Guarding the Truth Read online

  At last he softly ran the pad of his finger over the demanding tip, making Madeline arch her chest off the bed.

  Her hands, which had been caressing his shoulder blades, squeezed. She ran them down to his ass and grasped a hold of him, pulling his throbbing erection more firmly against her groin. Even through her lace panties and his khaki pants, Parker could feel the heat of Madeline’s center.

  “I…I need you… Parker…please. Take these pants off. I need you inside me.”

  “I’m getting there, baby,” he mumbled against her perfect tit, lifting a hairsbreadth off to blow on the distended wet nipple.

  “Ahhh…” She squirmed beneath him, and he smiled into her chest, loving how responsive she was every time he took her. It always seemed like the first time. Would she always be this open? This uninhibited with him? God, I hope so.

  * * *

  Madeline was going crazy. Her skin crawled with the need to have Parker inside her, to ensure that he was really in her house, in her bed. She was not beyond begging.

  Her hands went wild trying to touch all of him. She ran a trail over his broad muscular shoulders and back down to squeeze his tight ass again. She reached around front for his belt, but he stopped her with his free hand, the one not currently torturing her traitorous nipple.

  She couldn’t lie still or keep from bucking against his groin and lifting her chest up in offering. But Parker had other ideas. He gave a sharp pinch to her swollen nipple and then used both hands to drag her wrists above her head.

  Around and between nibbling on her chest and breathing intentionally on the wet disks, Parker mumbled, “Baby, I can’t think with your hands all over me. I want to enjoy you for a minute…”

  “But…but…I need you to—”

  Parker lifted his head to gaze into her eyes, the deep chocolate color she was used to almost black with lust. “Keep your busy little hands right here against the headboard or I’ll have to tie them there.”

  Oh. My. God. Did he just say “tie them”? Madeline’s sex clenched, and a flood of arousal leaked out of her. She froze and stared at the top of his head. Without any further conversation, he resumed sucking, licking, and nibbling his way across her heated chest.

  When he lowered himself to trace a line of kisses across her abdomen, she about came undone. She sucked a short breath in and held it, desperately trying to obey his command.

  But as soon as his fingers found the edges of her lace panties and tugged them down, she couldn’t take it anymore. Forgetting modesty, she spread her legs as far as they would go to accommodate his body between them, and her hands flew to his head poised above her sex. He blew his hot breath on her sensitive clit.

  “Ah, ah, ah… I warned you…” What? Warned me about what? Oh, God, the headboard. He was kidding…right?

  Apparently not. Parker glanced around the room while taking her wrists in his hands. He spotted her soft robe hanging on the edge of the headboard, pulled her arms once again above her head to clasp both wrists with the same hand, and with one quick yank, retrieved the wide fluffy belt from her bathrobe.

  Madeline gasped, her eyes staring into his intent face that held only a small grin but didn’t return the gaze. Her face, hell, her whole body, flushed. Patches of heat crept over her skin, climbing up her chest, her neck, her cheeks.

  Parker delicately wrapped the belt around her wrists and tied them to the headboard. Madeline moaned and then bit her lip in embarrassment. How can I be this aroused to be tied up? Why am I not scared? She’d never dreamed she would’ve participated in any form of bondage, especially after the attack on campus.

  But this man on top of her was not Reginald Jones. He was never going to hurt her. She knew this in her soul.

  When he finished, he gave her a quick gaze, a hunger showing in his eyes she could not deny. He was going to devour her whole, and she was going to like it.

  A slight tug on the fabric of her restraint revealed she could pull free if she wanted to, and the knowledge relaxed her inhibitions more than they already were. The pink surely splotching her body seemed to fill in, leaving her entire skin hot and needy.

  Parker settled his frame between Madeline’s outstretched thighs and continued his silent exploration, once again nipping his way down her heated torso toward her sex. With both hands, he pushed her thighs as wide as he could and stared at her. She should’ve been embarrassed at the intimate perusal, but she was so aroused she only knew she wanted him to touch her, touch her with his fingers, his mouth, his…cock. Now.

  As he stared, breathing heavily on her exposed pussy, liquid heat ran a path out of her center, down the crack of her ass, onto the sheet below her. His breath cooled the area, but her stomach clenched with wanting him.

  “Parker…”

  “Yes, baby? Did you want something?” He gazed up at her, his chin inches from her clit. “Tell me what you want…”

  Lord, he was going to make her say it. Say what she needed him to do.

  “I…I need you…to…”

  “That isn’t very specific. You need me to what, baby?” One side of his mouth lifted in a provocative grin.

  “Suck my…my…clitor—Suck my clit…please.” There, she said it. And then she held her breath while Parker lowered his mouth and without one second of preamble, drew the throbbing little nub into his warmth in a long hard suck that pulled a scream out of Madeline before she could stop it.

  Parker’s left hand flew up to cover her mouth, and he released her to chuckle. “Baby, do you want the entire household staff to come running into the room? If you keep screaming like that, they will bust the door down thinking I’ve hurt you.” He grinned at her. Had she screamed that loud? “Do I need to gag you also? Or do you think you can manage to keep those little lips closed except for only the softest of moans?”

