She stopped moving and stroked his cheek. “Thank you. Everything is beautiful.”
He stood silent and still for several moments. Too many emotions passed across his face for Jordan to figure out what he was thinking. His soulful stare never wavered from her, but he didn’t kiss her, didn’t pull her closer.
“You are, by far, the most beautiful thing in this room. I’ve pictured you here, like this. Candlelight. Flowers. Music.”
“Well then, I guess this just went from being my fantasy to yours. Because however you pictured me, I’m happy to oblige.” She lifted her sweater up and over her head, then tossed it aside, exposing a black camisole and bra. He wasn’t the only one who’d done a little shopping. After popping open all the buttons on his shirt, she wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled into his neck.
“Damn, woman. Way to play hard to get.”
“Mmmm, can’t help it,” she murmured while trailing kisses across his chest. “You’re smooth, McGee. Swept me right off my feet.”
They began swaying to the music again. The motion was too intimate to call dancing, but they were moving, caressing, and touching light, gentle kisses over one another.
“Wanting you here was mostly selfish,” Ty said, nuzzling her neck. “Didn’t think I could endure one more night on that horrible bag of springs you call a mattress.”
She laughed. “Bahan and his people picked out the apartment. I intend to pay him back for sticking me there. I guess he was able to find a furnished apartment in a good location, so he snatched it up.”
God, it felt good and right and natural to be in his arms. The comfort and peace of swaying to the music and resting her head against his chest was like stepping into a third dimension. A calming quiet she never realized existed.
“So you’re not responsible for any of the decorations inside the place?” he asked.
“Are you kidding? Everything is like a hundred years old. Supposedly a ninety-two-year-old woman died, left all her stuff.” She rambled peacefully with her eyes closed. “I have no idea why they didn’t sell off everything, but there you go.”
“Thank God. I was seriously worried about your taste in interior furnishings. Plus those roosters are just scary.”
She could hear the smile in his voice. “Oh, those are mine. I brought ’em with me.”
He tugged on her hair and pulled her head back. “Smart-ass.”
“But I had you scared there for a second, didn’t I? By the way, I’m more than happy to participate in any fantasy you’ve got, but if you want to do anything but this,” she said, tucking her head back against his chest, “you’re going to have to make the first move, because I could stay like this for days. Being here in your arms, with the candles and music, it’s like a little slice of heaven I never knew existed.”
***
She’d muttered the words without thought, without realizing how they’d power through him. He’d battled her reluctance long enough to know surrender. Little by little she had opened up. When it happened, he couldn’t pinpoint, but somewhere along the way, they’d turned a corner. And her words were the proof.
Tilting her head back, eyes closed, she lifted her mouth in invitation.
God, how he loved those lips—covering his own, trailing across his skin, sliding up and down his...
“Are you gonna kiss me, cowboy? I’m feeling a little neglected.” Her eyes opened while his were fixated on her mouth. She smiled knowingly and like a little devil, leaned in and ran her tongue slowly up the length of his neck. Then she whispered, “Warm and moist, just how you like it.”
His control snapped. He took her mouth in move much more urgent than seductive. Ravaging her hadn’t been in tonight’s game plan, but it was exactly what he was doing, and there wasn’t a chance in hell he could stop himself.
A smooth, sensual temptation was originally what he had in mind. Tonight was supposed to be about romance, about seduction, about driving her to the edge of madness with a slow, torturing flame. Now the only image he could summon was one of clawing her clothes off and dragging her to the floor. Her needy little growl did him in.
“Oh, God, that’s good,” she purred when he ripped her camisole and bra over her head and cupped both breasts. “So where is this mattress you claim to be so fond—hey!” she shrieked when he swooped her up and all but ran into the bedroom. He tossed her on the bed and stripped while she watched.
Her head fell back with a low, sexy laugh. Damn, even that evil, teasing cackle stirred his blood.
