Unguarded Love

by KaLyn Cooper

  Her eyes flew open and she stared into his deep sapphire gaze. “Don’t just sit there, angel. Ride me.”

  She normally didn’t like taking orders in bed, unless it was one of the parameters determined ahead of time, but she wanted him inside her, now. She lifted up, and up some more, so she could take him in. At the last minute, she decided to tease him. Grabbing his shaft, she rubbed the tip of his cock from her opening to her clit and back again.

  His shuddered intake of breath was her reward. So, she did it again. “I believe you like that.”

  “I like everything you do to me.” Then he pulled her down and pressed her chest into his. “Way too much.” He kissed her temple in the sweetest gesture any man had ever made. It was as though he truly cared for her, about her.

  Then he ruined it.

  He smacked her ass.

  “Fucking ride me, or I’m going to flip you over onto your hands and knees and take you from behind.”

  She pushed up off his shoulders and gave him a slow grin. “And what makes you think I wouldn’t absolutely love that?”

  “I think you like to be in control of every situation.” He held her gaze for a long minute. “I’m going to let you be in control of this one…this time.” He sat up and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in so her ear was next to his lips. “But if you don’t slide onto my dick in the next minute, I’m going to have to get out of this bed and take care of the situation myself. In case you’ve forgotten, this house is filled with people who don’t understand the meaning of a shut door.”

  He ran his tongue around the edge of her ear then sucked the lobe into his mouth. “Now,” he kissed her jaw just below her ear. “Be the angel of mercy.” Two more kisses on her jaw. “And let’s finish this.” He captured her mouth as his hands dropped to her hips.

  She rose up and guided him to her entrance. In one swift movement he was completely inside her.

  His fingers gripped her hips, hard. “Hold it. Right there.” He squinted his eyes closed, and his face became a mask of torture. “I…didn’t expect—” He gently squeezed and released his tight grip on her hips.

  She contracted her Kegel muscles just to torture him. “Hold it like this?” she asked innocently.

  He opened his eyes. “I’m serious, Nita. I need a minute if you want this to last.” He glanced away. “It’s been a while for me.” He swallowed hard. “And you just feel so good. It’s hot and soft inside you.”

  She relaxed her inner muscles. He was practically begging. She wondered how long it had really been?

  When the tension in his face eased, she knew he had his body under control.

  He slowly opened his eyes. “I want this to be good for you.” He grinned. “I know it’s gonna be great for me.”

  Well, damn. There he went again, being nice. Sex was supposed to be sex. She preferred it fast and dirty, done and gone. But nothing had been the same with Daniel.

  “Okay. Time to move, angel.” He reached down between them and circled her clit with his thumb.

  She drew in a shaky breath and rose up, tightening every muscle from her butt cheeks through her thighs. She came back down and swore she felt him at the entrance to her womb. He pressed on her clit, and every muscle in her body tightened. It was the first time they’d done this, but it was as if she and Daniel had been having sex for years. He knew exactly what she liked and gave it to her when she needed it most.

  She made every stroke count, keeping a tight grip around his cock. For some unbeknownst reason, she wanted to be the best he’d ever had. She wanted Daniel Callahan to remember these few minutes in her bed. Because they would probably be their last together. Neither was into long-term relationships.

  “Are you close?” Daniel asked between pants.

  “Almost there.” She was so damn close, maybe two more strokes.

  Daniel rubbed the length of her clit with the pad of his thumb, and her world blew apart. His large hand grasped the back of her head and pulled her lips to his. He kept rubbing and pressing hard as her entire body shook with what had to be the biggest orgasm she’d ever had in her life. It was definitely one of the longest. She was falling forward onto his shoulder when he arched up inside her one last time, stiffened and groaned through clenched teeth.

  Nita lay sprawled on top of Daniel. His softening cock was still inside her when she recognized voices at the bottom of the stairs.

  “Let me see if I can find Nita.” Katlin’s voice seemed to be coming closer. “I’ll grab Daniel, too. I’m sure he’s going to want to know what you found out.”

