Embraced (7 page)

His voice was so deep, so rough it was like
a physical caress, stroking over her, inside her.

She bucked against him, driving him deeper
as they both moaned in rapture.

“Hold on to me, sweetheart,” he whispered
at her ear then. “I’m going to take all of you now. Every. Sweet. Fucking.
Inch.”

She screamed as he drove inside her the
last few inches, filling her to the hilt with heat and hardness, with fiery
pleasure and the rasp of pain. One hand held her hip as the other lifted her
closer to his chest as he began to move.

This wasn’t fucking. She didn’t know what
it was, how she was supposed to describe it, but this wasn’t what she had done
with her ex-husband. This was primal, elemental. She hung on to his shoulders,
her nails biting into his flesh as each stroke seared her cunt and set her clit
on fire.

She moved beneath him, pushing against each
thrust, driving him deeper inside her as she writhed on the impalement.

“Yes,” he hissed at her ear. “Fuck me back,
baby.”

His hips rotated, his pelvis stroking
against her clit as a white, bright light began to glow at the edge of her
vision. She couldn’t stand it. She couldn’t breathe, she wouldn’t survive the
pleasure.

“Fuck me,” he snarled at her ear again as
he began to fuck her harder, driving inside her, pushing her higher as she
slammed her hips back at him.

“Sax. Sax, please…oh God… Sax, it’s too
good…too good…” She felt the crescendo rising inside her. Her womb tightened,
her clit began to pound with a steady hard throb until she exploded.

She felt herself come apart in his arms,
over and over again. It wasn’t a single, terrifying explosion, but multitudes
of them washing over her, convulsing her entire body beneath him as a strangled
cry wailed from her throat.

Another hard thrust as she heard him groan,
his head lowering, his hips driving his cock deeper, harder, and she felt the
first torrential explosion of his semen inside her. Each hard blast of his
release had her shuddering in renewed pleasure as it echoed within her own
climax.

It seemed to last forever, and yet it ended
too soon. She collapsed beneath him, fighting to breathe, drowsiness weighing
at her limbs as she felt him move, and moaned at the feel of his cock sliding
free of her as he fell beside her.

His arms came around her, hard, warm.
Protective.

“I’m tired,” she sighed, snuggling against
him as her eyes fluttered closed.

“Sleep, baby,” she heard him whisper
gently. “Sleep right here. Where you belong.”

Sax sat at the edge of the bed hours later,
staring down at Marey as she slept. His mind was a morass of thoughts and
emotions. Finally, he had her here, where he wanted her, had wanted her for
years.

The sheet was pulled to her hips, revealing
the delicate lines of her back. Her dark blonde hair fell over her neck and
shoulders and framed her profile like a silken cloud.

Her unique looks could never be described
as beautiful, they were too strong, too stubborn for such a term. His lips
quirked in a grin as he considered the stubborn part. Her expression often
reflected the inner part of her, willful and determined, but it was subtle. A
quality many people often missed because they were unaware of what they were
looking at.

But Sax knew. He had seen it in her the
first time he met her, just before her divorce. He had seen the misery in her
eyes, but her determination to hide it from her friends. When she thought no
one was looking, weariness and resignation would draw her shoulders down before
she would resolutely straighten them.

For years after the divorce, despite the
hell he knew her ex-husband had put her through, she had maintained a dignity
that he could do nothing but admire. And a body that drove him crazy to
possess.

He loved her. Despite the fact that she had
run from him, that she had denied him at every turn, the need for her wouldn’t
ease. It only grew stronger, deeper. He had her, for now, but he was smart
enough to know that keeping her wouldn’t be as easy and getting her into his
bed had been. He would have to keep her off balance, keep her body humming, her
mind immersed in her sensuality until she knew she couldn’t survive without
him.

He knew what she hid from herself. He saw
it in her eyes, in her voice, in the hunger in her expression. He had her
heart, she just had to realize it. And getting Marey to realize what she didn’t
want to see would be his hardest battle.

