Scream My Name (13 page)

“U
mmm, what smells so…uh, different?” Leila asked after walking into the dark diner. Expecting to smell a delightful aroma after Hawk had promised her a meal she wouldn’t forget, presumably to cheer her up, she wrinkled her noise at the unmistakable smell of something…the Lord only knew what…seriously burned. “Oooh, that is funky,” she murmured low, not wanting Hawk to hear her and hurt his feelings.

As she walked inside, a frown marred her forehead as her gazed raked over the diner.

The overhead lights were cut, the only illumination being from the lights over the counter, and at one table, which was beautifully set, a bright light burned from the flickering flame of a candle set in the middle.

“Uh, Hawk, what’s going on?” she asked. After their last conversation, she was confused. Although he’d admitted that he’d had feelings for her, feelings he’d kept to himself because he knew she didn’t feel the same way, a small knot of tension swelled in her belly. Maybe he’d only been telling her what he thought she wanted to hear.

“Hawk? Where are you?” she called, walking toward the kitchen.

“It’s not Hawk, Lee. I don’t think Hawk would like to claim what I’ve created. He tried his best to teach me a simple recipe. I don’t think I got it right, though.”

Brandan walked from behind the swinging doors and Leila swore, angry that she’d been set up and mentally vowing to tell Hawk just what she thought of his meddling.

Her eyes swept over him. The memory of their last exchange, the words he’d said, harsh, ugly…hurtful, sprang in her mind. Without a word, she turned to go, walking as quickly as her feet would carry her back toward the door.

“You challenge me.”

His words stopped her in her tracks.

“No one has ever done that on a personal level. The closest I’ve ever come to someone caring enough to challenge me was in football.”

Her fingers relaxed, releasing their death-grip on the brass-knobbed door. She slowly turned around to face him, and was struck by the open vulnerability on his face, in his expression.

He held out his hands, palms out in a gesture of entreaty.

“Please. Don’t go. Don’t leave me.”

Her eyes ran over him, from the top of his tussled hair, down the food-splattered shirt—which probably had been crisp and white when he had first donned it, before his venture into cooking for her—down to his dark slacks that also bore witness to his cooking abilities. Food and other unknown particles were splattered over them as well.

“Why? Why cook for me? Why do all this when you obviously have so little regard for Aunt Sadie’s? So little regard for how much this café means to me? How do you have the nerve to pretend to really care, go through all of this…this…
mess
…just to take it all away from me?” She choked out the words, forced them from her throat, a throat that was clogged with unshed tears as she thought of how, since she’d signed the papers to sell, Aunt Sadie’s would soon be reduced to a pile of rubble.

“Because I wanted to show you that you matter to me. That your wants, your desires, mean more to me than what I can make by buying your land. That it’s not worth it if it means losing you, having you doubt my feelings for you. I—” he stopped, and turned away from her.

Leila slowly walked toward him and stood behind him, hesitant, not sure what to do, what to say.

He ran a hand through his hair, mussing it, spiking it over his head. Leila’s eyes widened when she noticed the fine tremor in his hands.

More than anything else, this affected her deeply. To see him obviously shaken, unsure, was more telling than anything he could possibly say. He turned back around and faced her, his face tight, holding back the emotion she could see threatening to shatter him.

“I love you, Leila. I didn’t expect it to happen. I don’t exactly know when it happened. Hell, I didn’t even want it to happen.”

She inhaled sharply at his words. His confession caught her off guard. Completely off guard.

“I can’t take you playing with my feelings, Brandan. I don’t play games. I’m not wired that way.” She heard the tremble in her voice, knew that he heard it, too, and that he felt her vulnerability as plainly as she saw his.

“Lee, I’ve never been more serious in my life. I want you to be a part of my life. Permanently. No one has ever made me feel the way you do. I know most of our relationship has been drama-filled, as you would say. But what I feel for you is real. And I’ll be damned if I let it slip away, allow you to slip away, over a piece of land. Please. Believe me. Nothing else matters but you,” he begged huskily, holding out his arms, silently asking her to forgive him, to accept him.

In the weeks since she’d last seen him, she’d been miserable. Alternating between anger and abject misery, she’d been impossible to be around. She knew it, could tell from the way her small staff had studiously avoided her.

