Beauty or the Bitch! Chapter Eight!

Thanks so much for joining me last week, Delilah! And congratulations to Emily Tardy on winning her prize, a $10 Amazon gift certificate.

The print version of Baby, I'll Find You by Jennifer Skully, is available! Of course, you can also get the e-book, Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords. You can also get the ebook on Apple and Sony.

And now for Chapter 8 of Beauty or the Bitch! Last time, Shelby had just revealed her terrible secret to Dex! And remember, you need to be over 18 to read this naughty tale!

Beauty or the Bitch
Copyright Jasmine Haynes 2011

Reporter Dexter King is about to get the story of a lifetime. Shelby Stewart was the hottest rising star in Hollywood until suddenly, she was cursed. Retreating to her mountain hideaway, far from that fairy tale life, she hasn’t been seen in ten years. Now Dex will ferret out the truth behind her fall from Hollywood grace. But will he find a beauty? Or a bitch?

Chapter Eight

He found her in the kitchen by the stove. She’d lit it, wrapped her robe around her, then slid down the front. Leaning against the metal for warmth, she hugged her knees to her chest.

Dex squatted beside her, not touching, but very there.

“Come to bed, Shelby.” He ran a finger down her cheek.

“In a little while.” She wanted to curl into his touch. “I’m sorry I was such a...bitch up there.”

“It was the only way you could get it out.”

That sweet understanding was almost her undoing. She wanted nothing more than to fling herself into his arms and feel safe, warm, and loved again. Not again. She’d never felt that way before, not ever, so there was no again about it. What she’d had with David was an illusion.

“It took a lot of courage to go to the police.”

“I know.” It was the other part that hadn’t taken courage, the hiding from what David was when her first plan didn’t work. “I’ll never forget her picture on the TV.” Most little kids wore smiles big enough to show the gaps in their teeth. But Cynthia didn’t smile. Her eyes hadn’t sparkled. “She was so little.”

She’d managed to forget most of what she’d seen in David’s bedroom that night. But she would never, ever forget Cynthia’s face on that TV screen.

Dex took her by the shoulders. “Come on, baby. Let’s go upstairs. I put more logs on the fire.”

More logs on the fire. The room would be toasty warm. Maybe he would make love to her again. Had he used that term, making love? Maybe not.

Making love was another of her fantasies. But just a fantasy.

She put a hand on his arm, digging her nails in. “Will you hold me until I fall asleep?”

“Yes, I’ll hold you.”

So she let him take her into his arms. For tomorrow, or the next day, he would be gone.



* * * * *



Dex didn’t know what woke him. Maybe it was the rising cold in the room as the fire died down. On her side, Shelby curled into him, her breath fanning his chest. Her gaunt face seemed almost peaceful in sleep, though he doubted she had ever felt truly peaceful in her entire life.

He eased away from her, and once outside the bed, pulled the comforter over her thin shoulders, his fingers brushing her warm flesh. Putting two more logs on the fire, he padded to the bathroom.

A nightlight burned in the socket, guiding his way.

A nightlight. Jesus. He flipped the bathroom switch, and the overhead light blazed. Christ. Staring at Shelby from the doorway, he picked up the phone on her nightstand. A dial tone buzzed in his ear.

No. It was too soon. Not yet. He wasn’t ready for the outside world. He needed time with her, time to convince her to leave this place with him.

He put the phone down, relieved himself in the bathroom, then climbed into the warm bed, pulling her close, back into his arms. She muttered something unintelligible and rubbed her nose against him. He hugged her fiercely despite the delicacy of her body. She wriggled her arms free and wrapped them around his neck, burying her face in his hair.

“Let me make love to you, Shelby.” Once more, God, before he had to leave.

She stilled in his arms. “Are you sure?”

He knew what she meant. Was he sure he still wanted her after the awful thing she’d revealed? He could tell her over and over that it wasn’t her fault, but he could prove it to her with his body, with his love. “Yes. I am so sure I want to make love with you.”

She sucked in two breaths, one quickly after the other, as if she stifled a sob. Then she kissed his ear. “I’d like that very much.”

He pulled back, took her face in his hands and stroked her lips with his tongue. She opened, taking him inside, playing with him, tasting him, moaning against his mouth.

“By the fire,” he said, pulling her from the bed. “I want you in the light and the heat of the fire.”

He laid her down against the carpet, the firelight caressing her belly and breasts, then came down beside her. “God, you are so beautiful.”

She turned away to stare at the flames.

“No. Don’t. Look at me.” He tilted her chin towards him. Moisture glistened in her eyes. He licked the corners, tasting her saltiness, her fear, her sadness. “You are beautiful. Believe that.”

