Paying Up Read online

  It was midnight when Mick kicked her out. The band was playing a smooth love ballad that stuck in her head as she drove home. She was still humming as she turned her key in the lock.

  “Are you ready to pay up?”

  * * * * *

  She hit him this time. Christina didn’t make a single sound as she curled her fingers into a little fist and sent it flying into his face.

  “Ouch.” Her hand exploded with pain as she connected with his oversized jaw. Pain traveled down her hand, up her arm and right into that pinch that was between her shoulder blades.

  Her memory reminded her of his reaction the last time she struck him. She jumped back but not quickly enough. Her hand ended up a prisoner in his as she glared at him.

  “Better, honey, but you need to use your shoulder if you want to make a punch worth anything. Especially when you’re dealing with someone twice your size.” Shane began rubbing her hand, his fingers sending little ripples of delight shooting down her smarting arm.

  “What are you doing in my dad’s shop? The door was locked.” A sarcastic grin split his face as Shane raised a single eyebrow at her. The cocky expression made her want to try using her shoulder and make her next swing hurt. The giant hadn’t even grunted. “You know, my dad likes his shotgun. Trespassing in his shop just might get you shot.”

  “Guess it’s a good thing your dad isn’t home tonight.”

  Shane’s face went blank with his statement. A shiver raced down her backbone as she watched his eyes cut into hers. He was watching her with the intent look of a hunter. Her nipples suddenly tightened almost unbearably as she considered being his target.

  Shane released her hand as he let her take a few steps away from him. Nervousness flickered in her eyes but the blue orbs also moved over his chest and down his length before returning to his face. Desire shot through his bloodstream like fire. Arousal wasn’t something you planned—it was either there or not. The twin points of her nipples lifted her shirt making his cock harden with need.

  “Come here, Christina.”

  Shane was used to being obeyed. His voice was edged with authority. The order was some sort of test of her will. Her body suddenly insisted she do as he wanted. Walk the three paces that would place her back within his embrace. Heat seemed to radiate from her skin in waves that made her clothing too hot.

  She understood the rush of sensation now. Knew without a doubt why there was the smooth flow of heat from her breasts to her womb. The folds of her sex became ultra-smooth as fluid eased between them. Tossing her hair back, she looked at the man standing in front of her. Running her eyes over his shoulders, she looked at the pure strength displayed by their wide width.

  Every cell in her body seemed to hum with approval for him. Her body demanded a closer inspection of his and her temper reared its head. She wanted to wrap her thoughts around the idea that he’d come back to her for some reason beyond their bet.

  “All right, Shane, I did bet you a kiss and I’m a woman of my word.” Taking another step forward she lifted her arms to reach for those shoulders.

  His warm breath teased her lips before she went up onto her toes to complete the kiss. Her fingers wandered over his chest as she opened her mouth against his. His male taste teased her. The tip of her tongue couldn’t resist the temptation to journey toward the center of his mouth, delve into him and stroke the length of his tongue.

  His hands closed over her waist as he lifted her higher. Their bodies connected as he thrust his tongue deeply into her mouth. Desire contracted around her womb as the hard length of his cock burned into her belly. His lips left hers as he continued to lift her up, until his lips found the smooth column of her neck and she gasped as pleasure rippled down her body.

  Shane placed her on the shop counter and threaded one hand through the silken strands of her hair. Tipping her head up, he nipped the skin on her neck and groaned. Moving lower he found her shoulder and gently bit the spot where her neck began. A little whimper rose from her chest as he let her head go.

  Every button on her shirt went flying toward the floor. A quick jerk from his hands snapped the threads before Shane separated the front of the garment. Her bra had a front clasp and he growled approval as his fingers separated it. The cool night air brushed against her overheated flesh making her purr with satisfaction. His fingers gently smoothed over the twin mounds of her breasts before rolling each of her nipples between a thumb and forefinger.

