Forbidden confessions pr.., p.12
Forbidden Confessions:: Protectors, page 12
“I was annoyed for you. Ridge is the one who got trashed and spent all evening hitting on your friend. He was being an asshole and he deserved everything you dished out. I’ll be honest. Not much has changed. Ransom, Rand, and I pile on him all the time, hoping he’ll freaking learn. But he’s still crazy.”
“Well, I didn’t appreciate his behavior, but going on a blind date to the prom was a bad idea. Kissing you in front of him was worse.”
“No. Ridge needed some payback, and if kissing me was the way to accomplish that…”
Vanessa bit her lip. “Actually, that isn’t why I kissed you.”
“It’s not?”
She shakes her head, then climbs on top of me to straddle my hips and lay her lips softly over mine. “You did something to me the first time I saw you. You opened the car door and…I pretty much forgot Ridge existed. I’ve always wondered if he flirted with Anna to get back at me. And when you opened the door after we got back, I just couldn’t stop myself.
I kiss Vanessa again. “I couldn’t help it, either. I wanted you even then. I still do.”
“But you never asked me out or…”
“How old were you that night? Seventeen?”
“Almost.” But not quite.
“I was twenty-three. And I knew if I put my hands on you, I’d stop caring about your age. Besides, I was only home for a couple of weeks, then I shipped back out. It wouldn’t have been right or fair to start something you weren’t ready for and then leave for months on end.”
She bit her lip. “I get it. But I’m not a teenager anymore. We’ve been working together for seven months. I thought you just didn’t remember me.”
I wondered when she’d get around to this. I’ll tell her that her father sent me to watch over her soon, but I won’t have her thinking I’m this close to her for any reason other than the fact I’m dying to be. “And I didn’t think you remembered me. But since we’ve cleared that up, I’m impatient to give you everything you want.”
As I kiss my way up her neck before taking her lips again, a rosy flush of arousal stains her cheeks. “You already are.”
“No. Everything.” I lean in and press my lips to her ear. “I know what you read. I know what you crave.”
She rears back, her blue eyes turning startled and wide. “How?”
To answer that, I have to tell her things I’ve put in the mental box marked later. She’s not ready to hear that I’ve cased her house many times in the middle of the night to ensure her safety and that I often perused her e-reader to satisfy my curiosity before settling in to watch her sleep. For now, I reach along the side of the bed until I find my pants. With a deep rumble of laughter, I fasten my hands around the buckle and I pull my belt free. Before Vanessa can even guess my intent, I capture her wrists in my grip, wrap the leather around them, then secure her to her headboard.
Her eyes widen even more. Yeah, she could probably wriggle free, but the way her eyes dilate, her lips part, and her nipples harden tells me she’s aroused. Even better, her torso is now stretched above me, her gorgeous tits in my face.
“What do you think, little girl? Want to protest?” I taunt as I lick her nipples, biting at one, then the other, loving the catch in her breath.
“No.”
“Want me to stop?”
“No.”
“Good,” I whisper before I take her nipple in my mouth. “I wasn’t going to.”
Vanessa groans and wriggles on me. She’s fucking wet, and I can’t resist.
I slide my way up her body and align my cock against her pussy. Then I shove into her body as I push my way into her mouth.
In this position, she’s helpless to do anything except take whatever I give her. I’m conscious of a few things. First, she’s still so tight and she must be tender, so I’m insistent but not rough. Second, I’m still not wearing a condom. I have one in my pocket. But you know what? I don’t want it. Am I unconsciously hoping she’ll get pregnant so her father has less incentive to kill me? Maybe. But I also love the idea of starting a family with Vanessa. Everything is moving fast, but I’ve known how I feel for a while. Sounds like she has, too. Third, this is really turning her on. And anything that flips her switch arouses the fuck out of me. I don’t see a downside here.
I grip her hips and rock in and out of her, every move tugging on her wrists, bouncing her breasts as she twists above me. Her eyes slide shut. Her lips part. She melts for me.
