Revenge for Hire (The Get Even Agency)

by Lynn, Janice

  He laughed and she wondered what he’d seen on her face. “Something good or bad?”

  “Both,” she admitted. “But I meant good.” She rubbed her hands over her legs, not liking the amused light in his eyes. Like he saw right through her and knew he made her insides quiver, made her long for things she shouldn’t want. Time to regain control.

  She held a steady expression and met his gaze. “I’ve been upfront. I’m not looking for a relationship, and we have no future. I’m here for the sex and nothing more. If that doesn’t work for you, I should leave.”

  “Let me get this straight,” he scratched his head, “you’re using me for sex?”

  Finally he understood. “Precisely.”

  He looked thoughtful. “Probably not the first time I’ve been used for sex, but the first someone’s told me so.”

  “Do you tell women you’re using them for sex?”

  He shrugged. “Not in so many words, but I don’t give them reason to believe I want more than sex.”

  She shot him a dubious look.

  “Except for you.” His eyes bore into her. “I want more than sex from you, Angel.”

  “I thought we decided not to go back to that.”

  A brown brow rose. “Did we?”

  “Yes.”

  He watched her from the other end of the sofa, making her feel as if she were under investigation. “Why does it make you so nervous that I care for you?”

  She snorted. “Because you are full of hot air, and I don’t want to get caught up in such nonsense.”

  He laughed, ran his fingers through his tuft of dirty blond hair. “I can’t believe I’m sitting here trying to convince a woman I care about her.”

  She didn’t speak.

  “I want to see you tomorrow.”

  “I’ll be at the office.”

  “Outside of work,” he clarified. “I want to spend tomorrow night with you. The whole weekend.”

  He wanted to spend the weekend with her? She’d be gone. Tomorrow.

  “Just for the sex,” he added, grinning impishly.

  She shook her head, refusing to be tempted by the lure of his devilishly tempting dimples. “Impossible.”

  “Why?”

  She bit the inside of her lip. She’d almost said because she was leaving town. Telling Jude the truth would be insane. Not that she really believed he’d try to find her, but taking a risk like that bordered on insane.

  “I already have plans.” She stared at the framed snapshot photo of Jude’s parents. What kind of playboy kept a photo of his mom and dad in his living room?

  “Break them.”

  “Not all plans are easily broken.” Which was so true her heart ached with the gravity of it.

  “Whatever your plans are, surely they can be put off?”

  She shook her head. TGEA was her life. Her family. Had been since college. She wouldn’t betray her friends. Not for a man. Not for anything.

  He looked disappointed. “I won’t see you all weekend?”

  “It’s unlikely, but we’ll see.” Better to go for vague in hopes he’d drop the subject.

  He waggled his brows. “As in, we’ll see each other?”

  She rolled her eyes and smiled in spite of herself. “You never give up, do you?”

  “When it’s something I want as much as I want you?” His grin turned lethal. “Never.”

  * * *

  Avery woke to the sound of Jude whispering in her ear.

  “Time to wake up, gorgeous,” his baritone stroked her senses, teasing Avery from a dreamy land where she was wrapped in the warmth of Jude’s embrace, “or we won’t have time for breakfast.”

  Under normal circumstances, she enjoyed mornings. Having had sex with Jude repeatedly during the night did not leave this morning falling into the category of normal circumstances. Despite her vigorous exercise regimen, muscles ached she hadn’t known she had.

  Would she even be able to walk?

  She opened an eye and found him grinning down at her.

  “Not a morning person, I take it?”

  She didn’t bother to explain. Somehow she doubted he’d believe her. At the moment being a morning person was the last thing to appeal. Perhaps waking in bed with a wonderfully sexy man was the cure for being a morning person, because she wanted nothing more than to snuggle next to him all day.

  “You want to shower first?” He dropped a kiss onto her nose. “I could go out and rustle us up some coffee and bagels.”

