She caught her breath, remembering what he’d told her.
But instead of him rolling her onto her back, when he moved, it was to pull away.
“We need to get on the road,” he said, his voice level. Emotionless.
She sat up, staring at his naked back. “The road?” she echoed. What had happened to all his talk about getting her naked? Getting inside her again?
“Yes. I have to make a few calls about getting us across the border.” He glanced over his shoulder at her. “I take it you didn’t bring your passport?”
“Actually, I do have it.” Although illegally entering a country was probably going to be the least of her crimes by the time this was all said and done. And just what had happened to getting her naked? She stared at him a minute longer, but all he did was shift off the bed, crouching by the bag he’d left on the floor.
And that was it. Watching his bowed head, she realized his mind was already on other things. Fine. I’m not going to let him see I’m put out over this. I’m not. And I’m not put out by it. I’m . . .
Climbing out of bed, she headed to the minuscule bathroom and locked herself inside.
Oh, the hell I’m not.
Emotion tangled inside her, too complicated to really put her finger on. Hurt? Yeah. There was some of that, for certain. Bruised pride? Maybe a little. Okay, more than a little. It was arousing, knowing somebody wanted you. Really wanted you . . . and then to have him not want you? It was a punch in the gut. The hurt and bruised pride twisted in her, but it went deeper than that. She couldn’t even figure out everything she felt, either.
Disappointment seemed like such a minor word for the empty ache she felt inside. It went too deep for just mere disappointment.
“I don’t have time for this,” she muttered. Squaring her shoulders, she made herself stare at her reflection. She looked sad and miserable and lost, like a girl who’d been stood up by the cute guy in high school.
That wasn’t going to cut it. She had a job to do, and it was going to get ugly before it got better. Hell, it might not get better for her. She’d already acknowledged that fact. But if she walked into this looking like a whipped puppy, then it was just going to snowball into one hell of a bad mess, and that, she did not need.
Taking a deep breath, she shoved everything aside. So Gus didn’t seem to want her the way he’d made her think. In the end, that didn’t matter. Not to the job, at least, and the job was why she was here. The job and only the job. Having the hot and sexy Gus along the wayside had been both a bonus and a complication, but in the end, he wasn’t the focus.
Alex was.
She’d been sent to Orlando to watch over a kid.
Somebody else was taking point on that job now, but that didn’t mean she was done. Her current objective was to keep that kid safe, and the threat to him had grown exponentially. She had to get her game on and stay focused.
With that in mind, she turned away from the mirror and stripped out of her clothes. She needed to shower and clear her head. She needed coffee, but they’d grab that on the road.
Game on, she told herself as she climbed under the miserable, stingy spray. Game on.
* * *
THE woman who ducked into the bathroom had been quiet, somber, and he couldn’t help but think he’d hurt her. He wouldn’t let that get to him. He was used to hurting women. Not physically, but when the job included assignments like seduction and espionage, people did end up with their feelings bruised, their pride.
It wasn’t so easy to shrug it off when the woman was Vaughnne, and he told himself that maybe he’d misunderstood her. After all, she’d told him he was arrogant, had mouthed off to him before they fell asleep. He was just respecting her wishes, really.
The door to the bathroom opened and the woman came striding out, wearing nothing but a bath towel, her hair pulled back and away from her face. Her eyes cut to his, and any sign of sadness or pain was completely gone.
She looked arrogant now. Arrogant, aloof, and the light in her eyes was one of warning.
He stood by the door, waiting, watching.
And damn near swallowed his tongue as she stood in front of the neat little stack of clothes and dropped her towel.
Beads of water still clung to her shoulders, rolled down the slope of her breast as she grabbed a pair of panties. Black. It seemed black and white were her preferred colors in wardrobe choices, so that was all he’d grabbed for her, but he would love to see her in red silk. Blue satin. Emerald green. Anything. Everything. Nothing.
His heart slammed against his ribs as she pulled the panties up over the taut, round curve of her ass. Then she shot him a dark look. “If we need to get on the road, don’t you think you should get ready?”
Ready? If he were any readier, he might die of a heart attack.
She stared at him for a moment and then looked away, that disdainful expression still on her face. She reached for her bra and he locked his gaze on her breasts, memorized those curves for the few brief moments he had left to him. Perfect, he decided. Just about perfect. Full enough for his hands, nothing more and nothing less, her skin that soft, warm brown, and her nipples were a deeper, darker shade. Puckered, and tight, too.
¿Qué carajo? What was he doing? She wanted him. He wanted her. Saving her . . . from what? Himself? She’d said a hundred times if she’d wanted to leave, she’d do just that. And if she tried, he’d let her. He’d already decided that. Because he didn’t need the assurance that she’d look after Alejandro. She would already do it. That was just who she was.
So what or who was he trying to save her from?
He dropped the bag he was holding.
Vaughnne shot him another dark look as she reached for a shirt. “You know, if you’d wanted to stare at my tits, you should have done something about it earlier. We need to get going, right?”
Closing the distance between them, he caught the lapels of the black shirt before she could start to button it up. “It can wait,” he said gruffly. Dipping his head, he pressed his mouth to the curve between her neck and shoulder.
