Jan wrinkled her nose and looked up at him. “You’re scared too?”
“Petrified.” He snorted. “But it’s my job to hide it.”
“You don’t have to hide it. Not with me.” She sniffled and rested her forehead against his warmth. “I just keep seeing those flowers over and over again, all that blood dripping everywhere. I’d never forgive myself if someone got hurt because of all this.” She couldn’t suppress the shudder that ran through her at the thought of Dino getting injured, or worse, because of her. “I couldn’t survive it.”
He pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. “And I’d never survive if anything happened to you, sweetheart. Never.”
His lips drifted across her hair to her temple, and Jan lifted her face toward him, their eyes locking, their mouths mere inches apart. In his deep-blue eyes she saw a need to rival her own, but still, she had to ask. “Dino?”
“Jan.” His gaze dropped to her lips then returned to her eyes, passion and hesitation warring in his expression. “Sweetheart.”
Without thinking, she rose on tiptoe and pressed her lips to his, softly at first, then more insistent as his arms came around her and his hand slipped into her hair to hold her in place, cradling the back of her head. He started to pull away, but she fisted her hands in the front of his shirt, refusing to let him go. Not this time. “Please,” she whispered, her words heavy with want. “Please, Dino. Please help me to forget. Please help me to feel good again, if only for a little while.”
His breath hitched at her plea, and she felt rather than heard his acceptance as his body relaxed against hers, welcoming her closer into his heat. “I’ve wanted this for as long as I can remember, sweetheart. Wanted you. God, Jan. I want you so bad I can hardly see straight.”
“Me too.” She kissed him again, wrapping her arms around his neck and jumping slightly to wrap her legs around his waist. “Let’s go upstairs.”
“God, yes.” He easily carried her weight as he maneuvered them to her bedroom on the second floor. They pushed inside her master suite, and Dino let her down slowly to her feet, his lips and hands everywhere as she slid down the front of his hard, muscled body. Three nights ago she’d slept soundly with this man. Tonight she wanted to do so much more than sleep.
Tonight, she would.
Eager to see and touch and taste every delicious inch of him, she pushed his jacket off his shoulders and let it slide down his arms and fall to the floor before yanking his black T-shirt from his jeans then tracing her fingertips over the taut ridges of his abdomen. A light dusting of hair tickled her skin, and he shivered under her touch. She smiled up at him and winked. “Feel good?”
“You have no idea.” He quickly undid the button on her crisp white shirt and pulled it open to slip his hands inside to cup her breasts through her pink lace bra. His thumbs flicked over her straining nipples, and she moaned deep in her throat. It had been so long, too long since anyone had touched her this way. Since she’d let anyone close enough to try.
He chuckled, rough and deep and sexy as hell. “Feel good?”
In reply, she bent and ran her tongue over his stomach while tugging his shirt upward so she could lick his sensitive nipples. Remembering all the times they’d messed around back in high school, she knew all his erogenous zones and had no qualms about using them to get what she wanted.
Namely, him. Inside her. As soon as possible.
With a growl, he tugged his T-shirt over his head with one hand and caught her around the waist with the other, pulling her hard against his hips and letting her feel the full extent of his arousal, letting her feel exactly what she did to him, how badly he wanted her.
Pressure coiled deep in her hips, and moisture pooled between her legs, her pulse drumming hard and fast as she ran her hands and tongue over his torso, his pecs, anywhere she could reach. He tasted of salt and smelled of spicy cologne and desire.
Dino removed her shirt then picked her up again and tossed her into the middle of her huge king-sized bed before following her down onto the mattress. He stretched out, half on her, half beside her, rubbing against her—skin against skin—and groaning loudly. “I’ve missed this so much.”
“Me too.” She pulled him down for another kiss as he slipped his hand down to her waist and unbuttoned then unzipped her jeans. The touch of his fingers on the sensitive flesh of her lower abdomen made her whole body quake. He stopped and stared down at her, and heat prickled her cheeks. “Keep going. Don’t stop.”
