Phoenix Burning (11 page)

“The only issue you have is that you’ve been trying to have sex with assholes who only care about their own pleasure.” Alex wanted her to let go of the guilt she was packing around. If he did nothing but that, any amount of effort was worth it.

“So you don’t care about my problem?”

He could only think of one way to convince her, and the distance between them made it impossible. Alex walked out from behind the bar and around to the stool in the corner where she’d perched.

She looked confused. Did she actually think he might reconsider and tell her they were through? As if Alex could ever get enough of a woman like Emory. She had been crafted by nature to respond to him as no one else ever had.

He cupped her cheek in one hand, standing close enough to smell the sweetness of her skin. “You don’t have a problem.”

“But…”

Alex silenced her with a kiss. Her lips were soft and yielding. Moving his thumb to her chin, he encouraged her to open for him. She gave in and he slid his tongue inside her mouth. He caressed her gently, curbing the desire to dominate. Finesse and not force. This was the time for seduction.

Again and again, until his heart was thundering and she was making tiny noises of pleasure in the back of her throat. The sounds inflamed him, made his cock harden painfully, until he was crazy with the desire to spread her legs and take her then and there.

When he finally released her mouth and pulled back, her dark eyes were hazy with passion. The bemused expression on her face struck him with an unfamiliar sense of tenderness. This wasn’t the kind of woman you could love and leave. She deserved better.

“Quit apologizing for things that aren’t your fault.” He lowered his mouth to her bare shoulder before brushing his lips across the sensitive skin at her collarbone.

Her tiny sigh was almost his undoing. He’d never been so turned on. Alex could feel other eyes on them from across the bar. He wanted them to look. He wanted them to see that this incredible woman was his to pleasure.

Using his foot, he turned the barstool until he could nudge his way between her legs. He slid his arms around her tiny frame and pressed a line of kisses over the tops of her breasts. She arched her back, leaning back until he was supporting her weight on his forearms.

She tasted exquisite. He slipped his tongue into the cleft between her breasts. She gave a little moan, and Alex imagined the wet warmth that would be soaking her pussy. A spurt of precum dampened his jeans.

Holding Emory in one arm, he laid the palm of his hand against her belly. A strip of bare skin taunted him with the promise of more. With just his fingers, he slipped beneath the waistband of her pants. The tantalizing feel of her soft skin drew him lower. His hand brushed the dark curls covering her mound. He threaded his fingertips gently through the hair, going lower, until her breath caught, and she moved her legs apart to give him better access.

“Is this what you want?” Alex nipped her earlobe.

“Yes.”

“Then let me give it to you.”

Her harsh breathing made the creamy tops of her breasts bob up and down. The turmoil in her expression sent an unfamiliar lurch through Alex’s midsection. What demons rode her so mercilessly that she was afraid to accept what he was offering?

“You could have anyone,” she whispered. “Why put up with me?”

Step one—convince the girl he was interested. Alex had no experience in this department. He didn’t have poetry or elegance. Charm and wit? Certainly, but that had failed to convince her. If anything, his love ’em and leave ’em persona had already hampered her ability to put any faith in his capacity to stick around long enough to help her work through her issues.

He bracketed her tiny waist in his hands and lifted her onto the bar. Gazing up into her dark eyes, he gestured to the fastenings on her cargos. “May I?”

She dipped her chin once. A nod. Leaning back and bracing her weight on her hands, she watched him unbutton and unzip her pants. Seeing firsthand that she wasn’t wearing panties made his cock throb with the need to be inside her.

“The problem with being able to have anyone…” He leaned down and pressed a kiss to the sensitive skin below her navel. “Is that when I find someone I truly want?” Another kiss, this one low enough that his chin brushed the short hair on her mound. “She won’t believe me when I tell her how badly I want to be with her.”

“But…”

Alex used the tip of his tongue to delve inside her slit and brush against the sensitive tip of her clit. Any argument she might have had disappeared in a moan that lifted the hair on the back of Alex’s neck.

She tasted like heaven. He had to have more. Scooting her cargo pants down around her butt, he helped her arch up off the bar and wiggle them down. The baggy legs slid down right over her combat boots, leaving her lower half naked.

