High-Stakes Playboy

by Cindy Dees

  They slowly fell back into the grip of gravity together, his body shuddering against hers. She absorbed his release, the aftershocks of her own climax mingling with his as they collapsed against the mattress, breathing hard.

  It took a while for any thought at all to register in her mind. At first only disjointed impressions came to her. Wow. Incredible. And then emotions followed. Amazement. Joy. And finally, blessedly, relief. It soaked into her bones and washed away long-held stress that had been part of her for so long she hardly knew how to relate to this deep sense of release from it. It was as if she had been born again, into a new life and a new self.

  She’d had no idea she would feel such an intimate and powerful emotional connection with Archer. Most people talked about sex as if it was a purely physical experience. But for her, and for him, she thought, it had been more. When he’d gazed into her eyes and she into his, it was as if she’d been looking straight into his soul.

  How could anybody do that casually? It was by far the most emotionally naked and revealing moment of her life. She’d been deluded to think she could share that with another person and then walk away from it as if nothing of importance had ever happened. It was the deepest and most powerful bond she’d ever forged with another human being.

  Archer rolled over and gathered her against his side. She snuggled against his big, warm body, her hand resting lightly on his stomach. They dozed like that for a while, but eventually as the light began to fade outside, he moved away from her, rousing her to a half-conscious state.

  “Back in a minute,” he murmured against her brow. He dropped a light kiss on her forehead and slid out from under her, heading gloriously naked for the bathroom. She would never, ever get tired of looking at him.

  Until he left her. In less than three weeks.

  Oh. Crap.

  Chapter 10

  Archer had been truly shocked a few times in his life, but nothing compared to what he was feeling at this moment. He’d been taken to school by possibly his most inexperienced lover ever. She’d taken him to an emotional place he’d never even guessed existed. She’d laid her entire soul bare before him. The courage that had taken blew him away.

  Who would ever have guessed that shy, innocent Marley would throw herself into making love with such abandon? Not him, for sure.

  He shoved a hand through his hair in confusion. He ought to be freaked out by the intimacy of what they’d just done. It had nothing to do with hot, impersonal sex and everything to do with romantic lovemaking. Hell, he was freaked out by what had just happened. But what he wasn’t doing was running screaming. And why the hell not, he hadn’t the slightest idea. His main urge was to crawl back into bed with her and do that again.

  He turned around to do just that and...

  Where did she go?

  He looked out into the main room and saw her sitting in the big armchair in front of the fireplace, wrapped in a quilt, her shoulders bare beneath her tousled hair and so sexy his breath stuck in his throat. From the back, she could be Marilyn Monroe reincarnated. The resemblance was uncanny. Or maybe he was just going that crazy.

  He followed her and busied himself for a minute piling more wood on the fire and stirring it up. He sat down on the hearth in front of her. The heat from the fire felt good on his back. “First things first. Are you okay?”

  A cute little frown wrinkled the spot over her nose. “Gosh, I could have sworn you were in that bed with me. Yes, Archer. I’m fine.”

  “You’re not...freaked out or anything? Upset? Overwhelmed?” Damn. He didn’t even know what to be concerned about.

  “Freaking out, no. Overwhelmed? Well, I was. In a good way. Did I do something wrong that I don’t know about?”

  “God, no!” he exclaimed quickly. “You did everything incredibly right.”

  “Then why the third degree?” she asked, tilting her head curiously at him.

  Because, for once, he was unsure of himself. He didn’t understand what had just happened between them and he felt a driving need to figure it out. But he didn’t even know where to begin peeling back the onion and discovering the emotional layers to what they’d just done or how he was reacting to it. Not that he was about to admit any of that to her. Particularly not with her gazing at him, like he was some sort of conquering god.

  A terrible certainty that she was going to realize what a fraud he was came over him. Soon, that look in her eyes would change and become hatred. Disgust. Rejection. Panic jumped in his gut at the idea. He had to distract her before she dug too much deeper into his psyche and saw him for the shallow, emotionally empty shell of a man that he was.

