Rescuing Regina (10 page)

He leaned into my palm, his eyes fluttering closed. His long lashes lay against his fine, flawless skin. His beauty was so unreal, it amazed me that I could touch it.

I bent my head to his. “Let me be your dream girl,” I whispered. “I’ll do whatever you want. I want to be your fantasy.”

Please, please, let it be me
, I pleaded silently. I held my breath like a prayer as his hand came up and clasped the back of my neck. His touch remained gentle, but he tightened his fingers slightly to hold my forehead against his.

“I can’t stand the thought of anyone else touching you,” he said. “I know I’m crazy but…I’m crazy about you. If I take you, I’m never letting you go.” He opened his eyes. The honesty there hit me like a blow. “You agree to be with me, and then get mad and try to leave, I’ll hunt you down. If anyone tried to take you from me, I’ll hurt him. Does that scare you?”

“No.” Wrapping my hand around his neck, I took a deep breath, and told the truth. “Cole, I’ve always belonged to you. Always.”

He kissed me, and then his hands were everywhere, touching me, claiming me. His hands went under my bottom, lifting me from the couch and setting me down to my feet. His kisses were ferocious, and I gave as good as I got.

He pulled at my top and I heard it tear. I struggled out of it, ripping it further. We kissed like we were dying, and the touch of the other’s lips held the cure.

I pulled away for a second. “Smack my ass.”

“Regina,” he groaned.

“Fucking do it,” I said, and winced a second later when his palm connected with my ass. Pain reverberated through me, bringing my body to life. “Harder.”

He sat and pulled me across his lap. His left hand clamped down on the back of my neck, holding me down as he spanked me harder.

“Like that?” He thrust two fingers into my sopping pussy, finger fucking me roughly. It would’ve hurt if I wasn’t so wet.

“Yes,” I moaned.

He pulled his fingers out and gave me a vicious swat. “You’re going to be my naughty girl.”

“Always. You better fucking keep me in line.”

“Language.” He slapped the top of my thigh. “You better mind. Or you’re going to get a lot worse than my hand.”

I reared off his knees, fighting as much as I could. “Prove it.”

He pushed me to the floor. I ended up sprawled at his feet, cheek to carpet, ass in the air. I heard the snap of leather a second before he struck me with his belt. I cried out, and he stopped.

Bracing my hands against the carpet, I pushed my ass up higher and demanded, “More.”

The belt bit down. Pain sliced through me. Again, and again.

I shook with desire.

“You’re going to learn,” Cole emphasized his words with another strike.

Quivering on the floor, I couldn’t answer. Arousal flooded through me until all I could think of was Cole taking me, claiming me. Each lick of the belt was a kiss—hard and dominating. I could take the pain. I could take anything from him.

By the time he threw down the belt and knelt beside me, the pain felt miles away.

“You okay?” He pushed my hair out of my face.

I nodded as much as I could with my head down, and ass up in the air.

He drew my head back with a fist in my hair. “You trust me.”

My eyes watered with the sting, and I blinked them away. “Always.”

He let go and I sagged back to my hands and knees.

“To the bedroom, sweetheart. Crawl.”

I crawled. By the time we got to the bedroom, I didn’t dare stop, lest I leave a puddle on the floor.

“You’re doing so well,” he told me as he pulled me up by my hair and guided me into position. My front half lay on the bed; my bottom poked back at him, a perfect target.

I steeled myself for the lash.

It never came.

Stubbled cheeks scraped my tender backside, making me cry out. Cole’s tongue probed into the crevice, and I cried out for a different reason.

Lurching forward, I tried to scramble onto the bed, but Cole held my thighs in an iron grip, pulling me back against his mouth. He’d dropped to his knees behind me as he ate me out. I gave up fighting and panted against the bedspread.

Between the soreness in my bottom and the hot mouth on my mons, I was beyond ecstasy. The pain made each lick of pleasure ten times more powerful.

I screamed my orgasm into the sheets. He flipped me onto my back, holding my wrists over my head as he loomed over me.

I felt him at my entrance. My eyes widened.

“Are you sure?”

“Regina, it was you. Always.”