  Go out? Today was Friday. Jude couldn’t go out. Not yet. He might see what she didn’t want him to see until he had to because once he did he wouldn’t be smiling. Sure, it was her job to make sure he did see, eventually, but not first thing this morning. No harm would come by enjoying each other’s company a little bit longer before his life fell apart.

  She bit into her lower lip, then forced a smile. “No. Don’t go. We’ll stop for something after we pick up some clean clothes for me.”

  Jude traced his finger over the curve of her neck, her collarbone. “You sure? I don’t mind making a run for food.”

  Avery stretched, easing some of the soreness from her limbs. She rolled onto her side and wrapped her arms around Jude’s neck. “If you left, I’d mind very much.”

  “Oh?”

  She definitely had his attention. Proof was pressing into her belly.

  “I thought perhaps we could share that shower you mentioned. You know, you wash my back, I’ll wash yours.” She kissed him. “Do our part to save water.”

  “A conservation gal? I like that,” he murmured, taking their kiss deeper. Deeper still. “We better get up, or we’ll have to forego the shared shower.”

  Avery stared at him, knowing she wore a goofy, hazy look. “Why?”

  “There’s only one condom left.”

  Her eyes opened wide. Only one? She counted back in her mind. Only one.

  Of course, five minutes ago she’d been too sore to even consider sex. Now her brain reminded that if she ever wanted to have Jude inside her again, it was now or never. She wanted. Badly.

  Enough that she didn’t care if she walked funny for the rest of the week. She needed. Badly.

  She threw back the covers, laced her hand with his, and shivered.

  Jude’s gaze darkened, lowered to her puckered nipples that reacted to the loss of the warm cocoon within the blanket.

  She didn’t speak, just tugged. He stood and followed her to the bathroom. She got the feeling he’d follow her anywhere at the moment. It was a heady sensation.

  Once in the bathroom, Avery stepped into the private toilet area and closed the door while he turned on the shower. When she stepped out, he kissed her lips, then took a leak. He didn’t bother to close the door and she resisted the urge to watch. How insane that she’d even want to peek. Apparently, everything about this particular man fascinated her.

  To distract herself, she stepped into the steamy spray of water in the shower stall. Hot water droplets pounded her body in a pulsating rhythm, massaging her achy muscles. She dipped her head back, wet her hair, and reached for the shampoo.

  “Don’t you dare.”

  Her eyes popped open and met Jude’s. “What?”

  “I want to do that.”

  “Wash my hair?”

  “Wash all of you,” he clarified, stepping in to the stall and making the booth feel cramped. Jude’s overwhelming presence crowded any space, large or small. Still, there was room for what she wanted.

  He picked up the bottle and squirted a generous amount of shampoo into his hand. He motioned for her to turn her back to him.

  Avery complied, letting the shower spray onto her breasts while Jude’s fingers massaged through her hair.

  She closed her eyes and let glorious sensations wash over her that had nothing to do with water. His fingers worked pure magic, stroking her scalp, yet reaching through and strumming her core to a hot need.

  Jude pulled her against him, let his hardness burrow betwe
en her bottom cheeks. “Let me rinse you,” he ordered in a husky voice close to her ear.

  Slowly, Avery turned. He didn’t step back, so her nipples brushed against the light spattering of hair on his chest. She groaned and arched, bringing her aching breasts fully in contact with him.

  He placed his hands on her hips and pushed downward, making her bend at the knees, making her nipples drag across his chest.

  “Oh,” she moaned.

  She thought he’d keep pushing until her mouth covered him, but he didn’t let her go down that far, just enough that he tilted back her head and let the hot water course through her hair. He raked his fingers through the long tresses, helping to remove all traces of suds.

  Avery watched him from her lowered position, growing hungrier and hungrier for him to fill the void within her.

  She expected him to crush her against the shower stall wall and plunge into her. Instead, he picked up a loofah sponge, squirted cleanser and began to wash her body.

