Under the Veneer

Title: Under the Veneer
Author: purplerhino


DG was frustrated, with herself. The cause of that frustration was one Wyatt Cain, former Tin Man and current stalker. Okay, to be fair ‘stalker’ was a bit to strong a word. Shadow was more appropriate. He was Captain of the Royal Guard now, and had assigned himself as her personal security detail. Her dark, foreboding, annoying, sexy security de… and that right there was why she was frustrated. Her unhealthy obsession with her friend and bodyguard.

She knew one of the main reasons he took her safety so seriously is because he gave his word as a Tin Man, practically swore on his tin badge, to the Mystic man. The great and Terrible Mystic Man of the O.Z. made him her protector. He most likely didn’t mean for LIFE, but as there was no specified deadline, he was on her like glue.

Two hours after she’d freed the ex-Tin Man from that iron suit she was completely impressed with how well he cleaned up. He could be a movie star back on the Other Side. And the way he filled out those tight tan pants… She’d hated herself. The man had just gotten out of eight years of hell. He’d spent those eight years watching his family being tortured in a continuous loop recording, never ending so his sanity really was questionable. He’d lost his family and seemed single-mindedly focused on killing the man who had destroyed his life. He was the strong, silent cowboy, complete with six shooter. She was trying to find her parents in a fairy tale on crack. And she had checked out his ass. She was sick.

When she was told he was dead, it had gutted her. She’d only known him a few days, but he was a good man, someone who deserved so much better than the hand he was dealt. Finding him alive had made her happier than her own escape. She realized then she had a crush. A simple infatuation brought on by the fact that he had become her steady protector. What girl wouldn’t crush on her white knight, especially her blonde, steely eyed, BUILT white knight with those pants? He actually rode to her rescue on a frigging white horse. And wasn’t that a memory she took out and reviewed more than once on a rainy day? He was a take charge kinda guy who listened to her input and gave her respect. It was easy to have a crush on someone like that.

So she hugged him a little too long on a few occasions. And she watched him when he wasn’t looking. She had a crush. Okay, she was perving over a guy twice her age. He had a son almost her age. She just hoped he didn't feel 'fatherly' towards her because that would make her really squirm about her feelings. Luckily, Cain didn’t seem to notice her fixation… thank God. She tried very hard to make sure he didn’t. The last thing he needed was to see that his friend and charge had a fixation.

By a month after the eclipse, DG was certain she was in lust with Wyatt Cain. She had dreams. Hot, sweaty dreams that never quite finished. Damn. She actually tried to imagine him naked. She was pathetic, she knew. Before this point she hadn’t even thought about sex as anything she ever wanted to attempt again. Jimmy Calahan had introduced her to that mystery when she was seventeen. It should have remained a mystery. It hurt, it was uncomfortable, it was gross, it was humiliating and overall, she figured it was one of those things you were better off doing yourself. So, her hot and sweaty Wyatt dreams were a surprise.

It was five months after the eclipse that she realized she was in love with Wyatt Cain. She began to think long-term future thoughts. She began to imagine dark-haired children with grey-blue eyes. The idea of losing him made her heart stutter and cold dread take its place. Better to have him around, clueless, than to have him leave because she made him uncomfortable.

It was then that she began to attempt to escape his constant presence. Unfortunately, he always found her, and he was usually pissed off when he did. He didn’t like her getting out of his line of sight. It was so wrong that his anger made her heart beat faster and the sharp look in his eyes sent a shiver up her spine—and not out of fear. She’d found that trying to find some time alone without her shadow outside the palace was impossible. The damn man could track a flea, she was certain of it. One bent blade of grass, or a broken twig and ‘Pathfinder’ knew where she was.

Sneaking about the usual haunts in the palace was useless as everyone was a freaking blabbermouth. All he had to do was ask which way she went and the last person to see her…. It was pointless. She tried hiding out in the unused portion of the palace, but when no one had seen her, the human bloodhound figured out where she was by deduction. Once a cop, always a cop. The disturbed dust and spiderwebs in the catacombs did the rest. She’d had to stand through a half hour lecture on the danger of the catacombs and how easy it was to get lost. That had been the point, but she hadn’t pointed that out for fear he’s keep the lecture going.

