The sound of rushing water ended as the shower cut off and a few minutes later the door breezed open. There was his Angel, showered and wearing a white terry-cloth robe that hit her about midthigh, then those awesome legs.
His Angel. Warmth spread through him. Could she ever be his?
He’d never know until this was done. She’d admitted having something that belonged to the person chasing her, said what she had didn’t belong to him. Maybe she was trying to return them. Maybe she had a good reason for what she’d done.
Deep in his heart he believed she had a good reason for what she’d done. Logic and duty pricked at that belief, but didn’t change it.
The scent of her shampooed hair sparked a riot of lust. He’d missed her from the moment he left the apartment this morning. Missed her touch, her voice, the feel of her lips.
Swallowing to help his dry mouth, he couldn’t stop his rampant thoughts from envisioning her long legs wrapped around him. He imagined the robe sliding off her shoulders to pool at her feet…until he lifted his eyes to her ashen face.
She’d never appeared vulnerable before. The sparkle was gone from her amber eyes. Her slender body shook under the bulky robe.
Another tap, tap, tap
“That should be your pizza. Stay back while I get it.” Zane opened the door just wide enough to accept the tray and hand over enough cash to make any waiter happy with the balance, after paying the bill. He locked the door and carried the tray to a table near the glass doors to the balcony, then turned to Angel. “Why don’t you eat while I grab a quick shower?”
She stared at him for a heartbeat through weary, luminous eyes. “Okay, thanks.”
Zane crossed the room, gave her a quick peck on the forehead and reminded her, “Don’t answer the door to anyone.” He waited for her nod of understanding, then grabbed his shaving kit and a pair of shorts on his way to the bathroom.
Angel closed her mouth to keep from drooling over the smell of pizza. Her stomach growled with impatience. She shuffled to the table and lifted the silver cover. Pizza should be in a box, not on a china dish, but she wasn’t complaining. Three pieces was all she could hold.
Cold leeched through Angel from one end to another. She watched as Zane disappeared into the bathroom then curled into a ball under the soft covers. Her battered body sunk into the deep mattress.
Dear God, how was she going to keep Mason’s men away from Zane? Would Zane tell her where the package with the coins had gone if she explained? Or call in the police?
The situation was way out of hand. What was she going to do? Her exhausted mind refused to aid her in planning. Tomorrow she’d think everything through, not tonight. She quivered from a chill. Would she ever be warm again?
A single lamp on the dresser glowed when Zane stepped out of the bathroom. Her dark savior’s hair glistened from the shower. He was dressed only in a pair of black shorts. His sculpted muscles rippled along his back and shoulders as he toweled his hair.
He tossed the towel in the corner and walked to the closet. His six-pack abdomen flexed when he stretched up to pull a pillow and blanket down then dropped them on the floor between the bed and the door.
After all he’d been through, Zane was going to sleep on the floor.
She didn’t want him on the floor or the couch or anywhere that didn’t include her. She wanted him close to her, forever.
Angel squeezed her eyes to stem the tears.
She couldn’t have forever, maybe one night, because forever only happened in fairy tales. And one night with the man she was falling for would have to last her a lifetime, because no other man would ever be able to replace him.
Zane wouldn’t want to hear what she felt for him, not after what she’d put him through. She’d hold those feelings deep inside, close to her heart.
He switched off the lamp. Soft light outside the drawn heavy drapes threw hazy shadows across the room. He stepped over to the bed. She knew he only meant to check on her, but she grabbed his hand before he could turn away.
“Zane, stay with me.”
He stood still, as if he was unsure, then said, “Honey, I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.” He gave her fingers a squeeze and tried to let go.
She pulled the covers back and tugged down on his hand. “Please. I don’t want to sleep alone.”
Had she not shivered at that moment, she thought he might have refused. When her hand twitched from the movement of her shaking, he slid down next to her. The bed gave with his weight.
Not sure what to do next, she lay perfectly still on her side, facing him. Rapid breathing betrayed her nervousness. She shook again and he lifted her into his arms. She melted into his heat, her mouth teasing his neck. She kissed him there and inched her hand up the curved muscles covering his chest.
He shuddered against her.
His hard reaction to her explorations prodded her abdomen. Any leftover exhaustion evaporated as her body went on full alert.
“Honey, if you don’t go to sleep soon this isn’t going to work. I’m not a saint,” he muttered.
His fingers kneaded gently along her shoulders. He kissed the top of her head and breathed out a ragged sigh.
She moved her hand down his chest, sliding her nails lightly up and down across the contour of his abs. He sucked in a sharp breath. His hand stopped massaging her shoulders.
“Angel.” Her name sounded forced through clenched teeth. “Go. To. Sleep,” he said, each word spoken as a severe warning.
She’d never felt so safe in her life. Being alone with Zane brought out a side of her she’d been afraid to expose to any man before.
One more touch should convince him she wasn’t the least bit sleepy. Her hand drifted lower to the rim of his shorts. She slid a finger under the elastic waistband and ran a sensuous trail south.
