River Arrow (New Guardsmen Book 2) (7 page)

“I’ll regret not grabbing hold of you. I’m ready to see the world, but more to the point, I’m ready to take you on. Turns out, I was really lucky when I caught that snake in the chicken coop. It brought me you.”

Swallowing hard, he firmed his stance as she leapt aboard. She landed so close her cloth covered breasts brushed against his chest. If only he’d managed to get a shirt on, it wouldn’t have wrecked his concentration, his resolve.

“You need me,” she whispered. She was a mess, still. Neither one of them had cleaned up—as if they were in a race to get out of here before temptation got loose, or their prisoners made more trouble. “And you want me.”

“I don’t need you,” he murmured back.

“You do.” Her brown eyes glistened. Her mouth parted and her tongue slid out to wet her bottom lip. “You need help getting these men to Memphis City. You need help getting this boat back up the river. You need help getting out of those jeans and your fine body pumping into mine. But you mostly need me ‘cause you’re you. And I’m me. And we’re both home when we’re together.”

“You are definitely you.”

He wanted to kiss her. Badly. Enough so that it was a physical ache to pull away.

“We will get rid of these prisoners. Then we’ll see.” Jared let her slip past him. Her body rubbed against him and he fisted his hands around the barge pole to keep from grabbing her. His cock ached and throbbed and his mouth watered.

“We’ll see,” she purred and winked at him before striding toward his cabin like she owned the place.

He had a suspicion she already owned him.

Memphis City was the same as usual with the ruined buildings of old Memphis looming over the compound walls. People made scavenging trips into the wasteland. They kept evidence of the old life scattered around their small houses, but living like this, in the shadow of death, gave her the willies.

It was different this time, though. She didn’t head to the saloon to find a man. No, she headed there to get a shower in one of the small rooms they rented out. The bed was small but clean. She’d been in this one before. With a man. It’d been nothing like being with Jared. She cleaned quickly and changed. Jared had been quiet and aloof throughout the trip down. She wouldn’t put it past him to leave her. All she had to do was get back before he did.

They’d delivered their prisoners to the sheriff. Tim had gone to speak to the city elders, and Jared had gone somewhere, to some friend’s place. She refused to wonder about that friend as she raced back to the boat.

It was still there. Of course it would be. He hadn’t had time to round up his crew, but her fear had overshadowed her logic. Her shoulders sagged as both relief and fatigue crashed over her body. Climbing aboard, she headed to Jared’s bunk, stripped down to her panties, and let herself fall asleep.

Hands woke her. The scent of wild man made her grow wet and eager. A tug and a satisfied chuckle enveloped her as she felt the bottom drop from beneath her. Held securely, she was lowered to the floor with a hard Jared pressing her down.

“I didn’t want you to be here, but I didn’t know what I’d do if you weren’t.” He spoke against her shoulder as he nibbled on her. “But you were. You want to try your luck on me, don’t you? Well, I think I could try being the man you’d want.”

Her heart stuttered, stole her words, and suddenly, the desperation was too much. Hands groped and skin touched. His mouth kept on hers, dipping inside and tasting her. She pressed her palms against his hot back. It was cut from being dragged over the ground when he’d helped her fight for her village’s freedom. He barely flinched, but the reaction had been there. He’d been hurt, and she wanted to take it away. Never had she wanted to ease someone’s pain so much that it made her hollow and pulsing like a bruise stretched over her chest.

His mouth found her nipple and he suckled her like he couldn’t get enough. Then Jared was everything. This stoic man melted around her. He licked. He caressed. His heat, his groans created such a high, such a keening drive to grab and hold, to get him inside her and it drove everything else away. This need to claim was a panting, sweaty race she couldn’t resist.

“Damn, Mari.” He breathed over the taut skin of her belly and she shivered. “I want to do everything all at once. But I’ll start here.”

He licked her belly and she made a muffled sound against the fist she’d shoved in her mouth. As much as they’d been frantic before, everything came to a silent, heady moment that stretched thin and tight. His tongue traced down the center of her stomach, flicking over her belly button, and slicking a trail to her panties. Warm, sure fingers stroked the edge of the fabric.

“Help me,” he whispered.

She lifted, and he slid her panties down her hips. The way he brushed over her skin, firm but gentle, added to her growing desperation.

“I want you.” She groaned.

