Pleasing the Messenger Page 4

  She smiled as she gazed down at him, then slanted her mouth over his. When the long sweltering kiss ended, it had to be a half hour later. But time went by fast when you were having fun. She rolled off his tremendous body and turned her back to him. “Take me from behind. Do me deep."

  Race immediately spooned his body against hers and used one hand to guide his penis up and down, between her butt cheeks. “Get up on your hands and knees, baby."

  Aeryn did as he told her and spread her thighs wide to take him in. Instead of entering her still wet pussy, he played a bit by guiding his slick penis back and forth between her legs. The top of it rubbed her clit in such a delicious way that she was soon writhing against his quadriceps.

  "Okay, honey. Here it comes."

  She threw her head back like a wild mare when he entered her. Before he had a chance to thrust forward, her body seemed to act on its own. She began a backward thrusting that had him grunting in pleasure. His hands found their way to the front of her body. One of them pulled at her breasts. The other hand slipped down to her vagina where he fingered her clitoris as he thrust. The sound of their thudding bodies drove her crazy with need. Never before had Aeryn experienced multiple orgasms, but his hands, body and the words of encouragement pulled exquisite pleasure from her womb.

  From between clenched teeth, Race plunged on. Over and over he let her tight wetness massage his cock into finally yielding sperm. When she cried out his name and he could feel her convulse around him, only then did he let up. She slid forward, and he went down with her. Half his body was on her, the other half on the bed. He drew air into his lungs, joyfully thinking he might not ever get over this latest encounter. If that was the case, what a way to go. When Aeryn didn't move, he turned her to face him. There was the sweetest look of satisfaction on her face. Her eyes were already half closed in slumber. They'd taken a lot out of each other.

  "Just sleep, sugar,” he said as he pushed her long hair back and gently looped strands of it around his fingers. “I'll hold you, okay?"

  Too breathless to answer, she simply nodded and let him pull her into his embrace. She didn't know how long she slept, but woke to an empty bed with the blankets tucked around her. Bacon was frying in the kitchen. The smell of it and fresh coffee were too enticing. Aeryn grabbed up a blanket, but found another flannel shirt like the one she'd worn the night before. It was draped over an overstuffed chair as if its owner had put it there for her use. Smiling, she quickly donned the shirt, then used her blanket as a warming wrap. Padding to the bathroom, she relieved herself and quickly showered. Afterward, she briefly plunged her face into the damp towel Race had obviously used before her. It smelled of musk and pine-scented soap. The fragrance made her want him all over again. It was with the thought of having him that she urgently pulled on the little g-string she'd washed out the night before. He might like to see her in it.

  Race pushed up the sleeves of his sweatshirt and couldn't help laughing. Aeryn came bolting into the kitchen, barrelling right into him with a huge bear hug. This was the way he wanted to be greeted every morning. If he could swing it, she'd spend a lot more mornings with him. “Hungry?"

  "Starving,” she gaily replied, stood on her toes and kissed his stubbled cheek soundly. The morning-after beard he wore was too virile, but her stomach made her consider food first. “Can I help?"

  "You just go into the living room and get warm by the fire,” he congenially suggested. “I'll bring our plates in on a tray."

  "I could get used to this kind of service."

  He wanted her to. He wanted her to get used to him, his life and everything to do with it. He stared at her lithe figure as she made her way out of the kitchen. And to think he'd believed he might never meet someone who remotely had a thing in common with the way he lived. He merrily scrambled eggs, anxious to get breakfast cooked so he could go and sit with her.

  In the small living room, Aeryn took time to gaze at all the paraphernalia a park ranger used. There was radio equipment neatly sorted on his desk, paper work lying around that had government stamps and seals all over it, and even some rescue equipment stored in a box by the door. Various pictures of wildlife covered the walls along with photos of Race and other rangers he presumably worked with. She ran her hand along a shelf of books noting that some of them were still used in classes she'd taken. Race could probably help her study for finals. She smiled to herself thinking that was her rational excuse to see him again. Then, a photo album caught her eye. Not wanting to pry into his business, she called out, “Can I look at your pictures? The ones I found on the shelf?"

  Still engrossed in cooking a hearty breakfast, Race called back, “Sure. Look over anything you want."

  Eager to learn what she could of the man who'd rocked her world, Aeryn plopped onto the sofa, gathered a throw blanket around her and crossed her legs. She opened the album and saw a very young face of the man with whom she'd made love. The young boy looking back at her from the photos was laughing engagingly. He still had that same smile and sweet gleam in his eyes. She flipped through more photos of what she assumed were siblings, grandparents and parents. Holidays and celebrations were all duly noted with years and dates scribbled on the bottoms of the pictures. Then, his adult life began to weave into his childhood. There was a picture of Race graduating college, then more photos of him at work. When she got to the back end of the album and was happily taking in all she could about what she desperately hoped would be her new beau, Aeryn tilted the album up to get a better look at some pictures taken from a distance. As she did so, a packet of un-mounted photos fell from the very back of the album. She put the bulky folder aside, then eagerly dove into the envelope. The pictures she pulled out wiped the smile from her face and put a dark ring around her heart.

