Hard Core

  I stepped out of his reach. He stared at me as if I’d landed a punch to his stomach. The heated look in his face should have frightened me, but it was having the opposite effect. I lifted the dress up above my panties. His gaze stayed riveted on me as I pushed my panties down. Without another word, I turned and walked down the hallway. His heavy, urgent footsteps landed behind me. I squealed and raced for my door.

  I’d taken the time to put away pictures and the lamb toy. I had to stop using my past as an excuse not to get on with my life. The constant reminders that I kept around were making it hard to move on. And, it wasn’t as if without them, I would ever forget.

  I turned around. Ledger’s expression was almost feral. He reached into his pocket and pulled out several condoms. “Came with these. Just in case.”

  “Aren’t you a well prepared boy.”

  I’d teased him by dropping my panties, and there was no turning back. I had no intention of it. Up until now, we’d been pretty tame about all this, politely dancing around each other. Especially Ledger. I knew he’d been gritting his teeth with self-control, but in this moment, with the molten heat swirling around us, it seemed we’d crossed a line. Caution and wariness about each other had evaporated. And frankly, I was relieved.

  When it came to Ledger, I found my ability to flirt had returned with a flourish. I pressed my finger coyly to my bottom lip as I inched the dress up above my naked pussy. “Is this what you’re looking for, sir?”

  A half wild growl rolled from his chest as he stomped toward me. I screamed excitedly and backed up against the mattress. I fell back onto the bed just as he reached me. I scooted back, but he took hold of my thighs and pulled me toward him so my bottom was at the edge of the bed.

  He knelt down on the floor, positioning himself between my legs. His mouth pressed against the inside of my knees. Then he trailed hot kisses all the way up my inner thigh. My legs parted more as his warm breath neared my pussy.

  He placed my legs over his shoulders as he gazed up at me with glazed brown eyes. “You are beautiful, Jacy. Every fucking inch of you. And I want it all.”

  His fingers smoothed along my thigh. A shiver of pleasure shook my whole body as he spread me wide open. “God, baby, just beautiful.” His deep voice floated up from between my thighs.

  His beard brushed the inside of my thighs and tickled my skin as he pressed his mouth against me. I bunched the quilt up in my fingers. I needed to hold onto something. I needed to anchor myself down or risk floating away in a cloud of ecstasy.

  One hand slid under my ass, and he lifted me higher as his tongue explored every intimate inch of me. As his thumb massaged my clit, his tongue impaled me. A moan fluttered off my lips, and my fingers tightened on the quilt. Soon, I found myself rocking against the pressure of his mouth, making sure every part of my pussy was touching him in some way.

  I pulled my legs from his shoulders and braced my feet on the edge of the bed to lift my pussy higher. He responded by pushing his tongue deeper. The pulses of an orgasm began deep inside and rolled out, intensifying with each second as my pussy clenched against his mouth.

  “Oh, Ledger!” I writhed against his tongue as he coaxed my pussy into a longer lasting stream of pleasure. I could barely catch my breath. A hot flush covered my skin as the waves slowly subsided. But as he pulled his mouth from me, I felt an intense need for him to fill the void left behind.

  I reached for him. He was just barely out of my grasp. “Ledger, I need you. I need you inside of me. Now.”

  He reached back and pulled off his shirt as he stood. He loomed over me, looking hot, hard and slightly dangerous as he kicked off his shoes. He unbuttoned his fly with a sly grin, and I smiled back in anticipation. He leaned over to push down his pants before I could get a real glimpse of him. He straightened. The sight of his thick, hard cock made my pussy ache with wanting him.

  I moved back on the bed as Ledger rolled on the condom. I’d disappointed him the night before. Yet, he’d selflessly brought me to climax after I climbed naked into his bed. The way he looked at me now, as he positioned himself between my legs and lowered his body over me, assured me that there was no turning back. Telling him no tonight would be not just disappointing; it would be devastating. But I had no plans of it. I wanted him. More than ever, I wanted Ledger.

