Lip Service

by Lori Foster

  Seth downed the last of the wine and tossed the glass onto the grass carpeting the yard. Surrounded by the lamps and walls of thick shrubs and trees, they were alone, isolated from the neighbors’ prying eyes. Seth mentally congratulated himself for never before taking his friend up on his offer to use the house. Until tonight. Until Lacey.

  A wind gusted through the yard, rustling the trees and injecting a chill into the air. Lacey shivered and he watched with erotic fascination as her nipples peaked beneath her teddy.

  “You’re cold,” he pointed out.

  “You’ll warm me,” she countered.

  “Not from this distance.”

  “Dance with me,” she said, stepping and swaying until she stood directly before him.

  Whatever music Lacey heard in her head played on a sultry, seductive beat. Her hips rocked gently, her belly brushed against his sex so that he groaned. He slid his hands down her back, parting the droplets that clung to her skin. Fitting his palms around her taut backside, he gave her a gentle squeeze, then lowered his head and captured her mouth in a kiss.

  Despite the need coursing through him like a tidal wave, Seth clung to the slow, sensual pace of their dance. Last night had been about fast and furious. Tonight would be about the slow seduction of their senses.

  Beginning with taste. The woodsy, rich flavors of the Cabernet lingered on her tongue, on her lips—not that Seth needed the alcohol to experience the intoxication of Lacey’s mouth beneath his. The fresh fragrance of rain, mixed with her crisp perfume, surrounded him like an irresistible cloud. He couldn’t help but inhale deeper, pushing the kiss further until his hands itched to explore the rest of her.

  Her breasts were soft, responsive, yet tipped with hard nipples that begged for his touch. Through the teddy, he flicked them with his thumbs, flamed by the sound of her aroused moans, her gentle pants that urged him to touch her everywhere. Sliding his hand down her slim belly, he tangled his fingers beneath the lace into the damp curls between her legs until her warm, slick folds welcomed him. His mouth yearned to taste her here in the garden, kissed by the rain and pure, sexual need, but Lacey dashed away before he could drop to his knees.

  She followed the path to the lake, her light laugh leading him through the darkness. Seth pulled off his shirt and discarded his pants after grabbing a condom from his pocket.

  Lacey had raced toward the dock, but waited for him on the marble bench in the center of a garden. The night swam with the scent of flowers. The aroma, coupled with the sight of Lacey awaiting him, nearly nude and aroused and free, made him dizzy with need.

  He stepped to the bench and tore open the condom.

  “Not yet,” she said.

  He left the circle of latex inside the package.

  “Come here,” she ordered.

  He complied without question. A smart man didn’t argue with a woman sporting such a delicious expression. Devilish, yet full of sensual promise.

  “God, you’re magnificent,” she said, smoothing her hands over his hips and thighs. “You could be Michelangelo’s David.”

  “I’m definitely hard as stone.”

  Her eyebrow quirked. “Are you?” She took him in her hand and Seth nearly lost his balance. She applied torturous, light pressure, stroking and exploring. “We’ll see about that.”

  When she took his sex in her mouth, Seth thought he’d died and ascended to somewhere spiritual, a place where a man like him had no right to be. She loved him with her lips, her hands, her tongue. She licked him, learned him, until he knew his knees would buckle from the delicious pressure.

  She stole the condom from him and rolled it over his sex. Slowly. Then she pulled him beside her on the bench and straddled him. With a flick of her fingers, she opened the crotch of her teddy. She poised the tip of his head on her moist lips, then covered him with her incredible body.

  One moan echoed in the night. Then one sigh. One soft coo, accompanied by a deep, throaty murmur. Seth wasn’t sure what he said or what she replied—he only knew the ecstasy of her body wrapped around his. Joined. Generating friction. Sparking a fiery heat.

  He grabbed her hips, increasing the pace. He tore aside the lacy teddy and laved her breasts, jolted with urgency when she cried out his name. With the rain delicately misting around them, the storm brewed from within. And when the lightning flashed and the thunder roared—if only behind his eyelids and in his ears—Seth knew he’d found the woman he wanted for the rest of his life.

