Love’s Bounty

by Nina Pierce

  “Please tell me you have a condom, Austin. I … well, it’s just I…”

  “…don’t have any,” he finished the sentence for her. Ayden pressed his forehead against hers, their breaths mingling in ragged pulls. Closing his eyes, he worked to rein in the hunger overtaking him. “You haven’t needed them. And despite our recent sexual marathons, indicating otherwise, I don’t usually need them, either.” He wished his erection would deflate with his mood. “No, I don’t have any.”

  “Okay, we’ll just have to improvise. We don’t have a condom, and there’s no way you’re going all the way to town to get one.” Her hand glided down his swollen shaft. “There are other ways to accomplish this.” Pushing him down on the bed, she bent and licked the tip of his erection. “I haven’t had much experience, but I’ve been dying to try this.”

  “Deirdre, baby, it’s okay. Really, it’s not so far…”

  The heat of her tongue circled the mushroom tip, and he gasped.

  “You don’t need to…” Ayden watched the dainty pink tip dart around his swollen cock.

  “No, I don’t need to do anything. I want to.”

  Her lips pulled at the skin on his shaft. “Unless you don’t like this.” She laved his balls. “Then I can stop.”

  Ayden swallowed hard and cupped her face in his palm. “I’d rather you didn’t stop. It feels amazing.”

  Deirdre motioned for him to move back against the headboard. She followed him onto the bed. Kneeling, she bent over him. The silk of her hair grazed his heated skin and sent shockwaves into his belly. Shoving the tails of his shirt out of the way, she raked her nails up his torso and down his thighs. His cock tapped against her chin.

  He was putty in her hands—and mouth.

  “Tell me how you like it, Austin. Teach me.”

  She nibbled her way from tip to base, her fist following the path.

  “Seems you know what you’re doing, baby.”

  It had been a long time since a woman had sucked him dry. The blood pulsed in his cock, making him harder than hell. He felt his balls pull tight to his body. She kissed her way around the base, her fingers plucking at his pubic hair sending pleasure skittering along his nerves. He watched her head bob and her damp curls cover his lap. He pushed the cinnamon tendrils out of her face and cupped the back of her head.

  “We’re not in any hurry, Deirdre. Just take it slow. Lick me, feel me grow harder.”

  “You’re crying.” She touched her tongue to the tip of his cock and lapped his pre-cum. “You taste so much better than I expected. I want to savor all of you.”

  She sucked in one of his testicles. Her fingers roamed lower. He squeezed his butt, not sure he wanted her to venture where she was headed.

  “Relax, Austin. I won’t do anything you don’t want.” Her teeth nipped at his inner thigh. “But you might like what I have in mind.” She sucked loudly on her finger and dragged the moisture between his cheeks. The pressure of her finger rimmed his anus. Jolts of electricity shuddered through his cock. No one had ever touched him that way.

  “You like?”

  “Baby, I thought you said you didn’t know what you were doing.”

  Deirdre’s mouth curved, and he watched her tongue slither up the sensitive underside of his cock. Damn, she was good. She took him into the velvety heat of her mouth. Her tongue worked in circles against the cleft at its tip.

  She sucked hard, pulling him in until he filled her sweet mouth, but he was too big for her to take him all. Her other hand palmed the base of his dick, working in tandem with her pulsing mouth. Still, her slick finger circling the puckered hole of his ass added a new dimension to the sensations coursing through him.

  Ayden fisted his hands in her hair, losing himself in the heat of her. “Deirdre…”

  “I love to hear you say my name, Austin. It’s nice.” She blew into the eye of his cock. “I love the way you smell and taste. It makes me hot. Tell me what you want. I’ll give you anything you ask for.”

  Her arousal filled the air and wrapped itself around his nostrils. His mouth watered with the need to lap the juices from her folds. He satisfied himself by caressing her breasts. She moaned as he pinched her nipples, and the vibration ratcheted up his pulse. “Love my cock with your mouth, Deirdre. Make me come.” His heart hammered in his chest, squeezing the air from his lungs.

  She did as he asked, her lips and hand engulfing him in warmth.

