Wyatt groaned. “Tease.”
“Look who’s talking. You spent ten minutes getting me hot while putting my panties back on.”
“Once we’re in the water, they’re coming back off.”
That sounded like a plan to her. “Promise?”
They stood up, and she was flush against him, his erection pressing into her, his hand on the small of her back, sending her pulse racing.
Wyatt’s eyes were dark, and a satisfied smile turned up the corner of his mouth. “I always knew there was a hell of a woman hiding behind those baggy clothes and that frown.”
His comment irritated her. Maybe because he had read her so easily, seen her desire for him. Or maybe because somehow she had come to see Wyatt as more than the office flirt, started to picture him as belonging to her. Which she couldn’t afford to do. Not when she had her son to think about. Wyatt was good for one night, nothing more, and she was going to remember that or force herself to walk away.
“Don’t get too cocky there, Maddock. I still hate you, you know.” CJ flushed as she heard her own words. That was rude, nothing but plain bad manners.
But Wyatt just laughed. “Sure you do. Whatever you need to tell yourself.”
He kissed her—a soft, gentle brush that made her feel about as big as a flea.
She rolled her eyes and sighed. No matter if she choked on it or not, she needed to apologize. “All right, I don’t hate you. I actually kind of like you.”
He didn’t gloat like she expected, or laugh hysterically. Instead, he tossed her hair out of her eyes and smiled softly, which only served to cement her opinion that he was much nicer than she’d ever realized.
Which totally sucked. Because if she wasn’t careful, she was going to wind up falling for him. Hard.
Wyatt wasn’t surprised at the edgy tone CJ had taken on. He had realized something about her tonight. That she was protecting herself from being hurt. She was attracted to him and she didn’t like it because she didn’t want to get hurt.
Her ex-husband had left some deep wounds, but Wyatt wasn’t an impatient guy. He had the time, the patience, and the easygoing personality to bring CJ around eventually so that she trusted him.
After being with her, sharing what they had, seeing how different it felt, Wyatt knew he wasn’t going to be requesting a transfer to Tampa. He was staying put and seeing where this could go with CJ, especially now that she had just admitted that she kind of liked him.
For her, that was a giant leap forward.
“I kind of like you, too. In a dress. Out of a dress. Even in your baggy-ass sweaters.”
Before she could answer, sputter, or grab his nuts in a chokehold, he kissed her, feeling his cock tighten in response. He didn’t think he’d ever get enough of CJ. He loved that there was nothing phony or overblown about CJ, that she was who she was, and he suspected he was on the verge of acting like a damn fool over her.
Tomorrow anyway, when CJ wanted to stick to their original agreement and he had to explain that he wanted to be with her. That was a conversation he wasn’t looking forward to.
But tonight they were in sync.
Breaking the kiss, he reached for the sliding glass door that led to his patio. He had chosen this unit because it was on the corner of the building, and the high brick walls made the small patio completely private.
“The lid’s already off, and the water’s nice and hot, but it’s going to be cold when we step outside.”
She rolled her eyes. “No kidding. It’s December and I noticed the foot of snow on my way over here.”
Here he was trying to be considerate, and she was being a smart-ass. Opening the door, he grabbed her by the arm and gave her a friendly, helpful nudge outside. Right through a large snowdrift.
“Shit!” CJ bounced out of the snow pile, which had gone past her ankles, and hopped over to the hot tub, her mouth drawn down in a wince. “Maddock, that is not funny!”
The bouncing did really great things to her breasts, and Wyatt watched from the doorway in horny amusement. “Hey, you were the one who got all smart about it. I was trying to be nice.”
CJ had bent over in front of the hot tub, brushing snow off her foot. Goose bumps raced over Wyatt as he stood in the open doorway and thirty-degree Chicago winds pummeled him. He needed to get in the hot tub before he froze his nuts off, but he was a little nervous CJ might try to drown him.
