A Dangerously Sexy Affair

by Stefanie London

  “Your needs never come second.” He pulled her closer. The heat their bodies generated could have burned the building to the ground.

  “And I care about you, too,” she whispered into his ear. “But don’t tell anyone because you’ll ruin my rep.”

  “It’s our little secret.”

  “Good.” Rocking back, she climbed off his lap and held a hand out to him like he’d done earlier. “Come on. Time’s ticking.”

  “Wait.” He couldn’t let things progress further until everything was out in the open. Quinn’s trust meant too much to him.

  “What is it?” She withdrew her hand and toyed with the ends of her hair.

  “I don’t want there to be any lies between us.” He raked a hand through his hair. “I think there’s a chance Alana is involved in the leak.”

  The color drained from her face. “Go on.”

  “I found a connection between her and the intern...and Christopher. It’s not much, but I have to listen to my gut on this one, Quinn.” He stood and walked toward her, listing the details of what he’d found so that she had the whole picture. “Did you have any idea she might be involved?”

  “I found out today,” she said, her eyes trained on a spot in the distance. “In the meeting we had with Rhys, you mentioned Christopher had emailed himself the game designs for “Galactic Warrior.” And I remembered Alana mentioning she’d received exclusive details about that game. I called her afterward and she confirmed Christopher had leaked the information to her. But I don’t think she has anything to do with the engine. She doesn’t want to make money selling corporate secrets...everything she does is about improving the gaming industry, not exploiting it.”

  “Were you going to tell me any of this?”

  Her teeth sank into her lower lip. “I wanted to find proof first that Alana wasn’t connected to the engine leak. I wasn’t sure you’d believe me, and I was trying to protect my friend... I’m sorry.” She reached out and slipped her hand into his, the gentle touch soothing him where her words had cut. “You don’t believe she’s responsible, do you?””

  15

  COLD FEAR CLUTCHED at Quinn’s chest while he stood there, silent and still. She could only hope that Aiden believed her, that he trusted her enough to follow her lead. Intertwining her fingers with his, she squeezed his hand.

  “Please, give me a little more time. I’ll prove it’s not her.”

  He closed his eyes for a moment. “You don’t keep anything from me, not ever again.”

  “I promise.” She willed him to look at her. “I’ll tell you every single thing I do. I’ll give you every teeny-tiny detail about my day and I won’t spare any anything at all.”

  “There’s no need to be a smart-ass, you know.” He squeezed her hand back and tugged her into his chest.

  “But it’s what I do best.” She reached up and grabbed his face, forcing his eyes to hers again. “Will you stay tonight?”

  “Try and stop me.”

  He kissed her and all the tension flowed out of her body. The relief that coursed through her was new. And terrifying.

  But she knew one thing for certain: she never wanted to keep anything from Aiden ever again.

  They shed their clothes in a flurry, leaving a trail from the couch to the bed. Groping along the wall, she searched for the light switch and plunged them into darkness a second later.

  “Don’t you want to see my ugly mug?” he asked, hands guiding her back to the bed.

  “I just want to feel you.” Her calves hit the mattress and she folded, dropping down and pulling him with her.

  The heavy weight of him on top of her was reassuring, like a hot shower and blankets and her favorite slippers. But the moment he pressed his thigh between her legs, all she could see was white light behind her eyelids. Maybe this was what it felt like to connect with someone? To love someone?

  The word stopped her dead in her tracks and she froze beneath him. Love? She didn’t love Aiden. She couldn’t....could she? He wasn’t like the other guys who’d used her and tried to hurt her. She’d already admitted that.

  And God did he have a way with his hands. But love?

  “You just about leaped off the bed then.” His breath was hot at her cheek, his lips searing a line along her jaw.

  “I’m fine.”

  He pressed up on his hands, the bed moving as he shifted his weight. Moonlight danced along his skin, the slatted blinds making a stripy pattern across the bed. Outside, rain fell, and it pattered softly against the window.

  She blinked, trying to get her eyes to adjust to the dark.

  “You’re in bed with me, Quinn. I don’t want you to feel fine. I want you to feel fan-fucking-tastic.”

  There wasn’t a shred of doubt in her mind that when it came to the physical, he’d make her body soar, unbound and uninhibited. But her heart...no. She wasn’t ready for that.

  “Then do it,” she whispered.

  His hand crept up the side of her body one rib at a time until he cupped her breast in his palm. The gentle brush of his thumb over her beaded nipple was enough to blank her mind to the confusion warring inside. Feel, not think. That was her motto for tonight.

  “More,” she demanded.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  He scraped his teeth along her breast, catching on her nipple before he drew it into his mouth. Yes, this is what she needed. Arching her back, she pressed into him, wrapping her legs around his waist and rubbing against him.

  His tongue flicked over the swollen bud again and again, each movement shooting heat down between her legs. Her sex clenched, and a fluttering started low in her belly. The sound of rain-slicked tires rushing over asphalt mingled with his throaty growl at her breast.

  She dragged her nails up his back and was rewarded with a groan. “You like that?”

