My Tye (31 page)

Hellfire, she didn’t have to tell him twice. With an electrifying rush, he let go and met her quiver for quiver, groan for groan and cry for cry. They fell into a crazy orgasmic sync, one that had him lifting his hips just as she ground against him again. She spasmed around him and he loved it. He loved coming inside her like this, with nothing between them. He loved the way she circled her arms around his neck and held on tight. He loved the way she rode him, drawing out every last shiver and uneven moan.

Despite the insanity of the day and the erotic test of wills this switch had become for him, a moment of clarity blasted him head-on. As they both slowed down to catch their breaths and she fell against him, draping herself over his chest, he couldn’t remember ever being so clear-minded. Because what it came down to, in the most modest of terms, was that he simply loved
her
.

She’d become his, in every sense of the word. And if there was one thing he was known for, it was protecting and loving what was his with an unrivaled ferocity. Just let that lunatic try to come after her again. Let him try to harm one little hair on her head.

Tye all but dared him to.

Laine sat perched on the top rung of the wooden fence separating the driveway and the paddock. To the southeast, the pre-dawn sky took on an orange-pink hue before melting into the grayness of the storm clouds building toward the north. Flash and Rocky were awake and shuffling around the fenced-in area. Every now and then one of them would take a swing by her for a quick muzzle rubdown before moving on when they realized she didn’t have any apples or carrots to feed them.

She’d left Tye sleeping in bed fifteen minutes ago and had come out here looking for some space. Some air. Some breathing room.

God.

She was still floored that he’d offered up the switch, and even more surprised at how much she loved it. Almost as much as she loved him.

But she loved submitting to him just as much. Getting a taste of both sides made her hungry for more. She wanted to experience it all now, everything he had to offer her. His expertise, all of those toys, and well, maybe she’d even try a little bit of the pain. After giving himself over to her the way he had, the trust he’d shown her, she knew he’d never take her too far. He could make her bend to his will with the simplest of words, but she trusted him right back to never push the pain so far it would take away from the pleasure.

And for all she knew, it was possible he might like a taste of his own medicine in return. Given Tye’s natural dominance, she wasn’t sure how often he’d let her hold the reins in the bedroom, and she was actually okay with that. It would make him doing so all the more special, like it had last night.

A warmth spread through her just from thinking about it. He’d been perfect. Amazing. Perfectly amazing. And he’d been all hers.

A lightning bolt flashed through the darkening clouds, followed by an evil clap of thunder. The air reeked of ozone, a scent Rocky apparently picked up on. He held his nose high, sniffing and snuffling before bobbing his head on a whinny.

Laine guessed the storm to be at the most ten minutes away. Another crack of lightning split through the clouds. She counted. One-one-hundred. Two-one-hundred. Three-one—

The resulting boom of thunder rumbled angrily across the sky. With the storm less than three miles away, she should head back inside now, while the getting was good. Even better, she should crawl back into bed with Tye. Nothing sounded better than spending a rainy day cuddled up in bed with the man who now held her heart.

As she swung her legs over the fence rail to hop off and do just that, the front door of the house crashed open. Tye stepped through wearing only a pair of unbuttoned, worn jeans and a scowl on his face. With his hands fisted at his sides and his chest drawn tight, he was either seething from rage or scared half out of his mind, she wasn’t sure which. His eyes darted around, searching, until he looked her way.

“What the hell?” he shouted.

Seething. Very definitely seething.

“I woke up and you weren’t there. Again. Where the hell were you?”

He stood stock still as she made her way across the dirt drive. “I couldn’t sleep—”

“So you wandered off? When there’s a crazy man on the loose? A crazy man who just happens to be after you?”

She slowly, evenly, walked up the steps. She got that he was angry
and
worried, but she wasn’t going to add fuel to his already smoldering fire. “I didn’t
wander
anywhere. I was sitting on the fence, less than thirty yards from the house.”

He grabbed the knot on the sash of the robe she’d put on before she came outside and pulled her to him. She gripped his biceps, squeezing around the pent-up tension simmering in the hard muscles she found there. “I wasn’t out here long. I’m okay, Tye.”

He drew her into his arms. “Thank God. Don’t do that again.”

“Don’t do what?” she asked, pushing back to look up at him. “Come outside?”

“It’s not safe. You could’ve been hurt. Or worse.”

Now she was the one beginning to fume. “By sitting on a fence? By watching your horses? If you’re asking me to live my life in a bubble, Tye, you can forget it. I can’t do that.”

He narrowed his eyes on her and cupped her cheek. “It’s not for forever. Right now, it’s—”

“I was fine!”

She spun out of his arms but didn’t get more than three steps away before he grabbed her by the elbow. He pulled her back around and pushed her up against the rough cedar siding of the house, holding her there with his big body.

“Don’t you get it?” he bit out. “This isn’t about me ramrodding over you and telling you what to do. This isn’t just about
you
anymore. It’s about
us
now. When I woke up and you were gone… Jesus, Laine.”

She didn’t know what to say. He’d stunned her into silence.

“Until we catch this guy, I need to know where you are. I
need
that, baby. Not so I can talk you out of wherever you want to be. Not so I can try to force you to change your mind.” He dropped a hand to her thigh, skimming it upward as he breathed each hot word against her lips. “It’s so I know in my heart that you’re all right.”

He kissed her then, urgently and unrelenting. He tasted of sleep—and of fear. She’d never considered that he’d wake up and panic. She only wanted to come outside and let the cool morning air help clear her head.

