BarelyBreathing Read online

  She kicked them off, flexing her toes and curling them into the carpet as she walked over to the couch. He was asleep. He looked so peaceful and content. She just wanted to wrap around him and find a few hours of sleep herself. What time was it anyway? She glanced around but didn’t see a clock on the wall anywhere. She blinked a few times and tried to smother a yawn. Or maybe she was just too tired to focus on finding one.

  She reached out to trail a finger down his check and found herself grabbed and rolled under him on the couch. She had just enough time to gasp before his mouth took hers in a kiss that seared her from head to toe. Her nipples ached, becoming stiff points that rubbed against the lace of her strapless bra. Her belly contracted and her pussy grew damp with desire. It had been too long since she’d been with a man. Way too long.

  “It has to be morning,” he mumbled.

  “What?”

  “Morning. It has to be morning by now.”

  “God, I hope not. I could use a few hours of sleep before heading in to see Mr. Madigan.”

  She watched Griff lift his arm and look at his watch. “One.” He glanced down at her and a slow grin spread across his face. The hand at her hip continued to rub and squeeze and she was pretty certain he was using it to pull up her dress. “So how about today?”

  “Today?” She was starting to feel like a parrot. “What about today?”

  “You said we were going to have sex and it would be incredible. But it wouldn’t be last night. It’s not. It’s morning. And you woke me from the most erotic dream I’ve ever had.”

  “Yeah?” She smiled. He was entirely too cute.

  “One in which you played a starring role.”

  “Dreaming about me already?” No way was she sharing the fact she’d had a few dreams about him since she’d compiled her file on him and seen the wet dream he looked like.

  “God, yes. And you were so much better than good.”

  She leaned up and nipped his jaw before licking her tongue over it. He lowered into her and she worked her way up to his ear. “I would be much better than good. When it happens, I will rock every inch of your world. But I really need sleep right now, Griff. Sleep.”

  He sighed. She could feel his cock, long and hard against her, and she felt a twinge of pain for leaving him high and dry. She could give him something else. A hand job or blowjob. But that wasn’t what she wanted. Not her first time with Griff. Especially if it turned out to be her only time with Griff.

  “How about this? We go get out of these clothes and into something to sleep in and I’ll share your bed tonight. No sex.” She reiterated when his eyes lit up like Christmas lights. “But if you like to cuddle, I’ll let you spoon me.”

  He heaved a sigh but smiled nonetheless. “Sounds like a plan.”

  He rose off her and held his hand out to help her up. It was nice to be with a guy she had to look up to. And he didn’t seem turned off or disgusted by her height. In fact, it didn’t seem to bother him at all. He reached down and picked up her duffle bag with his other hand and tugged her down a hall to what was his bedroom.

  He didn’t turn a light on, just nudged the door open and she could see a night light or dimmer had been left on in his bathroom.

  “You have a night light?”

  Griff laughed and she felt it wrap around her, caressing her nipples and clit and making them ache with need.

  “I knew I’d be out late. The lights are too bright in here. So I always set the dimmer in the bathroom.”

  She nodded. He pushed the door open and sat her bag inside. “Go ahead and use this one. I’ll head to the one down the hall.”

  She stood for a moment, just catching her breath after he left. What was she thinking? She had people after her. People with a vendetta against her dad and, just possibly, the means to get to her and kill her. Knowledge was power though, and she had it now. She knew who they were, why they were after her. And she had Mr. Madigan. She believed he would do all in his power to keep her safe. But would it be enough?

  She looked in the mirror and kept watching as she tugged the zipper down and let her dress fall to the floor. Her breasts were cupped and lifted in her strapless bra. She could see how hard her nipples were, feel the ache as they rubbed with every movement she made against the lace cup of her bra. Her panties were low on her hips, a swath of lace that matched her bra.

  She looked good. Maybe it was a good thing she’d met Griff when she was cleaned up and looking utterly feminine. He wanted her. The lust in his eyes every time he looked at her had her heart beating fast and butterflies nesting in her tummy. She wanted him too. So what was she doing? She was going to share his bed and only cuddle? Maybe the clothes had gone to her fucking head. She wasn’t normally a cuddle-me type. She was a rough, hard fuck with lots of moaning and groaning kind of girl.

