Ready

by Lucy Monroe

  “I had a good teacher. Have you ever had an argument with Jake?”

  “Yeah, over me staying with you. I won.”

  “Well, you’re not going to win this one.” She opened the side pocket of her computer case and pulled out the small Dana. “I’ll just settle into your chair over there and write, okay?”

  His eyes narrowed dangerously, reminding her he would always be more predator than patsy. “If you weren’t so fragile, I’d convince you to stay in that bed with no problem.”

  She tucked the Dana under her arm and grabbed her notepad and pen out of another pocket in her bag. “If I weren’t recovering from carbon monoxide poisoning, you wouldn’t be trying to get me there in the first place.”

  He took two giant steps, closing the distance between them and shrinking her awareness of the room to the three square feet they occupied. She could smell the crisp air from outside clinging to his hair and skin, but also the indefinable pheromone cocktail that told her body her lover was excited.

  Her gaze dropped to the front of his black jeans and she sucked in air, almost choking herself in the process. He wasn’t just mildly excited; the tight denim of his pants tented away from his body from his straining erection.

  Sliding his long, callused fingers around her neck, he cupped her nape.

  His thumbs dipped underneath the crewnecks of both her t-shirt and sweatshirt to caress her collarbones, sending shivers of gooseflesh cascading over her breasts. “Are you sure about that?”

  Chapter 14

  Desire flooded her senses, adding to the volatile emotional cocktail traveling through her bloodstream.

  Her only defense was in making it a joke, no matter how serious it felt. “Are you saying you aren’t going to employ unfair tactics because of my recent brush with death?”

  The color receded from his skin, leaving his usual tan vitality looking sickly; his eyes burned into her with disturbing intensity. “I’m sorry about that, Lise. I’d give anything to change what happened yesterday.”

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “I’m supposed to be protecting you, and you could have died.”

  “You saved me.”

  “Because I didn’t protect you well enough to begin with.”

  “There was nothing you could have done, Joshua.”

  She shook her head when he didn’t reply and his expression remained stoically unmoved. “You told me the risks. I chose to take them.”

  “I wasn’t expecting him to tamper with your exhaust. We checked your car for tampering with the brakes and other vital systems, but everything looked good.”

  “It’s not your fault.” She reached up and grasped his wrists, squeezing them. “You told me I couldn’t blame myself for the problems Nemesis has caused for my family and you can’t take responsibility for his desire to hurt me, either.”

  “Oh, baby.” His face nuzzled hers until his mouth settled against hers, kissing her with tender sweetness.

  His body vibrated with sexual energy, but his lips were as gentle as anything she’d ever known. He might not love her, but he cared, more than he was willing to admit to, maybe even more than she dared hope.

  She was the one who turned the kiss into something more than comfort, opening her lips, tasting him with her tongue, nipping him with her teeth. His big body shuddered and he pulled her against him, devouring her mouth with a voracious hunger that she knew only she could appease.

  For now.

  He broke away from her, turning his head, his breathing heavy and erratic. “We can’t, sweetheart.”

  “Yes, we can.” She’d seen him pack the condoms in his duffel bag.

  “You need to take it easy, to recuperate from yesterday.”

  “I need to make love with you.” She emphasized her point by pressing herself against him and rubbing his hardness with her body.

  He groaned like a man facing death. “No, Lise. We can’t.”

  “Stop trying to tell me what’s best for me, Joshua. Like you told Jake. I’m well past the age of consent.”

  “You’re also sick.”

  “I am not.”

  It was getting harder and harder to say no. He’d never found it so difficult to do what he knew was right, but then he’d never had to turn away from the sensual promise of Lise’s body when she was pleading with him to make love to her.

  “We have all the time in the world to make love, but right now you need to focus on getting better.”

  “I am better, and we don’t have all the time in the world. If things go according to your plan, you’ll have Nemesis caught in less than ten days. I don’t want to waste one of them playing sick when I’m not.”

  Was she saying she expected their relationship to end with the catching of her stalker? He had known their affair was temporary; mercenaries made poor husbands, but he hadn’t expected her to be ready to boot him out of her life the minute she was free of Nemesis.

  Even so, he couldn’t agree that she was just pretending to be sick. He would never forget the way she’d looked, passed out in the driver’s seat of her car, or her wan complexion throughout the night while her body rid itself of the carbon monoxide.

  “You’re too fragile right now, even if you’re too stubborn to see it.” He wished his sex would respond to the barely fading bruises under her eyes instead of the scent of her sweet skin so close and the feel of her under his fingers.

  He jerked his thumbs out from under her shirt and dropped his hands away from her, but they tingled with the memory of her softness despite being clenched at his sides.

  “I’m excited, not fragile, and if you’ll just take your clothes off and get naked with me in that big bed behind us, I’ll prove it.”

  The words and genuine feminine need swirling in her golden-green eyes were killing blows to his self-control. “All right, but damn it, no gymnastics or going down on me moving your head all over the place. I’m not going to be responsible for your headache coming back.”

  He lowered his lips to hers before she could say anything else, or start arguing his imposed limitation on their lovemaking into the ground.

