Desert Blade (6 page)

Caging her fingers with his, he gripped firmly and pulled her up and toward his tall, lean, muscular frame, a body she knew by heart from staring at him during his post-op and the now more rugged and wiry one she’d tried not to stare at over the past day.

The tips of her nipples brushed against his chest.

Derek let out a slow hiss. With a dizzying speed, he crushed her against him and his mouth unerringly found hers. Hot and commanding. Firm and soft. Stunning. His tongue flicked across her lips and she parted for him with a groan. A repeat from earlier, a kiss she’d wanted for ten years, despaired of ever having, and better than her dreams.

Her body went weak and languid. He held her tighter against him and she felt how much he wanted her. His erection nudged against her stomach. The thin material of her shirt couldn’t disguise how hot he was, how hard. An answering tug traveled from between her legs to the sensitive breasts she rubbed against his chest.

Derek pulled his mouth from hers with a moan and put his forehead against hers. “I want you.”

She’d had erotic dreams of this man on a regular basis since she’d first met him. Despite her usual reservations, her work in keeping herself private and reserved at Leavenworth, all she could do was croak, “Yes.”

Expecting to be surrounded by his strength again, she yelped when he pushed her away and her back hit the wall. “Stay there. Don’t move. I’m going to get the bedroll from the yacht, and then I’m going to fuck you. Right there, Doctor. On the ground. So hard you won’t be able to walk away from me.”

Her legs gave out and her ass hit the floor.

She bit her lip to keep from saying,
Yes, please.

Then he was gone, taking his secure presence with him, and she shook. From cold and fear and quickly fleeing passion. She couldn’t have sex with him. She had to keep her distance. She couldn’t risk a pregnancy.

Scooting her back up the wall until she was on weak legs, she edged to the side, creeping along the wall to put space between them. Then a body blocked her, pinned her.

“Going somewhere?”

Derek slid his arm around the waist of a trembling Lidia. His mouth came to the top of her braided hair and he spoke into the tickling strands that’d pulled loose. “I told you to stay put. We have all night, but I don’t want to spend it chasing you down. I want to spend it going down. On you.”

Lidia whimpered, a sound he didn’t think he’d ever tire of. He wanted to hear it again. In about three seconds and then all night long. He snapped open the bedroll. It unfurled in the air and fluttered to the ground. In the same move he’d used to get her on her back in the alley, he brought her to the floor, cradling her from harm.

They sank into the thin bedroll that wouldn’t be enough protection when he pounded into her. He flipped them, her breath leaving on an “oh.” Never once in the maneuvering did he let go of that delectable weight of hers until she settled, sprawled on top of him. Her skin shone in the moonlight, her breasts teased against him, and those hard nipples made his mouth water.

He gripped the bottom of her shirt and yanked it off, hungry to suck on those ample tits. With an eagerness that was nearly embarrassing, he licked around the nipple that was perfectly placed right at mouth level. They both uttered strained groans of relief.

“I can’t have sex.” She sounded out of breath. She sounded resolute and unsure at the same time.

That was about the only thing that could coax his mouth away from the all-consuming and heady taste of her skin.

He licked her distended nipple. “They won’t find us tonight, I told you. Even if they did, we’d have plenty of warning. There’s only one way in.”

“No. I mean. Me. I can’t have sex.”

He was the one who shouldn’t be having sex. Once she saw what happened to him when he lost control, she’d lose all interest in him. This wasn’t the time or place, and yet he’d never wanted to grab on and hold for all he was worth more than now. And, Lidia—she was perfect.

“There’s nothing wrong with you.” He punctuated that statement by finally doing as he’d hungered to do—he put his good hand on her ass and gently squeezed. His cock hardened even more, actually hurting as it pressed against the seam of his jeans. “I’ll prove to you just how easy it is to have sex. Just reach between us, Doctor, and see if you can find where I ache.”

She laughed a husky and sensual response. “You want to play doctor? Don’t tempt me. You’ll find yourself getting the dreaded prostate exam.”

He groaned. “You go down on me, and you can do whatever else you want while you’re down there.”

She stopped breathing and he damned the darkness that surrounded them again. He couldn’t see her face, couldn’t see the blush on her cheeks, and though he wanted everything at once, every sensation—he wanted to lick her cleavage, fuck her cleavage, her mouth, everything—he was helpless when she slid down and kneeled between his legs.

“I meant what I said. I can’t risk having sex.” She hadn’t stopped though. Her weight was gone and he wanted it back as much as he wanted—he hissed as she slowly unbuttoned his pants. His zipper slid down and he breathed a sigh from the relief in pressure. She tugged at him and he lifted to help her yank his jeans down. He lay on the floor and fisted his hands in the bedroll to keep himself still, letting her take the lead. If she kept saying she wasn’t having sex and kept touching him with her hands, it wouldn’t matter much longer. He was set to go off any second.

