Edge of the Heat 7

by Ladew, Lisa

  Vivian groaned and scooted back to her side of the seat, then put her seatbelt on. “You’re right, take me home,” she admitted.

  Hawk half-smiled and threw the truck in gear, doing as she asked. Vivian watched the muscles in his forearm bunch as he worked the stick shift and whimpered at the heat pooling in her belly. God why did they ever have to leave the house? How could she be expected to look at him for even a minute and not tear his clothes off? He was nothing but walking man-candy.

  Vivian reached over and lightly rested her hand on his lap, gently squeezing the only stick shift she wanted to touch tonight. Hawk sucked in a breath and glanced at her, a surprised glint in his eyes.

  She grinned at him mischievously and squeezed harder, but only a little. She wanted them to make it home safely. Hawk stopped at a stoplight and she ran her hand up and down the length of him, then squeezed her prize harder, feeling gratified when Hawk dropped his head to the back of the seat and groaned out loud. She felt like she was sixteen and out with her boyfriend, barely able to keep from going at it in the middle of a crowded street. The light turned green and she let up again, then contemplated the wisdom of trying to go down on him at the next stop. She pushed the thought away. He’d never let her. She’d just keep doing what she was doing.

  When they finally pulled into their own driveway, Vivian undid her seatbelt and scooted over to Hawk before he could even throw the big truck in park. She tugged at the snap at the top of his zipper before he could protest and had her mouth around his cock in an instant. The silky softness off the head of his cock made her whimper in satisfaction.

  “God, Vivian,” Hawk breathed as he stopped the truck and twisted the keys in the ignition, shutting down the engine. “When did you become such a sex kitten?”

  “When I married the hottest man on the planet,” she said, then clamped her mouth around his cock again. She could feel herself throbbing and dripping under her clothes. No matter, Hawk would take care of her, he always did. She was right where she wanted to be.

  Hawk barked out a laugh. “If this is how you are pregnant, we may have to have twenty kids,” he forced out, his head thrown back against the seat, his hands threading in her hair.

  Vivian smiled and lost her place for a moment. She would love that. Then she returned her focus to her man. She pulled back and licked the head of his cock lightly, then dropped her head again taking all of him into her mouth, earning herself a tortured groan from him.

  “Babe, it’s too good. I’m gonna come,” he said weakly, pulling at her. Vivian wanted him to come. She wasn’t about to miss it. She ignored his hands and doubled her efforts, teasing every bit of pleasure out of him that she could with her mouth. Hawk made a low, dark noise in the back of his throat and she felt his release begin. She rode it with her mouth, loving every twitch, every spasm, every sex-noise he made.

  When he was done, she felt him relax on the seat. She lifted herself, glad their closest neighbor was not close enough to have seen any of that in the moonlight. Hawk pulled himself together and looked at her like she had been naughty. She licked her lips and grinned back at him. He pressed himself forward and kissed her, reaching under her skirt, his hand skimming her thigh, all the way up to her sex. He pushed her underwear aside and touched her lightly, causing sensation to shoot through her. “You’re soaking wet,” he murmured into her mouth.

  Vivian leaned back on the seat and thrust her hips at him. She wanted him to take her inside and ravish her so completely she forgot her own name, but she also wanted to stay right here. She was so close. All he needed to do was …

  Hawk rolled his fingers, then glided them up her clit, exquisitely slow and lightly. God, he knew what she liked. His talented fingers slid back down, ever so slightly and she exploded, her orgasm taking her by surprise. Vivian stiffened as the intense waves of sensation coiled through her. She threw back her head and cried out, unable to stop herself. Hawk played her with his fingers, lightly sliding and gliding until she went limp, losing herself in the bliss of her release.

  Hawk pulled away from her and she felt the loss of his heat. She heard his door open, but she kept her eyes closed, enjoying the last waves of sensation that traveled through her. He opened her door swiftly and picked her up, pulling her out of the big truck as if she weighed nothing. Vivian put her head on his shoulder and sighed. She loved his strength. She hoped she didn’t gain so much weight in the pregnancy that he wouldn’t be able to carry her anymore. She opened her eyes and looked up into his strong face.

