Imminent Danger (Adrenaline Highs)

by Unknown

  His crazy panty-melting, hot open-mouth kiss. A kiss that penetrated unlike the others. A slow, deep kiss that shot heat and energy through her chest to her middle and through her arms and legs. He consumed her. Took everything she was in that kiss.

  “I’m not going to fuck you on my cabana sofa,” he told her, but it sounded as if he meant the words more for himself.

  “Good,” she told him, encouraging his willpower without showing any of her own as she came back for more. “Don’t.”

  He snuck his hands into her waistband and discovered she’d gone commando. Her underwear was still drying over the shower rod. “Goddammit,” he swore, taking her mouth harder, driving his tongue deep and sure. “I can’t. Goddammit. I…can’t…”

  Can’t stop was what she assumed since he worked the sweats off one of her legs before guiding his hand back in place around her hip. His sweats slid down his thighs after she pulled at the knot on his waistband. His erection sprang free of his boxer briefs with a little shimmy and tug.

  This time she growled as she slid herself along his ridged erection.

  Leo pulled back, his eyes wide and almost wild. “Tell me to stop or I’m going to be inside you in about three seconds.”

  She should absolutely tell him to stop. Instead she stared at him, her eyelids heavy, her heart slamming against her ribs, every burning inch of her needing every hard inch of him inside her.

  “Kim.” The warning tone only made her smile. “Tell me, Goddammit.”

  She shook her head and glanced at his lips, her heart pounding at a primitive beat, before she leaned up and captured his mouth. His fingers pushed inside her first and Kim moaned with the pleasure of the invasion. He pumped a few times, worked the cream he discovered all around to ease his entrance.

  “Jesus, you’re so ready,” he murmured between kisses. He teased her clit with his thumb and she jerked at the shock of it. In the next instant, the fat head of his penis crowded her tight entrance. Leo pushed in a fraction at a time. Let her feel every hard inch as he moved inside her. He stared down at her, watching her so intently, and she watched him.

  God, she’d never been like this during sex. Never kept her eyes open and watched a man’s face as he filled her. She saw his pleasure, his need. The way he looked at her, searching for any signs of…what? Tension? Pain? Fear? She didn’t know. She just wanted to comfort him. That’s how this whole thing started out, wasn’t it? To comfort him.

  “God, you feel so…so…” His eyes widened and he suddenly pulled out. “Jesus! A condom. I forgot a fucking condom.” Before she said anything, he reached into the bottom drawer of the little end table next to the sofa. He came back with a condom. That he probably had condoms stashed everywhere throughout his house shouldn’t surprise her. She really did know what this was about. It was sex for comfort’s sake. He suited up in seconds and his weight came back over her a second time. “Sorry about that.”

  “Not a problem.” At least it wouldn’t be now that he had protection. Where had her common sense gone?

  Everything faded away as Leo started moving. She’d never been a huge fan of missionary, but Leo knew his way around a woman. In only a few minutes, he had her figured out. He found her sweet spot and worked it with precision, angling her exactly the right way for the most effect.

  The rope lights on the interior of the cabana spun as Leo took her higher. She arched her back with every hard thrust and Leo got deeper each time. God, it was so good, so unbelievably good and she didn’t want it to end. Digging her nails into his back she adjusted the slightest bit to ease him off her hot spot. She just wanted to soak in his weight, his warmth, feel his slick skin beneath her hands as he slid over her.

  “Oh no you don’t,” he huffed as he angled her hips where they’d been before. “You’re going to come if I have to wring it out of you.” He pushed in again, over and over, dragging her back under with every perfect stroke. The point of no return loomed just around the corner. Another few seconds and she’d be—yes—right on the edge, right there, hovering, ready to fall. God, so good, so perfect.

  “Now goddammit,” he growled in her ear. “I feel you. Fucking come now.” With one last thrust, he hit the spot that took her over the edge. Everything blurred as the internal wave hit her, pummeled her senseless with shock after shock of unadulterated bliss. She was still coming, he was still moving as his climax hit. He groaned in her ear, his breathing harsh, ragged. His muscles stiffened and she felt the hard throbbing of his release inside her. His fingers flexed in her hair and the slight hint of pain had her arching into him. God, it triggered another orgasm that shimmied through her in tiny aftershocks.

