Live By The Team (Team Fear Book 1) (37 page)

Ryder’s eyes rolled back at the pleasure of her touch. The zipper was tattooing his cock. The erotic pain demanded Lauren’s lush heat. Ryder tunneled his hands in her silky hair and yanked until the angle opened her to him. He ached for her, a craving beyond hunger. Fire snapped in her eyes as she held his gaze, and then she reached down to unzip him, one tooth at a time. Each tick brushed cool air over the tip of his erection, the contrast in temperature adding to the desire. When she reached the bottom, she gripped him in her warm hand, wrapped her fingers around his cock and stroked him. His thighs trembled and it was perfectly clear he wasn’t going to last long.

“
You make me feel strong. I love that you empower me, that you challenge my ideas and force me to think and to feel. I love that you trust me and brought me into your team. They’re your family, and I love them for bringing you back to me.”

“
Thank you.” His voice was husky, tight with emotion. Her words sewed him back together, connecting the separate pieces of his soul. He slipped his hand behind her neck and gripped her. He stared down into her midnight blue eyes. “Team Fear is my family, but you’re my life. You are the most determined person I know, and the most fragile. I wanted to protect you. Keep you separate from the bad in my life, even if it meant keeping myself apart from the team or apart from you. I wanted one unspoiled thing. I didn’t trust you to see the whole me, but I do now. Baby, you can handle anything.”

“
We can handle anything. We’re a team. Team Ryder.”

“
You kill me.” The soft kiss quickly flashed to desire. She fought for control, and it was one more thing he loved about her. She reached between them and stroked his erection, nearly bringing him to his knees. Ryder pulled back.

She looked up at him through wet lashes. “I love the feel of you. Hard and velvet smooth.” She licked her lips, her gaze an inferno as she tightened her grip. With her free hand, she shoved his jeans down his thighs and then grabbed his balls. They tightened so much he wanted to thrust into her grip and spill right there.

Hell no. If she kept at it, he’d last all of six seconds. “My turn.”

He turned and dropped her on the bed, shedding his jeans as he walked towards her. A low burn settled in his groin, so he squeezed the tip to hold it off. He crawled over her, settling his groin on her lap, letting his weight settle on her lower lips. Her moisture coated his shaft as he tilted his hips and stroked through her folds.

“
Ryder,” she moaned, her tone a demand.

“
Not yet.” The pleasure of touching her, of her moans and sighs, he needed to explore with her. He nipped and sucked the pink buds of her nipples through the red lace until they pebbled as hard as any stone. “I love tasting you, touching you.” But he wanted more. He tasted the sweet skin down her midline. The soft flesh was smooth cream next to the red satin. She sucked in a breath as he fingered the edge of her panties.

He used his shoulders to spread her legs. She tensed as he settled low, his breath warming her flesh and increasing the pulse beating through her thigh. The tip of a finger slipped under the elastic and barely brushed the light hair between her legs. She tensed, her inner thighs clenched against him. “We’re just getting started,” he promised.

She relaxed back, her hips settling into the soft mattress. He took his time, teasing the slim fabric encasing her mound. When she arched into him with a catch of her breath, Ryder pulled the fabric from her skin and tossed it across the room. Moisture glistened and he couldn’t stop himself. He settled into a rhythm of long, deep strokes of his tongue until her thighs started to shake. His fingers opened her, spread her wider before slowly slipping two fingers into her.

Lauren gasped and tossed her head back, tunneling into the mattress with her head and feet and arching into him. Unintelligible words tumbled from her mouth.

“
So fucking sexy. I love watching you. Does this feel good?”

The muscles along her abdomen fluttered. “Yes. God, yes.” She held her breath as she arched into his hand.

The hunger in her voice made his dick flex, wanting in on the action. “I want you on my tongue.” He adjusted the rhythm and she shot off the mattress, her feet bracing and lifting her higher. Her internal muscles clenched around his finger. “Come for me, beautiful.” He sucked her clit and she exploded, the orgasm pulling a scream from her lips.

He brought her down slowly, enjoying her pleasure. Her taste, her whimpers.

She rasped his name before reaching down to stroke him. Ryder closed his eyes at the delicious torture of her touch. She felt fucking fantastic. “I’m not going to last.” He wanted her too much to go slow. A smirk lifted his lips before he flipped her onto her hands and knees. He nudged her legs apart before slamming home.

Lauren’s heart raced. Ryder was his badass self again; unarmed but dangerous as hell. If she had use of her hands, she’d fan herself. The man was sexy as hell. Her legs shook as Ryder’s hips slammed into her. She was fully open, fully exposed, so full of need, she couldn’t process anything but the slide of him through her sensitive flesh. He’d taken over her body, his pleasure feeding hers. Every thrust brushed raw nerve endings, sending her body back on a steady climb to an impossible climax. She pressed back to take him deeper.

His voice, whiskey rough, called her name before a big hand pressed her shoulders into the mattress. The angle gave him all control and he used it. His hips slammed against her ass, his hands gripping her sides and held her where he wanted her, the grip bruising and notching up the need.

The bed shifted from his frantic moves. Lauren dropped her head at the same time Ryder tilted her hips. The shift brought the head of his dick against a spot so sensitive, she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Each thrust excited the nerves. The orgasm spiraled from where they were joined. Ryder gave a muffled shout, jerking inside her as he came. He continued to thrust through both their orgasms. Finally, he collapsed on her back, both their bodies spent.

