Love Letters Volume 2: Duty to Please

by Emily Cale, Ginny Glass, Christina Thacher, Maggie Wells

  Incensed, she whipped her head around to glare at him, trying to shoo him away. “What’s it to you if I have? You have a tatt.”

  His teeth on edge, he ran his hand down to her ankle then gently lifted her foot, helping her step out of the tangle of clothing he left in his wake. “That’s different,” he grumbled.

  Different because he needed to be reminded of the past in order to live for the future. Tara’s entire life stretched out in front of her, waiting for her to grab it with both hands. Instead, she grabbed the sink and arched her back, an incendiary come-on that sent the last of his reserve up in smoke. Balling her clothing, he pitched the garments through the open doorway into the main part of the cabin. She hadn’t run when she had the chance. Now, he was keeping her, and she wouldn’t need clothes for quite a while.

  Luke was half tempted to just ram himself into her and end the torment. He reached for her hips, but Tara turned in his arms. She wrapped one hand around his biceps, her gaze direct and meaningful. He glanced down. Her pale, delicate fingers fell far short of spanning the band of interwoven vines inked into his flesh. The contrast of her skin against his shook him to the core. Somehow the tender resilience in her soft, feminine strength proved to be his kryptonite.

  “The belly button ring hurt,” she confessed. “I kept it because I’m never going through that again. Turns out I’m a great big wussy when it comes to pain, so no needles for me.”

  He pressed a tender kiss to the glittering jewel in her navel. “You are perfect as you are. Every inch of you.”

  Again, her hands were in his hair. She whispered his name in a voice thick with the gentleness he ached for late at night. His heart soared into the clouds, but the sight of her skin marked with his grit and grime brought him crashing to earth again.

  She stood bare and beautiful in his grasp. He almost begged her to leave while there was still a chance to escape him, but he wasn’t that good or clean or noble. His knees popped as he straightened. He ignored her squeak of surprise when her feet left the ground. A wild swipe of his arm cast the shower curtain aside. He dropped her into the tub and climbed in after her. The weak trickle of spray plastered his shirt to his back as he crowded her against the tiled wall.

  A smirk twisted her luscious lips. “Um, I think you forgot something,” she murmured, plucking at the drenched cotton clinging to his shoulders and arms.

  Luke kissed her hard and hot, wiping all traces of mockery from her face. Tucking his chin to his chest, he tried to regulate his oxygen intake as water cascaded over his fire-resistant pants and tiny pools of mud formed under his boots. Her fingertips teased the edge of his open collar. Sweet red lips parted as she toyed with the first button she found but he refused to be taunted into playing games.

  “Undress me.”

  The order came out in a croak, but the break in his voice seemed to fuel her eager compliance. Pressing his palms to the wall, he watched her nimble fingers manipulate each button, master every hook, and conquer the tape and zipper on his brush pants. His muscles quaked. He curled his hands into fists, pushing his knuckles into unyielding ceramic when hers grazed his straining cock. She stripped his shirt and undershirt from his tense shoulders and tossed them aside. Wads of sodden cotton hit the floor with a splat, but it was the thunk of her knees touching the bottom of the tub that reverberated deep inside him.

  She bit her lip and desire ripped through him like a flash fire. She caught his hips, holding him steady as she blinked up at him through the gathering steam. She held his gaze and worked the knots from the laces of his boots, daring him to look away. He couldn’t if he tried. He stared down at her, fascinated by the rivers of water sluicing over her shoulders and the lucky droplets clinging to the tips of her ripe raspberry nipples. Her eyes locked on his, she leaned in to press a coy kiss to his hipbone, and his guttural groan ricocheted off the walls.

  “God help me,” he whispered to the ceiling.

  Tara cupped his calf and smiled a siren’s smile as she urged him to step out of his pants and boots. He kicked the last of his clothing out of the way and scooped her up, pinning her to the wall like some kind of exotic butterfly. A laugh bubbled from her lips, and the pure, undiluted joy of it drenched his parched soul.

  Right or wrong, she was happy. Whether their union proved to be heaven-sent or hellfire, she was going to be his. At last.

