by Lora Leigh
Just me. Just—there was no “just” where Lawe Justice was concerned. There was nothing so simple as that word implied.
Confident, powerful, a supreme male animal and as fucking alpha as he could get, he stepped into the suite as though it belonged to him.
He was complicated, powerful, mysterious and rakish, wicked and seductive, and her entire body seemed to flood with warmth at the sight of him.
Diane remained still, her jaw locked in a deliberate attempt to exert control over herself and her reaction to the sound of the dark, sexually intent tone that had her body wanting to melt.
There were nights when the thought of him, of the touch she ached for, tormented her to the point that she wondered if perhaps he didn’t own a part of her already. At the very least, he owned her fantasies, her erotically charged, sensually tormented fantasies since the first moment when she had opened her eyes to find him standing above her.
Tall, his shoulders broad, his body powerful, the thick, heavy length of his black hair was much longer than it had been the last time she had seen him. He looked as dangerous as she knew he was. As primal and as savagely intense as she sensed he was.
Denim encased long, powerful legs and rode low on his hips to be cinched by a leather belt at his muscular hips. A white cotton shirt, the arms folded to the elbow covered wide shoulders and an impressive chest. Heavy Western boots covered his feet, a silver chain riding low around the heel.
He looked good enough to take a bite of, and her mouth watered to do just that.
The dark overnight growth of a beard shadowed his lower face—most Breeds couldn’t grow a full beard, but that rakish, next-day growth was the norm for those who allowed that sexy to-die-for look. And that was exactly the look Lawe was going for tonight. The look that stripped her down to bare bones, hard-core sex and the need to ride him until they were both exhausted.
Not that it would take her long to reach exhaustion after the past three months and a search that had driven her bat-shit crazy. But what a way to go.
“What are you doing here?” First replacing the weapon, she then unclipped the holster before walking through the suite. Passing the small living area as Lawe stepped into the room, she moved to the bed where she laid the weapon on the bedside table before turning to face him.
“What I’m doing here should be rather obvious.” Midnight black brows formed a V between the intense ice-cold violet blue eyes that swept over her.
Cold, cold eyes. She could never see what he was thinking, and she sure as hell had no idea how he felt from one second to the next. But she wanted to. There had been times she would have given anything to see behind the ice in his gaze.
“If you say so,” she agreed with a hint of mockery. “I’ve arrived safe and sound, Lawe, so you can go back to your own room, your own place or wherever you’re sleeping now. I’ll give you my report when I give it to Jonas in the morning. I’m too tired for the third degree tonight.”
She often wondered where he slept. And with whom. Rumor was, Lawe spent very few nights alone and his sexuality sure as hell didn’t rest.
She knew the Bureau had several apartments in town, as well as a safe house, where he and other high-level Enforcers stayed while in D.C.
What the hell he was doing here this late simply made no sense. Lawe Justice rarely, if ever, stayed in hotels unless he had the Presidential Suite. And she knew the three Presidential Suites were in use by the Russian Wolf and Coyote Pack leaders, as well as the Russian Feline Pride leader.
“I would have worried about you if I hadn’t known you arrived safe.” He surprised her with his reply. “Damned good thing I did too. You’ve just arrived and I can see how little you’ve taken care of yourself. What good did it do me to rescue you from certain death if you’re just going to commit suicide slowly?”
Never let it be said that the Breeds didn’t protect their assets to the best of their ability. They did. Even to the point that he was here tonight to ensure she had arrived and was tucked safely in her room.
“You prefer I do it quicker? That eager to be rid of me, are you?”
He snorted. “Beats watching you waste away day by day.”
Why, how sweet, she thought with savage mockery.
Yeah, right, that was why he was here all right, to check up on her health.
Bullshit.
He was there for the same reason she couldn’t get him out of her mind. Because neither of them had the self-control or strength of will to stay away from the other. And that terrified her. In the ten months since he’d rescued her from a Middle Eastern hellhole, he’d consumed not just her fantasies but also her thoughts and her determination not to care for anyone but Rachel and Amber.
She didn’t need this. Not here, not now, not at a time when she was trying so very hard to make too many decisions where her life was concerned.
