Romancing the Alpha: An Action-Adventure Romance Boxed Set (11 page)

Mel stared down at the dark, shadowy forest tumbling below her into the valley.

“Are you okay?” Cade asked.

She shook her head. “No.”

“You want to tell me more about her?”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “I really, really do.”

He tugged her over to a rock outcropping and sat down, spreading his legs wide. He pulled her in between them, settling her on one of his thighs and shifting her body until she was leaning against his chest.

She took a ragged breath and relaxed into him. “Thank you.”

“She sounds like a remarkable woman. I’m sorry I’ll never get to meet her.”

“She would have liked you. She always had a soft spot for nice, athletic white boys.”

He laughed. “Did she ever re-marry?”

“No. She only had one other significant relationship, with our pastor. He was a widower and really lovely. I think he would have married her after her diagnosis if she’d wanted to. But she’d gone through her entire adult life on her own, and she wanted to die an independent woman, too.”

Mel had never said that out loud, and now that she did, she wanted to cry. That wasn’t the only reason why Mel was so independent, but it might have something to do with it. “Damn it.”

“It’s okay.”

“I like you a lot, Cade.”

“Good.” He kissed her gently. “I like you, too.”

“I don’t want to fuck us up.”

“I won’t let you.”

“I might get scared.”

“Beautiful, your dad was a first-class asshole, and if I ever meet him, I’ll probably deck him. I will never, ever, ever hurt you like that.”

She blinked at the anger roiling through his words. He hadn’t said anything when she’d first told him the story in the tent, but now she realized he’d been holding back. “You’re nothing like him,” she whispered against his lips.

“Good.”

“We should head back, right?”

“Only if you want some rest before finishing this race tomorrow.”

She laughed. “I love how you can just keep going. Yeah, I need rest. I’m going to be in a world of hurt tomorrow as it stands already.”

“Just remember, we’ve got that hot tub waiting for us back at the hotel.”

Standing up, she pulled Cade up as well and slid against his warm, solid body. “Oh, I have big plans for that tub. And at least half of them involve you.”

— —

Mel’s first thought when she woke up was that the ground was damn hard. Since she’d spent most of the night halfway on top of Cade, she hadn’t noticed until now. Her second thought was,
where is Cade?

The sound of the tent zipper and the smell of coffee answered that question.

“It’s early,” she mumbled.

“And yet the fancy caterers still had breakfast ready,” he said, laughing.

“Mmm.” She rolled to sit, reaching for one of the two cups he had in his hands.

“I like how you can find the coffee even with your eyes closed.”

“They’re cracked. I can see you.”

“And by ‘me’ you mean…”

“The coffee.”

There wasn’t really room in the tent for them both to sit up, so Cade crouched in the open doorway, and together they sipped the hot liquid in silence. Slowly it sank into her chest, warming her from the inside out, and she started to yawn and stretch.

Waking up sucked.

“We can sleep in tomorrow, right?”

He just laughed at her.

“That was a serious question. If we’re dating now, you need to understand how I feel about mornings.”

“It’s really cute that you think someone could spend even one night with you and not figure that out.” He sighed. “A bigger issue is going to be you realizing that I’m an unrepentant morning person.”

“Uhm, hello? Painfully. Obvious. But you get out of bed so quietly. I’ve decided this means I just have a human coffee maker now. I embrace your morning personhood.”

“Does that mean I’ve got a standing invitation to sleep over at your place?” Cade winked at her over his steaming cup of joe.

Mel’s mouth dropped open. “Oh my God.”

“What?”

“You’ve never even been in my apartment. I have no idea where you live. This is kind of crazy.”

The corners of his mouth turned up. “I live about eight blocks from you. And I imagine your place is decorated in mostly white furniture with splashes of color, and it’s crazy neat.”

“Close.” A whistle sounded, a thirty-minute warning interrupting their conversation. Their finish time from day one put them in the last third of start times, so they actually had almost an hour.

The porta-potty line would take most of that, though.

"Up and at 'em." She yawned before draining the last of her coffee. “We can finish this conversation in the hot tub.”

