Chapter 12

“Mia isn’t home?” Landry asked. He was seated at the kitchen table while Everly collected what little she had in the way of first-aid supplies from the bathroom. Well, at least she had some antiseptic spray. Unfortunately, Everly didn’t have any medical gauze, but hoped her makeup remover pads would work in their place.

She had nearly lost her mind when she saw Landry standing there covered in blood. She’d just been daydreaming about how much fun they’d had the day before, laughing and dancing at the wedding, then making love all night. When she’d seen all the blood, every romantic image in her head evaporated in a wave of fear and anger.

“Mia went out with Joseph again. Something about going dancing with the Scooby Gang,” she murmured distractedly as she walked into the kitchen and piled her stuff on the table.

She couldn’t help looking at the police belt he’d hung over the back of the chair. The holstered gun seemed so much bigger now that he wasn’t wearing it. Her idiot brothers could have gotten shot attacking him.

Landry smiled. “Mia and Joseph really seem to have hit it off. Maybe we should find out where they went and join them.”

Everly gave him her best are you kidding me? frown. He still had dried blood crusting on a cut along his jawline. The outside of his left arm was covered in more blood from elbow to wrist, and a rip across the back of his SWAT T-shirt told her he’d been hit there too. And he was suggesting they go out clubbing. She should have learned from growing up with four brothers that men were stupid.

“Why haven’t you taken off your shirt like I asked?”

He shrugged, wincing a bit as he did. “No need to do that. Like I said, it’s just the scratches you see.”

She pinned him with her gaze until he relented with a sigh.

“Fine. But I’m sure it looks worse than it is.”

When he yanked the dark blue shirt over his head, it took everything Everly had to not cringe in horror. “I’m going to find all four of my brothers as soon as I get a chance and remove their balls with a pair of rusty scissors.” She swore as she cataloged his injuries. “I can’t believe they did this to you.”

She’d known Landry hadn’t wanted to take his shirt off because he was trying to hide the damage underneath. She wasn’t stupid. She’d seen those baseball bats lying outside. She knew what that meant. But she never imagined her brothers could do something like this. They’d always been protective of her since her mother had died, but this was insane.

Landry had big purple-red bruises and welts already coming up along his rib cage on the left side, several places on his back, and even on his right shoulder. Two of the ones across his back were so bad they were bleeding. Well, they had been bleeding, but they weren’t now. She couldn’t imagine how hard her brothers had hit him to do this.

“Maybe we’d better take you to the hospital,” she said. “I think this is way beyond the antiseptic spray and Band-Aid stage.”

Landry laughed as he craned his head around, looking at himself. “Nah. I’ve beaten myself up worse playing volleyball. Just clean me up, and I’ll be fine. Trust me.”

She doubted that. But she’d learned a long time ago that you can’t simply talk logic into a man. It was a foreign language. So she grabbed some paper towels, soaked them in the sink, and then gently washed the blood off his left arm.

She’d known Landry was tough, but she was amazed by how he could sit there and chat about Mia and Joseph the whole time she worked. It had to hurt.

After she got most of the blood off, she was relieved to see the impact point on the outside of his forearm wasn’t nearly as bad as she’d originally thought. With all the blood, she was sure there’d be a nasty gash big enough to park a small car in. But there was just a thin, shallow line, no more than an eighth of an inch deep. It was hard to believe it had bled so much.

Still, it was blood. Worse, it was Landry’s blood. And that made her queasy. So as she moved to the other cuts and bruises, applying antiseptic as she went, she distracted herself by asking him about her brothers’ attack and what the hell they were going to do about it.

“I guess all we can do right now is avoid them and hope they realize I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. “And we’re not splitting up just because they want us to.”

Everly liked the sound of that. She decided then and there that if her brothers came at Landry again, she’d have them arrested—if they lived through the encounter. She glanced at the gun holster.

