Romeo

by Gail Faulkner

  “Oh, God, you can move? Don’t move! Where does it hurt? Is it your back, your neck? Don’t move!” he commanded again as she attempted to roll over and look at him.

  “Why not? I need to get out of here,” Lauren stated belligerently. “That damn beast wants to kill me. Getting on the other side of the fence seems like a really good idea to me.”

  “He could have seriously injured you. We have to be careful moving you. Now tell me where it hurts! Please, Lauren, don’t move,” he begged her desperately.

  The panic in his voice made Lauren twist her head around to look at him. The Romeo kneeling beside her was a pale, tortured man. It was an emotion she recognized immediately. She’d seen that face leaning over her hospital bed on countless occasions—she’d seen it as they wheeled her into surgery. She was tired of that face.

  “I’m just bruised from the fall. The devil beast didn’t manage to actually trample me. It got me once on the thigh, which hurts like hell, but I doubt it’s a fatal injury. Now help me up. I think I’m lying in poop or something. It smells like poop down here.” Lauren started to push herself up. Strong hands stopped her and pressed her back down in the dirt.

  “You’re sure? We can fly straight to the hospital. But it’s so important not to injure you further. If it’s an internal injury we may not know right away,” he insisted.

  “Romeo! Let me up!” she demanded. “I told you I’m fine! Stop with all the commanding shit and let me get out of here.”

  “Okay, okay, but go slowly. It’s better to be sure,” he insisted.

  As Lauren rolled over, she found herself looking up into a ring of faces. Romeo on his knees beside her was running a clinical hand over her body while every one of the cousins gathered around. Lauren frowned fiercely at all the attention and the stricken look on everyone’s face.

  “If all of you are staring at me, who is keeping the wild beasts away?” she demanded.

  For the first time Romeo glanced up and realized they were all there. “Put the horses away,” he barked. His low voice held lethal command. Everyone jumped into action immediately. Looking back down at Lauren, he sighed deeply. Her shirt was ripped at the shoulder and several scratches could be seen on the back of her shoulder and upper arm, her face and hair were covered in dirt, but she seemed whole otherwise.

  He slid his arms under her and lifted her to his chest as he stood up and headed for the gate. Over his shoulder, he issued orders in terse statements. Lauren felt the immense body carrying her shudder as he lifted her and knew it certainly wasn’t the strain of her weight that bothered the big lug. He was feeling a reaction to fear. Somehow, she always seemed to make big men feel helpless when something happened to her. She knew she wasn’t as delicate and fragile as they liked to think she was, but the look on his face had told her he’d thought the worst when he saw her hit the ground. Her arms slid around his neck and her head came to rest on the broad shoulder beneath it. One hand crept into his hair to massage his scalp while the other patted his back. She always felt sorry for them when she saw that look.

  “It’s okay,” she whispered to him, trying to ease his burden. “I’m not really hurt.”

  Striding away from the confusion in the corral, he whispered back to her, “Well, I’m not okay. You scared the goddamn life out of me, baby. Don’t do it again!” The sight of her being trampled was burned into his brain with ghastly clarity. He’d almost lost her before she even knew him. Losing another person was unacceptable. Losing her would be an event he couldn’t survive. Never mind they’d shared less than an hour’s acquaintance. She might not know it yet but she was his woman.

  The simple fact that her shirt was torn and he could see blood on her body was intolerable on a cellular level. The unexpected shock of watching her fall shook him to his core.

  “It wasn’t my fault, Romeo,” she murmured defensively, mistaking the stark terror in his tone for reprimand. “It’s those beasts. They went crazy.”

  “It’s Steven’s fault,” he informed her. “He had no business taking that animal out! Of course, all of them were behaving like irresponsible imbeciles again. You’ve never been on a horse before, have you?”

  “Well, no. It seemed like a good idea until I got right next to one. They are much bigger than they look on TV,” Lauren commented seriously.

  Romeo barked out a laugh at that. They entered his private apartment. He carried her through his bedroom to the bathroom. Sitting her down carefully on the vanity, he started unbuttoning her shirt.

