All I found was a closet full of mountain man clothing and a jewelry box with a Patek Philippe watch in it. I almost dropped the damn thing, which would have been equal to tossing over a hundred grand on the floor. The watch was so out of place next to the worn denim and heavy flannel that again, I wondered who this man had been before. He was such a complicated mix of ostentatious and simple.
I was tucking the outrageously expensive watch back in its hiding place when the cell phone Ben had left behind jangled and vibrated on the counter. He’d mentioned the town doctor was going to call and try and make his way up to the cabin to give me the all clear to travel, but it was an intrusion into my newfound sanctuary that came much sooner than I anticipated. I moved across the room as quickly as I could, making me breathless when I answered the call.
“Hello.” I trapped the phone between my ear and good shoulder as I leaned on the edge of the counter and stared at the door, willing Ben to walk through it and finish what I’d started in the shower.
“Is this Echo Hemsley? My brother Cooper called me yesterday and said you were stranded up on the mountain with a pretty serious set of injuries.” His voice was deep and smooth. I wasn’t even in the same room with him and I could tell he had a good bedside manner.
“I got pretty banged up when the SUV rolled. I’ve got a nasty cut on the top of my head so I’m sure I ended up with a mild concussion.” I moved my shoulder and let out a wheeze of discomfort. “I also dislocated my shoulder, but Ben, the guy who found me, put it back in place and has been making sure I keep ice and heat on it. I think it’s about as good as it’s going to get until it heals up.”
He muttered something I didn’t quite hear and asked, “Are you nauseated at all, out of balance? Do you feel more sleepy than usual or have any ringing in your ears?”
The questions came so quickly that it took me a minute to work through them all in my head. “The first night and into the second day it was a yes to all of that, but I slept normally last night and feel mostly normal today, except for a slight headache and my shoulder hurting like a bitch.”
He grunted and I heard the scratch of pen across paper. “Do you feel you need emergency medical care, Ms. Hemsley? I’m the only doctor in Surrender and while I would like a chance to check you out, I would prefer doing it when I can get to you in a vehicle and bring you back to town with me. I would only put someone with all the symptoms of a concussion on the back of an ATV in a true emergency situation. Not to mention, the ride would be incredibly bumpy and miserable on that shoulder.”
I snorted out a laugh and shook out my drying curls. “If I didn’t die the night of the crash, I’m not going to die now. I think I’ll be fine until you can make your way up here in a real car.”
“Good. The highway is supposed to open up sometime this evening and I made sure to keep my morning clear tomorrow, just in case. I’ll head up the mountain and check you out, then bring you back to Surrender so we can work on a way to get you home.”
If Ben found my bag and my purse, it shouldn’t be that hard to get me back to Denver. If he didn’t, I was going to be in a bind. I didn’t have any other form of ID than my driver’s license, so there would be no renting a car or getting on a plane if that was lost to the Montana winter. As much as I hated it, I was going to have to call Zeb Fuller, Hyde’s dad, and ask him to come and get me because there was no way I was riding a Greyhound through the mountains for hours on end. Just the thought of all those switchbacks made my tummy tighten.
“Sounds like a plan. I would call when you’re on your way. Ben doesn’t seem too fond of trespassers and likes to greet visitors with the business end of a shotgun.”
There was a chuckle on the other end of the phone. “Sounds like he’s finally starting to fit in around here. See you in the morning, Echo.”
The line went dead just as the door swung open, revealing a panting and soggy-looking Ben. His dark hair had glittering white flakes of snow clinging to it and his off-center nose was tipped red. He kicked the door closed with his boot and I gasped in shock when he dropped my chevron-striped weekender on the floor by his feet. It was filthy, covered in all manner of dirt and debris, but the zipper was still closed and it didn’t appear to have any holes in it. I was excited at the prospect of putting on my own clothes and a pair of underwear, but none of that helped me get home.
“No purse?”
His steely gaze tracked my movements as I started toward the bag. “It was a mess. It’s been snowing the last couple hours, so it was hard to find anything. The only reason I found this was because I tripped over it.”
