“Oh dear. Well, that won’t do at all.” His brow furrows as he glances out the window at Daniel’s silhouette. The man is starting to rub his arms and hunch over.
It’s amusing, but it doesn’t make me feel much better. “I’m really worried that this creep will blackmail him into leaving. Or do something worse. My friend is strong, but he’s the kind of man who will sacrifice everything for someone he cares about. I can’t let him leave to protect me. I need to find a way to help him stay.”
He looks over at Aaron as well, and then smiles knowingly. “Have you told this man how you feel about him?”
“I…kissed him.” I look at him in confusion.
He chuckles. “Oh, I understand. Well, kisses can mean many things, even between lovers. You need to tell him everything. Give him the reasons why you offer your heart. Give him a reason to stay so that he will never give up.”
I don’t know if he’s incredibly wise or drunk as hell and determined to sound profound—the whole town knows he has a weakness for schnapps, especially around the holidays. It works, though. I know what I have to do suddenly, as if a puzzle piece has finally snapped into place. “Thank you,” I say quietly. “That won’t be easy to do, but I’ll…find a way.” If I can.
“You’re quite welcome. Now as I understand it, you probably want a ride out of here so you can avoid that nasty little fellow on the sidewalk.” He winks, and I manage a smile.
“Thank you. Yes, I would.” Daniel can kiss my ass. I am going to stay out of his way and work as hard as I can against his purposes, by taking Whitman’s advice.
I try to sleep for a while after I get home. I manage a nap, still half in my clothes, the covers pulled up to my chin. Around midnight, my father stumbles past my door on the way to the bathroom and peers in, as if confused by the open door. I pretend to be asleep, and he moves on.
Later, I roll over and look at my phone. It’s three-thirty in the morning, half an hour to last call. Dad won’t be out of bed until it’s time to clean up for late morning service.
I shouldn’t do this. But Whitman’s words ring in my ears. The terrible sense that time is running out, and that I have to act now to make sure that Aaron stays, haunts me as I pull my coat, scarf and gloves back on and stomp into my boots.
I don’t quite beat Aaron home. Fresh snow is scraped off on the steps leading up to his door, and his lights are on. I walk up to the door, steeling myself, and knock twice.
I hear excited barking, and then footsteps. A few moments later the door opens, spilling warm air out onto my chilled face, stinging my skin. Aaron barely has his coat off and his hair is still mussed from his hat. His eyes widen when he sees me.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he protests, and I just smile and brush past him into the trailer. Moose ambles up, thumping his tail. I give him a friendly scratch as Aaron sighs and closes the door. “Dammit, Jules.”
“I think I should be here,” I insist softly. “I think we have some unfinished business.”
“We can’t. I can’t.” He moves past me, settling onto the tiny brown built-in couch and dropping his shaggy head into his hands. “I’m flattered as hell, but—” he starts.
I scowl. “Don’t give me that. You want this as badly as I do.”
I know that I can put an end to this argument right away, in a way he’s not going to have much power to resist. Mostly because he won’t want to. But as I move closer to him and I see the bleak look in his eyes, I can’t help but hesitate. I want him on board without any kind of…influence.
“Look,” I say softly as I stand over him. “I’ve had a crush on you since I first saw you, okay? Then you became my friend, but I never stopped wanting you. It’s only gotten worse over time.”
He closes his eyes and tips his head back like I just slapped him. I wonder how he’s spent so long alone. How could any woman see that look and not want to hug him and make it better? Because he’s big and scary-looking?
So is Moose, and he spends a quarter of his time being cuddled by small children.
“It’s been that way for me too,” he admits, and my heart aches at the desperation in the back of his eyes. “I don’t want anyone else, ever. I want you. No lie. But I’m not good for you. You deserve—”
“I deserve to make my own damn decisions about who I choose to be with,” I reply insistently. “I want to be with you. I want you to stay here, and build your life here like you’ve been doing—but I want you to build it with me. You know we’d be great together—we always are.”
