Courting Innocence Page 6

  But this was no kiss.

  She squirmed more desperately as the tingle in her bottom burned and sang. His muscled thighs pressed into her belly and against the underside of her breasts. They plumped up, and she felt her nipples go hard.

  ‘They’re not going to find out,’ she cried. He had her unbalanced with her hips lifted so high.

  ‘No. They’re. Not.’ Each word was accompanied by another stinging spank.

  He was warming both her cheeks, and the prickle was making it hard to breathe.

  ‘Do you have any idea what could have happened?’ he snapped. ‘Do you know how far some of those escorts will go?’

  Tears stung at her eyes. ‘I was the one who started it,’ she gasped.

  She was punished with another sharp swat.

  ‘But I stopped it too,’ she yelped.

  His hand stopped in its up-and-down motion. It rested against the curve of her right buttock with a familiarity they’d never shared before. He was nearly cupping her, his thumb settling precariously over the crease in her ass. Only the thinnest layers of material stood between them, and they’d offered no protection from the spanking he’d just given her.

  ‘You stopped it?’ Leaning down, he whispered into her ear. ‘Why?’

  His touch made the fire singe, and Erin’s most private parts clenched. Oh, God. She’d never been spanked, not even as a child. But the way he was touching her didn’t make her feel childish. It made her feel naughty. Her nipples were hard nubs, and her pussy…Oh, God. She let out a moan.

  He rubbed her bottom tenderly. ‘Why?’

  She struggled not to arch into that touch. ‘Because I didn’t feel anything. Not like…’

  He let out a harsh breath that stirred her hair. ‘Not like Marty?’

  ‘Not like this!’

  She let out another involuntary moan, and his hand paused.

  The air in the back of the car became heavy and still. His ragged breathing blended with her harsh rasps. In that instant, Erin became acutely aware of her inexperience. Embarrassment flooded through her and she pushed up again, trying to get back to her seat.

  Again, he stopped her with that immovable hand at the base of her spine. Only it was gentle. Inexorable but gentle. ‘Damn it,’ he whispered. ‘How did you stumble into this world?’

  The spacious Town Car seemed to shrink as Erin lay back down. She felt every bump in the road, every seam. She could feel her heartbeat pounding in her bottom. The throb was unavoidable with his hand placed where it was.

  A low sound left his throat, and she squeezed her eyes shut. His hand stroked her, and she tried to steady her breaths – only they seized up again when he caught the hem of her short dress. It had pulled high on her thighs, but he skimmed it up higher, over her curves to nearly her waist.

  Erin felt exposed and humiliated and so turned on.

  She wore a tiny black thong that had to bare her reddened curves to his look. Could he see his handprint against her tender flesh?

  His breath came out of his lungs in a series of shudders, and she could feel every one against her sensitised skin.

  ‘Damn,’ he breathed. His finger traced the stretchy fabric over her hip, following it to the middle of her spine way down low. ‘This is what you wear on a date with an escort?’

  Her back arched when he started tracing the thong downward to where it disappeared between her cheeks. ‘Ah! It’s what I wear on a date with you.’

  She looked over her shoulder belligerently, and the muscle in his jaw bulged. His stern hand lifted again, and the thrill of danger went through her. Her confession was met with another spank and then three more. She let out a cry that sounded too much like pleasure.

  Before she knew what was happening, he’d fisted his hand around the waistband of her thong and was pulling it down. The fabric stretched and cut into her sensitive cheeks. She twisted away from the sting, only helping him in the process.

  Then she was completely bare, lying across his lap and at his disposal. Erin couldn’t compose herself any longer. She jiggled, she pushed, she kicked, she hissed. She did everything she could until another swat caught her from another direction.

  He’d connected with the underside of her bottom and the top of her thighs. Right across her…

  She melted back down across his lap, her pussy squeezing and blasting with heat. ‘Colt!’

  ‘Damn it, Sunny.’ His breaths were harsh, but he spanked her again in the same manner.

