Objection Overruled (24 page)

Brandon pulled her legs up to hook his arms under her knees. The setting sun cast him in a silhouette. The ends of his messy hair framed his face in a light amber glow. He nuzzled the arch of her foot and ran his tongue along its length. It should have tickled, but instead a current of shivers ran down her leg to her core. He grabbed her shorts and panties and tugged them off.

Brandon traced with his thumb the long lines of her leg muscles from her ankle to ass. He cupped her, pushing the heel of his hand into her firmly.

She pulled his swim trunks down, needing him to be naked. Now.

The warm full head of his cock slid between her lips to the brink of her opening. He kissed the heel of her foot and then moved to her toes, sucking each one hard.

She wiggled her toes against his lips. “Protection.”

He scampered below and returned with a handful of condoms. After placing them in a nearby cubby, he slid on one. “Now I’m ready for you.”

He wrapped his rough hands around the fronts of her thighs. With one liquid movement, he pulled her close to him as he thrust his cock fully into her.

“Oh God.” Jackie moaned. “Don’t move. Let me feel you.”

Brandon pressed his weight into her. Her muscles contracted against his thick cock. She spread her knees apart and wrapped her legs around his waist as if taking him deep into her soul. Jackie stretched her arms above her head, tipped her head, and arched her back.

He pounded into her, hard and fast. She didn’t need to ask. He knew exactly what she needed. The gritty surface of the cabin burned her back. Brandon’s thick cock filled her.

The line between pleasure and pain blurred. The world around her vanished.

She clenched her muscles deep inside around him. He swelled. His pace slowed. The long, slow strokes tortured her. She wanted him.

He pushed deep inside of her as he came. “Oh God, Jackie.” His voice rumbled low and slow. He dug into her flesh.

Jackie wrapped her legs tighter around his waist. “Keep going,” she said with a pant, her gaze burning into him.

He grabbed her by the hips and drove in her with fast, hard pumps. She clutched at a rail to hold herself still, allowing him to pound into her fully. “Harder,” she pleaded.

The air waved in front of her eyes like a blurry TV screen. Air. She gasped, needing to breathe. Orgasm threatened.

Brandon pulled out. Jackie pawed at him, trying to join their bodies and fulfill her needs. He held her desires at bay. “Don’t stop.”

He ran his hands hard against the inside of her thighs from her knees all the way up. He slid his thumbs slowly between her nether lips. “Don’t worry, babe. I want to watch you when you come.”

She pushed herself up to see him. He visually feasted on her with hooded eyes drunken with passion. “Take me, then.”

He buried his face between her legs and spread her lips wide with his fingers. He went straight at her. Given her state of arousal, the intense licks and sucks in and around her clit drove her mad. Every nerve in her body fired on high, but the area between her legs throbbed. Each flick of his tongue or press of his fingers along her vulva sent shockwaves through her starting at her core and radiating to every part of her. She grabbed the back of his head and drew him tight against her.

With one hand, he reached up to her breast and squeezed her nipple. The pinch sent a rush of heat to her sex. “Yes. Give it to me.”

He moaned into her, sending vibrations throughout her entire sex. The world exploded, and a wave of strong pulses racked her. Screams of ecstasy wailed around her.

He stood between her legs and rubbed his cock against her. Shivers ran through her body from stimulation of her most sensitive parts. “Oh God. Thank you.”

He pushed the head of his swollen cock into her entrance. “What makes you think we’re done?” His devilish grin gleamed, but before she could protest, he plunged into her.

After only two long, hard strokes, another wave of orgasm flooded her. She gulped for air as the world spun around her. She wanted to beg him to stop and beg him to take her harder.

He quickened his pace, pounding into her, as if sensing her secret desires. The fullness inside her expanded, and with one deep thrust, he came.

The instant she felt his cock pumping cum inside, she threw her head back, her body pulsing with orgasm. “Yes!”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Jackie stretched back with Brandon on the bench in the cockpit. His long legs took up the entire area. Her sex twitched. She wanted him again, and his cock wasn’t quite flaccid yet. She licked her lips and cupped her breasts, rolling her nipples between her fingers.

Brandon opened one eye into a slit. “What are you doing over there?”

“Thinking.” She slid her tongue along the bottom of her top lip.

