Sinking down on his erection with a soft sound, Callie gripped his shoulders, digging her fingers into his skin. Mac groaned too as her heat surrounded him. Once she was settled and he was lodged to the hilt, he began to move. Water from the tub sloshed in a gentle motion that gradually grew more violent as she rose over him repeatedly, taking him deep into her body. Mac thrust upward, gripping her ass to hold her closer, knowing in that instant he’d never get enough of her.
Callie’s body was so wide open to him Mac felt the hard, swollen knot of her clit press against his pubic bone on each downstroke. Her thick cream coated him only to be washed away from the warm water in the tub. Wound tighter than a spring, Mac thrust upward, absorbing each nuanced sensation, feeling his balls tighten painfully. Heat swept his skin in a wave.
“Mac!”
“Yeah, that’s it, honey. Fuck me. Take it all. Deep and hard. Damn, woman, you’re killin’ me.”
Callie went stiff, her back arching against the shelter of his arm. Mac latched on to one tightly pearled nipple and sucked it as she flew apart. The hard spasms brought his own climax crashing over him, through him. He released her nipple and growled against it, his teeth gritting as pleasure tore through him.
When Callie finally relaxed, he pulled her against his chest and held her, knowing damn well he could hold her like this forever.
* * * * *
The next morning Callie and Mac sat around the kitchen table at the ranch house. She’d only seen the place in the distance but up close it was even more impressive than she’d imagined. Leah, Mac’s sister, sat across the table from her looking worried. She was a beautiful brunette, very striking and so welcoming that Callie liked her instantly. Her husband Shane, a tall, lean glass of water, leaned against the counter nursing a cup of coffee. Carmen Whitefeather, Dash’s fiancée, sat at the big table too. She was a pretty Native American woman and Callie realized instantly upon meeting her that she was nearly blind. A big dog sat near her chair and Carmen had the habit of resting her fingers on its head. Dash, a big, dark man with a shaved head, stood behind her. She knew that Dash had been a Chicago cop once upon a time and had been badly burned in the course of his duties. Wicked-looking scars covered one half of his otherwise handsome face.
“I don’t think you should go back to work, Callie,” Leah said, determination heavy in her voice. “Just stay here so we can all keep an eye on you.”
Callie shook her head and looked at the occupants of the room. “I can’t, guys. Really. I just opened the store and I’m not about to let Doug keep me from my business. He’s already taken too much from me and I won’t stand for it.”
“We’re taking a stand,” Mac said. His dark eyes were fierce, shining with determination. “Callie and I talked about this late into the night. I don’t want her alone so I’ll be driving her to and from work. No problem. And the asshole won’t be trying anything in the heart of downtown Morgan’s Creek. He may be crazy but he’s not stupid.”
Dash shifted and moved to the coffeepot to refill his mug before turning to give her a look. She and Mac had fully explained the situation and from that moment she’d seen Dash turn cop right before her eyes. He was an impressive man and all business when it came to stuff like this. “You’ll be staying with Mac. That’s good. I know he’s armed and he’ll be ready for anything your ex might throw at you.”
“Damn straight,” Mac said as he reached for her hand. His touch was warm and reassuring and Callie wanted at that moment to just crawl up into his lap and feel his arms around her and know damn good and well she was safe. Callie mustered a smile for him. “She’ll be okay during the daytime. Sheriff Coleman knows what’s up and this is a small town, after all. It’s my hope we can all be spared the worry and Doug will be rounded up and arrested for the break-in at Callie’s place.”
Shane nodded. “Yeah, that would be the ideal thing but we need to be prepared. He could come here and force a confrontation. The shithead is just itchin’ for a fight if you ask me.”
“He is,” Leah agreed. “So how are we going to handle things if he sneaks onto the ranch?”
“Easy,” Dash said. He looked at Mac. “You’ve got me on speed dial, right, Mac?”
Mac nodded. “Yeah.”
“If there’s trouble, call me and immediately hang up. That’ll be the signal for trouble.”
“Sounds good.”
Leah looked around the room then at Dash, frowning. “What about Shane and me?”
