by Gina Watson
Augie nodded. “I’ve researched him. He’s not nice, and I have a feeling she won’t be free unless he’s gone.”
They shared an intense look. The room was so quiet, Clay could hear his own breathing.
Augie clasped his shoulder, but Clay went in for a bear hug.
“Be careful—you’re my best friend. I need you.”
“Dude, don’t be a pussy.”
Augie’s rough voice matched Clay’s shaky emotions. Augie punched him in the shoulder, and Clay pulled away with a laugh.
“Go get her, before she leaves. I’ll be in touch.” Augie slapped a phone against Clay’s chest. “Burner. For emergency contact only.”
*
Clay ran into the house, and the dog met him at the door. They found Eve at the computer, searching for a flight to Montreal. She swiveled to him, her large gray eyes full of moisture. She whispered, “Clay” and reached out to wrap her arms around his legs. “I never thought I’d want or would ever find what I have with you. I love you, and I would give anything to have met you first. Give anything to be free and to be all yours. But as long as he breathes, I’ll never be free.”
He squatted in front of her and took her face into his hands. Evidently she thought she was still in Canada, but this was Louisiana and he had no doubts in Augie’s abilities to finalize negotiations with the bastard she was married to.
“Baby, Augie’s gone to bring your sister here. He’ll keep her safe and he won’t be leaving Canada until Renaud signs, uncontested, your divorce papers. You’ll be safe here with me, and I don’t plan on being away from you for one second.”
“He will never sign. Not for Augie, not for anyone.”
“Listen to me because I’m only going to say this once and then we’re going to go on living our lives. If he won’t sign, then his life will be in jeopardy. He’ll be thanking God for a quick death because had I been the one going after him, he would suffer slowly.”
Her tears dried, and her luminous eyes probed him for several seconds. “You can’t let him do it.” Her voice was a rasped whisper. “Augie could be hurt. Or worse.” She pulled a hand free and wiped her eyes with shaking fingers, saying, “I could never forgive myself if something happened to the people you love because of me.”
He kissed her. “You’re the people I love, and don’t worry about Augie. He was special ops in the marines. Spent time in Afghanistan. He was sent in to extract a group of civilians. The marines contacted his family when he missed his exit window and they had no idea where he was—thought he’d died out in that desert—but truth be told, he’d killed the enemy and waited for extraction while tending to the wounds and needs of twenty-three civilian females. Don’t worry about Augie.”
“Why would he do this for me?”
“Because he’s my friend.”
Her brow furrowed. “Friends pick up your mail and feed your dog while you’re gone. They don’t do this.”
“They do in the South.” He stroked her jaw. “Besides, he’s my best friend. He’s family. We’d do anything for each other.” He took her hands in his. “He left a burner phone that we’ll use to keep in contact and stay updated.”
“What’s a burner phone?”
“It’s a disposable cellphone. The number is anonymous.” He stood and took the folder from the bed where he’d tossed it. “You need to fill out this paperwork to file for a divorce and you’ll need to state that you were physically abused.”
She gasped, and he squatted in front of her again. “Hey, I’ll be right here. I’ll help you through it.”
She lunged forward and threw her arms around his neck, wrapping tight. The dog barked next to them.
Her breath was hot in his ear before she said, “I’ll need you. I’ll always need you. Say you won’t let go. Please tell me you’ll keep me safe.”
She curled herself into him as if she were trying to climb inside his chest. He tried to pull her down so he could look at her, but she had a death grip on him. “I’m here, Eve. I won’t let go.”
She inhaled a ragged breath. “I don’t know why you would do this for me, but maybe you are a guardian angel sent from heaven. I wish I could do something for you.”
She was alternating crying and breathing and talking, stroking his cheek and petting the dog.
“Hey, I’m doing this because I love you.”
She was frantic and not listening to him.
“I have money, did you know that? I make about three thousand dollars per week from a blog I own. Do you need money?”
