She lifted her chin, eyes narrowing as she stared down at him. "You're a swamp gator."
Stripping the other sleeve off, Long buried his hands in the pockets of his silk dress slacks and leaned back in the chair. With his legs cast wide, the position drew the front panel of his pants tight across his groin.
Catching the direction of Gina's gaze and her wide-eyed surprise, his mouth curled up along one side of his face. "Well, now you know the Long family secret, beautiful. Want to know another?"
Shit, the bulge between his legs was every bit as massive as the rest of him. Life wasn't fair. Austin Long was rich, good looking, hung like a bull but incapable of acting like anything other than an ass. Turning on one heel, she walked wordlessly back to the bedroom door, her only response a middle finger raised in protest.
Reaching the door, she turned back to find him standing.
She rattled the handle. "Open this."
Long advanced on her with a smile and a slow, continuous shake of his head. "You want out, you gotta yell. Won't take security but a minute to reach us."
Stopping almost chest-to-chest, he put one palm against the door behind her. "We're gonna start real slow, with a kiss. Give you time to think. Law student, right?"
Feeling like a hamster staring up at a King Cobra, Gina nodded.
His free hand came up, brushed gently along her jaw as he studied her face. "How is getting caught at this party going to look to the bar examiners and hiring committees around town? You're either out interviewing for a job after the bar exam or for a summer associate position."
He dipped his head closer, his thumb rhythmically stroking her jaw, just his index finger under her chin to keep her in place. "It's only a kiss, baby. Scream when you want me to stop."
Hell, he was really going to do it.
She swallowed, her bottom lip bobbing up and down as he slowly zeroed in on her mouth. She wasn't afraid. She could scream for security or go jujitsu all over his billion dollar ass.
Billion dollar, West Point, spec ops ass.
Ooh...
She swallowed again, still not afraid but jumpy as a nun in a cucumber patch and shocked as hell by the way he was looking at her. The gazes of most men bounced off her, jumping straight to the closest woman with a narrower face, smaller lips and shallow cheeks. Not to mention lighter skin—even when it was a black man looking at her.
Those men who wanted Gina for her looks were invariably intimidated by her mind.
Austin's lips touched hers, the thumb still caressing the line of her jaw with a mesmerizing slowness. She knew then that he wasn't intimidated by anyone. He wasn't intimidated and he wanted her, his warm, moist breath landing against her lips with an excited pace that matched her own.
He claimed her mouth.
She let him.
His hand dropped to her shoulder, the fingers firmly gripping her soft flesh as the kiss deepened. A groan bubbled up her throat. When it did, he pulled her away from the door and wrapped his arms around her. Lifting up on tip toe, the fabric of her dress dragging over his bare chest, Gina circled her arms around his neck.
She kissed him back as another moan broke free.
Long's hands drifted to her ass, his fingers digging into the flesh and tugging her against him. The outline of the big cock she'd seen earlier pushed against her lower stomach. Done with the kiss, his lips surfed gently across her cheek then down her neck to the top curve of her shoulder.
Hearing him growl in appreciation, she ran her fingers down his muscled back, her lacquered nails lightly scraping his skin. Another growl and he dipped his knees, forearms bracing along the underside of her bottom as he lifted her off the floor and carried her to the bed.
Realizing his intent, she tightened in his embrace. “Mr. Long—"
“That’s Austin to you, baby." He placed Gina in the center of the mattress, quickly stripped her shoes off then ran his palms up the outside of her legs. “Let me hear it.”
She couldn't breathe. Needed time to consider what she was doing—who she was doing.
Swamp gator, girl. Don't go swimming in those waters unless you want bit.
Good advice, but not nearly as good as the feeling running through her as he pushed her dress up her hips and spread her legs. Seeing his big body settling between her thighs, his expression intensely focused on her lacy black panties, Gina pushed at his shoulders. "Austin, w-we shouldn’t.”
