“This was supposed to be a fling—wasn’t it?”
“Well, if you were a barhook on one of the bases that would be possible. But you’re the great Desiree MacDermot. Mace’s true ladylove. If you ask me—”
“And I didn’t.”
“But if you did, I’d say that boy’s been waitin’ on you his whole life.”
“You’re kind of a romantic, aren’t ya?”
Sissy Mae smiled. “I’m not romantic at all, darlin’. I’m a realist. And a good one. I know what I see when it’s right in front of me. And your entire body vibrates around that man.”
Mace had no idea what went down between Sissy Mae and Dez but suddenly Dez wouldn’t look at him. They ate brunch and Dez talked to Sissy Mae the entire time. They watched A Christmas Story, and Dez leaned up against his side but still wouldn’t look at him.
Eventually he couldn’t take it anymore. He slid his hand down the back of her pants.
Dez made a little squeak sound and began to rub her eyes with her knuckles.
“Everything all right, darlin’?” Sissy asked with all the subtlety of…well, a dog. “Need anything?”
“No. I’m fine.” Except that Dez’s voice went up an octave. Which sounded strange with the gravelly rasp she usually came out with.
When Sissy went back to watching television, Dez slammed her elbow in Mace’s gut, but he did no more than grunt.
She leaned against his ear. “Get your hand out of my pants.”
Mace shook his head and gently rubbed one of her cheeks with his unsheathed claw. She jammed her elbow in his gut again. “Cut it out.”
“Make me.”
The couple ducked as the wolves began chucking paper goods at them.
Sissy smiled at her friends. “You two better go. Before it turns into a catfight.”
Good. Exactly what Mace wanted. He pulled his hand out of Dez’s pants and yanked the woman to her feet. He barely gave her enough time to grab her jacket before he snatched her out of the hotel room toward the elevators. Sissy Mae yelling something about after-Christmas shopping, the last thing he heard before the doors closed.
Dez watched Mace pull his big, undamaged body out of the taxi. Her breath caught, her breasts tightened, and visions of things the nuns definitely would never approve of ran through her head. She turned away and began walking toward the house while Mace paid the taxi driver. Maybe for once she would have a good holiday. At least she’d actually get some holiday nooky for a change. The way Mace stared at her in the cab—she was damn positive she’d get some holiday nooky. Maybe they could have some more fun on her stairs.
Dez walked up her porch and unlocked the security door. She went to open the front door when Mace came up behind her. He kissed her neck, his arm wrapping tight around her waist, pulling her close into his warm body.
When he purred in her ear, she thought she might pass out.
“We’re supposed to see your family at five o’clock.”
“It’s already four-thirty. My parents live in Queens. We’ll call ’em and tell ’em I had to work or something. We’ll just lie our asses off.”
He put his hand in her hair and pulled her head back. “Good plan. Because all I want to do right now is take you upstairs and fuck you blind.”
Dez laughed, but stopped when he didn’t.
“Uh…I actually need my eyesight.”
“Don’t worry. It’ll be temporary.”
He kissed her, and Dez realized that Sissy Mae was once again right. Dez’s whole body vibrated at his touch. Especially when he unzipped her jacket and his big hand slid over one of her leather-clad breasts. He squeezed it, his big fingertips running along the exposed skin above the leather.
She didn’t know how much more she could handle before she came right on her porch. So lost in Mace she didn’t even hear her front door open.
“We wondered when you’d get here.”
Dez snapped up straight at the sound of her father’s voice, her head slamming into Mace’s.
“Ow!”
“Daddy!”
Dez looked at her father. No. The man wasn’t pleased. She tried to pull away from Mace, but he gripped her tighter. Her jacket covered up his hand, but her father was hardly stupid. He knew Mace had her by the tits and that he wasn’t letting her go.
“Having fun with my daughter there, boy?”
“As a matter of fact—”
Before he could finish that particular statement, Dez slammed her elbow in his gut.
