Hard Rider

“Don’t fight it,” he muttered against my ear. I answered with a gasp and he dipped his thumb down near his cock, gathering more of my lust to smear across my clit. “Just let go, baby. Let go for me. It’ll be all right.”

I knew it would be. And yet some part of me was scared. Scared that if I let down my guard, my stepbrother would hurt me again. Abandon me. I couldn’t bear to watch him walk away again.

As if he knew exactly what I was thinking, Gunner groaned into my neck, “It’s okay. I’m not going anywhere, Tanya. Just let go. Cum for me, my sweet, beautiful...”

I couldn’t fight it anymore. Couldn’t fight him anymore. It was all too good. Too perfect. Too much.

With a shuddering breath that swelled into a cry, I ceded control to my stepbrother—to the one man I told myself I’d never let get close to me again.

And then I came around his cock, a flood of rapture that spread through my every limb, igniting my soul.

I burned for Gunner. I flat-out immolated. I clawed and bit, kicked and flailed, sang his praises at the tops of my lungs. Through it all he held me still, humming a low chuckle in my ear, one that spurred my pleasure all the more with the vibration of his dulcet tones.

“That’s my girl.”

He drove me wild. Insane. Pushed me to the brink of beautiful despair and then made me surrender. I was nothing and everything all at once. I was a goddess beneath him, ruler of ecstasy, worshipped by his lips, his tongue, his fingers, his arms...

“I need to let go, too,” Gunner told me, exhaling a sweltering breath again my hair. I felt the tide of his dick swell up inside me, the dam that held back the pinnacle of his desire threatening to burst. “God, you’re so perfect. I can’t...”

“Cum with me,” I begged him. “Please, Gunner. Cum...”

For the first time in his life, the sweet bastard obeyed me.

Gunner pressed his forehead to mine, crying out as his orgasm overtook him. I felt that shudder run from his toes up his spine, finally culminating in his shoulders and biceps. He squeezed me tightly and dropped his face to my chest, eyes shut tight, burying himself inside of me until there was nothing left for him to give. I felt those hot torrents of his desire stream into me, filling me to the brim with his essence—his soul.

I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. Neither of us could. We just wrapped around each other, naked and wet, and floated into oblivion—together.

Chapter 15

Gunner

I sat up in bed I’d made love to my stepsister in, watching her curl up against me in the soft, cotton sheets. I couldn’t remember ever being so satisfied after having sex—not with anyone before her.

That thought weighed on me as I sat there in the quiet of the late evening, the lights dimmed down throughout our entire suite. Everything seemed so calm, so peaceful, even though I felt like something should feel utterly wrong after what I’d just done. I felt like someone should have burst through the door and pointed an accusing finger at me, declaring my shame—but there was nothing. Everything seemed right with the world.

I watched the lines of her body shift as she squirmed underneath the sheets. I felt her hand brush over my hip ever so softly before she turned over, facing away.

I never would have thought for a moment back when we were younger that we’d end up here, sharing a bed together, making love. There were times back in those days where I wished she’d just disappear. But no, I’d been the one who disappeared—leaving her all alone with that monster of a father. My father.

I breathed a sigh, eyes closed as I thought about what we had done. I hadn’t used a condom. I’d taken her virginity and I’d done so much more… I turned in place, opening my eyes and staring at her beautiful figure. She was so calm… I hoped she was dreaming of comforting things.

Shit, I thought with a little, self-indulgent smile, maybe she’s dreaming of me.

I’d run away once, and now she was the only family I had left—the only person in my life I could say that I held any love for in all the world. She wasn’t some booty call or bar girl. Tanya was the only one who would be worth protecting—and I knew that I had to keep her safe, no matter what it took.

“No one’s going to hurt you, Tanya,” I whispered as I lay back down beside her. I stroked her hair away from her face and she gave a little grumble, but leaned into my palm. “I’m going to make sure that bastard doesn’t ever hurt you again. I promise.”

I wanted to say one more thing. I wanted to say I love you. I’d said it before. Just not like this.

When it came to things like this, I’d never said it to anyone. How in the hell could I find it in me to start now?

Chapter 16

Tanya

“I’m sorry, baby. I gotta go.”

Sleep was still in my eyes when Gunner woke me, and my whole body was sore. Not sore in a bad way. Just aching all over. And I had sex hair. I smiled sleepily at that.

