No Escape

by Heather Lowell

  “Then I’ll try to make it worth your while,” Luke promised solemnly. He reached under her skirt again and pulled her panties off. Then he unbuttoned her shirt and pushed the fabric aside, before she could change her mind. He laughed quietly as he studied the erotic picture she made with her open blouse, lacy bra, and the dark blond curls peeking through the folds of the business skirt bunched carelessly around her hips. She was stunning, and she was his.

  “Hey,” she protested as she let go of his stubborn zipper in frustration. “Laughing the first time you see someone undressed isn’t exactly comforting. I told you I wasn’t very good at this letting-go thing.”

  “I can help with that,” he replied. Without warning, he laid her back on the mattress, slid her legs apart, and buried his mouth in the tender flesh between them.

  The abrupt movement—the sudden change from feeling half-dressed and protected by her clothing to being completely vulnerable while Luke nuzzled her in the most intimate way possible—was too much for Tessa to bear.

  Her hips surged against him, and her hands fisted almost painfully in his dark hair. He didn’t complain, but instead settled in deeper and dragged his tongue across her taut clitoris. She jerked again and tugged on his hair as if to pull him away, but her throaty moan of pleasure said she was loving every second of what he was doing to her.

  So was he.

  “My God. Luke, no, it’s too much.”

  Luke blew against her moist, scented skin. He gently sank his teeth into her, then used them to trap her tender flesh for his tongue, which he used like a dagger to tenderly stab at her again and again.

  Her hands tightened further in his hair, and while the pain was an exciting contrast to the burning heat in his groin, he was afraid she’d start pulling out chunks of scalp soon. He reached up and linked his fingers with hers, feeling her surprising strength as she grasped his hands and held on for dear life. Her soft, choked moans continued until he withdrew the gentle vise of his teeth and used his tongue in long, firm strokes that sent her over the edge. She shuddered and twisted and cried as she came so hard she almost passed out.

  When it was over, her hands slid limply from his to land bonelessly on the mattress. She slitted her eyes open, but what she saw made her close them again as a wave of heated embarrassment and expectation swept over her. Her blouse was open, her skirt pushed up, her lace bra half-on and half-off.

  And Luke was lying between her spread legs, his chin resting on the pale curve of her belly. He looked at her, waiting for her to come back, and noting with amusement the flush of heat rising from her chest into her face.

  “If I get up, will you promise not to move a muscle from this position?” Luke asked as he rubbed his cheek against her stomach.

  “Not unless you’re going to turn the lights out,” Tessa replied weakly.

  “The hell with that. I guess we’ll go to Plan B.”

  “Which is?”

  “To get you so worked up again you can’t even think of moving when I leave to grab a box of condoms.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said as she raised a shaky hand to push hair out of her face. “I’m not usually so, er, quick off the mark.”

  “I don’t want to hear apologies or regrets about anything we do in this bedroom tonight, okay?” Still lying between her legs, Luke propped himself up on his elbows and met her dazed blue-gray eyes.

  She just shook her head and blushed more deeply.

  “Now let’s see, what can we do to make the pretty Deputy D.A. let go of her remaining inhibitions?” he wondered out loud as he traced his fingers in circles around her belly button.

  “Inhibitions? Look at me,” Tessa burst out. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “Nope. Let me grab some protection, and we can find out together what it takes to make you come apart completely.”

  Tessa shivered as he got up and began to strip off his clothes. “If you pull a half-empty box of condoms out of the bedside table, I’m going to be seriously annoyed, Romeo.”

  “You’ll get over it,” Luke replied. He stood in his boxers and leaned over to give her a thorough kiss. Tessa got an eyeful of muscled arms, a wedge-shaped mat of hair on his tanned chest, and the taut stomach she’d only been able to imagine before. In the dim lighting, she could see a smattering of white scars from the time he’d been shot, but they did nothing to detract from his strength and raw appeal.

