by Low, Gennita
Jaymee looked up. His smile made her feel even giddier as she tried to catch her breath. God, he looked good enough to eat. She took in the white cotton shirt and khaki pants, which set off his tan to perfection. The top few buttons were left undone, revealing curling hair. She wanted to bury her nose in that chest and breathe in the warm musky masculine scent that seemed to make her think indecent thoughts. With sudden dismay, she realized she still hadn’t changed from her day at work. Who would get turned on at the sight of her in tarred-up work clothes, still sweaty from the day, so totally unappealing?
Unlocking the back door, she flipped on the light switch, knowing her father would still be at one of his friends’. She sighed at the pile of dishes in the sink and bent down to pick up scattered newspapers by the kitchen table.
“Sorry, the place is a mess. I should’ve come home earlier to straighten up.”
“Stop apologizing.” Nick saw the shadows under her eyes, noticed the quick roll of her shoulders in an attempt to relax. He didn’t like her overworking like this. “Look, I can do this without you in the study. If you trust me not to steal your silverware, why don’t you go and take a shower or a bath? It’ll take me an hour or so to transfer your files and play around with your programs, and that’ll give you time for a good soak.”
“You don’t mind?” A hot soak sounded so good. “I mean, you won’t think I’m rude not to...”
“Go,” he ordered, giving her a slight push. “If I need you, I’ll find you.”
Jaymee didn’t need more persuasion. A hot soak. As in bubble bath. Heaven. She didn’t even look back as she went off.
Nick wistfully looked after her as she went off. That little ass out of her tight lycra pants. The sudden image of Jaymee in a bathtub wasn’t going to make the next hour comfortable at all. Ruefully, he looked down at his predicament.
“Down, boyo,” he softly muttered, “or I’m going to have to reprogram you.”
He decided to get his business done first before transferring Jaymee’s files from the old computer to the new. That way, if she joined him after her bath, he’d be finished. Within minutes of connecting, he was in, and he navigated through the high-tech daily changes in the protective links that his agency used to confound the usual breed of hackers. Scanning through, he found what he needed; the right person had recognized his communication.
He printed out the jumbled, coded puzzle, deciphering the message, which read: SITUATION RED. ASSESS. F2F. COORDINATES. He had already expected the warning of danger, but the caution to remain dead, as well as to evaluate the situation was a double warning to be careful. Interesting. He considered for a moment, then relayed another coded encryption. If he had to look out for a “face-to-face,” that meant serious trouble. Trust no one.
A triple warning, he amended. Hesitating, he tried to decide whether to reveal he didn’t escape the boat without first taking care of business, that he had the assignment in his possession. He’d been in the process of decoding its secrets when he’d sensed something was wrong. Since his escape, he hadn’t had a chance to continue his work without a computer. He had never turned over an unfinished assignment. He signed off without adding anything further to the message.
All he could do now was wait.
*
Ahhhhhh.
This was definitely what she needed. Jaymee sank deeper into the steaming water, blowing bubbles that landed on her nose. She had washed her hair while waiting for the tub to fill up. It felt so good to be clean and soft. She needed to do this more often.
She promised herself she’d take a few hours off a week for rest, for personal well-being. Besides, Mindy’s party was coming up and she needed to spend a few hours to make herself human again, so she could face all the friends attending the bash. She smiled, wondering whether she’d remember how to enjoy herself at a party. She hadn’t gone out in a long time, what with her having to stay out later ever since she had to work shorthanded, and on top of that, spending all available time as well as weekends trying to get everything accomplished within her crazy self-imposed schedule. However, even she had to admit she couldn’t burn the candle at both ends indefinitely. Her yawn was huge. Even Superwoman needed to recharge her batteries sometime. The hypnotic effect of gently lapping water had her half-dreaming as the bubbles popped quietly.
She didn’t know how long she floated in the hot water, but the sudden jolt of pain up her left leg shocked her to wakefulness. She gasped loudly and the violent jerk of her body created a wave that splashed onto her face and into her mouth, causing a fit of coughing as she choked out a scream when she tried to move.
