Dark Alpha (ALPHA 2) (24 page)

“Finn and Eva would understand,” Lucien dismissed easily, knowing that Finn, at least, would find it highly amusing to know that Lucien had changed his plans because of a woman. “But I’d be just as happy to be allowed to spend the night here, with you,” he added as he could see that Nicky still looked doubtful.

“I— That’s—”

“Sappy?” Lucien grimaced self-derisively as he realized that’s exactly how he sounded. Even if he meant every word of it.

“It makes me want to cry,” Nicky corrected with a shake of her head.

He frowned. “I would really rather you didn’t.” His own emotions were so close to the surface right now that he wasn’t sure how he would deal with seeing Nicky cry.

How could Nicky not agree to Lucien staying the night with her here, when tomorrow she might have to decide she could never see him again? There had still been no opportunity yet for her to think about what her next plan of action should be. Whether she should stay in London or disappear again.

But for the moment—for now, she could just enjoy being with this warmer Lucien whom she was in love with.

“Okay.” She nodded.

“Okay I can help you undress? Or okay I can stay the night?”

“Both.”

“That’s good. That’s very good.” He gave her another long and knee-trembling kiss before unzipping the back of her gown.

Nicky felt slightly self-conscious as Lucien helped her take her dress off, heart pounding at the open admiration in his eyes as he stopped to gaze at her wearing only the cream lace corset.

“Wow,” he finally managed to breathe softly. “Now I know what to buy you for birthday!”

“I already had my birthday two months ago.”

“You did?” He looked puzzled for a second or two and then he shook off the emotion. “Christmas, then.”

Christmas? That was still several months away. Did Lucien really believe there was a possibility that the two of them might still be together at Christmas?

If Nicky was even in London by Christmas...

“You haven’t replaced the panties you ripped yet,” she reminded huskily as Lucien unfastened and removed the corset, feeling slightly shy as she now sat completely naked in front of him. “And I think that a present like that would be meant more for your enjoyment rather than mine.”

“Damn, you guessed!” Lucien drawled. “Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten the panties,” he assured softly as he swept her up into his arms before carrying her across the room and slowly lowering her into the scented water. “Okay?” He came to a halt as Nicky drew her breath in with a hiss as her sore feet came into contact with the hot water.

“It’s fine,” she assured. “Careful, or you’re going to get wet too,” she warned as he lowered her completely down into the water.

“No doubt I’ll be even wetter after I’ve lathered the soap all over your body.” He gave a wickedly suggestive grin.

Nicky
loved
that wicked, almost carefree grin. Almost as much as she loved the man himself.

“Hold your hair up so I can remove your necklace. You don’t want to get it wet inside and ruin the photographs.” His fingers moved deftly to the clasp at her nape as Nicky bunched up her hair and held it out of the way, another quiver running down her spine at the feel of Lucien’s fingers against her sensitive flesh.

He placed the necklace on the vanity before coming down on his knees at the side of the bath to trail his fingers through the scented bubbles. “You weren’t joking when you said bubble baths are one of your favorite things,” he teased as Nicky lay back in the big old-fashioned bath with a purr of contentment.

“Join me,” she invited huskily. “Unless you think it’s too much of a squash?” She eyed him uncertainly; Lucien seemed so much more relaxed here in her tiny apartment, that she had forgotten the whole of her sitting room would fit into his own en-suite bathroom, and that her bath, although big enough for two, was nothing like the huge sunken bath next to the glass-sided shower in his beautiful black and white tiled bathroom.

“A squash sounds good to me,” he assured as he started to undress.

Nicky watched unashamedly as Lucien pulled his T-shirt up and then off over his head, revealing his deliciously golden and muscled chest, and those beautiful tattoos that covered his bare arms and the top of his chest. He slipped off his shoes and socks before unfastening his jeans and stepping out of them, his gaze holding hers as he hooked his thumbs into his black boxers and slipped them off too.

