resign from the special forces. he'd had enough of blood and death anyway. he'd had a bellyful of it.

he'd take care of janey, and their child.

he was a damned good father. hell, he'd raised crista. she'd survived, even turned out to be a hell of a woman. he could do it again with his own. he was a man now, not a kid himself.

and he was rationalizing something that had a slow, steady burn building inside him. he wanted to jerk her closer, wanted to lean down and kiss her stomach, whisper to the life that could be growing there. he was going crazy and he hadn't even hit middle age yet.

and natches would kill him. he almost grinned at the thought of that. natches mackay. they'd called him the ice man once. now he was like an active volcano ready to blow at any moment. his wife and janey were his trip wires.

"hmmm." a little moan slipped from the woman he was holding as she moved against him again. her ass wiggled against his cock and alex ground his teeth together at the sweet pleasure that rocked through him.

he could have this, every night. every day. once they caught the bastard tormenting her, he'd show this county that janey wasn't to be messed with. she had paid for being dayle mackay's daughter in ways that should have broken her years before. should have turned her cold, heartless. instead, the core of the girl she had once been had hidden behind an unemotional facade and cool green eyes. a facade that was slowly easing around him. tonight, she'd gotten angry. flushed cheeks, blazing eyes. tomorrow, she'd likely scratch as deep as that damned cat of hers, once she realized he wasn't letting her go.

try to run off to california on him, would she? his smile was less than amused. like hell. his woman.

his hand pressed her closer, felt the smooth roundness of her stomach. and, maybe, his child as well.

she wasn't going anywhere without him.

"again," she mumbled, surprising him, rubbing her ass against his cock, her hand covering his.

"sleep, baby." he kissed her forehead, then groaned as her leg lifted, rested along his, opening herself to him.

"again." sleep-filled, demanding, the hunger in her tone undid him.

alex moved, shifted, gripped the shaft of his cock in his hand and eased it against the snug opening of her wet pussy.

she hadn't cleaned their sex from her. that still amazed him. their combined juices clung to her, slid against the head of his cock as he tried to ease into her.

one touch. that was all it took. just one touch. she reached between her thighs, her fingers curling along his balls, and he lost his damned mind. lost it. lost it inside the tightest pussy he'd ever fucked, as he plunged half the length of his dick inside her. pulled back, pushed in. he was moving inside her, harder than he should. he knew he was being harder than he should be.

but fuck. christ almighty. she was lava-hot. his cock was bare, no latex, and it was the most exquisite pleasure in his life.

and he couldn't stop to savor it.

"alex, it's so good." her forehead pressed into his arm as her hand curled beneath it. there was an edge of a sob in her voice, desperate pleasure, rising need.

"here. over." he felt like an animal. like a brute. he pushed her to her stomach, lifted her ass, and pushed inside her, hard and deep. "touch your clit, janey. rub it. make it better."

her head was shaking against the pillow as he pushed inside her again and stilled. tight, hot flesh rippled and contracted around him as he covered her, hovering over her, his lips at her ear.

"it'll feel so good." he kissed the shell of her ear. "let your fingers caress your clit, baby. surely you masturbate." there was no way she didn't.

"not with you here." her whisper was scandalized.

"it will feel so good," he crooned again. "when you feel good, your pussy gets hotter, tighter. when your clit explodes, your tight little pussy is going to grab on to me and suck the life out of me."

she whimpered, a sound of pleasure and need. making janey come out of that cool little shell of hers was going to be his pleasure. he could do it. she loved his touch. needed it as much as he needed hers.

"touch yourself, baby." he gripped her hand and pushed it beneath her body. "think about me. think

about how crazy you're going to make me when your hot little cunt begins to quiver and tremble around my dick. i'll go crazy."

she moved and he felt it. her fingers were on her clit, her moans rising beneath him as he clenched her hip with one hand and thrust against her, pulled back. he eased inside her again, and felt the ripple and shudder as he stroked her inside and she stroked herself outside.

"damn, that's good," he said softly at her ear. he licked at the lobe, then nipped it and felt her panting for breath.

alex dug his knees into the mattress and pumped her hard then. fast, quick strokes before he stopped, stilled. she was crying out beneath him, shaking so hard in pleasure that she made him feel ten feet tall.

and she was still stroking her clit, her fingers playing over it.

janey was dying inside from the pleasure. she needed with a desperation she couldn't explain. as though in sleep, the hunger had risen inside her, biting into her.

"does it feel good, baby?" alex's voice sent tremors racing down her back. "you feel good on my cock.

like living fire. come on, janey, tell me you like it."

"love it. love it." she pressed her forehead into the pillow and lifted her ass for him. he stretched her wide, overfilled her, and she loved it.

"i could fuck you like this forever," he groaned. "just pumping inside you, slow and easy, baby. do you feel how hard your little clit is? how it throbs?"

"yes. oh yes." it was throbbing. hard and fast. like her heartbeat.

