The Wharf

by Carol Ericson

  She glanced over her shoulder. “Are you coming?”

  When she looked at him like that, he had every intention of coming. He followed her provocatively swaying hips toward his room and shoved his key card in the slot while she wedged a shoulder against the door.

  He pushed open the door, and she fell into the room. He caught her shoulders and pulled her close, gazing into her liquid brown eyes.

  Her lashes fluttered and she ran her tongue along her lips.

  His tongue followed suit before he plunged it into her warm mouth. She closed around him and took a step closer, pressing her breasts against his chest, hooking one arm around his waist.

  He let the door slam behind them and then deepened his kiss as he placed both hands on her derriere, pulling her close and fitting her against his pelvis.

  She gasped into his mouth, her body going limp.

  He backed her up against the wall and yanked the jacket from her shoulders. As it fell to the floor, he slid down the zipper of her skirt.

  He didn’t even have to pull it off. It joined the sweater on the floor. He ran one hand up her smooth thigh and traced the line of her panties with his fingertip.

  She squirmed against him, but he had other plans. He grabbed the edge of her sweater and tugged it up. She raised her arms and he pulled it over her head and tossed it over his shoulder.

  Her breasts, encased in a lacy black bra, heaved with her panting breath. With each expansion of her lungs, the flimsy lace could barely contain the smooth, milky flesh. The bra hooked in the front, making his life a whole lot easier. With one little twist, he unhooked the bra and Kacie’s breasts spilled into his greedy hands.

  He cupped them in his palms and ran the pads of his thumbs across her rosy, peaked nipples.

  She hissed and threw her head back, banging it against the wall.

  As he rolled one nipple between his thumb and forefinger, he dipped his head to suck on the other. At the contact, her hips lunged against his, and he grabbed a handful of her luscious backside to steady her.

  He teased her nipple with his tongue and lips, blowing on it gently while he pinched her other nipple.

  The sensations drove Kacie wild with desire.

  Moaning, she thrashed her head from side to side and curled one leg around his denim-clad calf.

  Her hands clawed at his T-shirt. He’d stripped her down to her panties and he still had every bit of clothing on. How had that happened? She’d planned to seduce him in a controlled manner, keeping him on a tight leash, and she’d wound up quivering, almost naked, against the wall.

  He grabbed her hands with one of his, cinching her wrists together over her head as he continued focusing his attention on her breasts.

  The tender suckling of the one contrasted with the almost painful tweaking of the other until she couldn’t distinguish the pleasure from the pain and they merged into one overwhelming sensation of need.

  She tried loosening her hands from his grip, but once she got them free, he flattened his solid body against hers. One hand came up behind her and yanked her panties down around her thighs.

  He cupped her bottom and extended his fingers between her legs, thrusting them into her wet folds.

  She whimpered. It was all she could manage.

  His suckling of her breast became more insistent, alternating with and matching the thrusting of his fingers.

  The dual attack made it hard for her to breathe, hard for her to think, hard for her to remember why she’d initiated this seduction in the first place.

  The rough denim of his jeans and the soft cotton of his T-shirt pressed against her naked flesh. How was he fully clothed? He had her at his mercy, when she’d planned to have him at hers.

  Her legs began to shake and tremble. His thrusting fingers had begun to probe and stroke. Heat filled her belly as coils of tension tightened her muscles.

  Clenching her jaw, she dug her fingernails into Ryan’s shoulders. Her leg crept up farther and farther until she had it wrapped around his thigh.

  Then he raised his head from her breast and pressed his warm lips against her mouth. As his tongue invaded her, she exploded.

  Her other foot came off the floor, and only Ryan’s body kept her upright as she thrust her hips against him over and over as the waves of her orgasm claimed her.

  He kissed the sighs from her lips as she descended from paradise. When she once again had her feet firmly planted on the carpet, Ryan pinned her with his gaze and reached down to unbutton his fly.

  His erection had been straining against his jeans, and once free, his hard, tight flesh brushed her belly.

  He placed a hand on her shoulder, nudging her down.

  She dropped to her knees in front of him. He was still fully clothed except for his jeans and the underwear twisted around his muscular thighs, exposing his throbbing erection.

  She trailed her fingernails up the insides of his thighs, and his big body shivered. She took him gently into her mouth and he groaned, plowing his fingers through her hair.

  He said through clenched teeth, “I don’t think this is going to last very long.”

  She answered by wrapping her arms around his hips and digging her nails into his muscular buttocks. The musky taste of him filled her mouth, and at this moment she wanted nothing more.

  How did she think she could hold herself aloof from this man? Disengage herself from the hot passion that coursed between them? Maybe she’d been fooling herself. Maybe she always knew how it would end between them.

  And this had to be the end. Once he learned her true identity and her true purpose, he’d end it himself.

  Oh, but right now it felt like a beginning.

  He growled, a deep, animalistic sound from the back of his throat, and tugged on her hair, urging her to stand.

  He kissed the pulse throbbing in her lower lip while he nudged his knee between her legs. Her heart galloped, skipping several beats along the way when she realized he planned to take her right here against the wall.

