Tearing Down Walls (Love Under Construction Series Book 2) (59 page)

Laura drew her fingers through his silky, dark hair as he drifted over her body like a cloud. He moved on down to her left breast, and when he came to the large horizontal scar where her nipple had been, he kissed it over and over. Laura couldn’t hold back anymore – she began to weep, not wail, her silent, sweet tears rolling down her temples and into her hair as she lay there, watching a man who’d almost died for her treat her like the most valuable soul in the universe. What she’d done to deserve that she couldn’t understand, but the joy she felt as he touched her with such sweetness was something she’d waited for her whole life.

Vic glided across her, starting again on the right side of her chest and working his way down as he had on her left. Her clit throbbed as her nipple hardened, and when his lips touched it, he sucked it into his mouth and pulled upward. His hair was so long that it fell onto her skin and drifted across it here and there, and she couldn’t help but think that the sensation it left behind must be how angel’s wings felt. Laura cried out and ran her fingers into its blackness, stroking through it as he worked her nipple, sucking, nipping, and running his tongue around it and back and forth over the tip. “You okay?” he whispered.

“More than okay. Oh god, I love you so much,” she whispered back to him, and she saw a tiny little smile spread across his dark, chiseled face as he took her nipple in his mouth again and sucked – hard. A thrumming set up behind her clit and her pussy constricted tight to the point of pain. She wanted him more than she’d ever wanted anything or anyone in her life. When he’d finished with the rest of her scars, including the ones she’d suffered while protecting Nikki, he slid back up in the bed and kissed her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her up against him. “I want you. I really, really want you,” she moaned. “Can we, please, will you . . .”

“No.” Laura’s heart sank and humiliation washed over her. “Not now.”

“Why?” She tried to turn away from him, but Vic held her firm. “I finally want you, and you don’t . . .”

“Remember? I told you I want you to go to a gynecologist. I won’t make love with you until you’ve done that. I don’t want to hurt you. And I think,” he said, sighing, “that I should go and be tested. I’ve been very, very careful, but if I gave you something, made you sick, I’d never forgive myself. So we can’t, not yet. Don’t you think that would be best”

Laura’s eyes were teary, but she nodded. “I guess so. It’s just that I finally want you, and I’m not so afraid, and . . .”

“Oh, baby, it’s okay. Hey,” he said, raising her face to him and wiping her eyes with his thumbs, “I want you too. More than I’ve ever wanted any woman, and I’m serious about that. Plus I have to say, having you say that right out loud to me, straight up like that, any other guy would just jump right on you. But I’d die if I hurt you, even if it was accidental. So let’s just be sure, please?”

Laura nodded again. “Okay, that does make sense,” she agreed. “But I want to have sex with you sooooo bad.”

He popped a startled grin. “Well, okay then. Glad you shared that.”

“I’m still scared.” And she looked it. “But we said that we were going to, well, try some . . .”

“Yeah? Let’s see what I can do with it!” Vic laughed, then disappeared under the covers. In less than a couple of seconds, his tongue dragged up her slit and found exactly what he was looking for. Once he’d settled between her legs, there was a commotion, and she heard him say, “Hey, get rid of these sheets! I’m roasting down here!”

Laura snapped them back and there he was. All she could see of his face was from the nose up, but she could tell by his eyes that he was sporting a mischievous grin as he looked up at her from her lady parts. “I can’t believe people do this with the lights on,” she grimaced and rolled her eyes.

“I can’t believe they’d do it with the lights off,” Vic said, his voice muffled by her skin, then he laughed. “I want to see the scenery when I’m driving!”

She cried out when he dragged his tongue from the entrance to her pussy, up her slit, and straight up the center of her clit. She thought she’d come undone right that second, and she let out a loud groan, her back arching.

Vic got serious. He didn’t pause for a single second, the heat from his mouth warming her wetness, his tongue probing, seeking, exploring, until he found the rhythm he wanted and set about the business of pleasing her, body and soul. It was so different from what those men had done to her – nothing like it, in fact. Raising his head, in a single breath Vic ordered, “Give me your hands!” and Laura grabbed his and hung on for dear life. Once they were locked together, he intensified his efforts.

