Taken, Not Spurred (Lone Star Burn) (10 page)

Keeping her eyes on the long straight road ahead, Sarah said, “I want you.”

He fingered the seam again. “I want to hear you beg for it. I’ll teach you, but only if you give yourself to me totally. I told you if you stay, you stay on my terms. You’re mine, Sarah. For this trip. For however long I want you. Say it.”

His hand rested possessively over her wet lips, already claiming what he demanded she surrender. This was her fantasy—the adventure she’d never dared to believe she could have. He wasn’t asking for forever and he wasn’t allowing her to do this halfway. He wanted to be in control, to own her, if only for a short time. Another woman might have resisted the idea, but the pleasure Tony had already brought her made surrendering a temptation Sarah didn’t even try to resist. “I’m yours.”

He rewarded her by pushing the silk aside, finding her wet clit with his thumb, and circling it ever so slowly until she was rubbing against his hand. “Now tell me what you wrote in your notebook for me.”

Sarah froze. “No.”

His hand did, too. He leaned over and grazed her neck with his hot lips. “The deal is everything or nothing. Turn the car around if you can’t handle it.”

Damn him.
He wouldn’t settle for less than everything. With a flush of embarrassment spreading across her chest and neck, Sarah admitted, “I wrote a masturbation scene.”

His fingers began their sweet, sweet torture again. His tongue lapped at the sensitive area behind her neck. “Describe it.”

As she did, his fingers explored her, delved within her, played with her until she pulled off the road, parked, and threw her head back from the intense pleasure of it. She could now barely remember what she’d written, but he pushed her to share more, to describe each graphic detail. When she got to the part where she was tasting her own fingers and imagining it was him, he sat back, freed his eager dick from his pants, released her seat belt, and pulled her head toward it.

“Show me.”

She did without hesitation, taking him deep within her mouth. Alternately sucking and stroking him with her lips. She’d tried going down on her ex-boyfriend once but hadn’t found pleasure in it. With Tony, every touch brought her as much pleasure as it brought him. The breadth of him was stimulating.

Already larger than she’d ever experienced, he continued to grow and harden against her attentive tongue until all she could imagine was how he’d feel in her later. She circled his tip with a teasing flick and gasped with pleasure as his hand fisted in her hair in response. She welcomed him deeper into her mouth, slowly opening her jaw wider until he was moaning with pleasure and she wasn’t sure she could take in more of him.

His free hand sought her nub again and her arousal soared to meet his. Lost in the pleasure of her mouth, his touch was rougher, more demanding. His middle finger sought the G-spot she’d given up ever finding and sent her into near convulsions as a new level of heat flamed through her. He held her head and thrust deeper into her mouth. She cupped his balls with one eager hand, then felt them tense and tighten as he neared release.

And still his finger fucked her, in and out, pushing her to a frenzy of writhing against it and sucking wildly on him at the same time. He held her head in place as he came with a deep, satisfied groan. His pleasure was now her pleasure. Heat shot through her, and she shuddered from the intensity of it as she came on his hand.

He raised her head and kissed her still open mouth. When his hand began to move again, she pulled back and huskily admitted, “I came, too.” And waited for him to pull back.

He kissed her neck hungrily, slid her blouse off her shoulders, and began to suckle her through the lace of her bra. He eased her back against her car door. His mouth was everywhere as his hands impatiently removed her clothing, both seeking entry into every crevice of her body. Unbelievably, the heat began to build again.

“This is only the beginning,” he murmured against her skin.

Half out of her mind, she spoke her thoughts aloud in wonder. “It gets better?”

He chuckled against her stomach, pausing on his path to lick her intimately again. “Oh, Sarah, you have no idea.” What his fingers had possessed, his lips now claimed. He parted her lower lips, arousing her with his talented tongue. He rolled his tongue, teasing her outer folds, then ramming it inside her again and again, reaching deeper with each thrust. Wet, hot, and demanding. He ran his tongue over her nub again, flicking it before diving back inside.

