Warrior Mine: A Base Branch novel Page 17

  “I ran away after I watched my father blow the brains out of the man I’d been assigned to marry. I took my inheritance, a bag of clothes, and made it as far as Mexico City before they caught me.” She wiped the tears from her cheek and his chest. He closed his eyes, focusing on her touch and her words. “They told me I could never leave. We were family and family was loyal. Not to bother leaving because they would find me anywhere.

  “They imprisoned me without bars, refusing my friends entrance to the house or me out without two escorts. When I ditched them at the market, they sent six with me from then on. I was so lost and lonely, surrounded by hatred and desperate for love. Someone to love. Someone to love me.” Her head rocked beneath his chin.

  “I was so naive, having been sheltered from boys my entire life. But I knew the mechanics of it. I also knew there was no man who’d come near me because of my father. Besides, what I’d seen of men and the way they treated women, I didn’t want a man.

  “I snuck out one night, found a forger who married me to an American man that doesn’t really exist, so that when I left I could hide where they’d never find me…or my baby. The gardener was a kind man, nice looking. At first, he was too scared of my father to hear me out. I paid him twenty thousand dollars so he could move away after he got me pregnant. It was the most selfish thing I’ve ever done.” She sat back, found his gaze, and added, “Aside from shooting you.”

  The warrior inside Vail wanted to strap up all by himself and go to war with Carmen’s family. The primal man in him wanted to stay by her side for the rest of his days, stand between her and the world. He cupped her cheek and she leaned into his touch.

  “I expected to get away before news of my pregnancy spread, but I was viciously sick from nearly the first day. Once my father realized I was carrying his grandchild he was both enraged and overjoyed. My guards doubled, and when Sophia was born they had all the leverage they needed to make me stay. I tried to find ways to leave, but I couldn’t risk my daughter.”

  She placed her hand over his heart and it tried to leap into her hand. “All of that to say, I was a virgin when I began trying to get pregnant with Sophia. It only took two times, and I haven’t…” She bit her lip.

  “You haven’t been with anyone since?” Vail asked. She gave a curt nod. “Jesus, Carmen. And I come at you like some sex-crazed maniac.” He braced her face in his hands and lowered his forehead to hers. “I’m consumed with wanting you. I’m also a determinedly patient man. I’ll wait as long as it takes.”

  “I don’t want to wait. I want you,” she smiled meekly, “but I want more than just your body. And if you still want more than just my body, I want to give it to you.”

  His cock stood at attention, but only succeeded in strangling itself against the front of his pants. And it would remain there for some time. Using the pads of his thumbs he smoothed away her tears, then pulled her mouth to his.

  The world spun backward while Vail truly kissed Carmen for the first time. As slow as spring in Alaska, his lips warmed against the silk of her mouth. Her seductive pout breached the border of his own lips with their full softness. He focused on one at a time, taunting her top in easy strokes, and then sucking her bottom gently from one side to the other.

  Her arms relaxed and slid up his nape. One palm gripped his neck. The other explored his close-shorn hair. He eased back to meld their gazes.

  “I’m going to love you, Carmen.” He’d meant it in a purely physical manner, but no sooner was the thought off his lips then he knew they were true in deeper sentiment.

  His heart burned. Rising on his knees, he flipped her onto her back and covered her body. Their chests met. Elbows under her arms, he continued to cup her face and graze her with his lips. The embers floated away, reducing the discomfort.

  The slight jut of her cheekbones pulled his roaming mouth from hers. He coasted over her face, across her stubborn chin, down her strong neck. All the while, her eyes shimmered with desire and the hint of tears. He nipped her clavicle. A rich moan rose from her throat, sultry enough to make a lesser man plunge himself to the hilt.

  Vail straightened and released her head. Cool air hit his chest. Wispy tendrils unwound from his fingers. Sitting on his heels, he spread his pant-covered thighs wide and settled her sweet bottom at the juncture. Her legs draped exquisitely over his lap. Leaning forward, he pressed his hands on either side of her arched throat, and then dragged them down her body. His wide grip exerted sturdy pressure as it prowled her breasts, abdomen, and belly. When he reached the apex of her hips he lifted his palms, wedging them beneath her shoulders and the bed before lifting slightly. He cosseted her flesh, moving his hands back down. Her chest arched toward the sky as he pulled. At her plush ass his grip drifted the lengths of her thighs, across her calves, to the tips of her toes.

