“I do, but unfortunately that ship has sailed.” He grabbed her hand and squeezed. “I’m not going to let it stop me from living my life.”
Silence settled over them, and Quinn wondered if bringing Aiden home was actually a good idea—she didn’t often have guests. Scratch that. She never had guests.
Even Alana didn’t come around often. They usually went to her place to play games or watch movies because her couch wasn’t in the same room as the bed, and you didn’t have to climb over the coffee table slash footstool to get into the kitchen.
“So, did you grow up in Brooklyn?” she asked as the cab cruised through the streets.
The distant glow of Manhattan lit the night like a strange nighttime sun. It was hard not to notice how close Aiden’s thigh was to hers on the seat, his magnetic power pouring out into the air around them, filling it with his masculinity.
“I actually live in the house I grew up in.” The streetlights flashed against his face, making his cheekbones look sharper and his jaw more angled.
“Where?”
“Park Slope,” he replied.
Of course he lives in the expensive part of town...
“I bet it’s a beautiful house.”
“It is.” He nodded. “I’m lucky.”
“How come you’re not married?” she blurted out.
“Gee, you’re full of questions tonight.” He raised a brow.
“I mean it sounds like you come from money,” she barreled on. “You’ve got a decent job, you’re...”
“I’m what?” He smirked in the near darkness.
“You’re attractive.” She swallowed and hoped the heat in her cheeks wasn’t showing. “Why no girl?”
“My work comes first.” He slid a hand along the back of the seat until it rested behind but didn’t touch her. “A lot of girls think it’s a thrill to date a guy in the Bureau, but then they realize it can be dangerous. And it takes up a lot of my time and energy. Then once the thrill is gone they don’t want me anymore. They want someone with a nine-to-five job, someone safe.”
She bit down on her lip. “Safe isn’t so bad, is it?”
“No. But it’s not what I do. Sure, I’m not fighting a war. But we go up against some crazy, dangerous people...and sometimes they fight back. That kind of life isn’t for everyone.”
Her fingertips reached out to him, almost of their own accord, and she traced the shell of his ear. “Is that how this happened? The incident you told me about, did someone fight back?”
“Yeah.” He covered her hand with his, pressing her palm flat against his ear and turning his face so that his lips grazed her skin.
The air crackled between them, alive with the promise of what would happen if he came up to her apartment. Of what she wanted to happen...of what she was also terrified of happening.
Warmth flowed through her, making everything ache and throb. The way he looked at her—as though he’d burn her up—made her sex clench. He pulled her hand to his mouth and kissed the pads of her fingertips, his full lips soft and hot. Just a taste, and she was ready to climb into his lap and take what she needed.
Him. All of him.
Instead, she asked, “What happened?”
“Another agent and I were serving an arrest warrant. When the guy didn’t answer the door we went in, tried to clear the place. But he was hiding in a cupboard with a gun. When I tried to talk him out, he took a shot at me. Close range.” His face remained still as stone. “Luckily for me he was high as a fucking kite and he missed by a mile.”
“He could have killed you?” A tremor ran through her, the gravity of his story swirling around in her head like sand kicked up by a gust of wind. “How can you be so calm when you talk about it?”
“Because he didn’t kill me and I’m grateful for that every goddamn day.” He pressed another kiss to the palm of her hand. “It sucks that my hearing is all messed up, but I’m still alive.”
The cab pulled up beside her apartment building and she paid quickly, forcing the cash into the cabbie’s hand before Aiden could try and “expense” it.
For some reason, knowing that he might have died unleashed something inside her. A desire to live? Because she, too, could have been dead—or at least her attacker might not have been foiled at the last minute. She might not have been saved. But his outlook was logical, positive. He didn’t live in fear of a gunman jumping out of a closet, so why should she?
Alone on the sidewalk, her quiet street had retired for the evening. Aiden stood next to the cab, the door still open and his arm resting on it.
“I should go,” he said.
“Don’t.” She fisted her hands in his shirt and pressed her body against his.
The moment her hips bumped his and she felt the long, hard ridge of his erection against her belly, power flowed through her. She wanted him and she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
“Come upstairs.” Her lips brushed his jaw. “I want to finish what we started the other night.”
A moan escaped his lips and he ground his hips against hers. “Quinn, damn it...you’re making this hard.”
“So hard you’re serving up that perfect double entendre without even realizing it?” Her teeth nipped at his neck, the muscles there corded and straining. “Come with me. I’ll make it more than hard.”
Aiden wrapped an arm around her waist and moved them out of the way of the cab, slamming the door shut behind him. “What do you want out of this?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” She looped her arms around his neck and dragged his head down to hers.
She tasted beer on his breath as her lips moved over his, nudging his mouth open so her tongue could savor him. Her fingers tangled in the lengths of his hair, tugging and threading and gripping as she opened up to him.
“I want sex, Aiden. With you.”
His lashes brushed her temple as he rested his cheek against hers. “We can’t let this get in the way of working together.”
“It won’t, and believe me, I don’t want anyone finding out.”
