Justice Inked (Cowboy Justice Association 7) (20 page)

Rayne was sitting up, her breathing labored and her body curled into a ball. He could hear her sobs and see her shoulders shaking with emotion. As much as he himself was uncomfortable displaying his softer or more joyous feelings, he didn’t hesitate to sit next to her on the bed and wrap his arms around her shaking figure.

“Shhh, babe. It’s okay. You’re fine. I’m here and I’m not going to let anything hurt you ever again, do you understand?”

He kept his voice low and soothing, crooning praise in her ear as she tried to gather some semblance of control. Hiccuping, she took a long shuddering breath and scrubbed at the tears on her face. At this moment, she looked more like a lost child than a grown woman but the body that was pressed close to his was definitely mature. He could feel the tips of her breasts through the thin material of their t-shirts and feel the petal-like softness of her skin brushing against his as she scooted to find a more comfortable position.

“I had a bad dream.”

Running his fingers through her tangled tresses, he rocked her in his arms as her breathing and heart rate returned to normal. Her fingers gripped his lower back, the fingers splayed and her cheek was pressed to his chest as he spoke quietly, telling her over and over that everything was fine and nothing would happen to her while he was there.

“Dare?” He heard Sophie’s voice in the hallway. “Is everything okay? Does Rayne need anything?”

Rayne stiffened in his arms but didn’t pull away, which he took to be a good sign. “Yes, go downstairs into the kitchen and pour her a glass of ginger ale. She’s probably thirsty.”

Sophie’s footsteps echoed down the hallway and stairs as Dare cupped Rayne’s chin and lifted her face until their gaze met in the dark room, the only light coming from the hallway. “Do you want something to eat or anything? I can have Sophie make you some eggs or toast.”

“No.” Rayne gave a small headshake, sniffling back the tears. It broke his heart to see her this scared when she was normally so brave and confident. It was a testament to her strength that she hadn’t succumbed to tears a long time ago. “I couldn’t eat. But the ginger ale does sound good.”

Dare had thought it might, especially if her nightmare had upset her already nauseous stomach. “It might help to talk about it.”

Another shudder ran through her and she pulled away slightly as if she needed more breathing room. Dare loosened his hold but didn’t let go, knowing she needed the emotional support whether she realized it or not.

“I dreamt someone came in the bedroom window.” She pointed to the window along the wall that overlooked the back yard. “They tried to grab me and I struggled with them. They kept asking me ‘where is it?’ and I tried to tell them I didn’t know but they wouldn’t listen.”

Fresh tears began to fall as Sophie returned from fetching a cool drink and Dare held the straw to Rayne’s trembling lips. “Drink, honey. It will make you feel better.”

With both hands to keep the glass steady, Rayne greedily drank until it was gone. “Easy there, honey. Do you want some more?”

“No, I’m fine.” Rayne fell back against the pillows with a groan. “Dammit, I hate being like this.”

Dare placed the empty glass on the nightstand and picked up her hand, stroking the palm. “Like what? Human? You’ve been through some unusual events and they’re going to affect you. If you don’t deal with it now I guarantee you it only gets worse.”

Half sitting up, Rayne wrinkled her nose. “Do you speak from experience? Is this a story I haven’t heard?”

“Baby, I was in combat, so yes, I speak from experience, and no, you’re not going to hear any stories. I don’t talk about those days at all. They’re best left in the past. But I did have to deal with them, so don’t even think about denying that you’re upset and scared. The first step is to acknowledge your emotions.”

Damn, he sounded like the shrink he’d seen when he came back from the Middle East, but all that therapy had helped him. He was in a hell of a lot better shape now than those first few years.

Sophie was still standing next to the dresser, and if Rayne needed to talk more in depth she might feel strange in front of the younger woman. He needed to shoo Sophie back into her own room.

“Don’t you have to get up early, Sophie? You should check on the cat too.”

Sophie was employed at the local bakery while she worked at her painting and drawing. She was incredibly talented and Dare was proud of his sister and how hard she worked on her craft. She talked about going into graphic design or perhaps even textile design. Whatever she did, he knew she’d work hard and succeed.

Without Tim Wallace.

Sophie must have been half-asleep on her feet because she snapped to attention at his words. “Spartacus is asleep. But yeah, I need to be at the bakery by four but I’ll be off work by noon. Maybe we can go shopping in the afternoon, Rayne.”

“I’d like that,” Rayne replied softly. “I’m sorry I woke you up, especially as you have such an early wake up call. Thank you for taking care of Spartacus.”

“It’s no big deal. He’s a good kitty. I don’t need much sleep.” Sophie bumped her shoulder before turning to leave. “Call me if you need anything. I’m just down the hall.”

Once they were alone again, Dare lifted her hand and brushed the knuckles with his lips. It was frightening how quickly she’d crawled under his skin and burrowed into a hole in his heart he hadn’t even known was empty. He wasn’t in love with her or anything. It was way too soon to be talking about that kind of emotion. But he did care about her. She was like a tiny kitten, ferocious one minute and heartbreakingly vulnerable and sweet the next. It had been a long damn time since he’d dated a woman he cared about this much.

“Do you want to talk some more about it, honey? This house is really safe. No one is going to come through that window. Not only is it locked, but I have extra self-installed locks as well, plus we’re on the second floor and they’d have to be Spiderman to climb the outside of the house.”

