Reckless in Moonlight (18 page)

“I don’t intend to.” Lon bounded for the stairs.

Lon experienced a moment of panicked dismay when Dana did not answer her door, but lights glowed inside her house, and her car sat in the drive. On a hunch, he tiptoed to the backyard through the side gate. His stomach lurched with relief at the sight of her floating in the pool. Dana’s eyes were closed, and she appeared as relaxed and as beautiful as he’d ever seen her. She was naked, her iridescent skin lit by the brilliant moon. The water hardened her nipples to berry pebbles and darkened her flowing hair to near black. Love swelled his chest; desire hardened his cock.

Lon ducked into the shadows of her patio to watch her without attracting her attention while he gathered his composure. Every word of the speech he’d practiced during the race to her house vaporized as heat rose within his body. His mouth had gone as dry as the cracked Mojave floor in August. He had one opportunity to repair the damage he’d done and convince her he wasn’t the idiot he’d acted like.

He’d no sooner stepped out of sight than Dana opened her eyes and glanced at the tree house. Lon held his breath and prayed she wouldn’t notice him. He sighed when she closed her eyes again.

Dana gracefully raised a hand and scratched her cheek, then laced her fingers behind her head. The pose arched her breasts, and he had to stifle the groan of need that threatened to erupt.

Lon eased out of his clothing, padded to the pool, and slid in carefully to avoid creating a splash.

Dana wiggled her nose at the tickling pinpricks of sensation. For a moment, she’d feared the fort was occupied, but it was still silent and dark. No flashes of light, the way there had been that one evening, and she relaxed into the water’s healing embrace. Already she felt more centered than she had in ages. Instead of avoiding the pool, she should have used it every day. She inhaled and exhaled a calming breath and let the pool work its restorative magic on her battered heart.

A small wave kissed her stomach. Another caressed her breasts. She didn’t think it was possible for wet hairs to stand up, but the ones on her nape did, and her body hummed with…awareness? She opened her eyes.

“Is this a private pool party, or can anyone join?”

Dana screamed and beat the water with her arms and legs.

Lon caught her before her head went under, and she found herself held against the length of his body—his hard-muscled, naked, aroused body. She didn’t know what pissed her off more—that he’d scared her death or that he’d waltzed into her pool with a massive woody, assuming he could pick up where he’d left off.

“You…you have no—”

Lon silenced her sputtering protest with a kiss. He slid his lips over hers and took advantage of her jaw-dropping shock to delve inside her mouth with his tongue. He clamped a viselike arm across her back. She raised her hands to slap at his shoulders but clutched at him instead, kissing him back with feverish intensity, all the while silently cursing her weakness. His touch applied a pepper-laced balm to her broken heart, soothing her pain on contact but then inflicting a vicious after burn.

Holding her against his body, he kept his mouth fused to hers and swam, dragging them both to shallower water. Dana’s feet touched the pool’s floor, and all her hard-fought composure sank to the bottom as well.

She could not endure a rebound dalliance. To kiss Lon and have him walk away again would rip her into shreds just when she’d started to heal. Ache spiked to a piercing pain, and she tore her mouth away from his.

“Let me go.” Dana flattened her palms against the wall of his chest and pushed. He didn’t budge. She wanted to smack him, but her hands were seared to his skin by the need to touch, to stroke, to capture a few final memories. Her throat thickened with sadness.

Lon gripped her shoulders. “I’m not going to let you go. I love you.” His gaze glowed in the moonlight.

Enough electrified shock bombarded her body to light a small city. She gaped at him, her mouth working soundlessly until she managed to find her voice. “Are you insane?” A white-hot righteous anger rolled through her. She, more than anyone else, knew full well the agony wrought by trusting joy and hope. “Or are you an asshole who enjoys fucking with people?”

“Not an asshole.” He shook his head. “A moron. An idiot. A fool. I’m all of those things. But I love you.”

Pressure swelled in her cheeks, behind her eyes, and she trembled with the desperate desire to believe him. “Then why, Lon? Why did you break it off?” She couldn’t stop shaking.

“Because I thought you and Roger had reconciled.”

“What? Why would you think such a thing?”

“I found out Roger had a heart attack and went to see you in the hospital. I overheard you two talking about making it work.”

Dazed, Dana shook her head and pressed a hand to her racing heart. “We were talking about being friends, letting go of the bitterness.” She balled a fist and thumped him on the shoulder. “Why the hell didn’t you ask me about it?”

“I told you I was an idiot.”

“Yes, you are!” She smacked him again, and her tears burst forth.

