Let her come for him? He was going to make her come? Here? In her bed?

Then she almost did come. His finger began to circle her nipple, drawing an incredible circle of fire around it as his head lowered, his lips barely touching hers.

“Get ready,” he whispered. “Let’s see how much you like this.”

His thumb and forefinger gripped the violently sensitive peak and exerted just enough pressure to throw her into a maelstrom of sensations. Fire tore from her nipple to her clit, surging to her womb as she felt it flex in hunger.

Her lips parted on a fractured cry that he took into his own mouth. His lips covered hers easily, gently, absorbing her cry as they moved against her with restrained hunger.

His fingers were tugging at her nipples, both of them now, shifting against her until he rose half over her, surrounding her with his heat.

“God, I would have loved to have heard that cry,” he groaned against her lips.

Kelly could feel the tremors racing through her body, feel the soft wetness gathering between her thighs. Her hands lifted to his shoulders, her fingers pressing into the hard muscle as his lips smoothed over hers again.

“I just want to feel your nipple in my mouth,” he whispered. “I want to slide my hand to your pretty thighs and see how wet and soft you are there. How much could you stand, baby, before you screamed again?”

Not much. She was weak. She was entranced by the pleasure tearing through her body and she could do nothing to stop it.

“I want you naked, Kelly,” he breathed against her lips. “Will you be naked for me, baby?”

One hand moved to her hips, curling into the waistband of her sweatpants as he began to push them down her thighs.

“Rowdy…” Was she scared? She was terrified, but not of being hurt. She couldn’t make sense of the sensations racing through her, pleasure and fear, confusion and dazed hunger. They were flooding her, drowning her with conflicting needs.

“We’re just playing, Kelly.” He moved back, sliding the pants down her legs before pulling them free of her body.

She was naked now, exposed if it hadn’t been for the darkness of the room.

He lifted her hand again, kissing it before he surprised her by laying it over her lips.

“Shhh. We don’t want anyone to hear.”

She didn’t think he really gave a damn if anyone did hear, but she pressed her fingers to her lips, certain she would die of embarrassment if her mother or Ray heard her pleasure.

She saw the flash of his teeth in a wicked grin before his head lowered.

It was a good thing she covered her mouth before his lips touched her aching nipple, before they surrounded the sensitive peak and drew it into his mouth. Because her cry was barely muffled with one hand as the other flew to his head.

Her back arched, and she swore flames burned over her body as he began to suckle at her. He wasn’t slow and easy. He didn’t ease her into it, he didn’t tease her into it, he devoured her, and she was helpless beneath it.

“God. Baby.” He buried his head between her breasts then, his breathing rough and hard as his hands moved down her waist, her hips. “You’re going to my head faster than the whisky did.”

She needed more. She pressed against him, certain she was going to scream for more if he didn’t touch her again.

“Easy. Easy.” His breathing was a rough groan as his lips moved along her chest, her collarbone. “Come here, baby. Let’s ease this fire before I lose my sanity.”

He pulled her to him as he moved her hand from her lips and covered them with his own. Then his other hand went between her thighs.

Kelly jerked against him, her hand latching onto his wrist as she felt his fingers part the wet folds.

“Oh God, you’re bare.” His voice was tortured as his fingers moved over flesh despite her hand gripping him. “Sweet heaven have mercy.”

His thumb flicked over her clit as his fingers parted the swollen flesh.

“Easy. We’re going to do this quick, baby. If we don’t, I’m going to end up taking you here, in your bed, and then we’ll both be screaming.”

His lips covered hers again as his thumb moved along the outer edge of the sensitive bud of flesh as his fingers began to caress the greedy opening.

She was crying out beneath his lips. One arm latched around his neck as the nails of the other bit into his wrist. It didn’t deter him. His thumb caressed, rotated, then pressed against her with diabolical results.

Stars exploded before her eyes as she jerked beneath him, shuddering violently as pleasure whipped over her nerve endings and devastatingly clashed through her senses.

She could feel her juices rushing from her sex, feel his fingers rubbing through them, intensifying her climax as a growl vibrated against her lips, covering her fractured scream.

And she was lost. She was distantly aware of his release, the movement of his free hand, the feel of his semen washing over thigh, which only intensified her own pleasure and egged at her fears. Not her fear of his touch, or the fear of being with him. But the overwhelming fear that there wasn’t a chance in hell that she could handle him.

Kelly eased into sleep within minutes of Rowdy cleaning them both up and tucking the blankets around her. He felt her relax against him, felt the soft sigh that left her lips. Moving slowly, he eased the blanket further over her shoulders, feeling her head on his arm, her silky hair against his chest as he held her. It was killing him, the pain, the fear he knew she had to have endured. He could feel his heart breaking in his chest even as a killing rage burned in his soul.

She was his. She had been his as long as he had known her and by God he wasn’t letting her go. She knew him, knew he would cut out his own heart before he’d hurt her—that trust was still within her. If it weren’t, she would never have been able to climax so sweetly for him, or sleep in his arms, to allow him to hold her, her sweet body tucked so close against his own. Naked.

He stared into the dimly lit bedroom, his eyes narrowed, his mind working. Whoever dared to hurt her, to stalk her, wouldn’t be breathing for long. He wouldn’t be breathing two seconds past the time Rowdy learned who he was. And that was a silent promise, a vow he made to Kelly. She would never be hurt again.

