Текст книги "Nauti Temptress"

Автор книги: Lora Leigh

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Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

Warily, she watched as he moved closer, his head tilting as he stared down at her, his gaze becoming dark, stormy as it glittered almost feverishly.

“And you want it here,” he stated provocatively. “Don’t you, Eve? Right here within this grotto, spread out on that bench.” His head lowered, his lips brushing at her ear. “You want my tongue and my cock so deep inside your pussy that you can’t bear any more. But you want more than that, don’t you?” he whispered then, surprise and rapacious anticipation growling in his voice. “You want it to hurt just that little bit again. You liked it, didn’t you? Fuck, no.” His breathing was heavy, harsh. “You loved it.”

“Stop.” She couldn’t fight this battle. She didn’t have the experience or the knowledge to combat what he was sensing.

“Do you know what I would love to do to you?” His hand lifted, the calloused tips of his fingers running up her arm. “I’d love to turn you over on your stomach, prop that pretty rounded ass up to me, and spank it until it flushes cherry red. Until your pussy is so wet your thighs are damp with your cream. And when you’re begging, so desperate to be fucked that nothing else matters, I want to watch my dick stretch your ass, watch as that tiny, tiny little entrance blooms around my cock and sucks it inside.”

She couldn’t breathe.

Eroticism rushed through her, weakening her knees and accelerating her breathing as he gripped her hip with his other hand while the fingers stroking her arm slid to the curve of her rear.

Cupping the rounded flesh of her rear cheeks beneath the soft chiffon of her skirt, he clenched the rounded flesh, pulling at it, igniting a tiny burst of heated sensation in her anus.

“I could make that hurt so good, Eve. You won’t know if it’s agony or ecstasy. All you’ll know is that you want more. That you have to have more.”

She was shaking in his arms, trembling as his hand moved between them, obviously loosening his belt, then his jeans.

“Brogan.” Protest or pleasure?

She had no idea what she was feeling or how she should react. She had no idea how to handle the wicked, carnal animal Brogan was unleashing on her.

Or the one he was unleashing in her.

“I can’t take your ass here.” Grudging regret filled his voice. “Unfortunately, the lube and toys are all back at the house, baby. But I can give you part of what you want.”

His jeans parted and a second later she could feel him stroking the hard, heated length of his cock as her nails curled against the shirt covering his wide chest.

“Why . . . why are you doing this . . . ?” Why was he using his ability to sense only her sexual needs and not the rest of her? The sexuality, the hunger for him, was rooted in something much deeper than lust.

“Because I’m just as hungry to do it as you are to have it done,” he admitted, his tone ragged. “And I’m going to do it, Eve. Just like you’re going to suck my dick, right here. Right now.”

His gaze was narrowed as her gaze jerked to his in sudden nervous awareness.

“Go to your knees,” he demanded, though his tone gentled at the last second. “Show me how badly you want to come for me, sweetheart. Show me how badly you want me to come in your hot little mouth.”

Sensation erupted in her womb, spasming through it as his gaze suddenly gleamed with avid hunger and awareness.

“On your knees.” The erotic command sent wanton excitement exploding through her senses.

Slowly, her gaze held by his, she went to her knees.

His fingers slid into her hair, clenching it and holding her in place as he gripped the base of his cock and rubbed it against her lips.

“I love watching my dick slide between your lips,” he confessed, his voice thick and rough. “Watching you suck it in as that hot little tongue licks over it. Suck it in, Eve. Show me how much you want it.”

Her lips parted, her tongue curling over the engorged crest as he pressed inside, filling her mouth with the throbbing heat of his cock head.

She wrapped the fingers of both hands around the thick shaft as she began to milk it slowly, her mouth tightening on the crest, sucking it deep as it filled the damp interior.

Brogan’s hands clenched in her hair, his hips suddenly tense, the need to thrust inside her mouth filling him.

Fuck. How had this happened? He’d been certain he’d never convince his sexually inexperienced little Eve to become so brazen and wanton.

Eyes closed, her face flushed and absorbed in the complete sexuality overtaking her, Brogan watched as her lips stretched to take the broad crest.

Her mouth suckled at the iron-hard flared head; she milked it with her mouth and hands as each draw sent brutal lashes of pleasure striking at his balls, surrounding his dick. Her delicate hands moved on the wide shaft, masturbating it in rhythm to the hungry draws of her mouth.

