Red Lace (The Hard Men of the Rockies)

by Kym Roberts

  His lips disappeared as he pulled her chin down and searched her face, his gaze full of lust and caution. “You are so beautiful. I should walk away, but God help me, I can’t.”

  And she believed him. For the first time in her life, she didn’t think the compliment was skin deep, a way to get in her pants for a moment of pleasure. When Ty said it, he meant it in a way no other man had. His words were meant for the entire woman, and he spoke all the way to her soul.

  Reality came crashing down on Faith. This man whom she’d dared to give control of her body, had owned her heart before she’d even realized it was possible. Independent, free-spirited Faith Artino suddenly saw her life for what it had been before he walked into it. She hadn’t been either. She’d been caged in fear. Too afraid to feel, too afraid to love.

  And Ty Beckinsale had set her free…to do both.

  “Should I stop?” He asked.

  “No, don’t stop. Take me.”

  “All of you?”

  Faith looked at him. Made sure he saw how serious she was and said, “If you don’t shut up and take me now, I will break these bindings, throw you on the floor and fuck you until you can no longer walk.”

  Ty laughed. A pleased, arrogant sound that vibrated off the walls and teased every last inch of her body.

  “You are mine. For right now. For tomorrow. For the next day. For the next fucking century.” He whispered. “After I’m done, no other man will exist for you.”

  That’s all she wanted…because every other man had died years ago.

  And as the towel dropped at her feet she confessed, “I’ve always been yours.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  He wasn’t prepared for Faith’s beauty. She’d walked into the spa with her glossy dark waves cascading over her shoulders and he realized it was the first time she’d let her hair down. Figuratively and literally. The woman he’d loved since the moment she fought her fear to save his life…was his.

  And he was hers. Body and soul.

  He understood the attraction he had for Sammie. She was a beautiful woman, inside and out. And if his soul couldn’t have a mate, then it could at least be satisfied with another. But Sammie’s and Ty’s souls were never meant to bind, blend, or become one. They would have only been content to become a team.

  For some, contentment was enough. For Ty it would have left him wanting…

  But with Faith, his only wanting would be for more time together. More kisses. More of her delectable body standing naked before him, laying under him. Or riding him into ecstasy.

  Her hands gripped the terry cloth belts wrapped around her wrists, her knuckles whitening as she strained. Her eyes were dark as coal, a storm brewing within as her tongue caressed her front teeth. It was the invitation he’d been waiting a lifetime to receive. And it undid him.

  She swallowed her fear, drawing his eyes back to her long delicate neck and that racing pulse he found so erotic.

  “Touch me,” she demanded.

  Ty grinned. Savoring her impatience.

  “Our first time will not be fast.” He stalked around her. Devouring her feminine form with his eyes. In awe of each angle, each glimmer of light accentuating the curves he’d waited so long to touch. For months he wanted. Months that seemed to stretch into years of need.

  “Touch me,” she ordered. Her voice wavering with need.

  Again he ignored her. “I am not a teenager in the backseat of his car. Nor am I a college boy counting notches on my belt.” He ran his finger down her arm, watching the goosebumps chase his touch. Loving the way she leaned into it and then bit at his hand as he reached her shoulder.

  “Touch me!” She commanded. She twisted and turned, tried everything she could to look behind her where he stood enjoying the flexing muscles in calves, her thighs, the delicious firm globes of her ass.

  “I am a man who will admire you.” He whispered in her ear as he ran his fingers through the rich locks spilling over her shoulders.

  “Taste you.” He moved her hair to one side and ran circles around the pulse on her throat with his tongue.

  “Drive you to the brink of insanity,” He reached around the front of her and cupped her breast, relishing the budded nipple as his callused hand scraped across its tip. “And make you beg for more before I finally put my dick inside you and take you.”

  “Please, Ty. Touch me,” she begged. Her breath was ragged with the same need he’d felt for too long.

