. She was too vulnerable if her mother wasn’t awake and aware. But somehow, Dash had instilled a trust in her that had snuck up on her in the past twenty-four hours.
He had killed to protect her and Cassie. He had followed them in a blizzard, risked his own life to bring them to a place where they could heal, where they could rest, at least for a time. She no longer suspected him of betrayal, and perhaps that surprised her more than anything.
As exhaustion wrapped around her, though, it wasn’t trust or betrayal that fed the rich visions within her mind. It was Dash. Naked, fresh from the shower, his body pressed hard against her, her hand overfilled with the hard length of his cock. She didn’t think she had ever known heat as intense as she had when he brought her hand down and wrapped it around the rigid flesh. His eyes had flared. A betraying warmth and wet heat had assailed her pussy, making her throb, ache. She was still aching.
His kiss—she shifted restlessly—his kiss was like rough velvet and summer lightning. His taste was dark, heady. She could well imagine him laying her on a bed, his body covering hers, pressing her into the mattress, heavy and demanding as he placed himself between her thighs.
She almost moaned at the image, needing him with her now. Needing him to cover her, take her, finish out his threat to fuck her so hard and deep she couldn’t still her cries. She had never been taken like that. Dane hadn’t exactly been a passionate lover. And his kisses had never made her burn. Right now, Elizabeth was burning.
Dash stepped into the living room, then came to a complete abrupt stop. His eyes swung to where Elizabeth lay, apparently sleeping, her body shifting restlessly on the couch. What was she dreaming? He could smell her arousal, hot and sweet, wrapping around him, tempting every primitive instinct rising in his body. His cock came to full, surging attention beneath his jeans; his flesh suddenly felt overly sensitive, as though he could feel the very air whispering around him.
He heard Serena puttering in the kitchen getting lunch together. The kids’ voices echoed from the heated garage where they now played. Mike was still in the study, waiting on the call from Kane Tyler with word on the request Dash had made. He hoped the other man wasn’t foolish enough to refuse him. A trip to Virginia via more conventional mode wouldn’t set well with Dash.
All that faded, though. The hot surge of arousal and need that swept over his body in that moment was so intense, so demanding, it had him automatically stopping to still the response. Never had a woman made him this damned hungry. So hungry he wanted nothing more than to throw her to her knees and mount her like the animal that resided inside him. If he didn’t take her soon, he was going to go mad.
He stalked slowly into the living room, head lowered, his eyes going over her slender body, her full breasts pressing against the soft cotton of her blouse. A button had come undone, displaying a small amount of cleavage. She was still decently dressed, but the soft upper mounds of her breasts made his mouth water.
She would be wearing one of the silk and lace bras he had bought her, he thought. The ones with the little front clip, easy to release and peel away. Her breasts were full; her nipples were hard, so damned hard and tight beneath her shirt that his tongue ached to curl around them.
He knelt to the floor beside her, his hand lifting, his fingers smoothing a stray strand of silken hair from her cheek. Her whispered sigh was almost a moan, her pouty lips parting as though for his kiss.
She needed her sleep, he told himself as he stared down at her. She didn’t need him awakening her, molesting her in her sleep. Too many choices had been taken away from her; he didn’t want to take that from her too.
He was aware of Serena slipping on a coat in the kitchen, the whisper of the sliding doors as she left the house. Privacy. For what? For the hunger to rage inside him until he devoured her? He didn’t think so. Didn’t think she was ready for that step just yet.
Her eyes opened then. They were drowsy, slumberous, staring up at him with a hunger that was impossible to miss.
“I felt you,” she whispered, a smile tilting her moist lips. “Watching me. Should I feel you watching me?”
Was she asleep or awake?
“Of course.” He found the growl building in his throat. “Every time I look at you, baby, I touch you.”
Her cheeks flushed as her hand reached up to touch his face. Cool, silken fingertips brushed over his flesh before they touched his lips. They traced the curves, her eyes darkening with need, the scent of her arousal wrapping around him until he wanted to drown in it. Drown in her.
His lips opened, drawing one of the slender tips into his mouth, caressing it with his tongue as he wanted to caress one of the hard little nipples poking against her shirt. His hand settled just under one of the swollen curves, plumping it up as a spark of surprise lit her eyes.
