by Julia Harlow
“Ah, fuck, sweet thing, I can’t take anymore.”
But she wasn’t going to be interrupted. “Don’t make me tie you up.” Brushing his hands off her shoulders, she continued her sensual treasure hunt. She knew good and well that he’d decided to let her have her way with him. At least for the time being.
When her warm breath fanned over his wet nipple, it hardened like the eraser on a brand new #2 pencil. He groaned deep in his throat. Her eyes flickered down to the front of his trousers, and she saw the full effect she was having on him.
He tasted slightly salty as she licked her way down his abdomen. That only made her more aroused than she already was. A trickle of perspiration slid down between her breasts. But before she could thoroughly explore the lower half of his magnificent body, something she could hardly wait to do, she had to get out of her dress.
Turning deliberately, she commanded, “Unzip my dress, but no touching.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding. There’s no way I can keep my hands off you for a second longer.” He slid her zipper down. The linen dress floated to the carpet with a little swish.
“Shh. Just wait, my love.” She’d never addressed him that way before, and she heard him suck in his breath as she turned back around to face him. It seemed to do the trick because he let her unclasp his belt and slowly unbutton his trousers. His zipper made a raspy sound as she deliberately drew it down, struggling over the sizeable bulge. Bending forward, she dispensed with his trousers and black silk briefs in one swift movement.
If the sight of his upper body took her breath away, his lower body had her quivering with lust. His legs were in perfect proportion to the rest of his body, his thighs long and muscular, his calves well developed.
But her eyes were drawn to his long thick shaft, as erect as she’d ever seen it. It sprung from a dense nest of hair a shade darker than the hair on the rest of his body. No manscaping for this alpha male, thankfully, because she found the natural hair on Ty’s body incredibly arousing. Her undies were already soaked, and he hadn’t even touched her yet.
As urbane as he appeared decked out in his pricey, custom-made, three-piece suits, she knew this was the body of a man as fit as a trained athlete: a warrior’s body, complete with a bruise or two and a few scars scattered here and there.
“Touch me.” His hoarse plea came barely above a whisper.
As her hands wrapped around him, his erection jerked beneath her fingers. A milky pearl of pre-cum adorned the broad tip. She was in the process of kneeling so she could swirl her tongue over that enticing slit when he grabbed her and drew her up. By the force of his grip, she knew he had reached his limit and meant business.
“No, don’t. If you so much as breathe on my cock, I’ll come. And I want to come inside you. With you.” He spun her around, unclasped her bra, and with one snap of his wrist ripped off her panties. “Kneel on the edge of the bed.”
She scrambled up on the bed as quickly as she could. “Spread your thighs wide and lay your upper body flat on the bed.” Quivering with anticipation, she promptly did as he commanded.
“Now, raise that enticing ass of yours up in the air so I can see you.” Normally that sort of language, not to mention the blatant directive, would have upset her sensibilities, but this was Ty, and they loved each other. He made her feel safe and adored, even worshipped. So when he gave his gruff command, she lifted her rear end and spread herself open for him.
But when he didn’t touch her or utter a single word—or even move a muscle—she felt too exposed. She was on the verge of closing her knees when he spoke in a low, hoarse whisper. “This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen: you, wide open and unabashed, waiting for me to plunge into all that soft wetness. God, I hope you’re ready for me.”
Oh, she was—more than ready. When he grasped himself, placing the broad tip of his penis at her opening, she felt her body trying to suck him in. And then he plunged into her. His hands reached under her to gently cup her breasts and play with her nipples. She felt his warm breath coming in heavy pants tickling her neck. She heard a moan and realized it had come from her. When he rubbed his thumb in circles on her clit, she felt herself expanding to accept all of him inside her.
He pulled back and thrust in again and again and again with the perfect rhythm to transform her body into pure sensation. She reared back to meet his thrusts. His fingers continued stroking her clit with just the right amount of pressure. She felt herself coiling into that tight spiral, tighter and tighter, the tension like a wire about to snap, building higher and higher, striving for that desperate euphoric release. Inside her, she felt his cock growing bigger and hotter.