She clutched his ankles where she left his pants bunched at his boots.

“While you’re down there not having sex, mind if you move your hand a little higher?”

“Like this?” Tickling her way up, apparently trying to make him absolutely insane, she teased light touches along his leg until she stroked his balls. He groaned and the ripped sound of the bedroll showed how tense and tight he was, clenching the fabric. Damn, he wished he could see her.

“What I mean is…” A teasing note had entered her voice and it was another facet of this woman that made him want to claim her that much more. Then she stopped the tormenting slide of her hands and gripped his thighs. “You can’t penetrate my vagina. Right after the riots and when I didn’t know if things would get worse or better, I had my IUD removed because it’d expired, and didn’t see a need to replace it. I haven’t been with a man since. I can’t chance a pregnancy with the world the way it is. Not me. I’m not exactly mother material. If things were different…”

“Don’t give me that shit. I don’t agree about that mother crap, but I just heard you say—in such a clinical way I should’ve lost my hard-on but I only got harder—that you haven’t been with a man in a decade. My sweet doctor, there is no way I won’t end that dry spell.”

She drew in a breath and he could practically hear the building outrage.

He continued before she could let loose. “I take no as a no. When a woman says that two-letter word, I take it as gospel. But you, being a doctor and all, know exactly the sorts of things we can do tonight that won’t get you knocked up.”

She answered by sliding a hot and sweet mouth onto his dick. His hips bucked and he ground his teeth to keep from shoving up and giving her too much. She took more of him in until his head hit the back of her throat. Her tongue swirled around him and she sucked. He couldn’t help the stream of profanity. “Oh, sweet fuck. Damn.”

He wanted to give back, but he couldn’t unlock his body, bowed up off the floor as he held tight to the bedroll bunched in his fists.

She cupped his balls and hummed satisfied encouragement. Her mouth slid up and down and he’d simply never felt so hot and needy for everything a woman would give him. A finger trailed from his balls down between his butt cheeks.

He knew it was about to happen, couldn’t stop it. Ripping the bedroll in desperation, he shoved his sword arm to the side and away from her as the blade extended. “Fu-uck.”

He came, hot and fast into that delectable mouth.

The floor fell beneath him and before it righted again, he growled, “Your turn.”

With his good arm, he slid her up his body until he could tongue her tits again. Wrapping around her middle with his metal arm, he moved to the other breast and shoved beneath her clothes to reach between her legs. He whispered against her skin, “You’re so hot.”

He bit back the need to tell her he wasn’t a freak. “I won’t hurt you. This blade will never cut your beautiful skin.”

“I know.” She panted and groaned. She was so wet. His fingers slid through her pussy. He pulled more of her breast into his mouth as she hummed approval and wiggled on top of him. “Further down. A little lower.”

Unabashed, she asked for what she wanted, and he ruthlessly followed her directions. She gasped. “Yes. That’s it. Right there.”

Circling around, he teased her over and over, but she was eager, grinding down on his hand. Her arms trembled as she held herself over him. With one good swipe across her clit and another back, she came apart.

Stiffening, she cried out, a guttural and animalistic sound that was stunning in its beauty. He couldn’t wait to hear it again, if she let him touch her again. He palmed her backside until she loosened and slumped on top of him. Replete and satisfied in a way he’d never been before, he held her tightly. If she freaked about the way his prosthetic reacted, he might lose his mind for good.

With a sweet kiss to his sternum, she blew out a long sigh. “I’m not sure I’ve ever done that so fast before.”

“What?” A warmth spread across his chest. Relief she hadn’t called him foul names almost made him dizzy. Then what she did say finally registered. He spoke through a self-satisfied grin. “You’ve never come so hard and fast before?”

Sliding off him and to the floor, she adjusted her pants and snuggled to his side. “Don’t get so full of yourself. I was probably primed and ready to go, since I’ve had that dry spell, you know.”

Though he’d prefer to take off everything and go at it again, in that pounding-her-into-the-floor kind of way, to celebrate that she’d accepted him as he was, he instead pulled up his pants to keep the temptation at bay. “Get some sleep. Next time I get in your panties, I’ll talk you out of this nonsense you’re spouting and introduce you to a nice, long wet spell.”

* * *

Lidia came awake with a jolt, spread across a massive chest that pumped out heat. She carefully climbed off Derek’s warm and inviting body but she didn’t get far. He had a death grip on one of her braids. She lay on her side, prying his fingers loose, and glanced around the large room now lit with the beginnings of a desert day.