“When I get you beneath me, I’m going to devour you,” he told her harshly as her finger slid from his mouth. “Every inch of your body, Elizabeth, I’ll make burn for me.”
She was breathing roughly now. Her breasts rising and falling with her quick breaths.
“I already burn,” she admitted with slumberous sensuality.
“I’ll make you burn brighter,” he promised as his lips lowered, but rather than moving to her lips, he allowed his own to whisper over the soft curve of her breast revealed by the slipped button.
Her breath caught. He could smell her wet heat building, knew her cunt was pulsing, spilling the soft liquid of her arousal. And he wanted to taste it. Wanted to bury his tongue so deep between her thighs that he would always be a part of her.
“Dash.” Her sigh was thick with pleasure as his thumb reached up and rasped over her hard little nipple.
It was killing him to touch her like this. To maintain a façade of decency when all he wanted to do was strip her and pound so hard and fast inside her gripping cunt that denying the need was agony.
“I have to stop this,” he groaned, allowing his tongue to rake over her fragrant flesh. “Now, Elizabeth, or I’ll embarrass both of us.”
He would do worse than that. He would be fucking her on his host’s couch within minutes if he didn’t get the hell away from her. Mike was a pretty understanding guy, but Dash didn’t think he would appreciate coming in from the study to find his guests fucking their way to oblivion on his couch.
He raised his head, seeing the hard flush of desire on her cheeks, her knowledge of where they were and who could walk in at any moment. She cleared her throat and swallowed tightly as he settled back and watched her. She pushed herself up until she was sitting on the couch, her trembling fingers fumbling with the button of her shirt.
“Let me.” He brushed her hands aside and committed the ultimate sin. He buttoned her shirt, once again covering the perfection of the delicate curves.
“Dash.” He could hear it in her voice. Knew what was coming. A carefully constructed excuse. A denial of what he knew would happen.
“Don’t.” He laid his finger against her lips. “It’s going to happen, Elizabeth. You know it and I know it. Don’t make excuses and don’t try to deny it. When the time is right, when I have the privacy and the time to make you burn so hot you’re screaming, it’s going happen. Don’t think it won’t.”
Her eyes widened. Her little pink tongue peeked out to moisten her rose-tinted lips. The low moan that rumbled from his throat had her cheeks flushing further.
“Hey, Dash.” Mike forestalled anything she would have said as he walked in from the hallway.
He paused, staring back at them. His expression suddenly reflected a wry apology. “Sorry. I was going to get lunch as soon as I could drag Serena back into the house. Hungry?”
Oh, he was hungry all right, Dash thought. He glanced at Elizabeth, seeing her chagrin.
“Lunch?” he asked softly.
She cleared her throat. “Lunch.”
Chapter Ten
The tension slowly building between them didn’t ease. Dash stayed locked in the study with Mike for t
he better part of the day, but he came out often. And when he did, he came searching for Elizabeth.
He gave her soft touches. A hand on her shoulder, at her waist, as he eased her against him. He smiled down at her, stealing cookies when she and Serena weren’t looking, his eyes glittering with heat. He wouldn’t wait much longer. Elizabeth could feel it in his tense body, see it in the way he looked at her. He had claimed her before he ever met her and soon, he would make good on that claim.
Finally, that evening, she found a few minutes to pin him down on the progress being made. Sitting around the house and waiting was wearing on her nerves. She could only rest so much. Serena was a perfect hostess, the kids got along well, and Elizabeth found herself filled with so much nervous energy now it was hard to control it. She was used to running and worrying. She wasn’t used to a place of safety or any amount of time on her hands that wasn’t filled with the fight for survival.
After dinner, Mike and Serena took the girls to the living room, leaving her and Dash in the kitchen to talk. Dash watched her closely as they left, his eyes somber, reflective, though arousal lurked hot and impatiently in the very depths of his gaze.
“What have you found out?” she asked him after the children were resting in front of the large television in the Toler’s family room.
