The Lawson Boys: Alex (15 page)

“Want to talk
about it?” Her voice was quiet in his ear. She didn’t make a move
to push him away.

In the soft
glow of the lamp, the old fashioned, comfortable room, and with
Harly in his arms, Alex suddenly found himself telling her, his
words still hoarse from the crying, but his voice gaining
strength.

“Mark was my
best friend in the Army. We were like brothers. We went through
training together, we’d been best mates all these years. We’d faced
danger together, dating, him getting married. His wife was due to
give birth, and he even shared those pictures of his baby, the
ultrasounds his wife emailed him.” The memory of Mark’s happy face
made him want to both smile and cry yet again. “I had to stay back
at camp due to having twisted my damned ankle. Mark and the others
went out on patrol. I went on-line to check my emails, see if there
was any news from home to keep me occupied. His wife’s sister had
emailed me to say that Laney had given birth to a baby daughter,
all was well, and could we please ensure Mark knew. We did that
sometimes, sending an email through a friend as well, especially if
it was important news, just in case something screwed up with the
communications and an important message got lost. This was
important.” Closing his eyes, Alex drew a deep breath. “I was so
excited for him. An hour later, the commanding officer arrived to
tell me that Mark was dead. He’d been killed in a fire fight.
Jesus, Harly, he didn’t even know that he had a baby daughter and
now he’d never see her. She was going to grow up without knowing
her dad.” His breath shuddered and he held Harly tighter. “That
evening the mail came and in it…Harly, your Grandma’s letter
arrived and all I could think while I held it, was that Mark never
knew his baby daughter, and I’d never even known that I had a baby,
for however little time it was in this world.”

“I’m so sorry,”
Harly whispered.

Alex shook his
head. “You weren’t to know. It was just…it was so raw, the sudden
knowledge. I know now, looking back, that Mark’s dying escalated my
own emotions. It all seemed so unfair. My baby was dead and I was
alive, and Mark’s alive while he was dead. I hadn’t known of my
baby’s existence, but he had, but he’d never see her grow, never
share her life. Harly, I’m so sorry.”

“Whatever
for?”

Loosening his
grip on her, Alex eased her back so he could look into her face.
He’d never been one to shirk the truth, no matter how unpleasant,
and he wasn’t going to start now. “I didn’t realise…when you asked
me why losing the baby I hadn’t even known existed sixteen years
ago affected me so much, seemed so raw…I didn’t realise that there
was a link between my over-reaction and Mark’s death.”

“Oh, Alex,
I-”

“No.” He placed
one finger against her lips. “I didn’t realise until tonight, I
didn’t want to. But it’s true, I was furious, sad, and I aimed it
all at you.” Reaching out, he cupped her face, almost angry at
himself.

She placed her
hand atop his. “Have you cried before this?”

“No.”
Embarrassment flooding through him, he glanced away.

“Look at me.”
When he did so reluctantly, there was no condemnation in her eyes.
“You were grieving for your best friend, you’d had a shock, then
another with my grandma’s announcement. You held in your grief,
Alex, something had to give sooner or later. Have you talked to
your family about this?”

“No.” He
shrugged uncomfortably. “I never could seem to. It’s not that they
wouldn’t listen or care, but…no.”

She smiled.
“I’m glad you could talk to me.”

“Talk?” He gave
a small, self deprecating smile. “You mean blubber like a little
kid.”

“You cried like
a man grieving for his best mate, a man close enough to be your
brother.” Her voice firmed. “And I respect that. There’s nothing
wrong with it, Alex.”

By all accounts
he should have been red-faced and stammering with embarrassment,
trying to make his getaway from her house, but instead he felt
nothing but acceptance.

Acceptance from
this one woman who sat so close beside him, her eyes honest, her
scent flowing through his senses and the warmth of her body seeping
into him where she was still pressed against him, held there by his
own arm around her back.

He didn’t want
to let her go.

In the soft
glow of the lamp they looked at each other, and slowly the
atmosphere between them changed.

