Into Temptation

by Jeanie London

  A mechanism hissed. Crowding Lindy inside an open space that smelled of stale air and age, Joshua blinked to adjust his gaze to the complete blackness and entered behind her. He could feel her come up against him, all warm and sexy woman, and a sudden rush of awareness quickened his own breaths.

  Another brush of his hand and the panel slid shut to sequester them together.

  Reaching for her hand, he twined their fingers and cautiously led her from the secret entrance until they stood just inside a narrow tunnel that wound down three stories along the building’s exterior.

  “I had no idea Stanforth Hall had a secret passage,” Lindy whispered.

  “A family secret.”

  “Which begs the question about how you know…ah, Erica.”

  “Erica,” he confirmed, pulling out a pocket flashlight.

  The beam illuminated the narrow tunnel that had been erected with the castle’s original structure. Stone walls glistened almost cave-like beneath seeping moisture. Although Joshua couldn’t see beyond the beam at the moment, he knew iron sconces perched high on the walls at intervals and panels led to other rooms as the passage wound down toward the first floor.

  “Did you date Erica?” Lindy asked. “I didn’t read a thing about her in my profile, which surprises me since she’s part of a prominent British family.”

  “We dated for a while.”

  “I’ll have to look more closely at your ex-lovers. Thanks for the tip.”

  “Not even Lady Kenwick knows I’m in on her family secret.”

  “Then I’ll red-flag Stanforth Hall in our systems to see if any artifacts come up missing.”

  He laughed. And made a mental note to tell Henri that his plans for the San Gabriel would need to be shelved for a while.

  “This tunnel leads outside?” she asked.

  “We’ll have to time our exit, though. Security sweeps the grounds. We won’t want to be seen leaving.”

  She didn’t ask why he knew details of Lady Kenwick’s security, but he didn’t think she’d dismiss his knowledge as another by-product of dating the lady’s divorced daughter.

  Something about that challenged him. In fact, everything about Lindy challenged him—from the opinion of him she might be piecing together to the way she’d managed to track down an old alias and follow him to London.

  Depressing the power button, he dropped the light into his pocket and cast them into total darkness. Lindy came up full against him with no protest, no feigned surprise, just the simple melting of their bodies together.

  Here was that feeling again. Joshua wasn’t sure what it was. Given that Lindy threatened his future with her MI6 profile and cutthroat manipulations, they were adversaries. Attraction shouldn’t explain the effortless way she felt in his arms.

  Dragging his fingers along her jaw, he urged her head back so he could make out her expression. Her features were shrouded in the gloom, so Joshua sensed rather than saw her sudden uncertainty. He felt it twining through the stale air, inhaled it with every breath. He wasn’t the only one surprised by the awareness between them, and he wondered how sassy Lindy, accomplished agent of Her Majesty’s Secret Intelligence Service, felt about being attracted to her target.

  “Are you thinking of ways to thank me for the rescue?” he asked.

  “You said fair’s fair. We’re even.”

  “We never established that you rescued me last night, which means you’re in my debt.”

  “You planted the brooch on me.”

  He thumbed the curve of her jaw, depressed the smooth skin of her throat until he could feel her pulse quickening. “We’ve never established that as fact either.”

  His statement lingered in the darkness between them, words that held tangible power and so many possibilities with their bodies pressed close, their hearts throbbing in rhythm. Their breaths threaded through the muted quiet, edgy, as though each of them struggled not to cue the other on how their awareness had filled the moment with thoughts of sex.

  Joshua tightened his arm around her waist, anchored her against him until he shared her body’s warmth. She’d been designed to fit against him, and in any other scenario he’d have pursued this woman without a thought, considered himself fortunate to have made her acquaintance.

  He’d met many lovely women in his travels and enjoyed his share of satisfying relationships. But this was an impossible scenario if ever he’d seen one. Ironic, really. He was the prey of a woman who aroused him more than he’d been aroused in so long, involved in a high-stakes game with his future resting on each move and countermove.

