Taking Beauty (Taking Beauty Trilogy Book 1) Read online

  I shivered at his touch, his boldness shocking me.

  His fingers snaked into my hair slowly. And then, ever so slightly, he squeezed, pulling my head back as he pulled down.

  I gasped, my eyes wide with disbelief, my mouth wide open in surprise. Before I could say a word to protest, his mouth crashed onto mine.

  I froze. Waves of pain shot through my head, his fingers tightening their grip as his tongue dove into my mouth, tangling with my own.

  He towered over me, kissing me deeply as I whimpered, my body softening below him. When I felt his arm slide around my waist and his body press against mine, the rock-hard erection pressing into my belly, a low moan escaped from me.

  He tore his mouth away and his eyes clashed with mine. A slow, satisfied smile spread across his face and he nodded slowly.

  “That’s what I thought,” he murmured, before smashing his lips into mine again. His kiss was deep, exploring, so hot, his tongue skillfully pulling every ounce of pleasure from my body. He pulled his fingers from my hair and brought his hands to my shoulders, gently pushing me back until I was up against the table, his body pressing into mine, his cock hard and throbbing and so hot I could feel the heat through our clothes.

  Before I knew what was happening, my hand flew up, slapping his incredibly handsome face as hard as I possibly could.

  I was so confused. What the fuck had just happened?

  His eyes flashed with amusement as he touched his cheek, and a slow smile spread across his face.

  “Did that feel good?” he asked.

  “No!” I replied, my voice shaking. It didn’t feel good. Not at all.

  “Then don’t do it again,” he said, his low growl a stern warning.

  “Bear, I —,” I began, shaking my head in confusion, my lips on fire from his kiss.

  His hands interrupted me. They were everywhere all at once. Sliding over the curve of my breasts, trailing down my belly and over my hips, until he was lifting up the edge of my skirt and I was letting him, watching with wide eyes as the fabric slid up over my hips.

  In a flash, he ripped my red lace panties from my body as easily as if they were made of tissue, throwing them on the ground at our feet.

  “What are you doing!” I cried, my eyes wide, my brain reeling in shock.

  “You wore those for me, didn’t you?” he asked.

  I whimpered when I felt the air on my naked pussy. His lush lips landed back on mine, kissing me as my protests died away in his mouth and turned to soft moans.

  His tongue searched mine while his fingers found my center, plunging inside smoothly. My thighs fell open, welcoming his touch as waves of pleasure shot through my body, his fingers expertly pressing upwards, leaving me weak in the knees, my entire body shaking in shocked pleasure.

  Quickly, he pulled his hand out of my pussy and tore his lips from mine.

  “Open,” he whispered, sliding a finger in my mouth, the taste of my own pussy filling my mouth as my tongue twirled around his finger. I met his gaze, my questioning eyes daringly meeting his, a hint of mischievousness sparkling brightly in them before he turned me around quickly and bent me over the table.

  A quick rustle of clothing, the sound of a falling zipper and in an instant — hardness.

  Throbbing, thick, hot—his cock pressed against my willing depths. I strained and cried out as he sheathed his thickness deep inside me, biting my lip in a vain attempt to keep myself quiet even as I was stretched beyond anything I’d ever thought possible. I braced myself, my breasts smashed hard against the wooden table as he drew himself out and in, pleasure rolling through my body with his rhythmic movement. His cock was deliciously hot, piercing my sex with expert precision, his strokes full and hard and purposeful.

  It was unbelievable. My entire being was submitting to the exquisite and unexpected assault.

  I arched my back, forgetting where I was, who I was with—who I was. I lifted my ass higher for him, opening myself up to his thundering thrusts. His cock was massive, rocking into me from behind, sending shivers of unending pleasure shooting through my body.

  My breasts heaved as I gasped for air, his powerful thrusts leaving me breathless and shaking as he continued to drive deep into me with relentless force. He reached up, grabbing a handful of hair again and pulling my head back to him.