“I know you do,” he whispered just above her mound. Then he blew hot against her, barely brushing against her in a tease that sent a wrenching pulse through her core.

“I want your mouth on me.” She bucked her hips, pressing her groin closer to the relief he could give her.

“Do you? You want this?” He licked the outside of her folds and unable to keep it in, she screeched. His hands gripped her hips and held her down. “That’s what you want?”

“I’ve wanted it for so long.” Even so, she felt vulnerable even as she let her legs fall open.

“That’s it. So pretty down here.” He pushed her thigh over his neck. With a sound of pleasure, he gently opened her. The feel of his fingers parting her folds made her pant, wiggle, desperate for pressure.

“I’m going to eat you out,” Jared growled in a low rumble. His stare was on her pussy, watching his finger as he traced the outside of her opening.

Everything was too much. She could barely breathe and she’d for sure never been so fucking hot and turned on in her life, but she couldn’t say a word. She made some sort of squeak and he nodded, as if she’d said something and he understood her.

“I’m going to taste you.” His finger dipped inside her in a slow tease. “I’m going to fuck you with my tongue, tease your clit, make you yell. After you come, if you agree to using protection, I’m going to fuck you with my cock. Do you want me?”

She shivered and her hips rocked off the bed in a desperate lurch to follow the hand that left her.

“I thought you’d say that,” he murmured and bent his head to her. His tongue flicked her clit.

“Oh. My. God,” she yelled.

Jared had attracted her before, she’d admired his sense of honor and wanted to prod the emotions he held in check, but when he focused all that on her, it was nearly too much.

She couldn’t lay still. Not with that tongue sliding around and around her pussy. Her hips bucked and she stabbed her fingers into his hair to hold his head to her. His hair was still damp from his shower and he chuckled before he nipped the inside of her thigh.

“Grab the bed and hold on tight.” Shackling her wrists, he urged her to let go of his hair and guided her arms above her head. She gripped the bar at the head of his cot and panted as he spread her even wider.

Her thighs trembled and her heels dug into his back. The stroke of his tongue teased her as he pushed inside her over and over again. She moaned and rode on the edge of bliss. His hand came around to her waist, freeing himself to use his fingers to slide into her. Stroking, rubbing up behind her clit as he suckled, he brought her to a hard, sharp orgasm that shuddered through her in a long-drawn out haze of white.

She got lost in the buzzing in her ears, the pounding of her heart, the sawing of her lungs to catch up to what her body had grasped in its bliss. Languid and content, her legs fell to the side while her body pulsed with little tremors.

“Mari.” She’d never heard her name said in that way before. So serious.

Leaning over her, he gazed intently at her. He’d watched her orgasm, when she’d been vulnerable and lost to pleasure. She wanted to see him the same way. Vulnerable wasn’t something Jared could show others, but he could be himself with her. She stroked a hand through his gorgeous, thick red hair and gave him a smile that felt shaped solely for him.

“Yes, I want what you want.”

“Look at me,” he murmured as her heavy lids drooped.

“I’m looking.” She smiled at him and his lips quirked a little. He smiled so rarely, this was a treat.

“You need to say yes to this part. Look at this.” He brought something from behind his back. An herbal scent came with it.

She squinted. “What is it?”

“It’s a sponge. That’s what I went into the city for. It’s a sponge soaked in herbs and I got the recipe. It’ll prevent some pregnancies. It’s not perfect, but as I understand, it can avoid them or space them out.”

“Oh,” she breathed. “You went to the Madame’s.”

He blushed. It was endearing. Truly. She’d heard of the place and she’d heard they had ways to avoid pregnancy to some extent.

“I’ve never been a client. I’ve never even…” His Adam’s apple worked and he licked his lips.

“I haven’t either,” she offered. “I’m not innocent. Neither are you. We’re just careful.”

“You have to say yes.” Jared stared into her eyes and the sponge lightly touched between her legs. Just like that, she went wet again and her breasts ached. Jared’s gaze slid down to her pebbled nipples and her traitorous body vibrated in surrender. He chuckled and his smile turned devilish. So many smiles in one day. So irresistible. “I’d never leave you, not as long as you wanted me.”

“Yes. I want this. I need this. I need you.” Staying light, free of worry, and willing to believe in the vagaries of luck had left her in need of this man, so sure of everything. So sure of her.

