Matthew must not have picked up on her irritation because he stepped closer, reaching for her hand. “You’re great,” he said. “You’ve been so great to me.”
“What do you want, Matthew?” He manipulated so blatantly, she didn’t know if she could stand to sleep with him again.
“Nothing. I’m just making conversation.” He pulled her against him. She didn’t want to react, but the testosterone oozing out of him hit her system hard. In less than a second, the wall of muscle that was his chest had turned Neva into an unthinking mess of hard nipples and hot, wet need. She moaned involuntarily and he took full advantage, leaning down for a kiss that further scrambled her brain.
Neva’s body surrendered to him, even while she fought to retain coherent thought. She liked that Matthew always knew what he wanted to do with her—even when his motives were suspect. She enjoyed submitting to his strong, sure hands and firm direction. She could already feel herself melting.
He released her mouth but kept his arms around her waist, his cock hard and ready against her stomach. “That’s better, isn’t it?” Matthew said.
“Mmm,” Neva mumbled. She felt so peaceful whenever he took control.
He sat on her desk and lifted her onto his lap, negligently sweeping a stack of papers aside. They fluttered to the floor. She cringed inwardly, imagining herself having to sort and restack them, but that setback didn’t matter much to the parts of her body that were currently calling the shots. “I think we should go out tonight,” Matthew whispered in her ear, his blond stubble scratching deliciously across her cheek. “I’m a member of this club we can visit. They have private rooms and lots and lots of toys. I’ll take you there and make you my toy. Tie you up against the wall so you can’t go anywhere and tickle you until you struggle anyway.”
Neva groaned at the image. In fact she couldn’t imagine anything he could do that would make her want to get away once he got started with her. Her body slipped so easily into an amazing zen-like state where she felt incredibly powerful and invincible, no matter what pain or pleasure or discomfort might come. If Matthew tied her up against a wall, she wouldn’t need to get away. She’d only gotten too-brief tastes of that condition so far, but Neva thought she could stay that way happily for hours, open to him and ready for anything. And if sometimes while restrained she fantasized about being utterly and completely at Guy’s mercy instead of Matthew’s…no one really needed to know that, did they?
Teeth in her earlobe recalled her attention to the man holding her in the present moment. “Neva, sweetheart, don’t zonk out on me again. I’m trying to talk to you.”
Matthew never seemed content to let her ride on the pleasure he induced. If they’d been closer as lovers, she would have talked to him about it. As it stood, she tried to enjoy what she could while he allowed it to last. With an effort, she focused her mind to form words. “I like it. Let’s do it.”
“Great. It’s a date.” He pulled back from her a little way, took a breath and resumed speaking, his tone too casual. “Since that’s settled, how is Emily doing with the Bonavita case? Have you heard from her about it?”
Irritation threatened to return and destroy Neva’s anticipatory sexual buzz. “Can you give it a rest, Matthew? I don’t want to get in the middle of this thing between you two.”
“I’m just asking. You help her out sometimes, right? Skiptracing? You doing that this time?”
She shrugged. “Sort of.”
He nudged her. She would have taken the gesture as playful if she hadn’t known better. “Sort of?”
“Haven’t really had time to work on it.”
“Give me a hint. What’s she got so far?”
“No way in hell. Emily would kill me.”
Matthew’s fingers slipped down the side of Neva’s legs, then began traveling up her skirt. “Then help me run into her so I can ask her myself. I’ll make it worth your while.”
Neva narrowed her eyes. “Do you really think I’m that easy?”
“Neva. You’re not easy. You’re a goddess. Look at me. I’m on my knees.” Matthew slid down her body and did indeed wind up kneeling before her. For all that she knew he was playing her, she couldn’t help but laugh at his earnest expression. “Neva, if you let me, I’m going to worship you. Right now. With my tongue. Until you can’t stand to come anymore. And then tonight I’ll take you to the club and do it all over again.”
