Well, good. She was glad she wasn’t the only one aroused by their brief and chaste contact. “So, where are we going?”
Ronan glanced at her as he maneuvered out of the parking lot. “Do you like seafood?”
Raising her eyebrows, she turned to look at him. “Is that a serious question?”
Ronan shrugged. “Sure. Just because you’re raised with something, doesn’t mean you develop a liking for it. I’m not a big fan of the boiled dinner, for example.”
“Oh, I love corned beef and cabbage.”
Ronan grimaced. “I’ll be sure to let my Uncle Jack know to put you on the invitation list for dinner next St. Patrick’s Day. You can have my portion.”
“Hmm. I can’t wait.” She licked her lips. The little grunt that passed his lips told her she’d hit her mark. “Anyway, in answer to your question, yes, I love seafood, especially shellfish.”
“Good to hear because I am jonesin’ for lobster. And given the balmy night, I thought we’d go to a little place I know up in Rockport.” As he said it, she realized he was heading to Route 93 north. “If you don’t mind the drive.”
“I don’t mind. I enjoy riding in the car when I’m not the one driving. I’m like a dog that way,” she added with a laugh.
“A dog is not what comes to mind when I think of you, Cassidy.”
She laughed again. “I guess that’s good to hear. Still, if I were a dog, what kind of dog would I be, do you suppose?”
He looked at her skeptically. “Is this like a Barbara Walters interview?”
“Sure, why not? We can get to know each other by asking silly questions.”
“Okay, I’ll play along.” He hummed for a few seconds as he contemplated his answer. “I guess you’d be a poodle.”
“A poodle, why? I don’t have curly hair.”
“True, but poodles are very smart dogs.”
“Oh, I like that. They’re often pampered, too, though.”
“I wouldn’t mind pampering you if you were my poodle. In fact, I’ll amend my choice by saying that you would be a teacup poodle.” He glanced at her slyly and with enough heat in the brief gaze to make her reach for the vent and turn it to blow directly on her face.
“Really?” she choked out.
“Yup, I’d keep you curled up on my lap.” He shot her a wicked smile. Her only response was a sharp exhalation of breath. “Your turn.”
Well, Jesus, how was she going to top that little sexual innuendo? She racked her brains for a breed that fit the sexy charmer. Try as she might, though, nothing fit to her satisfaction until she thought outside the box. “You’re not a dog at all.”
“No?”
“No. You’re a cat. Not a house cat, a big cat, like a panther. Sleek and cunning and able to sneak up on your prey and pounce before they even know you’re there.”
Ronan was silent for long seconds. Finally, he cleared his throat. “I don’t think we should play this game anymore. My pants are uncomfortable as it is, frankly, and I really would like to get to Rockport in one piece. What was residency like?”
Cassidy couldn’t keep the smile off her face. She liked making a man squirm. Who knew dating could be so much fun? She took pity on him, though, and launched into the ins and outs of medical training. He listened to her, too. She could tell because he interrupted every once in a while, asking relevant questions. There was something very attractive about a man who listened.
Before she knew it, he pulled into the crushed stone parking lot of a small restaurant. It was quaint and a bit crowded, which meant the food was probably good. The hostess greeted Ronan warmly, as if he was well known to the place. So far everyone she saw with him seemed to know and like him. He was that kind of guy. The hostess found a table for them in a corner of the open veranda and handed them simple one page laminated menus.
“I’m having a two pound boiled lobster with a side of potato salad,” Ronan said without even looking at the menu. “How about you?”
Cassidy shrugged. “Sounds good to me.”
The server arrived to take their drink orders. Ronan went with beer, but Cassidy wanted a clear head, so she asked for iced tea. They ordered their food, too, as they’d already decided. Now that they were face-to-face, she felt a little awkward. Before Ronan could pick up the conversational ball, however, she decided that he’d heard enough about her and wanted to hear more about him. “Tell me about your family.”
