Always Ready

by Joanne Rock

  “Lay it down right here.” He spoke close to her ear, his voice vibrating through her body since he held her close to his chest.

  With an effort, she heaved the comforter to the floor and then wrapped her arms around his neck, more interested in getting him on top of her than worrying about blankets. She’d never been so uninhibited, so free to act on every naughty impulse, and she wouldn’t waste a second of it.

  So before they even made it down to the cotton ticking covering the floor, she reached between their bodies to stroke the hot, hard length of him.

  Damon nearly stumbled to his knees at the unexpected feel of Lacey’s hand caressing him. Only with superhuman concentration did he remain upright, gripping her tight in his arms as he lowered them both, carefully, to the floor.

  Lacey might be lost in a world of sensation—some of which was probably still drug-enhanced—but he needed to remain alert. Sharp. He didn’t trust that Castine hadn’t followed them here, even though he hadn’t seen any sign of a tail on Enrique’s car.

  But it sucked having to keep his wits about him when Lacey so obviously wanted him in every way humanly possible. The realization would have been even more tantalizing if she hadn’t been wading through the last hours of an Ecstasy trip. As it stood, he needed to maintain a sense of her general heart rate and body temperature to be sure she didn’t suffer any side effects. And he’d sure as hell be close enough to keep track of both those things. He’d drive her back to the base tomorrow for a follow-up, but for tonight, he couldn’t let her suffer. Not when her eyes had cleared enough that he knew she understood what she was asking for.

  Besides, he knew enough about the enhanced tactile responses in people who used Ex. He wouldn’t subject her to sleeping in that big bed alone when she was so wound up she could hardly sit still.

  This was for her benefit, damn it. Not for the good of his Johnson that was definitely loving every second of this.

  “Lacey,” he ground out between his teeth as her silky fingers smoothed a path down the thick vein running up his shaft. “I don’t think you’ll want to, ah, waste this time by not having me inside you.”

  Which was code for the fact he’d lose it any second if she kept this up. He rose to strip off his clothes before rejoining her.

  “Really?” She sat up beside him, her hip bumping his knee as she made herself comfortable between his thighs. “I thought you might reward me all the more thoroughly if I paid more attention to you first.” She circled the head with her fingertip and then bent forward until soft strands of her hair skimmed his hip. “Besides, every way we touch feels so good that I don’t want to miss anything.”

  Her lips slid along the top of his shaft, a slick pressure that switched on a furnace inside him. The room was quiet except for the little sighs of pleasure she breathed against him, her mouth taking more and more of him until he thought he’d lose it.

  Burying his fingers in her hair, he held her there for a long moment, wanting everything she offered him so sweetly. But he knew the drug would make her sexually restless and he planned to be inside her for as long as possible to take the edge off.

  “Come here.” He tugged her up by her shoulders, knowing damn well that one more caress of her nimble tongue and he’d be a goner. “You need this as much as I do.”

  He found her jaw and cupped it in one hand, guiding her close. He settled her on his lap, helping her straddle his thighs. She’d peeled off the rest of her clothes at some point, her curves exposed. As he aligned their bodies and a sweat broke out along his back from restraint, he wished like hell he could see her.

  After he rolled on a condom, he stroked a thumb along her lower lip, feeling her expression even if he couldn’t see it. She nipped the tip, drawing him into her mouth to suckle until he had no choice but to nudge his way inside her.

  Her mouth went slack on his thumb and he could feel the way her head lolled back, her hair spilling lower on her shoulders as her neck curved. A low moan escaped her lips, vibrating through her whole body everywhere they touched.

  Her skin felt hot and he knew a second’s worry about side effects, but then he felt hotter than her. If either one of them was going to incinerate from this joining, it’d be him.

  Plunging all the way inside her, he thrust deep. She felt so good. The best. He’d never been with someone so willing to follow him anywhere—on the beach, against a tree, in strange hotel rooms—anytime.

  And all at once he wanted it to be real. To be about more than helping her through an Ecstasy trip or keeping her away from Castine. He wanted this kind of all-consuming connection with someone when it wasn’t attached to his job or her job or—

  “It feels sooo amazing.” Lacey wrapped her arms around him and kissed him, pressing every inch of herself against him as she ground her hips into his. “I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of this.”

  Her words touched him with a sincerity she couldn’t possibly mean. And damn, but he couldn’t let himself get caught up in a woman who would only be leaving at the end of the week. A woman who might very well be playing him.

  Shoving aside the knot of contradictory thoughts, he lost himself in the heady glide of her body all around him. This much at least—this intense physical connection, the mind-blowing chemistry that had drawn him to her from the minute he’d laid eyes on her—that part was real. He couldn’t deny it any more than he could pretend she wasn’t getting under his skin in a big way.

  Covering her mouth, he kissed her, savoring the way her whole body quivered at his touch. He stroked her tongue with slow, methodical sweeps and reached between their bodies to touch her clit in that same way, mirroring the caresses until she cried out. Tensed. Shuddered with another climax.

  He let go then, relinquishing that tight restraint to let himself feel how good it was to be buried inside her. He followed her almost instantly, his blood roaring in his ears as he shouted her name. Clutched her to his chest like a drowning man would a life preserver.

