Kiss Me Gone (11 page)

Dare

To my surprise, Eden’s body turned soft and relenting. A voice whispered at the back of my skull to retreat before I damaged her trust beyond repair, but I ignored the warning. She had shown signs of wanting me that morning and the night before. If we hadn’t gone to that damn party for Bailey, she would already have been squirming beneath me with need, all thought of leaving me gone from her pretty little head. 

I wasn’t humble about my body or my abilities. More than one woman had shown signs of outright addiction to my touch. If I held Eden, fucked her, teased her until she forgot her own name, I would be able to hold onto her a few more days and then a few more until she woke up one morning and decided, for reasons that had nothing to do with how good the sex was, that she had been insane to ever think about disappearing from my life again. 

My mouth trailed down from her ear to where her neck curved into her shoulder. I pressed my lips against the spot, let my heat and need soak through her skin. Back up to her ear, I whispered a request.

"Let me give you everything you need, baby."

She answered with an aching whimper.

"Eden," I pressed, my hands running softly along her sides. "I want in you, but only if you want me in. Whatever you need, I'll give it to you, and you don't have to do anything in return."

"Stop talking," she squeaked then turned into me, her fingers slipping around my neck to clasp together. Her mouth found mine, the kiss sweet at first then sucking at my very soul.

I rolled, pinned her on her back and claimed control. She still wore her jacket. I stripped it away. Wanting her naked all at once, I settled for peeling off her jeans and panties first. I needed to deliver as much pleasure as possible before she had a chance to change her mind again.

Realizing she was naked from the waist down, Eden gasped. I didn't give her time to suggest we slow down. My hands parted her thighs and then my mouth fastened against her clit. Her fingers threaded through my hair. A few heartbeats passed before I relaxed with the knowledge that she didn't intend to pull me from her pussy.

Her hot, soaking wet pussy.

I laved along her clit, blew cold air against the sensitive button until she squeaked again and her hips jumped forward. Grinning, I covered the swollen spine with my mouth and started to suck. My palms glided down her thighs. The thumb and index finger of each hand gently pinched her labia apart to expose her core.

I wasn't naive enough to expect Eden to have remained a virgin since leaving Hagersburg, but the tight hole my finger slid into surprised me. She whimpered again, her thighs pressing against my ears. I slid the single digit out, added another and pushed back into her.

"Dare..." She breathed my name softly a few times more, her hips locked in a slow roll of need.

Thickening the intrusion into her velvety cunt, I fingered my way deeper, three wide and all the way to my base knuckles. I wanted her primed and thoroughly stretched before I pushed my cock into her. I wouldn't allow any pain to mar the pleasure growling up from her throat.

With my thumb rubbing at her clit in time with the push and pull of my fingers, I mixed hard kisses and gentle bites along her thighs, across the bottom curve of her stomach and the sensitive sides.

My mouth stopped teasing her just long enough to issue a strangled order. "Top off and the bra."

Squirming, fumbling, protesting with sharp little squeaks and long moans, she managed to shed the clothing that covered her breasts. My hands still exploring her cunt and swollen clit, I pushed upward to fasten my lips around one pert nipple.

"Dare..." she whispered, hands wrapping around the back of my skull and drawing me tight. "Don't make me wait to have you in me."

My cock jumped inside my jeans, its urgency threatening to break the zipper. I denied its immediacy with a short grunt and sucked harder at Eden's nipple. A cry broke from her, her hips cresting high and sharp as my fingers plunged deep inside.

"I'm going to come," she said, the words throaty as she struggled to breathe. "Oh, fuck, I..."

I eased back, surged higher up her body to kiss at her throat. Between kisses, I whispered into her ear all the things I was going to do to her body. "Baby, I'm going to fuck you until you forget your name, until all you can remember is how much you want to be with me, to stay here in my bed, in my home -- our home."

"Please, Dare..." Her hands clutched at my shirt, her hips desperate for the release I still denied her. She twisted until her face was even with mine, her mouth opening to my tongue, her pussy grinding hard against me when I chewed at her sweet, soft bottom lip.

