Cherry Adair - T-flac 09 (10 page)

Dare she?

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He slid the flat of his palms up her arms, then captured her hands, and gently extricated her hold from around his neck. So he had more sense than she did, she thought, relieved that he’d taken the initiative and stopped kissing her. She wasn’t sure that she would have had the good sense and restraint to pull away. Not when her entire body throbbed with longing and her heart still raced crazily.

Caleb brought her hands to his mouth, his gaze holding hers as he brushed his lips over her knuckles.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” he said raggedly. “Forget Vice. They’ll have to call the fire department when we do that again. Your place or mine?”

Lips swollen and cheeks hot, Heather blinked, dazed and disoriented. She didn’t blame him for being so sure of himself. She’d given him no reason to believe she wasn’t on fire for him. “Your hotel’s closer.”

She heard the suggestion spill out of her mouth and was only mildly shocked.

“How fast can you move?” He leaned over to grab her purse off the table, then shoved it into her hand, already pulling her toward the door.

Stuffing the small purse in the pocket of her raincoat, she smiled up at him. Giddy, and ridiculously happy, she went with him, more than willing as they wound their way between tables of amused patrons.

“Let’s see,” she told Caleb thickly, barely aware of the comments following their progress.

Groceries forgotten, they practically ran out into the steady downpour hand in hand. The rain beat down harder now, blurring the streets and building in a surreal moving sheet of grays and blacks. Beside her Caleb appeared painted in Technicolor. His blue eyes seared hot every time their eyes met. And that was often. How they didn’t crash into people in the street Heather had no idea.

She laughed, tilting up her face to the rain as he urgently pulled her along. They dodged people and their umbrellas, newspaper racks, and sidewalk grates bellowing steam. The street shone, slick with water.

The air smelled of damp wool and the sweet fragrance from the flowers in the kiosk on the corner. Tubs of bright yellow daffodils made brilliant circles of sunshine against the backdrop of dreary gray as they passed.

This was crazy. Insane. And as necessary as her next breath. She went with him. Oblivious to her surroundings now. Focused on nothing more than getting somewhere private with this man. It was as if
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he’d put a spell on her, and she truly couldn’t care less about the consequences.

She didn’t quite remember getting to Caleb’s hotel or how they managed to reach the corridor outside his room without ripping off each other’s clothing as they ran.

Her arm was around his waist, his around her shoulders. The heat from the hard length of his body burned down her side as they came to what was hopefully the door to his room. Behind that door was a bed. She wanted in. Now. She wanted him inside
her.
Now. Caleb curved his arm tighter, bringing her in front of him so he could kiss her.

“Open the door.
Fast,
” she murmured against his mouth, taking a little nip out of his lower lip before she slid her tongue between his teeth to play with his. His arm tightened, bringing her flush against his chest and kissed her with unchecked violence. They were touching, their bodies flush, from lips to groin.

His erection pressed against her, hard and insistent. Heather slid her hand between their bodies to cup him through his jeans, and he groaned “Jesus,” in a guttural voice.

“Hurry!” she told him urgently. The need to feel his bare skin against hers clawed at her. Ripping her mouth from his, she grabbed a fistful of his T-shirt and started tugging the fabric up and out of his jeans, not caring that they were standing in a public hallway mere steps from the elevator.

Hurryhurryhurrry.Baring his tanned torso, she hungrily ran her hands across the satin-smooth skin over the hard muscles of his six-pack, then up, to comb through the crisp dark hairs on his chest.

The smell of his skin went to her head. She pressed her face against his breastbone, inhaling deeply, then touched her tongue to taste his hot salty skin. “You taste like sin,” she murmured, trailing her lips across his chest. “Better than chocolate. Better than—” There was
nothing
to compare it with. Nothing she wanted more.

Caleb swiped the keycard, his fingers gripping her shoulder hard enough to leave marks. She didn’t care. When the light blinked green he muttered, “Thank you, Jesus!”

