Loving Lies

Chapter One

Loudoun, Tennessee

The music was a gentle swell of sound around the riverbank clearing. It was here the gang gathered together for a weekend of drinking, fishing, and a general redneck helluva good time. It was the first gathering of the summer, and it looked like the crowd was all there. Just as they had been for the last decade. The boys of summer were back again and ready to forget the cares and woes of weekday reality.

RVs, tents, pickup trucks and a various assortment of vehicles were pulled to the edge of the camping area as a bonfire burned in the center. Shouted welcomes and laughter filled the forested valley along the riverbank as music vibrated through the area with enough force to make certain no wildlife ventured near.

The flickering light cast an eerie glow about the forest behind it, even as it reflected the revelry of those around the fire. The party was pumping, drinks were flowing and Slade Colter had a headache splitting across his forehead with enough force to give the music a run for its money. But even worse was the hard-on throbbing in his jeans. It was so engorged, so ready, so intent on one little woman that he couldn’t trust himself to stay. Couldn’t trust himself not to terrify her.

He should have known better than to head out here this weekend. He should have done as he first intended, what he was dead set on now. Heading to the sheltered little spot further along the camping area that extended for miles along the valley of what had once been a wilderness teeming with history.

Slade hit the automatic roller to the awning and watched it fold slowly to the edge of the roof before jumping inside the vehicular home and moving into the driver’s seat. With a quick flick of his wrist, he turned the motor over and began to slowly back out of the clearing. The powerful purr of the motor sent a surge of satisfaction racing through his system as he moved from the motor homes and vehicles parked around him, before turning and heading for the main road. He ignored the calls from the partygoers outside, maneuvered the awkward RV onto the road, and with a quick turn of the wheel directed it away from the party and to the private camping spot he had rented closer to town.

As the music receded behind him, he sighed in relief, watching as the headlights reflected off the road and lit the way from the revelry behind him. Beyond, darkness beckoned, peace awaited. Or at least he hoped so. His head was so fucking messed up right now he didn’t know if he would ever figure out what those words meant again.

Freedom. He knew he might as well forget what that meant. This was his last weekend in the mountains

for a while, possibly a long while. He had thought that spending it with the men he had grown up with was the perfect prescription for the restlessness filling him, but it wasn’t. It was making it worse. And he’d be damned if he didn’t get away from the sight of laughing brown eyes and a teasing little smile of one sweet little thing, Jessica ‘Jessie’ Benton, then he was going to fuck up what little chance he had of ever finding peace.

He shook his head, hoping to clear it of the alcoholic haze and the image of that innocent, tempting vision. She was so damned short she made him feel like a giant. Barely five-three, sweetly curved and celebrating her twenty-first birthday this weekend. Dressed in a bikini that had his eyes popping out of their sockets, and sporting a sexy little tattoo that kept peeking from the low band of the bottoms, demanding he get a closer look, she had his dick making a fool out of him.

He lowered his hand from the wheel and readjusted his dumb flesh beneath his jeans. He hadn’t even been able to change into the swimming trunks he brought with him because of her. He couldn’t get his damned hard-on to go down long enough to even contemplate it.

This was a fine fix, he told himself brutally. He had been waiting for over five years for Jessie to hit that magical age before making his move on her. He had warned off more damned pricks than he should have gotten away with, and spent too many nights jacking off thinking about her.

He pushed his fingers through his thick blond hair, a flare of sensation racing down his spine as he remembered the feel of her fingers there that first summer night this year.

“Slade, I don’t intend to wait on you forever.”Her soft laughter had sent heat curling through his gut. “A girl can only wait so long.”

He had made some mocking comment, laughing down at her upraised face, wanting nothing more than to kiss those pale pink lips. But he had waited. Twenty-one, he reminded himself. He was a man, not a kid, at twenty-seven he was getting closer to thirty than he even wanted to admit to. And he sure as hell wasn’t innocent.

“Stupid fuck,” he muttered as he turned the RV along the main road, heading for the privacy of his own camping spot. The parties were in the main clearings rather than the smaller, private areas closer to town.

He needed to escape the temptation of those velvet brown eyes. He had to think about this, he told himself. Jessie wasn’t a one-night stand, and he damned well knew it. He could feel the bands wrapping around his neck, his hunger for one sweet little woman tying his gut into so many knots he had to fight to breathe. Not to mention what it was doing to his cock.

Shaking his head, Slade made the sharp turn that headed up the narrow lane toward his parking area.

