by Lora Leigh
Even her mother hadn’t known what Lilly was doing.
“Let’s say he’s at the top of the list,” Travis answered. “We’re focusing on him.”
Lilly felt her heart clench at the thought. “Father trusted him. He loved him.”
“The ones we trust the most are often the ones who will betray us first,” he said, gently. “Whoever it is, Lilly, whatever their motive, they meant to see you dead. Today made the fourth attempt on your life, and this one was professionally contracted.”
“How did they find us?” She frowned in confusion, still trying to figure that one out. “My cell was turned off. I didn’t contact anyone. How did they find me?”
“You could have been followed,” he answered softly. “Several of the assailants were in your uncle’s employ. Any one of them could have followed you to the safe house, then returned. It could have taken time to call the others together, to plan a reasonably successful assault. Two days isn’t much time to plan the assassination of four women. One of whom was known to be able to take care of her herself quite well.”
“You could have planned and executed that one within hours,” she pointed out.
“But I’m better than they are.” He chuckled.
Lilly allowed a small smile to touch her lips, but she couldn’t bring herself to laugh.
“They’re my family,” she whispered. “My mother and brother, my uncle. They’re all I’ve ever known for love and security. What the hell happened, Travis?”
He breathed out heavily. “As long as you were the child you were supposed to be, then you were well loved,” he told her. “Perhaps it’s that society, that generation, or just that small clique. I’m more inclined to say it’s a very small clique that believes in committing a child for daring to have free will. Most parents suffer the minor embarrassments and disappointments as a part of life.”
She let her head fall back against the wall behind her and stared up at the dark ceiling.
“Mother never showed me this side of herself. Not to this extent.”
“Or your father never let you see it?” Travis suggested. “He tried to protect you.”
“Maybe.” She moved to swing her legs off the bed but he stretched his arm across her thighs and held her in place.
She was suddenly very conscious of the thin robe and her nudity beneath it. The shower she’d had earlier had done nothing to still the nervous tension racing through her.
She’d wanted to run. She wanted to fight. She wanted to find a place to expend the fury inside her before she was forced to return to the house her uncle had rented for the summer.
“Travis, now isn’t a good time.” She still hadn’t managed to forgive him for his absence.
He chuckled lightly. “Bullshit, Lilly. You have all that energy dying to burst free and I’ll be damned if I didn’t miss you like hell.”
“Oh yeah, you missed me so much,” she mocked him. “All those phone calls, checking up on me, phone sex at one in the morning. It was so much fun.”
She pushed against his shoulder, but not really with enough force to dislodge him. When it came to Travis, saying no wasn’t an easy thing to do.
“There was phone sex? Was it good?” Dark, roughened by arousal, his voice whispered across her senses like a velvety caress.
“It would have been if it had been more than simply in my dreams,” she bit out, clearly remembering the anger and fear that had torn through her when she realized she was only days away from being committed.
“I wouldn’t have allowed you to be taken from me like that, Lilly,” he said gently, as though he knew exactly what she thought, what she felt.
“You couldn’t have stopped it. You weren’t here, remember?” she pointed out angrily.
“Lilly, I didn’t leave you unprotected.”
“I protected myself.” She pushed at his shoulder harder this time. “Let me go, Travis. This discussion is becoming boring.”
“Then get unbored.” His voice was harder, though no less sexy. “I didn’t betray you, Lilly, nor did I let you down.”
“You weren’t there,” she snapped furiously. “You didn’t even tell me you were leaving, Travis.”
“Dammit, Lilly, it was a quick trip out. I should have been back before the next night. My sat phone was damaged or I would have gotten your message and returned faster.”
“So what is this relationship then? Or is it not even a relationship? Friends with benefits? Fuck buddies? What, Travis? Tell me the rules now so I at least know what to expect the next time you decide to disappear for however long.”
“You want to know what the hell this relationship is?” He came over her, looming above her like a dark shadow of sensual wrath.
“It would be nice.” Her voice was weak and breathy. She sounded like a damned sex kitten or something. Hell, she was starting to feel like one.
“This relationship is completely monogamous,” he growled as his hand smoothed down her shoulder, her arm, gripped her hip. “And I’m a possessive bastard, Lilly. Did I ever mention that?”
She shook her head. No, he hadn’t mentioned that at all. Perhaps he should have; she would have melted far sooner.
“So that would make this relationship fairly exclusive, wouldn’t you say?” He jerked the hem of her robe to her thighs. “That makes you mine, baby. No friends with benefits. No fuck buddies. Simply fucking mine.”
“Call next time,” she snapped.
“Fine.” His other hand gripped her neck, held her still and kissed her with enough force, enough hunger, to curl her toes.
It was like this with him. Like a fire blazing through the darkest night, stilling the rage and the pain and replacing it with hunger and a sense of emotional security. There was no true safety, not in their lives, not in their line of work, but there was this.
Deep, desperate kisses filled with hunger and heat branded her lips and her senses as pleasure began to wash over her in heavy, heated waves. Travis jerked her to him and Lilly found herself being lowered to the bed as he came over her, his hands tearing at the belt of the robe, at his own clothes. Through drugging tastes of her lips, his head tilting, his tongue thrusting against hers, he managed to divest himself of his clothes and to tear aside the edges of her robe.
