Authors: Mackenzie Crowne
Hot! She was freaking hot, and watching what he was doing didn’t help. She was an artist. Her work often manifested itself in sensual lines, but she’d never seen anything as erotic as the sight of his gilded head against her pale skin. His wide mouth and firm lips paying sweet homage to her breast. His large hand buried beneath her suit while his talented fingers slowly approached the junction of her thighs.
He turned his head, and his heated gaze locked with hers. She panted and anticipation tightened her stomach muscles. A wicked grin curved his mouth as he lowered his head and closed his lips around the fullness of her breast and sucked. Hard.
Sensations she’d never known, never knew existed, tumbled through her like crashing waves. She squirmed beneath him. “Please.”
His throaty hum pulsed against her flesh as his fingers slid into the tight nest of curls between her thighs. A buzzing began in her ears. She might be a virgin, but she wasn’t a stranger to the forerunners of orgasm. A woman had needs, after all, even one with a natural distrust of men, but nothing she’d ever experienced on her own could have prepared her for Tuck’s touch.
Disappointment surged through her when her nipple popped free of his lips and his fingers stilled in their quest. He turned his head, and frustration burned hot in his eyes.
She pushed up on her elbows. Why had he stopped, and why was he glaring at her bag?
Confusion cooled the haze of lust, and as if a switch was flipped, the buzzing in her ears became a distinctive ringtone. Her eyes slid shut, and she flopped back to the couch.
Oh, Mom. Your timing is terrible. As usual.
His fingers dragged over her belly, and he pulled his hand out from beneath her suit. She opened her eyes and wanted to cry as he tugged the straps up over her arms, covering her.
“You should probably get that.”
She stared into his sober gaze for a long moment, then rolled to her side. He shifted his weight enough for her to reach into her bag. Thumbing the phone’s screen, she answered the call. “Hello, Mom.”
“Where are you, baby? Are you all right?”
The muscles of his arms bulged as he pushed off her. He jammed the fingers of one hand into his hair and mouthed, “I’m going for a swim”
.
Her gaze zoomed in on the impressively tented front of his trunks until he turned abruptly and stalked for the door with Walter following.
Her eyelids slid shut, but the enticing image stayed with her. “I’m fine, Mom. I’m at the beach.” She jackknifed her legs and rolled to stand. Moving to the windows, she watched as Tuck’s long legs carried him across the sand and into the surf where he dove clean and disappeared beneath the waves. Walter bounded after him with joyous abandon.
“Are you sure, baby? I sensed a strange vibration in your aura and got concerned.”
Her gaze jerked to the couch she’d just vacated. Well, hell. Could hovering on the brink of orgasm vibrate one’s aura? Thankfully, her slightly hysterical laugh sounded more like a cough. “Nope, no vibrating here.” Well, except for the remnant weakness in her shaking legs.
“That’s odd. Maybe I’m sensing a forerunner to something that hasn’t happened yet.”
If you’d called three minutes later….
“Oh, well. Time will tell. Do you have any idea what time you’ll be home?”
The hair stood up on CC’s neck. “Not really. Why? Where are
you
?”
A slight hesitation, then, “I decided to do a little shopping so I flew in this morning.”
Great. Just what I need.
“Shopping? More like you flew in to try and convince me to see Curt.”
“That’s not true, I—”
“Mom.” She slid her fingers through her tangled curls and shoved them back from her face.
“Okay, that’s part of it, but I can’t help it. The time has come for you and your father to put the bitterness behind you. Besides, I’ve missed you and Kris. Can’t a mother spend some time with her girls?”
She heaved a sigh as Tuck rose from the waves with his back to the shore. He shook his head, and a spray of water shot out in all directions from his shaggy mane. “I’m not questioning your motives, Mom. I know what they are and don’t want to spend the next few days arguing.”
“Then we simply won’t argue.”
She dropped her chin to her chest. As usual, her mother’s sunny promise masked the determination behind her true quest. “How long will you be in town?”
“Oh, no more than a couple of days, maybe three.”
Her eyes slid shut. Three days? With Tuck leaving for training camp in less than two weeks, every day was precious.
