dibs (18 page)

Her chin fell to her chest. “Thank you, Mac. For coming for me.”

Her pace resumed. My longer strides caught her quickly.

“You’re angry?” I asked.

“How long have you known?”

Up ahead, Kat and Juls were yelling and waving us on. Blake and Cody were with them. My heart was pounding, and it had little to do with our pace.

“How long? How long have you known?” Her voice rose.

There was no way I was going to lie. Maybe this was best. Maybe she’d simply turn and walk away from me, never looking back. “Since the Reno airport.” I knew that would freak her out.

“You were there?” she squeaked.

I nodded. “We were on the same flight,” I admitted.

“Oh my God. Do you know me?”

“No. Not even a little bit.”

She tried to speak a couple of times but it only came out as puffs of air. Finally, she said, “How did this…this…you and me…happen?”

I just stared at her. I didn’t have a response. The only answer I had…fate. And that word scared me to say out loud.

Sweat drizzled down my temples, between my breasts and down my back. My hands reeked and were sticky with a variety of bodily fluids, so I hesitated when the Captain extended his hand to me.

Mac accepted his hand and immediately began thanking him and explaining to him that I was a doctor and a condensed version of what had just transpired.

My irritated face didn’t go unnoticed by Kat or Juls. Kat immediately started chewing on her cheek. Juls’ lip literally pulled into a snarl.

RULE 31—if you’re mad at a guy, all rationale goes out the window for your friends too. They always take your side.

A small group had gathered near the on ramp to welcome us back, wanting to know if it was a boy or a girl, in their minds assuming that all was right in a newborn’s world. Little did they know a baby was fighting for life in the first hours of its life.

“Let’s go get you washed up,” Kat said, navigating me away from the crowd.

“What’s wrong?” Juls whispered loudly from behind.

“She’s angry at me,” Mac threw out there from somewhere behind me.

“It’s not just you,” I agreed.

“What did you do, Thor?” Juls rumbled.

“None of your business, Juls,” Blake added.

“Blake!” Mac growled.

“How about we play a game of fuck off, Blake, and you go first,” Juls spit out.

“What the fuck did I do? I was just saying that it’s their business, not ours,” Blake answered.

Juls spun around. “That’s not how we work. And by we, I mean the three of us.”

“Well, that’s how we work,” he said. “And by we, I mean guys!”

Unable to take the conflict, I abruptly covered my ears and stopped walking, causing Mac to crash straight into me. His arms caught me from falling when I teetered off balance.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“Blake. Juls. Please don’t fight. Everyone just needs to calm down…” My words trailed off.

Tears simmered in my eyes as my thoughts shifted to the infant. The medical care that would never be received. The baby clearly wasn’t full term. Six months at most.

“Sam,” Mac said my name—his voice, etched with hurt, cut through me.

I instantly regretted some of the things I’d said to him on the beach, causing shame to flash in his eyes. What’s sad is for someone who was simply scheming sex on a cruise, he took it like a champ.

“Do you want me to go back? I’d do that, now that you’re safe.”

“Go back?” I asked puzzled.

“To check on the baby. To see if he’s ok?”

I couldn’t answer before my bottom lip began to tremble. The unwanted tears busted through their dam as every emotion from the past year surfaced. Threats of losing Jake. Failed relationships. Being alone. Turning forty. The possibilities with Mac that would never be. A baby dying on my watch.

Embarrassed, I stormed in the opposite direction of everyone. In my heart, I knew he’d follow. I don’t know what it was that kept him coming back for more. Free, unattached sex…I suppose.

“Samantha. I’m sorry. I can’t say it enough,” he said in a low timber, following me into my cabin.

At the sink, I washed my arms as if I was scrubbing in for the OR. I also washed my face and mouth out. He stood close, not pushing me, but making his presence known.

“When I saw you on the cruise with the life jacket around your neck, trust me. I was shocked. I’d seen you at the airport. Then here you were. You were so stinkin’ adorable with that thing locked around your neck. Little did I know when I offered to help that you would strike like a rattlesnake.”

Drying my arms and hands with the towel, I narrowed my eyes and pressed my lips together. “Do you really think you’re helping yourself with the rattlesnake comment?”

