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  “You want my cum, don’t you?” he asked, the words ragged as he panted against my ear. “Taste it. Swallow it.”

  “Yes. Damn you.” My voice was hoarse, throat raw.

  He laughed, kissing me thoroughly, but without the fierce need he'd had before.

  I was the only one left with that.

  Or so I thought.

  His hands slid over my body, leaving me on fire every place he touched. My nipples were already hard when he cupped my breasts. When he leaned down, flicking his tongue across the tip of one nipple, I hissed. The hiss turned into a moan when his lips closed around it.

  I writhed beneath him as he sucked. Hard. He worked my nipple as I'd worked his cock and when his hand moved down between my legs, I knew he'd find me practically dripping.

  His teeth skimmed my nipple and my body jerked, only to do it again when his fingers skimmed my nearly bare pussy.

  He raised his head and I almost whimpered at the loss. Only the smallest thread of steel kept me biting back the sound. He pushed himself up off of me, then grasped my hips and pulled me off the bed. He flipped me over, taking care to protect my face as my hands were still bound. He settled me on my knees, then pushed them apart even as he curled his body over my back.

  “Are you empty?” Arik asked, his cock throbbing against my thigh. “Do you need something inside you? My cock?”

  Somewhere in the closet, my phone rang.

  Logically, I knew I needed to care about it. It was most likely Bethany, calling about something she needed me to do first thing in the morning. But I didn’t care about any of that at the moment. I was off the clock.

  The question Arik had just voiced summed up the only thing I cared about right now.

  “Yes,” I said, panting.

  I heard a ripping sound as he straightened. Then, even as I processed what he was doing, he buried himself inside me, my pussy stretching almost painfully around him. My entire body shook as muscles and nerves both protested and welcomed him at the same time, a conflict of sensation.

  “Is this what you need?” he asked calmly after the sound of my wail faded.

  My eyelids fluttered. “More.”

  I saw him reach for something on the bed. He’d put several items there at some point, whether to taunt me or promise me, I didn't know. What he picked up made my breath catch.

  “What about...this?”

  A moment later, something cool and wet dripped on my anus, quickly followed by the pressure of a finger. As he pushed it inside, Arik spoke again, “Is that what you want?”

  My ass burned as he worked the lubricant deeper inside me.

  “More,” I gasped.

  I could almost feel his smile as he pressed in a second finger. I gasped as he began to move, roughly working his fingers in and out of my ass as he hammered his cock into me. Every stroke stoked the fire inside me until I was burning, dying. I whimpered and arched, whimpered and moaned, a climax clamoring to be free.

  And just when I was ready to explode...he stopped moving.

  I stiffened, jerking back against him, but it did no good. He pulled his fingers out of my ass and I swore, my body twitching. Then he caught my elbows and forced me up, pressing my back against his chest.

  “Feel my cock?” He slid one arm around my waist to steady me, to hold me upright. “Feel how deep I am?”

  “Yes...” It was a plaintive, ragged moan. There was enough of a height difference between us that I was essentially impaled on him, impossible to move.

  “Now tell me you want me in your ass like that.”

  I shuddered, trying to twist around on his dick, but he held me tight. I wanted him, but to be honest, I wasn’t sure I could take him like that. As it was, I felt stretched wide. Too wide.

  “Dena...” he murmured my name.

  Fuck. I needed him...all of him.

  “Yes, please.”

  He didn't say anything, but I felt a slight shudder go through him.

  He pressed his lips to my neck, then lowered me back down to the floor, all without pulling out of me. I shivered as I settled on my knees and his fingers slid between my ass cheeks again.

  Fuck. He was adding more lubricant. This was really going to happen. I whimpered when he began to scissor his fingers, forcing me to open wider for him. I wasn't an anal virgin, but it had been a long time, so when he began to press against me, I instinctively tensed up.

  The head of his dick popped past the tight ring of muscle, and I took a deep breath, trying to relax even as my ass burned. I closed my eyes. Fuck.

