Man of Honor (Passion in Paradise Book 4) (57 page)

“I let those awful
animals steal
years
from me, Zeke.  Years that I could have spent safe
in your arms doing exactly this,” she said, pressing her aching core against
his hard erection.  “So, believe me when I tell you that, with
you
, I’ve
learned that  I can handle anything.  Especially
this
,” she stressed,
dropping her voice to a husky purr as she dropped a hand to fondle his hard
length, reveling in her newfound feminine power.  Because with this man, she
knew down to her soul that it was safe to throw caution to the wind and lose
herself in the moment.  He’d make sure she remained safe.

“Fuck, Kitten,” she
heard him gasp as she scooted back a few inches to give room to maneuver as her
hand slipped into his underwear to explore every hot, velvety inch of him. 
Using one hand to tug his boxers down his hips, she uncovered his penis.  Hard
and throbbing in the palm of her hand, she gently squeezed the helmet,
producing a small bead of his essence.  Catching his eyes with hers, she slowly
leaned forward, swiping her tongue against the swollen head.

Zeke’s nostrils
flared as he watched her pink tongue dart out to seductively trace a slow
circle around the ridge of his cock.  “Shit,” he hissed when she wriggled her
tongue against the tiny slit at the tip of his dick.  “Honor, you’re killin’
me, baby.  Either suck it or ride it, but make the call and put me out of my
misery before my dick explodes.”

Savoring his salty
taste, Honor moaned, sucking his tip gently before releasing him from her mouth
and straightening until she knelt between his spread legs.  “Killing you
definitely isn’t my goal.  I’d miss this too much,” she admitted, offering his
cock, shiny with her saliva, a longing look.

“You talking about me
or my cock?” Zeke asked with a playful grin.

“Do I have to
choose?” Honor returned with her own naughty smile.

Doing an ab curl that
accented his six-pack in a way that made Honor grow even wetter between her
legs, Zeke’s back rose from the bed as he reached out to curve his hand around
the back of Honor’s neck and urge her toward him.  “Nope, both are yours.  Now,
enough talking.  Give me that mouth, baby.”

 “Yes,” Honor
breathed as he pulled her willing body down on top of his.  Parting her lips as
she felt his tongue slide inside her mouth to stroke and curl around hers, she
moaned into the kiss as his fingers slid between them, stroking through her
slit to find her throbbing bud.   

“Love how wet you get
for me,” he groaned into her mouth as he slowly pierced her with two fingers,
testing to make sure she was good and ready for him.  “You want my dick, baby? 
You ready for me to slide it into its home.”

“God, yes,” she
murmured against his cheek as he reached between them to aim his length toward
her center.  Honor released a long breath and kept her half-closed eyes on Zeke
as he slowly filled her, making them one. “I love you,” she breathed as they
began to move together in a slow, gentle rhythm that curled her toes.  “I spent
so long feeling broken, but you make me feel whole again.”

“That’s good. 
Especially since I only feel complete when I’m inside you,” Zeke breathed as he
pumped his hips, burrowing deeper into her tight heat as he lifted his head to
claim her mouth for a sensual kiss.

Honor’s hips churned
as Zeke’s hips rose and fell while their tongues tangled together.  “Oh, God,
Zeke,” she whimpered, her body growing taut as she rode the brink of her release,
close, but not quite close enough to fall over the edge.

“Whatdaya need to
take you there?” Zeke asked, gently biting her full lower lip as she tilted her
head back. 

“You.  I need to feel
you surrounding me,” Honor begged, almost mindless with her need for climax. 
Her body was poised for it, desperate and needy for him to give her the push
she needed.

Rolling her until she
was pinned to the mattress by the heaviness of his body and his cock, Zeke took
his weight on his elbows as he reared back to look down at her.  “How do you
need it, baby?  You want it hard and fast and deep, or you want it slow and
steady?  You tell me and it’s yours.”

“Deep, Zeke,” Honor
responded with a breathless moan as she hooked her legs over his hips.  “I want
you to make me forget everything but the feel of you inside me,” she begged
before biting at the cord of his neck.

“Challenge accepted,
Kitten,” Zeke growled before dropping his mouth to hers and thrusting deep.

