Chapter Five

 

The next thing I knew, he was laying me on a soft bed. I opened my eyes, the lights dim and his handsome face hovering over mine, his eyes stormy with raw desire and his lips moist from our kisses.

“Damn it, I want you so bad but I don’t wanna rush,” he said in a rasping voice.

“So we’ll do it more than once,” I said, toeing off my sandals and pushing them to the floor with a clatter. “First time to get it out of the way then again slow and lazy.”

“Hell, I like the way your mind works,” he said, stepping out of his jeans.

He rid himself of his shirt and as I wriggled from my own blouse and pants I became mesmerized by the broad, bronzed width of his shoulders and his hard, dark nipples.

Gaze still on him, I arched my back and released my bra. Shimmied it down my arms and dropped it to the floor. In a second he was over me, taking my nipple into his hot mouth.

“Oh yes.” I squirmed and threaded my fingers into his thick hair. He began to suckle, his teeth rasping around it. “Rick,” I groaned, reaching for my other nipple at the same time as he found it. Suddenly there was more touch, more pleasure. He was caressing and tormenting, making me desperate for more, the sensations extreme, rolling through me and making me squirm for his touch. What he could do with his tongue was a talent.

He moved from my breasts, headed lower, down my sternum, over my belly and settled a fraction over my pubic hair. He pushed at my thighs and just the heat of his palms had my pussy swelling with anticipation.

“I’ve been fantasizing about doing this to you,” he murmured. “About giving you pleasure this way.”

His breath heated my pussy and his words fired in my brain like coils of lust. I glanced down and saw him looking up at me. Our gazes caught.

“You ready?” he asked, a smile twitching his lips.

“For whatever you’ve got to give,” I said in a ragged, needy voice.

He poked out his tongue and brushed the juncture of my thighs before he arrowed it through folds of damp, needy flesh.

My head fell back, I drew up my knees and flopped them sideways, spreading myself wider for him.

He dropped a kiss right over my clit.

“Ah...” I lifted from the bed and he clamped his hands over my inner thighs and held me firm, began to place kiss after kiss over my throbbing nub. I grabbed the erotic sensations, bathed in them, rejoiced in having a man love me with his mouth.

I was aware of strangled cries falling from my lips as he worked his tongue. Stroking around my clit, licking it, laving it, caresses so hot flames should have been leaving his mouth and trailing up my skin. Unable to think of anything other than pleasure, I pressed nearer, wanting more. He gave me more, his lips and tongue traveled lower, to the core of my pussy where I was wet and needed him so badly.

He tickled over my entrance, and gave a harsh groan as he sucked my juices and dipped the hard point of his tongue inside me.

“Rick!” His name peeled from my lips as his tongue thrust higher still. It was so erotic, so teasing—the last shred of sanity was leaving my mind.

He spread my legs wider, his whole face buried in my pussy. I twisted beneath him and held his head closer, harder against me. He slid his tongue to my clit again, tearing a groan of appreciation from my chest.

There was a determination about him now and each lash, each caress brought me higher, sent me wilder. He knew it, it was his intention. He was in total control of my satisfaction.

My spine arched, I bunched my fingers in his hair. I was going to come, it was right there, charging toward me fast and furious and I was welcoming it with open arms, happy to lose myself in him, in wonderful, exquisite sensations.

In a white-hot flurry, surges of ecstasy raced through me. Every nerve ending was thrown up into the air and landed in a wild, pulsating rhythm. I shook and trembled, fisted his hair, fisted the bedsheets, writhed away from his tongue at the same time I was shoving my pelvis up for more.

He didn’t ease up, he kept lashing at my clit, holding me tight and riding through the climax with me. It was gloriously hard and satisfying.

Suddenly the pressure became overwhelming. “Stop, no more.” I wriggled from his attentions, scissoring my legs together and pushing up the bed. “Wait.”

His mouth and hands left me. Panting, I watched as he sat and rolled a condom onto his cock. In an instant he was on top of me, kissing me, filling my mouth with my own musky flavor and settling his body over mine.