Vaughnne stiffened.
He breathed in the scent of her skin, warm and soft, smelling of the lousy soap the hotel had provided, and something else . . . female, unique to her. The lotion she slicked on her skin, maybe. He didn’t know, but the scent was enough to drive him mad. Raking his teeth along her skin, he caught the collar of her shirt and dragged it down.
She shoved her hands between them. “Hold on there, pal,” she said, her lip curling.
He lifted a hand and cupped her face, dragging his thumb across her mouth, watching as hunger danced in her gaze even as she edged backward.
“I’m not a plaything.” She glared at him. “Hot little pillow talk last night, and then this morning, it’s all serious shit, but five seconds later, you want to put your hands on me again? I don’t do this hot and cold stuff, Gus.”
“Gustavo.” He leaned in, flicking his tongue across her lower lip.
She tensed. “What?”
“My name. It’s Gustavo. And I always want to put my hands on you, Vaughnne,” he whispered, teasing the entrance to her mouth, but she still wouldn’t open for him. “But last night, you talked as though that wasn’t what you wanted. I thought perhaps I’d respect your wishes . . . for once.”
If he wasn’t mistaken, some of the tension eased from her body. “You were trying to play the nice guy?”
“It’s not a role I’m used to.” He caught her lip between his teeth and tugged. “Perhaps it is arrogance. I know women. I know when they want me, and if they don’t, I know how to make them want me. You want me . . . and if you didn’t, I could make you. But then you do silly, naïve things like try and save me. And I lay in bed this morning thinking I didn’t want to make you want me. If you wanted me . . .”
Earlier, she’d fisted her hands
against his chest, the tension in her arms keeping him from pulling her close. Now, she sighed and stroked her hands upward, sliding them around his neck. “Gus . . . Gustavo . . . you know, you really strike me as the typical Casanova—you should know everything there is to know about women. So how can you be so damn stupid?”
“I’m not . . . not usually. But you undo me. You make me forget everything . . . make me want to forget everything, even when I cannot.” He skimmed a hand up her back and tangled it in the long, dense tail of her hair. “Let me take you to bed, Vaughnne.”
“I’ve got a better idea.” She leaned back and the slumberous heat in her gaze was like fire in his veins. “Let me take you.”
* * *
HIS eyes went hot. So hot, they blazed like silver fire. She pushed against his shoulders, watching him, waiting . . . and he acquiesced, moving backward and letting her push him back onto the bed. She rolled her shoulders, shrugging out of the shirt she’d never gotten around to buttoning up. He sat on the edge of the bed and she stood in front of him, catching his shirt in her hands and dragging it up over his head.
He didn’t do a damn thing to help her, just sat there, watching her with those burning, hungry eyes.
It was almost as erotic as his touch. She went to her knees in front of him and toyed with the button of his jeans until he went back on his elbows. She trailed the tips of her fingers across his belly and watched as the muscles quivered under his skin.
Before she could get too distracted, she reached for the bag she’d left on the floor and hauled it closer, dipping a hand into the interior pocket where she’d stashed the rest of the condoms she’d bought. She pulled out one, wished they had the time to indulge in a hell of a lot more.
But this was all they had.
Something tightened in her throat.
For all she knew, this might really be all . . .
Stop it. This wasn’t the time, wasn’t the place. She had to enjoy it, right?
She tossed the foil packet down on the bed next to him, looking back at him, holding his gaze for a minute. “You ever wish we had an entire night for just this?”
His hand came up and cradled her cheek. “Only from the minute I saw you.”
Her heart clenched in her chest.
“Yeah?” She forced herself to give him a cheeky grin. “Maybe if we don’t both end up dead, we can take that night.”
Before he could say anything else, she reached for the button of his jeans and slid it free. He was already hard and she had to work the zipper down, aching inside at the feel of him under the sturdy denim. Hard, solid, thick. He pressed against the boxers he wore, a heather gray that was soft under her fingers as she caught both the jeans and the underwear in her hands.
He lifted his hips for her to drag the material down, and she caught her breath at the sight of him.
“You . . .” She licked her lips. “You’re not circumcised.”
“No.” His gray gaze locked on her face. “Does that bother you?”
Closing her hand around the base of his cock, she leaned in and pressed her lips to his length, and hunger twisted through her as he shuddered. It gripped his entire body, and when she lifted her head and flicked her tongue over the tip of his cock, he swore, a harsh, guttural phrase in Spanish that she had no hope of understanding. Whatever it was, it was sexy as hell, and the look on his face was almost enough to make her come.
She caught his head in her mouth and sucked on him.
He grabbed her, his hands clenched on either side of her skull as he surged upward.
She sucked him deeper, deeper, until he nudged the back of her throat, and then she eased back upward. Pulling away, she fisted him in her hand and dragged it up, then down, slowly, watching him. As the foreskin moved down, she leaned forward and licked the head of his cock. He swore and jolted, jerking up against her. His hands tangled in her hair. “Again,” he muttered. “Do it again, corazón.”
Heat gathered inside her, spreading through her on a slow burn as she did just that, using her tongue to tease his head. Vaguely, she remembered reading that uncut guys were more sensitive, so she was careful not to pull on him, although damn, it was hard to think because everything she did do seemed to send him higher, and higher.
