I smiled to myself as she began singing some lullaby I didn’t recognize in her native tongue to put him to sleep. It was so comforting that I drifted off as well.
But the next thing I knew, it was pitch dark and I was shivering, my teeth clattering. I couldn’t get warm no matter how much I attempted to wrap the blanket more securely around my shoulders.
Groaning, I struggled to adjust the sheets again. The set with the yellow rosebuds that smelled like her. I pretended she was all around me but it still didn’t work.
Then I heard her slide in the room beside the bed. Like a damn angel. “God, you’re trembling.”
She tried rubbing my legs over the sheets and throwing an additional blanket on top but it didn’t make a bit of difference. I could not remember the last time I’d felt this cold and out of my mind. Was I having a fucking seizure?
Meadow rambled to herself about a hot shower or warm bath and then all of a sudden she lay down in bed and rolled toward me. She must’ve only had on a t-shirt and underwear, because I could feel soft cotton up top and bare legs on her lower end. But it didn’t even matter because my cock along with every single other part of my body was too sick, too cold, and too tired to even respond in a positive way.
“You need heat,” she said rubbing my arms and attempting to create friction.
All I could do was moan into her neck. My body felt like a lump of ice.
“If you can wrap me inside of your arms,” she said, throwing her body against me, her back to my front. “Try to spoon me.”
She curled into my chest and sank against me as if she was meant to be there. She felt warm and soft and smelled so good. It only took a couple of minutes before I began feeling cozier.
“That’s it,” she said, twining her legs through mine. Her voice was shaky and I could tell how concerned she was. “Let me help you get warm so that you don’t go into shock.”
She rocked gently and softly hummed that same melody I heard her sing to Joaquin last night and it instantly soothed me. Her hands trailed over my skin and then she intertwined our fingers as an ember of heat sparked in my chest and licked down through my limbs. Before I knew it sleep had taken hold of me again.
* * *
When I awoke however many hours or minutes later, Meadow still lay in my arms and fuck it felt so good to have her there. I hadn’t had this closeness in so long that I almost felt tears brimming behind my eyes. Christ, what a fucking wuss I turned into when I was sick.
I shifted and moaned into her hair. I could feel how clammy my shirt was as it clung to me, sweat pouring down my neck and back. Perspiring like crazy, I probably smelled awful. But there was nothing I could do at this point. It was the first time in hours that I actually felt human.
It was still dark outside but Meadow blinked open her eyes.
“You feel better?” she mumbled.
“So much better,” I said in a groggy voice. “Especially with you in my arms.”
I could hear the smile in her voice. “Is that your fever talking again?”
“Maybe,” I said, my lips nuzzling her neck. “So it still doesn’t count.”
She moaned softly as I continued burrowing into her nape, laying kisses on her salty skin.
“If I could have one taste of you,” I said, licking beneath her hairline. “I know I’d want so much more.”
“You must still be delirious,” she said, sighing.
“Believe what you want,” I mumbled. “But to be inside of you, even once, and feel you fall apart in my arms? I’d want that.”
I pulled her tightly against my body and before I fell asleep again, I heard her whisper, “I’d want that too.”
* * *
When I woke up the next time, she was no longer in my arms, but on the side of the bed running a cool rag over my forehead and then down my neck.
“How do you feel?” she whispered. “Your fever broke.”
I could tell by how the moonlight shifted that the sun wasn’t even up in the sky yet.
“Better. Almost human, thanks to you,” I said but my mouth felt like cotton. “But I need to stand up, use the bathroom, I feel like a train wreck.”
She moved the covers aside so that I could roll out of bed. I did so with some effort. It took a moment to get hold of my equilibrium and find my footing on the ground.
“I left some things out for you,” she said, watching me closely but holding back on helping to steady me. Probably not wanting to treat me like a child. “A toothbrush and a hand towel, so you can clean up.”
“Thank you,” I said, gingerly making my way to the bathroom.
I washed my face and neck and then brushed my teeth. I felt better but not 100 percent. Not by a long shot. But I figured the worst was behind me. I had so much to do, to catch up on.
When I walked out she was lying down staring at the ceiling. Her day hadn’t begun yet. I’d sleep a couple more hours and then finally get out of her hair.
I climbed into bed next to her and turned, pulling her into my chest again. She didn’t resist only molded into my body and sighed. “I like having you close to me.”
I heard her hesitate, like there was a protest on her lips but she held back. I could only imagine what she’d say. That this was wrong, that it wouldn’t last anyway, that I’d be leaving town again. I knew all of those things were true but for these final few minutes or hours I just wanted to feel her body, smell her sweet skin.
As I tightened my grip around her torso, her fingertips wandered over my arms sending licks of heat across my skin.
I could feel my cock filling slowly with the sensual touch of her nails scraping up and down the inside of my wrist and her hips adjusting against my crotch.
When I propelled my groin against her, she hummed.
Her breath shot out as my knuckles traced over her nipples and then down her stomach. She wasn’t wearing a bra and I could finally appreciate the feel of her breasts heavy against the fabric.