Lately, it had become truly unbearable. He was completely oblivious, of course. But he was driving her insane.

He helped her down from her horse two weeks ago and his thumbs accidentally slipped under her shirt and fell on bare skin. It was like being burned—especially when they made a light sweep over that bare skin before he let go and moved to lead the horse back to its stall without a look or a word, no sign of awareness. And he was wearing THOSE pants.

As she was learning to shoot a gun, her target practice became near unbearable as he moved behind her and corrected her stance with his hands on her hips or worse, good God above, pressing against her back to look down her arm as he explained the need to keep both arms bent just a bit to keep the recoil from jarring her. The way he ran his hand down her arm to show her how to sight in for a one handed shot made her knees tremble.

Then there was when she was reading up on the history of the O.Z. and he snuck up behind her, leaning over her shoulder.

His innocent “Anything interesting?” So close to her ear the feeling of his breath on her neck and ear made her both jump and her insides melt. His hand on her shoulder, two fingers on her neck, brushing over her pulse, his thumb rubbing circles on her shoulder blade as he steadied her was torture he had no idea he inflicted as he apologized for startling her.

Just yesterday she’d walked into the kitchen to see him eating a bowl of berries while reading a report. He’d pick up a red berry and pop it in his mouth, like anyone else would, then lick his fingers and reach for another. He didn’t even notice her walk in until she was practically in front of him and slicing some cheese and bread. He’d greeted her with a nod, asked if she needed anything, then went back to his reports and late night snack. Damn him. Did he have no idea what watching him lick his fingers could do to a woman?

Love or not, this unrequited feeling and obsession had to be dealt with. She wasn’t about to scare him off by telling him about it. So she had to distract herself. Maybe she could find someone else, given time, someone who would feel the same.

So she started befriending some of the men her age around the palace. It didn’t hurt to get to know the cook’s son, whom she introduced to the wonders of French fries. He was nice, and funny, if a bit intimidated by her being the Princess at first. He was also a bit shy and timid. He’d never be able to bark orders and expect them to be followed to the letter. But he was still someone she liked just hanging around with.

Or the gardener. He was a bit older than her but that meant nothing in comparison to who she was trying to move on from. He was cute, with his shaggy black hair, and he had dimples when he smiled. She told him about flowers she knew from the Other Side that she had yet to see here, and she liked getting her hands in the dirt. She grew up on a farm after all. This had horrified the gardener at first, but he seemed to enjoy their chats as she helped him with flowers after her lessons were done.

Cain just hung about in the background, no matter how safe it was in the palace.

Both guys were nice and she could foresee them becoming good friends, but she couldn’t foresee herself falling in love with them, or pushing her out of love with Wyatt Cain. There were no sparks dancing on her nerve endings when either of them touched her accidentally. There were no dreams of sexual encounters making her wake up empty and unsatisfied.

She had managed half a day without her shadow following her while he had other things to do. Sure, she had another shadow: she always had a guard these days, but he didn’t jangle her nerves like Cain did.

She almost ran down Jeb Cain while she contemplated her unhealthy fixation.

“Whoa there, your Highness.” He held out a hand before she could actually walk into him.

“Jeb… your back!” She was genuinely glad to see him, safe and unharmed. He was leading a group of former rebels, now newly made Tin Men, in hunting down hiding Longcoats. Her Cain had pinned the tin star on his son, himself. She’d never seen quite so much pride in his eyes. Wyatt would be thrilled to see him.

“Got in this morning. I’ve been spending the afternoon with father. ” He scrubbed at the back of his neck. “Heard you’ve been running him ragged again. You can get lost in the catacombs, you know.”

“Do I ever. In great detail. I was worried he was going to pull out charts and illustrations, then show me the bones of the last person to go exploring.” DG rolled her eyes.

Jeb grinned at the mental picture. “He’s good at the lecture bit. He’s also used to people doing what he tells them to do. You frustrate the hell out of him.”

