Release (15 page)

His instinct was hollering another unwelcome message in his brain. Genny was in danger once again—just like she had been three years ago.

And for some goddamned reason Sean couldn’t divine at the moment, he suspected that slimeball Albert Rook was at the bottom of it all. Sean’d been waiting for the day he’d come back ever since he’d sent Rook packing three years ago.

Still . . . the thought plagued him.
Why now?
Why would he have stopped believing in Sean’s threat to turn over evidence that Rook was guilty of treason against the United States?

One thing Sean felt entirely confident about was that Genny was safe here in the penthouse. Rook may be good enough to disable Genny’s security system at her boutique. But the bastard wasn’t going to get anywhere
near
her while she was within the multiple, high-tech security measures Sean’d had personally installed both for the intel company and the penthouse following Max’s murder.

He walked over to the bar and drew down a glass.

There was something else he knew for a fact. Whether you wanted to call it fate, luck, or chance,
something
had brought Genny back to him. He poured wine into the glass.

It’d be easier to protect her if he’d established a firm claim. To hell with Albert Rook, and fuck Genny’s supposed boyfriend.

It was way past time for him to make Genny his.

He flipped off the lights, leaving the room in darkness except for the orange glow from the flames in the fireplace. He walked down the hallway toward the bathroom.

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

G
enevieve’s bath water began to cool around her. She should get out before she became as cold as she had been when they’d come in from the snowstorm. An image of her ransacked studio leapt into her mind’s eye. She thought of Sean out there in the penthouse . . . waiting. A delicious thrill of anticipation went through her body, but so did a tremor of anxiety.

She reached for the hot water tap and leaned back again in the tub.

It would all be so much easier if she’d never slept with him—if she didn’t know about his demanding manner of making love . . .

If she hadn’t responded so wholeheartedly to Sean’s dominant nature in bed.

It was strange, but somehow her submission to Sean—submission to her own desire—on that New Year’s Eve night had become all mixed up in her mind with Max’s manipulations, and later the horror of being told he was dead. It was exciting beyond belief to think of making love to Sean, but it also caused dread to expand in her belly.

It’d been her desperate need for Sean that’d been at the root of all the grief that followed, all the ugliness. It’d been the basis for her sexual submission on that night. Her love for Sean had also been the match that had ignited an explosion of deceit and violence.

She sat up abruptly, sloshing the water around in the tub when the bathroom door opened. Sean walked in. He shut the door and leaned against it. For several tense seconds, they stared at each other across the expanse of the warm, humid bathroom. Genevieve swallowed convulsively when she saw the fierce blaze in his blue eyes.

She remembered that look all too well.

He pushed himself off the door and came toward her. “I brought you a glass of wine. I thought you might need it. To relax a little.”

Her eyes widened when she took in his low, intimate tone. He paused next to the tub and glanced down at her body. His gaze seemed to scorch her wet, naked skin. Her nipples prickled and tightened. Her eyes were on the same level of his long, strong, jean-covered thighs. He handed her the wineglass. She reached out for it automatically. Her gaze traveled up his body to meet his stare.

His facial muscles had pulled tight with desire—and determination.

“You said I’m not aloud to talk about that night, Genny, so I won’t. But I want you to know something: I won’t bow down to guilt. Not mine. Not even yours. Do you understand?”

Her eyes burned as he held her stare. She nodded.

“Good,” he said softly. He touched the fingers wrapped around the glass. “Drink some, girl.”

She watched him as she drank and her pulse throbbed at her throat. He looked magnificent to her at that moment. For the life of her, she couldn’t imagine how she’d managed to stay away from him for three years.

He took the glass from her a moment later and set it at the edge of the large tub. He waited.

She leaned forward and twisted the tap, shutting off the water. She stood before him, water dripping off her body. His heated gaze raked over her, lingering on her breasts before he looked up at her face.

