by Beth Rhodes
“Part of me can’t believe it.” Her hand came out and traced a line along the T-shirt edge at his neck.
He took her hand, opened it, and kissed her palm.
“The other part of me,” she cleared her throat, “it’s afraid again. How can I be such a dope about who my friends are? Janice and I…we skated in the same competitions. We would shoot the shit, or whatever you call it when you’re twelve.”
Tan laughed and brush a stray hair from her face. Now. Tell her now. “Can I sit?” he asked instead.
Liz sat up and curled her feet under her legs and patted the seat next to her. “Step into my office,” she teased.
He sat, lifted her, and set her in his lap.
She was warm from lying under the blanket, and she was perfection, resting against his torso.
And then she kissed him, as if knowing he was uncertain. Closing his eyes, he gave in to the pull, the need, and the stark desire. She took over, controlling how fast and how deep the kiss would go, and then she turned in his lap and straddled him. Her knees squeezed his hips and thighs.
And oh, God, he moaned. His hands came up and rested at her waist. He kneaded the flesh, ran his hands down her thighs and then back up, digging his fingers enough so the massage wouldn’t tease her nerves.
“Make love to me, Tancredo Byrnes.”
His gaze flew to hers.
“Just you and me this time. No ulterior motive. No cause and effect. The two of us. Together. Because we want to be.”
“Liz—”
She covered his mouth with the tips of her fingers. “No promises yet. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”
“I do.” Frustration squeezed his gut, and he held her firmly, so afraid telling her would end what they were starting. “Tomorrow is the day I promise you I will do whatever I can to love you completely for the rest of my life.”
His throat tightened, the words barely escaping. What if she couldn’t trust him? She’d taken too many hits. From Janice, to Gabriel, back to Janice.
Liz rose from his lap and she held out a hand. “Talk tomorrow. Tonight, we are going to love each other stupid.”
“Smart,” he countered, taking her hand and standing.
***
When they reached his bedroom, Liz reached for his waistband, gripped the belt at the top, and pulled him toward her. “When you are near, there is nothing I fear. Not even a secret I care about.”
“I’m not Superman,” he answered. “And God knows I’m not perfect.”
“I don’t need perfection.”
“But I want you to know, before we do this…there is nothing I wouldn’t do to protect you.” He threaded those fingers through her hair, and the massage of it sent a chill down her spine. “You deserve the whole truth.”
“Are you married or something?”
“Jesus, no.”
She shook her head. “Tan, I fell in love with you. You helped me see strong Liz, stronger than I ever thought I could be. And I know you. There isn’t anything in your past that will change my mind about you. I want you. I don’t give a crap about Craig or Malcolm in the next room over. This is our happy place. And I would really like to get much happier in it.”
He wrapped his arms around her. A bear hug, not like the passion, which had invaded her soul, but true affection—love.
Her heart pounded as he wordlessly stripped her of the clothes, separating them. So slowly, the cotton tickled her arms, sent tremors through her legs, and made a familiar throb pulse between her legs. Her breath caught, and she lifted first one foot and then the other as her panties came off.
Tan trailed his hands back up her legs and cupped her, teased her opening with anxious, agile fingers.
“Mm.” She leaned into him, tucking her hands under the soft cotton T-shirt. Even as his fingers played her and a climax began a slow build inside her, she continued to undress him. Her lips tracked in exploration, following the shirt off his shoulders. She rode the solid board of his abs with her hands, slipping them into his pants where she measured his length, pressed tightly against his underwear.
Looking into his eyes, she held his gaze. “Even from day one, I wanted you, Tancredo. I had no idea what to do with those feelings. You were bossy—”
“Likewise,” he said with a kiss on her mouth.
When she kissed him next, she lingered, savored, and enjoyed every touch. She pressed herself so close to him she could feel his heartbeat, feel the desire below his waist. With her hands, she held his face, broke off the kiss, and breathed. “And a little disdainful…”
“Never,” he answered, letting that deadpan, dry tone come through.