He felt it as
surely as he heard the rain pattering outside the window.

Harly sat on
his bed, all warm and womanly, soft curves against his harder
muscles. Her breasts pressed against his chest with every breath
she drew, and he felt the sudden hard pebbling of her nipples
through her nightgown.

Alex’s gaze
slid over her face, taking in the rounded cheeks that suddenly
flushed faintly, the soft lips that parted a little as her
breathing fastened. Her fingers resting on his shoulder flexed, the
tips caressing the hard muscle beneath his naked skin.

“Alex…” His
name was a whisper on her lips.

Heat swirled
through him, flaring up from the dim embers that had sparked to
life at the awakening awareness of her as more than a
comforter.

Harly was warm
and soft and very much a woman in his arms. Every luscious curve
was outlined by the nightgown and he had a sudden ache to caress
them, to run his hand over her rounded limbs, to sweep his palm
beneath the material and across her warm skin.

She wasn’t just
pretty, warm, and curvaceous, she also attracted him physically,
mentally and spiritually, and something else, something that was
rapidly burning to life between them. Recognition, a reawakening of
passion that had appeared, however briefly, one night sixteen long
years ago when a teenage boy had set out to comfort a crying
girl.

Lowering his
head slowly, he waited to see if she’d back away, if he was
mistaken and this growing desire was on his side only, but Harly
didn’t move away, instead, she closed the distance between
them.

Their lips
met.

It was like
coming home. The silky texture of her lips welcomed him, returning
his light kiss, then growing deeper, accepting him as his tongue
slid across the tender seam, opening to him.

The honeyed
warmth of her mouth, the taste of her, filled him, slipping through
him, and he drew her closer, loving the sensation of her soft
curves against his hard muscles, her luscious heat against his
body, but he wanted more. It wasn’t enough.

While he
explored her mouth with his tongue, tasting and sipping, he
gathered her nightgown in his other hand, pulling it up until her
silken flesh was bared to his palm, and he ran his hand along her
rounded thigh, gripping near the top, brushing his thumb against
the cotton panties covering her hip.

In one smooth
motion he slid his thumb beneath the elastic and she gave a gasp
which he quickly swallowed, deepening his kiss, holding her to him
with one arm while he teased her tender hip with his thumb, finding
the crease of her groin and tracing his thumb back and forth in the
crease.

Jesus, she was
so warm, her skin so silky, he could only imagine how she’d feel
around him, her heat squeezing him, sucking him inside her, her
bare breasts against his chest.

Fire flared
through him, his shaft stiffening.

She squirmed
against him, shifting her leg restlessly, her hands tightening on
his shoulders before sliding downward, her nails scraping
deliciously against his heated skin. “Alex…” His name was a soft
moan laced with unmistakeable desire that only made his need flame
brighter, hotter.

Pressing light
kisses across her cheek, he came to the tender spot beneath her ear
and fastening his mouth against her throat, he bit down gently
before laving the pinkening skin with his tongue.

Her response
was almost instantaneous. She arched into him, her fingers flexing
on his pectoral muscles as she angled her head to one side to give
him greater access.

Alex was more
than happy to take advantage of her surrender, kissing his way down
her throat, licking a burning path across the tender skin.

But there was
more to Harly than just her delectable throat and luscious lips,
and he wanted all of her.

Grabbing the
hem of her nightie, he tugged it up further and she shifted
slightly so that the material pulled free and it was a mere matter
of seconds before he had it up to her shoulders, pulling back
enough so that he could whip it over her head.

Before he could
toss it aside and feast his eyes on her body, she suddenly grabbed
it from his hands and held it in front of her, sinking back to sit
on the bed with it clutched in both hands.

“Harly?” He
looked at her questioningly.

“I…”
Swallowing, she glanced away.

Reaching out,
he touched her cheek, cupping the roundness and grazing his thumb
along the bottom curve of her lip. “I won’t hurt you, Harly.”

“I know. I
just…can we turn the lamp off?”

Not
understanding, he frowned.

“Please?”
Nervously, she met his gaze.