  He approached their front door and she dug in her bag for the keys, giggling as he crouched so she could reach the lock. He swept them over the threshold and she relaxed into his hold.

  “Where to?” he asked.

  “The bedroom,” she responded at once and he raised one eyebrow at her, making her laugh. “Is that OK?” she asked.

  “Whatever the lady wants, the lady gets,” he said, taking her through their lovely house that she adored so much, down the long hallway, to the last door on the left. He deposited her gently on the bed and stood back, watching her like a panther on the hunt. Vivian stood and pulled her dress over her head in one motion. She watched her husband’s eyes follow her every move as she reached behind herself and undid the clasp of her bra. She’d been nervous as her body had filled out, her breasts getting heavier, her belly curving outwards, not knowing how Hawk would react to the changes, but she needn’t have worried. She could read the lust clearly in his eyes. He wanted her as much now as he ever had.

  Vivian brought the ends of her bra to the front of her body, slowly, her eyes locked on her husband. His gaze was riveted on her skin, like he’d never seen breasts before. She pulled the bra away from her body and dropped it on the ground, then ran her hands up her body, starting at her hips, all the way to her breasts. He knew her so well, and she knew him too. If there was anything that made him hot it was watching her touch herself. Vivian lightly brushed her hands over her nipples, shivering at the intensity of his gaze. She grazed her palms back down over her hips and hooked her thumbs in her underwear, then stepped out of them, feeling him drink her in. She climbed onto the bed and lay on her side, waiting for him. She heard his belt unbuckle and his pants drop to the ground. Within an instant he was next to her, his hard length already nudging her backside.

  Vivian whimpered lightly as his work-roughened hands finally slid up her bare skin. She had wanted this all night. He spooned her, and kissed the back of her neck, brushing away her hair, then pulling it lightly, just enough to let her know who was in charge.

  Vivian let Hawk pull her head back, melting under his touches. His soft kisses trailed a path down her back, stirring her desire, awakening fresh need in her. She throbbed and groaned in passion, pushing herself backwards towards him.

  Hawk didn’t make her wait long, he entered her from behind in one fluid motion that left her gasping. Vivian uttered a long, floating sigh. “Yes, Hawk, yes,” she whispered as he shifted inside her and began a steady, tumultuous rhythm that sent her towards her silky edge.

  “You’re mine, Vivian,” he growled, and Vivian nodded eagerly, her hair bouncing on the pillow and around his face. God, she loved his deep, throaty rasp when he was inside her. She loved his possessiveness and protectiveness and everything masculine and male about him. She was his. She belonged to him utterly.

  Hawk entwined one hand in her hair and one hand on her hip, then pulled her back to meet him, hard. Vivian bit back the scream that wanted to erupt. If he thought he was hurting her he would stop. She never wanted him to stop. She wanted him to fuck her to sleep then eat her for breakfast. Vivian felt another orgasm building inside her and she let it come. Thick pulses of pleasure spiraled out of her center. A soft noise of release escaped her throat.

  “Come for me, Viv,” Hawk whispered in her ear and she felt herself do just that. Hawk continued his long, rhythmic thrusts, each one intensifying her bliss until she couldn’t take it anymore. Her thrill broke and cascade
d through her as she cried out. As if he had been waiting for that moment, Hawk thrust harder inside her, then pulled her up onto her knees, continuing to take her from behind. Vivian yelped at this new development. She hadn’t had any time to relax, to sink into her orgasm. Hawk continued to take her hard. “Come for me again, Viv.”

  Normally Vivian needed at least a few minutes recovery time and Hawk knew that. His single-minded attention and insistence were new. Maybe he knew something she didn’t though, because she felt her thighs tensing and her inner walls clenching again. The building of pleasure already felt different, more intense—like she’d not been brought down to normal, instead she was already starting at a high level of pleasure and the peaks were about to get higher than they ever had.