As she turned back to face him, she watched as his gaze shifted from her to the bed, then back.
The bed was turned down invitingly, ready for them if either had the guts to push it.
The shower awaited. They could share it, she thought, though it would be a tight fit. The thought of heated water sluicing over his hard, naked body had her knees weakening in arousal and the need for touch.
Just for touch.
As he had touched her in England just before he left to return to the States after rescuing her. The way he had stroked the backs of his fingers along her cheek.
Or just after Brandenmore had finally been captured by Jonas Wyatt. He’d found her in New York that night before she had flown to Turkey for another job.
He hadn’t taken her. He had just touched her, his calloused fingers playing over her body as though the sensation of her flesh beneath his touch was an ecstasy all its own.
She had never been undressed and neither had he. He hadn’t touched her below the waist and he hadn’t given her the release her body was crying out for. But he had made her ache.
Hell, she shouldn’t want to want him like this. She shouldn’t allow herself to want him like this.
She could be in the bed sleeping off the jet lag and frustration if he would just leave. She could hurry and masturbate, make use of the vibrator hidden in her bags and then rest for a few hours before she had to meet with his boss.
“Fine, I’m safe and sound,” she finally said, breaking the tense silence growing between them. “You can stop protecting me now and let me get some sleep before I face the big bad prick in the morning.”
Not that Jonas was really that bad, but it wouldn’t do to let him know she actually liked him. She had a feeling he would take such deliberate advantage of that fact, it wouldn’t even be funny.
Just as Lawe would take full advantage of the sheer fascination she had for him, if he knew of it.
Letting him know would be the biggest mistake she could possibly make.
Lawe kept watching her. His gaze was like a dominant, powerful caress she couldn’t evade.
The sensation of that invisible touch never failed to leave her off balance and nervous. She could feel her blood beginning to rush through her veins, her heart rate becoming spiked and elevated. Her clit swelled with aching hunger and sexual desperation. Damn, she needed him to leave, then she could at least have him in her fantasies.
“Why are you still here, Lawe?” she asked. He was destroying her nerves with the violet blue intensity of his gaze and her certainty that there were indeed emotions roiling beneath the layer of icy calm.
“You should know why I’m here.”
She shook her head in a tight, jerky motion. Oh God, now wasn’t the time for this. Not while she was so tired, and so weak. “I have no idea, and I really don’t give a damn.”
God help her, he was killing her.
If she had to be fascinated by a man at this time in her life, why did it have to be a Breed? And why did it have to be this particular Breed? There was a level of the independence inside her that he frankly terrified and she knew why.<
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He was protective.
He would smother her with layers of protection if she allowed him to do it. That was what he would do with any woman he called his own. Hell, even his lovers had been known to complain of his insistence for bodyguards and heightened security. They complained of their inability to shop, to lunch with friends, to enjoy their lives.
For a minute, for the shortest amount of time, she might enjoy it, but Diane knew herself and knew it would destroy her. Her and Lawe. He could never accept danger to his woman, and he sure as hell could not accept danger to the woman he thought was his mate.
And he thought she was his mate.
She almost shivered at the thought.
“You need to leave, I’m tired and I need a shower, and I can’t deal with you tonight,” she retorted, forcing herself to confront the only man she had ever fantasized about wanting in her entire life.
She was thirty years old, for God’s sake.
She’d gotten used to the accusations of being frigid, lesbian, unfeeling, robotic. They had ceased to offend or wound her long ago. In most cases, they sincerely amused her.
For the men she knew, bedding a woman was no different from hunting a particular buck with a trophy rack. They used the same instincts and often the same finesse.
But this man, he made her feel something. This Breed. He made her heart race and her body feel flushed. He made her clit swell, her nipples harden, and oh yes, she knew damned good and well he sensed it.
He was a Breed, after all. All those nifty powerful senses. The sense of smell, hearing and eyesight that was like four or five hundred times that of a normal human.
He could probably smell her pussy dampening.
His nostrils flared as she allowed her brows to arch mockingly.
Oh yes, he could smell it.
