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  Now that he was out of the city, he didn't know what to do next. Every time he had come up here, it had only been for rides.

  Emmy squeezed him tighter. "Turn left," she called.

  A small smile twisted the corner of J.'s mouth. "Yes ma'am," he called over his shoulder. Merging back onto the quiet country road, he took the turn ahead a half a mile. "Now where?" he shouted.

  "Ahead on the right. About two miles, I think. I'll let you know."

  It wasn't until he saw the sign that J. smiled fully. "A bed and breakfast? You're taking me to a bed and breakfast?"

  "You took me," she called back as they pulled up to the white stone building.

  The stately old white building stood on top of a low hill, a graceful, sweeping lawn spread out in front like an emerald green welcome mat. Emmy jumped from her perch behind him, wobbling slightly from the vibrations before recovering quickly. "Come on."

  He shook his head. "I don't have any money."

  She waggled her purse at him. "I do."

  She smiled so widely, so eagerly, that he swallowed his pride and followed her into the overly-fussy main floor. Emmy bustled ahead of him, full of purpose, calling for the owner while he hung back. He tried to push down the annoyance that flickered to life. What was she doing? What was she up to? He felt exposed, his black skin and black leathers forever marking him as an outsider.

  They hadn't ridden far enough or fast enough for him to outrun the anger over what had just happened. His safe place, his home, it had been violated, and what was worse was that his mentor, the man he looked up to more than his own father, had invited that violation to their front door.

  The red threatened to cloud his sight. He balled his fists and counted to ten, but nothing could slow the pounding of his heart.

  Until he focused on Emmy.

  She was swinging her blonde hair, laughing with her raspberry lips stretched wide in an eager smile. She shot a look over her shoulder and gave him a thumbs up. "They had a cancellation!" she called back to him. "We're lucky!"

  Unsure of what to do with his hands, he jammed them in the pockets of his jeans. She made him feel like an awkward teenager. His heart started racing for a different reason as his eyes wandered hungrily along her soft curves.

  She finished signing them in and walked to him, jingling the room keys in triumph. "The Treasure Room. I have no idea what that means, but it's ours!" She hopped slightly, her eyes alight, and took his hand. "It's upstairs," she informed him, leading the way through the knick-knack stuffed hallway and up the pinewood stairs.

  He resisted the urge to grab her as they ascended the staircase.

  But when they reached the doorway he could resist no longer. Wrapping his arms around her from behind, he pressed himself hungrily against her as she fiddled with the key.

  "You saved me back there," he rasped, slipping his hands underneath her shirt to caress the soft skin of her belly. "I owe you."

  She leaned back into him, lifting her arms to pull his head down to her level. "You saved me," she murmured into his ear and the puff of warm breath against his lobe sent a shiver straight down to his core. His need rose with frantic urgency and he slammed the door open in haste.

  He walked her into the room, not letting her go, pushing her closer and closer to the four poster bed that dominated the small, antique strewn bedroom. "I heard you tell them you were my girl," he continued. They bumped into the bed and he turned her to face him.

  "Am I?" Her eyes were alight with a different kind of excitement.

  He pushed her lightly backwards and she landed on the bed with her arms flung out. Her blonde hair pooled in a halo around her head. He had never seen anything so beautiful.

  "Yeah," he choked. "You're my girl."

  Chapter 28

  Emmy

  His lips crashed into mine, robbing me of my breath and my ability to speak. Then just as quickly he pulled back up to stand above me. I watched him watch me, devouring me with his eyes. The wonder and desire in them was something I had never seen before.

  He reached for the waistband of my jeans. In two tugs he had them down over my hips. I lifted them obligingly, though my breath caught in my throat. I waited for him to strip down and take me.

  Instead he knelt at the side of the bed and pulled me closer. "Wait," I gasped as I felt his breath on my thigh.

  He looked up expectantly, but he didn't move away. My heart thudded in my ears and I felt flames against my cheeks. "I'm not, I'm not used to that."

  His lopsided grin nearly knocked me backwards. "Then baby girl, you're gonna have to get used to it."