  And what if she didn’t make it? What if the worst happened and she died? She’d never know what it would feel like to have him between her thighs, filling her with his cock and fucking her until neither of them wanted to move. She wanted to experience that. She needed it. Maybe Vince had hurt something inside her with his manipulation of her. He hadn’t wanted her, only wanted to use her. But Griff wanted her, and she needed to feel wanted.

  She spent the next few minutes freshening up but left her lacy bits on. She’d heard him enter the bedroom, knew he was already there, on the other side of the door. It was now or never. She left the bathroom light on, only dimming it down before pushing the door open and stepping into the doorway.

  She heard him catch his breath, the creak of the bed as he moved. Then he was there, in front of her and his eyes were devouring her. His chest was bare and she loved the solid shape of it, so broad and muscular. He had the sexiest arms she’d ever seen on a man, and she’d seen her fair share. He wore a pair of boxer briefs that did nothing to hide the length and width of his excitement. Now she was the one catching her breath and panting for air.

  “Either you have a really wicked sense of humor and feel like torturing me by only wanting me to hold you in this outfit, or you’ve changed your mind.” His eyes were hot with desire, with lust. For her. All for her. “Please, God, tell me you’ve changed your mind.”

  She wanted to laugh but didn’t have the air. She had little doubt he’d just hold her if that was what she wanted. He was that type of guy. The one you always prayed you’d find. Most would desire to keep him. She couldn’t lie, in another life she would have been one of them. But she wasn’t a forever kind of girl. Hell, she wasn’t sure of much right now, except her need for him and the desire to feel. Just to feel.

  “I want you.”

  “Thank you, Jesus.” He scooped her up and she wrapped her arms around his neck to hold on. She wasn’t exactly dainty but he held her as if she were.

  He laid her on the bed and came over her, taking her mouth and devouring her. His hands were everywhere. Her bra was there and then it wasn’t. All she felt was the rub of his chest against her hard nipples and the groan as he moved from her lips to slide his tongue down her throat.

  “Yes,” she moaned as he moved lower until he parted his lips over one nipple and sucked it deep into his mouth. She arched her back up off the bed, pressing more of her breast into him and he took it all. One hand teased her other nipple while his free hand slid lower to grasp her hip.

  He used his entire mouth. Dancing tongue, wicked teeth and soft lips that wrapped her in perfect suction. He ate her. Licked her. Sucked and nipped until she swore she could feel an orgasm rising inside her. She’d always preferred to come with penetration of some kind. A finger, a toy, a cock. She craved the slide and thrust inside when she got off. At bare minimum, she wanted some clitoral stimulation to send her over the edge, but he wasn’t even touching her pussy. Still it spasmed and creamed as orgasm slammed into her.

  She came with a harsh cry and one leg lifted to wrap over the top of his as she rocked up into his muscled abs. She rubbed against him, riding her clit on his flesh and mil
king the orgasm of every ounce of pleasure.

  “Fuck,” she panted as she gasped for air.

  “Not yet.”

  She’d expected him to strip them both and shove inside her. Wasn’t that what most men wanted? They got the girl excited and then thrust their cocks until they found their pleasure. If the girl came, all the better. Hell, Griff had already gotten her off. But he made no move to fuck her. He just slid lower until his mouth was over her pussy and she could feel his breath through her panties.

  “What are you doing?” He couldn’t be doing what she thought he was. He’d already made her come. She was primed and ready to go. He placed a hot kiss against the gusset of her panties and had her squirming.

  “I’m going to eat every inch of you just like I said I would.”

  He wasn’t actually… Oh, god, he was. She almost screamed as she felt him pull the crotch of her panties aside and felt the hot slide of his tongue over her pussy lips. The man knew how to make a woman thrash with pleasure.

  “Griff.” She cried his name, reaching down to fist one hand in his hair. So thick and long. She loved his hair.

