more.
What was it about this woman? He’d gotten an early start on his sex life, thanks to his degenerate dad. Wherever the military had taken him around the world, he’d fucked hard, well, and often. He didn’t have any trouble going online or walking into a bar and finding someone willing to shuck her clothes and spread her legs. So why was it that the minute he’d met the preacher’s pretty virginal daughter, every other female had ceased to exist for him?
Brea was kind and sweet. She put others first. She was too delicate to be sexy in the way he used to prefer, but Brea and her shy sensuality lured him like no one else. She was somehow both sheltered and smart. Quiet but stubborn. One of a kind. But none of that explained why she’d hooked him with a glance.
That big heart of hers did.
She’d seemingly looked at him in Hunter Edgington’s open doorway and given him some untouched chunk of it that he’d been desperate to have. Cutter warning him away had meant nothing since Brea spent the rest of that barbecue sending him curious glances from under her long lashes. He’d tattooed her timid, pink-cheeked smiles into his memory. They’d kept him hard well into the next day.
From the instant he’d met her, he’d known he could pleasure the hell out of her. But for reasons he hadn’t been able to explain, he didn’t simply want to bang her. When he’d driven her to the hospital after her father’s first heart attack and she’d clung to him for comfort, he’d understood then what else she needed—besides toe-curling sex—that he could give her in return: security. So he’d held her in his arms and resolved to make her world better.
When she’d clung to him and cried, Brea had sealed her fate.
She was his.
Since he knew shit about relationships, it was no surprise he was doing everything ass-backwards. He’d taken her to bed before he’d taken her out. He’d gotten her pregnant before he put a ring on her finger. The situation wasn’t optimal, but he’d work with it and fix it all eventually.
Right now, he had to make sure she knew exactly in whose arms—and whose bed—she belonged.
“Pierce…” she panted.
“I’m not going anywhere. You got a yes or no for me yet?”
“Just kiss me again.”
“If I do that, pretty girl, I’m going to get inside you and fuck you hard. All night. I won’t stop. If you’re going to say no, say it now.”
Her breathing stuttered. Her thoughts churned.
Then she licked her lips. And finally, buttoned-up Brea closed her eyes and offered him her pretty pink mouth, swollen with sin. That was an invitation he couldn’t turn down.
He grabbed her chin. “Last chance. You saying yes?”
Brea’s heart beat wildly as she blinked up at Pierce. The air was thick, tense, silent except for their rasping breaths as he waited for her answer.
She hesitated. She shouldn’t consent. She shouldn’t want him.
Even if Cutter didn’t love or desire her, he would be disappointed that she was weak to the sins of Pierce’s flesh, especially during their engagement. Then again, he wasn’t in love with her, and she doubted he was spending his nights in California alone. And it wasn’t as if she could get more pregnant.
Her father would be dismayed that she hadn’t kept her promise to distance herself from Pierce for even two weeks, much less a whole month. But unlike Daddy’s high school girlfriend, the man she loved hadn’t left her because he’d gotten bored and wandered into the arms of another. Not even close. The minute he’d learned about her engagement to Cutter, he’d come after her—hard. And he clearly wasn’t letting up.
Because he still loved her?
“C’mon, pretty girl. What’s it going to be?”
She shivered, just like she did every time he called her that.
Was she being stupid? Impulsive? She’d let him undress her and touch her. And Brea couldn’t be less than honest with herself. Even if they’d resolved nothing, she ached for Pierce. She wanted him.
“Heaven help me, but I can’t say no to you.”
“Yeah?” His fingers bit into her jaw as a dark smile crawled across his mouth. He laved his way up her neck and guided her lips under his again. “Then get ready to scream.”
Before she could so much as whimper, he took her lips with a muffled groan, tasting potent and wicked and wonderful. The moment she yielded her mouth to him, he tightened his grip, demanding she give him