Little One Read online

  I don’t think V is scared of anything.

  It takes all my courage for me to put my hand to his chest. I feel the undulation of his muscles. Every inch of him is rock hard. He probably looks like a movie star or a model under that shirt.

  “Gray.” There’s a warning in his voice but I ignore it.

  I twist so I’m facing him. He’s still stiff, trying to ignore me. My heart beats too hard but I’m committed now. I’ve got to at least try. I lean in and let my breath brush over his neck. I lean in to press a butterfly light kiss to his neck.

  “What the fuck?” He jerks away and jumps up from the sofa.

  I slap my hands over my face. Heat scalds my cheeks. How stupid can I get? Of course he didn’t want me to kiss him. Why would he? I’m just a girl. I don’t even count myself as a woman. Not yet. I haven’t had any experience and my body isn’t even quite fully grown yet.

  “I-I’m sorry,” I manage to squeak out, hands still covering my face. “I’m sorry.”

  The sofa creaks and I feel him come to sit beside me. He tries to pry my hands away from my face but I can’t look him in the eyes.

  “Little One…”

  “I’m sorry, I’m so stupid. I know…” A sob escapes me and tears well in my eyes. God, now I’m making it even worse by crying. “I know you don’t want me. I know I’m stupid to think you would.”

  He eases my hands from my face and I stare at the sofa. “Gray,” he says softly, “look at me.”

  I slowly lift my gaze to his. I wish he wasn’t so beautiful. I don’t even know if it’s possible for a man to be beautiful but he is. From his dark hair to his slightly crooked nose to his now stubbled jawline. I just want him even more.

  He uses a thumb to swipe away a tear and lets his hand linger on my cheek. I can’t help but lean into the comforting warmth of it.

  “You’re not stupid. You’re the smartest woman I know.”

  Woman. Does that mean he sees me as one? I shake my head, though. “I’m not. If I was, I wouldn’t be…be…” I can’t say the words.

  “Be what?”

  Our gazes lock and several heartbeats pass. He urges me on with his gaze and with his thumb rubbing on my cheek. I can’t lie to him, no matter how much I want to.

  “I wouldn’t be lusting after you.”

  He lets out a long, heavy sigh. He must hate me. Some annoying girl who he must look after has just admitted she has a childish crush on him. The problem is, it doesn’t feel childish at all. If it was childish, I wouldn’t feel like I want him to touch every part of me. I wouldn’t dream of being filled by him, by him spilling deep inside me.

  “Little One…”

  His voice is deep with regret so I hold up a hand. “I know I’m silly. You don’t need to tell me and you don’t need to say anything. Why would a man like you want someone like me?”

  “Gray,” he snaps. His eyes are hard, his brow furrowed. “A man like me would want you because you’re beautiful. Because you’re sweet and smart. Because you’re so fucking far removed from my world. You’re everything good in this world, don’t you see that, Little One? A man like me would be lucky to have a second of your time, let alone to kiss you or…”

  “Or?”

  “Or fuck you,” he finished, the words weighted.

  The air vanishes from my lungs. The coarse words ring through my mind over and over. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  “Does that mean…?”

  “It means I can’t think of anything else but fucking you. It means all I’ve thought about since we arrived is ripping off your clothes and taking you hard and fast, even though your tight little pussy could never take the fucking I want to give you.”

  I can hardly summon a response. Too many images flood my mind. Of him driving into me, claiming me. Of his hard cock between my legs, his body on top of me. That desperate ache throbs between my thighs.

  “I’m meant to be keeping you safe, do you understand?”

  I nod.

  “That means protecting you from me as well.”

  “But—”

  “I can’t take you. You’re too young, too innocent.” He shakes his head. “Too good for me.”

  “No,” I protest. “No, that’s not true.”

  “You need to keep your distance from me.” His hand stays on my cheek, though, betraying his words.

  I put a hand to his chest and feel the heavy beat there. I lift my chin and meet his gaze head on. “I want you, V.”