“Right.”

He reached between his legs and wrapped his big hand around his shaft.

“What are you doing?” She raised her eyebrows at him.

He shot her an impish grin. “I’m thinking that you’d better not be teasing me.”

Jackie looked past him to the crimson sun bisected by the horizon. It glowed a warm red through the still haze. The time it took the sun to pass out of sight surprised her. A soft pink swath in the wispy clouds was the only remnant of the day’s weather roller coaster.

As quickly as the sun dipped below the water’s line, Jackie’s animal desire for Brandon vanished. Too many unanswered questions created an invisible wall between them. She pulled her legs into her body, wrapped her arms around them, and rested her chin on her knees.

Brandon stood up and wrapped a towel around his waist. A few steps took him back to Jackie, where he sat close to her. With the back of his hand, he caressed Jackie’s lower legs. “Tell me,” Brandon said, his hand warm and comforting against her skin.

After opening and closing her mouth twice in an attempt to explain, Jackie said with a soft smile, “I was thinking about sex. At first.” She paused.

“But then…?” Brandon leaned in, his gaze unblinking and focused.

“The setting sun was incredible. It took me to a different place. Today, everything was unreal. I stood on the outside watching my life unfold like a movie.” With a sigh, she lightly brushed her fingertips over his cheek.

He kissed her fingertips so gently she strained to capture each touch of his rough lips.

He looked so intently at her, she pulled back from his gaze.

“Talk to me.” His gaze bore deeper into her heart.

Her soul willed him to understand what held her back from feeling and even from talking. She loathed telling him.

From the time of her first memories, emotions caused chaos. She’d come to hate her mother’s manic periods more than the sullen, black ones. The overly affectionate and conscientious attempts to be the perfect housewife and mom reeked of an amateur performance in a melodrama. Most of the kids at school had mocked her mother’s sudden and sporadic exuberance. They’d mocked Jackie too.

Her mother’s kisses and praise had always evaporated magically. Her schoolmates had been right; her mother was a fake. Love shattered as easily as a wooden shack in a hurricane’s force.

Solace came in the dark times. Jackie would immerse herself in school and sports and taking care of the house. Too busy to feel alone, she’d maintained sturdy walls to isolate herself from the endless waves of emotional terror at home. She’d succeeded in making herself into an unbreakable solitary oak.

What good had it done? She was a kick-ass lawyer, but so were most of her friends from law school. Almost every one of them had a husband or partner, and many already had kids.

Given recent events, letting anyone near her bordered on crazy. Yet, she’d just resigned from the biggest case in her life because she refused to jeopardize the connection between Brandon and her.

Every muscle in her body tightened. She closed her eyes tight and clenched her jaw. Long breaths drawn in through her nose filled her lungs and calmed her against the boat’s rocking.

She concentrated on harnessing the pent-up tension and energy from the day. Being strong didn’t have to mean being a machine. She turned her gaze to his and held tight to his hands. “I resigned from the case because I care about you. Because I didn’t want to destroy whatever is it we have. Because I—”

A sob caught in her throat. Brandon took her face in his hands and kissed away the tears that had begun to slide down her cheeks.

Jackie took a deep breath and pulled back to look at him. “Because I didn’t want to lose you.”

He pulled her close to him and folded his arms around her. Safe and secure, she melted in his embrace and released the tide of emotions from not just the day but years of her life.

Between the boat’s movement and Brandon’s gentle rocking, a calmness rushed over Jackie. A shiver passed through her.

Brandon rubbed up and down on her arms. “You’re cold. Let’s warm you up and get some food in us. It’s been a long day. We have a lot more to talk about too.”

Brandon helped her down the stairs to the cabin, where he rifled through some drawers for clothes. Outfitted in a ragtag assortment of workout clothes, Jackie followed Brandon to the galley.

The quiet scene of domesticity unnerved her. Jackie’s insides writhed. Being a machine was much simpler.

She fingered the sweater he’d given her. “So what’s the deal with the thrift-shop-clothes selection anyway? You lead a jet-set life, according to the articles I’ve read. Have you been holding the homeless-guy image in reserve, waiting for me?”

Brandon pressed her against a cabinet and held her shoulders. “I told you not to believe everything you read in the papers about me, didn’t I?”

