by Lora Leigh
Not Reno. Not the man she had pinned all her dreams on. She couldn’t lose him as her mother had lost her father. As she had lost her father.
“Don’t go. I’ll do anything,” she remembered whispering tearfully, staring up at him, her hands on his chest, all her naive beliefs that her love for him would keep him with her, filling her.
He had smiled that crooked little grin she loved so well as he touched her cheek and lowered his head. She knew he had meant the kiss to be light. To be comforting, rather than exploding out of control as it had.
“I’ll be back,” he had sworn. “I will, Raven. For you.”
She had slowly backed away from him, shaking her head, as her lips throbbed from the kiss that had sent a swelling wave of hunger rushing through her.
“If you go, I won’t be here.” She had choked on her tears, her fears. “I won’t be here for you.”
“You’ll be here,” he had whispered then, his voice immeasurably gentle, confident. “Just as I’ll be back, Raven. You’ll be here. And once I have you, baby, I won’t let you go.”
She had made certain he never took her. That he gained no more than the stolen kisses he managed to get when he caught her unawares. That he took no more of her heart than he already possessed.
* * *
She was going to drive him insane.
“Damn woman,” he growled.
She had been running from him for years, and he had been aware of it.
But he had made up his mind on a cold winter’s night as he lay alone in his bed, smiling like a fool over a teasing remark she had made one evening. He had made his mind up. Raven was his, and she was going to stay his.
She had been too young then, only seventeen, unaware of how sexual he was, of how dominant he could be. He wanted the woman he saw emerging within her, not the child she still was.
At the time, he was on leave from the Navy and knew the course he wanted his life to take. As soon as possible, he was heading for SEALs training and a military career. It would be years before he could have her. Years, he knew, before she would be mature enough to accept loving him, despite the career he had chosen. But when he had told her his plans two years later, her reaction had only reinforced his belief that she needed to mature first.
She was mature now. And stubborn. Stubborn enough that he knew, if he waited any longer, she would slip out of his grasp forever. With each year, she set herself more firmly against him, more determined that he wasn’t the man for her, simply because the career he had chosen was the same one that had made her parents so miserable.
He wasn’t going to let her run any longer. She was stronger than her mother whether she knew it or not. And he knew damned good and well that she loved him. Otherwise, he would have had a lover to deal with, rather than just her stubbornness. And dealing with her just might end up driving him over the edge of frustration.
His cock was throbbing and that flirty little black skirt she was wearing wasn’t helping matters. It barely covered her ass, showing her long, beautiful legs to advantage, and at the same time baring her lower stomach like a feast to a starving man.
Long, golden brown hair, thick and filled with riotous curls, fell down her back, while her blue eyes watched him with wary arousal. She tried to hide it, but it was there, just as clear as the press of her tight, hard nipples against the snug, matching top.
The flush of her creamy cheeks, the soft part of her pink lips. She was a temptation he wasn’t going to deny himself much longer. He had waited too long as it was. What good did it do a man to fight the endless wars, to survive the wounds and the loss of friends when there was no warmth left in his life? Only fantasies. And it was time to make the fantasies come to life.
His dream of being a SEAL, a warrior, had been fulfilled. It eased that pit of fury he felt each time he heard of the injustices that plagued the world. Now he had his biggest dream to fulfill. That of possessing Raven, heart and soul.
He was in her home. That was the first step. Undermining the enemy’s defenses was best done from inside, as SEALs had proved more than once. Slipping under the wire, undetected, silently setting up the explosion to come.
And she would explode.
He grinned at the thought. Of making Raven so hot, so wild, she went up in flames in his arms.
Damn, he could feel his balls drawing tight against the base of his shaft, his own release begging for freedom. He had a limited amount of time to make this work. For the time being, he was on leave, but that would end the minute his team was needed. He might have a few weeks, at the most, to work with.