  “What are you doing?” Lauren demanded.

  “Undressing you. We have to treat the scratches on your shoulder and you need a shower before we do. It’ll help wash out the wound and you smell like poop anyway,” he teased softly, trying to appear harmless and altruistic.

  Romeo’s need to possess would not allow him to let her out of his sight to take care of the injuries. He knew this level of intimacy was neither normal nor called for, but it was unthinkable to do anything other than see to every one of her needs himself.

  “No.” Her hands came up to cover his and stop the action.

  “Look, baby. You’ve got to take care of those scratches right away. I know you want a shower so why not take it now?” he argued gently.

  “I’m not undressing in front of you, Romeo. Let me go to my room and I’ll take care of it myself,” she stated calmly.

  “Aw, don’t worry, Lauren. I’ve seen a woman before. There is no need to be embarrassed, honey. Now let’s get this done. You’ll feel better afterwards,” he insisted.

  “I said no, Romeo. Are you going to force me?” she asked quietly.

  “No! Good God! Why would you even think that? I just want to be sure you’re all right.” His concerned eyes searched her face. Something else was going on here. The way she looked at him was old. Way too old for the twenty-three he knew her to be. It wasn’t embarrassment on her face, it was—armor. Her face was a mask he couldn’t see behind.

  “What’s going on, Lauren?” he asked quietly. “Why is undressing a hot spot for you? Did someone hurt you? Did something bad happen?” His serious face turned hard and a deep flush swept over it. “You can tell me, sweetheart. It’s okay. We’ll just deal with that, too.”

  “No, nothing like you’re thinking happened,” Lauren quickly responded to his tight look and shuttered eyes. It didn’t consciously occur to her that they were reading each other on an intimate level. She simply knew exactly what his dark mind had come up with. “But I’ve spent a lot of time in hospitals. People treat you like a piece of meat in there. They undress you and bend over you in groups examining you. They discuss you and forget to pull the sheet back up. Sometimes you can’t do it for yourself. It’s all done ‘for your own good’,” she explained in a tight voice. “I am not going to be the only naked person in the room ever again. If you want to undress me, you’d damn well better get naked first.”

  He smiled. Already knowing her history, the problem became crystal clear. “Sure, I can do that.”

  Chapter Two

  His clothes hit the floor in an amazingly short time. Suddenly straightening before her was a gloriously naked man. Her eyes traveled over his wide, muscled chest, the torso below undulated with ridges leading her to narrow hips and the fascinating equipment between them. She’d never actually seen a naked man before. Pictures and movies did not prepare her for the reality.

  Her gaze centered on the heavy erection and she couldn’t look away. He stepped up to her again and returned to unbuttoning her shirt. She sat there dumbly and just stared at him. Her shirt and bra disappeared and he took a moment to look at the line down the center of her chest. It hurt him just to see it. He didn’t worry she’d notice him examining it. She still hadn’t lifted her eyes from his cock.

  “Never seen one of those before?” he asked quietly as he lifted her slightly to slide jeans and panties down over her butt.

  “Not in person,” she admitted. “Does it hurt?”

  He frow
ned as he squatted to remove her boots and slide the pants off. “No, why would you think that?”

  “It’s sort of red and swollen. It looks like it hurts,” Lauren stated as he stood up. She looked into his face. “It also looks much too big to fit where it’s supposed to. Are you bigger than most guys are? Because if that’s normal, I’m not sorry I’ve said no anymore.”

  In the back of her mind Lauren knew getting naked with a virtual stranger should have been utterly shocking. Something about this man and his need to take complete control of her care made it feel natural. His gentle tone of voice and competent, matter-of-fact handling hushed the panicking virgin. After his clothes hit the tile floor, it had been impossible to think about anything else. Apparently, in the right circumstances she was a brazen hussy, the virgin within sniffed in distain.

  “Lean over, baby, I need to see the bruise on the back of your thigh,” he directed as his big hands helped her sit on one hip so she leaned to the side and he could look at the back of her leg. The large red mark was already beginning to darken. A deep, ugly bruise would quickly appear.

