stop, right now, Callie … or tell me you want me and I’m yours, I don’t give a bloody fuck about him.”
His eyes snapped open and he waited, watching her lips as if listening for the right words to fall from her lips.
“I want you,” she whispered, too far gone to feel shame or regret. It was the truth, and it felt right to admit it to him, in this small space where there was only the two of them.
He lunged for her again, spinning her around and hurriedly lifting her skirts. She was thrown off balance as he pushed against one shoulder, bending her at the waist. Grappling at the shelves for purchase, she steadied herself just in time, because then he was kicking her legs wide, spreading her for his use. She ought to be shocked, having never realized people could couple this way and feeling as if there must be something degrading in it. But, she could only raise her hips and wait for him, willing to take whatever he gave, needing it with an intensity that left her breathless.
The press of the blunt crown of his cock nudged her opening, but he simply pressed against her without entering. He gripped her shoulder and his mouth came against her ear, his tongue teasing the lobe.
“Fuck me, Nick,” he prompted. “Say it.”
She swayed against him, trying to coax him in deeper, but he remained just within her opening. A sharp sting erupted along one of her buttocks—Nick’s palm cracking against her in a light slap. Her sheath contracted, heat blossoming where his hand had struck and heightening her desire.
“I’m waiting.”
Bowing her head, she gave over the last shred of her dignity, not caring how licentious it made her to respond to him this way.
Her cheeks warmed as she repeated his words, her lips struggling to form the epithet she’d never used in her life. “Fuck me, Nick.”
He surged into her with one swift stroke, his hand leaving her shoulder to clap over her mouth and muffle her sharp cry. Their position allowed him deep into her, and her sheath stretched and throbbed, her wetness making it easy to accommodate him. She breathed through her nose, her moans muffled by his hand as he began to move, his pelvis pushing against her rear, his other hand gripping her hip to pull her back into each thrust. His cock drilled into her, unrelenting and thick, pressing against places within her that made her eyes roll back into her head.
He wasn’t the man who had so sweetly initiated her that night in her bed. There were no tender words or soft caresses. This was exactly what he’d promised her the first time they’d met; a good hard fuck—filthy and raw and breathtaking. She wasn’t the same woman she’d been that night, either. She was free, more herself than she’d allowed herself to be in weeks, and she took hold of that with both hands and clung to it. For the first time since she’d accepted the proposal of a man she did not love, she felt alive.
Nick’s forehead dropped to her shoulder, his body curling around her as he took her with savage ruthlessness, his breaths rough and harsh in her ear.
“You’re such a little wanton, letting me take you like this. You like me sweet and gentle, but I think you like me this way, too—hard and rough and fucking you senseless. Don’t you, goddess?”
She brought her hands up to clutch at his neck, holding him and rocking back to match his rhythm, her insides clenching and quivering with impending climax.
“Yes … yes!”
He pounded into her harder, muffling his groans against her shoulder, the hand at her hip shifting to cup between her legs. The press of his fingers against her clit set her off, and she bucked and writhed against him, her nails digging into the back of his neck as she splintered. He kept up his pace through her orgasm, drawing it out and making it last as she screamed against his palm. Only when she went limp against him did he follow on her heels. Except, this time he pulled away instead of pushing deeper, grunting and muttering oaths under his breath. Calliope glanced over her shoulder to find him slumped against the opposite shelves, using a handkerchief to clean the milky streams of his seed from the back of one hand and the tip of his cock.
His head remained lowered as he tucked his shirt and