Good. She should fear him just a little. When he lost his grip on control, the way he felt it slipping now, he scared himself a little. He didn’t wish to hurt her, hoped he could hold on well enough to prevent that, but he wanted her to know him from Adam. He wanted her to remember this time long after he left. God knew he'd never forget.
Luke lifted his head. He didn’t meet her gaze. He couldn’t just yet. He focused on her body instead, on the smooth expanse of silky flesh at her throat, the delicate line of her collarbone, the first peeks of her breasts as he peeled the dress from her upper body. He unwrapped her like a present, his actions quick and excited like a child on Christmas morning, unable to stand another moment of suspense as to what the package contained. And what a package he unraveled!
“Christ, you’re beautiful.” The declaration barely rolled from his lips before he closed said lips over her right nipple. Her back arched, thrusting her breast into his mouth. A small strangled cry of surprise fueled his hunger as he began to feast. He worked her nipple with his lips, rolling the hardened bud to a fine point and then closing his teeth around it in a not so gentle bite that drew another cry from her.
Luke eased back even as his hand found her left nipple. He rolled it between his thumb and forefinger, squeezing it in much the same way his teeth did to her right. “I won’t be gentle, Lara,” he warned. The devil inside him gave a devious laugh at the way she slithered like a cobra to a song from his assault on her nipples. “I won’t go slow.”
“I…don’t…want gentle.” Her words spewed on ragged breaths. “Don’t…want slow.” Her glassy gaze, darkened with an expression of pleasure despite the wicked flickers of pain he dealt, met his. At least, he thought he saw pleasure there. He needed to know before he went any further.
“Tell me if I hurt you.” He got to his feet, though his hands stayed on her breasts. He continued to knead, to roll and pinch, to memorize the shape and texture of her weighted flesh. She turned with his movement, her body following his touch.
“You’re hurting me.”
Luke stilled until he caught the smirk playing with the corner of her lips. If the devil possessed his insides, then she proved herself the vixen to match. He lifted a brow and squeezed both her nipples just a little harder in turn. Her eyes rolled back, her lids closing, her lips forming an O as another jagged breath rushed from her lungs.
“Allow me to rephrase. Tell me if I hurt you in any way you don’t like.”
Lara gulped and opened her eyes, the conviction and lust in their hazel depths so acute it made his head spin and his balls sting. “I like. I want more. Fuck me, Luke. Take me hard and fast.”
Luke’s nut sac pulsed in agony as if a whip slashed at the tender skin. “Christ, woman, where did you learn such language?” He didn’t give her time to answer, but caught her in one arm and flipped her onto her stomach across the bed. She let out a small yelp, but lay as he put her, turning only her head to lie on one cheek. Her golden hair fanned over the blanket, her body naked from the waist up, sprawled languidly but for the irregular rise and fall of her shoulders with each breath.
He made quick work of his pants, shucking them down and off before reaching for what remained of her dress. He lifted her lower body with one arm and yanked off the gown with the other. Then she lay naked from head to toe, her body so magnificent he froze for a long moment to simply look at her. Clothed, the woman gave a new meaning to beautiful. Naked, she put every man’s wet dream and devious fantasy to shame.
“I use whatever language is necessary in the moment. You should remember I never balk at saying what I want, Luke Stonewell. My daddy taught me to always speak my mind. Or have you forgotten that about me?”
“What your daddy should’ve done is take a belt to this marvelous ass of yours, Miss Franklin,” Luke countered, gliding his palm over one half-moon cheek. He smirked when her butt muscles flexed visibly from his touch. “That might’ve taught you to speak like a real lady.”
“Daddy would never do such a thing. Luke, you wouldn't either, right?” Question resounded in her tone now, the word underlined with just a hint of that feeding fear.
Luke’s smirk grew right along with his cock. He pushed her legs apart and settled on his knees between them, his palm drawing lazy circles on first her right ass cheek and then her left. “Absolutely perfect,” he muttered more to himself than her. An ass such as hers left a man no choice but to welcome the view and feel. Too bad for him, the throbbing in his cock wouldn’t allow him to appreciate it for long. “Don’t fret, sweetheart. I can’t take playing daddy’s role just now.”