She wiped dried blood from the long red welt that lay directly across his spine. Even though he didn’t seem phased by her ministrations in the least, she still worked carefully, applying just enough pressure to get the blood off and using the fingers of her free hand to protect those parts of the welt she hadn’t reached yet, so she wouldn’t tug on the wound. “You had a gun. Why didn’t you draw it on them?”

Landry didn’t answer right away. When he finally spoke, his voice was extremely soft. “Everly, a gun isn’t a prop. If you pull a weapon on someone, it’s with the intent to shoot. And I was never going to shoot your brothers.”

She nodded, realizing that had been a foolish question. And as furious as she was with her brothers, she didn’t want them to get hurt. Well, maybe have their balls kicked in, but not shot.

Everly finished up his back and moved in front of him to wash off the blood along his jawline. She couldn’t get the chair close enough though. And when she tried to stand and lean over to do it, Landry chuckled.

“Here, let me help you,” he said, putting his hand on her waist and tugging her closer until she was straddling his lap.

She had to lift up the hem of her flowy dress to make it work, but yup—sitting like this definitely made tending to the cut on his jaw much easier. Of course, sitting on him like this was also a bit distracting. The position was more than a little sexual, especially with her dress hiked up the way it was. For a moment, she wondered if Landry had that in mind when he pulled her onto his lap, but that was just silly. There was no way Landry could be in the mood, not after getting beaten with baseball bats. She stuffed her overactive imagination back in its box and did her best to pay attention to her patient.

She tilted his face to the side and gently patted the dried blood from his jawline. Like the other cuts she’d cleaned, this one wasn’t nearly as bad as she’d thought. It was probably still going to leave a scar, but at least it wouldn’t need stitches.

Everly was just running her pad down Landry’s neck to get a few spots she’d missed earlier when she noticed that his eyes had taken on a languid, relaxed look. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was enjoying what she was doing. But then another, more alarming thought struck her. What if he was going into shock or something?

She lifted his chin to look into his eyes. “Hey, are you okay?”

He smiled, his eyes going from languid and relaxed to smoldering in the space of a heartbeat. “I’m very okay. But I think you’ve gotten me about as clean as you’re ever going to.”

Reaching out, he took the pink-tinged makeup pad out of her hand and set it on the table. Then he grasped her waist and pulled her higher on his lap. The move spread her legs open a little wider, causing her dress to ride up even more. Something hard poked her through her panties, and she glanced down to see a very obvious bulge in his uniform pants.

She lifted up a little. “Hey! You shouldn’t be getting excited. You just got beat up by four guys swinging baseball bats. You should be resting.”

His laugh was husky as he tugged her back down on his lap, putting her panty-covered pussy in firm and interesting contact with that bulge of his. She wiggled around, trying to get into a more comfortable position, preferably one that didn’t put so much pleasurable pressure on her clit.

“You should have thought about that before you climbed on my lap and started wiggling around,” he pointed out with that sexy grin of his.

“I didn’t climb on your lap. You pulled me,” she said. “And I am not wiggling.”

He raised an eyebrow. That’s when she realized she was wiggling. Well, gyrating was a better word for it. But that wasn’t her fault.

She forced herself to stop then stabbed him with a glare. “Landry, I’m serious. I don’t want to hurt you.”

He lifted a hand and gently cupped her face. “Everly, you could never hurt me.”

She was just grasping the deeper meanings behind those few simple words when his finger dipped under her chin and tugged her forward. Then his mouth was on hers. He kissed her softly at first, then with more passion. It quickly became obvious that Landry was just fine—and very aroused.

Everly tried to kiss him back as gently as she could. She was serious about not wanting to hurt him. But once Landry’s tongue slipped inside her mouth and started playing Twister with hers, that willpower soon turned to mush. She buried the fingers of both hands in his hair and yanked him forward, returning his kiss with an almost violent desire. She nipped at his lips then sucked on his tongue, moaning as she let herself go wild. She didn’t know what it was about Landry’s kisses that drove her so crazy, but it was like the taste of his tongue was an aphrodisiac. One little kiss, and she was ready to rip off his clothes.

