An Unyielding Desire (After The End Book 2) (33 page)

There was one left that Dingle had been
working on, and he limped over to it. Shane had some knowledge of mechanics, but not Dingle’s level. To his pleasant surprise, Dingle had almost finished the project, and he was able to complete the last few steps. Thirty minutes later, the motorcycle roared to life, though the motion of getting it started made him scream in agony. It idled roughly, but he hoped it would cover the distance. It was his only option.

Shane packed his gear, and anything useful from Spam, in just a few minutes. Though he had maintained a watchful eye during his activities, he saw no one. The sensation of being watched made his skin crawl, and he tried to dismiss it. Les wouldn’t be standing around watching him escape, so the feeling of eyes on him had to have come from his own paranoia.

He climbed onto the motorcycle with a wince and smothered curse. His jaw ached when he strapped on the helmet, and he thought he might pass out from the pain that appeared in the wake of kick-starting the bike again. He sobbed as the vibrations made every inch of him throb. Only will power gave him the impetus to cling to the old bike and ride it forward.

The desperate need to reach Mina kept him going, though he hurt in a way he’d never experienced before. Had Mina been in this kind of pain after he’d beaten her? Twice, he reminded himself with a vicious twist of his lips. He had physically expressed his rage upon the woman he loved twice, like an out-of-control animal. The ride and its accompanying agony suddenly seemed like just penance as he recalled just what he had done to her.

Chapter
Twenty

Mina had slept lightly, in tune with Coop’s every move
ment throughout the night. He’d tossed and turned a bit, along with issuing an occasional grunt of pain, but his sleep had been more restful than she had expected, especially since he had continued to decline Emme’s willow bark tea or any herbs that might help him sleep. So when he pulled her flush against him, she was instantly awake, eyes wide as she looked at him for signs of pain or fever.

He moaned, but it seemed like a sound of delight, not agony. The way he rubbed his hardening erection against the apex of her thighs supported that supposition, as did his morning
greeting. “This is the best pain relief ever.”

She grinned, though concern still laced her tone. “And are you in pain?”

“Oh, a little.” He grimaced as he tried to roll his shoulder. “Okay, a moderate amount, but it isn’t going to distract me from the pliant, willing woman beneath me.”

She rolled her eyes. “First, I’m beside you, not beneath you, and what makes you think I’m pliant or willing?”

“This,” he said as he smoothly flipped their position so that she lay under him. Mina gasped when he slipped his hand under the waist of her nightgown and into the side of her panties. His thick finger stroked her gently and was soon coated from her juices. “Very warm and wet. Willing?”

Mina bit her lip. “I am, but I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I’ll risk it.”

His departing finger left her feeling bereft, and she shifted restlessly to fill the ache.
“You’ll tell me if it’s too much for you?”

Coop grinned, shaking his head with an incorrigible motion. “Nope. Nothing’s going to stop me once we get started.”

“I really shouldn’t let you do this then. You could hurt yourself…” Mina trailed off with a moan as Coop traced his fingers around the rapidly hardening nipple pressing through the thin cotton of her nightdress.

“You think I should stop?” As he asked, he gently twisted her nipple, plucking the plump contours to coax them to grow harder still.

“God, no, don’t ever stop.” Mina cupped his face and pulled his head down to hers to capture his lips for a long, slow kiss. Their tongues met and mated in a leisurely fashion as they explored each other. She could have spent hours just savoring his sweet kisses.

Coop soon deepened the kiss, and she yielded, wanting to follow the pace he set to avoid hurting him unnecessarily. She tangled her fingers in his hair and parted her lips wider to allow his tongue to plunge deeper inside her. He thrust it in
mimicry of how his cock would later penetrate her, leaving Mina writhing and gasping with need.

When he moved carefully, she released her hold on his hair and
transferred her hands to his shoulders. With exaggerated care, Coop used his teeth to slide down the straps of her nightgown until the fabric rested below her nipples.

The way he licked his lips, his expression one of aching desire, made her stomach curl with reciprocal
longing. Her nipples tightened even before he took one gently between his lips, stroking and flicking his tongue across the sensitive bud. Coop gripped her hips, not letting her arch against him the way she needed, as he alternated his mouth on her breasts. “Please,” she half-sobbed when he finished off a hard suck by biting her sensitized nipple, but denied her any relief by keeping her hips trapped. “You’re killing me, Coop.”

He chuckled and returned to her mouth for another kiss before focusing his attention on undressing her completely, including her panties. Coop wore an expression of concern when he asked, “Is this okay?”

She blinked before nodding. Confusion lifted as she realized he thought she might be afraid after her previous experiences with Shane. To her pleasure and relief, she hadn’t given the other man a second thought. “It’s almost perfect,” she said in a tone thick with desire.

Coop arched a brow. “Almost?”

“You should be naked too.” As Coop leaned back to sit on his calves, Mina sat up, stretching like a cat and enjoying the way his eyes flared with heat as they fastened on her breasts thrusting forward. She leaned toward him to reach for the zipper of his pants. He’d been shirtless due to the injury, but she wanted him even more exposed. She wanted them vulnerable together, to see each other’s perfection and flaws. This was no hurried quickie done behind Shane’s back. This time, she wanted to enjoy every aspect of Coop, to take the time to appreciate his body and his technique.

After helping him with the pants, both because she wanted to and because he actually required assistance with one arm barely functioning, Mina gently pushed him down onto his back and straddled his knees. His eyes were wide with surprise when she lowered her face toward his stomach.

He put a hand on her forehead. “You don’t have to.”

She turned away from the gentle block to resume her course. “I want to,” she whispered right before taking the head of his cock inside her mouth. They both groaned at the moment, and she sighed with contentment before placing nibbling, teasing kisses around the corona. His hips jerked with each light brush of her teeth against his flesh, and she grasped them to try to hold him still, much as he had done to her.