"i feel your pussy throbbing around my cock, too. you're getting close, aren't you? the closer you get, the tighter you get."

explicit, demanding. the words fired inside her brain, sending electrical impulses of sensation racing to her clit, her vagina.

he felt huge inside her. he was huge inside her, and she loved it.

"keep stroking, sweetheart," he crooned. "i want to feel you come around me."

she knew how to do this. this had saved her sanity. she stroked her clit, knowing it would never be the same again without alex inside her.

"feel good?"

"so good, alex. so good."

he kissed her neck, her ear.

"tell me to fuck you again, janey. come on, baby. do you know how much i loved hearing that? those pretty lips pouting, demanding i fuck you."

"fuck me! fuck me hard, alex. i need it hard."

"why hard, sweetheart?" a shiver washed over her at his voice. "slow and easy lets you feel it. lets you feel it build and tighten inside you."

and it let her need. it built on her memories. it would sear into her brain and into her soul.

"see how good slow and easy can be?" slow and easy, one long stroke inside her. he eased back, leaving her desperate, empty. aching. then he filled her again, stretched her, revealed ultrasensitive nerve endings as her clit tightened with impending release.

"you take care of that pretty clit. i'll take of this sweet pussy."

janey fought for breath. she couldn't believe it was this good, this soon. that it could get better than it had been the first time. that anything could do this to her, make her insane, make her drop her inhibitions, her fears. but alex was doing it. with his hoarse statements, his crooning demands.

"oh, you're close," he growled at her ear, nipped at it. "you're getting tighter." he was moving faster.

that was what she wanted.

"yes, faster. oh, alex. i can't stand it." the pleasure was whipping inside her, whirlpooling, sucking her into some vast, starstudded realm filled with racing pinpoints of ecstasy.

her fingers rubbed over her clit, around it. close. so close. alex was moving faster, pumping inside her, shafting her with heavy, exquisite thrusts that pushed her higher.

"i'm going to come." the words whispered from her lips and he groaned again. "oh god, alex. i'm going to come."

"come for me, baby." he fucked her harder, faster. "come for me, janey, all over my dick. let that sweet pussy suck me tighter."

she exploded. more from his words and the heavy, pummeling strokes inside her than because of her fingers. but it was white-hot, brilliant. she screamed into the pillow and felt the violent, shuddering tremors jerk through her body, quake her womb, and throw her, helplessly, into a fire that consumed her and tossed her, left her writhing and convulsing beneath him as she heard him groan her name and stiffen behind her. his cock seemed to swell further, pulse, and spill a blaze of heat inside her as the sensations rocked her again.

she was lost in it. lost in the feel of him over her, like a powerful blanket, covering her, pumping into her as she slowly, so slowly, drifted through a shower of pleasure.

she collapsed beneath him.

long moments later, she felt him move, leave the bed. and then a warm damp rag ran between her thighs.

"no," she mumbled, more asleep than awake. "i like you there."

he paused and kissed her hip, and she swore she heard him curse. but sleep smothered her, dragged her in, and wrapped her in bliss.

she felt him pull her against him again, distantly, in her sleep dreamscape, his arms living warmth, his leg over hers keeping the nightmares at bay. she swirled on the edges of her subconscious, but his hold on her kept them back. his palm flattened on her stomach again. and she liked that. a kiss pressed to the top of her head, and it was the last thing she knew.

twelve

alex wasn't in bed with her when janey woke the next morning, but she hadn't expected anything less.

dusk to dawn. he couldn't be seen.

she stretched beneath the blankets and a small smile curved her lips, despite the flash of pain at the thought that he couldn't be seen with her. it hurt. it clenched inside her like an open wound, but oh, her body had the most pleasurable ache in it. she felt rejuvenated. impossibly energetic.

fat cat was at the bottom of her bed, curled into a tight little ball. he must not have come to bed until after alex left. janey wrapped her robe around her, then lay down across the bed, creeping up to him as he lifted his head and glared at her.

"aww, momma's sorry, fat cat." she propped her chin on her hands, inches from his face, and smiled back at him. "but momma got stroked last night. and mighty well. surely you don't begrudge me just a little bit of petting for myself?"

he blinked his eyes, narrowed them.

"it was really nice, fat cat." she sighed. "all over. i could swoon at the thought of it, you know."

he blinked and watched her almost curiously. as if he actually gave a damn, she thought, though it was a kind of happy thought.

"i wondered why you finally started demanding the petting," she said softly, reaching out with a finger to stroke his nose. he liked that. being stroked from between his eyes to his nose. he purred a little bit. "i want to curl into alex's lap and let him just pet me all night long, too, now."

fat cat gave a disgusted little feline pfft . janey let a laugh tickle her throat as the cat edged just a little bit closer.

"it was almost perfect," she told the cat. "he was very naughty, fat cat." she scratched under the cat's chin as he listened.

"i was purring, too," she drawled. "well, maybe i was screaming more than i was purring. he's really good, you know. excellent, fat cat. how many virgins have you heard of actually coming their first time?

and no pain." she smiled. "he made sure it didn't hurt."

another disgusted little rumble from the feline male.