She turned right as he strode toward her, risking her wrath in pursuit of hot water. Her arm moved and then a big, wet ball of slushy snow slapped him in the chest. It was so cold it stung, sliding down toward his stomach as he let out a strangled groan. “Dammit, White.”
CJ had already climbed into the water and was submerged to her chin, grinning at him. “You can dish it out, but you can’t take it, huh?”
He could take it. Oh, yeah, he could take it. Wyatt jumped over the side and into the water, sending a wave flooding in her direction.
Water crashed over her face and CJ rubbed at her eyes. “Geez, you’re like a tank dropping into the water.”
That didn’t sound like a compliment. “Watch out, I might roll you over.”
Wyatt pinned her against the wall and surrounded her with his arms. Her face was pink, water droplets running down her cheeks, her bangs flat on her forehead. As she breathed, her hot breath turned to steam in the cold winter air, and Wyatt was blown away by how beautiful she was.
The bubbles from the jets floated between them and CJ braced her hands on his chest. “You don’t scare me.”
“No? Because you scare me.” He kissed her chin, the corner of her mouth, tasted the coolness of her skin, nudged his thighs between hers.
“How do I scare you?”
Her head tilted to allow him access to her neck, and Wyatt bent over her, groaning when he saw her breasts break the surface of the water, the black lace clinging to her curvy flesh, pink nipples straining against the sheer fabric. “It scares me that I want you so much.”
CJ paused, and then her fingers started to roam lower, from his chest to his stomach. “You don’t need to be scared of that. Just take me.”
There was an idea. A damn good idea. He reached under the water and ditched his boxers. He let them go and they floated to the surface. CJ’s breath hitched.
“Your boxers fell off.”
“Damn jets.”
Reaching around her back, he unhooked her bra. “Oops. It knocked your bra off, too.”
She gave him a look.
“What?” He watched the bra float to the left, caught in a jet propulsion. Her creamy pink breasts looked so wet and round, and he wanted to eat her nipple, just suck it until she came.
He was bending over to do that when her hand closed over his cock. “I like the Christmas lights hung around the patio wall,” she said.
Wyatt froze in place. His near brush with death by electrocution was forgotten as her light fingers stroked over him under the water.
His response was a cross between a grunt and a roar. He sounded like a sleeping lion being nudged awake. It might have been embarrassing except that CJ’s hand moved up and down, slowly, giving him a little squeeze now and again. Embarrassment fell far behind delirious pleasure.
“It looks very cheerful, romantic,” she went on casually, like she had no idea she was giving him a hand job. “Thank you for going to so much trouble tonight. This wasn’t what I expected.”
He was having a little trouble thinking clearly. Her breasts were bumping into him, all warm and wet and round, and her mouth was right in front of him, dewy and plump from his kisses, her damp hair clinging to her rosy cheeks. Her hand moved over and over, squeezing the head of his cock and ducking low to cup his balls.
Though he wanted nothing more than to just explode under her touch, he saw an opportunity to clear the air between them. “CJ, I only sleep with about ten percent of the women I date, and I never bring them back to my place. The only female in this hot tub before you was my three-year-old niece.”
Her hand stilled. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I’m attracted to you, yes. But I also really like you, and I don’t want this to be just one night.”
Before she could protest, he took advantage of her confusion and sat down on the bench next to her and pulled her toward him. Catching the underside of her breast with his mouth, and giving her little nibbles, he reached through the bubbles and tugged her panties down to her knees.
“Wyatt ...”
He could hear her saying no in that word, feel her reluctance to believe or accept that they could be anything beyond frigid coworkers or have more than this night together. He never would have imagined he would be determined to talk CJ into his bed and life on a permanent basis, but then he’d never seen the reality TV invasion coming, either.
“The jets knocked your panties off, too.”
Through the hot water, he eased his hand between her thighs and stroked across the front of her pubic hair, cupping her mound and enjoying her little lurch forward. Wyatt didn’t have all the answers. He couldn’t predict how a relationship with CJ might turn out, but he did know he wanted to try. She fascinated him, with her honest stare and her simple, no-frills attitude.
