She chuckled, flipped around, then horror of all horrors, because his control was edging toward nonexistence, that curvy little ass tucked into his hips, cushioning the raging fullness of his cock. Son of a bitch.
“Good night, Rowdy.” Her husky little purr nearly had him coming in his pants. “Maybe tomorrow we’ll see what you can actually do without your cousins around to approve of it.”
A grin tilted his lips. Oh, he’d show her all right, in ways she could never imagine.
ELEVEN
Kelly stared at the bed as she came from the shower the next morning. It was perfectly made, the flowered comforter smoothed out, the pillows neatly stacked at the headboard. And lying at the bottom of the mattress was clothing she hadn’t worn since the attack.
The low-rise jeans were patched and faded, and she new exactly how low they were. The waistband barely reached her hipbones, with the snap in the front dipping lower nearly an inch.
The white vest-style summer shirt rose above her navel, and would reveal the belly ring that lay glittering on top of the shirt. The brilliant green emerald twinkled and gleamed beneath a shaft of sunlight coming in from the window. She had chosen that particular gem because of its resemblance to Rowdy’s eyes.
Kelly drew in a deep breath before turning her head to stare at Rowdy where he sat in the recliner. Leaning forward, his arms resting on his knees, he watched her silently, emotion swirling in his gaze. Compassion, understanding, determination.
She stepped closer to the bed, turning back to stare at the clothes. She had been too scared to wear them before, terrified that how she dressed had somehow caused the attack.
She was still scared, but as she stood there, she realized that the terror that had often filled her before Rowdy’s return wasn’t there now. Just as he had protected her from those bullies years before, she knew he would protect her now.
She cleared her throat before speaking.
“You’re certain you can catch him? That he’s watching me? Waiting?” She picked up the belly ring, staring down at it intently.
“I’m certain, Kelly.” His voice was dark, deep, confident.
“Do you know who it is?” She knew Rowdy, and his cousins. And she knew Dawg and Natches had been investigating the attack since it happened.
“Not yet. But we will. He’s not sane enough to hide for long.”
Could she be a woman again, rather than a child hiding? Kelly admitted, if only silently, that the woman had been protesting the baggy clothes and the lack of adventure for a year now. She was ready to return, just as the psychologist had warned her she would be.
She nodded slowly. “I need to go to town today. To the spa.” The intimate waxing had been put off too long.
Tension began to sizzle in the room. She knew he would know what it meant. Rowdy was an expert on a woman’s body and all the various procedures they used to tempt a man.
“I’d like to drive you in.” His voice was hoarse. “We could pick up dinner later and go out on the lake.”
She inhaled roughly before nodding. She could feel her insides quivering with the knowledge that once he got her out on the lake, she would be in his bed.
“That sounds good,” she said as she turned back to him slowly.
She dropped the towel that covered her, watched his eyes flame, his face flush, and his body come to immediate attention as she stood before him.
“It’s hard to put in.” She held the belly ring out to him. “Would you help me?”
“Good God!” His gaze moved to hers slowly. “Dad’s home, Kelly. If I f**k you here, he’ll kill me.”
“I didn’t ask you to f**k me, Rowdy.” She kept her voice low, intimate as she moved to him. “I asked you to put the ring in.” She extended her arm, her fingers holding the glittering gem.
She loved teasing Rowdy, always had. The look in his eyes made her breathless, showed his hunger. It was the reason she had always waited on him, always known she belonged to him. For years, every time he looked at her, he ate her with his eyes, consumed her with the hunger in them. Just as he did now.
Without speaking, he moved forward on the chair, spreading his legs before his hand gripped her hips, pulling her to him. His hands were hot on her flesh, sending sizzling impulses of pleasure raking over her nerve endings.
“Give me the ring.” His expression was heavy with sensual intent as he took the ring from her fingers.
Kelly stood still, silent as he inserted the curved metal into the tiny hole before snapping the ball end in place. But he didn’t stop touching her there. He positioned the emerald teardrop in place over the entrance to her navel before his fingertips skimmed over her lower belly.
Her womb convulsed beneath his fingers as pleasure tore through her. Lower, she felt the curves of her pu**y dampen further than they already were as her vagina pulsed in heavy need.
“Look how pretty,” he whispered, his eyes centering between her thighs as her fingers gripped his shoulders and her knees trembled. “You’re wet for me, Kelly.”
“I’m always wet for you. I’ve been wet for you for years, Rowdy,” she informed him, her voice almost a whimper of hunger.
She realized then the mistake she had made in teasing him. She was too hungry, needed him too much to tempt what she knew she couldn’t have beneath Ray’s roof.
She stared down at Rowdy in a haze of need as he shifted, his head coming closer, his lips pressing into her lower belly as she gasped at the contact. Long-fingered hands smoothed down her h*ps to her thighs, nudging them apart gently before raising his head. He stared at the flushed folds of her mound. His thumb caressed over the tattoo just above her pu**y. The eagle in flight, one wing dipping toward her damp flesh.
“I want to taste you, Kelly,” he groaned, his voice roughening further. “I want to lay you down, spread those pretty legs, and lick all that soft syrup from you.”
Weakness flooded her, taking her breath, her senses, and turning them into one hard ache for just that.
“You’re so wet.” The fingers of one hand trailed around her thigh, then slid slowly, so slowly, but with destructive results, through the thick wetness that lay between the soft folds of flesh.
“Rowdy,” she breathed, her fingers sliding to his hair as his head dipped to her belly again. “Please touch me. Please.”
She had waited so long, dreamed so desperately of his touch that now that it was happening, she feared it was just another dream.