  He had to be kidding this time. Madeline wasn’t sure she would have the same response to being gagged as she’d had to bondage. But, then again, her body continued to betray her at his new proclamation. A fresh wave of arousal leaked from her onto the mattress, a burn in her abdomen demanding release.

  He didn’t say anything else, but proceeded to lick a circle around her aching clit and then lower until he thrust his tongue inside her and dragged a line down to her tight lower hole. He wouldn’t, would he? God, yes, he probably would.

  Madeline clenched her thighs at the thought, which Parker must have taken as a sign that she was not ready to have that hole breached yet. Or else he simply didn’t have that aim in mind at the moment.

  He kissed and blew his way back up to plunge his tongue into her, over and over, until she could not keep her hips still another second and would’ve lifted them straight off the bed, except at that exact moment, Parker gripped her upper thighs to hold her tighter to the bed while he devoured her. Madeline bit her bottom lip between her teeth to keep the moaning filling the room to a minimum.

  When she would’ve died from the torture, Parker suddenly surrounded her clit with his mouth. In one swift move, he released her hip with one hand and plunged several fingers of the other inside her while he bit down on her aching nub. Stars erupted inside her head, a short scream pierced the air of its own accord, and Madeline’s body pulsed around Parker’s fingers, an attempt to draw them farther into her core.

  He didn’t let up and milked an intensely long orgasm from her body.

  As good as the experience felt, Madeline was still needy, her body craving the tight stretch of his penis. And he was quick to relieve her of the desperation.

  Parker leaned back, disposed of his pants, and rolled a condom on in record time. Before her skin could chill, he was on top of her, poised at her entrance. “I can’t wait another moment, baby. You’re so sexy. So responsive. You drive me crazy wanting you.”

  He reached up to untie her hands from their prison and then pushed all the way in to the hilt, a grunt of satisfaction slipping out of his mouth. “Now you can wrap your hands around me.” He smiled at her and bega
n a steady pace, pumping in and out of her core, never taking his eyes off hers.

  Madeline felt another orgasm building against the intense pressure of Parker’s enormous width inside her.

  She rocked her head away from his gaze and moaned, “Oh God. I’m… I’m gonna come…”

  Parker used his fingers to pull her face back to center, forcing her gaze to his. “I want to see your soul deep in your eyes while we come, together.”

  His words washed over Madeline like a stream of warm syrup. Her muscles tightened around him, and she gritted her teeth to hold back the impending orgasm.

  “Let it go, baby. I’m right with you.” If he would just shut up, she could hold back another minute, but the loving words pushed her ability to slow down the building need within her.

  She lost the battle, and the walls inside her gripped Parker’s thick shaft over and over again. He was quicker this time and covered her mouth with his palm beforehand, stifling the intense scream that erupted involuntarily. As she milked his cock, he picked up the pace for several more thrusts until he stopped to hold himself fully imbedded and moaned softly while he came deep inside her.

  “Hmmm” was the only distinguishable sound Parker made for several moments afterward while he covered Madeline’s face and lips with feather-lights kisses. Finally, he relaxed and rolled onto his back, dragging her limp body on top of him. “I love you, Madeline Cooper.”

  “I love you too, Parker Phillips.”

  Parker slowly released a long breath.

  “Don’t ever leave me like that again,” she uttered softly against his chest, teasing his nipple with her tongue.

  “Promise.”

  “What are we going to do now?” she asked once she had a moment to think about the greater life situation around them. She’d been trying to finish her dissertation and Parker lived… Where the hell does Parker live?

  “God.” Madeline raised up to look Parker in the eye. “Where do you normally live, anyway?”

  Parker chuckled and squeezed her against him. “Wherever you do, baby. Wherever you do.”

  “But… I mean—” Madeline tried to reason this out in her head.

  “So do I. I don’t have any permanent roots right now. You’re probably in no position to be very far away from your father at this point in time. We’ll get a place right here in Connecticut, if you like.”

  He kept going, building the story of their lives like it had already been written. “First I’ll have to talk to your father, and then we’ll get married—like yesterday—and then after I’ve made an honest woman out of you, we’ll move into a place nearby and live happily ever after.” Parker smiled into her face, proud to have answered all of her questions.

  Madeline stared at him. Was it that simple?

  “What.” He froze. “You don’t think… Will your father… Will he not agree?”

  Madeline laughed. “Oh, he’s not that bad. Will he jump up and down with joy? Not initially, but he’ll come around.”

  “Great,” Parker drawled out. His brow furrowed with worry. “And here I am bonking his only daughter in his house right under the eye—and ear—of his entire staff. He’s going to love me when he gets home.” His eyes rolled upward.

  Madeline smiled. The staff would never tell her father a word. They adored Madeline and were over the moon that she’d fallen in love. Her father could be stern, and no, this was not what he’d had in mind for his debutant daughter, but he would get over it quickly.

  Madeline decided not to say another word. Watching Parker stew over the upcoming confrontation was too fun to resist.

  Epilogue

  Parker flew around the corner, taking the turn much too fast in his little BMW, cursing that he still hadn’t managed to figure out how to drive the thing properly. It always seemed like it would tip over when he rounded the curb.

