He held her immobile with a hand at the back of her head, broad fingers supporting her, controlling her. She stared up at him, tears sparkling in her caramel eyes, promising him everything. Because it was what he needed. He crushed her with his big body, shoved her skirt up and smashed his lips over hers until she was whimpering in pain and arousal. She gasped and squirmed against him, her moans turning quickly into cries of denial.
He licked a path from her lips to her ear and taunted, “Thought this is what you wanted, baby. You talk about sex and love like a big girl and then turn tail when things get rough. Not this time, sweetheart. This time you’re going to put that sweet mouth to good use.” He nipped her throat and made sure he stroked her body with enough finesse that she was writhing beneath him despite the edge of panic betrayed by her sharply indrawn breath. “Maybe by the time we’re done, you’ll stop teasing so much and I can go back to life the way I liked it.”
She jerked her head to the side, pulling her flesh away from his questing lips and muttered something. He grabbed a fistful of her long hair and pulled her head back to his, forcing her to look at him. “What was that, Lucy? You got something you want to say to me?”
Tears escaped her eyes and trickled over her cheeks. She glared up at him. “F-fuck you Mack!” she snapped shakily, her chest heaving beneath him. “You’re just being nasty because you don’t know how to deal with your emotions properly. Well, I don’t want to be your punching bag and if this is what a relationship with you is like then I won’t have any part of it! No wonder your ex-wife left.”
Lucy knew she should have closed her mouth before she even started. It wasn’t like her to get nasty, but Mack hurt her feelings and she wanted him to take his hands off her. She thought bringing up his hated ex was the way to do it. Boy, was she wrong. Her words had the opposite effect. He stiffened for a few seconds and then he went onto a frenzy of action, attacking her with stinging kisses that were so angrily forceful she could barely keep from screaming out loud. She was sure they were going to leave marks on her pale flesh wherever his lips and teeth touched.
She moaned in pain and arousal, wondering how something meant to hurt her could also turn her on. Then he was lifting her right over the console and on top of his body, stretching her knees around his hips. She cried out in protest, but he ignored her, reaching between them he yanked her skirt completely up and pulled her panties to the side. Just the forceful actions, the truck, his smell, even the darkness surrounding them all served to turn her on, lubricating her for the first touch of a man’s finger to her vagina. Thank goodness, because he was not gentle!
Mack pushed a thick finger right up inside her tight passage forcing a strangled scream from Lucy. She bucked against him, her legs coming up in reaction and her knees banging into the sides of his jean-clad thighs. The steering wheel at her back kept her in place for him.
“Mack!” she cried out.
“So fucking tight,” he snarled, bringing his head up to stare down at her, his blue eyes piercing, pinning her almost as effectively as the finger inside her.
She opened her mouth to beg him to stop, to demand he take his hand away from the place only she had ever touched. She was so frightened and so new to the sensations he was forcing on her that she wasn’t even sure if she liked what he was doing. Part of her wanted to reach for him and beg him to continue, but the rest of her knew he was being too rough for her first time. It was that saner, safer part that was winning out.
Maybe he sensed her trepidation, sensed the rising fear, because he took her lips, forcing the words back down her throat before she could speak them. He wedged a knee between her legs and pushed them open wider. He used the pad of his thumb to coax the tiny bud of her clit out from the hood causing her to jump and arch. Her eyes flew open and rolled back while she moaned into his mouth.
“That’s it, baby,” he breathed into her open mouth, licking her lips. “Give it to me.”
“Ahhhh,” she moaned, clutching his leather coat in one hand and a fistful of his hair in the other. She was mindless now, caught between her own raging hormones and the snippets of thought that flew through her brain alternately telling her she needed to stop him and urging her to let him continue.
He rubbed her clit in slow delicious circles urging her body toward that blissful peak she’d only ever reached on her own. She writhed underneath him, her entire body heating from that point outwards, tiny flames licking along her skin in a cascade of delicious fire that she never wanted to douse. She clawed at him, coaxing him on, begging that stupid voice of reason in her brain to stop screaming at her.
