Divine Phoenix [Divine Creek Ranch 10] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Heather Rainier

  They were so into each other it was going to make him crazy, and they hadn’t even really gotten started yet. As if on cue, Del helped Lily stand with each foot outside his legs. He guided her back onto his lap, helping her tuck a shin on either side of his spread thighs, with her knees bent so that she was now perched in his lap with her back to his chest and his cock trapped between her ass and his abdomen.

  Her thighs were spread wide, and Clay could see Del’s balls were already drawing up with excitement, ready to launch their load. She never even bothered to cover up the tattoo, and Clay was pleased as he ignored that mark and focused on her instead.

  The song changed to “Everything I Wanna Do,” and Clay knew it was about to get serious. Lily wouldn’t be able to resist the beat.

  Del put an arm around her, beneath her breasts, and whispered, “Show Clay your pretty pussy. Spread your lips so he can see how wet you are.”

  Lily complied immediately, and the growl slipped from Clay’s lips when her pussy dripped her translucent cream against Del’s testicles. She was the hottest fucking thing he’d ever seen. “Rub your clit, baby, just the way you like it.”

  She uncurled a delicate manicured digit and stroked the swollen little bud, and her breath hitched. Her head fell back against Del’s shoulder as the song progressed through the first verse. Clay knew the moment the beat of the song had a hold of her because her hips undulated against Del’s cock, and he groaned in response.

  “…And she likes to take her time.

  More than fortunate, form of torture.

  And she likes to touch and tease.

  It’s always fun for me it’s always unbelievable.

  You and me, sitting in a tree F–U–C–K–I–N–G…”

  Del guided her up onto her knees, and pulled her against his chest so Clay could see everything. She braced her hands on the arms of the chair as Del positioned the head of his very erect cock at her drenched pussy and rolled his hips. Her glistening lips parted and Del groaned as her tight, engorged cunt engulfed him and he thrust, sliding in a couple of inches.

  “Take me, baby,” he murmured as he allowed her to control her descent on his cock.

  Lily bit her lip and panted as she lifted up and then slid down, taking half of him, then back up again. She flicked her hair over her shoulder and undulated with the driving beat of the song. Del’s dick stroked in and out, coated in her slippery juices.

  Lily stroked her clit as she ground against his brother. Del spread his legs wider and gripped her hips as he began moving in time with her. The beat of the song reached a pounding crescendo as the final refrain approached, and Lily began to lose control, pumping on his cock. Del pulled her back against his chest, hindering her incredibly hot, wild movements. He whispered to her, and Lily groaned unhappily as he chuckled and thrust too slowly.

  “Don’t worry, Lily, you’re coming soon.”

  The next song began moments later, and Clay thought it was possible that he was a genius with the musical selections. “Figured You Out” began to play, and Del released Lily as the syncopated rhythm of the song immediately caught hold of her.

  Her movements were a little reserved at first as the intensity of their fucking had diminished slightly. Del stroked her lovingly as he whispered dirty, hot things to her, and she bit her lower lip and closed her eyes. He gripped her hips and changed the angle of his thrusts, and she cried out blissfully, finding her uninhibited groove with no problem.

  When the song came to a crescendo, she threw her head back and hummed softly, a shaky sound that grew in intensity. Her blush deepened and spread to her breasts, and Del’s knuckles went white at her hips. She reached back and grasped his biceps, and Clay could practically see the tension coiling within her.

  Del’s cock slid easily in and out of her slippery pussy, coated in more and more of her fragrant cream until his balls were bathed in it. Her poor little clit was swollen and dark pink, peeking from beneath its little hood, and Clay’s mouth watered for a taste of it.

  Lily looked directly at him and read his mind, reaching forward with one hand to stroke the little nub as she moved at a frantic pace. She smiled when he finally gave in to the urge to stroke his cock through his jeans.