  He stayed raised on an elbow, seemingly worried he’d crush me as he slipped his free hand beneath my bottom to lift me higher. His cock teased at my pussy.

  I curled my hand around his neck and brought his mouth closer to mine. “There is only one thing I want right now in this entire world, Ledger, and that’s you . . . inside of me.” My words trailed off into the dimly lit room.

  Ledger gripped me tightly as he pushed inside of me. His mouth covered mine as he rocked inside of me, filling me, satisfying the ache. He was gentle but strong and everything about being in his arms felt right.

  I lifted my legs, circling his waist. I wanted more of him.

  A deep groan rolled up from his throat as I lifted myself higher, inviting him to go deeper. My body met his with an eagerness I’d never known before, but the connection wasn’t just physical. As he kissed me and pushed inside of me, I could feel charges of emotion between us that I couldn’t explain. He held me as if I’d been his forever, as if we’d been together forever, as if there was no one else in this world more meant for each other. The night before, the quiet of his dark room and the way he’d touched me, gently bringing me to orgasm, had caused tears to burn my eyes. I had never experienced sex in such a way, where, what I felt, mattered the most, Tonight that feeling had been intensified with the way he made love to me, as if I mattered. As if I was a gift not to be wasted.

  Heat poured off his body, surrounding me with warmth. He moved rhythmically against me, rounding himself against me to push his cock deeper. Somehow, he reached a tender spot that made me suck in a deep shuddering breath. I clutched at his arms, needing something to hold onto as he thrust into me, again and again.

  “Come for me, Jacy. I want to feel your pussy tighten around me.”

  His erotic words pushed me over the edge. I tightened my legs around him as he dove into me reaching sensitive, secret spots I never knew existed. Exquisite pulses shot through my pussy, and I cried out in ecstasy.

  “That’s it, baby. That’s what I needed.” His deep voice came to me through the haze. His body moved faster now, and a satisfying tenderness filled me with each thrust. A low, deep groan followed as his grip on me tightened and he came.

  He opened his eyes and gazed down at me, and that emotion I was feeling when he was moving inside of me was still there. He lifted his hand to my face and pressed it against my cheek as he leaned down to kiss me. We’d taken this to the next level. I was as thrilled as I was scared. I hadn’t given my heart to anyone in forever. And the one person I had given it to, unconditionally, had taken it and broken it into a million pieces. Was Ledger there to put it back together again? Or would I once again be devastated by heartbreak?

  Ledger lowered himself onto the mattress next to me and cradled me in his arms, holding me against him as if he was never going to let me go. I curled up smaller, so I could cuddle closer because as far as I was concerned, he could hold me like this forever.

  Chapter 16

  -Ledger-

  The last traces of mud swirled down the drain. We’d spent the last three hours of the day digging trenches in a downpour but when Frank, our gruff, stubborn boss finally realized he was paying three guys to dig out the same hole, only to have it fill with mud again, he decided to call off the work day. I was covered head to toe in dirt as I drove home, and I realized having a crummy truck wasn’t such a bad thing when you dug ditches for a living. But I wasn’t planning to be out there on Frank’s trench gang for long. I’d already gone into the city to pick up the brochures and applications for a well-known me
chanic’s trade school. Jacy had made me rethink my life. I was ready to kick off the past and start thinking about a future.

  I turned off the shower and heard a knock on the door. It sounded just frantic enough that I grabbed a towel and flung it around my waist on the way to the door.

  Jacy was staring down at something on the sand and swung back around as I opened the door. Her eyes rounded as she looked down at my wet, half naked body. “Oh my. Nice. But get dressed. I need you down on the beach.” She turned to head back down the steps.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Just hurry. It’s an emergency,” she called.

  “Where’s Rex?” I asked hurriedly, figuring he must be in some kind of trouble.

  “I had to take him home.” I could barely hear her as she disappeared below the hillside.

