Consider Me (Playing For Keeps Book 1)

CARTER

“DO I LOOK LIKE A RACCOON?”

“A cute raccoon.” I wipe the remnant of her mascara from beneath her eyes as she giggles softly. “There. No more raccoon, just my beautiful girl.”

Olivia sniffles, a sweet smile on her lips. “You’re so patient with me, Carter. Thank you for helping me work through this.”

“Always, Ollie. Together.”

She slips her hands around my neck and presses her lips to mine, coaxing my mouth open. The sweep of her tongue is tentative, like she’s testing the waters, and I grab her hips, bodies fusing together as I rock her on top of me, letting her know there’s no hesitation here. I want her now, the same way I’ve always wanted her, so I take the control I crave, giving her what she needs until we’re nothing but lashing tongues, rough hands, and searing touches.

I lift her shirt over her head and slip one lacy bra strap off her shoulder, littering the skin there with kisses, dotting it with tiny, purple marks as I suck on her and ditch the bra altogether. Setting her on her feet, I drop to my knees and shimmy her jeans off her hips, down her smooth legs. My thumb teases the edge of her panties, and she sinks her fingers into my hair, her back hitting the wall when I shift the satin and my lips meet the pool of warmth between her thighs. Her exhale is a breath of raw desire and need that fuels my tongue as it dips inside her, and I groan as the sweet taste of her fills my mouth.

My name leaves Olivia’s mouth as she tugs on my hair, my shoulders, trying to guide me to her. When I don’t come, her fingers wrap around my tie and pull, drawing me up to my feet, and I pin her to the wall with my hips. With a fistful of her hair, I yank her head to the side and devour her neck.

Olivia’s fingers tighten around my tie, hauling me closer, and our chests heave together as I bracket her jaw in my hand, our lips a breath apart.

“Want to have some fun?” she asks on a raspy breath.

My gaze dips to the midnight blue tie in her fist then flips back up. Fuck me, what the hell is going through her mind right now? Surely it can’t be what I’m thinking, watching her wind that thing around her knuckles like she wants to…use it.

But then she lifts a brow, and I grin. “Trust exercises?”

Her teeth tug on her bottom lip, lashes batting, and I’m already pulling the tie free, watching the silk slip between her fingers.

“How do you want to trust me tonight?”

Something mischievous dances in her dark eyes. “Blindly.”

Fucking shit, I’m dead. Gone, deceased, six feet under. What the fucking fuck? Is this the result of her reading smutty books? Because o-fucking-kay, I’ll buy her the whole damn romance section and turn a room into a library for her.

“Are you sure?” Because I’m kinda freaking out.

Olivia takes my hand and leads me to the bed, and like the obsessed puppy I am, I follow. Her lips touch mine, tender, soft, and sweet, and then she pulls my tie from around my neck and my cock pitches an entire four-person tent in my goddamn pants.

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” I blurt.

“Me neither.” She kisses the dimple in my right cheek when I smile. “I love your dimples.”

“I love—” My jaw slams shut. My throat’s itchy; I bring my hand to it. “Um. I love, um…your butt.” I cringe. “And, um…everything…about you?” Sweet Christ, my brain is melted.

Before I can embarrass myself further, I lift her onto the bed. She clambers to her knees, resting her butt on her heels and reaching for me. Smiling, I shake my head.

“I’m in charge, remember?” I run the tip of her tie across her shoulder, down between her perfect tits, around one nipple, watching as it hardens to a stiff peak. Her stomach clenches as the silk swirls around her belly button and dips low, trailing up the inside of her thighs and tracing around her glistening pussy. “Isn’t that how this will work tonight? I lead you, and you trust me?”

Olivia nods, eyes widening as she watches my fingers work the buttons of my shirt, watches me slip it off my shoulders. When my bottoms follow, she licks her ruby lips, shifting, thighs rubbing together. She wants me to touch her, and I will. I won’t be able to take my hands off her all damn night.

Naked, I join her on the bed, fingers curling around her biceps, chest to her back. The tip of my nose trails her neck until my lips meet her ear. “I need you to know that I’d never hurt you. Hurting you would break my heart, and you own that thing. You’re my Ollie girl.”

Her hands quiver where they rest on top of her thighs, gripping that tie like her life depends on it.

“Tell me. Tell me you know I won’t hurt you.”

Her inhale is sharp before she speaks, words a breathy whisper. “You won’t hurt me.”