He stares at me in amazement.
“Please,” I say softly as I walk right up to him, reaching over to run my hands through his shaggy hair. “Don’t let anyone get in the way. Not Daniel, not my father. We both want this, don’t we?”
I want it—breathlessly. Even if it ends up hurting. I want his body against mine. I want to know what his cock will feel like inside of me. I want to hear him groan with pleasure again, and have him do things to me that will make me scream.
He’s in so much pain, and he’s so isolated. I want to fix it. “I don’t know much about relationships, but when you really want to sleep with the guy who makes you happier than anyone else, isn’t that a good thing? Especially if you’re both single and into the idea?”
That gets me a thin smile. “Normally, yes. But you’re forgetting that you’re the preacher’s daughter, that you’re in training to replace him, and that in general, you’re a fucking angel, while I’m…”
“You’re what, Aaron?” I glare at him. “If you say you’re just like Daniel, you’re going to catch hell for it.”
He holds up his hands, shaking his head. “No, but I’m not great. Even though I didn’t touch that guy they popped me for, I’ve broken the law a lot. I’m not innocent of wrongdoing.
“I was the club’s lookout. I helped guard their clubhouse. I didn’t go to that bank knowing Daniel planned to rob it, but I was still there. And I stood there too long yelling at my brother to stop instead of stopping him.”
The guilt in his voice tells me that’s the real reason he’s still so ashamed—maybe even the reason he accepted the jail sentence. He didn’t save an innocent man from his brother’s fists. He was a bystander instead of a hero. “And you think that I deserve someone who would jump in to protect me right away. No hesitation.”
He nods slowly. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”
“It’s funny, because you’re one of two people in my life that I trust completely to do just that. Otherwise, I would never have fallen in love with you.”
He flinches away from my smile like he’s staring at the sun, and I wait patiently until he looks back before going on. “That big, bad part of you that you think would scare me off, it only comes out when you need it. I don’t know how you were when you were twenty-four, but I know that that part of you would jump to protect me or any other innocent person around here now.”
He can’t speak right now or look at me, so I bend over and hug him tight, because I can’t hold back any more. He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me against him, burying his face against my breasts.
The feel of his breath against my skin, even through the weave of the scarf, makes me tingle. I tremble slightly, knowing he is about to discover a secret I’ve carried most of the night, just for him. If anything can pull him from his grief and doubt, it’s that.
“Maybe I am a better man now than I was then,” he mumbles. “But I still don’t deserve you, baby.”
“If you want me, you should leave that decision up to me,” I murmur soothingly, stroking his hair. “It’s my choice. It’s yours, too. Respect that.”
And then I let out a little laugh, and finally unleash my confession. “Besides, I’m not perfect. I did kind of come here to screw your brains out.”
He blinks up at me slowly, astonishment gradually replacing all signs of self-loathing. “Well…damn.”
I lean down and kiss him, and he squeezes me tightly against him before his mouth runs
down from mine, sliding over my throat. My eyes roll closed. Oh yes.
Then his mouth moves lower, and he unties the scarf and throws it aside to get at more of my skin—and stops dead. He notices, finally, that there is no collar to unbutton. The skin beneath is bare.
Chapter Seven
Julia
“Holy shit,” Aaron mumbles, as I slowly tease open the coat to reveal a strip of naked skin that runs down to my navel. It took all my nerve and willpower to walk out my door like this, and the look on his face is worth it.
I’m still blushing, and hoping he’s too captivated by the view to notice.
“You…were…really committed to this idea,” he murmurs in a tone of delighted shock.
I have to press my lips together to keep from giggling. Deep breath. “Um. Well, yeah.
“I barely know anything about this sort of thing, but I thought I could get your attention by being a little…creative.” Because otherwise, what would a man with so much more sexual experience than me want with a boring virgin who knows nothing?
He looks up at my face—and chuckles warmly, shaking his head. “You’re blushing like crazy, baby.”