  *

  She clung to his shoulders, her nails biting into his smooth back as she wrapped him up so tight he’d never get away from her again. His lips found the sweet spot just beneath her ear and she hummed her approval. She wriggled, relishing the slick slide of his wet skin against hers. Long and lean, a towering redwood carved into the shape of a man. Her tongue darted out to gather precious moisture pooling in the hollow of his throat. He groaned, and the vibration numbed her lips, a match to the tinderbox of hot, hungry need she’d tamped down for far too long.

  Panting, she pressed her forehead to his shoulder and stared down at the murky water swirling at his feet. “Luke?”

  “Tara, baby.” His voice broke. He stared at her, his eyes wild with hunger. “I need you to stop squirming, honey.” She ground against his stiff cock, desperate to maneuver him inside her. “Stop, or you’re going to make me embarrass myself, and I’m too damn old to be shootin’ off like some teenager.”

  She laughed but she couldn’t control her movements, no matter how gruff and sweet and sexy he asked. Squeezing her ass, he pressed her into the wall harder. His desperate measures had only the opposite effect on her frantic gyrations. He ground his teeth. That ominous creak sent shivers shooting along her spine. With a growl of frustration, he abandoned his hold on her bottom and peeled his body from hers, letting her slide slowly down the tile until instinct planted her feet under her.

  “I may be damned to hell for loving you, but I’ll be double damned if I let you set me off like a flare.”

  He captured her lips in a scalding kiss that left her bereft and panting when he sank to his knees again. Hooking one hand under her knee, he lifted her foot to the edge of the tub, splaying her thighs wide. Her eyes grew larger. “What are you doing?”

  Nuzzling the narrow patch of dark red hair between her legs, he muttered, “Containment.” His tongue swirled through the damp curls and he chuckled at her strangled gasp. “Thanks for the landing strip, Ace. Never woulda found my way otherwise.”

  Luke proved himself a liar with a broad flick of his tongue. Her hips bucked and circled, begging for more the second he withdrew.

  “Here’s how this is gonna go.” The rasp in his voice gave just enough reassurance that she sagged against the tile, willingly awaiting his direction. “I’m going to make you come hard and come fast because otherwise you’re like a rogue spark and I can’t have that.”

  “Good plan.”

  He quirked an eyebrow at her whispered approval and a ghost of a smile curved his lips. “Glad you think so, because then I’m gonna make you come again, but I’ll be inside you, just like you wanted.”

  She slicked her fingers through his silky hair, attempting to pull him closer once more. “Yes. Yes, please.”

  “Then, a little later, because some of us aren’t twenty-six anymore, I’m going to make love to you, Tara. I’m going to love you slow, so good and so deep you’ll finally understand what a mess you’ve gotten yourself into, sweetheart.” He pressed a hot, openmouthed kiss to the top of her thigh and her leg gave way. Luke caught her, holding her sure and steady as he nuzzled her mound. “Then I’m going to fuck you so hard you beg me to stop in one breath and plead for more in the next.”

  He parted the folds of her sex, exposing the swollen lips of her pussy to the warm water and his hot gaze. Her eyes rolled as the play of spray on her clit set off alarm bells in her head and sent her spiraling out of control.

  “Oh! Oh no.”

  “Oh yes,” he breathed. He circled the sensitive bundle of nerves with the very tip of his tongue and she came completely unglued. Rockin
g back on his heels, he stared up at her from under his lashes, watching her fly to pieces the second he slid one long finger along her quivering folds. “Come. Now.”

  Mindless with pleasure, she obeyed. Fast, shallow shudders of release shimmered through her body, each one building on the one before until she was shooting straight for the stars again. Her fingers sank into his hair. He pressed his open mouth to her throbbing cunt. She screamed when he thrust his tongue into her, fucking her with short, hard strokes that pushed her higher but still left her aching for more. Another ripple of climax gripped her. She tugged at his thick, slick hair, rocking against him shamelessly as she rode each wave of unchecked heat.

  “Perfect,” he murmured. The deep rumble of his voice detonated a round of small, powerful aftershocks.

