She panted even as he leaned back to look up at her. The shadows were deep but she could see the glint of shine on his lips. Pleasure coiled again in her belly. She reached down to her jeans and took out the condom, thanking Janice for all eternity for her gift. Darius removed all of his clothing and she rolled the condom onto Darius’ long, erect shaft. His erection jumped under her touch and he placed his hands over hers for a moment.
“Are you sure,” he said, risking a whisper. His tone of voice and the way his body trembled told her it took everything he had to hold himself back from her.
Fear of discovery struck her like lightning, but when she could still hear nothing outside the boiler, that fear only increased her need.
In answer, she knelt down and took his dick into her mouth, stroking the shaft with her tongue, bringing him deep into her mouth until she was filled up with him. He leaned back and what little light there was revealed a well-muscled chest, arms, and stomach.
His hips bucked under her strokes. He grabbed her hair, pressing himself deeper into her mouth. She stroked and pulled and licked until he bucked again, and again, and again.
But then he held her head in a vice-like grip, stopping her mouth.
She looked up at him, questioning.
“Not like this,” he said, in a growling whisper. “Much more of this and I’ll be done. I want to feel you from the inside. ”
So she turned over onto her hands and knees. She opened more than her body to him, she opened herself and waited for him to plunge inside. He nipped her ass, making her jump, and then plunged his long, hard shaft into her folds. Her wet pussy enveloped him and she arched her back like a cat.
She felt the length of him as he drew in and out, in and out. He picked up the pace of his rhythm and leaned over to reach for her clit. Pleasure jolted her. His balls slapped against her in time to his thrusts. He was huge and thick and knew how to use all of it to his advantage.
He thrust into her again, and again, increasing the speed. He plundered her insides, filling her up. He cupped her breast with one hand, fingering the nipple and using his other hand to apply gentle, increasing pressure to her clit in time with his thrusts.
The wave of pleasure grew inside of her again, electric, all consuming. He thrust again and pushed her body into the floor. His thrusts became wild with abandon, again and again. Like a shock, she tumbled over the edge of the wave into another climax of pleasure. Her insides gripped his shaft in rhythmic spasms. Pleasure broke across her body in waves as he leaned over, the heat of his chest against her back as he held her to him in a fierce, unbreakable grip. He gasped, using her back to muffle it as she felt the pulse of his ejaculation.
He was spent inside of her, holding onto her like he would never let her go.
Chapter 11
Darius came back to himself. It took him a long minute to realize they were still inside the copper boiler. He had stopped panicking. Everything smelled like sex and yeast and liquor and he loved all of it.
He loved it even more that somehow this woman had stopped his panic with a kiss—and so much more.
She moved him in ways he hadn’t allowed himself to hope for in a long time—and all he had done was lie to her.
He sent out his senses from inside the boiler, checking to make sure all was still quiet, that this stolen time in the midst of danger was still relatively safe.
In the darkness of the farm field, while they had kissed, he had thought about having sex with her and then running away from her.
But he didn’t want to run away. Not from this.
He tasted her on his lips. Her curves nestled against his chest and the heat of their bodies had created humidity in the copper boiler. His mind worked out what to do next, knowing that his lies might have ruined everything between them before it even had a chance to begin.
Laying there, in the dark, enemies outside in wait, this naked woman nestled in his arms who had fought off a ram and a guy holding a gun like it was all in a day’s work—he knew if he ever wanted to have a real chance with this wonder of a woman, he had to treat her with the respect she deserved.
He had to come clean. No matter what it might cost him.
He cleared his throat quietly, ever aware that this stolen time in the darkness could be interrupted by the dangers waiting for them outside.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” Darius said. “Something I should have said long before now.”
Chapter 12
“Like how long?” Ashley said, a light tease in her voice.
She felt warm and strangely relaxed in spite of the danger that awaited them. It felt like that danger couldn’t get to them as long as they stayed inside this moment together. If she could see herself in the mirror she swore she would glow.
“Like yesterday? Before we even knew each other existed?”
“I knew about you before yesterday.”
A little bit of Ashley’s glow popped like a balloon. Darius’ muscled chest tensed against her skin. Even though the lengths of their bodies still pressed together, somehow he had begun to draw himself away from her.
“Or at least, I knew about this farm—and that ram of yours.”
“Don’t,” Ashley said, the word erupting from her lips before she could make sense of it. There was a seriousness in his whispered words that lodged anxiety into her heart and made her begin to turn cold. “Don’t make me regret—”
“I was hired to kill your ram. To get rid of King. That’s why I was on the tour earlier. I was checking out your place so that I could—”
“Come back tonight and finish the job,” Ashley said, finishing his sentence for him as horror dawned full inside her chest. She still tasted him on her lips, and felt the gentle soreness of being well-used and well-pleasured, and her heart broke into a million pieces.
She hadn’t know him for more than a few hours worth of time, but somehow he had crashed through seven years of carefully built barriers. There had been no time and no room in her life for romance, but he had begun to make her hope—
Oh, god. “You’re with them.”
