by Karen Rock
She gasped at the first glide of his fingers and wriggled impatiently against him while he administered lazy kisses along her inner thigh, slowly moving closer but never reaching the one spot that’d send her into oblivion. She wanted the satisfaction of completion, the scorching fulfillment she’d experienced only once before, in his condo.
“Ohhhhh,” Katherine whimpered, grasping Nash’s shoulders, shaking all over. She could get used to this. So very easily. Too easily, considering her past had taught her to know better. Savor every moment of this experience, she cautioned herself. Just in case it never happened again.
With his eyes locked on hers, he slid his finger farther up to rub over her clit in slow, teasing circles. She swallowed her scream at the exquisite friction, his roughened skin arousing her already sensitized flesh, torturing her.
She grew hotter and wetter, cresting waves building inside. Her hips pivoted in time to his rhythm and she pressed against his hand, demanding harder, deeper contact.
“Slow down, baby.” His voice sounded far away, on the outskirts of the tunnel of ecstasy she’d fallen into. “I have every intention of giving you what you need. I just plan to prolong the pleasure first.”
Pleasure or torture?
Deciding he needed to suffer, too, she soaped up her hands and reached between them to grasp his hard length. Nash hissed out a breath between clenched teeth.
“Still want to go slow?” she teased, gliding her palm up and down him while her thumb caressed his tip. She ached for him to fill her completely, longed to feel every silken ridge as he thrust deep inside.
“I want to taste you first.” He knelt on the floor, and she whimpered in frustration until he settled one leg over his shoulder and nuzzled her inner thighs. Then he was there, his mouth on her sex, his tongue tracing along her flesh until she was a trembling, incoherent mess.
“Nash,” she panted his name, then whispered, sighed, and moaned it in turn as his tongue slid over her slowly, tantalizingly, back and forth, in and out. He sampled and tormented her until she couldn’t think, couldn’t even breathe, her legs trembling for the millions of nerve endings he’d electrified.
Clutching his shoulders, she lifted her hips when he pushed a finger inside her, slowly filling her with it, drawing it in and out. He flicked his tongue wildly over her one moment, then sucked her into his mouth the next, building her into a total frenzy of wanting more, more, more. Until she was begging. Sobbing. Mindless. A body thrashing, driven by the sweet, hot edges of pleasure that inched toward pain. The thrumming showerhead turned their world to water, their passion to liquid, fluid pleasure.
“Please.” Her voice broke on a moan as his tongue pressed her most sensitive spot. “Please.”
“What do you need, sweetheart?” he asked, his voice husky and low.
“You,” she gasped. “I need you.”
“You’ve got me, Katherine.”
He lowered his head, bringing her right to the edge of climax, before sweeping her over like a tsunami. Wave after wave of pleasure crashed through her. Multiple orgasms quaked through her body. She’d never been as wanton and vulnerable before. No man had ever driven her this wild, made her lose her inhibitions, her control.
Now she knew why.
Nash was right. She’d simply been waiting for the right man. The man with the most hypnotic touch ever.
Any thought of her ex or past times when he’d called her frigid vanished from her mind. She could only concentrate on the extraordinary pleasure wrought by Nash’s delicious caresses.
Nash rose to his feet, naked and aroused, and the moaning noise might have been the wind, or her.
Had anyone ever hyperventilated during sex before?
He pulled Katherine upright and backed her directly under the cool spray, the temperature delicious against her flushed skin. “Hurry,” she whispered, seizing his shoulders.
He paused to gaze into her eyes, seeing more deeply inside her soul than anyone else had ever bothered to look. At that moment, Katherine knew they’d gone too far. The expression in his eyes, intense, aroused, and something else. Something more. Something she couldn’t describe. Something that both thrilled and scared her, made her vulnerable. It got her trembling all over again. Had her breath catching in her throat and her brain slowly moving into meltdown territory.
This interlude would cost her so much more than before. The first time she’d wanted to prove she could still feel desire. A physical, carnal adventure. Only now her emotions were involved; she sensed her heart might be in jeopardy if she wasn’t careful. But she couldn’t stop. Despite the threat of heartache, Katherine pulled Nash to her, needing the heavy press of his body on hers.
He reached over the shower wall and snagged his pants, fumbling with the button on the back pocket to retrieve his wallet and the condom he must keep tucked inside.
“Always prepared.” Her gaze followed his movements. “I never pegged you for a Boy Scout.”
Her voice was light and teasing, but for a split second she wondered if she was just one of many. Nash didn’t have long-term girlfriends and stuck to one-night stands. What notch was she on his bedpost?
“Hey,” he said, tipping her face up to his until she was forced to meet his eyes. “I brought these for us. Just in case. I don’t bring a condom everywhere I go,” he said, as sensitive to her as ever by answering her unspoken question.
“No?”
“Just when I’m going to be with you. Or hope to be. Normally, I don’t even bring women home.”
“You broke a lot of rules our first night.”
“The rules don’t apply to you, Katherine.” He held her face in his hands and gave her a long, deep kiss that shook her right to her toes.
Melt.