He made her laugh, the light feeling in her chest more thrilling than winning an Olympic medal. “Liar,” she said.
He shrugged as if uncertain about his next words. “You’ve changed something for me. I don’t always know what to do about it, but I want you with me, no matter where we go. As long as you’re agreeable, of course.”
“Are we headed to your bed?”
“Seems appropriate since we’re both mostly naked.”
She grinned, wrapped her arms around his neck and jumped into his arms. “Then I’m definitely agreeable.”
He chuckled—never a full-out laugh, with this guy—and turned to toss her to the bed. She hit the pillows, and stretched, anticipating his touch, his heat. He dropped his jeans, displaying the flat, washboard stomach and exposing his length.
Flutters began in her stomach.
This was different. Last time was about taking something, not from him but for her. Since then, they’d connected in a way she never imagined she could with anyone—not after him.
He reached for her, instantly shoving thoughts of the past from her head. This time was about giving. She wanted to give herself to this man, share with him all the crazy feelings she had going on inside of her, and take him to the amazing place he’d shown her when they made love the first time.
And when his glorious bare-naked flesh came over her, she rolled him onto his back and sat against his erection. His hands came up to squeeze her breasts, and her body responded, sending streaks of arousal through every blood vessel from her head to her toes. Leaning in, she kissed him—long, slow delicious strokes of her tongue against his.
He countered her roll by holding her in the crook of his arm, and he stared down into her eyes. She saw no regret there, no doubt. She found confidence in his word, in his ability to get through the bullshit and find the bottom line. And she loved that she didn’t have to second guess what he was thinking.
He wanted her.
His eyes blazed, leaving her gaze and tracing a line down the center of her body. His hands followed, caressing her exposed skin. Little circles around her nipples caused goosebumps to raise across her chest. She lifted her hand to his face, wanting to touch as well, but not wanting this time to go too fast.
“You okay?” he asked as his fingers dug into her thigh on their way back up her leg.
She nodded, a slight hum rising in the back of her throat. “Don’t stop. Please,” she begged as she cupped him down below. He jerked against her, moving her so he could kneel between her legs. Those amazing hands came down on her thighs again.
“You missed your calling,” she said, thinking he could very easily have been a masseuse.
“Hmm.” He brushed the apex of her legs and tightened the string of desire inside. Her breath caught when his finger slid between her folds, and her slow, sublime ache to climax began. He gripped her hips, and leaned into her to kiss her. He took her mouth, as his hands rode higher, feeling each rib until his thumbs smoothed the underside of her breast.
The weight of his erection sat at her entrance, and she lifted her hips—an invitation, as well as a spark of arousal as the movement caused her clit to come fully alive and her entire body to ache with the expectation of pleasure.
She couldn’t keep her eyes from him, watching him love her, knowing he wanted so much more. “No
w, Tan. Do it.”
At her words, he found her gaze.
This wasn’t about anyone but them this time, leaving him scared shitless.
But in a good way, making him slow down, making his protective instinct flare to life at the craziest moment. She was primed for him. Him.
The evidence was in his hands. In her shortened breath, in the slight sheen of sweat against her pale skin, and the glistening heat where pale skin turned a deep pink. He slid his finger into her, and she clenched it.
Arousal slammed into him, tightened the flesh of his cock.
He drew her wetness over her, circled her clit.
She arched—sexy as hell—in front of him, her breasts trembling, and her eyes slid shut. He sucked her nipple into his mouth. He didn’t want to stop tasting her, touching her, not even for a condom, and silently, he cursed the damn things before reaching for one and rolling it down over himself.
Her eyes never left him, and it was like she could see his thoughts, see his frustrations. She drew a finger against his chest in the shape of a small heart. The frustration disappeared and he gripped her hips and thrust into her. His own breath shortened as he began moving in slow motions, in and out. Her feet found his calves and rested there, lifting her center up to him.