  He shakes his head vigorously. “No. You can’t. Don’t say those words. You don’t understand how dangerous they are. How much danger you’re putting yourself in.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “You have to.”

  I take his face in my hands. “No. I don’t. I’ve wanted you for ages. V, I wanted you before I even understood what that meant.”

  He tries to turn his face from me but I won’t let him. Not now that he’s admitted he wants me too. Some misguided notion of chivalry is driving him and I want him to forget it.

  “I won’t take you,” he says determinedly, his jaw tense.

  “Will you kiss me then?”

  He lets out a low curse. Taking my face in both hands, he presses me back against the couch and looms over me. His gaze searches mine and he utters another curse before bringing his lips down on mine.

  Nothing could have prepared me for that feeling, not even my dreams. It beats everything I could have imagined. His lips are warm and hard. Forceful. He kisses me as though he’s a drowning man and I’m his oxygen. With so much desperation and desire. His tongue meets mine and I gasp.

  V’s body is hard pressing into me. My pussy aches so badly that I rub up into him and feel his erection there, proof that he really does need me as much as I need him. His fingers thread through my hair and direct the kiss, urging me to tilt my head so he can kiss me deeper.

  When he breaks away, I’m breathless and achy. I want more. I need more.

  But regret is back in his gaze.

  “I shouldn’t—”

  I put a finger to his lips. “Yes, you should.”

  “I won’t take you,” he reminds me.

  “Then just kiss me. And touch me. What can be the harm in that?”

  He releases a groan and comes back down to kiss me. I surrender to his kisses. I might not get all I need from him but I know I’ve erased any doubts I had about him kissing me, and that’s enough for the moment.

  For now, at least.

  He peppers kisses down my neck. I arch into him, craving his touch. He rocks his hips into me and sparks the need in my pussy again. One hand cups my breast forcefully. I moan.

  V shifts back enough to bring his mouth to the dip between my breasts. He moves his mouth over the fabric of my cami top and bites at my nipple through the cotton, wetting it. The sharp shock of his mouth over my breast makes me jolt.

  He draws away and eyes me, his lids heavy. “Has anyone ever kissed your breasts?”

  I shake my head.

  “Touched them?”

  “No. Not really.”

  “Not really?”

  “One of the boys at school grabbed them in ninth grade.”

  He grunts. “Asshole.” He toys with one of the straps of my top. “I hate the thought of anyone else touching you.”

  “I don’t want anyone else to touch me. Only you.”

  “Fuck, you don’t know what you do to me, Little One.” He finds my nipple through my top.

  I go to pull my strap down. I’m dying to bare myself to him. I need his hands on my skin and his mouth on my body. He lifts a hand and stops me.

  “Don’t.”

  “But—”

  “If you show me your body, I won’t be able to control myself. Hell, I’m barely maintaining it now.”

  I drop my hand. He looks so tortured I can’t bring myself to make it worse. I wish I’d known sooner how he felt, however. God knows what I would have done about it but I wish I’d known I wasn’t alone in feeling t
his.

  “I ache so bad,” I admit. “I can’t help myself.”

  A harsh breath of air escapes him. His fingers inch up my thigh and he eases his hips back so he can slip his hand between us. I tremble as those warm, coarse fingertips trail up the inside of my shorts.

  V finds the lace edging of my panties and runs a finger along it. He meets my gaze.

  “Don’t look away,” he orders. “Don’t look away as I touch you.”

  One finger brushes the cotton of my panties, directly over my clit and down. I moan at the touch.

  “You’re so wet. Christ, I can feel it through your panties.”

  I nod and bite down on my bottom lip.

  “Don’t look away.”

  I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I stare at him as his finger explores the shape of me through my panties. It takes every ounce of willpower to stay in place and not wriggle against his hand.

  “Your pussy is going to be so fucking small and tight.” I see his jaw work. “Fuck, I can just imagine pressing my cock into you.”

  The image makes me moan. My eyes flutter close of their own accord so I can focus on the image behind my eyelids.