“I am not with them,” Darius said, his voice fierce.
“You might as well be.” Ashley felt something harden inside her. She was pretty sure it was her heart. She let it. She needed it to go solid to get through all this alive. Maybe not intact, but at least, alive. “Was this part of the plan? Fuck me to get me out of the way while you all destroy the farm? Why the hell? What did Janice and I ever do—”
“It’s the ram you bought. The DNA inside it is patented. If it gets out, it will bankrupt the company that hired me. Your ram is genetically engineered with DNA that’s not supposed to exist in the United States. Someone—my father—smuggled the DNA into the country—”
“So this is a family business?” Ashley shakily picked up her clothes and dressed.
Darius pulled on his jeans with deft, sure hands that had just been all over her body.
She couldn’t stand to even look in his direction.
“No, it’s not like that.”
Ashley attempted to boost herself out of the porthole. The metal lip dug into the palms of her hands, creating a thin line of pain. She lifted herself half way, muscles straining. She was toned from shucking stalls and keeping rams from bullying her, but this pull-up was out of her reach.
“We shouldn’t have done this. I shouldn’t have done this.”
It had all been a terrible mistake. She’d let her guard down like she had promised to never do again and look at what had happened.
“I should have never… shit.” Her muscles gave out and she slumped down from the porthole. “Boost me up.” She bit her lip, hating that she needed his help, but seeing no other way. She needed to put some space between them.
“Ashley, they were going to hurt my mother—”
“Just boost me up,” she said, the venom in her voice cutting him off. She didn’t want to hear his excuses. Anything coming out of his mouth was jus
t going to be another lie. She couldn’t trust herself to know the difference right now.
He finished putting his clothes back together. She flinched as he placed his hands on either side of his waist.
Damn him and his hands.
His touch felt good in spite of the betrayal she was still processing. She locked all that down and grabbed for the porthole lip, using his base as a pivot point for her to flip herself out, over, and land softly on the cement ground. She’d done a move like that often enough to get over wood fences. An old gymnastics trick from her childhood days.
“Why would I say anything now, if it wasn’t the truth?” His voice floated throw the air in the darkness of the distillery and dropped dead to the ground.
She walked away from Darius without a second look back, not trusting herself. The noises behind her told her he’d gotten himself out of the boiler just fine.
She should leave a note for the distillery owners to make sure they knew they needed to sterilize the boiler again. Maybe with enough scrubbing they could make this whole episode disappear.
Her herd was still out there and in danger. She couldn’t believe she had let herself forget about them for even a moment. Oh, he was good. A master at manipulation and she had fallen for it.
Just like she had with her ex.
They were all working together over some smuggled genetically engineered ram semen?
Outside the industry, the whole thing wouldn’t make any sense. It’d be seen as some kind of joke. But inside the cheese industry, things like that were taken seriously. The artisan cheese-monger guild around here wasn’t like that—they wanted to share their knowledge. But worldwide? Cheese was big money. Things got cutthroat, especially when someone had an edge and wanted to protect it.
King’s DNA had been too good to be true, and now her herd, and maybe even she, might die for it.
“Ashley, what are you doing? You heard them, there’s a guy with a gun waiting out there.”
She turned back to face Darius, eyes blazing. She felt that anger rise up and cover the hurt that was making her heart bleed. She really thought that maybe this time she could have trusted her instincts—that he was a man worth trusting. But she was wrong. She was no good with men and he was just more proof of that. “I don’t think he’s less dangerous to me than the guy in here without a gun.”
Her words struck him, as if each one stabbed him with a knife. But she couldn’t trust her reading of him anymore. She had proved herself completely unreliable. As she went for the distillery service door, she felt him grab her arm.
“You can’t go out there. It’s too dangerous. No matter what you think of me—remember they shot at me too.”
“They missed,” Ashley said. “Probably on purpose.”
“Now you’re being hard headed. I’m not working for them.”
“Right, you’re working for someone else who hired you to do the exact same job as them.” She shook him off. “Same difference.”
He was strong enough that she feared he wouldn’t let go, but as soon as he did, she opened the distillery’s service door and slipped outside, watching out for the man they had stationed. Darius might try to follow her, but she thought she’d be able to lose him in the little bit of woods between here and the next neighbor’s property. She’d go hunting for a phone until she found one that worked or she ended up in town.
Either way, she was going to do all of that with the only person she could trust—herself.
Chapter 13
Darius cursed under his breath as Ashley dashed out of the distillery.
He knew she was brave. He knew she was mad. But this was beyond stupid—rushing out into the dark where armed men were waiting.
He quickly followed after. Making any noise to stop her out here would surely draw attention to themselves. As it was he had completely lost his mind.
Sex in a distiller? Armed men out to kill them? His sergeant would be heartily ashamed of the way his actions had jeopardized himself and Ashley.
But there was no going back now.
And he didn’t want to undo any of it, other than he wished he had told her the truth from the beginning. But even then he knew that wasn’t being honest with himself. If he had told her the truth, she never would have touched him. Though he might have deserved all of what was happening now, he didn’t want to take any of it back. It was the first time he had felt calm and like he belonged with somebody in—well, he didn’t know how long—maybe forever.
