“Hey,” Analise said sharply. “The guy isn’t interested. Save what’s left of your pride and go. All right?” Analise moved toward Chelsea. She let every line of her body language show her aggression. If the bitch wanted a war, she better be ready to throw down.
“Excuse me?” Chelsea swung around, put one hand on her hip, and gave Analise a look of disdain. “I don’t know who you think you are, but you’d better step back. I do cardio kickboxing three days a week. I’ll kick your ass and not break a sweat.”
“I spent ten years in the marines, and most of that was in a war zone in the Middle East,” Analise said flatly. Then she wiggled her fingers at the saucy bitch. “Bring it.”
Okay, even Analise was surprised when Chelsea gave a strange little war cry and made an actual attempt to roundhouse kick Analise. Quickly feinting sideways, Analise caught Chelsea’s high-heeled boot. The problem with that sort of footwear was that it didn’t leave much contact with the ground. Chelsea was already wobbling on her remaining foot when Analise jerked her leg and sent her crashing to the floor.
“People like you make me ill,” Analise grumbled. “You give girls a bad name. Seriously. You obviously have a lot of money.” Analise grabbed both of Chelsea’s flailing legs and swung the smaller woman up over her shoulder into a fireman’s carry. “Buy a fucking clue. The guy isn’t interested in you. Big fucking deal. You’re pretty enough. Go find someone who is.”
Chapter Five
Ralston had no idea how long it would take him to get over the sight of Chelsea Ettinger draped over Analise Vega’s shoulder as Analise dumped the indignant Chelsea onto the sidewalk outside the building. It had been oddly satisfying for more than one reason. The biggest bonus was the idea that Analise’s behavior suggested she had revised her earlier opinion about Ralston’s behavior toward women. For some reason, that gave him a great sense of satisfaction.
Analise stood at the window, staring out at the darkened street below. The foot traffic had slowed down considerably as the hour grew later. Ralston approached her slowly. He didn’t really know what to make of all of this. Her words, her behavior, Chelsea’s abrupt interruption of the strange little life that they were sharing. It was all very out of the ordinary.
“Hey,” she said softly as he approached. “I’m sorry I busted your balls earlier. I just—let’s just say that I’ve had enough of those men that string women along for what seems like forever with all kinds of promises or half promises, or maybe nothing, but the girl isn’t sure because he never actually says no.”
“I’m sorry.” It was the only thing that Ralston could come up with to say. Besides, it was true. “Obviously, you’ve had some experience with this sort of thing. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
There was a stray lock of hair that had escaped her ponytail. He could not resist the urge to gently tuck it behind her ear. The silky softness felt good against his fingers. Just the tips of his fingers skimmed her earlobe. She shivered in response. Ralston felt his body respond. Blood rushed to his groin and his heart sped up. Just being in the same room with Analise made his body respond, but this felt different.
She turned to face him. “You don’t have to be sorry. You haven’t done anything.”
“That doesn’t mean I can’t be sorry that you had to go through that, since it obviously affected you.” Ralston told her gently. “That doesn’t mean I can’t feel compassion for you.”
“That’s certainly something I’m not used to,” she whispered.
Ralston cupped her cheek. He ran his thumb over the fullness of her lower lip. This was an incredible woman. The idea that someone could treat her with such callousness bothered him on a very deep level.
THE TOUCH OF Ralston’s finger against her lip was electric. Analise knew that she should stop it. She should tell him no or something. Perhaps she should be backing away and leaving the room. That would have made more sense. Far more sense than what she wanted to do.
“What?” There was a question in his blue eyes. “You’re thinking something. What is it?”
She couldn’t say it out loud. She couldn’t even believe her mind was going there. So instead of using words, Analise stood on tiptoe and pressed her lips against his.
The result was instant and devastating. Her body seemed to melt from within. Every nerve fired at once, and she could hardly draw breath. She pressed her thighs close together in order to ease the damp ache growing between her legs. Flinging her arms around Ralston’s neck, she let her tongue skate across the seam of his lips. When he parted them, she knew that she wasn’t alone in what she was experiencing.
