Sam’s Creed (26 page)

He put more of his weight into the slow thrust, inexorably filling her past the point of denial for either of them. Her right buttock shone, a creamy taupe bright sun. His shadow covered the left. He put his hand over the right, pressing in with his fingers, marking her flesh as he marked her pussy. When he removed his hand, the imprint lingered a moment and then disappeared even as his groin pressed into the pad of her pussy. She groaned and shuddered.

Her breath came in short pants as she held him, her inner muscles flexing and releasing in little flutters that had his balls pulling up tight.

“Are you all right?”

She was so tight sometimes he wondered how she took him at all.

“Oh yes!”

“Good.” He worked his cock out, groaning himself. The friction burned with erotic perfection. No one ever made him feel like Bella, no one ever fit him like she did. In bed and out. He leaned over, rubbing his chest along her back, delighting in the feel of her vertebrae against his abdomen and chest, maneuvering so the ridge of her spine nestled into the deep groove in the muscle of his torso linking them from torso to navel, absorbing her shudder as he whispered in her ear, “I’m going to make love to you now, Bella. The way I’ve wanted to since the day I met you.”

A long pause, another shudder and then a subtle tension entered her spine as her hands opened and then her fingers curled as if grabbing hold. Her feet shifted on the ground. Her toes found purchase. He kissed the nape of her neck for the moment of anxiousness. She still had a lot to learn about him.

He eased himself back in, slowly, lazily, ignoring the inner urging that said to ride her hard. His Bella knew too much about his hard side and not enough about the part of him that found everything about her a wonder, something to be treasured, respected, loved. The echo of her moan filled the clearing as he filled her. He kissed that corner of her lush mouth. “I’m going to love you like this, Bella. Slow and sweet, so sweet when you come, you’re going to lose yourself, and when you find your way back, I’m going to be there holding you, keeping you safe, the way it’s supposed to be.”

A tear glistened in her eye. He smoothed his lips over the corner. “No tears, no sadness. Just you and me, baby.”

He slid his hand under her cheek cushioning her face from the hard stone. The heat of the rock seeped into his hand, the heat of her skin warmed his palm. “Push up with your toes.”

As always she followed his order, the trust she gave him a gift he valued. Bracing his weight on his elbow, he slid his other hand under her belly. “Settle down now.”

She did, with exquisite slowness and a little gasp that breezed over his fingers as the calluses on his palms scraped her engorged clit. “Keep going.”

She hesitated. “I’m sensitive.”

“Hmm.” He kissed the curve of her ear as he feathered his index finger over the swollen nub. She flinched. Very sensitive. “I can work with that.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I told you. Love you. Now.” He snuggled against her. “Rest yourself on my hand and let me get to it.”

Her shivery sigh of his name accompanied the lowering of her hips. Sam accepted her weight the same way he accepted her trust. Completely. “That’s my girl.”

The echo of his own words resounded through his head as he pumped slowly in and out of the tight confines of her pussy, glorying in her response. She was his. Had always been his and while he might have been fool enough for a spell to think he could let her go, he was never letting her go again. A woman like Bella was special, deserved a man strong enough to keep her. For Bella, he was going to be that man.

In and out, in and out, he slowly, surely joined them together. Over and over, canting his hips to the angle that had his cock striking that spot halfway up her channel, so her moans punctuated the rhythm he set, adding a rhythm of their own. She alternated between grinding her mound down on his hands and pushing her hips back into his descent, every muscle in her body trying to hurry him on, but he didn’t want to hurry. He wanted to stay inside her forever.

Her mouth turned into his palm, her teeth biting the pad of his fingers as he leisurely stroked her clit with a touch too light to give her what she needed to come, but everything he needed to feel. Her want. Her desire rising beyond her control, beyond safe. “That’s it, Bella. Go with it.”

She shook her head. He lowered lips to her ear, nuzzling his way through her hair, creating a provocative haven where only he and she existed. “Yes. Come for me, sweetheart. Let me feel that sweet pussy clamp down on my cock, let me feel your orgasm, milk me to my own.” He increased the speed and pressure of his touch on her clit, pinning her to the rock as she jerked, holding her steady as he rubbed faster, harder, as he pumped deeper, longer. “C’mon, duchess. Give me what I need and I’ll give you my seed. All of it.”

“Sam!” Her muscles snapped tight. Her teeth bit down on his hand, and then his little duchess growled, a feral needy sound that shot straight to his groin.

“Come for me, baby.”

And she did, hard and violent, screaming his name, holding tight with her teeth, and her inner muscles.

And when she came back to herself, he made sure he was there, holding her, kissing her, smoothing the tears from her lashes with his lips. And when she opened her eyes, and looked at him, he came for her, giving her everything he had, every drop of his seed, every drop of emotion, wanting to fill her as much as he could, so full that emptiness that had been in her eyes after Tejala would never return.