Jared gave her a full-on grin and slid down her body. His tongue licked over her folds again and she bowed from the floor.

“Hold still,” he whispered into the hair over her mound.

Carefully, again so tender and sweet, he opened her and slid his fingers inside. She was still sensitive and wet. She couldn’t help but wiggle. His tongue teased over her clit and already, she hovered on the edge. Again. God, what this man did to her. The sponge slid over her sensitive skin and she opened, eager to have all of him.

With slow attention, he pushed it in as his fingers teased and slicked around her pussy. His fingers worked her, fucked her, and finally, he slid the sponge deep. Frantic for more, she yanked at his shoulders, wanting him over her, his weight on her, and his cock inside her.

She wanted to do this together, tight, skin to skin, so close he couldn’t tell them apart.

“I don’t think I’ll last very long,” he murmured as he covered her.

Her legs came around his waist and she locked her ankles to keep him there. His cock slid over her opening and she twined her arms around him. “It doesn’t matter. Not this time.”

He grunted and adjusted his hips. His cockhead slipped inside where his fingers had stretched her.

“Fuck me, now. You won’t hurt me,” she begged. She needed to join with him. Now.

Sure, solid, he pushed inside with a steady, relentless parting of her flesh. The solid thickness filled her. The pressure intensified and the act was such surrender—for both of them—when he was fully engulfed in her, she saw it for what it was, a complete turning point in her life. She’d never let a lover inside her. Now that she had, she knew what it meant. What Jared meant to her.

With a soul deep sigh, he went still. He nuzzled into her neck and gave her a soft kiss. Then he rocked against her. He started with short movements, barely more than a flexing. “It’s too good being inside you. Damn, this is so good. I can’t pull out enough to fuck you.”

“Perfect. Feels too perfect,” she moaned. His grinding put pressure on her clit and white spots danced in her vision. “If you do me any better than this, I’ll die.”

He made a gurgling sound then his hips pulled back. His cock slid in and out of her gripping pussy. With each thrust, he sent her higher. Every movement seduced, tingled, rolled into her body like a mass of pleasure and primal seduction. His guttural reply sounded angry, but it was his barely controlled lust speaking, “You’ll take it. You’ll take it.”

It was too intense to last. They were too open, too vulnerable to each other.

“Give it to me,” she breathed.

She slipped a hand between them and fingered her clit as his cock made everything feel so much more exquisite, so much more alive and aching.

With a snarl, he pushed up on his arms above her, stared down and ground against her. He bit his lip, his eyes closed, and his arms bulged. His cock hardened even more and it jerked inside her as he groaned in a way that meant full surrender. God, just his groan was enough to push her over. It was an amazing, wonderful feeling. She closed her eyes against her blurring vision and she tensed, clamping down on his cock as her thighs tightened, held. Release nearly hurt as the waves squeezed her core. She shuddered and cried out. Her climax hung there, completion moment of complete, utter surrender.

Jared’s weight fell over her. His skin clung to hers. With his cock still inside her, he made a satisfied moan. She smiled with her eyes closed, too satisfied to move.

“We’ll do that again, Mari.”

It wasn’t a question. He’d claimed her.

“As long as you’re mine, Jared.”

“I am.” He stared into her eyes, let her see his commitment. “I have to gather my crew in the morning.”

“I’ll help.” She ran a hand along the hair on his chest and enjoyed the feel of it. “I need another bow.”

“We’ll get one. And you’ll learn the boat. You have the tenacity for it. I know. You’re a woman full of sunshine. Hope. You’ll bring fresh life to a run I have to make but have never felt settled in.” He blushed a little and jerked his gaze to stare at the ceiling. His admission sent a flutter in her belly, but now wasn’t the time to tease him for showing his vulnerability.

She ran her fingers through his red hair and ran her ankle along his. “The village is moving forward. It’s time I find my own way, and I want to find it with you.”

She knew what she wanted. She wanted to see more. She wanted to see Leavenworth. But she needed Jared. She’d find her life with him. Here, on the river. The prospect of meeting his family made her nervous, but excited because now she was a part of it.

“That’s good, Mari. ‘Cause I warned you. You stepped foot on this boat and I’d never let you go.”

“Good thing I’d already decided you couldn’t leave without me.”

She pushed him over. Rolled on top of his solid body, kissed him, and showed him exactly how she’d hold on. And never, ever, let go.