Nautier and Wilder (10 page)

Laying her back on the bed, Jed couldn’t force himself to break from the kiss that
seemed to be feeding the flaming lust burning between them.

Fuck, it was good.

She was good.

She was as sweet as sunrise and as hot as the Texas heat waves he remembered from
his childhood.

Rolling his hips against hers, the hardened length of his cock pressing against the
tender mound of her pussy, Jed worried at his lack of self-control.

She wasn’t experienced. Hell, it would surprise the hell out of him if he learned
she wasn’t a virgin. But she had the power to strip him down to the core of who and
what he was. A male animal. A sexually hungry, sexually determined, sexually intent
male animal, and he couldn’t seem to pull himself back.

That powerlessness was so alien to his character, to his very nature, that shock resounded
to the depths of his senses.

Yet it wasn’t enough to stop him.

One hand pushed beneath the loose, sleeveless top she wore. One of her own creations
yet again: a soft white silk with a handkerchief hem that perfectly matched the hem
of the skirt.

Tiny, tiny mother-of-pearl buttons held the material over her rapidly rising and falling
breasts as his hand slid beneath the top, his palm cupping the underside of one breast
perfectly.

The excuse for a bra was little more than silky lace, easily pushed aside by his fingers
as his thumb searched out the hardened little point of her nipple.

It was swollen tight and hard, and the caress he gave it had Piper arching to him,
a muted cry falling from her lips as pleasure arced between them like a live electrical
connection.

With his free hand Jed struggled to undress her. The tiny buttons were instruments
of torture as his fingers fumbled and slipped on them. It seemed to take forever,
but finally he released the captive tip of her nipple to lift her to him and push
the blouse from her shoulders.

Reaching behind his neck, he gripped her wrists, pulling them free of the hold she
had on him and dragging them down to allow him to remove the blouse and lacy bra.

Hard, sipping kisses kept them connected as he hurried to undress first Piper’s lush,
heated body, then his own harder, fiercer one.

If he didn’t have her, if he didn’t sink his cock inside her soon, then he was going
to die of the hunger clawing inside him.

“So fucking pretty,” he growled against her lips as he finally had her naked beneath
him, had himself naked and ready to take her.

But the silken peaches-and-cream flesh distracted him.

He meant to spread her thighs and sink inside her while he still had the control to
take her slow and easy.

He made the mistake of lifting himself from her, releasing her lips to rise above
her, his gaze lowering to the full, tempting globes of her breasts.

Tiny hardened cherry red nipples topped the firm flesh, and the temptation to taste
them was too much to resist.

“You’re killing me,” he groaned. “God help us both, Piper; I’m dying for you.”

The need to taste her had his mouth watering, the hunger obliterating everything else.
His head lowered, lips parting, and when he captured one tight, swollen peak, he swore
he could feel her losing control along with him.

* * *

Piper jerked at the sudden suction of his mouth against the overly sensitive tip of
her breast. The sensation was so sharp, so brutally erotic that her hands rose quickly
to his shoulders, her nails biting against his flesh.

She had to hold on.

Oh, God, it was so good.

She whipped her head against the comforter beneath her, her hips lifting against him,
feeling the brush of the heavy width of his cock against her thighs—there were so
many sensations. So much pleasure.

The tugging of his mouth around the tender bud of her breast was an agonizing pleasure.
One hand cupped the curve of her flesh as the other moved slowly down her waist to
the rounded curve of her thigh.

“Part your legs,” he ordered hoarsely as his lips moved to the opposite peak. “Ah,
God, let me in, baby. Let me have you.”

She was really going to do this, wasn’t she?

There was no turning back; she could feel it.

After years of wondering why she’d been unable to take a lover, the mystery was now
solved.

She hadn’t taken one because she’d needed Jed. She’d waited for him, ached for him—somehow
she’d known he was out there; she’d known he’d come for her.

Her legs parted, urged by the powerful fingers at her thighs as his lips lowered and
covered the other hardened tip of her nipple. Suckling it, he lapped at it with his
tongue, then rasped it with his teeth.

Piper felt as though she were being devoured.

