Hidden Hearts

by Marci Bolden

  Shit. He swallowed hard as she moved to him.

  “Don’t,” she warned when he lifted his hands to touch her defined thighs.

  Dropping his hands back to his sides, he let his head roll back. “I’m beginning to think I don’t like you so much anymore.”

  She made a show of looking at his erection. “Part of you seems to think I’m okay.”

  He blew out his breath. “I’m not finishing in my pants this time.”

  “No. You’re not.” Putting a hand on either side of his head, she leaned in and breathed in his ear. “You’re not finishing anywhere until I give you permission.”

  “Jesus, woman,” he said with a moan.

  “Hands behind your head, Detective.”

  He stared at her for a few rapid heartbeats before complying.

  “Good boy.” She rewarded him by untucking his shirt.

  He watched her face as she released button after button and then finally pushed his shirt open. She smirked as she brushed her hand over the dark curls of hair that surrounded each of his nipples. Pushing herself back, she stood and grabbed his shirt to pull him up. She certainly liked manhandling him. He’d remind her of that when it was his turn to take control—and he would have his turn.

  Standing with her, he let her push his shirt off his shoulders. After she tossed it aside, she tugged his belt free. He toed off his shoes as she released the clasp on his slacks and eased them down.

  “That’s better,” she whispered when he was standing in his underwear before her. Turning her back, she pulled her hair aside, revealing a tattoo of a bald eagle, wings proudly spread, between her shoulders. “Unhook my bra.”

  He closed the little bit of space between them, standing far closer to her than necessary to do the task she had requested. He inhaled deeply as he stood inches from her exposed skin. Shit. He would swear he could smell her excitement, and his body started aching with his need for her.

  If she didn’t give him relief soon, he was going to have to beg, and much like the night before, he wasn’t above doing so. He took advantage of the need to slide the straps down her arms and pressed his body against hers. She gasped as he pressed his erection against her, and he smiled as he realized she was suffering as much as he was.

  After dropping her bra, he put his lips to her ear. “Now what?”

  “Now you finish undressing yourself.”

  He did as he watched her hook her thumbs into the waistband of her panties.

  Please, he silently begged. A moan slipped from him as she finally let the thin material drop. Jesus, she was gorgeous.

  “Let me see the rest of you,” he said softly.

  She looked at him over her shoulder and offered him a coy smile. “Say please.”

  “Please.”

  She faced him, and he had to tighten his hands into fists to stop himself from grabbing the most perfect breasts he’d ever seen. Barely more than a handful but perky and topped with rosy areolas that surrounded pebbled nipples he was willing to beg to suck. He licked his lips and let his gaze drift down to the juncture of her legs, where she had a neatly trimmed patch of light pubic hair.

  “How long before I can touch you?”

  She grinned. “I’m not sure. But if you’re good, I may let you touch yourself.”

  He groaned. “This game isn’t as fun as it was a few minutes ago.”

  She tilted her head and made a point of looking at his crotch. “Again, your body disagrees with you.”

  He gasped as she touched him where she’d just been looking, rubbing her thumb over the tip. He held his breath as he jolted at the sensations she was sending straight to his groin. He didn’t breathe again until she pulled her hand back. But then she put her thumb in her mouth and closed her eyes as she sucked the pre-ejaculate away and moaned that damned moan of hers that made him crazy.

  “That’s it.” His warning wasn’t even out of his mouth before he reached for her. He tugged her to him and dug one hand into her hair as the other went around her waist. Pulling her naked body against his, he kissed her hard and deep.

  She responded just as desperately, moving her mouth and tongue over his. He lowered his hand, grasping her naked ass and pulling her closer to him. He wanted to feel more, touch more, but she put her hand to his chest and pushed him back.

  “Condom?”

  “Condom,” he whispered as he tried to understand the word she’d said through his haze of lust. “Oh, right. Condom.” He grabbed his slacks and reached into his pocket. Pulling out his wallet, he found a packet and grinned at her. “I’m not going to say I put that in there after our conference-room wrestling match, but I’m not going to deny it, either.”