“Are you sure, sweetheart?”
The fact that he would stop, would ask her permission when it was obvious how badly he wanted her, only made her more aware of how much she wanted him too. “Yes. I’m sure. Make love to me, Dino.”
He kissed her hard and deeply in response, and she arched hard against him, desperate for more. His long fingers slid inside her jeans to cup her heat through the silky lace of her panties. Neither of them moved, neither of them spoke, only stared at each other across the span of only a few inches, their breath mingling in the small space.
Fifteen years.
Fifteen years they’d waited and wondered and wished for this moment.
Fifteen years was more than long enough.
Grinning, Jan reached up and pulled Dino down to her for another heated kiss then whispered against his lips, “What are you waiting for?”
“This.” One side of his lips quirked up into a devilish smile as he slipped one finger beneath the elastic of her panties and traced the length of her wet folds from top to bottom. He did it again, his hot gaze locked on hers as if drinking in her reaction. On the third stroke, he delved deeper to find the sensitive bundle of nerves near the apex of her thighs. “You feel so incredible, sweetheart. So hot, so wet, so ready for me.”
Jan lost the battle with her senses, her head tipping back and her mouth falling open on a groan of pure pleasure. Only Dino had ever made her feel this much, only Dino had ever brought her to the heights of fulfillment. She’d had other lovers over the years, but none who knew her body as well as her soul. Not like Dino did. All those long nights they’d spent together, learning each other’s hopes and dreams and bodies. Nothing could ever break that connection. Not time, not distance, not even her stalker.
Not tonight, anyway.
She parted her legs wider to give him better access, and he took advantage, sliding a second finger in to join the first as he stoked her passion higher and higher. His name emerged as something between a plea and a prayer. “Dino.”
“Sweetheart.” His warm breath ghosted over her skin as he nuzzled the side of her neck. “I need to see you, taste you.”
With that, he sat up and tugged off her jeans. Her panties followed next. Then he settled between her spread legs and gazed up the length of her body to meet her eyes. “Okay?”
Jan reached down and tangled her fingers in his short dark hair, nodding. “Please.”
“Your wish is my command.” He winked again before lowering his head and tracing his tongue over her wet folds.
Lost in sensation, Jan bucked hard, and he placed a hand on each of her thighs to hold her in place while he loved her with his lips and tongue and fingers. First one, then two of his long fingers pushed inside her slick walls, stretching her, preparing her for him. When a third joined in along with his thumb circling and pressing gently on her swollen clitoris, she knew it wouldn’t be long. Her climax built slowly within her, like an approaching storm on the horizon. He moaned against her, and her breath hitched. He curved his fingers slightly upward to hit the sensitive bundle of nerves inside her, and Jan cried out as wave after wave of bliss washed over her, her body contracting hard around him even as he continued to stroke her, lick her, drive her insane with need. “Dino, oh God.”
“That’s it, sweetheart,” he whispered, placing a gentle kiss on her inner thigh as he rode out the hard contractions of her orgasm with her. “Let go for me.”
“Yes.” She dug her fingers into the sheets as her mus
cles went slack and the fragments of her shattered world began to fall back into place again. “I needed that so bad.”
“I know you did.” He kissed his way up her body then nuzzled her neck again before kissing her softly on the lips. “I need it too.”
Bolder now, Jan reached between them and rubbed the length of his hard cock through the soft denim of his faded jeans. “I can feel that.”
“Hard to hide a man’s deepest desires.” He laughed then moaned as her touch grew more insistent. “What are you doing down there, sweetheart?”
Jan rolled him over onto his back then straddled his hips with her body. “This.”
She undid the button at his waistband then slid his jeans and boxer-briefs down with one long pull. He was naked now, and she only had on her bra as she took his hard length in hand and began to stroke him gently but firmly from root to tip. Having such a big, strong, powerful man at her mercy—literally—gave her a sense of freedom she’d never known.
