Never Mine: A Base Branch Novella (Titan World) Read online

  “Fuck, Jillian.” The sheets went taut in her periphery. Callum’s grip wrenched them almost free from the sharply tucked corners. He stretched her throat so much, her eyes watered as though she were a first timer.

  With him, she was.

  She breathed through her nose, sealed her lips around him, pressed her tongue to his smooth length, and reveled in the feel of Callum. Her pace started slow and built. Each time his grip on her ass intensified, so too did her enthusiasm for loving him with her mouth. Slurps and pants clouded the air. A ferocious growl caught her off guard. Callum’s hand left her ass and clamped the back of her neck. Sheer desire coursed through her, starting at the back of her throat and warming its way to every naughty bit she possessed.

  Callum shouted his release into the room, loud enough that the concierge at the other end of the hallway probably heard it. Jillian liked his inhibition, loved it. He pulled her off his cock with the hand at the back of her neck and dragged her to face him. She licked her raw lips. The sting brought her as much joy as the coal fire burning in his eyes.

  “I don’t think you have to worry about sleeping at all tonight.” He yanked her down and stole her breath with a kiss. His tongue sparred with hers. “I want to watch you come ten different ways, find the one you like the best, and then do it again.”

  “Yes,” she begged.

  “First, I have to get you out of this damn dress.” Callum eased from under her. When she moved to sit back on her heels, he caught her hands and placed them on the bed.

  Over her shoulder, she watched him stand, kick off his shoes and pants, and then turn back to the bed. His cock hung full between powerful legs. He hooked her hips and pulled her knees to the edge of the bed, flush with his thighs. The impact thrust a moan from her lips.

  Callum’s hands smoothed over the globes of her butt, rocking her back and forth with the circles until they skated up her back. He stopped at the low cut of the dress several inches above her crack and dragged the zipper down the short trail. When he pulled the dress from her body, the humid air full with the scent of sex caressed every inch. It pooled at her knees. He shimmied the fabric under her legs, and finally, she was free with him.

  Her heart kicked and bucked, her muscles quaked, waiting for him to make his move. And wait, he made her. He assessed her from top to bottom and back again. Jillian shifted her gaze over her other shoulder, following his progress. His approving eyes and interest provided nearly all the progress she needed to come. One false move and she’d tumble over the edge and hit every orgasmic rock on the way down.

  “My turn to taste.” Callum dropped to his knees. His rough hands spread her knees wide and then her ass cheeks, exposing her.

  He suctioned his mouth to her clit just as she’d done his lip, sucking to the tip again and again. Her hips jerked in turn with his frenzied rhythm.

  “Oh, shit. Callum. Yes.”

  His fingers sank into her cheeks, and his mouth hovered over her, while his tongue dealt the final blows. She screamed the last of her orgasm in broken words and pleas.

  “The dimples above your round ass are going to be the death of me.” He playfully bit one cheek and shoved her onto her back.

  Callum prowled up, kissing and exploring every inch of her with his mouth. He paid special attention to the shrapnel scars at her waist. Then he was there, over her, staring down as he had so many times before, but this was nothing like those times. The fear of him running away, calling her a devil, or her waking and losing him to the morning light drowned in his weight and determination.

  “You, every part is going to be the death of me, and I welcome it with open eyes.” She braced his face in her hands and pulled him to her mouth. He kept his eyes on her too and kissed her as sweetly as she’d ever been kissed, sweeter than a man of his size and ability should be able to.

  His forehead rested atop hers, and his eyes required her attention.

  “I’m here. I’m with you,” she assured.

  “I love you, Jillian, and I’ve fallen in love with you.”

  She loved him—had since the first week they’d met. She’d been in love with him for nearly as long. She just could never admit it.

  The blunt head of his cock pressed at her opening.

  “I’m on birth control.”

  “If you weren’t, I wouldn’t stop.”

  Hasn't history proven he didn’t care about that little detail when pussy was on the line?

  “Hey.” He lifted her chin. “Trust me, Jillian. Be with me, here and now.”

