Barrett, Julia Rachel - Anytime Darlin' (Siren Publishing Allure)

by Anytime Darlin' (20010) (lit)

  Devlin couldn’t hold it in any longer. She exploded with laughter. She watched Jake sling her hanging bag over his shoulder, then, still whooping uncontrollably, he grasped her arm, tugging her away from the waiting area. Clinging to each other, they ran down the long corridor to the escalators that led to baggage claim.

  “Which one is yours?” asked Jake, scanning for something that matched the hanging bag.

  Devlin could only point as her suitcase came around the carousel. Jake grabbed for it and hoisted it up as if it was weightless. He shot her a wolfish grin that said, Come with me, and through her laughter, she thought, Yes. Yes, I think I will.

  * * * *

  Jake never expected to lose control like that. He never lost control. Especially not in public, in an airport, of all the damn places. He’d almost ripped their clothes off right there in the waiting area. He knew Devlin was behind him as he headed to the parking garage, but he didn’t dare turn around. The minute he looked at her again, he was a goner. The moment he’d seen her step through the doorway, her long legs encased in tight denim, white sandals on her slender feet, wearing a tight white tee over bare breasts, her nipples barely disguised by a sheer overshirt, every feeling he’d bottled up inside for four long years had spilled out. Jesus, he was as hard as a rock before he even touched her. He was still hard. All he could think about was burying himself inside her, in the heat between her legs, in her sweet mouth. Lord, he ached to feel that mouth on him. She tasted like honey. He knew without a doubt that the rest of her would taste just as sweet.

  No one had told him she’d cut her hair. For years he’d pictured her with that unruly waist-length auburn hair. Night after night, he’d imagined how it would feel sliding over his body as he pulled her on top of him, or how it would look spread dark and thick over his pillow, when he lay above her and kissed her full red lips, easing himself into the heat of her willing body. Her boyish cut intrigued him. He couldn’t wait to wrap those curls around his fingers. It was startling how large her eyes looked now. He loved the way the cut framed her delicate face, emphasizing her high cheekbones and showcasing those lush lips. The lips that had driven him crazy in his dreams.

  Devlin had changed in other ways. She was taller than he remembered. Jake was six feet, one inch, and he was sure Dev was at least five-eight. She’d stayed slender. He suspected she’d always be thin, but she walked like a woman now, with an unconscious sexy sway to her shapely hips. Her breasts were small but perfectly rounded, with the pert, constantly erect nipples he remembered, the nipples he’d had such a hard time keeping his eyes off of four years ago. He ached to expose them, rub them with his thumbs, his fingers, put his mouth on them and suck until she cried out his name.

  Hell, he thought, his jeans growing more uncomfortable, if he didn’t stop picturing everything he wanted to do with her, he’d come in his pants. Only Eleanor Devlin Barre, with her sparkling aquamarine eyes, her lips that demanded kissing, her infectious laugh, her keen mind, and her long, lithe body, had the power to do that to him. He just hoped he could hold out until they got to the hotel. Making love to Devlin for the first time in the backseat of his Jeep was not what he had in mind.

  * * * *

  Devlin thought it was just as well she walked behind Jake. She wasn’t sure she could keep a straight face if he looked at her, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep her hands off him if he was by her side. She had been laughing so hard when they stood at the baggage carousel that she couldn’t speak, merely point, when her suitcase came around. Though Jake tried to hide it with her hanging bag, it was pretty hard to ignore the bulge in the front of his jeans. She just hoped everyone else was in too much of a hurry to notice. She felt a twinge of jealousy at the thought of another woman feeling what she’d felt when he pressed her against him. She didn’t even want them looking at what she’d felt back at the gate.

  Devlin wasn’t inexperienced. She and Jason had been an item for a year and a half. They tried hard to make it work, but their close friendship got in the way, and both of them discovered they felt more comfortable with each other when they no longer shared a bed. She’d dated several men she’d met at school, and while she’d found the sex to be satisfying for a while, she’d never known anything, any man, like Jake. One look from him, one word, one touch, and she melted like butter left out in the hot summer sun.