  “Christ, I’m coming.” He warned her so she could move, but he hoped like hell she devoured everything he offered. “Deirdre…” His back arched, and he held on to her as every muscle in his body went rigid. As his seed soared out of his body, her finger broke the barrier of his ass, rocketing him higher. His cries of ecstasy reverberated off the walls. He moaned out her name and oaths, slamming his stiff rod over and over again into her mouth. His body bucked and writhed, and her mouth held him, swallowing every drop. The last of his climax pulsed through him, and his body shook from his shoulders to his toes in response.

  Deirdre ran her tongue up the length of him, sucking in the last drops of his cum. He moaned again when she took his softening penis in her mouth. Her hand cradled his sack, soothing and massaging. He went limp as a rag doll.

  “Austin, I can’t get enough of you,” she said, kissing her way up his belly.

  Her lips were swollen, and her hair disheveled. Deirdre’s lids hung heavy on those chocolate pools that looked at him filled with an emotion he wouldn’t define as lust. He’d never loved a woman, so he wasn’t sure if it was that sparking in her eye. But there was definitely something there. She wanted more from him than the sex he could give her. She looked sexy as hell, and he realized he wanted to give Deirdre everything that gaze was asking for. Perhaps he was only projecting and hoping this one-night fling turned into a three-day romp-fest was beginning to mean something more to her as well.

  To hell with the DEA. To hell with Jameson and the drug bust. Only Deirdre mattered to him at the moment. She was the best thing to come into his life in a very long while. Ayden wanted his real name tripping off her lips when he brought her to orgasm. She had shared her pain, her worry and her family, had held nothing back, and now he wanted to do the same. Reveal all his secrets. He needed to tell her everything. His heart pounded its way into his throat.

  “Deirdre, we need to talk.”

  “That sounds ominous.” Leaning down, she pulled the heavy quilt from the foot of the bed over them.

  “It can wait until after I … we…” He meant to sate her sexual need before muddying the waters with his past, his present … their future.

  “No, I’m good.” She couched her chin on her fists stacked on his chest and stared up at him.

  She’d read his mind.

  “Whatever it is, Austin, let’s get it out there, deal with it and move on.” Her bottom lip disappeared between her teeth. Concern furrowed her brows and clouded her eyes. She thought he was leaving her like Brianna had. It was the furthest thing from his mind.

  “Deirdre, I’m not going anywhere.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead, pulling her tighter to his body. He hoped that was true. He hoped she would want him after he told her who he was. Cocooned in the warmth of their bodies, Ayden felt secure. He wanted to tell her everything. But he didn’t want to lose what he had now. Deirdre stretched the length of him, her warm breath trailing goose bumps down his belly.

  “You don’t know me,” he said.

  “I thought we were getting to know each other. So, we skipped the dating part, but this is the twenty-first century. We’re both adults. We can…”

  He pressed his mouth to hers. She parted his lips with her tongue, intent on deepening the kiss, but he pulled back.

  “Why is that the only thing that shuts you up?”

  “I…”

  He put a finger to her mouth. “No, Deirdre. My turn. I need to tell you something. It’s important. Please let me.”

  And she did.

  He told her abo
ut Jameson, the DEA and the undercover persona of Austin Shaeffer, about the mission in Miami—and how he’d killed his little brother.

  * * * *

  For the third time, Deirdre filled Ayden’s coffee cup. His restless hands didn’t seem to know where to land, so he burned his energy dragging the mug from the table to his mouth and back again.

  Nearly an hour had passed since she coaxed him out of the bedroom and forced him to eat. The empty plate lay ignored on the kitchen table at his elbow. The spark of fire in his eyes had burned itself out as he told her about the tragic losses of the people he loved. The day-old stubble on his haggard face added to the dejected look of frailty. He’d come to her home to take care of her, but he was the one in desperate need of support. His confessions had sliced through her heart, and by the look of things, nearly broken him.

  They both had fallen into this relationship wearing blinders. She wasn’t angered by his deception; he’d done it to protect her. But the fact that he shouldered a burden he didn’t need to slog around just pissed her off. How could the man be so stupid?