  “There’s a bed in this room, you know.”

  “We don’t need a bed.” He nipped her earlobe, and she sighed.

  He forced her legs apart and slid one hand between her thighs. She hitched a leg around his waist, and he drove into her, pinning her against the wall.

  She didn’t know how or when she’d managed to hook the other leg around his waist, but nothing was holding her up except him.

  Wrapped around his body, she glanced over his shoulder into the mirrored closet door across from them and gasped. She resembled some wild creature, naked limbs wrapped around Ryan’s body, appearing to be a part of him, belonging to him.

  Then she squeezed her eyes closed as her core tightened. His thrusts grew deeper and faster until the pressure finally broke and she cried out with her release.

  She melted around him as the sweet pleasure continued to soak into her skin. He had to support her thighs with his splayed hands as she continued to straddle him.

  Then his body stiffened, and his muscles tightened beneath her hands. The force of his passion exploded within her, and he moaned her name over and over as he spent himself inside her.

  She’d never heard a sweeter sound.

  At last he buried his face in the curve of her neck as they both panted. “That was even better than I imagined it would be.”

  Her legs slid down his thighs, and she grabbed on to his shoulders. “And when exactly did you start imagining this?”

  A slow grin spread across his face, and he pinched her chin. “From the moment I carried you from that sauna.”

  Her pulse quickened. “You didn’t know anything about me.”

  He snorted. “That’s never stopped a man from fantasizing.”

  “You’re still dressed.” Her hands slid down to the front of his sweat-soaked T-shirt and she plucked it from his chest. “How is that even fair?”

  “It’s more than fair.” Taking a step back, he hitched up his jeans, and his gaze tracked down her nud
e body, leaving prickles of heat in its wake. Then he swept her up in his arms as if she weighed no more than a kitten and carried her to the primly made bed.

  He dropped her. “Now, let me get a good look at you.”

  “Isn’t that what you were doing before?” Warmth swept across her body and she crossed her legs. “And when do I get my turn?”

  He pulled off his heavy motorcycle boots and dropped them one at a time on the floor. Straddling her, he pulled his T-shirt over his head, revealing an expanse of rippling muscles.

  “That’s more like it.” She reached out her hands toward the ridges on his chest and traced one hard line with her fingertip.

  He twitched beneath her gentle touch. “I’m not done with you yet.”

  She couldn’t help herself. When he talked like that and his bottle-green eyes roamed over her body, she turned to clay, only too happy to allow him to mold and shape her to his pleasure...and hers.

  She moaned, and he chuckled. “You’d better hang on because I’m just getting started.”

  She’d worry about the plan later.

  * * *

  KACIE WOKE WITH a start and squinted at the green numbers floating in the pitch dark. Ryan’s slow, steady breathing stirred the ends of her hair, and his leg hitched over her hip pinned her to his body.

  And what a body. She’d finally gotten her chance to do her own exploration, and the memory would be seared into her brain forever.

  She squirmed away from him, and he didn’t move a muscle. Before they’d drifted off to sleep, she’d scoped out the location of the box containing the case files organized by his brother’s fiancée—a box she hadn’t known existed until dinner. Now she swept her cell phone from the nightstand and aimed the little beam of light across the room and under the desk by the window. It didn’t quite reach her target, but she knew the general location.

  When she rolled off the bed, she shivered, but the room wasn’t even cold. She shuffled her feet on the carpet as she quietly made her way to the box.

  Holding the cell-phone light before her, she crouched next to the box and flicked off the lid. She dug into the first set of files and read the neat headings on the labels until she came to a thick folder bound by two rubber bands.

  This had to be it. She peered at the label and nodded to herself. She snapped off the first band and then rolled off the other one.

  She flipped open the file and began to thumb through the contents, inspecting each photo.

  A light came to life across the room and she gasped, dropping the folder on the floor.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  Chapter Nine

  A pulse pounded against her temple, and she swallowed. “I—I had an idea and wanted to look up something.”

  Ryan’s sleep-roughened voice rumbled across the room. “Are you kidding me? You’re working?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Not at all. Get back to bed.”

  With trembling hands she gathered the scattered contents of the folder and hugged it to her chest. “Just a few more minutes. Go back to sleep. I’m sorry I woke you.”

  “I am, too, but now I am awake and I’ll be damned if I’m gonna lie here while a naked woman is in my room working on the floor. Come on over here before I toss you over my shoulder and carry you back to bed. And don’t think that wouldn’t give me great pleasure...before I give you great pleasure.”

  The bed squeaked, and Kacie dumped the folder back into the box and tamped the lid back on it.

  “No need to go caveman on me. I’m coming.”

  She extinguished her cell-phone light and stumbled back to the bed, where Ryan had flipped back the covers.

  “Crawl in here, woman, and keep me warm.” He patted the mattress.

  She slid beneath the sheet, and Ryan pulled her back toward his chest, folding his warm body around hers.

  He wrapped one arm around her, cupping her breast. “Brr. Seems like I need to warm you up. What possessed you to start working, stark naked, in the middle of the night?”