And if he didn’t touch Raven soon, feel her lips under his, her body pressed against him, then he was going to be a candidate for the asylum.
He shifted his shoulders in an effort to relieve the tension building there. He was exhausted. He had expected to come home and rest at least one day before putting his plan into motion. Instead, he found his bed occupied, his sister in a frenzy, and the object of his obsession standing before him like the most erotic fantasy he could have imagined. Damn that skirt.
Reno was an ass man and he knew it, and Raven’s ass had tempted him for years. Perfectly rounded, taut and tempting. Her breasts were his second favorite. Full, rounded globes, her nipples pressing hard against the material of her shirt.
Son of a bitch. His cock was so damned hard, he would never manage to sleep tonight. He shook his head at the arousal beating through him and Raven’s obvious determination to close him out of sight. He knew his sister’s best friend better than she thought. She wasn’t working, no matter what she said, so he had no problems whatsoever disturbing her. He was a man on a time limit, and he wasn’t given to being wasteful with his time.
Anticipation surged through him as he strode to the bedroom door and opened it quickly. The stairs were just to his side as he turned the corner and started down them. He heard her voice, lowered, a feminine hiss of fury as she talked on the phone.
“Dammit, Morganna, the man is exhausted. He has shadows under his eyes and his face is almost dead gray. What the hell were you thinking? You knew he was coming home. He told you he was coming home.”
Reno stopped halfway down the stairwell, his head tilting as something melted in his heart. He actually felt the muscles of his chest, his heart, expanding then relaxing at the realization that she was ripping his sister’s ass over that party.
“I don’t care how pissed off you were at Clinton. That’s no reason to treat Reno like that. For God’s sake, he needed to sleep and you let your friends take his bed. What kind of sister are you?… Well you shouldn’t have had the party to begin with. Smack Clinton around. Having a party is not going to get his attention, you nitwit.”
Actually, it would, but Reno saw no reason to point that out. Her brother Clint would make his move when he was ready and not a minute before. He was just as stubborn as Raven. Maybe more so.
“Get his bed replaced, Morganna. He cannot stay here.…”
The hell he couldn’t.
“Don’t give me excuses. I want zero excuses. I want a phone call in the morning saying his bed is ready for him to occupy. Period. Or I swear to God I’m going to tell Clinton all about your lurid little fantasies that you force me to listen to.”
Lurid fantasies? He grimaced. He did not want to know about his baby sister’s lurid fantasies. It was time to cut this conversation short.
Sighing silently, he moved down to the next step heavily, allowing her to hear him practically stomp down the stairs. When he rounded the closed-in space to the small living room, she was off the phone and staring at him with wide eyes. It was the cutest sight. Wariness and hunger reflecting in her deep blue eyes, her breasts moving hard and fast, peaked with hard little nipples as she watched him nervously.
“You’re supposed to be sleeping,” she snapped, a frown forming between her brows. “I hate to hurt your feelings, Reno, but you look like something the cat dragged in.”
A smile tilted his lips.
She made him smile, made him want to linger in the warmth she filled him with.
“I feel like something the cat dragged in.” He agreed with her there. “Am I disturbing you?”
Her shoulders lifted in a defensive shrug. “Not really.” She cleared her throat nervously. “I was just yelling at Morganna. Unfortunately, I think she’s too used to it. She wasn’t paying much attention.”
“That’s Morganna for you.” He watched as her gaze flickered over him, touching him with curious, hungry eyes before being forced away, staring at every point in the room, except him.
Damn, he loved how shy she could be. How sweet she was. How prickly she could get. He figured he had loved Raven all her life in one form or another. But what he felt for her now consumed him. The plan he had set in motion tonight was risky, and he admitted it, he was taking a chance, but he was damned tired of waiting for her to realize how much they meant to each other.
She was watching him warily now, biting her lower lip nervously as her gaze flickered over him again.
“You’re acting like I’m going to pounce on you, Raven.” He moved closer to her. He wanted to touch her so damned bad, it was killing him.