That thought was amended as his lips began a path down her torso. Hungry kisses, tasting
licks set fire to her senses. Caresses stroked pure exquisite pleasure to her nerve
endings and had her waiting in painful anticipation as he moved ever closer to her
trembling thighs.

“You know what I want, baby.” He groaned as he found her belly button and felt her
tremble in response. “I want all those sweet juices gathering at your pussy.”

Her breath caught and held in her chest as his lips moved farther, kissed, stroked,
licked.

A breath of air brushed over the bare flesh of her pussy, the dew-slick folds sensitizing
further at the thought of the coming caress.

She couldn’t help but watch.

His gaze caught hers for long, erotic moments before his eyes dropped, drawing her
eyes to the swollen folds.

His lips parting, Jed’s head lowered, his tongue reaching out for her, then burying
in the slick, swollen flesh of her pussy.

“Oh, God. Jed.” Her hands slid into his hair, gripped and held on tight as her upper
body jerked upward in response.

Spreading her knees farther, Piper dug her feet into the bed and lifted her hips,
pressing closer, muted, hoarse cries leaving her throat as his tongue began a sensual,
delicious dance in the plump, slick flesh he’d found.

He pushed his hands beneath her hips to lift her closer, and Piper lost the strength
to hold her shoulders and head from the bed. Falling back, she strained against the
pleasure, eyes closed, reaching for the brilliance of the supernova of fiery heat
she could feel building in her pussy.

Wicked and erotic, his tongue lapped at the juices spilling from her vagina before
easing up, licking and stroking, pushing her further, deeper into the maelstrom gathering
inside her. Rasping, probing, the devilish instrument of torturous ecstasy began licking
around her straining clit, testing the swollen tenderness, inciting it to a desperate
ache that had her crying out for release.

When his lips covered the distended little bundle of nerves, Piper felt the shock
of it explode through her system. Shuddering, her hips jerking against his hold, against
the sucking heat, she felt her senses begin dissolving in a release of such pure ecstasy
that she swore she could feel herself flying.

Drawn tight, arching to him, racked by primal internal shudders of a climax that shocked
her to her woman’s core, she fought to cry, to scream out the pleasure, only to find
enough air to give a low, ragged moan.

And still it wasn’t enough.

For all the strength and power of the climax gripping her, still, that building ache
in her pussy drove her to reach for more. To beg for more.

Her eyes jerked open as he pulled himself to his knees.

Eyes wide, Piper’s gaze focused on the thick, engorged crest of his cock. He quickly
pulled the condom from the side table, tore it open, then rolled the protective sheath
over himself, before he came over her once again.

“Jed . . . ?” She could feel the trepidation building inside her.

“I have you, Piper.” She was only barely aware of the words whispered at her ear as
he buried his lips in her neck. “It’s okay, baby; I have you.”

Everything inside her stilled then.

The feel of the hard, thickened crest of his penis pressing into the quivering entrance
of her vagina held her poised on a rack of desperate need and building fear.

“Jed. Jed, I haven’t—” A groan tore through her as the throbbing width of his cock
breached the clenched opening of her pussy.

“I know, sweetheart.” His head lifted. “Look at me, Piper. Let me see you.”

She forced her eyes open, watching his eyes as he stared down at her, the blue so
dark it now appeared black.

“Hold on to me.” He groaned as her hands clenched in the comforter. “Hold on to me,
sweetheart.”

Lifting her hands, she gripped his upper arms, stared into his eyes, and felt him
advance further before pulling back.

“Wait.” The protest was instinctive.

“Shhh, I’m not going anywhere,” he promised, his lips lowering to hers. “Just hold
on to me. Just for a second.”

The muscles of his hips bunched, the head of his cock throbbed inside her, and a second
later a hard, heavy thrust had the iron-hard length powering through the shield of
an innocence she knew she’d saved for him.

His lips caught her cry at the shock of the entrance.

Holding the kiss, he pulled back, then pushed inside again, burying deeper as pleasure
and pain began to build with equal intensity.

Lifting her legs to get closer to each heavy thrust, Piper gave herself to him, knowing
that from this moment on, she no longer completely belonged to herself.

