Indelible You (Imagine Ink) Read online

  He pulled their kiss back just enough to chant her name like a prayer between hit and run kisses. “Erika.” Kiss. “Erika.” Kiss. “Erika.”

  Chewing on her name, tasting it as if he were starving and it was his only sustenance. Forehead to forehead, lips to lips, eye to eye, their heavy breath mixed to form an atmosphere that sustained them. “Say it again, please. Tell me to my face that you love me. Make me believe I’m not just hearing things. I’m begging you, say it again? Over and over, for the rest my days. If I hear those words from your beautiful mouth every single day of my life, it would still never be too much.”

  Erika’s lips curved upward and she palmed his cheeks with the loving touch he craved. “Walker Aaron Reid, I…umph…” jolted forward by the beaching of the boat, their conversation was forcefully interrupted.

  “Keep it in your pants until you’re off my boat, and I only take cash,” their cantankerous ferry operator grumped as he dragged the decrepit vessel all the way up onto the beach.

  Even that crusty old man couldn’t spoil their mood. Walker couldn’t pay the geezer fast enough. The need to get Erika back to his place, to have her naked and telling him those three words repeatedly while he made love to her body and she made love to his soul, was overwhelming.

  CHAPTER THREE

  ERIKA

  Erika was absolutely giddy. Her? Giddy. She hadn’t been giddy since…she graduated college maybe? She didn’t do giddy, and she especially didn’t do giddy in her thirties for crying out loud.

  At a time like this, she simply couldn’t help herself. Blown away by the revelation their feelings were mutual, they walked up the beach and toward the parking lot with their fingers interlaced tightly like high school sweethearts.

  Trying to focus on the things she needed to divulge to him was getting increasingly harder, actually, damn near impossible, as images of them in bed, sweaty and tangled in sheets kept creeping into her mind.

  Knowing she can’t make love to him without spilling all her secrets, Erika consciously slowed her pace, forcing Walker to stop.

  Turning, he embraced her without apparent hesitation, doubts, or restraints. “I love you Erika. I’m abso-fucking-lutely, head over heels, forever and a day in love with you.”

  Then...he kissed her. And not just any kiss. A kiss overburdened with a passion she had never experienced before. The melding of lips and outpouring of love was like being branded, branded by Walker. He wasn’t just searing her mouth with his, he was tattooing his name on her heart, carving it on her soul, and etching it deep into her very bones. This is what it felt like to be claimed.

  Owned.

  It was now or never. She needed to speak up before they made it to the truck. Erika was many things, but she wasn’t delusional enough to think the ride to his place or hers—and she was sure they would end up at one or the other together—wasn’t going to be a grope fest. “Walker, we need to talk about us. There are some things I need to explain to you before we can start a relationship. Technically…”

  Walker efficiently cut her off with a well-timed tonguess interruptus while maneuvering her backward into an immovable object.

  Had they arrived back at the truck already? Shit, if that were the case, she was in serious trouble.

  The bite of bark told her they still had a bit to go, that it was only a palm tree and not the truck…thank God. Exploring hands and a determined mouth were not conducive to thinking, let alone speaking.

  ***

  WALKER

  Ending the kiss was difficult, but going another second without hearing her say “I love you,” was damn near impossible. “You’re killing me here babe. If I don’t hear those words from you, and now, I’m going to curl up and die, right here on the beach. My heart has been starving since the day I met you, and only you can feed it with what it fucking needs.”

  “I love you, Walker.”

  He kissed her. “Again?”

  “I love you.”

  Kiss.

  “Again.”

  Kiss

  “I love you.”

  Kiss

  “One more time, please.”

  Kiss

  “I love you, Walker. I’m abso-fucking-lutely, head over heels, forever and a day in love with you.”

  That sound, that glorious sound. Three little words that held such immense power and unlimited potential. Three fucking syllables that were unpacking years of emotional baggage that was waded down with pain and self-judgment, and putting it all away once and for all. Healing. Promising. Nothing in his life ever felt so right.

