Texas Stand-Off: The Omega Team Novella (Kindle Worlds Novella) (8 page)

“I don’t think a smattering of freckles constitutes an imperfection,” he grumbled, his skin breaking out in frissons of excitement as her hand ran over his hip and down his thigh. Before she could go lower, he flipped over, looking her in the eye. “What else you got? A beauty mark? More tattoos?”

“I’ll show you.”

To Deacon’s surprise, she rose from the bed and flipped on the bright overhead light. His first instinctual move was to shut his eyes and the second was to make sure the sheet covered his stump. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Baring my soul to you.”

And then he looked up…and stared. God, she was beautiful. But the closer she came, and she came right up to the bed and then on top of it, coming to kneel next to him–the better he could see the web of scars on her body. They were faded, faint white to pale pink lines crisscrossing her upper arms, her abdomen and lower. Some were ridged and some were flat, but all were visible and a testimony to her suffering. “My God, Natasha. What did they do to you?”

“He cut me, he called it a ‘death by a thousand cuts’. To have all of these removed, I would have to endure many hours of surgery, but I choose not to. These scars prove how much I loved my father. Their ugliness doesn’t define me, my unwillingness to betray my loved one does.”

Deacon looked away, unable to fathom the pain and fear she’d withstood and the amazing woman she was now. “No one should have to…” he couldn’t say more, he felt like he was being choked.  

Taz remained still a moment longer, before she began to back away. “I think you are…how do they say?” She swallowed hard. “A helluva man. Made more so because of what you’ve sacrificed.” She moved from the bed and bent to pick up her T-shirt to cover the body she’d been ready to share with him. “I understand you not wanting to be with me, but don’t cut yourself off from intimacy because your wife was unworthy of your love.”

Sometimes he was just slow on the uptake, but Deacon finally realized what she was saying and that she was about to walk away leaving him alone once more. “Stop, Levin! Don’t you move one damn muscle,” he barked. Taz obeyed, her arms already in the sleeves of the shirt. She lifted her head and gave him her eyes and he could see tears shining in their beautiful depths. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Back to the guest…the second bedroom.”

With a deep cleansing breath, he threw the sheet to the foot of the bed, exposing his stump, then slapped the mattress. “Get your beautiful ass over here and let me love on you.”

Taz felt her heart trip. “You want me?”

Deacon held her gaze. “More than you could ever know.” The smile she gave him in exchange for his words was worth a billion dollars.

“Okay, here I come.” She tossed the shirt and launched herself at him and he caught her, rolling her under him. His mouth was just an inch from hers, so close that their breaths mingled together. “Is this better?”

“Much better,” he breathed as his lips touched hers. This…this had been what he needed. He desired her completely–wildly–beyond reason. The kiss that started out soft became hard. She moaned as he thrust his tongue into her mouth, savoring her sweetness.

“My warrior,” she whispered as she caught him around the neck and pulled herself closer. Deacon felt something thaw around his heart. No woman had ever given him more pleasure than this. Weaving his fingers into her thick auburn hair, he allowed himself the illusion that this was more than just a night, that she would lay aside her ambitions and be content to let him care for her. He pretended this was where she belonged, that he would never again have to face another lonely night in this bed.

Deacon ran his palm lightly over her body, his sense of touch sensitive enough that he could sense the scars on her body. He caressed them–rubbed them–eased her as she kissed him with total enthusiasm free from artifice. Before he could stop it, visions of Sylvia intruded and in the comparison, his ex-wife came up far short.

As he worshiped her body, molding her breasts, kneading her hip–her hand was busy also. She reached down to his thigh and tugged his leg, his ravaged leg, on top of hers. And he knew what she was doing was simple–she was not just accepting him, she was welcoming him. When he would’ve pulled away to look once more on her beautiful face, she wouldn’t allow it, catching his lower lip between her teeth. Damn–his control slipped and his cock surged, bumping up against her. When he growled, she was the one who pulled back and with a little giggle, asked, “Did you like that?”

“Obviously…too damn much.” He needed to get control, slow down.

