The Skull King: Skull #1 Read online

  “Always.” He leaned in and kissed me, his hand moving into my hair for a passionate embrace.

  My coping mechanism was to picture Balto, the sexiest guy I’d ever been with. It was much easier than actually living in the moment, kissing a man I wasn’t attracted to. Not only did I not want Lucian in that way, I didn’t respect him. I didn’t like the way he treated the staff, bossing them around like they were worthless, and I didn’t like the nights when he executed people right outside on our property.

  I kissed him back, picturing a different man with full lips. “I’ll see you when you get back.”

  “I’ll call you.” He turned around and got into the car. The windows were tinted, so I couldn’t see his expression once the door was shut. The car pulled away, drove out of the driveway, and then disappeared.

  Even when he was gone, I could still feel that kiss on my mouth. I could still feel his revolting hold on me. His indifference was preferable to his affection. Picturing Balto was the only thing that could get me through the disgust, but it actually put me in a worse situation.

  I walked back into the house, worked out in the private gym, then lounged in the bathtub for the rest of the day. By the time evening came around, my thoughts drifted to the man I missed and hadn’t forgotten.

  It’d been almost three weeks since I’d seen him last.

  I wondered how many women he’d fucked in the meantime.

  Did he ever think of me?

  Did he picture my face the way I pictured his?

  As it got later into the night, I thought about him more. I’d been subjected to quality time with my husband, and it’d been nothing but a chore. I missed the real thing, real passion. I missed having a real man on top of me, a man who made my toes curl when he showed me his bedroom eyes.

  I missed him.

  Did he miss me?

  I found myself on the same stool I’d occupied two other times. I had a martini to wash down the nerves before I got the phone from the bartender. The phone sat beside me, but I didn’t make the call. Even though it was a Saturday night, the bar wasn’t full of people. I sat in a black dress and wondered if I was making the right decision. I got away with it the first time, but would I be so lucky the second time? Lucian was paying more attention to me than before. The risk was greater now. But now that he wanted me more, I was more disgusted with myself. I wanted a real man…a man I actually wanted.

  I made the call.

  He answered quickly, as if he knew exactly who it was. “What the fuck took you so long, baby?”

  The second I heard him call me baby, my toes tightened in my heels. He wrapped me in that nickname like it was a blanket that smothered me. His voice was just as deep as ever, with a sexy hint of annoyance. I was more turned on by that single word than anything my husband ever said. “This is a bad idea…but I can’t stop myself.” Quiet music played over the speakers behind me, and people carried on their conversations while I had the large phone pressed to my ear. In real time, I knew I was getting myself into a bad situation, but I couldn’t stop it. This would lead to nowhere good, but I was doing it anyway…because I wanted it so bad.

  “The only good things in life are the bad things.”

  He walked me to his building and guided me into the living room on the top floor. Last time I was there, I didn’t have the chance to appreciate how luxurious it was. All I was thinking about was sex then, and while I was thinking about sex now, my mind was a little more focused. “The entire building is yours?”

  “Yeah.” He walked to the bar. “You want a drink?”

  “No.” I’d already drunk plenty at the bar. I didn’t want to be so drunk that I couldn’t drive home when this was over.

  He made himself a scotch anyway. He downed the entire thing in one swallow then walked up to me, his broad shoulders still with power and his eyes focused like two lasers. When he reached me, one hand moved into my hair, and he cupped my face with the other.

  My body immediately relaxed and my neck molded to whatever position he wanted it to be in. His fingers held the back of my head while his thumb rested in the corner of my mouth. He stared into my gaze without kissing me.

  I loved to be touched like that, touched by a man who knew what he was doing.

  He examined my face like he was searching for something, something he could spot deep in my green eyes. His blue gaze burned into mine as he stared me down like an aggressive bear, an animal that was about to rip me apart. “Never take that long to call me again.”

  “I said I wasn’t going to call you.”

