He snagged the ball midair when she threw it again, this time at his groin. “Attitudes during rehearsal sucked, so I kept everyone until the attitudes improved. Why’re you in a bad mood?”
“Because I’ve been a fucking prisoner in this goddamn bus for the last five days.”
Devin flashed her a smile. “Welcome to my world, sweetheart.”
“Oh, go to hell.”
“Just spent two hours there, so no, thanks. How’s the arm?”
“Perfectly fine. One hundred percent healed. It’s a fucking miracle.”
“Great. Get your shit packed. I’ll have Crash book you a flight outta here tonight.”
Liberty stared at him, and he saw the edge of fear in her eyes.
Such a little liar you are, tough girl. You don’t want to go any more than I want you to.
She stood. “I’m not looking to leave. I’m looking to get back to work.”
“No. The doctors said one full week of no strenuous activity.”
“So is that why you haven’t fucked me? Because it’s always so fucking strenuous?”
“That’s what you’re so pissy about?”
She pushed the chair aside—using her injured arm, fully aware that he’d notice her little act of defiance. “Yes. Why haven’t we had sex in six days?”
“Because you have a bullet wound.”
She cocked her head. Devin braced himself for the barrage of bullshit she was about to spew. “Last I checked, I didn’t get shot in the pussy; I got shot in the arm. And since you’re not into armpit fucking, there shouldn’t be a problem.” Her gaze dropped to his crotch. “Or is there?”
He laughed. Goddamn, she was a piece of work. “No problem on my end.” His eyes made a very slow, very hungry pass up and down her body. “You lookin’ to get fucked?”
“Yes!”
“Then strip.”
“Right here?”
“No, out in the damn courtyard. Yes, right here.” He raised an eyebrow. “Unless that’s a problem?”
Keeping her eyes locked on his, she dropped her sweatpants. No underwear. Then she unbuttoned her shirt and tossed it aside. No bra.
Yes, his hot, sexy woman did want to get fucked.
Too bad he wasn’t going to oblige her.
“Very nice. Now walk down the hall nice and slow so I can see every jiggle of that fantastic ass of yours.”
Liberty turned. She spread her legs and bent forward, dangling her head between her feet, exposing her pussy and that sweet little asshole. “Remember when you fucked me like this? And I braced one hand on the floor so I could play with your balls as you rammed into me? You fucked me so hard I nearly passed out. Let’s do that one again.”
He growled, “Get your ass into the bedroom. Now.”
She sashayed off. Sashayed. G.I. Jane never sashayed.
When Devin reached the bedroom, Liberty was spread out on the bed, her vibrator in her right hand. “You priming the pump?”
Her husky laugh zinged straight to his cock. “No. I’ve been making do with Slim, here, oh, a couple . . . three times a day since I’ve been left to my own devices.”
Own devices. She cracked him up. But he kept the smile from his face. “That right?” Devin kicked off his boots. Yanked off his T-shirt. Watched those silvery eyes focus on his fingers as he unhooked his belt, lowered the zipper and shed his jeans and boxers. “You and Slim wanna give me a show?”
“No. I want the real thing.”
He reached in the drawer and pulled out a neckerchief.
Liberty’s eyes zoomed to the silky black fabric. “What’s that for?”
“For fun and games. Right arm up by the headboard.”
“But I don’t need fun and games, Devin. I need you to fuck me.”
He crawled across the bed and stopped to kiss her with brutal possession. “I’ll give you what you need. Now, arm up.”
She sighed dramatically, but she obeyed.
After he tied her, he started to touch her. First with his hands. Featherlight caresses all along her supple body. Taking time to marvel at the softness of her skin and the strength beneath it. Her graceful neck, her strong shoulders, her luscious chest, her compact rib cage. Then he moved on to her taut belly, her rounded hips, her muscular thighs, defined calves and the delicate tops of her feet.
Then he let his mouth have a turn. Kissing. Licking. Sucking. Paying particular attention to the spots he sometimes overlooked in order to focus on the obvious body parts that made her scream and cream for him. The ripped musculature of her forearms, biceps and triceps. The bend in her elbow. The valley between each one of her fingers. The stubborn jut of her chin. The outer curves of her breasts.
He rolled her over to properly worship her backside. From the sexy sweep of the nape of her neck to her shoulder blades and the curve of her spine. The tempting dimples above her ass. The soft arc of flesh where her hips flared into her thighs.
