Paige wrapped her arms around him. Holding the bulk of his weight off her, he rubbed against her, reminding her of a cat finding the warmest spot in the house. His low growl of pleasure even sounded a bit like a purr. The comparison made her giggle.
“Do I amuse you, Corporal?” he asked in his finest command voice then ruined the effect by tickling her ribs.
His size defeated her efforts to curl up and roll away. She exhaled raggedly when he finally stopped.
When he kissed her, he tasted like wine and rosemary. His breath washed her cheek and she loved the feeling of being owned as he wove his fingers into her hair and held her still so he could brush his lips against hers. Crushed between them, her breasts felt full and lush. His cock rubbed her thigh before pressing into it. He made love to her mouth with a determination that charged the air around them. He seduced her lips then pressed between them. His tongue stroked hers, licked her palate until she shivered then tested the smoothness of her teeth.
Breathing harder now, Paige relaxed into his embrace as he slid a thigh between hers. Outside, the sun dipped closer to the horizon, bathing the room in shades of gold and rose, adding depth to the colors and shadows. With his thumbs, he stroked her cheeks, then he kissed her jaw, licked her throat and scored it lightly with his teeth. He sucked on the rise of her shoulder, rubbed his nose against her chest. Finally, levering back, he swirled his tongue around her nipple and began suckling.
Sighing, Paige held him to her. She felt beautiful when he touched her like this, like she was the only woman in the world he could see, the only one he wanted to be with. He bit lightly and she felt his mouth form a smile when she trembled. After loving her for a long, sweet time, he switched to her other breast and devoured that one as well.
Only after she started squirming anxiously, he pressed a final, lingering kiss to her nipple and mouthed a path down her belly. Without preamble and without asking, he lifted her legs over his shoulders and ran his fingertips across her cleft.
“You’re wet,” he breathed. The words rustled the hair on her mound, making her shiver. “I love how wet you get for me, even before I touch you.” Spreading her folds with thumb and forefinger, he kissed her pussy then eased his tongue around her clit.
Clutching the bed linens, Paige gasped. Looking down, her gaze met his as he eased a finger inside her, turned his wrist carefully then withdrew. Still holding her open with his other hand, he kept watching her as he lowered his head and let her see his tongue as it slid over her curls.
He found his rhythm quickly. Two fingers pressed into her, probed carefully then curled so the tips rubbed the front wall of her sheath as they withdrew. His tongue drew lazy curls across her bud then licked with a relentless up and down motion.
Arching, needing to be closer to him, Paige took hold of her breasts and squeezed her nipples until they were plump and flushed. “Please,” she begged and reached for him.
Rick didn’t deny her. Pressing one final, lingering kiss to her pussy, he crawled up beside her and stretched out on his back. She watched, mesmerized as he took hold of his hard shaft, pulled until the skin bunched up around the head, and tightened his grip until he bared his teeth and hissed.
“Ride me, Paige. Make it last.” Letting go of himself, he held her breast as she sat up and swung her legs over his.
Rick’s body was beautiful. Hard angles and deep, heavy muscle drew her hands. She touched his chest, let the soft curls there slide around the base of her fingers. Her palms cupped the ridges of his abdomen and rode the uneven rhythm of his breath. He was big and solid—everywhere. Again, he took hold of his cock and pointed it straight up at her.
She had no words as the thick head brushed her swollen labia. No words and no breath to express them. The tips of her fingers left white indents on his chest as she shifted, tipped her hips, let him graze her wetness until she ached with want. The intensity in his eyes, the way he bared his teeth and held her breast—everything about him seduced her until she was squirming. Want ramped into need. Shuddering, she pressed down and gasped at the erotic stretching. Thick and hard, Rick pushed into her.
He stripped away her ability to think, leaving her a wholly sensual creature. Tossing her head back, she hissed when the fullness became too much, panted when it wasn’t enough and used the strength in her thighs to drive down onto him. One big hand held her breast like it was a treasured possession, the other grabbed her ass and told her he wanted her to roll into him, bear down and ride hard.