  Her graceful little hands stroked her clit and slid across her engorged flesh making sexy, wet sounds, and it didn’t take long before her movements ceased altogether.

  “Del, don’t stop! Harder, harder! Oh! I’m coming!”

  Del thrust in and out of her pussy, fucking her with wild abandon. His concentration was evident in the tense planes of his face and the corded muscles in his arms, legs, and neck.

  Lily’s mouth opened wide, and a distinctly feminine sound of erotic completion escaped from her lips. She leaned forward and worked with Del as he came also, his balls pulling up at the base of his cock. He wrapped his arms around Lily and held her to him tightly as he pumped his load into her sweet, wet cunt.

  Her dark pink, glossy lips were covered in a mixture of his cum and her arousal as Del’s thrusts slowed and they fell back in the chair, their bodies covered with sweat and her hair stuck to them both. Del didn’t seem to mind very much as he gently cupped her breasts and caressed the satiny orbs. She sighed blissfully and put a hand back to caress his cheek.

  Del shifted slightly and peered over at Clay. Clay asked, “Did that feel as hot as it was to watch? I think my dick could bust diamonds right now.”

  Lily smiled like the cat that ate the canary, turned to kiss Del, then said in a low voice, “I think I should take care of that problem, shouldn’t I, cowboy?”

  “Mmm,” Del murmured with a sigh, “you’re such a giver, Lily Bell.”

  Lily proved that night that while she might have gone a little overboard with the elliptical workouts, she was taking full advantage of the increase in stamina and muscle strength that they afforded her.

  * * * *

  After all the energy Del had expended making love with Lily, it surprised him that he was still awake after the others had long since fallen asleep.

  Lily had assured them that JT wouldn’t show up during the week because it would mean missing work. She said JT didn’t care when Dirk took off, but he was too money-hungry and distrusting of even family to leave the shop alone.

  Her reasoning had merit, but Del was still on alert. This was a feeling he was used to, almost comfortable with. He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. After tossing and turning, he finally climbed from the warm bed, where Lily and Clay were still curled up together, and walked around the house. He checked the deadbolts and all the window locks then flopped down on the padded recliner in the dark living room.

  Everything he’d heard about JT led him to believe that the asshole wouldn’t stop at mere harassment, and a restraining order would mean very little to him. Del still supported her decision to file for one but knew when this all came to a head, waving a piece of paper in front of JT’s face would only make him laugh. It was up to them to keep Lily out of harm’s way. Period.

  Del sat there working through various scenarios, wanting to be prepared should JT make an appearance. He couldn’t handle the thought of another woman dying because he wasn’t doing his job. The sound of a woman’s scream of anguish hurtled him from those thoughts, and he froze in the dark, wondering if he’d dreamed it or heard it. The seconds ticked by as his heartbeat gradually slowed to normal.

  His senses went on alert again when a shadow moved in the living room, until a moonbeam illuminated her satiny skin.

  Lily came to him, warm and comfortingly real. “What’s the matter? Did you have a nightmare?”

  Del smiled and nodded his head as she climbed naked into his lap, bringing a throw blanket with her, which he took and spread around them so she wouldn’t get chilled. “It’s nothing. Just nerves, I think.”

  She cuddled up in his lap, and before long, his cock was also wide awake and wanting more of Lily. Greedy bastard couldn’t get enough, and when he was in contact with her
warm, cuddly body, he couldn’t help the reaction, but he also wanted her to get her rest. They’d kept her busy that evening, so he willed his cock into submission.

  “What’s keeping you awake, cowboy?” she asked, using the endearment that was starting to grow on him. “Are you worrying about JT? The divorce will be final soon and he’ll be out of my life. Hank knows that he came around again. Between my men and the sheriff, I know I’ll be safe.”

  Del chuckled. “In light of our situation, you might want to reword that thought.”

  Lily laughed and said, “With the two of you close by me and the sheriff doing his job, I’ll be fine. Del, can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure.”