  A cry filled the dark store. Christina wasn’t even sure it was hers. It was too feminine, too full of primitive pleasure. Her back arched to offer her breasts to him like some mating ritual. Moonlight bathed them both as he stepped forward and nudged her thighs apart.

  “I’ve been thinking about tasting these nipples for far too long, honey.” The look on his face fascinated her. It was pure male appreciation, hard and cut with a primitive edge that made her tremble. His hands cupped her breasts, making her gasp with pleasure. Her back arched even further as she placed her hands on the counter behind her for balance. Her short skirt rose up with her parting thighs. She was suddenly deeply aware of her mons. Only her thin panties shielded her from him, and she was so wet the cotton stuck to her folds as his head dipped toward her offered breasts.

  She cried out as he caught a nipple between his lips. Shane growled around the nub as he used his tongue to worry its tip. The hot smell of her pussy burned into his head as he latched onto her breast and suckled on it. His cock was throbbing with a need to bury its length in her.

  She was a virgin, his virgin. His cock was going to wait until he loosened up her tight passage. Moving his mouth to her opposite breast, Shane sent one hand along her thigh. He pushed her skirt completely to her hip before gently touching her spread folds for the first time. She jumped but his arm around her waist held her firmly in place as he pressed his hand over her sex.

  “Shane…I need you.” And she didn’t give a damn about anything else at that moment. Her hand found the hard bulge of his cock and tried to find the button on his fly in the dark. He captured her hand and firmly returned it to the countertop behind her.

  “Shhh…I’m going to touch you first, honey.” His voice was solid with determination, his eyes glittering at her as the hand sitting over her sex pressed once again. Pleasure shot straight into her womb. She arched toward that hand out of pure need. Tension began to throb directly under his hand. The crotch of her underwear was pushed aside as a single finger dipped between her folds. It stroked her length before settling on the little nub at the top of her mons. A strangled cry came from her lips as that finger rubbed and circled her clit.

  “Look at me.” She was twisting in his embrace, her hips bucking toward his hand seeking release. Her juices coated his hand as he pressed harder on her little clit. Her eyes flew open as she strained toward the pressure his hand applied, her lungs rose and fell rapidly as climax began to dilate her eyes.

  “Come for me, Christina, let it take you.”

  She didn’t have a choice. Her body contorted as pleasure broke and exploded across her flesh. Her fingers curled into talons that dug into his shoulders and she screamed at the fabric separating her from his skin. The smell of her own body rose thick between them as she gasped for breath. His hand was still between her thighs as she tried to form a single word to recover some shred of dignity.

  His mouth caught hers instead, pushing her lips open as his tongue invaded and stroked the length of hers. The kiss was hard and deep, and he lingered over it as her body rocked on the waves of her climax.

  His fingers moved down her spread sex to the opening of her body. One fingertip circled the slick flesh before thrusting gently into her channel. Her body hummed with pleasure as he pulled free and thrust two thick fingers into her body once again. Her hips bucked forward as his thumb landed on her clit and gently rubbed as he continued to thrust into her.

  “That’s it honey.” His words came out on a groan as Shane thrust further into her. She was so damn
tight it made him want to snarl. All he wanted to think about was the way her pussy would feel sucking his cock into it. Instead he pressed his fingers deeply into her and listened to the sounds coming from her throat to gauge whether or not she was in pain. Her bottom lifted for his next thrust making him grunt with approval.

  He lifted her off the counter in one solid movement. She landed against his chest as his legs carried her toward the stairs. There wasn’t any sound except for her breathing, his feet didn’t seem to make a single noise as he moved through the house. It was almost like he was one of the shadows that had come to life to join her fantasies.

  The light in her bathroom was on, and it spilled into the hallway as Shane carried her toward her bedroom. His jaw was set in a hard line as he angled her through the doorway. He let her feet down as she took in her bed with a shocked gasp.

