Promise Me Forever

  “Bingo,” I whispered.

  ~~~~

  A single candle burned on the bedside table. A chill was in the air. Adam was tied up in the living room and Tate was bedded down on the couch. David was in the other bedroom and Cash was on watch.

  I couldn’t sleep. I laid in bed and stared at the ceiling, thinking of everything Cash had said. The longer I laid there, the angrier I got. I let out a sigh of frustration and threw the covers off. Maybe a bath would help. I felt grimy and dirty. Getting clean might relax me and take my mind off Cash.

  I climbed out of bed and glanced at the bowl on the bedside table. The water would be ice-cold but maybe it would cool my skin as I remembered him touching me.

  With my back to the door, I began unbuttoning my shirt. One button. Two buttons. My fingers slipped them through the holes on autopilot.

  We were done. Over. I could do this. I’ll survive.

  I pulled off my shirt and flung it on the bed. My chest rose and fell rapidly as my anger rose. He wanted me to hate him? Then I would! Gladly!

  Goosebumps broke out along my arms but I ignored them. Standing naked from the waist up, I angrily grabbed the washcloth from the bowl of water that Tate had brought in for me.

  “Damn you, Cash Marshall.”

  With furious motions, I rubbed the sliver of soap on the washcloth and started washing my neck. Drops of water ran down my chest and over my breasts. I sucked in a breath at the cold water but made angry swipes across my skin, trying not to imagine Cash touching my breasts. Cupping them. Lifting them for his mouth.

  “Ugh!”

  I ran the washcloth lower with brisk, fast movements. “He wishes he never touched me? Well, I’ll make him regret the day!”

  I rubbed the cloth across my chest, irate and frustrated. Water drops ran down to my waistband and disappeared under the material. I dropped the washcloth back in the bowl, splashing water over the edge onto the nightstand. Grabbing it again, I ran it up my neck dripping wet. Rivets of water ran between my breasts and down my stomach.

  “I will never, ever, ever give into him again,” I said between clenched teeth, rubbing my skin vigorously. “Ever!”

  The sound of a footstep came from behind me.

  I gasped and swung around, holding the washcloth over my breasts, my skin pink with irritation at my quick, rough treatment.

  Cash was standing inside the bedroom, looking larger than life and as dangerous as sin. He had on his hat and his eyes were dark pools of desire under it, wicked and focused on me.

  I took a swift step back as he strolled toward me.

  “You’ll never, ever give into me?” he drawled, taking off his hat and flinging it toward the bed.

  My bottom hit the bedside table, shaking the bowl of water on it. “Um, yes. Never,” I mumbled, holding the washcloth over my breasts. Drops of water ran down my stomach, chilling my overheated skin.

  Cash unbuckled his gun holster and dropped it to the floor as he advanced slowly toward me. His eyes moved down to the washcloth and my nipples puckered against the rough material. I swallowed hard as he stopped in front of me.

  “Ever?”

  “Ever,” I whispered, my lips barely parted.

  “Good.”

  He grasped the back of my neck and dragged me to him. My body hit his. A soft mewl left me. He caught the sound with his lips, sealing his mouth over mine.

  The kiss was consuming, overriding all my better judgments and promises to myself. I kept my arm over the washcloth, trapping it between us and keeping my breasts hidden as his mouth conquered mine. It wasn’t what he wanted and one thing I had learned – Cash always got what he wanted.

  He reached up and jerked the washcloth away with impatience. I moaned softly as cold air hit my nipples. His tongue dipped inside my mouth as he reached around me to drop the washcloth in the bowl of water.

  I shivered, standing naked from the waist up in front of him. His lips turned gentle on mine, tasting, barely touching. When he cupped my breast, I drew in a sharp breath.

  “Resist me, Cat,” he rumbled in a deep voice sliding his mouth from mine down to my jawline. “Tell me to go to hell. I can’t stop wanting you and I don’t know how.”

  I leaned my head back, exposing my neck.

  “I said to stay away from me,” I whispered, my eyes closed, the words holding no power as his lips moved to my throat.

  He let out a low sound of irritation. “I can’t.”

  “Not until you’re ready,” I added on a breath of air as his thumb drifted across my nipple again.

