Down for the Count (Dare Me)

chapter Eight


Dreaming. Surely she was dreaming. Galen stood in front of her, all big, hard muscles, his face a mask of pleasure so keen it could’ve been pain. She lapped the soft, broad head one last time.

“So good,” he muttered as he released his grip on her hair and trailed a gentle finger over her cheek.

“I had no idea,” she said, wondering if he could even hear her over the pounding of her heart.

He pulled her to her feet and wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, holding her close. “That’s the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much more.”

She nuzzled his throat, breathing in the musky scent of him with a happy sigh. “I want to. I want it all.” Emboldened by his attention, she wriggled in his arms, letting her nipples drag through the light smattering of hair on his chest.

“Nice,” he hissed, and slid his hands lower to cup her bottom. He tilted his hips into her, his already thickening member prodding her belly. A tendril of fresh need curled in her belly. And then her stomach growled.

“How about breakfast?” he asked with a chuckle, giving her bottom a playful slap.

Who knew good sex was such hungry business? She stepped back and glanced down at his increasing erection. “Are you sure you don’t want to?” She waggled her eyebrows and took him in hand for a gentle squeeze.

“We have all day, and if what we just did was any indication, we’re both going to need the fuel.”

His dark eyes held a sensual promise that almost made her forget the food altogether. Then her stomach growled again and he chuckled. “I make a mean ham on rye,” he said, tossing her his T-shirt.

“For breakfast?”

“I have three things in my repertoire. Sandwiches, steak on the grill, and protein shakes. Take your pick.”

“Ham on rye it is.”

He slipped on his boxers and they made their way into the kitchen, laughing like teenagers.

While he fixed the sandwiches, she cut up a mango and poured some juice to go with it.

“Tell me what it was like with Marty.”

She curled her lip and winced. “Ugh, seriously? Why would you want to hear that?”

“I can’t get my head around a guy being with a woman who looks like this”—he waved a hand up and down in her direction—“who is so sexual and responsive, and leaving it on the table that way. It’s a sacrilege,” he said with an incredulous shake of his head.

She set the knife down and tugged at the hem of her shirt self-consciously. “I think you’re biased because of our…recent activities. I don’t think anyone has ever referred to me as sexy.”

“You are, though.” He took the cap off the mustard and smeared some on their bread.

“It’s not blatant or even intentional, but it’s there. The way you move and in your expressive, curious face. All that was missing was a guy smart enough to see it and want to coax it out to play.”

To play. She couldn’t forget that part. This was all for fun.

He sliced the sandwiches in half and set their plates on the granite island before sitting on one of the stools. “Let’s eat.”

She moved to sit on the opposite stool, but he pulled her to the space between his legs so she was leaning against him. “I feel like I need to be close to you right now. Humor me.”

A warm thrill ran through her at his words, but she tamped it down to a trickle. She wouldn’t take every little thing he said and read something into it. She would seize the frigging day and enjoy her time here. Then, and not until then, she would think about what the future held for her.

They ate their sandwiches in companionable silence. When they finished, he plucked up a piece of mango and held it to her mouth.

She took it from between his fingers with her teeth, lapping a drop of juice from his thumb with her tongue.

“That will be burned in my memory forever,” he said in a low, husky voice that made her nipples go hard.

“Wh-what will?”

“Of you. Giving me head so enthusiastically. So f*cking good.”

She subconsciously shifted to thrust her bottom against him, enflamed by his words. He groaned his approval and took her hips in a tight grip. “Turn around.” It sounded like a challenge, and it was one she was more than happy to accept.

She turned in his arms, and he slipped his hand around her neck, pressing two fingers to her pulse. “I see how you want me, and I can’t even describe how hard it gets me.”

The intensity of his gaze threatened to swallow her whole. She looked away. “You make me feel beautiful.”

“You are beautiful.”

Her heart swelled in her chest, and she pressed her forehead to his for fear of him seeing the truth in her eyes. She was in love with him already, if she hadn’t been before, and it terrified her. He snaked his hand around to her nape and captured her lips with his. The kiss was tender, sweet, almost reverent. And then it wasn’t. Like a wildfire blazing from the smallest of embers, it raged out of control. He nipped at her lower lip until she opened for him, then soothed the tender spot with his tongue. His free hand crept around her waist and shoved the cotton shirt up so he could touch her skin.

