Always Ready

by Joanne Rock

  She understood she’d been given a drug and that Damon wanted to be sure she didn’t succumb to any bad side effects, but the raging need in her blood was the side effect that felt the most dire.

  That damn piece of lucky quartz crystal she’d been carrying around tonight sure hadn’t done its job.

  “I want to go home if you’re not going to touch me,” she announced, watching Damon’s back as he spoke in hushed tones with the doctor who’d politely insisted she call him by his first name.

  “You can ride with me,” Tejal said to Damon, loud enough for her to hear. “I’m heading back to the San Juan Sector, so I can take you to her hotel. We can go out the back.”

  “We’re going to wait for Enrique, Doc. I don’t want to involve you any more than I have to. Enrique will give us a lift out of here and I’ll pick up my car tomorrow.”

  Lacey twisted in the sheets, wishing they could jump in Tejal’s car and leave. She wanted to be in her hotel room with Damon, seducing him into taking the edge off this horrendous drug that made her feel like a sex-crazed porn star in some low-budget flick.

  “You think I’ve gone soft working in the medical office? I don’t need you watching my ass, Craig.” Tejal checked his timepiece. “How much longer before Enrique will be here?”

  “He had to come from Borinquen.” Damon frowned as he stared at Lacey on the bed. “But it shouldn’t be much longer.”

  “Long enough for a quickie?” she asked, knowing she’d never say something like that in front of another man if it weren’t for the drug running through her veins that seemed to shut down her filtering system.

  Tejal coughed into his hand while Damon moved his friend farther away from her bed. Lacey had to strain to hear the rest of their conversation.

  And no, she didn’t much care that she was eavesdropping when it took all of her restraint just to keep a lid on her sexual urges.

  The doc was speaking again, scrubbing a hand over a balding head that leaned more to the Ed Harris look than a cue ball.

  “I’d stay if I thought she was in any danger, but her vitals are good and I don’t think she ingested much of the drug. I’ll test her blood back at the lab and let you know for sure, but she shouldn’t suffer more than a hangover similar to a night of drinking.” He shrugged. “We’ve seen plenty of Ecstasy cases at the clinic, and hyperthermia is the biggest cause for concern. Just make sure to keep track of her body temperature. If she starts to spike, bring her in and I’ll open the urgent-care facility for you.”

  Lacey nearly wept with relief. The doctor was leaving. He’d practically said there wasn’t a damn thing they could do for her at this point, so why did they need to hold back on giving her the, ah…medicine she needed most?

  “Thanks, Doc.” Damon took a thermometer from him and followed him to the door. “I know you don’t make house calls—”

  “House calls, no. But it’s not the first time someone’s called in a panic from this place.” Tejal clapped Damon on the shoulder. “For that matter, we know when the deployable operations guys call in that there might be something bigger going down.”

  Damon nodded but remained silent as if he wasn’t at liberty to talk about his work. Even through the druginduced sensation, Lacey could tell Damon had more pull than she’d first realized.

  “No need for comment,” Tejal assured him, his Brooklyn accent sounding far too streetwise for an aging military doc. “And say what you will, I’m still going to sit out front until I see Enrique come in and exit safely with you.”

  He was half out the door before Lacey managed to call another thank-you, her brain starting to get wind of how much danger they might be in. Up until now she’d realized that Damon wanted to catch a big-time drug dealer. But she hadn’t given much thought to the fact that the drug dealer was supposedly violent.

  And that he might have had a hand in slipping Ecstasy into her drink.

  As Damon closed the door on his friend, leaving them alone in this tacky, sex-drenched, pseudo hotel room, Lacey wasn’t just faced with a man to whom she was wildly attracted; she now gazed at a man who would do anything to protect her. A man who just might hold her safety—her life—in his hands.

  LACEY CAME AFTER HIM like a freight train.

  Damon had barely shut the door behind Tejal and a boatload of worries about Lacey when she sprang out of bed and leaped into his arms, all warm woman and willingness.