He drew the blanket further over her back
before rising from the bed and heading for the shower. He had waited, watched,
knowing the day would come when Marey would drop her shields and allow him the
chance he needed to break into her heart. He was in there now, though he was
certain she would deny it to herself as long as she could.

He also knew something else about Marey,
something she had revealed hours before. She loved the sensual dominance he
could give her. She liked the fiery pleasure-pain and walking that fine line of
carnal intensity. He would push her, he couldn’t give her time to think, to
consider the evolving relationship he could see coming. If he did, she would
run. And he couldn’t allow her to run. He wouldn’t allow her to run.

“When you get ready, I need to run in to
the office for a few hours,” Sax announced as Marey sat silently after
breakfast, fortifying herself with caffeine, wondering how she was going to
manage to escape this new situation.

Sex with Sax was incredible. Too
incredible.

“Go ahead.” She took the final sip of her
coffee. “I’ll get ready and you can drop me off at a hotel.”

The tension that filled the room was like a
punch in the gut. She raised her eyes, staring back at him as he watched her
silently, his eyes narrowed on her.

“Stay a few days,” he finally suggested
casually, as though it didn’t matter either way, as though there was no risk in
such an action. “At least until they’ve picked Vince up, Marey. You aren’t safe
in a hotel. You’re safe with me.”

She breathed out wearily, pushing her
fingers through her still damp hair as she sat back in her chair and watched
him directly.

“And if Vince decides to blame you for the
fact that I’m here, rather than where he can get to me?” she asked him
defensively. “What then, Sax? He’s not sane. He won’t go after you with his
fists as he does me. He could come after you with a gun.”

A savage smile tightened his lips.

“I would look forward to it, Marey,” he
snarled. “Unlike you, I know how to deal with bastards like that. He won’t get
to me easily, I promise you that.”

Were all men insane? Or just the ones she
knew?

She closed her eyes as she clenched her
teeth and held back a furious growl.

“And what makes you think you’re invincible
all of a sudden?” she snapped, coming to her feet, ignoring the glint in his
eyes as they dropped to her bare legs beneath the long hem of one of his
T-shirts.

“I don’t think I’m invincible, Marey,” he
assured her, his voice deepening, thickening with lust as he watched her. “But
I know the type of man Vince is. A bullet isn’t personal enough, it doesn’t
prove his strength, and that’s what’s important to him, proving his
superiority.”

In that, he was right. Vince couldn’t
tolerate believing an opponent could be physically superior to him. He didn’t
own guns, he owned fists and knives.

“And I’m supposed to just accept the fact
that you’re placing yourself in his path,” she snapped belligerently. “I don’t
think so, Sax. I don’t need these problems.”

“Do you think he can beat me, Marey?”
Genuine amusement reflected in his expression then. “Are you afraid your man
can’t protect you?”

“You aren’t my man,” she muttered, using
the only defense she could come up with. “And right now, you’re acting like a
little boy playing one-upmanship.”

“One-upmanship is not a child’s game,” he
informed her with a slow, sexy smile. “It’s a man’s game. Want me to show you?”

Oh man, the sound of his voice, the look in
those dark eyes. Her pussy was suddenly humming in need, creaming furiously to
the pure sexuality there.

“That’s okay.” She scuttled quickly out of
his way, watching him warily now. He could turn her knees to mush and her
resistance to no more than a passing thought. There wasn’t a chance in hell she
was going to let him touch her. “You go on to the office. I can just lounge
around here. Use the hot tub.” Call a cab and find a good hotel.

He tilted his head questioningly. “If you
walk out of here now, we’ll never know what could have been, Marey. Is that
what you really want?”

Was it? No, she didn’t want that, but
neither did she want to see Sax pay for her mistakes.

She drew in a harsh breath. “After they
catch Vince—”

He was shaking his head before the words
were out of her mouth.

“I don’t want a woman who can’t trust me to
protect her.” He crossed his arms over his chest, staring down at her somberly.
There was no anger, no fury, just pure male stubbornness.