  Ending their embrace with a groan, Walker interlaced their fingers again and began the trek toward her truck. “If we don’t stop now babe, I’ll throw you down and fuck you in the sand for everyone to see like a horny prom date. I want to make love to you so bad I swear I can taste you already.” Adjusting the front of his jeans to a slightly less painful position made it easier to walk. “Umm, I think we should go to my place tonight, it’s closer, and I’m not sure I could survive the extra eight mile drive to yours.”

  Walker didn’t give a flying fuck about what Erika wanted to say at this moment, he had his whole life to hear it. Having heard the only three words that matter, the time for talking had well passed. This was the time for action, and Walker was definitely a man of action.

  Their progress was halted again when they reached the truck and he made sure they picked up where they left off. He needed her to be so desperate for his touch, that by the time they got to his place, she’d beg him to take her against the back of her front door the minute it closed behind them. The bedroom would be nothing more than an afterthought at that point. Oh, he’d have her there too, and the kitchen, and the floor, and…was he falling forward?

  Erika had apparently reached behind them and opened the door of her beat up old Dodge. She leaned back toward the bench seat and brought Walker down on top of her. So caught up in the moment, Erika seemed to forgot herself and whatever she had been so desperate to say just moments ago.

  Nothing matters tonight, except at long-last making Erika his.

  Walker’s brain turned to mush at every stroke of her hand and brush of her lips. The feel of the woman he loved writhing beneath him with need was almost unbearable. Need he was more than happy to abate, if he could just hold on long enough to do so. The revelation of her love had stroked him into a frenzy. He was within seconds of coming in his pants. In order to satisfy her, and by God he would, he needed to slow his too-rapid ascent to the heights of pleasure.

  Baseball stats, that’ll do it. Pulling back his impending orgasm with dry facts worked in high school, it was worth a shot now. He hadn’t employed that technique in years, hadn’t been with anyone that made it necessary, but he would try now, for Erika.

  Canseco was um. Fuck. Babe Ruth, yep Babe Ruth. Sox. Yankees. World Series. Seven times. ERA…Oh, sweet merciful God… Her breast was made for his hand. Soft, smooth and warm, except the hot tip that was growing sharp as he raked his thumb across it.

  Walker didn’t want their first time together to be in a fucking truck in a dark corner of a beach parking lot. He wanted her to remember it, to cherish it. The need to obliterate her memories of every other time, with any other man, a necessity, like breathing. Regardless of what his mind wanted, his body was in control, and his body wanted to join with hers now.

  “God, Walker,” she panted as she pulled his shirt off with little finesse and peppered kisses on his chest before curling her tongue around his nipple ring. “I want you so bad.”

  A tsunami of desire roared through his bloodstream as her mouth vibrated against his nipple. “I know we should talk first, but I just can’t wait to feel you inside me.”

  She nipped the sensitive flesh, sucking the metal loop into her mouth, eliciting a groan from him that sounded feral to his own ears. Walker opened his eyes and watched as she worshipped every drop of ink on his completely-covered torso with her mouth and eyes. “I’m sorry, you deserve the
whole story before, but I can’t talk for needing you so bad. Promise me when we talk, you’ll listen and understand and for…”

  She stopped abruptly.

  The fog of passion lifted just enough when her lips became stationary on his chest, that he knew exactly what halted her passionate catalog of his extensive body modifications and robbed her speech. A pair of gorgeous eyes hidden there among the Viking ship prow, Thor’s hammer, and other symbolic tats that held deep meaning for him.

  Regarding those same eyes—alive and in person—Walker knew the moment she made the connection, or a tentative one anyway. The combination of question and recognition in their depths, shifted more toward the latter.

  Caressing the tattooed eyes with her finger, she raised her curious gaze to his. “When did you get these, and are they what I think they are? Are they…mine? Why?”

