Mastering the Devil (Rush Series Book 4) (6 page)

She closed her eyes and rubbed her cheek into his touch. Whispering, she said, “What kind of future would it be without those you love?”

Exhaling sharply, he said, “If you’ll agree to wait one week…” he grabbed her face within his palms when she immediately began to shake her head. “No, listen to me. If you’ll wait one week to give yourself time to heal, I’ll go with you. I’ll help you. A week will, as well, give me time to get my business here situated.”

She blinked up at him uncomprehendingly for a moment until his words actually sank in. He was
n’t walking away… he was offering to help. Her lips trembled into a wide smile. “Oh Cowboy,” she murmured, her tensed body immediately sagging in his arms.

He lowered his h
ead and pressed his lips gently to her, brushing them side to side against her pouty, full lips. She shivered in his arms.

She gazed up into his face and whispered, “I want to stay.”

He sighed heavily as if it cost him a great deal, and said, “I think you need to be back in the hospital.”

“I’ll sleep better with you. You always make me feel better,” she said, as she slowly stroked a hand up his arm.
She pressed soft lips against the sectioned muscles of his chest, remembering how much she liked them. His body tensed beneath her touch and she swallowed hard. “I… I want you,” she said a little more hesitantly. Against her stomach, she immediately felt his shaft harden, and she rubbed up against it unashamedly.

“I remember
now how you got your nickname,” he murmured against her hair. With practiced skill, he tangled his hands in her hair and pulled her up gently to meet his lips. While his hands were gentle in deference to her physically abused body, his lips were rough and demanding. He nipped against her bottom lip until she opened up to him and he pushed his tongue into her mouth and slid it sensuously against hers, making her moan.

It took
every ounce of his control not to tighten his grip on her. There was nothing he wanted more than to feel the silky slide of her body surrounding the raging hard-on he had, which was currently begging to be set free from its confines. Pulling back while he still possessed some rationalization, he whispered darkly against her ear, “I can’t wait to be buried so deep in your body that you beg me to let you come.”

Her body quivered underneath his hands at his words.
“Yes, please.” As she once again brushed her lips against his body, the words she whispered, had him harder than he’d ever been.

With an oath, he said, “Little Devil, you will be the death of me!”

Grabbing her lips for another kiss, he plunged his tongue back into her mouth and slowly began stepping them backwards towards the bed. When the backs of her knees hit the bed’s edge, he softened the kiss and swallowed hard against his raging need. With hands that trembled slightly at the tight control he needed to maintain, he eased her jacket off her shoulder and down her arm.

He hesitated. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t… you couldn’t.”

It was
then he realized she still had on a hospital gown, which was tucked into her pants. He grinned as he brushed his knuckles down over one breast, and it budded up under his brief touch. “Been a while, has it?”

She closed her eyes and absorbed his touch. “Not since you.”

His hands stilled at the fastening of her pants. “Why?” he finally asked, when she opened her eyes to his.

She glanced away as feelings of
vulnerability rushed over her and she swallowed hard, “I’ve never wanted anyone else,” she said softly.

His face creased into a soft smile. “Oh Little Devil, the things you do to me.
” He traced a finger along her jawline before leaning in to place a soft, tender kiss against her lips. Pulling back, he unfastened her pants and slid them down her legs and bent to help her step out of them and removed her shoes at the same time. As he rose, he slowly ran his hands up her legs, noticing the cuts and abrasions. He made tssking sounds as he stood. “It seems you are banged up every time I see you,” he said with a grin. Bending to cup her bare bottom, he kneaded his hands gently into her soft flesh and murmured against her ear, “But I do like you commando.”

She gasped at the feel of his fingers on her skin and waited with her heart hammering painfully against her chest for him to finish undressing her. He turned her around so he could get to the tie of the gown. The touch of his fingers brushing against
her neck sent shivers down her spine and she trembled beneath his hands. It’d been so long. No one ever got to her the way Alex Masters did. She’d wanted him from nearly the first moment she’d seen him leaned against the bar the night they’d met.

Unhurriedly, he allowed the gown to slip from her body and slowly turned
her back to face him. He ran his hands across the silky skin of her shoulders and down one arm. While his touch was intoxicating, she knew from past experience, he was checking out her injuries. He ran a finger along the binding that kept the shoulder which had been dislocated, stationary.

“Oh, Devon. What have you done to yourself?” he murmured, almost to himself.

Wanting to get his mind off her injuries and back to her most pressing needs – and that being lust, want, and desire – she lifted a hand and pressed it against his erection which had lost some of its rigidity during his inspection. Her mouth became dry when he gasped and hardened instantly beneath her light touch. With a grin, she mimicked, “Been a while?”

He smiled but didn’t answer, instead, he stepped back and removed his pants. She licked her lips at the sight of the gorgeous man in front of her. While she liked him dressed in his fancy suits, seeing him naked took her breath away. He stalked closer to her and cupped her face in one palm. “We’re going to do this nice and slow. If anything hurts, you have to tell me. Deal?”

His continual concern and care of her and her needs fell over her like a warm blanket. “Deal.”

With gentle hands, he helped her ease down onto the bed, leaving her near the bed’s end with her feet still on the carpeted floor. He knelt and pushed her knees apart wide enough to accommodate his form
in between them. Sensuously, he ran his hands up her thighs, continuing up her sides, causing goosebumps to form on her skin. He cupped the breast not covered by the binding in his hand and brushed his thumb across its rosy tip.

She tried to arch into his touch but groan
ed at the pain in her shoulder. “Easy, Little Devil. Be still. I’ve got it. I’ll take care of you. You just lay there, okay?”

“You’re always so good to me,” she said raggedly.

He pressed his lips against the flat plane of her stomach and grinned. “I’m fixin’ to be
very
good to you,” he said, with wicked promise in his soft, honeyed tone.

