Love Loyal and True

by Stacey Joy Netzel

  Don’t you dare cry.

  Loyal caught her arm and spun her back around. She gasped in surprise when he braced a hand on either side of her, trapping her against the Jeep as he leaned close.

  “I told you I wasn’t going to be a jerk anymore, so don’t make it sound like I’m being one now.”

  Chest tight with remorse, she stared at his chin. “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “You know why I said no,” he accused.

  She nodded, the force of her pounding heart making it impossible to speak.

  As they stood there, his heat burned through her leather suit from head to toe. She lifted her lashes, and her breath caught in her chest when his fiery gaze locked with hers. Time suspended as a whirlwind of conflicting emotions seethed between them.

  His body pressed hers against the vehicle, hot and hard as his breathing grew shallow.

  “One night.”

  Those two rough words were a question, a warning, and a promise all in one.

  She should say no. She should be smart like he’d tried to be. But she’d never felt more alive in her life, more wanted, than this moment with him.

  “One night,” she managed to whisper in agreement.

  Roxanna expected him to kiss her then—ached for him to kiss her—but he grabbed her hand and pulled her with him. She was suddenly too nervous to ask where they were going, and moments later they reached his Land Rover. He opened the passenger door, but instead of stepping aside for her to slide onto the seat, he leaned inside, grabbed something from the glove box, then slammed it shut, and then the door.

  He took her hand again and they were halfway to the stables when it dawned on her he’d grabbed a condom. Her stomach flipped over. She hadn’t had to think about protection in a very long time. She was on birth control, but that wasn’t the only consideration.

  At least he was prepared.

  At the stables, he reached behind a bush growing close to the brick wall, and a moment later he’d unlocked the side door. After he put the key back, he held the door open and arched his brow at her.

  “Still want to do this?”

  She fought a confused frown at the challenge in his rough voice. Was he trying to scare her off? Get her to change her mind by offering an offensive quick roll in the hay?

  One look into his eyes and she saw that’s exactly what he was doing.

  Because it was a misguided attempt to save her from herself, she overlooked the potential jerkiness of the move.

  Roxanna held her head high as she strode past him into the dimly lit stable. Over the years, she’d come down with Asher to see the horses a few times, and like always, she was grounded by the earthy scent of horses, hay, and oiled leather. The stable manager, Estefan Torrez, was a stickler for keeping everything neat and clean, so it had never smelled like she’d expected a barn to smell.

  The click of the lock behind her made her nerves flinch, and she drew in another deep breath of the soothing scents. This night was hers. She was going to make the most of it.

  A moment later, Loyal brushed past her with a blanket in his hands. Her heart kept a fast rhythm in her chest as she followed silently. He entered an open stall with hay stacked inside, and studied the layout for a second.

  “This should work.” He pressed both palms on a couple of bales stacked nearly waist-high against the wall of the neighboring stall and gave them a few crude, hard shoves. “Perfect.”

  After tossing the blanket over the bales, and dropping the condom on the edge of the blanket, he reached up to untie his costume cape. Not once did he turn to look at her, and Roxanna narrowed her gaze at his calculated, matter of fact approach.

  Time to turn the tables.

  Chapter 14

  Loyal knew there was a very high probability when he turned around Roxanna would slap him across the face.

  He’d deserve it, too. Hoped for it.

  His heart thumped so damn hard as he tossed his cape on the hay beside the blanket. He was scared right now. Of wanting her too much. Of liking her too much. The damn woman kept rising to his challenges, shocking him again and again while turning him on in a way that threw him wholly off balance. He felt out of control and needy around her, and he didn’t like it one bit.

  Instinct urged him to run as fast as he could in any direction away from the brunette witch behind him. His dick kept his feet planted firmly in the stall.

  After a final deep breath to prepare, he turned around so she could smack him and storm out and he could get on with his life.

  But one look at Roxanna, and his breath seized in his lungs. He was fucked.

  Well and truly fucked.