“It’ll be fun. We’ll do lunch and visit a few museums, and I really do need to shop.”
She sighed. “Where are you? Do you need to be picked up?”
“No, I’m fine. I’m at the Plaza. Will you be home in time for dinner? I thought we could meet at Carmine’s. My treat.”
On the beach, the roped muscles of Tuck’s arm bunched as he chucked a rock into the surf. Walter dove in head first to retrieve it. “I’ll be there. What time?”
“I made reservations for seven.”
“Fine. I’ll see you in a little while. I’ve got to go.”
“Okay, baby. We’re going to have fun. You’ll see.”
Right. Her mother pestering her to see Curt for two days…maybe three? Yeah, that sounded like a blast.
“Bye, Mom.” She thumbed the phone and tossed it to the couch.
On the beach, Tuck bent to pick up another rock. He sent the stone flying, and she gnawed at her lip. He’d nearly brought her to orgasm only moments before—would have, if not for her mother’s untimely interruption, and she had no idea what happened next. Had he fled so quickly because she’d made it clear discussing her family was off limits and wanted to give her privacy? Or was he upset she’d taken her mother’s call at such a moment? The erection straining the seams of his suit proved tossing rocks to her dog on the beach wasn’t how he saw the next few minutes going.
As bold as he was, she doubted he’d let her act as if that heavy duty petting session never happened. Not that she would. She’d made her bed—she huffed at the apropos expression—and wasn’t at all disappointed at the thought of sleeping in it. No. Of her own freewill, she’d stepped over a line she never thought she could, both emotionally
and
physically, and the sky hadn’t fallen. Quite the contrary. For the first time in her adult life, victory over the neuroses that kept her chained seemed possible, and a normal life dangled within her reach. She’d be damned if she’d crawl back into her self-induced cave of exile.
Perhaps the vibration her mother claimed she sensed was the brand new hope of freedom pulsing in her heart. Whether he knew it or not, Tuck’s brash and bold assistance was largely responsible for her transformation from frightened rabbit to optimistic woman. She owed him a debt she couldn’t ever repay, but she planned to try.
Her head flooded with possible scenarios of how she could show her appreciation, and she cleared her throat. He was right. For a virgin, she did have a dirty mind.
Her only concern was protecting her heart in the process. It would be so easy to fall for him. She was already halfway there. No, guarding her heart was essential, because she obviously had no willpower when it came to her sexy, freedom muse, and it was only a matter of time until they consummated what they’d left unfinished with the ringing of her phone.
Their agreement would end in less than two weeks, but she’d survived nearly two decades under debilitating panic attacks. Surely, she could keep her heart detached for so short a time. And if she failed? Well, she’d cross that bridge if and when she came to it. The demon lust dealer had done his work well. One taste, and her mouth, along with another hot and greedy body part, watered for more.
After plucking several towels from the cabinet near the door, she stepped outside and descended the steps to the sand. Uncertainty dragged at her feet. What, exactly, did one say to a man who had recently sucked your nipples while his fingers played your body like a master musician?
She eyed Tuck where he continued the game of fetch with Walter a dozen yards off to her right. He was a man who met life’s battles head on. It made sense to tear a page from his playbook and do the same.
As if sensing her presence, he turned. He bumped up his chin in greeting, but his usual boyish smile was absent.
Oh, hell
. The direct approach would have to wait, at least until her maniacally beating heart slowed enough to allow her to breathe.
Dropping the towels on the sand where they’d stay dry, she broke into a run. She hit the surf, and as she’d watched Tuck do minutes earlier, she arched into a dive.
* * * *
Tuck waded into the water as CC reemerged from her dive to bob in the chest high waves. Pushing through the surf toward her, he studied her face. A pink blush stained her high cheekbones, and her full lips were drawn tight in a flat line. Clearly she was rattled over the heavy petting they’d indulged in. Considering her lack of experience, he’d have been surprised if she weren’t. But virginal embarrassment didn’t account for the haunting shadows in her thickly lashed eyes, any more than guilt over touching her as he had was responsible for the cataclysmic shifting in his chest.