“Someone has to keep him on his toes. And the fact that he can’t boss me around like he does other people just makes it better.” Her eyes twinkled with mischief.

She liked Jeb. He had a lot of his father’s qualities.

The sudden hand on her arm made her jump. The grip was just short of bruising. She looked up to see the source of most of her trouble staring her down with fury in his eyes. What the…? She hadn’t done anything. Recently, anyway.

“Excuse us, Jeb, DG and I need to have a talk.” He barely waited for the younger Cain to nod once, looking concerned before DG felt herself being pulled along down the halls.

“Hey! Let go. I didn’t do anything. Manhandling Princesses isn’t in your job description. Jeez, Cain, you better get that stick out of your ass or I’ll have to do something drastic, like pull it out and beat you over the head with it!” Her protests were voiced about every fifteen feet all the way back to her chambers, where she was propelled through the door.

DG’s door slammed closed and she was left facing a very angry Captain of the Guard.

“What’s your issue?” She was annoyed: she knew she hadn’t done anything to deserve this anger, or the manhandling, and she was upset because he was this mad at her. Oh, and just the tiniest bit turned on because there was just something about Cain when he was angry and dangerous, safe in the knowledge that he wasn’t dangerous to her.

Suddenly both of his hands were on her upper arms and she was not so much pushed as guided so her back was to the wall. Hey! Being cornered wasn’t playing fair.

“You do not get to drag my son into this.” He glared down at her.

Huh?

“Into what? And you call me confusing.” She would have crossed her arms defensively, but he was still gripping them.

“You’re game with the cook and the gardener. Jeb is out of bounds, DG, and I thought better of you than to play that card.” He was really angry. Nostrils flaring and everything.

He thought better of her? What the hell did he think she was doing? Sleeping around? Not that it was his business if she was. He was her bodyguard, not her keeper.

“Play what card? You lost me somewhere back there when you were dragging me around the halls like a child in need of a time out. I’m not a kid, Mr. Cain. And I have no idea what’s got you so steamed.” DG moved to pull away because she was confused, upset and his nearness was playing havoc on her hormones.

“Believe me, I know you aren’t a kid.” His next move completely threw her for a loop.

He swept in and kissed her. It wasn’t nice and sweet. It was demanding and fierce and unyielding. His hands slid from her upper arms, over her shoulders, up the sides of her neck to cup behind her jaw, his thumbs sweeping from her jaw to her ears, holding her there and tilting her head for better access to her mouth.

She could barely think, let alone breathe. Her legs seemed wobbly and the heat of his lips against hers seemed to ignite a fire in her blood. The kiss softened, and his lips glided over hers to sandwich over her bottom one. When his tongue traced it she felt the moan rise up from her diaphragm. Her hands clutched at his shoulders, holding on and holding herself up. His teeth scraped over her bottom lip in a light bite as he pulled back, dragging that bit of flesh with him for a fraction of a second.

When his mouth left hers, her brain switched back on.

“Oh my God!” Her blue eyes widened. “You’ve been doing all that… stuff… all that… you’ve been doing it on purpose! Driving me out of my mind! You’ve been trying to seduce me?”

“Tell me it hasn’t been working and I’ll leave.” Those eyes, those intense, beautiful eyes bore into hers, seeking to read her mind.

She smacked her hand against the leather of his vest. “You’re… you’re terrible. You’re an evil, scheming… scheming person.” Okay, that didn’t come out right. He was making her thought process glitch more than… well, Glitch.

“That isn’t a ‘no’.” He smirked.

“No, that isn’t a ‘no’. You’ve been driving me out of my fucking mind for weeks, you jerk.” She pushed against him and he didn’t budge an inch.

“That was the general idea.” He leaned down once more and she closed her eyes, ready for the kiss this time. It didn’t come. She opened her eyes to see his eyes stormy; his mouth was millimeters from her own. She could taste him on the air she breathed. “Then you started trying to make me jealous.”

Again with the… huh?

Oh! The cook and the gardener thing. He thought… Silly man.