  He remembered how Jake and Bella had described Lise as a shy woman, an introvert who rarely fought with anybody. He had to wonder if they were talking about the same woman, because his Lise was more she-cat than shy.

  Thoughts of brothers, arguments, and even proving anything to her melted into nothing as he got his first deep taste of her lips in twenty-four hours.

  He plundered the soft recesses of her mouth while his hands slid of their own volition down her slender back to cup her buttocks. He lifted her into intimate contact, shaking with the need to make her his, to make her forget her plan to break away from him after Nemesis was caught.

  She moaned, a soft, sexy sound, and squirmed against him. Just a small movement, but it was enough to make his already hardened sex throb.

  He started peeling her out of her sweatshirt and t-shirt at the same time. She helped him, letting him break the kiss long enough to get them off over her head. Then she tunneled back into his arms and resumed the kiss with an intense ferocity that reminded him she matched him perfectly in every way.

  But his wild lover was temporarily fragile and no damn way was he going to let her hurt herself.

  He tempered the kiss to something this side of volcanic as her small fingers went to work on the buttons of his solid flannel shirt. She tugged it apart impatiently and the last three popped off, pinging against the hardwood floor. Her hands settled against the hot skin covering his tense pecs and they both froze, savoring the contact.

  One day could feel like a lifetime when it meant not touching the woman who turned a man’s blood to molten lava.

  She smoothed her fingers down his torso, making the muscles in his stomach contract and his dick throb.

  He needed to feel her naked against him.

  Sliding his hands around her back, he fumbled with the clasp of her bra, shaking so much it took two attempts to
get the hooks to release. Then he peeled it away from her body and gently crushed her against him. The rock-like tips of her breasts pressed against him and his body jerked at the contact.

  Pulling his mouth from hers, he gulped in air. “Damn, that feels good.”

  “It does,” she gasped as she rubbed herself from side to side, abrading her hardened nipples with his chest hair and teasing him in the process.

  He lifted her until one perfect, ripe berry was in front of his lips. She made a keening sound as he took her into his mouth and wrapped her denim-clad legs around his torso.

  He wanted this to be gentle, but making love to her was like standing on the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge during an earthquake. He bent over and laid her on the bed, his mouth devouring her pulsing peak with tender violence.

  She bucked up against him, her ankles joined behind his back. “Yes, Joshua…” Her hands locked to either side of his head, pressing him more firmly into her resilient flesh. “Suck me. Harder.” She panted and squirmed. “Now.”

  He would have laughed at her demanding tone, but he was too busy complying. She tasted so sweet and he could smell her arousal through the layers of her panties and jeans.

  She lifted her pelvis, bringing both their bodies off the bed. “I want you inside me.”

  She was losing control and so was he, but he couldn’t let that happen. Not this time.

  No matter what the sexy little tyrant wanted.

  He released her nipple with an audible pop and unwound her legs from him despite her attempt to maintain intimate contact.

  Sucking in air, he stood back from the bed.

  She sprawled across it like an Amazon princess, her honey hair spread around her head in wild disarray, her skin flushed with excitement, her eyes burning gold with sensual demand.

  She reared up on her elbows, pushing her swollen breasts into prominence and nearly undoing his good intentions. “Come back here.”

  “In a second. Let me get my clothes off.” And take a minute to get control of his libido.

  She watched with parted lips, wetted by her small pink tongue, as he removed the remainder of his clothes.

  She kicked out of her tennis shoes and toed off her socks while he shucked his pants from his body, but her gaze never wavered from what he was doing—and she left her jeans on. Thankfully.

  His control was precarious enough as it was.

  She licked her lips again, sending his temperature spiking into dangerous territory. “I read women aren’t supposed to be visual, you know?”

  “So they say.” Where did she get the wherewithal to talk?

  “But looking at you excites me so much I pulse between my legs like I’ve just climaxed.”

  He groaned, his knees damn near buckling at her words. “That’s good to know.”

  She bit her lip, stunning him with a look of vulnerability. “I really seem to be more sexual than a lot of women.”

  “I like your rampant sensuality.” Hell, he loved it.

  “You do?”

  He rolled his eyes and felt his cock bob. “Can’t you tell?”

  She seemed mesmerized by the sight of his throbbing erection. She licked her lips again and the muscles at the juncture of his thighs tightened. He’d meant what he said about her not giving him head, but he wasn’t sure he’d have the strength to follow through on it if she took matters into her own hands—or mouth, as the case may be.

  “Some men don’t like forward women.”

  “So? Some men don’t like a curvy ass, either. I’m not one of them.”

  She rolled onto her stomach and blinked at him over her shoulder, jiggling her butt toward him. “Is my bottom curvy enough for you?”

  If he touched it right now, he’d lose what was left of his brain function. “Yeah,” he croaked.

  She flipped onto her back and sat up, her hand going to the button on her jeans. “And I’m not too forward for you?”

  He watched her fingers undo the metal fastening and then slide the zipper down, one slow tooth at a time.

  “Not yet, but with the right kind of coaxing, I think we can get you there,” he blatantly lied, unable to resist the urge to tease the she-wolf torturing him.

