by Tessa Bailey
“Hell, we hadn’t even gotten to the good part yet.”
She pulled her tote bag higher on her shoulder and increased her pace, tennis shoes kicking up dust in her effort to leave him behind. “I don’t expect we will, either.”
“That so?”
“Mmm-hmm. If I were a Magic 8 Ball, my answer would read ‘outlook not so good.’”
“Why don’t you let me shake you up a little? See if we can’t get a different answer.”
“My sources say no.”
Reed swallowed a laugh. Damn it, she was a feisty little thing. An image flashed through his mind of Julie astride him, hips undulating, head thrown back in ecstasy, and he groaned out loud. She sent him a wary look over her shoulder but didn’t stop. If he didn’t find a way to appeal to her, the vision would never become a reality. “I guess you don’t want to hear the challenge, then.”
Julie came to a halt and he nearly crashed into her back. “What now?”
He hid his smile. Underneath all that charm, he knew he’d sensed a competitor. Based on the contents of her bag, she’d nearly finished the damn hunt. Sure, his list was almost completed, too, but then he was a trained law officer. “How many items do you have left on your list?”
“One.”
“Same here.”
Her confidence slipped a little. “So?”
Reed shrugged. “Just thought you might care to make it interesting.”
“Next you’re going to taunt me. Say something like, ‘But if you’re not confident in your abilities, I understand.’”
“You said it, not me.”
She whispered something under her breath that sounded like hellfire, but he couldn’t be sure. Shifting on her feet, she considered him. “What are your terms, sourpuss?”
“Ladies first.”
Her arms crossed over her chest, enjoyment finally entering her eyes, and Reed barely resisted the urge to breathe a sigh of relief. “If I find my item first, you show up to dance rehearsals tomorrow evening in a tuxedo. Not one word of complaint while Francois teaches everyone the waltz.”
He winced a little. Couldn’t help it. “That’s his name? Francois?” When she merely raised an eyebrow, he sighed. “Deal.”
“What are your terms?”
Reed knew Julie wouldn’t like his idea, so he took a step closer in case she tried to storm off. To his surprise, she didn’t back down when he brought their bodies flush, ran a hand over her hip, and let it linger there. “I assume, as part of these pole dancing classes, you learn how to…dance? Without the pole, I mean.”
“I know what you mean,” Julie replied hastily, a flush moving up her neck. He wanted to follow it with his mouth. “There might be…some of that involved,” she said shakily.
“Good.” His hand slipped across her shoulder to massage the back of her neck in slow circles with his thumb. “If I win, you dance for me. In my room. All of your clothes come off.”
She swallowed audibly. “Won’t that lead to sex?”
“Only if you want it to.” He brushed his lips over hers. “You don’t have to second-guess what I want. I’d take you right here if you asked me to.”
A whimper slipped past her lips. “I agree to your terms.” When her hands went to his belt buckle, Reed’s stomach muscles clenched. Their gazes connected. “That said, I wouldn’t mind getting a little preview.”
Reed pushed himself into her hands. “Take me out, then, baby. I’m already hard from watching you prance around in that little pink skirt.”
She lowered his fly and pushed his jeans down over his hips. Her words whispered across his mouth. “You want to give it to me hard, Reed?”
“You’ve never had it as hard as I’m going to give it to you.” Brain sufficiently scrambled, he captured her mouth in a slippery kiss, nipping her bottom lip as he pulled back. “What changed your mind? The cleaning?”
Julie hooked her thumbs into his boxers and slipped them down his legs, then rose to trace the skin under his jaw with her damp, parted lips. “I love a man who cleans.” She pulled back a little, teased his mouth with a swift kiss. “But I was the Tri Delt scavenger hunt champion four years in a row. I never, ever lose.”
Before Reed could ascertain her intention, Julie took off running for the resort, leaving him there in the woods with his pants and boxer shorts tangled around his ankles. With a hard-on to beat the band. Torn between fury, unbelievable pain, and grudging admiration, he yanked his pants up and took off after her. “I’m going to make you pay for that one, pixie.”