  “Ten months,” Walker kissed her luscious neck. “One week…,” kissing one captivating eye, then the next, “…three days ago.” Erika’s lips tried to follow when he ended each passion soaked kiss to continue his answers, but he evaded her questing mouth. “Yes, they’re yours. I had them added the day I admitted to myself that I was in love with you. It was something I did for my sanity. The clawing need to look into them each day is as essential to my survival as the beat of my heart. I thought I could never stare into the genuine thing every morning, so…” He trailed off, shrugging in a “that’s all I have to say about that” manner, effectively closing the subject.

  “But…I…?” What could she say to that? He knew her thoughts were still swirling while she traced the ink lines with an appreciative but maddening touch.

  Walker grabbed both of her distracting hands, and shoved them onto the vinyl seat above her head as he bit her peaked nipple through her dress, causing her to cease her interrogation and start moaning. “Stop talking.”

  Shifting his grip, he caught both her wrists in one hand, freeing his other for more intimate pursuits. As his now-liberated hand was dragging her dress up her thigh, he growled commands with complete authority against her aroused hardened breast.

  “The only words out of your lovely mouth for the next thirty minutes or so, had better involve a litany of pleas to a deity and a chorus of how much you fucking love me…” Reaching the barrier he sought, separating him from the one place he wanted to be most in this world, he ripped the scrap of fabric from her body, shoving it in his front pocket, and finally experienced her bare heat.

  Time stood still. The earth ceased to rotate. The center of the universe was right here. Right fucking now.

  A moment that would be burned in his mind forever. But if he wanted to enjoy that velvety softness welcoming him anytime soon, he needed to regain control. “…or a dirty detailed account of what you want me to do this body. Your pleasure now belongs to me and only me.”

  Walker needed to touch that fire, wanted to be burned. Thrusting his finger inside that wet patch of heaven, he watched her face to gauge her reaction. It was surely the most beautiful sight he’d ever witnessed. Erika’s eyes slid closed and her teeth released their hold on her lower lip as she thrust her head back in an open-mouthed silent cry of pleasure.

  Freeing her wrists released his other hand to pull the top of her dress down. Viewing her perfect tits for the first time was a religious experience. He began a driving rhythm with his fingers as her newly placed grip on his shoulders wrenched down, the pain of her blunt nails, sheer ecstasy.

  “And begging,” he leaned over and rasped in her ear, “begging is always acceptable.” Kissing his way from the hollow there all the way to her breasts, he settled in at her nipple and feasted as he added another finger to her wetness. Walker adored the shudder that passed down her body at the word “begging.” Hell yes, they were going to be combustible together in bed, just like he always knew they would be.

  Glancing up, he caught her watching him intently.

  Not sure how much longer he could last, he removed his fingers and brought them to his lips. Maintaining eye contact, his tongue snaked out to wrap around one glistening wet digit. “Mmm.” Closing his eyes as the first taste of her exploded in his mouth, it was all he could do not to come right there on the spot. He knew it was risky to taste her while he was riding the edge of ecstasy, but he couldn’t resist knowing her flavor. “You wanna know what I taste?” Walker asked, dragging his other wet finger around her mouth to gloss her lips before bringing it back to his. As he sucked his fingers dry with masculine appreciation, she licked her lips, tasting herself.

  Walker knew the sight of her licking her own juices off her lips would be the one he recalled when the moment of his death was upon him. That’s the vision that would flash through his mind at the end, and he was perfectly happy with that knowledge.

  No more waiting. That same hand moved to his jeans in record speed, freeing his aching cock and dragging it through her wetness. Rubbing the darkened head against her clit over and over, he answered his own question.

  “Forever Erika. That’s what I taste…forever.”

  With that statement, he thrust himself to the hilt.

  Stilling himself when his hips met hers was damn near impossible, but he managed to reign himself in. The need to be connected with her, to savor this moment temporarily outweighed his need to own her pleasure. Having fantasized about this exact second in time for five fucking years, Walker intended to suspend it for as long as his cock, and his willpower, allowed him the possibility.