“I wasn’t trying to make you jealous. I was trying to move on. You didn’t show the slightest interest in more than we had—friendship! My heart couldn’t take it. I wanted to find someone else, someone who could love me back. It didn’t work. I wasn’t trying anything with Jeb, I would never! MEN!” As she spoke her lips just barely ghosted against his.

If anything Cain’s eyes grew darker, hungrier, alive with need when the words ‘love me back’ filled the air. His lips closed over hers once more. This time he coaxed a moan from her and his tongue traced her top lip. She opened up to let him inside. God, she wanted him inside, any way she could get him. His mouth moved over hers dominating, carnal, exploring, enticing. His tongue caressed hers, teasing, testing. She was melting. She really couldn’t stand on her own now. A fire started low in her belly and he was stoking the flames.

Jimmy Calahan hadn’t been able to make her feel like this the entire ten minutes it had taken him to show her what sex was like. DG wondered, in some part of her brain still able to work, if a woman could orgasm from a kiss. There was a hot liquid response to the erotic pull Cain exerted over her.

She gripped the nape of his neck with a desperate need, swept up in the stark sexuality of the kiss. She was left panting, breathless as he pulled back far enough to look at her, to take in much needed oxygen. His eyes, oh his eyes were making promises to her body without words. My God, THIS lay under the stoic veneer?

DG had never been the type to submit to any one, any thing. But that was exactly what Wyatt seemed to be demanding. Not for power, or cruelty, or degradation, but for something much more… carnal.

Wyatt’s hand slid firmly down her body, not pausing at the breast he had sensitized with a caress over clothing. His hand wrapped around her waist and pulled her away from the wall, right into him. He held her possessively. She could feel his hard body pressed full length along hers. Oh! And the evidence of his desire hot and hard against her stomach, even through clothing.

She nuzzled against his neck, feeling her own hot breath come back to her as she placed a kiss there. This time he moaned. It vibrated through him and it brought a soft, feminine smile to her lips.

She could smell the leather of his vest and gunbelt, the aroma of gunpowder and gunoil mixed with it, and the spicy, rich, masculine scent that was just Wyatt. No man should naturally smell that damn good.

He pulled back yet again, to look down at her. “I’m in love with you Dorthea Gale. Completely. And I fully intend to have you tonight, and every night from here on. If you’ve got a problem with that, sweetheart, you better speak up now. If you don’t, this IS gonna happen.”

Not fair. He wanted her to say something. Her brain was trying to catch up with all the new sensations. It didn’t help that Wyatt Cain had just told her he loved her. He intended to have her. Guh. Words… there were words?

“About time.” There, that sounded like words.

His hands moved over her inch by inch, slowly, savoring her as he shed her clothing. He pulled her shirt over her head and bent to kiss her shoulders, nuzzle along the line of her bra. His hands roaming freely along her torso. She didn’t have a chance to feel embarrassed about being stripped of clothing while he was still clothed, as he learned the map of her skin, stroking, tasting. Her body tightened, clenched at his touch, his mouth. He was discovering her… branding her, making her his.

He walked her to the bed and she wasn’t aware of it until her legs bumped into it. She felt vulnerable and exposed only when he stopped long enough to divest himself of his own clothing, watching her watching him. He seemed to like the way she was looking at him. She reached out to help removing his gun belt, but he stilled her hands.

“You can play later, I promise.” His voice was low, huskier than usual. That liquid heat inside her burned hotter and pooled low.

His body was strong, beautifully muscled. He kept to the same training regimen he insisted the guards follow. The crisp, blond hair on his chest faded to his stomach and took up at is navel, forming a line that led the eye downward. If there had ever been any doubt that he wanted her, there was no room for it now. DG swallowed, her mouth gone dry. This might still hurt and be uncomfortable after all. But he was beautiful.

Wyatt lay down on his side next to her. He kissed her again, his tongue dancing with hers, and there was no doubt who was taking the lead. He broke the kiss to nuzzle under her chin, to lap at the soft skin of her throat, so she had to bare it to him. This was submission at its most basic, primal level. She felt the nip of his teeth and the soothing caress of his tongue. When he stopped, she opened her eyes, unaware she had closed them. She looked up to see him watching her face as one hand cupped her breast, teasing the nipple to a hard point, fluttering desire through her, straight to her core.

