by Zara Chase
“I’m a shameless hussy,” she told the walls of the room, smiling as she did so. “And I’m loving every minute of it.”
Briana didn’t remember actually falling asleep, but at least she woke early. It was barely light outside, and she would make sure it was her who prepared breakfast for her guests this morning. Before she could throw the covers back, the door opened and Harley’s muscled body filled the aperture.
“Ah, you’re awake,” he said, sending her a somnolent smile as he leaned down to kiss her lips, deep and slow. “Did you sleep well?”
When he broke the kiss, the smell of freshly-brewed coffee excited her taste buds.
“Yes, thanks. Oh, is that for me?” She took the mug from him with a nod of thanks. “Just what I need to kick-start the day. You’re up early.”
“No, it’s gone nine,” he replied, sitting on the bed beside her and running his fingers seductively down her arm.
“It can’t be.” He gaze flew to the window, even as goose bumps sprang up in the wake of his fingers. “It’s still dark outside.”
“It’s pouring with rain.”
Briana wanted to smack her head with the heel of her hand. For some reason her brain didn’t appear to be functioning, and she’d failed to recognize the sound of rain pounding against the windowpane.
“No roofing today then.”
“I guess not.”
Damn, his fingers had reached the side of her breast and were teasing it with a featherlight touch. Two days ago, any delays with the roofing would have had her screaming with frustration. Now she was glad. They must realize that no one was trying to sabotage her efforts here, so helping with the roof gave them a legitimate reason to hang around for a bit longer.
If they wanted to.
“I ought to get up,” she said without much conviction in her tone.
“No rush.” His hand was now cupping one breast. Briana closed her eyes and felt the reaction all the way to her toes.
“Where’s Max? He usually sleeps with me.”
“I think he spent the night in Gus’s room.”
She grinned. “Not very faithful, is he?”
“He’s not stupid, either. Gus is the one who spends all his time in the kitchen.”
She smiled. “Yes, there is that, I suppose.”
His gaze burned into her profile, dark and intense. “We are,” he said softly.
Her breath caught in her throat and her gaze locked with his. “Are what?”
“Faithful.”
What does that mean? Impulsively Briana threw the covers back. “Join me,” she said. “If I’m not allowed to get up then you have to keep me company.”
“Hey, taking matters into your own hands will get you spanked.”
She giggled. “A girl can but hope.”
“You sure you’re not too sore?” he asked, already shedding his clothes.
“For that?” she asked, pointing to his massive erection and licking her lips. “I think I can probably manage.”
“Hmm, you’ll get me in trouble with the boss. I was told to bring you your coffee, nothing more.”
“Do you always do as you’re told?”
He flashed a rueful grin. “Apparently not.”
The bed dipped as he maneuvered his large body right up close to hers, turned her on her side and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. His thick cock pressed against her ass, and Briana couldn’t help pushing back against it. He tapped her butt, and she instantly stilled.
“I want to touch you all over,” he said. “Did you know that touching decreases stress and releases feel good hormones like oxytocin, which is nature’s bonding agent? It increases sexual responsiveness and sensitivity.”
“I feel pretty responsive and sensitive already,” she said, squirming against his hands as they covered her breasts and tweaked hard at the nipples.
“Can’t be too careful.” He rolled her onto her back and pulled the covers aside. “Spread your legs and bend your knees up for me, sweet thing.”
He jumped off the bed again, pulled the belt from the loops in his jeans, and returned to her almost immediately.
“Arms above your head.” Briana knew what he intended to do and gladly complied. He looped the belt around both of her wrists and then attached it to the headboard. “Now you’re at my complete mercy. Comfortable?”
“Yes, Master Harley.” He must be able to see all her freckles quite clearly now, but, astonishingly, he didn’t seem to mind them.
“I’ve got something else here that you might enjoy.” He reached into the pocket of his jeans and extracted two clothespins.
“Tell me again that you only came to deliver my coffee.”
“I was a boy scout. I like to be prepared.”
“Prepared for what?” But she knew.
“I’m gonna attach these to your nipples, darlin’. Tell me how they make you feel.”
Briana braced herself for pain but none was forthcoming. Presumably she looked as surprised as she felt because Harley explained why that was.
“They cut off the blood flow to your nipples and make them more sensitive.” He ran his tongue across one of them, and the sensation was so intense that she almost elevated from the bed. “I guess actions speak louder than words,” he said, chuckling.
Harley abandoned her tits, knelt at her feet and kissed, licked, and sucked each toe in turn. Briana closed her eyes and tried to slow her respiration. She’d already learned that the slower she breathed, the more she relaxed and the greater the sensation. When he started to kiss his way up her calves, pausing at the back of her ugly knees for a little suction and tongue-twirling, her overstimulated heart felt in danger of exploding. His tongue worked its way up her inner thighs, lapping up the juices spilling freely from her pussy.
“Your skin is so damned soft,” he said, lifting his head and licking her honey from his lips. “I can smell your musk and taste the essence of you. You’re making me so fucking hard, darlin’. I don’t know whether to punish you for being such a tease or fuck your brains out.”
“You could do both.”
