Embraced (11 page)

Marey awoke slowly the next morning, her
eyes fluttering open, the dark beams of Sax’s ceiling the first thing she saw.
Sax slept deeply beside her, his arm lying over her hips, his head lying next
to hers as he kept her tucked close to his body.

He had awakened her in the early morning
hours for a hot shower, washing her carefully, gently, before drying her and
tucking her back into bed before crawling in beside her.

He had taken care of her.

She frowned deeply up at the ceiling,
wondering if there had ever been a time when anyone had taken such care of her.
She couldn’t remember it if there had. Perhaps as a child her parents had, but
if so, she had been so young that those memories had been lost over time.

She had cared for them since she was a
teenager. First her mother, who had conceived her only child in middle-age then
contracted cancer when Marey turned thirteen. She had fought it for ten years,
but she had been weak. So weak that her heart had given out before the renewed
cancer had taken her.

A year later, her father had a stroke that
had left him bedridden.

She could have hired someone to care for
him. She could have deposited him in a nice little nursing home and resumed her
life. But she loved her father. With his gentle smile and soft voice and his
remorse that her life had been spent caring for him and her mother rather than
being the woman she should have been.

There had been no regrets. But there had
been no time for relationships. She had known her father would be gone within a
short time, and she hadn’t been willing to desert him, to leave him to
strangers to care for him any more than she had to.

But she had found an escape. From the pain
and the depression of watching her parents dying in front of her eyes, Marey
had found an escape in the books she loved. First as a reader, then as an
editor. She had worked the past six years as an editor for an erotic book
publisher. The books were blistering, incredibly hot. And for a while they had
eased the dark, sexual fantasies that haunted her. After her father’s death…

She breathed in deeply. What a fool she had
been. She had married the first man to ask her no more than a few months after
having met him. Within weeks the rages had started. Within six months he was
hitting her. It had been a horrible blow to her confidence. Within weeks of the
divorce, she had learned that Vince had no intentions of letting her go. If he
even suspected she was interested in another man, accidents began to happen.

She didn’t know if she could live if
something happened to Sax because of her. To this point, Vince had always
struck at her, but she knew Vince had never felt truly threatened that she
would find someone else to share her life, or her money with.

It was all about the money and the power he
thought it would bring him.

“If you don’t stop thinking so hard, I’m
going to have to fuck you again,” Sax mumbled at her ear, his deep voice
rumbling in his chest with morning drowsiness.

A smile quirked her lips.

“You play dirty pool,” she told him
quietly. “Sometimes I have to think, Sax. This is one of those times.”

He grunted mockingly. “I don’t like how you
think sometimes, have I mentioned that?”

He pushed the sheet away from her body
before his hand flattened against her belly, his lips smoothing over her
shoulder. She stared down at the rich coffee tone of his skin contrasting so
exotically with her pale skin.

“Now, I would have never guessed that,” she
countered, allowing the amusement to weigh heavily in her voice. “You’ve
surprised me, Sax.”

He chuckled, a low sexy sound that had her
womb clenching in response.

“You’re a smart-ass first thing in the
morning.” He stroked her stomach slowly, his fingertips lightly drawing over
her flesh, sending soft, though destructive sensations washing over her nerve
endings.

It wasn’t so much sexual as it was
caring…loving. She tried to steer clear of that. She couldn’t let daydreams get
mixed up with reality. She had made that mistake once before.

He cared. She was certain he cared for her.
Sax was often a brutally honest person, he rarely pulled his punches with
anyone. But for three years he had moved on the outer edges of her life, always
there, always watching her. He had never, not at any time, unleashed his
infamous biting sarcasm on her. He had never looked at her with the brutal
icy-eyed gaze she had seen him give others. He had never done anything but
treat her with the utmost consideration and heated hunger.

Yes. He cared. And perhaps he could have
loved, if she was strong enough to be as brave as she had needed to be three
years before.

“Yeah, Ella calls me a smart-ass often,”
she finally answered, her gaze going back to the ceiling as she smiled fondly,
thinking of her friend. “Actually, I think her favorite insult is bitch.”

“Not hardly.” His fingers strummed over her
hip. “Smart-ass I’ll accept though. Now what has you so solemn this morning?”

She could feel his erection against her
thigh, but there seemed to be no haste in him to relieve his arousal. He
touched her gently, easily. The caresses as calming as they were arousing.

“Just stuff,” she sighed. “I was shameless
last night, wasn’t I?”

She heard the note of pride in her voice
and almost winced.

“You were indeed shameless,” he chuckled.
“And wet and wild. So fucking hot you were incredible.”

She turned back to him.

“Why do you share, Sax?” she asked him
then. “You’ve said it’s for the women’s pleasure, but that doesn’t make sense.”

“Why not?” He propped his head on his hand
as he levered up, watching her curiously. “Do you think I don’t find pleasure
in it, Marey?”

