by April Zyon
“Well then, I guess I should go and wash off my hands.” She looked down with seriousness now. “Are you okay? Do you really hurt anywhere else that you need more of the rub applied to? If so, now is the time to tell me, Trav.”
“I’m fine, love.” He smiled at her. “Go and wash up. Then you can come back to attend my other ache. Quickly, if you would, though. I find it very hard to think with you naked,” he said. His eyes slid down her body, pausing between her thighs for a moment before sliding back up to meet her eyes again.
Cassidy had the audacity to laugh. “Trust me, honey, that is a two-way street. I have a hard time thinking when you are close as well, so I totally get it.”
“Then get your perky little ass in gear so we can do something about that. I really do want you back in my arms quickly, sweetheart. The longer you are gone, the more I miss you.”
That was just about the sweetest thing that anyone had ever said to her in her life. She put her hand to her heart and sighed, moving out of the room quickly so that she could wash her hands, and now her chest from where she had put her hand. When she came back, she slipped into bed with him, a grin on her face as she did so. “Miss me?” she teased.
She got a peeved look from him, as well as rolling eyes. “Of course I did, woman. Did you not hear me spouting that romantic as fuck stuff before you wandered off? Now, get your cute little breasts back over here where I might pay homage to them.”
“I do so love it when you pay homage to my breasts. And when you pay homage to everything on my body. Every inch of my body, that is.”
Catching her hands, he tugged gently until she climbed back up, straddling him. “It’s a great body, Cass. The woman inside, though, is what makes it so damned amazing. She’s strong, generous, sexy without realizing it half the damn time, and mine, all mine.”
Cassidy felt her heart melting at his words. She sighed happily and leaned into him. “You know the right thing to say to me every single time, don’t you?”
“Hardly ever,” he told her. At her look, he nodded and smiled. “Cass, I just tell you like it is, and how I feel. It’s the best I can do, sweetheart. I’m not romantic by nature. I honestly hate talking to pretty much every person out there I’ve ever met, and normally, I’m relatively tongue-tied. You make it easy for me by being so wonderful, sweet, and just you.”
“All that I want and need is honesty from you. I don’t need to have you waxing poetic to me. I just want for you to love me. That’s it. Just love me. That’s all that I’ve ever wanted from you.”
“You have my love, Cassidy. Today, tomorrow, and every single day after.” His hands slid up her back to pull her down to him. “I do like to tell you a few other things now and again, just in case you get bored with that whole I love you bit.” He pressed a kiss to her lips.
“Good point. I think that I’m going to have to brush up on different ways to say that to you as well. For now, how about we just show each other with our bodies?” Oh, she was totally down for that part of it.
“I like demonstrations,” he said with a laugh. Rolling them over, Travis nibbled on her lips as his weight settled over her. “Anything with you involved is the best of everything, in my book. You may need to be on top, though, sweetheart, which I just figured out now that I’m in this position. I may not be quite as fine as I originally thought I was.”
Cassidy frowned. “Honey, if you are hurting then we shouldn’t do this. If this is too much for you, we can wait.” Not that she didn’t like being on top, because she did, a hell of a lot, but she didn’t want him to be hurt from them making love either.
“How dare you say that?” he gasped out dramatically. Lifting his hips and dropping his head, he muttered. “It’s okay, big guy. She doesn’t really mean anything by it. We’re good, I promise.” Another roll and she was back on top again. “I’m okay as long as I don’t lean on that arm. When I did, the shoulder screamed,” he told her. He had a grin on his face, likely because she was giving him another “look.” “Flat on my back is just fine. It lets me have an unobstructed view of, well, the view.”
That had her nodding. “Okay then. I will make sure that we will have a fine time and you can watch while we do.” She gave a small push so that she was sitting up on him. “Now then, what should I do with you now that you are nice and naked and hard and below me?”
“Anything your loving little heart desires. I would suggest getting a condom first, though, Cass. Don’t need to forget about that in the heat of the moment. At least not until we’re both ready to start on our family together.”
“Good point.” Because as much as she cared for him, she wasn’t ready to start a family yet. She strongly felt that they needed to be married for a year at least before starting. “Later we will work on the little mini-Travises to run around and give us all kinds of trouble, but for now, I’m happy just working on the two of us.” She grabbed a condom and held it in her hand. “Hold this for me?” she asked with a wink and a wiggle.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. Taking the condom, he set it on his upper chest, his eyes never leaving hers. “So, Ms. Milner, what evil, diabolical, and sexually intriguing plans do you have for me now that you have me at your mercy?”
“Well, I was thinking that I would do one of a couple of things.” She let her hands trace his face and then his neck. “I could either lean back and rock against your cock, slide you into my body and ride you until I come screaming, along with you, of course. Or I could wiggle my ass down to your cock and suck you until you are nearly ready to come and then do what I said a moment ago.”
“Oh God,” he moaned. “Uh, well, both have equally entertaining merits. Both achieve the same overall goal of sexual satisfaction. Hell if I know which one you’re going to choose, but I say go with your gut on this choice. Neither is wrong, both are right, so very right.”
