Limitless Love: A Lotus House Novel: Book Four

by Audrey Carlan

“Then come,” she stated flippantly before sucking the flat disk of my right nipple. I also liked a little nipple play, and my girl knew exactly the right combination between suction and biting to drive me wild.

  A fire built in my groin and spiraled up my spine from my lower back. “Wanted to come inside you,” I growled angrily while still pumping into her slick hands.

  Without a word, my goddess dropped to her knees, wrapped her perfect lips around my cockhead, and sucked the daylights out of me. I slammed one hand to the tile wall to hold my weight and the other to the back of her neck. She was not going slow. Something untamed had ignited within and seemed to give her the clearance to lay the hoover down on my cock. I gripped her hair in my hands, tugged at the roots, and fucked her face. She mewled and bounced along with each thrust. At one point, I saw her small hand go down between her legs and start circling. That’s when our lovemaking turned to straight fucking.

  “You like touching your hard little clit while I fuck your mouth? Christ,” I rambled. “So sexy on your knees, taking my cock.” I thrust until I slipped down the tight channel. Her eyes widened but she didn’t stop. They were glazed and lust-drunk. I’m sure mine were a perfect match.

  “Yeah, you like it when I take you hard.” I pulled back so she could flick her tongue against the tip while I watched. She closed her eyes and hummed, her hand moving at the speed of light between her thighs. “Does sucking your man off make you hot?”

  She nodded around my cock and then sucked me back down. “Fuck yeah it does! Take your man. This is your cock now. All yours.”

  Her suction got stronger, and I lost the ability to think straight. My mind was focused solely on the woman I loved giving me the best head of my fucking life. As I started to lose what little bit of focus I had been able to maintain, I wrapped both hands around her head, one on her cheek, keeping her mouth nice and opened wide for me, and the other behind her head so I could go deep. She took it all like a champ. Then I became a sap and started up with the filthy sweet nothings.

  “You suck me so good, Monet,” I groaned.

  “I’m going to come hard for you.” A trail of fire licked up my spine.

  “Love your mouth. So fucking tight.”

  “Pinch that clit like I would. Yeah, like that,” I moaned, losing another ounce of control.

  “Oh Jesus, your fucking mouth,” I grated through clenched teeth.

  “Going to come down your throat.”

  “Mark you as mine.”

  Once she’d gone over the edge, she clamped her hands on my ass and worked the same finger she’d used to get herself off between my cheeks until she found the pucker of my anus and pushed it deep inside me. She followed that move up by swallowing me all the way down her throat. I tipped my head back and roared my release, shooting what felt like weeks of pent-up tension down her throat. She took it all, sucking me until I had nothing left to give.

  Complete and utter nirvana coated every pore and nerve ending.

  Slowly she stood and rested her head against my chest. “Best. Shower. Ever,” she announced and kissed me over my heart.

  Damn perfect woman. I’d scored the perfect woman. I laughed, holding her close. “Yeah, it was. Now I need to take care of you.”

  “But you already did…three times.” She winked saucily and shimmied her hips.

  I kissed her mouth in several hard pecks. “I want to wash your hair for you.”

  “That sounds almost as good as you talking dirty to me.” She turned around, presenting me with her back. The wound looked a lot better without the stark black stitches.

  “Looks really good. I think you’ll be pleased with how well it’s healing.” I kissed the ball of her shoulder.

  “I’m trying to gear up to look again, but I’m scared,” she admitted.

  I wrapped my arms around her upper body and let her back rest against my chest softly. “It’s normal to be scared. But I promise you, it will heal every single day. The line will get lighter. You will have a battle scar, but we all have those. It’s part of what you’ve survived up to now.”

  She nodded. “It’s just hard. I keep thinking that I’ll be too ugly to wear tank tops or spaghetti-strap dresses. And if Lily sees it”—her head tipped down—“I won’t even know how to explain that.”

  I shifted her hair to one side, soaped up the pouf, and ran it down the spots that hadn’t been wounded. Then I poured more soap in my hand and lightly ran it down the wound. Monet stayed perfectly still but let me tend to her.

