“It’s the dress, babe,” he protested. “How do you expect me to control myself when you show all that creamy skin?”
Raine slanted Margot an embarrassed look. “Excuses, excuses.”
Seth tilted his chair back and gave Margot a thoughtful once-over. “Sean told us about this sick fuck who’s been stalking you—”
“Seth!” Raine broke in. “Please!”
“It’s OK,” Margot said hastily. “That’s an excellent description.”
“That reminds me. I have a present for you. Sean told us about you worrying about your dog, and I just happened to have a prototype on hand of this thing I’ve been fiddling with in my spare time. A new product. You still got that thing in your purse, babe?”
Raine rummaged in her ice-blue satin evening bag, pulling out a plastic-wrapped object. She handed it to Margot with a smile.
Margot turned it over in her hand. A circle of heavy black leather, with a silver medallion hanging off it. “What’s this?”
“It’s a dog collar,” Seth explained. “A Colbit GPS petfinder. If you lose your dog, you call me, I look him up on my system and tell you where he is. Or you can buy the software and the equipment if you want to look for him yourself. The battery’s good for a month. I have to make you a recharger. The prototype I had wouldn’t fit in Raine’s purse.”
“Uh…wow,” Margot said helplessly. “I’m just…thanks.”
“Nobody told me your dog was so shrimpy,” Seth grumbled. “That collar’s big enough for a rottweiler. I’ll find you something smaller.”
She stared at the silvery medallion, and the thick leather collar, adorned with wicked-looking silver studs. “That’s…that’s so sweet.”
“Soon as we get back to town, I’ll rig you some of my vidcams at your place,” Seth said. “We get your stalker on film, then we catch him and we squish him like a grape. Splat.”
Margot was touched by the grim purpose in Seth’s voice. “That sounds really great,” she said hesitantly. “But the truth is, I don’t have the budget for a complicated, high-tech—”
“Davy’s family,” Seth cut her off.
“But I’m not,” Margot pointed out. “You guys don’t even know me.”
“We can’t wait to know you,” Raine said. “I asked Erin’s mom to seat you with us on purpose. So fill us in, tell us everything. Where are you from? What do you do? How did you and Davy meet?”
Thank God, at least the last question was innocuous enough. “I teach exercise classes in the gym next door to his dojo,” Margot said. “A couple of days ago, I dropped by to ask him what he thought of my stalker problem. We’ve barely met, really. I was hoping to pump you guys for details about him. He’s so mysterious, you know.”
That was a pretty slick job in deflecting questions, or so she hoped, but Seth and Raine exchanged dubious glances, and Margot shoved on with the first thing that popped into her mind. “For instance, I saw four brothers in the pictures on Davy’s mantelpiece, but here there are only three. What happened to the fourth McCloud brother?”
Raine’s smile faded. Seth’s jaw tightened. Margot had a sudden sinking feeling that she’d stuck her foot in it. Way deep.
“Dead,” Seth said heavily. “Twelve years ago. His truck went off a cliff. His name was Kevin. He was Sean’s twin. He was only twenty-one.”
Margot swallowed over a hard, dry bump in her throat. “Oh dear,” she whispered. “Oh, ouch.”
“Davy was overseas at the time,” Seth added. “Intelligence work, in the Army. He never told you how he and his brothers grew up?”
Margot shook her head. “Just that his parents are both gone, and that his father had some, ah, unorthodox political ideas.”
“Hah,” Seth grunted. “I guess that’s one way of putting it.”
An odd, tense silence fell. “So? You guys are killing me,” she said nervously. “For God’s sake, clue me in. Don’t leave me hanging.”
“Their dad was nuts,” was Seth’s blunt reply. “He was a wacko, survivalist type. An ex-commando Vietnam vet. Raised his kids way out in the hills. Taught them to hunt and trap and fish and fight like fucking demons. He wanted to prepare them for the fall of civilization. Then their mom died, and he really lost it. Went certifiably bonkers.”
Margot forced her mouth to close. Wow. Her thoughtless comment about how Davy didn’t even know what it felt like to be desperate floated into her mind. How stupid she must have sounded.