She was pleased to see that she seemed to have the same effect on him. He groaned deep in his chest until he let out that growl she found incredibly sexy. Then he clamped his hands firmly around her hips and rocked her in a slow, sexual rhythm on his hard-on.

Good thing she’d worn a dress today. With nothing between her clit and that bulge in his pants but some ultrathin cotton, Landry would be able to make her come without them ever taking off their clothes. The pressure on that most sensitive spot was absolutely perfect.

As the tingling between her legs grew, she moved her hips faster in quick, little circles that soon had her breathing harder and harder.

Suddenly light-headed, she dragged her mouth away from his to suck in a breath. That was when she realized that he’d slid her dress all the way up to her hips. He held it bunched there, and now that they weren’t kissing, he could see exactly what she was doing down there.

She almost blushed at how wanton she looked grinding on him like this. But she didn’t, because she felt completely comfortable being as naughty as she wanted.

Everly clutched his shoulders, her breath coming in quick pants as her orgasm approached. She was going to come just from grinding on him. It was like they were crazy teenagers in the back of a car at a drive-in movie theater.

The circles she made with her hips got smaller and tighter, becoming more twitches than grinds as she rounded the corner of the last turn and raced for the finish line.

She looked up and saw Landry gazing down at her with those beautiful, light-reflecting eyes of his. She was going to come as he watched her playing with herself. This had to be the hottest thing she’d ever done.

She was seconds from exploding when Landry stopped her.

Everly gasped as his grip tightened on her hips. His hands were so damn big and strong that she couldn’t move an inch. He held her pressed against him so that the tingle in her clit kept going and going, but he refused to let her wiggle enough to finish. The sensation built and built until she thought she would scream. Then it built some more—and she did scream. Well, not really a scream, but definitely a whine of frustration.

That’s when Landry took pity on her and yanked her quivering pussy down hard on his uniform-covered erection.

Bam! That was all it took. She was so close to the edge that she fell over with only that single nudge.

“Oh God, I’m coming.” She moaned as she shook and trembled through one long, enormously intense orgasm.

She clamped her hands on his shoulders and held on tight, lifting her feet completely off the floor so her pussy was pressed as hard as possible against him. Then she groaned, screamed, and gyrated on his lap.

Luckily, Cooper kept his hands on her hips, or she probably would have fallen off. When the climax finally slowed to a body-shaking shiver, she fell forward and collapsed against his chest. She’d never come that hard—even with the aid of modern technology. And she still had all her clothes on. How crazy was that?

Everly closed her eyes, reveling in the aftershocks of her orgasm. Without a doubt, Landry Cooper had ruined her for every other man—and sex toy—on the planet. Not that there were ever going to be any more of either. She had no need of anyone or anything but Landry now.

She could have fallen asleep right there on Landry’s big muscular chest without any trouble. But he scooped her up in his arms and got to his feet, holding her close. She rested her head against his shoulder as he carried her to her room. Between last night and tonight, she’d had more orgasms in the past twenty-four hours than she’d had in years. She couldn’t wait to return the favor.

Landry lowered her to the floor beside the bed and pulled her dress over her head. Her bra disappeared just as swiftly. She had to admit she was seriously impressed with how good he was at getting her clothes off. Then he sat her down on the edge of the bed and urged her onto her back so he could reach down and carefully slid her wet panties over her hips and down her thighs.

The sensation of her warm, wet panties sliding down her legs was a serious turn-on. But not nearly as much as the sudden realization that she was once again completely naked in front of Landry.

This is getting to be a habit, she mused as he gazed down at her with blatant, hungry heat in his eyes.

“Do you just like to see me naked in front of you all the time, or what?” she asked with a laugh.

“That’s a rhetorical question, right?” he asked with a chuckle as he nudged her back on the bed a little more.

