Sam took her mouth in the same instant he slid into her with one powerful thrust, her nails biting into his hips. He didn’t know what he’d expected, but as he pushed into her, she came up to him and took him deep and moaned into his mouth. He was lost to everything but the feel of her.
Cradled between her thighs, she pulled her knees up, allowing him to plunge deeper. It was like diving into molten lava, she set him on fire. She rocked her hips, keeping pace with him. Her hands rubbed over his back, down to his hips where her nails dug in. She arched up to him. He made love to her with everything he had, hoping to erase every thought from her mind except her need for him.
He tried to keep the pace slow, but her hands were everywhere, driving him mad. Each time he thrust forward, he didn’t think he could get closer to her. She pushed toward him and proved him wrong. Her long legs wrapped around his waist and pulled him in deeper.
Quickening the pace with his face buried in her neck, he kissed her and thrust harder, slower, longer, faster. She tightened around him, he thrust hard and fast until she cried out his name and went rigid around him with wave upon wave of spasms. He rocked against her, but never pulled out, and she crested a second time. Her heavy sigh echoing in his ears, he finally let himself go and spilled himself deep inside her with a satisfied groan.
Their coming together had been the most perfect joining. Connected to her in a way he’d never experienced with any other woman scared him to death.
He’d emptied himself into her, yet he felt so full.
Exhausted, he’d set her whole body on fire and turned her to liquid gold. She loved the feel of him inside of her. His breath whooshed out in ragged pants at her neck. She stroked his back lazily, up and down, loving the feel of all those rigid muscles. Leaning on his arms, he tried not to crush her. Cradled between her legs, she slowly slid them down his thighs and calves, using her feet to rub his legs the whole way down.
“I can’t stop touching you, Sam. You feel so good against me.”
“Sam’s dead. A beautiful woman killed him. She seduced and ravaged him. It was the sweetest death.”
Giggling in his ear, she hugged him fiercely and said shyly, “I didn’t know it could be like that. I’ve never, you know. And now, I did three times.”
She’d never had an orgasm, and she’d only been with one guy. He couldn’t be this lucky to have such a beautiful woman, who was so giving, want him so much. Still smoothing her hands over him, his groin stirred even now, after they’d had the most amazing sex ever.
“You’re killing me all over again. You’ve never had an orgasm?”
“I’ve had three now. Thank you. That was wonderful. I didn’t realize I could be so free and want so much. You’re amazing.”
She really knew how to make a guy feel a hundred feet tall. The sincerity and warmth in her voice made it all the more sweet. Possessiveness, male pride, her honesty, all of it made him want to give her more pleasure. This was making love, not merely enjoying a bout of sex. Kissing his way from her neck to her cheek, he found her mouth, and began the journey to ecstasy all over again.
His flesh swelled inside her. She sent him to the brink when she whispered in his ear, “That’s the most amazing, unbelievably erotic feeling,” and pressed her hips to his.
“Sam, I need to get off my back. It’s starting to hurt.”
He couldn’t pull out of her, even if bombs were going off around them. He wanted her too much. Holding her hips with one hand, he lifted her, shifted over on the bed, and rolled with her, careful to go over her good thigh and leave the bandaged one over his hip. Landing on his back, he helped her get situated on top of him.
He held her hips and she found her rhythm and slowly drove him crazy. Head back, eyes closed, her body moving steadily with his, not a bit of self-conscious shyness or reservation in her movements. He ran his hands over both her breasts, sat up and took one hard nipple into his mouth. She wrapped her arms around his head and held him to her breasts while she rocked back and forth on top of him.
A fire burned inside both of them. Her body tightened around his and she rocked harder against him. Lying back on the bed, he caressed her with his hands and moved his hips to the rhythm of hers. He gripped her hips and used the pad of his thumb to gently rub the wet nub where they were joined. Her head fell back, and she crashed over the edge of sanity, her mouth partially open, a heavy sigh escaped her.