  The covers were turned down. A green and brown, camouflage fabric, duffel bag stood on its end in the corner and a pair of huge black boots was lined up against the wall next to it.

  “Just because my parents are out of town doesn’t mean you just get to move into my bedroom.”

  “Christina, honey, it’s time for you and me to finish some business. Now take that skirt off if you value it.”

  Her retort died on her lips as he stepped back and opened his shirt. His chest was magnificent. Every inch of it sculpted to pure feminine perfection. Her fingers itched to run along the ridges and explore the strength that radiated from him.

  The box of condoms sitting on her bedside table made her temper explode.

  “I swear you must be the most presumptuous male on the planet!” She didn’t take her skirt off. Instead she jerked it back over her thighs as her face flamed with embarrassment. She’d just stood there with the thing around her waist like a simpleton.

  “You are not sleeping in my bed.”

  Shane popped a button on his fly open in response. She didn’t want to look, but her eyes disobeyed her brain and dropped to his hand as he unlatched another button and then another. He wasn’t wearing a stitch under those fatigues either. Hard male flesh fell out of the open fly and thrust forward with clear intent.

  “Andthat is not coming anywhere near my body!”

  Shane laughed at her. He tipped his head back and roared with male amusement. His open pants dropped to the floor and he simply stepped out of them. She stared at the erection his pants had held. His cock was thick and long and crowned with a ruby head that had just a single drop of fluid shining at its slit. The insane desire to touch him crossed her mind as her palm itched to see what that monster felt like.

  “Spoken like a true virgin.”

  She lifted her eyes and Shane sobered. Hurt crossed her face as she tugged on her skirt hem with nervous fingers. She had forgotten that her breasts were bare. They stood out proudly, crowned with little pink nipples.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, honey.”

  She felt like denying that he had but his eyes were too sharp. She simply shrugged and tugged her skirt down into place again. “I don’t want to be a notch on some guy’s belt.” Christina watched his face as she said that. Just because she had a pretty face didn’t mean she was dumb and too many men had made the mistake of believing just that. If you were pretty then you were shallow enough to believe they loved you on a second date.

  Shane’s face suddenly went hard. His eyes were cold with rage as they focused on her shoulder. Standing close to the bathroom door, the light spilled over her body. The scars from her bullet wounds stood out clearly on her skin. The urge to cover her body made her turn around.

  “Turn back around.” That was an order. His voice was hard and edged with rage. “Right now.”

  “It’s my body.”

  “Wrong.” His hand spun her around as his large body crowded her against the wall. “You belong to me now. Don’t hide from me, honey, I already know about those scars. Seeing them just makes me want to kill those bastards all over again.”

  It was such a brutal statement but she turned into the protective shelter of it. Shane’s face was harsh with anger but his eyes moved over her scars with a firm resolution that told her it would not be happening again. He had made certain of that in a brutal way but there was also a deep sense of caring that came from the knowledge that he would defend her so—permanently.

  The hard length of his erection brushed her bare leg making that heat flame across her skin and flow down her passage. The little nub hidden in the folds of her sex throbbed with the desire to be touched once again. Shane’s eyes were glued to the scar on her chest where her sternum had stopped a bullet intended for her heart.

  “They’re ugly.”

  “Nope, they’re the proof that you aren’t a quitter.” His fingers smoothed over the red skin before catching her chin to lift it to his hard gaze. “The fact that you didn’t give up and die makes you the most attractive woman I’ve ever met.”

  His mouth caught hers with a gentle kiss. His lips were firm as they pushed hers open and took a long taste from her mouth. The bare male skin beckoned to her fingers. She had to touch him and feel the pulse of life she could actually smell. All her body wanted was him in whatever way he might demand. Shane was going to take her and she shivered at the raw idea of his body possessing her.

  He lifted his head from hers and grinned at the passion-drugged eyes. His cock was throbbing harder as the smell of her hot pussy made it nearly impossible to maintain any kind of control. Shane ground his teeth together and resisted the urge to rip her little excuse of a skirt off her. He was not going to fall on her like an animal…even if he currently felt like one.

