Hot Secrets (13 page)

***

Royce was sitting on the couch, watching the news
when Lauren returned, stepping in front of him and pulling his
shirt over her head. His mouth went dry and his cock stood at
attention. “I should remind you we’re out of condoms.”

“We’ll improvise.”

She went to her knees and wrapped his cock with her
hand. He thickened and pulsed in her palm. She licked the head.
“Any complaints so far?”

“You can lick me, suck me, pretty much do whatever
you want to me, sweetheart. I’m all yours.”

Her gaze met his, a fearless look in her eyes he’d not seen
before, that he registered as trouble. Something was going on in
her head, and he had to find out what. But she sucked his head into
her mouth and he forgot exactly what the problem was. Suddenly,
there was only the suction of her mouth on his cock, the drag of
her tongue around him, up and down. Her long silky hair teasing his
stomach and thighs. The edge of near orgasm, and the final, deep
draw of her mouth that took his release from him.

The instant he was off the high of one of the best
damn blow jobs of his life, he reached for her and pressed her down
onto the couch, settling on top of her.

“What was that?”

“I think they call it”

“I know what they call it. I want to know what is
going on in your mind right now. Why you came out of the bathroom a
woman on a mission to give me a blow job.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You damn sure do.”

“No, I don’t.”

He slid down her body, and lifted her leg to his
shoulder. “Here’s how this is going to work. I’m going to take you
to the edge of orgasm over and over until you tell me what just
happened in that bathroom.” He suckled her clit into his mouth.

“Royce… oh… ah…” She rose up on her elbows.
”Stop. This is unfair.”

He slid two fingers inside her and lifted his head.
“You don’t want me to stop.” He licked her up and down. “Do
you?”

“This is torture… oh hmmmm… you’re…”

“What was in your head when you came out of the
bathroom?” he asked again, swirling her clit with his tongue.

“
I… okay.” He pumped into her, stroked her.
“Ah… okay…
I’ll tell you. Just please don’t stop and
I’ll tell you… after.” Her head dropped to the cushion. Royce
sucked and licked her, his hand covering her breast, teasing her
nipple. His finger pumped in her like he planned to do with his
cock again, and very soon. And when she spasmed around his fingers,
he licked her and lavished her with soft caresses of his tongue
until she collapsed, panting from release.

He settled her leg down beside him, and eased up her
body. “I really need you inside me right now,” she whispered.

“No condom,” he said, unable to resist pressing the
thick ridge of his erection in the silk heat of her sex. “And you
owe me an explanation.”

“I’m on the pill, “she said. “So please. Now. I need
you.”

A strange feeling expanded in his chest with the
understanding that she’d been on the pill for her ex, for another
man. Something possessive and uncomfortable that he’d never felt
before. Something that made him need to feel her, to claim
her.

He slid off the couch and took her with him, turning
her to face the cushion, and spreading her sex with his fingers to
enter her. He drove into her, hard and deep, when he’d never taken
the ‘pill’ explanation from another woman. But she wasn’t another
woman, and she wasn’t like any other woman he’d ever known. He
wrapped his arm around her, squeezed her breasts and pressed his
lips to her ear.

“What happened when you came out of the
bathroom?”

“Nothing,” she panted. “I just… wanted you.” She
gasped as he sped his pace, pumping and thrusting, and twisting her
nipple roughly.

She covered his hand with hers, dropped her head
against him. “Oh God. It… you… I’m…” Her tight little sex
grabbed a hold of him and squeezed.

He exploded inside her, groaning loudly with the
force of it. Shaking until she had all he had to give, every last
pump and drop of him.

When finally they were quiet, he didn’t let her go.
He held her there. “Now, tell me.”

She buried her face in her hands. “There’s nothing
to tell.”

He pulled out of her and grabbed his shirt, turning
her to face him and giving it to her to dry off. He pressed his
hands on the couch on either side of her, framing her body with
his. “Talk to me, Lauren.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say.”

“I’ve told you before. The truth. Say what you
feel.”