My lips move over her neck, stopping when I find the edge of her collarbone. “Tell me you’re perfect.”

Her body tenses, fingernails digging into the perfect skin on her creamy thighs. Her head starts moving, wagging. “I’m so far from perfect.”

“But you’re perfect for me.” My lips meet hers before she can object again, because that’s what she’s going to do; I can see it in her eyes. Dragging the tie from her legs, I watch it slip through her small hands. “Close your eyes, gorgeous.”

Her lashes rest against her cheekbones as I lay the silk over her eyes and loop the tie together behind her head. The loose ends drape down her back, the midnight blue a stark contrast to her milky skin. Her fingertips dance along the silk until she finds the knot at the back.

“Does that feel okay?” I sweep her hair over her shoulder. “Not too tight?”

Olivia shakes her head. “It’s good.” Her voice crackles and I link our fingers together, kissing her lips. She turns her face, seeking more, but I move off the bed, because I need to admire her. “Carter,” she whispers, reaching blindly for me as her head whips around, curls fanning out, chest inflating and deflating rapidly.

“It’s okay, baby.” I scrub a hand over my mouth, because sweet fucking fuck, she’s a vision right now. On her knees in the center of my bed, my tie over her eyes leaving her vulnerable and open to me. “I’m right here. Listen to my voice.”

Her hands fall to her knees, flexing, and she takes a deep breath, nodding.

“You’re stunning. Fucking breathtaking. I can’t believe you’re mine. I want to take a picture of you like this, burn this moment into my memory forever.”

Olivia trembles when the tip of my pointer finger lands between her shoulder blades, falling down her spine. “Okay.”

I stiffen. Okay? Okay what? I wasn’t asking, I was just—“I can take your picture?” It comes out a shitload breathy, earning me a tiny giggle from my pretty lady.

“If you want to.”

“If I—if I fucking want to? Are you fucking with me right now, Ollie?”

A cheeky smile pulls at her lips. “Soon, hopefully.”

I huff a chuckle. “Listen to you. Spending too much time with me. Starting to sound like me.” I open my mouth on her shoulder, teeth pressing into her delicate skin, and she moans. “For my eyes only. Promise.”

She reaches back to run her fingers through my hair. “I trust you.”

She doesn’t, not fully, not yet. But she will. I’ll make sure of it, and when I have that trust, I’ll never, ever break it. I’ll know how lucky I’ll be to have earned it.

I’m glad she can’t see the way I scramble for my phone, how it fumbles from hands, the way I dive for it before it can hit the floor. I’ve got fucking butter fingers right now because I can’t believe any of this is happening.

I get my shit together before I climb behind her on the bed, inhaling enough air to submerse myself between her legs without needing to come up for air for at least five minutes.

Which is basically what I plan to do.

But first, I wind her hair around my fist and tug, tipping her head to the side to grant my lips access to that neck. Her shoulder erupts with goose bumps as my mouth moves over her, licking a slow path across her delicious skin, and I snap the first picture.

When her head lolls and her mouth opens with a moan, my fingers tweaking one nipple, I take the second picture.

“Carter,” Olivia whimpers, rubbing against me. She finds my aching cock, palm closing around it. “I want to taste you.”

There’s no holding in that groan. It rumbles out as I drop my phone and squeeze her tits, slamming her against me. “You can’t say things like that, Ollie girl.”

“Please, Carter.”

I rocket to my feet, standing in front of her and fisting my cock. It would be rude of me to decline her when she asks so nicely.

Olivia wets her lips in anticipation, and I watch her throat work. “Will you take a picture?”

My body stills. “Of-of—”

“Yes.” She reaches for me, and goddammit, she manages to find my cock on the first try without seeing. Must be some soul mate shit. And also the size of my sword of thunder.

She gives me a gentle squeeze, her hand so fucking tiny against me, and when she starts stroking my hard length, I snap the third picture, one that’s definitely going to send me over the edge every time I look at it, which will be fifteen hundred times a day, give or take.

She tilts her face up, waiting for instruction.

I brush my thumb over the sweep of her rosy cheek. “Open your mouth, baby.”

I haul her forward the moment her lips part, and the second her tongue flicks out, tasting, smearing that drop of liquid around before the head disappears in her mouth, I fucking whimper. My hips jerk forward and my cock hits the back of her throat. Her fingernails bite into my hips as she slides her mouth over me, and my eyes blaze as I take a picture.