My fingers traveled lower to the hem of her shirt and then nudged beneath to the warm and smooth skin on her abdomen.
“Alex,” she whispered, her voice stuttering. “What are you doing?”
“Shhhh,” I murmured against her ear, nibbling and licking it. “Please let me touch you.”
“Your fever just broke,” she said trying to resist but not nearly enough to ward me off. “You’re still sick.”
“Not sick enough to stop wanting you,” I said, feathering kisses on the back of her neck and she shivered in my arms.
My fingers reached higher beneath her shirt to her full and luscious breasts and she arched against me. “Fuck, you feel amazing.”
My erection had transformed to a steel rod, but I ignored it. This was about making her feel good. She had allowed me into her home, fed me, and took care me. Offering me a level of trust I wasn’t sure I deserved.
While my thumb and forefinger tweaked her nipple, my other hand glided to the band of her underwear, my finger bending inside. She was trembling and moaning and I loved that she was making that noise for me.
“I need to finally touch you,” I said, sucking on her earlobe. “If I don’t, I might die.”
“There’s that fever talking again,” she said with a strained laugh.
“No fever,” I whispered against her neck. “Just pure want and need.”
My fingers dipped beneath the silky fabric and she shuddered. They lingered above the patch of downy hair on her mound. I considered flipping her on her back so I could watch her eyes, but I didn’t want to break the spell we were under.
My hand drifted down to her lips. Her very wet lips. I groaned against her hair.
“Tell me you’re this drenched because of me.”
“Yes,” she said moaned as my finger circled her clit. “God, yes.”
My finger entered her warm hole and I nearly broke apart it felt so incredible.
I licked a stripe up her neck and pumped two fingers inside, while alternating my thumb again
st her core. She was moaning and thrusting her ass into my cock.
“Fuck, Meadow, I’m so turned on I’m going to come in my pants.”
“Oh God,” she breathed out. When her head sank against my shoulder, I kissed her cheek and then her ear.
“Next time my mouth is going to be on this pretty pussy,” I growled. “It’s going to be my tongue thrusting inside of you.”
Her skin broke out in a sheen of sweat and her legs began trembling. I could tell she was close.
“I can’t wait to taste you. The way you are right now, so aroused,” I said and her breath hitched. “And when you come, I’m going to swallow you down and lick my lips afterward.”
“Alex,” she groaned out, her body practically bolting upright as she came all over my hand.
20
Meadow
Alex had been in our house for over twenty-four hours. What he did to me at the break of dawn made me feel so sexy and wanted and all after he’d been recovering from an illness.
Joaquin was at a friend’s house for a play date and I ran some errands after I drove him there. It was my day off and I had plenty to keep me occupied. I’d attempted to convince Alex to remain sleeping for a few more hours while his body recovered, but he could’ve already gone back to the hotel. I knew he was itching to get back to work but I could also tell he needed more rest.
As I pulled up with my groceries, I couldn’t help the happiness that seeped inside me at seeing his rental car still parked in the lot. He’d stayed. That feeling was immediately banished by melancholy at his leaving town soon enough. To hunt Joaquin’s father.
Unless he was still in my bed because he’d had a relapse.
“I’m home,” I announced, surprising myself, as if it was our normal routine.
I heard his muffled voice behind the bathroom door. “I was just about to jump in the shower. Be right out.”
He was sounding and apparently feeling much better.
“Take your time,” I said, removing my coat and shoes at the door.
After the water turned on the door cracked open. “Shoot, I didn’t think to grab a towel. Would you mind . . .”
“Sure thing,” I said, dropping a bag of groceries on the counter. “I’ll just place it on the vanity.”
After putting the milk and eggs away, I walked to the linen closet for a fluffy white towel and then quietly pushed open the door. I placed the folded towel on the counter but couldn’t stop my gaze from darting to the glass shower door.
Alex was turned away from me, his head beneath the showerhead. My gaze skimmed his muscled shoulders down to his firm backside.
Oh my God, he was beautiful. I stood as motionless as I was speechless. What else had I expected from this gorgeous man? He kept himself fit and in bed last night I could feel how lean and firm his body was.
Alex turned to face me with soapy bubbles cascading down his chest. I watched as his thick cock filled from my inspection, bumping up against his stomach. The patch of hair nesting above his red and bulging length was curly and wet and all I could think about was tasting his skin where the crease of his thighs met his stiff erection. I was so aroused I couldn’t even find it in me to feel embarrassed about watching him like this. My stomach buzzed with anticipation and longing. Damn, I wanted this man.
“You like what you see?” Alex asked, his voice hoarse.
I stepped forward before I even realized what I was doing. Sliding open the glass door, I glanced him over again.
As I stared into his eyes, he angled his head and a strangled groan drew from his throat. His wet fingers clasped around my nape and he dragged my lips to his. I didn’t even care that the water was spilling over my arms as I clutched his waist. I only reveled in his tongue slipping against mine.
“You make me crazy, Meadow.”
He kept his hands positioned around my neck, probably in an effort to keep me from getting drenched, but I didn’t do the same.
My hands were already on his chest, traveling down his taut stomach and then I was finally touching him.
