Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters)

by Sarah O'Rourke

  It wasn’t fair not to tell him how she felt in return, but the water had shifted from hot to lukewarm to downright chilly in the length of time she’d stood in the shower with him. “There’s more to say, but I’m freezing,” she murmured, pulling away from him.

  Jake nodded, reaching a hand out to twist off the water. Reaching for one of the fluffy towels on the rack outside the tub, he patted down her glistening body quickly, rubbing away the water droplets as she stood shivering in front of him. When she was dry, he wiped down his own body and climbed out of the tub behind her. He took another dry towel from her and wrapped it loosely around his waist as she slipped on the robe that had been hanging on the back of the door.

  Picking up his discarded clothes, he lifted his head to stare at her face. She didn’t seem quiet as tense and not nearly as angry as when he’d locked them inside the room. He hoped he’d gotten somewhere with her; he knew for certain he had when she murmured, “You need to be downstairs before anyone wakes up, but you could stay…I mean, if you wanted you could…”

  “When the sun comes up, I’ll be on the couch. Until then, there’s no place else I’d rather be than your bed, Harmony.”

  He felt like he’d roped the moon when she nodded slowly. Following her out of the bathroom, he paused long enough to flip off the lights before following her into her darkened bedroom. Dropping his jeans and shirt beside the bed within easy reach if Heaven came into the room, he watched as she shrugged off her own robe and climbed, naked, between the sheets. Tugging off his towel, he threw it over the arm of the chair in the corner before joining her. Settling by her side, he felt her roll toward him. With no small amount of relief, he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her soft body flush against his until her breasts rested against his chest and her head nestled his shoulder.

  He was dragging his fingers up and down her arm, enjoying the way her body seemed to fit naturally against his, when she shifted in his arms, her head tilting back to stare at him in the dark. Seeing her small hand lift, he felt her fingers tracing his lips and he stopped breathing.

  “I feel it, too, you know. It’s not just you,” she whispered as her fingers moved over his firm parted lips.

  “Feel what, baby?” Jacob asked against her fingers. He thought he knew. Christ, he hoped he knew, but he needed to hear her say the words. He needed it like he needed his next breath. “Harmony?” he urged, dropping one hand behind her neck and kneading gently. “Tell me what you meant. What do you feel, darlin’?”

  Chapter Forty-two

  Crap, what was she doing? Harmony chewed her lower lip as she felt Jacob’s eyes on her in the darkness. She knew she should just spit it out. Tell him the truth and get it over with. Of course, the last guy she’d given that gift had made it seem worthless, but as he’d reminded her countless times, Jacob wasn’t Tanner.

  He’d protect what she gave him. He’d cherish it and care for it as carefully as a mother would a baby, wouldn’t he? He’d never use her love like a weapon the way her ex-husband had.

  “Harmony?”

  She felt him squeeze her neck again and her eyes drifted over his face. Swallowing hard, she whispered, “Everything changed in the blink of an eye, Jake. In a nanosecond, six years ago, everything I thought I knew was turned upside down. In the time it took me to flutter my eyelashes, I learned that my husband was a monster. The man that I’d thought I loved was worse than what I’d found in my worst nightmares. Tonight, I learned that he was worse than even that because I’ve never dreamed anything as bad as what Honor told us.”

  “Baby…”

  “The crazy thing is, even hearing everything I heard this evening, in my heart I still only wanted one thing when I walked out of Honor’s bedroom.”

  “What did you want?” he asked into the stillness, his hand sliding against her jaw.

  “You.” Gripping his wrist, she took a deep breath. “I wanted you.”

  “You’ve got me, Harmony,” Jake assured her softly. “Body and soul. You’ve got me.”

  “I know,” she whispered. “I guess what I need you to understand is that you’ve got me, too. I can’t fight what’s between us anymore. I don’t want to fight it,” she confessed as tears stung her eyes and her shoulders shook. “I’m scared and you’ll have to be patient because I’m sure that I’m going to slip into old habits and compare you to Tanner, but…”

  “Harmony, enough.” Jake stopped her by placing a gentle finger over her lips. “You had me at ‘I wanted you’, baby. That’s all you need to say. That’s the only answer I need…the only answer I’ll ever need.”