I sighed but managed a weak smile. “That’s fine. You didn’t have to go tromping through the woods for this in the first place. I appreciate the effort even if it means I’ll have to get creative getting home.” I bit down on my lower lip and looked at him from under my eyelashes. “The doctor called. He’s coming up in the morning to look me over and take me into town.”
“You won’t have to get too creative.” He reached behind him and pulled a familiar-looking wallet out of his back pocket. Now, it looked like it had seen better days. The leather was torn, half of it looked like it was missing and it was stained with lord only knew. But I could see my driver’s license and my credit cards were still in the remaining slots. “I dug around in the car and found this wedged under the back seat.”
I gasped at him, jaw dropping open in disbelief. Not at the fact he’d found my ID, but at the fact he had risked his neck crawling around in the demolished SUV. I took the last few steps that separated us and snatched the tattered leather out of his hand, tossing it on the floor next to my bag. “Are you insane? What were you thinking messing with that car? It could have shifted and slid the rest of the way down the mountain. You would have gone with it.” I was practically screaming at him but I couldn’t pull it back. I worried about him, scared that he was wasting what little time we had left on foolish tasks so he didn’t have to face the inevitable conclusion of our time together.
“Hey, I told you I was a problem solver. It’s what I do, it’s what I’m good at. You needed something fixed so I fixed it, no matter the cost…that’s how it works.” He cocked an eyebrow and tilted his chin defiantly. “I think the words you’re looking for are ‘thank you’.”
Angrily and desperately, I closed the space between us. I grabbed the front of his shirt and used my hold on the fabric to pull myself to the tips of my toes. I slammed my mouth on his and immediately tasted snow and man. His lips were chilly and his beard was damp from being outside, but his tongue was warm as it tangled with mine and his breath was hot as I stole it from him. He immediately took over the kiss, owning it, controlling it, feeding it with the scrape of his teeth and the twist of his tongue. His icy hands grasped each side of my face and held me to him as I wrapped my fingers around his wrist. His pulse hammered furiously against my fingertips, each beat another second slipping away, marching us toward our separate fates. I’d wasted a lot of time with the people in my life that I cared about; I refused to do that with this one. I only got him for a few heartbeats; I was going to make them matter.
When I pulled back, we both had heavy-lidded eyes and whisper breaths. I leaned forward so I could rest my forehead on his fuzzy chin, and rubbed it against the springy facial hair that lived there. I found the gentle scrape of it comforting and arousing. I wanted to feel it across the rest of my skin.
“I’m going to be gone in the morning, Ben. This is not a problem you have to fix. This is an experience you need to have before the opportunity passes. If your purpose was to save me then consider it mission accomplished.” I pulled back so I could look up at him, seduction and salvation clear between every blink and in every breath. “Let me be the reward for a job well done. Let me show you that you are worth a second chance, that everyone can be saved, before our time runs out.” I let go of his wrist and reached for the scar on his neck. I traced my fingers over the mark and brushed my thumb along his Adam’s apple
as he swallowed hard. “There’s a reason that we were thrown together, Ben. We were supposed to be here. We were supposed to save each other.” I pressed into him as hard as I could and moved my mouth to that ravaged side of his throat. “This is not a mistake; it’s a moment we will have forever.”
“You honestly think sex is going to fix everything that’s wrong with us, Pop-Tart? Because I gotta tell ya, in my experience sex is where a lot of those problems I ended up having to fix in my old life started.” He was on the edge; all I needed to do was push him over.
“No, I don’t think sex will fix us, but I think the two of us together will give us something to hold onto when the days are dark and remind us that there is a reason to keep going. It will be a memory that makes sense when nothing else does. I want that so bad I can taste it.” I smiled at him and reached up to push his coat off his wide shoulders. It hit the floor with a plop as I tugged at the Henley that was underneath and ordered him to unbuckle his belt. Being one handed sucked; it made getting to all the things I wanted to play with more difficult than it should be. I was impatient and anxious, racing against his resistance. “For the rest of your life, no matter what goes wrong or how bad things get, we’ll have this single moment where we got everything right. Don’t you need that? Because I know I do.”
