Lucky Charm

by Valerie Douglas

  His sex was rampant, erect. To touch him...to touch that long shaft… Ariel felt that hardness hot against her hip, the long heavy length of it pressed tightly against her as his mouth moved down her throat. Her fingers yearned to touch him. She reached for him, her fingers closing around velvety skin drawn tight over rigid muscle. He pulsed against her palm.

  Matt groaned at her touch, raising himself up on one elbow long enough to see her eyes widen and darken. The feel of her hand around him was nearly more than he could stand.

  Electric shivers ran through Ariel at the feel of him twitching against her palm. The long muscles of his back flexed as she slid her other hand up the taut muscles into the crisp hair at the nape of his neck.

  His mouth closed over her breast, drew the nipple in and she gasped, tears springing to her eyes as her breath caught and her hand tightened around him. She buried her fingers in his soft, thick golden hair, drew his mouth tight against her.

  Nibbling, licking, his tongue swirled over the tip of her breast until it was swollen and aching. She arched her back as another moan whispered out of her. Suckling, he drew on her. Bolts of heated pleasure shot through her with every motion of his mouth and tongue. She trembled. It felt so good, so very good.

  Matt felt her quiver. Driven, all he knew was that he wanted her to do more of that. If she wanted this, he would give it to her in full measure.

  She tasted so good, the stiff tip of her breast growing harder as he nibbled on it. There was the heated dampness of her core beneath his hand, the curly mound between her thighs.

  Control evaporated.

  Matt devoured her breasts, ravaged them, suckling and nibbling as she moaned and writhed beneath him. Her hand tightened in his hair to draw him, his mouth, harder against her.

  She stroked and caressed, driving him nearly insane and he returned the gesture in spades. He sought the small nub nestled within those ebony curls with his fingers. He stroked, teased and coaxed between her thighs until she trembled, grew taut, quivered wildly and then cried out as she came.

  It wasn’t enough, not nearly enough. He would give her something to remember him.

  Covering her smooth belly with kisses he slid down, his mouth trailing over silky skin until he reached the little bud between her thighs. Finding it, he savored it, slowly, deeply, sucking gently, his tongue teasing until she begged for release. Her hips rose urgently. Sliding an arm beneath her, he held her on the edge of satisfaction. With the fingers of his other hand, he sought the searing depths of her. She quivered, vibrated, her head tossed, her blue eyes blind to anything but his touch as her body trembled violently.

  He gave her what she wanted.

  Her hands locked in the covers, her body arched and she cried out helplessly, shuddering in ecstasy.

  “I’d forgotten what this feels like,” she whispered, trembling with the aftermath, so caught up in the glory of it that Matt knew she didn’t know she’d spoken aloud.

  Pleasure so intense Arial couldn’t think erupted through her and still she needed. She needed to be filled, to feel him inside her.

  Even as she thought it, he raised himself over her.

  Matt looked down at her pretty face flushed with color, surrounded by that incredibly lush dark hair, looked into her lovely blue eyes as they looked up at him in dazed pleasure and wonder.

  Nothing was as beautiful as this, as a woman, wanton, needing, and yet still innocent.

  Her finely shaped mouth was soft and swollen now from his kisses. Her breasts were swollen, too, the nipples rigid.

  Matt wanted her, bad, he was so hard he could barely hold himself back but he’d never taken a woman who didn’t want him in return.

  “Are you sure?” he asked, fumbling in his jeans until he found the little packet. His voice was rough with need even to his own ears as he sheathed himself with a condom.

  He had to ask, to be sure.

  It was her last chance to change her mind, the last chance he could give her and even then he wasn’t certain he could hold himself back from just taking her. Need ached in him, compelled him. He was as hard as iron, throbbing.

  Ariel felt the broad head of his sex pressed against her, poised at the entrance to her core, pulsing in time to the beat of his heart.

  She took a long look at him.

  Dear God, he was beautiful.

