Worth the Risk (17 page)

Neither spoke as they entered the suite. The heavy door closed behind her and Hannah walked to the middle of the room, shocked at what Stephen did to her. Taking her from sick and wishing herself into a hole, to bold and hungry in seconds.

She’d tried to get away from that disgusting man at the party but then he’d grabbed her, his fat fingers digging into her upper arm, and—she hadn’t wanted to dance with him, hadn’t wanted him to touch her. Had she yelled it?

Hot hands came down on her bare shoulders and her pulse jumped before she settled.
Stephen
, who made her feel safe and secure even as he made everything inside her quake. She heard the brush of fabric just before his jacket landed on the couch to her right. His tie followed, hit the cushion, and slid to the floor.

Warm lips pressed against the sensitive curve between neck and shoulder, held there, and it somehow did more than a thousand kisses. Like everything about Stephen and what he did to her was more. She let her head drop back to his chest.

He tugged the strip of silk from her fingers. “I’m tempted to order up some chocolate mousse, though somehow I don’t think they’ll get here in time.”

His voice rumbled through her and she felt his smile against her skin. Just like that, he chased away her insecurities, made everything right. She’d seen the anger in his eyes, felt the restrained rage in his body. Knew he fought it for her sake.

He smoothed his palms down her arms and back up again. Traced his lips along the line of hair at her nape. It was all she could do to breathe when he scraped his teeth along her throat. Shuddered when he placed hot, openmouthed kisses over the sting. Chills broke out on her arms when he traced the tip of his tongue around the outside of her ear, bit down gently on the lobe.

“I never danced with you tonight.”

He said it softly, with more than a hint of seduction that sent a thrilling buzz down her spine. “That’s okay.”

“No. It’s not.” His hands slid around to cover her lower belly, then stroked up her sides, stopping just short of where he’d had his mouth minutes ago.

“Have you ever danced with anyone? Stood in a man’s arms while he held you close and swayed to music?”

He pulled her back until she felt him hard against her lower back and a burst of heat flared between her legs. “You know I haven’t.”

“I didn’t.” He turned her, stared down, his eyes intense. “I do now. I’ll be your first dance.”

You’re my first everything.

She met his eyes. “There’s no music.”

“We don’t need any. Put your hands around my neck.”

She did, sliding them up his chest as she went, following the contour of muscle through his shirt. All the strength and power of a savage fighter wrapped up in a sophisticated package. That was Stephen.

With her arms wrapped tight around his neck and his hands firm on her bottom, they moved together to some silent song they both heard.

“I’m glad you were with me tonight. And I’m glad we’re here.” He ran a hand up her back and under her hair and tugged. When he crushed his mouth to hers she felt it all the way to her toes.

Hungry and hurried, desperate and drugging, until her knees were weak and Stephen was the only thing holding her up. Her fingers bit into his neck, combed through the softness of his thick, black hair. She pressed closer, sucked the breath from his lungs when his erection pressed against her belly. Stephen bit out a curse, then lifted her off her feet and walked them both into the bedroom.

The lights were turned down low like the restaurant of their first date. A gas fire danced behind glass. The air was heavy and thick with anticipation as Stephen stood her beside the massive bed.

His lids were heavy, eyes so intense she couldn’t look away. The tension and ferocity had drained out of him, to be replaced by something else. Something she wasn’t entirely sure she understood.

But she wanted to, she thought, as he slid the pins from her hair, unfastened the braid, and loosened it all until it fell around her like a cape. Her heart hammered in her chest when he slowly slipped his fingers under the straps of her dress. Stopped altogether when he smoothed his palms over her shoulders, taking the thin strips as he went. Down her arms, not stopping until the silk dropped in a pool around her feet.

Warm air rushed her body as she stood exposed. On the edge of a cliff in a strong wind. She took a slight step back.

“Don’t.”

He caught her by the shoulders, that one word low and rough. And though her instinct was to run, she wouldn’t. Couldn’t move away from this man who knew her enough to know she wanted to
.

