Compulsion: Magnetic Desires Read online

Colt stared at me, and I straightened to my full height. "Shove off, man. Find someone else." I chuckled as he made his exit to the other side of the bar. He could’ve at least stood his ground, not that I would have given him a chance to get in the way of what I wanted.

  Clo's elbow found my ribs. "I could have handled that myself."

  "I know you could." Catching her chin with my fingers, I tilted her face so I could remind her of why I'd made sure he got the message. "How about we get a drink?"

  Ordering tequila and beers, I pulled her between me and the bar and grazed the nape of her neck with my teeth. She shivered from my touch and leaned on the bar, subtly moving away from me. Only, the way she was leaning didn't take her further away. "Are you sure you want to lean on the bar like that?"

  "What?" She glanced at me over her shoulder.

  Sliding my fingers over one hip, I took her wrist in my other hand, darting my tongue over the pulse point. "Leaning like that puts that sexy ass of yours dangerously close to my crotch."

  "Oh."

  Still holding her wrist, I sprinkled salt over the moist spot I'd left with my tongue, and clamped her fingers around a slice of lemon. Picking up a shot glass, I tossed back the tequila before sliding my lips over her salted skin and sucked the lemon between her fingers.

  "Why?" She trembled while I went through the ritual again, this time salting the length of my thumb as well.

  Because I couldn't let you get away a second time. "Why what?"

  "Why are you doing this? You could have any girl." She darted glances around the room, but my gaze was on her. Not the girls, in barely there clothes, assets on display. That wasn't what I wanted.

  "Let’s have a drink." I handed her a shot. "We’ll talk later."

  "You don't have to take me home, Orion. I know you'd do anything for me, but this..."

  I tipped my glass, and nibbled along her wrist. "This is what I want."

  She tossed back the shot, and pressed my thumb to her lips, darting her tongue over the length of it and giving me a wicked preview of what that mouth of hers could do to my cock. Holy fucking blue balls. My gaze darted to the bathrooms. No, the alley had been dirty enough for a girl like Clo. As soon as I could, I'd take her home.

  She peered up at me through thick eyelashes as she let go of my thumb and stuck the lemon between her teeth. With fumbling fingers, I swept her bangs from her eyes and whispered my lips over hers, afraid if I did much more I'd forget that I wanted to get her home before I sunk into her. "How about we dance?"

  Tugging her onto the dance floor, I wrapped my arms around her, holding her tightly as we swayed. The music pulsated, the thump of the bass accompanying my heartbeat, and I gripped her ass to remind her she was mine tonight. We'd discuss every night after that. Her hands crept up my arms and over my shoulders before settling around my neck. So many times we'd danced together, and yet it had never been like this. Each move created points of contact that coursed over my skin, making it harder to fight the urge to hike her skirt up. How many times had I fantasized about taking her? Now that I was so close to the reality I couldn't think of anything else.

  Twirling a strand of her hair around my finger, I dipped my face to her hair and breathed in that fading vanilla scent which made my mouth water. She could have smelled of lollipops or horse manure and I still wouldn’t have cared, but I loved her smell. It had always meant home to me, and I would never get enough. I caressed her lips with my own, and she opened beneath me, letting me slip my tongue into the soft recess of her mouth. My hands trembled from the intensity of my desire. Hemmed in by the crowd, we were the only two on the dance floor. The building could fall down around us and I wouldn’t notice.

  It was all I could do not to take her right there, so I pulled her off the dance floor. "Let's find Birdie and get the fuck out of here."

  Searching the crowd for my sister and not finding her had my heart thumping a completely different beat. Sure, she was an adult, but the whole reason I'd come here tonight was to keep an eye on her. Making my way through the crowd, Clo following behind, I darted glances at every dark corner but came up empty. Shit. Spinning around, I spotted the bouncer she'd been talking to earlier in the night and stalked over to him. "Hey, Oliver, have you seen Birdie?"

  Oliver stared out over the dancers; his meaty arms crossed over his barrel chest. He spoke into the radio on his shoulder before turning to me. "She left."