Alex didn’t waste time. He urged her to spread her legs, propping her boots on the bar stools and giving him access to her wet slit. Her plump lips parted and gave him a full view of her pink pussy. His dick was clawing at his jeans, begging to be free. But he wanted this moment with Emory. He wanted to show her that the ability to climax had no control over pleasure.

She gasped when he gave her pussy one long lick from bottom to top. Sweet cream coated his lips. Nuzzling her gently, he suckled her inner labia. Every tug made her tremble. Spreading the hood of her clit with his tongue, he flicked the tip in a quick rhythm that had her muscles jerking in response.

He slid his hands down the soft surface of her inner thighs. She flung her head back, arching her spine and thrusting against him as he sucked her clit into his mouth and gave it a gentle nibble. She was so sweet, so hot, and so responsive. Alex wanted to drown in the taste and scent of her.

Probing her entrance with his tongue, Alex darted in and out of her opening until he could feel her muscles beginning to climb toward orgasm. Backing off, he licked her with the flat of her tongue until he felt her relax again. He didn’t want her feeling the strain of being unable to come. He wanted her to enjoy the attention.

Her channel clenched as though begging for the penetration of his cock. Using two fingers, Alex slid them deep inside her pussy and curled them into the thick pad of muscle. She cried out when he began to move them inside her body.

“Look at me, Emory.”

She opened her eyes and stared down at him.

“Your body is all I want.” Alex held her gaze and gave her clit another swipe with his tongue. “So I’m going to make you a promise. I’m going to do whatever I can do to help you work through your past. And until you’re through with me, I’m yours and only yours.”

She shuddered around him, her muscles instantly reaching the liquid level of simultaneous relaxation and tension that signaled orgasm. Alex groaned when her scent changed. Heavier, more erotic than the most intoxicating aphrodisiac, it washed him in a need so potent he was in danger of coming right there in his jeans.

If Emory had been capable of climaxing, she would have come multiple times already. Alex had given her more pleasure in that tiny slice of time than she’d ever experienced with anyone else.

How could she accept a promise like his? To stay with her until she was “fixed?” It was ludicrous. And yet—she wanted it. She wanted that powerful feeling of acceptance he seemed to provide so effortlessly. There he stood with his hands stroking her sex and his own needs denied. She wanted to give him just a little of what he’d offered her.

“Let me suck you, Alex.” She had to force the words out. Setting aside her shy nature took monumental effort, but she wanted to do this for him. And if she were honest, she wanted this for herself, too. “I want you in my mouth.”

The expression on his face told her all she needed to know. Emory pushed herself off the bar, realizing suddenly that they had an audience. It didn’t matter. Or maybe it did. Because the heightened arousal that had begun seeping into her body suggested she was getting off on the exhibition.

“Emory, you don’t have to.” His voice died away when she opened his jeans and his shaft spilled out into her hands.

After their afternoon together, his thick length was familiar in a way that gave her confidence. She knew him enough to bring this incredible man pleasure. And that was what mattered.

She sank to her knees there in the bar and took the head of his cock in her mouth. Cool air brushed over the slick folds of her pussy, intensifying the experience. She moaned against his shaft and his hips thrust reflexively.

His dick was as hard as iron, his skin silky soft against her tongue. He tasted clean and spicy. She curled her tongue around his girth. Finding the sensitive flange, she swirled patterns against it until he was gripping the barstool to ease the tension. Changing tactics, she swallowed him whole until he bumped the back of her soft palate.

Alex groaned and gathered her hair into his hand as if trying to hold on. She remembered how he’d fucked his other lover’s mouth. She wanted that. To show him that she could be just as wanton and uninhibited as anyone else. Pulling back, she began bobbing rhythmically, mimicking the tempo of sex.

Precum spilled across her tongue. The tangy taste made her mouth water with the desire to swallow his seed. She whimpered and sucked hard. Alex shouted something she couldn’t understand. It didn’t matter. She released suction and then increased with a violent desire she couldn’t restrain.

