But somehow his voice managed to sound perfectly normal when he asked, “Do you need help getting in?”
“Stay where you are!” She gripped the handrail on each side and carefully stepped down a level so that hot water swirled around her calves. “I—I mean, no thanks. I’m fine.”
“You certainly are.”
Sinking down to her chin in the hot, bubbly water not only felt fabulous but gave Helen a sense of temporary relief. She could hide from Luke, at least until they got out…if she chose to hide.
“Better?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah.”
“Get right up to one of the jets. That’ll loosen up your back in no time.”
Helen did as he suggested, and as the water began pounding her stiff spine, she breathed deeply. Eyes closed, she dropped her head forward and luxuriated in the water pulsing up and down her spine.
For a few moments, she let magic happen.
Even so, the reason for her discomfort kept plaguing her. What if her tripping on the stairs hadn’t been an accident? What if Annie had been right?
Was someone out to get her—both professionally or personally?
Not wanting to dwell on the negative at the moment, she opened her eyes slightly and gazed at Luke through her lashes. He was still focused on her.
“Luke…why do I have the feeling you had a hot tub excursion in mind for tonight no matter what?”
“Because you have a naturally suspicious nature.”
“I think that’s one of my most endearing qualities.”
Not that her friends would necessarily agree.
“I can think of a few even better ones,” Luke said, moving to the jet next to hers.
His presence was a tangible thing, and even though he wasn’t touching her, she imagined he was—in her fertile mind the whirling waters becoming his fingers. Suddenly she wondered if he was wearing underwear, as well, or if he kept a bathing suit around.
Then, again, he could be wearing nothing at all.
Though she wanted in the worst way to look down through the water to check for herself, she kept her eyes on his face and sighed again.
“Good?” he asked.
“Wonderful.”
“I could make it even better,” he said, moving closer until he was before her, right in her face.
Only his eyes weren’t on her face. They were aimed lower, and his expression was open, revealing his surprise.
“Something wrong?” she asked, taking a quick look down and finding out exactly what happened when her mood underwear got hot. She guessed it didn’t matter if lust or hot water heated it up, the material simply reacted.
“Your underwear—it seems to have…” he cleared his throat, “…disappeared.”
And he seemed to be staring at her nipples; the blush of her full areolas was fully revealed through the transparency, she realized.
Her immediate reaction was to sink lower.
“So is it supposed to do that? Disappear? Or is it the water?”
“Uh-huh.”
His eyebrows raised and his voice grew throaty. “I’ll take that as a yes on both counts.”
And he moved even closer so that she suddenly grew unbearably warm. She wondered if, with all this heat, her lingerie might possibly melt right off her.
Helen swallowed hard as Luke moved right into her personal space. His leg bobbed against hers, and he was doing something incredibly erotic to her shin with his foot.
“Feeling looser?” he murmured, the low timbre of his voice making her quake inside.
Helen thought she could take his question two ways. “Much.” Let him figure out what she meant.
“So you’re ready for anything?”
“Not quite anything…”
“Within the parameters of a second date,” he qualified, moving so that he was in front of her.
“We’ll see.”
“When?”
“The date’s not ended yet.”
“I thought you only had that one rule.”
He settled in closer so that if she moved, her breasts would brush against his chest. She wanted to…but fought the urge…taking pleasure in drawing out the anticipation.
“Right.”
“I don’t remember timing being part of it. Unless you left out a clause.”
Her forehead furrowed with her puzzlement. “Huh?”
He surrounded her with himself, placing his hands on the edge of the hot tub rim on either side of her. Somehow, he kept from touching her.
“Do we have to wait until the end of the date to kiss?” he murmured.
“Well, no, b—”
Her but was swallowed by his mouth covering hers. Any objection floated away on a bubble of instant euphoria. His kiss was long and slow and as wet as the water lapping over them. She could drown in his kisses, Helen thought hazily, not wanting the feeling to end.
But all too soon his mouth released hers only to dip lower. He nibbled along the line of her jaw…drank from the length of her throat…sucked at the softness of a nipple.
The sensitive tip hardened and elongated as he rolled it with his tongue and then bit down lightly with his teeth. She threaded her fingers through his hair and pulled his head back up and kissed him with more passion than she’d ever felt for any man.
Wanting him…knowing it wasn’t yet time…knowing that the time would soon be at hand and then they would be through…was killing her.
When he pulled away, she wanted to protest, but he scooped his hands down under her tush and lifted her. She shoved her hands against the tub rim behind her for balance.
“What are you doing?”
“Relax. That’s the point here, isn’t it?”
Her limbs felt like rubber, but inside she was coiled as tightly as a spring. And as his hands smoothed her flesh, her skin felt equally tight. He spread her thighs and kissed his way down her belly. Then he pulled back slightly, stopping a moment, and she realized he was staring at her. She knew he could see everything through the transparent panties.
Ever so slowly, he caught the delicate material with his teeth…nuzzled her…then dipped his head lower between her thighs.
