Under Siege Read online

  Her eyes flashed across the room, teeth cutting into the pink flesh of her bottom lip. Christ, she looked so beautiful it broke my heart. And I’d nearly blown everything by letting her see too soon.

  “I was thinking, maybe I should go home…” She stepped closer, her hand brushing across mine.

  “Like hell, you will.” I shot to my feet, hands cupping her face and bringing her to me in a kiss. “Not letting you walk out that door, Peaches. What’s it gonna take to convince you?”

  My hand worked down her arm, sliding the soft robe she wore off her shoulders and into a pool at our feet. She stood naked, nipples puckered in the cool air, the soft tips of her wavy hair curling around the full tits.

  “You don’t trust me,” I said the words at her ear, teeth catching on her earlobe.

  She didn’t respond, but her breathing kicked up.

  An ache bloomed in my chest as I thought about all the things I’d do to protect this woman. I’d die for her.

  “Sit,” I ordered, pushing her down gently into the chair. I pulled the canvas belt off my pants, winding the restraint between the wooden rails of the chair and around her wrists. “Ready for a little game?”

  I tightened the bindings, making sure she couldn’t wiggle out but not too tight that they bit into her skin. “You’ve gotta trust me.”

  My eyes nailed hers, a volcano of emotion erupting unspoken between us. My heart throbbed with every breath of hers; my palms ached to cover her naked body, show her how much I loved her, cherished her, would lay my life on the line for her.

  Pulling the wide belt of her robe from its loops, I wound it gently around her head, creating a blindfold for her pretty eyes.

  “If you’re gonna live with me here, you’ve got to trust me. And I know me yellin’ at you just now didn’t help, but, Peaches…” I paused, watching her chest rise and fall with even breaths. “I love you.” Her nipples tightened, a wave of energy visible as she shuddered. “Have since the start.”

  I didn’t give her a chance to reply before my hands slid down the dip of her waist, over the lush curve of her hips, across the tops of her creamy thighs. Moving slowly, I gave her body time to adjust to my movements, giving her the chance to anticipate, even if I was trying like hell to take her by surprise.

  I trailed my lips across hers, plunging my tongue deep into her mouth and tasting her in slow, soft flicks. Sealing the seam with the tip of my tongue, I tasted along the hollow of her throat. Her heartbeat thrummed against her skin, my cock throbbing as I thought about sinking inside her, fucking her until ten o'clock next Sunday, and then starting it all over again.

  It was hell containing myself with her.

  “You devastate me, Peaches,” I gruffed, hands pressing the heavy flesh of her tits together and licking at her nipples. I landed a light smack across the rosy flesh, enjoying the way her tits jiggled, a delicate pink blush growing where my fingers had hit. I sucked the tender flesh against my lips, soothing away any sting that might be left, before working my hands down her stomach, around to the sweet cheeks of her ass, and dipping my tongue between her soaked pussy lips.

  Her hips arched off the chair, a small pool of arousal already gleaming against the polished wood. I wanted to lap it all up; every drop of her was mine for the taking.

  “Trust me, Tinsley.” I held her hips still, thumbs pressing into the soft flesh of her thighs as I slid my tongue up the hot seam of her lower lips again. She writhed and jerked against my mouth, but I held still this time, determined to force her to feel me. Open herself to me.

  “Trust me, Tinsley,” I ordered again, my mind focused on one singular mission. To get Tinsley off.

  Soft mewls escaped her lips as she twisted her arms. I grinned when her lips curled into a snarl. “I just want to touch you.”

  “This isn’t about me,” I whispered against her cunt. “This is about you,” I hummed, pushing a thumb into the wet cavern of her pussy, pressing against the quivering muscles and sucking the hot little bud of her clit between my teeth.

  “Giving up control can be a good thing,” I husked, sliding my tongue up the flesh and swirling her soaked juices across my face. “Sometimes, it can even be pleasurable.”

  Her thighs began a slow quiver then, muscles tightened around my shoulders as her breaths slipped out in ragged pants. I sucked harder, pushing her past her limit, thrusting my thumb deeper and angling it against that precious bundle of nerves that I knew would have her exploding all over my hand.

