by Cynthia Eden
“Don’t tempt me,” Dex groused. Then he let her go. He turned away. “I have to go do some recon work. You should stay here and—”
“What if I want to tempt you?” No, no, no. She hadn’t meant to say that. She’d meant to say something a million times different from that. She also had not meant for her voice to come out all husky and sexy.
Dex whirled toward her. “Excuse me?”
Tell him that you can help with recon. Tell him that you can handle Tim. Tell him— “You’re jealous. You say you want me.” She needed some clarity. “I just don’t get—” She stopped.
“What? What is it that you don’t get?”
Fine. Cards on the table. “Where do I stand with you?”
His eyes widened. “Where do you want to stand?”
Her arms wrapped around her stomach. This was so hard. “I feel like I’m barely holding things together right now.”
“Baby…”
“You know, I should hate that endearment. You don’t mean it. You just toss it out.”
“The hell I do. I don’t call anyone else—”
“But I like it,” she told him with a roll of one shoulder. “And I don’t know why.” An exhale. “Just like I don’t know why I feel better when you’re close. You’ve lied to me and used me, and I should be running as far from you as I can, but I’m in this suite with you, and I…” Once more, she stopped.
Dex waited. Waited a little more. “Do not leave me hanging.” His voice sounded strangled. “What do you want?”
You. But if she confessed that, would she be the one using him? “Forget it.” She walked away. “Do your recon work at the cabin. I’ll do recon at the lodge. I want to talk to some staff members and guests and see what I can turn up today—”
“What do you want?”
She wasn’t looking at him. She’d almost made it to the bedroom. “I want to feel like I did last night.” An absolute truth. “Like I’ve never experienced so much pleasure and like nothing else matters. I know it wasn’t real—what was between us last night. I know it wasn’t meant to last, but…” She swallowed the lump in her throat and admitted, “I hurt today.”
“If I could, I would take away all of your pain.”
Funny. He sounded as if he meant those words. I want to believe him. She looked over her shoulder at him. “What do you want, Dex? What is it that you want most in the world?”
“I’m looking at her.”
She could see the desire in his eyes. Had he been hiding it all along? Because it was suddenly blazing in his gaze and etched onto his face. He stared at her as if he wanted to pounce, and she didn’t move. If they were doing this again, if they were going down this path, there had to be… “Rules,” she gasped out.
He gave her a slow, wicked smile even as he began to close the distance between them. “Oh, sweetheart, do you have safe words you want me to use? Absolutely. You tell me, and I will gladly burn them into my memory.”
Her breathing hitched. “Chocolate truffles, but no…”
“No?” His hands had gone to the front of his shirt. He was slowly undoing the buttons. “No to what?”
“I didn’t plan to use safe words.”
“Because nothing is off-limits?” His sexy smile flashed again. “I am down.” He dropped the shirt. Kept closing in on her.
She put her hand on his chest. That hot, hard, muscled chest. “I really need rules,” she whispered. “This is important to me.”
“You’re important to me.”
Her gaze collided with his.
“Tell me,” Dex invited.
“You don’t lie to me. You don’t use me again. I get that this isn’t real. It’s just sex and not some kind of actual relationship—”
A muscle flexed along his jaw.
“But I expect honesty from you. In return, you’ll get honesty from me.” There. Good. Her fingers were stroking his chest. Naughty fingers. They were sliding down his chest. Moving to the top of his pants. Then slip, slip, slipping down a few more inches. Cupping the long, hot length of his cock that she could feel shoving against the fabric. He was definitely ready. So am I. Lacey began undoing his belt. Releasing the button on his pants. Easing down the zipper. “Do you…ah…” She licked her lips and leaned forward. Her lips feathered over the strong column of his throat. “Have any rules for me?”
“Just one.”
One. She could handle one. Sure. Why not? Her hands were in his pants, and he wasn’t wearing boxers or briefs and she was touching his dick. Thick. Long. “Wh-what’s your rule?” She pressed another kiss to his throat.
He shuddered against her. “Trust me.”
That was…hard.
“The world can think I’m a bastard. Everyone else can call me a monster, but I want you to trust me. I want you to believe I’m different. Just give me that, would you?”
Her head lifted. She stared into his eyes. Saw the swirl of emotion and for one crazy moment, Lacey had the urge to say…
I would give you just about everything.
No. No. She shook her head at the thought.
“Right.” His Adam’s apple clicked as he swallowed. “Well, I’d like to act like I have some control and pride and that I am going to back away from you now since you’re not down with my rule, but we both know that’s not fucking happening. Just like before, I want you more than my next breath and nothing will stop me from—”
She shot onto her tiptoes. “Kiss me.”
His mouth took hers. The kiss was ravenous and hot. Consuming and demanding. She kissed him back with a need that couldn’t be denied. Her hand was still stroking his cock, and he was big and strong, and she wanted him buried inside of her. “Fuck me,” she urged against his mouth.