  He dropped his towel. Let the length of his hard hot dick caress her cheeks only to have her take control and thrust her sweet ass back against him. It was an invitation he could barely resist. A hiss of air crossed his teeth, and a feminine smile creased her lips.

  He pulled her body tight against his own. Marveling at the way her tall frame fit against him. He cupped her chin and angled her toward him, devouring that smile and plunging his tongue between parted lips. She tasted of cinnamon and Faith. A spice that belonged to her, and her alone.

  She was a woman starved, that much he knew. Faith would not welcome many into her private lair, and he was going to make damn sure he was the last.

  He worshipped the smooth silky skin of her ribcage and hips as he made his way down to her feminine folds.

  He withdrew from the kiss just far enough to ask, “Are you wet with wanting, Faith?”

  Biting her lip, she moved her hips toward his hand, “Touch me and find out.”

  His fingers touched the center of her need, warm and so fucking wet, he wasn’t sure who moaned louder, her or him. Her head fell back against his chest as his fingers slid through her folds with enough friction to drive them both mad. He pressed up against her backside, rubbing his dick against her globes in rhythm with his finger, while he teased and rolled one nipple and then the other between his thumb and forefinger.

  “Oh, yes! Don’t stop, Ty!”

  He had no intention of stopping. He would give her this. Because there were many more to come, and come and come.

  Faith shattered against his hand with a scream, and Ty nearly lost control as her body convulsed and shuddered through her orgasm.

  Ty let go and stepped back, Faith’s knees nearly buckling without his support.

  “What are you doing?” She breathed.

  But Ty couldn’t answer. He struggled for control. Ran one hand through his hair as he circled in front of her and put his other finger up to his mouth and tasted her sweet juices.

  Her eyes flared, that heat returning like he knew it would.

  “I told you I would taste you.” He kept his promise and dropped to his knees, giving her a view of his dick hard and throbbing between his legs, reaching for her in a futile attempt to sate his lust.

  “Oh, God. I don’t think I can take it.” Faith bit her lower lip and he knew she couldn’t tear her eyes away. Her chest rose and fell, and from the angle he had, over her mound, her flat stomach, and rippled abs, those breasts were a dessert he didn’t want to miss.

  And he wouldn’t. But at that moment he would settle for nothing less than the sweet honey of her release. “It’s up to you to hold on to your sweet sanity, because I plan to challenge the hell out of it.”

  He kissed the inside of her smooth thigh. Allowed his tongue to glide across silken texture of her skin. Spread her legs wider so he could view her pink lips, wet with desire. She was ready for him, and fuck if he wasn’t struggling to keep himself in check. He inched his way up from one leg to the next, toward the one place in the world he wanted to be.

  Faith’s breath came in short puffs of air. And just before his tongue reached her clit, he gazed up at the beautiful woman who was giving him everything he’d ever wanted.

  “Please…” Her plea died on a moan as he swept his tongue across her point of passion. Her hips jerked forward toward his mouth seeking her release. Ty grabbed her ass, palming each tightly formed globe as he drove her wild with his tongue. Stroking. Circling. Thrusting inside her. Devouring every drop of desire that she’d released for
him, and him alone. Then he returned to her clit and tortured sweet moans from her mouth. The sound of her pleasure filling the sauna, mixing with the steam—it had to be fucking heaven.

  Faith screamed as she came, nothing quiet or half-ass about it. His Faith went for it as her body spasmed around him. Ty took every last tremor, drawing it out as long, if not longer than Faith could stand, as her knees buckled and he held her weight in his hands.

  She was panting, ragged breaths escaping as her chest heaved and Ty slid up her body to take her breast in his mouth.

  “Please, Ty release me.” Her fingers strained in his direction.

  He smiled and winked as he tilted his head to say, “You’re not at the brink of insanity yet.”

  But he was. He reached down and squeezed his dick, willing it to just chill for a moment as he ran his tongue over her breast. Faith arched into him, responding without hesitation, demanding even more. And he obliged by nipping and suckling her again and again. She moaned and strained and then he was kissing her. Fucking her with his tongue, taking everything she had to give and then some. He wasn’t surprised when she fought back with a sexy purr that made his dick reach for this woman who’d become his world.

