Stranger Mine: a Base Branch novel

by Megan Mitcham

  The sparse hair thickened on his corded calves. His thighs bulged with knitted sinew. Veins swelled beneath the velvety skin of the full erection that jutted from his hips. Up his abdomen, torso, and arms, her gaze roamed. Then over his shoulders, the scabbing gouge, strong jaw, and luscious lips. After the visual tour, she landed on maybe the most precious thing of all. His eyes. Ryan Noble’s honesty and care flowed through those blues. His mischief and endearing humor, even lust and sometimes anger, sparked there too.

  “I see all of you, sir.”

  His dimples flashed, and then fell away. “I don’t know if I can ever thank you for sharing yourself with me. For letting me inside, not just your decadent body…” He offered his hand, helped her off the floor, and then continued. “But here.” His lips swept her forehead. “And here.” He dropped to his knees and his mouth pressed a kiss over her heart.

  Piper swore the damn thing leaped out of her chest. She swallowed past a ball of emotion and grabbed his face. His heat radiated into her palms. When he smiled she held the best part of the world in her hands. Yes, he was a man, the gender she’d been warned against since birth. Yes, he was a killer. Yes, he was her hero. He was her heart, beating outside of her body.

  The words played on her lips. Ticked and tormented them.

  “Piper, it’s time to put that trust to the test. Do you remember your safe word?”

  I love you.

  “Bronce,” she said instead.

  “Good. Now, go grab the top rail at the foot of the bed and face me.”

  “Yes, sir.” She gulped in excitement and trepidation, turned, and walked toward the bed.

  “Damn, I actually looked forward to your insubordination. I rather enjoy swatting your sweet bottom. But your compliance gets me hard too,” he growled.

  “You were already hard, sir,” she teased. The smack sounded a split-second before the sting licked her right butt cheek. Piper gripped the highest metal rail and arched her back, presenting her ass to him. The bold move shocked them both.

  “My stubborn woman.” Grabbing the metal just outside her fists, he crowded her from head to toe. Yet, only the heat and power of his body touched her. “I know I told you to face me. I should wear your bottom out, but I think you’d enjoy it too much.”

  She would. Her clit ached and she longed for the bite of his hand on her backside. Summoning all the self-discipline she possessed, Piper straightened and did as he’d asked. When she turned, his face hovered only inches from hers. The muscles in his jaw flexed and his lips pressed into a hard line.

  “Is your grip firm?” he asked.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Whatever you do, don’t let go.”

  She could only nod at the intensity of his stare and harshness of his tone. He reminded her of a lion, circling its prey, sizing it up before the attack. And attack he did. With the velocity of a bullet, Ryan’s hand snagged a handful of hair at the base of her neck. The force pricked her scalp. His mouth descended like the second shot from a gun, impacting her mouth with the full weight of his appetite.

  Their lips crashed together. Piper firmed her grip to keep from being enmeshed in the metal slats. The loose metal clinked and whined in the upheaval. His lips dominated her own. He pressed her mouth. Plumped it. Scraped his mouth against hers, bumping her nose with his own. He moaned a sweet song of agony. At last his mouth hung over her lips. He breathed in her scent, an expression near pain etching his features and punctuating his gasps.

  “Whatever you do, don’t let go…of me.”

  Piper pressed her forehead against Ryan’s. “I’m not holding you, but I could.”

  “You’re holding me in every way, sweet. In every way.”

  “I won’t let go. Not even if you order me to.”

  Ryan devoured her with his kiss. Harsh and infinitely tender at the same time. His mouth roved her neck, slipped between the shallow valley of her breasts, skimmed over her belly. His hot fingers caressed the acreage of her skin. He circled her most intimate parts, but didn’t enlist them in the incursion of her senses.

  Her fingers itched to plunder the locks of his floppy blond hair and guide his mouth where she wanted it most. But she refused. Instead she focused on his touch. Not what she wanted it to be or what she expected next. She focused on what it was in that moment. In each smoldering moment.

  Long strokes of her thighs. Warm suction on her hips. A graze of nails over her ass cheeks. The nip at the inside of her calf. A hand spread wide over her waist. Small kisses skipping each rib.

