Fire and Ice (Guardians) Read online

  Maia trashed her head wildly and moaned, "Almost there, don't stop!"

  But he stopped and Maia wanted to strangle him.

  "Not without me, babe."

  She heard a rustle of clothes as Jack took off his shirt and freed his raging erection and then he covered her body with his and suddenly slammed into her, burying himself to the hilt inside her.

  Maia gasped as an uncomfortable fullness hit her; she had to struggle to take in Jack's size.

  Jack sensed her discomfort. He paused and searched her face.

  "You, okay?" he whispered huskily.

  Maia nodded and squeezed her legs around his hips to encourage him to move. He withdrew slowly and slid back in. Her core started relaxing and the pleasure returned swiftly.

  "You're so tight," Jack gritted raggedly, pushing the edge of his arousal.

  One of her leg was wrapped around his waist, the other dropped to his side allowing him to drive his shaft deeper.

  Maia started writhing beneath him, she was so close. "Harder, Jack. Oh God, harder!"

  "Come on, babe. Give it to me," he grunted roughly.

  He moved one of his hand to the back of the couch and started powering in and out relentlessly. He pulled out almost all the way and slammed back into her. The third time he thrust, Maia was overwhelmed with the burst of her own orgasm. She felt her inner muscles spasming around his rigid flesh.

  "Jack...Oh God... don't stop!" Maia cried out as she felt her sex pulsing deliciously.

  Jack continued to pound into her furiously, almost savagely, his hand gripping the corner of the couch for extra leverage as he pumped harder. With one final powerful thrust his neck muscles tensed as he shuddered. He almost yelled his release but instead lowered his head and started kissing her, groaning into her mouth as his own orgasm overwhelmed him.

  Coming down from his climax, he stayed buried inside her and started nuzzling her neck, randomly nipping her and breathing in her scent as he continued to rock gently into her.

  Wow, Maia thought. That was intense. She felt Jack smile against her neck and realized that she had said it aloud. Shit.

  He lifted his head and his slate-blue eyes connected with hers as he said softly, "Yeah, it was."

  "Um, you're still inside me," Maia told him.

  Jack nudged his semi-hard cock further into her and grinned roguishly as her eyes widened. "So, I am."

  He then pulled out slowly, pushed back and tucked himself back into his pajamas. Maia had barely gotten her panties on before he swept her into his arms.

  "Where are we going?" she demanded, a little peeved because he kept hauling her around.

  "We're going to get you cleaned up, and then we're going to bed," Jack declared before he added. "Together."

  ***

  Jack stared at the woman tucked securely in the crook of his arm, one leg thrown over hers, her ass pressed against his crotch. They were spooning. Jack didn't spoon; he never had in his past relationships. Even with Claire, they'd cuddle briefly after sex but he'd pull away eventually. With Maia, it was different. It felt natural, like she had always belonged there, pressed close to him, a perfect fit. He had always known sex with her would be mind-blowing, but he hadn't expected it to touch a part of his soul in a way he wasn't ready to examine. As he drove hungrily into her softness, there was an overwhelming need for him to possess her, to make her his, to own her body and soul.

  Jack sighed into her hair. He recalled how he had battled with her earlier to finally get her to sleep with him in bed.

  After he had carried her up the stairs, she started to struggle in his arms, forcing him to set her on her feet. Then she tried to stalk into her own bedroom.

  "You take another step towards your room and I'll toss you over my shoulder," Jack warned balefully. She was standing in front of him in her tank and her panties, her expression mutinous.

  "Though I would enjoy kicking your ass, that would seem ungrateful after you've given me an impressive orgasm," Maia acquiesced. "Fine, which one is your bedroom?"

  Jack's lips twitched. "Third door on the right."

  He immediately led her to a large bathroom finished extravagantly in Italian marble. There was a huge shower fitted with state-of-the-art shower heads and an even larger bathtub.

  "Jeez, you can fit a cheerleading squad in there," Maia said, eyeing the tub.

  "Jealous?"