Yesterday, when she’d sat in her office, she’d picked up the document waiting for her signature.

As usual, whenever she needed her most, even if only in her mind, Aunt Sadie had spoken to her.

Baby, it’s okay, everything is going to be okay. Ain’t no piece of land going to sever our connections, child! What we had, what we still have, goes a lot deeper than Aunt Sadie’s Café. Aunt Sadie’s was my legacy to you, but it isn’t the only thing I’ve left you. I’ve left you my determination. Whenever you set your mind to do something, you do it! I like to think you got that from your auntie. I’ve left you my spirit of adventure. Think of the wonderful adventures you’ll have starting out new, fresh! A brand new Aunt Sadie’s, one that will be everything we knew it could be! And I would like to think I left you with boundless love. Love all that you do, baby, but don’t be too stubborn and not recognize love when it’s staring you in the face…

And with tears running down her face, she’d signed the document and handed it to Hawk. He’d hugged her tight as she’d released the last of her tears.

Now she looked at Brandan, and what she saw in his eyes made her catch her breath…

When Brandan saw the look of acceptance in her eyes, telling him she believed him, he crushed her in his arms. Leila gasped in surprise when he slid his palms beneath her skirt and firmly gripped her buttocks.

She wrapped her legs around him and locked her feet around him, her heels resting on his firm, beautifully sculpted buttocks. Her breasts pressed firmly against his shirt when he pulled her tighter against his body.

He slanted his mouth over hers and they exchanged hungry, desperate kisses until, with quick stumbling strides, he carried her to the small storage room. He toed the door open with a boot, and shoved the door aside.

He kicked it shut, mumbling against her mouth, “In case Hawk decides to come by and check out how our dinner is going.”

They didn’t even make it to the small bed in the storage room before they were at each other.

Buttons easily slipped from their holes as they hastily undressed, exchanging small laughs and sighs as they tore the other’s clothes from their bodies.

When they were finally undressed, nothing between them, just naked skin gliding against skin, he lifted her back into his arms, wrapped her legs around his torso, and pressed her back into the wall, him covering her like a warm blanket.

The contrast of male skin pressed hotly against her front, and the cool hard surface of the stone wall on her back, was a tantalizing icy hot contrast. Leila moaned and relaxed her legs, allowing her outer thighs to lay flush with the wall.

Brandan ran his tongue down the seam between her breasts, licking beneath one small globe before engulfing it into his mouth, flicking his tongue in rapid strokes against her blood-engorged erect nipple.

She grasped his head, wrapped her arms around him, and shoved her hands deep into his hair, pushing her breasts further into his hot, willing mouth.

She groaned as made greedy wet sounds with his mouth feasted on her breasts. He drew her hard, stiff nipple into his mouth, and bit into the thick nub until she cried out from the pleasure/pain.

Releasing it, he blew on the slight injury before swabbing it with his tongue and moving to the other breast.

As he nursed that one, his hand trailed down her body, seeking the heart of her. Separating her moist folds, he tested her readiness for him, inserting one big finger inside her pussy before withdrawing her juices.

“Brandan,” she whispered the words, her gut clenching when she saw him lick his finger, his hot gaze on her, making her dizzy.

He leaned down, kissing her, transferring her own essence from his mouth to hers.

“Are you ready for me, baby? I don’t think I can hold out any longer,” he bit the words out harshly against her temple, his breath fanning the soft hairs around her temple.

“Umm, yes, please, give it to me,” she demanded. Without waiting for him, she eased her hand away from his head where she’d been holding him hostage as he sucked her breasts, and cupped his heavy sac.

His balls were tight, like two juicy plums. They were filled with his cum, ready to explode.

“God, yes!” she cried, her cream racing down her legs as she rolled her hips against him. So desperate for him to feel her with all ten-plus inches of his magnificent cock, she was ready to explode along with him.

“Damn, keep saying that, and this won’t last long,” he laughed, a painful sounding laugh.

Moving her hand to the side, he grasped his shaft in his hand and teased at her pussy lips, rubbing the big, round knob of his cock back and forth against her straining clit, between her slick folds.

If he didn’t give her what she needed, didn’t ram that big, beautiful hard cock deep inside her soon, Leila
knew
she’d expire, right on the spot.

“I warned you not to play with me, Brandan,” she cried out, torn between crazy wantonness and humor when he laughed at her.