  Nita leaped out of bed. “Go into the bathroom,” she ordered on a whisper.

  He’d barely shut the door behind him when Katlin lightly tapped. “Hey Nita, Dr. Johnson has discovered something and is waiting for you downstairs. I think Daniel’s going to want to hear this, too.”

  Naked, but unconcerned because both people in her room had seen her naked on more than one occasion, Nita finished pulling clothes from her drawer. “Would you go entertain Dr. Johnson while I get dressed? I’ll grab Daniel, and we’ll be down in a few minutes.”

  Casually, Nita picked up her beach towel, slyly wrapping Daniel’s board shorts and T-shirt so they were hidden inside.

  “I can grab Daniel.” Katlin turned to head out the room.

  “Let me,” Nita insisted. “I want to explain to him the tests that I had the lab run before we hear the results.”

  As though that made perfect sense, Katlin agreed and left the room heading back down to distract the researcher.

  In her bathroom, she tossed the board shorts to Daniel who had already disposed of the condom. He turned on the water and cleaned up.

  “That was close.” Nita hung up her towel.

  Daniel wrapped his arms around her from behind. “Would it bother you if Katlin found out?”

  Nita turned in his arms and laid her palms on his chest. “You don’t think it’s weird to fuck one of your sister’s good friends?”

  “No.” He placed his forehead on hers, which felt more intimate than the fact their bodies were naked and perfectly aligned. “I fucked one of my friends…and we both enjoyed it. I actually like this friends-with-benefits relationship. With you, once was not enough.”

  His cock twitched against her belly, and her clit ached for his touch.

  He lightly brushed his lips across hers before releasing her. “But I can’t have you the way I want right now. I need to know what that researcher found and if he can help Bella.” He stepped away and slid on his shorts.

  She wanted him again, but valued her relationship with his sister even more. She had no idea how Katlin would feel if she knew what Nita and Daniel had just done. The brother and sister were close. But, damn it, Nita didn’t know if she could walk away from him. If she had to make a choice between the Ladies of Black Swan and Daniel, in that moment, she had no idea which choice she’d make.

  Nita walked to her bed and laid out pretty pink boy short panties and a matching satiny-soft bra.

  Daniel was instantly beside her. “Let me.” He kneeled. “I’ve never dressed a woman before.” Lifting her foot, he bent and kissed her ankle. “I’ve never wanted to either.”

  Kissing his way up her legs, he pulled up the panties, dragging his fingertips lightly the length of her legs, igniting every nerve ending. Wanting him again chased the need to meet their company throughout her entire body. When he nuzzled into the curls at the apex of her thighs, she nearly came. Using his thumbs, he parted her and placed a light kiss on her clit. She dropped her hands to the back of his head holding him there, begging for more.

  He grinned up at her. “We have company waiting for us.”

  He kissed his way up to her breasts. After a nipping kiss on each nipple, he picked up the bra.

  She slid her arms through the straps and he moved around to the back. “Which hook?”

  “Second, please.” She could barely speak. Lots of men had taken her clothes off her body, but Danie
l was the first to put them on. It seemed even more sensual than stripping her.

  Reaching around her, he slid his hands under her breasts, readjusting them in the cups. When he withdrew, her breasts felt chilled, missing the heat of his hands.

  “Arms up,” he commanded.

  She did as asked, but before he dropped the T-shirt over her hands and head, he placed an open mouth kiss just above her belly button.

  He grabbed the pink plaid shorts and kneeled in front of her. Although she could easily balance on her own, she laid her hands on his shoulders just so she could touch him one more time as she stepped into the shorts. His fingers dragged up her legs from ankles to thighs as he pulled the shorts up to her waist.

  “We really have to go.” Nita headed barefoot toward the door, but Daniel spun her around before she reached for the handle.

  He gave her the most tender kiss she’d ever had. Grabbing her hand, he gave it one last squeeze before they walked into the hall.

