Chapter 23

23

T his was serious. A fall without an air mattress. No harness. No safety net. The weight of Nathan’s stare was a tangible thing. His body hovered over her, squashed her. A flicker of panic tore at the edges of Gennie’s consciousness. She wanted this, but she had to be in charge. She had to be… had to…

‘Nathan, I… Can you get up for me? On your back? I want to… I need…’

Without hesitation, he listened and rolled over. His strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her with him. Gennie seized the opportunity and lowered her head to capture his lips in a bruising, claiming kiss. Her tongue plunged into his mouth, insatiable and unapologetic.

Straddling him, she searched his face for any hint of insincerity, any sign that this wasn’t as real for him as it was for her. Deep down, a part of her still whispered that she could never be enough – not for him, not for anyone. That she was too damaged, too flighty, too unimportant for anyone to truly want to keep. Not worth the effort.

But Nathan looked at her like she was the sun, the moon, and the stars.

He reached out and traced the lace of her bra, seizing the swell of her breasts. She ached for his big hands on her bare skin. With a flick of his fingers, he popped open the clasp. The lace cups fell away.

‘Christ, look at that,’ he murmured, and his accent thickened. ‘Fucking spectacular.’

‘Touch me.’ Her voice was a needy keen.

He grabbed her breasts, and she pushed into his hands. ‘God. Nathan, please…I…’

‘Please what, baby?’ he taunted. ‘Use your words. Say what you need.’

‘Your mouth,’ she gasped. ‘I need your mouth on me. Everywhere. Please.’

His eyes flashed and turned to molten silver in the dim light. ‘The way you beg for me… Do you get off on making me so hard that I’m aching?’

Gennie bit her lip and nodded.

‘Yeah, I thought so.’ He ran his thumb over the tip of his cock before bringing it to her lips. ‘Here, that’s what you’re doing to me. Lick it off.’

It tasted like pure sin – the tangy, viscous proof of his desire for her.

Gennie’s breath came in ragged pouts. He held so much sway over her… It made her skin feel too tight, her lungs too small.

She couldn’t…couldn’t lose herself in him.

Being on top was her jam – the perfect blend of giving in while taking control. This was where she found her balance, in the heat of the moment.

Gennie moved up and spread her knees wider.

His lips curled into a devastating grin. ‘Oh, so you want to ride my face? All you have to do is ask. I want to hear you say it.’

Gennie took a sharp inhale. ‘Can I… I want to ride your face, please?’

‘Good. Wasn’t so hard now, was it?’ Reaching up, he hooked his thumb into the flimsy fabric of her thong and pulled it aside. ‘Go on. Give me that pussy. I’m going to eat you up like the fucking treat you are.’

She stifled a moan.

Shit.

This wasn’t the sweet, controlled kick she’d been aiming for – it was a wild surge of animalistic craving that was about to take her under.

‘Bite down, baby,’ he said and brought his hand to her mouth. ‘You’ll need it.’

With that, she lowered herself and the scrape of his bristled jaw scratched her sensitive flesh.

Sweet merciful Jesus.

His nose nudged her clit as he speared his tongue deep, so deep. Taking it all in, marking his territory. Pleasure sizzled through her veins, bright and electric. Gennie ground her sex against the heat of his mouth. A pressed sigh tore from her throat as he flattened his tongue and dragged it along her slickness in firm licks. This man knew how to do it.

Holy fucking mother of God.

Her thighs quaked, muscles straining with the effort to keep herself upright. But Nathan’s hand rested on her hip and held her in place.

He’d been right, she had to bite down hard on his hand to contain her cries.

This was…impossible. She threw her head back. ‘Nathan, I’m… Oh my God… I’m already…Ah!’

Without warning, his arms shot out, encircled her waist, and tossed her onto her back. It happened in a blur, too fast for her to process.

‘You like to be in control, don’t you? Not tonight, baby.’ His breath ghosted over her ear, and his hand moved down her body, fingers skimming the soaked seams of her panties.

