56. Strike
Strike
Strike wiped the sweat from his brow.
The last perimeter check.
His hands shook as he recalled Hugo aiming a gun at Millie.
He could have lost her forever.
He stared at his vehicle before returning to the house. His skin itched with something, but he wasn’t sure what. Everything was over, and his woman was safe, so why were pins and needles climbing his arms?
Maybe it was fear of the future. They still needed to decide what was next for them.
“Perimeter check done,” he said from the doorway to their room. “Tonight’s our last night before we head… home. Are you warm enough? Do you want more food? How about—”
“Strike,” she said, cocking her finger and directing him closer. “Get in bed and hold me.”
He slipped under the duvet, and he pulled her into his arms. “I love you so damn much. I didn’t think I’d get to feel this again.”
She held his gaze, cupping his cheek. “I’ve spent my adult life scared no one would want me and too afraid to show people the real me. I didn’t choose this route back to you, but I’m glad I ended up on it.”
“What will you do if your family refuses to speak to me when we’re together?” His head dropped. “They might not invite me to family gatherings, or they could find ways to turn you against me—”
She kissed him hard and stroked her fingertips across the lines framing his lips. “It’s time my family accepted me for who I am, and if they don’t, then they don’t get me at all.”
“It’s lucky we’ve got my parents. They always adored you.”
Strike kissed her, but suddenly, she reared back.
“Why did you do a perimeter check if it’s all over?”
He toyed with her bralette strap, his tongue running across his lip. “I don’t want to scare you.”
“Strike,” she said, drawing out his name.
He twirled a wave of her hair around his finger. “It’s my instincts. Something doesn’t add up. It’s like all the pieces are trying to come together, or like a maths problem where the more you think about it, the harder it is to decipher.”
“Then let’s do something else,” she growled.
“Today, a man chased you, tried to shoot you, and you spent hours giving your statement to the police while bleeding.” He crawled down the bed and brushed kisses to her healing knees.
“That Luke finally retrieved the video made it easier.”
“I’m telling you to rest.”
Her voice dropped. “How about we do it soft and slow?”
He shook his head, but his smile was unrelenting.
“Shall we try the sofa outside?” she added with a grin.
“Millie,” he warned.
“Yes?”
“Are you sure?”
“I know what happened will have made you anxious. We need to ease that. We’re safe. I want this.” She jumped up and hobbled to the door. “Race ya.”
He grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder as he sourced a condom, then strode toward the outside deck.
He laid her down on the sofa and knelt above her.
She shivered. “No one can see us, can they?”
“Let them. I hope Joyce has security cameras so we can borrow the recording and watch it back one night.”
He slid a hand under her bralette and swirled his finger around her nipples. “When I was particularly horny one morning and imagining exactly this, I walked around the house and checked the sofa from every angle. It’s unlikely we can be seen.”
“Good,” she moaned.
He pulled her into a spooning position. She leaned her head back, and he kissed her hard on the mouth, his tongue tangling in hers. She hooked her arm around his bicep and pressed her bum against him, wriggling against his erection.
“Hungry?” he asked against her mouth as he squeezed and twisted her nipples.
Millie turned and wrapped her legs around his, panting and moaning his name. Strike dipped his head and licked her nipples over her bralette, grazing them with his teeth.
“More,” she hissed. With calloused, bruised, and cut hands, he yanked down the straps.
“You’re gorgeous,” he growled before circling her nipples with his tongue, biting them hard, and making her cry out as she writhed.
“So fucking hard,” she murmured as he ground himself between her thighs.
Her breathing turned ragged as he pinched her hips, his claiming hold insistent. He ran his thumb across her pussy, and her head fell back.
Her moans of his name were saturated with desperation.
He fought to calm his swelling cock as he slid his hand into her knickers and pressed two fingers inside her. Her lips parted in a silent moan, and he capitalised on it, kissing her as he finger fucked her.
“Mmmm,” she hummed against his mouth as he thrust his fingers inside her while his other hand toyed with her tits.
The speed of her moans hastened, and she rolled her hips, bucking against his thrusts. He altered his touch, changing the tempo. Again and again, he pushed her closer to orgasm before changing his technique.
“Strike,” she groaned.
He chuckled. “Yes, baby?”
“Let me come.”
“Nope.”
He loved watching her coiled with need. He dragged desire from every part of her as she begged to finish, but she didn’t utter the safe word. Instead, she shoved her hand in his joggers, stroking his erection.
He groaned into her mouth as she rubbed her palm over the head of his cock. Her hand left sparks in their wake, and he thrust against her touch.
“I’m fucking desperate for you,” she hissed.
“I can do this all night,” he teased. “I want you to be my soaking mess. All mine.”
He continued to play with her even as his cock ached for more.