A shudder overtook her motions and then she cried out, no words, just a long keening that signaled her first orgasm of the night. She trembled to a slow stop, her eyes closed tight.

I brushed my lips against both eyelids then ordered her to look at me.

Slowly, shyly, she opened her eyes.

I stood up, peeled my shirt off. She started to sit, her hands moving like she wanted to assist me.

"Down," I ordered. "I want you to see everything I have to give you."

I kicked out of my shoes and socks, then reached for the zipper on my jeans. The fingers on my right hand remained slick from her juices. I wanted to pop them into my mouth, to suck on her taste until it was gone. I resisted the urge, wrestled my fingers into obedience and slid the zipper down.

My cock pressed forward, escaping the top band of my boxers. She hadn't seen me earlier that morning in the dim light as our bodies jousted on the couch, didn't have more than the barest sense of my imposing size.

I pushed the jeans and boxers down my hips, my eyes locked on her face. Her brows climbed up and her mouth made a sexy little O of surprise. She licked her lips, her gaze darting nervously up to catch me staring at her.

"You have to come a few more times before I'll fit inside you, baby," I warned. "You're too tight for me to take now."

She nodded, swallowed roughly then nodded again. Extending her arms, she issued a soft plea. "I want to feel you against me first. Please, Dare."

Certain I couldn't trust myself if I felt her against me, my cock bare and her wet pussy rubbing against it, I shook my head. Her mouth turned down for an instant. I put one knee on the bed, my big body looming over her. I brought the other knee up and used it to separate her thighs. Dropping my hand to her mound, I erased her frown with a soft raking of her pubic hair, my nails rubbing at blood-flushed skin beneath the auburn fur.

Her fingers closed around my cock as best they could. I felt a drop of pre-cum escape. My balls pulled tight with need. If she so much as stroked me I would have to bury my cock deep inside her before I had a chance to prepare her or even slide a condom on.

Removing my knee from between her thighs, I ordered her to roll over. She obeyed without hesitation. I grabbed a pillow from the top of the bed.

"Lift," I commanded. Again, she performed the action without a moment's thought. Now I had her lush ass in the air. Using my hands, I parted her thighs once more then dragged her bottom and the pillow to the edge of the bed.

With a reluctant grunt, I stepped around to the other side of the mattress to open the nightstand's top drawer. Shamefully, I had condoms and lube stashed in the nightstand, more in the bathroom, and more still in the living room in one of the side tables.

I pulled out a wrapped condom, one of the thin ribbed ones, and a tube of water-based lube. My cock swelled with fresh need, a frustrated puff of air leaving me as I navigated the edge of the bed and returned to where Eden's spread pussy danced with her desire.

Uncapping the lube, I squirted a little onto my fingers. Three thick, I entered her, the circumference little more than half my cock's girth. Groaning, she wrapped her arms around her head and pushed her face against the mattress. The motion lifted her ass higher, her cheeks nervously tensing as her hips dipped and her pussy stretched just the tiniest bit.

Standing behind her, I leaned forward so that my hands could continue teasing her pussy while the head of my clock traced the line of her perineum then higher up her backside, her firm bottom hugging its sides.

Hell, I wanted to stretch more than her cunt with my cock. She had a beautiful ass -- beautiful everything.

Groaning, I dropped to my knees. My fingers sluiced in and out of her as my other hand worked to spread her ass cheeks. With the tight star exposed, I nestled my mouth against it, my tongue softly tracing its innermost circle.

Eden bucked against me, her juices wetting my palm. She grunted, jerked, pressed hard against my fingers and tongue. Too much aching want infected her voice as she said my name. I couldn't resist her pleas any longer. I stood, sheathed my cock, squirted lube onto it, worked the length.

With my feet, I forced her to move her legs wider as I dribbled lube onto my fingers, worked the liquid into her pussy then positioned my cock at her gate. A little more lube on my fingers and I started to play with her ass as the head of my dick breached her tight pussy.

She moaned, her entire body tensing with lust.

"Fuck, Dare..." She didn't have any air left in her lungs to say more.