  I turned my head, opening my mouth, his hot tongue sliding inside of me as he fucked into me over and over.

  “Now, darling Chloe, listen to me, okay?” he growled as he tore his lips away again, his fingers firmly tangled in my long black hair, his mouth brushing hotly against my ear. I nodded, my body on fire for him as he continued.

  “You’re going to be a good girl. A very, very, good girl. You’re going to come to New York. You’re going to do everything I say. And you’re going to work for me, do you understand?”

  Confusion flashed in my eyes, my mouth opening in shock.

  His cock throbbed and swelled inside of me and he fucked into me harder and harder, thrusting in with each word, slowing pulling out and slamming me harder against the table as he pushed back into my dripping center.

  “Tell me you agree, Beauty,” he demanded, pulling my hair a little harder. “Tell me you’ll come to New York before I cum in your tight little pussy.”

  My mind reeled but all I could focus on was how deliciously huge and hard he was, how I had never felt such intense pleasure shooting through my body like this before and how I thought I would surely shrivel up and die if he stopped now.

  I needed this more than I’d ever needed anything. Him, his cock, his body pounding into mine.

  I would have done anything for him at that point, just so that he never stopped.

  But New York? A job? What kind of job?

  As if he sensed my hesitation, he pulled his cock free from my body.

  “Don’t stop,” I begged, wiggling my ass, pressing back towards him. “Please, Bear, don’t stop.”

  “Tell me what I want to hear,” he growled, his tongue darting out and sliding along my ear, the rumbling vibration of his voice going right to my throbbing clit. “If you can’t obey me, then this is over before it begins. Your poor mother would be so disappointed…” He pushed his hardness inside me again, driving delicious deep then pulling out completely once more. His hands were resting on my hips, the head of his cock resting on my ass.

  I whimpered at his absence, my head shaking in protest.

  “No, no,” I begged, pressing back towards him.

  I didn’t know what the hell he was offering me. All I knew was that I didn’t want him to stop. I needed him to finish what he started. I needed his cock slamming into me harder and harder until I came. I was starving for him, and as he pulled my hair again, pulling my head back until I met his gaze, I knew what I had to do.

  “What’s the answer, Beauty?” he said, the slow smile returning to his gorgeous face as he reached down and slid his cock along the lips of my wet pussy. “In, or out?”

  My pussy spasmed, unsatisfied, yearning for his hardness. Suddenly, I realized I didn’t care about anything else. Nothing else mattered. I knew I’d do anything this man wanted as long as he didn’t stop fucking me.

  I nodded, tears stinging my eyes as I pushed back into him.

  “In,” I said. “I’ll go to New York.”

  “And?” he asked, teasing me, rubbing the head of his perfect cock against my entrance. “Will you be a good girl?”

  “I’ll be good,” I gasped, lifting my ass like a wanton hussy, pushing back towards him. I didn’t care, though. I only had one care in the world right now and it was him. I needed his cock now that I’d had it and I knew I’d never stop.

  “What else?” he growled.

  “I’ll do anything,” I whispered, my heart racing in my chest.

  “Ah, that’s it,” he said, rubbing the head of his cock against my entrance teasingly.

  “Please, Bear!” I begged. “Please!”

  He slid back inside of me, the
soft skin of his cock like velvet against my own softness.

  He fucked me—deeply, roughly, skillfully—until I was shaking and writhing on the end of his hardness, our bodies exploding together in an Earth shattering burst of sensation that destroyed everything I’d ever believed about myself, a volcano of emotion that changed the very core of my identity, leaving nothing remaining in its wake but a clean slate, rendering me starving for knowledge about myself that only Bear would prove to possess.

  * * *

  His hand was hot against the small of my back as he led me back to the table. Mom was waiting and looked up from her phone with a smile.

  “You’re back!” she said. “I was beginning to think you both left me here.”

  “Sorry about that,” Bear said, pulling back my chair like a perfect gentleman. “We were talking, but I think we made some progress. Didn’t we, Chloe?”

