Wild at Heart (9 page)

“No, Dare. Stop fucking with me.” I took a step back, trying to untangle from his grasp. “I can’t take it. Go away and don’t come back until you’ve got your head on straight.”

His eyes flashed as he gripped my shoulder with his one good hand. “You don’t understand,” he said, his words laced with anguish. “As long as he’s out there and we’re together, your life is in danger.” Pain slashed across his face. “I can’t risk you, Ree. He’s out to take everything from me. But if he doesn’t know about you, then he can’t get to you.”

“He can’t take me away from you.” I reached out to touch his face. “I’m yours. Only yours. Always yours, Dare.”

With our lips mere inches apart, I could hear his breath hitch then felt him inhale sharply. His eyes scorched mine, a thousand different expressions flashing through them in a single instant. When his gaze descended to my mouth, heat flooded through my core, his ravenous look dizzying me.

Our mouths collided, my body coming alive as his tongue tangled with mine. His hand fisted in my hair, holding me in place, a willing captive. Tingling spread from between my thighs, up my abdomen, creating a ripple effect through the rest of my body, drowning my soul in so much light and warmth. Relishing in the feel of him against me, I felt as if I were waking up from a long, dark dream.

He ran his fingers through my hair, gripped my head, and broke our kiss. His wild eyes met mine. “You are mine, Ree,” he said. “Don’t you ever forget that.” A deep growl rose within his chest as his lips found mine again, making me ache in all the right places, sending my hands to the hem of his shirt to lift it over his head.

When he pulled back to let me tug if off his head, I gasped at what I saw. Healing cuts marred the perfect landscape of his torso. As he carefully slid the tee over his splint and tossed it to the floor, I gently ran my fingers along his side.

“Oh my god, Dare.” My words were just a horrified whisper. “What did he do to you?”

“Nothing he hasn’t done before.” Then he held up his splinted hand, wincing slightly. “Well, except for this. This was a special treat just for me. To take away my art.”

Tears slipped down my cheeks, and I didn’t even bother trying to stop them this time. My heart wrenched at the sight and I hated that I didn’t know what to say to make it all better. What could you say to someone whose father was bound and determined to destroy his life?

So I just took his good hand in mine, led him to the couch, and sat him down. Then I went into the kitchen and filled a small towel with ice. I searched for a rubber band to keep it closed, but couldn’t find one. We would have to do without.

I knew it was completely futile to put ice on his hand at this point, but I had to do
something
. And I needed a moment to gather myself. Seeing his beautiful body so bruised and beaten…it killed me.

A couple of deep breaths later, I walked back out to the couch, my makeshift icepack in hand. Dare’s dark eyes followed me across the room, until I was standing between his knees.

“Are your legs okay?” I asked.

He started to nod, and when I slid onto his lap, my skirt riding up as I straddled his legs, a slow, sly grin grew across his face. I gently lifted his hurt hand, placed it in my lap, and lowered the ice onto it. His eyes never left my face, and an incredibly tender expression filled them, growing warmer with each passing second.

“Ree,” he said, caressing my name, making my heart swell.

God, I loved him.

I leaned forward to kiss his delicious lips, but before mine could touch his, the towel slipped out of my hand, spilling ice across our laps. I gasped at the sudden cold contact on my bare legs, and quickly began scooping up the cubes and placing them back on the towel.

Dare laughed, then immediately pressed his hand to his ribs.

“Fuck, that kills,” he said. “Please don’t do anything adorable to make me laugh.”

“No laughing and no adorableness. Got it.” He hadn’t said a single thing about first-aid, though. “Where does it hurt?” Armed with a cube in each hand, I reached out and skated the ice along his skin, slowly trailing it over to his ribs. “Here?”

Dare sucked in a sharp breath, his tongue snaking out to lick his lips as he watched me work. “That’s right,” he said. “But, all of a sudden, it’s beginning to feel better. Go figure.”

“And how about here?” I moved toward his chest and glided the melting cubes down his stomach. Water dripped over the ridges of his abs as his muscles tensed beneath my touch. I slid my tongue up the center of his body, and licked every drop, savoring his smooth skin and kissing every cut. Then I followed the warm path with ice.

