by Selena Kitt
He captured her hand and pulled her to him.
"What are you doing?" Her voice was low but harsh as she shot a look from him to the door.
"Last night wasn't really a get to know you moment, if you recall."
If she recalled. It had been the only thing she could think about since. "Not really. I don't act like that. Do those kinds of things. I was probably drunk." She glanced beyond his shoulder, not wanting to look into his captivating face, he was too tempting.
"Probably?" His thick, strong fingers stroked around hers.
The touch made her think of his hands on her ass, gripping her as he thrust deep. She exhaled a shaky breath. "No… I was drunk. Way over my limit." She offered a dry, false chuckle. "I barely even remember you."
"Bullshit," he hissed. Closing the gap, he pressed her back against the sink and fit his muscled form to the front of her. His free hand was on one of her breasts. "You can lie to yourself, but not to me." He squeezed the plump flesh, it felt swollen and achy in his large hand. "It wasn't alcohol that had your tight pussy coming all over my cock, but need. A deep in the core, unfiltered, raw desire. You felt it, I felt it."
She gasped as he pinched her hard nipple, her bra no barrier to his fondling. "Look," she began. It was true she couldn't deny his truth. What had happened between them was kismet, something beyond comprehension. Just like now—she wanted to feel him inside of her again. More than that, she wanted to touch him beneath the layers of his clothes. Know what the heat of his skin was like against hers. "This isn't the time."
"I know." Even as he said it, he dragged her to him and kissed her. His hands were cupping her ass as he held her against his raging hard-on.
It thrilled the woman in her, making her insides pulse with need. Her hands moved under his suit jacket seemingly of their own accord, she was traveling along the firm, hard muscles of his pecs and down his hard abs.
When his hands moved with finesse and unfastened her pants before cupping her through her panties, she came groggily to her senses. "Wait, we can't." Her body screamed, 'Not here.' Her mind warned, 'Not at all.'
"I know, sweetness," he groaned. His eyes closed for a moment as he took a deep breath, as if to steady himself. However, his hand between her thighs had not moved. His eyes opened, then met hers, blazing, and just as heated as her body felt. "Look, Kerrigan, we need to talk."
"I don't think there's anything we need to say." It took all her strength not to thrust into his hand. "What happened before was mindless, but now that we know the situation, we can be more sensible."
"Meet me tonight." He kept talking as if her point was moot. "After all this. After your responsibilities are done."
"Alexander, I don't think that's—"
"Jaxon," he declared.
Jaxon. His name sent tremors through her body. "Whoever you are. Anything between us isn't a good idea," she countered. Using her hands on his chest, she tried to push him away.
He didn't budge. His hand, which had been still moments before, began to caress her sex through her cotton, military uniform appropriate, underwear.
She felt her cheeks heat with embarrassment at the conservative undergarments he was feeling even as her sex flamed and throbbed. "Please…" Unsure of what she was really pleading for, she removed her hands and gripped the edge of the sink behind her.
"I'm at the Embassy Suites. Come see me. I'm in room—"
"I am too busy to remember anything now." She tried again to dissuade him. "So it's best you head back to the party and forget me."
His gaze held hers as his jaw flexed. This was a man who didn't like to be pushed aside, no matter the reason. His fingers skirted the edge of her panties and slipped along her wetness.
"Ah." The moan tumbled out before she could stop it. "What are you doing?"
His finger circled her before slipping along her slit, between her labia. "You're creaming in your own panties, sweetness. You can't forget it, why should I even try?" His cocky and devastating smile should be outlawed.
Before she could answer, he removed his hand and reached past her shoulder. "I'll be waiting. Don't make me get your number from my brother." Leaning in, he kissed her quickly, then stepped back. He set his fingers to his mouth and licked her cream from them right before her. With a wink, he turned and went out the door.
When it closed behind him, she exhaled and used all of her strength to keep her knees from giving way. Pulling herself together, she fixed her pants, then turned to splash a little water on her face. It was then that she saw it, glistening before her eyes.
In the mirror were four numbers, written in what she knew was her own essence: 9132
She didn't have to be told it was his room number at the downtown hotel. Shocked at his audacious actions, she grabbed a paper towel. She moved her dirty top to the hook beside the sink, then wet the paper before she quickly scrubbed the dewy note away. It still seemed like she could see it, even though it couldn't possibly be there. Kerri added soap to the towel and wiped at the spot harder. Satisfied she'd removed all the evidence, she washed her hands then donned her smock.
I should go to the hotel just to give the smug jerk a piece of my mind.
"I am so not going anywhere near that man," she mumbled to herself. She exited the closet and headed toward the kitchen. When she entered her domain, all thoughts of any naughty tryst and the man who drove her to madness went out of her mind.
Chapter Three
Jaxon lay across the hotel bed, trying to relax hours after his brother's event. It was almost three in the morning, and nothing but an old movie he'd seen a dozen times was on the television. Cuba Gooding, Jr was telling Tom Cruise to yell, 'Show me the money'. Normally that part of Jerry McGuire made him laugh, but he was viewing it absently at the moment.
