She swallowed hard when he turned around to face her, his brown eyes serious. She wished she could read him, and at the same time was relieved she couldn’t. Some things she shouldn’t know—didn’t want to know.
“Do you talk to dead people?”
“No.” She frowned. “That would be a medium.”
“Can you read minds?”
“No.”
His gaze flicked up past her shoulder as he asked, “How does it work? What exactly is it that you do?”
“Why are you asking about all this now? I know you don’t believe, so what’s the point?”
“I’ve never let myself get to know who you really are. Now that I have, I’d like to know more.” He squinted and stepped toward her, but he still wasn’t looking at her.
She moved aside to put distance between them again, and that’s when she saw he was reading the diploma for her bachelor’s degree from CSU. She’d earned every credit through hard work, so yes, she displayed it—but on the darkest wall, where most people didn’t even notice. Of course, Loyal would notice.
“You have a psychology degree?”
There was a hint of surprise and respect in his voice. She wasn’t sure if she should be offended or proud.
“It compliments what I do. Gives me a deeper understanding of human behavior,” she explained briefly.
In truth, suppressing her abilities in high school had left her frustrated with no outlet. She’d chosen psychology so she could help people. After her mother coaxed her into using her gift again, after she then stole the money that was supposed to help pay for her master’s so she could become a licensed counselor, Roxanna had put her degree to use by guiding customers in positive life affirmations.
Loyal pivoted back to face her. “Maybe your…abilities, are really you applying what you learned to make educated guesses.”
She shook her head at his typical skeptic attempt to give a logical explanation to what he refused to believe in. “You’re walking a thin line.”
“I’m trying to understand so it makes sense.”
“I’ve done what I do since I was a little girl, Loyal, and I knew nothing about psychology and human behavior back then. Listen, I’m not going to stand here and try to convince you when you obviously don’t have an open mind about what I do.”
“I’m used to dealing in numbers. They’re concrete,” he said. “I can see them and touch them. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around something I can’t prove.”
She crossed her arms and tried a new angle. “Do you believe in God?”
He looked surprised by the question. “Yes.”
“Have you ever seen him?”
“No.”
His smile told her he knew where she was going, but she continued anyway. “Touched him?”
“Of course not.”
“So, you have no concrete proof of his existence, yet you still believe he exists?”
“Do you?”
“I do, but we’re not talking about me.”
“Okay, yeah, I get what you’re saying.” He glanced toward the table and then back to her. “Show me.”
“Show you what?”
He pulled out one of her two chairs and sat down. “Give me a reading.”
She didn’t move. “I already told you I can’t read you.”
“Are you sure? Because you frickin’ nailed it the other night about Grayson.”
“That was more psychology than psychic,” she admitted. “Besides, even if I could, I don’t feel like I have to prove anything to you.”
“You don’t want to make me believe?”
“I can’t make you do anything, Loyal, nor would I want to. It’s your choice to make, not mine.”
He nodded. “Fair enough. Which puts us back at you telling me what you do and how you do it. Open my mind to the possibilities.”
She eyed him with annoyance, wondering why he was so hell bent on getting her to talk about it right now. “I kind of already explained it earlier.”
“You feel things and see things.” He sat back, palms and eyebrows lifted in exasperation. “That really clears it up.”
Fine. That was somewhat vague. As he rested his palms on his legs and watched her expectantly, she huffed out a breath and stalked over to where he sat. “That’s my chair.”
“Does it matter?”
She stared him down to let him know it did, but that ended up being a huge mistake when all her frustration was swept away by an intense wave of awareness. Her heart rate sped up as heat flooded her body before pooling low in her belly.
The bob of his Adam’s apple told her he felt the energy shift, too. So did the obvious bulge behind his zipper.
All her arguments from earlier were incinerated, carried up and away on a wisp of imaginary ash. She wanted to see and feel things with him again. Denying what was in her heart and soul, suppressing her true essence…she didn’t want to become that person again.
Your true love will be loyal and true.
Maybe her true love literally was Loyal…maybe he wasn’t. But whichever it was, she’d never know if she didn’t take the risk to find out, would she?
Chapter 22
He wasn’t budging from her chair, so Roxanna stepped in close and hitched up her skirt far enough to place one knee on the little section of fabric visible between his spread legs. His eyes widened, and he audibly gulped when she rested her hands on his shoulders and leaned forward.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Changing my mind.”
“Okay.”
She smiled and lifted one hand to run her fingers through his hair. “Is it really okay?”
“You won’t hear any argument from me.” Then his eyebrows dipped. “Although, what about your books?”
“You can play with all the numbers tomorrow.”
“You’re sure?”
“You’re not?”
He smiled, but it didn’t last. “Another thing—”
“It sounds like you’re arguing.”
“I just wanted to say, when it comes to the whole relationship thing—”
Roxanna pressed her finger to his lips with a shake of her head. “We don’t need to go over that again. I know the score, Loyal. I know what you’re willing to offer—or not willing to. I’m okay with it.”
