Marly's Choice (21 page)

Marly frowned. He sounded tolerant. She hated it when he sounded tolerant and patient, as though she were still a teenager.

“I don’t like parties, you know that.” She shrugged as he led her into the family room and pulled her down on the couch beside him.

“I know you don’t, baby.” He pulled her against him as he flipped the television on and began scanning through the channels.

Marly took another drink of the wine, closing her eyes as she felt the alcohol slowly easing her terrible tension. When she opened them again, glancing at the television, she was surprised to see the latest action movie she had heard advertised. Thank God, he hadn’t chosen to watch one of the racier channels she knew the satellite carried.

“Stop being scared of me, Marly.” He lifted the empty glass from her hand and set it on the table beside the couch.

“I’m not scared.” She was terrified.

“Are you feeling better after the bath?” He changed the subject abruptly.

“Yes, thank you.” Her fingers laced together nervously.

“I didn’t mean to be so hard on you, Marly.” His hand smoothed her hair, his attention seemingly on the movie before them. “I lost control.”

Marly shrugged, not certain what to say.

She felt him sigh deeply, and knew when he turned his head he was watching her closely. He held her against his side, his large body sheltering, his arm wrapped around her shoulders so his fingers could play with the curls at the side of her head.

“Marly, look at me.” She shivered at the dark, rough quality of his voice. She tipped her head back, staring up at him quietly.

“You said you heard about me and what I like sexually?” he asked her softly. Marly nodded, thankful for the calming effects of the wine.

“Then you know I wouldn’t hurt you, don’t you?” he asked her gently, his other hand framing her face warmly as he watched her.

“Yes.” She licked her lips, a bit of her earlier nerves stealing over her. “You didn’t hurt me, Cade.”

“If you heard what I liked, then you know what it does to me when you fight me. When I know the pleasure is killing you and you deny me. Don’t do that, Marly. For both our sakes, because I don’t like scaring you.” He was watching her intently, staring down at her as he breathed roughly. “I can control myself until you do that.”

“It’s too much.” She trembled against him. “I can’t do it again, Cade. I can’t.”

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She needed him to understand. She hated being frightened. She had never been frightened since Cade had removed the threat of Joe striking her again. He and Sam and Brock had done everything to make certain her life contained no fears. And now she was terrified.

“Trust me, Marly.” He kissed her forehead gently. “Trust me to guide you through it.”

She shook her head, then stilled as his eyes darkened. He smiled slowly, sexily.

“I can feel how much you want me, Marly,” he assured her. “I can see it in those hard little nipples poking through your dress, and I bet your panties are wet, even now.”

Marly shook at the sound of his voice.

“This movie is supposed to be good,” she stuttered out in a desperate attempt to draw his attention away from her. “I’ve been wanting to watch it, Cade.”

His gaze narrowed. Finally he sighed, moving his hand from her face and turning his attention back to the movie.

“By all means, let’s watch it then,” he said in resignation. “We can talk later.”

They watched the movie as tension swirled around them, keeping their senses heightened. Finally, Cade moved from her, walking to the built-in bar at the side of the room. He poured himself a drink, mixed another for Marly, then returned to his seat. Marly had shifted back a little, her legs tucked beside her on the couch as her head lay against the back of the couch.

“Here.” Cade handed her the glass, watching as she tasted it, then sipped comfortably.

The mix of soda, gin and whisky would go down smooth, and he hoped it would help to calm her nerves. She was riding on nerves and arousal, fighting both with her inexperienced fears. He had to calm those fears. If he didn’t, he knew she would never come willingly to his arms again. And he was dying for her. He remembered the tight, hot clasp of her vagina as though it had been seconds rather than hours ago that he had thrust into it. The slick, wet heat, the torturous grip on the sensitized flesh of his erection was more pleasure than he had ever known with another woman. The movie was finally over. As the credits rolled he checked her glass, thankful it was empty. Taking it, he set it with her wine glass on the table beside him. Narrowing his eyes, he watched as the next movie came on. He wasn’t going to make it through the night, he thought miserably. He was so hard, so horny he could barely stand it.

