Page 73 of Praised
ROSE
One of thethings I loved the most about Flynn being so much bigger than me was the way he could control me with his body, his hands, his mouth.
“Get out of these,” he murmured against me, setting to work with steady hands between my legs. Together, we got me out of the rest of my clothes and I was on his lap again, but naked. He wasn’t wearing much either, just loose and soft pajama pants, but in light of the things we’d just talked about, the things he’d asked of me, I felt unbelievably naked.
Flynn traced his hands up my sides, whispering against my mouth as he moved. He counted his way up my ribs and around my shoulders, holding me strong and hard against him while he dipped his tongue into my mouth. He kissed me like it was a confirmation of everything he’d just said to me. Like he was offering himself—signed, sealed and delivered—as long as I could meet him halfway.
“I want you,” I begged against his mouth, grinding against his lap.
In that moment, I wasn’t just physically naked, I was emotionally bare as well. Grasping at something I knew would make me feel better, something that would overshadow that fear with another more pleasurable feeling, I ground down against the burning hot erection between Flynn’s legs.
“Not tonight.” He bit my bottom lip between his teeth and pulled, drawing me closer to him.
“Why not?” I made another circle with my hips, hoping to convince him.
Flynn groaned and trailed his hands back down to my hips and holding me still. Fuck, he was strong. He was so big, so handsome, so powerful. How had I ever stood a chance? Whatever he had for me, I wanted, and whatever he wanted from me, he could have. I couldn’t think straight around him, and I didn’t want to. It was almost enough to erase everything that scared me, everything I’d fought so hard against for years before him.
“You’re drunk on the adrenaline,” he murmured. “The fear, the exposure. I’d feel like I was taking advantage.”
I fisted his hair in my hands and tried to angle his head for another kiss, but he was so solid beneath me. So unyielding.
“I promise you’re not.”
He smiled and pressed his lips against mine, barely a ghost of the kiss I so badly wanted from him.
“This is giving up control,” he whispered. “This is trusting me to know what’s best for us both.”
“Your cock doesn’t feel like it thinks this is best.”
He laughed and kissed me again, a little bit deeper, but still nowhere near what I wanted. Flynn’s hands shifted and cradled my ass, reminding me again how much bigger and broader than me he was. I closed my eyes and mentally focused on the way his hands spread against me, the points of contact where every finger pressed into my skin. He stood, the pressure points deepening, and I dropped my head against his shoulder.
“My cock isn’t in charge,” he said into my ear, walking us both into the bedroom.
He carefully laid me down on top of the blankets and lowered himself over me. I wrapped my legs around him and held him against my chest, and he seemed content with that level of entanglement. But his hips stayed still as he kissed me, brushing my hair back from my face and peppering his lips around my chin, my jaw, my cheeks, even over my eyelids.
Flynn kissed me until my legs unwound from his waist and I was boneless beneath him, drunk for real on the way his mouth made every cell in my body come to life screaming his name. He kissed me with his tongue, his hands, his body, using everything he had to drive me mad until I stopped begging him to fuck me. Until I realized he’d been right all along and the soft touches and deep and soulful kisses were exactly what the both of us had needed most.
I didn’t remember an end to our make-out session, but I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I remembered, sun streamed through the windows, casting shadows across the foot of the bed. Flynn was asleep beside me, not on top of me, curled onto his side with one hand settled gently against the swell of my waist. One of my legs was stuck between his, our bodies close and warm and touching everywhere we could manage except for our mouths.
Smiling—and trusting—I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.
* * *
It had been four days since that encounter, since those truths were laid on the table, and nothing had been the same since.
And that wasn’t a bad thing.
I sat across from him over dinner, sharing sushi that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. The restaurant choice had been a concession for us both, but the tension of the debate was quickly forgotten as soon as we’d slid into the same side of the booth and opened the menu. Flynn’s hand rested steadily on the top of my left thigh, inching up with every roll that landed on our table. The touch was intimate, but not sexual, and it was easy as breathing to lean into him comfortably as the night went on.
“I want you to meet my friends again,” he said after taking a sip of his hot sake.
“They’re intimidating,” I admitted.
I’d often thought back to the night the five of them showed up while I was on shift. There wasn’t anything decidedly aggressive about them. It was only a combination of their looks, their stature and, of course, their wealth. But it was impossible to think about them without thinking about Grayson…and the conversation we’d had in the alley on Sunday night.
“You’re intimidating,” Flynn whispered, nudging his nose against the spot above my ear.
The words felt like they were meant to be praise, but they raised my guard just the same. Grayson’s voice made its way back into the front of my mind.