  He repeated the ritual until her body molded in his palms like clay. When she was ready, and he salivated with hunger, he bowed her chest. Leaning forward he toyed at one nipple with the pad of his tongue. Her arms stretched wide and she gasped. The dusky brown tips engorged, shimmering in the lamplight. Her chest flushed along with the large circle of her areola.

  “Sweet Jesus,” he mumbled against her softness. He hadn’t meant for the words to rumble from his chest like a threat. But they did. He hadn’t meant to let Jr. participate. But his hips rocked onto her globed cheeks at the center of his fly. His cock rasped against her clitoris.

  “More.” Her head thrashed on the sheets while she clenched them in her palm.

  “In time,” he said. As much for her as for himself.

  He moved to her other breast and suckled.

  “Now.” Levering her feet on his calves, she met his shallow thrusts with ardor.

  To maintain his grip on control, he closed his eyes and continued to tug on her nipple. Maybe it was an effort to keep himself from ripping his pants off and burying himself in her silk, but he wondered if she’d nursed Sophie. Ridiculous as it was, his dick throbbed to the point of bursting thinking of Carmen nurturing a baby. His baby.

  He groaned, the sound long and painful.

  “What?” Carmen asked.

  He was about to issue his death warrant. Because if he didn’t get inside of her, and soon, he’d keel over from the most acute case of blue-balls the world had ever seen. But he’d rather die than cause her pain.

  “I don’t have a condom,” he panted, his forehead firmly planted in the valley of her lovely bosom. He could suffocate himself here and die in peace.

  “Oh,” she breathed.

  It hadn’t occurred to her. And why would it? She hadn’t had sex in way too damn long, not that he could stand the thought of another man between her impeccable legs. He should have condoms, but it’d been a hell of a long time since he’d had sex. Not since Peggy, a lawyer who worked in the building. And he’d ended up throwing away most of the box. She hadn’t liked being in the dark about his schedule, and she hadn’t liked being eaten out. Both were deal-breakers.

  He was a man who liked his job and pussy. At least his job had been steady throughout the years—credible women were not. Carmen and her pussy were sanctioned perfection. And he didn’t have a condom.

  “Vail, look at me,” she whispered. He did and she grinned, dammit. Her smiled almost dictated he smile in return, but he didn’t want to. “You look sadder now than when I shot you, for heaven’s sake.” She pulled his head to her mouth and kissed him right off the edge of sanity. Her hips pressed against his straining erection.

  They broke away, gasping. Her harlot lashes batted. “I haven't been regular for a long time, so the chances aren’t great that I’ll get pregnant. But…there is a chance.”

  Stupidly, his chest swelled at the possibility, but then reality came crashing down. No way would she want his baby. Sophie was twelve. They were finally free.

  “I’m willing to take it, if you are,” she said. “I don’t know what we would do, if I ended up pregnant. But I know the child couldn’t be more
loved than with us as her parents.”

  Vail’s heart swelled so completely it threatened to break a rib.

  “His parents,” he corrected, a second before he sealed his lips to hers. She moaned, either in response to his crazy declaration or bearing his weight. He shoved his dick at her core time and again until she shoved at his shoulders. Instantly he stilled, thinking she’d had a crisis of conscience.

  “I may not be an expert, but I know your pants are supposed to be off for this to work properly.” She shimmied her breasts enticingly against his chest.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he growled.

  With all the grace of an elephant in a mud hole, he fumbled with the buttons and zipper, and wanted to cry in relief when his cock sprang free. He shoved the pants to his knees and wiggled out of them without leaving the heat of Carmen’s thighs. With hands at the crook of her knees, he tugged her high enough for her cheeks to kiss his heavy sack. He leaned over her, grabbed his thick shaft, and spread his beaded pre-cum through her slick folds. He paid her sensitive nub and tight entrance special attention.

