Shattered Valor (13 page)

She shook her head. “I don’t believe that.”

He should get up. He should go.

Fuck that, he argued with himself. She was why he was here. He’d wanted this, thought of it all week.

“Ty, kiss me. Please?” She pulled his hand from its tight grip on his leg, lifting it to kiss his palm. He felt her lips, soft and warm, against the center of his hand. When she bit the flesh at the base of his index finger, he sucked in a sharp hiss of air. He closed his hand over her face, molding it to her cheek, her jaw. He drew his palm down her neck.

She was so soft and open to him. She’d let him do anything to her. She wasn’t defensive. Wasn’t worried or fearful. He looked at her, lost himself in her eyes. “Why didn’t you find the right lover, Eden?” He looked where his hands rested against her neck, his thumb pressing her jugular vein. “Your skin is like velvet. Your eyes are full of light. Did no one see in you what I see?”

She frowned as she considered his words. He drew her forward, took hold of her face with both hands, and pressed his mouth to hers. It was a miracle that she let him near her. Miracles, being rare, should never be wasted.

He opened his jaw against hers, felt hers mirror his movement. Another frisson worked its way over his body. He moved his lips from her mouth to that space between her bottom lip and her chin. She raised her chin, pushing into his kiss.

He needed to know more of her. All of her. Her taste, her rhythms, her passion cries. He wrapped his arms about her and lifted her onto his lap, opening her legs so that they were on either side of his, lodging himself at her core.

He fisted her short hair and ground her mouth against his, forcing his tongue inside her mouth. She tasted sweet. Like morning dew. So damned sweet. Kissing her became as imperative as breathing. His hips rocked against hers. She ground herself against him. Jesus, he wanted her.

He broke from her mouth to kiss her jaw, her neck, licking where her pulse beat so rapidly. She moaned. He felt the vibration of that sound against his mouth.

He stood up, lifting her to her feet. She was like heated taffy in his arms, warm and soft and open. He wrapped an arm around her waist, then led her into the hallway on his way to her bedroom.
Fuck
. The bedroom was too far away. He pushed her against the wall, threading his fingers through hers as he held them above her head.

He kissed her chin, her cheek. He spread her legs with his knees and ground himself against her core. Again, she moaned. Switching her hands to one of his, he freed a hand to stroke over her breasts, down her ribs.

He slipped inside the elastic waist of her pants. She gasped and tried to close her legs but his knees held them open. He took her mouth. His tongue stroked and slid and danced with hers as his fingers found her clit through the cloth of her panties.

“Oh,” she whispered against his mouth. He spread her legs farther apart with his, opening her. He slipped his hand upward, above the rim of her panties, then moved inside them, forking her curls with his wide-open hand.

“Oh, yeah.” He grinned as he took her mouth. “You’re soaking for me. Come. Right here, right now.”

For a minute, feeling his big fingers stroke up and down against her inflamed flesh, Eden couldn’t put a coherent thought together other than to resist for the sake of her pride. “No.” She’d never felt this heated, this on edge. Her breathing was rapid and shallow, hot as it bounced off Ty’s chest and surrounded her.

“Yes. Don’t fight it.” He nuzzled her throat as his hands pressed her sensitive flesh. “Now.”

Heat surged through her. She gripped the hand holding both of hers, tried to pull free so that she could hold his shoulders for support. And then the spasms hit, rocking her body. She bucked against his hand. It wasn’t enough. She needed him. All of him. She cried out. His fingers felt divine.

Too soon, he removed his hand. “No, Ty. Please,” she complained.

“We’re just starting.” He lifted her, slipping her legs over his hips. He rocked against her as she leaned against the wall. At last, her hands were free. She gripped his shoulders, felt his muscles bunch and strain beneath her hands. He was watching where their bodies met, watching the movements he made as he ground himself against her.

