When You Dare

by Lori Foster

  Beneath the water, her small hands curled into tight fists. The sleek muscles in her thighs tensed. She’d lost weight through her ordeal, and he wondered how she would look when fully recovered. Would she flesh out even more with another ten or twelve pounds?

  Leaning over her, a hand on each thigh to ensure her legs stayed open, he blew on her nipples. They drew painfully tight, and he couldn’t resist drawing on her again, tonguing her nipples, sucking. He could spend an hour doing just this, but given her wriggling and panting, Molly wouldn’t last if he did.

  She needed release. Now.

  Dipping both hands into the water, Dare said, “Keep wide-open for me, baby, okay?”

  A soft groan was her only reply. Dare opened her lips, pressed one finger into her, and encountered silky slickness. He eased back from the grip of her body and added a second finger.

  Her back arched as he worked them into her, slid out and pushed in again. With his other hand, he played with her clitoris, softly circling with his thumb, gauging her every shuddering breath, each small contraction. “Dare.”

  He looked up at her face, saw her eyes squeezed tight, her lips parted to accommodate her deep, fast breaths. He strained his jeans, she was so damn sexy.

  And so real.

  With a broken moan, she grabbed his wrist, holding him still with his fingers buried inside her. Water sloshed out of the tub as she curled forward—and came.

  Damn, but he’d misjudged his own discipline. His earlier release meant nothing, not with her like this, so wild, so carnal.

  Gasping, she oh-so-slowly settled back again, limp, her legs dropped open, her arms lax. Dare eased his fingers from her and felt her flinch with an aftershock of sensation.

  Standing, he shucked off his jeans and boxers and, holding her shoulders forward, stepped into the tub behind her. With a sigh, she rested back against his chest.

  He knew she was sensitive still, but he couldn’t resist covering each breast with a hand. He kissed her temple and tried to ignore his raging hard-on.

  “Dare?”

  “Yeah?” He sounded hoarse even to his own ears.

  “I’ve never…” She went silent, then struggled to sit up, to turn and face him. She looked at his body, at his erection, and a shameless grin appeared, followed by an embarrassed laugh. “I feel like a… I don’t know. A hussy?”

  Dare grinned. “You’re a healthy woman, thank God.”

  She shook her head. “You don’t understand. If someone would have told me that I’d do…well, what we just did… I’d have died of embarrassment just thinking about it.”

  “Why?” He toyed with a damp tendril of hair that hung to her shoulder. Her dewy skin looked lustrous and smooth, the bruises almost gone. His stomach knotted with the need to taste her all over.

  “Because it’s not like me. I mean, I wasn’t a virgin—”

  Emphatic, Dare interrupted her to warn, “I don’t want to hear about you with other men.”

  That gave her pause. Then she complained, “I wasn’t going to give you details, for crying out loud.”

  Damn right, she wasn’t. “How about I cut to the chase here?” He drew her down to him, chest to chest, and kissed her. With his hands on her ass, ready to explore again, he said, “You aren’t used to being so uninhibited.”

  “I’m really not.” She jumped when he pressed a finger into her from behind. “Dare.”

  Against her lips, he whispered, “Hmm?” She was even slicker now, a little swollen, and he wanted to hear her come again. As he teased in and out of her, he kissed her more deeply, loving the way her belly moved against his boner, how her cushiony breasts rubbed on his chest. “Scoot up.”

  “I don’t know about this.” But she arched her back, driving his fingers deeper.

  “Scoot up, Molly. I want to suck on your nipples.”

  She whimpered, and her sex tightened around his fingers—but she finally did as he asked. Bracing her hands on his shoulders, she levered up—and Dare closed his mouth around her, sucking hard.

  She let out a deep, vibrating moan, rocking against him, damn near pushing him toward release until she finally cried out, climaxing hard again.

  On a sigh, she whispered, “Oh, my God,” and tried to settle down against him.

  Laughing, Dare caught her shoulders and sat up with her in the tub. “Baby, don’t go to sleep on me.”