When the cubes skimmed his nipples, he groaned, his gaze darkening with desire. “God, I love it when you play doctor.”

“You think they teach this at med school?” I grazed his right nipple with my teeth and looked up at him, grinning wickedly as the ache between my thighs began to throb again.

The growing bulge in his pants inspired me to head south. I teased the sharp triangle of muscle peeking out from the waistband of his jeans, dipping lower and lower over his hot skin until he moaned and let his head fall back against the couch.

“If I could rip off your clothes right now, I would,” he said. “But, today, you’re going to have to do it for me.” He shifted the ice-filled towel to the cushion beside him. “Stand up.”

I pressed my throbbing core against his hardness before sliding backward off his legs. He let out a ravenous groan at the contact, his good hand clenched at his side.

“Unbutton your shirt.” His gaze burned through me, making me feel exposed before I even started the show.

One by one, I released each shiny button, my eyes never leaving Dare’s, until my turquoise blouse hung open.

“Take it off,” he said, and I shrugged the shirt off my shoulders. “Now your bra.”

I reached behind me and undid the clasp, my nipples hardening in anticipation of what was to come. The fabric went limp around me, but my crossed arms kept it in place.

Dare shifted in his seat. I didn’t think his eyes could get any darker, but they now flashed a deep onyx—the color of sin. “Let it fall. I want to see all of you.”

As I moved my hands to my sides, the black silk tumbled away, leaving me bare from the waist up. And so fucking turned on all I wanted to do was rip off the rest of my clothes and jump him.

Without waiting for his instructions, I dipped my hands into the waistband of my skirt, gliding it over my hips and down my legs until it was a puddle of fabric on the floor.

“Someone’s being naughty.” Dare shook his head and smirked. “And eager.”

Understatement of the millennium.

I wanted him…
yesterday
. And the day before. And every single moment of my life.

I yearned to make up for every second we’d been apart.

He licked his bottom lip and raked his gaze down my body, leaving a trail of heat over my skin. “Come here,” he said, his voice hoarse with want, his pants now straining.

I stepped in between his knees and he slid his good hand up my stomach to cup my right breast, his thumb teasing my nipple into a tight peak. “So beautiful.” He murmured the words like he was talking more to himself than to me, gently flicking the bud before moving down my side, over my ass, to my inner thigh. He ran his hand up the sensitive flesh so slowly I was moaning even before he reached between my legs and brushed his fingers over my panties.

“Soaked through. Just like I thought.” He slipped his index finger under the silky material and dipped into my heat, releasing a thunderous groan. “Fuck, Ree. You’re so ready for me.”

I nodded, and Dare pulled his hand away, replacing it with my own. “Feel how incredibly sexy you are.” He guided my fingers over my wet, velvety folds, before withdrawing them and sucking one into his mouth. Shutting his eyes, he flicked his tongue over me, moaning as he savored me on his tongue.

“Remove your panties,” he said, hooking two fingers through the thin strap that wrapped around my hips. “
Slowly
.”

I did as he asked, my eyes never leaving his even when I bent over to pick them up. I held them out to him.

“Fuck,” he groaned the word, swallowing hard and fisting the fabric in his hand as he took me in. “Get over here.” He patted his lap. “Now.”

I slid back onto his lap, straddling him again, my throbbing core completely bared to him. The tingling that had bloomed in that sweet spot had spread throughout my whole body, all the way to my fingers and toes.

Dare picked up an ice cube and traced my phoenix with it, raising goosebumps on my skin as lines of water rolled over my hip. He followed the drips down my leg with the ice, then brought it to the inside of my thigh and trailed it upward.

The sensation, combined with the anticipation of where he was headed, had me gasping and writhing as he inched it closer and closer to my center. The moment the cold touched my clit, the tingling intensified, sending jolts of electricity throughout my body. An instant later, warmth enveloped my ache when he began to massage me with his thumb.

Spreading his knees and opening me even wider, he did it again. Cold, warmth. Cold, warmth. My hips started rocking to his rhythm as I panted his name, quickly edging toward an explosion of ecstasy.

“I need to taste you. Up on your feet.” He grunted out the order, and I rose, my feet digging into the couch cushions, my pulsing clit level with his mouth. “Closer.”

