Hers To Take

by Karen Anders

  “You think I’m afraid of him sexually?” Lana bit her lip and studied Sienna’s face. “You don’t think I’ll take this dare? Do you?”

  “I didn’t say that. Can’t we just relax, have a drink and listen to the music?”

  Lana’s eyes were sparking with anger. “You think I can’t seduce Sean.”

  Oh, great. Sienna knew from experience that Lana wouldn’t let this drop until she’d proven herself. Sienna tried to diffuse the situation, her tone conciliatory, “I think you’re intimidated by the fact that you work together and it could mess up your friendship. It’s a legitimate concern, Lana.”

  “I’ll do it if you go after this SEAL,” she shot back.

  “How did I get drawn into this conversation?” Sienna said shaking her head.

  “I bet with a body like that he knows a tremendous amount about how to make a woman scream,” Kate offered.

  With shock coursing through her, Sienna turned to Kate. Her demure friend was always a lady, always prim and proper. Because of it she and Lana called her Sister Kate. Lana, who had been about to retort, closed her mouth with a snap, her eyes riveting on Kate.

  “Sister Kate, have you been reading Cosmo?” Lana asked.

  “No. I dare you to get the SEAL in bed, Sienna and you to get Sean, Lana.” Kate picked up a peanut and ate it.

  “Not you, too, Kate?” Sienna moaned. Who would have believed it? Kate looked like an angel with her sweet, soft face, big doe eyes and long, curly blond hair. “Are you out of your mind? Why would I want to do that?”

  “Because you need a life. You work too hard and are too much of a good little cop,” Lana said, giving Kate a wicked look. “That accountant you dated for six months only wanted to do it in the missionary position. Talk about boring. Besides, you think the SEAL’s hot. You’ve checked him out about six times since you sat down.”

  “I have not!” Sienna rubbed at her face with both hands.

  “Methinks the lady doth protest too much,” Lana said, giving Sienna an I-think-you’re-lying look.

  “It would be stupid and reckless.” Sienna bit her lip. “But I have to admit that I want to take him to bed.”

  “That’s the fighting spirit!” Lana crowed.

  “I for one am tired of being so good all the time,” Kate said.

  Sienna and Lana both looked at her.

  Pit bull Lana smiled and Sienna knew Lana had a new target. “Jericho St. James.”

  “San Diego’s premiere assistant district attorney?” Sienna asked.

  “Yup.”

  “Lana, Kate would never engage in a hot, sweaty affair. She’s a straitlaced scientist, for heaven’s sake. Would you, Kate?” Sienna looked at Kate and knew she’d missed something. “Okay, what did I miss?”

  “I had to testify in court today and when he cross-examined me, he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off my legs.”

  “And…?” Sienna prompted.

  “You should see that man give a summation to the jury. My God, the passion in him is palpable.” Kate fanned herself. “He’s quite gorgeous.”

  “If you want to, accept the dare, Kate. Go after him,” Lana challenged.

  “There’s just one problem. He is intimidating and a bit…forceful.” Kate said as she looked from Lana to Sienna.

  “Sister Kate, you have been reading Cosmo, but you’re not following the advice,” Lana admonished.

  “I’m sick of you two calling me Sister Kate all the time.”

  “So how are you going to get close to Jericho St. James?” Lana asked, sitting forward, knowing that she’d won. Kate was hooked.

  “Well, as a matter of fact, after the trial he told me he wanted to make arrangements to see me. He had an important matter to discuss.”

  “So make your move then?”

  “What? In his office or in the lab?”

  Lana made clucking noises.

  “I am not chicken!”

  “Kate, he’s a gorgeous, high-profile ADA,” Lana said.

  “Right and I’m a forensic pathologist in a white coat that provides him with DNA evidence so he can go to trial.”

  “You’re changing the subject. Who cares what you do for a living? Sex with Jericho is on the table, take it or be Sister Kate for the rest of your life.”

  “I’ll take it.”

  “We need to toast that.” They clinked their glasses.