  The very thought humbled the hell out of him. Made him realize he might be over his head with her. With this investigation. With a life that had gone off the rails ever since his last girlfriend walked out.

  But no matter how much he wanted some time and space to figure out what to do next, he wouldn’t leave Lacey in the dark to fight off another wave of intense sexual hunger because of some drug he might have actually brought into her life. He’d been the one to intervene when she’d been on her ill-fated date with Castine. What if Damon’s ties to the Coast Guard had brought all this attention to Lacey?

  He would make damn sure tonight was the last time she suffered the consequences of knowing him.

  Chapter 9

  LACEY SMILED as she opened her eyes late that morning. The night had been a blur, but it sure had ended on a high note.

  Waking up on the floor of a decadent hotel room beside Damon, their clothes flung to the four corners like they’d been caught in a cyclone, she couldn’t help smiling at what they’d shared.

  Sitting up in the tangle of sheets they’d torn off the bed, she could see around her, thanks to the sunlight peeking through the sides of the window blinds. She remembered Damon leaving her side once more to take apart various light fixtures and air-duct vents to be sure the room was clean. He’d pronounced the place a hundred percent bug free before dawn.

  “Morning.” Damon stirred beside her, his eyes clear and alert even though he hadn’t slept all night. “Are you feeling okay?”

  She nodded, but the motion brought a small throb to her temple.

  “For the most part.” She massaged her forehead and tucked the sheet more tightly around her. She felt strangely domestic next to this man who was some kind of military supercop for illegal drugs. And a man like that shouldn’t give her any warm fuzzies. “A little sore, maybe.”

  She’d noticed the burn between her legs when she sat up. Every muscle in her calves, thighs and glutes protested her movement.

  He gave a short bark o
f laughter.

  “Please tell me you remember instigating last night.”

  “I remember practically begging you to take off your clothes, yes.” Grinning, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, self-conscious at being with him first thing in the morning when she must look like a train wreck. Visions of smeared makeup were already making her feel like a lowlife.

  Damon, on the other hand, looked as hot as if he’d just stepped out of the shower. And maybe he had. His short hair hadn’t moved an inch overnight.

  But that wasn’t all that appealed to her. Last night she’d seen a whole different side to him. A facet that was more than just fiercely protective. He’d been sensitive. Considerate to her needs. In many ways, he’d been the kind of man she would have chosen for herself based on her list of traits she would want in a man on her profiling system.

  And knowing that—how close he came to what she wanted most—unsettled her in the bright light of the morning after. Especially when all of those wonderful traits were wrapped up in a tough-guy arrogance she normally would never go for.

  “You tested my endurance to the limits, woman.” He peered at her out of the corner of his eye before he got off the floor to put on his shorts.

  Lacey’s eyes followed him, amazed at the sharp definition of each muscle in his body as he moved. Admittedly, there were benefits to being with an unapologetic alpha male.

  “But you have to remember it was for a good cause,” she assured him. “I was suffering mightily before you agreed to help me.”

  “I’m called to serve.” He roamed around the room, picking up his clothes, and she wondered if this morning felt as awkward for him as it did for her.

  And wouldn’t that be another lightbulb moment for her? Who said the alpha male had to feel secure in every situation? He only had to behave like he owned the world.

  “So will your friend’s medical lab give us scientific proof of what kind of drug I was given?” She remembered the enhanced sense of daring and the lowered inhibitions she’d felt, especially during the early part of the night. “Oh God.”

  She remembered something else, too.

  “What?” He tossed her his T-shirt as he slid into his silk dress shirt.

  “Did I practically hump you on the dance floor?” She recalled wrapping her leg around him in the club. While people were watching them.

  “While I’d like to think you wanted to…No. You didn’t.” He retrieved his pants from an overstuffed sofa in the corner of the room.

  “But I made a spectacle of myself nevertheless.” She could recall all the sets of eyes on her and the way she’d flaunted herself shamelessly.

  “It wasn’t your fault.” He slid into the pants and just like that, he also slipped into his lieutenant shoes, his cool, remote military side stepping into the room. “Especially since we think it was methylenedioxy-methamphetamine that went into your drink. Ecstasy is a psychedelic and a stimulant. Potent stuff.”

  Indignation flooded her all over again, especially with Damon roaming around the hotel room like some international spy, peering out the blinds at the beach below and listening at the door as if the bad guys were out in the hall about to bust in for a shoot-out.

  Did he think someone had tracked them to the hotel during the night?

  “Tejal told me to come in and see him today.” She had no clue if her healthcare network would cover her medical costs down here, but she’d pay out of pocket if necessary. If there might be any long-term side effects of this episode, she wanted to know.

  “I’ll go with you. If you don’t mind driving us there, I can find someone to take me out to Loiza and retrieve my car.” He peeled his gaze away from the parking lot to gauge her response.

  “Of course. I’d appreciate the help locating his office.”

  “Do you mind if I ask you about your friendship with the woman you spoke to at the club last night? Tatiana?” He took a seat on a chair close to the blankets where she sat.