Marey stared back at him, bemused. He
should be furious, not calm. In hindsight, she realized she had more or less
given the impression she didn’t trust him to protect her. She hadn’t meant to.
She had never felt that way. But his male pride should have at least been
pricked. There should have been anger, a snarl, snapping sarcasm. Something
besides somber intensity, steadiness.

Her hands clenched in the material of the
T-shirt as she fought to come to grips with this new brand of male species. Who
knew they could be so damned hard to figure out?

“I trust you to protect me,” she finally
answered, clearing her throat nervously. “It has nothing to do with that. I’m
used to protecting myself, Sax.”

She had been doing it for a long time. She
might have messed up a time or two, but for the most part, she thought she’d
done a fairly good job.

“And Vince is determined to hurt you, no
matter the cost to himself,” he told her quietly. “You know you can’t fight
him, Marey, you’ve seen that. He tried to kill you.”

“I don’t need you to stand in front of me.”
She turned away from him, furious herself now as she paced to the sliding glass
doors that led to the deck. “Dammit, Sax, why do you think I’ve stayed away
from you? Why do you think I’ve lived like a nun in that damned fortress Father
built, and forgot I was woman all these years? He’s crazy. He could try to kill
someone.”

“Yes, he could,” he snapped, but not in
anger, more in frustration. “And that someone could be you. Because he knows
you’re not strong enough to fight back. Until the sheriff apprehends him and
the courts put him away for good, you need to stay safe. I can keep you safe.”

He said the last sentence as he moved behind
her, pulling her against his much taller body, his strong, warm body, as she
fought the weakness that filled hers. He made her weak, made her want to lean
on him, trust him. How insane was that? She knew better than to trust anyone.

“If you walk away now, Marey, it’s
forever.” He lowered his head, pressing a kiss to her hair as his eyes met hers
in the glass. “Now, are you going to the office with me, or do you want me to
take you to that hotel?”

She stared back at him, their gazes locked
in the glass of the sliding doors, and frowned fiercely.

“You are going to piss me off,” she finally
snapped.

Surprise flared in his eyes. Surprise and
arousal.

“Baby, that’s a given,” he chuckled. “Now,
make up your mind and let’s get out of here. I have work waiting.”

Sax watched from beneath his lashes as
Marey lounged on the couch on the other side of the room, calmly flipping
through a magazine as he worked on the reports he needed to finish up for the
day.

She was driving him crazy. She was as calm
and placid as a mountain lake right now, waiting on him, as though it was
nothing unusual to have little or nothing to fill her day. He knew she was an
editor for a small publishing company, one that published extremely erotic
content. She hadn’t been the one to reveal the information though, it had been
Ella who had dropped that little bomb months before.

Was that how she had learned to sit so
silently, immersing herself in whatever she was reading? Or had she learned
patience and silence while caring for her ill parents so many years ago?

There was so much about her that he needed
to know. So many ways he wanted to learn everything possible about this
intriguing woman.

“Bored?” he asked curiously.

She glanced up, her gaze a bit distant as
it met his.

“No.” She shook her head. “I have company.”

She lifted the edge of the magazine before
returning her attention to the article she was reading. It wasn’t fluff. The
news magazine was one of his favorites actually.

He shifted in his chair, attempting to ease
the uncomfortable weight of his throbbing erection.

“Do you need to run by your house before we
head back to mine?” he asked her then. “Pick anything up?”

She glanced up again. “No. I should have
enough for a few days.”

Her attention went back to the magazine. It
made him crazy. Made him horny. She was as calm and relaxed as a summer’s day,
and just as damned hot. He knew how hot she could get, how wet and sweet.

“How long has it been since you’ve had a
lover?” he asked her then, shifting to relieve the discomfort of his hard-on.

He watched her tense before she looked back
at him, narrow-eyed and suspicious, but hot.

She glanced at her watch mockingly.

“Eight hours maybe?” She went back to the
magazine.

Sax observed her for long moments. She
looked cool as hell, but he could see the altered breathing, the heavy rise and
fall of her breasts. She was aroused. Just that fast. Her nipples were pressing
tight against her shirt, her face flushed just enough to testify to her heat.

