Explosive (The Black Opals)

by St. Claire, Tori

  Jayce drew back, pushed in again, fucking her mouth with no care for anything but the intense pleasure that saturated his blood. Sweat trickled down his abdomen. His breath came in short, harsh gasps. It was too much—he was going to come if he didn’t stop now.

  And damn it, he wanted to feel her orgasm surround him when he came.

  With a guttural groan of protest, he braced a hand on her shoulder and eased himself from between of her wet, sultry lips. The shock of leaving that warm haven jolted through his body like someone dumped ice-water over his head. His body convulsed, and his hand instinctively dropped to his cock, his fingers gripping just enough to lessen the pleasurable pain.

  “Fuck, Alyssa.”

  Her momentary surprise morphed into a sweet, angelic smile that seemed totally out of place given what she’d just done to him.

  “Are you trying to kill me?” Taking her arm in one hand, he dragged her upright and captured her mouth in a hard, demanding kiss. “I’m not coming without you.”

  The heaving of her breasts against his chest betrayed her own heightened arousal. She looped her arms around his neck, fought him for control over the kiss. Jayce let her have the upper hand for an instant, indulged in the velvety demands of her tongue until the throbbing in his cock tempered enough he could let go. He slid his hands up her narrow waist to her breasts and gathered them in his palms.

  All playful teasing fled her voice as she whispered, “Take me, Jayce. However you want.” She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. “Just take me.”

  Aw hell—carte blanche. And damned if he couldn’t indulge in that free ticket—he was too primed for much more than burying his cock inside her sweet pussy and pumping into nirvana. The minute she looked up from beneath him, he’d lose it completely.

  But he could sustain his release a little while longer. He nodded at the bed, his voice rasping through the quiet. “Hands and knees.”

  Alyssa set one knee on the mattress, then the other, and with cat-like grace positioned herself horizontally across the quilt. Her toes dangled just off the edge, she rested on her elbows, her perfect ass lifted up in welcome. Jayce fought back another groan as he rose to his feet and stood behind her. Fitting his hands around her hips, he drew her back a fraction. She swayed easily, no hint of protest, no trace of anything but trust.

  Jayce ran his palms over the rounded globes of her ass, slid one hand up her elegant spine as he used his thigh to nudge her knees further apart. Spread before him, her body open to his will, she shivered.

  “Are you cold?” he whispered, drawing one finger to the underside of one well toned cheek.

  She shivered again and answered with a breathless, “No.”

  He dipped his gaze to the wet and ready flesh between her legs. The sheen of moisture there beckoned to his fingers, and Jayce dipped one into her folds.

  Alyssa’s hips sank into his touch.

  That she could find such pleasure in simply seeing to his amazed him. It also humbled him. But then, she’d always had that effect on him. What she’d ever seen in him, when she could have had her pick of any guy in the school, he never had been able to understand. Yet, she had seen something.

  And he treasured the gift he’d been given. He treasured her.

  He drew his finger through her slickened folds again and swirled it around her clitoris. Alyssa let out a muffled moan. Her back arched, and she pressed her hips downward, increasing the pressure against her clit.

  Jayce leaned forward and brushed his lips across the small of her back. “You always have liked it from behind.”

  “Yes,” she murmured, rolling her hips against his caresses.

  He circled her clenching opening, then drew his damp fingertip over the tight pucker at her rear. She let out a hiss, and her body trembled.

  “And you’ve always liked it here.” Pressing against that rosette, he edged his finger inside.

  Alyssa dropped her forehead to the quilt with a whimper. His cock bobbed against his abdomen, the insistent rise of desire choking him once more. He took a half step forward and guided the tip of his throbbing erection against her wet opening.

  “I need to be inside you too much right now,” he whispered.

  “God, Jayce, stop talking.” She pushed back against him, her body trembling from shoulders to thighs.

  Jayce couldn’t help but chuckle. “Sweetheart, you like it when I talk.”

  “Yes.” Clenching the quilt in both hands, she turned her head side to side, frustration creeping into her voice. “No. Just…” Bucking into him, she protested with a strangled mewl. “Do something.”