  “I’ll die being the man you deserve, Peaches,” I breathed, sucking her clit into my mouth, drawing on the skin until soft moans burned past her lips and her whole body grew rigid and tense. Her hot, sweet juice soaked my face, coating my lips, making my hands slippery as I spread the arousal across my chest. I’d wear this fucking orgasm like a badge.

  “Jesus, Peaches, that was the sexiest thing.” I pulled the blindfold from her eyes. Her dark orbs fluttered open, capturing mine, a soft smile turning up one corner of her lips. I ducked, landing a slow kiss on her lips as I finished untying my belt from her wrists. “Whaddya say?”

  “Mmm…” she hummed. “Thank you.”

  My heart battered around in my rib cage, thinking I’d walked in and nearly had my cover blown. And now here she was, thanking me. “Let’s go out for lunch. Go get dressed, no bras allowed.”

  I smirked when she shot me a glare. “I still have a thing or two to say about that rule.”

  “Oh, I bet you do.”

  I spanked her ass when she bent to swipe the robe off the floor and into her arms.

  One aged letter fell out from the folds of the plush fabric, landing on the floor at her feet, addressed to the family of Lt. T. Abernathy.

  The last letter my father had written before his death, one he’d never gotten the chance to send.

  SEVEN

  Tinsley

  I tipped my chin, eyes catching Ash’s at an angle. “Have you been writing my dad?”

  His mouth dropped, eyes hardening before he grabbed the letter and went to stash it in the back pocket of his cargos.

  The same sexy camo cargos he’d been wearing last night.

  “Let me see that,” I whispered, holding out my hand.

  His eyes held mine, energy ratcheting higher between us before I did the only thing on my mind and swiped that letter right out of his pocket.

  “Wait, let me explain first.”

  “What’s to explain, Ash?” I slid open the letter, the lined sheets falling loose in my hands. They were worn and wrinkled, as if they’d been unfolded, read, and refolded a hundred times.

  The letter started:

  Dearest Abernathy Family—

  I probably won’t make it out of this desert alive, so I’m writing you to tell you your husband, your son, your father, is a hero…

  “What is this, Ash?” My fingers trembled as I spoke. “And why do you have it?”

  He pushed a hand through his stubbornly mussed hair, the hair I’d just been clutching between my thighs moments ago. I forced out another ragged breath, frustration racing through my veins. “What is this!”

  “It’s a letter my dad wrote to your family—after your dad carried him for a mile and a half through the mountains to safety.” Ash’s eyes burned with a mix of emotions I couldn’t even begin to decipher.

  “W-why do you have it?” I asked.

  “It came back with his things. I…” His face contorted with a look of anguish. “I was only little when he died. I didn’t get it.” He shook his head. “I found that letter shoved in the pocket of one of his shirts. I thought if I kept it, if I could deliver it someday…”

  “Wait, Ash,” The air swept from my lungs with the revelation. “You knew, before we even started writing, you knew it was my dad in that letter?”

  Ash’s eyes turned grave, nodding once before he pulled the letter from my hands and pushed it back into the envelope.

  “Had plans to wait till the thirty days were up. Figured I
could show you what you meant to me. How, somehow, you've always been pulling me through. Your letters got me through in that desert, Tinsley. I looked for one every damn day, and damn if you didn’t send me one almost as often.” His eyes softened then, and he took a step closer. “Was gonna wait till the thirtieth day to give you this, ask you not to leave. But I guess a man’s gotta jump when the timing's right.” He dropped to one knee in the middle of the polished floor, while I still stood naked in his office, and slipped a huge ruby ring on my finger.

  “Saw this in a little mountain market and thought of you. I’ve had it on me every day since, waiting to give it to you.” Ash's eyes held mine, emotion bleeding out. “Had that in my pocket for almost three years, Peaches.” His grin crooked up then, nearly stealing my breath again. “It’s yours, just like my heart. I want to marry you, give you a home, and my last name.” He placed a kiss on top of the gem, then stood to his feet. “Say yes, Tinsley, and I’ll make you Mrs. Ford by the close of business today.”

