Revenge for Hire (The Get Even Agency)

by Lynn, Janice

  As with his face, she ran a tentative finger over the sinewy muscles, exploring every aspect, enjoying the rough feel of the light spattering of chest hair. A light spattering that narrowed into an arrow that pointed into his tuxedo pants.

  A sign, for sure.

  Avery didn’t believe in wasting a good sign.

  She scooted into more of an upright position and placed her hand over him.

  He was hard.

  Was he dreaming in his sleep? Of her?

  She smiled at the thought and stroked her palm back and forth, thrilling that he grew harder, larger at her touch. She wanted more. She wanted to know what he’d feel like in her hands. Really in her hands. Skin to skin.

  She undid his pants snap, then lowered his zipper, taking care to not catch anything vital.

  He wore white briefs beneath his pants.

  That surprised her. She’d expected boxers or perhaps colored briefs. White seemed to imply a dependability she didn’t associate with Jude.

  She grazed her fingertips over the cotton, then eased the material down enough to free him.

  Holy mother of…she gulped. Wow.

  Impressive.

  As she had through his clothes, she touched and explored, amazed at how something could be so silky soft and yet so hard. She circled her hand around him and squeezed, relishing the feel of him in her palm.

  That’s when she realized something had changed.

  Jude’s breathing.

  The tension in his body.

  She glanced up and her gaze collided with blue. Her hand stilled.

  “You’re awake,” she accused.

  “Don’t let that stop you.”

  When she went to pull away his hand covered hers. “I’ll close my eyes again if you won’t stop.”

  Close his eyes again? She gave him an evil glare. “You’ve been faking?”

  He squeezed her hand, reminding her of the hardness she held. “Does that feel fake to you?”

  “No.” She couldn’t say it did. Fascinated by the play of desire in his eyes she squeezed again, and again.

  Jude groaned. “I thought I was having one hell of a dream,” he admitted, his buttocks tightening and lifting into her embrace.

  Avery smiled. “Do you like that?”

  “Hell yes.”

  “Do you want me to stop?”

  “Hell no.”

  “Perhaps I should. You’re probably under the influence of those allergy pills.”

  “What’s my excuse for the other seventy-two hours I’ve known you?”

  She arched a brow, stroking her hand back and forth, measuring her movements by his reactions.

  His eyes remained locked with hers. “I’ve wanted you from the moment I met you.”

  Nervous butterflies danced in her stomach. This wasn’t like being seduced. It was her hands on his body, her doing the seducing. Admitting that she wanted him. That she wanted to have sex with him.

  She did.

  Outside of her TGEA roles she hadn’t propositioned a man since Scott. A proposition he’d laughed at.

  Avery steeled herself and pressed forward.

  She wouldn’t let ghosts stand between her and what she wanted. Not tonight.

  Scott had been eons ago. She was a stronger, more confident woman now. It was time to move on with her life. To experience sex again.

  Tonight she wasn’t going to worry about TGEA or being an avenger or the past or anything else. Tonight she was a woman and was with a man who made her feel beautiful and sexy.

  Tonight she’d make love and not worry about what daylight would bring.

  Which was quite a lot. Unfortunately.

  Some things could be helped, some couldn’t.

  She and Jude had tonight.

  Day after tomorrow, she and the TGEA girls would head home to Nashville. Away from Jude forever.

  “I want you, too.” She increased her pace and was rewarded with a low-throated growl. “But I shouldn’t take advantage of your feeble condition.”

  “Angel, you’re killing me.”

  “Want me to quit?”

  “That would kill me.”

  He reached out, touched her face, seemed to notice what she wore for the first time.

  “You. Are. Stunning.”

  He meant it.

  She could tell by his eyes. Eyes that devoured her exposed flesh. Exposed all except for the scrap of black lace over her breasts and the vee at her thighs.

  She’d known he’d look at her this way.