“Confused. I feel confused. You went from one night
stand to my private bodyguard.”

“You were never a one night stand to me, Lauren. But
maybe that’s the problem. This has gone way farther than you wanted
it to.” He started to move away. Damn, this woman had a hold on him
that he didn’t understand.

She grabbed his arm. “No. No. It’s not that. I… I
just don’t understand what we’re doing.”

“I thought we were getting to know each other.
Apparently, I’m helping you work another man out of your system by
way of sex.”

“Oh God, no, Royce. No. There isn’t anything to work
out of my system.”

“He hurt you and messed with your head.”

“He did. You’re right. That doesn’t mean I’m using
you. It means,” she inhaled and let in out, “it means you scare me.
If this is just sex then I need it to just be sex. Clearly. Cut and
dry. I don’t want to mix it in with conversation and pretend fluff
to feel better about that.”

There it was. The truth. What she really felt, and he was
damn glad she’d told him, that she hadn’t played games. That she
had honesty in her. And what was he doing? Hiding
thing
s
from her,
lying to her. Anything he said to her now, she’d question later and
he knew it. But he was in too deep to turn back. If he confessed,
she’d kick him out, push him away, and he’d struggle to protect
her.

Royce kissed her and then pushed her away to stand
up and grab his pants. He stepped into them, and she blinked at
him, looking dazed and confused. He yanked the blanket of the floor
and crossed back to her, wrapping it around her and squatting in
front of her.

“I need you covered before I try to prove to you
this isn’t just sex. I want you, Lauren. I tried to resist and I
was weak and if you sit there naked I’ll be weak all over again.
There’s something going on between us, and I know it’s happening
fast, but I’m not sure there’s any other way two people as drawn to
each other as we are can do things. This is new territory for me.
I’m not the stay-the-weekend kind of guy, Lauren, but you have to
kick me out if you want me to leave.”

“Because you’re trying to protect me. You’re law
enforcement. It’s your nature.”

Those words punched him in the gut, because he knew
they were a preview of what was to come, what she would think when
he finally confessed his deal with her father.

“I have a staff,” he said. “I have resources. If I
felt some obligation to protect you, I could put surveillance on
you and you’d never know it.” He traced the delicate line of her
jaw. “I’m here because I want to be. Because I thought you wanted
me to be.”

“I do,” she whispered. “I do want you to be
here.”

“Good,” he said. “And if keeping our clothes on will
prove to you that there’s more to this than that, then we will step
back and start over slower. I won’t lie and say it won’t kill me,
but I’ll happily take the couch if that’s what I need to do.”

She dropped the sheet and wrapped her arms around
him, her soft curves pressed to his chest. “Only if I’m on it with
you.”

His resistance lasted all of a few seconds before
his arm wrapped around her body, his mouth closing down on hers,
tasting her, drinking her in like a man weeks without water. And as
she moaned into his mouth, as possessiveness he’d never felt for
another woman ripped through him, he didn’t question the need to
make her his. He simply knew she was the one woman he had to have,
the one he’d never found until now. The one who was going to hate
him before this was over. The one who would rip his heart out. And
worse of all he was going to be the bastard who deserved it.

Chapter Eleven

Monday morning, after a weekend of pure bliss with Royce,
Lauren stood in the kitchen holding a steaming cup of coffee,
dressed in a tan fitted skirt and cream silk blouse, ready to start
her work week. As much as she’d loved her escape with Royce, she’d
bypassed work for movies, conversation, and a lot of unforgettable
moments that required no clothing, and now she was
behind.

Royce appeared in the archway, his dark hair tied at his
nape, his jeans and t-shirt molded to delicious muscles she now
knew intimately. “I’m driving you to work,” he said.

She should have been irritated about the command, but a few
of his bedroom orders flashed in her mind —
harder, faster, lick me
—
and her mouth went
dry. Lauren set her cup on the kitchen counter. “You don’t have to
take me to work.”

“Yes, I do.” He leaned on the archway, his shoulders
taking up the entire tiny space.