  “Yes,” I replied, swallowing hard, trying desperately to hide what had just happened. My face flushed and covered in small beads of sweat as I closed my thighs together tightly.

  “I’ll go to New York with you, Mom.”

  “What! You will? That’s wonderful,” Mom’s eyes lit up with joy.”

  “It’ll be okay, I think,” I said quietly, embarrassment running through me like lightning as bear caught me with his gaze. “I have to go… I’m meeting some friends later.”

  “Oh,” she replied. “Okay, well, call me tomorrow.” She leaned up and gave me a light touch on the shoulder. “Thank you. You have no idea what this means to me.”

  “I understand,” I said. I nodded at Bear silently, my body shivering with pleasure as he flashed a nonchalant smile. I grabbed my sweater and my purse and turned and walked away, my legs quivering with every step.

  “What did you do to convince her?” I heard Mom ask Bear as I walked away.

  “I offered her a job,” he replied lightly.

  His words would linger in my ears all night, but his touch buzzed against my skin for days.

  Chapter 2

  Sometimes, you see the fork. Sometimes, you don’t.

  Sometimes, your life takes a turn and you don’t really have a choice.

  Every now and then, changes come hurling at you and you don’t even see them coming.

  And then, there they are—unavoidable, in your face, ugly, messy—demanding you acknowledge them.

  Or, maybe they aren’t so harsh at first. But that’s how they get you, you know?

  They’re sly and charming, pulling you in with a smile and maybe a promise of something sweet and then, before you know it, there you are—falling to your knees to do whatever it takes to get another taste of paradise.

  But I’m getting ahead of myself. I haven’t fallen to my knees just yet, but we’ll get there, don’t worry.

  What I’m trying to tell you is that I didn’t see it coming at first. I didn’t see any of it coming. How could I? I was naive, really.

  Sure, I’m a grown-ass woman, but even at twenty-six there are days when I still feel eighteen.

  To say that I had led a sheltered and bland existence before that day at the restaurant with Bear would be the understatement of the year.

  I’d managed to graduate college without much in the way of experience… I’d had one boyfriend throughout college—the infamous Harlan Lewis, as my friends called him. Our relationship was full of drama. A lot of drama.

  He was charming and cocky, at first. He drew me out of my shell by showering me with attention and affection. I’d never had a boyfriend that was so doting before, but he had a few shortcomings. Sex was all about him, and it was over in an instant. I had no time to be excited, much less satisfied.

  In the beginning, I told myself that sex didn’t matter. Things would get better.

  But they didn’t. They only got worse.

  After a year of dating, his attention turned to suffocating possessiveness. Then he accused me of cheating on him.

  One night, he slapped me after I came home late from happy hour with my friends.

  That’s all it took.

  I mean, I should have left a lot sooner, I know, but I wasn’t about to hang around and be someone’s punching bag.

  I got over him quicker than it takes for a good Oregon shower to run through town. Six months later, he still texts me trying to get back together.

  As if I’d sink so low ever again.

  I wanted a lot more from a partner than Harlan could ever provide.

  I was ready for all the breathless orgasms I was supposed to be having at my age.

  I’d certainly read all about them. In fact, I’d spent hours upon hours haunting the romance section at Powell’s bookstore, walking out with bags full of deliciously trashy novels, hoping nobody on the Max peeked in my bags on the way home.

  I couldn’t wait to see what it felt like for my breasts to heave or my stomach to flutter with desire as my lover gazed at me through hooded lids.

  I wanted all of that stuff. I’d never even come close to feeling like that with Harlan. I was starting to think I’d never feel it…

  I mean, I didn’t see those things in my near future—but I was ready and waiting, just in case.

  There were a few things in the way, of course.

  My shyness, for one. I wasn’t a flirt, not like my friend Marie. She didn’t hold back, not for a second. When she saw someone she was interested in, she went at them with both guns blazing.