  He tasted her as if she was a favored treat. His tongue traced the seam of her sex before bumping against her clit and then flicking and lapping over the distended bud. The fingers holding her panties to the side slid over and one plunged deep into her wet pussy. Her hips thrust up off the bed and the fist in his hair was pulling his face closer against her cunt.

  He didn’t disappoint and, somehow, she doubted he ever would in the bedroom, or whatever room he chose to take a woman in. Within seconds she was back on the bladed edge with orgasm hovering. She was moaning and panting, riding his face. Begging. She was begging him to lick her, to suck her, to get her off. And he did. The man was a god.

  She heard the rip of material and felt her panties being pulled off but was too wrapped in the heat of her second orgasm to care. She felt him against her thigh and realized at some point he had managed to snag a condom and put it on. She was glad one of them was still thinking. Her brain was already mush from the overload of pleasure. He nudged the opening of her pussy with the broad head of his cock and then he was sinking into her.

  She lifted her legs to grip his hips and her hands clasped his shoulders. He looked down at her and she could see the pleasure on his face as he sank his cock balls-deep into her. He held still for a moment, his eyes on her face. She could see her juice on his lips and without thought lifted up to glide her tongue over his bottom lip for a taste.

  He groaned and took her mouth, possessing it in every sense of the word. The kiss seemed to unleash him and as he consumed her lips and tongue, his cock plunged and fucked her hard and fast. She clung to him, only breaking from his kiss long enough to gasp in oxygen before returning for more. Her nails dug into his shoulders, her heels into his hips and she rose from the mattress, meeting him thrust for thrust.

  This was want, need, desire. This was what it meant to fuck and feel alive. His eyes were on her, and there was no doubt he was firmly entrenched in the here and now of this moment with her.

  “Griff,” she panted his name.

  “So fucking good, Honor. I’ve never felt anyone as incredible as you.” He spoke her name, and hearing it on his lips, knowing he thought only of her and pleasure had her cresting the wave of an unbelievable third orgasm.

  The muscles in her body tightened, constricted as she fought the pleasure, unsure she could handle it again. Griff’s hard groan and stiff body joined her and then they both seemed to fly. She leaned up and bit into his chest to keep from screaming the apartment down. He muffled his yell in the pillow beneath her head. And they clung, shaking as they slowly came down from the orgasmic high.

  Never. She’d never had sex like this before. He’d given her two orgasms before he even put his cock in her. He’d used his mouth on her and seemed to enjoy it. Then he’d fucked her like he couldn’t get enough. She’d never had pleasure like this before. She hoped he’d want to do this again. She’d take what she could get while she was here. If she died, well, at least she’d had this before going. And if she survived, he’d fill every dream for the rest of her life once she moved on and found a new home.

  I could fall in love with him, she thought as she drifted into sleep, never even realizing she whispered the words out loud.

  * * * * *

  Griff knew the moment she was sound asleep. He could hear the change in her breathing. It startled him she could fall asleep so easily, with his cock still softening inside her. But his heart, which had been slowly returning to a normal tempo, was now thumping a staccato beat in his chest. Had she said what he thought? Or was he hearing things?

  He swore she’d said she could fall in love with him. But that couldn’t be right. Could it? He wasn’t sure how he felt about her or the words. He liked her. Hell, he’d never had sex so good in his life. He could already feel the bruise forming on his chest where she’d bit him to keep from screaming. Her bite had been sexy as hell.

  She was the first woman he’d been with who he hadn’t felt the need to hold back with, to be gentle. He was always a gentle lover. He took his time, made sure the woman enjoyed herself thoroughly before he took his own release. He’d almost blown it with Honor. One taste of her pussy and he’d wanted to jerk up and shove his cock in. Then he’d dipped a finger in her pussy and felt how hot and tight she was. It had taken all he had to keep eating until she came for him. But her taste…she had the sweetest little cunt ever.

