Embraced (12 page)

“Somehow, Vince managed to hire an
ex-employee of the security firm to hack into their computers for the code to
Marey’s house,” Daniel reported the next morning after the sheriff and his
deputies had arrested Vince, taken their statements and then left them in
peace.

Marey was sitting tiredly on the couch,
bleary-eyed, certain she had never been so exhausted in her life as she
listened to what Daniel had come to the house the night before to tell them.

Neither she nor Vince had heard the car pull
up at the front of the house, but Sax had. Just as he had heard Vince through
the opened bedroom window seconds before. Moving carefully, he had let Daniel
in, then together they had contained Vince. A few broken bones were the least
of her ex-husband’s problems now.

“What will they do with the hacker?” Marey
asked, fearing the moment when Daniel would leave and she would have to face
Sax alone. She was suddenly terrified. Not of him, but of herself.

When he had jumped across the hot tub, the
rage that had filled him had been palpable. He would have killed Vince if
Daniel hadn’t stopped him.

Son of a bitch, I’ll fucking kill you
for touching her.
Vince’s eyes had been bugging
from his head, his face turning purple.
Do you understand me? My fucking
woman, you low-life motherfucker!

His woman. Conviction, determination,
commitment had filled every hoarse word, every finger that tightened on Vince’s
throat before Daniel managed to pull him away.

“They’ll arrest him.” Daniel watched her
closely, but not near as close as Sax was watching her.

She nodded, lowering her head again as she
stared at the floor, her arms wrapped around her chest.

“I’m going to head out of here, Sax,”
Daniel announced then. “I still have to stop at the sheriff’s office and take
care of some more paperwork. I’ll call you later.”

“Thanks again, Daniel.” Sax moved across
her line of vision, his powerful legs moving slowly across the floor.

“I can see myself out,” Daniel said. “Take
care of your woman. The night has been hard on her.”

Marey shuddered.

Seconds later, the front door closed,
leaving her alone with Sax.

Silence filled the house.

Emotions rose within her with a force that
had her shaking in their grip.

“Marey.” Sax knelt before her, his broad
hand lifting her chin as he stared back at her somberly.

Oh God. He shouldn’t look at her like that,
she thought. His expression so tender, loving. She had fought so hard not to
believe in happily-every-afters, in warmth and love. How was she supposed to
protect her heart?

But she knew, had known for days that such
protection was a long time past.

She felt a tear slip down her cheek.

“Everyone I really love leaves me,” she
said. “I didn’t love Vince, and I knew it. I barely cared, but I was so damned
tired of being alone.” Her breath hitched in her throat as he continued to
watch her, his dark face intent, his expression filled with love. “When I met
you,” she continued. “I couldn’t believe. If I believed, I would have had to
face how I’ve hidden for so long. The coward I’ve been.” She pulled away from
him as a sob shook her.

“Marey, don’t do this to yourself,” he
whispered. “We can talk about this later. After you’ve rested.”

“I won’t have the courage then,” she cried
painfully, moving away from him as she rose to her feet, tightening her arms around
her chest as she turned her back on him. “You don’t understand. You were right.
All along. Vince was a crutch. An excuse to keep you away.” She turned back to
him, staring back at him, refusing to hide any longer. “I had to keep you away,
Sax.”

“Why?” He pushed his hands into the pockets
of his slacks as he stared back at her, his brown eyes wary.

“Because you could hurt me,” she whispered.
“And I knew it. You could rip the heart from my chest, and you terrified me
because of it. Because Sax, in a matter of months, as you tried to make me
laugh, to talk me into your bed and your life, I fell in love with you. And I
didn’t know what to do with that love. Or how to handle it if you ever walked
away from me… Or if you were taken from me…”

She thought of her father, his patient
resolve, his gentleness and the hole his and her mother’s deaths left in her
life. She had spent her own life caring for them, putting it on hold,
forgetting her dreams, her needs in the face of theirs.

“I can’t promise I won’t die, Marey,” he
whispered, and in the rough tone, what she heard, she heard with her heart, not
her ears. Hopes, dreams… “All I can promise you is that while I live, as long
as I draw breath, I’ll love you. And I’ll pleasure you with everything I have.”

