The Belle and the Beard by Kate Canterbary (good book club books .txt) 📕

believe it. I couldn't even breathe because the pressure—my god, the pressure. But it was so good. It was good in that lip-biting, clothes-tearing, sheet-twisting kind of way.

A gasp stuttered out of me as he edged my feet apart and found that perfect spot right inside me. "There you go," he murmured. "There you are."

There was a minute when I did nothing more than breathe against the wall while Linden made me a hot, slippery, grinding version of myself that I'd never met before. I didn't let anyone pin me to a wall naked and say rude things while I rode their hand. I'd never.

I'd thought about it but I'd never.

There was the sound of a belt unlatching, a fly unzipping, fabric rustling, and I needed to see him. I needed it. There were at least two tattoos that required study and my hands itched to explore that husky body of his. My nipples too. It was completely deranged but I was dying to know the feel of his skin and the dark hair I was certain trailed down his chest against my breasts.

I started to shift, to pivot as much as anyone could while impaled on a pair of fingers, but Linden wasn't allowing it. "What did I just tell you? I'll give you what you need but you have to stop squirming."

"I'm not squirming. I'm—ohhhh." He pushed his cock against my ass and I couldn't believe how hard and hot he was. It didn't seem real. "Please tell me we're not doing this against the wall. I can't see anything and I really don't like this idea."

"Where would you like me to do it?" he asked as his fingers speared inside me again and his thumb circled my clit. "Tell me what you want, Peach."

Those fingers were going to cause my entire body to implode. I was going to cave in. I was going to fall apart before I touched him and that seemed like a tragedy of terrible proportions. "I just want—oh my god, I want everything."

Linden kissed and bit his way up my shoulder. The soft laugh he breathed out sent a ripple of goose bumps down my chest, over my nipples. "You want to be more specific?"

"We could've stayed in the kitchen if you have a fondness for walls and standing. It's impolite to smush a lady up against a wall for more than a moment or two."

"Let me be honest with you now. I'm gonna be real impolite tonight," he rasped into my ear before he pulled away. The sudden absence of that big body—and those fingers—left me cold and clenching around nothing. "Come help me."

As I turned, I found Linden unbuttoning his shirt, his jeans and boxers abandoned to the floor along with my dress. His cock bobbed under the tail of the plaid and I assumed that was the help he needed. I reached for him as he shrugged out of the plaid, pulled the t-shirt underneath over his head. He was huge. I didn't know a lot of dicks on a first-name basis but this one was huge. It was fitting—quite literally—as Linden was a tall, barrel-chested beast of a man and anything short of an impossibly thick shaft wouldn't make sense on him.

I was so happy for things that made really good sense.

"Like this?" I asked. I shot him a quick glance before running an appreciative gaze from his shoulders to his toes. The dark fuzz running down his chest and the thatch between his legs were just like his beard—soft and coarse at the same time.

A smirk pulled at his lips and he tilted his head to the side as I stroked him. "Exactly like that."

Light cut in from the living room, illuminating his lightly tanned skin and the tattoos on both biceps. There was the single mountaintop with the dragon and the portion of the sword, both of which I'd spotted before, but now I saw the sword was part of a larger piece where it crossed with an axe and an arrow. I ran my hand over that one. "What is this?"

"We can talk about the Three Hunters another time," he said, his hands sliding to my hips. "Same with Smaug and the Lonely Mountain. You asked me to stop smushing you so that's what I'm doing now."

He steered me across the room, backing me up against the bed until my legs couldn't go any farther, then he picked me up like I was the smallest little thing in the universe and set me on the mattress. Like this, with the room dark and only touch to lead the way, I felt like I could do anything. I could have anything. And just maybe, I could be everything.

I heard a drawer open and Linden tossed a shiny strip of condoms to the bed. "You decide how many I'm going to need."

I picked up the foil packets as he climbed over me, his shaft dragging up my thigh, along my belly like a warning. "Probably all of them."

Kneeling between my legs, he said, "You can't tease me like that."

"Who said I'm teasing?" I asked, drawing my legs up to wind around his waist.

I tried to urge him closer to me, to get more of that friction I needed, but he only smoothed his hands up my thighs like he was trying to calm a skittish horse. I really did not care to be the skittish horse in this scenario. I wasn't skittish. I knew what I wanted and I wanted it now. I just had to ask for it.

"If you're not teasing, I hope you plan to spend the entire weekend in this bed." He shifted one hand from my leg to stroke his cock as he watched me for a slow, heavy minute. The rhythmic slap of skin was the only sound between us. "Don't test me, Jasper. I will keep you here for the next sixty hours if you let me."

"Get that condom on. I'll decide