Shameless (St. Martin Family Saga) (3 page)

“Shut off your mind and listen to your desire.”

Brook knew that listening to his deep-voiced suggestion rather than the ever quieter voice of reason was probably a mistake, but her need for him was as fierce as it was sudden. She needed to be held, needed to be passionate with someone. She wanted to feel life, and Cory St. Martin was vividly alive. Her body yearned for him. Desire fueled the fire in her sex, and her mind switched allegiances, wanting to please her body rather than rigid rules.

His palms went to her cheeks, and her body trembled. He pressed his lips to hers, kissing with light pressure. He pulled up and whispered against her moistened lips, “Sweet.”

She was nervous, but she did what she’d wanted to do since she got her first glimpse of his bare chest. She stretched her fingers out and ran the tips of them down the muscles of his pecs. Her mouth opened on a sigh. She could definitely understand the temptation of Cory St. Martin, of wanting to be bedded by him. His body and his smile promised pleasure beyond the norm. In his presence she’d gone from a girl who never gave sex much thought to a woman aching for a man’s sensual touch. Aching for this man’s touch. She hoped he would hurry and make his move because if he didn’t, she was about to beg him to take her.

≈

When Cory looked down and saw hard nipples through her thin cotton shirt, the sight had him instantly hard. He’d been sporting a semi ever since she’d snuggled up to him in the stables, so he hadn’t had far to go. He didn’t understand it. He’d stroked himself to release that morning in the shower and then he’d had Mrs. Simms. Usually after two bouts, he was good for the day.

She seemed to be exploring him as if he were a surprise to her, as if his body fascinated her. Her fingertips on his skin sparked, branding him and scarring where she touched. When she pressed closer and nuzzled into his neck, he knew he was in trouble. She traced those luscious lips higher up his neck. At his chin, she rubbed back and forth. He stopped her long enough to lower them to the floor, then he leaned his back against the couch. He took her bottom lip into his mouth and savored it, stroking again and again. He groaned when he tasted cherry. He guessed it was her lipstick. Whatever it was, it was heady and drove him wild. She climbed atop him and straddled him. They rubbed into one another. When her lips parted on a moan, Cory used the opportunity to press his tongue inside. God, she tasted like heaven. He ravaged her mouth, exploring and tasting and taking. When they broke apart, both breathing hard, their eyes met. Her luminous green had turned a dark olive. The gold flecks in them seemed to be sparkling in the low light slanting into the deer stand.

Cory knew he shouldn’t take advantage of her grief, but God, her desire had turned her into a temptress, one he wasn’t able to resist. He wasn’t going to tell her this, but a woman’s reaction to him was the reason he had so much sex. He knew what the heated looks meant. He enjoyed being wanted and needed. By far, Brook’s reaction was the most erotic he’d ever experienced. He’d never seen a woman burn so hotly. Her response made his cock ache.

Cory pulled her shirt over her head to reveal a tiny athletic figure. She was lean, with a muscular body. It wasn’t the kind of muscle that made her look masculine but the kind that made everything tight. She was thin but also feminine and graceful. He couldn’t wait to sink his teeth into her body.

Brook’s firm little breasts glinted with droplets of water from his hair, and Cory bent to lick them away. She tasted of honey and smelled of lavender. While he lapped the drops from her body, Cory unclasped her bra and slid it free. She had just enough flesh to fill his palm. Cory liked that size—not too big, not too small, just right. Before he could do more than admire them, Brook stood and slid her cutoff shorts down her wet thighs. Her white silk panties were soaked and practically translucent. He could clearly see the folds of her pussy. His fingers landed on that spot, and he slid them over the wet silk. Brook’s mouth opened on a gasp. His mouth watered at the sight of her cunt just in front of his lips. He yearned to taste her, to devour her. He slid her wet panties down and plunged his index and middle fingers through the lips of her sex. And then it was clear to him that she wasn’t wet just from the rainwater. He pushed one finger as deep as he could. She choked around his name. He pulled his fingers free, and her blazing eyes watched as he cleaned them with his mouth.

