Strange Tango

by Michelle Dayton

  If she’d wanted to, she could have put her poker face up and said a cheery “Goodbye then!” And he’d never know how close she was to either crying or punching him. So—she didn’t. She didn’t say anything at all, but she let her face and her eyes do the talking.

  He rose immediately and took a half step toward her. “What’s wrong? Why are you sad?”

  “I’m not sad,” she snapped. “I’m disappointed.”

  The pissy tone took him back a step. “Why are you disappointed?”

  Oh please. She let her eyes wander over his legs, his mid-section, his chest, his mouth. When she finally got to his eyes, she was pleased to see them dilated. “Why do you think?” she bit out.

  His nostrils flared. “I’m no good for you, Blondie.”

  “Thank you for that shocking announcement,” she said, sarcasm coloring her voice so heavily it almost didn’t sound like hers.

  She stalked over to the windows and turned her back to him. The surrounding hotels glittered in the morning sun. “For the record, I’m not looking for someone to be good with.” Under her breath—but still loud enough for him to hear—she said, “I was actually hoping to be rather bad.”

  Then, louder, “I’m very clear on what we are and what we are not, Adam. We’re two people in a weird moment in our lives. There’s no future.”

  She took a deep breath, dove into the humiliation. “But you simply walk in the room, and I get hot and wet. That’s never happened to me before.” She was grateful her voice didn’t shake. Why was she opening herself up like this? Risking rejection and humiliation? So not her. Especially not for what could only be a one-night stand.

  But she couldn’t ignore the lingering closeness they’d discovered together the night before. Any woman would want him for his plain-as-day sexiness and charisma—and she was far from immune to that. But it was the way he looked so sick on her behalf when she talked about her dad. It was the fact that he truly only stole from people who deserved it.

  He stared at her, open-mouthed, and she quickly cut off the thoughts that were probably painting tenderness all over her face. She lifted her chin. Might as well finish her angry little speech. “So forgive me if I’m disappointed in how last night ended. And for being disappointed that we don’t have another night here together to behave badly.”

  He was so quiet she didn’t hear him walk across the room to her. Actually, he was there a millisecond after she finished talking, so he must have almost ran.

  “Interesting thing about Vegas,” he said, his voice rough and guttural. He yanked the thick brocade drapes closed, and the room went entirely black. “It’s always night.”

  Chapter Ten

  Standing in the dark, heart racing, Adam forced himself to count to ten. One last chance to change her mind. But then he felt her tentative hands, reaching out blindly to him. Thank Christ.

  He pulled her to him, rested her hands against his chest. The room was quiet except for the ragged sounds of their breathing. He lowered his face to her neck, breathed in her scent. She smelled like lilacs and vanilla.

  “Once I kiss you,” he said, licking the side of her throat. “I won’t be able to stop. So when you think back to this day, remember that I tried to be noble.”

  She slid her hands up his chest and around his shoulders, laced her fingers behind his neck. Standing on her tiptoes in her robe, she responded with one of her rumble-purr laughs. “We’re about to be naked together and what you want me to remember is that you tried to be noble?”

  She never stopped busting his balls. It made him even harder, and he wouldn’t have thought such a thing was possible. But when she put it that way... “Actually, no,” he admitted. “Maybe this instead?”

  He finally, finally, kissed her.

  It started as a mere brushing of lips, but they’d both been waiting too long and imagining too much for it to stay that way. With a tiny, eager gasp, Jess opened her mouth to him and he went wild. He kissed her again and again—hard and demanding kisses that molded her lips to his. Desperate to taste, he tangled his tongue with hers until she was panting, her fingernails digging into his neck.

  He was burning up. He broke away from her, absolutely loving her whimper of protest, just long enough to whip his sweatshirt and t-shirt off. Then he found her mouth again, kissed her even harder and deeper than before. He felt her hands exploring his bare torso, groaned against her open mouth.

  This time it was Jess who broke the kiss. “It’s too dark in here,” she whispered, running her hands over the muscles of his chest. “I want to see you.”

