“I’m sure that’s true,” he said. “I seem to remember a woman whose sole purpose in life was pleasing the men in her bed.”
“That was a long time ago,” she snapped.
“It was last week,” he assured her.
“Maybe to you. To me, it was two lifetimes ago.” She looked around the room and her gaze held at the far window. A beat-up pickup truck dragging along a fancy horse trailer drove through the main gates. “I asked you a question.”
“Yep, you did.”
“Well? What about it? Why are you hell-bent on helping me?”
“Some say a man in love will do anything and everything for the woman who belongs to him. You’re mine, Julie. You always have been. Time and distance separated us. Almost losing you forever brought us back together again. You might as well get used to the fact. Now that you’re back where you’ve always belonged, Hank and I will never let you go.”
Chapter Three
She looked like a beauty queen who might have won the swimsuit competition if only she’d worn the string bikini flashing bare skin. Then again, if she’d sported much more, Hank wouldn’t have been able to remain a gentleman.
Her long red locks clung to slender shoulders while spirals of curls dipped toward the open scoop revealing the small of her back. Scars marked her pale skin. Deeply embedded, those wounds would most likely never heal. Fire had seared her flesh, and the scorching reminders perhaps forever earned their place in her memory as much as anywhere else. The third-degree burns would indeed heal, but Hank worried if Julie ever would.
The bad dreams Hank watched her survive told a tale he wouldn’t soon forget. Julie was troubled, truly tortured by what she witnessed in those nightmares. As much as Hank wanted to enter those dreams and protect her from what she saw, he couldn’t go there. She had to walk down Memory Lane alone.
Hank clutched the bright orange towel as he strolled toward the ladder. Offering his hand, he hoisted her into his arms where he immediately wrapped her small frame against his much larger one, draping the beach towel over her shivering form.
He kissed the top of her head and she immediately jerked. “Why’d you do that?”
“I don’t need a reason, do I?”
“Yes,” she snapped, turning to her physical therapist. “We’re done here, right?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Don responded, collecting some of the floating devices they’d used for stretching exercises.
Julie squirmed. “You can put me down if you like.”
“And if I don’t?”
She narrowed her gaze on his lips and he noticed the way her tongue ran over the texture of her moist mouth. He wanted to steal away with the moment and kiss away her pain, the evidence of hurt and heartache lingering in her beautiful brown eyes.
His mouth skimmed past hers and she immediately pulled away. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”
Hank carried her to a nearby lounger and lowered her to the chair. Dragging another one across the patio, he debated on how much he could push Julie. Without pondering too long, he sat across from her.
“I wanted to kiss you.”
“There won’t be any of that,” she told him, using the end of the towel to pat her face.
“We’ll see.”
“Yes, we will,” she said, giving him a dare he’d certainly take.
“Have you had the opportunity to talk to Duke about our plans for you?”
“Your plans?”
“Yes.”
“No, I haven’t.”
“That’s too bad,” Hank said, brushing long, soft bangs away from her wrinkled brow. “Even when you frown, you still look sensational.”
“Hank, this has got to stop,” she demanded, tucking her hands under her knee while rotating her ankle in a counterclockwise fashion.
“Why?”
“You know why.”
“Because of the accident?” A beat later he said, “Julie, Duke and I fucked up. We’ve talked about it. We realize how much we hurt you, but just because we let you down once, doesn’t mean we’ll do the same thing again. People change.”
“We’ve all changed,” she bit out.
“I’m sure that’s true,” he agreed. “But I still look at you and know when you look at me you see the same things I do.”
“And what would that be?”
“Love, sincerity, compassion, friendship, history,” he replied, thinking he could keep the list rolling for a day and a half, maybe two.
“History,” she grumbled. “And what about the past, hmm? Do you wear rose-colored glasses? Have you forgotten about the last days we spent together?”
“I haven’t. I remember how things ended.”
“I do, too, Hank. And would you like for me to tell you what I recall most?” She jiggled her jaw, working out an apparent lock. Then, she said, “I remember how you let me leave your bed, say good-bye, and how you didn’t bother to look for me. A month later—no, it wasn’t even a month—and you had another submissive woman lying beside you. From what I understand, she spent several days next to you. In fact, you almost married her.”
“Annie,” he deadpanned.
“No, my name is Julie.”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Her name was Annie and I never thought about marriage. Whoever told you such a story only wanted to stir trouble. They didn’t have a clue how wrong they were.”
“I don’t give a damn, Hank. I really don’t. All I know is that it didn’t take you or Duke very long to find someone else.”
“You have your opinion. You’re entitled.”
“I was in love with you!”
“You still are,” he said, looking at her dead-on.
“Like hell I am,” she remarked, struggling to stand.
He placed his hand over her wrist. “You can deny what you feel for me all you want. That’s fine. That’s probably even expected, all things considered, but you won’t run this time.”
She frowned. “That’s rightly stated, isn’t it?” She laughed mirthlessly and added, “How pathetic this is. You feel guilty because of the way we parted, and now you and Duke are trying to make it up to me. Isn’t that what’s going on here?”