  A sexy chuckle rumbled through him as he rolled to his feet, bracing her with one thick, muscular thigh. Snagging a bar of soap from the ledge, he worked up a froth of rich lather between his palms. Still quaking, she kept her eyes fixed on his face as he quickly and efficiently soaped them both from head to toe. Moments later, the bar fell forgotten at their feet as he wrapped one arm around her and hauled her under the rapidly cooling spray. She sputtered and spat, drops of water blurring her vision as his big, calloused hands chased the soapsuds from her skin.

  A flick of his wrist cut off the flow entirely and she sagged against him, seeking the warmth of his body. He wrapped her in rough terrycloth and lifted her out of the tub as if she weighed no more than a feather. Her feet touched down in front of the vanity. She grasped the edges of the towel and the edge of the sink, needing something to hang on to but incapable of prying her eyes off the bronze god climbing out after her.

  Despite a hard shake of his head, water dripped off the ends of his hair to join thousands of lucky droplets clinging to his bronzed skin. They ran together, streaking down his bare, smooth chest in joyous abandon. Tiny tributaries rushed over rippling abs to pool in the hollows of his lean hip bones before surging headlong into the silky strands of ebony hair that provided the backdrop for his thick, jutting cock. She wet her parched lips, anxious to quench her thirst for him once and for all.

  He must have read her mind because he shook his head again. A mirthless laugh rumbled up from his toes as he stripped the towel from her grasp. “That’s not part of the plan, remember?”

  The gravelly pitch of his voice twisted her stomach into knots. Anticipation dried the words on her tongue. He moved in close behind her and met her gaze in the mirror, holding it steady as his cock brushed the small of her back, branding her with his heat. Splaying one hand over her ribs, he held her firm as he ducked his head. She moaned, swaying into the curve of his body when he wrapped himself around her. The flash of bright white teeth caught her attention. She gaped at their reflection as the sharp edges sank into the ridge of muscle where her neck joined her shoulder.

  “Mark me,” she whispered, surprising them both.

  His gaze flicked up to meet hers again. She closed her eyes in surrender, and he groaned as he drew the afflicted skin into his mouth, sucking hard then soothing her with his tongue. He slid his hand up to capture her breast once again, his thumb strumming her taut nipple like a guitar string. Tara thrust her chest forward, meeting the demanding caress.

  “Yes. Oh, yes,” she panted to the ceiling. “Yours. All yours.”

  Luke released her with a bubble-bursting pop, eyed his handiwork and groaned. He sealed the throb in her abused skin with a flick of his tongue, then lunged for the medicine cabinet. The momentum of his body drove her thighs into the countertop. She had to duck at the last moment to keep from being slapped in the face by the swinging mirror.

  Deodorant, razors and a shower of tubes and bottles tumbled into the sink.

  “Whoa, boy.” Her murmured admonishment was met with a barrage of cotton swabs and the jarring clink of a glass versus porcelain match-up. Finally, he yanked his hand back, a string of foil-wrapped condoms clenched in his fist.

  “Can you read the date on those?” he asked, waving his prizes in front of her eyes.

  “Well, not like that I can’t.” She huffed and snatched the condoms from his grasp, straightening the crumpled wrappers. But her cocky amusement was short-lived. It was damn hard to focus in on a teeny-tiny date stamp when there was a big gorgeous guy rubbing all over her backside like a cat after a can of tuna. “I can’t see with you doing that.”

  Her grumble was met with a short, breathy laugh and a full set of insistent fingertips digging into her waist. His kneecaps brushed the backs of her thighs when he bent them. The hard, hot length of his cock nestled into the crack of her ass. “Forget ’em. Don’t need ’em. I’m about to blow anyway.”

  His husky confession sharpened her vision. She pronounced the condoms fit for duty. He groaned when she bumped him away with her hips. “No. You promised you’d be inside me.” Turning in the circle of his arms, she offered him the packages and a solemn gaze. “I want you inside me.”

  Instead of taking the rubbers, he grabbed her and pulled her close, nudging her feet with his until she started backing toward the door. “This ain’t gonna be pretty or sweet or anything like what you women read in your romance novels,” he growled, nipping at her throat then her shoulder.

  She couldn’t help but smile. It never failed to tickle her when he slipped and a little of that latent cowboy chauvinism shone through. The backs of her legs bumped the mattress and she fell to the bed, flinging one arm up over her head in a fit of clumsiness she hoped to pass off as a seductive pose. “You think I read romance novels?”

