One-Click Buy: February 2010 Harlequin Blaze

by Betina Krahn

  Damn. She was tormenting him. His sexy pilot had claws much sharper than this intoxicated little cat who was still trying to use his thigh as a scratching post and, now, his neck as a lump of catnip.

  He should have been annoyed—he’d never liked women who played games. But somehow, as his heart started thudding hard against his rib cage and all his blood again rushed to his cock, he realized he was incredibly excited by Amanda Bauer instead.

  Their stares locked, intense and hot. She licked her lips, and Steve tugged her closer, as if he’d almost felt that sweet, wet tongue. But her attention wasn’t on Steve, it was entirely on Reese. Her eyes sparkled, as if she knew he was torn between wanting to laugh at her for trying to make him jealous or pick her up, throw her over his shoulder and out-caveman the guy in the loincloth.

  Reese lifted a questioning brow, silently asking her how far she was going to take this. In response, she leaned toward Steve’s ear and whispered something. The other man froze, dropping his arms and watching as Amanda turned away from him. She eased through the crowd, winding a path across the dance floor, heading toward a back hallway that led to the restrooms. A number of men turned to watch her go, and she earned more than a few glares from their dates. Just before she slipped down the short hallway, she cast one more glance over her shoulder. Her half smile taunted Reese, daring him to follow.

  Reese spun the horny little cat around and pushed her toward the still-frozen Steve, who appeared almost shell-shocked. When he met Reese’s eyes, he flushed, then mumbled, “Sorry, man.”

  Whatever Amanda had said, it had worked. He should have known she needed no help in taking care of herself. Still, he couldn’t help smiling tightly and saying, “I think my date and I will be leaving now. Before you do something that requires me to break your jaw.”

  Not waiting for a reply, Reese moved in the same direction Amanda had gone. Easier said than done, as the dance floor swelled when the deejay put on a campy version of the “Monster Mash.” He couldn’t find an inch of clear space and had to push his way through couple after couple.

  Finally, though, he reached the short hallway. A woman had just disappeared into the ladies’ room, and a guy in a toga passed him as he left the men’s. Stepping into a corner to wait, he started when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

  “I knew you’d follow me,” a throaty voice whispered.

  Amanda.

  She’d appeared from the shadows of a storage room, ignoring the Private: Employees Only sign. Standing in the doorway, she watched him with heat in her green eyes and a pant of audible hunger flowing across her moist lips.

  “I knew you wanted me to.”

  He didn’t resist when she tugged him inside the small room, dark, damp, smelling of yeasty beer and booze.

  “Your girlfriend isn’t going to come after us, is she?” Amanda whispered as she pushed the door shut behind him, trapping them inside.

  He made sure everyone else was kept out by twisting the lock on the knob. “My girlfriend?”

  She reached up and ran the tip of one index finger over his bottom lip, hissing lightly when he nipped at it. “Uh-huh. She looks very catty.” Leaning up on tiptoe, she pressed her wet lips to his throat, swiping her small tongue against the hollow. “I don’t usually go after other girls’ guys but the way you’ve been looking at me all night has me feeling a little reckless.”

  He got into the spirit of her game. “She’s not the one I want.” Reese stared down at her, able to see her beautiful face more clearly as his eyes adjusted to the glimmer of moonlight spilling in from a small window. He leaned into her, knowing by her groan that she felt his raging erection pressing into the juncture of her thighs. “She’s not the one who’s had me hard and desperate for the past six hours.” Being honest now, he added, “You’re a stranger and yet I’m dying for you.”

  She lifted one slim leg, tilting toward him so his cock nested against the warm seam of her silky hot pants. He swallowed hard, desperately wanting to yank down his zipper, tear her shorts off and thrust into her hard, fast and deep. But a bigger part of him wanted it slow and hot, erotic as hell, with every sensation building upon the last, until the tension of anticipation had them both ready to explode.

  “Sex with a stranger is a very enticing fantasy, isn’t it?” she asked. “How lucky that we saw each other across the bar and both knew exactly what we had to have.”