The water lapped over his face and into her as he parted her with his tongue. Sensation swamped her, and she cried out. Her back bowed and her head went light. But as if sensing she was about to come—and apparently determined to deny her that pleasure just yet—he pulled away and turned her in his arms.
Her breath heaved in her chest.
He smiled a wicked smile.
She arched and pressed her lower body into him. And her question was answered.
No underwear.
No swimsuit.
Only him.
“No fair,” she breathed as she surrounded him with her legs and pulled him closer.
The hard length of him pressed into her softness, and as he kissed her again, he began rocking against her. She moaned into his mouth. He slid hands under her and tilted her so that she opened for him and the tip of his cock pushed at her through the material.
She wanted to protest.
She couldn’t say a word.
Her world was spinning and she didn’t want it to stop. She’d been so close to coming…she couldn’t go through that again.
But determined that she wouldn’t come alone, she slid a hand between their bellies and found him ready. She played him with her fingertips and bit him with her nails. His groan made her hotter. More wicked. She encircled him and thrust the circle of her fingers down his length.
“Helen,” he murmured, biting her neck. “I want you. Need you.”
As she wanted and needed him. Now. She couldn’t wait for another date. She simply didn’t have the will.
“Then take me!” she urged him.
She wouldn’t think about it. If she thought about it, she might change her mind. Instead, she flicked the delicate crotch of her panties to the side and guided his tip to her entrance, taking him from the warmth of the hot tub to
the heat inside her. He gave a triumphant grunt as he buried himself in her.
She let go of him and lay back in the water, wedged her hands against the sides of the hot tub, allowed him greater penetration.
He swore softly, the sound sheer pleasure, as he slowly pulled back, so that just his tip remained in her before he slid in to the hilt.
His hands were on her breasts now. Kneading them. Rolling her nipples through the thin material between his fingers and thumbs. And then his hands scooped under her tush and balanced her against him.
“Let go,” he whispered. “I have you. Trust me.”
Trusting that he would make her feel good, that he would make love to her like no other man ever had, she let go.
“Now touch yourself, Helen. I want to watch.”
Feeling like it was the most natural thing in the world, she cupped her breasts and visually teased him as he so obviously wanted. His lids heavy with desire, through half-closed eyes he watched her flick her nipples and bite her lips as sensation spiraled down from her breasts to her center.
“That’s it. Lower.”
Heat searing every inch of her, feeling as if she were in a wet dream, Helen slid a hand down her stomach and inside her panties. The tip of her finger met the sex-swollen nub and rolled over it. A small cry escaped her. She clenched him inside her, held him tight, and then released. Squeezing her buttocks, she rocked against him.
“More,” he urged, licking his lips as if he were dry inside. “Faster.”
She responded and he increased his tempo too and suddenly she felt herself slipping…slipping…
“Now!” she cried, but he stopped her before the quake inside her had a chance to take hold.
“Trust me.”
She heard his words through a haze as he pulled out of her and turned her around and bent her at the waist. Then he was inside her again, from behind. He lifted her thighs, opening her to the power of the lower jet.
The fiercely bubbling water caught her so that she couldn’t speak. And when she didn’t object, he moved her in even closer to the rushing underwater spray.
“Your nipples,” he murmured into her hair as he began to rock against her. “Pluck them. I want to watch you make them hard.”
Closing her eyes, she did as he asked. He inched forward, dropping her to her knees on the submerged bench, closer to the jet that increased the rhythmic pressure on her clit. Her eyes flew open, and feeling as though she might split in two from the pleasure, she cried out.
“I—I can’t…”
“Yes,” he insisted, rolling them both forward. “Let me watch.”
The jet caught her just right and forced her limpid arms to move, her boneless fingers to tug at her nipples, while he slid in and out of her like he would never stop.
She didn’t want him to…she wanted the impossible…for this to go on forever.
But then he bit the soft spot between her neck and shoulder and she couldn’t stop herself from careening over the edge. Wave over wave of hot pleasure poured out of her until she felt boneless.
Luke shuddered behind her and held her tight against him, guiding her away from the jet.
Shaking and weak, she was content to rest against him as he smoothed her body with his hands and kissed her neck and shoulders. When his hands found her breasts through the transparent material and exactly copied what she had done to them, she felt stirrings of renewed desire. Smiling, knowing it was far too soon to do anything about it, she sighed and luxuriated in the lazy pleasure.
But then he moved her closer to the side again, his hands sliding down her body to the inside of her thighs, his fingers moving aside the panties and disappearing deep inside her. His thumb flicked her clit, and before she could respond, the pressure built once more.
“No, not without you,” she protested, but he had her pinned, her back to his front, and she was torn about what she did and didn’t want, so allowed him to do what he would.
He proceeded to make her come. Once. Twice.
Then he was in her…filling her…making her want…making her need.
