Dane - A MacKenzie Novel

by Liliana Hart

  “Yessss,” she hissed as his fingers slid beneath her shirt and plucked at her nipple. The hand at her ass flexed, and she felt the strength of him in the way his muscles bunched and rippled, even as he held her gently.

  “Yes, what?”

  His breath feathered against her lips and she could feel the orgasm building inside of her. She shook her head in denial of what was happening to her body. No man had ever brought her so close so quickly. It was as if everything she’d ever known about sex was being turned upside down and inside out.

  “I can’t, Cade. I can’t—”

  “Yes you can, baby. Don’t ever hide yourself from me. Now answer my question the way I want it answered. Do you think of me fucking you like this?”

  “Yes,” she screamed as his fingers pinched harder against her nipple. Her body trembled on the brink of fulfillment and her breath heaved in and out of her lungs. She opened her eyes and stared into the black depths of his own, her body and soul overwhelmed by the sheer force of him. “I think of you, Cade. I can’t stop thinking about you. Is that what you want to hear?”

  “You have no idea how badly I needed to hear that,” he whispered against her lips. “You always have to be honest with me. Your body won’t deny me the way your mind wants to. I’ll always know if you’re telling the truth. Don’t be scared of this. Just close your eyes and feel.”

  He didn’t give her the choice to do anything but feel. He took her mouth in a kiss that put the first they’d shared to shame. Sensations exploded through her body and pleasure rippled across sensitive nerve endings that all seemed to lead to the tight bud hidden between her folds. His hands slipped beneath the elastic waist of her pajama pants, and colors danced behind her closed lids at the intimate touch.

  “Sweet Jesus,” he panted, his fingers finding the bare flesh, feeling the proof of her desire. “I’m going to taste you, Bayleigh. Lap up every bit of that sweet cream that’s drenching my fingers. Do you know how I’ve wanted you for the past two weeks, driving myself crazy, imagining it was me fucking you instead of that damned vibrator you use?”

  She stiffened in his arms, mortification filling her soul even as the blood rushed to her cheeks from forbidden desire. Her head dropped to his shoulder and mewls of pleasure escaped her throat from the sensations rioting through her body, even as she tried to push him away.

  “Don’t get all tense on me now, sugar. You think I didn’t know what you were doing in that bed? Why do you think I spent so much time on my deck? You’d push me out the door, so turned on I could all but feel the sparks against my skin, and then you’d go in your room and turn all the lights out and pleasure yourself with that fucking piece of rubber when it should have be me. I could hear you call my name every time you came.”

  She breathed in sharply as his fingers slid inside her in one smooth stroke, stretching her and driving her crazy at the same time, so the pleasure-pain brought her right to the edge. All thoughts of embarrassment disappeared and desperation filled her.

  “I need you inside me, Cade. I’m begging you.”

  “We’ll get there, sweetheart,” he promised. “Listening to you come night after night made my cock so hard I thought I would explode from wanting you. Did you ever watch me from your bed? Could you see me unzip my jeans and wrap my fingers around my dick? Did you watch me stroke it until I came all over my hand?”

  “No,” Bayleigh cried, wishing she’d known to watch him.

  The thought of him taking himself that way while she was lying in bed only a short distance away had her itching to make the visions in her mind a reality.

  “There’s no need to deny the desire between us, but I’m not looking for anything serious here. I’ll always be honest with you, just as you will be with me. Can you go through with this, Bayleigh? I know you’re not the type of woman to have casual flings.”

  “Then why are you doing this to me?” she cried out as he added a third finger, his thumb rubbing in gentle circles around the taut bud of her clit.

  “Because you want it. Just as much as I do. And sometimes you just need to stop thinking about the future and enjoy what’s right in front of you. Can you live with what I’m offering?”

  She opened her eyes and saw the stark lines of passion on his face, the determination in his eyes for her to agree to whatever he demanded from her. But hidden beneath the determination was the sheen of vulnerability—of a past that was too painful to bear.