Shit. Last night, I fucked my stepbrother.

Was I supposed to feel bad about that? I was sure I was. But I didn’t. Every part of me was humming, singing hallelujah. I felt alive in a way I never had before. And lighter, too, like Gunner’s cock had fucked away every ounce of anger and misery and hatred inside of me.

All that darkness, all that black, sickly shit. Gone. Just like that. All because I’d let myself fall into my stepbrother’s arms.

“Where’re you going?” I asked him, and he replied with a heavy sigh.

“Duty calls.”

“You said you were taking a vacation!” I protested.

“I’m meeting with the Detective. I want to see what they’ve come up with… Maybe I can help. We need to find this guy and get him off the streets.”

I could see his silhouette via the moonlight streaming in through the hotel drapes. He looked like one of those Greek statues, all hard, smooth planes cast from the finest marble. His eyes glittered, and I watched them trail over me, half-covered in the sheets. His teeth gleamed like pearls when he smiled.

Damn. That smile.

“Let me hold you before you go,” I said, and with a soft chuckle, Gunner obliged me. He came to my side of the bed wearing only his jeans and I wrapped my arms around him, nuzzling into his Adonis lines.

Gunner smelled like cookies and milk. Like fresh-baked bread and lazy summer days. He smelled like the childhood I’d lost when my mother died. And he smelled like sex, dark and deep, a current of spices and musk and man that made my stomach turn to butterflies.

Gunner smelled like home.

“I’ll be back soon, baby,” he whispered in the dark. I dipped my head just a little lower, using my teeth to pull at his jeans, and he laughed again, so melodic. Like a symphony. “We can do more of this when I get back. Wait for me.”

“Fine,” I sighed, looking up into his eyes. I could’ve gotten lost in them forever. “I’ll wait.”

Gunner slipped a finger beneath my chin and leaned close to me. “I mean it, baby. Wait. I want you aching for me while I’m gone.”

He placed a long, tender kiss on my lips, one that set my heart on fire all over again. I tried to cling to him but easily disengaged, setting my hands in my lap. He smiled.

“If you’re a good girl, I’ll make it worth your while when I get back,” he promised me.

I grunted and threw myself onto the bed, pouting as I watched him go. As he slipped on his shirt and ran his fingers through his hair in the bedroom mirror, my stepbrother never lost that cocky smirk on his face. He met my gaze in the reflection for just a moment, and his smirk softened, became something different.

If I didn’t know my stepbrother better, I’d have said it was a look of longing. Of love.

Then he headed to the door, slinging his jacket over his shoulder like a modern-day James Dean. The swagger in his step wasn’t lost on me. He was basking in the afterglow of our lovemaking just as much as I was.

I buried my face in his pillow and took a big whiff of his scent. Our scent. The f

ragrance of our sex was all over the bed, woven right into the sheets. No matter how many times the cleaning staff washed them, I knew it was never coming off. I wondered if I could take them home with me like some sort of souvenir, evidence of the way Gunner had fucked me last night. My stepbrother was a god.

Right now, though, he was an absent one.

I sighed and stroked his side of the bed. It was already growing cold, the little hollow he’d slept in slowly rising into form again. I knew he’d be back soon. I trusted him. But there was a part of me that felt like every time he turned away, it would be the last I ever saw of him.

Tucking the sheets between my knees, I let sleep take me then. With the bundle between my thighs and the pillow beneath my head, I could almost fool myself into believing that Gunner was still in bed, my head on his chest, his arm wrapped around me. The only thing missing was the beating of his heart, that soft lullaby that had put me to sleep the first time around, and the only thing I wanted to hear before bed from now until forever.

I missed him already.

I was going to go crazy sitting here like this. I grabbed my cellphone.

Heya, Chel.

Chelsea didn’t respond right away and I grumbled, sinking into the couch cushions in nothing but a tank top and sweat pants. It was a lazy day for me. I had nowhere to go, no one to talk to, and no one to look nice for. Gunner was working and Chelsea was probably still sleeping. The only thing I could find on TV were daytime soaps, and now that I’d finished the brunch room service had brought up, I was going nuts.

I looked at the clock. How long would Gunner be gone?

My phone buzzed against my hip and I grabbed at it excitedly. Finally, Chel had texted me back.

SWEETS! where r u?????