“As I’m heading to Mac’s, I’ll call you. We’ll meet up with our weapons ready.”
Callie sat back and watched the plans for her protection fall into place and wondered why Mac had so long resisted being a part of this place and these people. They were willing to go to the mat for a total stranger but Callie was no fool, they were doing it for Mac too. He was family. He was their brother.
Squeezing Mac’s hand, surprised at the hot burn of tears in her eyes, she looked at the assembled group. Callie cleared her throat. “You guys don’t even know me. I can’t thank you enough for what you are doing.”
Leah smiled suddenly and reached out to pat her hand. “Oh honey, no thanks needed here. When friends or family needs help you just have to do the right thing.”
“That’s right. Who can you count on if not for friends and family? In the end, we all need each other. It sustains us,” Carmen added softly. Dash came up behind her and settled his lips against her shiny black hair.
With the plan set into motion and feeling a little more safe and secure knowing everyone had her back, Callie headed with Mac into town. Ashley had opened The Gilded Lily and was tidying up the place as the two of them walked through the front door. Immediately Ashley stopped what she was doing and rushed up to hug her tight.
“Hell, honey! I’ve been so damn worried about you.”
Callie shook her head. “I’m okay. My house is a mess but other than that, no real damage done.” She glanced up at Mac. “The big guy here is taking good care of me.”
He put his arm around her, his dark eyes intense. “I’ll keep right on doing it too. I’m heading out to talk to the sheriff but I’m only a phone call away. All right?”
“Okay.” She went up on tiptoes, planning to give him a quick kiss, but Mac made it clear quick wasn’t what he had in mind. His kiss was wild and hot, melting her bones like butter. Sinking against him, Callie forgot about Ashley, the shop, Doug.
Everything.
She’d take what she could get. Every moment of it.
“I’ll see you later,” he whispered against her lips. “Soon.”
“Sooner.”
A wicked, sexy grin flashed. “Soonest.”
Callie stood at the sliding kitchen door overlooking Mac’s backyard studying the shadows that dipped and played over the surface of the pool. That she loved being here was unquestionable. Mac seemed more at home in his new house every day and they’d developed a pattern for living together that was seamless and without worry. In quiet moments she wondered how long it could last. It had been the path of her life that good things didn’t continue forever and one day she’d just wake up to the fear and terror and know it was time to move on. Again.
No.
Wasn’t happening this time.
Deep in her heart she hoped that Doug had finally given up on all this crazy shit, this weird, beyond-strange obsession, but knew it wasn’t so. He was there. Waiting, watching and Callie knew she couldn’t let down her guard until he was permanently gone from her life. Now, in the deep of the night, she knew it wasn’t just Doug’s threat that had her all restless. It was Mac.
She was falling in love with him.
Mac showed her daily with every touch, every stroke of his body into hers, every emotional connection, that he cared for her. But love? Could she be so lucky to earn the heart of a man who’d known so much loss that he’d shut away those vulnerable parts of himself?
Suddenly Mac’s strong arms came around her from behind. “Mac.”
He drew her against his warm, naked body and settled his lips against her shoulder. “I missed you. What are you doing up?”
His voice was rusty from sleep. She sighed and leaned against him, turning her face enough to capture his lips. The kiss was soft, sweet and lush, but holding a comfort that she’d never known before. “Thinking.”
“’Bout what, sugar? Are you worried?”
“A little,” she turned in his arms. “He’s out there. Just being quiet, I know, but I can feel him.”
When she’d gotten up naked from their bed, she’d put on her stretchy tank top along with her panties. Now Mac’s thumb traced the skinny spaghetti straps and slid them off her shoulders. Bending his head, he tasted her bare flesh, nipping gently, drawing it into his mouth before sliding over to taste her throat. “Let me give you something else to think about, darlin’.”
“Umm. What a plan.” Her arms went around him, fingers tracing the long, strong muscles of his back. Mac’s dark skin felt like velvet beneath her palms and helplessly, she lifted her face to him. “Kiss me, Mac. Take me to bed. I need you.”