  Maybe this hadn't been the best idea.

  “Push down, Dena.” It was an order, not a suggestion.

  I couldn’t. I knew I needed to, but he was so big. Too big...

  From the corner of my eye, I saw him reach for the other thing on the bed next to me. A small wooden paddle, about the size of a hairbrush and only lightly padded. Apparently, he hadn't been kidding when he said he'd been thinking about my ass for a while.

  I tried to twist around as he picked it up. “Arik, wait...no. Stop!”

  “That’s not the magic word.” His voice held a warning. “Let me in, Dena.”

  But I tensed up again, squeezing his cock hard enough to make him swear.

  A moment later, I cried out as he brought the flat side of the paddle down on my ass. Hot pain bloomed, joining the pain already in my ass. Before it faded, he delivered another blow to the other cheek.

  “Push down, sweetheart. Take my cock, or cry uncle and say you’re done.”

  Except it wouldn't just be me who was done, I knew. We'd be done. He wouldn't be angry, but he'd never top me again.

  Shuddering, I pressed my face to the soft cotton sheets, the breath exploding out of me as he spanked me again, alternating sides. Then he started to withdraw and I could feel his latex-sheathed cock rasping over swollen, sensitive tissues...

  Another swat from the paddle.

  He surged forward.

  I pushed down and he went deeper.

  The promise of pleasure bloomed side by side with the pain and I shuddered, fought against it, tried to accept it.

  Again and again...every time I started to lock up, he used the paddle. He taunted me, teased me, until every cell in my body was screaming for release.

  Then, just when I knew I couldn’t take any more, that I’d have to make him stop, he grabbed my hair, and pulled me up again. It drove my weight completely down on his cock and I keened. Spots danced in front of my eyes as my body struggled to adjust.

  “Do you have any idea how badly I wanted this?”

  He slid one hand down my stomach until his fingers brushed my pubic bone. Against my back, his chest rose and fell in a rhythm nearly as ragged as mine.

  “What?” I felt drugged, dazed, my brain struggling to process words along with everything else.

  “You're so tight, sweetheart. Just like I imagined.” His hands slid to my hips. “Now, watch this.”

  He lifted me up. Startled, I caught his hands. I had no idea when he’d freed my wrists, but I could suddenly move. And that's when I realized he'd shifted us until we were facing a mirror.

  “Watch us.”

  He lifted me higher and my hands moved back to lock behind his neck. I whimpered when the head stopped, caught in place by the muscles near my entrance. My feet found the floor, and then he was pulling me back down, our eyes meeting in our reflections.

  “Watch,” he said again.

  And again.

  With every thrust, he said it. And then I started to move with him, pushing down, pleasure beginning to blur the pain, the pain giving the pleasure an edge.

  “That’s it, sweetheart. Take me. Take it. Take it all.”

  Arik was muttering into my ear now, but I barely heard the words. I just felt him, like he’d told me to. Then I felt his fingers slide over to find my clit. I gasped, jerked. His fingers dropped lower, palm pressing against my clit even as his fingers pushed into my pussy.

  An
d then I was coming.

  Harder, faster than I’d ever come before.

  The world went white, then black.

  Chapter 5

  Arik

  It didn’t seem right, feeling so mellow and relaxed, standing there at Leayna’s door in the middle of the night. There was no getting around it though. I hadn’t felt quite this good in a while. Not even after that first night with Dena. I'd been too confused then.

  Now I knew we’d find each other at Club Privé soon, and all I could feel was anticipation.

  I wasn’t going to take another woman back to a private room again. Not after what Dena and I seemed to have going between us.

  The sounds she made when she came...

  Shit, I was getting hard just from the thought of it.

  Yeah, we were going to hook up again. Soon.

  A date, even. Yeah. I liked the idea of that, more than I probably should.

  But I didn’t need to be thinking about that right now. I had just managed to set my face in a somber yet comforting expression when the door opened.