Sarah tensed against the door as her body again approached the unthinkable. Laid out before him, she gave herself over to the pleasure, calling out his name as she came and clutching at him as he’d clutched at her. He lifted her and pulled her onto his lap. Spent and safely tucked into his arms, Sarah rested her head on his chest and listened to the slowing beat of his heart as they both came back to earth.

A while later, dressed again, Sarah pulled out onto the road and was shocked when a car skidded and swerved around them.
This would be awkward to explain to my insurance company.
I was temporarily in an orgasmic daze. Sure, I saw it coming, but I was too relaxed to care.

She hadn’t considered how public the setting had been until another car flew by, impatient at her inability to determine the speed limit. “Do you think anyone saw us?” she asked.

“The press doesn’t stalk me anymore, thank God, so no.”

“The press?”
Wow, cowboys are big news down here. Who knew?

He looked irritated with himself for his spontaneous comment. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“You brought it up.”

His face tightened with a guarded expression she was getting used to seeing. “Drop it.”

Sarah relented temporarily. “I don’t mean to pry. I’m just trying to get to know you.”

One of his eyebrows raised and he said, “I’d say we know each other just fine.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

His expression darkened again. “Don’t get confused about what we’re doing together.”

Sarah looked straight ahead. Pride made her say, “This is research to me. Nothing more.”

“Good, because when this is over, I don’t want you thinking I led you to believe differently.”

You really are a bastard sometimes, Tony.

What am I doing with you?

Her nether regions tingled in memory and she thought,
Besides that.
“You couldn’t be more clear,” Sarah said sarcastically. “But then, I wouldn’t expect much from a man who won’t let a kid talk to him.”

“How I run my ranch is none of your business,” he said coldly.

Sarah threw her hands in the air. “I get it. I get it. You don’t have to take out a billboard.” The car swerved into the left lane, which luckily had no oncoming traffic.

Tony grabbed the wheel, correcting their path, and said, “Pay attention to where you’re going.”

Sarah took the steering wheel back and said, “You weren’t worried about that earlier.”

One side of Tony’s mouth curled in a hint of amusement. “Why are we fighting?” he asked huskily.

Heat spread through Sarah’s stomach at his coaxing tone. Still, she couldn’t stop herself from saying, “Because you’re an ass?”

Too seriously, he said, “I’m not going to change. Not for you. Not for anyone.”

“And what if I told you that I like a little ass in a man?” she asked, giving them both an out from the awkward turn the conversation had taken.

Fire leapt back into his eyes, and in a flash he went from defensive to persuasive. “Then I’d say we have better things to do than argue.” He slid a hand between her thighs and rubbed her through the material of her jeans. Sarah couldn’t think of anything besides how good his hands felt and how soon she could pull over again.

What he thought could wait for the cabin became a feverish necessity on the side of the road. She was already wet and ready when he yanked her pants off and his cock needed no coaxing, it sprang upright as soon as he freed it. He sheathed it in a condom and pulled her from her seat to straddle him.

And slowly, ever so slowly, lowered her, hot and wet, onto his cock. She rested her forearms on his shoulders and threw her head back, exposing her neck once again to his eager mouth. She was so small, so tight. He lifted her effortlessly up and down on him.

The pleasure he’d experienced earlier paled in comparison to how it felt to finally be beneath her, inside her. All his senses surrounded by the sweetness of her. He tried to take his time, but they soon found the frantic rhythm of new lovers. He pounded upward and she ground herself greedily down onto him. When he thought he could go no deeper, she opened herself wider for him and he groaned from the pleasure of it. He was normally a methodical lover, ensuring that he gave as much pleasure as he took, but this time he couldn’t wait. He couldn’t think. All he could do was try to slow her down. Her desire was destroying his ability to hold out.

The honk of passing cars barely registered. She was his. Completely his. Nothing else mattered. A fire spread through him, so intense he gripped her hips desperately while he came within her, loving that she cried out and collapsed onto him only seconds later.

