Beginnings

by Sandra R Neeley

  But she stopped him, holding up a hand and smiling up at him. “They’re happy tears, tears of relief. I didn’t know until just this moment if I’d ever be able to look at a male and experience desire again. If I’d ever be able to enjoy the intimacy between a man and a woman again. And I do. I want you, Glenn. Standing here looking at you ready and waiting for me has me all fluttery and breathless,” she said, still smiling at him.

  Acker smiled at her and moved toward her slowly, his arms raised, hands out, fingertips finally coming into contact with her body. “Should I undress you, or do you want to do it yourself?” he asked, unbuttoning the top button on her blouse.

  “You can do it,” she said, dropping her hands to her sides to allow him free access.

  Acker unbuttoned each button of her blouse before nudging it off her shoulders and watching it slide down her arms to the floor at her heels. “Turn around,” he said softly.

  Nina turned her back to him and he unbuttoned, then unzipped her skirt, allowing it too to slide down her body and pool at her feet.

  Acker stepped up behind her and lifted her long, sleek, black hair out of his way so he could nuzzle her neck just where it met her shoulder.

  At the same moment Nina realized that all her scars were on display and tensed up.

  “Shh. You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” he whispered, pressing his lips to the back of her neck.

  “The scars…” she said nervously.

  “Are a testament to your strength and your bravery. They only add to your sexiness,” he said.

  Nina spun around and looked him in the eye, searching for any indication of a lie. She found only an extremely aroused man, who was focused solely on her. Nina smiled at him and reached behind herself, unhooking her bra and dropping it to the floor with the rest of her clothes.

  “Fuck, me,” Acker mumbled, dropping to his knees to worship her body with his kisses.

  Nina giggled. “I plan to,” she said, as he reached for her and wrapped his arm around her waist, holding her in place as he took one of her nipples between his lips and flicked it with his tongue.

  “Oh!” she said breathily.

  He suckled her breasts gently with only tiny little nips between teasing them with his tongue. He didn’t know for sure what she would and wouldn’t like and didn’t want to be too forceful and frighten her their first time together. Once he felt her clenching her thighs together, he knew she was aroused as well and quickly got to his feet, lifting her and striding toward the bed with her in his arms. Acker sat her on the bed, then stood back watching her.

  “I need you,” she said, lying seductively on the bed they shared.

  “Back up for me, further up the bed,” Acker said.

  Nina responded immediately, moving up until she was almost at the head of the bed, then Acker climbed on the mattress and moved toward her.

  “Open your legs for me, Nina. Let me see you,” he said while he licked his lips.

  Nina’s breath was coming in little pants as she anticipated what was to come. She let her legs fall open, revealing herself to Acker, all the while watching his face for any response to her body. When all she saw was desire, ramped up by ten at the sight of her open and waiting for him, she relaxed the rest of the way and lay back, giving him free rein to explore her body.

  “Wanna taste you,” he said.

  “Then taste me,” she answered, watching the man she trusted with her life as he contemplated the best way to devour her.

  Finally, he settled on simply allowing his body to collapse between her legs and pushed her thighs back to get at the center of her. He lapped at her, nibbled on her, and used a finger to roll her clit in little circles while he stabbed his tongue as deep inside her as he could get.

  When Nina started whimpering and rocking her hips back and forth, he made note of exactly what he was doing and made sure not to change a thing — the rhythm he massaged her clit in, the focus and depth of his tongue as it penetrated just inside her, even the motion of his head as he maneuvered to press his tongue inside her, remained completely unchanged as her whimpers became more forceful and her hips actually lifted off the bed.

  “More,” she begged. “I need more.”

  “Tell me what you need,” he said, between laps at her most sensitive place.

  “Inside, I want you inside me. Please,” she begged.

  “In just one second,” he said, replacing his finger with his mouth where it massaged her clit and sucked it between his teeth so he could hold it still and flick his tongue back and forth over it quickly.