As the last pulse faded, a robin sang in the tree above them. The sun warmed his back. He eased the shirt from her arms and draped himself back over her, sheltering her from the breeze and any insecurities that might come calling.

Beneath him, Bella sighed and wrapped her arm around him. “I love you, my Sam.”

He caught the lobe of her ear between his teeth, and flexed his cock inside her, enjoying the intimate kiss of her muscles clenching back. “I love you, too.”

“Enough to stay with me here and make a home for our children?”

He smiled. She was determined. And it was a tempting offer. The Montoya spread was a good one, but showing the lack of management in recent months. It needed care to not go under. But these were Bella’s people, not his, and he didn’t think he could live comfortably as a charity his wife saw to. But he didn’t want to argue about it now. Not when she was soft and welcoming in the aftermath. “How about I promise to think about it?”

“I can work with that.”

T
hey were waylaid before they made it through the gates. Jorge, dressed in his Sunday best black shirt and black pants with his hair slicked back and still dripping water, stopped them before they could enter the compound. Kell, who’d taken a liking to the boy from the day Tucker had brought him to the ranch, stood at his side. Jorge’s face was pale, and his eyes anxious. He was thinner than he should be but well on the way to health under the eagle eyes of his brothers. Sam pulled Breeze up short. “What can I do for you, Jorge?”

The boy bowed his head.
“Patron, Patrona.”

“Jorge.”

He shuffled his feet in the dirt, uncomfortable beneath Bella’s greeting. After one last kick of his feet, he squared his shoulders.

“I have come on a man’s business.”

Sam smothered a grin, both at the boy’s demeanor and Bella’s indignant gasp. “Well, now, that sounds serious. Do you want to talk here or at the house?”

The boy glanced anxiously over his shoulder. “Here would be good.”

Sam lifted his leg over Breeze’s neck and hopped down. “Then why don’t we take a walk?”

The boy nodded with another anxious glance. “That would be good.”

It probably would be if one was worried about one’s brother catching up to him. “Bella, can you get Breeze settled?”

She hopped forward into the saddle. “I will try not to do him damage.”

He gave Kell a pat on the head. “I’ll give you my thanks later.”

She blushed and clucked Breeze forward.

Left alone with the boy, Sam turned on his heel and started walking. The boy showed no inclination to talk. Sam was tired and hungry. He gave him a verbal nudge. “So, what’s on your mind?”

“I wish to discuss your debt to me.”

That was pretty formal language indicating the boy had probably rehearsed his speech. Probably had his eye on the jar of penny candy in town and knew his mother wouldn’t approve. “Discuss away.”

“
La Montoya
loves you very much.”

“Yes.”

“We love the Montoya very much.”

Sam’s “Yes” wasn’t that easy this time. He had a feeling where this was going and it wasn’t to a jar of hard candy and peppermint sticks.

Jorge drew himself to his full four feet of height. “You said I could ask anything I wanted of the Hell’s Eight and it would be paid.”

“So I did.”

“I want the Hell’s Eight to let you go.”

That was a hell of a request. “Why?”

“So you can have a home.”

Christ, did even little kids think he was pathetic?

“Here?”

The boy’s chin came up. “Here is good. There is good food and fun.” His eyes narrowed as he pulled out what was obviously his trump card. “Here is
la patrona.
”

It was a good card. “I could take Bella with me.”

Jorge shook his head. “Here
la patrona
is respected. No one spits on her.”

Sam looked at him sharply. “Someone spit on you?”

The boy nodded. “Zach was not happy.”

Sam just bet. And he bet Zach made whomever had spit on the boy pay.

Jorge continued. “
La patrona
does not know what it is to be hated. Everyone loves her.”

“True.”

He kicked a stone with the toe of his shoe. “You love her.”

Sam smiled. “That’s not the best guarded secret.”

“I heard my brothers talking.” Jorge looked up. “They do not hate you.”

The kid was taking his time getting to his point. “That’s good to know.”

“It is. If you were not a good man, they would kill you.”

Sam didn’t doubt it. “Because it’s their job to protect
la Montoya.
”

“
Sí.
Also because they love her.” He shrugged. “
La patrona
is very easy to love.”

It’d better be a platonic love. The Lopez brothers were a damn good-looking family. “Do you have a point to all this?”

The boy nodded. “If you love
la patrona,
you will not take her away from her home to a place where people will spit on her.” His eyes glittered. He looked very much like his brother right then. “I would not like for her to be spit on.”

Laughter floated through the air from the direction of the barn. Bella came out of the barn, walking backwards talking to someone still inside. She looked at home, at peace. He could feel the walls closing in. “Neither would I.”

“So, you will stay?”