  Jillian wrapped her legs and arms around him, exhaled through the ache of his intrusion, and held Callum inside her. The man filled her in every way. His rigid shaft stretched her tight walls. His love tore away the hurt and bitterness she’d held close for so long.

  “Make love to me, Callum.”

  He rocked into her with slow, measured strokes. She strained, pulling him deeper each time, needing to take everything he offered. The rippled V of his abdomen massaged her slick, swollen clit. His hungry gaze drove her higher over the crest too soon. Her fingers sank into the muscles on his back. Her release cried from her lips. Breath panting in and out of her lungs, her orgasm hugged her tight and ricocheted her through the air where she collided with stars. She descended to the earth out of breath and disoriented but wanting Callum’s release more than she wanted her own.

  She drove the pace higher, circling and popping her hips.

  “Not so fast.” Large hands stalled her efforts. His own efforts persisted, slowly, methodically. “I have all night.” His abs bunched and flexed as he glided in and out of her slick pussy. “And I plan to use it.”

  Callum rolled onto his back. He held her to his chest and took her along for the ride until he eased her back. Both his hands molded her breasts together and held them for his pleasure. His tongue flicked one nipple and then the other. His lips latched onto her left nipple and bit. He gripped her hips and moved her back and forth on his cock at a leisurely tempo destined to break her mind.

  “Your curves are worth dying for.”

  “You’re not allowed to die.” She pulled his head higher, pressed her mounds together, and shoved his face in the pillowy softness. “Unless it’s suffocating in here.”

  “What about suffocating between your legs?” His muffled words reached her, while he wallowed in her cleavage.

  “That’ll work too.” She giggled.

  He nipped at her breasts and then pulled her mouth to his. This kiss held a promise of the deviance yet to come. And come soon, if he wasn’t careful. When he broke the kiss, he shoved her upright and gripped her thighs.

  “Ride me like you’ve wanted to, Jillian. Don’t hold back.”

  Sweet Jesus.

  Jillian braced both hands on his pecs and leaned forward so that her breasts plumped toward him. She arched her back, loosened her hips, and put them to work, sliding up and down his shaft as if she’d been made for it. He thrust and pulled with her. The gorgeous dip of his hips just above his cock rubbed her sensitive nub. Her breaths grew shallower and closer together, matching Callum’s.

  “Just like that.” His jaw locked, and his nostrils flared.

  He came in a furious roar, spilling himself, hot and alive, inside her. Every beautifully etched muscle contracted, and his gaze remained locked on hers until their breaths evened.

  Callum pulled her to him. He pressed her cheek to his chest, smoothed the hair from her face, and held her close. His erection remained nestled firmly inside her body. The soft touch of his lips pressed to her forehead.

  “Eight more to go,” he whispered.

  10

  Early morning light filtered into the wall of windows they hadn’t spared a second to draw the curtains across. Jillian’s backside nuzzled against his hip, while her head nestled in the crook of his arm. Her dark hair spilled across his chest instead of her arm. She lay like she wanted to be there, not like she had to be. After years of being Amery’s crutch, being wanted beat
being necessary by a mission’s worth of clicks.

  Callum rolled to his side and tucked Jillian into the shelter of his body. He shifted the strands of hair from her ear, delighting in the fiery red highlights the sunlight reflected in her dark hair. She smelled like him and sweat, causing his abused cock to stir.

  “I thought you were kidding about the eleven.” Jillian mumbled her words into the mattress. “Now that I know you were deviantly serious, there’s no need to try to top it today. Forget the two-hour rule. I haven’t gotten two hours all night. Go back to sleep.”

  He pressed a kiss to the hollow behind her ear and smiled against her neck. “I had to make the most of it. You seemed convinced once would be enough. I had to prove you wrong.”

  “Again?” Her arms and legs reached as far as they could. A yawn keened in the quiet room. She rolled against his chest and buried her face between his pecs.

  “Yes.”