Ronan’s expression became guarded for a second before the easy smile came back. “Not much to tell. I have one older brother and one younger one, both cops, although Finn’s badge is still shiny new.” He paused when their drinks arrived, then continued. “You may have heard that our parents were murdered eight years ago.”
Stunned at the news, Cassidy blinked back at him, trying to dredge up the social niceties that had been drilled into her by her mother. Instead, she blurted out, “That’s horrible!”
Ronan took a long swallow of beer. “Yeah, it was and it is. It’s still unsolved.”
“I would think the police would have worked overtime to find who’d killed one of their own.”
“You’d think, yeah. The thing is, my parents were barely in the ground before the rumors started that my father had been dirty and was killed when he tried to double-cross the mobsters who were paying him.”
Cassidy frowned. “On what basis was that believed?”
“Good question. You know how rumors are. No one knows where they start, or at least no one owns up to it. But they spread like wildfire, and I can’t say no one looked for the killer. They just didn’t look very hard, in my estimation.” He looked straight at her, and she could see the pain in his eyes. “Anyway, I moved back home to help raise Finn. Now that he’s all grown up, I’m free to pursue other pleasures, like having dinner with you.”
Just like that, the pain was gone and the seductiveness was back. Their dinners arrived shortly after that, and they both concentrated on cracking open their lobsters. Cassidy allowed the server to tie her plastic bib around her.
Ronan just sneered when offered his. “Lobster bibs are for wimps.”
“I don’t want to get my dress messy,” Cassidy said defensively.
Ronan dipped a piece of claw meat in the drawn butter and popped the dripping morsel into his mouth. When he’d swallowed, he said, “Messy can be fun, Cassidy.”
He slowly licked the butter off his lower lip. Her gaze followed his tongue’s journey, and her pussy pulsed in response. Okay, that was payback for her cat comment. Still, she was nothing if not competitive.
Leaning over her dinner, she pitched her voice low. “I’m not convinced. You’ll have to show me later.”
Ronan paused in the middle of cracking a second claw. His gaze scorched her from across the table. “It will be my pleasure.”
Dinner was a hurried affair. Lobster shells clattered on their plates as they tore through the barriers and picked out the meat. Each time they put buttery meat into their respective mouths, they exaggerated their movements more and more. They tried to outdo one another in sexualizing their eating, until it got so comical they laughed in between bites. As playful as it was, there was an undercurrent of strong sexual arousal.
They left the restaurant, once Ronan paid the check, holding hands. Back at the car, Ronan unlocked the door by remote and whirled Cassidy so that she was backed against her door.
His kiss came with no further warning, a fervent coupling of their lips that had been fueled by their play at dinner. His arms encircled her waist, and he pressed against her. She could feel how hard he was through the thin fabric of his slacks and her dress. She grabbed his arms and swiveled her hips to rub against him. They both groaned at the friction and used their tongues as surrogates for cock and cunt, thrusting and twining until they had to break apart or pass out from lack of breath.
“Your place or mine?” Ronan asked between gulps.
Cassidy gave a second or two of thought and went with the answer that made
her the most comfortable. “Mine, please.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Ronan whirled her around and practically shoved her into the car once he had the door open. There were no more playful interviews or questions as he raced down the highway back to Boston. He broke the silence to ask her address and merely raised his eyebrows when she gave it. He raised them again when she directed him to her two car garage, an unheard of luxury for the Back Bay.
She let them into the foyer and gasped when he grabbed her from behind and dove in for another kiss. They fumbled their way up the first two set of stairs before he brought them to a halt. “Mind if I act out a fantasy of mine?”
She looked up at him, all but breathless and hungry for more. “Go for it.”
He tugged her into her kitchen and hoisted her onto the counter of her prep island. His obvious strength sent a primitive thrill through her. No man had ever lifted her before Diego and now Ronan. But, no, she wasn’t going to think about the other man tonight. She was with Ronan, exactly who she wanted to be with at the moment. The feel of his hands heated her up, while the cool of the granite filtered through the cotton of her dress.
