“My thought processes aren’t clicking over too well at moment.” His fingers slipped over the curve of her hip. “Mind if I make a suggestion?”
“Shoot.”
“We might be able to concentrate better if we get this other stuff out of the way.”
When her bottom nudged back against his thighs, he let his palm skim toward the front of her skirt. As her head rocked back more, he saw her eyes drift shut.
“What other stuff?” she asked with a ghost of a smile on her lips. “Be more specific?”
“Sammy.” His hand settled on the vee between her thighs “We need to make love.”
His fingers hooked gently in and then up. When she dissolved back against him and her hand covered his, the pulse in his loins began to pound. Pressing her against him, he slid his lips up the curve of her neck to her ear.
“You’re not seeing anyone?” he asked, nibbling her lobe and loving when she dissolved against him. “Not with anyone?”
She made that sound in her throat again, and then slanted her head to give his mouth better access.
“I’m embarrassed to say how long it’s been.”
His other hand ironed over her ribs, brushing under the fall of her breasts.
“A month?” he asked.
“For us good girls, that’s a splash in the ocean.”
At the same time he rotated her around, he scooped one hand under her nape; the other hand secured the small of her back. He caught her heavy-lidded look a heartbeat before his mouth dropped over hers. When her lips parted beneath his, heat rushed through his veins. He twined hair around his fingers and tugged lightly so that her head tipped back more.
His tongue swept beyond the seams of her lips, running over her teeth. He discerned the tang of beer before the kiss deepened more. When his palm slid down over her behind, a whimper vibrated up from her chest. His need to know every part of her tightened around him, seizing like a vice.
Two small hands drove up either side of his working jaw. When she opened her mouth wider, inviting him deeper, testosterone soaked every cell and every pore. She fit so well. Tasted so damn good. The way her tongue played against his in a perfectly-timed sequence of thrusts and sweeps, it was all he could do to stop from rushing it to second, and then third base...from sweeping her up in his arms and finding any soft place to land.
At the fringes of his mind, he felt pressure—small palms pressing on his chest. Surfacing, he prised his mouth away from hers. She was out of breath, sucking down air and holding her brow, like her head might be spinning.
“Guess it’s been a while for you, too,” she said.
He frowned. Had he been rough? “You okay?”
She reached for him again. “Oh, yeah.”
He helped her drag her shirt up over her head, revealing jaw-dropping breasts in lacy half-cups. He caught her around the waist and, pressing her body against his, raised her slowly up and off her feet. When her breasts reached his chin, he cut back to the kitchen and sat her on the counter.
He scooped her out from the cups. Weighing a breast in each palm, he lowered his head over hers again. While he kissed her thoroughly, his thumbs brushed and teased two erect tips. When he groaned and sucked her tongue into his mouth, she knotted her fingers in his hair and urged him in more. He lightly pinched each peak, and then grazed and pinched again.
When she thrust up against him, he broke the kiss and ran the tip of his tongue down her neck, between her cleavage and then across to one side. As she sighed and arched back, something clattered; he guessed she’d knocked over a beer. He was more interested in drawing that nipple back into his mouth.
While a small palm swept over his shoulder, one shapely leg bent, lifting until her inner knee pressed against his ear. Words filtered in through the fog.
“Do you have protection?”
He spoke around the nipple nestled on the curl of his tongue. “I have a condom.”
“As in one?”
“I’ll get more.”
He imagined her smile as she hooked that leg around his back. “One’s a good start.”
He pulled back. Lifting his arms, he let her tug the shirt up and over his head. Then, for a racing heartbeat, he stopped to study the masterpiece sitting half naked before him. He liked the picture of her breasts spilling out over those crescents of lace. But that skirt had to go. His jeans, too.
Wrapping an arm around her waist, he lifted her bottom up and a little off the counter. They both tugged at the beer-damp skirt and it dropped to the floor. Before ditching his jeans and his shorts, he slapped his wallet with its enclosed condom on the dry side of the counter. But as he came forward, Sammy set her hands against his chest once again.