SEVEN

Maria opened Kelly’s door the next morning, not really expecting what she saw. Ray had warned her the night before, but he had been drunk, amorous, so she hadn’t really taken him seriously. Perhaps she should have—the shock wouldn’t have been so great.

She was used to coming in to find Kelly napping in the large wingback chair on the other side of the room, the television droning in the background. The room was silent now, and Rowdy was staring at her through slitted eyes from the bed.

He was wrapped around her sleeping daughter like a living vine. Kelly lay on her side, her back pressed against Rowdy’s front, her head sheltered beneath his chin. One hard leg lay over her daughter’s fragile ones beneath the blankets, his arms surrounding her as her hair tangled over them. He was bent over her, wrapped around her, and Kelly was sleeping peacefully.

It was more than obvious that they both were naked. Kelly was her baby; seeing her sleeping in a man’s arms, especially Rowdy’s, was disconcerting. She had expected the closeness they had before her marriage to Ray to develop, but not in this way. As siblings, very close friends, but never this. This terrified her.

The sexual tension that vibrated from the two whenever they were together had always worried her, deeply. She had been terrified for years that Rowdy would break her daughter’s heart. What she saw now filled her with conflicting emotions. Rowdy would protect Kelly, and, ultimately, that was Maria’s greatest wish. Her daughter’s protection. But what he could do to her baby’s heart was almost more than she could bear.

As she stared at the two, Rowdy’s frown darkened, his gaze narrowing at her. “What?” he mouthed.

Ray had warned her, she had known herself what was coming.

“We’re going to the marina.” She mouthed the words back at him, hoping her daughter would continue to sleep.

He nodded with a subtle shift of his head, never really moving. Content. That was how he appeared. Content where he was, holding Kelly close.

She backed slowly from the room, her hand lingering on the door panel for a moment as she fought the worry building within her. Maybe Ray was right. Maybe Rowdy was all Kelly truly needed to get past the attack. Maria hoped so. The shadows in her daughter’s eyes broke her heart, but even more the worry that whoever had attacked Kelly would return terrified her. Until they caught him, Maria knew she would never sleep easy.

Kelly came awake slowly, her senses alive, her skin tingling at the warmth that surrounded her. There was no momentary fear, no surprise. Rowdy was holding her. She could feel him wrapped around her, spooned against her as though she had been made for the position.

She was aware of something else as well as she lay there, her body tucked into his. He was hard. His erection pressed against the crevice of her buttocks, a thick intruder, waiting. She bit her lip, stiffening in his arms, her muscles tightening. Pleasure and fear combined inside her. And the pleasure was stronger. The culmination of what felt like a lifetime of fantasies and needs rose inside her, blocking the fear, pushing it back until nothing mattered except Rowdy.

“Easy, baby.” His voice was drowsy, calm. “It’s just a hard-on.” He snuggled against her, tucking her closer to his chest as her hands gripped the bedspread and she fought to level her breathing.

“I hate to say this,” she wheezed. “That’s not a hard-on, Rowdy. That’s a baseball bat.”

His snorted chuckle vibrated against her back, and only pressed his erection closer against her rear. She stiffened further.

“Want me to move? I’m pretty comfortable right now.”

Oh, she just bet he was. She forced herself to breathe deeply, to push back the panic threatening, building in her mind. This was Rowdy and he wouldn’t hurt her now.

“You’re thinking it to death,” he murmured and he rubbed his chin against her hair. “Scared?”

“Of your baseball bat?” She fought for humor rather than hysteria. “I don’t know, Rowdy, I hear you’re pretty fond of it. Lots of practice and all.”

She felt his hand move, his fingers running over hers, sending tingling spirals of heat to build beneath them.

“You’re a little minx,” he growled at her ear, a velvet-soft sound that rippled through her senses. “That wasn’t very nice.”

A grin tugged at her lips at his chastising tone. She relaxed against him, feeling her body conform to his, settling against hard muscle and aroused heat.

“I’m not nice, remember?” Her eyes closed as he chuckled at her back. It was an old argument going back years before. It usually occurred whenever she told him what lousy taste he had in women, and pointed out their faults in vivid detail.

“I do remember.” His lips smoothed over the top of her head, the caress sending trailing fingers of pleasure to wash through her body. The slightest caress, no matter how subtle, had the power to make her tremble. “You have a mean wit sometimes, Kelly.”

She gave an amused snort at that. “I just didn’t care to tell you the truth, Rowdy.”

His girlfriends weren’t exactly the kind of woman he brought home to dinner. As a matter of fact, he had never brought a woman home to dinner. Kelly would never have been able to tolerate that. She wondered if he had known that.

“Do you remember when you were seventeen, and you bought that scrap of material you called a bathing suit?” he mused softly.

She remembered the bathing suit, bought specifically in the hope of teasing him past the control she always hated so much.

“I didn’t think you noticed.” She turned her head, staring up at him, close.

His eyes were darker, tiny pinpoints of emerald glittered in the sea green iris, mesmerizing her, filling her vision. And his lips. Her eyes darted to his lips, so close. And she knew how they felt rubbing against her own, firm and warm, stoking fires inside her she hadn’t imagined existed.