by Jillian Neal
He stared down at me now almost in awe. “So good. So fucking good,” and other far less sensical phrases along with ragged sighs drifted through my ears and seized my soul. Tingling sensations raced across my skin, and he wasn’t even touching me yet. Everything in me yearned for him. I sucked harder, needy for him to let go of the restraints he’d always clung to with me.
“Oh fuck, mmm,” groaned from his lips. The sound feathered over my flesh. He seized, tightening his grip on my hair as he pressed himself in farther. I relaxed my throat muscles. I wanted him all.
I cupped his sac as it drew tight. He roared. The warrior freed. “Drink me,” was his final command as he came in hard tremors and hot spurts down my throat. I complied, desperate to please him, desperate to love him.
His eyes were heavy-lidded with lust. When he made certain he was steady on his feet, he leaned and lifted me up into his arms, cradling me against him. “Skip the lingerie. I just want you.”
That suited me just fine.
43
Griff
“My God, baby, the things I want to do to you.” The warning shoved its way around the craving greed clogged in my throat. I cradled her in my lap on the bed.
“Do them,” she tempted.
I rubbed my hands up from the creamy skin of her hips to those lush tits that drove me insane with need. Her sweet little nipples throbbed, reaching for my touch. Cupping her, I leaned and indulged her right with my mouth. Her head fell back as she offered herself up for my pleasure. I drew her deeper, tending and lathing constantly.
When her breathless whimpers turned to moans, I grabbed the bowl of mostly melted ice cream nearby.
“Griff,” panted from her. God, I fucking loved how she made my name sound like sex. She rocked in my lap, unable to remain still. When her back arched, I seized the opportunity to dribble cold ice cream over her fevered tits. It raced over the slight hills and into the underswells. Her nipples were cherry candies in the snow. A harsh shiver coursed through her as the heat of her body juxtaposed with the frozen cream. She writhed for me now.
Dragging my tongue in the valley between her breasts as the dessert raced down toward her navel, I sucked and licked her clean.
“Yes, mmm.” She managed a few quick breaths.
Gripping her waist, I devoured the vanilla ice cream as it blended with the flavors of her. I swear every pass of my tongue over her nipples was like a stroke to my cock. She filled my mouth and sutured the broken fragments of my soul. When I’d sucked her clean, I turned her and laid her out on the bed.
Ignoring the slight pull from my hip, I found my place between her legs and pinned her open with the breadth of my shoulders. I wasn’t gentle as I spread her for my kiss. “This is just for me, baby. All for me.”
“Yes,” sang from her like a hymn. And when I let her feel the strength of my fingers separating her swollen folds, she called out my name like a god. My hot breath whispered over her clit. I watched her pussy clench. “Griff, please.”
“I love you begging for me.” My cock strained against the mattress, so needy for her wet pussy. I rocked against the sheets desperate for relief that would only come from her.
“Please, please.” Her hands fisted the blankets. Her head shook back and forth on the pillow. She was just as lost in the need as I was. I would find her, rescue her, and give her the excruciating ecstasy she required.
I bathed that tender bundle of nerves with my tongue, sucking until she was limp and mindless with want.
This time it was her own sweet cream that sated my taste-buds. She dripped faster than I could catch it. Gently, I curled two fingers deep within her channel and began to stroke. I drew her timid clit back into my mouth and sucked to the rhythm I’d memorized years ago. The primal timing of her. My heart knew her pulse. My body knew her rhythms. My cock knew its home. My demons recognized their master. They bowed in earnest to the angel who looked me in the eye, grinned, took my hand, and then willingly freed me from their bonds.
Her thighs tensed against my arms. She was weak against my physical strength and yet she was so much stronger than I could ever hope to be. Her pussy nursed at my fingers so hungry for my cock I damn near lost my mind. I pushed her constantly closer to the edge, needing her to jump, needing her to fly. “Come on my fingers, baby. Just let it come. Then I’ll give you what you need.” If she would let go, I’d get her to the ground. I knew how to do that. I would never let her fall unless I was there to catch her.