Stopping in front of her, he reached out, one finger twining in a tight curl that fell across her shoulder. Her breath caught, a flush washing over her face.
“Aren’t you?” she snapped. Fiery, accusing, Raven was nobody’s fool. She might be stubborn, but she was smart as hell. “Every time I turn around, you’re trying to grope me.”
He spread his hands out innocently. “I’m just standing here talking to you, baby. If I was going to pounce, you’d be flat on your back on that couch rather than standing there deliberately provoking me. And as I recall that last kiss, you were groping right back.”
It had been right after his last assignment. He had returned home a week late to find Raven sleeping on the couch, having evidently waited with Morganna until he arrived.
How was he supposed to resist her? Years of fantasies, of aching hunger, and there she was, a temptation to his body and to his heart that he couldn’t ignore.
She hadn’t sniped at him or tried to run from him. Sleepy, seductive, she had lifted to him, her lips opening eagerly for his kiss when he knelt beside the couch. He would have had her in his bed minutes later if Morganna hadn’t interrupted them when she did. That kiss, her eagerness for him, and the soft breathy sound of her voice as she whispered her pleasure had sealed her fate. She was his woman.
She frowned darkly. He frowned right back at her.
“I am not provoking you,” she informed him imperiously. “You’re tired and disagreeable. And I really think you should head on to bed and go to sleep.”
She wasn’t running from him, but he could see the indecision in her eyes, the sweep of arousal and emotions filling her. She wasn’t going to back down easily, and she wouldn’t give in without a fight.
“I should be,” he agreed, his voice rough. “I really should be, but this is a hell of a lot more important right now.”
His head dipped down before she could move, if she intended to move. Her eyes widened, her lips parted, and he caught the gasp that escaped her throat.
Bombs exploded in his head. Fire rushed along his nervous system until it centered in his aching cock. She was ambrosia. She was the elixir of life.
His arms circled her, tight, as he restrained his need to eat her alive. His lips moved over hers, his tongue spearing deep as a shattered moan escaped her throat and her hands tightened at his waist before moving to his back.
He could taste coffee, mint, and woman and the alternating flavors exploded on his senses, going to his head like the strongest narcotic. Reno bent over her, surrounding her; he wanted to draw her into every cell of his body as her lips opened, her tongue met his, and his senses flamed. Sweet, velvet heat. The taste of her went to his head, the feel of her causing his erection to pulse and pound with a hunger barely leashed.
“Reno?” Her voice was dazed as his lips slid to her cheek, to her neck.
Her head fell back as his teeth raked her shoulder, her body becoming liquid, pliant. His. He allowed his hands to move, rather than holding her to him, roaming her back instead, pulling at the short length of the skirt until one hand could smooth over her bare buttock. Bare? Fuck!
His hand clenched on the curve as she trembled against him, a thin wail of pleasure escaping her throat a second before she jerked out of his arms.
* * *
“That was damned unfair.” Raven stared back at him, shock and pleasure racing through her system as she fought to make sense of the impulses that still pounded through her body. He made her drunk, made her greedy for more of his kiss, his touch.
Oh God. That kiss. Her hand rose to her lips, her fingers feeling the swollen curves as her shoulder tingled from the rasp of his teeth.
Dammit, she was supposed to be denying him, not falling into his arms like a wimpy sex kitten. But it never failed; he touched her and she melted. She lost her mind, her sanity, her ability to remember the fact that Reno would never let her escape with any part of her heart intact.
He was watching her with blatant hunger. There was no apology, no attempt to hide the lust that burned in his eyes and darkened the features of his face.
“Who said I was going to be fair?” he growled, coming closer, looming over her as she backed into the entertainment center behind her. “Raven, are you wearing panties?”
Heat flooded her face, her body.
“Yes!” she gasped. “I am. Dammit, Reno, you aren’t supposed to kiss me like that.”
