Hidden Heat: Hauberk Protection, Book 4

by Leah Braemel

  The single word had her melting against the wall. This was a man who knew what he wanted, would give her what she needed.

  He stepped closer again, his lips recapturing her mouth while one hand undid Sandy’s skirt until all she wore were her heels and the skimpiest pair of panties she owned.

  His hand dipped beneath the fabric to part her folds. Sandy closed her eyes and concentrated on the sensations he aroused. Her cream coated his fingers as they slid over her clit and curled around the opening, dipping in to tease the tissues until her breath stuttered then skated away.

  She held on to his biceps as if she would fall down if she didn’t, and from the way her legs trembled, perhaps she would. Beneath her fingers, his muscles were hard, the contours well defined from more than hours in the gym. He knew just what to do to make her body melt around him. That he was still fully clothed and she was nearly naked added a delicious naughtiness to the equation that heightened the entire experience.

  He hooked his fingers in the side bands of her panties and drew them down her thighs, his body following their path until he knelt at her feet. With a single tap on her ankle, he signaled for her to lift first one foot then the other.

  As soon as she was free of any restrictions, he nudged her legs farther apart and leaned in to bury his nose in the thin strip of curls covering her mound. She threaded her fingers in his hair as he ran his tongue through her folds, his beard rasping the tender skin of her inner thighs. Her low moan filled the room as pleasure assailed her.

  “Tell me what you want, sunshine. Do you like this?” His fingers pressed deeper inside her then withdrew, coated with the musky scent of her arousal. “Yeah, look how wet you are. You do like this, don’t you?”

  “Yes.” Oh God, it was better than anything she’d ever fantasized. Even his accent had thickened to that sexy Irish lilt. Pure unadulterated lust leapt in her belly, sent another wave of cream from her pussy.

  When he sucked his fingers into his mouth, she couldn’t take her eyes off of his lips. Put them back on me. His lips curved, as if he knew what she was thinking.

  Anyone out in the hall could probably have heard her gasp when he speared two fingers into her sheath but she couldn’t stay quiet. Nor did she try. He must have kicked the door shut because a part of Sandy’s brain heard it click shut. Then her brain shut off too. The passion he ignited scorched every part of her body as his tongue and fingers branded her in places that had slumbered for years, if they’d ever awoken before. He drove her higher, harder until she was shaking and breathless, unable to stand up unassisted. “Do you like that?”

  “Yes.” At least that’s what she tried to say, but she could barely breathe.

  “What else do you like, sunshine?” His voice was rough, rippling through her body, commanding without being oppressive. Despite his questions, he continued to stroke her both inside and out. He worked with a sense of purpose, finding the right spots the way no one else had.

  “I like it hard. I like being stretched so full it hurts a little.” She rushed the last admission.

  A third finger joined the other two and he rasped his teeth over her clit, nipping and biting. “You’re too tight for any more.”

  “Then put your dick inside me.” She tilted her hips, pushing her pelvis into his face. She needed more. More teeth, more tongue, more fingers…more. “Please.”

  She almost cried when he slid one finger along her crease and circled her anus then thrust past the tight ring of muscles. Both passages filled by his fingers, her brain overloaded by the cascading sensations. She rocked against him, urging him on, until she found the sharp edge she craved. Her body clamped around him when he nipped at her clit, her orgasm exploding like an expanding ball of liquid fire.

  No breath left in her lungs, her head spinning, her legs weak, she slid down the wall.

  Before her butt hit the floor, Troy lifted her easily, carrying her to her bedroom. After stretching languidly over the quilt her mother had given her for her eighteenth birthday, Sandy reached up to touch his cheek. “Your turn.”

  A shadow flickered across his face as his gaze roamed down the length of her naked body. To her surprise, he shook his head. “Not tonight, sunshine.”

  Instead, he pressed a kiss to her forehead and headed to the bathroom. She heard water running, then the light flicked off. Yet he didn’t return. Instead she heard the front door open then shut. “Troy?”

  There was no answer.

