Brave are the Lonely, page 15
“I’m not.” Cody’s mouth curled upwards, the sun in his expression bursting out into a smile. “I am glad Kid survived, but I am glad that you didn’t let me walk away. That night or the next morning.”
Covering her mouth with her hand, she barely managed to contain the ‘oh’ that sought escape. She hadn’t let him walk away. He’d demanded to know if she wanted him and she’d admitted it.
She could have disobeyed him.
He would have stopped.
He had stopped until she’d proven she could do it and asked him in actions if not words to take her.
Cody’s eyebrows lifted.
Hovering at the heels of her embarrassment was a pride she probably didn’t deserve. But she’d beckoned him and he’d come.
Heady and a little dazed by his admission, she stared at him. “I don’t know…I don’t know what we do.”
Her sex clenched at the sound of his low, throaty chuckle, the banked heat roaring back to life.
“Stay with us, we will keep you safe.”
Angels above, the invitation set her blood on fire. “And if I want to return to my people?”
Cody’s open expression darkened, his mouth firming into a hard line and yellow flashed in his eyes. “I wouldn’t like it. I don’t think either of us would, not after the way they treated you.”
“They’re my family. My family. They did what they believed was right.” She took a fierce step toward him.
“You don’t leave family behind. You don’t abandon them.” He took a step toward her, grim in his determination.
“It doesn’t matter. I broke the law. I broke the rules. I accept their judgment.” Another step, her heart began to box at her ribs.
“They have no right to judge you. Family doesn’t judge. They love. They accept. They protect. They defend.” He met her step for step, his head tilting down to hold her gaze. The heat of him washed over her.
“But they’re still my family. And if I want to go back to them, if I want to throw myself down at their feet and beg their mercy, will you take me?”
“Yes.” The answer exhaled on a long, slow hiss of breath. “If you want me to take you to them. I will.”
“Thank you.”
She edged forward, every movement slow and deliberate, aware of the watchfulness in his gaze as she took his hand and lifted it to her breast. “And if I want you to touch me again?”
“Ask.”
The heat of his palm warmed her through the bodice. She pressed his hand against her breast with one hand and reached for the ties binding her bosom with the other. “Should I say please?”
“Yes.”
The husky response thrilled her. She stroked her fingers against the back of his hand, the tremor of muscle betraying his own desire.
“Do I get to touch you this time?”
“No.”
Mariska sighed and tugged the tie loose. This bodice was her least favorite, but he’d allowed her little time to pack. It came apart, loosening the pressure on her chest, her breasts swelling at the way he gazed at her.
Do I dare?
She let go of his hand and stepped back, biting her lip at the confusion that passed over his face. Slowly, deliberately, she pulled the ties free and stripped out of the bodice. It fell to the earth, forgotten as she toed off her riding boots and then the skirt. Her fingers shook as she shed her clothes, aware of the blue eyes raking over her skin.
Naked, she hesitated. Doubt crept through her, but she shook it away. The only way to earn his trust, trust she’d destroyed, was to trust him.
And she wanted his trust.
She wanted him.
I dare.
Licking her lips, she tilted her chin up. “What do you want me to do?”
Chapter 18
“What do you want me to do?” The question slid through Cody’s mind, igniting a multitude of images, each one more erotic than the last, from the curved suppleness of her hips to the full, round breasts. Bathed in sunlight, her warm skin gleamed like freshly poured honey. The fields around them were alive with movement, but they were just rabbits, a few squirrels and a family of deer wandering closer to the stream. None ventured close to them, nothing to keep his hands from exploring her body.
The shadows of the wagon had simply not done her any justice. Her pink tongue slipped out a peek to moisten her lips. His gaze roamed down to the curl of black at the juncture of her thighs.
He’d tasted her on his fingers. Enjoyed the squeeze of her fitting around his cock like a too tight glove. But he wanted more. Catching a grass head between his fingers, he rubbed it slowly. The rational thing would be to get her dressed and back on the horses. He could indulge himself when they made camp tonight, in the blissful privacy of darkness.