  “Always thinking ahead,” she said as he tore the packet open. “Wait. Let me.”

  “Holly.” He didn’t think he could possibly take the torment of her hands sliding over him again, but she snatched the condom from him and pushed him back onto the couch. Then she kneeled before him and his balls tightened. “If you put your mouth anywhere near that thing, I can’t promise what will or won’t happen.” He was getting used to that mischievous light in her eyes, but this time he wasn’t sure he wanted to see it. “I could come in your mouth.”

  “I hope not. Then who would screw me.”

  He closed his eyes and rolled his head back as she tempted fate and lowered her head. Her breath caressed him intimately.

  He exhaled slowly. “We’re really going to have a love/hate relationship, aren’t we?”

  She laughed quietly before the warmth of her mouth surrounded him. He ground his teeth together and hissed as he fought the need to ram himself down her throat. Digging his hands in her hair, he fisted the strands in an attempt to control himself. She slid her mouth over him until he hit the back of her throat and then pulled her head back and sucked him in again.

  “Oh, baby, you gotta stop,” he warned after just a few seconds. “I mean it.”

  She leaned back and met his gaze as she licked her lips. After sliding the condom over him, she crawled up his body.

  “Thank God,” he breathed, knowing he was about to be inside her. Pulling her to him, he kissed her hard and shoved his hand between her legs, finding her hot and wet. He slid his fingers deep inside her as his palm rubbed over her clitoris. She broke the kiss and rolled her head back, exposing her neck to him. He kissed her there, licked her skin, nipped at her, all while pumping his hand in and out of her slick body.

  She gasped and moaned as he cupped her breast. He captured her nipple between his lips and flicked his tongue over the taut flesh.

  Her body tensed, her breathing intensified, and her back arched, telling him all he needed to know. She was definitely enjoying his touch.

  “Harder,” she breathlessly demanded.

  He shoved his fingers deeper and faster until she cried out and quivered around him. As her orgasm ended, he released her nipple and pulled his hand from her body. But only long enough to guide her down onto him. He wasn’t about to let the waves subside. He wanted her to finish again and again.

  A strangled sound erupted from her as he pulled her all the way down. Looking at him, she met his gaze, and all signs of mischief had left her eyes. She wasn’t playing anymore. Neither was he. Gripping her hips, he guided her up and down as she rocked, and ground, and dug her nails into him, and called his name, and, holy shit, bit his neck.

  He grunted as her teeth sank into his skin. He couldn’t hold off any longer. She’d toyed with his body far too much for him to be able to control himself now. Thrusting his hips up as he pulled her down, he exploded into the condom as she threw her head back and cried out.

  Her body spasmed for several seconds after he finished, and he took that opportunity to watch her breasts heave in his face. When she finally relaxed and looked at him, they shared a quiet laugh. He brushed her mussed hair back and pulled her in for a kiss.

  “I knew that was going to be good, but damn,” he whispered.

  She moaned her
appreciation before falling forward and curling into him. He instantly wrapped his arms around her. He suspected it was a rare thing for her to submit to such a vulnerable position. She didn’t seem like the cuddling type, so he wasn’t missing this opportunity. Kissing her head, he held her tight.

  “This is perfect,” she whispered.

  “Yes, it is.”

  As he suspected, it didn’t last. She leaned back and smiled at him before kissing him lightly and pushing herself up. “Shower?”

  He pointed to the back of his apartment and sat, completely spent, while he watched her naked body stroll away. Sighing with complete contentment, he slowly pushed himself up and followed her. Hell, he realized, he’d follow her anywhere.

  10

  Holly never regretted waking up alone. She preferred it. Until this morning. Loneliness stung her as soon as she woke up enough to remember she’d left Jack’s bed after a second round of amazing sex. Her body ached in all the right places, except for some strange twinge in her chest. Being alone had never felt as wrong as it did when she looked at the left side of the bed—the side Jack had been asleep on when she’d slithered from his bed and out of his apartment like a coward.