  Nina cried out, slamming her hips up and against his face as her fingers gathered the hair on his head and held on to him tightly.

  Acker let go of her clit when she began to relax and lapped her bottom to top while she caught her breath. Then he began to move up her body. He was intelligent enough to know that a man looming over her body might be a trigger for her and held himself in place over her as he looked down at her. “Is this okay?” he asked.

  Nina opened her eyes and looked up at Acker. “Yes,” she answered. “If you were behind me, maybe not, but facing me like this is good,” she explained.

  Acker smiled down at her as he rolled his hips, letting her know that his cock was even harder and more swollen than before, and it was pressed at her entrance.

  Nina moaned softly and lifted her legs, spreading them even further apart to give him better access.

  “If you decide you want me to stop…” he tried to say.

  “Just make me scream. Make me tremble and shake and forget who I am for a little while. Let me know how much I mean to you,” she pleaded, interrupting him.

  Acker nodded and watched her face as he pressed forward, pushing his cock into the woman that had stolen his heart. As her eyes dilated with the pleasure she felt, his own responded, becoming hooded with the arousal and passion he felt at finally feeling himself fully seated inside his Nina. Finally feeling her body grasping his, begging for him to take her to completion.

  “Hold on to me, Nina. I’m not going to stop until we both pass out,” he promised, looking down at her.

  “Prove it,” she said, squeezing him where he rested inside her.

  Acker gave a slight growl, widening her eyes before he pulled his hips back and pushed back into her.

  “Harder,” she said.

  He pulled back and pushed back into her again, harder this time.

  “Harder,” she said again. “You can’t hurt me. Harder, faster. I won’t break,” she encouraged.

  Acker pulled back his hips and slammed into her just like his instinct told him to do. When she closed her eyes and threw her head back, he did it again and again until he was pounding into her and her moans were spurring him on. No matter how hard he slammed into her, she responded by either grasping at his biceps where he held himself above her, or by linking her ankles behind his ass.

  “I can’t hold out long this first time,” he said, realizing his orgasm was something he could not avoid any longer. “I waited so long for you, I just can’t hold it back,” he said, bending his body to drop a quick kiss on her forehead as he continued to slam his cock into her.

  “Don’t fight it,” she said, smiling at him. “We have all day, and the rest of our lives. Let go,” she whispered as she watched his face contort into a snarl as he shouted his pleasure while filling her with his release. Never once did he break his rhythm and the feel of him inside her and the look on his face as he came had her tipping over the edge into her own orgasm as she clung to him.

  Acker’s chest heaved as he looked down at his woman, panting and glowing with a slight sheen of sweat across her chest. “I love you, Nina,” he said, pulling out of her and falling to his side. He rolled to his back while he pulled her with him, and held her in his arms as they caught their breath.

  Nina rose up over Acker and kissed his lips while cupping one side of his jaw in her hand. She looked lovingly into his eyes and pressed her lip
s to his again, but just couldn’t bring herself to return the sentiment verbally.

  Acker didn’t seem to mind and grinned widely at her as he lifted his head to peck her lips again before letting his head fall back to the pillow. “You should rest while you can,” he told her.

  “Oh, yeah?” she asked, lying back down beside him and smiling to herself.

  “Yeah. Because this is just the beginning. I have a whole afternoon of please Nina until she passes out from pleasure planned.”

  Nina giggled and snuggled into his side. “I’d be lost without you,” she finally whispered against his chest.

  “Then you’ll never be without me,” he answered, squeezing her against his side.

  Chapter 34

  Life was good, and it wasn’t long before Nina had fully taken over the administrative offices of Alliance Ranch. She was involved with the financial aspect of The Alliance as well, and helped to keep them on budget. Everything in her life was better than it had ever been. She’d become friends with several of the females and the males who resided at Alliance Ranch, and was acquainted with even more. She was well respected and always kind to everyone she met.

  Which was why Roscoe was so caught off guard when he saw her behave completely out of character while he sat in his office speaking to a potential investor in their company. Seeing what the problem was, he rushed the end of the phone call to get into her office quickly.