She’d never get used to the way he looked at her, like he was looking at someone else. Like she wasn’t herself, couldn’t be, standing there in nothing but black lace panties and heels.

His hot gaze raked over her and she shook inside and out. To the point she could barely breathe. To the point he had to see it.

“You’re so beautiful. I don’t know where to touch you first.”

“Anywhere.”
Everywhere.

He made a sound low in his throat, almost a growl, and reached past her, tore back the bedding and deposited her on the enormous bed.

“Look at you. So beautiful and spread out before me like a feast.”

She lay there on the silk sheets, the mattress soft and plush as a cloud, thinking so was he, tall and sinfully gorgeous, standing beside the bed like a god. Then his shirt fell away and her thoughts scattered.

Fine black hair swirled around his chest and she wanted to kiss him there, follow the pattern with her tongue. It trailed down the hard ridges of his stomach, narrowed into a dark line that would have disappeared, but he released his belt and pushed his pants and boxers over his hips.

She only got a glimpse of his erection, standing thick and ready, before his body came over hers. He got rid of her panties, left the shoes. Then, true to his word, he feasted on her. Hot mouth and big hands spreading fire everywhere he touched. Rough kisses followed by soft brushes that made her tremble. She ran her palms up his torso, mesmerized by the size and shape of him. So gorgeous, so perfectly male she was amazed by it.

Clever fingers trailed down her stomach, and lower, just grazing her center. He circled her breast with his tongue, starting underneath and spiraling inward. His warm mouth was followed by cool air, bringing chills. He repeated it, his fingers between her legs, his mouth on her breast, each time going closer, making her hotter. He was destroying her, pushing her past all limits until she wasn’t aware of anything but Stephen. His scent. His hands on her body. The way he felt, silken skin over hard muscle.

He was healing her even if he didn’t know it. With every caress. Every kiss.

Finally, he took her nipple between his lips and sucked so hard it brought a rush straight to her core. Her breath quickened and his hands moved over her in a rush. Everywhere they touched, her body hummed, everywhere he kissed sang. Until all those places blended together and her entire body was a mass of sensations. Until she was vibrating with it.

Just when she felt one touch from igniting, he stopped, caught her face in his hands. His lips hovered a breath away and fierce, dark eyes searched hers. “Are you afraid of me?”

Her heart raced. She thought of the party. Her dreams. The dark. “I’m afraid of everything. I’m—”

“Are you afraid of
me
?” he repeated, his voice almost pleading, and she shook her head.

“Say it.”

“I’m not afraid of you.” And she wasn’t. She was hot and burning for this man. Just Stephen.

He shifted. A package crackled, tore, and he settled between her thighs. Her body thrummed with tension, uncertainty giving way to need. Then with their eyes locked, he laced their fingers and slowly entered her inch by inch.

“That’s it, baby. Relax around me.” His voice was thick as he eased back, then forward again.

Even with her body wet and ready for him, there was pain and pressure as her body stretched to accommodate him. Streaks of fire charged along every nerve ending.

“Okay?” He stilled, waiting for an answer. His body trembled, beads of sweat gathered at his temples.

Her heart swelled at the question even as she nodded. She wanted this, to be closer to him, as close as she could be. He stretched one hand above her head and held it, dove the fingers of his other into her hair. And with their bodies joined he kissed her like he never had before. Without finesse or control until she couldn’t breathe. Until she couldn’t think and her mind and body gave in to his slow, sure strokes.

Her arms came around him, pulling him closer as their bodies moved, skin on skin. He pulled her thighs high up on his hips, moved faster and harder. Hunger rose to desperation. Pleasure built, gathered, and grew to that one final point when the world seemed to stop. And she had the thought there were places inside her she hadn’t even known were empty until Stephen filled them.

Then she hung at the top on a long, timeless second before her orgasm crashed over and through her violently. His name screamed in her mind though she had no idea if any sound came out.

He thrust deep again and again, drawing it out, keeping her on the wave. Then once more, pressing his face into her neck before he followed her over.