The RV hookups weren’t as efficient there, but the peace of the dark, quiet nights made up for it. Pulling into the paved spot just large enough for the RV, he cut the motor before jumping out and connecting the water and sewer lines. Velvet darkness wrapped around him, pulled at him as a sultry breeze whipped over his naked chest.

Drawing in a deep breath, he pushed the main control of the awning, watching as it extended over him as his fingers worked at his jeans. The damned hard-on was killing him. Within seconds, his jeans were tossed carelessly to the metal rod that anchored the awning to the RV and his cock was pointing out from his body in demand.

A steady breeze whispered through the night, wrapping around him, as soft and warm as Jessie’s hands.

What the hell was wrong with him? He had never had a problem going after what he wanted, and damned if he didn’t want her. Hell, he needed her and he knew it. No one else could still the raging hunger riding him day and night as her birthday drew closer. God knew he had tried.

He’d spent a week the month before fucking his former F.B.I. partner Amy Jennings dry, night after night, and it still hadn’t helped. He thought of Jessie. He dreamed of Jessie. Why the hell didn’t he just fuck her and get it over with?

Because he wouldn’t just be fucking her and he knew it. Because once he had her, his footloose bachelor days were at an end and that was all there was to it.

One of his foster fathers had warned him years ago that he would find a woman who would rip his guts to pieces and make a wedding band seem like a haven rather than a yoke, and Slade hadn’t believed him. He believed him now. Hell, he had believed him years ago when he found himself watching Jessie, imagining her naked, beneath him, all that intensity and fire in her eyes transferred into passion.

The sounds of the night enfolded him, the call of the bullfrogs, crickets chattering in the woods around him, and catfish croaking from the bank of the narrow river that flowed in the distance. A symphony that filled his soul and partially eased the restlessness rolling through him.

It wasn’t helping his hard-on.

“Do you always camp naked, Slade? This is something a girl could get used to, ya know.”

He stiffened at the amusement, the breathless hunger in the voice from the doorway.

Turning, he stared back at her, framed in the low light of the interior lamp, that fucking bikini baring her curves, her tanned flesh gleaming in the soft light as she tilted her head, long brown hair flowing over her shoulder.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he growled, pushing his fingers through his hair as his cock jerked at the shy little look she directed toward it.

“I was napping.” A smile curved her pouty pink lips. “You told me I could use your bed anytime I needed to hide. Remember?”

Hell yes, he remembered. Last summer, when Deke Austin had been watching her with nothing but damned sex filling his mind, making her nervous as hell.

“Shit.” He moved to the doorway, forcing her to back up as he stepped into the RV, facing her in the narrow confines of the small main compartment. “Dammit, Jessie, why the hell do you think I left the party?”

She moved back slowly, bumping into the small bar behind the low couch as she watched him warily, hungrily.

“I didn’t know you were leaving, Slade.” She watched him with those dark eyes, her gaze flickering every few moments to his hard dick as she swallowed nervously. “I was asleep, I swear. Billy wouldn’t leave me alone on the bank so Ron sent me to hide for a while until he found him a distraction. Your RV

was closest and you weren’t in it. I was just going to lie down for a few minutes.”

She had been in his bed all this time. Stretched out on the queen-sized mattress, that golden body relaxed, waiting for him. The bedroom in the RV was the only closed-in space, and the largest.

“How long have you been awake, Jessie?” He moved to the small refrigerator, opened it and pulled a beer free. If he didn’t find something else to do with his hands, then he was going to end up touching her.

She cleared her throat at his question. “Not long.”

He stared back at her as he popped the top of the can, his brow arching in mockery. She couldn’t lie worth a damn. Never had been able to. He wasn’t going to ask her how long, he knew. She would have woken up when the motor started, she would have known where he was headed.

He tipped his head back, draining half the bitter brew in a desperate attempt to keep from going to her, to hold back the lust filling him, just for a few more minutes.

“I’m sorry, Slade. I should have let you know sooner,” she said as he slapped the can to the counter beside him.

His hand raked down his chest, his fingers gripping his cock for a second before a growl rumbled in his chest.

“I hope you know what the hell you were doing when you laid back in that bed and waited for me to park,” he snapped, his voice harsh, the demon-lust pounding through his veins like a fire, searing him in his need to touch her. “Dammit to hell, Jessie. I’ve tried everything I know to stay the hell away from you…”

“Why?” Her breathing was faster now, those pretty breasts rising and falling, drawing his gaze like a magnet he couldn’t resist. “I’ve been chasing you since I turned sixteen, Slade. You didn’t have to stay away.”