"Yes, baby, fuck." I agreed as my cock slid into heaven and my finger pushed into her tight, sweet ass. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

Beneath me, Eden exploded with her third climax, my body following her lead mere seconds later. She went limp as I finished. Rolling her onto her back, I covered her throat with chewy kisses before warning her.

"Baby, I'm just getting started."

Eden

For one day shy of two weeks, I let Dare's body cloud my judgment. I may have remembered my name -- just barely -- but I forgot everything else. My past, his mother. His friends, the abusive lover I had escaped.

If the past had taught me anything, it was that reality waited just around the corner to bitch slap me back to my senses. Still, I fell in love during those two weeks. He arranged as many days off as he could and spent them with me. Two half days securing a copy of my birth certificate and applying for a state ID and learner's permit. Several hours of more driving lessons peppered across the two weeks. But mostly we stayed home, lost in one another and by some miracle avoiding anyone who would have made me uncomfortable.

When he did have to go into the station, I took the bus around town and filled out job applications. I let him buy a no contract cell phone and minutes for me to use. He wanted to get something that would add me to his plan, something with a two-year commitment. My gentle, but persistent refusal was one of the few times I saw a shadow cross his face. The other times occurred as the standard timeline for the ID to arrive in the mail passed. It was like he knew I was there on borrowed time even though I tried to convince him otherwise, even allowed myself to believe otherwise.

At the end of the second week, he received a summons from work that he couldn't avoid, his pager signaling an all hands call. That meant another big fire, one every bit as big as the hotel inferno that had brought us together again.

Rather ironic, I suppose.

The weather conspired to keep me inside. I varied my morning between cleaning the house and checking the local news for any mention of the fire that had called him away. A little before noon, my head in the oven with a scrub brush, I heard the bang of the mailbox lid against the side of the house.

It was Saturday, the last day before Monday that my ID had a chance of arriving. Grinning, I placed the scrub brush in the sink and washed my hands. I hoped my ID was in there. If so, I would pinch some grocery money from the canister at the back of the sink cupboard, get all the fixings for a lasagna I would bake in the newly sparkling oven and a modest bottle of wine.

Dare would come home to a great meal, but, more than that, he would see that the ID had arrived and I was still there.

Hands dried, I stepped onto the front porch to check the mail just as a woman reached its bottom step. A quick glance told me she was about my age, maybe a little older, but that I didn't know her. She wore an expensive wool coat with the hood up to block the bitterly cold and wet weather we were having. Leather gloves covered her small hands. A soft leather portfolio bag hung from one shoulder. A glance at the driveway showed a shiny black BMW no more than a few years off the production line.

She was too fancy to be the Avon lady, but she looked like she was there on business.

"Can I help you?" I asked, forcing myself not to retreat into the house despite the blowing cold and my arms being bare from the trashy t-shirt I put on while cleaning.

The woman extended her gloved hand, a professional smile plastered across her face. As close as she stood, I could see that she had bright blue eyes. A hint of blond hair peeked from one corner of the hood.

"Provided you're Eden Burke, I think I'm the one who'll be doing the helping."

"Eden Abbey," I corrected, forcing a smile to my face as I extended my hand. I swallowed as I finished speaking. I didn't like shaking hands with strangers, especially when they knew my name -- sort of -- and I didn't know theirs. And she had used the wrong last name. In Hagersburg, that never seemed to work out well for me.

"What's this about?" I asked as she took a step closer, her gaze focused behind me on the small portion of the house's interior the open door exposed.

"I'm the local coordinator of
For the Fallen
--"

"Laurie Quade," I said, cutting her off. She was also L.Q., the woman intensely interested in my lover's perfect derriere. "Dare should have told you I asked him to drop the inquiry."

"He only mentioned that you didn't think you qualified and that he didn't want to go to you with any information that might get your hopes up." The pretty blond frowned and began to open her portfolio. "Which is why it's been almost two weeks while I waited for a response from our national office."

Pulling an inch-thick file filled with papers from her bag, she nodded at the open door. "May I come in?"

