by Cynthia Eden
The motel was obviously not the Ritz, but it was mostly clean and safe. Rick shut the door behind him. Secured all the locks and swept his gaze over Kat. She was walking around the room, her steps a little hesitant. They’d stopped at a nearby store—one that ran twenty-four, seven—to pick up some needed supplies. A new phone. Burner phones were so cheap these days.
Condoms.
A very much needed supply item. Because there was no way he was sleeping in that bed with her all night and not having her. Or, rather, for what was left of the night.
He opened the bag he carried. Tossed the burner onto the dresser that waited under the TV. And he put the box of condoms on the wobbly nightstand.
Kat’s gaze immediately went to the condoms. Then to him.
The air in the little room got very, very thick.
She clasped her hands together. “I know sex won’t change anything between us.”
His head cocked.
“It’s not…I mean, I don’t expect anything to change. You’ll take me to the courthouse. I’ll go inside and do my part, and we’ll never see each other again after that.”
He advanced toward her. Right then, he didn’t want to think about life after Kat. He only wanted to think about…Kat.
“I’m not looking for some crazy, emotional declaration. I get that isn’t who we are.”
He grabbed the hem of his shirt and yanked it over his head. The shirt dropped behind him.
Her lips parted. Her gaze darted over him. Then… “Um, so, I know it’s just sex. Just need. And I’m good with that.”
He kicked off his shoes. Ditched his socks. He straightened and his hands went to the snap of his jeans.
She stared. “I’m…good with really hot, really awesome sex with you.”
A smile tugged at his lips. “You’re so sure it will be awesome, huh?”
“I have high expectations based on what happens to me when you kiss me.”
His heart gave a little jerk at the response he hadn’t expected. “And what happens when I kiss you?”
“My whole body heats up. I go from zero to wanting you pretty much instantly. I want to get closer to you. I crave you. I haven’t ever felt that way about someone before. Not that intently. Not that fast.”
Good to know. Something else that was good to know…His hand reached out and curled around the hem of her shirt. He tugged her forward. “I’ll make damn sure sex with me is awesome for you. I won’t stop until you’re screaming my name.”
But her gaze slid to the left. Then to the right. “Walls here are real thin. Don’t know if that’s such a good idea. What with us keeping a low profile and all.”
“Good point,” he told her, not letting any hint of humor slip into his voice. “I’ll take care of the screams. No one else will hear you but me.” He pulled her a little closer. “You know, you were the one naked last time. Now I’m standing in front of you with only half my clothes on.”
“I wasn’t naked. I was in my underwear. There’s a difference.” Her words were husky and rushed.
He studied her with a sharpening gaze. “Have you changed your mind?” God, please don’t have—
“No, but I think I’m nervous.”
Nervous he could handle. He could handle anything she wanted to throw at him.
“My track record with lovers isn’t the greatest. Bad things tend to happen to men who want me. And I just realized I don’t want anything bad to ever happen to you.”
That was sweet. She was sweet. Nothing like what he’d thought. He pulled her forward those last few inches, using his hold on her shirt. Her head tipped back as she stared up at him. “Nothing bad will happen,” he swore. “Not to either of us.” Rick kissed her. He started the kiss slow. Savoring. Sampling. Because as he’d told her before, when he got her, he intended to enjoy every inch of her. And I’ve got you, princess. Right or wrong, he had her.
Her lips parted beneath his. He thrust his tongue into her mouth even as his fingers slid under her shirt to touch warm, smooth skin. Up, up, his hands went as he enjoyed her body. He felt the edge of her bra, wanted it out of the way. Wanted her breasts out so that he could lick and taste.
But he had to get her ready. Her body was still tense. She’d been talking about need and desire, but with the big moment actually there, she was hesitating. He didn’t want any fear in her mind when they were together. He only wanted desire. He didn’t want her worrying about the past or the future.
The past didn’t matter. The future—who the hell knew what would happen? All that mattered was this moment.