He blew out a breath. “What’s wrong now?”
“I’m just…reacquainting my memory.”
Reaching out, she filed a single fingertip around the tip of his erection.
Her touch was feathery—barely there—and yet the visceral reaction from the contact was colossal. A part of him wanted to take this slowly, draw it out. A more urgent side was growling, Screw that.
He folded his hand over hers and tightened his grip until the throb pulsated through to the marrow of his bones. Then he guided her fist toward his groin. Aware of perspiration breaking out down the dent of his spine, he held that position, revelling in the burn and anticipation before easing her fist back up all the way.
His voice was gravelled—strained. “Worked that into your data bank yet?”
She kept her gaze on their still joined hands. “Go over it one more time for me, will you?”
Squeezing his gluts, bracing his legs, he loosened his grip a little; he had to be squashing her hand. Then, for a second time, he dragged her fist down to the root. Clenching his jaw, he let the heat simmer for a second before wringing their hold back up to the smouldering tip.
She wet her lips and audibly swallowed. “How do you feel,” she asked, “about oral sex?”
Beneath both their hands, his erection shuddered.
As Chase kissed her again, Sammy tried to steady herself. Since the day she’d spied him soaping up in that shower stall, she’d lain awake nights thinking how awesome it would be to have his P.I. experience on her side. She’d also fantasised about something like this...feeling his lips moving over her body, having his hot hands exploring and kneading her skin.
This was only the third time they’d been alone together—they weren’t much more than strangers. And yet everything about this felt so incredibly right…as if neither one could stop it if they tried. Every inch of her ached to know the limits of his touch. Each breath and sigh only made her want him more.
With him towering over her, kissing her deeply, he manoeuvred the briefs from under her behind and off her legs. With underpants gone and breasts hanging out, she braced herself while he whipped a foil wrapper from his wallet. When he was sheathed, he swept her off the kitchen counter. Her legs lashed around his hips at the same time his mouth locked on hers again.
He reversed up until the expanse between his shoulder blades smacked the wall and set that photo frame rattling. With his mouth glued to hers, and his feet planted away from the wall, he shifted one hand under her behind to support and balance her weight. Then the sheathed tip of him nudged at the apex of her thighs.
When he dragged his lips away from hers, she searched his simmering gaze. As if she weighed as much as a ragdoll, he hitched her up and then eased her down. This time, his swollen tip entered her and her breath was snatched clean away.
A pulse at the side of his shadowed jaw beat as he held her gaze and rotated her hips. Each time he moved, he rubbed a hyper-sensitive spot just inside of her, making her quiver and glow. With her arms knotted around his neck, she bit her lip as a sob of pleasure pushed up her throat.
She managed to stretch high enough to position her breasts at the level of his mouth. Moving in, he latched on to a nipple before he lifted her bottom up and then pushing her down again. This
time, that hot-spot sensation gripped her so hard, her inner walls contracted and refused to let go.
While heat sizzled through her, he continued to pump, and then grind. As his tongue flicked her nipple, the hand under her behind shifted across. When a fingertip brushed the bridge between her openings, she moaned at the same time her legs began to twitch.
She locked her ankles more firmly around the small of his back and, clinging to his neck, synced up with his rhythm. While they worked together, some thrusts drove in so hard and deep, stars began to spark and then shoot off in her head.
When the orgasm hit, her womb contracted around a series of white-hot waves. Each spasm was so intense, nothing else seemed to exist. As her legs tightened more, she ground down and let out a groan that punched up from her toes. He pulled her up, pushed her down, and then a second climax went off.
When the power of each wave began to ebb, catching her breath, Sammy became aware of her surroundings—of her partner. Chase’s face was buried in the crook of her neck. His shoulder blades were still propped against the wall, and his throbbing length was buried deep inside of her. His body was steaming.
