A Pound of Flesh (A Pound of Flesh #1) (30 page)

Carter’s head collapsed against hers. “Peaches.” His arms wound around her. “You have me.” He gripped the bottom of her shirt in his hands. “You always have.”

She bit her lip. Her face crumpled and her hand smoothed carefully over the cheek she’d struck. “Like you have me.”

Reaching up onto her toes, she placed her hot lips under his eye, murmuring again about how sorry she was. How she would beg for his forgiveness. How much he meant to her. Her lips were perfect as she kissed slowly and tenderly across his face, across his eye, his brow, and down his other cheek to the corner of his mouth.

Carter froze when her tongue brushed across his bottom lip. His hands automatically gripped her waist so that he remained upright on his wobbling knees. He wanted her so much. Jesus, would she ever know how much? How insane he was for her?

He bent down, desperate for her touch, and their lips met in the softest, slowest, most sensual kiss. He opened his mouth to her, his breath leaving him in gasps and shaking groans when her tongue met his again. He closed his lips around it, and sucked gently while his hands moved from their place on her waist, up and under her shirt.

His palms slid easily against her wet skin and the kiss instantly deepened with a loud groan from them both. Carter swallowed every breath she gave him, owning each one, and pulled her closer, wanting her to feel how hard he was and how much he craved to be inside of her.

Needed to be inside of her, consumed by her.

Her hands moved to the bottom of his shirt, where she tugged in question. He moved back so she could pull it over his head. Her mouth was immediately on his chest, licking and kissing, nibbling and driving him crazy.

Perfect. Her lips were fucking perfect.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured into his skin.

Carter was suddenly desperate for more of her mouth, her taste, and crushed his lips hard against hers, forcing his tongue inside. She moaned loudly, holding him closer. He pulled at her shirt and ripped it over her head, mourning the few seconds her lips weren’t pressing against his.

Her pale blue bra was next to go. Carter groaned when he saw the nipples he’d gotten to know so well the night before. They were erect and stunning, and reacted instantly when Carter’s thumbs caressed them.

“Oh, God,” Kat murmured.

He did it again. Her head lolled back, elegant and beautiful.

“You like that?” He kissed her again. She gripped his shoulders in reply. Her nails dug into him and he grunted in pleasure. His hands grabbed both of her heavy breasts, roughly kneading the soft skin while her nipples puckered in his palms.

“Yes,” she answered in a breathless gasp. “Please. Please. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Carter halted her words with his mouth. “Stop. You’re here now.” He pushed her hair from her face as it dripped down her nose. “Just you and me.”

He cupped her face, rubbing at the wet skin under her eyes, and kissed her. Her hands held his forearms securely, letting him lead it. Carter tried to rein in his desire—fuck, he tried so damn hard—but all too soon, the fire between them began to strengthen, their passion for each other igniting into flames.

With a feral growl that sounded like her name, Carter bent down and picked her up, smiling against her mouth when her legs and arms wrapped firmly around him. He gripped her ass and groaned when her naked breasts slid against his chest, the rainwater acting as a natural lubricant.

Without any stumbling this time, Carter carried her through his apartment to his bed and kneeled, laying her down and spreading his weight protectively across her. He let his hands roam across her skin, up her sides, across her breasts, to her neck and stomach as they panted and moaned between crumpled lips.

Unable to resist any longer, Carter’s mouth eventually followed the path of his hands, hungry and wanting more of her body. He growled when she arched, and he jerked his hips firmly against hers when she grabbed at his ass.

He bit the underside of her right breast and she yelped before moaning in pleasure.

“More,” she whimpered into his hair. “Please, Carter. More.”

“Anything.” His hand dropped, quickly, to the button on her jeans and pushed it through.

He pulled at her zipper and hooked his fingers into the denim waistband. He waited, suddenly nervous, wanting to make sure she was okay, that this was what she truly wanted. He glanced up at her from under his lashes.

Tell me you want this. Tell me you want this as much as I do.

She gazed at him and caressed his cheek. “Don’t stop.”

She lifted her hips and he pulled her jeans down. He let his knuckles graze along her thighs and calves, and laughed when he got to her ankles and discovered she still had her boots on.

“Sorry.” She giggled.