  In a matter of months, Faith Artino had turned his life upside down, shown him light, and made him a one happy man. One happy, ecstatic man.

  And one incredibly unsatisfied man who could never, in a thousand years, get enough of her.

  Ty pulled back from her kiss and said three little words he’d never said to another woman. “I love you.”

  Faith stilled, searching his face for deception that wasn’t there, and Ty said it again. Stronger. More resolute. More vulnerable than he’d been in his entire life. “I love you, Faith Artino. From the moment I walked in that door on my first day at Achilles HeAl, I recognized you.” Her eyes widened in disbelief, but he assured her it was true. “I looked for your bra, the red lace one you wore the day you saved me. Every day, I searched for a hint of that bra. But you never wore it. You wore red sport bras, red tank tops, but never red lace.”

  “I hid it.” She confided.

  “Why?” He knew she’d been too scared to face him, but if she didn’t admit it now, then he wouldn't be able to go forward and claim her completely. Not until she was ready. And he was willing to wait. Despite his earlier claims that she wouldn’t be able to stop him from taking her, Ty would stop if she didn’t want it—and he hoped to God she wanted it.

  “I was afraid you’d find it.” Her brows arched in uncertainty, but she marched forward with it all. “At first I was afraid of you. Then I was afraid of me and what I’d do if you saw it. Then you kissed me, and I knew if you ever saw it, the heat between us would explode. I didn’t want it to explode.”

  Ty pulled back, a sliver of doubt creasing his brow, until she continued.

  “If the heat between us exploded, it would be over in an instant. And I accepted that that might happen today when I came in here, but Ty, I want more than just once. I want forever. Will you give me forever?”

  Pure joy spread across his face. He pushed his chest against hers, enjoying the feel of the fine hairs on his chest rubbing against her pert mounds. “I thought you’d never ask,” he said. He grabbed the condom he brought in with him, tore open the foil package and sheathed his throbbing dick. Then he kissed her. Sealed the deal with passion, no longer caring about the mystery of their chemistry. No longer able to tolerate the suspense of how it would feel to be inside her. He needed her now.

  Cupping her chin in his hands, Ty moved behind her, taking her kiss with him as he went. Delving into her sweet lips with a promise of what was to come. He nudged her legs apart and stood between them, rubbing his dick up her ass. Allowing it the freedom to seek the V between her legs. Teasing her and driving himself mad as he made contact with her wet feminine folds.

  Faith gasped in his mouth, her slick inner heat fueling his need to take what she gave. He slid the tip of his dick inside her slowly.

  “More!” Faith demanded as she clenched and pushed against him.

  Ty pushed further. Inch by inch as she pushed against him. Her back arched, her ass peaked as he held her with one arm around her chest, the other seeking her pleasure. Faith stiffened as he hit a barrier and froze.

  “Faith?”

  “Yes, oh God, please don’t stop, Ty. I saved it for you, whether I realized it or not, my body wanted no one but you. Please don’t stop!” She pushed against him, demanding he take what she gave…and he did. With one swift thrust he broke down her walls and encased himself in her heat. His palm rubbing against her smooth mound. She was so tight, he wanted to pump and pump and pump until he came. Instead, he stilled.

  “Are you okay?” He asked, his chest so full of emotion he felt light-headed as he waited and prayed he hadn’t hurt her.

  “If you stop now, Ty Beckinsale, I will bring you to your knees until you beg for mercy.”

  He laughed. “I’m already there, babe.” And he was. She may as well have handcuffed him and thrown away the key. His heart, his soul, his future was at this woman’s mercy.

  Ty rocked his hips, exploring what made her gasp, moan and whimper as she adjusted to his width before he gave her every last inch. In tune to every noise, every clench, every aspect of her pleasure, he gloried in the puff of air that escaped between her lips, as his fingers stroked against her sensual nub. His mouth sought the bare skin of her neck, seeking to drive her crazy with his tongue and teeth, each bite shortening her path to passion.