  “She’s going to understand that Mommy got hurt. Mommy is fine now, but she has a scar. I’ll show her some of my scars and explain it to her. It will be fine. Kids are resilient like that. And she’s really smart.”

  I could feel the tension pouring off her as I poured shampoo in my palms, rubbed them together, and got to work on her long hair. She groaned a sexy, scintillating sound that made my dick harden again.

  “What else?” I murmured into her ear and nibbled the curve down her neck until she relaxed.

  Her voice was but a whisper. “I don’t want to be ugly to you. You’re so perfect, and I didn’t really have a body-image issue before, but now…”

  I tossed the pouf to the floor and turned my girl around. “Let’s get this straight right now, Monet. I fell in love with you after you were wounded, not before. Sure, I was absolutely attracted to you before. You’re drop-dead gorgeous. Any man with eyes wants you. Period. And they still will. That isn’t going to change because you have a scar.”

  “You say that now—” she started, but I cut her off.

  “No. I’ll say that a year from now too when I’m tracing your naked back in our marital bed.”

  Her gaze flew to mine, the truth in my words hitting her upside the head. I waited to see if she’d call me on it, but I didn’t think she was ready for that admission. Because I did see us married in the future—in the not-too-distant future. Tonight we’d already laid some heavy shit on one another and admitted our love. Now was the time to rejoice and focus on the good we had.

  She still seemed down, and I didn’t want that for us after what we’d confided. Her fingers traced my side where my tattoo resided. “What do these letters mean?”

  “You’re Chinese. Don’t you know?” I quipped.

  Her nose crinkled up and she frowned. “I’m a Chinese and Caucasian… American. I don’t know Chinese.”

  I laughed hard, knowing she was going to come at me fast, but she needed a subject change to get her out of her funk. I kissed her pretty nose in apology. “I know you are. I’m messing with you. Relax.”

  “Seriously, though, what does it mean?” Her fingers traced each of my ribs in a sensual assault. I sucked in a calming breath and let it out.

  “Pursuit of happiness.”

  Her gaze ran over the symbols, and it gave me an idea.

  “You know, if you don’t like your scar when it heals, you could just get a tattoo to cover it. Make something you despise into something you love, something you made your own.”

  She blinked a few times, smiled widely, and then kissed me hard once. “You are so smart!”

  I shrugged and turned off the water. “I try.”

  As we dried one another, our hands strayed. I tickled her, finding the spots that made her laugh. She pulled back the bedsheets as I stepped into a pair of clean underwear I’d taken from the drawer I’d confiscated. That’s when I heard a blood-curdling scream and the home-alarm system blare. The scream came from inside the house.

  Monet’s head snapped up where she stood naked. “Lily!” she cried out.

  I was out the door and down the hall as fast as my feet could carry me. Her bedroom door was open, and she was screaming at the top of her lungs while pointing at the window. The alarm blared, sounding like a banshee piercing the quiet of the night. I scooped up Lily and held her to my chest. She wrapped her legs and arms around me like a monkey.

  “Baby, what happened?” I tried to use a calm voice, but her fear
and the alarm had my adrenaline pumping and my heart pounding.

  “A man, a man! He broked my window!” she cried into my chest. I could see the curtains moving across the room.

  I flicked on the lights and handed the sobbing little girl to Monet, who’d just run into the room wearing my dirty T-shirt from earlier. I stomped over to the window and opened the curtains with a snap. Nothing was there but a hole the size of a person’s hand near the lock. There was glass on the windowsill inside, as if someone had used a hammer or a tool of some kind to break it.

  The phone rang as the alarm continued to blare, adding to the overwhelming onslaught to our senses.

  I stroked Lily’s head and kissed her temple, and then her mother’s, before walking into the kitchen, both girls hot on my heels. I picked up the phone and gave the alarm code.

  “Yeah, send the police out. We had an attempted burglary and possible attempted kidnapping since it was a child’s room that was breached.”

  Tears rolled down Monet’s face as she whispered to her daughter. Blessedly, the alarm shut off.

