Stranger Mine: a Base Branch novel

by Megan Mitcham

  A sheen of sweat broke over his body. Without a word, Ryan straightened then retrieved the roll of gauze from the first aid kit on the nightstand. Her gaze followed, but not out of obedience. The whites of her eyes were too prominent. As was the unconscious gape of her pretty mouth.

  “Your hand,” he demanded with his own extended toward her injured one.

  Head resting on the bed and her golden-fire hair strewn about, she offered her hand palm-up without hesitation. Ryan held the end of the gauze in the center and looped the two-inch wide strip twice. He closed her fingers into a fist, sat it on the cover then looped and knotted the other end to the wooden leg of the bed. With his teeth he tore the cotton, then repeated the ritual on her other hand.

  He set the roll on Piper’s torso, an inch below her bellybutton. Dragging the spool along her skin, he stopped just before her tuft-covered mons. Ryan stepped back and gawked at the beauty of her surrender. His hand rubbed over the stubble covering his chin.

  “The most exquisite thing I’ve ever seen. Whatever happens, don’t move your hands.”

  “You know I can break these things without trying or just let go.”

  “Yes. I also know you won’t.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes.”

  “How?”

  “Because I don’t want you to and you don’t want to disappoint me or yourself.”

  She nodded.

  Ryan’s blood surged with one-hundred-proof, lust-fueled adrenaline. It pounded through his veins. Made his back bow. The thought of slipping inside her slick channel spurred him on. He stepped out of his loose boots and shucked the boxers. Piper’s legs danced in an impatient shuffle, chafing together, making the roll of white shimmy on her hips.

  “Patience,” he warned.

  The bed dipped under his weight. He knelt beside her waist. His fingers danced up the inside of her thigh. Skin smooth as a flower petal. He neared her already-glistening sex. Piper’s lungs expanded on an extended inhale, waiting. She’d have to wait some more. He skipped over her clit and plucked the gauze from her pelvis. Using his teeth, he ripped three two-and-a-half foot strips and laid two across her belly.

  He looped the third length behind her neck. Her respiration kicked up a notch. As though she were running a series of sprints, the breaths came quick and steady. Ryan maneuvered the fabric beneath her head then kissed the upper curve of her mouth.

  “Close your eyes.”

  Those thin lips spread in surprise. Her gaze remained welded with his for several seconds. The thrum in her pulse and the pant of her lungs told him the gesture wasn’t defiant. That all-controlling natural set of her jaw hadn’t stiffened her features since the afternoon. Still, something held her back. Not fear. She was with him all the way. But her fawn gaze refused to sever their connection.

  Ryan’s grip on the gauze nearly faltered. He found himself reluctant to break that small bond as well. Her lids slid closed, fanning her cheeks with thick brown lashes. Desire viced his chest and he forgot about everything but making her his. He tied a bow at her temple then leaned his mouth to her lobe.

  “Don’t focus on my touch. Focus on the sensations it brings. On how they excite you. On how they push or pull you.”

  Easing back, he grabbed a length of wispy cotton from her belly. Ryan dragged the lighter-than-feather touch down the inside of Piper’s thigh, across her calf, then over the instep of her arched foot. He looped the strip beneath her heel. With measured strokes, he worked the material up her leg to mid-thigh. Taking each end in his grip, he tied the gauze taut around her toned muscle.

  A throaty moan heated the room ten degrees and forced a rumble inside his windpipe. Lust rushed his fingers to repeat the ritual on the other side. When at last he finished, Ryan finally took in his prize from head to toe and everywhere in-between. Neither rail thin nor curvaceous, Piper’s capable physique rivaled that of the elite warriors in his narrow field. But the restraints and blindfold, the ruddiness of her erect nipples and swollen lips of her sex surpassed his wildest fantasies.

  Unable to hold back a moment longer, Ryan grabbed the gauze at her thighs and wrenched them wide. Pink lips slicked with yearning convulsed before his eyes. Begging him. Luring him. He lowered his head to her pussy and inhaled, filling his lungs with spice.

  “Good fucking God, Piper.”

