Uncovered (32 page)

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A
Hearts of the South
story.

Mired in a brutal marriage for far too long, Ruthie Chason takes her courage and her children in hand to flee the trap that has become her life. Yet she’s no fool. She knows he’ll come after her once he discovers she possesses criminal evidence that will put him away for good—and seal her deadly fate if he ever catches up with her.

Sheriff’s Deputy Chris Parker offers emotional refuge, a safe place to begin to reclaim her life…if she can let herself trust the strong, quiet cop that far.

Chris surprises himself when he agrees to act as guardian for Ruthie and her children. He does it as a favor, then finds something about her calm strength soothes his battered soul. Now if only he can silence the demons from his past that make him cautious of falling too fast for any woman.

Their need explodes into a heart-stopping night of passion that exposes their deepest vulnerabilities. But just as they begin to explore how healing love can be, violence tracks them down. And backs them into a desperate corner…

Warning: Contains a to-die-for deputy with secrets in his past, a woman ripe for the love of a good man, and a controlling husband bent on revenge. Deep emotion, passionate lovemaking and violent mayhem to ensue.

His Adam’s apple bobbed with a swallow. “Having you kiss me senseless sounds pretty damn good right now.”

The serving dish hit the countertop with a dull thud. She reached for him first. Arms around his neck, she leaned up and kissed him. With a smothered groan, he wrapped her close and plundered her mouth. She met the ferocity of his possession with an intensity of her own, holding his face and sucking his tongue between her lips.

“God, Ruthie.” He backed her into the counter, fumbling at the tiny buttons on her blouse. She went for the hem of his cotton polo and tugged it free of his jeans before rubbing her hands up the sleek warmth of his waist and rib cage. He growled in pleasure and kissed her again, giving up on her buttons and shoving the fabric out of his way instead.

Lost in the heated wonder of his mouth, she arched into him, bare midriff brushing against his stomach. The contact sent sharp desire piercing through her, weakening her legs and filling her with fierce triumph. Stephen had not stolen the ability to need and desire from her. She wanted this, wanted Chris.

He stroked his thumbs across the lower edge of her sternum and sensation danced out from the caress. She loved the hot, rough touch of his skin on hers. Nipping lightly at his bottom lip, she scraped her nails along his waistband, just below the small of his back. His knees dipped, his pelvis bumping hers, almost as though his legs had buckled.

“Jiminy Cricket.” The rumble of his choked laughter shivered against her mouth. He brushed his palms back and forth over her waist.

She trailed her fingertips across the light stubble on his jaw. “Take me to bed.”

“Hell.” His breath rushed out on a shocked exhale and his lashes fell. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.” She ran her thumb across his lower lip. Leaning closer, she tilted into him and let her tongue take the same path her thumb had. The pale blue of his eyes darkened, grew hot and stormy. “I want you, Chris.”

“I don’t want to rush this, don’t want to mess us up. This isn’t why I invited you here—”

She stopped the words with a fingertip atop his lips. “Nothing you could do would mess us up. Do you not get how important you’re becoming to me?”

“Ruthie.” The warmth of his mouth moved against her skin. “There’s—”

“Time for that later.” She dropped her hand and leaned in to feather her lips over his. “I need you.”

For a long moment, he stared at her before he stepped back, took her hand and led her down the hall. In the dimness of his bedroom, she stood before him, her desire for him making her bold. Holding his gaze, she lifted her hands to unbutton her blouse. Finally, she shrugged free of the thin garment and he wrapped a warm palm around her nape, pulling her in for another of those passion-drugging kisses.

She fisted the hem of his shirt and dragged it upward, over his head. Deeply golden filtered sunlight fell on his torso, highlighting his tightly muscled chest and abdomen. Her mouth dry, she let her hands drift over his shoulders, across firm pectorals, down his arms, to his hands. A long, thin line of puckered flesh ran from shoulder to elbow. He flinched when she brushed it, and she moved her hand quickly to his chest. With scrupulous care, she avoided the scar there, a pale, flat mark at his ribs.

A shaky laugh erupted from his mouth and he buried his face against her hair. His hold at her hips tightened, his fingers seeming to tremble. “Shit, this is a bad idea. I don’t know what I’m doing anymore, don’t know how to—”

“Chris, stop. It’s all right.” She whispered the words near his ear. She folded her arms about him and held him closer. With her palms flat on his back, she discovered yet another mark on his shoulder blade, a jagged twin to the one on his arm. She rubbed her cheek against his neck. “Just hold me a moment.”

He embraced her, too tightly but somehow just right at the same time. The thin lace of her bra did little to deflect the heat of his skin on her own. She curled into him and scattered tiny kisses along his throat, over his shoulder, all the while playing her hands over his back. Desire with all the burn of fine, smooth whiskey poured through her.

He exhaled hard, stirring her hair. “She ruined me.”