  “What?” His chuckle sounded in the darkness. “Having a gorgeous, sexy woman underneath me who’s thrashing around like a tiger? Hell, yeah, I like it.”

  Feeling bold in the safety of the dark, she threaded her hands into his and pushed him down. “I’ll thrash a little harder if you keep going south.”

  “And do what?” Each word was rough and filled with the promise of intense pleasure.

  “You know what to do.”

  “Tell me.” His tongue swiped over her hip bone and he nudged her legs apart with his shoulders. “You want this?”

  The warm air of his breath hit the center of her sex and she gasped. “More than that.”

  A finger trailed over the curve of her hip then skated up and down the lips of her sex. “This?”

  “More, Aiden.” Her back arched off the bed and she wriggled in frustration.

  “I’m not a mind reader.” He parted her with his fingers and stopped, awaiting her instruction.

  “Please.”

  The tip of his finger circled the entrance to her sex, pushing inside just enough to make her breath catch, but leaving her wanting so much more.

  “Say it.”

  “I want you to make me come with your mouth.” The words caused her brain to spark like metal on metal, lighting up the parts of her she’d buried long ago. The confident girl who loved sex, who knew what she wanted in bed and wasn’t afraid to ask for it. She’d been that woman once and she could be her again. “Go down on me.”

  “With pleasure.”

  The sound of her cries filled the air as he lapped at her, circling her clit with his tongue and sucking at her flesh until the tremors caused her thighs to quake.

  “You’re so wet,” he moaned as he pressed a finger inside her, curling it to rub against the sensitive spot inside. “So tight and hot and...”

  The rest of his words faded into nothing as the first wave of her orgasm hit, rippling through her body l
ike shimmering fire. Her hands clutched at the duvet, scrunching it in her fists as she pushed her hips against his face, not caring about anything but taking every last drop of pleasure.

  She didn’t have time to come down very far, because the second she’d stopped shuddering the sound of foil tearing cut through the air. A moment later he was buried deep inside her. There was nothing sweet and tender about their lovemaking. It was raw. Needy. Desperate.

  He held her close as he slammed into her while he lost himself. He moaned incoherent pleasure sounds low in her ear, her name falling from his lips over and over. Like a chant, a prayer to some higher power.

  With her legs wrapped around his waist, she dug her heels into his ass and urged him on. Sweat beaded on her skin, the scent of sex and man a toxic potion for her senses. Then they were falling together, shuddering and clinging to one another until it ended.

  A powerful calm washed over her as he wrapped his arms around her and rolled them both until he was on his back. He called her name one last time as he rode his pleasure out.

  With their heaving chests pressed together, she could feel how close their hearts beat. This was what connection was about, the closeness. The deep, soul-level satisfaction.

  Maybe she was ready for more.

  * * *

  AIDEN WOKE AS the first beam of light pushed through the slats on Quinn’s blinds. Her back was pressed against his chest, and her ass was cradled in his crotch. The sound of her breathing filled the air, deep and calm. She’d told him that she never slept through the night, but here, in his arms, she was dead to the world.

  He brushed the hair away from her face and watched as her eyelids flickered. She was dreaming. And from the gentle tilt of her mouth it looked as if she was enjoying it.

  Moving slowly, he extracted himself from her bed and pulled the sheet up over her. A contented sigh escaped her lips, and she shifted but didn’t wake. He raked a hand through his hair and stood in the middle of her apartment, his eyes sweeping over the tiny kitchen and single couch.

  He had a one-on-one performance meeting with Rhys today and he had to think about what he was going to say. He’d promised to keep Alana out of it for the time being. But he’d known doing that would make it look as though he hadn’t made any progress with the assignment.

  How do you get yourself into these shitty situations?

  Tiptoeing around, he located his clothes and dressed with the stealth of a ninja. Quinn mumbled in her sleep and turned onto her back. A light snore broke the air as she slipped into a deeper sleep. Jesus, even her snoring was adorable.

  “You’re messed up, Odell,” he muttered to himself. “You’re supposed to be getting runs on the board, not covering up your progress.”

  Grabbing a piece of paper from the notepad on her bedside table, he scrounged around for a pen and scrawled her a note telling her they’d meet up later at Third Planet Studios.

  He’d have to come up with something for Rhys, anything that could allow him to stall until he and Quinn could look at all the facts of the case and determine whether or not Alana was leaking information for profit or if someone else was to blame.

  He closed her front door behind him with a soft click. Outside the streetlights were still on, but the first haze of morning light pushed through the clouds. He walked along the street, pulling his jacket tighter around him to ward off the early-morning chill.

  The brisk fall of his footsteps broke the silence, pounding in time with the burgeoning headache at the base of his skull. Must be all those confusing thoughts he’d crammed in there like too many clothes in an overstuffed suitcase. They pressed against him, competing with one another for space. Distracting him.

  “This is why relationships can’t be your first priority,” he mumbled. A relationship? Is that what he had with Quinn?

  Last night he’d come across important information in the assignment, but instead of doing his job, he’d spent the night making love to Quinn. Making love...he never referred to sex like that. It was a term for relationships and sappy Hallmark movies, for people who believed in soul mates and happily-ever-afters.