  “You know, Joshua.” Her voice throbbed with a want he recognized. “You didn’t only rescue me, you rescued yourself.”

  “How is that any different than your rescue last night? If that electronic device belonged to me—and I’m not admitting it did—you rescued me from dealing with museum security so you could interrogate me yourself.”

  “Are you saying I was self-serving?”

  He dragged his thumb along her chin, traced the defiant tilt, worked his way toward her full lower lip that made him remember what their mouths felt like when they kissed. “I am.”

  “No less self-serving than you were tonight. You didn’t want to answer questions about the brooch either.”

  “I didn’t,” he admitted.

  “Then, I repeat, we’re even.”

  He couldn’t resist anchoring her a little closer, until his groin pressed against her. “You owe me.”

  “What do you want as payment?”

  “Another kiss.”

  He wasn’t sure who made the first move, but suddenly their mouths came together on an exchange of breath, their lips yielding on a rush of need that was physical, undeniable. His heartbeat spiked, a sudden ache in his chest, a languid thud in his ears.

  Any questions Joshua had about their attraction vanished the second their tongues met in a clash of excitement that had nothing to do with circumstances and everything to do with passion. This was hunger, elemental, consuming, the sort of soul-deep wanting he’d never felt quite this intensely.

  He’d enjoyed an active love life for enough years to become discriminating in his tastes, yet when he held Lindy…there was something so unexpected about the way he felt, so real. When she slipped her arms around his neck, snuggled closer, he guessed her reaction was as unexpected as his own.

  Joshua had never felt this sort of excitement, a need to get under her oh-so-accomplished facade. He wanted to win more of these reactions from her. He wanted to convince her that she needed more than his kisses.

  Without conscious thought, he found himself caressing her throat, feeling the silken skin yield beneath his fingertips, so supple, so alive with the steady throb of her pulse. He embraced her tightly, wanting to explore the heat that simmered when he held her in her arms.

  Molding a palm over her shoulder, he skimmed a hand down her bare arm, skin against skin, such a simple touch that felt intimate and erotic in the extreme.

  Time stopped inside this ageless passage, the stale air lending to their breathlessness, the stony chill contrasting sharply with the heat burning between them.

  Joshua didn’t understand the effect Lindy had on him, but he knew he’d never enjoyed kissing more. He should be using their attraction to take the advantage. But he didn’t think this savvy woman would fall for any obvious maneuver. And he couldn’t think beyond obvious when he held her. With Lindy in his arms, he could only think about the sexy way she melted against him.

  When she began rocking against him, her sinuous moves turned an ache into a full-fledged erection. Blood plummeted to his crotch in blinding surges that echoed his pulse, made his legs leaden.

  Sucking in a hard breath, Joshua broke their kiss and trailed his mouth along her jaw, her cheek, her temple. She shivered in reply, a tremor that rocked her from head to toe. He breathed against her ear and made her tremble again.

  Lindy laughed, a low sound that echoed through the passage and sparke
d his need even hotter. Tipping her head, she exhaled another throaty sound, only this one burst against his ear, rocketing heat to all his sensitive places.

  Fighting fire with fire.

  He was ready.

  Nibbling his way down her throat, Joshua distracted himself from the way she mirrored his actions with moist kisses and tantalizing nips, the way she rode his crotch with a sultry motion that mimed two bodies making love.

  Her hands slipped down his back, nothing coy or shy about her desire to explore him, and when she slipped her arms free to reposition them so she could reach even lower, Joshua knew he was in trouble.

  Sliding her hands beneath his jacket, Lindy molded his hips, dug her fingers into his ass until she could put thrust behind her strokes. And she almost had him. His hips had started moving of their own accord.

  He couldn’t resist the mounting pleasure, the sweet little moans that slipped from between her parted lips when he nibbled at the base of her throat.

  Joshua intended to fight back. She’d given him an erection that demanded satisfaction, so he prodded the neckline of her gown aside, molded a breast with a hand.

