by Bonnie Dee
Lauren glanced at the bathroom door, listening to heavy footsteps walk past it down the hall. With the ease of a man turning on a light switch, Jordan had accomplished what Mark had been incapable of doing. He’d made her feel deeply, and effortlessly seduced her into opening herself up to him. But was she ready for the emotional upheaval of a new love affair? It would be easier to make an excuse, thank him for the good time and go home.
That’s what she should do. It was too dangerous, getting involved with a man who awoke so much feeling and could read her so well. She opened the bathroom door and padded back down the hallway to his bedroom.
Jordan lay stretched on the bed, his long body only covered by a sheet pulled over his groin. Bare legs stuck out, reaching clear to the end of the bed and a pair of oversized feet. His arms were tucked behind his head, lifting his chest with its small, brown nipples, and elongating the muscles of his torso. His skin was an olive shade that suggested Mediterranean heritage or possibly Native American. When he saw Lauren, he gave her a slow smile that transformed his naturally solemn face to sweet sunshine.
She glanced at her clothes strewn across the floor, but didn’t pick them up. She would go home soon, but first, she’d lie with him for just a little while. It was the polite thing to do.
She crossed the room and crawled back into Jordan’s warm bed.
Chapter Five
Lauren’s head rested on his chest and her relaxed arm was slung over his waist, her hand resting lightly on his arm. But tension thrummed through her body. Jordan tried to shut out her anxiety, but it bled into his consciousness. He wished he knew why she was upset. Was it postcoital second-guessing or was it related to work?
He rubbed her arm. “Worried about the case?”
“Thinking about it. Not worried. I’ve learned to let the job go at the end of the day. If you don’t put up a wall between work and after hours, you’ll never stop working. Still, sometimes it’s hard to turn your mind off, especially when you’re on the edge of solving something.”
“So you think you’re on the verge of a breakthrough?”
She laughed, a soft chuckle that pleased his ears and tickled his chest. “I shouldn’t discuss it with you.”
“I’m an outside observer. Maybe I can be helpful.”
“How do I know you’re an outsider? You seem pretty involved to me.”
He glanced down at her forehead, the curve of her cheek and her cute, little nose. “Are you kidding? Am I actually a suspect?”
She smiled, and he felt her negative response. Ease and trust washed over him.
Jordan slid his hand up her rib cage to cup one of her breasts. A lock of hair rested on the curved slope and he coiled it around his finger. “How did you decide you wanted to become a cop?”
“My dad was. Most of my parents’ friends were cop families and when they got together I’d overhear them discussing the job. It seemed like the most important career a person could have. Dad didn’t take me seriously when I told him I planned to join the force. Actually, he was pretty pissed and told me it wasn’t a good job for a woman.” Her tone was sharp. “It might be the twenty-first century, but women still have to work twice as hard to prove themselves in some careers. You can’t let anything get to you. Show the least bit of emotion and the guys lose respect. After a while, I guess it makes you kind of hard.”
He squeezed her breast lightly. “You don’t feel hard to me.” Of course he meant more than her body. So much warmth and passion had flowed from her during sex. Now it was tamped down, but he could still sense it simmering. Lauren was anything but cold beneath her contained exterior.
“Trust me, I’m tough as nails. Just ask my ex, Mark. He said I was incapable of opening up and he’d met politicians who were more honest. That was just before he moved out.”
“Ouch! He might as well have said rattlesnakes.”
“He was right, though. I have a little trouble being open. It doesn’t make for good relationships.”
Even though she’d acted like she didn’t know what he was talking about, Jordan still believed Lauren had felt his emotions during sex as he had hers. Fear of sharing deeply would certainly explain the low-grade anxiety pulsing from her.
How was it even possible that she felt him? Did she have a touch of the same ability as Mike seemed to, or was she sharing his gift? He’d never before gotten a sense from any of his sexual partners that they experienced his emotions. Perhaps his ability was strengthening, changing into something different, or maybe there was something special about Lauren. She was in tune with him in a way no other lover had ever been.
