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He dragged in a long, ragged breath, memorizing her beautiful face, those sad green but so understanding eyes of hers, the wetness of her lips, the passion in her low voice, the love she held for him. “You’re a fierce damn warrior,” he muttered. “Do you know that?”
“I’m fiercely in love with you,” Sierra admitted brokenly. “I want so much for you to stay with me, Mace. To stop going back down to Peru. Stop all of it. I want you here with me. You DESERVE your own life, dammit. And I’m selfish enough to ask you to stay with me and find out. Live with me. Love me. Laugh and cry with me. But don’t… God… don’t go back down there to Peru again. Please…”
Her pleading ripped his vulnerable heart wide open even more. He was feeling emotions so cleanly and brightly, no longer fearing them. The tears glittering in Sierra’s eyes, her quavering voice, made Mace wince. It was the reaction to the pain he’d put her through for all the months since they’d parted. Easing her onto her back, smoothing the tears from her cheeks, he said gruffly, “I’m going nowhere but to you, Sierra. You need to hear that from me. I was wrong in not telling you sooner. I hurt you and I’m so damned sorry for it. You’ve been nothing but honest and clear with me from the day we met. And yes, you pushed me into feeling like I was up against a wall I couldn’t climb or get around. But it forced me to admit I wanted you. I remembered my promise to my father. I was torn, Sweetheart. Torn up inside. I knew I couldn’t do both. I had to make a choice.” His voice lowered with anguish. “Right now, I feel rotten for the way I’ve treated you. I never lied to you, though. And I didn’t lead you on. I made no promises to you I couldn’t keep, Sierra.”
“I know you didn’t.” She caught his hand, holding it against her breast, drowning in his light-gray eyes. “You were a man of honor every step of the way, Mace. And I never blamed you. I was just trying to figure out why. I knew you loved me. I saw it in your face so many times when you didn’t think I was watching you. I felt it, Darling. I felt your love, your protection. And that night we kissed in the waterfall cave, I knew. I knew in my heart and soul, that you loved me.”
Nodding, Mace drew her hand to his, kissing the back of it. “I’ve been pretty damned blind.”
“No, you weren’t blind. You were set up to take the fall for your entire family. There’s a huge difference, Mace.” Sierra’s voice grew low with pleading. “And don’t feel bad that you didn’t see it.Nochild of fourteen ever could. You couldn’t.”
“I see it now.” Mace kissed her lips, tasting them, the salt of her tears, the sweetness of her mouth. “When you started poking around in my family, asking all those questions this morning, I felt like you were popping rivets apart inside of me, opening me up in a way to see what was going on, but from a different perspective. Maybe an overview. I don’t know. But it helped me see the pattern you were trying to help me out of.”
“Everything is a pattern,” Sierra agreed softly, “there’s healthy ones and then there’s unhealthy ones. You being trapped in your unhealthy family pattern was causing you to surrender your entire life to a promise that your father should never have allowed you to make. He shouldn’t have agreed to it. I think spending fourteen years of your life fulfilling that promise is enough. Don’t you?”
Mace drew in a breath. “I see it now, Sierra. I don’t know what I’m going to do, though. My enlistment is up in two months. I’ll need to find a civilian job.”
“Then don’t re-up,” she said, “because Jack Driscoll is desperate to hire military men like yourself who can set up mission plans. You can stay here in Alexandria. You can make a salary of over a hundred-and-fifty thousand dollars a year doing something that would come so easily to you. Jack needs men with experience like you, Mace.” Sierra moved her hand down his strong, lean arm. “And you can live here with me.”
Mace smiled a little, studying her in the dying gold and orange rays of the sun through the windows of the bedroom. “One thing I know for sure, Sweetheart, is that I’m going to stay here, make you happy, love you and we’ll be a team, together.”