“I’ll never ask you to wear a dress again.” Wyatt slid his thumb inside her and turned it a little.
“Oooh,” she said, grabbing his arms, as her body happily responded. “Can we talk about this later?”
Much later, she figured, when the postcoital lust had worn off, and Wyatt remembered that they had yet to go a day without an argument of some kind. Or at least major eye rolling on her part. When she somehow found a way to tell him thanks, but no thanks, she could not ask her mother to babysit for her every other night so she could dash off and play hide the salami with him until he got his transfer.
Or the fact that she’d never quite gotten around to mentioning that she had a child.
Yep, all that could wait. Because this was her one night, her one chance, and she wanted to wring every last drop of pleasure out of it while she still could, since starting tomorrow she was back to boring underwear and baggy sweaters. Given that reality, there was no telling when she might have another crack at a guy like Wyatt, if ever, before the wrinkles took over and her butt started to droop.
“I’ll hold you to that,” he said, as his foot stepped on her panties, still caught around each ankle.
While he held the panties in place on the bottom of the hot tub, she lifted her feet out, losing her balance a little as the force of the propelling water rocked her forward. Wyatt pulled her to him, and with no instructions whatsoever from her, her legs spread and wrapped around his waist, until she was cuddled up in his lap. In hot water.
“CJ, I have to get a condom,” he said, his hands holding her still, slightly away from his erection, his voice low and tight.
“You should have thought of that before we got in,” she teased, sucking on his bottom lip, feeling really damn naughty and not about to give him up even for the two minutes it would take to grab some latex. Not when she’d had her tubes tied three years ago at her ex-husband’s insistence.
Sneaking between their wet bodies with her thumb, she stroked him. He moaned and started to nudge her backward away from him. CJ clamped her legs around him tighter.
“Knock it off, White.”
“What?” she said, rubbing her nipples against his chest. She closed her whole hand over him and guided her body to his erection.
“CJ!” he let out an alarmed squawk and tried to scoot back. The hot tub wall stopped him.
She sank onto him, allowing herself to moan her gratification loudly, not hold anything back. Wyatt without a condom was beyond anything a reasonable woman could expect to endure for more than thirty seconds without coming.
“CJ, don’t, shit, stop... .” He tried to push her away, his eyes closed, his lips clamped together in two tight lines.
“Wyatt, we don’t need a condom. I can’t get pregnant.” She didn’t want to get more specific right then.
As she moved up and down, savoring the feel of him, resting her head against his shoulder, he relaxed a little.
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
He had stopped fighting her, and she moved on him faster, breath hitching. Then without warning, Wyatt responded, giving in, thrusting up inside her so deep she sucked in air hard and gripped his shoulders, feeling every inch of him pulsing in her. The hot water lapped around them and the frigid December air bit across her cheeks. Steam rose between them and CJ watched his face as Wyatt took over, setting a rhythm, pounding into her, holding on to her waist with tight, possessive hands.
His brown eyes had darkened, and his straight teeth were clenched. He rocked her, he held her, and she felt so alive, so in tune with him, fantastically indulged and wickedly sexual. A woman with a man who wanted her, and the feel of him without the condom stroked her sensitive body, reached deep inside her and splintered her with pleasure until she thought she couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Wyatt, oh, yes, don’t stop... .” CJ didn’t even know what she was begging for, since he didn’t look to have plans to halt anytime soon.
“You’re so hot, so incredible,” he murmured.
CJ knew she was rushing to an orgasm, felt it building deep inside, felt her hips fall slack, her stomach muscles coil, her head loll back. “Harder,” she said, wanting to take all of him, to know that he was strong enough and man enough to understand her and what she wanted.
Some men stared right through her, seeing only the plain hair and shapeless clothes. Others backed down, intimidated by her job or her abrasive manners or her straightforward, no-bullshit attitude. Only Wyatt had figured out a way around her defense wall. Only Wyatt saw inside her, sensed her vulnerability.
