If You Dare (Entangled Flaunt) Read online

  Every brush of his lips felt more erotic in the blackness. She was a prisoner to each new and unexpected sensation crashing over her body like the tide. The heat of his mouth, the cold, prickling sensation when he left her skin exposed to the air, the surprise of his hand snaking under her hoodie and shirt.

  Lily gasped when his fingers closed around one breast over her bra. His other hand grasped a handful of her butt and he hauled her closer, still kissing and suckling the side of her neck with his talented mouth.

  His jaw raked against her neck, and he dragged his lips to her ear. When he spoke, the feel of his hot mouth against her tender ear caused her to shudder. “You have the sweetest ass I’ve ever seen.” He squeezed again. “And it feels even better than it looks.”

  The wet heat of his tongue in her ear obliterated her senses and froze the response in her throat. His hands continued their intentional exploring, the hand beneath her shirt leaving to join the palm beneath the material of her jogging pants. He molded his big hands over the silk of her panties. And squeezed again.

  She started to let out a soft moan but his lips found hers, and he swallowed the sound. He smiled against her lips. “Do you know how long I’ve wanted you, Lil?”

  He…wanted her? Her heart raced for a new reason. She’d thought, since she’d shot down his advances when she’d started working at Cameron Design, that Marcus had relegated her to the role of his nemesis. Or maybe she’d relegated him to the role of hers.

  “You want me?” she breathed, surprise infusing her voice.

  He squeezed her ass again, pulling her hard against his erection. His zipper pressed painfully between her legs, and Marcus sucked a breath through his teeth. “Are you kidding?” he asked on a near growl. “You think this setup works for me? That I’d choose here, of all places, to seduce you?”

  The word “seduce” intrigued her more than it should. Being seduced by this man, a man capable of epic seduction was… Well, it was awesome was what it was.

  “Have you thought about seducing me, Marcus?” she asked before nipping his chin. The growth on his face pricked her tongue.

  One of his hands left the globe of her bottom and slid between her legs. Even through her panties, his warm fingers made her shudder. “Only every night after work,” he said, licking the underside of her top lip and pulling it into his mouth. His fingers moved again, and she squirmed against him. “Some nights it kills me so much, I have to take matters into my own hands.” He pulled her bottom lip between his teeth, and she felt her bones melt.

  “You—you think of me…like that?” she managed. Unable to imagine an alternate universe where this might be true.

  “God, yes.” He slid his fingers between her legs again, and Lily rubbed against him like a cat in heat. She wanted him. But she always had, hadn’t she? In the bright light of day, she could pretend there was nothing more to her than the driven, prickly, no-nonsense woman she showed to the world. She could pretend she didn’t want him, didn’t need him. Act as if a man of Marcus’s caliber was of no use to her, didn’t fit in her perfectly controlled life plan.

  In truth, she admired nearly everything about him. The strong line of his back, broad shoulders, his ability to take on a project with zero fear. But she’d thought—incorrectly, it would seem—that she wasn’t his type. She’d thought she wasn’t blond enough, wasn’t vapid enough. And she wasn’t willing to sleep with him on the first date. Except…this kind of qualified as a date. And she was kind of willing to sleep with him right now.

  Five minutes ago, technically.

  “I know you think I’m not your type.” He brushed his nose over hers, echoing her thoughts. “Care to take me for a test drive and see if you’re right?”

  “Here?” she asked. But for some reason, the whole haunted mansion thing had faded into the background. She was a slave to her body’s reactions; to the heat of Marcus’s hands; to the sound of his confident, deep voice. To him. All of him.

  She couldn’t see his dark eyes, but she imagined their taunting glint, the wicked twist in the smile she felt grazing her cheek.

  “What if—what if I say no?” She wouldn’t. She was halfway to yes now, her body humming from the fingers teasing her over the thin layer of her panties.

  “You won’t,” he said, his firm lips peppering her jaw with kisses.