Sierra sighed and closed her eyes, rolling over into Mace’s awaiting arms. He held her gently, kissing her hair, sliding his hand down her back and over her hip. “I love you so much, Mace,” she quavered, “so much…”
A flood of tenderness flowed through Mace as he slowly undressed Sierra, taking his time, kissing her here and there, along her slender neck, feeling her react, those wonderful sounds that came from within her as he unbuttoned her pink, sleeveless blouse, laying it open, exposing her white cotton bra. The swell of her breasts beckoned, and he placed a wet kiss between them. Fumbling with the release, he saw her smile and sit up and help him, her breasts exposed as she pulled it off. His entire lower body hummed with hunger and need for this woman.
“Let me help you with the rest,” she said a little breathlessly, easing out of his arms and standing by the bed. In no time, Sierra was out of her white shorts, had kicked off her sandals and pulled off her white cotton panties. She smiled, seeing the look in Mace’s eyes. He was already shedding his clothes and, by the time she was standing naked by the bed, he’d come over, pulling her back down onto it and into his arms.
Mace groaned as she slid her lush body against his, their hips melded, his erection pressing against her belly. He cradled her in his arms, sliding her black hair aside, taking her mouth. There was a new urgency in him to claim Sierra now that their love had been admitted mutually. As his hand curved slowly around her breast, he watched her lashes shutter closed, her well-kissed lips parting, her hips insistent against his.
He liked her assertiveness, liked her boldness and wildness that was such a natural part of her. She wasn’t laying still, her hands skimming his body, cupping his hips, fingers trailing down the outside of his strong thighs. Every touch was lighting more fires across his body. They were good in bed together. Every time it became better, deeper in its intimacy, taking him far beyond anything he had ever experienced with another woman.
As he leaned over, capturing her tight, peaked nipple between his lips, she eased away just enough to slide him into her. The movement caught him off guard and he groaned, suckling her, feeling her cry out. Mace wanted to hear her, feel her, and he released her nipple, giving her an intense look. Her half-closed eyes were glistening with arousal. Easing her onto her back, her thighs sliding apart to allow him deeper into herself, he smiled down at her. Framing her face with his large hands, he thrust slowly into her. All the way. Feeling her wet, slick body expanding, accepting him like a tight glove surrounding him. He saw her eyes change, widen and then pleasure gleam in them. She lifted her hips, teasing him. Mace could barely think as she established a rhythm designed to suck him dry.
Her breath was becoming ragged as he thrust into her, feeling her heat, feeling her getting close to orgasm. He’d never been with another woman as passionate as Sierra. One who enjoyed the act with him as much as she did. There was such pleasure in stroking slowly, deeply, into her, watching her eyes shift and change, her lips parted, those sounds of satisfaction caught in her exposed throat. Mace wanted to please her fully, slowly, let her know just how much he loved her. Taking her mouth, he slid his lips against hers, absorbing her softness, wetness and taste. Sliding his hand beneath her hip, he knew just the precise angle to lift her at to tease that swollen knot at her entrance. He felt her stiffen, a whimper filling his mouth as he teased her unmercifully, asking her to allow him to guide them this time. And she did, relaxing fully against Mace, allowing him to set the pace.
There was nothing he wanted to do quickly with Sierra this time. It was true, they had a hunger for one another that bordered on the voracious. And there was hardly a night that went by that they didn’t make hungry, wild love with one another. And every time was like the first time.
But this time now, Mace wanted to worship Sierra, wanted to nip, lick and kiss every inch of her golden, damp, quivering body. He couldn’t get enough of her. He’d never been addicted to anything, but he was addicted to her. And, as he slowed their pace, feeling her utterly surrender herself in every way to him, allowing him to cherish every single inch of her sinuous body, Mace knew how to tease her until she would begin to sob and beg him to allow her to orgasm. It wasn’t even about teasing this time as he suckled first one pink, hardened nipple and then the other. It was about giving back to her in every possible way he knew how.
Her fingers were busy sliding through his short hair. She was hungrily taking his mouth, her tongue dancing with his. It made Mace groan. She knew how to unravel him so quickly and he broke their kiss, giving her a wry look. “This time,” he growled, “is for you, Sweetheart…” She smiled up into his eyes and sent her fingers trailing across his chest, sending sparks of fire along his tightening flesh.