‘Play with your pussy,’ he said. ‘Show me how you rub that clit when you’re thinking of me. Because I know you are.’

Her heart sprinted as he took her hand and guided it between her thighs.

I’m really doing this? Okay, fuck it.

She pressed her fingers against her sex. Nathan watched as she began to stroke herself in slow circles, hips rocking against her hand.

‘No.’ He grabbed her wrist. ‘I don’t want the cute porn show. I want you. I want to see how you really do it when nobody’s watching. You’re going to come for me, Gennie. And you’re going to do it quietly every single time.’

Heat flooded her cheeks as she realised he’d seen right through her. She rubbed faster, with a rhythm she knew would bring her right to the edge. A hoarse sound escaped her lips as the sweet pressure built.

This felt…so exposed.

And so fucking hot.

‘Shhh…’ His eyes narrowed as he lifted his hand and slid two fingers between her parted lips, silencing her.

Without hesitation, she sucked on the digits. Her tongue swirled around the flesh as if her life depended on it. She revelled in the way his nostrils flared with each draw of her mouth.

He withdrew his fingers and slid them down between her thighs. ‘I need to prepare you.’ Dark fire glowed in his eyes. ‘Don’t want to hurt you…later.’

She stilled the movements of her hand. Her pulse rioted in her ears.

’Naw, don’t stop. Keep going, Gennie.’ He fixed her with an unyielding look.

This was about surrender – to the man, the moment, her feelings, the all-consuming inferno of their connection.

And Gennie had never wanted anything more.

She nodded. Her hips canted towards his touch. ’Nathan, I… Yes…yes!’

He pushed his wet fingers underneath the lace, around her sensitive area. Circling, caressing, teasing.

Fuck control.

She parted her legs. ‘More.’

’That’s it, baby.’ He slid a digit in, so slowly. ‘Open up nice and wide for me.’

Her head lolled back, overwhelmed by the intimacy of his touch, the weight of his words, the ache pulsing in her core.

‘You feel so good, so soft…’ He began to move in and out in a rhythm that matched her own.

Gennie released a quiet moan as the tension wound tighter. He added another finger and sank deeper, and his mouth captured hers in a fierce kiss as he silenced her sounds. Her lips parted in a voiceless cry, the taut spring inside her about to snap. The edges of the room melted away.

‘N-Na…than…’ His name broke into shredded syllables as the pressure within tore her apart. ‘I’m…I—’

‘Mhm…Yes…’ His voice was gruff with restraint. ‘Give it up, Gennie. Come around my fingers like the horny girl you are. And look at me. I want to see it in your eyes.’

The world narrowed to a single, sharp point of light as she shattered, her climax exploding in a blinding burst. His name flew from her lips on a broken sob, hushed by the palm he’d pressed against her mouth.

The second she caught her breath, she pounced and flipped him onto his back with all the strength and skill she had. She pinned him with a fiery gaze, one brow quirked in challenge. ‘Do you trust me, Nathan?’

He swallowed, the movement drawing her attention to the strong column of his throat. Nerves flickered behind his eyes, but his voice was steady. ‘Yes.’

‘Show me you’re mine, too. Let me…’ She lowered her head and trailed a series of searing, open-mouthed kisses down the sculpted contours of his body, nuzzling the thatch of hair that arrowed down to his hard cock. She wanted to show him the bliss that lay on the other side of surrender.

So she licked the palm of her hand, wrapped her fingers around his veined length and stroked him a few times. He let out a groan. She parted her lips, and his thick weight stretched her mouth as she savoured every throbbing inch.

He tasted sharp and salty. She could get drunk on it, drugged by the way his flavour pulsed against her tastebuds. Relishing his heat on her tongue, she bobbed her head in a slow rhythm in sync with her fist pumping the base of his shaft.