Everly thought at first he’d scooted her over so he could climb in. But then he spread her legs nice and wide and plunked himself down on his stomach right between them. She knew what he was going to do even as he pressed a warm, soft kiss to the inside of her thigh mere inches above her clit. Her whole body hummed in anticipation at what was coming. Oh yeah, Landry could get to her like no one she’d ever been with.

Thank God he didn’t tease her—he’d done enough of that out in the kitchen. Instead, he trailed his mouth gently along the inside of her thigh until his lips hovered above her clit. Then he flicked out his tongue and swirled a little circle around that most sensitive part of her anatomy. She’d been a little worried she might be oversensitive from her most recent orgasm, but that definitely wasn’t the case.

“Mmm,” she breathed. “That feels so good.”

He chuckled as much as he could, considering his mouth was kind of busy. Then he stopped and looked at her with a smile. “And I’m just getting started.”

He dropped his head again, and this time his whole mouth closed over her clit, his tongue slowly lapping back and forth over her. While he did that, he slipped one long finger inside her. Not thrusting, but just teasing and tracing the inside of her pussy. Like he’d secretly found a map of her most sensitive spots. Hell, some of them she hadn’t even known about, not until he started caressing them.

He worked her slowly, letting the pleasure grow a little at a time. Mostly, he kept his tongue focused on her clit, but every once in a while, he moved lower, letting it dip inside her, both to pleasure her there, and to keep her from exploding too quickly.

Everly lay back on her elbows and enjoyed the view as Landry went down on her with calm, confident laps of his tongue. She’d thought he was a good kisser, but at this he was a master.

Part of her wanted to climax this way with his mouth buried between her legs. But she’d already had one incredible orgasm out in the kitchen. Now, it was Landry’s turn. Besides, she’d been dreaming about having him inside of her all day, and she didn’t want to wait any longer.

She reached down and grabbed his hair, giving a little tug. When he looked up, she made a little come-hither motion with her finger. “Get up here. Now.”

He must have realized she wasn’t messing around, because he gave her pussy one more lick, then sat back on his heels. “Can I take off the rest of my clothes first, or would you prefer I come up there just as I am?”

She laughed, thumping him lightly on the shoulder with her foot as she scooted farther back on the bed to make more room for him. “You’d better get naked unless you want me ripping those pants off you myself.”

He got to his feet, mouth quirking. “I’d better do it. You have some pretty long fingernails. They might hurt me.”

Everly doubted that.

She watched as Landry unlaced his big SWAT boots and took them off. She hadn’t realized until now that he had another smaller handgun attached to the inside top of the left boot. But she forgot all about it as he slowly unbuckled his belt and started working his pants off. Even though she’d seen him completely naked the other night, she still got a thrill seeing the big reveal. He was built absolutely everywhere—and she did mean everywhere.

He moved to her nightstand and found one of the condoms there. She was going to have to remember to get a bigger box the next time she went shopping. They were going through them really fast.

As Landry climbed in bed, she spread her legs wide, giving him all the encouragement he needed to slide between them. He carefully placed his arms on either side of her body, moving slowly as if he was afraid he’d hurt her. She might be a lot smaller than he was, but he was the one all battered and beat up. She eyed the big bruise on the left side of his rib cage. Surprisingly, it was already looking less purple than it had a few minutes ago. But it still looked like it was painful.

“You sure this isn’t going to hurt you?” she asked.

Landry settled comfortably between her thighs, the head of his very thick cock teasing the opening of her pussy. He lifted a brow, obviously amused at the question.

“I’m pretty sure pain is going to be the last thing on my mind,” he said. “In case you didn’t know it, most people tend to think of sex as kind of pleasurable.”

She laughed, about to remind him to go slowly and not overdo it, but then he slowly slid his hard shaft into her, and all rational thought disappeared.

She moaned his name, her legs wrapping around his waist, pulling him in even more. She couldn’t imagine how she could take all of him as it was, but it felt so good trying.