His gaze met hers, and he looked sad for a moment. She felt a pulse of that sadness pass from his lips to her finger and wanted to make it go away. Needed it to go away.
She dragged her finger across his full bottom lip, then reveled in the scrape of his stubble against the palm she placed along his jaw. “When I say that I feel things, it means I can intuit things without trying.”
“How do you do that?” he asked, his voice low and rough.
“Information comes to me when I touch people.” Her lips quirked as she gazed down at him. “Most people, anyway. What they’re feeling, what they believe. I build on that by reading their aura, which is like an energy field around their body, and then I offer guidance and suggestions for positive improvement in their lives.”
“Sounds like you’re counseling them.”
She was impressed he was still listening with her knee pressed up against his crotch. She reached down to undo the three buttons on his vest. “Guiding only. I’m not licensed, so there’s a big difference. People come to me with questions, sometimes vague, sometimes specific, and I try to guide them toward what will make their spirit joyful.”
His hands rose to her hips, and he slipped the tips of his fingers beneath the hem of her sweater. “Can you intuit what would make my spirit joyful right now?”
She gave a soft laugh and started working on the buttons of his light blue shirt. “I don’t have to be psychic to figure that out.”
“No, probably not,” he muttered as he pushed his hands up, lifting the cashmere to expose her stomach, then her lacy, black bra.
Roxanna stopped what she was doing long enough for him to drag her sweater over her he
ad, then finished with the buttons and parted the material over his chest. He smoothed her static-charged hair back from her face, his gaze shifting down to focus on her breasts. She ran her hands over the hard planes of muscle she’d uncovered, then up over his shoulders to push the shirt back, and down his arms.
Loyal sat forward, but when he became distracted placing kisses along the edge of her bra, his sleeves got caught up at his wrists, down around his waist. A useless tug had him letting loose a frustrated growl.
Inspiration struck, and Roxanna grinned as she pushed him back in the chair to effectively bind his arms at his sides.
“Hey—”
She cut off his protest with a hard kiss. His lips parted beneath hers, and she slid her tongue inside to explore while skimming her hands down over his tight abs until she reached his belt buckle.
“If my hands were free, I could help you with that,” he said against her mouth.
“I got it,” she assured him while dragging his zipper down.
She urged him to lift his hips so she could tug his pants down. His briefs followed, and then she wrapped her hand around his full-blown erection. His breath hitched a second before his primal, guttural groan filled her mouth.
Sensual details imprinted on her senses as his tongue continued its tango with hers.
Velvet over steel. Hot. Pulsing.
She gave a soft stroke up and down his rigid length, exploring, testing. He pulled unsuccessfully against his shirt again, and she felt a little thrill at having control as to where this was going. Last time he’d given her pleasure first. Now it was his turn.
Softening her kiss with a final suck on his bottom lip, she then skimmed her lips down his throat and chest. She had never done this before, so she copied what he’d done the night in the stables. If it felt good for her, it stood to reason it went both ways, right?
Another low groan confirmed he liked the tip of her tongue teasing his nipples, but she didn’t stay there long. When she reached her end goal by kneeling between his legs and took him in her mouth, he shifted, sliding his hips farther forward on the chair. His breath was a rough rasp in and out as she circled his tip with her tongue, learning the shape, his taste, and exactly where to press to elicit another growl from deep in his chest.
She gripped his base with one hand and leaned to take him in farther, sliding her lips down the length of him until his tip nudged the back of her throat. Amazed she wasn’t gagging at that point, she pulled back and did it again, only this time she sucked on the way back up.
“Holy fucking shit, Rox,” he rasped.
Safe to assume he liked that.
She smiled slightly before repeating the movement. He shifted beneath her, his body moving in frenetic little jerks in the chair as he struggled against the shirt binding his wrists.
Next thing she knew, his fingers speared into her hair. For a brief second, his hands clenched as he pushed her head down. In the next moment, he reversed direction and pulled her up until he popped out of her mouth.
He leaned forward in the chair, his mouth crashing down on hers. As he nipped and licked and explored with deep, hungry strokes, he urged her to her feet with him. She tried to get lost in the passion, but a niggling little worry took root in her mind.
“Was that not good?” she asked between kisses.
“It was fucking awesome.”
“Then why did you stop me?”
He unhooked her bra and tossed it aside. “Because I can’t have one orgasm after another like you can, and I want to be inside you when I come.”
“Oh.” Her worry subsided.
“You can finish that some other night. Promise.”
Some other night.
Her heart leapt in her chest at the weight of those three little words.
He kept the kisses coming, his mouth urgent on hers while his hands sought the zipper of her slim skirt. When it slid down to pool around her feet, his hands palmed her ass, and he made another one of those sexy, deep throated sounds against her lips.
She was down to her thong and her boots. He’d managed to divest himself of his shirt and vest earlier, and now toed off his shoes and socks before kicking aside his pants and briefs. He held her against him, skin to skin as he kissed her neck and backed her around the chair to the oversized chaise lounge against the wall.
