Storm Watch

by Jill Shalvis

  Still asleep, she hummed in pleasure and wriggled her butt, which caused a predictable reaction in him.

  “Mmm,” she murmured in her sleep.

  Yeah. Mmm. He loved how she made him feel, and he kissed the back of her neck, then an inch lower, making his way to her shoulder, nudging the covers out of the way as he went. She was hot, and sweet, and still sleepy enough to drop some of her guardedness. That, or somewhere along the way, through all of the crazy long hours they’d spent together, she’d come to trust him.

  He’d take that, because for some reason, this woman mattered. Having her trust him mattered. He could hear the storm still beating the hell out of the building, but also knew there was nothing they could do about it, about anything, until daylight.

  Right now, right here, it was just them. “Lizzy.”

  “Mmm,” she said again with a soft sigh, still out cold.

  He shifted to get even closer, and so did she, and her silk-covered breast filled his hand. Her nipple hardened through her bra against his palm, and she made that “mmm” again, and then—

  Went utterly still.

  “Jase?” she whispered.

  There she was. “Expecting someone else?” He lightly sank his teeth into her shoulder, then kissed the spot.

  “Oh, God.”

  He really hoped that was oh, God, you feel so good and not an oh, God, this isn’t happening, but then she sat straight up, cracking him in the chin as she did.

  “Ow,” he said.

  “Is it morning?”

  “No. It’s only…” He peered at his watch. “Two. Come here.” Instead of waiting, he reached up, slid his arms around her sweet bod and tugged her back in.

  “Oh,” she breathed, rocking her ass into him, wrenching a groan from his chest. “We’re not dressed.”

  “We are not,” he said.

  “The danger of hypothermia is gone,” she whispered.

  “Yes, since I’m hot as hell.” He grazed his thumb over her nipple. “And, God, Lizzy, so are you. So damn hot.”

  She turned her head and peered through the dark up at him. She didn’t shove him away or try to move. She reached up and touched his face, open to him in a way she hadn’t shown before now.

  Not realizing how much he’d needed that from her, he let out a breath and felt the last of his blood drain from his brain, heading south for the winter.

  “We slept together,” she murmured.

  There was a blue glow to the night, washing over her face, casting them in contrasting shadows even as it highlighted the shine of her eyes, the curve of a breast, the arch of her hips. He skimmed his hand down her side, over her thigh and back up again, stopping short of her panties, letting just the tips of his fingers play beneath the silky material. He’d once felt things for her that he didn’t understand. He still felt those things, only he understood them now, not that that made them any less terrifying. “Not slept slept.”

  “The rules of hyperthermia don’t say anything about not having sex.”

  “No.”

  “I’ve always been one for following the rules.” And she wriggled again.

  He groaned, but no words came out of his mouth because, with no blood left in his brain, he couldn’t talk. Could only feel as she pulled his head down to hers, her mouth sweet and eager.

  God, he wanted this, wanted to connect as he hadn’t managed to do all those years ago, as he hadn’t managed to do at all lately because these days, thanks to his profession, his life was always on the edge.

  No softness.

  But here she was, warm and naked and very, very soft. It made him ache, ache to change the way he’d been dreading the future, ache to have hope instead. Hope that he could find peace, happiness.

  Love.

  It’d been a damn long time for him, and that it was Lizzy, the girl who’d once stolen his heart without even knowing it, made it all the sweeter. Lizzy all grown-up and dancing a hand down his thigh, squeezing the muscles there as she rocked that sweet ass into him.

  She was killing him. Killing him. He unhooked her bra at the same time that he dipped his head and kissed her shoulder again, skimming his hand up to cup her now bare breasts.

  A low, hungry sound escaped her as she clutched his wrist as if to hold his hand to her.

  He didn’t need the encouragement. Her breasts were perfect handfuls and he could spend all day touching them.

  “I’ve always wondered,” she murmured.

  “Wondered what?”

