Beneath These Scars Read online

  We set the armoire into place and he tugged the dolly out from beneath it.

  “There.”

  I studied it and nodded. “Perfect.”

  “Now, strip.”

  I whirled around to face him. “Excuse me?”

  “You knew what would happen when you sent that text message. You knew what I’d think showing up here. Don’t tell me this was all a game, Yve.”

  Heat slid through me as he watched me with those predator’s eyes. Green and sharp and missing nothing.

  “It was a little bit of a game,” I admitted. “But not the way you think.” Why was my mouth dry and the words almost sticking inside?

  Titan took a step toward me. “Then tell me. And do it while you take your clothes off.”

  “You’re so damn bossy,” I sputtered.

  Another step closer. He lifted his hand and pushed a curl that had escaped from my messy bun out of my face. “Because I’m the boss. Now strip. I want to see you naked. I’m not a patient man.”

  My hands couldn’t decide whether to follow my brain—which was telling them to shoot him the middle finger, or to follow the lust flooding my system—which said to strip and then tear all the clothes off his body. It was a dilemma.

  Screw it.

  “There’s a perfectly good counter right—”

  I didn’t even get the words out before Titan’s hands dropped to the hem of my tank top and tore it over my head.

  “No bra? Jesus. You’ve been prancing around here with no bra on and I didn’t even realize it.”

  My breasts—sans bra as Titan had pointed out—were high and firm and didn’t need much more support than the shelf built into my tank. And they were also covered by his hands. His big, clever hands. A low moan rose in my throat as he rolled my nipples between his fingers and tugged.

  “You have the sexiest damn nipples. So responsive. You love when I play with them, don’t you?”

  Loath to admit I liked anything about Titan, I refused to respond. Instead, I let my hips rock toward him.

  “Answer me, Yve, or I’ll stop.”

  “Shut it, Titan. Don’t ruin this.”

  His eyes lit with challenge. “You’re going to beg me. I swear it.”

  “I guess we’ll see about that.”

  “You will if you want to come,” he promised as he released my breasts and gripped my waist.

  I didn’t even have time to open my mouth before I was seated on the counter next to the register. If I hadn’t known how solid the thing was, I might have protested that I’d crack it with my weight.

  Titan was unbuttoning my shorts and tugging them off before my brain had caught up with the situation. And I didn’t care. I let my brain turn off, deciding that thinking was definitely overrated in this situation. I was going on age-old instinct here.

  “Get on your knees,” I ordered him.

  “Excuse me?” Titan asked, spreading my knees and stepping between them. His fingers caught in the thin waistband of my thong and stretched it.

  “I said, get on your knees. Was I not clear?” Power surged through me. “I want your face between my legs.”

  “Oh, Yve.” Titan wrapped his fist around the waistband of my panties. “I think you’re forgetting who’s in charge here.” He tugged and they snapped.

  The heat that had already been pooling between my legs turned molten. “Just get on your knees, Titan. Maybe then we’ll see if you can make me beg.”

  To my shock, he complied. He tossed my panties to the side, pressed his hands to the counter on either side of my hips, and lowered himself to the floor in front of me.

  He was tall, and the counter put me at the perfect height. Titan knocked my flip-flops off and lifted my feet one at a time so they were pressed flat on the glass and I was spread wide—no secrets left. My balance shifted and I rocked back.

  “Hold on,” he said, rising up momentarily to wrap my palms around the edge of the counter by my feet. When he had me situated how he wanted me, he lowered his mouth to my center—and didn’t hold back.

  Lips, teeth, tongue. He tasted me, feasted on me, and within minutes I was writhing on the checkout counter of my store.

  Usually I didn’t come easily. With most men, I had to force myself into the moment and push away any distractions. But with Titan, I shot straight to the edge of no return every time without difficulty.

  I started to moan. “I’m—”

  “Going to beg,” he finished as he pulled his mouth away and his tongue left my clit.

  “Why are you stopping?” My words came out on harsh, panting breaths, and my frustration was impossible to miss.

  “Because you’re not begging yet.”

  “Get back down there and finish the job, damn it.”

  Titan’s hands slid up my thighs, coasting and gripping until he spread my pussy lips and lowered his mouth again.

  My body breathed a sigh of relief until he stopped an inch away.

  “Beg me to eat this beautiful pussy until you come.”

  “Go to hell!”

  He shifted, sliding a finger inside me.

  Oh. God. I needed more. Right now. I was hanging on the edge and didn’t want to lose my grip on this orgasm. It was huge, intense, and so, so close.

  “Just—”

  “Ask me nicely, Yve.”

  “I hate you,” I swore.

  “This has nothing to do with hate and everything to do with dominance. We laid out the rules of this little game, and you agreed. I came tonight at your whim, and I fulfilled my side of the bargain. I told you what you have to do. Just give me one damn word and I’ll give you what you want.”

  “Go to—”

  He thrust a second finger inside me, twisting and crooking them to hit my G-spot.

  “Oh my God.” I was tumbling toward the edge. He wouldn’t be able to stop me, couldn’t hold me back. I’d get what I needed from Titan and . . .