His shaft quivered in her mouth, and he arched his back. Semen erupted from the tip of his cock and bathed her mouth in his essence. Ecstasy swept Emory’s psyche, and she sucked and swallowed every bit of his ejaculate until he caressed the top of her head and drew her attention.

“Lover, you’re going to be the death of me yet.” Alex tugged her to her feet. “After you, nothing will ever be enough.”

Chapter Ten

Emory toyed absently with a rose. Alex’s words ran in an endless loop through her mind. She didn’t want to be that person who became obsessed with someone else. Surely this was just a brief infatuation. The intention had been to pursue a casual relationship in the hope of getting beyond the baggage she’d been toting around for so long. She didn’t want a long-term attachment. Did she?

She clipped the stem and gently tucked the rose into a tall vase filled with a pastel rainbow of gel water beads. Sundays at her shop were catch-up days. And thanks to her night on the town and complete preoccupation with Alex, she had had a lot of catching up to do.

A rap on her front window shattered Emory’s introspective moment. Her prep table was tucked into the far back corner of her shop in hopes of keeping customers from thinking she was a total slob. The surface was perpetually littered with bits of wire and ribbon. So while it was out of the way, it also denied her a view of the front door.

Another series of knocks made the glass shiver. She had a sinking suspicion she knew who’d come calling.

Emory slid off her stool and ducked behind a shelf of green plants she kept on hand for quick sales. Peering through the leaves, she was able to glimpse the recessed entryway between her two front display windows.

She drew back when she saw MacIntyre’s face pressed up against the glass. Some days it sucked to be right. She didn’t want to talk to Captain Downtown. She didn’t even know what to say.

Taking another peek, she realized he’d brought the petition with him. Emory sank to the floor behind the plant shelf. She’d been so preoccupied with how Alex could solve her personal problems; she hadn’t even thought to ask him if he knew about Captain Downtown’s desire to shut down the bar. Even that day Alex had seen MacIntyre in her shop she had been too wrapped up in her own problems to explain the man’s mission against Phoenix Rising.

The knocking stopped.

Slowly getting to her feet, Emory checked to make certain MacIntyre had given up.

The front door was clear. She wiped her hands on a rag and reached for her keys. The floral arrangement would have to wait. She had some investigating to do. Alex had done so much for her already. It was high time she tried to do something for him in return.

* * *

Alex and Connor both looked up from the liquor order they were putting together when Gabriel leaned against the doorframe. The former captain of the Royal Marines had been with Alex during the six years he’d been stationed in Britain. When Gabriel had come to the states after resigning his commission, Alex had immediately suggested Connor give him a job until Gabriel decided on something else. That had been over a year ago.

“Captain Downtown is up at the door, wanting in.” Gabriel’s accent made MacIntyre’s mocking title seem almost official.

Connor stood and stretched. “I suppose I should go see what the asshole wants to complain about now.”

“Actually, he’s asking for Alex.” The expression on Gabriel’s face expressed a certain enjoyment about the confusion his announcement caused. Smug bastard.

Half a dozen possibilities ran through Alex’s mind, but deep down he knew exactly why Donovan MacIntyre was asking for him.

Connor cocked his head. “Well?”

“I don’t know the details, but I suspect MacIntyre has had his sights set on Emory for a while now.”

“She dated a bloke like him and wound up with you?” Gabriel crossed his arms over his broad chest, and Alex had the inane thought that it was no wonder Gabriel and Connor had formed an instant camaraderie. They were nearly identical in personality.

“She didn’t date him.” Alex realized he didn’t really know what she’d done with MacIntyre. The idea didn’t go over very well. Of course it didn’t help that he kept feeling so possessive of her either. What was wrong with him? He would help her through whatever it was she was going through, and then that was it.

Gabriel sent Connor a sarcastic smile. “It’s like talking to a wall, innit?”

“You got that right.” Connor started to laugh. “It’s sort of funny actually.”

Alex couldn’t fault their description. At this point he felt like a blank wall. “I’ll leave you two ladies to your gossip and see what brought Captain Downtown away from his kingdom.”