He kissed her damp forehead.

The siren of a police car pulling up behind them set them both to scrambling for their clothing. Sarah shimmied into her underwear in record time, but was halfway through pulling on her jeans when the officer started pounding on the window. Tony had disposed of the condom in a small bag of trash on the floor and was zippered and presentable even as Sarah double-checked her shirt to make sure it was still buttoned.

“Do they arrest you in Texas for this?” she asked in a rush, seat-belting herself back into the driver’s seat.

“I don’t know,” Tony said, his senses still full of her sweetness. “I’m not sure I care.”

The officer banged on the window again.

Sarah reluctantly turned the ignition and pushed the button to lower the window.

Shaking his head at the two of them, Dean said, “If you’re going to do shit like this, could you at least do it where no one knows you?”

Fuck.

The mocking lecture continued. “How about over the county line? Anywhere but here. Do you know how many calls I received?”

Sarah met Tony’s eyes and shook with a nervous giggle. She choked on the next, and then bit her lip and sounded like she was wheezing as she tried to contain another burst of amusement.

Her laughter was as irresistible as she was, and Tony found himself fighting back a chuckle, too. She caved first and laughed out loud. He joined her until they were both laughing so hard they couldn’t speak.

Dean leaned in and said something, but Tony didn’t hear what he said and didn’t care what he’d missed. He’d never seen anything more beautiful than Sarah, mussed from sex, laughing until she was crying. Gasping for air, she said, “I wasn’t sure I could pull off anything worse than this morning, but I think this tops it.”

Normally, the shocked expression on his brother’s face would have made Tony defensive, but he was already laughing, and somehow the stern expression only made the situation more amusing. He felt giddy. “I promised myself I would be more discreet with you, so no one would know.”

Sarah let out another peal of laughter. “Good plan, poor execution.”

Dean said, “Should I ask if you two are fit to drive?”

Sarah looked up at Dean and said, “This is not chemically induced.”

With one final measured look, Dean banged on the side of her SUV door and said, “I’m sure I don’t want to know, then. Just get to where you’re going before you cause an accident.”

For the first time in a long time, Tony was grateful that his brother was the local law. He leaned across Sarah and said, “Thanks, Dean.”

Dean’s jaw fell open and he shook his head in amused disbelief. “You’re welcome. I guess. Get out of here.”

Sarah started the car and as they pulled back onto the road, she pointed to a sign. She said, “He’s right. We didn’t even make it out of the county.”

“You know what that means?” he asked as a wonderful thought came to him.

“No,” she answered, glancing over at him, her laughter finally subsiding.

“We still have a long drive ahead of us.”

The heated look she gave him knocked all thought clear out of his head. “Good,” she said softly, and he marveled at how one simple word could make him want to throw away years of carefully staying out of the public eye and take her again on the side of the road.

Sarah Dery is one dangerous woman.

Chapter Eleven

T
ony parked Sarah’s SUV in the driveway of a small, secluded cabin. Neither of them moved at first. Tony unbuckled his seat belt but didn’t open the driver’s door. He leaned back and looked over at her, apparently as relaxed as she was.

Sarah undid her own belt and smiled at him, not rising from her reclined pose. The afternoon sun was hidden deep in the tree line. “I thought you said it was a two-hour drive.”

Humor lit his eyes. “It always has been. We might’ve never gotten here if I hadn’t taken the wheel. You’re far too much of a distraction.”

Me?
“I have never taken off and put on jeans so many times in my life.”

A smile spread across his face. “I believe that’s why man invented the dress.”

“Really? You’re claiming that one for Team Men?”

“Wear one for me sometime and I’ll demonstrate the genius of it.”

Sarah shook her head with amusement. “You’re incorrigible.”

He leaned across and kissed her lightly on the lips. “And you’re addictive. Let’s go inside.”