My name rung from her lungs once more and then her climax washed over her in waves of breathless pleasure. She seized, and I devoured everything she gave up for me. Her flavors the only sustenance I would ever require for survival.
The thread of fire I’d been walking roared to a blaze.
I climbed up her body and paused for one half second to tear open a condom and roll it on. “I love you,” growled from me as I slammed into her, deep and destructive. Tearing away every single thing I would no longer allow to exist between us. “And I fucking need you.”
And there was that single truth that could never be undone.
Her eyes flew open. “Yes.” Her heels dug into the mattress as she adjusted for my size. “Take me.”
I had no choice. We were going down. We could jump or be burned alive. I pounded into her with nothing left to give but pure driven need and all-consuming emotion. I was broken beyond repair. My only redemption lay before me begging me to let her make the jump with me this time, and I was too fucking weak to deny her.
The breath tore from her lungs from my force. I couldn’t stop. I pressed harder, deeper, ragged with need for her. I rode the delicious friction with no remorse.
That night the only thing I had to prove to her was that this would never be over, not this time. I just wasn’t strong enough to deny myself or her any longer. The endless ropes of lies would ultimately either become my noose or be incinerated. Remaining bound was no longer an option.
I thrust over and over, harder with each pass, burying every mistake I’d ever made deep within her where somehow she washed them clean. When I was deep inside her, I could breathe. My mind stilled. My past lay quiet. The future at peace. My present only her. Every single thing I’d gotten wrong no longer mattered. The heat of her body burned them away. This was where life made sense. This is where I belonged.
“Look at me.” She tunneled her fingers through my hair and brought my face to hers. “This is what I wanted all along. Give me you.”
Completely unable to keep any part of myself from her, I withdrew and flipped her over so she was lying on her chest. My cock lengthened, desperate to be back deep in her. Gripping her hips, I pulled her up to her knees and slammed back into her with punishing force.
The globes of her ass jiggled against my groin, soft skin pliant to my brutal possession.
And my sweet baby fucking begged for more. The warrior she claimed to need shattered the chains I’d tried so damn hard to hold him in since the first night I’d taken her all for myself. My hand connected with her ass with a snap.
Her body rolled. She shook that ass back and forth against me, begging for it. “You want it dirty, baby? I’ll give it to you dirty.” I gripped her hair once again with my left hand as my right made another pop of her ass. “All fucking mine. Let me hear my name when I paddle your ass, honey.”
Another slap and I rubbed away the sting as my name left her lips on a ragged groan. Her nectar dripped down my thighs with every strike. I sank to my hilt with every smack of my palm against her.
Her pussy flexed constantly against me now, milking every twitch of my cock. “Not yet, baby.”
“Please,” she cried out into the pillow just before her teeth sank into the cotton.
“I feel it. I feel how bad you need it. It’s right there, isn’t it.” Snap. My hand made another strike.
“Griff,” whimpered from her, and I lost all ability to stem the tide of my own climax as it barreled through me.
My hands latc
hed to her hips, I jerked her back, holding her against me, burying myself in so deeply she’d ache with the emptiness when I finally freed her. “Now, baby. Come on my cock like my good girl.”
She collapsed to the mattress, and this time I fell with her. I’d jumped out of hundreds of aircraft. But that night was the only free fall I’d ever made where I knew right where I’d land and that as soon as we touched down everything would figure itself out.
A few minutes later, I had her up on my chest doing my damnedest to gently rub away the heat that clung to her ass.
She traced her index finger over the tattoo she’d designed on my chest. “Thank you.”
Her whisper was so faint I couldn’t be sure she’d spoken. “Hmm?”
“Thank you for giving me all of that. It was amazing. Pretty sure you broke my halo, soldier.”