The pain was horrendous. Hot tears spurted out as she struggled to stand up, but her left leg was totally useless, knotting tighter and tighter until she had to kneel on her right knee for balance. She leaned out of the tub, her wet hair dripping water all over the tile floor as pain repeatedly pounded up her injured leg. She tried to stand again. And gasped out a few choice words. Someone was pounding at the door. It became more insistent as she held onto the tub’s rim.
“Jaymee?” Nick called from the other side of the bathroom door. “I heard you scream. Are you all right?”
Using her elbows, she somehow managed to lift herself up high enough to sit on the side of the tub. “Yes,” she choked out, then gasped in agony as the cramp worsened.
The door flew open without warning and Nick’s large frame was suddenly in front of her. Squatting down, he held her by the shoulders.
“What’s wrong?” he asked brusquely.
Through the haze of pain, she stared at Nick’s face, then realized she was sitting there naked.
“Get out!”
She tried to squirm out of his hold, desperately reaching for the towel hanging nearby. However, the floor was too slippery and she lost her balance. She cried out when she tried put weight on her leg.
Silently, Nick easily gathered her up, one arm under her knees, the other around her shoulders, and carried her out of the bathroom into her bedroom. Jaymee couldn’t even protest as she held onto the knotted muscle with both hands. He lay her down on her bed.
“Don’t move,” he tersely ordered, and disappeared back into the bathroom. He returned with a towel and swore softly at the sight of her trying to pull the tucked bed sheets loose to cover herself.
“You’re just going to hurt yourself doing that,” he told her, then sat down right beside her naked body.
“Don’t!” Jaymee weakly tried to fight off the big fluffy towel rubbing her body. She didn’t actually object to the towel. It was the pair of hands rubbing her dry that was cause for alarm. She couldn’t believe she was actually lying on her bed with his hands on her. She’d fantasized about that, without the agony of a cramp. It was too frighteningly like her fantasies, and she struggled more earnestly, understanding with sudden clarity her own danger.
Nick sighed and took the only option left to get her to stop. He stretched his long length on top of her, using his weight to quiet her struggles. Her body felt temptingly soft.
“Be still,” he told her softly.
As if she had a choice. Her thigh still throbbing, Jaymee glared up at him, torn between embarrassment and pain. “Get off me, Nick,” she said. She might be in pain, but she hadn’t lost her sense of self-preservation yet.
“Which leg cramped up?” he asked, ignoring her demand. “You were squirming so much I couldn’t see for sure.”
“I’m feeling better now,” she lied, then gasped aloud when he calmly tested one thigh by putting pressure on it with his knee. It was a lucky guess. “You bastard!”
“You won’t tell me.”
“I didn’t want to!” she yelled.
“Too bad.” He got up on one hand, pulling the scrunched up towel across her body. “There, almost decent. Let me see you move your leg.”
Did he know what he looked like from her position? Jaymee stared at him as she lay on her bed, naked except for a wet towel on top of her body. He was half-
on and half-off her, the front of his shirt and pants wet. A very warm hand lay on her injured thigh. A long moment passed.
“Don’t look at me like that, darling,” he drawled. “Move your leg, Jaymee.”
She tried, and bit down on her lip at the immediate spasm that followed. He nodded, his hand pressing down on the knot.
“A pulled muscle. I’ll take care of it.”
Looking around, he saw the bottle of body lotion on her bedside table, and leaned across her to get it. Mesmerized, Jaymee watched him pour an indecent amount into those beautiful hands. She swallowed hard as those hands rubbed together.
“You aren’t going to do it,” she announced, panicking.
“It isn’t going to hurt, babe,” Nick told her, and two slick hands were kneading down on her thigh, his thumbs pressing and massaging the sore spot.
She cried out something incoherent. Did he say it wouldn’t hurt? So why did her body feel like one giant cramp?
