Temptation on His Terms

by Robyn Grady

  This time when his lips left hers, his mouth slid over her chin, then down her throat, where it settled on a pulse beating to one side. Giddy, she got a grip of his shoulders and dragged him almost close enough.

  “Kiss me again,” she murmured then released a sigh. “Kiss me everywhere.”

  His teeth danced across the slope joining shoulder and neck while his hold on her hip tightened.

  “Tell me again.” He nuzzled the sensitive spot below her ear. “Tell me what you want.”

  She admitted, “I want you.”

  She slipped the straps off her shoulders and the gown fell in a silken puddle at her high-heeled feet. Naked but for a thong, she tipped toward him again, eyes shut, lips parted and available. But he held her back.

  “I might hate myself for reminding you,” he said, “but you do realize we’re outside on the balcony.”

  She blinked around. It was late, dark and, other than muffled traffic noise below, quiet. Still…

  “I should care, shouldn’t I? Someone might see.” People might talk.

  But he was already close again, his hand riding over the rise of her behind. When those fingers slid between the backs of her thighs, she clung to his shirt. Then she lifted one knee and rubbed it along the outside of his thigh. A heartbeat later, he was stroking the damp crotch of her underwear and she was bearing down, rotating against him.

  She let her brow drop against his shoulder but he angled her face toward his and kissed her again, this time in a penetrating, thorough way that left her floating. And all the while his fingertips skimmed and rubbed the thin strip of silk drawn between her thighs.

  When his stroke curled beneath the silk and a thick warm finger slipped inside her, she shivered with want, sighing in his mouth and fumbling for his buttons. As he pressed deeper inside, his tongue wound faster, too. Sensations and emotions whirled higher. Hotter. Light-headed, she gave up on civility and wrenched his shirt wide apart.

  Buttons popped and finally flesh met burning flesh.

  As he maneuvered out of his shirt, her mouth left his to graze lower over the broad hard plain of his chest. He tasted so good. Felt so hard and hot. As the tip of her tongue trailed around one flat nipple, her own breasts seemed to swell even more. She found his other hand and, guiding it, helped him cup her breast.

  When the pad of his thumb circled that tight tender nipple, a tingling rush shot to her core and her head lolled to one side. Lost in the waves, she closed her eyes and arched back. His arm around her back, he steadied her weight before his head lowered to taste her.

  While his tongue looped and teased that tip, she unzipped his fly and tried to tug his trousers down. He nipped her nipple and she bucked before he rotated them both and pressed her hard against the wall.

  The brick was cool on her back while his mouth scorched her lips. As an almost unbearable need surged through her system, he broke the kiss to nuzzle her chin then dot urgent kisses along her jaw, across her cheek.

  In her ear, he rasped, “Is this okay?”

  She gave him her answer by finding his hand, slapping it under her behind and rocking her hips forward. Then she drove her hand between their bellies and locked fingers and thumb around his engorged length. As she worked his erection, the hand cupping her rear lifted her bit by bit until her toes nearly left the ground. A few seconds later, a big palm smacked the wall beside her cheek and his head jerked away.

  His smile was half grimace. “What you’re doing…” His hand fisted as his eyes clamped shut. “It’s very distracting.”

  “In a good way, I hope.”

  “Almost too good.”

  He hoisted her up and her legs twined around his hips. When he eased her weight down slightly, she shifted the crotch of her thong and the tip of his length pushed an inch inside. The sensation snatched her breath away…left her senses swimming. In that moment, she felt unbelievably free, as if any world outside of this had evaporated into stardust. His chest hair tickling the points of her breasts…his hot scent infusing and exciting her…

  And then he began to move, pumping a controlled rhythm that wound her ever higher. Each time he thrust, her hips pulled away before coming back to slap against him. With her arms latched around his neck, she kissed him deeply, unrelentingly, her tongue darting around his while his erection filled her again and again.

  The friction was set to combust when, suddenly, his every muscle seemed to seize and his mouth dragged away from hers. One arm supporting her weight, the other hand braced against the wall, he strained to pull in each breath. She searched his face, his dark immersed gaze.

  “I’m not wearing protection,” he ground out.

  That brought her back. He lowered her weight until she stood on her own two feet, albeit unsteadily. While she leaned against the brick wall for support, Dex moved—she thought to sweep something off the floor. But then she felt his breath warm at the apex of her legs. Two palms feathered up the inside of her thighs before he tugged the thong down enough for him to freely stroke and tease her folds.

  Moist slow kisses dropped on her belly as two fingers slid into her opening. While she melted, he massaged a place just inside of her, and when she was quivering, biting her lip to hold back the whimper, his thumb lightly circled that place…a woman’s most sensitive spot.

  Sparks shot in every direction before falling around her to smolder and burn. She was unraveling, coming quickly apart. His lips grazed that spot, back and forth, round and round. She held her breath until it came out in a rush at the same time that burn turned white-hot.

  She imagined his smile before the stiff tip of his tongue twirled around the base of that nub then flicked the sensitive tip and didn’t stop. Sensations—sizzling and intense—whipped her around as her fingers knotted in his hair and urged him closer still. When his mouth covered her completely and he gently sucked, she began to tremble…then to shake.

