by Laura Kaye
“How long have you been in DC?” she finally asked.
“Not quite a week.”
Her eyes went wide. “So do you have an apartment yet?”
He shook his head. “No, I’m in a Courtyard Marriott for a few weeks until I find a place to stay.”
“Oh, the one by Murphy’s?” she asked, and he nodded. “I think you’re like a block away from me then.”
That was good to know. “Yeah?”
“I’m in the red-brick apartment building with the coffee shop, bagel place, and pizzeria down at street level.”
“That’s like everything you need in your whole life all in one place.”
Her whole face lit up as she laughed. “Right? It’s expensive as hell but those helped sell me. What part of the city are you looking at?”
“I’d like to stay by the water if I can find something I like, but I’ve just started looking.”
She enumerated the pros and cons of several different nearby neighborhoods, some of which he’d started exploring for himself, and then made an offer that surprised him—in a good way. “If I can help, just let me know.”
How had he gotten so lucky tonight to walk into that bar and meet someone as cool as Tara? And to maybe have the chance to see her again? Because good surprises were not the norm for him. Never had been. “You might regret making that offer,” he teased.
“I doubt it, but if so, I think I can handle myself,” she said with a sexy smirk.
Somehow, he didn’t doubt it one bit. “Right, the MMA training.”
“Mmhmm. For starters.”
“Consider me intrigued.”
She chuckled as they approached the intersection where they could cross over to the waterfront. “I probably shouldn’t ruin my mystique by admitting that intriguing isn’t how most people would describe me.”
He threw her a skeptical look. To him, she was definitely fucking intriguing. Sexy and confident, outgoing and generous. “And how is it you think people would describe you?”
The walk sign flashed, and they started across the broad avenue. “I’m kind of a nerd.”
Jesse barked out a laugh. “If you’re a nerd—”
A blaring horn sounded out from their left. Jesse turned to find a cabby tearing through the intersection despite the red light. The yellow car swerved widely around them as Jesse grasped Tara by the shoulders and hauled her onto the median.
“Jesus,” she gasped out, trembling underneath his hands.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to manhandle you,” he said, realizing that he’d overreacted. But too many people had died on his watch, and he’d had to write too many letters to his guys’ families, and the fucking reminder of all of that surged anger and adrenaline through his blood.
Wide blue eyes peered up at him. “God, don’t apologize, Jesse. That guy was an asshole.”
He wasn’t sure why he found that funny, except that the letdown in the form of humor was probably better than the letdown he’d get from beating the shit out of something. “Yeah, he really fucking was,” he said, giving her a wink.
She chuckled. “Welcome to DC.”
He guffawed. “You really know how to show a guy a good time.”
She gaped. Then smirked. Then punched him in the chest. “That wasn’t my freaking fault.” The words didn’t hold any heat. He grasped the hand she’d smacked him with, and she stumbled into him, making them both chuckle.
Jesse peered down at her. He had a good seven or eight inches on her and, standing so close, she had to tilt her head way back to meet his gaze. Slowly the adrenaline and the humor and the whole damn night closed in around them, making him hyperaware of all the places her body touched his.
Hunger absolutely tore through his blood. His gaze dropped to the full bow of her lips. He wanted a taste of her so damn bad, but he didn’t want to push her somewhere she didn’t want to go.
Her fingers tightened around his, and their gazes collided. And thank fuck, he wasn’t in this alone. Because he saw his own desire reflected back at him. In spades.
“Tara—”
“Yes,” she said.
It was all the encouragement he needed.
His free hand slid into her hair and cupped the back of her head, pulling them together. And then his mouth was on hers. Just a press of skin to skin, but enough to chase the cold away. Especially when she fisted her hand in his coat and pulled herself closer.
“Damn,” he gasped, winding his other arm around her back and hauling her in tight.
When his lips found hers again, they were parted, and the invitation was too hot to resist. His tongue swept into her mouth, tasting a hint of the sweetness of their dessert and something that was all Tara. And then her tongue stroked him in return, such a small thing for how fast it made him hard. And he wasn’t the only one feeling the heat between them if the moan she unleashed was any indication, and it only made him want her more.
Jesus, where was this going? Jesse knew what he wanted—and it was Tara in his bed. Under him. On top of him. Taking him deep inside.
The strength of his desire for her made him pull back because they’d known each other for all of a few hours. Then they stood forehead to forehead, their panting breaths chasing the chill away.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey.”
“It’s not cold anymore.” A seriously seductive humor played in those bright blue eyes.
“No, it’s hot as hell.”
She licked her lips, and the thought that she was tasting him there had him swallowing hard. “Should we walk more, or…”
“Sure,” he said, really damn glad that she didn’t seem scared off by whatever was happening between them. He stepped back and took her by the hand. He wasn’t sure why he did it, except it felt like the most natural thing in the world. “This okay?”
“More than okay,” she said, smiling up at him.