  “I don’t know,” she finally said.

  But her denial was like fighting a losing battle. She didn’t have the strength to be around him and not want him. The only thing she could hope for was that her heart wouldn’t be too scarred when he decided to walk away.

  “Do you want me to stop?” he asked, arching a brow, a smug smile on his face as he brought her closer to orgasm.

  It was impossible to think with him tormenting parts of her body that hadn’t been touched by a man for almost three years. Could she do what he was asking? She wasn’t the type to go to bed with a man just for the hell of it. She’d never had a one night stand, and it had been weeks into her other relationships before she’d agreed to go to take the next step. Of course, look how that turned out. All of her lovers had been disappointed anyway.

  His fingers curled inside her and her eyes rolled back into her head as new sensations assaulted her battered system. Desire like this couldn’t possibly last. They’d end up killing each other. Maybe the best thing to do would be to get it out of her system. Just so she could function on a normal level again.

  “Answer me, Bayleigh.” His voice was rough and his drawl slurred with passion.

  “I need to come, Cade,” she begged. “Please let me come.”

  “Yeah, baby,” he groaned, taking her lips in another hot kiss. “I want you to come all over my fingers. All you need to do is answer me.”

  “Yes!” The scream tore from the pit of her stomach. “I don’t care about anything else. Just fuck me.”

  “Good girl,” he groaned. “I need to be inside you, Bayleigh. I’ve never needed anything so much.” He withdrew his fingers, drinking in her disappointed cries with a gentleness she wasn’t expecting. “Just a minute, baby. I can’t fuck you out here. I’m sure the neighbors have gotten more of a show than we needed to give them as it is.”

  Bayleigh tightened her legs around him as he made love to her mouth with slow, sliding thrusts of his tongue, and her finger tangled in the length of his hair, reveling at the silky softness. She sucked at his tongue and ground her pussy against the denim of his jeans, so close to an orgasm she thought she’d probably lose it by the time he finally got inside of her. The only time she’d ever been remotely close to orgasming with one of her previous lovers, he’d changed positions and the feeling had evaporated like mist.

  Frustration clouded her cries as Cade stumbled toward the door that led inside his house. He cursed as stacks of boxes got in the way, and he finally set her down on a dining room table she hoped like hell was sturdy enough to hold their weight.

  Cade unwound her legs from around his waist and stripped the pajama pants off her legs, her panties following, so she was completely bare to him from the waist down.

  “Christ, Bayleigh,” he panted. “Look how pretty you are.” He trailed a finger across her stomach to the bare folds between her legs, slicked with her desire for him. “I love that you’re bare for me. I’ll be able to taste every inch of you, and you’ll be able to feel me completely.”

  “Cade!” she screamed as his long fingers slid inside her once again.

  There wasn’t time to prepare or think about the sensations bombarding her body. The thoughts that usually plagued her at moments like this were absent—her wondering if her lover was disappointed in her, or if she’d be able to come. There wasn’t room for thought with Cade overwhelming all of her senses at once.

  He lifted her shirt so it rested just above her breasts and groaned as he bent forward to taste them.

  �
�Oh, baby,” he said, licking her nipple with the flat of his tongue. “You have the sexiest tits. Full and lush, with nipples like little raspberries. And they taste just as sweet.”

  Her breasts were swollen and aching, and he sucked her nipple with enough pressure that she could feel every pull throbbing in her clit. Her eyes rolled back and her lids fluttered closed as the force of his suction grew, his tongue flicking across her rigid nipple, and his finger moving in slow, steady thrusts in her vagina.

  The spasms seemed to come from everyone and nowhere all at once, her body jerking against him with uncontrollable strength, and she begged him to stop even as she prayed for him to continue. The sensations were more than she could handle, and she exploded against him in a symphony of light and color, screaming his name as shudders rocked her body.