  Wicked. Erotic. So damned sexy.

  “Aren’t you afraid your boyfriend is going to come looking for you?” He was half-curious about what she’d said to the other man before abandoning him. But not curious enough to ask, or do anything that might distract them from what was happening right here, right now.

  “I don’t care,” she mumbled, her fingers tugging at his tie, slipping the top button of his shirt open. “He can’t satisfy me.”

  Her fingertips brushed his bare chest and he hissed at the sensation of skin on skin. “No. He can’t. But believe me, I’m going to.”

  Hearing the sexy confidence in Reese Campbell’s voice, Amanda melted a little. Okay, a lot. Coming from another guy—like the drunk ass she’d just ditched on the dance floor—the pronouncement might have come off as arrogant. But to her ears, Reese’s certainty about the pleasure he intended to give her was utterly intoxicating. There was no conceit in it; he simply knew, as she did, that their chemistry was enough to take them both to places neither of them had ever gone before.

  “One thing we have to make clear up front,” she said, staring up at him, dropping the game for a moment. “Yes?”

  “This is just a one-night stand.”

  Instead of taking offense, he laughed softly. “Why don’t you wait until after you’ve actually tasted something off the menu before deciding whether or not you want dessert?”

  “I suspect you’re going to fill me up very nicely the first time,” she said, trying to sound seductive but knowing that had come out almost prim.

  His continued laughter confirmed it.

  She nibbled her bottom lip, her heart beating in excitement at all the ways she wanted to taste him. But the demands of her job, her travel, her commitment to the company and her allergy to anything resembling a relationship made her persist.

  “I’m not looking for anything serious or long-term. No entanglements.”

  Sounding almost relieved, he replied, “Then we’re on the same page. My life is so full of people right now, the Health Department is gonna cite me for overcrowding.”

  She hammered the point home. “So we’re clear. One night, then it’s done. We’ll just enjoy ourselves because it’s a holiday and we’re both unattached and we want each other. We play all night and then walk away in the morning?”

  “Sure,” he said with a half grin that promised he didn’t really mean it. But she had the feeling it was as close to a promise as he intended to give her. “Okay. Good…perfect.”

  He stared at her in the darkness, running the tip of his index finger across her cheek. “Yeah. Perfect. That’s exactly the word I’d use.”

  For her? For them? For this moment and this night and this wonderful, unexpected interlude? All of the above?

  Who gave a damn?

  “I want you, stranger,” she said, feeling bold, crazy, wild with need and want. “I want you now.”

  He groaned, sinking his hands into her hair, tugging her face to his to capture her mouth in a deep, hard kiss. Without breaking away, he maneuvered her around so her back was to the door, and he crowded her there. Every inch of her body was enveloped by his, every curve, angle and point, and she whimpered and writhed at the feeling of being so utterly in his control.

  She wasn’t used to the sensations, had never been so enslaved by a person, a feeling, a need. She felt powerless, immobilized, able only to enjoy what he was doing to her, give herself over completely to his every sensual whim.

  Somehow, she just didn’t care. Maybe because she had gone for so long without any kind of physical connection. Or because
it was Halloween and she was dressed in a crazy costume. Or that she had never played sexy, sultry games like they were engaging in tonight and had suddenly discovered she liked them. Or simply that she found Reese more attractive and exciting than any man she had ever met. It didn’t matter.

  This mattered. Just this.

  “Please,” she whispered, not even sure what she was asking for.

  Moving his mouth to her jaw, he pressed hot kisses to her even hotter skin. He tasted her neck, before traveling on to her pulse point and licking lightly. “Have I told you that I really like your costume?”

  That mouth moved lower, down to her nape, and he scraped his teeth across her collarbone, ever so lightly. She shivered. Ever so lightly.

  “I do, too,” she admitted, meaning it. Arching against him, she groaned at the feel of her own silky blouse against her hard, sensitive nipples. The hot pants had never felt so tight, and the seam did wonderfully wicked things to her highly sensitized clit.

