Chapter 5
Bronson
Lucy was sitting on her bed in an oversized t-shirt and nothing else, her knees pulled together, hugging herself.
She looked up when I came through the door, seeming younger than her thirty-six years right now, fragile and scared.
I didn’t say anything about what happened in the bathroom. The way I’d gently tugged her clothes off and helped her into the tub, as I desperately tried to maintain my professional composure.
And I didn’t address the squeaky cot that I should be getting my ass into right now.
I just pulled back the covers on her side and tilted my head toward the pillow.
She slipped under the covers without arguing, which told me more about how shaken she still was than anything else could have.
I took off my boots, set my gun on the nightstand, stripped down to my boxer briefs, and climbed in beside her.
Neither of us talked about the fact that I’d just climbed into her bed, mostly naked, and hard as rock. Every interaction between us had been leading to this moment, and no words were necessary to know we’d crossed a line together.
My arms went around her as if they’d always belonged there, pulling her back against my chest, and she let out a breath that sounded like she’d been holding it for hours.
She fit against me perfectly, snuggling close.
“I’m frightened, Bronson,” she whispered into my chest.
“I know,” I rumbled back, dropping a kiss into her hair. “But I’ve got you. You’re safe with me.”
“What about after you’re gone?”
She peered up at me, and in that instant, I knew. It didn’t matter that I was nine years older than her, or that she was famous and wealthy beyond belief.
Or that I came from nothing.
I’d grown up in a trailer on Red Oak Mountain. My mom was a hairdresser. My daddy a drunk.
But none of that mattered.
Right now I was her hero, and she was my love.
“I’m not leaving your side until you’re safe again, Lucy. I promise you that.”
The way she held me right now, I wasn’t sure she’d ever let me go.
And for once in my life, I wanted to be caught.
I’d spent years keeping women at a casual distance, dropping them if they got too comfortable.
But my heart was getting all wrapped up in Lucy, and I couldn’t imagine waking up without her.
“Can I ask you something personal?” she murmured into my chest, her lips tickling my skin, as my cock inched higher.
“You can ask.”
“Has there been anyone for you? Recently.”
I considered the question. “No. Not in a while.”
“How long is a while?”
“Close to a year,” and even then it had just been a quick one-night stand in between missions.
She was quiet for a moment. “Me too,” she said. “Over a year, actually. My marriage to Jimmy stopped being real a long time before I found out about Brenda.”
Brenda. It took me a second, and then I remembered reading about her in Lucy’s file. She was Jimmy’s side piece.
Lucy paused. “I’ve only ever been with Jimmy before. I was a virgin when I met him. And… I’m too loyal for my own good.”
“That’s a long time to only know one man,” I growled as I tightened my arms around her.
“It is,” she agreed, and something in her tone shifted, something that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with the fact that we were in a bed together and the heat we’d been dancing around since the moment we met was spiking high.
She was warm and soft pressed against me, and I’d never wanted a woman as badly as this before.
I could feel the change in her breathing as she shifted, slipping her hand to my chest, her fingers curling lightly into my skin.
Every bit of SEAL in me knew that I should get out of her bed right now, call Cal, and tell him to send a full security detail to keep her safe. I was in too deep and my judgment was getting clouded.
Like right now, I should be up doing a perimeter check, not pressing my hard cock against the client.
If I made love to Lucy now, I’d break every honor code in me.
But somehow, I didn’t give a damn.
“Bronson?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Do you miss it? Having someone in your life?”
I didn’t answer immediately, because the honest answer was that I’d never let myself get close enough to a woman to fall in love.
But Lucy Lee made me believe in it.
I wanted to love her. Wanted to make love to her. Needed to make love to her.
But I didn’t know if she was talking about love or sex, or a mix of the two. And suddenly it didn’t matter.
“Yeah,” I rumbled. “I do.”
“I swore off men after Jimmy.” Her eyes were full of emotion. “But maybe it’s the shock of tonight, or maybe it’s just you. But I want to know what it feels like to be with someone other than him.”
My hands tightened around her waist.