She smiled like the cat who clearly had the canary dead center in her cross hairs. “Someone seems to be in a hurry tonight, and for once, I don’t think it’s me.”
He elicited another shriek when he grabbed her ankle and pulled her to the edge of the bed.
“Ty-ler,” she squealed as he pulled her up, tore open her jeans, and slid them—along with her panties—down to the floor in one seamless motion. Her breath caught as he captured her breast in his mouth.
Jordan was beautiful from across a room. With her long, blonde hair and slender figure, she turned heads. But the sight of her breasts staggered him like nothing else ever had. Touching her, making her shudder, hearing her moan as he worked her nipple into a long, hard peak nearly undid him. Every. Damn. Time.
“Oh, Ty. Mmm,” she purred, as her whole body vibrated against his mouth.
Pure male determination had him silently swearing he was going to make her come like this. Some day. When the ache to get inside of her wasn’t clawing a hole clean through him. Right now, he decided her other breast deserved the same careful attention, so he released the first nipple and began to lick a path across her chest.
But she flipped their positions and urged him up on the bed. “Scoot up. Right here.” She patted the center of the pillow as she arranged it against the headboard.
He wasn’t a fool. He moved exactly where she directed him.
Tucking a knee on either side of his hips, she straddled his lap.
The warm, moist heat of her slid against his dick. Oh, yeah, he liked that. A lot. It was enough to make him growl. He wrapped his hands around her waist to position her more to his liking.
She giggled and shifted slightly off center. “Forgetting something?” she asked and reached into his nightstand for a condom. “I thought you were the master of patience, king of seduction, Mr. In-Control.”
“I have every intention of controlling you.” Which was just a damn joke. He barely had enough control to keep from coming as she rolled on the condom. But to be fair, Jordan never just rolled on a condom. Not without a significant amount of teasing...tasting...torture.
“You think so?” She moved back into position, slid against his length, again but pulling back before he could arch into her.
Taking a deep, sexually frustrated gulp of air, he dropped his head back against the headboard.
She laughed, then pierced herself in one quick thrust, burying him to the hilt.
His breath exhaled on a hiss. “Goddamn it, woman, you’re gonna kill me.”
Her lips curled into a wicked grin. “No way. You’ve become irreplaceable. Some parts more than others, of course.”
She rocked against him, one hand braced for leverage against his leg, the other stroking her nipples, teasing and taunting as she watched his face.
He didn’t stand a chance of taking his eyes off of her. But as he watched, he knew the exact moment her mood shifted from carefree and playful to one of uncontrolled need. Her eyes drifted closed, and her head tilted back. Lost to pleasure, she rode him with single-minded focus.
Sitting up straighter, he pulled her close so that they were chest to chest. Her breasts flattened against him, and he moved his hands down to the globes of her ass, digging in, holding her firm so he could thrust deep enough to make her moan.
He kissed her neck, her chin, her ear. “Jordan” rolled from his lips in a whisper over and over. Dipping his head to her breast, he closed his teeth around her nipple.
>
Sliding his fingers between them, he stroked her where their bodies were joined.
He couldn’t have said who trembled more at that hot, thrilling slide of his fingers against her sensitized flesh. When she jerked and cried out, control was just a distant memory. He roughly anchored her hips and drove as deeply as possible with several quick, frenzied thrusts.
Her core pulsed. She moaned, and her body trembled viciously as she clung to him. “What the hell, cowboy?” She cried out, and jerked him just as brutally over the edge. “Holy shit,” she managed as her breathing shuddered in and out. “Do our bodies fit together like puzzle pieces or what?”
Her words said it all. It had become better, hotter, and more intense every single time. But he hoped Jordan didn’t analyze it too deeply. Because if she figured out what he had—that it had nothing to do with their bodies, and everything to do with their hearts—he had no clue how she’d react.