Honor cried out as
she felt the man she loved begin to lunge in and out of her with a controlled
brutality that stole her breath.  It wasn’t anything she’d ever experienced
before, but it was
everything
she craved.  Gripping his shoulders, damp
with his sweat, she arched her hips and met every downward plunge of his cock
eagerly.  “Yes,” she whimpered as he built the hunger between them to a level
so intense it threatened to drive her out of her mind.  “Oh, god! Yeah,” she
wailed helplessly as she felt him pulse deeply inside her.  “Right there,” she
begged, tightening her legs around him as her channel convulsed around him.

“Honor,” Zeke groaned
as his back bowed, his strokes now wild and unsteady.  “Fuck, baby, I need to
pull out,” he ground out, his voice rough and pained as he threw his head back
and grimaced.

“No!” she denied,
clutching his shoulders when he would have withdrawn.

“Forgot the condom,
Honor,” he rasped harshly against her ear.  “I’m bare inside you.  If I don’t
pull out, there’s a risk I’ll put my baby in you,” he explained tightly,
holding himself perfectly still with a willpower that would impress her later.

“I don’t
care
,”
she moaned, lifting her head to press her soft lips to his.  “Don’t stop,” she
begged, purposefully tightening her core around his straining penis.  “Give me
all of you, Zeke.”

“You’re…”

“If you ask me if I’m
sure one more time…” Honor began to threaten him through clenched teeth as she
rocked against him, trying to coax his strong body into action, but
intimidation became unnecessary as Zeke’s iron will seemed to melt under the
heat of her stare.  His hips jerked as he began to thrust inside her again, his
strokes fiercer and faster than before.

“You want me to come
inside this sweet little pussy, I’ll be damned if I’m gonna argue with you. 
Not when you’re offering heaven,” he grunted as he slid his hands underneath
the back of her thighs, urging them higher and changing the angle of his
penetration.

Feeling him slide
impossibly deeper, Honor moaned.  “Zeke, yes!  Oh, that’s it.  Right there,”
she cried out as he found her sweet spot. 

“Come for me, Honor. 
Let me feel you flood my cock with your sweetness,” Zeke grated against her
swollen lips.  “Do it, and I’ll fill you so full of all that’s me that you
won’t remember a time you didn’t have me inside you.”

“Zeke, yes!” she
shrieked, as her core clenched and released around him one last violent time. 
His sexy promise sent her over the edge as pleasure exploded throughout her
body, tightening her muscles and pulling a low scream of ecstasy from her lips
that Zeke muffled with his mouth.

“Love you so much,”
he grunted, punctuating each word with a vicious twist of his hips as she felt
him begin to grow larger inside her.  “Ah, fuck!  Gonna shoot, baby,” he
groaned as his body stiffened and she felt long, hot streams of his cum begin
to fill her, throwing her into another gentler orgasm as his body continued to
ride hers with slower, but no-less-sensual strokes.

Exchanging a long,
wet kiss as his hips finally stilled, she felt his body settle heavily over
hers.  Smiling into his mouth, she hummed her satisfaction.

“Have I ever told you
how much I love the sound my woman makes after she’s been well-loved?” Zeke
mused out loud, his warm lips moving over her cheek.

Wrapping her arms
around him, Honor ran her nails lightly up and down Zeke’s back in the way
she’d learned relaxed him best.  “You might have mentioned that before.  Have I
ever told you how much
I
love the look my man gets on his face after he
finishes lovin’ on me?” she countered.

“I might have heard
you make mention of that a time or two,” Zeke replied, finally forcing himself
to pull his softening cock from her.  Hearing her dismayed whimper, he pecked
her lips.  “I don’t wanna crush you.  Besides, I need to go get you a warm
washcloth… clean you up,” he continued, moving his body to her side.

Catching his arm when
he would have sat up in bed, Honor shook her head.  “No.  I like having you
inside me.  I’m keeping you where you belong,” she muttered, scooting closer to
curl an arm over his chest and settle her head in the curve of his shoulder.

Zeke groaned. 
“Christ.  You can’t say things like that,” he admonished, pinching her ass as
he dipped his head to steal a kiss.

“Why not?” she
grumped, nipping his upper lip in retribution.

“Because, you’re
gonna get me hard again, and unfortunately, we need to get some more shut-eye. 
Tomorrow’s gonna be a long day for both of us, and I predict that you and I
will have more than a couple of skirmishes over that bitch, Sherry.”

