Blindsight: The Series (Complete Erotic Suspense STANDALONE) (14 page)

“I’ll do everything in my power to keep Brant alive, but JW is a loose cannon. He’s on a rager about Brant. This has been coming for a long time; that’s the feeling I get,” he finished sadly.

“So you never even needed a personal assistant?” I whimpered, all the new information washing over me in deadly waves.

“Well, sorta.” He looked at me and his face broke out in a sheepish grin. “I’m shit at keeping everything together, and when I saw the position you were in…” His voice trailed off, the unspoken words hanging loud in my ears. He knew more about me than I thought; he knew more than I could have dreamed. He knew everything. “Are you going to be okay tomorrow? The couple will be here at eight, but take the morning off. Hell, take the whole weekend off, take the time you need, Erin.” His thumbs whispered across my jawline in an attempt at soothing me.

“No, I’ll be fine.” I sucked in a slow breath feeling my lungs expand. “I just need to swim and then relax.” I turned out of his arms then, dropping my towel in the crystal sand and stepping deeper into the water.

“About that…they do have sharks down here, so…not sure if you’re really safe…” His eyes trailed the shoreline looking for danger.

“Man, I’m in danger wherever you take me, huh?” I huffed, unable to keep the smile from lifting my cheeks, before dipping down into the bath-warm water and feeling it soak into my muscles.

“Funny!” I heard Hunter before I felt him. His arms came around my waist and pulled me against him, smooth palms running in rivers up and down my body, adding to the calming effect of the water on my muscles.

“You shouldn’t touch me like that anymore. This is so complicated,” I said, but my eyes fell closed as a sigh fell off my lips.

“I’ll stop as soon as you ask me to.” His voice in my ear sent shivers pummeling between my thighs.

“It doesn’t bother you that I’m married?”

“Do you feel married here?” His huge hand covered my chest, directly over the place my heart thumped resounding beats. I searched my mind, my heart, the dark caverns I hated to admit to anyone, before I shook my head vigorously.

“I haven’t felt married in two years,” I answered. “I thought I loved Brant at one time—he took care of me, showered me in gifts, wooed my mother and had us all fooled.” A shiver ran down my spine when I remembered the first time he’d shoved me into a mirror, cracking it and my heart into splinters. Leaving after that felt almost impossible, the fear of Brant’s reaction, my complete inability to support myself financially. I couldn’t see the way out. I didn’t think there was one. But my way out was coming. I could feel it.

“I didn’t think so,” he said. “So no, I don’t mind that you’re still married.” His hand wrapped around my neck and weaved into my hair, his lips pressing against mine in a decadent kiss that had my toes curling into the abrasive granules beneath my feet. “I’m going to want you to get that divorce at some point though,” he growled in my ear before sliding me down into the waves with him, until everything but our heads were submerged, and I was perched around his waist, my core pressing against his straining erection as the water swayed around us.

“Promise everything is going to turn out?” I squeaked, nestled into his neck.

“With every fucking beat of my heart, Princess. I’d die protecting you.” His heavy palms fisted at my ass cheeks before one hand roamed up my back and unhooked the top of my bikini. It floated in the water behind us as Hunter’s hand twisted in my wet hair and pulled, arching my neck before his lips found the pulsing vein running down my throat.

“Tell me why. Why would you die protecting me?” I asked, as muddled thoughts floated in my brain.

He nipped at my throat. “It’s my job,” he responded before drawing long sucks on the flesh at my neck. “I need to feel you, Princess, to know we’re okay.” His ravaged voice hummed against my skin and sent shivers coursing through my system. His hands pushed under the waistband of my bikini bottoms as if asking for permission. I clutched at his biceps and rocked against his hard-edged hips that were digging into the sensitive flesh at my thighs before his thumbs yanked the tie on my bottoms and I found myself naked in the ocean around his waist.

I fumbled between us to release his heavy cock from his swim shorts and sighed when he made delicious, sweet contact with my entrance. With one long groan he slid into me slowly, making me forget what it was ever like to be without him.

“Christ, Erin,” he groaned as his fingers tightened and he was thrusting with force, digging into my soft flesh. “You had every fucking reason to leave and you’re still here,” he grunted into my neck as he fucked me.

“How could I? You forced me to stay with you,” I grunted.

“I can’t be with you everywhere.” His breath washed across my neck. “You could sneak out when I sleep.” He accentuated his last word with a forceful thrust.