  “No, I won’t.” But her eyes were slumberous, her body utterly boneless.

  Dare grabbed the soap and washed while looking at her. At half-mast, her lids looked heavy, her lashes long. The heat of the bath and her orgasms had left her skin rosy.

  And he wanted her more than he’d ever wanted anything.

  After he rinsed, he used the soap on her. Ignoring her disconcerted exclamations, he bathed every inch of her, lingering between her legs again until he knew he had to stop torturing himself or he’d lose it.

  He stepped out of the tub to dry off, then helped her out, too.

  Licking her lips, Molly stared down at his aching erection. She reached out a hand, saying, “I had wanted to spend a little more time on you.”

  Ah, hell. Feeling a nearly uncontrollable surge of lust, Dare caught her wrist just short of her touching him. “Not this time.” He’d had her, but he hadn’t gotten enough. Not yet.

  He was beginning to think a lifetime wouldn’t be time enough, not with this one particular woman.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  MOLLY WATCHED AS Dare drained the tub and used the towel to dry it. She stood there, aching all over, nerve endings alive, and he was indulging his tick for orderliness.

  He had such an amazing body that she couldn’t look at him without wanting him. But it was so much more than that. Even with everything that had happened to her, he made her feel more independent, stronger and capable than she’d realized possible.

  He also brought out her carnal nature, so easily encouraging her to a lack of modesty, a total indulgence into sexuality. It was amazing.

  He was amazing.

  If he didn’t come to bed with her, right now, she’d probably attack him. Bare foot tapping the tile floor, she asked, “Does my messiness bother you?”

  Folding the towel and hanging it over the shower bar, he looked at her—then all over her. “You should see the inside of Chris’s place if you want to see messy. And I still love him.”

  Her mouth went dry over that L word. Never had she known a man so comfortable with stating affection, especially for a friend.

  Molly cleared her throat. “Well, it’s just that you’re…” She gestured at his naked body. “I mean…” She gestured at her own. “All this could be done later, right?”

  “You think I give a damn if your bathroom is cluttered?” He glanced at her askance as he picked up their clothes. “I’m hanging on by a thread here. I was just buying some time to get myself under control.” He strode past her into the bedroom.

  “Oh.” Molly hustled after him. “I guess I’m not used to guys—”

  Dropping the clothes on the floor, he turned and put a finger to her lips. “Again, I don’t want to hear about you with any other man.” He took her shoulders and dragged her closer to him. “No one has ever made me feel so goddamned possessive.”

  She started to say “Oh” again, but he took the word from her in a deep, hot, really possessive kiss.

  Her toes curled.

  Without her realizing it, he freed her hair from the topknot, and it tumbled down to her shoulders.

  He sank both hands into her hair. “I can’t believe you were going to cut this.”

  His mouth grazed her throat, her jaw. “I can’t believe it mattered to you.”

  “It does.” He kissed her neck, then her ear.

  “I couldn’t believe you took the time to work the tangles out for me.” In fact, that might have been the moment she started falling for him. The tenderness after so much brutality, the matter-of-fact way he’d handled her and her personal trauma, had devastate
d her senses. She hadn’t been prepared. She still wasn’t.

  “I enjoyed it.” Hooking a forearm under her derriere, he lifted her and turned with her to the bed.

  It was insane, how easily he handled her, the ease with which he lifted her, carried her. His strength continued to amaze her; his care would forever impress her.

  Settling into the cradle of her body, he lifted to one elbow and looked down at her. With care, he smoothed back her hair, kissed her swollen lips.

  Molly touched his face. Tears threatened.

  “What’s wrong?”

  She shook her head. “The way you look at me makes me feel pretty.”

  Pressing a hand between their bodies, he touched her, and his cheekbones darkened with aroused color. “Pretty doesn’t cover it.”

  “No?” She could barely speak as he pushed not one, not two, but three fingers into her. Breathless, she whispered, “Then what does?”

  Stroking in, back out. In again, so deep…“Smokin’.” His chest expanded. “Sexy as sin.” His gaze was so intent, it affected her as strongly as his touch when he said, “Mine.”