“I thought about you when that man raised his gun in my face. I thought about how I was going to die without ever kissing you.”
Damn. A man couldn’t hear that without taking action.
“I shouldn’t,” I growled… but my hands didn’t listen.
“I know,” she whispered, her lips grazing my neck. “That’s the problem.”
I gave one slow, deliberate press of my hips against her, and she gasped.
Her whole body responded to that simple touch, and all I wanted in life was to make her gasp again.
“Bronson,” she breathed.
“I know,” I groaned. “I’m being unprofessional.”
I pressed into her again, and she made a tiny moan that drilled straight down to my cock.
“What would it mean?” she asked, and her voice was barely above a whisper.
“Whatever you want it to mean,” I told her.
“I know where you are in life. Your divorce is still in the courts. Your whole life is about to change. And I’m heading back to Red Oak Mountain when this job is done.
It’s not the kind of town I imagine you’d be interested in for the long term.
Not with your lifestyle on the road.” I held her gaze.
“But that doesn’t mean we can’t give each other something good tonight. A little bit of comfort.”
She winced, then laughed softly. “A big, strong man like you doesn’t need comforting.”
“Maybe not,” I growled as I tightened my grip on her. “But I want you anyway.”
And then I kissed her.
It started as something controlled, the way I’d intended it.
But then she made a soft sound of need, and every carefully maintained boundary I’d been holding since the moment she opened her front door dissolved completely.
I kissed her deeply, one hand sliding up into her hair as I pulled her hips flush against mine.
I was so hard it was almost painful, and Lucy felt so soft in my arms that I nearly lost my mind.
She kissed me back shyly at first, letting me lead, her hands curled against my chest, and I took my time with her, learning the shape of her mouth.
By the time I pulled away, we were both breathing hard.
Her cheeks were flushed, and she was still looking at me like I was her hero.
Millions of men would have given anything to be where I was right now. I was aware of that in a way that felt almost surreal.
Lucy Lee was a prize any man would want to catch.
But I just wanted to protect her and keep her safe.
She was almost innocent in some ways. Jimmy had kept her locked away from the world. And I wanted to show her what life was really like. We could jump off Summer’s Bridge together. Skinny-dip out at Hidden Lake. Have a picnic lunch under the old oak tree out at the Hunt farm.
I could take her to the farmer’s market, and we could choose the perfect wildflower honey to mix in her tea. And then I’d show her the Bear Den. Maybe even take her on a thrill ride on the mechanical bull that sat in the corner of the old dive bar.
And she could meet everyone I knew. The whole town would love her. She’d fit perfectly with my best friend, Cade, and his wife, Mary.
Then she could finally see the real version of the fiction she spun through her songs. The magic of a small town, of a simpler life than she’d ever known.
I found the hem of her t-shirt and pulled it up slowly, giving her time to stop me. She lifted her arms and let me take it off her as a possessive and reverent need moved through me.
“You’re beautiful,” I groaned.
She reached for the waistband of my boxer briefs while I worked her underwear down over her hips.
And then there was nothing between us.
I pulled her against me and kissed her again, taking my time with her, showing her what the magic of two people making love could be like.
I slid my hand between her thighs and found her already slick for me.
Then I worked her slowly and thoroughly until she was moving against my hand and her fingers were twisted in the sheets.
Lucy’s breathing went ragged, and before I ever expected it, she came apart quietly, her whole body shuddering as I pressed my mouth to her temple and held her through it.
I was hungry for this woman, and ready to pound the fuck out of her, but I held back against those urges, showing her the restraint she deserved.
“I’d like to show you more,” I growled, nipping at the soft skin on her neck.
She answered by rolling her hips against me, her expression almost delirious with need.
I rubbed my cock against her wetness, sliding myself up and down her slit until she cried out and told me I was being a tease.
That meant it was time.
I slid the tip of my cock into position and slid inside her slowly, watching her face the entire time.
Her breath caught, and she gripped my arm hard, so I stilled, giving her time to adjust while my cock throbbed hungrily. I could come right now, halfway inside Lucy Lee, but what kind of ride would that be? A crappy one for sure.