She sucked him back in, taking him deep, feeling him bump against the back of her throat. Gus groaned and then, as she lifted up to do it again, he moved.
She moved . . . but not because she planned to. In a blur of speed and motion, she was on her back with him crouching between her thighs. He hooked his hands into the waistband of her panties and stripped them down her thighs. “You drive me crazy,” he muttered. “Absolutely out of my mind.”
He grabbed the condom from the bed and tore open the packet. She heard it rip and pushed up onto her elbows to watch as he unrolled it. He pinched it up near to the top and she cocked a brow, trying to memorize just how he did that, because if she had the chance, at some point, she’d actually be the one doing the taking here.
His gaze, heated and hungry, swept over her, and her heart slammed up into her throat as he came down on top of her. He caught one hand in his, and it struck her as absurdly gentle, possessive as he nudged against her entrance. She wanted to say something . . . anything . . . but words didn’t want to come.
“Look at me,” he ordered, his voice harsh and hungry.
She lifted her gaze and the look on his face, stripped of everything but that raw, naked need, hit the very heart of her. They watched each other as he slowly sank inside and Vaughnne had never felt more exposed, had never felt more vulnerable. Her breath hitched in her throat as he pulled back, the swollen head of his shaft stroking over sensitized nerves, and instinctively, she tightened around him, lifting her hips to draw him back in.
His hand tightened on hers as he surged deeper, harder. She moaned, closing her eyes. He let go of her hand and cupped her face, his thumb pressing against her chin. “Don’t close your eyes, corazón . . . mi vida. Watch me. Let me watch you.”
Forcing her lids up, she stared at him.
His gaze was hooded, intent on her face as he withdrew. This time, as he sank inside, he moved up, riding higher on her body, and she cried out as the movement had him rocking against her clit. She reached down, gripping the taut curve of his ass and arching up.
He did it again, and again, but right before the climax would have broken over her, he stopped.
“Gus, please!”
“My name.” He nipped at her lip. “Say my name.”
“Gustavo . . .” She shuddered against him as he shifted once more, this time moving back and settling on his knees, catching her legs and hooking them over his forearms, opening her. “Damn it, you’re killing me.”
A faint smile curved his mouth as he swiveled his hips against her, the slant of his body driving him against her in just the right way. Vaughnne tensed as the pleasure gripped her, wrapping around her and pulling her tighter, tighter . . . “Gus, please.” It ripped out of her in a whimper. “Gustavo . . .”
He rolled forward, her legs still hooked over his forearms, and the action drove him deep, so deep—he swelled, pulsed inside her, so hard, she felt bruised, and it was amazing, but he still wouldn’t let her come. Twisting against him, she worked her arms free and speared her fingers into his hair, lifting her head up to cover his mouth with hers. This time, she was the one to sink her teeth into his lower lip, and when he shuddered against her, she tightened her inner muscles around him. “Stop it,” he muttered.
* * *
“CARAJO.” He lifted his head, panting as he stared down at Vaughnne. She tightened around him yet again, the slick muscles of her pussy milking him in another tantalizing, teasing caress. That strong, sleek body of hers would drive him out of his mind, just as he’d expected. So many things he wanted to do to her . . . do with her. And there was just time for this.
“I won’t stop,” she whispered, looking at him with rich, dark brown eyes, a wicked smile on her face. “You’re trying to drive me crazy. I’m going to do the same to you. I—Gus!”
He drove deep, slamming home and shuddering as her cry bounced off the walls. Her head arched back, the slim line of her neck exposed. Her pulse beat a wild tattoo in her neck and he wanted to press his lips to that delicate spot. Wanted to lick away the bead of sweat he could see forming just there on her temple. But he couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. All he could do was surge inside her again, again, shuttling in and out as she tightened around his cock, until it was like he was working back and forth inside a silken fist.
Ragged breaths escaped them both and he could feel that rising tension inside her. This time, instead of trying to hold it off, he let it grab her, let it grab them both. It wasn’t enough. Wouldn’t ever be enough, he knew. Shifting, he let go of her legs and banded his arms around her, shaking as she did the same to him.
Locked in each other, he thought.
They were trapped, each possessed by the other.
Her ragged whimper echoed in his ear as she started to climax. He wanted to hear it again, and again. Blood thrummed in his head as he tried to hold back, but the need was a roaring dragon and it consumed him.
The inner muscles of her sheath gripped him, milking him convulsively, and he couldn’t fight it. “Vaughnne,” he rasped into her hair, clutching her tightly against him as he surrendered to that wild, almost painful need . . . to her.
TWENTY
IT had been a very long while since he had been forced to take action on his own.
Ignacio now had men who took care of things for him. But those men weren’t here now and there was simply no way he was going to let that little puta get away from him.
She wasn’t in the room now and he could finally think.
Finally. Every time she touched him, his ability to think just shut down, but she’d been gone for a little while and his mind was his own once more. His mind, his body . . . his rage. How long, he wondered? How long had she been controlling him?
The Protected (Fbi Psychics) Page 30