by Elle James
Andrew wanted to suck that lip into his mouth so badly he groaned.
“Are you okay?” she asked, her hands rubbing circles on his shoulders.
“No, I’m not okay. You’re standing in front of me in only a T-shirt, and I’m fighting an uncontrollable urge to rip it from your body, toss you in the bed and make love to you.”
She continued to worry that bottom lip, until finally she let go of it and removed her hands from his shoulders.
Andrew resigned himself to the need for a very cold shower and watched as she backed out of the V of his legs.
Dix shot a glance toward the connecting door to Leigha’s bedroom. Nothing stirred in that direction. Then she grabbed the hem of her T-shirt and yanked it up over her head.
She stood in front of him wearing nothing but a pair of lace panties that left very little to the imagination.
Andrew’s heart stood still, his lungs seized. Blood rushed through his veins and he sucked in a ragged breath. “I never would have thought a former Ranger and MMA fighter would wear lace panties.”
Dix chuckled. “I might be tough on the outside, but I’m all female on the inside.” She held out her hand. “I’m not asking you to fight your urges. I’m finding I have a few of my own.”
“I won’t do anything you don’t want me to,” he said, pulling her to stand between his legs again.
“Just take it easy on me. I haven’t done this in a long time.”
He smoothed his hands over her hips and upward to cup her breasts. “You’re even more beautiful with your skin kissed by moonlight.”
She wove her fingers through his hair and bent to press her lips to his. “You taste like chocolate ice cream.”
He clamped his arms around her and lay back on the bed, pulling her with him. Then he rolled to his side, easing her onto the mattress. “Say the word and it all stops here.”
She reached for his cheek, laying her hand across the ragged scar.
He fought his natural instinct to flinch, but held steady and let her trace the line from his temple to the corner of his mouth.
“This hurt, didn’t it?” she asked.
“Not as much as it would have hurt if my daughter had died in that fire.”
Her eyes narrowed. “This isn’t a burn scar.”
“No.”
Dix’s brows lowered. “She did that? Jeannette?”
He nodded. “She fought to keep me from saving Leigha.”
Her finger slipped over his lips. “If she were still alive, I’d kill her.”
“Even I didn’t have that satisfaction.”
“What happened to her?”
“She dove, headfirst, out of the eight-story building.”
Dix shook her head and leaned up to press her lips to the corner of his mouth where the scar began. “Was that what you were dreaming about?”
“Some.” Her mouth moving across his jaw scrambled his wits. “I was back in that apartment. I couldn’t find Leigha. Jeannette was there...and you.”
Her eyes widening, Dix stared up into his eyes. “Was I helping or hurting?”
“You told me to save Leigha.”
“You should have let me fight off Jeannette.”
“Enough about my dreams. Why were you awake?” He smoothed a strand of blond hair away from her eyes and kissed the tip of her nose.
“I have dreams of my own.”
“About?”
She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. They were just dreams.”
“Bad enough to wake you.” He nodded. “When you’re ready, I want to know what you dream about. I don’t know enough about you.” He brushed his thumb across her bottom lip where the thin line of a scar marred an otherwise beautiful face. “Like where did you get this little scar? In the fighting ring?”
She shook her head and pulled him closer to kiss his lips. “No. In a much darker place,” she whispered against his mouth. Then she kissed him harder, thrusting her tongue through his teeth to connect with his.
Andrew tasted, twisted and stroked until he was forced to come up to breathe. He stared into her eyes, wondering what had caused the shadows in their green depths. There were so many unanswered questions about this fighting woman.
But for now, she wasn’t willing to share her story. However, she was willing to share her body and she’d asked for him to be gentle.
Taking it slowly, he kissed a path from her lips along her jawline to the sensitive area beneath her earlobe.
Dix laced her fingers in his hair and guided him lower.
Andrew skimmed his mouth along the long line of her neck and pressed a kiss to the pulse beating at the base of her throat. Unable to stop there, he moved lower, at first kissing and then tonguing the swell of her breast until he reached the rosy nipple puckering beneath his touch.
Dix arched her back and pressed her hands against the back of his head, urging him to take more.
Flicking, licking and nipping at the beaded tip, he teased her until she writhed beneath him.
Then she took his head between her hands and dragged him to the other breast.
He treated that one to the same, until the tip beaded and Dix moaned.
With increasingly difficult restraint, he plied kisses and nips to each rib, working his way slowly down her torso to the thatch of curls covering her sex.
His body on fire, he fought to keep it slow, steady and controlled, when all he wanted to do was part her legs and thrust inside her.
As if she heard his thoughts, she spread her knees farther apart.
Andrew moved over her, positioning himself between her legs, slipping farther down her body until he hovered over the juncture of her thighs.
Dix pushed her panties over her hips.
Taking over from there, Andrew dragged them down to her ankles and off. Then he stroked the inside of her calves and thighs with the tip of his finger, drawing a line toward her glistening center.
Her chest rose as she dragged in a ragged breath. “I feel like I’m coming apart at the seams.”
