Yours To Seduce

by Karen Anders

  “Hello.”

  “Hi, Lana.”

  “Sean, I need you.”

  There was a pause at the other end of the line. She heard his intake of breath and she could imagine the heat of him, remember the way he’d touched her last night. Filled her to overflowing.

  His voice lowered and he said with a teasing note, “Tell me when and where, sweetheart, and I’ll be there.”

  The sound of his voice sent a thrill along her nerve endings.

  With amusement and a little teasing of her own, she said, “Actually, all I need right now is a ride.”

  “What kind of ride?”

  She laughed because she couldn’t help herself. “You are very bad.”

  “Let me show you how bad I can really be.”

  “Unless you come and pick me up, I won’t be able to let you show me anything.”

  “Car trouble?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where are you?” She was amazed at how his voice changed to all business.

  “Tremont Street.”

  “What’s the num…Tremont? The site of last week’s fire?”

  “Yes.”

  He sighed. “Lana, don’t tell me you’re investigating.”

  “Just a little bit.”

  “We’ll discuss what that means when I get there.”

  LANA WAS STILL SITTING IN HER CAR when Sean arrived about fifteen minutes later. He parked behind her and got out. Walking over to the driver’s side of her car, he bent over. In an instant, he jerked open the car door. He crouched. Her face was soot covered, her clothes filthy and there was blood on her blouse. “Damn, what happened?”

  “I was gathering evidence and someone pushed me down.”

  “Who?” His tone hardened and anger ran like wildfire through him.

  “I think it was Bryant. But he said he didn’t push me and to give him his due, I didn’t really see him. It could have been someone else.”

  “There’s blood on your shirt.”

  Lana swung her hand around. “When I got pushed, I scraped my hands breaking my fall.”

  Sean took her hands and peered at them.

  She pulled them away. “They’re not that bad.”

  “Let’s get you home. I’ve called for a tow.”

  She cupped his face. “Thanks. That was very thoughtful.”

  “Lana, promise me that if you’re going to collect samples after dark, you’ll let me tag along.”

  “I don’t need a bodyguard.”

  “It’s smart and safer to let me tag along.”

  “You’re not asking me to stop?”

  “Lana, we’ve been friends for a long time. Asking you to stop when you have your teeth into something would be fruitless.”

  “Sean, this sample will tell me if there’s accelerants in the soil. It will connect these two fires. The arsonist is deliberately setting fires from the basement and the middle of the building.”

  “He’s trying to trap the residents inside.”

  “Exactly.”

  “What about Bryant? Have you told him your suspicions?”

  “Bryant wouldn’t listen to me. He insists that the spalling is just from the structure collapse. He doesn’t believe there is any connection.”

  “Let’s talk about this some more. The tow truck is here.” Sean helped Lana out of the car and she smiled up at him.

  “I can walk.”

  “I know that, but it feels good to touch you.” He watched the smile on her face grow wider.

  “You know just what to say, O’Neill.”

  He bent down and kissed her on the lips. “I try.”

  She went to talk to the tow truck driver.

  It didn’t take long for Sean to drive her home. When he pulled up in front of her house, he wasn’t sure whether he should accompany her. If they were still friends…they were friends, but if they were still only friends he would have just gone in. Now he felt as if he shouldn’t make a move unless she invited him.

  Lana got out, and then peered back in when he didn’t open his door.

  “Aren’t you coming in? I mean…if you want to.”

  “I do. I just…wasn’t sure.”

  “Sean, come on.”

  She opened the front door and they stepped into her foyer.

  Sean said, “How about I give you a bath.”

  “Don’t you want to join me?”

  “No, I want to pamper you. You’re the one who has been through something.”

  “I thought you had lawn work to do today for your father.”

  “I never got to it.”

  “Why?”

  “Other things, plus my mother needed a present for my grandmother’s birthday.”

  “So you spent time shopping for your grammy?”

