Texas Heroes: Volume 1 (47 page)

Leaning back on her hands, she swiveled her hips, brushing the hard ridge straining at his fly. He was a big man…all over. She should be afraid, but somehow she wasn’t.

Through the curtain of her hair, Mitch’s mouth closed on her breast. One hand slid behind her back to bring her closer; the other slid slowly down her hip and over her belly.

Tantalizing slow touches feathered over her skin, grazing the nest of hair, glancing across the tops of her thighs.

Then he parted the lips and slid his fingers between, pressing against her with his thumb—

Perrie gasped and jerked away, then hurriedly pressed back again. His touch was heaven.

Slowly he teased her with darting touches, with slow, agonizing circles, making her whole body tremble. “Mitch?” She wanted to escape the assault of sensations, yet she’d die if she did. Then he rose as though she weighed nothing and laid her on the rug before the fire. He clasped her hips and lifted her to his mouth, his broad shoulders spreading her legs wide.

Too open, too vulnerable, too—

His mouth closed over her, and Perrie’s whole body jolted.

Heat. Aching sweetness. Glory and rapture and sizzling nerves…

So close to something unspeakably beautiful, so nearly painful, Perrie started to panic, too far outside herself, too far out in the open, too alone, too—

His tongue slid inside her, and Perrie shattered, flying past the edge of the world.

His grip never wavered as she spun into the heavens. She was safe, utterly safe, and the relief of it undid her.

When Mitch felt Perrie let go, it was the biggest victory of his life. Her body shuddered in his arms, then collapsed in utter trust.

Tenderness overwhelmed his hunger. He gathered her up, sliding his hands into the spill of bright hair as she lay boneless against him, sighing softly.

He’d done one thing right in his life. For whatever reason, this woman had never experienced what she was feeling right now. It was almost enough to make him forget the ache that sank teeth into him.

Perrie surfaced, every nerve in her body alive and glowing. Then she felt the coiled tension in his body and reminded herself that only she had found satisfaction.

She discovered something else new on this startling night. Instead of dreading the need for the man with her to be satisfied, she was eager. Hungry, even.

Perrie slipped from Mitch’s arms and fastened her mouth to his throat. He groaned, and she licked her way up his neck. Straddling him, she clasped his face in her hands and indulged them both in a deep, hungry kiss. She’d thought herself sated but realized now that this was only the beginning of what they could savor together.

She wanted him naked, too, wanted to touch him all over. Fingers clumsy with need, Perrie tore at the buttons of his jeans.

When Perrie’s hunger enveloped them both, Mitch felt the renewed bite of his own. Gritting his teeth to maintain his control, Mitch replaced her hands with his own and in seconds had his clothes off and spread her naked beneath him.

Perrie gasped. Mitch jerked his gaze to hers, expecting fear. She was so small, so fragile.

Instead he saw a need that flared as hot as his own.

“Don’t move.” Afraid she might vanish, he kept his eyes on her as he fumbled for his wallet.

She frowned, but the line between her brows smoothed when she saw what he was doing. “I never even thought…” Her cheeks went to rose.

“I barely did.” His fingers were suddenly too big. In desperation he tore at the packet with his teeth.

Before he could roll it on, she halted him, her fingers hesitating. “Can I…” The glance she cast was both greedy and uncertain.

He closed his eyes, grasping at the last threads of his discipline.

Small fingers curled around his bare flesh, and he hissed through his teeth.

She released him immediately. “I’m sorry. I’m not good at this.”

That bastard. Mitch smothered his rage at the man who’d tainted what should be beautiful. “You’re doing fine. It’s just…it’s been a long time, and you touching me is so…”

Her eyes widened. Then the delicate fairy smiled like a siren, wicked and slow. “So I shouldn’t be sorry?”

“You should come here,” he growled. He took the condom and made quick work of covering himself then somehow, despite how badly he wanted her, he moved over her carefully, holding his weight off her, every muscle rigid with the screaming power of his craving.

He beat it back again…but just barely.

Abruptly she levered up and took his mouth as he wanted to take her body, fast and hard.

Oh, God. “You are killing me,” he gasped. “I don’t know how long I can hold off.”

Another wicked smile was his answer. “I hope you won’t. I really hope you won’t. I’ve never…” She blushed again. “It’s never been like this,” she whispered.

Which only revved up his craving about a thousand per cent.

But he looked at her again, so small against him, and saw the nerves behind the smile.

With one smooth motion, he reversed their positions, spreading her across his groin, holding her hips in his hands, brushing her lush, wet heat against him.

His whole body shivered. “Take me inside you, Perrie,” he groaned. “Before I die.”

Her eyes lit, her hands gripped his shoulders as she lowered herself on him.

And then…paradise. Wet and warm, so tight he gritted his teeth against a pleasure so sharp he would surely die.

But what a way to go.

Slowly she slid down his length, and Mitch died a little more with each inch. He felt the tip of her womb and gripped her hips to stop so he wouldn’t hurt her.

But she rocked her pelvis again and seated him to the hilt. Then Perrie, sweet, innocent Perrie, took him on the ride of his life.

All the Perries he had seen flashed behind his eyes, the gentle mother, the laughing storyteller, the small tiger who’d defended her cub. But above him now was a different woman, a small Valkyrie filled with courage and fire and a smoldering sensuality that sucked the breath from his lungs.

Eyes closed, head thrown back, golden hair swaying over plump breasts, she was a goddess, a Scheherazade to beguile a man’s senses.