His fingers slipped under the edge of her panties. Neva knew they would arrive at their destination to find it sopping wet and waiting. Against her better judgment, she spread her legs a little wider to give him better access. Matthew caught her adjusting her position and broadened his smile.
“I’m going to lick you until my tongue aches and you’re dripping down my chin. And then I’m going to stand up slowly and pin you tight against the wall, and you’re still not going to be able to get away from me. I’m going to suck each of your nipples until they’re twice as long as normal and you’re almost ready to come just from my lips still drawing you in. You’ll be panting so hard you won’t even be able to speak. And that’s when I’ll let you feel just the tip of my cock, pressing just the tiniest bit inside you. You’ll want more but you won’t be able to press forward and get it. You’ll just have to wait while I give it to you slower than you’ve ever gotten it.” Here, he fixed Neva with intense blue eyes. “But you’re going to get it all, slowly, constantly, while I reach down between us and rub your clit until you use your safeword because you don’t think you can survive another orgasm.”
Neva would have laughed if she hadn’t known from experience that he was good for everything he promised and then some. Considering her earlier disturbance with Guy, she could really use a mind-blowing encounter like the one he described. One hand flailed behind her, looking for something to brace herself against. She found only air. “You’re all talk, Matthew,” she said weakly.
“You know better,” he breathed. Somehow, his face had gotten under her skirt, his lips inches from her panties. “In case you’ve forgotten, let me refresh your memory.”
He pressed a slow, delicate kiss to the drooling center of her need. Neva gave a little cry and clapped one hand to the back of his head, falling forward a little as she did. She grabbed the edge of her desk to hold herself up and dimly remembered her surroundings. Work. Guy could walk in any moment. Big glass windows right in front of her desk. Anybody could walk by and see Matthew pleasuring her with his wicked, manipulating tongue.
None of it mattered enough to make her stop. Just now, she couldn’t refuse what Matthew offered. She opened her legs even more, enough to ride his face. His tongue darted inside her and his nose pressed against her clit. His big, strong hands gripped her ass and lifted her, pulled her tighter against his face than she could have managed on her own. She screamed a little and held on to the desk for dear life.
Apparently, Matthew worked out his tongue as carefully as every other muscle in his gym-sculpted body. It stroked every inch of Neva’s folds, long, firm and perfectly controlled. He pushed his tongue out of his mouth and held it still while he moved Neva against it, manhandling her entire body in a display of strength that wound up focused in a tiny movement back and forth across her clit. The power in his fingers alone could have gotten her off, but Matthew wasn’t finished. Shifting his hands little by little, he worked both his thumbs inside her, using them to hold her in the air while he continued to lick her.
She gave in and came hard, writhing with abandon, in perfect faith that he would not let her fall. Every gesture increased her sensation, prolonged her orgasm. And Matthew’s tongue never stopped moving, working against her increasingly sensitive nerves.
Neva struggled to catch her breath. “Matthew, please. God, please.”
He chuckled, still holding her at his mercy. “Are you saying you can’t stand it anymore, Neva?”
“God no. Please. Let me down.” Even as she spoke the helpless words, another orgasm shattered through her, pain
ful in its unremitting pleasure. Her pleas devolved into a series of gasping pants.
“Shall I keep going?” Matthew asked, his voice full of mischief.
“Put me down!”
He obliged, his hands more careful than she would have expected from his showing off. He extended his support until Neva had surely regained her feet, then slowly negotiated his way out from under his skirt. His chin shone from her juices and his eyes shone with satisfaction. “What do you think, Neva? I’m really only asking for a little bit of information. I could wait here all day and not ask you at all. I just want you to make things a little easier for me. And I’m going to make you feel so good tonight.”
Still trying to catch her breath, Neva glared at him. If she’d had any doubt about what Matthew Lodi wanted from her, he’d made things more than clear. This wasn’t about love for him or even real attraction. She was a source of information for him. In exchange, he offered his incredible body and considerable skills.
