One-Click Buy: March 2009 Harlequin Blaze

by Alison Kent

  “Oh, damn, harder! Faster!”

  “If I go faster, I’ll lose it faster.”

  “Who cares?”

  It was the death knell to his restraint. A surge of energy and his hips pistoned. She met and matched, drew her knees up, planted her feet flat, taking him in. She whispered his name, what he was doing to her, how it made her feel—and her lusty words pushed him to the brink. Then he felt her tense, quicken, captivated as she reached between them to feel him slide wetly into her, then retreat. Her touch was heavy and bold, and he loved this side of her. Hidden under the proper professional, she was sexy and daring. A little brazen. Her soft flesh hardened around him, trapped him in a throbbing flex of feminine muscle and slick skin.

  Drew wanted more, wanted to connect when he hadn’t—wouldn’t—allow himself to have more than casual and quick sex till the next call, the next mission. He laced his fingers with hers, trapping her, spread under him like a sacrifice. Hovering on stiff arms, he held her gaze. Waited for her to object.

  She didn’t. A tiny smile fluttering through her gasps. “Drew, I won’t break.”

  His control completely severed, Drew cocked his leg and pushed, driving her across the bed, a wave of desire so strong moving through him it was like a roll of thunder. He muttered a plea and thrust and thrust, and yet she still took him, her hips rising to grind to his.

  Her breath hitched. Pale innocence met seasoned and scarred. His possession was raw and savage. She came and held nothing back from him, whispering her satisfaction. A flex of twisted muscle and slick bodies meshed as his climax joined hers. And she felt it, accepted the power of him, the brutal honesty of the moment.

  Drew threw his head back, suspended, the wild grip of her flesh wringing him. Splintered rapture shredded his composure, yet in the deep throes of release, he noticed things. Every inch of her skin, her little tremors, the flare of her bright eyes. “Damn, Allie,” he whispered, whipping his arms around her, the last threads of passion dissolving under a slow, thick kiss.

  He rolled to his side, gently pulling her injured leg across his, and watched her world come into focus. Her lashes swept up, her eyes soft and feline-sexy. Her lips curved gently and Drew felt air lock in his lungs. Flushed and rosy, she was incredibly beautiful right then.

  Breathtaking.

  Needing to touch her again, he brushed her hair back, tucking it in behind her ear.

  “Being a bad girl feels so very good. I sure hope you have more condoms in that drawer.”

  His smile was slow, and then he laughed. “I bought the economy pack.”

  13

  THE DAY OF THE meeting with The Ghost, Allie paced, running her fingers through her hair. The cut on her leg was stiff and a little sore this morning thanks to the romping she’d done with Drew last night.

  She stopped by the big windows as Katie’s voice came back on the line.

  “Sorry, it’s been absolutely nuts here, Ms. Carpenter. Mr. Rosemont’s custom-made armoire is finished ahead of schedule and the craftsman wants payment. He said he could deliver tomorrow. Mrs. Jamison has been calling every day and is thrilled with what you did with her sunroom. She wants you to do her whole vacation house out in Carmel and there are two friends who are members of her garden club who must have you do their homes. She told me to make sure to tell you that you’re an absolute genius. And Lily Walden called. Ten times. She’s simply frantic. She says her party is tonight and the decorating isn’t done. I think she’s the priority. I’ve not been able to reach Mr. Kyoto. I understand you had something personal to do, but it’s not like Mr. Kyoto not to show up.”

  “Katie. Take a breath, hon. I’ll try to get hold of Jason.” Allie worried her lower lip. Would Jason be willing to help her out? He sure didn’t have to pose as a decorator’s assistant anymore. Where was Jason, anyway?

  “I’ve alreay prepaid the craftsman for Mr. Rosemont’s armoire. Please make arrangements to get it delivered to him today, if possible.”

  “You want me to supervise?”

  “Yes. You can do it, Katie. I have faith in you and I’m so strapped for time.”

  “All right. Anything else?”

  “Yes. Call back Mrs. Jamison and thank her for the compliment. I like being called a genius. Make an appointment with her for next week along with her two friends.”