  She had wanted to stay. She’d wanted to curl up against his bare skin and absorb his warmth. She’d wanted to listen to his even breathing and let it soothe her into her own deep sleep. She’d wanted to feel his arms around her as she woke instead of this emptiness that had hit her nearly as hard as she’d hit him when she’d slammed him to the ground in the conference room.

  Staring at the ceiling, she debated sleeping in instead of going for her morning run. Her mental tug of war inside her quickly died as she refocused on Jack. She dragged her hand down her body, her nipples tightening under her T-shirt as her body remembered every touch from the night before.

  She’d taken control, refusing to let him put his hands on her, because she didn’t want him to see her crumble and she was certain she would. He had a way of reaching her that no one had since her mother died, and that didn’t make sense to her. She barely knew the man, but he knew her, saw through her, and that set her on edge.

  The way he’d looked at her as she’d undressed before him had nearly done her in. He wasn’t just seeing her body; he was looking into her soul, and she couldn’t comprehend how he’d done that. She’d never been so damned bossy in foreplay, but taking control had been a hell of a turn-on. And she could see how much Jack had liked her assertiveness as well. She wasn’t sure how far he’d let her take it, but she thought she’d taken it just far enough.

  By the time he slid his fingers inside her, she was ready to explode. She squeezed her thighs together as her body started to tingle at the memory. Fucking him on the couch…because that was what they’d done…had been amazing, but when they’d gotten out of the shower and Jack had backed her to the bed, they’d made love.

  It hadn’t been the slow, sensual kind of making love. He’d been determined to regain some of his dominance, clearly trying to put them back on even ground in that area. He’d been on top, he’d set the pace, and he’d held her gaze as they’d finished together. He’d stared down at her, seeing inside her, taking a part of her that she hadn’t been ready to give—that maybe she didn’t even know was there to take.

  For reasons she didn’t understand, she felt incomplete waking up without him.

  Knowing she’d never get back to sleep, she rolled out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom. After using the toilet and brushing her teeth, she went back to her bedroom to dig through her dresser for something to go running in. The weather was changing to fall, and she found herself in need of more than just shorts and a T-shirt for her morning run but not quite ready for sweats.

  She caught her breath when someone knocked on her door. That didn’t happen often. A glance at the clock on her nightstand verified that it was too early for visitors. Ten till six. Grabbing her robe, she slid her arms into the sleeves as she left the bedroom and padded across the hardwood floor to the front door. She peered through the peephole as she worked on knotting the sash around her waist. She gave up and smiled when she saw who was standing on the other side.

  Releasing the chain lock and then the deadbolt, she opened the door and smiled at Jack. “What are you doing here?”

  “Well, I had intended on taking you to breakfast, but since I woke up alone, I decided to bring breakfast to you.”

  She refused to feel guilty, but that didn’t stop her from feeling embarrassed. “I didn’t have clean underwear at your house.”

  “Something tells me you’re the kind of woman who keeps an extra set of clothes—including clean underwear—in a bag in her trunk.”

  She lifted her brow, hoping to feign denial, but she did indeed have a bag in her trunk that contained not only a full set of clean clothes but toiletries as well. She could have stayed with him. She should have stayed with him.

  He distracted her from her regret by lifting a bag from a fast food place not far from her house and a drink holder with two large coffees. She opened the door all the way and moved aside to let him in. He stepped across the threshold, stopping to kiss her before going farther into the house.

  “So,” she said as she turned the deadbolt, “since my number and address are unlisted, I’m guessing you abused your power with the police department to find me.”

  “There is a strong possibility you could be correct.” He glanced around her entryway. “You don’t have a security system?”

  “I have a black belt in martial arts, I’m a United States Army veteran, and I carry a gun. I am my security system.”

