Wounded Hearts: Men in Blue, Book 5 Read online

  “I think more of you by the second.” He took her hand and slid it to his mouth so he could press a soft kiss on her palm. “And I started with an extremely high opinion.”

  “Thank you,” she murmured. Then as if they both needed a break from the seriousness, she smiled.

  The full impact of her happiness stunned him, so he didn’t react fast enough when she said, “And I can’t wait to see how this improves your estimation.”

  She moved fast, considering her hands had plunged back under the water.

  Abandoning her massage of his leg, she moved a couple of inches to her right. Her fingers encircled his cock instead. The top of his head nearly blew off as she spiked his blood pressure with a single light caress.

  “E?” The question was strangled.

  “Shh.” She silenced him with another chaste kiss at odds with her skilled grip. Her hand fisted him and began an entirely different sort of rubdown.

  Lucas should have stopped her.

  His voice refused to cooperate with his brain’s instruction to tell her not to stroke him so fucking well. By the time she’d reached lower with her other hand to cup his balls, he had forgotten entirely about doing the right thing.

  Instead, all he cared about was releasing the flood of lust she’d inspired in him for the better part of a year. Simply by being.

  Every story his friends had told him of what she was up to had increased his longing to blockbuster proportions, as he was sure they’d intended.

  “You know, Lucas, there is something of yours I want to lick.” She turned coy, showing him an entirely new side of her. One that he couldn’t resist. “Sometime when it wouldn’t mean drowning in the process.”

  “How can you, after what those assholes did to you tonight? And before?” He winced. “I never want to make you uncomfortable or scared. We don’t have to do that.”

  “It’s not the same thing at all. Do you really think it is?” She paused and looked away. “Unless it bothers you. The things I’ve had to do…”

  It would be easy to prove to her that he loved every second of what she was doing. As soon as he was sure he wouldn’t cause her any additional harm. “E, no. That’s not it.”

  “If I scratched off every act I’ve been forced to perform from my list of things I enjoy, there’d be nothing left. It’s like the difference between running from my house tonight and going for a jog on a pleasant spring day.”

  “Well, shit.” If she put it that way…

  “Can we not talk about this right now, Lucas?” She redoubled her attention in a very successful attempt at distracting him. “I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing right now. Is it what you want too?”

  He couldn’t keep up with what she was saying. All he needed was more of her rhythmic pumping. So he lifted his hips, fucking into her hold.

  “You like that?” She knew damn well he did, but her satisfied smirk made him enjoy her ministrations even more.

  “Hell yeah.” His jutting cock had to be proof enough. The intuitive accuracy of her handling, doing exactly what felt best, kept diverting blood flow, making him feel huge and heavy, compared to her delicate grip.

  With other partners, he could have lasted like this forever.

  Something about Ellie’s intimate contact had him riled in an instant. She didn’t boost his stamina when she leaned in and tasted his neck with a combination of licks, sucks and glancing rakes of her teeth. Direct hits on one of his most sensitive areas, as if she had a user manual for his body.

  Lucas kept his hands where they were, practically drilling holes in the tub. Afraid to bury his fingers in her hair or trap her to him in any way, he allowed her to play with him however she liked. When he bent his knees and put his sole on the tub floor for better footing, he tipped slightly to one side.

  It caught him at the oddest moments, probably because he had his brain completely switched off as instincts took over. Refusing to let his momentary lapse steal his enjoyment, he concentrated on Ellie and the bliss her touch brought him.

  Except that had him rushing toward orgasm entirely too fast.

  Her fingers bumped the ridge made by his engorged head while the water swirled over his sensitive tip and his balls, which drew closer to his core with every pass of her hand over his straining shaft.

  When she added a flick of her thumb to the underside of his cock at the apex of each stroke, he knew it wasn’t going to be long before she made him come. Hard.

  “E,” he warned.

  Instead of slowing or drawing away, she began to pump him in earnest, making it clear what she desired from him. And he was perfectly happy to oblige.

  Lucas opened his eyes and stared at her, watching her breasts bounce as she worked him beneath the surface of the bathwater. Ellie bit her lip as if she focused on making her strokes as smooth and languid as possible while increasing the pace of her jacking.

  When she approached again, this time to take one of his nipples gently between her teeth, he couldn’t resist another second. He growled her name then quit resisting the rapture she brought him. He surrendered to the inevitable tingle building at the base of his shaft.

  In a rush, his orgasm crashed over him. His cock jerked in Ellie’s hold as streams of come launched from his body. Though he couldn’t see them, he knew she’d milked him dry because he could feel the pleasure zinging through every molecule of his body, lighting a fire for her that wouldn’t easily be snuffed.

  When he sagged, completely relaxed, she gave him one final tug.

  “Next time I want to see you shoot. With an orgasm that powerful, it probably was an impressive display,” she purred. It shouldn’t have shocked him that she was so organic and open in how she dealt with pleasure, yet it did. He’d always thought of her as innocent despite the unwilling experience he knew she had.

  Her frank admission had his cock twitching already.