Hatred for the unknown woman blazed to life, strong and virulent. Ruthie tamped it away and leaned back to meet his troubled eyes, brimming with mingled despair and desire. “I don’t believe that.”

“I don’t want to be this way with you, awkward and damn near afraid.”

“Stop thinking so much. Just…touch me.” Taking his wrists, she lifted his hands to her body, molding his palms around the curves of her breasts. Still holding his forearms in a light grasp, she trailed her fingers over the backs of his hands as he shaped and caressed her. Her head fell back and her hair tumbled free from her already messy knot. “Oh yes, like that.”

The pads of his thumbs flicked over the lace covering her hardening nipples. Bending his head, he took one into his mouth, teeth grating and tugging through the thin fabric. Need arrowed from the point of intense contact to the throbbing between her thighs.

“I want to go slow, make this so good for you,” he murmured. “But it’s been a long time, sweetheart, and I don’t know if I can.”

“Maybe I don’t want slow. Maybe I just want you—”

The words died under his mouth and he lifted her against him, before spinning to lay her across the bed and follow her down, his hips between her thighs. “My God, Ruthie, you make me crazy.”

“Good.” She wiggled against him, her skirt riding high. Denim scratched the tender inside of her thighs. She ran teasing hands down his spine, dipping beneath his jeans to cup his buttocks and pull him into her. Lord, when was the last time she’d felt like this, free and confident, secure in the knowledge a man wanted her? “What are you going to do about it?”

A sound that was half-chuckle, half-growl escaped him and he lowered his head to her breasts once more. “Is that a challenge?”

She slid her hands around to his fly, making short work of the button and zipper. He hissed a curse when she encircled him, stroking and teasing. “It could be.”

Kate Mathers has her very own stalker, though she prefers to call him a secret admirer. Either way it’s a bizarre idea considering she’s never figured out how to keep any man in her life for long. Now one’s obsessed with her? It’s hard to believe—until her estranged father’s birthday gift is to hire her a bodyguard. Now the dangers are all too real. And so is the effect Joe Garity has on her heart.

Joe knows he’s a human wrecking ball when it comes to relationships. The embittered ex-cop tells himself he only took the job guarding Kate because he can’t stand to see the rug rats in her horse camp program in danger. Pretending to be her lover isn’t his idea of a perfect situation, but perfect goes a long way toward describing the chemistry between them. For once in his life, Joe finds he really doesn’t want to screw this one up—personally or professionally.

But if he can’t figure out who’s stalking Kate soon, her next birthday may be her last.

She smelled good, like wildflowers and vanilla. He breathed the scent of her deep into his lungs. When he leaned back he saw her eyelids flutter open. Green as jade, so beautiful her eyes made his chest hurt. Jeezus, she was lethal to him. She made him dizzy. Not good in his line of work.

His body warmed, blood surging to his cock in seconds. He dropped back to the tree trunk, tried to will his hard-on away. This thing between him and Kate was getting out of hand. Not that it should matter. Given enough time he’d screw it up anyway. He always did—somehow. The weird thing was, this time he actually gave a damn if he ruined things with Kate.

“Speaking of Spiderman.” Kate moved to her hands and knees. She crawled closer, straddling his outstretched legs. “Y’know, some of those drawings used to get me really hot. Especially the way his tights hugged over his cock. I swear they gave him a hard-on when he was around the secretary, Betty. And you know the Black Cat’s pussy had him strokin’ off every night.”

Joe’s cock swelled, pressing tight against the zipper of his jeans, his heart rate quickening. “I think most guys had a thought or two about the Black Cat’s pussy.”

His line of sight gave Joe a clear view down Kate’s pink sleeveless blouse hanging from her body and her plump breasts barely contained in her white lacy bra. He kept his hands loose in his lap, her erotic take on the comic deepening her voice and making his body tight.

Kate rubbed her hand up his leg, stopping to massage the tense muscle of his thigh. Her thumbnail brushed the jeans over his sex and then again, jolting sensation through his body.

“I remember staring at the bulge between his legs,” she said, “thinkin’ how hot it would be to pull down those tights and take his hard cock in my mouth. God, it’d be so hot to suck him off while he was still wearing the rest of the costume.”

“Wonder Woman did it for me.” Joe opened his legs as Kate’s hand slid farther up his thigh. “She always had her legs spread when she flew around in her see-through airplane. Used to think about her flying overhead or tying me up with her lasso.”

Kate palmed his cock through his jeans, stroking him so Joe arched against her hold on reflex. She squeezed then turned her hand and rubbed down between his legs, over his balls. He opened his legs wider to give her access, and she scraped her nails against the stiff fabric. His muscles pulled, sensation vibrating through his sex.

“Kate…”

“How about you be my Spiderman and later I’ll be your Wonder Woman?” She didn’t wait for an answer, her little hands moving to work his belt and unfasten his jeans.