The second the lock disengaged he wrenched the door open, pulled her inside, then shoved her against
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the door. It slammed shut at her back as he crushed her mouth beneath his.

Rain pounded at the windows, giving the room a liquid, underwater feel as Caleb unerringly found the closure on her raincoat with one hand, and started ripping at the buttons. Impatiently she tried to help.

“Coat. Off!” he said roughly as they both tussled to unfasten her buttons at the same time. She got the giggles as their fingers bumped and got in each other’s way. Their breath sounded loud and ragged.

“You think this is
funny,
woman?” Before she could answer, he pushed her hand aside, then swooped down to take her mouth again as he finished unbuttoning her raincoat by himself. He captured her laughing breath on his tongue and devoured her as though they’d been apart for months instead of seconds.

The moment he freed the buttons, she managed to get her arms out of the sleeves, but no more than that since Caleb had her glued against the door with his body. She loved the feel of him. The weight of him.

The sheer size of him as he pressed against her. The hard ridge of his penis pressed against her sent Heather’s own need rocketing.

Caleb slid his hands underneath her sweatshirt and his clever mouth trailed a greedy path to her throat while his cool fingers learned the shape of her rib cage, one tantalizing rib at a time. “Your laugh tastes like summer.”

It felt like summer inside, too, she thought. Hot and wonderful. Joyous. But she didn’t want to distract him by chatting. Instead she squeezed her eyes shut and tilted her head against the door as he kissed her throat. The sensation went straight to her womb, making her moan.

Somehow she managed to pull his T-shirt off. He tugged her sweatshirt up, then took a moment to trail hot kisses along the edge of her bra while her head was covered and she could do nothing but feel the slick warmth of his tongue gliding across the hills and valley of her breasts. She could hear her own breath hitching as she tried to draw air into her lungs.

Her heart trip-hammered, beating so fast she thought the pleasure of his touch, the anticipation alone, might kill her. Blind, and desperate, she dipped her fingers into the waistband of his jeans and felt him waiting inside, hot and hard and pulsing with life.

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He pulled back just long enough to finish yanking her sweatshirt over her head, then made quick work of the front closure of her bra. “Beautiful,” he murmured reverently as her breasts were freed.

“Jeans!” she prompted urgently. It had been a long time since she’d done this, Heather thought frantically. Even while she hoped she could remember what to do, she knew that it didn’t matter. She couldn’t wait. Her body was burning up.

They struggled to get clothing off over hands that were fighting to strip the other bare. His hands were big, lean, strong, with clean, short clipped nails. Competent hands. Gentle hands. Hands she wanted to touch every part of her body.
Now
!

“The bed—”

Unsnapping his jeans with shaking hands, she managed to toe off her tennis shoes at the same time.

“Here. Now.” His forearms were lightly dusted with dark hair and strongly muscled. His abs were rock hard, his chest rock solid. She wanted to touch him everywhere. “Hurry!”

“Lift this foot. Here. Now thi—Excellent. Now.” Caleb used both hands to pull her jeans and panties down her legs. She kicked them aside, then jumped up, wrapping her arms about his neck, and her legs tightly around his bare waist.

He was hard, and fully erect against her entrance. “I want you inside me—
now,
” she urged, feeling him pulse against where she needed him most. Without further ado she impaled herself on his ridged length.

His answering groan was raw.
Good.
She arched, tightening her ankles in the small of his back at the first deep thrust. All the breath left her body at the piercingly sweet sensation of him filling her. Her mind blurred with the wonder of it. His body seemed to envelop her. She’d never felt so safe, she’d never felt so secure. That alone was seductive. She sank into the magic of it. Tightening her arms about his neck and her legs around his waist, Heather covered his face with kisses.

“Don’t,” he said through clenched teeth, his arms like steel bands around her, holding her still. “Move.”

How could she not? She tightened her legs, then rose slightly, sliding up his length. Then down again.

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“I tol—Jesus. You’re killing me!” He cupped her behind, his palms warm and hard as he moved her.