  But what he had with Quinn was more than just a physical connection—despite sex with her being hot enough to blow his socks off. Last night when he’d found her cornered by Zach...

  Shit.

  Before he could contemplate that can of worms his phone rang.

  “Hello?”

  “Son?” His father’s voice came down the line without any of its usual hard-edged formality.

  And since when did the old man call him son?

  “Dad? What’s wrong?” He glanced at his watch. “Has something happened to Mom?”

  “She’s fine.” He paused for a long moment. “Everyone’s fine. I just...can’t a father call his son to talk?”

  Aiden slowed as the entrance to the subway appeared up ahead. “What’s going on?”

  “I want to apologize.” His father sighed and suddenly sounded as though a hundred years old instead of his usually energetic sixty-two.

  “For...?”

  “For pushing you into a new job after...the accident.” The whirr of his father’s coffee machine sounded in the background. “I wasn’t able to deal with the fact that you could have died. So I tried to make everything normal. I figured if you were in a new job, working, that you were okay and we could forget what happened.”

  Aidan blinked. “You did?”

  “We almost lost you.” His father’s voice cracked. “I pushed you into that position because you were safe behind a desk. I wanted you to be somewhere that didn’t put you in the line of fire.”

  “You never told me you were afraid for me.”

  “Of course I was. You’re my son, my flesh and blood. I was terrified.” He sucked in a breath. “And then when you told me you were going to work for Logan, I thought there was a chance it might happen again.”

  “That why you didn’t want me to leave the FBI.” He shook his head, unsure where this was all coming from. Unsure how he could have been so wrong about his father’s intentions.

  “I should have said something, but you know I’m horrible at expressing myself.” His voice had started to return to normal, showing the good old-fashioned Odell strength. “Your mother says I’m less communicative than a cactus.”

  His lips twitched as he imagined his mother lecturing his father. “Why did you bring it up now?”

  “You remember Daniel Mollino?”

  He mentally flipped through faces and names until something stuck. Big mustache. Their next-door neighbor from years ago. “Yeah, he had three sons. His wife was the lady with the red hair who used to have lunch with Mom.”

  “He only has two sons now.”

  “Oh.”

  “We’re going to Benjamin’s funeral today.” The glug-glug sound of pouring liquid rang through the phone. His father didn’t drink a lot of coffee unless he was stressed. “Cancer. He was twenty-two.”

  He raked a hand through his hair. “Dad, I’m sorry. That’s awful.”

  “It is. But it made me think.” Pause. “It could have been me. It still could be me and... I need to be better. I need to talk. More.”

  “We all do.” As angry as he’d been at his father for pushing him, he hadn’t exactly been adamant about fixing things, either.

  “Well, that’s all I had to say.” His father was now completely in control again. “I should go.”

  “Thanks, Dad. I appreciate the call.”

  “Goodbye...son.”

  Aiden disconnected the call and stood in the early-morning light, rooted to the ground. He’d never expected his father to come to him. In all the years they’d been a family, he hadn’t made the first move for anyone. And when his father had given him the cold shoulder after he’d left the FBI, Aiden had assumed
it was because his father didn’t believe he could make his own decisions. In reality, he’d simply been a scared parent.

  Would his father be proud of him now?

  Proud of you going into work to lie to your boss? To delay closing a case and possibly risk more information coming out simply because someone batted their eyelashes at you?

  No, his father would not be proud of that. Work had always come first, and integrity to the job was valued above all else. Indecision clawed at Aiden’s insides like a beast. He wanted to do the right thing by Quinn, but she was asking him to shirk his duty.

  By the time he made it to the Cobalt & Dane office, no answer had presented itself. It had been easy to make promises to Quinn in the cozy cocoon of her apartment. He would have said anything to soothe the fear and hurt she’d carried with her.

  And if Zach had hurt her, he would never have forgiven himself. Seeing her huddled in that corner, trembling like a leaf, had done crazy things to his insides. It had made him forget all about the assignment, about his career and all the things he thought he cared about. That wasn’t sex. That wasn’t chemistry or attraction.

  He loved her.

  And now the only woman he’d ever loved wanted him to blow his career and lie to their boss.

  16

  QUINN WOKE AND stretched her arm out across the bed, her fingers searching for something. Warm flesh, an embrace. Aiden.

  But the bed was cold. She sat up with a start. Given how small her apartment was, it was obvious he’d already left. Why was it that she seemed to sleep like a damned log whenever he was with her?

  She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood, stretching her arms in the air and relishing the bone-deep ache in her limbs.

  But doubts skittered across her mind, chasing away the comforting haze of sleep.

  Why had he left without waking her, and where had he gone?

  “You’re not his keeper,” she muttered to herself as she wandered over to the bathroom, psyching herself up to shower and face the day.

  There were too many unknowns at the moment; too many ways that things could go bad. She’d become far more attached to Aiden than she’d planned, and now she was asking him to trust her. This whole thing with Alana was a goddamn mess.