I want to stay here—just like this—for the rest of my life.
Under her, I thrust up, a slow, steady rhythm that soon has her panting. I take a bobbing breast in my mouth and suck, swirling my tongue around her. Vanessa is every bit as sweet as she was the first time I made love to her. But she’s hardly passive. Her hips rock and swivel as she rises on her knees, then falls back onto my cock in long, increasingly frantic strokes.
Her hair falls around us like a cloud. As the sun begins to slant in, it lights her up. She looks like an angel…but she feels like a goddess. She’s perfect. And when the fire brewing in my balls swells and gathers, I know I can’t last.
I’ve got to fix that—fast.
“Stop,” I command, gripping her hips to stay her.
“Rush…” she whimpers.
“Do it, little girl.”
Reluctantly, she stills.
“Good. Now stand on your knees and rock your hips forward.”
She’s breathing hard and looks like she’s in pain, but she complies again. She really is a submissive little thing in the bedroom, and I’m going to have a shitload of fun with that later. But now, I have something beyond exciting to focus on.
Her pussy inches from my face.
With a hungry growl, I clasp her pert ass in my hands, then drag her up until her knees part around my ears. I swipe my tongue over her slick folds, then dip between them, where she’s syrup warm and all her secrets shimmer. She tastes like spun sugar with a hint of tart. Fuck, I can’t get enough of pure musky female honey on my tongue, but I sure as hell try, sucking her clit, lapping and lashing and loving it, like the animal she makes me.
“Rush!”
The way she cries my name, I know that’s not a plea to stop. So I keep assailing her most sensitive, tender flesh until she’s gasping, her back is arching, her thighs are trembling.
Perfect.
With one hand, I stroke my cock. With the other, I push her back down to it, angling it just right. “Bend your knees. Take me again.”
Immediately she pushes down—and gets a pussy full of me. In return, she rewards me with another pink-cheeked whimper.
Fuck, she’s gorgeous. And she’s about to come. I know it in the way she moves. I feel it in the way she tightens on me. I’m sure of it when she looks at me with heavy-lidded alarm, like the sensations are more than she knows how to handle.
“Vanessa,” I grit out her name as desire undoes me. “Give it to me. Now.”
Because need has clawed past my restraint, and I can’t hold back anymore.
As she tosses her head back, arms tugging at my belt, she screams out in pleasure. I shuttle her up and down my cock as the lid blows off my restraint and I let go inside her, shoving myself as deep as I can.
And holy shit, this orgasm takes my breath, makes me dizzy. I fucking see stars. I feel my own heart pounding relentlessly for her—all to the soundtrack of her screaming my name.
Oh, damn. Never mind moving in together. I mean, we will. Like today. But I’m putting a ring on her finger the minute I find the right one. If she loves me and I’m both marrying her and giving her babies, her old man can’t off me.
Right?
“Oh, my gosh. Rush…” Vanessa wilts, but the belt securing her wrists doesn’t have enough give to allow her body to rest on mine.
With desperate fingers, I unbuckle it. She comes tumbling down onto me, eyes wide and thankful, kissing me as she presses her bare breasts to my damp chest and closes her eyes with a sigh.
We both want the comfort of closeness, so I roll her to her back and follow her over, pushing myself as far into her as I can while I nuzzle her neck.
My life will never again be complete without her.
“I love you, Vanessa.” And those are some scary as fuck words. I’ve never said them to any woman except my mother.
When I lift my head, she blinks at me. Tears well in her eyes. “I love you, too.”
Oh, thank fuck. I’m not the only one whose heart is totally snared. “Good. We’re going to do something about that.”
She frowns. “Isn’t that what we just did?”
“Besides sex. I’ll move in here if you want, but after what happened yesterday, I’m thinking it’s safer if you move in with me.”
Vanessa looks stunned. “Move in? Really?”
Why is that such a surprise? “Really. Do you want to keep living apart when we could be together all the time?”
