Relentless: A Bad Boy Romance (Bertoli Crime Family #1) (27 page)

"I hope not,” he teased, his confident smile mixing with the tender look in his eyes. "On one condition."

"What's that?" a new, delicious tremble ran through me at the promise in his look.

Dane reached up to stroke my cheek, soft and comforting. “You take those off.”

I shivered at the implication and nodded. “Deal. As long as you join me.”

He blinked and looked down, realizing he was still in his jeans. I hooked my thumbs in the side bands of my panties, and I couldn’t believe what I was doing. A quick hook-up or one-night stand wasn’t my style. I wondered for a second if I was only doing this out of rebellion against my over-protective father, or if I was letting my guard down because he’d saved me. I pushed it away as soon as it entered my mind, returning to my anticipation of what was to come.

I rolled my now-wet panties down my hips, pausing just before I exposed myself while he finished his boots and socks. His eyes had never left me, drinking me in and making me feel wanted, beautiful, even a touch exotic. Standing up, he unbuttoned his jeans, holding the flaps closed with his right hand. "Together?"

"That's only fair," I said. "One . . . Two . . .”

"Three," Dane said, pushing his jeans down at the same time I pushed my panties all the way off. I had to pull my knees up to do it, which took my eyes off him for a moment, but when I saw him standing there, I was driven breathless.

If Dane had been handsome before with his shirt off, he was god-like nude. The light dusting of hair that I'd seen on his washboard stomach continued down. He had a fine amount of wiry black hair that extended down his hips and to his thighs, slightly curly and well-kept. It made him even more masculine, totally and incontrovertibly.

I glanced down and I shivered, this time with a touch of fear when I saw him. Dane, for his part, saw my trepidation. He looked at his cock and back up at me, understanding. “I’ll be careful."

His words reassured me, and my knees parted without any difficulty when he climbed on the bed, his cock huge and pointing at my entrance. I was glad he'd brought me to an orgasm already. My body needed all the lubrication it could make to handle such a humongous man. Even still, he was tender and real, thrilling me with his gentleness.

"Please . . . just go slow?"

Dane smiled tenderly and nodded. He'd obviously had this sort of reaction before and knew what he was doing. "I promise, Abs. No pain, and I'll do my best to bring you pleasure."

I held my breath, certain he was going to spear me with his cock, but instead Dane leaned down and kissed me again, the softest and most tender kiss we'd yet shared. His hands stroked the hair out of my face as he held himself poised above me, just looking into my eyes and caressing me.

He reached over in the night stand to grab a condom, and I watched him as he slid it on. It only took a few seconds, but I was so full of desire that it seemed to take him an eternity.

Finally, he moved into me, and I felt the head of his cock start to spread me open. We looked in each other's eyes as he moved, slowly as he promised, rocking in and out so that the stretching feeling I felt melted into indescribable pleasure. He increased his depth in such tiny increments that it didn't even feel like he was going deeper with each thrust until I realized he was halfway inside me and still had more to go. Best of all, my body wanted more, and with all the desire built up in me, I knew I could accept everything he had. Smiling as I opened myself to him, we kissed again, this time more forcefully. I was pinned beneath him, his body holding me in position as he filled me. In one back stroke he paused, taking a deep breath. I nodded, knowing what was coming. “I can take it.”

The next thrust seemed to stretch on forever, and nerves I'd never even known I had set into rapturous tremors. Dane didn't stop, though, with each thrust coming harder and faster. I didn't know how many times he stroked in and out. All I knew was that my body was alive in a way it had never been before. Pleasure and joy flooded every inch of me, from my toes all the way to the top of my head, and every time his hips slapped into mine, the level increased impossibly. Infinity squared, cubed upon itself as he filled me over and over, claiming me as his with not just his cock, but his eyes and his lips. I moaned his name in time with each of his thrusts, wanting not just sex but to give myself to this man, the greatest example of manhood I'd ever known in my twenty-two years on this planet.

How long we stayed there, my hands clutching at his back while he thrust into me over and over again, I’ll never know. Time lost all meaning except in measurements of gasps, moans and heartbeats. I wasn’t even sure if I’d survive; the intensity building within me felt so powerful. But I couldn't stop, and I begged for more even as my head tossed from side to side. "D—Dane!"