  I sucked in my breath as he shimmied my panties down. I squeezed my eyes shut, unwilling to see him kneel down there; his head nestled between my thighs. I felt him there instead as he traced a line of kisses up the path of my inner thigh, closer and closer. I gripped the sheets, frozen in place.

  Then I felt his cool breath as it met the moist heat of my center. I bit my lip, expecting the pain to flare to life. But he seemed to know my exact limit. I gasped when his tongue parted my folds, finding that place, tasting me tentatively. Each little lick melted me further. He moved slowly, at first, letting me relax into a rhythm. I,felt the answering downward rush as his tongue coaxed small cries from my lips. Boldly, I put my hands on his head, telling him exactly where to stay. He grinned up at me from between my legs, his dimple shining wetly.

  "That's it," he smiled.

  "Come up here," I begged, cupping his face.

  He dove for me with a wicked grin that made me laugh until his lips covered mine. When I tasted myself on his tongue, my cheeks flamed in embarrassment, but the flame in my belly snuffed it out. I snaked my hand up his chest, tugging at his shirt. He ripped it off and my lips tasted the smoothness of his skin. His fingers found the clasp of my bra. Yanking my shirt over my head, I allowed him to fling it away, exposing my pink nipples to his waiting mouth. When his tongue curled around the tender peak, I moaned long and low.

  "I want you," I grimaced, squirming as his tongue sent hot sparks down my spine.

  He exhaled forcefully. "Fuck, I've wanted you since I saw you in that bar," he groaned.

  His fingers found my sensitive folds again and began dancing skillfully. I arched to meet him, forgetting myself as my hand closed around the hardened bulge of his need.

  "When I didn't think I could have you..." his lips trailed down the center of my belly, each touch searing my flesh anew. "Fuck," he finished, unable to speak anymore once his tongue found my center.

  I cried out again, yearning and desperate, but his tongue showed me no mercy. My hands sought and found that bulge again. Somehow my clumsy fingers were able to free the object of my desire and began to move up and down the length of him. His breath hitched and he lost the rhythm of his tongue. I grinned at my power. He pressed his hips forward, moving in my hand, and I shimmied myself forward.

  He stood up and I lifted my hips to meet his, wrapping my legs around his waist to pull him inside of me. He slid in almost by accident, and I gasped at the sudden fullness.

  He pulled back. "Are you okay?" he asked, concern creasing his brow.

  My heart sang. I lifted myself to meet his lips, smelling myself on him.

  "Don't stop," I whispered. He growled in return, thrusting deep inside of me, and our bodies began to move as one. With each thrust, he kissed me again and again, his hands everywhere at once.

  "J.!" I cried, burying my face into his neck and clutching him to me. His hard, muscled chest crushed me beneath its weight, choking the cries of ecstasy his skillful hips elicited. The escalating pressure suddenly broke free and I shook like a leaf from the uncontrollable spasms of my very first orgasm. The shock sent my eyes flying open in surprise and I burst out laughing in relief and delight.

  He paused to look at me beneath him, his brow furrowed as peals of laughter shook from me even as tears gathered in my eyes. "Emmy?"

  How could I explain? How could I tell him that this w
as the first time this was good? How could I make him understand how much his he had fixed with only his touch and attention? What would make him understand the significance of what he had just done?

  Speak your truth, his voice inside my head spoke clearly. So I did. "I've never done that before. From sex." I lifted my lips to his, "You're the first time this has been good for me."

  My words seem to light a spark behind his eyes.

  "It can be even better," he growled. He snaked his hands under me and rolled over on the bed so that I was on top of him. I looked down at my soft body above his hardened physique, my white skin against his dark, and for once in my life I only saw beauty.

  He saw it too. He closed his huge hands around my breasts, then smoothed them down the curve of my waist to rest on my hips. "Move for me, baby girl," he panted.

  It was a new sensation to be in control. I swirled my hips above him, feeling him everywhere inside of me. Rocking forward, I felt the delicious pressure against my nub. I wanted more.