I braced my hands on the wall and tipped my hips toward him so my ache was millimeters away, which brought the throbbing between my legs to an all-time high. His eyes locked on mine, he put the cube in his mouth, then wrapped his lips around my clit. I gasped at the juxtaposition of the cold ice and his hot mouth, and moaned at the contrast between the softness of his lips and the pressure of his tongue.

“So goddamn delicious, Ree.”

When his teeth grazed me, I knew I was past the point of no return. He sucked and nipped, winding me up tightly. The hot, cold, hot, cold, had me spiraling up and up until my feet left the ground and I touched stars. Or, at least, saw them blinding and bright behind my eyes.

When he slid his hand up my thigh and slipped two fingers inside me, I fisted his hair and begged for more and more—faster, harder, deeper…
please.
I was overwhelmed with Dare, my mind and body dominated by him—inside and out. As he brought my body up to the highest heights and then sent me flying over the edge, I cried out his name over and over again, love and lust lacing my words.

When the tremors had passed and the quaking of my legs had subsided, I lowered myself back down and kissed him with everything I was. Everything
he
was to me.

Then I grabbed the waistband of his jeans and unzipped them, my hands immediately hitting hot skin.

“I’ll never tire of your commando style,” I said, shifting the denim down farther to free him completely. “Who needs Calvin Klein when you’ve got Dare Wilde?”

He laughed, then immediately grimaced. “You can’t make me laugh. I already told you that.”

“Shit.” I placed a gentle hand on his bruised side. “Maybe it’s good I’m not an actual doctor.”

“I don’t know,” he said, a wicked grin stretching across his face, “your treatments are the best I’ve ever had. I’ll gladly take anything you prescribe.”

“In that case…” Dare moaned as I took him into my hands and stroked his rock-hard length.

“Oh god, Ree.” His sweet and dirty moans made my ache come alive again. “I need to be inside you,” he said, his voice sinfully low and husky. “I want to bury myself all the way and make you come apart for me again.”

God, those words.

I straddled his legs, and kissed him hungrily as I lowered myself onto him. He moaned, sucking my bottom lip into his mouth, then biting down on the tender flesh as I began to rock my hips. The feeling of him deep inside me sent my head spinning again.

Dare gripped my hip with one hand, guiding my pace, digging his fingers in as he moaned at our connection. “Christ, Ree. You’re so tight, so wet.”

Speeding up his rhythm, he pounded into me, over and over, each time sinking farther, thrusting harder, kissing wilder. I arched my back and ground my hips faster, matching his tempo. Panting, moaning, gasping.

“There’s nothing hotter than hearing those sweet sounds while I watch you ride me,” Dare said. His eyes never left mine, imprisoning me, keeping me locked under his spell. “Except maybe listening to you moan my name as you come. I want to hear you let go.” The words were equally an appeal and a demand. “Come for me—
with
me.”

The friction as I slid over him, up and down, back and forth, had me riding another wave up with him. Up and up and up, until we were both breaking apart and exploding together.

Our bodies collided; our hearts crashed into each other.

Two parts. One whole.

Dare collapsed against the back of the couch, panting hard, and I folded over him, my head against his shoulder as I tried to catch my sprinting pulse. Our hearts spoke the same language, and our bodies glistened with a light coat of post-bliss sweat.

Needing to touch as much of him as I could, I wanted nothing more than to stay cuddled up against him. However, considering I’d probably aggravated his injuries, I slid off his lap and onto the cushions next to him and settled for lacing our fingers together as I draped my legs over his.

When we’d caught our breath, I said, “So, what are we going to do about your father?”

His jaw tightened and his lips thinned, but he didn’t speak.

I turned to look at him. “Dare?”

“I have something on him.” He stared across the room, not meeting my gaze.

“What?”

“He killed a cop,” he said, still refusing to look at me. “Thirteen years ago. And he got away with it. Until now, that is.”

“Oh, my god. You mean the Douglas case?” I slipped my legs off of his and sat up. “That was
your father?
“

It had been all over the news when it happened. Danny Douglas had been an uncover cop working on a drug case for over a year, trying to bust a big drug runner. My father had just begun getting into politics at the time, so it was all he could talk about with anybody. It had been a huge blow to have the case go unsolved.