***
They stayed quietly tangled for more than an hour. Jordan drifted on a contented high, although she sensed reality was going to bite her in the ass soon. She rolled over to face Ty. His eyes remained closed and his breathing stayed deep. She took the opportunity to study his handsome profile.
His dark hair had grown long enough to look well tumbled after a healthy round of sex. Thank you very much. And the whiskers she affectionately called scruff looked more like a full blown beard than a couple days of overgrowth. She’d teased him about shaving and offered up her razor, but the truth was, she’d come to crave the coarseness of his whiskers against the tender skin of her breasts. Who knew that a sensation she’d never ever contemplated could be so powerful? It was one of those erotic little surprises you just never thought about until you were in a... Her breath escaped on a rush. Shit. Was she in a relationship?
She watched his chest rise and fall and another unexplainable sensation waved through her. A warm, twisting rush that momentarily turned her insides to liquid.
“If you take a picture, it’ll last longer,” Ty murmured with his eyes still closed.
She damn near jumped out of her skin.
“What are you thinking about?” he grumbled again. “How good-lookin I am?”
Since he wasn’t that far off base, her face scorched hot for a quick second before she decided how to best play it off. Not a snowball’s chance in hell she was going with the truth. She reached over and pinched a few chest hairs between her fingers and yanked.
“Ouch. What was that for?” His eyes popped open, and he rubbed a hand across the spot missing a few hairs.
“Because you’re a liar,” she answered, poking him hard in the chest.
He sprang up on an elbow and grabbed her when she moved to roll off the bed. “What? I’m sorry. What did I do?”
“You promised dessert. I knew that was just your sneaky way of getting me here for sex.”
He fell back on the bed. “Christ, woman, you scared me. I thought you were really pissed about something.”
“I am really pissed about something,” she teased, pulling on his shirt. “You don’t promise a girl sugar and then fail to deliver.”
“I never fail.” He chuckled.
Lightning fast, he sprang forward and tugged her down on top of him. “I delivered something a hell of a lot more enjoyable than dessert.” Rolling them, he pinned her beneath his body. “Didn’t I?”
Damn, the weight of him felt good, both arousing and comforting. “That depends. Was this fictional dessert just a little generic ice cream or something really great like...well, say...Antonio’s cheesecake?”
“What? There’s like a sliding scale or something? Now you’re really starting to hack me off.” He slammed her hands above her head. “I’m better than ice cream but not as good as cheesecake?”
“Exactly. But you do rank high. I’d put you at the very top of the scale. Somewhere between German chocolate cake and cheesecake.”
“You will pay for that, you know.” He lowered his head, grazed her ear with his lips. “And I don’t remember the cheesecake making you come and tremble like you were having a seizure.”
“Get off me, you idiot.” She laughed, pushed him aside, and scrambled into the bathroom before he could grab her again.
She washed up and opened the bathroom door. Ty streaked past, back into the bedroom, with champagne in his hand. He flopped onto the bed panting and out of breath but trying to give the appearance of calm and casual.
She narrowed her eyes but didn’t question him. “Okay, you win. Your apartment kicks my rooster apartment’s butt. And you’re very tidy for a guy. I like that.”
A person’s home spoke volumes about them. As a female, she liked that he was neat, nothing out of place, no junk piles. As a detective, she was equally satisfied. He liked his things in order, organized. The effect was simple, but with a strong masculine essence. His living space reflected him.
She stopped next to his dresser, and her eyes were immediately drawn to a small female class ring. How odd that a grown man would have a girl’s high school ring on his dresser. She picked it up, slipped it on her pinky. “Care to explain this? Going steady with someone?”
He leaped from the bed, took the ring off her finger, and tossed it into a drawer. “It was someone from my past, someone I used to be close with. Come on.” He took her hand and tried to pull her toward the bed.
“Wait, wait, wait.” She jerked out of his grip. “That’s it? That’s the only explanation I get? Aren’t you a little old to be exchanging high school rings?”
“Aren’t you a little nosy?” he countered.
