“Turn around,” he growled. He didn’t wait for her to obey his command but grabbed her bicep and spun her. He rested his forearm against the door and pushed his body into hers. He felt her shudder as her forehead came to rest on his arm. He wrapped his hand around her ponytail and pulled her head back. “You make me crazy, Mandy. Do you have any idea how sexy you are? The way your tongue plays with the rim of your beer bottle as you take a drink. The way your lips wrapped around your fork as you ate.” He dropped his forehead on her shoulder. “The way you chew on that fucking lip.” He groaned. “Every move you make drives me absolutely bat-shit crazy.”
The sound of a zipper releasing filled the room. He pushed at her feet. “Spread wider for me, baby. That’s it. Open those legs for me. I won’t go slow, Mandy. Once I get inside you … I won’t go slow.” He leaned in and trailed his tongue down the sensitive skin behind her ear. “And I won’t settle for just once.” Her moan filled his ears as she pressed back against him.
His hand connected with her ass with a loud crack. “Don’t move.”
“Hey!” Her startled cry made him smile. She struggled to get away.
His palm met with her wet folds in a quick, sharp slap. Amanda went stiff. Her throat rumbled with a sexy little laugh as she rubbed her ass against his groin again.
“Stop.” He ground his palm against her sweet spot.
She was panting. “You aren’t giving me much incentive to stop,” she said seductively. “Spank me again.” She wiggled her ass at him.
“Damn sassy woman.” Mine. He latched onto the base of her neck and sucked hard. Her head fell to the side. “I can make this go on all night, sweetheart. I can drive you higher and higher, keeping you on the edge without ever letting you over.” He put his mouth to her ear. “You want to come, don’t you, baby?”
Amanda stilled under his hands. “That’s a good girl. You should see how pretty your ass looks right now, Mandy. All pink and warm.” He caressed both cheeks before connecting again with two hard spanks. He smiled to himself as he saw her toes curl against the floor with her effort to remain still. Her breath was coming in short gasps, and then stopped altogether as he rubbed his erection against the crack of her ass, sliding down to her wet core. “Breathe, Mandy,” was the only warning she got before he shifted and slammed into her.
She cried out and his control was shot. Over and over he pounded into her. His fingers dug into the flesh of her hips, but he couldn’t force himself to let go. She leaned forward, giving him greater access. He took total advantage, burying himself to the hilt in her tight grip.
“Joe, please,” she begged.
“Tell me what you need, baby.”
“Harder. Faster.”
He wrapped his arm around her waist and lifted her feet off the floor. He turned them around to the rug that spanned the entryway floor. “Hands and knees,” he demanded as he dropped them to the floor, all the while remaining lodged inside her. “Brace yourself.” He grabbed her shoulders and began to pound into her once again. He felt her tense just moments before crying out her pleasure. His balls drew up tight the second she clamped down on him. He swore as he exploded into her, pulse after pulse of hot semen erupting from him as he filled her channel. A wave of dizziness overcame him. He kept moving, his hips having a mind of their own, every thrust prolonging their shared pleasure.
Finally he slowed. “Damn,” was all he could manage as he fought to catch his breath.
Amanda’s body gave out and she face-planted into the floor. Her voice was muffled from the rug. “That … wow. That was the most amazing, most incredible sex I’ve ever experienced.”
Joe resisted the urge to pound his chest like a damn caveman. He gently pulled out of her. “Shit, Mandy…” He sat back on his haunches as she languidly stretched and sat up to face him. “I don’t know what happened. I forgot. I never forget.” He gave her a worried look. “No condom. I’m clean though, I swear it.” Before Mandy, he hadn’t had sex for a long time. Too long to think about.
“Me too. And stop worrying, I’ve got us covered. I’m protected.” She smiled wickedly. “I like it better without the condom.”
He breathed a sigh of relief.
“I never knew it could be like this,” she said, cupping his face. Her eyes shone with adoration. “Thank you.”