It only takes her a few seconds to decide. “No. But Kitty Pie—”
“She makes you happy. Bring her.”
She smiles brightly. “All right. I will. I just hope you don’t have leather furniture.”
I do, but I’m not attached to it the way I am to Vanessa. “We’ll figure it out. Let’s get cleaned up, grab some breakfast, then get you packed.”
“T-today? You want me to move in, like, in the next few hours?”
“Why wait?”
Vanessa pauses, then nods. “You’re right.”
“I’ll start the shower.”
“I need to make a phone call, then I’ll be right there.”
Reluctantly, I pull away from her body, leaving the sanctuary of her sweet, cozy pussy. Then I drop a kiss on her lips and pad off to her ancient shower. That’s another reason to move into my place. The bathroom is way bigger.
A minute later, I step under the warm spray and start lathering my hair. And my brain starts working again. Who the hell would she need to call this early on a Saturday morning? Sure, she has friends at the hotel, but not close ones. She also doesn’t have any siblings, cousins, or BFFs that I’ve heard about. Her mom passed years ago, and since my mother always wanted daughters, she’ll love spoiling Vanessa.
So I can only think of one person she’d want to talk to after making the momentous decision to move in with a man.
Her father.
“Oh, fuck!” I rinse the shampoo from my hair as quickly as I can, then grab the towel I found in the cabinet just before climbing into this claustrophobia-inducing box and wrap it around my body. “Vanessa!”
Vanessa
As soon as Rush steps in the shower, I force myself to roll out of bed. The temptation to lie here on the sheets that smell like us and coax Rush into pleasuring me again is high, but we’ll have time for that—lots of it—starting tonight. My rent is paid up through the end of the month, so I have the luxury of moving out slowly. I only need to pack the essentials now. And my lease is up in a few months. But that’s not my hesitation.
It’s Daddy. How will he feel when he finds out I have a boyfriend and it’s serious?
I have no illusions. He’s got someone watching over me. He always does. It makes him feel better, and I’ve never minded because I know he only wants me to be safe. I’ve suspected for a while that he placed Mrs. Crafton across the street to keep tabs on me…just in case. The spy business is dangerous, and he’s worried his life-or-death missions will spill over and put me at risk.
Has Mrs. Crafton already told Daddy that Rush spent the night?
The thought makes me wince. The news would go over better if it came from me. But since he didn’t leave me a direct number to reach him, I can only call the emergency contact he made me promise I’d program into my phone before he left. Hopefully, whoever answers will relay the message that I want to speak to Daddy quickly. And maybe they can assure me that my father has simply been busy rather than captured, wounded…or worse.
With trembling fingers, I reach for my device. I don’t want to worry or startle my father. But I need to be honest. And now I’m just procrastinating. I fear he’ll be somewhere between enraged and sad to learn that his little girl is a woman now who’s found her own man. But I hope he’ll understand since Daddy wants me to be happy.
Letting out a breath, I press the button. The phone rings in my ear.
Seconds later, I hear another device ringing in the room, coming from the side of the bed where Rush shed his pants.
It has to be a coincidence. Maybe it’s the hotel calling him because there’s a security problem and he’ll have to report in to work. I expected this weekend to be rowdy.
But what if the ringing phone isn’t a coincidence?
Frowning, I hang up and wait.
The ringing pealing from Rush’s pants pocket stops.
So does my heart.
Is it possible Rush works for Daddy? That he’s the one sent to watch over me?
I press the button again. The ringing across the room resumes.
Like I’m on autopilot, I head straight for his pants and find the device. It’s still ringing when I lift it.
On my phone, I disconnect the call again. In my other hand, the ringing stops.
That son of a bitch.
All this time, I assumed Mrs. Crafton was my watchdog, an older version of my aunt. The grandmother figure I never had. But no…
Daddy sent someone I’ve been crushing on. Who I once kissed. Who I work with. Or is his job at the hotel just a cover? It has to be.
And I’m so furious.