Beautiful and so carefree, her body locked tight around his. Unable to hold on any longer, when she rocked forward again, he thrust up deep inside her and let himself fall over the edge. She crashed down on top of his chest and lay there holding on to his shoulders. Her breath came out soft and warm against his throat. He wrapped his arms around her and held her, thinking he’d never let her go.
The shadows lengthened in the room until they filled every corner. Her hands in his hair massaged his head, hypnotic and so relaxing he thought he might fall asleep with her on top of him, and him inside of her.
Gently sliding out of her, he used his fingers to stroke the soft flesh he’d just left. She moaned with pleasure and he stroked her hot, wet center again and again.
He continued to touch and tease and coax her to make those wonderful sounds. He slipped two fingers inside, pulled out to stroke the soft flesh before he pressed his fingers back inside of her again. She continued to moan and whimper and call his name until he pulled out, stroked the soft nub with a circle and sweep of his finger. He pushed back into her, and she tightened around him, and dug her nails into his shoulders as the tightening spasms crescendo and subsided.
Her lips moved against his chest when she smiled. “You sure know how to play me like an instrument. I feel like spaghetti. I don’t think I can get off you. Ever.”
“You’re fine where you are.”
When she didn’t move, he gently rolled to his side and let her slide off him. He nuzzled her ear and laughed. She’d been exhausted from the shower that morning and hadn’t been able to get herself dressed. After making love and having multiple orgasms, he was surprised she wasn’t comatose. Limp beside him, a tremble rippled through her. It worried him he might have hurt her, or set back her recovery.
“Honey, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have been so rough with you.”
“You couldn’t have been more gentle or wonderful. I’m fine. You are a beautiful man, Sam. I can’t decide if I like looking at you or touching you more.”
“Stick with the touching.” He couldn’t help the cocky grin from turning up one side of his mouth. She made him feel so good.
She lay on her stomach with her arm on his chest, her eyes closed. Cherished, cared for, she felt loved. She never wanted to lose this feeling. “I wish you didn’t have such a dangerous job. Of course, then I wouldn’t have met you.” She didn’t know what she’d said, but his whole body went rigid and the fingers that had been softly rubbing the back of her hand stilled. “What’s the matter? What did I say?”
“You don’t like my job?” Here we go. They’d shared an amazing night, and now she’d tell him how she couldn’t live with the work he did.
“I think your job is fine. It’s just that since I’ve seen firsthand what kind of danger you put yourself in, I wish you didn’t have to. I’d hate to see anything bad happen to you again. I know you love your job, and you’re good at it, great even, but your job is dangerous. I’m worried about what could happen to you.”
“So what you’re saying is you wouldn’t want to be stuck at home wondering where I am for days at a time, or what kind of danger I might be in.” That’s what she meant to say. She wouldn’t be happy with a man who spent days away on a case. She didn’t want to have to worry about him every time he went to work.
Frustration and something else filled his voice. Something he didn’t want her to hear, but there all the same.
“Well, as your fake fiancé, what kind of woman would I be if I didn’t worry about you?”
She gave him a pinch to let him know she
was joking with him. He didn’t bite though. She sighed. Time to explain and convince him she didn’t mind his job, which meant admitting the deep feelings she already had for him.
“I care about you, and I’d hope you’d expect nothing less.” He tried to get up, but she was faster. She moved her body on top of his and pinned him with a look, and he went limp beneath her, waiting. “I, on the other hand, won’t be waiting around for you to get your butt home. I have a business to run, charity work I do, social functions to attend, and a dozen other things that occupy my time. I don’t know what the other women in your life were like, but I have my own life. That isn’t about to change if we decide to have a relationship. I’m perfectly capable of being alone without beating you up because you went to work.”
“You say that now, but sometimes I’m undercover for days, even weeks. I’ll miss taking you out to dinner, or to some fancy party you have to attend. You’ll resent the fact I’m not here. Then you’ll resent my job, and what I do. We’ll argue about how important my work is to me, and you’ll say it’s too dangerous, and you can’t live with wondering if I’m dead or alive.”
