MILITARY ROMANCE: The War Within Himself (Alpha Bad Boy Marine Army Seal) (Contemporary Military Suspense & Thriller Romance) (138 page)

“Feed me a strawberry, woman,” he ordered her in a Texan accent. Raine laughed and held the stem of one of the bright-red fruits, dangling it just out of reach of his lips. Antony jumped up to grab it, but she pulled it away.

“Beg for it,” Raine breathed, her thoughts running back to the events in the car earlier. In her mind, the strawberry had morphed into her nipple, and she was teasing him with it, trying to get him to beg to suck her heavy tits. Her concentration was so focused on this erotic image, she didn’t see when he snapped up and bit the fruit in half.

“Ha! I win.” Antony celebrated, not knowing what Raine had been thinking about.

“Tell me about yourself,” Raine said. “I don’t know anything about you.” She added when she saw his puzzled expression.

Antony shrugged. “My family is from Louisiana, old Louisiana,” he clarified, “but as you can probably tell, they have family back in France, and that is where I was sent for my education, to Paris. I spent most of my adolescent years there and grew to love the place and people, but eventually my time there came to an end, and I returned to America and began working for the family business.”

“That’s it?” Raine asked. “That’s your whole history? What about your friends? A favorite place to be? To eat? Hobbies?”

Antony looked up at her sadly. “We do not have time for many of these things. My family has always been motivated by wealth and the accumulation of money. I suppose that idea has become part of me too. We are not allowed much time to do the things we want, especially if there is business to attend to. And if you try and take a different course, you are cut off, just like that.” Antony snapped his fingers.

“That sucks!” Raine cried.

Antony snorted. “You will get no argument from me about this.”

“Your family, your own parents just, what, disown you?” He nodded, his head bouncing on her leg.

“I have seen it,” he told her. “One of my cousins thought he could make some money for himself, but he used the family’s company assets to aid him. When they found out, they stripped him of everything he had been allowed before, the houses, the cars, the money, and took what he had earned for himself because it was technically the family’s money. Then they turned him out on the street with nothing.” He turned sad. “I have not seen him since then.”

Raine stroked his head, running her fingers through his hair. “I never thought life could be crap for rich people as well as the rest of us.”

“It can be good.” He reached up to stroke her face. “Sometimes.”

Raine bent down, and he lifted his head to kiss her. The pair shifted, laying face to face, sharing breath.

“So have you got anything that’s your own?” Raine asked.

Antony shook his head. “Not really. I can use the family things, like the jet, but only if it is scheduled to go somewhere. That is how I was able to take you to Houston. The jet was there to drop off some legal papers and to bring back Celine to assist in some of the business I have here. We even stayed in a hotel owned by my family.” He looked into her eyes, and she could see he was sad. “I hate it. Carson is loyal to me alone, I am sure, but the car has been in the family since they bought it in the nineteen fifties. I have an allowance, like a child, and I know from experience they would take everything from me if I do not make enough money or displease them in some way.” Raine pulled him close, locking their mouths together.

“They can’t take everything, baby,” she whispered. “They can’t take me away from you.” Antony smiled and rolled her onto her back, running his hand down the length of her body, pausing when he reached her privates.

“No,” he said with a husky voice. “They cannot.”

***

Raine woke in a large bed, covered with a thick duvet and snuggled against the hard, muscular body of Antony. A smile crossed her face as she recalled their impassioned lovemaking beside the lake and then back at the Paradise Hotel. She had never come as hard or as often as she had in the past couple of days, and she was definitely enjoying the experience.

Antony stirred beside her, and she watched as his eyes opened, focused on her face and his pupils dilated with lust. A smutty grin wriggled across his face as his hands started roving across her naked flesh.

“Matin, mon amour,” he said softly. Raine let her leg fold around his thigh.

“Hello,” she replied. “Sleep well?”

“Oh, yes,” he said. “For some reason, I was quite tired.” He smiled, and they kissed. Raine scratched her fingernails down his back, relishing the feel of his hard, sinewy muscles.

“Hmm. I could get used to this.” Raine said, kneading his flesh.

“If you are a good girl, I might let you wash me in the shower,” he said.

“Wow, really?” Raine answered with excessive happiness in her tone, “What
will
I have to do to earn
that
honor?”

“I am almost certain you can figure it out,” he said with a grin, grabbing her breast and squeezing it gently.

“Are you some kind of machine?” she said with a laugh.

“The
best
kind.” Antony answered guiding her hand to his cock before reaching down and sliding his fingers into her. They toyed with each other, kissing hard as they each came, crying out in delight. Antony eventually left Raine to doze while he showered, considering the plans he had for the future and how Raine might fit into them.

It had only been a couple of days since he had met her, in the gym of this very hotel, watching in fascination as her butt cheeks lifted in turn while she trotted along on the treadmill. She was shaped like a woman should be, curvy and big with lustrous, thick, black hair that trailed over her shoulders like a midnight waterfall. Her breasts were large and round with large nipples he loved the feel of in his mouth.

Even the thought of her, naked and willing, made him stiffen in the stream of water, which cascaded over him. Antony jumped as the doors behind him opened, and he turned to see Raine, completely nude, standing there assessing his physique. Without saying a thing, she reached for him, trailing her hands down his body as she knelt outside the shower. His breath came in anticipatory gasps as she lowered her head forward to take him in her mouth, and he groaned in delight as her soft, warm mouth enveloped his cock. Her tongue swirled around the sensitive rim of his head as she took him as deep as she could and her felt the back of her throat, hot and pulsing, for a second before she pulled back again. Raine kept a slow pace, sucking her way down his cock and back up again, gripping his muscular sides and pulling him towards her.