The kiss he gave her was so tender, so sweet, that she had to remind herself of his earlier warning. This wasn’t the beginning of something. This wasn’t even the end of something. This was just two people stepping outside of their normal lives to appease a mutual hunger.

Believing for even a second it was anything more than that would only lead to heartache. He’d stated what he could offer her and she’d accepted.
Only a fool would start hoping for more.

He broke off the kiss and exited the car. Before she had time to even fumble for the door he had opened it and was lifting her into his arms. He carried her up the steps, paused briefly to unlock the door, then carried her over the threshold—like a bride.

She kicked herself mentally for the image.

For once can I just enjoy something without overthinking it?

He closed the door behind him with a kick and carried her up the stairs to the bedroom, where he laid her down on the soft covers of a full-size bed. Wordlessly, he began to remove her clothing.

He paused to admire each section he exposed and then kissed it—more an act of possession than foreplay. When she was completely nude before him, he ran a finger down her jaw, across her collarbone, and then over the aroused nipple of one of her breasts, circling it lightly. “You are so beautiful.”

Sarah held her breath. When he looked at her she felt alive, vibrant, and unable to deny him anything.

He continued his soft caresses across her stomach, moving down to tease her legs open by outlining one of her inner thighs. “Too beautiful for clothes.” He rolled up her clothing and threw it in the corner of the room. “While you’re here, I want you like this.” He bent and kissed the area just below her bared navel. “Just like this.”

Tony stood and shed his own clothing before lifting her in his arms again, sliding her beneath the covers, and joining her. He pulled her into his deliciously naked embrace and rolled her beneath him, his arousal boldly nudging against the inside of one of her thighs.

“And what about what I want?” she asked huskily.

Instead of answering, he sheathed himself in a condom.

I should tell him to go to hell.

I should demand he drive me back this very instant.

Tony took both of her hands in one of his and raised them above her head, holding them there effortlessly and then claiming her neck with his hot mouth. With one firm move, he slid a knee between hers and eased her legs wider. He poised himself above her, the head of his pulsing erection teasing the outer folds of her lips. Slowly he moved himself back and forth against her. Everywhere their bodies brushed ignited with consuming heat.

She opened her legs wider, exposing more of herself to his intimate strokes. The length of his dick rubbed up and down her clit until she was wild and wet with desire. He raised his head and stared down into her eyes, still holding her hands above her head while his free hand explored every part of her he could reach.

Then he concentrated on her breasts. He lapped at one while he lightly pinched the nipple of the other. Sarah moaned and squirmed, which excited him more. He moved his hand to lift her ass for his deep thrust. Sarah bit her lip to hold in a cry of pleasure. He took her deeply, each thrust boldly claiming her while sending intense hot sensations through her. She wanted to hold him, kiss him. She struggled to free her hands, but he held them easily.

She gave in to the pleasure of being taken, completely taken. She closed her eyes, threw her head back into the pillows, and came with a shudder.

And still he moved within her. His attentive mouth turned less gentle as he suckled her breast. The hand beneath her ass gripped her and squeezed. Pleasure and pain mixed and brought a renewed passion to their joining. He grabbed her chin and held it firmly. “I told you, all or nothing. You’re mine now.”

Arrogant bastard.

He withdrew for a moment, let go of her hands, and adjusted their position so he could raise both her hips off the bed. He claimed her mouth with his, savoring the depth of it with his tongue while entering her again with one deep thrust, then another. Sarah found herself spiraling toward a second orgasm. She gripped the sheets on either side of her, turned her head to one side, and cried out as she peaked again, loving that with one final, shuddering pound he joined her.

He rolled to the side, disposed of his condom, then pulled her to him and tucked her into his side. Sarah closed her eyes and caught her breath.

Tony ran a hand gently up her spine and kissed her lightly on the lips. Sarah enjoyed the warm afterglow of the touch, then opened her eyes and met his, drawn again into their green depths.

Which one is the real Tony? The controlling man who makes rules and pushes everyone away, or the gentle, tortured soul I glimpse when he lets his guard down?