He cupped her jaw and rubbed his thumb across her lower lip, until she captured it between her teeth and bit lightly. “I think you’re more than capable of opening up. Maybe this guy just wasn’t the right man to share with.”
She sucked his thumb then let it go with a wet pop. “Maybe.”
He’d have to be patient and undemanding to get her to trust him. Although she might have a hard shell, inside she was brittle and delicate. Was he really ready to begin a challenging relationship?
“Tell me about your job.” She changed the subject and position, rolling onto her back to lie beside him.
“I design software for business applications. I know, it sounds much more glamorous and exciting than it really is. But it makes it possible to work from home, which I like.”
She turned her head to gaze at him intently. “Do you get lonely living like a hermit?”
“I don’t think much about it. I’ve gotten used to being alone and having things quiet.” He laughed. “I’m probably the most boring person you’ve ever met.”
She smiled and a hint of dimples creased her cheeks. “Boring? No. That isn’t a word I’d use to describe you.” She paused as though considering, then said, “Introverted. Intense. Morose. Definitely passionate. But not boring.”
She looked at the ceiling again. “Your house is so peaceful. No traffic noise. I rarely get out of the city. This place is a paradise.”
Jordan turned onto his stomach, head resting on his folded arm, and placed a hand on her stomach. It rose and fell with her breathing. “You’d sleep well here. You should spend the night.”
“I don’t know. I haven’t been home since early yesterday. I need a shower, some new clothes, to check my mail, that kind of thing.”
“Tomorrow. It’s a long drive back into the city and you’re so comfortable here.” He moved closer, holding her down with an arm and leg. “Stay.”
She paused then made a small noise, almost a sigh. “For a while. And only if you feed me. I’ve had nothing but fast food today. I’m starving.”
He smiled and kissed her soft shoulder which was right by his mouth. “It so happens I’m an excellent cook. And you’re in luck; the kitchen’s still open for business.”
Beneath his palm on her abdomen, he felt her stomach rumble and her body give a vibration of pleasure like a contented cat’s purr. She would stay. He had her at “cook”.
“I’ve told you everything about my family—my parents, my brothers, even my cousins.” Lauren set down her fork and pushed her plate back. “As a matter of fact, with your interviewing technique you’d make a great detective. I don’t know how you cajoled so much information out of me.”
Because you needed to talk. Jordan kept the thought to himself.
“My family’s not near as interesting,” he said. “If you think my job sounds boring, my dad’s an accountant and my mom’s a librarian. They both love cataloguing and predictability. You can imagine they didn’t know what to make of me with my weirdo ability. It must have put them off having any more kids, because I’m an only child.”
“They know what you can do, then?” Lauren rested her elbows on the table and leaned forward. “Have you always been able to…feel things?”
He was still uncomfortable talking about it. He’d spent too many years keeping it a secret. “I guess so. You’d think I’d be better at turning it on
and off by now.”
“How was it when you were a baby?”
“I’m told I cried a lot. My mom thought I had colic. They figured out pretty early that I didn’t like people handling me. I was sent for about every medical test possible before I could even talk. Scans showed some areas in my brain had way more activity than normal. There was talk of epilepsy, brain trauma, autism, all kinds of hypotheses, but none of the doctors could come to any agreement.”
He rose and began clearing the table. It was easier to tell her all of this if he didn’t look into Lauren’s sympathetic eyes. “By the time I could talk, my parents realized I wasn’t normal. At first I assumed everyone was just like me, but it doesn’t take a kid long to figure out he’s different and to learn to keep his mouth shut about it.”
Lauren rinsed her plate and silverware, and put them in the dishwasher. “It must have been hard, not being able to talk about what you were experiencing with anyone.”
“You get used to it.” He closed the dishwasher door. “Over the years, I thought I had it pretty well under control—until suddenly I didn’t anymore.”
