by Kadie Scott
When she didn’t immediately speak, he raised his eyebrows in question. Now that she’d surprised him, though, she wanted to really rattle his cage. She wanted to see his eyes darken with the need that had swallowed her up until this morning when she’d ridden away in a cab. She needed some sign her suspicions were wrong. Because if they were right, he’d slept with her for reasons she didn’t want to contemplate.
She refused to accept that. She couldn’t have imagined his reactions last night. He’d been just as into her as she had been into him. If she touched him now, how would he react?
Cassie stepped closer, invading his space. She was tempted to straddle his lap, but if someone came by, that’d be uncomfortable for them. Instead she placed a hand on his chest and leaned closer to put her mouth beside his ear.
His heart thundered away under her palm. Not so stoic after all, then. The knowledge brought a secret smile to her lips and melted a tiny bit of the cold lump that had formed in her chest. “How about we do some investigating tonight, after…”
The pause was deliberate. Who knew a secret sex goddess lurked under the geeky exterior of one Cassandra Elaine Howard? She took a moment to revel in her femininity while Drew inhaled sharply.
“After?” he whispered, like the word was torn from him.
Cassie grinned at the hoarse timbre to his voice. “I’d like to see if last night was an anomaly. My research into our chemistry requires more…field testing.”
Yikes. Put on the brakes. No sex tonight, remember?
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.” She winced at her idiotic response as her brain scrambled to come up with words that didn’t give him a mixed signal.
Drew’s hands came up. At first, she thought he was going to push her away, but then he clasped her hips, kneading the flesh there. “You want to come over?” he asked.
“Sure. I’ll even cook dinner if you provide the wine.”
A breath punched out of him. “Okay. I was thinking we might watch a movie.”
Stupid disappointment dropped like a bucket of ice water splashing all over her. Had she imagined the reluctance in his agreement? Or were those anxieties in her head projecting their voices like ventriloquists? Not that it mattered, she was sticking to Plan B, darn it. This is what she wanted to happen.
She pulled back to see his face. There it was…the unadulterated need staring back at her. God what that look did to her body.
Cassie smiled and told her inner voices to shut the hell up. She wouldn’t act on their chemistry, not until she knew for sure what was going on. She’d stick to the plan. “I’m going to head home and grab provisions for dinner, and a change of clothes for the morning. See you at six?”
Drew slowly nodded. “Six.”
Chapter Thirteen
Drew stared at his door and debated opening the thing or not. Cassie had already rung the doorbell once. The peal of the bell a second time had him wiping sweaty palms on his jeans and reaching for the handle. He’d rather stick his head in the sand or shove his fingers in his ears and shout, “la, la, la, la” until the case was over, but his job demanded he keep her busy tonight. At least this had been her suggestion, rather than his. He didn’t need the extra guilt.
He pulled the door open.
At the sight of Cassie still dressed in the pink and blue outfit that showed off her trim waist and toned legs, as well as her sense of humor, he gritted his teeth. Immediately images of those legs wrapped around him while he pumped into her assailed him.
At ease, he commanded the part of him that stood up and saluted her. His dick ignored him completely, straining against his zipper.
I can’t do this. His brain and his heart and his body were all in direct conflict with one another.
“Hi,” she murmured in a husky voice that did nothing to help him out.
He ignored the invitation in her eyes, instead desperately grasping for control and doing the practical thing. “Let me help you with those.”
Grabbing one of the bags of groceries she was carrying, he turned and led the way to the kitchen. “What are we having?”
“Spaghetti Bolognese.” She followed him inside, closing the door behind her.
“Sounds great.” He pretended not to hear the confused note in her voice. Maybe he should’ve kissed her at the door or something. The problem with that was, if he started kissing her, he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop there.
Drew unpacked the things from his bag as she joined him in the kitchen. When had this space become so cramped? She puttered around behind him, he assumed also getting out the food to make dinner.
“Do you need a pot?” he asked.
He jumped as she trailed her hands over his shoulders and down his back. “Unless you think dinner can wait…?” That come-hither note in her voice was going to kill him. He could already picture himself with a blindfold as the firing squad lined up.
Think fast, dummy. Stall her. “I’m kind of hungry, aren’t you?” By now he was taking his time arranging the food in order by size on his countertop, gritting his teeth against her touch. He didn’t want to turn around and see her sweet face or the lick of need in her eyes that he knew he’d encounter.
“I guess I am,” she said after a long pause. Then she turned back to the food she’d been unpacking, and he breathed a silent sigh of relief.
Trying to act casual, he leaned a hip against the counter. “What movie do you want to watch? I was thinking a Star Wars marathon might be fun?”
There you go, Kerrigan. Set up an evening without any sex. Plus, a movie marathon gave his team more time to do their work.
“You know I love Star Wars,” she murmured. “Might be a tad late to start a marathon, though.”
Drew dragged his gaze away from the sway of her hips as she moved around his kitchen. This should not be this hard. “We can start it and see how far we get.” To the end of movie three if he could keep his damn hands off her.
“Oh darn!”
What now? “Problem?”