  She hated that cocksure side of him. Only she didn’t. Maybe she’d been mistaken, thinking his confidence was something to be shunned. It seemed all her girlie parts were cheering on this alpha male. Marcus kissed her deeper, his tongue swirling her senses, and she fisted his shirt and began hauling it over his head.

  “And if this doesn’t work out?” she asked as she continued pulling at his shirt. He shifted beneath her and pulled his hands from her pants. She missed his touch on her body instantly.

  “We never speak of it again,” he answered, tossing his shirt aside and dragging her hoodie and shirt over her head in a tangled ball. He tossed her clothes aside. Her bra went next. He had it unhooked and off her arms and, before she knew it, she was nude from the waist up.

  There was a brief, snide voice in her head pointing out how much practice he must’ve had at removing women’s clothes, but it was quickly shut out by another thought. Practice makes perfect. Lily suspected he had a great number of tricks up his sleeve when it came to the female form.

  Not that she had any time to dwell on her misplaced jealousy. A second later, he braced her body against his and laid her flat on her back. He reached for a pillow and shoved it under her head, taking care to lift the bulk of her long hair out of the way.

  “Comfortable?” he asked.

  “Very,” she breathed.

  He moved again, startling her when his hot mouth licked a trail down her neck and between her breasts. She fed her fingers into his hair, letting out a startled gasp, followed by a thoroughly embarrassing moan when his wet tongue circled around one pebbled nipple. He pulled his mouth away with a soft pop and moved to her other breast, tracing that nipple with his tongue as well.

  She continued massaging his scalp while he worked his magic. Her entire body tingled as her head swam. Had anyone ever turned her on this much with his mouth? Had anyone ever tried? “Marcus, God.”

  He smiled against her breast. She felt it. Felt his teeth and lips, the cool air abrade her skin as he inhaled. He slid his mouth away from her and climbed her body, the air mattress shifting as he moved. When he reached her lips, he kissed her and pressed his hips into hers. Lily squirmed against his erection, feeling wet and warm, and so close to begging for it, she should be ashamed of herself. But she wasn’t. She wanted him… Oh, how she wanted him.

  “What do you say, McIntire?” His voice was an intoxicating rasp in the dark room, an anchor in a sea of black.

  What would she say? She’d say anything. She’d say everything. She’d been taken hostage by the man’s inescapable charm.

  “What’s the question?” she teased, knowing full well his intentions. He ground into her again, and she clawed at his arms, wanting him closer. Needing him closer.

  He nipped her bottom lip and soothed it with one slow, hot lick. Then he murmured, “Make love to me?”

  …

  Dude.

  Marcus wanted to Hoover up the words that had just left his lips without permission. He’d meant to say something much more crass. Something teasing and kind of dirty. Not four vulnerable words showing Lily just how much she meant to him. The last thing he needed was for her to see him as some feeble-minded man with a knee-weakening crush on her.

  And he was both of those things.

  She laughed at his question. The sound tore at his chest. He didn’t think he was about to be turned down, but maybe he’d misread her. Plus, he liked her way more than was healthy. Way more than four out of five doctors would recommend.

  But there was no way he’d miss the opportunity to take her to heaven and back right here on this air mattress. He’d dreamed of having her, had jacked o
ff in his king-size bed on more than one occasion, his fist wrapped around his shaft, her name flying from his mouth when he came. He wanted nothing more than to make his fantasies about Lily into a living memory.

  Please say yes.

  At least he didn’t say that out loud.

  Pull it together, Black.

  He lowered his head and began teasing her breasts again. She liked this, and he liked the way she played her fingers along his head, the way an answering buzz shot down his spine and made his cock pulse. He drove his hips against her, desperate to feel the warmth between her legs without her pants in the way. But she hadn’t said yes yet, and he wanted to hear her say yes.

  Actually, he wanted to hear her say, Yes, Marcus, repeatedly and in between heated breaths. Hey, a guy could dream.