“Mack!” she moaned against him, arching her neck so he could lick and kiss a path down the front of her blouse toward her breasts. She wished she’d worn a lower cut top that morning. What had she been thinking?
Apparently, Mack was thinking though.
“We need this off,” he growled, nipping at her neckline.
She gasped as he pulled his finger from her body and then she moaned a denial at the loss. She reached for his hand, but he chuckled and pulled away from her, reaching instead for her shirt and unbuttoning it down the front.
“Need to see you, baby.”
“Okay,” she whispered eagerly as he parted her shirt, revealing her pretty white bra with blue-ribbon trim.
He groaned when he saw the hook in the front. “Fucking perfect.”
She giggled. “I’m glad you like it.”
“Wasn’t talking about the bra,” he said and parted the delicate fabric with his big, surprisingly deft fingers, revealing her breasts. She held her breath, wondering what he saw. He was the first man to see her naked breasts. They weren’t big, but they weren’t small. She thought they fit her tall, curvy form well enough, so she wasn’t going to complain.
“Fucking perfect,” he said again.
She beamed at him and was about to thank him when he touched her, brushing his knuckle over the peak of her nipple. Her words melted away as sensation flooded through her, starting at the point of her nipple and flaring out.
“Ooooh… wow,” she breathed, staring down at his hand in awe.
“Good?” he asked.
“Yes!” she exclaimed.
He flashed her a grin and increased the pressure until she was moaning in the darkness of the cab and rocking forward into his touch, mindlessly, voicelessly begging for more. Her entire life centered on this moment. If Lucy had known making out felt this good, she’d have been hot and heavy a lot earlier in life. She totally got it now! Sex felt good. It felt amazing! If it felt anything like this, then what she didn’t understand was why there weren’t a heck of a lot more babies in the community and the rest of the world.
“You ever do anything like this before?” Mack asked, an edge of dark demand to his voice.
“Uh uh,” Lucy groaned, pushing her chest into his big hands as he continued to manipulate her breasts. She arched her back, trying to control him so he would touch her in just the way she was quickly learning to like it.
He gave her nipple a little pinch and a twist that had her gasping and trying to pull away. “Ah, no you don’t, baby,” he growled, snaking an arm around her back and pulling her against him. He held her still while he continued to manipulate her breasts, alternating between light punishment and soothing promise until she was whimpering and pleading. “You’ll learn to love everything I give you. Just got to trust me.”
He maneuvered her around in the tight space until she was sitting on his lap with her back to his chest and then splayed her legs over top of his. He slipped a hand between her thighs and pushed a finger back inside her snug passage. This time he met with less resistance and more wet enticement. She moaned, long and low in her throat, filling the cab with sexy sounds that were almost foreign to her ears.
“See, baby?” he held his fingers up to her face so she could see that they were glistening with fluid. Slowly, so she had time to turn her face away if she wanted, he brought his hand to her lips.
“Lick,” he demanded.
Lucy hesitated for only a second before she opened her mouth and darted her tongue out to lick his fingers. She sucked on them like they were a popsicle, cleaning her own juices from his flesh. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the experience of tasting herself and smelling him at the same time. She knew as a virgin she should probably be shocked, but she wasn’t. She was desperately turned on. She rocked her hips forward, swiveling them in his lap, grinding her ass against him. She could feel a big, hard ridge against her backside. It could only be his erection, straining against the zipper of his jeans.
The arm he held around her tightened painfully and a new vibration seemed to run through him. Something dark and dangerous. Something precariously on the edge of a freefall, held back by only the barest of control.
He reached between them, under her hips and shoved her panties down until they were around her knees. Then he reached under her ass and began fumbling with his zipper. Alarm bells went off in her head and Lucy began to crawl off his lap, back over the console.
“Stay,” he growled into her hair, pulling her back against him.
“No, Mack,” she said forcefully. “I’m not doing this.”