"I'll tear down if you want to go grab some food."

She kissed him on the cheek after climbing out of the tent. “You are shaping up to be the best boyfriend ever, Cade Duncan.”

“You need higher standards, Melissa Vincent,” he called after her.

But the thing was…she had the highest standards. And he sailed over them with ease.

In the middle of the night, the direct path up to the ridge had been blocked off by the race organizers. After lining up and being released at their designated time, the racers were redirected to an obstacle area between the campsite and the plateau at the top of the ridge.

This part of the race was set up round-robin style, and participants could start at any of the three obstacles. Most people were doing the monkey bars first. Since there was a bit of a line there, Cade grabbed her hand and they ran together to the sand-bag carry. Then they double-backed to the monkey bars and finished with the tire climb. It meant a bit more running back and forth, but they didn’t wait in line once, and when they left the obstacle area, they quickly caught up to the second wave of racers.

The rush of competition was amazing. Adrenaline surged through Mel’s body in a whole different way than the day before. Now that the obstacles were behind them and it was just running, she wanted to do the best she could possibly do.

As they crested the ridge where the ascending trail spilled out of the forest into the amazing view they’d had a glimpse of the night before, Cade tapped her arm. “You want to stop?”

She understood his question. Did she want a picture? A moment to remember her mother?

She’d had the latter, and she didn’t need the former. Running like the wind—that was how she’d honor her mother’s legacy.

“Let’s keep going,” she said, the wind stealing her voice. But it didn’t steal her smile, and Cade knew exactly what she meant.

Off they went down the descending path, and it wasn’t long before they were at the spot of their first kiss two days earlier. They didn’t stop there, either.

They weren’t going to stop until the finish line now. There was a water station set up halfway down, but they zoomed past it. The elite athletes were at the bottom, already done. But for a regular racer, Mel was doing better than all right. She was killing it, and she knew it.

Fire licked up her muscles. Fatigue burned her from the inside out. She used every trick in the book to keep going, and right beside her the whole way was Cade.

This race wasn’t anything like twenty-five years earlier. The Vincent women were pretty different, too. And the men they fell for were like night and day.

Cade wasn’t her competitor, he was her teammate. He didn’t want to eclipse her—he helped her shine. And when they crossed the finish line, it was hand in hand, both of them covered in mud from head to toe.

Mel flashed a giant, beaming smile at the photographer as they sailed past him. If that photo turned out, she’d want it enlarged.

— —

Cade had asked his friends who did racing on a more regular basis for tips, and the general agreement was to get the hell out as soon as possible after crossing the finish line. To that end, he’d put beach towels in the rental car so they could hop in, mud and all, and sit on the towels to get back to the hotel.

The first thing he did back in their suite was get Mel into the shower. The second thing he did was fire up the hot tub, so they could soak as soon as they were clean.

Forty-five minutes later when room service delivered their late lunch, they got out reluctantly but left the jets turned on.

“This was a really excellent upgrade,” Mel said, licking cream cheese off her fingers as she lounged on the king-sized bed. He lay across the foot of the bed, lazily rubbing her foot. One long, brown leg spilled from the robe she’d thrown on, and Cade itched to trace her skin up to where it disappeared under the cotton terry towelling. To where she was soft and wet and pink. But mostly wet.

“On a scale of one to ten, how sore are you?” he asked, lifting his eyebrows at her when she laughed. “What? It’s been
days
.”

“I think the last time we had sex was four hours before the race started yesterday. Which would be barely thirty hours ago. Not days.”

“Feels like days.” He loosened his towel, letting his thickening cock rise free to his stomach. He liked her watching him. “Maybe we should just touch ourselves. I want to see you get yourself off.”

With a groan, she reached out with her foot and stroked the inside of his thigh. “No. I want you inside me.”

“Good.”

“But my legs are sore,” she mock-groaned, smiling at him as he loomed over her.

“I have a plan for that,” he whispered, lowering himself on top of her as she squealed. “You. In the hot tub, bent over an extra-soft towel on the ledge. I’ll do all the work, and your beautiful, hard-working legs can have a rest.”

