Her eyes lifted to his, seeing the color blazing from within his dark face, his expression a grimace of painful pleasure.

“Don’t wait.” She couldn’t bear the waiting. “Please.”

The sudden jolt of his hips buried him deeper as Kelly shuddered at the tight penetration, her head hitting the mattress as her hips lifted closer.

She was consumed with pleasure. It burned through her nerve endings, clenched her womb, convulsed her vagina, and demanded satisfaction.

“Now.” Her hips lifted in a sharp, quick move as he fought to penetrate her slowly, to ease inside her. She didn’t want ease. She wanted the burn, the destructive, flaming pleasure she could feel building inside her.

And it came. The sudden upthrust buried his flesh deeper inside her, breaking through her virginity, sending a burst of rapture, sharp and much too short, through her system.

“Fuck! Kelly.”

“Oh God. Oh God…yes. Please, Rowdy.” She twisted beneath him, fighting the tighter hold on her hips, the sudden restraint as he paused above her. “Please. Fuck me. Fuck me now…”

She couldn’t scream; all she could do was lose her breath as he drew back then filled her, impaled her. Buried the full length of his cock inside her before he came over her, gripping her hair in his fingers as his lips covered hers.

Mindless, rapturous. The sensations blazed deeper, higher; they filled her senses, overcame reality, and sent her spiraling through a star-studded night as he gave her what she begged for.

His cock was a hard, blistering length of iron thrusting inside her, stroking tender tissue, building the tension, the pleasure, to a height that Kelly swore she couldn’t bear.

Writhing beneath him, she fought for release, gasping, begging, her hands buried in his hair, her lips open against his, every cell possessed by him, stroked by him, enflamed by him, until she was certain only death could await, because there was no way to survive such pleasure.

“Fuck! There, baby.”

She was trying to scream as his lips lifted, one hand gripping her hip, the other her hair as her lashes raised and she fought to plead silently, desperately for release.

“There sweet Kelly,” he groaned, the strokes suddenly intensifying, the rapid-fire thrusts pulling the tension tighter. Deeper. “Just like that, baby.”

She shook her head as she felt the sudden contractions in her womb.

“There it is sweetheart.” His voice was tight, encouraging. “Let it have you, baby. I’ll hold you. I promise.”

Rowdy would hold her. She wasn’t really going to die. She was going to disintegrate.

“Come for me, Kelly. Let it go, sweetheart. I have you. Forever, baby.” His voice was guttural, desperate, carnal. It was like black velvet, rasping over her senses, surrounding her, stroking her, filling her.

Her release slammed into her. Kelly felt the sudden implosion, then a heavy gathering, a second before ecstasy exploded violently inside her.

Convulsive spasms of release erupted around his hard flesh, a heavy, wet warmth washing over his cock as her release spilled through her.

Her muscles locked around him, attempting to hold him, to capture forever the rapture radiating through her with such brilliant force.

And she did die, she thought with hazy perception. All preconceived notions of loving Rowdy, died. All her fantasies of what pleasure could be, they died. And they were reborn.

His voice wrapped around her, his arms surrounded her, and he was driving deep, burying himself inside her before she felt the white-hot flames of his release as he began to fill her, spurting inside her with a force that stole any remaining sanity she may have possessed.

Kelly collapsed beneath him, exhausted, fighting to breathe, her strength exhausted as she shuddered in the aftershocks of a pleasure she could have never imagined existed.

This was why women crowded around Rowdy. Why they vied for his attention and begged for his touch. Why she had waited, prayed, and saved herself for him alone.

“I love you.” She could barely force the words from her lips as she let exhaustion take her. “Just love you.”

THIRTEEN

Rowdy ordered pizza at midnight and brought it to bed. He fed her bites of pepperoni and cheese and let her drink from his beer. He propped himself behind her, naked, and let her use his chest for a pillow as she acclimated herself from being a virgin to being his woman.

“When were the parents getting home?” The moon had risen hours ago, somewhere around the time that Rowdy was making her scream in the shower.

“They were staying overnight.” His voice was low, lazy. It soothed now, reaching into that part of her soul that had been stripped bare by his loving. “I thought we would stay the night on the boat.”

Kelly stilled against him. She could feel the tension slowly invading his body now, and it wasn’t sexual.

“Why?” Not that she cared to spend the night on the boat, but she knew he worried about vulnerabilities the boat presented if someone were watching it.

His arms came around her, snug, sheltering, and she knew immediately that something was wrong. Rowdy sighed behind her, his muscular arms flexing as he rubbed his cheek against her hair.

“You may as well tell me, Rowdy.”

“Someone was watching the house last night,” he said softly. “On the hill in front of your bedroom window. They were there for most of the night.”

Kelly swallowed tightly as she stared across the room. “He’s been watching me.” She had sensed it. A part of her had known she was being watched, she just hadn’t wanted to admit it.

“It’s okay, Kelly.” Rowdy’s voice lowered as his lips pressed against the top of her head. “It might not even be him. I just want to be certain.”

“And how are you going to be certain?” she asked, feeling the fear invade her in a slow, insidious crawl. “Where are Dawg and Natches?”

