Black Dawn

by Cristin Harber

  “That’s insane,” she whispered hoarsely.

  Parker touched her, teased her, danced his fingers over where his tongue had just been, and when she moved too much, he drew his hand away and clamped her hip in place at the same moment that lips found her clit.

  Lexi moaned and moved, almost pushing herself onto him, and everything about him went into overdrive. His forearms pushed her thighs wide, and she walked her feet up the bed, bending her knees.

  Her knees clamped down on his head, and she jumped back. “Sorry. Sorry.”

  Lost in the woman, it took him a second to realize that she was apologizing for… reacting to him. To what he did and how much she liked it. “No reason to say that.” He flicked his tongue over the sensitive bundle of nerves.

  “I know. I just…” Her body was tense, her mind not with him anymore.

  Parker’s deep-blue eyes darkened. “God, I should’ve killed that fucker for you.”

  “I’m screwing this up.” Her forehead scrunched.

  He rose up to kiss her stomach and leaned against her small frame. “I said it before. Now I’m going to promise it.”

  “What?”

  His fingers moved between her legs, paying attention to her slick entrance. “I’m going to take care of you. I’m not between your legs because I’m killing time. I want it, and you deserve it.” His thumb circled her clit. “Relax. Forget wherever your head went.”

  “Mmm,” she whispered. “Okay.” She moaned again. “Alright.”

  He chuckled as he kissed her side. “Good, because, sweetheart, I’m gonna eat you until you get it. I like your taste. Those sounds. The way you feel moving against my lips.” He inched down, pushing between her legs again. “You want to clamp and claw on me, then fucking do it.”

  Parker slid his fingers into her tightness and covered her nub with his lips, lapping and loving on her. The more she moved, the harder he took her. He was relentless, and she was letting go. He fucked her with his tongue, his fingers. He held her open, teased her top to bottom.

  “God, Parker. God.” She gasped and thrashed as if she’d never neared orgasm before.

  He wanted her to pulse on his tongue, shudder and shatter against his kiss, and he moaned into her body, telling her to come for him.

  “Oh!” Her hands fisted the covers as she came. Her hips bucked, her back tried to arch off the mattress, but he held her in place, making Lexi ride her climax as long as he could.

  Finally, her covers-knotted hands went limp, her body went soft, and he kissed her gently, eliciting the tiniest of shivers. The boneless woman before him was what he’d always wanted, and now that he’d finally had his taste, he didn’t plan on letting go.

  He pulled his frame over her and caged her face. Her ice-blue eyes radiated trust. Her fair skin was pink and flushed. He kissed her, tasting her as his tongue tangled with hers. They kissed forever, for days, until again he lost his mind, consumed by her.

  Lexi held him, melding herself to his body, until finally she broke away, her eyes heavy-lidded. “I know what you said before, but please. This is me giving myself to you, erasing the past and wanting something different in my future.”

  Too drunk on everything about her, he had little resources to back away, to say no. He couldn’t remember his reasoning for that logical decision he’d made. “Sweetheart…”

  “Make love to me.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  A part of Lexi’s soul had never been bared, and she was handing it to Parker as though she was a virgin all over again. His features darkened, his deep-blue eyes firing with a need that mirrored the white lightning flowing in her veins. She wanted him to touch her, to love her, to smooth away all of her past and pave the way for a real love. A relationship that was fulfilling.

  She gulped her nerves, refusing to apologize, but as the seconds ticked by, a slice of fear wrapped its ugly tendrils around her neck. “Parker?”

  He dropped a kiss to her lips then moved to her ear. “It…” His weight pressed down, his tongue touching the bottom of her lobe. “Would be my honor.”

  Shivers cascaded down her shoulders, her spine, and she was consumed by the tension burning her. Parker rolled away, and a cold brush of air ran over her naked body. He grabbed his jeans off the floor, pulled a condom from his wallet, and rolled it over his hard length. The seconds it took for him to do that, Lexi drank in his physique. Parker was etched muscles, like a living, breathing Michelangelo.

