Sensual Stranger (15 page)

Instinctively, Toni tugged on the binding to test it.

“Yank all you want.” Zach’s rich voice bristled with
domination and excitement. “You’re not getting free.” He placed his hand on her
ass, boldly stroking her furrow and anus.

Toni’s breath caught.

“Not for a very long time,” he added.

Offering her no chance to respond, he moved between her
legs. She flinched at his fingers touching her knee. Turning her head, she saw
him picking up the bottle of oil. The cap made a small cracking sound when he
broke the seal.

Toni moaned loudly, she whimpered as he stroked the warm,
satiny fluid on her tight ring. He worked his finger past it to lubricate her
opening for his hard, fleshy cock. Desire pulsed through her, wobbling her arms
and legs. Her pussy clenched at the sound of him lowering his zipper, shoving
down his jeans and underwear.

His cock, silky and hot, skimmed the back of her thigh. She
grunted, unable to form words, even to demand that he enter her.

He combed her dark curls with his fingers, reaching her
clit. With his free hand, he lifted his shaft to her cunt and plunged inside.

Not expecting him to take her vaginally, Toni gasped at his
intimate assault. A cacophony of sounds followed, all wanton and lewd as he thrust
into her—quick, hard, tirelessly while rubbing her nub, forcing her to
immediate completion.

The climax took her by surprise, happening too soon,
draining her of energy.

Within her, Zach remained rock-hard, not having come. Above
her, he breathed shallowly, obviously trying to restrain himself.

Determined to prove her power over his body as he’d done
with hers, Toni worked the strong muscles in her sheath, squeezing his cock as
hard as she could.

He didn’t complain, nor did he spank her, he simply pulled
out.

Fuck. Her fingers tightened so hard, her knuckles hurt. She
tugged on the scarf.

Unmoved by her turmoil or simply ignoring it, he returned to
her anus, his fingers slick from the lubrication, the sensations they created
slowing her movements, scattering her thoughts.

Reminding her of how accessible she was—willingly,
wantonly—something she’d done with no other man.

As she fought for each breath and squeezed her lids tight,
Zach’s searching, unhurried pace sharpened her senses, sending streams of sensations
to her pussy, tightening those muscles even more, delivering a new rush of
moisture in response.

Again and again, with great deliberateness, he probed her
tightest opening, surely wanting to heighten the lasciviousness of the act.

Finally, he withdrew his fingers. Toni’s breath stalled at
the faint tearing sound of a condom’s foil packet. The mattress shimmied as
Zach adjusted his weight. Toni imagined him rolling the condom over his rigid
cock.

The moment it brushed the back of her thigh, his rod’s slick
warmth startled and aroused. Heart banging out of control, she sucked her
bottom lip and fisted her fingers, prepared for anything, wanting it all.

With a mixture of gentleness and dominance, Zach worked his
cock’s meaty crown into her opening, obligating her body to accommodate his.

Toni had no choice. She’d promised everything, wanting to
give him still more. He’d touched a part of her denied all these years, the
yearning, the hope for something substantial and lasting.

They only had a month.

Reluctant to accept it, but grateful for this moment, she
gave her all, her body yielding to his. Inch by inch, he burrowed inside, his
uneven breaths matching hers, the pressure of his rod intense yet welcomed. On
one final push, he sank into her fully, their bodies joined, his balls snuggled
against her ass.

“More,” she whimpered.

Draped over her, his chest slick with perspiration, Zach
curled his arm under her body, his fingers locating her clit. “This?” he asked
on his first stroke.

In answer, Toni bucked against him, driving his cock a bit
further inside.

He inhaled sharply. “Too much?”

“No. Don’t stop.” She paused to swallow and thought to add,
“Please.”

Lips to her shoulder, he tongued her skin and rubbed her
nub, while easing his shaft from her.

She moaned lustily as he thrust back inside, his fingers
keeping pace on her clit.

For a long time, he rode her, easy and hard, gentle and
ruthless, taking his pleasure, delivering striking relief and the priceless
hope for more.

Chapter Nine

“So do you?”