Mina let his length slide into her mouth, taking as much as she could before she began sucking softly and bobbing her head. She used her tongue to tease the underside of his cock, focusing on the sensitive point with all the nerves. He was soon thrusting against her, ignoring her attempts to hold him still.

She continued sucking, kissing, and licking until the hand she used to cup his testicles detected they were tightening as his cock
spasmed. He was on the cusp of coming when she withdrew, giving him an evil grin.

He groaned. “Why are you torturing me?”

Mina laughed. “Oh, that’s easy. Because I can.” She winked. “Besides, I want you to come inside me.” She started to slide upward, but paused when he put up his hand. “Is something wrong?”

He frowned. “You can’t possibly be ready. I haven’t done anything for you.”

Mina took his hand as she scooted up his body. Drawing his fingers into her mouth, she sucked and licked in a similar fashion to the way she’d treated his erection. “Feel what you’ve done to me.” Guiding his hand between her thighs, she slipped two of his fingers inside her, along with one of her own. Moaning, she pressed against his digits. “Do you still doubt I’m ready?”

Coop groaned as she shifted his fingers to her clitoris, directing him to stroke her in just the right way around the outside of the sensitive bud. She
arched against his hand, rubbing her opening against his palm as she used his fingers to pleasure herself. She was slick with need and knew it wouldn’t take long for her to climax when Coop was inside her. “I’m
so
ready. Are you?”

Coop nodded eagerly, though he seemed reluctant to remove his hand from her slit even to cup her hips and help her sit on him. Mina reached between their bodies to guide his shaft inside her opening, taking him an inch at a time until they were both whimpering with need.

All intentions of going slowly disappeared when he was seated fully inside her. Tightening the muscles of her sheath around him, she began to thrust up and down his length as Coop held her hips and met each thrust eagerly, pushing inside her as deeply as he could. The position was perfect to stimulate all her heavenly areas, but she still gasped with surprise when a climax she hadn’t expected so soon crashed over her. Coop groaned, and his cock twitched, but he kept pushing into her, and she rode him until her folds squeezed around him again while another release swept through her.

He followed seconds later, pulling her tightly as he surged upward to bury himself completely in her heat. Hot spurts of his satisfaction painted her insides, and she cried out at the delicious sensation before collapsing carefully atop him, distributing most of her weight to the side of the bed to protect his injured shoulder.

“I love you, Mina.”

She laid her head on his chest. “I love you too, Coop. I didn’t think—”

“What?” he prompted when she fell into silence.

“I didn’t think I could ever feel this way after what he did to me.” She tilted her chin to look up at him. He was looking down at her, and their gazes locked. “Honestly, I figured I’d never escape him long enough to show how I felt about you. Now that I’ve finally had the chance, the intensity of what I feel just blows me away.” Her cheeks flushed with the heartfelt admission, which she hoped hadn’t freaked him out.

His green gaze was soft, and there might have been the faintest trace of moisture before he blinked. “It blows me away too, honey. I wanted you almost the moment I laid eyes on you. I even helped with the chickens as an excuse to spend time with you.”

She
grinned. “The girls will be heartbroken if they find out you were just using them to get to me.”

Coop smiled even as he rolled his eyes. “I’d like to think we would have had a normal progression of ste
ps in our relationship if…things…hadn’t interfered.” He seemed reluctant to speak Shane’s name.

She didn’t blame him, not wanting the other man to ruin this moment in any fashion. “I certainly reciprocated your interest, though I knew you were probably too old for me. I wasn’t sure you could keep up.”

He mock-growled at her before tickling her until she giggled and pleaded for him to stop. Then his expression turned serious. “Maybe I’m rushing things, and if I am, tell me to back off, but I’m scared to waste more time.”

She nodded, though she was a little confused. “We’ve lost too much time,” she agreed.

“Will you marry me? I don’t know if we can have anything approaching a legal union, but we can have a ceremony with our friends and your family. Will you be my wife, or should I shelve the question for now?”

Mina’s heart swelled, and her chest ached as she struggled to draw in a deep breath. Tears burned her eyes, and she had to swallow twice before she could manage to speak. “Yes, Cooper Tidwell. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. It could be a month or sixty years, and I don’t want to waste a second longer.”

He kissed her for a long moment before drawing away, looking regretful. “I don’t have a ring or anything, but I’ll keep an eye open on our next run.”

She put a finger to his lips. “I don’t care about rings, and I sure don’t want you to risk your life just to find one. I don’t
require any of the old symbols of marriage. I just need you.” Placing her palm over his heart, she said, “I just need to know we belong to each other in here.”

“Forever.” His voice was thick as he spoke solemnly, the single word a more lasting promise than any they could utter during a marriage ceremony witnessed by others. That would be for everyone else, but this private joining of their souls was just for them.

“Always,” she whispered before kissing him again to seal their vow.

*****

Shane couldn’t shake the sensation of being watched as he endured the agonizing motorcycle ride. When he finally pulled over to relieve his screaming kidneys, no doubt bruised by last night’s beating, he took binoculars from his bag as he stood up. With coverage provided by nearby bushes, he did his business before lifting the binoculars to his eyes.

He watched the way he’d come for several minutes, growing more convinced he was letting paranoia influence his instincts. Despite a lack of sighting anyone or anything, he was reluctant to lower the binoculars and kept them trained on the winding road behind him until his elbow started to shake with the strain of keeping them aloft.

Just as he lowered them, he was sure he’d caught a glimpse of green. Frowning, he switched arms and brought the binoculars back to his eyes. It took a moment to find the item, and he cursed under his breath when he saw the Humvee a few miles back, followed by the two motorcycles.