He began to untie them. “No problem,” he replied, kissing her ankle while he removed one boot and sock, and then the other.

Finally free of any obstacles, Carter yanked her jeans all the way off and kneeled on the edge of the bed, taking her in. She was breathtaking. Feminine. Sexy. Gorgeous. Her skin was pale and unblemished, and looked as soft as he knew it was under his fingertips.

He moaned low in his throat, unable to move, happy to just look at her.

“Carter,” Kat whispered in concern. She lifted up onto her forearms and caught his eye with a dip of her chin. “If you don’t want to do this, I understand after what I said, and did, I—”

Carter swallowed her words with a hungry mouth. “I want,” he gasped into her mouth. “I really fucking want.” His hand slid down her waist, to her hip, and played with the side of her panties, hesitating. “Can I? Can I touch you?”

“I want nothing more than your fingers on me.”

“Christ.” He tucked his hand under the cotton of her panties and ran his knuckles down her soft, naked lips. “Wet,” he growled as his hand traveled up and down.

Kat hummed, collapsing back onto the bed, pulling Carter down with her. “For you.”

As though her words were kerosene on a naked flame, Carter’s fingertips pushed up between her lips in search of her clit. He hit it with his thumb first, and grunted. They both moaned at the contact. Carter’s index finger moved down and slipped easily against the silky wetness lying there.

Closing his eyes, he nibbled her shoulder and breathed against her skin. The tip of his finger circled her entrance teasingly, garnering a sigh from her. The fluid movements of her hips, along with husky sounds rumbling from her throat, entranced him. He couldn’t wait any longer. He slipped that shit right inside of her.

Warm. Wet. Transcendent.

She cried out when his finger began moving slowly in and out of her, right up to the knuckle.

He dropped his head and circled her nipple with the tip of his tongue. Kat grunted, gripping his shoulders.

She gasped while winding her hips around in a sharp, desperate figure eight. “More.”

Carter pushed another finger into her and immediately upped the speed at which they were fucking her. Kat cried out and her hands pulled at his shoulders, hard. Carter closed his eyes and listened to the wet noises filling the room as he pumped his hand against her and feasted greedily on her delicious body. It was the sexiest symphony he’d ever heard.

His thumb found her clit once more, and another finger started to creep up inside. The last thing he wanted to do was to hurt her, but, fuck, he wanted so much of himself inside of her all at once he couldn’t stop. He kept his eyes on her face as he pushed.

Gently. Carefully.

Kat’s back arched, and a long guttural groan erupted from her when Carter began to pump his curled fingers.

God, she was magnificent as she bucked and thrashed.

More.

Carter’s biceps tensed.

Harder. Faster.

He wanted her orgasm. He wanted to hear it.

Taste it. Smell it. Own it.

“Carter.” Kat grabbed for him. “Oh, I’m—”

“That’s it, baby,” he panted and licked her throat, tasting the salty tang of her sweat. “Give it up. I want it.” He nibbled her earlobe, tasting apricot and candy. “You feel so good around my fingers.” He licked her jaw: honey. “Fuck, you taste so good.” He sucked her nipple hard into his mouth: vanilla.

Desperate for her to climax, Carter began slamming his fingers into her, rubbing and curling and flicking her clit. She grabbed at him and Carter moaned with her when she came hard, pulsing, and twitching, and flailing under him.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he gasped when her body squeezed his fingers.

She crushed her lips to his, whimpering into his mouth.

“Goddamn,” Carter murmured.

He allowed his hand to slide and tease as she panted and whispered into his neck. Her words were low and jumbled, but the shudder in her body told Carter all he needed to know: he’d made her come good. Kat glowed beatifically beneath him. He slowed his hand and kissed across her chest, up toward her jaw. Her pulse raced. She was resplendent.

“Are you okay?” He placed a gentle kiss on her open mouth. She laughed and put a hand to her throat. Her eyes closed but he could see them moving under her lids.

She blew a breath out between her lips and opened one eye to look at him above her. “Carter, your hands are genius.”

This, Carter had to laugh at. He pulled his hand out of her panties and wiggled his fingers in front of her. The skin of his fingers glistened in the light and, Carter had to admit, it was the hottest thing he’d ever seen. Well, that was until Kat took them into her mouth and sucked on them like a vacuum. Carter’s hips bucked of their own accord at the same time that he moaned obscenely loud.