  An expression came over her features that was equal parts mischief and feminine lust. “You don’t think I’m aggressive enough?”

  “Nah, but I’m sure you’ll get there…eventually.”

  She kicked out of her jeans and panties at the same time, exposing the creamy expanse of her naked legs to his hungry gaze. He shook with the need to have her, but he was still a far cry from calm enough to give her the gentle lovemaking she needed.

  After all, she was delicate.

  But weak was the last thing she looked as she came up off the bed in all her naked glory, her breasts jiggling, her hips swaying, and her mouth curved in a sexy pout that would have done Mae West proud. She came forward until their bodies brushed.

  Cocking her hand on one hip, she curled around his throbbing penis with the other. “Is this better?”

  “It’s incredible.”

  “But I could maybe be a little more aggressive?”

  He wasn’t answering. He had a feeling he’d dug himself into a pit with his teasing and when she dropped in front of him without warning, he knew he was right.

  She took his head into her hot, sweet mouth.

  They weren’t supposed to do this, but she sure wasn’t acting like a woman who had just gotten out of the hospital that morning. Working his shaft with her hands, she let her fingertips tickle his balls gently before rubbing up and down his hardness with the expert caress of a trained geisha.

  Had he taught her that, or was it something that came naturally to her?

  Her tongue swirled around his tip, drawing a long, low moan from him. “You’re killing me, and we agreed you would not do this.”

  But if she stopped he’d really die.

  She didn’t. She made love to him with her mouth until his legs trembled with the effort of standing up, until he could feel the pressure of an orgasm building up.

  He tried to pull her away. He wanted to prolong the carnal bliss, to give her pleasure before he took his own. She would have none of it, twisting her head out of his grasp, but not giving up her hold on him. Afraid that pulling on her could hurt her, he was powerless to impose his will on her. The suction inside her mouth increased.

  Nothing else existed, but the feel of his sex in her mouth, the gentle touch of her fingers, and the insistence of her need to please him. The scent of her skin and her ardent arousal wafted up to him, exciting him beyond reason. His heart pounded in his chest.

  He could barely withstand the sight of her head bent over him like a supplicant when he was the one who felt so desperate for what she could give him.

  The pressure at the base of his penis grew agonizing, pushing, pushing, pushing until he started to come, his own warmth mixing with the wet heat of her mouth. His knees buckled and he sank to the floor, but she followed him, drawing his climax out to excruciating proportions.

  His voice grew hoarse from shouting.

  He was far from innocent in the art of sex, but he’d never known anything like this.

  Still hard in her mouth, his muscles continued to spasm, but he had nothing left to give.

  “Please, honey, I can’t take any more.” His voice came out guttural and harsh.

  He’d never been this spent; his cock had never been this sensitive, and he had never once in his adult life acceded sensual defeat to a woman. Lise Barton did things to him that no other woman would ever be able to do.

  And she thought she was leaving as soon as they caught Nemesis? No way in hell.

  She withdrew her mouth, the sensation of her lips moving along his sensitized skin making his body jerk. She kissed him tenderly, on the tip, on his shaft and at the base of his sex. Her hands caressed his inner thighs and around to his butt, cupping him, soothing him.

  Sliding them up the small of his back,
she gentled the embers that still popped and sizzled, left over from the rage of passion that had exploded between them.

  A breath from toppling sideways, he pulled her body up to press against his, needing to take possession of her mouth with primitive intensity. She gave him her lips with the same abandon she’d given him pleasure. The kiss went on and on, their bodies pressed close together, his heart hammering against his ribs with painful strength.

  He finally broke his mouth from hers and buried his face in her hair, nuzzling the silkiness, kissing the soft, tender skin of her nape.

  “What were you saying about aggressive?” she asked, her voice husky with desire and just a hint of laughter.

  He closed his eyes and smiled against her skin. “I can’t remember now. My brain has been turned to mush by a wanton she-wolf with elemental fire in her touch.”

  She choked out a sound and turned her head until their lips met again in a kiss of possession that shook him to his soul.

  If things between them continued as they were, he was going to lose something he didn’t think he had anymore…his heart.

  Their mouths broke apart and he pulled away far enough to look into hazel eyes that glowed gold with desire and emotion. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. I told you.”

  But he hadn’t believed her. “I was worried about you.”

  Something that looked like hope came and went in her eyes, but it was gone too fast for him to tell. “There was no need.”

  He looked down at her ruefully, shaking his head. “I wanted to be gentle with you.”

  “You were.”

  “How do you figure that?”

  “You didn’t push yourself into my mouth. You let me set the pace completely.”

  He’d barely restrained himself, but he hadn’t wanted to force anything from her she wasn’t physically up to giving. “I don’t consider that the most noble behavior. I should have left the room when I had a chance.”

  “I like knowing I can make you go against your hard-earned self-control. It excites me and it makes me feel good deep inside.”

  “Well, you sure as hell succeeded.”

  She laughed, the sound so sexy, his cock twitched with renewed interest. Amazing. He was like a teenager who’d just discovered the joys of sex with her.