“I’m sorry.” A frown furrowed her smooth forehead.
He shrugged. “It’s just life. I’m sure you’ve been through some pretty grim stuff in your line of work.”
“Some.” She avoided the subject, moving close, crowding him against the dishwasher, slipping her hands up his chest and around his shoulders. She looked into his face with her luminous hazel eyes, leaned into his body and whispered, “What am I feeling now?”
Jordan smiled as a hot stab of lust arched from her into him. “Right now? I’d say you’re feeling my cock pressing into your stomach.”
She laughed and rubbed her pelvis against his growing erection. “That’s right.”
He slipped a hand into her hair, fingering the soft tendrils as he cupped her delicate skull. “You’re feeling hungry—like dinner wasn’t enough. Empty and yearning to be filled.”
“Yes.” The word ended in a hiss. Her lips remained parted and her eyes drifted halfway closed.
“Me too.” He wanted to tell her what it was really like for him, what he’d never been able to tell any woman before. “I want to be in you and at the same time I want you in me. I can feel both. I want both.”
His mouth settled on hers, the brush of their lips both light as a breeze and intense as a hurricane. He felt her rising desire and his own in a mixture as combustible as nitroglycerin and gunpowder.
Lauren was wearing one of his T-shirts and the neckline had slipped down to bare her shoulder. Tracing his thumb along the ridge of her collarbone to the soft, fleshy curve of her shoulder, he kissed it, savoring the sweet saltiness of her skin.
He pulled the shirt lower so his lips could skate softly over her chest and the swell of her cleavage. When he clenched the cotton harder, one of her breasts popped free. His mouth roamed across it, giving little whisper kisses until she ached for more. He drew the hardened nipple between his teeth and flicked his tongue over the tip.
Lauren made a small sound in her throat and inhaled, lifting her chest higher.
He sucked in the nub, rolling his tongue over it before settling into a hard suckling that sent a sharp surge of desire to his cock—as if she were doing it to him. He had to admit there were some perks to his “special gift”.
After a moment, Jordan straightened and pulled the T-shirt over her head, leaving her naked. Turning them so she was backed against the counter, he lavished attention on her other breast, licking and sucking the nipple erect before dropping onto his knees in front of her.
He felt her anticipation mounting as his hands and mouth slipped over her torso, feeling the bumps of her rib cage, the silky skin covering them, the soft swell of her belly and the sharp blades of her hipbones. When his exploration led him closer to her sex, need, need, need pulsed from her.
Jordan looked up as he ran his fingers lightly through the brown tangle of curls. Lauren’s eyes were wide and focused on him with fierce intensity. Her tongue swept over her parted lips, leaving them glistening.
She yearned for his touch. The silent begging brought a smile to his face and made him want to prolong their mutual agony. He lowered his gaze to her pussy, teasing his thumbs between the fleshy folds, spreading them and inhaling her aroma. She was musky earth, mineral tang, all woman. His heart beat in his cock, throbbing so hard it felt as if it would explode.
Jordan pressed his face between her thighs and licked the red seam. He probed his tongue deep into her wetness, lapping her pungent juice while she moaned and pushed toward him. Her hand curved around his skull, pulling him up. Oh yeah, she wanted his tongue on her clit badly—so badly it sent aching waves through them both.
He teased her only a little longer, licking and nibbling the insides of her thighs, slipping his tongue up the length of her, skirting the erect nub at the last minute.
Lauren gripped his hair and tugged. “Come on!” she begged.
With a soft laugh, he relented and gave her what they both wanted. His lips encircled her clit and pulled lightly, then his tongue swirled around and over it.
Relief flooded him. This was what she’d needed. He knew exactly how to give it to her, when to increase the pressure, when to back off, how long he could play her before the exquisite torture was too much. Finally, he settled into a rhythm that drew her higher and higher to the edge of climax. He experienced it with her, the ratcheting tension like a guitar tuner pulling a string ever tighter.