Each hard thrust inside the clenched depths of her pussy pushed inside her with increasing
strength, faster, to an edge of a fiery abyss she was both terrified of and reaching
for.

Pleasure radiated through her body, stoked by each piercing impalement of his cock
inside her, stretching her, burning the sensitive depths with the heavy heat of his
possession.

Moving over her, stroking inside her with quick, deep thrusts of the steel-hard, heated
flesh, Jed pushed her harder, faster. Her hands clenched on his arms as the flared
crest parted her flesh and drove to the depths of her before quickly retreating, then
stroking over flesh so sensitive that the pleasure was agonizing with each stroke.

Each thrust was harder, faster. Each was hotter, more demanding, until that abyss
reached out for her, the flames exploding around her and tearing through her senses
with such blinding ecstasy that she knew she would never be the same.

Harsh, quaking shudders of sensation attacked her body. Unprepared for their strength,
for the sheer destruction of her senses, Piper could only do as he’d told her: She
held on tight.

She gasped, crying out his name as her body clenched and shuddered beneath him, her
pussy tightening around his shuttling cock until he thrust in hard and deep and gave
himself to his own pleasure.

She hadn’t imagined it could be like this. She’d never conceived of such pleasure,
of such deep, overwhelming waves of pure ecstasy streaking through her, possessing
her.

She wouldn’t have believed that in one moment of rapture her soul would open and her
heart would give itself totally, completely, to a man as fierce, as hard, and yet
as gentle as Jedediah Booker.

NINE

E
ve had told her that once Brogan had touched her, once she had learned what real pleasure,
real intimacy were, then she’d been caught.

Hook, line, and sinker, sister
. Eve had grinned unrepentantly the day Piper had berated her for moving from the
inn and leaving her, Lyrica, and Zoey—well, mostly her and Lyrica—to face the fallout.

The fallout being Tim, Dawg, Rowdy, and Natches becoming so damned protective that
Piper, Lyrica, and even Zoey—the most spoiled of the sisters—were feeling the bite
of the males’ overprotectiveness.

Lying in Jed’s arms that afternoon, Piper wondered what she was getting herself into
this time, and just how it would affect not just her, but also her unattached sisters.

“Stop thinkin’,” Jed drawled, and for just a second there was a hint of the Texas
upbringing he’d once told her he’d had.

“You’re starting to sound like a cowboy.” Turning against his chest, she propped herself
up and stared at him from where she lay against his shoulder.

Jed grunted lazily. “Yeah, it creeps out now and again.”

“This is the first time I’ve actually heard it,” she pointed out. “I was starting
to wonder if you’d lied to me about being born in Texas.”

That Texas drawl was unmistakable. And she’d never heard it pass his lips.

So why now?

She was almost glowing at the possibility that perhaps sexual satisfaction and male
contentment had managed to relax him enough that he’d lost a moment’s control over
something it seemed he’d deliberately suppressed.

“I don’t lie to you.” The simple statement had her stomach tightening in a feeling
akin to, but not exactly, the panic attacks of the past.

This wasn’t panic. It was terrified anticipation, petrified hope. It was something
it shouldn’t be; that was for damned sure.

“You’ve never lied to me?” Forcing the disbelief into her voice wasn’t easy.

It was almost impossible simply because she wanted so desperately to believe him.
Wanted to believe him, and she was too scared to allow herself to do so.

“I’ve never lied to you, Piper. And I never will.”

Was he lying to her? He had to be lying to her.

“I won’t lie to you,” he continued. “But that doesn’t mean there aren’t questions
I can’t answer. If I can make the commitment not to deceive you, then I expect you
to make one not to ask the questions you know would be off-limits.”

Could she ask for more than that?

She didn’t know whether she could, or whether she should, but she knew she had to.

Sitting up, she tucked the sheet around her breasts and stared down at him silently
for long moments. With one forearm lifted and tucked beneath his head, his dark navy
blue eyes so intent and serious, with long strands of dark blond, gold, and tawny
hair falling over his forehead, he resembled the men he employed on the construction
job that she knew he used as a cover. Rugged and hard, lean and naturally muscled.