  He gnashed at the meaty flesh of her inner thigh. His teeth clamped down mere inches from her peeking clit. The pad of his middle finger swiped at the cream glazing her slit, cutting off her sharp cry. He raised his hand to her mouth and smeared her arousal across her upper lip. Releasing his hold, Ryan crawled up her body.

  “Smell your need.” He bit gently at her breast. Her chest expanded on a gasp. “Does it fuck with your head like it does mine?”

  “Yes,” she moaned and shook her head side to side.

  Ryan caught his moving target, licking the glaze from her lip and smothering her with a kiss. When his chest burned for air he left her mouth and crammed his shoulders between her spread legs. A wide strip of kinky hair covered the crest of her mons, but the rest of her delectable femininity stared him in the face. Bare as his palm and a million times more enticing.

  He made a peace sign—even though he wouldn’t call a truce unless she used her safe-word—and eased it along either side her tented clitoris. His lips sealed around the soft nub a second before he tried to suck it into the back of his throat. Piper’s hips shimmied, trying to escape the all-out assault. But he would not let her free, suckling a minute more before easing suction. He lashed the engorged bundle of nerves with his tongue.

  “Oh shit, you have to stop. I can’t come already. Ryan.” A sob choked her words and garbled his name. “Ryan. Oh, fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”

  To keep her from knocking him out with her pelvic bone, he draped his free arm across her hips. With force, he pinned her to the bed and continued alternating the sucking and lashing. Saliva pooled on his tongue. When he swallowed the taste of Piper’s aphrodisiac it punched him in the gut. If that weren’t enough, the sound of her free-fall sliced him open in the sweetest way. Like a big fucking piece of cake.

  “Ryan. Fuck me,” she sobbed again and again. Until every tensed muscle in her body sagged as though she’d lost consciousness.

  He kissed his way up her belly, and then slid the wet gauze from her face. “Open your eyes, Piper. Tell me why you’re crying.”

  Tears clotted her lashes. Her heart thrummed beneath his own racing heart. Ryan wiped the moisture from her cheek and smoothed her hair. After a long minute of shared silence, she hiccupped.

  “I don’t know why I’m crying. I never cry. I…” Piper licked her lips and sniffed. “I never lose control. It’s terrifying…and…intense.”

  “Now, tell me why you couldn’t come already.” While she prepared her answer he massaged her bound arms, starting with her shoulders and working to her forearms.

  “I’m a one-shot girl,” she moaned. “One and done. Terribly cursed, like men.” A precious crinkle formed between her eyes. “Why are you smiling? It’s disappointing, if not downright depressing.”

  “Your nipples are beaded harder than the lead tip of a bullet and your greedy cunt is creating a vacuum in this room. I believe you’ve always been a one-shot girl, but I’m more than up for the challenge of disproving your theory.”

  13

  Piper had always been in control. Even if she let the man take the lead, she’d run an inner monologue of demands, hoping he’d magically key into them. ESP would have worked for her. Until Ryan.

  Shock. And. Awe.

  He must have excelled in the military training because he employed the tactics with dumbfounding precision. Time and again he struck her inner thoughts silent. Numbed her mind with the most intense pleasure she’d ever experienced. And promised more.

  Before the final words escaped his smirking lips, he lunged for her tiny breasts. His supple mouth sealed over her sensitive areola. He tried to drink it down, like he
had on her still-throbbing clit, battering the electrified bud with his relentless tongue. Without warning, Piper’s back bowed at the indulgence. The gauze encircling her palms grew tighter still. Her grip threatened to crush the cotton back to its pre-processed form. The tiny fibers were the only thing keeping her from flying off the bed.

  Well, that and the sun-surface-hot torso anchoring her lower half. Maybe she should have kept her mouth shut. Because just one look at his body and a second orgasm threatened to pull her under and never let go. She longed to rove the chiseled valleys of his chest with her tongue. To scout the contours of his hard back with her fingers. To cram his cock so deep inside herself she’d taste his come on her lips.

  Despite all her longing, Piper surrendered to his will and had never felt so damn powerful and erotic. Ryan shifted to her other breast, but his gaze never left hers. Though transfixed on his light blues, other senses and peripheral vision catalogued everything. The tickle of his right hand skimming her belly, riding the ridge of her hip bone, then driving from her clitoris along her slit. She gave herself over to his touch. Her legs stretched wider, welcoming him inside.