As he teased and explored, her breathing grew shallow.
He looked up, expecting she’d have her eyes closed. But they were open and focused on him.
“Don’t treat me like I’m fragile.”
“I’m not.” He kissed the swell of her breast that covered her heart. “I’m treating you like you’re precious.” He kissed her again. “Because you are so very, very precious to me, Liberty.”
“Devin.”
He looked up at her again, seeing a combination of fear and hope on her face. “I love you. Been wantin’ to say it to you again. But this is better.”
“What?”
“Showin’ you that I love you. Every inch of you. Because I know every inch of this beautiful body. I know where to touch you to make you sigh. To make you moan. To make you cry out. This body knows me. It knows my intent every time I’m naked with you. But today I want your heart to know my intent. Because, baby, I want to prove to you that if you give it over to me as easily as you do your body, I’ll cherish it.”
“You . . .” She swallowed hard. “Have a way with words.”
“They come easier when they’re spoken from a place of truth.”
“So how long will you continue this erotic torture? Until I beg?”
He traced the sharp edge of her jaw. “This isn’t about power.”
“Then what is it about?”
“Makin’ love. Showin’ love. Bein’ in love.”
Liberty’s lips trembled. “I don’t know how to do that.”
“Sweetheart, we’ve been learning how to do exactly that for the last four months we’ve been together.” When their mouths met, the kiss was scorching hot. But Devin wouldn’t be rushed. When he kissed her, that’s all he focused on. Her taste. The feel of her tongue tangling with his. Their synchronized breathing. How perfectly their mouths fit together.
How perfectly they fit together.
When the time was right, Devin levered himself over her, wedging his hips against hers, and slowly slipped inside her. He forced himself to stay still. To not give in to that powerful need to thrust. He looked down at her.
She lifted her free hand and touched his face. “I love you.”
He’d never been happier than in that moment. “I love you too.”
Her hand moved down his side to his ass. She slapped it hard. “Now fuck me.”
Devin laughed. “Whatever you want.”
Chapter Thirty-one
The final performance of Devin McClain’s four-month-long Heroes and Heartbreakers tour had arrived.
Liberty would be intimately familiar with the term heartbreaker at the end of the night.
The late-afternoon sun shone through the skylight above Devin’s bed, sending sunbeams across his skin.
They’d spent the last hour in bed. The first time had been so fast—clothes off, hit the mattress and boom he was thrusting inside her—that she wondered if they were playing Beat the Clock.
The second time had been slower. Climbing that peak together until they both tumbled down in a dizzying, blissfu
l rush.
Devin’s rough-tipped finger circled the white bandage on her biceps. “I know it’s been a week, but sometimes . . . I can’t believe you got shot.”
“I’m happy there wasn’t muscle damage.”
“Me too. Still . . . you’ll have a scar.”
“It’ll match the others.”
“Liberty—”
“I’m not being flip.” She looked at his fingers gently stroking the inside of her arm. “Now I’m officially two for two.”
“Meaning what?”
“The ambassador I saved? First and last security assignment.”
“But I thought . . .”
“My security specialist skills Garrett brags about were securing transport trucks, not people.”
“That tears it. I’m gonna demand my money back for false advertising,” Devin drawled.
Liberty smiled. “Too late. And now, with my very first private security job, I end up with another damn bullet hole. It’s enough to put a girl off bodyguard jobs for good.” The instant she said it, she wished she hadn’t.
“So ditch your job workin’ for GSC and come to work for me full-time. You can handle security for my tours.” He smoothed his hand over her shoulder and curled his hand around her cheek. “Although you never want to talk about this, you know I don’t want this to be an ending. Let’s make it a beginning.”
“Devin—”
“Hear me out. I need a security coordinator. You’re the very best I’ve ever had. You could run your own business, set your own hours. We’d be together on the bus during tours and the rest of the time we can live at my place in Nashville. We could be out as a couple everywhere.”
The way he phrased it sounded perfectly logical.
But not for her.
Didn’t he see that? How could he not realize that she’d suffocate in that no-purpose role? She’d never fit in his lifestyle. She needed something for herself beyond seeing to his needs.
But doesn’t he see to yours? In ways you never imagined any man would?
Yes. But still, Liberty had known their relationship would end when the tour did, despite all of Devin’s hints that he wanted it to continue. She could tell herself that she hadn’t meant to fall in love with him, but from the moment he’d hauled her out of bed and comforted her after she’d had a nightmare, she realized falling for him was inevitable.