“Sweet Eve.” He groaned, his body taut with the sweeping pleasure. “That hot little mouth makes me crazy.” His hips moved, thrusting shallowly against her stretched lips. “Your fucking mouth is so damned good. Watching my dick take your mouth is so damned hot.”

Her lips tightened, her mouth drawing on the fiercely erect cock head. Her tongue lashed beneath the flared head, rubbing at the highly sensitive, nerve-laden area just beneath the crest.

Exquisite pleasure tightened around the taut sac of his balls. Clenched tight beneath the base of his cock, his testicles throbbed, ached for release. He watched her lips surrounding the throbbing crest as he fucked in, pulling free, the glistening moisture followed by the lash of her tongue around the crest.

His fingers held her hair, keeping her head firmly in place as he pressed deeper.

“Take it, baby,” he crooned, encouraging her hunger. “Just relax. Breathe out and swallow.”

His cock slid to the back of her mouth, and the feel of her swallowing against the tip sent jagged forks of sensation rushing straight to his balls.

Brogan knew he wasn’t going to last much longer. Hell, he didn’t want to last much longer. He wanted to watch her face, see her take his release as he filled her mouth with it.

His thrusts increased, a ragged groan escaping his chest as he swore he could feel something more. He swore he could feel wild hunger, fierce pleasure, and a tempting adventurousness that he knew had to belong to her.

He could sense her pleasure.

He could sense her hunger.

His cock slid faster inside her gripping mouth, sinking to the depths of it, feeling her moan ripple against the sensitive head. Each sensation, each strike of pleasure that began in the flared, responsive crest echoed stronger, hotter in his balls. Her hands stroked and milked the shaft; her tongue licked and lashed; her mouth sucked and tightened around it. Pleasure whipped through the hardened flesh, coalesced in his steadily tightening testicles before it exploded through his system.

“Suck it. Fuck. Suck it deep, baby.” He surged to the back of her mouth as his head tilted back in furious rapture. Brogan felt the ecstasy explode in his balls before it rushed in furious release to the broad head of his cock.

Throbbing, expanding in rapture, Brogan felt the first heavy gush of his semen spurting into her mouth as she struggled to take it.

Each subsequent explosive eruption drew a ragged groan from his throat. With each pulse of semen blasting to her throat, she swallowed, sending spikes of ragged pleasure shooting through his system.

Each spurt of his release jetting into her mouth, Brogan realized he felt more than he had ever felt before at the point of orgasm. He could feel his own release, feel it tearing through him, weakening his knees and draining his balls. But he felt hunger. A wild, tempestuous hunger that blazed with a heat that he knew could belong only to Eve.

A heat he had a feeling would turn into a conflagration and burn them both to cinders.

FOURTEEN

Eve was shaking, arousal and pure white-hot need flooding her bloodstream and pounding through her veins. As she stood before him, her knees shaking and weak, her senses dazed from the excitement surging through her system, she watched as Brogan toed off his sneakers, then slipped his jeans from his powerful legs.

He was still wearing the white, luxuriously soft cotton shirt buttoned to his chest. Those buttons were falling open beneath his fingers, though, revealing his powerful chest with its mat of red-gold curls and the almost invisible freckles she’d glimpsed the night before as the candlelight had gleamed off the powerful muscles.

He was so incredibly tall and strong. It was one of the first things Eve had noticed about him: that strength and easy power that he wore so effortlessly.

Moving to her, his hands framed her face, and though she hadn’t expected it, she watched in surprise as his head lowered to cover her lips with his.

The kiss was deep, searing, and intimate.

His tongue brushed over her lips, then over her tongue. He sipped at her lips, kissed them, drew her deeper into the twisting storm of sensation rushing through her.

“God, how pretty you are,” he whispered, reaching out to touch her. “Come here, baby.”

He sat down on the padded bench and his hand wrapped around the back of her neck. He pulled her to him. This time the feel of his lips moving over hers dragged a cry from her. The sound was so ragged it startled her, so filled with hunger it was shocking, even to her.

Running his hands down her back to her thighs, Brogan pressed her legs apart before he moved one to make her straddle him before pulling her closer to him.

She found herself straddling his lap, her rear resting on his knees as he kissed her with pure carnal demand. His hands gripped her rear, slowly pulling the curves apart until Eve felt the tingles of heat as the nerve endings in her puckered rear entrance revealed themselves.