“Don’t talk, please don’t talk.” Garbled words came out of my throat as all the secrets, all my guilt, all the world crashed in on us while he fucked me until I lost my senses.

“You keep me fucking balanced; you can’t leave,” he growled and wrenched me from my spot atop his cock and hauled me up the shore, pressing my hands and knees into the wet sand and gripping at my ass.

I whimpered as the salt spray stung my eyes, and I felt his delicious tongue slide between my ass cheeks and lick my tight bud until I was short of breath and so ready to feel him buried deep inside me again.

“Beg, Princess. Beg me to fuck your ass,” he snarled and his hands tightened, his heavy body bent over mine, the waves pushing us against the shore as his hands latched both of my wrists and stretched me across the granules.

My sensitive breasts raked against the damp grains as I twisted and felt his hands kneading at the delicate flesh.

“Don’t make me say it again.” His grip tightened and my eyes fell closed, my body slumping as I finally gave into the mad raging lust pulsing through my veins. I tried to deny him, every day I always did, but he was undeniable. The pull, the attraction, the constant need to just
be
with him overwhelmed me. Nothing hurt when Hunter was there. Everything felt easy and at peace, like all would turn out okay, and just as I sucked in one more breath to confess that I loved him, he interrupted me with his tongue. Slow and steady he tongued the tight bud of my ass, stretching and preparing me for what I knew was next.

“I want you everywhere, every inch of you I want to own. I’ll keep you safe, and you’ll give me your body whenever I fucking want it. Got it, Princess?” His hands twisted my arms in warning and a devilish smile turned my lips as I enjoyed the sweet humming of his words against my back side and the delicious bite of his fingers at my wrists.

“Yes, yes, please.” I finally submitted and rocked my hips to meet his rhythm.

“That’s it, baby.” His fists loosened and I felt the cool air of the night breeze against my back side before I felt his wet pants fall a second before his cock was probing at my ass. With his fingers pushing between my thighs, I arched my hips and felt the tip of him stretch the snug opening at my back entrance.

I sucked in lungfuls of air and twisted in the sand, feeling it grate against my over-sensitized skin before one palm ran up my torso, curling over my ribs and across the curve of my breast as he pushed in. I groaned and pulled away on reflex against his intrusion, but his heavy hands at my waist pulled me back and he sat inside me, unmoving, waiting for the muscles to stretch and accommodate him.

“Deep breaths, baby.” He pulled against him and ran his fingers through my hair as he breathed in my ear soothing words. Only he could ever calm me like this, with his dirty mouth and wicked cock and gentle hands. He was heaven and sin wrapped in a brutally beautiful package. “Just get used to me. Feel your body accepting me, me taking you. Let it happen,” he crooned as his hands worked around my neck, gripping and massaging my throat, cutting off my air supply and then releasing slowly, allowing my lungs to fill with air and whoosh out in relaxing puffs.

Finally I settled and began to feel the familiar lust surging again. With his fingers rubbing at my clit, he bent me over the sand, caging me in and burying his thick length in my ass, fucking me in the foamy, white surf. Amid the roar of the ocean, he owned me. He claimed me as his, and I let him.

six

THE LIGHT OF THE moon faded into my vision as I came to, the vestiges of my orgasm still pulsing through my body. Hunter lifted me from the sand, naked and damp with salt water, and trudged up the path we’d come down until he took confident steps up the wooden deck and placed me on my feet, wrapping me in a soft blanket and settling me in an overstuffed lounger. I curled into the soft knit fibers of the blanket and snuggled deeper, my eyes fluttering closed with the scent of lush tropical flowers swirling in the air.

I was roused awake, I’m not sure how much later, to the smell of fragrant herbs wafting in the air and the pop of a bottle of champagne. My eyes flickered open to find Hunter standing there, soft knit pants hanging low on his tantalizing hips, a chef’s towel over one shoulder, pouring us each a glass of bubbling golden liquid. “You made dinner?” I sat up in my chair, drowsy from sleep and sex and love.

“Not much…I did what I could. Apparently they thought a world class chef was staying here. How the fuck am I supposed to cook sea urchin?”

I burst out into a fit of giggles as I took the glass of champagne he offered before settling next to me on the lounger, the small round table pulled to the cushions. I tucked the blanket more tightly around my shoulders and planted my feet on the warm wood of the deck next to him, as if we were little kids at a picnic bench.