  “It fits, sweetheart,” he answered her question as seriously as she’d asked it. “I don’t know what most guys have. Don’t make a habit of looking,” he stated casually as he lifted her off the vanity and moved them over to the big shower. He adjusted the temperature and stepped in with her. Gently placing her under the water, he carefully rinsed the dirt and grime out of her hair and off her body, paying special attention to the abrasions on her shoulder. Shifting her out of the water again, he grabbed the shampoo and started massaging her hair, carefully keeping the soap from the cuts.

  “I’m glad you’ve said no, too. A little thing like you requires special care, honey. A man has to prepare you really well before it’d be a pleasurable experience for you. If you let the wrong guy touch you, you’d be scared for life.” He rinsed her hair and soaped up a washcloth. She let him bathe her with an absentminded acceptance. Her eyes were still glued to the stiff, red-knobbed cock and heavy balls below it. He gingerly patted the scrapes on her shoulder and she barely winced. That small pain made almost no impression on her. He supposed it wouldn’t after what she’d been through.

  The conversation, her wide-eyed innocence and his overwhelming sense of possession drove him hard. She’d given him nothing but acceptance once his clothes came off and the gift of her trust sang through his soul. Touching her intimately became a necessity. He hadn’t meant to do it now, but the need to show her how precious she was to him wouldn’t let him stop.

  Romeo put down the washcloth and soaped his hands. “Now I’m going to wash between your legs, honey. This is how a guy should touch you.”

  Wide eyes shot up to his. “You are? Ah…I…um…”

  His soapy hands slid down her body from both sides as he stood to her side, her uninjured shoulder pressed into his chest. The position gave him complete access to every curve and crevice. Callused fingers separated her bottom and moved down the crack. They almost distracted her from the hand in front ‘til he glided fingers over plump folds, pressing up to insert them into the deep grooves. Gently he rubbed her sweet cunt and rimmed the rosebud ass behind her.

  “Oh,” Lauren moaned. “That feels so good.” She sounded surprised.

  “It’s supposed to, now relax and let me show you how good it can be.” Knowing fingers found her clit and stroked over it gently. Slowly he added pressure to the bundle of sensitive nerves. Behind her, his middle finger slid into her ass shallowly, working in and out with gentle thrusts.

  Lauren felt dazed and awash with entirely new sensations. Letting Romeo touch her like this wasn’t the hardship people who knew her might think it was. Being an Ice Queen was a defense mechanism for a helpless little girl trapped in a hospital bed. It protected her from the ones who worked the white corridors only for a paycheck. It shielded her when the ones who really cared moved on to a new floor and another job. She’d spent formative years hiding behind it. Now it was a habit.

  Besides, she reasoned to herself, if you were offered the opportunity to learn from the best, who wouldn’t? According to Carla, Romeo had a vast amount of experience and the women involved seemed happy about it. It was embarrassing to be a virgin at twenty-three. This was the perfect chance to change that.

  Lauren clutched his thick forearm in front of her as heat spread through her body. It burned in a tingling rush up her legs as the fire in cunt and ass intensified. Dazed eyes turned up to Romeo and he dipped down to claim soft lips. Unable to be gentle with his kiss, he plunged into her depths with the hard push he needed so desperately elsewhere. His hands remained tender and patient, insistently guiding her into passion’s inferno.

  The luscious little body in his arms started to tremble and he increased the pressure on her clit and thrust deeper into her tight ass. She exploded, jerking and thrusting on his hands as he swallowed her moan of release and kept eating her mouth. His fingers manipulated her unrelentingly—thrusting into her bottom while two rough digits gripped her slippery clit and pinched down, shooting a new fireball up her body.

  Lauren screamed and collapsed against him, no longer able to support her own weight as her body came a second time before the first was complete. As the trembling subsided, he lifted his mouth and smiled down at the panting woman in his arms while his fingers still petted both cunt and ass.

  “Oh, Lord, that was an orgasm, wasn’t it?” she gasped.