  She hesitated. “If you’re as good at the rest of this as you are at the kissing.”

  He huffed out a low laugh against her skin as he rasped his thumbs over her nipples, back and forth, making her stretch and let out a shuddery moan, shifting her hips restlessly. “I’ll give it my best shot.”

  “Thank you—” She broke off with a soft gasp as he hooked a finger in the edge of her panties.

  “I do my best work without these.” He tugged them off, then slid a hand between her thighs, where he found her creamy wet and hot.

  God, so hot.

  He played there, his fingers gently opening her, finding what he sought, dragging a callused finger over slick flesh as he nibbled on her shoulder, the back of her neck, her ear…

  “Okay,” she managed. “You are good—” She let out a shuddery breath as he slid a finger into her. “Really good…”

  “Shh.” He had a plan. Tear at her defenses until she let him in. And maybe, just maybe, she’d do the same for him. To that end, he kissed her neck, and with every glide in and out of his finger, scraped his thumb over her center. She arched, holding him to her, and when her breathing changed into quick, desperate pants, he knew that she was close, so very close. As she tightened around him, he added another finger, and she burst with a soft cry, coming apart in his arms.

  As she relaxed into the mattress, he nuzzled at her throat.

  “More,” she murmured. “The rest.”

  That worked for him. “I have a condom somewhere gathering dust in my bag—”

  “I’m on the pill.” Turning her head, she blindly sought his mouth. “And it’s been a long time for me. You?”

  “Very long.” Things got a little crazy then, as crazy as the storm wailing outside, and the next thing he knew, she’d rocked her hips back and he’d rocked forward, and he was inside her from behind, deep inside, surrounded by all that silky, wet heat. “God,” he breathed with a shudder. “God. I’ve never—”

  “Never?”

  “I mean—not without a condom.”

  “Me, either,” she whispered, and arching back, lifted an arm around his neck, gasping his name when he began to move, thrusting into her, slow and deep, speeding up as she shifted her hips to meet his, both of them breathing like lunatics. When she cried out his name, he nearly came from that alone.

  It’d been so long.

  So damn long, and she was doing as he’d known she would, slowly destroying him, tearing apart his defenses, letting herself inside his heart, making herself at home there.

  And she had no idea…

  “God, Jase…don’t stop…” She was moving with him, letting out the sexiest little pants and whimpers he’d ever heard every time he pushed into her. When he slid his hand back between her legs again, she burst in a series of gorgeous tremors that took him with her straight over the edge, where only one coherent thought managed to stick.

  Cast him a line, because he was going down.

  11

  CECE HAD TO GIVE Hunter credit—he was cool under pressure. He simply seemed to accept what fate had brought him that day—a hugely pregnant chick. One who was losing it.

  “Oh, God,” she whimpered. “Goddammit.”

  “Another one?”

  “Another one, the same one.” She tried to curl into a ball. “It’s all the same one.”

  “Look at me. Cece, focus on me.”

  She inhaled sharply and, following his calm, assertive request, stared into his eyes.

&
nbsp; It’d been hours. She hadn’t let him go for help. He didn’t have reception on his cell phone so no one was coming for them.

  It was just the two of them, alone, in this together.

  He’d told her that eventually, probably at first light, the emergency crews would make a sweep and find them. It’d been her plan to wait for them.

  She’d hoped that was still a viable plan, but she sincerely doubted it because this baby was coming—soon. She knew it.

  And so did Hunter.

  “How are you doing?” he asked, stroking her hair back.

  “I’m losing it, big-time.”

  “You’re not.”

  There was admiration in his voice, which she marveled at. She’d told him about herself, practically thrown her past at him, and he still was looking at her as if she mattered. “Tell me about you,” she whispered. “Tell me your story.”

  “You have other things on your plate right now.”

  She managed a laugh. “But we’re about to get fairly, horrifyingly intimate here. As in I’m going to drop a baby into your hands. I could use a little distraction.”

