Tangled Threats on the Nomad Highway

by MariaLisa deMora

  “You shouldn’t forget them. They’ll always be part of you.” Glancing from him to the bed and back, she asked, “So the furniture is new, too?”

  “Yeah, baby. Nobody’s been in that bed before us.” His mouth worked and he swallowed. “And that statement is wildly presumptuous of me.”

  “No.” She crowded closer, the hot bar of his erection pressing against her belly. “You’re not being presumptuous. And I think deep inside, you know that.” Her hand curled around his bicep, felt the muscles flex under her hold. “We both have ideas about what happens next, I think.” Sliding her other hand up his chest and under his vest, she curved her fingers around the top of his shoulder and lifted to her toes. “Would you kiss me? Again? Like the first time?”

  His head descended, and their mouths touched, pressed, and moved, a series of tender kisses that fanned those flames inside her that never seemed to quiet when around him. His tongue laved her bottom lip and she rocked back, heels thudding against the floor. Chasing her mouth down, he pressed inside, gentle touches of his tongue prodding her to respond in kind, until they were gasping for air.

  “Please.” She panted the plea, eyes opening to slits to find him watching her closely. “Oh, please.”

  She shivered with a brief chill as his hands left her skin, then he shifted, his vest and shirt vanishing like magic. Welcome heat hit her belly, his hands sliding up and around in a single movement, and she lifted her arms as he relieved her of her shirt.

  She bent her head and got to work on his belt, leaving it dangling from the loops as she moved to his pants. Hers loosened, and then one of his hands slipped inside the back, large palm curving over her ass as he pulled her against him.

  “Einstein,” she complained, then gasped as her bra fell away just as she got the zipper of his pants down.

  “Come on, baby. I want you in this bed. My bed.” He steered her backwards towards where she knew the bed was, so it wasn’t a surprise when it hit the backs of her legs. “Our bed.” He lifted and tossed her, and as she bounced on the mattress, his clever hands had her pants and panties stripped away, socks too. “God damn. I’m a fucking lucky man.”

  He froze in place, and she stared at him, taking in everything about him.

  That crooked smile and the way he stood with shoulders squared, ready for anything. The tattoos extended across his chest and belly, the dark lines and symbols covering so much of that satin skin over hard muscles. He looked unbelievably sexy as he looked down, his gaze roving every inch of her. Heavy scruff defined his jaw, and the furrow that was so often between his brows had faded, leaving him looking lighter and happier. With his jeans hanging off his slim hips, he looked like a conqueror, and she smiled at the thought as she curled onto her side.

  “I’m lucky too.” He smiled at her words, cheeks lifting so his eyes narrowed, the expression of delight such a novelty she marked it, branding it on her brain. “Don’t leave me alone.”

  “Never again, Marian. Never gonna leave you again.” He bent and, with efficient movements, finished stripping before putting a knee to the mattress. “Never again.” He grasped an ankle and tugged, shifting her on the bed. As he moved to rest between her legs, he straightened on his knees, and she saw the rest of his body for the first time. Thick thighs rose in strong columns to the juncture of his body, where a rigid shaft of flesh lifted proudly from a nest of curls. “Neither one of us will be alone. I’ve got you, baby.” The heat along her leg was his hand traveling from ankle to knee, then up her thigh to caress the curve of her hip, leaving behind an indelible trace of his touch in sparks and tingles. “Gonna take care of you.”

  “Promise?” Trembling sounds joined to push that one word out, her throat closing around the rest of the plea.

  His body soared over hers, held up by one stiffened arm as that skillful hand continued its blazing trail along her skin. “Always take care of my baby.”

  “Please.” She didn’t know exactly what she needed, but from the gleam in his eye, she thought he might. “Einstein, please?”

  “Gonna take care of you.” His mouth touched hers, this kiss sweet, reverent, and brief as his lips slid to her cheek, then near her ear. His soft whisper was a gentle, “Wanna make love to you, Marian. I won’t hurt you. Won’t ever hurt you.” Teeth nipped at her lobe, and she gasped, her hands flying up to curl around his back. Palms flat on the broad expanse of skin, she explored as kisses rained down her neck, interspersed with warm, wet passes of his tongue, mixed in equal measure by sharp bites and nips. “Make you ready for me.”