When there was no more flexibility left in the string, there was nothing it could do but break. Lauren gave way with a resounding twang. He felt her mounting desire explode and rocket through her nervous system and his like a pinball. His eyes rolled back behind his closed eyelids. He felt the climax nearly as strongly as if it were his own and willed his vibrating cock to calm.
Jordan kept his mouth pressed to her pussy until he was sure he’d given her every last drop of pleasure possible, then he pulled away and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand.
The damn condoms were in the bedroom. He hadn’t counted on having an interlude in the kitchen. So he rose and scooped Lauren into his arms. She was still gasping through the last pangs of her release as he hurried through the house and deposited her on the bed. He quickly sheathed his cock in latex then climbed onto the bed with her, straddling her sprawled body.
She reached out to hold him, but after a few kisses, flipped over, offering her backside.
Jordan pushed her hair aside so he could admire the sweet curve of her neck and back, her pale shoulders and round butt cheeks. Even though his cock was dripping at the tip and aching to enter her, he took the time to kiss her all over, every bit of the lovely canvas of her flesh. Then at long last, he braced himself over her and let his erection nudge at her entrance. She rose onto her knees, lifting her ass higher for him. He gripped her hips and pushed inside her heat and wetness, driving in deep with a groan. A shudder shook him at the sensation of coming home.
With every stroke, she pushed back toward him and he pressed deeper. He felt her opening, yearning to be filled, and his own overwhelming desire to take, possess, invade her—a powerful primitive urge that was nearly frightening in its force.
Her moans and whimpers made him harder, drove him more urgently. The room was quiet but for the slap of skin, the wet sounds their bodies made coming together, and his harsh grunts. As he thrust into her again and again, Jordan felt the undeniable energy passing back and forth between them. They were joined on a primitive, indefinable level beyond rational thought, into the realm of innate knowledge. As the bliss of orgasm exploded through their bodies, they were truly united into one.
When the last of the fireworks fizzled into darkness, their emotions began to untangle and retract into their respective bodies. Jordan’s eyes opened and he returned to consciousness after traveling a universe away from his body. He was sprawled on top of Lauren’s back. Easing out of her, he lay beside her, still drawing
a long, deep breath.
He looked at the beautiful woman lying next to him. Her skin was rosy with exertion, a sheen of sweat making her body glisten. Her hair tumbled in wild tangles over her shoulders and her angelic face was slack and peaceful, half-buried in the pillow. She was full of passion and mysterious dark places he wanted to explore. Knowing her emotions didn’t mean he really knew everything about her, but he’d gladly spend a long time discovering Lauren Sadler. He’d risk whatever pain the effort brought him.
He was ready to take a chance, if she was.
Chapter Six
Lauren woke with a start. Where am I? A strange bed, in a strange room with a strange man.
The events of the previous night spilled over her consciousness like the sunshine flooding through the bedroom window. She’d never meant to stay so long. She’d never meant to get this close. Even in the clear light of morning, she couldn’t deny the elemental magic of the previous night. Something very powerful had happened between her and Jordan Langley during sex, a deeper connection than she’d ever felt in her entire life with anyone.
It scared the hell out of her.
She risked a glance at the gangly body beside her, the dark head on the pillowcase. He lay face down, one arm thrown carelessly above his head, the other hanging off the edge of the bed. His tan skin contrasted with the rumpled white sheets.
She climbed out of bed carefully. She didn’t want to wake him, to face him and make small talk or plans for seeing him again which she didn’t intend to keep.
Stupid Lauren to get involved with someone connected to a case. Hooking up with him was inappropriate even if he didn’t rate on her list of suspects. Besides, she should be concentrating on a murder investigation, not her sex life. There’d be time for dating later.
When would that be? Later never comes. Just more cases.
Ignoring the harping inner voice, Lauren went to the living room and put on her smelly clothes. She’d worn them far too long and it was way past time for a change.