“We’re not talkin’
‘bout that in our bed, Ezekiel,” Honor chided sternly, tugging a tuft of his
chest hair as a silent warning.

“Fine,” he sighed. 
“We’ll talk about it in the morning,” he grumbled, adjusting the pillow behind
his head before dropping his gaze to hers.  “Did I tire my pretty lady out enough
so that she’s sufficiently tired enough to try sleeping again?”

Honor smiled up at
him.  “You did,” she acknowledged softly.  “Turn out the light, Zeke.”

Reaching for the
lamp, he pushed the button at the base, sending the room back into darkness.  “Always
and ever, I love you, Honor,” he murmured into her hair as she curled closer to
him.

“I love you, too,
Zeke.  Always and ever,” she yawned with a sleepy smile as her eyes slid closed
and a thankfully dreamless slumber claimed her.

August 20, 2016 –
Paradise Sheriff’s Office

10:30 am

Zeke

Zeke’s eyes narrowed
as they glared accusingly at where she sat with her legs demurely crossed and
her small hands clasped in her lap in the chair in the corner of his office,
undisturbed by the chaos she was causing him.  Silently reminding himself of
all the ways he loved her, he bit the inside of his cheek to keep from cursing
at her.

“You can stare
daggers at me for the rest of the day if you want, Zeke, but nothing will
change.  I am NOT sorry for insisting you wait to pick that woman up,” Honor
declared unrepentantly.  “Really, what were you and your deputies going to do? 
Burst into Paradise Elementary School and tackle the first grade room mother to
the ground and slap handcuffs on her in front of a classroom of six and seven
year olds?  I hardly think so.”

Zeke grunted, crossed
his arms over his chest and turned to stare out the window into the sunny
morning.  As far as he was concerned, that hadn’t sounded like a half bad plan
to him.  “Maybe it would do the kids good to see how justice works,” he growled
irritably as he stared into the municipal parking lot and frowned when he
noticed that Deputy Hightower
still
hadn’t returned with Sherry Lawson.

“What in the world do
you mean by that?”

“Kids need to know
that no matter who you are or how much time passes, if you commit a crime, you
pay a price.”

“Zeke, they’re
children
,”
Honor admonished.  “Kids need to be allowed to be kids.  It’s the adult’s job
to worry about distributing justice.”

“Those kids are just
adults-in-training, Honor.  Maybe if we showed them the consequences of
disregarding the law earlier in their lives, there’d be less crime.  Ever think
of that?” he questioned grumpily.

“Well, someone’s
moody today,” Honor muttered, tapping her nails against the wooden arm of her
chair.

Turning on his boot
heel to shoot her a heated glare, Zeke growled.  “I’m not moody, woman.  I’m
pissed!  For eight years, you’ve walked around, scared out of your mind that
those bastards were hiding around every corner.  And all that time, there’s
been a woman that could have helped put those fears to rest, Honor.  And you
wanna let that deranged bitch serve cupcakes and Kool-aid at her kid’s birthday
party instead of letting me haul her ass in here and get us some answers to
questions that should have been asked long ago!  It’s stupid, dangerous, and
fuckin’ foolhardy, and I never should have let you talk me into it.  If I
wasn’t sharing your bed, you
WOULDN’T
have been able to talk me into
it.  And THAT fact makes me fuckin’ livid,” he finished on a roar, breathing
hard as he lost control of his ability to control his mouth.

Pressing her lips
together, Honor’s eyes glittered dangerously as they met his.  “Perhaps it
would be better if you went back to sulking in silence,” she advised sharply as
she lifted her chin.  “Unless, of course, you’d like to be permanently evicted
from my bedroom, Sheriff.”

“Like hell, Honor,”
Zeke grunted, dropping his hands to his hips.

“We’ll see,” Honor
retorted with a look that plainly said she’d already seen his future and it
involved a pillow, a blanket, and the couch.

“You’ve got to be
able to understand my frustration here,” he urged, appealing to her sense of
logic and reason.

“I clearly do not,”
Honor snapped.

Oops… clearly, he’d
forgotten that pesky attributes like logic and reason didn’t factor into the
picture when a mad McKinnon woman was provoked.  Aggravated, Zeke ran a hand
down his face.  “Woman, you are trying my patience,” he ground out as he
pondered how a morning that had started off so well had devolved into this
convoluted waiting game.