“Why did you call me a whore in the barn, Cade?” Her voice was thoughtful, her question shocking. Cade’s cock jerked at the remembrance of her hot mouth wrapped around it.

He turned to her, angling his body into the corner of the couch so he could watch her expression.

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“Frustration. Wanting you so badly it was tearing me apart with guilt, Marly.” He shook his head at his own ignorance that day. “You pushed me too far, and I reacted out of anger.”

“Why did you stop fighting it?” She raised her eyes to his, her head tilting as she studied him. “You gave in too easy.”

He watched her, a shadow of pain and anger in his eyes.

“There’s so much you don’t know,” he said, his voice so gentle, yet so filled with bitterness it brought tears to her eyes. “So many things I can’t tell you, Marly. I wanted to protect you. That was all. Just protect you.”

“From what, Cade?” Confusion whirled inside her brain. “What would be so bad that you have to protect me from it?”

He laid his head back on the couch, staring at the ceiling in silence as she watched him. He was so strong, so broad. He exuded quiet confidence and power. He made her feel soft, feminine, aroused.

“I love you,” he whispered, resignation filling his voice. “You don’t know how much.”

Marly’s heart sped up, pounding furiously in her breast.

“How do you love me?” She had to know. Had to know it was the same.

“I love you so much, I want to give you everything I am, Marly. Every part of me. Even the monster I’ve fought to keep hidden.” He looked down at her, somber, sad.

“Does that frighten you, baby?”

She licked her lips nervously. She could tell it was supposed to.

“No.” She shook her head warily. ”I want all of you, Cade. Everything.”

“The stories you heard about me sexually,” he said darkly. “How bad did they get?”

Marly swallowed, fighting past the sudden tightening in her throat as the buzz of distant conversations filtered through her head.

“Bad,” she finally whispered, then bit her lip as his eyes darkened.

“Tell me how bad, Marly. The worse thing you’ve ever heard. How bad was it?

What was it?”

She had to fight for her breath.

“You, Brock and Cade.” She could barely push the words past her lips. His hand tangled in her hair as he shifted, facing her now on the couch, his eyes staring down at her. There was no shock in his expression. Marly saw acceptance, and she felt the tremble that suddenly wracked his body. “You don’t do that.”

He broke eye contact, his gaze going to her shoulder as his hands slowly smoothed over her arms. Bleak. His eyes went so dark, shadows and pain churning in the stormy depths until she thought she would scream out at the torment reflected there Lora Leigh

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“Something happened to us, Marly. A long time ago.” He laid his finger on her lips as she began to ask what. “Please, God, don’t ask me, just listen to me. What happened doesn’t matter. Brock and Sam won’t tell you either. Suffice to say, it was bad enough that it scarred us. Made us different, Marly.” His eyes begged her to understand the impossible.

“Different? That goes beyond different, Cade,” she whispered, feeling the calloused tip of his finger against her lips.

He took a deep, harsh breath.

“I love you,” he said again. “But the day will come, Marly, when I will need this. Do you understand that?”

“And if I can’t?” Marly felt her heart breaking at the expression in his eyes. So much need, so much pain.

“Then I will try to accept that,” he sighed, regret filling his expression. “It will be hard, Marly. But I’ll try.”

“Can’t you tell me why?” She touched his cheek, hurting for him, wanting to ease the tortured expression from his face.

“I can’t tell you why, baby. But I won’t lie about my needs. Just as I refuse to let you. And I don’t think you’re as outraged as you should be, Marly.” The painful intensity changed to arousal as he watched her.

Marly’s face flushed. She refused to delve into what she was feeling. But she knew the thought of the three men she loved most loving her physically wasn’t as abhorrent as it should be.

Cade’s eyes narrowed. His hands went to the buttons on his jeans and he began loosening them slowly. Her eyes widened, her lips parting in a gasp of shock as his cock came free from its confinement.

“You said you wouldn’t.” She licked her lips at the hard flesh that rose from the material.

“I said not for a while. I said I wouldn’t hurt you,” he denied. “But the look on your face is about to kill me, Marly. Why aren’t you shocked baby? Why aren’t you screaming?”

“Screaming?” She avoided the other questions; she couldn’t face them just now.