  His grip finally loosened, but his weight kept her pressed into the cushion. She wouldn’t regret this. Not for a minute. Well, at least not right this minute. She meant to comfort him. No, she hadn’t planned on this, but she could’ve said no. She just hadn’t wanted to.

  Finally, he lifted on his elbows and looked down at her. “Holy, Jesus. That was unfuckingbelievable.”

  She laughed at the surprise on his face, the roundness of his eyes. “Don’t go all melodramatic on me. It was good sex and I know you’ve had a lot of good sex.”

  His brows slanted down and nearly met in the middle. “Not in a long fucking time. Trust me, that was unfuckingbelievable.”

  His comment brought back that sense of satisfaction, which made her marginally happy considering the circumstances. It also made her curious. “How long?”

  He paused. Either he needed to figure out the time or he debated telling her completely. “Over a year.”

  That floored her. “That can’t be. I saw a picture of you with…” Wait. When was the last time she saw him on a tabloid cover? Maybe it had been over a year.

  “Just because I show up on the cover of a rag magazine with a female doesn’t mean I’m fucking her.” He pulled out and Kim inhaled at the sudden emptiness. He got to his feet and turned his back to her as he reached for a discarded towel and cleaned himself up. He lifted his underwear and sweats and covered his sculpted ass.

  She didn’t want to add to the crap of his day. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “That was a shitty thing to say.”

  He looked over his shoulder, his blue eyes like lasers in the dark night and feeling hugely self-conscious with no bottoms, she reached for the sweats he’d stripped off her and put them on. He sighed and came back to her, lifted her legs and sat down before settling them back over his lap and leaning his head against the back of the sofa. “You didn’t make me mad. I’m just an idiot. Every time I think I’ve got a handle on the idiocy, I do something else and I’m right back to square one. Idiot.”

  Did that include their little session just now? Maybe she didn’t want the answer to that. Though it would’ve been smart to create some distance between them, Kim didn’t. She liked this quiet, almost domestic, few minutes. It made Leo more human and less the bad boy sex symbol she’d always read about.

  Kim hadn’t moved from her spot on the sofa, aside from adjusting her—his—sweats back into place. “So you’re not an idiot because of this. Or maybe we’re both idiots so it cancels itself out.”

  That made no sense to Leo. “Why are you an idiot?” He was the one who couldn’t keep his dick in his pants. At least not tonight. Although it was a hell of a way to break a drought. Kim had a unique ability to make him feel like a…a normal guy.

  “Because I drink and I fuck and I feel like trash afterward.”

  He knew the feeling. All too well. “Sounds like we have more in common than I originally thought.”

  She met his gaze. “Is that why you’ve taken a fuck break?”

  He chuckled. “Fuck break?” Nodding, he sobered. “Yeah. I guess so.”

  “There’s nothing worse than facing yourself in the mirror when you feel like shit.”

  He didn’t want her to feel that way after what just happened. He leaned his head back against the sofa and stared at the cabana’s flat ceilin
g. “I tried to stop. Sex always screws things up. You don’t deserve to feel like shit.”

  “Cut yourself some slack. You would’ve stopped if I’d helped you any.”

  “True that,” he teased, stroking his hand down her leg. “So let’s make a pact that neither one of us feels like shit after this. Fair?”

  “Yeah. I like that. We don’t have to tell anyone and it’ll be our little secret. I won’t let a few orgasmic minutes keep me from what I promised you earlier or change our relationship. If you need me, I’ll be here for you. Financially speaking. From here on out.”