My father didn’t just send someone reliable to guard me this time. He sent a spy, like him—a master of disguises, cover stories, misdirection, mind games, and manipulation.
Is any of what Rush and I have real? Or did he move into my bed—and my heart—to benefit whatever fucking op he’s working on with Daddy?
“Vanessa!” Rush shouts as he dashes out of the bathroom wrapped in nothing but a towel.
Water drips off every hard, rigid muscle of his shoulders, chest, and abs, darkening his ink and adding a sheen to his golden skin that makes my belly clench. I shouldn’t let myself be distracted by the gorgeous man candy. He’s clearly learned to use his ripped body to seduce information from contacts and bamboozle wide-eyed idiots.
Like me.
Rush played me. I need to be angry about that, not wishing he’d drop the towel, take me in his arms, and make me feel good again while he assures me that he loves me.
And what if I get pregnant?
“We need to talk, little girl. I need to tell you—”
“That you work for my father?” I spit, holding my phone in one hand and the burner phone I retrieved from Rush’s pocket with the other. “I figured that out.”
“It’s not what you’re thinking.”
“So you don’t work for Daddy?”
He curses under his breath. “Listen to me. I—”
“So that’s a yes. When were you going to tell me?”
“Did you call that phone?” He points to the burner.
“Answer my question first. When were you going to tell me that you work for my father?”
“Once we were settled and comfortable together.”
“Bullshit.” I set the burner phone on the nightstand, then I realize I’m naked. I feel too exposed, so I rustle around for my robe, then belt it tight around my middle. “You didn’t have sex with me because you want me or have feelings for me. You did it for the job, didn’t you? Somehow, deflowering me advanced your mission. I hope it wasn’t too much of a hardship.”
When I turn to leave the room, he pulls me back. “That’s not true. I love you.”
My stupid heart wants to believe that, but I can’t be swayed. I may not understand exactly how and why the game is played, but I know enough to know I’m in dangerous water.
And Rush is the shark circling me, smelling blood.
“No. You’re a spy. Which also makes you a liar, a player, and an unreliable prick. Get out.”
“Vanessa…” He rushes after me. “Little girl. Don’t—”
“Now.” I snatch up the burner phone and throw it at his chest, but of course it bounces off his solid flesh the way a quarter would bounce off those tight, tempting abs. “Or I’m calling the police.”
I don’t know if that threat will actually do anything, but the big boys usually leave the locals in the dark, and at the very least, the officers of the SAPD will put a monkey wrench in whatever Rush and Daddy have schemed.
“All right.” He suddenly sounds very reasonable. I don’t trust it. “I’ll be out of your hair in two minutes.”
Just like that, he’s giving up on me. On us.
Of course he is. There was never any “us” to start with.
“Good.” I try not to cry.
I’ll probably love Rush forever. Or the idea of him, anyway. The man I thought he was. It will take me a while to mourn his loss. But this sex god in a skimpy white towel—no, I mean this asshole—in front of me? I’ll forget him in no time. Like, I’ve already forgotten him. He’s just a memory. I’m ready for the next man.
And you called him a liar?
Telling the voice in my head to shut up, I disappear into the powder bath with my clothes, toss them on, and emerge in time to find Rush completely dressed, keys in hand, looking both pissed and determined.
But his dark eyes are still pleading with me. “This is a bad idea. Whatever you think is going on between us—”
“Nothing.”
“You’re wrong, but besides that, someone broke into your place yesterday. I need to figure out what’s happening, secure your cottage, and keep you safe.”
“Do your job, you mean. You can do it outside.” I stomp down the hall and straight to the front door, pulling it wide open for Rush.
He sighs as he walks out. “You’re making a mistake. It’s still dangerous—”
“If something happens, I’ll call the police. They won’t work their way inside my panties in the name of ‘protecting’ me. Besides, if you’ve been watching me every moment of every day for the last seven months, then I doubt you’ll go far. Just forget what I look like naked.”