His deft fingers skated up the length of her neck, his thumbs brushing her cheekbones as he held her head in place. “Neither do I.”
“Then it’s settled. You’ll come upstairs, we’ll enjoy one another’s company and it’ll be our little secret.” She punctuated the last three words with feather-light kisses along his jaw. “It’s our business anyway. No one else needs to know.”
Anticipation skittered through her body, the promise of having him again lighting her up like the skyline at night. Glittering and vibrant.
“Why me?” he asked.
The question took her by surprise, and she covered it by grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the building. “What do you mean?”
“What you’re doing now requires an amount of trust that you don’t usually give people.” He held the door for her. “Or am I wrong?”
They entered the building and headed up to her first-floor apartment, the sound of their footsteps echoing in the quiet stairwell. Somewhere in the distance Latin music played and a child cried. A TV show blared from her neighbor’s door. It almost covered the sound of the neighbors fighting.
“It’s just sex, Aiden. Why are you trying to read more into it?” She avoided his eyes as she shoved the key into the lock, her hand trembling so that it took her a few goes to get it in properly.
“I want to make sure I don’t end up on that list of guys who’ve hurt you.” His hands settled on her hips, and his breath was hot against her ear. “I want to know what your boundaries are.”
“Are you planning to do anything illegal to me?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“Then we’re good.”
She pushed the door open and pulled him into her apartment. With one flick of
a light switch the whole place was illuminated. Her tiny, cramped little home.
“Welcome to my very humble abode,” she said as the door slammed shut behind them.
“Quinn.” He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin against her shoulder. “How about you drop the act for a minute and be straight with me.”
“I am being straight.” She bristled, but the gentle climb of his hand up and over her rib cage melted her bones, and she sagged back against him.
“So you’ll be fine when we wake up together tomorrow morning?”
“Who says you’re allowed to sleep over?” A smile curved on her mouth as he brushed her hair back and kissed the delicate space behind her ear.
“Who said we’d be sleeping?” He sucked on the soft bit of skin where her neck joined her shoulder, then he stilled. “But I do mean it. I want you to be okay tomorrow.”
“You’re worried I’m going to freak out again, aren’t you?”
He spun her around and smoothed his hands over her shoulders and down her arms. “A little.”
But I trust you.
The words danced around in her mind like mischievous sprites, kicking up all kinds of confusing emotions and sprinkling their crazy fairy dust all over her thoughts. With Aiden around, the world seemed to have fewer shadows, less darkness. Rose-colored glasses much?
Knowing he was friends with the boss added another complicated layer to their relationship. But tonight wasn’t part of their assignment and it wouldn’t interfere with her life at Cobalt & Dane. If there was one thing Quinn could do, it was separation. Who she was in the gaming world was totally different from who she was at work. Here, with him, she would be another person. One who embraced and enjoyed sex and wasn’t afraid.
“If you do your job properly, I won’t have the energy to freak out.” She raised her eyebrow in challenge.
The concern in his face melted away. “You doubt my abilities in bed?”
“I don’t doubt them, but I don’t want you to slack off, either.”
He picked her up, supporting her ass in the firm grip of his hands. Laughing, she wrapped her legs around him, locking her boots around his lower back and moaning at the hard press of him between her legs.
“I don’t slack off...not when it comes to this,” he growled. “We’ll see who’s ready to call it quits first.”
“I’m an insomniac. I can stay up all night.” Her teeth nipped at his earlobe.
“You slept pretty well last time.” He carried her to the bed, sinking one knee into the mattress as she continued to cling to him like some kind of sex-starved barnacle. “You were purring like a kitten.”
She hadn’t slept that well in years...nor for a night since. “Beginner’s luck.”
“So tell me, Quinn, what game are we going to play tonight?” He laid her down on the bed and hovered over her. Not a single part of them touched, yet her whole body throbbed as if he was already on top of her.
“Hopefully, not a waiting game.”
“You were the one who said we had all night.” The corners of his eyes crinkled and he bent down, his hands on her boots.
Watching him unknot the laces was strangely erotic, as though he was slowly untangling the tension within her. Loosening her bonds. Freeing her.
He slipped the boots off one by one, revealing her neon-yellow-and-black Batman socks. Not exactly the attire of a practiced seductress. But soon they were gone, too, and he crawled up her body like a panther. Sleek and powerful.
Power wasn’t normally something that attracted her. In fact, she often steered clear of men who had the kind of physical prowess that Aiden possessed. But instead of being intimidating, he wore it like a uniform. Something he would use to protect rather than control her.
“What’s going on in that head of yours?” He braced himself with a hand on either side of her shoulders, hovering over her as he gently nudged her legs apart with his knees.
“Contemplating the secrets of the universe,” she quipped.
“Then I’m not doing my job properly.”
He lowered his hips to hers, pressing her into the mattress. His hard thighs held her open while he shifted his weight to one hand and used the other to trace the outline of her body. Through the loose-knitted fabric of her sweater, she felt the heat of his palm.
