She grabbed at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “No, Tagg. Please.” She buried her face against his skin, still panting, and clung to him like a vine.
“Shh, baby. I’m not going anywhere.” He wrapped his arms around her and cradled her against him, wondering at her panicked tone. “Hey.”
She shook her head.
“Carol?”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered as she slowly lowered her arm from around him. She refused to lift her head when he tried tipping her face with a finger below her chin.
“Why are you sorry? You didn’t do anything wrong. God, babe, you’re so sexy.” He ran his hand through her hair, down her back, over her tight, round bottom. “I’ve never seen a woman react that fast. You’re…incredible.”
Her fingers feathered over his chest, tickling through his hair. “Are we done now?” she whispered.
Something inside his chest—possibly his heart—squeezed tight and nearly knocked the breath from him. How could she possibly think they were done? His cock pressed against her belly, throbbing so hard he could feel every heartbeat all the way to his toes.
“Look at me.”
She shook her head.
“Carol. I need to know…” God, please don’t let her be. Don’t let her be. I can’t deal with this tonight. Not with her. I want her too bad. She said she had an ex-husband. “Are you a virgin?”
She shook her head again. “No.”
Thank you! He sighed in relief. “Why would you think we’re done? We haven’t even gotten started. And hey—why are you making me talk to the top of your head?” When she didn’t move, he chuckled. “You picked me up in a bar, honey, looking for sex. This is definitely not the time to go shy on me.”
After what felt like an eternity, Carol tipped her head slightly and looked up at him through her lashes. Her cheeks were pink, her bottom lip tucked between her teeth. How could any woman who looked and reacted to a man’s touch like she did, be so shy?
She wasn’t faking it either, he decided when she reached up and touched his jaw with soft fingers. He was a cop with nearly fifteen years on the job. He knew liars, knew actresses. She may have lied about her name, probably because she was embarrassed about what she’d been doing in the bar, but Carol was as pure and true as anyone he’d ever met. And that made him want to wrap her up and keep her safe.
“You okay?”
She nodded. “I’ve never…” She dipped her chin and leaned her forehead against his chest.
Never what? She’d just said she wasn’t a virgin. She was tight, and the thought of delving into her body made him shake with lust, but—
“Thank you,” she whispered so softly he almost didn’t catch the words.
He wanted to puff out his chest and beat it like Tarzan, but at the same time wanted to know what kind of life this woman had led. She’d said she had an ex-husband who apparently had cheated on her—the dumb fucking bastard—but why in the hell was she thanking him for giving her a finger fuck?
“Carol?”
“Hmm?” she mumbled against his chest.
“You’re killing me here.”
Her head popped up, almost catching him in the jaw. “Why? What’d I do?”
Her eyes were wide and filled with worry. Tagg could only chuckle. She might not be a virgin, and she may have even been married to the biggest idiot in the world, but she was also so innocent he almost felt guilty for picking her up. What if she’d wound up with someone else? Someone who didn’t care how naïve she might be? God, the thought tore him up. Carol was a woman to be cherished. And he planned on doing just that.
“You said you wanted me inside you. Am I still welcome there?”
The color in her cheeks deepened, but this time she didn’t break eye contact with him when she nodded. “Please,” she whispered, her bottom lip trembling slightly.
He leaned down and kissed her. A slow kiss to rekindle her fire. He delved his tongue between her lips and languidly skimmed it over hers. She tasted like candy and he thought he’d gladly become diabetic in order to keep her. When she moaned and rubbed her belly against his cock, when he felt her nails dig into his shoulder, he knew she was ready for him.
Rolling over, he reached into the nightstand and pulled out a foil packet. He ripped it open with his teeth and rolled the condom on, nearly coming right then. Damn, he was on the jagged edge.
When he turned back, Carol was watching him with those big expressive eyes. She looked like an angel, perfect with her golden hair haloed around her. “There’s still time to change your mind, baby,” he said, giving her a chance to back out if she wasn’t ready. It might kill him to let her go, but he was gentleman enough to give her the opportunity.