“You want it,” he snapped. “You can’t deny it. You were grinding on my lap a second ago, begging for more. Your words, baby. I’m only giving you what you want.”
“Not like this!” Lucy exclaimed in disgust. She twisted around and thumped him on the chest. “I’m a virgin and you know it! I’m not about to have my first time in the front seat of your truck, Mack. It’s not right and you know it. And I shouldn’t have to be the one to point it out. I’m the twenty-one-year old virgin, not the thirty-six-year old guy with experience.”
Mack pushed her away so quickly Lucy nearly fell against the opposite window. She caught herself and sat up. She quickly managed to pull her panties back up, re-latch her bra and straighten her clothes. She turned and glared at him as he yanked his zipper up and turned the truck back on.
“I’m not a flowers and restaurants kind of guy, Lucy,” he snapped, cracking his knuckles, frustration clear in his face. “I’m a fuck em’ rough and leave em’ wet kind of guy. I tried to be something else with you, but it’s not working. I don’t like the things you make me feel. Half the time I want to try to be the man you think I’m capable of being and the rest of the time I want to fuck you blind and leave you in the shadows with the rest of the faceless, nameless women I’ve fucked over the years. Because I know that’s how this is going to end anyway. So what’s the point in trying? Why put in the effort when I can take what I want and end it when I decide?”
Hurt punched a hole in her chest and this time she couldn’t even try to look past the pain his words caused. She wouldn’t. “You know what, Mack? I thought you were worth my limited time in this city, worth getting to know. Guess I was wrong.”
“Guess you were,” he snarled, threw the truck into drive and hit the gas so hard that Lucy would have been thrown into the dashboard if he hadn’t caught her in time. “Put your fucking seatbelt on. And don’t say another fucking word or I’ll pull this truck over and finish what we started. Your mouth might say no, but your body wants something else, Lucy. And one of these days, I’m going to take you up on that offer.”
Chapter Ten
“Do they have food here?” Lucy asked brightly, looking around curiously as she, Abel and Alexandr walked through the sliding doors of the hospital. “Holy cow, it looks like a shopping mall!”
“Yes, Lucy, they have cafeterias in most hospitals,” Abel told her, amusement clear in his voice. “But I can assure you, the food is notoriously bad.”
“I want to try it anyway!” she exclaimed, searching for the mysterious cafeteria.
Abel chuckled and took her arm to steer her out of the path of people coming in behind them while she stared straight up at the glass ceiling high above their heads. She pointed up at the floors above their heads and chattered excitedly about the tiers of potted plants, asking how people got up there to tend the foliage. Abel patted her hand and answered patiently while they waited for Alexandr to check them in with security, then they took the elevator up to the cancer ward.
“Have you never been to a hospital before?” Abel asked her while they made their way down a sterile white corridor.
“No, never,” she told him staring around.
“How is that possible?” he asked, confused as they approached another desk where he was to check in again.
She waited for him to finish talking to the nurse before she answered. “Ummm, I guess you could say I’m a little sheltered. Did Mack tell you much about me?”
They sat down and waited for Abel’s name to be called. “No, I’m afraid he didn’t say much.”
“My family is Amish, I’m here on my Rumspringa actually. Hospitals are not the only thing new to me. Until a few months ago, so were shopping malls, cars, buildings, phones… well pretty much everything that cities have to offer.” She finished with a laugh.
His mouth fell open and the kindly older man looked genuinely speechless for a moment. Lucy grinned at him, flashing him a good dose of teeth. Finally, he straightened up and grinned back. “Well, I had no idea. Welcome, Lucy Miller, it’s a pleasure to have you in our city. You certainly brighten things up around here. I would never have guessed that this is all new to you. You act like an old pro!”
“Quick learner, I guess.” She shrugged. “I freaking love iPhones, they can do everything!” She sighed heavily in appreciation clutching her phone to her chest.
He chuckled and nodded. “Yes, very handy. It took me a few years to give in to those evil devices, but once I did, I admit, I was hooked. Mack and Tawny insisted I get one. They wanted to know I could call if I needed something. Especially once I got sick.”