Wyatt gave her what she asked for, lifting so hard into her she almost fell over backward. Their thighs slapped together, his grip so tight her skin pinched, her nipples boring into his chest. Their breath mingled together in the cold air, desperate little pants, CJ unable to even moan as he claimed her over and over again.
When she came, raking at his chest, shivering and moaning, her body clamping down on him, Wyatt gave a little laugh of triumph.
“Damn, baby, that’s right. Keep going.”
CJ locked eyes with him, let him see the pleasure on her face, let him read the freedom she felt with him. The small smile slid off his face.
“Oh, shit,” he said, and stopped thrusting, pulsing into her as he came on the heels of her orgasm.
Squeezing her inner muscles tightly over him, she watched his mouth fall open, his eyes drift shut, his breath coming in little strained, frantic groans. His chin sank down as he rode the last waves of pleasure and CJ sighed in contentment.
Resting her forehead on his warm shoulder, his chest hair tickling her, she said, “Hey.”
“Hey, yourself.”
The bubbles swirled in the water around them, and when CJ glanced up, she saw the stars in the midnight-blue winter sky. His hold had loosened on her, and he shifted her off of him, settling her into his lap, holding her close. It had been such a long time since anyone had held her, since she hadn’t had to be the strong one. Her body was relaxed, satiated, and so was her soul.
“I don’t want just one night, CJ.”
That was the second time he’d said that. The first she had attributed to preorgasmic lust, and not to be taken seriously. This could be postorgasmic contentment, or he could just actually mean it. Damn, she really hoped not. Because she just might be tempted to give in, and that would be a gigantic mistake. This wasn’t like eating a whole bag of chocolate kisses, which was regrettable—a sign of weakness and an overindulgence—but easily eradicated through a five-mile jog. Once she let Wyatt in, she wasn’t going to be able to get rid of him so easily.
He kissed the top of her head. Her breath quickened and her heart melted like same-said chocolate in the microwave on high. Dammit, she’d
already let him in.
“Sorry, that wasn’t part of the deal,” she said in a mean little voice that shocked even her.
Wyatt stiffened. “You’re trying to tell me, sitting here naked and thoroughly fucked in my hot tub, that you don’t want me?”
CJ felt her cheeks burn. “There’s wanting you and then there’s wanting you. I want you but I don’t want you.”
He snorted. “Oh, well, thanks, that cleared it up.”
“You tell me what you mean. What do you want beyond one night? Another night of sex? And another? An affair, is that what you want?” She lifted her head off his shoulder and stared out at his fence, not at all sure she wanted to hear his answer.
“No, I don’t want an affair, though I do want another night of sex, and another. I want to date you, be together, for God’s sake. Is that so hard for you to grasp?”
Actually, it was. Her anger dissipated. “Wyatt, you just want me because you think you can’t have me. I’ve been a bitch to you for months and it drives you nuts.”
“I’m not going to dispute that you’ve been a bitch.” He nudged her with his knee and gave her a smile. “But I think you’ve got me all wrong, CJ. You know, I date women, I enjoy their company, we talk, I have a good time. But none of them ever ties me up in knots and makes me want to string up Christmas lights. You do that. I feel different about you.”
“You strung these lights up for me?” She suddenly felt very small, but very happy, cozy in his arms. She couldn’t imagine feeling this contentment with any of the men who had asked her out since her divorce. But that didn’t mean she was ready to give it a go with Wyatt, not when she had Sam to think about.
“Yeah, I thought it would be romantic. Didn’t do it for my damn health, that’s for sure. I may know my way around the firing range, but I don’t know shit about Christmas decorations. Nearly killed myself twice.”
She smiled against his chest, his damp hair tickling her nose as they hovered in the water together. “I’m glad you didn’t kill yourself. And I don’t know anything about Christmas decorations, either. I leave that to my mom.” Staring up at his scratchy chin, she warned him, “I don’t know how to be romantic. To me, you show someone you care by getting the oil changed in their car.”
Bad Boys In Black Tie Page 14