“Oh. My. God.” Her hips started to churn as her mind began to spin. She could feel that coiling just above her mons, the building that had become unfamiliar, and she shrieked, “Stop!”

He did – instantly.

That was when she knew for sure that this was very, very different from what had happened to her before. This man could be trusted. He wouldn’t do anything she didn’t want to do. He’d let her do everything in her own time. “You okay, baby?” He held his breath, hoping he hadn’t gone too far and frightened her.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m good. Just a little nervous. You can start again. Can we go slower?” He did so without hesitation; no way was he going to give her time to back out when they were this close to a major milestone. When his tongue made its way back to her throbbing bud, she gave him a breathy, “Oh, god, Vic, please! I want it so bad!” He sucked her clit into his lips and she felt it all, the roughness of his tongue, the way her clit swayed back and forth, up and down, as he worked his magic, and there were dots behind her eyelids as she concentrated on where he was taking her. He lapped at her gently, then sucked her nub between his lips again and she screamed out, “Sweet mother of god! Oh, baby, please!” He never flinched, just kept up the gentle, slow, delicate circling of the tiny rosebud with the tip of his tongue, maintaining the sweet torture until she felt it, the cream rising to the top of the milk, and before she could even cry out, her whole body went rigid and she screamed out, “Oh, god! Oh, Vic, oh god!” He slowed until his tongue was barely moving. A lusty tremor ran through her, and she fell into her first real climax, hips rising and falling in time with his tongue and hands gripping his for all she was worth.

Laura was beside herself with joy. If this was what all the fuss was about, she could understand why. It was beyond good – it was unlike anything she’d ever felt. And it was nothing like what had happened to her at the hands of those monsters. It was something she wanted to do again and again. She let it drive her body to the point of exhaustion, then cried out, “Stop, baby! Please, stop! No more!”

Trustworthy to the end, Vic stopped and climbed up, over her leg and beside her, and kissed her full on the mouth. She could taste something – was that her? – on his lips, salty and sweet and kind of musky and warm, and she drank in all the joyful, innocent passion shared between them. It felt right, comfortable even.
This is what Tony and Nikki do. It’s why they feel the way they do about each other
, she thought. And she had to admit she was pretty proud of herself too.

“You okay?” he asked her in a hoarse whisper, and she smiled at him.

“Never better!” she grinned. “Oh, well, maybe there is something . . .”

“Name it, angel. Whatever it is, I’ll deliver,” he moaned to her.

She reached down to his cock and found it hard as flint, just as she’d guessed. When she wrapped her hand around it, he let out a low groan. “No need. I’m the one who wants to deliver.” She crawled into the space between his legs, taking his hardness between her lips, eager to offer something to him.

Vic thought he’d never last, that he’d come right then. Watching her orgasm break her down had been glorious, something he’d only dreamed of ever seeing, and this was just the icing on the cake. She slowed to just the right amount of tongue and relief to keep him hard but waiting. As her lips slid farther and farther down his shaft, eventually the head of his cock was hitting the back of her throat, not forced by him, but of her own accord, and he ached for more.
I don’t know how long I can last at this rate. Oh my god, I can’t take much more,
Vic thought, his body tingling from the building tension. When he knew he was almost there, his bliss imminent, he told her, “I’m coming, baby. I can’t stop now. Oh, please, baby . . .” and that was it. He felt his balls go hard and draw up, and before he could utter another sound, he emptied himself into her mouth, felt her swallowing around him, felt her suck harder, deeper, and he thrust upward, unable to control his body, unable to stop the yearning for her.

The deep sucking sound she made around his cock drove him wild. Vic reached down, grabbed her arms, and pulled her up onto him, then rolled them onto their sides and kissed her long, hard, and deep. He could taste his cum on her lips, on her tongue, and he reveled in the bond between them just from savoring it, from the sheer illicitness of it all. “Oh, angel, you have no idea how bad I want to bury my hardness in you right now,” he whispered into her neck.

“Maybe it won’t be long,” Laura whispered back. “I want it too.”

He stroked her cheek gently. “
La mia piccola farfalla,
” he murmured to her, his eyes dreamy and sweet.

“What does that mean?” she whispered.

