Tonguing her right nipple, Younger slipped his right hand into the front of her shorts. He found the dark curls shielding her mound and lightly threaded his fingers through them. She moaned and pushed her breast against his mouth. Sucking harder on her nipple, Younger slipped his finger into the wetness of her cleft. He found the center of her passion and very gently stroked her until he could feel the tension building in her body.
She rode him faster, wild as a storm as she got closer and closer to her peak. He did not pause. He did not back off. He wanted to give her this before he took her inside and made love to her. He needed to make sure she was satisfied. It was the only thing that mattered.
When she came, she put her face against his shoulder and bit his neck. The feel of her teeth nearly sent him over the edge. Younger stood and plucked her off his knee. Cherishing her in his arms, he helped her wrap her legs around his waist as he continued to kiss her.
There was some bumping and running into things as he carried her into the condo. He didn’t care. It didn’t matter. Only one thing did and she was in his arms. It took some maneuvering to find her bedroom. Younger ripped the covers back and lay her on the bed.
He didn’t remember getting his clothes off. He must have, but the struggle left him hanging onto his control by a thread. She was squirming as well, pushing her shorts down her legs and kicking them off. The sight of her on the bed with her knees spread to welcome him into her body was one that Younger would never forget. The soft darkness embraced them both as he covered her body with his and felt the first slide of her sleek, silky skin against his.
Entering Laurie for the first time was pure bliss. Younger had never experienced anything like it. He felt her embrace him fully, her tight sheath sleek and hot with her honey. She wrapped her arms around him, lifted her legs to hang on tight, and then she moved against him as though she was begging him with words to make passionate love to her right then and there.
Younger could not wait a second longer. He surged into her slick tightness and felt his erection brush the one place that would bring her ultimate fulfillment. Cupping her backside in one hand, he drove into her as he held her close with his free arm. He never wanted to be parted from her. In this moment he knew this was where he belonged. For good. Forever. The only woman for him. And that thought drove him until he was plunging in and out. The wet sounds of their coupling mingled with their soft cries of joy until the room was filled with the two of them in this new life they were beginning.
His peak began to rise before him. He climbed and climbed, taking her with him and knowing the moment would come when he could send her to the stars. She grew tighter and hotter. She was wet and slippery against him. Her honeyed juices left him wild with desire and the scent of her would never leave his mind. She was it. The only thing that mattered.
Younger kissed her hard. Her tongue tangled with his, the two of them desperate for their climax and then wild with the wonder of it when they both reached their peak at the same moment in time. Younger cried out, his guttural roar echoing off the walls and nearly drowning out her soft cries of excitement. She held tight to him as he did to her. And then he thrust hard and poured every bit of himself into her welcoming warmth.
He didn’t know how much time passed or what happened. He could have been poised like that, deep inside her body, for ages. It didn’t matter. But when he finally rolled to the side and took her with him, Younger felt as though he could be happy right in that bed with this woman forever.
Gradually, he became aware of other things. The honking of horns in the distance. The crickets outside somewhere. The sound of the lake. The breeze coming into the house through the patio door he had left open.
Laurie was curled up against him like a contented kitten. Her soft breathing suggested she was asleep. Younger let her be. He fumbled for a sheet and pulled it over their sweat damp bodies. And then he wrapped his arms around his beloved and tried to get a few hours of sleep.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Laurie had no idea how long she had slept when she became aware that there was an empty spot on the bed beside her. She had rolled over to find the warmth of Younger’s body and encountered only the coolness of her sheets instead. She blinked and blearily focused on the green numbers of her bedside clock. Twenty minutes after five in the morning. The world was just waking up. The gray light of dawn filled her bedroom through the open door that led into a short, wide hallway before the floorplan flowed into the living room and kitchen area.
There was no movement in the small confines of the condo. She would have heard it. Not even Younger could be that quiet. Laurie sat up and looked around. She was naked and of course, her robe was out on the patio. It was enough to make her roll her eyes. But she was feeling bold and daring right now. There was almost nothing she wasn’t willing to do when she felt this good. And so she hurried out of her bedroom and into the living room before she lost her nerve.
The pile of her clothing was still visible on the patio balcony. Laurie moved to the still open sliding glass door. For once in her life she was not reading herself the riot act for leaving it open even though the air conditioner had been on all night. There was no self-castigation about wasting electricity or letting bugs into the house. She just didn’t care. Perhaps she was too satisfied to care.
Looking first right and then left, Laurie took comfort in the lack of movement down on the promenade. It would be another hour until the Landing was open to mall walkers. Besides, Laurie was so far above the level of the promenade that they would be unlikely to see her anyway. Bending down, she fumbled for her satin cover up and pulled it off the patio and to the door without actually stepping into full view on the balcony.
With her satin robe in hand, Laurie covered herself up and belted the thing on tight. Then she looked around for Younger. He wasn’t inside. He wasn’t on the balcony. She frowned and spotted her discarded binoculars from the night before.