She probably hurt her elbow more than his gut, but it surprised him, giving her the chance she needed to pull out of the death grip he had on her tits.
Dez gave her father a warm hug.
He hugged her back. “Merry Christmas, sunshine.”
“You too, Daddy.” She stepped back from him. “Why are you here?” She couldn’t believe for a second her father would miss Christmas dinner with his grandkids. Even for her.
“When your mother couldn’t track you two down, she thought you might try to lie your way out of it.” Dez flinched. Damn. She couldn’t get anything past her mother. The woman always knew what her daughter was up to. Always. “So she decided to move the whole thing here.”
Dez blinked. “Move what here?”
He stepped back and one of her nieces ran up to her. “Aunt Dez, Aunt Dez!”
Dez swallowed the panic that welled in her throat. Oh, this was bad. “Hey, Lucy. How’s my girl?”
The six-year-old wore her Christmas best. The girl’s dress probably cost more than the Desert Eagle Dez had bought herself a few years back. “Good. Is it true what Mommy says?”
“What’s that, honey?”
“That you have issues with men?”
Dez growled. “Well you can tell your mommy to go f—”
“Okay, then!” Mace covered her face with his hand while her father pulled the little girl back into the house.
Once her father removed the little girl to a safe distance, Dez pulled out of Mace’s arms.
“I am so leaving.” Dez tried to push past him but he blocked the doorway with that gorgeous body she had been all ready to have her way with. Damn family!
“You can’t leave. Your family is here for you.”
“That’s why I’m leaving.”
Mace traced her jaw with one big, long finger. “Stay. For me.”
“I’d rather chew glass.”
“But once they’re gone tonight, I have such plans for you and that hot little body of yours.”
Dez bit the inside of her mouth. Damn him. He was using sex to entice her to stay in hell. And fuck but if it wasn’t working. “Oh yeah? Like what?”
He leaned down to her ear and purred. Damn but she loved when he purred.
“I’ve been waiting to bury my head between your thighs all day. To take my tongue and—”
“Hi, little brother.”
Mace’s entire body clenched up. Dez looked over her shoulder and into the eyes of Missy Llewellyn.
Suddenly, she lost all interest in leaving anytime soon.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“That’s not very Christmas-like, little brother.”
“Stop calling me that.”
Mace couldn’t believe it. Why was she here? For that matter, why were all four of his sisters here? When exactly did hell come to Earth?
Dez turned away from him and leered at Missy. “Well, well. Missy Llewellyn. In my humble abode. I feel blessed.”
“As well you should,” Missy tossed arrogantly.
“How the hell did you even know to come here,” Mace snapped.
“Ah yes. Mrs. MacDermot contacted my secretary and said you’d be having Christmas dinner at her house. She felt since Christmas truly is the time for family, we should join all of you. And how could I turn that offer down?” She scrutinized her brother closely. “Glad to see you’re relatively unscathed after last night’s festivities.”
True. He could kill her, but that mig
ht put a damper on the gift-giving portion of the evening.
Missy then turned that penetrating gold gaze at Dez. “Nice outfit, Detective. Going undercover at a fetish club?”
Dez growled. “Why don’t you blow—” Mace wrapped his hand around Dez’s face again. Boy, when she went Bronx, she really went Bronx.
Rachel appeared behind Missy. “What’s the problem, Missy? Afraid your tiny tits couldn’t hold that top up?”
Dez glanced at Mace. He could read her easily now, and the fact that her sister suddenly jumped in to protect her from evil Missy—that might be too much of a shock for his hardened detective.
Missy spun around to glare at Rachel. “Well, I see you can take the girl out of the Bronx but you can’t get the Bronx out of the girl.”
Suddenly Lonnie appeared next to her older sister. “Wow. Look at the lines in your face, Missy. It’s like your bitterness just dug in and stayed.”
Allie, Mace’s second oldest sister, stood next to Missy. “Well, I heard you’d become a prosecutor, Lonnie. It must be really hard to try and convict all your ex-boyfriends.”
