Family Stone Holiday Box Set: (including Stone Cold Heart, Carved in Stone, and Heart of Stone) (Family Stone Romantic Suspense)

by Lisa Hughey

  Riley swung his backpack off his shoulders, and then unzipped the main pocket. With a wicked smile, he pulled out what looked like a thin nylon and mesh rectangle. “Shelter.”

  “What is it?”

  “A tent.” With economical movements, he set up the very small tent. It was going to be a tight fit.

  Riley nodded to the tree she’d been leaning against. “Best go to the little girls’ room on the other side of that tree. I don’t want you wandering off.”

  Di snorted. As if.

  By the time she took care of business, Riley had the tent completely set up. He’d pulled two MRE’S, ready to eat meals, from another pouch in his magic backpack . He handed one to Di and opened his own and sucked it down.

  “How did you—”

  “Preparation.” Riley grinned. His face had a slash of dirt across one cheekbone and his short dark hair was mussed, but his hazel eyes glowed with amusement. “I only have enough for a day.”

  “But you still thought to bring this with us.” He couldn’t possibly have predicted the events of the last few hours and yet, he’d still managed to have the right supplies.

  “That’s what you pay me for.”

  Thank goodness she’d chosen GHR. Except, she hadn’t really. Betrayal burned in her breast. Lailani should have known better than to put her in danger. What if she’d chosen some other company to bring the school supplies to Jolo? What if Riley hadn’t been as competent as they’d believed? Di would likely be dead. Or worse.

  “Look. Most of our deliveries were within a day or two walk from the main city.” Riley efficiently wrapped his trash in a plastic bag and stored it in another pocket of the magic backpack.

  Emotion clogged her throat as she realized that he was more than a charming, pretty face. And thank goodness for that. “Thank you.”

  His teeth were a small flash in his face, but he didn’t reply as they finished cleaning up from their dinner.

  “After you.” Riley bowed as if he were dressed in a formal tux and she in an evening gown. And Di wanted to giggle. But she wasn’t a giggler. Ever. So what the hell kind of spell had he cast over her?

  She slid into the very small tent. “This is going to be a—”

  “Tight fit.” Riley’s voice was low and full of promise.

  Di shivered as his husky voice rasped over her nerve endings. She shimmied into the tent and then she started to shiver in earnest, but not from his sexy voice.

  She was wet and cold.

  Di began to take off her boots. She could feel Riley behind her, and as soon as he zipped the tent completely closed the interior began to heat up. But Di was still shaking hard as she removed her damp socks.

  She was thinking about the night to come, and about trying to resist his charms, until he said, “You need to take everything off.”

  Seven

  “Excuse me?” Di’s voice was snippy, her back stiff with disapproval.

  Riley knew the only way to overcome her resistance to taking off her clothes was to piss her off even more. He had to get her out of those wet clothes.

  “Come on, sweetheart, don’t be a prude,” he drawled. The anger would heat her up too.

  She plopped down on the ‘floor’. “While your request was charming,” she sneered. “I don’t think so.”

  Riley leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “You’ve got to take it off, or you’ll get hypothermia.”

  “We’re in the jungle,” she scoffed.

  “But it cools off at night and your clothes are damp. What’s wrong, don’t you trust yourself around me?”

  That did it. As Riley thought it might. She ripped her tan Henley over her head and he could make out the sinuous line of her back in the fading light. Ry swallowed when he saw her pale blue lace bra.

  “Where are we going to dry them?” She shimmied out of her cargo pants and he nearly groaned at the matching thong panties. Of course a woman as down to earth as Di, who dressed straight out of an REI catalog, wore barely there lace underwear that revealed her absolutely stunning ass.

  “We’ll lay the clothes out underneath us.” Riley pulled his camouflage shirt over his head, his words muffled as he continued. “We’ve got two Mylar survival blankets. We’ll put one on top of the clothes, and then the other on top of us.”

  Riley awkwardly removed his boots and pants. Heated skin, floral perfume, and ozone after a hard rain scented the air in the tiny tent.