"You're not screaming, beautiful." His hands fastened around the top band of her underwear and started to peel them down. "So I'm not stopping."
3
She started to protest again, started to beg for just a few seconds to decide whether she in fact wanted to scream…and then she saw him blink slowly, his gaze completely unfocused for a moment as he stared at her exposed pussy.
"Baby, when did you get so wet?"
Busted for about the tenth time that night, she closed her eyes. She was drenched, her pussy soaked and twisting in knots. She knew it—and now he knew it, too.
Feeling the soft flutter of contractions deep inside her core, Gina pressed her ass against the mattress and wiggled. No relief. The movement only made her burn hotter.
"Please…" Logically, her brain probably meant to say please don't, please go ahead and call security, please arrest me, just don't make me want to surrender. But none of the other words would come. Just that single word, over and over. "Please…"
Her ass pressed harder against the mattress. Air whipped in and out of her lungs.
“Austin, please…"
"Oh, baby, I intend to." Removing her panties, Austin tossed them over his shoulder. With strong, capable hands, he took hold of her outer labia, pulled them to the side to expose the dark red line of her sex. His tongue uncurled from his mouth to stroke the line—up, down, circling the swollen pearl hiding within the hood of her clit.
Her hands drifted down her body to tangle in his hair. Four years out of the Army, he had grown the strands long enough for her to run her nails through and tightly grip a handful of the thick waves.
She tugged at him, lifted her mound as he teased her with his nose and tongue. Tension pulsed deep inside her, the muscles coiled tight and aching with each throb. Her pussy needed something to grip. His fingers, that big cock that had pushed against her stomach, anything solid enough for her muscles to clutch and stop twisting around their own center.
Her hips began a thrusting, bobbing dance, her tight throat strangled little whimpers of need. His teeth grazed the line of her clit, his tongue soothed it, dipped, circled her hole before his lips fastened on her clit again and he slowly sucked her toward oblivion.
Gina's eyes opened and closed with each contraction, then opened wide and fixed as the pressure against her pussy halved. Looking down, she pressed her palm across the crown of his head, urged his mouth lower, harder. Her need so bad, she felt like two snakes fought inside her, coiling around each other, knotting and spinning as they constricted tighter and tighter.
Austin's gaze lashed her skin like a laser, the sweet balm of his tongue denied her. She pushed down on his head again, a little harder. Then he pulled away completely and just watched her.
She couldn't stay still. Her body writhed, back arching, hips rolling and dipping as she chewed at her bottom lip.
"Please don't stop."
Sensing victory, Austin was slow to return to the field. He nuzzled the inside of one thigh, whispered a line of short kisses across her pussy to rub his cheek against the other thigh. "Ask me again."
"Please don't stop." Her fingers knotted in the fabric of her dress. She pulled, strained, wrestled against the need to bring her body under control.
"Ask me again." He took a little lick then blew at the swollen spine of her sex.
Damn it, she wasn't going to beg. No way in hell.
Not this man. Not any man.
"Tell me what to do." He dipped two fingers into her, his strokes light and teasing. "Should I lick you, fuck you—"
"Yes!" Gina's body shook with need, her hands abandoning her dress to knead and fold her plump labia.
"Which one, baby?" Chuckling, Austin pushed a third finger in, all of them bent at the middle knuckle so he could stretch her as he twisted left and right. "Fuck you, lick you. You want my cock or my tongue?"
"Both…I want both." She wrapped her hands around the back of his skull and yanked him closer.
His lips touched her, their heat searing. Fingers penetrated her pussy, twisting and curling inside as his mouth pressed harder against her clit and his tongue bullied the swollen pearl sheltering beneath the hood. Her hips jerked, her shoulders violently twitching under the first onslaught of her orgasm.
Austin surged up her body, his fingers threading and knotting inside her. He kissed her neck, her mouth. Her juices smeared thick across her lips. He kept finger fucking her, his thumb pressed hard on her clit. "Give me another one, baby."
