Rough Rhythm: A Made in Jersey Novella (1001 Dark Nights)(25)

But then, he did.

He freed her wrists.

It was so unexpected, her hands fell backward to frame her head. “What—”

James dropped down to interlock their lips, scrutinizing her as they breathed into one another’s mouths “You don’t really want me to stop.” Their lips slipped together in a sensual mating dance. “Do you? Lita?”

The touch of dread in his deep voice undid her. Before she could think of a response, Lita’s heart answered for her. “No.” She shook her head back and forth in the dirt. “Never.”

Before the word fully escaped her mouth, James entered her once more on an agonized groan, his mouth finding the side of her neck, sucking and biting as he started to move. His first few drives were even, controlled, but the drag of his stiffness over her clit drove Lita a little crazy. More. More. She clawed at his ass, arching her back, until she felt the now-familiar snap in his surrounding energy. Both of her knees were hooked beneath his arms immediately—and then he f*cked her into the ground. Just as he’d said he would.

Teeth sunk into available flesh, fingers dug into muscle, hips collided, clothes were torn. Lita didn’t recognize the sounds coming from either of their mouths. They were desperate and foreign and often angry.

Their coupling turned rough. Violent. The lust for danger had built too long and now it took over, urging Lita to issue whispered challenges to James. Sometimes daring him to go harder, sometimes begging without shame. Those dares made him bare his teeth, picking up her body just to pin it back down with breath-stealing force, his bottom half never ceasing, pumping relentlessly.

“You little brat. I should have started f*cking you a long time ago. Maybe you’d have some goddamn manners by now.” He shoved a forearm beneath her ass, lifting her lower body up to his lap to receive him. “Or maybe I just bought myself four years of relative sanity. I’m going to lose a little more of my mind every time you slip down onto my cock, aren’t I? Every time you breathe.”

Lita was teetering on the edge of something catastrophic. Air wheezed in and out of her lungs. Her leg muscles started to freeze up. The angle of James’s thrusts prodded a spot inside her that rendered her unable to form words, lest she disturb the brutal accuracy. Shit, shit…she couldn’t orgasm like this or she’d break apart into nothing. Too much—too—

Stars blinded Lita as the crisis powered through her lower body, clenching her every muscle in a way that made her instantaneously sore. Her scream sounded distant, like someone had turned down the volume on a movie. James covered her mouth with his own, meshing their bodies together as he rode out his climax above her, his masculine roar of relief muted against her lips. It wouldn’t end, ripples and shocks of pleasure spreading, a boulder dropped into a still pond. Her heels dug into the small of his back, her body writhing in the disturbed earth.

“James, James…I’m…I can’t.”

Her world tilted when James scooped her off the ground, cradling her on his lap and squeezing the limited amount of oxygen from her chest. “I’ve got you. I’ve always got you.” His lips skated over her features, lingering on her forehead. “Please, tell me you’re okay, Lita.”

There was no veiling the truth after what they’d done. Only trust. At some point since venturing into the woods, her anger and doubt had evaporated. She’d needed this. Craved this exchange of trust. It’s what she’d needed from James all along. What they’d needed from each other. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt better.” She laughed when her words were a little slurred. “What about you?”

When James didn’t answer right away, she tilted her head back and saw she hadn’t managed to convince him. His attention raced over her skin, lighting on her ripped T-shirt, the bite mark on her shoulder, the smeared dirt…everywhere. His jaw looked tight enough to shatter. “Hey.” He wouldn’t meet her eyes.

No. Fuck this.

She’d never felt closer to another human being in her life than she did right now. He wasn’t going to drift away on her. Lita scrambled to face him fully, throwing her legs around his hips and framing his face with her hands. “Kiss me and you’ll know that everything is going to be fine.”

There was only the barest hesitation before James broke, devouring her mouth with a gruff sound. In between kisses, he rasped words of apology, praise, amazement, worry.

“Didn’t hurt my gorgeous girl. She’s still here with me. I’m sorry I was a prick. God, I’ve never felt or seen or touched anything like you. Mine. My Lita.”

She absorbed it like a greedy sponge, letting him cut off her oxygen with his banded arms and smother her in whisker-burn kisses. It was the single greatest moment of her life. Having James call her his girl in the woods, her body depleted and their skin pressed together. She wanted to build a cabin in that very spot and live there forever.

“We need to get back,” James muttered into her hair. “I can’t let anyone see you like this.”

“Fine. Okay.” She swayed as he pulled her up, onto her feet. “Look how agreeable I’m being.”

“Don’t make a habit out of it.” His gaze heated as it roamed over her legs. “I like when you fight me.”

Whoa. Lita’s knees wobbled. “I like the way you get even,” she breathed.