  “Separate appointments?”

  “Yes, make them separate.”

  “What about Lily Walden?”

  “Leave her to me. I’ll finish the decorating today and she’ll be all set for her party tonight.”

  “Okay. I’ll do it.”

  “Thanks, Katie.”

  “Is there anything else you need me to do?”

  “No. There isn’t.” Allie looked toward the bed and the gorgeous sleeping man in it. “I just have one hell of a freaking obstacle to overcome. But I’m a genius, so I’ll figure it out.”

  Drew will be reasonable, she thought as she closed her cell phone and made her way to the bed. Lily Walden was a big priority, and not following through on her job would hurt the success of Allie’s decorating business.

  Katie’s call had woken her from a dreamless sleep in Drew’s arms.

  The events that had happened during the meeting with Jammer at the consulate seemed like a terrible nightmare. The thought that she could have failed Drew last night settled into her mind and wouldn’t let go.

  Could she have prevented Thad from getting shot? Was it her woeful ineptness at this undercover-covert thing that had risked his life? All that vibrancy and optimism silenced forever. It hurt her heart to think about a world without Thad Michaels in it.

  And it broke her heart to think of her life without Drew. But he’d made it perfectly clear in the hospital yesterday that once this mission was over, he would leave.

  Well, right now he was here, and he was warm and hard in all the right places. She tucked her phone back in her purse and stared down at him.

  Reaching out, she delved her fingers through his dark thick hair. His chest rose and fell rhythmically. The sheet was tangled around one heavily muscled thigh, leaving one half of his tight buttocks bare along with his hip, waist and rib cage. The strength of him was evident in all that tight, hard muscle. But it didn’t show the intelligence that shone out of his deep blue eyes, or the compassion that he tried to hide. The way he had treated her yesterday after she’d blamed herself for Thad getting shot was something that she hadn’t really expected.

  Drew was the real deal. A real man with all the complexity of one. A man who put his life on the line to make his country safe.

  She loved him.

  That wasn’t complex or puzzling.

  It just was.

  She loved him, and the pain of knowing that she wouldn’t have many more of these moments just to stare at him almost made her want to walk out the door now. To do it before he became an overwhelming ache that never went away.

  But she couldn’t. She wanted everything, even that last tortuous second when he’d turn away and leave.

  His hand snaked out and grabbed her around the waist. The suddenness of it made her shriek, but she laughed when she found herself sprawled across the hard muscled body she’d just been admiring.

  “Are you ogling me in my sleep?”

  “I don’t ogle. It’s unladylike.”

  “You were ogling. I felt your eyes on me.”

  “Okay, sue me. I was ogling.”

  He opened his eyes and she was trapped by the life she saw in them. So full and overflowing.

  He held her gaze, laying a positively wicked smile on her, and Allie experienced it as if he’d held her heart in his palm. “If I sue, it won’t be for money.”

  “Oh, no? What then?” She blinked, her eyes all innocence. “Surely, you couldn’t have designs on my body?” She gasped in mock surprise. “Agent Miller, that’s so wicked.”

  He laughed. “Designs, hell. I have full architectural renderings.”

  “I’m sure you know where
all your columns are supposed to go.” Cradled on his lap, she ran her finger over his collarbone, brushing at the knife wound halfway down his torso.

  He groaned when she moved her pelvis against his. “One particular column needs to be placed just perfectly for maximum effect.”

  She laughed. “Really? Where could that be?”

  He growled and flipped her onto her back. Her hands smoothed over his bare chest, her mouth was on his throat and trailing lower. “We’re talking too much,” she said, sliding her tongue over his nipple and hearing air hiss through his teeth. She liked that he tried to restrain himself. She nipped at his rib cage. His muscles jumped, and, when her hand traveled lower, Drew gripped her shoulders then rose above her.

  “Before this gets too out of control, why don’t you tell me what that phone call was all about, genius?”

  “Killjoy.” She taunted him with another heart-pounding kiss, then eased back. “I thought you were asleep.”

  “Covert operatives never sleep. We had sleep removed from our makeup,” Drew deadpanned.