I recalled my only memory of going on a picnic as a child and in the far reaches of my mind, my father was with us. He and my mother sat side by side on a blanket, while a chunky, not-yet-walking me crawled between them. There isn’t much that stands out in my memory of him, just his eyes. They had the ability to pierce with a single gaze, fill the space with tension in a second, and take the air from your lungs in a single breath.

I sighed, letting old skeletons lie, and set my glass on the table.

“Okay? Can I get you something else?” Hunter rubbed at my arm fiercely to help generate heat under the blanket. I was still naked, feeling a little abused by the sand that’d rubbed me and by the man that’d invaded every sensual crevice of my body in the moonlight.

“I’m okay. Just still soaking everything in.” I nibbled on toasted baguette drizzled with oil and tapenade before placing it back on the plate. “I don’t think I can eat.” I did my best at swallowing the concoction then washed it down with a healthy swallow of champagne. The bubbles scorched my lungs and caught fire in my throat, but I was thankful for the warm feeling spreading through my belly, tingling my toes, and allowing reality to slip into a comforting fog.

“Let me make you something else.” Hunter rushed to stand but I pulled him back into me on the couch.

“I just need a minute,” I hummed and curled myself into his sturdy arms.

“Sure, Princess.” He sighed and then pressed a soft kiss to my head. “All the time in the world.” He was stroking my back, then wiggled himself beneath my soft blanket and we were skin to skin, his hot body like a furnace lighting my own.

“Things have been so wrong with Brant for a while now, I just never could have imagined…” I trailed off, finding myself at a loss for words. My mind hadn’t fully formed an opinion yet. All I knew was that I was down in Belize with a man who was in essence on the hunt for my husband. It made my stomach hurt.

“It’s easy to ignore the signs when you love something.” He lulled me with his soothing, rich voice.

I snuggled closer and let my mind wander more. “We met in college. It was quick; we dated for only a year before he convinced me to go to the courthouse with him.” I shuddered thinking I would soon be headed to the very same courthouse to file divorce papers. “It was picture-perfect at first. But then he quit school and took the job at InteliCorp.” My gaze found Hunter’s as he watched with rapt attention. “The job, the parties, the cars, the things. So many things. Brant’s always loved things…” I trailed off and picked at the soft edges of the cotton. “I think he thought all the
things
would keep me happy while he was gone for weeks on end.”

“Why did you stay so long then? If he wasn’t treating you right?” Hunter asked.

I sighed then, my shoulders tensing as my mind flew back to thoughts of our wedding day, before our marriage had fallen. “It’s a terrible reason, I can’t even tell you how long the story is.” I huffed and leaned up to grab my champagne again.

“I’ve got all night.” His grin quirked before he lifted the bottle from its chilled bucket and poured the pale liquid in my glass.

A wry smile tilted my lips. “You sure you know what you’re in for?”

“I know exactly what I’m in for.” His grin stopped my heart for one long pause. “I told you, I want to know all the things the paperwork can’t tell me.” He traced a thumb and finger through a strand of my hair that had blown across my face.

I leaned further back in the chair and settled into the story I’d never told anyone. Not because it was so heinous, but because it was the shattered pieces of my heart laid bare.

“Sometimes I think I married him to get out,” I finally stated, the sentence running on repeat in my mind as shame choked my airways. “Growing up with my mom is difficult to explain to anyone who hasn’t lived it. She’s was abusive in all the non-physical ways.” I thought of his scars then, hidden beneath the tattoos that hinted at a very physical past he never shared. I hoped someday he’d tell me more. “She worked two jobs,” I continued, “and relied on the church to put clothes on my back because she was too drunk to notice I’d grown out of last year’s. Brant sent her money all the time after we were together—five hundred here, a few thousand there. He even bought her a car, and still she would call me for more. And if I didn’t want to give her more money for whatever lame excuse she had, she would say the nastiest things.” I twisted my hands in my lap, thinking of the rushing criticism she threw with a sharp-barbed tongue. I shook my head. “If she was in a bad mood, she went crazy. You couldn’t even talk to her, the screaming and hysterics. It felt like I was more in control than she was a lot of days.” Hot tears spilled over and before I knew it I was sobbing and choking into Hunter’s shoulder. “Isn’t that terrible of me?” I whispered as I wiped my cheeks on the blanket. “Marrying Brant to escape home?”