Give Me All Of You (9 page)

“W
e were…close, until they died.” His voice was low, as if he’d forced the words past obstacles in his throat.

She knew that kind of pain, though Josephine was very much alive.
Words of comfort were useless. She cupped his lean face, pulled him down, their eyes met.

D
ark blue eyes peered into hers, he smiled candidly. “Like you I was also an only child … already in college. Taking care of myself wasn’t such a shock.”

The words were
flat but there was no mistaking the old hurt beneath them.

She
came to her knees within the circle of his arms, on the way up her chest bumped against the wrought expanse of his.

She
brushed her palms down one of the many lines of muscles which extended from his neck down his shoulders to the middle of his torso. His ragged intake of breath made her glance quickly at him.

He
nodded, encouraging her to continue.

Mor
e confident, she wrapped her arms around his wide shoulders, stretching them to their fullest to try and grasp him.

Heat began to pool in small drops between her thighs. She knew what that meant, the danger it signaled
, but she closed her eyes. She wanted this and couldn’t conceive of stopping.

Hunter’s senses went into a dizzying tailspin the moment Mina rose before him. Impatient with her innocent strokes, he plastered her supple body to his.

She gasped
at the crush of his embrace but didn’t demand release as the old Mina would’ve done.

He closed his eyes and let the feel of her freely given touch seep through him,
sink lower into the hole his parent’s passing had left in his life.

She cared, there was no
mistake about that.

The wonder of
it was new and he didn’t quite know how to handle it. Except to return her embrace. The urge surprised him. He had thought his life reasonably full, privileged.

And h
e had no right to touch her. Not after last week and Desiree but still he couldn’t stop himself from reaching for her mouth.

H
er lids were slumberous and shining with unconcealed desire.

His b
lood boiled, she became hotter, sexier every time he touched her.

He aske
d with his eyes and anticipation leapt into her face.

Heat, instant and uncontrollable
surged into his veins, making him tense, harden all over.

He
ruthlessly stamped down his own misgivings.

H
e needed Mina.

Surely one mistake couldn’t wipe out
what he’d spent months trying to build with her?

Palming her tiny waist, he reveled in the beauty of her body. She felt so good.
Soft, guttural mews came from her mouth.

Blatant pleas for release
.

He bent hungrily, nipped her plump bottom
lip, she cried out.

He
reared back, and tenderness cracked open inside him at the naked hunger in her eyes.

“Breathe Mina, breathe.”

She groaned instead and rocked against him.

She sucked in several deep gulps of air, and then she was out of his arms, before he could pull her back.

She stayed within the confines of his legs, looked down at him, her eyes gorgeous points of heat in her aroused face.

Breasts
heaving, she lifted her arms and yanked the sundress over her head, a sole dainty thong greeted his eyes.

H
e’d just died and gone to an unwarranted reward.

Her chest pumped up and
down and standing tall in their glory, her full breasts moved to the harsh rhythm of her breathing.

H
e forgot to think.  With a quick, rough movement he caught her and hauled her astride him. His lips clamped hungrily over a thrusting nipple.

She cried out,
raked his shoulders with those kitten claws, he groaned and suckled her even more strongly.

Gripping her
compact, shapely rear, he squeezed and molded the juicy flesh. He couldn’t touch enough of her. Running his hands down the length of her long legs, locked on either side of him, restraint and reason began to unravel.

She grasped
the short curls at the back of his head and tugged his mouth away from her breasts to her lips.

“Is this what you want?” he growled, needing to hear her say it.

She licked her bottom lip with slow precision, making him wince in agony, “Yes.”

He ravaged the insides of
her mouth with unfettered desire, plunging and tangling with her tongue until he was dizzy and wanted nothing more than to sink deeper inside her.

She
whimpered brokenly, twisting against him, broke away, her eyes were wild, her breathing haggard.

“Please Hunter,” she begged
against his lips, her hands traveled lower and he jerked under the tentative play of her fingers over his hardened flesh.

She watched his response,
her own eyes were needy and … honest.

Her strokes went from unsure to tormented pleasure when she cupped his sack. His eyes crossed.

Dammit! How he wanted her. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t have traded at that moment to have her. But the guilt, the irony of what he’d done to be in this situation in the first place sat unmoving in his brain.

With shaking hands he lifted her fingers away from him.
“I can’t,” he croaked.

Silence fell between them like a loadstone, their rough breathing the only
sounds.

The
shutters came down in her eyes, but they couldn’t quite hide the sting of rejection.

The urge to confess choked him but how could he say,
I can’t sleep with you because I fucked a nympho to keep you from learning that I’ve been lying to you all this time about who I really am?

He
waited for her rage. Seconds passed, then a minute but there was … nothing.

She simply froze atop his lap, her naked body silky in the afternoon sunlight.
She began trembling, her hands came up halfway then stopped. She’d intended to cover her breasts but at the last moment her natural courage had reasserted itself. He admired her even more.