Was she insane to have pushed him as she had? To have revealed how much she had enjoyed the pleasure-pain sensations he had given her the night before? But how could she have hidden the knowledge of it from him when she responded so readily to the more intense pleasure?

Whatever had happened the night before to bind them together hadn’t been the aberration she had thought it to be. It was still there, and she wasn’t the only one feeling it.

As he urged her closer she knew where he wanted her, knew he wanted her as he helped her remove the cami and her bra.

Easing his lips from hers, he kissed the line of her jaw, moving lower, drawing a cry from her as pleasure began washing through her.

Kissing his way from her lips to her neck, he laid more of the stinging kisses to the base of her neck, where he paused, caressing the skin there with a sharp, fiery kiss that dragged a startled moan from her lips.

Then one hand moved from her rear, slid beneath her breast, and lifted it, and he surrounded the small, pebbled tip with the heat of his mouth.

“Brogan,” she cried out, her arms wrapping around his neck as she arched against him. “Oh, yes, please.”

As he suckled at her nipple, his hand moved back to her rear, pressing beneath the fragile material of her skirt to find the naked flesh revealed by her thong panties.

The hardened width of his cock was pressed between them, the heated stalk grinding against her clit as her hips moved, rubbing the tortured bud against the fierce heat of the iron-hard flesh.

As she did she felt the hidden zipper at the side of her skirt release, easing down before Brogan pushed the material down her hips and let it puddle on the ground.

She was all but naked in his arms now. The cool mountain air touched her body, stroking it as the breeze drifted over it.

His hands moved to her rear again, caressing and cupping the curves as his lips moved to her other nipple. He sucked it inside as well, laving the tip with his tongue and sending starbursts of pleasure exploding in her womb.

One of his hands lifted, though she wasn’t certain what he was doing, because he didn’t move it to caress any other part of her body.

Then it landed against the rounded curve of her rear in a firm, heated little tap of his fingers.

“Oh, God!” Eve jerked in his hold, the muscles of her rear clenching, a shudder working through her body at the sensations flooding her system now.

It wasn’t a hard blow. There was nothing painful about it, just a little startling.

Then another landed.

His lips drew on her nipples, first one, then the other. His teeth rasped against them, tugging at the taut tips as she arched in his hold. Her nails bit into his shoulders now, her head tipping back, her hair flowing around her and caressing her naked skin.

The tap came again, this one just a little firmer, just a little heated against flesh that had already grown warm from the taps before it. With each heated caress a flame began to lick beneath her flesh and spread outward.

With each firm, quick little tap to each cheek of her ass, Eve felt the heat blooming in her rear spread to her clit, to the delicate muscles and tissue in the clenched emptiness of her pussy.

Sensations as shocking as they were arousing began to consume her, drawing muted, muffled little cries from her lips that she fought to contain.

The next tap was followed by his fingers slipping between her thighs, gathering the slick, heated moisture flowing from her vagina. Drawing her juices back from her pussy, he used the tip of a finger on the other hand to rub against the clenched entrance of her anus.

Another solid tap to her rear heated the flesh more, the sensation a stinging pleasure she was beginning to crave. She couldn’t get enough. It wasn’t burning enough. It wasn’t firm enough.

His fingers slipped between her thighs again, drawing even more of the slick heat from her pussy and easing it to her anus. As his hand delivered another hot little tap, a fingertip rubbed more firmly against her back entrance.

No more than two taps later he was able to use the same hand to gather the moisture outside her pussy to lubricate her anus further. His fingertip pressed against the little hole, pushing the slick moisture just inside the snug entrance.

The next little slap had his fingertip pressing further inside as she ground her clit against the stalk of his cock. The hard shaft pressed against her pussy, the iron-hard, iron-hot flesh torturing her with the awareness of how desperately she needed to be fucked.

With the next little blow to her rear cheek, Brogan gathered more of her juices as they spilled to his fingers, lubricated her anus further.

“Push against my finger with your muscles here,” he ordered her roughly as he began rubbing the little hole. “Open for me, baby; I’ll do the rest.”

His hand landed again; more of her juices were used to slick the little hole further; then, as his fingertip pressed against it, Eve fought to relax the muscles he caressed, pushing against the pressure.

His finger slipped inside.