Even through the thickness of the sweater, his bare chest was warm as she leaned back against him. “Does that mean you aren’t worth gazillions, then?”

“I didn’t say that either.” Brandon nuzzled her neck, just behind her ear. “I love how you smell.”

Jackie nudged him away. “I smell like a barnyard. And you’re being evasive.”

He pulled her close. “Tell me you care about my money, and I’ll turn over my tax returns to you.”

She sighed. How did he know her so well? “You’re right. I don’t care how much money you make. It’s just you are still an enigma to me.”

“I am just a simple country boy,” he murmured in her ear. “It doesn’t have to be complicated.”

Marilyn had said something similar. Did she overanalyze? Would the wrinkles in her life smooth out if she followed her heart? She squirmed in Brandon’s arms. “How does a country boy from the middle of nowhere learn to sail, by the way?” His soft breaths made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

His hands enveloped hers as he took over the opening of the wine bottle. “Sorry, but if we have to wait for you to get this handled, we could be passed out from thirst.”

He shifted to her side and pulled the cork. “I learned to sail in college from a friend and—”

“And—” Jackie looked hard into his stormy eyes.

His gaze flitted from hers. “And her dad.” He poured two glasses of wine. “Go up on deck and drink. I’ll put together some food before we pass out.”

Jackie returned to the cockpit. She settled onto the bench and took a long sip of wine.

Like the day’s light turning pale at dusk, Jackie’s worries faded from her mind. The sweater, warm and soft, took her back to simpler times, like when her greatest worry was whether to watch one cartoon or another on the TV on a chilly Saturday morning.

The boat’s lights glowed soft against the blackening sky. Although they were far enough out not to have significant ambient light to impede viewing the stars, the day’s haze continued into the night, making the heavenly canopy a rich, black velvet.

Brandon popped out of the cabin and handed the wine bottle to Jackie. He returned with a tray laden with cheeses, meats, bread, and a shallow bowl of pasta tossed with asparagus and crushed tomatoes.

“I’m glad you didn’t make something elaborate,” Jackie said as she salivated from the garlic’s pungent aroma.

“Dig in,” Brandon mumbled. A piece of bread dangled from his mouth.

Jackie attacked her pasta like a bear coming out of hibernation. Some serious talking loomed in the near future. She needed food first. And wine. “Oh, uhm, good,” she said through mouthfuls.

Brandon refilled her wineglass. “It’s awesome to see a woman who loves food and isn’t too insecure to show it.”

Jackie looked at him over the rim of her wineglass. “My mom always accused me of eating like a horse. She warned me that I’d have the ass to prove it someday.”

“I love your ass,” he said in utter seriousness.

“You actually like my butt.” As surprising as it seemed, she knew he truly must like her ass. She studied his face. His lips were irresistible. She reached up to touch them. The soft, wet inside of his lower lip kissed her fingertips. “Thanks.”

“You don’t talk about your mom much. Is she still alive?”

Shit. Why had she opened that door?

Jackie took a gulp of wine. “Technically.”

Brandon took her free hand and caressed her palm with his thumb. “What does that mean?”

She forced herself to remain calm and relaxed as he touched her. Now was as good a time as ever to lay all the cards out. “My mother is mentally ill. I had her committed to a psychiatric hospital one Christmas when I went home from college. I was nineteen.” She drained her wineglass.

He took her glass and set it on the floor with his. He held her close and stroked her hair. “I’m sorry. I can’t imagine how difficult it’s been for you.”

“I’m fine.” Surprisingly, she didn’t even have to lie. Being in Brandon’s arms changed her. Her usual defensive walls evaporated. A foreign peacefulness filled her.

“You always are. The more I learn about you, the more impressive I find you. I worry that I’ll wake up and discover it’s all been a dream. I’ll be on that witness stand, and you’ll be cross-examining me.” He breathed heavily in her hair.

Jackie leaned back from him to see his face. “Who are you, Brandon Marshfield?”

“You really want to know?” His eyes were troubled.

“I have to. Something compels me to know you. Tell me everything.” Her hands went to his face, as she’d found herself doing over and over during the day. She knew she couldn’t feel his soul through his skin, but something deep inside her wondered.