  “I am.” He used his free hand to grip his cock and drag it between her folds, through her quivering, ready flesh. As her warm juices lubricated his length, he closed his eyes to sheer bliss. “Tell me when, Alyssa.”

  “Now,” she murmured.

  Jayce bit down on his lower lip, tempering a sharp oath. He was only torturing himself, but damned if he didn’t like hearing her beg. “No,” he managed through clenched teeth. Slowly, he pulled his hips back, then eased forward, stroking her once more. “I don’t think you’re ready.”

  Alyssa’s knuckles turned white against the dark blue quilt. A broken whine tore past her lips. “Now, please, Jayce. Please.”

  Granting them both what they needed, Jayce angled his lower body and pushed slowly inside her slick sheath. The walls of her pussy clamped around his penetration. He let the grip and release guide him deeper. Breathed through flared nostrils as he combated the urge to slam home hard. The sound of Alyssa’s low, drawn-out moan as he filled her echoed through the room.

  When he could sink no deeper, Jayce fitted his hands around her narrow waist. “God, you feel so damn good.”

  “Jayce.”

  There was an urgency to Alyssa’s voice he couldn’t identify. But the insistence fringing it was impossible to deny. He withdrew slowly, dragging his cock deliberately through her so he stroked the most sensitive part of her body. His restraint was rewarded with her high-pitched keen.

  “Tell me how it feels,” he coaxed hoarsely.

  She shook her head, rested her cheek on the mattress. He caught the press of her teeth against her lower lip. “Can’t,” she panted.

  “Yes you can, Alyssa.” He repeated the same, slow, mind-numbing thrust and retreat, aware his own body had begun to shake. “Tell me how it feels.”

  “So…good…” She punctuated each word with a twist of her hips.

  Fucking perfect.

  Jayce pushed in deep, then eased out and drove into her slick flesh with short, little strokes. Christ, he was so ready he felt like the top of his head was going to explode. Barely clinging to the last vestiges of his control, he choked out, “Are you…going to…come?”

  Alyssa clawed at the quilt, and her body slammed back into his. “Can’t…yet.”

  There was no denying she was as ready as he was; her protest had nothing to do with a physical response. She was waiting for his instruction, the way she always had.

  “That’s right, baby doll,” he soothed as he fastened his hands on her hips. “You can’t yet.”

  At her plaintive whimper, Jayce gave in to instinct and drove inside her hard. Her body moved beneath the forceful thrust, but she pushed back with equal demand. He thrust into her again and again, jerking her hips into his body. Their flesh slapped in the quiet; the bed jostled and creaked. He could feel her flesh straining around him, feel the rise of her orgasm. She fought it back with broken gasps.

  His own body blistered with the need for release. Ecstasy built to intolerable limits, and his arm muscles twitched. “Now,” he choked out. “Now, Alyssa.”

  As she turned her face to the quilt and let out a scream, Jayce’s orgasm exploded through him. His vision winked into blackness, his knees buckled. He bit into his lip to stop from shouting, and momentarily incapacitated by unspeakable pleasure, he crumpled onto her back.

  Dimly, he became aware of his surrounding
s. His raspy breathing droned in his head. Tingles spread down the back of his legs. Against his chest, Alyssa’s damp skin pillowed him.

  Jayce opened his eyes to find them laying flat on the bed. She lay panting beneath him, a good several inches further across the mattress than where she’d started out. Completely drained, he smoothed a palm down her arm and clasped her fingers. She gave his hand a weak, but affectionate, squeeze.

  “Stay with me,” she whispered. “Don’t go.”

  As he swallowed to wet his throat and promise her he wouldn’t leave, he remembered his promise to Jordan. Regretfully, he forced himself to ease from within the gentle clasp of Alyssa’s warm pussy and rolled onto his back. “I’ll stay for a little while, but I promised Jordan I’d take her to the movies tonight.”

  Alyssa curled around so she faced him. A soft smile played on her lips, accenting the pink in her cheeks. “I can’t argue with sibling obligation.” Nestling into the crook of his arm, she pressed a kiss to his chest.

  Jayce turned his head and brushed his lips across her hair. “Rest, baby doll. I’ve got you.”