Instantly the little hole clamped shut, shocking electrical flares of heat suddenly erupting in the nerve endings being stretched around the digit. He’d already penetrated the tight entrance, though. Her body’s instinct to clench around the intruder and then to try to push it out only aided in allowing his heavily lubricated finger to push farther inside.

His hand delivered another firm, heated pat, the gentle slaps driving her crazy with the burning heat flaring beneath her flesh. Between the cheeks of her ass his finger moved inside her, stretching the tight entrance around it and burying inside her again.

Pulling free, he dragged more of the juices collecting outside her pussy back to the tender entrance, pressed two fingertips against it, and began working them inside the tender channel.

Rising and falling against him, Eve worked her hips against the broad heat of his cock, her clit on fire. Her pussy clenched and wept the slick lubrication he was using to penetrate her rear; she was desperate to be filled by the throbbing shaft pulsing between them.

The two fingers penetrated her again, sliding inside her in one smooth thrust as Eve cried out, stilling against him as shudders raced through her body.

“Lift,” he ordered harshly.

She lifted against him, her knees braced on the padded edge of the bench as he used his free hand to maneuver his cock between them.

“More.” The sexual roughness of his voice had her fighting to breathe as she lifted further.

The flared crest of his cock pressed against the entrance to her vagina then, stretching it as another little slap landed on her rear and his fingers thrust inside her ass again.

The penetration, the pressure against her pussy had her bearing down, feeling the thick crest penetrate her muscles with a suddenness that had her head falling against his shoulder and a cry tearing from her throat.

“Brogan.” She sobbed, the demands her body was putting on her both confusing and frightening. “Fuck me now. Please. I can’t stand this.”

“Just a little more, baby.” He groaned, his fingers pulling back, working more of the natural lubrication inside her before penetrating her again. “Just a little more.”

She couldn’t wait just a little more.

His hand fell against her rear again and Eve lost her mind amid the shattering sensations tearing through her body.

The fact that he wasn’t wearing a condom registered only in the most distant part of her mind. The fact that his cock was inside her, working too slowly past the clenched muscles, wasn’t lost on her.

Lifting against him, feeling the flared crest of his cock throbbing inside her, Eve lowered herself against the impalement, forcing him deeper, harder.

His fingers pushed deeper into her rear, driving her to work her hips harder, to take more of him. His hand landed against her ass again in a firm little tap, almost a little slap, and sent a flare of such wicked heat racing through her system that nothing mattered but her desperation to reach her orgasm.

The dual penetrations were building a pleasure so hot, so wild inside her that Eve couldn’t bear the rising tension whipping through her. Her thighs clenched his, straddling them as she rode the fierce length of his cock with desperate movements.

She rose and fell, the heavy width stretching her pussy, stroking inside her as Brogan fucked her rear with his fingers and had her panting for air, fighting to scream out his name but unable to find the breath to do more than gasp.

Perspiration gathered on her body as the heat inside her begged for relief.

Brogan released the nipple he’d held in his mouth, his arm wrapped around her back as the fingers of the other hand thrust in an increased rhythm into the tender rear entrance and his hips began moving, driving his cock harder inside her, faster.

The heat of the morning gathered around them; the heat burning in their bodies began to flare and flame with sensation, burning their senses. Eve felt the conflagration as it happened as though in slow motion: The rake of her clitoris against his flesh as he drove inside her. The brutal pleasure that seared delicate nerve endings revealed by the thick width of his cock stretching her with burning pleasure. His fingers stroking inside her anus, stimulating nerve endings that responded with a strident clamoring for more.

Each sensation tightened, flamed, then erupted into an orgasm that shook her to her core.

It imploded inside her before exploding outward, sending her juices gushing against the rapidly thrusting movement of his cock and the sudden, heavy spurts of his release spilling inside her.

Her eyes opened wide in shock, met his, and that feeling of being a part of him was there again. As though time stopped and stilled for precious moments. As though nothing existed but the sensation of hurtling through space, locked in an ecstasy that neither of them could escape, and both of them shared—merging, melding, ecstasy that sealed them together for an impossible moment in time before hurtling them from an edge of such rapture that nothing else mattered.

Eve collapsed against him, only barely aware of the moment he fell backward on the bench, cushioned by the pad beneath them as Eve’s body was cushioned by his.

One arm locked around her, ensuring that she stayed in place, as they both fought to catch their breath.

