“Thank you for allowing us to stay,” Elizabeth said softly. “Cassie needed the time to rest. I just hope we don’t cause you any problems.” She was terrified she would bring Grange’s wrath down on the family.
Serena snorted. “Mike and Dash should be so lucky as to have that bastard try to attack here. Trust me, Elizabeth; this house is better secured than Fort Knox. Mike doesn’t take chances and he’s seen worse than Grange.”
Elizabeth couldn’t imagine anyone worse than Grange.
As they sat there watching the children play, Elizabeth smothered her yawn, realizing this was the first time in as long as she could remember that she wasn’t running or preparing to run. She had slept several hours the night before, but out of habit was awake often, checking the locks on the bedroom doors, listening closely to the sounds of the house.
“Go lie on the couch and rest, Elizabeth,” Serena suggested softly. “I’ll sit here and watch the girls, and Mike has several of his old unit working the ranch. They’re on babysitting detail outside. You need to rest.”
Elizabeth had been introduced to the three men. They were a bit older than Dash, but just as hard and capable looking. And if there was one thing she had learned, it was to rest when she could.
“Thank you.” She carried her cup to the sink, rinsed it and set it in the aluminum depression before heading into the large, open living room.
She could still hear the children playing, though the sound was muted. She knew they wouldn’t be able to stay out much longer and felt confident enough to lie down and close her eyes for a brief time.
She realized as she drifted off to sleep that never, in the past two years, would she have trusted anyone else, anywhere else, to watch Cassie while she slept
. She was too vulnerable if her mother wasn’t awake and aware. But somehow, Dash had instilled a trust in her that had snuck up on her in the past twenty-four hours.
He had killed to protect her and Cassie. He had followed them in a blizzard, risked his own life to bring them to a place where they could heal, where they could rest, at least for a time. She no longer suspected him of betrayal, and perhaps that surprised her more than anything.
As exhaustion wrapped around her, though, it wasn’t trust or betrayal that fed the rich visions within her mind. It was Dash. Naked, fresh from the shower, his body pressed hard against her, her hand overfilled with the hard length of his cock. She didn’t think she had ever known heat as intense as she had when he brought her hand down and wrapped it around the rigid flesh. His eyes had flared. A betraying warmth and wet heat had assailed her pussy, making her throb, ache. She was still aching.
His kiss—she shifted restlessly—his kiss was like rough velvet and summer lightning. His taste was dark, heady. She could well imagine him laying her on a bed, his body covering hers, pressing her into the mattress, heavy and demanding as he placed himself between her thighs.
She almost moaned at the image, needing him with her now. Needing him to cover her, take her, finish out his threat to fuck her so hard and deep she couldn’t still her cries. She had never been taken like that. Dane hadn’t exactly been a passionate lover. And his kisses had never made her burn. Right now, Elizabeth was burning.
Dash stepped into the living room, then came to a complete abrupt stop. His eyes swung to where Elizabeth lay, apparently sleeping, her body shifting restlessly on the couch. What was she dreaming? He could smell her arousal, hot and sweet, wrapping around him, tempting every primitive instinct rising in his body. His cock came to full, surging attention beneath his jeans; his flesh suddenly felt overly sensitive, as though he could feel the very air whispering around him.
He heard Serena puttering in the kitchen getting lunch together. The kids’ voices echoed from the heated garage where they now played. Mike was still in the study, waiting on the call from Kane Tyler with word on the request Dash had made. He hoped the other man wasn’t foolish enough to refuse him. A trip to Virginia via more conventional mode wouldn’t set well with Dash.
All that faded, though. The hot surge of arousal and need that swept over his body in that moment was so intense, so demanding, it had him automatically stopping to still the response. Never had a woman made him this damned hungry. So hungry he wanted nothing more than to throw her to her knees and mount her like the animal that resided inside him. If he didn’t take her soon, he was going to go mad.
He stalked slowly into the living room, head lowered, his eyes going over her slender body, her full breasts pressing against the soft cotton of her blouse. A button had come undone, displaying a small amount of cleavage. She was still decently dressed, but the soft upper mounds of her breasts made his mouth water.
She would be wearing one of the silk and lace bras he had bought her, he thought. The ones with the little front clip, easy to release and peel away. Her breasts were full; her nipples were hard, so damned hard and tight beneath her shirt that his tongue ached to curl around them.
He knelt to the floor beside her, his hand lifting, his fingers smoothing a stray strand of silken hair from her cheek. Her whispered sigh was almost a moan, her pouty lips parting as though for his kiss.
She needed her sleep, he told himself as he stared down at her. She didn’t need him awakening her, molesting her in her sleep. Too many choices had been taken away from her; he didn’t want to take that from her too.
He was aware of Serena slipping on a coat in the kitchen, the whisper of the sliding doors as she left the house. Privacy. For what? For the hunger to rage inside him until he devoured her? He didn’t think so. Didn’t think she was ready for that step just yet.
Her eyes opened then. They were drowsy, slumberous, staring up at him with a hunger that was impossible to miss.
“I felt you,” she whispered, a smile tilting her moist lips. “Watching me. Should I feel you watching me?”
Was she asleep or awake?
“Of course.” He found the growl building in his throat. “Every time I look at you, baby, I touch you.”
Her cheeks flushed as her hand reached up to touch his face. Cool, silken fingertips brushed over his flesh before they touched his lips. They traced the curves, her eyes darkening with need, the scent of her arousal wrapping around him until he wanted to drown in it. Drown in her.
His lips opened, drawing one of the slender tips into his mouth, caressing it with his tongue as he wanted to caress one of the hard little nipples poking against her shirt. His hand settled just under one of the swollen curves, plumping it up as a spark of surprise lit her eyes.
“When I get you beneath me, I’m going to devour you,” he told her harshly as her finger slid from his mouth. “Every inch of your body, Elizabeth, I’ll make burn for me.”
She was breathing roughly now. Her breasts rising and falling with her quick breaths.