He stood with her in his arms and laid her on the bed, going down with her. With his back against the headboard, she was forced to look into his eyes. He held her chin still until she stopped moving.
“You aren’t listening to me: I love you. That’s all you need to know. Having you around made me realize how lonely I’d been. Your constant energy brings life, brings light and… and a lightness. You never sit still, you’re always moving, always got your hands in something. Sometimes I just sit back and watch you, and I can’t wait to see what you’ll get into next. Chickens, pies, dogs, seamstress, blogger—I never know what your next hand will be. You’re very successful, aren’t you? Everything you touch is perfection.”
His hands slid across her cheeks and into her hair as he lifted his head to take her lips. He swore she tasted like strawberry fucking shortcake.
Her warm, soft lips explored him as her tongue swiped at his, and she reached down and fondled his crotch. Then she abruptly pulled away and said, “I’m sorry,” as she cupped her hands to her mouth.
He took her hand and placed it back on his cock. “Don’t ever be sorry. Tell me what you want to do.”
“I want to taste you.”
Her moist breath against his lips was torture.
“You like sucking me?”
She nodded shyly.
“Why?”
She shrugged. “I like the noises you make when I do it.”
His brow furrowed. “I make noises?”
“Yeah, you do. Lots. It makes me feel… desired.”
“You are desired and much more.”
If she was about to give him head, he wanted her naked. He tugged at her shirt and then removed her bra to release her beautiful tits right in front of his face. He groaned and was in heaven as he placed both hands on her outer curves and his face between them. He lightly licked and sucked at her breastbone before turning to take a nipple into his mouth. He gently sucked, then pulled back, needing to use his teeth. When he bit down on her erect nipple, her eyes turned liquid, and he soothed her tit with the flat of his tongue.
He was moving in for another nibble when a whine from the side of the bed had them both leaning over.
The dog lay on the carpet, head on his crossed paws, staring up at the bed.
“I don’t want him jumping my ass when we get going up here,” Clay said. “Any suggestions?”
She chewed on her finger, making him want to forget the damned dog.
“Bathroom? He won’t be able to get out.”
Clay rolled off the bed, scooped up the dog, ran him across to the bathroom, and locked him inside. When he turned from the door, a sock hit him in the face. He raised one brow as he held it up.
“He needs something to chew on. One dead sock is better than holes in the tile or scratches on the door.”
He turned, opened the door, dropped the sock inside, and closed the door.
Once again he turned toward Eve.
“Is that all?”
“Hmm…” She stood in the middle of the bed and dropped her shorts. Kicked them off the bed. “Maybe…” She drew a slow finger down her chest, curving back and forth, passing over and under her nipples.
Clay ran for the bed and jumped, tackling her. She laughed until he rolled her under him and stared at her breasts and the nearly transparent panties. The wet-in-the-crotch panties.
He growled.
And the dog answered back.
Clay gr
owled again, Eve laughed, and he dropped to the mattress next to her. She stroked his chest, calling out, “Cookie, sweetie, go to sleep. The master is busy mastering someone else.”
Clay went breathless.
She slid her panties off and straddled him. Her hands pulled at his buckle and undid his pants as he lifted his hips so she could slide them down. His erection was clearly visible in the tight gray shorts he wore, and she grazed it with her fingers before cupping it with her palm. She followed the length of it and discovered the head peeking from the left leg of his shorts. Her eyes grew enormous, her mouth opened, and her chest rose on a gasping breath. She squeezed the tip and rubbed through the moisture that had collected there.
He groaned. “Eve, I’m so hard I’ll explode all over you if you keep it up.
“Promises promises, lover.” She lifted the waistband of his shorts in one hand and pulled him free with the other. She placed both of her hands on him and pumped. A moan escaped his throat but when her head went down and her tongue licked the crown and then up and down on the shaft, he had to stifle a bellow. She licked until he was well lubricated, and then she fisted his length in her hands and placed her mouth over him. Her mouth concentrated on his engorged head while her tongue cradled the underside. Her hands stroked him, pulling and stretching as her mouth cloaked him in ecstasy. The repetitive hypnotic motion on his glans had him aching and unable to hold back sighs and groans.