“Don’t cry.” He wiped her wet cheeks with the pad of his thumb, then traced her quivering bottom lip. “I don’t want to make you cry.” He closed the minute space between their bodies and pulled her against him.

Dana locked her legs around his hips and smashed her breasts against his chest, craving contact. She clung to him as he kissed her, unable to get close enough to soothe the ache his absence had wrought. His erection grazed her cunt, and she shifted her hips to take him inside. Maybe that would be close enough.

Lon cupped her ass to assist with alignment and then drove his cockhead inside with a rapid thrust. The time without him had tightened her muscles. Pain and pleasure mingled, her pussy quivering as it struggled to accommodate the sudden invasion, but Dana wanted all of him. She tried to lower herself on his cock despite the discomfort.

“Tell me you love me,” he commanded, his strength holding off her efforts to take him deeper.

Desire and need raked over her like a clawing animal. The emptiness inside was beginning to fill, but her emotional tank was nowhere near topped off. She clamped her muscles to absorb him into her body.

He granted her another scant inch. “Say it.” His lips pressed against her ear. The warm silk of his throaty breath flowed over her. “Please.”

Feelings suppressed would no longer be denied. “I love you.” Dana exhaled. “I love you!” she shouted, needing to say the words as much as he needed to hear them.

Lon surged inside to the hilt, and she gasped at the fullness, the sense of completion. “I missed you so fucking much,” he groaned, his cock pulsating, radiating heat. He ravished her mouth with punishing kisses, but Dana gave as good as she got, sucking on his lips, his tongue, and nipping at him to devour him whole and sate the hunger that still threatened.

He roamed her body with rough hands that squeezed her ass, kneaded her breasts, pinched her nipples, and ravaged her clit. Her head reeling with painful pleasure, Dana wasn’t aware Lon had moved until the rough cement edge of the pool abraded her back.

Lon trapped her between the pool and his body and drove his cock into her, all the while kissing her eyes, her cheeks, her throat, expressing his yearning in guttural groans.

Tension coiled into a knot. “I need…I need—” she gasped, and Lon homed in on her clit, rubbing his fingers roughly, quickly, to heighten her rapture. She dug her fingers into his shoulders, afraid he might evaporate, and she’d be left with nothing again.

“I need. I need your cunt. Your tits. Your ass. You. I need
you
.” His grating voice and searing breath filled her ear; his hunger permeated the empty spaces of her heart. His desire filled hers.

The spring unwound with a snap. Orgasm erupted, ignited in her clit, rippled in waves within her pussy, and burned into her womb. She arched her neck to suck in more air, and the luminous moon overhead swelled and overtook the sky as she rode Lon’s cock on a wave of ecstasy.

“Ohfuckohfuck,” Lon groaned. His body jerked in climax, and he spilled himself inside her.

Dana floated on a cloud of bliss, her face nestled against Lon’s neck as he stroked her wet hair. At last she pulled back to look at him, and her eyes widened at what she’d done.

Three long crimson welts from her raking fingernails had torn his shoulder. “Oh God, I scratched you.” Gingerly she touched the gouges.

He shrugged as if his injury was inconsequential. “On another occasion, you bit me. I’m cognizant I put my life at risk when I’m with you.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, still aghast even though he downplayed it. What was it about this man that turned her feral?

Lon grinned, and his beam of happiness arrowed straight into her heart and ignited a glow that warmed her down to her toes. He stroked her cheek with the back of a finger. “Bite me, scratch me—I would bear it all and more to be with you.”

As she would for him. No relationship was perfect, and they would encounter bumps in the road other couples didn’t face, but together they would overcome them. Dana glanced up at the glowing full moon. It seemed to wink at her.

She smiled at Lon. “Feeling reckless, are you?”

Loose Id Titles by Cara Bristol

Reckless in Moonlight

Unexpected Consequences

Cara Bristol

Cara Bristol writes the kind of romance she likes to read: spicy tales of love and lust that are fun, sexy, and stirring. She believes a touch of taboo or a hint of kink only makes a love story that much hotter.

When she’s not whipping up erotic stories, Cara loves to travel the world with her husband, walk the beach of the Pacific Northwest island where she lives, and though she hates to admit it, watch reality TV shows. Oh, and she reads—erotic romance, of course.

Cara loves to hear from readers! Check out the links below to find out how to contact her.

Main Web site:
http://carabristol.com

Blog:
http://romancewritersbehavingbadly.blogspot.com

Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/#!/CaraBristol

Email:
[email protected]