  She wrapped herself around him, her lips parting against his for a long moment until she dipped lower. Her tongue stroked upward along his neck and she repeated the motion over and over again on the same stretch of skin. He would have sworn the action must follow the path of some vein that led straight to his erection.

  Talk about hitting below the belt.

  “Lacey.” He wanted to say more. To tell her what a bad idea this was, but she’d sort of stunned him. He stood there, holding on to her since she hadn’t bothered leaving her feet on the floor, waiting for his brain to kick back into gear. “Enrique will be here soon. There are bad guys outside and we need to be ready to leave the minute we hear from him.”

  “I’m sorry I insisted on coming here.” She pulled back, staring at him with blue eyes that weren’t quite as dilated as they’d been earlier.

  Thank God. Maybe she really was starting to shake off the effects of the drug someone had slipped into her drink. Tejal had taken her glass along with her blood sample so they’d know by dawn what had been used on her. Either way, Damon took it as a good sign that they seemed to have weathered the worst of her trip with no great ill effects other than discomfort on her part and a rage so thick he could barely swallow it on his.

  “It’s not your fault.” He meant that. “I shouldn’t have underestimated Castine. The sleazeball must have a reason for singling you out. He had to be behind this.”

  Damon knew that as sure as he stood here. He just didn’t know what reason a drug kingpin would have for following around a Florida matchmaker on vacation in Puerto Rico, when the guy had a big deal ready to go down. The guy had taken a stupid risk that could screw up his whole operation. And while that might be great for Damon’s mission, he couldn’t allow anything to happen to Lacey in the process.

  “I don’t want to be responsible for you getting hurt.” She murmured the words between kisses as she wrapped her legs tighter around his waist.

  And, oh man, when was Enrique going to be here? Damon had been trained to stay focused under all kinds of distractions, most notably during the early stages of hypothermia or while battling the bends. But his training fell short when it came to maintaining reason with a hot woman intent on seduction stuck to him like a second skin.

  “Believe me, I feel the same way about not wanting to see you hurt.” Gently he pried her from him, unlocking her feet to set her back on the floor. He didn’t think she’d slap him with a lawsuit for engaging in sex while she was still under the influence, but he had his own code of ethics to consider.

  Touching Lacey right now wasn’t a good idea.

  His phone rang then, saving him from having to justify his actions to her. Reminding him of the last cell-phone call he’d received…

  God, it had been one hell of a night.

  “Craig here.”

  “I’m inside, man.” Enrique’s voice had never been so welcome. “I’m looking at a tranny dressed like Barbara Streisand humping a stripper’s pole, so please tell me we’re getting out of here soon.”

  “You parked out front?” Damon peered around the crimson-colored back room that had been their hideaway for the last two hours and didn’t see anything they’d left behind. He grabbed Lacey’s hand and pulled her toward the door.

  “Yeah. I gave the bouncer a deuce to make sure no one touches my car while it idles.”

  “We’re coming at you from the west.” Damon pushed his way through a crowd around the entrance to the handful of back rooms. Apparently, they were rented by the hour and had a quick turnover, making him regret that he’d
had to bring Lacey into one of them at all. “I see you. Go back to the exit and we’ll meet you there. I’ll feel better if you’re in the car before us.”

  “Can do.”

  Even from across the club, Damon could see Enrique part the crowd like Moses at the Red Sea. The guy was big and built like a Mack truck. He might have the good-ole-boy act down pat, but at the end of the day, no one messed with him.

  Damon led them out a maze of narrow corridors that had to be fire hazards. He’d have to report the place for safety violations along with condoning the circulation of illegal drugs, but for tonight he was just grateful to get the hell out of there.

  LACEY HAD NEVER BEEN so thankful to arrive in a hotel room.

  A clean, gorgeously appointed hotel room where she didn’t have to worry about drug dealers in Hummers coming after her or strangers slipping toxins into her drink.

