Nauti and Wild

by Lora Leigh

  Pulling back, he thrust deep and hard inside her once again, burying in deep and hard and snarling with the extremity of the pleasure.

  “Sierra, fuck,” he groaned. He couldn’t do this. Reaching across the bed, he snagged one of the condoms from the bedside table and fought to pull back.

  It took all he could do to pull back, to release her.

  “John.” Her hand touched his. “It’s not the same.”

  Innocence. Pure sweet love and innocence filled her face as she stared back at him, her breathless words striking his soul with the force of a fist.

  “I won’t let you go, Sierra,” he snarled possessively. “Do you understand me? If you become pregnant, I will never let you go.”

  “Do you want to let me go, John?”

  “Hell no.”

  One hard stroke and he was buried inside her once again. Deep. He could feel her womb pressing against the tip of his cock. Delicate, tight flesh milked at his dick, stroked it, sucked at it.

  John knew he couldn’t hold back. He was dying to thrust into her with all the speed and strength he possessed. The hunger raging so deep, so hot, inside overwhelmed him.

  Sierra threw her head back against the pillow as he began moving inside her, thrusting into her pussy, separating the tender muscles with hard strokes of pleasure-pain and sizzling heat.

  Her hips lifted, her heels digging into the mattress as she moved into each thrust, feeling him fuck her with the same desperation she could feel tearing through herself.

  Each pounding thrust threw her higher, raced through her, until her orgasm slammed through her system with such force that she was trying to scream his name as it ruptured inside her.

  At the same time, she felt his release overtake him as well. Each hard spurt of his semen inside her burned, fiery blasts that extended her release, threw her higher, exploding through her body with a force that had stars exploding before her eyes.

  Shudders wracked her body as he came over her, pulling her tight against him as his hips continued to rotate, thrust, sink his cock inside her, his semen spurting inside her until finally they both collapsed against the bed in exhaustion.

  He held her.

  Sierra was aware of the fact that John wasn’t letting her go. His body covered hers, sheltered her.

  His cock was still buried inside her, the feel of him still trying to catch his breath matched her own.

  There was something … Sierra let her fingers curl at the nape of his neck, stroking his hair. There was something different this time, as though emotions held in check by both of them were slipping free without their volition.

  “I fought this,” he whispered at her ear. “I fought it, because I looked at you, Sierra, and saw all the ways I could never make you happy then. All the ways I’d end up destroying us both because you were so sweet, your emotions so tender. And I felt so hard inside.”

  Her eyes closed as hope and need began to build inside her.

  “I made excuses.” He kissed the shell of her ear. “I tried to tell myself we were friends. That you were as close as a sister, but all the while, I knew better.”

  Her breathing hitched at the admission.

  “I hated who I was, and every time I saw you, heard your laughter, saw your smile, glimpsed that core of pure sweet love inside you, you shamed me.”

  His head rose then.

  Sierra promised herself she wasn’t going to cry. She wouldn’t cry.

  “I left Boston to give you time,” he finally admitted, those violet-blue eyes nearly glowing in his sun-darkened face. “I would have been back. I was afraid of what had happened that night, that perhaps I had hurt you, said something cruel out of my own stupidity. But I would have never let you go completely. Do you understand me? I would have been back soon. And I would have caught up with you.”

  “I wouldn’t have run again,” she admitted, fighting those tears. “I missed you, John. I missed you until a part of my soul was withering away without you.”

  “And there was no peace inside mine,” he confessed. “Because you weren’t here, baby. You weren’t in my arms.”

  “How fucking sickeningly sweet. I’m going to puke.”

  John froze at the sound of the feminine voice behind them. He felt Sierra still, felt the fear that suddenly transformed the relaxed, sated curves of her body.

  Moving quickly, he jerked around, keeping Sierra close behind him as he faced Marlena and the weapon she held in her hand, aimed directly at his head.