Along the river, the wind was stronger, more biting. They passed a marina where sailboats bobbed in the choppy water. The lights of the Wharf—a district of waterfront shops and restaurants he’d explored a few days before—sparkled another half mile in the distance. He was completely comfortable walking with her, but every once in a while, her hand trembled in his. “Why don’t we cut back into the city? It’ll be less windy.”
“Sounds good.”
They crossed over to I Street, heading back in the direction from which they’d come. “How cold are you?”
“Somewhere just south of human popsicle,” she said, the tip of her nose a little red.
He chuckled. “We could catch a cab back,” he said, knowing they had eight or ten of the city’s wider blocks to get back to where they started.
“That’s a thought,” she said. “Or, um…”
He peered down at her. “What?”
Tara’s cheeks went pink, and he didn’t think it was just the weather. “Or, you know, you could kiss me again.”
Need lanced through him. Jesse pulled her into the well of a doorway that provided a bit of a shield against the wind, and then his hands were in her hair and his mouth was on hers for several long, hot seconds. “Like that?” he rasped.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Maybe again, just to make sure you’re warm enough.” It only took her smiling for him to dip his mouth to hers once more. Her hands settled on his hips, making him hotter, but it was her sucking on his tongue that had him boxing her in against a wall. “Jesus.”
She peered up at him, beautiful and brazen. “Definitely warmer now.”
“Good. That’s good,” he said, taking her by the hand again and just barely resisting adjusting himself.
They made it another block and a half before he was the one initiating the kiss. He tugged her against the corner of a building. “Now I’m cold,” he said, arching a challenging brow.
Her laughter lit him up inside. “Better bring those lips down here then.”
He claimed her on a needful groan, the whole night sudd
enly feeling like extended foreplay. Not that he was complaining. Because he hadn’t felt this good, this excited, this fucking alive in longer than he could say. He dragged his lips from her mouth and kissed her jaw, her ear, and the top of her throat not covered by the scarf.
“Better?”
“Much,” he said.
They made it one more block before they found themselves in a temporary covered sidewalk along a construction site, and Tara stopped abruptly. Jesse gave her a questioning look, and found her tugging off her scarf. “My, um, now my neck is really cold.”
Banked lust from their last kiss surged through him. He leaned back against one of the metal supports and tugged her to stand between his legs. “What would help that?”
“Maybe if you kissed me here,” she said, touching the side of her throat without the scar.
God, her playfulness and willingness to ask for what she wanted were a seductive fucking combination. “I’ll kiss you anywhere you want, Tara,” he said, leaning down until he was kissing her neck, and all the while cataloguing the other body parts he’d like to get his mouth on next. And when he couldn’t access as much of her skin as he wanted, he unzipped the top of her coat so that he could get to the tendon that ran outward to her shoulder.
Her hand scrabbled for purchase in his short hair. “God, Jesse.”
His name in that aroused tone made him feel like she’d taken a blowtorch to his blood. He kissed and sucked and nipped until he was half certain they were going to end up having sex standing right there. “Christ, come on,” he said, kissing her once again on the mouth before leading her through the covered sidewalk and out the other side.
After that, they barely made it a block at a time without getting their mouths and hands on one another until, finally, they found themselves across the street from his hotel.
“That’s me,” Jesse said, peering down at Tara and hoping he wasn’t the only one strung absolutely tight from their mile-long make-out session.
“I’m about a block that way,” she said, her breath frosting on the air.
“I could walk you to your door,” he said, blood pounding in his veins. “Or you could come up. I know what I want, Tara, but it’s your choice. Just say the word.”
Chapter 3
“I’ll come up,” Tara said, taking a chance even as the city spun around her. Because things like this just didn’t happen to her. At least, they never had before. And that seemed like a really good reason to hold tight to it and see where it was going.
Pure, raw satisfaction rolled over Jesse’s expression, making her belly flip. Dark eyes blazed down at her. “You sure?”
Was she sure that she understood how something so awesome was happening? No, not at all. Was she sure she wanted whatever was coming next? Oh yeah. “I’m sure.”
He squeezed her hand as they crossed the street. The very first time he’d grasped her palm, she’d nearly melted at how warm and unexpected and sweet it was. She’d still been doing a mental Snoopy dance over how amazing their kiss had been when he’d started dragging his thumb back and forth across her knuckles. And that had made her need the feel and the taste of him again.
Thank God he’d gone along with her solution for being cold. She adored that he seemed to enjoy her particular brand of probably goofy flirtation. Once, she would’ve been far too shy to suggest to a man that he kiss her, but then she’d nearly died, and ever since all the game-playing and beating-around-the-bush of life felt too much like wasting time she didn’t really know she had.
Inside the lobby, both of them nearly groaned as the heat enveloped them. “God, that feels good,” she said.
“Hell yes, it does,” he said, taking them to the bank of elevators.
The doors to one eased open before them, and Tara stepped in, her belly doing another loop-the-loop at what was about to happen between them. Jesse hit the button for the seventh floor and then walked her backward until he’d trapped her in the corner. “Bet I can make you feel even better.”