He trembled beneath her, heat and passion sparking hot in his bright-blue eyes. “It’s not fair, you know.”
“What?” She ran her thumb over the velvet head of his cock, and he groaned. “What’s not fair?”
“I’m completely naked, and you’re not.”
Jan glanced down at her bra then back at him. “You want it off? Take it off.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He reached up and flicked open the front clasp of her bra with one hand then slid each strap down her arms until her breasts spilled free into his waiting palms. Slowly, gently he kneaded her soft flesh, using his thumbs and forefingers to squeeze and stroke her hard nipples. The heat and wetness between her thighs increased. “You always had the most beautiful breasts. So soft and round and just the perfect size for my hands. God, the fantasies I used to have about these breasts.”
“Yeah?” She raised a naughty brow in his direction, gathering a bead of moisture from the tip of his cock and spreading it downward along his long length.
“Oh, yeah,” he half-said, half-groaned.
Jan looked down at her handiwork and licked her lips. “Oh, yeah.”
She’d never really wanted to do this before, but with Dino she wanted to experience everything. With him, she wanted it all, even if she could only have him for tonight. These memories would keep her warm on the lonely nights to come. Keeping her gaze locked with his, she scooted back on his thighs to allow her to bend forward over him, her long hair falling like a curtain over her shoulder.
“Sweetheart, what are you doing?” Dino asked, his gravelly voice oddly breathless. “You don’t have to—”
“Ah, but I want to.” She smiled up at him then held him at the base while licking her tongue over the soft, velvet-hard head of his cock. Again, he tasted of salt and heat and something indefinably Dino. They had messed around in high school, heavy petting and kissing and cuddling, but they’d never, ever gotten this far, and she’d always regretted it.
Tonight, she vowed, there would be no more regrets.
No matter how things might turn out afterward.
She licked him again, this time teasing the sensitive spot just below the head before dipping down farther and taking several inches of him into her mouth. He groaned loudly and arched slightly beneath her, his hands bunched in the sheets beside him as if it took every ounce of willpower he possessed not to take control of the situation, of her. “Jan, sweetheart.” He chuckled, gruff and short. “Are you trying to kill me?”
Jan rose up again and grinned down at him, deciding they’d both had enough torture for one lifetime. She released his cock and reached into her nightstand for a condom. After tearing open the tiny foil packet with her teeth, she slicked it onto him then moved back up his body until she sat poised above him, his tip grazing her slick folds. She leaned down and kissed him slowly and deeply as his hands came around her waist to hold her in place. “No, Dino. I’m trying to make this moment last forever.”
With that, she reached back to guide him inside her. Lower, lower she sank onto him until he was fully embedded deep inside her body. She felt full, so full, fuller than ever before, like the length of him reached all the way to her heart.
“Sweetheart.” He pressed his back into the pillow as she began to ride him, the blue heat of his eyes mere slits as he watched her. “You are so beautiful.”
“You are,” she said, leaning closer to him to trace her lips along his strong jaw, across his cheek, down the long column of his neck. She went to rise up again, but he caught her and levered himself up to join her, driving himself deeper into her body as he took one of her swollen nipples into his mouth, soothing it with his tongue while he held her close.
She twined her fingers through his hair and massaged his scalp, just the way he’d always loved, and moaned his name again. “Dino.”
“Jan,” he whispered against the soft valley between her breasts. “This is—”
“I know.” She placed a finger over his lips to silence him then leaned down to kiss him again. “I know.”
He reached between them to stroke her as he drove harder, faster, deeper into her, the angle of his penetration just right to hit that bundle of nerves inside her again and push her to the brink once more. “Oh, God,” she moaned. “I’m close.”
“Me too,” he breathed against the pulse point at the base of her throat. “Me too, sweetheart.”