  He pulled his fingers out and stepped away. No part of him was touching any part of me, and I wanted to scream.

  “You’re such an asshole,” I said, releasing my grip on the counter and reaching for my clit.

  “Oh no, you don’t.” Titan wrapped a hand around my wrist and held my fingers just above where I wanted them. “The only person making you come tonight is me. And all you have to do is say, Please, Lucas, let me come. That’s all, Yve.”

  It was like staring into the face of the devil while he offered you what you most wanted in exchange for the low, low price of your self-respect.

  The battle for dominance waged on as we glared at each other, and I expected my need to slip away, like water cupped in two hands. But it didn’t.

  Titan’s burning green gaze on mine kept me on the edge. I needed to go over. I needed this.

  “I hate you,” I said again. This time, the words carried less heat and more frustration.

  “I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut and opened my mouth to speak.

  “Look at me when you say it,” he ordered.

  My eyes snapped open, and I enunciated each word clearly, but through gritted teeth. “Please, Titan, let me come.”

  Triumph lit his face, but I ceased caring because he wrapped my hand around the edge of the counter and growled, “Hold on,” before he lowered his mouth to my clit and thrust one finger, and then a second, inside me.

  Moments.

  It took only moments before my orgasm ripped through me, shattering my better judgment and my inhibitions. His name echoed off the walls of the store as I came.

  I’d just started to float down off the high of my orgasm when Titan stood, gripped me again by the hips, and flipped me over onto my stomach on the counter.

  “What—”

  “I can’t fucking look at a countertop these days, especially not in my own damn kitchen, without wanting you naked and bent over it.”

  I heard the tearing of a condom packet, and the heat that had just begun to fade spiked to an even higher degree. I remembered the feel of Titan pushing his thick cock into me, stretching me, taking me.

  As much as I should have hated it, I’d loved it.

  He was confident, commanding, and while he pushed my buttons, he didn’t trigger any of my freak-outs. It made absolutely no sense, but I wasn’t going to question it. Because right now, I was going to get the repeat performance I’d been fantasizing about for days.

  “Speak now, or my cock is going to be inside you in less than two seconds.”

  “Hurry up. Two seconds is too long,” I shot back.

  A hot palm pressed to the small of my back, and I arched at the contact. He seated the head of his cock against my entrance, and I pushed back, wanting him inside me, but the hand on my back held me in place.

  I felt his breath on my ear before I heard his words. “I decide how, Yve. How hard I take you. How many times I fuck you. How many times you come. You get me?”

  “Yes, goddamn it!”

  “Good girl.”

  His teeth closed over my earlobe as he pressed inside me. I’d expected hard and fast, but what I got was slow, delectable, and mind-blowing. Once he was buried to the hilt, Titan straightened. He wrapped one hand around each of my hips and started to move.

  Every slide of his body into mine lit up all the pleasure centers in my brain. It was like Titan’s cock had a magical locator system that pinpointed my G-spot and hit it repeatedly.

  And this explained why I remembered his kitchen countertop so fondly and frequently—it had been some of the best sex of my life. Maybe the best.

  “Are you going to be thinking of me fucking you right here, when you’re ringing up customers tomorrow? Are you going to remember how tight your pussy was wrapped around my cock and how loud you screamed my name?”

  Before his voice and his words had been a distraction from getting to the edge where I could fling myself over into oblivion, but now, Lucas Titan’s voice had become a trigger all by itself. His dirty words pushed me faster and harder toward the point of no return.

  “Answer me, Yve. Tell me you’re going to remember this.”

  “Yes, damn it. Now make me come.”

  “You know the rules, sweetheart. You’re going to ask me like a good little girl.”

  “I should tell you to go fuck yourself.”

  “But I like fucking you so much more.”

  “Bastard.”

  “Gorgeous, stubborn woman.”

  His words—more flattering than condescending—pushed me even closer to the breaking point.

  “Hold on,” he said, then shifted positions and pulled me back off the counter so he could slide a hand under and reach my clit.

  “Oh my God.” I moaned the instant he made contact. I wouldn’t last much longer. Not between the angle of his cock dragging against my G-spot and this added mind-blowing pleasure.

  “You know what you need to do,” he reminded me without slowing his thrusts, and now adding the most exquisite kind of pressure.

  My eyes fluttered shut and my body clamped down on him. I was so close. And then he stilled.

  “Please,” I cried.

  “Good enough.” Titan’s voice was husky and rough, but he wasted no time in resuming his pace—steady and sure—until I shattered.

  This time I bit my lip so I didn’t scream at all, just let the sensations wash over me, wave after wave. Titan let out a roar that would have worried me about waking the neighbors if we’d been anywhere but a couple of blocks off Bourbon Street in a city that never stopped partying.

  We both stilled, our heaving breaths the only sounds inside the store. As the crazed intensity of the moment drained away, the reality of what I’d just done set in.

  Really professional, Yve. You’re one hell of a businesswoman.

  Even now I could feel the sweat dripping off my forehead onto the counter where I plied my trade—not the flesh trade. Classy, indeed.

  But I’d invited him here. Part of me had known that this could happen. Would happen.