  I ran back in and worked hard to pull jeans over wet skin. I yanked on my shirt and combed my wet hair back with my fingers. I threw on shoes and headed out the door.

  A dozen scenarios had gone through my mind, but I hadn’t pictured the scene that met me on the sand. Jacy was halfway between the hillside and the shore. She was crouched down on the sand with a crust of bread in her hand and talking sweetly to a seagull. It was just before dusk and most of the rain clouds had cleared, leaving behind an eerie orange sunset. Most of the other birds had found safe places to roost for the night. But Jacy’s feathery friend seemed to be caught up in a long, twisty piece of plastic.

  Jacy saw me out of the corner of her eye and put up her hand to stop me from coming closer. She inched forward a bit with the food, but the terrified bird flew up. It flapped its wings wildly, trying hard to take off, but gravity and the plastic bag were making it impossible. The bird arced through the air landing a good twenty feet away from Jacy and looking exhausted by its futile efforts.

  Jacy jogged back to me, close to tears. “If I can just get near it, I could get the plastic off its leg. Otherwise, it doesn’t have a chance. I nearly had to tackle Rex when he went running after the poor thing.”

  “Ah, so that is why he’s been banished from the beach.” I stared out at the seagull. It had managed to go about twenty feet with one burst of energy and crazy wing flapping, but it definitely looked tired. “I think I can catch it long enough for you to free it.”

  “That’s why I called you down. I know you’re faster than me, and you can close the gap with those long legs. You can get pretty close before he gets scared and takes off.”

  I nodded and walked slowly toward the bird. It eyed me coming closer and puffed up its feathers to try and look bigger. It had to be damn scary sitting as a piece of prey, knowing that your one method of escape was hampered by a plastic bag. “You’re O.K, buddy, we’re just going to get you out of that mess,” I said quietly.

  I was fifteen feet from the bird when it mustered enough energy to take off. It wings worked extra hard. I took off at a run. It arced into the air, trailing the piece of plastic with it. As it came back down, I flew toward it and slid across the sand on my stomach. My hand snatched the plastic before the bird could take off again.

  It squawked and its long, orange beak clapped at me like a big pair of unsharpened scissors. But I managed to wrap my hands around its body, trapping its wings securely against its sides. Its head had no problem pivoting completely around as its orange beak pecked and pinched my hands.

  Jacy reached us and got right to work freeing the bird’s leg from the plastic. At first, the seagull struggled and bit us, but eventually, it seemed to understand what Jacy was doing and relaxed.

  “See, you smart bird, you know we are trying to help,” Jacy said quietly. “Tada.” The plastic was free. “We’ve done our good deed for the day.” She straightened and wadded the plastic in a ball. I gave the bird a little toss, and it flew off.

  Jacy lifted up on her tiptoes and kissed me. “You are now my hero. I just hate to see any animal suffer.”

  “I know.”

  A confused smile crossed her face. “How do you know that?”

  “I know just with the way you take care of Rex and how you make sure he doesn’t hurt the birds,” I said quickly. It was a lame explanation, but the only thing I could come up with. She seemed to be considering my answer.

  I pulled her into my arms. “Plus, you’re an angel, and angels always take care of the little creatures.”

  “Guess that makes you one too. Only you’ve got that whole badass angel thing going on. But it works.” She hopped up on her toes for another kiss, and I was happy to oblige.

  One thing was for damn sure, I needed to be more careful about what I said.

  Chapter 17

  -Ledger-

  Orson State Penn, 9 months till release

  Four to one. That was the average ratio. I had to sit through four fucking stories about Tank’s life before I could hear one about Jacy. He was especially big on boasting about his money and fast cars and his glory days on the gridiron. I gritted my teeth through all of his self-centered, egotistical bullshit. My fondness for the guy shrank in direct proportion to the amount of time we were stuck together. And as I quickly grew to hate him, I just as quickly grew to admire Jacy.