“Sheriff, you’ve been
testing my restraint for years,” Honor countered dryly, staring him down
without the slightest hint of remorse.  “You’ve waited eight years to find a
solid lead on my case, Ezekiel,” Honor stated softly, “Surely you can handle a
few more minutes.”

“I just wish I
understood why you were so determined not to interrupt this bitch’s morning
plans.  Sherry
left
you there, Honor.  I can’t comprehend how you can
just sit there as calmly as if you were waiting for a Sunday sermon to start. 
It makes absolutely no sense to me.  I’m ready to tear her hair out for the
pain she’s responsible for bringing you.  Hell, I’m ready to tear my
own
hair
out for not seeing what a total bitch I was involved with.  But you… you look
as cool as a cucumber.”

“I think we both know
I’m anything but cool, Zeke,” Honor replied gently.  “You
were
there
last night.  You can see the evidence on your neck that I’m not exactly over
what happened to me.”

Tugging the collar of
his shirt over the fading marks, Zeke frowned.  “Then how can you cut this
bitch so much slack.”

“Zeke, I’m truly not
and I don’t mean to make it seem like I am.  I’m furious with her.  She played
a role in the worst days of my life.  I hate that anyone could be that cruel. 
But dragging her out of school in front of her son – who, by the way, had
NOTHING to do with any of this - won’t change anything about what happened to
me eight years ago, but it
could
scar her child for life witnessing
something like that.  I’m not gonna let either of us have to endure that kind
of guilt.  We’ve been waiting for years to find a clue to who else hurt me.  We
can wait a few minutes longer.”

He was on the verge
of opening his mouth to argue when the intercom buzzed on his messy desk. 
Shooting a look toward Honor that said they were far from finished with their
chat, he hit the speaker button on his phone.  “Yeah, Carline,” he greeted his
secretary gruffly.  “What do you need?”

Honor scowled.  “Be
nice,” she mouthed.

Shoulders sagging,
Zeke hung his head.  Honest to Christ, the shit Honor chose to get herself
riled up over would never cease to amaze him.  She was fine with letting one of
the bitches indirectly responsible for her suffering have extra time with her
kid before she got some answers from her, but God forbid he be abrupt with his
secretary.   From the look on her annoyed face, that kind of behavior might end
up getting him banished to the barn to sleep tonight.

Honest to God,
nothing made sense today.  Down was apparently up now and north had suddenly
decided to go south.  The insanity was everywhere.

“I just thought you’d
wanna know.  Deputy Hightower has arrived and escorted Mrs. Anderson to
Interrogation Room One, Sheriff.”

Hearing Sherry’s
married name, Zeke felt a purely predatory smile pull at his lips as Honor
audibly inhaled.  “Wonderful.  We’ll be there shortly.  Thank you, Carline,” he
said before releasing the button and looking at where Honor still sat.  Eyes
going to his woman, he noted that she’d gone pale and still.  Moving quickly to
her, he knelt in front of her chair.  “Honor?” he murmured.

“This is really
happening, isn’t it?” she asked out loud.  He could tell by the distant look in
her eyes that she wasn’t really asking him a question so much as she was trying
to wrap her head around the fact that the moment where they confronted one of
her torturers was upon them. 

“Kitten, you don’t
need to do this,” he said.  “Let me go get us the answers we need.  This can be
done without you putting yourself through any more pain.  I’ll get Deputy
Hightower to give you a ride back to the café and you can spend your afternoon
cooking up a storm with Sunshine and Miss Orla,” he offered hopefully,
desperately wanting to spare her what was bound to be a drama filled
interrogation.  If he knew Sherry, she’d drag this out for as long as she
possibly could, and there was no reason he could see for Honor to endure that. 
None at all.

“This is my fight,”
Honor whispered as she finally shifted her eyes to his face.  “I can’t walk
away from it just because it’s going to be a difficult confrontation.”

“It’s
our
fight,
and I’m more than capable of fighting it for
both
of us,” he corrected firmly,
reaching for her hand and linking their fingers together.   “I
want
to
fight it for both of us.  Let me protect you from this.”

Honor shook her head,
lifting a hand to his clean shaven cheek.  “I love you so much for wanting to
do that for me.”