"Abs!” Dane growled deeply and protectively, his neck arching as he came. My body responded, clenching and exploding as well, both of us crying out as we came together. Blackness rushed up to greet me, and I embraced it, knowing that when I awoke, Dane would still be there, and I would still be safe and secure in his arms.

After we’d fucked, both Abby and I passed out from exhaustion. I don't think it was long—maybe just ten or twenty minutes—but enough for our bodies to recuperate from the tremendous outpouring of energy we'd just had.

When I finally opened my eyes, I was sure I'd died and gone to heaven. Or maybe I was actually back in Leavenworth after getting hit on the head from behind and hallucinating. Then she sighed and turned in her sleep, and I knew it was real. Abby had turned into me, her head nestled on my bicep and against my chest, her left leg in between mine. I held her gently, afraid that if I did anything, she'd wake up and the fantasy of what I'd just been through would be broken. Instead, I thought about what we'd just done.

I hadn't been lying to her when I said it had been a long time for me. It had been over five years since I'd been with a woman. During my deployment to Iraq, I had the chance with a female aviation captain, but she was married, and despite the fact that she would have been willing to do just about anything, I didn’t go there. I’ve done some terrible things, but relationships are sacrosanct for me. At the same time, while a couple of the guys I knew tried to get with some of the locals, I didn't want some poor Iraqi girl getting into trouble and possibly stoned to death because she and I had gotten frisky.

Then, of course, there was prison, which had plenty of its own challenges. There were ways to set it up if you really wanted some action, but it would cost you. I spent the entire time in prison with nothing but my hand to help me. Well, that, a decent memory, and a good imagination. In the three months since I'd gotten out, I thought about going out and cruising bars or clubs. There were plenty of clubs that I could walk in, practically snap my fingers, and walk out with my choice of girls for the night. But prison had changed me. I wasn't a player anymore. I was looking for something more.

"Face it, dumbass, you were looking for something like this," I whispered to myself, freezing when Abby stirred in my arms. I meant to
think
it, not actually
say
it.

"You're hardly a dumbass," she whispered, nuzzling up against my chest.

If I didn’t feel like a dumbass before, I sure did now.

Abby laughed softly and scooted higher, kissing my chin. “That was the most amazing experience of my life."

I didn't really know what to say. I knew the dangers of what I was feeling, and I knew that there were plenty of dangers in leading Abby on. She was obviously a good girl, maybe even the type that would think she was in love afterward. In any case, I could tell from her clothes, her speech—everything—that she was from class. Hell, even her lingerie looked expensive, something far nicer than I'd ever taken off a woman before. She didn’t seem the type to have casual sex and take off, so I wasn’t sure how to react.

I decided to just play it safe. "Thank you. I seem to have worked up quite an appetite. Would you like something to eat?"

She smiled that angel's smile that was impossible to resist. "I could do with some food, but nothing too big."

I shook my head. "Honestly, all I've got that's quick is some Ritz and cheese. I hope you don't mind."

"Sounds delicious. Let me put some clothes on so I don't get crumbs stuck in areas I don't need crumbs, okay?"

"Deal," I replied. "I should too."

We continued to lie there in bed, arm in arm, until Abby grinned. "You're not getting up. I thought you were hungry."

I smiled back, realizing I’d been lost in thought and hadn’t moved. "I don't want to let you go. I'm afraid if I do, you're going to disappear and this will have all been a dream."

"What if I promise I'm not going anywhere, at least until you get me some food? Or better yet, until I give you my phone number?"

While another time with Abby sounded amazing, I had a feeling that anything between us would be doomed from the start. A girl like her would take off running after she learned who I really was. Even still, I was willing to take a chance. “You want to go out on an actual date?” I asked, wondering if she meant that or simply a booty call. Honestly, I was down for either.

"I don't know how you go about things, but this is unusual for me. In fact, I rarely sleep with men in general, not until there's a relationship involved."

"Me either," I replied, cracking a smile. "In fact, I never sleep with men."

"You've got a sense of humor to go with the rest of that package? I'm definitely saying yes if you ask me out on a date."

“Good to know,” I said. "But what about work or school?”