  It was a damn good thing, too. Leayna looked brittle. Fragile.

  No, I realized suddenly. It was more than that. She looked broken.

  Since her condo was a crime scene, she’d come back to the luxury high-rise where she'd lived before marrying her late husband. I’d told her it was for the best and she agreed. For a while, a friend had been subletting, but the friend had moved to France a few weeks before Mr. Mance's death, leaving Leayna a place to go. I’d hoped she’d be comfortable here, surrounded by happier memories. She needed support and comfort while all this was going on.

  She was innocent. And while yes, sometimes the innocent were found guilty, more often than not, it was the guilty that went free.

  There was a saying that it was better to let the guilty go free than to imprison the innocent. The system was set up to protect the innocent and punish the guilty.

  It was an imperfect system, but I had to believe that it would work for her. Though that didn't exactly make things less stressful for her.

  I was a damn good lawyer and Leayna was going to get my best. She believed that, or I assumed she had. Now, however, something was wrong.

  Instinctively, I reached out and took one of the hands she wrapped around her middle. The part of me that craved control, that exerted control in every aspect of my life, was also driven by a need to care for people. That part of being a Dominant carried over, even when the situation wasn't sexual.

  She used my hand to pull herself to me, immediately wrapping her arms around me and clinging tight. “Thank you for coming.”

  Shit. Taking care of people needed boundaries. Hugging was definitely crossing over the line.

  “You said you needed to speak with me.” I carefully disentangled myself and took a step back, keeping my hands wrapped around hers, both to keep control over her movements and to reassure her that I wasn't exactly pushing her away.

  Leayna’s gaze came back to mine. With a sharp, jerky nod, she confirmed what I said. Yes. She needed to speak with me, but she didn’t say anything.

  Okay. Mentally, I sighed, but I gave no outer reaction. I’d done this thing before. “Should we go inside?”

  “No. This won’t take long.”

  A feeling of foreboding fell over me as she squared her shoulders and took a deep breath.

  In a soft, shaking voice, she said, “I’ve decided to plead guilty. Can you contact that woman you spoke to on Friday? She would know how to proceed, wouldn’t she?”

  For a split second, I was so caught off guard that she almost managed to shut the door in my face. I hadn't even realized she'd pulled away from my grasp.

  Just before the door closed, I managed to slam my hand against it. Her eyes went wide. Well, wider. A good look at her face showed several things. There were dark circles under her eyes, which really wasn’t surprising. She was pale, and her cheeks looked almost gaunt instead of fashionably thin.

  Shit.

  Her pulse slammed away in the hollow of her throat, and her pupils were so large, only the thinnest rim of grass green iris showed. Enlarged pupils, elevated heart rate. That brought several things to mind, but something told me she hadn’t gotten high right after she called me and decided she’d just take the blame for whoever killed her husband.

  So she was scared.

  Hell, screw that.

  She was terrified.

  Keeping my voice gentle, I said, “Leayna, you're going to invite me in.”

  “Why?” She glared at me. She started to brush her hair back, and my gaze lingered on the trembling hand.

  “Because I’m your lawyer. If you really want me to set up a guilty plea, fine. But I need to ask some questions, get some things down.” With a gentle smile, I lied through my teeth. “It’s just part of the job. I have to have things in order. You want me to do my job, right?”

  She let me in.

  That goal accomplished, I stood aside as Leayna fumbled her way through the series of locks on her door. One set was new. Brand new. As in I'd probably find the packaging in the trash. I wanted to take a step closer to study the security bolt, but I held still, watching as she checked all of the locks, and then went through the routine a second, then a third time.

  Double shit.

  Whatever was going on, it was serious.

  Finally, she turned and faced me.

  “Now, how about we go into the kitchen and make up some coffee?” I smiled in what I hoped was a reassuring way. “This could take a while.”

  “I don't want coffee,” Leayna said, but she followed me down the hall to where I remembered the kitchen was.

  Considering how she jumped at every shadow and gasped at every small noise, I wasn't actually surprised that she didn't want to be alone.