  Setting the decanter in the coffeemaker, she turned to him.

  “Ayden, tell me exactly how Thomas died.”

  He turned his head toward her with slow precision. His eyes remained unfocused. “I’ve already told you. It doesn’t really matter does it? It’s my fault.”

  She closed the distance between them in two long strides. “No, damn it. I don’t believe that.” His head jerked back as her palm slammed into the wooden table. “Tell me again. Every detail. You must have missed something, you and all the DEA assholes who blame you for his death. I may have only known you for four days, Ayden Scott, but one thing is perfectly clear to me. You would lay down your own life for someone you love. I don’t believe you would kill your own brother, either deliberately or unintentionally. There’s another explanation. Just tell me again.” Pulling out the chair, Deirdre sat down next to him. She softened her voice. “Please, Ayden.”

  Ayden fiddled with the fringe on the placemat. “He was working undercover in Miami. I was the lead on the operation. He convinced me to let him fly solo. I knew he wasn’t ready, but he was young, looked and acted the part of a street dealer. The thugs already believed he was the real deal. I wanted to bring down some big cartel so badly, I let him go. I had the blessing of the whole team, but ultimately, I was the one who signed his death certificate.”

  Deirdre squeezed the twitching muscles in his forearm. He didn’t acknowledge her touch.

  “He went underground. We couldn’t find him. No one saw him for three goddamn weeks. I sent men searching, but they came back empty. So, I went myself. And I found him, strung out on heroin in some whorehouse.” He sipped at his coffee. “By then I knew the big guys were sniffing around, culling out the wanna-bes from the legitimate dealers. They were looking really hard at Thomas. If I pulled him, months of work would have been blown, along with the cover of at least twenty DEA guys working the streets.

  “He seemed lucid. He convinced me he wasn’t hooked. It was all a sham for the job. I wanted to believe him.” Ayden turned, but looked right through her. “I think deep down, I knew he was lying, but I left him, anyway. I loved the idea of a big score more than I loved my brother.”

  “Ayden, don’t say that. It’s not true.”

  “How the hell would you know? You weren’t there! You don’t know me.” His words dripped with venom. Though she knew the anger wasn’t directed at her, it didn’t soften their blow.

  “He contacted me on and off. He kept working the deals. I wanted to believe he was all right, but I knew. I knew he’d gotten sucked in. But he was getting so close. I left him. Alone, with no backup. He finally found out where the drugs were coming in, and we had them. We were there ready to pull down one of the biggest Miami drug connections, and the Scott brothers would get all the credit.”

  He paused, but she couldn’t speak.

  “The sea plane came in. Right where he said they’d land in the everglades. And we had them. We waited for it to land, and they started to unload, but it didn’t look right. No one came to meet the plane. No ground transport, no drug baron. But they kept dumping sacks out of the plane so we stormed the landing zone. Arrested everyone on the plane, seized all the cargo.” Ayden’s eyes focused on the distant memory. “Coffee. I had mobilized the friggin’ Miami DEA for some contraband coffee and a couple of illegal aliens. Heads began to roll. I was so pissed at my brother and how badly he’d screwed up. All I wanted was to chew him a new asshole and kick his skinny little ass back to a desk job.” He sipped from the cup.

  “I went looking for Thomas. I searched everywhere, all the drug haunts, but he was nowhere. I looked for almost two days, but I never found him. The garbage company found him in some alley behind a restaurant. Drug overdose. Still had the needle in his arm, the rubber tubing wrapped around his bicep. A fucking heroin overdose. He’d been giving me bogus information so I wouldn’t pull him in and I wouldn’t know he’d become an addict. I might as well have put the fucking needle in his arm myself. I knew.” Ayden slammed his fist on the table, sloshing the coffee and bouncing the spoon. “I knew, and I left him out there to be eaten by the wolves.”

  The sorrow etched deep lines on his face as the tears rolled down his cheeks. “He had no one in the world except me, and I didn’t protect him.”

  Standing, Deirdre wrapped him in her arms. She held him until the shudders of pain subsided, and her heart didn’t pinch from the emotions overwhelming her. Somehow, in only three days, she’d fallen in love with Ayden.