  “I think I’ll like it even more when it’s on the floor.” His strong hands moved down, brushing her shoulders, sliding the length of her arms. His fingertips brushed hers in a caress so light and delicate she shivered with the need for more.

  He cupped her hips, holding her in place. Pressed against him, she almost cried with the need to see, feel, taste and be filled by the massive erection pressed into her groin.

  “Don’t you think we should hurry before somebody comes looking for us?” she asked, helpless and desperate for him to go faster. Harder. Now.

  “Nobody’s going to come looking for us.”

  She wasn’t giving up. “Not even your girlfriend?”

  He smiled a little, his white teeth gleaming in the low lighting. “Oh, we have a very open relationship. She told me to come back here and have a fabulous time with you, then tell her all about it.”

  God, he was so sexy, tempting her with all that was forbidden and hot. He was still playing, but changing the rules of the game to suit his whim. He made it more taboo, more erotic.

  “So does that mean you like handling two women at the same time?” she asked, intentionally trying to inflame him. She wanted him to go faster, give her more, immediately.

  She should have known better. Reese merely continued to kiss her mouth, her jaw, her earlobe. “I’d like to have two yous.”

  “Why don’t you have one me first before deciding whether you want a double portion?”

  Though he chuckled, Reese continued to take his time, dragging this out. He was going to torture her with a slow, seductive ignition rather than just making her explode in a hot, sexual inferno the way she wanted him to.

  “You evil man,” she muttered.

  Reese moved his mouth back to her throat, kissing his way down, licking, nibbling. Amanda could only wriggle and moan as sensations washed over her. When his rough cheek brushed the upper curve of one breast, she instinctively arched toward him, wanting a much more intimate connection.

  Reese complied, rubbing his cheek against the silky blouse as he moved his mouth to her nipple. He breathed over it, hot and anticipatory, then covered the taut peak and sucked her through the material.

  “You wonderful man,” she groaned.

  Her legs going weak, she sagged against him. His body in front of her and the door at her back seemed to be the only things holding her up.

  As much as she wanted him to, he didn’t pull her blouse open and suckle her bare breast, seeming content to torment her through her clothes.

  “Reese, touch me, please,” she whispered.

  He was touching her, gripping her hips, his fingertips digging lightly into her bottom. But she wanted so much more.

  Reese’s strong hands traveled up her sides in a slow, deliberate slide. The palms nestled in the indentation of her waist, cupped tenderly, then rose to her midriff, right beside her breasts.

  “Beautiful,” he murmured as he tightened his hands, plumping her breasts up so the top curves almost spilled free of the blouse. Then the ancient top button gave way, popping open. He took immediate advantage, lowering his face and nuzzling against her, even as he worked the next button free, and the one below that.

  When the silky blouse fell off her shoulders, Reese stepped back so he could look down at her, his appreciative stare turning into one of pure, raging hunger. This time, she didn’t have to ask him to touch her, taste her. Instead, he immediately bent down, covering a nipple with his mouth and sucking hard.

  She tangled her hands in his hair, holding him there, feeling every deep pull right down to the quivering spot of sensation between her thighs. Tweaking her other breast with his hand, he rolled the tip between his fingertips. A firm pluck brought a shaky cry to her lips. Reese moved his mouth over to kiss and suck away any twinge of pain, though he knew—he had to know—that what she felt was utter pleasure.

  Desperate for skin-on-skin contact, she yanked at his shirt, pulling it apart, not giving a damn that a few buttons went flying. He didn’t seem to care, either. He simply shrugged out of it, continuing the lovely, erotic attention to her breasts.

  Then, once he, too, was bare from the waist up, he moved back to her mouth and kissed her deeply. Their tongues tangled and played as their bare chests sizzled against one another. She didn’t know that she’d ever felt anything as delicious as the crisp hairs on his chest scraping across her moist nipples.