  “I’m ready now.”

  His gentle laughter at her words was accompanied by gusts of air across her chest, and she shivered as his mouth met her breast. Soft lips closed around a nipple and tugged, a movement that had a direct line to her groin, the swell of want pushing her hips up against nothing.

  “Einstein.” Chin to her chest, she watched his face as he pulled more of her into his mouth. With his eyes closed, he looked like he was concentrating hard, and as he sucked firmly she gasped again, sighing, “Jim.” He smiled, lips still tight around her flesh.

  His tongue lapped a wide swath across her pebbled nipple. “Need you wanting, baby.” He shifted to his forearms as he moved down the bed, mouth leaving a wet trail along her skin, tongue working back and forth until he encountered her navel, where he paused. Dipping inside, then curling around the perimeter, the innocent touch made her hips jerk again, this time his chest there to confront the movement. The pressure felt good, so good she repeated the action, groaning when his hand landed on her hip and pinned her to the bed. “Want you desperate for me.”

  “Jim.” When he didn’t look up, she studied what she could see of his face. Brow furrowed, he was concentrating on her every reaction, reading her body like a book, and she knew it wouldn’t take long for him to register her sudden hesitancy. Sure enough, his eyes popped open, and he rested his chin just above her mons, staring up at her. “I’ve never done this before.” He didn’t respond verbally, but the way his pupils dilated told her the words had registered. “I don’t know what to do for you.”

  “You shouldn’t worry about that.” Mouth quirking up on one side, he blinked slowly. “What we’re doing right now has me hard enough to pound spikes.” Shifting, one of his hands disappeared underneath him, and she watched the muscles of his arm bunch and move. He’s touching himself. Talking to me and touching himself. “Me wanting you is never going to be an issue, Marian. And I thought it might be the case, but you not having taken anyone into your body before isn’t a turnoff, so just wipe that idea from your mind. The knowledge that you’ve never trusted anyone like this makes me want to crow.”

  “I understand the mechanics.” She shrugged, feeling silly at having this discussion while naked and half underneath him. “Can’t grow up in the country without having some idea of what sex is about.”

  “Yeah, but we aren’t going to have sex.” He surged up the bed and kissed her hard, forcing his tongue between her lips as she caught up to and met his movements. He broke away, and with his mouth next to her ear, whispered, “I’m going to make love to you, baby.”

  Goose bumps erupted over her skin, drawn there in an instant by the heat and truth in his words.

  “It’ll never be anything else between us. Even if it’s hard and fast sometimes, you’ll know—I’m always going to be making love to you.”

  ***

  Einstein

  He kissed her again, insistently, fingers curled in her hair to tug her head backwards as he traveled from her lips to the satin skin of her throat. Moving back down her body, this time faster, he reconnected with all the places she’d enjoyed on the first round, until he reclaimed his place between her legs.

  Without hesitating, he lapped at her center, tongue laving slowly up to focus on the button of nerves that made her gasp and writhe. Every sound was music to his ears, telling him she wasn’t banking her passion. With his palms scraping up the inside of each thigh, he
curled a firm grip around her hips and applied pressure, holding her in place. Then he made out with her lower lips, not turned off that they’d been on the bike all day because she smelled and tasted of arousal. Slippery wetness met his probing tongue when he speared inside, and the moan she gave at the barely there entrance had his balls drawing up tight to his body. Einstein angled his knees wider, not giving himself any room to find friction, knowing he’d come at the first touch right now.

  He shifted and met his tongue with a finger, getting it wet enough it slid inside her without resistance. Curling and thrusting, he let her sounds and movements guide him, and soon enough, he slipped in a second finger, adding scissoring to the motions in his arsenal. Marian gave him a flow of constant feedback in sighs and moans, gasps scattered and separated by drawn-out cries of his name, by turns low and quavering, or high and demanding.