  “Mind if I make some for myself?” I asked, still wearing the grin I used when I wanted a client to think I was sincere. “I think better if my hands are busy.”

  Actually, I didn’t want her doing something stupid. That look in her eyes had me worried, and I’d had somebody do something stupid once before. The memory of a woman’s blood on the floor still haunted me.

  When Leayna didn't protest, I took that as a go-ahead and started for the cabinets. After nosing around a bit, however, I didn't find coffee. What I did find was tea. There was quite a bit of it and something told me that the now deceased Mr. Mance hadn’t been the tea-drinker, so I pulled out enough for two cups. As Leayna fussed with the trim on her sweater, I set water to boil and looked for cups.

  “Cabinet by the window,” she said, her voice as distracted as the rest of her.

  “Thank you.”

  While getting things ready, I kept up a steady stream of talk about the weather, the differences between New York and Chicago, how I was trying to decide if it was worth keeping my car. Anything to try to get her to relax.

  It didn't work.

  When she jumped at the shout of a dog barking somewhere outside her penthouse, I decided I needed to stop trying to get her to loosen up and just deal with the situation. I took our cups to the table and sat down across from her, grateful she'd at least stopped pacing.

  “I know you didn’t want coffee, but I imagine you like tea, or I wouldn’t have found so much.”

  She managed a weak smile and accepted the cup, taking a small sip.

  “I couldn't find any sugar,” I said.

  Leayna looked away, a distracted, distant fear returning to her eyes. “I detoxed from sugar a few months ago. It’s all the rage, you know? Stop the sugar. You’ll live longer, have more energy, look better, feel better...”

  She laughed, the sound harsh and bitter enough to make me wince. Fortunately, she didn't seem to notice.

  “So that’s what I did. I detoxed from sugar. I missed my candy bars, but I thought maybe if I looked younger, felt better...” Her gaze came to mine. “I had a boob job and a tummy tuck. I fucking gave up chocolate, thinking it would make a difference! That he
'd love me!”

  Abruptly, she stood. It caught me off-guard but I jumped up, catching her arms before she could start pacing again.

  “Calm down, Leayna. Just tell me what the problem is. I can help.”

  “Get me a damn candy bar!” she half-shouted, eyes glistening with tears. “I gave up everything for him and he was going to leave me! He didn’t...he didn’t want me. He didn't love me. And now he’s gone and if I don’t...”

  Her voice broke and she started to cry. She sagged suddenly, and if I hadn’t caught her, she would've ended up on the floor. I managed to get her back into her chair and crouched in front of her.

  I let her cry for a few minutes, but when it became clear she was going to work herself into hysterics, I knew I needed to intervene.

  “I understand the need for sugar, Leayna, but I can’t believe you killed him over it,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.

  It worked.

  She laughed. It was a watery, half-hysterical laugh, but still a laugh, so I was counting that as a win.

  “If I’d...if I’d just let him go, maybe...” She sniffed and looked away. “Maybe he’d still be alive. I don’t know. But I’d have sugar and chocolate and nobody would be threatening to kill me too.”

  The moment she said the words, she froze.

  I kept my voice gentle. “It’s okay, Leayna. I already figured that part out.” I moved out of my crouch and back into my chair.

  “You...” She blinked, lowered her eyes to her lap. “You did?”

  “Yes.” Taking a sip of the tea, I tried not to make a face. I never understood why some people liked drinking tea that tasted like flowers. After I put the cup down, I continued, “Why don’t we start over, from the beginning this time?”

  ***

  “And that’s it.” With a tight smile, Leayna pushed around the pasta noodles on her plate.

  We’d called for late night take out – or, I guess, technically it was early morning now – about an hour and a half ago. It'd arrived with surprising speed, half-way through her recount of the past few days.

  I hadn’t interrupted, instead taking the time to eat while I listened, but now that she was done, I put down my fork and leaned forward, waiting for her to look at me.