  “Next time.” He was much too far gone to be stumbling around looking for light switches. He was desperate to see her too, but he was going to learn her by touch—and taste—first. He brought her face back to his for another long, wet kiss. Her skin was on fire and she trembled under his hands. Time to get rid of that damn robe. With one quick tug he released the tie, and then he used both hands to push it off her shoulders. It fell to the floor.

  He didn’t know what to touch first. His hands were shaking like a teenager’s, for God’s sake. She reached for him, put her arms around his neck, and pressed her bare breasts to his chest. Fuck. They needed to get to the bed before he just gave up and dragged her down to the floor. He rubbed his hands down the warm, smooth muscles of her back, bit her bottom lip as he gripped her ass with both hands.

  “Hold on to me,” he commanded. Then he lifted her up until her hips were above his. She giggled, a sound of pure surprise and delight. She straddled him in mid-air, wrapping her legs around his waist. He could feel her wetness against his stomach, her long hair tenting around him. He raised his face and her mouth found his again. She thrust her tongue between his lips and he shuddered.

  Hoping his sense of direction was sound, he walked five steps forward, grateful when his knees finally hit the edge of the bed. Carefully, he bent forward and she clung to him until her back hit the mattress.

  The bed was closer to the bathroom. The light was on in there, and even though the door was closed, the crack at the bottom cast a tiny sliver of light into the room. Enough so that he could see her a little now. Dark hair fanned out against the white comforter, long legs bent at the knees with her heels on the edge of the bed, small but perfectly round breasts.

  Best of all, she watched him with those huge, black-fringed chocolate eyes. He couldn’t wait to see what her eyes looked like when she came. He got rid of his jeans in two seconds flat, only pausing to grab a condom from his wallet.

  She could see him now too, he realized, as her gaze swept over his abdomen, lingered on his arousal, and back up to his face. “Wow.” She exhaled. “Just...wow.”

  His dick twitched, no doubt pleased at her blatant admiration. Ignoring it, Adam knelt on the carpet. He ran his hands over her gorgeous thighs, stroking the soft inner skin with both thumbs. “I’ve been meaning to tell you...you have the absolute best legs I’ve ever seen. I’ve been wanting to do this since the first night we met.” He pressed his lips to her left calf muscle, then her right. Moved his face up her leg to lick behind both knees.

  She arched her back into the mattress, and every muscle in both legs tensed. Yes. He kissed up her leg until his tongue was stroking her inner thighs. She raised herself on her elbows and stared at him, her breasts bouncing from deep, shaky breaths. “That’s right, baby,” he said. “Watch me taste you.” And then he nuzzled his face between her thighs and licked her core, swiveling his tongue until she cried out.

  So, so good. She tasted warm and creamy and like vanilla and he would have spent all damn day down there if she hadn’t said, “Get up here. Now.”

  He kept licking and swirling, intending to give her a hell of an orgasm first, but she pulled his hair and moaned, “I’m going to come so hard, Adam, and I want to do it with you inside me.”

  And.
..a man only had much self-control. He’d been wanting inside her since the first moment he saw her. He climbed up her body, stopping to suck on each rosy nipple, because he just couldn’t help himself. “Please, please, now,” she begged.

  He reached between their bodies to position himself, rubbing his thumb over her clit while it was down there. “You’re making me crazy,” she gasped.

  Adam couldn’t help but chuckle. “Serves you right. You’ve driven me crazy for the last month.”

  He thrust inside her then and the laughter died in his throat. Holy fucking hell. So tight, so wet, so, so... “Jess,” he groaned. “God, Jess.” He’d never felt anything like her before. He eased in deeper, until he was buried to the hilt. He went stock-still, deep within her, practically going into shock. He’d never realized a woman could feel so...absolutely...

  “Perfect,” she whispered, meeting his eyes, which he knew were wide with astonishment. She blinked and began to move her hips. “God, you feel...perfect.”