  “All right. I work at the nine-one-one dispatch center for the county. I’m the night dispatch supervisor there, that’s why you haven’t seen me. I moved from Texas to take the job because I wanted a change.”

  “Change as in you cheated on your wife and she kicked you out?” she asked, fishing.

  His mouth quirked. “No. There’s no wife.”

  “Okay…change as in your girlfriend wanted a diamond and you bought a Harley instead and ran off?”

  “No girlfriend, either, not at the moment. And my Harley’s ten years old and paid for. If I wanted to buy a diamond ring, I would.”

  She stared up into his calm, very pleasing-on-the-eyes face. “I know you have baggage. Everyone has baggage. I need to know yours, Hunter. Start with your family. Truth. Are they crazy?”

  “No.” He smiled again, and she decided she loved it when he smiled. “Well, maybe a little,” he corrected. “I have five older sisters, three brother-in-laws, two elderly parents, and let’s see…seven nieces and nephews. All is good there, sorry to disappoint you.”

  “What about crazy exes? You can tell me—you’re a serial dater, right? Love ’em and leave ’em?”

  “I’ve had several long-term relationships, but they ran their course.”

  “Okay,” she said, talking fast because she wanted to get to this before her next contraction, needed to get to this. “Maybe you’re not hearing me. I’m going to need a flaw here, a biggie, Hunter. Preferably before I take off my panties for you.”

  “What?”

  “Hello, baby coming.”

  He let out a shaky breath. “Right. A flaw…”

  “Quick,” she gasped as the next contraction took her and the first urge to push came. “Oh, God. That’s not quick, Hunter!”

  “I’m stubborn,” he said quickly. “Completely mule-headed if I think I’m right. I can be a complete ass.”

  “Yeah? Do you throw things? Hit people?”

  “God, no.”

  “Then it’s not a fault. Jesus, I’m about to pass the equivalent of a football out my hoo-ha, think!”

  “All right.” He clearly racked his brain. “I know. I like my forty-two-inch plasma more than I like half my co-workers.”

  She laughed. “Okay, that’s a start. What else?”

  “I’m a slob. I don’t do my laundry until I’m completely out of clothes, and even then I’m likely to just go buy more.”

  “Serious?”

  “Serious. And I don’t own dishes. I won’t wash them. My last girlfriend dumped my sorry ass because we tried living together. She made it one week and gave up on me. There. My deepest fault, exposed.” He spread his arms. “I’m not live-in material.”

  She looked up into the steady gaze of the man kneeling at her side in the backseat of a Hummer, desperately trying to distract her, trying to keep her calm. The man who maybe was a badass, but at least he’d stepped up to the plate when she’d needed him, which was more than any other guy had ever done. “Her loss,” she whispered, mirroring his words back at him.

  IT WAS SO BLACK THAT Lizzy could see nothing, not what time it was, not what she wore—which was nothing—and not what Jason was doing to her.

  But, Lord almighty, could she feel. And what she felt was his hands on her in the dark bedroom, turning her to face him, pressing her to her back. He held her wrists, anchoring them on either side of her head as his mouth came down on hers in a soul-destroying kiss. Then, when she was breathless, heart and all the good parts revved, he slipped down her body, kissing a breast, then sucking the hardened tip into his mouth until she arched up for more.

  Working his way down, he stroked his tongue over her ribs, her belly, swirled it into her belly button, and then nudged her legs open enough for his broad shoulders, where he proceeded to drive her right out of her ever-loving mind with a fierce intensity that left her sobbing for breath.

  Before she recovered, he surged up and sank into her, burying himself deep, and just like that, she found herself hovering on the edge again.

  Without even the faint slash of a streetlamp or moon, there was nothing but sensation, sensation as she’d never known. There in the dark, he pushed into her again and again, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, wanting it to never end. He whispered her name, touching her everywhere, his hands warm and sure, his mouth hot and talented, as he slowly, languidly moved inside her.