Paige was more than willing to follow that order.
Together, they moaned when he was fully buried in her. Rocking gently, she rubbed her clit against his pubic bone. His gaze met hers and he grinned ferally. Sitting up fast, Rick startled her with his show of strength. He wrapped his arms around her, drove his tongue into her mouth then slowed everything down. The measured rise and fall of his chest comforted the ache in her breasts. Buried deep inside her, his cock flexed. His lips moved gently over hers as he seduced her tongue with gentle caresses and slow wine-infused licks. Those hands she loved on her body kneaded her back, arched her into him lightly, then stroked her hair like she was precious.
She relished the seductive scent of his skin, felt his breath on her cheek. Touching a forefinger to his throat, she let it ride the strong beating of his heart. The sound of her own blood rushed in her ears. Paige couldn’t remember ever being so in tune with another person’s physicality. Again holding her breast, her hip, Rick lay back. He was so beautiful with those blue eyes of his gazing up at her.
“Ride me, Paige,” he repeated. The cadence of his words was slow and deliberate. The pitch of his voice deep and erotic.
Bracing her hands on his chest, she rocked against him until he groaned then lifted up. With the head of his cock still inside her, she clenched her pussy around him. Hissing, Rick tightened his grip on her but didn’t pull her onto his rod. Instead he exhaled hard and shook his head like he was fighting for control.
“You make me ache, woman,” he growled and cupped her breast like he never wanted to let go.
She’d teased them both long enough. With confident, controlled movements, she rode him. The feel of his heavy shaft inside her was delicious. Pleasuring him, watching his lips part and his brow furrow as he gasped made her feel powerful, loved, and wholly sensual. Tipping her hips, she rubbed the front of her sheath over the head of his cock. Angling forward, she groaned with rising need as his length slid against her clit with every outstroke.
Her fingers ached and only then did she realize she was holding onto him too tight. Rick didn’t complain, not even when she shifted her hands, revealing the crescent-moon shaped gouges her nails had left in his skin.
With sweat trailing between her breasts and breathing hard, she bore down on him, gasped when a surge of sensation squeezed her belly and made her core tighten around him. A shiver of sensation coursed through her then she was coming. White-hot pleasure speared her, made her tremble and cry out. Rick held her waist tightly, drove into her hard enough to make her clench her teeth and shudder. Deaf to everything but the pounding of blood in her ears, Paige swayed drunkenly as the last, convulsive surge of pleasure tore through her.
She would have drifted down onto his body and stayed there in boneless bliss but Rick’s strength kept her upright. He grunted, thrust his hips up at her, looked at where his hard shaft was thrusting in and out of her. Tensing, he slammed her down onto him and held her there. Anchoring his head back into the pillow, he bared his throat as his cock pulsed inside her. She felt the thick warmth of his seed ooze out between them, wetting her inner thighs.
When his arms relaxed, when he finally loosened his grip on her, Paige collapsed in an untidy pile beside him. She’d never been in a more undignified position—ass tipped in the air, arms at odd angles, one nostril squished against the bed while the other drew in air greedily—but she didn’t care. All she knew was she needed to be horizontal, or as close to it as possible, before her pounding heart
gave out.
The sound of his breathing began to return to normal. “We’re going to have to do something about your cardio fitness,” he said as he eased her leg clear of his.
“Take it as a compliment, stud,” she mumbled out of the corner of her mouth. The other corner was squashed into the mattress beneath the weight of her own head.
Chuckling, Rick arranged her limp and sated body. He straightened her limbs, turned her face so she could breathe then placed a pillow beneath her head. Finally, he pulled her into him and cradled her against his side. In the fading light, he lifted her hand and placed her palm against his, looking at the differences in their hands with open fascination.
“Will you go back to them?”
Blinking, Paige roused herself. “Back to whom?” she asked sleepily.