Kissing and licking his way down, he settled in between
her thighs and blew across her sensitive folds. She gasped at the coolness against skin which seemed to be on fire. “Alex…” she whimpered.

With barely controlled restraint, he growled and pressed his lips against her most intimate
center. He ran the tip of his tongue against her folds and her thighs began to tremble beneath his hands. Slow as molasses, he licked into her but stopped when she once again tried to arch into his touch, then moaned against the pain in her shoulder.

He lifted his head and stilled until she lifted her head and met his gaze. “It’s going to be a long night if you don’t do what I tell you,” his soft Southern drawl flow
ed over her like hot caramel.

“I’ll be good,” she promised.

He grinned and thrust his tongue between her feminine lips as he simultaneously sucked her into his mouth. She whimpered in delight and struggled to remain still. This struggle only intensified and heightened the sensations building inside her. “Alex… Alex, please,” she begged.

He ignored her request and continued to lap against her silky folds, holding her quivering thighs firmly within his grasp. As flames of desire shot through her, she began t
o pant and involuntarily began to draw her thighs together. He moved his hands under her bottom and held her steady as he rhythmically thrust his tongue into her trembling body.

She glanced down and the sight of his head between her legs was ne
arly intoxicating as the feel of his mouth on her body. She longed to run her hands over his muscle-bound body and run her fingers through his hair. As her body throbbed and burned, she whimpered and he glanced up to ensure she wasn’t hurting herself. “Please, Alex!” she begged once more.

He gave her a devilish grin. “I do love it when a woman begs for my attention.” Sliding up
onto the bed, he carefully placed himself over her, cupping her face, he kissed her hungrily and aggressively. When he drew back and studied her face intently, she watched a myriad of unknown emotions crossed his face. Losing his teasing tone, he said, “I’ve missed you, Little Devil.”

She lifted a hand to his face and brushed fingertips softly over his features. Her chest burned with an abundance of emotions. “Oh, Alex.”

Moving a hand down between them, he guided his shaft to her and slowly sank into her body. She closed her eyes and arched her neck at the exquisite feel of him sliding silkily into her body. “Tell me if I hurt you, okay?” he reminded her.

“
It… it… feels amazing,” she panted.

Her body clenched around him and he groaned as he struggled to maintain his control. “Damn woman! I hope you’re ready because this isn’t going to last long.”
With long strides, he held himself in tight control as he plunged into her fiery depths.

She wrapped her hand around his bicep to keep herself from moving. She’d missed this mind-numbing
passion that only Alex offered her. She looked up to find him watching her as he slid so carefully into her. His protectiveness over her made her heart hurt. “I love you, Alex,” she murmured. She wrapped her hand around his neck and struggled to press herself close to him as waves of tenderness washed over her. The fire he’d stoked burned hot and she whimpered,” Alex, Alex, Alex!” as she dove off the waterfall’s edge and tumbled down into the calmer waters of bliss.

Her complete surrender to him, both physically and emotionally, shattered him and it stunned him momentarily. A different fire began to burn in him, this time in the pit of his stomach. Leaning forward, he licked his way into her mouth and kissed her deeply and sweetly – but still unwilling to give her the words she longed for.

At the pulsating of her body around him, he groaned against her lips and clenched his jaw as he struggled not to pound into her, as that was exactly what he wanted to do. He’d never wanted to be this close to a woman again, not after what he’d been through with Addison. And yet, here he was again with a woman who lived life on the extreme edge. No, that wasn’t true, Devon was a much stronger woman than Addison, just stubborn and determined.

Focusing his mind back on thrusting into her tight, lush body, he opened his eyes and stared down into her beautiful face and wondered how he’d ended back here with her. “God, Little Devil
, you make me want to do bad things… very bad things. This whole taking it easy stuff, sucks!” he growled, as he thrust his tongue into her mouth and sank in her until they were hip to hip, there he pressed himself tightly inside her and allowed the inner working of her clenching body milk him into an orgasm.

She clutched him with her unbound arm, wanting to keep him close. “I’m glad you’re here, Alex,” she whispered.

He rose up on one arm, cupped her face in his hand, and kissed her gently, almost reverently. “Me, too, Little Devil, me, too.”

Slowly, he removed himself from her body and went into the bathroom to clean up. Returning with a wetted washcloth, he helped her clean up as well. Snapping the lights off, he slid into the bed, onto his side, next to her, and wrapped an arm around her middle. The stress of the last two
days slowly slipped from his body as he inhaled her familiar scent. “Are you okay?” he mumbled into her hair. “Are you in any pain?”

Drowsily, she replied, “I’m good. Don’t worry.”

“Quit giving me things to worry about then,” he grumbled.

She smiled in the darkness as sleep folded over her, tugging her down into its silken depths.

~M~

She whimpered in her sleep as the mish-mash of past memories incorporated themselves into her dreams.
In some part of her mind, she willed herself to wake up. She’d had this same nightmare over and over for nearly five years. She was back in the cave, could smell the dank soil beneath her feet. She tried to close her eyes against what she knew she’d see, but no matter how she tried, she couldn’t seem to force them closed. She wanted to wake up, but didn’t. Instead, she watched in agonizingly slow motion as Lex Vega slowly raised the handgun and fired it. She watched in horrified fascination as Roman Alcazar, the best friend she’d ever had, slumped to the ground in a dead heap.

She gasped in her sleep and somewhere far away, she felt an arm tighten around her, striving to offer her comfort, but there could never be any comfort against the scenes spread out behind her eyelids. Next, she watched Alex, the man she loved more than her own life,
be slammed back against the wall of the cave as Miguel Munoz shot him point-blank in the chest. Her body began to tremble.