Overcome with emotion he didn’t know what to do with, he kissed her softly, picked her up, and carried her to the bedroom.
*
Amanda was surprised that Joe was still fully clothed. She’d lost herself to the sensations he created, forgetting her surroundings. Forgetting everything except his touch. His hands on her, his mouth marking her neck, his cock filling her. Never had a man taken the time to ensure her pleasure. And he didn’t just ensure it. He got off on it. She’d felt the heat from his erection as it brushed her ass, the tension in his body as she moved against him. She’d broken his control. He’d fucked her like an animal and she couldn’t have been happier.
She watched with womanly appreciation as he worked his way out of his clothes. She’d never get tired of looking at him. He had the kind of body that came from hard work and discipline. Not a spare ounce of skin. His eight-pack sported a thin line of dark hair that ran from his navel to his groin. It was the only hair on the wide expanse of his torso and sexy as sin.
“You keep looking at me like that, sweetheart, and I won’t be responsible for my actions.” He slid into bed beside her.
She laughed softly. She luxuriated in the feel of his arms as they came around to pull her close. “You’re so warm,” she said as she burrowed into the crook of his arm, resting her head on his chest.
“Happy to be your blanket, sweetheart. Anytime.”
She relaxed, content in his arms.
“So,” he began, “tell me more about what you and your brothers do.”
She drew in a deep breath as he caressed her back with his fingers. “We do a lot of things. Primarily private security training.”
“Military training?” he asked when she didn’t go on.
“We do a lot of private sector training, but yes, we also provide specialized training for the military.” She gauged his reaction and saw nothing. No surprise, no calculating stare, no demand for more information. Just the quiet stare of a man relaxed in the arms of his lover.
She moved on. “Our bread-and-butter comes from our thousand-acre private training facility.” Ah, that got his attention. “We train private as well as military personnel. We’ve got weapons ranges, compounds set with explosives, off-road driving tracks, the works.” She laughed as his face lit up with a silly grin. She playfully swatted at him. “You’re such a guy.”
“And you?” He laughed. “What’s your role in all that?”
“I don’t get to spend much time on-site. Caleb and Brandon lead the teams, but we have a great group of guys to handle the day-to-day stuff. Alec fills in too, but I think he just goes out there so he can play on the off-road tracks. I’m in the office most days, working on private security jobs that come in.”
“What kind of private security jobs?”
“Mainly helping people secure their own systems. Whether it’s computer systems or electronic security systems. I find the holes and plug them. Sometimes it’s not very challenging. It can be extremely tedious and boring even, but the pay is great.” She gave him a coy smile. “I’m good with computers. Really good, actually. Me and Alec, we’re what I guess you could call the hackers of the group. There isn’t much we can’t do with a computer”—she winked at him—“or a cell phone and some duct tape.”
A comfortable silence fell over them. She liked that he didn’t press her for more. He took what she gave him. Just another thing to add to her list of things she’d miss when she went home.
God, home. Her apartment in the city had never felt less like home than it did in this moment. She loved it here in this warm and cozy house, rustic and comfortable. Not the modern version of her life in the city. An immense
wave of sadness overwhelmed her.
“Hey baby,” Joe soothed as if knowing the direction of her thoughts. “I lose you somewhere?”
“Tell me more about you,” she said quickly. “How did you end up owning the bar?”
“Not much to tell, really. I suppose you could say I was tired. Tired of living out of a pack. Tired of the constant moving around. I’d served my country well, and then I was done. It was time to see what I could make of the rest of my life.” He shrugged. “I wanted peace. I needed quiet.”
“So you, um, bought a bar?” she teased.
He barked out a laugh. “Seems crazy, doesn’t it?” His voice grew serious. “What I needed most was a connection. I needed Jake. My flesh and blood. Something to remind me that I’m more than—”
“More than?” she prompted.