Heat pooled low in her belly. God, she wanted him. She didn’t want to overthink it or debate it or question the right and wrong or smart and dumb of it, she just wanted this man. “I’m counting on it.”
“Christ, Tara,” he bit out. “Whatever you want or don’t want, you gotta tell me now. Because once we get in my room, it’s gonna be really fucking hard for me to not be all over you.”
She squeezed her thighs together at the promise of his words, but it didn’t give her the relief she needed—the relief she needed from him. “Jesse, I wouldn’t be in this elevator with you if I didn’t want you all over me.” God, he was looking at her like he wanted to devour her, and she was so down with that.
The bell dinged their arrival to his floor, and the doors slid open.
“Thank God,” he said, drawing her into the hallway with a speed and an urgency that was as hot as it was humorous, because she felt the same way. His room was the last one on the left. A quick swipe of his card had them nearly falling inside, hands and mouths all over each other, pulling off coats and shirts and shoes. “I want to see you,” he said, flicking on a switch that illuminated the lamp next to the couch.
“Agreed.” She shed her sweater to the floor where it joined both of their coats and his Henley, leaving both of them bare from the waist up and baring her second scar—the one at the base of her throat from the emergency tracheotomy she’d needed.
But she was too focused on how freaking hot he was to worry about her scars. Jesse had a tattoo that extended from the base of his throat, over his shoulder, and down his left arm—black stars connected by blue and gray swirls. And wow was his upper body a thing of muscled beauty. Lean and defined, with a thin covering of dark chest hair that trailed intriguingly beneath his jeans. There were scars, too, more than a few. The longer hair on top of his head was a finger-raked mess, and it was sexy as hell.
Given the number of times his hands had been in her hair tonight, she guessed she looked the same. “I don’t want to miss any of this, otherwise I might convince myself that it was all a dream.”
His grin was deliciously predatory as he closed the little distance between them, bringing them chest to chest. “Fuck, I’m torn between hot and fast or spreading you out and taking my damn time.”
Yes, please. A shiver raced over her skin, because she wanted whatever he wanted. “Do we have to choose?”
“Jesus, maybe this is a dream,” he said, hands undoing her jeans and roughly working them down over the flare of her hips. The frenzy of need picked up between them again, with her undoing his fly, revealing a pair of black cotton boxers pulled tight over the outline of his hard cock.
The air on her now heated skin unleashed another shiver. She ached between her legs from how long they’d teased each other and from the maddening anticipation of having him inside her. It’d been almost two years since she’d last had sex, and she was quite possibly dying for it.
Jesse retrieved a condom from his wallet as she pushed down his jeans and boxers until they hung around his knees.
“Oh, God, you’re big,” she breathed, taking him in hand and relishing the fascinatingly hard heat of him. She wanted him inside her more than anything she’d wanted in a long, long time.
When she gave him a tight stroke, he sucked in a harsh breath as he dropped his wallet to the floor and tore open the packet with his teeth. And that reaction was fascinating, too, seeing him so on edge because of her. “Christ, I need you.”
He rolled the latex down his length, and then brought his fingers to her slit and slid them into the wetness hidden there. Tara moaned and her head snapped back against the wall.
“Fuck, you’re so ready. Are you sure, Tara?”
“If you stop now I might literally die,” she rasped, completely overwhelmed by her own desire.
He spun her to face the wall then grasped her hip with one hand while he guided his dick with the other. Then his head was at her opening and sinking home.
They
both groaned as he worked himself into her until she’d taken him all, and then he gave her hot and fast, just like he’d promised.
Moans and curses and pleas spilled out of her lips. Because the feel of him was a freaking riot of sensation. The amazing, demanding fullness of his invasion. The impact of his hips against her ass. The tightness of his hold, with one hand gripping her hip and the other anchored around her shoulder.
And then he reached around with the hand that had been on her hip and slipped his fingers into the slick needy heat between her thighs. She nearly shouted at the goodness of it.
“Please make me come,” she begged, nearly crying in relief when he hunched himself more tightly around her, the strokes of his cock shifting to more of a grind so that he could focus his attention on what his hand was doing. Rubbing her clit with quick, wet circles, then pushing between her lips so that the length of his long fingers stroked her so damn good.
“Already so fucking tight, Tara. You gonna squeeze me even harder?” The words were hot and harsh in her ear. Guttural. Perfect.
“Yes,” she whined. “Please.”
“Fuck, you’re going to take me with you.”
His words were joining with his fingers and his cock to shove her closer and closer to the edge. “Oh God.”
The grinding turned into rough, amazing, punctuated thrusts. “Give it to me,” he said, his voice absolutely raw.
She braced harder against the wall, shoving herself back on him as he hammered forward. And then he slapped her clit in time with one of those hard thrusts.
Tara’s whole body detonated. She just flew apart into a million screaming pieces. The orgasm wracked through her in concentric circles that started where they were joined and left no part of her untouched. She couldn’t think, couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe. She was less standing than being held up by Jesse’s sheer strength and possessive grip.
She’d never, ever felt anything so all-encompassing, so shattering in her whole life.