  Perspiration broke out, cool on her brow, between her breasts. She released his hair to clutch the wall at her back as her heartbeat grew louder and the heat continued to build. When his head angled and he pressed in more, the combination flipped a delicate switch deep inside of her.

  Her ceiling blew sky-high.

  * * *

  Relishing every second, Dex held on as Shelby shuddered against him. He only hoped no one had a telephoto lens capturing all the action. Usually he kept this kind of activity indoors. He’d gotten carried away. Clearly Shelby had, too.

  He should have known she’d be this hot.

  Gradually the waves of her climax ebbed. Her grip on his head eased and loving fingers stroked through his hair. Then, spent, she began to slide. He whipped her underwear down her legs and flicked it away before sweeping her up into his arms and carrying her to his bed.

  Moments later, he laid her down then drew the quilt from underneath her until she rested on the sheet. After finding protection in the bedside drawer, he sheathed himself and ditched his shoes and unzipped trousers while studying her, courtesy of the moonlight slanting in through the patio windows and glass doors. Her body seemed to glisten, her hair was a tangle and her dreamy smile told him she was completely satisfied.

  In a languid movement, she arched toward him, asking him to join her. He slipped off her heels, then positioned himself between her legs. Kneeling, he eased up closer so that her thighs were drawn wider apart. His palms traced over her patch of curls before drifting higher to skim her belly. Ticklish, she smiled and bucked a little.

  His palms swam higher, molding over her breasts. As her arms coiled up around her head, he rolled and plucked her nipples until her eyes drifted closed and her head rocked to one side on the pillow.

  In plain language he hadn’t expected from her lips, she asked him to take her. Happy to oblige, he lowered his head, twirled his tongue around each nipple in turn then, settling dow
n, steered the tip of his erection inside of her again.

  Just like the first time, primal pleasure ignited and slashed through his system. She fit him so well, and when he began to move, her walls seemed to grip and draw him in deeper. Moving above her, propped up on an elbow, he brushed a wave of hair off her cheek and searched her face, her satisfied smile.

  He dropped a soft kiss on her brow, her temple, her cheek and ear, while the concentrated burn in his groin grew at the same time it compressed. When her legs coiled around the backs of his thighs and her nails drew goose-bumpy lines up his sides, his toes curled into the mattress. It all felt so good. Too good.

  “Something wrong?” she asked.

  He dropped a lingering kiss on her lips before his mouth trailed down one side of her perfumed neck. As he began moving again, he murmured in a slightly strained voice, “Everything’s perfect.”

  Her legs pressed against the backs of his thighs, urging him to go deeper, while her warm palms drew leisurely arcs over his pecs, grazing his nipples with each brush…such simple actions that had his every tendon clenching and the room temperature soaring into the red. Then she craned up enough for her tongue to reach and circle the hollow at the base of his throat. Round and round, then a little flicker.

  His length began to pound.

  As their hips continued to meet, those nails grazed down his sides again. The push below had him biting down, fighting to hold back the tide. When her touch skimmed the inside of his hip bones, he grabbed both her hands and pinned them on either side of her head.

  “You didn’t like that?” she teased.

  “You know exactly how much I like it.”

  “So much, you have to manacle me.”

  “If I didn’t, this would be over way too soon.”

  Her legs roped higher behind him at the same time her hips ground up. Then her pelvis rotated and inner walls squeezed while her sultry gaze gauged his reaction and he spasmed more than once. He half laughed, half swore, before he admitted defeat and gave himself over to the inevitable.

  He caught her left leg under the knee and brought her thigh back toward her stomach. Then he shifted higher, pumped deeper. Sweat beaded low on his back, across his brow, as he concentrated only on sensation…on the push building in his groin as he thrust again and again.

  On another plane, he knew she was holding his face, that her fingers were tracing the back of his ears. Her gentleness only made him that much harder.

  He grabbed her other leg and positioned it the same way, knee bent, limb pressed toward her torso. As the mattress continued to rock, her fingers fell away. His heartbeat pounding, he opened his eyes and watched her climb again, lips parted as her breasts shook with each plunge.

  The heat was blistering. His brain didn’t work other than the basic signal to keep her pinned and happy beneath him. He wanted her to orgasm this way. He needed her to cry out his name.

  When she did, his own climax tore through his veins like a firestorm. Focused on sensation—on the rush of pleasure—he was aware of her squeezing and contracting around him as they followed each other, shooting over the edge.

  Nine

  “I was in love once,” she told him. “We were supposed to get married. It didn’t work out. Hear it happens a lot.”

  They lay together draped in soft shadows, basking in the afterglow of their lovemaking. Her cheek rested on his chest; his arm hung, comfortable around her. Beneath the coverlet, his body felt so hard and warm. Curled up against him like this—revealing hurts and scars while his chest rose and fell on the steady stream of his breathing—Shelby felt safe in a way she hadn’t for a long time.

  When he’d stroked her arm a minute ago and asked her why she’d left Mountain Ridge, for once she hadn’t considered dodging. He already had a fair idea. A failed love affair. A broken heart.

