Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

Maddie

I collapse onto the bed. How can watching a cat give birth be so exhausting? It’s been hours since Thomasina birthed what I hope is the final kitten. Four babies are all tucked in with mama in the whelping box that Jack ended up going out to buy.

I stretch on the bed, my muscles soar from a day spent hunched over.

It was glorious. Nothing makes me happier than taking a creature who would have suffered alone, and giving them all the love and support they need.

My grandmother would have said that I wanted to be whatever little bird or squirrel I brought home.

Maybe she’s right. Maybe I help helpless creatures because I feel like one too. I’m at the world’s mercy so much of the time. But no matter the reason, I can’t stop caring for the sick and wounded now. It’s how I find joy.

Which is why I actually kind of love the idea of helping Roman. Not that he’s one of my wounded creatures. But still. I just want to do it for him. Show him…that he matters to me. That I care.

He walks into the room, stopping. I can feel his gaze as I stretch. “Do you ache as much as I do?”

“What are we aching for?” he asks, moving closer. My lower legs hang off the bed. His knees come between mine, softly pushing them apart. His hands settle to either side of my chest on the bed, his body leaning over mine. “Because I’ve had an ache that’s been building for days.”

My brows lift as I stretch my arms higher over my head. “Even after this morning?”

“Especially after this morning.” And then he slowly lowers himself until his lips brush over mine.

He starts to pull back and I rise to keep my lips against his. All right, maybe I’ve been aching for him all day too.

Because he sat with me for hours watching over a cat. And when my back started to ache, he leaned against the apron of the couch, pulling my back into his chest while he rubbed my shoulders.

His scent wrapped around me then, just like it’s wrapping around me right now.

He pulls away a bit further, until I can’t follow any more and I collapse back on the bed with a dissatisfied click of my tongue.

He chuckles in response. But he doesn’t come back to my lips. Instead, he kneels down, taking off first one of my shoes and then the other.

He slips off my socks and then slides his hands up my legs until he catches the waistband of my leggings.

I lift my ass because I have no intention of slowing any of this down. I want Roman’s hands on every inch of my body and then I want to trace every angle of him.

I want to feel every ripple, every muscle until I know him as intimately as I know myself.

But he short-circuits my intentions when he gets the leggings halfway down and then plants a kiss on my lower stomach.

My fingers immediately twine into his hair, my skin pebbling with goose pimples from the kiss as a shiver races through me.

“Roman,” it comes out a half sigh, half plea. I don’t even know what I’m asking for.

“I’m here,” he answers, pulling my leggings the rest of the way down my legs and off my feet. I’d put on cute lacy underwear this morning and I’m so glad now, as I lay underneath him in my short tank and bikini briefs.

His hands are roaming up my legs and around my thighs, his thumbs brushing along the lace. He’s so close but his fingers aren’t quite touching my mound, and I swear the tease makes me hotter, my panties instantly soaked.

“Mmm,” he murmurs. “I love that smell.”

My cheeks flush with heat and embarrassment as I try to close my legs, but he holds them open. Dropping to his knees on the floor, his shoulders only open my legs wider. And then he grabs my waist, pulling me closer to the edge of the bed, right before he dives in, licking up my still-covered pussy.

I instantly arch, all embarrassment forgotten as throbbing pleasure tightens every muscle.

He slips the panties to the side, sliding his finger against my already-swollen lips, and then he follows with his tongue.

My heels dig into his back, my body curling to give him better access.

I don’t know how he manages to make me so hot so quickly, but I’m already ready to beg him for the release he can give.

But he isn’t even close to letting me orgasm.

Pulling back, he flips me over onto my belly and then yanks down my underwear to my knees.

I don’t argue, I don’t even protest, excitement pulsing through me as he licks me again, the new angle causing a riot of sensation. “Oh God,” I gasp.

His hand comes down on my ass with a playful slap. “You mean, ‘oh Roman,’” he rumbles into my pussy, the hum of his voice only making me ache more.

“Roman,” I gasp. “Yes. God. Please.”

