by Alison Kent
Her hand found him and his entire body jerked as she closed her fingers around his cock. He slanted his mouth across hers again with a rough growl, his tongue thrusting deep as he reached beneath the miniskirt she wore. Skimming his fingers up her thighs, delving into the crease between her legs, he found that she was already wet, already excruciatingly aroused, drunk on passion and the excitement of the forbidden. He found her clit with his thumb and strummed across the knot of nerves in a sleek caress. All it took was that one electrifying touch and she came in a fast, feverish climax that left her panting and gasping for breath.
Breathing hard and aching for her, he moved backward, falling to the bed and bringing her with him.
He reached over to the bedside table and grabbed up a condom, sheathed himself and then he was tugging her toward him, forcing her legs wide-open on either side of his thighs. Grasping her waist, he guided her to sit astride his hips, and his cock slid along her slick flesh and unerringly found the entrance to her body.
He pulled her hips down at the same time he bucked upward, sinking into her tight heat and embedding himself to the hilt. She inhaled sharply at the abrupt invasion, and he groaned long and low. He rocked her pelvis against him, his body tense and quivering. She grabbed on to his shoulders, easily picked up the rhythm he set, and rode him with utter abandon.
The material of her skirt floated around them, covering where they joined, which added to the eroticism of their union. His hand roamed up her spine, and his fingers fluttered along the nape of her neck, then wrapped the strands of her hair in his fist. He pulled her head back with that one hand and used the other to splay against the middle of her back, forcing her body to arch into him and her breasts to rub against his chest.
Their bodies were locked tightly together, and she continued to ride him as he scattered soft, damp, biting kisses along her throat and over the plump slopes of her breasts. He circled his tongue around one rigid nipple, blew a hot stream of breath across the peak, and then did the same to the other. He lapped at her slowly, licked the taut tips teasingly and nibbled until the madness was too much to bear. Grabbing a handful of hair at the back of his head, she pressed his parted lips to one crest in silent demand and he obeyed, taking as much of her breast as he could inside the wet warmth of his mouth.
He sucked, and a whimper of need slipped from her lips. He felt the convulsions that started deep inside where he filled her, full and throbbing. She moved on him harder, faster, and came undone as a torrent of exquisite sensation flooded his limbs and sent him careening into an intense and fiery orgasm.
He released a harsh groan of surrender, then gripped her hips, rocking her in time to each frantic upward surge of his thick shaft within her. She wrapped her arms around him, holding him close, and his body shuddered in and around hers in long, deep, powerful spasms.
When it was over, they stilled, their arms and legs entwined, both of them too wiped out to move. Chest to chest, the wild beating of their hearts was all Drew could feel in that seemingly endless stretch of time, that profound connection between them was all that mattered.
9
“THAT WAS a new one,” Drew said, panting.
“What? Having a woman force herself on you?”
“You’re like an all-out commando team bent on destruction.”
“Lock and load,” she said softly, a small smile turning up the corners of her mouth.
He nodded, totally turned around now. She simply up-ended him. He propped himself on his elbow. Looking down into her eyes, he smoothed his hand up the side of her face and ran his fingers into her hair. It was hard to imagine that she hadn’t felt something of what had hit him so hard.
She shifted beneath him. It was a small movement, but enough to send a bolt of pleasure shooting straight through his body. He was in no-man’s-land right here. Right now. A place he’d never been before because he’d never let himself slow down long enough to find it.
But the night cocooned them and seemed to close out the terror and bad guys bent on making the world a much uglier and unsafe place.
It was staring him in the face, exactly what she’d said to him. She was the reason he put his life on the line again and again. Only a handful of people knew what a toll it took on the men and women who actually sacrificed everything day in and day out to help give them their idyllic lives.
Allie was tangible; thinking of her as just some person didn’t apply anymore because he knew her. He’d touched her, had her open up to him about her fears. He’d seen her courage in the face of fear.
He kissed her, lowered his mouth to hers and simply indulged himself. She touched him with her tongue, tasting him, and he returned the favor, letting himself just get high on her kisses, her mouth so wet and warm and lush. Easing onto his side, he pulled her close and slid his hand down her back, molding her to him.
He couldn’t go back to his detachment. He couldn’t shake the feelings hitting him from all sides like mortar fire.
Skimming the skirt down her legs and off her body, he dropped the pink tulle onto the floor.
“What exactly do you have tattooed on your backside?”
“Oh, you saw that?”
“No, just a glimpse.”
“I’ll show you.” She flipped over and Drew finally got a view of the tattoo. It was a broken heart with the word Heartbreaker beneath it.
“Is this a warning?”
“No, silly. I got it when I was sixteen. If my parents ever found out, I would have been in so much trouble.”
“Why did you get it?”
“There were times when I loved being a twin and times when I didn’t.”
“The tattoo made you different from your sister?”
“Yes, but only I knew it. It gave me my own identity,” Allie said, her gaze caressing his face. “You, on the other hand, don’t have any tattoos, but I want to look anyway,” she murmured. Her hands were all over him. His mouth was all over her. Every place he kissed her, she tasted like a promise kept. Every place she touched him, she left a trail of fire.