I ran my hands over his broad shoulders, my breaths sharp and rapid and my pussy still contracting around nothing. I spread my legs, searching for the head of his cock.

“Hang on, catch your breath,” he murmured onto my lips.

“No, it’s okay,” I gasped.

“You just said wait.”

I stretched my hips and bucked upward, tried to impale myself on him. “I don’t want to wait, not anymore.” I balled my hands on his back and tried to pull him nearer.

He didn’t move. His nostrils flared and his eyes took on a glazed look. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, yes, please, get inside me…now.”

His jaw set and his mouth twisted. He reared up, hooked his forearms behind my knees and spread my legs wide, baring my pussy as open as possible. He folded my legs up nearer my body and I grunted as the position jolted air from my lungs.

The thick, smooth head of his cock settled at my entrance and he pushed in an inch, studying his penetration with a heavy, lust-filled gaze.

I curled forward and wrapped my hands around his concrete forearms. Just an inch stretched me so damn much. Breath held, I stared at his dense shaft disappearing into me.

“Ah, you’re such a tight fit,” he murmured.

“More,” I gasped.

He jerked his hips and gave me another inch, the hard, round head of his cock reaching my G-spot. Involuntarily I contracted around him and it created a stronger, deeper contact.

“Ah baby, that kind of thing is gonna sap my stamina,” he moaned, gliding in farther. He didn’t stop this time and his hips pressed forward until his pubic hair meshed with mine.

I blew out a breath, the intense filling his big cock gave me was only just this side of pleasure. It was wicked. I craved it.

He withdrew so just the tip hovered at my entrance and forged back in, harder, faster, his balls hit against my spread buttocks. I released his arms and grabbed hold of the bars on the headboard, flung my head back to the pillow and shut my eyes as he set up a steady rhythm, repeating the action over and over. “Yes…yes.” I gasped with each thrust, pushing down to meet him. Edgy pleasure had quickly become the brink of ecstasy.

“I want you to come again,” he said.

I stared up at him. Beads of perspiration had formed on his forehead. There was a flush of color on his cheeks. “I will,” I panted, my clit already rubbing wonderfully against his pubic bone and building the pressure.

“Not soon enough,” he ground out through gritted teeth. “I’m gonna…”

“So let me…ride you,” I managed between his thrusts.

Suddenly I was on top, my hands flat over his pecs and my knees folded at his hips.

“Ride,” he groaned, digging his fingers into my thighs and clenching his jaw. “Ride me, wild thing.”

I sat bolt upright and delighted in the new depth this position gave to his penetration. He was so high inside me, stretching me every way. The feeling was so erotic and primitive, I was impaled, possessed. I couldn’t get enough.

Flickering shut my eyes, I began to move, just a little, gyrating my hips and letting my clit catch white-hot sparks of pleasure created from its connection with his hard body.

“Oh Jesus, every move you make takes me nearer to losing it,” he moaned.

In response, I clamped my pussy around his shaft.

“Fucking hell,” he shouted, shooting upward and encasing me in his arms. His mouth claimed mine as our chests collided, his tongue darting in, urgent and desperate.

Kissing him back, I reached for the first tug of my climax. He took over our movements, pounding upward as he held me tight and exactly where he wanted me.

I clutched his face, my palms against his cheeks, feeling them hollow as his frantic kisses deepened. He spread his hands over my back, one tangling in my hair, cradling my skull, the other sweeping down to my butt.

I was climbing up. The point of no return had passed, my orgasm was inevitable. I couldn’t concentrate on our kiss and my mouth went slack, my spine weakened. I was suspended in that wonderful moment where it couldn’t feel any better, in the knowledge that a fantastic climax was just about to ravish me. As I hung waiting for release, he tickled the tip of his finger over my anus. I jerked away slightly but he fingered it again, increasing the pressure right at the center.

“Come,” he growled hotly. “Come now.”

The stern command sent me over the edge and as my first, powerful pulsation gripped me, he pushed into my tightly clenched hole.

“Oh God,” I screamed as my entire body became boneless in his arms. Waves of satisfaction careened through my pussy. His finger probed higher, wriggled inside me. My darkest hole clasped the invasion. It was sharp and stinging, a new experience.

