by Leanne Banks
He pulled away from her for a moment to gaze at her. He took a deep breath. His eyes looked nearly black. “Are you sure?” he asked in a low, rough voice.
His concern grabbed at her so hard, she had to close her eyes. “Yes,” she managed. “But you’ve got to stop being so kind or I’m going to cry.”
He gave a half chuckle and rubbed her breasts from side to side against his chest. “You’ve been hangin’ around the wrong kind of men.”
Her nipples budded against the abrasion. “You might be able to convince me of that.”
He tilted her chin upward and slid his tongue down her neck.
Her body suffused with heat. “Oh!”
His mouth continued its sensual trek down to the upper rise of one of her breasts. “Yes?” he murmured.
He licked gently, precisely over the place where her heart beat furiously. Yet another tender but unbearably arousing gesture. “Yesss,” she managed, and put her fingers through his hair to urge his mouth lower.
When his lips fastened on her nipple, she arched her back. His hands were on her arms, but she would almost swear that with each sweep of his tongue, he was stroking her secret places. Under his persistent caresses, she grew hot and uncomfortable. It was difficult to remain still.
She tugged at his shirt. “You have on too many clothes.”
“Average amount,” he corrected, moving his mouth to her other breast.
“Too many,” she repeated, and started on his belt.
Her fingers brushed against his obvious arousal, and she had a tough time deciding whether to touch him now or to wait. Just for fun, she ran her fingernail down his zipper.
He sucked in a shallow breath. “If you don’t move your hands away, you’re gonna get something started.”
She laughed through the achy fire in her blood. “I’m doing my best.”
Troy swore and wrapped her hands around his waist. “What am I gonna do with you?”
“Keep me busy,” she said. “Keep me very busy.” She ran her tongue around his lips, then boldly slipped it inside his mouth.
It seemed a second later that he was cradling her head in one arm, supporting her back with the other as he pressed her down and kissed her long and luxuriously. As if he were determined to keep a check on the speed and velocity of their desire, he held her firmly.
Senada wanted the speed. She strained against him, slipping her hand between their bodies to cup him. “You have on too many clothes.”
He shook his head, rubbing his lips back and forth across hers. “Don’t wanna rush.”
“Rush.”
He chuckled low and sexy and nuzzled her neck. “You need to learn to take things slow and easy.”
“I want you now.” She did. Her body was hot, her breasts were swollen and lower, she was wet and empty. She stroked him through his jeans.
He moaned and shifted away. “We can’t do this fast tonight, Sin. There’s too much of you I need to touch.” He slid his hand down to her hip and squeezed. “Too much I want to kiss.” He dipped his head and suckled the tip of one of her breasts.
Heady need raced through her. “Troy,” she whispered.
“I’ll take care of you. Trust me.”
He began to play her body like a piano. His hands alternately taunted and teased, sending ripples of desire through her. She felt his mouth and breath whisper across her skin, then he left her feeling scorched with the trace of his tongue.
He kept his jeans on way too long, but she found herself struggling for a way to express her feelings. She kissed his chest, licked his nipples, put a love bite on his abdomen that made him swear.
“When are you taking off your jeans?” she demanded, feeling her control begin to slip.
“In a minute,” he promised.
“You said that be—”
His fingers found her core, and she gasped. Slipping one finger inside her, he toyed with her center of pleasure with his thumb at the same time he slid his tongue inside her mouth. She moved against him, her body tightening beneath his persuasion. She resisted the crest, fought it. She wanted him with her, wanted him as out of control as she felt.
But then he moved down her body, spreading her thighs with his hands, and he took her with his mouth. With an avid intimate kiss, he consumed her resistance. His tongue was soft and wicked, his lips hungry, as if he couldn’t get enough of her.
The thought and sensation were too much. Beyond her control, her climax yanked her up and over. She shuddered beneath him again and again until she was weak. Troy continued until she pushed at him breathlessly. “Stop,” she whispered. “Stop.”
He lifted his head, his eyes heavy-lidded, and licked his lips. It was such an unaffected sensual gesture that Senada closed her eyes. A second passed, and she felt his breath on her face. Finding purpose despite the chaos inside her, she looked at him. The tenderness and passion in his eyes rocked her as much as her climax had. Senada had never wanted to please a man more.
“Sin,” he began. “I—”
She placed her trembling fingers over his lips. “Your turn, wouldn’t you say?”
She tilted her head so that her mouth meshed with his. He tasted of passion and her, and despite his strength, she tasted his need. He wanted more than release, more than sex, more than passion. At another moment the power of his want would have daunted her. She would have had to turn away.
Now she couldn’t, and Senada suspected this would take more than she’d ever given before.
“You’re an incredible man,” she told him, then gave a soft chuckle. “But since you’re a Pendleton, you probably already knew that.”
She nibbled at his neck, allowing her breasts to sweep against his chest. She rubbed the inner seam of his jeans with her index finger all the way to his crotch. When he shifted his pelvis against her, she smiled.
“Like that?”
“Yeah.”
