by Lora Leigh
"Oh God. Kell. Kell." Her head was swimming as his lips placed light, sucking kisses around her clit, over it, then down, drawing the swollen folds of her pussy between his lips and kissing them with heated fervor.
Lightning crashed inside her body, her mind. Brilliant pinpoints of light clashed and exploded behind her closed eyelids as she began to shake.
"Kell—so good. So good."
He licked again, painting the entrance to the tormented channel with heated licks and fiery sensation. Dazed pleasure filled her, the world narrowed itself to nothing but Kell's touch, to his mouth, his tongue. To the incredible sensations racing through her with a speed that had her gasping for breath.
She was racing toward something. Something she had only read about, only dreamed about. Something she had never believed she would experience.
Panting for breath, she tried to move her hips against his tongue, tried to reach the pinnacle of pleasure she could feel waiting for her. But Kell's hands were firm now, demanding. They gripped her hips and held her in place, restraining her above him as he drove her rapidly insane with each kiss, each lick.
One hand clenched in his hair, the other in the back cushion of the couch, as she titled her head back, forcing her eyes open. He chose that moment to press his tongue inside her.
One hard thrust, a rapid lick and another thrust, and Emily was screaming. It was too much. Flames tore through her body as she felt something tear free in her soul. Sensation and emotion wrapped around her, strung her tight, then shot her rapidly through an ecstasy so intense, so violent, that every muscle in her body began to tremble in response.
It was so good. Too good. It brought tears to her eyes as her wailing cries echoed around her. And he didn't stop. He licked and groaned against her flesh, continuing to consume the soft flow of her release as she wilted over him, too weak, too confused by the dazed pleasure, to hold herself up any longer.
"There, sweet sugar," he crooned as he lifted her, supporting her weight as he rose, letting her slide down his chest as his arms wrapped around her.
Emily whimpered as she found herself lying back on the couch, Kell rising between her thighs as he ripped the remainder of her pants from her body.
"I'll buy you more," he promised as he tossed the scraps of material to the floor. "I need to see you. Naked and wild beneath me."
His hands gripped the edge of her shirt, pulling it quickly from her body and sending it the way of the torn capris as he stared down at her fiercely. His gaze seared her as his large, warm hands settled at her stomach, then smoothed up to the swollen mounds of her lace-covered breasts.
Disposing of her bra took only seconds. A flick of his fingers at the front clasp and he peeled it from the swollen, sensitive mounds with a growl of pleasure.
Callused fingers cupped the curves, weighed them, tormented them as his thumbs rasped over the painfully hard nipples.
Catching her breath was impossible. Emily had never felt such pleasure, had never known such intensity of sensation. It spasmed through her womb, exploded in her bloodstream, and left her helpless beneath the driving ache that invaded her system.
A grimace of hunger creased Kell's expression. His green eyes were dark, emerald fire blazing in the depths as he gazed at her.
"So damned pretty," he snarled.
He pushed his jeans lower on his hips, one hand gripping the shaft of his cock as he began to lower himself to her.
She couldn't protest. She knew she should protest. She knew she should be screaming out at him to stop, to think, but it was so good. So hot and desperate and filled with the sound of "Hells Bells."
They both froze.
Emily's gaze jerked to the cell phone still hanging at the band of his jeans as a curse ripped past his lips.
"Hells Bells" echoed around them again as he jerked it from the holder and flipped it open.
"Senator. How can I help you?"
Emily stared back at Kell with a sense of horror. Her gaze went from the hard stalk of his erection poised only inches from her flesh then snapped back to his gaze. There was mocking amusement there, and wry acceptance.
She began to pull herself back together, sitting up on the couch as she fumbled for the shirt on the floor and then jerked it over her head.
She felt adrift. As though something had torn her from an unconscious tether and now she was fighting to recover her balance. Dragging herself from the couch, she pushed her fingers restlessly through her hair and watched him as he spoke to her father.
His voice was quiet, not so much as hint of his earlier passion shading it, as he rose from the couch, fixed his jeans, and discussed a party she was required to attend the next day.
She had no desire to attend another of the political functions her father had arranged and she especially had no desire to attend the party with Kell.
Not now. Not while her body was flushed and burning with need and he was talking to her father with a steady cool voice as he turned his back on her.
She shot him a glare as he moved across the room, picked his shirt up from the floor, and pulled it back on without a single interruption in his conversation.
He was too tall. Too broad. And his touch was too knowing. As though instinctively he had known her weakness, her need to explore and to touch. To be touched.
Her hands still tingled from that need. Her body burned for it. And she had no idea how to fight it.
