Amy's Advantage (22 page)

It took him a minute to realize she was actually waiting for
an answer. “No,” he said, wondering how the hell he was going to get out of
this conversation and convince her to put on a robe.

Her arms flung wide again and her breasts bounced, erasing the
thought of a robe from his mind. “Of course it’s not too much!” she exclaimed.

“You know, I’ve been a damn good mother since the moment I
found out I was pregnant. I ate right, quit clubbing and drinking, gave up
coffee and choked down prenatal pills the size of my thumb every day. I played
fucking classical music to my belly and read the entire shelf of parenting
books at the library.” She stopped and pointed at him. “Don’t think I’m
complaining about that because Chloe’s the best thing that ever happened to
me.”

She dropped her hand and resumed her stomp toward the left
side of the room. “I just want a little down time before I start a new life in
a new world, you know? I mean, Jesus Christ, I even tried making homemade baby
food.” She rolled her eyes at the memory. “God, was that a disaster.”

He had seen her wound up before, but nothing like this.
Jordyn wondered if she’d gotten so wrapped up in her rant that she’d forgotten
she was mostly naked. He really needed her to finish getting out whatever she had
to say, because every time her pacing took her past him, he edged a little
closer to the insanity of actually reaching out and pulling her against him.

“Anyway, not the point.” Suddenly she seemed to remember
what the point was exactly as her hands shot back up to her hips. “The point
is, I was hoping to seduce you. We have a definite chemistry, neither of us is
attached, Chloe is safe and we’re in a freakin’ hotel room, for heaven’s sake!”

The desperation to have her fully clothed pushed him to
attempt to cut her tirade short. “Amy—”

His effort to curb her tide of words had no effect. She
didn’t even pause, but rolled right over what he’d been about to say.

“Maybe I’m suffering a weird mental trauma after nearly
dying in the jaws of a feline freak show and overreacting because of my close
brush with death. They say a lot of people rush into sex after nearly dying as
a way to celebrate life. So that makes me normal, right?”

Her question brought her to a stop right in front of him.
With her hands propped on her hips and her shoulders back, her chest thrust out
less than a foot from him. Automatically, his gaze focused on her breasts.

Suddenly he was blindsided by his own mind as it slammed
back to memories of the last time they were in a hotel room and he had one of
her breasts in his hand. Blood rushed to his cock and his entire body locked in
need at the memory of its soft weight in his palm and the tightness of her
nipple as he circled it with his thumb.

He forced his eyes up to hers, but the war inside of him had
already reached a fever pitch. He couldn’t answer her question. Couldn’t
unclench his jaw or even let down enough to nod his head. His only hope of
maintaining restraint was a forced immobility until the wave of staggering lust
had passed. He had to look away from her to maintain his fiercely fought-for
control as the silence stretched between them.

Slowly he drew in a breath and tried to clear his thoughts
of anything related to sex. Mentally he started reviewing specifications of
weapons in the reverse order he’d used them, starting with the gun still on the
dresser behind him.

Jordyn’s gaze returned to Amy when she cursed softly. Her
eyes were closed and mortification stained her cheeks bright red as she blew
out a breath and dropped her shoulders. When she opened her eyes, the angry
spark had dulled to a bruised green.

“I’m really good at making things awkward for people around
me,” she said. “You don’t want me and that’s your prerogative.” She waved a
hand to indicate her outfit. “Sorry about this.” She headed toward the
bathroom. “I’ll just go change. You can leave if you want to. I totally
understand.”

The abrupt switch to dejection in her voice cut him in half.
“Amy.” His voice lashed out harshly in the quiet room.

She stopped, but didn’t face him. Instead, she dropped her
head back on her shoulders and stared at the ceiling. “What?”

“I never said I didn’t want you.”

She turned around to look at him, frowning. “You never said
you did either.”

He let his gaze wander slowly up and over her entire body,
starting from the tips of her toes peeking out of her high-heeled shoes and
finally stopping as he met her gaze. The silence in the room thickened as he
allowed desire to annihilate his determination to let her walk away.

