A Diamond in the Dark (11 page)

“Fuck, Tia. You’ve got no panties on. If I had known that, I would’ve pulled over hours ago.”

“You ripped them off this morning, remember?” She ran her fingers through her own wetness, and Axton slapped her hand away, placed her legs over his shoulder, and went to town on her cunt. Even in the heat of passion, he was careful of her newly tattooed hip.

The things this man could do with his tongue. Not that she had anything to compare it to. But by God, there couldn’t be anything better on earth than what he was doing to her at that moment. He bit, licked, and plunged his tongue into every crevice and crease of her pussy.

She was pulling his hair, begging him to make her cum. The bastard laughed against her sensitive flesh.
Well, that actually felt kinda nice.
But if the jerk didn’t make her cum soon, she would not be responsible for what she would do to him.

* * * *

Tia was going to make him bald with the way she kept pulling his hair. Listening to her breathy moans and begging to let her cum was sweet music to his ears. He lifted his mouth away from what had now become one of his favorite treats, his need to be inside her overruling his need to feast on her juices.

He lined his cock up with her entrance, looking down at her lying across the bench seat of his truck. Her breasts were bare and her hair trailed down to the floor of his truck. With the shadows from the tree playing over her white skin, she looked like a sacrifice to the gods.

“Watch me take you, Tia. See how you were made to take me,” he said as he looked down to where they were joined.

She was stretched so wide around him. He still had her legs over his shoulders, giving him an unimpeded view of her cunt swallowing his cock. It was the most amazing thing he had ever seen.

Quickly looking up to make sure she was watching them, he began to slowly slide out of her. Her tiny pussy sucked at his cock like it didn’t want to let go, her juices clinging to his shaft. Tanned flesh disappeared into soft mauve. Fuck, he was going to go off after two strokes.

Leaning in, he kissed her lips, then started to quicken his movements, adding a little twist of his hips at the end of each plunge, stimulating her clit. Tia tore her nails down his back and screamed his name, sending a flock of birds heavenward in fright. Thank fuck, because he followed straight behind her.

* * * *

Tia lay there with Ax crushing her. She was having a bit of difficulty breathing, but she didn’t want him to move just yet. His cock was still inside her, and it would occasionally twitch.

She ran her fingers through his hair, thinking about what she had just watched. He was right, she was made to take him. She’d viewed dozens of porn flicks on the internet, but watching Axton sliding in and out of her would always be the most erotic thing she would ever see. Just thinking about it made her pussy clench around his semi-flaccid cock.

“Shit! Don’t do that, baby. I’m a little sensitive at the moment.”

Okay, that was something she hadn’t known. She clenched her inner muscles again to see what happened. His cock twitched, and he groaned before pulling from her body. She had this inconceivable feeling of loss.

“Evil wench,” he said, kissing her deeply. “We better get cleaned up before they send out a search party because we haven’t gotten back yet.” They would have had more time, but Jack had called early in the morning asking what time they were heading back.

An hour later they were pulling up to the gates of the Three Circle. Ax stopped the car, turning to face her. He kissed her softly and sweetly, putting his head on her shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” Tia asked while scraping her nails over his scalp. Her hand stopped moving as she waited for his answer.

“Keep doing that.” He pushed his head into her hand, indicating that he wanted her to keep playing with his hair.

The night before they’d been lying on the bed chatting while she scraped her nails through his hair, and Axton had fallen asleep mid-sentence. At the time she’d put it down to the late hour but now wondered if it had been due to petting at him.

“I just realized you wouldn’t be waking up tomorrow with my arms around you.” There was a desolate quality to his voice. The sound shouldn’t have made her happy, but she’d had a small panic attack, thinking he was regretting the whole weekend.

“Will I see you tonight?” It sounded hopeful even to her own ears. “You could sneak into the house using my balcony.” She’d never been a fan of Romeo and Juliet, but at that moment she could see the story had some merit.

“Not tonight, baby. I have a meeting in the morning with Mr. Doland about breeding one of our bulls. If I see you tonight, I wouldn’t want to get out of bed tomorrow.” He kissed her once more before he started the truck back down the driveway. “I’ll call you tonight,” he said as he pulled up to the big house. Turning off the engine, he reached over and squeezed her hand.