Dino gently pinched her swollen clitoris between his thumb and forefinger, and her whole body tightened around him, against him, as she came hard for the second time. Lost in ecstasy, her contractions around him must have pushed him over the edge as well. Dino pulled her close and stroked into her several more times, his movements rough and his breath ragged. Then he stilled, his body whipcord tight as he came hard within her, so hard she felt it all the way to her toes.
Spent and sated, they clung to each other for several moments before collapsing back onto the mattress, Jan nestled atop his warm chest as he pulled the covers up over them, their bodies still intimately connected. Neither of them seemed in a hurry to leave the other, not yet.
She traced lazy patterns on his skin while he tangled her hair through his fingers.
“That was amazing,” he said, his tone quiet and completely sated.
“Yeah, it was.” She smiled against him. “Well worth the wait.”
“Oh, yeah.” His other hand stroked up and down her arm. Several seconds passed before he said, “Guess we should get some sleep, huh?”
“Probably a good idea.” She nodded, the hair on his chest scratching against her skin. The last thing she wanted to do at the moment, however, was sleep. What she wanted to do was hold him close and never let him go. Which meant what she needed to do was the exact opposite. After all, they weren’t committed to each other romantically, and no matter how good the sex was between them, he’d never said that this was anything more than a one-time fling.
Getting her emotions, or her heart, involved at this point would be unwise.
As his breathing evened out into the patterns of sleep and his fingers stilled in her hair, Jan slumped against him and sighed. Too bad her heart, and her emotions, had belonged to him a long time ago.
Not that she would tell him that.
Not until she was sure he wanted her in his life and his bed.
Not until he said those three magic words he’d never said before, the ones that would prove to her he wanted her more than any other, the ones that would prove once and for all that he belonged to her and she belonged to him and no one else existed.
Until then, she’d keep her feelings tucked away and to herself, no matter how it might break her heart to keep them hidden.
Nineteen
Dino awakened in stages. First, he became aware of the warm body snuggled in beside him in bed. Next came the scent of floral perfume and sweet, warm woman. Finally, the soft silk of Jan’s hair draped over his arm and down his chest brought him back to reality.
He blinked into the darkness and smiled.
<
br /> They’d finally made love.
After fifteen years of waiting and hoping and dreaming, it had finally happened. And it had been so much better than he’d ever imagined. His pulse pounded and his body tightened just from the memories of what had occurred in this room, this bed, with this woman just hours before. The sex had been so hot it was a wonder the whole place hadn’t gone up in flames.
Careful not to disturb her, he raised his free hand to his face and rubbed his eyes then glanced over at the nightstand table. Night had fallen, but it was still relatively early, only eleven thirty. Plenty of time for sleep. Plenty of time for other things too.
He snuggled in closer and rolled to his side, gathering Jan close again and spooning her from behind. She fit him so perfectly, all her soft curves melding into his hard edges like she’d been made just for him. He still couldn’t quite believe that after all this time, all these years, they were finally back together again.
Dino had just started to drift off again when his phone buzzed from his jeans pocket somewhere on the floor.
Shit.
He tried to ignore it, but it just kept vibrating over and over and over.
Reaching one arm over the side of the bed, he tried to fumble for them without actually having to leave the comfort of the nice, warm bed, but no luck. Considering the hurry they’d been in to get naked earlier, his jeans could have been tossed halfway to France. With a sigh, he extricated himself from Jan’s sleeping form then tossed his legs over the side of her bed and stood. He didn’t want to turn on the lights and wake her too, so he felt around with his bare feet on the floor, picking up and discarding clothes as he came across them until he finally located his pants in a wadded-up ball near the far wall.
After mumbling a curse, he pulled his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans and tapped the screen on. Five missed calls, all from the same number. A very familiar number.
Shit, shit, shit.
He’d hoped it might be Rockford Security or his friend from the police department calling to say they’d found some new information about Jan’s stalker, but no. Dino shook his head and hit Redial, thumping his bare foot on the carpet while he waited.
Deadly Betrayal (The Rockford Security Series Book 1) Page 16