  “Mm.” Despite her closed eyes, her smile broadened. “Yes. You do.”

  And if the conversation they’d started earlier meant anything, he might actually be a step closer to having her for more than these few moments. Progress. They’d definitely made progress. Now wasn’t the time to push for more.

  T w e n t y – s e v e n

  Jayce listened to Alyssa’s gentle, even breathing, drifting on the edge of sleep himself. His body would like nothing more than for him to drop off for a little while. He was achy in a gritty and satisfying way. But his head couldn’t let go of what Alyssa had been trying to say enough to let him completely relax.

  My parents blamed me and sent me away.

  Her parents had always been guttersnipe as far as Jayce was concerned, and her dad could give the fictional Mrs. Danvers a run for her money. When he wasn’t busy being a retired military man and running his household with Nazi-like control, he’d always done everything he could to undermine Alyssa’s confidence. He was the reason no one had known about their engagement, much less their relationship. Jayce had called her once at home, and when Col. Martin found out his daughter was talking to a guy from the poor side of town, he’d assured her he’d put Jayce in jail for statutory rape. Neither of them doubted for a minute he would.

  Had that mean old man and his shrew-like wife found out she was pregnant? Jayce had left to establish them in Chicago when Alyssa was only two months along. They’d both been so careful to keep things quiet. He supposed, still, one of her friends might have let something slip. But then, Alyssa hadn’t had many close girlfriends. Her best friend moved at the start of the year she and Jayce began dating. To Mississippi or someplace down that way.

  Even if her parents had found out, that didn’t explain why she didn’t call him. Why she didn’t just come join him in Chicago as they’d planned. They might have sent her away, but she could have hopped on a bus when she got to her aunt’s.

  Jayce blew out a hard breath and pushed himself upright in the bed, taking care not to disturb Alyssa’s sleep. He’d go crazy trying to puzzle it all out. Either that or the gaping hole inside him that still felt as raw as if she’d vanished yesterday would open up so far he couldn’t find his way out. He wanted Alyssa, he wanted her back, and damn it, he wanted his family.

  Family. Jordan.

  His gaze crept to Alyssa, slumbering so peacefully at his side. She’d been so torn up a little while ago. He’d be the worst kind of bastard for abandoning her now. But Jordan was fighting her own ghosts as well. His sister, his girl—no, Alyssa damn sure wasn’t his girlfriend.

  Frowning, Jayce slid out of the bed and into his clothes. Adding insult to injury, his cell phone went off as he fastened his jeans. He fished it out of his back pocket, and glanced at the incoming text message.

  Hey. Going to the movie solo. You stay with Alyssa.

  If that wasn’t a sucker-punch, Jayce didn’t know what was. He chewed on the inside of his cheek and studied Alyssa. Much as he hated the idea of McTavish taking care of her, Jayce didn’t have many options. He couldn’t let Jordan down. That had become too much of a pattern. He’d ask McTavish to keep an eye on Alyssa and come back as soon as the flick was over. Jayce left his gun in its holster on her nightstand. He’d grab it when he came up to tell her goodbye.

  As he exited Alyssa’s room, he replied to his sister’s text. I’m on my way. Hold tight.

  Hurry up then. It starts in forty minutes.

  Forty minutes? Jayce flipped to the time on his phone. Holy shit, he must have dropped off for a little while. It was fifteen after six. No wonder he felt groggy.

  He trudged down the stairs in search of McTavish. But the first level was empty. Thumping came from outside Alyssa’s office, and Jayce followed the sound, only to find Kane kneeling at the corner of the house near the window someone had used to enter her office.

  “McTavish around?” Jayce asked as he rounded a small bush.

  Kane glanced up from the loose dirt near the window. “Said he had some errands to run.” He tapped the black flecks in the ground. “This what you were talking about?”

  “Yeah.”

  Nodding, Kane stood and dusted his hands off on his jeans. “Definitely someone checking to see if the window is armed. What I can’t figure is how they got in without breaking the glass though. It’s locked up tight on the inside.”

  Jayce shrugged. “Maybe it wasn’t locked when they let themselves inside.”

  Like a typical Opal, Kane rebutted Jayce’s suggestion with suspicion. “Or maybe someone let them in.”

