Taming Mack (Sinful Nights Book 3)

by Elizabeth Lennox

  Eve stopped, looking around. He walked around the room, turning on lights. This main area was just one big room with the kitchen at one end and the big chairs in the other. A hallway to the right led down to the bedrooms. There were four bedrooms in total, one for each of his brothers and Giselle when she came to stay.

  “If you don’t like it, I’ll build something you do like. I have money, Eve. A lot of it. I helped my brothers start their company, and they insist on sending me dividends every month. I can build you anything you want.”

  Her eyes turned, surprise evident in their depths and he moved closer. “Talk to me. Tell me to go to hell or whatever, but the silence is…oomph!”

  Mack caught her when she threw herself into his arms and he released the breath he’d been holding. “I love you, Eve,” he whispered into her hair as he wrapped his arms around her and carryied her over to the big, leather sofa. “I love you so damn much! But I don’t want to hold you back. If you want…”

  “I want you!” she whispered, turning so she could kiss him. “I want you and I love you and yes, I love your house, although it could do with a bit more color.” She grinned and wiggled against him, shifting so that she straddled his hips. Mack’s hands shifted, cupping her backside. “It’s a good thing that I have some really amazing photographs that might add a bit of color to the rooms.”

  He threw back his head and laughed, pulling her closer. “That sounds like a good plan,” he told her when his laughter died down. “Just to be clear, I’m talking marriage, Eve. I want it all. I want you for the rest of my life. I want…”

  He couldn’t tell her what he wanted because she was kissing him. Kissing him and running her hands down his chest. When he felt her fingers slide against his bare skin, Mack realized that she was undressing him. His body reacted and he tore off her clothes, ravenous now. He couldn’t get her clothes off fast enough, but thankfully, she’d pulled on leggings this morning. And Mack was just the man to pull them off again.

  “Eve!” he growled, but she was frantic. Almost more frantic than he was!

  “I got on birth control. No need for a condom!” and with that, she unzipped his jeans. A moment later, she pulled him free of his boxers but she didn’t wait for him to get his jeans off.

  “No time,” she whispered when he tried to shift her away. Instead, she moved up, positioning herself right at the tip of his erection. “Mack,” she sighed as she lowered herself down over his shaft. “Yes!” she groaned, her head falling back as he filled her up so completely.

  In this position, she’d opened herself up and Mack took full advantage of that. His mouth latched onto her nipple, sucking hard as she lifted herself up, then slowly lowered again. Over and over, she moved, going faster as the friction of their bodies increased.

  “Say yes, Eve!” he ordered, then held her still at the tip of his erection, not allowing her to move down again.

  “Yes! Yes, damn it, Mack! Yes!”

  “Just to be clear, that’s marriage and everything, correct?”

  “Yes. Let me do this!” she groaned, grinding against him. “Please!”

  That was all it took and he rolled so that she was underneath him. With this new position, he took control and pressed into her over and over again until he felt her body shiver with her release. Mack took a short moment to savor the beauty of her in the throes of a climax, which took him over the edge as well.

  A long time later, their clothes completely off and Eve draped on top of him while he stroked her back, he smiled up at the ceiling.

  “You’re going to marry me, Eve,” he said. He felt her shiver and smiled.

  “Yes. We’ll get married and you can teach me not to get lost in the woods.”

  A part of him panicked at the idea of her going into the mountains without him. But then he relaxed. “I’ll teach you. But promise not to go without me.”

  She shifted, her chin resting on his chest. “I don’t want to go anywhere without you, Mack.”

  “And babies?”

  Her grin widened. “Yeah. I want lots of kids.”

  “I love you,” he murmured, because it seemed as if he needed to say the words.

  “I love you, too!”

  Epilogue

  The smell was her first warning. Turning away from the oven, she looked around until she found him.

  “Drew! Again?”

