by Karen Foley
He shifted against her, and she could feel the unmistakable thrust of his erection bumping against her hip. Caroline’s breath hitched. She liked this side of Jason, sexy and masculine. The heat she saw in his eyes made her feel uninhibited and completely desirable. At sixteen, she hadn’t known her own power. But now she realized that what he had said was true—she had all the control. Despite the fact that he had her wrists pinned over her head, she was the one who was calling the shots.
“Maybe this time,” she murmured, her gaze fastened on his delectable mouth, “we can finally finish what we started all those years ago.”
“I’m counting on it.”
He released her wrists and Caroline slid a hand up over his chest to his shoulder. She wanted to touch him everywhere. His skin was like hot satin beneath her fingers. Hooking a leg over his thigh, she pressed intimately against him, reveling in the feel of him, hard and pulsing, against the juncture of her thighs. She slid a hand between their bodies and cupped him through the stretchy material of his briefs, loving how he jerked beneath her fingers.
“Oh, my,” she murmured appreciatively, then slipped her fingers beneath the waistband to take him in her hand, dragging a little grunt from him. He felt incredible in her palm. She stroked her thumb over the head of his erection, feeling the slick moisture there.
“I think you have too many clothes on,” she whispered, pressing her lips against his chest. “Can we do something about that?”
“You bet.” His response was immediate; he pushed both his jeans and his briefs off and kicked them free. And there he was, rising thick and rigid against the flatness of his stomach. Caroline’s mouth went dry as she thought of that part of him inside her.
She dragged her gaze upward, forcing herself to look into his eyes. They were as green as the surf that pounded the sands outside and turbulent with passion. For her. A primal thrill coursed through her at the look of raw desire on his face.
“Hurry,” she urged.
He took her hand and guided it back to him, and Caroline needed no further incentive to wrap her fingers around him. He pulsed strongly against her palm. God, he was so hot. And hard. And satiny beneath her fingertips.
She slid her hand down the length of his shaft and felt a rush of possessive pride when he sucked his breath in sharply and then buried his face against her neck. Caroline continued to stroke him, tentatively at first and then with growing confidence as he groaned softly and bent his head to her breast, capturing her nipple in his mouth and drawing deeply on it.
And there it was again. The slow, throbbing ache that made her long to wrap her legs around him and bring him completely inside her.
“Jason,” she whispered against his hair, “please...”
He raised his head from her breast, and his eyes were startlingly bright, as if lit from within. “Yeah?”
“I want you. Inside me.”
Without a word, he reached over the edge of the bed to fumble with his discarded jeans. When he came back, he held a small foil package.
A condom! God, she hadn’t even thought about protection. She was grateful that Jason still had the ability to think rationally, and she wondered how often he found himself in this kind of situation. Did he always carry a condom in his pocket, or had he come prepared specifically because he was hoping to hook up with her? She found she didn’t really care which it was. She had dreamed of this moment, and now that it was really happening, she didn’t want to worry too much about his motives.
She watched as he covered himself and then positioned himself above her. Reaching down, he lifted one of her legs and laid it across his back, opening her. He stroked a finger along the seam of her sex, and Caroline gasped at the exquisite sensation. Pleasure lashed through her. When she felt the smooth knob of his erection nudging against her, she lifted her hips in invitation.
“Do you want me to stop?” His voice was rough, his breathing coming in pants. His gaze didn’t waver as he stared down at her.
“No. Please, no.”
With his eyes fixed on hers, he surged forward in one powerful thrust and sank himself fully in her heat. His possession of her was so total, so complete, that she almost stopped breathing.
“Oh, God,” she whispered and closed her eyes.
“Look at me,” he ground out.
Caroline opened her eyes. He braced himself above her, his eyes glittering with masculine satisfaction. He didn’t move, just let her adjust to him. “Doing okay?”
“Oh, yeah,” she murmured. “You feel incredible. I don’t want you to hold back, Jason.”
She didn’t want him treating her with kid gloves. She wanted all of him—all his passion—without any restraints. She shifted her hips experimentally beneath him, and the slide of his flesh against hers was almost too wonderful to bear.
Jason closed his eyes briefly, as if in pain. “This feels too good. I’ll try to go gently, but goddamn, you’re so snug.”
Then, with their gazes locked on each other, he began to move, pumping slow and deep. Each new stroke heightened her sensitivity, and she could feel her inner muscles clench greedily around his hard length. This is what she had wanted—what she had waited for.
Jason. Making love to her.
Caroline gasped as he filled her, and she clutched feverishly at his shoulders. He captured her mouth with his, sweeping his tongue against hers. His big hands cupped her buttocks and lifted her to better meet the bone-melting thrusts of his hips against hers. She arched against him and raised both legs to wrap them around his lean hips.
“That’s it,” he murmured against her mouth. “Just let go.”