He knew things were ruined between them now and he had done the ruining. It had all been ruined from the start. But he could still taste her sweetness on his lips and feel the ghost of the way her body had bucked under him. He would fantasize on that for a very long time to come.
A noise in the brush caught his attention. He told himself to get back on task. Protect Ashley, get her out alive, save the herd if he could.
He purposefully left off the list getting himself out of here alive. He thought that might be too hefty a goal. He wanted to be realistic.
Priorities. He had a lot to make up for, so he watched to make sure Ashley dashed away safe into the little bit of woods at the far end of the distillery’s property. He headed in the opposite direction, searching for whoever they had set up to watch the property. He had some amends to make and the best way he could see how to do that was to make things safe again for Ashley.
He kept to the shadows and let the night sounds of frogs and crickets overtake his senses to search for anything out of the ordinary.
A flared light gave it away.
The posted sentry, or whatever he was, had just lit a cigarette. He vanished back underneath the darkness of a large oak tree canopy, but it didn’t matter. Darius now had a direction and a target.
Moving swiftly, he stayed low to the ground and along the edge of the distillery until the edge ended. There was only open field left, but he figured a smoke break gave him exactly the distraction he needed. As he crept closer, he took a half second to wish Ashley all the speed and safety he could. Then he crouched to the ground, the grass cool and dry under his hands. Hands that had held the lovely curves of a woman he had just lost forever.
The cigarette smell washed over him. He used his linebacker move again, swiftly tackling the guy to the ground. The cigarette flew into the grass. The cigarette flared and a wisp of smoke curled up from a stalk of grass.
Darius fought the guy, trying to keep him pinned to the ground. The smoke smell covered him. He got socked in the stomach and the guy began beating him around the head. In order to keep the advantage, Darius flipped his position and kept the guy pinned. He knew there had to be a gun somewhere, but clearly the guy had lost his hold on it along with the cigarette, otherwise he’d be shot by now. The smoke smell grew, going beyond cigarettes into something more grassy. He saw a small patch of grass was burning.
He increased his chokehold on the guy, feeling the adrenaline rush give him strength, but knowing the same adrenaline rush was also giving his opponent strength.
“Do you want to burn the whole area down?”
The sound of Ashley’s voice made his heart drop and his grip loosen.
Shit.
His opponent used the moment of weakness to twist and pivot himself off the ground.
Ashley was using her boots to stomp out the grass, the flames suffocating under her work.
“Get out of here, Ashley,” Darius said.
“Stay, Ashley,” his opponent said, one of the guys with the Italian accent. “No hurry to leave.”
Darius made as if to rush for the guy again.
He held up one hand. “No. We are done with that.” His voiced sounded raspy but the words were clear enough, and matched with the gun in the guy’s hand, they stopped Darius cold.
The gun was pointed right at his heart.
“Ashley, it is time for you to move over here,” the guy said.
“Ashley,” Darius said.
But she ignored both of them, focused o
n stamping out the fire for good.
“Get over here or I’ll shoot him.” He re-aimed his gun onto Darius.
Ashley looked up and he swore the moonlight somehow hit her eyes just right that he could see the fiery anger that flared. “Go right ahead and do what you need to do. I’m not stopping until I’m sure the fire the two of you assholes started is completely out. Whatever business you have with me and Storm Weather farm, it has nothing to do with my neighbors. You’re in fire country here so unless you want to shoot me now, you can wait another fucking minute until I’m finished.”
His opponent raised his eyebrows and grinned. “Now that is the American spirit I keep hearing about.”
Then he fired.
Darius took the shot in his leg. His calf to be specific. He registered the location before the pain. Then the pain hit him like a lightning bolt and he groaned, falling to the ground. It felt like thunder was roaring across his ears. In all his Army days he had never been shot, even while those around him had been killed.
He tasted something metallic in his mouth like he had bitten his flesh and drawn blood. But real blood was dripping from his leg, like black tar on the ground, staining the silver grass.
Ashley froze.
Smoke curled around one of her boots. She stared at Darius on the ground and then at the guy with the gun.
The shock kept Darius stunned and working through his options for what came next.
The bastard had shot him—
Ashley went back to stomping out the last bit of flame.
That’s how Darius knew he had still somehow held out hope it would work out between them. He felt that last bit of hope stomped into pieces under her blue striped rain boots, just like the grass fire.
“What did you do to anger this woman that she now cares so little for your life?” The guy stood over Darius and pointed the gun at the side of his head. “Please come with me. This time the bullet will do more than hurt, it will kill him.”
If anything, Ashley picked up the pace of boot-stomping fire work.
Darius decided he wasn’t going to beg. His leg was on fire. He’d done Ashley a great deal of wrong. If this was how he was going to be taken out, so be it. Even still, he inched his position over for better leverage. If he could get the guy to stand close enough, maybe he could sweep his legs out from under him.
Smuggled Wonder Page 5