"Oh, I'm not working at the moment," Abby replied with a small shrug. "Just classes. That way I can catch up and finish quickly. I kind of lost a year right after high school."

"What happened?" I asked, thinking back to my post high school days. I'd done quite a bit of partying, some motorcycle riding, and had gotten myself into a bit of trouble before the Army became a way to start to get myself on the right path. Or at least I
thought
it would be.

She shifted in my arms, unconsciously putting the soft weight of her right breast in my hand, where I cupped it without thinking, not squeezing, but just marveling at the texture of her skin. It was flawless, soft and unbelievably silky. "Actually, I was sent to a finishing school, if you can believe it. My stepmother felt that it was important before I went off to college. I think at the time, she wanted to push me into a school like Vassar or maybe Ole Miss if I insisted on getting a real degree. You know, one of those schools where young girls are turned into attractive, pretty little arm ornaments for their husbands."

"Not your style, I take it," I chuckled. It was now confirmed. She came from money, but the fact that she had rebelled enough to pick her own university told me something, too. "What made you go to Georgia Tech?"

"It's close to home," she said, "and it's got one of the best hard science reputations in the South. Georgia Tech produces graduates that do things, not graduates that just talk about things. That's the sort of people I like. What about you? Where'd you go to college?"

I laughed. "I've got a BTM from HKU."

"A what?" she asked, twisting around to look at me again. My hand was temporarily upset with the now-missing weight of her breast until she was all the way turned over, pressing herself against me and making sure my chest was now ecstatic.

"Black Top Masters from Hard Knocks University," I expanded. “The only education I've gotten past high school was courtesy of the Army. I started college but left before I completed my degree. Financial issues mostly, though I did get in trouble too. I wasn't a very good student."

"You mentioned jump wings in the bathroom. How long were you in?" she asked, moving closer to me. We were both feeling it now, but were taking our time, exploring each other's mind as well as our bodies.

Still, there were so many ways to answer her question, and few that I was comfortable doing. "I enlisted when I was about twenty-one, a few years after I finished high school," I said instead. "After doing my training at Fort Benning, I was in the infantry for the rest of the time."

"Really? So you're a real soldier then, not one of those armchair paraders," Abby said in a way that told me she was impressed not so much that I had been a soldier, but that I was the sort of person who wasn't afraid of hard work. "You don't seem too banged up to me."

“Looks can be deceiving," I replied. "The top and bottom three molars on the right side of my mouth are artificial. I caught something to the jaw there one time, and they had to fix it all up for me. I was surprised the Army did a good job. Even if you took a good look inside, you wouldn't notice a difference."

"Not someone's rifle butt, I hope?"

I was impressed. This girl knew more than she let on. Either that, or she had a penchant for enjoying war movies. I hoped it was her intelligence, because I personally can't stand war movies. They gave me flashbacks. "No, not a rifle butt. Actually, it was a brick. They gave me a Purple Heart for that one. What about you? Why biology?"

Abby grew serious and looked up above my head. "My mom and my big sister were killed when I was little. Head-on collision with another driver. Mom was in her Honda that she liked for running us around town while the other driver was in one of those big Fords they used to make—the Expedition, I think? You know, the small tank they made for a while."

"Expedition, Excursion, Excalibur. I forget the exact name, but I know what you mean," I said, lowering my voice to a comforting level while she shared this painful memory. "They were pretty popular for quite a few years a while back. Was the guy drunk?"

She shook her head, tears coming to her eyes. "No, it was still early afternoon, and Mom was coming to pick me up from my Gymboree class. I took that while my sister took her piano lesson at the teacher's house two miles down the road. The driver was a diabetic who was trying to treat his disease through self-medication and trying one of those no-carb diets. He went into diabetic shock behind the wheel of his truck and drifted over into Mom's path. Even though they were both belted in, they hit each other going forty-five each. The crash . . . I don't remember the funerals, but the newspaper clippings Daddy kept said there wasn't much left. And all of it could have been avoided if the guy had known how to eat right for his diabetes. Later on, when I was in high school, Daddy had a small heart attack—too many Sunday breakfasts at Cracker Barrel. That made up my mind, and I decided to go into biology. Later on, I'm going to specialize in nutrition and really work to make sure things like what happened to me don't happen to anyone else."