When he’d taken all he could, he sheathed himself with another prophylactic before settling over her. Leaning down, he kissed her cheek.
He entered her in careful degrees, kissing her the whole while, being careful not to put too much of his weight on her, or too much of himself inside her too soon.
It was an all-out tease that tested his very resolve.
She moved against him, lifting her hips ever so slightly. He pulled almost all the way out of her, before slowly sliding back in. She arched her head back with a soft purr, and he ran his tongue down the length of her throat. She was so beautiful. Her breasts plump, her nipples an electrifying coral. He leaned down and captured one with his mouth and sucked, so gently. She groaned, and the sound went straight to his balls, making them tight. This was heaven.
She was so responsive, so languorous and so incredibly hot. She was melting for him, and she was so wet. She was also incredibly beautiful—her nose so delicate and refined, her cheeks so soft and her mouth…
Yes. Her mouth.
He slanted his lips over hers and thrust into her again. He wanted her to come. He wanted to feel it. He wanted to know she’d come for him again—and he wanted to give her pleasure, mind-blowing pleasure, because he wanted her to stay.
To stay with him for days and weeks and months, maybe forever. She rocked his world hard, and he wanted to know everything about her.
Carefully pulling all the way out, he moved down her body, kissing her softly on her belly, following the contours down to the silky insides of her thighs. His heart was racing.
Slipping his fingers through her curls, he opened her for his kiss. She caught her breath with a shocked gasp, and then released it in a soft whimper when he licked her, his tongue gliding over the sweet center of her arousal again and again and again. She stiffened, and he felt a rush of pleasure so intense he groaned. His hand tightened convulsively on her waist, holding her still for his
delicate assault.
She cried his name and opened her legs for him even wider, surrendering to his mouth, to his fingers sliding in and out of her so very, very gently. He wanted to push her right to the edge and take her down the other side in a long fall. He wanted it to be exquisitely good for her, more pleasure than she could ever have given herself. He wanted to give her a guaranteed, soul-shattering orgasm she would never, ever forget, not if she lived to be a hundred.
Caressing her, he slid his hand up her torso and down her arm, taking her hand in his and bringing it to his mouth. He sucked on her fingers, then moved back up her body to suck on her lips. He kissed her over and over again, loving being with her, being on top of her and feeling her getting more and more turned on.
Cradling her head with one hand, he took hold of himself with his other and checked to make sure his condom was still in place before he fitted himself back inside her. He pushed in slightly and held himself still.
“Damn, damn,” she murmured repeatedly, a soft sound deep in his mouth, her hips lifting toward his, and he pressed himself deeper, dying just a little, but not going all the way, not yet. The torture was too sweet. He wanted to play with her and tease her for as long as was humanly possible, with no rules save one. He wanted her to come, hard, urgently, all over him.
He lifted himself above her, resting on his forearms, and moved himself in and out of her in a lazy, heat-inducing rhythm. She was small, so slight and yet so female. He gave her all of himself. She took all of him with a groan of longing.
“Drew.” His name was barely a breath, uttered with such need he leaned down and kissed her cheeks, her brow. He was here, with her. He wouldn’t leave her, not ever. Her leg came around his waist, holding him more closely to her as he pumped, and she groaned his name again.
Damn. He felt it, too, the edge of pleasure turning sharp and soulful.
“Drew.” She tossed her head, her hands grabbing him on either side of his waist, pulling him deeper, holding him tighter.
He hesitated, and then thrust, making her wait for a heartbeat or two in varied intervals, slipping his hand between them to stimulate her. It didn’t take much before her body went taut beneath him, his name sighing from her lips, urgent and wanton.
“Drew…don’t…please, yes.”
He was in such a haze. He understood her perfectly, his mouth wet on hers, her body balanced on the edge. He slid his other hand up the length of her arm, twining his fingers through hers, rocking into her again and again until she came, her breath catching, her body pushing up against his, holding him deep. She gasped his name, and he went rigid, releasing wave after wave of the purest ecstasy. It rolled through him, making it hard to breathe, impossible to think.
At the end, he felt transported, his body in some sort of limbo. He rested his forehead on hers, but other than finding his breath, didn’t even try to come down. He was so high. His muscles were twitching with latent pleasure, his mind floating in the ozone of total physical and mental relaxation—and he would have stayed there for as long as he could have possibly ridden it out if he hadn’t bent down to kiss her and tasted her tears.
“Allie?” He rolled to his side and wiped her cheek with his thumb. He knew he hadn’t hurt her. She’d been with him, right there with him, every single second. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Oh, Drew.” She sighed, kissing his face, his mouth, her hands sliding over his chest.
Yeah, he thought, understanding dawning on him. He was just lucky he wasn’t crying, too. He’d never felt anything like what had just happened between the two of them. Never. She was hot and sweet and soft and smart and funny and tender and wild and brave.
He kissed the top of her head as she snuggled up against him, relaxing into sleep, the movement of her hand slowing into a lazy caress.
He was a fool to believe that idyllic life was for him. He’d been in the dark for what seemed like forever. It was where he lived and thrived. And he did it alone.