“Mmm, that’s it, baby. You like sucking my cock, don’t you?”
When he spoke dirty and petted her head, she doubled down.
God, how he wanted to take control of her head and use his large hands to force her mouth to fuck him as he thrust violently into her, but he couldn’t do that. Instead, he kept talking and once he started, he couldn’t stop.
“Mmm, that’s it. Fuck that big cock with your hot mouth.”
His hand slid up the back of her thigh, and he kneaded her ass and then slapped her gently. Her moans vibrated against his cock, and she sucked harder. Yeah, his girl liked his hand on her ass. Thank God she liked it, because he loved spanking her, speaking dirty to her, fucking her.
He smoothed over the sting and moved to the other side to rub and then slap. He did it again and then again and rubbed a finger through her sex. She was dripping. And she was so hot.
He wanted to continue, but he needed her to tell him she desired it, and there was no way he was going to interrupt her mouth on him for questions. She’d worked him into a preclimactic state with her devoted touch, and he was about to blow like a volcano.
“Eve, I’m going to come. Can I do it in your mouth?”
“Mmm.” She groaned around his cock.
He took the sound as a yes. God, he wanted to grip his cock and shoot himself into her mouth, but he’d let her have this one. He let go and watched her eyes grow wide as he came in her mouth and her fist milked his dick. When he was finished, she sat up, facing him and licked her lips.
“You taste like melted butter.”
Had she never tasted anyone? “Did you swallow before?”
“No, he thought it was gross. He didn’t do it to me either.”
“Fucking idiot.”
She straddled him and sizzled with seduction, all the more alluring because she didn’t know she did it.
“Do you like it when I slap your ass?” He was massaging two fingers between her sopping wet lips, but he stopped when he didn’t get a response. “Eve, answer me: do you like it?”
Her gaze tuned to his, her eyes narrowed to pencil points.
“You’re soaking, so your body is talking to me. But I need to hear you say it.”
Her blush started high in her cheeks and slowly spread down her neck and chest. “I like it.”
“I’m asking because it’s me hitting you, and I don’t wa—”
“No, it isn’t anything like that. It’s different. I didn’t even think of it like that. To tell you the truth, when you’re controlling me with your words and your body, it takes me to a place where I don’t have to think, where I just rely on sensation and feeling. I quite like that.”
He’d noticed that too, that she turned into a sooty-eyed siren whenever he talked dirty to her or directed her, and it drove him wild. Clay understood that surrender could be an important part of a woman’s sexual response, and he suspected she needed to give up control in order to give herself permission to feel sexual. He just needed her to understand why.
“Will you do it again?” she asked.
“Do what?”
Her chin sank to her chest, and a shy smile spread across her face. “Spank me.”
Holy shit! She wasn’t quite ready for it, not for all of it, but if he shut her down, he knew she would regress. “Baby, I can’t think of anything I want to do more.”
She maneuvered herself onto her knees in front of him and lowered her chest to the bed. He could see a little bit of color from where he’d slapped before. Viewing all of her secrets had his erection in a painful state, and his already burgeoning cock became irritated and dark. He loved looking at her in this position, and he knew he’d submit to her desire to be spanked. He would just have to control himself. Still, he worried, because he didn’t usually have to focus on keeping himself in check.
He swallowed back the knot in his throat. “Eve, if it becomes too much, I want you to tell me to stop, okay?”
“Mmm, Okay.” She sounded deep in bliss as she preened for him.