Landry’s mouth came down on hers at the same time he slowly pumped in and out. She tried to squeeze him tighter with her legs so he’d stay buried deep inside her, but he paid no attention, instead plunging his tongue into her mouth and pulling almost all the way out before driving back into her, pressing her ass deep into the mattress with every thrust.

Some part of Everly knew she shouldn’t put her hands anywhere near his back since that was where he’d been thumped the worst. But it was hard to remember that as Landry’s cock began to drive her crazy. All she could think about was grabbing hold of him and never letting go.

She’d been close to coming before he’d even slid into her—his mouth had made sure of that—so it wasn’t surprising when she felt those wonderful tingles deep inside, warning her another amazing orgasm was on the way. She pulled her mouth away from his and gazed deep into his eyes, intending to tell him how good he was making her feel. But the words were trapped inside her, the pleasure she was experiencing making intelligent speech impossible. All she could do was whimper with each thrust as her climax began to build.

Finally, one single word slipped out.

“Harder!” she gasped.

He responded, slamming his cock into her and pinning her to the bed. Then he dipped his head and buried his face in her neck as he began to thrust so hard it made the bed shake. She couldn’t breathe, but she didn’t want to breathe right then. All she wanted to do was scream and come around him.

She heard a sound above her screams, and she recognized it as Landry’s deep, sexy voice. He was saying her name over and over again against her neck and shoulder as he nibbled her there. Hearing him say her name with more love and emotion than she’d ever heard from any other man in the world did something powerful and amazing.

The wave of pleasure that washed over her was almost painful in its intensity. Her whole body shook violently as every muscle contracted and locked tight at once. She screamed so loud it tore at her throat, but she didn’t care. She wanted this sensation to keep going until she exploded from the pleasure.

Landry grunted as he rammed his cock into her one last time and held it there as he poured himself into her. His body bucked and spasmed, and she knew in her heart that she was bringing him pleasure to match her own. And with Landry, knowing she was making him feel good too was the most important thing in the world.

God, she loved him. Not just for the pleasure he could bring her, but for reasons that were too big for her to understand. All she knew was that they were supposed to be with each other like this, locked together at the heart—forever.

Afterward, Everly should have wanted to do nothing more than cuddle up to Landry for some well-deserved sleep. She’d barely gotten any sleep last night, and even though she grabbed a quick nap this morning after Landry had left, she was still tired. The funny thing was, right then she didn’t feel like sleeping at all. In fact, she felt crazy alive, like her whole body and mind was buzzing with excitement. She knew she was never going to fall asleep.

Well, they could always make love some more. Gauging the look on Landry’s face, this wouldn’t be a problem for him. Or she could spend a few hours doing something else she loved, something amazingly creative.

She was up and out of the bed the second the idea entered her head. Grabbing Landry’s hand, she dragged him out of bed, pulling him toward the door.

“Where are we going?” he asked with a laugh.

He didn’t resist, but instead, let her pull him down the hall and across the living room toward her art studio.

“I want to sketch you,” she said as she led him into the room and turned on the lights.

She’d chosen this room as her studio because it had great natural light, but now that the sun was down, she would have to make do with artificial light instead. That was okay. Landry had such a spectacular body, he’d look good in any light.

Now that the urge to draw him was on her, it was like she couldn’t get started fast enough. She threw a big canvas drop cloth in the center of the hardwood floor, both to give him something to lay on and to give her some textures to work with. Then she quickly pushed him down until he was lying on his side, his head cradled in the palm of one hand like he’d done in her bed.

She tweaked the pose a little, positioning his legs just so, then mussed up his hair a bit more. Landry didn’t have a clue what she was doing, but he was a good sport, staying exactly the way she instructed and chuckling as she raced for the easel on the far side of the room. She had to move everything around so she faced in his direction, but since she was using only graphite pencils instead of paint, it didn’t take long.