They lay there, the bed twisted forty-five degrees from the wall, panting for breath. Finally, Ryder slid to his side and pulled her into his heated flesh. He nuzzled her neck, sending aftershocks through her body. “I need a shower before the briefing.”

Lauren nodded, her eyes drooping. An hour ago, she’d been certain Ryder was kicking her out of his life; that he’d sneak off after the detox and disappear for good. Instead, he’d given her two of the best orgasms of her life. Better yet, he’d said he loved her. The words meant everything. “I talked to Crawford earlier today. He agreed to let me finish my dissertation long distance.”

“
Finally learned to sweet talk the old man?” Ryder’s chest rose and fell against her back.

Lauren wiggled back to find the sweet spot. When she reached it, Ryder wrapped an arm around her waist, linking them. “I threatened to quit the program.” Crawford had had an apoplectic fit across the phone line.

“
You what?” Ryder leaned up on an elbow. “You’re too close to the finish line.”

“
I’m not letting you leave me again.” In the past few days, her priorities had shifted. Rose and the rest of the team said it wasn’t safe to go back to the campus as long as Team Echo knew where she was. The ranch was out as well. She could finish her degree anywhere. For that matter, she could teach with her master’s degree if she had to. She wasn’t getting left behind. It’s not like she had much pride left. She’d been kidnapped, beaten, threatened, and had her house turned into a morgue before exploding in what Rose called a blaze of fucking glory. Only one thing mattered. She twisted onto her back to look up at Ryder.

Eyes the color of velvet green moss focused on her with an intensity that chilled the flush from her skin. “You’re finishing if I have to stand guard outside your class every day.”

“
Crawford already assigned my classes to a first-year.”

Ryder’s lips slimmed into a frown, without words for the first time since she’d known him.

Lauren rubbed a hand through the scruff on his jaw. The rough wildness was the first thing she’d noticed about him, and she loved the feel of his whiskers against her skin. The innate masculinity he exuded made her feel feminine. She reached up to nip his chin. “It’s only a few months, and not teaching will give me more time to finish my dissertation.”

“
So you’re not quitting?”

“
Apparently that’s not an option.” Wings fluttered in her chest. Ryder understood what made her tick. He understood the importance of finishing her education. “I love you.”

“
Guess you’re stuck with me.” His lips whispered across hers. When he came up for air, he glanced at the clock on the nightstand. “Thirty minutes to the briefing.”

“
A nap sounds just about perfect.” She hadn’t slept the past few days. Every muscle in her body hurt, and added to it, she and Debi shared a room, which was fine, they’d done that before, but their designated bodyguard snored, so sleep was near impossible. But what really had kept her awake was fear. Rose wouldn’t let her see Ryder. She’d kept watch so Ryder couldn’t disappear in the middle of the night. She could use a good twenty-four hour nap.

“
Sorry.” Ryder stood and then pulled her up and over his shoulder in a naked fireman’s carry. She squealed his name. He laughed and walked towards the bathroom, his hand sliding along the curve of her backside. “We have a half hour. I plan to use every minute.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Lauren pulled Ryder to a halt on the way out the door. The bed was now perpendicular to the wall and the shower curtain rod was hanging drunkenly from one bare screw. Ryder grinned at the destruction. Lauren smacked his gut. “We’ll have to leave in the middle of the night.”

“
Totally worth it.”

A pretty flush climbed her chest. “Remind me why I love you?”

“
Because you think quoting Sun Tzu is sexy.”

She laughed, the sound a good luck charm. “I think the Romantic era poets are sexy.”

“
That stays between me and you.” Rose would never let him live it down.

“
Since you quoted Byron to get in my pants, I don’t think that counts.”

“
You love me because I still keep that leaf in my wallet. Plus.” He leaned down to whisper in her ear, brushing his scruff against the soft skin of her neck. “Three screaming orgasms in the last hour.”

“
It’s a reason.” She butted her shoulder into his chest.

His heart flexed in a pang of unfamiliar emotion. Happiness, he decided, beating the hell out of his chest. “A damn good reason.” He twisted his fingers through hers and led the way to the other room where they were putting together a conference with the rest of the team.

A surprise rain drizzled from the gray sky. Not quite day and not quite night. In the room, someone had setup a buffet of pizza and soda. Ryder grabbed a plate for himself and Lauren, but while they ate, a hive of angry African bees stirred in his gut. He still wasn’t leveled out from the meds, but they needed to get gone. Staying too long in one place was asking for Team Echo to find them.

When the different team members clicked onto the videoconference, Ryder paced as he would for a live briefing. They hadn’t been a team for eight months. His hair was longer and his head more fucked. They looked different, too. Some had longer hair, more tats, more attitude coming across the video. In the past six months, he’d kept watch from afar. Visiting team members and watching them slowly withdraw from the world. Where were they mentally? Did they see ghosts and stalkers and danger in every shadow?

Craft nudged him forward. “Bennett is MIA. Stills told us to fuck off.”

“
He’s a moody bastard.” Ryder took a deep breath and sat in front of the camera. A split screen of four of the best men he knew filled the monitor. Something in his chest expanded. Briefing the team, he felt more like himself than he had since leaving the Army. He spoke directly to screen, knowing the three men and two women in the room were following along. “After Madigan’s incident, Captain Johnson tracked me down in the county jail.”

Rose pursed his lips into a flat line. “He had to be close to get there before I did.”