HIS VIRGIN VESSEL: A Dark Bad Boy Baby Romance (War Cry MC)

by Nicole Fox

  "Look, I'm not going to deny that there is something between us. After tonight, that would be pretty stupid. And I'm not going to deny that, perhaps in other circumstances, it might have proved to be something great. But these are the circumstances we have, and it's time to stop living in a dream world. We had our moment, and it was wonderful, but it's over. It's done. We have to stop pretending to ourselves that this could ever be anything. The best place for you is back with your family. Your dad obviously cares about you, or he wouldn't have done all he's done. He doesn't want you to wind up with someone like me, and he's absolutely right about that. You shouldn't. He and I agree on that. I know I shouldn't have shouted at you in the car, and I'm sorry for that. I still think you did the wrong thing, but I know you did what you did to protect me, and I am grateful to you. But the fact is, the immediate danger is gone now. I know you think you're protecting me by sticking around and that your father won't come for me if we're together, but I'm not so sure any more. I think maybe he's now more likely to come after me. After all, I've got his daughter. So, it's not just better for you that you go home, it's better for me too. What do you say?"

  "No."

  Given what a long and impassioned speech I had made, I felt like she could have said a little more than just no. "Why not?"

  "Because most of what you just said is a total crock."

  My temper flared again. I had tried to be diplomatic, but here was Corinne acting like a kid again. "Is that right?"

  "You're damn right, it's right!" She snapped. "We are safer sticking together. Both of us."

  "I'll take my chances. And while your dad may be angry, I think you'll come through it."

  "We're all that we have! I have you, and you have me. We're the only ones we can trust or turn to."

  I shook my head. "You have a family. A father, and a sister. And it's time you got back to them."

  Corinne's eyes narrowed, and she spoke with more venom than I would have imagined her capable of. "If I go home now, when my father is done yelling at me, then he will sit me down and interrogate me for every detail of your life. He'll want to know every little thing, and you know what? I'll probably tell him. Because everybody cracks, eventually, and because he's my dad, and whatever you think, I do care about him very much. And because you're being a dick, so why shouldn't I tell him every damn thing I know?!"

  I shrugged. "Then tell him. Sooner or later, some cop is going to catch up to me. Why not your dad? I had a good run. Thirteen years. But people in my profession don't retire. We end up behind bars, or on a mortician's slab. That's how it goes. Tell him."

  "What about Joseph? What about Fiona?"

  I stiffened at her words. "What about them?"

  "Do you think my dad knows their names? Knows how involved they are in your organization? I bet he thinks Fiona is just a bar owner who buys from you and pays protection, but we both know she's much more than that. He'll ask me. And I'll tell him."

  I'd never struck a woman in my life, and I reserved a special hatred for the men who did. But right at that moment, I was sorely tempted to slap Corinne right across her face for dragging my friends into this.

  "Are you threatening me?"

  "I'm telling you why we need to stick together."

  "You're telling me that you're going to throw good people under the bus, just so you can try to keep hold of me." I leaned in closer to her. "You think that's what I look for in a woman?"

  "I just don't want to lose you!" As she blurted the words out, the hard facade of her face cracked, and she burst into tears. I took her in my arms and comforted her. Corinne Dugas was such a damn fine liar and actress that it could be hard to tell when you were talking to the girl herself. I had already seen her play the sexy, bad-girl temptress, and now I had seen the hard-as-nails bitch. Neither of them represented the real girl. I wondered what other characters she had in her repertoire. I also wondered at what age, and for what reason, she had decided that playing a part was the best way to get what she wanted. Maybe she hadn't had an upbringing that compared to mine, but life with the sheriff must have had its challenges.

  "I'm sorry," she sobbed into my shirt.

  "Don't worry," I chided.

  "I wouldn't really have said anything about you. Or Fiona or Joseph. You believe me, don't you?"

  "Of course I do." And I did. I had already witnessed what this slightly crazy girl was willing to do for me, and how much she was willing to sacrifice. No way was she giving me up to Brian Dugas, or to anyone else for that matter. If the sheriff did 'interrogate' her (which I thought pretty unlikely), she was far more likely to just lie her ass off. That was, after all, what she did best.

  There was no couch in the little room, so I guided her to the bed and sat her down beside me as she continued to cling to me and cry. The initial outpouring had been more fear than anything else, but now that had subsided, and she cried softly and silently. Whichever way you looked at it, the girl had lost something tonight—a father, a family, the security she had taken for granted from the day she was born. Perhaps she had lost it knowingly, perhaps she had lost it for a reason, but that made it no less of a blow, and the reality of it was only now sinking in for her. What she was left with was me. Which, in my opinion, was a very sad state of affairs indeed, but it was one that she had consciously chosen. I was her choice. And to rob her of that choice, on a night when she had already lost so much, would be a very cruel thing to do, indeed.