  “Eyes open,” he snaps and gives my clit a little tweak.

  I wrench my eyes open.

  “When I said you have to do everything I tell you, I meant it. Everything. And you agreed, remember?”

  “I did.” My voice comes out husky.

  “You were thinking filthy thoughts when I said it, weren’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  He shakes his head. “Whoever would have thought an innocent virgin could be so damned filthy?”

  I have to wonder what he would think if he knew I’d masturbated over him last night. That I’d done it many times before.

  V’s finger begins swirling my clit, working it into a tight bud. I rock into the touch as the pleasure builds. I want his fingers on my skin so badly that this is close to torture. All I can think is if he can do this with my panties on, what could he do with them off?

  But if this is all I’m going to get, I’ll take it.

  He uses his other hand to tweak my nipple and pulls it into a hard bud. That one finger circles my clit, pressing even harder and faster. Cries escape me and I fight to keep my eyes open. He watches me intently, as though he’s never seen anything like it before.

  V shifts his hand so that the ball of his palm is pressing against me. I grind up against it.

  “Come for me, Little One. You know you can.”

  It’s all I need. Those words have me splintering apart. I grip his arm and the climax flows through me. I relax and release his arm but as blissed out as I feel, it’s not enough. I need more. I need all of him.

  “Good girl,” he murmurs, leaning in to brush a kiss across my forehead.

  He backs away and eases down my bunched up shorts. “I’m going to go take a shower.”

  I sit up, my haze vanishing. “But what about…?” I glance at the erection jutting against his jeans.

  He smirks. “A cold shower will take care of that.”

  “But—”

  He flicks a thumb over my bottom lip. “As much as I’d pretty much kill to have your hands or mouth on me, I’m not doing it. I’m here to protect you, not take advantage.”

  “You wouldn’t be taking advantage of me.”

  “Yes, I would.” He drops a kiss on my lips and stands. “I lost control and I shouldn’t have. I’ll probably go to hell for what I just did but it was worth it, I won’t deny that. You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen when you come.”

  All arguments vanish. I want to take care of him too but how can I persuade him? V’s the most stubborn man I know. All I can hope is that if we stay here long enough he’ll change his mind.

  “Don’t move,” he tells me. “Let me think of you all blissed out and satisfied while I shower.”

  “I could come shower with you,” I say hopefully, even knowing there’s no chance.

  “Nice try, Little One.” He pushes a hand through his hair. “I’m not touching you again. I mean it.”

  Chapter Five

  Valentine

  Stroking myself off in the shower didn’t help. Neither did coming so hard the past few nights I thought I’d pass out. Three sleepless nights remembering the feel of Gray’s hot pussy contracting under my fingers certainly hasn’t fixed anything. Nothing can erase what I did and nothing can stop me from wanting her more than ever.

  I just made things much, much worse.

  She doesn’t help of course. She’s singing in the kitchen. Fucking singing. Some pop song that I don’t know but her voice is so sweet it’s like a knife to the gut. You don’t fucking deserve her. You shouldn’t have touched her. It’s a reminder of how close I came to taking away everything good and innocent in her.

  Dressed in jeans shorts and a fitted tee, her feet are bare again. I have a flash of something—an image that I have no right to even consider. What was the saying? Barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen? Fuck, I would kill for that. Gray, round with my child.

  Of course, if I knocked her up, her brother would kill me.

  “What are you doing?” I ask, rubbing my hair with a towel.

  She smiles. It’s the sort of smile that makes even a cold-hearted bastard like me feel warm inside. So damned genuine. How she can be smiling at time like this, I don’t know, but she’s been a good girl. Three days of being stuck out in the wilderness with nothing to do must be driving her nuts but she hasn’t complained once.

  “I’m cooking.”

  “I can see that.” She stirs some sauce while pasta simmers on the stove. “Tired of my cooking?”

  She shakes her head. “Not at all. You’re a great cook.” She laughs.

  “What is it?”

  “I just never would have thought of you as a foodie.”

