Before Dawn (10 page)

She closed her eyes and, despite the room being filled with the soft, golden glow of the late afternoon sun, lazily drifted toward the endless realm of Dream.

A shift in the body above her yanked her back from that sweet edge of sleep. Her arms instinctively tightened about him.

“Don’t leave me.” Those three little words left her mouth before she could stop them, and Mercy stiffened.

Ryan caught something in Mercy’s wide eyes that told him to tread carefully. It didn’t take Freud to figure out her issues.

“I’m crushing you,” he said, and rolled onto his back, taking her with him.

“No,” she protested and tried to slide off him. “You’re more hurt than me. I wasn’t the one getting thrown all over the room and nearly strangled to death.”

He held her in place. “I’m not hurting so much right now. Sex, endorphins. Nature’s pain reliever.”

That remark startled a laugh out of her, but she still batted his hands away and settled beside his body. He gathered her to him, and she curled into his side, head on his shoulder, an arm thrown across his chest and a leg draped over one of his.

“How long can we stay here?” asked Mercy, one finger absently stroking his hair-roughened chest.

“As long as you want.”

“No, seriously.”

He sighed. “Until whenever you feel like getting your life back in order.”

The stroking stopped. “We have until tomorrow then.”

His hand covered hers, flattening it against his chest. “
We
have more than just until tomorrow,” he said. “Do you think I’m just going to walk away from you?”

He read the answer in the stillness of her body. She wasn’t even breathing.

“I’m not leaving you, Mercy,” said Ryan quietly.

“So I get to see you in between assignments,” she said in a neutral voice. “How many times a year would that be? Single digits?”

He took a breath. “Early retirement.”

She didn’t say anything, and he could see her working through his response, looking at all the possible outcomes so she could prepare herself for the worst-case scenario.

“What will you do?” she asked finally. “I can’t see you working a nine-to-five job.”

“Neither can I, but it’ll work out.”

“Will it?”

She still sounded damnably neutral. Impatience and frustration reared their twin heads. After too many years of letting his fists speak for him, his facility with words was sorely lacking. Ryan moved, shoving her onto her back so he could raise himself up on one elbow and loom over her. She didn’t look intimidated by him, but it sure as hell made him feel better. Their eyes locked.

“Damn it, Mercy. Do you want me to leave? Do you want to end it now?”

Her eyes darkened, making his heart pound and his gut twist with dread. His muscles knotted as she let the silence lengthen, her beautiful face a blank. When he thought he couldn’t endure it any longer, she closed her eyes and gave a single shake of her head. The constriction around his chest lessened but didn’t go away entirely.

“I need to hear you say it,” he said, sounding a little stiff.

Something flashed across her face, and he thought she would go back to fighting him.

She looked at him and said haltingly, “No.” She seemed bewildered for a moment, as if not quite believing what she was hearing. “No, I don’t want you to leave.”

Elated and relieved, Ryan pressed a fierce kiss to her mouth, uncaring of the bruise on the left corner. She winced but grasped the back of his neck and pulled him closer. Her lips parted, and he obligingly deepened the kiss until his hands itched for the feel of her skin and desire writhed in his belly.

He pulled back, breathing hard and uneven. “Was it that difficult?”

“Yes.” She was dangerously close to pouting, but he knew she wouldn’t appreciate him pointing it out.

“I’ll make it up to you,” he promised huskily, circling a nipple with his fingertip. It hardened in response.

Her leg shifted, her knee brushing his penis. He was already half-hard. “Soon?” she murmured.

His answer was a low, wordless noise dragged from his throat. He covered her most intimate curls, petted her, and her legs widened. He pushed two fingers inside her cleft, and his nerves endings lit up as his cock jerked and more blood rushed to it, leaving him a little lightheaded. She felt like warm, smooth honey, and he wanted to feel her around him again. His fingers twisted, bent, and caressed her from within. Breathless sounds escaped her as her hips rolled encouragingly.

He withdrew his fingers, eliciting a soft protest from her, returned to her nipple, and circled it again, coating it with her own essence. Her short nails scratched his neck, then dug in when he covered the tip of her breast with his mouth and suckled. She whimpered, her legs moving restlessly and her fingers tunneling into his hair. She started to turn toward him and toss a leg over his hips.

Ryan drew back and clamped a hand on her thigh. “No,” he panted, and prodded her onto her other side until her head lay on his forearm and his heavy erection nuzzled the lush cheeks of her bare bottom. His penis slid back and forth between her cheeks while his fingers played with her sex, stroking, pinching, sliding in deep. His mouth grazed her neck and her shoulder. He dragged her top leg up until it draped over his. The head of his cock glanced the whorl of her anus, and her breath caught. Everything inside him went taut. He hardly dared to breathe. He explored even further, felt with a fingertip, and she tightened against him. Disappointment flared through him, and he had to sink his teeth into her shoulder hard enough to leave dents.

Even as her hand gripped his wrist, she whispered two words.

“Don’t be,” he said through gritted teeth. “You’ll make it up to me.” It was more a promise to himself. His teeth caught her earlobe and nipped it, making her gasp. He pushed his hips at her. “Do you want me?”

Her response was barely a sound.

“Put me inside you.”

Her grip only tightened on his wrist.

“Do it.”