  “What?” Jayce frowned. “You think McTavish has something to do with this?” McTavish was currently on Jayce’s list of creeps he’d like to kick, but the reasons for his status there had nothing to do with his morals or character. McTavish genuinely cared for Alyssa—a man couldn’t fake the affection that registered in his eyes every time he looked at her.

  “Or she’s a damned good actress.”

  Alyssa part of this? Part of…something? Like hell. Jayce shook his head, adamant. “Find a different theory.”

  Kane chuckled. “Just looking at all angles.”

  “Yeah, well, you’re not here to analyze anything but how to install the best security system.” Though he told himself to keep his voice light and teasing, a hard edge of warning crept into his words. He didn’t bother with trying to justify it. Or excuse it. Instead, he changed the subject. “Did McTavish say when he was coming back?”

  “No, why?” Striding off around the front of the house again, Kane answered over his shoulder.

  “Shit,” Jayce muttered as he followed Kane. Now what? He’d just told Jordan he was on his way.

  “Problems?” Kane kept his gaze focused on the eave above the front porch. He indicated a cranny where the overhang tucked into the gable on the garage. “Camera there.”

  Jayce nodded absently.

  “What’s eatin’ at you?”

  “I promised Jordan I’d take her to a movie. But Alyssa’s so upset, I think I’m going to have to cancel.”

  “I’ll take Jordan.” Kane flashed Jayce a lazy grin.

  Jayce snorted. “Yeah, I bet you would.”

  “Nah, seriously.” Kane’s wry amusement faded as he tucked a hand into his front pocket. “Scout’s honor, I’ll be a total gentleman. No sense leaving her hanging.”

  Jayce believed Kane’s “Scout’s honor” about as much as he believed the sun would suddenly turn green. He couldn’t deny, however, Kane had a point. And the entire purpose of taking Jordan to the movies was to provide a distraction for her tonight, not necessarily to have some sibling bonding time. He eyed his partner, weighing his options.

  No way in hell could he leave Alyssa alone, and leaving her with Kane, whom she didn’t know, was pretty much the same thing. Still, he didn’t like the idea Kane fucking around with Jordan, and he wasn’t co
nvinced his earlier warning would hold. He heaved a sigh and leveled his fellow Opal with a stern look. “Listen, I didn’t tell you this, and I’ll have my ass handed to me if Jordan learns I did. Deal?”

  Kane leaned against one of the columns on Alyssa’s front porch, answering with a slow nod.

  Oh, he would pay in blood if Jordan ever discovered what he was about to say. Pushing that uncomfortable thought aside, he lowered his voice. “Ten years ago tonight, Jordan was mixed up with a guy from the school I went to. She attended the ballet school and she didn’t want to listen to what I knew about this asshole.”

  One dark eyebrow arched, and Kane’s mouth twitched with amusement. “Okay, big brother. I’ll pat her on the head and send her to bed with warm milk like a good little girl.”

  Jayce glowered. “Shut up a minute.”

  Still smirking, Kane held his hands up innocently.

  “She went to the senior bonfire. She was a sophomore. Long story short, I guess another girl dragged her off to the woods to pee. As I heard things from my mom, they’d just met.” Jayce turned away, his stomach churning at the thought of what had happened to his baby sister that night. If he’d been there, instead of in Chicago…

  He pushed the guilt aside. He hadn’t been there, but he was here now.

  “She and the other girl were attacked and raped, by two or three guys, including the asshole she was dating. Jordan pressed charges. But my family…” He clenched a tight fist, old anger rising. With a deep breath, he forced himself to continue. “We were shit-poor. The school’s quarterback and offensive line?” He let out a harsh, repulsed laugh. “Not even close.”

  “Shit, Jayce,” Kane muttered.

  “Their parents hired some big shot lawyer team who spun everything against my sister and made her look like a whore during the trial. He and his asshole friends walked. And I’d kill the son of a bitch if I ever ran into him. But he disappeared before I got back here from Chicago.” Gritting his teeth, he turned back to Kane. “Don’t fuck with Jordan, man. It took her a long time to move beyond that shit.”