Beneath me, he gave a savage upward thrust, entering me higher and harder. He froze at the hilt. “Yes…” he hissed. “Fuck, yes.”

His hand that had been tangled in my hair was now thrown over my shoulders, forcing me down onto him, spearing me. His cock throbbed, spurting into the condom, and his spasms mixed with mine deep inside my pussy. I shut my eyes and was greeted with red and white, red and white with flashes of purple, and I rode through an intensely satisfying and exquisite orgasm.

“Oh my God,” I gasped as I came back to Earth. My blood was surging in my ears, my heart bursting. “Oh my God, Rick, I…”

His breaths were hot, hard and noisy, his chest heaved against mine. “You’re too damn good, I’m like a horny teenager again whenever I’m with you,” he puffed. “No damn stamina.”

“Rick, you’ve got…you’ve got your finger in my ass.”

He tipped back far enough to study my expression. His eyes were dark, his cheeks flushed. He didn’t remove his finger. “Yeah,” he said with a wicked twitch of his lips. “Does it feel good?”

“I-I, Rick, please.”

“Please what? You want more?” The finger slid higher, stretching my virginal hole and stroking my internal flesh.

“No, no.” I jolted in his arms.

He eased back so just the tip was inside. His eyes narrowed. “Has anyone touched you here before?” he asked quietly.

“No, Rick, please, and I don’t know if I want you to.”

The naughty finger slipped out and my anus clamped shut.

“It felt good, though, didn’t it, at the perfect moment?” he asked.

I loosened my grip on his biceps and saw my fingernails had left tiny white crescents on his tan skin. “Yes, yes, it felt good. It all felt good. But I…”

“But you don’t want me in your ass.”

I shook my head.

“Sorry, I should have asked, I just really needed you to come at that very moment so we could share it. I had a feeling that little trick would work.”

“It did, it was…” I paused, searching for the word. “Different.”

“‘Good’ different?”

I smiled. “Yes, good different…intense.”

He kissed me softly. “I get the hint. Unless you ask, no more ass play.”

I lifted up and watched as he tugged off the condom. Then, thoroughly exhausted, I flopped onto the bed, my head sinking into the deep pillow, my limbs stretching out every which way.

He disappeared into the bathroom. I heard the sound of the toilet flushing and running water.

Strolling back in, still gloriously naked, he sprawled next to me, his arm resting loosely on my stomach, his head on the same pillow as mine.

I trickled my fingers through the dark hairs near his wrist and traced the long, lean tendons just below the surface of his skin. “There’s something else you should know,” I said quietly.

“More secrets from the past?” He propped his head on his hand and moved a strand of hair from my cheek.

I looked into his flushed face. It was only fair to tell him. “I haven’t…” I hesitated. “You’ll have to bear with me, it’s been awhile since I’ve been with anyone.”

He gazed intensely down at me, tugging his full bottom lip with his teeth and stretching his prickly soul patch. “How long is long?”

Turning away, I stared up at a crystal ceiling light.

“Dana?”

I sighed.

What the hell.

“Until you, at the wedding the other week…” I sighed. “Two years.”

“Two years, Jesus, how did you manage that?”

Turning back to him I frowned. “Easy,” I said. “I’m not a very sexual person.”

He grunted. “Not true, you’re the most sexual person I’ve ever had the pleasure of giving pleasure to.” He dipped his head and fluttered his tongue over my left nipple. I rose for his touch. He palmed the soft flesh and gently lifted it for deeper suction, his warm, moist mouth suckling exquisitely at my nipple.

“Mmm.” I threaded my hands into his thick hair. “It feels so nice the way you do that.”

He lifted his head. “Point proven,” he said, grinning and brushing my lips with his. “You’re a very sexual person.”

I furrowed my brow. I’d fallen into that one.

“But let me tell you,” he murmured, “I’m honored you chose to break your two years’ celibacy with me.”

I rubbed my fingertips over his stubbled jawline. “I don’t know how much rational choice there was. I can’t seem to help myself when you’re around.”

