Hard as Stone (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnnon Sisters) (54 page)

Every push and pull
of him inside her body brought her closer to bliss.  By the time he began to
lose his rhythm, searching for his own salvation, she was poised on the cusp of
the biggest orgasm she’d ever experienced.  Feeling his fingers in her hair,
she barely registered the rough tug to her scalp as he tilted her head back so
that he could cover her lips with his.

Matching the
thrusts of his cock with those of his tongue, she keened as his hand slipped
between her legs again and his thumb twitched back and forth over her straining
clit.  “Jake, I’m gonna come,” she whimpered between frantic kisses as their
bodies collided the wet, heavy slaps of their frenzied mating filling the air. 
“I’m so close.  I can’t stop it,” she gasped desperately, as sensations built
and multiplied within her, more powerful than the previous night because now
she’d shared herself with him.  She wasn’t hanging onto her love, trying to
hide it from him; he had it all from her.  And better, he gave it back to her
in return.

“I feel it, baby. 
That sweet pussy is nearly strangling my cock.  Love it, Harmony.  Love you,”
Jake growled, his husky voice raw with passion and need.  “Fuck yeah,” he
snarled when her cunt seemed to clamp down around his dick like a vice,
caressing every inch of his cock in an embrace that threatened to blow his mind. 
“Give me that,” he growled, his hips moving like pistons as he hammered into
her from behind, sinking again and again into her convulsing pussy.  “Give it
to me, baby!”

Her scream of
release was muffled by his mouth as he swallowed her satisfied cries. 

Then, she gave it
back to him in return, pressing her lips to his and swallowing his long, low
grunt of release down her throat as his cock flexed within her, bucking against
the condom as he filled it with furious bursts of his seed.

Collapsing against
her back, Jake stayed buried inside her as he panted into her sweaty neck,
dazed by the force of his hunger for her.  “Jesus,” he breathed against her
neck, inhaling her delicate scent as his heart thundered in his chest.  “Didn’t
think it could get better than last night, darlin’.  Would have sworn it wasn’t
possible.  Christ, was I wrong.”    His eyes closed as he felt her hand slide
soothingly up and down his arm.

“I was holding back
last night, keepin’ how I felt in my heart from you.  That wasn’t between us
tonight.  Nothing was between us tonight.  This was just you and me, Jake.”

“That’s the way
it’s gonna stay, Harmony.  I love you and me,” he replied softly, lifting his
head to stare down at her profile as he traced a finger over the shell of her
ear.  “I’m not giving this up.”

Gasping as he
shifted behind her and pulled from her body, Harmony felt him leave the bed and
heard the muted sounds of him disposing of the condom before he slid back between
the sheets with her.  Turning, she faced him.  The only way this could possibly
work between him was if they had total honesty in their relationship, and she
shared that by saying quietly, “I love you, Jake, but really good sex doesn’t
fix everything between us.  You understand that, don’t you?”

Lifting a hand, Jake
tucked a still damp strand of her hair behind her ear.  “I understand,
Harmony.  It’s gonna take time to trust me, but I’m not gonna let you down
again.  You know everything about me now.  The good, the bad, the just plain
ugly.  You’re still here, so I’m interpreting that as you didn’t hear anything
you couldn’t either handle or learn to handle in time.  I know you’re pissed
about some of what you learned and repulsed by some of it, too, but what I’ve
shared with you was from the past of the man I was
before
you.  You and
Heaven make me wanna be different.  Hell, I am different with you.  I want shit
I never imagined wanting before you walked in my life.”

“Like what?”
Harmony questioned, turning on her side and reaching out to rest her hand on
his chest.

“Like a home.  A
family.  Hell, a fucking dog,” he grunted, grimacing.  “I never thought I’d be
the type of guy that would have the patience for that shit.”

Harmony chuckled as
she glanced over at the small display monitor that was now on her nightstand, her
daughter’s sleeping form showing clearly on the screen.  “That’s Heaven’s
influence,”

“Yeah, well, don’t
be surprised when you come home to a puppy someday soon,” he muttered, then
warned, “when Heaven looks up at me with those big eyes of hers, I have a hard
time sayin’ no.  She’s been takin’ her cues from her Momma.  I’ve got the same
trouble with you.”