  “If you want a shower, you have ten minutes.”

  “Do you know how to talk to a person without giving orders?”

  He curled his lips back into a grin. “No, ma’am.”

  Ask a dumb question and you get an even dumber answer. She did want a shower but the fact that Shane was once again a step ahead of her made her mad. Discovering that he seemed to understand her body as well as she did was too exposing.

  “Nine minutes and the clock is ticking.”

  “I don’t belong to you.”

  This time his smile was predatory. He stroked one of her flaming cheeks before running his eyes down her almost bare body. He caught her chin when she would have tossed her head, and held her jaw with iron strength that was completely unyielding. “If you want your shower, you’d better take it now. You stand here teasing me with the scent of your wet pussy and we’ll get right down to seeing just where I think you belong.”

  Determination blazed from his eyes. A little gasp escaped her mouth as she saw the certainty of his possession on his face. This man was going to have her and her body was going to help him do it.

  * * * * *

  Eight minutes was worse than a death sentence. Shane paced and stared at the bathroom door. He cussed and prowled the perimeter of the room once again. Want and need were both trying to break down the wall of his self-control and smash every sane idea in his head into kindling.

  He took a deep breath and forced the idea of Christina’s spread body out of his mind. A man didn’t fall onto a woman like a fresh kill—that sort of rutting was left behind in his youth when all his adolescent body could do was fuck.

  Especially a virgin. Shane looked at the bedroom and snorted. This wasn’t a girl’s room, there were hints of womanhood all over it. Midnight blue satin sheets on the bed and a little silky nightdress that matched them. Short skirts hung in the closet and there were killer high heels to set off the bottom that made his mouth water. Yeah, Christina had bid farewell to little girl things some time ago. Instead there were subtle cosmetics, delicate perfumes and hip-hugging thong panties.

  Those things just made him look at her virginity with more respect. Shane clamped his control solidly in place over his raging cock. The damn thing was going to have to wait.

  But he would have her. The scent of her climax was still on his fingers,
the little sound she’d made as he brought her to that first peak echoing in his ears. They weren’t a pair of kids who needed to play dating games.

  No, they were two different genders that had circled each other in the most ancient of rituals. Maybe he was a harsh man, but Shane wasn’t going to call it some soft, girlie-man name. He wanted to spread her thighs wide open right in the middle of her bed and let her feel his weight as he thrust into that tight pussy.

  The water turned off in the shower making him grin. Christina wasn’t a coward and that made him want her that much more.

  She didn’t have to do anything she didn’t want to. Christina looked at her beaded nipples and considered the way her blush seemed to bleed all the way down her neck and over her breasts. Every sense seemed acute. She swore she could almost smell Shane in the next room. It was like she was tracking him with her senses. Her body going into some kind of surveillance mode to search for signs of her male.

  But that didn’t mean she was going to do anything that would land her in the clutches of despair tomorrow morning. Shane Jacobs had to be the worst man for her to decide she wanted so badly. The man didn’t exist! He emerged from shadows and he walked through a world that had almost snuffed out her life.

  But he’d come back to her. That was a fact her heart clung to. She didn’t even have the means of placing a phone call to him but he’d shown up in her life without any invitation from her. The action spoke louder than any rule about how a man and woman ended up in bed together.

  Need moved through her in a hot wave that melted every other thought. Her skin became a network of receptors that seemed to only function to transmit pleasure to her core. She wanted him, and that box of condoms on her nightstand told her Shane had planned to spend the night in her bed. A condom in a man’s wallet would serve his lust when any available woman was at hand. The duffel bag told her Shane was planning on more than just a quick round of lust.

  Flipping the water back on, she stepped back into the shower. If she was going to delve into the greatest mystery of life, there was one little detail she intended to see to first. A shadow moved into the doorway and she opened the glass door.