He used his hand at her clit, circled it with trembling fingers as he moved in and out.
Warmth. Friction. Heat.
God, the heat. Just like the passion in her designs, like the fire in her eyes when she was angry. She brought him to his knees.
She changed the angle, bringing her hands under the small of her back. Her rear, that sweet crevice, against his balls with every thrust sent him over the edge. He pumped, hard against her, watched her face…tried to hold out. “Liz,” he growled and found her clitoris again. He pressed it.
Liz cried out, the tension of her orgasm filled her, and she shook. He held her hips and pressed into her. Once. Twice. Again, losing himself and all train of thought. And then he came, shoving inside her as every muscle in his body strung tight.
Her hands were on his shoulders, bracing him. In the last moment, before the climax ended, her fingernails dug into his flesh—and he knew he was done for. He crashed, flattened her into the bed, mashing his face into her breast.
She blew out a breath, and it ruffled his hair, then she threaded her fingers through it… soft little motions, until it stopped. Her heart rate slowed beneath his ear.
He kissed the smooth slope of her breast and got up to use the bathroom, cleaning himself and slipping a pair of his shorts back on. Regular, routine relationship things…that hadn’t happened in quite some time.
Had it ever?
At the bed, he found her rolled over and sprawled cattycorner across the mattress, completely comfortable, naked, and right at home. He pulled his blanket up off the floor and got back into bed, shoving her over and then pulling her into the circle of his body. Her head came to rest on his arm. And he found the exposed skin of her neck too tempting to pass up, so he began kissing her again.
She made a little moaning sound and turned over, putting her chest against his and one of her legs tucked neatly between his knees. Her skin was so smooth on his and her hand came around and settled on his back, her fingers tracing more lines up and down his spine, and holy God, if he had twenty minutes…
But time was the best part. He had lots of twenty minutes. He didn’t have to rush anything. She was his; he was hers. His heart ached a little, knowing how he felt.
“I have things to tell you,” he started, tipping her head back so he could see into her eyes.
“Nothing you say can change my feelings for you. I’m in love with you.”
“Jiminy, you know what to say to bring me to my knees, Liz.” He held her face, drew her up to him and let his lips linger against hers, nibbling and then breathing, and then he rested his forehead against hers. “I’m thinking about making some changes, Liz.” Nerves, like butterflies, fluttered in his stomach. “And I was counting on you to be a part of them.”
“You know I want to be with you. Isn’t it obvious?”
He smiled. “Yeah. But I’m thinking of a bigger change—” he cleared his throat. It had only been a day since he considered it, but it had taken hold inside his head and had him weighing pros and cons any time he stopped to think, which hadn’t been much in the last two days, but still. “I’m thinking of applying for guardianship of my sister.”
“Oh, Tan.” He saw the admiration in her eyes first, but like the smart woman she was, it turned quickly to uncertainty and doubt.
“Your sister hardly knows me. If you’re going to bring her here to live with you and upset her life, we should wait to start anything. Let her get settled. We could take it slowly, as slowly as you need.” Her hand came out and comforted, rubbing up and down his arm—shoulder to elbow and back up. “Will this mean you’ll give up Hawk Elite, too?”
Tan blew out a breath and loosed himself from her hold. Hope slammed into him. He sat on the edge of the bed and with his hands on his knees, he squeezed his eyes closed against the threatening flood. “Are you for real?” he whispered, not even asking her, but asking himself, asking…the universe or fate. Whoever had placed her in his life.
A tear dropped, and he quickly wiped it away. Blowing out his breath one more time, he turned and found her sitting on the opposite side of the bed, knees bent under her arms, head resting on her forearms. She was watching him warily.
“The reason I’ve been thinking about this is because my mom hasn’t been well for some time. She drinks, which doesn’t seem like a problem until the drinking leads her to do other things—like disappear or forget to make dinner or hook up with assholes who come home.” He swallowed.