He was, without a doubt, a breathtakingly beautiful man in his prime: shoulders wide, chest muscled, lean waist and hips, and long, muscled legs. His shaft was fully aroused, and long and thick.

“Still want me to join you?” Lucien prompted ruefully as he ran his fisted hand along that silken length.

“Yes,” Nicky assured huskily.

“Scoot forward,” he encouraged as he climbed in behind her and slid a leg on either side of her body to rest alongside Nicky’s, his arms moving about her waist as she lay her head back against the warmth of his chest.

Lucien didn’t speak, wasn’t sure he could have if someone had asked him to, as a rush of emotion filled his chest at having Nicky nestled so trustingly against him. This evening had started out so disastrously—mainly his fault, he accepted that—that it was difficult to believe the renewed closeness between the two of them now.

A closeness that Nicky had graciously allowed him, whether he deserved it or not.

This, just sitting here holding Nicky in his arms, her back resting against his chest, the softness of her curls beneath his chin, was the closest Lucien had ever come to perfect peace and contentment in the whole of his thirty-three years.

That feeling of contentment had nothing to do with his extreme wealth, the success of his business, or his heartfelt relief at the life he had left behind fifteen years ago, and everything—
everything
to do with the woman he now held in his arms.

No matter what he had to do, no matter what her secrets, Lucien wasn’t going to let Nicky go again.

He had a feeling that Nicky had become his weakness.

His arms tightened about her; just the thought of anything ever happening to Nicky was enough to make his blood go cold.

Nicky felt totally relaxed and happy as she continued to lie in Lucien’s arms, aware of the rise and fall of his chest behind her, his legs surrounding her, his arms wrapped tightly about her.

She looked over her shoulder at him. “Would you like to go and prepare dinner together now? Unless, of course, you would prefer to go straight to bed?” She turned over in the bathwater, her breasts pressed against the muscled hardness of Lucien’s chest. “I’m happy to give dinner a miss if you are.” She held Lucien’s gaze as she slowly lathed one of his copper-colored nipples with the moistness of her tongue.

God, Lucien loved Nicky like this, playful and seductive—forgiving—as she lay between his parted thighs. “I might be persuaded to forego eating dinner if you have something more...juicy, to tempt me with.” He sat up, his arms remaining about Nicky’s waist as she moved up onto her knees, her breasts level with his hungry mouth.

“Ah uh.” Nicky’s fingers became entangled in the dark thickness of Lucien’s hair, preventing him from moving any closer, as he would have latched onto one of those deliciously plump nipples. “Do you know what I thought about your hair that first day I saw you in the coffee shop?” She continued to run caressing fingers through that dark silkiness.

“No, but I have a feeling you’re about to tell me.” He stroked his tongue slowly over and around the roused nipple closest to him, doing it again as he felt her quivering response.

“I thought,” she groaned, her back arching into that caress, “look at that gorgeous man with his just-been-fucked-hair.”

Lucien chuckled softly as he turned his attention to her other nipple, slowly lathing, moistly stroking before answering her. “I hadn’t been, but when I looked at you I wanted to be!”

There was a moment’s silence as Nicky stilled, and then she began to smile, that smile widening, before she burst out laughing and fell forward against him, causing the scented water to slop precariously close to the top of the bath. “That was really naughty of you, Lucien!”

“Oh I can be much naughtier than that.” He surged to his feet, Nicky still in his arms as he stepped out of the bath, snagging up a towel and his jeans on his way into her bedroom. He stood her in front of him and dried her with the bath towel before grabbing a condom from his jeans pocket and laying her gently down on top of the bed and then following her down.

“And I think,” Nicky moved quickly, turning so that Lucien was now the one lying on his back as she moved to straddle his hips before taking the condom out of his hand, “that it’s my turn to be naughty.”

“You do?” He looked up at her through narrowed lids.