“That makes two of us,” he said. “I’m guessing when you told me I kept making you break a promise to yourself that’s what you were talking about.”

I nodded. I was buzzing for him again, his big, naked body pressed onto mine was irresistible. It felt as though I’d never get enough of it, enough of him.

He lifted up and slipped from the bed.

“Where are you going?”

“Only to the dresser, I need another condom if I’m going to make love to you slow and lazy like we planned.” He pulled open the top drawer and plucked out a jumbo pack. “And we’ll have to do it several times, because you, wild thing, have lost time to make up for.”

 

*****

 

“I have to get to practice,” Rick said, holding a tray in front of me.

“On a Sunday?”

“Yeah, we have a game Tuesday plus I’ve got some stuff to work through with Fergal.”

I smiled up at him and hoisted myself higher on the pillows. I felt satisfied and content, optimistic about my day, hopeful about Rick and the future. It was a seriously good feeling. “This looks tasty,” I said, taking the tray set with pancakes, coffee and a small yellow flower with bright pink stamen.

“I figured you don’t get breakfast in bed very often, being a workaholic and all that.” He walked over to the window and drew back one of the heavy black curtains. Brilliant sunshine spilled onto the deep-pile carpet.

I squinted. “You thought right.”

He sat on the edge of the bed. He was wearing jeans and a soft white T-shirt with Vipers written in small red stitching over his left chest muscle. His biceps bulged from beneath the sleeves and I wondered if he had to have clothes specially made to accommodate those damn fine muscles of his.

“Will you be here when I get back about three?” he asked.

“I should go home and check a few things, grab my laptop, but yes, I could be back just after three.”

His face broke into a wide smile. “Great,” he said, dropping a kiss to my cheek. “And then we’ll have a special celebration.”

“I think we celebrated in a pretty special way last night, don’t you?”

“Oh yeah, that was something else. But today, baby, is my birthday and you, quite honestly, are the best present I could have ever wished for.”

 

 

I took my time in Rick’s huge shower, letting the piping-hot water rain down on my body and happily remembering the way he’d made me forget everything last night.

But despite waking up feeling sated, there was an edge to my libido again that would soon require satisfying. He’d well and truly awakened a part of me that was craving attention.

His attention.

Finally stepping out, I dressed in the clothes I’d worn the day before, thoroughly looking forward to three o’clock and celebrating his birthday.

He’d left a note with instructions on setting the alarm and soon I was heading down the freeway, weaving through traffic and singing along to a summer tune playing on the radio. Mentally I went through my underwear drawer. I had some new pieces from a recent shopping spree and a pretty satin white set came to mind. I had a feeling he would like that, white contrasted well against my olive skin.

Letting myself into my house, I kicked off my heels and set my purse on the table. As usual, I checked my messages. One from a client and one from Maddie—she was still having trouble with the zoo. I hit delete, I’d deal with it tomorrow. Today was definitely not a day for worrying about elephant bedtimes.

Quickly rummaging through my card drawer, I found one for Rick and dropped it next to my purse. It wasn’t ideal but I guessed he wouldn’t be looking at it much. I wondered if I had some white ribbon. Perhaps I could wrap it around myself and tie a big bow at the front, deliver myself as his gift. Smiling at the thought, I wandered into my bedroom, intent on a serious rummage through my underwear drawer.

I stopped in my tracks.
Lying on the bed was a large photograph.
It was a shot of me from the waist up.
Recent.
It was taken outside my office. I was wearing my new pale-blue cardigan.

Where the hell did that come from?

On weak legs, I walked over and picked it up.

My stomach clenched and an anguished cry left my lips as panic surged through my veins. The photo drifted to the bed and I clutched my stomach in an effort to prevent the overwhelming urge to vomit.

She’d been here. In my house.

The breath in my lungs froze. My heart somersaulted in my chest. My stomach continued to clench painfully.

I wanted to scream but it was as though I was paralyzed and stuck staring at the photograph. At the photograph of me with a crudely drawn bullet hole in the center of my forehead and a spray of red scribbled behind my hair. Scrawled across the base of the picture in the same scarlet pen used for the blood were the words, He’s mine, stay away.

