by Sylvie Kaye
His breathing was even and steady, and she wondered if she could make him gasp and groan. Mercy certainly intended to try.
Shutting her eyes, she let herself experience his heartbeat. The thud sounded faint and faraway, as if a wall were built up around his heart. Suddenly, she wanted to break down all his barriers.
Quite a feat for a two-week vacation, if she even stood a chance. So far, he hadn't offered anything. Not even this dance.
She'd asked him.
Mercy looked up into his eyes, so dark her own were reflected there. He'd been watching her. His intense gaze melted her pussy, and a gratifying heat pooled between the folds. A good sign. Her desire was running hot and high. A climax in the making, she hoped, along with a few other fantasies she'd like him to bring about. She swallowed dry air, and then licked her lips to moisten them before smiling up at him. He didn't smile back. His mouth remained stern, firm, and so temptingly near.
"So what do you do, Sinner, besides sin?"
"Ranch."
He certainly didn't give much away.
She nodded. “Do you have a ranch?"
"Spread."
Now? How wide?
Her eyes rounded, she missed another beat, another step.
His serious mouth cracked a smile as if he'd once again read her thoughts.
"I have a small spread and ranch house."
Oh. She nodded again. “Aren't you going to ask me what I do?"
"Nope."
Her smile faded for a second. But then in a quick, white-hot fantasy, like the one she was after with Sinner, if it even lasted the length of her vacation, she imagined a whole lot of information wasn't necessary.
She stroked her hand over his taut shoulder. Radiating heat scorched her palm. Slowly, she trailed down his soft, cotton T-shirt and over his hard biceps, which flexed beneath her fingers. The man's body was made for exploration and she hoped to make a full expedition of it. She sucked in her bottom lip and stared up at him.
"I take it we're through dancing.” His words were silky and slow, but struck between her thighs with the quickness of a heat flash before a summer storm.
"The music hasn't stopped yet,” she said, coyly, enjoying the hunger she saw in his eyes. Making him groan for Mercy was starting to look like a possibility.
"For us it has.” He dropped his arms from her body and stepped back.
He stood in front of her in the middle of the dance floor while the other couples circled them. Her only contact with him came from the exquisite steam their bodies gave off and the intensity of their eyes, each searching the other's for what they wanted, needed, demanded.
Spence hadn't realized Mercy would have a demanding streak. But she was so damn hot. She had him by the stones. He couldn't walk away now. Not without having her at least once.
"It's time we talk about my spread,” she said, teasingly, slipping her small soft hand into his large rough one. His blood pumped hot, firing all his pistons so hard and fast he couldn't turn her down now if he wanted.
"When such provocative things come out of your mouth, I have to wonder if you can live up to them."
Inwardly, he smiled at her guts. It both surprised and weakened him each time her innocent-looking pink mouth talked trashy.
She tugged on his hand to move him along. He dropped hers. Bad enough her sweet sensuality had sucker-punched him, but he wasn't handholding some first date here. He was only looking to get laid.
He draped his arm over her bare, slender shoulder, running his knuckles along her smooth jaw as he walked her away from the stifling, stale air of the dance floor toward the steps leading off the balcony and the hint of a fresh river breeze below.
She stared up at him. Her eyes large, blue, and trusting.
"Where to?” he asked, stopping before their descent, giving her a last chance to back down.
He wasn't sure why. His cock wanted her anyway he could take her, while something inside him remembered how a man desired a cherished woman, for all time, for life, love, and marriage. Crazy. He ran his fingers through his hair as if to wipe out the warring notions.
"I'm not sure where.” She sounded uncertain but brave.
By her technique so far tonight, he could tell she wasn't used to making bold advances. A cold spot near his heart warmed and the hot spot near his fly cooled.
"Let's just take a walk.” He peered down into bottomless blue eyes that did things to him that were more intimate than sexy.
"Wait.” A female voice screeched from somewhere behind him as they stepped forward.
