by Laurie Roma
Tara would never forget the look of pity that had been in Bella’s tear-filled eyes.
It was shortly after that day Tara had decided to have a large tattoo inked onto her back to hide the view of her scars. She now carried a tattoo of a Japanese dragon that covered her entire back. It was beautiful to look at and pleased her greatly to see the dragon instead of the reminders of the nightmare she had lived through.
But the dragon tattoo didn’t help mask the scars from being felt by touch.
Julian reached for the hem of her tank. As a distraction, Tara swiveled her hips and began slowly rising and falling over Julian’s erection. It worked. He let out a low groan and allowed her to clasp his hands with hers so they were palm to palm.
“Devon better be telling the truth about the camera’s being off,” she whispered against his lips.
“I’ll kill him if they aren’t,” Julian swore.
Tara chuckled before tracing his lips with her tongue. Pleasure washed over her with each slow thrust of him inside her body. “Only if you get to him first. What would people say if they knew the big bad CEO was getting fucked in the elevator of his hotel?”
“They would be damn envious,” Julian whispered, mesmerized by the sight of her riding him. “You feel so perfect, like your body was made for me. Ride me, that’s it, sweetheart. Damn that feels good.”
Tara rose and then slid down his cock, working her body in a slow and easy ride. Their gazes caught and held. Tara felt her heart give a strange twinge in reaction to the tender expression on his face. She couldn’t let him get to her. She wouldn’t.
“Does Devon always make sure you’re covered when you decide to have sex in public places?”
Julian’s hands released hers, moving to her hips to stop her movement in an unbending grip. She was still impaled on him, and he raised his knees to keep her in place.
“Don’t,” he said, his voice harsh with anger. “Don’t you belittle what we have together. You know better than that. I don’t mess around in my hotel and I certainly don’t have my staff cover for me. What we have is special.”
“How would I know that? I don’t know you,” Tara countered.
“But you will,” Julian replied. It was a promise, a vow he intended to keep.
He gripped her hair in his hand and drew her to him to kiss her. Tara got lost in sensation as his lips touched hers. But why? What was it about this man that made her lose herself every time he touched her? On a moan she began to move on him again grinding and thrusting onto him in a steady rhythm. Her arms wound around his neck, holding onto him.
Julian wrapped his arms around Tara and let her pleasure them both. He could feel the tight resistance of her inner muscles parting every time she sank her hot pussy down on his aching cock. Something about that gave him pause. She was impaled on his cock, so tight he felt the pleasure of that grip on his shaft like a hot, silken fist. It was then that it hit him.
She was tight, but he was moving inside her easily now, now that she was filled with his release.
Julian felt a mixture of both their juices dripping down, coating his balls. Shock filled him when he realized for the first time in his sexual experience he had forgot the condom. He never forgot a condom. He was always careful.
Until now.
His mind took in the incredible feeling of being flesh to flesh with Tara, feeling her every muscle as they clenched his cock. No wonder it had felt so fucking good.
Mine.
A possessive feeling overcame him. He wanted to drive away any memory of any other man in her life. She was his. He remembered the way she had thrown back her head and laughed as he pumped his seed deep inside her.
Branding her with his cum, marking her as his.
He gently squeezed her with his arms that he had wrapped around her. “Tara? I’m going to tell you something, but I don’t want you to panic.”
She pulled back enough to frown at him. “I don’t panic.”
“Okay then.” Julian felt insane for even bringing this up now but he knew he needed to…before he filled her again. Jesus, just thinking about it almost had him coming. “We didn’t use a condom.”
Tara tensed.
“I should have protected you but I just lost my head. I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’m clean, I swear to you and I always use a condom—” Tara put a finger to his lips to quiet him. He felt her body relax against him.
“I am, too. I don’t usually do this without a condom either, but I know you’re clean.”
“How do you—”
Tara’s dark eyes snapped with impatience.
“Julian, we’ve already had sex once. I’m currently sitting on your cock, hoping that you will get me off as spectacularly as you did last time. Do you really want to discuss this right now?”
No, he didn’t.
Everything froze, that perfect moment captured in time with Julian’s cock lodged deep inside her as he took in her words. A sense of satisfaction overcame him, knowing that he could come inside her with nothing between them. The thought ripped through any restraint he had, once again making him crazy with need.
Julian snarled as he gripped her shoulders hard, pulling her down at the same time his drove his hips up. He could feel her eyelashes flutter against his cheek as her head came down toward him. That small sign of surrender made him feel exulted with power.
“You want me to get you off?” He growled harshly. “Keep fucking me, baby. Ride me. Ride my cock and we’ll make sure you get off.” Each word was punctuated with a thrust as he drove her hips down onto him. “God, Tara, you feel amazing. It feels so good inside you with nothing between us.”
Tara leaned down and whispered breathlessly in his ear. “I feel so full of you. I’ve never let a man come inside me before, it felt amazing. Do it, come inside me again, Julian.”
With a strangled groan, Julian flipped Tara on her back onto the floor of the elevator, without leaving her body. He reached down and raised her legs, grabbing her under her knees as his slammed his hips forward, shoving his cock deep. He ground his hips into hers. Hips pumping, Julian powered into her like a battering ram.
