Stripped Bare

by Lacey Thorn

  “Think you can handle a little more?” he asked with a wicked grin and stood so that she could see how hard his cock was again.

  “Always,” she agreed knowing that with him that word was true. She’d never felt so connected to a man so quickly. It was like they’d been together a lot longer than the few days it had actually been.

  Shep shoved his jeans and boxer briefs down his legs and kicked them off as he reached over and snagged a condom from the supply they’d left on the nightstand. “Can you move over onto your hands and knees?” he queried as he ripped it open and rolled the protection over his cock.

  She smiled and easily turned over onto her belly before coming up to her hands and knees. She eased back with his hands to guide her until she felt the edge of the bed with the bottom of her kneecap and the brush of his hard abs against her ass. Oh, yeah, this was one of her favorite positions. The penetration and angle were incredible. The depth he could reach inside her and the way his hands felt even now as he gripped her hips was making her pussy weep again in anticipation of that first amazing stroke.

  He didn’t disappoint. No long tease this time. They had already taken care of that with the oral sex they’d enjoyed with one another. She felt him lodge against her opening and then with a hard surge forward his cock filled every inch of her pussy and had her hands clenching in the bedcovers beneath her. Her head snapped up, her back arching, lifting her pussy just a bit higher for his next thrust.

  Hard and fast and so fucking deep his cock possessed her, thrilled her, owned her. She loved the way his abs brushed against her ass with every hard stroke, loved the way his hands clenched on her hips. She was pressing back into him meeting his thrusts. She clenched her inner muscles around him with every outward pull and it was driving them both to the edge quickly.

  She felt one hand move and those fingers dipped between them rubbing her clit and slit and she knew she was drenching him. He moved the hand back up and she cried out as she felt the first brush of his finger at her anus. He lubed her with her juices and soon he was breaching her there, pressing his finger inside her ass and rubbing, igniting new sensations and nerves. She was panting, gasping for air as her body became a conduit for the electric pleasure coursing from him to her.

  She came with a hard cry, her pussy gripping and rippling around his surging cock, her ass clenching on his finger. She moaned his name as he kept thrusting his cock harder and faster, working to join her in orgasm. With a cry that had to shake the house he held his cock buried deep inside her and she could feel the heat of his cum through the condom that separated them. She loved the way he buried his cock as deep as possible and gave tiny pulses of his hips as he came.

  Slowly he eased behind her and with a gentle pat to her ass he pulled free of the snug grip of her cunt. She collapsed onto her stomach and watched lazily as he moved around the bed to the bathroom door. There was something so intimate about watching as he removed and discarded the condom, watching as he turned the water on and washed his cock in the sink. It was weird but somehow watching that seemed very intimate to her which was laughable considering there should be nothing more intimate than sex.

  He turned to see her watching and gave a grin as he headed to the bed wet washcloth in hand. She tried to follow him with her eyes as he moved back around to where her legs were dangling half off the bed. He gently rolled her over and using the cloth cleaned the aftermath of the great sex they’d just shared from her flesh. She just lay there letting him take care of her. One of these times she was going to have to be the one to go get something to clean him up but this felt too good right now.

  She must have closed her eyes and started to drift. She fluttered her eyes open as he lifted her into his arms and she held onto his neck as he used one arm to pull the covers back. He maneuvered them under the covers and pulled the sheet up over them. She snuggled into his chest while he ran one hand up and down her spine. She knew it was more than just sex between them and to be honest that scared her in a way that no other man ever had.

  “Go to sleep,” he encouraged. “Tomorrow may be the hardest day so far.”

  She nodded and closed her eyes. Tomorrow they would see if Ally could give them a lead, a direction that would point them toward where her sister was. And God help her but she just wanted a direction, wanted to find her sister and finally know exactly what had happened to Chloe.

  Chapter Eight

  Stace had made a call to the police department and let Shep and Blake go pick the car up while she and Ally stayed at the farmhouse. Her nerves were raw this morning. She remembered all the times she had told family members that she needed them to stay calm, remembered how sometimes she would get frustrated with what she saw as their lack of control. Now she understood all too well. It was hard when it was your family member missing.