  “I guess I could forgive you,” she agreed, tentatively running her hands over the parts of his torso she could reach. He laughingly pulled away and headed to the bathroom.

  “Besides, I got this box at the drugstore today. You can check the receipt if you don’t believe me.” He returned and threw the brown paper bag on the bedside table.

  “Today, huh? Pretty cocky of you,” she said, then groaned as she heard the words out loud.

  “Why, Counselor, I thought you’d never notice.” Luke grinned and unself-consciously dropped his boxers, then stepped out of them and crawled into bed next to her.

  Her hands and arms were trembling lightly as she wrapped them around Luke’s body and pulled him on top of her. He held back long enough to strip away her remaining clothes, then settled in with a sigh of pleasure. He rubbed his face between her firm breasts and then kissed the taut pink nipples again and again.

  He would have been content to linger there, but one of her soft hands trailed down his back to clench in his buttocks and trace an incendiary path between them. He jolted as she stroked his taut muscles, then groaned quietly against her breast as she rubbed and caressed and fondled inches away from where he most wanted her touch.

  He pulled her hand away, bit gently at her fingers, and reached for the bag on the bedside table. She waited patiently for him to finish with the condom, and sweat popped out on his forehead as he looked at her naked and ready for him. Her blue-gray eyes were dreamy, pupils dilated, cheeks rosy. A slight smile curved her lips.

  The smile faltered as he took her face between his hands and kissed her deeply, all play gone for the moment. She closed her eyes and arched against the gentle probing between her legs, opening her thighs wide to let him rub against her and spread the sweet evidence of her pleasure between them.

  She gasped against his mouth as Luke pressed halfway into her, then retreated and returned several times. Her breath panted against his ear as he pressed his cheek to hers and entered her fully. He reached down to pull her legs around his hips so he could slide freely back and forth inside her.

  Her sounds of pleasure were soft in the late-night stillness of the room, and he moved faster and deeper to hear those cries again and again. Her nails suddenly dug hard into his back, and her head tossed back and forth on the pillow as Luke levered up on his elbows.

  “Look at me. Look at us,” Luke gritted. He pushed deeply into her and ground his hips against hers, forcing her eyes to fly open as a new level of sensation was introduced.

  Tessa looked down between them, and the sight of him entering her body caused the first wave of orgasm to crash through her. Luke felt her clench and contract around him and let himself go. He buried his face in the scented curve of her neck and cried out hoarsely.

  She clung to him, calling his name as the world narrowed down to the tousled bed, the pistonlike motion of his hips, and the heat of his sweat-covered back under her hands.

  Chapter 29

  Santa Monica, California

  Saturday morning, March 13

  Tessa woke early Saturday morning and simply lay there enjoying the exhausted, well-loved torpor of her body as it was warmed by a patch of morning sun. Sometime during the night they had crawled under the covers, but that hadn’t stopped Luke from learning every inch of her body. Her face burned at the memories of him sliding underneath the sheets before dawn to wake her with the heat of his mouth between her thighs.

  And then he’d cuddled behind her spoon fashion and made love to her again, this time with his body and his hands. The memory was woven through with dre
amlike recollections of the sensations he’d evoked, feelings so intense that she’d buried her face in a pillow that smelled of him and screamed.

  Luke Novak was a dangerous man, no doubt about it. She hoped there was good soundproofing in his house; otherwise, the neighbors had probably gotten an earful last night.

  She continued to lie there with her eyes closed, not quite sure how they would face each other in the morning light after the things they had done. Of course, since the man clearly had no shame, it wouldn’t be a problem for him. But this level of intensity was completely new to her. For the first time in her life she sensed a serious threat to her peace of mind—and maybe even her plans for the future.

  Disturbed, Tessa turned her back to Luke and curled up on her side.