She could feel her body heating up again. She wrapped her arms around Ty’s shoulders. “Oh, God. Ty—please!” He carried her into her bedroom. His gait was uneven, but he kept up a steady rhythm between their bodies. “You shouldn’t carry me. I’ll hurt you.”

“That’s not the pain I’m worried about,” he bit out through clenched teeth. He lowered her to the bed, then made short work of removing his boots and socks. Turning back to her, he drew her shorts and panties off, baring her from the waist down. He knelt on the bed and lifted her hips, bringing her slick flesh to his mouth, taking her with his tongue. Instantly, she came again.

When her spasms slowed, he set her down and pushed his jeans and black boxer briefs down his legs. He was rigid, his cock standing straight out from his body.

“Hurry, Ty,” she urged, looking at his turgid erection. He kept a foot on the floor and knelt on the bed with one knee. Taking hold of himself, he pressed the head of his penis to her opening.

“Wait.” She pushed against his chest.

“No,” he growled, his lips drawn back over his teeth.

“A rubber!”

He drew a shaky breath. “Where?”

“Nightstand. Bottom drawer.”

He pulled open the drawer and snatched a rubber. Fitting it over himself, he forced his mind to stay clear of the fact that she had rubbers in her nightstand and wondering who she might have last been with here.

He pushed himself into her. She was tight. Sweet fucking Venus. He eased himself inside her, deeper and deeper, then pulled out slowly. He wasn’t going to be able to hold off long. He pushed in and out, watching himself slide into her. He lifted her and turned them both so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed and she straddled his lap. She took over, raising and lowering her body, grinding herself against him.

He cupped the back of her head and brought her mouth to his. Just when he felt her small muscles start to grab him, his balls tightened, his cock pulsed its release. He gripped her hips, holding her tight to his body so that he could feel her every spasm.

She slumped against him, warm and soft and sated. But he was a long way from finished. He lay back on the bed, then rolled them to their sides. He pulled out of her, removed that rubber, and put another one on.

Her eyes widened. “Again?”

“Again.” He was already hard. He’d never felt like this before. Once or even ten times wasn’t going to be enough. He spread her legs, scooping his arms under them as he kissed the inside of her thigh, up to her hip, over to her navel. She wore a sports bra under her tee. He nuzzled her ribs over her clothes, the space between her breasts, up to her bare skin of her chest. He drew a line with his tongue over the soft side of her neck, then ran his teeth over the ridge of her jaw.

He took her hands in his, holding them up and away from her body. He rocked his hips, positioning himself at her opening, then slipped inside. “God, you feel so good. Move your shirt. I want to suck your tits.”

She pulled her tee over her head. Ty impatiently pulled her sports bra down over her nipples. Gripping a breast, he kissed the soft flesh, then mouthed her nipple while stroking inside her core with his cock.

Eden cried out. She pressed his head tighter to her breast. He sucked her nipple, hard, then not so hard, then hard again, as he pumped inside her. She bent her knees and began bucking against him, meeting his thrusts.

“Ty! Oh! Now!” He gave her what she needed, slamming into her, seating himself fully within her. He felt her tremors begin as her body fisted his cock, triggering his own release.

It took a long few minutes for either of them to catch their breath. He rolled them to their sides. He hadn’t left her body, didn’t want to ever leave it.

“I knew it would be like that between us,” he whispered as he stroked her face. “What did I tell you about not having found the right lover yet?”

Eden touched his face. “Is it always like that for you?”

He looked into her eyes for a long moment before shaking his head. “Never before.” He rolled over, lifting her above him. “When we go back, we’ll be staying at my house. You know there are plenty of rooms you can pick from, but you can stay with me, if you prefer. I’d prefer it.”

“I think it would be best if I took a separate room.”

“No one would be shocked if you stayed with me. The guys have been taking bets on how long it would take me to see you again. Stay with me.”

A car door shut outside, dragging Ty’s focus from Eden. Something about the weight of it, the sound it made closing, caught his attention. He kissed Eden, then rolled her over and disengaged. He took the rubber off and tossed it in the trash as he walked to the window. Through the blinds, he could see a family was getting out of an SUV. Nothing exciting. He pulled his boxers and jeans on.