  He slapped her on the bottom and she laughed. “I didn’t mind.”

  Jumping forward, she called back. “If you beat me to the bathroom, I won’t rib you anymore about your grammy.”

  He surged ahead, bumping into her. But Lana wasn’t one to lose graciously. She pushed and bumped him until they were both laughing like fools. Lana saw her opening and darted into the bathroom just before he did.

  “I should have taken you more seriously, especially when I’ve seen what you’re like when we get to a fire and you want the hose.”

  “That’s right O’Neill. I’m a force to be reckoned with.”

  He smiled, grabbed her around the waist and lifted her off the floor to bring her level for direct eye contact. “I like your kind of force and I’ll give you all the reckoning you want. Any way you want it.”

  “I can think of so many ways,” she said softly as she wrapped her legs around his waist.

  “You like sex games, Lana?”

  “With you, Sean, I think I would like just about anything you could dream up.”

  “I’ve got a fertile imagination.”

  “Among other very nice attributes.”

  He smiled. “Are you flirting with me, Dempsey?”

  “As you know, I can be very straightforward with what I want. I’m no shrinking violet.”

  “Nope, you make that abundantly clear every day.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Are you saying that’s a bad thing?”

  “No. I’m just saying that you don’t have to prove anything to me, sweetheart.”

  She sighed. “No, I’ve never had to, that’s true. You’ve always accepted that I’m a woman—”

  “Amen to that.”

  That got her to smile, “—in a man’s job.”

  “I don’t have any complaints. Wasn’t it you who pulled me out of a collapsing, burning building?” He set her down.

  “Yes, I guess I did. I was very happy to do so.”

  Lana had set up dozens of candles all around the bathroom and she lit each one.

  The interior of the bathroom took on a warm, golden glow. She bent over to turn on the tap and he stilled her hand. “Let me do that for you.” He patted the edge of the tub. “You sit here and relax.”

  Lana sat down and waited patiently.

  Sean turned on the tap, testing the water with his wrist, adjusting the temperature until he had it just right. He turned to her and reached out. He grasped the hem of her T-shirt and pulled it over her head.

  She was wearing a red lace bra, very feminine. It cupped her breasts, showing him the shadowy outline of her nipples that peaked as he looked at her. He took her hands and lifted her from the rim of the tub. Gently he unsnapped her jeans and slid them down her legs. Red lace thong panties covered the thatch of hair between her legs, but left her buttocks bare. The sight of her luminous skin hardened his cock until it butted up against the placard of his jeans.

  The candles flickered and danced as his breath whooshed in. “Do you wear this kind of underwear under your uniform?”

  “I don’t know if I should answer that question.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t want you to be distracted by imagining what I’m wearing un
derneath my uniform when you should be concentrating on the job.”

  “Too late.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I’ve been thinking that ever since I set eyes on you.” He ran his hand around the lace of the panties and his body hardened further when he heard her gasp.

  “Really.”

  “I tried to keep my thoughts on other things, but when not in the heat of battle, I wondered what was under that uniform.”

  “I don’t know. There’s nothing more tantalizing than anticipation. I should keep you guessing.”

  “You’re a cruel woman, Lana.”

  She smiled, reached out and caressed his cheek, her hand going into his hair. His scalp tingled and his body tightened, the wonderful ache spreading through his system.

  “I’ll put you out of your misery. I wear this kind of underwear all the time. My drawers are full of it. It makes me feel like a woman even though I have to wear the uniform.”

  “I know I’m supposed to look past gender and be a new millennium guy, but Lana, I could never think of you in any other way. You don’t need underwear to be sexy. You just are.”

  She closed her eyes and slipped her arms around his waist, pressing her face to his chest.

  “Sean, that has to be the most beautiful thing anyone has ever said to me.”

  That admission stripped him to the quick. He realized there was so much that he didn’t know about Lana. But standing here with her, he knew that he wanted to know everything.