  “Hungry?” he asked her, desperate to erase that adoring expression from her face.

  “I don’t know. I guess so.”

  He leaped up and headed for the cupboards in the kitchen, rummaging around and coming up with some canned stew. He dumped it in a pan and brought it back to the fire.

  “So how did you fall into that stream?”

  “It was covered with a thin layer of ice and a thick covering of snow. I went right through both.”

  “I’ve got the mechanics of how you fell in the water. My question is why were you stomping around in the woods where you could fall into a stream?”

  He wedged the pan at the edge of the fire and turned to face her, frowning. “I thought I saw something. I went to investigate.”

  “What was it?”

  His frown deepened. “I thought I saw someone in the woods.”

  “Out here? In the middle of a snowstorm?” she asked skeptically.

  “I know. I didn’t think it made sense, either. That was why I went to check it out.”

  “For all you knew, it could have been a bear. You shouldn’t have taken such a risk,” she chided gently.

  “It wasn’t a bear. It was upright. Moving on two legs. Definitely a person.”

  “Or Sasquatch,” she retorted humorously.

  “I thought some guy confessed to faking the whole Sasquatch thing a few years back.”

  She shrugged. “My TV station did stories on sightings about twice a year.”

  “The figure I saw wasn’t that big. Or hairy.”

  “Who would have been dumb enough to be tromping around in the woods in this kind of weather?” she asked drily.

  He rolled his eyes at her, and she grinned back unrepentantly. Okay, fine. He deserved that jab. It had been dumb to go out in a bad snowstorm. He redirected his thoughts to her question, which was a damned good one. “Do you know how close any neighbors are to this place?”

  She shook her head. “Not sure. But I didn’t see any driveways for the last couple of miles of the drive up here. I got the impression this place is pretty isolated. And the owner did mention to me on the phone that he owns several hundred acres of land up here.”

  A bad feeling took root in Archer’s gut. The person he had seen would definitely have been on the property that went with this cabin, then. Why would anyone trespass out here in the middle of nowhere? The shadowy figure he’d seen flitting through the pine trees and falling snow hadn’t been wearing an orange vest or appeared to be carrying a weapon of any kind. Not a hunter, then. Unless...

  Unless the intruder hadn’t been hunting deer.

  “Marley, do you have any enemies that you’re aware of?”

  “That’s a pretty random thing to ask. Where did that question come from?”

  “Just tell me. Do you have any enemies?”

  “Of course not. Why do you ask?” she persisted.

  He sighed. “The person I saw was moving furtively. Like he didn’t want me to see him. He was lurking fairly close to this cabin when I startled him into moving away into the woods.”

  “Maybe it was a squatter hoping to shack up here and ride out the storm.”

/>   “Was the door unlocked when you got here?”

  “No. The place was locked up tight. But I got here before it started to snow, too.”

  Archer frowned, reconstructing that brief glimpse he’d gotten of the other person before he fell into the creek and had to give up the chase. The figure he’d seen had been bundled up warmly against the cold and the snow—not like a vagrant who’d gotten caught out unprepared for the storm.

  Marley moved past him to give the stew a stir, and he snagged her around the waist as she headed back to her seat. He pulled her into his lap, reveling in her warmth and softness as she cuddled in his arms in front of the fire. He kissed her bare shoulder before pulling the quilt up over her satin flesh to keep it warm.

  “I forgot to say thank you for helping me get warm earlier,” he murmured.

  She laughed quietly. “I’m happy to strip you down and go for a little skin-on-skin heat transfer with you anytime. Just say the word.”

  He chuckled against her temple. “I never would have pegged you for such a wanton under all that innocence.”

  “A wanton?” she exclaimed.

  His smile widened. “And a hoyden.”