He moved past her slowly, sitting down heavily on the wide couch and staring at her as he fought the instinctive urge to jerk her to him instead. His fingers wrapped around his cock once again, stroking it idly as the blood thundered in his veins. She was watching the action, her tongue dampening her full lips with a quick little lick that had his balls drawing up to the base of his cock.

“Do you have any idea what the hell you’re letting yourself in for?” He groaned then. “I’m not a kid, Jessie. I’m twenty-seven years old with a hell of a lot more experience than you can imagine and needs you couldn’t begin to guess.”

A smile edged at her lips.

“I know you spanked Melissa Lorring,” she said, the amusement doing nothing to cover her arousal.

“Right before you took her butt. And I know you used Val Sheridan’s toys on her. She has an extensive collection I hear. And let’s see, Jazz Lancing swears you were fucking Massey Landers in clear view at one of his parties last year, with nothing but her dress covering the act as you stood behind her.” A frown veed between her brows as she stared back at him, her eyes appearing darker, her cheeks flushed.

“There’s not a lot that you do, Slade, that I don’t hear about. And Amy Jennings is crowing far and wide that you’re hers forever and ever amen after the week you spent screwing her to death last month.” A spark of jealous anger filled her voice. “You could have waited just a little longer you know.”

No, he couldn’t have. If he hadn’t spent the week fucking Amy to hell and back then he would have ended up kidnapping Jessie and scaring the shit out of her. At least, that was what he thought. Watching her now, he wasn’t so certain she would have been scared.

“So you think you know what to expect little girl?” He grunted. “You think I won’t want to do every damned bit of what you just described to me, and more? Trust me, you haven’t heard the half of it yet.”

“I told you, I’m yours.” She spread her arms, indicating the bikini-clad body driving him insane. “What more can I do, Slade…” She came to him then, one small step at a time. “Beg?”

She stepped between his thighs and leaned closer. Slade stared into the innocent heat and arousal reflecting in her gaze and knew he was drowning. Drowning in the pure, white-hot need that exploded between them and became helpless to resist.

His hand speared through her hair, dragging her head down as he forced her lips to his. Sweet, sharp little kisses fueled his hunger. The melting of lips, the battle to breathe as their heads tilted and they consumed the taste of each other.

Her busy little tongue licked at his before drawing back. His lips tugged at hers, sipped from them, tasted the inexperience and the raging need, and became all the more intense for her unknowing sexuality.

She was a temptress, unaware of her own power, of the violent lust she aroused within him as she struggled back from him, stared into his eyes and smiled a mysterious, dangerous smile of feminine awareness before she dropped to her knees before him. Her hands gripped his spread knees as she knelt between them.

“Or maybe this.” Her head lowered then, taking him in a kiss that incinerated his control and any second thoughts he may have had.

“Sweet God!” His head fell back as her tongue licked up his cock. Hot satin heat spread from the base of his dick to the thick, throbbing head as her tongue stroked up. She wiggled a bit there, probed a bit here, until his hips lifted and one hand gripping her hair as the other held his cock and aimed it for her mouth. “Open up, baby.”

She opened. Slade watched, lust burning inside him as her pink lips parted, covered the bulging head and sucked him into her mouth. It was a pleasure so destructive, so all consuming he could do nothing but lose himself to it. She wiped away reality, stole his soul.

“Son of a bitch.” His hands tightened in her hair as her tongue licked, her mouth sucked. She was inexperienced but what she lacked in knowledge she more than made up for in hot, sweet pleasure. The wet, sucking sounds of her mouth over his cock were stealing his control, causing his flesh to tighten further, to spill a copious amount of pre-come into her hot little mouth. She lapped it up like the little sex kitten she was, humming in approval of his taste.

“Like this, baby.” The hands gripping her hair began to direct her. “Slow and easy, sweetheart. Suck it like your favorite lollipop. There you go…” He was panting as her tongue swirled over his tight flesh, her mouth moving up and down a second before that hot little tongue probed at the head.

“Sweet baby,” he whispered. Both hands gripping her hair now, his fingers tangling in the silken strands as her soft hands wrapped around the base of his erection and began a slow, gliding, stroking action along the rest of the shaft as her hot lips destroyed him.

“So pretty…” And she was. The most beautiful creation he had ever laid eyes on. “There you go, baby, suck me slow and hot, just like that. God, your fucking tongue is killing me.” She stroked, licked, sucked, taking him nearly to her throat before pulling back, only to sink down on him again. Her lips, tongue and mouth surrounding him with damp heat.