He hated to disappoint the kid. “This isn’t my home.”

But it was a damn fine home for someone.

“You do not have a home.”

He thought of the Hell’s Eight. Of all the work he’d put into it, the dreams wrapped up in it. “I’m building one.”

“We have already built one for you.”

“It’s not mine.”

The boy frowned in confusion, his fingers wrapping in Kell’s ruff. “But you are
la patrona
’s chosen. Always we hold the ranch for you. That is why
la patrona
’s
papá
always told her to choose a strong man, because together she and her
marido
must build the future.”

Sam hadn’t thought of that. Bella’s father had had a dream, had planned for that dream to grow through generations. He had known Bella would have to marry to hold the ranch, had even prepared the way with his people for a stranger to find his place within their tight ranks. Had prepared Bella. Sam pushed his hat back off his brow. He wished to hell he’d gotten to meet the man so he could have prepared him.

The Montoya ranch was a huge spread set up in dangerous territory. It’d be a challenge every day just to hold on to it against those that would take it. Growing it would take even more effort. A little spark of excitement lit his blood. “I always did like a challenge.”

“It’s not enough to like the thought, you must make it happen.”

A surprising bit of wisdom for a child to spout. “That has the sound of something you hear often.”

Jorge screwed up his face with disgust. “
Mi madre
likes those words.”

Bella stood on the porch, a hand to her eyes, looking at him, a shaky smile on her face. The truth struck him hard. It wasn’t enough for him to love Bella and want her to be happy. He had to make that happen. Even if he had to sacrifice a bit of pride. “They’re good words.”

He turned around, retracing their steps. Jorge immediately went back to looking nervous. It wasn’t hard to see why. Zach was standing by the porch, a frown on his face.

Sam cut the kid a glance. “You weren’t, by any chance, warned against having this conversation with me, were you?”

Jorge went from scared to righteously stubborn in the blink of an eye. “You made me the promise. You said I could ask for anything.”

“Yes, I did.”

Jorge stopped. “Are you going to keep your word?”

“Well, I’m not going to leave Hell’s Eight. I made promises there first, but—” He didn’t get the
but
out fast enough to prevent the boy’s face crumpling. “But I don’t see why I can’t add the Montoyas to my family.”

The kid could change expressions faster than lightning could strike. “This means you will stay?”

“Yeah. It means I’ll stay.” He grabbed the boy’s arm before he could take off. “I’ll make you a deal. You let me break the news and I’ll square things with Zacharias.”

He nodded. “It is done.”

Sam extended his hand. Jorge grabbed it, pumped it once and then took off on a run and a whoop, Kell loping by his side. He made it halfway to the front before he started yelling.

Sam shook his head as everyone looked his way. Bella’s smile faltered and then was reborn as she came running toward him, skirt flapping. She was a good five feet away when she launched herself into his arms.

He caught her, pretending to stagger back a step. She cuffed his shoulder before wrapping her arms and legs around him. She buried her face in his throat, pressing her lips to his pulse almost desperately. “Is it true, my Sam? Will you stay and build a dream with me?”

He kissed the top of her head, pretending a grump he didn’t feel. “Damn kid stole my thunder.”

Tipping her head back she offered him her mouth. “Do you really mind so much?”

She wasn’t asking about Jorge’s revealing his decision.

“I don’t mind at all,” he admitted, accepting the invitation, tasting her sweetness, her passion. “It’s a good place, Bella. A good dream.”

Her head cocked to the side. “A good gift for our children?”

Damn, they would probably have children. As often as he was at her, probably a whole brood. And with Bella as their mother, each and every one would likely be a handful. His smile grew, spreading inward. “Yes.”

“I think you will have to toughen up before we have children, though.”

There was no missing the mischief in her voice. His cock went hard, snuggling up to her heat through layers of clothing. Tugging her head back, he checked her expression. “Why?”

Her pout was as fake as her happiness was real. “You have disappointed me.”

“How?”

“Zacharias thought for sure you would…paddle Jorge’s rear for such impudence.”

As if Zach would allow anyone to touch his brother and live. “And?”

Her legs slid down the outside of his thighs, her breasts pressed into his abdomen scant inches above his straining cock. Her smile turned sultry. “I was going to offer to take his place.”

She skipped back a step. “But now that cannot happen.”

“Like hell.”

He grabbed for her. She squealed and darted away, predictably to the right. He caught her hand, and tugged her toward him, ducking his shoulder into her stomach and hefting her up before striding to the house, quelling her struggles with a firm swat to her rump. “I deserve some compensation for putting up with your mother.”

Her hands caressed his ass, cupping the cheeks, slipping between his legs to graze his balls. “Would you like me to paddle your butt?”

He almost dropped her on her ass.

“Bella?” he managed through his laughter.

“What?”

“Hush.”