Rachel and Lonnie looked at each other while Mace’s two other half-sisters went to stand beside Missy and Allie.
No. This really couldn’t be good.
Dez pulled away from Mace. “I’m gonna go get out of these clothes before any blood gets on ’em.”
She headed up the stairs. The elder MacDermot came back into the room, a toddler in his arms. An old-school Marine, tough as nails, and still sporting his high-and-tight haircut. Marine tattoos on both of his forearms. Pride for his brood, written all over the man’s face. Even though, at the moment, the two sister teams were getting into a rather ugly confrontation that made Mace feel like a fourteen-year-old all over again.
“Those are some tough women.”
Mace nodded. “Sorry about my sisters, sir.”
“No reason to apologize. Dez can’t control Lonnie and Rachel and notice she doesn’t try.”
“That’s cause she’s brilliant.”
Gray eyes with dark green flecks turned to stare at Mace. “Do you really care about my daughter, Llewellyn?”
Barely realizing he did it, Mace’s hands went behind his back. His legs braced apart. Being around the man made him feel like he still needed to report to his C.O. before the night ended. “Yes, sir. More than I’ve cared about anything.”
“Good. Because she’s special. All my daughters are, of course. But Dez…Dez is…”
“I know, sir.” Mace looked him in those eyes that were exactly like his daughter’s. “I really do. I’ve always known.”
MacDermot seemed to relax a bit as he nodded. “Good.” He took in a deep breath, like he’d prepared himself for a fight. “Oh, and could you let Dez know I locked all her guns away in the safe in her closet upstairs.”
Mace winced. They’d both forgotten about the weapons she kept stashed around the house and with kids around…“We forgot.”
“Don’t worry about it. I know each and every place my daughter hides her guns. Hell, I gave her most of ’em.”
The older man gave a big grin, hugging the little boy in his arms tightly and walking back toward the kitchen.
The fight kept growing. This could easily turn ugly. But Mace had other things on his mind. Besides, he’d seen Dez’s mother in action. If things turned bad, he had no doubt the tiny female could and would kick some ass.
Knowing that, Mace went up the stairs after his woman.
Dez tossed the sweatpants and Marine Corp sweatshirt she pulled out of her dresser on top of the closed toilet and looked at herself in the mirror. She shot a man without any warning. Faced off against hyenas and lions. But her family downstairs? That was making her break out in a rash.
Yet the weirdness hadn’t ended. Not only had her entire family taken over the first floor of her house, but she had Missy Llewellyn and her cretin sisters with her.
Christ, did she really care enough about Mace to put up with those bitches?
what? are you kidding? of course you do, you idiot!
Dez smiled at herself in the mirror. Man, could she be more pathetic? Her eyes shifted to the right and that’s when she saw Mace standing behind her. She jumped. “Would you stop doing that!”
“I didn’t do anything.”
She sighed. True, he hadn’t. And it would be hard to tell him to start stomping around her house because his creepy cat walk kept freaking her out.
She noticed he studied her shower closely, and for the first time in Desiree MacDermot’s life she asked a lover a question she swore she’d never ask. “What are you thinking?”
Of course, Dez’s question reeked of trepidation.
Mace shrugged as he examined her shower. “I’m wondering if this bathroom can be enlarged or if we should get another house.”
She grabbed him by his sweater and pulled him around so he had to look her in the eye. “Mace Llewellyn, we are not—”
He kissed her before she could get the rest of the sentence out of her mouth and slammed the bathroom door shut with his foot. She couldn’t remember what the hell she’d been planning to say. Instead, she let him roughly push her back toward the far wall, his mouth on hers, keeping Dez completely off balance.
Her jacket slid from her shoulders and to the floor. Mace released her mouth so he could kiss her neck. For a minute, she didn’t even realize he was unlacing her bustier.
“Mace. What are you doing?” The minute the man touched her, she asked the stupidest questions.
“Stripping you so I can fuck you.”
Of course, Mace always gave the most straightforward answers. Delicious answers. If only her entire family wasn’t right downstairs. And his!