It was just noise, a pathetic distraction to his mind wandering. He'd figured over an hour ago that Kerrigan was not coming. Maybe it was best. The woman was too strait-laced for him anyway.
Bullshit, his core screamed.
When he had returned to the backyard, his brother and Helen had looked at him strangely. However, Jaxon knew that the event was too important for Franklin to question him on the situation then and there. Jaxon had told him that the aide was okay. His brother had continued to party with his guests, making Jax hope the conversation wouldn't come up some other time this week while he was in town.
What he had with Kerrigan was private, personal. Which was the reason why he knew his threat to ask his brother anything about her was empty. They had only been together once. As it sat, nothing was going to come of it. No matter how much he desired to see her again. It was probably best she hadn't shown up. As he'd determined last night, his life was too complicated to add in a long distance relationship.
"Maybe I should make an excuse. Tell my brother I got called up and head back up 95." He dragged a hand over his face and thought about going into the mini bar and getting shit-faced. All he'd had were two glasses of wine at the dinner.
He wasn't a wine person, but it was the only thing on hand, and he'd needed something to dull his mind when she came out to serve the four course meal in the elegant tent set up. She hadn't even looked at him once as she'd smiled and made small talk with the other guests who commented on the excellence of the food and her staff.
It had grated on his nerves.
Launching up from the bed, he went to the fridge below the room's microwave by the executive suite kitchenette. He pulled the door open hard and started to reach for the Jim Beam when he was halted by the soft knock.
He turned and froze as he stared at the door. His hand trembled slightly on the refrigerator handle. Because he was nervous? Hell no. He'd stared down the barrel of an enemy gun without an ounce of fear, and clear-minded enough to act fast and take the bastards out. But this, this was different. It didn't require training and action, but emotions. He wasn't good at letting someone into that part of himself.
After he swung the small door closed, he crossed
the room. He was sure if he waited too long, she'd rabbit. Even as hardcore as he was, he wasn't stupid. He knew who he was expecting, but he never opened a door without double checking to make sure.
A quick glance showed him the beauty in the small circular view. He saw her biting her bottom lip and staring down the hall. She was second-guessing her decision, ready to jet.
When he pulled open the door, he saw her stepping away. "Leaving so soon, sweetness?"
Turning back, she looked at him. She shrugged. "I shouldn't have come."
He was glad she had. "But you did."
She shoved her hands deep into her jean pockets. Gone were the official military threads. Now she was subdued, almost innocent, with her clean scrubbed face, tank top, and hair in a high ponytail.
"A bad idea," she said.
"Come in." He stepped aside, holding her gaze as he waited for her to make her decision. Stay or go? "Please."
He'd never begged a woman not to leave before. No, in his life, he gave them the song and dance about no commitment bullshit. Whatever he could say to get them to leave and not expect more. Now, he wanted more. Even though he had no fucking clue what 'more' consisted of in this situation.
* * *
She made her way into the room. Kerrigan couldn't understand how she had even made it to room 9132. Three hours ago, she had convinced herself that she was going to keep her distance from this man. After they'd cleaned up from the party, put everything back in order, and packed up all the extra supplies they had brought in for the event for pick up the next day, she'd said goodnight to her staff and turned the keys over to Handler. It had been bittersweet. She'd gotten into her car and headed off base with a firm thought in her mind that she was going home. At some point, she went left instead of right, trying not to think of her reasons for going downtown.
When she rode the elevator up, she told herself that she'd give one knock. If he was already sleep and didn't answer, it wasn't meant to be anything but what it had been.
Now she was here.
The door closed softly, but with a solid snick that sealed her inside with Jaxon.
"You're an anomaly." She walked a tight circle, preferring to look anywhere but at the large bed before her. A glance at the kitchenette bar showed the few snacks set there—jerky, plain chips, and Twinkies.
"I think the same about you." He moved closer, placing himself in her line of vision but still steps away from touching her. The sleeveless undershirt he wore left his roped arms bare. His skin was stretched taut over his broad shoulders.
She pushed her fists deeper in her pockets to keep from reaching toward him, touching.
"Do I need to be concerned about the possibility of you being pregnant?"
His question threw her for a loop. The fact they'd had sex without protection appalled her. Since the first time she had sex, she'd always insisted the guy wrap it up. This was just proof that Jaxon snatched her out of her comfort zone on so many levels and made her senseless.
I should go.
She remained. "No. I've been on birth control since I got in the military."
He sighed, but didn't appear to have the condescending look of relief some men got when they felt like they'd gotten caught out there with a woman they had no intention of having a relationship with. "Okay. Good to know. And for the record, I'm clean. In special ops, we get tested every six months. I also never go without."
Unable to stop the sarcasm as it came up at the inflection on never, she said, "Not always."
"You, sweetness…" He shook his head as if trying to clear it from some kind of dizzying fog. "Are something else altogether."
She understood his lack of words to describe what was going on between them. "I'm clean, too. I'm tested yearly, but it's been more than a few years for me. By choice; work and all." She didn't want him to think she'd hooked up with him out of desperation.
Nodding, he rubbed his jaw. "That explains a lot."