A shudder worked over him. In the next moment, he had her in his arms. She rather loved the way he lifted her so easily. Her legs curled around his hips, and she arched against his cock. She still had her clothes on and they were absolutely in the way, but she rubbed her sex against him, loving the friction and wanting so much more.
He carried her into the bedroom. Light poured through the window, but she didn’t care. He lowered her onto the bed, and he started hauling off her boots. The damn boots! They were taking forever and—
Gone. Next, he reached for her jeans. Had those and her panties yanked off in a blink. She tossed away her sweater and her bra and when she was naked—
He already had the condom on. She nodded quickly because she didn’t want to slow down. She wanted him in her. Fast. She wanted body-melting release. She didn’t want uncertainty. Or fear. Or—
He pushed her legs apart.
“Come in,” she demanded.
“Not yet.”
Why not? “Dex?”
He took her nipple into his mouth. Licked. Sucked. Her eyes wanted to roll back in her head because it felt so good. Her hands curled on either side of his body as she held on tight. He was between her spread legs, and she arched up because she wanted him inside.
One of his hands slid between her legs. In the next breath, he’d pushed two fingers into her. Withdrew. Thrust. He was working her clit with his thumb in the super skilled way that he did. Long strokes, short, fast, hard presses and—
He was licking her other breast. She was probably clawing his sides. When Dex started touching her, control was a distant memory. She wanted him. So badly.
“You know I’ll give you whatever you need.” He’d pushed up on one arm and was staring down at her. “Don’t you?”
What she needed? She needed him. Lacey’s head bobbed a frantic nod.
“You want to forget everything else that’s going on? Want to have the pain stop and only feel pleasure?”
“Yes!”
“Trust me, and I’ll give you pleasure.”
Wait…
But he was moving down her body. His hand was gone from between her legs and his mouth took its place. There was no more thinking after that. Only feeling. Her hips surged toward him and his
wicked tongue as her hands fisted the bedding. She came quickly, a shattering eruption that had her choking out his name.
“See?” His deep voice rumbled against her. Sent off after-shocks of pleasure. “That’s what happens when you trust me.”
Her lashes swept up just in time for her to see him rising over her.
“Want more?” Dex asked her.
She wanted everything.
He kissed her. “Then trust me.”
She—
He drove into her. Filled her completely. Her legs locked around him. Her hips surged against him over and over. This wasn’t slow and tender. There weren’t any other careful caresses or sweet promises. This was sex. Desire at its basest. Their bodies heaved together. Their hearts raced and pounded, and it seemed like they couldn’t get close enough to each other.
She was urging him on. Chanting his name. He was driving ever harder and deeper into her. The intensity should have frightened her. The whole atmosphere had changed. The temperature in the room seemed to have heated.
Savage. Primal. Desperate.
But she never thought of stopping. Didn’t even consider the safe words she’d tossed out to him. She held him tighter. She bit his shoulder and left her mark on him. He was leaving his on her, beneath the skin, where no one else could see but she’d always feel.
She’d compare him to others. They wouldn’t hold up. Nothing had ever been like this before. Nothing would be again. Not with anyone else. She knew it, feared it, and—
The orgasm blew everything else away. Her body bucked beneath him as the powerful release hit her.
He came right after her. Came as she was still trembling and riding that high and struggling to catch her breath. His hips shoved toward her once more even as his body stiffened, and he growled her name. She was staring up at him, and she saw his eyes flare with pleasure—saw it sweep across his face.
Then he bent his head. Kissed her.
The pleasure rolled through her and she lost all track of time. Awareness came back slowly.
Her throat was dry. Her legs still locked around him, but with an effort, she managed to make her legs flop to the bed. He was buried in her. He heaved up so that he was braced on his elbows, and he could stare down at her. He seemed to be searching her gaze but she had no idea what he could possibly be looking for as he stared so long and so deeply into her eyes—
His focus shifted to her chest. His head lowered, and he kissed the bruise that was darkening over her heart. The bruise from the bullet. A tender kiss, when there had been no tenderness before. Careful.
At the touch of his mouth on her bruise, she had to blink quickly, and she didn’t even know why.
By the time he looked back at her, Lacey had herself under control. Hopefully, anyway. For the life of her, she could not read his expression. She wished that she could, but he’d shut down on her. Hot sex one moment and then—
“I’ll be right back.” He withdrew from her. She barely resisted the urge to lift her legs and hold him tight.
He padded to the bathroom. She grabbed the sheets and hauled them over her body even as she heard the sound of running water and then…
He was back. He’d wrapped a towel around his hips. “I thought you might enjoy a soak. I started a bath for you.”
That was thoughtful. She pushed back the sheets—
He scooped her into his arms. Automatically, she looped an arm around his neck. “You seem to have a particular fondness for carrying me.” She was trying to tease. When they’d had sex, something had shifted between them. Gotten dark and basic and…consuming.
She needed to get back to a lighter footing. ASAP.
Back to feeling as if she hadn’t just given him a large piece of her soul.
There was no holding back. There was no retreat.
“I like holding you,” he said simply. As if it were an easy confession. As if he’d said…I like long walks. I like crime shows.
