He parted her knees, his cock pressed against her and she nearly exploded right then. He kissed her and gently rubbed against her clit, each time drawing a small moan from her lips.
“Do you have anything?” he whispered in her ear before nibbling on her lobe.
It took the press of his very ready cock to focus her thoughts on what he could mean. Condoms. Did she have condoms? No. But Annie would and Gemma prayed she kept them in the same place she always had in college.
She stretched toward the nightstand, rolling the small drawer open. Her fingers brushed the unfamiliar plastic wrapping.
David reached across her and into the drawer. As he shifted, the hot tip of him brushed against her throbbing mound and she thought it was over. The pleasure seared across her midsection and she gasped.
“Two seconds,” he said. His voice was throaty and needy.
It was less than that before his hands were on her again, his mouth on hers. She felt the brush of his tip once more. He slowly slipped into her. She moaned. He was huge and gentle and filled her perfectly, just as she’d imagined.
His shaft fully sheathed, he paused for a moment, his lips on her throat. She pulsed around him, her lips at his throat.
David moved slowly, pulling out was agony. He slid in again and found a rhythm that matched her pounding heart. She ran her hands up his shoulders and curled a leg around his hip to open herself for him and keep him close. She moved with him, keeping him to the perfect pace.
He kissed her again, deeper, heavier. He matched the swirl of his tongue to the circle of his hips that rubbed her aching clit. The wave of pleasure built into something tidal.
He trailed kisses back to her neck, exposing the long line of his neck to her. Did she dare?
Gemma kissed the space behind his ear and made it down to his shoulder before he reacted.
He slammed into her, sheathing himself to the fullest. Pleasure exploded through her as he took her, retreating then slamming into her again. She curled her legs around him and relaxed.
Her orgasm hit her hard. She arched against him and cried out as he thrust into her again and again. Thick waves of pleasure, electricity—sheer life crashed around her as he kept pressing that magic little button until she was putty beneath him.
The muscles down his back hardened and he buried his face into her shoulder and slammed into her as he came. Still exposed like an open nerve, she felt every jerk and every quiver of him until he stilled above her.
His hot lips found hers again and he kissed her slowly, thoroughly, as if what he had just done wasn’t thorough enough.
Carefully he rolled onto the bed next to her. It took him a few long moments to look over at her.
“Are you okay?” His pupils were blown wide and his lips swollen and pink. His curls fell across his forehead as his hand rested on her bare stomach. He looked young, innocent.
If she wanted to be honest, she would have told him her legs were jelly. Complete jelly. Her brain was still buzzing with the sheer amazement that she’d actually found a guy at a bar who not only could quote Austen, but knew exactly how to touch her to make her knees weak.
David turned onto his side to look at her. “That’s possibly the most amazing thing I’ve ever done.”
It was as if he’d read her mind. Her toes curled as she smiled at him. “I’ll second that.”
“Would you like a drink?”
“Water?” she asked.
Hesitantly David pulled away and without his heat pressing against her, she went cold. Only then did she realize that they hadn’t bothered getting under the covers.
David walked, completely naked, into the living room. She froze as she watched him go. The rear was just as perfect as the front half. If only she had a quarter.
When he turned from view, she pulled down the covers and crawled underneath. She ran her fingers through her hair and tried to wipe any smudged mascara from under her eyes.
David walked back in with the tray and an ice bucket in the perfect place to keep him hidden. “Did you get cold?”
“You went away.” She pulled down the covers and patted the bed next to her.
He set the tray on the nightstand and sat where instructed. She always had wanted a man who took orders well.
“I would hate for you to catch a cold.”
He handed her a small tumbler of water and she took a refreshing sip. Leaning against the mountain of pillows, she watched as he pulled his long legs under the blankets as well.
“You should really drink that.” He gestured to the glass.
“Afraid of dehydration?”
“Let me amend that.” He took one gulp from his own glass. “You should really drink that quickly.”
“Why?”
“Because I want you again.”
She gulped down the water and as she stretched to put the tumbler on her nightstand, he pulled her to him, his body cradling hers perfectly. His strong thighs pressed against hers, his hot skin still moist from their previous activities.
His lips cascaded kisses down her neck and he cupped her breast, fingers settling naturally around the already peaked nipple.
As he began to nibble down the back of her neck, she felt him grow hard, pressing between the cheeks of her ass. He was ready to go again and by the way that her body melted against his, so was she. Maybe she’d explore that perfect behind this time.
Chapter Four
She slid her hand under the covers to his bare chest, taking her time trailing across his defined pectorals. She fought a girlish grin as she traced his arm down to his wrist and pulled it out from under the covers to look at his watch. “It’s four in the morning.”
“I wasn’t really supposed to stay this long.” He captured her hand and rested it between them on the bed.
“I know I should say I’m sorry, but I’m really not.”
He smiled that wide, goofy smile and her toes curled tighter. “I really should go, but I don’t think my legs will work.”
“Part of my master plan.”
“What’s that?”