  Chapter 7

  Rachel drove the pickup filled with mulch toward Jameson’s. Deirdre simply didn’t have the energy. Today there would be only the two of them pruning the trees, working the flowerbeds, acting like nothing had changed since they were last at the estate. As far as Rachel was concerned, nothing had. But Deirdre knew better.

  Three days had passed since she’d been arrested. Two days since Ayden had told her Jameson was a drug dealer. One day left before she could drop the false bravado in front of her new employer.

  Until then, Deirdre would have to act like she knew nothing about Jameson’s background or Ayden’s undercover work. She wasn’t sure she was that good an actress.

  Unfortunately, Jameson hadn’t fired Tilling Landscaping, quite the contrary, in fact. He’d phoned yesterday to say the Cutler PD had released the one-ton to him, and he hoped the regrettable incident wouldn’t have any effect on Deirdre finishing the job. He believed she was totally innocent of the charges. Of course, he did. She and Ayden had come to the conclusion that it was likely someone on Jameson’s payroll had set her up. They just couldn’t figure out who or why. HH

  She looked over at her friend driving in stoic silence. So much had happened between the time Deirdre left the Cutler police station and now, and Rachel knew very little about it all. For the first time since they were kids, there were secrets between them. They both knew it. It was driving a wedge in their friendship. Deirdre could only hope that when it all came out, Rachel would forgive her. But it would have to wait until after the drug bust on Sunday.

  She had yet to introduce Rachel to Ayden. Her friend knew her too well not to see the emotional connection she had with the man. So she’d spirited him away when Rachel had come to the ICU on Tuesday. Of course, Deirdre’s family hadn’t questioned the deception; it was the Tilling way. Regardless of the circumstances, family came first, even if their actions seemed a bit odd.

  “So how’s your dad?” Rachel didn’t turn from the road

  “I talked to Mum this morning, and she said he’s doing better already.”

  “When did they transfer him to Bangor Hospital?”

  “Yesterday morning, right after he became bradycardic. He…”

  “Dee, don’t do that,” Rachel interrupted. “I’m not up on all those medical terms.” Turning, she sent Deirdre a weak smile.

  “Sorry. You know Dad was having problems with his
kidneys, and that just continued to get worse. Doc McCarty wasn’t too hopeful.” Deirdre shrugged. Doc McCarty wasn’t her concern. “Anyway, Mum called us all to the hospital yesterday because Daddy’s heart had slowed way down, a condition known as bradycardia. Mum made the decision to transfer him to Bangor AMA.” Deirdre shook her head and looked at Rachel.

  Rachel’s smile was genuine this time.

  “Against medical advice. Doc McCarty thought the ambulance ride would kill him. Mum thought it would save him. They had quite the heated discussion in the sunroom at the ICU. But Mum’s infamous Maine stubbornness came through. She wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer, and Daddy is now resting in the more experienced hands of the specialists at the Bangor Hospital.” Deirdre picked at invisible lint on her pants. “Seems it worked. It’s been barely twenty-four hours, and Mum said he’s gotten some color back in his cheeks, and he was beginning to flirt with the nursing staff. All good signs. I’ll go over tonight, but I won’t need to stay. She thinks if he keeps improving at this rate, he’ll be home by the weekend.”

  “I’m glad for you, Dee. I know how much you love your dad.”

  “Thanks, Rach.”

  That subject played out, they slipped into an awkward silence.

  Deirdre stared out the window and watched the trees flit past. If only she could move time that fast, and it could be Monday morning, and Ayden was safe, and Jameson and all his cronies in jail. But things didn’t work that way.

  She hadn’t seen Ayden since he’d driven away in the middle of the night. He asked her to stay in bed, but she hadn’t listened. Her heart slowed as the taillights of the Jag were swallowed by the night, and it felt so much like watching Brianna’s Nissan leaving, Deirdre wasn’t sure she’d have the energy to go on.

  But it wasn’t the same.

  She would see Ayden again. It just wouldn’t be until after everything had gone down. They both thought it was for the best.

  But damn, she missed him already.

  * * * *