Sitting before
him with the nightie clutched to her almost naked body made two
images clash together in his brain. One was decidedly hot - a woman
looking up at him with need burning in her eyes and a nightgown
clutched to her in an attempt to hide her body - and not a good
attempt at that, he could see her voluptuous curves peeking out.
The other image was of a woman suddenly self conscious of her
body.

The hell with
that last image.

“Come here,” he
growled, watching in satisfaction as her eyes widened.

Not giving her
a minute to think any further, he came up onto his knees and
grabbed her upper arms, pulling her against him, crushing the
nightgown between their bodies.

Looking down at
her, his desire for her made his voice almost guttural. “I want
you, Harly. Every luscious curve of you, every hot inch of your
soft flesh. I want it all. No hiding.” And before she could think
to say anything, he kissed her hard.

Alex gave no
quarter, gave her no time to protest or try to hide behind her
self-consciousness. With one hand he ripped the nightgown from her
hands and flung it aside, swallowing her protests and kissing her
with all the heat he felt. It took mere seconds to rip the sides of
the cotton panties open and toss them aside, and then she was
melting against him, her silken skin pressed to his heated flesh,
her curves against him -
sweet Jesus have mercy!
- and his
hands explored her, one sliding down her spine to spread flat
against her voluptuous derriere, smoothing and cupping, pulling her
hard against him, while his other hand slid free the tie holding
her plait and he unwound her hair with dexterous fingers until the
thick mass was flowing down her back.

When he moved
back on the bed, she followed until they were both up on their
knees. It was so easy to slide his hand down her back, over the
delicious swells of her buttocks, tracing the crease down in the
lightest of touches, feeling her shiver against him.

Sliding his
lips from hers, he trailed his mouth across her cheek and back to
the tender skin beneath her ear, fastening his lips to her skin and
sucking gently. As she drew a shuddering breath, he slid his hand
around her hip to her stomach between them, flattening his palm
against her belly and deliberately pressing in slightly to ensure
that she felt his hand against her.

“Alex…” His
name a whisper of desire.

Slowly he moved
his hand downwards, over the swell of her belly and lower, cupping
her mound, brushing the curls with his fingertips, moving them
backwards and forwards in a firm caress.

She shifted,
her legs parting further, and with a hot, open-mouthed kiss of
approval on her throat, he slid his fingers through the curls and
between the sheltering lips of her labia.

Slick heat met
his touch, moistness that exposed her desire, and with sure moves
he circled the little clitoris now unprotected by the tender flesh.
High up, the little bud was hard, pebbling under the stroke of his
fingertip.

Her heat made
his blood thicken, desire pumping through him to pool low in his
loins, a fire sizzling through his veins. His shaft, already hard,
strained upward as it sought the hot, moist depths of her body.

Without thought
he thrust against her, his thick shaft driving up between them
while his fingers delved deeper, stroking along the seam of her
body, finding the wet opening of her body and dipping in just a
tiny amount, enough to make her thrust back against him, her body
yearning for more than just his touch.

He wasn’t ready
yet, even though his own body was pumped with heated, carnal
lust.

Taking her
mouth again, he ate at her lips, wanting to taste her, seeking to
invade the honeyed depths beyond her lips as he demanded entrance.
He laughed darkly, silently, when at first she wouldn’t surrender,
her own soft lips playing with his in a mindless tease of
prurience, but when she sought to move her hips back he prevented
it, his other hand coming flat against her bottom to press her
almost harshly against him, his grip unrelenting.

He was rewarded
by her arms winding around his neck, her pleased little mew of
satisfaction breathed against his lips.

So his little
Harly liked to tease, what an intriguing surprise.

And possibly
liked a little bit of force? Even more intriguing.

Definitely both
he was more than happy to explore further, but not this time. This
time he wanted her, no playing. Just him, Harly, and this carnal
heat that beat between them.

“Please, Alex.”
Her husky whisper was moist against his throat as she pressed a
hot, open-mouthed kiss to his heated skin.