She laughed. “Sorry, can’t really think of a witty comeback right now. I think I’m still dehydrated.”
“So no kidnapping or handcuffs?”
“In my other carryon.”
“Shame. I think that might have gotten me out of trouble.”
He leaned up on one elbow and looked down at her. She’d never been so thoroughly examined before. It electrified her, sending a wave of goose bumps along her skin. His tawny eyes were even more golden in the soft light from the lamp. “I had an amazing time, Gemma.”
“Me too, David.”
“Is there anything else that I can do for you?”
“I think three is enough. Is there anything else that I can do for you?”
He leaned down for one more kiss. He slid his hand underneath the blanket across her bare stomach but stopped.
Gemma frowned.
“I have to go.” He sighed.
“Yes, you do.”
David slid out of bed. She leaned back on the pillows and couldn’t bear to watch him dress, still enjoying the slight spinning of the room in her post-coital bliss.
If sinning always felt this good, she never wanted to be righteous again. She was firmly enjoying her New York experience and she never wanted to go back to Atlanta.
David stood at the foot of her bed and slid on his shoes. “Can I see you again?”
Gemma smiled and leaned up on her elbows to look at him. “I think that can be arranged.”
He smiled and nodded. “I’ll see you around, Gemma.”
She heard the door shut and dropped back down to the bed. He wanted to see her again. It was official. She was never leaving this hotel.
* * * * *
David toweled his hair dry as he walked out of the bathroom. The hot shower helped him think and frankly, he was still trying to get that girl out of his system. She had been too infectious, the shy smile, the twinkle in her gem-toned
eyes. Probably why she’d managed to wriggle herself into the working circles so fast.
She’d played him so well. Probably like every other john. Every smile, every glance seemed custom-made for him. When she laughed, it echoed through him. The way she moved beneath him.
He’d thought he could handle it. The bar, making sure that she took him up on the offer. Everything was going as planned until it wasn’t. Until there wasn’t a thought left in his head that he was going to lose his job if this case went south. Maybe there was no mention of a transaction because he couldn’t stop himself from kissing her. Maybe she wasn’t that perfect, he was just that stupid.
But it hadn’t been a total mistake. As he left that morning, he had left the agreed upon cash with a bug firmly planted between under the dresser. Even though they hadn’t gotten her on tape, they still might, so that night wasn’t a complete lost cause.
But no amount of convincing or hot showers could shake the thought that last night was probably the best night of his entire life. Call girl or not, she was the first person in a long time who made him feel real. As if he wasn’t playing a role.
He hadn’t gotten any information about the case from her, but for one instant, he’d been David Hadley—man. He hadn’t been Renner’s wingman. He hadn’t been the technical guy in the van. He’d been a man who had been interested in a woman, he’d pursued her and she had said yes. Even if it was an obligatory yes.
Renner looked up from the desk where he had three screens locked into the security footage from the hotel and another one running code. “The next time you decide to give a woman three orgasms, could you please turn off the mic?”
“It was working? I didn’t hear a thing from you.” David smiled down at his partner. So many times he’d been on the other end of the mic, this felt a little too good.
Renner didn’t appear amused. “The earpiece was working until you took it out. Which was fatally stupid because you didn’t hear me when I pulled this up.” The driver’s license picture of the woman from last night filled the screen. “Your facial recognition software is crap. Took nearly an hour, but meet Gemma Howard.”
Her dark horn-rimmed glasses hid the emerald eyes he’d been staring into last night and her silky brown hair was pulled tightly back into a frizzy ponytail.
David frowned. “That’s her.”
“Our call girl to the Senate isn’t really the sharpest tool in the shed if she’s checking in under her own name.”
“It’s got to be an alias?”
Renner logged into three databases. “No, Gemma Howard. Twenty-nine. Lives in Atlanta. Works at Central Books. Flew into New York yesterday. Hasn’t left Atlanta since—”
“Since she had her luggage searched in front of an entire gate of people because of a pair of vibrating underwear,” David finished, the truth of her story echoing through him.
David’s heart began to pound. “She had the necklace. She was in the bar at the right time, like the intel said she’d be.”
“Checked in with a Diane Fuller. Age twenty-nine. Currently unemployed and paying for a penthouse suite in full with cash.”
David swallowed. “Did I just…”
“I think you did.”
He’d played the wrong girl. His stomach churned.
When he’d taken her up to her hotel room, he’d fully expected to be given a rundown of her services like pros tended to do, but when she’d looked at him, Agent Hadley slipped away and he was just David, in a room with a woman who smiled like an angel and kissed like a demon.
And that woman had kissed him back. A woman who could quote Shakespeare and knew foreign policy.
He really had ruined this entire case.
His boss was going to kill him. “What do we have on Diane Fuller?”
Renner’s hands flew over the keyboard as he logged into more databases. “Here she is.”
The picture on the screen was almost identical to Gemma. Brown hair, blue eyes, same weight, height, age and alma mater.
He was dead. Samson was going to murder him. “What about the necklace? It was the signal. She followed the pattern we’ve been seeing.”