  “So,” Kate said, “I’ll go after Jericho, Lana is going after Sean, and you’re going after hunky what’s his name?”

  “A. J. Camacho.”

  “A. J. Camacho. So the chase is on, ladies.”

  “I think we need to prove that we slept with the guy,” Lana said, taking another sip of her drink.

  “The burden of proof is on each of us. Concrete evidence will be required,” Kate agreed.

  Sienna asked, “Evidence? What do you mean? Like a pair of undies or something?” This seemed to be getting out of control.

  “Sure. An article that shows you slept with the guy,” Kate confirmed.

  Lana laughed out loud and clapped her hands. “This from a forensic pathologist. It doesn’t surprise me. This is great. We are women who dare!”

  “And we have until we all collect our souvenirs?” Sienna asked.

  “That’s right,” Kate agreed.

  Sienna looked over at A.J. Could she really do this? He didn’t fit into her orderly world.

  A SEAL would be the kind of man who would challenge her to step out of her safe existence. So, A.J. was not long-term, but with his hard body and devastating looks, she knew the short-term would mean hot, earth-shattering sex.

  From where he was sitting at the L-shaped bar, she could see he was talking to the bartender and smiling. Damn, what a smile. On the swoon meter, Sienna would give him an eleven, maybe even a twelve. While she watched him, he pushed his hair back with a graceful gesture that caused his right arm to ripple. Sienna’s knees went weak. Okay, he was off the meter. As if he could feel her watching him, he looked directly into her eyes.

  A.J. FELT THE FULL impact of those enticing green eyes. The pull from across the bar was magnetic. She smiled and got up. Could he hope she was coming over here to talk to him? No, he told his traitorous body. He shouldn’t be hoping at all.

  She stopped at his bar stool. “Would you like to dance, sailor?”

  A.J. smiled and slid off the barstool. “The pleasure would be all mine, Sergeant.”

  The dance floor was awash in a soft golden light and so crowded that Sienna was pressed to A.J. as soon as he took her in his arms.

  She knew he was asking her a question, but she couldn’t take her eyes off his mouth. The urge to kiss him washed over her in waves, and she wondered who was seducing whom.

  “What?”

  “Do you like this song?” he repeated—this time into her ear and she shivered from the close contact.

  “Yes,” she said above the strains of the music, her eyes focusing on his mouth again.

  “You have amazing eyes,” he murmured, his mouth still close to the delicate shell of her ear.

  “Thanks.” He had such a beautiful mouth.

  He jerked slightly when her thumb traced over the fullness of his bottom lip.

  When she looked up into his eyes, she got the most incredible sensation, like a hot and cold prickly feeling that radiated throughout her whole body. Those eyes. Blue like the color of true, heartbreaking sapphires. They were startling.

  Wild eyes. Eyes that promised surprises; that mesmerized with energy, with the wicked wit that lurked behind them. Eyes that made her wary, that taunted her like a peek into a forbidden room. Eyes that should have belonged to the devil himself.

  He tilted his head and she tracked the movement with her gaze. Softly he said, “What are you waiting for?”

  She made a small sound in her throat, almost a protest, before her arms encircled his neck and drew him closer. She fused her mouth to his and felt as if she were sliding down a hot, slick slope. Holy co
w. Hot damn. She was lost, immediately and completely, and it’d never happened to her before. She only realized now that this is what she’d wanted to do since she’d taken the cuffs off him at division headquarters.

  His mouth was incredibly soft, incredibly hot…just incredible.

  The kiss was carnal, long and fierce and Sienna was suddenly dazed when A.J. pulled away.

  “You pack a punch, Sergeant.”

  “Sienna.”

  He smiled. “A.J.”

  She rested her chin on his shoulder and became aware of Lana and Kate each giving her an enthusiastic thumbs-up. Sienna rolled her eyes and waved them off.

  He leaned down again and whispered in her ear. “Are you done with your friends?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you think you could take me back to David’s now?”

  Sienna’s stomach jumped and she was about to utter something suggestive and wildly decadent when he again spoke.