She had known sexual desire in the past. Moments when she had considered throwing caution to the winds for a particular touch, but she had always managed to maintain her control and walk away. She hadn't maintained control this time. She hadn't been walking away, she had been gasping, begging for more. If it hadn't been for her father's ill-timed call, then she would be moaning beneath Kell's possession now.
She bit her lip, glancing over at him beneath her lashes as he leaned against the counter and talked, his tone a low, rough rumble as his gaze tracked her every move.
Suddenly, she felt more restrained than ever. The walls were closing in on her, the air became too close, suffocating, filled with the scent of sex and her own regret.
Shaking her head fiercely at the thought, she turned and stalked back to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her in frustration before heading for the shower.
A cold shower.
She had to find her control. Somehow, it had been stripped away from her one slow touch at a time, one erotic discovery after another. And she had no idea how to recapture it. Or how to save her heart.
Because she knew Kell Kreiger was stealing it. Stealing her heart and endangering her soul with each kiss, each touch. Letting him go would break her. And keeping him wasn't an option.
Her father dreamed of such a match. And it was her greatest nightmare. A man who could imprison her with his love, with his fears for her. Who would sap all the dreams that filled her and leave her with nothing but regret.
Was that how it had happened with her mother? she wondered as she stepped into the shower. Had her father hemmed her in so tightly that nothing mattered but escape? Had she regretted it when she lay in the hospital dying from the injuries of her crash? Had she known? Had she regretted? Had she thought of the husband and child she was leaving behind and the horror her choice would bring to them?
Emily had sworn years ago that she wouldn't let that happen to her. She wouldn't be weak. She wouldn't marry a man determined to control her. She wouldn't give in to loving a strong man until she could learn how to stand firm against her father's demands.
If a woman couldn't stand up to her father, then how could she have any hope of standing up to a lover or a husband?
And would a woman ever have a chance of standing up against Lieutenant Kell Kreiger? She had a feeling he would be the ultimate mountain to climb, as well as the most dangerous. The most challenging. And certainly the most tempting.
She was going to have to be very careful. He was becoming a weakness, and right now, Emily knew she couldn't afford this particular weaknes
s.
Chapter Nine
Kell disconnected the call with the senator and stared broodingly at the cell phone in his hand for long seconds. He had to give the man credit. His timing sucked. One more minute and the call would have been ignored for the sheer pleasure he would have found giving Emily her first passionate ride.
Or the sheer insanity of blowing his own head off. It was only after hearing the phone sing out its distinctive song that he had realized he hadn't sheathed his raging hard-on in a condom.
Dumb. Stupid. And here he had assured her that he knew how to protect himself, if not her.
But it was also the most pleasure he swore he had ever known.
He should have been shaking in his boots at the thought of taking a virgin. Especially a virgin whose father was actively seeking a particular brand of husband for her. A virgin who eroded his common sense and self-preservation. The one who had been tempting his dreams for too many years. He should have felt the noose tightening around his neck the minute those hot lips of hers touched his flesh.
But there was something right about her touch. Something that called to him despite his misgivings. And he had a lot of misgivings, her father being one of his chief concerns.
Shaking his head, he flipped the phone open again, hit Reno's speed dial and waited.
"I have five minutes," Reno said quietly. "The senator has a meeting on the Hill and we're escorting him."
"Keeping you busy, is he?" Kell smirked.
"Watch it, Lieutenant, I could have Macey trade places with you and let you play the senator's aide."
Not in this lifetime. "No, thank you, Commander. I'll get right to the point. This party we're attending day after tomorrow. The senator didn't mention Ian. I want him in place. If our mole is government and close enough to the Stantons to be worried about the senator's investigation, then we could be walking into trouble."
Reno was silent for long moments. "You'll be followed by the Secret Service. I've gone over the agents' files, they're good men."
"My gut is rocking here, Reno. I need Ian in place."
He could feel that vague sense of danger moving in. It had begun to build the minute the senator began talking about the political party Emily was required to attend.
"You'll have him." Reno made the decision quickly. 'Your dress blues will be waiting when you arrive at the senator's town house tomorrow afternoon. I'll arrange for Ian to have clearance on the flight in. We'll leave one of the Secret Service agents in the condo Ian's using to keep an eye on Miss Stanton's home while you're gone."
Kell nodded at the shift in personnel. "We should arrive in D.C. by late afternoon according to the senator's itinerary."
"Clint will be waiting at the town house with the security layout of the mansion the party's being held at and the route he's laying in for the drive there."
"Will you and Macey be in position?"
"Only as long as the senator is at the party," Reno answered. "On another note, watch your ass. The senator is a little too pleased by something going on out there. If you're playing tango with the senator's daughter then he could make a very bad enemy when things go sour."
