her body. “Everyone can see your neck. I don’t want it to ever wear the evidence of what we do behind closed doors. I won’t have people wondering if I abuse you.”
“I’m fine. You haven’t bruised me.”
“I need to be sure.” The last thing I need is Mom seeing my handprint around Adelyn’s throat when we have lunch today. She would have a conniption.
I hold her chin and turn her face from side to side for inspection. “I think we’re good. I don’t see anything.”
“Because there isn’t anything there to see. You barely squeezed at all. It was nothing more than a gentle hold.” She cups the side of my face with her hand. “And I loved it. You made me feel like I’m yours.”
Adelyn is mine. Mine to own. Mine to protect. And maybe, one day, mine to love.
“I liked it too but you have to promise you’ll tell me if I’m ever doing it hard enough to discolor your skin.”
Both of her hands cup my face. “I will. Swear.”
She kisses me quickly before getting up. “Be right back.”
When she returns from the bathroom, Adelyn turns off the lamp and climbs over me. “Let’s get a little more sleep.”
She turns so her back presses against my front. Spooning.
And I don’t hate it.
I may even love it.
16
Adelyn Maxwell
Lawrence is teaching me how to make her special guacamole. She says it’s Oliver’s favorite. Or at least his favorite vegetarian option when she’s in charge of cooking.
I look up from the avocado I’m cutting and find all female eyes on me. “Is this not the way you want it done?”
“Go on, Law. Ask her while all the dicks are out of the kitchen,” Ivy says.
You have to love the things that come out of that girl’s mouth.
Lawrence looks in the direction of her living room and then back at me. “We know you and Ollie are doing it, but we want to know if y’all are just fuck buddies or for real dating?”
I’m not sure which surprises me more—the part where Lawrence said “fuck buddies” in front of her mom or that Mrs. Thorn didn’t bat an eyelash when she heard that come out of her daughter’s mouth.
Wow. This is uncomfortable. Oliver’s mom is standing in front of me, waiting to hear if I’m her son’s girlfriend or just the girl next door he screws when he’s horny.
Rachel Maxwell would die if this conversation were happening in front of her. But I’m learning the Thorn household isn’t anything like the Maxwells’.
I still giggle when I think about Mrs. Thorn saying that Mr. Thorn would probably get lucky after he called her his beautiful girl. And the things Oliver has said about them going at it like teenagers? I know he isn’t exaggerating. Only an hour ago, I saw Mr. Thorn smack Oliver’s mom on the ass when he thought no one was looking.
Is that what my life with Oliver might be like at that age after being married thirty-five years? I can’t say I’d mind if it were.
Ivy uses her palms to demonstrate a balance. One goes up while the other goes down and then vice versa. “So what is it, Adelyn? Fuck buddies or dating?”
Oliver and I haven’t given it a label, but we agreed to try a relationship. And he called me his girlfriend. He wouldn’t have done that if we were only fucking. “We’re dating.”
A proud-big-sister smile spreads on Lawrence’s face. “You can’t imagine how happy that makes me.”
“How happy that makes us.” Mrs. Thorn’s smile rivals Lawrence’s.
And they can’t imagine how happy their joy makes me.
I’m not accustomed to this kind of warmth. Martin’s mother hated me. She was old and bitter and jealous. She viewed me as competition for her son’s affection, which was always super creepy. And his sister was just indifferent. She looked at me like I was some kind of insignificant twit who was after her brother’s money.
“Tell us how it happened.”
Umm, yeah. I won’t be doing that.
“We started hanging out right after Oliver moved next door and we became fast friends. And then the friendship turned into a little bit of flirting. Things didn’t click into place until last week.”
“I think it’s great that you were friends first,” Kelsey says.
“My parents came to visit earlier this week. Oliver wanted to meet them and be introduced as the man in my life.”
They’re all wearing the same stunned expression.
“That’s a huge move on Oliver’s part. It says a lot about his intentions.”
I hope Ivy’s right because Oliver is incredible. His fury last night, although frightening at the time, was beautiful. He was beautiful. So genuinely agonized by what Martin had done to me. How could I not be completely captivated?
I giggle, adding, “It especially says a lot when he insists on meeting your father who is a Southern Baptist preacher.”
Ivy bursts into laughter. “Oh my God. Oliver is dating a preacher’s daughter.”