  Unable to believe he’d walk away like that, Sandy lifted herself up on her elbows and stared at the empty doorway.

  What had just happened?

  Chapter Five

  A long, sleepless night later, Troy sat at his kitchen table and stared at the pre-dawn sky. What the hell had happened to the control he had over his life? Scott threatening to leave, Sandy asking him to stay. What should he be bracing himself for next?

  Scott walked out of his bedroom and headed straight to the kitchen in search of his first hit of caffeine for the morning. “You look like shit.”

  “Fuck you.”

  One of Scott’s eyebrows arched but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he reached for a mug from the cupboard, letting the silence ask the questions Troy knew he had.

  Before he could stop himself, he found himself saying, “I think I crossed a line.” Shit. “No, I know I crossed a line.”

  Scott stopped filling his mug. “What did you do?”

  “I stuck my nose in where I shouldn’t. I ended up taking Sandy to dinner and then back to her place last night and we…” He blew out his breath. “You’re right about the quiet ones. She’s not what I expected.” She was more. So much more.

  The eyebrow arched higher. “Just how far did things go?”

  “We didn’t…shit. I didn’t fuck her, all right? But I came damned close.”

  Both eyebrows arched this time. “Damned close? That tells me a whole lot of nothing.” When Troy didn’t elaborate further, Scott frowned. “At any point, did she say no?”

  “No. It’s just—”

  “It’s that it’s Sandy we’re talking about here,” Scott finished for him. “And you have this crazy idea that she’s a virgin who’d be tainted by hanging around you.”

  He snorted. “Oh, she’s no virgin.” Not from the way she’d dropped her blouse or her skirt. Christ, that had been so unexpected, and so freakin’ hot to see her strip down right there in front of God and country. He’d nearly come in his pants.

  “So what’s the problem? Ask her out on another date. See what happens from there.”

  He shook his head. He could imagine what would happen from there. She’d see who he really was, what he really liked. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “I do,” Scott said quietly. “I wonder if you’re selling Sandy short. I’m willing to bet she’s as responsive as hell and knows what she wants in the sack.”

  She is, he wanted to respond but didn’t.

  Scott didn’t need it to be voiced either. “So what’s your problem?”

  Damned if he knew. But getting involved with Sandy was a bad idea, of that he was certain.

  “If you’re worried she’ll wrap you around her little finger and have you sitting up and begging instead of the other way around, don’t be afraid to ask for help. You know I’m always happy to help a friend out.”

  Why hadn’t Scott turned around, damn it? He couldn’t tell if he was sincere or not. “Are you? Still my friend?”

  Even though I don’t want to send you out on active duty?

  Scott faced him, his expression closed so Troy couldn’t read him. That Scott felt he needed to guard his reactions, to shut himself off, caused an ache deep in his gut. “Are you going to talk to Chad about transferring me to his group when he gets back?”

  “Yeah. I promised, didn’t I?” Fuck it all. Don’t go out there yet. Haven’t you been through enough?

  “Then yes.” Scott nodded once before turning back to his coffee. “We’re good. Bu
t if I find that you’ve lied or gone behind my back to make him doubt me? Then all bets are off.”

  “So he’s not asked you out yet? It’s been, what a week now? Hand me the ketchup, will you?”

  “Four days.” Sandy handed Jazz the squeeze bottle. “And in all that time, he’s not said a thing that isn’t work related. You’d think the other night never happened.”

  “Maybe he’s been busy covering for that guy who got shot.”

  The news that Chad had been shot still made her nauseous. At least he was already out of the hospital and due back at work in a couple of days. The news that his ex-wife had returned and had moved in with him had the office grapevine buzzing more than usual.

  “Yeah, but I don’t think it’s that.” She leaned in and lowered her voice. “I don’t understand. He made me come so hard I could barely walk afterward. Yet here he’s pretending it never happened.” Everything in her body softened at the memory of his head buried between her thighs and the orgasm he’d driven her to. “What am I supposed to think? Do you think I was a pity fuck or whatever that was?