“Well, I’m glad we’re getting this fight out of the way now. It will save us from having it in six months.” She waited for him to look at her. When he wouldn’t, she took his face in her hands and made him. “If that’s what you think will happen, you’re wrong.”
His eyes remained cold and steady. He didn’t believe her, so she tried again to convince him.
“How about the fact after we’ve been dating six months, you’ll be begging me not to make you attend another dinner party dressed in a tux? Or maybe you’ll decide that after you’ve been gone for three or four days, and we’ve made love all night and you wake up alone because I’ve gone to work at three in the morning I’m not giving you enough of my time, or putting you first, when we only have a little bit of time together. Maybe when all the bandages come off, you’ll decide you can’t stand the site of all these scars. Maybe . . .”
He stopped her words with the press of his mouth to hers. All worked up and disgruntled, trying to prove him wrong. Hell, maybe he was wrong. Maybe she could handle it. Right about one thing, the other women he’d dated didn’t have as full a life on their own as she did. He really wanted to make it work with her, like he’d never wanted to with anyone else. And maybe that made all the difference.
“You could have a thousand scars and I’d still think you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. I’ll wear a tux for you whenever you want if I get to take you out of whatever sexy dress you’re wearing. And why the hell would you go to work at three in the morning?”
“I run a bakery. I have to bake early in the morning for the breakfast crowd. I have people who do the early morning shift, but occasionally I have to cover for them. The point is, you might be gone for several days, and when you get back, you’ll find I’m busy. That could be a problem for you, since our schedules will be unpredictable. I want you to understand I get it, and I have my own life. I’m sure you don’t expect me to sit around waiting for you to come home.”
She kissed him again and laid her head down on his chest. Exhausted after a long and stressful day, she let out a huge yawn to prove it. “I started this conversation because I wanted you to know I care about you, and I don’t take our sleeping together lightly. If you don’t want to be my fake fiancé and only want a casual bed partner, you have the wrong girl. I think we could have something amazing. But I don’t want you thinking every time you go on an assignment. I’ll be angry with you when you get back. Your job is a part of who you are. It’s part of what I love about you, your commitment and your devotion to your family and your work.” She yawned again and closed her eyes.
Did she say she loved him?
He didn’t hear her right. Tired and not thinking straight after a long and difficult day, she only meant she cared for him and admired his committed to his family and job. Right?
Concentrate on the fact she wants a relationship, not a casual affair. She wanted to be with him, committed with him.
“I want you all to myself. I’m a possessive man when it comes to you. If you think you can handle my work and the long hours and days I’m gone, I’d like to see if there’s something special between us.”
She mumbled her agreement, sound asleep on his chest seconds later. Her head lay over his heart, and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling the covers over them. He kissed the top of her head and settled into the bed, the moment, the happiness building inside of him, and slept.
Chapter Thirty-One
* * *
Two weeks later . . .
Thursday, 6:07 P.M.
“SAM, YOU BETTER come down. Tyler will be here any minute. You need to get ready to go.” He’d been up on the roof talking on his cell phone for almost an hour. Elizabeth had dinner ready and Tyler would be at the house by six thirty.
Tyler tried, unsuccessfully, to find the man she’d identified more than two weeks ago. While Tyler discovered a lot of public information on the company owned by the Silver Fox, he’d had a difficult time wading through the overload of shell companies and dummy corporations to find any personal records that led them to the man. The Fox had gone into hiding, and they couldn’t locate him.
Sam had the sketch of the person they suspected, but only Tyler and the other two agents assigned to watch her and Sam from a distance knew who the man is and had an actual photo of him. She didn’t know why Tyler felt it necessary to keep the photo from Sam, but he thought it better to have Sam watching out for any kind of threat, rather than focused on a single person. They assumed, since the middleman had been murdered, only the killer remained to be apprehended. If they didn’t catch him, he’d get away with all those murders and trying to kill her and Sam. Elizabeth was the only person standing between the Fox’s freedom and life in prison.