  “It’s too much!” She yelled.

  Ty pulled back, afraid he’d hurt her while lost in his own fragile state of control, and Faith whimpered.

  “NO!” She slammed back against him, and that was all it took.

  He gave her everything. Then took it away. Drove her to the brink, and brought her back. He gritted his teeth and savored her slick heat hugging every last inch of his dick. Grinding into her. Flicking her clit and making her scream, curse, until she ordered him to let her climax. The intensity of their passion was beyond anything Ty had ever imagined. He slammed his dick into her, his balls slapping her intimately and she gasped—half pleasure, half pain—until she shattered around him. Her inner muscle flexing around his dick and milking him of his last bit of control. Ty plunged every last fragment of his soul into the woman in his arms, roaring through the chamber as he came.

  And in his heart, there was Faith.

  Chapter Twenty

  “You should have told me.” His tone was scolding, his touch tender.

  “Would you have believed a twenty-six-year-old business woman was a virgin?” She asked.

  He finished untying her wrists, frowning at the marks their lovemaking had created.

  “Don’t even think about regretting those. I earned them.” She smiled as he kissed the tender skin and then picked her up in his strong arms, her head and hand resting on the broad expanse of his chest.

  “I would believe you.” He said as he walked toward the exit.

  “Wait!”

  He stopped and looked down at her.

  “We can’t go out there completely naked,” she insisted.

  “You locked the doors?”

  “Yes.”

  “Set the alarm?”

  “Of course.”

  “The gate is closed.”

  “Always.”

  “Then I’m going to carry you up that grand marble staircase, down the hall to your private residence, I’m going to run a bath in that claw foot tub of yours and then I’m going to take care of you the way every woman should be after giving such a gift to a man.”

  “How did you know I had a claw foot tub?”

  “Rosie.”

  “Rosie?”

  He nodded and opened the door to the weight room, the bright lights glistening off the floor and their damp skin. “She’s been my confidant, my co-conspirator, my spy for the last couple months.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “The las
t time I left here, I had no intention of ever coming back. You were better off without me.”

  His bare feet padded across the marble floors. Faith watched the loving image they created as they progressed down the hall of mirrors. This is what she imagined a king would do with his queen in the Palace of Versailles. Stealing her away from her own chamber for a night of passion in his decadently luxurious bedroom.

  “But the farther I drove, the more I realized I couldn’t say good-bye. The last two months would have been pure hell without you if I hadn’t had Rosie’s constant updates. And while she worked to break down the barriers you’d placed between us, Alena and Phillipe brought Kas to meet me in the park.”

  “What? You mean to tell me, you’ve been dating my dog for the past two months?” She couldn’t believe it. But even as she said it, Kas trotted up next to them, ears flopping, tail wagging and the three of them ascended the staircase together. Faith in Ty’s arms, Kas at his side. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

  “I can’t believe you did that,” she marveled.

  “Divide and conquer has always been my idea of a good strategy. Your fear was feeding off Kas’s fear and his fear was feeding off yours. If I could win you over separately, then I knew we would have a fighting chance.”

  “But what about your job?” Would he leave her soon? Try a long distance relationship?

  “For a month now, I’ve been working as lead investigator for the Eighth District Court of Colorado.” Ty strode down the hall to her private section of the mansion as if he’d been there a thousand times before, stopping in front of her door. Faith paused before punching in the code.

  “I must warn you, my master bedroom and bath are the only rooms in my section of the house that have been renovated. The rest is pretty barren.”

  “It could be a shack for all I care.” He smiled down at her, and she was amazed at how much he’d changed from the aloof man who only showed his teeth when he was baring them, to the man carrying her, with the sexiest full-blown smile she’d ever seen. If he’d given her one of those smiles when they first met, she would have believed he was heaven sent, not hell bound.