  "Oh, puh-lease." As she rolled her eyes, Jack found her so damned adorable he wanted to kiss her all over.

  He had a hard time reconciling the image of the woman who had just blown the heads off three men with the woman he had just had the best sex of his life with.

  He lifted her by the armpits and deposited her on the counter beside one of the marble sinks.

  When she moved to hop off, he ordered, "Stay." He turned on the water and got it to a warm temperature before he fetched a hand towel. Jack started to slip off her panties.

  "Hey!" Maia glared at him, slapping at his hand.

  He gripped her thigh and returned her glare, not backing down. "Now, we can do this the easy way ... " he began on a threat.

  She huffed, then lowered her eyes and looked away. Jack tried not to smile triumphantly as he removed her lacy bikini and started to clean her up, intimately touching her with a warm moist towel.

  "Are you always this considerate with the women you have sex with?" Maia asked sarcastically.

  "Sometimes," Jack lied. Actually, he had never done this before, he just wanted to continue touching her, he couldn't get enough of her. Damn her.

  After he had finished, he said, "There's an extra toothbrush in that drawer."

  "We are not sharing a bed."

  Jack lost his patience. God, was he going to have to fight her tooth and nail on everything?

  "Look, frankly you're getting exhausting. Get it through your head, while I'm fucking you, you sleep in my bed. You told me we got two weeks. Well, I'm not wasting any time. Every minute I get, whether it's waking up in the middle of the night or waking up in the morning and I wanna be inside you, I'm getting fucking inside you."

  Maia looked at him for a beat as if considering what he had just said. "Could you please go to my room and grab me a pair of panties and pajama bottoms. Top and bottom drawers."

  "Sure thing, babe," Jack replied, thrown off-guard by her sudden capitulation. Then he added, "Just move your stuff into my room tomorrow."

  All was going smoothly or so Jack thought until they got under the comforter. She was lying at the very edge of her side of the bed, her back towards him.

  Jack felt his annoyance growing. He'd never been in this situation before. In all his relationships, the women usually rolled into him and hugged him across the waist. He would allow that position for a while before disengaging and setting them firmly aside.

  And now, the woman he desired the most was showing him her back.

  Knowing he was up for another battle, he edged closer to her. He saw her shoulders tense, and smiled sadistically as he tagged her around the waist, hauling her against him and trapping her legs with his.

  "Jack," Maia hissed. "I can't sleep when my limbs are encumbered like this."

  "Give it a try, sweetheart," he murmured lazily. "You might like it."

  She continued to squirm. Her ass was rubbing against his crotch and damn him if he didn't find that arousing.

  "Babe, unless you want me inside you again, I suggest you stop wiggling. You're making me hard," Jack said softly into her hair as he rubbed his growing erection against her to prove a point, laughter rumbling in his chest as she gasped in outrage.

  "Go to sleep, babe," he bent down and kissed her temple and held her close. Her body was tense and rigid, her breathing uneven. After about fifteen minutes, her body relaxed and she finally fell asleep. Not long after, he followed her into slumber.

  Jack thought he was dreaming: a child-like voice was speaking Russian. He woke up and realized that Maia was having a nightmare. She had somehow broken free
of him and was moving her head from side to side, her hands gripping the bedsheets. Jack had a little grasp of Russian and realized in horror what she was saying: she was begging someone not to kill her mother and father.

  What. The. Fuck?

  Jack propped up on an elbow and started shaking her. "Maia, wake up babe."

  Her eyes opened immediately. "Jack..."

  "You were having a bad dream..." Jack started saying.

  "Oh, okay..." she closed her eyes again and fell promptly back to sleep.

  Jack stayed awake for a while, gathering her tightly to him. He was shocked at the revelations of her nightmare even if he had always doubted that Maia Pierce was her real name. Jack would bet his whole car collection that she was not of American descent either. He had always thought her features looked European, and he would bet she was Russian. She was getting too damn complicated for him. His survival instinct told him to run the other way, while another fragment deep inside him was demanding some answers and the latter part was winning. Jack was going to call in some favors and get the information he needed on Maia Pierce, damn the consequences.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Maia blinked her eyes open and noted the overcast sunlight filtering through gauzy, linen curtains. The gentle crash of waves of the North Carolina coast was lulling her eyes back to sleep. However, the unfamiliar weight of a heavy arm flung across her waist, not to mention the muscular leg shoved between her thighs, reminded her of the unusual events of the previous evening.