He released her mouth and stood, kicking the stool out from behind him. It hit the counter with a crash.

The T-shirt was up and over her head in a flash, and in one move he’d lifted her onto the island. She gasped as the cool granite hit her skin, scalding with need.

“Galen?”

His eyes had gone almost black, and his gaze raked her from head to toe. He was like a man possessed. Dropping to a crouch, he draped her thighs over her broad shoulders and pressed a palm to her belly, easing her back until she was open to him, supporting herself on her hands.

“I can see how wet you are, slick and ready for me.”

His warm breath washed over her *, his whispered words shaking her to the core, and she whimpered.

“Yes. So ready.”

Just the anticipation of him sliding deep inside her made her heart flutter. How could she be so turned on when he’d barely touched her this time?

Her thought blew away like feathers on the beach as he pressed two fingers to her and thrust deep. Sensation overwhelmed her, and she cried out, scrabbling at the countertop with her nails. A moment later, he bent and covered her with his tongue, lapping then sucking. She couldn’t help but chant his name and arch against his mouth. More. She would die if he didn’t give her more. And like magic, he did, quickening the pace, licking and suckling harder and faster.

Her body tensed, poised for climax, and she froze. “Please, Galen. With you this time. Please.”

He tore his mouth away and slid his fingers from her. “F*ck yeah.”

Supporting her legs, he slid them off his shoulders and stood. He peered down between them, a feral smile spread across his lips. “You’re so sweet, I could stay down there forever,” he said, spreading her thighs wide. “But I need to be inside you so bad.”

He didn’t bother taking off his boxers. Instead, he shoved them over his hips until his cock thrust forward, bumping against her thigh. She watched, breathless, as he closed his hand over himself and he looked up, noting her rapt attention.

“You like what you see?” he asked, gripping himself tighter and stroking his shaft from base to tip.

She couldn’t keep the strangled groan from escaping her lips and her eyes shot to his. “Is that weird?”

“Weird that you like to watch me touch myself?” he asked, frowning. “Are you kidding me? You’re my wet dream come to life.”

He did it again, working himself in one long jerk, then squeezing. Her breath came in pants as he moved faster and faster and his erection swelled to the point that she knew a moment of fear.

“The look on your face right now is almost worth making myself come all over your thighs and stomach rather than make you nervous, but I have to be inside you.” His voice sounded like he’d taken a karate chop to the throat. “I’ll go slow.”

She looked up. “I-I think I’d like that sometime. For you to…do that on my stomach,” she said before she could change her mind about saying it.

He groaned and stepped closer, lining the swollen head of his cock up with her entrance. He pressed forward, inch by excruciating inch. Full, she felt so full, but he continued until her body resisted, the depths unyielding.

“You are so goddamned tight, babe. I can’t—” When he paused, her body relaxed and stretched around him. He pulsed and twitched deep inside her, and she moaned. He spoke through gritted teeth. “You good? Am I hurting you?”

She shook her head, too taken by the sensation of having him inside her to speak. Jerking her hips toward him, she urged him forward. With a growl he withdrew, then drove in hard and deep. She came instantly, her orgasm crashing over her as she cried out his name. The aftershock still rocked her when he began to move. Slow at first, a shallow thrust, then deeper until his pubic bone ground against her * with every plunge. She opened her eyes and looked down to the place where their bodies were joined. Where his heavy sex, glossy with her juices, moved in and out of her, faster and faster. He gripped her thigh, his movements becoming frantic, and he grew impossibly harder inside her.

“With me, Lacey,” he groaned and pressed a finger to her *.

The touch went through her like lightning. She sobbed and broke apart, the column of her sex clamping over him. He tumbled after her, gritting his teeth then bellowing her name as he jerked deep inside her. When their quivers subsided, he pulled her into his arms and she wrapped her legs around his waist, holding him tight, pressing soft kisses against his shoulder.

With me, Lacey, he’d said.

If only he’d meant forever.