She unfastened the button and zipper and slipped her hand around him. He was hard; she felt the first drops of his arousal and rubbed them around the tip of his erection.
He sucked in a short breath.
“Like that?” she whispered, turned on by turning him on. She lifted her moistened finger to her lips.
Troy swallowed audibly. “Yeah.” His voice was rough.
She leaned closer and skimmed her tongue all the way down his abdomen to his hardness. She kissed him intimately, then took him into her mouth.
Troy swore.
She tasted him, made love to him as he sifted his hands through her hair and continued to croon and swear. It was the sweetest, most erotic sound.
“Sin,” he said, his voice unsteady. “I don’t wanna go this way. Wanna be…”
She looked up at him. “Wanna be where?”
“Inside you.”
Her heart jerked. For Troy, it clearly wasn’t a matter of dominating her or owning her. It was a matter of needing to join himself with her. She felt a quickening inside herself. “Let’s get rid of those jeans. All the way this time.”
They both worked at the bottom half of his clothes. He pulled a cellophane packet from his pocket.
“How long have you had that?” she asked, idly curious.
His violet eyes held hers. “Since the first time we kissed. Problem?”
She felt a tumbling sensation. “No.”
And the waiting was over. His mouth fastened on hers, and they tussled on the bed. First he was on top, then she. They stroked and urged and licked and moaned.
Then finally they found common ground on their sides. He lifted her thigh outside his hip and in one sure movement, he thrust inside her.
His groan echoed inside her.
“Oh, yes,” she whispered.
He gave a sexy tilt of his pelvis and sank deeper. “Like that?” he said in a none-too-steady voice.
“Oh, yes,” she managed back, stroking him with her inner muscles. “And you?”
“Oh, yes.” He pulled back slightly, perspiration forming on his
brow. Then he thrust again.
Senada closed her eyes. He made her feel so full. So full, she might even believe all her empty places would never be empty again.
“Open your eyes, sweetheart. I need to see you.”
Senada immediately looked at him. His words stroked her heart. His body stroked her body. The combination was irresistible.
Slowly, as he pumped inside her, he lowered his mouth to hers and rolled her to her back. She smiled beneath his kiss. “Gotta be on top,” she said, her laughter sneaking through her voice. “Gotta dominate. Gotta—”
“No,” he said against her lips, and slipped his hand between them. “I just thought you might like a little support when you fly through the air.”
Sin laughed again. Men loved to brag. She opened her mouth to retort, but his fingers unerringly found her most sensitive spot. The sensation was mind-boggling. “Ohhh.”
There was no easy buildup this time, a quick spike of pleasure, and she was bucking beneath him, reaching for her pleasure, striving for his. She moved in fluid counterpart to his thrusts and watched his face tighten even as she tightened around him.
He swore, and she pulled his hips toward her.
“Sin,” he murmured. “Sweetheart.”
She arched against him at the same second she felt him come apart inside her. The physical pleasure was incredible, but his endearment reverberated in her heart long after they caught their breath and fell asleep in each other’s arms.
Troy woke the next morning feeling as if he’d been through a battle. His muscles were sore, his mouth was dry, and there were little marks of Sin’s lovemaking on his chest and stomach. He didn’t have to look next to him to know she wasn’t still in bed. He felt it. Her warmth was gone.
The thought disturbed him, and he raised up to sit on the side of the bed. He did a double take at his stomach and shook his head at the hickey on his abdomen. Knowing Sin, she’d probably left one on his thigh.
Hearing a soft groan in the bathroom, he pulled on his jeans and walked toward the source of the sound. The door was cracked, so he nudged it open.
Her hair a riot of sex-mussed waves, and she wore her silky robe. Her kiss-swollen lips were set in a scowl, and in her hand, she held a syringe.
Her gaze met his, and Troy immediately saw that all the wonder from the night had been washed away from her eyes. She looked unhappily determined. Her defenses were firmly back in place.
She gave a sad tight smile. “You know what they say. There’s got to be a morning after.”
Chapter Nine
Troy crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorjamb. “Mind if I watch?”
She stared at him. “Watch what?”
“Watch you give yourself your injection.”
She started to shake her head before he even finished. “Yes, I do mind.” She stepped closer to him and waved her hands as if to shoo him away.
He didn’t budge. “Why? It’ll be educational.”
“Get someone else to educate you. This is not one of my favorite things to do. Go,” she said, and waved her hand again. “Go, go, go.”
“What’s the big deal? You’ve been doing it for over two months now?”
“Get out of my bathroom, Troy. This is not a dignified performance.”
He sighed and stepped backward. She quickly closed the door in his face.
Troy rubbed his hand through his hair and trudged back to the bedroom. He would never understand her. Never in a million years. He’d just been trying to help her to be a little more open about the diabetes and her treatment. After the previous night, he would have thought—
“Oh!”
He stopped abruptly at her yelp. “Sin?” When she didn’t respond, he cocked his head toward the bathroom. “Sin, you okay?”
“Fine,” she said in a desperately cheerful voice. “Fine and dandy.” She whipped out of the door, her eyes glittering. “It’s one of those experiences that is always new. Always fresh. Always like the very first time.” She took a quick breath. “If you want to take a quick shower, go ahead. I’ll see what I can get us for breakfast.”