They were in an old office building’s conference room complete with tables and chairs, dusty and rusted. A projector screen lined one wall. Sand coated everything and a mound of it drifted against the far side. A large window showed nothing but a wall of clay-colored dirt. This building, whatever it had been, was now covered in a sun-baked dune. Her yacht sat in the middle of the floor, wheels flat, the mast rising out of the hole in the ceiling and the sail in a heap around the bottom. With a deep layer of sand coating the floor, they’d only dropped eight feet or so.

The air shifted, stirred with a musky scent that reminded her of kissing Derek. She glanced down and straight into alert, glistening hazel eyes. A quick flash of welcome warmth radiated from him before the expression she recognized as all-business shuttered his eyes. He let go of her braid and, without a word, got to his feet and strode over to the yacht, going through the supplies. Starting with her medical bag, he stuffed a backpack then hefted it up and out of the gap in the ceiling.

During the night, she’d put her shirt on and Derek had climbed up to take a look around outside. Satisfied nothing lurked in wait, he’d settled down to rest but said he couldn’t sleep without a hold on her, to be sure she was safe at all times. At first she’d scoffed at the idea, but he’d nearly purred in contentment with her on him and then fell asleep as fast as a big cat after feasting on prey. Her skin warmed, reminded of how he’d feasted on her breasts.

“There’s that blush I missed seeing in the dark last night.”

Her cheeks flashed heat but she ignored the knowledge that he could do this to her. “How will we get the yacht back up there?”

“We don’t. We need to get moving before the sun climbs higher. Most drifters don’t go out midday, but we can’t wait until after the sun reaches its peak. We’ll have to risk it. And we can’t take all the supplies. I’d hoped to bring them to the settlement.”

A twinge of disappointment brought her over to stroke the side of the little land yacht. A certainty filled her. She’d never see her new land sail again. “She was a beauty. Brand new. I haven’t even named her, yet.”

“I’ll give you a nice boat to replace it.”

They both froze, staring at each other as the blush leached from her face. A thick knot of comprehension filled the air between them. For a decade, in bleak moments in the middle of the night, she’d acknowledged that he had to be dead, but she understood now. She’d waited. And accepted that she’d be alone the rest of her life though many believed any woman capable should reproduce. The world needed repopulating. She wouldn’t be one to help with that. Couldn’t. Down deep, so deep she didn’t want to acknowledge it, she wanted answers. Why hadn’t he come to find her for ten years, and when he did show, why to find another doctor?

“I don’t want a man, Derek.”

“You have one now. You may not have wanted a man yesterday, but we belong together.”

She stood before him. His jaw set and his shoulders squared off. He was a survivor. Rugged and lean but muscular. Strong. Tall. Fine lines radiated from his expressive eyes. He was tough, but inside, he despaired—it showed in the way his brows slanted, his mouth tugged down at one corner, his hand running over his shaved head, and the shadows in his eyes. She wouldn’t let it matter.

“Listen. I know we have an attraction but that’s all it is.” Her throat closed for a second as if wanting that lie back. “I’ll go with you, no problems, no resistance, and help the child. But you only set eyes on me yesterday for the first time in years. And then, we only knew each other for a week. A week when you were grieving for the loss of your foster mother and the loss of your…”

She dropped her gaze from his growing-harsher-by-the-second expression to his shoulder. Reaching out, she explored the prosthetic that her hands had helped to attach to his flesh, his muscles. The color wasn’t perfect. It was a few shades lighter than his tan, which showed in abundance since he hadn’t put his shirt back on. The synthetic skin had torn in places and metal showed through. Turning his palm over, she explored the thickness of the wrist where, just above, the plates allowed the blade to retract up into his forearm when not in use. His fingers curled into his palm and interrupted the silence with the whir of the small rotors.

“When I lose control, something in my body triggers the sword. You saw what happened when you sucked me off.” His voice dipped while the heat returned to her cheeks but she continued her practice of ignoring his crude remarks. She had to admit a certain thrill when he spoke in such a manner. “Well, let’s say that my dick isn’t the only thing that shoots off. Last woman I was with didn’t like being with a freak.”

She let his arm drop to his side and turned away. Jealousy made the room blur. Completely irrational hurt cramped her stomach. She hadn’t been with anyone. Not one single kiss since she’d lost him. She’d acted like a damned widow for a decade. She was so stupid. And she deserved the pain because she’d set herself up, holding on to a fabrication, a non-relationship, in her dreams. Two people who’d spent every waking hour together for a week, a freaking decade ago. And she’d clung to that. All to keep from growing attached to something real.

“I’ll see what I can do about that.” She stayed turned away.

“Don’t concern yourself.” His reply was gruff, mocking. The mast of the sail pinged as the ropes slapped against it. He audibly huffed. “Still sturdy. Time to climb this and get the hell out of here.”

“What are the chances we’re going to make it? Even if those particular drifters are gone. Shouldn’t we head to Leavenworth?” She made herself face him for his answer.