Ronan didn’t let her get comfortable or allow rational thought to stay in her head. He skimmed his hands up her thighs as he closed in for another kiss. The way his lips and tongue claimed her, she barely realized he had hooked his fingers in her panties and was tugging them down. She squealed in surprise when his hands returned to her hips and tipped her back. She shot her hands out behind her for balance as he trailed wet kisses down her throat. Instead of giving her aching breasts some attention, he kneeled in front of her.
With her eyelids already at half-mast, she watched him, not understanding what he was up to until he began to kiss her again. This time his lips and tongue worked their way up her inner thigh. She gasped and shuddered when he reached the sensitive taut flesh where leg met hip. Oh, God, she’d never known that tucked away spot could cause her whole body to spasm with pleasure.
Ronan grinned at her reaction, then did the same on the other side. This time when he reached the top, he looked up at her from under his lashes. There was a wicked gleam in his eyes that confirmed she’d been right. He was a cat, and she was his prey, trapped within his embrace and about to be—eaten? Good lord, his tongue laved up her slit in one long stroke. Her body convulsed, her hips thrusting up. She scrambled to grip the smooth surface of the countertop. Her arms shook with her effort to stay upright.
Slipping his arms underneath her thighs, Ronan slid her closer to the counter’s edge. His tongue ravaged her clit and the folds around it, driving her wild by constantly changing his strokes to circles and back again. He went from slow laps to fast flicks, and when his lips clasped onto her clit and sucked, she screamed with her release. With her head thrown back and her eyes shut tight, she rode the wave of climax, and still Ronan kept up his assault. She peaked again before she could even catch her breath. Her pussy clenched in a desperate need to hold onto something that wasn’t yet there, and her legs squeezed against his hold.
Unable to keep herself upright, Cassidy slid supine onto the counter, her chest heaving with the gasps that came from the strong aftershocks of her orgasm. Ronan had finally taken his mouth away. Her legs flopped down to dangle when he released them. Thank God he’d had his fill. She needed time to recover because she didn’t think she could handle coming again so soon. She was wrong.
Ronan’s cock slid into her with one fast thrust. Cassidy was coming again before he even hilted himself. Arching her back, she cried out. “Son of a bitch!”
Ronan stilled. “Too much?”
“Don’t stop!” Her cunt was delighted to have something to grasp and squeeze. “Yes,” she yelled out her encouragement and pulled him in tighter with her legs when he began to thrust.
Ronan fought to rein himself in. His hands, slick with sweat, gripped Cassidy’s thighs tight enough he was afraid he’d leave marks. His dick, happy to finally be where it had demanded to be all night, urged him to pump faster. He might have been capable of controlling himself, but the way Cassidy’s cunt sucked him in while her heels drove his ass like a pile driver gave him little choice. Holy shit, she was the most responsive women he’d ever met, coming so fast and so hard, he felt like a super lover.
And she was doing it again, the walls of her pussy closing like a vice and her whole body shaking with her orgasm. The keening cries coming from her mouth sent a shiver of excitement up his spine all on their own. He was doing this to her, making her come and come again. This was number four, or was it five? Fuck if he knew, and it snapped what little control he’d held onto.
With a final thrust balls deep inside her, he exploded. His cock jerked and pulsed its way over the crest. He pressed his body tight against hers, some primitive part of him trying to send his seed deep inside. Too bad for his lizard brain because he’d held it together mentally enough to slide a condom on before he entered her. Still, as he stood there between her legs with his eyes closed, he knew a moment of bliss and could have stayed there all night.
“This was a mistake.”
Cassidy’s words were like a punch to his gut. His eyes flew open, and he stared down at her. Despite what she’d said, she was lying against the counter with her arms outstretched and a satisfied smile on her lips.
With a slight flutter of her lids, she opened her eyes, and her smile widened as she looked up at him. “We should have done this in my bed. I’ll never be able to get up. I’m going to have to sleep here.”