  She gathered and tightened against him, a long “Oh” of pleasure tumbling from her lips, gusting against his neck in a warm exhalation.

  He smiled, taking the opportunity to crowd her against the opposite wall of the narrow passage, a short two steps that changed the entire dichotomy of their embrace.

  With the wall to support Lindy, Joshua had both hands free.

  He went straight for the kill before she could protest, a search-and-rescue operation for the fastenings that held her gown wrapped around her luscious body.

  God, he loved these Brits. The style was elegant and conservative, but deceptively so, because the tailored fit was actually nothing more than a simple wrap. He found a fastening at her bodice, another at her waist, and with one tug of an inner tie, her gown fell open, exposing a wealth of pale skin.

  She was lovely. Firm breasts swelled over a silky bra with each rise and fall of her chest. Sheer panty hose clung to the smooth expanse of her stomach and perfectly-rounded hips before descending legs that would haunt his dreams. He wanted to lift her into his arms, feel her wrap those legs around him, knew a need that suddenly felt bigger than his restraint.

  Words came to mind as he raked his gaze over her, her skin pale in the darkness, her body arched on the edge of desire, simple words that humbled him. He swallowed them back, still rational enough not to add to Lindy’s advantage.

  She didn’t need to hear that he thought she was beautiful. She would have heard those words from other men, men she’d probably invited into her life, men whose kisses she’d pursued.

  But wasn’t she pursuing him? Responding to him?

  Yes.

  A spray of goose bumps pebbled her skin, and he might have blamed the chill had it not been for the way her eyes had fluttered half-shut in a dreamy expression.

  He reached out to touch her, unable to resist.

  “Joshua—”

  Kissing his name from her lips, he revealed his own need in how hard his mouth caught hers, the way he drank in the taste of her. He wouldn’t give her a chance to protest, or to think about who he was and all the reasons why she shouldn’t give in to the way she felt. Not when her body responded so vitally to him. Not when his desire raged out of control.

  Slipping his hands between them, he shoved her bra up. Her breasts tumbled free as he speared his tongue inside her mouth, explored the warm recesses as he molded his fingers around perfect handfuls.

  Her skin was supple, her nipples tight peaks that stabbed his palms, begging to be touched. Catching them between thumbs and forefingers, he squeezed. A shudder rocked her slim body, and he tugged again, taking liberties, fondling her until he could taste her pleasure in the breathy little gasps that tumbled from her lips, feel her mounting need in the way she swayed against him.

  This woman was fire, and Joshua wasn’t exactly sure when he broke their kiss, wanting to test her and push her until she came apart in his arms.

  Trailing his mouth down her throat, along the pulse beating there, he lifted her breasts toward his mouth, so turned on by the erotic sight of her pale skin gleaming faintly in the darkness.

  The moment stretched in painful anticipation as he zeroed in and sucked in a tight peak with a slow, wet pull. Lindy writhed against him in reply. Joshua might have enjoyed a moment of triumph but his own response sabotaged any thoughts that he possessed the upper hand.

  This desire felt bigger than both of them.

  Just the taste of her flooded his body with need, spiked an ache inside until he wasn’t sure how long he’d remain standing.

  His body reacted instinctively, sensing her responses, touching her in places that made her tremble, growing bolder when she rocked against him as if trying to knead her own ache into breaking.

  Coaxing a hand into the waistband of her hose, he sucked hard on a nipple to distract her so she wouldn’t think about stopping him. He wanted free reign over her body, wanted to see if he could push her over the edge.

  He found the core of her heat, wet with desire, and targeted the tiny bundle of nerve endings that made her hang on to him for dear life. With his thumb starting up a knowing rhythm, he slid a finger inside, felt her clench tight.

  She rode him in an eager stroke, and the sight of her boldly taking her pleasure made his own breath hitch as her thighs began to quiver and he knew he’d pushed her to the brink.

  Then she came apart, the sound of her moan pulsing through him like a living thing. His crotch tightened until her pleasure subsided and she finally relaxed against him.