He pulled his mouth from hers. Began to kiss a hot path down her neck. He knew she was sensitive along the delicate column of her throat. He’d made a mental note of that spot earlier. Now he sucked her neck lightly. Licked. Allowed the most sensual of bites.
Her body shuddered against him. Her nails bit into his shoulders. “Rick!”
He knew that she was with him. Hell, yes. “The clothes need to go.”
“Absolutely,” she agreed in her sultry, husky voice. Only she didn’t move to strip off her own clothes. Her hands dropped between them and reached for the snap of his jeans. A second later, the zipper was hissing down, and his eager cock shoved toward her.
“Not the underwear type, huh? I’ll remember that.” Her fingers curled around him. Stroked. Had his eyes rolling back in his head—
“Kat.”
“Oh, God, I love it when you growl my name like that. It’s all wild and hot and like you don’t care about anything but me.”
He lifted her into his arms. Carried her to the bed. In a flash, he had her on the bed while he stretched on top of her, careful not to crush her. He’d always have to be careful with her. “Right at this moment, there is nothing I care about more than you.”
Her lips curved. Her smile was gorgeous.
He kissed her. He loved her mouth.
He also loved having her without clothes. So when he tore his mouth from hers a few moments later, he edged back long enough to lift up her shirt. To toss it aside, then his hands went for her bra and he fumbled and—
There. The bra fell away. Her round breasts thrust toward him, the nipples tight and dark, and he took one into his mouth.
Fuck, yes.
She arched beneath him and gasped out his name.
His hand slid down her body. His fingers moved between her legs, and he stroked her through the jeans. Stroked her as he licked and sucked and wanted to devour her.
Her hips surged up toward him. “The jeans have got to go!”
His thought exactly.
He pulled back, moving to his knees beside her. Kat kicked away her shoes, and when he jerked down her jeans, he took her socks with them. She was left clad in silky, sexy panties, and for a moment, he just stared at her.
All of the moisture dried from his mouth.
“Are you going to look?” Kat asked him. “Or are you going to touch?”
“How about I do one better?” His voice was savage with need. “How about I taste?” He moved between her legs, pushed her thighs farther apart, and put his mouth on her. The silk was between him and her hot core, for the moment. She gave a sharp cry and pushed toward him.
He used his mouth on her. Licked against the silk. Enjoyed the way her body shuddered and the way she gasped his name. Lust built higher, darker, and rougher inside of him. He reached for the panties and wasn’t the least bit surprised when they ripped beneath his fingers. Not like he’d ever been able to handle delicate things.
But I will handle her.
He looked up at her. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips red and plump, and her eyes were shining. He swallowed and managed to say, “If I’m too rough, stop me. Tell me to back the hell off, and I will.”
“I don’t want you backing off. I want you in me.”
He felt his control shatter at her hot, dark words. His mouth went back to her. Nothing between his lips and her flesh this time. She tasted so good. He could make a meal of
her. He licked and sucked and thrust his tongue over her clit. Stroking, rubbing, loving the way she—
“Rick!”
She was coming already. He could taste her pleasure, and it made him even wilder. Her voice was close to a scream, and he had to be careful. He’d made a promise to her.
He rose up her body.
Her lips parted and he knew—
She’s going to scream. Can’t let anyone else hear her.
Rick kissed her. His fingers thrust into her as he helped her to ride out her orgasm, and her inner muscles clamped tightly around him. So tight.
She was going to feel insane around his dick.
He kept working her, stroking her until the trembles eased. His mouth lifted.
Her breath panted out.
He grabbed for the condoms. Tore the box open. Ripped into one of the foil packets. He had the condom on in record time as he pushed his eager cock toward the entrance to her body. She looked so small compared to him. Fragile. Breakable.
“What in the world are you waiting for?” Her nails scraped down his arms. “I’m going crazy. Get inside. Now!”
Maybe not so fragile. Maybe—maybe just fucking perfect.