“I forgot to get the noodles.” She grimaced apologetically, even as she double-checked the bag he’d unpacked.
Unlike her to forget a detail like that, but he couldn’t discern a reason for her to do something like that deliberately. She didn’t know—yet—that he was onto her.
Did she?
“Do you have any here?” she asked.
Drew didn’t even need to check. “No.”
Was that…satisfaction…in her gaze? He frowned. Why would she be happy that they were out of noodles?
“I don’t suppose you could go pick some up while I get started on the sauce?”
She blinked up at him, a sweet, entirely too innocent, smile on her face. His suspicions rose. If missing pasta was an excuse to skip straight to sex, he wouldn’t be able to resist. He needed to get his ass to the store, and fast. “Sure.”
“Thanks.” Before he could make a mad dash for the door, Cassie went up on tiptoe and placed her lips over his in what he assumed was supposed to be a thank-you kiss.
The contact was brief before she pulled back, just the lightest brush. Only she didn’t step back. Instead she froze, staring up at him, her eyes full of stark, naked hunger. For him. Her chest rose and fell with uneven breaths that matched his own, her breasts brushing against him with each inhalation.
Everything between them—the heat and the bone-deep connection he knew they’d both felt—was suddenly there. Thick between them. Palpable.
He was a fucking goner.
She watched him with those big aquamarine eyes he could get lost in. Someone should shout timber, because he was going down hard.
One more night. The seductive thought wrapped him up with raw need.
Nothing to do with distracting her while his team worked over her computer. Nothing to do with their jobs at all. He needed her. It was that simple. He’d have to say good-bye come morning—and that would rip him apart—but tonight he could set apart as a moment outside of everything el
se. For him. For them.
“So, um, the store…?” she whispered.
He shook his head, their lips brushing. “Don’t want dinner anymore.”
“What do you want?” she whispered.
“To forget everything, and lose myself in you.” He cupped the back of her head and drew her slowly, inexorably, closer until he could brush her waiting lips with his, her gasp of desire everything he wanted to hear.
…
Cassie was floating and drowning and flying all at the same time. She’d been on a roller coaster since the moment she’d walked through the door. She’d come in with what she hoped was her normal seductive mask in place, determined to see this through and collect her evidence, her totally illogical heart hoping like Hades that she’d read all the signals wrong.
She’d hit a wall of resistance from him that scattered her thoughts all over the place. Had he felt anything for her at all? Hurt and guilt and determination swirled around in her in a hot mess of emotion. Add confusion to that toxic cocktail.
If I come on to him and he accepts the invitation, maybe everything is okay and this is all in my head. The logic of a wishful moron. God, she would suck as a real spy.
He’d claimed he was hungry, and not for her, but for food. She’d had no clue what to think at that point. Apparently big brains could periodically become completely useless appendages, like an appendix. There, but not functioning.
Then she’d done something really stupid and kissed him. She’d deliberately forgotten that spaghetti, sticking to her plan to send him away, which would give her time to snoop around. She’d kissed him—it was supposed to be over and done—because she’d thought he might expect it. But his walls had crumbled, and then so had hers.
“I want to lose myself in you.” That one sentence and her body and heart had taken over completely. She could no more walk away from him than a flower could turn away from the sun.
Drew held her now with tender care, every touch reverent, as they shared long, deep kisses that lasted moments, or maybe forever. She wasn’t sure. She just knew each sweep of his tongue against hers, each touch of their lips, pulled her under more until she was only focused on the fusion of their mouths and the electric heat spiraling throughout her body.
“More,” she whispered, aching for him.
Drew smiled against her lips. “We’ll get there.”
She shook her head. Her body wanted to move faster. She needed to feel him inside her, part of her. But Drew held the pace slow and kept the contact to only their mouths. She grasped his wrists and tried to take it faster herself.
“Slow down.”
Cassie hissed her frustration. “I can’t.”
He pulled back and gazed down at her with the most breath-stealing look in his eyes. Cassie blinked. Was that a shadow of sadness in those blue depths? No. She dismissed the thought as he traced her face with a gentle touch.
“I want to savor every moment, every part of you.”
Why did it feel like he mentally tacked on “to remember later” at the end of that?
But before Cassie could apply her full focus to that concern, he took her by the hand and led her to the bedroom, backing up as he did and never once taking his eyes from her.
Even as a blush flushed her cheeks with heat, she smiled. She’d never felt more sexy or desired in her life.
Drew’s face took on a hard cast, possession glittering at her from his gaze. “Damn straight.”
She didn’t even care that she’d spoken her thoughts aloud. Again. Let him hear. He seemed to enjoy it anyway.
They stopped beside his perfectly made, bounce-a-quarter-on-it bed. Cassie smiled at the evidence of his military background. Two seconds later, though, she wasn’t smiling, as Drew slowly lifted her shirt, pausing to brush his fingers over the taut skin of her belly. She sucked in a breath, then obediently lifted her arms as he tugged the top over her head.
Expecting him to be like every other man and zero in on her breasts, she let out a hum of approval when he dropped to his knees and proceeded to feather kisses over her stomach. When he circled her belly button with his tongue, she speared her fingers through his hair and closed her eyes, deciding to hold on for the ride.