Everly put her biggest pad on the easel then grabbed a soft pencil and drew superfast figure studies of Landry’s incredibly perfect body. And with him as a model, her pencil flew across the paper. She filled one sheet of the pad, then tore it off, and started another.

She did figure studies of her friends and neighbors all the time—except they had clothes on. Tracing the basic outline of the human form, with no interest in details, was one of her favorite things to do. But it felt different now. She hadn’t felt this energized with her pencil in forever.

Maybe it was the great sex she’d just had, or maybe it was the fact that she didn’t get a chance to draw nude guys too often. Hell, to be truthful, she’d never had a chance to draw a nude guy who looked like Landry because muscled Adonis types rarely volunteered at the art school she’d gone to.

Then again, maybe it was the fact that she was naked too. She’d never drawn in the nude before. It was refreshing. Maybe she’d have to do it more often.

Whatever the reason, the drawings practically jumped onto the page. She filled sheet after sheet with his beautiful body, posing him different ways, then moving her easel to get him from different vantage points.

It was as she sketched him from the back that she realized his bruises were much smaller than they’d been after the attack. She swore that at least two or three had disappeared completely. She stopped drawing and walked over to take a closer look. Crap, she could barely see the big welt he’d had across his back a few hours earlier.

“Is something wrong?” Landry asked over his shoulder.

She shook her head and ran her hand down his back. Even the worst of the bruising was already lightening. When she got a bruise, it could take days, sometimes a week, to get to that point.

“Nothing,” she said. “I just noticed how fast your bruises are healing.”

He didn’t answer right away. “Yeah. I know. I’ve always healed quickly. It’s probably why I dealt with my injuries as well as I did when I got hurt in Iraq.”

That made sense, she supposed. She wished she could get rid of bruises that fast. Every time she walked into a piece of furniture, she was forced to wear yoga pants every day or use concealer. She healed as slow as a tortoise compared to Landry.

She repositioned Landry again then went back to her drawing pad. As she drew picture after picture, he asked her about art school, what she liked to draw, how and where she sold her works. It was so nice having a person besides Mia she could talk to about her art. Her dad and brothers acted like it was a waste of time.

She tightened her grip on her pencil. Thinking about her brothers only reminded her of how mad she was at them. Regardless of what Landry suggested about simply ignoring them, Everly knew she would have to talk to them soon. If they thought they could chase her boyfriend off by beating him up, they were stupid. And wrong. If they thought she would let them do something like that to Landry again, they were even dumber. She didn’t care if they were family. If they tried anything like that again, she’d have them arrested. They needed to be fully aware of that in a way they’d understand.

Everly pushed thoughts of her stupid brothers aside, refusing to let them ruin this evening. She focused on the beautiful naked man in front of her, positioning him in different ways and having fun sketching him. The fact that he was having so much fun posing for her only made it better.

It was as she put Landry in a standing pose, turned at the hips like a Greek god glancing back at her, that she realized his cock was hard. Now that would definitely add a little more interest to her next drawing.

“Sorry about that,” he said. “But standing in front of you naked for the last couple hours is kind of a turn-on for me.”

Everly laughed. She’d been aroused for most of the time they’d been in her studio too. She knew without reaching down to check that she was wet, and there was no way Landry could have missed her tight, hard nipples.

She’d never gotten sexually aroused drawing nude models in college, but that was because none of them were as hunky as Landry.

“Don’t be sorry.” She reached down to wrap a hand around his erect shaft. “It’s nice knowing I can get you worked up just by being naked.”

At her touch, his cock jumped and got even harder. Landry completely abandoned his pose to turn around and kiss her. A minute later, they were on the floor with the canvas drop cloth under them, her body on top of his, his hard cock throbbing in her hand. For about the hundredth time, Everly couldn’t help but wonder at the luck that had befallen her. She’d walked into the bank that day on a whim and stumbled over the most perfect man she had ever met. She couldn’t imagine ever being happier.