Caroline had never felt anything so all-consuming. He filled her, surrounded her and drove out every conscious thought she had. There was only him, connected to her.
She was being swept upward in a vortex of sensations, mindless to everything but the fierceness of her need. He was moving faster now, pumping into her with increasing urgency. He lifted his head to look at her. His features were taut, and a vein pulsed in his neck. He was close to climaxing, and knowing that she was responsible was a powerful aphrodisiac. Liquid heat flooded to the spot where he stroked her and heightened the sharpness of her desire.
“Jason,” she breathed as she felt her own orgasm building again, even more intense than before.
He smoothed the damp tendrils of her hair back from her face. “I’m here,” he said huskily. “I’m right here with you, babe.” He adjusted the angle of his hips against hers, so that each stroke ground him against her clitoris. He thrust deeper until he filled her completely. “I want you to come again.”
His words pushed her over the edge.
“Oh, oh,” Caroline gasped, and Jason caught her small, frantic cries with his mouth, spearing his tongue against hers as he moved faster, pushing her higher with each mind-shattering drive of his hips.
She climaxed in a blinding white-hot rush of pleasure. Jason bucked against her, and she felt him stiffen and then shudder once, twice and then again, inside her. He collapsed onto her, his heart pounding erratically, and she wrapped her arms around him, not wanting to let him go. She stroked her hands over his back, slick with sweat, and reveled in the feel of his body, heavy and replete against hers.
“Ahh...damn,” he gasped. “That was unbelievable.” He raised himself on his elbows over her. He kissed her, slowly and languorously, but made no move to withdraw from the warmth of her body. When he finally pulled back to look at her, his ex
pression was intensely serious and filled with a tenderness that made her chest ache. “You okay?”
Caroline gazed at him. “I think so.” Her legs were still curved around his hips, and their breathing was uneven as they stared at one another.
As if unable to help himself, Jason dipped his head and kissed her again, a kiss so sweet that she thought she could willingly stay in his arms like that forever. When he finally lifted his head, it was to carefully withdraw from her body. After rolling away from her, he sat on the edge of the bed to dispose of the condom. But he didn’t immediately come back and pull her into his arms as she wanted him to.
Reaching out, she tentatively touched Jason’s back. “That was even better than I could have imagined.”
In the indistinct light, his expression was difficult to read. Finally, he eased himself back down beside her. Reaching down, he retrieved a quilt that lay folded at the foot of the bed, opened it and covered them both with it. Pulling her against his side, he smoothed her hair back behind her ear and gently ran the back of his knuckles across her cheek.
“This is definitely going to complicate things,” he said wryly, but he took the sting out of his words by dropping a kiss onto the corner of her mouth.
“It’s what I wanted,” Caroline assured him.
“Like I said...spoiled rotten.”
This time there was no malice in his words, and she smiled up at him. “You’d do better to remember that I always get what I want.”
He was silent for a moment. “You should want more than what I can offer.”
Raising herself on one elbow, Caroline studied his face in the darkness. “I’ve done a lot of growing up in the last twelve years,” she finally said. “And while I may not have as much experience with the opposite sex as you have, I do have enough to know what I want.”
His mouth curved in a rueful smile. “Just tell me you didn’t make good on your promise to have a dozen other guys when you were only sixteen.”
His tone was teasing, but Caroline could hear the underlying question in his voice.
“There’ve been a few,” she acknowledged, thinking of her past relationships. “But not until I was in college, and not even close to a dozen.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“I have no regrets, Jason.” She was glad that the darkness hid her expression. Didn’t he see that she’d gotten exactly what she wanted? She knew he’d had a rough upbringing, and that maybe he had some lingering insecurities about his background, but she’d never considered him beneath her, and the inference that he was somehow unworthy of her was disturbing.
“I’m glad,” he said gruffly and pulled her down beside him, so that her cheek rested on his chest. She could hear his heart beating and wondered how long this dream would last.
7
JASON NEEDED A stiff drink.
Badly.
He’d waited until Caroline had fallen asleep; then, unable to close his own eyes, he’d finally gone downstairs. Barefoot and shirtless, he strode to the wet bar and poured himself a shot of Judge Banks’s best bourbon, then quaffed it in a single gulp. He gasped as the liquor burned its way down his throat and set the empty glass down on the counter.
Sex with Caroline had exceeded anything Jason could have imagined, and he’d imagined a lot. He just hadn’t been prepared for how completely she’d made love with him. She hadn’t held anything back, and she hadn’t let him hold back, either. As much as he’d like to tell himself this was only about sex, he knew differently. Despite what she’d told him all those years ago, Caroline wasn’t the kind of woman to sleep with a guy unless it meant something to her, and that was causing him all kinds of guilt.
With a groan, he scrubbed his hands over his face and sat down at the table where he had spread out the case files. After several moments, he gave up any pretense of looking at the documents. He couldn’t concentrate. All he could think about was Caroline. Upstairs, in his bed.