  “And we both knew that was bullshit.” He lifted me and carried me into his bedroom down the hall, his muscular arms holding me so effortlessly. He dropped me on the bed and immediately went for my thong. His fingers slid over my hips, and he grasped the bright-pink underwear before he pulled them down my long legs. When they were loose, he brought them to his nose and smelled them, just as he smelled my juice on his fingertips.

  My knees pressed together tightly as I felt my pussy ache. “Balto…” I hadn’t been this turned on in weeks, not even when I’d pictured him naked with my fingers deep inside my cunt. I loved saying that name on my lips. I wished I could say it out loud when Lucian took me.

  Balto removed his t-shirt, revealing a body so hard, it seemed to be a living wall. His muscles stretched his skin because they were so strong and powerful. He had the perfect V shape, from his wide shoulders to his narrow hips. And then he had those sexy lines over his hips, the kind of cuts only men in porn had.

  My legs opened again, wanting him inside me as soon as possible.

  He stared right at my cunt as he undid his jeans and dropped his boxers. The clothes dropped to the floor and revealed his pulsing dick. It pointed right at my entrance like it had a radar that could detect my pussy on its own. “How am I going to fuck that pussy?” He crawled onto the bed and moved on top of me, my dress bunched up around my waist.

  Once he was over me, my hands pressed against his abs and slowly moved up to the planes of his chest. My fingertips could feel the magnificent slab of strength underneath that searing hot skin. He was the strongest man I’d ever seen, ripped and lean. He wasn’t bulky like a weight lifter, but that didn’t mean his cut look didn’t make him strong. His arms were enormous, his waist so tight. I hadn’t had the opportunity to look at his back, but I imagined it was equally amazing.

  “Any suggestions?” He hiked my dress up farther until he could pull it off my body entirely. I hadn’t worn a bra, so I was naked underneath him, my skin vulnerable to his hot mouth. His eyes roamed over the swell of my tits and down to my flat stomach. “You’re all woman…head to fucking toe.”

  He was complimenting me when he was the one who looked like a porn star.

  He leaned down and kissed the valley between my tits, devouring the skin with his sexy kisses.

  My left hand fisted his hair, my heavy wedding ring still on my hand. I never left the house without it because that would make Lucian beat me. I didn’t take it off and place it on Balto’s nightstand because I couldn’t afford to lose it. If I lost it…Lucian might actually kill me.

  “Baby?” He lifted his gaze and hovered his lips near mine.

  My fingers dived into his hair, and I hooked my legs around his waist. This was enough to get me off, just being skin-to-skin with this sexy stud. I knew nothing about him besides his first name, but he brought me more joy than Lucian ever had. Now I regretted my sacrifice even more because I hadn’t realized what I’d be giving up. I’d be fucking this man every single night if I were free. I’d be fucking his brains out until he got tired of me.

  He pressed his lips to mine and kissed me, giving me a kiss so slow and heavenly I felt like I was drifting. His kisses were purposeful, sexy, delicious. He kissed the corner of my mouth, sucked my bottom lip, and then gave me his tongue.

  My hips started to grind into him, my clit rubbing against his beautiful cock. Every time I felt that hardness next to me, my cl
it throbbed a little harder. The contact was so sensual, so powerful. My breath came out shaky in his mouth, and my fingers clawed harder at his hair.

  “Should I fuck you like this?” he whispered against my mouth. “Is that how you want it?”

  “I…” I squeezed his hips harder. “I want to fuck you.”

  He stopped grinding against me, his lips immobile.

  “I want to get on top of you…and fuck that cock.” I needed to ride his cock at the pace I wanted, to enjoy feeling him exactly how I wanted to feel him. I wanted his hands on my tits, my clit against his pelvic bone. I wanted to fuck this beautiful man until he grunted like a bear.

  He continued to stare at me with a gaze so dark there was a shadow across his eyes.

  My legs loosened around his waist, and I rolled him onto his back, feeling his muscles tighten and shift with the action.