“Relax, or I’ll have to massage your whole body.”
He was teasing her, but the thought of those hands doing similar things to the rest of her made her insides flip somersaults. She eyed him with the keen knowledge of a cornered prey. He had her trapped and the glint in his eye told her he was very aware of it. Her mind worked feverishly, trying to see a way out. Even if her leg had allowed it, she couldn’t jump up and run off with just a towel clutched to her front. She couldn’t see herself screaming in maidenly despair; she wouldn’t know how. She could just quietly lie there, like an animal playing dead, pretending his fingers weren’t sliding up and down her thigh. She could, if her blood wasn’t boiling over from the suggestive up and down motion. His laughter brought her attention back to him.
“What’s so funny?” she asked.
“You. You’re so transparent, Jaymee darling. Right now you’re busy trying to find a safe subject to talk about, as you always do when you panic.”
Was she so easy to read? Annoyance replaced embarrassment as she pulled the towel a little higher, then realized only gave him more view of her thighs. Keep talking, she thought. “What’s wrong with that?”
“OK, let’s do it your way. We won’t talk about my hands on your thigh. Let’s talk about your breasts.”
Jaymee squeezed her eyes tightly shut, refusing to look any longer into those laughing wolf eyes. That made things worse, since now his roving fingers were all she could feel.
Without her sight, she caught the change in the tone of his voice. “You have beautiful large nipples. Rosy pink, like seashells. I want to....” Jaymee started to tremble and covered her ears with her hands, trying to keep the sex voice out. She didn’t want to see. She didn’t want to hear. He wasn’t going to get to her. His muffled voice came through her cupped hands. “All right, we’ll change the subject.”
His hands paused and lifted from her body. Jaymee sighed with relief. Maybe he was done. Maybe...she shrieked as a hot, wet tongue traveled up where the hand was a moment ago. Her eyes flew open, her hands dropped from her ears, and she scooted high up her bed to escape. The hot, wet tongue followed, and the world suddenly exploded into shadows and sound. She kicked at him with her good leg, giving him the opening he wanted, and she found herself under siege as a slow invasion began.
She fought. How she fought. She tried to buck him off and found herself arching into his deepening kiss. She tried to push off with her one free leg and a strong hand held her down, easily gaining more access. The siege was gaining higher ground. She took tufts of his hair in her hands, but just as she was about to yank hard, he found her vulnerable bud. His tongue slid over it, going in lazy circles.
Jaymee forgot to breathe. She forgot about her hands holding his dark hair like reins. An incoming tide of desire overwhelmed everything else. There was, simply, no escape from his tongue. He kissed her intimately, sexually, giving her the same attention she had earlier envied her computer, seeking to get some answers from her as she arched toward helpless surrender.
The long drawn-out kiss from his magical tongue left her gasping his name now. She stood from some unknown height and was unwilling to make that jump. Mindlessly, she undulated against his mouth, desperately trying to tell him to stop. To hurry.
But Nick wasn’t in a hurry. He had all he wanted right there, a feast for his senses. All he could think of was the sweet taste of Jaymee Barrows and he wanted to keep on feasting. He felt her uncertainty, her fear of losing control, and he wanted to show her there was nothing to be afraid of. So he took her slowly, pulling her nearer to the edge without pushing her, savoring her with careful ardor. He finally tasted her increasing need, her urgent hands pulling his hair. She was ready.
Jaymee’s head moved from side to side as she edged closer and closer. She was in a dark, sensuous place, with only the feel of that tantalizing tongue guiding her intense longing for release. Each stroke, each lave, was pure dark magic, until...
His fingers. She’d forgotten about those long, elegant fingers.
And suddenly, it was his mouth and fingers. She whimpered when she felt them touching her, opening her. His mouth caught her throbbing desire and his fingers plunged in deep, and Jaymee fell down that cliff of unbearable pleasure, her body clenching and convulsing in a drenching climax, her hands playing with his hair.