“Maybe you need to. Maybe we both need to.” Andrew thumbed her entrance swirling around the inside, collecting the musky juices. From there, he dragged his wet digit up to that special place. Parting the curls and the folds, he stroked that little nubbin of flesh.
Dix moaned, lifted her knees, dug her heels into the mattress and pushed upward. “Oh, dear heaven, there!” she whispered.
He bent and tongued that very spot, flicking, licking and teasing.
Dix’s back arched and her hips rose. “Yes!” she cried, her voice hushed but no less strident. Her body tensed beneath his and her fingers curled into his scalp. She stayed that way for a prolonged moment.
Andrew continued to caress her with his tongue until she fell back to the bed on a sigh, gripped his hair in her fingers and dragged him up her body.
“I need you inside me.” She kissed his jaw and slid her hands over his shoulders and downward to slip beneath his boxers. Hooking her fingers into the elastic, she tugged the shorts downward.
He rolled off the bed, dropped his boxers and reached into the nightstand, praying he had at least one condom there. Since moving from New York City, he hadn’t even thought about making love to a woman. After the horror of Jeannette, he wouldn’t consider a one-night stand.
But the drawer had been packed and moved full. Thankfully, he found a string of packets and tore off one.
“Glad one of us is thinking.” Dix took the packet from him, opened it and swung her legs over the side of the bed to face him. With deliberately slow movements she rolled the protection over him, her hands gliding down the length of him to the base. With a sassy half smile, she looked up. “Ready?”
Sweet heaven.
He growled deep in his th
roat, scooted her back on the bed and climbed up between her legs. Nudging her with the tip of his erection, he said, “You tell me if I’m ready.”
“Mmm.” She clutched his buttocks, widened her knees and guided him to her. “I’d say yes.”
Gently he eased into her, careful not to hurt her. Her slick entrance made it easy and soon he was all the way inside. Her channel contracted around him, sending electric currents throughout his body. Going slowly would kill him. But she’d asked him to go easy. And he would.
“Can you go faster?” she asked, her voice tight, breathy.
“Are you sure?”
“Oh, yeah.” She tightened her hold on his buttocks and pushed him, slamming him right back in. Again and again, setting the pace.
When Andrew took over, he plunged in and out, increasing the rhythm and intensity.
Dix let go of him and clutched the comforter in her fingers. She buried her heels in the mattress and raised her hips to meet his every thrust.
The tension built inside Andrew. The ripples of fulfillment started from where he touched her inside, spreading through his body and outward to the very tips of his fingers. He thrust one last time and buried himself deep.
Dix wrapped her legs around him, holding him as close as two people could get.
Waves of sensations washed over him and he shook from the force. When he finally came back to earth, he lowered himself on top of her and rolled to the side, taking her with him. “Wow. You are amazing.”
Dix let go of a long breath and lay back against the pillow, a smile teasing the corners of her lips. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
He leaned up on his elbow and twirled a strand of her hair around his finger. “So where do we go from here?”
Dix stared up at him, her green eyes darkening. “I don’t know that we go anywhere. I can’t...” She rolled out of the bed and gathered her clothes.
Andrew’s chest tightened. “Can’t what?”
“I can’t do this.”
He shook his head. “Do what?”
“I don’t know. Trust me. You don’t want to start something with me. I’m damaged goods.”
He frowned and sat up. “You’re damaged goods?”
“Yes.” She pulled her T-shirt over her head and down past her hips. “Can we just leave it at ‘wow’?”
Andrew shook his head. “I don’t think I can.”
She walked around the room, staring at the floor. “Where are they?”
Andrew rose from the bed and plucked her panties from the floor. “Looking for these?”
She snatched at them.
He raised them out of her reach. “Talk to me, Dix.”
“There’s nothing to talk about. I’m not the girl for you.” She tried again to reach the panties. When she couldn’t get to them, she shook her head. “Keep them.” And she spun, running out of the room and down the hall to her own.
Andrew stood with a pair of sexy panties in his hand, wondering what the heck he’d done wrong.
Chapter 12
Dix put on a pair of underwear and jogging shorts, and waited a few minutes before opening her door again. She wanted to listen for any sounds in Leigha’s room. Then she lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, cursing the wickedly delicious ache between her legs. She wanted more than anything to go back into Andrew’s room and tell him she wanted to be with him. But she was afraid.
Afraid she’d feel confined and need to bust free. Afraid her nightmares would make her lash out.
Andrew and Leigha had enough healing to do without having her add her own problems to the mix.
Stick to the job. Don’t get involved. Don’t fall in love.
Dix clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from crying out. No. She couldn’t be falling for Andrew Stratford. He deserved someone who wasn’t broken. He’d have no problem finding a wife who could love him and Leigha. The father and daughter were perfect, everything a woman could want in a husband and child.
Eventually she slept, waking with a start when she heard the sound of little footsteps padding down the hallway.
Leigha stood in the doorway to Dix’s bedroom, wearing her nightgown.
“Hey, sweetie.”