He cleared his throat roughly. “Our parents were gone. All we had was each other. So I came home. It wasn’t easy. Jake wasn’t as welcoming as I’d hoped. We fought a lot. He was making extremely poor choices, as kids his age do. He’d been on his own for a while and didn’t want me bossing him around. I’d been on my own long enough to forget how to do the bossing.” He chuckled. “There is a fine line between bossing and bullying. Walking that line takes a finesse I didn’t have. I gave ‘bull in a china shop’ a whole new meaning.
“I was about at my breaking point when I stopped in at The Wild Pony to have a beer and clear my head. It was a slow afternoon, just a few people playing pool and me. The owner was tending bar and we got into a discussion about his business. He hinted at wanting to retire, so I offered to take the bar off his hands.”
“Just like that?”
“In a nutshell, yes. I’d made a lot of money and never had any reason to spend it, other than sending some to Jake each month to cover his expenses. We reviewed the financials and I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. I looked at it as a way to put down roots. Something Jake and I could do together. I wanted to prove to him I wasn’t going anywhere. I wanted to give him the stability he never seemed to have, even though he’s lived here his whole life.”
“What happened to your parents?” she asked gently.
“My mom died just after Jake was born. There were complications from his birth that she was never able to recover from. I was ten at the time. All of a sudden it was just me and my dad and this little baby neither of us really knew what to do with.” He looked down at her. “Dad kind of checked out for a while, so the responsibility for Jake was on me. Then Dad just turned cold. I think losing my mother was too much for him. He couldn’t deal with her loss so he just turned himself off, went through the motions of his life until it was over.”
Amanda turned, placing her hands on his chest. She rested her chin on her hands and looked up at him. “It sounds like they were very much in love.”
The crease in his brow deepened. “Maybe. I don’t really remember. I have bits and pieces of memories of them together.” He hesitated a second. “I remember them always laughing and touching, so maybe … yeah. I guess they were.”
“So you raised Jake? When you were ten?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “I guess you could say that. Dad was always there. He made sure there was food in the house. He did what he had to do if I wasn’t there, but he sure never lifted a finger if I was.” Resentment oozed from his voice. “I started to hate Jake for taking away the mother I loved and for ruining my life. I started staying away more and more. I stole one of my dad’s pistols and a box of bullets and I started target practicing. I figured out pretty quick that if I was shooting, I could forget about everything. It helped me manage my anger, gave me something else to focus on.”
“Practicing where?” she asked, incredulous. “How old were you?”
“Jake wasn’t quite two yet, so I was about eleven or so. I shot not far from here, actually. In the woods just a few miles back. I had the whole thing set up. I used whatever I could find for a target. Empty cans, bottles, coffee cans, you name it. Once that lost its challenge, I took to hanging things from ropes in the trees. Moving targets presented a greater challenge so I’d go out on the windiest days. I earned a little money here and there to replenish the bullets, but it wasn’t long before I got caught.”
“Your dad?”
“Nope. Old Sheriff Jackson.”
“I remember him.” Amanda pictured the aging man who used to come by when her family was here. “He always brought me those little butterscotch candies.”
“I’m not surprised. He always had a pocketful,” Joe said with affection. “Turns out I was a crack shot by the time I was thirteen. Sheriff Jackson would let me use the police range after school. Then, he set up a new range just for me. Longer distances, moving targets, the works. He also started letting me shoot other weapons from his personal collection, which was pretty extensive. It gave me the opportunity to hone my skills, but in all honesty, it came naturally to me. Needless to say,” he said without humor, “I was recruited very early.”
“A sniper,” she whispered more to herself than to him. Understanding dawned. “You came home to remember that you’re more than a sniper, is that it?” His body went rigid and she rushed to reassure him. “Don’t you see? You are more. So much more.”
His chest deflated as the air left his lungs. “It’s all I know, Mandy. It’s all I’ve ever done.” The sadness in his voice tore at her heart. “I don’t want death to be my legacy.”