She was all but naked now. The dark surrounded them, white-hot hunger and needy groans mixed with his own male growls of arousal. It was like having those ragged edges of her soul slowly repair themselves.
She wasn’t alone any longer. Travis was here. He was touching her, holding her. There was nothing, no one, that could harm her as long as she held his heart.
Heavily muscled shoulders flexed beneath her touch as his hands cupped her breasts, sending surging pulses of sensation rippling through her nipples when his thumbs stroked over them.
Lilly could feel the invasive pleasure throbbing through her pussy, swelling her clit. Her juices gathered on the intimate folds as her nipples swelled, ached, and lifted to his touch.
“I missed you, my Lilly,” he groaned as his lips moved to her neck. “I dreamed of your touch. Of tasting you, having you.”
His lips moved lower, his tongue stroking over a tight nipple as brutally hot fingers of sensation struck at her womb, her clit. Arching against his thigh, Lilly felt the desperate hunger unraveling inside her. This moment in time was hers alone. She didn’t have to share it. No one could invade it. There was no danger here, there was only this. His lips covering her nipple to suck it inside his mouth as his tongue flicked over it.
He drew on the tight bud, suckling it deeply, almost roughly, as she arched to the incredible sensation. From one nipple to the other he moved. The excruciatingly sensitive tip rioted with such extreme pleasure that she couldn’t hold back the whimpering little cry that tore from her lips.
It was i
ncredible. Her head thrashed against the pillow as he licked the hard nubbin, swirled his tongue around it, then sucked it inside his mouth again and fed on the arousal rising inside her.
Lilly’s hips arched as Travis’s thigh wedged between hers and pressed firmly against the mound of her pussy. Her clit swelled tighter, throbbed with pleasure. Her juices spilled from her clenching vagina, her body desperate for his possession, preparing it for the intensity of touch that she needed.
She wanted more than gentle touches, and that was what she was getting. She wanted more than easy kisses and slow caresses. And he would give it to her.
“Sweet Lilly,” he growled as he pulled back, reaching out with one hand to the bedside table and flipping on the low light there.
The soft glow washed over his naked, bronzed flesh. Muscles rippled beneath the skin, perspiration dotted his brow, his shoulders.
Easing back, he stared down her body.
“Touch your breasts,” he ordered, his eyes focused on the swollen mounds as he lifted her hands to them. “Show me, baby, what you like, what you want. Make me crazy.”
Make him crazy? Oh, if this was what he wanted, then she had a lot of experience in touching herself.
She cupped her breasts, her fingers clenching on the mounds teasingly. With her index fingers she raked her nipples, gasping at the pleasure of having him watch.
“Oh yeah,” he breathed out roughly, his eyes narrowing on her now. “Is that how you like it, baby? Slow and easy?”
A teasing smile curled her lips. With thumb and forefinger she pinched at the distended nipples, her breath catching at the thought of Travis touching her so firmly, with his fingers, his teeth.
She bit her lower lip to hold back another moan as she tugged at the tender tips, her shoulders shifting against the bed as pleasure tore through her.
“Ahh, so that’s how you like it, love,” he whispered. “Shall I do that for you, while perhaps you show me other things you might like?”
He moved, sliding behind her as he lifted her before him. Lilly gasped as she found her head resting on his thigh, the heavy width of his cock at her cheek as it rose proud and flush along his stomach.
“There, love.” His hand stroked her breast, cupped it, petted it. “Show me what else you like while I play with your pretty nipples.”
Lilly could feel the perspiration gathering along her neck, her breasts. Fighting to breathe, Lilly felt his thumb and forefinger surround her nipple as he placed one of her hands on her midriff.
“Show me, Lilly,” he growled. “Show me what you want, sweetheart.”
What she wanted? She wanted his touch. She wanted his fingers stroking her, touching her, possessing her.
She stared up at him as his fingers worked her nipple, rolling it, plumping it, and sending electrical flames of sensation tearing to her womb.
Her fingers slid lower, ruffling the border of curls just below her abdomen. She could feel the folds of her pussy swelling, her clit pounding, as her fingers feathered against it.
“Beautiful,” he breathed out roughly. “Part those pretty folds, Lilly. Let me see your little clit. Let me see how you pleasure yourself.”
Lowering her other hand, she parted the plump folds of her pussy as she used the other to circle the tight bud of her clit. Pleasure was racing through her, excitement sizzling through her nerve endings, as she touched herself with her fingers, while Travis tormented her nipples with exquisite pleasure.
As she looked up at him, her gaze locked with his, and she watched his eyes narrow, darken, as her fingers circled her clit. The pleasure was incredible. It was like nothing she had ever known when she’d touched herself before. It was brutally intense, whipping through her system and sending her nerve endings rioting with exquisite pleasure.
Her fingers stroked through her folds, dipping into the slick dew, returning to run around her clit as his fingers sent waves of pleasure surging through her nipples to her pussy, clenching the intimate folds with brutal need.