Sucking in a deep breath, I nodded and moved aside, letting her enter first while I pulled the mail from the box. Inside, I set the mail by the door without looking at it and offered to make some tea.

"That would be great, it's quite a cold front that moved in overnight."

I nodded absently as I filled the tea pot. The front of my brain screamed that I needed to grab Laurie Quade by the collar of her expensive coat and drag her to the door. That such action should be my standard operating procedure for anyone who addressed me as Eden Burke. I swallowed roughly again, a sudden pain flaring in my chest that circumstance had so badly tainted the last name of a man I had adored to the point I couldn't trust anyone who used it.

Beyond the warning bells and the hurt, another voice spoke with quiet logic. I hadn't checked through the mail to see if the ID had arrived. Even if it hadn't, sitting down with Laurie and talking about my options would be another way to convince Dare that I was invested in building a future with him -- if he wanted one. As much as he wanted to be around me, in me (and not just inside my body but what I was thinking and feeling), he clearly hadn't reached a decision on whether he was in love with me.

With my back turned to Laurie as she separated the pages in her folder into three neat stacks on the table, I wiped at my cheeks then pulled down two cups from the cupboard.

That was when a knock landed on the door.

I pivoted left, the cups in my hand.

"I'll get it," Laurie offered. "That's probably Mary."

"Mary?" I asked, my heart instantly hammering hard against the back of my sternum.

"Mary Ivers," Laurie explained, looking at me over her shoulder, the smile on her face showing no hint of malice. "Dare's mom. She's the chairperson for the parish fund. St. Anthony's has its own stipend for local
Fallen
recipients. Didn't she mention it?"

Before I could answer that I hadn't even seen Mary Ivers O'Donnell since my stepfather's funeral, Laurie opened the door.

Tall, regal, a streak of gray showing in her black Irish hair, time hadn't changed Bloody Mary by much. Even on the warmest day, her expression remained cold. And it was far from a warm day. She stood there a perfect match to the weather whipping around her shoulders.

Mary stepped inside. Laurie leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. I couldn't imagine anyone other than Dare thinking they were cozy enough with Mary to perform such an intimate act. Mary must have been very fond of Laurie not to rip the young woman's head off.

"I'm so glad you could make it. We have tea going."

Laurie delivered the line like she lived there, like she was the one sharing Dare's bed.

"I was just explaining how you're in charge of St. Anthony's
Fallen
stipend."

Her gaze cutting sharp in my direction, Mary nodded. She shrugged her coat off and put it in the closet, a clear sign she was settling in for as long as it took to clear me out of her son's life.

"Here, dear," she said, her hands on Laurie's shoulders. "Let me put this up for you."

Another slicing glance at me and then she added, "If Eden doesn't mind, of course. I'm sure she would have relieved you of it shortly."

"Of course," I answered, the sound of my voice far away to my ears. "However, I was about to explain that I don't want any funds, even if I qualify. There are other people who need the assistance more than I do. I will complete my education on my own."

Theoretically, I amended to myself. Together, the two women could have been offering me a full scholarship to the most expensive school in the country and I would have turned it down just to get them out of the house.

With only one arm out of her coat, Laurie started to gently argue that I shouldn't reject the help so soon. "Why delay. Even after you have a degree, it can take years to get established. Dare said you were an excellent artist--"

"He was being kind," Mary interrupted, her gaze on me as if she were studying the effect of her words so she would know exactly where to take the next cut. "Wasn't your mother a nurse, dear? You have all the same qualities so a nursing degree might suit you. You can work your way up from bedpans to needles."

Yeah, she was still a bitch and she still hated me.

"It doesn't matter what I decide to study. I don't need the charity to divert funds away from people in greater need," I repeated, my face burning with the stings of a dozen wasps.

Whatever the posh, blond woman was, she was also persistent. Her heart-shaped mouth opened, but Mary cut any further argument short, victory shining in her eyes as she patted Laurie's shoulder.

"I've known Eden since before she was a teenager."

Her words came out warm, as if she had been fond of me all along. I knew better. This was a performance for Laurie’s sake. 

