by Jillian Neal
“I have a few requests,” Detective Miller edged closer.
“I’m listening.” The fierce tension locked in the solidity of Austin’s muscles both steadied Summer’s racing heart and made her feel secure.
“Fewer people know where you are, the better off we all are. Looks like you got enough land to get good and lost on this ranch. If our goal is to keep Brant Jr. from getting J.J. back, let’s not give him a roadmap to you, okay?”
Austin and Summer both nodded.
“Do not run … yet,” Detective Miller sighed. “Look, if it were my kids, I’d be considering the same thing. I can’t sit here and tell you I’d trust the system because I wouldn’t, but give me a chance to do this the right way, please.”
Austin’s jaw tensed as he studied Miller. “Let’s see what we find out Monday,” was his only concession.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Talk, sugar. Say something,” Austin begged her as they ambled slowly from his parent’s house back to his. The warm summer night was almost perfect. She told herself to relax, but occasionally a cool breeze would whip through her hair and make her shiver. It was almost as if the breeze was determined to keep her on edge. She willed it away and went on with what she had to tell him.
“I don’t know what to say. If we’d been together longer, it would be easier, but Austin, I’m not going to just hang around here waiting on Brant to show up and take him, or the police to come arrest me for not giving him back. You have an entire life here, and I know you’re about to tell me that you’ll run with me, but I don’t want you to have to do that.”
Halting abruptly, Austin kept tight hold of her hand. Begrudgingly, she turned to face him. J.J. had fallen asleep in the stroller Austin was pushing. “What’s it gonna take, Summer? What’s it going to fucking take to make you understand that I am in love with you? How long are we going to go on with this back and forth? I want to be with you. If we have to run, guess who’s running right beside you? Hell, if we have to change our names and move to Canada, guess who’ll be taking you shopping for snow pants? Come to think of it, you’re gonna need those here for winter, but that’s beside the point. You are amazing. You are worth saving and worth loving, and I, my God, I am so in love with you I can’t see straight. I didn’t even know I could love something as much as I love you. If you could just let me get that through your stubborn head, we could figure out where to go from here.”
“But …” she tried, but he lifted his hand from the stroller, and cradled her face.
“Hush.” He captured her dogged protests with his lips, melting a little more of her resolve. His tongue traced her bottom lip before he turned his head and breathed over the heated skin he’d just ignited. “You’re all mine. Think I’ve proven I ain’t going down without a fight. Close your eyes, sugar. Kiss me.”
A breathy moan escaped her as he parted her lips with gentle pressure. “That’s it,” he spoke in broken intervals between the impassioned motions he used to take ownership of her mouth.
Tenderly, his callused hands slipped from her face. One traced the delicate hollow of her neck, the other teased the side of her left breast. Her breath tangled in her throat. The night before, she’d been certain she’d never have the pleasure of feeling his hands on her again, never be able to taste the hungry masculinity that resonated from his lips. Her entire body responded like he’d pulled her from the deluge and breathed life into her lungs. She drank in his tender care and the fortitude his love provided.
After several long breath-stealing moments, he pulled back and rested his forehead against hers, sporting that damned grin that got her every single time. “Gotta make one quick stop between here and home, but this isn’t over. I’ll make you forget you ever even heard Brant Preston’s name.”
“Please, Austin, please I just can’t keep freaking out and thinking about what might happen. I just …” she couldn’t seem to verbalize exactly what it was she craved.
“Need me to make the world go away for a little while.” He knew what she required. He always did. “I’m gonna take such good care of my girl. I promise you. I’ll fuck you so thoroughly, honey, all you’re capable of is falling fast asleep safe in my arms. I’ll take it all away.”
She managed a nod as her body swayed anxiously.
“Come with me.” He took her hand again and used his other to slowly guide the stroller towards his home. When he turned northbound in their eastern trek, her brow furrowed.
“Where are we going?”
“Somebody I want you to meet.” A stable surrounded by a gated paddock came into view. A large jet-black horse was nickering and snorting as they approached. He kept his anxious black eyes locked on Austin and raced once around the large paddock.