She continued to thrash beneath him, moaning his name, her fingers dysfunctional as she tried to undo the button on his pants.
"You want my big cock in you, baby?" He added a fourth finger, splaying them as he slowly twisted inside her. "This big cock fucking your tight, tight pussy?"
"Yes." Unable to manage the button, she unzipped and reached inside his pants, her fingers molding around the thick erection.
Damn underwear. Damn, damn, damn.
His thumb ground ruthlessly against her clit, driving her senses to the edge of annihilation. "Promise you won't say 'no' when I pull it out."
"I promise." Gina rubbed her palm up and down his broad shaft, the head tucked up against the heel of her hand.
"Okay, baby. But come for me one more time. Come saying my name, telling me it feels so good."
"Good, yes…" She nodded, gulping in mouthfuls of air as she squirmed beneath the assault of his fingers and palm. "It feels so good, Austin."
He kissed her, his tongue slicing into her mouth with the same targeted efficiency of his fingers, driving her closer and closer toward her third climax. "You're drenched, love."
She was. She could hear the squelch of his fingers and wet slap of his palm. She'd never been this wet, this needful, her bones bliss-soaked and dissolving a little more with each thrust of his hand.
"Are you coming, Gina?" Merciless, he squeezed, thrust, rotated.
Her muscles squeezed back, coiling around his fingers until the throbbing need drowned out her own heartbeat.
"Yes, I'm coming," she cried. "So good…coming."
"Then say my name, love."
"Austin…" Her eyes turned to glass frosted a dark brown. “I’m coming, Austin…."
* * *
Austin watched Gina’s eyes slam shut as her orgasm hit her full force. She didn’t look like she was aware of anything else aside from the sensations she was feeling. He doubted she even realized half the things she was saying, half the things she was admitting without having to say anything at all.
He slowed his strokes, but couldn’t bring himself to slip his fingers from her tight, fluttering channel just yet. With his fingers gentling to a light caress, he saw Gina’s eyes return to focus as she licked her lush lips and began taking in slow, shuddering breaths, her full breasts tempting him with every rise and fall.
Easing his fingers out of her, Austin walked over to the nearby wash basin, his gait purposeful, but forced. He didn’t want to step away from the beauty for even a minute, but he had to.
As he picked up the pitcher and poured water into the bowl, he saw his hands were shaking. What the hell? Refusing to look at her at he got himself back under control, he chose instead to study the pattern on the heavy velvet drapes, trying not to think of the luscious, naked beauty behind him.
"Austin?"
Need lingered in her voice. He could hear it. Which meant she could, too.
He knew that if he returned to the bed, she'd let him take her.
…And hate him forever after.
Seeing her conflicted expression, her eyes confirming his suspicions, he stopped himself from returning to her.
With surprisingly more effort than he expected, he headed over to where he had draped his shirt and jacket, calling over his shoulder in a tense voice, "Get dressed, Ms. Banks. I'm taking you home."
4
Austin sat pensively on his side of the limousine as he analyzed their developing situation.
He had expected more time to formulate his next move, but unfortunately, it turned out that Miss Banks had parked her car by the swampy edge of Boudrot's estate and walked through God only knew what to reach the main house. So he had mere minutes left to make some big decisions.
He imagined he looked calm. He intentionally posed as a relaxed man might, his elbow propped on the armrest, thumb and middle finger capturing the lower curve of his jaw and his index finger pressed lightly against his lower lip.
Far from calm, even further from relaxed, his pulse skipped erratically, his body refusing to behave the instant he saw the message flash on his phone that Gina was at the estate even before she snuck into the house.
It hadn’t been Boudrot's oafs who’d notified her, either. Austin had brought his own two-man security team.
They studied every person he came across, identified any possible threats as soon as they made themselves known.
