The Warrior In Me

by Anita Philmar

  He didn’t argue. Instead, he sucked her luscious flesh into his mouth. He wrapped his tongue around the hardened point. With his free hand, he curled his fingers around her other breast, testing the weight and kneading the fullness.

  “Yes,” she cried and released a few soft moans. Her hands shifted to cup his head. Holding him in place, she tunneled her fingers through his wet hair and begged for more.

  Not willing to disappoint, he chose not to show favoritism. He popped his mouth off one nipple and seized the other. The stiff tip stabbed at his tongue. He caught it with his teeth, nibbled, and tugged none too gently on the sensual treat.

  A burning desire rushed along her nerve endings, and she bucked against him. Her fingertips slid along his arm, pushing and shoving his hand down the length of her body. The string on her bikini bottoms tickled his palm. He trapped the cord and jerked it free from her hips. The smooth silk of her thigh led to the heavenly heat between her legs.

  He played with the soft folds of her pussy, wanting her so primed and ready she’d have no doubt as to his claim on her. With that mission in mind, he eased one long finger into her inviting heat. The water and her moisture made for an easy slip in and a slick slide out. He added another finger and ventured deeper, luring her to follow his rhythm.

  “Please, Sebastian, I want you.” Her hoarse rasp told him she was close to the edge.

  He lifted his head and met her gaze, her pupils dilating with each thrust of his fingers. The temptation to take her over the rapacious edge encouraged him to increase the pace. He used the friction to draw out her bliss. He’d planned to take it slow and connect with her on an emotional as well as the physical level but the play of ecstasy on her face robbed him of his resolve. This woman touched something deep inside him that no other woman ever had.

  A predatory urge to conquer the heart of this woman and mark her as his consumed him. Withdrawing his fingers, he shifted his hold, aligning his stiff cock to her hot center. The greedy tip nudged past the soft folds and dipped into the welcoming haven.

  She groaned and sank inch by heavenly inch over him. Like a velvety glove, her inner walls caressed him, cocooning him in her warmth.

  A hunger burned through his veins. He gritted his teeth, knowing he wouldn’t last long. She had him. Although, she might not know it, she’d taken control of his future, his happiness, and become the center of his universe.

  “Now,” he bit out and followed the dictate of his caveman ancestors. Fingers biting into her ass, he lifted her for a split second and slammed her back down to meet his powerful plunge.

  Lily couldn’t hold back the scream bursting from her lips. The hard pounding of his thick cock stretched her wide and drove her wild. She bounced over his steely girth, gasping for breath and sending waves across the pool.

  Water lapped between them, teasing her breasts. The over-sensitized tips played against his chest. The arousing combination, along with his rhythmic assault, overwhelmed her senses. Pleasure, pain, she couldn’t decide, didn’t care. All that mattered was having him inside her, driving deep, touching the very core of her womb.

  She used her legs to hold herself in place as he hammered harder and deeper. Before she met him, she thought she’d understood what sex was like. He showed her she hadn’t had a clue. Emotions she never believed herself capable of feeling raced like fine wine through her blood. Drunk on all his bountiful offerings, she asked herself if she could survive without him. He fed a hunger that left her aching for more and drove her to heights she’d never imagined.

  He tightened his grasp on her ass and increased the pace. The tension inside increased. Low whimpers echoed around her. She knew she was making a needy noise, but she couldn’t stop.

  Shoving one hand between their bodies, he placed his fingertip over her clit. Lights exploded behind her eyelids. Her climax hit, and her world dissolved into a pulsating eruption of sensual bliss. Her body fought to keep him deep inside, but he didn’t listen.

  Bending his knees for leverage, he plowed high and hard and poured himself into her with hot spurts.

  She melted against him. Her legs floated out from around his waist, her lungs labored to draw air, and she would’ve sunk beneath the water if he hadn’t maintained his grip.

  After a long moment, Sebastian stirred. She couldn’t believe he had any energy left. She certainly didn’t. “Do you still want me to sleep in the bedroom next to yours?”

  She wondered briefly if he expected a repeat of what just happened once they reached her bed. “And if I say yes, what happens then?”

  Holding her close, he waded through the water. When her feet hit the steps, he made sure she regained her footing and helped her exit the pool. With his hands still around her waist, he drew her up onto the deck. “Then I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse.”

  Working to take back command of her body, she straightened her shoulders and lifted her hands from his chest. “And that is?”

  He smiled and moved so quickly she didn’t have a chance to respond. One second, her feet were on the ground. The next, he’d swept her into his arms and was walking toward the house. “I’ll give you a ride you won’t forget.”

  She automatically slid her arms around his neck and stared at the circular curve of his ear. Did she hear him correctly? “Ride?”

  “Yes, or do you think you can make it up to your room without me?” He stepped through the patio door, flipped the lock, and secured it before he strolled across the living room.

  The light in the hallway blinded her for a moment, and she closed her eyes against the glare. Not exactly sure how to respond, she reviewed the time she’d spent with him. When she arrived at his house in Alaska, she’d been tired and angry, upset by the unplanned change in her schedule. Then he shocked her with the news of Cain’s murder. His tantalizing touch tempted her, and she’d considered having an affair with him.