  “Fuck, that’s hot,” Cade whispered, kissing his way from her breast back to her lips. “My hand is soaked with your come. Do you know what it does to me to know you wanted me that much?”

  Bayleigh’s body shook with tremors, and she didn’t have the strength to do anything more than lift her eyelids a fraction of an inch. She watched him straighten and unfasten the button of his jeans, the rigid length of his cock causing her to gasp in admiration and horror. All she could think was that she hadn’t bought a big enough vibrator.

  Chimes echoed in her head, and it wasn’t until she heard his muttered curses that she realized the sound came from the phone that sat on the butcher block island in the center of his kitchen.

  “Shit,” he growled. “I have to get that. It’s the station.”

  The transformation in him was amazing. His eyes went from melted dark chocolate to cold fire in an instant, and he left her open and exposed on the table as he stalked to the phone, his body under rigid control.

  “MacKenzie,” he barked into the phone.

  Bayleigh closed her eyes in mortification. She’d never lost control like that before. There wasn’t a hole deep enough for her to crawl in. As if her lack of control wasn’t bad enough, she could feel the wetness from her orgasm cooling beneath her bottom. That had certainly never happened before either. And she hoped to God it never happened again.

  Relocating was the only way to get past this. She’d never lived in Alaska. Or maybe she should be thinking abroad.

  “Where did you find her?” she heard Cade ask.

  There was no way she was going to be able to face him again today. Not after losing herself to him like that. She found the strength to slide off the table, surprised her legs were able to hold her upright, and she ignored his narrowed eyes as she picked up her pajama pants off the floor and slipped them on. She pulled her shirt down so her breasts were covered, and smoothed her hair down nervously.

  “Fine,” Cade finally said to whoever was on the other end of the line. “I’m on my way now. See if the ME will wait to take her until I can get there.”

  Bayleigh had the door that led back into the garage open and one foot out the door when she heard him toss the phone back on the counter.

  “Where the hell are you going?” He moved quickly and silently, and he was so close she could feel his breath on the back of her neck.

  “You obviously have to leave,” she said, refusing to turn around and meet his eyes. “I’ve got things to do today, so I thought I’d head back home.”

  “Don’t think for one second that this is over between us, Bayleigh. I saw the look on your face when you came. You have nothing to be embarrassed about, and I want you so fucking bad my balls are aching with it.”

  She let him turn her around and into his arms, and damned if her body didn’t betray her with just one touch. She arched against him like a cat as his hands ran down her back.

  “I don’t know if I can do this after all, Cade. It might be too much for me to handle. I’m not used to—this,” she said lamely, encompassing them both with her hands. “It’s very intense.”

  “Then you’ve been missing out, sugar. And what we have is hot as hell. That asshole you were engaged to obviously didn’t know a clit from a bellybutton. Don’t try to run from me. Just hang on and enjoy the ride.”

  She looked at him solemnly, the magnitude of the promise she’d made to him weighing down on her. There was no way she could give her body to this man as completely as she just had and not give him her heart as well. Cade MacKenzie had the power to do what Paul hadn’t. Paul had whittled away at her self-esteem until it was in shreds, but Cade had the ability to destroy her soul. There was no way she could let that happen.

  “You’ve got a job to do,” she said, kissing him lightly on the cheek in farewell. “I’ll see you around.”

  She headed out through the garage, but she stopped when she heard him call her name. The urge to go back into his arms was so strong it made her want to weep, but she kept her back turned and her steps determined.

  “I’ll be back tonight, Bayleigh. We’re going to talk about this.”

  “I’m busy tonight,” she lied. “Goodbye, Cade. Be careful.”

  The trip back to her house seemed impossibly long. She knew Mrs. Spillers across the street was looking out her kitchen window and that Mr. Krentz was pretending to trim his hedges as he watched her walk to her front door, but she couldn’t think about her behavior yet. There was no way her brothers wouldn’t find out what she’d been doing in Cade’s garage, but that was a problem for another time.