  “That was two orgasms, baby,” he corrected proudly. His hands reluctantly moved up her body. The one in front drifted to her breasts to stroke and cup dainty mounds. His thumb rubbed over her nipple firmly and she shuddered. “Those can’t be your first?” he questioned softly.

  Lauren laughed shakily. “First ones like that. Stop,” Lauren sighed. “That feels way too good already. I can’t do that again so soon.”

  “Yeah, you can,” he growled with a smile in his voice. “But we need to get out and dress your scrapes first.”

  “No. What about you?” Lauren asked, recovering swiftly as she turned to face him. “You need a shower, too. I get to touch everything you got to touch. That’s our deal.”

  Romeo grinned at her earnest face. “I love the rules. I’m all yours.”

  Lauren had to stand on tiptoes to reach the tops of his shoulders so he picked her up and held her against his body as little hands smoothed over him. Sweet mother of God, this was torture, he decided. A breathtaking torture he’d be willing to endure for the next sixty years or so.

  “Hand me the shampoo,” she directed—he complied. Washing his hair while suspended off the floor was tough. Especially when he kept trying to nibble on her neck, her nose, her ear, anything he could reach. Lauren wrapped her legs around his waist for leverage so she could lean back.

  Romeo groaned and dropped his head to her shoulder, just where she needed it to get the back. Suddenly she became aware that the big red part of him was positioned at the narrow pink part of her. Lauren froze. Romeo chuckled softly into her neck.

  “Don’t worry, baby. You’re not ready for that yet. Are you done with my hair, because I can’t take much more of this.” His hips moved shallowly and the bulb of his cock caressed the damp folds of her pussy.

  “How do you know I’m not ready?” she panted.

  “I know because I haven’t tasted you yet. You are done with the hair,” he decided for her and let her slide down his body. Her hands immediately went to work on the rest of him. Apparently, she could be easily distracted with a hard body. Except those busy hands eventually found their way down to the throbbing erection and tight balls she couldn’t stop looking at.

  She tried not to hurt him while exploring his long shaft with gentle, soapy hands. She didn’t quite believe something so swollen, throbbing and reddened was not hurting him. He groaned in a deep rumbling sound as soon as she touched him. When his hips jerked, her worried eyes went to his face. It was set in a grimace.

  “Oh, sorry. Did I hurt you?” Laur
en immediately let go. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

  “Lauren, touch me. Keep touching me. It doesn’t hurt.” Romeo growled as his hands took hers and brought them back to his shaft. “I like it, baby. This is not pain on my face and when my body jerks it’s because I like it even more.”

  Worriedly she looked down as he wrapped both her hands around his thick erection and then let go of her. “Show me what to do, Romeo?” she asked.

  “Do whatever you want, Lauren. I like it,” he breathed.

  “Just show me! I don’t know how to please you. I’m afraid I’ll hurt you or something,” Lauren demanded.

  His hands came back to hers and closed around them to tighten the grip, he moved them up and down. “Like this, oh, yeah, nice and tight. Now on the up stroke run your thumb over the head. That’s it. Do it a little bit harder. Yeah, just like that, don’t stop.” He panted, his eyes were closed and his body thrust into her fists with each stroke.

  While Lauren watched in fascination, the erection in her hands expanded even more as the head turned an angry-looking red. Each time her thumb swept over the bulging head, she found a silky substance she wished she had time to investigate. His body was thrusting, every muscle clenched and defined. His massive thighs propelled each plunge and he groaned deeply. She saw his flat abdomen tremble and he gasped, “I’m going to come.”

  White ropes of hot liquid shot out of his cock up over her breasts and stomach. Romeo grabbed her and hugged her against him in a fierce hold as his body continued to shudder and rub in powerful thrusts. He barked out an exclamation that wasn’t a word and gulped in air harshly. It looked like a pain reaction to her. But he’d said it didn’t hurt so she kept caressing him.

  “Enough,” he gasped. “Stop.”

  Her hands stilled, his head dropped down to rest his cheek against the crown of her head. He held her tightly as her hands now caressed his ass in an attempt to soothe him.