Drastic Measures

by Shiloh Walker

  She was probably wrong.

  She knew that.

  But still, that didn’t stop her from carrying the dress into the bathroom to let the steam take out some of the wrinkles as she showered. She didn’t let it stop her as she pulled the velvet on over her naked body and she didn’t let it stop her as she wrapped her hair into a loose knot and secured it in place with two jeweled sticks. She didn’t let it stop her as she left her house a little before midnight and she didn’t let it stop her when she arrived at his condo.

  It wasn’t until she rang that buzzer that she stopped to think that maybe this wasn’t a good idea. Hell, he might not even be home. It was Friday night. Ethan was a ridiculously good-looking, single guy. He probably—

  “Pam?”

  She swallowed and tried to smile at the little security camera but she knew it fell flat. “Hey.”

  What was she doing here?

  Ethan didn’t want to think about it too hard as he rode the elevator down. Maybe she’d forgotten something. Maybe she had a change of heart over what had happened and she wanted to tell him to stay away from her.

  Maybe she— The doors slid open and Pam stood there in a circle of light, the sensuous gleam of black velvet cradling her soft curves. She had a black lace choker around her soft, pale neck and long jet earrings that nearly fell to her shoulders. He picked his jaw up off the floor and managed a somewhat normal tone as he asked, “Did you…uh…damn, Pam.”

  She smiled at him—that quick, nervous smile that was so damn endearing. “Can I come up?”

  You can come wherever you want as long as I’m the one inside you, he thought inanely. Not trusting himself to speak, he stepped to the side and gestured her into the elevator.

  “You were wearing that dress the first night I saw you,” he murmured as he jabbed the button to send the elevator back to his floor.

  She glanced at him over her shoulder. “I know.” She turned to face him, leaning back against the glass walls of the elevator, her hands pressed flat to the wall behind her. “Not too many guys would remember something like that. It’s been four years.”

  Four years, three months and almost three weeks, Ethan thought. But who’s counting?

  He skimmed his fingers across the slopes of her breasts, watching from beneath his lashes as her eyes widened and a slow smile curved her lips. “Why do you remember, Ethan?”

  Not much point in hiding it anymore, Ethan thought. She’d dumped Shawn. The guy was out of her life, at least for now, and Ethan planned on keeping it that way if he could help it. It might take a body bag and shovels if Pam started showing a little more interest in forgiving her ex-fiancé but Ethan could manage that.

  “Because there’s very little I don’t remember about you,” he said, his voice harsh and gritty. “Obsession, remember? I remember you wore a pearl necklace that night. You wore black panty hose, or stockings, I couldn’t tell, but I remember that I spent a good thirty minutes trying to decide which one. I asked you to dance and you said no. Figured you had a boyfriend but I never guessed it was Shawn.”

  His voice dropped and he reached up, cupping her cheek in his hand as he murmured, “I knew the minute he introduced you to me that he didn’t deserve you. He spent half the night ignoring you and talking business. I would have spent the night on the dance floor with you in my arms and then I would have taken you home and made love to you until dawn.”

  Stroking his thumb across her satiny skin, he whispered, “I remember things about you that you probably didn’t realize anybody knew.” Then, before he could pull her against him and demand things she probably wasn’t ready to give, he let his hand fall away and fisted it at his side.

  Slowly, Pam straightened away from the wall, staring at him as she took one small step closer. Licking her lips, she asked, “Is this the kind of obsession where you’re going to start stalking me, going through my underwear drawer and my trash cans and calling me at two a.m.? Or a different kind?”

  He grinned despite himself. “If I was going to start stalking you, I would have started already.” Then, unable to help himself, he slid his gaze over her sweet, soft curves, lingered on her hips. “But I wouldn’t mind going through your panty drawer. I’ve spent a lot of nights wondering what kind of underwear you like. Lace…thongs…nothing…”

  “All of the above,” she said, grinning impishly. Then, holding his gaze, she reached behind her. He heard the zipper as loudly as if it were a gunshot and his breath lodged somewhere in the vicinity of his throat as she slowly dragged the zipper down. “What are you doing?” he asked, his voice tight and rusty.

  Pam smiled at him. “What’s it look like?”

  There was a part of him that wouldn’t ever forgive what he was getting ready to do. But Ethan wasn’t going to sleep with her again, not unless it meant something. Something to her, at least. She didn’t know it but last night had simultaneously been the best night and the worst night of Ethan’s entire life. He swallowed the knot in his throat, a knot that felt the size on a soccer ball, as he caught her dress before it could fall to her waist. “This isn’t a good idea,” he said hoarsely.

  She crooked a brow at him. “Why not?”

  “Because…” he closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to hers. “Because what I feel for you goes a little beyond obsession, Pam, and I don’t know if I can take being a rebound guy. Not for you.”