“This feels so good, Rainey,” he said. “So good.” His world seemed to shrink down to the contact point between them, her hot mouth on his cock. A spot, which felt like it was in the depth of his balls and waist at the same time, throbbed with a growing pressure. As Raine worked his penis with her mouth, the pressure grew, spreading up his abdomen and into his chest, making his throat tighten and his breathing ragged. He gripped the sides of the cubicle door for support as the muscles in his legs stiffened. With an inarticulate roar, Antony exploded, shooting what little come he had left straight into Raine’s mouth. He was amazed she seemed to do this happily, swallowing every drop and enjoying it.

Raine got to her feet and looked into Antony’s eyes, loving the bright red tint which she brought to his face as he came.

“Do I get to wash you now?” She asked in a coy, little voice. He shook his head.

“No. I will wash you.” Antony stepped out of the shower, guiding her under the warm spray and letting the water caress her flesh. His hands glided over her skin, massaging and rubbing her shoulders, back, buttocks and thighs. He squeezed gel into his hand and lathered her skin, taking his time to reach round and tease her nipples before moving down to her belly and then lower. Heat boiled from between her legs when his hand got there, and he circled his fingers round her thick lips, deliberately avoiding her most sensitive parts.

Kneeling behind her impressive buttocks, Antony reached between her cheeks and gently stroked her clit, watching as her legs trembled. Pressing the tips of his first two fingers against her tight opening, Antony gently pushed up, sliding them deep into her wetness. Raine moaned her pleasure and leaned against the tiled wall, pushing her butt out to let his fingers find their way around. Antony levered his fingers forward, finding and pressing against the spongy tissue of her g-spot. He rubbed against it in small circles drawing quiet whimpers of joy from Raine, who had thrown her head back in pleasure. Rubbing harder, Antony built up the pace of his fingers until Raine was crying out with each breath and her thighs trembled in orgasmic shudders.

Her breathing stopped and, he felt her clench around him, her ejaculate spraying out over his hand, while her hips jerked and her breath came back with a cry of delight.

“Oh God, Antony. It feels so good when you do that,” Raine told him. “So amazingly good.” She leaned back into his waiting arms as he stood up, and they both relaxed under the shower.

Once dressed, Antony ordered some breakfast and made a few calls, while Raine just watched him work. His tone was completely different than the way he spoke to her, commanding and authoritative rather than sweet and reverent.

Raine wondered what it would be like for him to order her around like that in bed and concluded it might be quite exciting.

“What?” Antony asked, as he turned to see her dreamy expression. She grinned.

“Just wondering how it would be if you were to command me during sex.”

“Command you?”

“Yeah, you know, like you were on the phone, ‘Do this, get that, make sure I’m kept in the loop. That kind of thing.”

Antony looked at her blankly. “I already speak to you that way.”

She laughed. “No you don’t,” she told him. “You use your special voice to talk to me.”

“Special voice?” He snorted. “Don’t tell anyone else I’ve got a special voice, I might get some kind of bad reputation.” After a knock at the door, the skinny, Mexican receptionist whom Raine had had a couple of run-ins with rolled a trolley into the room.

“Your meal, sir.” He said, pointedly avoiding mentioning Raine.

“Hey, Ru.” She purred using the nickname she had given him a few days before.

“Good morning,” he said in a strained voice. Turning stiffly, he sashayed from the room, his skinny legs and back as stiff as could be. Raine chuckled, and Antony smiled.

They ate in a comfortable silence, Antony skimming through something on his laptop as he chewed thoughtfully. Raine sipped her coffee and watched him contentedly. Antony glanced at her, his green eyes showing amusement.

“Enjoying the show?” He asked.

“Oh, yeah. And wondering when you were going to tell me about ADB Holdings and fracking.”

Jesus Raine! Where did that come from? You’ve got a good thing going here, and you want to go and fuck it all up with stupid questions like that?

Antony, meanwhile had frozen, his hand halfway to his mouth with a coffee cup. His eyes rolled towards Raine who almost flinched at the coldness she saw in them. His eyes, which were usually so large and full of wonder when he looked at her, so filled with passion when they made love and so full of happiness afterward, had changed to small slits hiding the feelings he had.

“Where did you get that from?”

“Lisa,” Raine blurted. “A friend at the local paper.”

“A reporter?” He nearly spat the name of Raine’s chosen profession as if it tasted like poison to utter.

“No, she owns it.” She told him in a frightened squeak.

“This is how I said, once a journalist, always a journalist.” Antony’s lips twisted in a pained smile, “Quelle surprise.” Raine sat with her heart beating and an anticipatory pain in her chest as Antony sipped his coffee in contemplative silence. Abruptly he slapped his laptop closed, stood up from his seat and looked at her.

“I have some things I need to attend to,” He told her in a business like voice, “Maybe I will need you later.” Raine noticed the lack of questioning tone in this statement but was left breathless, as if he had punched her, by the complete lack of a kiss.

“Antony...” Raine whispered as he strode from the room they had made love in that very night.

***

Carson pulled alongside Raine as she trudged along Main Street, her tear-streaked face and hitching breath a tell-tale sign of how she felt. He halted the car, opened the door and guided her gently into the backseat before closing the door and driving off. Raine lay over sideways as Carson drove. She didn’t care if he took her home, or if Antony had ordered him to make her disappear. It made no difference.

Without him.

Those two words rolled across her mind like driftwood in the ocean swells. One second they were gone, and she started to believe she would be fine. The next they would reappear, sluicing down a wave towards her, reminding her of what she had lost. Physical pain. His rejection and her loss caused physical pain.

How is that even possible? I was upset when Sam and I broke up, but this feels as if someone died. As bad as when daddy died. I can’t take this. I can’t
live
with this.

I won’t be seeing Suzie again, so thanks for that. Her mother scalded her when she arrived home. Raine looked at her mother blankly.