  This was going to be hell.

  Riley hadn’t done it on purpose. On the other hand, he was looking forward to holding her in his arms.

  He carefully laid the clothes out, then lay the first blanket over their damp clothes. Then he opened the second blanket. “Lie down.”

  Di said, “We’re going to bed now?”

  “Unless you’ve got a better idea.” The amusement in his voice was clear.

  She harrumphed and then spread out.

  Riley lay down behind her and pulled the blanket over their cool bodies. Di shivered again. “Don’t hit me,” he said. “But we need to get you warm.”

  Her teeth began to chatter. “Ok-okay.”

  Riley spooned up against her back and legs, then curled his arm around her waist and pulled her snug to his body. He tried not to think about the fact that the only barrier between the naked skin of her ass was his cotton boxer briefs. Her whole body shook as he tried to rub some warmth into her skin.

  “God, your skin is soft,” he whispered as her shivering began to abate.

  “Yours is hot,” she stuttered.

  He rubbed his hands over her skin. She was finally starting to warm up. Riley scooted his groin away from the curve of her butt as the proximity of their bodies began to impact his. But before he could ease even further away, she instinctively edged back to connect skin to skin as many places as she could, her body seeking the heat of his.

  “Oh.” In her attempts to get warm, she’d managed to caress his fully stiff cock with her butt.

  Riley cleared his throat. “Sorry.” But he wasn’t. He was a normal, healthy male with a naked female body cuddled up against his. The fact that his body responded was completely natural.

  Di tried to lay perfectly still. The warm male body behind her was a distraction, no question. He felt good. Better than good. Amazing. His body was usually hidden beneath clothes that fit but didn’t necessarily emphasize his ripped muscles. He was an exquisite muscular work of art, with sleek biceps and a rippling eight pack. She’d nearly moaned aloud when he’d pulled his shirt over his head.

  She blushed. Not that he could see it. Her heart picked up tempo, and arousal rushed to her sex. The man was sex on a stick and she was practically naked and pressed up against him. Her nipples peaked and her body responded to the attraction she’d been trying desperately to ignore. But suddenly ignoring the physical sensations pouring through her was impossible.

  Riley rubbed her skin roughly trying to warm her up. But Di wasn’t shivering from the cold anymore. She was responding to his rough hands sliding up and down her arms and the persistent throb of his erection against her ass.

  Was his breath coming faster? She felt the hot puff against the back of her neck and her pulse quickened. Di held her breath, wishing, hoping he’d make a move.

  She wouldn’t stop him.

  She knew with the very core of her being that sex with him would be amazing. Fantastic. An out-of-body experience. And after this crazy day and his confession, she wanted him more than ever. She wanted the experience of Riley Stone sliding hot and hard into her body.

  But Riley only continued to rub her skin, without any sexual undertones. He was trying to impersonally warm her up. While they were almost naked. It was enough to make a lesser girl cringe.

  What the hell was she doing, waiting for him to make a move?

  She was no coward. She’d learned a long time ago to go after what she wanted. And she wanted Riley Stone.

  Di took a deep breath and rolled around quickly so they were face
to face. Riley jerked back in surprise, his face an impassive mask. Di didn’t give him time to say anything. She pressed her mouth to his and ran her hands down his hard body.

  For an instant, he froze. Not even his mouth moved beneath hers. Her breasts rubbed against his chest as she wrapped her arms around his muscled torso and slid her leg between his muscled thighs. The hot spear of his erection throbbed against the sensitive skin of her stomach. But he still hadn’t moved.

  Di’s influx of confidence began to fade. Maybe she’d read the signals wrong. Maybe he turned that sexual charm on everyone whether he was interested or not.

  The thought hadn’t even cleared her brain when Riley burst into action. And they combusted. He cupped her face in his large hands, slanted his head and devoured her mouth. While he attacked her mouth, he rolled her onto her back and then over on top of her. His heavy weight anchored her to the Mylar blanket beneath them, and she ran her hands along the muscled smoothness of his back and down to his ass.