  10

  THEY SAT ON THE EDGE of the dock, their fingers entwined, their feet dangling just above the water. The rain had stopped, but the night smelled rich with moisture, from the crisp scent of the grass to the heady odors of the soil and lake. The whine of crickets lulled Lacey’s racing mind to a relaxed state—that, and the feel of Seth’s arm and thigh pressed against hers. Sitting outside, sexually sated and naked to the night, gave her a peace she wasn’t sure she’d ever felt before. But she could get used to it. All too easily.

  “Thank you for tonight,” she said, tilting her head so it rested on his shoulder. “I can honestly say I’ve never danced in the rain with a man. I’ll never forget this.”

  “You don’t have to forget. We can recreate this night the next time you come to town. If it doesn’t rain, I’ll turn on the sprinklers.”

  Lacey laughed, until the full force of what he’d said registered in her brain. Sure, Lacey planned to return to Atlanta. Her sister lived here. But she couldn’t commit to seeing Seth again. How could she? That would mean expectations. Phone calls. Possible visits from him to Virginia. The idea of her personal life sneaking into her professional existence—outside her tight control—nearly made her want to scream with panic.

  She pressed her lips tightly together instead.

  Seth, perfect man that he was, read her silence like an open book.

  “You’re not going to contact me when you come back to town, are you?”

  “I don’t think it would be a good idea.”

  “Care to tell me why?”

  Lacey took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the scent of Seth’s skin, fresh with rain, yet still rich with musk and leather. She imprinted his essence into her memory, but forbade herself to regret her decision. She couldn’t change her mind. Yes, what she’d found with Seth on this wild weekend was special, whether she’d intended it to be or not. They had a lot in common—their jobs, their outlook on the world—but the differences were just as boldly stroked. He had a family in Georgia, friends and a new career. He’d already been to the top of the law enforcement heap and now he was enjoying being his own boss, making his own hours, taking the cases that interested him and chucking the rest.

  She, on the other hand, immersed herself in her job—living, eating, and breathing the Bureau. She knew the price she had to pay to attain the status she wanted. She couldn’t wimp out now just because fate had dangled a wonderful man in front of her. If she called things off now—tonight—the damage would be minimal. To both of them.

  “Seth, I’m married to the Bureau. When I’m in Virginia, I’m on the job 24/7. I pull extra shifts, teach extra classes. I follow cases I’m not assigned to. To have a relationship, I’d have to make sacrifices, compromises. That’s how relationships work.”

  “From what I hear,” Seth remarked. “I can’t speak from experience.”

  Lacey shook her head. Neither could she. But that didn’t mean she was wrong about this, no matter how much her heart protested. And when did her heart get involved anyway? She could so easily love this man and she had no one to blame but herself.

  Well, she could assign some responsibility to Seth, too. He didn’t have to be so damned perfect for her. So open and adventurous. So sexy and chivalrous. So smooth when he danced.

  “Can’t we just keep this as a weekend to remember?” she asked, desperate. “I thought men loved nostrings-attached relationships.”

  Seth snorted. “Shows what you know. We only say that until we find the rig
ht woman. Then we change our tune.”

  “I don’t want to be the right woman,” she said, hating the forlorn sound in her voice.

  “No, you just want to be the right woman for right now,” he clarified in a dull tone.

  “Is that so bad?”

  “Honestly, it sucks. I’ve never been on the lookout for more than one night or two myself. So you danced into my life completely unexpectedly. I already decided I should order Gina Ralston flowers to thank her for pointing you my way.” He frowned. “I was just hoping to send them to her in prison.”

  Lacey shivered, and it wasn’t from Seth’s mention of Gina. They’d been outside a long time and with the conversation turn, the warmth of sexual afterglow had deserted her body.

  “Listen to me, talking business when you’re cold,” he said.