  First her shoulders and neck, then her arms, elbows, wrists, giving intricate detail to the sensitive underside where her life blood flowed. He thoroughly scrubbed each finger, then he moved on to her breasts. Oh wow, but what amazing things he did to her breasts. She’d ached before, but his sweet brushing of the slightly rough sponge over her already sensitized breasts made her knees threaten to buckle. She clutched his shoulders and still he washed, teased, flamed the growing burn in her belly.

  Perhaps the soapy circles he made over her stomach should have dampened those flames, but they blazed hotter and hotter with each loop. Hotter when the sponge washed her hips, hotter when Jude dropped to his knees and bathed her thighs, her knees, her calves, even lifted her feet one at a time and washed each lovingly.

  So lovingly that she didn’t need soap or water for the loofah to glide over where he washed next. With the first brush across her swollen flesh the textured sponge surface almost made her orgasm.

  “Jude,” she whimpered, trembling with need.

  “Hmm?”

  The sponge continued its slow torture between her thighs.

  “I want you.” She arched into his touch, longing to feel him stretch her tightness. “Please.”

  “You’ve not washed me yet,” he reminded.

  She bit her lower lip, craving release, yet wanting to bring him to the same overwhelming neediness she currently experienced.

  “Give me that thing.” She grabbed the sponge out of his hand before he realized what she intended and squirted a fresh dollop of body wash.

  Jude’s throaty laugh almost caused her to throw down the sponge, say to hell with it, and beg him to do her. But when she glanced in his eyes, saw the raw ache, saw that he was turned on at the thought of her doing to him what he’d just done to her, she knew she’d carry-on with what they’d started.

  With a calmness she didn’t feel, she spread suds over his shoulders, his arms, giving the same intricate detail to the insides of his wrists that he’d given to hers. She teased his palm and the webbing of his fingers with feathery light touches.

  Washing Jude’s chest was a pleasure she knew would forever haunt. The steamy water gave a glistening glow to his skin. She soaped every ripple, every sinew, ever pore of his chest and abdomen until it was Jude groping the shower handle bar, arching into her touch, straining with need.

  Smiling with heady power, she lowered to her knees and began scrubbing his hips, his groin, everywhere but where she knew he craved touched. She worked the loofrah over his hard thighs, down his legs, over his tensed calves. When she brushed the loofrah over his foot, he jerked away. Ticklish? Avery grinned and set about torturing his toes.

  “Mercy,” he cried, his voice a mixture of laughter and desire.

  She glanced up from her lowered position, met Jude’s stormy blue eyes, and worked the sponge back toward his straining center. She skimmed the loofrah over him.

  His knuckles whitened on the hand rail. Every muscle in his body flexed and a low growl sounded from his throat.

  Avery soaped him, lightly ran the sponge over his entire length until she thought he was going to burst free from the taut skin stretched over him. Still she washed.

  “Angel.” The name came out as an extended groan. He sucked in his stomach and his glutes were hard rocks when, dropping the sponge, she grabbed them.

  “Tell me what you want, and it’s yours,” she teased in a similar tone to what he’d done in the elevator. Had it only been yesterday evening?

  Letting the water spray between them, rinsing him, she lifted her brows. His eyes darkened with recognition of what she planned, of what they both knew he wanted.

  “If you take me in your mouth, I won’t be able to hold back,” he warned, shaking his head. “Grab the condom so I can be inside you.”

  Avery shook her head. Need burned inside her, but she found the desire to make Jude lose control irresistible. She wanted to drive him over the edge.

  “Ang—” The word died on his lips when her mouth closed around him.

  Avery did everything to him she’d ever imagined doing to a man. She explored every sweet morsel of him with her lips, her tongue.

  His body arched like a bow pulled overly tight, like any moment he’d break free.

  “Let me love you,” he said, his hands fisting in her hair. “Now.”

  Avery knew he fought to keep control, knew that he was on the verge and didn’t want to give in, that he wanted to give her pleasure. He did please her. Just as she was pleasing him.