With Kid dozing just a few feet away.
The sobering thought decided him.
He wasn’t sharing Mariska with anyone.
Least of all Kid, who couldn’t manage to keep his pants buttoned whenever a beautiful woman presented herself, much less one as exquisitely exotic and tempting as Mariska.
The wolf growled, low and deep within the hind part of his brain. The beast had fled when Mariska snapped at him. Cody’s grin grew. She’d told the wolf she wasn’t done with Cody. She wanted Cody.
She wanted the man.
“Lay down.” He didn’t quite trust himself to touch her yet. As it was, his cock strained to bulging in his pants. If he touched her, he’d likely be inside her and as passion provoking a thought as that was, he wanted her to enjoy more than the wild romp of riding his cock until he came in jets of seed.
And then he wanted to do it again.
Mariska bent, scooping up her skirt and spreading it out like a blanket before settling her gorgeous behind on the prickly grass.
Cody scowled at himself, he should have thought to offer that comfort, but the thought drifted away on a red haze of need as she settled herself, legs bent slightly at the knees, an inherent need to shield her most intimate self. The breeze tugged at her hair, dragging strands of it across her breasts, one long length catching on a turgid nipple, emphasizing the swollen redness like a rose against midnight.
“Is this not right?” The hesitant question jerked his gaze upwards to the earnest innocence in her gaze. Her black eyes beckoned, a starry sky that longed for the full moon to rise and for the beast inside him to break loose and roam. The wolf surged upwards, testing the air. The musk of desire filled his nostrils and Cody seized the leash and dragged the beast backwards.
You didn’t want her remember? “No, you’re perfect.” Cody turned away from the wolf and his objections. He wanted Mariska. The wolf surrendered the internal struggle, abandoning Cody to prowl through the back of his mind. “I have never seen anyone more beautiful.”
He didn’t have the pretty words or poetic tendencies of some of his brothers. He’d rarely taken the time to speak to a woman that wasn’t Scarlett. But he knew that women wanted to hear those thoughts, they liked to be told they are pretty, that they are wanted.
“You look like you’re in pain.” Concern faltered the smile on her face.
“The wolf doesn’t like you.” The blunt words killed the smile on her face. Cody dropped to his knees, edging forward until his hands could rest on the silk heat of her skin. He traced patterns with his fingertips up the length of her leg.
“You speak as though you are two…” The careful selection of her words wasn’t lost on him. Unsurprising since he’d told her to ask him about anything except his wolf. The great beast growled agreement, but Cody silenced him with a huff. He’d never been so resistant to the wolf’s influence, more often than not, gambling his fate with the wolf’s clear-cut perceptions of the world.
Family.
Enemies.
Friends.
Lovers.
But not Mariska.
Everything about Mariska was soft. Her muscles were sharp, defined and evidence of a long, hard life on the road. He couldn’t image living, roaming from place to place, avoiding roots. Home would always be Quanto’s mountain. He barely remembered the shanties in the bayou where he’d been born. Less remembered, even the scents; cloy of death, the sweet of swamp flower and the ever-present tang of alligator and water.
No, Cody’s roaming from the mountain always brought him back home. Home to Quanto. To his brothers. To Scarlett.
But she would no longer live on the mountain, so home would have to include the Kane ranch.
Acceptable to the man, the wolf let out a low and mourning sound, the battle sagging from him.
“We are two, we have always been two. We share, we hunt, we exist together in everything, except this.” The truth tasted sharp, pungent and flavorful against his tongue. It was true, until now they had shared everything. But the wolf wanted Scarlett, had decided on Scarlett years ago, before Cody even understood what that would mean to the wolf or to her.
We love her. The wolf’s thoughts were red with emotion, dark and intent.
We do love her, but she is our sister, not our mate.
My mate.
No. Cody sighed, bowing his head and inhaling a lungful of Mariska, chasing away the remembered taste of the air that clung to Scarlett. The ash, the wood smoke, the forest, and the mountain twining together, at the heart of her base scent was the scent of home.