  “No, I need to get this out before I lose my nerve,” Harmony denied, shaking her head almost frantically as she yanked his fingers away from her mouth. Swallowing hard, she pushed past the panic and blurted, “I love you. I do. I probably shouldn’t and it’ll all probably blow up in my face because I have crap luck when it comes to relationships and shit taste when it comes to men, but I do. I love you.”

  There! She’d said it. Or, more accurately, she’d expelled it with the force of a cyclone, but the important part is that she’d gotten it out and shared how she felt. As she waited for him to respond, she felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her chest. She could finally breathe again. Well, right up until his arms contracted around her like steel chains and his bigger body rolled on top of her, pinning her to the bed with the warm, hard heat of his body. “Uhmmm, Jake?” Harmony gasped when his heavy bulk seemed to grow even heavier and his face lowered to hers. “Honey, you’re crushing me.”

  Immediately taking some of his weight on his forearms, Jake lifted his torso from her body, letting her take a deep drag of air into her burning lungs as his gaze burned into hers. “Jake?” she wheezed, lifting a hand to touch his stunned face. “Are you okay?”

  “Okay? No, I’m not okay. I had no fucking idea how much I needed to hear you say those words until just now. Now that I have, I feel like I just heard a miracle.”

  “Trust me, Jake,” Harmony snorted, shaking her head against the pillow behind her head. “I’m no miracle. You’ll learn that fast enough, I suspect.”

  “You’re wrong,” he muttered against her mouth, dipping his head to catch her lips with his. “You’re my miracle, Harmony.”

  Harmony returned his kiss eagerly, the stresses of the day dissolving as his tongue swept across the seam of her lips and coaxed her mouth into opening. Gripping his neck as he deepened the kiss, she let herself get lost in the moment, her other hand moving up and down the sinewy muscles in Jake’s back. Tearing her lips from his when one of his hands slipped between their bodies to cup her breast, Harmony moaned, her body arching underneath his. “Jake,” she gasped as he rolled her nipple between his fingers.

  “I’m here, darlin’ and I’m never leaving you,” Jake muttered between hard, bruising kisses as he shifted restlessly against her. He’d had her less than twenty-four hours ago in most every way a man could have a woman, but he still wanted more from her. She was like a thirst he couldn’t quench or a hunger he couldn’t sate. No matter how many times he had his fill, he knew he’d always want more from her.

  Harmony moaned softly as his calloused palms coasted over her body, their touch spreading a trail of fire wherever they touched. This is what she wanted, the mindless, raw passion she’d experienced in his arms last night. Whimpering when he rolled away from her, his heaviness suddenly disappearing and leaving her bereft, she clutched at his arm. “Jake, what…”

  “Need to love you, Harmony, and to do that we need a condom,” he answered back hoarsely as his hand went over the side of the bed in search of his jeans. “But swear to God,” he grumbled as his fingers finally latched onto the denim pocket he needed and pulled out his wallet, “as soon as humanly possible we’re finding a doctor and getting you on birth control pills.” Pulling loose the small packet he’d placed in his wallet, he rolled back toward her, his dark eyes fierce as they met hers. “Don’t like having anything between us,
Harmony. I want you and me and warm wet heat. Not a fucking layer of latex separating us,” he muttered, ripping the foil packet viciously with his teeth as she giggled beside him.

  “Don’t laugh at me.” He growled, rolling the thin latex over his steely length. “If it wasn’t for this damn rubber, I’d already be buried balls deep inside you,” he complained, leaning toward her to steal a kiss from her smiling lips. “Roll on your side, baby. I want to take this sweet pussy from behind tonight.”

  “But I like feeling you on top of me,” Harmony said, her cheeks burning with embarrassment at her admission.

  “Sweetheart, I love being inside you any way I can get in there, but if you’re on your side, I can give you my dick and my finger on that slick little love button of yours. Trust me, darlin’, you’ll love it when I push that button,” he promised against her lips, nipping her chin with his teeth.