  When he paused, Piper opened lust-heavy lids. Ryan stared at her from where he knelt. He should have appeared vulnerable. Yet, he’d never been more in command of himself, or her. “Turn around, face the wall, resume your grip, and don’t let go.”

  “Never,” she agreed.

  “Remember you said that.”

  The tiniest bit of apprehension mixed with excitement, zinging awareness across her flesh. Piper turned. Her fingers glided over the slats. The metal where she’d held fast only moments ago slid beneath, hot to the touch. She widened her arms and chilly railing greeted her embrace. One-hundred-eighty degrees should make a big difference, lose a bit of the connection. But…

  Ryan brushed her long hair to the side and every sense screamed to life. Much like it had when he’d blindfolded her, the denial of one sense enhanced the others. His scent drugged. His simple touches provoked. And those grunts that rumbled his chest and swept his sultry breath across her skin, ramped her need.

  “Spread your legs.”

  She did as he asked.

  “As wide as the bedposts, Piper. I want to see every slick fold and greedy entrance.”

  Despite the niggling fear that she knew exactly where he planned to go tonight and how he planned to push her limits, she spread for him. Immediately, his hand rose between her legs. His steady palm splayed and cupped her mons. She arched against his fingers and cried at the bliss of first contact. Hell, he’d been toying with her for damn near twenty minutes and hadn’t even accidentally grazed her goods.

  “Do you want to come, sweet?”

  “Yes,” she begged.

  “Then relax your shoulders and arch your tight ass my way.” His other hand pressed at the small of her back while the other pulled. “That’s it. Relax your tummy and curve your back.” He positioned her just as he wanted, and then dropped his hands.

  “No, please. I need to come, Ryan. Please, sir.”

  He clasped the tops of her wide thighs and sealed his scorching mouth over her clitoris. Devilish suction tugged on the bundle of nerves. Piper’s palms slicked with sweat. She fought the urge to buck against the strength of his ravenous pulls. Her head sagged between her shoulders and she panted, battling back the orgasm she just requested. It was too much too fast.

  Her nipples flushed ruby red on her chest and beaded to the point of irritation. On her thighs, Ryan’s fingers indented her flesh. Between her legs, the point of his chin bobbed as he worked. He sat on his heels in the spread of her legs. His chest and abdomen sat on display. In the part of his wide legs, his flushed sex undulated with the easy rock of his hips. The drip of precum leaking from his thick tip and the impeccable timing of his flicking tongue pitched her over the edge without mercy.

  “Oh…Ryan. Oh…aahh…aahh.” Piper hollered until the breath ceased in her lungs. She was suspended in the white world of ecstasy. Lost to her own body. Lost to the world.

  Her grip slipped on the rail, jarring her to the reality of gravity. But Ryan’s arms wrapped around her middle. “I have you and I’m never letting go.” He secured her to his chest, allowing her to enjoy the gentle fall from post orgasmic oblivion into mad love. When her breathing steadied he placed her hands back on the rail. “Give me another, sweet Piper.”

  “Yes, sir,” she panted.

  His fingers tweaked her nipples and already her body started the build. She stretched a little less severely than before, pressing her small, yet amazingly swollen, br
easts into his hands. As she settled back, his rigid cock nestled in the crack of her ass. Her hips rocked, milking him with her crevasse, rubbing him against her pulsating rosette.

  Ryan dropped a hand to the underside of her thigh and lifted it off the ground. He settled her foot onto the bottom mattress between the wide slats. Holy Mary! His hand skimmed higher, and then slid into her wet heat. Piper adjusted her grip and sank back onto his finger.

  “God, Piper. You’re so responsive. Wet and ready.”

  “For anything,” she goaded, and hoped it was true.

  He swept her hair to her right shoulder and nipped her trap. “I think you are.” He added another finger, working her pussy in long, swirling strokes. When he pulled out, those magical digits drew a figure-eight, circling her clit and ass entrance in turn, getting closer with each pass. With a generous swipe of her liquid desire, he flicked her nipple and slid two fingers into her compact opening.

  A wave of heat swept her from head to toe. Her pulse jumped several notches and her hands quivered.