Serena and Mike were sitting in the living room with the girls as Elizabeth and Dash finished their coffee in the kitchen. Elizabeth watched Cassie for long moments, seeing a shadow of the once playful little girl she had been. Her heart clenched. Cassie had lost so much.
When Dash didn’t speak, she turned back to him, seeing his narrowed gaze on the little girl.
He turned back to her, his golden eyes pensive.
“Only more questions,” he said quietly. “Grange has a lot of money on her head, Elizabeth. More than reasonable, given the situation.”
Elizabeth snorted. “She saw him kill her father, Dash. She could have him locked away for a long time.”
Dash shook his head.
“Look at this logically, Elizabeth.” He leaned forward as she felt nerves replace the quiet calm that had been settling inside her. “Your husband was in deep with Grange. So he sells Cassie to him. I can see Grange wanting to get rid of the bastard, I really can, but,” he paused as he watched her closely, “why in front of Cassie? To scare her? I don’t think so. He has enough sense to see how much easier it would be to achieve his ends if he takes her away and then kills her father. None of this adds up.”
Elizabeth licked her lips nervously. There was no other explanation. It had to add up.
“Maybe he just didn’t care,” she hissed. “He’s killed and killed, Dash, and not cared.”
He shook his head again. Elizabeth clenched her fingers on the coffee cup as he began tearing down the only reasons she could find for the hell she and Cassie had been through.
“He’s killed secretively,” he told her softly. “Everyone but Dane Colder. They were obvious murders but there was no way to tie him to them, or to you and Cassie. He’s been trying to throw a very carefully constructed shield around the two of you. Running you ragged when he could have caught you several times.”
Elizabeth breathed in roughly. “We were lucky.” At least, that was what she had been trying to tell herself.
“You were.” He was watching her intently. “Too lucky, Elizabeth. Things aren’t adding up here. Until I can find a way to make them add up, then I keep working. If I have to, I go hunting. But I would like to get the information I need before I take that route. What exactly does Cassie remember about that night?”
The threat of an intended hunt hung between them as the final question was voiced. The one Elizabeth had been dreading.
“She wasn’t making sense when I got her out of that room. She was almost hyperventilating she was so terrified, trying so hard not to make a sound. I couldn’t make sense of anything she was saying once we got to the car. I couldn’t understand a word of it.” She fought to hold back the pain, the horror of that night. “She was completely silent for hours after that and then tried to act as though nothing had happened. I dressed her, took her straight to the police, and while we were there, two of his goons slipped in. Right before they got to the office we were in, Cassie started going crazy on me. She was adamant they were coming. I was so terrified I rushed her from the room. His men were coming down the hall as we left the office. We barely got away.”
Dash frowned. “How did Cassie know?”
A bitter smile twisted her lips. “Her fairy,” she sighed roughly. “Whatever the hell the ‘fairy’ is, it’s saved us more than once.”
Dash pushed his fingers through his hair wearily, causing the soft strands to feather around his face. He was worried. Elizabeth could see the frustration building inside him. Just as it had built inside her over the past two years.
They went over and over her memories of that night. Dash questioned her until she was ready to explode, until her nerves were strung tight and fear twisted her gut. It didn’t make sense. It never had. Facing that wasn’t easy.
Finally, he returned to the study with Mike to make more calls, to search for more answers. Elizabeth watched him leave then turned, searching for Cassie. She frowned, seeing the pinched, almost fearful, expression in her daughter’s face as she watched the two men leave the room.
Finally, the little girl’s head lowered and she stared down at her hands as though they were someone else’s before turning back to the television. Elizabeth frowned as a sudden fear struck her. Was there more to it? Something more that Cassie was aware of and hadn’t told her?
Elizabeth raked her fingers through her hair at that thought. She had questioned Cassie relentlessly those first months, fighting for answers. “I don’t know, Momma. I don’t know,” was her standard response to most of them.
She remembered her father stripping her gown from her body and pushing her to Grange as the other man picked her up.
“If you can keep her mother off your back,” Dane had challenged him. “A bit more time and I’ll have custody.”
“Who needs custody? No one will find her where she’s going,” Grange had responded before killing Dane in front of his daughter.