Picking them up, Laurie wandered out onto the balcony and over to the railing. She lifted the binoculars to her eyes and picked out the place where she should have been able to see the message board kiosk. And that was where she found Younger.
Laurie bit her lip. What was he doing? She adjusted the focus on the binoculars but was still unable to guess what he was doing at the kiosk. He had a piece of chalk in his hand. She could tell that much from her limited view. She looked around for Younger’s phone and wistfully thought of the cameras that were recording him right now.
Then, as she was peering at him, he turned and looked right at her. Laurie froze. Was she supposed to see him? Then he waved and she felt herself relax. He finished up whatever he was doing and jogged back in her direction. That was when she noticed he was barefoot.
The man moved like a god. Laurie found herself distracted by that thought. Of course, that one led to a whole slew of others and most of them involved explicit details of the night before. Perhaps she shouldn’t be wanting Younger to come back to her condo. Maybe it would have been easier if he had just stolen away in the night and she had never seen him again.
He didn’t come up straightaway. Laurie realized distractedly that he seemed to be doing something right beneath her balcony, which was slightly offset from the one below. Of course, the lower balcony had a wall on it that prevented Laurie from seeing the occupants. It was a measure of privacy that she appreciated. But now, as she carefully grabbed hold of the large diameter black pipe railing in order to lean over, she almost wished there was something right below her.
She could see Younger down there fiddling about. But it did not occur to her what he was doing until he popped up with a handful of baby pink fabric in his hand. He stood up and waved to her with what appeared to be her sleep T-shirt.
“Ohmigod!” Laurie whispered in horror.
Should she be embarrassed or horrified or nonchalant about this event? She’d never been so into a sexual encounter before that she had lost a piece of her clothing in a place where it could be
easily picked up by a stranger. Or even worse, one of her employees bringing it to the lost and found. Talk about embarrassing.
Younger turned and came back around to the entrance side of the building. He must have propped the door open or something though because he didn’t need her to buzz him inside. Laurie didn’t leave the patio. She imagined him walking up the stairs and into her condo. She stayed outside for a moment, trying to find her composure among the discarded remnants of her pajamas. Although, that made it sound far more dramatic than it really was. At this point she had put the robe back on and the T-shirt had evidently taken a dive over the balcony so that left her with nothing but her shorts in a puddle on the balcony floor.
“There you are.” Younger’s low voice sent a thrill down her spine. He didn’t sound awkward at all. He sounded as though they had been waking up together for months, years even. “You shouldn’t have gotten out of bed, darlin’. You need your rest.”
Why did she like it so much when he called her darlin’? It should have been ridiculous. But it gave her a warm squishy feeling inside. Even though she knew that logic suggested he had called plenty of people his darlin’ before in his life. Still, when he said it to her in his rumbly masculine baritone she could not help but feel like a million bucks. The only girl in the world to ever hear it.
“I woke up and you were gone.” Laurie spoke the words without even being sure if she was making an accusation or an observation or what it was. “I couldn’t help but wonder.”
He plucked her off the patio and whisked her back into his arms. It was shocking to her how easily he could do that. She wasn’t exactly a pixie of a woman. And yet he picked her up as though she weighed nothing more than a feather.
She put her arms around his neck and stared into his handsome face. Laurie knew she would never forget that face. Ever. Reaching up, she lightly stroked his cheeks to feel the morning stubble on his face. Then she touched his lips.
He kissed her. The light touch of his mouth to hers was such an incredible sensation. Laurie felt her bare toes curling as she put her palm against his cheek and kissed him back. She loved him. She wasn’t sure when or how this had happened. Somewhere between thinking he was a pushy, arrogant ass and the gentleness he had showed her when trying to teach her to defend herself. Maybe that was how love was supposed to happen. Two people stumbling around and tripping over each other until they suddenly realized they both had something to offer the other.
They were going to the bedroom. Laurie squirmed a bit in his arms. “Close the slider door,” she whispered. “It’s going to get hot in here.”
“No doubt,” he joked. But he did pause and use his foot to pull the door closed. “I’m taking you back to bed and you’re sleeping in this morning. Is that completely understood?”
Laurie was laughing now. The way he carried her into the bedroom made her feel like a dainty little heroine in some ridiculous romantic movie. She’d never been treated like this. With so much care and respect. She’d never felt like someone’s treasure before and it was more than a little exciting.
Younger lay her back down on the bed and this time she watched him undressing. The slow reveal of his torso as his T-shirt went up and over his head. She drank in the sight of those shoulders bulging with muscle and the washboard abs that sat beneath his full pectoral muscles. When he finally reached for the waistband of his pants, she thought she might actually swoon. She still had on her little satin coverup. It was getting a bit tangled in the bed though.
“I’m getting naked,” he informed her. “It’s only fair if you return the favor.”
“Favor?” She gave him an arch look.
He kicked off his pants and she got her first real look at his male equipment. Her mouth went totally dry at that point, but her mind was still able to process what he said.