“I want to kiss you.” The whole ‘keeping it quiet’ thing was starting to depress her, but she understood why Ax wanted to do it.

It was going to be a shock to everyone when they found out, so she could see the benefit of keeping their relationship between just them for a while at least. She had loved Ax for years, and this weekend had made that love real. She didn’t want to lose him before he could feel the same way about her. Because if the family didn’t approve, there was a likelihood that Axton would do the noble thing and walk away from her.

“I feel the same, Tia. Soon. We’ll tell them soon. Okay?”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “Oh! Don’t say anything about the doctor thing yet. I’m going to see if Leonie can help me fix a nice dinner tomorrow night and get everyone over here to tell them.”

“No problem. Once you tell everyone, you can start helping out more with the purchasing of stock. And have a more active role in the breeding program.” He jumped out of his truck and carried her bag to the house.

“Hey, sunshine,” Uncle Jack called out just as they were walking through the door. He must have been coming out of the bathroom; he was still tucking his shirt in. Tia kissed him on the cheek when he leaned down for her. “How was Houston?” he asked while pulling her into the kitchen. “You want coffee, Axton?”

“Sure.”

This was how the McGraettys had all their discussions, either over supper or in the kitchen with coffee.

“So, tell me about all those boys you’re hiding in Houston?” he asked Tia as he poured three cups of coffee.

Tia laughed. “As I already told you, there is no man in my life, apart from McGraettys.” She stared at Axton, trying not to smile. “Oh, we got to see Alex ride,” she said to change the subject.

“How is my rodeo-riding nephew doing these days? I talked to his mama on the phone just yesterday. She was bitching about him not coming home for Derrick’s birthday.” Derrick was one of Alex’s three brothers. Aiden was a year younger than Alex, then there was Dylan who was thirty-two, and Derrick who’d just turned thirty. He also had two sisters. Taylor was twenty-seven, and Tegan, who was the closest female family member to Tia’s age, would turn twenty-five in May.

Tia rolled her eyes. “He’s doing good. Thinks he might be home later in the year, so y’all will see him then. Do you know where Leonie is? I need to talk to her about something. Oh, and when you see the boys can you tell them to make sure they’re home tomorrow night? I want to have dinner with y’all.”

“Leonie should be in the washroom. Why supper tomorrow night?”

“Can’t a girl just want to spend some time with her family?” With that she kissed his head, gave Ax a quick kiss on the cheek, refraining from lingering there, and went off to find Leonie.

* * * *

“Hey, Leonie.”

“Tabbitha,” she said, bringing Tia in for a big hug. “How was Houston?”

“Great. I was wondering if you would help me cook a nice dinner tomorrow night. I just want to do something a little special. I would also like for you to join us.” Leonie didn’t always eat with them, which Tia couldn’t understand. As far as she was concerned Leonie was a part of the family, not just their cook.

“Sure. Any idea what you want to make?”

They discussed menu options for a while then Tia kissed her goodbye. As she started to leave the room, she turned back around and said, “Leonie, you do realize you have your shirt on inside out, don’t you?”

She heard Leonie’s expletive as she walked down the hall laughing to herself. Leonie had seemed a bit flustered while they spoke. Shaking off the thought, Tia headed up to her room.

She called both Mara and Shelley, inviting them to supper and just having general catch-up. She hadn’t seen either of the girls since last Sunday when Mara had come over to give her a lift to Shelley’s so she could pick up her car that had been left there after her night of drinking. She smiled as she remembered the conversation she’d had with them. God, how things had changed in a week.

“Where the hell did you go last night?” Shelley screamed at her. “I was so worried. One minute you were there, the next minute you’d vanished.”

“Sorry, Shel. I don’t know what happened. I woke up yesterday morning at Smokin’ Tom’s. Ax had apparently taken me there to sleep it off.”

“That’s what I heard. Well, that someone had seen Ax carrying you out of the bar. So… You spent the night in a hotel room with him,” Shelley said, her mood completely changed, her perfectly arched eyebrows rising up and down.