His brow furrowed. “I don’t know how to do this Sam. I don’t know how to apologize.”

“What difference does it make? Soon, we will be going separate ways, Mac. Does it matter if I’m angry at you?”

Unexpectedly, his palms cupped my chin. “Yes. It matters to me. Here, let me help. Raise your arms,” he said lifting my soiled peasant blouse over my head. Then he unbuttoned my khaki shorts nudging them down my hips.

Sincerity radiated from the blue in his eyes I’d fallen in love with. It was as if he needed this. Needed me. Shallow breaths puffed between his lips.

“I forgive you,” I whispered. Within a short second, his mouth took possession of mine, his warm tongue madly searched for my tongue. When he found it, the kiss softened, deepened, and a low groan worked its way up his throat vibrating through me. Something was different about his kiss, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Desperation? Or maybe finality? A combination of both?

His arm wound around my lower back, tugging me tightly against him. With his other hand, he lowered the strap of my bra, and his mouth moved to my shoulder. What seemed to be a frantic mission just moments before had turned into a slow, methodical worshiping of my body. The tip of his tongue paved a leisurely path over my collarbone and then his lips kissed the skin before he moved down to my sternum.

An electrical current seemed to shoot through me as my body hummed in anticipation of his touch. His nose pushed my bra back exposing my hardened nipple. At first, he brushed his nose over the top, then his tongue lightly swept over it before his mouth came down gently sucking the nipple.

An involuntary whimper rolled over my lips. He stopped, his eyes searched my face, my body for something.

“What?” I asked.

“You’re…everything. You slay me with your smile. You murder me with your wit. You slaughter me with your heart. I’ve never met anyone like you, Sam.”

My eyes scanned his face searching for any indication that he wanted more than right now. I always had something to say, but now I had nothing.

“Well…that all sounds pretty damn painful.”

The sides of his mouth curled up. “I fear it’s gonna be.”

The breath I held, waited to be released, as I tried to figure what he meant by that. But then he quickly resumed his seduction of my body, unclasping my bra and freeing my breasts. His lips swept over my cleavage.

“You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met, Samantha.” His breath rolled over my skin, causing my nipples to harden tighter.

My scattered thoughts got lost as his massive hands gripped my ribcage in an act of worship. With his nose, he repeatedly nuzzled over my stomach—the one place I hated. Yet, he seemed to appreciate it…much more than I.

“I need to be inside you,” he stated so matter of fact. Desperation swam in the blues of his eyes as he glanced up at me.

With one finger, I drew a line from his temple to his chin.

“I need you too, Mac.

Suddenly, he reached behind him, tugging his shirt up from the back and over his head. As quickly as he discarded the shirt, his shorts joined them in the pile.

From where he stood before me, his lustful gaze fogged over even more.

“Take my boxers off, Samantha. I want to feel your fingertips graze over my body. When you go home, I want to remember your touch. I will carry it with me. I swear to God, I want that to be the very last memory I think of before I meet death.”

The eloquent declaration spoken so softly was the most beautiful words I’d ever heard, yet led to utter confusion in my head. My touch was so memorable that he wanted to remember it on his deathbed, but he was willing to say goodbye with little to no hesitation.

Pushing the mixed up thoughts to the side, I measured his reaction as I gently scraped my nails over his sides, sliding my fingers beneath the waistband of his boxers and slowly inching them down his body until they pooled at his feet. I’d never in my life met a man so masculine. Nor had I ever had the opportunity to taste one.

His eyes stayed closed. For days all I wanted was him to close his eyes when I was naked, but now…I needed to stare into those blues. His eyes talked to me sometimes more than his mouth.

When my hand circled his swollen cock, he exhaled a long, deliberate breath.

“Mac,” I whispered, his eyes peeled open. “I wanna know more about you.”

For a short second, a grimace flashed over his face and then quickly disappeared. With the backs of his knuckles, he drew down my cheek.

“I need you tonight, Sam. Like I’ve never needed anyone. No talking. Please. Stroke me.” The deepness in his voice settled somewhere between my nipples and the wetness in my panties. Instantly, my hand began sliding up and down his shaft.