  He jumped up and took her hands to help her stand, but Lacey couldn’t contain the quip dancing on her tongue. “Are you talking about my body temperature or my attitude in general?”

  As if she’d said nothing to put distance between them, Seth lifted her into his arms and nuzzled her nose to nose. “Body temperature I can fix. Your attitude is up to you.”

  Lacey threw her head back, defeated. The man was too good to be true. And she was throwing him away for what? A career? A job? But as an FBI agent she’d finally found her niche after flitting from subject to subject in high school and college, never making grades over a B. She’d gained so much from her association with the Bureau—real confidence, a sense of purpose and success. No relationship had ever given her that—and no relationship should.

  Trouble was, Lacey seriously suspected that a relationship with Seth could give her so much more.

  LACEY YANKED HER extra clothes out of her bag, then slipped into a downstairs bathroom to dry off and change. When she emerged, she found Seth in the kitchen, brewing coffee and looking delicious in nothing but worn jeans that hung low on his hips.

  The man didn’t play fair.

  Or maybe, she was the cheater. The fraud.

  Knowing this was the perfect time to divert the conversation, Lacey slid into a curved, white Formica chair and cradled one of the empty mugs Seth had set there. “So did you find out anything about Gina today?” she asked, surprised they hadn’t covered this topic already, though he had given her the highlights of the case in general. But they’d had so much more interesting subjects to pursue. Personal subjects. Revealing subjects. The types of subjects that revealed dreams, wishes…and regrets.

  After tonight, Lacey would have a whole new slew of regrets to add to her list.

  “Yeah,” he answered, carrying the steaming carafe to the table where he filled her mug, then his. “I found out Gina Ralston is not only slippery, she’s lucky. Seems one of the bartenders at Blind Dates used to know me. I dated his sister. Somehow, she hooked up with this guy shortly after I walked in. That’s how she found out the personal stuff about me, including my real name.”

  Lacey winced, knowing a blown cover was hard, if not impossible, to repair. It was also something that happened when you worked on home turf. Sometimes, bad luck derailed investigations by the finest operatives.

  “So you have nothing on her,” Lacey guessed.

  “Nope.” He slid into the chair beside her and they sipped their coffee in silence. Lacey should have felt warmer, but she couldn’t chase off the chill of knowing she was passing up the romantic chance of a lifetime.

  “What do you need?” she asked, turning to business mode as a way to escape the pain of their inevitable parting. Maybe she could help him with his case. That would soothe her conscience, right? “What one piece of information could crack your case right open?”

  “I’d settle for a fingerprint.”

  She set her coffee down gently. “You don’t have a fingerprint?”

  Seth shook his head. “She wears gloves most the time. At work, at the grocery store. Claims to have a skin condition.”

  “She wasn’t wearing gloves at the club,” Lacey pointed out.

  “Not this time. But, if you noticed, she is religious about making sure a glass she’s touched doesn’t stay at the table once she leaves. She takes the glass to the bar and waits until it’s disposed of. She wipes off her silverware at restaurants. Makes it look natural, too.”

  “As if she’s been hiding her identity for a very long time,” Lacey surmised.

  Lacey pressed her lips together, stumped. They’d discussed the case over dinner. Seth couldn’t get a warrant to search Gina’s home—as far as the courts were concerned, Gina had committed no crime. No real evidence existed that proved she planned to perjure herself on the witness stand. He’d likely already tried to lift prints from her car. She sighed and sipped her coffee, wishing she could figure out a way to help him solve this case.

  “God, you’re beautiful,” Seth said, his voice deep and throaty and fraught with desire.

  Lacey shook her head, forbidding herself to be drawn in to this man’s masterful manipulations, no matter how much she wanted to. “I’m a mess. I don’t even have makeup on.”

  “You don’t need it.”

  “Ha! I bet you never would have looked twice at me last night if I hadn’t…”

  Lacey’s voice trailed off as her mind flashed with pictures from the previous evening at the club. Gina at the bar, disposing of her glass. The mirror reflecting Lacey’s pale lips. The lipstick.

