Rough

by Sybil Bartel

No fucking kidding.

  “You tell Miss Sienna I came to see her. That woman’s never been nothing but a friend to me. She’s good people, man. You hear what I’m saying?”

  I did. She had a heart of fucking gold, but she needed new friends. “You eye-fuck her again, I won’t stop at a broken nose.”

  He smiled and slapped my shoulder. “Wouldn’t expect nothing less, marine.”

  “Keep setting the edge, Miami.”

  He grinned and punched my shoulder. “I knew you were a fan.”

  “Not of your fucking quarterback.”

  His smile dropped. “I don’t like no one messing with Miss Sienna. She don’t deserve that.”

  No, she fucking didn’t. “I’ll let her know you stopped by.” After she talked to the Clark Kent lawyer.

  “Thanks, man.”

  I opened the door a crack and nodded at Tyler, then stepped back.

  TJ watched the interaction with curiosity. “He a marine too?”

  “Yeah.”

  He nodded slowly. “I bet you all were some bad motherfuckers in uniform.”

  Christ. “Get the fuck outta here.”

  “Don’t gotta tell me twice.” He stepped around Tyler and his easy smile slid into place as he walked toward his car.

  I glanced at Tyler. “No more interruptions. She’s sleeping. I’ll let you know when she’s up.”

  “Copy that.”

  I locked the door and strode back into the bedroom, wondering what the hell I was going to tell Red. Turned out, I didn’t have to say shit. When I opened the door to the bedroom, she was sound asleep.

  I stepped back into the hall, pulled my phone out and scrolled to Luna’s number.

  He answered on the first ring. “What’s up?”

  “I need a favor.”

  “They’re piling up.”

  “I know.” Fuck, I knew. “I’ll owe you.”

  “Come work for me and we’ll call it even.”

  “You’ve got enough jarheads. You don’t need me.”

  “I’ve got no one who can do what you do.”

  Shit. I rubbed a hand over my face as I exhaled. “I’m retired.”

  “Un-retire. I need someone who can’t be seen.”

  “That’s not gonna happen with my face all over the news.”

  “You know what I’m talking about.”

  Our buddy Talon had nicknamed me Ghost. I couldn’t fucking read shit like maps to save my life, but I made up for it in other ways. I memorized locales, all the ways in, all the ways out, all the places you could breach. I learned to blend in, and I’d watched the way Neil never made a fucking sound. By the end of my first deployment, I had a rep for being a ghost—getting in and getting out with the recon we needed without ever being seen or heard.

  I caved. “What kind of terms are we talking about?”

  He named a price that was more than triple what I was thinking.

  “Bullshit. You can’t be making that much to pay me that.” I didn’t need the money. It wasn’t about that. It was about something to channel my shit into. As much as I wanted to fuck Red twenty-four seven, I’d need something else.

  “I can’t handle all the business coming in. You’d be doing me a favor.”

  “I’d only be interested in field work.” Fuck any office bullshit.

  He didn’t hesitate. “Understood.”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “That’s all I ask. What do you need?”

  “I want you to see what you can find out about Sienna being Burrows’s granddaughter. What’s in his will, what the fuck happened to split the family apart and why the asshole quarterback was kissing up to the owner before he died.” And shit, the news conference. “And find out what the team is saying about Burrows’s death.”

  “How much time do I have?”

  “Couple hours.” Red would sleep for a while.

  “Damn, amigo.” Luna exhaled. “I’m good, but I’m not that good. I’m not going to get anything on Burrows’s will.”

  “Just do what you can.” His computer skills were hacker level.

  “Copy that.”

  “Thanks.” I hung up and called the lawyer.

  Six hours later, I was crawling out of my fucking skin. Worse than a motherfucking sand trap in Afghanistan, I had no rational out. I couldn’t shoot my way out of the media shitstorm out front, and I couldn’t take the four walls of her house up seventeen flights.

  I stood against the fucking wall and alternated between watching her and the asshole news crews out front waiting to pounce. Tyler held his position, but I didn’t fucking care. I wanted out of her house.

