Hot Blooded Read online

  “Maybe I wasn’t ready to talk to you.”

  Adam’s chest lifted then fell. The light dimmed in his eyes. “Guess this was a bad idea, then.” His gaze slid away. “Did you like the flowers?”

  Cass tilted her chin. “What girl wouldn’t?”

  One dark brow arched. His eyes cut back to lock with hers. “I meant what I wrote on each card.”

  The deep texture of his voice and the need evident in his taut features convinced her. A curl of tension, a delightful hint of anticipation unfolded inside her. “Apology accepted.”

  A swallow moved his throat, and he took a step closer. “Johnny’s gone.”

  “Would it be callous for me to say I’m glad? I didn’t know how I’d look him in the eye in the light of day.”

  “I’m hoping he won’t be gone that long. Is that a problem?”

  “Depends on whether you can look at him and me and not go primal.”

  His mouth twitched. “Seeing you look at me like that is all that takes.”

  “Like what?” she said, breathlessly.

  His hands closed around her upper arms and pulled her toward him. “Like you can’t wait another second to have me slidin’ up inside you.”

  Cass snuggled her hips closer, and Adam widened his stance. His cock hardened against her lower belly. “This place still isn’t ideal,” she muttered. “You couldn’t have set the coordinates on your bedroom?”

  “I didn’t want you running the other way.”

  Cass closed her eyes and leaned her cheek against his shoulder. “I’m through running. I’m through fighting, unless we both enjoy it.”

  Adam’s chest shook. “I’ll always win. I’m bigger than you.”

  “I’m meaner, but I’ll let you win.”

  His arms crept slowly around her waist. “Because you like being at my mercy?” he asked, his cheek nuzzling her hair.

  “I like being completely open. Vulnerable. Maybe even a little afraid.”

  “I won’t ever hurt you again.”

  “Don’t make promises I won’t let you keep.”

  “You liked being spanked?”

  “A well-aimed slap can be very…inspiring.”

  “The truck?”

  Her head lifted and she wrinkled her nose. “I’d just as soon not burn my ass again.”

  “Come home with me now?”

  She smiled, then groaned and settled her forehead against his chest. “Can’t. I’m on duty. I can’t just leave.”

  “You’re covered.”

  Her head tilted back to enjoy the wicked smile that curved his firm lips. “Mavis?”

  “She’s already planted a cover story. You went home sick. She caught you throwing up in the ladies room.”

  Her eyes widened and she punched his arm. “They’re all going to think I’m pregnant.”

  “Is it a possibility?”

  Cass’s mouth opened to deny it, but then she remembered. “You didn’t use a condom. I’m not on the pill.”

  He shrugged. “I’m healthy.”

  “So am I.”

  “Would it be so bad?”

  “Depends.”

  “You’re always qualifying your responses. Would it?”

  “Depends on how you’d feel about it. I’d hate to make Mavis look like a liar. Sweet old lady like that.” Cass smiled, relaxing as Adam’s hands moved from her waist to cup her cheeks. She rose on tiptoe to meet his kiss. “Need a damn ladder,” she murmured when his mouth lifted from hers.

  “Not when we’re horizontal, sweetheart.”

  Cass smiled, feeling a little misty eyed and trying not to let him read the deep contentment she felt standing inside his embrace. She wasn’t ready to give him everything he demanded—not yet. And not because he hadn’t atoned for hurting her. She’d done her share of harm to his heart and pride.

  Cass wanted to savor the journey. Not in a million years could she have conceived of wanting a man so fiercely.

  If all she’d felt was a strong attraction she could have milked it for pure pleasure then walked away. But she hadn’t planned on his relentless pursuit, which had amused and mystified her. She’d landed hard on a slippery slope and come dangerously close to losing everything.

  As Adam bent to capture her lips again, she clutched his shoulders and rose to meet him halfway. She’d thought climbing cliffs was the ultimate thrill, but claiming Adam’s heart just might prove the greater joy.

  Adam pressed Cass’s hands to the pillow beneath her head and leaned back, sweeping her naked body with a possessive glance.