  Carmen used her heels, positioned herself square on his head, and shoved her hips forward. Boy, did he like a woman of action. The tip of his head pierced her

  narrow opening. Their moans and cries mingled in a quiet symphony sweeter than Joseph Haydn’s 104th at the Philharmonic.

  He grabbed her in the protection of his arms and mapped her face. He thrust inside inch by maddening inch. Her hair spilled across the sheets in tousled heaps and frizzed all the more when they found their rhythm. In, just a bit. Out, to the tip. Then, back again. His muscles cramped with restraint. The slippery wetness of her channel told him she was ready, but damn. The way she squeezed him, he wouldn’t last long.

  Vail breached the small distance between them. His tongue coaxed her mouth to open, and then slipped inside. She sucked on it, mimicking the fucking of their sex, only faster, greedier. Her moan vibrated his tongue as she pumped him nearly mindless.

  Her thumb played over his lower lip. She flicked his nipple with her other hand.

  Dear Lord.

  Surprise sat him back. It had never done anything to him before, but now it smashed his flimsy reserve of discipline into a thousand pieces. Arms anchoring her, he shoved deep.

  “Ah, Vail.” Her chin rose, exposing her neck. “Yes! Oh!”

  Sliding a hand from her shoulders, he placed two fingers over her wet lips. “Shhh, honey. I’ve got you.”

  “No, I’ve got you.” Hot breath slipped between his digits. She wrapped her legs around his waist. “And I’m not letting go.”

  He pulled completely from her heat, and then thrust back home. “Never,” he growled. His balls smacked her soft bottom. Pleasure tingled up his spine, but he refused to give in to the sensation. He set a slow, steady pace that lasted all of thirty seconds before her moans and chaffing nipples against his chest drove his desperation to the brink. He plunged deeper. Recoiled faster, needing more.

  Sweat sheened on their bodies as they scorched the chill in the air. He was so close to coming. Though he knew he’d gotten her there once already, and planned to do so many more times tonight, he wouldn’t climax without her their first time making love.

  Leaning back, he locked on to her gaze, slid his right hand around her nape and the other to her tailbone. He lifted her sweet ass and adjusted their angle, then sank to the root. Her mouth opened, but she banked the cry. Her hips undulated. The softness of her rosy breasts shimmied from his thrusts.

  “Come with me,” he demanded.

  “You better…come…then,” she panted.

  A bark of laughter shook his chest, but the suffocating wave of orgasm locked down every muscle, nerve, and synapse. He tried to move, to keep from stealing her pleasure. His cheeks clenched. Rigidly he fastened their bodies together and filled her to brimming with his seed.

  29

  Vail coming was the most erotic sight in the history of mankind. Even caught in the maelstrom of her own breath-stalling orgasm, she marveled at the rippled cords of muscles bunching under his skin. The onslaught continued as his hips ground against her swollen flesh and his cum heated her belly. Through the storm neither tore their gaze away from the soul-detonating connection that flared between them.

  He had to be as boneless as she, but he levered over her for a while. His hand slid from her nape. Those warm fingers stroked her cheek. Their bodies remained locked, the strength of his grip on her ass securing the union.

  With shaky arms he finally collapsed onto her chest. The movement jarred his length, still deep inside her womb. Nerve endings sizzled and popped at the contact. He caged her with his strong arms. His lips danced over hers for the barest of moments before the room tilted and she straddled his hips.

  “You are beautiful.” He traced a finger across her collarbone, between her breasts. His hands hooked behind her knees and tugged. The motion shifted the angle with which she seated him. His full, hard dick speared her deeper. One hand coasted up her thigh and splayed across her belly. “Ride me, Carmen. I need to watch you come again.”

  Her core clenched as raw need stirred an uprising. She rolled and ground against his cock. Positioned as she was, the movements were small. His head brushed a sensitive spot with each circle that left her panting in seconds. Her face flushed as he stared unabashedly at her display. And she was on display. Her thighs parted, revealing her most intimate parts. Surely, he could see his wide shaft breaching her body. Her breasts jiggled, their stretch marks flashing like a neon sign. Carmen cupped her breasts to keep them still.