  Riley dragged his tongue down her neck and her body tingled. He nipped at her collarbone and pressed wet, open-mouthed kisses along her shoulder while his hands explored her body.

  He skimmed his fingertips across her chest and her nipples tightened into hard painful peaks, but he didn’t touch. Instead he smoothed his hand along her arm, until his palm slid against hers and he laced their fingers together and stopped long enough to press a sweet kiss to her knuckles.

  She clamped her arm around his neck and pulled him in closer. She twined her body around his like the orchids that sinuously wrapped around the trunks of the tropical trees.

  Riley rocked his hips into hers, the hard blade of his erection rubbed her clit and everything in her clenched, then softened. He ate at her mouth like a man starving.

  All thoughts that he wasn’t interested flew away in an instant. This was not the practiced seduction of a player. Instead he touched her as if he were ravenous for a taste, as if he’d couldn’t stand to be separated from her for even an instant.

  She moaned softly in the private cocoon of the little tent and trembled from the sensations bombarding her. Riley rocked into her, once, twice, then groaned long and hard. He tore his mouth from hers.

  His hair was mussed and sticking straight up from her fingers as his chest heaved and his cock throbbed against her clit. She was so close. Which is why at first his words didn’t register.

  “We have to stop.”

  Finally his meaning penetrated. Stop? Was he out of his mind?

  He was propped up above her, his arms flexed as he supported his body, hovering over top of her.

  “What?”

  “Do you have any condoms?” he asked.

  “I get a quarterly shot,” she said desperately. Which she did.

  Riley pushed all the way off her and rolled to his back. His cock tented his underwear and looked to be painful.

  “I won’t put you at risk.” Riley threw his forearm over his eyes and groaned as if in pain.

  “You have a disease I should know about?”

  Riley snorted. “Of course not.”

  “And you don’t have any condoms with you?”

  “No. Dammit,” Riley snarled.

  But her heart sank as she realized that this wasn’t about condoms, this was about him and her and about them together.

  “So you’re refusing to have sex with me.” Di enunciated each word clearly, wanting his rejection to be absolutely clear. Di crossed her arms over her chest, trying unobtrusively to cover her body. Her physical nakedness was no match for her emotional one, she felt rejected, exposed.

  But that humiliation turned to anger. Rage bubbled in her stomach and roiled through her body. Even under threat and running from danger, he couldn’t be bothered to have sex with her.

  “I think refusing is the wrong word.” Riley gutted out, “Postponing, would be better.”

  “You think you’re going to charm your way out of this?” she snarled. “With everything that’s happened over the last few days and the threat of the military finding us, I’m not good enough to bang?”

  No way was she going to let him get away with trying to charm her out of embarrassment. She was going to make him face up to his rejection.

  Riley yanked her on top of him, and she stared down into his angular, handsome face, covered with the day’s stubble and a smudge of dirt. He looked primal, and angry. What the hell did he have to be angry about? He was the one refusing her.

  “Look. I have rules. And number one on my list is: No sex without double protection. Ever. It’s a rule I refuse to break.”

  “Right.” Sarcasm was her refuge.

  “I am not going to end up like my father, with a bunch of kids running around that he didn’t want.” Riley’s eyes darkened with residual pain. “I will not be like him,” he said fiercely.

  At first she thought he was still handing her a line. After all, he was good at them. Charm, cajole, sweet talk. But as she looked into his desperate hazel gaze, she saw the remnants of childhood pain.

  “Oh, Riley.” Di finally understood that he wasn’t rejecting her. He was rejecting the situation. “Postponing, huh?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I really do get a quarterly shot,” she said softly.

  “Con’s mother was on the pill. Apparently dear old dad had power sperm,” Riley snarked. “I take after him in a lot of ways. What if that’s one of them? I won’t leave you vulnerable to an unexpected pregnancy. It’s double contracepation, double protection, or nothing.”

  And with that her heart melted again.

