He and Lindy couldn’t remain here until the cruiser returned. Departing via the street wasn’t an option. He had no idea where the guard had gone.
Which meant the only place to go was up.
Catching Lindy’s gaze, he inclined his head toward the roof and found himself holding his breath as he extended his hand. Only when she slid hers inside did he breathe again.
Apparently they were in this together.
Gauging the distance up to the roof, he regretted not bringing along a full complement of gear. One glimpse at Lindy’s stylish shoes made him frown.
She didn’t ask where they were headed, just slipped off her shoes and passed them to him. He placed them inside his pack. Tugging off his sweater and gloves, he leaned close enough to smell the scent of her hair, feel her body heat as he worked the dark sweater over her head. There, at least half of her didn’t glow like a beacon.
“Ladies first,” he whispered against her ear, and any question he’d had about Lindy’s top-roping skill vanished when she slipped on the gloves and maneuvered the lines around her waist. She swung into easy motion and headed up.
Joshua followed with a smile. The night wind kicked up again, this time with a cold drizzle. He focused on Lindy’s bare feet moving in a steady motion above him, leading the way. She moved agilely, silently, a professional no matter what clothes she wore.
The exertion soon made him sweat, only without his sweater, the weather cooled his skin, made him feel the keenness of the night, made the silence so much sharper.
He watched as Lindy worked her way past the eighth floor and half expected her to glance down and wink as they passed the lawyer’s window. She did nothing to indicate she knew which office he’d visited.
The cruiser appeared on the street below again, shining a spotlight into the alley. Without discussion, they both paused in their ascent, waiting until the beam moved on before continuing to the roof.
Lindy obviously knew this drill, and he wondered how often she dodged the authorities while scaling a building ten stories above the street. He supposed he’d have to revise his opinion of MI6 agents, if this woman was the standard caliber.
When the first droplets of real rain fell, he was relieved that Lindy was only five feet from the roof’s ledge. He fixed his gaze straight ahead to keep the rain from his face and waited while Lindy hoisted herself onto the roof before completing his ascent.
The rain fell harder as she took off to survey the rooftop while he stowed the gear, removing any evidence that could betray them. Familiar with the building’s specs, he already knew the only way off this roof was down an emergency stairwell that would place them back in security’s line of fire.
Lindy presented an interesting alternative. She found equipment stowed beneath a tarp. The scaffolding, ladders and poles had apparently been stored by workers and used for some building renovations.
“We can cross over the back alley to that building,” she said. “Maybe we can find a way down from there. The alley’s barely seven feet wide.”
Peering over the side of the building, Joshua decided a tightrope walk was not only a viable alternative, but a good one. If Lindy felt comfortable, he was game, but even seven feet over a ten-story drop…
“The ladder or the scaffolding?” he asked, unsure if she intended to crawl or walk.
“Scaffolding.”
She wanted to walk in the rain. Bold woman.
Joshua retrieved the rope coiled inside the backpack. “Tie this around your waist.”
“Afraid I’ll fall?”
“A precaution.”
“Being a gentleman, Joshua?”
“Wasn’t that in my file?”
“Must have skimmed over it.”
With a laugh, he pulled her toward him. Mistake. She was wet and breathless from the climb, entirely too tempting, and trying not to touch her proved an effort of will.
“Has nothing to do with being a gentleman.” He distracted himself by winding the rope around her waist. “If you fall and die then I’ll lose any chance of getting my file away from MI6.”
“There’s only one way to do that.” She dared him with a glance. “Accept my deal.”
“There’s always more than one way.”
When she didn’t reply, he dragged the scaffolding to the roof’s edge. The beam was thick and solid, about a foot wide, adequate to support Lindy, all one hundred and twenty pounds of her. But he hoped like hell the beam would support his weight.
She helped him balance the scaffolding as he fed it to the neighboring rooftop. The beam easily covered the distance but sloped to the lower roofline, making passage slick and tricky.
“I’ll go first,” He tossed the backpack ahead of him, where it landed on the other roof with a solid thump.
“I’m lighter. If you break the thing, I won’t have any way to get across. I don’t want to get caught up here.”
Her candid assessment of the situation heightened his tension, and transformed the moment into a dare.
She reached out for a boost onto the ledge. He obliged, and she eased into an upright position. After gauging the distance, she breathed deeply, raised her arms and took the first step.
Joshua’s heartbeat stalled. She crossed the distance with steady strides, never hesitating, never glancing down, never seeming fazed by the wind that lifted her hair and tossed razor-sharp drizzle over them.
The crossing took less than a minute, but he didn’t move until she safely reached the other roof. Only when her smile flashed in the dark, did he suck in a hard breath, a powerful relief hitting him like an iron punch.
Then it was his turn to impress her.
All thoughts of Lindy vanished when the sky opened up and the rain lashed down at him, and he focused solely on keeping his balance, on placing his steps solidly on the slippery beam.
Lindy reached toward him as he covered the final distance, and he latched onto her hand, calm washing through him as he jumped down and felt the solid roof under his feet.
“Bloody good show,” she said. “Thought you were going over. File would have been useless then.”