“Partners? Maybe she’s been running a similar gig in Atlanta?”
David shook his head. It wasn’t right. His gut told him that there was more wrong with this situation than he’d been able to see. But now his head was swimming with her and he could barely think straight at all. He slapped his head into his palms. “And I’ll never be able to ask because I left two grand in bugged bills in her hotel room.”
Renner sat up in his chair as if someone had rammed a spike down his back. “You did what?”
David glared at Renner. “We were sure. We ran this like any other case.”
Renner took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “All is not lost. Let’s think. Review the case.”
David ran his fingers through his hair. “I met a woman in a bar, seduced her and then left an FBI tagged payment in her room.”
“So we get it back. Go smile that goofy smile of yours and say you accidently left it in there. Take her to breakfast and we can search the room.”
“When did you get so good at thinking on your feet?”
“Apparently I only need one.”
David chuckled and rose. “I’ll finish getting dressed.”
“Wear the Savile,” Renner called out.
David went back into the bedroom and grabbed a fresh shirt from his luggage and the jacket of the suit.
“We’ve got trouble.”
David paused. “What kind of trouble?”
His day really couldn’t get any worse. First he’d involved an innocent woman in a criminal investigation and wasted an entire evening he should have spent tracking an actual criminal.
Renner pulled his headphones out of the jack and an audio feed filled the room.
“Oh my god. I am so sorry. I had a major blowup at work last night.”
David walked out to listen to the unfamiliar voice.
Renner smiled. “Houston, I think we have a roomie.”
Chapter Five
As Gemma fingered the bills from the envelope, her brain slowly fractured into two camps. Both had her stomach churning with a type of hatred that made her finally understand the phrase “seeing red”.
One, he thought she was a hooker. Because nice girls don’t hang out at bars and meet nice men. Because nice, single girls don’t go downstairs in their friends’ clothing and have a drink without putting a price tag on their foreheads. She had to be purchased and paid for.
Two, this was one hell of a goodbye and thanks. If he didn’t think she was a hooker, this was a shitty way to say “hope to never see you again” despite what he had said. It wasn’t until she was in the shower that she realized she’d been too caught up with everything going right to ask for a phone number. He’d been perfect, utterly perfect, and for one night, so was she.
Her fingers clenched the crisp bills until they were a wadded ball of green. Worst of all was she should have known better. No man would actually want her. Especially not some handsome guy who actually got her literary references.
Gemma grew sick to her stomach. She hadn’t had enough of these one-night stands to grow callous. She wanted to burn the money. She wanted to go home. She wanted to beat his perfect little face into a pulp and leave him crying for his mother.
Her knees gave out beneath her and she sat, leaning against the bureau with more cash than she made in a week clutched between her fingers. She didn’t know what to think.
The door to the suite zipped open and shut and Annie pressed her body against the wood. “Oh my god. I am so sorry. I had a major blowup at work last night.”
Still a puddle on the floor, Gemma watched as Annie shimmied out of her dress and left it where it landed. She scurried to the room and Gemma saw a few dresses go flying before Annie came out with a blue bandage dress pulled up over her hips.
“Gemi, what’s wrong?”
Gemma held
the cash out to her.
“Gem?” Annie pulled up her dress and knelt down before her friend.
“I met a guy last night, had a few drinks, invited him up and he left this.” It didn’t sound as horrible as it felt. Could have been a pitch for a summer romantic comedy.
Annie reached toward her, but bypassed the wad of cash and fingered the necklace she still had around her neck. “You wore this?”
“You said I could.”
“I did?” She pried the cash from Gemma’s hand. She started smoothing out the bills, muttering to herself. She stuffed a hundred dollar bill in her bra and kept organizing the cash.
“What?” Gemma demanded.
“I told them to cancel it. That something about it didn’t feel right.”
Gemma was pretty sure the entire room flipped over, or at least her stomach did. “What?”
Annie pressed her lips together in a small smile. “He thought you were me.”
“But…” The mental picture in Gemma’s head was not a good one. “You’re a…”
“Call girl, prostitute.” Annie nodded. “Money’s good. The men are nice. And I make more in one night than most girls do in two weeks.”
The vision of David flashed across her brain and she held her head in her hands. He had been nice. And damn convincing.
“Bright side. You finally got laid. Someone thought you were pretty enough to pay for.”
“Uuhhh.” Gemma fell over and face-planted into the lush carpet that she was now realizing was paid for by sex money. The refreshing smell of the room suddenly had a funky edge to it.
“Gemi, talk to me. Please?” Annie ran her fingers through her friend’s hair. “It’s funny, if you think about it. Or it will be eventually. How many other girls can say they were accidentally an escort?”
Though her friend was smiling, Gemma had to be the stupidest girl in the world. She’s actually believed it when he kissed her. She’d believed that she would see him again.
A small silver coin was lodged in the thick carpeting. She reached out to pick it up. The small metallic disc looked like a coin, but a circuit board was on the other side.
Pride and Prostitution Page 3