“The Keane brothers.”
Suddenly wide awake, she stiffened.
“I knew at that first open council meeting,” he said quietly, answering her unspoken question. He was still staring at her hand against his. “They were shy around you and you were distant.” Rick fell silent for a moment. “I drove you to them. That’s my fault and I accept that.”
She swallowed, still unsure of what to say.
Rick continued. “You wanted me. I wanted you but I pushed you away so hard I’m surprised your ass didn’t bruise when I dumped you on it.”
Crude but succinct.
Finally, he turned his head to look at her and brushed her hair back. “If you’ll let me, I’d like another chance. I want you to fall in love with me, Paige. I want you for my own, and for me to be yours. Me and nobody else. Do I have a chance here or have I killed the mission before it even started?”
“I’m not sure anyone’s ever referred to me as a mission before but I get the gist.” She sighed. “And no you haven’t killed anything. Maybe I did though, by looking elsewhere. Sad thing is, I realized too late they were only a diversion to—”
He silenced her by brushing his thumb against her lip. “No apologies, Paige. Not for that.” Tugging on the sheets, he covered them up then tucked the big goose-down comforter around them. “I failed you and that’s my regret to carry. Only thing we have to concern ourselves with is figuring out how to stay together after this leave is over. Publicly,” he added adamantly. “I’m not going to be your dirty little secret, sneaking around after curfew and grabbing quickies against some tree in the middle of nowhere.”
Nodding, she let her shoulders relax, laid her head on his chest and curled into his warmth. “Although the late-night quickie sounds promising.” Grinning, she held on when Rick started laughing.
Chapter Eight
Paige pulled the plugs out of her ears. The clacking of the weaving looms still rang in them. “How long have you been making fabric on this scale?”
David Miles Senior smiled down at her and led her through the newly built office area of his textile mill. “Two years now. It took awhile to build up a decent distribution infrastructure for my clothing line but once that was in place, we needed more product than home looms could provide. Most of the workers have been with me since 10GW. Spinners and weavers I was able to bring here once we’d pieced together enough commercial looms from other parts of the hemisphere.”
“Enough survived the Great War?” She blinked as he opened an outer door and led her into the bright sunshine.
“The technology we use is pretty simple. It’s been around awhile. As you saw, the machines are beasts and they’re old. They were built to last.” He held out his arm and placed his hand over hers as he walked them toward a refurbished section of downtown. “Thank you for joining me for lunch by the way.”
“My pleasure.”
“I’m not one for talking much,” he said after a moment’s pause. “Of course, the people I do business with would be shocked to hear that.”
Paige chuckled obligingly. She’d been in the former state of Pennsylvania for three days now and his sentence was the longest, unprompted stretch of words she’d heard from Rick’s father.
“Ever since the war, it seems my head’s been down, concentrating on keeping my sons alive and fed, and little else.” He squeezed her fingers gently. “I just wanted to say thank you for giving Rick a chance to court you. He likes you very much.”
“I know. I feel the same way about him.”
“That’s good.”
There was a poignant sigh in his voice that tightened Paige’s chest. They walked past a compounding pharmacy, then a cheese shop.
“My wife died during the Great War. Rick was just eight months old.” David spoke like the words hurt. “She’d gone out looking for food.” He shook his head sadly. “I told her I’d find more the next day but after Rick was weaned, she was obsessive about having surplus food in the house for him and Davey. She walked right between two warring factions positioned for a scrimmage.”
Again, he fell silent and stopped outside of a café with a crisp, striped awning. David cleared his throat. “The women at the mill swear by this place—all four of them. Flat-bread wraps and salads,” he said with what sounded like forced enthusiasm. Then his gaze drifted across the street, to a small restaurant with a chalkboard menu heavy on beef, fried potatoes and draft beer.
She squeezed his arm. “I’d love a steak sandwich. How about you?”