“You were late arriving from the airport,” he stated as she realized his voice was much deeper than she was used to hearing. It had been since the moment he had spoken earlier. As though the animal genetics he carried were suddenly coming alive in ways they never had before.
She shivered at the thought.
“I’m really tired, Lawe.” She didn’t have the time or the heart to engage in the battle she knew he wanted. “Can we postpone this until tomorrow?”
Exactly what “this” was she truly hadn’t figured out yet. All she knew was that if she allowed herself to take what she wanted, if she reached out and grabbed at him with both hands, she would be making a supreme mistake. One that could end up destroying her.
She didn’t want a keeper or a jailer, and that was what Lawe would become. She couldn’t bear the thought of it.
“Funny, each time we’re together and the scent of your arousal begins to fill the air, it’s suddenly cut off just as quickly,” he mused, shocking her with the comment. “How do you manage it, Diane? Give me your secret, love. Maybe then I could control my own hunger as easily.”
“I remember quickly what pricks male Breeds can be,” she informed him sharply. “Do you think for a minute I’d put up with it without shooting you? Then Jonas would have to shoot me. Rachel would probably cry—” She shrugged as though she had gone far enough.
His lips tilted in amusement. “You have it all figured out I see.”
“I like to be prepared.” Hooking her thumbs in the belt loops of her pants she continued to watch him carefully. “What’s the saying? Better safe than sorry? I must prefer nice, safe non-Breed males. They don’t hassle me near as much and let me come and go as I please.”
Oh boy, big mistake. She watched his gaze narrow dangerously.
“And how many of those non-Breed males have you preferred, Diane?” His voice dropped as he began to move closer, becoming silky and dark, seductive. He could talk a woman out of her panties with his voice alone, she thought with an edge of searing hunger. And once he turned the heat up, how the hell was she supposed to resist him?
She stood perfectly still as he moved to her. He eased between her and the wall until he stood directly behind her.
She should have run, but that would have been the same as admitting defeat. Besides, he was a Breed male—the worst thing a woman could do was run. She became the prey then. An erotic delight that Lawe would ignore.
“Does it matter?” She had to force herself to remain still as she felt his cheek brush against her hair.
“Oh, it matters.” That was definitely a growl in his voice. “More than you know.”
She definitely heard the low, dangerous snap of his teeth behind her as he finished speaking.
“What the hell are you doing?”
She gave in. She moved to jerk away, overwhelmed and unprepared for the effect he had on her.
His hands clamped on her shoulders, holding her in place as a sharp breath expelled from her lungs.
“I want to bite you, Diane,” he growled. “I want to come behind you, fill your sweet pussy with my dick and lock my teeth in the side of your neck while I feel the tremors of your release shaking through your body. Be damned careful, baby, because trust me, it would be something neither of us will recover from.” His body tightened further behind her, his hips dipping, rolling, grinding his cock against the crevice of her rear as she felt her knees weakening.
One hand fell to her hip, holding her in place as Diane tried to pull free once again, her breathing rough and uneven as pleasure began to tear through her body.
The other hand stroked from her arm to her lower belly, pushed beneath her T-shirt and between one heartbeat and the next curved around the swollen, sensitive flesh of her breast as his fingers found and began to play with a tender nipple.
“Lawe!” Breathless, thick with a sudden, overwhelming pleasure and uncertainty, her fingers gripped the wrist at her hip as she felt her breathing lock in her chest for precious seconds.
Between her thighs her pussy clenched and spilled its juices as her clit began throbbing furiously.
The need to come was screaming through her body, drawing her muscles tight as she fought to find enough sensation against her clit to send her flying into release. Maybe then she could find her control again.
This was the closest they had ever been, the most they had dared to touch. Each of them knew what mating heat would do to them, just as they knew it was there, between them, banked but ready to flare out of control.
Something was definitely flaring out of control now. Like a wildfire burning everything in its path, the sensations and the hunger for more burned away her resistance and her common sense.
“Lawe,” she whispered his name this time, the whimper of agonized arousal an indication of the heightened sensations flaring across her nerve endings. “Please. Don’t do this to me.”