  She had killed three men yesterday and then gone home and had the best sex of her life. With Jack McCord. And now she was spooning in bed. With him. Spooning! Maia was not a cuddler. She wanted her arms and legs free of any constraints. How she fell asleep last night in this position was a miracle and one she would not likely repeat.

  Maia smiled, much like the cat that's had the cream, as she remembered the unrestrained, almost wild sex they had the night before. Wow. Jack sure knew how to use that hard mouth and hands of his, not to mention how deliciously endowed he was in the other department. She had not had the opportunity to give it an ocular inspection, but she felt it undoubtedly in her inner core muscles. Maia shivered in recollection—fine male specimen indeed.

  "You awake?" his voice rumbled in her ear.

  "Hmmn...nnn," Maia mumbled in response.

  The hand that was on her waist drifted south, roaming beneath the waistband of her pajamas directly underneath her lace panties and hit the target.

  Maia moaned.

  "You're so wet," Jack whispered as he started kissing her jaw. "I want to see all of you."

  He gently got her on her back, and then getting up to straddle her thighs, he lifted her tank top off of her. She instinctively tried to cross her arms over her chest.

  "No, don't," Jack said as he pulled her arms and cocked her elbows on her sides so her hands were beside her head. His eyes were unreadable, inky dark orbs that trailed down her neck, collarbone and over her breasts.

  He quickly took her lips in a quick wet kiss before paying homage to each of her breasts, just lazily circling the nipples with his tongue. By now, Maia could tell Jack was a breast man. His hands were busy tugging her pajama and panties down. He got off her and then propped himself up on an elbow by her side to take in her nakedness.

  "You are so beautiful," he murmured in reverence. This time, when Maia looked back into Jack's eyes they were growing heated, hungry. His fingers lightly circled her nipples before stroking down her belly, his touch feather-light.

  Maia wanted his mouth on her breast. "Jack, stop teasing."

  But he ignored her as his hand played right below her belly button and drifted lower, straight to the mound between her thighs. Maia spread her legs instinctively as his fingers sought the moistness between them.

  Jack shifted a bit closer, still not kissing her. "I want to watch you come," he declared thickly, his voice grating with lust. His fingers started doing whatever magic they did. It didn't take long; he hit the target the first time and Maia, already turned on by her earlier thoughts of Jack's talented mouth and hands, was coming so hard she had to grip his forearm as she moaned her release.

  "Jack..." she panted heavily as she shamelessly rocked her hips to his thrusting fingers as her pleasure pulsed through her sex.

  "Jesus, Maia," he muttered hoarsely and suddenly he was there, throwing her legs over his shoulder and plunging his tongue into her, sucking her swollen folds greedily.

  "No, Jack, stop...I'm too sensitive," Maia gasped. She was going to pass out, she couldn't breath, she was wound up so tight and then she was coming again, shuddering, her toes curled.

  He got up on his knees and dragged her up, impaling her on his massive erection. He was powering up like a piston, plunging into her while yanking her down to meet his thrusts.

  Maia thought vaguely that she was going to have her third orgasm and she did as she spasmed all around his hard flesh. She felt boneless.

  Jack had her on her back again and continued thrusting fiercely into her as he chased his own release.

  "Maia ..." he groaned raggedly, shuddering as he threw his head back and came long and hard. He collapsed onto her but quickly rolled to his side, an arm curving around her to pull her tightly to him.

  "Jesus, we need to slow down," he muttered.

  ***

  "You have to feed me," Maia said as she tried to wiggle out of Jack's arms. It was three o'clock on a Sunday afternoon and they had been in bed all day.