  He lay back with his head on the pillow, his enormous cock against his stomach. It gleamed from the smeared arousal he’d drawn from my slit. With perfectly maintained balls, he looked like a man who had his dick sucked often. He reached for a condom and rolled it on, leaving a generous pouch at the end. “Get to it.”

  I straddled his hips and let my pussy rest against the latex of the condom. My clit liked the feeling of his rock-hard cock against it. He was so warm, so hard, and the sensation was better than any vibrator I’d ever used. My hands started at his stomach and slowly migrated upward, over the grooves in his physique, and then I approached the slabs of concrete on his chest. “You’re the sexiest man I’ve ever been with…” I would never say something like that if I weren’t high. But I was so out of my mind that I wasn’t censored. I didn’t care if I inflated his already large ego. This sexy man could be as arrogant as he wanted to be.

  His fingers went to my hips, and he squeezed me as he rocked against me slightly, a quiet moan coming from his lips. He probably had woman fawn over him all the time, but he seemed genuinely aroused by my compliment.

  I pressed my palm against his chest to steady myself as I pointed his cock at my entrance. I had to slide backward because he was too long for me to lower myself directly down. My pussy was so wet that I slid down his pole with no effort at all. We fit together perfectly, my wet pussy welcoming him deep inside. I sat on his dick, my ass against his balls, and I closed my eyes at how incredible it felt. I was stretched to my breaking point, and I was full from my entrance to cervix. It even hurt a little, just as it had during my first time, but the pain was totally worth the pleasure. “Oh god…” I tilted my head back and groped my own tits, my mind so high in the clouds that I couldn’t think clearly. The walls of my imprisonment had been destroyed, and all I could do was feel…feel the throbbing pleasure between my legs. It was all physical intimacy, sex, and spirituality. Just feeling his fat cock inside me was enough to make my hips buck involuntarily with a climax.

  His hands slid under mine, and he groped my tits with his enormous palms. He squeezed them hard then flicked his thumbs across the nipples. “Fuck, you look so sexy on my dick right now.”

  “I feel so sexy.” I leaned forward and pressed my hands against his chest for balance. I rocked my hips slowly and pushed back into him, forcing his dick deep inside me before I slowly pulled away again. I wanted to treasure every single inch of that behemoth, to give it the love it deserved. It was a gift from God and should be worshiped accordingly. Even though I kept my movements slow, I knew I was going to come. It never took long with this man, maybe a few minutes. I stopped because I didn’t want to explode so soon, didn’t want to show how lonely I was in that horrific marriage.

  He grabbed my hips and forced me to keep going. “Don’t do that.”

  My nails clawed into his chest. “Do what?”

  “Hold back. Come on my dick as much as you want, as quickly as you want.” He dragged my hips harder, tilting me at the right angle so my clit dragged against his body. He held his head up from the bed slightly, his neck strained as the muscles and tendons flexed. Regardless of his mood, he wore the sexiest expressions. Right now, he was focused, his jaw tight and his eyes dark. It was enough to make any woman come.

  I closed my eyes and felt my hips buck. “Oh god…” I bit my bottom lip.

  “Look at me.”

  My eyes flashed open and locked on his. My intense orgasm was a million times stronger with that connection, with that beautiful man looking into my gaze like he was staring at my soul.

  My nails dug into his chest, and I bucked frantically, riding his cock hard as I finished. He’d barely been inside me for a few minutes, and his cock was already soaked in my orgasm. When the sensation passed, my hips slowed down, and I took him gently again, my claws retracting back into my fingers.

  “I love watching you come.” His hands spanned across my stomach, and he rubbed his thumbs across the skin surrounding my belly button. “I could jerk off to it a million times.”

  The fantasy of him rubbing one out in the shower or in his bed was enough to make my pussy tighten around his dick again. He was so thick it wasn’t hard to do. The slightest sensation made me squeeze him like a firm hand. “I jerk off to you every night. I pretend my husband is you when he fucks me. I come picturing your face…” I started to grind against him harder, my pussy taking all of him with my thrusts. I would never have the audacity to say these things to anyone else, but I was too high to care. I was having an affair with a man I met in a bar. There wasn’t much more I could do to ruin my reputation.