  Me? I just turned and ran the other way. The few times I’d gone out on dates in college (outside of what Marie and I now called my ‘Harlan period’) had ended in excruciating awkwardness. When the date was over I’d lay there for hours, staring up at the cracked ceiling of my apartment, wondering—is this it? Is this really all there is?

  Sex wasn’t fun. It wasn’t exciting. There were no hooded lids, no heaving breasts anywhere to be found. I would have given anything to even feel a little quiver in my stomach, but nope—no flutters, no butterflies.

  I guess you could say I gave up after I broke up with Harlan. Trying to find someone else seemed like so much work. I stopped thinking it would ever happen and I turned myself off to the possibility of ever meeting someone who made my toes curl.

  I had my bad boy book boyfriends and that was enough.

  I dove into my semester at school, learning everything I could about fashion design and focused all my energy on creating my own line of dresses. School and work became my life.

  That’s why I was blindsided today. Sure, maybe I’d put those little red panties on because I had some misguided little fantasy in my head, but I never expected a man like Bear to make that fantasy real… I never expected him to make me feel like that.

  There he was—bigger than life, utterly intimidating, his demanding presence so grand and hulking that I was left breathless just by staring up at him. I mean, I felt a quiver in my stomach as soon as he’d closed that door behind us—and that had to mean something, right?

  I just didn’t know what.

  I didn’t know that this was my fork.

  Bear Dalton. Chairman and CEO of Dalton Enterprises, the premier development firm in America, my Mother’s billionaire boss. He was the man who made my toes curl, my breasts heave, and my pussy sing.

  How could I have ever said no to that?

  Chapter 3

  Relentless throbbing pain shot through my brain as the phone next to my head buzzed. I rolled over and looked at the clock, a loud groan escaping from my mouth. It wasn’t even seven yet. I didn’t need to look at my cell to see who was calling, I knew it was my Mother.

  ‘Early bird catches the worm, Chloe,’—I could still hear her high-pitched mantra singing in my head, even after all these years. She’d woken me up every morning as a child with that stupid saying and it was forever etched onto my brain.

  There were times where I was certain I was adopted or switched at birth. Considering she’d raised me alone, you’d think that would have bonded us more, that maybe I’d have adopted some
her characteristics over time, but we couldn’t have been more different or more distant.

  Not only was she an early riser compared to me being content to sleep way past noon, but she was so fucking ambitious. She never stopped. She never took a day off. She never took her eye off of the proverbial prize.

  I was more of a ‘be here now’ kind of girl. I stopped and smelled every rose in my path, savored every morsel of life that I could. I could sit for hours, letting the day float away and just people watch.

  Not my Mother. She was constantly moving, insisting time was money all along the way. It was exhausting. She was exhausting.

  And the fact that she was attempting to wake me up way before seven in the morning on a fucking Saturday was exhausting. I threw the phone across my bedroom and shoved a pillow over my head.

  I’d call her later. After I’d had time to think.

  I’d been so blown away by my experience with Bear last night that I’d come straight home, cancelled my plans with my friends, and sat on my couch getting up close and personal to a cheap red wine. I did my best to make some sense out of what had happened.

  It didn’t work.

  I was still just as confused as I had been when I’d left. I was also very sore—in the most absolutely delicious way.

  My body was still on fire with Bear’s touch and now that I was awake again, thanks to my Mother, I couldn’t ignore the fact that all I wanted was to feel him inside of me again.

  “So much for sleeping,” I groaned, throwing the covers off my naked body. I’d fallen asleep with my hands tucked between my legs, desperately trying to quench the fire that Bear had ignited within my body, and now there they were again—furiously rubbing at my clit, hoping to find some magical illusive release that would give me a break from thinking about him, yearning for him, if only for a few minutes.

  Dizzy and fuzzy, my brain began replaying the scene from yesterday like a movie in my head. I could still hear his voice, see those deep blue eyes peering into mine as if he was pouring himself into my soul.