  Except, perhaps, for his mouth. And his hands. And, she suspected, just about anything else he chose to press against her in the next fifteen minutes.

  They didn’t end the kiss, not even when they each reached for the other’s waistbands. His deft fingers easily unfastened her hot pants, and his costume was so loose on him, she only had to unbutton, not unzip, before she was able to push the trousers down over his lean hips.

  He’d had something on under his clothes—boxer briefs that strained to contain an erection that literally made her suck in a shocked, delighted breath.

  All that hugeness. All hers. At least for tonight.

  Before he let the pants fall away, he reached into the pocket. “I hope you don’t think I was taking you for granted, but I bought this from a machine in the men’s room.”

  She saw him tug the condom from his pocket and grinned. “My purse is over there. And if you look inside, you’ll see that I stopped at the airport gift shop and bought an entire box. So I think I’m the one who could be accused of taking you for granted.”

  “Anytime, anywhere, beautiful.”

  She liked the way he called her that, liked the way he silently repeated it with his eyes as he stared at her. His gaze was covetous as he stepped back enough to look down at her middle, her hips, the juncture of her thighs.

  That look was so hungry, she should have been warned about what he was going to do. But she wasn’t. It took her completely by surprise when he dropped to his knees on the bare cement floor and pressed his mouth to the hollow just below her pelvic bone. Then his soft, seeking tongue was dipping low, licking the moisture off her damp curls.

  Oral sex was, to quote the song, one of her favorite things. But she had never gotten it quite so quickly from a man. Or quite so….

  “Oh, God,” she groaned when he moved lower, sliding that warm, sweet tongue between the lips of her sex and swirling it around her throbbing clit. “That’s fantastic.”

  She sagged against the door, helpless to do anything else under the onslaught of such intense pleasure. And she didn’t make a sound of protest when he encircled one of her bare limbs with a big, strong hand. Without a word, he guided it over his shoulder, tilting her sex even closer to his hungry mouth.

  “Reese, you don’t have to…”

  “Yeah, actually I do,” he mumbled, continuing what he was doing.

  She looked down at him, seeing her own booted foot resting against his back. Only now it looked incredibly hot and sexy, the ultimate do-me boots from the original era of free love.

  She suddenly felt like the girl she’d been portraying
. Like she was some sexy stewardess having a crazy closet interlude with a pilot, just because she wanted to. No explanations, no questions, no regrets. Live in the moment and love the one you’re with.

  Sounded pretty damn fine to her.

  “Stop thinking. Let go,” he ordered, not looking up.

  Amanda did what he asked, giving up any effort to pretend she didn’t want him to finish what he’d started.

  Finish it he did. Within moments, she felt the sparking, zinging waves of heated delight that had been focusing tightly in on her clit turn around and explode outward. They rocketed through her entire body, wave upon wave, delighting her to the tips of each strand of hair.

  Amanda cried out, rocking her hips. He stayed with her, continuing to taste her as she rode the orgasm out, milking it and squeezing her muscles tight to wring out every last bit of sensation. And only after it was over did he slide out from under her leg and ease his way up her naked body.

  She was panting and nearly desperate by the time his face was level with hers. His eyes gleaming, he licked at his moist lips and whispered, “Definitely want to keep ordering off this menu.”

  Dying for him now, needing to be filled, she grabbed two handfuls of his hair and pulled his face to hers for a deep, drugging kiss. This time, she was the one who lifted her leg. Wrapping it around his thighs, she tilted her groin against that thick erection still covered by his briefs.

  “Off,” she ordered, mumbling the command against his mouth.

  He moved a few inches away, far enough to strip out of the last of his clothes. Far enough for Amanda to look down and take measure of the delightful present that was headed her way.

  Whoa. As she’d suspected, Reese’s “present” was far greater than any she’d ever seen before. She nearly panted with the need to have all that male heat slamming into her, filling the hollow core that had practically grown dusty with disuse.

  “Damn. I wasn’t exaggerating,” she whispered.