  Vivian moaned and held onto the sheets for dear life. Hawk worked her, sliding in and out of her hard, both hands on her hips. He pulled her backwards, hard, then reached one hand around her body, expertly finding her most sensitive spot and teasing it with familiarity. Vivian buried her face in the bed and cried out, pleasure radiating out from her core in almost unbearable lengths. A new orgasm built inside her as all knowledge of who she was outside of this bedroom, outside of this partnership, was driven from her mind. In that moment, she existed only to receive and give pleasure. She existed only for her husband to touch, to enter, to take as he saw fit.

  Hawk moaned deep in his throat and thrust harder, even as he continued to slide his fingers lightly across her clit. Vivian squeezed her thighs together as her release built and then broke like water breaching a dam. Her face still buried in the bed, she screamed out her pleasure and her husband’s name.

  Chapter 3

  Hawk relaxed onto the bed next to his spent wife, being careful not to let any of his weight down on her. Her eyes were closed, her body limp and sated, her hair spread everywhere like a great, dark flame. He thought he’d never seen anything so beautiful in his life. He lowered his head onto the pillow next to her and ran his hands along her body, reaching forward to cup her belly.

  “Mmm,” Vivian murmured. “That was amazing.”

  Hawk smiled, feeling pleased with himself. She would sleep well tonight. He kissed her cheek and spent a few more minutes in her afterglow before covering her with a blanket and getting up.

  Hawk cleaned up in the adjoining bathroom, pulled on a pair of boxers and a t-shirt, and then prowled into the kitchen to get something to eat. The prepared dinner at Vivian’s parent’s anniversary party had been good, but not very filling. As he raided the fridge and set about eating a snack, his mind ticked over the day’s events as it always did before he went to sleep. But something kept distracting him. Several times he put his thoughts on hold and lifted his head to the quiet room, like there was something to hear. There wasn’t.

  When Hawk finished his snack he left the kitchen, padding noiselessly into the living room and looking around. Why did he feel something was off? Randomly, he picked up items and looked at them, occasionally cocking his head again like a dog scenting the air. At the end table next to the couch he stopped and stared for a long time. A picture in a silver frame had been moved.

  Hawk picked up the picture gingerly and looked hard at it. It showed Vivian, Emma, and JT, their arms slung around each other, still at Camp Patriot. The picture had been taken only a few days after JT had been rescued from the dessert. Hawk ran a hand over his ribs on the right side, remembering the pain of his injury from the helicopter crash during that rescue.

  He put the picture back down and arranged it exactly perpendicular to the corner of the table, the way he’d placed the picture when he had first put it in the ornate frame. Someone had moved it. The housekeeper? Vivian?

  It shouldn’t have been a big deal. People look at pictures all the time, that’s what they were for. But it felt like a big deal. Everything in the house felt off to him for some unknown reason. He had been distracted by Vivian’s arousal when he first came in, so he’d missed it then, but now he felt it loud and clear, pinging at him, stirring unease in him.

  Hawk looked around, then almost ran to the bedroom to check on his wife. She lay in the bed exactly how he had left her. Hawk crossed to the closet and opened it, then pressed his hand against his fingerprint-entry gun safe. The door swung open and he took the larger of the two guns that were inside. He shut the door again then walked farther into their walk-in closet, peering under clothing and behind shoe boxes. The closet was empty.

  Hawk felt slightly foolish. His house was empty, he knew that. There were no intruders lurking anywhere. He could tell that he and Vivian were alone. But something was wrong, and he intended to find out what.

  Hawk retreated from the closet, back out into the master bedroom. His eye lingered on his wife just long enough to be sure she was sleeping peacefully. He stared hard at the dust ruffle around the bed then dismissed it. Their bed sat low to the ground, very low. Nothing dangerous could fit under there.

  Hawk prowled through their house, checking closets, crawlspaces, cabinets, and the space under the stairs. He examined every room and found nothing. In spite of that, his nerves kept ratcheting up their message. Wrong. Something was wrong. Danger.

