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  Marly’s Choice

  Lora Leigh

  Book 1 in the Men of August series.

  Marly’s love for Cade has spanned her teenage years, and survived strong and intact into womanhood. Her fantasies and daydreams have sustained her, but she’s no longer content with merely imagining the touch of his hands, the taste of his kiss. It’s time to seduce the tough, sexy cowboy.

  She’s heard the rumors for years, the tales of his sexual preferences. She’s prepared herself to accept his desires. Prepared her body for his touch. But she wasn’t prepared for the choice to come…

  Cade’s dark desires, his sexual excesses are based in the past. In a time when pain, shame and blood stains his very soul. He carries a secret shared only with his brothers. A secret that has scarred the bond, the ability to be a brother or to accept the love of the men he was raised with. He knows the only way to prove his loyalty, his love for those brothers, and Marly will be the key.

  She has a choice. She can surrender to Cade’s needs, his soul-deep desires, or she can walk away. A choice only Marly can make. A choice that will change her life forever.

  An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

  www.ellorascave.com

  Marly’s Choice

  ISBN 9781843603313

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Marly’s Choice Copyright © 2002 Lora Leigh

  Electronic book publication 2002

  The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.

  With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

  Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  Marly’s Choice

  Lora Leigh

  Chapter One

  Marly’s eyes opened slowly, blinking in awareness that he watched her. Cade stood beside her bed, his body hard and aroused, his eyes nearly black as he stared at her naked body. Those eyes focused between her thighs, where her fingers moved slowly on her smooth flesh, the small bud of her clit clearly visible as she massaged it sensuously.

  Her breath halted in her throat. He stood naked, his erection long and thick, one hand massaging it with slow, even strokes, his lashes lowered over the lust filled look in his eyes. Breathing harshly, Marly watched him lower himself beside her. She shook, recognizing the dream, but needing him so badly, she could only pray that this time, this time it was real.

  He stretched out on his side, one arm going beneath her neck, bracing himself on his elbow, his other hand touching her cheek gently. His body was hot and vibrant, heating her blood, her passion.

  “Do you know how beautiful you are, Marly?” he whispered, his voice low and rough, his head lowering to caress the corner of her lips with a soft, heated touch.

  Marly could only whimper. She couldn’t answer him. She didn’t have the breath to.

  Then she didn’t have the chance. His lips moved over hers, parting them. His tongue licked sensually at her lips, sliding into her mouth, taking her in a kiss so heated it

  Caused every nerve in her body to zing to life.

  She arched against the hand that moved to her stomach. Hard and wide, warm and work-calloused, moving over her skin, sliding slow and sure to her heaving breasts. Her arms went to his shoulders as she turned to him. She wanted to rub against him. To luxuriate in the warmth and maleness pressed so intimately against her body. The heated length of his shaft lay along her hip, searing her with the erotic touch of the silk-encased steel.

  “I’ve stayed away as long as I could,” he growled against her lips, his hand palming her breast, his fingers rasping over her nipple, making her cry out at the pleasure. “As long as I could, Marly. I have to have you now.”

  His head lowered, his mouth covering the tip of a breast, drawing it into the heated warmth, suckling in strong, rhythmic motions at her swollen flesh. His tongue flayed the tender tip with slow, hot licks, his mouth drawing on her with all the sexually charged intent in his hard body.

  “So beautiful.” He moved over her, pushing her onto her back, his lips roaming from one breast to the next.

  He licked and sucked. His hands pushed the mounds together, making the hard points quicker to access, making Marly arch desperately against him, needing more. She had known it would be like this. Mind destroying when he took her into his arms. Driving her crazy with the sensual demands he would make of her.

  He moved lower…his lips sipping from the skin of her abdomen, his body moving further toward her aching center. Fiery need flayed her body, destroying her, rebuilding her. Her breathing harsh, her body humming, Marly watched Cade spread her legs, his eyes centered between her thighs, his lips sensually full. She whimpered. His hands, large and work roughened, ran along her thighs, his fingers moving slowly to her swollen, wet flesh. Her entire body ached, pulsed, begged for possession.

  “I’m going to lick every drop of cream from your body, Marly,” his voice, dark and rough, feathered over her. “Starting now.”

  His head lowered, and Marly cried out as his tongue swiped through her pouting flesh. She cried out moments later, feeling him circle her hard clit with torturously slow movements. Her hips arched to him, her thighs quivering with tension, the need to climax, to sate the hunger rising in her body, overwhelming her senses. His fingers moved to the soft lips, pulling them apart gently, his greedy tongue moving lower to catch the flood of juices spilling from her body. He lapped at her, his mouth sucked at her, his tongue licking her, drawing the sweetness into his mouth, driving her to the brink of insanity.

  “I can’t stand it,” she whispered, her hands tangling in his hair. “Please, Cade, please take me.”

  “Not so fast, Marly.” His hand pressed against her stomach, holding her to the bed. “I’ve only begun. You were warned. Weren’t you warned about what I would want from you?”