I stroke her cheek. “My wild girl.” Something heavy and feral claws up my chest as I watch her, begging me to lose control, to take everything I want and more. I can’t lose control though, not tonight, not when I’m trying to show her all the ways she can trust me. But Jesus Christ, all I want to do right now is fuck her pretty mouth and watch her fucking gag.

Her hand squeezes around me, working the base of my cock where her mouth can’t reach, and when she hums around me, a sound of desire that makes me vibrate, I hiss, ripping my cock out of her mouth.

I take her hand, leading her up to the pillows. “Lie back and open your legs. Let me see your pretty pussy.”

She does as she’s asked, her dark curls a wild mess against my white pillows, her ruby red lips glistening, cheeks and chest flushed as she breathes heavily. She’s a fucking angel, and when she parts her thighs, I swear I die a little inside. I take another picture, but it’ll never do her justice.

“Look at you, baby.” I crawl between her legs, inhaling her scent. Like sweet maple syrup, I wanna lick every inch of her up. “So wet. Can you feel it?”

My tongue glides up her slit, and her back lifts off the bed with her cry. Guiding her hand down her body, I stop just below her belly button.

“Touch yourself, baby. Feel how wet you are, how excited this makes you.”

The color in her cheeks deepens, and I stop her argument before it can leave her lips with my mouth on hers.

“You’re beautiful, Ollie. Every single inch of you is flawless perfection, including those soft, gooey insides you try so damn hard to hide. I don’t want you to ever be embarrassed with me.”

“It’s never, ever been like this before,” Olivia whispers. Her hand trembles as it searches for mine, and she grips my fingers tightly. “I don’t know why it’s so different with you, Carter.”

I know why. Pretty sure she does too. It’s part of what scares us both, I think. Forever is a long time.

Instead, I press my mouth to her ear and tell her, “You’re my favorite kind of different.”

Her body heats as I kiss my way down it, like my lips blaze a trail of fire in their wake, and I take her hand, guiding the tips of her fingers up the inside of her thigh, guiding them through her wet folds.

“Jesus,” I mutter, fisting my cock as I watch her tentative strokes, watch the way her lips part with each jagged inhale as she makes herself feel good. “Fucking gorgeous. That’s my girl. Make yourself come.”

“Are you…are you watching?”

I chuckle, sinking down to my belly as I press my lips to the inside of her knee. “Can’t take my eyes off you, but I’ve never been able to.”

Her pace quickens, hips rolling. Somehow—shaky hands and all—I succeed in taking one last picture before I toss my phone, barely registering the sound of it clattering to the floor.

“Fuck the pictures,” I growl, impaling her with two fingers and without warning.

Olivia shoots forward with a cry, and her hand falls away as she thrusts herself into my hand. “Carter, please. I want you to fuck me.”

“I want that too. And I promise you’ll get it, but you have to be patient.”

She wags her head back and forth with a whine. “I’m not patient.”

“I know,” I say on a chuckle. “But you’re going to have to trust me.”

My lips close over her clit, sucking her into my mouth, and I slam my palm against her chest, shoving her back down to the pillows when she tries to rip me up to her. Her fingers find my hair, pushing me closer, and she comes undone on my tongue while she cries my name, begs me not to stop.

So I don’t. I devour her over and over again until she’s a writhing, wriggling mess, her legs melting into the mattress, and when I finally pull away, I’m still not sated.

I never will be. Not with her.

Flipping her over, I set her on her hands and knees, watching the way her head moves as she searches for me over her shoulder.

“What do you need, baby?”

“You. A kiss. Please.”

My palm slides along her jaw, and I take her mouth without hesitation. Each sweep of my tongue is a deep plunge, an unhurried exploration I don’t want to end as I push my cock inside her warm, slick walls. I devour her sharp gasp with another brain-melting kiss before I rest my forehead against her temple and begin an achingly slow plunge.

Every time with Olivia is a dance between frantic and savoring, savage and tender. She makes me feel wild, but all I want to do is slow down and make each moment last forever.

I reach around to find her clit, circling and teasing while I drive myself forward. The sheets ball in her tight grasp as she starts falling apart around me, whispering my name over and over again as she comes.

And then: “Harder.”

“Harder?” I grip her throat, nuzzling her hair. “You want me to fuck you?” I feel the thickness in her swallow beneath my palm before her lips part with an inhale.