He surged into her. The bed rocked beneath them. Her breath choked out and her nails bit even deeper into his arms.
“Kat?”
“One minute…no, one second…just give me…a second…” Her breath sawed out. “There’s an awful lot of you.”
He kissed her. Get control. Keep it. His hand slid between their bodies and caressed her.
“I’m good. Better than good.” She caught his lower lip. Nipped it. “Don’t hold back with me. I want everything you’ve got.”
But he had his control, for the moment, and he was holding onto it with a death grip. He needed more care with her. He would show her care.
“Rick!”
He withdrew, thrust deep, but it was a restrained thrust. Not wild. Not so desperate.
“No.” Another nip on his lower lip from Kat. “That’s not you. I want the real you. Give me everything!” Her legs locked around his hips as her sex clamped greedily around him. “Fuck me hard, like you super mean it.”
Fuck her like…he was torn between laughing with an odd joy and fucking her like he was a man possessed. Option two won. He withdrew again, then slammed deep. Control? Gone. Need? Consuming. He withdrew and thrust. Their bodies grew slick with sweat. He wanted in deeper, more, and he grabbed her legs and heaved them over his shoulders. Her body twisted and surged against his, and her hands fell to fist around the sheets. Her body went bow tight, and he knew a scream was coming from her.
“Kat,” he tried to caution.
One of her hands flew up and covered her own mouth. Her eyes grew wide behind her hand and he felt the contractions of her climax squeeze him.
He grabbed her hand, pulled it away, and slid his own fingers over her pretty lips.
She caught his index finger and sucked it into her mouth. Her tongue licked, dipping around the finger and driving him mad.
He rolled on the bed, dragging her on top of him and sealing them together even harder. “Ride me,” he snarled.
She did. Her knees slammed into the bed. Up and down. He cupped her breasts, stroked her nipples and shoved his cock in her so hard that she arched up.
And she came again. He felt her whole body quake right before Rick’s own release hit him. An eruption of pleasure so intense that he was the one who opened his mouth to bellow.
She leaned forward and put her hand over his mouth. He bit her palm and she moaned with pleasure. He loved the way she moaned. Loved the way she looked when she came. Loved—Get it together, man. It’s just sex. Just. Sex.
Her hand slid away from his mouth. His dick was hard and thick inside of her, even though he’d just come. He was hard again—still?—because he already wanted more.
“That…” She paused to lick her lips. “Okay, that definitely qualified as awesome.”
Rick thought it qualified as one hell of a lot more.
He rolled her over again, moving her onto her side, and he carefully withdrew from her. She still flinched though. Hell. “I’m…sorry.”
“For what? Three super orgasms?” She closed her eyes and yawned. “You are not forgiven.”
His lips curved. “And you’re not forgiven for the best—”
He broke off. Her eyes had cracked opened and locked on him.
“The best what?” Kat asked as she stretched, seeming not to be bothered at all by the fact that she was completely naked. No shyness, and he loved that. He could look at her body all day and night.
Her fingers fluttered in the air. “The best what, Rick?”
The best sex of my life. Was a guy just supposed to blurt shit out like that?
Before he could answer, her gaze had dropped down his body. “You’re…still up?”
Up? “Hell, yeah,” he rasped. “I’m pretty much always that way around you.”
The pink in her cheeks deepened.
“But you’re probably sore. You need rest.” He could be a gentleman, dammit. He could do this. “I’ll keep my hands off you.”
She slid from the bed. Rolled back her shoulders as she stood and stared at him. “Keep your hands away? How incredibly boring that sounds.”
His chest warmed. “Well, I don’t want you to be bored.”
“I am sore. I should probably take a hot shower to see if that helps.” She batted her lashes at him. She’s flirting with me. And it’s cute as hell. “Want to join me?”
I’d like to see someone try and stop me. “Yeah, princess, I sure do.” He swallowed because his voice sounded barely human. “Why don’t you go in the bathroom and get the water going? I’ll be right there.”