“I’m guessing that’s Lusty.”
“Who told you about Lusty?”
“Luke told me. He’s beautiful.”
“He’s one hell of a horse. If we hadn’t come up here, he’d likely have shown up in the kitchen. Knows my truck. Whenever he sees it, he comes back to the paddock, otherwise, unless you’re feeding him, he can’t be bothered.”
Lusty neighed loudly. “Hey there, boy. You miss me?” Austin patted the horse’s side and let him nose at his chest before he pulled a pack of sunflower seeds he must’ve taken from his parent’s house from his pocket and fed them to the horse.
When he was finished with his snack, he eyed Summer, swishing his tail.
“Sizing you up,” Austin chuckled. “She’s so damn pretty isn’t she, boy?”
Summer rolled her eyes, but a grin spread across her face. Lusty gave her a grunt of what sounded like begrudged acceptance and lowered his head so she could pet his muzzle.
“Where’s Whirlwind, boy?”
“I’m standing right here,” Summer huffed.
Laughing at her outright, Austin brushed another kiss on her lips. “We have a calico named Whirlwind, sugar. Fate wasn’t gonna leave us wondering about the two of us. When you told me Ekta called you Whirlwind and about Vixen, I almost fell outta my truck. Whirlwind’s not an easy mount. She’ll toss ya, if you don’t know what you’re doing, and she’s got no time for going slow. She’s Lusty’s girl, though. They hang out together. Makes me regret making him a gelding.” He gestured his head to Lusty.
Glancing skyward, even Summer had to admit that the fates seemed pretty damned determined. If they wanted her and Austin together so badly, they better step up their work on who got to keep J.J. Suddenly, she heard the thunder of hooves steadily coming from the back fields somewhere.
“There she is.” Austin grinned when Lusty turned and neighed softly. A fiercely beautiful calico cantered into the open paddock and nudged Lusty almost flirtatiously. Summer’s breath caught. Memories of flying on Vixen filled her head. Back when life wasn’t so damned complicated.
Whirlwind let Austin and Summer pet her before she took off, and Lusty went after her, returning to the fields since it was plenty warm enough for them to sleep outside. They’d have to be brought in tomorrow morning for work, she assumed.
They walked on hand in hand, heading back to Austin’s house. She couldn’t call it her own, even in her mind. Not until she knew she’d be able to stay. He gently parked the stroller in the garage and eased J.J. up into his protective embrace. Her poor little guy was worn out.
“Does he need his bottle?” Austin whispered as they headed inside.
“He can go on to bed. He’s exhausted, and it’s late. He’s never slept in a crib though. I’m not sure he’ll like it.” She debated asking if they could put the portable crib in the room with them, but the starry night tucked around them. No one knew where they were. Surrounded by miles of ranchland on all sides, no one could get to them. For the moment, she let the serenity console her tattered nerves.
Concern creased Austin’s brow as he headed into the room Jessie had set up for J.J. and expertly laid him in the crib. Summer retrieved his blanket from the diaper bag and covered him in it. He never eve
n stirred.
They’d barely made it two steps out of J.J.’s room when Austin swept her off of her feet and into his arms. “It’s time to put my other sweet baby to bed.”
She searched his darkened eyes and the firm set of his jaw expecting to see the intensity she’d come to know as her Austin. The beast seemed absent from him that night. She tried to prepare herself for the heat and the ferocity, but instead he settled her gently beside his bed while he turned on lamps, whose low light gently warmed the room.
“Look at me, Summer.” His voice was a husky whisper, smooth as whiskey, and just as intoxicating. She lifted her eyes to his. “Be with me, baby. Be right here with me. All I want you to do is think about how good we feel together.”
She shuddered and tried to kiss him frantically, wrapping her arms over his shoulders, scratching at his shirt. She tried to stir the beast into ravaging her up against the wall, on top of the window bench, or on the hardwood floors fast and furiously. Anywhere that would strip her of the insanity that had become her world. Why wouldn’t he comply? Why wouldn’t he just fuck her until she couldn’t think anymore. “Please, Austin,” she whimpered.
