Defending Harlow (Mountain Mercenaries #4)(76)

But after one cursory glance around, Lowell only had eyes for her. He turned her back to the bed and put his hands on her biceps. He backed her up, slowly, without a word. She should’ve felt awkward, but the intensity in his eyes calmed her.

It was obvious he wanted her. He wasn’t playing a game. Wasn’t being coy. His need was right there for her to see. It was heady, making her feel as if she were a beautiful siren rather than the plain woman she considered herself to be most of the time.

When the backs of her knees hit the mattress, he stopped but still didn’t say anything. His hands eased down her sides and grabbed the hem of her shirt. He paused as if to ask permission, and following his lead, Harlow didn’t say anything, simply raised her arms over her head and met his eyes without embarrassment.



Black wanted to rip her clothes off and shove himself inside her body so deep, she’d never be able to forget him. But he forced himself to go slow. To show her how much she meant to him.

Gray had been right again; Harlow was different from any other woman he’d ever met. He couldn’t stand the thought of her being in danger. If she was taken from him, as Allye had been taken from Gray, he literally wouldn’t be able to handle it.

He’d marched into her apartment tonight a total asshole. He could’ve been gentler. Told her that she was in danger and he worried about her safety. Instead, he’d demanded she tell him where she was at all hours of the day, like a total creeper. Then he’d scared her so badly she’d backed away from him . . . and hurt herself in the process. That had snapped him out of the haze he’d been in faster than anything else could’ve.

The fact that she was in her bedroom with him right now was a total miracle. One he wouldn’t ever take for granted.

He slowly peeled her shirt up and over her head, keeping eye contact with her. It wasn’t until he dropped the material behind him that he also dropped his gaze. Her tits were perfect. Plump and full, almost spilling over the pink lace encasing them.

Black could feel the darkness pushing him. Telling him to grab hold of the delicious mounds and squeeze until she cried out. But he forced himself to wait. To simply take her in with his eyes.

As if she could see the barely leashed need inside him, she smiled and reached down for his hands. She placed them on her chest and held them there. “Touch me, Lowell,” she said softly. “I want this. I need you.”

Taking a deep breath, Black kept hold of his control with an iron fist. He gently kneaded her tits, loving how her nipples hardened under the lace with his touch. Then she reached behind her and unhooked her bra. The cups immediately fell, and suddenly his hands were full of nothing but warm, willing flesh.

He groaned.

The monster inside him was done waiting. Didn’t want to be noble any longer.

With the last bit of sanity he had, Black took a step away from Harlow and whipped his shirt over his head. “Take it all off,” he bit out, even as his hands went to the fastening of his own jeans.

He was more than relieved when she did as he asked, reaching for the button of her pants. Within seconds, Black was naked. He grabbed his wallet and pulled out a condom. Without a word, he tore it open and rolled it down his rock-hard cock. He couldn’t ever remember being this needy. This desperate for a woman.

Harlow stood before him completely naked, and he immediately fell to his knees in front of her. Looking up her curvy body, he couldn’t say a word. He’d never felt this off-kilter. Even in the middle of battle, he’d always kept his head. But he’d never seen anything as beautiful as Harlow without a stitch of clothing on.

His hands slowly reached for her and grabbed hold of her hips. He pulled her to him and reveled in the small moan that escaped her mouth as she stepped closer. He held her safe, shivering when her hands landed on his shoulders. It was his turn to break out in goose bumps.

He could smell her arousal. Her blonde pubic hair was trimmed neatly around her pussy, and he couldn’t stop himself from leaning forward and nuzzling her there. Black heard another gasp leave her mouth, but it was the hand that moved from his shoulder to his head that told him what she wanted.

“Yes. God, please, Lowell.”

His real name on her lips was the tipping point. He’d always been Black. Since boot camp, everyone had called him that. Everyone except Harlow. To her, he was Lowell. Not a soldier. Not a man who had saved her from some horrible fate. Just Lowell.

His hands moved to her inner thighs, not so gently pushing them apart. She giggled and acquiesced to his unspoken command. Her scent intensified. Black leaned forward and, without any preliminaries, ran his tongue between her folds.

She shuddered, and he felt the muscles in her thighs tense. At the first taste of her musk, he was gone.

Black ate her out in earnest, almost desperately, closing his eyes to fully experience the ecstasy that was the woman in his arms. He barely heard her moans, barely felt the way her fingernails dug into his shoulder and her hand pressed against the back of his head, urging him on. All of his focus was on licking the juices that dripped from between her legs.

When he turned his attention from her slit to the sensitive little bundle of nerves, she jerked against him, almost making him lose his grip on her. Not wanting to take the time to ease her to the bed, needing her to give herself to him completely, Black lifted one of her thighs and rested it on his shoulder. She gasped in surprise.

“I won’t let you fall,” he murmured before moving a hand to her ass to hold her steady. He eased a finger on his other hand inside her, marveling at how tight she was, even as he locked his mouth over her clit.