“Hell no,” Hank replied, truly appalled that she would even voice such an assumption.
She finally stood, and when she started to lose her balance a few seconds later, her palm fell to his shoulder where she steadied herself. She looked horrified that she’d leaned on him when the timing couldn’t have been worse.
Before she could regain her composure and make accommodations for balance, he locked his hand over hers and pulled her into his arms. And that’s when he decided to hell with everything.
With Julie, there was only one way to test the waters. Jump right in and feel the heat.
* * * *
His kiss melted her mouth. Her lips parted on their own accord and her heart ticked a little faster. There was no way she’d kiss Hank Hinman by right of need, out of uncontrollable lust. Right?
If that were true, if desire were dead between them, then why was she tugging him closer, drawing him against her and drinking him in. Breathing him.
She ran her fingers through his short, black hair, latching onto the strands as she drew him closer. What the hell was she doing?
He lapped at the end of her tongue and a spark of familiar energy flew through her body, sensitizing her nerve endings and making her knees shake, her body tremble.
Why was she enjoying this kiss? And why, damn it all, was she sipping at Hank’s tongue like the meaty texture had a delicious new flavor and she couldn’t get enough?
Hank framed her face and worked his mouth over her parted lips, dragging his tongue over the swell and shape before thrusting deeper, insinuating an act too impossible to consider. His kiss was hungry. His lips controlled her, made her aware of what she’d missed, what she’d longed for most.
“That’s it,” he whispered. “Remember, Julie. Close your eyes and relive every m
oment.”
Those words were her undoing.
She shoved her splayed fingers through his hair, massaging his scalp as he fed their kiss, churning his tongue around and around until he reached the heart of her mouth. He wrapped his arm around her waist, and pulled her over him, leaning against the cushions for support.
Her body mashed against his, and the fiery heat between them burned one degree hotter, several flames higher. She was dying there. She was dying and living at the same time. Her heart soared and yet her soul sank. She’d been here and done this. She knew heartbreak because of this man and yet she couldn’t do anything to stop him from stealing away with her love all over again.
She’d still try in spite of herself, but she couldn’t ignore the light at the end of the tunnel. Through Hank and Duke, Julie was certain to find the kind of happiness she wanted again.
The only question was—did she want the life she’d once left behind?
As the kiss deepened, the sensuality of what always drew her to Hank became evident once more. Oh, how quickly she’d forgotten how this man could work his woman.
His hot breath traveled to her ear and he sipped at her lobe, his tongue darting in and out as he cupped and squeezed her left breast. The enthusiasm he stirred, the energy he inspired teased her nerve endings, shattered her apprehension, until she believed she could do anything while cradled in his arms.
Tired and torn muscles she’d overworked in the pool screamed for his hand, flexing under each touch as he caressed her body, pampered her. He smoothed his palms over her tense joints and she sighed. This kind of treatment was precisely what she’d anxiously anticipated and dreaded. She wasn’t just putty in a potter’s hands, she was plaster and cement, destined to remain precisely the way the Hinmans wanted her.
Hank’s mouth careened down her neck. He never stopped at her collarbone. He gripped her breast and his thumb tweaked her erect nipple until she arched in his arms, yearned for more.
This wasn’t a kiss leading nowhere. This was a good first effort from a man who had a long way to go to make up for what wrongs he’d caused her in the past.
And she could tell he knew it.
Hank manipulated her as he kissed her. She was thrown off course by the building desire, so lost that it wasn’t until his cool fingertips scraped against her bare nipple that she realized his hand was under her bathing suit top, his fingers creating magic as he stroked the pointed peak.
Smiling into their kiss, he whispered, “You haven’t forgotten me. You’ll never lose sight of what we once shared. I live within you, Julie.”
She gasped as he touched her. He broke down her defenses, shattered her control.
His hands should’ve been licensed, or maybe outlawed. And his mouth? Oh God, his lips were destined for felonious acts.
He still held the power to destroy her.
She braced for another fulfilling moment as his mouth puckered over her tingling nipple and his tongue tantalized the hard bud, his bite sending a fiery current straight down her spine. Now she was hot and bothered.
Her pussy pulsed, and she wanted his hard cock filling her, the act of sex not too hard to contemplate when the physical aspect could easily be separated from the emotional. Julie could differentiate. She knew better than to believe in the things she could not have, but after what she’d almost captured and lost, she wasn’t one to postpone pleasure.
“Hank, please,” she said softly.
“Please what, sub?” he asked.
The word alone did damning things to a woman who’d been without her partners for far too long. What was it about the dominating male Julie craved?
“Please,” she whispered, nipping at his bottom lip. Her insides were quivering. The space between her legs continued to heat. Soon she’d feel the inferno and be unable to ignore the familiar heat building between them.
She desired him then, more than she ever lusted after him in the past. She needed his cock locked inside her pussy, grinding away, working hard for the satisfaction they could bring one another.
Giving as well as he received, Hank nibbled at her lips, too. He paused and dipped his head, returning to lavish his attention on her chest. “You have to ask, sub. You gotta tell me what you desire so I can decide if it’s worth my time to accommodate you.” A wicked smile claimed his mouth and he nuzzled her. “Make the request. Now.”