“Ha!” Harmony
snorted. “I told you a dozen times tonight to get out of my life this evening
and you ended the day in my bed.  You don’t have a problem in the world saying
no to me,” she accused, twisting the flat brown nipple underneath her fingers
and tugging sharply.

“Ouch!” Jake
hissed, covering her hand and pulling it away from his chest as he shoved
another pillow under his head.  “That’s completely different and you know it. 
I have a yellow kitchen at my place, woman!  Do you think any man that isn’t
wrapped around his woman’s little finger lets her paint the kitchen yellow? 
And one of my bedrooms has a fuckin’ pink carpet.  Not mauve, mind you.  Pink! 
You think I’d do that shit for anybody but our little girl?”

He had a point,
Harmony admitted silently to herself.  He’d certainly catered his home toward
her and Heaven.  Even before he’d said the words, he’d been showing them that
he loved them.  “No,” she murmured, snuggling closer.  “I guess you wouldn’t.”

“Damn straight, I
wouldn’t,” he grumbled under his breath, wrapping his arm around her body and
pulling her against him.  “I know we got our work cut out for us, and we got a
long road ahead with Tanner and Diego.  All I’m askin’ is that you don’t pull
away from me.  I think I can handle any attitude or sass you wanna throw my
way, but don’t shut down on me, Harmony.  I can take a lot, but I don’t think I
could handle that.”

“I’ll try, Jake.  You’ve
got to understand though, I haven’t exactly ever had a normal, healthy
relationship with a man.  I had Tanner.  I think you’ll agree that he’s about
as fucked up a man as a woman could get.”

“No argument there,
baby,” Jake murmured against the top of her head. 

“Just give me some
time, okay?” she asked in a quiet voice. 

“Time, I can give
you.  Just know, though, when the clock runs out, you’re still gonna be mine,
Harmony.  Not lettin’ go.  Ever.”

A week ago those
words probably would have sent her running for cover, but cozied up beside his
large body in her childhood bedroom and held securely in his strong arms,
Harmony just let them lull her into a dreamless sleep.

A week later, the
McKinnon family home had become a powder keg filled with barely contained
tension and simmering tempers on the verge of exploding.

While Jake and
Harmony had worked to create a tentative peace that appeared to be holding
inside the house, the same could not be said for the rest of her sisters and
the men in their lives.  The big boom hovered on the edge of the horizon, just waiting
to lower on all their heads when they least expected it. 

They could all feel
it, looming like a big bogeyman in the distance.

And as Jake Stone
lounged on the McKinnon family sofa early one morning, pretending to still be
asleep, he heard the back door slam.  He wondered if the final match had
finally lit and set to dynamite as Patience McKinnon stomped into the house,
decked out in skintight jeans and a pink I Don’t Care Café shirt.  Keeping his
eyes barely opened, he watched as the diminutive blonde slammed her bare hands
against the kitchen table.

“That’s it, Honor! 
I’m done.  Either Jake or Zeke are gonna have to come up with a new plan or I
slit Abel Turner’s worthless throat with one of Aunt Orla’s butcher knives the
next time he’s on duty for one of my shifts at the bar.  I’ll do it, and no
court in Paradise County will convict me.  Hell, I’m pretty sure I’d be
canonized, ridding the town of the blight on humanity that is Abel Turner! 
They’ll hold a freaking ticker-tape parade and erect a statue of me in the duck
park.”

Pushing the sleeves
of her light pink cardigan sweater up to her elbows, Honor merely lifted an
eyebrow as she continued to chop apples at the wooden butcher block.  “I didn’t
think you two were speaking after the silk underwear incident,” she murmured.

“Oh, don’t talk to
me about that!  Who puts silk unmentionables in with the towels, Honor? 
Really?  I tried to put on my underwear two days ago and nearly split myself in
half!”

“Unfortunate
laundry escapades aside, what’s he done this time to send you sailin’ around
the bend?” Honor asked, sweeping the diced apples into the pan on top of the
stove and adding water.