Like he was starving for the taste of her, ready to consume her at a moment’s notice. How was a girl supposed to keep her sanity when a man stripped her control with no more than the touch of his lips?
“Why?” His voice was dark, incredibly deep. It vibrated in the pit of her stomach, causing her womb to spasm in need as her pussy creamed heatedly. The panties in question were going to be soaked if this didn’t stop.
She breathed in deeply, striving for control as he moved closer, pressing her into the shelf of the entertainment center as she felt the length of his erection pressing into her lower belly.
“Do you know how long I’ve waited for you, Raven? Since you were seventeen, teasing me, tempting me to take what I couldn’t have. You’re not a kid anymore. You’re a woman.”
She couldn’t handle this. How was she supposed to fight him and herself? Especially when she wanted him so desperately?
“Find Gina what’s-her-name,” she snarled back, remembering the day she had burst into his room to find him naked, preparing to take another woman.
“You were a kid. I was a man, Raven. You are not a child any longer.”
She shook her head. This wasn’t happening.
He was destroying her defenses. He was going to break her heart.
“You tied her down,” Raven gasped. She didn’t want to be tied down. She really didn’t. No matter how many times she dreamed about him tying her to his bed, torturing her with his touch.
“Mmm,” he murmured against her lips, his tongue stroking over them slowly. “Yes, I did. Just like I want to tie you, Raven. Stretched out on my bed, unable to do anything but feel me. Feel me now. I’m dying to touch you.”
His hands slid to her buttocks as he lifted her, notching the hard length of his cock against the swollen pad of her pussy as her clit throbbed in pleasure, in need. Her hands gripped his shoulders, her nails biting into the fabric of his shirt as, helplessly, her legs parted, her thighs gripping his outer legs as his hands held her closer, his fingers massaging the flesh of her ass as she shuddered in his arms.
She couldn’t get the picture out of her head. Her tied to his bed rather than Gina Delaney. Her legs spread for him, the bare folds of her cunt wet and glistening as he came to her, his cock like a living arrow preparing to impale her.
“Reno. Reno, wait.…” His lips were at her collarbone, his tongue stroking the sensitive
skin as he thrust slowly against her, stroking her clit into full blazing life.
Every cell in her body was screaming for his touch. Her breasts were swollen, her nipples … God, her nipples were on fire.
“Ah, Raven,” he whispered, lifting her closer, pressing deeper between her thighs as she shuddered, her thighs clenching, her hips moving against his, rubbing his shaft against her clit as she fought to breathe through the incredible sensations. “Baby, I don’t know if I can let you go now.”
“We have to wait.” She shook her head, struggling against him and herself as she felt the hands at her rear parting her flesh, sending a heated strike of pleasure whipping through the tight, forbidden little entrance there.
“Wait for what?” he growled. “For another excuse to run? You run every time I come home, Raven. How am I supposed to seduce you when I can’t even find you? Dammit, the waiting is over.”
chapter 2
okay, a command, given in such a sexually rough, dominant voice should not have the juices spilling from her pussy like warm honey from a comb. But it did, and they were, even as he picked her up off her feet again and moved quickly to the couch, laying her down as he loomed over her.
His face was savagely cast, his cheekbones high and sharp, his lips full and hungry. She could feel every erogenous zone in her body perking up and taking notice of the commanding male form that had her in his grip.
“Reno, this isn’t boot camp,” she protested, even as she tried not to moan when he pressed her thighs part, his hands gripping her hips, holding her still as her skirt pooled inches above the decent line.
Could he see the crotch of her panties? Were they as wet as she suspected? She shuddered at the thought of him seeing the proof of her desire.
“Hell no, it’s not,” he growled. “Damn good thing, too, baby. I’d have to punish you for insubordination first thing. I might anyway.…” His voice dropped, becoming raspier, sexier. “I could really get into spanking that pretty little ass, Raven.”