  He sat up and dug his hand deep into my hair. His lips moved to my neck, and he wrapped his powerful arm around my waist. Then he guided me up and down, forced me to take his length deep and hard.

  My arms circled his neck, and I kissed him hard on the mouth, my pussy stuffed with his massive dick. I panted into his mouth like a bitch in heat, desperate for him to give me his seed. My fingers tackled his hair, and I rocked against him, being swept away in the strongest passion I’d ever known. Even when I was in love, the sex wasn’t like this. It was good enough, but not good like this. “Balto…” My hands swept across his shoulders, feeling all the individual lines that separated his muscles. My nails trailed over the sweat that started to glisten across his hard body. I pulled my head back and pressed my face close to his, noting his cheekbones were so sharp they could cut glass. “I want to watch you come.”

  “I want to keep fucking you.”

  “You can—but come first.” I pressed my face against his, and I moved with him, rocking his thick dick harder and harder.

  He looked me in the eye as he hit his threshold, a moan coming from his closed mouth. He wasn’t vocal in his climaxes, screaming at the top of his lungs the way I did. He took the silent road, but all of his enjoyment was in his eyes. They closed initially once the euphoria hit him hard. They opened again as he clenched his jaw, his cock twitching inside of me as he filled the tip of the condom. Then his hips gave a noticeable jerk, a thrust as he finished. He held his breath during the entire combustion, and once it passed, he took a deep breath. “Jesus Christ, this pussy.” He rolled me onto my back and slipped off the condom. But his dick was still hard, solid like he hadn’t come at all. He opened his nightstand and grabbed another condom before he rolled it onto his length.

  I saw the come in the tip of the condom, so I didn’t know how that was possible. “How did you do that?” I’d never seen a man come and then be ready to go again right away.

  He moved on top of me and separated my thighs with his knees. “Look at yourself, baby. That’s how.”

  8

  Cassini

  After a plethora of climaxes, I lay beside him on the sweaty sheets. I didn’t snatch my clothes and bolt for the door right away because it wasn’t too late in the evening. Maria wouldn’t wonder where I was, and Lucian’s security detail wouldn’t find my disappearance odd. So I had some time.

  Besides, I was so tired and satisfied that I didn’t want to move.

  His king-size bed was so comfortable. His pill
ows were like clouds, and the low lighting created a cozy ambiance. Hundreds of women had lain in this same bed before me, but instead of feeling jealous, I felt lucky.

  I got to be one of them.

  I turned over to look at him, to see the sexy man sprawled out next to me. Six three and muscular, he was sexy from head to toe. His thighs were just as sculpted as his arms, and his calves were so tight, I wondered if he constantly had a muscle cramp. At this angle, the V in his hips was even more noticeable, deep cuts in his well-built frame. My hand planted against his stomach, and I trailed my touch over the endless grooves of his abs.

  He turned his head and looked at me, his sleepy expression and messy hair making him a sex god. His hand covered mine, and he gave it a gentle squeeze.

  I moved closer into his side and rested my face against his shoulder. His cologne and sweat mixed together to form the scent of pure masculinity. My hand rested against his chest, and I closed my eyes because I wanted to stay there forever. This man was a stranger, someone I randomly met in a bar late at night on a Wednesday, but now I cuddled into his side like I knew him like a lover. The truth was, I didn’t even know his last name. I had no idea why he had guards all over his property at all times. But I never asked because it didn’t seem to matter. He was just a man who got me off. He would never be anything else, not even my friend.

  But it was nice to pretend. Just as I could pretend my husband was someone else, I could pretend I met this man on the town. We had chemistry, so now I was in his bed, his part-time fuck buddy. I would return to my small apartment afterward and live my life, having the freedom to see him again if I wanted to. No one owned me. I was in charge of my life—my freedom. None of it was real…but it was fun to pretend.