  He scowled at her but she wasn’t the least bit fooled. His dark eyes were hot and hungry and all over her. Their backups hit the floor. He ripped open one foil packet and fixed her with a glare that told her his patience was nearly spent. “I mean I’m seriously on edge, little girl.”

  Warmth blossomed in her chest as the empty wrapper fluttered to the floor. “So you were really worried about those being expired?”

  His ravenous gaze zoomed in on her pussy. His breath rushed from damp lips as he pressed his palms to her inner thighs and parted her wide, baring her to him and leaving her panting and vulnerable.

  “I haven’t been able to look at another woman since you waltzed into my life.”

  His gruff confession exploded flash-bang in her brain, disorienting, dazzling, and blinding her to everything but him. She stared in rapt fascination as he sheathed his straining cock. Bending over her, he planted one knee on the mattress, then drew hers up to his hip. He held himself poised at her entrance, still and steady, hard as a rock and unyielding in his purpose.

  “I’m not going to think straight until I’ve had you, so I’m just going to kiss you now and promise I’ll do better next time.”

  “I love you, Luke.”

  Luke closed his eyes as he sank into her, claiming her mouth and the words she spoke while stretching the walls of her pussy and pushing deep. She gasped, then moaned, reveling in the fullness he gave her.

  Buried inside her to the hilt, he clutched her thigh in one hand as his other arm trembled under the strain of holding his weight off her. “I wish you didn’t. I want so much better for you.”

  With that, he drew back and drove into her so hard she squeaked with the shock. Again he plunged into her, and the sharp twinge of pain unleashed a firestorm of pleasure. He growled and grunted, thrusting into her with wild abandon, pouring the full measure of long-denied desire into her with every stroke. Her fingers slid down the column of his spine and sank into the hard muscle of his ass, holding him deep inside her as she combusted around him.

  *

  She touched his face and his world spun out of control.

  Thousands of tiny repercussions racked his body. Tremors trailed from his scalp to his soles, and his muscles melted into hers. Her lashes fluttered and those soft, kiss-swollen lips moved in silence. At last, he pressed his forehead to hers, whispered her name on a sigh and spread his arms wide, surre
ndering his weight and trusting her to hold him.

  Luke’s eyes rolled back as he buried his face into her hair. She smelled of wet smoke and simmering passion. Satisfaction slicked her skin. She held him safe and tight, draped the entire length of her body, buried deep inside her and in way over his head.

  “Mayday,” he whispered.

  She chuckled and ran her hand over his wet hair. “You’re fine.”

  “Am I?” He roused himself enough to peer into her guileless blue eyes.

  The tender kiss she gave him proved to be more reassurance than he imagined. She snickered and his dick jumped in gratitude. He barely recognized the soft, breathy laughter as his own. He choked it back fast, but the smile that curved her lips told him he was way too late.

  “Don’t get your hopes up,” he grumbled as he withdrew, peeling his body off hers one millimeter at a time. Stumbling toward the bathroom on too-stiff knees and creaking ankles, he shook his head. “My dick may think we’re still twenty, but I know better.”

  After flushing the condom, he emerged to find her wiggling her way up onto his pillow. He stopped dead in his tracks and held her gaze, drawing the joy from the moment like a desperate man sucking venom from a snake bite. The question escaped before he could stop it. “Why would you want me?”

  The cocky twitch of her eyebrows made him wish it back. “Why won’t you let yourself be happy?”

  It took all his strength not to recoil when her smile faded from happy and teasing to pensive and wary. Then her eyes softened and he stood frozen in time. A flash and a bang blanked his brain. A bit of indelible memory grabbed him by the throat.

  Laughing. He’d rounded the corner laughing at something his buddy Mark Koslowski said when he fell into a pair of impossibly soft eyes. Big and brown, thickly fringed with lashes that brushed the thin fabric shielding her face. They slowed, their weapons cradled loose in their grips. They greeted her with halting and garbled Arabic.

  She answered with disdain and haughty Oxford-accented English. “Why do Americans laugh day and night? What right have you to be so happy?”