Their hearts raced; their breathing was ragged, frantic.

Nothing existed outside the place they’d found for this one fragile moment. There was no danger; there was no anger or pain, confusion or impending heartache. There was nothing but the two of them, the pleasure that had bound them, and the certainty that, like an addiction, the need to touch, to taste, to hold each other again would be one for which denial would not be an option.

* * *

Finding the strength to pull themselves from the bench and dress took a while. As Eve pulled the thin silken camisole shell over her head and adjusted the thin straps over her shoulders, she looked up at Brogan.

Securing the dark leather of the belt at his hips, he hadn’t yet straightened his hair. The coarse, red-gold strands had fallen over his forehead and now lay disheveled around his head.

Scratching at his chest, he leaned down, snagged his shirt from the rug that lay over the stones, and pulled it over his arms. As he began securing the buttons, his gaze lifted as though drawn by the thought that suddenly seared her mind.

“What?” he asked absently, snagging his sneakers and untying them before propping himself against the heavy support column and pulling them over his feet.

“You didn’t use a condom,” she stated, watching him closely.

He paused for a moment before resuming with his shoes. Pulling the other one on, he tied them quickly before straightening and staring back at her.

“No, I didn’t,” he admitted—a little too calmly to suit her.

“You didn’t pull out either.”

His fingers raked through his hair, pushing it back, if not neatly, then at least into some kind of order.

“I know,” he admitted again.

She stared back at him, feeling a sudden disquiet begin to settle around her. “Why?”

He sighed heavily. “Because whatever’s going to happen began last night. The condom split, and before I could think to pull free, I was already spilling inside you. This morning isn’t going to make a difference.”

“You didn’t tell me this morning,” she stated, wondering why.

His jaw clenched brutally, a sudden feeling that he was pushing back something angry and bitter filling her senses.

“I was waiting to make certain it would be too late to use the morning-after pill,” he finally snapped, his eyes turning a dark gray as he glared back at her. “I don’t believe in it, Eve.”

She looked away, frowning heavily.

She couldn’t believe he had just said that. She couldn’t believe he would even suspect she would do something so horrible. That she would abort her baby, just get rid of it as though it were trash. Damn, he sure did have a hell of an opinion of her, didn’t he?

What hurt more, though, was the fact that he seemed to think it was okay to make that decision for her. That he thought she would be so easy to control and to maneuver.

He may not have lied to her, but what he had done was by far much worse: He had tried to take her free will, her right to a choice away from her.

“What?” he growled.

She rose from the bench, smoothed her skirt, then stared back at him painfully. “At what point, Brogan, did you begin to believe that you were entitled to make any decisions for me? Let alone one so important?”

Didn’t he know her any better than that?

There had been a few moments over the years when she had sworn she had known what he was going to do or say, or what his opinion would be even before he voiced it. Yet after all this time, he believed he needed to hide something so important from her rather than trusting her?

“When the decision involves me or mine, then I have some say in it,” he growled.

She laughed, a mirthless, angry sound that she didn’t bother to hide.

“No, Brogan, you only have the right to discuss it, and you just made damned certain you no longer have even that right.”

She moved from the grotto, aware of him following behind her, silent, a dark shadow keeping pace with her as she moved quickly back to the house.

Stepping inside the glass doors and hurrying through the living room, she suddenly came to a hard, surprised stop. Behind her, she heard Brogan curse, and she would have seconded the explicit word if it weren’t for the fact that she knew it was a word her brother was attempting to erase from his vocabulary.

And there he stood, along with Rowdy and Natches, all three men staring at Brogan with an animosity that would be impossible to miss.

“I’m fairly certain you were told that I was fine, Dawg.” She crossed her arms over her breasts and glared back at the three men.

“I was told,” he growled.

“You didn’t believe it?”

“Physically,” he offered, “I believed you were fine.”

“Then can I ask why you’re here? Tell me, have you decided to take it upon yourself to make some decisions for me that have absolutely nothing to do with you, as well?” she asked sarcastically.

“Told you so,” Rowdy muttered aside to Dawg as he lifted his hand and covered his mouth.

“Shut up, Rowdy,” Dawg ordered, his gaze still locked with hers.

“I told you so, too,” Natches offered.

Dawg didn’t bother to give the same order to his younger cousin.