She cleared her throat. “I didn’t mean to get into the scary private stuff,” she said, her voice unsteady.
“With the McClouds, it’s all scary private stuff,” Seth drawled. “They’ve got a weird talent for attracting intense drama into their lives.”
“You’re a fine one to talk,” Raine said tartly.
“So are you, my darling pet.” Seth leered at her and did something under the table that provoked Raine into kicking him. The table shook. Champagne flutes wobbled dangerously.
“Stop that!” Raine turned to Margot, her face apologetic. “He’s not usually quite this bad. He acts out like crazy whenever there are new people around to shock and impress.”
Margot hid her smile. She sensed that Seth was playing the clown on purpose to divert her, but she wasn’t ready to be diverted yet.
“How old was he when his mother died?” she asked.
“Erin told me Connor was eight,” Raine said. “So that would have made Sean and Kevin four, and Davy, let’s see…ten.”
“Uh, babe?” Seth’s voice was cautious. “Davy’s not gonna be thrilled with you for telling a bunch of unauthorized gut-wrenching stories about him behind his back. Guys hate that shit.”
Raine tossed her head. “Well, I’m not particularly thrilled with Davy at the moment. I think he’s being self-absorbed, bad-tempered and rude. So I’ll tell all the gut-wrenching stories I want on him.”
“OK, fine. Just don’t get mad at me about it,” Seth said hastily.
“You mean there’s more?” Margot whispered, appalled.
“Just how his mom died,” Raine said. “Erin told me. They lived way out in the hills behind Endicott Bluff. It was the middle of the winter. Three feet of snow. She had a tubal pregnancy and bled to death while they were trying to get to the hospital. Davy was the one driving the truck. Connor said he didn’t even speak for months afterwards.”
Margot’s stomach dropped into a bottomless, icy nowhere. She got to her feet, clutching the edge of the table. “Excuse me.”
“Are you OK?” Seth and Raine’s anxious faces receded, expanded.
“I just need to, ah, run to the ladies’ room.” She turned, and found herself blocked by a solid wall of scowling, tuxedo clad males. “Oh. You.”
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Davy growled. “Oh, Christ. You’re crying again. What did you guys say to her?”
Raine lifted her slim shoulders in an innocent shrug.
Davy dropped her purse on her chair and slid his arm around her waist, dragging her out onto the dance floor. “Come on. Let’s dance.”
Several couples already swayed on the dance floor to the slow, sexy number, including the bride and groom. They looked up from their blissful, dreamy togetherness to give Margot a curious once-over.
“Congratulations,” Margot called out to them.
“Thanks,” they said in unison, and that was the end of that interchange as Davy swept her quickly out of range.
“What the hell did Seth and Raine say to you?” he demanded.
“We were talking about you. Raine told me how your mom died.”
Margot stumbled over his feet as he abruptly stopped moving. He caught her gracefully. “Fuck,” he muttered. “This is all I needed.”
“It’s terribly sad, but nothing to be embarrassed about,” she said quietly. “You don’t have to be mad at Raine. I was curious. I asked.”
“That’s not the point!” he snarled.
“Point? Is there ever a point?”
&nbs
p; He twirled her away from him, then yanked her aggressively back into his arms. “Why get churned up about ancient history?” he demanded. “I have never understood that impulse! There are plenty of fresh new problems to worry about without digging up old stuff.”
True enough, but Davy’s thunderous expression bothered her. “What is with you, anyway?” she demanded. “You’re mad at Seth, at Raine, at Tamara, at everybody. Lighten up, for God’s sake.”
“I can’t,” he said, from between gritted teeth. “Everybody is bugging me. And I didn’t like the way Tamara messed with your head.”
“I don’t think she meant any harm by it,” Margot argued. “I just don’t think she knows any other way to interact with people. To tell the truth, I kind of like her, in a perverse way. And my head’s tough. If it can handle being messed with by you, it can certainly handle Tamara.”
Davy’s jaw tightened. He dipped her very low and held her there, helpless and suspended. “Don’t you start bugging me too.”