  She yawned noisily and threaded her fingers through his. “I’ll tell you in the morning.”

  * * *

  BUT SHE DIDN’T tell him in the morning, and he didn’t ask. Either he’d forgotten she ever left the warmth of their bed or he no longer deemed it important.

  Fine with her.

  She bit off the corner of her toast and waved it at his laptop on the breakfast table between them. “Anything important?”

  “My assistant chief has everything under control. Most exciting thing I’ve missed is the town drunk falling off the wagon again and running his car into a ditch.”

  She dropped her toast and brushed the crumbs from her fingers. “Aah, small-town life. Is it enough for you?”

  “Is it enough for you?” He clicked the keys of his keyboard without looking up. “You’re outside of Seattle, right? Small town?”

  “It suits me, but when I’m not spending my time writing and researching, I’m on the road. So, my small town is an oasis for me.”

  “Crestview is an oasis for me, too.”

  “An oasis from what?”

  He tapped his head. “From the stuff going on up here.”

  “You seem well-adjusted to me.” She tilted her head and tossed her hair over her shoulder. “All red-blooded American male.”

  “You got that right.” He reached around his laptop and brushed a knuckle across her cheek. “But I’ve worked hard to reach this level of calm and serenity, and living in Crestview helps. I work, I surf and I run the trails, and I have a tight-knit group of friends in town.”

  “And you have your brothers.”

  He choked on the sip of coffee he’d just taken. “I wouldn’t exactly say hanging out with my brothers keeps me sane, but I think we’ve all worked through our issues in our different ways. This book and proving Dad’s innocence once and for all will go a long way toward sealing the deal for all of us.”

  He took her hand and traced the pad of his thumb along the grooves of her knuckles. “Thanks to you.”

  “Save your thanks.” She slid her hand from beneath his warm touch. He wouldn’t be thanking her if he knew about her deception. Last night had changed so much between them, had changed her, but it couldn’t alter her mission. She owed this to her mother. She had to see it through, regardless of her feelings for Ryan. Mom deserved justice even if her daughter had to make sacrifices. “I haven’t done anything yet.”

  “You will. Any woman who gets up in the middle of the night to work after a couple of hours of passionate sex is going to get the job done.”

  She dropped her lashes and crumpled her napkin into a tight ball.

  “What were you doing last night?” His gaze had returned to his laptop monitor, but his words seemed to hover over the table like an accusation.

  “I was just wondering if Christina had anything in her notes about Cookie’s previous encounter with your father.”

  His eyes flicked to her face and dropped again as she eased out a long, slow breath. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

  “You rudely interrupted me and threatened to forcibly remove me from the floor. Remember?”

  “Oh yeah. I would’ve had a lot of fun doing it, too.” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down. “Cookie’s having another open house this afternoon. I think we should pay her a surprise visit.”

  “Do you think it will do any good?”

  “She’s had some time to think about the past. Maybe she’ll remember how my father helped her and decide to tell me the truth.”

  “If she hasn’t already.” She hunched over the table, clasping her hands in front of her, happy to change the subject. “Her nervousness might’ve just been coming from the fact that you brought up unpleasant memories from her past.”

  “Could be—” he tapped the screen “—but I have a sudden desire to see another house in the Sunset District, and maybe she’ll put out more chocolate-chip cookies.”

 
“What time?”

  “Two to five. I figure we’ll drop by closer to five to catch her alone.”

  “That’ll work for me.”

  “Do you have plans?”

  “I’m going to edit what I have so far as an introduction, so I’ll be holed up in my room all afternoon.”

  “That’ll give me time to do some work, too.” He snapped his computer shut. “We can meet up again around four?”

  “What kind of work?” She gripped the edge of the table. Maybe she should suggest they work side by side just so she could make sure he wasn’t going through that box on his own.

  His wide shoulders rose and fell. “Seems my assistant chief isn’t that good after all. He wants me to look at a couple of reports and respond to a proposal from a new caterer trying to get a contract for our jail food.”

  “You have to deal with caterers as the chief of police? Who knew?” She lifted one eyebrow and retrieved her purse from the back of her chair. As long as he didn’t plan to go rummaging through that box—at least not until she got a crack at it first.

  When the check came, Ryan let her pick it up this time to make her happy. She’d been on edge all morning. Did she regret the antics of the previous night?

  He didn’t.

  Maybe it wasn’t the smartest idea to bed the woman who was writing a book about your family, but she’d started it. He hadn’t planned on taking her against the wall like that—or any other way—but she’d come on to him the previous night, no doubt about it.

  He had no intention of turning down a lady like Kacie Manning. Was she regretting it now because he hadn’t measured up in some way?

  He pulled out her chair and she smiled her thanks as her gaze roamed hungrily over his body.

  Hell no. He’d measured up in every way that mattered. But maybe she preferred her lovemaking slow and easy—nice and proper.

  His eyes followed the sway of her hips as she wove through the tables of the restaurant.

  Hell no. There was nothing proper about the way that woman liked to make love.

  They were made for each other. They fit together like tongue and groove. Literally.