“Well, you know
Faith and I handled the night shift last night.  I mean, our waitresses are
okay to open alone, but we all decided that at least one of us needed to be at
the bar at night.  Right?”

“We did,” Honor
agreed with a nod, stirring the pot of apples and adding sugar and cinnamon to
the mix.  “Although, the longer this mess goes on, the more I’m thinking we may
need to revise that decision,” she muttered, mostly to herself.

“Exactly!  So,
Faith and I decided we’d both work last night.  She’s been climbing the walls
at the hospital since Cain wouldn’t let her out of his sight and thought a
night on shift with me would lighten the mood. Cain agreed to let her work with
me since he had the day off today.  It was Friday and pay day to boot, so you
know business was booming.”

Glancing at the
calendar on the wall, Honor nodded again.  “Social security checks came in,
too.  I’m sure that added to the usual crowd.”

“Uh huh,” Patience agreed. 
“We were hopping faster than a jack-rabbit on speed.  And those dumbass
men
,”
she continued, scrunching her nose as she spat the word.

Honor tilted her
head to the side.  “Which men?”

“Abel and Cain,
sister. Our freaking bodyguards.  Sheesh!  Keep up, will you?” Patience
grumbled with a frown at her youngest sister.  “Anyway, those asshole men sat
at the bar all frickin’ night, snarlin’ like bears at any man that wandered up
to order a drink.  Then, Abel starts mouthin’ off about me givin’ the boys come
hither looks!  Honestly, I’m a bartender, sis!  Tips are my bread and butter. 
If I don’t give looks, I don’t get paid!  The man is a complete moron.  By the
end of the night, Abel was growling, actually growling like a Rottweiler left
on his leash too long, at any man that approached the bar.   Now, how are we
supposed to make any money with those fools running off customers like that? 
And who does the pain in the ass think he is?  Some kind of avenging
cock-blocker?” 

“I can commiserate,
but at least you’re
allowed
to go into our restaurant and work.  Harmony
and I have been banned, for God’s sake.  I’m stuck cooking
here
,” Honor
said, gesturing around the homey but small kitchen with a wooden spoon.  “How
the hell am I supposed to create a whole menu full of desserts in this tiny
kitchen?  Not to mention, tomorrow I have to have a wedding cake and hors
d’oevres ready for one of Harmony’s wedding clients.  Of all the stupid things
I’ve ever heard come out of Ezekiel’s mouth, this concept that I’m safer
cooking in this kitchen than the diner is by far the worst.  As soon as Jake
opens his eyes this morning, I’m lodging an official complaint,” she bit off, slamming
the spoon back in the pot and stirring the thickening mixture. 

Hearing that, Jake
made his mind up to fake exhaustion all day long… or at least until Zeke showed
up to relieve him.

“So, you’re here,”
he heard Honor note in a distracted voice.  “Am I going to trip over Abel’s mangled
corpse if I step outside?”

“No,” Patience
muttered unhappily.  “He dropped me off to wait here since I obviously can’t
function without some kind of supervision,” she added with no small amount of
bitterness.  “He had some kind of briefs to file this morning at his office. 
Apparently, I’m supposed to ride into the café with Cain and Faith this
morning.  We need to work up last night’s deposits and do a quick inventory so
we can place a produce order next week.”  Looking around the kitchen, she
frowned.  “Where’s our oldest sister?  Isn’t Harmony usually up as early as you
are?”

Jacob smirked to
himself as he heard that question.  He knew exactly where Harmony was - unconscious
and exhausted in her bed from a night where they’d made love into the wee hours
of the morning.  The sun had been rising in the East when he’d finally relented
and allowed her to fall asleep.

“Still asleep,” he
heard Honor murmured.  “I’m a little worried.  She’s seemed so tired this past
week.”

Jake grimaced. 
Okay, maybe his sexual appetite needed to go on a diet.  Especially if Harmony
was being negatively affected by it.

“But, she’s been in
a great mood considering everything that’s going on,” Honor went on to say. 
“So, it’s probably just stress.”

The tightness in
Jake’s chest eased hearing that statement.  Okay, maybe a diet was a radical
idea.  Maybe he’d just limit the number of times he visited the buffet during
the night, he reasoned.