He made a low growling noise. It sent a thrill through her body and caused her belly to tighten with desire. She needed this man so badly, so much more than she had ever needed anything before in her life. She buried her fingers in his hair and scored his scalp with her nails.
His arms snaked around her waist, and she found herself lifted into the air. Analise put her legs around his waist and felt the heat of his erection as it pressed against her sex. It was intoxicating! So close and yet way too far away. She needed more. She needed him and she wanted him now.
Their kissing grew frantic. Lips parted, tongues tangled together, and the two of them battled for dominance. Ralston carried her toward his bedroom. Analise marveled at the easy way he carried her. She wasn’t a small woman. She wasn’t light. She spent far too much time lifting weights and building muscle to ever feel ultrafeminine, but with Ralston she was exactly that.
She could feel the muscles in his arms bulging beneath her fingers. The sensation ramped up her arousal. This was a man, a real one. And she wanted him bad.
Ralston put her down on his bed. It was neatly made. He was probably the only guy on the planet that made his bed every morning, but Analise didn’t care about that. She loved the feel of that quilt beneath her. She loved to think that he had slept here the night before while she camped on the couch. Tonight, it would be different. Tonight, she was going to sleep in his bed.
He stared down at her without speaking for so long that Analise began to feel a little shy. Then he sighed. “You are so beautiful. Do you know that? Even with your clothes on.” He gave a little laugh at this. “Can I see you naked? Will you take those off and let me touch you?”
As if he had to ask! Analise wrestled with her T-shirt to get it over her head and then nearly twisted herself in half trying to dispense with the sports bra. But the sensation of the cool air on her bare breasts was worth the contortionist moves. And Ralston was the one who hooked his thumbs into her waistband and pulled her shorts and panties down her legs.
He leaned over and pressed his lips to her belly just below her navel. “Damn, you smell good. You know that? All woman. All mine.”
His words seemed to wipe away the rest of her inhibitions. Within seconds, she was so ready that she wondered if she could come just by having him look at her.
RALSTON HAD NEVER worried about pleasuring a woman before. He wasn’t exactly new to the prospect. But right now, as he stared at Analise’s naked body, he wanted so badly for this to be perfect that he felt a sense of apprehension.
He drew his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. Keeping his movements unhurried, he pushed his shorts down his legs. Finally, he got rid of his underwear. It was tempting to take hold of Analise’s legs right there, spread them wide, and bury himself inside her hot pussy. But that wasn’t what he wanted. He needed more than that from her. This wasn’t about getting off. It was more.
Putting his knees on the bed, Ralston slowly covered Analise’s body with his. Their skin slid together like silk. The sensation was amazing. He took her mouth in a kiss. Pushing his tongue between her lips, he braced his weight on his hands and slowly made love to her with his mouth.
Analise moaned and writhed beneath him. She spread her legs, and Ralston settled himself between her thighs. She was hot. He could feel the burn of her sex against his skin. The crisp hair covering her mound ti
ckled him. The sensation was incredible. It wasn’t fulfillment, not yet, but the tease left him feeling an undeniable urge to be inside her body.
“Please,” she whispered against his mouth. “I need you so badly. I ache.”
Her words inflamed him. Moving against her, he felt her breasts rubbing deliciously against his chest. Her nipples hardened. The taut buds were more than he could resist. He broke away from her kiss. Dipping lower, he held his weight on his hands and lowered his mouth to her breasts. He laved his tongue around one nipple and then the other. He took them into his mouth and sucked hard until she was arching her back and thrusting her chest into his face. And when he could finally take no more, Ralston let go of her breasts and thrust into the center of her body in one long, hard stroke.
Analise was exquisite. Ralston paused as he savored the sensation of her hot embrace. She was so damn tight and wet. Her heat welcomed him, and soon he couldn’t hold back. Not from her. Not from this. Ralston began thrusting in and out of her body as though he would die if he did not.