  “Not until I’m ready,” he said softly against my skin, catching a drop of water from my breast on the tip of his finger.

  A soft sound escaped me as he rubbed it into my areola, grazing the point, at the same time he bit and licked at my neck. My breathing increased. My mouth went dry. I thought it was more than I could handle but I was wrong.

  Very wrong.

  He leaned over and caught a drop from my nipple with the warm, flat part of his tongue.

  “Catarina,” he whispered against the sensitive peak. “I’ll regret this later but I’ve got to have it now.”

  I gasped as his mouth closed on my nipple. He sucked it hard than lapped at it, sending quakes through me. I was dying. I knew I was. His tongue swirled around the sensitive peak, licking up all the water and adding more wet heat. As if that wasn’t enough, he cupped my breast and squeezed, holding me for his full, undivided attention.

  My insides quivered. Need shot between my legs. I tangled my fingers into his hair, urging him never to stop.

  He reached behind me and grabbed the washcloth out of the bowl. Drops of water fell to the floor as he brought it back to me and squeezed it over my left breast.

  I hissed as the cold water ran down me in rivers. But his mouth was suddenly there, taking my nipple whole. He dropped the washcloth on the floor and suckled my nipple deep inside his mouth then licked up all the water and drank it down.

  Pleasure traveled through me. I bit my lip, trying not to cry out but a tiny sound escaped me. It seemed to drive him crazy.

  He reached down and jerked my jeans open with rough and impatient tugs.

  “Those sounds fuck with me, Cat. Makes it damn hard to be civil about this.”

  “Then don’t.”

  He groaned and slid his hand down the front of my jeans and took my nipple between his teeth. I hissed and tightened my fingers in his hair as his finger slipped over me with a slow, deliberate stroke.

  “Are you always this wet for me?” he asked hoarsely against my breast.

  “Yes. It’s your fault you know.”

  He licked my nipple. “Hate me then.”

  “I do,” I whispered on a sigh, closing my eyes again.

  Cash growled deep in his throat, the sound escaping against my nipple as he swirled his tongue around the rosy tip.

  Without even knowing what I was doing, I twisted strands of his hair around my fingers and held on tight as he ran a finger along my slick opening. If I was hurting him, he didn’t care. He sucked my nipple deep into his mouth and skimmed his finger over my clit.

  I bit my lips almost to the point of bleeding. Oh god. Oh god. I’m going to come…

  He did it again, sliding his finger over the tender spot. When he followed it by slipping a finger into me, I shattered. My teeth pierced my bottom lip. Stars burst behind my eyelids. He held me as the orgasm rocked my body with force and made me jerk and shake.

  “That’s it,” he said against my breast, sliding his finger deeper. “Come hard for me.” He ran his tongue around my nipple then fastened onto it.

  I let out a small cry and gripped his hair tighter. “No more,” I mumbled incoherently as my body jerked. “Please.”

  “I’m just getting started, sweetheart.”

  He removed his fingers from me abruptly and swung me up into his arms. My eyes flew up and my breath caught. We were in the bedroom, only a sheet separating us from everyone else. Makin
g me come was one thing. Fucking me while everyone else slept feet away was another.

  “What…what are you doing?” I asked in hushed whisper as he carried me to the other side of the bed.

  He didn’t answer. Instead, he lowered me to my feet and leaned past me to grab the sheet and quilt on the bed. I watched with wide eyes as he spread it out on the floor between the bed and the wall.

  “Cash! What are you doing?” I asked in a loud whisper.

  His hand snapped out and grabbed the back of my neck. With a frustrated scowl, he pulled me toward him and put his mouth near my ear. “The bed makes too much noise. The only thing I want to hear is you.”

  His mouth covered mine. It wasn’t gentle or kind or sweet. He took what he wanted. He owned it. What was rightfully his. I didn’t care if I was supposed to hate him or if he would regret every second of it tomorrow. I wanted him to do his worst and best to me.

  I grabbed the lapels of his jacket and tried to shove them down his arms. They didn’t go very far. I wanted to stamp my foot and throw a tantrum. I was naked from the waist up and he was fully clothed. That was unfair and unkind and I wanted him to do something about it.

