Fire and Ice (Guardians) (11 page)

Maia's breath hitched. Jack McCord was the finest male specimen she had come across in a long time, perhaps ever.

"All done reporting back to your virtual babysitter?" Jack asked, raising a dark brow.

"Viktor is hardly a babysitter," Maia said, grinning at the idea of Viktor and the word baby together in a sentence. "Why are you still up? I thought you had a rough week?"

Jack pushed back and walked towards her. Maia did her best to stand her ground and not shuffle back. There was raw carnality oozing from every fiber of his being and her body—damn her—couldn't help reacting, her nipples tightened.

He held out his hand to her and said, "The smell of apple pie is all over the house, I don't think I can wait until tomorrow morning."

She thought Jack was going to kiss her, and couldn't understand why she was relieved and disappointed at the same time. This man stirred up such conflicting emotions in her, it was so unsettling.

Maia threaded her hand in his as she followed him out of the study. "Well, I did try to procure vanilla ice cream, but my mission was foiled by the Russian mafia."

Jack threw back his head and laughed.

"Now this is the best apple pie, I've ever had." Jack smacked his lips as he forked the last bite into his mouth. "You have to marry me now."

"Or I can just teach Grace to make it, that'd be a simpler proposition," Maia replied dryly as she finished her own slice. "That vanilla ice cream would have been the kicker though."

Jack brows knitted together as he scrutinized her under the bright kitchen light. "There's a bruise forming on your cheekbone." Then realization hit him and he asked furiously, "Did those bastards hit you?"

"Correction. I let them hit me. I needed to get them complacent," Maia said in satisfaction.

"Damn it Maia! You play a dangerous game!"

"I had it under control," she replied calmly.

Jack looked like he wanted to argue more but he reached out and touched her gently on the face where the bruise was forming, then sighed. "You'll be the death of me. So how did you take them down?"

Maia told him.

Jack stared at her. "Remind me not to get on your bad side. Do you know who they were?"

"They're working to hide the leftover drugs from Vergara."

That caught Jack by surprise and his eyes widened. "You're shitting me."

Maia shook her head. "It gets better. The Russian guy who has me on his hit list, appears to be moving in on Vergara's turf."

"Do you know where he is?"

"Sorry, Jack I can't tell you more than that," she said. "I just thought you'd find it interesting how everything was intertwined."

"You know where he is."

Maia sighed. "Viktor has a plan to draw him out."

Jack's eyes sparked dangerously. "And you're the bait," he said flatly.

Maia shrugged. "It's a brilliant plan."

"The hell it is!" Jack grabbed her by the shoulders and snarled, "They're the Russian mob. Can't you get it through your thick skull that they're dangerous?"

"And can't you get it through yours that I've shot down every single merc they sent after me? You keep on forgetting what I do for a living," Maia said angrily. "If you insist on behaving this way, we better call off our arrangement. You are so getting into my space! This is not just-sex only."

Jack's eyes heated up, this time not with anger but with pure lust. He hauled her up on the countertop, unzipped her hoodie and pulled it off her, then yanked the clip off her head releasing waves of her glorious red hair.

"Fine, I'll show you just-sex," Jack muttered before his mouth came down hard and demanding, forcing her lips open as he sucked her tongue into his mouth and she gasped at the blatant invasion. He plundered her lips indecently as his fingers nudged the straps of her tank down to expose her breast. He trailed open-mouth kisses down her neck to draw circles around her nipples with his tongue before he begun to suck them to a taut peak.

He pulled her sweat pants halfway down and slipped his hand into her heated core.

"I want to taste you, eat you up," he whispered thickly, starting to breathe hard.

Maia's skin was on fire, she wanted his touch everywhere. She kicked off her sweats
 
pants and Jack immediately wedged his hips between her thighs. His hand slipped through the lacy waistband of her panties, cupping her moist cove before sliding one finger inside her.

"Jack..." Maia cried out. She moved her hips in rhythm, wanting more.