Oh, right.
He’d climaxed, too.
All the plates and columns of his muscled flesh tensed and shuddered a final time. After a few seconds, he exhaled against the sweep of her neck and locked tendons—as well as the snake on his shoulder—seemed to relax. As she stroked his hair and dropped a breathy kiss on his damp temple, the monster grips on her lower cheeks eased, too. She imagined two arcs of fingertip bruises on her butt, not that she cared.
When his heavy gaze found hers, she brushed the sweat from his brow, and then ran her palm over the sheen settled on the ledge of that serpent shoulder. Patches of hair on his big beautiful chest glistened. She fanned a hand over one pec and smiled when it responded, flexing beneath her touch. With the post-coital haze still clouding his eyes, he studied every inch of her face, her neck and her breasts. Leaning forward, bobbing lower, he dropped a tender kiss on one nipple then the other.
“Beard burn,” he noted. “Does it hurt?”
“So bad, I want to do it again.”
The muscles in his arms locked as he angled forward and drew one tender peak back onto his tongue. Still stroking his hair, she surrendered to the kindling heat stirring again in her belly. His mouth was pure magic. Each sweep of his tongue left her giddy. She wanted to spend the next week naked in bed with this man. On second thoughts, make it a month.
When a hand wound around her nape and his mouth covered hers, she cupped his scratchy jaw and surrendered. He kissed her slow and deep, and as that flawless caress gradually broke, she knew her grin was wry.
“You want to do it again, don’t you?”
He rested his brow against hers. “Give the lady a gold star.”
“Except we don’t have another condom, remember?”
“I also remember,” he drawled, “you mentioned oral sex.”
She felt her eyes go wide. “You want me to go down on you now?”
When he nuzzled, she felt his lips warm against her neck. “I was thinking the other way around.”
Chapter 6
Sammy had an even better idea.
She led Chase through to the downstairs bathroom and turned on the faucet so that water ran on the warmer side of cool. He unsnapped her bra and they stepped into the cosy cubicle, locking together while streams curled over their heads and around their joined mouths.
She didn’t object when Chase found the soap and slid the bar over her back, across her bottom then gently between her legs. While he kissed her in a totally absorbed way, she let her palms splay over the broad expanse of his shoulders, then down the epic contours of his arms. She fanned fingers over the dark hair dusting his chest, and when he began to pay attention to the nub glowing at the top of her folds, she hummed against his lips, letting him know she approved. She dragged her fingers up the thick, hot column of his neck, over his raspy jaw and in through his drenched, silky hair.
As the heat in her belly built, Sammy slid her mouth away from his and slipped around in the wet circle of his arms. With her back resting against his hard trunk, she tilted her pelvis and gave herself over to his skill as he continued to tease and lightly rub.
When his mouth found a spot an inch below her ear, she groaned at the tickle of his warm tongue on her skin. His other hand scooped up the side of her waist, stopping to weight one breast before plucking the tip with the same rhythm he used to stimulate her down below.
He murmured against her ear. “Are you ready?”
She sighed and smiled. “So ready...”
Then he was turning her around, easing her up against the glass at the same time he hunkered down. Clutching his big shoulders, she let her head tip back. She had never gone this far with anyone she’d known such a brief time. Call her shy, or slow, but she usually saved this level of intimacy for much later.
But she’d been the one to open this door. Chase had simply taken the lead. And as he got comfortable, she gripped his shoulders harder, shut her eyes tighter and promised herself to relax and enjoy.
She imagined him measuring her with his eyes, and then felt his breath warm on that ultra-private part of her. She thought she felt his smile as his lips oh-so-lightly brushed that tingling spot. His lips brushed again and then drew a small select circle. Over the steady hiss of the shower, she felt his fingertips expose that part of her even more.