  “I know he was turned on too. His hard-on was pretty hard to ignore. But all he said was ‘not tonight, sunshine’ and then he walked out.” She leaned back, letting out a huff of frustration. “So now I have no idea what to think. Does that mean he wants to get together again? Or that he wasn’t interested in me in the first place?”

  Jazz flipped the top on the ketchup and squeezed the bottle. “I doubt he would have gone down on you if he wasn’t interested in you. And for a guy to walk away from a guaranteed night of sex? That’s really weird. But he called you sunshine. That’s got to mean something.”

  “Why does that mean anything? I always figured it was what guys called a woman when they couldn’t remember her name.”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never had a nickname from anyone. If a guy called me something sweet like sunshine, it would make me feel…I don’t know special.”

  Wow. If that’s all it took to make Jazz feel special. Sandy shoved her speculations away from Jazz’s love life and back to Troy.

  Jazz grimaced as she removed the pickle from the hamburger’s bun. “So is he in the office today?”

  Sandy snagged the discarded dill slice from Jazz’s plate. “I know he was there when I got in but by the time I finished going over the morning agenda with Sam, Troy’s door was open and his office was empty. So I haven’t a clue if he’s coming back or not.”

  “Maybe he had a meeting.”

  “Maybe. But he didn’t have any meetings scheduled on his calendar for this morning.” Sandy frowned at the turkey club she’d ordered. She should have ordered the salad instead. At the very least she should have had them hold the mayo. “Do you think carrying me might have turned him off? Maybe he hurt himself because I was too heavy. Am I too fat?”

  Jazz shrugged. “You’re curvy, but you’re not, like, fat or anything. Stop obsessing about it. Maybe he just had somewhere else to be, or he didn’t have a condom or something.”

  Sandy didn’t point out that she had a stash in her bedside table. Somehow she didn’t think that was Troy’s reason for walking away. “So what do I do now? Do I say something? Or let it die a quiet death?”

  “That’s easy. Next time you see him, go into his office, get down on your knees and give him a blowjob that’ll have him seeing stars.” Jazz took a big bite of her hamburger.

  “Can you say that a little louder next time? Sheesh, Jazz.”

  “No one heard. The place is too noisy.” At least Jazz did speak quieter this time, probably because she’d had to speak around the mouthful of burger. She swallowed and continued, “You’re the one who said you wanted to get down and dirty, who got turned on spying on Sam and Rosie when they were getting it on in his office.”

  Sandy glanced around to ensure no one might be listening; at least there was no one in the next booth who might have overheard. “Yes, but that doesn’t mean Troy is interested in—”

  “Girl, you said you overheard that he belongs to that super-secret sex club, right?”

  “Sssh. It’s supposed to be a secret, remember? I could get in trouble for telling you that.”

  “Oh, honey, this is Washington. I’ll bet half of D.C. knows about that club. Besides, with Sam’s history, it’s not like it’s a secret that he’s into kinky crap like bondage and stuff. The newspapers were filled with that assignment he’d had at that club where his partner got shot when he was with the FBI.” Jazz finished her hamburger and wiped her fingers on the paper napkin. “I’m telling you, walk into Troy’s office, drop to your knees and blow him.”

  “Have you ever gone down on your boss?”

  “I’ve done what I’ve had to do.” A hard look flickered across Jazz’s face. “Look, you’re the one who is always spouting off about not wanting to sit on your ass until you’re old and grey, regretting all the opportunities for adventure you let slip past you. This is your opportunity. Have some fun. Just next time you decide to leave with a guy, phone me? That damned text didn’t arrive until the next day. I was worried about you.”

  “I will.” Sandy stared at the two uneaten sections of the turkey club left on her plate. “So are you seeing Mitch again? He seemed nice.”

  “Yeah, he is. He’s going to come over tonight. He says he knows how to use that new video editing software and has promised to teach me so I can finally work on those videos we took at the Renaissance Festival.”

  “Oh, that’s great. Then when he’s done teaching you, you can teach me.”