  I curled a hand around Monet’s nape and squeezed. “Be strong, beautiful,” I reminded her. “I’m here, and nothing is going to happen to my girls on my watch. Nothing.”

  She nodded furiously.

  “I’m going to grab some clothes really quick. Stay here for a minute.” I ran back to the room, tugged on a pair of plaid pajama pants and a white T-shirt, and then hightailed it back to the kitchen. Monet had Lily on the counter and was holding her close. Fuck, she probably hurt herself carrying her. A knock on the door startled both my girls, causing Lily to cry out in fear.

  “That will be the cops. Just stay behind me as I check.”

  I looked through the peephole and then opened the door to two cops in uniform on the porch. A cruiser was parked in the drive.

  “Thanks for coming so fast.” I opened the door wider and let them in. “Guy tried to break into my little girl’s room. It’s down that way.”

  “Okay, we’ll check it out. This way?” One of the officers pointed and I nodded.

  “You might want to call Detectives Richardson and Bolinsky. They’re already on the case. My girlfriend here was attacked about a month ago.”

  One of the police officers pushed a button on his shoulder mic and started speaking.

  “Come with me.” I tucked my arm around Monet. She still held Lily, who had her thumb in her mouth and her face buried against her mom’s chest.

  A rage like I’d never known simmered in my veins as I took Lily into my arms and led my girls to the safety of the back bedroom. My little girl’s room had been broken into. If I hadn’t had the alarm system installed, that fucker could have taken her, hurt her, or worse. I didn’t want to even imagine the unthinkable.

  If I ever saw Kyle, he was a dead man.

  Chapter Thirteen

  When the heart chakra is functioning well in a child, she tends to be more nurturing and caring. She easily shows compassion to others and is contented in her life. If the heart chakra is overactive in a child, she may become possessive, divisive, or act melodramatically.

  MONET

  I petted my daughter’s black hair, pushing a lock behind her ear and soothing my fingers down her face. She’d finally fallen asleep in between Clayton and me about twenty minutes ago. I couldn’t stop touching her. It was as though my mothering instinct wouldn’t let her go after what’d happened tonight. The two detectives were kind and gentle when asking their questions. At first, Clayton refused to allow them to speak to Lily, not wanting her to have to remember what had happened, but they needed to know as much as possible in order to find the person responsible. I knew in my heart it was Kyle. Lily’s room hadn’t changed since he lived here, and he knew she’d be the easiest target. What he must not have expected was the alarm system Clayton had put in shortly after my attack. Thank God he had.

  A shudder rippled through me as I briefly imagined what it could have been like had Kyle made it into the house. Clayton and I were occupied with one another and Lily was a defenseless little girl. I’d praised her so many times tonight for screaming the way she did. Still, it took the cops leaving and Clayton holding my girl against his chest for a long time in order for her to settle down. Even in sleep, she clung to his hand.

  Clayton was on his side, his big arm curled completely around my daughter. Her head rested on his pillow and her back was against his chest. It was a position a father would take to protect his young, and Clayton hadn’t thought twice about providing her what she needed to feel safe.

  “Thank you,” I whispered over her head.

  He blinked open his eyes and tightened his hold on Lily, his forearm muscles flexing. She sighed and nuzzled her head into his hand.

  “For what?”

  I placed both my hands in a prayer position under my head. “Taking care of us. Of Lily. Being what she needs. She feels safe with you.”

  A gentleness passed over his features. “I’m never going to let any harm come to this little girl. Monet, I was scared as fuck when I heard her scream…” He kissed the top of her head as if he couldn’t stop showing her affection either. “It gutted me. I can’t lose you girls, and I’ll do anything…anything, to keep the two of you safe.”

  His words and the honesty with which he gave them reached into my heart and settled there. I believed him. One hundred percent. Clayton was all in. Somewhere over the past few weeks, he’d fallen in love with Lily and me and decided we were it for him. The shocking thing was that I too finally allowed myself to believe it was real. That the three of us together could actually be the real deal. And boy did I want it. Him. Everything that included. His bossiness, caveman-like attitude, his sweet and tender side when it was just the two of us or when I’d hear him talking just to Lily. Clayton Hart had woven so deeply into the threads of my existence that I never wanted him to leave. And maybe, just maybe, I had a chance to hold on to him, on to this, for the rest of our lives.