  He moved back to the bed and gathered her against his chest. Once again, they were on their knees, his full lips eating hers, his tongue driving her to the brilliant edge of madness. One of his hands threaded into her hair, and the other wrapped around her waist. Holding her, he sat against the backboard, her legs straddling him. His strong hands ran up and down her back. She was lost in the sensation. He wasn’t rushing her, wasn’t jumping at the green light to slam into what she offered.

  Lexi lifted against him, pressing his sheathed head against her needy core. With her arms over his shoulders, his arms supporting her, and their gazes held, she inched down, embracing that amazing, intoxicating stretch as he invaded her muscles. Her eyes rolled, her head lolled, and Lexi’s jaw hinged as she sank onto his shaft.

  “Fuck, sweetheart,” his hoarse voice ground out.

  This was perfect. Of course he knew how not to push her, how to make her feel in control after not having any recently. Parker missed nothing when it came to her. He honestly couldn’t be a better man. She swayed her hips and watched his eyes squeeze shut. Lexi tested herself on him, sliding up and down, back and forth, establishing a rhythm that made her want to die in his arms.

  Parker flexed up, damn near impaling her soul, and it sparked a fire of reactions. Reading her mind as he always did, he owned the motions she had set. The speed, the sway, everything that she wanted, he took over as their mouths tangled and her breasts bounced against him. All of his strength surrounded her, and their fury blasted out of control. He growled into their kiss, pumped into her, holding her tight.

  “Parker.” Her heartbeat drummed as her climax built. She moaned and gasped and called his name against his ear. “Make me come again, please.”

  He moved them fast onto her back, and he hooked one of her knees, spreading her wide, opening her deep, and he pistoned inside her. There was immaculate pressure against her clit, perfect to reach that crazy spot, but it was the strain and focus and determination in his eyes that made her fall apart. She came again, crying his name, and as she finished that insane roll of orgasm, he dropped her leg and thrust hard and deep.

  God help her, he was going to make it happen all over again. She was ultra-sensitive, and he changed to deep and slow, drawing out every inch of him until she begged for more. The low rumble of another earth-shattering climax started. His tense body bucked with hers. With delicious, bruising force, he growled his release, holding her tighter than any man had before.

  The stars shined in her closed eyes. Tendrils of glowing aftermath raced through her system as they collapsed together. Their hearts beat where their temples and cheeks touched.

  Minutes lingered on until he gently kissed her forehead and pulled away. “Damn. You are so… worth it.”

  And honestly, not because he’d said it but because he’d made her feel it, she agreed. “You too.”

  He kissed her again and pushed out of bed to ditch the condom. “Back in a sec.”

  She sighed and tried to melt into the bed, to drown in the down comforter, burying herself away from anything that would ever erase how she felt at that moment.

  From far away, the familiar sound of her phone ringing brought her from her happy la la land. Shadow? Lexi snapped out of it and jumped up, tugging on her shirt and wrapping the blanket around her hips because there was no time to try to pull those tight leather pants back on. She found the phone in the pocket of her jacket and checked the screen. Meredith.

  Not Shadow, and she was seriously beginning to worry about him, b
ut talking to her sister was a rarity. No telling when she could get her again, so she hit OKAY and slid onto the couch in a loose-limbed haze. “Hey, Mere.”

  “Hey, yourself. So is the girl I know and love back?”

  Lexi laughed quietly. “I hope so.”

  “Your bike is gone, your clothes are picked through, my makeup’s missing, and my doorman has been babysitting Bacon. So you dumped the loser?”

  “More or less.”

  “What’s with that happy sing-song tinge in your voice?”

  Meredith was always so good at reading her. “Just happier, I guess.”

  “Huh.”

  Lexi tugged the blanket high on her chest. “I have to run. I just wanted to say hi since I keep missing you.”

  “Sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I had someone to lean on.”

  “You sound really good. Malcolm said that smile I hear might have to do with a man?”