  His leg lifted and her thighs fell open, parting as her muscles went limp.

  He touched her then, his fingers sweeping slowly through her slit. Erin groaned in delight. The car came to a stop at a traffic light, and it lit the back seat like a spotlight. He touched her again, his fingers pressing deeper, parting her and rubbing against her damp flesh.

  This time, he was the one who groaned. ‘Erin.’

  She was so wet. The throbbing in her bottom had settled between her legs. Her entire body was trembling. Her nipples were hard against the cups of her bra, and perspiration dotted her forehead. ‘Colt,’ she begged.

  For what she didn’t know. For him to stop. For him to continue. For him to do whatever he wanted to her.

  His hard finger bumped against her clit, and she bit her lip. She couldn’t help but swivel her hips towards him, wanting more. Those dangerous fingers swirled round and round.

  ‘So good,’ she gasped. ‘Too much.’

  It had to stop. She didn’t want it to end.

  She wasn’t expecting another spank. The hand that had been restraining her lifted. It came down, flat and rigid, against her bare bottom in a wicked smack that left her cheeks quivering and aching.

  And her coming.

  She let out a cry that even the driver on the other side of the soundproof barrier had to hear, and shook on Colton’s lap as the most outrageous orgasm consumed her. He rubbed her bottom in circles as his other hand played with her below. A finger penetrated her and another orgasm crashed into her, or maybe it was a second wave of the first.

  She didn’t know. Shock blinded her. By the time she got oriented again, he’d pulled her thong back over her hips and had guided it into place. Everywhere. In jerky movements, he pulled her dress down.

  The silence was daunting. Emotion hung heavily in the air. Erin looked over her shoulder at him, her eyes damp. ‘Colt?’

  He dropped his head against the headrest and stared at the roof of the car. ‘Son of a…I’m going to hell. Straight to hell.’

  His chest rose and fell, and his eyes squeezed shut. Erin didn’t know what to do. She’d just experienced the most acute pleasure of her life, but embarrassment cut nearly as deep.

  He’d spanked her like a schoolgirl.

  A very grown-up schoolgirl.

  She sprang off his lap, but bumped against his crotch in the process. He bucked forward, and she moved more carefully.

  He was hard.

  Colton was hard – and he was unhappy about it.

  Scooting away, she pulled her dress down and pressed herself into the corner of the back seat.

  ‘Erin.’ He still didn’t look at her. ‘I…That never should have happened.’

  ‘Don’t,’ she said, her voice like sandpaper. ‘Don’t you apologise.’

  She knew she’d pushed him past the breaking point. He’d lost his nearly legendary cool, but he would not take this away from her. She’d wanted him to see her as a woman, and she’d finally, finally got her wish.

  She just hadn’t expected it to be so shocking.

  She squirmed against the soft leather cushions. The sensitivity in her bottom refused to be ignored. Her cheeks felt as if they’d swelled to twice their size, and her thighs were sticky.

  She brushed her fingers across the pulse in her throat. It was still racing.

  Colton reached for the comm unit. ‘Take us back to Luxxor,’ he ordered the driver.

  ‘Yes, sir,’ the man responded.

  Erin sat forward. ‘What are you
doing?’

  His expression was controlled when he looked at her. ‘I assume your car is there?’

  Oh, no. This wasn’t where it ended. She refused to have that secret shown to her, only to be ripped away again.

  ‘I want my date,’ she said fiercely.

  His chin thrust out. ‘You’re going to stop this nonsense. Your engagement was broken off just a little over a month ago. You don’t need to be seeing anybody right now.’

  ‘So what’s not good for the goose is still OK for the gander?’ she snapped.

  His eyebrows pulled together, and she jabbed a finger at him.

  ‘You’re a client of Luxxor’s, too. You were in their database, and a lot longer than I have been. You use their escort service.’

  ‘I’m not a regular customer.’

  ‘But you needed dates too, and you turned to them.’

  ‘I didn’t need dates –’ He had the brains to look chastened. ‘They told me this was different, that they were looking to go legit.’