I could tell when she was ready for me, and that’s when I sank myself into her, as deep as I could go, saying hello to her gorgeous pussy.
The sound she made was the best thing I’d heard in years.
I started slow, deep and rolling, and she moved with me, her leg hooked over my hip, her face tucked against my throat.
The intimacy of it was more than just the hunger of my thrusts. Lucy would always be a part of me.
I wanted to lose control inside her. Instead, I made her feel every inch of it.
Her tiny cries grew louder, and I couldn’t hold back any longer.
I shifted her onto her back and rolled above her, settling my weight between her thighs, driving my cock home with an intensity that should have scared her, but didn’t.
She whispered my name as her arms came up around my neck.
And she pulled me down closer as I thrust hard, pistoning in and out of her with a hunger that could never be fulfilled.
I needed to do this for the rest of my life.
Every morning when I woke up.
Every night before I fell asleep.
And any other moment I could catch her long enough to slip my cock inside her sweet, sweet slit.
“Bronson,” she groaned as she arched up to meet me.
Her hips wiggled to join with me, her movements clumsy and awkward. And something about that made it even more perfect.
I drove into her with all my strength, showing her now what it could be like for a man to make love to a woman. To fuck her hard because he had to. Because he was about to come undone, his soul mingling into hers until there was no separation between the two.
“Lucy,” I growled, “Come for me. I need to feel you come apart on my cock.”
She kissed me as I picked up the pace, driving into her with a steadiness that built and built until I claimed every inch of her body.
She was with me for every stroke, her hips rising to meet mine as her nails dragged down my back, leaving marks that would still be with me in the morning.
Her breath came out in short, broken sounds that I felt in my spine, and I knew she was moments away.
“That’s it. Give it to me, girl.”
I reached between us and found her clit with my thumb, giving her sharp, hungry rubs until she cried out, her whole body going taut beneath me.
She came with her legs locked around me and my name on her lips, her pussy clenching around me so tight she felt like a vise.
I watched her face through every second of it. Flushed and innocent and completely unguarded, and the thought that moved through me was simple and staggering.
Lucy Lee just came for me.
The woman whose voice had tangled in my soul.
That woman was coming apart underneath me with her fingers in my hair, tugging me closer.
I didn’t slow down. I gave her everything, harder and deeper, chasing the heat building in my cock, and she went over a second time before I expected it, sudden and sharp, her back bowing off the mattress, a howl escaping into the night air.
And that was what undid me.
I followed her over the edge with a groan I couldn’t contain, releasing into her in long, deep pulses.
Something in me registered the ownership I had no business feeling, a deep and wordless claim that I knew I hadn’t earned and couldn’t keep.
This woman was going to end me.
How could I go back to a life that didn’t include her?
She was my sun, and I would orbit around her until the end of my days.
I held her through it, both of us breathing hard in the dark.
My hand tightened around her waist, keeping her right where I wanted her. And then I rolled to my side and pulled her with me.
She pressed her face against my chest, and when she could speak again, she laughed softly, a warm and wondering sound.
“Jimmy never fucked like that.”
“I’m not Jimmy.”
“I didn’t know it could be like that.”
She lifted her head and looked at me, and there was something shy in her expression that caught me completely off guard.
Her eyes were still shining bright as if I’d done something heroic, and my heart flipped over in my chest.
Even though what we’d just done together had been exquisite. A pure and simple hunger unleashed. I was still a man who’d just slept with the woman I was supposed to be protecting.
On the job.
In her bed, in her house, while someone was actively trying to kill her, and I was the only thing standing between her and whoever had sent four hired hands to do it.
No hero would do that.
But I pulled her closer anyway, her warmth settling against me in the dark, and I told myself I’d figure out what that meant in the morning.
After I fucked her again. The first time had been for her. This time would be for me.
I wasn’t supposed to touch her. But I wasn’t letting her go either. Not until she told me I had to.
If Lucy Lee didn’t watch out, she was going to be mine.