“Our first time wasn’t what either of us would have wished for, but it’s over and done, and we can’t change it. I know you’re nervous. I am, too, a little, so I’m going to make this as easy as possible. You’re going to get out of that tub, I’m going to dry you off, and then we’re going out to the couch, where it’s nice and warm. I’m going to take off my clothes,” he murmured, his voice growing gruffer with each word he spoke, “and I’m going to put myself inside you, girl—where I belong. Nothin’ fancy, I promise. Just me and you. Do you think you can handle that?”

Her heartbeat throbbed in her ears as she stared into his blazing blue eyes. Anxiety? Guilt? No.

Nothing existed but Sean at that moment.

“Yes.” She put out her hand and he grasped it, steadying her as she stepped out of the tub. He drew down the white towel from the rack and unfolded it. He dried her off with a gentle thoroughness that had Genevieve’s breath coming raggedly by the time he reached her toes.

“Turn around,” he said without looking up.

She did, and the whole excruciating, exciting process continued. He wiped off her calves and the back of her knees. He stood and covered his hand with the towel before he dragged it across a thigh. When he dried the other one, he pressed lightly with his hand, urging her to spread her legs. She whimpered softly when he parted her buttocks with one warm hand. He dried not only the cheeks, but the crevice between them. He squeezed a buttock tautly in his palm before one long finger reached.

He slicked a fingertip across the sensitive tissues surrounding her vagina. An electric thrill went through her. He gave a satisfied grunt.

“Warm and wet. You make things so damn easy, Genny,” he rumbled near her ear.

“Sean.”
She started to turn toward him, overwhelmed with need. He stopped her with a hand on her shoulders.

“Just a second now. You’re not the only one who’s in a hurry for this, trust me.” He swiped the towel over her back, drying her thoroughly. He slung the towel onto the rack again.

Genevieve sputtered in surprise when he pushed her back into his arms and lifted her. His smile was as tender as his touch had been.

“I had to get you all dried off. You’d say I had ulterior motives if you caught a chill and were holed up here in the penthouse with me even longer,” he said as he carried her out of the bathroom.

He paused in his progress down the hallway when Genevieve wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her mouth just above his collar. His pulse throbbed against her lips, the rate of it every bit as rapid as her own. Her pussy had already begun to ache for him, but the sure knowledge of his reciprocal desire for her made it clench tight in need. She licked at his smooth skin, suddenly ravenous for his taste on her tongue.

“I may be nervous, but I’d be a liar if I said I wanted to be anywhere else in the world at this minute,” she said next to his neck.

He resumed walking, this time more rapidly. He laid her down on the couch. The only source of light in the living room was the flames in the fireplace. Warmth and arousal weighted her flesh. She sunk into the soft velvet sofa and watched hungrily as Sean whipped his shirt over his head. Muscle stretched and flexed, leaving her spellbound. The flames played across his gold-toned, smooth skin, casting flickering shadows across the landscape of his torso.

His gaze traveled over her body as he unfastened his belt. His nostrils flared as he stared at the juncture of her thighs.

“Can you get pregnant?”

She blinked at the unexpectedness of the question asked in such a terse tone.

“I’m on the pill,” she replied.

“I never have unprotected intercourse with a woman. Never. But I’m gonna come inside you tonight, girl.”

“Aren’t you worried about me? Who I’ve been with?”

“No. Should I be?”

She sighed. “No.”

Heat sunk from her lower belly to her genitals when she saw his small grin. A drop of liquid trickled from her slit. She nodded her head in agreement to his proposal. Her vocal cords had gone numb when she read the message in Sean’s fiery eyes.

Her acquiescence made him tear at the fastenings of his jeans with even more haste.

He freed his cock, jerking the boxer briefs down his thighs. It sprung from a thatch of dark brown pubic hair. His size and the stark evidence of his desire sent a thrill through her. He bent to remove his jeans, underwear, and socks and Genevieve was momentarily deprived of the awesome sight.

But then he straightened before her, the vision of him so beautiful it made her hurt.

She reached for his jutting erection even as their gazes held. He felt like warmed silk stretched tight over steel. The sheer weight of his cock in her palm stunned her. Her thumb traced a swollen blue vein. He winced in pleasure.