Her eyes gleamed up at him, heavy-lidded, dark with wonder as he fucked her mouth, sleepy-eyed and filled with innocent lust. And if she wasn’t careful she was going to end this phase of the game way before he was ready for it.

“Enough.” He lifted her head, tugging at her hair as a dark, deep moan left her lips.

“Like that?” He pulled at her hair again, watching as his dick slid free of her lips with a small pop.

“Don’t make me stop.” Her hands were busy little things, moving over the stiff flesh even as he drew her to him.

“Shh, baby. Come up here.” He wrapped his hands around her curvy waist, lifting her to her feet as he rose from the couch, looming over her, his hands sliding up her narrow waist until they paused just below her heaving breasts.

“You have no fucking idea how much I want you,” he growled. “You’ve been like a fever in my blood ever since you turned sixteen. A sweet little baby with no clue how depraved I could get with that soft body of yours.”

A secretive little smile tilted her lips.

“Are you going to spank me?” she whispered. She was a temptress, a soft little sex baggage and he was going to take what he had come to consider his. “Be careful, Slade, I might like it.”

He knew she would. But first—first there was one need he couldn’t control any longer. Her kiss. Those pouty, soft little lips that wrapped around his cock had other business to attend to now. Namely, his tongue.

He lowered his head, watching her breath catch, her eyes flutter as a whimpering little cry left her throat a second before he took her lips. He should have made allowances for her innocence, he knew. He should have started out soft, should have eased her into it. But God he was hungry for it. He needed to taste her worse than he needed to breathe right now.

She was sweet heat. She was a fire he couldn’t extinguish inside his soul—and she was his.

His lips moved over hers, his tongue pressing past as a gasp. A heated whimper echoed from her throat and her hands lifted, sliding into his hair, gripping the thick strands as she arched against him.

Fuck yeah! She tasted like midnight. Like a hot summer night. Her tongue met his hesitantly as he swept in, a rough growl leaving his throat as his lips slanted over hers and he jerked her to him.

His hands moved up her back as he twined his tongue with hers, finding the small catch to the bikini top and jerking it loose. He could feel her trembling against him, her fingers pulling at his hair as his lips ate at hers. He couldn’t get enough of her, couldn’t kiss her deeply enough, strongly enough, couldn’t convince himself he was tying her to him fast enough.

Within seconds he had the top released, tossing it carelessly to the side and not really caring where it fell.

And her breasts were pressing into his chest. Hot little nipples, hard as pebbles, poked into his flesh, bringing a rumbling groan to his throat as he tore his lips from hers.

“Come here.” He lifted her to him, feeling her knees grip his hips as he lifted her to his chest, turning and moving through the opened door that led into the bedroom. The bed. He had to get her to the fucking bed before he took her on the couch. And it was a possibility. Damn, he was so hot, so ready to fuck he could feel the sizzle of impending release tingling at the base of his spine.

“Slade…” Her soft, heated voice stole his sanity. “Oh God, Slade, I’ve waited forever for you touch me.”

He had waited forever to touch her. So many years he could feel them weighing on his shoulders, his soul. She was his. By God, she belonged to him and no one else. He’d be damned if he’d let another man have her. Never. Not as long as he lived.

Holding her in his arms was natural, right. She was a living flame warming all the cold places he thought existed within himself, filling the lonely corners and surrounding him with light.

As he laid her back on the wide bed, staring down at the rapid movements of her swollen breasts, her gently rounded tummy and the tattoo peeking above the band of her bikini bottoms, Slade knew he had found something he had searched for most of his life. A sense of belonging.

Long, dark strands of hair haloed her face and head, spreading out on the pillow like a fan as her dark eyes watched him with heated need. Her arms stretched above her head, arching her breasts higher, a deliberate temptation he had to grit his teeth to refuse. His cock demanded he take her and take her now, but there were so many ways he needed to touch her. Love her.

“You’re beautiful,” he breathed as he moved to stretch out beside her, his lips finding the fragrant hollow of her throat as her head fell back, her neck arching to his caress.

A trembling moan left her lips as she shuddered in response to his fingers moving to her tight nipples.

Caressing her neck with his lips, teeth and tongue, he let his thumb and forefinger grip one hard bud, exerting just enough pressure to test her limits for the pleasure/pain he knew he could give her.

God, she was so young. Too young to know how dark, how intense sex could be. How far he could push her as he stole the illusion of control from her.