  Pressing a lingering kiss to her crown, he urged her closer. “Whoever he is, the guy was nuts to let you go.”

  Did Dex want to know the details? The truth behind the most embarrassing episode of her life? When she’d told Lila at the café, her waitress friend had been appalled. Then she’d hugged her and said she had nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing at all.

  Dex, on the other hand, might see her actions that night as slightly hysterical. Particularly if she admitted her darkest secret…what had happened after she’d shocked the town with her announcement. She could barely believe it of herself. What would her father say? Her mother, if she were alive?

  But everyone had secrets, Shelby decided as she drew aimless patterns through the hair on his chest. There was definitely something secret she’d like to know about Dex. Something he’d avoided talking about from that first day she’d agreed to work for him. Shifting, she rested her chin on the bed of her fist.

  “Tell me about those rats in your basement.”

  His body seemed to lock down and his, arm stiffened around her. Beneath her hand, his heart began to thump. After a few seconds, he pushed himself up to sit back against the pillows. He ran a hand through his tousled hair.

  “If it’s too private…” she began.

  He studied her hard. “Sure you want to hear?”

  She sat up, too. “Yes. Yes, I do.”

  “Years ago,” he began, “I got caught up with a friend’s problem. He was let go from his job over tales spun by an ambitious colleague. It ate at him. It was all he thought about, talked about. And he couldn’t seem to get back on his feet. He was great with figures. Helped me out when I needed it. But for one reason or another, he missed out on every job he went for.”

  “You didn’t offer him a job with you?”

  “I thought about it. Frankly, I didn’t like his frame of mind. Then he started to gamble. I should have known something bad would go down.”

  She sat straighter while he flicked on a bedside lamp.

  “I gave him my time and a whole pile of cash,” he went on. “In the end, I told him he needed to speak to someone. A professional. That night he threatened to set fire to his ex-employer’s factory.”

  “Arson?”

  “He’d called me from the site. Told me again those bastards needed payback. I said to stay put. That I’d come straight over and get him. I begged him not to do anything stupid. When I got there, the place was already alight.”

  “Was anyone hurt?”

  “Thank God, no.”

  “How long does he have to serve?”

  Dex looked down. A pulse began to jump in his jaw.

  She brought the covers higher around her neck. “You kept his secret?”

  “And now someone else knows I was there. I’ve got a couple of pay-up-or-pay-the-consequences threats. They wouldn’t go to Joel. He can barely take care of himself let alone save a dime.”

  “And you haven’t gone to the police about the threats?”

  “There’d be questions.” He exercised his neck as if to work out a crick. “I haven’t seen Joel in a good while. It’s not my job to toss him on the coals to roast now.”

  “What kind of threat made you move out of your home?”

  “A foot-high replica of a coffin smoldering in my backyard.”

  Wincing, she held her roiling stomach. “That’s sick.”

  “There was a note earlier. To buy their silence, I needed to leave a bag of unmarked bills in a certain Dumpster.”

  “You’re not thinking of paying?”

  “The date they specified came and went. I had hoped that they would move on. But whoever’s behind it all contacted Teagan today, pretending to be an insurance agent. He said I had referred him and mentioned a fire that thankfully hadn’t spread out of control.”

  Her stomach roiled more. “What are you going to do?”

  “Warn her and get some protection. I’ll contact the guy who’s look
ing after my father’s situation. One of Cole’s longtime friends. Brandon might be able to recommend a private investigative firm.”

  “But Tate…you said you were going to collect him tomorrow. Bring him back. Do you think that’s safe?”

  “I’d rather Tate be here with me where I can keep an eye on him. I’ll take time off from the studio until it’s all settled.”

  “Who do you think it is?”

  “Joel must have told someone…a family member, another friend. Plots for extortion go on more often than people might think. Some deadheads figure why work if they can sit back and rip someone else off.”

  Shelby agreed with that to the depths of her being.

  “Have you ever thought,” she said, “that if you turn your friend in, he might get some help?”

  “As in help to survive on the inside, because that’s what he’d need.”

  Shelby’s face and neck grew hot. But wasn’t there a difference between snitching and bringing the truth to light? Sometimes speaking out could help a friend…or ex-friend, as the case may be. Even if it hadn’t worked for her.

  But this wasn’t some small town affair. “Dex, these kinds of people can get desperate. Look at your father’s situation.”

  “This lowlife isn’t out to hurt anyone. Just frighten them into handing over some change if he can. When I track him down, we’ll have a chat. I’ll make him see that it’s in everyone’s best interests to drop this and disappear from my life.” His eyes gleamed at the thought. “When we meet face to face, he’ll listen to reason.”

  Resting her cheek against his shoulder, for everyone’s sake, Shelby hoped so.

  * * *

  The next morning, after a two and a half hour flight, Dex landed in Washington state. Arriving at Teagan’s house, he asked the cab driver to wait. When his rapping on the front door received no response, a sick, creeping feeling filled his gut. Earlier he’d called Teagan to briefly explain what lay behind the bogus phone call from that so-called insurance agent. Then he’d said he was coming to get Tate.