His mouth lifted from hers, and he pressed a foil packet in her hand. Bracing himself with a hand on the wall on either side of her head, he bracketed her shoulders with flexed biceps.
Her fingers fumbled with the package, the shower’s spray more intense this close. She would have used her teeth on the damn thing if it hadn’t given way in the last second. Desire made her tremble, tingle, the water making her task more difficult. At last, she rolled the condom over him with all the finesse of a first-timer, but Nash didn’t seem to notice. He was too busy licking her neck, nibbling her ear, and kissing a heated path to her breast, distracting her relentlessly, giving her no quarter.
“Fuck, you’re beautiful.” Nothing could have prepared her for the torrid expression and emotion in his eyes. It shook her to her toes. When he lifted her off the floor, she wrapped her legs around his hips and settled one heel in the cleft of his buttocks, the solid strength of his hips between her legs her only anchor.
His arousal nudged the moist spot between her thighs, exquisite pressure. She reached between them to stroke him with one hand, enjoying the fierce stiffening of his whole body at that lone touch. He felt so good, so right as he guided himself inside her, slowly.
Katherine tensed. Her fingers dented his shoulders against the pressure as she stretched to accommodate him. Intense pleasure accompanied the aching sensation.
“Okay?” he whispered, his voice strained. Nash’s stare never wavered. He watched and waited, eyes dilated with hunger and need.
She nodded. Until he ran a gentle finger over her mouth, she hadn’t realized she’d been biting her lip.
Taking a deep breath, she braced herself for the rest of him. Instead of plunging forward, Nash reached between them. He traced feathery circles where they joined, calling up a quivering, breathless wave of sweet heat.
Only then, when she teetered on the brink of something utterly luscious, did he ease himself the rest of the way inside. Any discomfort she might have felt melted beneath the continued manipulation of his fingers.
Katherine met his eyes at that moment, connecting with him on a level that went muc
h deeper than his body moving within her. Unable to sort out the tangle of feelings, she squeezed her thighs around him and reveled in the intense pleasure he wrought with every powerful thrust of his hips.
They kissed, clung, moved together like they’d been lovers for years. Or so it seemed to Katherine. Nash anticipated her every need, coaxing her over and over again to the point of seductive drowning, beneath the unrelenting water, only to pull her back at the last moment. She let out a strangled cry, her climax building fast as she glided, imitating the act of him pumping into her body as they made love.
Love?
The word temporarily doused her heated thoughts.
No. Surely not love…
They barely knew each other. Yet she’d never felt closer to another man in her life.
Her eyes shut tight, and she lost track of her surroundings. All she was aware of was the incredible friction he created when he pulled her up and down, the tempo increasing to a blistering pace, their wet bodies sliding together at breakneck speed. On and on she plunged, becoming a quivering puddle of incoherency as he brought her unerringly to the brink, holding her there, stretching out the dizzying feeling so that her release launched her even higher than before.
A scream tore from her throat as she careened over the edge. Pulsing sensations hummed through her, the scalding fulfillment catapulting her to another dimension.
With a primal shout, he surged his body into hers one last time. The force of his release rocked him against her, his muscles tensing, his grip fierce in his final surrender.
Their breathing, their thumping hearts filled her ears. How would she ever pry herself loose of this man?
Nash flipped off the shower, backed them onto the bench, and cradled her to his chest, still locked together. Her ankles had come unhitched so that her thighs folded neatly against his.
She knew sex wasn’t supposed to turn her into a romantic dreamer. Her divorce had cured her of that notion. But for these few moments, Katherine let herself pretend this feeling of total completeness could last. She closed her eyes and wished she could remain there all night, shielded by his strong arms. But all too soon, the questions and uncertainties niggled at her, rushing back as insistently as the crickets singing in the nearby brush.
Why was she relentlessly drawn to this man when she couldn’t afford to have a relationship? Her current investigation only reinforced that her job always came first. Her best wouldn’t be good enough for a guy like Nash, who adored his big family. He’d never settle for any half-hearted commitment she might be able to make.
Then again, she didn’t know if he’d even be interested in any sort of commitment from her. He said he didn’t want a serious relationship, and given his job, it made sense. It’d be impossible to be with a man whose job was turning on other women. She’d already been betrayed by a straying man; she wouldn’t risk her heart again.
Although Nash didn’t seem the cheating type.
And she was one of the world’s leading profilers.
Should she trust her instincts?
Sneaking a peek at the play of muscles across his chest, Katherine still couldn’t believe the hottest man in Dallas had even noticed someone like her. Yet it wasn’t his gorgeous body or face that drew her most. In fact, they were beside the point. It was the animated expressions he wore, the light in his eyes, the verve in his voice, as if the world was his oyster and he wanted to down it in one lusty gulp.
Whereas she wanted to lock down life and keep it at a safe distance. Throw it in a cage and toss the key. But Nash, arms flung wide on the dance floor earlier, or now, holding her without the slightest hint of uncertainty—he threw himself fully into everything he did. He was everything she wasn’t…who she’d once been…and wished to be again. She loved that about him.
Loved him, too, maybe…
The realization was terrifying.
“Nash?”