  Marlena smiled. “How careless John. Just because you lock the doors and set an alarm doesn’t mean it can’t be broken. When you have the right friends, you can acquire the most amazing little toys to access damned near anything you want.”

  Meaning those friends had given her the state-of-the-art electronics it would have required to get past his locks and security.

  That gave him a chance, because it also meant the Mackays had been sent a silent alarm warning them of the breakin. He just had to hold out until they arrived.

  “You figured it out, didn’t you, John?” Marlena sneered, her once pretty features twisted with such vile jealousy and greed that for a moment John wondered how he had ever believed the woman attractive. “That’s okay. You’re the only one. You and Miss Goody Two-shoes behind you. Bitch.”

  “Marlena, you’re making a very big mistake,” he warned her.

  “No, darling, you made the mistake the night you fucked that little whore in Boston.” She smiled with icy intent. “Because I simply can’t let that little slut win. I won’t let her get away with all the plans she destroyed. Which means now, both of you simply must die.”

  ELEVEN

  Sierra stared back at the impeccably dressed Marlena Genoa and wondered exactly how such insanity could have been missed. Was it detectable in the genetic strand perhaps? Scientists should create a test for it to ensure that such children are carefully overseen and raised to control their own reckless impulses.

  Then again, insanity born of greed, a lust for power, and overconfidence likely wasn’t truly part of the human genome. Too bad, because the world would have benefited had Marlena’s madness been detected.

  Sierra stared over John’s shoulder with the faintest feeling of morbid curiosity, wondering what Marlena was actually going to do with that gun in her hand.

  “Have you lost your mind, Marlena?” John’s tone seemed entirely too controlled for the situation. Yet Sierra knew this tone of voice. It had a hard, icy edge that concealed pure fury. He was in control. He was planning. And God help the person he was planning against.

  Unfortunately that person seemed to have the upper hand for the moment. The gun she was holding trumped any amount of unarmed fury that John might possess.

  Fortunately for them both, Sierra was rather confident of the fact that John was saner, and therefore, possibly had a much better chance of coming out of this. She just hoped he could pull both of them out of it alive.

  “Really, John, did you truly believe I’d give up so easily?” Marlena propped a slender, graceful hand on a silk-clad hip, her nails tapping against the material of her white slacks as her gaze narrowed on him. “You know, I really thought you’d come to your senses, return home, and realize what an incredibly stupid mistake you had made. The advantages of marrying me were by far better than becoming some Kentucky hick bumming on a lake with his little whore. And a virgin to boot?” She laughed as Sierra flinched. “I returned to the penthouse, bitch, and found the bloodstained handkerchief.” She glanced at John again. “You never even knew did you?”

  “I’ve always known.” The answer shocked Sierra. Was he saying that only to throw Marlena off, or did he truly remember?

  Marlena shook her head. “What a mistake.”

  John’s shoulders were tense beneath Sierra’s hands. Whatever he was planning, he would move quickly, she thought. She dug her nails into his flesh. If he moved, Marlena would shoot. Sierra could see it in her eyes.

  “And what mistak
e would that be?” The deceptive laziness in his tone was actually frightening.

  “Leaving me, of course, especially for that little twit you’ve been screwing nonstop for the past few days. Are you two related to rabbits by chance?” There was genuine confusion in her voice. “Really, John, it’s disgusting how often the two of you have been fucking. It’s rather nasty, if you ask me.”

  The disgust in her voice, in her expression, proved she actually believed her opinion. The woman couldn’t have a truly sensual bone in her body. Making love with John was like flying.

  “I don’t remember asking her,” Sierra pointed out, unable to keep her mouth shut at this point. “And since when does she find sex disgusting?”

  Wow. This woman had been in John’s bed and she hadn’t even enjoyed sex? She and John were going to have to discuss this later.