  And in that instant, Joshua wanted this woman in a way he hadn’t known he could want. The urge to shove her back against the wall and convince himself that what he felt in her arms was real overwhelmed him.

  Would she resist if he dragged down those hose and took advantage of her need? His every instinct urged him not to ask for permission, not to give her any chance to think rationally. There was nothing rational about what he felt right now.

  “Make love with me.” He knew each second allowed her to regain her equilibrium—exactly what he didn’t want. Not when his own need drove him. When every instinct he possessed urged him to start kissing her again, to coerce her, to convince her to toss reason to the wind.

  He recognized uncertainty in the way she gathered herself together, as if it took every ounce of her will to resist.

  “You’re trying to distract me, Joshua.”

  “Trying?”

  She chuckled, a throaty, sexy sound that arrowed need through him almost painfully.

  “Make love with me, Lindy.” The roughness in his voice gave her every advantage.

  “Are you convinced your future is in good hands already?”

  Lindy raised her chin defiantly, an act of pure bravado. He could see the yearning in her beautiful eyes, knew if he pushed, he might yet win this round.

  That was all the concession he needed to know he’d already won.

  6

  DAWN PALED the snug maze of London streets before Lindy finally accepted that process of elimination wasn’t going to serve up Joshua this time.

  She wasn’t surprised. Having admitted to uncovering the Stuart Temple alias, she knew Joshua would assume she’d unwound his trail through connections made under the alias.

  A correct assumption.

  This wasn’t rocket science, but covert ops. Joshua wasn’t a thief but a fixer, and that made a difference in the way he maneuvered. He might work for the bad guys and utilize different resources than she did, but the process was disturbingly similar. Once she’d admitted to uncovering his alias to verify her resources and—try—to intimidate him, she’d complicated tonight’s job immeasurably.

  Correction: today’s job.

  With a sigh, Lindy flung wide the drapes of the agency safe house where she’d holed up after escaping Lady Kenwick’s. Joshua had led her ac
ross Stanforth Hall’s grounds before vanishing into late-night London. But not without a damned cheeky grin that had told her he’d had her at his mercy, and known it.

  She tried to shake off her restlessness while staring into the morning. Dawn bleached the shop fronts on the street below in drowsy shades of gray, decidedly lifeless terrain if not for the market awakening.

  Traffic had been blocked off at both ends of the street, and from her vantage of the mews bisecting the lane, she watched life happen. Vendors filled carts with vegetables, fruits and flowers, spoke with customers as the milling crowd thickened.

  Crowds were great places to become anonymous, as Joshua Benedict well knew.

  So where was he now?

  Out of the country she assumed, by a trail she couldn’t seem to unravel. Trying to prove himself—of that she had no doubt. While tracking him to London hadn’t been exactly easy, Lindy knew he hadn’t expected her to show up at all.

  She’d accomplished a giant stride toward getting him to take her seriously, and as she reviewed the events of the previous night, she was pleased overall by the outcome.

  But she struggled for objectivity about their interlude in the secret passage, when emotion kept clouding her vision.

  Shame, or pleasure?

  Lindy felt an honest measure of both. She’d made the decision to use their attraction to her advantage, so getting nearly naked didn’t bother her.

  Losing herself in his arms did.

  Feigning passion was one thing. Surrendering to it was another entirely. Lindy had lost herself in the pleasure of Joshua’s kisses, of his skilled touches. She’d abandoned her control for an orgasm the likes of which had scattered her wits.

  She had several old school chums who waxed poetic about the merits of bad boys, but Lindy had always made a distinction between bad boys and bad guys. She didn’t see a thing wrong with a brooding hero. Some women enjoyed chipping away at an attitude the size of the Lake District to uncover the noble man below.

  Bad guys were missing the nobility beneath the attitude, and Joshua Benedict was that particular breed, which meant she should be having only one kind of orgasm with him—the el fake-O kind. Wit-scattering orgasms had no place in their relationship. Then again, Lindy supposed temptation wouldn’t have any real power if it wasn’t…well, tempting.