He smiled down at her. “My little butterfly.”

W
hen Vic and Laura blew into Steve’s office, one look at Vic told everyone that something was wrong. “Sorry we’re late. Be right back.” He crossed the room and ducked into the restroom. Everyone looked at Laura.

“He’s washing his hands.” She dropped her voice. “When we got ready to leave the house, all of the tires on the car were flat. We had to get the pickup truck out, and it needed gas. Sorry.” She wanted to tell them who Vic thought was responsible for the tires, but she didn’t. The sidewalls had been slit, and Vic was sure it was Miranda. He broke down and told Laura what was going on. Instead of being angry, she was royally concerned and, if she was honest, a little scared. It was clear that Miranda was crazy.

When Vic rejoined the group, Steve took one look at him and the expression on the attorney’s face told Vic that Steve had figured it out too. Then Steve said, “Okay, let’s get started. I know those two have other things they need to be doing.” He pointed at Tony and Nikki, who both nodded. “I’ll let Peyton fill everyone in.”

“I took a flying run of a trip to Seattle this weekend, courtesy of Walters Construction, and spent several hours talking to Wagner’s mother.” Laura and Nikki gasped, and Vic stared in disbelief. “She’s a very nice lady who didn’t have anything good to say about her son.” Peyton gave his head a sad shake.

“Did you tell her that he was dead?” Laura asked.

“Of course. She seemed relieved. Still sad though. But I found out some things that explain his behavior. Seems when he was a new soldier, one of the assignments he had was at an officers’ club on the base where he was stationed. Someone found out that he’d waited tables in high school, and they gave him a job there. There were some very high-ups who frequented this particular club because they were friends with some of the officers assigned to the base.” Peyton took a deep breath; there was no delicate way to tell them.

“Mrs. Wagner said at first everything seemed okay. Then a few months after his work assignment at the officers’ club started, she said everything changed. One night while he was on leave and was having a rough time, he had some very bad nightmares. Things he said in the nightmares tipped her off, and then one day he blurted out that he couldn’t go back there and keep being passed around as a party favor.”

Peyton looked around the room and saw understanding dawn on every face. Then Vic asked, “So are you saying the officers . . . they . . .”

“Over and over. Him and a couple other young soldiers. All by a . . . well, let’s just say that if I told you the ringleader’s name, you’d all recognize it.”

“Oh my god,” Laura breathed. “That’s why he came after me?”

“No. He came after anyone he deemed vulnerable, looking for someone to hurt. Then I checked with some of my insiders. Turns out Wagner
did
make a report, and it
was
noticed. The army was investigating the officers, but without definitive evidence, they couldn’t do anything. The investigation is ongoing. These attacks had been reported at every base they’d frequented, but no one could find a way to prosecute, so that’s why nothing was done; they didn’t want to jeopardize the investigation. To date, they still don’t have anything to work with. Of the officers involved who are still alive, all are retired, and the rest are so old and frail that incarcerating them would serve no purpose.” Peyton stopped.

“But I don’t get it,” Tony said. “Why target Laura and others like her? I would think he’d be trying to help them.”

“They were individuals he saw as being weaker than himself, and so their assaults were their fault in his eyes. He was angry and hurting, and he wanted to hurt someone else. And if they reported their attacks and the reports were taken seriously, the truth about what had happened to him might’ve been unearthed, and he was most terrified of that. He didn’t want anyone thinking he was weak and small or, worse in his mind, gay, and he was determined to keep that from happening. So he bullied, if you will, the people who had the least support. He thought it made him look big and strong. Laura was naval EOD in the middle of an army operation; she had little or no support from her branch of the service once she was in the field. And that made her vulnerable and an easy target.”

Vic looked at Laura’s face as she tried to digest everything she was hearing. There was an enormous conflict on her face, and she looked, above all else, tired. “So he did to me what had been done to him?” she asked.

Peyton nodded and reached over to pat her hand. “And there’s a trail of assault reports from everywhere he was stationed, so you weren’t the only one. This had been going on for a long, long time, and no one stopped it. I’m so sorry, Laura. You didn’t have to go through this. I understand what they were trying to do, but that doesn’t help you.”