When the tip of his tongue flicked that spot, the sensation ripped up from her toes to her core. Then the warm wet oval of his mouth locked over her and his tongue swirled before he tasted her fully with such tenderness and talent, Sammy thought the top of her head might come off. When a finger slipped inside of her and began rubbing in just the right place, she wondered if any woman had ever felt this on fire.
Then his teeth nipped—so light, so right—and the kernel pulsing low and deep inside of her began to throb. With his fingers and tongue stroking her, she bit her lip, hunched her shoulders and, without meaning to, tripped over that wire again. If she’d been able to put a thought together, she’d have been embarrassed at her lack of control.
As rolls of pleasure swept through her, Chase didn’t let up until she was spent. Even then he stayed close to dot soft kisses either side of her thighs. Out of breath and heartbeat booming, she gazed down at him, ran her fingers through his hair and let him know her mind.
“I want you inside of me again.”
He pushed to his feet, blocking the shower spray as he stood before her. Two large palms planted on the glass either side of her head. His telling smile made her throat thicken. He looked so contented and absurdly masculine. No one could ever feel as adored as she did this minute.
He drew a fingertip around her dripping chin. “No protection, remember?” He cocked a brow. “Good news is there’s always next time.”
She slotted her arms around his neck. Next time couldn’t come soon enough.
“In the meantime...” He rested his forehead on hers. “Want to go see a game later in the week?”
Baseball? “With you?”
He laughed. “Yes, with me. We can grab something to eat at the stadium,” he circled the tip of his nose around hers, “then maybe go back to my place for something sweet later.”
Her heart doubled in size. She pinched his scratchy chin and then dabbed a kiss on the spot. “Dessert sounds good. What’ve you got in mind?”
“A surprise.”
“Can I put in a request?”
His lips twitched. “As always, I appreciate your input.”
“I don’t care what the toppings are,” she tugged his head down to whisper in his ear, “as long as dessert takes all night.”
As excited as Sammy was about finally moving forward with their investigation, she was just as excited about the idea of spending time with Chase. He was intelligent, had a sense of humor. Best of all, he was hot—sizzling, as a matter of fact. She couldn’t wait for t
heir date tomorrow night.
But, after he’d dried off and left, Sammy forced herself to focus on organizing a meeting with Ann, which she’d cleared with Chase.
The next day, before driving to her sister’s pristine two acre property in St. Helena, Sammy phoned ahead. Ann preferred to be forewarned of visitors, even ones who couldn’t care if the best dinnerware was out or whether the wine complemented the dish. Sammy enjoyed spending time with her sister—just hanging and talking and feeling close...preferably without Rick the Dick around. She was interested to hear, via Chase, that Jacob McPherson hadn’t been a fan of Ann’s husband, either.
Had her shady brother-in-law lifted the ring all those years ago? Although she hoped for everyone’s sake that wasn’t true, Sammy wouldn’t put it past him. She’d always felt he was hiding something.
When Sammy exited her car and trotted up the porch steps, Ann was there, arms opened wide. While they hugged big, like they always did, Sammy breathed in her sister’s expensive scent and remembered back to a time when they’d made their own perfume with wild flowers and water. They’d even packaged and sold some to friends. Their mom had told them both she was just so proud.
Now Ann announced, “You look amazing. Any calls? You had a soap audition lined up, yes?”
“That’s next week. I’m not sure yet how to play the part.”
“Any way the director says.” With an arm hooked around her little sister’s waist, Ann led the way inside the immaculate abode that Sammy secretly referred to as The Palace.
Mirror polished furniture, elegant swags, tasteful art—water colors in one room, oils in another. Although losing that ruby ring so soon after losing their mom had been a huge blow, the insurance money had made a vast difference to both their lives. Ann had scored the funds to start up her own business, a health-based cafe, which had evolved and certainly grown over the years. Sammy had been able to attend her college of choice. Immediately they’d moved to a better part of town. Those days of constant struggle were behind them.
Wild About The Bodyguard Page 5