A slow, languorous smile spread over her lips. “No.” Her voice was deep, husky, erotic. “I want you.”
He lowered himself over her, spreading her legs with his thighs.
Carol couldn’t stop touching him. She wished she were brave enough to look at the part of him pressed against her. She wanted to stroke him and touch him and hold him, but she couldn’t bring herself to do so. She was too afraid of doing something wrong, of turning him off, of embarrassing herself.
She’d read at least ten books about pleasuring a man. She’d planned on using some of those lessons tonight, but now that she was here, with him, she didn’t have the guts. Her husband had never been adventurous. Never wanted her to touch. A quick skirmish under the covers and a grunt from him summed up her entire life-long experiences. With Tagg, she wanted to experience all the pleasures she knew had to exist. The pleasure he’d already shown her.
She couldn’t believe she’d thanked him for giving her the very first orgasm she’d had with a man. She couldn’t believe she’d asked if they were done. She wasn’t an idiot, and she feared that’s how he saw her. What he’d already done to her was more than she’d expected. More than she’d ever gotten from anyone but herself and her battery operated device.
She knew what went on between men and women. She read romances by the hundreds and had devoured almost every self-help-explore-your-sexuality book she could get her hands on. So why was she acting like a stupid virgin?
Because she was in bed with the most handsome man she’d ever known. Because he made her feel so...so...so totally...there was no words for how her soul was singing. He was everything she’d ever imagined, and so much more.
“What color are your eyes?” he whispered against her lips as he slid his forearms under her shoulders.
“Hazel.” With his big, hard body splayed over her, his body so intimately snuggled against hers, she wondered where she’d found her voice.
He smiled. “Lift up your legs, honey.”
Carol raised her knees along his thighs and he settled closer against her, the tip of his penis rubbing her throbbing pussy. Her breath sucked in, and her fingers tightened on his shoulders.
“Tell me again,” he said.
Carol met his eyes. Dear God, she loved this man. Just for tonight she could pretend it was forever. Just this once. Right here, right now. “I want you inside me,” she whispered.
His mouth came down hard on hers. As his tongue took possession of her mouth, he thrust deep into her. Ripping her mouth from his, she cried out in surprise and pain from his size.
Tagg held himself perfectly still. She had been so responsive. She’d come so fast, so hard. She was so wet. He hadn’t meant to hurt her.
“Carol?” he said against her throat. If he looked at her, he wouldn’t be able to keep control of himself. He didn’t want to hurt her any more than he just had.
“Tagg,” she whispered as her fingers toyed with the hair at the nape of his neck. “Please, Tagg.”
“Please what?” he asked. Get off? Finish? Kill myself?
Her hips rose against him. “Please!” she sobbed. “I need...you.”
“Relax.” He turned his head and caught her earlobe between his teeth. “Relax baby, we’ll get there.” As long as h
e didn’t move one damn inch, there was a tiny possibility.
Her hips rose again and her hands clutched at him. “Please,” she panted in his ear.
He couldn’t hold it any longer. He’d hit the end of his restraint. “Wrap your legs around me, love.” She did. He clenched his teeth and raised himself on his hands over her as he thrust into her again. Deep, hard, unable to be gentle.
Her head dug into the pillow and her mouth opened on a sigh. God, she was hot. He thrust again, forcing himself to hold back his own release. She moaned and her legs tightened around his hips, her heels digging into his ass. Another deep thrust and he felt her muscles start to tighten around him. He came down on top of her, growled at her to hold him tight, reached between their bodies with one hand to flick his finger against her clit, and then thrust into her with everything he had.
Carol moaned and panted, cried out and thrust against him with an erotic innocence that nearly pushed him over the edge. Her nails dug into his shoulders and back. Her head pressed into the pillow. But when she opened her eyes and met his gaze, he was lost.