“Silence!”
“Sorry, Master Harley.”
He returned to her inner thighs, gliding his tongue teasingly closer to her cunt. Briana rolled her head from side to side and moaned. It was beyond her to remain passively silent in the face of such provocation. She would defy any woman to manage it. She sensed his nose hovering over her pussy, inhaling her scent. She gasped when his tongue flicked across her clit, gently at first. When the strokes became firmer, Briana could feel the texture of his tongue as it swirled and sucked at her most sensitive place. He circled it around her swollen nub like a hunter stalking its prey, a seductive, teasing dance that she wasn’t permitted to participate in. When he wrapped his lips around the base of her clit and sucked, sensation streaked through her in dizzying waves.
“Ah!” She lifted her hips and thrust her pussy into his mouth. “I can’t take much more, Master Harley. I know I shouldn’t speak, but you need to know that you’re driving me over the edge.”
She regretted speaking when the torture immediately stopped. He tipped her onto her side again and spanked her ass. Hard. Her pegged nipples zinged with displaced reaction.
“Do you have something to say to me, Briana?”
“Sorry, Master. Please punish me for disobeying the rules.”
He spanked her harder still. It was glorious torture, but nothing compared to her reaction when she felt his thick cock slide between her legs. Was life allowed to be this good? Briana had a terrible premonition that she’d be made to pay for her few days of madness.
* * * *
Harley grabbed a condom from the pocket of his jeans, tore the packet open with his teeth, and rolled it down his length. Rejoining Briana on the bed, he lifted her upper leg, giving himself space to slide the head of his cock into her tight cunt. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so hard, so totally focused on a particular woman. He’d bar
ely slept for thinking about her. Even so, he hadn’t intended for this to happen when he’d brought coffee to her this morning. Yeah, right! What else could he realistically have imagined? Briana was sex on stilts and he didn’t think he’d ever be able to get enough of her.
With one fluid glide he slid all the way into her, and it felt like coming home. He tweaked one of her pegged nipples, eliciting an anguished cry from his lovely captive. He didn’t need to ask if he’d hurt her. She’d already learned to transmute the pain to pleasure and was hot, wet, and so ready for him. He worked his way deeper, enjoying the way her silken fist closed greedily around his thick heat, a willing hostage to her femininity. They moved together until she’d absorbed his entire length, which is when he realized he was in trouble. Harley prided himself on his staying power, but the moment he’d sunk all the way home a disturbing thrill rocked him sideways and he knew his control was in danger of slipping.
What the fuck was she doing to him?
He pulled her hair aside, wound it around one hand, and deposited hot kisses down the length of her neck. His balls were tight and heavy, he was so damned close, and so was she. He could tell when her muscles tightened around him and she emitted a string of needy little moans. He tugged on her hair and worked deeper into her with strong upwards thrusts.
“Stay with me, honey. Let’s do this together.”
“Yes, Master. I want to give you pleasure.”
“You do, just by being you.”
Harley sucked her earlobe and slammed into her as hard as he could. She cried out and he felt her body convulse.
“Oh God, Harley, that’s astonishing. I can’t stop coming.”
Perspiration slicked her body as she continued to ride the crest of her orgasm. Unable to hold back, he let himself go, and with a guttural moan he shot his load into the condom.
“Oh, darlin’,” he said, breathing hard.
Harley took a moment to recover, then got up and disposed of the condom. He returned with a cloth to clean her up, released her hands, and removed the clothespins.
“Your nipples will be real sensitive when the blood flows back into them,” he warned.
“Yeah, but that’s not a bad thing,” she replied, touching one and smiling, presumably because she was enjoying the experience.
“I like to see you touch yourself like that.”
“Then I’m glad to have pleased you.”
“Oh, you please me, darlin’. Never doubt it for a moment.”
“Thank you,” she said, looking almost shy now it was over.
“You’re entirely welcome.” He lay back down and circled her shoulders with his arm. She rested her head on his chest and drew patterns on it with her forefinger, tugging at the wiry hairs that adorned his torso.
“I know nothing at all about you,” she said. “Where are you from?”
“My family live in Philadelphia. I was raised there.”
“And, don’t tell me, you were the quarterback for the high school football team.”
“Nope, actually I sucked at sports, mainly because I didn’t get to play any.”
“Why ever not? I should have thought you’d be a natural. You’re certainly built to butt heads.”
“You didn’t see me when I was a kid.” Harley shrugged. “I was what you’d call a late developer. I was scrawny and didn’t sprout vertically until way after the other kids. My family is made up of academics, and that’s what they wanted me to be.”
“You can’t just be an academic. You have to have the necessary brain power.”
“Well, with all due modesty, my IQ is pretty impressive.”
“Show off!” She circled one of his nipples and leaned in to nip at it playfully, causing his cock to twitch.
“You did ask.”
“So, what happened? How did you finish up in the marines?”
“I had no particular interest in academia. Seemed dull and dry to me. I wanted to have fun, like the other kids, but I guess I was too much of an oddball. All the others either picked on me, or ignored me.”
“Kids can be real mean like that.”