  "You're a greedy little thing," Jack smirked as he let Maia escape out of bed. He had taken her more times than he could count. The last one, he was finally able to slow down to kiss every inch of her smooth, satiny skin, memorizing every curve and sensuous line. He slid into her moist heat with deliberate intent, rocking into her gently, only increasing the tempo when she had begged him to make her come. He came the same time she did. It was the most beautiful experience.

  He watched her naked body walk to his dresser and root through his drawers to grab a t-shirt to throw on.

  "For food, crazy man. Sheesh, I don't think I can walk for a week," Maia grumbled. "You're insatiable."

  Only for you, Jack thought. He laughed and said, "Come on, don't tell me you didn't appreciate those multiple orgasms I gave you."

  "Yes, but I need more than apple pie to sustain me," Maia retorted as she picked up his brush and yanked it through her wild hair.

  "Hey, I did all the work," Jack said as he got up from bed, also naked, and came up behind her to hug her.

  "Because you wouldn't let me drive, your Bossiness."

  Maia stared forlornly at her unruly hair and her flushed face in the mirror groaning, "God, I look ..."

  "Thoroughly fucked?" Jack finished the thought for her and chuckled as Maia speared him with a glare.

  "Come on, let's go eat before you faint. I have more plans for you," Jack said devilishly as he bent down to pick up his clothes.

  Maia watched Jack retrieve his pajama bottom to slip it on commando. Now that's a gorgeous ass, she thought lustily, biting her lip. And it's mine for two weeks.

  As much as she was used to working out and yoga, her body was sore. Where did he get all that stamina?

  Jack caught her looking at him and clucked, "Now who's insatiable? You keep looking at me like that, and we'll never get out of this room."

  Not bothering to throw on a shirt, he grabbed her hand and led her down the stairs to the kitchen.

  Maia switched the oven to 350 ºF and took out the rack of lamb and potatoes from the refrigerator. Jack uncorked a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon and decanted it.

  While the oven pre-heated, Maia called Grace.

  "Maia, oh my God, I heard what happened," Grace gushed over the phone.

  "How are Kyle and Betty?" Maia asked.

  "They're okay. They went to the station this morning to give their statements. Are you okay, sweetie? I can imagine how horrible it was to see all that blood," Grace said.

  Obv
iously, Kyle and Betty didn't share what really happened.

  "I'm fine. I'm glad they're okay," Maia said, and then, changing the subject. "I'm heating up the lamb, can't wait to eat it."

  "It's three o'clock, dear. Didn't you eat brunch?"

  Maia felt her cheeks burning. "I wasn't very hungry this morning. Last night must have done a number on my appetite," she lied.

  Jack was smiling. Damn him.

  "And Jack, had he tried the lamb yet?" Grace asked.

  "Uh, Jack wasn't hungry either," Maia replied, not knowing what else to say.

  Silence, then muffled laughter came over the phone.

  "Okay, dear," Grace said knowingly.

  "See you tomorrow, Grace," Maia said, desperate to end the call.

  Jack was looking at her with amusement as he handed her a glass of wine after she hung-up the phone. She took a big gulp savoring any form of nourishment. She was starving.

  "Easy, you don't want it to go straight to your head," Jack admonished.

  She opened the refrigerator, took out the prosciutto and started popping slices into her mouth. "Starving. Want some?"

  He shook his head and took a sip of wine. He walked over to the cabinets and took out the baking sheets to set the lamb and the potatoes on. After popping those in the oven and setting the timer, he said, "I have an idea. How about you and I hop into the shower while our food heats up?"

  Maia looked at him dubiously.

  "I promise to be on my best behavior."

  "Not sure I've seen a best behavior from you, Jack."

  "You wound me, babe. And you give me too much credit. Like you, I need more nourishment before I can perform up to par," Jack waggled his eyebrows.

  A shower would be nice, might ease some of her sore muscles.

  True to his word, Jack didn't try anything sexual. He soaped her back and insisted on shampooing her hair. Maia returned the favor by soaping his back. He did kiss her a couple of times but it was more of the tender sort than the leading-to-sex sort.