A brow kicked up. "Like what?"
"How tight you were." His words came out without hesitation as the intense, dark eyes held hers. "I was afraid I'd split you in two, as rough as I was."
The roughness had been just what she'd wanted, needed, demanded. Even now she remembered the feel of his large cock thrusting inside her, stretching and shaping her to his length. It had been glorious. The memory of it had her sex soaking her panties. She inhaled and offered a small smile, hoping to alleviate his concern. "I survived."
A warm bath when she got home had helped soothe the soreness she'd dealt with while spending another hour at the club with her friends before being able to make her excuses and leave her own party.
"Glad to hear it." He sounded sincere.
"I don't have time in my life for a relationship. Not right now," she confessed.
"Neither do I, sweetness."
Sweetness. It was something about the way he said the endearment that caused her heart to race and her sex to bloom.
"Then why don't we just leave this alone? Stop playing with fire."
One step. Two steps. Three steps. He stood before her. "Can you do that?"
His voice held a challenge.
She stared at him. His dark eyes were clear, unguarded.
"Even knowing that this shouldn't be happening. That we should just turn away, forget about each other. Tell me, can you do it?"
Pulling a hand from her jeans, she dragged it over her head, then tugged along her ponytail. "I don't know. I've always been able to restrain myself for my goals."
This is my commander's brother.
"I've never begged a woman to stay before. If you want to walk, there's the door. I won't stop you." The truth of his words reflected in the clear depths of his eyes. Even though his posture was relaxed, with his hands at his sides, there were ripples of muscle movement up his arms and through his shoulders that shouted tension.
This situation mattered to him.
Just like it did to her.
Maybe it was his words or the vulnerability that radiated from his body, a difficult effect to muster for an imposing man such as Jaxon. He was leaving this escapade in her hands. Did she want this?
That was the real question. They could go back and forth on if they should, or how they arrived at this moment. The better question was: could she walk away?
No. The answer resounded throughout her body. She didn't come here tonight looking for a future with this man, but a night of closeness, intimacy—sex.
"I don't want to go, Jaxon."
He closed the space between them but didn't touch her. "Then what do you want?" His voice held a rich, decadent timbre that melted her from the inside out.
"You." She waved a finger between them. "This."
She repaid his honesty with her own. No other words were needed.
He stepped close, cupping her face as he did it. Pulling her in, he kissed her. Not one of those deep oral assaults of passion, but something so soft and gentle it flipped her heart and made her desire explode.
She'd never had a guy be so tender with her when it came to sex. Not even her longtime boyfriend when she first got in the service. Because of the tenderness, she was the one pressing into him. She dragged his shirt up out of his sweats, which Jaxon managed to make the sexiest apparel a man could wear. His skin beneath was molten and hard. She loved the texture and heat. Her hands glided over his pecs, squeezing and grazing his nipples with her nails. He growled into her mouth, filling it with vibration and sound. She swallowed, desiring to take all of him in and experience everything with this man.
She was shocked that the first thing he wanted to extract from her person was her hairband. His hands went to her hair and pulled out the tie that held it up and out of her way. The thick heavy weight of her hair tumbled around her shoulders. The feel of his fingers running through it, caressing her scalp, turned her on, maybe more than if he'd stroked her nipples.
One of the things she loved was to have her hair played with, men didn't do it often enough
in her mind. She melted against him as he continued to drag through the strands and kiss her.
His tongue slid in and out of her mouth like a slow fuck. Something concentrated and sensual, each move making her whimper and sigh as she felt every inch of his firm tongue as it entered, then the seductive titillation as it drew back out to the tip.
Who knew Jaxon was such a crafty lover? Their sex yesterday had been good, but quick. Tonight promised something altogether different. This man knew he had time, and seemed to want to use every minute of it.
Jaxon ended the kiss. "I want you naked. I want to see all your delicious curves." His gaze was filled with blatant desire as it traveled along her body.
She'd learned to appreciate her body, but no one had ever made her feel so sexy. She took her time removing her hands from his body. His taut abs she'd touched made her just as anxious to see all he was hiding under the layers of clothes. "You mind giving me a hand with my clothes?"
"Absolutely." He gripped the hem of her shirt and raised it up over her head. The shirt went sailing somewhere over his head.
She giggled. Her jeans were unfastened with both of their hands. Then the denim was down around her ankles. After stepping out of them, she stood in her lime green lace thong and matching bra—exceedingly more sexy than what he'd know she'd had on under her uniform. The pair felt redeeming. She'd grabbed a quick shower at the base gym as she usually did after a big event—removing the scent of sweat and too many food smells.
"I think you still have on too many clothes." He made a move toward her.
Side-stepping, she shook her head. "Not until you're at least down to the same point I am. I want to see you, too."
Jaxon didn't hesitate. The shirt whipped over his head in a blink, and his sweats dropped. He was naked.
She blushed at discovering he was bare beneath his pants—commando. He was hard, long and thick. If she'd seen him like this before she'd had sex with him the first time, she may have kept a hold of her senses and walked away. Before taking all of him inside of her, she wouldn't have thought she was a big enough girl to take on such a ride.