  She stood with her back pressed against the rear wall of her office while she stared toward the male who stood in her doorway.

  “Nina?” Roscoe asked, his voice clearly worried.

  Nina didn’t respond.

  Brutal appeared behind the male standing in Nina’s doorway, seemingly alerted to the fact that there was a problem.

  Roscoe met Brutal’s concerned glance, then tried to speak to Nina again. “Nina, hon? Everything’s okay. This is Lethal. I’m not sure why he’s here without an appointment,” Roscoe growled out, “but he leads one of our most effective extraction teams. He’s not going to hurt you,” he explained.

  When still she didn’t answer, Roscoe raised his voice speaking sharply to her. “Nina!”

  Nina seemed to snap out of it and very slightly turned her head to look at Roscoe.

  “This is Lethal. He’s one of our extraction team leaders,” Roscoe repeated.

  Nina faced Lethal again. Then she shook her head as she flattened her hands on the wall behind herself. “No. This is One. He’s not Lethal, he’s One.”

  She stared at Lethal for a moment longer. “You’re not dead,” she whispered.

  “No,” Lethal said.

  Roscoe glared at Lethal, who glared right back at him.

  “Lethal, this isn’t a good idea. Let’s go take a walk and let Nina calm down,” Brutal suggested, placing his hand on Lethal’s bicep.

  Lethal snatched his arm out of Brutal’s gentle grip and snarled at him.

  Brutal’s chest rumbled in response. “You want to go there? We can go there. You know I can match you blow for blow. Let’s get to it,” Brutal said in a much deeper voice than Nina was accustomed to hearing from him.

  “Be careful what you ask for,” Lethal growled at Brutal. “I need to speak with Roscoe, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

  “You need to leave this office. You can clearly see Nina’s upset. It’s unnecessary, Lethal!” Brutal insisted.

  Lethal returned his attention to Nina who still stood in place, only the look on her face had gone from one of fear to one of anger. He canted his head to the side in confusion as he realized she was pissed off.

  “I’m not here to cause you any pain, female. I simply need to speak with Roscoe, and it couldn’t wait.”

  Nina’s chest rose and fell as she took deep breaths trying to calm herself.

  “Can’t we do this later?” Roscoe asked irritatedly, his concern for Nina apparent.

  “No. It cannot wait,” Lethal said, suddenly striding past Roscoe and making himself at home in the chair that sat in front of Roscoe’s desk.

  Roscoe ignored Lethal for the moment while he tried to make sure Nina was okay. “I’m sorry, Nina. He knew not to come here. It was even his idea to stay away and not allow himself to be seen.”

  Nina watched Roscoe as her expression changed from one of anger to one of shock. “You knew?” she asked as her voice rose. “You knew who he was, and that he was here, and you never said a word to me?” she asked, outraged.

  “He didn’t want to affect your life. When he realized you were here and happy, he made the decision to stay in the shadows, away from you, because he wanted you to be happy.”

  Nina looked back and forth between Roscoe and the insolent male currently sitting in his office pretending he couldn’t hear any of their conversation. “He wanted me to be happy?” she shouted incredulously. “Did I just hear you right?” she demanded.

  “Yes,” Roscoe answered, looking toward Brutal to see if he was as uncomfortable with her question as he was.

  “Then maybe he should have considered that before he chose to leave me behind to have to survive whatever the fuck happened to me once he was gone!” she screamed.

  “What?” Roscoe asked, looking over his shoulder toward Lethal to find him rising from his chair to come back into Nina’s office.

  “I never chose to leave you behind!” he shouted.

  “Yes, you did! Do you have any idea how much harder it was for me once you decided I wasn’t worth taking with you? Not only did the other males resent me for being withheld from them, the females resented me, and the guards and Waller enjoyed making a target out of me every chance they got! Can you fucking conceive of the price I had to pay for belonging to the mighty One exclusively after he threw me aside and left me to fucking rot in that godforsaken place?!” she shrieked at him with tears streaming down her face.