Her laughter carried on the wind, and the sound proved the catalyst that unleashed Joshua’s tension along with the storm.
She looked wet and delicious with the rain plastering her hair to her cheeks, making her blink away drops from her lashes. The sweater clung to her, molding her breasts, drawing his gaze to the rapid rise and fall of her chest.
For all her boldness, she was physically jolted by their predicament. It was in her shallow breathing, in the laughter that tumbled from her lips.
Their shoulders touched and their hands brushed as they maneuvered the scaffolding toward themselves, lowering it to the floor out of sight to leave no evidence behind.
And when she peered up at him with that sparkling gaze and said, “Now we just have to escape from here,” Joshua couldn’t resist her. Not when they were bound by pounding hearts and racing breaths. Not when adrenaline rushed so hard he couldn’t feel the needling rain. Not when he wanted Lindy more than he could ever remember wanting a woman.
He wouldn’t let her escape just yet.
7
JOSHUA’S MOUTH came down on hers hard. Lindy tasted the rain on his lips, the urgency in his kiss, and her body replied with a yearning so intense it startled her.
Her control evaporated around this man. She didn’t know why, but the frustration she’d felt while unsuccessfully tracking him only served to heighten the effect.
This chase had become personal. Sometime during the past twenty-four hours catching Joshua had become less about Renouf and more about checking Joshua’s moves with moves of her own.
And proving herself, although Lindy had no idea what she could prove. He was the bad guy. She was the good guy. Black and white. Matching wits was only a way to win his cooperation.
It all made sense in her head. But when Joshua’s arms came around her, spun her away from the outer roof wall and crowded
her back against an inner wall with decorative cresting…desire slammed through her hard. Her body rose to the challenge of their escape, of him.
With the night roaring around them in a lashing of rain and wind, there was no denial, no reason, no shame. There was only the memory of the pleasure she’d found in his arms and an ache that was undeniably physical.
There was no resisting temptation.
She’d meant to seduce her way into gaining his cooperation. Liquid ethics, perhaps, but in this line of work, Lindy did what she must to get a job done. Not this time. Somehow her lack of control, the reality of her reaction to Joshua made this so much more than work.
She wasn’t sure why, only knew that the impulse to slide her hands around his neck was too strong to deny in this moment, the fury of the weather crashing around them.
Thunder rumbled though the storm-soaked city, and the very idea they might be struck by lightning barely penetrated the haze that had her trapped. Reason could only tug at the edges of her brain, battle for attention in a body that had gone live with pleasure.
She wanted to rise up on tiptoes and press against him, feel his body against hers, all those hard places that had felt so impossibly right in a dark passageway.
So she did.
Giving herself to the moment, Lindy pulled Joshua deeper into their kiss, allowed the thrill of their colliding mouths to lead her wherever it willed.
He cupped a hand behind her head, trapped her so he could thrust his tongue deeper, press his body closer until she could feel him everywhere. He dared her to resist with each bold caress of his mouth. He challenged her to break free, taunted her to be anything but a woman who provoked him to such abandon.
Because, even through this mind-numbing arousal, there was no question that she provoked Joshua. Intensity radiated from him. The hard muscles in his back practically vibrated beneath her fingertips. His hips locked against hers as if he’d never let her off this roof.
Passion mounted a liquid fire that coursed through her veins, dragged her whole body on an upsurge of arousal. Her breasts grew heavy and tight, ached to feel his fingers in a memory that had surely been too sweet to be real. Such hot attraction to a stranger, especially this unsuitable stranger, must have magnified in her imagination during the long hours she’d spent chasing the man.
But there was no denying the way he affected her now. Her stomach melted into the aching pool of want, and her sex clenched in a plea for attention. Joshua must have known because he leaned down enough to force her legs apart. His erection branded her, a hardness catching her in exactly the right spot.
Lindy couldn’t have stopped her hips from swaying if the building had collapsed and tossed them down ten stories into the street. He growled against her mouth, broke their kiss and caught her lower lip between his teeth, a hard nip that shot a bolt of want straight through her.
Tugging at her lips with those erotic bites, he tilted his hips to drill that erection against her. His sodden sweater hung heavily from her shoulders and, combined with her own wet clothes, created a friction that teased her nipples mercilessly. Yet their wet clothing was also a barrier diluting the full impact of contact, and Lindy wasn’t sorry. Not when her need had grown so intense, almost overwhelming.
His hips moved. Long, sinuous strokes that convinced her he would be a man well worth blowing off the world to spend long days with in bed. He kept up that steady pressure while trailing his mouth along her jaw and down her throat, working his way to her ear to whisper, “I want to touch you.”
She thrilled to the sound of his voice, barely audible beneath the pelting rain, yet somehow undeniably resolute.
Lindy wanted to touch him, too.
Burying her face in his neck, she shielded her eyes from the rain and kissed his wet skin in silent invitation. She traced the muscles around his back, her fingers gliding easily over his moist skin. He only laughed, and the sound gusted against her ear, made her tremble.