She should know better. She should be loyal to Emily. To Guy. He’d just asked her not to let her relationship with Matthew compromise her job. But Neva’s internal struggle was over almost before it began. She’d been too lonely for too long. She needed relief, and Matthew seemed to be the only one prepared to give it to her.
She sighed and closed her eyes, as if she could hide the betrayal from herself by refusing to see it. “Guy assigned Emily another set of jobs. Her regular ones. She’s probably already gotten going on them. She could start making drops here as early as today.” She hesitated, then rushed forward. Might as well go all the way with it. “I can send you a text when she calls to say she’s on her way. If you stay close, you’ll be able to come down and meet her while she’s doing paperwork with Guy.”
“You see, Neva, that’s no big deal, right? I’d have run into her here pretty soon anyway.” He kissed the inside of her thigh gently, but this time she twitched away from his touch. “I’m going to get cleaned up a little. I look forward to your text—and to seeing you tonight.”
“Yeah,” Neva whispered. She couldn’t meet his eyes or get her voice up to normal volume. Matthew didn’t seem to notice, whistling jauntily on his way out the door.
Chapter Nine
Emily’s fingers drummed a celebratory pattern over her pockets as she walked out of Guy’s Bail Bonds and back to her sedan. Turning in the morning’s quarry had only earned her a couple of hundred dollars, but she always felt better when she had a little cash in her wallet.
In the sedan, Javier dozed. He’d been gracious about sitting with the quarry in the converted backseat, which she’d had reinforced and altered to keep fugitives contained. He’d even let her put the handcuffs back on with a minimum of flirtatious protest. He must have been tired.
She leaned forward, key in hand, to open the back door and let him out. A firm grip on her shoulder stopped her. Emily stiffened, martial arts instincts at the ready. A familiar scent of men’s soap prevented her from lashing out before speaking. “Matthew? Get your hands off me. Now.”
“Emily, we need to talk.”
She whirled, shaking off his touch, eyes flashing. He was wearing his best leather jacket and the cocky grin to match. “Do you need a memo in the form of a restraining order? I don’t want to talk anymore. We’re finished. Completely.”
He pursed his lips, a gesture she recognized as Matthew deciding whether to argue with her. They’d already had too many conversations about her choice to end things between them—a decision that wasn’t up for discussion. She shook her head and moved toward the driver’s door. Javier could wait to get out of the backseat until she’d escaped her ex.
Matthew caught her wrist with one firm hand. His wide, strong palm made her own hand look childlike in comparison.
A tendril of fear curled around the pit of her stomach. Emily practiced her fighting skills hard and prided herself on realistic assessments of her opponents. Matthew practiced just as hard as she did, and he had the muscle mass of a big man on his side. She didn’t want this to come to a physical confrontation. She settled for glaring at him.
“We should talk about the Bonavita case,” Matthew said, with the terrifying patience of a person who didn’t understand or care about a word Emily had to say.
“Should we?” She tugged at his grip. He didn’t budge.
“We could be useful to each other.”
“You mean I could be useful to you.”
Matthew donned his most charming smile, which would have made her panties melt just a few months ago. Emily remained remarkably unaffected. Continued exposure to Javier’s considerable charisma must have inoculated her against Matthew’s efforts. She pictured Matthew and Javier in a charm contest and grinned.
Matthew must have taken her expression as a concession, because he lowered his tone smoothly to what Emily thought of as his “gentle voice”—husky and masculine but with just enough vibrato to be seen as sensitive. In her experience, the change was calculated. “Emily. I miss working with you.”
He used his control over her wrist to pull her closer, his lips closing for a kiss. A wave of disgust rose in Emily’s chest, overwhelming her fear of her muscled fellow bounty hunter. A frequently drilled hapkido move snapped her wrist from his hand and a sharp jab to his neck opened some much-needed breathing room between them. “Are you delusional? We never worked together. It might be worth talking to you if you could acknowledge that you stole from me.”