  Ellie started to stand, a proud grin gracing her adorable face.

  Oh no. He wasn’t about to be the only one utterly wrecked.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” He put his hands on her waist and lifted, shoving her against the wall. All that weightlifting was finally paying off. Not that her slender body was a burden, but his enhanced strength helped him keep his balance as he situated her.

  To her credit, she didn’t freeze. Instead, she perched on the edge of the tub, with her shoulders resting on the tile, and spread her legs, welcoming him between them.

  Lucas could smell her arousal—sweet and somewhat sharp. Just like her.

  He longed to bury his face in her folds and devour her. But he didn’t. For now, this first time he touched her, maybe the only time, he had to see her face. Make sure she wasn’t getting lost in the shadows of her memories while he—hopefully—delivered pleasure instead of terror.

  It was critical that he got this right.

  So he held her waist in one hand as he eased his other between her thighs. With his good foot planted on the bottom of the tub and his knee steadying him from behind, he wobbled a little. But their connection kept him upright.

  At the first glance of his fingertip against her labia, she shivered. Not in fear, either, if her encouraging moan was any indication. “I didn’t tease you, Lucas. Don’t make me wait. It’s been long enough.”

  He stared at her in awe. How could she be so resilient, so willing to have faith in his abilities and his ultimate goodness? The latter of which he figured she’d highly overestimated.

  It was only because he cared so much for her and her long-term well-being that he abstained from taking her right then and there. Lucas settled for slipping his fingers through the slickness of her arousal before nudging against her tight opening.

  When her body yielded to him, little by little, his fingers sank into her hungry pussy.

  She clamped around him, already drawing o
n his digits with rhythmic pulls that made him feel better about coming so quickly in her grasp earlier.

  Ellie moaned. She opened her eyes, stared straight at him and commanded, “Rub my clit, Lucas. Don’t fool around. Make me come. Please. Touching you, watching you, turns me on so much.”

  “Shit yes,” he growled as everything unnecessary melted away.

  For a brief moment, they were just a guy and a super-sexy girl getting it on, like he’d done so many times before. Looking for quick, hard relief. Except this time was like fucking in the middle of a lightning storm, even though all he had inside her was a couple of lousy fingers.

  Their energy neutralized his worry, doubt and…anger.

  Temporarily, he felt free of every burden.

  It was as if he could run unfettered again.

  Or at least it seemed that way.

  Lucas aimed his elation at Ellie. He tried to refund to her even a portion of the ecstasy she’d granted him. Not only when she’d jerked him off, but also when she’d acted as an antidote for his lingering depression, granting him a much-needed respite.

  She was the best medicine he could have hoped for.

  So he complied with her wishes, even though he would have liked to drag out their exchange indefinitely.

  He tested several different motions until he found one that drove her wild. When he flicked his thumb over her clit while drilling his fingers into her, her thighs began to tremble around him. With one hand, she reached up and cupped her own breast, surprising him with the amount of force she used to stimulate the berry-colored nipple.

  He’d have to remember that for later. If there was ever another time he allowed himself to live this dangerously—and risk them both crashing and burning when things didn’t go as planned.

  Damn, she practically squeezed his fingers from her undulating sheath when she clenched on him that time. It would feel amazing if she did that to his dick.

  Willing himself not to get fully hard again, he dedicated himself to bringing her to climax.

  It didn’t take long.

  Ellie screamed, her eyes flying open and her fingers tangling in his hair. Then she shattered.

  Her arousal drenched his hand, making him glide easier in between the clamping of her muscles, which nearly froze him solid within her.

  An unnatural, feverish glaze came over Ellie’s eyes. She became animalistic, roaring her completion in a way that would have been unbelievably hot if it had been a product of regular arousal. Though it was the first time he was seeing the reaction firsthand, he’d seen plenty of similar responses on the tapes they’d lifted from Morselli’s dungeon.

  His heart stopped in his chest. Would she be okay? Was this her new normal?

  It should have occurred to him sooner. The discussions he’d had with JRad about how, even now, Lily sometimes had reactions during sex that were influenced by the one time she’d taken Sex Offender. It changed something permanently within the people who’d been cast under its spell.

  If it did that to Lily after a single dose, what would it do to Ellie, who’d taken more than just about any other still-living person on the planet?

  Unsure of how to react, Lucas retreated. He kept her from falling, but stopped touching her otherwise, making her descent from her orgasm sharp and unsupported.

  “Lucas?” She called for him, confused.

  “I’ve got you,” he promised.

  He simply didn’t know what to do with her.

  What was the right thing?

  It might be too late for him to do that. He should have talked to her about this first. Maybe to Jambrea or Lacey, to find out what the medical repercussions might be. Shit, he’d gotten carried away and done exactly what he shouldn’t.

  Lucas pushed himself up onto the opposite end of the tub, sitting on the side near the bath mat, leaving Ellie to recover once she could sit up on her own.

  The bathwater had grown chilly. It was time to face reality and the consequences of what they’d done.