“When it comes to stubbornness," Mary continued. "She is every bit Michael’s daughter in spirit. God rest his soul.”

Laurie dropped her gaze for a second to offer a soft “amen” even though I doubt she had ever met my father.

“I have a free afternoon to convince her,” Mary added, her tone brightening further. She left unsaid the matter on which she wished to convince me and that it had nothing to do with my continuing education. “Why don’t you leave your paperwork and let me see what I can do?”

For one second, I entertained the idea of showing both of them the door. I knew the minute Laurie left, I was in for a showdown with the former Mary O'Donnell. But kicking her out at the same time Laurie departed would only make the young woman think poorly of me. I didn’t care one whit what she thought, but word would get back to Dare. And I knew I couldn’t put Mary off forever. 

“It will give us a chance to catch up on old times,” I said, faking enthusiasm when all I felt was the sensation of cold, dead fingers running down my spine. 

"Well, I..." Laurie hesitated, her focus shifting from Mary to me then back to Mary.

Dare's mother wore a benevolent mask. I probably looked like someone was twisting a knife in my gut because that's how I felt. But we had both given her permission to leave.

"I guess that's a good idea." Slipping her arm back into the coat Mary still held, she gave the woman a final, questioning look.

Mary graced her with a nod of endorsement then opened the door.

"Your case," I said, bringing her the leather portfolio she had left on the table before she could leave it behind.

"Oh," she laughed, the awkwardness of her departure fading from her lovely face. "That would help since it has my car keys."

"Along with you, then." Mary placed a hand between Laurie's shoulders, the older woman's facade quickly crumbling. A severe line had replaced the smile of her mouth. Her nostrils flared. She wouldn't be able to keep the charade up much longer. And, ready for a fight, she didn't want to give me a chance to change my mind and ask Laurie to stay.

"You'll call me?" Laurie asked, not quite looking at either of us.

"The second I have good news," Mary assured her.

My heart sank at the double meaning. For Mary, the good news would be that I was out of her son's life, the path cleared for Laurie to swoop in.

Not going to happen.

With the door shut, Mary turned the deadbolt. I hadn't notice that she had brought her own folder to the meeting. It wasn't remotely as thick as Laurie's and she only removed three pages from it, leaving a dozen or more inside.

"We won't be needing any of the parish paperwork," she commented when she caught my gaze on the folder. "I'll grant you a small measure of credit for not making a scene in front of that girl. I have plans for her and she doesn't need to see the uglier side of our business."

I lifted a brow in inquiry. "The future Mrs. Dare O'Donnell?"

A genuine smile pushed Mary's lips into a tight pout. "Exactly. You see the quality in her. If you were half the person Dare thinks you are, you would have already stepped aside."

I glanced at the papers she held in her hand. Whatever they contained, I only saw the empty white backs.

"I'm sure you've discovered that I spent a month in jail," I began. "Dare knows all about that already."

Mary separated one sheet of paper and returned it to the folder. Two remained.

"Your mother said you would deny the allegations, claim that both she and the good doctor filed a false report."

My chin lifting, I drew a slow breath in and tried to hide my surprise. "Well, I'm glad the two of you found something you could bond over."

I delivered the response without the slightest quiver to my voice even though I was dying inside. Helen had fucked Mary's husband while they were married, recorded the act (although Mary likely didn't know that part), yet their delight in torturing me was powerful enough to bring them together -- if only temporarily.

A vicious smirk pulled at the sides of Mary's thin face. "I also found occasion to 'bond' with your grandmother. So I know you're both a thief and a leech."

More lies. My grandmother had used me as a house slave when I was with her and criticized my every move. I only went out to search for jobs or run her errands. I returned home after one such errand to overhear her telling a prospective employer that there was no one named Eden Abbey at that number. I left that same day even though I had no money and nowhere to go.

But the truth didn't matter to a woman like Mary Ivers.

"Dare and I have discussed the problems I've had with my family," I said, trying to match the level of ice in her tone. "You'll find that he doesn't consider them reliable sources."