Unbridled: Lone Star Lovers, Book 1 (6 page)

“You can’t resist. Means you wish you could. Am I not good enough for you, Dani?”

Dani’s mouth opened then closed. Her brow lowered. “You’re just not the same as Rowe.”

“I’m a man.”

“But I wasn’t raised next door to you. I haven’t known you all my life.”

“That wasn’t exactly possible, now was it?”

Dani wrapped her arms around her breasts. Her large eyes glittered. “What do you want from me?”

she asked, her tone ragged.

Justin didn’t want to beg. Didn’t want to let her see how vulnerable he really was. He ground his jaws together. “I want your trust. And for you to see me as a man with every right to be in your life.”

Her brows rose. “You wanna date me?”

“Am I reaching too far?” he asked quietly, holding himself still.

She shook her head, a frown building a furrow between her brows. “My brother…”

He let one side of his mouth curl. “Yeah, he’d have a problem with me, wouldn’t he?”

“He doesn’t know you. He’d expect…well, someone different for me.”

“He’d expect someone like Rowe. Someone with prospects.”

Dani shook her head again, but then her shoulders slumped. “He’d expect someone who would want to take care of me.”

“You think I don’t want to do that?” he asked, keeping his voice dead even while anger formed a hard knot in his belly.

Dani’s glance fell away for a moment. When she raised her head again, her eyes were wide and wet.

“Why should I think any differently, Justin? The only time you’ve ever come close to me was to get into my pants. Why should I think I’m any different from any other woman you’ve fucked and left?”

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Delilah Devlin

Justin drew a deep breath. How could he change her mind now about his intentions? His reputation was a huge obstacle. Their shared past was another. He’d used her when she’d needed tenderness. And his relationship with Rowe was the two-hundred-pound gorilla in the room they still hadn’t addressed.

Justin forced emotion away, reminding himself that she didn’t want that from him.

Dani Standifer was only curious, slumming with the bad boy. In the end, she’d turn away from him.

So why shouldn’t he take what he could while she was still willing and eager for him to use her?

Justin’s expression shuttered, growing remote. And Dani had the sinking feeling she’d hurt him. “I was just being honest. Do you want…something more…?”

His mouth curved into a bitter smile. “Come closer. I want you to straddle me.”

Dani eyed him, wondering what he was thinking now. Gone was the lazy charm he’d used that had curved his lips and kept his sharply masculine features from slanting into the scary mask he wore now.

“Maybe I should go back,” she said softly.

“I’m not finished with you.”

She wanted to say that maybe she was done with him. But it wouldn’t have been true. She still needed something from him. She needed to feel desired. Needed his brand of sensuality—dirty, relentless, harsh.

She needed to feel the stretch of his cock, the heat of his hands and mouth. Maybe she wanted to use his body, but that’s all he wanted from her anyway, wasn’t it?

She crawled across the blanket toward him, then awkwardly placed her knees on either side of his hips and settled her hands on his shoulders.

His gaze dropped to her breasts, and her nipples tightened. Her uneasy breaths caused her chest to quiver.

“Slide that juicy cunt over my dick,” he said softly.

She gasped. His steady glare said he wanted to shock her. Maybe he half-expected her to try to escape him. His hands closed hard around her hips.

She lifted her chin. “Do you have a condom?” she asked, proud her voice hadn’t quivered.

“In the pocket of my jeans. You’ll have to reach for it if you want it that bad.”

She firmed her lips and her glare, but reached beside them to his crumpled jeans.

“Front pocket.”

His cock already nudged between her folds. God she was tempted to slide right down this very moment. But she rooted into the pocket and pulled out the small cellophane-wrapped square, holding it between them.

He plucked it from her fingers, tore it open with his teeth, and cloaked himself expertly. When he was done, he arched one dark brow.

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Unbridled

She gritted her teeth, really hating that expression he donned every time he expected her to bolt.

Instead, she centered her sex over the tip of him and drove downward.

He didn’t help her, didn’t move, just sat on his haunches while she tried to still the trembling inside her and forced herself down his shaft. When she was seated, her pussy clenched tightly around him, their faces were even.