With the question, Zach looked up from his computer screen
at the customer, a thirty-something woman with drab blonde hair worn in a
sloppy ponytail. Her sunburned face, pissy scowl and grating accent marked her
as a back-East tourist.

“Do I what?” he asked, not even trying to hide the fact that
he’d stopped listening a few seconds earlier.

She sighed loudly. “Take American Express.” She waved the
gold card above her shoulder.

Zach dropped his gaze back to his computer screen, the
research he’d been doing. “Sorry. We only take MasterCard and…” His thoughts
trailed off as he read the article on his screen.

The tourist huffed out a breath, then snapped, “Visa?”

He nodded.

She muttered, “Figures. Here.”

Zach finally glanced up to see her digging a platinum Visa
from her purse.

“I’ll need my car back by this afternoon,” she announced. “I
have to get back home.”

“We’ll do our best.”

Tossing the credit card on his desk, she turned her back to
him and speed-dialed a number on her cell phone. While she complained to whomever
she’d called about the lousy service and shitty weather in Indulgence, Zach
added up her estimate, his attention continually drifting back to his computer
screen.

Minutes later, she returned to his desk. Absently, he handed
her the work order, along with her Visa and a warning, “If we find something
else, it could be more.”

“Just fix it. I want to get out of here.”

And he didn’t? On her snotty departure, Zach slumped in his
chair, looked at the time and let out a low groan. Only ten o’clock. Nearly a
lifetime until he could close the shop.

Already four days had passed since he’d first started
sleeping with Toni. Instead of their nearly constant sex sating him, Zach
couldn’t get enough of it or her. That throaty laugh, her ballsy comments,
blue-green eyes, skin too pale for sunny Arizona, her pure and genuine wanting
of him stirred emotions Zach had locked away for too long.

And the blessed contentment…

Eyes closed, head resting against the back of his chair, he
recalled every bit of it, beginning with their first night.

After he’d taken her repeatedly, he’d slept as he hadn’t in
years, awakening with her on his mind…his body craving Toni’s fragrant, silky
flesh against his. Braced for a torrent of doubt, his usual fear of loss, he’d
felt only a pang, surprisingly mild and understandable. His attraction to Toni
was simply about sex, not about allowing her into his heart. The pleasure he’d
experienced with her was so new and welcomed, little could dilute it.

Even the reality of her leaving in a few weeks.

Staving off the inevitable, he’d reached over to her side of
the bed, his hand touching cool sheets rather than heated skin. Not
understanding, he’d opened his eyes and glanced at the hall. No light spilled
from the bath. In the bedroom, the largest candles still burned, eating away
the shadows, aiding his search.

At the display case filled with dolls, Toni stood, her
fingertips on the glass, her profile to him, moisture sparkling in her eyes.

A wave of tenderness, startling and deep, rocked Zach. He
recalled what she’d said her first morning here.

I know what it’s like to be alone, to be without a father
to protect and love me.

Was she thinking about her childhood? Was she recalling what
her life had been like when her father had been alive?

Swinging his legs over the side of the mattress, Zach padded
across the room, torn between enfolding Toni in his embrace and not intruding
on her obvious sorrow.

She didn’t attempt to hide it as their eyes met. Lightly, he
touched her shoulder. Rather than moving into him, she sank to her knees, her
fingers going to the metal button on his jeans, clothing he still hadn’t
removed.

Hands wrapped around her wrists, he stopped her.

“It’s okay,” she said, her voice husky with emotion, her
head lifting so she could meet his eyes. “I know about the accident, Zach, and
how you were hurt…who you lost. I’m so sorry.”

His office chair creaked as he slumped farther into it,
running his hand down his face.

With great gentleness, she’d undressed him that night,
lowering his jeans and Jockeys, tracing the cruel scars on his leg, some from
the accident, others from repeated operations. She’d brushed her lips over the
jagged skin he hadn’t wanted her to see. Cautiously, her fingertips stroked the
uneven surface as though she feared bringing him more harm.

He swallowed at the memory. She was so different than the
few other women he’d slept with these last years. When he’d undressed with
them, he’d watched their eyes darting to his body’s imperfection, then away,
clearly troubled by what they saw.

Toni embraced it and him.