  He wanted to argue her logic—she could see the disapproval on his face—but he had the sense to keep it to himself. She gestured toward the dining room that she rarely used. So rarely used, in fact, the table was covered with images of Julia Fredrickson and Penelope Nelson and notes and maps and clippings from the newspapers with stories about the missing women.

  Jack took a few moments to look at the table and then faced her. “I think we should eat on the couch. That certainly worked out well for us last time.”

  “I concur.” She led him to the living room and dropped onto the couch.

  He sat next to her, putting their breakfast on the coffee table. “So why did you sneak out?”

  “I didn’t sneak.”

  “Well, you didn’t say goodbye, either.” He held up two breakfast sandwiches.

  She snatched the egg sandwich. “You were sleeping.” The frown on his face let her know he wasn’t buying it. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to stay and if I did stay…what that meant.”

  “It would have meant that we’d had an amazing evening and slept soundly until morning.” He ate half of a hash brown in one bite as he looked at her while she focused on sipping her coffee. “You think I’m coming on too strong.”

  “I didn’t say that,” she insisted. And he wasn’t. He was coming on just right. She just didn’t know how to handle everything he was stirring up inside her.

  “You don’t have to, Holly. I get you. I do. And I like you. A lot. But we don’t really know each other, and you aren’t comfortable staying at my place. I respect that. But I don’t respect you sneaking out.”

  “Like I said, Tarek—I didn’t sneak. You were asleep.” She put her drink down, not wanting to debate the semantics of her leaving. “Look, I wasn’t going to crash at your place after our first—whatever. But to be honest, I hated waking up alone. I really did.”

  “So did I.”

  “This case is stirring up things from my childhood that are better left in the dark. I’m not feeling quite myself these days. I don’t know how much of what I’m feeling for you is tied to that and how much of it is genuine. Does that make sense?”

  He nodded. “You were vulnerable after the bartender lead didn’t work out and telling me about your past.”

  She lifted her brow at him, not sure if she should be amused or offended. “I was vulnerable?”

 
; He shrugged slightly. “You were upset. I shouldn’t have taken advantage of that.”

  She smirked. Amused. She should definitely be amused. “Oh. You took advantage of me?”

  A grin tugged at his lips. He must have realized how ridiculous the notion was. No one took advantage of Holly Austin.

  “Definitely,” he said softly. He lowered his gaze, skimming over her bare legs until he stopped to unashamedly stare at her crotch.

  Checking to see what had him so captivated, she smiled at the sight of her dark blue underwear peeking out from beneath her T-shirt. A fire started low in her belly and spread throughout her until her nipples hardened and her breath became shallow.

  She tilted her head and looked at him. “You definitely shouldn’t do that anymore.” She spread her legs farther apart as he continued to watch. “I mean, if you respected me, you would never even consider taking advantage of me. Would you?” She ran her hand along her bare thigh and over her satin-covered crotch.

  “Definitely not,” he said, clearly fascinated by her fingers.

  Leaning back, she spread her legs even more as she forced a pout to her voice as if she were a bombshell in a porno. “Men who take advantage of vulnerable women should be punished.”

  He finally looked at her face. “And to think I went out of my way to bring you breakfast.”

  “I got your breakfast right here.”

  She laughed as he moved faster than she’d ever seen a man move before. Her underwear was off and he had his face between her legs in seconds, turning her laughter into a deep moan. She dug her fingers into his hair as he pushed his tongue between her folds and tasted her. Closing her eyes, she dropped her head back and bit her lip hard as he nipped at her clit, sending shockwaves through her entire being.

  Damn, he was good. Really, really good.

  She inhaled sharply as he slid two fingers inside her, pumping as he flicked his tongue over the overly sensitive bud of nerves. She pressed his head deeper between her legs and rolled her hips up to meet him. A grunt started low in her chest and pushed its way out as an orgasm slammed through her. She hadn’t even had enough warning to fully enjoy the overpowering spasm. Her body just tensed out of nowhere, making her want to scream.