“Shh,” he placed his index finger over her lips. “Nice and slow, sugar. We’re doing this nice and slow tonight.”
“But,” she lowered her eyes, unable to look at him and lie. Her stubbornness made a valiant effort to conceal her true desires. “I don’t want slow. I want the beast.”
“No, you don’t. Not tonight. Some other night, when things are settled, we’ll do whatever you want.” He nuzzled his face between her shoulder and the heated skin of her neck, brushing a tender kiss on the thin sensitive skin. “Tonight we’re going to make love, slow and thorough.”
“But I need …” she panted for breath.
“I know what you need, Summer, and it ain’t what you’re asking for. You’re mine, and I know precisely how my girl needs to be loved tonight.” With that, he slowly worked his fingers through the buttons of her shirt while he kissed either side of her mouth and then centered his lips over hers in a seductive glide that melted like a sweetened confection against her tongue. Tenderness and vulnerability weren’t things he showed anyone else. This was all for her.
When he’d loosed the final button, he broke the kiss and slipped behind her. His fingertips gently teased at the nape of her neck as he slowly lowered the sleeves of the shirt, letting every inch of her skin from her shoulders to her wrists feel his callused-caress before the garment fell to a puddle in the floor.
“I could you know.” His lips brushed the side of her neck. His whispered words teased her heated skin. He encountered one of the fading marks he’d left on her shoulder and spun his tongue there, kissing the love note he’d written so perfectly on her skin. “I could be inside of you in a minute flat. Could take you up against the wall, wrap your legs around my hips, bury myself inside of you until you’re coming around me while I take you hard and fast.”
“Yes,” she groaned as her eyelids fluttered closed. She was lost in the thrumming notes of his rumbled tone. “I want …” she tried once more, already lost in his tender care.
“You’ll want this more.”
His lips kissed along the shoulder strap of her bra before he released her breasts from their lacey enclosure. They spilled forward into his capable hands, rough calluses against the heat of silky flesh. “So damn beautiful,” he groaned.
When he’d dispensed with her bra, he traced his fingers down her spine, making her back arch and her entire body quake with need. His left hand feathered across her stomach while his right cupped her breasts, drawing her body to his. Using the arch of her back, she laid her head on his substantial shoulder and slid her ass against the fierce bulge she could feel behind the zipper of his worn Wranglers. His belt buckle abraded her lower back, cool friction against her fevered skin.
“Summer,” slipped from his lips in a craving growl.
His hands skated down her abdomen until he’d popped the snap of her jeans. She stepped out of her boots as he worked the denim down her legs. Some part of her mind wanted to protest the fact that she was naked and he was fully clothed. She wanted to see his gorgeous body tensed and hardened as he stared at her, wanted to admire the lean musculature that constructed him so perfectly.
Austin’s eyes zeroed in on the patch of wet heat gathered in the cotton crotch of her panties as they lay open in the jeans he’d just removed. He’d been so terrified he’d never have her like this again. Never have the ripened scent of her sex fill his lungs, the taste of her climaxes on his tongue. Never be able to caress her satin skin in his hands. Never be able to feel her delectable little body tensing and tugging at his fingers. Never have her under him, swollen and wet with a need only he could fulfill. If it took all night to get his fill of her, of this, to make up for the one day she hadn’t belonged to him, so be it.
He cupped her mound, memorizing the feel of the damp curls covering what belonged only to him with one hand, and let his other map her right breast and feel her nipple pucker for his care as he swayed her body with his own. Unable to help himself, desperate to take her all in, he lifted her back into his arms and carried her to his bed.
Settling her in the white cotton sheets, he stepped back to admire the stunningly beautiful creature that had turned his entire world upside down. She stared up at him anxiously. Her quick breaths swayed her ample breasts in a mesmerizing dance all for his eyes.
