Skye Blue (Hell Yeah!) (11 page)

He didn’t correct her. So many unanswered questions shook the foundations of his soul. When he went home, this was the first thing he would do. Noah needed to know who he was. He needed to know his identity before he could decide what would come next. But this wasn’t all, not by a long shot.

“I need to ask Harper for forgiveness. She chose a different path to walk than I have chosen. But I condemned her for it. I have a tendency to believe that if someone thinks differently than I do, if they feel differently than I do, if they make choices I would not have made, that this difference makes them wrong.” He stared at her hard in the face as if drawing strength from her eyes. “It doesn’t make them wrong, it just makes them different. So many times I have tried to force my viewpoint on Jacob, on Jessie, on Isaac. I wanted everyone to be just like me. And who am I? I am the least perfect one of all.”

“Not to me.” She caressed his face. “Not to me.”

“And I need to ask Aron for forgiveness. This is something I can only whisper to you, because I’ve lied to myself and others.”

Skye squeezed his fingers.

“I am so torn. Aron is my hero, more than Sebastian McCoy ever was. But there is a part of me that wonders if something I did, if something I said made him want to leave our family.”

“No, no, no.” Skye couldn’t stand to see him suffer. “Aron would never leave you, or your brothers. He especially would never leave Libby or the babies. Wherever Aron is, there is something preventing him from coming home. If it’s not death, it may be chains, if it’s not chains, it may be something else. But I can promise you, the man I saw take his vows...the man I saw who was so eager to share his happiness with his family…that man did not decide to stop being Aron McCoy.” She sniffled. “When you love someone, there is nothing they can do to you that you cannot forgive. My mother used to quote a scripture to me. It said, ‘Above all, love one another earnestly because love covers a multitude of sins.”

“If he doesn’t come home, Skye, our family will never be the same.”

“Your family is the strongest family I know. Today we have asked to be forgiven for any harm we have caused another. Let us choose to have faith that all things will work together for good.” At that moment, she felt closer to Noah than she’d ever felt to anyone else in the entire world.

“All things have worked together for good, because I am here. With you.” He reached for her. “Now, can I hold you?”

“Please.” Gratefully she went into his arms. Their lips meeting, their bodies slick with the steam. He pulled her into his lap, her legs straddling his. She cupped his face and looked deep into his eyes. “Keep me safe, Noah. Just for tonight.”

“You are safe with me, don’t ever forget that.” Softly, gently he lowered his mouth to hers, sealing their lips together with a kiss which spoke as much of trust as it did of passion. His erection which had waned, now came roaring back to full measure.  

Noah’s tender touch undid her almost as much as did his raw masculinity. She soothed her hands over his chest, loving the wealth of muscles under her hands. He clasped her butt and pulled her tighter against him. “I feel so close to you right now,” she confessed.

“I want to be closer. I want inside of you.” Noah cupped her swollen breasts, raking the pads of his thumbs over her nipples.

Skye arched against him, her fingers tracing patterns over the smooth skin of his back. She could feel her nipples tighten under his touch, as he rubbed them between his fingers. With a sigh, she exposed her throat to him as he feathered kisses over her collarbone. “Lower, please.”

“You want my mouth on your nipples?” She could feel him smile against her skin as he continued to tease the tips of her breasts.

“I’ll bake you a cake, if you’ll suck them.” Bribery was a good thing. She was desperate for his lips on her nipples. Wild for that deep suction, so good she could feel the pull all the way down to her clit.

“I’ll hold you to it,” he whispered against the top swell of one luscious mound. She leaned a little farther back, offering herself to him. “I adore your breasts. I love the way they feel in my hand, the way the nipples bloom in my mouth.” As he praised her, he plumped her tits, molding and lifting them, taking his tongue and twirling it around and around the diamond hard peak.

“Chocolate icing, if you…God, yes, that’s it.” Relief was in her voice as his mouth covered her aching nipple, possessing it, sucking and lashing as he grunted his enjoyment. 

Unable to wait, she sought his hardness, her hand closing around him. She pumped his length, grasping his stalk and rubbing her thumb over the tiny slit at the end. “You’re so big and hard. I love how you feel when you push inside of me. No one is like you—no one.”

“Rise up and take me.” He instructed as he moved to torment her other breast. She held on to his shoulder and lifted her hips, guiding him into her aching emptiness. As soon as she had the tip inserted, he took over, working his way in. He reached between them and cupped her vulva, massaging her mound and her clit, even as his cock tunneled in, stretching her slick channel.