“Emily, don’t be like this. Baby, we’ve been over and over this. If you could just understand how much I love you…” He took hold of her again and leaned in.
Emily took a deep breath and prepared to try to take him down, even though he towered over her. Maybe a quick stomp to his toes would set him off balance enough for her to gain control.
Before she could move, the back door to her sedan swung open. Both she and Matthew froze in place as Javier stepped out, free of the restraints she’d clapped on him herself. Emily’s jaw worked but Matthew managed sound before her. “You’ve got Fernando Bonavita? Here? Already?”
Emily growled in disgust, dearly wishing she could spit a triumphant “yes” back at him. “Would I be standing her wasting time with you if I had?”
Javier closed the car door and stepped closer to her, and she didn’t miss the way he angled his body, aligning himself so he could easily slip between herself and Matthew. “I’m Javier Bonavita, not Fernando,” he told Matthew. “I’m helping Emily track down my brother.”
Emily stared. Matthew spluttered. “Why?” Matthew said.
Javier smiled but didn’t answer the question. “I know Emily could knock you or anyone else on his ass if she wanted to. What’s the problem, Emily? Are you worried about hurting this guy’s feelings?”
Emily grinned. He hadn’t been kidding about his confidence in her physical abilities. “Matthew was just leaving. He had a business offer to make but I’ve rejected it.”
Javier leaned back against the car, brushing a possessive touch against Emily’s side before folding his arms behind his head. “A business offer? That didn’t look like the only thing getting rejected.”
Matthew’s face turned red. “Emily, are you sleeping with this clown?”
She drew herself to her full height, even if that still didn’t bring her eye level with his chest. Javier’s support renewed her confidence. She appreciated that he hadn’t tried to take over, despite his obvious enjoyment of Matthew’s humiliation. “Matthew, that’s none of your business. The only fact that concerns you is that I’m not sleeping with you, and so you will never again have access to my work and my leads.”
Before he could respond, she touched Javier’s elbow. “Let’s get out of here.”
Matthew remained standing in the same spot while they got into the car, maneuvered out of the parking lot and drove away. Emily nodded toward his still, shocked figure and shared a smile with Javier. “Thank you,” she said.
“I didn’t do anything.”
&nbs
p; “That’s what I’m thanking you for. I like a man who can keep his cool.”
“Well, he had enough misguided testosterone for half a dozen macho monkeys.”
“You can say that again.”
“I prefer to save my testosterone for what really matters.” Javier waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
Emily groaned. “Your nap in the back of the car apparently left you feeling refreshed.”
“I’ll be here all night.”
Emily steered the car back onto the main road, heading toward her place. “About that…” She glanced pointedly at Javier’s freed hands. “Want to tell me how that happened? And how you got out of my backseat?”
“I grabbed this off your desk this morning.” He displayed a straightened paperclip. “And I felt the time was right.”
“Are you saying you could have taken off those handcuffs any time you wanted?”
“Do you want me to answer that?”
Emily sighed. “I guess not.”
“Are you going to put them back on?”
“Why? Do you want me to?”
He laughed. “Trust issues, you know. I thought you might feel more comfortable.”
“Oh yeah, nothing makes me more comfortable than keeping a man captive using restraints he’s proven don’t keep him restrained at all.” The truth in the joke bothered her a little. Really, she still had no reason to trust Javier. He’d put on a good show for her ex, sure, but he’d also shown Emily that he had plenty of skills she didn’t know about. It would be terribly naïve to think he’d put the interest of a woman he barely knew above his own brother. No matter how tempting the idea was.
Javier didn’t drop his easy grin. “Any time you want to switch, I could pretend to pin you while you laugh at my pathetic effort.”
“You were laughing at me?”
“Chuckling, maybe.”
Another shared moment. Emily wanted to give in and enjoy the flirtation—and maybe a whole lot more. She forced herself to keep at him with uncomfortable questions. “That program we used to find my guy today—you can do that with any cell number?”
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