  She happy-sighed. “It does.”

  “Well, thank God for that. He better be a good one.”

  “He is. I know it seems so fast, but I’ve known him forever. I’m just totally, completely”—she stretched, loving how wonderfully sore her insides felt—“absolutely in l—” As she repositioned from her stretch, there was Parker. Standing. Listening. Watching her confess her deepest feelings to her closest confidant. “Mere, I have to go.”

  “Wow. Okay. Call me as soon as you can. I want—”

  Lexi hung up, unable to read his face. “Hi.”

  He wore just his pants, which hung low on his hips, unbuttoned. “Hey.”

  The creases on his forehead said he’d heard every embarrassing word. She wanted to be mad at him—that conversation had been for her sister only. It was the first time in a long time she’d felt taken care of, and the words had rushed out. But he’d also said amazing, incredible things to her, so it wasn’t news to him where her head was.

  The sweet tension from before had shifted. He was concerned, and she felt stupid for wandering around in a sheet and forgetting that they were in a safe house with motion-activated cameras lining the common areas.

  “I need to take a shower,” Lexi said.

  He nodded. “I’ve got some work to do.”

  “Sounds good.” With her chin up and shoulders back, she walked past him in her ridiculous blanket wrap. With the cameras on them, his chest bare and pants unbuckled, she felt as if she was taking the walk of shame.

  Her feet padded down the hall, part of the blanket dragging, when Parker called her name.

  “Yes,” she half-whispered, studying the floor.

  Parker paused for a long time. “You’re a very special person. I hope you know that.”

  Her cheeks burned. What had she expected? Just because she was clearly in love with the guy, and he was pretty into her, that didn’t mean that saying—or even thinking—things about love was a good idea. It was enough to chase a guy away.

  “I do. Thanks to you.” Then she dragged herself to shower, where she could hide her fall from love-drunk heaven.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Parker’s ears burned. She loved him? She hadn’t said that, but it had sounded like the lead up to that kind of confession. He hadn’t meant to listen, but those few seconds had felt like eternity, and he couldn’t walk away.

  It’d been only a few weeks since she showed up on his doorstep, yet she loved him. Maybe that could classify the unexplainable reactions he’d had lately. A chest ache that wasn’t heartburn. An urge to take on the world even if he didn’t know what was wrong.

  Christ.

  He’d far past fallen for her. His visceral reactions were trained to jump at thoughts of her, and when she’d hustled by a few minutes ago, he’d felt like an asshole who should’ve said something intelligent. Instead it came out like a Hallmark not-so-fast greeting card.

  The shower shut off, and wandering around the kitchen, he couldn’t have been more aware that she was still naked nearby. For the second time in recent history, Parker found his fingers biting into a countertop. Problem was, this time he’d already been with her and knew how great her mouth felt on his dick, how she rode his cock with a finesse that made his mind explode, and how they were supposed to be in bed, drowning in goddamn orgasms.

  His fingers flexed into the counter as his ears pricked. Bare feet padded down the hall, coming toward him. He took a deep breath and turned, jaw gaping at the temptation displayed before him.

  “Hey.” She wore a towel wrapped around her, squeezing her breasts. Again with the towel-dried hair that hung around her face, and that was maybe one of his favorite looks on her. “I hung up on Meredith and jumped in the shower like I had something to hide.”

  “You don’t.”

  “That whole time, I was… embarrassed that you know what I think. But really, I’m done hiding. It didn’t do me any good with Matt, and I don’t want that to happen with you.” She shook her head, her cheeks pinking. “Not that you’d hurt me, not that you’ll propose to me. God, what I’m trying to say is—”

  He grabbed her in his arms and kissed her quiet. “You don’t have to explain anything.”

  “Are you sure?” She toyed with a strand of damp hair, spinning it around her finger.

  “Positive.” Even though he wanted to hear the words again, wanted to see how his chest would have felt if she’d finished that conversation with Meredith. I absolutely, completely, what? Love? Sounded as though that was what she had almost said. Hell, he could finish her conversation for her because he absolutely, completely…

  Wanted her? Check.