  “Ha-ha.”

  “Were you going to ply me with sex and get me all weak and quivering before you told me of your decorating emergency?” Drew asked.

  “You’re so smart, aren’t you? You’re the freaking genius.” Allie smiled. “You’re never weak and quivering, even when you’re hot for me.”

  His eyes danced with a snappy comeback, but instead, he leaned close and rubbed his mouth over hers. What a guy, she thought, and she felt a little bit of shame for trying to manipulate him. It didn’t matter now, and Allie snuggled closer, staring up into his sharp eyes.

  He chuckled and looked at her. Allie touched his face, pulled him down on her and he rolled with her to his side, drawing her leg over his. For a long moment they just stared at each other.

  “I need to finish Lily Walden’s home by tonight.”

  “Not going to happen.”

  “Don’t act like this is Mission Impossible, Drew. It’ll just be a few hours.”

  “Isn’t that what you told Thad?” He raised one dark brow.

  Allie giggled. “So, I miscalculated. What do we have to do but wait? I’m not really good at that, Drew. The more I think about what I have to do tonight, the more nervous I’ll be. This will be a perfect outlet for my energy.”

  “Allie, it’s just not a good idea to…”

  “Please, Drew. I’m scared.”

  “Allie, don’t…You’re safe.”

  “No, I’m not talking about the physical danger, although that’s very scary. After yesterday, I’m afraid more people will get hurt. Leila, Jason, Frost…you. I don’t want to fail.”

  “You won’t fail.”

  “No, you don’t understand. Not the mission. You. I don’t want to fail you. I’ve realized that I’ve never followed through with one thing I’ve tried in my life. That’s why my family doesn’t trust that I’ll make a success out of this business. I’ve been a hot-dog vendor, sold catalog jewelry, been a waitress and worked retail. I failed because I never gave it my all. The design business is the most fun I’ve ever had in my life. I can see myself doing this forever. I don’t want to let Lily down, not because of what my family will think of me, but because I’m dedicated to this one-hundred-percent.”

  His expression softened and he gently cupped her face in his palm. “How can I tell you no?”

  “I hope she loves the job I do and I hope you also love the job I do.”

  “You’ll do fine. Trust me.”

  “I do.”

  He smiled, blushing a bit, and she almost expected him to say something smart, and then knew he wouldn’t. This was too important to belittle. He was that kind of man, sensitive yet jumping in with both barrels blazing, danger be damned. At least she knew to be scared about getting hurt when he left, she thought, her gaze sliding over his bare chest, his hair mussed from sleep, the dark stubble making him look every inch the dangerous male that he was. A definite threat to her libido. Could he be any sexier?

  “You’re one top-notch guy, Drew.”

  He smiled gently.

  “I have to admit, in my ho-hum life I didn’t know what it meant to have courage. I’m not just talking about taking me on, training me.”

  “Give yourself some credit.”

  “For trouble with a capital T.” She pushed his hair back off his forehead. He had hero ingrained in every pore of his body, she thought. “Doesn’t any of it scare you?”

  Drew stared into her eyes and said, “Only you scare me.”

  “Why?”

  “You do things to me.”

  Her lips curved. “Screw up your mission, get Thad shot, force you into decorating 101?”

  “I’ll admit the decorating was terrifying.” He leaned in.

  Allie felt swallowed up by the look in his eyes. Intense, for sure, but something else she’d never seen in a man. “Unconditional acceptance, huh?”

  “And surrender,” he murmured.

  Tears blurred her vision and she inhaled sharply, a perilous feeling tumbling through her. “That’s a low blow, especially when I’m trying to get something out of you,” she whispered, touching the side of his face.

  “You fascinate the hell out of me.”

  She smiled softly, a tear falling.

  “Don’t cry, Allie. I’d rather face an army. It shreds me.”

  “Are we shifting our focus from me to you now?”

  He sighed heavily, “I can’t deny you anything, it seems.”

  “Physically impossible, especially when the heat of you is burning me up.”

  Drew swore softly. “It’s more than that and you know it.” His fingers flexed on her jaw, something warring in his eyes.