“Dear God!” she exclaimed, placing both hands on the top of his head. And here she thought he’d changed, softened some.
“That’s right, sub. Grovel,” he whispered, taking a long, leisurely swipe across the nipple. “Tell me precisely what you want.”
“I…” She choked back the rest. She’d only go so far here.
“Yes, you,” he coaxed her.
“I don’t want this,” she said suddenly.
“Then use a safe word, baby. I’m not stopping until I hear you say no and mean it.”
Apparently, he misinterpreted what she meant altogether. Why hadn’t she just come right out and said what was on her mind? Why hadn’t she asked him to fuck her? How come she didn’t just say, “I need your dick buried inside me,” and entice him to move forward without a moment spared?
He kissed her stomach. His hands fell to her waist and he ground against her, watching as his covered erection pressed against the V-shape clearly outlined by her thin swimsuit. He could’ve unzipped himself, whipped it out, moved the material out of the way, and been in there without a lot of effort.
“Oh God,” she breathed, thinking she couldn’t take much more. He could’ve been stroking the hell out of her by now if only she’d given him a little more incentive. She should’ve encouraged him.
On the other hand? He shouldn’t have required she ask for sex outright.
“I’ll fuck you right now if I don’t hear your safe word, sub. And I’ll make you beg for every stroke. Remember how I used to make you grovel for my cock, honey?”
How could she forget? Hank was the ultimate partner. He made a submissive woman realize what she’d lacked prior to being in his bed. He and Duke together had ruined her for other men.
His mouth agitated her arousal, traveling everywhere but getting nowhere fast enough. His tongue flickered in and out of her belly button, swirling right or left but never staying anywhere long.
Ah yes, she thought, bucking against him, grinding as he tortured her. She remembered all about Hank and Duke and the way they’d shared her.
They’d loved her together. Then, oh God, then…they destroyed her. And that was precisely why she refused to let them get too close again.
Chapter Four
“When did this party start?” Duke asked, joining—or rather, interrupting—them.
“Your timing sucks,” Hank told him, watching Julie as she tried to affix the top he’d deliberately, and quite successfully, untied.
Duke grinned. “Don’t mind me. You two kids have fun. I’m just on my way out to the barn to see this plug horse Frank bought for Julie.”
“For me?” she asked, sitting upright, but still fiddling with her swimsuit top.
Hank stroked her back. He couldn’t help himself. After they’d made out in broad daylight he wanted something more. He longed to sink between those soft thighs and reclaim territory that had always been marked as his.
Julie shrugged him away and took the hand Duke offered her. “I see Hank still has the same effect on you.”
“Hardly,” she grumbled, limping over to claim the cane propped up against a picnic table.
“Sure looked like a good time was had by all,” Duke said, smiling. “I just wish I hadn’t interrupted. Heck, if I’d let things progress, who knows what I might have found in another minute or two. Maybe I could’ve joined in, too.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Hank said, thinking he owed Duke the same favor whenever the opportunity presented itself.
“You two can work this out. I’ll run down to the barn and check out the new arrival,” Julie said, grabbing a po
ol bag. She reached over the small half-fence encasing the pool area and jiggled the gate lever. Once freed, the gate gave way and she hobbled down the winding path leading to the barn.
“Your timing is worse now than ever before,” Hank complained. “Some men might call you out as a dead-level idiot.”
“She wasn’t ready for that,” Duke said, the amusement in his eyes disintegrating as he spoke. “Maybe you are. But she isn’t.”
“How would you know?”
Duke parted his legs and placed his hands on his hips. He looked like a throwback from the Wild West just itching to draw his weapon and fire on the enemy. In this case, Hank was on the damning side of justice. “You know what she’s been through. She’s still healing.”
“There’s not a thing wrong with her legs. She just needs to strengthen them.”
“And you plan to help her do that by getting in between them as fast as you can?”
“That’s wrong,” Hank drawled, leaving his seat and heading away from the pool area.
“No,” Duke said, stopping him by taking a step in front of him. “What you’re doing isn’t right. She’s been through a lot of trauma. She needs to come to us when she’s ready.”
“Did you fail to notice who straddled who?”
Duke frowned. “I think it’s too soon.”
“You wouldn’t have thought so if you’d been lying under her. That’s for damn sure!” Hank shouted, leaving him to mull things over.
Duke trailed him. “Hank, wait a blasted minute, will ya?”
Hank stopped abruptly. He didn’t turn around. “I’ve loved her for over half my life. I’m thirty years old, and I don’t know how to love anyone else. She was mine from the moment I first saw her as a teenager, and now that I know what it feels like to lose her—and believe me after that crash, I thought she was gone—I’ll never let her go again.”
“You don’t have her yet,” Duke reminded him.
“Says you!” Hank yelled, believing after Julie responded to him as she did, there wasn’t anything to stand in their way now. She obviously still found him attractive, maybe even irresistible, and that chemistry between them was stronger now than in years past.
Acres, Natalie - Bang the Blower [Country Roads 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 3