  Harmony’s breath caught at the rough edge in his voice and she wasted no time doing as he bid, sighing when his warm lips dropped a kiss against the side of her neck to lick her delicious flesh. She knew the reward that could be found in Jake’s arms if she took her cues from him, and he didn’t disappoint her when his hand dropped between her legs and two fingers explored her saturated folds.

  “So wet, baby,” he growled his appreciation, swirling his finger through her slit and over her swollen clit. “I love that,” he encouraged against her ear when her legs spread and her hips bucked against his hand. “Love how soaked and ready you are for me. Let’s see if your luscious little body is ready to take my cock yet,” he muttered, twitching his finger against her nub again as he pierced her with two fingers and pulled a low cry from her lips.

  Harmony moaned as his fingers impaled her, fucking deep. “Oh, God, Jake,” she choked, rocking her hips back into his pelvis as his fingers withdrew only to sink in again a heartbeat later.

  “Oh, yeah, all this sticky sweet honey says you’re more than ready for me, Sweetness,” he growled against her neck as he pulled his fingers from the tight heat of her pussy. “You want my cock, darlin’? You want me to fill you up and take away the ache?” he asked, his words vibrating against her skin as one hand curled around her breast and squeezed the firm globe gently.

  “Yes,” she whimpered, pushing her head back against his throat as his fingers stroked through her swollen folds again and teased her clit. “Do it, Jake,” she begged, wriggling her ass against his hardness. His cock rimmed her entrance, offering her just a taste of heaven, but never truly delivering on the promise.

  He sucked the vulnerable flesh at her neck; she felt his teeth scrape the shell of her ear. “Tell me first, Harmony. Who do you belong to?” he asked her, plucking her nipple with his thumb and forefinger before tugging it gently and sending a white hot pulse of pleasure from her stomach to her pussy. “Who does this gorgeous body belong to?”

  “You,” she managed in a voice strangled by pleasure. Plying her nipple with one hand and her clit with the other, she felt like she was one long exposed nerve ending. “Stop teasing, Jake, and fuck me.” She panted roughly as she wriggled against his onslaught.

  Holding her firmly, he shook his head against the crook of her neck. “Mmmm, you know that’s not how it works, darlin’. You take it as I give it,” he chided, using his teeth to nip her rounded shoulder.

  “Please,” she gasped, churning her hips against his hand as she tried to bring his touch where she needed it.

  Pushing just an inch of his cock into her snug channel, he groaned, but held himself still. “That what you need, Harmony?” he rasped against her neck.

  “More,” she whimpered as she tried to press backward and bring him more deeply inside her. She felt empty and achy, and he was driving her crazy.

  “You’ll get more when you say what I need to hear,” he replied, his own breathing uneven as her pussy pulsed around the head of his dick, caressing his cock in a velvety tight grip that made his balls ache.

  “Please, baby,” Harmony whined, turning her head to look at his shadowy face over her shoulder. Lifting her hand, she touched his hard jaw. “I need you. Please?”

  “Love hearing you beg, Sweetness, but those aren’t the words I’m lookin’ for when I’m inside the woman I love,” he murmured, bending his head to touch her lips to his. “Give them to me, Harmony. Give them to me and I’ll give you everything your body needs.”

  “I love you,” Harmony breathed, her eyes softening on him as pleasure suffused his face.

  “That’s it, baby,” he whispered, surging inside her with a powerful thrust. “You just gave me everything I’ve ever wanted,” he rasped, palming her hip and pumping deep, burying himself inside her searing heat from root to tip. “Fuck, I love feeling your pussy wrapped around me. Wet and tight. And mine, Harmony. It’s mine.”

  “All yours,” Harmony agreed breathlessly as he thrust inside her, setting a hard rhythm that hit her sweet spot every single time he sank into her. Lifting an arm, she reached back, wrapping it around his head as he fucked her harder, planting himself deep with every lunge of his hips. “I love you, Jake.”

  “Yes,” Jake growled, his fingers tightening possessively around Harmony’s hip. “Lift your leg and brace one hand against the wall, Harmony. I wanna go deep, baby. So deep you feel me in your heart.”