  He withdrew, almost all the way out. He had to have imagined it, right? Nothing could feel as good as that first plunge did. But then he thrust in again—and almost passed out from the sheer burst of sensation. It was even better.

  “Harder, please, harder,” she said, spreading herself open to him and wrapping her legs around his hips. He felt her heels on his ass.

  He plunged again and again, his vision beginning to blur at the edges. In fact, the entire world just vanished at the edges. Aside from the dark-haired, dark-eyed woman writhing beneath him, nothing else existed. Maybe he’d never existed either, before her. That’s what it felt like in this moment—that nothing prior to her mattered and nothing else but her would ever matter again.

  Adam felt her inner muscles start to clench, making her even tighter around him. “I’m coming,” she moaned. “Oh. Adam. Adam.”

  Yes. He let go of any final restraint, pounding into her over and over until he gave an actual fucking roar of pleasure and emptied himself into her.

  * * *

  She must have dozed for a few minutes, because when she came back to herself, Adam was walking back to the bed from the bathroom. He’d left the door fully open, so the bedroom was much brighter.

  She closed her eyes, not quite ready to face him after...whatever the hell just happened.

  The sex was phenomenal. Incendiary. It had blown away her expectations, which had been pretty high to begin with. She’d known it would be good, but she hadn’t known there would be such intensity to it. The way he stared at her while he pulsed within...the way she’d needed to scream his name...well, it was just so far past any of her previous experiences that she felt a little uneasy.

  Well, clarification. Her mind felt uneasy. Her body wanted to dance on top of the bed and then fling itself on Adam for another round. The things she wanted to do with him... Great, now she was blushing.

  The mattress dipped as Adam lay next to her. She wondered if he felt as undone as she did, if he would find some excuse to leave. To her surprise, she felt his fingers stroke her face. Lightly, they traced her lips and cheeks.

  She opened her eyes and he brushed the back sides of his fingers over the edges of her eyelashes. “I’m a little obsessed with these,” he said matter-of-factly.

  That was unexpected. It made her giggle. “My eyelashes? You’re a strange man.”

  He grinned down at her, and the crinkles at the corner of those vivid blue eyes took her breath away. “Yes, but a strange man who just made you come. Screaming, I might add.”

  “Maybe that’s what happens after a month of verbal foreplay?” she wondered.

  He cocked his head to one side, considering. “Could be. Or maybe it’s just crazy chemistry.”

  He jumped out of the bed, headed to the bathroom. She heard the click of a door, and Jess’s spirits took another downward turn. Was he just going to hop in the shower and then go? She couldn’t be disappointed now, she told herself. He’d given her the ride of her life. He was under no obligation to stay.

  But before she could blink, he was back in the bed. Naked and warm and pulling her against him. She blinked in confusion, looked behind him to the hallway. “What were you doing?”

  “Putting the Do Not Disturb on the door, obviously,” he teased, lowering his head to kiss her throat. “Your limo is coming to take you to the airport at nine,” he breathed, licking along the column of her neck. “It’s noon right now.” He nibbled on her earlobe, and Jess felt a rush of fresh moisture between her legs. “I think we should spend the rest of the day devoting ourselves to the mystery of exactly why the sex between us is so fucking fantastic.”

  With one last tug, he propped himself on one elbow and looked down at her. “What do you think?”

  She wasn’t quite sure what she thought, but she knew how she felt. Hot and giddy and so turned on she might come from his words alone.

  Taking him off-guard, she used her arms, hips, and legs to flip him on his back and climb on top. His pupils dilated so fast that his bright blue eyes turned dark in an instant.

  She reached behind her bottom and gripped him. He was unbelievably hard, considering their last bout ended just a few minutes ago. She rubbed herself against him, moaning, and he stared at her like she had the answers to all the questions in the universe.

  Frankly, at the moment, she felt like she did.

  “That may be,” she said, rocking her body over his, “the best idea I’ve ever heard.”

