Doubt filled her gaze, along with anger.

"Don't speak to me as though I'm a moron, Crowe," she warned him with feminine ire.

"Why not, when you're acting like one?" he charged with a deliberate calm he sure as h.e.l.l didn't feel. "But I'll give you the benefit of a doubt here. Maybe you're just not really awake yet? Still sleeping, baby, and dreaming about the days when you could get away with such a blatant statement of confrontation?"

He released her slowly as he began unb.u.t.toning the dark-gray shirt he wore.

"Oh, just don't even." Her fingers knotted at the front edges of her robe as though to secure the material to her. "We are so not having s.e.x."

"Aren't we?" Shrugging the shirt from his shoulders, he considered her with hungry irritation. "Tell me you're not wet. Tell me the honey's not just about to drip down your pretty thighs?"

Her eyes widened at the deliberately provoking question or the bareness of his chest, he wasn't certain. It had been over two days since he'd had her, since he'd tasted her hunger and her his. Perhaps it wasn't incredulity as much as the need to touch.

Yeah, right, he thought as she narrowed her gaze on him, her lips tightening with the same derisive mockery their daughter used so effectively.

"h.e.l.l no I'm not," she retorted a second later as her fingers were suddenly gripping each other as well as the robe.

"Little liar," he accused her, his gaze licking over her, his mouth watering at the thought of tasting one of the swollen b.r.e.a.s.t.s rising above her arms as she tightened her hold on the robe. "You're hot enough to burn me alive, despite your anger. And baby," he drawled, smiling back at her with slow, deliberate antic.i.p.ation. "I'm spike f.u.c.king hard and d.a.m.ned sure intent on putting all those slick, hot juices dripping from your p.u.s.s.y to proper use."

The thought of touching her again, tasting her, sinking inside the tight, velvety heat of her s.e.x had every cell in his body sensitizing.

"You're crazy." Shock widened her eyes, but he did notice how tight and hard his words made her nipples as they tried to poke through the material of her robe.

"I'm not crazy, I'm h.o.r.n.y." Bending, he jerked one boot off, then the next, dropping them to the floor the second they cleared his feet.

He was more than h.o.r.n.y. He was hungry. Desperate. He'd missed her in their bed so much the past two nights that sleep had been almost impossible.

He'd wanted her to have time with their daughter, to comfort their child, to make up, at least for a night or two, for all the time they'd been forced to spend apart.

But that time had given her a chance to doubt him, a chance to forget that the danger they faced changed all the rules.

Releasing the b.u.t.ton and zipper of his jeans, he pushed them, along with the boxer briefs he wore, over his thighs before stepping out of them. As he straightened, his d.i.c.k clenched with painful pleasure at the slow, hungry lick of her tongue over her lips while she stared at the wide, heavy girth.

d.a.m.n her, what she did to him.

There were no words to explain to her what she made him feel. At least, no words he could come up with to express how she made his heart beat harder. How she made him actually feel his soul aching for her, aching for her pain and everything he couldn't protect her from over the past years.

There were d.a.m.ned sure no words to explain that the thought of touching her, giving her pleasure, bringing her satisfaction, made him feel ten feet tall and invincible. Or how it increased the already strong s.e.x drive he possessed.

Just the thought of her had the power to make him iron-hard, iron-hot, and ready to f.u.c.k her at any given moment.

"What the h.e.l.l do you think you're doing?" she gasped when he wrapped his fingers around the base of his erection to hold back the warning pulse of c.u.m throbbing in his b.a.l.l.s as she stroked it with her gaze.

"I'm getting ready to put all that hot female honey to use," he a.s.sured her. "It's going to wrap around my c.o.c.k, and I'll make d.a.m.ned sure you love the feel of it pumping up that tight little p.u.s.s.y."

Deliberately explicit because he knew it made her wetter, made her pretty little tummy get as tight as her snug p.u.s.s.y clenched. He knew it, because he paid attention to the slightest little detail whenever he was with her.

"The h.e.l.l you are." Hunger vied with anger and filled her expression with an edge of desperation."We need to talk first."

Crowe smiled when she faced him. A slow, antic.i.p.atory smile that a.s.sured her he was definitely going to have her.

"No, we don't." He shook his head slowly, his gaze moving once again to those tight little nipples beneath her silky robe. "I'm going to undress you, lay you down on that bed, and make you beg me to f.u.c.k you. Then I'm going to f.u.c.k you again." His voice lowered. "And I'll keep f.u.c.king you, Amelia. I'll keep making you scream out each o.r.g.a.s.m like you're going to die if you have to come again. Again and again until you by G.o.d figure out what you know, or I end up killing both of us with pleasure."

Amelia watched the smile that curled Crowe's lips and knew she was in trouble. Because she didn't have the will to tell him no if he actually touched her again.

Her gaze flicked to his erection. The sight of the jutting, heavily veined shaft had her thighs tightening in reflexive need to feel it stretching, stroking her sensitive inner flesh. The wide, hooded crest damp with pre-c.u.m, blunt and thick, forced the memory of the pleasure he gave with it, despite her attempts to still it.