He yanked her back up. She blinked, dizzy. “You’re being awfully sour for this joyful occasion.” She gazed into his stormy eyes as an intuition took hold in her mind. “You’re scared for your brother because he’s so happy, right? You’re afraid he’s setting himself up for a fall.”
Davy’s hand tightened on her waist. “Do we have to analyze it?”
“Or is it just jealousy? Do you want what he’s got? Love, romance, happily ever after? Everybody does, whether they admit it or not.”
Davy’s face went blank. “Fuck, no.”
“Hmm,” Margot murmured. “That was a violent response to my innocuous question. Overcompensating, are we?”
“I was clear about where I stand on marriage and commitment,” he said. “Nothing’s changed. Nothing’s going to. Don’t get any ideas.”
She bristled. “Don’t flatter yourself. You insensitive lout.”
“Stop teasing me, or I’ll make you dance with the new Assistant Special Agent in charge of the Seattle FBI Field Office,” he whispered into her ear. “He’s right behind us, staring at your ass.”
She lunged up to pull his earlobe between her teeth and give it a nip. “You sick, evil bastard,” she hissed back. “That’s not funny.”
“Then why are you laughing? I feel it when you laugh, even when you don’t make noise. Your whole body vibrates. It’s sexy.”
“Oh, you think everything’s sexy.” She gasped as he suddenly dipped her low over his strong arm. “Davy! Are you drunk?”
“Nope. I never get drunk. I’m just in a weird mood.”
“You’ve been in a weird mood since the day you met me.”
“Guilty as charged,” he agreed. “Go ahead, goad me. Torment me, insult me, scold me. I want to fuck you so bad, all I hear over the roaring in my ears is blah, blah, blah.”
She was speechless for a moment while her mind changed gears.
“Oh. I see,” she said. “So we’re reducing it all to cheap, mindless sex. Your one single, solitary safety valve. You’re so predictable, Davy.”
“Blah, blah, blah,” he taunted. “Ever since we left the hotel room, I’ve been thinking about your bare naked ass underneath that cock-teasing dress.” He dragged her closer to his body. She could feel the heat of his erection against her belly. “See what it does to me?”
Her legs quivered at the raw sex in his voice. “You’re going to have to control yourself, Davy. It’s going to be a while before we can—hey!”
He grabbed her hand and yanked her behind a bank of potted Norwegian pines and into a corridor. They sped into it, Davy trying doors right and left until one of them opened.
He pulled her in, slammed the door and locked it.
He flicked on the light. They were in a small internal conference room, just big enough for a long, gleaming table of rosy colored wood.
“I want to put my hands under your skirt,” he told her. “Pet the hair between your legs.” He advanced on her. “Till you’re all wet and soft, and you’re giving me that panther woman look, like you want to eat me alive. It drives me…fucking…crazy.”
She backed up till her bottom hit the table. “Davy, you’re perverse,” she said shakily. “Totally schizo. I thought you were pissed off at me, and all of a sudden, you morph into a raging sex fiend.”
“You provoked me.” He grasped her waist and hoisted her onto the table, leaning forward until she was forced to lean back. “Because you like me like this. Out of my mind. Right?”
She arched back, propped on her elbows inside the cage of his arms, trapped by the animal heat in his eyes. “Yes,” she admitted.
“I knew it. Otherwise I’d keep my raunchy fuck fantasies to myself. I’m discovering a whole new world of bad behavior, babe.”
She pushed his chest, but that unbalanced her so that she fell onto the table, flat on her back. “You’re making me nervous.”
“Yeah. You like that, too. It makes you come like crazy.” He swooped down to nuzzle her throat.
She licked her lips and shivered at the tender nip of his lips against the sensitive tendons of her neck. “I never felt that way before.”
“Good. That makes it all mine, then.” His hand slid under her skirt, stroking up the length of her thigh and dragging her skirt up with it. He tugged it up until the fabric was bunched in a crumpled wad over her belly. She was naked from the waist down.
“Davy,” she whispered. “Oh, God.”