  In this newest set of photos, Aeryn saw Race in a hospital bed, being visited by numerous comrades in uniform. There was even a Department of Public Safety trooper standing to one side of the room. Her curiosity over how her host had ended up with a large bandage across his forehead immediately captured all her attention. Then, she saw the newspaper clipping that was folded and neatly packed in among the hospital pictures. The headline read, 'Local Park Ranger Survives Attack'. She quickly unfolded and read the entire article, sickened by the story the paper relayed. The date was just over eighteen months ago.

  The clank of cutlery only marginally entered Aeryn's consciousness. She sat there holding the pictures and the newspaper article in her hands, staring at them. When the big man who'd so tenderly made love to her came into the living room bearing a tray of food, she couldn't even force a smile. So much for dream men; Race Donnigan wasn't for her. And she wasn't staying one more minute in this cabin with him than she had to. Ice storm or not, she had to get out of there. As Race placed the tray down on a coffee table before her, she finally set the pictures and the article aside. She didn't want to know his version of what had happened. And she damned sure wasn't being pulled into a relationship where a second man in her life could be killed.

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  Chapter Four

  Race arranged the plates so she could easily get to hers, but his attention quickly left the food. There was a sudden, stricken look in Aeryn's pretty eyes that gripped him. He couldn't articulate what he saw, only that she was staring at him with some emotion akin to fear. He immediately dropped the napkin he'd meant to hand her and knelt down. “Hey, what's wrong, baby?"

  For the longest moment, Aeryn simply couldn't speak. She just stared at him. He was right there in front of her, but she couldn't utter a sound.

  Race took her hands in his. They were ice cold. “Honey, what's wrong?” he more assertively demanded.

  With effort, Aeryn finally opened her mouth. Even to her, the voice that came from her throat sounded tight with emotion. She wanted to run away as fast as she could. “I-I read that,” she stammered and pointed towards the article now sitting on the end of the coffee table.

  He picked it up, un
folded it and immediately remembered having stuck the damned thing in the back of his photo album along with pictures some of his friends had taken at the hospital. He glanced back at her, then back at the article again before asking his question. “This upset you?"

  "Yeah. It upset me!” she growled out as anger took the place of fear.

  "Why?"

  "The article says that you were attacked while on duty ... by four men. Four."

  He shrugged, “Aeryn, reporters write articles to sell papers.” He shook the article, then dropped it back on the coffee table. “Only part of what's in this is true."

  "The part where you almost got killed by some poachers? Or the part of the story where you spent a while in the hospital?"

  Baffled as to why she'd even care, unless she was more emotionally into him than just the physical playing around indicated, Race could only kneel there and wait for her to explain why anger coloured her words.

  Aeryn stood up, manoeuvred around him and walked towards the fireplace. She stared into the coals there, trying to affix her brain on anything but the rage she felt.

  Race stood and walked up behind her. “Why is all this getting to you?"

  She simply lifted her chin and refused to answer.

  He gently took her shoulders and forced her to face him. “That was a year and a half ago. I got over it.” The look in her eyes now was the most chilling thing he'd ever seen in his life. There was more to come, and he was about to hear it.

  "My father didn't! He didn't get over it."

  Dragging a hand through his hair, Race pled with her. “Honey, will you please tell me what's got you so pissed? What did I do? What has my getting into a fight with some poachers got to do with your father? You told me he died."

  "He did. It took him five years to do it. In the end, he didn't even know who I was. He didn't even know his own daughter."

  The shimmer of tears in her eyes warned him to tread carefully, but he had to know what this was all about. “Aeryn, what has your father got to do with my attack?” he repeated.

  "My father was a cop. He was on duty one night when a bunch of men jumped him on a traffic stop. They beat him half to death, then left him lying in the road. The doctors did the best they could, but he was in a coma for months. And when he came out of it, he had to go through physical therapy and still couldn't walk. We kept him alive for the next five years, but his health just went downhill. His vital organs started to fail. The doctors would repair one thing only to have something worse crop up. In the end, he just faded away, with no memory of his life, me or anything else."

  The absolute anger, horror and pain in her voice were all reflected in her expression. Race could only pull her into his embrace and hold her tightly. “And you saw that fucking article and relived all that over again, didn't you, baby?"

  She pushed away from him. “I can't be here with you. I can't."

  When she walked away and began to search for her clothing, Race followed her. She gathered what little she had from the bathroom and everywhere else she'd left belongings, and began to dress. “You can't go out in this storm, Aeryn. Have you looked outside?” He lifted a curtain aside so she could see how the ice was still forming on the ground. “The road will still be blocked. If there's a trooper on duty, he'll just send you back here."

  "I'll get back to town if I have to walk through the damned woods. I'm not getting any closer to some guy who could end up just like my dad."

  He was at a complete loss how to handle the situation, but he couldn't let her leave. The ditches on either side of the road were over eight feet deep in some places and almost as wide. It'd be easy for her truck to hit the ice wrong, skid and end up overturned. He grabbed one of her hands as she reached for her coat. The little red dress she wore would hardly keep her warm, even with her heater turned up all the way. “Come sit down."