  “All mine,” he whispered, dropping a kiss on a pale pink nipple.

  “To do anything you please,” she agreed, letting his hair sift through her fingers.

  He nuzzled the side of her round breast. “I’ve been a bastard.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “I’m just realizing I never kissed these,” he said, dipping again to latch on to one tight peak.

  Cass moaned and one thigh lifted to ride his hip.

  He took the hint and came over her, releasing her nipple and scooting upward until his face hovered above hers.

  Their kiss was a slow, sweet melding of lips. When they came up for air, he was already nudging between her slick folds. Her gaze clung to his face. Trust, pleasure, and a poignant yearning were reflected in moist, green eyes and soft, parted lips.

  Warmth filled his chest. He cupped her face and leaned his forehead against hers. “I love you, Cass.”

  “I love you, too.” She smiled, the moisture in her eyes trickling into her pale hair.

  Her hips undulated, tilting upward to ease his entry. Liquid heat surrounded his cock, and he began to move inside her.

  Cass sighed and wrapped her legs around him, then slipped her arms beneath him to scrape her fingertips down his spine.

  Adam shuddered. The moment was perfect. Pressed against soft, warm skin, he plunged into a pussy so tight and wet it felt like a moistened fist clutching at his shaft. His mind drifted, imagining many more days and nights spent sinking between his woman’s thighs, claiming her heart and body.

  “This is nice, but I want all of you.”

  Adam buried his face against the soft corner of her shoulder to hide a smile, fiercely glad Cass was every bit as possessive of him.

  He leaned away, coming up on his knees. Her legs fell away and he hooked his arms beneath her knees, lifting her ass off the bed.

  Cass reached between them, grasped his cock in her greedy fist, and fit his cock to her entrance again. Then she reached above her head to brace her hands against the headboard and gave him the look that had intrigued him from the very start. Her chin tilted upward. Her eyes glittered with challenge.

  Adam’s eyelids dipped and he formed his lips into a small, tight smile. He thrust hard, grinding inward at the end, then withdrew and slammed back inside. He did it again, and again, watching her tanned face tighten and flush a deeper pink and her breasts jiggle with the vigorous fucking.

  “Dear God, Adam!” she said, between clenched teeth. “More!”

  A laugh gusted from him, and he dropped her legs and urged her to turn and come up on her knees. He blanketed her back and kissed her sweaty nape. “How do you want it, sweetheart?”

  She reached one hand behind her to caress his cheek. “Nasty. Hard.”

  He pressed a kiss to her shoulder and straightened. Then he pushed between her shoulders until she sank to her elbows and her sweet ass rose in front of him. Adam grinned. Cass never did the expected. He wouldn’t either.

  Gripping both cheeks, he squeezed, then let them go and delivered a stinging slap to each.

  Cass’s face sank to the bed. “Please, please, please…”

  He grasped his cock just below the crown and circled her opening, moistening the tip.

&
nbsp; “Don’t play. Fuck me. Now!”

  Adam dropped spit onto the tip and smeared it with his thumb, then rubbed the tip against the small furled hole above her pussy.

  “Adam?” she asked, her voice thinning, alarm making her thighs and buttocks tense.

  “Breathe slowly, relax. You trust me, don’t you?” he rasped, enjoying the way she trembled.

  Her back rose and fell with her shallow breaths, and Adam took that as permission to continue. He placed his cock against the entrance, pressed both thumbs against either side to open it, and flexed to push inside.

  His breath hissed between his lips as intense pressure closed around him.

  Cass’s head sank harder against the bed, and her fists clutched the coverlet so hard her knuckles whitened.

  “Breathe,” he whispered. “Let me in.”

  “I can’t,” she moaned. “Burns.”

  “Is that so bad?” he asked, quickly dropping a hand beneath his cock and fingering her pussy.

  Scalding cream soaked his hand, and Adam spit against his fingers to lube his shaft, wishing he’d thought ahead of time to have a tube of lubricant handy.

  But he couldn’t stop now. Unless she asked him to. One word and he’d withdraw even if it killed him.