“You never really let me touch you. Before,” she whispered.

“That’s because you try me, girl. You’re doing it again, right this second.”

She sighed in sublime satisfaction when he swung one leg over her supine body and came down over her. Little detonations of pleasure went off everywhere in her flesh at the sensation of his skin sliding against hers, and then his delicious weight pressing her down into the soft couch.

He seized her mouth in a dizzying, hot kiss.

She craned up for more of the addictive taste of him when he lifted his head. He braced himself on one knee next to her hip. She realized he’d kept his other foot on the floor when he placed both hands at the small of her back and lifted her until her head slid down the couch and her spine bowed into an arch.

He held himself off her, bent down, and proceeded to consume her. His hot mouth felt like it was everywhere at once. He pressed firm lips to the bones of her ribs, making her quiver, and kissed her belly with a hot, open mouth. He scraped his teeth along her sides and nipped lightly at her hip.

But mostly he focused on her breasts—nuzzling them with his cheek, dragging his firm, warm lips across the sensitive skin as if to memorize her texture, slipping her nipples between his lips and drawing on her with a firm, steady suction that had Genevieve clawing her fingers through his thick hair and writhing in his hold.

Begging him.

Her pleas must have eventually reached him, because he released her captive nipple and leaned up. His eyes gleamed in the flame-lit room as he stared down at her. His biceps flexed as he pushed up her body and slid his stiff, burning cock along her hip and up over her belly.

“Sean. You
promised
,” she whispered harshly, overwhelmed by the sensation.

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “I did, didn’t I?” Genevieve shifted up her hips, applying pressure to his cock where it was sandwiched between their bodies. She ran her hands over his bunching back muscles and pulled him even closer. All traces of amusement vanished from his face. Genevieve opened her thighs, instinctively recognizing that feral expression.

He took his cock in one hand and arrowed it toward her slit. The steely head felt delicious against her wet, sensitive tissues. She spread her legs as wide as the couch would allow and pressed up against the hard pressure of his cock.

“I’ve waited for this for so long,” he grated out as he held her gaze. He thrust his hips.

Genevieve made a choked sound of thwarted longing when he didn’t get anywhere. She tried to open her thighs wider, granting him entrance into her body, but it was difficult with the back of the couch acting as a barrier.

“I’m sorry. I haven’t . . . It’s been a long time,” she muttered, feeling foolish.

Since New Year’s Eve three years ago, to be exact. And even then, when Sean had fucked her, Max had been there before him. It’d been a preparation, of sorts. Sean wasn’t a small man.

She felt her heart sinking, despite her frantic excitement, when Sean just studied her intently for a few seconds. He’d sensed her nervousness earlier and tried to make things simple for their first joining.
And I can’t even get
that
right,
she thought with rising frustration as she once again pushed against his cockhead.

“Don’t apologize.” He made a hushing sound when she cried out in protest as he moved off her and stood. He grabbed the folded blanket off the back of the couch and her hand at the same time. Genevieve stood next to him at his urging.

“It’s my fault. Couches are kind of . . . restricting,” he mumbled as he led her in front of the fireplace. He spread the blanket on the carpet and turned to her. One hand remained encircling her own while he cupped her jaw with the other. His head lower and she craned up for him, her arms encircling his waist.

As usual, Sean’s kiss did a vanishing act on her anxieties.

They lowered to the soft blanket, never releasing each other from their mutual embrace. He pushed her back to the floor and came down over her, his mouth moving hungrily over her neck, cheeks, and seeking lips. She welcomed his weight, prized the feeling of him covering her more than any gift she’d ever received. She swept her hands over the warm, smooth skin of his back and buttocks, kneading dense muscle in growing desperation.

His mouth remained on her neck, hot and hungry, while he grasped his cock and positioned it next to her slit. He flexed. Genevieve moaned feverishly and spread herself wide, but he worked only the smooth, tapered head of his cock into her body.