“Yeah, well,” I say a little more seriously, “if I have to go out of my comfort zone to catch your attention, it’s worth it.”
He swallows. “You’ve got all my attention. Always have.”
I nod, feeling some of my embarrassment fade. “Good, because if it’d been five degrees colder then I would have frozen my tits off.”
“Oh God, no, none of that. I don’t want anything bad happening to your tits or any other part of you.” He punctuates his words with fervent kisses between the two parts we’d just been discussing, for emphasis.
My knees get wobbly at once. Oh boy.
It must have taken a lot of strength for him to pull back from what I hope will become his favorite pillows. But he looks up at me again, and says, “Wait…are you using sex to convince me to stay here? Kind of sinful, isn’t it?” Half amused, half dubious.
“I’m here because I love you, and you make me weak in the knees, you big dope.” I bend forward to kiss his forehead and he groans as my cleavage ends up in his face. “I really want more than sex out of this, and I think you do too.”
“I do,” he mumbles. “I’m crazy for you. I’ll blow my savings on a ring tomorrow if you want.”
“Don’t you dare! I don’t want anything that fancy.” My heart is absolutely singing, and from the way he’s practically vibrating out of his clothes, I suspect it’s the same for him.
I do pause a moment, though. “Wait. Are you just saying that because my boobs are in your face?”
“Not just,” he says dreamily, his voice rather muffled.
“Okay, just checking.”
Then he gets back to kissing me there, and his hands slide the coat all the way off of my shoulders, dropping it to the floor. I gasp, and he holds me steady as my knees wobble. I wrap my arms around his shoulders and focus on staying upright while he runs his mouth all over my bare skin.
His breath is warm, his unshaven chin a little scratchy, and his lips softer than I expected. Now and again, the hot dart of his tongue seeks me out as he holds me—at all my pulse points, the hollow of my throat, every bit of my breasts, before finally focusing on the edges of one and circling inward. I start to pant and whimper through my closed lips.
His mouth closes over my nipple, and I let out a sharp cry. My hands cling to his shoulders as he pushes forward, sucking in long strokes. The sensation leaves me drugged in moments—I’m tingling all over, moaning in time with his pulls as my vulva starts to ache with need.
It feels incredible…better than any of my imaginings. Somehow, it starts to feel even better every second, as I become more turned on than I have ever been in my life. My cries of pleasure fill the small space shamelessly, and I can tell it turns him on—he shudders every time I moan, and he eventually responds to each one with a low grunt of pleasure.
He changes nipples every once in a while, teasing me into a frenzy. Eventually my legs start shaking, and the thermals I’m wearing on my lower body feel like they’re smothering me. I croon wordlessly, not able to form words while his mouth remains on me.
He holds me firmly, and I sway and cling to him and make noises. I’ve lost the ability to do much more. My heart pounds in my ears, and every shift of his lips against my nipple sends fresh electric jolts of bliss through me.
If I had known it would be this good, I would have chased him down topless well before now, I manage to think. He sucks harder, nibbling and licking in between long pulls, and suddenly I can’t even think. I rock against him, my whole mind overwhelmed by sensation.
I manage to step out of my boots and kick them away, glad to be rid of them—wishing I could be rid of everything. I want his hands all over me. But when I let go of him to try to shuck my thermals off, my legs almost give out.
He grabs me by the hips…and then runs his hands down over the globes of my ass, caressing and kneading them through the fabric before pushing the thermals off and doing the same to my bare skin. The cool air blows against my dripping, aching sex, but does nothing to lessen the heat there.
His rough hand slides smoothly around to cup my vulva while the other grips my ass to steady me, and his fingers tease against the insides of my thighs. No one has ever touched me there, and for a moment, even though it’s him, and I’m practically in ecstasy already, I almost freeze up.
It’s too much. But I breathe deep and whimper my way through it as he starts to rub and knead my whole mound at once. He does it gently and softly at first, then more roughly, dipping his fingers in between my lower lips and stroking them up and down.