  But his cream-laden finger slid below her labium. The slick pad smoothed along her centerline igniting a firestorm so hot it threatened to consume her. Torrid heat bloomed in a sheen of sweat over her skin. Call him an arsonist. Ryan’s traveling finger stoked the flames coursing her sex and baking her from the inside. He kneaded her perineum with sure strokes before sliding lower still.

  He spiraled toward her anus and the anticipation was too much to bear. She panted like a whore in heat. Soft mews fleeing her throat the closer he came. Finally she wasn’t alone in the sex-crazed chorus. His mouth broke free from her breast and he groaned. Growled, really.

  “I actually ache to get inside you, Piper. If you keep making those noises, I won’t be able to hold back any longer.”

  A laugh rode on her rushing exhale. “You’re holding back?”

  In answer his wet pad centered on her pulsing rosette and pushed inside to the first knuckle. A feeling in contrast to any she’d experienced before swept over her body like a wild fire. The hint of pain quickly receded to the tidal wave of pleasure. Even the bonds ratcheted the level of her excitement. Though she could break them. Though the gauze at her thighs allowed her free movement. The pressure and security made her wetter than she’d ever been.

  Divide and conquer. Ryan was almost too adept at battle technique. His mouth worked her breast while his finger danced inside her ass. It wiggled, coaxing every nerve ending to life. It thrust deeper, shoving her precariously close to the edge of another orgasm. It undulated, coaxing fresh cream from her pussy.

  Her head arched of its own volition, breaking their eye contact. Before she could gather the tumult into a cohesive release, Ryan’s prying heat and reassuring weight left her body. Quicker than lightning, her gaze found his. But no matter how she tried she couldn’t keep it locked on his.

  He knelt between her spread thighs, his heavy erection filling his palm. Good gawd. If he tried to make a fist his fingers would barely meet along his ample length. Pre-cum dewed the beautiful slit along his bulbous head. Piper licked her lips, the desire to have him in her mouth and crammed down the back of her throat warring with the need to have him in her cunt.

  Ryan stroked his length, the muscles across his body tensing at the pleasure. His already glistening finger, the one that had been inside her, spread his lubricant across the silk of his crown. He levered forward, brushing the tops of his thighs against her bottom. The course blond hairs covering his legs tickled. And revved her higher.

  “I should swat your ass for breaking eye contact. But I can’t look away from this either. And you’re not quite ready for spanking. Watch me, Piper. Watch us own each other.”

  Her gaze flickered to his face, reveled in the taut lines of his jaw and the lushness of his lips, but he was right. She couldn’t keep her eyes from their union. Ryan hefted the globes of her butt, wedging her at his hips. He levered over her and as sure as a heat-seeking missile, his wide dick found her entrance.

  His width separated her lips. She bloomed for him, opening to take him all. He stuffed her entrance so full, Piper thought she’d scream in pain and delight. His blunt head retreated and he petted her pussy with it. Their juices melded. The strokes circled her clit then eased home, shoving a full two inches into her hot channel. Another roll of his hips and the tip disappeared. It stretched her so full tears pricked her eyes.

  He’s not going to fit. Oh my God. He’s not going to fit.

  No sooner had the thought entered her mind than Ryan flicked both her nipples like he tried to make a goal with a paper football. They stung and her mouth fell open with indignation, but he didn’t see. Instead he crowded over her, laving each tip with gentle laps. He blew and the sensation changed. The fiery edge of her orgasm livened. Her hips undulated against his cock, urging him on with her need to be possessed.

  Ryan pinched her left nipple, holding it between his roughened fingers while he held her hip with his other hand and thrust. The motion dipped her into the mattress. With a rounded holler and wiggle of her ass, Ryan stuffed her full to overflowing. His balls brushed her ass and his waist cuddled her hypersensitive nub. But she didn’t see any of it. Her eyes closed against the magnitude of their coupling.

  A bead of sweat dropped onto her cheek a moment before Ryan’s forehead met hers. They panted together and sweated through the intensity for a long minute. When it became bearable Piper opened her eyes and found him staring back. His arms nestled beneath her shoulder blades as he gathered her close. Chest to chest they lay, his weight supported on his elbows. With their gazes fused, Ryan rocked his hips, rubbing the thick column of his dick against her swollen tissues.