  When Madeline had called Parker at the precinct to tell him it was time, he’d dropped everything and flown out the door like a man being chased. After leaping over the hood of his car, he’d fumbled in his pocket for the keys, jumped inside the little deathtrap, and careened off down the road. His buddies would understand.

  Everyone in town knew about, and openly joked about, the tiny car. None of his fellow officers would ever stop him. Plus, they were all anxiously awaiting the arrival of Parker and Madeline’s first child, probably secretly hoping Parker’s neurotic tendencies would ease once his wife was no longer keeping him walking on egg shells.

  Parker didn’t care what those pansies said behind his back. They were all jealous.

  With their modest house looming ahead of him, Parker began to hyperventilate. His pulse beat rapidly. Get a grip, man. She’s just having a baby… Having a baby! How in the hell had they come so far, so fast? Was he ready?

  Parker flew up the driveway, threw the car into park, and leaped from the cursed vehicle.

  Dr. Cooper had given Parker the sports car as a wedding present—probably to impress his friends and not be embarrassed when his less-than-desirable son-in-law was seen in public with his only daughter. Madeline had squeezed Parker’s hand until it hurt in silent supplication that he accept the presented gift graciously. She’d later begged him to get over himself when he whined that the car was simply ridiculous and he would not be caught dead driving it.

  That had been a year ago. And here he was, still buzzing around the small town in the child-sized module. Not his idea of a manly car, but he was willing to do anything to make his sexy wife happy.

  Parker rushed through the front door, ran up the stairs two at a time, and almost overshot the bedroom in his heated attempt to get to Madeline.

  There she sat, poised, all fresh and unbothered in their bed, staring at him. And Parker stood there panting and heaving long breaths as if he were the one in labor instead of his beautiful wife. She just smiled.

  “Did we speed a little? Honey, it hasn’t been three minutes since I called you. Did you miss the part where I said this would probably take…ow…ow…hours?” This last bit she forced out through gritted teeth, and Parker ran to her side.

  He grabbed her hand with one of his and used his other to wipe her hair back from her brow. “Are you sure you want to do this?” She smiled at him and then at the ceiling. “At home, I mean. Are you sure you really want to give birth here?”

  Madeline knew every person in the medical community for miles and miles around, of course. She’d had extensive prenatal care. The best money could buy. And all personnel had assured her the baby was indeed head down and facing the correct direction. A home birth with a midwife shouldn’t pose any complications.

  These facts, however, did little to assuage Parker’s fears. What if something went wrong? His face was scrunched. His brow furrowed enough to give him a headache while he watched Madeline breathe through another contraction.

  “Aren’t those pretty close together? Didn’t you just have one, like, two seconds ago?” He froze in terror. Where was the midwife anyway?

  “Well…” she continued to breathe, “they…were…further…a­part…until…”

  “Madeline,” Parker yelled, “where’s the midwife?”

  “She said…she would be…here in…a few…hours.” Another contraction hit his lovely wife, and she moaned while rolling her head back and forth against the pile of pillows beneath her. “Maybe… Oh, God… I don’t think…”

  Parker had only minimal instructions about this event. Sure, they’d attended the required Bradley classes, but he was in no way prepared for her to give birth now.

  “Madeline, hang on,” he stated frantically, his blood pumping through his body, burning him up, “let me call the midwife.”

  “No…time…” She stared into his eyes. “I’m sorry… I know you did…not want…this…but—” Madeline moaned again, louder this time, and pushed the sheets from her body to reveal a flood of fluids running between her legs. Her water had broken.

  “I need…to push… Parker? Help me.” She was scar
ed. The edge of fear was evident in her raised voice.

  Parker, you can do this. You have no choice. Man up and get a hold of yourself.

  “Okay. Right.” Parker ran his hands through his hair and tried to think. Towels. Don’t they usually get towels together in the movies? “Be right back.” He ran into the adjoining bathroom and grabbed the entire stack of towels from the shelf. What else?

  “Parker!” Madeline screamed through gritted teeth.

  Parker took a deep breath and raced back into the bedroom. He found her leaning forward on her elbows, her feet pressing into the mattress. Hands shaking, he set the pile of linens down on the edge of the bed, pushed his sleeves up, and climbed between Madeline’s legs. When he managed to get her sweat-soaked night shirt out of way, the sight before him took his breath away. The head was crowning.

  “Baby,” he crooned, “you can do this.” Who was he trying to convince? “On the next contraction, push… I’m right here.”

  Madeline did as she was told, as nature had intended, and within minutes Parker held the most precious perfect little girl he’d ever seen in his life against his chest.

  “Is…it…a?” Madeline was still panting.

  Parker looked into her eyes, tears of love running down his face. “A girl. A perfect little lady. She looks just like you…”

  He handed Madeline the baby, almost reluctant to let go of this warm new life of their making. “I love you, Madeline Phillips. You make me the happiest man in the world every day.”

  “I love you too, honey. I love you too.” Parker’s heart swelled at the words, even though he knew the two sets were meant not only for his ears, but also for the sweet little angel now wailing in her mother’s arms.

  Life would never be more perfect than this.