Releasing one of my wrists, he guided himself inside me and cursed.

“Cole Townsend, did you just cuss?”

“Yes.” He held himself still, sweat beading on his forehead. “Fuck, Regina…”

“That’s your job.” I rocked my hips up, encouraging him.

He responded, speeding up his thrusts. He pinned my wrists again; his body covered mine.

“Like it?” I whispered, feeling suddenly shy.

He turned his head and kissed me. “I want to live inside you.”

I wrapped my arms around him. “I’ll let you. Whoever orgasms first gets to be on top.” My lips found the tender spot where his shoulder met neck. I kissed it, then bit down, clenching my lower muscles at the same time.

He lost it, thrashing above me. I waited until he stilled to slip my fingers into the wetness between us. A few strokes and my own orgasm flared and died.

Cole sagged onto me, gasping. “Regina, what the hell?”

“I cheated.” I gave him a wink.

“Naughty girl.”

“Always.” I wriggled under him. “You should make me pay.”

“Oh, I will,” he promised. He rose up over me and I caught sight of his rock hard cock. “Cole,” I said, wide-eyed. “Already?”

“I’ve waited a long time for this.” He lay on his back, snapped his fingers and pointed to his upright cock. “Get riding. It’s gonna be a long night.”

“What I don’t understand, is why you never made a move on me before now.” We’d spent the last few hours working out our lust. After the last round, I’d taken a little nap and woken up in Cole’s arms.

“Well for starters, the first time I saw you, you were six and I was twelve.”

I sat up enough to hit him with a pillow. “I know that. I mean when we were older.”

“When we were older…I turned eighteen and you were still too young.”

“But I looked older.”

“Yes, you did. And you had trouble written all over you. Still do.” He leaned in for a quick kiss. “So what about when I turned eighteen?”

“You were off to school. I wanted you to get out of this town as much as you did.”

“You did?”

“I knew you didn’t like it. I hoped…I hoped you’d stay away.”

I touched his arm, tracing the lean muscle there. “Why?”

“Because I didn’t trust myself around you. Because I thought you deserved better than me. And as much as I wanted you, I wanted you to have a good life. I figured you’d find better opportunity outside of this town.”

“And when I returned early? When I was twenty?”

“I’d just started my sheriff campaign. I went all in, even though I didn’t expect to win the first time around. I just didn’t have time to give.” He pulled me close, with a hand on my hip. “Should’ve stalked you and handcuffed you to the bed the minute you turned eighteen.”

“Better late than never.” I melted into him, feeling the ties of our past, and our future, binding us together.

“So what now?” I asked. My cheek pressed to Cole’s chest. “Am I still your naughty maid?”

“Only on weekdays. On my days off, I may just keep you chained to my bed.”

“Ooh, a real love slave.”

“I mean it. I’m not letting you go.”

I sat up and put a finger to his lips, feeling them curve into a smile. “I know.”

We made out for a while, and then Cole went to clean up. When he returned, the sight of him, shirtless with boxers hanging low on his lean hips, nearly set me off again.

I bounced out of bed. “Let’s celebrate.”

“How?”

“Post-coital ice cream.”

“I don’t eat junk food.”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course you don’t.”

Ten minutes later, we were at the Licking Hole corner store. I felt a little nervous when Cole came to open the truck door. It was the first time I’d be seen in public with the sheriff, who was a minor celebrity around these parts. And it was close to eleven pm on a Thursday night. The corner store was a popular hangout spot; we were certain to run into someone we knew.

Cole took my hand and I forgot all that, until we hit the freezer aisle. A skinny blonde, wearing a frown, brightened when she saw Cole.

“Sheriff?”

Lucy Litt, my old nemesis. She was trim and cute even in yoga pants. Or especially in yoga pants.

“Miss Litt,” Cole drawled like the good ole boy he was. “Good evening.”

“I haven’t seen you since the Policeman’s ball,” she gushed. Her eyes flicked up and down every inch of Cole’s six feet, lingering at the halfway point. “I guess you’re too busy to catch up with an old friend.” Her pout made me want to vomit.