  “You did keep us safe. You being here, putting in that alarm…” My voice cracked. “Clay, it could have been so bad.”

  His jaw went hard, and a flicker of anger passed over his eyes. “But it wasn’t.”

  I shook my head. “No, it wasn’t. Because you took care of us.”

  He sighed, tucked Lily close, pulled the blanket up over her shoulders, and ran his fingers through his spikey hair.

  “The detectives are no closer to finding Kyle. The only thing they can surmise now is that he’s still in town. They’re going to put a car on the house again, but they’ve got nothing. No leads. He hasn’t gone to any of his old haunts you mentioned, and his family hasn’t heard from him. Or they’re lying about it,” he hissed. “It’s so goddamned frustrating. I want him locked up.”

  I reached a hand out and wiped it across his forehead before raking my fingers through his hair. “I know. Me too. We just have to believe it will happen. In the meantime, we’re being vigilant.”

  He sighed, and it sounded like the entire weight of the city was lying on his chest.

  “Monet, we need to get you some training.” His voice was a low, tired rumble like a storm slowly moving in.

  I frowned. “Training in what?”

  “Self-defense. Nicholas offered to teach you. Says he’s taught it in the past. I asked him to do it at Lotus House in one of the private rooms.”

  Self-defense. I lifted a shoulder and dropped it. “I mean, it couldn’t hurt. If it would make you feel better, I’ll do it. Not sure I’d be any good at it.”

  His blue eyes shot to mine. “It would make me ecstatic. I also need to know how you feel about firearms.”

  The mention of firearms made me shift up and onto my elbow so I could see him better. “I don’t know anything about guns, Clay, and I’m not sure I want to.” Guns killed people. My stance had always been that if a person wasn’t a trained professional—say a soldier or a police officer—there really wasn’t a reason for them to have a gun. I could s
ee people living off their land owning guns, needing it to hunt and eat. But in the city? In a hippieville college town like Berkeley? Nope, just didn’t add up for me.

  Clay bit into his bottom lip. “I own a gun. It’s back at my pad. Want you to know I’m planning on bringing it here and putting it in a locked box in the closet. If for some godawful reason Kyle gets into the house, I want you to be protected regardless of where I might be.”

  I narrowed my eyes and focused a hard stare on his face. “And where would you be?”

  He lifted his arms showing his hands. “Fuck, I don’t know. In the garage, reading to Lily, cooking dinner, checking the mail, running to the store. Beautiful, I have to know at the very least I’ve left you the tools and skills needed to protect yourself in the event that he gets to you first.”

  “Clay…”

  He shook his head frantically. “I’m not going to bend on this. Tonight was a huge wake-up call.” He sat up, put his fingers into his hair, and rested his elbows on his bent knees. “We need to be extra careful, and that means me protecting my family by whatever method I deem necessary.” He glanced over his shoulder, the depth of sincerity in his eyes flooring me. As worried as I had been tonight, I think it hit Clayton even harder.

  “Do you understand, Monet? I’m your man. I’m this little girl’s male role model. I’m nothing if I can’t protect the two of you. Nothing.” Clayton’s voice trembled when he spoke next. “And I’ll have nothing if something happens to you. You get me?”

  I didn’t exactly get him, but I understood where he was coming from. This thing between us was new. Hell, just tonight we’d admitted our love for one another, and he’d practically shoved his way through moving in with me, another issue we hadn’t talked about.

  Not that I minded, though. I liked having him here. I wanted him here. Lily would love the heck out of him being with us full-time. My love bug was attached. Attached in a way a person doesn’t come back from, which scared and excited me to no end. But Clayton’s declaration of being the man of the house, the man in our lives, washed over me in a pleasurable yet again frightening way, because of what it would mean if we lost him.