‘Christ, that hot mouth of yours…so fucking good…’

With each slide of her lips, she felt the strain bleed from his frame and the lines of his muscles relax. Tenderness swelled in her chest. She took him as far as she could. Which was still not even half of it.

He drew a hissed breath. ‘Fuck. What are you… So deep… So hungry… Ah, Gennie!’

His tip hit the back of her throat, she felt her eyes water. And then she did it again. And again.

She was flying high on the knowledge that she could unravel him, reduce this man to a jerking mess with the heat of her mouth and the skill of her tongue.

So Gennie increased her tempo and made him hers.

His hips jerked towards her. ‘Oh, fuck. I’m already … If you… Fuck. Gennie. Wait. I want to come inside you. Let me…’ He didn’t finish his sentence.

Instead, he got up, reached for the bedside drawer, and pulled out a condom. His hands were unsteady as he tore open the foil wrapper. ‘Get on your back and lift your hips.’

Within a heartbeat, he was on top of her, skin to skin. ‘This isn’t just fucking.’ His voice was thick with emotion. ‘I need you to understand that. Do you understand?

‘Yeah,’ she whispered back. ‘I do.’

‘But that doesn’t mean I’ll be gentle.’

Primal hunger. It should have terrified her. Instead, a fierce yearning ripped through her belly. ‘God, I hope not.’

‘You still got to be quiet, though.’

‘Yes, Sir.’

‘Jesus, Gennie!’

He pushed her panties aside with one fierce tug. Then he was there, the blunt head of his cock nudging at her entrance. He shifted, aligning himself with her. And with a hoarse sound that gripped the base of her spine, he slid home in one long, slow, claiming stroke that stole the air from both their lungs.

‘Ah! Fuck! That tight pussy!’

Her response was strangled in her throat, as she adjusted to the feeling of being filled. She arched, and a sob tore from her throat as she felt him everywhere. A pulsing heat, an insistent pressure that promised oblivion. ‘Oh my God… OH!’

Nathan halted, giving her the time she needed. Gradually, her body welcomed him, softening around the intrusion. Warm and impossibly full, the pressure made her pant.

‘Move, Nathan,’ she pleaded in desperate need. ‘God, I need you to move .’

He pulled back, then rolled his hips forward in one fluid motion.

‘Ah! Yes! Yes!’ Pleasure flooded her body like a burst dam from the inside out. White-hot and unstoppable.

‘I’m not hurting you? Can I fuck you like this?’

‘Yes, yes, yes!’ She met him stroke for stroke. ‘Need more. Nathan. More!’

‘Shhh… I told you to take my cock quietly.’

He moved in a languid rhythm that built a fire in the pit of her stomach. Each withdrawal was torturously slow, each smacking return robbed her of her breath and sent shooting stars flying behind her closed eyelids.

No, this wasn’t fucking.

He was making love to her.

Tough, hard, serious Nathan-love.

She’d never known what that felt like. She’d never known the earth-shaking power of being so utterly, completely possessed. Of surrendering herself, body and soul, to another person. Of being surrendered to.

A whimper snuck over Gennie’s lips as she rolled her hips to meet his thrusts. ‘Yes, ohhh. OH! Nathan… God, Nathan. So…deep.’ Her hips bucked up, chasing that sweet, searing release.

He snapped forward. Over and over. Punctuating each word with a thunderous plunge that had her vision whiting out.

‘You’re so quiet, Gennie… Even though I know you want to scream my name.’

‘Y-yes…yes! But I-I can’t… I can’t…’

‘Shhh… You can take it.’

Her body quivered on the knife edge of release, wound tight for that push over the edge. The force of his slow, hard strokes pushed her up the bed.

‘Gennie. Need you…to be…mine.’ His voice broke with each thrust. ‘Need you to…come on my cock.’

She let out a strangled cry.

‘If you can’t…shut up…I’ll make you…’ He turned her head to the side and pushed his thumb between her lips, pressing down on her tongue until she tasted the salt of his skin and saw stars.