  Jillian’s heavy sigh lifted her shoulders. Her breath warmed the skin covering his heart. Slowly, deliberately, she pressed her kiss-swollen lips over his heart and owned him with the simple touch. When she eased back, Callum braced the side of her face in his hand. Her eyes closed, and she leaned into him.

  “I’m yours, more than I was ever Amery’s.” He didn’t whisper the words. None of their meaning would be lost to the air.

  Lids snapped wide, and her dark brown eyes bloated. Callum held his breath, waiting to see which way her reaction would fall. He prayed for her joy but knew better.

  “Don’t say that.” Jillian shoved his hand away and scrambled to sit. “Don’t you dare say that to me.”

  Why did she have to be as stubborn as he could be? Because he was. He’d held on to a secret for so long. Even now, when he knew he’d have to use it for any hope of having Jillian as his own, he didn’t want to. He wanted her to come to him on her own, to release her loyalty to Amery, open her eyes, and see her friend for the person she was, not the one Jillian lifted her up to be.

  Callum sat but left the distance between them. He scrubbed a hand over his face and then the memorial tattoo to Amery and his fallen brothers. His gaze found Jillian’s, and he leaped.

  “Amery and I were together only once in Coronado.”

  “No.” Jillian’s head shook. A smile curved her lips conflicting with the tears that slipped down her cheeks. “You two were more than her usual barroom hookup.”

  “It was a barroom hookup; my first. I never let people get close to me. She was only the second person I’d ever been with.” Callum let that sink in because it had been the place he and Amery had met, the one place the three of them hadn’t been stationed together. “She came to me two months later and told me she was pregnant.”

  “I don’t need the details. What does it matter now, anyway?” She pushed off the bed, but he grabbed her hand.

  “There was no way I was going to father a child I’d never know. So I wore a condom. She didn’t like it, but I wouldn’t budge. The condom didn’t break.”

  “What are you saying?” She slapped tears away and firmed her jaw. “No. You two were perfect together. No.”

  “Think of all the shit you’ve seen, Jillian. Think of all you’ve survived. No one is perfect. You of all people should know that.”

  “But…” Jillian buried her face in her hands. Her knees hit the edge of the mattress, and she folded into herself.

  “I’m not trying to hurt you. I needed you to know, and I should have told you a long time ago. She should have told you, but the longer it went, the more she liked the idea that Ashlyn was mine. The longer I stared into that baby’s face, the more I did too.”

  Jillian straightened. Her hands fell to her sides as anger screwed up her face.

  “Ashlyn looks like you.” She backhanded the air. “Fuck, she acts just like you.”

  “I raised her, and Amery had a type.” He shrugged and gave her a wink.

  “Before you, yeah, she sure did. An M.O. of love ‘em and leave ‘em before they left her.” Jillian’s shoulders eased from her ears. Her jaw slacked and waggled while her eyes darted this way and that, working things out.

  “When did she tell you?”

  Callum chuckled. “She never had to tell me. I’m a SEAL and will be forever, no matter who I work for. I’m no one’s dope.”

  “So you raised another man’s child.” Jillian gasped all the air from the room.

  “I knew Amery’s background. She was a good person raised in an awful environment. I knew my background, and I never wanted another kid to grow up knowing someone walked away from them.”

  “Why tell me?” Jillian wiped the tears from the tip of her nose and shored her emotions. “Now that Amery is gone, no one can know. If the real father ever found out, he could petition for custody.”

  The thought had kept him awake more nights than the sorrow of Amery’s passing. Even now, it flipped his guts.

  “My name is on the birth certificate. I’m Ashlyn’s dad, and I trust you.”

  Jillian smacked both hands onto her hips. It thrust her breasts forward and blurred out everything but her muscled hourglass figure.

  “What if I had gotten crazy jealous that you were raising another couple’s child?”

  “I’m sorry.” He let his gaze lock on her breasts. “You said something, but I didn’t catch it.” She grabbed an errant pillow from the foot of the bed and launched it at him.

  “I’m being serious.” She snarled.

  “Me too.” He licked his lips.

