First and Only (Callaghan Brothers #2)

“What?” he asked innocently, but his eyes gave him away.

“You did that on purpose.”

“What’s your point?” Ian turned to grab a hand towel, giving her a lovely view of his perfectly toned backside. Years later, Lexi would still not understand exactly what had come over her. All she recalled was a sudden, compelling, undeniable urge to do what she did next. She drew her palm back, and.... SMACK!

She pulled back almost immediately, her hand stinging like hell, watching in horrified fascination as a perfect red imprint of her hand appeared on his bare flank.

Ian stilled.

He rose to standing straight up, very, very slowly. Lexi swore she could see every one of his myriad of muscles rippling and flexing, growing larger before her eyes. She took a step back. Then another. By the time Ian began to turn around, she was sprinting full-tilt across the room.

In the span of a split-second, she calculated that she would make it to the door faster if she hurdled across the queen-size bed rather than try to skirt around it. She never got the chance. With no warning, without even a sound to give him away, he snatched her out of mid-air. She landed on the bed and was instantly pinned by a naked, lethal male.

“You spanked me,” he growled, holding both of her hands above her head in one of his while his other hand made short work of the bath towel still wrapped around her.

Lexi summoned every bit of courage she had. “You deserved it.”

Ian pressed himself between her legs. God, was he really that big before? Fresh, hot wetness poured from her center.

“Why? Because I want every man to know that you’re mine?”

If Lexi had any sense at all she would be fighting him off, but she could not bring herself to do so. Not when she wanted him so badly. She had glimpsed a little part of his darker nature. It was one of the things that drew her to him, thrilled her to no end. Against her wishes, her nipples hardened, shooting bolts of fiery sensation into her core every time he shifted.

“Yes.”

Ian’s eyes darkened further. “But you are mine, Lexi.”

“For how long, Ian? A few days? What happens when the week is over?” She knew it was a mistake the moment the words were out of her mouth. Ian’s expression grew even darker as he lowered his face until it hovered a hair’s breadth above hers. Lexi held her breath to keep from whimpering. Did he reveal this side of himself to anyone else?

His eyes burned a stunning blue that made her every nerve sizzle in response. It was like looking up into the summer night sky, long after the sun went down but before everything turned black, when only the brightest stars were visible, mesmerizing and bewitching and making you believe that your every wish could come true.

When Ian lowered his head and captured her lips with his, all thoughts of token resistance immediately ceased. Her body softened and melted beneath his. Her lips parted. Her hands twined around his neck, fingers tangled in his hair. One kiss and she was helpless before him.

“Damn you,” she murmured, but her voice was too husky with passion to put any force behind it. Ian’s hand slid up the outside of her thigh as he ground his hips against her, his other hand holding her firmly in place, his arousal pulsing against her inner thigh, seeking entrance.

*

One check with his fingers assured him what he already knew – she was wet and ready for him. A couple of quick, swirling penetrations with his fingers were all he could manage before his hunger overwhelmed him.

Looking directly into her eyes, he impaled her in one solid, swift stroke. Her eyes glazed over, and he knew she was just as lost as he. It was fast. It was hard. Primal. He forced her to look into his eyes as he took her so she would have no doubt to whom she belonged.

“You are mine,” he growled above the hunger that consumed him. She cried out as he thrust deep, branding her inside and out. “Say it!’ he commanded, withdrawing to the tip only to slam forcefully into her again.

She gasped and clutched at his shoulders.

“Who is inside you now, Lexi?”

A soul-deep sound tore out of her chest, a visceral keening that wrenched his heart.

“Say it!” he ordered again, his fingers holding her so tightly in place he was probably bruising her. It was low of him, he knew, to force her to admit the truth this way, when he held such complete and utter sway over her. An abuse of power, perhaps. But it was the only time those impenetrable shields of hers were completely down, the only way she would ever confess the truth to him, and he needed to hear it almost as much as she needed to say it.