  Chapter Eleven

  The Cubs beat the Reds, six to one. Adam took his earbuds out and slowly climbed the stairs to the apartment where Henry, his usual hacker, lived. Henry refused to deliver his reports via phone or email, which drove Adam nuts. But he’d never found anyone as thorough or skilled, so he made the trek to Henry’s Uptown condo with a minimum of complaint.

  The last time he’d seen Henry was right before he surprised Jess at AJ Hudson’s. It seemed like a lifetime ago. Hell, anything before Vegas seemed like a lifetime ago. Probably because he couldn’t get that day with Jess out of his mind. Jesus, they’d been insatiable. He’d taken her again and again—on the bed, floor, in the shower. He’d never forget that day as long as he lived. He’d probably be daydreaming about it when he was ninety years old.

  He hadn’t wanted her to go. When the limo driver called to announce that he was on his way to take her to the airport, they’d clung to each other and kissed like it was the last kiss of their lives.

  Which it was. The last kiss between them anyway. The moment Jess walked out the hotel door, Adam knew he was dissolving their partnership. Further, he was going to be a coward about it. He wasn’t going to tell her it was over, he would just disappear. Jess was a smart girl; she’d know.

  Sure, he felt like a complete ass for pulling the disappearing act. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her. It made him sick to his stomach to think about her feeling betrayed. But he didn’t feel conflicted about his choice. To keep Jess involved in this game any longer was to put her in danger—of jail or worse. He’d already lost the most important person in his life because of his own idiocy and bad decision-making. He wasn’t losing her.

  If that meant he never saw her again, so be it. If that meant she hated him, he deserved it.

  Rounding the last flight of stairs, he shook his head. If only he could be sure that she’d stay out of it. But she was so goddamn stubborn and insistent on proving her innocence. And he’d made another mistake—he’d given her the recording of Knoll and Sedarno talking in the golf cart. Idiot. But he’d handed it over before they fell into bed together and after he was too dazed to even remember that she had it.

  He’d listened to the recording of Knoll and Sedarno so many times he had it memorized. It started with some chit chat about Sedarno’s wife, his tango-dancing mistress, some ongoing renovations to his vacation home in Lak
e Tahoe, the cost of Knoll’s divorce attorney, what Jess’s ass looked like as she bent over the tee. They didn’t start talking business until the eighth hole.

  “My couriers will be returning with your merchandise sometime in May,” Knoll said. “Once I consolidate, I’ll be ready for the hand-off. Where should I bring them? Tahoe?”

  “No, I’ll come to you.” Sedarno’s words, while innocuous, had sounded vaguely threatening. “I have to trust you to get the goods to Chicago, but I’ll be taking possession almost immediately thereafter.”

  “Fine!” Knoll managed to laugh heartily while still sounding scared. Adam always enjoyed the thread of fear in his voice. “Sweet home Chicago, it is.”

  It was May. The diamond-smuggling fake-exchange students would fly home any day now and sometime soon after, Knoll would collect the diamonds and Sedarno would arrive in the city to pick them up.

  He could act on this information because of his contact on Knoll’s staff. But Jess would be stuck. There wasn’t any way she could find out the actual logistics of the diamond transfer...could she? His stomach started to hurt. There’s only so much you can do. Just stay away from her.

  He knocked on Henry’s door. Rolled his eyes when Henry whispered, “Identify yourself,” as though he didn’t have security cameras tracking every visitor’s movements.

  “Thomas Paine.” When Henry opened the door, he handed over his wallet without comment, and let him do whatever paranoid bullshit made him feel better.

  “You said you had something on Knoll?” Adam had commissioned Henry to watch for anything unusual on Knoll’s accounts. Now that he was finally in his sights, he didn’t want Knoll fleeing the country or anything. Which would be the smartest course of action to escape Sedarno’s wrath if something fell through with the diamonds. Since things seemed to be progressing fine with his Ignatius University plan, he didn’t expect unusual activity from Knoll, but he hadn’t lived this long and successfully as a thief without a lot of double-checking.