  Finally, a full giggle sang its way out of her mouth. It was everything. She and his girls were everything.

  “You wouldn’t get crazy jealous.” He smiled and shook his head. “You love those girls as much as I do, as much as your own.”

  Her giggle stalled. “If I ever had one, yeah.”

  They stared at each other for a long time without a word. It was her move. He’d made all he had, though he could pull a few out of his ass in a pinch.

  The phone next to him rang.

  The clock read 0600. He’d expected a good-news call earlier. He pressed the button for the speaker. “Yep?”

  “Rise and shine,” Jared growled over the line.

  “The news is that good, huh?” Callum asked.

  “Titan turned up nothing in any of the relative’s homes of the original thieves.” Jared huffed. “Delta got nothing out of the kitchen staff last night, and we haven’t been able to track the guy who got the best of you last night.”

  Jillian rolled her eyes. “So he got the best of you too?”

  “Someone’s feeling better. Wonder why?” Jared jabbed right back.

  “Fine. Truce,” Jillian offered. “What do you need from us?”

  “Parker and his wife, Lexi, are working on a code to undo all the shit this hacker asshole did and to track him. Both teams are combing through known associate’s panty drawers to try to find a lead.” Jared grumbled to someone in the office and then returned to the phone. “Jillian, you know bombs, and Callum, you know people. Figure out where they took it. I need a Hail Mary pass at this point, so anything that can help.”

  “We’re on it.” Callum ended the call, stood, and grabbed his pants off the floor.

  “We are?” Jillian tossed her hands into the air. “I haven’t the first clue where to look. I mean I’m still shoveling through the crazy shit you just dumped on me.”

  “You needed to know.” He grabbed her long lace number and held it up.

  “I’ll wear something else, thank you.”

  “Good. Get it on and bring your bomb babe bag along.” Callum pulled on his shirt and fastened a few buttons, but opted out of the tuck to hide the pistol and holster at the small of his back.

  “Where are we going?” She wrestled her curvy ass into a pair of jeans.

  “We got lucky in the kitchen last night, and it wasn’t a coincidence. All this in-house maneuvering points there, so that’s where we’ll go.”

  “Delta already questioned the
m.” Jillian pulled on one boot and then the other, grabbing a T-shirt from a drawer and pulling it on as she headed for the door.

  He met her there, grabbed her bag, and offered it with a smile. “I haven’t.”

  “Cocky much?” She smirked, tossing the strap onto one shoulder.

  “You tell me.” He stole a quick kiss, closed the door behind them, and headed for the elevator.

  “Definitely too cocky for our good.” She stabbed the call button.

  They waited in silence but not long before a car showed and they stepped inside. She kept a few feet between them, faced the door like she was waiting to parachute, and even ignored his reflection in the glossy metal doors.

  “Do you hate me for keeping the secret?”

  “No.” A huff pooched her cheeks. “But I’m kind of pissed at Amery.” She pulled her hair back into a low ponytail and stared at the ceiling. “She made me think everything was so perfect between you two.”

  “We had a great life together, but you were wrong.”

  “Me?” Jillian placed a delicate hand over her bosom. “Impossible.”

  “You said she was the linchpin, but you were that for us.”

  She watched him in the reflection of the elevator doors but didn’t say a word. If she needed to know how much he’d bet on their future, he wouldn’t hold back. Last night, she’d unleashed the little devil on his shoulder, and that fucker knew exactly what he wanted.

  Callum laid it all on the line with an easy smile. “If you ever decide you want to have a baby, I’m your guy.”

  Jillian slung her backpack onto both shoulders. “You should be an asshole. You've got the look and the upbringing.”

  “Didn’t take.”

  “Too bad for both of us.” The door opened and she set out to the kitchen at an angry pace.

  When they entered the restaurant, Callum took the lead, mimicking her warpath walk. Two hostesses whispered behind their hands. Servers skittered out of the way. He ignored them and headed straight for the kitchen. He smacked either door with a palm and shoved them so hard one smacked into the wall and the other a long metal table lined with square containers of salad fixings.