Time passed with nothing but their ragged breathing and the beating of their hearts. His big body covered hers like a blanket, pressing her into the cloudlike mattress. Her mind felt sluggish, emotionally spent, but strangely alive at the same time. He tensed to move away and she tightened her hold. “Stay.”

“Too heavy,” he murmured and rolled, reversing their positions.

Okay, this was nice, too. Her body draped over his. His heartbeat strong against her ear while his hand made a lazy run up and down her back. It was perfect and she drifted, knowing she’d been sheltered her entire life but never felt entirely safe.

Until now.

Waking up next to Hannah was like…he wanted to say like waking up to the sun, but that sounded ridiculous. But watching her sleep, sprawled on her stomach, one arm bent under her pillow, angelic face turned toward him…it didn’t seem so ridiculous.

The covers had slipped down to her hips, revealing enticing dips and rolls leading to her very perfect ass he’d kissed just hours ago.

With his head on his own pillow, he swept back a long piece of hair lying across her cheek. Combed his fingers gently through the silky strands and breathed in her scent. The scent of them together.

He stroked one finger over her feathered brow, around the delicate shell of her ear. She had no idea how perfect she was. How perfect she’d been last night. The way she’d taken him into her body, come apart under him and around him, crying out his name. The way she opened to him like she did for no one else, it did something to him. Knowing he was her first, that no other man had ever touched her, kissed her…it mattered.

His hand cruised midway down her back. He hadn’t seen this side of her last night. Instead, he’d faced her, watched her eyes go wide with surprise, seen the initial shock until they softened with desire.

And without a thought beyond Hannah, looking right into her eyes, he’d slipped deeper. Wanting to see her and her to see him. To remember this and picture his face. And more than anything for her not to be afraid.

Her eyelids fluttered, long lashes blinked, and golden brown eyes found his. “Hi.”

“Hi.” It had been a very long time since he’d woken with a woman and now he’d done so with her twice in one week. He wasn’t sure what that meant, if it meant anything, and he wouldn’t think about it now. He was guilty of many things, but he wouldn’t regret being with Hannah. Not when she was lying here so warm and loose against him. Naked and exposed in the morning light and smiling.

He scooted closer and she turned to him, stretching her arm across his chest. He fingered the strands of her hair spread over him, twirled a piece around his finger. He liked holding her all warm and soft and sleepy. Their bare legs brushed and he had a crazy thought not to leave this bed. Ever. “This is nice.”

She angled her head back to look at him. “What? Twirling my hair?”

“Yes. Now I see why you do it all the time.” He’d meant lying here naked was nice, but he grinned and kissed her head. When he did, he caught a shadow quickly pass, then gone. “What?” He didn’t want her to hide again. Didn’t want her to think she needed to.

“Nothing.”

“Hannah. You can tell me. Anything. Everything.”

She took a breath to speak, then stopped, sighed. “He shaved my head.”

Everything in him stilled, and he instinctively tightened his arms around her
.

“Don’t get upset.” She tucked her face into his shoulder. “It was a long time ago.”

“I’m not.”

He felt her smile against his chest. “You’re a terrible liar.”

He tried to relax. For her. And because he wanted to know everything, she would tell him. Everything about her. He stroked his finger along a thin scar running across her arm. God, he couldn’t imagine what she’d gone through and had continued to go through long after. “Do you still have pain?”

“Some. Mostly when it’s cold, or if I do too much. But I’m pretty much bionic now. I’ve got enough plates and rods and screws in me to build a small car.”

It amazed him that she could joke about it. Any of it. But that was Hannah. “What were you like before?”

“Hmm. I went to school. Argued with my brothers. I was different before. Confident and sure of myself, tired of my brothers telling me what to do. Getting too big for my britches. I was taking college classes and I—”

“Wait. College? At fourteen?”

“I scored really high on a standardized test in seventh grade.
Really
high. I took a few classes as part of a special program.”

“So you were a genius?
Are
a genius.”

She gave a little shrug. “I don’t know. In some ways, I guess. I could hear something once and remember it, understand it. I could read most anything before kindergarten and I read a
lot.