  “So you and Shep seem awfully chummy,” Ally said and Stace knew the other woman was trying to get her mind off what they may or may not find.

  “I like him,” Stace admitted, turning to look at Ally.

  “I love him,” Ally said and then laughed at Stace’s raised brows. “Not romantically. Like a best friend, like family. You know that I’ve slept with him and, as you have too, you know that he is an amazingly attentive lover. But I never gave him back what he gave. It was always Blake for me, from the very beginning. Shep knew that. But you can’t truly know Shep, know the man he is, and not love him. He is just amazing.”

  “Yes, he is amazing,” Stace agreed.

  “I’m hoping that you’ll come back to Legacy and get to know everyone,” Ally continued. “Shep has an amazing extended family. I know you met several of the guys when you went in to the offices. But you need to meet them out of office. Meet the wives and family.”

  Stace sighed. “I’d like that. I really would. But I don’t know what the next few days, the next few weeks are going to bring. I don’t know where Shep and I are headed.”

  “But you do know that the two of you are headed somewhere,” Ally said. “That says something right there.”

  Stace laughed. “I like you, Ally. Perhaps I shouldn’t but I really do.”

  “If you didn’t like every woman who slept with a man you dated then you wouldn’t have many friends,” Ally said and laughed as well. “Hell, I know Blake didn’t learn all his moves with me,” she grinned and wiggled her brows. “But he sure has perfected them with me.”

  Stace laughed again. “Can I ask you something?”

  Ally smiled. “Yeah, go ahead.”

  “What is it like? Being able to do what you do?” Stace said.

  “It is a gift and a curse,” Ally answered. “People want to use you and yet often treat you like you have the plague once it is all said and done.”

  “Some people can’t handle what they don’t understand,” Stace offered.

  “You’re right,” Ally said. “I never made friends easily. I was mostly a loner before I met Blake. Blake,” she sighed. “Well, meeting him changed my life.”

  “It sounds like you are very happy now,” Stace said.

  “I’m fantastic,” Ally said. “I was worried about making so much noise last night but I heard you guys after we were done so…” Ally let her sentence dangle, a grin covering her face.

  Stace blushed, could actually feel her face flushing with warmth. “Yeah, well,” she sighed. “Crap. To be honest I wasn’t even thinking about you being in the house.”

  Ally started laughing and Stace couldn’t help but join in. Ally had successfully helped her to relax and get her mind to quit obsessing over what they were going to do today. It was still there but it wasn’t controlling her like it had been. Ally would make a great friend.

  “Just so that you know where I stand from the beginning,” Ally continued after they both were able to stop laughing. “I’m not going to let you sleep with Blake to make us even.”

  Stace laughed again. “I believe I said that you were the common denominator between us all, and I was the only one w
ho hadn’t been with you.”

  “Hmmm,” Ally replied. “I’ve never been with another woman. I promise I’ll keep it in mind.”

  Stace shook her head and grinned. “Yeah, I’m sure Blake and Shep wouldn’t mind that.”

  “Good grief,” Ally said. “They’d either want to watch or have video or pictures.”

  Stace nodded her head and they were both laughing again. When they finally recovered from that laughing spree Stace turned and gave Ally a hug.

  “Thanks, Ally,” she said.

  “You’re welcome,” Ally replied.

  Stace tensed as she heard an engine and knew that Shep and Blake were back with her sister’s car. What would they find? Would they find anything?

  “Breathe,” Ally told her giving her another squeeze before stepping back and looking up into Stace’s eyes. “Just breathe.”

  Stace gave a shaky sigh. “Is that for me or you?” Stace said noticing that Ally looked a little nervous as well.

  Ally smiled softly. “Both of us.”

  It was then that Stace realized that Ally really cared. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like to do what Ally could do. Touch something and connect with a person who had touched that object. Ally called it both a blessing and a curse. Stace hoped today was more of a blessing.