  She stood about three feet away, the front of her suit unzipped from throat to navel. The open material revealed the swell of her small breasts and his body throbbed when he realized she wore no bra underneath that leather. It immediately had him dying to know about her underwear.

  Without meeting his gaze, she shouldered past him, then boosted herself onto the hay to sit facing him. His mouth went dry when the top of her suit gaped open, giving him a teasing glimpse of her dusky, pebbled nipples.

  When she finally did lift those long, sooty lashes to meet his gaze, she arched an imperious eyebrow, as if to say, “Well? Let’s get on with it.”

  He took a step forward, his gaze on her while he fumbled with the buckle of his belt.

  She raised a foot and came within an inch of kicking him in the groin. When he lurched back in alarm, she grinned. He narrowed his gaze.

  Keeping her foot raised, she said, “This suit can’t come off unless my boots come off.”

  The husky pitch to her voice made his blood sizzle. He finished undoing his belt, dropped it at his feet, then took a firm hold of her ankle so he could guide the sole of her foot to his thigh. As he undid the laces, he glanced up and nearly swallowed his tongue when she reclined on her elbows. The move made her top gape wide open to expose her bare breasts. His trembling fingers fumbled to get her boots off as fast as possible.

  She watched him, a smile playing on her lips that had him silently vowing to make her pay for teasing him—in the best possible way. As soon as he tossed her first boot over his shoulder, she lifted her other foot.

  While he worked those laces, he slowly slid his gaze up her long legs, past the dip of her belly button to her bare chest, and finally reached her flushed face. His heart was still thudding crazy hard, and his erection throbbed with every beat.

  “Every man who’s ever fantasized about Catwoman hates me right now.”

  Her gaze narrowed in warning. “No one better ever hear about this.”

  “What happens in the stable stays in the stable,” he promised. “I’m just saying, this is a fantasy held by guys the world over.”

  “Is it one of yours?”

  “I live in the world, don’t I? And you make one hell of a fine Catwoman, Roxanna.”

  With that said, he tossed her second boot over his shoulder, took off her demure white ankle socks, and then hooked his hands behind her knees to tug her closer at the same time he stepped up between her thighs. A soft gasp parted her lips, and he was torn between kissing and touching.

  He leaned forward and braced one hand on the hay beside her ribs, then flattened his other palm over her navel. Her stomach quivered under his touch, and he slowly slid his hand up, lifted to drag his knuckles through the valley between her breasts, then flattened again to wrap his hand around the back of her neck.

  Her chest moved up and down with her quick, shallow breaths, the rise and fall of her pert mounds beckoning him to lick and suck. One hand clenched the blanket, the other her hair as he lowered himself down to flick one of her nipples with the tip of his tongue.

  “Loyal.” She breathed his name as a plea, her back arching, pushing her breast up to his mouth.

  He wanted his name on her lips again and again.

  Bringing his hand back down to cup one breast, he swirled his tongue around the tip of the other, then sucked
her into his mouth. Her moan triggered an urgency in his own body, but he forced himself to take his time, to wring as many sounds of pleasure from her as possible.

  Finally, he urged her to sit and captured her mouth with his while stripping her bare to her waist. Her hands were busy, too, tugging at his costume top, stripping it off, then going straight for his pants as their mouths collided again. He angled his hips back with a soft sound of denial, then laid her back so he could take her suit all the way off.

  She lifted her hips, and he groaned at the feel of her bare ass cheeks against his palms. As he dragged the supple leather farther down, a sexy little black thong was revealed. He kept going, relishing the toned muscles of her thighs and calves, until he stripped the suit past the delicate arch of one foot, and then the other.

  He raised his gaze slowly. “All these years…all those skirts.”

  “You don’t like my skirts?”

  “I had no idea what they hid.”

  Her cheeks pinkened in the most charming way, and he skimmed his hands up to hook his fingers in her thong. As he pulled it off, she moved to sit up. He sensed a sudden tension in her body and paused when he read the anxious look on her face. It was a marked difference from the seductive siren a few minutes ago.