  He rolled to his side, pulled her hand from him and kissed her palm. He stared for a long time, so long that Avery glanced down at her body bathed in the lamp’s golden glow.

  What did he see? Nothing as impressive as some of the women he’d been with, she knew. Yet in his eyes she saw awe, breathlessness. Like she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes upon and he couldn’t believe he was the lucky guy in bed with her.

  That look in his eyes made her head spin and her pulse throb. Made everything throb.

  His hands traced over her, similar to how she’d explored him. As if he wanted to store every inch of her flesh in his memory.

  When she felt her entire body tingle on pins and needles, he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her belly. Kissed a hip bone. Then the other.

  His gaze locked with hers, he hooked his fingers around the lace and slowly slid it down her thighs, her legs, her ankles. His hands sensually grazed her flesh on the unhurried downward journey.

  Wearing only her black lacy strapless bra, she kicked free of the panties.

  Jude began his kisses again. Slowly, sensuously, in ways that only a real bad boy would ever kiss a woman. She was sure of it. In ways that made her grab his shoulders. Her knees buckled and she cried out his name.

  Still he kissed, teasing her with his tongue and pushing for more and more. As if he knew the precipice she rode upon and was going to plunge into any moment.

  Jude beat her to the plunge.

  Beat her by pushing a finger into her, then another.

  Moving with a magic so powerful it had to be wicked, he lifted her higher and higher until there was no place to go but down.

  So she fell.

  Fell into an abyss of pleasurable waves.

  Fell into his waiting arms because she was pretty sure if he let go, she’d fall apart.

  Fell into total lust with the man whose arms held her close.

  What she didn’t do was fall in love.

  Nope.

  No way had she done that.

  Chapter Ten

  Jude was so screwed.

  He hadn’t broken his vow, but hell if he wasn’t on his way.

  Angel had just come apart in his arms, and she wanted him. And wasn’t pretending otherwise. Tonight, she didn’t send mixed signals.

  Because of his allergic reaction?

  Hell, if anything, the hideous way he’d looked should have scared her off. Instead his reaction seemed to have lowered her inhibitions.

  Then again, those inhibitions had been lowered when they were in the limo.

  The attraction between them was instantaneous, unlike anything he’d known.

  He’d wanted her that day in his office before he’d even looked up and seen her. Before he’d known she had the most amazing eyes, smile, legs, everything. Had it only been two days ago? Three.

  Three days he’d known this woman.

  Not that the time frame was a first to be in bed with a woman he wanted, but in his apartment? He didn’t bring women to his place. He went to theirs, that way he could leave at his whim.

  So why had he brought Angela to his place?

  Technically, she’d brought him home. He vaguely remembered at the hospital she’d insisted she would watch over him, make sure his allergies didn’t flare back up. He’d wanted her with him and hadn’t argued.

  But he didn’t break vows.

  Which meant he couldn’t have full blown sex.

  He glanced down a
t the woman now cradled in his arms. Her skin was bathed in the warm glow of the lamplight and her eyes were glazed. Glazed with an uncanny mix of satiation and hunger.

  She planned to have him and was already shifting against him, running her fingers over his arms.

  Jude prided himself on his intelligence and his ability to know what he could and could not withstand. Withstanding a sensual onslaught from his angel wasn’t possible.

  If she pushed, he’d take.

  Then he’d regret.

  When he and Angel made love—and they would make love—he didn’t want anything shadowing the pleasure they’d give each other.

  She pressed a kiss to his neck, then another. Her hands picked up their pace, touching with more urgency, more confidence and need.

  “Jude.” His name purred off her lips. “I’ve thought of this moment.”

  He couldn’t let this go any further.

  Further?

  Hell, he’d already had the satisfaction of her sweet release, the torture of wanting her release around him and knowing he wouldn’t have it. If he didn’t call a halt right now, he was going to be a goner, because his angel held the power to make him temporarily forget everything and everyone.

  “We have to stop,” he hated saying it, “because I can’t have sex with you.”