"Crowe, that's enough," she ordered, trying to inject a sense of determination in her tone.

Determination in the face of his sensuality was d.a.m.ned hard, though, especially when it meant actually telling him no. Because she knew the pleasure she was denying herself, and that pleasure was something she found she was becoming addicted to.

"We're not even close to enough yet," he promised her. "Enough is when I'm buried b.a.l.l.s-deep inside you and spilling the last drop of my c.u.m into your fist-tight little p.u.s.s.y."

Oh G.o.d.

Her stomach clenched, her womb rippling in response to the s.e.xually explicit warning.

And d.a.m.n him, she could feel her juices all but dripping from her v.a.g.i.n.a. The outer lips of her p.u.s.s.y were so wet, so slick, that the excess would be dampening her thighs soon.

"Do you really think I intend to sleep with you after what you've done to my daughter?" she demanded.

"Our daughter," he reminded her, his gaze locked on her b.r.e.a.s.t.s as she backed away from him.

"Oh, so you remember that she's our daughter now? And just what brought on that illuminating discovery, Crowe?" she asked, incredulous.

Well, she tried to sound incredulous anyway. The truth was, even as she had watched the confrontation between daughter and father, she had seen the agony in Crowe's eyes. She had seen it, and even though she didn't know why he was putting distance between himself and Kimmy, she knew it wasn't because he didn't care.

What p.i.s.sed her off was the fact that he wasn't willing to discuss it with her or anyone else. And he hadn't done anything to ease Kimmy's pain until he could explain it.

And she wanted that explanation.

"Crowe, this is not going to solve anything." Other than relieving her ever-present need for him for a while. Long enough to actually sleep perhaps?

Was she really standing there talking herself into having s.e.x with him rather than walking away as she should until he trusted her with whatever was going on between him and their daughter?

"Oh, I think it will, sugar elf." He smiled back at her again.

That smile. Good Lord. It made her entire body ache to touch of him.

How was she supposed to be strong? She loved him until it hurt. Until everything inside her had screamed out for him during the years he had been gone. Her heart, her soul, her body-she ached for him, even now. She was furious with him, knowing he was holding too much back where their safety was concerned. Still, she wanted nothing more than his kiss, his touch, his possession of her- "Stop right there, Crowe Callahan," she demanded as she felt her back meet the wall, and he kept moving forward. "We are not doing this minutes after you made my daughter cry."

He snorted at that. "Our daughter wasn't crying," he informed her. "h.e.l.l no. Just like her mother she's going to wait until I get desperate enough to come begging for her forgiveness so she can bust my chops for being an a.s.shole." He smiled back at her then. "Unfortunately for you, sugar elf, that's not one of your options."

"What? Busting your chops?" She narrowed her gaze at him. "I'd bust something much lower."

Crowe grinned back at her, joy lighting his heart for the first time in days. d.a.m.n, what she did to him.

He was ready to come, just looking at her. He was so d.a.m.ned hard for her, so desperate to touch her, his fingers tingled with the need.

When her arms crossed beneath her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, plumping them even more, he swore he was going to end up taking her right there against the wall.

He'd just lift her. When he did, those pretty legs would wrap around his back and he'd just lower her on his c.o.c.k, feel the engorged length of it stretching her, filling her, until he was buried inside her to the hilt.

Yeah, he could do that.

Or on the bed. On her knees, her shoulders pressed to the blankets as he watched himself take her. Pushing in, pulling back, and watching the sweet juices as they clung to his c.o.c.k.

Or-his breathing grew rougher. He could take her in a far different way as she had her a.s.s lifted to him. He could part the soft rounded globes, tease and stroke that hidden entrance, and hear her scream with pleasure as he pressed inside her.

Narrowing her eyes on him, Amelia watched as the gold in his eyes seemed to leap and burn the longer he watched her. Beneath the glow of the small light next to the bed, she could see the pre-c.u.m bead at the head of his c.o.c.k, the heavy veins throbbing harder, pounding, her p.u.s.s.y clenching at the thought of feeling it inside her.

Her breathing accelerated.

And he was breathing just as hard as she was.

Her mouth watered to taste him; her p.u.s.s.y wept with a hunger to milk the heavy length inside her again. To feel the solid strength of him as he thrust in the thick stalk, his body braced above hers, protective and yet unable to do anything but share the adventure with her.

He couldn't have s.e.x with her without her partic.i.p.ation, yet, he could refuse to allow her to partic.i.p.ate in other parts of her own life.

"Why do you keep doing this to me?" she moaned weakly as he touched her then, his hands uncurling her fingers from her robe before he pushed the fabric slowly over her shoulders.

"Doing what, sugar elf?" he whispered, his lips going to her shoulders as her robe fluttered to the floor, his fingers moving to the slender straps of her gown. "Giving you pleasure? Keeping you hot and satisfied? Didn't we both go long enough aching for it?"