  Her eyes stung with unshed tears as she closed her front door behind her. A man like Cade MacKenzie wasn’t in the cards for her. He was too hard, too demanding, and he’d never let her get away with giving him anything but all she had to offer.

  She wasn’t willing to sacrifice everything for a casual fuck buddy. That wasn’t her, and she’d let him convince her she’d be all right with the non-intimacy of a real relationship. But she had dreams of a family and a man who loved her. She might have been engaged to the wrong man before, but at least she was trying to find happiness. Cade had just given up on it.

  There was no way she could stay cooped up in the house today. And she sure as hell didn’t want to face him when he got home from wherever he was going. She’d just have to avoid him. His late night visits and the constant temptation he presented would have to stop.

  It sounded good in theory. Now all she had to do was convince her body to do as her mind wanted.

  Chapter Seven

  Fluorescent lights flickered in an unhealthy shade of green over Cade’s desk, casting ghoulish shadows over the case file he’d been poring over for the last hour. He’d spent all day at the crime scene, making himself as large a target as possible.

  It wouldn’t be long before the cartel made contact. At least, he’d thought it wouldn’t be long. Maybe his instincts were off after all. He’d been in town two weeks, and they hadn’t done anything but send him messages through the women they’d decided to use the drug on. There were three bodies on his conscience now. If the cartel didn’t make a move soon he was going to have to do something to draw them out.

  He’d delayed going home as long as he could—at the crime scene and now at the station—but the cartel still hadn’t made contact. He was sure it would have been today.

  Warm air ruffled the papers on his desk as the heater kicked on, only heightening the smell of stale coffee and sweat. He finished typing up the report from the crime scene and shook his head at the cruelty of these men. He’d never understood it, but he accepted it—to the point that he was always surprised when someone did something good instead of the other way around. There were no rose colored glasses left in his life.

  The rundown bar just off Avenue P and 15th Street didn’t fit the profile of where a drug like Rabbit was used. The clientele who could afford the drug weren’t known to frequent seedier places to get their fix—where the booze was cheap and the women cheaper. They didn’t want their victims used up and rough. They wanted fresh-faced girls from good families. Girls who had a future. Girls they could destroy. It only added to the high when
they raped them.

  So Cade’s instincts started humming the moment he’d gotten the call about another murder—the only difference between this one and the other victims being that the deceased was a prostitute. He’d made the forty-five minute trip to the other side of town to the crime scene, when he’d had the sudden urge to turn the truck around and head back to Bayleigh. Something wasn’t right, but damned if he knew which direction to head until he could get tangible proof of where they were watching him from. He hadn’t felt eyes on his house, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have them there.

  The top men in del Fuego’s cartel had been as well trained as any soldiers or agents he’d worked with. Hell, he’d helped train some of them during his time there. If they didn’t want him to know they were there, then he wouldn’t know plain and simple. All he could go by was the instincts that had been ingrained into him over the last sixteen years.

  And those instincts hadn’t failed him as his truck pulled up to the crime scene. He’d felt the crosshairs on the back of his head from the moment he’d stepped onto the graveled pavement. But only because they’d wanted him to know they were there. They wouldn’t take him out so soon.

  The victim had been brutally raped and strangled. The syringe in her arm filled with the drug was just overkill, as she’d already been dead by the time it had been given to her. No one would waste a quarter of a million dollar drug on a prostitute unless they were trying to send him a message.

  And it had been one hell of a message. Cade’s name had been carved into her thigh just below the number three, signifying she was the third victim. The cartel was sending him a message that they were out for blood. His in particular.

  The cartel was playing a game he didn’t want to be caught in the middle of. They didn’t care who got caught in the crossfire, which meant he had to shut them down before more bodies started piling up. Three in the two weeks he’d been in town was three too many.