  His expression was tight and hard, his eyes nearly black when he raised his head, staring at her from between her splayed thighs. She shuddered, suddenly fearful. She had prepared herself, had made certain she could take what he would need, but now she wasn’t so sure.

  She felt his fingers spreading the thick essence around her vagina, running slowly, teasingly to the tight little hole, lower. She jerked as his finger dipped in, then retreated, spreading more of her lubrication, preparing her. With each pass, his finger would slip further inside her anus. Marly fought to relax against the building tension of her own out-of-control desires.

  Her thighs tightened, her moans keening whimpers in the silence of the bedroom as he inserted first one, then two fingers into her. He moved slowly, stretching the small opening as his mouth continued to sip from her velvety inner lips, his tongue stroking her into an inferno of need while his fingers stretched her nether hole with deep, slow thrusts. Dipping out, drawing more of her natural lubrication as it pulsed from her cunt and sprea
ding it to the tight little hole he was preparing with sensual, slow thrusts of his fingers.

  “I want you to come for me.” His voice sounded raw and sensual. He whispered the words against her straining clit, ignoring the grinding motions of her hips, the plea in her cries. “I want you to scream for me, Marly. Scream…”

  His fingers thrust deep and hard, his tongue spearing into the gripping channel of her vagina. She was close, so close. She arched into him, her breathing suspended, her throat closed against the scream building.

  “No scream, no climax.” The dream shattered.

  Marly’s eyes flew open on a cry of protest, and silence greeted her. An empty room, an empty bed, an empty body. Her thighs quivered from her fight for release. Her breasts were swollen and throbbing, the nipples aching and hard. She whimpered in distress, turning into her pillow, her body curling into a tortured ball. She needed him. God help her, she needed him so bad she knew it would kill her.

  Her body ached and pulsed in time to the harsh thump of her blood through her veins, her fingers curling into the mattress, her eyes closed tight on the building fever in her body. He was her dream, her only fantasy, and Marly knew she would never survive if he didn’t touch her soon. Cade. Her Cade.

  She had loved him forever. Since she was fourteen, thrown on him by her mother, his stepsister, in a desperate bid to hide Marly from her stepfather, Jack Jennings. He had been a deviant pervert intent on molesting her at every chance. When her mother, Annie, saw Jack’s obsession with Marly, she had tried to leave, and to hide. But he kept finding her, and each time he had hurt Marly worse. Finally, Annie had given up. She had brought Marly to the only place she could think of where she would be safe, then Annie had disappeared, hoping to draw Jack away.

  Marly missed her mother. It had been six years since she had seen her, and she wondered daily what had happened to her. But she had been right, bringing Marly to the ranch. Cade and his brothers protected her, even if their father hadn’t.

  But Joe was dead now. His burial the next day would end his reign of misery. The old bastard had lived to hurt anyone he could. He had finally died in his own bed, cursing Cade, and the miserable luck that had him tied to the small county of Madison, Texas.

  She rolled over on the bed, burying her head in the pillows, trying to find sleep again. She wished she could sneak into Cade’s bed, rub herself against him, feel him hard and hot as he made love to her. She suppressed her groan, thinking of the last two years of preparation, the lengths she had gone to, the acts she had committed.

  Technically, she was still a virgin. The hymen was still present, but Marly knew technicalities didn’t always count. She was determined to get Cade’s attention, and keep it. She couldn’t do that if she was as pure as snow. And she sure as hell wasn’t pure anymore. Now, she was just horny and impatient, and very nearly out of control.

  She was naked and willing. Her lips glistened with moisture, swollen and full from his kisses, her deep blue eyes were dark and glittering with need. Cade could feel his erection throbbing with need, pulsing with demand.

  He watched, his breathing harsh, overly loud in the silence of the bedroom as she slowly went to her knees before him. Long, long black curls tangled in his hands as moist, heated lips closed over the head of his cock. He growled fiercely as lightning raced up the thick length of his flesh and seared his belly. His scrotum tightened painfully, his erection throbbed with the pent up need to spew itself into the tight, waiting depths of her mouth.

  “Suck it,” he whispered, his voice sounding demented even to his own ears. “Suck it deeper, Marly.”

  He was thrusting slowly into her mouth, groaning at the suckling sounds she made, at the tightening of his body. He wanted it to last forever. He wanted the pleasure to never end. It was incredible, her mouth so tight and hot, her tongue licking over him, a wash of searing, agonizing joy.

  He looked down at her, watching as her mouth tightened on him, barely taking half his length, her mouth stretched over his flesh, her cheeks hollowing as she drew on him. She wanted it. She wanted him thrusting into her until he released every drop of his seed into her waiting mouth. She was hungry for it. Hungry for him.

  He thrust harder, faster, feeling the moan that came from her throat, echoing along his shaft. It made his body shudder. Her hands were on his scrotum now, tightening, stroking him, her mouth suckling him until he was crazy to release.