Ecstasy ricocheted through her body. “This is so good. I love this, Noah. I love belonging to you.” The words just slipped from her lips and she stiffened a bit, but his only reaction was to up the ante by moving faster and harder inside of her. Skye was overwhelmed by pleasure and a passion so intense she felt her whole body might go up in flames.

At that moment, Noah owned her. He owned her pleasure, her orgasms. God, he owned her heart and soul. They had laid bare their fears, they had confessed their sin, allowed their dreams to be refined in the fires of regret and they had emerged stronger.

“This won’t last long, I’m too far gone. Being inside of you is just so damn perfect.” He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close, slowly rocking her body back and forth.

Skye let her inner muscles play around him. “Noah, can you feel me? I’m loving you.”  

“God, yes.” He flexed his cock inside of her. In response, she tightened her arms around him and concentrated on massaging him deep inside. God, if felt good. Locking her legs around his waist and her arms around his waist, she pressed against him, riding him back and forth.  “Too much. Too much.”

Pressing her backward, he took control. Placing her legs over his shoulders, he loomed over her—big, beautiful and all male. Noah began to fuck her in earnest, harder, faster, deep plunging strokes that catapulted her off the face of the earth. Waves of emotions, exquisite pleasure and overpowering sensations stripped her of the ability to mask her feelings. But she didn’t say the words out loud, she whispered them, too low for him to hear. “I love you, Noah. I love you.”

Noah groaned, his head bowed, lips to her shoulders, then her neck, finally seeking her lips. And she kissed him as he came, capturing his cries and his breath in her mouth. Noah—her Noah.

***

“This is our last day.” She bounced on the bed. “Let’s camp out tonight.”

He patted the pillow beside his head. “Lay back down for a few more minutes and talk to me and then, I promise, I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth.”

She had been to the bathroom and her feet were freezing, so he didn’t have to do much to convince her. Scrambling around, she burrowed next to him, fitting herself to his body. And she had to admit, it was a perfect fit.

“I have something to ask you.” Skye tensed up. “No, relax. It’s all good.”

“You want a blow-job?” One could live in hope.

“Uh, yea.” He chuckled. “That goes without saying, but I wanted to tell you about an idea I had.” He took a breath. This was important to him. “Zane, my buddy, the lawyer, is looking into expanding his firm to include some areas of service and inside talent which could help him with cases and with pro-bono work. One of those areas is social services.”

Skye closed her eyes. She could see where this was going. “Noah, I—”

“Don’t say no. I can’t make any guarantees, but I would love to talk to him about you. And my motives are entirely selfish.” He kissed her softly. “I want to keep you around.”

The idea scared her silly, for more reasons than one. She knew anywhere she eventually settled, the truth would come out. But she didn’t know…hell, loving Noah made everything so much more complicated. “I’ll think about it.” And she would. The impossible possibility of having a future with Noah would torture her.

“Good, now about that other thing.” He moved her hand down under the covers until she felt him erect and throbbing. “Maybe you could help me with this problem?”

“Gladly.”

***

Noah was falling in love. He was aware of it. Skye had to be aware of it, yet she was as skittish as a young doe. So he had decided to proceed with caution, yet with purpose. Convincing her to stay in Kerrville was step one. “Where are we heading, Sacajawea?”

“Watch it, Cowboy. You don’t want to piss off a redskin with a tomahawk.” She waved her small hatchet at him. She’d brought the small implement to cut firewood, if need be. “We’re headed deeper into the wilderness. Barry said there was a good camping spot up on the Llano River. We’re not far.”

“Good, ‘cause I’m tuckered. And hungry.”

Noah carried all of their gear with ease, plus he could take one step to her three. He wasn’t tired. “Must be all the sex we’ve been having. We’d better slow down.”

“Bullshit.” He laughed. “Actually, I was afraid you were getting tired.”

Now, that was probably closer to the truth. “It shouldn’t be too much farther. We’ll set up camp and I want to check out a cave up there that Lance used to tell me about. This is actually very close to Shenandoah.”

While they walked, Noah took time to check his email and text messages. It was a sign of the times that there were very few places in the country where getting a signal was impossible.

JACOB: Where the hell are you?

NOAH: Camping with Skye. Is something wrong? How’s Bowie?

He’d wait for the answer on that one. There was another one, from Libby.

LIBBY: I’m sorry. Please come home.

NOAH: No reason to apologize. You did nothing wrong. I’ll be home soon.

About that time, Jacob answered.