  "That's it," he hissed, moving beneath me. I closed my eyes, blind to anything but the building sensations that swirled around and around my body. He surged upward, wrapping me in his arms and pulling me down to him. "That's it," he moaned in my ear. I screamed as I broke open again, his breath on my earlobe sending me back over the edge, a gentler ride this time. I clung to him, holding him close to me, savoring the merging of our bodies.

  I could feel the twitching of his thigh muscles. "Emmy, I'm going to..." he warned, but I held him in place.

  "Go," I whispered, not caring about anything else but the pleasure on his face. He bent his head to my neck, burying his face into my hair, and groaned out his release, a low sound in my ear that vibrated my whole body like a plucked guitar string.

  I don't know how long we lay there. It was at least as long as it took for our breath to slow and steady and sync up. His heart beat against my chest, slowing and slowing into a strong, steady beat that matched my own. He rolled me the side and we lay there looking at the ceiling, not saying a word.

  "J.?" I rolled over to him and looked at him. I had never seen his face so relaxed before. It was like seeing him for the first time. I turned my face upward and looked at his cheek. His beard was coming in, the dark hairs gleaming in the shaft of angled light from the window. The sun was setting on this day.

  "Emmy," he breathed, and for him it wasn't a question. He closed his eyes, his mouth twitching.

  "Hold me J.?" I asked him. "Come under the covers and hold your girl."

  When I settled against his chest, his breath was already coming smooth and regular as I adjusted the blankets. I traced the swirls and spirals of the stubble along his jaw as my man slowly fell asleep.

  Chapter 29

  Emmy

  I didn't know it could be this easy.

  Six months in Robert's clutches had trained me to fear. When I woke up in J.'s arms, my head pillowed in the crook of his arm, my heart leapt into my throat on instinct. I didn't know whose strong arms were holding me cradled and close for one terrifying second.

  Then I saw those eyes, the tiny emerald shards gleaming at me as he sleepily smiled, "Good morning."

  I placed my hand on his chest. The warmth of his skin melted my fears. "Are you real?" I whispered, still confused.

  When his lips brushed my forehead, I knew I wasn't hallucinating. "I could ask you the same thing, baby girl." His voice was low and husky, rumbling through my body as I snuggled closer. I flung my leg up over his, wanting to draw myself nearer and nearer. If I could, I would have climbed inside of him.

  Instead my knee brushed lightly in between his legs. I felt a stirring there that made me grin. "Is that real too?" I giggled, closing my fist around it.

  He closed his eyes, his lips parted in a gasp. "Yeah, that's definitely real," he moaned as I started moving my hand.

  I was suddenly seized with a delicious shiver of naughtiness. I threw the covers back to expose his naked body. "Damn, put that back!" he shivered.

  "Wait!" I smiled as I shimmied myself down in between his legs. I kissed the point where his thigh met his groin, inhaling the scent of him. Then I flopped the covers back over myself.

  He lifted them and peeked at me with lifted eyebrows. Then his eyes widened as I closed my mouth around him, flicking my tongue over his rigidity. He lost the ability to hold up the covers and I was plunged into the warm darkness. I felt naughty and powerful, and the feeling inflamed me. I moved up and down the length of him, delighting in each gasp and moan that my tongue drew from his lips. The feeling of him in my mouth, the knowledge that I was in complete control of his pleasure made me moan myself. I snaked a hand down in between my own legs, moving my own fingers in time with my strokes.

  Slow pressure began to build under my own dancing fingers, and I moved faster and faster. I reached the peak of my own pleasure just as his hips began to jerk and spasm. He thrust himself deep inside me, burying himself in my throat just as I cried out my own pleasure around him. I sagged against his thigh as he twitched and sighed out the last spasms of his release. Snuggling down into safe, warm darkness, I nuzzled his smooth skin.

  "Can you breath down there?" came the muffled call from outside the blankets.

  "Barely," I acknowledged. "But I don't want to come out."

  "Then I'm coming in with you."

  He lifted the blankets over his head. "Stop! You're letting in the cold!" I squeaked.

  He pulled them shut and we were enveloped in the dark cocoon together. "I'll warm you back up," he murmured, folding me back into his arms.