“Not possible,” she whispered, nibbling at his lower lip.

“Levin, listen to me.” He stroked a thumb across her passion-swollen lips.

“What?” She pulled back a bit, as if to see him better. Dreamy-eyed, she studied him, her face full of wonder. He’d never forget the way she looked at him if he lived to be a hundred. Trust, acceptance, passion–exactly what he’d been missing for so long.

“This isn’t going to change anything.” Even as he made his pronouncement, he knew he was wrong. This would change everything. For him.

She considered his words, trying to understand what he was telling her. Where moments ago her heart had been light, now it felt weighted down with regret for what might have been. If he was inferring that she would make demands, he didn’t know her very well. This was the only night she might ever have with him, but it would be a night she would remember. “Okay. I expect nothing. We’re living in the moment.” 

“Good.” He wasn’t going to change his mind just because she–and God it was gospel–had given him an incredible gift. “Now, where were we?”

He was gazing at her with all the heat she could’ve desired. So what if he couldn’t offer more? She had no room in her life for anything permanent. Even as the logic played out in her brain, there was part of her that protested the assumption. “Here,” she said, her face so close to his. Deacon had the thickest lashes for a man, and the deepest blue eyes. Her warrior was haunted by the past. He might not want forever from her, but she could chase the shadows from his eyes.

“Good place to be.” He tightened his leg around hers and pulled her close enough so they were touching from top to bottom. “I love your body.”

Taz watched his lips form the words. “I love your body too.” His mouth was wide and full but completely masculine, which bespoke of confidence and power. She knew he possessed those things in abundance. The only place where his belief in himself had waned was here in bed where he hadn’t been confident of his desirability. This terrible misconception was something she could change.

“You don’t have to lie to me.”

“If you cannot believe my words, believe this.” She pushed on his shoulder until he was flat of his back, then she came to him, covering his body with kisses–caresses. Beginning at his neck, she bathed him with her tongue, tracing the intriguing dips and valleys of his muscles, taking small bites of his rippling washboard abs. Deacon groaned at the attention. She moved lower, kissing a path down the sexy trail of fur leading from his chest to the part of him that brought her so much pleasure.

Deacon held his breath, but she passed the place where he wanted her the most…to find the place where he needed her the most. With her lips, with her kiss, she set out to show him there was no part of his body she could not only look at, but touch. She held the place where his leg was blown off and she healed him with her kiss. “Taz…Natasha…” He placed a hand on her head, tangling his fingers in her hair.

She didn’t rush, but she started her return path. He held his breath when she took his cock in hand, planting kisses from the base to the tip. His hips lifted involuntarily as she blazed the same trail with her tongue, delicate little licks from his balls to the wide crested head. “You’re so big,” she whispered, positioning her hand along his shaft, measuring his length from root to tip. “I love the way you feel.” Deacon groaned as she attempted to encircle him with one small hand. Gripping his girth with intermittent squeezes, she made him crazy, his breath hissing from his mouth. The honesty of her need caused desire to rip through him like a bolt of lightning. His cock jumped in her hand and she giggled. “You like that?”

“You. I like you.” He didn’t really understand why, but it mattered to him that she knew she was different–unique. His hips bucked as she fondled him. He groaned out her name. “Natasha, my Taz.” Damn, even her touch was different from anyone else. She caressed him like he was cherished, touched him as if he were breakable, milked him as if there were nothing she wanted more. With Taz everything was different–new. When he whispered her name, she lifted her eyes to his. She licked her lips and he knew he wanted to feel them wrapped around his cock more than he wanted the sun to come up the next morning. “Don’t play with me.”

“Oh, I think that’s exactly what you want me to do.” Giving him a shy smile, she settled between his legs and kissed the tip, opening her lips and letting them slide over the head, all with a blissful suction. Her eyes locked with his as she rubbed the sensitive end of his cock with the flat of her tongue.  