“They’re watching the boat. The sheriff is going to check out the hill tonight. He’s ex-Army, he knows how to do it. Besides, there’s no way I can make love to you in Dad’s house. Every time I think about it, Kelly, my balls shrivel.”

He was trying to lighten the mood. She could hear it in his voice. Kelly shook her head as she pulled herself from his arms and moved from the bed, swiping the shirt he had worn earlier from the floor and pulling it on.

“Kelly,” he protested softly. “Baby, I’ll fix this. I promise.”

She held her hand up without turning back to him, hiding her desperate attempt to hold back her screams with sheer force. Shaking her head she moved quickly to the doorway then down the steps that led to the first floor of the houseboat.

Where she was going to go, she didn’t know. There was no place to hide, no way to escape.

You’re my good girl, Kelly. My good little girl. Tell me you love me. You love me, don’t you?

Kelly stumbled at the last step as the words whispered through her mind, the memory of his hissing voice, his hands holding her down, parting the cheeks of her rear as he spread the lubrication there and attempted to rape her.

She had felt him trying to enter her.

She wrapped her arms over her stomach, determined not to throw up, not to scream in rage.

“Don’t do this to yourself!” Rowdy’s voice was dark, angry, as his arms came around her again, turning her to his chest, pulling her against him as he surrounded her, sharing the heat of his body as she felt ice building in her soul. “Kelly, I swear. We’ll catch him.”

She shook her head desperately, realizing tears were washing down her cheeks as the sobs clawed at her chest.

She could still feel the cuts the attacker had sliced into her flesh, the blood running over her skin, hot, slick.

“I can’t do this,” she cried, her fingers curling into fists as he held her to him, refusing to let her go. “I can’t do it again.” She would never survive another attack and she knew it. “Oh, God, Rowdy. Oh, God. I can’t…”

Rowdy picked Kelly up in his arms, moving to the sofa, cradling her against his naked body as he held her head to his chest and fought back the intense, primal violence threatening within him.

The bastard had scarred her. Not just her mind with his attempted rape, but her soul. The attack had instilled a fear inside her that he knew she would never fully recover from, and it destroyed him.

“It’s okay, Kelly,” he crooned at her ear. “I have you, baby. No one can hurt you here, sweetheart. I swear it.”

She shuddered against him. The cries had eased, but the trembling in her body hadn’t.

“Kelly, baby, you have to trust me.” He cupped her chin, forcing her to look up at him, his heart breaking at the sight of her eyes drenched in tears, her face pale from fear. “It’s going to be okay, baby.”

“It won’t be.” Husky, filled with fear, her voice sliced open his heart. “I knew he was watching me. I could feel him. God, Rowdy.”

She jumped from his lap before he could stop her, stumbling across the floor. She turned on him, her eyes blazing with cloudy fury as she stared across the distance.

“He won’t stop. He won’t stop until he hurts someone again, and next time, he might hurt you.”

What he thought was fury in her eyes was actually horror. He saw it swamp her features, leeching the rest of the color from her face.

Rowdy straightened from the couch, aware he was naked, aware his body was responding to the sight of her, the smell of her. He saw her gaze flicker down, then jerk back up.

“God, Rowdy now is not the time for that.” The look of complete female irritation on her face shouldn’t have been amusing—he was certain.

He made sure his look was completely wicked. He couldn’t bear to see the fear in her eyes; if he had to replace it with irritation or even anger, than so be it.

“Sweetheart, anytime is the perfect for this when you’re around,” he chuckled.

“No.” She shook her head, pacing back. “We have to talk about this, Rowdy. I have to figure this out.”

“Figure what out?” His eyes narrowed at the purpose that began to fill her face.

“I have to leave.” Her voice was laden with sorrow, with grief. “I have relatives on Dad’s side in Montana. It’s a nice little town. I can go there. For awhile.” Her voice roughened with the threat of tears.

“No.”

“Don’t be stubborn, Rowdy.” She faced him, determination and grief filling her eyes. “I can’t stay here. He could strike at Mom or your dad. Or—you.” Her voice trembled.

What the hell was he going to do with her? Rowdy stared back at her somberly, feeling his chest ache with an emotion that so outdistanced love that he couldn’t describe it.

“Forget it.” He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned back at her. “I’ll only follow you, Kelly.”

“You can’t follow me,” she snapped. “This is your home. The marina. The lake. All of it.”

“There’s lakes in Montana.” He shrugged. Arguing over her leaving would only make her more determined to go. He knew Kelly. Once she decided she was right, that was it. It took blood, sweat, and tears, on her part, before she would realize how wrong she was.

She was stubborn, defiant, soft, and loving, but she could drive him crazy in two hours flat if he let her. But he would never be bored with her. Frustrated, yes. Bored? Never.

“You can’t leave.” She glared back at him. “Your friends are here. Your cousins, your family.”

“So are yours.” He shrugged. “If you want to leave, fine. Pack. We’ll go to Montana. Hell, we’ll go to fucking Fiji if you want to and become beach bums, but you aren’t leaving without me.”

She propped her fists on her hips as her lips flattened.

“So I’m supposed to just sit here and wait on that bastard to attack again? Wait on him to hurt someone else? Maybe you?”