  "What do you mean she left?" Why hadn’t she told me she was going? "Was she okay?"

  "Yes, I think so." He gave me a two-finger salute as he dived into the crowd to deal with a scuffle that had broken out.

  I checked my phone. Of course, there was a text from Birdie. ‘Not feeling well. Going home.’

  "Thank fuck." I shoved my hand through my hair, and let out a breath.

  "She's okay?" Clo twined her fingers with mine and leaned into my side.

  "Yeah. How about we get out of here?" When she nodded, I pulled her outside, leaving the crowd behind.

  Side by side in the backseat of the cab, Clo murmured against my arm, "Are we really going to do this?"

  Twisting toward her, I slid my hands around her waist and lifted her onto my lap. "We're going to do this, and then we're going to do it again and again as many times as it takes to have you satisfied."

  Tendrils of her hair brushed against my face while she dipped her mouth to mine. "That sounds like a lot of sex for one night."

  I let the kiss linger, a murmur of lips against lips. "Don't think you've got the stamina to keep up?"

  "It's not that." Her hand settled between us, palming my cock through my jeans. "This is just a fuck, Orion. Don't think you have to treat me special because I'm your friend. Tomorrow we can go back to being friends."

  When she rocked on my lap, I should have been completely lost to her, but her words settled in my gut, leaving me uncertain. "You never wonder?"

  "Wonder what?" She gazed at me, her body still.

  I could almost feel the boundaries breaking as I pushed against them, as if it were a tangible thing. One step in the wrong direction and I'd fall and never stop falling. Not if telling her I wanted more than one night, or one lifetime with her would mean she pushed me away. Damn fucking friend zone. The idea of not having her as a friend was almost enough to keep me from trying for more.

  Chapter Nineteen

  "I almost blew it. Thinking back, it’s funny how scared I was to let her know how much I wanted her. I knew I had to tell her I loved her. She was fragile, and I had already kept one secret from her. I wanted to turn that night into every night of my fucking life." He grins as he glances at his watch. "It wasn’t what she wanted to hear. I knew that, but if she’d found out later I’m sure it would have been harder on both of us."

  April 2011

  The cab driver pulled up out front of my house, and I handed him my credit card. While he sorted the bill, I turned to her. I didn’t want to say what I needed to. I didn’t want to give her a choice, but the truth was, this night would break our friendship. We would either be lovers or I would lose her, and I wasn’t willing to spend the rest of my life without her in it. "Should I get him to drop you at your house?"

  "What?" She gazed at me, her eyebrows drawn together.

  I got out of the cab and turned to her as she scooted over in the seat. Blocking the door, I tried a different tactic. "You can go home if you want to, you don’t need to come in."

  "What the hell, Orion?" she said. "If you were going to send me home, then why the hell did you lead me on all night?"

  "It’s not that." I let her out of the cab, realizing I might be doing what she accused me of. With no other option but to explain my reasons, I kept distance between us as we made our way up the driveway. This was the moment I'd waited almost a decade for, and my heart skipped frantically. What I wouldn't give for a crystal ball right now, just to know what her reaction would be. Not that it mattered if she told me she didn't want to be with me. Oh hell, yes it did, but I
would deal with it. For her, I would deal with anything.

  "So what is it?" she asked, moving closer.

  My confession would be brutal and honest, and my stomach roiled at knowing this could be the last time things would be easy between us for a long while. Get it together. You don’t have a choice. "I’ve waited... a long time for you, but I don’t want to push you."

  "You’ve waited?" She pursed her lips.

  Did she not know what I was trying to say? "Fuck, Clo... "I kicked at the brickwork. If I was going to confess my love for her, my need, then I was damn well going to make sure she understood. Grasping her chin with my fingers, I held her focus. "I’ve been there for you for seven years. Don’t tell me you’ve never noticed how I feel for you?"

  "Seven years?" She squinted and I wondered if she was about to burst into tears.

  "From the first time I saw you," I said, making sure she understood every word of my confession.

  "You... have feelings for me? You could have anyone."