Oh my God! What was I going to do?

She’d followed me, taken pictures of me. She’d been in my house. Rick’s crazy stalker woman had been here, in my space, in my territory. Was she still here? I had no way of knowing and I wasn’t about to hang around and find out. I had to get out of there. Adrenaline injected into my system, fight or flight. Flight definitely won out.

Forcing myself to move, I stumbled back out into the hallway. Every breath I took, every step was an agony of wondering if she was about to jump out at me, shoot me between the eyes, splatter my brains behind me.

Heart pounding, I snatched up my car keys, threw open the front door and dashed toward my car. As I bolted down the pathway, slices of terror pierced my heart, fear raked at my soul. Was she waiting for me to flee the house then shoot me? The still air buzzed with menace. The heat of the sun burned like a million flames. All I could think of was getting to my car. It was a haven, it was safety—of sorts.

I jumped in and locked all the doors, rammed it into gear and sped away. My shaking legs would barely work the pedals, I could hardly focus. Just missing a cyclist, I eventually pulled over and rummaged for my cell.

Rick. I had to speak to Rick.

He answered on the fourth ring.

“Rick, shit, oh my God, this is awful. I don’t know what to do. She’s been in my house.”

“Dana, Dana, Jesus, slow down. What the fuck is going on?”

“She’s been in my house. I just got home. There’s a photo. Of me. A bullet hole in my head.” The words were tumbling from my mouth as I scanned the street for a crazy woman with a gun aimed my way. “I found it on my bed. The photo of me, she’s been in my house, Rick, shit!”

“Where are you now?” he demanded.

“In my car, I just got in and drove away. I’m about quarter of a mile from home on the corner of Highgrove and East Parade.” I slunk down in my seat, trying to become invisible. “Rick,” I whispered, tears nipping my eyes. “I’m so scared.”

“I know, baby, and I’m on my way. Stay where you are, keep the doors locked, I’ll be with you in fifteen minutes but the police will be with you sooner.”

“No, no, keep talking to me, please, don’t go.”

“I’ve gotta call the cops, Dana. Don’t open the door to anyone until they get there, you hear me?” His voice was calm but I could sense rage vibrating through it.

“Yes, yes, I hear you. But hurry, please hurry.”

“I’ll be as fast as I can, just sit tight.”

The line went dead.

I shivered ferociously, my stomach an agonizing ball of fear. I thought I’d left this all behind, violence and paranoia, guns. I hated it. It wasn’t how I wanted to live.

As I wrapped my arms around my waist, willing fifteen minutes to pass in fifteen seconds, anger began to knot my spine, anger that she could do this to us, to Rick. What the hell gave her the right to claim him as her property after just one night? He was his own person, a big, strong, successful man who could choose who he wanted to spend time with.

My mouth was dry, my tongue stuck to the roof. No one in their right mind would do what Laurie Sharp was doing, no one with an iota of sanity. I dug my nails into my palms and realized that we were dealing with a real psycho. Rick and I were barely a couple and already she was threatening me with death—a bullet to the head.

A sudden whizzing sound to my right. I squealed then spun, wide eyed, as several kids raced past on bikes. My heart thudded against my rib cage, my spine tensed and I sank lower in my seat.

A car drove past, music thumping, then another towing a rattling trailer that created a series of loud bangs as it jolted over potholes and drains.

Just when I thought my nerves could take no more, Rick’s Lexus rounded the corner. No sooner had he pulled up in front of me than a police car, no siren, appeared on the street.

Rick’s door swung open and he leaped from the driver’s side onto the road, his face grim, his shoulders set.

I glanced around, terrified for his safety but also wanting him to come get me so badly.

“Open up,” he said, yanking at my door handle.

With fumbling fingers I hit auto-unlock, berating myself for not doing it sooner to save him precious seconds of being vulnerable to a bullet.

He yanked open my door, reached in and scooped me out.

“Rick,” I said, grasping hold of him as my feet lifted from the floor. “What are you doing? She might be out here still, with a gun.”

