by Lora Leigh
“Luc, call this monster off.” She turned to him, laughter sparkling in her gem-bright eyes as she tugged back on Lobo’s hold. “He’s going to snack on Mason.”
Her laughter was like an echo of light and beauty. Luc couldn’t help but grin at the sappy thought. He got to his feet, intent on joining the play, when Lobo suddenly released her, his body going instantly alert as he stared down the road.
“Get in the house.” Luc moved quickly for Melina, ignoring the confusion on her face.
“What?” She stared down the curving ranch road before turning back to Luc.
“Get in the house now.” He gripped her arm lightly and drew her to the porch as anger began to glitter in her eyes.
*
“Don’t want anyone to know you kidnapped your houseguest?” she snapped, jerking away from him and stomping to the door. “Don’t worry, Luc, I have a better revenge planned for your arrogant ass.” She slammed the door behind her as Luc breathed out roughly and moved quickly to where Lobo stood in a guarded stance at the road.
He breathed a sigh of relief when the vehicle came into sight. The unfamiliar Jeep was the reason Lobo had reacted so quickly, not the driver behind the wheel.
“Luc, dammit, I was within a day of a killer sale.” Jack jumped from the new vehicle, his long blond hair tied at the nape with a strip of leather, his white silk shirt clinging to his shoulders. “What the hell could be so important that you called me back on an emergency?”
Irritation flashed in the other man’s brilliant blue eyes; his tall, corded body was tense with it.
“Good to have you home, Jack.” Luc grinned. “Let’s go to the barn and we’ll talk.”
“The barn?” Jack didn’t move from where he stood. “Fuck the barn. It’s over a hundred in the shade here and I need a cold drink. What the hell is wrong with the house?”
Luc adjusted his Stetson carefully. “This involves an explanation.” He sighed. “If you want to get out of the sun, we’ll go to the barn. But you’re not stepping into that house until we talk. So are you coming or not?”
Jack’s eyes narrowed. They had known each other for a lot of years. Hell, they had nearly died together. There was a trust, a bond that flowed between them when danger threatened the other. They weren’t brothers but they might as well have been.
“Hell. Fine.” Jack sighed wearily. “But this one better be good, Luc. Damned good.”
*
“You did what?” Jack’s question rose in volume until he was almost yelling the last word.
Luc leaned back against the frame of the barn’s entrance and restrained his smile.
For a man who had been in more scrapes than Luc could ever hope to dive into, Jack was amazingly incredulous at Luc’s daring.
“Are you aware kidnapping is a federal crime?” Jack growled furiously. “Doesn’t matter the reason…”
“Yeah, well, so is stealing cars, but I remember helping your ass when you decided to try your hand at it,” Luc reminded him.
Jack’s eyes narrowed. “It was my fucking car,” he snapped. “They stole it from me.”
Luc shrugged. “They had the papers; you didn’t. That makes it grand theft.”
Jack grunted in irritation. “I can’t believe you got messed up with that damned family again,” he finally snarled. “Son of a bitch, a fucking twin sister. Just what the hell we needed.”
Luc frowned at his friend’s tone of voice. Jack could rage over Maria for hours and Luc would be more than happy to listen, but Melina was another matter.
“She’s my woman, Jack,” Luc said softly, his voice deepening. “Watch what you say.”
A frown snapped into place over Jack’s eyes as he stared back at him. That was Jack. He could be a mean gutter fighter when he had to be, but he could also be a hell of a strategist. Right now he would be carefully considering the information he had, as well as the fact that Maria was currently searching for her twin.
“So we protect her.” Jack sighed. “Have you managed to locate the bitch yet?” he asked, obviously meaning Maria.
“Joe’s working on it.” Luc shrugged. “My main concern is Melina and keeping her safe. She’s spitting mad at me right now, but she seems to like the ranch well enough. Until her sister is apprehended, my main concern is keeping Melina undercover here.”
Jack released the leather tie that held his hair back while sighing again, roughly.