  He licked her with the flat of his tongue and pulled the tight bud into his mouth. God, he wished he could see what color her nipples were. He’d bet they were burnished peach, maybe a couple of freckles around them like the cute ones dotting her nose. His ministrations elicited a high, keening sound from her throat and he knew if he didn’t have her soon, he might explode in his pants.

  Now that would be embarrassing.

  “Will you respect me in the morning?” she breathed, her hands pulling his hair in every direction. He liked it. She laughed again, a throaty, sexy sound. He liked that even more.

  “You’re going to tease me at a time like this?” He pulled his mouth from her nipple and rubbed his chin against it, testing to see if the roughness against her tender flesh turned her on or off. She tightened her hold on his head.

  On. Definitely on.

  He sensed more than saw—since the room was still dark—Lily lift her head from the mattress. “The bet still stands,” she told him, her vocal chords strained from holding her head at the awkward angle. “No matter what we do for the next hour.”

  “An hour? You have a lot of faith in me, Lil.” He didn’t know if he’d last five minutes. And what I’ve got planned will take a day, at the least…

  She ignored him. “This…this exists outside of everything else.”

  Outside of work. Outside of the world they inhabited when they weren’t pawing at each other in a pitch black, purportedly haunted mansion. Despite his efforts not to take the request personally, his heart pinched. He knew Lily didn’t take him seriously, didn’t see any actual dating potential in him. But damn. It hurt to hear her affirm it.

  But. That wasn’t about to stop him from fulfilling a two-year-plus wet dream.

  “Of course.” He’d replay the memories of it. Entertain himself in the shower with it, but he’d never speak of it.

  “Joanie and Clive can’t know.”

  “I’d never tell Clive,” he said, suddenly offended. What kind of meathead did she take him for? He knew better than to ask that question.

  Marcus wasn’t a kiss-and-tell kind of guy. And with Lily… Well, the truth was she meant too much to him. He’d never brag about this to anyone. Maybe to himself…but even that would be hard to believe.

  She palmed his face and tugged, and he obeyed her silent command by sliding up her body to meet her nose to nose. He braced his arms next to her head, moving her hair aside to keep from pulling it. She tried to kiss him, but her lips hit the side of his nose. She muttered a small “oops” before saying the word he’d just prayed to hear.

  “Yes,” she whispered, followed with a soft, sweet kiss on his mouth and four more words that threatened to cave his chest in on the spot. “Make love to me.”

  Chapter 9

  Lily could feel Marcus’s heart hammering against her chest. Or maybe that was her heart. She’d just given him carte blanche to have his wicked way with her, but he was frozen in place, his breathing tight, his body still.

  “Marcus?”

  His hands found her face in the dark. He brushed her cheeks with the pads of his fingers with so much tenderness, it startled her. His lips hovered over hers, his breath warm against her mouth. “Say that again, McIntire.” His words were gravel-laden and hard, his touch soft.

  She smiled. Why, suddenly, was everything about him making her so…happy? The hot, she understood. The hot was a given. But the happy? Definitely a surprise. She arched her back and wrapped her arms around his neck, brushing her nipples against the course hair on his chest.

  “Make love to me, Marcus,” she whispered. “Please.”

  The urge to giggle was strong, and she squashed it. Not because this was funny. Not because this was kidding, but because of that inexplicable happiness, now coating her body alongside all of this lust.

  And maybe because their banter hadn’t ended at the foot of the air mattress. They’d always teased. They’d always prodded. She liked this holding pattern. There was something familiar about it, and she’d hold on tight if it meant easing into the unfamiliar position they’d found themselves in.

  “Oh, I like when you beg,” he teased back.

  She felt his smile against her lips. Maybe he was holding tight, too. He pulled away from her, and her arms landed with a soft whump on the blankets. He tugged at her remaining clothing, dragging off her pants and panties, socks and shoes, and dropping them somewhere in the dark.

  She heard his zipper next, and her heart thudded out the excitement flitting through her veins. This was really happening. She was going to feel all that hard male muscle up close and oh-so-personal. She heard the rasp of denim and felt the shift of weight as he removed his jeans and dropped his boots with one thud followed by another. The crinkle of a foil packet told her he’d been carrying a condom, and for that bit of Boy Scout preparedness, she would be eternally grateful.