  Ally took her hand and held it firmly in hers. “Ready?”

  “As ready as you are,” Stace replied and Ally just softly smiled and, still holding her hand, they walked out the door toward where Shep and Blake were getting out of the cars.

  Both men immediately headed toward the two women and Stace felt like part of a couple when she watched Blake wrap his arms around Ally and pull her close and felt Shep do the same to her. For a moment they all just stood there on the porch looking at Chloe’s little compact. Blake took Ally’s hand and led her off the porch toward where the car was parked.

  “How does this work?” Stace quietly asked Shep.

  “Ally will do her best to form a connection with your sister,” Shep said. “She can do this with anything your sister has touched but she wants to form as strong a connection as she can so she wants to use the last thing we know of that Chloe touched. You just have to make sure that whatever she sees or doesn’t see, you can’t touch her or it breaks the connection.”

  Stace watched as Blake opened the door of the car and noticed how Ally slipped into the seat without touching anything. Ally closed her eyes and appeared to take a deep breath.

  “Let’s move closer,” Shep said and taking her hand they both moved to the car standing inches from where Ally now sat. Stace had never held hands so much in her life. It almost made her laugh but the situation was too serious for the nervous laughter.

  Stace watched, entranced. One of Ally’s hands hovered over the steering wheel while she held the other out for the keys Blake held in his hands. Her eyes were still closed and Stace realized what Blake had been waiting for when Ally nodded, her eyes still squeezed tight.

  Everything seemed to go so fast after that. The keys hit Ally’s palm the same second her hand closed on the wheel and Stace couldn’t have torn her eyes away if she needed to. Ally had made a connection.

  Ally sat carefully in the car not allowing her hands to touch anything. She wanted to secure as strong a connection as she could. She closed her eyes and tried to center her thoughts on the task ahead. She visualized the missing woman, Chloe Anders, and took several deep cleansing breaths. One hand hovered over the steering wheel of the car while the other was held out palm up. When she nodded Blake would drop the keys into the palm of her hand.

  She nodded. The keys hit her palm just as her other hand wrapped around the wheel. The world tilted and spun and Ally was no longer in a car.

  The air was thick and warm. Heat surrounded her, seeming to come from everywhere.

  “She’s in a room. It’s closed in. Small but crowded. A man is there. She’s afraid of him. No, that’s wrong. She’s intimidated by him.” Ally shook her head concentrating. “What do you expect?” she yelled. Chloe’s words, not hers. “I’m a nursing student not a doctor. These people need a doctor. I don’t know what’s wrong. I don’t know what to do. They need fresh air. They need to be bathed. I can’t do it all myself.” Ally looked through Chloe’s eyes and what she saw appalled her. “There are at least twenty-five people in the room. Some of them are just children. They’re speaking Spanish. They’re sick, very sick. Fever. The heat is from fever. It surrounds her. Whatever they have she’s getting as well. She’s tired, exhausted and now she’s running a fever too. They keep spreading it back and forth. As soon as she gets one fever-free another one has it. She can’t seem to keep ahead of whatever they’re passing.”

  Ally tried to focus on where Chloe was, anything she could see that might lead them to her. “A cabin. They’re in a cabin somewhere. He knows. He knows that she is getting sick. He touches her forehead. He’s cursing. He’s mad, furious. Yelling. He’s worried about her. He scoops her up and is carrying her out of the cabin. Woods. It’s in the middle of a heavily wooded area. Trees everywhere. Thick with trees. Cabins. So many cabins. Can’t focus. So hot, hard to breath. So hot.

  “Why did you take me?” Chloe’s words again and the link was strong enough that Ally could hear his response.

  “Because I love you, Chloe,” he whispered. “I’ve loved you since the day I met you.”

  “Fear.” Ally thrashed her head against the back of the seat though in her head it was against a strong masculine chest. “His cabin. His room. His bed. Don’t touch. Hot. So hot. Water. Please. I need water. His hands on my skin, tugging, stripping. Air. There’s air, so cool.”