His arms wrapped around her then, his hands
smoothing up her back as she clutched at him, tears flowing freely from her
eyes, sobs tearing at her chest.

“I love you,” she cried out, her hands
clutching at his shoulders as he lifted her, moving until he was sprawled into
the chair Daniel had vacated, drawing her over him, her thighs clasping his
while his hands tore at her robe.

“Feel me, Marey,” he groaned, throwing the
robe to the floor before he shifted, his hands tearing at his pants as hers
ripped at the buttons that held his shirt together.

Naked. She needed him as naked as she was,
bodies, hearts and souls bare to one another. Embracing each other.

When he surged into her, her head fell to
his shoulder, her arms wrapping around his neck as his circled her back. He
moved into her powerfully, thrusting hard and deep as she undulated against
him, driving him deeper, gasping, crying out as he whispered his love, his lips
moving over her shoulder, her neck, his tongue stroking trails of moist flames
as his arms tightened around her, holding her still as he began to drive inside
her harder.

Waves of pleasure suffused her, overtook
her. Perspiration built along her body as she fought to breathe, to reach the
peak of rapture that she knew she could find only in Sax’s arms.

The closer she came, the more she could
feel opening inside her soul. She cried into his shoulder, gasping her love,
her need, her regret that she had waited so long to accept what she had known
was in his heart.

“Hold me, Marey,” he growled at her ear.
“Just hold me, baby.”

He was moving stronger now, his cock
pushing to the very depths of her, burying to the hilt over and over again,
impaling sensitive nerve-ridden tissue as his love had impaled her soul.

She was held, just as she held. Her pussy
clenched around his erection, tightening as the bands of pleasure began to
explode. Her arms held him to her, his held her as well.

Her strangled cries echoed around them as
her orgasm finally erupted. Unlike any other, it swept her reality, sizzled
through her body, and left her shuddering in his arms as his hoarse shout
filled her ears and she felt his release explode inside her.

Embracing. Embraced. And for the first time
in her life, free.

Lora Leigh is a wife and mother
living in Kentucky. She dreams in bright, vivid images of the characters intent
on taking over her writing life, and fights a constant battle to put them on
the hard drive of her computer before they can disappear as fast as they
appeared.

Lora’s family, and her writing
life co-exist, if not in harmony, in relative peace with each other. An
understanding husband is the key to late nights with difficult scenes and
stubborn characters. His insights into human nature and the workings of the
male psyche provide her hours of laughter, and innumerable romantic ideas that
she works tirelessly to put into effect.

Lora welcomes
mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at 1337
Commerce Drive, #13, Stow, Ohio 44224.

B.O.B.’s Fall (with
Veronica Chadwick)

Bound Hearts 1:
Surrender

Bound Hearts 2:
Submission

Bound Hearts 3:
Seduction

Bound Hearts 4:
Wicked Intent

Bound Hearts 5:
Sacrifice

Cowboy and the
Captive

Coyote Breeds 1:
Soul Deep

Dragon Prime

Elemental
Desires anthology

Feline Breeds 1:
Tempting The Beast

Feline Breeds 2:
The Man Within

Feline Breeds 3:
Kiss of Heat

Law And Disorder
1: Moving Violations (with Veronica Chadwick)

Legacies 1:
Shattered Legacy

Legacies 2:
Shadowed Legacy

Legacies 3:
Savage Legacy

Manaconda
anthology

Men Of August 1:
Marly’s Choice

Men Of August 2:
Sarah’s Seduction

Men Of August 3:
Heather’s Gift

Men Of August 4:
August Heat (12 Quickies of Christmas)

Ménage a Magick

Wolf Breeds 1:
Wolfe’s Hope

Wolf Breeds 2:
Jacob’s Faith

Wolf Breeds 3:
Aiden’s Charity

Wolf Breeds:
Elizabeth’s Wolf

Discover for yourself why readers can’t get
enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you
prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at
www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you
breathless.

www.ellorascave.com