“I’ll tell the four of you what.” She included Brogan in the offer. “You can stay here and beat one another to a bruised pulp, scream, yell, curse, or whatever, and I’ll just get my things and roll.” She looked over at Natches. “You were smart enough to drive yourself, right?”

“Yeah,” he answered warily as he hooked his thumbs in the belt cinching his lean hips. “Why?”

“You owe me,” she reminded him. “I want your ride.”

“Ah, hell, now, come on, Eve.” He frowned, protesting the order as he glanced at the other three. “I don’t like their company.” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate Dawg and Rowdy.

“You’re not leaving, Eve,” Brogan stated behind her.

She turned slowly, drew in a hard, deep breath, and met the anger burning in his gaze. “You don’t want to do this,” she told him softly. “I won’t be manipulated, ordered, or deceived, Brogan. If you learned anything about me in the past two and a half years, then you know that.”

Fury burned in his eyes, but his lips thinned as he only continued to glare at her.

Turning to her brother once again, she stared at him until his gaze flickered. No one, but no one could make Dawg flinch when he believed he was completely in the right.

“This is none of your business,” she told him. “I’m not six; nor am I sixteen. I’m a grown woman and I can make a grown woman’s decisions.”

“Can you?” His arms went across his chest as his brows lowered broodingly. “Even if he’s a damned criminal?”

“Even if I’m wrong about the fact that everything inside me tells me he’s not a criminal,” she amended, “I can’t live my life by your instincts and your rules, Dawg. I have to live by my own.”

“You made me a promise, Eve,” he reminded her. “I thought you understood the stakes.”

“Are you going to disown me, Dawg?” she asked curiously. “You once said we’d get along fine as long as I didn’t betray family, country, or myself. I haven’t betrayed any of the three. But you skirted the line when you manipulated a promise from me that you knew I’d never be able to keep.”

Rowdy and Natches both turned a look of disgust on their cousin.

“Man, you know Christa’s gonna find out,” Natches warned him.

“Not if you keep your fat mouth shut,” he growled.

Natches frowned and turned to Eve. “Is my mouth fat?” He was suddenly fingering his lips as though worried before turning on Dawg. “I’m going to give you a fat lip in a minute.”

Dawg snorted. “Yeah, and go home all bruised to Chaya? I don’t think so.”

Natches grinned. “I won’t get in near as much trouble as you will.”

Eve shook her head. “You three just work that out on your own.” She turned her attention to Natches. “Give me your keys.”

“That’s the last time I play cards with you,” he threatened her, clearly annoyed that the promise he owed her from the poker game months before had resulted in losing his ride for the day.

“You said anytime, anywhere,” she reminded him with a shrug as he tossed her the keys.

“Eve.” Brogan moved in front of her. “We need to discuss this.”

She shook her head, steely determination and offended pride clawing at her emotions. “No, Brogan, we don’t,” she told him softly, distancing herself from the frustration and the edge of desperation she felt emanating from him. “Not now. Not until you decide that controlling me may not be as important as you seem to think it is.” She turned to Dawg then. “You knew he wasn’t a traitor. Hell, your instincts are better than mine. You all but lied to me, Dawg. And I would have sworn that was something you would have never done to me. You knew all along he was an agent, didn’t you?”

Facing him, seeing the brooding guilt in his gaze, she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he had been aware of what he was doing when he did it.

Her eyes filled with tears.

She couldn’t stop them. She couldn’t stop the sudden, brutal sense of betrayal as it exploded inside her any more than she could have stopped the sun from rising that morning.

“Why did you do it?” Her voice cracked with the tears suddenly filling her eyes. “I wouldn’t have done that to you, Dawg. I wouldn’t have lied to you about Christa to keep you away from her.”

“Ah, hell.” It was Natches who emitted the low exclamation as he and Rowdy both turned on Dawg.

“He’s going to hurt you,” Dawg stated, so certain of it, so determined he was right that pure arrogant stubbornness filled his face.

“So what if he does.” A tear slipped free as she suddenly realized just how much she and her sisters, even her mother, had allowed Dawg to shelter them. “Can’t I live, Dawg? Do I have to have your permission?”

He frowned at the question. “No . . .”

“Evidently I do,” she cried. “You made me swear I wouldn’t take him as a lover by telling me he was the only man you couldn’t abide my being with. That you believed he was a traitor.” Her breathing hitched as astonishment filled the cousins’ expressions as they turned to Dawg.