There was nothing else Cassie could tell her. Grange had come for her and Dane had wanted to wait until he could hand her over without problems. Grange had been unwilling to wait.
Later than night, after bathing Cassie and tucking her into bed, Elizabeth stood and watched the sleeping little girl. Dash’s questions had bothered her, made her look harder into the past two years now that she had a chance to take a breath and think. She didn’t like the confusion filling her mind or the sudden need to question Cassie further. The only person here who held the answers they needed was Cassie, and she feared the day was rapidly approaching that she would have to be questioned.
She lowered her head, shaking it slowly, needing Dash. Needing just a few more minutes to cherish the calm they had found in the middle of this horrifying nightmare. He was like an oasis of calm, of strength that she suddenly found herself craving.
All too soon she knew their time of quiet and safety would end and they would once again be thrown into the harsh reality of the situation they were in. But for now, she could be a woman. A woman suddenly faced with the first man who had ever made her burn, made her long to cast aside common sense and lie beneath him, whimpering in pleasure.
“Hey.” He was there. His voice whispered from the connecting door as she stood at the end of the bed, staring at her daughter yet seeing only the changes within herself.
Elizabeth turned to him slowly.
God, he looked good. Tall and broad, his muscular body backlit by the bathroom light. Jeans hugged his lean hips, denim cupping the full bulge between his thighs. She wanted to cup it, she realized insanely, feel his thick cock, not against her abdomen, but burrowing deep and hard inside the tight muscles of her cunt. Her breasts swelled beneath her gown. Her nipples peaked and her pussy bega
n to moisten further. Just as guilt threaded its way through her soul.
Her daughter’s life was in danger and the moment she found a chance to rest, she was thinking of fucking instead, of riding him, straddling his hard body, feeling him surge inside her.
Elizabeth cleared her throat. “She finally went to sleep.” She gestured to Cassie. “I was just watching her.”
Liar, a voice inside her screamed. His expression hinted that he suspected the falsehood as well. The sensuous heated light in his eyes made her pussy burn, her breasts swell with longing.
“Come talk to me a minute while she’s asleep.” His gaze was hooded, demanding.
Elizabeth stared at him uncomprehendingly for a long moment. Talk to him? Alone? She stilled the weakness in her knees at the thought of it. She didn’t want to talk. Not yet.
“I’m tired…”
“Elizabeth.” His voice was faintly chiding now. “Do you think I’m going to hurt you? Even now?”
She shook her head. No. She knew he wasn’t going to hurt her. At least, not deliberately. It wasn’t the pain she feared now, it was the closeness developing between them. It had become a bond she didn’t understand and one she feared she would never escape.
“Come on.” He held his hand out to her. “We’ll hear Cassie if she wakes up.”
She took a deep, steady breath. She had known the time would come when they would have to talk. Had known there would be so many things to decide. But why did she regret it? Why did she suddenly wish the world would just go away and leave her and Dash alone, surrounded by darkness, flaming with heat? But it wouldn’t. And now was the time to deal with it.
Chapter Eleven
Elizabeth followed him into his bedroom, suddenly nervous, too aware of Dash as a man and too aware of the needs flaming to life in her body. It had been so long since she had felt any need to be touched, any interest in a man. But the year Cassie had written to Dash, Elizabeth had been interested, as greedy for the letters as her daughter had been. The loss of that fragile connection had been missed not just by Cassie, but her mother as well.
She knew when he drew her into the bedroom what was coming. Knew when he closed his door and went to the intercom installed between the two rooms what he intended. He turned on the receiver only. Elizabeth licked her lips nervously.
“This might be a bad idea,” she whispered as he turned back to her.
She could easily read the intent in his gaze, the sexual hunger radiating in his large body. If a man could devour a woman with his eyes alone, then Elizabeth considered herself devoured.
“Might be.” He walked to her purposely, never taking his eyes off her as her breathing began to increase.
“Dash, it might be a very bad idea.” She was breathing roughly as she glanced down, seeing how the denim hugged a more than impressive bulge.
He was aroused and ready. A man who had put aside his need for as long as he could, and Elizabeth feared she would never find the strength to deny him once he touched her.
Her eyes flew back to his face as he stopped in front of her. His lips were tilted in a wry little smile.