  My heart thundered riotously, my brain whirling with his proposal.

  Could I really do this?

  Marry a man I’d spent less than twenty-four hours with?

  And three years talking to, a small voice in my head chimed in.

  Being with him felt like home. I hadn’t been able to place it before, but I could now.

  “So…” I tilted my head, furrowing my brows. “Did you set this up? I chose you—there’s no way you could have known you were going to get a letter from me.” I struggled to remember, nearly positive that our pen pal matching had been random.

  “Exactly. I added my name to that list for military pen pals early on, before I’d even left for boot camp. And then I was so busy, I forgot about it—until your letter showed up.” He stepped away from me as he spoke, getting lost in memories it seemed. “I saw your name, and I almost fell out of my chair. At first, I thought maybe my mom had finally sent that letter. She always said we should have. So I opened your letter, assuming…well… I dunno what I was thinking, but it sure as hell wasn’t what I found. It wasn’t you.” His eyes softened.

  The urge to close the distance between us was strong, every nerve in my body compelling me to launch myself into his arms.

  “You were this bright light. With every letter, it was like a little piece of home. And every time I wrote you, I wanted to tell you. I wanted to send you that letter that my dad wrote, but then I thought it would be better to wait. Better till I could do it in person.” He paused, jaw ticking. “Christ, I should have told you before now. I don’t know how, but I should have told you.” Ash paused, eyes stretching across the room to meet mine. “I bought that ring the first month we started writing.” He stepped closer, fingers twisting with mine and pulling me against him. His lips hovered over mine, just out of reach for a kiss. “Been waiting to give it to you.”

  I nodded, too overwhelmed with emotion to say anything at all. I didn’t have to say anything, though, because his lips were sliding against mine, our tongues rolling together in a sensuous battle that lit my insides on fire.

  He pulled away long, breathless moments later. “You still owe me an answer, Peaches.”

  I pushed a hand through my hair, suddenly self-conscious to be standing there naked, pressed against his rock-solid Adonis body.

  “For what? Thirty days?” I shot him a cocky grin.

  “For being my wife,” he growled, yanking me against him, wrapping my legs around his waist and sliding me down on his hard cock.

  I sucked in a violent breath before his lips attached to mine and swallowed every thought floating in my head.

  I was his.

  I always had been.

  “Want to put my babies in you, Peaches. Raise a family, make a home, fuck you to bed every night, and love you awake every morning.” He kissed my nose. “That’s all I want from you.”

  I burst out into a soft giggle, his hands kneading at my ass cheeks already causing a heady concoction of lust to rush through my cells. “Yes.” I sucked at his earlobe. “Yes, Ash Ford. I am yours.”

  He pushed a hand between us, shoving down the zipper on his camos and sliding his slick, hard cock against my bare pussy. “Good, Peaches. Now I’m about to remind you what being mine feels like.”

  A rush of adrenaline spiked through me as his heavy hands gripped my ass, sliding me up his body before impaling me in one elegant thrust. He was shrouded in my pussy, and my body burned with satisfaction as every dream of love I’d ever had came true in one instant.

  From the very first moment, Ash Ford had had my heart under siege.

  EPILOGUE

  Ash - Thirty Days Later

  I took a quick look up at the bright sunlight, calculating in my head the approximate time, knowing damn well my bride was late.

  I gritted my teeth together. I’d barely held on the last thirty days, waiting to make her mine. Officially, that was.

  She hadn’t taken my ring off since the moment I’d put it on her finger, and she also hadn’t worn a bra in all that time. Every single day, she’d found some way to show me she hadn’t worn one, either by covering herself in oversized sweaters or jackets, or floaty scarves on warm days. She’d made me laugh every damn time because it'd become clear pretty damn quick that she thought of it as a challenge, some way to one-up me. I’d continued to give her hell for it. Seeing her riled up was too cute—truth was I got my rocks off on it, and she hadn’t quite figured that out yet.

  I couldn’t wait to find out if she’d worn a bra today.