Mac’s hungry kiss, his answer to her plea, went deep and hot, quick as a flashfire burning. His hands gripped her ass, fingers plying her flesh, and then his fingers were there, beneath the scrap of cotton dipping deep into her cunt. “I love your cream on my hands, in my mouth. You are the most delicious woman, Callie.”
Speechless under the assault of his words, his hands on her body, she managed to gasp his name as he pressed her to the cool glass of the door. His mouth was frantic on hers, eating hungrily at her lips as he finally fisted his hands in her top and yanked it up and over her head. Her nipples pulsed, ached for a firmer touch, and finally, finally he drew one in his mouth to suck. His teeth plied her and Callie could only sink her fingers into his hair and hang on for the ride. Mac released her nipple with a soft pop, licking it once more for good measure before he went to his knees, a loving supplicant, before her. His lips traced her ribs, her belly, before slipping his fingers into the elastic of her panties to find her dripping pussy.
Her panties were drenched, impossibly wet, but then panties weren’t an issue at all. Mac whipped them down her legs and tossed them aside. “Widen your legs. I’m going to eat you out. Now. Come on,” he whispered, his voice rough with lust. “Ah yeah, good girl.”
Mac gripped her naked ass for purchase and buried his face between her legs, his busy tongue working her over until she wanted to scream her pleasure. Her fists tightened in his hair but he didn’t seem to notice. Mac’s heavy palms swept gently over her ass before he focused with laser-like precision on her needy pussy. Parting her labia with his fingers, he drew his tongue along her center in a slow tasting. Callie’s knees went weak. Mac sent his stiffened tongue deep into her channel, leaving her little choice but to hang on for the ride as he fucked her with his mouth, eating her out with the touch of a master. Her clit pulsed and throbbed in time with the pounding of her heart. “Mac! I need—”
“Yeah,” he breathed hotly against her flesh. “Hang on.”
Mac sucked her clit, teased with his tongue as pleasure knotted hard in her belly. Callie gasped a breath, moving against his mouth as the ever-expanding sensations curled tighter and tighter. He sank his fingers into her cunt. Callie burned, ached, crying out sharply as the world imploded, blasting through her body with savage force. She screamed as her body pulsed, tears trailed down her cheeks, and then Mac had her in his arms, his long legs eating up the distance between the kitchen and the master bedroom.
In a hot flash, he had her in the center of the bed, kneeling among the rumpled bed linens. Dizzily, still under the effects of the powerful orgasm, she faced the headboard. Mac came up behind her. She felt the heat of his body blast through her as he guided her fingers to the wooden edge of the headboard.
Holding on tight, she felt him move behind her, heard the snick of paper and knew he was covering himself. Callie sucked in a breath, going still as he dragged the fat head of his cock over her drenched pussy with agonizing slowness. Mac brushed it tauntingly over her swollen clit and then drifted higher to settle at her opening. With a low groan, he buried his cock to the hilt.
Callie gasped then went still as he bent to press his mouth between her shoulder blades in a loving touch that zipped straight to her heart. His hands cupped her breasts, flicking the nipples with his thumbs, pulling gently, and then his fingers were entwined with hers on the headboard as he withdrew then thrust again with savage intensity. Feeling swept her from the bottoms of her feet to the top of her head, hitting every nerve ending in between. Hot and fast he fucked her, so connected with her body Callie had no clue where she stopped and he began. In. Out. In. Out. Little sounds escaped her lips as Mac buried his cock deep, infusing her with pleasure.
“Can’t hold on long,” he gasped.
“Don’t stop. Do it, Mac. Please.”
Every surge and withdrawal lashed her until, mindless with need, she came long and hard, crying his name. Behind her, Mac went still then thrust twice more.
“Callie. God!”
The reverence in his voice was her ultimate undoing. A shiver swept her as, impossibly, she came again.
She loved him. She knew it now. Feelings rolled over her like a song and when she shivered again she knew it wasn’t from the strong orgasms she’d experienced.