Relief flooded through him as the full meaning of her words sank in. He placed a gentle kiss on the inside of her knee and was gratified when her body rippled in response. “Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll get you where you need to be, sweetheart.”
“I think you’ve already done that, thank you very much. If you can get me up to bed, however, I will be eternally grateful.”
With another quick kiss to her leg, he carefully pulled out and disposed of the condom in a nearby bathroom. He couldn’t help but notice that Cassidy had a beautiful and expensive home. Family money, obviously. It gave him a typical masculine sense of insecurity for about two seconds before he dismissed it. There was no sense in getting ahead of himself. Right now, he had a beautiful woman laid out in the kitchen like a sushi platter, who needed him to get her tucked in for the night.
Of course that train of thought stirred his cock into thinking maybe it could be tucked in for the night, too.
Knock it off.
He’d worn the woman out, and while he could easily see her rallying at some point later, he didn’t want to outwear her, or his welcome.
Returning to the kitchen, he found her right where he’d left her. With a little tugging and sliding, he managed to get her into his arms. The hand cradling her legs brushed against her soft ass and bad thoughts reared up again. No, he was sticking with the plan.
Cassidy curled up against him, her trust that he had her and would safely deliver her to her bed caused his chest to swell. He couldn’t resist the temptation to kiss the top of her head. She snuggled closer and giggled. “If I’m the dog and you’re the cat,” she said in a sleepy voice. “How come I’m the one who feels like purring?”
In way of an answer, he hugged her more tightly as he carried her up the stairs.
****
Diego wanted to smack the well-fucked look off Ronan’s face as soon as he saw it, then reminded himself that Ronan had shown more restraint the previous morning. Diego was sure he’d worn the same expression. After a night with Cassidy, what man wouldn’t? Jealousy reared up, too, and he shoved it back down. He’d been on one date with the woman and, sex notwithstanding, one date did not a relationship make.
Fortunately, the same could be said for his partner. Cassidy Barnes was a free agent, and he intended to court her as fiercely as he could. He might not be above using dirty tricks where Ronan was concerned, but he would win Cassidy over with romance and sincere desire and interest.
>
“Good morning,” he said pointedly as Ronan hadn’t yet seen him.
“Hmm? Oh, yeah, hi.” Ronan quickly hid his face behind an enormous container of iced coffee.
Yeah, motherfucker needed the caffeine boost because he hadn’t gotten a full night’s sleep. Diego shook his head at his own inability to keep the green-eyed monster locked up.
“Any news on your father’s old partner?” Best thing was to focus on work.
Ronan slurped on his coffee. Then his gaze shot to a point past Diego’s shoulder. “Here comes our answer now.”
Diego swiveled his chair around and saw a leggy redhead striding toward them. She looked like hell on wheels and, like his partner, she was sucking on a mega container of caffeine. Hers, however, was black.
“Hey,” she said to Ronan when she arrived. She turned to look at Diego. “I’m Regan Malloy.”
He stood and shook her hand. “Diego Nieves.”
“The New York transplant,” she stated simply, although the once-over she gave him made him want to stand up straighter. “I won’t hold your previous city against you given that you made the right decision to come here.” She paused. “Regardless of the reason.”
Diego tensed and waited for her to say more. She’d obviously learned about the shooting somehow, maybe by just doing an internet search. God knows his name was plastered all over the tabloids. Why she would have bothered to check was a mystery because not even Ronan seemed to care why he’d transferred.
“Family looks out for family, you know?” was all she said in further explanation.
“Is there something I’m missing?” Ronan asked.
Regan patted his shoulder patronizingly. “Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about, cousin.”
Okay, she was another Callaghan of some degree. When she didn’t say anything else, Diego sat back down.
“So,” Ronan said. “Uncle Connor?”
Regan sneered down at him. “You’re twenty-six fucking years old, Ronan. You can call him just Connor now.”
Ronan shrugged. “Habit.”
Double The Risk Page 7
