Claimed By The Devil - Joanna Blake Page 0,59

He didn’t answer me at first. He just led me in and used the lever to take us to the top floor. He stared at me the whole way from across the industrial sized lift.

Only when we hit the top floor and he threw the lever back down did he answer.

“Jack and Janet used to live here before they built a house near Devil’s Lake.”

“Devil’s Lake?”

“That’s what we call it. It’s not big enough to have a name on a map. It’s on a piece of land that Dev’s family owned for generations. He’s sold off pieces of it to a bunch of the guys so they can all live nearby.”

“Oh,” I said. I wanted to ask more but I was staring at his broad back as he threw up the security gate and turned to face me. He held out his hand without a word, and I took it, following him into a cavernous space. I looked around, marveling at the gorgeous loft. The walls were exposed bricks and there were huge pipes painted a flat red running all along the ceiling. There were a few actual rooms in the far corners of the space, but the majority of it was open. It had a bar along one wall and a seating area in the center with a huge sectional couch and chairs.

“Wow,” I said in total awe. The place looked like it was straight out of a design magazine or a movie set. I could see someone getting married here, for sure. There were even candles everywhere, and twinkling lights hung from the pipes above.

"Take your clothes off," a rough voice said from behind me.

I turned to stare at him.

"What?"

“Your clothes. Take them off now. Otherwise, I’ll rip them off."

My eyes got wide. Nick looked different. Determined. And a little bit like he was in pain. He shook his head as if to say ‘so be it’ and reached for me.

"Wait! I borrowed them."

"I'm waiting," he said with hard eyes. He wasn't just impatient. He was demanding. Implacable. Almost cold. Except that wasn’t the right word.

The look in Nick’s eyes was so hot, it was like that feeling when you burned yourself but you didn’t even feel it at first.

This is happening, I realized. Right now.

Nick was going to make love to me. Take my virginity. I’d waited for this for years, watched and wanted him for years, but now that the time had finally come, I was nervous. Beyond nervous. I was terrified. Not of him. Never him.

I was just afraid I would make a fool of myself.

My hands fumbled as I reached behind me for the laces. He cursed and grabbed my shoulders, spinning me so he could get at my corset. But he didn't fumble with the ties the way I had. He moved with absolute precision. The ties were loosened quickly, the hugging sensation of the corset molding to my body falling away. He turned me again and reached for my skirt. He unfastened it and shoved it down over my hips.

"Lift your arms," he said. I felt a bit like a child as I obeyed and he pulled the bustier up and over my shoulders. But there was nothing childish about the look in his eyes. It was pure male heat. I'd never seen that particular expression on his face before. It was as if he’d been holding back before and now he . . . wasn’t.

It sent a thrill straight to my core.

"Fuck, Melissa," he breathed as he stared at my almost naked body in my new lingerie. I reached for my shoes but he stopped me. "Leave them," he said.

And then he pounced on me. There was no other word for it. He was like an animal, all lips and teeth and hands. Attacking me. But not to hurt. It was almost as if he was trying to inhale me. To absorb me into him.

He kissed me roughly, gripping my hips and yanking me against his hardness. And he was hard. His massive erection was burning into me, even through his worn-in jeans. I don't think I'd ever realized just how big he was. For some reason, right now, I could feel every inch of him. Nick wasn’t just big, like I’d told the girls. He was huge. Way too big to manage in any of the ways the girls had described to me.

And I had asked for this.

Nick was definitely going to put himself inside me. Soon. I felt an