  “I didn’t leave you!” he shouted at her. “I was sold to the highest bidder! I wasn’t given a fucking choice! Do you honestly believe that I’d have left my one fucking belonging to the hands of other males if I’d been given a choice?!” he screamed. “You were mine!” he bellowed. “I don’t fucking share!” he roared at her.

  “Nina?” Acker said from beside Brutal.

  Nina still glared at Lethal. “I’m not a fucking belonging! I’m a human being!” she screamed.

  “At least one of us still is!” Lethal snapped.

  “Nina?” Acker said again, moving into her office.

  Lethal growled at him, low and deadly as he moved toward Nina.

  Brutal growled from the doorway in a warning to Lethal.

  Acker threw a look toward Lethal. “Fuck you,” Acker spat at Lethal. “She’s mine now. I’ll never leave her behind.”

  “I didn’t leave her behind!” Lethal shouted.

  Acker reached her side and very slowly, very gently raised his hand toward her until the movement caught her attention.

  Nina’s eyes flicked toward Acker. Once she recognized him, her lip began to tremble and tears filled her eyes, but she fought them, refusing to let them fall.

  “Hi, my love,” Acker said gently, still holding his hand out to her.

  Nina looked at his hand, then over at Roscoe. “I trusted you. And you kept the fact that they’re here from me. I even spoke to you about Two — repeatedly, and you assured me you felt he must be okay. And all the time you knew. You should have told me.”

  “I didn’t want to upset you. I didn’t want you to hurt. You were doing so well and you were happy. I didn’t think there was any reason to tell you Lethal and his team were here. That they knew you were here and were intentionally giving you a wide berth.”

  Nina nodded. “I see,” she said, not convincing anyone that she truly did see it his way.

  “Nina?” another male’s voice said from the doorway.

  Nina snapped her head in that direction. She visibly got herself under control and swallowed before answering. “Two,” she said, as the tears began to track silently
down her cheek. “I’m really very, very happy to see you. I hoped you were okay. I’ve thought about you often.”

  Two smiled at her, a big, genuinely happy smile. “I thought about you, too. We were all worried until we found out you were here. Then, we decided that maybe you didn’t want to remember, so we stayed away.”

  Nina nodded and offered him a smile.

  “Why is it okay for him to want to stay away, and I’m condemned?” Lethal snapped.

  Nina focused on Lethal. “Because he’s kind and caring, and you’re a cold-hearted, self-serving sonofabitch who cares about only his next achievement. Two would not have left me to my fate in that fucking cell, but you had no problem with it.”

  “I didn’t desert you! I came looking for you! How the fuck was I to know you were already here?!” Lethal screamed.

  “He really did,” Two said. “He never stopped looking for you as soon as we were free.” Then Two looked at Acker. “Thank you, for coming after us. I appreciate it — don’t know if I ever thanked you.”

  “You freed them?” Nina asked, turning her attention to Acker.

  “Yes, I did,” Acker answered.

  “He didn’t know who they were. Probably didn’t until today realize they were ever associated with you. None of this is his fault,” Roscoe said, determined to make sure that at least there would be no trouble between Nina and Acker. They were good together, and no matter what happened here today, Nina deserved Acker in her life.

  Nina stood there for a moment before her eyes wandered toward Two again, who stood beside Brutal still smiling at her innocently. She returned his smile as best she could then reached toward Acker with her left hand.

  Acker took her hand in his and tried to pull her into a hug, but she resisted, only allowing him to have her hand. “I want to go home,” she whispered.

  Acker nodded and started moving to the door, escorting her out of the room as she gripped his hand so tightly it was numb.

  Nina paused beside Two and looked up at him. She let go of Acker and reached out to hug him. Two readily accepted her hug and hugged her back. “I’m really glad you’re alive and free, Two,” she said softly. She released Two and reached for Acker’s hand again.