Tara lifted her leg, bracing it on the wall of the elevator to give her more leverage as she pistoned her hips back up to meet his every thrust. She could feel it happening. Raw energy gathered in her core as he drove her closer and closer to climax. Tara threw back her head to scream as she came. Julian’s lips crushed down on hers, capturing her cries with his mouth.
It was a violent release. Tara fought and struggled against him, but Julian did not give in. He pinned her down to the ground, grinding against her as her nails scored into his back.
“Fuck yes, come for me, Tara.”
He gritted his teeth together against the unbelievable pleasure coursing through him. Before she could catch her breath, Julian pulled back and started thrusting hard again, jerking her body each time his cock hammered into her.
“Damn, Tara, I can’t hold back. Just hold onto me, baby, you feel so fucking good. Your pussy is choking my cock, you’re so tight. I’m going to come inside you again. I’m going to fill you so full you will never be free of me.”
Julian felt like his lungs were going to explode along with the head of his cock. He tried to hold off the release he felt ripping him apart as he began chanting her name. His balls drew up tight against his body. Fuck. He couldn’t hold back.
“Come with me again.”
“Not yet,” Tara shook her head, straining for it.
Julian levered up onto his knees and continued to pound his cock into her with startling speed. He couldn’t come again without her. He wouldn’t. He reached down with one of his hands and pinched her clit hard.
Tara screamed as another orgasm overtook her, shocking her with its intensity so much that her body went rigid. Julian bent down, letting out a primal growl before he bit her shoulder hard as he emptied himself into her.
* * * *
It took Julian a second to realize th
e buzzing in his head was actually the phone ringing.
The amber emergency lights flickered off as the regular lights inside the elevator turned back on. The glare made him close his eyes in defense. He leaned back slowly, hating the loss of her against his skin. He opened his eyes again slowly to take in the sight before him.
Sweet Jesus.
Tara’s eyes were closed as she lay on the ground, chest heaving as she fought for air. She looked like an offering, lying there with her legs opened, bare pussy exposed. His seed trickling out of her, spilling onto the floor.
He blinked as he realized that he had done it again. He had fucked her again with both of them half dressed. Christ, he had taken her like an animal, first against the wall, then on the floor.
She deserved better.
He stood up, bracing himself against the wall until his legs were steady then picked up the phone, holding it to his ear.
“Yes. All right. That would be good, thanks.”
Tara had opened her eyes when he had answered the phone. His cock was still half hard just from looking at her, but he was determined to control himself.
His hands balled into fists at his sides. Damn it, he needed a way to make her relax, to trust him. He couldn’t keep jumping on her like an animal, even though every fiber of his being wanted to. He bit her. Christ, he had bitten her like a fucking beast.
But he had felt the bite of her nail scoring his back in return. A slow smile spread across his face. They were perfect for one another. He had never met such a strong, vital woman. A wave of possessiveness rushed through him. He wanted this woman more than he had ever wanted anyone else in his entire life. He wanted her for his own.
Tara stood up, pulling her tank top down to make sure she was covered as much as she could be. She held back a snort of laughter as she looked down at herself, watching Julian’s thick, creamy seed trickling down her thighs, down to her gym shoes.
Shit, she really liked those shoes.
The elevator jerked slightly as it began to move again. On a sigh she reached down to grab her shorts, pulling them up her legs. She picked her jacket from off the floor. Pulling it on, Tara looked up to see Julian had pulled his pants up as she dressed.
Her eyes narrowed at his grin.
“You’re gonna want to clean this place up, Ace.” She looked pointedly at the pool of his semen that sat in the middle of the floor. “Looks like we have a cleanup on aisle twelve.”
Julian’s startled laughter made her smile back at him.
The doors to the elevator opened. To her relief Tara saw that they were on their floor. She forced herself to leave the elevator and casually walk down the hallway toward her room. It was uncomfortable, this feeling of not knowing what to do or how to act.
She just had wild jungle sex with this man, twice, and now she could barely look at him. This is where she always fucked up. She knew he would want to spend the night with her but she couldn’t let him.
She took her key card out and opened the door to her room, preparing to escape inside. Julian placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. As she turned to him his eyes searched hers. There was something sad in those beautiful dark-blue eyes that tugged at her heart.
“Are you going to invite me in?”
Tara wanted to, god she wanted to, but she…couldn’t.
“I think we had enough for tonight.”
Julian nodded at her solemnly. He reached up to brush the back of his hand softly over her cheek. “Will you have dinner with me tomorrow? Please?”
“I…yes. All right.” Tara had wanted to say no, but that sadness in his eyes had made it impossible. Julian leaned in to lightly brush his lips across hers. When he pulled back, she became aware that she had been leaning into him. She caught herself and held onto the doorway to keep herself in place.
“Sweet dreams, Tara. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah. Night,” Tara replied a second before she slammed the door in his face.