He felt warm, silky smooth, and hard all at once.
When he moaned against my lips, a desperate need arose inside of me like a geyser. I wanted—no, I needed—more of him.
Pumping him firmly up and down, as he gasped into my mouth, I broke away from his lips and knelt down on the tile.
“Meadow, what are you—” he grunted when my tongue touched the crown and licked in a circular motion around the head. My lips engulfed the tip and I sucked him inside my mouth. He smelled like soap and musk and I couldn’t get enough as my fingers gripped his thighs and I took more of him between my lips.
“I wanted to taste you,” I said between long licks up and down the length of his cock as it thickened even further against my tongue.
“Fuck,” he said, his head knocking against the tile, as I hollowed out my cheeks and took him to the back of my throat.
His fingers tangled in my hair and then slid to my jaw. He dragged my lips away from his cock and stared into my eyes.
Hand fumbling at my waist, he yanked up my shirt in one firm tug. “Let me finally see you.”
I reached behind to unhook my bra and he helped slide the straps down my arms as I trembled from his perusal. “Damn, your gorgeous.”
When he reached out to brush his knuckles against my nipples, I whimpered. But before he could get any ideas about distracting me from my task, I bent my head and skimmed my lips over his cock again.
“Fuck. Your mouth feels incredible.”
My tongue licked around the crown and then under the seam. I wanted to please him, to make him feel as amazing as he made me feel just hours before.
“You taste incredible.” My hand low on his shaft, I continued pumping him in and out of my mouth in a mesmerizing rhythm, enjoying all the sounds bursting from his throat as he lost his last measure of control.
“Meadow,” he ground out, his hand bracing the shower door. He took a step back and pulled his cock from my mouth just as he was about to come. I watched as he shuddered and his semen spurted over his groin, some of it washing down the drain.
I stared at him in a stupor, drugged from tasting him. “Why didn’t you let me . . .”
“I . . . I don’t know, I thought maybe—”
He pulled me to a standing position, his trembling fingers tangling tightly in my hair.
“God, come here,” he said, his firm kiss consuming me, practically bruising my lips and I never wanted it to end. His mouth planted solidly against mine, his tongue grazing over my teeth felt amazing.
I reached behind me for his towel, began drying off his shoulders, as he gazed into my eyes. He kissed me tenderly and then turned the towel on me. He wiped down my arms and then pulled me against him, our bare chests brushing, his soft mouth, and his warm tongue stroking mine lazily.
There was a string of knocks at the door and I rushed to pull my bra and shirt on. “That’s probably Joaquin being dropped off.”
I had a feeling this was where we’d part ways and so it was with reluctance that I left the bathroom to answer the door. I stepped to the bottom stoop to talk to the other parent, allowing Alex to get dressed.
Just as we were heading in, Jayden and her girls stepped outside.
“Everybody healthy over there?” she asked with a sly grin on her face. I knew what she was asking but right then I certainly had no interest in talking about it or trying to decipher my own feelings until I could get a handle on them myself.
“More or less,” I said and then stroked Joaquin’s hair while he told me about his day with his school friend.
“Is Mr. Alex all better?” Joaquin asked as he bounded up the final step to the house.
“You can ask him yourself,” I said as we stepped through the door.
Alex was sitting at the table pulling on his shoes when Joaquin charged him. Alex easily pulled him into a hug, which made my heart clench.
Can you play with me?” Joaquin asked Ale
x.
“Joaquin, I don’t think Alex—”
But Alex cut me off before I had a chance to protest on his behalf. “Of course.”
Joaquin ran to his room to grab a bin of Legos while Alex and I stared each other down. What in the hell was he doing?
“Does this mean you’re staying for dinner?” I asked.
As if on cue Alex’s stomach growled and we both laughed.
“If you’re inviting me,” he said and I did a half shrug, half nod. “But I can’t stay long. I’ve got a lot of work to catch up on.”
That right there was a sobering reminder of what this was all about. I nodded numbly and turned to grab some spices for my chicken breasts.
Alex sat at the table helping to build some kind of vehicle until dinner was ready while Joaquin talked his ear off about everything under the sun.
Afterward as we were clearing our dinner dishes there was a knock at the door and I froze.
“You expecting anybody?” Alex asked.
I shook my head and he stood up, hand moving to the hostler on his hip, as he approached the door. If it was the same men, I was thankful he was here.
Over his shoulder, I saw a striking blond woman standing on my stoop and wondered who it could be.
When he pulled open the door, she smiled. “Hi, you must be Meadow. I’m here for Alex.”
My pulse pitched because she knew my name. But as I stared at her attractive face, I began to remember. She was Shane and Alex’s co-worker who had helped on the Nakos case last year. Except her hair was styled slightly different.
Alex’s face had paled. “What the hell are you—”
“I could ask you the same thing,” she said with a tight smile and a quirked eyebrow.
21
Alex
“You remember Charlie?” I asked Meadow, who looked a bit flummoxed. “Be right back.”
As soon as I got down the stairs, Charlie was in my face. “What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Three Sacred Words (Golden Arrow #2) Page 12