There was vulnerability about him tonight. It was a side of him I hadn’t seen, but I liked it as much as all the other sides. Both his hands fisted in his hair like he was trying to hold his head on his neck.

A small pool of semen leaked out of the tip. I lapped over it with my tongue; unexpectedly, he clutched my upper arms, lifting me.

“What do you want from me?” he growled, causing my heart to skip a beat.

“Nothing!” I hissed, assuming that’s what he wanted to hear. He’d already made it clear we were going separate ways. There was no doubt in my mind that he wouldn’t hurt me but what the hell was he doing?

The blue in his eyes crystalized when he released my arms. My fingers tingled as blood rushed back toward my hands.

“Get on your hands and knees, Samantha,” he whispered, but it lingered in the stillness of the room.

Puzzled, I knelt on the floor because even though my mind clouded with confusion, there was nothing I wanted more than to meet his sexy demands. I’d read about dominant men but never had I experienced one.

His hand gently hooked my underarm and lifted me back to my feet. “Hands and knees on the bed, Sam.”

Oh. God, I hated my ass and the one damn hemorrhoid that had never gone away since Jake’s birth. Yet, I did exactly what he asked. Thank goodness, my panties still covered me. My heart pounded in my throat as the anticipation got the best of me.

When his hands slid beneath the hem of my panties, I braced myself for my entire body to be bared to him. Suddenly, the lace ripped easily with his strength. He. Ripped. My. Panties. Off. His palm cupped and caressed gently over my butt cheeks as goose bumps fanned out over my skin.

SMACK!
The slap robbed me of breath. I’m still not sure if I heard it first or felt it first, but the sting I would remember forever. What the fuck? When I started to flip around, his hands gripped my hips holding me in place.

“Relax and stay put, Samantha,” he ordered; his hand tenderly stroked the sting. As he rubbed, he came closer and closer to my aching entrance. Unconsciously, my body arched into his touch.

His moan rippled out over the silence.

One of his hands snaked around my chest, cupped my breast, and rolled my nipple between his thumb and finger.

“Mac,” I whispered, the pleasure of his touch unbearable.

Before I could recover from the pleasure of his hand on my breast, his finger slid knuckle deep into me.

I calmly breathed through the welcomed intrusion…my inhibitions floated seamlessly away.

SMACK!
The slap this time brought immediate tears to my eyes. Why did he want to hurt me?

His finger continued to penetrate every inch of me but came out long enough to tease my clit before disappearing again. His hot breath puffed out over my mistreated skin, and then he dropped kisses over the same ass cheek. The pain got lost between his kisses and his continued finger fuck.

The orgasm built low in my groin…radiating out over my abdomen. My body hummed with a sexual energy I’d never experienced. When his hand cupped my breast and rolled my nipple gently between his thumb and finger, I braced myself for the possible slap, but it didn’t come. My climax…was coming though…and my legs wobbled.

The room was a mix of sounds. My satisfying sighs combined with his hushed moans, and the sounds of my wetness as he deliberately moved in and out of me. With an expertise that I never knew existed, he capably drew the orgasm from me. This man was a pro.

“Oh, Mac,” I exhaled, preparing to ride out this pleasure.

I would never get enough of this man.

SMACK!
My eyes shot open as my unexpected cry ripped up my throat. The orgasm lingered so the pain dissipated much quicker…the pleasure overpowering any pain.

The sound of the condom wrapper ripping caught my attention momentarily before his finger circling my clit became the only thing my mind could focus on. I was going to explode…

“Come, Samantha,” he ordered, and I’ll be damned if my body didn’t hear him and o-fucking-bey.

I cried out at the force of the spasms overpowering my body. My uterus contracted in a way it never had. Waves and waves of pleasure rippled out over my abdomen as the inner walls of my pussy longed for something to clench.

As if reading my mind, Mac thrust into me…every single inch of him. Instinctively, my hands clawed at the bed sheets, trying to offset the pleasure of the over-capacity invasion.

“Ahh!” I cried out.

When he withdrew, I inhaled, grateful for the chance to breathe. He plunged in again, his balls slapping against me. Unconsciously, I lowered my head to the bed; my arms reached back to prevent him from giving me everything he had, but I couldn’t reach.