She smiled and said quietly, “They really love you.”
Their conversation was put on hold when his name was called. They were escorted into a room where Abel settled himself comfortably on a bed, clearly having been through this routine before. He waved her toward a chair next to the bed and said, almost apologetically, “The treatment takes a few hours. They like to keep me here after they administer the drugs in case I have a reaction.”
She nodded, though her smile dimmed a little. “Of course, Mr. Hudson, I have all day. We’ll keep talking.”
After making sure Lucy was settled and there were no threats in the near vicinity, Alexandr excused himself, clearly uncomfortable with his surroundings. He mumbled something about coffee in the cafeteria and retreated. Lucy tried to get him to grab some food for her, desperately wanting to try hospital food, but she didn’t think he heard her. Abel chuckled and assured her they would get some Jell-O before leaving.
She watched warily as a doctor came in to speak with Abel about his condition and the treatment. While they talked, a nurse administered an intravenous needle to his hand. Wanting to see every minute detail of what the nurse was doing, Lucy hovered, getting so close to that the nurse had to ask her to back up.
“Oh, sorry!” she said and backed into the doctor, who smiled indulgently and raised an eyebrow.
Lucy explained again where she was from and why she knew nothing about hospitals. The doctor described the procedure in more detail for her benefit. Then he and the nurse left her and Abel alone. Lucy stood chewing her lip and looking down at Abel, his dark hand contrasting horribly with the too-large clear tube and white bedsheets, making him seem delicate and frail.
“Can I… can I…” she trailed off.
“You want to know what’s wrong with me?” he asked gently.
She nodded and folded herself back into her chair, pulling her knees up to her chin. “You don’t have to tell me if it’s too personal,” she told him.
He shook his head. “It’s not a secret, Lucy. I have colon cancer.”
“Oh,” she breathed and looked down, frowning, lost for words. She wanted to know how bad it was, but knew she definitely shouldn’t
ask that.
Abel chuckled and shook his head. “Don’t bury me yet, darlin’,” he said cheerfully, settling back against his pillow comfortably. “I’m on the upswing. Already had my surgery. This is just to catch any leftover bad cells in there.”
“Oh!” she exclaimed, unclenching her fist and forcing herself to take a few deep breaths. Things were so different here in the city.
Abel looked at her a little closer. “You okay, Lucy?”
“Yeah… yes,” she assured him. “I just… it’s just. Generally, when someone in my community gets cancer, they die a slow and painful death. The cancer just eats away at them until they’re gone.”
He nodded and looked at her thoughtfully. “No one goes for treatment then? Goes to a hospital like I did?”
She shrugged a little. “They could, if they wanted too, but they could also be shunned if they chose treatment over the community. It’s a risk that not many would take.”
“Ah… and so you were never sick enough as a child to need a hospital?” he asked.
“No, never,” she answered. “I was always healthy as a horse. And our community physician took very good care of the neighborhood families.”
“How very interesting, Lucy,” Abel said. “Tawny had the usual childhood ailments; tonsillitis, colds, regular flu, chicken pox. She would be hardy as a rock one moment, raising hell among the neighborhood boys and then down with something or other the next. Mack was much the same as you as a child. Strong, tough. Physically, he rarely gave me a moment’s worry.”
“Mentally?” Lucy asked, knowing where he was going next.
Abel nodded slowly, his dark eyes lost in the past. “Mentally… he was a messed-up kid. He never really talked about what was bothering him, what sort of things’d happened to him and his sister before I came along. But he sure had a driving need to make sure those things, whatever they were, never happened again.”
“Tawny told me you helped him with that.” Lucy crossed her legs and shifted, finding a more comfortable position in the chair. She liked the cheerful little room. Even though it was a room on the cancer ward, it seemed as though the hospital put in effort to make the rooms seem bright and cheerful. There was a watercolour painting on the wall and Abel’s bed was near big windows that overlooked the river.
In His Sights (Fire & Vice Book 7) Page 7
