Chapter 21
21
MARI
I curled my legs beneath me, perched on Robe’s lap in one of the kitchen chairs. His enormous body engulfed mine, his arms wrapped around me tight as I laced my hands behind his neck. Twists of gold flickered through the deep chocolate browns of his beard in the morning sunlight that filtered into the kitchen from the small windows either side of the door.
For once, we had the house to ourselves.
The quiet that rang through the space was so unusual that after we finished a meager meal of toast and coffee, we just sat entwined together, enjoying silence broken only by soft forest noises outside.
But in here… quiet reigned.
Robe’s fingers tangled in my hair, stroking soothingly from my scalp around to the nape of my neck and back again. I tilted my head on the downstrokes, looking up into those deep eyes that had loved and ruined me so many times.
Yet, I was still here.
“What did he do to you? Gi—the man we both fear?”
Robe stilled, his strong fingers ceasing their massage. I snuggled a little closer, pressing my lips to the cotton of his shirt where it covered his shoulder and peppering it with tiny kisses.
Somewhere between discovering a soul-deep need for each other and breaking away the physical barriers, we broke through some other walls too.
We might not say the name, but we’d come far enough to talk around it.
He sighed. “Why do you want to know?”
I slapped his chest. While I doubted the small dose of violence hurt him one iota, it stung my palm. “Are you kidding me? You’ve pestered me for five months to tell you about him. I ask once and you say no? That’s a letdown.”
“Fair enough.” Robe closed his eyes for so long, I thought he wouldn’t answer. His fingers resumed their trailing path up my spine and began a deep massage across my shoulders. I bit back the moans of pure bliss that pulsed at the edges of my lips when he started to speak.
“I worked shoulder to shoulder with him,” Robe began, then halted, watching me. He sucked in a long breath and went on. “For three years, we went through officer training school. We served together twice overseas. There were periods during those years when we didn’t see each other, but in the military, that’s not unusual. Work long enough in the same circles and eventually you meet people for a second or third time, even if you haven’t seen them for a decade or more. It’s all too easy to fall back into old habits.
“When we met again, he’d transformed from being a reckless young officer on a small power trip with a chip on his shoulder to become something else altogether. I didn’t realize how deep he’d buried himself in George Petersen’s pocket until it was too late. A terrible assumption. I lost half my unit to an accident. It turned out to be a job he—my friend turned enemy—headed up, stealing weapons to flood the black market back home.” His eyes were shot with remembered anger and pain, a distinct lack of forgiveness tightening his features.
I didn’t blame him. “Why would he do that?”
“Petersen owned a paramilitary group he attempted to arm before he took office. I’m still not clear on the purpose—a coup or a political statement. Our old mayor friend switches his loyalty like a flag directed by the wind. Whatever his motivation was, it backfired on him. A lot of arrests were made. We were away, but the news made it to us all the same. Petersen still came out on top, ultimately preventing a gang war he’d sourced weapons for from taking over the city streets. It won him his seat in NYC. Fucked-up shit. But then… he’s the politician.” Robe’s lips twisted. “He always manages to turn something crooked into a positive for himself.”
I tilted my head. “I’ve seen pictures and I know the name, but I’ve only listened to a few of his speeches. I guess my boss kept that part separate from his business life, which was my focus. Actually, he was really good at compartmentalizing information to make sure people only got as much as they needed for a particular job. And… I’m not really a politics girl.”
That comment might make me sound vapid, but I took little interest in a man who sailed under his own flag at the cost of others. Plus, I couldn’t vote in the US, so it all seemed a moot point. Robe was right; George Petersen had earned himself a reputation for always turning a negative situation to his own interests.
My knowledge stopped there. Gideon kept me busy. Running between departments and maintaining his office made for a full-time position for more than one person. I managed that job on my own for the last year on my visa, never seeing what an evil man I worked for until….
I clenched my teeth tight, waiting for the inevitable sea of invisible hands, but they didn’t come. Robe’s touch warded my demons away.
“My friend, he….” Robe’s arms stiffened around me, and he pulled me closer. “He made a good officer. Once. Not any longer.” He tipped his head back, studying the ceiling.
I searched my memory, coming up with too many blanks. “You worked with him after?”
“When we returned from our last tour, we formed a partnership. He swore he hadn’t been involved in the gun heist. I pretended to believe him, wanted to…. So many of my men faced disciplinary action based around what I now know were his consequences. The idea that he used the additional money to fund a joint start-up business hit me as wrong, but at the time, my family trust was locked away. I didn’t receive that until my parents passed a year later in a break and entry.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, clinging to his shoulders.