I like holding you.
A basic Dex fact.
When they entered the bathroom, she saw that he’d even put bubbles in the giant, claw-footed tub for her. The gesture surprised her, and she laughed. The laugh felt good after the intense moments before. As he lowered her into the tub, she teased, “Be careful or I’ll start to think you’re secretly a romantic.”
“Is that what you want?”
I want you.
The water sloshed around her. The bubbles tickled her skin. He knelt near the outside of the tub as he studied her. “I’m sorry if I was too rough.” His voice was stilted. “I don’t keep my normal control with you.”
She eased down deeper beneath the water. The back of her head rested against the tub’s edge. “That seems fair. I don’t seem to keep my normal control with you, either.”
His head tilted. “Are we being honest with each other?”
A nod.
“Then how about a little more honesty?”
Her fingers slid through the bubbles. “Go ahead.”
“I want to fuck you endlessly.”
Her fingers stilled.
“I don’t think that I can ever get enough of you. Each time I have you, I want more.” His gaze held hers. She saw the truth in his stare. Dangerous and dark.
“Each time…” Her voice was low and husky. “I have you, I want more, too.”
He leaned closer. “You bit me.”
Her attention darted to the small wound she’d left. It hadn’t faded, and wouldn’t, not for a few days. “That’s gonna leave a mark.”
“Good.” His fingers had curled around the edge of the tub. He rose and turned away. He still had the towel around his hips. “Maybe next time, I’ll leave my own mark.”
“You already have.”
He glanced over his shoulder. “What did you say?”
Nothing she wanted to repeat, thank you very much. “You’re going to do recon work.”
“Yes. What I want is to slide in the tub—one that was obviously built for two—and fuck you until we both nearly drown because we’re too exhausted to crawl out of the water.”
Oh, that was certainly an—
“But someone ordered a hit on you. And I have a job to do. I need to make sure Heather’s transport goes off without a hitch, and I have to check out the cabin. I want to be certain no clues were overlooked out there.”
“I can come with you.” She started to push out of the tub. The water sloshed around her.
“No.” Gruff. A little fast. “You should do like you said before…talk to the staff. Do some recon here. I have a…a close friend who’ll be arriving soon. Antony will get every bit of intel he can from Heather’s laptop and then we’ll close in on the bastard we’re after.”
“A close friend, you say?” She sounded doubting because she was. “The same way that Eric is supposedly your best friend?”
He appeared taken back. “Who told you that?”
“You did. I heard you call him that on more than one occasion. But I got the impression you didn’t mean it.” Another mask, another ruse. She slipped back down into the warm water because she suddenly felt chilled. “Do you ever mean what you say?”
“With you, yes.” A fast response.
“Why should I believe that?”
“Because you’re different.”
No, she wasn’t. She was the same as everyone else, and part of her feared that Dex was playing her the same way he played others. He’d already kept secrets from her. “What bothers me the most,” she told him, “is just how much I want to believe you.”
His jaw was tight. “Trust me.”
Then…
He was gone.
Chapter Sixteen
Trust wasn’t exactly easy for her. Never had been. Never would be. She needed facts. Evidence. Intel. And she really wasn’t the type to sit holed up in some fancy suite. If Dex was doing recon work, then she intended to do the exact same thing.
Lacey dressed quickly and made her way to the main lobby. It was easy enough to
chat up the check-in staff and discover that ten different guests had checked out immediately after the incident in the ballroom the previous night. Made sense that some had fled—this was supposed to be a safe place to escape from the real world. The elites there would hardly want to stick around if gunfire was erupting.
But she didn’t think the person she was after had vanished last night. After all, Heather’s partner—whoever she’d used to help transport Roman—must have remained close.
“All of those guests have been researched.” A quiet, male voice announced from her left. “I assure you, Ms. Amari, you don’t have to worry about them.”
Her head turned. The ever-so-helpful concierge guy, Charles, had made his way to her side. She’d seen him coming, though, from the corner of her eye.
Charles waved away the check-in staff. Then he propped an elbow on the counter and smiled at her. “You don’t have to worry.” A nod. “Dex has already followed up on them.”
It would have been helpful if Dex had shared that news with her. She leaned toward Charles. “You’re on his payroll.”
A shrug. “Aren’t you?”
Her lips parted. She—
“I knew he was bringing someone here as a cover, but when I first saw the two of you together,” Charles added with another shrug, “I actually thought it might be more than just business.”
It is more. Only she didn’t quite understand what the “more” was, not just yet.
“Walk with me,” Charles invited.
She didn’t particularly feel like walking with him, but when he inclined his head toward the watchful clerks, she realized that a little distance would be a good thing. Their discussion had been conducted quietly so she knew the others hadn’t overheard, but if Charles wanted to share more info with her, she was certainly ready to listen.
They slipped into a cozy nook on the right. Charles kept a congenial smile on his face. To outsiders, it probably looked as if they were conducting a friendly conversation about the lodge. He even gestured around, as if pointing out the artwork and amenities to her.