She lay helpless, still climaxing, when he lifted his head and kissed his way up her body. With the towel long gone, his lips lingered softly against her belly, her breast, her neck, until he reached her mouth. He kissed her with the hungry need of a man who wanted a woman, a sexual twining of his tongue with hers, slanting his head one way, then another. She could taste herself on his lips, and she shivered when she felt him hard through his pants.
“Look at me.” His voice was ragged, husky. Jaymee’s breath caught at the piercing need in his eyes, blue outlines around darkened irises. “I want to take you to bed. I want to make you scream under me, holding me, while I’m inside you. I can have you now, but I won’t, because I don’t want you making excuses about what happened. I meant it when I told you I’ll give you time to get used to me, and I intend to keep my word.” He smiled that dazzling, crooked smile of his. “That doesn’t mean I won’t do it this way every night to pursue my case. I kinda like the idea.”
Her cheeks tinted prettily. “Is that what you do?” she challenged softly, her heart rate almost back to normal. “Pleasure your women until they give in?”
That sexy smile widened even more. “Whatever it takes. Wait till tomorrow.” He laughed at the look on her face, then shook his head ruefully. “I don’t think it’ll be good for my health in the long run, though. I’ll have a perpetual cramp myself.”
Jaymee couldn’t help smiling back, a naughty curl of her lips. “I could knead and massage it away.”
Nick groaned, laying his forehead against hers. “Tease.”
She licked her lips. “Nicholas, I’m afraid.”
“Let me have you, Jaymee. Let me take you to all those places you’re so afraid of.” He kissed her again, and added, “Let me be your lover.”
Jaymee sighed. How on earth had she thought she could resist this man? “For how long?” she asked, knowing the answer.
“For as long as I’m around. I’m being honest, Jaymee. I can’t promise you more.”
How could she argue against a man who was promising her honesty? “I....”
“Shhh. You aren’t required to answer me tonight. You’re tired and need to sleep.” She made a sound of protest when his weight left her body. “Sit up a minute, sweetheart.”
She allowed herself to be pulled up to a sitting position. She felt shy about her nakedness and self-consciously pushed tangled curls away from her face, gathering the heavy mass of damp hair in one of her hands. He pulled her hand away.
“No, don’t. You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to see your hair loose like this.” He splayed his fingers into the curls, arranging them around her bare shoulders. “Where’s your brush?”
�
�I can’t use a brush with hair like this. I use a hair pick.” She pointed to the dressing table, and he went to retrieve it.
“This one?” He sat back down beside her and then did something no man had ever done to her before. He combed her hair. Jaymee closed her eyes, enjoying the sensuous pull of the comb as he worked on her tangles, running through it repeatedly until her scalp could have moaned in pleasure. She could...get used to this kind of evening. “You have beautiful hair, Jaymee.”
“Bothersome,” she mumbled, too relaxed to really want to argue. “Unmanageable.”
“Beautiful,” he told her again, and gently pushed her back against the pillows. “Gypsy hair. Passionate, sexy, arousing.”
Jaymee giggled sleepily. “Passionate hair. Arousing hair. A pig with gypsy hair.”
“Pig with what?”
She stretched with artless grace, then yawned behind a hand. “As opposed to Red Riding Hood,” she explained.
She wasn’t making sense at all, but she was too sexy to sit around just for a conversation. Not when other parts of his body wanted to communicate in other, more satisfying, ways.
“Go to sleep, little pig. I’ll let myself out,” Nick said, thinking he was going to regret this decision for the rest of the night.
“Hmmm. Are you leaving me?”
“I’d better,” he replied, wryly looking down at his damp pants. If he stayed, he would definitely not keep his word.
“Yes, Dad will be home soon...”
He kissed her eyelids and they fluttered shut obediently. “Sleep,” he ordered.
She smiled, her eyes closed, as she drifted off.
“Jaymee?”
“Hmmm?”
“Where do you go after work? Before you come home?”
She stretched and sighed with pleasure when he tucked the covers over her. “Working,” she told him.