“Glad to be of service, sweetheart. That halo of yours has been in danger since the first time I set eyes on you. Might as well throw the damn thing away.”
Vivid memories of the infinite trust I could see in her eyes the first time I eased her open rushed back into my head. The tender tremble of her body as I touched her virgin lips. The timid wet heat that soaked my fingertips that night. I’d tried so hard to be gentle. She’d overwhelmed me with her strength. It killed me to hurt her, and I knew I would. She wasn’t afraid. Just like tonight, she’d begged and her need had vanquished my own vows to always protect her. I’d taken her innocence all for myself, but I would always guard that with my very life.
“I’ve been trying to get rid of it for years. But my HALO jumper finally decided to come back home.”
“I’m right here. I swear I won’t leave you again.”
44
Griff
My fingers slipped gently through the long fall of her silky blonde waves as she slept on my chest. Vegas never slept and that night I couldn’t either. I rehearsed the conversation I intended to have with my best friend. I wasn’t lucky enough to hope I’d still be able to call him that after I made my phone call.
It wasn’t just that I’d had his baby sister in my bed for years, that I’d popped her sweet little cherry, that I’d had her on her knees begging under my tutelage, that I knew every hungry hollow of her body, that I’d feasted and filled them all. He’d beat the shit out of me for that. I’d let him, and I’d survive. It was the lies I wasn’t sure we’d ever overcome.
By six, as hesitant sunlight warmed the desert skies, the stirring restlessness was more than I could stand. Easing from the bed, I tucked the sheets and blankets around my sweet baby. “I’m gonna make this right.” I made the whispered vow though she slept on.
My hip was still warm from the workout with her the night before. I tried my weight on it and it proved. I threw on a pair of jeans and quietly slipped out of the bedroom. I stared at my cell phone like it was set to detonate at any moment. I couldn’t have The Sevens and her. I wasn’t certain I could survive without either, but she wanted all of me and I owed her that.
“Stop being a fucking coward,” I ordered myself. Gripping the phone, I touched his name and counted the rings.
“Griff?”
I could hear the constant whir of the treadmill and the steady slam of his footfalls. “Yeah, it’s me.”
Several rapid beeps said he was slowing his run. “What’s up?”
“Nothing. Something. I don’t know.”
“What the hell are you doing calling me at six in the morning from Vegas? You just getting in or something?”
“No.”
The treadmill clicked off. I could almost see him grabbing a towel to mop up the sweat from his brow. I’d seen him do it a thousand times. “Talk,” he ordered.
Smith Hagen was not a man for mincing words, that was for damn sure. “Um…” I couldn’t force one single phrase I’d rehearsed all night long past the boulder in my throat. “Have you…have you ever lied to someone? Not like a cherry tree lie. Like one that would really hurt people, and then the longer you let it go on the worse it gets.”
“Are you okay, man? Want me to come down there?” Deep concern etched his tone. Great, so I clearly sounded like this was a mayday call, and I was the one going down for the last time. I hated that almost as much as the fact that I probably was.
“No. Don’t come down here. I just need to know if you’ve ever told anyone you really cared about a lie? A huge fucking lie.” My frantic pulse timed the silent seconds.
“I’ve lied about being sober a few times, but I get the impression that’s not what you’re going for. What the hell’s going on? Did you meet someone down there or something? You can tell people we were Berets, man. Most of that shit has been declassified.”
“That’s not it. It’s…” I shook off the vice grip around my neck. “Back in the day. When we first got to Fort Carson…”
“Those were the days right? What made you think about that?”
Hannah. Her name was right there cemented to the tip of my tongue, and dammit, I couldn’t speak it. The bedroom door opened. She stepped out wearing one of those short silk robes that concealed just enough to frustrate. I tried to blink through the distraction.
“Who is that?” she mouthed.
“Smith.” I answered audibly. Her eyes rounded.
“What, man?”
Fuck. “Just know I love her so much. I tried okay. I tried so fucking hard and I just… I can’t do this anymore without her. I don’t even want to.”