“Yeah. Don’t get too excited. He was an absolute prick to me.” Tia didn’t mention the whole lack of underwear fight. Really, the entire thing had been ridiculous.

Now that she’d been intimate with Axton, she could tell he had a penchant for her not wearing any. Well, if the fact he kept ripping them off her was anything to go by.

After a shower to wash away the evidence from that morning’s romp under the big oak tree, she headed down to do some bookwork. You’d think with her IQ, she’d be a whiz at accounting. Wrong. It wasn’t that she couldn’t do it; it just happened to be one of those things you did but really didn’t want to. Like ironing. Tia managed to burn something every time she ironed.

After ruining three of her shirts, she’d given up. She’d brought Leonie a big bunch of flowers and an even bigger box of chocolates, begging her to never let her touch an iron again. Shame the same thing wouldn’t get her out of doing the books. She would rather be looking through a microscope or reading over DNA sequences than staring at debits and credits.

She spent a good forty minutes staring out into space, thinking about Ax, while enjoying the small breeze coming through the window, instead of actually doing what she had come into the office to do.

Rick walked in, bringing her wondering mind back into focus. “Hey, smelly butt.”

“Hey, Rick. Did your dad tell you about dinner tomorrow night?”

“Yeah. I’ll be there,” he replied while searching through his own shit heap of a desk, looking for God only knew what.

For someone so serious and rigid in most other aspects of his life, when it came to the office, he was one of the most disorganized people she knew. His room was spotless, but his desk looked like a paper-mill had thrown up on it.

“Tiny will be back tomorrow. He’ll be here for supper too.”

Tiny was Rick’s best friend. They’d served in the Green Berets together for six years. Some top secret shit that he couldn’t talk about. But when he came home, he brought Tiny with him.

Tiny was one of those nicknames that implied the complete opposite. Tiny was a massive, six foot ten native Hawaiian. He was almost twice as broad as Ax across the shoulders and was covered in tribal tattoos. He was also one of the most intimidating looking, gentle giants she’d ever met.

“That’s great. How’s his mama doing?”

“Not so good, but he has to get back for the clubs. And his sister is driving him mental. Something about bringing over every available female to see if they were compatible.”

“She’s still trying to marry him off so he moves back to Hawaii to live with her?” What Tiny’s sister Delilah couldn’t grasp, even though he’d told her several times, was since their time in the army, he and Rick shared everything. And Tia meant everything.

Not that they flaunted it. They did live in a small town, after all, but the fact that they owned a few fetish clubs in the surrounding towns was well known. Putting two and two together, most people came up with five. In this case they were pretty accurate in their assumption.

Not long after her twenty-first birthday, Tia and a bunch of girlfriends decided to spend a weekend in Mason to celebrate in style. No overgrown men bothering them, and after the mess of watching Ax with yet another woman at one of her parties, she hadn’t wanted any male company to remind her of Axton.

Tia snickered at the thought. He’d be spending this year’s birthday with no other woman but her.

But that weekend in Mason had been a blast. Stacey, Shelley’s younger sister, had managed to get into the club they were at. The girl had spunk. She’d only been seventeen, but sauntered straight to their table like she owned the place, no one taking any notice of her. Tia wasn’t bothered. Stacey was always up for a good time, but didn’t drink, so it was no problem her hangin’ with them that night.

It was while Shelley had been at the bar that Stacey had pointed out the threesome on the dance floor. Recognizing Tiny—because, seriously you couldn’t miss the man—Tia went to say howdy. But as she’d walked toward them to do just that, she noticed Rick’s hand on the woman’s breast, his tongue down her throat, and Tiny’s hand up her skirt.

Tia and her friends had moved to a different club after that. Not that the scene had bothered her, it had more to do with the fact that she was pretty sure Rick would be upset if he knew she’d witnessed it.

“Something like that,” Rick answered, bringing her back to the present. “He said to tell you Delilah’s making you some fresh coconut slice.”

“Yum. Can’t wait. But heads-up, Shelley’s coming for supper also. So could you and Tiny please be nice to her? I don’t know what y’all’s problem is, but it would be nice if all the people I love could be in the same room without bitching each other out,” she said, hands on her hips.