She read anger in his expression.

She wondered what she betrayed. Regret? Because she was feeling it now. She wanted to take back what she’d said, wanted him to caress her body like he gave a damn about her.

Dani took a quivering breath. “I’m sorry.”

“For what, Dani?” he said, sounding a little tired.

“I don’t know…precisely.”

He snorted. “What do you need from me?
Be precise
.”

With their bodies connected, she felt a little less inhibited by her own pride and tried to reach out, tried to breach the emotional distance separating them. “I want…for you to care.”

“But this is just a fuck, isn’t it? Revenge, maybe, because I shot your dreams all to hell.” His words were harsh, but his hands were cupping her ass gently.

“You didn’t dash my dreams. You couldn’t. They were mine and based on…nothing. I didn’t know.”

A muscle alongside his jaw flexed and he dragged in a deep breath. “What do you want from me, Dani?” he repeated, his gaze lifting above her head.

“I’m not sure,” she said, leaning closer and nuzzling his neck.

“Don’t lie.”

“I want you to touch me. I want you to hold me.”

His hands roamed up her back, lightly. Teasingly. “Like this?”

She shook her head and gave him a sheepish glance. She bit her lip. “Leave bruises.”

He grunted. “Want me to mark you? You won’t be able to forget me in the morning.”

Dani let him see the longing in her face. “Justin, I never forgot you.”

“And yet, you never sought me out again,” he whispered. “Couldn’t meet my gaze whenever we passed on the street.”

“I’m sorry.” She set her hands on his shoulders and smoothed them up his sturdy neck, locking her gaze with his. “You scared the shit of me. I was really young. I didn’t know I wanted those things.”

“What things?”

“Damn you, you know. I let you do whatever you wanted, would have loved for you to take so much more.”

“So you turned to Rowe. Made him give you what you needed.”

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Delilah Devlin

She nodded, and it must have been the answer he’d wanted because he gripped her harder and lifted her, driving her down on his shaft. Dani’s eyelids drifted closed.

“Don’t,” he said roughly. “You have to look at me while I fuck you. I don’t want you pretending I’m anyone else.”

Her mouth opened, her jaw sagging as his strokes heated her inner walls. “How could I?”

“Dani,” he breathed and his head fell against her shoulder.

Dani wrapped her arms around his shoulders and placed her cheek against his. “I never forgot.

Always tried to recapture the feeling…but it was never the same.”

“Don’t care why. Not now.
Jesus
, hold tight.” Justin leaned forward, cupping her bottom to keep her pussy clutching his cock, and got his knees under himself to take her down to the blanket. Balls-deep inside her, he pushed into her, rooting deeply, his hips lifting, pulling his cock away, then slamming deeper still.

She wrapped her legs around his waist and sobbed into his ear. “Justin, more. God, please,
please
, don’t stop.”

His arms shot under her knees and he pressed her legs upward. His cock dug impossibly deeper, forcing out her breaths in short feminine grunts. He unleashed a storm inside her, thrusting endlessly, his strong, muscled body dominating her in the most fundamental way.

Dani couldn’t breathe except to drag in his breath, his scent. She couldn’t move except to counter his strokes, lifting her bottom to slam her pussy against his groin. She couldn’t think about anything except the way he filled her, rushed into her, cramming so deep, filling her so completely, she never wanted it to end.

But at last, his frenzied movement built the sensual tension that curled around her womb…tightening…tightening—until he rocketed her into an orgasm that left her shaken, shivering and gasping for breath.

His strokes slowed even though his cock lost rigidity as though he too didn’t want the experience to end. When he halted, she slowly opened her eyes.

His gaze bored into her, glittering with triumph.

Dani felt a chill pass through her. “I can’t breathe,” she whispered, pushing against his shoulders.

He rolled away and covered his eyes with his forearm while he dragged in deep breaths.

Dani sat up, wrapping an arm around her breasts and pressing her thighs together to still the tremors that faded slowly away. God, she’d given him everything he’d wanted. More than she’d intended. And now, he meant to mock her?