  “Don’t doubt that I want you.” He nudged his hips upward, then gripped her waist and lifted her until her breasts were even with his mouth. He slid his palms along her sides and up until he was cupping her breasts in his hands. His thumbs brushed her nipples over and over, and he stared at his hands on her body as if fascinated by the contrast of his muscular wrists and long fingers on her paler, more delicate skin. His hot tongue traced the edge of her lace bra over the mounds of her breasts and then without warning he sucked her nipple into his mouth. Hard.

  The hot pull of his mouth hit her sex like a punch. She gripped his shoulders in her palms and offered her breasts for his worship.

  Di let her head fall forward, her hot, pulsing sex rested on Riley’s straining abs, as she kissed him. She kissed his forehead, kissed across his face, and over to his ear. She sucked the sensitive skin of his earlobe into her mouth mimicking his pulls on her breasts, the sensation sizzled along her nerve endings and lust burst inside.

  In an incredibly athletic move, Riley lifted her over his head, his mouth and teeth trailed a path over her stomach. Good God, he was strong. Then he pushed her up until his mouth could reach her mound and she straddled his face.

  Riley pressed an open-mouthed kiss over her clit before he dragged her silk panties down with his thumbs and exposed her to his intimate kiss. The light in the quiet tent was nearly gone highlighting all of her other senses.

  The scents of her musk and his arousal were thick in the murky air of the tent. Inside the shadowy cocoon, rain pattered on the waterproof ceiling and drowned out the other sounds of the jungle, entwining them in a thick intimate bubble.

  She knew she should probably stop him, but she was drowning in sensation. Her body was one big sexual nerve as he brought her to a fever pitch of arousal. Every muscle trembled at the expert way he strummed her higher. Her sex clenched, begging for a thicker, harder penetration than the silken thrust of his tongue.

  Riley didn’t want Di to think that he didn’t want her and he refused to put her at risk. However he could show her how much he craved her.

  Her skin tasted of a hint of salt and the sweet perfume of her arousal made him dizzy with want. “I’m going to lick you right up,” he growled against her sex.

  Riley buried his nose in her curls and inhaled. “You smell divine.” He sucked the button of her clit into his mouth and curled his tongue around the engorged bu
d.

  Every moan he pulled from her was a triumph. He explored her sex, licking the slick folds. Then he thrust his tongue inside her channel, and pulled her down until she was grinding against his face. The sounds she was making while he feasted on her were driving him higher and higher. He was going to have the biggest case of blue balls in the history of mankind but he didn’t care as long as he sent her over the edge into satisfaction.

  Riley spread his fingers wide over the generous curve of her ass and rocked her against his face. He nipped her clit then ferociously ate at her sex until she let go with an involuntary groan. He continued to lick and suck her clit, reveling in the throb of her sex against his mouth.

  The tension that had suffused her body blast away with the force of her orgasm, and Riley rejoiced as she collapsed boneless against his face.

  He pressed a sweet kiss to her sex and she shuddered as phantom ripples of desire feathered over her skin and her breath heaved in her chest. Her thighs trembled from the sensual explosion.

  Riley blew a puff of breath against her quivering sex and smiled as she jerked from the barely there contact.

  His dick was harder than the barrel of his gun. But he didn’t care in the slightest.

  “Let me.” She started to slide down his body.

  Di had just come harder than she’d ever come in her life. Her body was suffused with endorphins and the fervent wish to repay him in kind.

  The tent had grown so dark that she couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face. She pushed up to her knees and slid her hand down to the elastic waist of his tight boxer briefs. But Riley stopped her. “It’s okay.” His voice was deep, rough.

  It wasn’t okay. “But—”

  He rationalized, “We don’t have anything to clean up with.”

  She caressed his balls and he groaned again. She bowed over and kissed her way down Riley’s face. She traced his features with her fingers, the arch of his eyebrow, the slight laugh lines that fanned out from his eyes, and only made him more appealing because it was clear he laughed alot. The high aristocratic cheekbones. She trailed her index finger along his nose and over the sensual curve of his lips.