His heart twisted with a new emotion, one he wasn’t about to
identify. Head turned, he caught her voice in the shop, welcomed, energetic,
alive, rising above the din of the machinery and music.

“Sorry,” she hollered. “I have to do laundry and other
stuff.”

“Ditch it until tomorrow,” Robbie yelled back. “How can you
say no to pizza at Paula’s and a few beers?”

Because she’d be with him tonight, Zach thought. Because she
was still broke.

Opening his eyes, he glanced back at his computer screen,
the digging he’d been doing into her life to find out whatever he could, what
she wouldn’t tell him, unable to stop himself any longer. From the moment he
saw her looking at Meg’s old dolls, her eyes welling with tears, he simply had
to know where she’d come from, why she’d ended up here, where she might be
going after she left him.

His stomach knotted at the thought.

Ignoring the pain, he concentrated on his search. Tiled on
his screen were numerous articles about her and the Starrs. He’d guessed
correctly—they’d been motorcycle performance artists. Given the newspaper dates
and Toni’s youthful appearance in many of the shots, she’d joined their act at
sixteen.

A time when other girls were getting involved in
cheerleading, preparing for dances and proms, falling in love with all the
wrong guys, worrying their mothers to distraction. So where was Toni’s mom in
all of this? Why hadn’t she stopped what Zach saw now?

In those early photos, Toni looked timid, scared, uncertain,
her smile forced, not the one he knew, the one he’d come to crave.

You like doing that kind of work?
he’d asked.

It’s what I know.

Because she’d been trying to please Belle and Lucky?

My family,
she’d said.
I adopted them.

Her obvious affection for the couple, her attachment to them
was evident in the other photos, no different than how she carried their
picture next to her heart. In these shots, Toni always had her arm around
Belle’s waist or linked through Lucky’s arm.

The articles devoted paragraphs to their bios. Many claimed
Belle was on the same level as the legendary Teri Kezar and Debbie Lawler,
women Zach had never heard of. If the stories about Lucky proved true, his
talents were just a shade below those of Evel Knievel.

Information about Toni proved scant. In one article, Lucky
and Belle claimed she was their niece. She had this life in her blood.

To Zach’s way of thinking, she’d been a scared kid who’d
done what she needed to do, in order to survive something he was afraid to
imagine. He watched her risk-taking and confidence increase in a series of
videos posted on YouTube by a promotion company.

The first, from a California county fair, showed Toni at
seventeen, a bit less curvy than now, her hair as black, her smile a shade
insecure.

Wincing inwardly, he stared as she completed jump after
jump, the crowd’s arms pumping in the background, men whistling through their
fingers, the women bouncing up and down, Toni taking a bow, looking beyond
relieved that she hadn’t crashed.

Pulse racing, Zach studied the banner in the back of the
scene, the name of the town. Was it where she’d been born? Where she’d lived as
a little girl before her dad had died?

Had the foster care system placed her with the Starrs? Were
the authorities crazy enough to do such a thing to a kid?

The door leading into the bays opened with a brief crack.
Zach hit the key to show his desktop screen, hiding his research, even as his
head snapped up.

Leaning her shoulder against the jamb, Toni cocked one
slender brow as she regarded him.

Zach’s heart continued to sprint as his gaze devoured her.
Even in the shop’s baggy uniform, she looked succulent, just as womanly as if
she’d been wearing the flimsiest lingerie or nothing more than skin. His toes
tried to curl, with his boots stopping them.

“You look guilty,” she said, her voice lowered just enough
so Robbie and Angel couldn’t overhear. “Been watching porn again?” She inclined
her head to the blinds he’d closed over the door’s window and the others in his
office.

Bad, bad girl. He kept his voice equally low and lied, “I’m
just doing some online shopping at the website of that place where I got the
oil.”

Her cheeks pinked up prettily with her blush. Understanding
shone in her eyes as to why he’d shut the blinds, not wanting one of the guys
to stroll by and catch what he’d been doing. “Let me see what you’ve found.”

“No.” He closed out the tabs bearing information on her. “I
want it to be a surprise.” Crooking his finger, he gestured her closer.