  Devlin had long legs, and she matched him stride for stride, admiring the flex of his tight buttocks as he walked six feet in front of her. Her stomach flip-flopped once again as she imagined those firm buttocks naked, moving beneath her hands, as Jake thrust into her. The picture was so vivid that her steps faltered, and she came to a complete stop.

  Against her will, a soft moan escaped her. Jake stopped in midstride. Devlin knew she had betrayed herself, and her cheeks warmed. She covered her face with her hands, embarrassed that her desire for Jake was so obvious, so close to breaking free. She was afraid she’d humiliate herself by jumping him in his car.

  Suddenly she felt Jake directly in front of her. Her luggage dropped to the pavement, forgotten. He pried her hands away from her face, threading his fingers through hers and holding them to her sides. He kissed her then, hard, as if staking a claim. There was nothing Devlin wanted more than to be claimed by Jake McKenna. She moaned into his mouth, making no effort to hide her need for him. He let go of her hands then, moving them to her waist. In agonizingly slow motion, Jake tugged her tee shirt free of her jeans. His warm palms pressed against her bare belly. Dev pulled her mouth away from Jake’s. Tossing back her head, she gasped at the skin-to-skin contact. His left hand moved to the small of her back, supporting her as she arched toward him, feeling his right hand slide upward, toward her breast. Jake’s palm felt wonderfully rough against her sensitive skin. Her nipples burned for his touch, and Devlin thought she would explode if he didn’t reach them soon.

  Then his hand was there, covering her naked breast. Holding it, kneading it.

  “Oh. God. Jake,” was all she could manage as his thumb flicked across her nipple. He pinched it, and Devlin almost screamed. She would have if Jake hadn’t backed her into a nearby pickup truck and taken her mouth with his. Devlin was out of control now as Jake thrust against her, each movement of his hips pressing the length of his stiff cock along her aching slit. She was so far gone she didn’t realize he’d unzipped her jeans until she felt his strong fingers slip between her folds and rub slow circles around her clit. Jake released her mouth and buried his face in her neck. The fingers of one hand twisted her nipple while he moved his other hand lower and slid a finger inside her. His teeth were on her neck, and he bit down, hard. That was all she needed to push her over the edge. Devlin rode Jake’s finger as she came, crying out his name over and over again. Her orgasm seemed to last forever. When it ended, she collapsed against him, spent. They leaned together, breathing heavily for a long time.

  Jake gently, almost reluctantly, it seemed to Devlin, moved his hands from beneath her clothing, holding her against him, murmuring in a low voice. Devlin could feel the soothing vibration of his words in her chest, but she couldn’t understand him, not yet anyway. She had just experienced the most exquisite orgasm of her life. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to take him inside her, to feel him move inside her. She wondered if it was possible to die of pleasure.

  Opening her eyes, Devlin found Jake looking back at her. He smiled the smile she’d come to love four years ago, the smile she felt all the way to her toes even then. The corners of his eyes crinkled, while his eyes themselves sparkled as if with private amusement, only now she knew they sparkled for her, because of what he’d just given her. She watched him bring the finger he’d had inside her to his lips. His pink tongue flicked out, and he licked it. Then he put it in his mouth and sucked, as if savoring her essence. He buried his hands in her hair and kissed her. She tasted herself on his tongue.

  “I knew you’d taste sweet,” he said in a rough voice, pulling away from her mouth. �
��Like nectar.”

  “Jake McKenna,” Devlin answered, stroking the side of his face with her hand, running a thumb along his sensuous lips. “You leave me speechless.”

  “That was part of the plan,” he said with a chuckle. He held her hand and turned it over to kiss her palm.

  Devlin felt like she was moving in slow motion, so Jake helped her straighten her clothing. He slung her bags into the back of his Jeep and opened the door for her. As Dev climbed in, she thought that if this was only part of his plan, how on earth would she survive the rest of it?