Brook knelt in front of him, unbuckled his belt, and pulled down his zipper. She reached inside the waistband of his boxers and pulled him free. Her eyes dilated.

Cory smirked at her. “Do you like what you see?”

A breathy moan released from her throat. “It’s um… ” She cleared her throat.

“It’s what?”

“It’s long and thick and bulbous.”

Cory laughed. He’d never been called bulbous. Long and thick, yes. Bulbous, no. She stroked him even as she knelt between his thighs and took him in her mouth. She used her tongue to massage the underside of his shaft while she sucked him into her warm, wet heat. She only managed to accommodate half his size before reversing her path.

Cory’s hands slid into her silky hair. Brook plunged her mouth down half his length. When she pulled back, Cory held her head in place. He whispered, “Brook, you can take more.” With a thrust of his hips, he pushed his cock into her mouth. When he felt Brook’s throat relax, he pushed home. He fucked her mouth until he was coming down the back of her throat. Brook took every last drop of him and swallowed it down. Cory groaned, “God, I love your mouth.”

He slowly pulled his penis free, not wanting to leave the warmth. Brook lowered her head and eyes, and bit her bottom lip. God, it was seduction itself. She sat with her butt on the rough wooden floor of the shelter and pulled her knees up to her chest, never once taking her eyes off him.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked. “I’m not done with you yet.”

He pulled her toward him and laid her across the pallet he’d made out of the blankets. He hiked her knees up toward her chest so that her core was fully exposed to him. “Don’t move.” He kissed the inside of her thigh and then moved to the other one and did the same. She giggled, but the sound was low and arousing. He hovered over her heated channel for the longest time, inhaling deep. A rosy blush spread across her body.

Cory rubbed his nose through her sex. She smelled like the fresh cream his grandmother used to churn in the barn. He remembered smearing that fresh butter over a roll fresh from the oven and sinking his teeth into it. Suddenly he realized he was starving, that a feast lay before him, and he immediately tasted her mound. She cried out his name. He hoped that meant she liked what he was doing, because he didn’t intend to stop. He massaged her clit with his thumb and fucked her with his tongue. Within seconds she was writhing against his mouth. Within minutes she was coming, her release making him grin, making him hard again.

Once Cory drew the last of her juices from her, he moved to his knees and positioned his anxiously waiting cock in front of her opening. He didn’t have any condoms on him since his wallet was in the glove box of his SUV, but he had to have her. Using his hand to guide him to her entrance, he plunged the full length of himself into her soft liquid heat. The move elicited a deep low moan from the back of Brook’s throat, and she exhaled on a gasp. She went still.

“Am I hurting you?” he asked.

“Mmm, no, I’m just intensely… wonderfully full at the moment.”

Cory knew what that meant and held himself as still as possible while she adjusted to accept him. Not thrusting was hard, however, because her entire body was quivering beneath him, calling to him and turning him on so hard that he started shaking in reaction. The whole cycle of it was a new sensation he’d not experienced before, and it had his body sizzling to the core. He thought he could feel her pulse at the head of his penis, and his erection grew inside her. He needed to move—God, he needed to move—but she just lay there, quivering and pulsing beneath him.

“Brook, are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes. I need you to ride me long and hard.”

Goddamn
. Here was a woman who knew exactly what she wanted. Cory looked at her laid open before him and thought about how to get the best leverage to meet her demands. He rose up on spread knees. “Slide your legs around my waist.”

As soon as she crossed her ankles behind his back, he was able to go in an inch deeper. Her chest rose and fell in a shallow rhythm. He clasped his hands around the small of her back to arch her toward him. Her head fell back, and a low groan vibrated through her chest. Her hands wrapped around his wrists as her chest bowed. Her small round tits stood at attention and seemed like they were reaching up to kiss the sky. He moved, using a firm hold to give it to her hard. On every upward thrust he pulled her down violently onto his shaft. Her lips maintained a low murmur of rapture. Cory pounded so forcefully, her small tight breasts were dancing with every thrust. He drove her like a truck as he pushed her all the way to a final state of abandon. She climaxed on a hoarse whisper of his name, and he used one hand to firmly pinch each of her fully engorged nipples. With each wave that pulsed through her, she squeezed his dick tighter and harder until he was emptying into her. She drew his come from him as though she was milking him, unwilling to leave even one drop. He hadn’t intended to spill inside of her but as tight as she was, he didn’t think he could have pulled out had he wanted to. And he hadn’t wanted to.