Blackberries, cinnamon, bayberry and pine coated his tongue as he knelt closer, brushing his nose against Mariska’s thigh. Exotic spices and foreign oils accented the timber of her scent. He filled his lungs with her, sampling the taste against his tongue as he braced a hand against her hip, urging her body to arch up, bringing her sex higher so he could thrust his nose against the curls.
The wolf caught a second scent threading beneath the musk of her desire. Cody’s scent. They’d barely allowed her more than sketchy wash since beginning their trek from her wagon. She carried the scent of him, deep against her most intimate skin. The wolf retreated, abandoning his protests, the scent answering a baser call in their nature.
Mariska’s hands dug into the soft prickly grass as he cupped his hands beneath her buttocks and lifted her, her legs spread like a blooming flower. He pressed a kiss to the inside of her thigh before nestling deep against the wet lips, the hard bud of her sex throbbing and swollen. She was ready for him, but he wasn’t quite prepared to stop.
The wolf’s relaxation let the man slide his tongue along her slit, teasing the lips apart. A burst of flavor filled his mouth, hints of salt, desire and fruit. She tasted like the ripest fruit, sweet and tangy and he wanted all of it. Her heart raced, the rapid thud of it filled his ears as he delved to the soft core where his cock longed to surge and then up, suckling the hard button of flesh between his lips.
Her tiny gasps grew in volume. Her fists pounded the earth and Cody soaked in every nuance of sound. His cock jerked, pinching against the leather laces of his buckskin britches. Dragging a hand away, he balanced her one armed, licking, nipping, suckling and biting until her moans crashed one into the other. Her body vibrated against him and he stroked her to the peak of her passion, then teased her downwards.
His cock sprang free and he wasted no more time, lifting his head and gazing down at her dazed eyes, her arms splayed wide, clutching at the grass and her abandoned blouse as though holding on for dear life. Desire rolled a heat wave through his balls, his cock longed to be buried deep. He coaxed her upwards and she accommodated him, rolling onto her belly and arching her ass back towards him, an invitation he wasted no time in meeting, positioning his cock against the moist, tense entrance and driving forward, meeting her backwards thrust until his balls slapped against her.
He’d not bothered to strip, his thoughts narrowing to one, driving need, to come deep inside her and feel her pleasure as it squeezed him dry. Her body reacted as though it shared the thought, her back arching as she rocked forward and then back, controlling his thrusts. Cody grasped her hips, balancing her and gave into the primal urge, surging again and again, the scrape of her muscles squeezing him tighter until he forgot how to think.
Dots of perspiration gleamed on her spine, the sun stroking over her skin. She canted her head skyward, her black hair flowing as though alive, catching on the moisture of her skin and then tossing again as she cried out.
Again, he pulled her up until her thighs straddled his, pumping his legs up to maintain the speed of his thrusts. Her back slammed against his chest and his hands roamed, teasing her breasts, cupping and stroking them. The little sounds she made grew elongated, guttural and punctuated by the wet sliding friction of her body on his cock. He couldn’t hold back the surges ripping through his body, everything focused on the way she took the whole length of his cock, a sheathe shaped perfectly for him. He nuzzled the back of her neck, tongue lapping up the decadent salt of her sweat.
“Let go for me Mariska,” he murmured the order. Her body writhed, posting faster against his thrusts as their bodies collided together. “Come for me.” Cody wanted that, his balls swelled with the need to feel her lose control, to just experience the sensual heat pounding in her sex. He rubbed a hand over her belly and down through her curls to the hard, swollen nub. Pinching it between his thumb and forefinger, he rolled the delicate flesh.
Her scream was a hard keening. The inner walls of her sex fisted him, the pressure popping some primal instinct. He bared his teeth and bit down, desperate to hold her still as his orgasm tightened his cock, the pressure swelling him until he could barely move and then it slammed into him, rolling him under and the hot jets pulsed out of him.
The faint copper of blood, rich and spicy, filled his mouth. He lapped at the wound he’d created and she thrashed against him. Her heart beat a staccato cadence, her sex clenching around his cock, pulling the life from him.