“You are so gorgeous,” he moaned as he brought his lips to a fading hickey he’d left between her breasts. He kissed each purple marking, tenderly reminding her body of his ownership. “I was so scared I’d never get to see my marks on you again. So fucking terrified I’d lost you for good.” He trailed his tongue to the next marking, tracing and tending while she writhed underneath him.
Moving on to the marks he’d left just over her bellybutton, he continued to the light stretch marks that ran low along her abdomen. “God, your body is so beautiful, honey. It’s incredible.” He kissed the thinned skin from her right side to her left, tending the marks on her hips as well. He allowed himself to imagine. Her body swollen full of his child. Her breasts ripe and her belly round with his seed, with what they made together. His mouth on her, loving her, worshipping her, caring for her endlessly.
Brushing a kiss on the wet curls covering her mound, he tempted her clit, circling his tongue at the top of her slit. She shook against him, keeping her legs tightly together. Terrorizing fear over losing her son, the lost desperation they’d both felt when they were apart, the world around them that continued to try and destroy them left her raw. He’d never seen her react with such sensitivity. Every single side of her he was learning made him love her more. Her breath caught and she tensed.
A whimper hung on her lips. Her eyes sought his frantically. She didn’t understand why her own body seemed to be betraying her. She was his wild girl who liked it rough and dirty. Perfection, except that wasn’t what she needed tonight. She’d clearly had sex more times than he cared to think about, but she’d never been worshipped. She’d never made love. Neither had he. This was an entirely different world he’d navigate for her and with her. She just had to let him be her guide.
“I’ll be gentle, sugar. I know you’re tender. I know you’re scared. I’m right here. I would never let anything hurt you. I’ll be so gentle with you. Just spread your legs for me. Let me take it all away.” He kept his voice calm and in control as he eased her legs apart. “Just like that.” Her thighs tensed in a protest that was nothing more than an act of confusion. “I’ve got you, honey.” He ran his fingertips down the most sensitive parts of her inner thighs, feeling her quiver as she allowed him to explore. “So beautiful, so sweet.” He let his index and middle fingers glide on either side of her slit. It wept for him. Pure silken heat seeped from her pussy.
A ragged moan rumbled from low in his gut. “Nice and easy. Relax for me,” he breathed as he dipped his middle and ring finger inside of he
r, letting her body take him at her own pace. She shook from the pent up need as he lowered his head and tongued her clit at the same moment.
Summer’s entire body honed in on how insanely good the heat of his mouth and his softly stroking fingers felt. Her hips rocked in desperate approval. Everything about this was unexpected and different. He’d never been so gentle with her. She expected his command for her to be still, but everything about him that night was without demand. She’d been certain slow and easy wouldn’t be as good as when he freed the beast all for her, but the love in his reverent care was otherworldly perfection. She’d made love with him repeatedly. Each time had been better than the time before. He made other men she’d encountered seem like mere boys, but this, this wasn’t something she’d ever have recognized before — feeling what it was like to be truly loved. This was more than sex, more than making love, this was being worshipped. Her mind ceased its badgering reminders that her entire world could be torn apart. When she was in the safety of his arms, she knew he would hold her together, never allowing her to be rent in two.
Her abdomen trembled. She rocked her hips against him in constant rhythm. His tongue softly coaxed her hood while his fingers stroked her G-spot without hurry. Finally, mercifully, he drew her clitoris into his mouth and sucked.
“Oh God,” she groaned, tensing her thighs against his stubble.
“There it is.” He blew cool air across her overly heated flesh, making her writhe as his fingers strummed faster. “It’s so close, isn’t it darlin’? So close I feel it coming. It’s right there. Relax and give it to me, Summer.” Her back arched off of the mattress. She shook. Her core flexed constantly. Her body drenched his fingers as she came hard and fast. “There’s my baby.” She quaked, and he gently eased his fingers away, seeming to know how sensitive she was that night. “Feels better now, doesn’t it?” The orgasm continued to crash through her in constant waves that rolled with her body, leaving her unable to do anything but beg for more.