Caine's Reckoning (40 page)

She hoped that was true. She opened the first button. “James said relieving a man this way was a whore’s job.”

He helped her with the second button. “James is a weak-minded fool who wouldn’t know right from wrong if it came up and bit him on the ass.”

When he went for the third, she brushed his hands away. This was her gift. She turned her face into the pulse of his cock, biting gently, smiling at his hiss of pleasure. His fingers threaded through her hair, pulling her in.

“And you do?”

“Yes.”

“And this is right?” She needed to hear him say it.

“Between us, Desi, whatever we want is right.” His palms curved around her skull. “Now give me that softness you’ve been teasing me with.”

S
he unbuttoned the last button. The material gaped in invitation. He brought his leg down as she slid her hands into the welcoming hollow, palming the hard curve of his buttocks before sliding his pants down. They fell six inches and stopped as he leaned back against the table. She looked up at him.

“In case I have to get dressed in a hurry,” he explained.

The possibility teased her awareness. Someone might come in, might catch her tempting Caine with her mouth, might see her giving him pleasure. A hot bolt of lust shuddered through her, tightening her nipples. His hands in her hair steadied her as she sank to her knees in front of him.

“Does that excite you, sweetheart? Worrying that someone might see me enjoying your mouth?”

It scared and excited her in equal parts. She nodded.

“It excites me, too.”

Her breath caught, trapped in her throat by the temptation that he’d want to explore that excitement. That he’d let others watch.

“Gypsy?” Caine’s thumbs rubbed over her cheeks in small measured circles, waiting on her obedience to the unspoken order. She struggled to contain her breathing, her insecurity. Success came in three heartbeats. She made her expression blank.

His wasn’t. It was hard with desire, soft with understanding, chiseled with intent, as complex as he was. “What’s between us is private, and you can trust me to keep it that way.”

She hesitated, her hands on his pants. “I’m trying.”

“I know you are but, next time you get to second-guessing, try reminding yourself who I am.”

Ranger, gunslinger, killer. “My husband?”

“You can take the question mark off the end.”

She bit her tongue on another “sorry.” He was right. She had to stop thinking that way.

“Do you know what that means?” he asked.

“You’ll always be there for me.”

“And?”

“You’ll always protect me.”

“And?”

She didn’t have another statement to throw into the void. “You’re going to have to help me with the last.”

He smiled. “Figures you’d blank on that one.” Pressure on the back of her skull prompted her forward. “I’m the man who will always put you first.”

Desi knelt there within the embrace of his thighs, absorbing the reality, feeling the encouragement in his hand behind her head, his power, and waited. He just sat there, hips propped against the edge of the table, cock hard, pants open, waiting. On her. Despite the fact that Caine was hungry and needed satisfaction, he patiently waited to see what she wanted to do. She glanced up. “I can do this my way and you won’t interfere?”

He cocked that eyebrow at her. “Are you planning on letting that wild side loose?”

The familiar gesture caught on her smile and brought it forward. She massaged tiny circles into his thighs with her fingertips. “Maybe.”

The right corner of his mouth kicked up. “Then definitely.”

“What if I do it wrong?”

He shrugged. “As this is your show, I don’t see how you can.”

Her show. Desi opened her hands, feeling the muscles jump and twitch against her palms, absorbing the tension radiating through him and the reality of what this meant. She was in charge. She could take it easy or make it hard. She could bring him off fast or not at all. And he would let her. The knowledge swept over her in a thrilling rush that blended with her desire to please him in the most interesting way, increasing her desire while increasing her sense of…herself? It didn’t make sense but she liked knowing that she could control a man for a change.

“You planning on thinking me into coming or actually doing something to get me there?”

Desi shook her head at him and looked at him from under her lashes. “I thought you said I was in control?”

His thighs pressed into her hands, his fingers stirred in her hair. “I was just wondering.”

Understanding slid alongside the sharp bite of passion, cushioning it in softness. He was trusting her to take care of him. Desi let the knowledge sink in. This time when she took Caine in her mouth it wouldn’t be because she was scared or because he was forcing it, but because she wanted to please him. And this time when he gave her his cock it would be because he wanted to please her. They were giving. To each other. The way she’d always thought a husband and wife should. The smile on her face spread to her soul.

His thigh muscles convulsed under the stroke of her fingers.

“I like that,” she whispered.

“What?”

“The way you respond to my touch.”

“I can’t help it. You have the hottest, sweetest hands.”

She cast him another glance from under her lashes, letting her gaze link with his, her smile flirt with his. “But not as hot as my mouth.”

His chuckle was as raw as her desire to do this right. To please him. She slid her fingers up to that tantalizing separation of material that revealed the intimate thatch of male hair, darker than on his head. Wiry. Tough. Appealing. He drew in a long breath.

“Then no, I wasn’t planning on thinking you to the finish.”

She twined her fingers in that line of hair, smiling wider as the tight curls wrapped around her knuckles. They were so like the man himself. Take charge to the core. And yet he’d surrendered that control to her. It gave her such hope.

Caine’s fingers snagged at the base of her braid. Did he think she was going to give up this moment now that she had it? She reached behind her and caught his wrist. “I’m in charge.”

“I know, sweetheart, just bracing myself.”

Desi tugged his pants down farther, revealing the bottom slab of his abdominal muscles, the thick base of his imprisoned penis and the arch of where the shaft doubled under the pressure of confinement.