  Allie went still inside, and could have sworn her heartbeat just plain stopped. Was he authentic? No one had ever spoken to her like this. She cupped her palm over his hand. “Drew?”

  “I mean it.”

  “I feel the same way.” Her gaze lingered over him, her hand spread over his bare chest, the contours of muscle defined and rippling. It made her hot to see all of that man, and know he was hers for now. She lifted her gaze to his as she tugged at her robe’s sash. She might have lost her wild edge along the way, but she wasn’t shy. She went after what she wanted.

  He covered her hand. “As much as I want to right now, I think we need to talk some more.”

  “But why waste this?” she said softly, reaching down and wrapping her hand around his rock-hard cock.

  He elongated and flexed against her fingers; he groaned deep in his throat. “Allie—”

  “Drew, please. I don’t want to talk anymore.”

  “Nothing’s resolved. How long do you think Lily Walden’s job will take?”

  “Six hours, tops.”

  He groaned, but this time it had nothing to do with desire.

  “It would go faster if we had help.”

  “Who did you have in mind?”

  “Jason, Frost and Leila. If they can shoot guns and run down bad guys, they can hang curtains and move around some furniture. We’ll coin a new phrase in the decorating lexicon.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Commando Decorating 101.”

  “How did you get into this stuff anyway?”

  She sighed. “Do you really want to hear this? Right now?”

  “Yes. Right now.”

  Allie bit her lip. He was saying they might not have time later. “Okay, you win. When I was a girl, I played with my dolls like everyone else. And one Christmas, I got a dollhouse. It was a beautiful three-level Victorian. My grandfather built it for me. I spent countless hours playing with this beautiful house, spending my allowance on furniture. I would spend a lot of my waking time rearranging the furniture, coloring the walls, hanging clippings from my mother’s magazines for artwork, or creating new ideas for tomorrow’s play. Later in life, when I realized there was a profession that would allow me to do this for a living with real furniture and homes…” />
  “You knew you were on to something big.”

  “Uh-huh. Just like I know I’m on to something big here.” She reached down and cupped him, the heat of his sex too hard to ignore against her flesh. “Can’t we talk about this later?”

  “I think you’ve settled it.” He hissed in a breath when she moved her hand up his shaft and rubbed her palm around the tip. “We visit Thad first then…ah, damn, that feels good…then the…damn, Allie…the…ahhhh….”

  “You’re breaking up, Captain. My earpiece must be faulty.”

  “There’s nothing faulty with your trigger finger.”

  “I need my whole hand to hold on to this weapon, and maybe my mouth and my tongue.”

  Pure heat and wild hunger ignited in his eyes. She loved that about him, the danger, the threat of pleasure she saw there.

  Her free hand went to his neck and she drew him close. Her tongue snaked out and slicked his lips and he groaned.

  She moved her hand again, slowly, seductively, loving the feel of his hard cock in her hand, and he groaned again.

  His hands swept up her tight ribs, caressing her breasts. The contact was electric. His kiss stronger, hurried, he thumbed her nipples in slow circles, and her shudder tumbled into his mouth. Her strong thighs clamped him and he broke the kiss and held her gaze as he bent her backward over his arm and closed his lips over her nipple.

  She stretched, moaning at the hot, wet heat of his mouth sliding over her skin. She watched as he took her flesh hungrily. “That is so erotic, Drew.”

  He smiled against her skin, lifting her higher against him, his tongue sliding over her breasts, his teeth deliciously scoring the plump underside. It wasn’t enough. “Drew, inside please.”

  “Nope.”

  “You really are being a killjoy.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She ran her hands down the hard muscles of his back over his firm butt. “So much of you is so big and strong. You feel so amazing, so wonderful.”

  “Too rough. Too many scars.”

  “I don’t think so,” she said quietly. “Nice and soft here,” she said, running her palms up the inside of his inner thigh. “And here,” she said, kissing the smooth skin of his stomach. “And most definitely here,” she said, running her tongue over the tip of his shaft. He flinched when she closed her hand over the base of his erection.