She arched her breasts to him, a ragged cry filling the night a second before his lips took hers again, his tongue plunging deep into her mouth as he began to push her. He wanted all of her. Every shred of control, her last inhibition, the innocence that was so much a part of her and filled him with such hunger.

He filled his hands with her breasts, his fingers tormenting her nipples as she began to move beneath him, her hands gripping his hair now, pulling at the strands to hold him closer, to take his kiss deeper as he consumed her. Hell, she was consuming him.

The sight of those little bikini bottoms were still tempting him. Even now, his mind focused on her kiss, on the hard little mounds beneath his hand, all he could think about was that damned tattoo. He had to see it. Breaking off the kiss, his spread hard, hungry kisses down the line of her throat as one hand moved over her trembling stomach to the material shielding the soft flesh of her pussy.

He didn’t have the control to move easy, to ease her into anything. He pushed his hand beneath the material then stilled in shock at what met his touch.

“Fuck,” he breathed roughly, lifting his head to stare into her dazed eyes. “What the hell have you done?”

Rising to his knees he gripped the band circling her hips and tore the fragile material from her. Just that easy, the scraps of fabric ripped from her body and were tossed carelessly to the floor as he reached for the light overhead and flipped it on.

She lay before him, silken flesh glistening with a satin sheen, bared to his gaze, his touch. The tender folds devoid of the soft curls that should have been there. She had waxed. There was no evidence of shaving, no look of roughness or redness—the flesh was just soft, natural and glistening with a thick layer of feminine cream that had his mouth watering in hunger.

He was dying to touch. To open her with his fingers, to taste her with his tongue. The peaches and cream flesh gleamed in temptation as his gaze lifted to the small tattoo just above her thigh. A small smile tilted his lips.

Fanciful, like Jessie was. The little dragon breathed out a flame, but had a decidedly feminine air to it.

The soft colors of the dragon pulled at what little light reflected from the front of RV and looked sexy as hell.

“That is such a ‘Jessie’ tattoo,” he whispered, seeing the fierce, yet feminine core of Jessie that he loved so much in the whimsical little creature.

“I thought you might like it.” She breathed out, panting, her face flushed and lips swollen as she stared back at him. She made him crave her. Crave fucking her, hearing her screams echoing around him as she pleaded for everything he could give her. And he could give her so much.

“I love it,” he whispered. “More than I should.” His fingers feathered over it before moving to the swollen flesh below, feeling the sweet heat of her juices against his fingertips as he followed the narrow slit to the entrance of her vagina.

“Slade…” Her cry echoed around him as he rimmed the sweet opening, his fingertip caressing, testing the small opening as he parted her. She was honey slick and hot cream. The feel of her dragged a groan from his lips as she lifted to him, her thighs parting further.

He needed to taste her. He watched as his fingers slid through the juices that eased from her pussy, his chest aching as he forced himself to breathe, fighting to drag enough air into his body. She stole his breath, his control. His heart. In that moment Slade realized Jessie had the control to break him, to complete him.

“You’re too young,” he whispered as he lifted his fingers from the sweet flesh he had been caressing.

Bringing them to his lips, he ignored the shock that widened her lips as he licked at the sweetness, his cock jerking as the silky slide of her passion fed his lust.

Watching her closer, he moved his hand, lowering it to her lips as he smoothed a small amount of the sweetness over her bottom lip.

“Taste how sweet you are,” he whispered. “The sweetest, softest little pussy in the world, and it’s going

to be mine. All mine. Isn’t it, Jessie?”

A shudder ripped through her body as she watched him, her wide, dark eyes burning into his soul as he saw the innocence that reflected in them. His Jessie was soft and sweet, and untried. Untrained to passion. Slade knew he should have left her alone, knew he should walk away, but once he tasted her, there was no denying her.

“Taste yourself,” he urged her gently, despite the roughness of his voice. He needed to see her accepting the hungers that tore through her, needed to know she was immersing herself as deeply into the lust as he had been dragged into it.

A blush stole over her face before running along the slender column of her neck to the rapid rise and fall of her hard-tipped breasts. Then her tongue emerged, sweetly pink, and licked at the juice glistening on her lips before it curled around his finger.

He watched as she suckled delicately at his finger as his cock jerked violently, remembering the feel of that hot little mouth tugging at him. Sharp little teeth scraped over the pad of his finger as her eyes, dark and filled with longing, gazed up at him.

She would destroy his soul, he thought, so very easily. Or she could remake his world and fill it with a light he had never imagined possible. He prayed for the light.