  With her thighs tensed on either side of his head, he played with all the sensitive areas he could reach, sucking and tonguing her clit until she quivered, then mouthed his way along the juncture of thighs to her body.

  “Jim.” His name came from her mouth on a rising wail, and her body tightened. Mouth to her core, he felt the pulsing of her orgasm through the clenching hold her channel had on his fingers, the jerking of her body under his.

  Pulling back, he kept two fingers inside, thrusting in the same steady rhythm as he brushed his thumb sideways across her clit. Marian’s head was pushed backwards into the pillow, eyes closed, mouth open as she trembled. Her hands roved side to side across her belly, and he tracked each movement, noting each sensual pass over her skin. Nipples peaked, muscles and tendons flexing, and he took it all in. She was a study in beauty laid out on the bed in front of him.

  When he fumbled for the condom he’d tossed to the bed earlier, she seemed oblivious to the crinkle of the wrapper. The beautiful torment of taking himself in hand to suit up turned him into the one groaning, and he gave himself a hard grip around the base before counting it done. Maybe the agony of that makeshift cock ring would let him get all the way into her before blowing.

  Wiping his lips and chin against the inside of an elbow, he levered himself into place above her and lowered his mouth to hers. Gratification spread through his gut when she gasped and met him motion for motion, clearly as eager for the connection as he was.

  Then he was inside her, the barest tip of his cock nudging between her lips. A curl of his back, thrust of his hips, and he sank in halfway, holding still for an eon before pulling back slowly. Her heels thudded against his ass, strong legs keeping him in place, and Einstein opened eyes he didn’t know he’d closed to see Marian’s brow furrowed.

  Mouth open and panting, she mouthed, “Please,” as her arms lifted to curl around his shoulders.

  He pushed inside again, finding that halfway point and surpassing it before he again retreated. Her worry was lessened this time, body finding the same rhythm as her hips rose and fell. A final long glide had him buried deep, the base of his cock grinding against her clit in a way that set her body shuddering. The movement transferred directly to his dick, and he froze with eyes wide open, panting as he held back his orgasm by will alone.

  “Please, baby.” Her mouth touched his, words whispered against his lips. “Please move. Please.”

  Finding a rhythm between them was easy as breathing, and the silken glide of her sweat-slickened skin against his ratcheted up the need, the desire. They moved, coming together and falling apart, joined intimately. His mouth found hers often, and hers matched the motion.

  Propped on one forearm, Einstein drifted a hand along her side. Arms circling his upper body, Marian slid her palms across his back. He caught her off guard when his hand slipped between their bodies, thumb working her clit as he used short, deep, sharp thrusts of his hips that seemed to stoke her passion. When she tightened around him and came again, it felt like he’d won a victory. Burying his head against her neck, Einstein breathed out the truth he’d held inside for a long time.

  “Love you, baby. Not gonna be without you. Mine, you’re mine, you get that? You and me, we belong together.” Each word strengthened the flames of his own desire, and he went with the demands of his body, moving faster, driving deep, burying himself inside her over and over.

  “Love you too.” As if his words gave hers permission to exist, she repeated them. “For a long time now, I’ve loved you. Want to be with you. Want you always. Don’t leave me alone.”

  He pushed up enough to crash his mouth to hers, each sobbing sigh of breath joining them until he couldn’t tell where he ended, and she began—they just were. Then he was coming, the crashing wave of passion lifting and rising over him until it tumbled him under. Collapsing on top of her, he buried his face against her neck, each surge of pleasure rolling up and through him almost painfully. Gradually it receded, and he came back to himself with a realization that she’d wrapped him up. Arms and legs, even her head was pressed tightly to his, as if she were trying to keep him from flying apart.

  An apt metaphor for Marian’s very existence in his life.

  Nothing in recent memory had ever felt as right as Marian in his arms. Einstein deliberately didn’t make his mind shy away from thoughts of Lauren and Makayla, because being with the woman he loved now wasn’t disrespectful to their memories. This, what he had with Marian, wasn’t moving on; it was just simply living.