  I sighed. I wanted so much to do what was best for Corinne, but, for one reason or another, I kept on failing. I could have left her alone after Dugas let me out of jail, but instead I sought her out. I could have laid down the law to her at our picnic, but ended up laying something else instead. I could pretend that I was always motivated by her best interests, but when you looked back through our recent history, it started to look a lot more like I was obsessed with her and kept coming up with excuses to spend time in her company (she had accused me of something along those lines earlier). And now, when she needed me most, when I was all she had in the world, I was trying to get rid of her. How could I do such a thing?

  But, then again, was I just using her obvious fragility and insecurity as another excuse to be with her? The feel of her small body nestled up to mine was suddenly foremost in my consciousness, and I became all too aware of her hands hugging me to her.

  What was my rationale for keeping her here? Why wasn't I sending her back to her father?

  The answers to those questions failed to appear, but I ignored that fact and decided to just believe that I was doing the best thing for Corinne. She could hardly be sent out alone in her current state. She needed to be with someone. Someone who loved her.

  Perhaps I was just using the situation as an excuse to keep her with me. But it was clearly what we both wanted. How could that be wrong?

  That question, I could answer. It was wrong because it could never be real. It could never last. It could be a night, a day, or even a week. But men like me and women like her ... No. I might have stronger feelings for her than any I had entertained for any woman I had ever known before, but those feelings could only go so far. I belonged to War Cry, to the road, to the life I had chosen.

  But it was amazing how little such things seemed to matter now. It was amazing how easy it was to forget them when Corinne stretched up to me, and her sweet lips brushed against mine.

  We dissolved into the kiss, holding each other as if we were, as she had said, all that we had in the world. I felt her small hands caressing my body, and was almost surprised to realize that mine were doing the same. As I touched her firm, feminine form, memories from earlier that night rose up hotly in my mind. Each part of her body seemed to recall a specific moment, which flared into brief clarity like a kindled flame, before being extinguished by the next. The smell of her mingled in my mind with recollections of her scent when we had lain together beside the lake. The taut curve of her backside brought back the sight of it as we had walked down from the cliff
top. The flat expanse of her belly reminded me of lowering my head to kiss her bellybutton and dip my tongue into it. The sensations of the night before assuaged and overwhelmed me, making the squalid little room vanish, replaced by the wide vistas of the cliff top with the waterfall below it.

  Despite the strenuous activity of that night, the memories caused a more physical reaction in me as well. Corinne's hand stole up along my thigh, and I did nothing to stop it. She moaned softly into my mouth as her hand reached its ultimate goal and squeezed hard, firing me up still further with potent desire for this woman. One by one she popped open the buttons of my pants, then reached within and drew me out, more than ready for her. Her hand wandered idly up and down my straining length, fingers playing me like an instrument, stroking and tugging without warning and without a plan, simply touching for its own sake.

  Between kisses, she murmured, half-drunk with desire. "I want to make you happy. Please let me make you happy."

  When she lowered her head, I was in no mood to stop her. I gasped as she took me into her hot little mouth, drawing on me hard, her hands still wrapped tightly about the base. As she started her work in earnest, I pulled off my jacket and T-shirt. There then began a strange and awkward back-and-forth tussle, as I tried to undress us both while she refused to release me from her lips. I wriggled back on the bed, and she followed me, sucking all the while. From here, I was able to reach her shoes, which I removed before tossing them across the room. Then I groped beneath her to undo her pants, before scooting them down her legs and taking her underwear with them, leaving her bottom half adorably bare. I stroked the cheeks of her bottom, and she gave me a playful bite, which I answered with a playful smack.

  Reaching over her bobbing head, I was able to get my own shoes off and, with bit more struggling and shifting of positions, my own pants and underwear finally joined our other clothes on the floor by the bed. Corinne's top proved the most problematic, as it had to come off over her head and, currently, that head was fully occupied, welded to me. Finally, with much coaxing, I got her to relinquish her insatiable grip for just long enough for me to tug the offending garment off. She immediately descended once more, taking me back into her ravenous mouth.

  I settled back on the bed, reveling in the sensations boiling up from below. There was an intensity in Corinne's actions now. The light-hearted fun and experimentation of the night before was gone, to be replaced with a laser-like focus on the task in hand, the task of pleasuring me. I realized that she was trying to win me, to possess me, as if she thought that, if she sucked hard enough and well enough, then she could bring me into her life.

  Perhaps it was heartless of me to let her continue when I knew that there was no hope of such an outcome. Perhaps it would have been heartless of me to stop her doing something that was making her so happy, or to snatch away the fantasy to which she was currently clinging. Perhaps part of me needed to believe in that fantasy too, if only for a while. Or, perhaps, I was just too selfish to urge her to stop the wonderful things she was doing to me.