“We can’t.”
“Yes. We can. Just to take the edge off. We just have to be a little quiet. So no yelling.”
“You’re not exactly quiet either with that freakin’ roar.”
“You love my roar.” Dammit! He was purring again. Right up against her ear. Suddenly, she couldn’t get out of her clothes fast enough.
She still had no idea what she did to him. The power she held over him. But everything about her sent his feline senses into overdrive. Her smell. Her touch. The way her skin felt against his. That damn voice.
Just thinking about the little noises she made when he had his cock deep inside her made him crazy. Desperate. He forced her back against the wall, practically ripping the laces off the front of her bustier. Once he had it undone, he yanked it off her body, then dropped to his knees to tackle her jeans.
She’d already pulled his sweater off, tossing it into the empty shower. And now her hands roamed over his shoulders and through his hair. Her strong strokes across his flesh brought out the cat in him. His head grazed against her thighs as he pulled off her jeans and boots. He moved up her body slowly, rubbing himself against her the entire way. She growled and he purred back in response.
She undid his jeans, shoving them down past his hips. He pushed them down the rest of the way, snatching the condom he’d grabbed from the bedroom out of his pocket. He didn’t bother taking his jeans off, though. They both knew they were short on time. Her mother would serve dinner soon, but he would have this woman or die trying.
He slid the condom on and lifted her up. Immediately she wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms around his neck. Because they had no time for slow and easy, he kissed her and impaled her against the wall at the same time—her scream lost in his mouth. Already so wet for him, he realized that hadn’t been a scream of pain.
Mace stopped moving. He let himself feel her body against his. Her pussy tight around his cock. God, she felt so good.
Fuck. The families can wait.
Dez pulled out of their kiss. “What? What is it?”
He shook his head as he leaned against her. “Nothin’, baby.”
She cupped his chin with one hand, the other tangling in his hair. “Bullshit. Tell me what’s going on.”
/> He kissed her forehead, her cheeks, her mouth. Then he rested his forehead against hers. “I’ve been waiting my whole life for you, Desiree MacDermot.”
Dez was thankful Mace had her impaled against the wall like this. Otherwise, she might have bolted for the door. That would have been pure panic, though. She knew once the panic went away, she’d kick herself in the ass for running. She wanted Mace. Not just in her bed or inside her, but in her life.
Christ, she loved a cat.
Mace used his body to pin her against the wall while his hands moved over her face and throat. His hard cock still buried deep.
He waited for her. He wasn’t going to ask her to say how she felt, but Dez knew he needed to hear something.
Well, she wasn’t about to give him the ranch or anything. Short. Simple. And just enough to keep him happy until she’d successfully sorted through her feelings and decided how she wanted to proceed.
“You mean everything to me and I’m never letting you go.”
She closed her eyes. What the hell was she doing?
You idiot!
Mace pushed his fingers through her hair. “Open your eyes, Dez.”
“No.”
“Wuss.”
“Yup.” His grip tightened and it felt so freakin’ good.
“Look at me, woman.”
With a sigh, Dez opened her eyes. He smiled at her. The sweetest, warmest smile she’d ever seen. “That wasn’t exactly I love you…but I guess it will have to do.”
He kissed her as his hips slowly rocked into her. Slow and steady. Sure and confident. She groaned in his ear, and that seemed to set something off in him. His thrusts became stronger. Harder. She grinned. Her voice. Her voice made him crazy. Her body would definitely go, but her voice would last for years. Thank God.
“God, Mace,” she whispered in his ear, “you feel so good inside me. Don’t stop fucking me. Don’t ever stop fucking me.”
Yeah. That did it. With a growl born of pure lust, he pounded into her. So hard she could feel her orgasm tearing up through her body. Mace pushed her head against his shoulder seconds before she started screaming. She remembered they weren’t alone, so she bit into his flesh instead. But she came hard, forcing her teeth past flesh. She tasted blood in her mouth, but her body continued shaking as she came again and again.