  "None of them are you." It was a simple answer. Straightforward, and unshakable in its logic, the only answer I had.

  "I’m not right for you, Orion. I’m too broken." Her shoulders slumped as the cab drove away.

  "You’re not broken, babe. Just a little messed up."

  "What if I can’t offer you what you want? What if I can only offer tonight?" she whispered shakily, her voice underlining her inner turmoil.

  Tonight would never be enough, but with those words she offered me hope. Even though she didn't realize it the fact she stood here still offering me the night told me she wanted more.

  "Then I’ll take tonight." Sliding a hand under her shirt to pull her flush against me, I reached behind her and unlocked the door. Her skin was smooth satin under my fingertips. Not willing to give her another chance to change her mind, I owned her mouth, tangling our tongues together and tasting the salty tang of the tequila we'd shared earlier. A soft gasp whispered between us, then her hands were tangled in my hair, her body pressing into mine. Turning the door handle, I sent us crashing into the house, only our tight embrace and the wall keeping us from stumbling to the floor. The way she clung to me made me smile. She might say she didn't trust men; that she couldn't trust her heart to anyone, but it wasn't true. Not when she was with me.

  Settling both hands on the small of her back, the dip of her spine under my fingers, I continued my exploration of her mouth. Despite her tentative, fluttering movements, I could sense the wildness in her, the desperation I would pull from her.

  Waltzing my lips along her jaw, I left a trail down her throat to her collarbone. When I sucked the fragile skin into my mouth, clamping my teeth around it, she shuddered and let out a low moan. The bitterness of her perfume danced on my tongue, but it was the dark flushing of her skin that had me grinning. It was the first of many times I would mark her as mine, even if it were the only one she would physically see. For days to come, when she looked in the mirror and saw my mark on her skin she'd be pulled back to this night and her body would ache for me.

  Desperate hands tugged at my shirt, and I whipped it over my head, discarding it while she struggled with my belt. Catching her hands in one of mine, I undid the buckle and pulled it free, undoing the snaps on my jeans. "In a hurry, babe?"

  "Did you forget, I've seen your package? What girl wouldn't be in a hurry to find out if it's as good as it looks."

  "You've seen my..." I raised an eyebrow as I searched my mind for that particular memory. "...package?"

  She nodded, her lip slightly curved. "I always wondered..."

  "What did you wonder?" I gripped her chin and skirted my lips over hers.

  "Even flaccid, it looked...too big. How do you fuck a girl with a weapon like that?"

  I chuckled. "It's not a weapon. I promise we won't have any issues when I slide inside you."

  Walking my fingers down her chest, I plucked at the buttons on her shirt, revealing her bare skin inch by inch to my gaze until her shirt joined mine on the floor. The sound of her heavy breathing blocked out everything else when I shoved her skirt off her hips.

  My gaze lingered over her as I locked away every detail. Thin scraps of blue lace barely hid her from my eyes, and my fingers itched to rip it away, needing to explore the intimate details of the gift she was giving me.

  Folding her arms over her chest, she hid from me. "Could we turn off the light?"

  "No fucking way," I growled, a low sound in the back of my throat. "I want to see you, all of you." Couldn't she see the way she affected me?

  Her hair hung like a curtain, hiding her face when she bowed her head. "Please."

  Pulling her into me, I undid the hooks on her bra and brushed the straps from her shoulders. "You’re fucking sexy, Clo. I want to see what I’ve been waiting for all these years."

  "Orion." A cute little pout graced her lips, though she would not meet my gaze. Zack had left more marks on her than I’d realized.

  Capturing her face in my hands, I drew her head up until she had no choice but to look into my eyes. "You are beautiful. The most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

  Her eyes widened before she closed them, blocking me out. Words could not fix what years of loving that bastard had done to her. Starting tonight and for the rest of my life, and longer if that’s what it took, I would find a way to make her see herself the way I did.