  The taut muscles in his broad shoulders, chest and arms were etched beneath his skin as he held himself above her. His shaft, long, heavy and very hard, just touched the entrance to her. The effort of holding himself back was undeniable. She could see it in the quivering in his arms, in the very fact that he held himself back.

  It enough that he’d asked.

  So close. In all fairness, she couldn’t deny him this. She wasn’t a tease. He had given her so much.

  Nor could she deny herself. She wanted him inside her, filling her, stretching her. She nearly moaned in pleasure at the thought.

  Looking up into his clear green eyes, into the intense passion and desire that smoldered in them, she smiled and answered in the only way she could. She thrust upward with her hips to take him inside her. Hardness filled her, blessedly. She cried out at the solid feel of him as he slid inside her and her body stretched to take him.

  It was ecstasy. Glory.

  Matt groaned, his body arching involuntarily as her hot, wet, tightness suddenly surrounded him, intense pleasure searing through him as the surprise of it caught him off guard and he sank into her. Her sweet heat surrounded him as her hips shifted to take him even deeper.

  Another groan broke past his lips.

  His control shattered and he thrust completely into her. He pulled back a little. More, deeper. Again. More. God, he needed more.

  Stroking deeply, he drove himself all the way to the hilt, ground his hips against hers so she could feel how he filled her, penetrated her.

  She cried out in pleasure as her body rose in response to his demand.

  The sound went through him like an electric charge as the hot, slick muscles within her contracted around him.

  He needed her, needed this, he had to have it. Now.

  Come, damn it.

  He wanted to feel her come, again and again, tightening around him.

  Pounding into her as she drove up against him, she cried out as her hands clutched at him and she arched, tightening as her body quivered beneath and around him. He felt her tighten and then her sudden release as she came, trembling wildly.

  Not yet, he didn’t want it over yet. It took every ounce of control but he wouldn’t let go, not yet.

  Stroking into her harder and deeper, slowly, pulling nearly all the way out before driving deep, he thrust until she tightened again, wrapping her legs around him to draw him even further inside her.

  He exploded, his body locked against hers, his own hips pumping as he came, and she took him, she took all of him. Her hands clutched at his shoulders as she came too.

  Still he shuddered in ecstasy and she clung to him, held him when he collapsed bonelessly on top of her.

  Matt pressed his mouth into the curve of her shoulder.

  Gently, gratefully, Ariel wrapped her arms around him, stroking her hands through his hair and down the long muscles of his back, soothing him.

  There was a pleasure and a comfort in this, too, in touching, caressing, in holding and being held.

  He felt wonderful, both the feel of his skin beneath her hands and the weight of his body as it pressed her into the mattress. His hair was thick, springy beneath the hand that combed into it. The long muscles of his back were taut but slowly relaxing as he settled over her. And yet, he didn’t feel heavy…

  Matt felt her soft hands move over him, gently, tenderly. Soothing him. That gesture touched him in a way he hadn’t known he’d longed for…

  Soft hands caressed him tenderly. Release and that gentle touch drove off some of the aches and pains of his abused muscles. It felt incredible. He felt incredible. For a little while, he lay cu
rled around her and simply enjoyed the pleasure of her touch, the feel of her deep, dark hair as it brushed softly and silkily against his cheek. Her scent teased him, soft and flowery. He absorbed the feel of her full breasts pressed against him.

  Propping himself up on one elbow, Matt coaxed a strand of midnight hair away from her face and kissed her gently. Her lips moved against his, giving back. It had been a long time since he’d had a lover as passionate and responsive during and so giving after. The contentment on her lovely face was proof enough that she enjoyed the simple pleasure of holding him.

  The taste of her was very good and he spent a little time enjoying the sweet textures of her mouth, the petal softness of her lips, the slick feel of her tongue as it twined around his.

  “I guess I should know your name,” he said, softly, after a while and after his heartbeat had slowed. “I owe you on two counts now.”