  Marlena narrowed her gaze as her lips curled into a sneer. “Still such a stupid little virgin. Sex for its own sake is a waste of time and energy,” she snapped. “The two of you have been wasting both, no doubt.” The gun lifted. “But since you have so little time left, what does it really matter?”

  Sierra didn’t think John’s shoulders could tense further, but they did just that. They felt like iron or steel as she clenched her fingers around him.

  “What do you think that gun is going to accomplish, Marlena?” John asked then. “Killing us? It will get you nothing but a fucking prison sentence. If you live long enough, that is.”

  Deadly, uncompromising, it was a warning Sierra would have definitely heeded if she were in the other girl’s shoes.

  Marlena’s answer was another classic sneer.

  “I would have never been forced into this decision if you had just returned to Boston and resumed the engagement as you were supposed to do. You could have fucked your little bunny all you wanted to then and I would have been all for it. All I needed was your ring and your influence, darling.”

  “As long as you and your little crime family had their greedy fingers in my bank account you mean?” John growled.

  Surprise glittered in Marlena’s eyes. “You think it was your money I wanted?” A light laugh left her lips. “Darling, it wasn’t that. It was your prestige, your law firm, it was your sterling reputation and your ability to save the worst of the criminals from their own crimes. My family needed your legal abilities, not your money.”

  John stared back at his ex-fiancée in shock. He couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth.

  “What the hell makes you or your family think I would have ever defended them? What the hell makes you think you’re going to fix the problem by threatening us?”

  “I’m not simply going to threaten you, I’m going to kill you, John,” Marlena promised him. “I made a lot of promises to my family, and there are very few ways to make up for the fact that I couldn’t deliver. Killing you is one of them.”

  John stared back at her silently for long moments. “You’re telling me they demanded you kill me?”

  She rolled her eyes. “I’m telling you I broke a promise and now I have to prove my loyalty to them in another way. This is the only way I have of doing so. There are very few entrances into this world, John. And if getting what I want means I have to bloody my hands a bit, then so be it.”

  “And that’s all life means to you?” he asked her, suddenly realizing that her apparent lack of emotion truly went clear to the soul.

  The realization didn’t surprise him, though he imagined it should have. After all, he had been engaged to her, and hadn’t known the true measure of the woman she was.

  Marlena shook her head at his question. “I didn’t say I would enjoy killing you, John.” She glanced back at Sierra. “Though I believe I will truly enjoy killing your little sex bunny. I think I want to hurt her first though. Hurt her in ways she can’t even imagine for daring to attempt to take what was mine.”

  The hell she would.

  As though Marlena weren’t holding a gun, John reached over, snagged his pants from the floor, and making certain he was between Marlena’s gun and Sierra, pulled them on and zipped up.

  “Do you think you can keep sheltering her, John?” Marlena asked curiously. “Once I put a hole in your heart, I will have a clear shot to your little whore.”

  Marlena peeked around John’s shoulder and smiled back at Sierra.

  Sierra hadn’t moved. She sat with the sheet pulled to her breasts, simply watching Marlena. There was a strange glint to her gaze, a darkening of those marbled gray eyes that warned John she was up to something.

  He just prayed it was something that wouldn’t get her killed.

  Turning his gaze back to Marlena, he stared at the gun once again. She was too far away from him to jump her. He wouldn’t have a chance of getting to her before she fired.

  “John, I know you so well,” Marlena murmured. “Well enough that we’re going to take your little houseboat from the docks and go down the lake a bit. I’d hate to have anyone see me leaving once I’ve completed this little task.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not going to cooperate with this, Marlena. You’re not going to kill anyone.”

  Her smile was condescending. “Don’t test me, John. I know your guilt complex. I was going to be nice and kill you first, but if you keep pushing, then I’ll kill your little whore first and make you watch.”

  John’s jaw clenched. He was growing sick of hearing Sierra referred to as a whore.

  Marlena laughed. “I can see how irritated you’re becoming, lover.”