“How am I supposed to know what questions are off-limits?” Tilting her head to the
side, she watched him curiously now, wondering whether this was how Eve and Brogan
made their relationship work. Did they have an understanding that there were parts
of his life and what he did that she couldn’t question?

Could she live with that? Really?

She loved Jed. She’d known that for a while now.

But did she love him enough to abide by such a rule?

“I think you’ll know which questions those are.” His gaze dropped to her breasts as
they rose over the edge of the sheet.

“I think that if those are the rules, Jed, then I have to know who and what you are.
If that information is off-limits, then you may as well climb that cute ass right
out of my bed before one of us gets pissed off.”

* * *

God help him, but he loved her.

Jed stared up at Piper Mackay and knew she owned parts of his heart and soul that
he hadn’t even known existed. There was no denying that they belonged to her, either,
because as he watched her, he knew he’d trust her with every secret he had inside
his soul.

He’d trust her with them, but he’d never tell her some secrets. The secrets that were
far too dangerous to her safety should she know them.

Because he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that to save her, he’d betray each and
every one of those secrets, and he knew she’d do the same for him.

“I’m an agent for the United States Federal Protective Service,” he told her. “We’re
tasked with protecting and investigating any threats to the possessions of the United
States government and, in some instances, government employees. You knew I was an
agent.” She nodded her head slowly. “What did Eve tell you happened last summer?”

“That several former members of the Freedom League believed Dawg had something Chandler
Mackay had stolen years ago, and they kidnapped her to attempt to make him turn it
over.”

Jed nodded. That was the story they had come up with, not that the majority of it
wasn’t true. It was. It just wasn’t the full explanation; neither did it include Eve’s
fiancé’s part in the situation, or Jed’s and Elijah’s.

“Those members were stealing confidential files from military and government offices
to locate a cache of gold Chandler hid years ago. They believed Dawg would know where
it was stashed.”

Dawg probably did know where it was stashed, Piper thought. Hell, he probably had
it hidden himself once he found it.

She knew he’d taken to keeping the things Chandler had stashed away as he found them,
out of pure spitefulness toward the government, once he’d learned how Piper, her mother,
and her sisters were treated after Homeland Security had found them.

“I guess telling me the truth means you intend to stick around for a while?” she asked,
trying to hold on to the charade she’d played since meeting him.

That unspoken lie that what he did or where he went wouldn’t matter to her.

Uncurling his arm from beneath his head, he slid his hand behind her neck and pulled
her to him.

“What do you think, Piper?” he growled against her lips. “Do you think there’s a chance
in hell that I’ll ever let you go now?”

He didn’t give her a chance to answer him. The teasing brush of his lips turned serious,
burned through any objections she might have, and left her too hungry, her body too
heated to deny him.

Possessiveness rang in his tone, gleamed in the midnight blue of his eyes, and filled
the power and dominant strength of his kiss.

Did she think he would let her go now?

Not for a while, perhaps.

Not until the hunger began to dim. Not until the flame of lust began to cool. And
wasn’t that the way of it?

The questions, the uncertainties and insecurities of the emotions raging through her
became suppressed by a pleasure she couldn’t deny.

A pleasure she didn’t want to deny.

His lips rubbed against hers, his tongue licking at hers, tasting her and allowing
her to taste him in turn.

The wild, erotic flavor of his kiss was one she was certain she would never be fully
prepared for. The heat and wonder, the incredible pleasure and full, chaotic sensory
overload were unlike anything she had ever known before his touch.

She’d waited for this since she’d first realized how sensual a male’s touch could
be, or how pleasurable a kiss could be. She’d waited for this kiss.

She’d waited for Jed.

Easing back, Jed slid kisses from her lips to her jaw as his arms wrapped around her,
pulling her closer to his aroused body.

Heat surrounded her. Flames licked over her nerve endings and pierced her pussy with
a force that had the tender muscles clenching violently.

The feel of her juices easing along the sensitive portal, and the fierce ache in her
clit as it built rapidly, pulled a low, desperate moan from her lips.