  The tipping point occurred after he told her Mark had a heart attack. Suddenly, set adrift in a lonely world, she’d needed the reassurance of having a warm body next to her. Hell, she should have known better. His lovemaking before the call from Rex had fried a few brain cells. Afterward, he stirred her emotions to the point she still didn’t know which way was up.

  Drawing a fortifying breath, she opened her eyes and stared at the hard line of his jaw. “I can see how I might have given you the impression of being needy, but we met under extenuating circumstances. I’m usually very—”

  He dropped her with a thud in the center of her unmade bed. She blinked and barely managed to catch her breath before he landed on top of her. His lips touched her shoulder, and he nuzzled his face into the crook of her neck. “Baby, I’m not going anywhere so don’t even waste your breath.”

  Suddenly too tired to argue, she gave up the fight and tangled her legs with his. The shift of her hips provided the opportunity for his still half-erect cock to slip between her legs.

  He moaned and whispered sleepily, “Tomorrow.”

  Unable to move, she decided she like the sensation of having him so close. Her final thought before she drifted off to sleep was that they’d finally come to a conclusion. What that conclusion was, she couldn’t define, but tomorrow…

  ****

  Jolted awake by a fist landing in the middle of his chest, Sebastian forced open his eyelids and stared at an unfamiliar ceiling. Having woken in a number of different hotel rooms across the nation, he didn’t let the sight bother him. The light shining in from outside lit the room in a soft glow almost as if it were dawn. Still, the cream walls and queen-size bed didn’t help him determine what city he might be in.

  Then the bed shifted. Soft knuckles unfolded until delicate fingers spread wide over his sternum. With a provocative caress, they slid lower, gliding effortlessly over his stomach.

  He grabbed the hand and stopped its progress. Memories from the prior night hit at the same time as a knee wrangled its way between his legs. He shifted his weight and rolled on top of Lily.
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  Locking his gaze immediately onto her face, he studied her confused expression. “Did you want to be on top?”

  She jerked, as if startled from sleep, and her eyelids fluttered. A bewildered smile touched her lips. She clutched his waist. “What are you doing?”

  He grinned and eased his weight onto his elbows. “Hey, you’re the one who woke me.”

  Closing her eyes, she rocked her head slightly on her pillow. “No, I was dreaming I…”

  Her sharp nails dug into his skin, alerting him she hadn’t been having a sexual fantasy. Instead, goosebumps shimmered over her skin. She bit nervously at her lower lip, and her body stiffened beneath his.

  “What were you dreaming about?” He brushed a few stray strands of hair off her forehead, trying his best to reassure her.

  “Nothing important. Just working through some old issues.” She rubbed her hands over his back and sighed. “It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m awake now.”

  “Is it a reoccurring nightmare?”

  She frowned and gripped his shoulders. “No, it was reality at one time, but I refuse to let anything like that happen again.”

  Sebastian remembered the data he’d gathered on her. Rex had even commented on her time in a hospital. Her depression had escalated to the point the doctors had prescribed drugs to help her. She’d even managed to hide the pain for a while, but she’d built up a resistance to one drug so they had tried another. The combination had played havoc with her system, and she’d temporarily lost it.

  Of course, once the medicine had worked its way through her body, she recovered. The problem apparently lay in forgetting the incident. “You’re talking about your stay in the hospital after your parents died, aren’t you?”

  Her nails curled into his flesh before she worked her hands up between them. Shoving at him to move, she wriggled and bucked beneath him to break free. “Let me up. I don’t need your assessment of me. Just call me crazy and leave.”

  Not budging, he caught one hand, then the other and pushed them over her head. He held them in place and stared into her angry gaze. “I’m not going anywhere. The only reason you spent time in a psych ward was because they had you on two different meds to ease your depression.”

  She blinked in surprise and moaned. “Then you’ve read my medical records. All the things I said and did?”

  “Yes.”

  Her eyes widened in disbelief. “And even after reading those reports, you don’t think I’m crazy?”

  He nudged her wrists together and held them in one hand. The change in position provided him the opportunity to explore. He eased his fingers over her arm and cupped her breast. Dropping his head, he kissed the hollow at the base of her neck, worked his way over the length, and nuzzled her ear. The slight scent of chlorine still clung to her skin, but underneath she had the sweet, delectable fragrance of a desirable woman.

  With her lying naked and warm beneath him, his thoughts shifted from the horrors of her past. They weren’t an issue anymore because she had him now. He’d help her through Mark’s death and find his killer.

  “Sweetheart, I know you’re crazy about me.” He gripped her thigh and tugged her leg to one side. The opening provided him access to her pussy. He cupped her warm mound. His fingertips brushed through her curls and parted her delicate folds. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.”

  Chapter Eleven

  His possessive tone washed away the horrors of her nightmare. Lily let go of the last lingering twinges of fear and stared at the man above. He had the same look he had earlier when they were in the pool—a mixture of lust and desire cemented together with an ironclad determination to do as he pleased.

  Luckily, what made him happy set her on fire.