Then she flitted past him to the kitchen. Troy shook his head. Good thing he wasn’t the sensitive type, or he would be downright offended by her behavior. She was acting as if they hadn’t spent the night together, hadn’t made love, hadn’t touched. It was a damn good thing he wasn’t stupid enough to fall in love with the woman. A damn good thing, he thought, and felt a sharp discomfort in the left side of his chest, right behind his rib cage.
When she saw Troy lift his eyebrow in inquiry about the difference in his food and hers, Senada nodded. “I really have to limit the fat in my diet, not because of weight. I usually stick to cereal and fruit in the morning, sometimes a bagel.”
Troy dug into his scrambled eggs. “Do you have someone who helps you plan your meals?”
“A dietician.” She took a bite of her cereal.
“How often do you see your doctor?”
“Once a month.”
“What all do they want you to do?”
She’d been wondering when he would grill her, she thought as she ate her cereal. She would answer his questions, and then tell him to mind his business. “Test my blood at least twice a day and keep a record of the results. Take the insulin twice a day. Stick to the diet. Eat every four hours. Avoid getting injured. Exercise,” she added with a grimace. “And limit my chocolate intake.”
Troy paused. “That one was the worst, wasn’t it?”
She gave a half chuckle. “What makes you say that?”
He looked confused. “But that chocolate cupcake? Why were you eating it?”
“I negotiated for that chocolate cupcake. First chocolate I’d eaten in a month.”
Realization crossed his face. “And I ate it.” He grinned slowly. “It’s a wonder you didn’t kill me.”
“I considered it.”
He looked at her thoughtfully. “Why did you leave Chattanooga?”
Senada drank a sip of her milk. It was much easier discussing the physical aspects of her disease than the emotional, especially since she didn’t have all the answers yet herself. “I’m not totally sure. Finding out I had it freaked me out. They put me in the hospital for a few days to regulate my medication and educate me. I told Lisa I was going away. While I was in the hospital, I just didn’t see how I could go back to the status quo. Everything seemed as if it had been turned upside down. I thought of my mother and father. The only family I had left was my father, so I guess I was running to him. But once I got here, I came to my senses. My father is not the kind of man to run to in a crisis.”
“Because of how he handled your mother’s death,” Troy said.
“Because of how he didn’t handle it,” she corrected.
“Have you thought about going back to Tennessee?”
“No.” She didn’t pause. She glanced down at her empty bowl and wondered when she’d finished. “I have a lot of privacy here. If Lisa had known about the diabetes, she would have worried me to death. I couldn’t handle that. I’ve been on my own too long to have someone, even someone as sweet as Lisa, looking over my shoulder.”
“You really hate to depend on other people, don’t you?”
He made it sound as if something was wrong with her because of her independence. She lifted her chin. “I prefer to make my own way,” she told him. “In everything.”
He surprised her by slipping his fingers through hers. “But some things take two, Sin.”
She’d wondered when he would remind her of their breathtaking intimacy. She’d done her best not to think about it. Her feelings were too strong. “True, but I can do most things for myself. By myself.”
He tilted her chin up, compelling her to meet his gaze. “Why do I get the impression you’re running from me?”
Her heart tripped over itself. “I don’t know,” she hedged. “Why?”
“Because you’ve barely looked at me, and you haven’t
touched me after we made the stars come out last night.”
“We had sex,” she said in a low voice.
“We made love,” he corrected.
“Troy,” Her chest felt achy. She looked away, tried to remove her hand from his, but he wouldn’t allow it. She cleared her throat. “We made love, and I want to thank you for being there for me last night. Last night was—” she sighed “—difficult for me. But what we did last night doesn’t mean you need to act differently toward me. I don’t expect things between us to change. You don’t need to feel like you’ve got to look after me.”
“So you expect me to go on as if we weren’t together last night,” he said.
“Yes.”
“You’re funny, Sin.” He gave a rough chuckle. “Real funny.”
“Troy,” she began.
He shook his head. “Sweetheart, I told you before, you’ve been hanging around the wrong kind of man.”
“And I suppose you’re the right kind,” she said, her tone skeptical.
“Yeah, but when all you’ve done is hang around the bad guys, sometimes you have a hard time identifying the good guys.”
Soon after that, she kicked him out. She did it nicely, but she still showed him the door.
“I’ll see you tonight,” he told her. “You’re working, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” She paused. “Thank you.”
“For?” he prodded.
“For everything.”
The hint of huskiness in her voice was a balm to the raw feeling inside him. “You had a…demanding evening last night. Wouldn’t hurt you to take it easy today.”
Her lips twitched. “You’re not trying to look after me, are you?”
“Not me,” Troy said, then took advantage of her brief silence to kiss her.
Senada finished talking with the waitress, and Troy came up beside her.
“How are you tonight?” he asked.
“Great. How about you?” She waved to a customer.
“Good.” He shifted slightly on his feet. “How long has it been since you’ve eaten?”