ANALISE CRIED OUT in ecstasy when Ralston buried his cock deep inside her pussy. The friction was almost unbearable. Fiery sensations licked over her limbs and made her squirm with need. She raised her legs, hoping to draw Ralston in deeper. She wanted more. She needed it. And when she felt the tip of his cock kiss the sweet spot deep inside her body, she moaned her pleasure.
She touched his shoulders and his back. Her fingertips bumped over the contour of his ribs and explored his skin. The man felt amazing. Everything about him was perfect. The scent of his sweat mingled with the taste of salt from his lips. She put her hands against his cheeks and pulled his mouth down to hers. She made love to him with her tongue, showing him without words what she needed. And with each motion of their mouths, he moved deeply inside her body.
Their coupling was slow and rhythmic, but powerful. She reveled in the feel of this man’s body as he pushed into hers. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she began thrusting back against his strokes. Each time he pushed deeper, she met him halfway. The resulting pleasure was almost excruciating. It was more. It was too much. It was pushing her over the edge.
Analise climaxed fast before she even knew it was coming. One second she was focused on Ralston, and the next she was flying. Her screams echoed off the walls and seemed to fly into the space around them. Then Ralston covered her mouth with his once again. He drank her cries, and she gave them to him willingly. She could feel him getting harder and hotter. His shaft pushed deeper. His skin was slick with sweat against hers. And when he finally grew rigid and strained hard against her cleft, the warm spill of his ejaculate made her come once again.
Analise panted and whimpered as her orgasm left her speechless and lethargic. She could not have moved if she’d tried. She lay on the bed with the delicious weight of Ralston pushing her into the mattress and wondered if she had lost the ability to think rationally.
Finally, Ralston rolled off of her body and sort of flopped onto the bed beside her. The air in the room was cool against her hot skin. Analise turned her head to stare at this man and wondered what in the hell she was doing.
“Don’t,” he whispered.
She frowned. “Don’t what?”
Ralston reached over and smoothed away the worry lines on her forehead. “Just don’t say what I can tell that you’re thinking. Not now. Just let this be for right now.”
She yawned. Perhaps he was right. Maybe it wouldn’t do any good to analyze and overanalyze the situation just now. Her brain was running on endorphins anyway. So, for now, she curled up next to Ralston and let him pull the covers over them. Sleep came easily, and Analise knew no more worries for the night.
Chapter Six
Analise was still asleep when Ralston slipped out of bed at five o’clock in the morning. So many crazy things had happened last night that he hadn’t ever gotten around to checking his servers to make sure the virus he’d implanted the night before had done its job.
The floor was cold beneath his feet, and the air chilled his skin. He turned to stare back at the bed. It was so very tempting to crawl back in beside Analise, nuzzle her neck, and perhaps convince her to make love once again. But that was not the world that Ralston lived in. In fact, these days he had no clue what world he was living in.
Very gently, Ralston reached down and brushed a long loose strand of Analise’s hair away from her face. She was sleeping so peacefully. It was difficult to believe that during the day she would be the first one to pull a gun from her waistband and aim it at just about anyone who rubbed her the wrong way. She was everything Ralston Hyde-Pierson should have been avoiding. Any long-term partner or, God forbid—wife—that he chose would need to be able to navigate Boston’s social scene. Regardless of how Ralston felt about soirees like Mrs. Peabody’s party the night before, they were a reality of his life that he could not avoid forever.
A businessman needs to schmooze if he wants to make deals.
It was a truth that Ralston had learned at his father’s knee. Ralston might not like it, but that did not change facts. Any woman by his side had to be willing to play the game. If there was one thing that Analise Vega did not do, it was play games. She was straightforward, honest, and blunt as hell. He actually had to choke back a chuckle at the thought of Analise locking horns with Mrs. Peabody the same way she had with Chelsea Ettinger.