“Hmmm?” He paused in the middle of kissing a tiny path from her chin to her ear.
“What made you notice me?” Maybe it was a dumb time to ask, but it was the kind of question she wouldn’t have had the nerve to confront him with another time.
His brow furrowed. “First, I think it was your suit.”
“My suit?”
He reached over the side of the shower stall, grabbed a towel, and draped it carefully over her shoulders. “You were so covered up. So prim. Proper. I wondered what you kept all buttoned up underneath.”
She rolled her eyes and poked his arm.
“Hey, that’s how guys think…or don’t think…depending on how you look at it. And you’re beautiful. These eyes.” He pressed a kiss to each lid. “These lips.” His mouth sampled hers. “I couldn’t wait to get you onstage, to have an excuse to touch you.”
“To touch my suit,” Katherine joked, to diffuse the some of the seriousness. She couldn’t shake the feeling she was tumbling headlong into a relationship with Nash that’d leave her with heartache.
“And this—” Nash trailed a light finger over the hollow of her throat before stroking it down the center of her body. Over her heart, down her midriff to her navel.
A delicious heaviness weighed down her limbs. Lucky for her, she’d dragged herself out to Dallas Heat when Megan called, the night she’d met Nash. Not only had she gotten her groove back, she’d walked away with enough fantasy material for the next month. Year.
Oh, who was she kidding? No one would ever measure up to Nash.
“Anyway, after I got you onstage, I realized a dance wasn’t enough because then I really noticed you.”
“What did you really notice, P.I. Hawkins?”
He rubbed one hand across her collarbone to cup her shoulder. “There’s something sexy about how classy and controlled you are. You didn’t reach for me. Grab. I had to make you touch me. That’s never happened before. I wanted to woo you.”
Woo her…not just seduce her…
Her heart fluttered in a very unwanted, dreamy way.
This man—who had his pick of gorgeous women—wanted her. Special Agent Katherine Bowden, ice queen.
And if she didn’t start running right now, she risked melting completely.
Chapter Eleven
Katherine woke, fuzzy and sated, to twittering chickadees and streaming amber sunlight. Muscular arms encircled her, tucking her against the steely contours of a warm, hard body. Air rushed steadily by her ear.
Nash.
She inhaled his musky, masculine scent and a pleasant soreness tingled between her thighs as she replayed last night’s sensational sex. After leaving the shower, they had retreated to her cabin where he’d made love to her until she’d forgotten everything, even her own name, before sinking into a deep, satisfied oblivion. She squirmed backward, fitting her bottom snugly into the curve of his strong flanks.
Waking in Nash’s arms was absolutely delicious. And one hundred percent wrong. She should be thinking about their case, not her libido. Yet his effect on her was devastating. Her heart opened to him as easily as her body, a thrilling, frightening fact.
The rumbling of Nash’s wide chest vibrated against her back. Hopefully he’d keep sleeping so she could sort out her feelings. But the longer she lingered, the less clearly she could think.
“Morning,” Nash said in her ear, his voice throaty from sleep.
She turned over and her stomach did a flip at the sight of him, face stubbled, hair messed and utterly sexy.
He brushed a strand of hair off her cheek, the caress so gentle a lump formed in her throat. “Morning.”
Her cheeks heated under his scrutiny and she dropped her gaze, her heart pounding in her ears. Beneath the down comforter, he slid his hand up her torso, stopping beneath the swell of her breast. “What are you thinking about?”
She turned her head on the pillow, away from his magnetic stare. “Us.”
He tipped her face back his way, hooked his finger under her chin, and lifted it until she met his eyes. He didn’t smile, and she sensed he was as nervous as she was. “And what are those thoughts?”
“That I like you.”
Am falling for you…
“I like you, too. A lot.” He leaned down to press his forehead to hers and brushed her lips with a feather-soft kiss. “You make me feel…” His eyes searched hers, as if they contained the answer. A sudden smile told her he’d found it. “You make me feel real.”
“Real?”
“For most women, I’m just a fantasy. But I’m a regular guy with you. Not just muscles and dance moves.”
“There’s a lot more to you than that, though they are appreciated.” She traced the pronounced curve of his bicep. “Why did you become a stripper?”
He was silent for so long, she wasn’t sure he’d heard the question. Half of her hoped he’d missed it. Putting him on the spot to indulge her curiosity was nosy and tone-deaf wrong.
He released a long breath before describing a troubled childhood and mistakes that’d cost him an early career in law enforcement. “When I met Pete Landon, Reese’s father,” he concluded, “I was drowning my sorrows at a local bar. He bought me a drink, heard my story, and offered me a job at Dallas Heat. I accepted rather than go home a failure.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Nash’s green eyes warmed. “I like dancing. Making women happy. Giving them an escape from their troubles.”
“You did that for me. I went to Dallas Heat because I found out my ex-husband and the woman I caught him with got engaged.”
“Do you…” He paused and cleared his throat. “Do you still love him?”
“No. Not anymore…if I ever really did. I was going through a rough time when we met, and he was steady. Safe. I didn’t think he’d hurt me, and maybe that’s what attracted me to him the most.”