  “Jared?”

  I whipped my head toward her. “Yeah, right here.” I let go of the curtain.

  Sleep rough and husky, her voice traveled across my nerves. “What are you doing? What time is it?”

  With her red hair sprawled across the bed, she looked like an angel. Inhaling, I told myself to suck it the fuck up. I could fucking hang. “You should get dressed. The lawyer will be here soon.”

  She sat up and looked at me funny. “What’s wrong?”

  Every fucking thing about me playing house, not to mention the pain I wanted to inflict on Ahlstrom. “Push the covers off.” I tried and failed to make my tone sexual.

  “Answer my question and I will.”

  I crossed my arms to stop myself from looking out the fucking window again. “You really want to play it like that?” I stalked toward the bed.

  She sat up but brought the covers with her. “I think I do.”

  Six fucking hours I’d watched her sleep while more reporters showed up. I hadn’t turned on the TV nor done an Internet search, but I’d bet my fucking Mustang it’d leaked who she was, and my money was on a certain asshole quarterback.

  I dragged my gaze from her suspicious expression to her chest and lingered until she pulled the covers tighter around herself. “Spread your legs and push the covers down slow.”

  “Not everything is about sex,” she said quietly.

  I sucked in a breath and counted to ten. “You’re right.” It was about distraction and control and mind-numbing orgasms. It was about a woman who was going to break my fucking tenuous hold on sanity. “Sometimes it’s about desire, and I want to see your gorgeous cunt.”

  She flinched. “I don’t like that word.”

  “Pussy is vulnerable, fragile. Cunt is strong and powerful. And trust me, what your cunt does to me has nothing to do with defenselessness.” I tipped my chin at the bedspread. “Push the covers down.”

  “What if I say no?”

  I stilled because I hadn’t anticipated that. “Are you?”

  She hesitated. “No.”

  I whipped the covers off, grabbed her ankles and pulled her to the end of the bed. I spread her legs wide, and she shrieked as I loomed over her. “Here’s the thing you need to remember about me.” I gently pushed her ankles to the backs of her thighs and kissed her forehead for reassurance. “I’m predictable.” Still holding her legs, I swept my tongue through her wet, exposed cunt and swirled around her clit. Then I forced myself to release her. “Get dressed.”

  “That wasn’t predictable.” Her voice a breathy moan, she held her legs where I’d put them. “And I didn’t say no.”

  Jesus fuck, she had no idea how hot she was. I stroked myself through my jeans. “You asking for something?” She had to be sore as fuck. “Because that pussy still looks swollen.”

  “You said pussies were weak.” Her cheeks flamed when she said pussies.

  “I said fragile, not weak.” I slowly dragged a finger through her desire.

  She groaned. “I don’t have an off switch around you.”

  I stroked her again. “Good. But you’re not getting my cock in your cunt right now.”

  Her hands on her ankles, she whispered, “Please.”

  I dropped to my knees and latched on to her clit. I needed to come as much as I wanted to make her come. My head a fucking
mess, her scent settled in, and for the first time in six hours, I was grounded. I swirled my tongue before biting her clit, then I sucked away the sting. Unzipping my jeans, I gripped my shaft and fucking stroked as I sucked the sweetest cunt I’d ever tasted.

  Her hands dug into my hair and her thighs pressed against my face. I didn’t like it, I fucking loved it. Sucking her off, stroking my rock-hard dick, it took seconds to make her come. Desire dripped out of her as her cunt started contracting. I wanted to bury myself to the hilt and come inside her, but I didn’t even stick a finger in her. Hooking an arm around her waist, I rose as I pulled her ass over the edge of the bed. Then I pressed my cock to her clit and fucking exploded.

  “Fuck yeah.” I rubbed semen all over her mound. “Whose tight cunt is this?”

  Gripping my arms, her pussy still quivering, her nipples hard as shit, she looked up at me and licked her lips. “Yours.”

  “Whose?” I wanted her to fucking shout it.

