Take a Risk (Risk #1) (11 page)

‘I keep my personal and professional lives separate. You’re mine, all mine,’ she said, rotating enough to kiss his jaw.

The cab pulled up, so she linked their fingers again and bounced forth to lead him into the vehicle.

They could have walked to his apartment from the club, it was only a couple of streets away, but she wasn’t wearing a jacket and it was the middle of the night. This was an unknown area to her and she would have to talk to Colt about safety in the area, in case she was ever taking this walk alone. She wasn’t exactly street savvy, though she was no idiot either.

Right here in the back of the cab, she was unzipping the fly of his jeans and pressing her chest into his. The juxtaposition of her soft breasts squashed against his unyielding chest expanded the pressure of urgency in her. He’d been the one to kiss her first, here in the cab, and he probably regretted it now because she went from cool to searing in a nanosecond and he was struggling to contain his own animal urges. His white-knuckled fists tightened and watching him struggle with his control spurred her on.

When they eventually stopped outside his block, he threw money at the sniggering cab driver and hauled her out of the seat. Ignoring her exuberant laugh, he swept her off her feet and took the external stairs up to his first floor apartment two at a time.

Sandwiched between him and his front door, her elbows clamped on each side of his neck as her hands grabbed the hair at his crown. Somehow the door gave from behind her, and with her legs gripped around his waist she could do nothing except let him catch her weight. But, she trusted him. His mouth met hers eagerly, and swallowed the moan of impatience from her throat. The sound of the door slamming joined them on their way across the room.

When they started to fall her instinct was to grasp for the closest stable object, so her body braced around his. But caught in the cradle of a couch she relaxed and went straight for his belt to loosen his jeans and free his member. Less than five seconds later he pushed into her. Impatience was relieved for only a split second, he pulled back and in desperation not to lose their connection her hips came up to meet his and he growled.

Even in the darkness she could see the possession in his eyes. Essentially they were still clothed, she had on everything except her shoes, but that didn’t matter to either of them, not in this second, all that mattered was they had finally been granted their wish.

Her legs climbed his back, his jeans were still on as was his shirt. But she needed him, all of him, now, more. His whispered words of appeasement didn’t placate. Digging her heels into his waistband, she shoved at his jeans, but didn’t manage to lower them. They lost their rhythm when they almost rolled from the couch.

In anticipation of her want, he nipped at her lower lip and sucked her tongue to his mouth while throwing the coffee table to the side out of the way. Then on lurching from the couch she called out, but distress turned to desire when she realised he’d given her just what she wanted, all of him, in her so deep that if she wriggled she’d be coming all over him.

The pulse of him inside her trembled in her belly. This man knew what she wanted, before she knew it. Trailing her lips away, she sat up on top of him, pushing him against her core. The moment of sheer liquid pleasure felt private, and so profound that she couldn’t share it with him. Yet it also made her feel primal, like her skin was too tight. Her clothes made her hot and sticky, they were completely out of place. Pulling her top off, her bra followed, and immediately her breasts were covered by his hands. While he massaged, she broke the last of the buttons on his shirt, exposing his chest for herself.

Shoving his hands away from her chest, she bowed, devoured by the need to taste him, to feel his flesh under her mouth, yielding to her. His groan of ecstasy had her cascading into the deepest burst of her own pleasure. His commitment might be the greatest gift, but his body and hers belonged together, and there was no denying it.

Shifting from her knees, she stretched her legs and he pulled off her high-heels to kiss her instep. Her weight was completely on him now, and the tickle of his chest hair on her calves sent another barb of pleasure through her. Pushing her weight onto her palms, she moved up and down, his teeth grazed her ankle, then he grabbed each of them and steadied her. He sat up forty-five degrees, which made her almost lose her balance. She grabbed for him, but his thick arm held her weight as though it was nothing. Shirking his shirt from one arm, he traded arms and cast it off the other arm to leave himself topless.

In this vulnerable position his groin crushed her clit between them, and she cried out when another orgasm ripped through her, he shifted, and she came all over again. Her head came forward, and she saw the ownership in his eyes. The craving in him only increased hers, and shoving at him until he lay back down, she managed to manoeuvre a turn keeping him inside her as she rotated to face his feet. His hands slid up her back, and her shiver quaked to her still sensitive clit. Pushing her hands under his knees he drew them up for her, and she leant against his thighs. With the denim rasping her nipples, she wriggled him deep and slid up his shaft until he almost left her, then she dropped her weight onto him.

His groan prompted her on again, his hands steadied her hips, and they moved together. Slowing the motion when his fingers dug deeper against her, she wanted to keep him on the edge for as long as she could. This moment might be the first of many, but it didn’t make it any less special. Getting used to it might take time, but she wanted to blend with him, merge so completely that even outsiders wouldn’t mistake their propriety.