“Sorry, baby, won’t happen again,” he promised, and began to ease into her. As usual, when he began his steady, relentless thrusts, he completely stole her breath as her body stretched, trying to accept his width and girth.

“Oh, God…you feel amazing. Hot, thick…so amazing,” she whimpered the words.

The feel of his naked penis sliding into her was pure heaven…

Damn.

She grabbed onto his forearms and halted him when he was only halfway in. The feel of his naked cock sliding into her brought her up short, her eyes flying open.

“What?
What is it
?” he asked, his facial features distorted, as though it pained him to stop.

“A condom…we don’t have a condom,” she panted.

He grabbed both sides of her face and forced her to look into his eyes. “Do we need one?”

The question startled her, while at the same time filled her with fearful excitement.

B
randan waited, forcing himself not to press on home, not to embed himself as deep into her warm shelter as he could, and waited.

As painful as it would be to stop, as hard as it was not to press into her, he waited.

This had to be her decision.

His
mind was made up. Hell, it had been before he ever met her, and he hadn’t even known it.

She was his. Now. Always.

But he wouldn’t take the decision away from her. He studied her intently, watched the play of emotions flash across her expressive face as his heart thud heavily in his chest.

Until she smiled.

That shy, slight, hesitant smile of hers where the small dimple in the corner of her mouth always seemed to be winking at him, and he closed his eyes and sent a prayer heavenward in gratitude.

He leaned forward and nuzzled the crook of her neck, running his face back and forth, lightly kissing her, so full of emotion he knew if he tried to speak he’d embarrass himself.

“What are you waiting for?” she asked huskily, and Brandan groaned when he felt her long, graceful fingers press into each of his buttocks and push his cock all the way in.

The feel of her sweet pussy clenching down on his naked erection, no condom to interfere with the pleasure, and the knowledge that he wouldn’t have to pull out, that he could come deep inside her, sent an electric arc of pleasure straight to his balls.

He gripped her big sexy thighs and nipped at her shoulder, growling when she laughed and bit him on the opposite shoulder.

“
Damn
, Lee.” He moved his neck to the side, giving her better access. She sucked and bit at his neck before thrusting her tongue into his ear, in time with him sliding deeply, in and out of her welcoming sheath, fucking her in easy glides.

He quickened his depth and pace, began deep-stroking her, the way he knew she liked to be done, pushing her legs to the side so he could hit it at the best angle, an angle guaranteed to send them both over the edge.

With each plunge of his hips, she gave back as good as he, meeting his thrusts, her hands roaming over his back, clutching him, bringing their bodies together as he continued to flex into her.

She felt so damn good wrapped around him he clenched his teeth together and grunted deep in his throat, trying to hold back his cum. With every sweet clamp of her pussy, he felt his balls tingle and sting with the need to release as he dragged in and out of her honeyed depths.

He shoved away from her, grabbed her thighs, spread her as wide as he could, and pummeled into her, his thrusts focused. Staring deep into her eyes, he refused to allow her to look away as he felt the cum swell in his balls.

He wanted her to
see
him as he fucked her…as he
loved
her.

She grabbed both sides of his face and gently brought his face to hers and kissed him gently. She bit down on his bottom lip, mimicking what he so often did to her, and drew him deeper inside her mouth, just as she drew him deeper into her body.

And then she did her
move.
That move where the walls of her pussy clamped down on his dick in short pulsing, staccato throbs.

Damn.

The feelings, both physical and mental, were his undoing and he lost it. Completely.

Instead of slamming into her, as he wanted, his body and mind demanded he do something else. Gentling his moves, he allowed the pleasure of her body, their bodies together, to merge, to swamp him, as he reveled in the feel of her, without condom, skin to skin.

He rolled his hips, screwing into her perfect body in slow rotations until he could no longer hold back his orgasm.

“I’ve got to come, baby,” he bit out.

“Yes, yes…yes!” she cried.

She rolled her head back and forth against the wall, her hands clutching at his shoulders, as he braced his hands behind her and made love to her.

When he came, he shoved his head back and roared his release as his seed erupted in near painful jets. He grimaced as he continued his thrusts, pressing her body deep into the wall, his cock shoved deep inside her tightening snatch, trying to reach her womb in an instinctual need to plant his seed deep inside her.