  And she was the first woman who made him unsure. He never questioned what to do or say with a woman. But Honor? Hell, he wasn’t prepared for her. The only thing he was certain of at the moment was that once wouldn’t be enough for him.

  He eased away from her, gritting his teeth as his cock slid free of her pussy. Looking at her, seeing her sprawled with thighs wide on his bed, hair in disarray around her, his cock grew hard. He wanted her again. He had great stamina, but he hadn’t recovered this fast since he was in his early twenties. But Honor…damn. She just took his breath, knocked his feet right out from under him.

  He moved from between her thighs and eased off the bed. She rolled to her side and curled her knees into her chest. He could see the pink slit of her pussy and easily imagined taking her from behind. Just curling up along her back and sliding his cock deep. He groaned and threw the sheet over her. Christ, he was losing it.

  He’d thought once he had her, the lust wouldn’t be so hot, that a taste would slake his thirst. But it seemed to have done just the opposite. He wanted her more now, knowing how good she felt around him, knowing how unbelievable the sex would be. He wanted to feel her wet against his tongue, wanted to suck those berry-red nipples of hers and thrust his cock right back in her wet heat. He had it bad and he knew it.

  What worried him was the way her sleepy words weren’t sending him running for the hills, or at least to another room. As he tossed the condom and cleaned up, he shook his head. If any other woman had said she could fall in love with him, he’d have made his goodbyes and walked away as quickly as he could. One taste of Honor and he was wondering if falling in love would be so bad.

  Chapter Five

  Honor woke with a moan spilling from her lips. Griff was spooned behind her, his cock hard and thick against her. His mouth trailed kisses over her shoulder and neck while his fingers snaked up and down her side. It was the perfect way to wake up after last night.

  “Morning,” he whispered in her ear before giving the lobe a soft nip.

  She shifted her legs open, catching his hand and moving it down her body to her pussy. It was her turn to make him moan as she showed him just how ready she was for that hard cock of his.

  “God, Honor,” Griff groaned. “I want you again.”

  “Yesssss,” she hissed her agreement as he fingers played over her clit.

  He shifted away behind her and she glanced back over her shoulder to watch him grab a condom and roll it on. Then he was back, easing into posi
tion behind her. She felt the nudge of his cock as he lined it up. One thrust and he was tunneling in and out of her pussy. It felt so good, the way he filled her, rubbing every sensitive inch of her channel. He slid one hand over her hip, his thumb and fingers playing over and around her clit. He moved the other one under her, lifting it to toy with the nipple of her right breast.

  “Griff,” she moaned his name. This had not been her plan. She was going to walk away today. Say thanks and just put her focus where it needed to be. On catching Vince and stopping him. But this…this was so much better.

  “I love the way you say my name.” The warmth of his breath against her ear sent chills down her spine. His voice was rough and carnal and she wondered if he sounded this sexy every morning, or just those that started like this one.

  She moaned again as he plunged deep, slowly eased back and thrust hard again. She could see herself becoming addicted to waking up with him every morning. Especially if he was willing to let them all begin just like this one.

  “Roll over,” he urged her, using his hands to help guide until she was on her stomach under him.

  She knew what he was after and rose to her knees, keeping her chest flat to the mattress. He shifted his legs forcing hers even wider. His hands were both at her hips and his groan was the only warning she got before he began a fast and hard pounding of her pussy. God, she loved doggy style. It was definitely one of her favorite positions.

  She muffled her screams in the pillow, fingers clenching and releasing in the sheets. She knew he could hear her keening cries regardless of her efforts to smother them and found she didn’t care. It was good, so fucking incredible she wanted to shout and scream. She wanted to wrap around him like a vise and sink her teeth into his skin. He made her fucking animalistic. He made her so hot and horny that even as fantastic as he gave, she wanted more. And more and more and…

  She came with a wail she prayed the walls muffled if the bedding didn’t. The pounding increased, harder and faster until he plunged so deep he lifted her knees free of the mattress and held her there speared on his cock. God, he was so fucking deep it hurt, which only intensified the pleasure ripping through her body. Who knew she would like that edge of pain so much?