Fascination

“Hey, you made the offer, sweetheart. I guess I had some time to think about it. We’re only talking four days. I don’t want to wait that long. But if you want me to leave, I will. I’m not into forcing women.”

The shocked look on her face was erased as she smiled up at him, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes.

“No, I don’t imagine you would ever have to, would you?”

It was all he needed to hear. Backing her up against the door frame, he crashed his mouth into hers, not bothering with preambles or gentleness. All of the anger he’d felt mixed with the passion that had been building for so long, during all those years she had been beckoning him. Now he was answering that call.

If she’d resisted, he would have backed off, but she only momentarily tensed before opening hungrily to his search of her mouth. Then she began a search of her own. In the back of his mind he kept a part of himself distant, away from the desire that was quickly consuming him. She was sweet and hot, a seductive combination of girlish innocence and sheer wanton lust. He felt his head swim a little but held on.

How far was she willing to go with this? How far was he willing to let her go? He lowered her arms so that they wrapped around his neck, and she clung to him. He growled his satisfaction at her submission against her lips.

The game was on.

SAGE WASN’T SURE WHAT had just happened. It had been a long time since anyone had touched her like this—though as the moments passed she was increasingly sure that no one had ever touched her exactly like this, so expertly, so thoroughly.

Ian was everywhere—his hands, his mouth. He was devouring her and she was letting him. It was heaven. She’d never imagined, not really, exactly what he would taste like, feel like. The reality was stunning.

Coffee. Male. Sex.

She’d been desperate to keep him from looking through her small dining room, where she’d slid the envelope under the carpet just seconds before she’d met him at the door. If he found it, there would be no explaining.

She’d only meant to piss him off a little, get him off the scent and out the door. She certainly hadn’t expected this. Had he followed her all day? Did he know about Locke? The questions had frozen her in terror when he’d appeared at the door.

But as his warm hands kneaded her breasts, she realized his random evening visit might have been a ruse, a reason to come here. To see her. To seduce her and take her up on her offer—an offer she had never really meant to be taken seriously. Her concern about the envelope—and her ability to think at all—dimmed as he continued his sensual onslaught.

Ian was apparently taking it very seriously. She moaned into his mouth and nipped his lip as he pulled sharply at her nipple, sensations from the tug shooting down to her sex, creating an almost painful ache. He chuckled huskily and pushed his thigh between hers, rubbing against her intimately in a way that had her gasping and quickly losing any remaining reason.

Then he pulled back, looking down at her with glittering steel-gray eyes. The look he gave her was hard but hot. She couldn’t see anything, read anything, except desire—he wanted her. And determination—he meant to have her. She shivered in excitement.

“This inspection seems to be a little more thorough than the rest.” She tried to tease, though her voice sounded foreign to her, hoarse with arousal.

He smiled slightly, and she felt herself dissolve. She’d never seen him smile. Not once in five years. Even though it wasn’t a full-on, happy smile, it changed his whole face and transfixed her.

“I’m not quite finished. I’m sure there are some things you’re hiding that I need to find. I’ll have to look around a bit more.”

Paranoia pricked at the back of her brain, though she chided herself. He was only playing, making a sexual entendre, responding to the banter she had begun. She met him eye to eye, daring him. No way would she back down now. She wanted him, which startled her, but she also wanted the challenge. Would he back off? Was he testing her? Could she finally make him break his own rules and go for it? For the sake of the need that was throbbing through her body, she hoped so.

“Maybe you need to keep looking then.”

He pulled her against him, kissing her hungrily as he walked them both back to the sofa, only lifting his head as he pushed her back and stood over her.

“Oh, I intend to, sweetheart. Remember, you have no say in the matter. I can do anything I want. Look anywhere I want.”

Her heart pounded in response to his words. The control he had over her life that she’d hated since the first day she’d met him suddenly felt incredibly erotic. He’d told her before he’d touched her that he wouldn’t force her to do anything she didn’t want, but now she couldn’t think of anything she didn’t want him to do.

He knelt down, sliding a hand up her thigh. “In fact, I wonder what you might be hiding right…here.”