“Not at all, Miss Litt. You remember Regina? I think you were in school together.”

Lucy’s smile turned plastic. “Regina? What a nice surprise,” she said, and meant the total opposite.

“Yes, it is nice.” I wore a fake smile of my own.

“What are you two doing here?”

“Just getting ice cream,” I said, opening a freezer and grabbing a pint. “Not staying long.”

“I had a question, actually, about some of the crime going on in town,” Lucy said. “I hear it’s mainly based in the trailer park—Regina, you know the one.”

I gritted my teeth as Lucy shot Cole a brilliant smile.

“Sheriff Townsend, do you have a minute?”

“Of course. You go on, Regina.” Cole held out some cash to me, and color flared into my cheeks. “I got it,” I waved the bill away and stomped to the register.

They were still talking when I finished paying, their blond heads close together. Cole illustrated a point with a graceful gesture. Lucy nodded, but when Cole turned away, she shot me a look of pure disgust.

I followed Cole out the door, but Lucy’s expression stuck in my mind. With a few words, she sent me back to grade school, where I was the scruffy, ugly outcast. I was the girl from the wrong neighborhood and everyone knew it. Between the kids and teachers, they made sure I did too.

I remembered why I was so desperate to leave. You can’t change who you are in Licking Hole. People decided who you were, and you were stuck for life.

Cole stopped at a stoplight on Main Street, and I sank down in the seat. I didn’t want people to see us together.

It hit me. I was the special one. The one he’d waited for. But I couldn’t have him. People would talk—it would hurt him, really hurt him. He’d worked so hard on his image. And his image was his career. Just being with me risked his career.

By the time we got home, I’d made my decision. The community needed him more than I did.

“You’re quiet,” he said as he held the door for me. “You must be really hungry.”

I walked through the kitchen straight to the hall to the bedroom.

“Regina?” He followed me, frowning as I started packing my clothes. “What are you doing?”

“I can’t do this, Cole,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat. “You need to take me back to the trailer.”

His hands caught mine. “Look at me.”

“No.” I ducked my head.

“Look at me,” he repeated, less gently, and caught my chin. “That’s an order. You promised to obey me.”

“I can’t!” I wrenched myself away. “This isn’t going to work.”

“Why not?”

“I see how people look at me, and how they look at you. They’ll think less of you, because you’re with me. And if it ever gets out what you’ve done, the deal you gave me—”

“It’s none of their business.”

“It doesn’t matter. It makes no sense that you’d be with me.”

“I made a vow.”

“Yes, to the community. And they’re expecting—”

“No. Before that. I vowed I would take care of you.”

“What?”

“You were twelve years old.”

“I knew what I wanted. I knew who I wanted.” He ran a hand over his buzzed head. “I’m nothing if not committed. You said that yourself. When I was eighteen, I told myself I’d wait for you. Don’t you see, Regina? You’re the only one for me.”

“It can’t be, Cole. People won’t respect you. I’m like a stain on your shining armor. Did you see Lucy Litt’s face when she realized I was with you?”

“I don’t care about what people like her think.”

“You should. Those people elect you.”

“Listen to me. You’re not thinking clearly. You never have.”

“I’m not drunk—”

“I mean about yourself. You don’t see yourself like I see you. Like anyone sees you.” You’re special. You’re sweet and passionate, and funny. And you go out of your way to help people. You’re a good person.”

“Tell that to Mr. Roberts.”

“I don’t have to. He told me. He knew you were in trouble, and wouldn’t accept help from anybody. He came to me because he knew I was the only one who could make you accept help. He cares about you.”

I shook my head. “I don’t?”

“You dropped out of college to help your mom. You spent one day at the Orchard, and the residents all love you.”

“They don’t count. Next time I see them they won’t know who I am.”

“Then you’ll charm them all over again.” He wrapped his arms around me.

“I can’t do it. I can’t spend the rest of my life fighting against my reputation in this town.”

“Then don’t. Forget what people think. Except me. Listen to me now, when I tell you how special you are.” He dropped his head and rested it on my forehead. “I’ll spend the rest of my life convincing you.”

“You deserve someone better.”