  Bringing her here had been easier than expected, and most of that had to do with the construction that had transformed the house completely. That had taken a conversation with Vanna and Sharon to understand, and when he’d finally voiced the anxiety he carried, their simple solution was brilliant. Don’t want to take his new love to his dead wife’s house? Change the house.

  The whole ride had been his subconscious way of purging out any residual pain, seducing him with the pleasure of her wrapped around him on the bike. While instigated by her, it had been a way to join them tighter.

  Her here, in this bed with him, no one else in the house—perfection.

  He rolled them to their sides, chuckling when she clutched him closer. “Not going anywhere, Marian. Just need to take care of the condom.” Backing his hips away, he reached between them, pausing to stroke the slope of her breasts before continuing across her belly and down to his softening cock. Rubber off, tied, and thrown on the floor, Einstein turned back to her and cupped a hand over her sex. Not playing, just tracing the creases, watching her face for any flinches of pain. Finally satisfied he hadn’t hurt her, Einstein forced an arm underneath her head and angled to his back, pulling her with him so she was splayed out half on top of him. Already tight against his side, she snuggled closer still, head fitting perfectly into the hollow of his shoulder.

  She shuddered suddenly, teeth chattering lightly, and he realized his sweat-cooled skin was growing colder too as the air conditioner kicked on. It took a few moments, but he maneuvered them underneath the covers, sheets crisp and smelling like sunshine.

  “You doing okay, baby?” His question was met with a quiet hum, and he grinned up into the darkness. “Hungry, or wanting for anything?”

  She hesitated for so long he wasn’t sure what was going on in her head and had opened his mouth to ask again when she spoke. “Is Birmingham home? Is that why you had the house remodeled?”

  “It could be, in the right situation.”

  “What’s the right situation?” Her teeth clattered together briefly, and he wrapped her tighter in his arms.

  “Retro’s my president, like Bane is for Gunny and Truck, and Blackie is for Bane.”

  “What?” Marian looked up at him, her features wrinkled into the most adorable frown he’d ever seen, and Einstein pressed a kiss between her brows. “No, seriously. What does that have to do with this house?”

  “I don’t want to be without you. Never again. Do you get me?” He curled around her. “I’m wholly enamored of you, Marian. This isn’t a flighty feeling, not some beer bravery. This is real as it gets, yeah?” />
  “Okay.” Drawing the word out, she angled so their gazes clashed, hers full of confusion.

  “How attached are you to your little room at the compound?” He shifted uncomfortably. “To your job there?”

  He saw the moment understanding came over her, the expression on her face blanking. Hiding her true feelings seemed second nature to Marian, and he made a mental note to circle back around to that.

  “You’re moving back here.” There was no nuance to her words, just a flat statement.

  Oh, that won’t do at all, honey.

  “Following the most direct route, it’s three-plus hours. Not even half a day back down to Baker.” Einstein dusted kisses along her cheek and across the bridge of her nose before angling to her mouth. “Retro’s put up with a lot from me over the past years. Man’s one of the most loyal I’ve ever met, and I love him like a true brother. But you tell me Birmingham is a no-go, then he’s going to have to be more patient. Me with you is not negotiable. The rest of it? We have lots of time to figure it out.”

  “You’d put this on hold so fast? The house, what I saw of it, looks gorgeous. A remodel isn’t cheap, either. You just sunk all that cost here, and you’d turn your back on it?”

  “Baby, for more than three years I’ve been in orbit around you without really realizing it. When I opened my eyes and saw what I’d been doing, the feeling that hit me sure wasn’t being pissed. My heart’s known for a long time that you were important to me, that I needed, as well as wanted…you. That’s all that matters. This?” He gestured around the room and brought his hand back to rest on her cheek, cupping her face, heat from her skin sinking into him in familiar ways. “It’s a place. A house, baby.” Her lips were giving and soft against his gentle kiss. “You’re my home.”