“Son-of-a-bitch,” he growled, lifting his hips again, not bucking them as before. This time he held them aloft as if in supplication. She didn’t disappoint, tightly wrapping her lips around his thick stalk as he slid his considerable length up and down her hot little tongue. Unable to refrain, he twisted her hair around his hand, controlling how deep and how fast he fucked her mouth. And nothing he did seemed to be too much. He was mesmerized at the way she sucked on him, as if there was nothing in the world she enjoyed more. Ecstasy–he had no trouble recognizing it as he pumped in and out between her sweet lips.

Soon the pleasure stole his control. “I’m about to cum, let me…” He tried to pull out, but Taz tightened the velvet grip of her mouth and fist, convincing him to stay. There was nothing in the world like the feel of her hot little mouth burning a trail down his cock. She showed him no mercy. One hand pumped his cock from just below her lips all the way to the root and the other massaged his heavy aching balls. “You’re beautiful,” he muttered as he lifted a lock of that gorgeous red hair and held it against the side of her face as it bobbed up and down in his hands.

The compliment he gave made her smile and this made him laugh. Joy he hadn’t known in years cascaded over him like life-giving rain. To tease him, she winked and scraped him with her teeth and that was when he lost it. Going to a sitting position, he held her head as he moved in and out of her mouth–faster–deeper, always watching her face to make sure he didn’t give her more than she wanted. But there was no protest, she accepted all of him until he came hard, bathing the back of her throat with his hot cum. “What you do to me,” he admitted breathlessly.

Taz didn’t let him go, she urged him to stay in her mouth while she soothed him with gentle sucks and light swipes of her tongue, bringing him down a little at a time. He closed his eyes and just moved his hips softly, until the bliss became more than he could bear. When he finally drew back, she sent him away with one last kiss to his spent shaft. Deacon was in awe, he’d never been with anyone who displayed her sheer enjoyment of being with him so openly and honestly. “You go to my head, woman.”

“Ah, I hope you go to other places on me.”

Deacon chuckled, “Oh, I intend to.” Almost reverently, he pulled her even with him and began to caress her breasts, his fingers skimming their softness like butterfly wings. He’d seen larger, but none quite as perfect. Round and plump, they swelled at his touch, inviting him to stroke and squeeze. Taz whimpered and moaned, arching her back and pushing the firm flesh into his palm. To his delight, the more he played with her the harder her little nipples became. Giving one a flick, he swallowed her gasp, kissing her deeply.

“Do that again,” she whispered, when he moved his lips, taking her gasp as his own, So, he did–again and again. She writhed against him, demanding more and more. And he wanted nothing more than to give it to her. Taking her nipple between forefinger and thumb, he gave it a little pinch, then a harder one, milking it until she moaned and lifted her hips to nudge against his cock. God, he’d missed this. He had more fun playing in bed with Taz, than he ever had with anyone.

One more hard kiss and then he moved lower in the bed, replacing his hands on her breasts with his lips–sucking, licking, nibbling–loving them until she cried out, “please Deacon, I’m aching.”

Deacon smiled, now it would be her turn to feel the lightning. Pushing himself even lower in the bed, he pushed her legs apart. “Wide, please.” She obeyed, her skin growing warm. His beautiful woman was blushing all over. “You’re perfect.” Her pussy was as delicate as the rest of her beautiful body. Using both hands he framed the pad of her vagina and found the soft pink folds blossoming beneath his gaze. With a worshipful attitude, he placed a kiss on the small pulsing bud of her clit. She was such a paradox–so capable and brave, yet so undeniably feminine. He could go to the ends of the earth and find no woman more perfect for him than this…

“Deacon, I’m going apples…oranges…something,” she groaned.

“Bananas,” he supplied, before rewarding her with a lick that caused her to jump. By the second and third, she opening her legs wide like butterfly wings, whimpering with every touch and kiss.

“Deacon!” she cried when he covered her clit with his mouth and sucked. “Now, please, now!”

Soon. Soon. But not until he’d given her as much as she’d given him. Using lips, tongue and fingers, he stroked and rubbed with ever increasing intensity until she stiffened and gasped. The tension snapped and ecstasy surged through her in pulsing waves. “That’s my baby, that’s my baby.” Deacon slid up her body and held her close, cradling her through the aftershocks and tremors.