  “You’re already in my heart, but feel free to give it your best shot,” she invited huskily even as she pulled one knee toward her chest and reached out to prop a hand on the wall. Turning her head, she screamed into the pillow as the angle of his thrusts changed and he pierced some magical spot deep inside her. Lifting her ass to receive him, she felt his cock slide deeper and she shuddered.

  “Fuck, yes,” Jacob hissed, bottoming out deep inside her. “Sweet Christ, it’s never been like this before. I’ve never been so deep inside somebody that I swear to God I feel like I’m touching the heart of them. Love you, Harmony. Love your sweet body, love your sweeter mind, love your sassy attitude,” he panted between hard, almost savage lurches of his hips, “Love it all, darlin’.”

  Every push and pull of him inside her body brought her closer to bliss. By the time he began to lose his rhythm, searching for his own salvation, she was poised on the cusp of the biggest orgasm she’d ever experienced. Feeling his fingers in her hair, she barely registered the rough tug to her scalp as he tilted her head back so that he could cover her lips with his.

  Matching the thrusts of his cock with those of his tongue, she keened as his hand slipped between her legs again and his thumb twitched back and forth over her straining clit. “Jake, I’m gonna come,” she whimpered between frantic kisses as their bodies collided the wet, heavy slaps of their frenzied mating filling the air. “I’m so close. I can’t stop it,” she gasped desperately, as sensations built and multiplied within her, more powerful than the previous night because now she’d shared herself with him. She wasn’t hanging onto her love, trying to hide it from him; he had it all from her. And better, he gave it back to her in return.

  “I feel it, baby. That sweet pussy is nearly strangling my cock. Love it, Harmony. Love you,” Jake growled, his husky voice raw with passion and need. “Fuck yeah,” he snarled when her cunt seemed to clamp down around his dick like a vice, caressing every inch of his cock in an embrace that threatened to blow his mind. “Give me that,” he growled, his hips moving like pistons as he hammered into her from behind, sinking again and again into her convulsing pussy. “Give it to me, baby!”

  Her scream of release was muffled by his mouth as he swallowed her satisfied cries.

  Then, she gave it back to him in return, pressing her lips to his and swallowing his long, low grunt of release down her throat as his cock flexed within her, bucking against the condom as he filled it with furious bursts of his seed.

  Collapsing against her back, Jake stayed buried inside her as he panted into her sweaty neck, dazed by the force of his hunger for her. “Jesus,” he breathed against her neck, inhaling her delicate scent as his
heart thundered in his chest. “Didn’t think it could get better than last night, darlin’. Would have sworn it wasn’t possible. Christ, was I wrong.” His eyes closed as he felt her hand slide soothingly up and down his arm.

  “I was holding back last night, keepin’ how I felt in my heart from you. That wasn’t between us tonight. Nothing was between us tonight. This was just you and me, Jake.”

  “That’s the way it’s gonna stay, Harmony. I love you and me,” he replied softly, lifting his head to stare down at her profile as he traced a finger over the shell of her ear. “I’m not giving this up.”

  Gasping as he shifted behind her and pulled from her body, Harmony felt him leave the bed and heard the muted sounds of him disposing of the condom before he slid back between the sheets with her. Turning, she faced him. The only way this could possibly work between him was if they had total honesty in their relationship, and she shared that by saying quietly, “I love you, Jake, but really good sex doesn’t fix everything between us. You understand that, don’t you?”

  Lifting a hand, Jake tucked a still damp strand of her hair behind her ear. “I understand, Harmony. It’s gonna take time to trust me, but I’m not gonna let you down again. You know everything about me now. The good, the bad, the just plain ugly. You’re still here, so I’m interpreting that as you didn’t hear anything you couldn’t either handle or learn to handle in time. I know you’re pissed about some of what you learned and repulsed by some of it, too, but what I’ve shared with you was from the past of the man I was before you. You and Heaven make me wanna be different. Hell, I am different with you. I want shit I never imagined wanting before you walked in my life.”

  “Like what?” Harmony questioned, turning on her side and reaching out to rest her hand on his chest.