“Can we try sixty-nine?” she asked between gasps.
They clumsily undressed each other and got into position. Eventually, she was on top of him, her legs on either side of his face as she bobbed on his cock.
She sucked his dick deeper and deeper. He groaned as he licked. It was tricky to focus on pressing his tongue inside her when she possessed him.
Her head tipped back.
“Yes,” she gasped before dropping her head again and deep-throating him. She dragged her mouth up and down his cock.
He held her tight as he licked and sucked like it was a race. Occasionally, he stroked her skin, caressing her writhing body and blessing her with his touch.
Her breasts pressed against his abs as she held and stroked his dick, her mouth sliding up and down on it.
He hissed as she took him deep.
But she wasn’t going to make him come before she had. He returned her efforts, pushing her closer to the edge.
“I want to come inside you. I want to fuck you,” he growled when she released the telltale high-pitched moan that proved she was close.
She climbed off him. They locked eyes as he sheathed himself. She licked her lips as he palmed his juddering dick.
“Now climb on my cock and ride me. Grab the edge of the sofa when you need it.”
She followed his instructions, her knees on either side of him as she straddled his body.
She gripped him with her thighs, her palms flat against his chest as she positioned herself on the tip of his cock and slid down so he entered her. She wobbled as she tried to take charge on the small sofa.
She worried her lip, struggling to balance.
With a growl, he thrust upwards.
“Yes,” she cried out as he dug his fingers into her flesh.
She squeezed her eyes closed like she was on the brink and willing her orgasm closer.
“Eyes on me,” he demanded, throbbing inside her. “Watch what you do to me.”
Her eyelashes fluttered as she opened her eyes.
“Yes,” she whimpered.
“Rub your clit.”
He was feral when she brushed her finger across her clit, wetness coating her digit. “Give me that finger to suck.”
He opened his mouth, and she slid it in. She couldn’t rip her eyes away from him as he sucked it hard, loving that she’d become his panting, moaning mess.
She pulled it back out with a pop. “Kiss me,” he demanded.
He licked her mouth, opening her to him. Her clit ground against his skin.
“I’m so close, Strike.” He paused his kisses to lick and suck at her pulse point, his teeth scratching her skin. “Please, can I come? I won’t until you say.”
“You’re so fucking sexy when you beg me like that.” He held her to him and thrust up one more time. “Come for me.”
She cried out in desperation as she came. He fucked her through her orgasm.
“Have you got one more for me, dirty girl?”
She continued to ride him. One orgasm slowed and ebbed.
He flipped her and stared into her eyes as he pounded her harder, thrusting inside her and rubbing her clit. It was seconds before another orgasm roared through her.
He pinned her hands above her head as she thrashed against him.
That was what did him in.
“I’m coming,” he moaned between gritted teeth. His body was on fire against hers, and sweat beaded his skin.
He collapsed against her chest, breathless and spent.
He stroked her down from her high, his hands gliding across her skin, caressing it and tracing lazy circles across her body before wrapping both of them in a blanket.
“Are you warm enough?” he asked when they’d gotten their breath back.
“For now.”
“We’ll go in soon. But before we do, I wanted to ask about when we get home.”
She ran her nails down his chest, scratching his abs as she neared his dick, and said, “I want everything with you. I want to kiss you, hear your stories, and find all the ways to make you smile. I want to get distracted when I’m doing chores because instead of focusing on the job, all I can imagine is you deep inside me, growling filthy words and hissing my name. ”
“Could you stop talking so sexily? I’m trying to make a proposition.”
His forearms were on either side of her head as he stared at her, studying her messy hair and flushed face.
He cleared his throat. “Millie, do you want to live together? It’s a bit soon, but I don’t want to be without you. We need to discuss logistics and location. Dating a bodyguard isn’t the easiest life, but I need you, and I hope you need me, too.”
He pressed a kiss to her jaw. His eyelashes fluttered over her skin.
“I can’t live without you. I’ll always be scared about your job, but we’ll make it work.”
“I’ll do everything I can to return to you.”
“And I can do my job anywhere, so if we need to move into your place or find somewhere that’s ours, that’s okay.”
“I’ve got a lot of savings. We can pretty much move anywhere. I don’t have expensive habits, but maybe you can be my expensive habit.”
“You’re so cheesy,” she said, shaking her head.
He stroked her cheekbones with the backs of his fingers. “I can’t believe I wasted so many years away from you. I don’t think everything happens for a reason, not after the things I’ve seen, but you’re my forever.”
“I’ll fight anyone who dares to get between us.”
He snuggled up to her. She stroked his chest, and he planted kisses in her hair as they lay together.
Far away, the waves crashed, and the seagulls squawked as if something was still to happen.