  The ride back to San Juan had been brief since Loiza wasn’t far in miles, even though it felt like an abandoned little world all its own. Here, from the comfort of the El San Juan Hotel and Casino, she could look out at the water over Isla Verde, a stretch of shore comparable to Miami Beach for its glittering hotels and rampant tourism. Starbucks was here. Liveried doormen worked the entrances. Life felt safe again.

  “How are you feeling?” Damon had come in ahead of her to check out the room. He’d searched for bad guys and wiretaps, listening devices and cameras before he’d allowed Enrique to escort her in.

  “Fine.” She pulled two waters from the minibar and tossed one to Damon. “Sort of good, actually. Like when you get a little buzz from wine, but I don’t feel dizzy anymore.”

  Whatever she’d ingested now simply made her hyperaware of her body, her senses fine-tuned to the smallest detail.

  In fact, right now she watched Damon move around the room with enviable speed, his mouthwatering body a tantalizing delight for her eager eyes. He doublechecked the window, unplugged the phone and threw a spare blanket over the entertainment center where the TV perched alongside a series of photos of Isla Verde Beach.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, ready to help in the hope she could still lure him into her arms tonight. Because even though the most intense edge of the drug had left her, she still felt itchy for him.

  Her blood sang with need, her skin tight and tingly, as she waited and hoped that he would undress her and fix all that was wrong with her.

  “Just making double sure there’s no sign of anyone spying on you with cameras or other devices.” He checked over the light fixtures beside the bed. Thankfully, his new task put him on the mattress, where she’d been waiting.

  She lunged, tackling him where he sat. The surprise attack yielded delicious results and she sat on his chest a few seconds later, his heart pounding right below her spread legs. She thought she’d crawl right out of her skin if he didn’t touch her soon. It seemed like she’d been suffering for hours. Days.

  “I thought that’s why we were going to turn the lights off.” Grabbing the hem of her tank top, she tugged it up and off, launching it across the room to land on top of one lamp.

  “Some cameras have night-vision technology.” He flipped her over so fast she thought the wind was knocked out of her for a moment.

  But no, that was just a side effect of the Ecstasy. He handled her carefully enough, she just felt everything to a higher degree. And, oh my, wouldn’t that translate into a seriously hot time between the sheets?

  “Damon, he doesn’t even know I’m staying here.” She’d gotten the note from him back at her old hotel on the other side of the island. He had no reason to look for her in San Juan. “Besides, how good can the images be from a night-vision camera?”

  She didn’t want this hum of sexual energy to wear off before he touched her. After a whole life spent taking the more practical approach to men and sex—an approach inspired by her mother’s blatant cow-eyed romantic perspective—Lacey liked how good it felt to not think about what she was doing. She was only concerned with how incredible Damon would make her feel.

  “You might not appreciate even a blurry image of yourself posted on YouTube tomorrow morning.”

  Still, he moved to quickly finish whatever it was he was doing with the electronics in the room. Turning away from the lamp, he found her gaze and held it for a long moment before he turned off the light.

  Darkness clouded the room, descending on her like a kinky blindfold. Her other senses leaped to life, channeling the unused visual stimulation into what she felt. Smelled. Heard.

  A rustling a few feet away told her he’d moved closer. The swish of fabric sounded sort of like a shirt coming off as his steps padded near. Nearer.

  She wrapped her arms around herself to still the trembling deep within her. In the dark she heard his breathing, steady but quick. Did he want this as much as she did?

  The question rolled around in her head for a moment, reaching through the lust-fog to rattle her.

  “Damon?” She stretched an arm out to find him while a shiver raced down her spine. “I want you. But I don’t want you to, you know, do this just for me.”

  Although, with the way her body felt, she’d need to find some way to take the edge off or she’d never get any sleep tonight. It was already three in the morning.

  “I won’t do anything at all unless I’m sure you’re out of the drug haze.” His hands found her and guided her forward. “I wouldn’t take advantage of you like that.”