“Don’t be.” He pressed his lips to my temple. “We opted to work in security logistics, a field we both knew well. As it turned out, we ended up with two teams, splitting the business in half less than a year after its inception. We… disagreed on the type of work. He wanted to focus on mercenary contracts that blurred the moral line. I took a stand.” He offered me a humorless smile. “Funny how that line moves when it’s convenient.”
“You do what you have to in each circumstance,” I replied, tracing the line of his mouth over his beard. “My boss is very rigid in his beliefs.”
Peridot eyes gleamed an unusual shade of gold in the skewed light as he stared up at me. “There’s always a choice, Mari. Gi—he let me keep the business name. I paid him out, though he took plenty of equipment with him. Knight he came with plenty of his own. His paramilitary squad turned into one of the most brutal teams of mercs I’ve seen activated outside the Middle East. While I let him distract me, he wormed his slimy way under the nose of officials who reopened the investigation. My men were disciplined. He targeted me as the weak link, turning over evidence only one person could have known, claiming he stole it from me while we did business together.
“I found myself dishonorably discharged, and when I tried to fight the charges he brought against me and Will, an offer of leaving under our own steam arrived. It was either that or remain loud, proud, and locked away for an extended period. Treason got tossed around enough that I knew we needed to walk. Miller didn’t get charged, though I couldn’t do anything more to help Will. Both men were so fucking loyal to a man who couldn’t see around the shadow of the man next to him.”
“Discharged dishonorably,” I amended, then straightened, curving my fingers around his jaw to draw him back to me, looking straight into his eyes. “You’re not the man they claim, Robe.”
He laughed self-deprecatingly. “Aren’t I?” He released me and shifted, pushing both hands through his thick hair.
No matter how rustic Robe Huntingdon’s life had become, he didn’t seem able to perceive the natural authority that exuded from his pores that every man reacted to. Kind of cute. If a mountain of a man could be called cute . But the haunted look in his eyes told me he hadn’t forgiven himself for the hurt his actions had caused others.
“No.” I prayed he saw the truth in my eyes. “You’re not.”
Robe let out a harsh breath, freeing his hair to slide his hands down my body, stopping at my hips. “You might be the only one who believes that.”
I caught a lock of his short silver hair among the russet, running my fingers through its silky strands, thinking of the men who resided in the house with him, who trusted him and knew him to be so much more, but I knew he wouldn’t listen to me right now. “I don’t think that’s true.”
“Isn’t it?”
He ran his fingers up my spine again, but when he reached my neck this time, he curved his palm against my nape, angling my head until my lips rested against his for a brief, fixed breath. His tongue sought entry, pushing inside with little resistance, his natural dominance rising.
Goose bumps rippled over my skin as I gave my silent permission, pressing my breasts to his chest and kissing him back. Our tongues danced, stroking and teasing until his grip found my waist.
He squeezed, then dropped his hands, reaching between us. “Ride me, Mari.”
I drew back to look over my shoulder, but we were alone. “What if they come back?”
I sucked on my lower lip, trying to deny the urge to rub against him where I ached between my thighs. I never had Robe to myself; somebody else was always around. Call me selfish, but I didn’t want our moment of solace interrupted.
“I don’t care if the entire household watches me fuck you on the kitchen table, coating my cock with your fluids.” Robe’s filthy mouth sent ripples of desire shooting through my body.
One knee pushed me to standing. With a rough tug, my pants slid around my hips and tumbled to the floor, and then Robe pulled me back where I’d been a moment before, straddling him.
“It’s going to be a quick, hard session, right?” My joke fell flat, the air between us fizzing and pensive.
Robe cursed as he reached around me, gripping my buttock and pressing his fingers against the sensitive nerve endings along the crack of my ass. He fingered my back hole, tracing around the edges as a distraction. I moaned, memorizing the new sensations as his other hand rose up my spine.
Without a single breath of effort, he took hold of the back of my shirt and ripped it open. The flimsy material stood no chance against his determination, splitting down the middle with his undeniable force like so much cotton candy to leave me bare on his lap.
In so many ways.
Robe rubbed the ruined shirt against my cheek. “No underwear, Mari?” He leaned forward and brushed his mouth over mine. Warmth bloomed against my lips, his beard grazing my cheek. Rough—like him.
“I kind of hoped….” My breath lagged, and I couldn’t ask, even after all this time alone with him. Dipping my chin to escape his intense stare, I peeked through my lashes.