One arm still locked around her waist, he lifted her to her knees, positioning himself to mount. Flexible and apparently eager, she pushed herself to her elbows. She shot him a wicked look over her shoulder that put him in mind of the very vixen he’d already deemed her to be.
“Whether I always speak like a lady or not doesn’t make me some wild animal you’re about to mate.”
“Doesn’t it?” Luke rubbed the tip of his cock over her swollen labia. She shuddered, her hips attempting to rock back, to pull the head of his dick between her slickened folds. He gritted his teeth in his struggle to keep her from getting her way. He gave her what she seemed to want in part, reaching between her thighs to plunge two fingers side by side into her opening.
He couldn’t be sure he ever heard himself make the sound that rumbled from his throat as he penetrated her soft channel. “Jesus, you’re wet. You’re going to try to tell me you aren’t a wild animal waiting for my cock, darlin’?” He pumped his fingers in her pussy, marveling at the slopping sounds her juices made, delighting himself in the sweet female aroma that wafted up from between their bodies. “Tight, too. You’re gonna milk my cock real fast with the tight muscles in this pussy, aren’t you, Lara?”
“Yes, oh, God, Luke.” She writhed on the bed, thrusting her hips back on his fingers. Her head lolled from side to side.
“I like having you this way, at my mercy, in the perfect position for taking. I’m going to take you now, Lara. Are you ready for me, sweetheart?”
“Please.” She whimpered when he pulled his fingers from her sopping wetness, only to make an inarticulate sound when he propelled his cock inside her channel to the hilt.
Luke froze, buried in her flaming heat more deeply than he thought it possible for a man to go, and threw his head back as inexplicable sensations raced through his soul. The thought of heaven came first. He’d found heaven, and the gate opened for him, closing around him and holding him captive despite the crimes of his past. A razor-sharp blade of concern followed closely behind that thought. It worried him that he might have truly hurt her by plunging inside her so briskly. Then she started to move, pulling her hips forward until his cock nearly slipped free before she bucked back onto him again, driving his cock deeper still in a single, fluid motion.
One final thought clouded his conscious before he became engulfed in a world of ecstasy. Doom. Yes, he’d doomed himself but good now. Turning back no longer presented an option.
Accepting his fate, at least for the moment, he gripped her hips and did as she requested. He fucked her. Knees digging into the mattress, his grip on her sides solid and strong, he pistoned his cock into her velvety, soaking depth until her inner muscles convulsed around his shaft, milking the cum right out of the slit in his cock.
Only when he collapsed, panting and soaked with perspiration beside her, did his sanity return. Regret slammed into him like a bullet from a double-barreled shotgun. He squeezed his eyes shut as the self-recrimination boiled in his veins. What had he done? Christ, he treated her like some two-bit whore rather than the woman who held his heart for most of his godforsaken life.
He felt her shift beside him on the bed. He reached for her, not risking a look on the chance that she might see all the compunction he felt after his vicious assault on her body. He couldn’t face the pain he knew he’d see in her expression. He nearly drowned in the relief that was
hed over him when she cuddled her agile body in his arm.
She tugged at his hand, beckoning him to lie on his side, draping his other arm over her waist so that he hugged her close. “Stay,” she said softly, with no inflection in her tone beyond that of a truly pleasured and sated woman.
Obviously, he hadn’t hurt her with his vicious lovemaking. He supposed that would’ve been too easy, for pain to the body held no comparison to that of the heart. And, with that desolate thought, Luke drifted to sleep.
He woke hours later, his eyes flying open at a sharp, staccato sound. He reached for his gun on reflex before deeming it out of his reach. Damn, when did he last allow his gun to rest more than a few inches from his fingertips?
Lara stirred at his side, her hand on his abdomen gliding up to cover his heart. She made a soft sound of contentment before settling again into a peaceful slumber.