“I’m a cop; deal with it. Why do you have that ring? Does it have something to do with this case?”
“No, Jordan,” he said, clearly aggravated. “It’s a ring from...” He sighed, did the hair thing. “...a girl. We grew up together.”
Jordan felt that odd shock wave of pain that radiated off of him from time to time. She couldn’t keep from asking about it any longer. If he had unresolved feelings for someone else, she wanted to know. “Someone you loved? Still love?”
“No. Not how you’re thinking. She was...a kid. Just a kid. But she’s dead. Killed not long ago. We were close when we were younger, so her mom gave me the ring to remember her by. Okay?”
She nodded. “Okay.” He clearly didn’t want to talk about it. Ty was a lot of things—a little intimidating, bull-headed maybe—but he wasn’t a liar. She’d always felt his goodness, his honesty. So she let it drop. Tonight had been too beautiful to spoil. She pushed him backwards until he fell on the bed, then crawled on top of him. “Your apartment is really nice, cowboy. It suits you.”
He rolled them both and adjusted positions until they were relaxed against the pillows. “Well,” he said, reaching for the champagne glasses, “if somewhere in the future we end up living together, I’ll do the decorating.”
“Hey, take it back.” She pinched his nipple, knowing he was defenseless with two glasses of champagne in his hands. “I told you I didn’t have anything to do with the way my place looks. You should see my apartment in St. Louis. I think you’d approve.”
“Is that an invitation? You know, I’ve given some thought to what happens after we arrest the Bucks. Just because this case ends, I don’t want us to. You ever given any thought to moving here when this is over?”
She grabbed one of the champagne glasses and took a long sip. “About as much thought as I give to driving painful little stakes underneath my fingernails.”
He laughed. “Man, you’re cold. This is my hometown. Born and raised.”
She poured a tiny bit of champagne on his chest, admiring how it looked on his skin. Then she bent down and licked. “Well,” she murmured, pouring more below his belly button and proceeding to kiss and slurp her way down him. “It’s time you branched out.”
He sat up, snagged her glass, and set it on the nightstand with his. Tumbling her to the bed, he tickled her ribs until she squealed like a girl.
“Ty-
ler, stop it.” She squirmed and laughed. “You have something against champagne? I was just getting to the good part.”
“I have every intention of letting you pick up exactly where you left off, but first, you owe me an apology.”
“For?”
“First, for knocking my hometown, but second...” He reached beside the bed to pick up the bakery box. “Second for doubting me. I am a man of my word. Ah, ah, ah,” he said, pulling the box away when she sat up and made a grab for it.
“Jordan, I know Thanksgiving stirs hard memories for you, but I don’t want you to feel that way forever. I hoped we could start a new tradition. Together.”
The sting in her eyes started immediately. She knew it, didn’t she? Knew that the one person who would understand her, who could help her break through the awfulness of this day, was Ty. She wasn’t good at breaking down in front of people, never did it, but this man could honestly reduce her to a little puddle of goo with the snap of his fingers. It was incredibly frightening, at the same time, it touched her like crazy.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” He dropped the box to the bed and picked up her hand, running his fingers over hers. “This was a mistake.” Hurt etched in the tiny lines around his eyes. “There are just some things you can never move past, aren’t there?” He looked into her eyes, thumbed away her tears.
The question bothered her. She got the distinct impression it wasn’t rhetorical, but she didn’t understand what he was asking. And she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Not now. She picked up the bakery box and opened the lid. Antonio’s sinfully delicious cheesecake stared back with a big, whipped-cream smiley face. “You’re right; it’s time.”
“I never wanted to make you cry, just...I don’t know.” He swallowed hard. “I just wanted you to be able to enjoy Thanksgiving and the holidays again.”
This big strong man with the heart of an angel sat in front of her with glistening eyes. She was pretty sure he’d gouge his eyeballs out before he’d let a tear fall, but she could feel how much he cared.
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