My eyes roll in their sockets uncontrollably as powerful jolts of pleasure run through me with every stroke of his fingers. He finds a rhythm quickly, and though his touch is delicate, he will not let me go.
I unsnap his vest impatiently and start unbuttoning his shirt. My hands shake; I fumble clumsily, sometimes having to stop just to hang onto him. Finally he stops caressing and suckling me, leaving me standing there trembling and staring down at him in shock.
He smiles lazily, his eyes burning, and shrugs out of his vest and shirt, then strips off his thermal underneath and tosses them both aside. I look down at him, his barrel chest and burly arms tattooed with bluish ink, and the thin, curving scar that runs along his side. I have to squash the sudden impulse to lean down and kiss it better.
Then I catch sight of him unbuckling his belt, and suddenly that has all my attention.
His belly flexes as he sits forward and shucks the leather jeans and thermals off with one firm shove. His cock springs up against his scarred belly and I stare at it for a moment, a little shocked. I guess every part of him is huge, I think through a haze of lust.
“I won’t hurt you, baby,” he promises, coaxing me forward onto his broad thighs. I clamber onto him, sitting high, not sure what to do next. His cock brushes against my belly, and I feel that ache deep in my vulva again.
He starts to caress me between my legs, and this time he slowly dips the tip of his finger into me, getting it slick with my juices as he watches my face for my response. I whimper, gasp and squirm, wanting more, and let out a little moan of disappointment when he draws his finger out again.
He starts stroking my clit again in that same way, softly, but without ever letting up, and my back arches as I push my hips forward. He moves slightly, and as I lift up on my knees with my legs on the couch on either side of him, I feel the head of his cock pushing at my opening.
For just a moment, I don’t know if I can handle this, and I hesitate. But then I smile to myself. Of course I can. It’s new…but I’m driving, and the sight of him shaking and panting under me as I roll my hips to start taking him in makes me bold.
“Unh!” He shudders as I sink down on him, head lolling, and I feel a rush of power as I bear down. It hurts…but only for a moment as my unaccustomed body tak
es him in. Then the pressure on my walls, feeling him stretching me, rubbing against sensitive spots inside me, starts intensifying the pleasure of his caresses.
I straddle him, arms around him, and kiss him. He groans into my mouth as I rock my hips experimentally. His eyes are glazed. I can do anything I want to him right now, and he’ll probably beg for more.
We move together while he continues to stimulate me, his hand tireless between my thighs while I moan and roll my hips unconsciously around him. “Oh that’s so good, baby,” he purrs in my ear. “Harder?”
“Yes,” I whimper, and he starts lifting his hips against me more roughly, grunting softly with the effort. His hand moves steadily in time with his thrusts, and he bears down just a little more, leaving me gasping with pleasure and grinding against his hand.
He pushes his cock into me again and again; the pain dissolves, and my muscles start to tighten around him as my whole body tingles with pleasure. I can hear myself moaning and crying out for more, and he pants through his teeth before leaning me back so he can fasten his mouth onto one of my nipples again.
The triple sensation leaves me sobbing uncontrollably with joy. Something’s coming. Each stroke of his finger, suck of his mouth, and thrust of his cock feels better, and better, and better…
He stops.
I cry out in protest and squirm against him, but he just smiles and grabs me by the hips before lifting me and standing up. Still inside of me, he kisses me, and then starts walking us slowly toward his bed. We kiss the whole way.
He starts panting again partway there, and pushes me against the wall, bracing me against it while he thrusts in roughly. His surging cock stokes the flame again. I hang on for dear life, stunned by how primal it is, and my breathing fragments into tiny, desperate sips of air.
I feel my body tensing deliciously…and then he stops again.
“You’re torturing me,” I moan. I can’t stand it.
I don’t know what it feels like to cum. I’m a little scared of the power of all these feelings. I just know that if I don’t relieve the sweet, agonizing tension in my body soon, I’m going to start crying.
Lucky’s Naughty Angel Page 5
