Atomic Beauty

by Barb Han

  And, he had to be doing something pretty screwed up to have the US government up his butt. It wasn’t like they’d sent just anyone. They’d sent her—their best officer. And this wasn’t a babysitting detail. Murdock wanted to know exactly what Jace had found and what he planned to do with it. The kicker was that the information was above Erika’s pay grade, meaning she wasn’t allowed to know. Locate and transmit. The orders had been strict.

  A quick inspection of his condo the first night had revealed military-grade weapons in a specially made compartment behind the TV. At first she’d believed he was running guns. But it didn’t make sense because she never got involved in cases that didn’t involve national security. So far, guns were the only things she’d found. This guy was good at hiding his activities.

  In fact, she wasn’t any closer to figuring this out today than she’d been three weeks ago. Her boss expected her to transmit real data. Soon. The urgency, impatience, came across clearly in every message. Now that she had Jace’s password, Murdock’s wait was almost over.

  And so was this mission.

  She reached behind her and ran her fingers through Jace’s hair—thick, curly and dirty blond, her favorite color on a man.

  He had a barbed-wire tattoo that climbed up his right arm, from wrist to shoulder, and swirled around the base of his neck. Down the left side of his torso the words Strength, Respect, Loyalty, were written vertically in small letters. All were invisible when he had a shirt on, which was almost never when he was at home.

  How many times had he pulled her closer to him on the couch where she traced the lines of his tattoos? Was part of her memorizing him, wanting to remember, knowing this wouldn’t last?

  Either way, it wasn’t like her to be melancholy. She blamed it on the time of the year, missing her parents.

  If her headaches got any more intense, and they seemed to be escalating as it was, her brain might explode. Maybe they were starting to cloud her judgment, too.

  When this op was over, she needed to head back to Sanctuary so they could check her into a hospital, give her a physical. Have an MRI or something.

  Then again, maybe she just needed a month at the beach with nothing but sand between her toes. She’d been working nonstop for the past five years. Or was it something about those clear blue eyes of his that had her wanting more, wanting tonight, wanting to feel him move inside her. His weight on top of her, pressing her into the mattress.

  Erika stood and turned around to face him. He caught her arm, and pulled her toward him until she stood a few inches in front of him. He moved his hands to either side of her hips and leaned forward until his forehead rested on her stomach. “What the hell did I ever do to deserve you?”

  She lifted his chin so she could look into his eyes again. He tugged her toward him and she took his lead, straddling him, wrapping her legs around his hips. Those sexy-as-hell thighs of his were beneath her legs.

  “That was some pretty bad shit last night.” He kissed her forehead.

  “Yeah, but it’s over now.” She tunneled her fingers into his thick hair, leaning into him until she could feel his rapid heartbeat against her body.

  “Is it?” He wrapped his hands around her waist, tentative, and she could feel them shaking.

  “I’m fine. Perfectly healthy. You don’t have to worry.” She ground her sex against his erection.

  He groaned. “You sure that’s such a good idea?”

  Her gaze locked onto his. “All I know right now is that you can’t hurt me.”

  “Too late for that.” His lips brushed against hers, his tongue slicked across her teeth. “We don’t stop this right now and one of us is going to regret it. Maybe both.”

  Even through his warning, her body hummed with need—a need pressing down so hard her body begged for release. “Don’t tell me you’ve never had casual sex before.”

  “That all this is to you?” His tongue glided down her neck, alternately biting and sucking as he lowered his head.

  One of them would be hurt. He was right. “I want you, Jace.”

  “Prove it.” He growled. He wrapped his big hands around her butt and squeezed.

  Was she really going to do this?

  Sleeping with Jace would be crazy, no matter how badly her thighs heated with him this close. Or how difficult it had been to hold back over the past few weeks.

  And yet, not sleeping with him, not knowing how their bodies felt as he moved inside her, would somehow be worse.

  Erika pulled her shirt over her head and then tossed it onto the floor.

  “Christ, you’re beautiful.” He ran a finger down the thin streak of blue in her jet-colored hair. When they’d first met, he’d said her hair reminded him of nights at sea, standing on a boat deck, looking at the moon as a beam streaked the water. “This is the last time I’ll ask. You sure you want to do this?”

  The only certainty in Erika’s life had been pain. Once she got the information off his laptop and transmitted, she’d get the call to disappear. There was no part of her that could allow that to happen without feeling Jace inside her before she left.

  Already in too deep, she unhooked her bra and shrugged out of it, tossing it to the floor next to her shirt as she locked gazes.

  She wrapped her fingers around the back of his neck and kissed him. His hands, coarse but gentle, trailed up her sides until they found her breasts and covered them, causing her nipples to pebble.

  “I know exactly what I want. Do you?” she asked, lowering her voice, using every trick in her arsenal to seduce him. Her pulse pounded faster as his eyes darkened with desire.

  “That’s not a serious question, angel,” he said as he closed his eyes, his breath igniting flames on her skin.