The moment he touched her, all her erogenous zones screamed “me, me, me” at full volume. Her breasts ached and her nipples had already peaked into stiff buds before his fingers made it past her shoulder.
“Please,” she murmured, arching her back to try and bring his hand closer to where she wanted it.
“That’s more like it.” A chuckle rumbled in the back of his throat as he placed kisses along the neckline of her sweater, taking his sweet damn time.
He skipped her breast altogether as his hand skated down her rib cage to the hem of her sweater, ducking under it so flesh met flesh as his palm pressed against her belly. Stroking his thumb back and forth, he waited.
“What’s the holdup?” She propped herself up on her forearms.
“I’ve got an idea.” His eyes sparkled like blue gemstones.
“What kind of idea?”
“A sexy idea.” He sat up and looked around her room for a moment until his eyes locked on something.
Pushing up from her bed, he made it across her apartment in a few long-legged strides. When he returned, he had something in his hands. The belt of a silky bathrobe she’d bought at Comic Con a few years ago; the one that looked like a Stormtrooper uniform.
Panic sped through her veins and she sat up, tucking her knees to her chest. “You’re not tying me up.”
“No, I want you to tie me up.” He held out the piece of silk, moving toward her slowly.
“Why?”
“Because it’ll put you in full control. You can do whatever you like to me, however you like in whichever way you like it.” His pupils were hungry and dark, drawing her toward him. “No need to freak out if you’re the one in charge.”
Her fingers brushed his hand as she took the length of silk from him, enjoying the sensual slip of it against her palms. Could she really take command? The idea buzzed in her head, a million sexy possibilities flying around.
“Are you doing this just for me?” she asked, absently wrapping the silk around her palm.
“I’m doing this for both of us. Having a beautiful woman string me up and take charge is unbelievably hot.” The words came out gravelly and rough. “I want this.”
He knelt on the edge of her bed, running his palms up and down his thighs. So close to where his erection strained against the fly of his jeans, long and hard. Her body pulsed with unexpected power. A tight ache gathered between her thighs at the thought of having him at her mercy.
Aiden wasn’t weak; she knew that for sure. The way he’d taken charge in the office and on that first night, bringing her the kind of intense pleasure she’d never known before, showed he was totally comfortable in the driver’s seat. But the idea of having all that strength and masculinity contained, bound and controlled...hell. Moisture gathered at her sex, need spiking hard and fast within her.
“Strip.” The commanding tone in her voice was totally foreign to her, and for a moment she wondered where it had come from. This wasn’t her. Quinn Dellinger was not a powerful person.
But he made her feel that way, and she wanted to revel in it.
“Yes, ma’am.” With the lazy swagger of a cowboy, he pushed up from the bed.
“Slowly.”
He smiled, clearly enjoying being told what to do. Shrugging out of his jacket, he tossed it to the floor with more theatrics than she’d expected. Then he ran his palms up and down his chest. Her breath caught in her throat as he snagged the hem of his T-shirt and pulled it up, revealing
fair skin, ribbed with muscles. Everything bulged and flexed as he moved, but her eyes were drawn to the sharp V at his waist. Two lines pointing toward heaven. Those muscles were God’s gift to the world; she was sure of it.
With a cheeky smile he threw the T-shirt at her and it landed on her head. Clearly, being turned on as all hell meant her reflexes had gone to sleep. Laughing, she pulled the shirt off and tossed it on top of his jacket.
“I feel like we should have some music for this,” he said, wrenching at the buckle of his jeans. “Then I could get all Magic Mike on you.”
“You don’t need music, Aiden.” She leaned forward on her knees so she could watch as he drew the zipper down with excruciating leisure.
“Is that a fact?” His thumbs tucked into the waistband of his jeans and he pushed them down, toeing off his shoes at the same time. His socks were gone in a flash.
Attempting to dull the ache in her sex—or perhaps to heighten it—she squeezed her thighs together and resisted the urge to touch herself. No other guy had ever managed to get her as excited as this. And they hadn’t even gotten past first base.
“All of it,” she breathed. “Off. Now.”
“I’m glad you’ve taken to my idea.” Without an ounce of modesty, he whipped off his black boxer briefs and stood in front of her. Hands by his side, awaiting her instruction.
His cock jutted forward, hard and strong and oh, so tempting. Unable to resist, she crawled to the edge of the bed and touched her tongue to his cock, catching a pearled bead of pre-cum from the tip of him. An anguished groan sounded out in the room.
She had him. Tonight he would be hers.
“Sit.” She pointed to the bed and thanked her lucky stars she’d kept the ornate headboard her mother had picked up at the local thrift shop when she was a teenager.
Now, instead of stringing up pictures of long-haired rock stars and her favorite game characters, she would be tying up a man. Times had certainly changed.
Aiden did as he was asked, setting himself down on her bed and presenting his hands to her like a birthday present. A frisson of excitement charged through her nervous system, fueling her on. Filling her with confidence.
A Dangerously Sexy Affair Page 11