“It’s a bad idea,” he stated.

“Give me one good reason why.”

He knew he couldn’t come up with a reason that she wouldn’t
have a ready answer for. Hell, he didn’t even try.

“Jordyn, do you want me?” Her quiet question was simple and
honest, her expression open and accepting as she moved back toward him.

“Yes.”

“Then this shouldn’t be a problem. If you’re worried about
me, don’t be. I can take care of myself.”

He reached out to touch her, his hand skimming partway down
her arm. His thumb brushed the inside of her elbow where the skin was
incredibly soft. “You’ll regret this.”

Her smile was slow and sensual. “I don’t believe in regrets.
Life is too short.”

His grip on her arm firmed and he pulled her closer. Her
skin shimmered with some sort of lotion she’d used that sparkled with tiny gold
specks and smelled incredibly sexy. Absently, his thumb made a slow circle on
her arm. “I’m too old for you, Amy. And I don’t want you to get hurt. We both
know you could do better and you definitely deserve more—”

She stopped him by placing the tips of her fingers across
his lips. “There are probably a million and one reasons why this might not be
the best idea in the world, but right now we want each other. Is that really so
bad? I promise I won’t let you break my heart and I won’t ask for anything from
you afterward. I get it that you don’t want to be in a relationship. You’ve
made it perfectly clear that forever isn’t an option here, so your conscience
can be clear.”

He felt as if a boulder had just crashed into him. She was
right. He wanted her regardless of the million reasons he shouldn’t. Though she
didn’t understand, it was for her own good that they would both return to their
separate lives. That didn’t make a fucking difference to the way he felt,
though.

But right now, he wanted her. Wanted anything and everything
she would give him. Fallout would be a bitch, but he was willing to risk it.

Her smile softened as her fingers trailed down his neck.
“For just a day or two, can we please just live in the now and enjoy each
other?”

Gently, he pulled her completely into his arms, sliding one
hand around her waist and the other up to cradle the back of her head. “Don’t
regret this,” he whispered hoarsely as the fire that had razed his original
control forged in its place a new, irrevocable determination.

“Never,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck.

He covered her lips with his and she melted against him. She
may not regret this, but he would. He knew he would.

As her sweet and demanding mouth opened under his, he
crushed the warning in his head for the final time. For her, for this, he could
live with regret every moment of every day for the rest of his life.

Holy shit.
Amy knew from their previous brief
encounters that kissing this man made her unbelievably hot. What she hadn’t
expected was that when he really put himself into it, her entire body would
explode. And so far, he was only kissing her.
Holy shit.

She pressed her body as close to his as she could, not
caring that the metal of his belt buckle was sharp against her belly or that he
was still wearing his coat or that she stubbed her toe on his boot when she
shifted position. The hand on her waist moved down to her ass and her heart
stuttered in her chest. His fingers traced the lacy edge of her panties and her
muscles started to tremble. At this rate she was going to come before her
panties even came off.

God, she loved how this man held her. Her knees could give
out right now and she’d probably never hit the ground. The hand he supported
the back of her head with shifted as his fingers curled around a fistful of her
hair. Gently, he used it to pull her head back and nipped at her bottom lip
before lifting his head. “What do you want, Amy?”

The question seemed simple, but most of her brain was
preoccupied with the fact that her entire body had become one big, throbbing
ache. She said the first thing she could think of. “I want your shirt off.”

Amusement lit his eyes. “Is that all?”

She bit her lower lip to clear her head. Then he kissed her
neck and her thoughts muddled. “How much time do we have?”

“Sixty-four hours, give or take twenty minutes,” he murmured
against the sensitive spot under her ear.

“Good,” she whispered, tugging on his t-shirt. “Because I
bought more than just this one outfit.”

“You did?” He shrugged out of his coat, one arm at a time,
always keeping the other arm holding her close.

“Yes. Top drawer.” She wasn’t having much luck with his
t-shirt. Even with his coat out of the way, it was tucked in tightly and she
was too close to get much leverage. “And middle drawer.” She tried the side of
the t-shirt and still the damn thing refused to budge. “What is the deal with
this t-shirt? It won’t come loose.”