Game on. He would just do a few light taps and ease into her from behind. Shit! Just imagining what he was going to do had him bucking toward her. He rested his hands lightly on her warm ass and kneaded, alternating between squeezing and rubbing. He tapped her with a cupped hand that made a nice smacking sound but didn’t pack much sting. He did the same to her other ass cheek and then he picked up again with the massage. He repeated the pattern several more times and when he swatted her, the contractions from her muscles made her ass jiggle, which in turn caused him to groan and grasp his cock roughly. He slid two fingers between her glistening lips and into her tight passage, and she moaned. “Are you ready for me, baby?”
“Yes, please.”
“Tell me what you want.”
“I want all of you inside of me.”
Thank God—he didn’t think he could wait any longer. He was throbbing and tight, and his legs were shaking. He eased into her at a pace that was comfortable for her. When she accommodated his size and was well lubricated, he slowly increased the speed of his strokes until his balls were smacking her ass. With every thrust, every smack, her cunt tightened on his cock, squeezing hard. He leaned over her and slid his hands up to cup her breasts, and he heard her groaning whisper.
“Clay, tell me how you’ll keep me safe.”
He stopped and pulled out so he could turn her. He caged her beneath him while his weight rested next to her just enough that she could feel the safety of his body against her skin. He kissed her eyes, her nose, her cheeks, her lips.
“Eve, as long as I have breath in me, I will kill to keep you safe. I will give my life for you if it ever comes to that. Beyond that, you’ll be kept safe by provisions I’ll set in place for you in the event I’m no longer here with you. And most of all, you’ll have the protection of my brothers. No one will ever lay hands on you again except in love.”
He slid into her wet heat and continued to chant into her ear all the ways he would protect her, and in that moment there in his bed, having vanilla sex, he knew she would be forever imprinted on his memory, his body, his skin, and his spirit. He was so tied up in her now that he would need her in order to survive. She grounded him and slaked his intense hunger and thirst. With her he didn’t have to hold back his ferocity during sex. During lovemaking. She was able to take all of him, and he knew she needed him, all of him. She wanted everything he offered. Like him, she wanted it all.
She wrapped her legs around his hips and lifted with every pump he gave her. Her hands gripped the sheets, and when she set
her eyes on him, they were large discs of dark liquid pewter. Her back bowed and her nipples were thrust skyward, and he went in for a taste, using his teeth to delicately pull the pebbles to their full length. When he lightly bit one between his front teeth, she called out, “I’m going to come.”
“Together, okay? You’ll wait for me.” He pulled her legs over his shoulders and clasped her waist to pull her into his thrusts. As he watched her breasts bounce with each strike, his body trembled and his balls tightened. When it was clear she couldn’t hold on any longer, he told her to let go. The gripping walls of her cunt drew thick ropes of seed from his cock, and he filled her while she thrashed beneath him.
They held on to one another as their bodies stilled and quieted. He loved her collarbone, hated that the delicate frame had been broken. It had become one of his favorite spots and as he waited on her to come around, he rained feather kisses along its length. She moaned, and when he withdrew from her warmth, drops of his cum dripped from within her. Clay knew it was crazy obsessive, but he wanted her to stay like that always, marked by his possession.
13
The next day Clay and Eve focused on completing the paperwork for her divorce. Once she finished it, they overnighted it to the address of the motel where Augie would be staying. All along the Gulf, cities were involved in cleanup. Clay was no longer on call twenty-four hours a day. Over the past few weeks, Keith had shown great leadership and promise as a firefighter. So much so that he was no longer made to wear the maid costume. Things were humming along and since his fire-safety business wouldn’t be in great demand during this time, he had some time off and decided they should get away. He thought it would help get Eve’s mind off her soon-to-be ex and her sister, so he rented a secluded beach house on the white sandy shores of the Florida Panhandle.
When he told her his plan, Eve bubbled with excitement.
“Oh my God, really?” She ran to him and slung her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck before slamming his mouth with a huge, wet kiss. “I can’t believe it. I’ve never been anywhere. When I took the bus from Montreal here, I wished I could have seen more of the coast, but we didn’t see any beach because we went straight down until we hit Louisiana.”