  He caught her meaning loud and clear. From now on they were strictly about business. They shouldn’t have fucked around in the first place, but she was a reprieve from the absolute collapse of his life. He still couldn’t think about it. Couldn’t go to all the dark places his rampant thoughts took him. Like…

  How much longer could he stay in his home? He looked around the pool area, at the guesthouse on the other side of the manicured lawn and the tennis court on the far left side of the property. This place had been his haven for the last decade and there was every chance he was going to lose it. Megan came first. He had to keep her at the Marion Institute. She had the best doctors and the best care. She wouldn’t survive a move to another facility. She needed the stability and familiarity of her routine.

  He needed to sit down with Kim and talk finances.

  A certain freedom came with the knowledge that she didn’t want him again. So did a certain sorrow. Something about her struck him differently than other women.

  “Leo,” she whispered his name and he caught her troubled gaze.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t stop you.” Her big green eyes held a mountain of remorse. “Not because it wasn’t a great few minutes, don’t get me wrong. I just didn’t mean to let you down.”

  “How is it letting me down?” Didn’t he do that just fine all by himself?

  “Because I know you’re trying to be different. I see it. I feel it. And I don’t want to be the reason you backslide somehow.”

  He could get pissed at that. Or he could bite his tongue and treat the words as Kim meant them. “How could you know I’m trying to be different? You hardly know me.” Which was a lie, since she sure as shit knew his finances and those told a whole story on their own.

  She sat up, stuck her chin on her knees and wrapped her arms around her legs. “You are nothing like the tabloids make you out to be. That means either you never were or you’ve changed.” She studied him, her eyes growing heavy. “I think you’ve changed.”

  Leo looked away from her penetrating gaze. Maybe he had changed. Maybe all the lonely years had caught up to him and he was ready for something else. If Kim saw through him, would anyone else? Hell, maybe he didn’t care anymore. At least not for himself. He still had Megan to protect though and he couldn’t forget that.

  The last thing he needed was for people to think he’d changed. Of course this whole mess would give the press a whole new angle to crucify him, so it probably didn’t matter. The point was to keep giving them stories so they didn’t dig into his private life any more than what he gave them. Leo didn’t plan to comment on Kim’s statement. “I think you’re drunk,” he finally said, changing the subject as he eased some hair behind her ear, surprised at the fresh jolt of desire that coursed through him at the touch.

  She nodded. “I think I am a little.” She didn’t or couldn’t look at him and despite what she’d said earlier, he got the feeling that he’d completely fucked everything up between them.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Two days after her kidnapping, Abbey sat in the backyard of Troy and Julie’s place staring at a bubbling fountain and not seeing a damn thing except a non-stop internal video she couldn’t shut down. The trunk of the car, the bite of the tape on her mouth, the taste of the gag, the heart-pounding fear as she fought then ran for her life… The same horrible scenes kept replaying in her head.

  She should be happy. Relieved. She was alive after all. But they were back to square one when it came to her safety. As the cops located the owner of the property, who happened to be Michael Facinetti, the cousin of the man who’d been behind Blake’s family’s abduction, Abbey and Blake had gone back to Los Angeles. If Blake had been surprised to hear the Facinetti name again, he didn’t show it.

  The slider door whooshed open and closed and Abbey exhaled hard at her lack of privacy.

  Julie sat next to her on the bench. “How’s the ankle feeling?”

  “Fine,” Abbey assured her. “It was just a little twist. The ice did the trick the other night.”

  Nodding, Julie exhaled a soft breath. “I really wish you’d consider coming with me,” she said. “I could use your help while I’m there.”

  “You know I can’t.” Yesterday she’d discovered she was moving on to the next level of auditions for the reality show. Thankfully, the auditions would take place on a secure studio lot. She had another four days for the bruise on her cheek to heal. Makeup should cover what was left by then. “And you hardly ever need me when you travel,” she continued, stating what they both knew.

  Julie shoved Abbey’s shoulder with her own. “Sometimes I do.”

  This went beyond work. “If I leave now, I kill any chance I have at this show. You know how hard I’ve worked for something like this. I can’t just bail.” If anyone understood, it was Julie.

  “I know.” The reluctance in her voice came through loud and clear. “If I could cancel on this thing, I would in a second,” she added. Julie was speaking to Congress on behalf of a coalition devoted to worldwide women’s rights.