  “Relax, sweet.” He stilled his left hand while guiding his right hand through her damp lips. A shock of rapture rippled through her as he flicked her clit, and then massaged the sting away.

  Maintaining her grip, Piper loosened her muscles and sank against his chest. When he wiggled his fingers a little deeper, the sensation changed from edgy pain to incomprehensible pleasure.

  “Ryan,” she moaned, “I can’t…understand. It feels so fucking good.”

  “I have you, Piper. I’ll make you feel even better. Just feel.”

  Her hips rolled of their own instinctual will, while Ryan finger-fucked her ass and tormented her sensitive nubbin. A sheen of sweat slicked their bodies, but neither stopped the rising tempo.

  Orgasm sucked her under the surface as surely and suddenly as a rip tide. It tumbled and whirled her until she couldn’t discern up from down. Left from right. Him from her.

  Somehow she clung to Ryan’s neck and burrowed in the security of his arms. Minutes later soft sheets cooled her back. She opened her eyes to find him looming over her. A look of barely contained, lust-filled savagery drew his features, tensed every muscle in his beautiful body.

  “Turn over,” he ordered.

  With excitement akin to an all-expenses-paid shopping spree at IKEA, she flipped onto her belly on the twin bed and raised her throbbing bottom. Over her shoulder she watched Ryan’s gaze darken as it strayed across her body. Then he was atop her, only his knees and wrists brushing the skin at her thighs and the sides of her breasts. With his right hand, he pulled her chin farther back and fused their mouths. He tempted her tongue from her lips and sucked it into his mouth. After several pulls he released her, and then returned for more. Their tongues quarreled longer still.

  “Before I met you, I was content with my life. Happy in most things, but now I know I had no idea what happy was. It’s not smiles and jokes. It’s pleasure and pain. Unimaginable joy and impossible fear. It’s giving yourself to another and having them give themselves in return.” He kissed her lips. “You’ve given me everything, Piper, and everything I am, I give to you.”

  She used a hank of his hair and pulled his lips to hers. Stupid tears blurred her vision. She loved his mouth for a long minute, and then levered back to breathe. “I love you, Ryan.”

  His jaw flexed and something flashed over his face. He placed two fingers over her lips. “We’ll see if you love me tomorrow.”

  “Whether this lasts another minute, day, or decades, I’ll love you forever.”

  The weight of his chest pushed her into the mattress. His palms caressed a path to her hands. He wound his fingers with hers and squeezed, cuddling her with his entire torso. The security blanketing her in that moment topped it all.

  When he released her he straightened as much as the bunk would allow and gripped her hips. With his effort they lifted off the bed, plumping her ass in the air and setting her onto her knees. She rose to her elbows and braced her quaking body with two fists full of sheet.

  The broad head of his cock grazed her supple rose, coating it with the evidence of his raging need. Without another word or further play, Ryan pressed inside the barest of an inch. Piper’s body screamed in rejection. The sting and strain bore down even as his hips stilled.

  “Relax, sweet, and when you’re ready push against me.” He soothed her thighs and cheeks with whisper light strokes of his hands. “If you need it, use your word.”

  It wasn’t pride that stopped her from hollering, but a soul-deep need to possess him as he possessed her. To feel the strange and mind shattering release his fingers wrought. Piper let go of her fear, loosened her muscles, and put her trust in Ryan’s decisive hands. The pain faded and in its place a bone deep tingle spread.

  He gathered her hair from her back, swirled it into a ponytail, and tugged. Her neck arched with the haul. The whole of her scalp became an erogenous zone, coursing a wave of hunger all the way to her toes. “Yes.” She pushed against his head and accepted another inch. “Oh God.”

  Ryan’s hands continued to alternate toying with her nipple and drawing on her hair. Sensations stacked one atop the other. Palms now spread wide on the white sheet, she pressed back again.

  This time he groaned. “Oh. Piper. Fucking sweet, Piper.”

  His words whipped her into a frenzy. She bowed deeper, taking him to the base. Sensations reeled and her insides melted into a puddle of want. Ryan moaned as he pulled out the tip and slipped more easily home. Her clit thrummed with excitement.