Eden was drawing up her shorts. She’d pulled a hoodie over her tee. “Eden,” he said, “put jeans on. And your sneakers.”

“Why?”

“Because it still gets cold at night where we’re going.”

“I packed my sneakers.”

“Then wear your boots.” She shucked her shorts. Ty watched as she bent to grab a pair of jeans from her dresser. He got hard just thinking she’d be his again soon. He’d spend hours between those legs. She turned and caught him looking at her. He wanted nothing more than to take her back to bed, but a strange tension was pestering at him, urging him to get moving.

He picked up the other rubber and threw it away with the first, then pulled out the trashcan liner and tossed it away in the kitchen trash. He pitched the remains of their pizza and grabbed the trash bag to throw away on their way out.

Carrying her duffel, he waited by the stairs as she locked her apartment door. The tension he’d felt earlier was increasing. Maybe it was just that they were outside. Tank sat down and waited for her. He wasn’t anxious, just excited that he got to go somewhere.

“Oh! I forgot,” she paused and looked around, “rubbers,” she whispered.

“We have them at the house. Are you kidding? With nine guys, we’re well stocked—” he sent her a hasty look, hoping she wouldn’t misinterpret him “—if not well supplied. Let’s go.”

“My car’s this way.”

“And mine’s that way.” Her three-story garden complex could be accessed from either side. He’d parked in the back.

“I’m not leaving my car behind.”

Ty’s tension ticked in the corners of his jaw. Something was coming. “Do you know how to evade a tail?”

“No.”

“Do you know how to drive when you’re being shot at?”

“No.”

“Is your car bullet-proof?”

“No.”

“Then I’m driving. Let’s go.” He hooked a hand around her elbow and propelled her forward. He tossed the trash, then followed Eden to his SUV. He was just starting the engine when he saw, through the alcove in the building, a black Mercedes SUV pull into the parking lot. He put the SUV in gear and pulled out, driving down the apartment complex’s parking lot to the next exit.

Eden saw him looking in the rearview mirror and looked back to see what had caught his attention. She gasped. “That’s the Mercedes that shot at us!”

“Yep.”

“Oh, God, Ty! What do we do?”

“We’re going to get outta here. Just slow and easy.”

“Did they see us?”

“Not yet.”

Ty made a few different turns. Eden’s apartment was near two intersecting highways, one running north-south, the other east-west. He took side roads to a back way that went to Laramie, afraid that if he got on the highway, they’d be spotted.

Eden folded her legs up in front of her and gnawed nervously on the cuff of her hoodie as she watched what was happening in the passenger-side mirror.

“Breathe, sweetheart. Nothing’s happened yet.”

Eden gritted her teeth. Night was falling. They were on a remote road where there was no cell phone reception. They might or might not be being followed by gang members who wanted to kill them. What was there to be nervous about?

“I shouldn’t have come. I’m not cut out for this, Ty.”

“If you hadn’t, you’d be sharing your pizza with the two yahoos in that Mercedes.” There might have been more men in the backseat, but the tinted side windows made it hard to see.

She shut her eyes and turned toward the window, refusing to contemplate what might have happened had Ty not come down or if they’d not left when they did.

Ty’s phone rang a short while later. “Yeah,” he answered, then waited while someone spoke. “I’ve got her.” After a pause, he cursed. “We saw them on our way out of her complex. We’re almost to the house.” Another pause. “Right. I’m out.”

She looked over at him, wondering about that call. He said nothing as he continued to drive.

It was fully dark when they reached Ty’s house. Lights were lit on both floors. Ty backed into the garage and shut the overhead door before getting out. They entered the house through a short hallway from the garage, then went into the kitchen. She hadn’t paid much attention to the kitchen when she came through it during her search—she’d been completely focused on Tank.