  She smiled at him, pushing up onto her toes so she could lick his lips. Fire licked along the base of his spine and Ethan wondered if he might come in his pants, just from that. “That’s not what this is about, Ethan.”

  He lifted his head and smiled. If his smile felt a little bitter, even to himself, could anybody blame him? “Isn’t it?” Gently, he eased her dress back up and reminded himself that he cared about her. A lot. She had to be hurting about Shawn and that was normal. She might need a friendly shoulder and he could maybe do that but he wasn’t having comfort sex. Not with her.

  But before he could reach around her and tug the zipper back up, Pam caught one wrist and brought his hand up so she could press it to her chest. Through the warmth of the velvet and the soft satin of her skin, he felt that mad beat of her heart. “My heart did that the first time I saw you. And every time since. I always thought it was because I was afraid of you but now I have to wonder because I don’t feel afraid when I look at you anymore.”

  Reaching up, she pulled two jeweled sticks from her hair and Ethan groaned as the thick, gleaming mass fell to her shoulders. Naked, smooth, soft shoulders. “If it’s not fear, Ethan, then there aren’t too many things left it could be. And I don’t know about you but I’d really like to know for sure what it is.”

  Holding his gaze, she slid his hand inside the strapless top of her gown. “I can’t say that I’m obsessed with you, Ethan. But I do think I’ve got feelings for you.” She shimmied and squirmed a little and Ethan almost swallowed his tongue as the dress fell down, catching on her full hips for a moment and then falling to the floor in a puddle of black velvet. “And I’ve got a feeling they could quickly grow into the obsessive kind.”

  He slid his eyes over her, from the top of her sexily mussed hair to the bottom of her naked feet, tucked inside a pair of sexy black heels. Hell. He wanted to be a decent guy but he sure as hell wasn’t a saint. Especially not with her.

  He reached out and cupped his hands around her hips, pulling her against him. Her breasts—big and round and plump—were topped with erect, pink nipples and they crushed against his chest as she rose onto her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck. The softly rounded curve of her belly pillowed his cock as he pressed against her. “I can’t believe Shawn was that big a fool,” he muttered, bending low so he could press a kiss to her neck. “But I’m damn glad he was.”

  She laughed—a low, sexy sound that went straight to his cock. “Me too.” Then she reached between them and popped the button of his jeans. A smug, feline smile curved her lips as she sank to her knees in front of him, wea
ring nothing but that black lace choker and her black heels.

  As she took his cock inside her mouth, Ethan buried his hands in the silk of her hair and groaned, staring down at her as she took him deep, deep, deep. When the head of his cock bumped the back of her throat, she swallowed. The sensation was almost more than he could handle and he swore, desperately tugging on her hair, pulling her back before he shot off in her mouth like a teenage boy.

  She did it again and again and again until he was hovering on the brink of orgasm, desperate to be inside her. “Damn it, Pam, you’re killing me,” he muttered hoarsely. “Come here.”

  Pulling away just for a second, she gave him a wicked grin and murmured, “Not until you come…” Then she went back to work, suckling, licking and deep-throating him until he couldn’t fight it anymore and exploded into her mouth, his hands fisted in her hair, holding her head steady as he fucked his cock back and forth between her lips.

  When he finally let her go, she straightened, gazed up at him and smiled. Tenderness moved through his heart as he stared at her. His legs were still a little watery but he had to touch her. Had to. Reaching out, he hooked an arm around her neck and pulled her against him.

  Ethan, his shoulders braced against the glass wall of the elevator, closed his eyes and tried to catch his breath.

  Some obsessions weren’t good, he knew.

  But this one? This one had been worth every miserable second he’d spent alone over the past four years.

  Look for other titles by Shiloh

  The Barnes Brothers

  Wrecked

  Razed

  Busted

  Contemporary Standalone Titles

  Beg Me

  Tempt Me

  Beautiful Scars

  A Forever Kind of Love

  Playing for Keeps

  No Longer Mine

  The Ash Trilogy

  If You Hear Her

  If You See Her

  If You Know Her

  The Secrets & Shadows Series

  Burn For Me

  Break For Me

  Long For Me

  Deeper Than Need

  Sweeter Than Sin

  Darker Than Desire

  The FBI Psychics

  The Missing

  The Departed

  The Reunited

  The Protected

  The Unwanted

  The Innocent

  And more

  About

  Shiloh Walker has been writing since she was a kid. She fell in love with vampires with the book Bunnicula and has worked her way up to the more…ah…serious works of fiction. She loves reading and writing anything paranormal, anything fantasy, and nearly every kind of romance. Once upon a time she worked as a nurse, but now she writes full time and lives with her family in the Midwest. She writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance, and urban fantasy under her penname, J.C. Daniels. You can find her at Twitter or Facebook and read more about her work at her website. Sign up for her newsletter and have a chance to win a monthly giveaway.