The sound cringed his nerve endings, but he glanced over his shoulder anyway. It came from that woman who'd been with Mercy when he first saw her on the other side of the river.
"Wait. We have to talk.” The woman with the floppy hair and floppy mouth was hotfooting in their direction. Her short brown hair flying, helter-skelter, along with her yellow-flowered wedged shoes.
He clenched his back teeth but waited. What had he gotten himself into here? He wasn't into threesomes ... at least he hadn't been in a while.
"I'll only be a moment.” Mercy darted out from under his arm toward her friend.
While the two women chattered with their heads together, he scanned the nightclub. For a few distracted minutes with Mercy, he'd let her suck him into her sexy, carefree space, almost causing him to forget why he was here.
He jammed his fingers through his hair again. This had to be the first time in two years Parker hadn't consumed his thoughts. And, since he'd hit town several weeks ago, his ever-searching eyesight. So far, he hadn't been able to hook up with the bastard, missing the man by fleeting opportunities each time.
With no sign of the murdering, lying sonuvabitch, the night had been slow until Mercy came along to relieve his boredom. Once he'd given in to the idea of her relieving a lot more, his balls ached.
Until a moment ago, when her soft blue eyes and sweet scent had clouded his mind. Let's take a walk. Had he really said those words? Had he been willing to give up watching for Parker, unsuccessful as tonight's outlook was, to go for a mere walk?
With another glance at her hot ass, he shook off the dumb idea and lust returned with a vengeance. If he kept his needs restricted to below the waist, he'd be better off. He couldn't afford to screw up.
He scanned the place again, slower this time. No Parker. None of his lowlife flunkies either. Or Google, a man who'd search out and sell any information for a price.
He breathed deep and smiled, slowly. He still had Mercy in his sights. The night wasn't totally shot to hell.
* * * *
"Where do you think you're going with the evil one?” Cindy tapped the wedged sole of her platform shoe, smudging a trail through the sawdust scattered from the dance floor.
"We're going for a walk and he's not evil. He's just a sinner,” Mercy guaranteed her friend with a pat to her shoulder.
Their parochial school upbringing had made Cindy overly cautious. While all that uptight restraint eventually had caught up to Mercy, urging her to make up for lost time.
Cindy nodded toward a table near the bar where another woman and three men sat. “I hooked up with some friends from work. My coworker, Jay—he's the non-devilish, clean-cut one with the sandy hair and freckles, a man a woman can feel secure with.” She paused for effective.
"Yes, yes.” Mercy checked if Sinner was still waiting. His dark, lusty eyes rested on her. The moist inner lips of her vagina quivered.
"Jay knows a bartender who knows where your sinner lives if we have to prosecute,” Cindy persisted.
Mercy rolled her eyes. “The man's only crime is he's too sexy for his own good.” Waving bye to Cindy, she took off toward Sinner.
"Do you have your cell phone?” Cindy called after her.
"In my pocket.” She smoothed her hand over the slash of material in her dress where her phone would remain in its off mode so as not to disturb her and Sinner.
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Chapter Three
"Ready?” Sinner drawled when Mercy returned to his side.
She nodded. She was more than ready to take the plunge with Sinner. She'd been waiting for a man like him for what seemed like forever.
His hard, confident body and demeanor sent the message he could take her to the edge, show her the precipice, and jump off with her to ride the rush to orgasm.
"I've been in dress rehearsal all my life,” she said with an assuring wink.
"We'll see about the dress part later,” he murmured near her ear. His hot breath and suggestive tone strummed through her, racing her pulse and puckering her nipples. He must've changed his mind about going for a simple stroll. A shiver of excitement clenched her vaginal walls as she smiled up at the rangy, tall man steering her toward the exit.
They took the spiral metal steps leading from the balcony at a fast pace. Laughter and chatter from the mingling people above and below clashed with music from the competing barrooms along the river, making it hard to hear the clank of the stairs beneath their feet. But she felt each rapid thud through the soft soles of her leather high heels. Urgency became palpable between them.