Cory was reluctant to leave her warmth. He turned them until they could spoon, and they remained connected. He pulled the blanket over their bodies, and they slept, riding out the storm.

3

T
he manic twitter
of birds chirping and the light filtering in through the windows had Cory slowly coming awake. In his half-awakened state, he sensed his hardening shaft being squeezed. Shit. He was mortified that he was whacking off with Brook right next to him. He enjoyed the embarrassing pleasure for a moment longer, until he realized that it was Brook’s hot cunt and not his hand that was squeezing his cock. And then he groaned.

He guessed it was his hard thickness invading her body that had Brook awakening on a gasp. God, he’d fallen asleep pressed inside her, and they’d stayed that way all night. Brook looked over her shoulder as he pulled himself free from her channel. “Shit. Sorry about that.” This had become way too intimate for his blood.

He rolled to his back and exhaled heavily. What were they doing?

Brook rolled to her back as well, and Cory lifted his wrist to check his watch just to have something to do.

“Damn!” He sat up. “I’m late for an appointment.” He was supposed to be over at the Miller’s farm to check on and possibly deliver their prized Holstein.

Brook sat up and then stood to pull on her clothes. Cory stood as well and immediately hit his head on a wooden beam, forgetting he was a lot taller than when he was a child. “Dammit!”

He dressed while Brook gathered up the lantern and blankets. She climbed down the stairs of the deer stand, Cory following after her. “Where can I drop you?”

“I don’t live far from your practice.”

“Sounds good.”

They walked to the 4x4 in silence. He was cursing himself for having had unprotected sex with her. Where the hell had his mind been?

He grunted, knowing very well where it had been—balls deep in Brook’s pussy. He wondered if she was going to get clingy or angry or start to pout. He turned to look at her, but she was smiling wide as she inhaled deeply and took in her surroundings.

He caught her eye, and she said, “It’s beautiful out here.”

Cory grumbled as he wondered if she was always this chipper in the morning.

“I wanted to thank you for yesterday.”

His legs froze. He narrowed his eyes on her. Where was she headed?

She shrugged and focused her gaze on his shoulder. “If you hadn’t been available to help me with Randy, I don’t know what I would have done. When I think of him buried here surrounded by all this peacefulness, it makes me happy.”

He grumbled again. For a minute there he’d thought she was thanking him for sex. His gut had clenched. He hoped she wouldn’t even bring it up but if she did, he hoped she understood it wouldn’t happen again. What he’d done with her was careless and irresponsible.

When they reached the 4x4, he was relieved. The sooner he got her where she needed to be and away from him, the sooner he could focus. He couldn’t think straight around her. He didn’t understand it, but he thought his reaction might have to do with the intensity of the sex. When Brook had been slithering around him, he’d felt her quivers and her fevered skin penetrate his boundaries, the walls he used to keep women and their emotions at bay. He’d heard of out of body experiences, and he thought maybe they’d shared one.

A scary thought.

There was a moment he thought she’d stopped breathing, had imagined her heart had stopped beating. It was when she’d climaxed around him. Then he’d realized that her breath and heart rhythms had changed to match his own. Once she’d fallen asleep, he’d watched her chest rise and fall and felt her heart’s steady beat with his palm to her chest. The pattern never veered from his, even when he’d tried to force it by holding his breath. It was like they had died and been reborn as one. It spooked the hell out of him, yet he’d held onto her throughout the night, worried about what would happen if he let go.

He turned the key on the 4x4, but the engine didn’t turn over. He smashed his palm into the steering wheel with force. “Fuck!”

Brook’s eyes widened at him.

“Er, sorry.” Great, now he was apologizing.

