Page 25 of Her Defiant Heart (Damaged Hearts 1)

His fingers slide over my bra slowly, making me ache. My previous sexual experiences were always a quick fumbling in the dark, bodies in awkward positions in the back of a car or in a bedroom, or in some stranger’s bathroom. He’d barely touch me, keeping most of our clothes on except for the important bits, his sole purpose to get his rocks off and that’s it. Forget about me. It’s like they didn’t even know how to make a girl orgasm. Every one of those boys had been self-centered and inexperienced, though they’d tell anyone who’d listen what a great fuck they were.

I just kept quiet. I never complimented anyone, and I never told them they left me unsatisfied either. I used them. They used me. Then we moved on.

Those encounters were completely forgettable.

This experience with Rhett is totally different. He’s focused on me. He’s not touching me to get something out of it. He’s wanting to bring me pleasure, and oh God, he so is. I know it shouldn’t feel like this with Rhett. I should be cold and indifferent. Thinking ahead, calculating my next move. Land him in bed, make him fall in love with me, get in good with his family, fuck them all over…and especially destroy my bitch of a mother.

That’s what I need to remember. Getting back at my mother is my ultimate goal, the thing that drives me above all else. Rhett is just a small piece of the far more complicated puzzle.

Yet all thoughts of the future and my end goal fly out of my brain when his hands slip under my shirt and connect with my bare skin. His touch sizzles, causing me to squirm, and he pulls away from my neck to watch me, his heated gaze meeting mine.

“We can continue this against the door,” he says, his voice a hoarse rasp that sends a chill down my spine. “Or we can find a more comfortable spot.”

I’m tempted to keep us right here, to let him take me against the door. But it would end up a frenzied moment, desperate and quick, and I want him to savor me.

Truthfully? I want to savor him too.

“My room,” I whisper, inclining my head toward the short hallway, “is over there.”

Rhett tightens his hold on me before he turns and carries me to the bedroom, my legs still wound around him, his hands gripping my butt. The room is dark and I direct him over to the right side of the bed, where I lean over and snap the lamp on.

“You do want the lights on, right?” I ask, sending him a cautious look. I want to see every bit of Rhett’s body. No way do I only want to imagine it as I stroke him in the dark.

“Oh yeah,” he says with a giant grin right before he deposits me on the bed. He drops me so hard, I bounce a little on the mattress, and I glare up at him, shoving my hair away from my face, but he just shakes his head with a chuckle. “You’re pretty damn cute when you’re mad.”

You have no idea, I want to tell him, but my lips remain shut as I watch him with breathless anticipation. He toes off his shoes and kicks them aside, unbuttons and then shrugs out of his shirt, offering me a glimpse of his smooth, well-muscled chest and abs. I stare at him in silence, entranced by his exposed naked skin, and then he’s right there in front of me on the bed, slowly guiding me so I fall backward, my head hitting the pillows as he takes my mouth once more.

The doubts creep in immediately, even while he’s kissing me. I probably shouldn’t move so fast. Allowing him in my bed after only our second date is going to give him the wrong idea. That I’m fast and loose and forgettable. He goes through girls fairly quickly, from what I’ve observed. I let him get this far this early in the game, and he’ll most likely forget about me too.

I brace my hands against his chest, ready to push him away from me, but then he shifts down, his mouth at my neck, his hands on my waist, fingers slipping beneath my shirt. He nudges the fabric up, exposing my stomach, and then he’s moved down even farther, his mouth trailing kisses on my bare skin.

I imagine pushing Rhett away from me. Telling him no. But at first contact of his mouth on my flesh, I go weak. Instead, I grab hold of his broad shoulders, just so I can have something to hold on to, and as he draws closer, my hands slide up into his hair. I clutch at the soft, dark strands as his mouth blazes a trail up my stomach to just below my bra.

He tugs on my shirt and I lift up, letting him help me take my shirt off. It’s gone in an instant, his mouth returning to my stomach, delivering delicate kisses that make me shiver, make me restless. I shift beneath him, wishing he was kissing even more sensitive places just as he reaches behind me to unhook my bra.

“Let’s take this off,” he whispers, tugging the straps down until the bra falls away. I drop it over the side of the bed, practically thrusting my chest in his face. Walking around topless for months has made me a lot less shy than I used to be. My butt is kind of flat and my thighs are a little flabby, but there is no shame in my boob game.

Rhett doesn’t seem too disgusted by them either. He stares at my chest in utter reverence, gathering both of them in his hands and pulling them close together. His thumbs drift over my nipples, back and forth, back and forth, and I hiss in a sharp breath.

“You like that?” he asks, his gaze lifting to mine.

I nod. “They’re—sensitive.”

“Hmm.” His pleasurable hum vibrates against my skin as he dips down and draws one nipple into his mouth, sucking lightly before he releases it. “What about that? Did you like it?”

Another nod, a little cry accompanying it when he pulls the other nipple into his mouth and sucks harder this time. He caresses my breasts, his fingers light, almost tickling me, his mouth wet and hot as he sucks and sucks. My nipples are tight, pointing at the sky and wet from his mouth as he moves up to take my lips once again, his tongue diving deep. I spread my legs wide to accommodate his big body against mine, and I can feel his erection brush against the very center of me.

There is no doubt that it is very large and very long.

Giving in to my impulses, I reach down and touch him, my fingers curling around his length, testing him out. Am I too bold? Or is this what he wants? The agonized moan that rips from deep in his chest tells me he likes it, so I continue my exploration. Stroking and caressing, working him into a near fever, and we don’t even have his pants off yet.

That’s exactly what I don’t want. Frenzied fucking with our clothes half-hanging onto our bodies. This needs to be a complete reveal. My clothes and his are coming all the way off, until we’re naked and vulnerable in front of each other.

Yes. Vulnerable. That’s what I need to remember. Most guys like you broken, because then they feel like they can fix you, and so many of them are fixers. They want to be your hero, your savior, but you can’t be too broken, though. There’s a certain point where they give up, where they consider you beyond fixing. Me? I need to find that fine line and straddle it.

“Wait.” I drop my hand from his dick and scoot up the bed and over, as if I’m trying to get away from Rhett. He rolls over and away from me, his features drawn, his mouth turned upside down in a beautiful frown. The man is just too damn good-looking. “Let me catch my breath.”

“Am I—” He pants for three heartbeats, like he’s desperate to catch his breath. “—moving too fast for you?”

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