  However, Cass continued to moan beneath him. He toggled her clit and began to circle on it. When a small sexy convulsion tightened around his fingers, he pushed a little deeper into her ass and withdrew, screwing deeper and deeper in increments.

  Her clit ripened, hardening until he could pluck it. He gently dug his fingers around it until he felt a slight narrowing at the base and squeezed.

  Cass went rigid beneath him.

  “Too much?” he whispered urgently.

  “Fuck! Adam…Adam!” Her hips jerked, and then jerked again.

  Encouragement enough. He plunged into her ass, deepening his strokes as he held her clit firmly and rolled it between his fingers, judging her comfort with the manipulation by the tenor of her thin, whimpering cries.

  The tight ring of muscle cinching his cock was just enough to prevent his coming. He needed it, because he was plunging through hot tissue, his fingers drenched in liquid silk.

  Cass’s breath caught and then she cried out, thrusting back to meet him. When she shuddered to a halt, he let go of her clit, gripped her hips and hammered her ass, until his own release erupted. He closed his eyes, his fingers sinking deep into her flesh as he thrust her forward and back.

  When the agonizing pleasure faded, he held her still, his chest dragging deep breaths into starved lungs, and his concern turned from his needs to hers.

  He pulled slowly out and eased her hips to the side on the mattress, then came down beside her, wrapping his arms around her. “Are you all right?” he asked, sliding his cheek along her shoulder.

  Her hand came up, aimless, wavering, and he reached up to grasp it and bring it to his lips. “Did I hurt you?”

  “A little warning next time,” she said, her voice weak. “I can’t seem…to catch my breath.”

  She hadn’t answered. Damn. He untangled himself from her and strode to the bathroom where he washed and soaked a cloth in steaming water. When he came back, she was in exactly the same position he’d left her.

  Carefully, he cleansed her, and then pulled the sheet up to cover her.

  “Aren’t you coming back?” she asked.

  When he gazed down at her face, he noted the fatigue that deepened the brackets beside her lips.

  He should have felt guilty, but again, bastard that he was, he felt a flush of exultation that he’d exhausted her, that he’d claimed another piece of her.

  “You’re mine, Cass.”

  Her eyes opened, her gaze tangling with his. “I’m yours.” A smile turned up the corners of her lips. “But I’m sore.”

  “I’m sorry,” he rumbled.

  One brow curved. “No you’re not.”

  “You’re right,” he grinned. “Did I hurt you?”

  “Why should I answer that? When it’s not going to make you feel anything but…manly?”

  Adam lay on the bed, his back against the headboard, and pulled her up against his chest.

  Her head tilted, her cheek sliding on his chest. “I could get addicted to this feeling.”

  “To being sore?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “Don’t be a jerk.” Her face relaxed and he could have sworn it began to glow. “I could become addicted to your loving. My whole body feels completely boneless, but I’ve also never felt so alive.”

  “Better than clawing your way up to the top of The Fortress Cliff without ropes?”

  “You’re scarier. I could take one wrong step…”

  “Then you have no worries, Cass. I won’t let you fall.” He kissed her forehead. “Sleep.”

  She snuggled closer and closed her eyes, falling to sleep in moments.

  Adam reached out and turned off the lamp. As he closed his own eyes, he wondered how long Mavis could string along the “sick” excuse, because he wasn’t letting Cass leave his bed until she said yes.

  About the Author

  Up until recently, award-winning author Delilah Devlin lived in South Texas at the intersection of two dry creeks, surrounded by sexy cowboys in Wranglers. These days, she’s missing the wide-open skies and starry nights, but loving her dark forest in central Arkansas with its eccentric characters and isolation--the better to feed her hungry muse! To Delilah, the greatest sin is driving between the lines because it’s comfortable and safe. Her personal journey has taken her through one war, many countries, cultures, jobs and relationships to bring her to the place she travels now--writing sexy novels that hold more than a kernel of autobiography and often share a common thread of self-discovery and transformation. To learn more about Delilah Devlin, visit www.delilahdevlin.com.