Once down onto the body-crushing riverwalk, he took her hand in his warm, firm one. Expectation heated her blood and sped up her heartbeat. The idea of sex with Sinner flamed her body with enough fire to cause friction in the satiny crotch of her panties.
Her leg brushed against his as they hurried. His thigh muscles were long, lean, and strong. They held the promise of stamina, the kind of legs to take a woman to orgasm while standing up. She'd read about such muscular balance in one of last month's women's mags, and the fantasy flushed her mind and her body with scalding heat.
"Sure you don't want to change your mind?” he asked when a flower vendor caused a bottleneck in the pathway, stalling their progress.
She'd change her roundtrip ticket home before that happened. But he sounded like the one who wanted to back out.
"If you're having second thoughts...” She shrugged with a nonchalance she didn't feel. Disappointment pooled in her belly. “Just kiss me good-bye.” She gazed at his lush mouth. “Otherwise the curiosity will kill me."
"Curiosity?"
"To know if you taste as good as you look."
With a low growl, he took her challenge despite the people sandwiching them from both sides. Lowering his head, he kept his lips teasingly out of reach at first.
Then his hot mouth met hers, melting her bones and pooling fluid in her womb. Her knees went rubbery, but his steadying grip on her waist kept her upright. Her mind swirled with hot, carnal flashes of Sinner's cock sliding deep inside her. She moaned, ready for lavish tongue-on-tongue action when he pulled his potent lips from hers.
"Things are moving again.” His dark, bold eyes drilled into hers. His breathing edgy.
She wanted to move, but beneath him. A wistful sigh escaped her lips. “Are we going forward or back?” Or both, along with in-and-out. She waited, standing her ground even as a heavyset man and woman jostled her.
His eyes held hers for a long moment as if deciding something weighty. “Lead the way,” he said, not swaying her in either direction.
She tucked her arm into his strong one and headed away from the Starry Night Club. Need and the fire low in her belly ignited by his kiss drove her on. If the touch of Sinner's sensational mouth in the midst of a crowd could so easily bring her to the brink of such simmering desire, imagine what a full-blown kiss along a deserted section of the Riverwalk could arouse.
Eventually, they followed the meandering river and the sound of rippling water instead of staying with the crowd. The stone path felt uneven beneath the thin soles of her strappy-heeled sandals. Wooden benches beckoned, but they passed them by. Fragrant white and pink flowers stirred as they brushed past. The air felt thick and warm like a lover's cum.
When they edged through a narrow portion of the pathway, she trailed her fingers over an area of a stone wall, wishing they'd stop and sit and she'd taste more of his kisses. That he'd go deeper and longer this time.
But Sinner pushed ahead, taking her hand and the lead. Soon the walkway widened and they were side by side again. Laughter. Two giggling women hustled in the opposite direction. Whistling. A lone man with his hands in his pockets strolled in the shadows but was soon overtaken by them. Whispers. A couple cuddled on a nearby garden bench.
Mercy and Sinner moved onward into the darkness with only an occasional street lamp to light the path.
When they reached a lonely bend in the waterway, abandoned by even the stragglers they'd encountered, Sinner signaled to an empty bench, then released her hand and sat down.
With his arms sprawled across the slatted back of the bench and his booted ankles crossed, he looked up at her, watching her through slit lids. Slashes of his dark, fluid eyes both challenged and turned her on as she stood in front of him.
"Come, sit.” He tossed his head, motioning to one of his outstretched arms and the space next to him on the green-painted bench.
She didn't want to sit next to him. She expected more. Much more from Sinner. Should she dare to follow her brazen instincts?
She breathed in the heavy, humid night air. Had she come this far to chicken out? Returning home to her unsatisfying sex life with nothing more adventuresome than the missionary position to look forward to flashed through her mind. Here was the answer to her lusty dreams, a hunk of masculinity sitting, waiting for her to let go of her restraints and claim him as her prize. She licked her lips.
"That spot looks too hard,” she said silkily, sidling a glance at the wooden seat.