“This one could be a mess.” He shook his head tiredly. “Maria is a viper, Luc. We both know that. I’ve kept up with rumors over the years, too, and there are a lot of them. The woman doesn’t have a conscience. All she has is a hunger for drugs. She won’t be easy to catch. And if she suspects her sister is here, it might not be that damned easy to keep her away.”
Luc smiled coldly. “As long as I catch her,” he said softly. “That’s all I care about, Jack. Keeping Melina safe and making certain her sister never has a chance to use her again. These are my top priorities. Now, are you in?”
Jack stared back at him in surprise. “Of course I’m in, dammit. I don’t have to like it to go along with it. I just have to be able to bitch about it. And don’t you think I won’t be bitching later, ol’ son. Hard and long. You can take that one to the bank.”
And likely draw interest on it, Luc thought in amusement. Jack wasn’t a man who kept his thoughts to himself until the situation required it.
“Come on to the house then. I’ll introduce you. Remember, you don’t know she’s not Maria,” he reminded Jack.
Jack grunted. “Like I could have made that mistake. I think you just didn’t want to know. You weren’t yourself after that meeting with her and her parents after the shooting. I had a feeling something was wrong then. I think, my friend, you might have known all along.”
Luc restrained his smile. He might have. He knew damned good and well that even before the plane landed that day he had no intention of taking Maria Angeles up on her sexual offer. The desire to do so just wasn’t there. She was a mean little cocksucker, but that was about it.
Melina was pure sweetness, though, head-to-toe. Soft and delicate, passionate. His.
He stepped to the porch, heard pots and pans rattling loudly, and chuckled before opening the door. She was pissed, too, which suited him fine. If she stayed a little mad for a while, then she wouldn’t catch on nearly as easily to the fact that he had fallen so completely beneath her spell that he knew he would never recover. Now all he had to do was convince her that she shared the madness with him.
TWENTY
Jack’s arrival was a surprise to Melina. She stood in the kitchen, fighting back a sense of guilt as she watched the amused friendliness in his eyes.
“You’re a sight prettier than the last time I saw you,” he said, his blue eyes crinkling at the corners as he smiled down at her. “Being sober is good for you, Maria.”
She clenched her teeth and shot Luc a hateful look. “I guess you neglected to inform him of exactly who I was,” she snapped.
Luc grinned back at her. “No, I didn’t. I told him exactly who I thought you were.”
Melina sniffed sarcastically before turning back to Jack. “I don’t answer to that name. You can call me Catarina or Melina, your choice. But call me Maria and you’ll be taking your life into your own hands.”
Jack scratched his ear thoughtfully. “Hell, darlin’, I think just being around you would be a danger. But you’re damned sure worth looking at.”
“Cool it, Jack.” Melina glanced over at Luc, seeing the irritation that filled his expression.
“Sorry, Jack, Luc thinks he’s the only one who has the right to be ill-tempered and rude,” she said with wide-eyed innocence. “Personally, I’ve decided it’s just a part of being a cowboy. I mean, neither of you is actually sporting any manners.” She stressed the last word sarcastically before turning away from them and heading toward the living room.
“Cat, you’re forgetting dinner,” Luc growled.
She tur
ned back to him, smiling sweetly. “No, Luc, I didn’t forget, I just decided to quit. Fix it your own damned self.”
He caught her before she left the kitchen, his lips quirking as he fought a smile, his gray eyes hooded, but the amusement in them wasn’t hidden.
“You can’t quit. I kidnapped you, remember?” he reminded her.
“Then you better reconsider not just the crime but the punishment.” She jerked her arm from his grip, furious with him now. “Because I’ll be damned if I’ll put up with this much longer.”
His brows lowered to a frown as he blocked her way, his hands gripping her hips, jerking her to him, ignoring Jack’s covered laugh as he lowered his lips to her ear.
“Punishment, my love, definitely comes later,” he growled. “And I promise, you won’t forget it when it does.”
He nipped her ear, smiling into her furious face before looking over at Jack.
“Come on into the living room and we’ll discuss those sales you made. I think Cat might need a break from us irritating cowboys.”