She studied him, reading what he wasn’t saying, and
nerves knotted her stomach. “Stop. Stop acting like a watchdog.
You’re making me uptight. You’re making me think about the phone
calls and the calendar pages. I can’t do my job if I can’t think
straight.”

“
You have to think about this, Lauren, and you have to look
over your shoulder. And I’ll be looking too.”

“You can’t watch me all day, Royce. And even if you
think you can, for how long? We didn’t get another call, or another
calendar sheet, this weekend. Maybe it’s over. Maybe this person
got their laughs and moved on. Or maybe you being with me scared
them off.”

“No. He’s not tired. He’s not scared. He’s trying to
get you to let down your guard.”

“You don’t know that. We don’t know anything at all.
And you’re going to make me crazy.”

He closed the distance between them and pulled her
into his arms. ”Just humor me for a few days and play things safe
until I get some answers. I’ll drop you off at work and pick you
up. That way I have an excuse to take you to dinner,” his lips
curved, “and have you for dessert.”

“Bribery isn’t going to make this better.”

He laughed. “Bribery, huh?”

She couldn’t laugh. She couldn’t do anything with
the invisible vise tightening on her chest. “I’ve been working
criminal cases for years. I’ve had threats. I did with those what I
told you I do with everything else. Threats, bloody pictures, and
random body parts in bags. They are the same to me. I put them in
this imaginary place in mind, a box that I seal and don’t open
unless I have to. It’s how I keep going.”

“I know,” he said. “If anyone gets that, it’s me. If
I had any other choice, I wouldn’t push you on this. There’s
something about the way this has all gone down that I don’t like. I
need you to be on alert, and I need you to be cautious, until I
figure out why.”

“Damn you, Royce. That just made me more on edge. I
know to be careful. I’m always careful.”

“Curse me if you want,” he said. “Yell at me. Just
do what I say.”

She let out a sigh. “What is it about me and
controlling men? I’m drawn to them.” She stepped out of his reach.
“Drive me if you must.” She tried to walk around him and he caught
her arm. “Please don’t. Not now. And I know I’m probably being
unfair but I just feel like everything is spinning out of control.
I need some space to figure out where my head is.”

His eyes, so blue, so piercing, held hers, his
expression unreadable, before he let her go. And God, she was so
confused and conflicted, because she hated he let her go, when
she’d just told him to.

***

Two hours after arriving to work, Lauren sat behind
her simple steel public servant’s desk, in her box of an office.
She and Royce had barely spoken on the way to her office and that
had her just as crazy as everything else. He’d made her put his
number and both of his brothers’ numbers in her phone, and told her
not to leave the building. No kiss goodbye. Just a quick ‘I’ll call
you later and check in.’

The intercom on Lauren’s desk buzzed and she jumped,
silently cursing her edginess. She punched the button on her phone.
“There is a Jonathan Wilkins here to see you,” came the familiar
gravelly voice of her sixty-something year old assistant, Alice
Harper. She cleared her throat and lowered her voice, “He’s very
determined.”

Of course he was. His sister was about to go on
trial for murder. She could only hope this was heading towards a
confession. “Send him in.”Lauren leaned back in her chair and
waited for her visitor but she didn’t, and wouldn’t, get up. Not
with this particular visitor, whom she’d read the file on. She’d
learned a long time ago that sitting behind a desk was as good as
towering over a man. It proclaimed ownership of the room, it said
she wasn’t intimated into standing. It worked with the more
dominant types.

Her door was open and it took all of sixty seconds for a
strikingly large man, she knew to be thirty-six years old, to
appear in the entryway. And true to his military duty, his hair was
short, his jaw strong, his expression hard.

“Hello, Ms. Reynolds.”

There was something about the way he said her name,
the way it came out almost like a threat, that set a warning bell
ringing in her head. “Please, have a seat, Mr. Wilkins.”

For a moment, he stood there, so still, she almost
thought he’d frozen in place, turned to stone, before he gave a
surprisingly polite, “Thank you,” and claimed a visitor’s
chair.