She clenched her hands into small fists.
“Do you find me unattractive?” the words wobbled, underscoring the strength it took for her to say them.

He barked a laugh, reached out, she flinched
away, he grasped her ass and crushed it against the stone ridge in his swimming trunks. “Does that feel like repulsion?”

She shuddered, shook her hea
d. Her face was blotted with confusion. “I don’t understand. You want me. I want you now too. Why?”

It was his turn to hedge, to reach for courage he didn’t have. “Things have gotten a little more complicated since you agreed to give us a try.”

Anger flashed in her eyes. “What?” she demanded, jealousy flashing in her eyes.

It was both adorable and frightening.

He fought to summon some logical explanation. “Sex will be a major move for us. If we come together now there’ll be no turning back. I won’t want to wait. Are you ready to marry me tomorrow?”

She stared longingly at him,
then the doubt crept into her eyes. She shook her head. “But I feel like I need to be close to you,” she whispered.

The
anger went out of her with that admission. He hauled her into his arms, heaved a sigh of tremendous relief. “I’ve felt that way for months, honey. I’ll find a way to clear this up as soon as I can.”

She was quiet against
him, seemingly lost in her own thoughts.

Driving through the twilight, Mina stole lingering glances at the full moon as it rose to its place in the sky. She smiled as she remembered.

H
er body still hummed in all the places Hunter had skimmed with his fingertips or brushed with his lips throughout the remainder of their afternoon together. He’d blown hot little clouds of air across the expanse of her skin which had made her gasp and groan.

Her breath came short at the memory of his
raven head bent low over her, his tongue a hot, marauding instrument which had made her cry out more than once.

She squirmed in h
er seat, if she didn’t calm down, she’d caused a wreck.

Pulling into the driveway of Bronswort mansion
, a shadow loomed out of nowhere, she shrieked in shock. Slammed on the brakes. Heart hammering she studied it.

Josephine?

What the hell was she doing here?

She
felt a sharp pang of irritation. Her mother’s presence could only ruin the evening.

Mouth pressed into an uncompromising line, she
killed the engine and got out of the car.

“What are you doing here
?” She strode over to Josephine.

Josephine paus
ed uncertainly, her normally stoic face haggard in the receding light. “There’s something I have to tell you,” her voice was a plea.

Mina didn’t care.
“You didn’t have to come in person, a phone call would’ve sufficed,” she snapped.

Josephine
had abandoned them so long ago. She was heartily sick of all these little attempts at reconciliation. First the birthday get-together, now this?

Josephine raised
dark eyes to her face, and even in the fading light Mina could see that they were bruised with misery.

Josephine’s shoulders sagged.
“I deserve your anger, even your hate. I’ve been nothing but a reminder of the family you’ve lost.” She raised a hand to her.

Mina stumbled back
from the gesture, her heart twisted painfully. “I lost nothing. You were never a mother to me. Your leaving showed me that!”

Josephine t
urned away, her proud, strong features mired in her own personal turmoil. “I’ve always loved you Mina.”

“No!” the words were loud
in the cooling night, they’d come from somewhere deep inside her, someplace that Josephine’s cruel, heartless words had ripped back open. She was beside herself with the torrent of horrible scenes and countless painful memories that she’d had to endure. “You’ve never loved me, if you had you wouldn’t have left when I was barely five years old,” she cried, willing herself not to break down.

“You don’t understand,”
Josephine began sobbing, her fingers curled into impatient claws.

Mina
shook and stayed pointedly out of reach. “Please don’t waste my time trying to resurrect what can’t be salvaged between us. We share the same blood, that’s all.”

She
turned and stomped towards the house.

“Stop!” Josephine cried
out.

Mina didn’
t know why but her legs stopped beneath her, stubbornly she kept her back to Josephine.

“
Six months after you were born, I got pregnant again. Hermile was ecstatic but I was angry. I felt trapped deeper into a motherhood I didn’t want,” her mouth twisted into a sneer. “I was very self-absorbed back then. I went behind his back and had an … an abortion,” a wrenching sob broke through, followed by another.

Mina clenched her body tight. A part of her wanted to r
un to Josephine but she was afraid to move.

Hermile
had never explained the bitterness and anger that even as a five year old she’d seen growing between her parents.

She turned because she
could no longer bear to keep her back to her sobbing mother.

Josephine’s eyes begged her to understand.
“It was a horrible mistake. The doctor botched the abortion and I nearly bled out. Hermile had to come take me to the hospital,” Josephine’s eyes were streaming and Mina stuffed a fist in her mouth to keep from crying out. “Nothing I did or said afterwards mattered to Hermile. I’d betrayed him and killed our baby. After a few years of fighting to stay, I had to leave but Hermile made it clear that you would be staying.”

Josephine tried to pull herself together, the sobs dwindled
but now her slender frame trembled as though wracked with a fever. “I’ve always loved you with every fiber of my being, but I couldn’t stand against Hermile’s right to be angry,” she wrapped her arms around herself, “And I got worse. For many years I drifted, men and society filled my life.”