When both of their breaths had calmed, Brandan felt her slip her trembling legs away from his hips.

When she stumbled, he caught her, afraid she’d fall down to the floor. He picked her up and felt his own legs wobble, and they exchanged mutual light, low laughs.

He was as shaken as she, and if he wasn’t damn careful, they’d both end up in the middle of the floor in a useless puddle of exhausted limbs.

He carried her the short distance to the bed, and carefully lay her down before laying behind her. Running a shaky, caressing hand over her hair, he pulled her locs up and away, and rolled her body so she lay on top of him, the top of her head fitting just beneath his chin.

Within minutes after he’d positioned their bodies, they were asleep. The only sounds in the room were of their mutual soft snores…

When Leila woke, she was curled tight against Brandan’s big body with one of his brawny arms slung low over her hip. She turned her head to the side and watched his chest move up and down in easy breaths, letting her know that he still slept.

Very carefully, she lifted her body, moved slightly away from him and pulled at her locs, as several were trapped between their intertwined bodies.

She ran her eyes over him. A slight shadow stamped his cheeks and lower jaw, and his lips were partially opened as he slept. Even in repose with his big body relaxed, there was an aura of smoldering sexuality and heat surrounding him that drew her like no other ever had.

He stirred, moving so his legs were spread, opening him to her perusal. Damn. Even in sleep, he was the picture of male perfection.

She pulled her bottom lip into her mouth with her top teeth, and reached down to cup his scrotum. She lightly stroked the tips of her fingers over twin juicy plums, the hair covering his balls soft to the touch.

Moving her body so she lay parallel to his hips, Leila circled his penis, ringing her fingers over it, before carefully grasping it with her hand. Softened, she was now able to ring her fingers around the circumference of it. She swiped her thumb over the tiny eye at the top, still stick and dewy with his cum.

She brought her thumb to her mouth to taste him, an unknowing smile crossing her lips.

“Hmmm,” she murmured, the taste of him tangy yet sweet. She leaned in and inhaled his musky, warm scent. Her breath blew the fine dark hairs surrounding his groin, and his penis, once soft, began to thicken.

Fascinated, she watched it twitch, as though it had a mind of its own, welcoming her touch. She leaned closer and ran her tongue up the back of it, along the central vein that ran from his sac to the round bulbous head of his cock, before slowly easing him fully into her mouth.

A warm, wet mouth on his shaft brought him to shocking wakefulness.

Brandan pried his eyes opened around the stickiness of sleep. He groaned when he shifted his head to the side, and peered down to see Leila working his cock with gentle expertise as he slept.

Damn, what a way to wake up. A lazy smile stretched his mouth wide.

Sleepily, he pulled her body on top of his, positioning her so that her hips straddled his face. She released his shaft and peered at him over her shoulder in surprise.

She smiled, a dimple appearing in the corner of her lips. “I couldn’t resist.” Her voice was low, scratchy, her big eyes gleaming mischievously.

“Don’t let me interrupt,” he replied, and brought her mound down closer to his face. He spread her legs farther apart and he heard her swift intake of breath when he separated her plump lips and stroked her tight little clit with the flat of his tongue.

With a sigh, she turned her head away and drew him back into her warm, wet mouth and with leisurely laps of his tongue, he in turn feasted on her pussy.

She rode his face, slow and easy, her vagina spread open and her juices running down his face, and Brandan greedily ate her as though he was a starving man and she was his first morsel of food.

Their mutual orgasm swept over them, gentle and complete, and when they’d both caught their breaths, their hearts returning to normal, he pulled her up to lay on top of him.

“You know, if we keep doing this, we’re going to have to buy a bigger bed for our little getaway,” he said, twining one of his big fingers around one of her locs with absentminded attention. “Although I don’t think a bigger bed will fit in here, do you?” he asked casting a doubtful eye around the small quarters.

Leila lifted her head and laughed at the look of studied concentration on his face as he looked around the room. She lay her head back down.

“Maybe when we buy out Mr. Gomez’s store and expand, we could get a decent sized bed that will fit the both of us, in case we want to, you know…” his voice trailed off and he wiggled his eyes comically. “What do you think?” he finished, and suddenly it hit her, exactly what he was saying.