  He tilted my chin up to kiss me. "Wait, my breath!" I covered my mouth with my hand, the taste of him still on my tongue.

  "If you think I give a shit about that," he growled. But he didn't finish his sentence, choosing instead to bruise my lips with his.

  We rolled around under the covers, twisting and coiling ourselves in the comforter. His fingers found the slippery depths of my center.

  "I give a shit about this," he said, already drawing out those small cries from my lips. I smothered them against the covers, surrendering myself to the skill of his fingers. Coiled up in my cocoon, I had nowhere to go to escape his tongue when it met my buzzing nub, and I had nothing to distract me from the mounting waves of pleasure that built up and up inside of me. And there was nowhere to go except straight back down from the peak, the waves crashing and breaking over and over until I finally shuddered and was still.

  I reached for him blindly. "Kiss me again," I whispered.

  "I want to, babe," came the muffled reply. "But I'm suffocating to death."

  I laughed as we fought and struggled to free ourselves from our downy cocoon. I squinted in the bright light of the room and J. coughed and gasped in mock relief at the cool air.

  I blinked in confusion at the room around us. The whole room was done up in white and gold. The four poster bed was gleaming brass, the downy comforter was bright, gleaming white.

  "The Treasure Room, I repeated, taking in the ship's wheel on the wall and the faux treasure chest against window. "I totally didn't notice this last night."

  J. sat up on the bed and stretched, his taut muscles rippling in the morning light. "I didn't notice most of anything last night either," he agreed. "It's cute."

  I suppressed a smile. "Did my big, bad biker just call something 'cute?'"

  "Hey, I call 'em like I see 'em." He grinned down at me as I lay on the bed. "You're pretty cute."

  I felt suddenly shy. "Am I?"

  A mischievous glint made the emerald in his eyes gleam as brightly as the bed. "Yeah. I like how you blend in with the bed."

  I looked at my pale skin against the stark white of the comforter. "Asshole," I laughed, smacking him. "Yes I know. I'm translucent."

  "You're gorgeous," he smiled, running his finger along my belly. I shivered under his touch, my body responding to him so quickly my head spun. This time it was slow and deliberate. He kept his eyes locked on mine as he m
oved above me, our bodies locked together. I melted down to a pinpoint in his embrace, and when there was nothing left of me, he called my name and we crashed over the edge together for the second time that morning.

  I lay there panting, staring at the ceiling, no thoughts in my head but that I could stay here forever. But as my breath slowed I became aware of another sensation besides pleasure. My stomach growled long and loudly.

  J. turned and buried his head in the covers, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter. I felt my cheeks flame with embarrassment until I heard the same low noise rumble from his side of the bed.

  "Oh hell, they're talking to each other," J. laughed again. "Burning too many calories this morning."

  "But I don't want to get up," I protested.

  "Yeah, and I don't want you to put on clothes," he replied, cupping my breasts possessively.

  I rolled over and kissed him. "Let's make it quick and get back here as soon as we can."

  Chapter 30

  J.

  The Treasure Room had become J.'s world.

  Waking up to Emmy in his arms that first morning had been like living inside his dreams. And each subsequent morning was even more unbelievable.

  J. was starting to understand what happiness actually was.

  They had spent the first day together exploring the countryside on J.'s bike. They found a diner outside of the main drag and ate there for every meal. J. found he could spend an entire meal just watching Emmy devour her food with gusto, her frank enjoyment making him grin like a fool. He found he could ride contentedly for hours, looking where she pointed, turning where she indicated, just following her lead.

  One of the phrases they had drilled into him in anger management classes had been, "Live in the now." An empty catchphrase that had no meaning other than hippie, feel-good bullshit. Until that very moment.

  With Emmy he finally understood. Nothing else mattered but being with her. The past and its demons, the future and its worries, all of it fell away when he saw her laugh when they discovered a waterfall along the side of the highway. He had held her hand as they picked their way to the top of the cliff and found themselves on a plateau overlooking the Delaware Valley, the only people for miles around.