  “A hoyden, huh? Wow. I’m impressed that a stick jockey like you knows such a fancy word.”

  “We’re not dumb jocks, thank you very much.” Although he could see where she might get that impression from the rather locker room environment the stunt pilot crew fostered on set. “Most of us are totally domesticated. Guys get married, have a few kids, pick up a mortgage and a lawn to mow, and they settle right down.”

  Marley went very still in his arms. Damn. She didn’t think he had just proposed to her, did she?

  “That sounds kind of nice,” she confessed. “I guess I’m more the domestic type than I wanted to admit. I had all these big dreams of exciting adventure and death-defying feats of camera work. But I like this.” She looked around the cozy cabin and snuggled a little more closely against his chest.

  Dammit, he liked it, too. And he’d spent most of his adulthood living exactly the exciting adventures and death-defying feats she was talking about. The woman was freaking taming him.

  Appalled, he muttered, “You should go get some clothes on. It’s getting colder in here. Temperature must be dropping outside. While you do that, I’ll bring in more wood and build up the fire some more.”

  She dropped a quick kiss on the end of his nose and wriggled out of his arms, dragging the quilt with her. But it sagged enticingly off one of her shoulders as she sashayed into the bedroom and he half rose to his feet to follow her before it dawned on him that she had him dancing on a string like a green kid.

  Stunned, he fell back to the hearth and stared into the fire in dismay. What was happening to him? What had she done to him?

  They shared the stew in front of a roaring blaze. It was indeed getting colder outside. At this rate, it could be several days before it warmed up enough to melt off the worst of the snow. He didn’t like being trapped here like this. If someone was, indeed, out there in the woods stalking Marley, he bloody well wanted to be able to leave. The sooner, the better.

  After the meal, he announced, “I’m going outside to have a look around.”

  “But your coat isn’t dry! You can’t go out there in damp clothing or you’ll get hypothermic again.”

  He swore under his breath. She was right, of course. He got up and fetched his wet boots, coat, hat and gloves, and spread them on the hearth to dry, as close to the fire as he dared put them without them catching on fire.

  Marley asked in a small voice, “Are you in that big a hurry to get away from me?”

  His head whipped around and he stared at her. She looked like a lost child, her arms wrapped around her middle and her big blue eyes hurt.

  He surged forward onto his knees in front of her, swept her into his arms, ignored her protests and bent his head down to kiss her. Since he couldn’t seem to express himself properly in words, maybe this would work.

  His lips touched hers, and everything else went away. All that remained was the sweet, soft feel of her mouth beneath his, the way her lips yielded to his, the way she opened so readily for him and let his tongue inside to plunder her. That...emotional thing...moved again, deep within him. Possessiveness. Need. Recognition.

  But of what? If he didn’t know better, he’d say she was his soul mate or something equally inane. Granny Minerva and her damned kismet were at it again. Except Archer didn’t do deep emotions. Ever. This had to be something else.

  Maybe he was losing his mental grip.

  Marley’s slender arms slipped around his neck, and he dipped his hands under her sweater. Bare skin slid beneath his palms, silky and feminine, and hunger ignited in his gut. His male parts announced their approval of this method of communication with Marley, and his heart seconded the motion.

  He lifted her out of the chair and into his lap where, in the dancing light and heat of the fire, he unwrapped her like a present to himself. Her breasts flushed rosy in the firelight, and he dipped his head to enjoy them like the luscious lollipops they might as well be. Her rib cage lifted, thrusting her flesh up into his mouth. As he gorged himself on her, she moaned, and he froze. He wasn’t hurting her, was he?

  Her hand plunged impatiently into his hair and pulled him back down to her breast, and he smiled around her rosy peak. Ahh. Well, then...

  He half lifted her and slipped out from beneath her, depositing her back in the big armchair. He leaped to his feet and all but ran for the bedroom. His wallet was in his bag, and condoms were in his wallet. He might have been irresponsible with her once when he was half-frozen and taken by surprise, but he wasn’t going to make the mistake twice. He grabbed a quilt on his way back to the main room and sprinted back to Marley as if he was afraid she would disappear before he got back to her.