  Wrapping his strong arms under her shoulders, he cradled her head in his hands, stroking her cheeks with his thumbs. Visually gorging on the significance, his eyes bore into hers. “I love you Erika. My body, my heart, my very fucking soul, they’re all yours. They have been since the day I first inked you. You’re my forever, my happily ever after.” Covering her mouth with his with emotion-induced brutality, he set a punishing but oh-so-pleasurable rhythm with his body.

  Moving one hand down to grip her hip, he pressed down and the added traction changed the angle his cock ever so slightly. Slight, but significant enough judging by the way her body bowed up and an unbridled feminine moan of pleasure filled the cab of the truck, echoing off the fogged windows and settling in his long-term memory. Leaning forward, he lavished all his oral attention on her breast, pulling more heavenly moans from her throat.

  It was pure bliss.

  Walker wanted to prolong her pleasure, but he was swiftly losing the battle with his body to do so. His cock had a mind of its own and was reaching for his pleasure too soon.

  He’d been with more women than he was proud of, but never, not one solitary time, was it anything even close to the religion of being with Erika. Baptized in the fire of her passion and the sweat of her body, Walker's heart was redeemed.

  This wasn’t just fucking—oh it was definitely that—but it was more, much, much more. There was a sharing of souls and unspoken promises being made. Believing this type of salvation out of his reach, he’d given up on it a long time ago. If he’d known it would be like this, he would have pursued her with a vengeance.

  Now that he had sampled what forever felt like, he knew if he ever lost it, he would simply be existing as a shell of his former self. This was it, he’d never have this with anyone but Erika, his Erika, and that thought brought on that tingle at the base of his spine he had been fighting against for what seemed like all night.

  “I’m…sorry babe. I can’t…last…much longer.” His words were punctuated by his thrusting hips and questing lips. “I fucking love you…so much. I never knew it…could be like…this.”

  His rhythm became more sporadic with each word. “I’ll make it up to…fuck…I promise…umm.” Walker ground his hips against hers with singular purpose, to send her soaring to the heavens before him. Her flight was imminent; he could feel it in every quiver her body made in response to his actions. That knowledge was pulling him into the clouds with her.

  ***

  ERIKA

  Oh dear, merciful God. He
r body was ablaze. Carnal flames licking every inch of her skin. Not only did Walker know exactly what her body needed, he knew what her heart craved as well. Those incredible words stroked her G-spot as well as any body part. Well, maybe not any, his piercing was doing a damn fine job of that. Erika was already careening down the pleasure highway at top speed, heading for O-town. Turning her head to the side, she broke the kiss, needing to catch her breath.

  Having never come from a man's cock alone, she figured that would end tonight. To come with other men, there had always needed to be a lot of clit rubbing with thigh tightening and toe pointing that would make a ballerina proud. She’d heard of women who had vaginal orgasms, but she decided they were fucking unicorns.

  Walker was making her believe in unicorns right here, right now, with a seatbelt receptacle digging into her kidney and his Prince Albert stroking the perfect spot.

  Angling her head, she kissed his permanent tribute to her. “Walker.” Saying his name made it more...real, and her body started to dance to whatever tune he played. “Oh God, Walker.”

  This was it, she would have her first real orgasm, her mind turning to goo. “You have nothing to…to apologize for Walker. I…I’m the one who should say…sorry,” she panted a series of incoherent words that she thought formed sentences until she heard them. Shit, she couldn’t even talk, her body was humming so loud. Only one part of her body was working right now, and oh, what an amazing job it was doing.

  Walker started rapid-firing his every thought into the atmosphere of the humid truck cab. The words just came shooting out between the thrusts, grinds and grunts. “Umm babe, you feel so, uh, fucking astounding. I want to, uh, be balls deep in this pussy forever, uh. I can’t wait ‘til Monday, uh, when the courthouse opens, uh, so I can fucking, uh, marry you.”