  “Hey, a man has to eat. And, Little One, I only eat the best.”

  “Well, I’m not sure this will be the best but it’s the best I can do.” A little color flares on her cheeks.

  “I love that you’re cooking for me.”

  The color deepens. Fuck, I love it. I want to make her blush over and over. I want to see that color spread across her body as I tell her how fucking beautiful she is and how horny she makes me.

  I suck in a long breath. I’ve kept it together for three days. Somehow, I need to survive a few more. I’ll call Danny at the end of the week and hopefully he’ll have good news.

  Gray serves up the pasta with a generous helping of sauce and sets the bowls on the counter along with napkins and cutlery. She moves around the kitchen with ease and I find myself relaxing as I watch her. There’s something mesmerizing about watching her move back and forth, stopping to put a pan in the sink, licking a little sauce from her thumb, and finally sitting next to me.

  I never liked the idea of domesticated bliss. Until now. Who the fuck knew?

  I dig into the pasta, my stomach growling at the tomato scent. “This is good,” I say between mouthfuls.

  “It’s about the only thing I can cook, so I hope you don’t expect much more.”

  I swipe a little tomato from the side of her mouth with my thumb and put it to my own mouth without thinking. Gray watches me avidly and for a moment, I forget all my vows of staying away from her. I might be hungry, but food be damned, I’d rather eat her. Lift her up on the counter and lick that pretty cunt until she clamps her legs around my head and comes all over my face.

  Shaking my head to clear the images, I shove a few more forkfuls of food into my mouth. “I don’t expect anything from you, Gray. I’m here to look after you. In every way.”

  “Every way?” she asks, her tone playful.

  I instantly regret my choice of words. That coy look combined with her tone of voice is enough to get my blood pressure skyrocketing. “I mean you don’t need to cook or clean or any of that shit.” Hell, if it was up to me I’d have her naked in bed for most of the day, never having to lif
t a finger ever again unless it was to grip my hair as she comes.

  “I need to do something, V. I’ll go mad if I don’t.”

  “I know, I know.” I stab my fork into the pasta and pretend for a moment it was whoever is doing this to us. If they hadn’t tried to hurt Gray, I wouldn’t be in this mess, tangled up in a web of desire and constant fucking erections.

  “I’ll call Danny at the end of the week,” I remind her. “He’ll have this sorted by then.”

  “And we’ll all go back to normal?”

  “Of course.”

  No. How can it? How can I go back to normal when I’ve felt the shape of her hot, tight pussy, when I’ve breathed in the scent of her arousal, or seen her come against my fingertips? Nothing will be the same again.

  “And you and I…”

  “Nothing has changed, Little One.”

  “Hasn’t it?” Gray twists on her chair to eye me head on.

  I ignore her and finish the food so quick it barely touches the sides. Standing, I take the bowl to the sink and point at her. “Don’t touch that. I’ll clean up in a minute.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “To take a damned shower.”

  There’s a little triumph in her eyes as I stomp past her. She thinks she’s so clever, winding me up until I spin out of control. She has no idea what she could unleash. No fucking idea.

  I strip quickly once I’m in the bathroom and turn the temperature to cold.

  “Fucking, goddamn it.” I press my hands against the wall and let the icy water flow over me. Nothing seems to get rid of the heat inside me, though. Nothing stops me from wanting her.

  Before this week, I thought it was something I could control. Just a passing fancy—not one I should have for sure—but nothing deep. All I had to do was keep it together until she went off to college and found herself some idiot of a boyfriend. Then eventually she’d be married to a rich, straight-up guy, having babies and attending charity events. I know that’s what Danny wants for her, and I wanted that for her too.

  Not anymore.

  I want her riding my cock. I want her filled with my cum. I want her pregnant with my child. I want her to be mine—completely.

  I spend as long as I can in the shower. Anything to avoid seeing her. This is so fucking stupid. I’m a trained fighter and a criminal. I’ve dealt with everything life could throw at me. I shouldn’t fear a girl.