Luke closed his eyes, the answer to his question a warm presence of female perfection in his arm. The last time he allowed himself solace from even the thought of his gun happened before he’d torn his woman’s life apart with it.
The sound came again, registering this time as a knock at the door. Disgusted with himself for the past, the present, for each frigging breath he took, Luke shimmied out from under Lara, careful not to wake her, and got to his feet. Figuring it best not to answer the door unarmed and buck naked, he slid into his pants and snatched up his gun belt from the floor on his way to the door.
“We’ve got trouble.” Adam sounded grimmer than Luke had ever heard him as he flung open the door to find his brother standing there.
Luke shot a glance over his shoulder, his gaze landing on the still sleeping Lara. She had barely moved an inch from her sideways sprawl across the bed after their lovemaking. Could at least cover her, he thought, but rather than return to the bed to do just that, he dragged his attention from the glorious curves and tantalizing planes of her body. He walked into the hall, closing the door behind him.
“Is Lara sleeping?” Adam kept his voice low, but the edge of urgency remained in his tone.
Luke nodded. “You said trouble. What kind of trouble?”
“Just got word the Desert Riders are headed this way. It’s expected they’ll be here in about two days’ time.”
Luke expected the notorious gang of dangerous outlaws to reach town sooner than that, but he kept that much to himself. Adam stared at him, no doubt waiting for the type of reaction he would’ve gotten from Luke two years ago at such news. Instead, Luke gave his brother silence.
Adam narrowed his eyes. “This isn’t news to you, is it?”
Observant sonuvabitch.
Luke averted his gaze. “You’ve got established law in this town now. Leave it to the sheriff to handle them.”
“That’s why you came back.” Adam sounded convinced. Luke figured not a word to the contrary would make his brother believe otherwise, so he didn’t bother. “You knew the bastards planned to hit here next. I thought you came back because of Pa, but that’s not it. You didn’t know the town elected a sheriff until you got here.”
“And, if I’d known beforehand, I would’ve never come back.” If he’d been smart, he would’ve rode out the second he realized the order of the town now rested in the hands of the legal law. Instead, he continued on, unable to put out the burn in his loins, his heart, his very soul to simply lay eyes on Lara again.
Eyes, you dumb shit. You were supposed to catch a peek at her and go. Not sink your cock into her sweet heat and fuck her to oblivion like a cheap, no-good whore.
She deserved better than the way he fucked her. He berated her for not speaking like a lady, but damned if he took her like one. There was little he could do to change it now. Even as he resigned himself to that fact, he realized Adam had made mention of something he hadn't caught.
“What about Pa?” Fear quickened his pulse, and his fingers flexed on the leather of his gun belt. He didn’t bother to strap it on, but held it in a tight grip at his side. He hadn’t bothered to fasten his pants either, he realized, but figured that didn’t matter in the least. His brother might be soft in a lot of ways and places, but his brain never proved one of them. The bastard all but sent Lara upstairs with Luke anyway. Surely he didn’t expect them to play frigging cards.
“The Stonewell gang is gathered downstairs.”
“What the hell for?”
“They know you’re back, and they’re looking to hook up.”
Luke raked a hand through his hair. “Word sure travels fast in this fucking town.”
“Yes, it does.”
“Then word should’ve traveled a long time ago that the Stonewell gang disbanded two years back.”
“No one disbanded,” Adam argued. “They’ve just been sitting back waiting for their leader to return. Jesse Dillinger got the jump on it all. He’s deputy sheriff these days and means to talk the sheriff into deputizing the rest of the gang, including you.”
“Like hell. He can talk all he wants. It isn’t going to happen.” Luke turned, paced down the length of the hall, and turned back. “No one is pinning a tin star to my chest.” He poked a finger at his bare chest where a short time ago Lara had touched him, licked him, and pressed her smooth flesh against him. “And there’s no such thing as the Stonewell gang anymore. In case you haven’t heard, the leader got himself banished from this town right after he shot down one of his own men in cold blood.”