  “Now, Nita, what do I need to know about these tests?” Daniel dropped her hand.

  She completely understood he’d done it for her.

  Chapter 14

  As they made their way down the wide staircase, Daniel watched Dr. James Johnson as he anxiously shifted his ample girth side-to-side. The iced tea nearly sloshed over the rim of the tall glass he held in his left hand. A stack of papers filled his right.

  “Good afternoon, James. I hope your presence here means good news for all of us.” Nita seemed friendly toward the fiftyish man. “I don’t believe you’ve formally met Daniel Callahan. He looks a bit different without the camouflage grease paint, but he helped us escape from Managua. The samples I sent over were from his six-month-old daughter.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Callahan.” James look surprised to find both hands full. He started to move the papers into the crook of his arm when Nita plucked them from his hand. Daniel took the now empty hand in a firm shake.

  “I thought we were goners there for a minute. Okay, more like ten minutes, but it felt like hours when they were shooting at us.” James shook his head. “I never want to be involved in anything like that again.”

  “None of us do.” Daniel gestured toward the dining room table fearing he was going to end up wearing that iced tea if James didn’t set it down soon. “Have a seat.”

  With a grateful sigh, the researcher moved in that direction. Without even thinking, Daniel moved to the head of the table, his usual spot, and gestured for the man to sit on his left. When Nita started to pull out a chair on the far side of the doctor, he motioned toward the chair on his right. It wasn’t that he was jealous of her working relationship with James, he simply wanted her close to him. “Come sit by me.”

  Realizing it sounded too much like an order, Daniel added the word, “Please.”

  She stood next to the chair for one heartbeat, then two. He gave her a small smile and saw the hardness in her hazel eyes melt. She scanned the entire main floor as she circled the table. He felt her light touch across his shoulders before she rounded the edge and sat next to him.

  Daniel normally didn’t like public displays of affection, but Nita’s touch soothed him. He didn’t realize he’d been so anxious, but he’d been around Bella more in the past forty-eight hours then he’d ever been. His life in camp had been focused on Cristobal and his men. He’d taken time to go see his kids, and on occasion their mother would dump them on him, but he’d never been solely responsible for them for more than a few hours.

  His little baby girl was very sick, and he could do nothing to help her.

  Christ, he sucked as a father.

  James shuffled papers and finally extracted one from the pile. “Your daughter is already on a regiment of antivirals which normally shorten the illness’s affect, as well as antibiotics which help prevent serious complications such as pneumonia.” He slid the paper toward Daniel and pointed to a list of words, each at least eight syllables in length, next to numbers.

  “This is one of the most potent antivirals available,” Nita explained. She pointed to the number next to it. “I’ve kept its dosage relatively low because of Bella’s weight.” Under the table she laid her hand over his. “It’s never been tested in infants before, but it’s been proven effective in children over the age of five. Basically, it keeps the virus from attaching itself to other new healthy cells.”

  Daniel rolled his hand over and interlaced his fingers with hers and gave it a squeeze. “I’m sure you’re doing everything you can to make her better.”

  Nita lowered her eyelids for just a moment before returning her gaze to his. She pointed to the next item on the list. “This is just a big word for baby Tylenol. It helps keep her fever down which allows her body to fight off the infection. It also makes her feel a little better, too. I’ve talked with Kira at length about how much were giving her, because we have to be careful not to overdose her.”

  He squeezed her hand in understanding. “Thank you.”

  “This next one is a steroid which gives her body a little boost and—”

  “Aren’t steroids bad for you?” Daniel looked from Nita to James.

  “Technically, they can be.” James took off his glasses and started to clean them with the edge of his shirt.

  “She won’t suddenly develop Hulk-like muscles or go into a roid rage when something pisses her off,” Nita reassured him. “These are a totally different kind of steroid. Moving on.” She went through every item on the list, explaining each medication. Daniel was no dummy. He’d been a member of Mensa since he was in high school, but he didn’t need to know the chemistry and physiology behind the medicine they were giving his daughter.