“Gimmie one sec,” he murmured before leaving her.
She took the first second to admire his gorgeous, naked body as he swiped up his pants to dig in the pocket. Realizing he was getting a condom, she sat down to start untying her boot laces.
“Leave them.”
She glanced up in surprise, and then he was in front of her, dropping to his knees. Expecting him to undo her laces himself, she was surprised when he reached for her thong instead. As he wrestled her panties over her clunky boots, she understood he’d literally meant to leave them on, not for her to leave them for him to take off.
Once her thong was gone, his mouth was back on hers, his hands gripping her shoulders to ease her onto her back. He followed her down, his weight settling between her thighs.
“Loyal, I’m not leaving my boots on,” she muttered against his lips.
He lifted his head enough for her to see his grin. “They’re sexy as hell.”
“I thought it was high heels guys liked?”
“Heels don’t hold a candle to those boots, Roxanna.”
“Really?” she asked skeptically.
“Scout’s honor.”
It felt kinda weird, but when he pushed inside her with one smooth stroke, she quickly forgot about everything but the feel of him filling her completely. She drew her knees up high and planted her heels on the lounge. He didn’t move his hips right away. Instead, he bent his head to tease the tip of her left breast. She arched up into his mouth, gripping his biceps as he sucked hard, nipped, then soothed with his tongue.
Sensation flooded her core, making her muscles clench hard around him.
“Again,” she breathed, her eyes fluttering closed.
He complied, lavishing attention on one side, then the other, drawing it out until she rocked her hips against his in a desperate plea to get him moving. He pulled almost all the way out before thrusting deep again. She gave a low moan of approval, and he continued with slow, deep strokes while kissing and biting his way up her throat, to her mouth.
She wrapped her arms around him, gripping his back, then his buttocks, needing him deeper each time. His rhythm increased, and soon a tingle began to build deep inside.
Roxanna tipped her head back, pulling away from his kiss as she filled her tight lungs with needed oxygen. Loyal’s head rested next to hers, his hot breath rasping against her ear as he moved faster.
He reached back to grasp her hand and raised her arm over her head, then did the same for the other. His fingers wrapped around her wrists as he held them there while his movements grew hard enough to rock the lounge beneath them, driving her closer and closer to the edge.
His guttural groan vibrated against her ear. “It’s never been like this for me,” he whispered roughly.
Her racing pulse skipped a beat. “Me neither.”
Although, considering he’d given her her first real orgasm only four nights earlier, he should already know that.
“You’re beautiful, and amazing, and we’re not even done and already I want more.”
She nearly stopped breathing as she felt his head lift at the same time her body coiled tight in a flood of sensation. Barely able to comprehend what he was saying, she opened her eyes to find his dark, intense gaze on her face as he continued to move inside her with increasing urgency.
“Loyal.” His name came out as a plea.
To take her with him over the cliff.
To never let her fall alone.
To love her as she loved him.
“I want more than two nights, Roxanna. I want to see where this goes.”
His voice was rough and raw and full of his own plea as his next d
eep stroke sent her flying. He followed moments later, and then the delicious weight of him collapsed on top of her. As their breathing calmed, she pulled free of his slack grip on her wrists and threaded her hands through his thick, soft hair.
He made a low humming sound of contentment while shifting so he could leverage himself to lay beside her, his head pillowed on his bicep. She rolled to her side, one leg thrown over his hip as she palmed the side of his face. His thick lashes lifted, revealing his beautiful, gold-flecked brown eyes.
A dizzying combination of hope and fear tightened her chest. “Was that a heat of the moment thing?” she asked softly.
He shook his head, his mouth curving into an intimate smile as he smoothed her hair away from her face. “I meant every word. I truly am under your spell.”
A tiny niggle of discontent caught her off guard. “I am not a witch.”
When she moved to get up, Loyal’s hand on her arm kept her from going anywhere. His raised eyebrow paired with the smirk on his lips. “Touchy about that, are we?”
She glanced down as she shrugged her shoulder. “Instinctive defensiveness.”
“That’s understandable. But you don’t have to be with me anymore, Roxanna.”
A soft sigh escaped. “I’m still getting used to that.”
His hand slid up her arm until he cupped the nape of her neck. He used his thumb to tip her face up so he could lean in to caress her lips with his. “I guess I need to apologize again.”
“No,” she assured him. “That’s not what—”
He rose up over her, the increased pressure of his kiss rolling her onto her back again. He kissed her until she was breathless and aching for him to be inside her once more. She didn’t have enough experience to know if that was normal or not, and for once she didn’t care.
Loyal was braced on one elbow, and his other hand cupped her breast, kneading and fondling until he dragged his mouth from hers and leaned down to suck the tip into his mouth. She whimpered her approval as she clenched her fingers in his hair.
“I’ve decided to work on numbers tonight after all.”
Love Loyal and True Page 16