Up and down. Up. Down. Their bare torsos rubbed together as they moved. Faster and faster. Up.

Down. Updownupdownupdown.

She sank her teeth into his shoulder to muffle her cries as their bodies pulsed together and incinerated.

It was fast, powerful, and amazing, and when they’d drained each other they slid down the door to sprawl on the floor in a tangled heap.

Boneless, she collapsed on Caleb’s chest. His arms came around her, holding her. Protecting her. There wasn’t an ounce of energy left in her, but her chest felt constricted, and her eyes burned. She felt the most ridiculous urge to cry. She touched his face, her smile soft. “That was amazing.”

Amazing? It had felt like a rebirth. Like she’d been loved for the very first time. Heather felt—as Madonna had sung—like a virgin, touched for the very first time.

“Oh, yeah. Jesus Christ. I died and went straight to Heaven.” He stared at the ceiling, breathing hard.

“Marry me. Bear my children. How soon can you find a white dress and a preacher?”

Heather’s laugh was breathless. “Is the morning soon enough?” The game was so wonderfully real, she allowed herself to believe it for a little while longer. Just a little longer feeling safe and happy couldn’t hurt, could it?

The hand he’d used to cup her behind slid up her back in a slow comforting caress. “We’ll have to find something to do to fill in the time between now and then.”

“Lapse into a coma?” She draped a limp arm over his waist. “Call a paramedic? Get up off the floor?”

He stroked a large hand over the back of her head, sifting his fingers through her hair, letting the strands fall against her bare shoulders. “Did I wear you out, sweetheart?”

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The endearment fell easily from his lips. The sensation of his hand petting her felt strangely familiar. As if he’d done the same loving stroke a hundred times before. “It was that last two-minute mile.” Eyes closed, Heather smiled against his chest.

Murmuring an unintelligible sound, she snuggled against him, listening to the uneven cadence of his heartbeat under her ear. Why hadn’t this man walked into her life a year ago? Two years ago? she asked herself silently. Would she have appreciated him then? Would she have felt this same yearning to feel safe? Would she have jumped into bed with him within minutes of meeting him?

Yes.

The feeling she had, just being with him, transcended anything she’d ever experienced before. The physical aspect was strong enough, but there was something she couldn’t explain. Something that drew her to
this
man as she’d never been drawn by any other. A feeling that he was the other half of herself.

The yang to her yin.

But the reality was, if
Heather
had met him a year ago, she would still have had to run. And
Hannah
couldn’t take the risk of something happening to him if the people looking for her father eventually found
her
again. The world wasn’t that big anymore. And her father’s associates were highly motivated.

Suddenly Caleb drew in a sharp breath between his teeth, and he stiffened beneath her. His hand, which had moved down her back to stroke the curve of her butt, stilled.

Heather’s heart thudded. “What’s the—”

“Christ,” he said at the same time. “I didn’t use anything. I’m sorry. God—I’ve never gone off like that in my life. Not even my first time.”

She lifted her face to meet his eyes. “It’s okay.” Of course it wasn’t. She didn’t
know
this man. “Okay, it’s not okay. But I’m healthy, and I’m hoping you are too…”

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There’d been a few years in her late teens when she’d been promiscuous as a form of rebellion. When she’d realized that the only person she was hurting was herself, she’d stopped having casual sex cold turkey. She hadn’t had a lover in more than seven years.

He rested his forehead on hers. “I just got a clean bill of health, but still—if anything happens, swear that you’ll tell me.”

That sounded as though he expected to be in her life. If only. The clamp around her chest tightened another notch and she buried her face against his chest. “Nothing will happen.”

“Swear it anyway.”

“I swear. But nothing will.”

“From your lips…” His fingers traced the faint raised mark on her behind. “Are these the scars from the dog bite?”

“Wow. You have sensitive fingertips.”

“I’m a sensitive guy.” He rose in one fluid movement with her cradled in his arms. “I wanna see.”