  “It’s been a long day and I’m really tired.”

  Boy, he sure knew how to deflate a situation. She pulled away from him and swallowed. “Let me get my purse and say goodbye. Come over and meet my friends.”

  Sienna led him over to the table where both friends had broad grins on their faces. Sienna wanted to tell them that she’d struck out.

  “Lana and Kate, meet Lieutenant A. J. Camacho.”

  Lana offered her hand and then Kate offered hers. He shook them both with a bemused look on his face. “With such a beautiful trio of women, it’s hard to believe you would have a Friday night free.”

  Sienna was disgusted with the way they flushed and smiled, totally taken with A.J.

  “We’re heading out,” Sienna said and Lana gave her a way-to-go look and pantomimed a phone to her ear when A.J. turned to leave. Sienna nodded and followed his broad back out of the bar.

  In the elevator she started to stew about how easy it had been for him to dismiss her in the bar. She wondered if she was maybe losing her touch. She could have sworn he was attracted to her. The kiss was…

  She slapped her hand against the stop button, jerking the elevator to a standstill. “Are my signals really bad or are you just not interested? And if so, why not?”

  He stared at her a moment, then ran his hand through his hair. God, didn’t he know that didn’t help?

  She stepped closer to him. “Don’t you like me, A.J.?”

  “Yes, Sienna, I like you. I want you. I just can’t offer much in terms of a relationship.”

  “Who asked you for that?”

  “Well, no one, but I have a hunch that I’m not exactly your type.”

  “You’re just like Captain Kirk.”

  “Pardon me?”

  “Married to Star Fleet. Captain Kirk.”

  “Right, exactly. I’m dedicated to the navy.”

  “So you didn’t like kissing me and you don’t want to make hot, passionate love to me?”

  “Whoa, slow this boat down. I never said that.”

  “So you liked kissing me?”

  “Yeah. I really liked kissing you.”

  “Prove it.”

  It happened so fast that Sienna gasped. She’d forgotten how quick the man could move when she found herself pinned between the cool elevator wall and a hard, hot body.

  His mouth slanted over hers. She sighed against it, even as the wet heat of his tongue came up against her parted lips, which she opened eagerly. She moaned as his tongue explored her mouth, possessively, expertly, running it along the silky sweetness, then capturing it, entwining it with his, stroking, tasting, leaving her begging for more, much more. His scent was intoxicating, very masculine, very seductive.

  Sienna slid her hands up his strong arms and tangled her fingers in the longer hair at his nape. She had never realized how much passion she had inside her until she’d kissed this man. Now nothing short of having him inside her would be enough.

  He pushed his hips against hers while he softened the impassioned kiss.

  It was Sienna’s undoing when his mouth moved over hers in such obvious worship like a man paying homage to something beyond his comprehension, something enchanting and captivating that it defied human understanding. She felt the heat of his arousal and moved against him with an abandon that startled her.

  All Sienna’s thoughts broke apart like glass shattering into tiny crystal shards.

  He devoured her as if she were so sweet he couldn’t get enough. Sienna all but cried out as he slipped his hands under her dress.

  “I have to know,” he said softly.

  “Know what?” she panted back.

  “What you have on under this dress.”

  She felt his hands on her outer thigh, over her hip, cupping her buttock in his hand and squeezing. He moved up to her waist and when he touched the silk, he sighed.

  “A thong. That’s it?”

  “Just my skin.”

  He ran his hand around the silk band until he reached her nest of curls. “Damn Sienna, you’ve made me lose control.”

  The heat in his eyes was more than lust. It was more powerful, more pure—almost transcendental, making the blue of his eyes seem luminous and soft. She blinked a couple of times, but then lost her train of thought when A.J. slid his hand over her mound.

  “Wet,” he said, slipping a finger inside her.

  “I heard SEALs liked getting wet.”

  “We love it.”

  His mouth came down on hers as he rubbed at her nerve-rich center. The sensation built between her legs, their mouths twisted passionately, lips fierce, tongues wildly mating.