She was flipped over on her back and covered with his body before she could blink. He had her arms pinned above her head, but his weight rested on his elbows.
“Look,” Zane warned her in a tight voice, “I’m not made of stone. You’re about ten seconds from pushing me past the point of no return.”
“Then take me with you. I want you, Zane.”
Zane couldn’t believe his ears. What blood hadn’t squeezed into his aching arousal found its way there now. He was harder than the foundation under their hotel.
He couldn’t take advantage of her. She’d been in shock for hours. She’d regret the decision tomorrow and he’d feel lower than pond scum.
But, yeah, he wanted her.
Digging deep, he edged past his raging libido and uttered the words that would surely qualify him for sainthood.
“Honey, you don’t know what you’re saying. It’s the stress you’ve been through. We can’t do this.”
“I do know what I’m saying. I may not live through this.”
“Don’t say that,” he ordered. Nothing was going to happen to her. He wouldn’t allow it.
More than wanting her right now, he needed her.
“Whether we want to face it or not,” she whispered, “I may not survive. I’ve only been with one person, a boy in high school, and that wasn’t very special. I want a special night with you. Don’t you want me?”
His head drooped.
Hell, he’d never wanted to be a saint.
“Baby,” he whispered, “I’ve wanted you so bad, I can’t think.” He released her hands, rubbing the palms with his thumbs.
“Then love me tonight,” she pleaded.
Neither moved for a long second, then he lowered his head to gently kiss her forehead and cheeks.
He paused and expelled an exasperated deep breath.
“You may not think you’re going to live, but I intend to make damn sure you do.” Zane wanted to assure her everything would be okay, but he wouldn’t lie to her. He could tell her she wouldn’t face the world alone, but she’d been determined since the start to keep him away from her problem. She’d just have to get used to seeing him, bec
ause he wasn’t leaving her side.
She moved her hands away from his loosened grasp, ran her fingers over his ribs, then up to lightly caress his chest. With her index finger, she teased each of his pebbled nipples.
“Just touch me,” she breathed against his neck.
That broke the thin hold he had on his control. With a swipe, he raised both of her hands above her head again to end the erotic torture before she set off a physical chain reaction that he couldn’t stop.
He lowered his lips to hers. The tender kiss held everything he wanted to promise her, all the words he didn’t know how to say. His tongue probed inside her mouth in search of the taste he loved. His sweet and saucy Angel. Her lips molded to his, her hunger every bit as strong as his.
With one hand he untied her robe. His heart beat a rhythm in time with the pulsing in his groin. The robe fell away from shoulder to thigh.
Oh yeah, he never wanted to be a saint if it meant missing out on something this fantastic. He kissed along her neck and shoulders, nuzzling against what terry cloth remained in his way.
He gently cupped her breast and used one finger to draw lazy circles around the nipple. She twisted up against him, her abdomen rubbing his erection.
A throaty whimper escaped her.
Lingering on one breast with his finger, he lowered his head to the other luscious mound and mimicked the movement with his tongue, then barely grazed the tense nipple with his teeth.
Angel lifted off the bed, the whimper stretching into pained plea.
She’d said special.
He wanted to give her the moon.
Her passion drove waves of heat spiraling through him. It would take everything he had to keep from erupting the minute he entered her. Blood pounded in his ears from the need to be inside her.
Angel’s fingers raked through his hair, raising the nerves along his scalp. The feather touch danced along his neck to his shoulders, changing to an anguished grip when he removed both finger and tongue from her breast.
His lips covered hers, his tongue probing carefully past her swollen lips. Her velvet tongue stroked over his, driving him wild.
No matter how much she gave, he wanted more. He kissed her again and again, hot, hungry, needy.
With one free hand, he caressed her breast, palming the erect nipple. A purred “mmm” escaped her. She wasn’t large, just a perfect handful. But then, he had big hands.
He stroked a path down through the curls shielding the heat between her thighs. With a finger, he entered the sensitive furnace and lit a fire.
She arched up, drew in a labored breath and uttered a long moan.
With his thumb, he teased the pressure point to her furnace.
“Oh, Zane…uhmmm.”
He needed to slow down, find his control.
She wouldn’t let him.
Her teeth scraped along his neck. She wrapped her fingers around his head, pulled him to her mouth, her warm breath poured across his cheek.
“You feel so good,” he murmured. Nothing beyond this minute was real.
Every move, each response from her sent ripples of excitement across his skin.
Oh, man, for once fantasy couldn’t compare with reality.
His thumb and finger pushed her closer to the boiling point.
She arched forward pressing against his arousal. “Oh, Zane…oh, I, uh…” She cried unintelligible pleas, each more passion-filled than the next.
Every move between their bodies threatened to send him over the edge, but he didn’t want to go farther until she let him know she was ready.
It’d better be soon.
“Baby, just tell me what you want.” The strained words croaked out of his dry throat.
She panted twice. “You have to ask?”
He’d have smiled at the frustration in her husky voice if he hadn’t been equally desperate.