  Startled, Molly stared at him. She didn’t know what to say, how to interpret that. “Dare…?”

  He moved away from her in a rush, going for a condom that he rolled on in record time. When he came back to her, he caught her hips and turned her to her stomach. “On your knees.”

  Even as she got to her knees, her thoughts scrambled—until his hands clasped her waist and he drove into her with one hard thrust.

  After two climaxes, she was swollen and sensitive and oh-so-ready for him. She cried out with that initial entry, then cried out again as he began a hard, fast rhythm. It was so deep this way, she felt every inch of him.

  “Arch your hips up,” he told her in a rough command. She felt one hand on the small of her back, the other under her, first touching her nipples, then sliding down between her legs.

  It was too much. “Dare… I can’t.”

  “Yes, you can.” Just as he’d done to her nipples, he caught her clitoris and held it with his fingertips. Each of his deep thrusts caused her to tug at his hold in a maddening stimulation.

  When she groaned, he said, “Spread your knees out a little more, baby.”

  The pleasure drugged her until she couldn’t think, could only feel. She felt heavy, so heavy that her arms didn’t want to support her and they bent until she rested on her forearms.

  Dare growled a low approval over that.

  Another release began spiraling within her, drawing tighter and tighter. Her body throbbed, ripe and aching and in need.

  Dare started pumping faster, and she knew he was close. His thighs were slapping hard against the back of hers. Heat poured off him, off her.

  Tighter and tighter.

  Her lungs burned. Her legs trembled.

  Eyes clenched, Molly fisted her hands in the sheets to hang on—and the release hit her. She cried out loud, sobbing with the power of it, her body on fire.

  Dare’s savage groan filled her ears. He stroked deep, stiffened, and she knew he was coming, too. He’d held on, waited for her.

  When he stilled, she literally collapsed flat on the bed. Dare landed over her and started to move, but she whispered, “Please. Not yet.”

  She could still feel him inside her, not as big now, but she didn’t want to lose the sensation yet.

  “Just for a minute,” he whispered with a kiss to her ear, and he wrapped his arms around her, giving her his weight.

  It felt heavenly. It felt safe.

  It felt like love.

  MOLLY FELT THE HANDS on her, pinching. Deliberately hurting. She couldn’t see beyond her fear, but she cursed them, English curses that she knew they might not understand but gave her strength all the same.

  One man reached for her breast and laughed at her panic. Instead, he struck her in the ribs. She lost her breath, gagging with the pain, falling to her knees, knowing they might kick her, knowing the ground held bugs and mud and worse. She struggled to stay upright, struggled, struggled…

  Jerking awake with a start, Molly cried out—and immediately Dare came into the room.

  “Hey. It’s okay.” The overhead light came on, blinding her. The bed dipped when he sat down beside her, when he pulled her into his arms.

  Her throat felt too tight for her to swallow, burning with the need to cry. She was crying. She felt the tears hot on her cheeks and shame beat at her.

  Angry at herself, at the bastards who’d done this to her, she tried to struggle away from Dare.

  He tightened his hold. “Don’t do that, Molly. I understand. I know. But don’t push me away.” He kissed her hair, closed those impossibly strong arms around her.

  “I hate them.” Her voice sounded high and broken, infuriating her more. Shaming her more.

  “I do, too.” Shifting, he pulled her onto his lap. “When I was younger, when I got that knife wound on my chest?”

  That got her attention, and she nodded to let him know she was listening.

  “I was so pissed off I was blind with it. Mostly at myself for not being able to stop it, but at the man who did it, too. It took me a few weeks to recover, especially after I got an infection.”

  Dare wore a shirt now, and she subtly tried to dry her eyes against the soft cotton.

  He caught the sheet and lifted a corner of it to her. “Do you need a tissue?”

  “No.” She sounded strangled, as if those awful hands were around her throat again, threatening to kill her. She buried her face against Dare. Ignoring the rasp of her voice, the weakness, she asked, “What were you doing when you got stabbed?”