“I wouldn’t find pleasure in seeing another
woman touch you.” She frowned at that thought. She would feel murderous.

“And you won’t ever have to,” he promised.
“But you can’t deny you enjoyed what happened last night with Daniel. That you
haven’t thought of it, looked forward to it. I heard it in your voice, saw it
in your eyes and your response. Why did you enjoy it?”

“Because I’m a pervert,” she snorted
sarcastically. “Now your excuse?”

He laughed, a smile curving those sexy lips
as he stared down at her reprovingly.

“Shame on you,” he growled. “You’re not a
pervert. You’re a very sexy, very sexual woman. That edge of the forbidden is
exciting though, isn’t it? Makes the pleasure higher, hotter. Maybe that’s why
we like it. I don’t know. But it’s something I wouldn’t want to do without.
Seeing you like that, embraced between myself and Daniel, your eyes dazed, your
face flushed, pleasure swamping every particle of your being is addictive. It’s
a high, baby, only unlike any other I’ve ever known.”

“Beats drugs, huh?” She rolled her eyes
expressively.

His grin kicked in again, his chocolate
brown eyes watching her closely, warmly.

She was so lost, she thought. She had lost
her damned heart to this man so long ago and now she faced losing him.

“I love you, you know.” He said the words
so simply, so matter-of-factly that for a moment, she was certain she hadn’t
heard him correctly.

“Boy, you really like to play dirty pool,”
she snapped then, anger, helplessness washing over her. “You couldn’t at least
wait until this was settled? Until Vince was caught and I could make sense of
any of this?”

She jumped from the bed, casting him a
furious glare as she jerked the shirt she was using for a gown from the small
chair beside the bed and pulled it on. He was lying back on the pillows, watching
her somberly, his eyes piercing her, filling her with guilt.

“I like things clear,” he amended calmly.
“Don’t play dumb, baby. You knew this was more than an affair when you went
into it.”

There he was, just lying back in the bed,
his erection tenting the sheet, staring back at her in that calm, solemn way of
his. What the hell was she supposed to say? To do?

“I can’t even think about this.” She pushed
her fingers through her hair in irritation. “I won’t think about this. Not
until Vince…”

“This excuse is getting old.” His voice
never changed inflection but it still hardened, grew deeper. “It’s like you
pull it around you whenever you can’t face what’s growing between us. It’s a
crutch.”

“That isn’t true,” she snapped back
defensively. “He’s dangerous…”

“Because you refused to stop him when his
violence escalated.” She flinched at the calm accusation, staring back at him
furiously.

“It doesn’t matter why it happened.” She
breathed in deeply, fighting to make sense of the clash of emotions rising inside
her now. “I can’t make decisions about the future now.”

“I’m not asking you to make decisions,
Marey.” His smile was a wolf’s snarl, predatory, confident.

Rising from the bed, completely unashamed
of his nudity and the erection jutting from between his thighs, he stalked
toward her.

“It doesn’t take a decision.” Gripping the
neckline of the T-shirt with both hands, he tugged forcefully, ripping it down
the front as she stared back at him in shock, gasping in arousal. “It doesn’t
take anything from you, baby. I’m not asking for anything. I don’t have to ask.
I know what’s mine and I know how to claim it.”

He pulled her to him, a strong, forceful
movement as he gripped her hips. His head lowered, his lips covering hers,
possessively, dominantly.

She couldn’t hold back her moan. There was
nothing like Sax’s kiss or the way he held her to him. He seemed to surround
her, his heat and his strength protecting her even as his kiss ravished her
senses.

She couldn’t fight him. There was no fight
in her. She could only grab his shoulders, hold on tight and absorb him into
the very depths of her soul. There was nothing so hot, so tempting, so
completely overwhelming as Sax’s embrace.

As his lips moved on hers, gentle and sure
one moment, hard and possessive the next, Marey moaned in rapturous pleasure,
her hands clenching on his shoulders, rubbing her body against him, loving the
way his hands stroked her back, drew the remnants of the T-shirt from her body,
and sipped at her lips with hungry demand.

This was what she had run from for three
years. As insane as it sounded, and inconceivable as it was, she could feel him
sweeping not just through her heart, but through her soul.

“I know how to love my woman,” he whispered
as his lips slid from her lips to her ear. “I know how to protect her, and I
know how to hold her. And I will hold you, Marey.”

He pulled her back to the bed, lifting her
against him as he lay back, staring up at her with heavy-lidded sensuality as
he cupped her buttocks in his hands, moving her until she straddled his hips,
lifting her until the head of his cock seared the sensitive opening of her
pussy.

“Ride me,” he growled, arousal thickening
his voice as his hand raised to her heaving breasts, his head lifting to allow
his tongue to lick at her hard, distended nipples.