  She smiled, a little wryly. “Ariel O’Donnell.”

  It was a lovely smile, lighting up her beautiful dark-lashed blue eyes.

  So, with that name she was indeed an Irish leprechaun – she’d certainly been his lucky charm the previous night.

  “Pleased to meet you, Ariel,” he said, with a wry grin. “Matthew Morrison.”

  “Pleased to meet you, Matthew,” Ariel said, reaching up to touch his face. It was a good face, handsome, strong and kind. “Thank you, I think we could call it even now.”

  It had been so long since anyone had touched her, had held her like this. Until now, she hadn’t known how much she’d needed it. How much she’d missed it. Memories crowded for attention, feelings, old pain, but she pushed all of it into the back of her mind.

  Matt saw the shadow move through her eyes. Such a capacity for joy, lighting her face when she smiled but beneath it was this odd, wistful sadness.

  Even? It wasn’t even close.

  “Why?” he asked.

  He really wanted to know. There was something about her that said she wasn’t the type for a one-night stand. She was too warm, too clear-eyed, too giving, she would need more than simple sex.

  She was strong, decisive and gutsy as hell, too, from what he’d seen.

  Matt had had his share of one-night stands, women looking for a quick fling or to scratch an itch. It was an exercise of bodies, not this kind of warmth and giving. At the end of the night in those shallow couplings, you were never sure whether it had been worth the effort and you certainly didn’t want to stay the night.

  He’d also been in a relationship that had been less giving, had had less intensity than this. That memory stung.

  Ariel O’Donnell had given her heart and soul to him, had loved him and touched him with more joy in this brief interlude than his last girlfriend had in the six months they’d been together.

  Jeannine.

  Sex with her had been satisfying enough but he’d never experienced this deep pleasure, this flaring passion. Never once had she touched him more than was necessary. He’d always been left with the vague sense of wanting more. Ariel had reached for him, had caressed him, as Jeannine never had. And maybe that had been the attraction. The thought was unsettling.

  Ariel frowned a little at his question, a narrow line appearing between those finely arched brows that flared outward like dark wings.

  “Why help you?” Ariel asked. Or why this?

  Old sorrow, old grief, moved in her. No, she wouldn’t think of that, not now.

  The unspoken question hovered between them.

  Matt wanted to know that as well. He still couldn’t believe she’d done it. A brief momentary hesitation to take it in, to see he was in trouble...and then she’d just stepped in. The images of her, all of five foot something, reaching for that two-by and swinging it with determination. She had to have known the danger in which she was putting herself and yet she’d done it anyway.

  “You took a hell of a risk,” he said in frank admiration.

  Wryly, she laughed a little. “I didn’t even think about it. I just didn’t like the odds of three against one. It didn’t seem fair, although it looks as if you normally do pretty well for yourself.”

  She stroked her fingers across his chest.

  Matt saw that same odd, wistful smile curve her lips again as she caressed him. She liked to touch, that was clear. He didn’t mind it at all. Some women thought the man should do all the work or that men didn’t like to be touched. Or didn’t care if they were. For himself, he liked to make love to women, to give them pleasure, but he also liked to be touched. Very much. For a moment, he simply absorbed the dance of her fingers across him.

  Reluctantly he wrenched his mind back to what she’d said.

  “Generally,” he admitted, “they took me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting that kind of response.”

  “Matt,” she asked, “why were they beating you?”

  Her question was like being doused with cold water – a sudden cold reminder of the reason he was here. And it wasn’t to make love to pretty, elf-like women. Bill. He was the real reason he was here. That was what he should be thinking about.

  There’d been only Matt’s word about the content of the phone call. A trace of the phone call would only have verified a call had been made. Even then Bill hadn’t been specific. He’d just asked Matt to come, to look at something he’d found. What it was even Matt didn’t know. So he’d kept his thoughts and suspicions to himself and begun his own investigation, with Darrin’s consent.