  The lipstick!

  “Holy crap,” she cursed, jumping to her feet. “We need to go back to my hotel!”

  Seth gaped at her. “We have the house for as long as we want it.”

  “No, Seth, you don’t understand. I can get you your fingerprint.”

  11

  “GOT IT.”

  Special Agent Mallory, an old friend of Lacey’s, hit the print key on his computer and line by line, Seth watched his case fall into place.

  Gina Ralston was actually Regina Mendosa, a missing person from Philadelphia. For the past eight years she’d been on the run, plenty of time to hone her identity protection skills. The alleged witness to a mob hit, she’d decided to take off on her own rather than be taken out by the mob. If the prosecutors in that case had offered her official witness protection, they hadn’t done it fast enough. She’d bolted only two days after the crime.

  Unfortunately, one of the goons in the Philly case caught up with her. More than likely, Eric Miller had used Gina’s past to blackmail her into testifying on his behalf. Probably promised to erase the price on her head, too. Seth couldn’t blame the woman for doing whatever it took to keep herself alive.

  Lacey grabbed the paper from the printer, thanked her fellow agent then handed Seth the information that would bring his first case to a successful close.

  “It’s good to have friends in the Bureau,” she told Seth, her eyes bright. Did she mean something more from her comment? he wondered. Was she implying he could look her up in Virginia as long as he needed help with a case? Try as he could to understand Lacey’s focus on her career, some part of her exclusive, narrow vision didn’t ring true. In just two days, he’d had the chance to tangle with the real Lacey Baptiste—the one who loved life and who grabbed her fun and excitement in greedy handfuls. How could she ignore that aspect of herself for months at a time, then attempt to feed her hunger with brief vacations and anonymous lovers? Seth knew from experience that this course of action wouldn’t satisfy her for long…and he intended to use that knowledge to his advantage.

  “I couldn’t have done this without you.”

  Lacey shook her head. “You would have found a way. Lucky for you, I won’t go anywhere without a finished face. God bless Clinique!”

  Seth folded the printout and chuckled softly at her joke. He’d take the information to the federal prosecutors later this afternoon. As long as they agreed to put Gina in the Witness Protection Program officially, where Seth had no doubt she’d flourish with her impressive skills, he’d give them the information they needed to discredit her t
estimony on behalf of Eric Miller. His first case as a private investigator would be a raging success—and he didn’t give a damn.

  “I’m going to miss your face, finished or not,” he admitted.

  “Seth, please, don’t,” she begged, touching his hand lightly, then pulling her fingers away as if his skin burned.”

  “Don’t what? Relax, Lacey. I don’t make scenes.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  With a sigh, she grabbed his hand and dragged him through the sterile office of the Atlanta division of the FBI, into the nondescript lobby of the nondescript building on Century Center Parkway.

  “If it makes you feel better, I’m ninety-nine percent certain that I’m making the biggest mistake of my life by letting you go.”

  Seth nodded. Yeah, it did make him feel better, but he knew the consolation wouldn’t last long once Lacey returned to Virginia. “You are making a huge mistake. I’m one hell of a catch.”

  She grinned, but the smile only tilted one half of her mouth. Good. She needed to feel the pain of this decision. He wasn’t letting her off easily. Not by a long shot.

  “Promise not to forget me?” she asked, toying with the buckle of his belt so innocently, he wondered if she knew what she was doing.

  Only she was Lacey Baptiste. She knew exactly what she was doing.

  “Promise? You want me to make a promise?” he asked, incredulous.

  She snagged her bottom lip with her teeth and let her hands drop. “I guess that’s not a fair request.”

  “No, it’s not. But you know, I don’t play fair, either. Not anymore.”

  He walked away, but stopped when his hand curled around the doorknob. No, this wasn’t the way a man like him made an exit. Not if he wanted to make sure that Lacey was the one who didn’t forget.