Pleasure Bound - Complete (56 page)

Anguish clutched at her heart every time Jarod’s footsteps climbed the stairs. Every time he didn’t have any news, she frantically stuck to her motto.

No news is good news.

That night she wished he would come to her. She wished they could pick up where they’d left off, if only so she could keep her mind off her anxiety about her sisters.

But he didn’t show up. It was just as well. Sleeping with a guy just to keep herself occupied was not a good idea. But every time she looked at his face, it reminded her of waking up with his head buried between her thighs. His mouth expertly teasing her clit, his tongue thrusting in and out of her while she’d lain helpless on the bed.

Piper blew out an aroused breath.

The man looked sexy as sin. His cock had felt unbelievably big in her mouth. She could only imagine what he’d do to her when they finally slept together. There was no doubt in her mind they eventually would, if she hung around here for much longer.

That night she slept fitfully and dreamed of Jarod. Dreamed of his magnificent body standing between her widespread legs. His large swollen cock held in his hand as he guided himself toward her, his balls heavy with his seed, she herself responding with a sexual fever she couldn’t seem to extinguish.

The next morning it was the hot sunshine that streamed through a window and washed over her, prodding her awake from her dreams.

When her eyes flicked open, she knew instantly Jarod was gone.

She knew it by the bucket of water and the food he’d set on the nearby table, and due to the overwhelming silence that drifted through the tree house.

To her shock, she discovered a long gleaming knife, its blade stuck into the sapling floor beside her bed.

A tingle of fear shimmied up her back.

He’d left her the knife for protection. But protection from whom? Or what?

Using a cloth and a green-looking bar of soap, which oddly smelled of fresh peppermint, she used the cool water from the bucket and quickly washed herself. When she was finished, she felt quite refreshed and quickly wrapped the thin sheet around her, grabbed some fruit and stood. Testing her feet on the floor, she smiled. They weren’t sore at all. Amazingly enough, she didn’t feel weak anymore either.

Stepping outside onto the veranda, she inhaled a deep breath of the fresh, sweet forest air. This was the first time she’d been out of the tree house on her own and without Jarod around to distract her.

Immediately she noticed something she hadn’t seen before. Extending from the sapling veranda to the back of her tree house was a thin narrow bridge stretching toward other tree houses nestled in the nearby trees.

Biting into a juicy peach, she savored the delicious sweetness and walked across the rickety bridge toward the nearest hutch.

There was nothing special about it. It looked the same as the one she’d been in over the past few days. It consisted of a handmade mattress on a makeshift sapling bench, a couple of wooden hooks tied to a wall and some wooden bowls hung from them.

She spied another tree house hidden in the dense foliage high above the other two, with a rope ladder dangling from it. Managing to climb up the awkward creation, she discovered what she appeared to be the men’s lookout.

A platform allowed her to see for miles and miles across the tops of the forest trees. Way in the distance a row of hills shimmered in the hazy sunshine. To her left she could see a creepy swamp, which she believed was the one Taylor and Jarod had found her in. Littered by skeleton trees, their dark branches were draped in dripping brown moss—the swamp seemed to stretch for miles.

Piper enjoyed the view for a long time, allowing the warm breeze to blow against her as she ate the other fruit she’d brought along, and hoped against hope she would see a smoke signal of some kind from one of her sisters.

None came.

Her eyes began to burn with weariness and her heart clenched with anguish as the sun sailed high in the blue sky, scorching her skin with fire. Finally, she decided it would be better to go back down into the coolness of the tree house to take a nap.

As she descended, she noticed a tattered bag hanging off a tree limb beneath the platform she’d just been sitting on.

How odd. Why would they store something way up here?

Reaching out, she grabbed the bag.

A few moments later, she sat on her bed, and opened the bag. She froze.

Nestled inside were two familiar mugs. Ceramic mugs. Mugs with the words NASA written on them in bold letters.

Had Jarod and Taylor taken these mugs from her brothers? Had the two men killed them and disposed of their bodies?

Or had her brothers broken NASA’s protocol of keeping a low profile for a reason?

Many other scenarios began running through her head.

Shit
!

The questions were endless.

When either Jarod or Taylor returned, she’d be sure to squeeze the truth out of them.

* * * * *

This is the exact spot where they had discovered Piper
, Jarod thought as he surveyed the area.

Gray mist floated eerily over the brown mirror-like water. Large dead trees, their twisted branches clawing toward the sky, were draped with strands of brown moss that glowed eerily in the late afternoon sunshine.

Nothing else grew here.

No flowers.

No grass.

Only rotting logs, giant boulders and those eerie-looking trees draped in moss.

Jarod shivered at the thought of Piper dying here all alone if he and Taylor hadn’t come along when they had. It was around this time of day they’d found her. They’d been following the footprints of the notorious black bear that had killed several males over the last couple of years. The bear had led them into the Fever Swamps, wetlands that stretched for miles in every direction.

He’d come upon her naked, pale body quite by accident. Taylor had totally missed her as he’d been intent on following the bear tracks.

Jarod however had caught sight of a pale arm moving ever so slightly amongst the moss-strewn rocks. Shock had rippled through him the instant he’d found her. His cry of surprise had attracted his friend’s help. They’d quickly checked her limp body for broken bones and discovered the infected burns on her feet.

Jarod hadn’t thought she would make it.

Her body was too hot.

She had awakened briefly and when he’d seen those eyes laced with fever, something beautiful had shifted inside Jarod’s heart, and he wanted so desperately for her to live.