  Lying beside her, he didn’t need a degree in psychology to understand that he’d rushed her the night before, and now she was pulling away. He’d been eager to take their attraction to the next level, but he should have slowed down once he understood how gun-shy Tessa was about commitment. But he’d been so sleepy and content with her on the couch, so relaxed. All of his good intentions had vanished in a heartbeat once he’d seen the awareness in her eyes,

  Well, it was too late to slow down now. Lucky for him he’d always been good at damage control.

  Stretching slightly to ease the kinks in muscles that had gotten a thorough workout the night before, Luke figured a strategic disengagement would be in order. He’d keep things casual but affectionate. He’d need to give Tessa the impression that he was perfectly happy with whatever she was willing to give him, while at the same time tempting her into giving more.

  Kind of like fishing—the idea would be to have the net ready to scoop her up before she was even aware that she was being hooked and reeled in. Of course, she’d be furious at the analogy, or at the idea that Luke was manipulating her in any way.

  If he hadn’t been falling hard and willing to do anything to keep her around to explore those feelings, he might even have felt bad about his plan. For a little while, anyway.

  But since he had her very best interests at heart, he figured that gave him a little leeway in terms of maneuvering around her commitment issues. She’d had little enough reason to trust men in her life—by his own admission her father had betrayed her utterly at a young age. Then the two men she’d been seriously involved with as an adult had tried to push her into marriage when she said she wasn’t ready, and succeeded only in driving her away.

  The key to living with someone as smart, independent, and commitment-shy as Tessa would be to make sure that wherever they went, she thought it was her idea to go there.

  Luke flipped back the sheets and stood up, enjoying the sight of her curled in the middle of his bed. Keeping it casual, he covered her with the blanket and stroked tousled blond hair away from her face. Then he left the room to take a shower.

  Wide-awake now that Luke had left the bed, Tessa told herself she wasn’t really disappointed that he hadn’t tried anything hinky in the light of day. She listened as he ran the shower, then rattled around in the bathroom for a few minutes. He came back out trailing the scent of cologne and stood bare-assed naked in front of the closet as he selected clothes to wear.

  Men really had no modesty. He wasn’t even sucking in his stomach or keeping his shoulders back—not that he needed to. Everything about the man was just right. Big, firm, and…with a shiver, Tessa rolled to her back.

  “Didn’t you say you had a meeting with Carmen this morning?” Luke asked with his back to the bed. He pulled on boxers, casual pants, and a sport shirt, since he would be going to the office for part of the day.

  Tessa cleared her throat. “Yes. Just a quick one to find out what she knows about the task force investigating Club Red. We missed each other all week because she was out of town, then playing catch-up.”

  “I’ve got a couple hours of work to get done at the office, then some phone calls to make and a meeting with MacBeth. Why don’t you swing by Novak International at four or so, and we can organize things from there?” Luke came over and sat on the bed next to Tessa to slip his shoes on.

  “Okay,” she said, discreetly tugging at the length of sheet that was trapped underneath Luke. When he’d sat down, the pull on the fabric had exposed her upper body. Given that he’d had his mouth all over her, it was stupid to be shy. But habits were habits.

  “Towels are in the bathroom, and you should find anything else you need with a minimum of looking. I’ll put on a pot of coffee before I leave. Oh, and don’t worry about the door—it locks automatically. See you later.” Luke leaned over and gave her a thorough kiss, but pulled back before she could respond. Then he was out the door and down the hall before she could do more than say good-bye.

  She told herself that the feeling in her stomach was abject relief that he seemed to be willing to play by her rules and keep things casual.

  Carmen Ramirez motioned Tessa into her office for their 11:00 A.M. meeting. “Look at you. Someone had a hot date last night.”

  Tessa made herself busy balancing file folders and pulling a chair up to the desk. “I actually was asleep before nine, if you can believe it.” Granted, she’d been up again after that, but didn’t feel the need to share her personal life with her boss.