She eagerly lifted her mouth to meet his, her tongue darting between his lips as he tugged open her robe. They both groaned for real as he palmed her breast. Thirty-six hours
was
too long to go without this connection right now.

“Maybe we could just…” She sighed as he kissed down her neck, tasting her from jaw to collarbone. “Right here.”

“Condoms are over by the hot tub.”

She hesitated, and he could read her mind. But that step—that level of trust—could wait until they were back in San Diego. Maybe until after a few sleepovers at each other’s apartments.

They had all the time in the world.

“Come on,” he said, dragging his teeth along her collarbone to her shoulder.

“Don’t you dare bite me,” she breathed, but she rocked her hips against him as he laughed.

“Never.” Leaving his towel and her robe behind, he scooped her up and carried her back to the hot tub built in between the master bedroom and the private lanai.

He set her down outside the tub, and after they climbed in, she stood dutifully in the middle, waiting for his master plan, her lips only twisted into a tiny bit of a mocking smile.

“I enjoy how you’re letting me be bossy here,” he murmured, turning her around.

She folded willingly over the towels he’d set on the tub’s edge and twisted her head around so she could look at him as she spread her legs. “I’m pretty sure the enjoyment will be all mine in a minute.”

She wasn’t wrong—her pleasure was his top priority. It always would be.

But he always vibrated with a need to mark her and stake his claim. His cock throbbed at the sight of her spread out above the water for him, her ass tipped in the air, her pussy peeking at him from between her thighs.

He wanted to take her like this. Hard and fast.

And he would, but first he wanted her on the edge. Slick and desperate, so when he lost himself inside her, she’d be flying from pleasure, too. He smoothed his hands down her straight back, his fingers tracing the edge of her ribcage, then dipping in at her waist and out at her hips. He filled his palms with her luscious ass and let his thumbs graze between her cheeks before delving lower. He squeezed the backs of her thighs, making her sigh as his fingertips glanced off her swelling sex.

By the time he started stroking her pussy, she was dripping for him, and rocking back against his hand.

He stilled her with one hand on her back as he fingered with the other hand. First one digit, then two. Slowly parting her folds, then dragging back out, scissoring his fingers as he stretched her. Readying her.

“Cade,” she begged. “Now.”

Grabbing a condom, he covered up, then notched his aching crown against her entrance. He couldn’t hold back even if he wanted to—as she arched against him, her wetness welcoming him into her body.

And he was a goner.

She was still tight, a hot, hungry sheath around him. But they’d done this enough times now they both knew the difference between snug and not quite ready.

She was ready.

Water sloshed around their hips as he rocked forward, filling her completely. Then out again, as she whimpered in protest. He knew the feeling. But for each withdrawal, there was another thrust, another blindingly perfect penetration.

There was nothing like sinking into the woman you were falling in love with. It sounded more romantic than it felt. It felt elemental, not sappy. Mel could be the one for him; he felt it in his bones. And when they came together like this, when her body literally clenched around his most sensitive bits and said
mine
, his nuts drew tight and made the same fucking claim right back.

She was his.
His
. The idea made him want to mark her, inside and out.

With a groan, he folded over her back, rutting faster and harder against her as he kissed the back of her neck and across her shoulder blades. “Mel,” he whispered. “God, you feel so incredible.”

“I’m gonna come,” she cried, whispering his name over and over again as he reared up again. She spread her legs even wider still, and he reached around her hips, holding her tight as he surged into her from behind and found her clit with his fingertips.

“Then come, beautiful. Come on my hand and on my dick. Come for me.”

He’d already gone past the point of no return for himself. It was a miracle he was still talking. Thoughts weren’t really happening. Just feelings. Hot, tight, tingling, throbbing, pulsing, imminent explosion type of feelings.

Fucking your woman and making her scream type of feelings.

“Jeeesssus,” he groaned as she spasmed around him, milking the first spurts of his release into the condom. He jerked hard against her, rocking the head of his cock against whatever magic fucking button inside her that felt like Christmas and his birthday all rolled up in an ice cream sundae.