He stopped again, frustrating her beyond belief. When she tried to thrust back against him, his strong hands gripped her hips and held them still, keeping her from moving so much as an inch. The coarse hair on his chest tickled the sensitive skin on her back. She knew he was trying to prolong the experience, but she didn’t care. She wanted her release and she wanted it now!
Suddenly he began to move again, pulling out and then pushing back in with tentative thrusts. The friction was delicious, and she moved back against him again, their bodies now slick with sweat.
“God, my sweet Isabel, you feel so damn good.” His soft words in her ear belied the tension he must have felt on the brink of his own climax. She herself was climbing higher and higher. His fingers teased her clit again, this time with a divine swirling motion, and combined with the insistent plunges of his big cock, her body responded to the mounting intensity, until finally . . .
Floating in a state of bliss, weightless, mindless, pure sensation, she finally collapsed on her stomach on the bed. The weight of Ty’s heavy body pressed her into the bed. As he shuddered after his own powerful release, his whispered words sounded like a prayer, “My beautiful, precious Isabel.”
When his panting began to ease, his lips grazed her earlobe and he groaned. “You’re going to be the death of me, woman. First, you get me so hot I think I’m going to explode, and then you arouse me even more by opening yourself up to me like that. I’m not sure how much more my heart can take.” Indeed, she felt his heart thudding hard and fast against her back.
His fingers tickled as he gently swept her hair off to one side, and he sprinkled her neck with little kisses, causing goose bumps over her entire body. He was still hard inside her, but her legs were beginning to cramp underneath his solid weight, so she urged him off. He reluctantly pulled out and lifted his body off hers. She edged up to the top of the bed, burying her head in the soft goose-down pillows.
While she breathed in deeply, trying to catch her breath, Ty crawled up beside her and wrapped her in his arms. He pulled her tightly against the heat of his big body and whispered in her ear, “I love you with all my heart, my sweet Isabel.”
His words flowed over her as if in a dream, a happily-ever-after she’d never ever imagined for herself.
“And I love you, Ty.” That was the last thing she said before falling into a deep, blissful sleep.
~~~
Stomachs rumbled on both sides of the bed when they awoke a couple of hours later. Ty suggested scrambled eggs and sausage, apparently something they both craved after especially hot sex, the kind of sex they’d only ever had with each other.
After they had supped on the satisfying fare, Ty insisted she stay with him from now until they were married. When he told her that he never wanted to be apart from her again, her heart felt so full she thought it might burst. The depth of love she felt for him almost frightened her.
But Isabel not only needed to get back to the loft for Pilot, she also had to prepare for work tomorrow, pack her clothes and personal items, and tie up loose ends before she moved in with Ty. Most importantly, she couldn’t just ditch Ellen, and even though she wouldn’t tell her about their engagement because she wanted her mother to know first, she owed her stepsister a proper goodbye before she moved out.
So they drove throug
h the streets of San Francisco that afternoon with their fingers entwined. When they arrived at the loft, Ty stretched his arm over the back of her seat, leaned close, and asked again if she would get Pilot and her clothes and come back to The Admiralty with him. His plea was so genuine, and coupled with the fact that she knew he sincerely wanted her with him, it wrenched her heart. But she needed at least one night to settle everything and talk to Ellen.
As she mounted the steps to the loft, she turned to see Ty waiting in the car at the curb until she made it safely inside. She wasn’t sure she’d ever felt so completely loved and practically effervesced with joy. She raised her hand in a wave just before she opened the door and saw him lift his hand in a returning wave before he pulled away.
As soon as she stepped inside the loft, she sensed something was wrong—very wrong. Neither dog came to greet her, and the loft was eerily silent. She whistled for Pilot, and right then she heard the chilling sounds: deep, frantic barking, claws scraping desperately on wood. The only reason Pilot wouldn’t come to her was because he physically could not. Had someone hurt him? Or was someone restraining her dog?