  “Darn. Well, I hate to say it, but we need to keep this short. I’ve got a golf game with the lieutenant governor at twelve-thirty,” Carmen said.

  “You’re the one who called the meeting. I don’t have a lot of updates. You know we talked to the FBI about the ongoing task force investigation of Club Red and Ricky Hedges,” Tessa said as she took a seat. She didn’t like the vibes Carmen gave off as she tapped scarlet nails on the oversized desk.

  “That’s one of the things I wanted to talk to you about,” Carmen said. “I got a call from a Special Agent Peebles of the FBI. He’s heading the task force, and his nose is out of joint that you have been ‘sniffing around’ the subject of his investigation without coordinating things with him first.”

  “I didn’t even know there was an investigation until—” Tessa began.

  “That’s just what I said to him. Don’t worry, I won’t hang you out to dry. Yet. I told Peebles that while we were aware of his task force and one of our investigators had been attending the meetings, you didn’t know anything about it. And since the case hadn’t reached the point of being ready for prosecution, there was no way you would have known about it when you started to investigate your rape case. It was an unavoidable breach, but I also told him it was poor form on his part to be upbraiding one of my prosecutors for doing her job.”

  “What information do you have on the task force? I mean, what has our office done to date?” Tessa asked.

  Carmen shrugged. “Nothing much. There were so many personnel changes to the task force team, and progress was slow because it was a low-priority case. Our investigators here assumed the investigation had stalled. On this type of operation, the D.A. doesn’t get involved until the subpoena and search warrants phase—and sometimes not even then. Unless local and state laws are being violated, the federal investigation takes precedence. In reality, we were just getting courtesy copies of the communications until now.”

  “How far out of joint is Peebles’s nose about our cases crossing paths?” Tessa asked.

  “Pretty badly. I’m guessing from the tone of his phone voice that he’s a short, balding man.” Carmen waved her hand dismissively. “I told him that his task force needed to make room for my prosecutors at their future meetings. He needs to understand that we are now going to be actively involved. You’ve been added to the CC and e-mail lists for communications pertaining to the case and should get an invitation to their next team meeting. I have a copy of docs for you here,” Carmen said, indicating three boxes next to her desk.

  “When is the next meeting?”

  “Next month.”

  “Kelly can’t wait that long,” Tessa said. “And I don’t want to have to fight turf wars wi
th the FBI or any other agencies. They aren’t after the same thing I am.”

  “I know. I tried to get him to bump the next meeting up, but he said everyone had other cases to work on and would be busy. So I told them you would continue in your pursuit of the rape-and-kidnapping investigation with my blessing. I also said you would follow their lead in terms of cooperation and coordination, which I expect will mean there’s going to be a lot of polite memos and not much actual collaboration.”

  “What about their sensitive investigation? I was told that if we keep asking questions about Club Red, it would be noticed at high levels in Ricky’s organization. The implication was that I could tip him off to the FBI’s task force.”

  Carmen looked unconcerned. “If you happen to blow the lid off their organized crime investigation by looking into these rape allegations, so be it. That’s what the FBI gets for letting the case drag out so long.”

  “I was told the priorities of the Bureau are terrorism and national security, and this was low-priority for them.”

  “I don’t really care why the case got hind tit, I just told him that we can’t be expected to share the FBI’s priorities in this investigation. We are treating it as a high-priority, high-profile case, and will be pressing forward with the LAPD.”

  Tessa winced. “The FBI practically accused the PD of corruption and made it clear that they are not a part of the task force.”

  “I know,” Carmen said. “LAPD is pissed, though I’m keeping the chief as a reserve weapon. Your PD contacts will just have to muscle into the investigation if they can.”

  The complicated politics of the situation were enough to give Tessa heartburn. She wished she’d had time to eat breakfast, instead of just bolting a cup of Luke’s coffee before fleeing his house earlier.

  “Can I be frank, Carmen?” Tessa asked.

  “It’s one of the things I like about you.”