“Ever since you walked out in that dress, I’ve wanted to drag you off into a dark corner and slide my hand up between your legs,” he said. “Open up for me, sweetheart. I want to see you just like that.”
Her eyes fluttered open, blinking. “Like what?”
He kissed her jaw, drew her trembling lower lip between his teeth and tugged on it. “Your face glowing, your eyes dilated. Your body shaking because you’re so excited. All your secrets, wide open to me.”
Her shaky laughter made the trembling worse. “That’s not a panther-womanish scenario, Davy.”
“Sure it is. If I’m the only one panther woman trusts enough to sheathe her razor claws and let me into her sweet tender places.”
She squeezed her eyes shut against the rush of tears. “Stop it.”
“Stop what? It’s working. Just look at you.”
Stop making me fall in love with you, you cruel bastard. “Stop torturing me,” she pleaded.
“No,” he said. “Open up, Margot. Let me see you. All of you.”
She opened her thighs for him. Her body had a will of its own.
“You’re so soft and wet already.” He breathed the words out as he touched her labia delicately, sliding his finger up and down the slick folds. “You suck me right in,” he murmured. He kissed her, his tender lips coaxing her mouth open. He caught her cry against his mouth when he angled his hand to caress her clitoris. He fumbled at his crotch, freeing the jut of his erection from the tailored trousers.
Margot dragged her face away from his kiss, and stared down at his penis bobbing heavily between her legs. Her face was on fire. She couldn’t get enough air. “You don’t have any condoms,” she said.
He shook his head slowly.
“You’re nuts.” She tried to sharpen her voice, but it shook too hard. “I’ve never let a guy…not without latex. Never. It’s not smart.”
“No,” he agreed. “Definitely not.” He pushed her legs wider and pressed the head of his penis against the inner lips of her labia. The hot kiss of contact made her flinch and gasp. “None of this is very smart.”
“You’re too much.” Her chest heaved for breath.
“I won’t come inside you,” he murmured. “I just have to feel it. My cock, sliding into you. Feeling you clutch me, so tight and delicious. Just let me feel it. Just a few slow strokes. I’ll be good. I promise.”
She wiggled, but not to get away. “This is way over the line.”
He slid his penis tenderly around her clit and then down to lodge in her slick, flushed opening, pul
sing against her. “Is that a no?”
She closed her eyes and licked her lips and prayed for strength, common sense, basic brains. There was none within reach.
She shook her head. “No. I mean no, that’s not a no.”
His slow, beautiful grin did something devastating to her insides.
“So that’s a yes?” he said. “Two no’s cancel each other out and make a yes, right? Don’t make me guess. This is too important.”
“Please.” It was all she could force out. She swallowed, licked her lips and tried again. “Just do it.”
His laughter cut off into a grinding moan as he pushed himself slowly inside her. He dragged himself almost completely out of her body, so just the tip of his thick penis was clasped between the lips of her sex.
“Put your arms around my shoulders.” His voice was rough and breathless. “I want you to watch, when my cock disappears inside you…”—he thrust, deep and slow—“…and comes out all slick and shiny from your sweet lube.”
She clutched at his shoulders, digging her nails into the smooth fabric of his tux jacket. He slid a supporting arm around her back.
They huddled together, forehead to forehead, silent but for their labored breathing, the wet, tender sounds of their bodies’ contact.
She abandoned herself to his hypnotic pleasure spell, seduced by sensation, the sensual, relentless rhythm of his tender thrusting. Her body was incandescent, so alive to feeling it almost scared her. Every muscle quivered with strain. She held herself upright and gazed down into the shadowy space between them, eager to catch every detail; the hot scent of sex, the sight of his thick, ridged shaft stroking her.
Bursts of pleasure rocked her, each one blooming sweetly out of the last. Finally she gripped his upper arms, inciting him with her body to give her more than that maddening slow pulse. “Davy. Harder.”
“No,” he said. “Can’t risk it. Not without a condom. This is as fast as I can go, until we’re back in the room. Then I’ll give you anything you want. God, it’s hard to stop.” He withdrew himself from her body, and tucked himself into his pants with a grimace of discomfort.
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