He grunted when his belt was finally free and I managed to get his zipper down. He was all kinds of hard covered in cotton and eagerly waiting to fall into my hands. I gave the impressive bulge a pat and used the pad of my thumb to trace the rigid line up where the tip was trapped under the stretchy band of his underwear. I stroked my fingers over the flared point and had to bite back a victory cheer when he leaned back against the door behind him with a thud as he pushed his clothing out of my way. His shirt landed on top of my bag and his jeans and briefs ended up around his knees as I leaned in closer to him, my hand working up and down the velvety, firm shaft.
I kissed his scar again and he surrendered on a sigh as he told me, “Save me or sacrifice me, I don’t care which one it ends up being as long as I get my cock in your mouth and I get the chance to watch you come when I’m buried as deep as I can get inside of you.” He pulled me up onto my toes once again and touched his lips to mine. I closed my hand around his cock reflexively and felt the vibration of his groan all the way into my core. It made my body throb and my nipples tighten instantly. When he released me, he did it with a smirk and a challenge in his eyes. “This has to be our moment, Echo, because it’s so not perfect, but that doesn’t matter because you kind of are. Show me what you got, Pop-Tart.”
Challenge accepted.
I felt like I’d been waiting to show someone what I was really all about since the moment I made the decision to get clean and take my life back.
I kissed the hollow of his throat and slipped my thumb over the now damp slit on the crown of his cock. His hips involuntarily kicked toward me and his hands curled into fists at his sides. I nibbled on his collarbone and continued to work my fist up and down, feeling his body throb and heat in reaction. His already rigid abs tightened even more and his thick thighs clenched enticingly as I continued to work him with my hand and tease him with my mouth. He muttered my name and it had never sounded so much like a dirty word.
I flicked my tongue over the flat of his nipple and rubbed the tip of my nose against the brush of his chest hair as I moved over to repeat the action on the other side. He grunted and lifted his hands to rest them on my shoulders, but thought better of it when they automatically stiffened to protect the injured one. Instead, his fingers skimmed lightly through my hair and twined in the curls, holding on carefully as I methodically lowered myself to my knees in front of him, stopping to trace his taut tummy along the way.
I glanced up at him from under my lashes and felt my body clench at the sight of his locked jaw, hooded eyes, and flushed face. His broad chest was rising and falling like he was struggling to breathe and the veins in his biceps were lifted as he struggled to keep himself in control so he didn’t force me or move me in a way that was going to jar my shoulder. He was a man used to taking what he wanted but in our moment, he was going to let me give it to him instead.
I followed the bold line of the vein that ran along the underside of his cock with my tongue and stopped to circle the head over and over again. I licked him like he was a lollipop and chased the moisture that trickled out of the tip until he moaned, his fingers twitching in silent demand against my scalp. I got the impression he wanted to pull, to tug, to guide me but he was forcing himself to stay in check because of my lingering injuries. “Put your lips around it, Echo.”
I followed his order and immediately sucked so hard that my cheeks hollowed out. He was way too big to take all the way in, so I kept my hand circled around the base of his erection, turning and twisting in time to the gentle suction of my mouth. I liked the weight of him on my tongue, liked the way he took up all the space there was. It made me wet and had me squirming in front of him. Once again, I was irritated I couldn’t use my left hand for much of anything. If it had been working the way it was supposed to, I would slip it under the baggy waistband of my borrowed pants and work on soothing the ache that was building between my thighs. I squeezed them together and moaned around the steely flesh in my mouth.
I took more of his length, pulling that pulsing flesh back as far as I could. I licked and sucked, swirled and twisted until he was panting loud enough that it blocked out the rush of my own arousal between my ears. His big body arched and bent before me. His hands left my hair, one going to cup my cheek, the other covering mine on the lower part of his erection. He tightened his fingers over mine, applying far more pressure than I would have dared for the first time. He squeezed and tugged as I swallowed and forced myself to breathe when he exploded across my tongue in a warm, wild rush. It was a little messy and a lot chaotic when he let his head fall back against the door while he stroked his thumb over the crest of my cheek. He was right; it wasn’t exactly flawless—we were both too hurried and frantic trying to get as much of each other as we could. But he was as close to my perfect match as I’d ever found, so it was a moment that would stretch into infinity every time I thought about him and how special this time with someone that was made for me was.