  “Give me your tongue.”

  Unlike the previous time, Piper poked her tongue into the air in offering. His lips closed over it and pumped. She fucked his mouth while he fucked her pussy. The sensations were too much to handle. Using her heels as leverage, she undulated with him.

  Ryan pulled from her body then thrust to the root. They devoured each other’s mouths as the tempo rose. His hard chest pressed against her tender nipples. His sack slapped her livened rosette. The thatch of hair surrounding his big cock abraded her clit. It was all too much.

  Piper screamed her release into his mouth, but Ryan didn’t falter. He kept pounding, cramming her full. She moaned and keened at the electricity that scorched her every nerve ending then re-grouped in her core. Growing. Building again.

  He broke the kiss and reached around with his right hand. That familiar finger gathered their moisture, sliding fiendishly around the lips of her sex. Like before his pad moved south, but there was no slow wind up. He found her center and pierced deep.

  “Oh fuck. Ryan. Oh. Ryan.”

  One restraint gave way as she braced against the onslaught of titillation. Her hand rushed to his back and she clamped onto his firm lat for dear life.

  “That’s it, Piper. Feel me all over you. Inside you. Everywhere,” he panted. “You’ll come for me again before I explode.”

  “Yes. Yes! I’m already there. Ryan.”

  The fire exploded into a raging ball, the concussive force nearly knocking her unconscious. Light tunneled into a dim circle where only Ryan existed. His knowing eyes. His lust. His roar. Her world expanded in a ripple of awareness as he came, steaming her from the inside with hot spurts. The impossible width of him expanded her cunt, pulsating while he hammered one last time.

  As she wished, he nested so deep she’d swear he was in her throat. His hand entwined in her hair and he held her still. Every muscle in his body strained. The sinew of pure masculinity stretched his skin. Veins bulged in his neck. Reverberation from her detonation shook her. He screamed. They screamed.

  Then there were only heaves of breath and frantic heartbeats. And his clear blue gaze on her bronze.

  14

  Ryan woke with a jerk. For onc
e it wasn’t to a nightmare, but a reality so hot it melted his most carnal dreams to insignificant puddles. Piper’s hair splayed across his chest. The curve of her naked hip nestled his growing erection. Her sweet even breaths tickled his neck. A smile played over his lips. Then, just as quickly, fell.

  He hadn’t planned on sleeping. He hadn’t set an alarm. The room lay in shadow and his gaze flew to the bedside lamp. She must have turned it off sometime during his sex-induced coma. The phrase “sitting ducks” had never been more apt than for their current situation. If the Sinaloa found them lounged back on a pile of rumpled sheets, all he had was his dick to protect them. And the thing had proven to get him into more trouble than anything else.

  “Piper. Get up.” He sat and brought her up with him. Piper started, her arms flailing wildly. “It’s me. It’s Ryan. You’re safe. But we have to move.” His arms banded around her, holding tight until she caught up with his words.

  “Shit,” she whispered.

  Depressing the button on the side of his watch, he found the time markers illuminated to muted green while the baby-blue hand and twelve-marker showed him the time.

  “It’s 0130.”

  “Ryan, I’m sorry.”

  “I’m not. Let’s just not get dead because we got blown away.”

  “Blown away?”

  “To heaven and back,” he said.

  Untangling their limbs, he stood beside the bed and took her head in his hands. The thrum of her pulse increased under his thumb. In the little bit he could make out in the darkness, the whites of her eyes shown wide and bright.

  “Get dressed. Meet me downstairs. Don’t turn on the light. And bring the AK with you,” he ordered, without raising his voice.

  She nodded her compliance. He smashed a kiss to her warm lips then shoved his feet in boots, stuffed the phone into the ruck, grabbed it and the M4, and bolted. As he always did when heading into the unknown, Ryan dowsed his nerves in ice water. Training was an amazing tool. Do something long enough and it becomes automatic. So, he didn’t allow himself time to worry about all the things that could go wrong. He stopped at the top of the stairs, closed his eyes, and strained his hearing. In the distance coyotes yipped and howled. At the window a bug beat itself against the glass in a relentless effort to reach the bright light of the hallway.