With a shout, Tagg gripped her shoulder and pounded into her, willing her to come with him.
Her cry of release sent him spiraling into ecstasy. Her inner muscles pumped his cock even as he poured himself into her, pushing him over the edge to oblivion.
Chapter Six
Carol lay perfectly still, waiting for Tagg to fall asleep so she could make her escape. Her body still tingled and she’d never felt so…full…in her life. So complete. But she had to get out of there, and fast. If she didn’t, she’d stay right where she was, curled against his big, muscular body, engulfed in his strong arms and warmth, and drift peacefully to sleep.
She couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t spend the night with him. She was already so in love with him she hurt. If she woke up next to him in the morning, that would be the end of her. The thought of being in that much pain, of having to say goodbye to him and only seeing him occasionally at school, with him not having a clue who she was, would kill her.
“Tell me something about yourself.”
She jumped as his voice rumbled in her ear resting against his chest. He was supposed to be sleeping, darn it, not wanting more of that stupid small talk.
His hand coasted up her arm, tangled in her hair. “Come on, Carol. I know you don’t want to tell me much, but give me something.”
With his voice so deep and filled with caring, how could she refuse him? Maybe if she talked a little, it’d bore him and put him to sleep. “I work with kids,” she said, saying the first and only thing that came to mind. What else was there to say about her or her job? The school, and the teenagers with whom she worked, were her whole life. Telling him she lived in a postage stamp-sized condo with her little mutt Boo was beyond pathetic.
“I have a son,” he said, and she heard the love in his tone. Of course, she knew he had a son. Billy was one of her favorite kids in the whole school. A child in desperate need of mothering. But he spoke highly of his father, was so proud of his dad.
“Tell me about him,” she whispered, wanting to hear more. Wanting to just listen to his deep voice reverberating inside his chest.
“He’s fifteen. Lives with his mother.” He shrugged, slightly jostling her against his shoulder. “He’s what keeps me going some days. What makes me get up and go to work every morning, knowing I’m keeping the streets safer for him.”
Carol squeezed her eyes shut tight. See, she thought. This is why I love him so much. He’s always there for Billy. He loves his son so much. When she first met him at the meet and greet last fall, of course she’d noticed his physique—what woman wouldn’t? And his eyes. He had the clearest, deepest set of blue eyes she’d ever seen. But as school got underway and she spent time with Billy, helping him with English papers and even his math now and then, and learning about Tagg’s job and how committed he was to his son… How could any woman not love him and fall at his feet?
“What kind of work do you do with kids? What ages? Where do you work?”
Carol tucked her lip between her teeth. He was getting too close. She couldn’t tell him. Because if he ever put two and two together, and realized that she was the librarian at his son’s high school, he’d…
He’d what? No respectable employee of the Cooper Valley School District should be in bars picking up men. If it got out that she’d done this, it might mean her job. She had a reputation to uphold for the sake of the kids.
And secondly, Carol Haley, high school librarian, was not the type of woman Tagg would ever be interested in. She spent most of her time with the kids, both inside and outside the school. She was involved in every fund raiser put on by the school, she tutored on the side almost every day of the week, and…and she sure as hell didn’t wear little black next-to-nothing dresses and spiked heels. She wasn’t a natural blonde and she wore thick glasses.
“Okayyy. I see I went too far.” Tagg sighed and rolled over to face her, never releasing her from his arms. “What do you want to talk about?”
She met his piercing blue gaze and wanted to ask a million questions. What had happened between him and his wife? Why was he single when she knew at least a dozen women from Cooper Valley High alone who would kill to go out with him? Why did she have to change her entire appearance to get him to notice her?
That last one made her want to cry. She wasn’t comfortable in the clothes she’d donned tonight. They weren’t her. The contacts were making her eyes all scratchy, and she hated makeup and fussing with her hair. This was her only night with her sexy-as-sin Detective Taggert. And if he wouldn’t go to sleep so she could get away, then she didn’t want to waste the time talking.