Sitting up, Rayne’s gaze fell to the floor and then returned as she nervously licked her lips.

“Will you stay with me? Just until I fall asleep?”

His arousal reared its ugly head and he had to remind himself she asked that question in the most innocent way possible. She wanted to feel protected and cared for, and ramming her from behind with his hard dick wasn’t the way to do that. Instead he lifted the covers and slid in beside her, the sheets cool against his overheated flesh.

He could do this. He could be there for her without his libido getting in the way. But that didn’t mean it would be easy.

“I’ll stay with you as long as you need me to. Just scoot over a little, okay?”

She did as he bade but not nearly enough for his comfort and peace of mind. He stretched out on the bed with her curled next to him, her head on his chest and her leg thrown over both of his, sending his pulse rate through the roof. He had to focus not to roll over and trap her body under his.

Wrapping an arm around her slight frame, he dropped a kiss on the top of her head, her hair silky under his lips. Their position was both heaven and hell, pleasure and pain. The feeling of intimacy as he held her was sublime but the throbbing demand of a certain portion of his anatomy was making it
hard
to sleep.

Pun completely intended.

It was going to be a long night.

Chapter Twenty-Three

R
ayne was warm. Quite warm, bordering on stifling hot. It was like she was lying in bed next to a blast furnace that only had one setting – surface of the sun. She wasn’t the happiest of morning people and she’d slept like hell last night until Dare had come in to soothe her after a nasty nightmare.

Dare.

Not bothering to open her sleepy eyes, she wriggled against the heat source and was poked by something long and hard for her trouble. Her lids flew open and she realized she had just rubbed herself against a very aroused male animal with an unknown appetite. Did he wake up like a pussycat and toddle off to make breakfast or was he a voracious panther that wanted to devour his bedmate?

Having sex with Dare hadn’t been forefront in her mind last night when she’d been so frightened but it was now, crowding out any other rational thoughts. His body was pressed up against the back of hers, and she could feel not only the heat emanating from his skin but the dip and planes of his muscles. Her fingers itched to trace them, following some unseen map and exploring heretofore undiscovered territory.

Just lying next to him, smelling his masculine scent, was ratcheting up her arousal and sending messages of lust and desire to her brain. She didn’t want to think about the mess of her house or her stolen purse or her ransacked shop. She really didn’t want to think about that man that had been shot behind her building. If only for a little while, she wanted to pretend none of that happened and she was simply enjoying an early morning with a gorgeous, sweet man.

As if he could read her thoughts, Dare’s hand slid from her shoulder to her hip, his fingers tightening on the rounded flesh while his other hand came around the back of her head, turning her lips toward his own. His impressive cock was trapped between their bodies and she could feel it pulse with each beat of his heart.

“Good morning,” she breathed mere seconds before he captured her lips with his own. Reaching around, she slid her arm around his neck and ran her fingers through his silky brown hair, delighting in the shudder of his body at her ministrations. Dare wouldn’t be her first man but she’d had a hot and cold sex life. Few men truly understood what she liked and craved and she could only hope Dare would be one of them. “You stayed with me.”

“I said I would be here as long as you needed me.” Dare’s voice rumbled in his chest, sexy and growly in the morning. “Do you want me to leave, Rayne?”

He was asking more than that and she gave him her answer by pushing her ass back against his hard erection nestled between her cheeks. Groaning his approval, he kissed a wet trail from her lips, over her jaw, and down to where her pulse beat frantically at the base of her neck before sucking on the delicate flesh. Her nails dug into his bicep at the zip of pain even while he soothed the hurt with his tongue.

A flood of moisture soaked her sleep shorts and she pressed her thighs together to ease the building ache deep inside. His tongue traced an intricate pattern on the sensitive flesh of her shoulder before blowing gently on the artwork – a pale pink rosebud – and sending shivers of pleasure straight to her clit.

His rough hands cupped her breasts, the thumbs brushing back and forth over the tips and driving her slowly out of her mind. He’d barely touched her really, but already she was on fire for him, flames licking at her skin and the heat making her gasp and moan with absolute sinful pleasure.

“What do you need? Tell me and I’ll make sure you get it.”

His urgent tone only served to amp up her arousal even higher. Turning in his arms, she dropped kisses onto the hard planes of his chest and abdomen, letting her tongue dip into his belly button. Reaching out, she tugged at his boxer shorts, wanting to rid him of anything that kept her from her goal. He chuckled and helped her slide them down his muscular thighs, tossing them aside without a second thought.

His cock, thick and long, sprung free and she sucked in a breath at the thought of him deep inside of her, fucking her fast and hard. That was her favorite and what she craved, although she’d found that men seemed to be reluctant to use her as roughly as she wanted them to. It was as if she was made of fine china and they thought she might break. Consequently, she was often left wanting and frustrated when the sex was done and the guy rolled over to fall asleep. She didn’t want that to happen with Dare. If this relationship had any future, she needed him to understand. She’d do anything for him as well as long as it didn’t involve a goat or an underage cheerleader.

“Give it to me rough, hard, and fast. That’s what I need.”

Pulling back, Dare gazed at her with worry in his blue eyes, now dark with passion. A sweeping glance down her body told her he was concerned about her size compared to his and he needn’t. He’d never hurt her, of that she was quite sure.