  “Piper, I’m not going to last very long. You’re killing me. God. The curve of your hips. The sway of your back. Fuck.” His hips rocked.

  The brunt of his power and wide head rammed into her with each thrust. Ryan abandoned her hair. One hand clamped onto her hip while the other slid around front. He gathered her desire and slicked her aching bud, circling it like a man possessed. The rhythm rose higher and higher. One more battering stroke and she exploded like the detonations at the compound. Her eyes clamped against the brilliant light. She flew through the air, screaming her release to all of Mexico.

  “Fuck. Piper. Oh.” Ryan rode out the rest of his orgasm in silence, but his muscles yelled for him, contracting in tight bands all around her and pulsing inside.

  Breath by ragged breath they returned from the insane high together. He pulled from her and it was as if he’d given her legs permission to give out. They quivered as though she’d done PT for two solid days. And, in a way, she had. Ryan eased her down and flipped her to face him.

  There were no words. He simply kissed her lips, and then lay next to her. With a flick of his wrist he rolled her on top of him, pillowed her head against his chest, entwined their legs, wrapped his arms around her, and sighed. And she felt the same way. Piper hugged the breadth of the man beneath her and passed out.

  30

  A noise barged in on Piper’s slumber. She snuggled her face into the warmth and tickle-soft hair of Ryan’s chest only to have her world tilted on its axis. Her lids flew open wide and she bolted upright. Ryan knelt proposal style on the floor and leveled the gun at the bunkhouse door. Her heart shot off like a rocket as she struggled to orient to the unusual surroundings and even crazier situation.

  How could she help? Were Matthew or the Varrera family hurt? How many were there?

  Before a single question was answered the door swung wide. Manuel and Matthew stepped into the threshold. “Let’s go, lazy…” Matthew’s gazed jumped between her, Ryan, and the gun. His hand clamped over the young boy’s eyes as Manuel announced, “Lunch is ready and Momma won’t let me eat without our guests.”

  Ryan set the gun down while Piper searched for the damn sheet. The freaking thing hung off the end of the tiny bed. She lunged for the pillow instead.

  “You can cover your own eyes too, Reece,” Ryan growled.

  “Oh, sorry.” By the time she covered all the important parts, her brother-in-law had averted his gaze. “Hey, we’re
not blood and I’m a guy. She’s…never mind. Sorry.” He walked them backward out of the door and fumbled for the handle. “Lunch is ready, whenever you guys are.”

  “Thanks,” Piper squeaked.

  “We’ll be there in ten,” Ryan said, more confidence in his voice. When the door closed he fell onto the bed. A deep rumble of laughter vibrated the mattress. Those teeth gleamed as bright white as the sheet and his dimples hollowed.

  Piper reared back and smacked him in the belly with the fluffy pillow. Damn the man, but he only laughed harder.

  “Okay, could it have gotten any more awkward. I mean, Manuel is what? Ten years old? And my brother-in-law. Ugh!”

  “Hey,” he said, struggling for a straight face. “At least I wasn’t balls deep.”

  That was it. She buried her face in her hands and shriek with amusement. Her shoulders shook. Her stomach cramped. Ryan joined her and before long both their faces streaked with tears.

  Maybe it was the break in life-and-death tension and emotional Russian-roulette they needed. They each lay naked in the fetal position on the teensy bed, fighting giggle induced stomach cramps. When at last they subsided he pulled her face to his and laid one on her.

  “Good morning,” he winked.

  “Good afternoon,” she countered.

  He stood and scooped her into his arms. “By my estimate, we have nine more minutes before we get another rescue party. Shower with me. I promise not to be naughty.”

  “But I don’t.” She smiled.

  Fifteen minutes and two orgasms later they raced to the house in the only clean pairs of civilian clothes they had left. Piper’s face heated the closer to the house they came.

  “Don’t sweat it, sweet. You gave a young boy something to dream about for the next ten years.” Ryan’s grin spread damn near ear to ear.

  “Disgusting,” she whispered, slipping through the door he held open.

  “Sorry, we probably should have knocked first,” Ryan said by way of greeting to the four people gathered around the dining table.