JACOB: Bowie is improving. The doctors are talking about doing the surgery right after Thanksgiving. Come home.

NOAH: Why?

JACOB: You’re missed.

He put the phone away. Truthfully he was still confused, but he couldn’t deny the love he felt for his family. And they were his family. He didn’t understand everything, but he’d figure it out. Funny. Skye had changed everything. Having her to think about and worry about and love on put everything else into perspective.

“Messages? Anything important?”

“Just family. Wanting to know how I’m doing.”

“Feels good, doesn’t it?” She hooked her hand through his arm and laid her head on his shoulder. “I’m very glad you came with me, Noah. I’ve enjoyed you so much.”

“Me, too.” He kissed the top of her head. Then, she pulled away, skittering off.

“This looks like a good place.”

Watching her almost innocent enthusiasm, he wondered if he would ever be successful in holding on to her, or if she was like a beautiful butterfly who would always flitter just out of reach. “All right, Princess. Let me go gather some firewood and then I’ll come back and help you with the rest.” She was all stooped over, tugging on their tent and he just stopped to admire the view.

She noticed. “Can I help you?”

“Yea, but for now, I’ll settle for your tomahawk.”

“Mercy.” She tossed it to him, handle first, and he caught it easily.

“We’re a good match, Skye Blue.” He just put the comment out there for her to think about and walked off into the woods.

***

“What in hell am I going to do now?” Skye debated with herself. This trip had answered some questions for her. She now knew that designing clothes could never be more than a hobby, or something to fall back on. Her purpose on this earth was to help people, especially women whose rights were stripped away because of prejudice or a judicial system that had failed them. She also had come to the point where she could forgive herself for her past. That didn’t mean she was ready to jeopardize anyone else, but she knew she could hold her head up and offer the world something of value.

Working as she contemplated, time got away from her. Where was Noah? Wiping her hands on her jeans, she went to look for him. She had seen which way he’d headed, so she followed, pausing every few steps to listen. “Noah!” she called. Nothing. She walked farther. “Noah!”

“Stay back, Skye.”

“What the hell?” Yea, like that was going to happen. Stepping quickly but quietly, she moved into a small clearing and what she saw amazed her. Noah stood in a somewhat defensive mode, and about fifteen feet in front of him were three red wolves. Wolves? There were no wolves in Texas. Or at least that’s what she’d always heard. But apparently whoever had put out that information, didn’t know their tail from a hole in the ground.

“Noah.” Skye just said his name so she knew he was here. The wolves were on alert, but they weren’t snarling.

“I told you to stay back.” He gritted out the words.

“I don’t mind very well.”

“Remind me to spank your ass when we’re out of this.”

“Promises, promises.” The wolves perked up their ears and one took one step forward. They weren’t rabid, but they were acting strange. “Safety in numbers,” she whispered and calmly walked in between them. Her challenging move could have done one of two things—they could have attacked or they could have retreated. They retreated.

“Goddammit, Skye.” Noah took two steps and picked her up, swung her over his shoulder and slapped her on the butt.

“Put me down,” she grumbled. “I’ll puke on your shoes.”

“Puke away. I can’t believe you did that! Why would you put yourself in danger for me?”

Hanging upside down gave her a new perspective on the world. “You’d do the same for me.” To that he had no answer. She could tell when they arrived back in camp. And when he set her on her feet, she staggered, but he caught her to him and kissed her so long and hard that she had to beg for breath by pushing on his chest.

“Yes, I would do the same for you. But don’t you ever, ever, EVER do anything like that again.” He hugged her so hard she squeaked.

“At least now you know.”

“Know what?”

“The wolf is your spirit animal.” His heart was beating so hard that she could feel it as plainly as she could feel her own.

“Come here.” He sat down on the sleeping bag and pulled her down with him. “I need to hold you.” She cuddled close. “Now talk to me.”

“Just like the owl, these wolves acted out of character and not threatening. That’s one of the ways you can identify your spirit animal.”

“And what does the wolf say about me?” He wound her hair around his fist, symbolically binding them together.

“You can trust your instincts. You’re exceptionally intelligent.” It was hard to speak, because he was looking at her face like she was the most precious thing in the world to him. It was damned disconcerting! And the most wonderful sight she’d ever beheld. “As with the owl, when one sees their spirit animal, they must realize that the timing is critical. We came on this journey, or I did, because I needed guidance. Sometimes these signs are given to us when we need them the most. Whatever you’re dealing with, the message is that you should trust your instincts, you should live free as the wolf and invite passion into your life.”