Naked.
He could still taste her, still feel the satiny texture of her skin beneath his fingertips. Still hear the feminine sounds of pleasure she’d made as he’d brought her to orgasm. He didn’t think he’d ever experienced anything as sexy and beautiful as Caroline Banks in the throes of ecstasy.
No question about it—he was in serious trouble. If she had even an inkling of where he’d come from or what he’d done in the past, she’d never have considered inviting him into her bed. He tried not to think about what would happen if she were to see through his carefully constructed veneer, to what he really was inside.
In the next instant, he realized it didn’t even matter. She wasn’t staying in California, and he wasn’t about to let himself get serious about her, even if she was. He thought he’d put his past behind him, but it was times like this when he realized he was still very much that angry boy from the wrong side of the tracks. Despite his personal successes, he couldn’t quite convince himself that he was good enough for Caroline Banks. He had no doubt that eventually she’d come to the same realization.
With a deep sigh, he laced his fingers together behind his head and stared at the ceiling, envisioning Caroline curled up in bed. Before he could change his mind, he pushed his chair back and took the stairs two at a time. He still believed that she deserved better than him, but he silently acknowledged that he wasn’t above taking whatever she offered. He was a selfish bastard and not afraid to admit it.
Outside his bedroom, he paused, and then he carefully opened the door. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, but he could just make out her form under the blanket. Quietly, he shucked his jeans and slid in behind her. She gave a sleepy murmur of surprise and then shifted so her back was pressed against his chest. Groping with one hand, she found his arm and dragged it over her body so that he was wrapped around her. She was warm, and she smelled like the fragrant soap she’d used in the shower. It took all his restraint not to let his hands roam everywhere. Instead, he forced himself to remain still, but there was nothing he could do about his growing arousal.
“Where’d you go?” she whispered.
Jason leaned over and kissed her. “Just downstairs for a minute. You okay?”
She squeezed his hand and brought it up to cover one bare breast. “Better than okay. That was perfect. You were perfect. Even better than my fantasies.”
Jason groaned, knowing he was a goner. Her breast was heavy and soft in his hand, and he cupped it gently, stroking his thumb over her nipple until it tightened beneath his touch. While there was a part of him that was scared shitless about what had happened between them, another part of him was filled with masculine satisfaction. For tonight, it was enough. He wouldn’t let himself think about tomorrow.
* * *
JASON LEFT THE bed as the first fingers of light were touching the ocean beyond the dunes. He crept silently down the stairs, unwilling to wake her. After last night, she needed her sleep more than she needed to rush to her father’s bedside. As he entered the kitchen, he stopped short.
Colton leaned against the counter with a cup of coffee in one hand and a disapproving expression on his face. Silently, he poured a second cup of coffee from the fresh pot he had brewed and handed it to Jason.
“Don’t say it,” Jason warned, accepting the mug.
“What were you doing upstairs?” Colton asked. “Please tell me you weren’t with her.”
Jason took a gulp of the hot liquid, ignoring the other man’s question. “Have you been in touch with the hospital?”
Colton nodded. “Yeah. There’s been no change to the judge’s condition.” He glanced at his watch. “What time do you want to leave?”
Jason walked over to the table and pret
ended to consider the files that were strewn across the surface. “I thought I’d let Caroline catch up on her sleep. She had a pretty rough day yesterday.”
Colton was too well trained to comment, but Jason knew the other man wasn’t fooled. The truth was, he and Caroline hadn’t gotten very much sleep after he’d returned to bed. Jason was still riding an adrenaline high, but he knew he’d be feeling the effects of the strenuous night before the day was through. He was trained to go for extended periods without sleep, but Caroline wasn’t. The emotional stress she was under, combined with the physical demands he’d made of her, meant she would be exhausted unless she got some rest.
“It’s more difficult to be objective when you’re emotionally involved with your detail,” Colton commented. “Not to mention that it’s not very professional. I know you and Caroline go way back, but I’m not sure this is the time or place to rediscover whatever it is you had together.”
Jason shot him a baleful look. “Let it go, Black.”
Colton made a sound of disgust as he pushed away from the counter and headed for the door, coffee mug in hand. “I hope you know what you’re doing. I’ll be outside if you need me.”
Jason didn’t take offense at the other man’s words. The two of them had worked together for over five years, and Colton was the closest thing he had to a friend. If their positions were reversed, he’d have expressed the same concerns. He didn’t regret last night, but he acknowledged that sleeping with Caroline might not have been the smartest idea. But now that he had, everything had changed.
She was his, in the most elemental way there was. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her. In order to protect her, he needed to find out who had shot her father. Whoever was responsible was still out there. And while the FBI had formal jurisdiction over the case and was performing its own investigation, Jason knew it couldn’t hurt for him to review the files. He had an immediate familiarity with most of the cases and a good instinct for what might have motivated such a vicious attack.