  He stepped between her legs once more and reached out to cup her cheek. “What? You change your mind?”

  Please don’t let that be it.

  She flattened her palm on his abs and lightly stroked up his chest. Fire trailed behind her touch, and her other hand joined the first, her gaze following their path. “It’s, um, been a very long time for me. And there’s only ever been one guy before…now.”

  His heart kicked hard beneath her palm. Shit. She might as well be a virgin.

  One night suddenly seemed wrong—and in the fucking hay to boot. He really was an ass.

  “It’s fine, Roxanna.” Somehow he managed to force the rest of the words from his lips. “We don’t have to do this.”

  “I want to,” she blurted when he started to step back. She grabbed the waistband of his pants to keep him right where he was. “I just—kiss me. I stop thinking when you kiss me.”

  He knew he should say no, but with her gorgeous body naked before him, he couldn’t have if he wanted to—and he damn sure didn’t want to. The idea that he was only the second man to ever touch her so intimately triggered a primal feeling of possession that left him shaken to his core.

  “Loyal.”

  That whispered plea had him dipping his head to cover her mouth with his again. He slid his tongue against hers as he ran his hands all over her body. Her soft skin and womanly curves were heaven.

  As soon as she was good and worked up again, he eased her back and kissed his way down her throat to her breasts. After a minute, he moved to her ribs, and lower across her belly.

  When she tensed again, he said, “Trust me.”

  It wasn’t a question, and yet, not a command, either. He placed a light kiss on her navel, then glanced up without lifting his head. Her darkened gaze met his, and she nodded.

  “Close your eyes, and just feel. It’s even better than a kiss. Promise.”

  Her throat muscles worked in a hard swallow, and then she closed her eyes and leaned her head back. The beautiful sight of her laid out before him seared into his memory before he shifted lower and got his first exquisite taste of her.

  Roxanna’s surprised intake of breath turned into a low moan of pleasure that had him wanting to strip off his pants and seat himself deep in her heat. Instead, he used his mouth and hands to take her to the peak. She reached one hand behind and up to hold onto one of the iron bars separating the stalls, and the other threaded in his hair.

  Another image he’d never forget.

  Her grip had his scalp tingling, and as one last swirl of his tongue detonated her climax, she cried out his name. He nearly came with her right then.

  He kissed his way back up her body and felt for the condom as she caught her breath. He buried his face in her hair for a moment, breathing her in. She always seemed to have a different scent, and yet every time he smelled her, there was an underlying note that was achingly familiar. Her own unique scent that reached out to him no matter what else she dabbed on her skin.

  She wrapped her arms around him, and slid her hands up to lightly rake her short nails through his hair. “That was a first,” she whispered.

  “Oral?” he asked as his searching fingers closed around the condom.

  “And orgasm.”

  Chapter 15

  Roxanna winced when Loyal stilled and lifted his head to look at her. Why in the world did she have to go and admit that to him?

  “Are you serious?”

  “Of course not,” she bluffed, totally unconvincingly. Suddenly, she wished she had something to cover up with.

  He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her collar bone. “I don’t believe you.”

  She shrugged.

  His lips trailed up her neck to her mouth, and he efficiently wiped any self-conscious thoughts away with a kiss that had her wanting his fingers and tongue to work more magic.

  “Knowing that was your first makes me want to give you a second,” he murmured against her mouth.

  Who’s the psychic here?

  He seemed to be reading her mind with uncanny accuracy tonight. But hey, if the second was as good as the first, hell yeah.

  “Okay,” she agreed softly.

  He grinned against her lips until she slid a hand down his chest, over his stomach, to the waistband of his Batman pants. The first brush of her hand against his erection triggered a groan from deep in his throat. He suddenly pushed off the hay, and she lifted her head to see him stripping off his boots, pants, and briefs.