  Chapter Two

  “You wouldn’t call me angel if you really knew me,” Erika said, half smiling through her irritation. Although, Jace’s hands all over her were heaven. There was no doubt he had the skills to rocket her there and back a thousand times. His hands might be those of a killer, but they were also those of an experienced lover. His other parts seemed to be working just fine, too. The way his lips skimmed her neck while his hands worked her breasts, torturing her with the promise of the best sex she’d ever had told her the man knew exactly what he was doing.

  Did he realize he was baiting a bull?

  “Don’t look so offended. It’s a compliment.” He captured her nipple in between his forefinger and thumb, tugging and rolling it.

  “You’re a smart guy. You can come up with a better excuse than that.” She tried to control the heat building between her thighs.

  “Fine. You got me. There’s a reason I call you that and I’m sure as hell not telling.”

  “Mystery man.”

  “You have no fucking idea.” He dipped his head low enough for his mouth to take in one of her breasts.

  Whatever that thing he was doing with his tongue, he could keep doing it, because the slick heat it caused swirling around her nipple set off a series of seismic shifts.

  He tilted his head just enough until those blues were on her. They were darkened by hunger. “Last chance. Say the word and I’ll stop. But we go any further and it’s out of the question.”

  “I don’t want you to stop until you’ve exploded inside me and all you can think about is me on top of you, squeezing out every last drop of juice from your balls.” She tunneled her fingers into his thick, dirty-blond hair.

  “That right?” His tenor slid around her like the heat rocketing through her.

  “Uh-huh.” She reached down and unzipped his jeans, freeing his thick, rigid stalk. “But here’s the deal. We do this my way.”

  “Okay, baby, you win. Fuck me.” He unleashed a grin so sexy heat pooled between her thighs. All she could think about was the silky skin of his cock and how it would feel as his engorged head slid inside her and she rocked her hips until he filled her and she begged for more.

  Not yet…

  First, she needed to bring him
to the brink and force him to wobble, ecstasy within reach but just out of his grasp. There had never been a time when she’d needed a man in the way she needed Jace right now. But then, she’d never met her match before, either. He was street-smart, cunning and an absolutely lethal weapon. Something she needed to remind herself of when she closed her eyes and soared toward the skies in a little while. He could pull a knife and slice her throat before her feet settled on the floor again.

  A moment of hesitation struck. Erika knew this decision could come back to bite her in the ass.

  Jace’s fingers looped around the heart-shaped locket hanging from her neck. Her hand shot up to protect it.

  “What did I do?”

  “Nothing. It’s me. My mom gave me this. It’s special.” She never took it off, not even in the shower. And she sure as hell didn’t let anyone look at the picture inside.

  “So are you, angel.”

  Her gaze locked onto his and her heart sighed. Leaving, letting go of Jace was going to hurt more than she wanted to think about later. But, for now, she wanted this man.

  She leaned forward and kissed him.

  “You had fair warning,” he said against her lips. His body trembled, his tight-gripped control obviously faltering as he put his hands down at his sides and leaned back. “Either you get this going or I will.”

  If she were going to do this, and God how she wanted to, she needed to stay in control because when it was over she had to find her bearings again. She grabbed the waistband of his jeans and he lifted his hips for her. She tugged them down and pulled them off. His boxers quickly followed.

  Erika shimmied out of her black denims, and then her black silk panties.

  “Jesus, you’re gonna end this before it gets started with that rockin’ bod of yours, angel.”

  “I already told you I’m not an angel.”

  “Yes, you are. You saved me.”

  Well, damn, that was the sexiest thing any man had said to her. Did he need saving? Was he lost? That why he’d double-crossed the agency and hit the pavement? She’d worry about that later. Right now, there was a naked man in front of her, cock pulsing with the rapid beat of his heart, and she needed to know what he tasted like.

  She dropped to her knees and stretched her body over him, her breasts grazing his thighs as she settled in between his legs. Contact made her skin tingle, like a thousand tiny pins applying gentle pressure, skittering across her flesh.

  Her grip tightened around his thighs and then moved north until his rigid shaft was firmly in her hand.

  His guttural groan was all the encouragement she needed to take the pink tip of his engorged head in her mouth, and then slide down his shaft.

  The second her tongue licked from his base to his tip, his entire body tensed. She drove him deep inside her mouth, and then did it again as his breath quickened and muscles tensed. His body trembled, needing release, and she enjoyed the power she had over him.

  To be honest, she’d wanted this and so much more from the moment she first laid eyes on Jace.

  Droplets of his cream swirled on his tip. She lapped them up with her tongue.

  “Fuck’s sake, angel—” He sat up straight. “You’re going to destroy me.”

  In one motion, he lifted her as he stood. Her legs wrapped around his midsection, gripping him tightly, his lips had found hers and he didn’t break the connection as he moved toward the wall where his bed was tucked. “Now it’s your turn.”

  Her arms around his neck, her fingernails dug into his shoulders for support as he unlocked the bed. It tumbled down next to them.

  “You’re so fuckin’ hot.”

  With his hands all over her, she felt like she might combust. Need surged through her like a thousand joules of electricity, a lightning bolt exciting her nervous system.

  Before she could think about anything else, his weight was pressed onto her and his lips were all over hers as his tongue delved deep inside her mouth, licking, swirling.