“He wasn’t at all scared off by my daddy being a preacher. He even survived the Adelyn-was-raised-in-the-way-of-the-Lord talk.”
“How did meeting your parents go?” Mrs. Thorn asks.
“They liked Oliver very much. They were very impressed.”
Which was a totally different scenario with Martin. They didn’t care for him at all. My daddy would have had a heart attack had he known we were living together outside the boundaries of marriage.
“Ollie went through a bit of a rough patch after his last girlfriend. Most of his relationships since Eden haven’t lasted more than a night.”
Right. His one-night stands. “He’s told me about his wild streak.”
“It’s been three years and you’re the first woman he’s had any interest in dating. You can’t imagine how happy I am about this. I really want it to work out.”
“Me too. I like Oliver.” A lot. I think we could be really good together.
I have almost everything I could desire. A successful job. A fine car. A beautiful place to live. But four years is a long time to come home to an empty house.
I want more. I’m ready for a man who’s interested in sharing a life together. Maybe a husband. Maybe a father for children. I could see Oliver fitting into all three of those roles.
“I found happiness, and I want that for my brother too.” Lawrence lights up when her husband comes into the kitchen. “And right here is the source of my happiness.”
I can see why Lawrence would be happy. Lucas is loving and he treats her well. Not to mention that he is one good-looking Cajun. But to me, Oliver is hotter.
“I like walking in on conversations where I hear I’m the source of your happiness.” Lucas kisses the side of Lawrence’s face. “But you know you’re mine too, babe.”
They’re such a cute couple.
“Did you get volunteered to make the beer run?”
“Yes, I did, wife. And Oliver volunteered me to check on the guacamole.”
“Tell him five minutes. Adelyn is cutting the avocados right now. And tell him I’m showing her how to make it just the way he likes it. Extra lime and cumin.”
“You got it, babe.”
These are the people Oliver is closest to. And they have made me feel so welcome in their circle. Everything about them is so honest and open. I feel like I can be me. The real me. Not the person who puts on a front and lies to hide my blatant sins as I do with Rachel and Michael Maxwell.
It’s incredibly clear how much Oliver loves his family. And I can’t help but find that wonderful. Who wouldn’t want a man who loves and treats his family well? It’s a direct reflection of how I could expect him to treat and love me.
I return to cutting avocados so my man can have his c
hips and guac.
“Master the guacamole and you’ll win his heart for sure. He loves that stuff.”
“I think Adelyn’s well on her way to winning his heart regardless. I know what I saw last night. He’s smitten with you. I’ve never seen him that way with a woman before. You’re special to him.”
I love hearing how confident Mrs. Thorn is. Moms know.
“I hope so. Because he’s very special to me.”
Everything about our relationship feels like it has been put into forward motion. My thoughts. My feelings. My expectations.
I’m dancing around the words but it doesn’t make them any less true.
I’m falling in love with Oliver Thorn.
I get off Oliver’s motorcycle and remove my helmet. “That was fun. I’m glad we decided to take the bike. I’ve wanted to ride again since the day you took me to the brewery.”
“I’ll take you cruising anytime you want.”
I lower the zipper of my leather riding jacket. “If we make a habit of this, I’m going to need my own jacket. This one squeezes my boobs so tight I can hardly breathe.”
“Lucky jacket.”
“Don’t be jealous. I’ll let you squeeze my boobs whenever you like.”
“That’ll be hard to do if you’re at your place and I’m at mine.”
I don’t want to be apart tonight, but I’m not sure it’s a good idea to push for another sleepover. I’d be more comfortable if Oliver made that proposal.
“What do you suggest we do about that?”
“I want you to stay with me tonight.”
“I would like that very much, but I need to go home and get a few things first.”
“Doable. Want me to go with you?”
The obsessed look in Martin’s eyes comes to mind. He intended on having me one way or another, and I’m not sure that being in Oliver’s chokehold changed his mind about that.
I hate feeling like a frightened rabbit but I’m scared to go alone. “I think I’d feel more at ease if you went with me.”
“I know I’d feel better if I went with you.”
I have no worries about Oliver’s ability to protect me. He easily overpowered Martin. He literally held his life in his hands, in the crook of his arm to be exact. That doesn’t go unnoticed and the irony of Martin being the one forced into that subjugated position isn’t lost on me. Oliver Thorn is slowly capturing my heart with his concern for my safety.