  He’d spotted the tail in San Diego, after he’d tried to check out Bill’s office. He thought he’d lost them when he’d gone to Sacramento, but he hadn’t. The three stooges, he called them. Larry, Moe and Curly. He’d hoped he’d lost them for good with this jump to the East Coast.

  Just the fact that they were there was all Matt needed to confirm that something indeed was going on. If only because they seemed grossly over-qualified for simple security.

  The three last night – Harpo, Chico and Groucho, for want of better names – were a different breed, probably part of Marathon’s standard security. He hadn’t expected them to be nearly so… aggressive. Or that they would set a trap for him. They were only supposed to be building security, little more than Rent-a-Cops. Those boys had been a lot more, and obviously they’d been forewarned.

  Even so, without the Taser and the shot to his head, they should never have taken him. He hadn’t been prepared for the ferocity of the attack and he’d been caught off guard.

  He wouldn’t make that mistake again.

  All his training in the service and since, all his expertise, and three goons had nearly taken him down. All because of his own arrogance, his own carelessness. Would have succeeded in taking him down if it hadn’t been for the woman beside him. It had been an exercise in stupidity. His own. He knew better. He was more than a little disgusted with himself.

  Matt had a pretty good idea what would have happened to him if Ariel hadn’t shown up. Another Bill. Dumped in an alley and written off as a mugging, random urban violence. Even with all his training. Now he knew how they’d taken Bill out. In the service he’d been a step above his old buddy and he’d learned a few more things since. He’d been damned stupid, damned careless… and damned lucky. Lucky that Ariel had turned up and lucky she’d had enough guts to go to bat for him. Literally.

  One thing was certain, though and that was that there was a lot more going on here than even he knew. Given that knowledge, he wasn’t getting her any more involved in this than she already was. He was pretty certain those men hadn’t gotten a good look at her. She’d been quick, resolute and incredibly brave.

  But she was in this as deep as he’d let her go.

  He shook his head. “Thank you for last night, for this but I’d better go.”

  Reluctantly, Matt turned away, pulled his clothes back on.

  Suddenly there was an awkwardness between them that hadn’t been there moments before.

  Ariel watched as he closed up, his eyes going opaque, his expression setting. />
  She couldn’t decide how she felt about it. On the one hand, something within her had eased but something else had awakened again. There was an odd pang at the thought that she might never see him again and yet she had no right to expect anything different. He was a complete stranger.

  It’s probably for the best, she decided. She wasn’t certain she wanted to know, really.

  It had been wonderful, though.

  Had time dimmed the memory of lovemaking or had it truly been that good? She wondered.

  Whichever it was, she was grateful for it. She’d forgotten what it was like to be touched, to make love, to feel that shattering pleasure.

  It was hard not to watch as he dressed or to think of anything else except how beautiful he was. It was almost a shame to cover up those long legs with jeans but he looked so good in them. He had a body for wearing nothing but denim, tight muscles with the dusting of hair rising in a narrowing triangle above the waistband to just below his navel. Then he pulled the dark-colored t-shirt over his head and tucked it into place. His deep tan and fair hair were such a sharp contrast to the dark t-shirt. He looked fantastic, all rangy and sexy.

  With a wry smile, she held out his keys. “You’ll need these, then.”

  As Matt took them from her he realized she’d never really answered his question, not the one he really wanted answered. Why had she done this? Why such a need, why that yearning? She seemed strong and confident, definitely not the one-night-stand type.

  “Why this?” he repeated, because he had to know and then watched that core of strength shatter.

  That was the one question Ariel hadn’t wanted to think about and didn’t want to consider. Loneliness, sorrow and grief roared up out of the box in her mind. With them came the memory of strong arms and a face she’d loved to touch. Suddenly she could barely remember what he’d looked like, there was only the impression of dark eyes and dark hair. Grief battered her. She was losing him again, losing even the memory of him. He was gone. Pain welled. She’d known love, she’d known pain and she was so tired of being alone. So tired of hurting.