  Ally could feel the hand running a wet cloth over Chloe’s bare skin. Could hear the soothing voice whispering words of apology and love. She could feel the fever raging through Chloe’s body, the heat of it behind her eyes burning them. The heat on her breath like a fire-breathing dragon. He leaned forward, closer and closer until she felt his lips touch Chloe’s.

  Like a bolt of lightning the connection was made and he was seeing her, Ally, and the connection she had made with Chloe. He knew she was there, seeing through Chloe’s eyes. And in that moment Ally could see in his head, could see what he was doing and why.

  He reeled back hands fisted at his sides and yelled, “No!”

  A force hit Ally crashing into her like a brick wall and she screamed. Hands grabbed her hand and with a jolt she slammed back into her body. She vaguely heard someone curse and the touch left her skin. Her breathing was ragged. She was gasping for air and she still felt surrounded by heat, as if the temperature raged in her body. And then she felt nothing as she passed out.

  Blake and Shep both cursed as Stace reached out and touched Ally when the scream left her throat. Shep pulled Stace back but it was too late. Even as they continued watching Ally passed out cold. Blake cursed again and scooped in to lift his fiancée up into his arms and headed toward the house.

  “What?” Stace said looking at Shep in confusion. “What happened?”

  “You touched her,” Shep said. “Remember that I told you no matter what happened not to touch her?”

  “She was screaming,” Stace all but yelled at him. “What the hell was I supposed to do?”

  “You were supposed to listen and let her hold the connection as long as she could,” Shep said.

  “I…” Stace shook her head. She’d never seen anything like that, never seen someone so deep in a trance that they seemed to be someone else. It had scared the hell out of her.

  Shep pulled her to his chest and hugged her close. “I know.”

  “She’s alive, Shep,” Stace whispered against his shoulder. “Sick but alive.”

  “Yes,” he agreed. “When Ally wakes up she’ll be a little weak but tends to recover quickly once she’s awake. She’ll be able to tell us more then.”

  “She said cabins,” Stace said. “That there were cabins everywhere. I’m drawing a blank. I can’t think of any pla
ce like that.”

  “We’ll look online at camping sites,” Shep said leading the way to the front door, Stace’s hand held firmly in his. “That many cabins, it has to be a camping ground or some other outdoorsy place that would keep a number of cabins.”

  “She’s sick,” Stace said again. “She has whatever those people have. Spanish-speaking? About twenty-five of them? Some only children? What the hell is my sister caught up in?”

  “It sounds like trafficking, human trafficking,” Shep replied. “Unfortunately it happens a lot. People tend to be surprised when it shows up in their area, especially if they don’t live on a coast or near the Mexican border. But sadly a lot of people are taken and shipped farther inland in trucks. They’re treated no better than animals.”

  “Jesus,” Stace exclaimed. “Human trafficking here. You know I’ve spent so many years going to other countries and rescuing people from similar situations. Usually Americans that either were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or related to or dating the wrong people. And all I ever had to do was look in my backyard.”

  “It happens that way a lot,” Shep said. “We did the same thing. Went into countries where few would venture to help the unlucky ones who did and almost died because of it. The money was good, the adrenaline rush better.”

  “So why did you stop?” Stace asked.

  “Jack found out he had a daughter,” Shep said speaking of his boss. “So we all followed him back and started working in our backyards,” he said with a smile.

  Stace looked at him. They were so much alike. It had to be more than just the circumstance that they were in, him helping her find her sister. Perhaps feelings had developed quicker than they would have otherwise but she honestly didn’t feel as if it mattered anymore. He was here for her in a way that no one else ever had been. Even now he was pulling her back to him wrapping his arms around her and holding her close as if he needed to touch her even more than she needed to feel his touch.

  “We’ll find her, Stace,” Shep whispered against her ear before placing a kiss on the side of her head. “No matter how long it takes, I’ll help you find your sister.”