“It was worth it,” she yelled back over her shoulder, at least one hundred yards ahead of him on the trail. The resort became visible in the distance and he picked up his pace. So did Julie. Her feet were a blur as she sprinted along the concrete. It became apparent to Reed in that moment that he’d seriously underestimated the pixie.
“What’s your last item on the list?”
“A bell.” She didn’t even have the decency to sound winded. “You?”
“A newspaper.” He laughed. “Face it baby, I’ve got you beat. No way do you find a bell first.”
“Oh, yeah? Watch me.”
“Get ready to dance.”
“A victory dance, you mean?” Julie glanced back at him, humor lighting her face. Then, as if she hadn’t surprised him enough today, she mocked him, throwing his own words back in his face. “What changed your mind, baby? The cleaning?”
“Oh, you are asking for it now.” Suddenly, she veered to the left and took the path leading toward the hotel lobby. He followed right behind her as she threw open the heavy wooden door and entered the lobby at a dead run. Customers watched curiously as they raced past the plush seating area, dodging luggage carts and stray suitcases as they headed for the check-in area. An older man stepped into Reed’s path, forcing him to slow as Julie reached the front desk first.
When he realized her plan, his booming laugh echoed across the lobby.
Chapter Eleven
Julie heaved the entire stack of newspapers onto the front desk and smiled at the dumbfounded attendant. “I’d like to buy all of them, please.”
The young man studied her for a second, as if looking for signs of mental illness, then shrugged. Julie felt Reed come up behind her just as he finished counting the newspapers. She pulled a twenty-dollar bill from her skirt pocket and laid it on the counter, giving the young man her best smile as she did so. To her left, Reed sighed loudly. She ignored him.
“You wouldn’t happen to have any more in the back, would you, sugar? I’m in a bit of a pinch, you see. I’ve organized a papier-mâché craft hour for the children attending the wedding. Would you believe I went and forgot to bring newspaper? The main ingredient. Sometimes I think I’d forget my feet if I didn’t need them to walk. How long have you been working here? If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say quite a while. You’ve got an air of confidence about you. Yes sir, you do. My Aunt Sylvie always said that a confident man writes his own ticket in this world. Would you mind checking on those newspapers, darlin’? Bless your heart.”
As the young man turned, looking more than a little thunderstruck, toward the back office, Reed leaned over and spoke quietly in her ear. She tried unsuccessfully to ignore the hot shiver that ran down her spine. Try as she might, nothing could stop him from affecting her. She’d wanted him on the mountain to a stunning degree, had barely managed to hold back. “You can try to prevent me from getting a newspaper, but what about your bell? You still need one to—”
Without batting an eyelash, Julie slipped the front desk bell into her tote bag. Ignoring Reed’s look of shocked reproach, she tucked a stack of newspapers under each arm and took off in the direction of Starbucks, where Kady was waiting to crown the winner. She glanced back to find Reed breaking into a jog after her and she couldn’t help but laugh. The look on his face suggested he hated losing just as much as she did. Deciding the newspapers were weighing her down, she set them on a high table and made a break for it. Even if he
picked up one of the papers and tried to catch her, Starbucks was so close that he’d never catch—
The optimistic thought died in its inception when two strong arms snagged her around the middle, catching her in mid-stride. Even if she hadn’t caught his oaky sent, the wide chest she was pulled back against would have told her it was Reed. Before Julie could protest, he pulled her from the lobby into an adjacent hallway, which led to a series of first-floor rooms. As the sounds of people and rolling luggage faded away, their labored breathing was the only sound that remained. He let her drop to her feet and pushed her against the wall. Suddenly, Julie felt basely desperate for him. Her body begged for his. Adrenaline, the remnants of their fight, the challenge he’d given her on the hunt, had heightened her already-colossal attraction to him. Yet even knowing that, she wanted him with a fierceness that made her moan and close her eyes when he fit their bodies together.