  Chapter Eight

  As he drove them to the hotel, Jake allowed himself a small self-satisfied smile. He wasn’t as satisfied as he would be once he’d come inside her and calmed this raging hard-on, but he knew he’d just given Dev more pleasure than he’d ever given a woman. From her response, he guessed it was more pleasure than she’d ever experienced in her life. Devlin, coming apart in a parking garage merely from his touch, made him feel more man than any woman he’d ever met. He almost laughed, but he stopped himself because he didn’t want to embarrass her. He thought it was a beautiful thing, feeling her come, hearing her. He would have watched her face, but he couldn’t. It would have been impossible to control himself. He figured the security tapes would be interesting enough as it was.

  She was silk, everywhere. Her skin felt as satiny as it looked. One touch had his cock straining painfully against his zipper. He imagined her nipples. They would look like ripe raspberries. But they were firm, so firm to his touch. They had always been that way. Even when she’d worn bras four years ago, you could see her nipples through her shirts. It bothered him then that men looked when she walked by, especially when he’d tried so damn hard not to.

  When Jake had unzipped her jeans, opened her pussy to run his fingers through her and into her, he found molten honey, so soft, sweet, and slick. It was almost impossible to remain upright when she came against his finger. My God, he thought, so this was what it was like to make love to Devlin Barre. The next few days might just kill him.

  Jake doubted she realized it yet, but by the time this wedding weekend was over, she would be his, body, heart, and soul. He would make certain she knew that there was no one else out there for her, nobody who could make her feel the way he could. He was already hers. His heart had belonged to her since she opened her eyes on that gurney four years ago and entrusted him with her name.

  “So, Jake,” said Devlin, interrupting his thoughts with a crooked grin, “how have you been?”

  Four years of restraint fell away as Jake began to laugh unabashedly. She’d always had a way of disarming him.

  He coughed. “Just fine, Dev. How about you?”

  “Oh, fine, just fine,” she answered through her own laughter.

  Jake dropped a hand from the steering wheel and reached for one of hers. They sat that way in comfortable silence, all the way to the hotel.

  * * * *

  Mike had been waiting for Jake in the lobby, wondering if Devlin’s plane was late. He hoped to go over some details with his best man about the rehearsal schedule and the rehearsal dinner he had planned for tomorrow. After waiting nearly four years to propose, he wanted to make sure everything was perfect for Beth. When he came right down to it, he knew early on she was the one, but it took him a while to admit it. He waited until he had a sizeable down payment for a nice house with a lot of bedrooms and a big, fenced-in yard in a quiet, safe neighborhood. He wanted his kids to go to good schools, play in open parks with a horde of neighborhood kids. Because Mike wanted a horde of kids of his own.

  Well, he’d saved enough money and they’d bought it. Right now, Beth was showing it off to her folks. Tonight was a cocktail party and buffet dinner for his coworkers, the out-of-town guests, and the wedding party. Mike no longer drove a black-and-white. He’d moved up last year to Homicide.

  As he watched the front entrance, Devlin appeared with Jake right behind her. He saw her turn to say something in Jake’s direction. Jake stepped up to her back, leaned his head over her shoulder, and kissed her. Mike grinned when he saw Devlin wiggle around to face Jake, thread her hands into his hair, and kiss him back, just as eager. It was about damn time, he thought. Mike could have made himself scarce, but he knew Jake had already spotted him. He decided the occasion demanded a little best friend harassment. He waited for them to come up for air.

  “Hey Jake, Dev, where the hell you two been? We have some business to attend to.” He tried to keep a straight face.

  “Later, Mike,” Jake said, trying to steer Devlin beyond Mike toward the elevator.

  “Jake!” exclaimed Devlin, punching him in the arm, her face turning a pretty pink with embarrassment. “Mike, you look wonderful.” She gave him a hug.

  “So do you, babe.” He tugged on her short curls. “I like the hair.”

  “Thanks. Where’s Beth?”

  “At the house with her folks.” Mike turned to Jake. “Hey, buddy, we need to go over the rehearsal schedule and talk about the dinner tomorrow. You got an hour or so? Maybe Devlin could check in and meet up with us later, at the party.”

  “No,” said Jake.

  “What do you mean no? You’re my best man. We need to get this right.”