Her body trembling, she dropped her purse and overnight bag as she scrambled toward the terrible sounds coming from her bedroom suite. She abruptly jerked to a halt when she saw the man sitting in the chair by her bed, aiming a gun straight at her head.
Chapter 24
“Shut that fucking mutt up, or I swear to God I’ll shoot him in the head.” Isabel stood frozen in the doorway at the sight of Willard Daniels. His appearance was so altered that she had to blink several times to be certain it was her former stepfather. His complexion was florid, and the buttons of a red-checked shirt strained over a basketball-shaped paunch. He’d lost so much hair, and the thin coverage that remained was grizzled gray. His once penetrating blue eyes were now slits in between swollen doughy pouches serving as the eyelids above and below his eyes. She knew he was only in his mid-fifties, but he looked at least fifteen years older.
Pilot’s frenzied barking had become deafening. Even though she was so shocked it was difficult to speak, she managed to raise her voice above the din. “The only way he’ll stop is if I open the bathroom door so he can see me.”
“Do it then!” Willard shouted. “But I’m watching you. One wrong move and I’ll kill you both.”
With shaky fingers, she grappled to turn the doorknob. It took both hands and a concerted effort, but once she had it open, she soothed her frantic dog as best she could, speaking softly to him and rubbing his head and body between her palms. After the jolt of seeing Willard in her bedroom, she suddenly became aware of her stepsister’s absence.
“Where’s Ellen?” The words felt as if they were choked out through a wad of gravel in her throat.
Now that Pilot had stopped barking, the rasping sound of Willard’s wheezing filled the room. He struggled to clear his throat and then spat some phlegm into a tissue with his free hand.
“She took that absurd excuse for a dog to the vet. Seems the fleabag somehow got ahold of two Hershey bars and ate every last morsel. She called me a few minutes ago. Apparently, the dumb thing needs to have its stomach pumped. Ellen will be gone for at least a couple of hours, so you can forget about being rescued.
“Your mongrel would be at the vet, too, if it hadn’t been too fucking stupid to eat the chocolate bars I dangled right under its nose.”
Isabel knew that it had nothing to do with stupidity. Pilot had been trained in the same method as police dogs to ignore any food that wasn’t his specific dog food. Even if she left a juicy cheeseburger on the car seat next to him, he wouldn’t touch it. At that moment, she loved her dog more than ever.
“Ellen had to close it in the bathroom because the mongrel kept baring his teeth at me. That animal is dumber than owl shit.”
If Willard hadn’t been pointing a gun at her, Isabel might have been able to take a normal breath. Instead, she swallowed air in shallow gulps and began to feel dizzy, as if she were on the brink of fainting. She couldn’t let that happen; she had to keep her wits about her. While she continued to stroke Pilot’s silky head, she struggled to steady her breathing. At the same time, her mind raced to find a way out of this horrific situation.
“What are you doing here?” Her voice wavered as she forced the words out, trying her best to sound calm. She didn’t want Willard to think he still intimidated her, notwithstanding the gun.
Willard crossed one ankle over a knee and leaned back in the upholstered chair, all the while keeping the gun trained on her head. “Finally, we get to the fucking point.” He wheezed. “It’s a simple matter, really, and somewhat biblical in its beauty. Even with your substandard brainpower and education, you’ve probably heard of the saying ‘an eye for an eye.’ Well, even if you haven’t, you can most likely understand this clearly enough. You fucked up my life, and now I’m going to return the favor. Only in your case it will be the end of your pathetic little life.
“You see, Hells Bells, your mother was the best thing that ever happened to me. Until she came into my life with her buoyant nature and inherent ability to forgive, I had never known happiness. Certainly not with that ice-queen control freak of a first wife.