  “Yours.”

  I leaned closer. “Say my name.”

  Her voice turned breathy and soft. “Jared.”

  “You’re fucking mine, Red.” I kissed her.

  Kneeling in front of my bed, Jared swirled his tongue through my mouth and held my legs as my ass rested on his thighs. I was half on, half off the bed, my core still contracting with aftershocks, as his semen dripped down between my legs.

  I reached between us and did something I’d never done before. I spread his seed all over my lower stomach.

  “Fuck,” he growled.

  I tasted my finger and he lunged.

  His hand threaded in my hair and he yanked, hard. “You do that again, and I’m not going to come on that sweet cunt next time.”

  “Promise?” I wanted him to come in my mouth.

  His nostrils flared and he kissed me once. Fast and hard and with a single thrust of his tongue in my mouth, then he retreated, only to leave me wanting more. “Be careful what you ask for.”

  I didn’t want to be careful. I wanted him to come inside me. I wanted to taste him. I wanted to run away with him just because it was something a preacher’s daughter would never, ever do. I wanted so many things, but they all had a single thread in common. And that thread was a six-foot-three ex-marine, ex-male escort, who’d told me he couldn’t read.

  I looked down at his still-hard cock, the tip glistening with my desire as it rested against my folds and my thoughts scrambled. “What does it feel like?”

  “What does what feel like, gorgeous?” He ran a gentle hand through the length of my hair.

  “Coming inside a woman.”

  “I’ll let you know when I come inside you.”

  I looked up at him? “You’ve never come inside a woman?”

  He brushed my hair over my shoulder then trained his gaze on me. “Not without a condom.”

  My pussy pulsed.

  He smiled, slow and wicked. “I can read you like a book, Red.”

  A fresh wave of desire for him surged between my legs, and my breathy voice gave me away. “I didn’t say anything.”

  “You didn’t have to.”

  I remembered what he’d told me earlier. “What do you mean you can’t read?”

  His smile and his gaze dropped, and he fisted himself. With deliberate slowness, he dragged the head of his cock through my folds and pressed against my entrance. “Do you want me to come inside you?”

  My heart leapt and my body hummed. I didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

  He swirled his cock in a tight circle. “Do you know what a blast wave is?”

  “No.” I bit my bottom lip.

  “Do you know what could happen if I come inside you?”

  I knew he wasn’t asking what would happen physically. He was asking if I knew what that would mean for us. “Yes,” I whispered.

  He looked up. “Are you giving yourself to me?”

  In that second, in that moment, I knew what had been set in motion the minute I’d first laid eyes on him. I wasn’t giving myself to him. I’d already given what I had to give. He had my heart. I didn’t know if it was when he’d called me his woman in front of Dan or when he kissed me in the bar at Pietra’s or when he’d said I made him nervous, but I was his. I’d never felt like this, and I’d never wanted anything more in my life. It was crazy and way too soon and any psychologist would have a field day with this, but I didn’t care.

  So I leapt. With both feet. “Are you giving yourself to me?”

  He cupped my face and looked into my eyes like no man ever had. “Already a done deal.”

  But I had one fear. “What if you get sick of me?”

  “Never happen.”

  “How do you know?”

  One of his eyebrows arched. “You really want me to answer that?”

  I barely nodded.

  “I’ve fucked enough women to know.”

  My heart stung with betrayal as I tried to hold on to the simple, straightforward honesty of his response.

  His hand on my face gripped me harder. “Don’t fucking go there, Red. I see that look. You have nothing to be jealous of.”

  “All those women had you.” How could I not be jealous?

  “No,” he said fiercely. “They never fucking had me. Not where it counts. Understand?”

  A tear slipped down my cheek, and I hated the emotional wreck I’d turned into in a matter of days. “What happens when we run into one of them?”

  “What happens when we run into the asshole quarterback?” he countered.

  “You get mad?”

  His jaw ticked. “Besides that?”

  There were a hundred ways I could have answered, but suddenly, only one made sense. “We keep walking and go home together.”