  Tank’s personality was grating. I wasn’t the only person who felt that way either. I was pretty sure his dreams of being sprung early were the only things that kept him from being pushed into a full on brawl because there were plenty of guys on the yard ready to beat the shit out of him.

  With each story, it grew harder to believe that his wife even existed, or at least the one he described. How would it be possible for a woman like Jacy to fall for a man like Tank, or James Harville the third as he was more formally known? I, unfortunately, couldn’t ignore or avoid the gloating ass because we shared a brick box. And there was another reason I let him think we were friends. I didn’t want to stop hearing about Jacy. She was a woman whose picture I could only form in my mind from Tank’s short, superficial descriptions. She had unruly dark blonde hair and blue eyes, according to her husband, but there was nothing distinct or more substantial to go on. So I spent my daydreams, thinking about the smooth curve of her neck or the arch of her lips, even though it was all imaginary. But it was the stories that shaped the woman in my mind. It was the stories that were slowly pulling me in. I was falling in love with a woman who I would never meet and who might, very well, only exist in the imagination of my self-centered cellmate. But it was that crush, the complete admiration for Jacy, that got me through the long, boring days. Most of the time, I’d ask a question that would include her. Sometimes I got lucky, and it brought the topic back to her. I did it, even knowing it was a little cruel, making the guy think and talk about his wife. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to have to sit in a grimy, dank jail cell and think about a woman like Jacy sitting at home alone.

  I’d spent my morning on the workout mats. The exercise had helped me get through the withdrawals from all the shit I’d been abusing before my arrest. It also helped me from going fucking nuts in a place that was the perfect setting for going insane. I’d just finished three intervals of push-ups when my cellmate joined me on the bench.

  The corner with the bars and workout mats bordered the staff parking lot. All morning a stray dog had been hanging out at the fence with the futile hope that one of us giant, sweaty humans on the other side would have a morsel of food to share. Officer Hutch, one of the more likeable guards, had walked out with the rest of his sandwich and a bowl of water for the dog. Tank sat next to me, and we watched the dog happily eat his treat.

  “Reminds me of Buckaroo,” Tank muttered as he stretched his legs out in front of him.

  “Buckaroo?” I asked and held my breath hoping for a Jacy story.

  “Yep, ugliest damn dog in the world. A stray that used to come sniffing around. Our house backed up to a forest. I’m pretty sure the thing was part coyote b
ecause it had these long bat ears and a weird shaped body. It was a mess. Some of its hair was missing and it only walked on three legs. One of them was always bent up like it was deformed or something. Jacy adopted it.”

  Bingo. I wasn’t going to need an excuse to cut short his bullshit today.

  “The animal was on its own and couldn’t hunt well because of the weird leg. So Jacy bought a dog house and food and water and put them at the edge of the yard. I laughed and told her the fucking thing was feral and would never come near a dog house or bowl of food. She proved me wrong.” He looked down at his hands and made a fist for a second, then released it. “Jacy was really good at proving me wrong.”

  “Do you still live in the same house? Is she still feeding the dog, do you think?” I didn’t want the story to end. I hadn’t had my fill of her yet.

  He shook his head and seemed to be thinking about something other than his story. “House is still there.” His mouth turned down on the sides in a hard frown. “I was pissed one day. Jacy had made plans to go away for a couple of days with her friends. She didn’t even fucking ask me. She just made the plans. Even had the nerve to ask me to feed the pathetic creature.”

  For the first time since I’d started listening to his stories about Jacy, I felt myself tense with anger. I knew this story wasn’t headed anywhere good.

  “She’s an adult. Why would she have to ask permission?” I knew the second the question popped out I’d get his full attention.

  Tank turned to face me. His frown was now punctuated with a harsh glare. Deep down, I’d always figured we’d eventually come to blows. But I thought it would just stem from me no longer being able to stand his arrogant bullshit. I had to squash a sudden urge to pound the asphalt with his head.