And when he took her home what seemed like hours later and she thought they were both spent and couldn’t possibly take more, he proved her wrong in the down comfort of her own bed.
It was only in the small, still hours before morning was yet defined that she lay awake in the dark, listening to his light snore, staring at the ceiling and thinking about what she’d really done.
She’d cheated.
She’d defied her own rule.
She’d skipped the second date limit and gone straight to the third.
Now what?
FOR ONCE Luke awoke without a hard-on. He registered the fact even as he registered the lush room that reminded him of Helen. Not that she was anywhere to be seen.
But his memory of her was so vivid. Her scent lingered on the sheets, all mixed with the musk smell of their mating. He took a deep whiff and felt stirrings in his lower regions. He wasn’t spent, after all.
Smiling, he lay back and replayed snatches of the night before in his mind, so that when Helen returned to the bedroom, two mugs in hand, his interest was obvious.
“I thought you could use an eye-opener.”
“They’re open. And I’m up.”
“So I see.”
But she was avoiding looking at his erection. She handed him one mug, then moved to the mirrored dresser where she used her free hand to finger-comb her hair. Sipping at the coffee laced with chicory—now how had she guessed that was one of his favorites?—Luke watched her every move.
Her satin dressing gown slid sensuously over her full curves, and Luke couldn’t stay glued to the bed when what he wanted was to take her in his arms and make love to her again. He set down his mug and came up behind her. Meeting her gaze in the mirror, he dipped his head to kiss the side of her neck.
For a moment, she acquiesced, allowed him free access to the delicious flesh. Then, as if thinking better of it, she pulled away and turned to face him.
“Work,” Helen murmured, placing a hand flat against his chest.
“We have time.”
Luke moved closer so that she was trapped between him and the dresser, but that hand stayed put between them. Tension wired from her, but not the tension of mutual attraction. Helen wanted him on some level— Luke knew that. But she was wary, and he figured seducing her wouldn’t be a piece of cake this morning.
Was she regretting last night? he wondered, remembering how they’d broken her rules again and again.
Wanting her more than ever, he murmured, “Don’t I get a good morning kiss?” as he slid his hands around her waist and settled them on her hips.
She winced in response and he immediately let go.
“Helen?”
“The hip. I banged it, remember? That was the reason we got in that hot tub in the first place.”
Maybe the reason she’d forgotten her damn rules. She’d felt vulnerable. And he’d taken advantage of that, even if not consciously.
Fighting guilt, Luke backed off. “Have you thought any more about who would want to hurt you?”
She shook her head. “I was thinking maybe you could tell me.”
“Me?” He narrowed his gaze at her. “You think I had something to do with your getting hurt?”
“Well, you said we should talk about it later. This is later. And no, not directly, no.”
“Indirectly, then.”
“Bad things keep happening to your competitors.”
He swore under his breath and turned away from her, spotting his briefs across the room where Helen had tossed them in a moment of passion. No passion in her now, Luke thought, climbing into them, then gathering his clothing and throwing it on the rumpled bed.
“Are we back to square one?” He started to dress. “Have I given you any reason to distrust me?”
“I never said that. And I told you I saw a woman under the stairs at the club.”
“But you’re acting li
ke I should know something…or is that simply your excuse for the day?”
“Excuse?”
He started dressing. “A reason for not sleeping with me. Even though you’ve wanted me from the moment we met, you always seem to need an excuse, last night being the unexpected exception.”
“Last night was a mistake,” she said, voice tight. “We don’t even know each other.”
“As if we would know each other way better if we waited for one more final date. I know enough about you to think you’re someone I can care for, Helen. The problem is, you won’t let me get close enough to find out for sure. Those damn rules of yours are enough to put off any man.”
“Well, good, then my diabolical plan is working.”
He started at her sarcastic tone, and at her physically defensive body language, one arm wrapped around her middle, the other hand at her throat.
Was that her problem? That she thought he meant to hurt her, and if she couldn’t prove that he’d done so physically, she would convince herself of his bad emotional intentions and use that against him?
It was all too much for him to take in right now. He had tomorrow’s opening to worry over, and—checking his Rolex—less than thirty hours to go. Besides, he’d never been good at the relationship thing. What in the world had made him think he would know how to do it right with Helen?
“You’re right. Work is waiting,” he said.
Luke hesitated a moment, just to see if Helen would whisper a soft word, perhaps offer a goodbye kiss. But she stood there, looking victimized, and he didn’t know what he could do other than leave.
Wondering if that was it—if Helen would use the excuse that they’d already had sex as a reason not to see him—he took off and jogged the few blocks to Hot Zone.
The first person he ran into was Flash, sipping at a coffee from a Helen’s Cybercafé cup.
One look at him and she lowered the cup and her eyebrows shot right up into her red hair. “Couldn’t stop at home to change first?” the publicity director asked. “You and your date must have had some night.”
With that, she swept by, leaving him with an odd feeling.
How did Flash know what he’d been wearing the night before…unless she’d been at the club.
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