  “I know, but it’s too important. You have to go. It’s not every day a girl goes to Washington and gets to have dinner with the president and first lady.”

  “Now, them I would cancel on,” she teased. She’d been waiting for this appointment for months.

  Abbey chuckled. “Liar,” she coughed and Julie grinned at her.

  It was times like these with her boss, where their friendship mattered most to Abbey. She could go to Julie with anything and have her ready support. It was one of the reasons she worked so hard for this lady.

  The smile on Julie’s face dimmed as she looked out to the slate fountain. “You’ll stay here, right? It’s safer.”

  “I’ll stay here.” She’d already brought enough clothes to last a week and Troy’s home gym made working out even easier. “But I can’t live here forever. You know that, right?” Abbey needed her space.

  “Yes, I know.” Julie patted her thigh and stood up. “Troy’s waiting for me.”

  “Don’t want to keep the man waiting,” Abbey said with a lopsided smile.

  Julie crooked her index finger and Abbey obediently stood up. Julie gave her a sisterly hug. They didn’t hug often, but Abbey let her because Julie was a worrier. “Don’t go anywhere.”

  Abbey just nodded, because as soon as she got a time and location for her callback, she was out the door.

  No sooner had Troy and Julie left for the airport that Abbey’s phone rang. The detectives on the case had discovered a body. A body they were hoping she could identify as the man who’d been knifed at the Sports Center.

  Blake hated the idea of leaving the house, but he took Abbey to the police station anyway. She got queasy thinking about identifying a dead man. Would it be like television or movies where they pulled him out of a cold cubby in the wall and unzipped a bag? Would his eyes be open and sightless? Would he have more wounds than what she remembered on that horrible day?

  “The body we recovered matched the description you gave us, otherwise we wouldn’t be asking you to verify,” Detective Patrick said.

  “I understand.” Abbey felt Blake’s hand brush across hers, but she wouldn’t take it. She’d had to take a step back after their night in Palm Springs. The whole thing had embarrassed her beyond belief. Her request, his denial. His actions after that… God. Her cheeks got hot from the memory. So, no, she wouldn’t take
his hand.

  The detective pulled out a picture from a file on his desk. “Here it is.”

  The relief washing through Abbey was enough to weaken her knees. She’d pictured a walk through a cold morgue. Still, her stomach rolled over again anyway because she had to identify the man.

  A second before the detective lifted the picture, Abbey changed her mind, took Blake’s hand and squeezed tight. He squeezed back.

  “He was buried within a plastic tarp, but it wasn’t sealed tightly. Meaning the body was open to certain elements.” He waited for her nod before revealing the picture.

  Abbey braced herself for something gruesome, but not quite enough. His sheer white face had the same look on it as when he’d been knifed. His brown eyes sunken in his skull held the same fear. It was the slice on his cheek that sealed the ID. She turned away. “It’s him.”

  “You’re sure?” Detective Patrick asked. “Maybe you can take another look just to be positive.”

  “If she said it’s him, then it’s him,” Blake said, giving her hand a squeeze before wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

  Abbey took another quick look anyway even though it made her stomach flip. “Yes. I’m sure. I’ll never forget his face.” She met the detective’s gaze. “He was so scared when we ran into each other. Did he have any identification?”

  “We didn’t find anything on him, but we do have a missing person’s report and he matches the description. We’re waiting for someone to confirm the ID.”

  “Will you let us know who he is?” Blake asked.

  The detective nodded. “Sure.” He showed them out and Abbey practically ran to Blake’s Explorer.

  “You okay?” Blake asked as he slipped on his sunglasses and started the SUV. The shades almost hid his latest bruise, but not quite.

  “I think so.” She nodded and took a deep breath. “I just a need a minute to chill.” Then she needed a time travel machine to go back to the day this whole thing happened so she could avoid the Sports Center. Abbey glanced over at Blake. His jaw was set and his mouth a grim line. He could’ve been upset for a few different reasons. There were plenty to choose from. “Are you okay?”