  The tension in his muscles relaxed only marginally. “Can you handle that?”

  He wasn’t asking if I could handle seeing Dan. He was asking if I could turn away from his past. I didn’t have a perfect answer. I couldn’t say I wouldn’t be jealous. I couldn’t say I would handle it well. But I could say this—I didn’t want the alternative. I didn’t want to throw away my chance of being with him.

  I cupped his face like he was cupping mine and I smiled. “Yes.”

  His thumb stroked my cheek. “I will always put you first.”

  “I’m going to be a jealous girlfriend.” I never thought about it before, not even when I saw Dan with that cheerleader, but I knew it now, and I knew it was because of what I stood to lose.

  The whisper of a smile tipped the right side of his mouth in a way that I was becoming addicted to seeing. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  I smiled wider. “Maybe even crazy jealous.”

  The other side of his mouth tipped up. “I’ll fuck you in front of them to prove you’re mine.”

  I feigned shock, but in truth, I was getting used to his outrageous dirty talk. “Maybe just kiss me.”

  “Cunt or nipples?”

  “Jared Jacob Brandt!”

  “Fuck, you sound like a mother.”

  My heart stumbled. “Do you want children?”

  He inhaled sharp and fast. “I never used to.”

  I held my breath. “And now?” Because even though I’d told myself after my father died that I didn’t want a family, I did. I’d always wanted one. I wanted a house full of laughter and the sound of little feet. I wanted Sunday family dinners and I wanted a family to call my own.

  He stared at me and time stopped. “Now…” The head of his cock eased an inch inside me. “I’m thinking about it.”

  “I want children.” I bit back a moan. “I want my own family.”

  “I want to fuck your virgin ass. I want to come inside your tight cunt. And I want to hear my name moan out of your mouth as my semen drips out of your pussy.”

  Heat flamed my cheeks as I desperately tried not to pulse around him or show a reaction. “I wasn’t talking about your sexual fantasies.”

  “I know. I’m fucking distracting you.”

 
I let myself pulse around him. “It’s working.”

  He threw his head back and laughed like I’d never seen him laugh.

  My heart filled with so much joy, I didn’t know where to put it, but I still teased him. “You’re incorrigible.” I smiled wider than I had in a long time.

  He gripped the back of my neck and kissed my forehead. “You’re right.” He lifted me by the waist and set me on the bed then he effortlessly rose to his full height. Taking my hands, he pulled me to my feet. “Come on.”

  I stood naked in front of him without an ounce of self-consciousness. “Where are we going?”

  “Shower.”

  “I thought you liked me dirty.”

  My hand in his, he kissed me once. “Like you wouldn’t believe.” He led us into the bathroom and let go of my hand to turn the shower on, but when he glanced at the window, he frowned.

  I moved around him to peek out between the blinds. I couldn’t believe I’d fallen asleep for hours with them all out there, but having Jared here had made me feel safe. “They still camped out there?”

  “They’re fucking there.” His hand raked through his dirty-blond hair. “We’ll move to my condo after you talk to the lawyer.”

  “You don’t like my house?” I joked.

  “It’s a house.”

  His bitter tone and his resigned expression gave me pause. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” He tested the water then stepped out of his jeans. “Get in.”

  I stared at the broad expanse of his shoulders and his perfectly sculpted abdominal muscles and remembered exactly what he’d been doing when I’d woken up. “You said you wouldn’t lie to me.”

  His chest rose and fell. “It’s a nice house, Red, but there aren’t enough stories between me and the world to ever be comfortable here.”

  My heart sank. I loved my house. My home was my sanctuary. Well, not when there were news vans parked out front, but otherwise, it was what I was most proud of. Every inch of my house had been carefully, painstakingly renovated or painted or improved with my blood, sweat and tears. “You couldn’t live here?”

  He shook his head.

  How could you raise a family in a condo on the seventeenth floor? Or even have a dog?

  “Say something,” he demanded, his nudity as natural to him as breathing.