Deliberately turning his back on the bed and the woman sleeping there, Ralston reached for the shorts he had tossed aside last night and a sweatshirt. He pulled the clothes on and then quietly left the bedroom behind. It was time to go upstairs to his office and get a little bit of actual work done.
It was harder to leave Analise behind than it should have been. As Ralston went through the motions of making a pot of coffee and pouring a cup, his gaze kept returning to the set of metal railings that hid Analise and his bedroom from view.
No. He was not some weak man who had been so enamored of a woman by the one night he’d spent with her that he was suddenly fixated and useless. He expected better of himself than that.
ANALISE AWOKE SLOWLY and stretched. Her fingers encountered the smoothness of empty cotton sheets. Of course, it was probably the best cotton money could buy, but she was still enjoying it alone. She sighed and rolled onto her belly before opening her eyes.
Her first thought was a mental castigation for being silly enough to get her feelings hurt because Ralston had left her alone in bed. Her second thought was to be pissed off that her “charge” had escaped the bed without her notice. What kind of a shitty bodyguard was she turning into anyway?
She stretched out her toes and flexed them back and forth to loosen up her calves. She was sore from the run yesterday. That suggested she was getting out of shape. Unacceptable! She had to start working out again, call Wrath and spar or something. Once this thankless and really confusing job in Boston was done, she was going to have to report to her next client, and she couldn’t do it looking and feeling like a marshmallow!
Flinging the covers back, she slung her legs over the side of the bed and forced herself to sit up. Why was it that every single morning she had the misfortune to feel each and every injury she had ever had? It was sort of like cataloguing past events without any enjoyment whatsoever.
Analise stood up. She immediately bent at the waist and tried to force her hamstrings to loosen lest she curl up into a pretzel. She was naked. It probably would have been appropriate for her to feel some kind of modesty or something, but she was half tempted to go upstairs—where she knew Ralston was hiding—and just flaunt her bare ass all over his office.
But no. She grabbed her jogging clothes from the night before and threw them on. Maybe it would be more fun to go show him that she was awake and then tell him she was going to get naked in order to take a shower. That would be far more punishing, right?
Wait. Why was she trying to punish Ralston? Analise sighed and shut the thoughts out of her mind. She used what almost all marines have i
n the back of their head—the kill box. She put those confusing emotional thoughts away and just slammed the lid shut. Then she headed out of the bedroom in search of the source of that delightful coffee smell.
It didn’t take long to find the still warm coffee pot in the kitchen. There was a mug sitting beside it as well as a plate with a plastic-wrapped bagel sitting on it. Somehow Ralston’s thoughtfulness, even though it was probably just him being mannerly, managed to blow open that kill box.
“Shit,” Analise muttered.
It would have been so much easier if Ralston were the asshole that his socioeconomic status suggested he would be. Unfortunately, he was a really nice, really likeable, really sexy, and good in bed guy.
RALSTON STARED AT his computer screen and tried to understand what he was seeing. To say that was an unusual occurrence was a massive understatement. He rarely had to look at code or numbers or anything for more than a few seconds to absorb and categorize the data with complete confidence.
This was different.
“Hey.” Analise appeared right beside him. He could smell the spicy feminine scent of her skin before he heard her low voice. “Thanks for the coffee and bagel. It’s much appreciated.”
“I try to treat my houseguests with courtesy,” he mumbled without looking away from the screen. “Even the uninvited ones.”
For once, Analise didn’t give some snappy off-the-cuff response. Ralston was so involved in the weirdness on his screen that it took him a full minute to realize it. Then he turned to see her glaring at him.
“So, what was last night?” The irritation was plain to see in her flashing eyes. “Me paying my way? You decided you would get a little tail in order to comp you for having an unwanted guest in your house?” She took a huge bite of her bagel and slurped some coffee. “If that’s the case, I want a full breakfast tomorrow. I’m thinking pancakes and the whole nine yards.”
Nash Security Solutions Page 34