“Yeah, well, that all changed when a certain Fergal Stanton moved to town with his family. Now he was the school quarterback.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course he was.”
“Handsome, popular, girls hanging off every orifice. I’m sure you get the picture.”
“And he helped you out?”
“Yeah, we got partnered on a school science project. All the other kids felt sorry for him getting landed with the geek, but Fergal seemed to genuinely like me and didn’t give a fuck what anyone else thought about his choice of buddies. You can have no idea how much I admired his attitude. And, of course, the more he did as he pleased, the more people clung to him.”
“And you were getting the respect you deserved.”
“Yeah, Fergal and I spent a whole semester working on that project, getting to know and like one another. I suspected his motives at first, because no one chose to be friendly with me.” Harley laughed. “Course, it helped that I knew more about empirical data than he did. I assumed he’d drop me once the project was over, but that didn’t happen.”
Briana laughed. “I don’t think Fergal is that shallow.”
“I know that now, but back then…Anyway, I told him how much I hated being puny. He suggested I go along to the gym with him, which is something I’d never have done alone for fear of being laughed at.”
“But with Fergal as your mentor, you were safe.”
“Right, and I started to develop muscles at the same time as my height finally increased. I went off to college shortly after that but fell out with my family when I chose not to apply for jobs in the science sector.”
“What was Fergal doing at the time?”
“He’d gone to a different college. We met up again back home in Richmond, and Fergal told me he’d already decided to enlist.”
“What made him do that?”
“Aw, honey, if you want to know, you need to ask him.”
“I will. I want to know all about all of you.”
“Well, you pretty well know all there is about me now. I went against my family’s wishes and enlisted alongside Fergal. And the rest, as they say, is history.”
“Are your family still mad at you?”
Harley shrugged. “They’re wrapped up in their own little worlds. My parents, brother, and sister are all scientists. I broke the mold and they lost interest in me. They seem to think I’ve wasted my talents.” He sent her a puerile grin. “I disagree. We meet up occasionally. I think Mom’s glad I’m no longer a serving marine, but apart from that we don’t have a lot of interaction.”
“That’s sad.”
“No, honey, it’s the way it is. We can choose our friends, but we’re stuck with the families we’re given.”
“I get the impression that Fergal and Gus are more of a family to you now.”
“Too right. We make a good team. Gus does the catering, I’m the geek, and Fergal’s in charge. He also happens to be an ace with anything that has an engine in it.”
“So you enjoy working and playing together.”
“We’ve been in a lot of dangerous situations together, and had one another’s backs, so yeah, I guess you could say that we know one another pretty well.”
“Do you always share your women?”
“Aw, now that’s a leading question, honey.”
“But a reasonable one.”
“Not always, but we are drawn to the same type of woman, so it happens a fair bit.”
Damn, Harley wished the words back. Her expression closed down, and he knew she wouldn’t thank him for implying that she was just another conquest. Far as he was concerned she wasn’t. She’s stirred something deep inside him, and he wanted to hang around and get to know her way better. But that wasn’t a decision he could make alone. He had a duty to his partners and had no idea how they felt.
“Come on, lazybones,” he said,
pushing back the covers. “Gus has cooked breakfast for us all, and you know how he is about his food.”
Briana laughed and also got up. “I’ll take a quick shower and be right there,” she said.
Chapter Twelve
“Sorry,” Harley said, grinning as he reentered the great room. “I got unavoidably detained.”
Fergal looked up from the wall he’d taken over plastering for Briana and quirked a brow. “Can’t imagine what kept you.”
“I can,” Gus growled from the kitchen. “Ain’t fair.”
“Someone reliable had to reassure the lady,” Harley said, smirking.
“Fuck you!” Gus replied.
“I’ll pass, thanks.”
Fergal put his plastering tray down and joined Gus and Harley at the kitchen counter. “I need you to run into town after breakfast,” he said to Gus.
“Sure. What do you need me to do?”
“There’ll be a package for us at the UPS store sent overnight by Raoul.”
“Okay, I’ll pick that up and go to the grocery store. What else?”
“I need you to pay a visit to the barber shop.”
“Aw, I like my hair long.”
“Greg thinks there are only two of us out here. No one knows about you.”
“Yeah, I guess he’s pretty easy to overlook,” Harley said, grinning.
Gus shot him the finger. “Just because you got your end away, it don’t mean—”
“Gentleman,” Fergal said impatiently. “I need you all to be clear on this before Briana joins us. She’s not ready to hear about my worries regarding this place.”
“You think someone’s definitely out to get her?” Harley asked, sobering.
“Yeah, and I don’t think they’re gonna sit back and wait for us to knock the place into shape before they make their move.”
“Is that what we’re planning to do?” Gus asked. “I figured you’d be keen to get the hell out of Dodge, before you get too attached to our favorite inhabitant.”
“Go to the barber shop, Gus,” Fergal replied. “Seek out Briana’s granny’s friends, Seth and Maurice. If there’s anything going on, I’ll bet my bank balance they’ll have a theory about it. Buy them as many coffees as it takes and let them ramble on. They obviously care about Briana, otherwise they wouldn’t have alerted her old man to her problems.”