He pushed the straps of her gown over her shoulders, his fingers stroking down her arms as he tugged it over the swollen, sensitive flesh of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. She trembled at the pleasure she knew he would give her.

"Not talking to me?" she moaned, her hands lifting to his forearms, her fingers touching his flesh, stroking it as she ran them up his arms to his shoulders. "Not explaining..."

A shudder raced through her as his teeth raked over her neck.

"I'm going to explain all kinds of things to you tonight, baby," he promised. "How hard I am. How hungry you make me. How sweet your p.u.s.s.y is. How snug and hot it gets as I f.u.c.k you. And I might even explain..." His hands caressed up her side, stroking her, heating her. "... just how much I'd love f.u.c.king that pretty, curvy little a.s.s of yours."

Every muscle in her body seemed to clench as pleasure rippled from her womb, surging to her c.l.i.t then washing through the rest of her body like a sensual tidal wave.

She lost her breath, for a second.

"You're not serious," she gasped, the words tearing from her lips in a breathless little sound that came far too close to antic.i.p.ation.

One hand moved to her rear, his fingers cupping a rounded curve as he palmed it, parting the narrow cleft that separated it from its mate and causing a forbidden little pinch of sensation in the tiny opening there.

"Feel that, baby?" he whispered, his lips moving to her ear. "I'd take you there. And I'd make it so good."

His fingers slid into the narrow cleft, stroking, probing until they found the tiny rosebud hidden below. Pressing the pad of his finger against it, he caressed it, stroked it, as Amelia felt the tiny entrance clenching in response to his touch.

"You're crazy." Her voice was a helpless, needy moan.

"For you," he whispered, his kisses moving over her cheek to her parted lips. "Always for you, sugar elf."

His lips moved over hers then, rubbing against them, parting them farther. He wanted the sweet, lush taste of her, the pleasure of her tongue dancing with his, and the electricity that sang through his nerve endings as she began to give herself over to him.

As her lips parted, her tongue peeking out to meet his, a hard, desperate groan escaped his chest. He hadn't expected the sound, just as he hadn't known how much he needed her until she gave to him. Until she accepted his kiss, accepted him.

Lips moving together, melding, tongues tasting, Crowe moved one hand from her rear to her shapely waist as the other stroked to the curve of her breast. Swollen and firm, the tender flesh pressed into his hand as she arched to him. A mewling sound of pleasure and need worked through their kiss, clenching his b.a.l.l.s at the throaty little demand of it.

Shaping the plump flesh of her breast, his thumb found the hardened tip of her nipple, stroked it, loving the velvety texture as he felt sharp little nails digging into his shoulder.

Oh yeah, baby, hold on tight. Dig those little claws in because you're about to get a h.e.l.l of a ride.

When morning came she may not know why he was keeping a distance between himself and his daughter, between him and his sugar elf whenever they were outside this bedroom, but she would know it didn't have the first d.a.m.ned thing to do with not wanting her. Or not loving his child.

When morning came, she would know he'd claimed her. That they were branded into each other's souls. h.e.l.l, they'd done that seven years ago.

Tomorrow morning Amelia wouldn't consider anything that would jeopardize the loss of his touch, he promised himself. She wouldn't doubt his hunger for her, his need for her. Or his dedication to her.

And she would know to the bottom of her soul that no matter how it may appear, nothing, no one would matter more than her and their child.

Just as she would know he would do whatever it took to keep her safe.

CHAPTER 25.

Nipping at her plump, kiss-swollen lips, Crowe let his kisses move along her chin, her cheek, then begin a slow, sensual glide to the uplifted peaks of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Her head tilted back against the wall, her breath rushing hard and heavy from her lips as he sc.r.a.ped his teeth over the sensitive column then tasted it with flicks of his tongue. Every kiss, every taste of her flesh intoxicated him further, just as it pulled her deeper within the sensual fog he could feel overtaking her.

Amelia could feel it. Those dazed, body-humming sensations that rose from the pit of her womb, swept through her belly, then began radiating outward and overtaking her. It was like fingers of electricity traveling beneath her flesh, flicking against her nipples, her c.l.i.toris, and overriding any sense of self-preservation she may have actually possessed.

Nothing mattered but this.

Weakened by the surge of sensual la.s.situde filling her, her knees began to buckle, but she didn't have to worry about that. Crowe swept her into his arms, cradled her against his chest, and moved for the bed.

Laying her in the middle of the mattress, he didn't give her time to think, or time to consider. He wasn't about to give her a chance to protest.

Not that protesting even entered her mind once he'd touched her.

Watching through pa.s.sion-heavy lashes Amelia licked her lips, her fingers curling in the sheets beneath her as she glanced once again at the hard, heavy length of his c.o.c.k.

Engorged and dark, the mushroomed crest throbbed, a bead of warmth shimmering at the centered slit before he gripped the flesh and stroked his hand down it.