But he seemed content to let her explore, and entertained himself by nuzzling his way down her throat with open-mouth kisses and intimate strokes of his tongue, seemingly as eager to taste her, to win her reactions, to test her daring.
And test her he did. His hands were suddenly everywhere, taking the same liberties. He worked his way under the sweater, felt his way around her blouse, his fingers building the tantalizing drama with each button he popped open.
That tiny portion of her brain still clinging to reason cautioned against this abandon, warned there must be a setup coming, but instinct denied reason. The very idea of getting naked on this roof only heightened Lindy’s excitement, the danger of the unknown, the possibility of capture.
When his hands finally connected with skin, Joshua’s caresses grew frenzied. He dragged his hands down her ribs, along her waist, over her stomach, as if trying to memorize her. His hands warmed her, made her arch into his touch, made her mirror those touches on him.
Their breathing grew labored. The moment became urgent. The situation was spinning out of control. She sensed it deep in her gut, with an instinct she trusted enough to bet her life on. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this aroused, couldn’t remember ever feeling so aroused.
Joshua was a means to an end, their arousal a means of control. But she found it so hard to remember when he was lifting away her bra, clearing aside the clothes to free his path.
She wanted to press her cheek inside the curve of his neck, taste his wet skin, inhale deeply of a scent that was his alone, all male and enticing.
He broke away and she gasped, realizing just how much his body heat had warmed her. Their gazes connected in the darkness, his expression hungry. The desire she saw proved that he wanted her as much as she wanted him.
That much between them was real, at least.
So real that she couldn’t deny him when he maneuvered the soaked mess up and over her head in a tangle, freed her bare skin to the elements, and his gaze. The rain sliced between them, made Lindy shiver.
His low growl of anticipation echoed off the night. She held her arms out to him, struck by how they gleamed pale and needy in the darkness. Some unfamiliar part of her was stunned by the poignancy of standing half-naked before him, the elements whipping around them, the police scouring the streets below.
She was vulnerable to this man and their situation, and she found herself excited by the sheer drama of the moment, by the biting anticipation of not knowing whether he would use her vulnerability to betray her.
He was the bad guy, after all.
But Joshua only raked a knowing gaze over her, an expression that assured her he, too, was feeling the power of the moment, the weight of uncertainty between them. He struck her with his ferocity as he dragged his own shirt over his head, mesmerizing her with the sight of rivulets streaking down the sculpted ridges of his beautiful chest, with his intensity as he moved into her embrace.
Suddenly they were skin to skin, his arms anchoring her close, arching her backward so her breasts crushed against him. She exhaled a sigh that mingled with his, sounds of pleasure carried off by the wind.
Then their hands were everywhere, fingers gliding over wet skin in an eager dance of acquaintance. Lindy wanted to feel him everywhere, drank in the strength of firm muscles, the clenching ache between her legs as he ground his crotch against her, started up that enticing rhythm again, shared his need freely, stoked the sparks of her own.
He touched places that ignited thoughts of what he would feel like between her thighs, pushing inside deep enough to ease this ache. She arched into each thrust, meeting his demand with her own, helpless to do anything but abandon herself to the promise of what they would feel like together.
He pulsed and throbbed against her in reply, his voice throaty and low against her ear, arousing. She could feel him shudder as he fought to control his need, and she savored the power of knowing she affected him so deeply.
But satisfaction was short-lived. If she’d learned nothing else
about this man, Lindy knew he wouldn’t let her keep the upper hand for long. He knew how to right the balance of power. And he did.
Her breath caught on a sob when he cupped her breasts in his palms, thumbing the sensitive undersides, lifting them erotically as he leaned close… He zeroed in with his mouth, sucked in a nipple.
She cried out. Another sound lost in the storm.
With his broad shoulders stretched out before her, he made love to her breasts with his mouth, exploring one nipple then the other, teasing the tight peaks with erotic flicks of his tongue. His fingers joined the game, sneaking in to tug and squeeze and drag gasps of surprised pleasure from her lips.
Lindy was glad for the wind that carried away the sounds of her pleasure, didn’t want Joshua to have so much control, was helpless to resist. She melted from the inside out, felt irresistible excitement coiling within and when he slithered a hand inside her pants, she felt powerless in a way she never had before. There would be no turning back now.
And there was the real danger—she didn’t want to.
Even though Lindy knew this man was all about making her climax and proving he had the control, she would be a willing participant in her surrender.
She thrilled to feel his hand curl over her sex, rose up on tiptoes to give him easier entry. Callused fingertips touched all her soft places, created a delicious friction.
This man was so bold. She gave a little, and he took whatever he wanted. Dragging his hand over her wet folds, he explored her with a skill that made her mouth go dry.
He dared her to protest, challenged her to take what he offered. He eased a finger inside her, touching places yearning to be touched. Slithering another finger back, he touched her in places she’d never considered him touching.
The pressure, the pleasure….
With her body clenching, her muscles gathering tightly, her legs threatened to collapse. She sank back against the roof to steady herself even though the wall dug into her spine. She didn’t care. She only cared that Joshua didn’t move. His hands and his mouth were right where she wanted them to be.
Into Temptation Page 10