  Aeryn pulled against his grip, but he held on tightly. “Let me go."

  "I won't. Not until you listen to me. Please, honey."

  When she gazed up into those grey eyes and saw the pleading there, she let him lead her back to the sofa. Once there, she sat heavily.

  Race took the opportunity to kneel in front of her once more, effectively pinning her down where she sat. “I'm so sorry about your father. I remember you saying he'd been sick..."

  "I just tell people that so they won't ask questions. Folks don't want to ask about a lingering illness the way they will about a cop being beaten into a vegetable."

  He heard the catch in her voice and saw the tears spill over. Race wrapped his arms around her and held on tight.

  "I don't want to care about you,” she whispered.

  "Don't you see sweetness? You already do, or that article wouldn't have upset you so much."

  She tried to clear her vision. “What I read in it could have been the same report written about my dad. It happened the exact same way."

  "But I'm still here, Aeryn. And I'm not a police officer. That kind of incident is so rare in my line of work that nobody can remember the last time a ranger was attacked."

  She shook her head. “The similarity in what happened to you and my dad is creepy. I don't think it's a coincidence. Somebody's trying to tell me something. The message I get is to leave."

  Leaning back just far enough to wipe her tears away with the pads of his thumbs, Race kissed her gently, then said, “Do you think it'd be any easier just walking away from me, then hearing something had happened after the fact? Even if such an incident might occur a second time, and I don't remotely think it ever would, we'll be working with the same people, baby. You and I will hear about what happens to each other. Gossip in this part of the country is par for the course. And the job you'll have will lead you back into the park sooner or later. That means you'll have to see me again. Do you think you could totally blow off what we've already started and keep things between us on a purely professional basis?"

  "I'll have to."

  "It won't work, Aeryn. We started something that needs to be finished. I want to try a relationship with you and I think you want the same thing. You wouldn't be so upset by my attack if you weren't already halfway into seeing us as a couple, and you damned well know it. Besides, what if it's you who gets hurt?"

  She sniffed. “What're you talking about?"

  "You'll be out in the woods, alone at times. I know how the Agricultural Extension Agency works. They send agents out here all the time to conduct research. What if you come across some idiot with a need to hurt a woman? What if you walk on top of a rattlesnake or something else should..."

  "Don't be an ass. That's not likely to happen."

  "And it's not likely that I'll ever be attacked again by poachers, either. They guys that jumped me admitted what they did and they're in prison. They won't be getting out in this lifetime. And I don't mind telling you that I got a piece of ‘em before they took me down."

  She gazed at him and put one hand on his cheek. “My dad was a lot like you. He thought he could take on anybody. He had a smile like yours, and he was friendly and loved people. He was a weight lifter and seemed to have all the answers. The more I think about it, the more I see how like him you really are. The bastards that hurt him are in prison, too. One of them is on death row, but that doesn't bring my dad back. I just couldn't see you getting hurt and me learning to live with that. You understand? It wasn't you I was pissed at. It was the situation where a good man gets hurt and life just goes on like it doesn't fucking matter."

  "Baby, do you have any family that you can talk to about this?"

  She lowered her head. “My mom died in a car accident when I was seven. I don't have any family that I know about."

  "Christ! You took care of your dad and then buried him all by yourself?"

  She lifted a shoulder and demurely muttered, “There were some friends of Dad's from the P.D. They came by and helped a lot. They were at the funeral and helped me with that, too."

  But she'd still shouldered the pain by herse
lf for the past years. Race didn't think he'd ever met anyone so strong. He pulled her against his chest again. “I don't know how I'd have survived if something like that had happened to my dad. You're very brave."

  Against her will, she couldn't help cuddling into his chest. “Can you swear you won't ever get hurt?"

  "Can you, honey? Can you tell me that you won't get hit by a car while crossing the street, or get into another accident of some kind? Who can promise that?"

  She rolled her eyes in frustration. “And you want me to stay here and continue with all the sex, knowing that?"

  He pushed her hair back and looked down at her. “Do you want to miss what we might have, fearing something that hasn't happened? Aeryn, you can't live life worrying over the maybes. You've just got to get up each day and make it count. I know that's asking a lot after what you've been through. Five years is a long time to watch someone you love suffer. But would you have wanted to be somebody else's daughter, just to keep from being hurt by what happened to your father?"

  "No. Not for a minute,” she sobbed.

  "Aw, honey. Don't walk away from what could be a good thing for the both of us. Like I said, I don't think it's gonna hurt any less if you won't see me again, then find out I've been in an accident or something. You might regret not having spent more time with me. And that's a mighty hard thing to live with, you know?"

  She began to cry in earnest. “You've got a kind heart. Just like my dad."

  "But I'm not your father, sweetheart. I'm the guy who wants to put you back into bed and make love until we can't walk or see straight. But I'm not doing it just to get laid. Neither are you. And I think you know it, or you'd have blown all this business about me and the poachers off, right?"

  She nodded and clung to him.

  "Okay, then let's see what happens. Let's see if we can take what started on Valentine's Day and make it last another week, then another one after that. We'll just take it a few days at a time and see where it gets us."