“Yes, both are very right, aren’t they?” Cassidy asked as she wiggled down his body. She looked up at him, heat in her gaze as she licked his cock from the base to the tip. “Something like this good for you?” So she was talking a lot. It wasn’t every day that she got to have her way with the poor man—just every single night, and she loved it.
He let out a whimper, his hips lifting just a little. “Fuck,” he breathed out. “Cassidy, darling mine, don’t tease too long. You may not, or you may, like the consequences of getting a man sexually riled up.”
“Oh, I think that I would like anything that you do to me,” Cassidy confessed happily and leaned into him once more. Again, she licked him from root to tip, only this time she took him into her mouth and hummed lightly.
“Holy shit!” he yelped. His whole body jolted, his hips lifting, and a shudder whipped through him. When she shot him a look, his head was tipped back, his hands fisted into the sheets, and the tendons of his neck were standing out prominently.
“You okay?” she asked, and licked again. “Are you going to be able to handle this?” She put her hand on his cock instead of her mouth. “Or do I need to give you relief before we make love?”
His head snapped up and he pinned her with a look. “Woman.” He growled the single word out, so much meaning and emotion packed into it. “Mouth, cock, now.” Apparently, he was rather limited in his vocabulary.
Cassidy could only grin and did just as he demanded from her. She put her mouth back on his cock and was determined for him to come, wanted for that to happen so she could taste him again. With her body, she moved up and down against him, her mouth sucking and tongue licking at him in her determined state to get him to climax for her.
His body arched, his head went back again, bracing on the pillow, and curses flew from his mouth. He was pumping his hips slightly, squirming a little, and generally falling apart right before her eyes. A truly glorious sight.
Cassidy licked her lips and drank him down. When he had finished coming, she licked him once more and then moved to settle at his side. “So, you good?” she asked breathlessly.
Trav
is looked dazed, his eyes unfocused, his chest rising and falling rapidly. He was attempting to say something, but no sound was forthcoming. It was a pleasant change to have him in this state instead of her. Finally, he let out a ragged-sounding groan as his body relaxed a little more.
Cassidy pulled the blankets up and around them with a happy grin on her face. Taking the condom from his chest, she put it on the side table and then curled into him. She let out a soft sigh and nuzzled him lightly. “I love you, Travis Carver. Get some rest.”
She got another gurgle of sound from him that made her giggle, but he was still fighting for air, so she took what she got.
Chapter Eleven
The last week around the Carver Ranch had been quiet. Too quiet, some might say. While it was nice, Cassidy was finding she was waiting for the other shoe to fall.
When she entered the kitchen on day eight of having the two Marines living in the house, she found it full of male bodies. Travis and Joshua were there, as were Rhys, Simon, Anthony, and even Victor. There was also another man there who she didn’t know, had never met, yet seemed vaguely, in a passing sort of way, familiar.
Travis pushed off the counter he’d been leaning on and came to her. “Morning, sweetheart,” he said. Giving her a smile, he leaned in to kiss her gently. “Coffee’s on and there’s a plate staying warm in the oven for you. I’ll kick Simon out of his chair so you can sit and eat.”
“Thank you.” Cassidy leaned into Travis and rested her cheek to his chest. She breathed in the fresh and clean scent of him and then it hit her who the other man was. “Are you going to introduce me to your big brother?” she whispered.
He grinned down at her. “Figured it out, did you?” he teased. Chuckling, he hugged her close. “Cassidy Milner, this is Brant Carver. Brant, this is Cass. He’s my older brother, just not the oldest, though some days he seems to act like he’s older than most of the old timers down at the hardware store.”
Brant moved toward her and held out a hand. “Cassidy, I remember you. You had pigtails at the time, though.”
“Yes, pigtails were Gram Milner’s way of keeping me in line,” she said with a laugh, and shook Brant’s hand. “Nice to meet you again.” She leaned back into Travis’s side. “And don’t be mean to your older brother, Travis. He’s a good egg. If I recall correctly, he shared his cookies with me.”
“He gave you cookies?” Travis asked, sounding completely stunned.
“She was cute and said please. Of course I was going to share my cookies with her. Unlike my ungrateful siblings who preferred to resort to thievery,” Brant said. “Good to see you back here, Cassidy. Though, hooking up with my brother…” He made a face.
“Hey! I’m standing right here, you know,” Travis sputtered.
“That’s why I said it.”
Cassidy laughed. “Yeah, but he’s just so damn lovable. He might have been a cookie thief back in the day, but today, he is a heart thief and stole mine, so I had to say yes when he asked me to stick around. Besides, he says that he has a huge and important question to ask me one day when he gets it planned right, so here I am.”
“You still haven’t asked her?” Brant shot his brother a dark look.
“We’ve been a little busy as of late. Before that, I was planning it all out. Then we had two of the three Stooges move in to cramp my style even more. I’ve been attempting to work with what I’ve got, but it hasn’t been going according to plan.”
Brant grunted at that and shook his head. “Idiot,” he muttered.
“Uh, hate to break up this bonding moment between you three,” Rhys said behind her. “Now that she’s down here, I think we should discuss what Simon and Brant dug up.”