Her hips writhed beneath her own touch as her head turned, her lips parting, her tongue licking along the shaft of his cock as it rose before her.
She needed the taste of him. The touch of him. She needed him.
She moved her fingers faster as a hard groan tore from his chest. Her head lifted, her tongue touching the head of his cock, licking over it, tasting it.
She felt as though she were dying of excitement. It was racing through her bloodstream, pounding in her heart. She couldn’t survive this. She was going to die from the intensity of the sensations, but she would die happy. She would die knowing no pleasure could ever be so great.
As her fingers dipped inside her pussy a gasp of tormented pleasure passed her lips. Her lips parted, surrounded the engorged head of Travis’s cock, and sucked him inside her mouth. She milked the hard, throbbing flesh, sucking it deep, laving it with her tongue.
Driving her fingers deep inside the hot depths of her own flesh, she angled herself higher against his chest, kept the hard crest in her mouth and slowly came to her knees. Her thighs tightened on her own hand for long seconds before slowly withdrawing them.
Lifting her head, she felt his hands tighten for a second in her hair before he allowed her to straighten. Licking her lips, Lilly lifted her fingers, still wet from her juices, and painted the heavy dew across his lips as they parted and he sucked two of her fingers inside.
The feel of his lips suckling her fingers had her pussy rippling in impending orgasm. She had never been so close to coming without actually being penetrated.
“I needed you,” she whispered as she straddled his thighs, staring into his eyes as he released her fingers, his hands moving to clench the mounds of her ass.
“God. Never again. Swear.” His expression twisted into lines of tormented pleasure as she gripped the shaft of his cock and rubbed it against the tortured knot of her clit.
“So good,” she moaned, her hips shifting, her pussy clenching.
“Fucking good,” he groaned. “Fuck me, Lilly. Stop teasing the hell out of me.”
She smiled back at him, shifting the engorged crest until it was poised at the entrance of her pussy.
Ecstasy began to pound inside her then. Moving her hips, shifting, pressing down, as she felt the wide, heavy length of his erection stretching her wide.
Pleasure-pain enveloped her, sending sizzling, heated currents of rapture racing across nerve endings so sensitive, she whimpered with the building exaltation. She couldn’t stay still. Her hips jerked against the hold he had on her ass, her need to race to completion beating inside her.
“Easy, baby,” he groaned, his fingers bunching in her ass, pulling the rounded flesh apart, sending additional sensations assaulting her nerve endings.
Sensations she had never expected to enjoy. The feel of his fingers dipping into the extreme wetness flowing from her pussy, around his cock. The feel of those fingers smoothing the slickness back, rubbing against that once forbidden, untouched area.
It was untouched no longer, because she didn’t have the willpower to stop him. Hell no, she wasn’t stopping him. She was pressing down, making the touch firmer, more invasive.
Her eyes flared open as his fingertip penetrated that hidden entrance. Heavy-eyed, intense, he watched her with increasing hunger as his finger continued to slip slowly inside as she pressed down, taking his cock deeper, his finger deeper.
The dual penetration was exquisite. Her fingers clenched on his shoulders as she rode him slow and easy, taking all of his cock, all of his finger, and milking them as she felt the pleasure burning over her nerve endings.
“God, you’re beautiful.” His voice was whiskey rough, dark and hungry. “So fucking sweet and hot, Lilly.”
Sweat eased down his temple, drawing her gaze as she felt his finger ease from h
er rear, gather more of her juices and penetrate once again.
“Travis. What are you doing to me?” Shudders of pleasure were tearing through her as she felt her muscles ease, relax, and welcome a second finger.
“Travis.” His name was a plea, a cry of such incredible pleasure she didn’t know if she could bear it.
His hand eased on her hip. Rather than holding her back, he let her free. She couldn’t hold still. She couldn’t stop the need to ride him hard and fast, to feel the fiery burn, the desperate sensuous rise of ecstasy.
Lilly felt her head tip back on her shoulders as it began to build, to tighten through her. She tightened her hold on him, her nails digging in, desperate mewls rising from her throat as electric intensity, white-hot fingers of sensation, began to radiate outward from both penetrations. His cock filled her, stretched her. His fingers fucked inside her rear, sending flames shooting along previously untouched nerve endings, triggering a flame that built, that rose, that overtook her in an explosion so sudden, so blinding, she screamed his name.
He was thrusting hard and deep beneath her, one arm wrapped around her, holding her close as his fingers drove deep, his cock drove deeper, and he groaned her name and stiffened beneath her.
Fiery bursts of release erupted inside her. She felt it, throbbing, pulsing, filling her as her pussy clenched around him. Her head fell to his shoulder as she felt herself crying, shuddering, hard tremors raking through her body as the pleasure tore through her over and over again.
She couldn’t contain it. She couldn’t fight it. She had lost any measure of restraint when it came to Travis long ago. So long ago. When he was bound to another woman, when she was barely a woman, on a dance floor surrounded by others, she had given him her heart.
He had always held her, and she had never realized it. He had filled her fantasies as Lord Dermont. Then he had filled her deepest desires as Travis Caine.
And now, now he filled every dream, every emotion she had thought she would never be filled. The lover she had never believed would be in her life.