He let go of her to deal with the shirt. It might have
landed on the bed. On the floor. On the moon. She had no idea because all she
could see was the most amazing chest right in front of her. “Oh wow.” With a
light touch, she rested her fingertips on the hard muscles there. The reality
of his bare chest under her hands and what she was about to do washed through
her in a panicky wave.

“It’s been a while for me,” she said, keeping her eyes
focused straight in front of her. She was more anxious about admitting that
fact than she’d been about being barely dressed and letting him in the room
with a clear invitation to sex being her opening line. Apparently stomping and
storming in front of a man while she was wearing high heels and lace for a half
hour didn’t remove as many nerves as one might think.

Jordyn flattened her hands under one of his own. “You
mentioned that earlier.”

Her lips twitched. “Oh yeah.”

“And I’m fine with that.”

“Good.” She realized she was imitating a bobblehead doll by
nodding idiotically. She stopped abruptly, her focus straight ahead, still too
jittery to look him in the eyes. In seconds, the butterfly flutters in her
stomach morphed into dive-bombing seagulls all intent on the same piece of
bread being tossed in the air.

She could feel the nervous words started to pitch and roil
inside of her, bubbling up to roll out of her mouth before she could stop them.
“I think maybe you should kiss me, because even though you say you’re fine with
that, I’m still not sure if I remember exactly how this goes, though I’ve kept
up on my
Cosmo
reading and romance novels and I feel like since I
initiated this whole thing, you might expect me to take the lead here—”

Jordyn lifted her chin to bring her gaze up.

And then the man smiled at her. An honest-to-goodness, real
smile that stopped her words from their continual, indiscriminate spill past
her lips.

“Oh god,” she whispered as everything inside her melted.
“Please, can you get inside me really quick?”

A strangled sound came from low in Jordyn’s throat, “Come
here,” he said, pulling her against him, “before you kill me.”

His kiss was hot and hungry. All teasing was gone as his hands
splayed over her back and crushed her to him. Her mouth opened and his tongue
swept in. She twisted her tongue around his and then ran it along the edge of
his teeth and tasted—
chocolate?

She had no time to pursue that discovery as his hands
skimmed down her sides to the hem of her lingerie, then changed direction to
slip under the lace. Warm, powerful and thrilling, they moved up over her hips
to bracket her ribs. Her nipples tightened in anticipation of his hands moving
around to her breasts, sending a tingle of pleasure rippling down her belly and
inner thighs.

Instead, he kept sliding his hands up, taking the negligee
with them until he was pushing it over her shoulders and forcing her arms from
around his neck so he could pull it off. Impatient, she tried to yank her hands
free too soon and the lace tangled around her wrists.

“Hold on,” he said when she tugged harder.

“I want it off,” she growled. Her fitful attempts only had
the straps cutting tighter into her wrists.

“Stop pulling on it. You’ll tear it.”

“I don’t care.”

He freed her left hand quickly and set about unwrapping the
other from the twisted fabric. “I do,” he said. “I want to see you in it again
when I’m not counting bullets.”

Feeling the lace finally loosen, she shook her right arm and
the lingerie flew through the air, snagging on the TV. She threw her arms back
around his neck. “I don’t even care that that makes no sense.”

A moan of needy desire rolled out of her as she pressed her
breasts to his chest, her tightened nipples dragging across the plane of hard
muscle. Shifting her hips, she cushioned his erection against her belly, loving
the feeling of the hard ridge pressing into her, wanting it pressing into her
in a much more intimate manner.

Desperation shot through her and she attacked his belt
buckle with a vengeance. It was as stubborn as his shirt had been. “What the
hell is it with your clothes?” she hissed, exasperated and hands shaking.

Rather than answer, Jordyn scooped her up and carried her to
the bed. Amy let out a surprised squeal at suddenly finding her feet swept out
from under her, but had no time to comment before Jordyn was laying her on the
bed. Her hands started to slide off his shoulders as he pulled back.