“I waited for you. For years, I waited to be with you. There is no one else for me.”

God, he broke my heart. But this was for the best. He was a good sheriff. I couldn’t let him throw away his life on me.

“I’m sorry, Cole.” I stepped away and picked up my bag, holding it between us like a shield. “This was fun but it couldn’t last. When you get married to someone like Lucy Litt, tell her you just were slumming it with me.”

“Regina.” His voice almost stopped me in my tracks. Almost.

I got halfway down the hall. Cole reached around me and grabbed the bag, pulling it easily out of my hands. He threw it aside before reaching for me.

“Cole, what the hell—”

His shoulder hit my middle, and he tossed me up like I weighed nothing. Pivoting, he carried me back to the bedroom, kicking the door shut. He flopped me down on the bed and grabbed my hand.

“What the fuck are you doing—no!”

I struggled as I heard the clink of metal cuffs. Goddam Cole handcuffed me to the bed. He sat back and grinned at me, and all I could do was glare.

“You can’t keep me here forever.”

“Yes, I can.” The gleam in his eyes told me not only would he do it, he’d love every second of it.

Despite myself, I got wet.

“Dammit, Cole!” I struggled to no avail.

“Careful. Don’t hurt yourself.”

“The minute I break free I am throwing these cuffs in the garbage.”

Cole straddled me, and unbuttoned my jeans. “I work as a cop. I have access to a thousand more.”

“Goddammit!” I thrashed, but his weight held me down. “I’m gonna burn your house down.”

“You might want to keep a civil tongue in your head if you ever want me to let you go.”

I quieted. He was right. “Cole, please let me go.”

Scooting down on the bed, he peeled off my jeans. Catching my ankle, he kissed it, tickling it with his stubble. “No.”

“Goddammit!” I kicked out again, and he held down my legs, lay down, put his mouth against the gusset of my panties and—

“Oooooh.”

He worked his tongue over me, probing through the silken fabric. The handcuffs rattled against the headboard for a different reason.

After a few minutes, I stiffened. “Cole, I—”

“Come for me, sweetheart.”

My back arched, my whole body tightened, and I shouted my orgasm to the ceiling.

“That’s one,” he said, kissing my midriff. “A few more of those and I bet you’ll stay.”

“Maybe.” I stared at the ceiling so the room would stop spinning. Why had I been about to leave?

“I’ll keep you naked and chained up, and take you out once a year to show you off at the Policeman’s Ball. But only after I’ve fucked you into submission.”

An image of Lucy Litt floated through my head. “Where everyone will wonder why when you’re going to settle down with a suitable woman and ‘take out the trash.’”

Cole lifted his head. “They wouldn’t dare.”

“Believe me, I’ve heard worse. And not just from the likes of Lucy Litt.”

“You really care about what people like her think?”

“Well, yeah. Don’t you?”

“No. And anyway, you’re smarter than her and most of the town put together.”

“That’s not hard. Her brains are all in her yoga pants.”

Cole snorted. “I didn’t notice.”

I rolled my eyes.

“So you want to leave because of what people will think. Do you care about what I think?”

“No,” I said, because I knew it was a trap.

“Regina…”

“Fine. Yes, Cole, I care about what you think.”

“Good.” He sat up and settled himself between my legs. “Because I’m going to tell you.”

I closed my eyes.

“Regina look at me.”

“No.”

I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Regina.”

I opened my eyes.
Please be gentle
, I pleaded with them.

“You were always…how do I say this?” he paused. “You were always…”

I held my breath.

“Amazing. You were a pretty little girl but you grew up so fast and you were gorgeous.” His tone was reverent. “I used to notice you everywhere. And I tried not to stare—I knew how messed up that was. So I made my vow, and I waited. And the whole time I waited, I hoped you would leave, and get out of town. There was nothing for you here. Nothing but me.”

“That’s all the reason I need. But Cole, I don’t deserve you.”

“Please. I’m the one who doesn’t deserve you.”

“Tell me how that is possible.”

He shrugged. “I’ll never go very far.”

“You’re sheriff! You won an election when you were twenty-eight!”