She wanted a moment alone to soak in and relive the cherished way he made her feel.

He broke from her lips and she nearly doubled over at the fitful passion she found in his eyes. “I
need
for you to be all right,” he said.

“I am, Tye. I’m all right,” she assured him before he took her in another maddening kiss.

She savored every bit of the churning emotions in his gaze as their essence slid to his lips. His tongue burned with his fear, his anger, his need. The skill of his kiss and the power he held in his body as he crushed her to the house reminded her of everything that was at stake.

He dove to her neck as he slid his hands underneath the robe. He gripped her naked hips, grinding his thick erection against her belly.

“Yes,” she hissed as she closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck. Lord help her, she wanted him. Here. Now.

Always.

More lightning and thunder sizzled though the air as his hand came between them to fumble with his zipper. He reached inside his jeans and pulled his cock free before lifting her higher against the house.

Her head was swimming and her heart was pounding. His worry over her brought out an animal in him, one she’d not seen before. She was so ready for him, so turned-on by the force of his words and the heat of his touch that he slipped effortlessly inside her.

They moaned in unison as fat drops of rain began to fall. The clean smell of the rain and his natural, manly scent spun together to form an aroma that drove her absolutely out of her mind. They were protected under the canopy of the porch, yet she couldn’t help but wish he’d carry her down the steps and make love to her in the pouring rain.

But they were in too much of a hurry for that. With her body pinned against the house, he grabbed for her wrists and swept them over her head. He held them there with one hand while he hoisted her up higher with the other under her ass, driving into her hard and fast.

“Come with me, baby,” he said on a quick breath.

She was helpless to resist. He built her orgasm up so quickly, so easily, the rush of it took her off guard. She moaned into the crook of his neck and locked her ankles together at the small of his back, not daring to let go of him, not even for a second.

His legs shook on a groan of his own, but he continued to hold her there. He stilled inside her for what seemed like forever before bringing them down off their high with a few slow and gentle strokes. Goose bumps broke out over her skin as he lowered her arms so she could wrap them around his neck again. He held her with both hands then, carrying her over to the wicker loveseat and sitting with her on his lap.

“I’m sorry,” she said, settling against him and nuzzling his ear.

He shook his head, running his hands up and down her back. “I don’t want you to apologize. I just want you to know how important this is to me. How important
you
are to me. I love you, Laine.”

Her heart stopped mid-beat. She drew back to meet his gaze, swallowing past a lump in her throat. There was no stopping the smile as it grew on her lips. “You love me?”

He took her cheek into his palm. God, she adored the way he always held her like that. “I do. I think I have for a while now.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but she didn’t get the chance to tell him that she had fallen in love with him, too.

A loud crash sounded from inside the stables. He still held her gently, yet looked past her shoulders toward the direction of the ruckus. His jaw ticked. His nostrils flared.

He lifted her slightly and pulled from her body before standing. She slid down his legs until her feet hit the porch. He set himself to rights and eyed her. “I suppose telling you to stay here won’t do a damn bit of good.”

She looked over her shoulder toward the stables. The noise was probably nothing. A stray cat knocking over some water pails. She could wait here—

“On second thought, I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

He grabbed her by the hand and hauled her toward the stairs, stopping first just inside the doorway to the house. He opened the adjacent closet door and pulled down a small metal box from the top shelf. He palmed the handgun he found inside it, checking the chamber and then the magazine in two hurried steps like it was something he’d been doing his entire life.

“Stay behind me.”

“You don’t think—”

“I don’t know, Laine. But I’m sure as hell not going to take any chances.”

The rain pelted them as they left the porch and snuck up to the stables. She shivered, but whether it was from actually being cold or because she was now beyond terrified, she couldn’t say for sure. The stable door stood ajar, and they eyed one another. Neither of them had left it that way.

He motioned for her to wait by the bench on the other side of the door. She wasn’t going to argue with him. She folded her arms over her chest and held on tight as he moved quickly from stall to stall. He’d peek into one, find nothing, and then move on.

Another racket from the back of the stables stole his attention. She heard a muttered “Son of a bitch,” seconds before he spun and dove for the last stall.

“Get down!” he shouted as a gunshot rang out.

She hit the dirt and rolled into a stall of her own. The robe she had on was now twisted around her waist, but she didn’t give a shit. All the air had frozen in her lungs. Her throat was closing up. She couldn’t breathe.

There was no longer any question in her mind. It was him. He was here.

A deafening pop tore through the air before the window in front of her shattered outward. Another crack let loose and the wall next to the window splintered, raining down on her in a barrage of tiny wooden nails.

She curled into a ball on the opposite side of the stall. With her hands over her head, she inched sideways, further away from the open stall door and closer to the hay-strewn corner.

Sections along the upper edge of the stall blew apart, covering her once again in wood chips. Two more shots fired. One pinged off the metal hood of the light fixture by the door. She had no idea where the other landed. She hunkered down, waiting an eternity for more, but all she heard were the telling clicks of an empty chamber, a nasty curse and what sounded like the door on the other end of the stable being rolled open.

She crawled over to the opening and peeked out. Tye stood at the edge of his stall with his arms braced straight out in front of him. He aimed the business end of his handgun directly at the back door.

“Don’t move,” he shouted.

From her vantage point she had a clear view of the lunatic at the other end of the stables. He didn’t so much as flinch.

Tye pulled the trigger.