And she had.

He groaned as he remembered the night he’d carried her in his arms down the curling steps into the meadow where she’d relieved herself. The moonlight striking her pale skin had been a vision he would treasure forever. Her body had finally been free of the fever, but filled with restrained passion.

He’d felt it in the tense way she’d held herself against him and he’d wanted to kiss her. He hadn’t thought sensibly in having her succulently shaped mouth devouring his swollen cock.

Shame assailed him for having a taste of her charms. He should have stop himself but he had not been able to. He wanted her now more than ever. Wanted to fuck her again and again until she was so exhausted she would never be able to escape him.

He growled in anger and forced his thoughts away from Piper and onto Taylor as he once again surveyed the area.

There was no sign that he had even been here. Not that he had expected to find any clues, Taylor being the expert that he was in covering his tracks. But Jarod had hoped his friend had somehow slipped up, leaving the tiniest little piece of evidence that he had been here and that he was safe.

He found nothing.

Guilt ripped through him at how easily he’d let Taylor go out alone. Every year his leg got worse, and if he wasn’t careful he could be captured by one of the Yellow Hair female hunting parties. Those women were beautiful but they were fatal for males.

It was a tradition amongst the Yellow Hairs to kill and eat all males. Those women were the biggest customers of The Breeders in obtaining males. He couldn’t stop worrying that one day Taylor would end up getting captured by the Yellow Hairs and eaten.

Jarod inhaled wearily and headed off into another direction to continue his search for Taylor.

* * * * *

A creak on the steps that lead up to the tree house sifted through the layers of Piper’s late afternoon nap, prodding her awake.

Heart hammering violently against her chest, she blinked her eyes open and listened.

Another scrape followed.

Shoot
!

The stairs had never made noises when Jarod had come up. Whoever was coming, it wasn’t Jarod.

Fear made her yank the sheet around her nude body. In an instant she was out of bed and rushed to a back window. She’d climb outside and stand on the narrow ledge she’d noticed. Hopefully the intruder would leave when he didn’t find anyone home.

She was climbing halfway out the window when a man’s voice made her freeze.

“Going somewhere?”

Immediately she recognized the voice of Taylor, the man who’d caught Jarod with his head between her legs.

Oh, how embarrassing!

“Do not be frightened. I will not hurt you. Come down from there.”

Trying hard to douse the intense heat flaming her face, Piper climbed down from the sill. Reluctantly she turned to face the stranger who limped to her bed. The muscles in his arms bulged as he flung a tattered-looking knapsack off his back and deposited it on the mattress.

Wow! He was full of muscles and scars, just like Jarod. Feathery brown locks of hair touched his massive shoulders, and he possessed unruly bangs that hung just above a pair of a very nice warm brown eyes.

He was tall too. At least a head taller than Jarod.

And like Jarod, he had scars all over his bare chest and abdomen. He wore nothing but a breechclout which looked similar to Jarod’s; and like Jarod’s, it didn’t do much to conceal a thick bulge between his powerful-looking thighs.

Instincts told her he would be a great fit for her sister, Kayla. She loved well-endowed hunks and her compassionate side always drew her to injured men, which he was, if his limp was an indication.

“Did you find Kayla and Kinley?” she asked as that familiar dread whipped through her.

He ignored her question. His gaze went to the knife Jarod had left stuck in the sapling floor.

He frowned.

“Where is Jarod?” he asked.

“He went out looking for you.”

Her tension eased when Taylor chuckled heartily. “That male never stops worrying about me. He knows very well I can take care of myself.”

“Did you find my sisters?” she asked again.

His frown deepened and the knot of apprehension curled tighter inside of Piper’s stomach as his gaze moved from the knife back to her.

“I covered a large portion of the perimeter of the swamp, but not all of it. I do believe at least one of your sisters is alive and well.”

Thank God.

“Where is she? Why didn’t you bring her back?”

“There was one set of female footprints near where we found you. I tried to follow, but she was good in covering her tracks. As if she didn’t want to be found.”

Covering her tracks? How odd. Why would one of her sisters do something like that? And which sister was it?

Could it be her identical twin, Kinley?

Or Kayla, the baby sister of the family?

Kinley, older than Piper by two minutes was Piper’s total opposite behavior-wise.

Where both of them were petite with small breasts and had long, brown hair, Piper had been a quiet geek of a teenager who preferred to spend time babysitting kids and playing with her pets. Kinley, on the other hand, was outgoing and so popular with the guys that Piper had envied her for the confidence she possessed when it came to men. Most of all, she wished for Kinley’s sexual experiences, of which her sister had admitted were many and varied.

Kinley had been in her first year of studying to be a crime scene investigator when they’d received the secret messages from their brothers in their farewell video explaining that they were remaining behind on the top secret planet named Paradise. Not too long after that, Kinley had become quieter, less friendly, more withdrawn. Piper had attributed it to the fact that she was worried about their brothers stranded here on a planet ruled by women.

Then she’d surprised Piper with her suggestion of getting some fast, heavy-duty astronaut training through some of their brothers’ astronaut friends who would help outfit them for a journey to kick their brothers’ asses and get them to come back home.

Piper had accepted the idea immediately.

And then there was sweet Kayla.

The serious sister. The one who wanted to help suffering animals.

She’d been in her second year of veterinary school when she’d learned Kinley and Piper were secretly training to come to Paradise. Without warning, she’d quit school so she could join them on their mission to search for their brothers.