  I tried to put all such concerns to one side and live in the moment, relaxing back against the pillows, staring at the ceiling, and feeling nothing but Corinne's mouth. She was taking me closer and closer to the point of no return, a dangerous position to be in when I still had to make love to her. With another woman, I might have given up and gone off in her mouth, or pulled out then. But with Corinne, it was different. No matter how close she took me, I knew I would have the strength to make her happy. For her, I would always find it.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Corinne

  The trouble was, he was right. About it all. About me, about Dad, about him. I thoughtI did the right thing back in town when I let Dad see me. It was the only thing I could think of to save Asa, and I was never going to regret that. But now, the best thing to do would be for me to go home and for him to vanish. Dad would forgive me with time, and forget about Asa as soon as the next group of hoodlums came to town.

  And Asa? Well, whatever he said about not being able to leave War Cry, or about his enemies tracking him down, he could probably start fresh somewhere. Maybe he'd even have a shot at a normal life.

  But probably not. A man like Asa could only be what he was, even if he didn’t like it.

  Still, staying here with me, or going anywhere else with me, wasn't going to change that. Perhaps Dad would be a bit more cautious about picking Asa up while I was around, but he sure as hell wouldn't give up as long as I was with Asa. While his daughter was with an outlaw biker, he would stop at nothing to track that biker down. I was only making things worse for the man I loved by sticking around.

  And, yet, I couldn't let him go.

  It was selfish and also self-destructive. But right now, just the idea of not touching him was more than I could stand, let alone actually letting him out of my life. I couldn't have borne it.

  So, I kept him with me the only way I knew how. I knew that sex was a stop-gap solution. It wouldn't work forever, but every moment I kept Asa with me was a good one. Every extra second of his company I gleaned was worthwhile. Besides, my desire for him was as powerful now as it had been on the cliff over the waterfall. I needed him, I wanted him, and I had to have him. I had to have him hold me, love me, and make the cruel, unfair world vanish into hot ecstasy, where nothing mattered but each other.

  Perhaps if I was good enough, I could make it last forever, and we could be here together until the end of time, locked in perpetual, unending orgasm. It was a long shot, but it had to be worth a try.

  The taste of him in my mouth suffused my senses. He pulsed against my tongue, and a ripple of pleasure seared through me. I let my hands run across his naked body, wanting to know every square inch of him, to touch the curve of every muscle, explore each crease, and to tantalize his skin until he could barely stand it. I wanted to do this forever, but, at the same time, my need for more was growing and bubbling within me. The point was fast approaching when I had to have him inside me or die.

  From the top of the bed, I heard him grunt slightly as my active tongue teased a particularly sensitive area. His perfect body stirred, caught between desire and discomfort, and I knew that the time had come. He couldn't take much more, and I couldn't wait any longer.

  Finally, and still a little reluctantly, I let the tremendous barrel of his organ slip from my mouth, and he gasped in relief. I crawled up him, kissing here and there at his firm, hard body, nipping the skin with my teeth. Reaching his face, I kissed him, and his hand locked at the back my head, drawing me deeper into a long, hard kiss.

  His hands, surprisingly inactive to this point, now stroked across my skin, lighting fresh fires wherever they landed, so exciting was his touch to me. I stretched out on top of him, feeling his heated member squeezed between our bellies, still wet with my saliva, writhing like a living thing. It was a pleasant sensation, but there were more pleasant places for that beautiful thing to be.

  Asa began to turn me over onto my back, but I stopped him.

  "No. Let me."

  He complied, allowing me to take the lead, perhaps aware that I was eager to master him, to keep him as my pet.

  As we continued to kiss, I scooted my knees forward to straddle him. I reached back, lifting my hips slightly so I could grasp his throbbing weapon and pull it roughly back, making him moan into my mouth. I raised my hips further, positioning myself, and then ...

  "Oh ..." In one, long, unctuous slide, I descended, taking his full length into me in one gulp and grinding my hips against him at the base, savoring the sensation and making sure I had every last inch. I began to move against him, remembering all he had taught me the night before, but also letting my instincts guide me, allowing myself to go where the needs of my body beckoned.

  Asa's hands slid up my thighs, and I caught them halfway, pushing them off of me and meshing my fingers with his, clasping his hands tightly till my knuckles were white. Strangely, I didn't want him to touch me. His touch steered me, contr
olled me, and this time I wanted to be the one running things. For now, he was mine, to do with as I pleased. It was in my power to give him pleasure, or make him wait. Things would move at my pace. I was in charge.

  I planted my hands firmly on his sculpted abs and leaned forward, rubbing myself against his hard rod. I still moved slowly, but with an intensity that seemed perfectly suited to the situation. I bore down on him, my whole being focused on the junction between us, the hot little notch where two became one. The sensations were sharper than ever before, lancing up through me with a diamond edge, searing my nerves like the flame of a blowtorch. All that impossible pressure, heat, sensation, and pleasure was focused in such a concentrated area. I was ready to burst into tears with the tightness of it. Looking at Asa's face, I could see he was feeling it too, his face contorted in an exquisite combination of pain and pleasure, a tortured ecstasy. He struggled to keep control and stay with me as I rode on, slowly but fiercely, driving his body to places no other woman could take it, because no other woman had this connection with him. It was a place reserved for lovers.