  Liked her? Check again.

  More than that…? Yeah, maybe so.

  “Two years,” she said, biting her lip. “And only a few months of it was worth making a memory over.”

  He dropped his head and ran a hand over the back of his neck. “Really, Lex. You don’t have to say anything.”

  “I moved through the stages. I mentioned before… I didn’t have a family, and he filled the void. I felt nothing… like I do now. What I’m trying to figure out how to say… is…”

  “Lex, we’re good if you don’t want to share.”

  She pinched her eyes closed. “I haven’t had a man touch me because I wanted him to in a long time. And now that you did, I’m crazy scared that you think I’m confusing sex and anything else.”

  He stepped back, hating and loving every word that’d fallen off her lips. “I’m not—”

  “You are the guy for me. Code and numbers and MIT? Black and Silver, partners for years. You are way more than Matt ever was. I want you to know that, no matter what you feel or say or think after hearing me talk on the phone. How I feel has nothing to do with the scars you can’t see. Nothing.” She closed her eyes and breathed deeply then leveled her icy blues on him. “I’m in love with you.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Dawn’s light bled through the safe house bedroom as a ringing cell phone tugged Parker from sleep. He took a deep breath and relaxed his body against hers, her blond hair in his face. After ending the night in bed, her words had weighed heavily on him, but she seemed comfortable with what she had said, what he hadn’t said. So he’d fallen asleep holding beautiful. His lips quirked at that. Beautiful wasn’t tangible. His analytical brain wanted to scream over how stupid that thought was. He was holding her. She was beautiful. But it was more than looks, and everything gathered in his arms was beautiful. The girl. The feelings. What she represented to him.

  Didn’t make sense. At all. But he didn’t care.

  “Hello?” Her sleep-drenched voice sounded like a dream. “Hello…? Wrong number.” Lex dropped the phone back on the nightstand and crawled back into his arms. “Morning.”

  He bent over, lightly pressing a kiss to lips that had him mesmerized. “Morning, Lex.”

  “I like waking up next to you.”

  He brushed her hair with his fingers, nonchalantly toying with the strands and
thinking that her sleepy grin was too damn sweet. “Another one of my favorite things I get to do with you.”

  That made her pretty features morph to almost embarrassed, and her fair skin blushed. With a quiet giggle and an almost shy cast of her eyes, she whispered, “You have a lot of favorites?”

  Morning wood was quickly morphing into a not-to-be ignored hard-on, and he cursed quietly against her lips. “Wish safe houses stocked condoms. Actually, they might.”

  She quietly moaned as his hands found purchase under the baggy white shirt she’d found folded in a dresser. That was all she had on. His boxer briefs weren’t doing him any favors as his length rubbed against her. Parker smoothed his hand down her stomach, between her legs, and found her wet with arousal. His stomach spun. His mind was just as turned on as his body, and she made the sexiest sound as his fingers strummed over her folds.

  Kissing him in a drowsy, needing morning wake-up sex kind of way, her hands also drifted south, sliding over the rigid length of his shaft. Parker sucked in a breath as her thumb circled his crown.

  “We could,” she whispered, torturing him with her deft hand movements. “After I went dark, I, um, went to the doctor’s, just to make sure and all. Doc checked everything from bruises to… um, testing. So… I’m okay.”

  “I’ve never not with a condom.” Which didn’t mean he couldn’t with her…

  Her hand stilled. “Right, sorry, I didn’t mean—”

  “Are you on birth control?” he asked.

  “I get a shot, few times a year.” She nodded, all cute, sweet, and nervous. Little things like birth control made her blush, but bold statements like I love you she was so damn confident about.

  That feeling like a time bomb was going to blow in his chest, like he couldn’t get close enough, deep enough, in her head enough.

  “Parker…”

  He slid down and kicked off his boxers then tugged off her shirt to bare her sinful body. With his heart in his throat, her phone rang again.