“I only had to look at you and you knew I needed to touch you,” he whispered darkly. “I came in to say goodnight, Elizabeth, that was all. I looked at you and I saw the need to touch. Nothing more, baby. A few kisses, a little petting. Because that’s all you need right now. All you can handle, I think.”
She drew in a hard breath, bitterness filling her.
Elizabeth smiled mockingly. “I don’t need your pity, Dash.”
She couldn’t handle that from him. She had fought the need to feel sorry for herself and to sink into the pits of her own self-sorrow for too many years. She wouldn’t let him drag her into it now. She didn’t want his sympathy. She turned and headed for the door, only to have him grip her arm, pulling her against his hard body as he stared down at her with dark eyes.
“Was that pity you held in your hand the other morning, Elizabeth?” he asked her softly as she flushed in embarrassment. “If I’m not mistaken, it was my cock. Full and hard and ready to fuck the hell out of you. That’s not pity, baby. And neither is this.”
His lips didn’t ask for anything. His tongue didn’t seek permission. He covered her lips, plunged his tongue into her mouth and took without asking. It couldn’t be called a kiss. It was a devouring, a feast of the senses, and Elizabeth was helpless against it. He bent her over his arm, arching her hips against his as he lifted her to her toes, pressing his thick, jeans-covered erection into the vee of her thighs as he gave her a taste of the hunger to come with his kiss.
She couldn’t breathe. She didn’t want to breathe. Her hands gripped his shoulders as small mewling sounds of hunger rose in her chest. Elizabeth could feel her body catching fire, her nipples, her clit, her vagina throbbing, aching for his touch, for the sensual devouring he was practicing on her lips.
His tongue plunged in and out of her mouth, mimicking a much more sexual act as his hands moved over her back, her hips. They were never still. Stroking her, caressing her body until one moved purposely up her side, cupping the swollen mound of her breast.
Elizabeth jerked at the sensation of his fingers suddenly gripping her nipple, milking it, rasping over it. Electric darts of almost agonizing pleasure ripped through her stomach and shot to her womb with a punch of sensation.
She cried out into his kiss, her hands clawing his shoulders, adrift now in a pleasure that threatened to consume her. In her sexual lifetime she had never known anything like it. Had never tasted such a dark kiss, one that warned her he had no intention of making allowances for sensual inexperience. He was hungry. Needy. And she was the meal he craved.
She had never felt her cunt clench, spasm, with such desperate need. All thoughts of danger receded. The situation, so fraught with desperation until Dash arrived, was swept from her mind. There was only Dash. Only his arms holding her, his fingers tugging at her nipple, his tongue sweeping through her mouth like a sexual marauder intent on conquest.
Elizabeth moaned into the kiss, her tongue twining with his, helpless against the sweeping sensations working through her body. She was only barely aware of him bending, lifting her into his arms and moving her to the bed. He didn’t release her mouth. And every now and then she swore he growled against her lips. The sound was hot, blistering with hunger, and sent juices flooding her pussy.
She was going up in flames. She swore she was going to climax from his kiss alone.
As he laid her back on the bed, he released her slowly, his lips sipping from hers hesitantly as he finally broke the connection. Elizabeth lifted her eyelids drowsily, staring up at him, her breath catching as she saw him quickly unbutton his shirt then strip it from his broad shoulders. His hands were strong and wide, lightly calloused and so warm. Elizabeth realized she was almost shaking now with the need to have him caress her, to peel the robe and gown from her body. She wanted him to touch her, stroke her with those demanding hands.
And he did. Staring down at her, his hands went to the belt of her robe. His lips covered hers again, his tongue pushing into her mouth as she moaned in hunger. He made her hungry. Hungry for every kiss, every touch.
Elizabeth arched beneath him as she felt the robe part, felt his fingers at the tiny buttons that ran down the front of her gown.
“Good God,” he groaned as he spread the edges of her gown apart, staring down at the full, hard thrust of her breasts and their tight nipples.
Elizabeth flushed heatedly as he stared down at her. She watched his face, seeing the heavy sensuality that shaped his lips, made his eyes appear drowsy, his expression fil