Dammit, hadn’t he told Cash to install a new battery? With the exception of Cash, all the brothers used the ranch regularly, but since Cory lived there, he got stuck tending to the chores unless he forced the others to do something. “We’re gonna have to walk back to the house.” He circled around to grab rubber boots out of the back for her to wear. “Here, put these on. Some of the land is cleared, but some is wooded.” He stomped away before she had a chance to pull on the boots. His hope was that she would keep that distance, but no such luck. She maintained a light jog to match the pace of his long stride. When she stumbled over a root, he felt like an ass. He braced her so she wouldn’t fall and then he slowed his strides.

Green eyes sparkled at him. “There’s a lot of land here. Do you put it to use?”

“We use it for the horses.”

“I haven’t seen any horses.”

“We have two prized stallions. They’re at my clinic now, but they’re usually out here.”

“Two horses.” She nodded as she looked out across the lush rolling landscape. Her gaze landed on Cory’s, and her brows rose.

What the hell? She was a scheming little thing. Cory shrugged in an exaggerated gesture. “What?”

“Well.” She tilted her chin back and used her fingernails to lightly stroke her neck. “You’ve got a lot of land here. Have you ever considered using it for charity?”

Cory stopped, shocked. “Charity!”

“Yeah.” She smiled as she looked left to right, sweeping her arm out with her gaze. “I could do so much with the dogs here.”

Cory stuffed his hands into his pockets and kicked a rock. What the hell was happening? Was she trying to ingratiate herself with him? “I don’t know, it can be dangerous out here.”

She nodded. “I gotcha.” Some of the fire went out of her eyes, but she held on to her smile.

Shit. He wanted to see her eyes blaze. He supposed it couldn’t hurt to let her use an acre or two during the day to train her dogs. Hell, most days he didn’t even get home until after six. By then she’d be long gone. He shrugged. “I guess it would be okay if you wanted to bring your dogs here for training, but you’ll need to be gone by five.”

Her eyes flared to life and a gorgeous large smile of sparkling white teeth erupted across her face. It warmed him, and not only in a sexual way, and he knew he would agree to anything to see that smile. Damn, he was royally fucked.

She skipped ahead of him and turned to grasp his hands. Her hair flowed like field grasses in the wind. He couldn’t help smiling.

“Think of the karma you’ll reap.”

What? She was certifiable. Cory frowned. “Karma?”

“By giving so generously to the animal community, you’ll probably become the next Dr. Doolittle.” She dropped his hands and held her palm out to him. “Here’s to a new and exciting collaboration.”

Her eyes danced. What was behind the expression, he didn’t know. He hoped it wasn’t something that would bite him in the ass. But what the hell? How bad could it be? He could always tell her to leave if the arrangement didn’t work out. He placed his palm in her hand and was shocked by the surge of energy that sparked from her skin to his.

≈

At the Miller’s farm the Holstein was birthed without a hitch. Cory went home to clean up and shower and was now on his way to his practice. When he arrived he saw that one of his clients was due to bring in a litter of Airedale terriers for third-round shots. And that had him thinking about Brook and her loss. All morning, green eyes and chestnut hair interrupted his thoughts. Every time he washed up with the green hand soap in the exam room, he saw her eyes. When he went to check on Ambassador, one of his father’s horses, he imagined the horse’s hair to be the exact same rich color as Brook’s.

Christ, he was losing it.

When the owner of the terrier pups came in, Cory asked him if he was ready to sell. To Cory’s delight, the man was. When Cory asked how much he wanted, the owner quoted twelve hundred dollars. Cory had expected as much—they were beauties. But he offered one thousand cash for one of the males. His client bartered for some premium dog food, and Cory conceded. He acquired a little brown and black rascal on the spot. He called him Teddy because the little guy looked like a traditional teddy bear.

After work he collected the pup and pulled a small collar off a shelf. He also made up a bag with dog food and other items he thought Teddy might need. He pulled up outside Brook’s house at six thirty.

His knocks went unanswered. Cory was resigned to taking Teddy home with him when he heard a whistle coming from the backyard. He walked around the house and from the back gate he watched Brook working with one of her rescue greyhounds.