  Angela’s eyes darkened to a murky green and her pouty lower lip sucked into her mouth. “Hello, Mr. Clinton, but isn’t that what we just did?”

  She wasn’t going to make this easy.

  “I can’t have intercourse, Angel.”

  “Really? You missing a vital piece of equipment?” Her gaze dropped to where his vital piece was prominently displayed.

  “Apparently not.” He raked a hand through his hair. “It’s not that I don’t want to have sex with you.”

  He sounded lame. Hell, this whole situation was lame. Lame or not, he wouldn’t have sex.

  “Then what is it?” She scooted off his lap and reached for her dress. Her movements jerked and didn’t have the natural grace she usually exuded.

  He felt like a total ass.

  “Did I do something wrong?” Her words were too full of hurt for someone not to have jammed the notion into her head a long time ago.

  The ass-o-meter just tipped off the scales with him winning the grand prize.

  He hated his inability to prove just how right she’d been. Hated whoever put the doubt in her mind.

  Jude clenched his fists, longed to knock a few teeth out of some asshole’s mouth.

  “You were perfect, Angel.” He zipped his tuxedo pants. “Are perfect.”

  She snorted, shaking out her dress and preparing to slide her legs into the opening. “So perfect that a player who’s known for bedding everything that moves refuses to have sex with me? Oh yeah, perfect.”

  Hell.

  “I don’t bed everything that moves.”

  “You work at a porn mag, Jude,” she scoffed.

  Oh Christ. Not another one. Women automatically assumed that because he was editor-in-chief of Playhouse Magazine that he walked around poking women all day long. Yes, he had a healthy sexual appetite and an active sex life. Yes, he liked the female body, what straight guy didn’t? But it wasn’t as if he thought women everywhere should walk around with their tits hanging out--although he wasn’t necessarily opposed to the idea.

  His gaze lowered to Angel’s breasts. Honestly, the thought of her walking around without a top turned him on. But only if he was the only man to see. The thought of another man viewing her perfection didn’t sit well. He wanted to be the only one. To see. To touch. To taste. His.

  “So?” Attempting to hide the strange possessive emotions running through him, he ran a hand over his face. What was wrong with him? He didn’t do possessive. “It’s not like the models audition with me.”

  She gave him a disbelieving look. “That’s not how I hear it.”

  What had she heard? From who? Was that why she’d acted so strange when Mrs. Yamaguchi asked him to dance? “I’ve only dated a few and never when it had anything to do with their posing for the magazine.” Except maybe for Mandy.

  “More than a few.” She stood, pulling the dress over her breasts.

  “Don’t.” He put his hand over her hand, staying her from zipping the dress, hating that she’d covered up her milky perfection.

  She glared. “Make your mind up, lover boy. Either you want me out of my dress or in it, but you can’t have it both ways.”

  “Actually, I could.”

  “Oh!” She jerked away, apparently not appreciating his warped sense of humor, straightened the dress and pulled the zipper closed. “I’m going home.”

  “The limo stayed?”

  “The limo didn’t bring us here to begin with. I let the driver go at the hotel.” She looked distracted, like she was trying to decide her next move. “A taxi brought us, and I’ll call another one from the lobby.”

  He didn’t want her to go.

  “It’s not safe or proper for you to be out all alone this late at night.”

  “I’m not a proper kind of girl and have no desire to be. What’s the fun in that?” She cast him a snide look that said he should get with the times. “Besides, I can take care of myself.”

  He knew that.

  There was something about the confident way she generally carried herself that said she could deal with any situation that came up.

  Only, at the moment, she didn’t look confident.

  She looked vulnerable.

  Because of him.

  A wounded angel who was ready to strike out in pain.

  He hadn’t been the first man to hurt her. Damn it, he didn’t want to hurt her.

  “I don’t want you to go,” he admitted. Despite the allergy meds, the crazy events of the night, and his insane vow, he knew he did not want her to leave.