  She stroked his biceps and murmured, “Will you trust me with what happened overseas? Whatever it is that gives you nightmares? I promise I won’t judge you.”

  How did she know that was at the core of his fear of her finding out? He professed to have the ability to keep her safe but fat lot of good that would do her if he wasn’t available or couldn’t act to protect her.

  “Don’t you trust me, Del?”

  Del squeezed Lily’s warm, pliant body and murmured his reply. “Of course I trust you. It was a failure on my part that gives me nightmares and makes me afraid that you wouldn’t be able to trust me.”

  Lily gripped his chin and turned his face so that she could kiss him and then said, “Everyone fails and sometimes there are serious repercussions. Were you trying to protect someone and you were attacked?”

  Del sighed and gave in to her. It was time to let it out. The weight was becoming heavier with time, not lighter as he’d hoped. Lily’s love and attention helped, but some things were more than the human soul could handle alone.

  “She was just one of the women of the village trying to find her pet late one afternoon. She was probably someone’s mom or daughter. We were occupying an abandoned home, which we had underground access to, doing surveillance on a nearby compound at the end of a street. We could come and go from a safe access point without being seen. All we were supposed to do was watch, collect information, and report.

  “One of the guys had received a care package from home and he’d opened a small foil container of smoked salmon. It must have been what attracted the kitten because it was pretty pungent. This Afghani woman followed the cat right into the house like she knew her way around. It must have belonged to people she knew at one point. She followed the cat right to us.”

  “Oh, no. Did she scream? Did she try to alert her people?”

  “No. No, she was more scared for us than of us, I think. A male member of her family, who must’ve been in charge of watching over her, followed her into the house. We gave her the kitten and asked her to go. We needed to get out of there. She did as we asked, and when she met the man on the staircase, she explained that she’d found her kitten and that she didn’t know why it had snuck into the old house. He griped at her and they left together. We thought she convinced him.”

  “What happened?”

  “They returned in the direction from which she’d come. There was no indicator that we’d been discovered, but we got out of there anyway. We were back on duty the following night because there was a meeting going in that same location. We expected to locate a handful of Taliban operatives. Instead we listened as they tortured her. She never gave away our location and denied doing anything but going after her kitten. In the end, they accused her of aiding Western forces, found her guilty, and executed her.”

  “And you…”

  “I could do nothing. We couldn’t go in guns blazing. We were waiting for the targets to show up. We would’ve blown our cover. I had to sit there…and listen. Shit like that changes you. It was never the same for me after that. Of all the places I’ve gone with that company, that one was the worst.” He would never get over the nauseating feeling of not being able to help someone in desperate need of it. Each blow he’d listened to her receive had been a crushing blow to his soul.

  “You retired?”

  “Yes. When my contract expired, I didn’t renew and came home.” Along with two other members of the same detail, including his friend with the smoked salmon.

  “Did you at least get the information you sought?”

  “Yes. But it didn’t help her any. They were making an example of her for the whole town. They water-boarded her when a beating didn’t get anything out of her. The sound of them striking that innocent woman. The blows…I still hear them, Lily.”

  “I’m so sorry, Del.”

  “With the job done, we left the next day.”

  Lily wrapped her arms around him and rubbed the nape of his neck as the tension became stronger and stronger inside of him.

  “She sounds like she was a very brave woman.”

  There was no doubt about that, but Clay wished that she hadn’t been, not that it would’ve guaranteed she’d have lived. Maybe she’d known that.

  “All she had to do was tell them. We had fire power and we could’ve taken care of ourselves, gotten the hell out of there and collapsed the tunnel. We were under orders to not engage. By the time she was executed, we were begging her to tell. I wanted to help her. She probably felt so abandoned.”

  His voice broke on the last word, and a quiet sob escaped. That one little weak-sounding noise burst the dam on a reservoir of grief and shame. Lily held on tight as the words of self-hatred flowed from him, mingled with tears.