“It’s not safe for Andrea,” Liz concluded for him.
“Yeah.” And then there was Thomas. “It used to be okay. But then my brother died. See,” he continued, rushing through the rest of the story, “my brother went away to prison ten years ago. Charged with sexually assaulting his girlfriend, his case went all the way to court but…the girl won. We don’t believe he was guilty.” He paused then and looked at her, but her gaze was blank, not accusing or pitying, either. “I never believed it. Guilty of other things, especially that year. The drinking, drugs, hooking up with the wrong crowds. The rumors of his involvement with the neighborhood gang…all those things, yes. I listened to his version of events afterward, and I never believed what the papers said about him, because he’d practically raised me.”
“And now?”
Tan reached across the bed and held his hand out for her to take, relieved when she did. “I don’t know. Yes. But also no.” He shrugged. “How can I ever really know?”
“Sometimes, we can’t,” she whispered in answer and then crawled over to him, knelt at his side, and loved him with her body.
~ 30 ~
Liz jerked out of a sound sleep, half off the king-size bed, her leg and arm hanging from the side, opposite of Tan.
She’d heard something.
Or had she been dreaming? No, no, no. She didn’t want to start dreaming again merely because she was in a relationship with Tancredo. No, the dreams should be going away. She was safe with him. And she loved him. God, she loved him.
And he wanted to legally take on his sister as a ward.
That made her heart melt like crazy.
But it also made her nervous as hell. “Holy buckets,” she whispered as the pounding of her heart slowed. Not a dream, only the change, nerves. Then she heard the sound again, and remembered Malcolm and Craig were still there.
Because there was still a killer on the loose.
And she’d been targeted once.
All the victims were connected to a sexual assault charge in one way or another.
She flopped back onto the pillow and reached a hand for Tan. She laughed because she couldn’t. He was too far away. She scooted over to his side and leaned into him.
“Goal:” she whispered, �
��Make love to you so hard, we actually fall off this ridiculously large bed…and you thought I was the spoiled rich girl. Who has the king-size mattress, hmm?” She nipped at his ear. “I’ve got a single at my apartment—had. Well, shit. I had a twin.”
She sighed, and he levered himself up and laid on her, sucking her breast into his mouth. She groaned as arousal grew inside her. She hoped her grin said it all, and then Tan surprised her, rolling her once and then twice—they still didn’t fall off the bed—he kneed her legs apart and thrust into her. “Oh, yes,” she said, but he covered her mouth with his hand, gently, in a way to say quiet. “Right,” she giggled as he stroked her wet flesh, sending lightning bolts of electricity straight to her. She grabbed his rear, trying to make him go faster, but he maintained the easy-going pace until her breath shortened. “Tan,” she breathed.
“Yeah, baby. That’s it. Come on.”
She exploded around him, her muscles gripping him, her body arching with the ecstasy. Her brain short-circuited. She couldn’t move, didn’t want to.
“Thirteen seconds.”
She snorted a laugh. “Best thirteen seconds of my life—so far.”
He lay next to her and took her hand. “We’ve got company.”
“I think the noise is what woke me.”
He leaned over her, braced himself with a hand on her leg and squeezed her muscle, too. She really loved how he kept touching her. It was unexpected. But she wondered if he was making up for lost time…
Or if he was anticipating lost time ahead.
His proposition probably wouldn’t matter right away anyway. She had a ton of work to do to get ready for the Expo. And she was going to be scrambling for anything to make her booth look professional. She didn’t have a sign. She didn’t have material to make a sign anymore. She had nothing.
A year ago, she would have been paralyzed. Hell, a month ago.
Now, it made her want it even more.
“Think, think, thinking,” he observed as he snaked his arms into a long-sleeve tee.
She breathed a chuckle. “Yeah. I have three days now to put something together for the Expo.”