  Ellie mimicked him, heading for the exit. He steadied her until she climbed out of the tub on her own. But when she realized he didn’t plan to follow right behind like a dog in heat, her face fell.

  “Wow. I think I missed something. What just happened?”

  “We got each other off.” He played dumb.

  “I thought that was the opening act, not the whole show.” She snagged a fresh towel off his rack and wrapped it around her, hiding her spectacular body from his view. “Why are you stopping? You can’t possibly have had enough, after how long we waited for that. Did you?”

  “It’s probably best if we get some sleep, don’t you think?” Lucas exaggerated his yawn.

  Couldn’t she feel the effect the drug still had on her? Was it wrong of him to touch her now? He would never take advantage of what those monsters had done to her. The only way he could avoid it was to let her go until he could be sure she was thinking rationally.

  “I don’t know when the Men in Blue will call back with info, but when they do, we may not have a lot of time before we need to act on it.”

  She put her hands on her hips. “Don’t act like this is a necessary sacrifice. Or for my own good. I know what’s best for me. It involves you and me and doing more of what we just tried.”

  “Things have been insane today…er…yesterday, E.” He knew it was a lame excuse, but he wanted to give them time to adjust. And her the chance to come to her senses if she wanted to, or needed to. “I don’t think we should rush anything.”

  “If we went any slower, we’d be going backwards.”

  She stared at him until he angled his torso away from her and drew clean water to douse his liner. He slathered it in Hibiclens to inhibit bacteria growth then took extra time rinsing it.

  She seemed to get the point.

  He’d tapped out for now.

  “Have it your way, then.” A huff came before she pivoted to exit the bathroom. “But I’m taking your bed. Have fun on the couch.”

  Ellie grumbled beneath her breath about stubborn bastards, making him grin as he finished his routine. She stomped down the stairs, though he wasn’t worried she was going very far nude. The lock flipped on his front door before she returned. The sound of a pillow being fluffed reached his straining ears.

  “Sweet dreams,” he whispered too softly for her to hear.

  Then he took forever tidying the bathroom before settling in for a long, freezing shower.

  Chapter Eight

  Ellie thrashed on the cement floor of her cell without a thought about the bruises she’d leave behind on her elbows or her legs or even down her spine, since she’d gotten downright bony lately. They didn’t feed her much here, despite how ravenous she always was. A side effect of Sex Offender, she thought, though her logic was still fuzzy from the last dose they’d given her.

  The men who paid Morselli to rent her drug-crazed body wouldn’t appreciate the marks on her ivory skin. At least not ones they hadn’t put there themselves. Or ones she gave herself when fucking them like a madwoman. She wondered how much more of this her body could withstand before her heart detonated in her chest.

  “Don’t be a pain in my ass,” the guard grumbled as he tried to quash her flailing so he could administer another dose.

  “Take that shit yourself and you’ll bend over and ask for it. Even from a guy with an elephant dick. Especially from someone like that, though you won’t find many around here.” She spit at him. “You’ll welcome anything that gives you a moment of relief, including getting fucked up that flabby, glow-in-the-dark butt of yours, long after you’ve started to bleed. Doesn’t that sound like fun? No? Then quit forcing me to do it, you disgusting excuse for a human being.”

  Okay, so antagonizing the guy probably wasn’t wise. But she couldn’t stand to be quiet anymore. Playing meek hadn’t gotten her out of t
his hell. No good-behavior early release either. They could take her freedom, but they couldn’t make her like it, or even pretend to. Not until they jammed that shit down her throat again.

  They’d raped and beat her so often that even the thought of punishment no longer frightened her. Sometimes she hoped they’d go too far and kill her. At least then she’d be liberated.

  “You know the other bitches around here beg for more of this shit. Too many started killing their cellmates, hoping they’d get both cuts, so we had to isolate everyone. Not only the guys either. Women too.” The dungeon warden examined her for a second. “Why don’t you crave it like that? You’re the only one left from the batch of originals, you know that?”

  She hadn’t. Was she bordering on extinction?

  That stupid devil-man had managed to injure her when she thought she was numb to the damage he could inflict. Was her turn coming? Would this be over soon?

  Or was she destined to eternal torture for some unknown reason?

  Somehow, she seemed to have enough natural immunity to resist addiction to Sex Offender, maybe even to dampen some of its effects. Now that was a terrifying thought. Could it affect others even more than her? If so, she didn’t see how they didn’t rip themselves to pieces searching for relief.

  Hell, maybe some of them had.

  She’d been trying her best to convince this guard to try it, just once, for a while now. If he did, as weak-willed as he was, he’d be destroyed. Like she probably already was. Even if she managed to escape, she’d never be normal again.

  It was the only wish she had, though, so she clung to it.

  “Do us both a favor and take it on your own today,” he snarled at her as if they were buddies instead of mortal enemies.

  “It’d be faster if you took a taste.” She tried to focus on what she was doing instead of the fire in her skin, an aftereffect from yesterday’s high. If she closed her eyes she could imagine herself getting stung by a swarm of bees, all over her body, or maybe running through a field of poisonous nettles.