“Life with Clarissa was, well, as pleasurable as anything I’d ever experienced. She had a way of keeping my demons at bay. And the loving way she dealt with my daughters was a huge boon to me. She was a far better mother to them than Valerie ever had been. Had Clarissa been there to continue the salve of her ebullient personality upon them, I’m certain Susan, Ellen, and Bitsy would be much better off than they are now. Not to mention that she was the most uninhibited, spectacularly passionate lover I’ve ever had. But I won’t waste time going into those details with you.”
He wiped the sweat off his forehead with his forearm, and his lip curled into a sneer. “So what happened to end the idyllic situation, one might ask? Well, you happened. You and your fucking emotional bullshit. Clarissa and I could have gone on for decades if it hadn’t been for you. Afterward, I tried to get her back, believe me. I imagine she never told you about that, did she? Well, I did everything I could to get her back, including begging, something I’d never had to do in my life. I promised her anything. Promised her everything. But because of you, and only you, she wouldn’t.
“After she left, everything in my life turned to complete shit. I couldn’t deal with the girls, the house, and my job. It all went to hell. To top it off, suddenly no woman I expressed an interest in would even go out with me. That had never happened to me before.
“Seems that rumors started to spread after your mother left me. People remembered Valerie’s dramatic demise, and coupled with Clarissa’s sudden departure, I was somehow considered a pariah, a persona non grata, if you can believe it. Not that you, with your miniscule birdbrain, would know what ‘pariah’ or ‘persona non grata’ means. And, as if that weren’t enough, somehow stories about my daughters being unstable, disturbed even, began to circulate. No one wanted to take on that can of worms.
“And so here we are.”
Willard dug into his pants’ pocket and withdrew what appeared to be a prescription bottle. He began to shake the bottle, the harsh sound rattling as the pills inside ricocheted off the sides of the plastic container.
As Isabel’s eyes followed the movement of his hand shaking the bottle, her thoughts turned to Ty: her honorable warrior, the love of her life. She could be with him right now instead of staring down the barrel of a gun wielded by Lucifer if she hadn’t insisted on coming back to the loft.
She forced herself to stand up straight and square her shoulders to show Willard she was no longer a helpless young girl to be bullied by a tyrant. Pilot’s body next to hers was as rigid as a tree trunk, his eyes like lasers on the intruder he instinctively mistrusted. If it hadn’t been for that gun . . .
“So here’s how it’s going to play out, Hells Bells. First, you’re going to write a suicide note.” He held up a hand with sausage finge
rs splayed.
“Hold on. No need to worry. You won’t have to tax that itty-bitty brain of yours. I’ve already scripted it for you. Just copy what I wrote and sign it. Shouldn’t be too hard for you.” His bitter laugh turned into a ragged cough he had a difficult time controlling.
After one more rough cough, he continued. “Next, you’re going to swallow all these pills with this bottle of vodka, or what’s left of it. I’ll admit I had a nip or two while I was waiting for your fat ass to get here.” Her eyes shot to the bottle positioned on the floor beside the chair where he was sitting. She recognized the Grey Goose label on the bottle from Ellen’s wet bar. It seemed to be less than a third full.
“Pay attention, you stupid bitch! I want to get this over with and get the fuck out of here before Ellen gets home. After you chug the pills down with the vodka, all you have to do is lie down on the bed with the suicide note in your hands. Easy as pie, right? Even you can handle that.” He started to snigger but ended up in another coughing fit.
“And if I don’t?” She couldn’t believe she’d just asked that question. Where had the courage come from? She instantly knew it had to come from Ty, the best man she had ever known. He’d given her courage and self-confidence and so much more. How could she possibly even think of relinquishing her life to this insane megalomaniac, knowing Ty was out there, ready to marry her and spend the rest of his life with her? She absolutely had to find a way out of this. Think, Isabel! Think of a way to get out of this hellacious situation!
Willard’s wheezy voice torpedoed the train of her frantic thoughts. “I’ll shoot your fucking mutt in the head right now. So, it’s your decision, fat ass. Make it quick.”