I leaned back on my haunches and gazed up at him. His eyes had an edge that was sharp enough to slice right through my heart as he reached down and offered me a hand so he could help me to my feet.
We stared at each other silently for a long minute as he struggled to regulate his breathing and waited for his watery knees to hold him upright. Once he had his composure back, he reached for me, pulling me to his chest so that my head was tucked under his chin, his wet and slippery dick pressed against my middle, which made my blood heat and my heart trip over itself. I wanted it. I wanted him.
“All right, Pop-Tart, we have one day. Let’s make enough memories to last us a lifetime.” He kissed my temple and took my hand so he could guide me to the bed.
“Sounds good to me.” In fact, I was pretty confident it was the only smart decision I’d made since saying goodbye to my sister.
I would never forget a single second of what being saved and being a savior felt like.
Chapter 8
Ben
For the first time since I’d started having sex way back in my early teens, I was going to bed with a woman. For once, I wasn’t taking her there with ulterior motives. I wasn’t tricking her, luring her, conning her, manipulating her, deceiving her, or employing any of the other underhanded ways I utilized in order to get my way and to get what I wanted.
In fact, she was leading the way. Her hand was wrapped around mine, long hair tangled down her naked back and playing peek-a-boo with the delicious dimples that rested right above the swell of her ass. When she looked at me over her shoulder, there was no hesitation in her brilliant blue gaze, only warm anticipation and swirling promises that I hoped she wouldn’t regret keeping. I’d followed the wrong people in my life for a
long time because they swore they could give me everything I wanted. Following her to the messy but inviting bed, I realized the bad people I’d trailed after when I was younger never had the ability to give me what I really wanted, what I had been searching for all along. I wanted to be accepted. I wanted to be forgiven for the mistakes I’d made. I wanted to be appreciated, faults and all, and I didn’t want to take that respect through force and intimidation. I wanted to earn it. I wanted it to be mine free and clear.
I wanted someone to think I was worthy based on the fact that against all odds, against my own innate selfishness and overblown ego, I’d managed to do something right. I wanted someone to see I could put their needs above my own because even though I was a bad man, from an even worse place, I could recognize good when it landed in my lap.
Fortunately, what Echo was actually asking for was a whole lot easier and a whole lot more fun for me to give her. She wanted my hands all over that flawless skin. She wanted my mouth on her breasts. She wanted the scrape of my beard and the press of my much bigger, harder body into her smaller, softer one. More than all of that, she wanted my cock planted deep inside of her, filling her up, taking what she offered and giving back everything I had so she wouldn’t be able to forget me tomorrow, or the day after that, or the one after that. She didn’t want to feel empty anymore and I couldn’t wait to be the one that took up all that space, made it my own, claimed it as mine, for however long our moment lasted.
She hit the edge of the bed and turned around so she could sit in front of me, my rock-hard dick right at her eye level. I reached out my hands so I could push the dark waves of her hair behind her shoulders and used my thumbs to trace the delicate line of her jaw. I tilted her head back so that she was looking up at me and bent down so I could kiss the tip of her nose as she put her hand on the side of my hip. Her thumb dug into the sharp V of muscle that cut along the side of my abs and I couldn’t hold back a smirk when she sighed in appreciation. In my old line of work, it was a bad idea to have any kind of weakness, so I always made sure I could hold my own with the brawlers that ran the streets. Being in decent shape was an asset in prison as well. The phrase “too pretty to be locked up” had merit, so it was good I could take care of myself when I needed to, but that was all practical, necessary even. I used the way I looked as a weapon and as a tool, but knowing Echo liked what she saw when she looked at me was the first time I’d ever been thankful for genetics and endless hours spent in the gym. I needed to get back to it and stop using my circumstances as an excuse for letting my entire life slip away.
Avenged: A MacKenzie Family Novella (The MacKenzie Family) Page 8