Her smile was like a knife to his chest and he had no freaking idea why.
She slipped into the bathroom. Shut the door behind her. A moment later, he heard the shower turn on.
He tossed the condom into the garbage and ripped the burner phone from the plastic pack. He dialed fast a moment later.
Cole answered immediately. He’d figured his friend would be standing by.
“She’s safe,” Rick growled. That was all he was going to say. That was all—
“We’ve got a major freaking problem.”
Chapter Ten
Kat stared into the mirror. It fogged up fast because the hot water sent steam into every corner of the small room. Her hand swiped over the glass. Her eyes—too dazed and too big—stared back at her.
She’d tried to handle the whole bedroom scene with confidence. Tried to act like wild, insane sex was just—you know. A thing.
My whole body is shaking. Her knees were trembling. Her hands flew down and clamped around the edge of the sink’s countertop. It was either clamp on or fall down.
Sex at seventeen had been a quick, messy fumble. Then poor Jimmy had gotten the hell beat out of him. She’d had to throw herself between him and her father’s men. One of those guys hadn’t pulled his fist back fast enough.
The blow had crashed into her face.
For a moment, everyone had been stunned. Blood had dripped down her chin. She’d been shaking, and she’d known that if she didn’t do something, Jimmy would die that night.
So she’d fought like hell for him. She’d punched and hit at the others who’d swarmed. She’d yelled at her father. Stood her ground in the face of his rage and demanded that Jimmy be let go. He hadn’t done anything wrong. His crime was that he was a seventeen-year-old boy who’d thought that he loved her.
Jimmy had been dropped off at the nearest hospital. She’d promised her father she’d never see him again.
She had never looked for Jimmy.
As far as her last lover…the sex had been good. Sure, Gage had been a lying pile of crap, but the sex had been fine. Fine.
She’d found out later that he’d been using her. Typical, in her world—a place full of liars, users, and killers.
Was it any
wonder she was ready to escape?
Sex with Rick hadn’t been fine. Sex with him had been mind-blowing. Insane. And I want it again.
She ached, and Kat didn’t care. One day, she’d look back on her time with him, if she was lucky, if she lived long enough to look back—one day when she was passing her time in some pretend, Witness Protection existence in the middle of nowhere—she’d look back and she’d smile when she thought of sex with Rick.
Smile and fantasize a bit.
She shoved open the glass shower door and slid inside.
***
“We’ve got a shit ton of problems right now,” Rick retorted, keeping his voice low, “so you’ll need to be more specific.”
“Agent Brisk walked into Eric’s office tonight and said Wilde is off the case. The Feds want to take over again, and they want Kat returned to them right away.”
“No, no, the last time we talked, you said the Feds were still out. That we were watching her—”
“Status has changed. Brisk says the leak wasn’t on their end. They must figure she was tracked via the necklace while in their custody. As to how someone found her tonight, well, now the Feds don’t seem to be trusting us.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“If only. Our security system went down. Do you hear me? Do you know how impossible that is? Our state-of-the-art security, in our own building, went dark for five minutes. Someone got in. Someone got access to files—to our safe houses, to our agents’ private numbers—someone got access to her. And Bryan Brisk is saying that a Wilde agent was bought off. That it had to be an inside job.”
“Screw him.”
“He…may not be wrong.”
Rick’s gaze shot to the closed bathroom door.
“Hell, man, you said yourself…you couldn’t trust anyone but me and Eric. Maybe someone in Wilde did roll. An awful lot of money is up for grabs when it comes to Kathleen O’Shaughnessy.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“All right…Eric is trying to contact his buddy at the FBI. You know, the one who actually hired us? Brisk’s boss? Only the guy seems to have fallen off the radar.”
Not good.
“So until Eric makes contact with the FBI Brass who actually hired us, Eric wants you to keep staying close to Kat. He says we’re not turning her over to anyone until he finds out exactly what is happening. Don’t bring her in. Keep her hidden, until you hear otherwise from either me or Eric.”