“I’d rather not talk,” she said, her voice hoarse with pent up disappointment.
He gave a slow nod, one side of his lips kicking up into a rakish grin. “And just what would the lady like to do?”
Her eyes widened when she felt his penis begin to stir and lengthen against her belly. Oh my.
He chuckled, then dipped his head and kissed her with such sweet softness she nearly burst out in tears. “Insatiable, are you?”
She nodded, suddenly feeling that way.
His fingers coasted down over her back, tickling her. Made light little circles over her bottom. Then dipped between her thighs and skimmed over her, making her tingle.
She sucked in her breath, and nearly choked.
He chuckled and in one quick motion, rolled her onto her stomach and came down over her back like a big, hot, hard blanket. He pulled her hands above her head and laced his fingers with hers.
“You just lay still, sweetheart,” he said in her ear, his voice vibrating through her back. “And let Tagg take care of you.”
* * * * *
Her responsiveness made Tagg feel like a movie star hero. The ones who always get the girl in the end, and have the hottest love scenes imaginable. That’s how he felt—like he was in the middle of a torrid movie love scene, and all he wanted was to hear Carol scream his name as he made her come again and again.
Goose bumps popped out on her arms when he nuzzled her neck. She wriggled and writhed beneath him as he nipped at the salty, sweet flesh on the side of her neck. She moaned when he ran his tongue down her spine between her shoulder blades. Damn, she was tasty. Addictive. Better than any drug the junkies he put in jail could ever grow or make. He never wanted to leave this bed. Never wanted her to leave his apartment. She was his, and by the end of the night, he hoped to prove it to her.
Carol of no last name and no known profession would be spilling her guts by morning, or he wasn’t Detective Liam Taggert.
“What…are you…doing?” Carol panted, squirming under his weight.
He chuckled. Now that he’d gotten off once, taken off the edge, he planned to torture her into submission. Slowly, carefully, deliberately.
He loosened his grip on her fingers and moved down her body, his hands running down her arms, over the sides o
f her breasts, her sides, her hips. God, she was soft. Grabbing a pillow, he lifted her and settled it under her belly, raising her ass in the air. Oh, yeah. Great view. Her skin was milky white and smelled of berries. She must bathe in the stuff, he thought as he licked a path over her lower back.
“Liam?” she squeaked when he nipped her perfect, round butt cheek. He laughed when she didn’t try to pull away. He palmed her other cheek while he nipped and licked. He’d always been called Tagg. All through high school and at the academy. Had been Tagg to his wife. Hearing Liam roll off Carol’s tongue so sweetly gave him a thrill he couldn’t explain. It was more personal than he’d ever imagined. More intimate.
“Say it again, baby.”
“Wh—what?”
“My name.” He moved to the other cheek and laved it with his tongue, nipped at it, reveling in her softness.
“Liammm,” she said on a sigh. “Ooh. That feels so good.”
“Mmm hmm.” Felt fantastic. He ran his hands down her long, smooth legs, then back up her inner thighs. When he glanced up, he saw Carol gripping the top edge of the mattress, her face buried deep in the other pillow. Her arms shook. She was close again, already. So fucking responsive to his touch.
When his fingers encountered her soft, curly pubic hair, he went down on his stomach between her thighs and spread her wide.
Carol whimpered into the pillow. Her ass lifted slightly, as if she had no control over her own body. He liked that. Loved it. She was putty in his hands and his gloating male ego took hold inside him.
“I’m going to eat you up,” he said, already knowing by her reaction that if anyone had ever given her oral sex, it wasn’t something she’d written home about.
Her ass lifted even higher and she whimpered again.
“You want me to do that, babe?” He teased her clit with one fingertip. “You want me to lick you and suck you until you scream to come?”
She said something intelligible into the pillow.
Anna Leigh Keaton & Madison Layle - Serve & Protect 02 - One Night of Paradise Page 4