Perrie opened her eyes then, her body alive with the sensation of Mitch deep inside her, her skin rippling with gooseflesh from the glory of his touch. She looked down into eyes gone dark chocolate, velvety-soft yet burning with challenge.

“Mitch, I don’t—I want—”

He seemed to understand, reversing their positions in one swift move, rising above her like some pagan god. His strokes went deeper yet, and Perrie gasped.

He stilled for one moment, and their eyes met. And in that instant, the presence of something momentous rose between them…wrapped around them…called out to some hidden part of each one.

For an endless span, they barely breathed. In Mitch’s eyes, Perrie saw the flicker of the longing she couldn’t define.

It was too overwhelming. She pulled him closer, wrapping her legs around his hips, sensing the pull of the ecstasy he’d given her before, but wanting something else, too—something more.

He shook his head as if denying the draw and drove into her faster, deeper, closing his eyes, his face once again a mask. Alone as she’d seen him so often.

And then Perrie realized what it was she wanted.

Love. To give this man love.

Her heartbeat scrambled. She wanted to retreat, to run away from what she was feeling, from such a foolish, unattainable need.

But before she could, Mitch bent his head and took her mouth, his tongue echoing his strokes inside her body. He surrounded her, filled her, cast away anything inside her but himself. She was lost in the wonder of Mitch, only Mitch, when the wonder exploded and the world went white behind her eyes. He took her soaring out past anything she’d ever sensed, ever felt, ever known.

Mitch felt it, too, and in the midst of ecstasy, he knew a dread so deep it seared his soul.

All of this, all that he felt, all that burst inside him now would vanish. He would be as he had always been. Alone.

And once again, he would know the bitter sting of what he had lost.

Mitch struggled to hold back, not to feel anymore. She would tear out his heart. He would not survive.

But she was too warm, too willing, too sweet. Like a sorceress, she called forth all that he claimed as his own.

Mitch fought the pull, but it was too strong. He yearned for an end to his darkness, a sweet taste of peace. Like it or not, Perrie had shown him both, and the need of her brought him to his knees.

With a groan that tore at the very roots of his soul, Mitch surrendered. With one last, bittersweet thrust, Mitch sent them spiraling, holding her tightly against him while they careened through a sky shot with sparks, whirling with color, sizzling with a fire that had surely branded him to his depths.

But even as she pulsed around him, sanity battered at euphoria. With a sudden, awful clarity, he realized that he’d surrendered too soon, sold himself too cheap.

He could sink into her body a thousand times and he would never find what he needed most, wanted most. She could share her body with him, but she kept the secrets of her heart to herself. Warming himself at her gentle fire, feeling a moment of peace, was not enough.

He’d been alone for so long. He’d never known how it could feel to be this close. She’d taunted him with this taste, but still she held back, even after what they’d shared. He had to have more.

“Perrie,” he whispered, rolling to his side, his breath warm and soft against her temple. “Tell me what’s wrong. Tell me why you wouldn’t come to Cy. Tell me why you’re afraid.”

She went stiff in his arms, as though the moments just past had been a dream. “There’s nothing wrong.”

But she was lying, he could hear it in her voice, feel it in her frame. He should let it go, make love to her again. Settle for what he could have, and forget what she held back.

But he could not. “Let me help. This woman in my arms is not the woman who wouldn’t come to the phone when Cy was dying. Explain it to me. Tell me what’s wrong.”

She pulled away and sat up, the curtain of her hair hiding her face. “I was…traveling, I told you. I didn’t know.”

“You’re lying.” He sat up, too, turning her to face him, pushing back her hair, gripping her jaw. “Look at me and tell me that again.”

Blue eyes darkened, and she swallowed hard. He saw the briefest flicker, but it could have been the fire’s light.

“I was out of the country. No one told me you called.” Her voice was stronger, but it didn’t matter. Her eyes told the truth. Despite what they’d shared, she still did not trust him.

He swore under his breath, and Perrie jerked away as if he’d struck her. She rose, holding her clothes in front of her like a shield. Her voice shook slightly when she spoke. “This was a mistake. I’m sorry. I was just—you saved Davey and I—”

If she’d cut his heart out with a rusty knife, it couldn’t have hurt any more. A debt. She was only paying a debt. She didn’t trust him enough to tell him the truth about her past, and she had only lain with him because he’d saved her son.

At sixteen, he’d learned the price of letting his emotions run free. He’d never made that mistake again—until now. He’d let himself feel too much ever since they’d come, been lulled into thinking nothing would happen that he couldn’t control.

But tonight had proven deadly. He’d opened the lamp and let the genie out for moments of beauty so sublime he knew he’d feel the loss for the rest of his life. He’d unleashed passions and let down his guard—and now the genie didn’t want to go back into the lamp.

Staring at the woman who had turned his soul inside out and then dropped it on the ground like so much trash, Mitch couldn’t believe he’d been such a fool. Jerking on his jeans, he scooped the rest of his clothes off the floor, shoving away pain sharp as a dagger sliding into an unprotected chest.

He had to get away. Before it was too late.

“You’re right,” he said. “It won’t happen again.”

He left the room.

Perrie watched him go, knowing a grief so keen she didn’t know how she would bear it. Wanting to call him back, wanting to explain. But she couldn’t falter now.

He would never know it, but she did this for him. Tearing out her heart with bare hands would hurt less. Her body still hummed from the splendor of his loving, yet her mouth tasted only of ashes.

When she heard the door to his room click shut, she sank to the floor and buried her face in her hands.

And silently wept.

Chapter Eleven