Both are amazing in bed, but which one will send me packing when this is over?

And could either of them love me?

As if he heard her question, he kissed her lightly on the forehead, then rested his chin on her hairline. She fell asleep to the sound of his deepening breaths and the steady beat of his heart beneath her ear.

Tony held her to him and tried to sort the day out.

She leaves as soon as I get her out of my system.

Even after their wild ride and his recent release, his cock stirred at the thought of having her again.
It may take a while, though.

He’d been far from celibate over the years, and he was comfortable with his routine. Sex was a natural function that two consenting adults engaged in without much drama. A leisurely fuck, a promise to call that neither believed, and the occasional repeat if the sex was good enough. Too much sex with one woman led to expectations that he had no intentions of honoring, so he kept it simple and brief.

So what was this?

Even if by some miracle the story of what we did today stays out of the paper, there isn’t a person in Fort Mavis who hasn’t already heard about it. Was that why I did it? Some primal need to pound my chest and stake my claim?

What happened to wanting to save Sarah’s reputation?

A realization sent his heart pounding in his chest.
I wasn’t thinking about what this would mean for her or for me. I wasn’t thinking at all.

Sarah nuzzled against his chest in her sleep and he wanted to wake her, to warn her again that her trust in him was misplaced. Instead, he held her to him and joined her in the escape of slumber.

The windows were dark with night when he sat up in bed, gasping for air, his cheeks wet from tears he shed only in his dreams. Sarah sat up and cupped his face in a move of comfort. Her hands stilled when she felt his tears.

He pulled back from her and turned away, lowering his feet to the floor on the side of the bed. She followed him and wrapped her arms around him from behind, laying her head against his back.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he said harshly, fighting both the memories of his dream and a wave of shame.

“You don’t have to,” she said softly, and held him tighter. Bare skin to bare skin, normally a source of excitement, brought him comfort this time. Her acceptance calmed him. They sat there while his breathing returned to normal within her embrace.

Eventually, he covered one of her delicate hands with his own. “You are a good woman, Sarah. You deserve a man who can treat you better than I will.”

“I had a good man. We bored ourselves into a breakup.”

Tony chuckled lightly, further distancing himself from the tortured images of his dreams. “I never know what you’re going to say.”

Sarah kissed the base of his neck, then hugged him again. “I’ll take that as a compliment.” When he didn’t respond to her joke, Sarah said, “Everyone has scars, Tony. If yours were on your skin and not in your heart, would you hide them from me? Would you be ashamed?”

Tony rolled onto his back and pulled her to his side again, looking at the dark ceiling instead of her. “If they were as ugly, I might.”

While rubbing one hand on his chest, Sarah said, “I killed my younger brother.”

Tony tightened his around her, knowing that although she believed that, a woman like her never would have done that.

She said, “We were at my family’s lake house. My parents were cooking. Charlie went to ask them a question. I was supposed to watch Phil, but I didn’t notice that he’d stopped making his sandcastle. I don’t remember which daydream to blame. They found his body a few hundred feet away. He’d drowned. Not a sound. Not a scream. Just there and then gone. He was only three.”

“How old were you?” Tony asked, feeling her pain entwine with his own.

“Eight. Old enough to know better.” Five words, but they were heavy with years of self-recrimination.

“Too young to be responsible,” Tony growled.

Sarah shrugged and shook within his embrace. “That’s what everyone said, but I know the truth. It was my fault. I was supposed to watch him.”

He hugged her to him. He sought the words that would ease her pain, but he had never found such words—not even for himself.

“Whatever you did, Tony, has keeping it inside made you feel better? Or has it festered? I would give anything to go back and undo what I did that day, but I can’t. All I can do is face it and try to go on.”

“Go to sleep, Sarah.”

She leaned up and kissed his jaw. “Okay, but think about what I said.”

He did.

Long after she fell asleep again, he stared into the darkness and thought about what she had shared and why hearing it had touched him so deeply.