She touched the hard, satiny-smooth surface with her pinkie, absorbing its heat. It pressed back, straining toward her, throbbing with a solid pulse that echoed her own. With gentle encouragement, she eased him up and out, inch by delicious inch, until the thick shaft fell into the cradle of her hands, heavy and full of life. For her.

“Damn,” he moaned, “that’s good.”

“And just think, I’m just getting started.”

“I may not make it to the finish.”

“I wasn’t planning on giving you a choice.”

His “hot damn” made her smile. The man was always making her smile. Scooting forward on her knees, she found a more comfortable position. Caine’s fingers twitched and that big chest jerked under a sharp breath when her fingertips feathered along his length. She met his gaze and licked her lips as she eased his cock head down.

“Not as good as this is going to feel.”

“Have I mentioned how I love your wild side?”

She wished he’d love her. The thought flashed in her mind. She suppressed it just as quickly.

“I’d rather you show me.”

His hard mouth relaxed into a grin. “You bring that mouth a little closer, and I will.”

Desi shook her head. He really couldn’t quit giving orders. She forgave him though. She could feel the tension driving him. The want. Could see it in the way the green of his eyes deepened to near black, and the way his fingers trembled with tension. He was giving her what she wanted, but it was costing him.

She brought his cock closer, so close her breath teased over the slit in the plump crest. He shuddered. Oh, he wanted her mouth, but she wasn’t giving it to him. Not just yet. She touched her tongue to the middle of her lower lip, flicking it forward and back until the surface was wet and slick. Caine’s groan was the sweetest music.

“I should warn you,” he drawled as if she didn’t know he was burning for her from the inside out, “I don’t take well to teasing.”

She raised her eyebrows, wishing she could isolate the movement to one brow like he did because it was so much more eloquent. “Is that a threat?”

“Just making conversation.”

While he rubbed and pressed on the back of her head? It was more in the line of influencing. He was such a cheater.

“I think that was a threat.” She blew across the broad tip of his shaft, smiling when the little hole in the center winked at her. She acknowledged the salute with a tiny flick of her tongue. “So maybe before I go further, you should spell out the repercussions for me.”

He didn’t answer immediately. It didn’t take much to figure out why. He was struggling to control his breathing. She took advantage of his hesitation to press on. “Or better yet, maybe I should just discover them for myself.”

This time she let her tongue flatten and linger, swirling across as much of the convex area as she could cover, searching for all the sensitive spots, cataloging them, holding his gaze as she did, cataloging also the subtle shift of emotion within. Emotion that didn’t show in his face, but she was beginning to learn to read him through the almost invisible clues he did give off.

Like the way his nostrils flared as she nudged her tongue into that tiny slit. He liked that. The carefully even tension of his fingertips on her head was a clue he was hoping for more. She could give him that. She could give him a lot of things if he’d let her. Desi stroked her hands along the side of Caine’s cock as she drew back. He was wet from her ministrations, hard with anticipation and need. She blew another breath over the moist surface as she squeezed with her hands. Just once, just enough to tempt him to want more.

The jerk of his hips was as involuntary as was the drop of pre-come that followed. The bead balanced on the tip, perfectly round, perfectly clear. Growing as she ghosted her fingers along his shaft in deliberately easy motions. Stretching under the weight of his desire.

Desi rested her cheek against Caine’s thigh, giving him responsibility for some of her weight as she tipped his cock up, reached out with her tongue and took that reward for her own, letting the salty sweet taste of victory spread through her mouth, into her soul. He was hers.

Caine’s curse was music, the jerk of his cock, the melting of the hardness in his eyes was exhilarating. But the way he cupped her cheek as she absorbed his shaft into the hot cavern of her mouth was the present she longed for—tenderness, acceptance. Encouragement. All she’d ever dreamed of a man giving her was in that touch.

She sipped at him, applying random tendrils of suction, ignoring the violent tension humming off him, the near angry demand for more stimulation. She didn’t want to give him more violence. She wanted to give him gentleness. Holding his gaze, she nuzzled her cheek high on his thigh and took his cock a tiny bit deeper.

His fingers pressed on her cheek, forcing the sensitive inner lining against the ridge.

“I need more than this to come, baby.”

She shook her head, pleasuring them both with the intimate massage. This was going to be sweet and intimate. A blending rather than a taking.

“No?”

She shook her head again and continued to suck lightly, steadily, giving him a rhythm to follow if he wanted to.

“You need this?”

Another nod wasn’t necessary. She could see his understanding in his eyes. To her it was necessary. There was a moment’s pause during which his eyes searched hers, in which his grip tightened. Inside, disappointment flared. He wasn’t going to allow it. He was going to take over.

And then, amazingly, his head canted that fraction to the side that told her he’d reached a decision, and the “take charge” tension disappeared. His hand cradled her face rather than restrained, but against her tongue, his cock still throbbed. His expression mirrored the change inside. Gentling with the same need flowing through her. The need to please through giving.

“Then take what you need, baby.”

She didn’t need to take. She needed to give. Her way for once. She needed to give someone pleasure rather than have them steal it from her. She needed…She relaxed into the comfort of his hands, the cradle of his thighs. Just this.

A pulse of hot fluid spiced her tongue. She swallowed it with lazy greed. She needed this.

A second flowed into two, three and then ten, which added up to minutes and still he didn’t rush her or push, just let her build the rhythm as she wanted, surprising her, and maybe himself, by how arousing it was to keep things slow and easy. She’d meant this for him. But inside her, the demand built steadily, as if they were connected by more than just flesh. As the pulse in his cock accelerated, so did the ache in her core.