Leila’s breath caught and she lifted her body abruptly up from his chest until she was straddling him.

“
We
?—
Mr. Gomez’s—what
??!” she stuttered, her heart racing, the back of her eyes burning with the threat of tears as she tried to grasp what he was telling her.

He grabbed her and sat up on the small bed, placing her in front of him.

“Listen. I know how much Aunt Sadie’s means to you. I know that it is more than a café, more than a job, a way to make a living,” he began, and when she opened her mouth to speak, he placed his forefinger against her lips.

“Ssh, baby. Let me say this.” She closed her eyes and lightly kissed his finger before he slid it away from her mouth.

He wrapped his arms around her and scooted back against the wall with her tight against his chest. “I grew up moving from ranch to ranch, place to place, home to home, with none that I could ever claim as my own. My mom…” he stopped, and Leila held her breath, waiting for him to continue, waiting for him to open up and share his life, his history with her.

“My mom did the best she could, I suppose. It couldn’t have been easy on her, trying to raise me without my dad around. She did the best she could,” he repeated, and if it sounded as though he were trying to convince himself more than he was her, Leila decided it was best to let is slide for now. She knew this wasn’t easy for him.

“We moved around a lot. My mom and I. The only life we knew was ranching. Even when dad was around, we never stayed in one place long. Depending on what rancher or farmer was hiring, that was where we called home for most of my life. When dad left, nothing much changed, except the beatings. At least we didn’t have to put up with that anymore.

He laughed a humorless laugh.

Leila pressed deeper into his embrace.

“I didn’t know,” she murmured, feathering her fingertips over the backs of his hand in an unconscious effort to soothe away past hurts.

“No one did. I learned early not to tell ‘family business’ after one of my teachers asked me how I’d gotten the first of many black eyes.”

“God, I’m sorry, Brandan.” The words were so inadequate she knew, but she meant them. The thought of what he went through sent sharp arrows of pain to her heart.

She’d grown up in a loving home with her great-aunt and had never known what it was like to be abused, and had never known anyone who had been, with the exception of Hawk. And even with him, she’d had to piece together what his life had been like before she and Aunt Sadie had “adopted” him.

As close as they were, Hawk had never shared what made his eyes get that faraway look, or the rare glimpses of pain she’d seen in them ever so often when he was unaware that she was looking at him.

“It started when I was too young to remember. Rough handling grew to hits, grew to punches when he was drunk. The bad ones came when he would be fired after being caught drunk on the job. He’d come home, tell us to pack, go out and get drunk, come home, and take it out on mom. I tried to stop him once and that’s when he started in on me…”

“It had to be painful to have a loved one hurt you, baby. I’m sorry,” she said and felt closer to him than she had to anyone since her great-aunt had died, that he’d share something so painful with her.

“Finally, when I was about ten or so, mom got tired of it. Kicked him out and told him never to come back unless he could be a real man, a real father. That was the last time I saw him.”

Growing up without a father had to have been hard, but Leila was glad his mother had finally gotten the strength to kick his father’s sorry tail out of their home, their lives.

“What did you and your mom do? Where did you go?”

“Well, like I said, ranch life was all we knew. Whenever Dad got a job, mom got hired on in the kitchen, cooking, cleaning, whatever was needed. She continued doing what she knew. It was a living, kept a roof over our heads. Well, one of the ranchers my mom worked for was quite wealthy, had ownership in one of the pro football teams. One day a bunch of us kids were playing ball, after we’d finished our chores. He noticed me and I guess he thought I had a
little
talent.”

Leila felt him shrug against her back and turned around. She laughed when she caught the cocky look in his bright blue eyes, and gently tagged him on the shoulder with a balled fist.

“Hey, that hurt,” he grimaced and she laughed.

“A
little
talent?”

He leaned down and kissed her gently. “Yeah,”

They were quiet, each one in their own thoughts.

“So, what about us…this…” she waved her hands, words escaping her.

He turned her around in his arms.

“You mean, you and me?” he asked,

“Yes. I mean, is it only the hot crazy sex…or is there more to this chemistry, this whatever…than that?” She worried her bottom lip with her teeth until he replaced her teeth with his lips, giving her a short but sweet kiss.

“It is for me,” he replied simply. “I can get hot sex anytime. Anyplace. What we have is more than that,”