Chapter Eight
“What the—”
Tara jerked up on her bed into a sitting position. Her hand automatically reached out to grab the Glock on her nightstand. She had it trained on the closed bedroom door in less than two seconds flat.
It took her a moment to realize the noise that had jarred her from a sleep was a banging on the door of the bedroom of her suite. Tara looked down the nightstand and sighed. Her gaze tracked down to where her alarm clock currently lay in pieces on the bedroom floor.
She wasn’t exactly sure how she was going to explain that one to Julian, but right now she didn’t give two shits. She’d had a hard time falling asleep last night and it was all his fault. Thoughts of Julian had kept her tossing and turning until the early hours of the morning. She had finally fallen to sleep around six a.m. Fifteen minutes later when her alarm clock had sounded, she barely remembered picking it up and flinging it into the wall.
Oh well, they could bill her.
Her internal clock told her she had slept way past schedule. She was late but was too irritated to feel bad about it. Lack of sleep made her cranky. Who was she kidding? It had been weeks since she’d had a good night’s sleep. She was so beyond the point of being cranky that even the memory of the spectacular sex with Julian wasn’t enough to brighten her mood.
She was fucking feral with exhaustion and it was only getting worse each day.
“What?” she snapped out in a loud voice, knowing that only one of her team would have gotten past the security measures she had placed on the front door of the suite.
“Get your ass out of bed and meet us in the conference room.” Rock’s voice was muffled through the closed door. “We’ve got a…development.”
That kicked her in gear.
“Five minutes,” she called out.
“Fine.”
Tara took the time to dress and make quick use of the bathroom before making her way out into the main room of the suite. She absently realized she had woken with a headache but stubbornly refused to take anything for it.
She crossed her suite toward the conference room only to stop in her tracks. She blinked in surprise as Marco Sladerman stood up from where he had been bent over, taking something out of his large duffel bag that lay on the floor next to one of the couches in the living room.
Instantly her mood lifted.
Slade was a large man, larger than the others, and was built like a tank. Most people were intimidated by the sheer size of him since he was a big, scary son of a bitch. For a big man, Slade could move like smoke, be in and out without you even knowing he was there. He had a scar slashed across the right side of his face from a shrapnel wound. It made him look dark and dangerous but he was still a damn good-looking man. Tara appreciated the fact that IAD provided her with lots of eye candy to look at and was proud that she could call those fellow warriors her friends.
Slade flashed her a wicked grin and opened his arms wide.
Tara grinned back at him as she raced across the room, jumping into his arms. He held her close and rubbed his face into her hair, murmuring a greeting. Slade was a loner but had always held a special place in his heart for Tara since she had personally saved his ass years ago.
He’d been bleeding, dying in the jungles of the Amazon when he saw her small body rise up from the surrounding green like a vision, cutting down the enemy that hunted him with quick, lethal efficiency. Tara had stood there in the jungle canopy, calmly informing him that she was there to take him home. He would always remember the way she had laughed as she pushed a button, blowing the enemy to hell where they belonged. From that day she had his loyalty and their friendship had only grown over the years. Slade put her down and they grinned at one another in silence.
The sound of a coffee cup slamming down hard had Tara turning toward the conference room. Surprise flickered in her eyes as she saw Julian sitting at the large table with Rock. If looks could kill, Julian’s would have flayed Slade alive. A wicked shiver of delight raced down her spine as she note
d the dark jealousy emanating from Julian’s sinister glare.
Usually when a man got possessive of her, Tara felt a pressure on her chest, like chains binding her so tight she could barely breathe. That was when she called it quits. She wasn’t a thing to be owned and she didn’t like a man acting like an asshole when she had no intention of being his for long.
Julian was different.
Something about his stormy gaze had her heart thumping hard in her chest and her pussy creaming. Not out of fear or dread. It was of anticipation. She wanted him to feel the heat of selfish need at the thought of another man touching her, wanting her. It made her hot. Burning off that fury like they had in the elevator would be oh so much fun.
But first she had work shit to deal with.
Rock made that clear when he let out an impatient huff and swiveled in his chair. Uh-oh. That was never a good sign. Translation—Rock was pissed about something.
“Let’s head in. Sorry we woke you.” Slade’s deep voice was sincere as they walked. “I know you don’t sleep much.”
“I’ll sleep when I’m dead. When did you get in?”
“Couple of hours ago.”
They walked into the room, Tara ready to head straight to the coffee machine on the side table. She stopped as Lucian Steele stood up from where he had been hidden behind the doorway.
Lucian was a tall, muscular man with black hair and black obsidian eyes that gave him the distinctive advantage of people not being able to look him in the eyes for long. He was devilishly handsome and looked like he belonged in Hollywood. Lucian’s eyes brightened when he saw Tara.
“Hey, T-rex.”
“Luc.”
His smile faded as he walked up to stand in front of her. They shared a knowing look for a long moment and he stroked his hands down her arms in a comforting gesture. Lucian had been her partner and friend back in the CIA days and she had brought him over to IAD with her. He had been the other agent that Sharif had tortured with Tara. Although they never spoke of that time, the memories were a living, breathing entity in both their lives.