Marey whimpered at the sensuality of having
the control, staring down at him, his body reclining beneath hers, his cock hot
and erect, waiting to pierce the willing depths of her pussy.

She lifted up, her breath hitching as she
moved against him, whimpering as his cock began to penetrate the slick, heated
entrance to her hungry pussy. Her head fell back as she took him slowly,
working the hard flesh inside her by increments, driving herself crazy with the
incredible sensations streaking through her body. She loved it. Loved feeling
his cock stretch her, burn her.

His hands were on her breasts, fingers
tweaking her nipples as she rode him with long, slow strokes, fighting the need
to rush, to drive herself to madness on the thick stalk of flesh filling her.

“There you go, baby,” he whispered as he
tensed, obviously holding himself back as he allowed her to take her pleasure
as she needed.

Her juices were flowing between them, the
sounds of wet, suckling flesh echoing around her, driving her arousal higher.
His hands, warm and slightly calloused, rasped her nipples as his voice crooned
in that rough, deep baritone and sent her mind spiraling with her pleasure.

Her pace increased, their moans mingling as
the intensity and the heat grew. She could feel her womb tightening, fingers of
fire racing through her pussy. She was going to come…

“Sax. Harder. Oh God, fuck me…” She
couldn’t gain the force she needed, the rhythm he used to power into her and
throw her over the edge.

She shook, shuddered, fought her own
weakness and pleasure in her drive for ecstasy.

His hands moved from her breasts to her
hips. They held her still, his fingers clenching there as he began to move. He
drove his cock inside her with enough power and force to cause her to arch in
his arms, a strangled scream leaving her throat as her orgasm began to race
through her body.

She convulsed above him, her thighs
tightening, her hands clenching into the muscles of his chest as she felt
herself come apart around him. His strangled groan met her scream as he drove
in one last time, tensed further and then found his own release. Hard, rapid
jets of semen burning her, the feel of the silky fluid flooding her, throwing
her higher.

The aftershocks seemed to last forever. She
shuddered through them as he drew her to his heaving chest, his lips pressing
to her forehead, his hands stroking over her back. Soothing her. Easing her
down from the almost painful heights of pleasure.

“Can you walk away, Marey?” he asked her
then, his voice gentle, understanding. “No matter the risks, can you really
walk away?”

Could she walk away?

Later that evening, Marey stepped onto the
back deck of Sax’s home and eased into the hot tub bubbling merrily in the
corner.

The hot water wrapped around her, the
massaging pulse of the jets beating against her weary muscles. Sax was
insatiable. She ached in places she had no idea she could ache. But for the
first time in years, her body was relaxed, even if her mind wasn’t.

He was right, she couldn’t walk away. He
terrified her. Loving him terrified her. And not because of what she was scared
Vince would do, though that was a worrisome aspect. No, he terrified her
because she knew she had already given him so much of herself. If she stayed,
if she accepted this relationship for what it was, then he would own her soul.

She had been alone for most of her life,
even before her parents’ deaths. Sharing it with someone determined to take
such an active role wasn’t easy to accept. Sax wouldn’t go his way as she went
hers. He was a possessive man, not controlling, but possessive all the same.

He would expect to share her life, not just
exist within it.

She leaned her head wearily against the rim
of the tub and breathed out roughly.

She loved him. She had always known she
loved him, but she hadn’t known how much until he began to fill her life.

“I’m going upstairs to finish up a few
reports.” Sax stood at the glass sliding door, chest bare, his teeth gleaming
in his dark face as he watched her with a wicked glint in his eye. “Need
anything before I go up?”

Marey chuckled at his suggestive tone. “I
think you’ve more than taken care of anything I could have needed,” she assured
him. “I’m just going to lay here and relax for a while. You go work.”

He moved to the deck, kneeling behind her
and pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

“Just yell if you need me,” he whispered
warmly. “I’ll leave the bedroom window open just in case.”

“Mmm.” She closed her eyes as his kiss
moved to the shell of her ear, his tongue lapping at it heatedly. “Get out of
here. You’re insatiable.”

He laughed at that, a male sound of
pleasure and pride as he rose to his feet and walked back to the door.

“I’ll be back down in about an hour,” he
promised. “Don’t overheat.”

“With you upstairs, there’s no danger of
that,” she laughed back at him, watching as he flashed her a wicked grin and
turned away.

She closed her eyes, fighting the need to
call him back.

“I love you, Sax,” she whispered, knowing
he was gone, unable to hold back the words any longer.

What the hell was she going to do with him?
She couldn’t let him go. She couldn’t walk away. He fulfilled too many parts of
her soul. He fulfilled her, period. Laughed with her, loved her, touched her
with such passion and hunger that she knew she would never be the same again.

“Well, you look comfortable enough, bitch!”

No.

Her eyes flew open, fear and disbelief
clamoring through her as she met Vince’s furious gaze.