  “You’re so tight, so wet,” he murmured, his hand coming up to cup her breast through the tight material. He bent his head and took her into his mouth, biting gently on her distended nipple through the fabric. It was the most amazing feeling to be fully clothed and be ravished at the same time.

  “A.J.,” she said raggedly, the hard sensations in her groin narrowing down to a tight, aching need. His mouth came back up to hers.

  Sienna shuddered and the ball of sensations inside her exploded as she came apart in his arms.

  Even as the contractions of her climax receded, he turned her body until she was facing the glass. The city was a glow around them, the glass-enclosed tube too far up for anyone to see them. It was like making love among the stars.

  Before she could catch her breath, he jerked up her dress to her waist. She arched into the thick heat of him as he pressed his cock against her.

  He groaned when she spread her legs and eagerly slid his fingers into the moisture there. He groaned again, pinning her against the glass. She heard a foil packet rip and with one swift lunge, he entered her. The glorious friction as he slid in and out of her in quick succession made her press her hands hard to the glass, her vision a haze of sparkling images, the streetlights, the bright buildings below and the hard, twinkling stars. He thrust deeper and harder; his steely arm went around her waist holding her tightly.

  His free hand gripped the bodice of her stretchy dress and pulled it down. His fingers found her nipple and he twisted it between his fingers, causing sharp sensations from her breast to her groin.

  That pushed her over the top. She pressed back and with a sharp cry, came—an endless shivering cascade of sensation, more intense than any orgasm she had ever experienced.

  After a moment of catching her breath and rearranging her clothes, her gaze clashed with A.J.’s.

  He smiled slow and easy. “How does it feel to break the law?”

  “What?”

  “Indecency in public. Against the law.”

  She smiled back. “We’re not in public.”

  “Ah, a technicality.” He cupped her cheek. “How about you take me to my car and follow me home? We can explore other ways to break the law.”

  Down in the car, she started up the engine. She was eager for a night of hot sex with him, so much so that she found herself speeding. She released her foot from the gas and resumed a more sedate pace.


  But the closer she got to David’s apartment, the more she couldn’t stop thinking about it and the more she wanted his delicious mouth and body again. When they pulled up outside, she didn’t get a moment to say a word to him.

  Her beeper went off. For a split second, she thought about not answering it. Appalled at her reaction, common sense reasserted itself as she realized that she couldn’t. She used her cell phone to call division HQ and found out that one of her ongoing cases had blown wide-open.

  After hanging up, she looked at him. “I’m sorry.”

  He leaned over the seat and gave her a hard kiss on the mouth and she almost changed her mind again.

  “So am I,” he whispered. Then he was out of the car and inside his.

  She sat for a moment in dismay, until the taillights of his car disappeared around a corner.

  She wanted to follow him and… What was the matter with her? she asked herself as she sat in her dark car. Uneasiness twined through her like thorns around a trellis, painful and tight. Maybe she’d been too hasty in taking the dare from her friends.

  Haste made waste wasn’t just a saying for nothing.

  Instead of following A.J., like she’d really wanted to only moments before, she turned her car around and headed in the opposite direction.

  3

  SIENNA’S GLOVED fist hit the bag. It was smart to let A.J. disappear into the night. Her misgivings about sleeping with him again were as strong this Monday morning as they were on Friday night.

  Working through the weekend hadn’t diffused the impact of the kiss they’d shared or the tingling she experienced when she remembered him pressed against her while they danced. So, it was no surprise that she could envision A.J.’s heavy, naked body covering hers. Easy answer. He was smooth, hot and good in bed. Who was she kidding? He was great in bed.

  This morning she realized she should have kept a level head when her daring girlfriends had come up with the souvenir-gathering escapade. She’d escaped that temptation—just barely. Now it was too late to worry about getting anything at all from A.J. And she had no intention of seeking him out, not when the urge to take him was so strong in her.

  Sienna accepted that. There was no use in mulling over decisions made, even ones made in the heat of the moment.