“Sweetheart, you don’t have to yell.” Sam came down the steps from the roof.
She stood in the doorway of her bedroom, and God, she got more beautiful every day. She didn’t have to use the crutches anymore. Her long legs and hips were outlined nicely by her tight blue jeans. The low-cut red shirt she wore shaped her breasts nicely and gave him a glimpse of their swell above the fabric. Her hair was tied up into some kind of knot on the back of her head. Wisps of dark chocolate hair escaped around her face. She had diamonds in her ears. He wanted to run his tongue over the ridge of her earlobe and nibble his way down to her breasts.
As he walked toward her, she put her hand up to stop him. “I know that look, Sam. Didn’t you get enough last night?”
“As if that will ever happen.” They’d gotten into a regular routine over the last two weeks. He took her to work every morning and stayed with her. He tried his best to keep her out of the café and the crowd in the dining area. He wouldn’t allow her to work all day, so she’d bring home whatever paperwork she needed to do and bake at home while he watched TV or worked over the phone and computer with Tyler. Every night they slept together in her bed and made love, usually more than once. She couldn’t get enough of him and the feeling was mutual.
“You’re like a drug. Every time I see you, I want more and more. Come here, sweetheart. Stop backing up.”
“Tyler will be here in a few minutes. We don’t have time for this.” Her laughter belied her words. She enjoyed this just as much as he did, so he continued to stalk her across the room.
“I love a challenge.” He gave her a wicked smile and made a grab for her before she escaped his reach and pulled her to him.
Capturing her mouth, he distracted her and backed her up to the bed. When her legs hit the edge, he gently laid her back onto the mattress and trailed kisses down her neck and over the swell of her breasts. She put up a token resistance, until he took her straining nipple into his mouth, suckling hard. Her shirt long gone, he continued kissing down her stomach to where he undid her jeans. Hungry for her, he worked them and her panties over her hips and down her silky
legs. Thankfully she wasn’t wearing shoes, so they slid right off. He rose above her and kissed her mouth again. His wandering fingers trailed up her thigh to her wet, hot center. Moving his fingers over and into her until she writhed on the bed, he trailed kisses down her middle and replaced his finger with his tongue. He possessed her with his mouth and held her hips in his hands, kneeling beside the bed. Moaning and calling his name, she pleaded with him not to stop when her hips pushed toward him, and a wave of spasms wracked her body.
Still recovering, he undid his jeans and pushed into her with one hard thrust and took her mouth in a deep kiss. He took her fast and hard, and she pulled his hair and screamed his name when they came together. He dropped on top of her completely spent. The doorbell rang.
“You better get that, sweetheart. Tyler’s here.” He hovered over her with a cocky, self-satisfied smile sure to rile her.
“You did that on purpose.” She smacked him on the shoulder, and laughed straight from her gut. “I must look like a mess.”
“You’re gorgeous.” He kissed her softly. All playing aside, sometimes she took his breath away. Especially when her cheeks flushed and her eyes went dreamy after they made love.
He stood, pulled up his jeans, leaving them unzipped. He stared down at her lying on the bed. She was about to get up, but he laid a hand on her stomach and used a finger to trace the long scar running across her middle. He would never forget how she’d gotten that scar and the others. Every time he looked at them, he remembered she wasn’t safe, yet. He leaned over and kissed the scar, his mouth soft against her skin.
Without a word about her injuries, he helped her up. “Hurry up. I’ve got to get cleaned up before I go.”
He always did that, ran a finger over one of her scars and looked forlorn. She hoped one day he’d look at her and not see them anymore. She wiggled into her clothes and Sam tore his off. His fine ass and the rest of his gloriously naked body disappeared into the adjoining bathroom.
Lucky Like Us Page 22