“Oh, God.” Her tongue swirled around each digit. He ground hard into the bed, desperate for release.

Kat pulled his fingers from her mouth with a loud popping sound, and moved to kiss him, gripping his face in her small hands. He could taste her on her tongue.

“What the hell are you doing to me?” Carter growled.

She pulled her mouth away and began kissing his face. “I want to make you feel good,” she whispered. “I’ve wanted you for so long, Carter.”

He held her close as her touches and kisses started changing from soft and wanting to desperate and frenzied, and her small whimpers slowly morphed into louder sobs.

“It was you,” she muttered into his shoulder in between licks and bites. “Oh God, Carter, it was you.”

“Shhh,” he soothed. “Kat, it’s okay. It’s okay.”

“You saved me.” She wept into his skin. “I knew you were real. I knew. Everyone said I’d imagined it, that you weren’t real.” She trailed her pointer finger across his bottom lip. “But you are.”

Carter’s bones dissolved at her words. She understood. Wherever she’d been tonight, whatever she’d done after she’d run from him, she’d realized what he’d said was true. He had saved her.

Her legs wrapped around him, pinning him to her while she cried into his shoulder. “I’m so sorry I hit you.” She smothered his cheek with kisses. “Forgive me, please?”

She continued to touch him while her words of thanks and realization tumbled from her mouth. Carter didn’t stop her. He needed to hear her say all she had to. He needed to have this moment with her. She pushed his shoulders and rolled them both over, sitting astride his waist. Carter kept his eyes closed, with his hands on her ample hips, and let his other senses take over, focusing on every other part of her: the warmth from between her legs, the sound of her breathing, the power in her touch, and the smell of her perfume.

“You held me.” Her palms explored his stomach. “I remember the way you smelled.” She pushed her nose into the crook of his neck and took a huge breath. “It was you. You whispered in my ear, telling me I was safe. I know now. I know why your voice makes me feel so protected.” She dropped her forehead to his and let her lips whisper across his mouth.

He
had
spoken to her—into her hair—until his voice gave out and the sirens came near. His eyes began to sting under his lids. He clenched them tight. Her hands swept over his skin, up his sides to his neck, and down again, memorizing him.

“Kat,” Carter breathed, unraveling under every movement. “Keep touching me. Touch me everywhere.” His hands gripped her sides and caressed the skin up to her ribs. “God, don’t stop.”

She shook her head, her hair falling all around him. “Never.”

Their lips met again, softly, but with a passion that wrecked him.

“Your arms,” she muttered against his neck. Her hands slid along his biceps. “I feel like I know them so well.” He could feel her nails leaving imprints in his skin when she pulled them down to his forearms, and then to his hands, where she entwined their fingers together. “Strong and protective.” She kissed the crook of each of his elbows. “I was meant to be in your arms, Carter,” she said, the ardor back in her voice. “I missed them. I missed you.” She whispered by his ear. “I’ve missed you my whole life.”

Carter nuzzled her neck, licking the delicate column up to her jaw. “I missed you, too. My Peaches.”

She smiled against his cheek. “Always.”

Carter exhaled loudly, expectantly, when her hands moved gradually down his body, outlining the grooves of his muscled stomach and the hair below his belly button. When they finally reached the buttons of his fly, Kat’s hand cupped him through the denim of his jeans and rubbed up his full length, hard and slow.

Carter’s hips lifted eagerly to meet her incredible palm. It was insanely erotic, having her rub his dick the way she was, knowing he was naked underneath; her hand could be wrapped around him in mere seconds, stroking and making him beg.

Holy shit, he would beg. He’d beg her for anything.

Kat kept up the movement of her hand: up and down, gripping and rubbing, purring and sighing and feathering his chest with kisses.

Carter’s abdomen began to tense. “You’re gonna make me come if you … if you keep that shit up.”

She smiled and grabbed him tighter. “And that’s bad?”

He took hold of her face and pulled her mouth roughly to his, hot and hungry. “I’d much rather be inside you when that happens.”

“God, yes.” She moved her delectable ass so it was resting on his thighs.