  Her four year old son and Jumbo, the dog that they’d found at the animal shelter and had nursed back to health, stood at the entrance to the door of their house. Drew looked like he knew that he was in trouble. Jumbo…not so much. The fluffy dog wagged his tail excitedly, acting as if they’d done something amazing when, in reality, both of them were going to be bathing in tomato juice for the next few days.

  “What the…!” Mack demanded as he came around the corner wrinkling his nose. But he stopped as soon as he saw his son and Jumbo. “Again? Seriously Drew?” Mack complained.

  “I wasn’t chasing it. I promise!” their son claimed, his eyes innocently wide for a long moment. But as Mack continued to eye him skeptically, he lowered his eyes. “Okay, so maybe it was sort of my fault.”

  “Go outside!” Eve ordered. “Take off all of your clothes and…”

  Drew galloped outside, eager to be naked. Eve turned to look at her husband, shaking her head. “What is it about being naked?” she asked.

  Mack laughed as he stroked Eve’s very pregnant belly. “I like being naked too,” he told her.

  Eve rolled her eyes. “Go! Take care of our stinky son and…” she sighed. “Could you please catch that stupid skunk and take it further away? This is the second time Drew has been sprayed.”

  Mack chuckled. “He likes exploring.”

  Eve shuddered. “Yes, well, he isn’t allowed to go very far, so that skunk is in our yard.”

  “Honey, our yard is the mountains. We just…” He stopped when he saw her eyes narrow. “Right. I’ll move the skunk far, far away.”

  Eve watched him go. Even after so many years of marriage, she still loved to watch the man. He was…amazing. And every day, their life became more amazing. Turning away, she waddled back to the counter. “Skunk juice,” she murmured, thinking that would be a perfect cocktail for the weekend!

  Excerpt from Second Chance Temptation

  Sinful Nights, Book 4

  Release Date: Mar 1, 2019

  Click HERE to order Second Chance Temptation!

  “Don’t you dare!” Cynthia hissed when she noticed Ryan Dalton creeping up behind her. At six years old, she was far more proficient about spotting aggravating boys who are doing something annoying than most girls her age. Mostly because of Ryan, who constantly teased her. Two years older, Ryan had taught her that recess was a hotbed of mystery and intrigue. In order to keep the spiders and snakes away from her, she had to watch Ryan like a hawk!

  Cynthia would never admit to anyone, ever, that she enjoyed the challenge of outmaneuvering Ryan! He’d gotten her good with some amazing pranks over the past year, but she learned quickly and had her revenge!

  Cynthia shot him a glare, thinking fast because she could see he had his hand hidden behind his back. Always a dangerous situation! “Ryan, if you don’t leave me alone, I’m going to tell every person on this playground that you are going to marry me,” she threatened, which was the worst threat she could come up with.

  It worked! Instantly, Ryan’s face paled. But he was more resilient and not as stupid as some of the other boys in her class. With a shake of his head, his confidence returned. “You wouldn’t!”

  Darn it, he’d called her bluff! There was no way she’d say anything like that, considering Ryan was gross and disgusting. All boys were gross, but Ryan, her nemesis, was even worse than all the others combined!

  “Don’t push me!” she growled.

  Ryan straightened to his already impressive height, putting on the innocent expression that had gotten him out of trouble more often than not in his eight year life. “What? I’m not doing
anything.”

  Cynthia’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. If it wasn’t a spider, it was a snake. If not one of those, he’d find something to do to torment her! His efforts might be as simple as pulling her braids. Or as irritating as running faster, climbing the monkey bars faster and higher, or pulling some horrifically creative prank…all of it just irked her!

  “You’re always doing something Ryan Dalton!” she snapped, stomping off, flipping her blond braids over her shoulders as she went.

  Ryan watched her leave grinning as his mind worked on his next torment. The snake wrapped around his wrist wiggled slightly and he lifted it up to his face. “Sorry. We weren’t quiet enough this time.” The snake’s only response was a fascinating flick of its tongue.