“Hold that thought.” He snagged a condom, the only one he had, from his travel bag. With swiftness he’d only imagined in the past, his shorts were gone and sheath over his erection, he settled between her thighs. He cupped her soft bottom, lifted her up and slowly entered her. She fit him like a second skin. She surrounded him, hot and tight. Nothing he’d ever experienced before came close to being inside Angel.
Slow and gentle, he had to take it easy with her.
But she wrapped the endless legs of his dreams around his back and shoved up, driving him deep into her.
He’d live outside the realm of sainthood forever to feel this ecstasy for the rest of his life.
The harder he pushed, the tighter she dug into his shoulders, urging him on. He’d been barely hanging on to his control, but one more clench from her would snap it. Zane reached between them to stroke her fire into a one long blast.
Her body strained under him.
She shrieked her orgasm to the heavens. Frantic fingers locked on his shoulders as wave after wave coursed through her.
Microseconds behind her, his world splintered. His body separated from his mind.
Zane’s last conscious thought was, What the hell had just happened to him?
Chapter 18
Angel awoke with her face against Zane’s warm chest, wrapped in his arms, smelling his wonderful musky scent. After years of accepting every miserable injustice life had dished out as status quo, she’d altered her future.
Whether she lived or died, she’d carry this one night in her heart as she faced her fate.
Over Zane’s shoulder, puffy purple clouds dusted with tangerine tufts floated past the separation in the drapes. Maybe the tropical depression had moved away.
Thinking he was still asleep, she tried to ease away. His arm locked her in place.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
She smiled at the humor in his voice. “I was going to look out the window to see if the storm was passing.”
“I’m not letting you go that far away. Every time you get farther than an arm’s length from me, you disappear,” he teased.
“Not fair,” she answered, indignant over the remark. “I didn’t leave your apartment by choice.”
When his hold almost cut her breath off, she figured that hadn’t been a good selection of topics to bring up. She smoothed her hand across the patch of dark hair centering his chest to soothe him and felt his embrace loosen.
“I’m getting a shower,” she announced.
He made a move with his left hand, stroking along the inside of her thigh in an obvious attempt to deter her from moving. When his finger teased the fragile folds between her legs, Angel clutched his shoulders and conceded an immediate defeat.
Zane had a sure way to keep her within arm’s reach. Or at least fingertip’s reach. One of his incredibly talented fingers dipped inside her as his mouth closed over one breast.
She lifted completely off of his chest. His erection thumped against her stomach.
When he pushed two fingers inside on a steady rhythm and teased her damp folds with his thumb, she trembled from the rapidly building heat pooling in her loins.
Angel lifted away from his hands, shifted forward until she felt the tip of his arousal.
“Angel, no!”
She impaled herself on him.
“Yes.” Air sucked from her lungs in a gasp of pleasure.
“No more, uh, condoms,” squeezed from clenched teeth.
“I’m safe,” she blurted out.
“Me, too, but…” He panted twice, held her still, his voice full of regret, need. “Don’t want to get you pregnant.”
Always worried about her. How could she not fall for this man?
“The Pill works as well.” She shifted up then down, not willing to let him back away.
Raw desire pulsed between them. Zane grasped her hips, lifting her almost off his member then pulling her down as he drove up inside her.
She bent low. He rose to meet her, rolled, and she was under him. He kissed her, sweet, loving. His mouth made love to her as his body began to move agai
n, each stroke hot and slick.
His fingers massaged one breast, toyed with the nipple, slid down her abdomen. He slowed the pace.
Slow wasn’t anywhere in her mind. She picked it up, hip to hip, skin to skin.
He growled and took over, giving her everything she wanted.
Two times, three times, then an orgasm spidered into every nerve of her body.
One pulse behind her climax, Zane exploded inside her. She collapsed on him, laboring for air. He hugged her tight, his heart pounding beneath her.
“You’re unbelievable,” he murmured.
She glowed under the compliment. Her breathing had steadied when his hand swept down her spine then smoothed across her bottom.
“What are you doing?” she asked suspiciously.
“What do you want me to do?” He studied her face with sincere eyes, grazed each cheek with his fingers.
“Answering that would be dangerous.”
His hand slid farther down and under to toy with her again. Got to love a man with long arms and great hands.
She was close to giving in when his cell phone interrupted. “You better get that. It could be Trish.” Angel rolled off of his chest.
Zane grumbled something that sounded like a vile curse as he reached over to the nightstand for the phone. “One day that phone is going out the window.” He flipped it open.
“Zane,” he snapped
Angel blew him an air kiss and slipped away to the bathroom as he said, “A boy? Congratulations, Ben.”
Zane smiled over Ben’s good news.
Angel dashed out of the room and the shower roared on as Ben told him he’d run by the lab today.
“I left you something else to check out when you get there,” Zane said.
“What? Toe prints?” Ben joked.
“Very funny. There’s a gold coin in your drop box marked Classified. I took a chance leaving it, but getting into your office is almost as tough as penetrating Fort Knox. Run a check to see if anything fitting that description has come up missing.”
Worth Every Risk Page 20