A quiver shuddered in his balls and he pushed her forward, rolling with her until she was flat, her thighs sealing together around what length wasn’t still shooting into her sex. He nuzzled the bite mark, blanketing her nudity with his body. When her head turned, he nuzzled the kisses up the side of her jaw to her ear.
“Beautiful woman, sweet, beautiful woman.” His hips convulsed and a second orgasm seemed to take him. She was so fucking tight and he couldn’t stop the buck and hard drive to give her everything. He kissed his way back to the second bite. His vision darkening as the wolf filled his mind scenting every thought.
Marked her.
Satisfaction, ancient, incendiary and male flooded Cody as his cock continued to quiver, as though shaking out the last droplets into the furnace of her flexing sex. Mine.
Steel and silk. Strong.
The wolf’s thoughts flowed into his, the muted anger diluting under the waves of pleasure eddying through Cody’s soul. Scarlett was strong, volatile and incendiary. But like the fire she wielded, she could gutter in the wind, drown in the water and smother in the earth. Mariska was more.
Like.
The thought, a low wordless growl, bridged the gulf separating him from the wolf. A flag of truce in their conflict. Cody’s fierce grin ached his jaw. Her body trembled beneath him and he shifted.
“No,” she locked her thighs, holding his cock hostage, her head arching up. “Please don’t go this time.”
“Not going,” he soothed kissing around his mark, fighting the urge to roll her over and bite each thigh and then her breasts. He wanted to mark every inch of her as his, no other man would touch what belonged to him. The wolf paused but didn’t disagree with the idea. “Don’t want to crush you.”
“You’re not.” Mariska’s voice was thick, drowsy with pleasure and the sound of it caressed his balls. “I love how you feel inside of me. I wasn’t sure I hadn’t imagined the wagon, your hands, how it felt when you thrust into my body.”
She turned her head, gazing up at him sleepily and Cody gave into the urge to kiss each of her eyebrows, gentle kisses to the corners of those sexy, spitting kitten eyes.
“It hurt, some, that first time.”
“Never again.” Cody promised. “You’re tight, so fucking tight, but you were shaped by me, it won’t hurt like that. I promise.”
Her chuckle convulsed her sex, squeezing his softening cock and he jerked at the wave of pleasurable tingles that jerked through him, centering his world on her.
“I like this better. The feel of you across me, inside me, touching me.”
“Me too.” It lacked poetry, but he wasn’t sure how to tell her the emotions she kindled inside of him. How the shape of her mouth beckoned and he wondered what it would feel like to have it wrapped around his cock or how her tight bottom nuzzling against his hips would offer a tighter slot for his cock to press into or even how he longed to roll her over and dine between her thighs, for hours, to taste her orgasm as she rocked on his tongue.
His wolf preferred to mount the women from behind, to control their coupling, to be free to thrust his pleasure and keep her obedient to his whims. But his brothers shared their exploits. Jimmy loved their mouths, even their teeth as they toyed with his cock. Noah preferred to take their anuses and even to share with a second man who would touch him as she did. The thoughts were foreign to the wolf, but Noah liked both and he was his brother. Buck preferred to bind them, torturing his partners with pleasure until they couldn’t stand it. Kid probably liked it all, though his sexual escapades were not something they’d discussed.
“What do you like?” Cody couldn’t resist the question. Did she prefer a different touch than he’d given her, would she want more from him? His cock flexed at the idea. He wanted to give her what she desired and explore all the options available to them.
“I like that you are inside of me, I love the way you feel when you let go. But…”
As she hesitated, Cody lifted his head, studying her face.
“But?” He encouraged, brushing back her hair with his hand. What would it feel like to have that hair stroking his thighs as he pumped into her mouth?
“I want to touch you, too.” The whisper was low, sweet and irresistible. The wolf paced inside his mind, tail thrashing as though considering. He wasn’t as resistant to the idea as he’d been the first time, but concern itched through them.