  God. God, she could hardly stand it, and she slid her fingers up his hot, damp torso to fist them in his hair, dragging his mouth back to hers. She couldn’t see the flex and give of his muscles, but she could feel them, and she rocked up to meet him, feeling her toes curl at the wave after wave of pleasure crashing over her.

  His hands slid up her throat to cup her face, their mouths only a fraction apart as she breathed out and he breathed in. It was shockingly intimate, erotic, sharing air as his body took hers higher than she’d ever been, straight to heaven.

  She was going to come, come with his rock solid body buried deep in hers. He was close, too, she could hear it in his breathing, in the way he gripped her, in how his mouth opened on her shoulder. “Lizzy,” he murmured, and that was it, that was all she needed, the sound of her name on his lips, and her release rocked her.

  Her pleasure triggered his, and afterward, they remained entangled like that, her swamped with emotions and the feel of his body covering hers, a part of her wishing they never had to move, because she didn’t want it to end.

  “WHAT TIME IS IT?” she asked, slipping out of the bed, wrapping herself in the blanket to hold in his body heat.

  He rolled over, and she looked back to see the glow from his watch as he brought it up to his face and blinked at it. “Almost five.” His voice was low and husky.

  Sleepy.

  Sexy.

  God, so sexy. And everything he’d done to her in the deep, dark hours of the night came flying back, making her face heat and her good parts quiver.

  She’d actually forgotten how much she liked sex. Hard to believe, and she had a feeling she wouldn’t be so lucky as to forget again anytime soon. “I want to go by my place.”

  Even as she said it, dawn was breaking through the black night. One peek out the window told her nothing much had changed in terms of the weather, and she looked back at the bed.

  As naked as she, Jason had rolled over again, the sheets snagged beneath him, leaving him sprawled on his back, arms and legs going taut as he stretched.

  Just looking at him caused a little catch somewhere deep inside her. Hard and lean and tough, and then there were the tattoos.

  And those abs.

  And those long legs.

  And what he had between them…

  No doubt, he was rangy and built and gorgeous. And for one glorious night, he’d been hers. She could wish for more, but that was a waste of time.

  She was finally free of the
day-to-day grind of caring for someone, fully free to do something important to her for a long time. She owed it to herself to follow through.

  Even if a very tiny part of her was no longer sure that was still her dream.

  God. She just wanted to shove all that aside right now and climb back in bed. On top of Jason. She wanted to have her merry way with that body.

  Again.

  All day long.

  He propped his head up on his hand and regarded her in the barely there light. “You look so pretty standing there, Lizzy. Pretty and cold. Come here, let me warm you up.”

  She knew what she looked like in the morning. Bed-head hair. Pale face, probably lined from where she’d smashed it into her pillow as she tended to do. “I want to go.”

  “I know. Come here first.”

  He held out a hand to go with the request, and she stared at it. Big and callused, that hand had stroked and touched and revered every inch of her body, and just looking at it made her knees wobble.

  Who’d have thought such a big, work-roughened hand could bring such pleasure? “Jase.”

  He simply wriggled his fingers and waited patiently.

  So damn patiently.

  She had no idea what it was about him that had her feet taking her back to the bed until her knees touched the mattress.

  Smiling up into her face, he reached out and wrapped his fingers in the blanket.

  And tugged.

  With a gasp she fell over him, minus the blanket, which he tossed aside. With an appreciative growl for what he’d unwrapped, he tucked her beneath him and rolled on top of her, pinning her to the bed. “Better,” he murmured, dipping his head to the spot on her throat that always drove her crazy. “You taste good.”

  “We—” She broke off as his hand swept up her thigh, over her belly, her ribs, to cup a breast. “Have to—”

  His thumb brushed over her nipple.

  She licked her lips and closed her eyes, arching up into him. “Go.”

  He bent his head and replaced his thumb with his tongue, making her gasp and arch up again. “Just want one more taste…”