“Oh yes. That would be good.” Her hand on Travis’s waist started to shake slightly. “Although, to be honest, I am a little worried about what it is you have to say. I’m terrified that this is going to be something bad enough that you will all want to call the police in.”
“That’s why Brant’s here, sweetheart,” Travis told her. Pressing a kiss to her forehead, he led her to the table. Simon got up and gave her his seat. After getting her settled, Travis collected a cup of coffee for her and set it down in front of her.
“Simon did a lot of digging on Scott,” Rhys told her. He was watching her, his gaze point blank, dead on, not letting her look away. “He found out that Scott’s up to his eyeballs, several times over, mind you, in debt to not only a drug dealer, but an entire cartel.”
Simon had moved around to a point she could see him, nodding as he settled against the wall. “He’s been making huge promises with very little return. The cartel isn’t overly happy with him and has given him one last shot. Apparently, he’s promised them you. On what basis, we can’t say for sure since everything they’ve communicated has been in some sort of code.”
“Brant works for the DEA now,” Travis told her. “He’s been working with a number of people to get this particular group knocked out of commission.”
“I’ve been working on getting this cartel and all their suppliers for the last three years. Every time we make the slightest dent in their business, more of them pop up. With Scott, though, I might just have what I need. Unfortunately, he’s fallen off the face of the earth currently. According to his lover, though, he’s coming this way, for you,” Brant told her.
“Crapballs.” Cassidy shivered and hugged Travis around his waist with him at her side. “Okay, so he’s coming for me and I’m assuming that the cartel is as well?” Which terrified her. “So that means that I’m pretty much screwed, blue, and tattooed huh?” She began to chew on her lower lip. “Should I leave? Would it be better for all involved if I just disappeared for a few years?”
“No,” Brant said. Travis was tense next to her, his body practically vibrating at her words about leaving. “If you do that, you’ll likely end up on the run forever, Cassidy. For one thing, Travis wouldn’t let you go alone. For another, they have better resources than you ever could dream of. It’s best for you to remain here, where we know the location, the people, and can work with it all. The cartel isn’t coming for you, though. They are more than willing to make an example out of Scott, likely already have to a degree. He’s coming for you in the hope of buying some time to get them either the product or the cash he owes them.”
“Jesus.” Cassidy felt ill. “Okay.” She leaned her head on Travis’s shoulder and closed her eyes. She sat there like that at his side for several minutes before asking, “Okay, what’s next?”
“For now, go about your regular life. I have a team working on figuring out where Scott went to. We’re also trying to discover if he actually knows where you are, who he found out from, and when exactly he left Miami. The last one we’re a little fuzzy on. We know he didn’t take any flights out. Best guess by everyone is he’s driving. If the cartel gave him a helping hand and gave up your location, he should be here in the next two or three days. If he’s working off of other information, could be weeks still before we see anything of him.”
“Great.” She rubbed her forehead and felt a blinding headache coming on. “Okay. So I will remain here, and I’m assuming that we will have more people coming out to help keep the ranch and everyone safe?” She hoped so at least. “Because I hate to say it, but I’m scared out of my mind, and for your mother as well. Rhys is keeping her under lock and key?”
“Mama C is doing fine over at our place,” Rhys said. He smiled slightly. “She and my mama are having a grand old time. It’s like a fucking sleepover every night now,” he muttered.
Brant snorted at that. “It’s always been a bad idea to have those two under the same roof. As to your question.” His attention came back to Cassidy then. “I have a number of agents coming into town. They’ll be taking up jobs that will give them easy access to seeing who the new faces are. Some are here already, the rest will be coming over the next couple of days. We’re not going to let anything happen to you, Cassidy. You or the runt,” he said.
“You’re welcome.” He nodded. “I can’t promise he won’t have a few additional holes, but I’ll keep him alive. I’ve let him live this long. It seems silly to kill him off now. When he was six, and driving me insane, that was a good time to kill him. When he was eight, and being a pain in my ass, that was a very good time to kill him. When he was fourteen, and peeping in my window at the girl I had over, that was a damn fucking fine time to kill him. Unfortunately, our mother appears rather fond of the little shit so I never actually had the chance to kill him as I wished.”
“Sure as hell tried, though,” Travis muttered.
“Well, I’m glad that he didn’t succeed, however it went down.” Cassidy gave Travis a hug. “For now, though, what do you say about us just getting through breakfast? And I do want food. Now that I’m up and moving, I’m starving.” She had to put this situation out of her mind and move on to the next thing or she would do nothing but dwell on what would be coming their way.
“I got it,” Brant said. He moved to the oven and came back with a plate with tinfoil protecting it. Once it was before her, he tugged off the foil and handed her a fork. “Might not be as good as it was earlier, but it’ll fill you up.”
“Thank you.” Cassidy smiled up at him. “For making us a meal…and for not killing Travis when you caught him like a peeping Tom outside of your window when he was a teenager. One should think before they act, don’t you think?”
“I was thinking,” Travis said. “I was thinking I’d catch big brother in the act, rat him out to Mom, and get his ass grounded until he graduated from college if I had my way. I didn’t realize he was actually studying with the girl.”