“I want you in my car, now.” He swept me up against his chest and I fastened my hands around the back of his neck.

“But—?”

“Quit arguing. It’s got bulletproof glass.” His deep voice was like a razor over silk.

He was back at his car, tumbling me in and climbing in himself. He slammed the door with a vibrating thwack.

Heavy silence surrounded us.

He turned to me, his eyes wild, his lips in a tight, straight line.

I began to shake, uncontrollably, from the very core of my body. I had to gasp in air, I was desperate for oxygen, there didn’t seem to be enough.

He scooted across the seat toward me. “It’s okay now,” he said, laying his hands at my temples and threading his fingers through the strands of hair falling over my face. “It’s okay, you’re safe in here.” He stroked gently, as though trying to inject calmness into me.

“But she’s been in my house, it was awful, I was so scared, the picture is so…so horrible.” I put a hand up to my lips. “Oh no, I touched it, it’s evidence and I touched it.” My breaths were coming short, sharp and painful.

“Shh, calm down, slow your breathing, you’re going to hyperventilate.”

I stared into his eyes, willing my diaphragm not to jerk so violently at my lungs.

“It will be okay, they can separate a couple of prints, don’t worry.” His voice was calm and controlled but there was an underlying primitiveness about it, as though he was containing the fury for when he needed it most.

A knock on the window.

I yelped.

“Dale,” Rick said, dropping the window down an inch. “You were quick.”

A slight man with ginger hair peered in at us. “I was in the area.” He glanced at me and flashed his badge. “She okay?”

“Yeah, just shaken.” Rick took my hand, studied my teary eyes and my jerky breaths then turned back to the window. “How the fuck could this have happened?” The rage in his voice was just simmering beneath the surface now, catching in his throat, rasping into the air.

Dale shrugged. “She’s a madwoman, we already know that, but this was a big mistake on her part. I’ll have some guys go over and pick her up. She’s done it this time, if she’s the culprit, that is—”

“Of course it’s fucking her,” Rick bit out. “Insane bitch.”

The plain-clothed officer gnawed at the inside of his cheek. “You and I know that, but forensics will have to prove it.” He leaned so he could catch my eye through the narrow opening of the window and his voice softened. “Can I have your keys, sweetie? That way we can get in and do our stuff without breaking your front door down.”

“I didn’t pause to shut it,” I said shakily, remembering my terrifying dash from the house, convinced a bullet was whizzing toward me.

Rick let go of my hand, wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close. “Shh,” he murmured onto the top of my head. “It’s okay now, babe, settle down.”

I pressed into him, his strength and air of possessive protectiveness like a warm blanket closing around me. I shut my eyes and drew in his now familiar scent. It slowed my breathing, calmed my soul.

“Keys, Dana,” he whispered.

“Er, I think they’re still in my car, in the ignition.”

“That your car there, miss?” the officer asked.

“Yes.” I opened my eyes and stared at my blue Mercedes, relieved that I seemed to be able to focus once more.

“And your name?”

“Dana, Dana Wilcox.”

“She’s at 243 Highgrove,” Rick added.

“Not for a while, she isn’t.” The officer’s gaze caught mine again. “You got someone you can go stay with, someone out of the city?”

I shook my head.

“She’ll stay with me,” Rick said firmly, his hold on me tightening. “I got her into this fucking mess and I’ll look after her until it’s straightened out.”

Dale chewed on his thumbnail and studied Rick. He sighed. “Okay, I can live with that. I’ve already got officers going past your place twice a day. I’ll up it, see if I can get a couple staked outside until we’ve tracked her down.”

“Perfect.”

“You want anything from the house?” he asked, looking at me again. “I could get it dropped off at Mr. Lewis’ for you.”

“Mmm, yes, thanks that would be great. My purse and my laptop, perhaps some clothes, anything from the bedside drawers and the wardrobe will do.” I didn’t really know what to ask for but that sounded the right sort of thing to say.

“No problem.” He smiled kindly at me. “But you should both get out of here now. I’ll call when we’ve brought Miss Sharp in for questioning. Shouldn’t take long but until then stay low.”