  Two halting steps later she was plastered against his hard, lean length. His warm, broad chest. Muscular thighs. He’d left his T-shirt on, but gotten rid of the other shirt. His jeans did nothing to hide how much he wanted her.

  Desire flooded her belly and breasts as a familiar tension knotted inside her.

  Her fingers dug into his shoulders as her knees buckled from a fresh wave of hunger. “I don’t think I can stand it if all we’re going to do is cuddle.”

  A dark laugh ripped from his throat.

  “Sweetheart, you may be the first woman in history to say that. But I’ll bet there are other ways to take the edge off where I won’t feel like I’m taking advantage.” He toyed with the bra strap at her shoulder.

  Her heart stuttered in her chest. “It’s not like it would be the first time we touched each other, though. So how could you think it would be taking advantage of me?”

  She had to try to appeal to his logic. Reason. Get around that damn stalwart sense of honor to convince him to be with her.

  His hand worried the strap, making her crazy.

  “Just because a woman says yes once doesn’t mean she’ll always say yes.” He lowered his voice, the gravelly note sliding over her skin with a tingly caress.

  “Maybe you don’t recall, but our past sexual history amounts to more than once, Damon Craig. And an honorable man would want to ease the worst of my symptoms and take care of me to the very best of his ability now that we’re safe. Alone.” She licked her lips, wanting to feel his kiss there.

  “You sound pretty damn lucid to me,” he growled, lowering his thumb into the satin cup of her bra. Hovering above the tight peak.

  “Not at all like I’m in a drug haze, right?” She nipped his ear, so hungry for him she thought she’d go out of her ever-loving mind.

  “I don’t want you to regret this.” He bit out the words through gritted teeth and she hated to think she was asking for more than he could give. But damn it, why couldn’t he be reasonable?

  “I’ll regret going somewhere dangerous and drinking tainted soda, but I’m not going to regret asking for help getting through the night.”

  “How can I fight you?” His thumb finally descended to the taut peak of her aching nipple and circled.

  The motion sent a ripple of excitement between her thighs, forcing her to grind her hips against him. The act was shameless. Wanton. And felt so damn good she wanted to cry.

  “Please, please, please,” she whispered, needing him so desperately she couldn’t worry about the drugs in h
er system or what tomorrow might bring if a dealer was stalking her. Damon was here for her tonight and—finally—volunteering for duty.

  He backed her away from the bed until her shoulder came upon something solid. The door to the bathroom maybe. Fleetingly, she wondered why he’d take her there, away from the comfort of expensive sheets and goose-down pillows, but mostly she wanted his hand inside her panties.

  Sealing her lips to his, she stroked his tongue, drawing on it. With a wriggle of her hips and some help from her hands, she started to push down her skirt.

  “Leave it,” he ordered, breaking the kiss as he tugged her bra down to bare her breasts completely. “Leave it all on.”

  He lowered his mouth to a nipple, laving her with his tongue while his hands hauled up her skirt. Pushed aside her panties.

  Pleasure exploded inside her even before he slipped his finger all the way in. Her release squeezed him hard, over and over again as wave after wave of fulfillment rocked her. He never let go of her, holding her steady against the door while her knees melted beneath her.

  When the shudders slowed, he tipped back from her, as if to look at her even though they were still in total darkness.

  “Are you okay?” He kept his hand between her legs, his palm hot and hard against her clit.

  And sweet saints above, she wanted him all over again.

  “Yes. Just—” She moistened her lips, unused to being so frank with a man. “I want you inside me.”

  “Your wish is my command.” Releasing his intimate hold on her, he lifted her in his arms. “I’m taking us over to the bed, but I want you to pull the covers off and bring them with us to lie on the floor.”

  She tried to think about something besides the fire inside her, but her brain kept shutting down as if her sex drive had an override switch.

  “Why?” she finally managed, snatching up the comforter when he swooped her down to the king-size bed.

  “I can’t fall asleep tonight while I’m watching over you.” He carried her back toward the bathroom door—or somewhere away from the bed. She’d lost her bearings in the dark.