In an oddly intimate move while she glided up and down his phallus she reached over his knees and unlaced his boots. Such a normal, everyday thing, yet in this moment she felt entitled, and it became intimate, not because they were currently part of each other but because it proved she had the freedom of him. She pulled his boots, which clamped her inner muscles around him. He cursed her name, and sat up, kicking off the boots. She squealed at the motion that had her back to his chest. Sweeping her hair from her throat he sucked hard, and pinched her nipples.

One hand travelled south, and she was about to tell him if he touched her that she would combust, but instead of going where she thought he was going to, his fingers curled into the band of her skirt, and with one motion the flimsy fabric ripped. The sound of tearing echoed throughout the apartment, and again she was coming all over him. As the last quakes passed he grabbed her knees, and pulled them back sending her face down. Lyssa caught herself on her palms, putting her on all fours, and he was behind her pounding into her hard, ready to complete his own cycle. Fearing she wouldn’t be able to hold out, she gasped his name, but her climax hit, and in the blast of his name on her lips, he followed her, the roar in his throat paired with his fist grasping her hair.

Neither moved for what could have been a lifetime, then she leaned forward and straightened her leg, managing a flip that let her lie flat out on the hardwood floor to stare up at him, still high on his knees where he had been. Again, they shared the moment, and she was sure she could have stayed there all night, except she couldn’t because the floor was cold and she was thirsty.

Turning onto her knees, she got to her feet and with a quick look around she pegged the location of the kitchen in the open-plan space. She headed for the fridge and found a beer, which was the only chilled liquid in the appliance. Popping the cap, she gulped past the bubbles, and quenched her thirst.

‘There’s a sight that’ll have us starting all over again.’

Dropping the bottle from her lips, she saw him standing between the couch and scaled coffee table, admiring her. He sauntered toward her, and when he reached her she pushed the cold bottle to his chest making him flinch, then took it from her to finish the liquid.

Hopping onto the counter, she slid her calves up and down his legs, then to the back of his thighs bringing him closer. The bottle hit the counter, and he was kissing her.

‘Maybe this time you could show me the bedroom,’ she whispered into his ear and he scooped her up.

‘Doctor’s orders?’

She laughed and nodded, so he carried her toward the back of the apartment, past a bathroom and an external back door into his spacious, night-soaked bedroom, where she’d end up spending the rest of the weekend… naked.

She wasn’t actually naked the whole time that they were at his apartment. After a long lie, more sex, and a cooked breakfast, he’d taken her out to show her around the apartment complex. It was a two storey building. Each front door led off an external terrace and each property had a back door, which led to a balcony that ran the full length of the building. The apartments were all one bedroom, and certainly nothing fancy, but in this area you didn’t want fancy.

Blaser and Ruger both had properties here as did another of their cousins, Gus, who apparently managed the lion’s share of the management work. Gus’ brother was the one who actually owned the building. The Warner family extended far, she’d had no idea that Colt was part of such a large clan.

Blaser spent most of his days in the garage which butted onto the back of the apartment complex. The public accessed the garage pitch from the street parallel to the apartment block, but the gated chain-link fence between the two areas allowed Blaser to move between them without setting foot in a street.

It turned out that the other units in the block were mostly occupied by employees of Risqué or the garage, but they were all men. An apartment complex that was full of male residents raised all sorts of questions for her inquisitive mind.

‘Are you hungry?’ Colt asked, stroking her back.

She was quite enjoying lying face down in his bed, hugging the pillow and misting in and out of slumber. ‘What time is it?’

‘Almost eight.’

Sunday night, the last shift of her week at Risqué. Colt had taken her to work last night and stayed there the whole time. Blaser had let her leave an hour early, probably at Colt’s urging, explicit or otherwise.

‘I have to get ready for work,’ she mumbled. ‘I should go home and find something to wear.’

‘You wore clothes from the club last night.’

‘I’m not a fan of wearing other women’s clothes,’ she yawned and rolled onto her back. ‘Where was Ruger last night?’

‘You talk about wearing other women’s clothes and that makes you think of my brother?’ he smirked. ‘He’ll probably let you borrow from his wardrobe, but I don’t know think that any of his clothes will fit you. You have a much better figure.’

‘I hope I didn’t upset him. You’ll have to give me his phone number. I’ll call and apologise.’

‘Ruger isn’t easily upset,’ he said, stretching his arms above his head when he sat up, displaying the intricate, tough muscles in his back. ‘Anyway you might have been right.’

‘Maybe,’ she said. ‘But he wouldn’t have appreciated me outing him in front of other people; that was inappropriate.’ Spreading her hand on the middle of his back, she sighed. ‘You have a beautiful body.’