  Titan pushed away from the counter and pulled free of my body.

  Would this ever not be ridiculously awkward? With every other one-night stand or fling, I’d developed an easy camaraderie that made this no big deal, but with Titan, it was different.

  I levered myself up and searched around for my shorts and tank top. Luckily both were within easy reach. I was already pulling them on when he returned from the little bathroom in the back. He’d zipped his shorts and he’d never taken off his fancy college T-shirt.

  Why is this more awkward than last time? It made no sense. Because I couldn’t run? Because we were on my turf?

  Titan didn’t seem to feel the awkwardness I did. He looked marginally disappointed at the fact that I was no longer naked.

  I grabbed my torn panties off the floor and held them up. “Was this really necessary?”

  He smirked, not the least bit contrite. “Seemed the most expedient choice at the time.”

  I shoved them in my pocket, not wanting to take the chance of having to explain them to JP in the morning if she happened to check the trash.

  “Well, um, thanks for the help,” I said. Smooth, Yve. Really smooth.

  Titan’s gaze landed on me and held. “Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?”

  “It’s not like we both didn’t know how this would go.”

  “And if I’m not done with you?”

  “You don’t have much choice now, do you?”

  Titan’s expression hardened. “And if I told you I want you to come home with me?”

  I thought for a moment about that big claw-foot tub, and being astride the man in front of me while in it. Would he agree to that? Did I dare try?

  No. I was keeping this simple. My terms. I say when. I say where. And I needed to go home, regroup, and get myself together.

  “I’d say you’re out of luck.”

  “Fine. Where’s your car? I’ll walk you out.” His tone was curt, but the gesture was thoughtful . . . and one I wished he’d skipped.

  “Car’s at the shop. It’s gonna be a long walk.”

  Titan had already turned to head to the door, and he stopped and jerked around abruptly. “The thing had a ton of work done. It should have run fine for another year at least.”

  “I know you lied about the bill.”

  “Get over it, Yve. What the hell happened?”

  “I got here a few hours ago to work on inventory, and forgot I’d left my phone in my car. When I went out to get it, there was a giant puddle of oil under it. I called my cousin—”

  “Stevie with the tow truck?”

  “Yeah.” I was surprised he remembered. “And he took it back to the garage. I’m hoping they screwed up, and it’s not something new going wrong.”

  “You need a new damn car. Something reliable.”

  I propped a hand on my hip. “I’ll get right on that, Mr. Titan, as soon as I find someone to give me a loan to buy the business that basically means more to me than anything in my life, and then, you know, stumble onto a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow in the front seat of a new Ferrari.”

  He ignored my bitchy remarks and focused on one specific point. “How did your appointment go at the Entrepreneur Fund? Did you go? Or did you skip it just to spite me?”

  I wasn’t about to tell him that they’d met with me, looked at my business plan, projections, and references, then had smiled, nodded, and told me they’d be in touch soon.

  Soon better be within days. I’d caught sight of the skinny bitch Jennifer again today outside the store, most likely scoping out the foot traffic. I wondered how long it would be before she made her move. I felt like an idiot waiting to talk to Harriet, but pride was a crazy, stupid thing.

  Instead of sharing any of that with Titan, I glared. “I’m not an idiot. I wouldn’t skip something like that just to prove a point to you. Did you not catch when I said this place means more to mean than anything? I’d think you’d get that. Don’t you feel that way about your company? Or is it just the gold in your Scrooge McDuck vault that you spend all day swimming in and counting that makes you happy?”

  Titan was shaking his head as he strode toward me. “You’re something else, woman. Come on.” He held out his hand, and I contemplated it for a moment.

  Apparently a moment too long, because he grabbed mine and dragged me along.

  “Wait, my purse.”

  He paused and dropped my hand. “Get it and let’s go.”

  “You’re the bossiest man I know, Titan.”

  “How many billionaires have you met?”

  “Touché.” I grabbed my purse and we headed for the door.

  If you’d asked me a few weeks ago how many times I’d ride in an Aston Martin in my life, I would have told you a big fat zero. But that number seemed to be rising fast. We neared the street corner that I’d jumped out at before, and Titan hit the locks.

  I grabbed the handle experimentally and pulled the lock. It didn’t budge.

  “Child locks. Because someone has a tendency to bolt at inconvenient times.”

  “You really care where I live that much? It’s not a big deal.” And while I preferred he didn’t know before, I guessed I was rounding the corner of I don’t really care now.

  “Which way?”

  “Right. Pull into the alley. It’s the green one—third house on the left. There’s a little parking area.”

  He followed my directions and pulled up behind my building. When he flipped open the door locks, I hopped out. I didn’t expect him to follow me, but Titan didn’t play by the rules I set out for him in my head.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Making sure you get inside.”

  “I’m not going to get mugged on the way to my door. It’s a hundred feet away.”

  “And yet I’m walking you up there.”

  We were already halfway to the stairs, so the conversation was getting ridiculous.

  “Is this one of those rare times you pretend to be a gentleman?”

  He didn’t answer, just followed me to my door.

  “What sent you running that night?” he asked once I’d slid the key into the lock.

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