Raising her gauzy skirt ever so slightly, she slowly edged the hem higher until the warm breeze chilled her heated thighs. He tilted his head back and narrowed his gaze even more, but she caught the glazed look he tried to hide as she straddled his lap.
Fitting her legs through the open back of the bench, she snuggled her breasts against his wide, muscled chest before wriggling down tightly onto his denim-covered crotch. The slow slide of her naked thighs against the roughness of his jeans caused an exciting tingle to travel upwards and settle in her vagina.
"And maybe this spot will get even harder,” he mumbled.
Her thighs gripped his hips. A sigh slipped from her lips. A half-grin stifled his moan of pleasure.
Both her hesitancy and brashness amused Spence. Compared to the women he'd been with, she was as green as the new grass he'd been meaning to plant near the ranch house porch. She brought a freshness and lightness to his heart that he didn't want there but had a difficult time denying himself.
She tangled her long, delicate fingers into his hair and cradled his head. Her nails lightly massaged his scalp, the movements more comforting than sexual. He relaxed into her hands and waited to see what the sweet thing thought would rock his world. Her fearless inexperience was as much a turn on as some of his most erotic fantasies.
And rock she did. She rolled forward and her soft, warm pussy spread and notched itself over his crotch. He could feel the lips of her sex stretch wide through the silkiness of her panties, gliding over the coarse denim of his jeans. His hard-on reacted like a fist, stiffening and gripping in his gut.
He groaned. She smiled, pleased with herself.
Lifting his head, he bit at her bottom lip and tugged her to him. He fought for all he was worth to keep his feet grounded and his hands on the bench when what he desired most was to slip past her panties, grab hold of her hips, and pump for all his worth.
Instead, he sucked her lip into his mouth. She tasted sweet, slick, and warm like he knew the lips of her pussy would. He worked over her mouth, crushing it, wanting to consume and own her if only for this one night.
All thoughts of what he wanted dissolved when she flicked her tongue to his lips. Gentle, wet, and inviting. She traced its velvety tip over his upper lip before slowly moving to his lower one, sending lusty promises down his spine, straight to his rigid and now quivering prick.
His heart pounded in his chest. Even through the fullness of her breasts and her pebbled nipples, he felt her fluttery heartbeats against his powerful ones. His fingers ached to let go of the back of the bench, but if he uncrossed his ankles, his dick would become an unstoppable presence to reckon with.
He barely managed to hold back. His tongue simulated fuck games with hers until he ached from blue balls. She was killing him with pleasure. He was going to die with his boots on and a hard-on to be envied. Yet, he refused to make any moves on her first. He was going out with a clear conscience.
About her anyway.
He tried to push thoughts of Parker and the Starry Night Club from his mind for the meantime. But from this vantage point along the river it wasn't easy. He had a clear view of the club. After a quick glimpse to the street above to assure him a gaudy red Caddy wasn't parked in the club's lot, he squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated on her silky tongue, her lush breasts, and the scent of her skin. Fresh. Powdery. Not cloying and heavy like what he was used to. He inhaled her. The sunny fragrance of her hair where blonde wisps tickled his cheek, her honeyed breath panting beneath the pressure of his mouth, and the womanly scent of her dewy skin all smelled delicious. He wanted to lick the flavor of her body, taste her perky nipples, and sample her innermost places.
There were a lot of things he wanted that had been put on hold until after he evened the score with Parker. For his dead friend Mark's sake as well as for his own peace of mind.
But the only piece he wanted to think about at this moment was Mercy. He planned on giving her whatever her sultry, hot body desired. But nothing extra. He couldn't afford to get into it, into her, too deeply.
He trailed a kiss down her neck. Nipped at the spot where her throat and shoulder met. She didn't disappoint. She was salty, musky, and mouth watering. Everything a man craved in a woman.
"Sinner,” she murmured, and Spence remembered his name. His name for tonight with her. Others called him worse things. Things she was better off not knowing.