  Letting my hands linger on her hips, I took a step back. She trembled under my touch, a slight buckling of her knees as her weight rested in my hands. She wanted to disappear, but I wouldn’t let her sink to the floor. When she finally opened her eyes, I grazed a knuckle along her clavicle, exploring each dip at the base of her throat. "Do you know that when you're nervous the dips here," I leaned into kiss them, "and here deepen because you hold your chin higher?"

  Her fingers curled in my hair, her body trembling and goose bumps forming under my touch. "What are you talking about?"

  I skimmed one finger between her breasts to the top of her belly button. "And when you think people are looking at you, you pull your stomach in because you're self-conscious."

  "Orion?"

  "I know these things because I've seen you do them for years, but not once have I ever looked at you and thought you were anything less than perfect, Clo. You've always been beautiful the way you are."

  She cringed and ducked her head as I had expected. "I'm not anything special."

  "You are." I took her hand in mine, tangling our fingers together.

  "Can we drop it? I don't want to turn this into something it isn't. Let's just go to bed."

  Guiding her into my room, I flicked on the light and captured her face in my hands. Her gaze darted to the bed. How many times had I imagined her there, in my sheets, naked and under me? Too many times, and yet now I had her, it could wait. "You want tonight to be all about the sex, right? As if we were nothing more than two people enjoying each other's bodies?"

  When she nodded, I sunk to my knees in front of her, my gaze still fixed on her face.

  Sinking to my knees in front of her, I kept my gaze fixed on her face. Her breath shuddered in and out, and I squeezed her hands before releasing them to hook a finger through the lace strings that held the tiny piece of fabric between her thighs. Would I rip apart as easily as these panties if she turned her back on me after tonight? "How much do you like these panties, Clo?"

  She whimpered as my finger dipped into her slit, her arousal coating her underwear. "A little."

  "So you wouldn't be devastated if I did this?" Grabbing the thin cotton at the side, I ripped it away, my gut trembling at how easily she could ruin and discard me.

  "What the hell, Orion?" she squealed, her pupils growing as big as saucers.

  Repeating the move on the other side, I discarded the ruined panties as though this girl in front of me was nothing more than a one night stand. Schooling my features into a grin, I shrugged a shoulder. "I owe you a pair."

  "Why didn't you just take them off like a
normal person?" Her fingers wound through my hair as I leaned in and darted my tongue over her slit.

  Sitting back on my heels, I took in her nakedness. Reveled in it, while I memorized every part of her not already committed to memory. "You really had no idea? Do you know how many times I've imagined this? Do you have any idea how many times I've seen you in a skirt and wanted to bury my face between your thighs? You're so fucking perfect."

  Our gazes locked, I touched her. Two fingertips to the top of her pelvis, her breath hitched as I ran them down to the crease at the top of her thighs. Her arousal coated her, soaking my fingers as I eased between them, to rub over her clit, already swollen with anticipation. "Do you know how hard it makes me to know you want me? To know I can taste you the way I want to?"

  "Orion." The plea fell from her lips, her fingernails digging into my scalp as I stroked her sensitive flesh. Liquid in my palm, her hips jerked, making my balls ache with the need to bury myself inside her. Slipping a finger inside her, I continued to rub circles over her nub. Her knees dipped, pushing me further in to her pussy, and I darted my tongue over her clit.

  "You don't...oh damn, Orion." She tugged at my shoulders, and I pulled away. Her face flushed, she stared down at me. "I know you said you wanted to do this...but you don't have to."

  "I want to." I spread her legs.

  "But..."

  Zack had been a selfish prick, and I had the distinct impression sex was another area where she had never truly been looked after. I was going to change that. We wouldn't leave this room until I'd shown her what she’d been missing. Standing up, I pulled her close. "You've never... have you?"

  "No," she whispered, shaking her head. "No."

  "Trust me to take care of you?"

  She nodded.

  "Good. Now, I'm going to wrap my lips around your pussy and taste how much you want me, how ready you are to have me sink into you. Okay?"

  "Okay." Her breathy little whimper egged me on, and I slid my tongue against hers as I pressed her back toward the bed, stopping only when her knees buckled against the edge and she collapsed onto the sheets.