  He spread the quilt over the thick rug in front of the hearth and laid her down upon it. The firelight licked across her skin, just as his hands wanted to do, and she was all golden sex goddess reclining beside him. He let her go long enough to peel his shirt over his head and unzip his jeans, but then she was reaching for him again, murmuring about how perfect he was and how much she enjoyed looking at him.

  “It’s mutual, baby,” he managed to get out before she raised herself on an elbow, dipped her hand inside his jeans and, holy cow, took his erection in her small, tight fist. Fast learner, much?

  “You don’t have to...” he started. But then she ran her palm down the length of him and back up, ending by swirling her fingertip with a flourish around the most sensitive part of his erection.

  She leaned forward to kiss him, as well. Her mouth was all wet and lush and sexy, and words failed him as her tongue mimicked the stroking of her fingers. Her fist grasped him tightly and slid up and down the length of him, once, twice. All the while, her clever tongue darted in and out of his mouth, imitating the sex he was dying to have with her again.

  His hips thrust forward of their own volition, driving him deeper into her fist. He tried to pull back—goodness knew the last thing he wanted to do was scare her. But she draped her leg over his hips and met the thrust of his hips with one of her own. The combination of fist, mouth and silky, naked body was insane, and he groaned as his flesh took on the characteristics of stone, so hard and heavy he could barely stand it.

  She pulled back enough to smile up at him. “What are we going to do with this?”

  “It’s too soon. You’ll be sore. We can’t...” He broke off, groaning aloud as she leaned forward and took his lower lip between her teeth and gave a tug on it.

  “Where did you learn to do that?” he gasped.

  His brain was draining out his left ear as she kissed him and fondled him. He couldn’t think with her doing that. Her fingertip rubbed in a slick little circle just at the base of his erectio
n, and he about jumped out of his skin.

  “Amazing the things a girl can learn on the internet,” she murmured as her attention turned back to his mouth, licking and soothing the lip she’d just bitten.

  He swore under his breath as he fought like crazy for control of his raging body.

  “Any chance I can persuade you to do something naughty with me?” she inquired. “Maybe show me something I’ve never tried before?”

  The idea of being the first to show her a whole host of sexy things all but did him in.

  He groaned and barely managed to cobble together a semicoherent, “What, uh, did you, uh, damn, have in mind?”

  “I thought I’d rely on your vast experience to come up with something interesting.”

  He laughed painfully. “If you don’t stop squeezing me and kissing me like that, I’m not going to be able to think of anything at all.”

  She pulled back from him immediately. Relief in his brain warred with dismay in his body. “New and different, huh?” He considered her thoughtfully, now that he wasn’t being driven completely out of his mind and could actually breathe. “You’re sure you’re not sore?”

  “Well, maybe a little. But would you believe me if I said I kind of like it?”

  A slow smile unfolded within him. “Well, then. That does open up some fascinating possibilities.” As her face lit up, he added wryly, “Going to be the adventurous type, huh?”

  She nodded at him, her eyes sparkling with anticipation. Her breathing sped up visibly as her breasts lifted and fell with her quick little gasps. Good grief, she liked the danger. The domestic-goddess wannabe had given way to this seductive siren.

  His imagination shifted into overdrive. But before he acted on his fantasies, he wanted to hear hers. He slipped his hand lower, down the gentle swell of her belly and lower, relishing the limpid surrender in her as she buried her face against his shoulder and moaned a little in pleasure.

  It took about two seconds to stroke her into a state of mindless lust. “Tell me what you want to try, baby.”

  “Um, I don’t know...” A gasp as he plunged a finger inside her and withdrew it slowly. He repeated the process until she was panting in sexy little gasps. “I like this.”