“There’s not a soul in this town that sees anything that happened that night as—”
“Go home, Adam. Go to the ranch where you belong and let the law the people of this town put into place do its job.”
“The sheriff can’t fight his way out of a rucksack, Luke. I would’ve made a better lawman than that fool.”
“Then you should get started, brother, because there ain’t anyone else who’s going to take the job tonight. Better yet, do what I said and get out to the ranch before all hell breaks loose here. Take Lara with you and the judge, too. Get hitched while you’re out there like you should’ve done already. What the hell are you doing fucking her when you haven’t given the woman a name yet anyway?”
“That’s not how it’s supposed to be.” Adam’s voice got quieter, but his glare remained steady and intense. “You know that.”
Luke scoffed. “Yes, and I wasn’t supposed to murder her fucking brother. It’s how it’s going to be now, damn it, how you should’ve made it the minute I rode out of this town. Damn you for not seeing it done.”
Luke spun around, stalked back to the bedroom, and flung open the door. He slammed it behind him as his gaze locked with Lara’s. She sat up in the center of the bed, her expression clearly one of a woman who’d heard everything that just transpired out in the hall.
* * * *
Lara’s body heated as Luke’s gaze fell down her naked flesh. His attention lingered pointedly on her breasts, then slid lower to settle on her pussy. Something about the embers of fury blazing in his eyes made her want to reach for the blanket to cover herself, but she resisted the urge. Modesty hadn’t been her ally when she brought him to this room. Perhaps the lack of such a virtue would aide her in easing the pain that returned to harden his expression. Perhaps she might even get him to listen to reason.
“You didn’t murder Jeb.” The statement came out softer than she intended, but certain nevertheless.
Luke flinched. His gaze jerked up and met with hers before he quickly looked away. “What’s the matter with my pa?”
Lara studied his profile, taking in the stubble that shadowed his upper lip, cheeks and chin, the hard set to his jaw, the squared hold of his shoulders. She knew Luke asked the same question of Adam out in the hall, but Adam never answered. The chore fell to her now, but as soon as she told him, he’d go tearing out of here. She needed answers of her own first.
“How was it supposed to be, Luke?” Her heart raced as she waited for him to respond. When he merely shook his head, she demanded, “Tell me what Adam meant by th
at.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Oh, but it did. It mattered so much. She hadn’t heard everything the brothers said outside her door, but she’d heard enough. A band of outlaws headed toward their town. Luke had come back for that very reason. His belief in duty and justice was still so bone-deep he couldn’t ignore the calling despite the ghosts that greeted him here. Then he discovered the law in these parts now rested on another man’s shoulders. Luke meant to ride out as quickly as he rode in. The intent etched itself in his expression. He would leave again, likely as soon as he saw to his pa.
“How was it supposed to be, Luke?” Lara stood, wrapping herself in the blanket as she repeated the question and then waited once again for him to answer.
“Damn it, Lara.” Luke whirled on her, his blue eyes shooting sparks. “I told you it doesn’t matter. Whatever should’ve happened changed that night. It’ll never be that way, so there is no use talking about it.”
“Never be what way?” Lara met his temper with a feigned calmness, struggling not to cower away under the heat of his stare. “Whether you think there's use to talk about it or not, I want to. You owe me that much.”
“I owe you what I gave you,” Luke countered through clenched teeth. “A life without being forced every day to look at the bastard who shot down your brother.”
Lara nodded. “A life without the privilege of looking every day at the man I love.” When the tension-filled silence fell between them once more, she reached the last of her patience. “Fine! You won’t tell me, then I’ll go to Adam.”
She barely took two steps toward the door before Luke caught her upper arm and spun her around. The move set her off balance. Her free hand flew out, connecting with the hard muscle of his bare chest. The fire in his eyes apparently blazed through his whole body because it seeped into her palm at the contact. Her balance steadied, but her insides quivered anew.
Her Vigilante Passion Page 4