  In exasperation, Hawk headed to his front door. He examined the lock and door jamb. No sign of forced entry. Nothing wrong there. The only place he hadn’t searched was the cellar, but it was old and only had access from the outside—a remnant from when their restored farmhouse had first been built. They’d only been down there once, when they first bought the house. There couldn’t be anything down there causing this current bout of the jitters.

  Hawk returned to the bedroom, torn. He put his gun down on a table within easy reach of the bed, and eyed the spot next to Vivian, thinking that he should just lay down and try to sleep. Work this out in the morning.

  But another part of him looked to his pants on the floor. His cell phone would be in the pocket. He could call Craig. Have him come over and help search. The clock on the nightstand said 2:02 in the morning. Craig was probably still at the fire with Emma. Awake, certainly. Even if he wasn’t, Craig would not argue. If Hawk said he thought something was wrong, he knew Craig would be there in a heartbeat. Something was certainly wrong. If only he knew what! Hawk had learned the hard way to never ignore his intuition, and he wasn’t going to start now.

  Hawk bent and picked up his pants, his eyes falling again on the dust ruffle as he did so. His phone forgotten, he reached his hand out, the little voice in his head suddenly screaming in alarm. Adrenaline dumped into his blood stream as he ripped the piece of cloth away. A wadded up blanket greeted him in the four inches of space between the floor and the bed. Hawk knew there was never anything under this bed. The blanket was hiding something. Something that was making his hair stand on edge.

  Gingerly, he eased the blanket aside and saw a shoe box, plus a mass of items he couldn’t identify behind it. Sweat formed on his brow and his breath whistled between his teeth. “Vivian,” he said as he eased the shoe box out from under the bed. “Vivian, get up and get dressed. Hurry,” he said, his voice coiled and tight. Vivian murmured on the bed. He lifted the lid gingerly off of the shoe box as he heard Vivian murmur something on the bed.

  A mass of wires wound through the box over two round cylinders. A pungent smell wafted up from the container. Terror laced through Hawk’s heart as he realized he was holding a bomb. A bomb intended to blow he and his wife to Hell as they slept.

  “Vivian!” he shouted as his eyes fell on the simple countdown timer in the very center of the box.

  It read 00:34.

  Hawk shot to his feet as Vivian rolled over and sat up groggily in bed, awakened by his shout.

  No time for explanations!

  Hawk snatched up his naked wife and threw her over his shoulder, then sprinted down the hallway.

  “Hawk!” Vivian squawked in confusion as she held on to his back.

  Hawk saved his breath for running. He made it to the front door, pulled it open, and took five
large, running steps onto the grassy lawn before he felt the concussion wave behind him.

  Chapter 4

  Craig held the door open for Emma, watching as she pulled off her helmet and tucked it under her arm, then climbed up into the cab of his truck. He ran around to the driver’s side and got in, started the vehicle, then looked at her. The light from the clock glowed just enough for him to see how exhausted she was. The clock showed almost two in the morning and she had just been relieved by another lieutenant so she could go off shift, something she’d been scheduled to do almost twelve hours ago. The fire had been a bad one—a fertilizer warehouse with a faulty boiler had gone up. The flames had been so intense the chiefs had finally made the call to let the building burn itself out while the firefighters just tried to protect the surrounding businesses. But three more buildings had caught fire, stretching the department thin and taking all day and much of the night to contain.

  Craig threw the truck into drive and pulled out on the empty street. He’d parked well away from the scene and walked in to find Emma, not wanting to get in anyone’s way.

  “Thanks for coming to get me,” Emma told him, giving him a sweet but exhausted smile.

  “Of course,” Craig fired back. “It’s not like I was sleeping anyway.”

  Emma pulled her head off the headrest and looked at him strangely. “You didn’t sleep at all? You went home around ten.”

  “I can’t sleep while you’re at a fire. Especially not a big one. What if something happened to you? What if you needed me? Like tonight. Your work truck got commandeered and you needed a ride to your car.”

  Emma scoffed. “I could have gotten a ride back to the station from someone else. I never would have asked you if you hadn’t texted me.”

  “I wouldn’t have texted you if I’d been asleep,” Craig responded, like that answered everything.