  “I’m going to come—” he thrust harder against her mouth, feeling the moist, heated motions increasing as her tongue flickered over his flesh. “I’m going to come, Marly.”

  He thrust harder, his breathing ragged, harsh. Then his hands tightened in her hair, dragging her mouth further over him, thrusting as far as the shallow depths of her mouth would allow before spewing his load down her throat. Spurt after spurt of hot sperm shot from the tip of his erection as she sucked harder, faster, determined to drain ever drop of his seed from his body…

  Cade came awake with a ragged cry, his hand clenched over his bursting cock as he ejaculated harshly to his own stroking caress. Bitterness yawned inside him as the dream dissipated, and he realized she wasn’t really there. Her hot mouth hadn’t actually been stroking him, receiving his harsh thrusts as he shot his release into it. Her moans hadn’t caressed his flesh; her body hadn’t been naked and willing before him.

  He cursed harshly, rising slowly from the bed and walking wearily to the bathroom. He washed his hands quickly, then his still-hard cock. When every last trace of his humiliating release was gone, he sighed deeply and stared into the mirror above the sink.

  He looked the same as he always had. The same gray eyes, the same overly long black hair and tanned features. But he knew what lurked just beneath the surface. The monster he fought on a daily basis.

  Cade knew he shouldn’t have drunk the night before. Knew he shouldn’t have sneaked into Marly’s room and watched her sleeping. If he had left her alone, if he had just stayed away from her, he wouldn’t be tormented now. But he had been unable to. He had slipped silently into the connecting bedroom, standing in shock at the foot of her bed; unable to believe what his eyes were seeing in the light of the low lamp she still refused to sleep without.

  The blankets covered only her midriff. She had kicked them clear of her hips and thighs, and her full thrusting breasts. Her nipples had been hard, elongated and pointed, begging him to taste them. And between her thighs—he swallowed harshly. The flesh of her mound was waxed clean, and bare. Not a wisp of a hair remained, and it had glistened.

  Thick and rich, her juices had coated her flesh. He had been unable to resist, unable to stop himself. Drawing nearer he had leaned down, his fingers running through the sweet glaze of desire. Smothering a groan of need, he had brought his fingers to his mouth.

  He could still taste her on his lips. Sweet, addicting. Like the lightest fruit, and he craved more. He didn’t know how he forced himself away from her. Didn’t know how he managed to keep from sinking his hard cock into her over and over again until they both screamed out in climax. But he had. He had retreated to his own room, his heart beating fiercely, his loins burning with need. He needed her. He needed her too damned much, and she was the one woman he couldn’t have.

  Shaking his head, he found he couldn’t hold his own gaze in the mirror. He was as perverted as his father. As sexually deviant as the monster who had tried to take her when she was but a child. Not much better than the demon of his own

  Nightmares. He had raised her, loved her, but he had always known she wasn’t a

  blood relation. As she grew, that thought had always been in the back of his mind, and as she got older, it had tormented him more often.

  God above, when had she begun waxing? Why had she? It was the one thing guaranteed to make him harder than anything else could. Guaranteed to make his mouth water, his need to taste her all the more imperative. Slick, wet flesh. Glistening with the dew of her desire. Her taste sweet and fresh. He was dying. Slowly, sur
ely, a dead man expiring from need.

  Chapter Two

  Grandpa Joe was finally dead. Marly stared out the limo window as they drove away from the cemetery, studying Cade’s fiercely controlled expression in the glass. The savage features of his face, with its high cheekbones, brooding black-lashed eyes, and the sharp line of his nose. But his lips were softer when he wasn’t pulling them tight like that. The lower curve just slightly fuller, and often smiling when he was with her. But he wasn’t smiling today. He was distant, silent. He had been ever since Grandpa Joe’s death. He didn’t talk to anyone, least of all Marly. He had shut her and everyone else out.

  Marly knew Grandpa Joe’s death would affect him. She had left school as soon as she had learned of his death, but she hadn’t expected this. Grandpa Joe hadn’t exactly treated any of his children with love and affection. Marly especially had been exempt from his good will. But that had always suited her, because she had never cared much for him either.

  Marly sighed, then turned her gaze to the others in the car with them. His brothers, Sam and Brock, were silent. They were twins and only two years younger than Cade, though they weren’t nearly as hard as their older brother.

  Sam and Brock had light blue eyes, and their hair was just as black and silky as Cade’s. Their faces weren’t as savagely hewn though. They were nearly as tall as their brother, with the same broad-shouldered, slim-hipped build that characterized the August males. They could have been triplets, their looks were so similar.

  They were silent now, too, but more because Cade was quiet than out of reflection. Grandpa Joe had not been the nicest person in the world. Often, he was taunting, his tongue cutting like a knife. Cade seemed to be the only one capable of ignoring him. Marly had just stayed away from him as much as possible. It seemed her very presence was enough to set him off.