  When Nita had completed the list, she slid it back across the table.

  James extracted another sheet. “For most Americans, my next suggestion is going to sound archaic, but I’ve worked endemics, epidemics, and pandemics all over the world and sometimes local remedies are the most effective. When we were up in the northern regions of Nicaragua, where the Ebola outbreak first happened, we had a young biologist with us who noticed the monkeys suddenly eating more cat’s claw.”

  He lifted his eyes and looked directly into Daniel’s. “The Reston Ebola virus started in monkeys. We didn’t think it could spread to humans, but it did, and was even more deadly. The indigenous people of that area didn’t get help soon enough, nor did they accept our help when we arrived…so many died.” James slowly shook his head.

  Panic ripped through Daniel. For the first time, he realized he could lose his baby girl. A vice clamped around his heart. He could hardly breathe. He wanted to run upstairs, scoop Bella out of her crib, and hold her, using his own sheer will to force her to get better.

  Nita reached up and turned his chin, so he faced her. “You brought Bella to me, and we got her the best medical care on this planet. You can’t get any more leading-edge research than the clean room that’s two hundred feet down that beach.” She glanced over at James then back at Daniel. “I think we should listen to what James is about to propose.”

  Daniel felt considerably better. Her touch alone calmed him. He turned his attention toward James.

  “Okay, I was telling you about cat’s claw. It’s a vine that one of the other researchers up north saw the monkeys eating like crazy.” He shuffled through the pile while continuing to talk. “The other team collected and analyzed the chemistry of both leaves and flowers, but the flowers weren’t any good, but the leaves contained high amounts of—”

  “I don’t give a fuck what it contained.” Daniel’s impatience had reached its limit. “Cut to the bottom line. What does all of this have to do with saving my daughter?”

  Daniel’s angry tone didn’t seem to bother Dr. Johnson. He replaced the piece of paper in the pile and dug out another. “Chyna thinks that we should supplement modern medicine with some ancient techniques.”

  “We’re talking Chyna, the intern, right?” Nita sounded hesitant.

  “Yes.” James nodded.
“She’s quite a brilliant biologist. Her master’s thesis on the effects of essential oils in medicine today earned her the internship with the CDC.”

  Nita grinned. “I’ve used locally growing plants more than once in my life.”

  During the wee hours of the morning, when they talked all night long, she’d admitted to Daniel that she’d poisoned a target with what the locals thought was a weed.

  “So, what did Chyna with a y suggest?” The snipe in Nita’s comment caught Daniel’s attention. He wondered why she didn’t like the young woman, but the animosity was obvious.

  “She advocated a tea made with elderberry and olive leaf.” James turned his attention to Nita. “Did you know olive leaves contain oleuropein which disallows viral attachment to vigorous cells actually reducing the post, and concurrent, infection rate up to thirty percent?”

  “That high?” Nita leaned her forearms on the table. “I had no idea. I’ll have to add that to my herbal kit. Rosita, she’s the household cook here, is already giving Bella elderberries, but I’ll need to check with her on the other herbs. I was thinking of suggesting a little oregano. It’ll help with respiratory tract disorders and gastrointestinal distress.”

  James smiled and pointed to the paper in front of him. “Those are on Chyna’s list as well.” He slid the paper over to Nita, completely bypassing Daniel as though he weren’t even there. “These are the amounts she has suggested. Even though they are natural herbals, they still contain the basic compounds of modern medications, and we don’t want to overdose her tiny little body.”

  Nita squeezed his hand. “Absolutely not.”

  Daniel smiled as he watched Simon and Santiago trot up the steps from the beach to the wide deck. His friend had been so helpful with the boy, not just since they had returned to Costa Rica, but while they had also been in camp. What would he have done without the man by his side for the past four years? Ti had always had his back. Briefly, he wondered what Ti was going to do when Daniel returned to the States.