“Yes.”

“Then I’m gonna fuck you like I own you. Tell me you’re mine, Olivia.”

“I’m yours, Carter.”

I pull back until I’m barely inside her, and I slip the blindfold off. With her curls wrapped around my fist and her deep brown eyes peering up at me, I tell her, “You’re gonna look me in the eyes while I own you.”

The last bit of me unravels as I slam inside her, and when Olivia screams out my name, a dark smile tugs on my mouth. Every last bit of my control evaporates as I piston inside her, driving myself deeper, faster, harder, and through it all, Olivia chants my name, begs for More, please, Carter, more, and Don’t stop, God, don’t stop.

Curling overtop of her, my tongue glides over her scorching skin, teeth sinking into her shoulder. When I pull back, I hold her head taut, coaxing every throaty noise out of her as my hips slap against her ass with each punishing plow.

I yank her off me without warning, drop down to my ass, flip her onto my lap, and crush her down on me with a hiss.

“Fucking…beautiful,” I grunt, lifting and dropping her on my cock. “Tell me. Tell me you’re perfect for me.” She starts to shake her head, and I cut her off with a snarl. “Don’t you fucking dare.”

“I’m…”

“Perfect.”

“For you. Perfect for you.”

“You’re damn right you are.”

Wrapping her legs around my waist, I tip Olivia, searing her with a kiss that crushes my chest, squeezes my heart.

“Come with me.” It’s meant to be a command but it sure as hell sounds a lot more like begging to me. “Come, Ollie.”

And she does. We do. Together, our bodies shaking, quaking as I bury my face in her neck. Her heels into my ass, nails raking down my back. My sweaty body sticks to hers, which is cool, ’cause I think I’d like to be stuck to her forever.

The hug I crush her in is nearly suffocating as I roll us to our sides, trying like hell to catch my breath in between the pepper of a thousand kisses on her stunning face.

“I’m sorry about tonight,” Olivia whispers after a moment, cheek pressed to my chest while she plays with the smattering of hair there. “I’m sorry for saying things I didn’t mean and for hurting your feelings. I got hung up on your past and was too afraid to give you my trust. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, baby.” I twirl a lock of her hair around my finger. “I need to know when you’re feeling scared. And we got through it, didn’t we?”

“We fought already.”

“It’s called passion, Ollie. Wild and unrestrained. Eruptive. I don’t want a love that’s anything other than crazy, and crazy about you is the only way I know to describe how I feel.”

My heart smiles at the way her face lights up, and I stroke my thumb over the flush of her high cheekbone, the perfect bow of her top lip.

“I see the fire in your eyes and all I wanna do is fuel it. Light me up, set my soul on fire. I’m yours.”

Two hours, three more orgasms, and a snack break later, I’m still lying awake in bed, Olivia tucked into my side while she breathes deeply. I can’t sleep. I’m staring down at my phone, watching a replay of my fight for the third time, gnawing on my lip as the video pans to Olivia’s face.

The second I drop my gloves, she rockets out of her seat, eyes wide. When I land the first punch, she grips the base of her throat. When Daley and I go tumbling to the ground, her hands fly to her mouth, and the terrified look on her face is one I never want to be responsible for again.

Olivia stirs softly, hand sliding across my torso as I set my phone down. “Mmm. Carter?”

“Come here, baby.” Hooking my arms under hers, I hoist her up to me, tucking the blankets around us as I snuggle into her. “Having you in my arms is the best feeling in the whole world.”

Olivia exhales a happy sigh. “Like you so much.”

I touch my lips to the tip of her nose. “Like you so much too.”

Other words want to leave my mouth, words that scare me and thrill me simultaneously. Words that come with a meaning so deep, so permanent, a connection that screams forever. It feels too soon and yet, at the same time, it’s as if they knocked on my door and I let them in without hesitation.

Is this what it feels like? Wanting to share all your pieces, the good ones and the not-so-good ones? Wanting to take her hand in yours and hold tight as you take each step forward? Steps into the unknown, the dark and the light, where we tackle fears together and come out stronger each time.

My gaze traces the soft lines of Olivia’s face beneath the fragments of moonlight that stream across her, and I know.

I brush my knuckles across her cheekbone, and when her lashes don’t flutter, I whisper the words against her skin.

“I think I love you, Ollie.”