‘Thanks,’ he said, flopping onto his side and holding up his head with a crooked elbow. ‘You’re pretty hot yourself.’

‘I do yoga.’

‘I know,’ he smirked, and she rolled her eyes at his semi-smile.

‘I forgot you stalked me.’

‘Only for a couple of weeks,’ he said. ‘I kind of wish I’d stuck at it for longer.’

‘Why? What do you think you’d have seen?’

‘Who knows? But you’re sexy enough to watch day-in, day-out, you don’t have to do anything interesting.’

He kissed her shoulder, and her upper chest, then began to make his way toward her cleavage. ‘Do you remember the last time you had sex with your wife?’

His lips stopped, his head came up, and he looked her in the eye for a few seconds with apparent confusion and surprise. ‘We’re lying naked in bed together and you’re thinking about Carrie… I wouldn’t have figured that one out. What kind of fetish is that?’

‘If you don’t want to talk about it—‘

‘You
do
want to talk about it?’

‘I’m just curious,’ she said. ‘How close to you moving out did you have sex with her?’

‘In which direction? Before or after I moved out?’

She shifted away slightly to get a better look at him. ‘You had sex with her after you moved out of the marital home?’

He nodded. ‘Remember that three month fling I mentioned?’

‘Your fling was with your wife?’

‘Sex wasn’t the problem for Carrie and me. The problem was everything else.’

‘Before you moved out of the marital home, when was the last time you had sex with her?’

‘The night before,’ he said. ‘We thought it was goodbye.’

‘Did she achieve climax?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Probably not.’ Scrubbing his hands over his face, he sat up. ‘What is this about?’

‘Did you ever cheat on her?’

‘What?’ he said with a stab of offense, and spun to glare at her. ‘I was always faithful to her.’

‘But you blame yourself for the demise of the relationship?’

‘Don’t psychoanalyse my marriage,’ he said, vaulting out of bed and wrenching on his jeans. ‘That’s done with; you don’t have to worry about Carrie.’

‘I’m not worried about her,’ Lyssa said, sitting up. ‘You prioritise my pleasure over your own and I don’t know if that’s an inherent insecurity or if it comes from the guilt of the break-up of your marriage.’

‘Maybe I’m just a good lover,’ he said and though he wasn’t as riled, the way he thrust his hands to his hips told her he wasn’t completely calm.

‘You are,’ Lyssa said. ‘But I want to satisfy you too, and if you have issues—‘

‘I’m not one of your patients,’ he said, coming around the bed to sit beside her. ‘Don’t over think this.’

And when he kissed her it was easy to do as he said. She didn’t mean to make him uncomfortable, or to pry. It was just in her nature to ask questions, to try and establish people’s motivations and how to help them. Relationships hadn’t been on her priority list and she was out of practise, but if Colt kept kissing her like this then she knew she’d quickly get back into the habit of going with the flow and switching off her critical brain.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t due for anymore practise right now because her cell phone began to ring and both she and Colt groaned in unison. He picked up her backpack from the floor and handed it over so she could retrieve her phone. Reading Suzette’s name was a surprise, but she didn’t hesitate to answer.

‘Hey, is everything ok?’ Lyssa asked.

‘Disaster!’ Suzette said. ‘There has been a disaster with the dresses.’

‘Your wedding dress?’ Lyssa said, and her hand subconsciously went to Colt’s shoulder for support, he turned to kiss her gripping knuckles. ‘What’s the problem?’

‘All of them. The dressmaker called and she had some sort of problem in her workshop, something to do with her niece, but she’s lost all of the alteration details she made on the dresses when we were last in.’

‘Oh my god, that’s terrible. What are you going to do?’

‘I’ve managed to track down one sister and she’s off to corral the other,’ Suzette said. ‘I hate to do this to you after our conversation on Friday, and you probably hate me and Pete, and I know you have work tomorrow…’

‘What do you need, Suze? I’ll do whatever you need me to.’

‘Meet me at the dress shop.’

‘Sure,’ Lyssa said. Colt took her hand from the bed and kissed her palm then coiled her fingers around the erection she’d been ogling. Her smiling frown asked the question of what he was doing.

‘Prioritising my pleasure,’ he whispered and she eased her lips to his and took over the jerking, letting him lean his weight back on his palms.

‘We need to do it tonight,’ Suzette said.

Lyssa had almost forgotten that she was holding the phone and it took her longer than normal to comprehend the words. When she did, her grip tightened, but the motion of it stopped and Colt cracked open one eye.

‘Tonight?’ she repeated, conveying her silent apology to Colt who sighed out his disappointment, but took her hand from his dick and flattened it on his chest.