One calloused hand slid up the back of her bare thigh, disappearing beneath her skirt. When it reached her bottom, he palmed it roughly once, then boosted her higher to fit his erection between her legs. Julie’s head fell back against the wall on a gasp. “Any other day, I’d let you get away with that little stunt. Not today. Not when winning means a private striptease from the girl who’s been keeping my cock permanently hard. A striptease that ends in me fucking her into next week.”
Her breath shuddered out. “Y-you didn’t win either.”
In his left hand, Reed held up a single newspaper, then let it drop. “We’ll keep it between us.”
His hips flexed and Julie bit her lip hard. She could feel the flesh between her legs clench reflexively and go damp at the thought of Reed inside her. Nothing mattered at that moment, apart from the need. Not their differences or what would come afterward. Julie couldn’t see past playing out her hottest fantasy. Dancing for this man. Tempting him. Finally being seen as something other than efficient and pretty to look at. She’d never wanted anything quite so badly.
“Take me to your room.”
Reed kissed her once, long and hard, growling in his throat the whole time. Tangling her fingers in his hair, wanting to get lost in the kiss, she protested when he abruptly backed away, but he simply grabbed her hand and led her down the corridor, turning right at the end and stopping at the second door. Once inside, she expected him to kiss her, throw her on the bed, and finally slake the incessant hunger. Instead, he unbuttoned his shirt slowly, watching her closely like a predator, eyes heavy with arousal. In other words, no way was he letting her forget about their agreement or allowing them to become distracted. Good. Julie didn’t want to forget about it, but now that the moment had arrived, she didn’t know where to start. She worked in the liquor business. In the South, no less. A man’s world that she’d had to bust her behind to infiltrate. And despite what Reed thought, organizing a destination wedding was no walk in the park, either. This was just a simple dance. One she’d walked into with her eyes wide open.
Now or never, Julie.
Doing her best to look confident, she grabbed an armless desk chair, pulling it to the base of the bed. With a toss of her hair, she indicated for him to sit. Now shirtless, he dropped into the chair and stretched out his long legs in front of him without breaking eye contact. Hair tousled from pulling his undershirt over his head, tattoos and scars spreading across his muscled chest and abdomen, he looked criminally sexy, but the rapid pulse at his neck gave him away. He was just as affected as she was. That telltale sign shot her full of confidence, making her feel hot, desirable.
“Are you sure you want this?” Julie asked him. She pressed a button on the clock radio, stopping when she landed on a station playing what sounded like tribal music. At once, her pulse beat faster in time with the drums. Excitement swirled in her belly. “Once I start, I’m not going to stop until you can’t take anymore.”
Reed’s mouth parted in surprise, but he hid the reaction quickly. “I can more than handle a lap dance, baby. What I can’t handle is waiting. Get started.”
Julie’s lips spread into a slow smile as she sauntered forward, stopping between his outstretched legs. Supporting herself on his shoulders, she bent forward slowly to speak right next to his ear. “No touching.”
“I know the rules.”
“Maybe. Doesn’t mean you won’t try to break them.”
“Why are your clothes still on?”
She bit his earlobe and tugged. “So impatient.”
Reed hissed a breath. “If you only knew the things I want to do to you, pixie, you’d already be underneath me with your legs in the air, screaming loud enough to shatter glass.”
“All in good time,” she countered, straightening once more. One deep breath for courage and she started to move. She released her hair from its ponytail and shook it out, combing her fingers through it slowly in a way she knew made her breasts strain against her tank top. Anticipation laced with excitement made her nipples pebble. She watched Reed’s chest rise and fall faster as he noticed. Wanting to keep his eyes there, she ran her hands down slowly over the swells of her breasts, giving them a light squeeze that had him shifting in the chair.
“Let me see them. Let me see where I’ve been.”
Ducking her head and looking at him through her eyelashes, she let her hips begin to sway, drawing his attention away from her chest. Her hands smoothed down over her thighs, lingering at the vee between her legs, before sliding back up to the hem of her shirt. Inch by inch, she lifted it, revealing her naked breasts. She tossed the garment at Reed. He caught it in midair and threw it across the room without looking away from her once.