Callie was a total goner for the first time in her life. How could she have ever imagined what she’d known with her ex even remotely resembled what she felt for Mac Moreno? It was a shallow, weak thing and nothing like what she had with this man. The power of her emotions swept her but she didn’t want Mac to know. Not yet.
As Mac pulled her into his arms and drew her, spoon fashion, against him, she closed her eyes, the most important question of her life hovering in her mind. Could he love her? Maybe a little bit? Wishing didn’t make things so, but she did it now and kept it up until she felt Mac’s breathing slow as he finally drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Seven
The next morning Callie rode into town with Mac. It felt weird to not be driving her own small compact car but Mac insisted it wasn’t safe for her to be alone. At least not yet. So she didn’t complain and left it parked in the three-car garage at Mac’s house on the ranch. Over the past weeks, she’d begun to feel a little like a refugee from a war-torn country. Most of her things were still at her little rental house but over time, she and Mac had gathered up more and more stuff that she’d found she needed while staying at his place. Her clothes hung across from Mac’s in the big walk-in closet in his master bedroom. Makeup, lotions and perfumes sat alongside Mac’s grooming things in the bathroom.
It was strange for her.
In all the years since her split from Doug, she’d never entered into anything that remotely smacked of the long term. Though Doug’s harassment of her had much to do with that, the truth was she’d yet to meet a guy who’d rung all her bells and then some as Mac had done.
This is temporary, she reminded herself. It was a sad fact of life that good things seldom lasted. At least that had been her reality.
Mustering a smile, trying desperately to shake off the blues, Callie glanced at Mac. “Thanks for the lift into town. I don’t like being dependent like this, you know. It’s just weird.”
Sharp morning sunlight caught on his black hair and emphasized the masculine lines of his face. Solemnly, he reached out and took her hand. “There is a time to be independent and a time to lean on others. You don’t have a lot of choice here, honey, because you know me well enough to realize I’ll do anything to keep you safe until that bastard ex of yours is locked up somewhere.” He smiled a little. “No sense arguing about it. How about I come by for lunch after I’ve finished up at the ranch?”
“Sounds like a plan,” she said as Mac pulled into an empty parking spot in front of The Gilded Lily. “You want to pick up something or shall I?”
“I’ll do it. Sandwiches from Daisy’s Deli?�
�
“Perfect.” Callie opened the door and stepped out of the truck. Looking around, she noted the average, everyday goings-on of small-town life. Several men wearing work clothes stepped from the front door of the nearby coffee shop. The bakery across the street was making homemade bread. The scent of it rolled through the air, making her wish she’d at least had toast for breakfast instead of the single cup of coffee. Teens heading to the local high school drove down Main, honking their horns at each other the way kids do.
When she and Mac got to the door of the shop she dug her keys out of her purse but Mac took them from her and opened the door for her. The cowbell over the door clanged once as they stepped inside and then they both stopped. They could only stare at the scene of devastation.
“What the fuck?” Mac picked up a broken piece of pottery from a display table and turned it over in his hand. Crystal wineglasses had been dashed to the hardwood floors, flowers lay strewn about, their stems broken. An antique dresser that held beautiful frames and other knickknacks had been gouged with something sharp. Most likely a knife.
“Oh Mac,” she whispered. Tears swam in her eyes. All her hard work, all the money she’d spent lay on the floor of her shop like so much litter.
“Bastard.” Mac muttered the word and reached into his back pocket just as Ashley walked in.
She covered her mouth with her hands as she looked around. Then she focused on Callie and rushed up to hug her. “I’d like to kick the crap outta that guy, honey. I’m so sorry.” When Ashley pulled back, she shook her head. “We’ll get it cleaned up, Callie.”
“Don’t touch anything, ladies,” Mac said, holding the cell phone to his ear. “I’m calling Sheriff Coleman.”
Together Callie and Ashley walked through the rubble and found the back door open. It looked like someone had taken an axe to the thing because it hung in pieces from its hinges. How had Doug gotten past the officers who’d promised to keep an eye out on her store? Shaking her head as she headed to the front area again, she reasoned they couldn’t stand watch 24/7. Doug had slipped in and simply done this when they were somewhere else.
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