  Jazz grabbed a twenty-dollar bill from her purse and tucked it on top of the bill in the faux-leather folder the waitress left on their table. “So what are you going to do about Mr. Tall, Dark and Mysterious?”

  Sandy hung up her coat in the closet then walked into Troy’s office and shut the door.

  “Be right with you.” Just like before, he didn’t even look up from the keyboard again, damn it. What did she have to do to get his attention? Strip naked? Probably not. After all, it hadn’t worked completely unsuccessfully last time, had it?

  Her resolve firming, she walked around to his side of the desk. Conscious of the hum of voices outside his closed door, of the possibility anyone could walk in and discover her, she pushed him back from the desk. “Why are you avoiding what happened the other night?”

  “Because it shouldn’t have happened.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “I’m serious, Sandy. I’m not good boyfriend material. You know my job and how I’m here one day and gone the next. I’m not a great catch when it comes to stability.”

  “Bullshit.” She folded her arms and glared. “I like you. And more? I trust you. I don’t invite just anyone to stay the night with me, you know.”

  He caught her hand and pressed a fleeting kiss to her fingers in a move so smooth her knees weakened. “You shouldn’t trust me, sunshine. I’m not who you think I am.”

  “Bullshit,” she repeated, softer this time. “I know more about you than you think I do. I’ve read your file, remember? And I know stuff that isn’t in those files.” She knelt in front of him and stroked her cheek against his knuckles, noticing a trace of gun oil staining his shirt. So he’d not left the building, simply gone to the firing range. “I’ve seen how you worry about your agents. About Scott. You’re a good man. As for you not being here a lot, that’s fine with me. I’m not looking for marriage. I just…” want to come so hard I see stars, the way you made me come the other night. “I think we’d be good together. I’m not looking for forever.”

  From the doubt in his eyes, she knew he wasn’t buying her explanation. “This is your opportunity. Have some fun,” Jazz had said. Wasn’t that the whole point of leaving Minnesota?

  Troy’s eyes widened when she skated her palm along the inside of his thigh and tugged on his zipper. “What the hell are you doing?”

  Wasn’t it obvious?

  “Since you show no sign of taking the initiative, I figure I sho
uld show you that you’re not the only one talented in the bedroom. Or the office.” Not giving him a chance to object, she slid her hand into his briefs and wrapped her fingers around his rapidly hardening cock. His fingers clamped onto the arms of his chair, the knuckles white; his breath quickened to match hers.

  With her heart beating as fast as if she’d just run a mile, she licked her lips then lowered her head. A groan rumbled through him when she swirled her tongue around the head of his cock. God, she loved how he smelled, how he tasted of warm, spicy musk. The thick, dark hair at the root of his cock crinkled against her fingers, tickled her nose.

  “Sandy.” A warning? Or a plea?

  She slid her lips down his shaft, her fingers reaching beneath the fabric to cradle his balls. His hips lifted off the seat slightly, pressing his cock deeper into her mouth; his fingers stroked her hair as he curved his fingers around the back of her head. Not a warning then.

  “Oh fuck, that’s…” His fingers tightened in her hair giving her the bite of pain she loved. She squirmed, pressing her thighs together at the warm moisture gathering between them.

  She sucked harder, deeper, rocking until the head of his cock bumped the soft palate at the back of her mouth. What a pity he was still wearing his pants. She’d give anything to see him butt-naked.

  Next time. And there would be a next time, she vowed. The carpet did little to cushion her knees but she didn’t care. She pulled back, the pressure of his hand controlling how far she could withdraw. God, yes, she loved a man who wasn’t afraid to control her like that. The room filled with the sounds of her slurping his cock, the creak of his chair as he arched his hips, moans and sighs from them both. She lapped the head, savoring the taste of the creamy liquid that leaked from the slit.

  “I’m going to blow down your throat, sunshine, and you’re going to swallow it all.”

  He pressed on the back of her head until her nose touched the hair at his groin and thrust up. When his shaft swelled against her tongue, she moaned, thrilled at how she’d made him lose control. The first hot splash of come spilled over her tongue.