  ‘And I’m not legit?’

  He laughed at that. ‘Baby, you’re as off limits as they come.’

  The fire in her bottom fired up her temper. ‘You’re going to take me to dinner. That was the agreement.’

  ‘Erin,’ he said patiently.

  Grabbing his tie, she pulled him to her. ‘I just put out. You owe me dinner, Colton King.’

  He started to look away again, and she did the only thing she could think of.

  She kissed him.

  She pressed her mouth to his and felt him flinch – and then freeze. It gave her an opportunity she wasn’t going to miss. Coming out of the corner where she’d plastered herself, she moulded her lips more intimately against his. For as stern as his mouth could be, his lips were soft.

  Erin’s senses sang.

  A shudder went through him, but then he pulled away. She followed, cupping the back of his head and sliding her fingers through his silky black hair. Hesitantly, she brushed the tip of her tongue against the seam of his lips.

  A hiss left his lungs, but then he was kissing her back.

  Tilting his head, he brought their mouths into full, open contact. His tongue glided against hers, and need surged inside her. Erin felt so light, it was a wonder she didn’t float right off the seat. She had to get closer, needed to feel the press of his body. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she rose higher on the seat. One of his arms snaked around her, and it was only natural for her to climb on to his lap.

  With a tug and a turn, she straddled him as he sat with his legs spread wide in the middle of the expansive back seat of the Town Car. What had started as a soft, tentative kiss was bubbling into something hot and barely under control. Their lips clung as they bit and rubbed at one another. Erin slid her hands under Colton’s coat and felt his hard chest. His heat poured through his dress shirt. She slid her hands down to feel just how far that hardness went.

  His hands weren’t still either. They’d caught her about the ribcage to help her move onto him, and the balls of his hands pressed into the sides of her breasts. He ground into the softness, but then his hands skimmed downwards. They closed over her hips, and Erin let out a moan.

  She was still tender down there.

  The sound was enough to break through to Colton, and he jerked his touch away. ‘Erin,’ he said, his voice raspy as he pulled out of the kiss.

  He caught her hands against his stomach before they could do any more damage.

  Erin looked at him, her eyes heavy-lidded. He was beautiful. His hair was mussed, his eyes were dark as night, and his lungs were working like bellows. That muscle in his jaw had relaxed, and his hands, although firm, were holding hers in place instead of pulling them away.

  Happiness made her chest ache. Years of wanting, aeons of unrequited longing, and she’d finally had a taste.

  She leaned in for more, but he stopped her. ‘We can’t do this.’

  ‘Yes, we can,’ she whispered. And they should. It was good between them. Lightning and thunder and magic.

  Nina had said they were a perfect match.

  Before he could do his lawyer thing and argue her into submission, she reached for the communication controls.

  ‘What are you doing? Stop –’

  She laid a finger over his lips.

  ‘Driver?’ she said, her voice unnaturally smoky. ‘We’ve changed our mind. We’d like to go to dinner.’

  She rubbed the pad of her forefinger gently across Colton’s lower lip. ‘I’m hungry.’

  Chapter Five

  Colton tied one on that night, intentionally and almost desperately.

  He sat in the living room of his row house with the lights off, nursing a Jack Daniel’s. He’d stripped down to only the dress pants he’d worn on his ‘date’, because he still felt hot all the way through. He eyed the amount of liquid still in the bottle. Actually, he wasn’t nursing it all that well. He was pounding it back hard. Tomorrow was going to be hell.

  ‘No more so than tonight,’ he muttered.

  What the fuck had just happened? How had he ended up in the back seat of a car with Erin Foster lying half-naked across his lap? Christ.

  Even now, hours later, the memory of it left him hard.

  ‘Ah, hell,’ he groaned. He poured himself another shot of whiskey and tossed it back. The stuff was supposed to be potent, right? It would dull the edges? Make him limp?