“Not yet, greedy girl,” and then he laughs against me.

Something in the laugh kills some of the mood for me and I push my upper half up giving a cry of protest, while I rest on my elbows. “Are you making fun of me?”

He rakes his hands up my thighs. “Maddie, do you have any idea how fucking sexy you look like that?”

“Oh,” I start, realizing I might be overreacting.

His hands slide over my ass, giving it a light massage before he smacks one cheek again. “And I was teasing. You’re the least greedy person I know. And if the one thing you’re demanding about is orgasms on my tongue, fucking sign me up.”

“Ooohhh,” this one comes out as a moan because he dives back in, licking from my clit all the way up until he’s circling first one hole and then the other, the one I never dreamed a man would touch with his tongue. It feels amazing.

I gasp, words failing me. I never imagined being this dirty. And if I did, I had no idea I’d like it this much.

I want more of Roman. Which is likely why I’m pressing into his mouth and making little gasps and cries of encouragement as he keeps licking at my backside, the pad of his middle finger sliding over my clit.

My ass is as high in the air as my back can arch. I’m still up on my elbows, my head tipped back. I’m clawing at the sheets and I think I might be begging.

I can’t even make sense of the words as he pushes a finger inside me, curling it to hit that spot that sets me off, and I cum so hard that it’s a good thing he doesn’t have neighbors.

I wilt into the bed, my body covered in a sheen of moisture as I try to catch my breath.

Roman is up and I hear him shucking off his clothes. “One of these days,” I purr as he comes back to me, his hands trailing up my legs and over my hips, “we’re going to go slow enough that I get to explore your body.”

He strips off my tank top and then my bra, his lips coming to the spot where my neck meets my shoulder. “You want to touch me, baby?”

“Yeah,” I answer, drawing in a deep gulp of air. “Except you turned me to jelly.”

He laughs then, turning me over and picking me up to slide me further up the bed.

His climbs up my body, his knees settling on either side of my hips. Then, grabbing my hands, he places them on his chest.

His hands still cover mine as he slides them down his pecs over the ridges of his rock-hard abs.

Dipping lower, I glide my palms over his hips and down the back of his powerful thighs. I don’t need his help any longer. Not that he lets my hands go.

The feel of his rippling muscles has infused me with another burst of energy. I take in the rougher feel of his skin and hair, the deep cut of the muscle about his knee, then up his powerful quads, and back over his ass, the firmness in contrast to my much softer curves. I partially sit up to continue sliding my hands up his back, my cheek coming to his upper stomach.

He threads his fingers into the long strands of my blonde hair. “Maddie.”

My lashes flutter, brushing his skin. “Not nearly as erotic as what you did to me, but you feel so amazing. Your skin, you…” I kiss his belly and when I shift, his engorged cock brushes across my breasts.

My nipple puckers and I shift again, intentionally teasing the tip with my nipple.

“Fuck me,” he rumbles, grabbing my other breast with his hand, holding the weight in his hand before he tweaks the other nipple.

I can feel my excitement growing again, and I wonder if he’s right about me being greedy. I can’t seem to get enough…

But I just came and so I kiss lower over the deep cuts in his stomach along the shaft until I get to the tip.

And then I lick, collecting up the small bit of salty goodness on my tongue.

It’s his turn to be greedy and he thrusts forward, pushing the tip between my willing lips.

I slide my mouth over the swollen flesh, flicking the throbbing veins with my tongue as I use my mouth to intimately explore every inch of his cock.

I can hear him spitting and growling as I keep teasing.

Sliding my hand up the inside of one of his legs, I cup his balls in my hand, testing their weight, before I give them a small pull.

He hisses breath through his teeth. “Damn, woman, that feels good.”

I smile around his cock, ready to dive back for more but he pulls away, the weight of his torso, pushing mine back down on the bed.

His hips settle between my thighs as they part to accommodate him.

I can feel the press of the head against my opening and I tense the slightest bit.

Because I’m about to lose my virginity.