So her options were to end this with a big fight, or nod her head, play along with his delusions of their togetherness and then leave him like she’d planned.
Shame on you. Act like a soldier, not a coward running away again, and face this thing head-on.
At least a fight would allow her to tell him exactly why they wouldn’t work. It’d hurt him—something she didn’t relish doing. She wanted a clean break, not a cruel break. Which is why she’d never tell him about the hundred-thousand-dollar bonus she’d earned for staying with him on tour.
Walking away from him would be hard, but she’d survive. She always did.
So why was she crying just thinking about it?
“Darlin’, what’s wrong?”
She rolled to the side of the bed and started putting on her clothes.
“Liberty? Say something.”
Inhaling a deep breath, she turned around and said, “No.”
“No what? No, you don’t want to say something?”
“While I appreciate the offer, no, I won’t be handling your security on a permanent basis.”
Devin shifted to his side of the bed and pulled on his clothing.
Then they faced each other in the middle of the room, ready for battle.
“What don’t you understand? I love you. I want a life with you.”
“Stop. Your declarations are just making this harder. This will never work.”
“Why not?”
“Because we don’t want the same things.”
“You don’t want a man who loves you more than he ever thought he was capable? You don’t want to make a home with me and maybe a couple of children?”
She wiped her eyes, but the tears kept coming. “Don’t be stupid. Of course I want that. The problem is I can’t have that with you.”
“Why not?”
“Because I love my job and that job is in Denver. I’m finally in a good place where I can have a home of my own—something I’ve never had. I lived the nomadic lifestyle my entire life, Devin. First growing up and then in the military. I’m thirty-five years old, and for the first time I’m putting down roots.
“Can you really see me in your life, Devin? At some fancy record label party? I’ll never be the polished type of woman you need on your arm. And can you imagine the looks of horror if you told them I ran your tour security? It brings us right back to the issue you’ve had since day one on this tour.”
“Don’t go there,” he warned.
“I have to! You don’t want anyone thinking that you’ve got a woman protecting you. I won’t let you be the butt of jokes in an industry where you work so fucking hard to earn respect. I’ve worked hard to earn respect too, and I’m not walking away from something that is more than just a job; it’s my career.”
There was only about ten feet between them in the room, but it might as well have been ten miles.
A lifetime of silence hung between them.
“You never saw this ending any other way, did you?” he said softly.
She shook her head. “And I fell in love with you anyway.”
“That is exactly why we can make this work. We have to at least try.”
“Fine. Let’s compare schedules. I’m training in the field for a month after I return to Denver. It’s not a Monday to Friday, with weekends off kind of job. It’s whenever and wherever Garrett needs me to train. So I have no idea when I’ll be around. You plan to sit in my apartment and wait for me to get home?”
He scowled.
“Oh, does that conflict with your schedule?”
“Yes. You know damn well I’ve booked studio time and I’m playing at the Ryman.”
“So you couldn’t kill time waiting in Denver anyway. We’re back where we started. Living our lives, but not together.”
Devin shook his head. “I can’t accept that. Maybe next month won’t work as far as seein’ each other, but the month after that might. And the month after that. We can take it month by month. Who knows what’ll happen next year? My career might tank and no one will schedule me to play anywhere. And you could get—”
She held up her hand. “Please don’t say I could get injured in the line of duty.”
“But it happened to you twice, and it can happen again.” He shoved his hand through his hair. “I lived my worst nightmare when JT had a gun pointed at you.”
Here was the moment of truth. “Do you wish that I didn’t have such a dangerous job?”
“Honestly? Yes.”
“Then we’re even,” she said softly. “Because I see those hordes of women clamoring for you, and I wish you wouldn’t step foot on that stage. But that’s who you are, Devin. That’s a big part of the man I fell in love with. I’d never ask you to change who you are to be with me.”
He stared at her for so long she wondered what the hell was going through his head. “And I’d rather have a few sleepless nights worrying about you than demand you change what I love and respect most about you.”
When Devin wrapped himself around her, she knew he finally understood. They clung to each other, neither one willing to be the first to break away.
“I love you,” he whispered. “That ain’t ever gonna change.”
“I know. I love you too.”
Then, in almost perfect synchronicity, they both stepped back.
“Will you be at the show tonight?”
Hillbilly Rockstar Page 41