“Darlin’, I have to know if you’ve done this before.” His hand left her breast to glide down and rest on her stomach, just above her navel his fingers splayed there.

DG swallowed, pressing up to his hand. Even that simple touch left her aching. “Once.”

His eyes took on another look, that possessive look that indicated Jimmy Calahan may be a dead man if he didn’t live on the Other Side.

“It was less than stellar.” She admitted. He might not know what ‘stellar’ meant, but he got the gist of it.

Wyatt leaned in, his lips brushing her ear as he spoke in that low, husky voice full of complete confidence. “Sweetheart, it isn’t gonna be a question of if I’m gonna make you come, but how hard and how many times.”

DG whimpered.

She saw him smirk, noting too well how his words affected her.

He bent over her, swirling his tongue around her breast, finally taking her nipple into the heat of his mouth, drawing on her, feeding off her desire as she lost herself in raw sensation once more. DG found herself clasping him to her, arching up against his mouth, offering more, offering anything and everything.

His hands once more traced her body as he moved to lavish attention on her other breast. His hot, rough fingers enflamed her skin, leaving a throbbing need in their wake. Then his mouth was everywhere, lips and tongue knowing her form even more intimately than she did. Each place he lay his mouth was teased with hot lips and tongue, only to let the lingering wetness grow rapidly cool when he moved on. She was left gasping, wanting, needing to the point it was almost painful.

Yet every time she tried to stroke, trace, touch Wyatt he stilled her hands and shook his head.

“Darlin’, don’t think I don’t want you to. But you have me so hot right now, if you do anything more, this is gonna be real short.”

He returned to his ministrations and she arched off the bed with a gasping cry when she felt one finger pressed into her. Oh shit, she was not going to live through this. His finger moved slowly, in and out as he pressed a kiss to her navel. Another finger joined the first and both curled inside her, searching for and finding a place that actually stole her breath, she could not breathe as the bolt of pleasure jolted from that place, through her body, promising so much more. His thumb came into play, stroking her with each press of his fingers. DG heard incoherent sounds coming from her own mouth. Wyatt’s teeth nipped along her ribs as his fingers worked within her. Pumping within her and firmly pressing up to that spot.

DG held on to his shoulders, her nails biting into his skin, drawing blood in some places and eliciting a low growl from Wyatt. She fought for purchase in the sea of passion overwhelming her. He was all she had to cling to. Her head turned from side to side on the pillow and her breath was coming in short little gasps. The wave broke over her, washing her away as an orgasm the likes of which she’d never known seized her. But his stroking fingers and clever thumb didn’t allow her to come down. He coaxed her body to prolong that peak as she cried his name and God’s and for the moment they were completely interchangeable.

He finally had mercy, just before the drawn out pleasure and his ministrations became painful.

She opened her eyes, once more unaware she had closed them, to see Wyatt stretched out on his side beside her and propped up on one elbow. He was watching her, had watched her as he’d wrung that pleasure from her.

“Beautiful.” The word fell from his lips with soft reverence. His hand and fingers leaving her bereft, aching so acutely she cried from it.

DG wasn’t sure she could move after that, wasn’t sure she wanted to.

Then she watched him bring his hand to his lips and he sucked her juices from his fingers, his eyes never leaving hers. Only a small line of silver rimmed his pupils in the dark sensuality of his gaze.

Okay, in her dreams, nothing like any of that had ever happened. She would never, in a million years, have guessed that the man who blushed so easily was hiding this look under the brim of his hat. That he’d become so unrestrained and dominant as a lover. Or how erotic she found it.

She had to look away from the single-minded intensity of his scrutiny.

She felt him shift, and his weight press down on her.

“DG, look at me.” Wyatt’s voice was rough with desire. Desire for her.

She felt herself responding to the feel of his weight, the way the hair of his chest abraded her already sensitized nipples making her ache again. His earlier words came back to taunt her. Could he really do that to her again?