Jesus. Locked in a closet. Most nine-year-olds would have closed in on themselves in terror and, in a way, she had, but she’d also grabbed at survival, clutching it in her fingers in the form of a blue crayon.
She had no idea how strong she was, but he did.
He ignored the heavy pounding of his heart, knocking against his ribs as the urge to rip apart her kidnappers clashed with a longing to wrap her in his arms and promise her nothing would ever hurt her again. The former wasn’t possible, but neither was it necessary. The men responsible for holding her in the woods would live out their lives in five by eight cells, suffering much worse than the pain from a few broken bones. As for the latter… She might have turned to fire in his arms, singeing both his mind and body with her heated response, but that was simple chemistry. Nothing had actually changed. They had a deal. A short-term one, and exposing his growing primal need to hold her close and protect her from the world’s harms would only scare her off.
He floated close, holding her gaze. “You okay?”
She shoved dripping hair out of her face. “I, uh…well.”
He smiled softly and scraped a fingertip over her cheek to pluck a clinging hank of hair away and tuck it behind her ear. “Take a breath, sunshine. We’ll get to what happened on the couch, I promise, but, for now, I assume that was your mother on the phone. Is there a problem?”
Her harsh laugh was muffled by the palm she dragged over her face and mouth. “Not exactly.” They rose on a swelling wave, and she curved her lips in a weak smile. “She’s in town for a couple days.”
He treaded water at her side. “That’s a bad thing?”
She turned her head to stare out at the horizon. Like diamonds on an endless bed of blue, the sunlight sparkled on the water, but the sight paled against the sober intensity of her profile. “She wants me to see Curt.”
“And you don’t want to.” It wasn’t a question.
She turned and met his gaze with haunted eyes. “No, I don’t.” She dipped her head and looked away. “If that makes me sound like a selfish bitch, so be it. I don’t owe him a damn thing.”
The band around his heart squeezed tighter at the bitterness of her tone. He’d once asked about the root cause of her attacks and had a sneaking suspicion he’d just found the source. He drifted closer on a rising wave. “I was pretty young at the time, but I remember seeing a picture of you with your father after the kidnapping. The two of you looked pretty close. What happened?”
She jerked her head up to stare. “Pictures can be deceiving. Even when hundreds are taken. Especially then.”
He shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” She squeezed her eyes shut briefly and sighed. “As frightening as the kidnapping was, the months following were worse. Curt’s sister, Kris’s mother, was killed in a car accident two months before the kidnapping, and Kris had come to live with us. Instead of taking us away somewhere private where we could heal and feel safe, my father booked a year-long tour and took us along as props. He never missed an opportunity to toss me in front of the cameras.”
Anger bulged the clenching muscles of Tuck’s treading arms.
“I was nine and on the verge of a breakdown. I couldn’t eat
or
sleep. The nightmares were…” She shuddered and a sudden sheen of tears shimmered in her eyes. “Nothing mattered but Curt’s floundering career. For a rocker on the verge of invisibility, the sudden publicity was like winning the lottery.”
“Jesus.” Tuck swam closer, needing to touch her, to remind her the painful memories were all in the past and could no longer hurt her, but that wasn’t true. The memories tortured her still. He rubbed a hand down her arm. “What about your mother? Didn’t she see what was happening?”
CC sniffed and blinked away her tears. “She’s always been blind when it comes to Curt, and she was busy with her modeling career at the time. It wasn’t until six months later when she opened her eyes, after a mutual friend of her and my father’s cornered her and threatened to kidnap me himself. I have no idea what was said or what kind of threat she used to wrest us away from Curt, but I was almost ten and weighed fifty-three pounds when she whisked me and Kris to a small villa in Italy. I haven’t seen him since.”
Dark and lethal, fury churned in the depths of Tuck’s soul. His stomach muscles clenched, and his fingers curled with the need to clamp around her father’s throat and squeeze in repayment of every hurt he’d caused his daughter. But killing Curt Jensen wouldn’t release her from the terror she’d labored under all these years. Only facing her fears and putting them behind her could do that.
Tuck wanted nothing more than to stand by her side and help her do that—if she’d only let him. His gaze roamed over her face before locking on her eyes. “Then maybe it’s time you did.”
Chapter 15