  Walking over to the edge of the playground, he knelt down and carefully released the snake, watching to make sure it found cover and safety before returning to his friends on the other side of the playground. Unfortunately, his teacher called an end to recess before he could come up with another plan.

  Glancing behind him, he spotted Cynthia standing with a group of her friends. He waited for a moment, ignoring his own friends who nudged him back towards the school building. Waited. Waited.

  He grinned when Cynthia glanced over her shoulder, sending another glare his way. “Yes!” Only then did he turn on his heel and raced into class. Of all the girls in school, Cynthia was the most fun to torment. Ryan had no idea why, he thought as he pulled out his math homework. He just loved it!

  Cynthia sighed with…relief? Not exactly relief, she thought. And actually, now that Ryan was gone, recess had lost its appeal.

  She truly hated him. Her mother said that she shouldn’t hate anyone, but her mother never had to deal with Ryan Dalton. He was always trying to irk her and, usually, he succeeded. He was a bad boy! Turning away, she looked at her friends who were playing tic-tac-toe in the dirt with a stick.

  Boring! With a sigh, she looked around, trying to find something more interesting to do.

  “Wanna race around the field? I bet we could run fast enough to jump onto that branch!”

  Three of the girls jumped up. “Yeah! Let’s do it!”

  Cynthia grinned, more than ready for the burst of excitement. “Okay, we’ll start at the swing set, then race to the baseball field. We have to touch each of the bases, then sprint to the slide and then over to the monkey bars.”

  The girls followed Cynthia’s path with their eyes, then nodded their agreement as they lined up.

  “Ready? Set. Go!” Cynthia hollered.

  And they were off, racing and giggling as they ran to the baseball field, kicking up dust as they rounded each of the bases, then off to the monkey bars. “Go up the slide!” one of them called out. As a group they swerved, running towards the ladder of the slide set up on the opposite side of the playground. Four girls up, four of them down…since Cynthia had been the first one to slide down the hot metal slide, she paused at the bottom in the worn out, dirt circle, dancing from the heat since the sun had spiked the temperature of the metal slide to about one thousand degrees. The denim of her jeans wasn’t enough protection against that kind of heat. That meant that the other girls got ahead of her as they raced over to the monkey bars.

  A moment later, all four of them tumbled to the ground in a pile, trying to catch their breath.

  Ryan looked out the window of the school, watching the girls race around the baseball diamond. He chuckled when Cynthia’s butt burned from the slide, but the smile disappeared when he watched her race ahead of the other girls.

  With a sigh, he turned back to the teacher, trying to pay attention. Fractions. Really? What was the point? Wouldn’t it be better to go outside and run around? Especially since he could run faster than Cynthia! Yeah, beating Cyn was much more important than fractions!

  Wasn’t running and breathing in the sunny, warm air more important than learning if there were five slices or ten slices to a pie? He was going to eat the whole pie anyway, he thought, hoping the pie was cherry. His favorite was cherry. Although, maybe blueberry pie would be better. Because then he could eat the whole blueberry pie and not save any for Cynthia. Right in front of her! Even now, as the teacher droned on about stupid fractions, he could picture Cynthia’s furious expression. He’d seen her at the county fair last summer and knew that her favorite was blueberry. Yeah, it would be awesome to eat the whole blueberry pie right in front of her. She’d get that angry look in her pretty…uh…ugly brown eyes and her nose would squinch up. It always squinched up when she was angry. And because she was so much fun to torment, he saw that squinched up nose a lot.

  “Ryan!” the teacher interrupted his daydream.

  “Yes ma’am?”

  “Could you tell me the answer to number four?”

  Ryan had no idea which “number four” she was talking about, but he glanced swiftly around the room, noticing there were worksheets on every desk now. Oh yeah. Fractions. Parts of a pie.

  Looking at the paper his teacher had set on his desk at some point, he quickly calculated the problem. “Five eights,” he answered.