"Any idea what he suspects?"
"None, but he got a phone call last night and the man's smile was positively smug. When he finished, he pulled up your file and spent quite a few hours going through it. So watch your six, my friend."
There could be few things worse than a former SEAL plotting another SEAL's downfall by way of a wedding band. What concerned Kell was who would have called to assure the senator it was happening. Only one person had seen them together, seen them touching, and his investigation into her background had revealed nothing but a spoiled, bored little rich girl. Evidently the little rich girl was more than she allowed others to see.
"I'll keep my eyes open—"
"And your jeans zipped," Reno reminded him. "I know damned good and well what was going on after you saw that strip she did."
"It was a lap dance." Kell grimaced at the satisfaction in his own voice.
Reno snorted. "Make sure I get an invitation to the wedding. This would almost be worth watching."
"In your dreams," Kell growled. "I'm out of here now."
"Watch your six, my friend," Reno reminded him again. "I'll be waiting when you show up in D.C."
Kell disconnected the phone, his gaze lifting as Emily stepped out of the bedroom. Her hair was still damp, her face still free of makeup, and rather than another pair of capris, she was wearing jeans, a T-shirt tucked into the low band, and a wide belt cinched tightly around her hips.
Her expression was mutinous, her body language assuring him he had offended her in the worst possible way. He was good at reading that particular message, he was just never real good at figuring out how he had managed to effect it.
"Father should cancel that party," she announced as she stalked to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. "It's a waste of time. An excuse for a bunch of highbrows to get dressed up and stand around drinking someone else's champagne."
"A thank-you for the political contributions and advice for the election that put your father in office," Kell finished for her. "You're his hostess. You've done the parties up until now, no one else can fill your place at this point."
She didn't need him to tell her that. Emily could feel the frustration raging through her body, the irritability that stemmed from the unquenched desires racing through her, the fear of the step she had nearly taken.
"Has he arranged my flight into D.C.?" she finally asked. "I hope he told you, because he certainly didn't tell me."
There was a big broad set of shoulders in the house, so her father didn't bother to apprise her of any of the plans. Typical. Infuriating.
"We'll leave in the morning for the naval base. We'll be catching a Navy helicopter bound for Annapolis. Your father's car will pick us up there, and drive us into the capital to his town house."
"Then to the Dunmore Mansion the night of the party," she finished for him. "I know how it works."
The Dunmores were political allies of her father's, and very influential within his political circle.
"Then you know you can't get out of it." He shrugged, his gaze moving over her again, pausing at her breasts, her thighs. "Why did you get dressed?"
Emily froze. She hadn't expected him to be nearly so blunt regarding her lack of complete sanity earlier.
"Because I thought it best to accept my near escape while I had the chance."
His eyes darkened with amusement as his lips quirked. Powerful arms crossed over his chest as he watched her intently, refusing to let her ignore the lust that filled his expression.
" 'Near escape.' That's an interesting way of putting it."
"You weren't even wearing a condom," she ground out.
"I wasn't wearing one when I had my cock buried to your throat either," he reminded her. "That didn't stop you."
His response only fanned the flames of the anger brimming inside her. He was working her. Controlling her. She could feel it, just as she always felt her father doing it.
"That won't get me pregnant either. What are you trying to do, Kell? Get into Daddy's good graces by knocking me up and giving him the son-in-law he wants? Have you decided the Stanton money and power might be enough incentive?"
"I don't need your daddy's money, sweet pea," he said with a smirk. The self-satisfied smile shouldn't have made her heart race faster and it sure as hell shouldn't make her remember what his kiss felt like. "And knocking you up isn't exactly my game plan. Getting you hot and wet and full of me is all that matters at this point."
She nearly gaped at him. Blinked.
"You dog!"
His eyes gleamed back at her, filled with laughter and lust as he lazily scratched his cheek.
"I'm not a dog," he assured her. "I promise, not just any woman will do, Emily Paige. I've decided I'm gonna get in your pants before this mission is over. And I'm going to make damned sure I get in there h
ard enough and deep enough that you never forget I was there."
Emily gasped. "You're crazy."
"It's not the first time I've heard that accusation," he assured her, his expression supremely confident.
She had to fight to keep from curling her fingers into a fist. To keep her foot on the floor instead of slamming it into his shin.
"You are a pain in the ass!" she snapped.
"Not yet." He winked. "But give me time, sugar, and I'll get there. But while you're thinking about it, see if you can't get your little bag packed for our trip tomorrow. And
remember to pack light, those Navy helicopters we're hitching a ride on don't always have a lot of spare room."