  So far, it wasn’t working. Everything was as crisp and vivid in his brain as a high-definition television. The sound of her pleasure…the feel of her hip riding against his cock…the sight of her perfectly formed ass…

  He swiped a hand through his hair. He’d managed to stay away from her for nearly a decade – or at least it had seemed that long. He’d suffered through endless stiffies and the nearly unbearable need to touch her. He’d stifled his desire to kiss her, and that had been when he was younger and less disciplined. He’d managed to deny himself all those times, but tonight?

  Tonight, he’d slipped off his chain.

  And what had he done?

  Squeezing the bridge of his nose, he leaned forward on the sofa. He’d spanked her.

  Erin, of all women. Sweet, perfect, beautiful little Erin.

  Dustin would kick his ass if he ever found out. Shit, Colton would kick his own ass if it was possible. He looked again at the whiskey bottle.

  ‘Definitely possible.’

  He slumped back against the cushions of the sofa. He never should have touched her, and definitely not like that. He’d just been caught off-guard. He usually had time to brace for the impact of seeing her. He’d never expected to see her glide into Luxxor’s offices – not in a million years. It had frozen his brain. That was the only excuse he had.

  Sure, he’d been told that another client was looking for something more than Luxxor normally provided. He knew how it felt to be alone in this city, all work and no play. Well, except for the other type of play Luxxor offered…Their proposal had just sounded…nice. And when they’d described the woman in question? Petite blonde, fun and friendly – he’d been all in. Nina knew his preferences. She knew them well.

  So, yeah, he’d been toying with the idea of scratching an itch. He’d never dreamed he’d be offered the starring actress in all his private fantasies.

  ‘Erin, what were you doing there?’ he asked the empty room.

  How had she ever become involved with that crowd? He knew she was too trusting. It was the part of her that made everyone – including him – try to protect her. With all her friends and family watching out for her, how had she walked right into the lion’s den? She’d said that Sienna worked there. He remembered the tall, cool blonde. She’d always been a by-the-rules kind of girl. He couldn’t see her working at an escort service, no matter what the capacity.

  But hell. Erin had been out with escorts.

  Colton pushed himself off the couch and walked to the window to look out at the night. Dupont Circle was unusually barren and quiet. The
temperature had dropped as the sun had faded, and a chill had settled in. The exhaust from the back ends of cars looked like puffy white clouds. The fountain in the middle of the park had been shut down a while ago for the season, and it looked eerily still. Frost was forming in the corner of the window pane. Everything was cold and brittle.

  Yet whenever he thought of Erin going out with Nina’s boys, it made him break out in a sweat.

  That was what had pushed him past his breaking point. That was why he’d felt the clawing need to make her wake up and pay attention. But spanking her?

  Bracing his arm against the window frame, he hung his head.

  He’d never hurt her. He’d chop off his own arm first. Yet seeing that pert little butt rounding up at him so temptingly?

  It had just…happened.

  ‘But you couldn’t let it end there, could you, idiot?’

  His brow furrowed so hard, it nearly cramped. Things had gone way past a stern reprimand. Way, way past.

  If only she hadn’t melted against him like that. Melted and shuddered and cried out in pleasure. His power of self-denial was only so strong. Under that kind of pressure, it had disintegrated like tissue paper.

  He was barely holding it together now.

  The ache in his cock sharpened, and heat pumped through him. He’d never forget the sight or feel of her. So smooth, so firm, so soft…She’d been lifting her hips at the end to take his discipline, but he couldn’t think about that. If he did, he was a goner.

  Stomping back to the coffee table, he grabbed the square bottle and took a swig.

  Things had got dangerous from that point on. Dangerous and thrilling and so damn satisfying. After holding back for so long, it had been a rush.

  But then reality had come crashing in, with horror close on its heels.

  He’d jacked off the one girl he’d promised never to touch – the girl he’d been forbidden even to think about. She was just too sweet and young and innocent to be paired up with someone like him.

  But now it had happened.

  Worse, he was afraid his secret had been let out of the bag – the secret that he wanted her too.