“Hmm,” Jack murmured. “Maybe it’s just you. You go pout in the living room and I’ll keep her company.”
“In your fucking dreams,” Luc growled, frowning heavily at Jack. “Get your ass in here and tell me how cheap you sold my horses for. And keep your damned eyes off her. Not to mention your hands.”
Jack sighed as though disappointed. “One of these days, I’m gonna bring my own woman. You’re starting to get downright unfriendly, boy.”
*
Men were just strange, that was all there was to it. Luc had to be a Gemini. The alternating personalities of the zodiac sign made perfect sense. It was the only explanation for … this. He had gone from surly jealousy that evening to one of the most amazing lovers she could have imagined later that night.
Melina clenched her teeth to hold back a scream of pleasure as she felt Luc’s cock sink slowly inside her well-lubricated behind. She had never, ever, been taken anally. She had never considered it. But there she was, on her knees, her butt in the air, her shoulders to the mattress as the big cowboy pumped his dick up her ass.
Her pussy was sizzling. She could feel her juices literally dripping from her vagina as he held her tight, fucking inside her with slow, careful strokes that stretched her impossibly, sending streaks of fire blazing up her anus as pleasure tore at her very core.
“You’re so tight.” His voice was rough, so deep and dark she shivered at the sound.
“So hot and tight around my cock it’s all I can do not to come inside you now.”
Melina moaned in rising lust. Yes, that was what she wanted. She wanted him to come now, to feel him shuddering against her, pumping his seed inside her.
“You like this, baby?” he asked her; the eroticism of his voice had her pulse rate jumping. “God, I wish you could see the way your tight little ass stretches open for my cock, sucking me in…” He groaned roughly. “I’m going to come up your ass, baby. I’m going to fill it so deep with my cum that you’ll never forget the feel of me inside you.”
She never would anyway.
She had to be in shock, she thought as she moved against him, taking him deeper inside the forbidden little hole, glorying in the pleasure/pain tearing through her. She had woken to his fingers smoothing through the cleft of her ass, his hot voice whispering his intent to fuck her there.
She had shivered at the threat, believing he only meant a bit of hot foreplay. She had more than a bit of the foreplay. She had more than an hour of it. And each touch, each lick, each nip was designed to drive her higher, make her hotter as his fingers stretched the nether hole. Until finally, she was begging him to fuck her there. Pleading with him to drive his cock inside her, take her, anywhere, she didn’t care. Now she was within a second of begging again.
Her clit was a swollen mass of torturous lust; her pussy was sobbing in its need and she could feel … something. An edge of dark coiling need gathering in the pit of her stomach with each stroke of his cock up her ass.
Melina’s fingers tightened in the already bunched sheet beneath her, a mewling whimper escaping her throat as he ground his erection deeper inside her. She could feel every inch of his cock boring through her sensitive flesh. Every throb, every pulsing vein as it tunneled through the tender tissue.
“Luc, I can’t stand it.” She could barely speak, the need was so great. “Fuck me harder. Do something, please.”
She was writhing beneath him, or trying to. His hands held her hips tightly, keeping her in place, refusing to allow her to increase the pace of his thrusts.
“Easy, baby.” He was fighting for breath; his voice was deepening further. “Patience. Just a little more. You’re so fucking tight I can’t stand it much longer.”
He felt as thick as a baseball bat, as hard as iron, but each long thrust inside the tender channel was making her crazy for more. She wanted him driving inside her, plunging as hard and fast inside her ass as possible. She was dying for it.
She clenched the muscles of her ass as he thrust inside her again, thrilling to the moan that tore from his throat. He was moving faster now, shuttling in and out of her anus as he gasped for breath and she whimpered in longing. She could feel the pleasure building inside her. It was unlike anything she had ever known before. The hot fist of sensation gathering in her womb was tightening, burning.
“Luc, please.” She tried to scream out the demand, but it sounded more like a sob. “Fuck me. Fuck me harder. Please.”