After a few moments, he began to slide two fingers in and out while rubbing her swollen cleft with his thumb. She could feel the pressure building. His mouth was back on hers, kissing her urgently as she rode his hand wantonly. He tasted of apple pie and he smelled so good, spicy cologne mingling with a clean soapy scent. Then suddenly his fingers withdrew from their maddening strokes and Maia protested the loss of his touch.

He swung her up in his arms to carry her to the living room. With one knee to the sectional sofa, he laid her half sitting, half lying against the corner. His hands skimmed her hips and in one tug, her panties were gone, her knees hoisted over his shoulders and then his mouth hit between her legs. Jack growled low as he suckled and licked her tender feminine folds and flicked his tongue mercilessly against her clit, her inner thigh muscles alternately clenching and weakening as she trembled with pleasure.

"You taste so fucking sweet, I could eat you forever," Jack rasped as he continued to hungrily lap up her honey-slick wetness.

Maia trashed her head wildly and moaned, "Almost there, don't stop!"

But he stopped and Maia wanted to strangle him.

"Not without me, babe."

 
She heard a rustle of clothes as Jack took off his shirt and freed his raging erection and then he covered her body with his and suddenly slammed into her, burying himself to the hilt inside her.

Maia gasped as an uncomfortable fullness hit her; she had to struggle to take in Jack's size.

Jack sensed her discomfort. He paused and searched her face.

"You, okay?" he whispered huskily.

Maia nodded and squeezed
 
her legs around his hips to encourage him to move. He withdrew slowly and slid back in. Her core started relaxing and the pleasure returned swiftly.
 

"You're so tight," Jack gritted raggedly, pushing the edge of his arousal.

 
One of her leg was wrapped around his waist, the other dropped to his side allowing him to drive his shaft deeper.

Maia started writhing beneath him, she was so close. "Harder, Jack. Oh God, harder!"

"Come on, babe. Give it to me," he grunted roughly.

He moved one of his hand to the back of the couch and started powering in and out relentlessly. He pulled out almost all the way and slammed back into her. The third time he thrust, Maia was overwhelmed with the burst of her own orgasm. She felt her inner muscles spasming around his rigid flesh.

"Jack...Oh God... don't stop!" Maia cried out as she felt her sex pulsing deliciously.

Jack continued to pound into her furiously, almost savagely, his hand gripping the corner of the couch for extra leverage as he pumped harder. With one final powerful thrust his neck muscles tensed as he shuddered. He almost yelled his release but instead lowered his head and started kissing her, groaning into her mouth as his own orgasm overwhelmed him.

Coming down from his climax, he stayed buried inside her and started nuzzling her neck, randomly nipping her and breathing in her scent as he continued to rock gently into her.

Wow, Maia thought. That was intense. She felt Jack smile against her neck and realized that she had said it aloud. Shit.

He lifted his head and his slate-blue eyes connected with hers as he said softly, "Yeah, it was."

"Um, you're still inside me," Maia told him.

Jack nudged his semi-hard cock further into her and grinned roguishly as her eyes widened. "So, I am."

He then pulled out slowly, pushed back and tucked himself back into his pajamas. Maia had barely gotten her panties on before he swept her into his arms.

"Where are we going?" she demanded, a little peeved because he kept hauling her around.

"We're going to get you cleaned up, and then we're going to bed," Jack declared before he added. "Together."

***

Jack stared at the woman tucked securely in the crook of his arm, one leg thrown over hers, her ass pressed against his crotch. They were spooning. Jack didn't spoon; he never had in his past relationships. Even with Claire, they'd cuddle briefly after sex but he'd pull away eventually. With Maia, it was different. It felt natural, like she had always belonged there, pressed close to him, a perfect fit. He had always known sex with her would be mind-blowing, but he hadn't expected it to touch a part of his soul in a way he wasn't ready to examine. As he drove hungrily into her softness, there was an overwhelming need for him to possess her, to make her his, to own her body and soul.

Jack sighed into her hair. He recalled how he had battled with her earlier to finally get her to sleep with him in bed.
 

After he had carried her up the stairs, she started to struggle in his arms, forcing him to set her on her feet. Then she tried to stalk into her own bedroom.