  Within the soft glow of the candles, they seemed wrapped in a silent, steady flame.

  His heart missed a beat, a sudden ache jamming in his throat. What if he messed up? One mistake and he could lose her forever. It was a risk he hadn’t been willing to take before.

  But she had blown him away in the station shower. Bold and daring, she’d walked right up to him and had stated in straightforward terms that she wanted him.

  He couldn’t help it. He was still worried about where they would go. What this intense feeling would metamorphosize into.

  He knew only one thing. He couldn’t lose her.

  “It’s true. You’re all woman all the time. Don’t try to be a woman doing a man’s job. Just be who you are. There’s never any danger in that.”

  “Sean,” she said raising her head. “I had no idea you were a philosopher.”

  “I do what I can,” he said wryly and she chuckled against his chest.

  She pressed her cheek hard against his chest as she tightened her arms around his waist, rubbing her body against his. He felt her tremble. He placed a kiss on the top of her head, and then slid his fingers along her scalp, cradling her head in his firm grip. The heavy, silky weight of her hair tangled around his fingers, the loose fall like satin against her shoulders. Sean closed his eyes and hugged her hard, a swell of emotion making his chest tighten.

  Only in this moment did he realize the way she filled a hole inside him.

  He felt her sigh and he smoothed one hand across her hips and up her back. Easing in a breath of his own, he brushed a kiss against her ear, then spoke, his voice gruff and uneven. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?”

  He tucked his head down against hers and drew her hips flush against him. “You feel so good against me.”

  A tremor coursed through her, and Lana dragged her arms free and slipped them around his neck, the shift intimately and fully aligning her body against his. Sean drew an unsteady breath and angled her head back, making a low, indistinguishable sound as he covered her mouth in a kiss that was raw with desire, governed by the need to make it more than lust, more than need.

  Lana went still. Then, with a soft exhalation, she clutched at him and yielded to his deep, hot kiss. Sean slid his hand along her jaw, his callused fingers snagging in the long silky strands of her hair as he altered the angle of her head. She moved against him. Sean shuddered and tightened his hold, a fever of emotion sluicing through him.

  Dragging his mouth away, he trailed a string of kisses down her neck, then caught her head again and gave her another hot, wet kiss. His breathing ragged, he tightened his hold on her face and drew back, holding her against his chest. He held her like that, his hand cupping the back of her neck, until his breathing evened out. Then he turned, tucking her against him as he moved slightly away from her.

  He reached down and turned off the tap. “Let’s get you in the tub.” He reached around her and unsnapped her red-hot bra. Her breasts spilled out and it was all he could do not to cup them, rub his thumbs around her exquisite nipples.

  He took off her panties, her hand going to his shoulder for balance.

  When he stood, she dipped her hand in the frothy water and splashed it down the front of his shirt.

  “Oh, look at that. You’re shirt’s all wet. You couldn’t possibly wear it now.”

  Sean smiled. “Do you want me to take my shirt off?”

  She stepped into the tub, sighing as the warm water closed over her body. “Whatever gave you that idea?”

  He laughed. “All you had to do was ask.”

  “You made me wet, so I returned the favor.”

  He stilled and looked down at her. “It’s a good thing you didn’t tell me that while you were out here.”

  “I take it I wouldn’t have gotten my bath.”

  “No, you wouldn’t have.” He took off his T-shirt and dropped it on the floor and knelt down.

  Leaning against the edge of the tub, he put on a loofah bath mitt from the basket on the lip of the tub and squeezed a generous amount of bath gel on it.

  He started at her glorious neck and gently massaged the soap into her skin, then moved to her shoulders. The very ones she’d used to carry him. He moved across her collarbones. The heat from the bath had put color in her cheeks. She looked flushed and aroused, her heavy lidded eyes watching him like sparks in a burning ember, hot and smoldering.