  The size and length of his erection shortened her breath, and her core muscles clenched as she watched him roll on the condom. His gaze locked with hers when he climbed up onto the hay bales with her and settled his weight between her thighs.

  The unexpected intimacy of his gaze made her stomach flutter. Afraid he might see more than she wanted him to, she closed her eyes. Needing him inside her like she’d never needed anything else before, she drew up her knees on either side of his hips to urge him forward.

  His biceps bunched and flexed beneath her palms as he held his weight off her while easing inside with slow strokes that went deeper each time. Finally, he gave one last thrust that buried him to the hilt and locked their hips together.

  “You good?” he asked, his voice tight.

  Bottom lip caught between her teeth, she concentrated on the amazing sensation of their joined bodies and nodded. Then she quickly opened her eyes. “You?”

  “Yeah.” The white of his teeth flashed with his smile as he withdrew his hips and then drove home again. “I’m definitely good.”

  She smiled back and lifted her hips to meet his next thrust. His low grunt conveyed his approval when she matched the rhythm he set. He bent his head to capture her lips, and a tingle started deep inside as his tongue mimicked the steady pistoning of his hips.

  Inarticulate sounds of pleasure that she had no control over fell from her lips. Sensation built again, moving her hips faster, urging him faster. She reached with both hands to grasp the iron bars behind her head for an anchor while he moved over her, each thrust deep and hard, hitting just the right spot inside.

  He pushed up higher on his arms and reached one of his hands to cover hers on the bar. The new angle had her seeing stars a half-dozen strokes later. As waves of pleasure crashed over her, his fast rhythm faltered before his whole body tensed and he climaxed with one final thrust.

  He collapsed on top of her with a low groan of satisfaction.

  “Holy shit,” he muttered into her hair moments later.

  Yeah. Holy shit is right.

  The weight of his body on hers was a pleasure she hadn’t expected. Arms wrapped around him, she lightly stroked her fingers up and down his back. Her couple of times with a boyfriend back in co
llege couldn’t hold a candle to what she’d just experienced.

  What she’d shared with Loyal.

  He shifted and rolled to the side, bringing her with him before reaching down to flip his cape over them like a blanket. She laid her head on his chest as his fingers threaded through the length of her hair. Until he hit a snarl, then he started back up at her scalp, and moved down again.

  Hay bales weren’t the most comfortable mattress even with a blanket, and still the strong, steady beat of his heart beneath her ear had her drowsy lashes drifting down.

  Your true love will be Loyal and true.

  The voice from her vision echoed in her mind, only this time Loyal flashed in her head as a name, not a word.

  She snapped her eyes open. Her heart skipped and then raced with panic.

  What was she doing? She couldn’t lay there listening to his heartbeat, feeling his chest move up and down with each breath, fall asleep wrapped up in the warmth of his strong arms.

  First of all, they were in the stables!

  Second of all, she wanted a forever love like Asher and Honor’s, and he couldn’t give her that—wouldn’t give her that.

  Pain constricted her chest, but she couldn’t blame him. He’d been totally up front with her—even tried to walk away. She’d pulled him back and agreed to the stipulations.

  One night. No more. Now she had to honor the agreement.

  Roxanna counted ten more beats of his heart before she forced herself to push up and lean over to place a kiss on his lips. She fought the urge to linger, pulling back before he could use his tongue to make her lose her mind and her will to leave.

  “Thank you,” she said as she scooted off the blanket covering the hay and looked for her thong.

  “Thank you?”

  Bewildered surprise colored his voice as he sat up. She snuck a glance at his raised eyebrows while she pulled on her underwear and swiped up her cat suit. With him watching her every move, she’d never felt more exposed physically or emotionally.

  Drawing on whatever inner dignity she could muster, she stepped into the legs of her suit and pulled it up her body. “Yes, thank you. That was amazing.” Her voice came out formal and stilted, the words sticking like sawdust in her dry mouth. “Not only are you exceptional at kissing, but everything else as well.”