“I’m not screaming because you aren’t making me scream, Cade,” she reminded him suggestively. “Make me scream.”

He moved, crowding her back along the couch until she was lying on her back, staring up at him with wide eyes.

“I like submission, Marly,” he whispered hoarsely. “Whenever I want you, however I want you. I want you screaming for it, begging for it. I want your mouth wrapped around my cock, I want it buried deep inside your hot little body. I want to eat you like candy. I want it whenever I say I want it. Fight me in any area of our life that you want Lora Leigh

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to, but not sexually. The rest, we’ll work out. But don’t deny me. I couldn’t stand it if you denied me.”

He pushed her dress to her waist, groaning at the wet mark he glimpsed on the crotch of her panties. Marly watched his eyes lower, his face flushing. Lust pulsed in the air, in her bloodstream, in the hard cock rising from his pants.

“Touch yourself for me,” he whispered. “Push your fingers into your panties and touch yourself. Make yourself cum for me.”

Marly gasped as his hand gripped hers, pushing her fingers to her panties. He watched in agony as the slender hand disappeared beneath the material. Her fingers curved, then she cried out as they sank into her vagina. Cade groaned, watching in fascination as the material moved back, then followed as her fingers dipped. He could see the pale flesh from the side of the panties, her fingers disappearing into the glistening slit.

“Make yourself cum,” he whispered again. “Let me watch you masturbate, Marly, and we’ll go to bed and go to sleep. I promise not to take you. Just give me this.”

One hand stroked his own flesh as the other moved the material covering her to the side. He watched her finger sink into her vagina, the bare lips of her cunt parting around the flesh as small slurping sounds emanated from the slick channel. He licked his lips, knowing how good she would taste.

“Yeah, there you go,” he whispered, leaning close, pushing her thighs further apart.

“Just slow and easy, baby.”

He watched her fingers move as she pleasured herself, hearing her gasping moans, watching her hips and thighs flex. It wouldn’t take her long. She didn’t yet understand the build up, the intense, sexual heat of waiting. He would teach her that later. First, he wanted her comfortable. He wanted her trust.

Her fingers pulled back, the drenching moisture clinging to them as they moved to her clit. Cade didn’t protest, but he moved his fingers slowly, pushing one into the tight grip of her body as hers played with the knot of nerves he was dying to taste. She cried out then, shuddering. He pushed another finger inside her, watching her stretch around his fingers as he thrust shallowly inside her. He wanted her to come fast, knowing the build up scared her. He watched her fingers move faster on her clit, and knew it would be over long before he was satisfied. He allowed her this time, though. Encouraging her, his fingers thrusting inside her much slower than he wanted, he allowed her to throw herself over the edge at her own pace. She was gasping, groaning as her orgasm drenched his fingers, the muscles of her vagina clenching them. He grimaced with his own need, knowing the hours stretching ahead of him would be miserable. Finally, she collapsed back on the cushions, breathing roughly.

Cade withdrew his fingers, ignoring his need to taste the soft cream she had spilled onto them as the hand at his cock stroked faster, finally bringing a small measure of release with his ejaculation.

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“Son of a bitch, you’ll kill me.” He leaned back against the couch, buttoning his jeans with an edge of anger after cleaning his hands with the napkins he had used for their drink glasses.

“Come on, bed time.” She was soft and drowsy as he lifted her into his arms. Curling against him, her eyes drooping as sleep began to steal over her. Cade carried her to his room, undressed her and tucked her gently under the blankets before leaving the room. There was no way in hell he could sleep with her, he thought. His cock was like an unruly beast and it wanted nothing more than to plunder the tender vagina that gripped it so tight and hot. Besides, Brock and Sam were due back within the hour with their “guests”, the paid trackers that he prayed would remove the threat suddenly haunting them all.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Dressed in one of Cade’s shirts, and a pair of his socks, reasonably certain he would be out at work, Marly stumbled into the kitchen and made a beeline for the coffee the next morning. Her back was to the table, her eyesight bleary as she poured the hot liquid into a cup and sipped at it with a sigh of pleasure. Caffeine, pure and strong, slid slowly through her system, overriding the film of dazed unreality that came from the drinks she had consumed the night before.