‘Yes, I know it’s short notice but if you could meet me at the dress store in like half an hour? I’m heading over there now.’

‘Ok,’ Lyssa said, glancing at the clock next to Colt’s bed. ‘But can we do my dress first. I have something on later.’

‘Later?’ Suzette said. ‘On a Sunday night? Is this about that guy you mentioned?’

‘Could be,’ Lyssa said. ‘I’ll see you soon.’

Hanging up the phone without further explanation, she tossed the device into her backpack. ‘I’ll tell Blaser you won’t be in,’ Colt said. ‘It won’t be a problem.’

‘I’m not going to take advantage of our physical relationship,’ she said. ‘I made a commitment to Blaser and I won’t let him down.’

‘What does she need you to do?’

‘There was a problem with the dresses. I have to go to the dress shop for a fitting.’

‘I can drive you,’ he said as she climbed off the bed.

‘You have a car?’ she asked.

‘My brother’s a mechanic, there’s a scrap yard behind the garage, he fixes cars up and sells them in his spare time… not that he has much of it. We always have access to a plethora of vehicles.’

‘Legal ones?’ she asked, pulling on the clothes she’d brought to change into after her Friday shift. Thankfully she and Colt had their last tryst in the shower, so she was ready to get going now.

‘Yes,’ he said, retrieving a tee-shirt from a drawer. ‘Would otherwise be a problem?’

‘More for you than for me,’ she said. ‘You’ll be the one driving… and you’re an ex-cop.’

‘You’re just dying to get the story behind that one, aren’t you?’

Scrunching her face, she nodded. ‘How could you tell?’

‘Ruger told me that you asked him. I’ll tell you all about it, but not now.’

They dressed and she stuffed her things into her backpack. ‘Will you pick me up too? I’d appreciate a ride to the club, I might be cutting it close.’

‘I’ll wait,’ he said, opening the bedroom door for her. She took his hand and pulled him to the front door, which he held open for her. Somehow he read her mind, because she had concerns about him parking outside the dress shop this late on a Sunday night when there would be few other cars there. ‘I’ll stay far enough away that Suzette won’t see me.’

‘I don’t have time to answer her questions,’ she said. He locked the door and took her down the stairs. ‘It’s not that I don’t want her to know about us.’

‘You two have enough going on in your friendship right now,’ he said, pressing a button on a key fob causing the lights of a sedan to flash. He opened her car door and closed it behind her then got in at his own side. ‘When is the wedding?’

‘Five weeks from Saturday,’ she said.

Reversing out of the space, he drove out of the parking lot, and followed the directions she gave him to the dress shop. ‘Have you got a plus one on your invite?’

‘Do you want to be my date?’ she grinned. ‘I’d be honoured.’

‘I’m interested to meet the guy who told your best friend to stay away from you when you’re most in need of support.’

‘Pete is a good guy. He cares about her, that’s all.’

‘But he doesn’t care about you. An extension of caring about a woman is caring about people that she cares about, which means he should care about you because Suzette cares about you.’

‘Is that why you’re driving me to an impromptu dress fitting instead of coaxing me into having more sex?’

‘I’m playing the long game,’ he said. ‘By taking you here you’ll be so grateful that sex will follow in due time.’

‘Clever,’ she said. ‘Do you mind if we stay at my place tonight? I have an early patient.’

‘That’s fine,’ he said. ‘So tell me more about Pete Harding. He works in IT, right?’

If he’d researched her and her friends it stood to reason that Colt knew something about her best friend’s fiancé. ‘Yes. His department is just next door to the admin department at the hospital where Suzette works.’

‘Have they been together long?’

‘About six months.’

‘He moves fast.’

‘Suzette is a romantic,’ Lyssa explained. ‘She’s always wanted to be swept off her feet and I suppose that’s what Pete has done for her. He proposed after six weeks. I was shocked, but who am I to judge? I was with Archie for years, knew him inside out, yet that didn’t work out.’

‘Why not?’

‘I wasn’t the dutiful wife that he wanted me to be. He wasn’t keen on my specialty and he tried his best to talk me out of it. Then I started talk of my book, which he was against. I did some research in other undercover situations and he went nuts. I think he wanted me to be something I wasn’t. When we met he worked at the hospital, then he went into private practice and started to make a lot of money. I mean bags and bags full, he’s a plastic surgeon.’

‘A lot of money in that.’

‘Right,’ she said. ‘So our lifestyle changed, and with that he changed. I wasn’t as obedient as I should have been in his opinion. I wasn’t interested in the golf and country club parties that he wanted to frequent. Our lives diverged until we were basically living independently of each other.’

‘What about kids?’