And the dark beauty sitting as far away from him as she could without climbing right out of the limo’s window was quickly becoming the biggest threat to him yet—one that had nothing to do with his business, making it one he had absolutely no idea how to deal with.
Gina Banks, twenty-eight. Grew up in the parish she had been hounding his office about every day straight for weeks. Father died on the job when she was young. Law student on the cusp of graduating, just waiting for final grades and the school's dean to slip a diploma into her graceful hands. Good grades, too. Factor in how she still waited tables forty-plus hours a week and he would say great grades. Younger sister, both of them raised by her widowed mother who still lived in Port Sulphur in the Plaquemines Parish.
Her mother, her sister, her community—those were Gina's points of vulnerability. Three of them, at least. The heat she had unleashed at his touch suggested she had gone too long without a man.
Beautiful as she was, he had a hard time believing there was a shortage of suitors.
The shortage was time. She didn't have any in terms of the Skipjack Bay expansion.
And as the limo pulled to a stop, Austin realized that he, too, was out of time.
* * *
Gina quietly seethed on her side of the limo. She wouldn't even look at Long. The man had done exactly what he set out to do. Humiliation pricked at her skin, tightened her chest.
The effect was temporary, she promised herself. She would get home, wash him from her skin, and figure out her next plan of attack against his intent to drill in the parish she grew up in.
Feeling the vehicle pull to a stop, she jerked her head up and spotted her beat-to-hell Honda.
More humiliation.
She shook her head. Long could go fuck himself. Fuck whomever. She didn't care.
Angry, vision blurring, Gina fumbled with the lock. Long did something on his side to release the catch. Surprised, she started to fall out. His hand coiled around her wrist, saving her from a nasty spill.
Restraining her, she amended.
"You still want to talk to me about Skipjack," he rumbled, "be at my office tomorrow at five."
Twisting her hand free from his grip, she nodded, her head awkwardly jerking up and down as she fought the urge to scream at him.
Long stopped the door before she could slam it shut.
"Five, Gina."
"I got you the first time, baby."
Throwing his words back at him, she finished with a cold smile and turned to her car. She drew the key from her bra, conscious that the limo still idled behind her and feeling the hard crawl of Austin's eyes along her back.
Gina shoved the key into the l
ock, scowling at the Honda. It was probably worth one tire on that damn limo. That made Long think he was better than everyone, that he could have her come at his beck and call, offering him everything, surrendering while he held back.
She twisted the key, ripped the door open, the rusting metal hinges groaning. Straight into the seat, key in the ignition, praying the engine turned over or that he'd just leave before it could fail to start.
With a gassy burp, the engine chugged to life and she cast her gaze toward the night sky in gratitude. She flipped the lock, put her seat belt on and threw the Honda into drive, pulling away from the limo with gravel spinning from beneath her wheels.
Certain she heard a thunk of stone against polished black fiberglass, Gina smiled. Good, a dent in his limo would at least remind him for a few minutes longer that she even existed. Resisting the urge to lower the window and flip him off one last time, she sped down the abandoned road.
Her grip on the wheel didn't relax once during the drive home. Finally at a stop in front of her building, she had to will her fingers to release the wheel and put the vehicle in park. She turned the engine off then grabbed her wallet, house keys and cell phone from the center console. Checking the missed calls as she unlocked the front door, she saw half a dozen messages from her mother, the time between them halving as the night wore down.
Inside the studio apartment, she tossed her keys and wallet on the small table near the door. She couldn't call her mother, knew her voice would be too raw from Long's rejection. Alice Hayes Banks would want to know what was wrong with her little girl. How in the world could Gina tell her mother that she had let Austin Long—the man she went there to stop—suck and kiss and finger her to the most intense climax of her life before she tucked her tail between her legs and drove home?
There were some things a daughter just had to lie about. And her encounter with the oil man was definitely at the top of the list.
Sliding her phone open, she keyed a brief text.
Tempted By Trouble Page 2