  His fingers threaded painfully into her hair as he lost control. “Hell.”

  Avery took him, every drop he gave, and basked in the glow of his release. In the glow of the way he looked at her when their eyes met.

  It’s only sex, she reminded herself before she started buying into the bull he kept feeding her. But, oh my, it was phenomenal sex she wished she didn’t have to give up.

  Ever.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Later that morning Jude waited in the taxicab while Angela went inside her apartment building to change into fresh clothes.

  He’d wanted to go up, but she refused, stating he might wake her roommates or they might never make it to work if they got within ten feet of a bed.

  He couldn’t argue the latter point. Even after their incredible shower they’d made use of the last condom. He’d buy more at lunch. Lots more.

  Not since he’d been a stupid college buck practicing his Hummingbird Principle had he been able to rise to the occasion so readily, so frequently. At least after that first dud performance when he hadn’t been able to hold back.

  Impatient, he motioned for the cab driver to wait and he jumped out. He recognized the doorman from the night he’d picked up Angela for Mrs. Yamaguchi’s party. Planning to speak to the man, see if he could at least determine her apartment number, Jude gave a friendly wave.

  “Morning.”

  The doorman nodded. “Morning.”

  Just as Jude was preparing to question the man, Angela came out of the building looking like a fresh breath of air in a sexy rust colored skirt and a multi-colored sweater that hugged her breasts. She wore high heeled caramel colored boots that covered her calves. He bit back the urge to wolf whistle.

  “Miss.” The doorman tipped his hat toward her, his gaze traveling appreciatively over her long legs.

  Jude battled with a ‘yeah that’s mine’ feeling versus wanting to bust the man’s nose for daring to check her out.

  “Get tired of waiting on me?” she asked, linking her arm with his. “Let’s go. I’m starved.”

  They took the taxi to a bagel house the block over from Playhouse. Jude stopped at the twenty-four hour diner frequently, grabbed the morning paper, and ate a bit of breakfast. He paused outside the building to buy a paper from the stand, but Angela tugged on his hand.

  “No need for that. I promise to keep you entertained.” She twisted into his arms and kissed him.

  Surprised at her public show of affection,
Jude returned the kiss. “That’s an interesting promise. How do you plan to entertain me?”

  Her eyes lit with mischief. “Surely you don’t want more…?”

  “More?”

  “You know.” She blinked coyly, placing her hands on his cheeks and holding his face toward her.

  Jude watched Angela, confused at her odd behavior. Was she having regrets? Her behavior was more “look at me” than “what have I done?”.

  He placed his hands over hers, linked their fingers. “I have a feeling I’m always going to want more where you’re concerned.”

  Her eyes flashed. For a moment he thought she was going to scold him for going serious, instead she closed her eyes.

  “That’s the plan,” she whispered, looking torn.

  Like so much about her, Jude didn’t understand her expression, but it didn’t matter. Someday she’d reveal all and they’d get passed whatever bothered her so. He leaned forward and tasted her lips. Her eyes popped open.

  “You really do want more,” she said in a teasing voice that rang overly bright. “Maybe I can take some more dick-tation later today.”

  “Yeah or fulfill a few of the fantasies I have of bending you over my desk,” he mumbled while they entered the bagel shop.

  They ate quickly, laughing and feeding each other bites of bagel. Jude enjoyed himself with the exception that he got the impression Angela was nervous. Every so often he’d catch her looking around the shop. Was she afraid of being seen with him?

  “Are you married?”

  Her gaze shot to his. “What?”

  Why the thought just now occurred to him he wasn’t sure. Unless he’d been in denial. She sure acted guilty about something.

  “Are you married?”

  Her forehead wrinkled and she eyed him curiously. “Would you be here if I was?”

  Good question. Would he?

  “I’d like to say the honorable thing, but I’d be lying.” He took her hand in his and brushed the pad of his finger across her bare left fourth finger. “Truth is I’d be with you.”

  “You date married women?” she challenged.