“You’ve been down there a couple of days. Are you seriously telling me you fell in love with someone? Are you drunk?”
“Stone cold sober.”
Hannah’s eyes closed. I’m sure it was in prayer as she clung to me.
The beep of an incoming call jarred what was left of my nerves. “Hang on.” Okay, so I was a complete coward, but if the universe wanted to buy me some time, I wasn’t going to turn it down. “Haywood,” I answered hesitantly. The number wasn’t programmed in my phone, but the area code was far too familiar.
“Is this Sergeant Griffin Haywood?” a woman asked. Her tone was kind but insistent.
“Yeah. I’m Griff.”
“I’m Nancy, a cardiac care nurse from St. Luke’s Boise. I wanted to let you know we’ve just admitted your father. He came to the emergency room in cardiac arrest. You’re listed as his emergency contact.”
“What?” My brain scrambled. A hum of panic tried to reach through me, but it was subverted by the years of distance I’d placed between me and my old man.
“He’s stable, sir, but he’s asked for you several times. I understand that you don’t live in town. Would it be possible for you to make a trip to Boise?”
Suddenly, the bellow of Duke Haywood’s voice blared through the phone. “Tell him to go by the house and feed Kilgore.”
“He’s still alive?” Shock slowly made its way through my synapses.
“Oh, yes sir. The chances of surviving a heart attack are much higher nowadays.”
“Not him.” I rolled my eyes. “He’s too fucking mean to die. I meant the dog.”
“Oh. Well, if he needs to be fed, I’m assuming he is also alive. When can I tell your father to expect you?”
I tried to process her question. Hannah was beside me. Smith was in Lincoln. The women out to harm my baby were here in Vegas but that was temporary, and I hadn’t been back to Boise in years. “Uh, tell him I’ll be there later this afternoon. I have to take care of somethings first. And tell him I said to fucking listen to you and the doctors and that if he’s a prick to anyone I’ll personally whip his ass when I get there.” I ended that call. Smith was still on the other line. “Can we put a pin in this? My dad had a heart attack, and I have to go feed the dog apparently.”
“Holy fuck. You’re going back to Boise?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. What the hell am I supposed to do?”
“Want me to meet you down there?”
“No. Thanks though.”
“What about this chick you think yo
u’re in love with?”
“I’ll…call you later.” I ended that call as well.
Hannah scooped her phone off of the coffee table and began hitting buttons.
I still couldn’t quite understand how I’d gone from confessing to Smith to going back to Weed Patch, Idaho to take care of my sperm donor. “What are you doing, baby?”
“I’m booking us a flight to Boise.” She squeezed my hand. “Go get packed.”
“But…here?” Okay, I had lost most of my capacity to think. What the hell was wrong with me? I couldn’t have a week in heaven. I should’ve known that. Life didn’t like me that much.
“Hey.” She leaned up on her tiptoes and brushed a kiss on my jaw. “We can come back to all of this after we know your father is all right.”
Because I needed one more thing to deal with right that moment, a frantic knock sounded on the door. Hannah was on the phone with an airline from the sound of it. I opened the door before whoever was knocking could beat the damn thing down. “What?”
“Sir…” Fred leaned back to check the vacant hallway, “…I thought it might interest you to know Ms. Rutherford has carried several bags out to her car early this morning. Odd behavior for someone with reservations through next Sunday.”
“Shit. She knows something’s up. Can you stall her? There’s one thing I have to figure out before I can take them all down.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Thanks, Fred.”
I did my best thinking on my feet, so I paced while I called T-Byrd.
“The Vegas police are waiting on my call,” was T’s greeting. “Looks like you found yourself quite the band of con-women. I got you seven outstanding warrants.”
“Good but don’t call them in yet. Help me think this through. The chick that’s running this sham of a bachelor auction is all tied up in this somehow. I need to figure that out before we start busting the granny gang.”