“Jesus. I only got to see them in the dark last night…your breasts were made for sucking on, Julie.” He leaned back in the chair, stroked his fly with the heel of his hand. “When I used my mouth on you, I could taste how much you wanted to have me between those breasts. Tasted sweet as fuck.”
His words startling a moan from her throat, Julie’s hands rose of their own accord to circle her thumbs around her nipples. She continued the smooth figure-eight motions of her hips, the combined movements causing fire to lick over her skin. Seeing Reed looking so incredibly turned on triggered answering sensations throughout her body. Flames that she needed him to extinguish. Just not yet. Not until the entire fantasy played out. Not until she drove him past his breaking point.
Placing her hands on his shoulders, she danced just close enough that the tips of her breasts swayed in front of his parted mouth with her every sensual movement. Reed’s guttural groan bathed her nipples in heat. Heat that shot straight to her core, making her muscles contract and release. Making her damp and achy. Reed’s hands rose as if to fondle her breasts, but she shook her head in reproach and moved away slightly as punishment.
“Know what I think, baby? You love making my cock hard. You’ve been living for it since that first night.” He leaned forward slightly, gaze riveted on her chest. “I’ve been living for it, too. I’ve been stroking myself off to the memory of how you looked at me on that patio. Like you were a little nervous and a lot turned on. Did you go back to your seat in the fancy restaurant and cross your legs tighter than before? Were you planning on going back to your room later that night and imagining the big bad man touching your pussy?”
“Yes.”
Yearning, dizzyingly potent, rocketed through Julie, so swift she feared her knees might buckle. She turned slowly, so he couldn’t see how much his uncensored speech affected her. Increasing the pace of her hips, she hooked her thumbs into the waistband of her skirt and tugged it down just enough that he could see the top of her silky teal-colored thong. The performance, her secret fantasy come to life, emboldened her. Made her want to shock him back. She flicked her hair over her shoulder and looked at him through hooded eyes. “If I had pleasured myself that night, Reed, you wouldn’t have been touching me with your hand. In my fantasy, you would have been deep, deep inside of me. Telling me what a bad thing I’d done.”
“What bad thing did you
do, baby?” His voice sounded raw.
“When you showed up at the party, I might have gone to the bathroom and…hiked my skirt up a little higher for you. I knew you’d be watching me.”
“Sweet fucking hell.”
Julie let her skirt drop, leaving her in nothing but the minuscule panties. Reed’s loud groan caused any lingering self-consciousness to fade as Julie arched her back, bent her knees and ground her hips as low as she could go toward the ground. He let out a string of curses as she rose gradually, dancing erotically to the pounding beat of the music.
“Come closer, baby. Need you closer. Now, pixie.”
The desire in his voice tore at her own, sending it clamoring through her system. She needed to be closer, to touch, just as badly as he needed it. Still facing away from him, she gripped his knees and lowered her bottom onto his lap, gasping at the hardness she encountered. She switched her hips from a circular motion to a gentle front-to-back tease that allowed her to ride his length base to tip. “You like that, sugar?” she whispered, barely audible among the bass-heavy music.
He released a strangled growl against her neck. “Enough teasing. Sit down all the way and work my cock with your beautiful ass. No more games.”
Julie closed her eyes and released a shaky breath. This had started as her seduction, but she was quickly being driven crazy by the man beneath her. Reed might not be touching her with his hands, but his body radiated heat, promise, need. In electrifying waves. And Julie was quickly going under.
“Like this?” She leaned back on his chest and draped her legs over his strong thighs. Dropping her head back onto his shoulder, she gave him a view down her body as she undulated on his lap, his erection wedged snugly against her bottom, pulsing, lengthening. Ever so slightly, his hips pumped in a rolling, upward motion, stealing her sanity.
“Call me sugar again.”
“Like this, sugar?”
“Yes, sexy girl. Just like that.” He bit into her shoulder, thrusting up hard at the same time. “Feel that? Feel what you did?”