  What he wanted was to wipe the hurt from her eyes and to never let anyone hurt her again. Not ever.

  “Too bad, because I no longer want to stay.”

  Damn she was stubborn. And sassy.

  Her arms went across her breasts.

  He almost smiled at the tell-tale motion. “You don’t want to go, Angel.”

  “Yes, I do.” She spun and headed to the door.

  Jude watched her walk across his bedroom, thinking the sway of her hips sexy.

  He should let her go.

  It was for the best.

  If she left, he wouldn’t give in to his weakness for her. Wouldn’t do something he’d later regret.

  He told himself that right up till her hand touched the doorknob. She was leaving.

  Not just leaving, but leaving hurt.

  He couldn’t allow it and gave in to the need within him. Only the truth would do. Even if that truth left him vulnerable.

  “I vowed not to have sex, Angel.”

  She stopped. Still perched on the doorknob, her hand shook. “What?”

  The incredulousness in her voice did little to appease the growing nervousness within him. What was he thinking? Admitting to his vow? No one could possibly understand why a man would make such a vow and then feel obligated to keep it even at his own detriment. But his whole life his father preached to make his word mean something. It did.

  Like his father before him and his father before him, when Jude said something, it could be taken as fact.

  Nothing meant more than a person’s word.

  “What did you say?” she repeated.

  Here went everything. He took a deep breath. “I vowed not to have sex until Marcus got laid.”

  Her hand fell from the doorknob. Her shoulders shook slightly. Probably with laughter, but he couldn’t be sure.

  He wished she’d turn, let him look into her eyes and see what she was feeling. She didn’t.

  Still, he went on. “Angel, the only reason I’m not inside you right now is because I made that insane vow.”

  She turned, her forehead wrinkled. She stared dubiously at him. “You’re ki
dding?”

  He snorted without humor. “I’m not.”

  Emotions shifted so quickly on her face, Jude could barely keep up. Disbelief, amusement, anger, frustration, pity, pleasure, admiration, skepticism, even desire.

  “That,” she put her hands on her hips, “is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  “Tell me about it,” he agreed, meeting her gaze and silently beckoning her to return to his side, to understand everything he was revealing. For all intents, he was bearing his soul. To a woman who was virtually a stranger and yet felt more familiar, more real, than anyone he’d ever met.

  He couldn’t recall ever revealing more of himself to a woman. Then again, Angel wasn’t any ordinary woman. She couldn’t be and make him so weak at the knees.

  Weariness hit him. He wasn’t sure if it was from the released tension or if it had something to do with the allergy medication. Either way, he felt drained. Drained and in need of major shut eye. A need he couldn’t give in to. Not yet.

  “But,” he sought the words to make her understand, “I did make the vow. Vows are not something I take lightly. Honesty is important to me. I keep my vows, always, even one as insane as this one.”

  Her hand went back to the doorknob, but she didn’t turn the handle, just stared at him. “Why would you vow something like that?”

  That was the real kicker, wasn’t it?

  “Because I never dreamed a temptation I couldn’t resist would come along.” As he said the words, he realized he’d been bored with sex. Not that he would have believed it had someone told him, but sex just hadn’t held the appeal it once had. Was that why he’d not thought twice of making the vow? Because he’d thought going without for a month would get his juices flowing again?

  “How could I have?” he asked, sitting up and trying to ignore the wave of dizziness that hit him. “None ever had before the day you walked into my office and turned my world upside down.”

  He knew he’d admit most anything to keep her from walking out the door and didn’t have the strength to pretend otherwise. Most anything that wasn’t a lie at any rate. Exhaustion had picked him up and body-slammed him. He didn’t want her to leave, but didn’t have the physical strength to seduce her into staying—which was probably a good thing considering his vow. Not that he understood all the reasons why it was so important she stay, but he wanted to wake up with an angel in his bed. Even if it meant just holding her in his arms.