  Without breaking the kiss, Cash let go of the back of my neck and shrugged out of the jacket like the thing was on fire. I smiled against his lips as he untangled his arms from it and flung it to the floor.

  He growled a warning deep in his throat and grabbed the back of my head again, hauling me to him.

  “Brat,” he rasped against my grinning lips.

  But then I forgot everything.

  He plowed his fingers into my hair and yanked my head back. I whimpered and it was just what he wanted to hear. His tongue plunged into my mouth. His hand in my hair held me still. I could feel his erection between us, hard under his jeans and eager to please.

  “On your knees.”

  His voice left no room for thinking or arguing. I slid my mouth from his and lowered to my knees. He watched me in the candlelight, my lips right in line with the hardness behind his zipper.

  I licked my lips and looked up at him. The small area where I kneeled was secluded. Hidden from prying eyes. Perfect for me to take him to the back of my throat.

  I glanced down at his zipper. My mouth watered. This time I would let him finish in my mouth.

  Unable to wait, I reached for his belt buckle but he stopped me, his hand tangled in my hair.

  “Lay down.”

  With my body flushing, I eased down to the faded sheet. I had never been the submissive type – I was more of a power-hungry kind of gal – but there was just something about Cash telling me what to do that made all my rules fly out the window.

  He let go of my hair and watched me. His eyes were hooded, gray pinpoints of ice. He didn’t just look at me with need. He looked at me with restraint. With the look of a man that always got what he wanted at any costs and without any sense of self-control.

  When I was lying down, my legs outstretched, he kneeled at my feet and grabbed the legs of my jeans. With two tugs, he had them off and was tossing them to the side.

  I grew nervous. “If someone walks in…” I whispered, afraid of him. Afraid of being discovered.

  He looked up my body, taking his sweet, ever-loving time, damn him. “No one will.”

  God, his voice was so sexy.

  I worried my bottom lip between my teeth and tried to ignore the way he gazed at my nakedness. The way heat radiated from him.

  “How do you know no one will walk in?” I asked, trying to stay on topic, a shiver of arousal moving through me as he moved up my body.

  His fingers spread over my stomach, forcing me to be still when I wiggled. “Because David and Tate are taking turns keeping watch the rest of the night.” He paused. “And I told them not to come in here no matter what they heard.”

  What? He told them…

  A little whine escaped me when he seized the back of my knee and shoved my leg high, spreading me open. I thought I was his before but now there was no question. He could do with me as he pleased and he wanted me wide open.

  Lowering himself above me, his lips went to my collarbone, one of his hands held his weight off me.

  I squirmed and thrust my breasts higher but he paid no attention to them. His mouth moved down between them, almost touching the curve of one.

  I tried to keep my wits about me as his breath fanned over me in hot waves. As his mouth moved to my hip. As his tongue darted out to sample my skin.

  When he kissed my inner thigh, inches from my wet center, I shifted on the blankets. He fastened his arm over my middle, keeping me still. Frustration, annoyance, and damn near everything else made me want to scream.

  I licked my dry lips and tried to maintain some sense of control as the stubble on his jaw brushed against the sensitive skin of my inner leg. “But what if someone walks in?”

  “You’re safe.”

  He lifted my leg more, opening me. I burned with embarrassment as he gazed down at me with hunger and possession. “You’re just not safe from me.”

  I hissed and arched my back as he buried his face between my legs. His mouth went straight to the slick cleft, devouring me.

  My hips bucked and my fingers reached down to grab clumps of his hair. He licked and sucked then dived back in. I’d never felt so completely taken, consumed, enjoyed before.

  He pinned me down with his arm across my stomach and pushed his tongue into me. I gasped and tried to thrust my hips up, unable to stop. Wanting more.

  “Please. Please,” I begged, squirming against him. The pleasure was killing me. I hated him for the torture. I loved him for the feeling.

  He flicked his tongue over my clit. “I’ve wanted to do this forever. Now I never want to stop.”

  He drew my swollen clit into his mouth and applied the right amount of suction. At the same time, he slid a finger into me.