  * * *

  Jace thrust his thick and heavy cock into the damp cradle of Erika’s pussy, figuring he was about the luckiest idiot on earth about now with her soft-as-silk legs wrapped around him. He ran his finger along the inside of her calf, up her thigh, and couldn’t hold back a grin as goose bumps rose across her skin under his touch.

  Her sharp intake of air vibrated against his lips. Her breath was ragged as he captured her nipple in between his thumb and forefinger, using his left arm to hold most of his weight so he wouldn’t crush her into the mattress.

  Those lethal lips of hers had almost made him explode when they’d closed around his cock, but he couldn’t think about himself. He needed to make sure she came first. Maybe it was selfish. Hell, he needed to hear her shout his name as he rode her over the edge, into the abyss and beyond.

  She’d taken him there, to the edge, and it was all he could do to hold back. Now, it was her turn.

  There was a better way to make her squirm. He pushed up on his knees, placed his hands on the insides of her thighs, and pushed them apart. He licked his lips at the sight of the dark curls positioned above her damp pussy. Christ, she was perfection. “Relax and enjoy.”

  “Relax?” She eased out a breath as he leaned his face over her pussy and drew circles in those dark curls with his thumb.

  Whatever the hell was going on between him and Erika was more than just physical. Although he’d taken matters into his own hands and drained himself in the shower plenty of times over the past few weeks thinking about that hot body of hers. Jace’s hesitation about fucking her had been because of his conscience, not because he doubted the sex would blow their minds. It bothered him that she had no idea who he really was, that he’d been lying to her since day one, and he had no idea where the out-of-the-blue wave of guilt had come from. All he knew was that shit had careened out of control between them fast and with his past he was sure to disappoint her if he allowed this attraction to go any further.

  Gripping both sides of her sweet ass, he leaned forward and laved his tongue on her clit and then delved inside her. His balls tightened when her fingers tunneled in his hair and dug into his scalp.

  He sucked and licked her tiny bud as her body clenched and she moaned his name.

  She was on the tip when she said, “I want you inside me. Now.”

  “That an order?” She squirmed again when he dipped his tongue inside her. If heaven had a taste, it was the sweet honey of Erika’s pussy.

  His cock was already so hard, he was afraid he’d blow it the second his tip entered her.

  Moving up her body, licking her belly button, her stomach, her fuckin’ pert breasts, Jace battled to control his own body. He didn’t want to come so fast. “Baby-doll, you’re so fuckin’ sexy. But we gotta slow down. I want this to last.”

  Her answer came in the form of her fingers wrapping around his cock.

  He was way beyond thinking rationally at this point, but they needed protection. He pushed up and snatched a condom from the night stand, which doubled as a side table when the bed was put away. He tucked the corner of the package in between his teeth and ripped it open. His hands were shaky so the condom spilled out.

  Erika snatched the rubber before it hit the bed. What was that about?

  “Damn fast reflexes, angel.”

  Chapter Three

  “My hand was already there. You were taking too long and I was about to rip it out of your teeth,” Erika said, trying to play off her mistake and hoping like hell Jace bought it. No woman would react that quickly unless she’d been trained. Erika had been so careful about making sure she hid her…talents up to now. To distract him, she placed the condom on the pink tip of his cock and rolled it down his shaft, stroking him.

  Luckily, he didn’t stay interested in her freakish ability to snatch a falling object out of thin air for long. But, damn, that mistake pretty much ensured that Erika needed to get the hell out of there. There’d be no encore to this sex no matter how badly her body would c
rave it.

  As Erika pulled Jace on top of her, he seemed to forget all about her little slip. Being caught up in the moment had its benefits.

  He might put two and two together later, but she intended to be long gone by then.

  With his body on top of hers, his weight pressing her against the mattress, Erika didn’t care about anything but the sweet feel of his cock against her wet heat. A little part of her wished this could last for more than one night. But she’d always lived in the moment. And even if Jace weren’t a high-value target, there was no way they could be in a relationship. Her life didn’t work that way. And neither did his.

  His fingers stroked the tender inside skin of her leg on the way to her clit. He repositioned himself in between her thighs, cock to pussy, and she encircled her fingers around his thick shaft as she guided him, quivering as he dipped his tip inside and then pulled out.

  He teased his cock inside again, and her whole body cried out for more.

  “Don’t stop, Jace.”

  “You want more?”

  “I want it all.” Truer words had never been spoken and she meant more than just sex with him. And yet, she had no right to expect anything close. Not in her line of work.

  He thrust his hips, in and out, and she matched his stride, his intensity, his pitch. He plunged slowly at first, shallow little strokes, and her body burned for more until she thought her mind might explode from ecstasy.

  Quickening the pace, deepening the penetration sent electricity rocketing through her, leaving her craving more. Deeper. Faster.

  Erika reached the edge and tried like hell not to tip over. Not yet. She wanted to stay in the moment. All his muscles tightened and she knew he was on the brink, too.

  She dug her fingernails into his back, begging him to ride her harder. Oh. God. This. Felt. So. Fuckin’. Amazing. She bucked her hips faster, harder, matching the fervor in his strokes.