“You really have lost your mind,” she said,
amazed at his daring. She had pretty much caught on to the fact that Vince
wasn’t too bright, but this was ridiculous. “Vince, Sax will kill you if he
catches you here. Don’t you realize that?”

His brown hair was still kept shaggy short,
but stood on end, unkempt and dirty. His brown eyes narrowed in hatred, his
fists clenched. The faded denim shirt he wore was streaked with dirt, his jeans
ripped at the knees.

“The son of a bitch,” Vince snarled. “He’s
too busy playing his computer geek games upstairs. And you’re not going to
scream, are you, Marey?” he sneered. “Little Miss Too Much Pride. I heard you
screaming for him, though, didn’t I, you little whore? Him and that bastard he
put up your ass!”

She flinched at the fury rising in his
voice.

Drawing in a deep breath, she tensed. Sax
would be down soon, he rarely left her long while he worked upstairs, checking
on her often. Being naked and at the mercy of a man she knew wouldn’t hesitate
to kill her with his bare hands was a frightening prospect.

“How did you evade the sheriff?” she asked
him, hoping to buy some time, to distract him just long enough for Sax to make
his way downstairs.

His thin lips twisted in disgust as a dark,
brick flush rose under his skin, barely noticeable in the dim light of the
deck. It wasn’t a good sign.

“I can’t believe you actually had the nerve
to file charges.” The low, evil chuckle that came from his lips had her
shuddering in terror. “That was very bad of you, Marey, you should have taken
your punishment and kept your stupid mouth shut.”

“You nearly killed me, Vince,” she snapped,
refusing to let him see her fear. “And you tried to frame Sax for it.”

“He shouldn’t have been sniffing around
you,” he snarled. “What makes him think he can take what belongs to another
man? He’s a trespasser and you’re a whore, always watching him, eating him with
your eyes. Did you think that just because you forced that divorce that it
changed anything, Marey? The vows were until death do us part.” His lips curled
in a feral sneer. “And only death will part us!”

She was rising from the hot tub, a scream
on her lips as he tensed to jump for her, knowing her time had run out. As she
turned, Daniel rushed from the house, his hard hands gripping her as he pushed
her against the side of the house. Sax rushed past them, leapt the distance of
the tub, tackling Vince as he moved to run.

Eyes wide, she watched as Daniel quickly
followed. His voice rose as he informed Sax of all the legal ramifications of
murder. Not that Sax seemed inclined to listen as his hands tightened around
Vince’s throat, a snarl of fury twisting his lips.

It was over quickly, too quickly for her to
process the fact that Vince was unconscious on the deck, and she was still
standing naked in the cool fall air, staring back at Sax in amazement as he
rose from the deck.

“I should paddle your ass,” he yelled,
staring at her over the churning water of the tub. Furious. His eyes were
blazing, anger contorting his expression as she watched him in amazement. “What
in the living hell possessed you, woman, to sit and bait him like that? To just
sit there, calmly talking to him in a tub of water knowing fucking good and
well he was capable of drowning you?”

Screaming. He was screaming at her, his
body so tense, so tight, she wondered if something would break.

“I knew you would save me,” she whispered,
blinking back at him in surprise. “I knew you wouldn’t let him hurt me.”

Shock filled his face then. “I wasn’t
here!” He wiped his hands furiously over his slick head as he yelled again.
“How the hell was I supposed to save you?”

“But you did, Sax,” she pointed out. “I
knew you would be here. I knew you would be…”

Tears filled her eyes as she stared back at
him.

“You don’t leave me alone, Sax,” she said
softly. “You’re always close, touching me, embracing me, needing me. How can
anyone have a chance to hurt me when you love me so well?”

A heavy frown darkened his brow. “That is
not getting you out of trouble,” he assured her through gritted teeth as he
stomped around the hot tub, jerking her in his arms and holding her rapidly
chilling body close to his warmth. “But God help me, Marey, the next time you
do anything so stupid, I’m going to paddle your ass.”

A tearful smile crossed her lips as she
tilted her head, her hand reaching up to touch the dark features of his face,
the sensual curve of his lip.

“I love you, Sax,” she whispered. “I was
going to tell you that tonight, while you held me, while you loved me. I’ve
always loved you.”

A hard breath shuddered through his chest
as he buried his head in her hair, his arms tightening around her.

“I’m definitely spanking you,” he groaned.
“God baby, I love you. So much you terrified the hell out of me sitting there
talking to that bastard so calmly, knowing how easily he could hurt you.”

“Knowing you would be there,” she said
against his chest as he lifted her into his arms while Daniel called the
sheriff.

“You’re cold,” he growled. “You didn’t even
bring a robe out.”

“So warm me.” She burrowed against his
chest, her arms wrapping around his neck, her head resting naturally on his
shoulder. “Warm me, Sax…”