  “This isn’t to be repeated.”

  She nodded.

  “A senator’s son was being held hostage. I was hired to go get him. Me, specifically, because no one knew me yet. I was brand-new, tested but not yet tried, if you know what I mean.”

  His hands moved over her back, up and down, not in any way sexual but still possessive.

  Molly gulped back a fresh wave of tears. “I don’t.”

  “I’d been trained. Everyone knew what I could do in live-action tests, but I hadn’t yet gone out in the field. This was my maiden run. And I almost fucked it up.”

  As the nightmare faded, she licked her dry lips. “But you didn’t?”

  “No, thank God. Not entirely. If I had, the kid would’ve died. Talk about nightmares…” He shook his head and squeezed her again. After a deep breath, he continued. “The boy, who was around twelve at the time, was being held in a compound in Arizona. The place was owned by a wealthy, supposedly law-abiding businessman. No one would have thought to look for the kid there. But I’ve always had good instincts, and I tracked him to that location.”

  “How?”

  “You can almost always gauge a person by their associations. If a man has enough ties with people of questionable character, then I label him questionable.”

  “Like my dad.”

  “Like your dad,” he agreed.

  Thinking about her father added to her angst. “How do you think you messed up?”

  “I got too emotional.” Disgust sounded in his tone. “Thoughts of that kid and how scared he had to be, wondering if he was hurt or even being hurt right then, riddled my discipline.” The muscles of his face tightened, and his voice lowered. “Even knowing better, I went in too soon.”

  Concern for Dare dispelled the leftover fear of the nightmare. She looked up and saw his beautiful face, the clean-cut jaw, the straight nose and deep blue eyes. “What did you do?”

  “I found the boy. They’d roughed him up some, deliberately terrified him, but he was being so damned mature, so strong… He didn’t cry.” Dare looked down at her, using his thumb to brush away a tear. “I would have understood if he had. His eyes were red, and his voice shook. I was so proud of him—just like I’m proud of you.”

  “You saved him?”

  “Yeah, I got him out of there, though not before I had to
tackle a guard.” His mouth quirked. “The son of a bitch blindsided me, and he was going to cut my throat. But that scrawny little kid jumped on his back, wrapping around him like a spider monkey. It slowed him down and gave me the advantage I needed.”

  She knew, but still she asked, “To do what?”

  Dare’s eyes darkened. “I pulled that fucking knife out of my chest and gutted the bastard with it.”

  Dear Lord. “You could do that?”

  “He didn’t hit my heart or a lung, so yeah. It hurt like hell, but it wasn’t a death blow.” He rubbed his ear. “The thing is, if the kid hadn’t acted when he did, we both would have died, and that’s inexcusable. It was a lesson about taking my time, studying everything before I make a move.” He went silent for a second, then he let out a breath. “It was a lesson, too, about my own ability.”

  “Because you got him and yourself out of there.”

  He discounted his own heroism. “God, I bled like a stuck pig. Twice I almost passed out. Luckily my guys were waiting outside the perimeter of the place, because I’m not sure I’d have gotten much farther before dropping.”

  Tucking her head against his shoulder, Molly hugged him. “I’m so glad you made it.”

  “Yeah.” He let her sit there for a while, not rushing her. “The thing is, that day plagued me for months. I couldn’t close my eyes without thinking about all the possibilities, all the what-ifs and what-could-have-been scenarios. It’s human nature to agonize over unsettling episodes.”

  “How did you finally get past it?”

  “Time. And closure.” He gave her a hug. “After I healed, I exposed everyone involved in that kidnapping, without putting the kid or his father out there for the media to pick apart. Knowing those bastards were punished helped me to put it behind me and move forward.”

  Would finding the one responsible for her abduction somehow rid the dregs of fear from her memory? God, she hoped so.

  Molly would have liked to linger in Dare’s embrace, but she knew they had to get moving. She tipped her head up to see Dare. “How long have you been awake?”

  “I didn’t go to sleep.”