“Before that,” he bit out between clenched
teeth, waiting, his erection throbbing in agony.

She flipped the magazine closed and turned
to him defensively, her gray eyes sparkling in defiance.

“Exactly what do you want to know, Sax?”
she asked him. “And why all the questions?”

God he loved it when her eyes went hot like
that. Anger and passion and complete female stubbornness mixed with arousal. It
was invigorating, energizing. It was making him so fucking horny he couldn’t
breathe.

“Does everything have to be a test?” he
growled back, coming out of his chair and stalking across the room. “Maybe
there are just things I want to know about you.”

“You should pretty much know everything by
now,” she shot back, staring up at him as he towered over her. She didn’t jump
to her feet to even out the distance or to assert her own control. She kept her
seat, though she leaned back against the couch to keep the arch of her neck at
a more comfortable angle. “It’s not as though we’ve just met.”

“And the more I think about it, the less I
know,” he told her, frustration rising within him.

“And how many lovers I may or may not have
had is important?” She arched her brow mockingly. “Fine, Sax, until you,
there’s been no one since my divorce. Before my marriage there were two. I’m
sexually inexperienced but not stupid. Anything else?”

“What the hell do you do all day besides
flip through magazines and edit romances?” His cock was steel-hard and driving
him crazy with the need to fuck.

She smiled slowly, her eyelids drifting
lower, giving her a mysterious, sensual look.

“Play with my favorite toys and fantasize
about you,” she drawled. “What do you do when you’re home alone?”

The little liar. He could see the devilry
in her gaze, the deliberate teasing in the way her tongue stroked slowly over
her full, lower lip.

“Jack off and imagine your ass burning
red,” he snarled, reaching down and pulling her to her feet. “I won’t let you
hide from me forever, Marey.”

“But I’m not hiding anymore, Sax,” she
reminded him, her hands moving up his chest, over his shoulders. “I’m right
here where you can see me.”

God, she was a temptation. A sweet,
beautiful little keg of dynamite standing placidly in his arms. For now.

She shifted against him then, her lower
stomach pressing against the hard ridge of his cock as a light flush of arousal
stained her cheeks.

“Are you finished working?”

His fingers burrowed in the soft weight of
her hair as he held her still, watching the heat flame in her eyes.

“I’m finished,” he growled as he pulled at
the silk he held, watching her eyelids drift lower as sensual weakness consumed
her.

“We could go back to the house.” Her hands
moved from his shoulders to his waist, gripping the flesh there as his head
lowered to her cheek.

“I won’t make it to the house,” he told her
roughly. “I want you here. Now.”

A low, aroused laugh came from her throat
as she tilted her head back, allowing his lips to caress her neck.

“Trojans and their office sex. I’ve heard
about that.”

“You hear too damned much. Those women have
loose lips.” He nipped at her neck, imagining her stretched out on the leather
sofa, naked and filled with his dick.

She gasped as his hands moved to her
breasts, cupping the delicate weight, his thumb and forefinger testing the
hardness of her nipple through the soft silk blouse she wore. He was dying to get
it in his mouth, to feel the sensitive nub growing harder as he sucked at it.

“You know too much about things you
shouldn’t.” He nipped at her neck, feeling her shudder from the erotic little
pain he delivered.

“Hmm, have to get my jollies somewhere,” she
moaned as he licked at the soft flesh he had nipped.

Oh, he could give her jollies, he thought
with a grimace of building lust, more jollies than she could have imagined.

As his lips moved to hers, taking her in a
kiss that had them both moaning at the heated pleasure of it, his hands went to
the small buttons of her shirt. He wanted her naked, wanted her wet, wild and
screaming out her pleasure.

“You need to lock the door,” she gasped as
the sides of her blouse fell apart and his lips wandered down her neck.

Her breasts were swollen, flushed, her hard
little nipples poking against the lace of her bra as his lips drew closer.

“Hmm. Live dangerously,” he murmured as he
licked over the delicate curves. “Consider it a jolly.”