  She pulled some of the covers up on her lap, needing more of a barrier between them when she dealt with Damon the military man. This wasn’t the same person who’d lavished attention on her for half the night, feeding every one of her desperate, hungry needs.

  “Sure.” She reached for her bra under the bed and wound it around her while keeping Damon’s T-shirt in place. She wasn’t sure she could bare any more of herself to him right now, not when the conversation had turned so tense.

  “You said you met her at the beach.”

  “I bought a necklace from her at Playa del Vega Baja and she gave me a little good-luck stone for a present.” She backed her arms out of the T-shirt sleeves and shoved them through the bra straps before redressing. “She struck me as sort of—”

  “What?”

  “Actually, she fit the whole counterculture stereotype, so maybe it’s not surprising that she also sells drugs on the side.” Her mother had never gone that far, but then, Lacey hadn’t known her in the years of her wild youth.

  Frustrated, she tossed aside the covers that she’d been hiding under and stalked around the room to hunt for clean underwear and a pair of shorts.

  “Counterculture?” Damon picked up the blankets from the floor and laid them on the bed. “You mean like a flower child or something?”

  “I guess. She had sort of this live-and-let-live vibe, and she kept talking about how beautiful Puerto Rico was.” She burrowed in her suitcase on the other side of the bed which she hadn’t bothered to unpack. “Come to think of it, I was sort of weirded out by some of the vials she had. They could have had drugs in them. I thought one looked like blood, but then I figured she must have been selling some kind of herbal stuff.”

  “Did you report her?”

  “I hardly gave it any thought. She was showing off her wares on a public beach so I guess it didn’t occur to me she’d really have something illegal among the leather anklets and shell necklaces.” She dressed in khaki shorts and traded his T-shirt for a red one of her own. “Did I fail in my public duty?”

  His gaze narrowed and she realized she’d gotten snippy. Uptight for very little reason. But then, according to her family, she did that a lot.

  Before she could apologize, he rose from the chair and headed for the door.

  “Not at all. You ready to go?” His jaw was set, and his cool, alpha-male face was very much in place again. Remote. Aloof. Captain America.

  “Wait.” She followed him to the door, recognizing her morning-after defensiveness. “I’m sorry. I don’t have any right to give you a hard time when you’re only trying to help me.”

  “You’ve been through a lot the past few days.” Brushing a hand through her hair, he gave her an out even though she felt she didn’t deserve one.

  Her heart melted a little more. She fought the urge to lean into him. To lean on him. It would be all too easy to do with a man so capable and caring. No matter that she didn’t know about his five- and ten-year goals or his top requirements in a romantic partner, she was falling for Damon Craig. And if she wasn’t careful, she’d be in over her head before the week was out.

  “And I’m ready to put it all behind me after we see the doctor.” She kept her hands at her sides, unwilling to touch him when she was so vulnerable inside. “But I need ten minutes to hop in the shower first.”

  With a quick nod, he agreed to her terms while she hurried toward the bathroom. She reached the door when his cell phone rang. At the same moment, she realized she should bring some clean clothes with her and she detoured back toward her suitcase.

  So it was completely by accident that she heard him answer the phone in his usual, clipped greeting.

  “Craig here.”

  What surprised her as she searched for any pair of shorts that didn’t need ironing was the way his voice changed dramatically the next moment.

  “Kelly?” Damon’s eyes flashed over to Lacey, his dark gaze uneasy.

  Or was that her own insecurity talking?

  Hurrying her
pace, Lacey raced for the bathroom and shut the door behind her. She turned the hot water on full blast and let the sound of running water fill her ears. But even as the first drops hit the tile floor, she knew the pounding of the water would never drown out the memory of how Damon’s voice had turned low and intimate for another woman. His tone had been secretive. Suggestive.

  And as she stepped into the stinging spray of the hot jet stream, Lacey had to wonder if all that sensitivity she’d seen in him earlier had been in the imagination of a woman who still wanted to believe in the perfect match.

  “YOU DIDN’T CALL ME BACK last night.”

  It took a moment for Kelly’s words to penetrate his brain, since Damon’s mind was on Lacey and what she must think of him taking phone calls from another woman while the sheets were still warm from their night together. He hadn’t given much thought to what he was doing in an intensely physical relationship after a year of retreating from the dating world completely, but the awkward moment made him think about it now.

  Because whether he and Lacey ever saw each other again after this week—an idea that rolled around in his head with enticing possibility—he had no business talking to Kelly now.

  “I got tied up last night,” he told her, all the while listening to the shower run in the next room. Where Lacey was currently naked and thinking he was a lowlife. He paced the floor to work off a mess of frustrations he couldn’t fix right now.

  “But I have information you need,” she retorted, her voice sounding stronger and more emphatic than he remembered from their final conversations after their breakup, when she’d been tripping or strung out or both.

  Had she cleaned up her act? Not that it mattered for a relationship that was dead and gone. But he hoped so for her sake.

  “I’m listening.” He felt more comfortable talking to her here than he had last night at the bar where anyone might overhear. Besides, he wasn’t about to call her back from a landline if it meant he had to stay on the phone with her longer. He already felt like enough of a traitor to Lacey.