  “Pleasured by an ax-wielding madman,” she said with an exaggerated sigh.

  A deep chuckle penetrated the silence and sent a flutter of feather-light tingles up her naked body. His knees were between her legs as he worked the condom over his length. She hadn’t seen him, but she’d felt him.

  And yeah.

  Length.

  A smile she couldn’t prevent spread across her face as his hands landed on either side of her hips. She wanted to feel him inside her, the size of him stretching her, the delicious weight of his body when he came down over her.

  Moonlight sliced through the boards in the window, highlighting one of his thick, hair-covered thighs. He leaned forward and the beam caressed his rippling torso, then his forearm where her hand rested. She caught a glimpse of his face next, and he gave her a genuine, sexy smile before lowering his lashes to take her in. Where she lay, the light crisscrossed her body, a slash across one thigh and the opposite calf. He moved his arm and the moonlight lit the red-blond hair between her legs.

  Starting at her ankle, Marcus caressed his fingers up the back of her calf to the inside of her thigh. Her legs fell open, the pulse between them a steady beat, as gooseflesh rose on her skin in response to the opposing warmth of his fingers and the chill of the room.

  His eyes on the triangle of curls between her legs, he murmured. “Au naturale,” not sounding the least bit disappointed.

  She covered herself with one hand. “I didn’t exactly plan on…uh…company.”

  “You misread my tone,” he said in a near growl. With a gentle touch, he moved her hand aside and fed his fingers through the fine hair between her legs. “I like you this way.” He stroked his finger along her wetness and delved inside, slowly, deeply.

  She shuddered.

  “Lil,” he said, his voice holding a reverence she’d never heard before. He slid into her again. “So wet,” he whispered as she gasped.

  “Mmm,” was all she could manage while his talented fingers worked their magic at the V of her thighs. He added his thumb, stroking her while she made a series of nonsensical sounds. Then he pulled his hand away, and she let out a soft little whine.

  “Your nipples are perfect.”

  She laughed. Out of embarrassment for her carnal reaction or because his compliment sounded so heartfelt, she wasn’t sure
which. Again she latched onto the banter that might help her find her footing. “I’m sure you know what you’re talking about, having seeing a few hundred pairs.”

  He neither confirmed nor denied, only spoke with quiet authority. “Trust me, Lil, they don’t all look like yours.” Lowering his head, he took one on his tongue in the faint light slanting over her chest. He must have known she watched, because he spared her a glance. “Delicious.”

  He licked his bottom lip, then drew the flat of his tongue slowly over her again. She shifted beneath him, unable to stop watching his slow assault, unable to keep from pressing her hips against the part of him she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about.

  “I want to see yours,” she insisted, her voice weak. So weak.

  “No,” he said, not moving away from her breasts.

  Her hands in his hair, she wasn’t sure whether to guide him or pull him away. She was dying a little, in a very good way. “Why?” she breathed. Unable to keep from teasing him, she added, “Is it tiny?”

  He made a choking sound and lifted his head. She could see the dampness on his lips, watched him narrow his eyes and peer at her through all those dark lashes. “You tell me,” he answered, his smile turning predatory as he nudged her entrance with his erection.

  She gasped at the contact. Definitely not tiny. But she’d known that, had intended for him to answer her challenge. “Then let me see it,” she said with all the conviction she could muster. Which wasn’t much.

  He moved until his face was over hers. Against her lips, he muttered in a low, almost threatening tone, “I’d rather you feel it.” Then pushed into her another inch.

  The sound that came from her lips wasn’t a gasp, wasn’t feminine at all, actually. It was downright guttural. More like a guh followed by an expelled breath. Nice work. Because grunting was oh-so-sexy. This was one argument Marcus was winning. Clearly. He knew it, too, sliding deeper into her and pulling a long, low sound of satisfaction from her throat.