He was above her and she was all too aware of him: thick and heavy and ready for her. He was, she had to admit, a little intimidating. She felt him poised, ready, right there as her body strained towards him even as a part of her brain warned that this was going to hurt.

Oh, yes. No doubt about it, he could drive her to that peak again. She was helpless to resist him, had no real will to.

“Wyatt.” She was pleading and felt no shame in it.

As if his name were some sort of signal, she felt him thrust into her, hard and deep. She cried out from the suddenness of it, from the feeling of complete fullness, stretching her, pushing her limits, yet somehow still making her want more. The expected pain hadn’t come. Somehow, he just barely fit, as if they were made perfectly for each other.

He clasped her face in his hands and made her eyes meet his.

“Look at me, sweetheart. I want you to know exactly who’s inside you. I want you to say my name again.” His words were spoken through clenched teeth. “God, DG, you’re so tight, hot. Do you have any idea how I feel while I take you like this?

Those words only added to the increasing yearning, that desperate need taking her over once more. Take her—that was exactly what he was doing.

“Oh God. Wyatt.” She couldn’t tear her gaze away if she tried now.

And he was moving: a sure, steady pace, filling her and making her ache for his absence again and again.

She watched him, looked into his eyes so all she knew was Wyatt. Not Cain, not her Tin Man, not her bodyguard or shadow. Wyatt, the man. The man who loved her, and whom she loved right back. This hidden Wyatt, so passionate and intense it was on the verge of frightening even though she never stopped feeling safe. He was all male in a way she never understood before.

And, oh God she was going to die from this. She clutched at his shoulders, trying to brace herself as her body found the rhythm of his. He was relentless, thrusting harder, deeper, a piston driving into her as he lost himself in primitive need. She could only wrap her arms and legs around him and try to keep up as his body drove deeply, fiercely into hers. Every thrust he made slid against her oversensitive bundle of nerves, pushing her mercilessly towards the edge once more.

Her eyes broke from hers as he came in to kiss her hard, almost bruising. His tongue demanded entrance and she had no desire to fight him. His taste was in her mouth, his body was in hers: she was surrounded by him, infused with him. She breathed him. The kiss broke away from her and his mouth was sealed over her shoulder. He bit down, hard, marking her, claiming her as his and his alone for all the world to see.

Then she was splintering into a million pieces as wave after wave of erotic bliss washed through her, dragging her clenching and screaming his name.

Wyatt’s hands grasped her hips, and she knew there would be marks there as he continued to drive into her. Then he let out a hoarse shout of her name. She could feel him spilling into her in hot bursts as she wrung his release from him.

Wyatt seemed as shaky as she felt as he lifted himself up to his elbows and looked down at her, his body weighty on her, but comforting, spent but still buried inside her.

So that was what all the fuss was about. Oh yeah, she could get to like this very much!

“Well…” Words were slowly returning to DG now as she licked her lips, her voice sounding odd to her own ears. “This wasn’t how I imagined today would go.”

His smile was brilliant and his chuckle pushed through her body. “Me neither. I figured at least another week before you caught on.”

He shifted off her and she whimpered at the loss of him as he pulled her against him, not willing to let her go yet.

“You’re bossy.” She mumbled against his chest. “And you bit me. Like a damn vampire.”

“Yep, and… yep.” Not in the least bit contrite. His fingers danced over the bruise on her shoulder. His mark. “No doubts and no hiding.”

“No hiding.” She agreed.

She was his now, even if she were to attempt to argue the fact. But she decided he was hers right back. Let’s see who gets nippy next time, buster. Oh… did cops in the O.Z. have handcuffs? She’d have to show him he couldn’t always be in charge.

“And you’re going to marry me.” His voice cut through her already active imaginings. “I mean it. I don’t do things half way.” He stated as if it were already decided.

“See. Bossy.” Oh, she was already sore. But it was a good sore. The kind you don’t mind feeling again. She felt their combined wetness slick between her thighs and she didn’t mind.

“That wasn’t a ‘no’.” He pointed out.

“Jerk.”