She was teaching the dog to stay and retrieve. Making use of hand gestures and her voice, she commanded the greyhound to stay as she squeaked a toy and threw it. When the dog started to get up, she reinforced the command with a gesture and a short blow of a whistle. The dog was intently focused on her as she praised him. When she said, “Go, Eagle,” he flew across the small yard to retrieve the toy. She knelt, and the dog brought her the toy. She laughed as he nudged her and licked her face.

“What a smart boy you are.”

When she turned her head, their eyes met and Cory was aware he had a dumb smile on his face, one that probably revealed way too much. He opened the gate, and Eagle immediately sat at a statuesque attention, leaning into Brook’s leg. She petted him in encouragement and, through unspoken language, Brook conveyed her acceptance of Cory to the dog. As Brook scratched between the dog’s ears, Cory wished he was leaning against her leg as she caressed him. He was in awe as he watched the connection she had with the dog. She made it look easy when he knew it was anything but. Rescue dogs didn’t act like other dogs. Destructive behaviors and aggressive tendencies could prevent a bond from developing between master and canine. Counterconditioning could take months. Good handlers could get to the bottom of irrational fears, bad habits, and trust issues, but it took consistent routines and clear expectations of boundaries. Most people gave up on the dogs long before any routine could be established.

Observing Brook with the dog was humbling. Clearly she’d earned Eagle’s trust, and now he looked to her for guidance on how to process the intruder. She comforted his anxiety and put him at ease. She used facial gestures, body movements, and sounds to communicate with the animal. Theirs was an innate, primal connection reminiscent of a friendship in a past life.

Eagle saw her as the leader of his pack. That acceptance had no doubt taken some skill, and Cory was in awe as to how the small chestnut-haired woman with the large smile and scattering of freckles had managed it.

Once Eagle had been put at ease, Cory walked toward them. When Brook saw the sleeping puppy in Cory’s arms, she cupped her cheeks in her hands. Her eyes filled with liquid, she gasped, “Wherever did you find him?”

Cory smiled and removed his sunglasses. “One of my clients is a breeder.” He held Teddy like a championship trophy and said, “Say hello to your new pup.”

Brook started to cry, and Cory froze. That wasn’t the reaction he’d wanted. He’d pictured one of those smiles that showcased her beautiful teeth. Eagle started moving, getting antsy as he sensed Brook’s emotions.

“Can I hold him?” Brook asked.

Cory offered a tight, worried smile, “Well, of course. Teddy’s yours after all.” He didn’t know what he’d do if she continued to be all emotional.

Brook held out her hands, and Cory delicately passed Teddy to her. She studied him and then kissed the top of his head.

“You are a sweetie, yes you are.” Holding the puppy, Brook knelt in front of Eagle. He suspiciously sniffed the unfamiliar animal. Her voice low and hoarse, Brook said, “Look, Eagle, it’s a new brother for you. He’s sweet, isn’t he?” Eagle licked Teddy’s snout. “We like him, don’t we?” Eagle licked her face. It seemed the little pup would fit in well.

She stood and smiled at Cory. “Thank you. What do I owe you?”

“Nothing.”

Her brow rose as she looked down to the dog in her arms. She stroked him. “That’s not true. He’s super-coated and you got him from a breeder; I’m sure you paid dearly. How much?”

“Brook, I bought him for you because I wanted you to have him. I won’t accept any money.” He didn’t want to talk about money. As he looked around her yard and took in the torn window screens and crumbled steps on the house, he wondered if she even had enough.

Brook held the pup up in front of her face. “Well, this little guy is very sweet and very special. You come visit whenever you want. Did I hear you call him Teddy?”

“Yeah, but feel free to call him whatever you like. That was just something I came up with today.”

“I think it’s a perfect name—St. Martin’s Teddy Bear.” Brook touched the pup’s nose to hers. “If you won’t let me pay you, then you must join us for dinner.”

“Us? Is someone here?”

“I meant me, Eagle, and Teddy.”

“You cook for Eagle, do you?”

“Actually, we’re having spaghetti tonight.”

“I like spaghetti.”

Cory was curious to see inside her house, and dinner would give him the perfect opportunity to scope it out.