  Del appreciated that she didn’t try with words to make him feel better. She didn’t try to rationalize what had happened. She just held him as he let it out, until he was done. She only said one thing.

  “I know how it feels to be struck, slapped, and tortured, Del. I know what it feels like to have a gun to my head. You didn’t do any of those things to her. I wouldn’t have held it against you.”

  “You’re a survivor, aren’t you?” he asked in a rough voice. His territorial instincts all fired to life. He could do something about Lily’s situation. Damned if he wouldn’t kill the bastard if he ever laid a hand on Lily again.

  “Yes. It’s a process, Del. I work on it and think I’ve got it licked but sometimes it comes back just as strong. I keep working on it.”

  It felt to Del as though she held him in her arms, comforting him, instead of the other way around. It was a foreign sensation, but he accepted what she offered. A little peace finally descended over his spirit. If she could do it, so could he.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Tuesday morning, Clay looked up from the gold setting he was preparing as Lily came in through the back door. She ended her cell phone call and slid her phone into her purse. She sat on her stool and turned slowly to meet his gaze.

  “What did he say?” Clay asked as she looked up at him. There were tears shimmering in her eyes.

  She sniffed hard and clenched her fists then shook her head, struggling with the tears as they sat together in the workroom. “Dad said he would come back to Divine and he finally told me what I didn’t want to hear.” Her words confirmed what Dirk had told them. Les Valentine’s time was very limited.

  Clay rolled his stool over to hers, and he wrapped his arms around her, not caring if Tabitha and half of the town of Divine walked in and saw them. “I’m sorry, Lily.”

  Lily relaxed and leaned against him. The trusting gesture in the shop workroom, where she rarely let her guard down, was meaningful. “At least I’ve had a chance to prepare. I told him that I’d be around all the time and I could get a nurse to come in.”

  “Absolutely. You take whatever time you need with him. Did Jack say how soon the house would be ready? I wish Les would consider coming to our house.” Clay no longer thought of it as his house.

  Lily shook her head. “He turned me down flat when I offered again. He said he can still get around, feed himself and take care of things. When he gets worse, he wants a nurse to come and for hospice to be called, when the time is right. He doesn’t want to be a bother, the ninny.” Her voice broke
and a sob escaped, but she quickly recovered when they overheard Tabitha talking to a customer out front. “Jack said another week and it would be done.”

  “Good. That way the time he has left isn’t spent in limbo waiting on the house.”

  “Yeah, and it gives me time to find someone to pack him up so he doesn’t have to do the work. Clay, I know we agreed to leave her out of the loop for my privacy’s sake, but it might be a good idea to give Tabitha a heads-up about my situation with JT and also about my Dad. I don’t want her upset with me about missing work and making life harder for her. There is also the safety issue. It’s not fair for her to be oblivious about JT in case he pulls something, regardless of what a twatwaffle she can be.”

  “A what?” Clay said, trying to hide his humor over such a serious topic.

  “Twatwaffle. ‘A know-it-all, unaware of their shortcomings and highly critical of others.’ It’s my new favorite word. Rosemary taught it to me last weekend,” she added with a watery giggle. “Tabitha is a terrible gossip and I know it was a good idea to not let her in on my history and the divorce, but I don’t want her in harm’s way if JT decides to show up here.”

  Clay nodded, knowing that Tabitha would probably not appreciate the care Lily demonstrated for her. She would go ape-shit over finding out that Lily was a married woman living with a single man…men, regardless of the circumstances.

  “I’ll talk to her about it. So, your dad agreed to move to Divine and stay at the house?”

  “Yes, I’m so glad he changed his mind. I’ve missed him so much. He sounded relieved when I told him the divorce should be final any day now. He was so worried about the legal entanglements with my inheritance.” She waved her hand dismissively with the last words as though she could care less about the issue. Clay knew she’d gladly trade it to keep her dad with her.