Loving Lily (14 page)

I think I’m in love
, she
thought very quietly to herself.
 
The sun
rose over them.
 
Soon enough, Matt’s
warmth lulled her back to sleep.

Chapter Six

"Look,
Alex, we're not coming down to town.
 
Just gather up the rest of her stuff for me
and bring it to my place.
" Matt
pinched the
bridge of his nose.
 
He loved his
brother, but sometimes the man drove him crazy.
 
"All this shit happened in the middle of
the night and Lily is finally asleep.
 
She’s been dealing with crap like this for
years.
 
I'm not waking her up. "

"Harry
wants to talk to her," Alex said.

The tiny
speaker on the phone made his brother's normal baritone difficult to hear.
 
Matt pressed the phone to his ear harder.

"I don't
care what Harry wants.
 
He's an ass.
 
You know that.
 
Tell him we'll see him maybe tomorrow.
" Matt
wondered if his exasperation was coming through
clearly enough.
 
If not, he'd make sure
to emphasize it next time he saw Alex.
 
With a sharp smack to the back of his head.

Alex sighed,
loudly enough that Matt heard even over the bad connection.
 
"Fine.
 
You owe me for this one. "

"Yeah, whatever.
 
Just like you owed me for that Mustang
enthusiast I sent your way a few months ago.
 
How much business did that net you?" He could
sense his brother's irritation from miles away.

"You
suck," Alex responded.

"Thanks,
bro.
 
Love you too.
"
Matt
smiled and brought the phone down, killing the connection.
 
He glanced down the hall.
 
The entire back of his house had floor to
ceiling windows that lit the kitchen, the living room, and his bedroom.
 
The space was awash with light now that it was
nearly noon, illuminating the living room over a half-wall.

After they'd
made love on his lower deck, Matt had carried the sleeping Lily up from outside
and tucked her into his bed.
 
She'd woken
slightly, but when he assured her she was safe, she'd snuggled her head into
his neck and gone right back to sleep.
 
He'd been struck dumb by that simple,
unconscious gesture of trust.
 
He tucked
the memory of that moment into a corner of his brain, savoring it.

She looks
good in my bed
, he thought, walking down the hall.
 
He'd curled in behind her and slept for a few
hours.
 
When he'd woken, she'd still been
deeply asleep, so he pulled on an old pair of jeans and went to the kitchen to
make some coffee.
 
He suspected that she
hadn't been getting enough rest, probably hadn’t been for a very long time.
 
He watched her for a while, still amazed that
she'd let him make love to her without a condom.
 
He couldn't believe that the thought of her
growing big with their child didn't freak
him
out, but for some reason
he felt strangely calm about the idea.

He leaned
against the doorjamb, gazing into the room.
 
She looks good in my home
, he mused,
wanting to wake her up so he could hold her, but not wanting to disturb her.
 
The door wasn't latched, so all he had to do
was walk in, but he hesitated as the memory of the intruders barging into
Lily's room flashed across his mind.

Shit.
 
He rubbed his face as a sharp pain flared in
his temples.
 
What was he doing, bringing
her to his house like this? She wasn't safe here.
 
If they found out where he lived—

He put his hand
on the wall and leaned his forehead on his wrist, willing himself to just
breathe.
 
Flashes of taking down the men
who'd threatened her threaded through older memories: swimming in an icy sea,
ducking gunfire behind an embankment, infiltrating a desert cave that
supposedly held an American student but instead held only death.
 
His heart gave a hard thump,
then
began pounding so hard he thought he might pass out.
 
Sparkles crashed across his vision.
 
His arms grew clammy.

Fuck
, he muttered, clenching his fist.
 
Breathe, you idiot.
 
In and out, slow and easy…
He forced his mind to slow down, focus on one thing only: the rising sun over
the trees.
 
He didn't let anything else
in, until the sudden image of Lily lying against his arm, face peaceful,
interfered with his usual meditative fix.
 
Her face helped even more than trees and
sunlight.
 
He breathed some more, letting
his heart rate settle before straightening up.
 
It had been so long since he'd had one of
these stupid flashbacks…
It must have been the men going for Lily that
triggered this
, he thought, scrubbing a hand through his hair brutally.

"Matt?"
a soft voice intruded.
 
He looked up.
 
Lily stood in the doorway, wearing only his
shirt and her sleep-mussed brown hair.
 
She frowned at him worriedly.

"I'm
okay," he said quietly, eyeing the way her breasts moved under the fabric.
 
She was so fucking gorgeous and didn't
even know it.
 
He inhaled sharply,
immediately struck with an arousal so
hot,
his cock
went hard in the space of a heartbeat.
 
She looked amazing in his shirt.
 
His eyes drifted down her curves until he saw
her toes curling against the floor.
 
He
swallowed, forcing himself to calm down.
 
Goddammit, his emotions were all over the
place suddenly.

"You
looked really stressed," she murmured, putting a hand on his arm.

He shrugged.
 
"I'm okay," he repeated, more firmly.

"What
happened?" Her thumb traced circles on his skin.