She needed him. She ached for him.

Smoothing her hands along his shoulders to the heavy strength of his biceps, Piper
held on tight as she felt herself being lowered to her back. Anticipation began to
build, along with pleasure and the driving need for more.

Always for more.

Surely the day would come when the instantaneous need for his possession would ease.
When he would touch her and she would at least have a moment to think, to consider,
before her hunger for him overrode any other consideration.

At the moment, she couldn’t imagine it happening, though.

His lips slid along her neck, and she felt the rasp of his beard, the feel of his
hand stroking against her stomach, moving higher, cupping her breast. Each sensation
built in pleasure and in heat until Piper was moaning beneath him, her hips lifting,
pressing the mound of her pussy against the hard muscle of his thigh as he came over
her.

“I get drunk on you, Piper,” he muttered against her breast, his lips brushing against
the tight, sensitive peak of her breast a second before his tongue rasped over it
with erotic hunger.

“Please, Jed,” she whispered, desperate. “Don’t wait.”

She wanted him now. Foreplay could come later.

He moved closer, his legs parting hers as his head lifted from her breast.

Piper forced her eyes open.

She wanted to watch, wanted to see him take her.

She was on the verge of begging when the world suddenly upended.

One second she was lying beneath Jed, anticipation tearing through her senses.

In the next second it felt as though she were flying through the air before she landed
against Jed’s hard body, only to be rolled quickly to the floor.

Everything happened so fast. Too fast.

Wide-eyed, shocked, she let her gaze follow his hand as he reached beneath her bed,
jerked out a lethal black handgun, then leveled it over the top of the bed with steely-eyed
intent.

As she rolled to her stomach to push herself from the floor, she heard the lazy, less-than-amused
drawl.

“Jed, do you have a fucking death wish?”

Dawg didn’t sound pissed, but he didn’t sound approving either. It was a dangerous
tone of voice that assured all those listening that his mood could swing either way.

He was ready to talk, and in true “Dawg” style, he was barging right in.

Lips tightening, Piper jerked the sheet Jed had dragged off the bed as they rolled,
and wrapped it quickly around her naked body. Peeking over the side of the bed, she
growled back at her brother.

“Why are you sneaking into my bedroom?”

Dawg’s brow lifted. “Little sister, I wasn’t sneaking. Your door was unlocked.”

“The hell it was.” Struggling with the sheet with one hand to keep it around her,
Piper used the other to push her hair back from her face as she glared at Dawg.

She was all too aware of Jed moving to his feet, completely at ease with his nudity
and not the least bit ashamed as he collected his clothes. Dawg’s expression tightened,
his mood shifting toward that dangerous mark.

“Don’t call me a liar, Piper,” Dawg warned her then. “I said the door was unlocked.
Trust me; it was unlocked.”

“I locked that door earlier, Dawg,” she told him, suddenly aware that something simply
wasn’t right where his entrance was concerned. “I remember securing it. And neither
Jed nor myself has gone out of it since.”

Dawg’s gaze narrowed. “I wasn’t exactly quiet when I pulled in and called out to Mercedes
to tell her I was coming around to your room.” His gaze swung to Jed as he laid his
shirt across the table before securing the belt on his jeans. “I guess there’s not
a chance in hell you heard anything?”

Jed cleared his throat. As he glanced at her, Piper felt her face flushing heatedly.

She knew exactly why they hadn’t heard anything.

“Figures.” Dawg grunted, drawing Piper’s attention back to him. “You’re certain the
door was locked?”

Tipping her head to the side, she stared back at him with mocking disbelief. “Really,
Dawg?”

They both knew she was certain. Piper was the one often found checking all the doors
and windows in the middle of the night, to be certain no one could slip into the suite.

Lifting his hand, he pushed his fingers through his hair in agitation before staring
back at her, his celadon gaze filled with concern. “Piper, please God, tell me what’s
going on before someone does more than bruise your face.”

She knew that door had been locked, which meant someone had unlocked it at a time
when they would have believed she was otherwise occupied.

They were there looking for something.

She just had no idea who or what they were searching for.