She smoothed his frown lines. “You raised your brother when you were but a child yourself. Then you came back to make sure he was taken care of and so he wouldn’t be alone. Whether you choose to see it or not, your legacy will be that of love.” His arms tightened around her. “How did your dad take to you joining the military?”
He snorted. “He didn’t say a word. He just looked at me. Then he got up and left the room. It was the last time I ever saw him.” His eyes took on a faraway look. “He died a few years back. Heart attack. But if you ask me, he died the same day my mother did.”
Amanda reached up and kissed him. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re just the sweetest thing, you know that?” He squeezed her tight. “There isn’t anything to be sorry for. It took some time for Jake and me to get back on track, but we’re good now. What about your folks?”
“Plane crash. I was fifteen. Since I’m the youngest, it sort of fell on my brothers to take care of me. Well, Brandon and Alec anyway. Caleb had been gone for almost five years. I’m not gonna lie, I was horrible. I was angry at Brandon and Alec. When Caleb came home a year later I was angry at him too. I blamed him for everything.”
“How did you get through it?”
“Sam.” Her smile stretched from ear to ear. “She’s the same age as Alec and was everything I wanted to be: daring and fun. She had no fear, no reservations. She started college early and was already on her own, which to a young girl like me was the coolest thing ever. She and Alec had been friends for a while so she used to come over to hang out with him. After our parents died she started hanging out with me a lot. She was this pretty girl with wild red hair who took pity on the plain-Jane girl who just lost her parents.”
Joe looked surprised. “Plain-Jane? Darlin’, do you not have a mirror? There’s nothing plain about you.” He smooched her nose.
She ignored him. “Sam and I became inseparable. We talked, we cried, we laughed. She let me be whoever I needed to be. She didn’t judge. She was there for me, but she didn’t hover. She let me grieve without fuss, unless I started feeling sorry for myself.” She laughed. “Then she’d rip my ass a new one.
“Caleb would tell you Sam’s the troublemaker, but in all honesty it was just as much me as it was her.” Joe looked skeptical. “Sam’s a big talker. I think it’s how she hides. I’m not saying she’s a saint. Lord knows that would be a big pants-on-fire kind of lie. But she’s not a bad person. Did you know her parents are rich?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. “The kind of rich that most people only read about in magazine
s.” His eyes widened with surprise. “Times twelve,” she added drily. “Sam doesn’t talk about her family much. I get the feeling there are hard feelings there, but she won’t talk about it.” Concern for her friend bled through her words.
“The thing about Sam,” Amanda continued, “is she has a heart of gold under all the gruff language and innuendoes. And if she cares about you, she’d give her own life for you. It’s just who she is.”
“So, tell me about the horsemen thing. What’s that about?”
Amanda rolled over onto her back and burst into laughter. “I was sixteen. Caleb decided it would be good for us to come here, you know, to bury the ghosts of our parents, so to speak. We all loved it here and Caleb wanted us to be able to still enjoy it as a family, even without our parents. It was our first trip back after they died and we’ve rarely been back since.” She shook her head. “Anyway, I was not looking forward to a week of testosterone overload, so I begged Caleb to let Sam come along. He flat-out refused. They didn’t get along even back then. So I informed him of all the girly things he, Brandon, and Alec would have to do with me.” Joe raised a brow at her, setting her off into another fit of laughter. “You know? Braiding hair, nail painting, shopping, makeup … that kind of thing.”
“You’re evil.” He laughed.
“I know, isn’t it great? But in the end, Caleb realized it was in the interest of their own sanity to let me have my way. About three days into the vacation, Sam and I decided it would be a great idea to raid the liquor cabinet and sneak off into the woods. I’m not sure how long we were out there. It had started to get dark and we were more than a little drunk. We were contemplating the pros and cons of starting a campfire while drunk when we heard this loud clumping noise headed right for us. We looked up to see these three horses bearing down on us with three very angry riders attached.”
Joe burst out laughing. “Are you serious?”
One Night Stand Page 9