  I convulsed. My legs opened wider. I let go of his hair and planted my hands against the wall above my head as he wreaked havoc on me. Oh god. I was his entirely.

  My body arched when he hit a sensitive spot. A frenzy built in me. He kept a strong arm across my abdomen and glanced up my body, his eyes heated, watching me come apart as his tongue, fingers, and lips ravaged me.

  Oh shit. Oh shit. I can’t handle this.

  I burst into a trillion stars, climaxing like never before. Silent screams tore from my throat. Powerful vibrations rocked my body.

  My legs locked around Cash’s head. He shoved them apart and went crazy on me.

  I let go of the wall to grasp handfuls of the blanket under me. Cash never left the area between my legs. He held them open and feasted on me until I was a quivering mess and tears escaped from the corners of my eyes. My limbs shook and my body jerked violently.

  When I finally went limp, his mouth left me and he started crawling up my body.

  I was weightless, my mind nothing but a haze. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. I was afraid I would never breathe normally again. I had never had a man – any man – go down on me like that.

  I managed to lift my eyes and watch as he crawled up my body. He had a predatory gleam in his eyes and moved with lion-like precision over me. I was trapped beneath him like a prized possession he was protecting so he could enjoy later. When he got to my breasts, he ducked his head and swiped at the tip with his tongue, reminding me of a dangerous carnivore who was sampling its dinner.

  Anticipation made me squirm. Eagerness made me slide my fingers into his hair and turn his head so I could whisper in his ear, “You said a need and a want are two separate things. What am I? A need or a want?”

  “Sweetheart, you’re everything.”

  I arched when his mouth closed on my neck. I wiggled and squirmed, desperate.

  “Make love to me, cowboy,” I whispered.

  A noise that sounded suspiciously like an animal growling erupted from his chest. He reached between us and unfastened his belt buckle. I felt him lower the zipper, reach in and pu
ll himself out. His knuckles grazed against my abdomen as he fisted his length and rubbed it against me.

  I rolled my hip, urging him in. He let go of himself to grasp the back of my knee. Lifting my leg higher, he shoved my other leg to the side. With his jeans pushed open just enough to allow his erection to jut out, he slid into me.

  I gasped and arched my body. The size of him always surprised me. He was long and thick and stretched me to impossible limits. I was tender and sore from all the attention he had given me but it only added to the pleasure.

  “Fuck, Cat,” he rasped against my throat as he pulled out then eased back in, going deep and slow.

  “You’re so big,” I whispered as he slid out and glided back in, letting me feel every inch of him taking me.

  “You make me hard every second of the day,” he rasped against my skin.

  Reaching down, he cupped my bottom, tilting my hips up to meet his hard length. He held himself deep in me then eased out until only his tip remained.

  He did it again and again, his wide head stretching me achingly slow. It made me berserk. I clenched strands of his hair and wrapped my legs around his jean-covered waist. “Harder,” I breathed in his ear. “Please.”

  Burying his face in my neck, he tightened his hold on my bottom and started nailing me with wild, hard drives into my body. I got lost from the feel of him inside me.

  Reaching down, I skimmed my hands underneath the back of his loose jeans, needing to touch him. His ass was tight and strong under my fingers, clenching as he dominated my body.

  “Christ,” he swore, pumping faster and faster in and out of me when I touched him. “I’m so deep in you.”

  His husky voice sent currents through me. “Mmm. I know,” I moaned. “God, it feels good. Don’t stop. I’m going to come.”

  A groan escaped him. “Fuck. Me too. Harder than ever before.”

  His hips jerked in powerful thrusts. His thickness glided in and out of me faster.

  “I should pull out,” he said breathlessly against my neck, fucking me with unleashed power that threatened to kill me.

  I nodded, too lost to care. But I managed to say something. “You should definitely pull out.”

  He pulled his entire length out then plunged back into me. Hard. Fast. Pounding me. I bit off a scream and arched, almost coming up off the floor. My world exploded and tremors shook my body. Small cries bubbled up inside me as the orgasm ripped through me. I clamped my teeth on my lip to keep quiet. He claimed my mouth and took my lip himself, sucking it into his mouth and cutting off my cries. I could taste my blood on his tongue. Mine.