"You take another step towards your room and I'll toss you over my shoulder," Jack warned balefully. She was standing in front of him in her tank and her panties, her expression mutinous.

"Though I would enjoy kicking your ass, that would seem ungrateful after you've given me an impressive orgasm," Maia acquiesced. "Fine, which one is your bedroom?"

Jack's lips twitched. "Third door on the right."

He immediately led her to a large bathroom finished extravagantly in Italian marble. There was a huge shower fitted with state-of-the-art shower heads and an even larger bathtub.

"Jeez, you can fit a cheerleading squad in there," Maia said, eyeing the tub.

"Jealous?"

"Oh, puh-lease." As she rolled her eyes, Jack found her so damned adorable he wanted to kiss her all over.

He had a hard time reconciling the image of the woman who had just blown the heads off three men with the woman he had just had the best sex of his life with.

He lifted her by the armpits and deposited her on the counter beside one of the marble sinks.

When she moved to hop off, he ordered, "Stay." He turned on the water and got it to a warm temperature before he fetched a hand towel. Jack started to slip off her panties.

"Hey!" Maia glared at him, slapping at his hand.

He gripped her thigh and returned her glare, not backing down. "Now, we can do this the easy way ... " he began on a threat.

She huffed, then lowered her eyes and looked away. Jack tried not to smile triumphantly as he removed her lacy bikini and started to clean her up, intimately touching her with a warm moist towel.

"Are you always this considerate with the women you have sex with?" Maia asked sarcastically.

"Sometimes," Jack lied. Actually, he had never done this before, he just wanted to continue touching her, he couldn't get enough of her. Damn her.

After he had finished, he said, "There's an extra toothbrush in that drawer."

"We are not sharing a bed."

Jack lost his patience. God, was he going to have to fight her tooth and nail on everything?

 
"Look, frankly you're getting exhausting. Get it through your head, while I'm fucking you, you sleep in my bed. You told me we got two weeks. Well, I'm not wasting any time. Every minute I get, whether it's waking up in the middle of the night or waking up in the morning and I wanna be inside you, I'm getting fucking inside you."

Maia looked at him for a beat as if considering what he had just said. "Could you please go to my room and grab me a pair of panties and pajama bottoms. Top and bottom drawers."

"Sure thing, babe," Jack replied, thrown off-guard by her sudden capitulation. Then he added, "Just move your stuff into my room tomorrow."

All was going smoothly or so Jack thought until they got under the comforter. She was lying at the very edge of her side of the bed, her back towards him.

Jack felt his annoyance growing. He'd never been in this situation before. In all his relationships, the women usually rolled into him and hugged him across the waist. He would allow that position for a while before disengaging and setting them firmly aside.

And now, the woman he desired the most was showing him her back.

Knowing he was up for another battle, he edged closer to her. He saw her shoulders tense, and smiled sadistically as he tagged her around the waist, hauling her against him and trapping her legs with his.

"Jack," Maia hissed. "I can't sleep when my limbs are encumbered like this."

"Give it a try, sweetheart," he murmured lazily. "You might like it."

She continued to squirm. Her ass was rubbing against his crotch and damn him if he didn't find that arousing.

"Babe, unless you want me inside you again, I suggest you stop wiggling. You're making me hard," Jack said softly into her hair as he rubbed his growing erection against her to prove a point, laughter rumbling in his chest as she gasped in outrage.

"Go to sleep, babe," he bent down and kissed her temple and held her close. Her body was tense and rigid, her breathing uneven. After about fifteen minutes, her body relaxed and she finally fell asleep. Not long after, he followed her into slumber.

Jack thought he was dreaming: a child-like voice was speaking Russian. He woke up and realized that Maia was having a nightmare. She had somehow broken free of him and was moving her head from side to side, her hands gripping the bedsheets. Jack had a little grasp of Russian and realized in horror what she was saying: she was begging someone not to kill her mother and father.

What. The. Fuck?

Jack propped up on an elbow and started shaking her. "Maia, wake up babe."

Her eyes opened immediately. "Jack..."

"You were having a bad dream..." Jack started saying.

"Oh, okay..." she closed her eyes again and fell promptly back to sleep.