  “Beautiful,” he breathed. “Just…stunning.”

  Any vulnerability holding her back fell away with his adoration. The instant her fingers brushed her delicate nipples all thought evaporated. Her head lolled as she squeezed the overflowing handfuls. Vail’s hand slid lower on her belly and his thumb brushed the tiny bundle of nerves between her slick folds. “Oh my God. Oh. Yes. Oh. Ahhh.”

  Oblivion pulled at her and she gave herself willingly. Pleasure grappled, pinned her to the ceiling, subduing her for a heavy moment before letting go. She drifted, euphoric. Totally blissed. And then she sagged onto his chest, exhausted.

  “I could watch you come twenty times a day.”

  She smiled against his hard slabs of muscle. “Again,” she murmured, “I’m no expert, but that seems a bit excessive.”

  “From where I’m lying, you’re adept enough to keep me hard around the clock. And also, from where I’m lying, it doesn’t seem near enough.”

  His lips brushed her cheek and he rolled them to their sides. He slipped from her body, groaning as though he hated to leave. She didn’t care for the emptiness between her legs one bit. He grabbed the discarded towel and cleaned them both. When he settled with his head pillowed on one arm he tugged her closer.

  “You’re one dangerous woman,” he said with a devilish smile.

  “And you’re no powder puff.” She let her finger trace his scars, the lighter, slightly smaller ones that speckled his torso. They’d just shared a most intimate act, and yet she didn’t know anything about him. Not true. She knew his nature and it was beyond reproach, but she wanted more. “Tell me about your family?”

  His droopy lids widened and a frown carved his tan skin.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.” She put her fingers over his mouth. “That’s not true, I did mean to pry, but I didn’t mean to hurt you. Though how could it not?”

  His lips kissed the underside of each knuckle, and then the tips. “I expected you to ask about my scars.”

  “I figured they were one in the same.”

  “And you’re right.” He entwined their fingers. “It hurts…still, but now it hurts in a way that reassures me I’m alive. For a long time, I didn’t feel like I was. I didn’t want to be.” He drew a deep breath, his gaze warm and attentive on her face.

  “My job is dangerous in that the decisions I make affect the missions, the lives of my people, and p
otentially thousands more on any given day. Before, I was in the Navy.”

  “You were a SEAL.”

  “Yep. Risky job. Never in one place very long. And I fell in love. Ellie and I got married two months after we met.” The pain in his eyes lightened.

  A prick caught Carmen’s heart and she swallowed past the odd sensation. Jealousy. She’d had no reason to experience it before. And she had none now. She wouldn’t begrudge Vail his happy memories. Not for anything. Hell, if she could resurrect the woman to make him happy…she’d think about it long and hard, and then do it for him alone.

  “It was a whirlwind. Crazy really. I was on leave when we met. When I came back for a night a month later, I asked, she agreed, and we were married the next time I came home. It wasn’t easy, but we managed to make the best of our time together.” Absently, he brought her hand to his mouth and spread kisses along the side. “In two years of marriage, we were only in the same place for five total months, no more than two weeks at a time.”

  As if to comfort himself, he rubbed her hand over his cheek. “Enough time to make a baby. She would have been very near Sophie’s age.”

  A tear slipped from her eyes before she could call it back. She didn’t like where this was going. The thought of losing a child, even though she’d known he had… Her throat constricted.

  “I had another two weeks about four months into the pregnancy. Since I’d shipped out the day after our wedding, I wanted to do something special for her. So, I booked a trip to Jamaica. A babymoon, she called it.”

  Vail leaned in and kissed at the trail of her tears. “Don’t cry.”

  “Impossible.”

  “I didn’t think anything was impossible for you.” His breath tickled her ear.

  “There are a few things.” And they all involved him and Sophia.

  “There was a breach and my information was among that stolen. But the warning came too late. The leader of a terrorist group my team had collapsed a few months earlier found us at market on the island.” His grip on her hand tightened.