Mace knew, if he remained in her, she’d tease him into coming. And right now, he wanted to simply worship her body from head to toe. If she was disappointed as he removed himself, she didn’t say anything. He moved down to her delicate feet. And he kissed each perfect toe, and then the slender arch and slowly moved up her long, sculpted legs. She was restless beneath his slow onslaught, her fingers digging into his shoulders as he began to lave his tongue along the inside of her right thigh. Mace knew she was needing him to touch her, the sounds urgent in her throat, her fingers gripping his shoulders, telling him.
As he licked her inner thigh, feeling her tense, inhaling the scent of her sex fragrance, Mace wanted to give her some relief. He slid one finger just inside her wet entrance, and Sierra suddenly whimpered, her hips thrusting up, wanting more of him. He began to stroke her hard, swollen knot. It told him she was so ready, so ripe. Slipping his hand beneath the small of her back, he captured her, held her so that all Sierra could do was pant, call his name, one hand gripping his upper arm in need. Mace didn’t disappoint her as he felt her walls contract tightly. She cried out, her hips bucking against his hand as her body imploded inwardly. Satisfaction soared through Mace as he rocked her, milking her body, feeling her move into that dazed universe of burning heat and rippling pleasure that glowed throughout her lower body. His heart widened even more as he felt all the emotions tunneling through him as she sobbed out his name.
This was all so new to Mace. Before, he’d held his emotions in tight check, never allowing them to see the light of day. Yet, this willful, strong, and feminine locksmith Sierra, had picked open the unbreakable lock of his heart in a way that had never happened before. As he eased his finger from within her, he covered her, smiling down into her dazed green eyes, seeing the deep satisfaction the orgasm had given her. Appreciating her expression, he eased himself into her hot, sweet body and saw her eyes shutter closed, a moan rising in her throat as he filled her.
Mace knew she was sensitive, so he laid gently over her, taking most of the weight off her on his elbows planted on either side of her shoulders. He kissed her tenderly, feeling her respond, his body aching for release. There was something powerful in waiting for her to move through those magical levels of gratification. He could feel her gripping him tightly, the slick warmth of his body building its tension within himself. There was no need to rush his climax. Mace was satisfied in waiting, being one with Sierra, watching the corners of her mouth lifting, feeling her hands resting against his back. No longer was she restless, caught instead in the magical web of the orgasms. It boarded on the mystical, as if both their spirits were in complete and loving union with one another.
“You feel good in me,” she whispered, settling her hands around his hips, slowly lifting her own, holding his gray, stormy gaze.
Inhaling a swift breath as she captured him, twisting teasingly, Mace groaned. Her hips swayed, turned, capturing him tightly and he gripped the velvet quilt of the bed between his fists, hissing. Resting his brow against hers, he rasped, “I want you to come with me…”
She laughed huskily, thrusting her hips against his. “Oh, I’m already there, Mace… Let go… It’s all right…” and she slipped her legs around his hips, arching, taking him fully into her.
Grunting, trying to hold back until he felt Sierra become ready, hearing her give a small cry, his name tearing from her parted lips, only then, did Mace allow himself to surge forward, pumping swiftly into her, taking her, claiming her as he felt the hammering fire roar down his spine, through his tightened muscles and spilling hotly into her awaiting, sweet body. It felt as if his head had melted, and he was unable to think or even move. Mace groaned, tensing, his fists gripped within the quilt, teeth clenched as the intense pleasure roared through his paralyzed body.
It felt as if his release went on forever, longer than he could ever recall, his heart thudding heavily in his chest. He felt Sierra’s slender hands stroking his dampened shoulders, heard her calling his name, telling him she loved him. He loved her, and he released his hands from the quilt, sliding them around her face, taking her mouth tenderly, breathing his breath into her, exchanging his own with hers. He lay upon her, feeling her lush curves, the way they surrendered to his angular, more muscular frame.