Drew gave every exposed inch of her loving attention until she was a quivering mass of pulsing nerves, craving more. And she was still mostly dressed.
A whisper of air alerted her to the fact that he was removing her skirt and panties. Obligingly she stepped out of them. Again, Drew used his mouth and his hands—touching, tasting, worshiping her body. Stimulating erogenous zones she didn’t know existed. Each time he’d get to the top of her thighs, he’d blow warm breath over the juncture there, but never touch.
Wanton hunger built inside her. “Please,” she moaned when his lips blazed away from that part of her body for the third time.
“Please, what?”
She could hear the smile in his voice, even though she couldn’t see his face as he kissed his way down the inside of her thigh. She smacked him on the shoulder. “Don’t tease me, Drew.”
He raised his head, his expression pure wicked sin. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do. Tease you and turn you on until you practically come when I enter your gorgeous body.”
Who knew Drew, who was usually short on words, had that kind of talk in him? And who knew she’d be such a glutton for dirty words? Something in her expression must’ve given her away, because, with a low groan, he tipped her over onto the bed. She’d barely stopped bouncing when his hands were all over, removing her bra. He stared down at her as he hastily yanked his own clothes off, then joined her on the bed.
She expected hot and urgent, but he took her lips in a sweet, hot kiss, and slowed them back down. Cassie wanted to scream with frustration as he swept one hand up over her hip, her waist, her rib cage. He palmed one heavy breast, teasing the tip with back and forth strokes of his thumb. Then he released her lips and took her straining, sensitized nipple into his mouth. Every suck arrowed straight to her throbbing core. At the same time, his other hand wandered down her body to her slick folds. He pushed a single finger inside her, but only the tip.
He tormented her with that barely there pressure slipping in and out while he paid homage to her other breast with mouth and tongue and teeth until Cassie was close to sobbing with need.
She was so far gone, she barely noticed Drew levering up to get a condom from the bedside drawer and roll it on. He positioned himself at her entrance and sheathed himself in her slick channel with agonizingly slow movements. Cassie bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut to keep from tipping over the edge into an orgasm. He’d definitely delivered on that threat.
“Mmm,” he hummed. “Going to hold out on me? We’ll see how long you last.”
Once he filled her, stretching her in the most delicious way, he took her hands and threaded their fingers together, moving their clasped hands up by her head.
Then he kissed her, taking his time with slow, heart-stopping kisses that only managed to stoke the tension inside her.
He pulled back. “Open your eyes, Cassie.”
As soon as she locked gazes with him, Drew started to move. Again, taking his time, pulling almost completely out before plunging in deep again.
Gradually he increased the pace, thrusting into her harder and faster, that peak of perfection rushing up at them. He never pulled his gaze away, watching her with an intense need that only stoked her own.
The pressure built to release until, finally, a tingling rush arced through her body, gathering at her core, then bursting inside, wave after wave of ecstasy cresting over her.
As soon as she clamped down around him, Drew gave his own shout, driving into her, and calling her name as he came and came, his pumping hips drawing out both their orgasms.
Eventually, his frantic pace slowed as they both came down from the pinnacle. He leaned down and kissed her softly, reverently.
And then the shutters came down in his eyes. She s
aw it happen. One minute his gaze worshipped her, the next he was gone. Suddenly, their lovemaking had a decidedly final feel.
He heart cracked in protest. What had she done? She wasn’t supposed to sleep with him again until she knew for sure.
Drew rolled off her and disposed of the condom before joining her on the bed. He pulled her into his body, but he wouldn’t look at her. Instead, he tucked her head under his chin.
“Is something bugging you?” she asked after a long silence.
His long breath teased the top of her hair as he seemed to debate what to say. “I’m leaving Data Minds.”
Cassie tensed in his arms, every concern she’d had since seeing that stack of papers crashing back into her. “What?” She pulled back to see his face. “Did you get a better offer?”
He glanced away. “Something like that.”
Her suspicions about Drew jumped off the charts. Hell, the charts were a tiny blip as her suspicions rocketed into space. He was leaving? Did that mean he’d got what he wanted—from Data Minds…and from her?
Nausea bubbled up on the heels of fury, but she managed to keep both in check.
Drew was leaving. What would a non-suspicious person whose heart wasn’t breaking say to that? “I thought we made a pretty good team.”
The fact that her voice came out at all was a frickin’ miracle. A small, disconnected part of her mind was strangely proud of the fact that it had come out steady and mildly curious.
“We do make a fantastic team. That’s what’s making this decision impossible.”
I’ll bet, she silently scoffed, careful to bite down on her lip to make sure the sarcasm didn’t tumble out of her mouth. Her poor lips were going to be raw with all the biting she’d been doing lately.
At the same time, though, her fickle heart snagged onto a thread of hope that she was wrong. “Where are you going?” That was a natural question, right?
Again, he paused. If he wasn’t guilty, why was it so hard to tell her this? “I’d rather not say until it’s a done deal.”
The crack in her heart widened as the pressure around it squeezed and pulled. “I understand.”