Joe’s fevered thoughts pushed concerns about ruining things with Kate from his brain. His cock was hot and swollen with need. He wanted her mouth on him. He wanted to drive his sex through those sweet red lips and feel her sucking him off. He’d worry about…whatever, later.

She tugged at the waistband of his jeans, and he marveled at how effortlessly worries faded when he was with Kate. It was easy being with her, natural. Then Kate’s fingers touched the naked flesh of his cock and he couldn’t think about anything else.

“Stand up.” A wicked smile bloomed across her lips. “I’ve got an idea.”

Kate rushed over to Wizard and untied the rope on her saddle and brought it back. “Give me your hand.”

He did, and she looped the lassoed end around his right wrist then threw the rope over a tree limb a foot or so above his head. She pulled so his arm stretched up, and tied his left wrist to match.

The rope was thick and the knot loose. He could free himself easily, but that wasn’t the point.

“Now I’ve got you, Spiderman.” She crushed herself against him, rocked her hips to squeeze his cock along her belly. She flicked his lips with her tongue.

“This your lasso of truth?” he asked as she dropped to her knees.

“Better. That’s a lasso of lust. Gives every man it captures a rock-solid boner.” Kate jerked his jeans down past his knees. His cock wagged out in front of him, brushing her hair before she looked up at him.

He winked. “It works.”

Kate licked her lips over her smile and caught his shaft in one hand, the other cupping his balls. Joe moaned, his hips rocking forward, his hands wrapping around to fist the rope.

She stroked him from root to head, kneading his balls, and licked a bead of pre-come from the very tip. His breath caught, his body shuddering, every muscle pulling at once. She opened her mouth on him, her lips hot and moist sliding down his shaft, her tongue molding around him, suckling.

Kate grabbed his hips with both hands pushing him back as his cock pulled from the hard suction of her mouth. Electric tingles hummed through the molecules of his body, all of it rushing down to his cock. She reached the tip and nipped with her teeth. And then she took him in again.

His hips found her rhythm without conscious thought. Like the surge of the tide, he rocked in and out of her mouth, the suction pushing and pulling him closer and closer to the brink.

Joe looked down at Kate, at his fat cock driving into her mouth, her red lips snug around him, her eyes closed, fingers digging into his hips. And he drove himself deeper, felt the soft back of her throat against the sensitive head of his cock.

Kate moaned and pulled his hips to do it again. The sight was mesmerizing, the sensation maddening. His heart thundered in his ears, pressure building so fast he could hardly breathe. His hips thrust into her, driving deep, careful not to push too hard. She took him, all of him, the suction so exquisite every muscle in his body seized.

His thighs trembled, his sack pulling snug. He was close, so close. Then she cupped his balls.

“Jeezus… Huuuu…” His cock popped from her mouth, sliding wet and hot along her cheek as he thrust. An instant later his knees buckled as Kate’s mouth latched onto his balls, suckling as swift and sure as she had his sex. Her hand pumped his cock, frantic, as she drew on one testicle and then the other.

Fuck
. A flood of heat washed through his body, his hips driving so fast he could scarcely stand. His body responded to Kate with an alarming force. He was free falling, control gone, tumbling in a swirling flood of sensation.

His flesh hummed over his body, his muscles tense, spring loaded, chest so tight he didn’t breathe, release a coming promise he could nearly taste. She took him into her mouth again and the sultry warmth, the hungry draw was more than he could take.

“Kate, stop. No. I’m… Fuck. Kate.” He couldn’t talk he could hardly think. He plunged his cock into her pretty red lips again and again, too close to release to turn away. Joe yanked against the ropes, but he couldn’t get free, he couldn’t think. He couldn’t think.

She held him, her fingers digging into his ass, driving his hips, controlling the pace, the depths and draws of his thrusts.

“I’m gonna come in your mouth.” His jaw clenched. “Fuck! I wanna…come in your…mouth, Kate. I want… I’m…” Jeezus, he couldn’t stop. He couldn’t stop. And then it was too late to try.

Sweet pressure exploded through his body, liquid heat flooding from the top of his scalp down his chest and out his cock. Muscles flexed, turned to rubber, tension washing out of him in a rush, shooting out his sex, filling her mouth. And still Kate suckled him for more. She fondled his balls, teasing a fresh spasm of come through his shaft, until she’d emptied him completely.

When Kate pulled the sweet heat of her mouth from his cock, Joe shuddered from the loss. He staggered, struggled to catch his balance and his breath.

“Kate…” He swallowed, lethargy fogging through his mind and body. “That was amazing. Jeezus, I can barely stand.”

Kate sat back on her heels, touching her lips with the tips of her fingers. Her smile looked a mix of pride and pleasure, her jewel-green eyes peering up at him through long black lashes.

“You’re bound to go a little weak in the knees when Wonder Woman sucks you off,” she said.

“Wonder Woman’s got nothing on you, honey. No one does.”