Robe growled, reaching between us to unzip his fly. His hard length filled one hand. A tiny clear pearl glistened at the tip of his cock. He ran his thumb across it, the weight of his gaze heavy as he smeared the precum over his mushroom head.
“Eyes up here, Mari,” he rasped. “What is it Alan calls you—a beautiful little slut?”
Not my slut , but a…. I swallowed back a moan, knowing Robe needed to claim me, unwilling to share this moment with anyone else, whether they were in the room with us or not.
My beautiful little slut.
I remembered those words tumbling out of Alan’s seductive mouth and giving me a thrill that day in the en suite, the day I began to heal. But those same words echoed by Robe? Pure sin ricocheted through me. Paired with his possessiveness, those words made my world spin faster. My body heated from the inside out, arousal coating my inner thighs. I balanced my hands on his shoulders and raised my ass to hover above him.
“Are you on the pills Alan got for you?” Robe forced my chin up with a knuckle so he could see my face. “Tell me you’re on them, Mari. I want to fuck you raw.”
Need ran down the inside of my thigh, coating us both with a craving only the other could satisfy.
“I’m on them.”
No sooner had the words slipped from my mouth than his hands tightened on my hips, pushing me down to grind against his rigid length. My hips rolled forward of their own accord, seeking his tip, offering him entrance. I gasped at the contact, but nothing came out of my mouth.
His lips curving in a rough smile, he released his cock and jammed me down. My lungs ceased functioning as I moved, easing back and forth to accommodate his girth.
“Robe—” I hated the plea in my voice, but I begged him—for sanity, a breath, anything —all the same.
“Uh-uh, sweetheart.” His arms wrapped around me, pressing my liquid body flush to his chest. A few shallow thrusts and I gushed around the thick intrusion. My limits reached, he held me close until I molded to the shape of him inside me at this angle, easing the overwhelming stretch. “Better?”
I nodded, brushing my lips over his, needing the contact, his breath on me. “So good.”
“That’s my girl.” Robe squeezed my ass with both hands, helping me rock over him.
He pushed up, hitting places inside me I didn’t know were there, that had never been touched like this before. My thighs pressed tight to his, thick denim harsh against soft, marked skin.
Gulping air and breaking the kiss I started, I rose until his full length almost slipped outside, and then I dropped back down, aided by the copious slick of need that coated him tip to balls. His guttural growl broke something inside me. That urgent need he denied—I wanted that. I wanted him to rip through his control because of me . Something he couldn’t deny any longer, just for us. I leaned forward and picked up my pace, using his body to steady myself as I rode him.
Pleasure rushed through me as he shook his head, urging me to slow, but I tipped my head away and pretended not to see. My hair tickled my back while he gripped my hips and massaged the same circles there that he had on the back of my head earlier. His touch spread bliss through every point of contact. I let my moans flow free, unchecked.
The way he looked at me—like I was his everything, his future, his now —jolted me out of my pleasure-induced stupor and brought my release rushing forward. My breath caught. He rocked with me, weathering the clenches and flutters where I bore down on him. He murmured my name and something else as the world shook and a shower of starlight obliterated everything—except him.
Robe cupped the back of my head, tugging at damp strands that clung to my sweat-beaded skin. I licked his collarbone, watching my hands tremble against his chest. Sweat traveled in rivulets between us, pooling in the apex of my thighs where I was joined to him.
“Fuck, Mari,” he groaned. “Look at me, sweetheart. I want to see your face as I come inside you.”
I lifted my head, the heaviest weight, and rested my lips on his, unable to hold myself up. The edges of my vision frayed into darkness as his next words left me lost between a hot and cold zone. My skin prickled, and I read his words twice, memorizing how his lips moved.
“I love you, Mari Merripen.”
Robe pinned me in place and thrust up, taking away my ability to process anything beyond hot flesh pressed together. Rough hands dug into my hips, then my neck, holding my mouth to his. I played that moment over in my mind as he rocked me brutally against his cock.
When my body strained, he took over. Lips grazed mine in a kiss that rattled my soul. The deep rumble in his chest tightened my muscles once more as he worked us both to our limits, stealing my breath with every thrust.
A second, stronger orgasm rose, this one wielded more by my heart than my body, the brunt of its pleasure throwing me forward until I crashed into him, slamming us both into freefall. His mouth ripped from mine to release his roar as my pussy milked his thickening cock.
The cabin quieted in our aftermath. We breathed together in its silence, a tangle of hearts and souls and bodies, though I couldn’t remember which parts belonged to me or to him.