He had to do it alone.
THE SOUND was sharp and loud in the night as Allie came awake with a snap and sat straight up in bed. Drew was rigid next to her. She turned on the light over the headboard. She looked at Drew as he twisted in his sleep, bathed in sweat, thrashing as though he was in pain.
“Get to cover! Get to cover, Martinez! Don’t worry about me! That’s a fucking order!”
She felt completely out of her league, which wasn’t anything new. She’d never had to deal with a man who’d been through what Drew had been through. She froze when he yelled again.
“No. Martinez. No.”
She put her hand on his shoulder and shook him.
He exploded into action. Lethal muscles trained to kill flipped her off the bed onto the floor. He pinned her there, his eyes glazed with pain and something so dark and terrifying Allie felt sheer terror pierce her heart.
“Drew. It’s a nightmare. You’re having a nightmare,” she shouted into his face. And he jerked at the sound of her voice, his eyes blinking rapidly.
He took a shuddering breath. She could feel him trembling as he looked down into her face. “Allie, damn.” He looked so disoriented, so vulnerable that her heart sank in her chest. He moved off her and reached down to help her up.
She put her hand in his and rose slowly.
“Are you hurt? Did I hurt you?”
He was still trembling. She went to put her arms around him and he sidestepped the move almost too casually as if he hadn’t really meant to. He sat down on the edge of the bed.
Allie stood there for a moment then answered. “No. I’m just startled. That’s all.”
“Good. Good,” he said, looking down at his hands as if he expected to see something there. He seemed transfixed, and she moved forward, unable to watch him do something to himself even if she wasn’t sure what it was.
She placed her hands over his palms, and he jerked and looked up at her.
“What?” she asked, searching his face.
He shook his head. “It’s nothing. I’m just wired.”
This time when she wrapped her arms around him, he didn’t move, so she held him, not moving herself, feeling some awful premonition in the rigidity of his body, as if he might crumble if she so much as dared to breathe.
She didn’t know what to do for him, how to help him.
He pulled away and she felt the distance he put between them. It scared the hell out of her. She’d been a total fool to get involved with him, to let her heart get even a bit tangled—and it was tangled, without a doubt. He was going to break it into a thousand pieces and she wasn’t sure if she had the strength to survive that.
He’d been right in all his warnings, because right now his withdrawal hurt pretty badly.
Here today, gone tomorrow.
Tomorrow hadn’t even had time to come and he was already gone.
“We should get some sleep,” he said. “We’ve got a 5:00 a.m. wake-up call.”
She nodded and returned to her side of the bed. She could feel his gaze on her, lingering on her body, her face, her hair. It was agonizing to know that he wanted her, but on limited terms. Sex okay, intimacy not okay.
She had no one to blame but herself.
She got into the bed, expecting him to turn his back and remain aloof.
She gasped softly when he slipped his arm around her and pulled her close to his body, spooning her against the seductive heat of him. For the second time that night, tears collected in her eyes and tracked down her cheeks.
The ugliness of what he must have endured didn’t repulse her. Witnessing his fears and pain only made it harder knowing what kind of man held her. An American hero, torn up inside over a nightmare she was sure had at one time been real. Very real.
His agony only firmed her resolve to do what she must do, be whomever she must be to get this job done.
THE POUNDING on the door woke them both and Allie scrambled for the sheet that Drew flung away from him to get to the door. He stopped, reali
zing that he was in his altogether, and headed back to the dresser and managed to slip on a pair of sweats.
But it was too late. Wood splintered and three bodies came through the door, weapons drawn.
“What the hell!” Drew shouted.
All three had been crouched and ready for a fight, but when they saw Drew half-naked and Allie completely naked except for the sheet, knowing looks blossomed in three sets of eyes.
“It’s seven, sir. We thought something happened to you.”
“Cell phone?”
“We’ve been trying to call you since 0615, sir.”
“Damn, that’s right. It’s turned off.”
Allie was still breathing hard, adrenaline running through her system. To make matters worse, Jason walked through the door.
“Allie, are you okay?”
“Thad, fix the door. Frost and Jason, go get breakfast, and, Leila, make the coffee.”
With his orders, they all hopped to it. Except Jason, who lingered as if Allie needed his help.
“I’m fine,” she said to him, touched by his concern. She wrapped the sheet around her body and got out of the bed. So many eyes followed her to the bathroom she felt that she was being scrutinized. When the door closed, she took a deep breath and leaned against it. Great. Now they all knew she’d slept with Drew.
“Don’t take too long. You need to eat before we go,” Drew called from the other side of the door. He was right, of course. She needed some sustenance. But she couldn’t get last night in the elevator out of her mind. She remembered how warm his skin was, and how much she was fascinated by his mouth, the hard, broad strokes of his muscles. She’d been thinking about tracing every line of muscle with her fingertips…and her tongue, and then suddenly they’d been kissing, his mouth so hot on hers. That memory was worth remembering, but now everyone out there knew that they’d been naked together. How did she get herself into these situations?
“Allie?” His voice came again, a little more insistent.