  Still, she needed to get a handle on exactly what Sebastian expected from her. With Mark’s death and all the responsibilities she’d be expected to take on, her life would no longer be her own. “I appreciate you looking after me, but well…”

  Memories of the time they’d spent apart today hit her. She’d wanted him to give her some breathing room so she’d have a chance to cope. Instead, the minute she had a moment alone after returning from the funeral home with Zane, her mind had jumped immediately to Sebastian. Wicked thoughts of how much she wanted to live out every fantasy with him plagued her.

  Her body aroused, she had no choice but to take matters into her own hands. She’d made it through dinner with Violet and Zane, had even assured them she’d be fine until Sebastian returned.

  What a joke. The only reason she’d chosen to go for a swim was too cool down and work off some excess sexual energy. She smiled, recalling the pleasure of making love to him in the pool.

  He dipped one finger inside her moist center and slipped deeper, caressing the already tender walls. “That smile makes me wonder what you’re thinking.”

  She bit back a moan, trying her best, not to beg and debated if she had the strength to say what she wanted to say. Her past would forever affect her future if he didn’t completely comprehend what happened when her parents died. She shifted restlessly determined to make him understand before she ventured any further into a relationship with him. “I know it’s probably against some rule for us to continue sleeping together. But if we are, I want to ask a favor.”

  “And that is?” Staring into her face, he slipped a finger over her sensitive clit. The light pressure had her hands knotting into fists.

  “I’d like it if you’d let me up.”

  He toyed with her and slid a finger into her pussy. Then he retreated and flicked a nail over the small nub. “Why?”

  She worked to draw in a breath and tugged her hands free from his grip. “I need to explain—”

  He gently brushed his fingers over her cheek. “You don’t have to do this. I know you went through hell and you’re stronger for it now.”

  “That’s not true.” She sat up the minute he rolled to one side and gasped in a few quick gulps of air. After flipping on the lamp next to the bed, she opened the nightstand’s drawer and withdrew the box of condoms. She’d stashed it there after her divorce but until tonight hadn’t had an opportunity to use any. “The next time we make love, we need to remember to use these.”

  “Why? You’re on birth control.”

  “How do you know?” She fought down the dread bubbling up inside her. What else did he know about her?

  “They’re sitting on the counter in the bathroom.” He ran a calming stroke over her back helping ease some of her anxiety. Still, his touch did more than just quiet her fears. Other more basic needs sped through her body, like a hunger to be in his arms and have him buried deep. She enjoyed the special way they connected and found sexual bliss.

  Mulishly fighting the lust pooling between her legs, she made the decision to tell him about her past. Then if he was still interested, they could work on a future together. She rolled to her feet and scrambled to her dresser to pull out a nightshirt from the top left-hand drawer.

  “You don’t need that.” The teasing tone reminded her once the conversation was over she’d return to bed. Hopefully, after she finished what she had to say, he’d still be willing to sleep with her.

  Slipping the shirt over her head, she shoved it down over her hips and turned. “Maybe, but for you to truly understand me, you need to understand what I went through after my parents died.”

  Dreading how he might respond, she relived the misery she’d endured at the time, the horror of facing the future without any family and the complete desolation of being totally alone. “I wanted to die. That’s why they had me in the psych ward. They had me on suicide watch.”

  He sat up and shoved her pillow behind his back. “Wasn’t the problem also amplified by the mixture of drugs?”

  “I’m not sure if that had anything to do with it or not. All I know is I felt as if my life had ended. I had no one. Without my parents, I became an orphan and suddenly had the responsibility of settling their estate. I had also just finished college
and was at a crossroad.” Lily ran her hands through her hair, pulling the tangled mess away from her face. Fears sizzled through her, bringing to life the old pain and terror. “I wanted nothing more than to die.”

  The image of Mark standing beside her hospital bed flashed through her head, his smile, the soft reassurance in his voice, and his soothing touch. “Mark was my lifeline. He stepped in and helped me. He became almost like a surrogate father, but so much more. I loved him in ways that I’ll never love another man.”

  Lowering her chin, she wiped at the tears leaking onto her cheeks. Mark had shown her how to release her emotions by crying, yelling, or simply being. As a child protégé, she’d only seen intelligence and reason as a means to communicate. Emotions were secondary, unimportant, and only for people with small minds.

  She shook her head. How naïve.

  “I’m not trying to take Mark’s place.” Sebastian’s comment filtered through her senses.

  The two men were nothing alike. However, each had somehow gotten to her, one through intelligence and the other through his physical caress. “That’s the problem. In some ways, you already have. I long to do things with you that I never even considered doing with him.”

  A smile bloomed on his face. He rubbed a hand across his chest, drawing her attention to the dark curls running over the wide expanse. The flat plane of his stomach led to thick thighs. The solid girth of his erection had her fighting back the need to touch.

  He teased her by stroking the appendage. “Now we’re getting to the good stuff. What exactly did you have in mind?”

  A nervous laugh broke from her lips. “Were you not listening? I just told you I’m already attached. If we continue having sex, I’ll just become more involved. You don’t want that.”

  “Why not?” He waved her to the bed.

  Unable to come up with a feasible argument, she shuffled forward. The minute she drifted within reach, he captured her hand.