“Are you awake?” she asked.
Dix pushed back the covers and got out of bed. “I am. Are you hungry?”
Leigha nodded.
“Let’s get dressed and brush our hair before we go downstairs.” Dix went to her suitcase and unearthed a T-shirt and a pair of jeans.
Leigha entered the room and wandered around, touching the few toiletries Dix had brought with her. “Do you like it here?” she asked.
Dix put on her bra beneath her nightshirt. When it was in place, she shucked the shirt and dragged the T-shirt on before responding. “Yes, I do.”
The little girl tilted her head to the side and stared at Dix with her big blue eyes. “Why?”
“For one, I like you.” Dix kissed the top of the child’s head.
Leigha smiled. “I like you, too.”
Dix walked to the window and stared out at the incredible view. “I also like that you can see the ocean from here.”
“Me, too.” Leigha lifted Dix’s brush and ran it through her hair. “Do you like Mr. Stratford?”
The girl’s question caught Dix by surprise and she dropped the jeans she’d been holding. Where was Leigha going with her questions? “Of course I do. Your father is a good man.”
“I know. I just wondered.” She laid the brush back on the dresser and skipped to the door. “I hope Mrs. Purdy is making pancakes this morning. I love pancakes.” She left the room and ran back to her own.
Dix finished dressing and followed Leigha.
The child had dressed herself in jeans, a T-shirt and sneakers. She was brushing her hair, though she struggled with the tangles.
“May I?” Dix held out her hand.
Leigha laid the brush in it. “Did your mommy brush your hair?”
“Yes, she did.”
She stared at her reflection in the mirror. “Mine didn’t.”
Stumped again, Dix didn’t know if she should comment or let Leigha’s announcement pass. “Would you like me to braid your hair?”
She smiled. “Yes, please.”
Though never a girlie-girl, Dix could dress up and do her hair when she had to. As a female MMA fighter, the sponsors and television networks had certain expectations of the lady fighters. Though they were punching, kicking and knocking each other out, they had to look good in the process. Hair, makeup, athletic clothes and toned bodies.
Dix had just wanted to hit something, but she’d been forced to look good while she did it. She’d gotten good at French braiding her hair.
Leigha’s long blond hair was easy to braid, and so very soft. When Dix finished twisting the strands, she secured the end with an elastic band. “Ready?”
The child nodded. “I’m hungry.”
“Me, too.”
As she stepped out into the corridor, Dix’s breath caught and held until she realized the hallway was empty. What had she expected?
Even though Andrew lived there, she wasn’t destined to run into him every time she came out of her room. She released the breath she’d held and willed her pulse to return to normal.
What was it about the man that made her heart beat faster? He was just a man. Her client. Hell, he was more than that. Tall, dark, incredibly attractive even with the scars. He made her stomach flip whenever they were in the same room. And after last night... Boy, was she in trouble. He was an excellent lover.
Dix’s belly tightened and her sex ached from the night before. Though she knew it was wrong to have slept with her client, she couldn’t help reliving it over and over in her mind.
Mrs. Purdy was in the kitchen stirring batter in a big bowl. She beamed at Dix and Leigha. “Anyone up for pancakes this morning?”
Leigha raised her hand and shouted, “I am! I am!”
“Well, then, if you two will set the table, I’ll make them fresh and hot for you.” Mrs. Purdy nodded toward an upper cabinet. “Plates are in there.”
Leigha went for the flatware.
“How many do I plan for?” Dix asked, her belly knotting.
“Just you and Leigha. I ate breakfast at home with my husband, and Mr. Stratford ate an hour ago and left for Portland. He said he had some business to take care of.”
Dix’s heart slipped into her gut like a ten-pound weight.
Andrew had gone to Portland without telling her. Not that he was obligated to inform her of his movements, but after last night, she’d thought he would at least say something to her this morning.
Like what? Great sex. Or worse, being there and being caught in a painful silence where neither could look the other in the eye.
Dix sighed. Andrew had chosen the right option. Leave and avoid an awkward moment altogether.
Mrs. Purdy served them blueberry pancakes and blueberry syrup.
Leigha dug in, smearing blueberry juice across her smiling lips.
Her appetite a bit curbed by Andrew’s departure, Dix ate at a more sedate pace. The pancakes were light, fluffy and heavenly. Even her mood couldn’t dampen her enthusiasm for her breakfast. The next thing she knew, her plate was empty and she was licking the sticky syrup off her lips.
Dix and Leigha cleared the table, taking their empty plates to the sink for Mrs. Purdy to wash.
“Let’s brush our teeth and then we can decide what we want to do today,” Dix suggested.
Leigha ran up the stairs ahead of Dix.
Dix followed close behind, finding the little girl’s eagerness contagious. She could explore the house and the grounds more thoroughly without Andrew around. She wouldn’t be tense about running into him at every turn.
A few minutes later Dix entered Leigha’s bathroom, where the little girl was wiping toothpaste from her mouth.
“What do you want to do today?” Leigha asked.