  “It’s fine,” said Devlin. “I can check in and meet you later.”

  Jake glowered at both of them.

  “You’re already checked in,” he told her, ignoring Mike’s telltale grin.

  “No, obviously I’m not,” insisted Devlin. “Give me my bags, and I’ll go take care of it. You two can go do whatever it is you need to do.” She looked at her watch. “No hurry, it’s early. I don’t need to get ready ’til late this afternoon. I can kill some time shopping or something.”

  Jake glared at her, then at Mike. Mike’s shoulders shook with suppressed laughter.

  “Really, Jake, it’s okay. I’m fine on my own.” Devlin attempted to reassure him with a half smile.

  “You’re already checked in,” Jake repeated, daring Mike to interfere. He tucked his hand under Devlin’s elbow and escorted her to the elevator.

  Mike threw his hands up and called after him, “Well, okay then. I can always get me a new best man.”

  Dev started to protest, and she turned around, but Mike shot her a mischievous grin and mouthed the words, Have fun.

  Mike watched the two of them get into the elevator, Devlin trying to discuss the situation with Jake while Jake did his best to avoid conversation. He waved to them cheerfully as the door closed. Mike stuck his hands in the pockets of his jeans and looked in the direction they’d gone.

  “It’s about time,” he commented aloud. “About damn time.”

  * * * *

  As the elevator doors closed behind them, Devlin turned to argue with Jake.

  “You know as well as I do that I haven’t checked in.” She put her hands on her hips.

  “Yes, you have. I checked in for you.”

  “Yeah?” she asked. “Then what room am I in?”

  “Mine.”

  Devlin burst into incredulous laughter. “Yours?”

  “Mine,” Jake repeated with a straight face. “Room 708.”

  “Jake McKenna, you don’t own me. You could have asked.”

  Jake leaned forward and hit the emergency stop button.

  “You’re right,” he said, “I should have asked. But I didn’t want to give you the opportunity to say no. Especially not now, after what just happened between us.”

  Devlin blushed, but she said nothing, her eyes glued to his intense face, issuing a challenge.

  “I stayed away for over four years. Four years of wet dreams about you. Hoping that someday I’d have you, that we’d have an opportunity to be together. Like this. Like we can be right now. But if you want your own room, we can go back down to the lobby, and you can get your own room. You’re right, I don’t own you.”

  Devlin saw the pain in his eyes, his worry that she might reject him. But she had to ask a question
before she gave him her answer.

  “Why the fuck didn’t you call me on my eighteenth birthday?”

  “I did. You just didn’t get the message. Ken forgot.”

  After a moment of utter silence, she said his name, and Jake was there, holding her, kissing her. He picked her up off the floor, and she wrapped her long legs tight around his lean waist, touching him, his face, his neck, his chest. Devlin struggled to get as close as possible to this big, hard, intelligent, passionate, gentle man who’d haunted her since she’d opened her fever-clouded eyes on a gurney in the back of Kmart. She didn’t care that the elevator alarm was blaring. She didn’t care that the elevator door might open and someone might find them. She didn’t care what her future held in store for her, as long as her present, as long as this very moment, held Jake.

  “God, I want you.” His voice sounded raw with desire.

  “Then take me.”

  “Not here,” he panted. “Not in an elevator.”

  “Why not?” Devlin reached down and unbuttoned his jeans. She lowered the zipper, freeing him. Pressing her hand against his erection, running her fingers along his length, Devlin gasped at her first real touch of Jake. He was hot silk over thick steel. She wanted to feel him push inside her. Now.

  * * * *

  Jake groaned. He was at her mercy. If he didn’t get inside her, he would explode in her hand. He realized Devlin had lowered her legs. She began to remove her shirt. He stood there, watching, unable to catch his breath, his cock free and painfully erect, arching toward her. She kicked her sandals into a corner and pulled off the rest of her clothes. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Jake drew her toward him, leaned her over his extended arm, and closed his mouth on one of those nipples he wanted so bad. He sucked hard at the tender rose-colored tip. She trembled against him, moaning appreciatively.