“I need to go home,” she said, keeping her voice even by sheer willpower.

His chest lifted and he lowered his arm. “Right. Get dressed.”

He rocked to a sit and reached for his shirt, dragging it over his head. Then he stood, his cock glistening in the moonlight, and quickly stripped off the condom and dragged on his jeans. He was dressed before she’d moved and standing with his hands on his hips.

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Unbridled

Dani moved like an automaton. She managed the pants, but her hands began to shake so badly, she couldn’t get the shirt over her sweat-sticky skin.

He sighed and turned her away. His hands gripped the lower hem and pulled the shirt efficiently down.

Then he whistled softly and his horse ambled toward them. Before she could gather her thoughts and her shattered pride, he had the horse saddled and was helping her up. They didn’t speak all the way back to the house. Dani didn’t know how she made it up the ladder, must have been the hands steadying her legs and ass all the way up, but when she’d entered her bedroom, she closed her doors and turned the lock, drawing the curtains closed behind her.

A light clicked on behind her and she stiffened.
Sweet Jesus, not now.
All she wanted to do was crawl into bed, pull the covers over her head and weep.

“I heard a noise and got worried,” Cutter rasped behind her. “Imagine my surprise when I saw you disappearing over the balcony.”

Dani closed her eyes briefly then turned to glance over her shoulder and meet her brother’s enraged glare.

“Cutter…”

He rose from the armchair next to her bed and strode over to her. Before she could back away, he lifted his hand and turned her face into the light. “Didn’t even bother to kiss you goodnight? Don’t know whether I should chase him down and beat the shit out of him or not. Who were you with, Dani?”

“Rowe—”

“Not Rowe. I called him. He hedged, so I guess he knew damn well who you were with. Which leaves me wondering…” His gaze bored into hers. “Couldn’t have been Cruz. You have better sense.”

She flinched, giving him his answer.

Air hissed between clenched teeth. “You haven’t been back even a day. Or did you stop by to set up your little rendezvous before you came here?”

“It wasn’t like that.”

His jaw ground, then he shook his head. “Guess you’re old enough to make your own decisions, but if Cruz thinks he’s gonna get a piece of this spread, he’s in for disappointment. Mom and Dad had the good sense to leave this place in my care.”

“He’s not after this ranch.”

“You know that for a fact?” He raked a hand through his brown hair. “What’s he want then? You?

Think he’s been waiting around for you to come home?”

“I’m not sixteen anymore. I don’t need you to protect me or vet my dates. Justin isn’t anyone special to me.”

“Well, that makes me feel so much better,” he snarled.

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Delilah Devlin

She stared at him through a wall of shimmering tears. “Dammit. Don’t you dare make me feel like a whore. You aren’t exactly a monk.”

“I don’t sneak around. Any man who is a man will come to our door.”

“Like you’d let him date me?”

“You said it. You’re not a child.” Cutter’s gaze condemned her one last time then slid away. “I’m tired. I’ll say goodnight. I hope I don’t have to worry about anyone else knocking at your window tonight.”

Dani let out a deep breath and sat hard on the edge of her bed. Her relationship with Cutter had always been a little one-sided, his way or the highway, but he was right.

She couldn’t sneak around. Not and keep her self-respect. Not that Justin hadn’t stripped it all away from her already. He’d used her tonight, proven he could get to her with very little effort.

Damn him. And damn Rowe for putting her in this position.

The things they both made her want were all wrong. However, she couldn’t get the image out of her mind of Rowe closing his eyes and sinking down Justin’s cock while Justin’s hot glare nailed her. She’d quivered then grown wet.

Hot, nasty lust still held her in its grip and she thought she might be like a crack addict, haunted by visions of what her life could be if she could just shake the gnawing need.

But Justin hadn’t fully appeased her appetite tonight, hadn’t slaked her thirst for his brand of loving.

He’d given her teasing glimpses of the man he could be before slamming the door shut. The haunted intensity of his gaze when he’d knelt in front of her couldn’t have been just another weapon in his seductive arsenal. If there was even a slim chance she could chip away his armor and prove a caring man really did exist, she had to give it a shot.