His fingers skimmed just underneath the hem of her shorts, and the muscles of her leg quivered in response. She stayed very still, letting the sensations ride over her, never letting her gaze move from his. His eyes darkened again as his fingers moved farther up underneath the material, scraping lightly against her soft curls, and she inhaled sharply, as did he.

“No panties. I’ll have to make a note about that on the report.”

“Uh-huh.” She couldn’t think as he petted her and she tested herself, staying as still as could be.

“Don’t you want to move against me, sweetheart?”

“Yes.”

“But you won’t?”

“No.”

“I want you to.”

“I know.”

He chuckled again and leaned over her, pushing her shirt up with his other hand and closing his lips around her turgid nipple, sucking lightly as his fingers found their way between the damp folds of her sex, pressing intimately against her. She trembled, panting hard, but didn’t move as her body was overtaken by the building pleasure his ministrations were causing.

Ian moved his mouth all over her, leaving wet kisses all over her breasts and stomach as his thumb massaged her clit. She cried out in need but remained still.

“I may need to take a closer look.”

Her voice was thready, coming in pants as he pulled her shorts off in one hard tug.

“I…figured…as…much….”

As he settled between her legs and swiped his tongue over her delicate skin, pushed his fingers deeply inside of her, she couldn’t hold out. He’d won and she didn’t care.

Arching back, she bucked against him, letting the quick release pour through her like liquid fire, chanting his name.

Still shuddering, she sat up slightly, and he hooked one of her legs over the back of the sofa, spreading her widely as his mouth closed over her again, sucking and lapping at her until she dug her hands into his hair and pressed him more tightly against her. Crying out, she rocked into him as she came again, animal sounds bursting from her unbidden as she forgot everything but the suffusing pleasure that he gave her.

“Oh, God…Ian…” She lapsed back against the back of the sofa again, spent, sweating and exhausted though he didn’t join her but simply continued to kiss and stroke until she felt like melted butter.

Tiny residual orgasms flew from the ends of his fingertips through her body until she couldn’t even think. Eventually he lifted up next to her and covered her mouth in a scorching kiss that tasted like her own sex. Then the kiss gentled and he eased back, looking at her.

Somewhere in the foggy recesses of her mind she realized he hadn’t sought any satisfaction for himself and she smiled in anticipation of correcting that oversight. Once she had her energy back, she would show him two could play this game. Right now she was utterly slack. She wanted to say something, but she didn’t even know what. Words were lost to her.

Ian sat on the floor, his hand absently stroking the damp hair that clung to her forehead, and she swallowed a sudden lump of emotion clogging her throat. She hadn’t experienced a lot of tenderness from men in her life, and this little bit from Ian slayed her. She couldn’t see his expression, but his touch was gentle. She let her eyelids drop but opened them again, for a second fighting the drowsiness that overcame her. Then she just gave in.

IAN SAT IN THE CHAIR across from where Sage still slept soundly, watching her. He’d made a big mistake, but he couldn’t bring himself to regret it. Of the women he’d known, he’d never tasted passion as he had with Sage. Even though he’d kept himself tightly controlled, her responses had nearly pushed him over the edge.

All he really regretted was that it could never happen again. He would never know what it would be like to lose himself in her body and he half wished he had taken her completely the night before. But it was too late for that now.

He watched her shift on the sofa. She looked so innocent, her face peaceful in sleep, her head a mass of tangled curls that were just as silky as he had imagined. She’d be awake soon—he could tell she was making the slow rise to consciousness.

Guilt pricked at him. His plan had worked. She’d fallen deeply asleep, freeing him to search her place thoroughly, and he’d found what he sought. The envelope lay in his lap. He’d read the letter from the man named Locke, the man he’d seen the day before. Obviously an old lover. Obviously trouble.

She looked too young, too chaste in sleep to be the cause of so much chaos in his life. But he knew she was far from innocent. He studied her, knowing she was still half naked under the sheet he’d tucked around her. The scents and flavors of her skin, of her sex, from the night before swamped him, and he clenched his fist on the edge of the chair. He’d do his job. He’d take her in. And then he’d move on.