“It’s actually a gift, darlin’,” Younger told her. “Being naked with you is the best present in the world.”
Younger got back into bed and Laurie snuggled in close. She felt the strangest urge to practically plaster herself all over him. It was so odd. She’d never felt this way with anyone else. But she didn’t want to say that. How did you say it without making a big deal about it to your current lover? Oh, you’re the best I’ve ever had? Talk about cliché! And of course, thinking about that made her wonder about his history. Had he been with a lot of girls?
“What’s on your mind?” Younger whispered.
“You are.”
“Then I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”
She bit her lip. The words were going to come out. She could not hold them back a second longer. “I just can’t stop… well, that is to say, I’m wondering if you’ve ever been in a… no. That’s not right.” She just stopped talking in order to prevent herself from digging this hole any deeper. “I don’t know what I’m trying to say.”
“I think that I do.” He looked down into her face and lightly tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. Her hair was a total mess. She could not imagine what she looked like. And yet he looked as though he was seeing the most beautiful woman in the world. “I think you’re trying to come up with a way to ask that question that all new couples have to talk about at some point or another.”
Wait. Did he say couple? “All new couples?”
“I’m pretty sure that’s what we are by now. A couple. Don’t you think?” He gently nuzzled her cheek and kissed the spot in front of her ear that made her shiver with delight. “We’re a couple. You and me. And no. I’m not into having a lot of long-term relationships. I’ve had a few relationships, but not what I’d call long-term. I would go out with a girl maybe a dozen times over a few months. Maybe six months. Maybe a year.”
Suddenly Laurie felt a lot more experienced than she had before. “Wow. Really?”
“I’ll be honest with you.” He lifted her hand and kissed her palm. “I don’t usually sleep with a girl until we’ve been out at least half a dozen times. And if the dates feel awkward, I don’t try to solve that in the bedroom.”
Laurie wasn’t sure whether to be stung or not. Was the fact he’d slept with her before their first official date some kind of bad sign? “So, does this mean we’re doing things backwards?”
“It means that everything is different for you and me,” Younger murmured. He looked out the window for a moment and she watched a flash of emotion cross his face. She could not have said what he was thinking or feeling. Perhaps that sort of insight would come once she got to know him better. He began slowly. “I didn’t meet you in a bar. I will be totally honest and admit that I didn’t really like you all that much in the beginning. Not to start with. You were kind of rude and overbearing and it was like one second you wanted my help and the next you didn’t.”
Laurie lifted her hands and covered her face. She moaned softly and felt awful about herself. “I’m so sorry! I never meant to send you mixed messages like that!”
“I know you didn’t,” he told her gently. “I get it now. I really do. You were going through a lot. I can’t imagine what it was like to know that you needed help with this situation. To realize that your gut was telling you it was out of control and to have someone so absolutely forceful yelling in your ear that it was all your fault because you were incompetent. That’s narcissistic behavior plain and simple. I’ve dealt with that stuff before. You think you’re going crazy.”
It was hard to admit that was true, yet that was exactly how she felt. “I really did.”
“But knowing that makes it possible for me to understand where you were coming from.” He stroked her cheek and tenderly kissed her nose. “And I admire the way you were keeping it together. I admire you. You’re a tough woman, Laurie Talcott. You managed to get right in there and you refused to let that man boss or bully you around. That takes guts.”
“I don’t know about all that.” She was embarrassed by the praise he was giving her. “I’m pretty sure I don’t have guts. I just don’t want to give up without a fight.”
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“Sometimes that’s the gutsiest part of the entire situation.” He smiled down at her. “I admire you, Laurie. I want to say that again because I think it’s important for you to know.”
“But I’m not the one who realized what was really going on,” Laurie argued suddenly. “That was all you, Younger. I would have never gotten this far without you. I need you to know that.”
He made a pffting noise and shook his head. “I just gave you a tiny nudge. You were already going in the right direction before I came along. You would have gotten there just fine.”
“And now?” she prompted. “What are we now? I feel like we can’t be in the open yet until this is over.”
He looked almost glum. “I think you might be right. It might cause some confusion with your employees. But the second my company’s contractual obligation to yours is gone and over with, I am sweeping you off your feet.”
“I won’t be happy unless you do,” she told him. And she wasn’t even sure she was teasing.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
There was a staff meeting at four o’clock that Tuesday afternoon. It was odd. It honestly felt as though they were preparing for a huge event. And they were. It just wasn’t what you would have thought when it came to mall security.
As Younger braced his shoulder against the wall inside the security office at Branson Landing, he could not help but think they should have been discussing shoplifting in the candy store or crowd control on Black Friday or even a new, increased assignment schedule for the day after Christmas rush. Something like that. But thwarting a group they had dubbed the “skateboard mafia” was still an outrageous concept to him.
Ace and Jax both looked at each other and then raised their hands right after Laurie got done talking. Younger could see the other half a dozen employees gathered inside the room were holding their breath as though they, too, were waiting to hear something Laurie had not said.
Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset Page 67