His shoulders relaxed as he guided her across the street. The restaurant wasn’t crowded, and it was clean with a down-home feel to it. After they were seated, David ordered two steak sandwiches with fries, and two glasses of beer made by the microbrewery only a few blocks away. With a nod, their burly waiter left to place their order.
“I’m guessing there aren’t as many women as men in Alexandria, same as here,” David said. He glanced out at the street, then offered her a wan smile. “Even after twenty-two years, the population’s hardly started catching up. But at least with the new textile mill, old guys like me have a job to go to every day. We all need something to do.”
“True,” she acknowledged then shut her mouth, waiting for him to continue. This talkativeness of his was unexpected and she’d always enjoyed the mature, peaceful vibe that came off Rick’s father.
“When Rick said he was bringing a girl home with him on leave, I couldn’t have been happier. I hope you don’t mind my boldness in saying that.”
Paige shook her head.
“Amanda and I, we always wanted a daughter. We loved both our sons but we were hell-bent on trying again until we had a girl.” He smiled crookedly. “She used to say ‘even if we stuff the house to the rafters with eighteen boys, I’ll still want to try for a girl’.” Exhaling slowly, David continued. “After she died, Stephen moved in with me and the boys. In those days, families banded together to protect their children and each other. We moved out to the place we’re living in now. The owners had died months earlier and there was no one left alive to inherit—like so many places. It was Stephen who found the house. The valley’s protected and the well water’s good. Crusher-tanks had rolled through the area months earlier but they’d all been blown up in the border skirmishes the previous winter. The house had all the modern conveniences...” He paused. “I guess you might not know the meaning of that phrase.”
“I learned it in school,” Paige admitted, then leaned back as their waiter placed mugs of beer in front of them, along with a basket of deep-fried vegetables and a dish of sour cream.
“On the house,” their waiter said and nodded toward the bar where a tall young man was setting out clean glasses. “My name’s Dewey by the way,” he said, extending his hand. “Are you working at the textile mill?” he asked Paige. “My son was wondering if he might come over and introduce himself.”
“Paige is Rick’s woman,” David said conversationally, but there was no mistaking the arch of his brow as anything but a rebuff. “You remember my youngest. He’s on leave from the Army. I couldn’t believe how big he’s gotten. Taller than me by a good two inches and likely forty pounds heavier than I ever was on
my best day. All of it solid muscle too. Army life sure does make a physical machine out of a man. Doesn’t it, Paige?”
“Yes,” she answered obligingly, and didn’t comment when their waiter nodded in understanding and walked away. She resisted the urge to grin. “You were telling me about the house?”
“Hmm. Modern conveniences. Anyway, it also had fixtures that were part of the pre-Revolutionary structure. Character, the real estate people used to call it. With the wood-burning ovens, fireplaces, cistern on the roof and such, the house could still function without electricity. Stephen and I moved the boys in and we’ve been there ever since.”
“And neither of you found a woman.”
He shook his head vehemently. “After Amanda, no other woman held any appeal for me. And Stephen’s gay.”
She felt her brows go up.
“It’s not like he wears a neon pink sign broadcasting it,” David added with a wry grin. “At least not since the Great War. Before then though, we were two of the most successful designers of men’s clothing in the country. Had top-tier runway shows in Milan, Italy and a chain of boutiques worldwide. Our specialty was custom-tailored suits.”
His chin lifted proudly and Paige knew he deserved it.
“Life’s funny though,” he continued. “After design college, Stephen did an apprenticeship with a shoe designer. At the time the market was saturated so he went back to designing clothing with me. After the Great War,” David added with a shake of his head, “stockpiles of shoes ran out quick. My brother was the one who put us back on our feet after our town was reclamated...no pun intended...by analyzing the market and meeting consumer needs.”
Impressed, Paige nodded. She sampled some of the fried vegetables. They were good. Not terrific, but good. She would have used canola instead of peanut oil to let the vegetable flavors pop. “Is Stephen the one who taught Rick to make shoes?”
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