  The teacher looked stunned and Ryan knew that she’d been trying to trick him. She did that a lot. He didn’t understand why, but didn’t really care either. He was able to keep up easily in school, even though the teachers kept putting him in the most difficult classes. He kept up too easily, some might say. The principal had spoken to his mother about moving him up a grade. But Ryan had forcefully rejected that idea. And yeah, some might think that his reasoning was stupid. He didn’t care. Life was about having fun and if he moved up a grade, then he wouldn’t have the same recess as Cynthia Hemmings. What fun would that be?

  Nine Years Later…

  “Hey, Cyn! Wait up!”

  Cynthia turned, hugging her books to her chest defensively as Ryan Dalton hurried down the hallway. As a senior, Ryan was one of those guys that every girl wanted to date and every guy wanted to be. Obnoxiously tall, weirdly smart, incredibly handsome, mostly due to that charming grin that made the girls sigh and flutter, and unusually athletic with an easy smile as well as eyes that suggested he knew things he shouldn’t.

  Ryan had stopped tormenting her as he had in elementary school, (which she’d only admit her disappointment silently to herself) but whenever they passed each other in the hallways, he looked at her. And every time, she felt a funny flip in her stomach.

  During her freshman year of high school, his look had been taunting, as if he were just waiting for an opportunity when he could do something horrible to her again. There was that startled look a few months ago when she’d worn a dress to school. And then again when she’d worn the jeans from last year that had been a bit too tight. She’d tossed those jeans out as soon as she’d gotten home because they were too uncomfortable.

  But this past year, his look had been…curious. Curious in a strange and different way that she didn’t really understand. Then last week, he’d looked at her differently. It hadn’t been threatening…not really. His look had been…softer. Her silly reactions to his glances before had been bad enough. But when he’d looked at her that afternoon, she’d blushed. It had been the first time in her life that she’d blushed over a man and Cynthia had gone home, flopped on her bed and wondered about her reaction.

  Had she gone soft? Cynthia had learned the hard way not to trust Ryan – and vice versa! Every time Ryan had tormented her, she’d gotten right back at him, giving as good as she got. So going soft would be really bad!

  Not to mention…well, when he looked at her like that, she didn’t understand why she felt soft and gushy inside. And she really didn’t understand why she felt that weird sensation in her belly.

  Even worse, Cynthia really didn’t understand why she looked for Ryan in the hallways lately. As they walked from one class to the next, she’d tried to keep her eyes down and not glance towards his classrooms or where he usually passed her in the hallway, but each day, she failed. No matter how hard she tried, at th
e last moment, when she knew that she would pass by him, she looked up and…he was staring right back at her with that strange light in his eyes.

  Which is why Cynthia waited in the busy hallway, the other students rushing around her as she waited for Ryan to jog over. But Cynthia wasn’t stupid. She eyed his hands, bracing herself for him to toss a snake at her or maybe a spider. She wasn’t afraid of either, but he didn’t know that.

  “What do you want?” she asked. Did her voice sound breathless? Should she pull back? Dealing with Ryan Dalton was always tricky. For too long, she’d hated him. All through elementary school, she’d fought against him, pushed hard to win the dares and challenges he’d tossed her way. And yet, she couldn’t forget the day she’d met Ryan. It had been her first day of kindergarten. She’d been too scared to enter the building, so she hid behind a nearby tree, peering nervously around the base of the trunk. Ryan had been walking to school as well but caught sight of her. She spotted him first and tried to duck behind the tree, but Ryan walked over to her anyway.

  “It’s okay,” he’d told her gently. “Here, take my hand and I’ll walk you to class, okay?”

  Back then, Ryan had only been a couple of inches taller than she was. At five and seven, she’d thought he was the nicest boy in school. He’d walked her right to the door of her classroom, introducing her to the teacher. “You’re going to be okay,” he’d promised. And because he’d been a big, strong second grader, Cynthia had believed him wholeheartedly.

  She’d seen him watching her that year and, for a long time, she’d convinced herself that he was looking out for her, ensuring that she was okay.