Even that
simple touch enflamed him, but Matt looked at her stubborn expression and knew
she wouldn't welcome sex right now, not that he blamed her.
 
He wouldn't want to fool around if he was
worried about her, either.
 
Her
expression told him she wasn't going to let this go.
 
He steeled himself.
 
Suck it up and don't be a coward about this.
 
He owed her an explanation.

"I have
anxiety attacks, sometimes.
 
I remember
some bad stuff, and it makes me worry about what's happening now, even when
it's nothing," he said quietly.

She chewed on
her lip.
 
"It's not nothing, though
. "

She had a point.
 
"True.
 
But we're safe here.
"
He
put a hand over hers, stilling her random movements.
 
He wanted to kiss her, take her up against the
wall…

"You
thought we weren't safe?" she asked.

He sighed and
nudged the bedroom door open with his bare foot.
 
"I worried we weren't, but that's just my
paranoia talking
. "
He tugged her inside the
bedroom with him.

"What if
it's not paranoia? They're really out to get me, you know," she said,
half-smiling, half-frowning.

He sat on the
bed and pulled her onto his lap, ignoring her squeak of protest.
 
Her warmth felt incredible against his totally
inappropriate hard-on.

"Intellectually,
I know that this house is extremely defensible.
 
And I would protect you with my life.
 
So dwelling on what-ifs won't do any
good," he explained matter-of-factly.
 
He kissed her temple, enjoying the warm,
sleep-scented slide of her hair against his face.

She squirmed
against him.
 
"You're sure?"

Her ass slipped
over his dick and he shuddered.
 
He
rested his forehead against hers.
 
"I'm positive
. "

She took a deep
breath.
 
"Okay
. "
To his dismay, she abruptly slid off his lap to the floor.

"Lily?"
He reached for her, but she smiled saucily and batted his hands away.

"Stay
there, Matt," she said, working on his jeans.

"Oh
boy," he breathed.
 
"You keep
doing that…" He trailed off when his dick sprang out and she immediately
wrapped her hands around it.

"You like
it," she said, just before she took him into her mouth.

Matt's head
snapped back as the—
hot!
wet
!
—heat of her surrounded him, but he forced his eyes
open and watched her feed his cock into her mouth.
 
He barely fit, but it didn't matter.
 
She was looking right at him as her lips
stretched around his dick, brown eyes sparkling.

Jesus
Christ, she's amazing
, he thought, then she did
something insane with her tongue and it was all over.
 
He clenched the mattress and groaned, not
caring that his jeans were tangled around his ankles or that he had less
control than a fifteen-year-old boy.
 
He
gasped out her name as his dick swelled, then she rubbed his balls with her
free hand and he shot down her throat, completely helpless in her grasp.
 
When she finally slid off with a pop, lips
wet, he shuddered, his prick still hard.

"Shit,
Lily, come here," he said roughly, hauling her up onto his lap.
 
She giggled, but then he kissed the hell out
of her and everything went a little crazy.
 
She wrapped her legs around him and he slid
inside her warm pussy sweet and easy.
 
She threw her head back and Matt grabbed her
ass, kicking off his jeans so he could stand up.
 
She squeaked as his cock sank in even further,
but he ignored her, kissing her and walking until they hit the wall.
 
She clenched her hands on his shoulders and he
slowly pulled out, then thrust back in, eyes locked on hers as though he'd
drown if he looked away.

"How—?"
she began to say, but he fucked in again, cutting her off.
 
And again.
 
She gave up trying to speak.

"You make
me crazy," he muttered, somewhere around the eighth or ninth stroke.

She exhaled and
tried to move her hips, but he had her pinned to the wall.

"
Don't
fucking move," he growled, wanting to surround
her completely.

She nodded,
resting the back of her head on the wall.
 
"I need more
. "

He bit her
shoulder, fucking a little faster until her breath hitched.
 
"I know
. "
He licked the spot he'd just bitten, soothing the sting.
 
When the downstairs door slammed shut, he
froze.

"Who is
that?" Lily asked, going still.

"Shit.
 
It's Alex," he muttered, hips still
moving.
 
His brother was the only one
with a key to his place.
 
And intruders
wouldn’t bother closing the door.

Lily turned her
head, eyeing the open bedroom door.
 
"Um—"

"Ignore
him," Matt said, rolling his hips so that his body ground against her clit.

She bit her
lip, looking both horrified and aroused.
 
Matt choked back a laugh.

"Matt?"
Alex called from the kitchen.

"Matt! Oh
my God, do something," Lily hissed, trying to squirm down.
 
"He's going to hear us.
 
Or worse, walk down here and see us!"

Matt wouldn't
let her go.
 
Instead he ground into her
until she shivered and tucked her head into his neck.
 
He could smell her arousal, musky and sweet.
 
It made his dick throb so much, he couldn't
concentrate anymore.
 
Suddenly he was
right on the cusp, struggling to hold out long enough for her to orgasm.

"Close?"
he murmured, hoping she was.
 
He didn't
know how much longer he could hold out.
 
You'd
never know I just fucking came, five minutes ago
, he mused, disgusted with
his lack of control.

She nodded
frantically, hips moving.