He wanted to draw the sadness out of her, destroy it in the heat of the fire, in the heat they would make between them. He wanted to memorize every inch of her. He traced the lines of her cheekbones with his fingertips, the shell of her ear, the fine skin of her neck. Leaving her mouth, he buried his tongue in the hollow at the base of her throat, trailing along her collar bone. She was so thin, so fragile. He dipped into every indentation. He teased her arm with his teeth, licked the sensitive crease at her elbow until she squirmed.

“Dex, please, make love to me.”

“I am making love to you,” he whispered against the flesh at her wrist. “It’s gotta be slow this time. It has to last forever.” Just the way he’d promised her earlier.

She sighed and relaxed, turning slightly toward him.

He kissed his way across her palm, then sucked her index finger into his mouth, mimicking the movements of that glorious blow job she’d given him the night before. He repeated with each finger, then crawled across her body and worked his way back up her other arm. Her soft sighs and gentle moans made him hard, but he wouldn’t take his own satisfaction until he’d exhausted her with orgasm overload.

He tasted the sweetly scented skin above her breasts, feeling every bone through her flesh. He could count her ribs with his fingertips. If he pressed too hard, she might break. But Shelby needed his loving. He took the rosy peak of her breast in his mouth, swirling his tongue around the beaded nipple. She arched, tossed her head, then put a hand in his hair and pulled. The slight pain shivered through his body to the tip of his cock. Christ. He blew a breath on her hot, wet nipple, then dragged in air to hold himself in check.

“Dex, please.” She alternately pulled and pushed at him. He wanted to bring her higher, make her fly, keep her up there on that ridge of desire until she was mindless.

He sucked her other nipple and played with her belly button, then teased the fringe of curls at the juncture of her thighs. “Is this where you want me?”

She moaned. “Yes. Oh yes, please.”

He moved down her body, his tongue and lips glued to her as he traversed her belly, her prominent hipbones, the joint where hip met leg. She wriggled beneath him, trying to direct him. He held her still and moved on to the creamy flesh of her thighs. His hair brushed the silky curls, and she opened her legs. He licked down the sensitive inner thigh, reached her knee, and tilted it to the find the hollow beneath. Her whole body quivered. God, she had sensitive skin. Her tremble only heightened his own needs. He took her calf, her ankle, her feet, and finally her toes. She quaked and laughed and tried to crawl away from him. He dragged her back.

“But that tickles.”

“A good tickle or a bad one?”

Pushing herself up on one elbow, she looked down the length of her body to where he lay at her feet. “Good,” she whispered.

“Then don’t tell me to stop.”

“But I want—”

“So do I. But we both have to wait.”

She threw herself back against the carpet, an arm across her eyes. “I think I might actually come before you even get back up there.”

“That’s fine.” He licked the arch of her foot, then sucked her big toe.

Her back bowed off the carpet, and she pressed her thighs together as she let out a long low moan.

“Was that what I thought it was?” he asked as she subsided back against the carpet, moisture between her thighs glistening in the firelight.

She laughed with a hitch, an uneven, almost embarrassed sound, then covered her mouth. “Yes.”

“Wow. That was beautiful.”

She put her hand over her eyes. “Dex.”

He worked his palms up her legs, stopping at her knees for a moment. “I mean it. I never made anyone come like that before. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

She rolled her head, buried her face in the carpet.

“You’re not embarrassed, are you?” He climbed the rest of the way up her thighs, hovering over that sweet place between, inhaling her tantalizing scent. She hadn’t answered. “God, I loved it,” he said. “Don’t be embarrassed. I want you to do it again.”

She looked at him. “It’s your turn this time.”

He wagged a finger at her. “I haven’t tasted you yet.”

“You’ve tasted just about every square inch.”

He put his palm to her, slipping a finger between her folds. “I haven’t tasted here yet. The other stuff was the appetizer.”

She closed her eyes, bit down on her lip. “Taste me, Dex, please taste me. I think I’ll die if you don’t.”

“Anything you want, baby.” He pushed her thighs apart, crawled between them, and settled his mouth on her clitoris. She rocked. He tasted, drank, licked, sucked, and nibbled. Then he eased two fingers into her and gave her dual action. She moaned, writhing against his mouth. He held her down with the flat of his hand on her abdomen. Her belly quivered beneath his touch, and he knew the first orgasm would be nothing compared to this one. Her hands clutched at her breasts. She pinched her nipples, something he was sure she wasn’t even aware of.

Then she screamed. She grabbed his head and bucked against him. He held her to his tongue, wanting, needing every one of those gasps, moans, screams, and quakes of her body. Her taste filled his mouth, he lapped at the cream.

If he could have given her another, he would have, but Dex needed to be inside her. Needed to bury himself in her sweet body. Needed to fill her up.

He’d sell his soul to make her feel whole again.


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And there’s Chapter 8! More to come next week! Beauty or the Bitch is already available, so if you want to read the full e-book all at once, here’s where you can get it Amazon B&N Smashwords