  Without warning he swept across one of her nipples and Lana moaned, arching her back against the roughness applied to her sensitive skin.

  “Tell me if it hurts,” he whispered against the perfect shell of her ear.

  “Sean,” she managed, “It hurts so good. Don’t stop.”

  He slid the mitt over her other breast and Lana grabbed his wrist, caressing his forearm and the bulge of his biceps. Her leg came up and the water rippled with her movement.

  His erection swelled inside his jeans. Her response was like nectar on his tongue, so sweet.

  He dragged the cloth across her stomach beneath the water then down her leg. She bucked when he swept the cloth across her inner thigh. Her tongue came out to moisten her beautiful lips, so finely shaped. He picked up her ankle and lifted her foot out of the tub. He washed the top of her foot and then the sole. Lana moaned softly. He bent forward and placed his lips against the sole of her foot and kissed his way around to the instep.

  He placed her foot back in the water and then picked up her other one. He did the same. Sean took the mitt off and grabbed the detachable showerhead. He turned it on.

  “Lana, stand up.”

  She opened her eyes and rose out of the water. Sean moved close to her and took one pink puckered nipple into his mouth and sucked hard. Lana cried out and arched her back. “Spread your legs,” he whispered, after letting her nipple go.

  She did, lost in the sensation of his mouth closing over her other nipple. His free hand went to the small of her back as he directed the jet spray against her most sensitive flesh.

  Lana writhed in his arms as he suckled her, bit her gently, and tongued her nipples. It wasn’t long before she threw her head back and sobbed his name as she came apart in his arms.

  Her knees buckled and he set her gently into the water, turning off the shower and then gathering her up in his arms.

  She was shaking like a leaf by the time they made it to the bedroom, and he paused by the bed, letting her slick body slide down his. He brought her against him hard. Pressing his face against the curve of her neck
, he embraced her, trying to keep at bay the savage need trying to overpower his control.

  Taking several deep breaths, he clenched his teeth and tipped his head back. Somehow he got his wet jeans off without letting her go. He managed to tear open the small foil packet and sheath himself.

  He was shaking nearly as badly as she when he lifted her onto the bed, then followed her down. He dragged her beneath him. The feel of her plump breasts made him groan. He wanted to be inside her. Deep inside her tight sheath. Feeling as if his heart would burst, as if his lungs would seize up, he probed her with his thick erection. She made a small, frantic noise and opened her legs, urging him forward with single-minded purpose. Sean clenched his jaw and closed his eyes, burying himself deep inside her.

  He tightened his arms around her, a jolt of pure pleasure vibrating through him. He ground his teeth together, the sensory assault nearly tearing him apart. It wasn’t the act of joining with her that was overpowering, but the intimate connection, as if being inside her merged them into one complete whole. Immobile with the electrifying rush of sensation, he released a shaky sigh, bracing his weight on his forearms. Cupping her face in his hands, his heart ensnared, he covered her mouth in a slow, wet, kiss.

  Lana clutched at him, lifting her hips and rotating her pelvis hard against him. Sean roughly slid his arm under her lower back, working his mouth hungrily against hers. He elevated her hips, and then twisted his hips against hers.

  Lana gasped brokenly. Sean absorbed her response, a red haze clouding his mind when Lana countered his thrust, her body shuddering beneath him.

  Sean tore his mouth away, breathing hard, knowing he had to hold on to give her as much pleasure as he could. He thrust hard into her, not giving her time to catch her breath.

  She made a fierce sound and her counterthrusts turned reckless and erratic, and Sean took her nipple in his mouth and sucked hard. The hot taste of her sending his senses into overdrive. He plunged his face into the curve of her neck and thrust into her, keeping the hard edge of his need under control.

  Lana jackknifed beneath him, and Sean’s face contorted with the torturous pleasure as her inner muscles squeezed around him, milking him. Then with a ragged groan, he went rigid in her arms and let go, emptying himself deep inside her.