“Oh yes.” She returned that gaze challengingly, feeling empowered as Lucien’s arms relaxed back to his sides in invitation and he dropped his head onto the pillows, looking up at her through dark, silky lashes.

Nicky continued to hold his gaze as she took the condom from the packet and slowly rolled it down his silky length before rising up on her knees, her fingers encircling his shaft as she now ran the moist tip teasingly along her labia before allowing that sheathed tip to penetrate half an inch inside her.

“Let me in all the way, Nicky,” Lucien groaned as his hips arched up for deeper penetration.

“Who’s in charge here, Lucien?” She arched a teasing brow, knowing she was playing with fire, but hoping that this more relaxed Lucien would allow her to play his own game. “Lucien?” she prompted again as she saw his eyes had narrowed.

“I guess you are,” he finally murmured half-questioningly.

“I am,” she nodded firmly as she slowly lowered herself down onto his shaft, holding back her own groan of pleasure as the whole of the bulbous tip now penetrated her slick heat and she deliberately flexed and then relaxed her inner muscles.

“Fuck,” Lucien groaned, his eyes becoming glazed, pupils wide.

“Not quite yet.” Nicky gave a satisfied grin at the pleasure she knew she was giving him. Mixed in with a little torture, admittedly, but no more so than those times he had deliberately tormented her like this in the past. “Did I say you could touch my breasts?” She leaned back and away from him as he would have done exactly that.

His eyes narrowed to glittering slits. “Remember what happened last time you— Fuck, fuck,
fuck
!” His hips arched up instinctively as Nicky sheathed the length of his cock in one smooth, engulfing stroke.

“Again, not quite,” she drawled as she made no move to do more than that.

Lucien breathed hard at the feel of Nicky’s pussy clamped about his cock as tight as a fist.

“Just feel, Lucien,” she encouraged in a croon.

He already felt, was totally aware of the rippling of Nicky’s inner muscles along the length of his cock, caressing him from base to tip. “Ride me, Nicky,” he groaned achingly, hands grasping her hips in encouragement.

A smile tilted her lips as she leaned forward, just low enough to rest the arousal of her nipples against the heat of his chest. She moved slowly as she rubbed those nipples against his oversensitive flesh, at the same time as she ground her hips against him slowly, tortuously, until the whole of Lucien’s body felt as if it were as taut as a bowstring.

“I need you to ride me, damn it,” Lucien gasped desperately; he was so desperate to be more inside her right now he would have begged if Nicky asked him to.

But it was as if she didn’t hear him as she continued that slow grind against his hips and that rubbing of her nipples against his chest. And all the time the muscles of her sheath were rippling and constricting as her own arousal deepened.

It wasn’t enough. Lucien wanted the friction, the hard clutch of her pussy moving up and down his cock, riding him, hard and fast. And he wanted it now.

“Nicky!” He thrust up into her, at once desperate for the downward stroke he needed to take his pleasure to the climax he ached for. “Ride me, damn it!” His hands tightened on her hips. “Nicky,
please
... Oh God, yes,” he choked as she finally lifted up and then slid down again on his cock. “
Yes
!” he hissed as she began to move, her hands resting on his chest for leverage, her expression concentrated as she set a rhythm and pace to those upward and downward strokes that made Lucien’s balls tighten and pulse.

He arched mindlessly up into the heat and rhythm of those strokes, wanting deeper friction, wanting, needing, everything this woman wanted to give him.

“
Please
, Nicky— Oh-my-God!” Lucien totally lost it as Nicky now set a harder, faster rhythm that seemed to draw his cum up from his toes as her pussy began to spasm and clench on his cock, her own climax beginning deep inside her womb.

They were both groaning now, thrusts hard and fast, as wave after wave of pleasure swept them up and then over the edge, before crashing them down onto the rocks below.

Lucien continued to thrust as he came harder and deeper than he ever had in his life before, his seed rising and pumping into the woman, who although she may not realize it yet, had just claimed him as her own.

Chapter 14