He came over her then, covering her smaller body with his own, one elbow bracing her shoulder as his hand moved beneath her body. Before she had any idea of his intention, two broad fingers plunged inside her cunt as he began to fuck her ass in earnest.
Deep, driving strokes, a dual pleasure that shocked her senses and turned her into a creature of sensation, of lust and need so powerful that she was helpless in its grip. Her hips bucked into each driving thrust as the knot of need built within her womb. Tighter, tighter …
“Luc. Oh God. Luc…” She was dripping with sweat but so was he. He groaned, a thick, harsh sound at her ear that caused her to shudder as his fingers plunged deeper inside her weeping pussy.
It took no more than that. Helplessly her mouth opened to scream, but the sound that emerged was a low, keening cry as she erupted. Her orgasm exploded through her system. Radiant, blistering with heat and a pleasure so intense it was nearly painful.
Muscles tightened, locked, holding him inside her as he growled her name and began to pump hot jetting bursts of semen deep inside her anus.
She was shaking in the aftermath. Never had she known anything could be this intense, this incredibly erotic. She moaned in regret as she felt him slide free of the grip she had on his flesh and fall into the bed beside her. The dark entrance he had so thoroughly fucked still tingled almost violently from the possession he had taken of it.
Her body was sensitized, exhausted. She didn’t think she could drag herself from the bed if her life depended on it.
She could jump in shock as a fist pounded on the door, though, her eyes rounding in surprise at Jack’s querulous voice. “If you two are going to fuck like minks all morning the least you could do is throttle the fucking sound effects.”
Her face flushed a bright crimson as she heard Luc chuckle tiredly.
“Oh my God.” She buried her face in her pillow as she remembered her screams. “Oh my God. This is terrible.” There was no way she could ever face that man again.
Not that facing him had been easy the first time, of course. He was the most mocking, sarcastic creature she had ever laid her eyes on. And he had nearly been killed because of Maria. One thing about her sister that she could count on: She knew how to make enemies.
Luc grunted. “Come on, get up. All this exertion makes me hungry. I need breakfast.”
“Well, have fun,” she muttered. “I’m not facing him this morn—dammit, Luc.” He hauled her out of the bed, laughing at her shrieks as he flipped her
over his shoulder and carried her to the bathroom.
“Barbarian,” she accused him when he set her on her feet by the shower.
“Wench.” He leaned down and kissed her quickly. “Now shower. I need breakfast. If you’re not downstairs in half an hour, I’ll come carry you down.”
She frowned up at him mutinously. “Don’t you think you’re taking this captive thing just a little too far? I mean really, even the worst prisoner gets time off for good behavior.”
The fact that she was naked and his eyes were darkening in lustful appreciation wasn’t lost on her. Just as the knowledge that he was naked and his cock was slowly taking notice of her once again wasn’t lost on him. He frowned darkly. “Damn, you’re going to kill me. I’m too old for ’round-the-clock sex. Shower.” He pressed her toward the cubicle. “I’ll use the guest bath. And hurry. I’m hungry.”
He was always hungry. Melina shook her head in amusement as her heart clenched in longing. Damn, he was sexy. Sexy and fun and so hot he made her toes curl with the heat. He made her heart break with emotion, too.
She quickly shook away the somberness of that thought. She would enjoy this while she could, she promised herself. Reality would come all too soon, and when it did, it was going to bust her ass hard. For now she wanted to revel in his touch, enjoy his laughter, and just be a part of him. Even if he didn’t know she wasn’t Maria, he knew she wasn’t the woman he thought Maria was. She would content herself with that for now. It was all she had left when it came right down to it. All she had to sustain her in the future when, she was certain, Luc would no longer be a part of her life. Then she would allow herself to hurt.
TWENTY-ONE
Melina’s breakfast of fried eggs, hash browns, sausage, and homemade biscuits was consumed quickly, and within an hour both Luc and Jack were out at the barn with the horses. Several had been sold, Jack had told Luc at breakfast. The two mares were exceptionally beautiful, graceful despite their size, and even-tempered. Melina had watched from the porch for a while as the two men went into the corral and began to go over each of the animals.