  John shook his head again. “Not irritated, Marlena, confused perhaps. What makes you think I’m going to allow you to do any of this?”

  He was perhaps two feet closer. Not nearly enough.

  From his periphery he glimpsed Sierra moving. She pulled his robe from the headboard, slid to the edge of the mattress, and began putting it on slowly, drawing Marlena’s gaze.

  Marlena laughed. A light, amused sound. “Do you truly think I’m here alone, John?”

  Fuck. He had hoped she was there alone. He had prayed she was.

  As Sierra tied the belt of the robe around her waist, another figure moved up the stairs. John wasn’t surprised. He’d be damned if anything could surprise him at this point.

  Gerard. He wanted to disbelieve the fact that his former friend was actually there, but he couldn’t quite do it.

  “You’re taking too long,” Gerard snapped at Marlena. “I’ve untied the boat and we’re ready to move out. Bring them downstairs.”

  John stared at the other man, gauging the icy, merciless intent in his face, and John knew there was the possibility he and Sierra were really fucked now.

  “Why, Gerard?” That part made very little sense.

  Gerard glanced back at him coolly. “Who do you think chose you for Marlena to go after? Who do you think is her backer in the organization, John? Her reputation wasn’t the only one damaged here. The only way to fix this is to get rid of you.” He glanced at Sierra. “And your troublemaking little bitch.”

  Where Marlena had appeared almost playful, Gerard was deadly serious.

  “See, none of this makes sense,” John pointed out. “You should have been smart enough to know that even if I had married her, I would have never let her use me.”

  “You would have once she had a child,” Gerard informed him. “As you said, I know you, John. And I know your weaknesses.”

  Yes, he did. John would have protected his child, but never by allowing himself to be manipulated. He would have found a way to resolve any threat. But how the hell was he supposed to resolve this one?

  “Let’s go.” Gerard stepped back and motioned to the stairs. “The security on the controls requires a passcode that my electronics hasn’t cracked yet and I’m growing impatient. You’re going to input the code or Sierra’s going to die right in front of your eyes.” He smiled. “And I know about the fake codes on these boats, John. Push those numbers in, and you’ll regret it.”

  But G
erard didn’t know about Natches Mackay and his little paranoias. Paranoias that had caused the other man to tinker a bit with the security he’d had installed.

  Waiting for Sierra, John kept her close to his side as they moved to the stairs, his hand at her waist tightening, warning her to caution.

  Moving to the living area, John walked across the floor to the console that sat off the sitting area with its old-fashioned ship wheel, controls, and monitors.

  He placed Sierra in front of him and started praying.

  Turning the key, the monitor flashed the demand for the passcode and John punched in the code that would immediately alert the Mackay family that the need for help was now dire. But if they hadn’t arrived yet, there was a chance they were too far away to arrive at all.

  It also slowed down the motor, which chugged sluggishly.

  “What’s the problem?” Gerard’s voice vibrated with anger now. “Don’t play games with me, John.”

  “It’s not a game, Gerard,” John snapped back. “You should have done your homework. I haven’t had this boat out of the marina but twice this summer for a reason.”

  That reason being that he’d been helping the Mackays on various projects, but no one should know that. And if he knew Gerard, the man hadn’t done his homework. That was normal for him, come to think of it.

  Turning the motor over again, he played it out as long as possible, pushing buttons, staring at the monitors in confusion. It wasn’t going to last much longer. Where the hell was the cavalry when he needed them?

  In front of him, Sierra’s hand covered his as he laid it comfortingly against her hip and moved it lower with a subtle nudge. Then lower.

  John barely held back his response to the feel of the gun in the pocket. He hadn’t forgotten about it, it was simply that he normally kept the weapon on the bottom shelf of the bed table.

  He hadn’t been able to get to it himself because Marlena had been watching so closely. But John had been shielding Sierra as she moved from the bed and evidently she had managed to slip it from the shelf.