  I slid my Ray-Bans down over my eyes and sauntered confidently through the doors of the small bed-and-breakfast she’d chosen for this day. “She ready?” I spat at the first person I saw.

  It happened to be her dad.

  Shit.

  “She is.” His eyes cut up to me. “You respect her. She’s good, like her mama.” The little old man wiped at a tear in his eye. “She deserves the best.”

  “I'll treat her like a queen. You’ve got my word on that, Lieutenant Abernathy.” I saluted the man.

  He nodded. “Gonna hold you to that, son.”

  His one word did a number on my soul. I hadn’t heard that word directed at me since my father had last uttered it so many years ago.

  “I’ll always do my best by her,” I reassured him, fingering the heavy diamond wedding band that was nestled in my pocket. She’d said she didn't want another ring; she loved the one I’d gotten for her while I was deployed. But I insisted on showering my girl with all kinds of classy things, so I bought her the largest one the jeweler had in stock. I didn’t give a shit if she wore it or not, but I wanted to give it to her.

  “Believe you’re due at the end of that aisle, son.” Lt. Abernathy patted me on the back, squeezing softly before letting go.

  “I love her so much it hurts. That’s how I knew,” I said to him.

  He only nodded, eyes growing wet with unshed tears. A happy grin spread over his cheeks. “I’m glad, son. You both deserve it.”

  I swallowed the razors tearing at my throat before turning back to the massive garden and gazebo that stood beyond.

  “Tell her I’ll meet her up there,” I said before making my way back down the aisle to my future.

  It wasn’t a minute later that the music was starting and the sweet little flower girl, Tinsley's cousin, sashayed down the aisle with rose petals. Moments later, it was my girl and her father.

  My heart cracked wide open then, the soft glow of the sun lighting her hair like a halo. Her cheeks were pink, and the smile was so wide on her face, she looked happy enough for all of us for the next thousand years.

  She made her way up the aisle slowly, clutching her dad’s arm like she might fall without him.

  I couldn't wait to be the man who held her up high, helped her achieve, loved her.

  The ceremony started, and the officiant couldn’t get to the part where he said “Who gives this woman” fast enough.

  I needed Tinsley in my arms. I
had to touch her, needed that feeling of her skin on mine to know she was real.

  The part finally arrived when her dad gave her away to me, our fingertips connecting for the first time. I couldn't help myself and leaned in. “You look good enough to eat.”

  Her cheeks warmed to a sweet shade of crimson.

  “There’d better not be a bra underneath all this frilly shit.”

  Her grin darted to the side, and she shook her head, turning away from me for an instant to show off the deep vee of her back. That damn dress was cut down nearly to the top of her ass.

  My cock ached, dots of pre-come leaking from the tip and I hoped not wetting the front of my suit pants.

  “You don't know what you do to me.” I pressed my forehead against hers, palm wrapping around her waist to stroke along the edge of the lace that outlined the creamy skin of her back. “I can’t wait to unwrap you tonight.”

  The officiant cleared his throat, and Tinsley stifled a giggle before I backed away, still refusing to move my palm from her bare back, and I nodded at the gentleman to continue the ceremony.

  The small crowd of our closest friends and family laughed softly, and in no time at all, we were pronounced man and wife.

  That day, Tinsley Abernathy Ford made me the happiest man in the world.

  And the days only kept getting happier.

  “I never stood a chance against you, Ash,” she breathed as we turned, hands clasped, to look out at the familiar faces.

  “We never stood a chance against fate, Peaches. She had this planned a long time ago.”

  I squeezed her hand, then pulled her against me in a kiss that showed her every important thing I didn’t have the words to say.

  Starting with forever.

  Second Epilogue

  Tinsley - Four Years Later

  “Babe, can you hang on to this for me?” Ash called, thrusting a tool out over the hood of the truck. He’d been headfirst in it all morning, trying to work out the issue that had it stalling. My dad had tried to take it to the local garage, but Ash had insisted on taking a look at it first. So he’d driven it over here, under fifteen miles per hour the entire way, and was determined to make it work.