“You’re mine,
Kitten.  Of course I wanna shield you from anything that could hurt you.  I
didn’t back then.  I drove away,” he reminded her, his deep voice jagged and
coarse.  “I fucked up, but I swear to God, it won’t happen again.”

“Zeke, you are the
noblest man I know.  I’m the luckiest woman in the world to be able to say that
you belong to me, but you’ve got to stop blaming yourself for being human. 
What happened to me wasn’t your fault.  You’ve got nothing to make up for
here.”

“Honor…” Zeke
muttered, hanging his head.

“You are the most
decent and honorable man I’ve ever known, and every time I see you do this to
yourself, it makes me want to cry.  Because I don’t know how to convince you
that you’re as blameless as I am in this whole thing.”

Zeke shook his head
and lifted his eyes to hers.  “Baby, you can’t.  You can’t because I bear some
of the responsibility.”

“You know how much I
hate vulgar words, but I have to say that’s just fucking horseshit,” she
announced.  Her soft voice was so prim and proper even while she spewed those
filthy words, and he couldn’t help his laugh.   Hearing that word come out of
her pink lips was like seeing the Easter Bunny smoking a joint.  Those kinds of
things just didn’t happen in everyday life. 

Tapping his index
finger against her pursed lips, Zeke shook his head.  “That’ll be enough of
that filthiness.  My woman doesn’t say those kinds of things,” he chided as her
eyes flashed.

“Then
my man
needs
to remember to place blame where it’s deserved and not carry it on his own very
broad shoulders,” she countered, settling her hands over the shoulders in
question before she leaned forward in her chair to press her lips to his.

Zeke kissed her
gently but deeply, relishing the feel of her freely given affection.  For so
many years, he’d dreamed of this closeness with her, and now that he finally
had it, he was greedy.  “I think that’s the first time you’ve called me
your
man,” he finally murmured against her damp lips when he finally convinced
himself to release her mouth from his. 

“Is… is that okay?”
she asked a bit uncertainly as she drew back a few inches.  “You are mine,
aren’t you?”

“Hell, yes, I’m
yours,” Zeke growled, leaning forward to kiss her hard on the lips.  “Always,
Honor.  Even when you didn’t want me to be, I was yours.”

“I was confused. 
Scared.  But I’m seeing things clearly now.  I’m yours, and I know that I
finally arrived exactly where I’m supposed to be, Zeke.  Now, let’s go see what
Sherry knows so we can deal with it and then get on with our lives.”

Nodding, Zeke rose to
his feet and offered Honor his hand.  “Alright,” he murmured, dropping a hand
to her waist as he guided her out the door and down the hallway.  “Remember,
you’ll be observing the interrogation through mirrored glass.  You’ll be able
to see us, but she won’t be able to see you.  I’ll have an earwig in my ear so
I’ll be able to hear if you need to share something with me, and Jeb will be
with you the entire time.  Okay?” he asked, gesturing toward the small
closet-like room beside the room where he’d be questioning Sherry. 

“I understand, Zeke,”
she acknowledged quietly as Zeke opened the door for her, nodding her greeting
to Deputy Jeb Hightower as she stepped inside the tiny room.   

“Morning, Miss
Honor.  Sheriff,” Jeb said, addressing them in a low voice as he frowned at the
woman on the other side of the glass.  “As you can see, I got Mrs. Anderson
placed in Interrogation and I’ve already got the cameras recording, but it’s
clear she’s growing antsy,” he said, nodding toward the glass.

Turning to look at
where Sherry paced restlessly from one end of the small, windowless room to the
other, Zeke scowled.  “She say anything when you picked her up?”

“Just the usual
‘What’s the meaning of this? I have rights,’ crap that everybody spouts when we
pick ‘em up,” Deputy Hightower replied with a glower of his own.  “I stuck to
the line you gave me, though.  Just told her you had some questions regarding a
cold case you were working on and had received some intelligence that she might
have some useful information.  When she heard that, she clamped down on her
outrage real fast.  I could tell her nerves kicked in when she started
fidgeting like crazy in the back of the squad car.”

“Anybody witness you
picking her up?” Zeke asked as he pulled the metal chair in the corner toward
the glass for Honor to sit.

“Nope,” Jeb denied. 
“Followed her home from the elementary school and picked her up at her house. 
Her husband had already left for work and I didn’t spy a neighbor in sight,” he
informed his boss as he passed him an earpiece.