She released his arm and reached a hand behind her back, curling her fingers around his shaft and, after rasping her thumb across the head, guiding him to the opening of her body. A thrust of his hips, and he filled her with his cock. Her sigh mingled with his curse. He banded his arm across her middle and drove into her again and again, short, selfish strokes that made her claw at his forearm. He breathed in the musky scent of sweat and sex and quickened his pace, growling broken, senseless phrases in her ear.

When Mercy came, she bit down on the flesh and muscle of his arm beneath her head to stifle her scream of pleasure. The last vestiges of his control shredded. He pounded into her, afraid he was hurting her but unable to stop himself. Then the first spasm coursed along his cock, and streaks of pleasure whipped through every tight muscle. He shouted her name and, as shivers racked his entire frame, held her to him like he could meld their bodies into one.

* * * * *

Consciousness returned with nightfall. Cool, silky hair covered his abdomen and a soft tongue teased his navel before moving lower.

“What are you doing?” he asked, his voice gravelly with sleep even as his hands got lost in her hair.

Mercy lifted her head and gazed up at him through her lashes. His semi-erect shaft bobbed under her chin, desperately seeking attention. She ran a fingertip down his length to the root. “Making it up to you,” she murmured, and sealed her lips over him.

Ann Bruce
is the pseudonym for a self-professed computer geek who, in between snowboarding, reading comic books, and wearing out the buttons of her PS3 controller, writes because it’s an acceptable means of explaining all the voices in her head.

For the latest news, free reads, and more, visit
www.annbruce.net
.

Before Dawn

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Copyright © 2008, 2012 Ann Bruce
Excerpt from
A Naughty Noelle
© 2007 Ann Bruce
Excerpt from
Rules of Engagement
© 2008 Ann Bruce
Excerpt from
Deadly Fall
© 2005, 2011 Ann Bruce
Cover design by Croco Designs

Electronic book Publication: January 2012

With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from Ann Bruce.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

Before Dawn
was previously published in an altered form by Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc. in 2008.

A Naughty Noelle
A vice cop meets the perfect woman for him, all the while bad men with guns are chasing him.

Rules of Engagement
So, what happens when you surprise a man whose last lover shot him and left him for dead? After waking up handcuffed to his bed, you decide he’s the perfect man to help you lose your virginity.

Parker’s Price
She’s sexy, smart…and not for sale. But that won’t stop him.

Dark Side of Dreaming
A former cat burglar discovers that coming out of retirement is not as easy as she thinks—especially when she finds herself at the mercy of a mark who wants something more than her professional expertise.

Rebound
Manipulative people need love too.

Deadly Fall
After her estranged husband is thrown down twenty-seven stories, a woman with trust issues must rely on the detective investigating her to find the real killers before she finds herself skydiving without a parachute.

“Are you hurt?”

The voice was low and raspy, but it triggered something in Noelle’s still-recovering memory. Heart picking up pace once more, she peered up at the lean figure sitting rather rigidly on the backseat. She could make out the shape of the head in the gloomy interior of the moving cab. The shoulders were broad and the torso long. The line of the jaw was shadowed with stubble. Her eyes widened. “You.”

There was a dry, masculine chuckle followed by a groan and a muffled curse. “Yeah, me. How are you doing down there?”

“I’m in pain, but I’ll live.” It was the truth. She had banged her head before and suffered nothing more than a raging headache for a few hours. Such were the trials of playing pond hockey with four older—and much bigger—brothers.

“Can you get up?” he asked.

“Yes,” she answered and began disentangling their legs. She was puzzled when he didn’t offer his help. Maybe he did only one good deed per night.

Noelle slowly released her breath when she was finally seated beside the man who had saved her earlier only to violently barrel into her from behind a few minutes ago. Pain creased her brow. She closed her eyes, needing the refuge of darkness.

“I thought I told you to go straight home,” he finally said quietly, turning to look at her.

“You did,” she confirmed without opening her eyes. “I didn’t listen.”

“Obviously.”

She made a noncommittal sound. “Where are you going?”

“Nowhere.”

Noelle’s lashes lifted and she caught the driver’s gaze in the rearview mirror. She had to give the man credit for taking it all in stride. It couldn’t be every night when he gets a woman shoved into his cab by a strange man on the run. Then again, what did she know? Maybe this was a common occurrence for him.

“Then why is the cab moving?”

“I told the driver to drive,” he explained, the words labored.

Noelle frowned. Was he hurt? She slowly turned her head to the right and glanced down. Her frown deepened.

“Is there a reason why you’re clutching your side like that?”

“Yes,” he gritted between clenched teeth, the pain almost successfully veiling the sarcasm in his voice.

Her brow puckered, but it wasn’t because of the ache in her head this time. “Oh.” Her eyes widened. Realization dawned. It was belated, but it did dawn. “Oh God! How bad is it?”

Her headache was forgotten as her hands felt all over his face. It was heated and coated with a sheen of cooling sweat. His stubble scratched her fingertips. Noelle’s exploration halted there as she savored the discreet tingle that shot through her fingertips straight to her tummy. She was a sick, sick woman to be turned on by a man bleeding all over the place.

And only hours ago, she’d believed herself in love with another man.

Noelle gingerly probed beneath her defenses. She should be hurt, torn up inside. Yet all she felt was more anger at herself for being so stupid than at Gil for cheating on her.