“My brothers all worked, sometimes they’d drag me along. I’d sit in Nick’s office for hours and read. When I got bored with that he’d set me up with math games at his computer. I liked it. I was good at it. I could do algebra at seven, geometry at nine. And then…” She stopped, seemed to hold her breath.

“And then?”

“It all ended. I didn’t even graduate from high school.”

“Not everything ended.”

“No. Not everything. I was still alive.”

But just barely. And it broke his heart. “What did you do?”

“Nothing. I mean literally. I had surgeries, went to therapy only because they made me. Other than that I just sat. My brothers begged me, bullied me. I was almost eighteen years old and I was going nowhere. I didn’t care. So deep inside myself I just got lost.”

Like he’d done. Would she understand if he told her the darkness he’d found there?

“I was trapped, stuck inside a broken and constantly hurting body, and then I saw the horses. They were out there free in the blowing grass and…I can’t explain it. I just knew that’s what I needed. So I made a deal with Nick. He would take me to the barn to ride if I went to school. So I did. I still had a few more surgeries to undergo. I got stronger. Got my GED, slowly took college classes. Baby steps.

“Riding did more for me in six months than physical therapy had done in three years. I put away saddles instead of lifting weights. I brushed horses and mucked stalls instead of stretching.”

“So you knew what you wanted to do.”

“Yes. I knew with all my heart. And I hadn’t wanted to do anything for so long. But more than that, it was the only place I trusted myself.”

“Why?” He caught her hand, kissed her fingers and linked them with his.

“Because…I wasn’t taken. I went with him.” Her voice was so heavy with pain and remorse and guilt.

“Hannah.”

“I’m not blaming myself, not exactly, but it’s the truth no one wants to talk about. I didn’t see it. How can a person not see such an evil? How can a person even be so evil?”

He pressed his lips to the top of her head almost desperately, trying not to think of all the things she wasn’t seeing in him. “I’m sorry.”

“I survived.”

“Yes. You did. More than survived. You make a difference.” And she amazed him.

“Do you think I’m going to lose the land? The barn, all of it?”

“No.” Because he wasn’t going to let that happen.

“You seem sure.”

“I am.” He thought again to tell her his own company had been interested, but he held back. Maybe he wanted this…whatever it was, between them, to have nothing to do with business. Or maybe he didn’t want her to know that if he hadn’t known her, and if he’d thought it was profitable, he wouldn’t have hesitated to go after it.

“Hey.” He lifted her chin with a finger. “If not there, you can do it somewhere else. It wouldn’t be the end.” He’d find her the perfect spot, somewhere even better. He’d design it and build it, make it so she could do whatever she wanted, have whatever she wanted.

“I know it’s just a place, and God knows people have way worse problems, but…in a lot of ways that place saved me.”

Like Trace had saved him. “I get it. I do. It might look like steel and glass but after…everything, Trace Development gave me something to live for. Something to want, something else to think about. I cut myself off from my family. Just tried to turn everything off.” Because it hurt. And because feeling anything scared him.

“I think my brothers wanted the old me back. Maybe they still do, want to go back in time and make it not have happened. But they can’t and that girl doesn’t exist anymore.”

He danced his fingers over her face in a light caress. Both of them had been touched by evil. How was it she’d come out the other side so much more intact than he had? “My family worries, I know they do. They want the old me back too. I pretty much snapped.”

“Sometimes I think maybe we’re all just one rubber band away. I mean, you see people snap all the time, right?”

Maybe.

She shifted until her chin rested on his chest, and she smiled that beautiful smile. “And you know what?”

“What?”

“I like who you are now.”

She undid him. Looking at him like that, smiling at him like that. It was almost too much to take. Shaken, he pulled her face up to his, met her lips, encouraged by her soft sighs. Then, in the brightening morning light, he ran his tongue along every line that marred her delicate skin. Covered every mark with kisses as if he could erase them.

He’d missed this. Loving a woman. Being gentle. But with Hannah it was more. He stroked and teased until she was ready for him, then slid into her slowly and began a sensual dance that took them both over the top.