She clawed at the sheets, every sense alight with savage, unbridled ecstasy.

‘The best fucking feeling.’ A groan tore from his throat. ‘You and me… Ah, Gennie!’

She had no control over her body anymore, she was just along for the ride.

No control.

The best feeling ever.

‘The way you’re squeezing me…,’ he hissed and pushed harder, faster. ‘Ah! You’re making me explode. Oh God. Gennie. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK!’

The world was reduced to the consuming rush of Nathan inside her, the iron grip of his fingers branding her flesh. And when the tension broke within her, she bit down hard on that thumb to stifle her wail.

Carefully, he pulled out and got rid of the condom in one fluid move. He collapsed against her, and their bodies melded together in bliss. The world slowly righted itself, the haze receding.

She would never, could never, be the same. His mark was burned into her, body and soul.

Then Nathan positioned himself between her shaking thighs at the edge of the bed.

‘Show me how wide you can really do the splits.’ He handed her the pillow. ‘And bite into this. Because I’m about to ruin you for any other man’s tongue.’

Gennie’s eyes widened. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t do anything but feel.

‘Why don’t we play a little game?’ A dirty smile jotted across his face. ‘Not a single sound or I’ll stop. See how long you last.’

A cascade of orgasms later, Gennie was reduced to a boneless, blissed-out heap of post-coital goo. She was pretty sure her brain had melted right out of her ears somewhere around climax number three, and her body felt like it had been put through the wringer in the best possible way.

‘My own personal storm,’ he murmured into the curve of her neck. ‘You’ve made a home in my heart, Gentlestorm Rivers. I can’t say the words yet. That’ll take time. But you felt it, aye?’

‘Yeah, Nathan MacMillan. I did.’

She shivered as the sweat cooled. Nathan slipped out of bed and walked across the room. Buck-ass naked.

Tough breed, these Scots.

Nathan pulled on flannel pyjama bottoms and came back with one of his old t-shirts plus a fresh pair of his boxers for her. ‘Here, let’s get you warm.’

He helped her slip it over her head. The soft, worn cotton brushed against her skin. It smelled like him.

‘Thanks.’ She snuggled back into the bed.

Nathan pulled her against his shirtless chest. ‘You good, baby?’ His breath was hot against her temple.

‘More than good. I’m fucked six ways to Sunday and happy as a pig in shit.’

He chuckled, the sound rippled through his chest and into her bones. He held her in his arms, sheltering her. Locked her in, as if he was afraid she’d slip away. Her cheeks burned from smiling, a contentment she’d never known settling over her.

Gennie lay there for an eternity, simply happy. She watched his chest rise and fall, those soft curls catching the moonlight. The strain in his stern face eased, lips parted. Peaceful and happy – was such a good look on him.

She ached to reach out, to trace the lines of that chiselled jaw with her fingertips. But that might wake him, and he looked too content to disturb. He was carrying a mountain of worries, but right now, he seemed unburdened, his lashes soft against relaxed cheeks. Hard to believe this was the same cranky guy who grumbled at her every morning over breakfast.

Sex with this man was real. No games or pretence. No filter, no holding back. He’d made sure she was comfortable, satisfied, safe. Gave as good as he got and then some. Knew how to forge a connection.

Not like Daniel, who’d probably fuck himself twenty-four-seven if he could. And any producer, director, and colleague to further his acting career.

Nathan couldn’t have been more different. He’d been all in, and she’d felt it in every touch, every kiss, every thrust. There was something so powerfully seductive about a man who didn’t need to prove a thing. He’d been commanding as well as caring. And that was, hands down, the hottest, most mind-blowing thing she’d ever experienced.

She felt cherished in a way she hadn’t expected. More than taken care of. Seen and appreciated. Her heart was overflowing.

Gennie’s last coherent thought was that she found herself longing for more of this. Being held. Being seen.

Being…loved.

As sleep eventually wrapped around her, she scarcely registered the sound of little footsteps on the floorboards.