Until It's You (16 page)

He drew back and their mouths came apart. She sighed, her body on edge as she stood against him, and breathed in to say
something
. No words came to mind.

Then he leaned in again, and when the kiss came, whatever force had been restraining both of them broke free. He kissed her fiercely, not so much with skillfulness as unrestrained desire. Her hands raked through his hair again, down to the slick skin of his neck and under his shirt to feel the hard muscles of his shoulders, his back. His hands left her arms.

Then gravity shifted and she was off her feet. A rush of arousal surged through her as she realized he was carrying her in the direction of the couch, one hand on her back and the other on her butt. She smiled against his lips.

He lowered her onto her back. Then he was over her, one foot on the ground, one knee on the couch in the space between her legs, his lips trailing kisses down her neck as her fingers explored the hard muscles of his chest.

She threw her head back and reveled in the warm attention of his mouth, his hot breath tickling the spots he had just kissed as he worked back up from her throat to whisper in her ear.

"I need you," he breathed. "Now."

She half-gasped, half-moaned as she felt his arousal hard against her thigh, nearly bursting hot through the thin fabric of his pants.

Doubts crashed against her desire . What about—

No. That could wait and this would be fine and oh my lord she wanted this at least as badly as he did.

A tingle shot down her spine as she formed her answer on her lips. "Yes," she gasped, bucking herself up into him and answering any lingering questions he might have.

It was a violent flurry of action then. Her fingers flew down the front of his shirt, unbuttoning all the way down to the waist of his pants as he did the same to her. Both of them shrugged out of their shirts, then he unclasped her bra as quickly as if he had turned off a light switch.

They were chest to bare chest, the heat from his skin the most powerful pharm she could imagine.

He took her breast heavy into his hand, then brought his warm lips down. She gasped at the sensual pleasure, and again when she felt his fingers undoing the clasp of her pants. Her hips bucked up into his palm, sending a deep curl of pleasure between her thighs.

His palm pulled away, and he eased her pants down her thighs, her calves, her feet. Her underwear came next.

She was naked and vulnerable beneath him.

He stood up straight, towering above her as his dark eyes took her in.

She shivered, hot and needy for him. "Get down here," she whispered, her breath hot. "Now."

His pants came down with one quick movement, and he stepped out of them. She fixated on his length: he was already hard.

He positioned himself between her open thighs and hovered over her. She held her breath, on the edge.

His first thrust into her was its own mini-climax. Velvety sensation swirled out from her core, a terrain of pleasure as time became kept by the piston of his hips into hers, hers into his. They settled into a rhythm together as one.

A thin sheen of sweat covered her skin, against the couch, against him, and it mixed with his as she drew him closer and pressed him into her breasts. The feeling of his breath on her neck made her tremble, moan lightly until she caught herself and buried her face in his chest.

"Oh god," she whispered into his skin.

The pleasure piled onto itself until she felt an orgasm build up inside her, threatening like a large wave coming in from the sea. As it came, she frantically realized she had to stay quiet, tried to hold him close to slow him down before it was too late.

Landon readjusted, easing one leg back and changing his angle so that his thrust went even deeper, the friction even more.

The wave crested and she had reached her breaking point, past the limit she could control and as it took hold of her all she could do was bury herself further into him, her mouth full of the skin just at his collar the salty taste so much for her. Wave after wave of pleasure erupted and she was overwhelmed and she moaned and bit down hard, trying to clamp her mouth shut because she had to be quiet now, dimly she knew it.

He grunted, something she felt more than heard as he shook and she felt an ecstatic rush of pleasure as he climaxed as well.

They both collapsed.

Dimly, a buzzing came from the floor. Kristina blinked and looked around. What the hell was that noise? A persistent pulse buzzed against the hardwood every few seconds.

Not a call, and not a message. But it was a comm. It had to be a comm.

Exhausted, and suddenly aware of how starving she was, she came to her senses. She was naked on the couch with Landon Tatum. They had just had mind-blowing sex. Her brother was in the next room, someone's comm was buzzing, and she needed to get cleaned up before the unthinkable happened and Tom got out of bed.

"Landon?" she whispered urgently, her heart pounding. "I think the food is here."

He groaned quietly, then eased himself off of her and onto his hands. Deep breaths still heaved from his chest. "Right," he said, gathering himself. "Let's get cleaned up and I'll go get it."

She brought her head up and saw the spot on his shoulder where she had buried her face. Her eyes opened wide.

"Oh my god," she gasped. "You’re bleeding!"

He looked down curiously at his shoulder, then a brow shot up. "I'll have to get that cleaned up too then."

"I'm sorry!"

He looked into her eyes, all the normal polish of his restraint gone. "Kristina, stop it. That was..."

She smiled and sat up to kiss him on the cheek. "I'm sorry, I was just trying to, you know, stay quiet."

"I know."

Still reeling from the fact she had actually drawn blood, she laid back flat on the couch. "Okay. Well, we need to get some clothes on before my brother wakes up and finds us like this. I would die."

He laughed and she felt in her heart that this was the happiest and most raw she had felt in as long as she could remember.

Nearly drowned out by the warm pleasure of the moment was the knowledge that, on many levels, she should be terrified.

Nearly.

***

Landon walked out the door of the apartment, but it felt like he was flying.

It had taken a little while for them to get cleaned up, then find the first-aid kit he'd stocked the apartment with and get his cut—was it a cut when someone bit you, or a wound—healed. Once that was done, she'd worried about him walking out into the street alone in the dark until he'd pointed out that she was just delaying her food and there was no way he was leaving her without a gun. He'd compromised by not arguing with her when she said she was going to put him on a timer. She was coming out if he was gone longer than fifteen minutes, and it was going to be with gun in hand.

He walked out on the sidewalk, into the thick, summer air. Night had set in fully without a star in the sky, the phosphoresce of the streetlights above illuminating the sidewalk in zones of control. At the end of the street, right in front of the red stop sign, a windowless short stub of a delivery car was idling silently.

It might have been his imagination, but the insistent vibrating of the comm in his pocket almost sounded angry. The car had probably been waiting there for fifteen minutes.

He smiled to himself. The delivery car could wait.

His mind still mostly on the sex he'd had just minutes earlier, he made his way down to the end of the street in long strides. He did his best to have his eyes alert for anything out of the ordinary, but the world was still except for his movement, as if he was walking through an urban snow globe scene where the water had been replaced by thick, city air. In this scene, the snowflakes were the happy sensations bouncing around his skull.

He made it to the delivery car and walked up to the curbside screen where a passenger window would be on a driver car. The text on the screen read
SWIPE COMM FOR DELIVERY FROM SECOND CITY DINER
.

He put his comm to the reader below the screen. The screen flashed red and a sad face appeared before being replaced by text.
A $7.00 LATE FEE WILL BE APPLIED TO YOUR ORDER. DO YOU AGREE? Y/N

He rolled his eyes and hit the
Y
button. Pretty steep for twenty minutes, but he wasn't going to argue much of anything right now. Finally, the screen flashed green.

THANK YOU. PLEASE TAKE DELIVERY.

A window popped open at the back of the car, where the trunk would be on a driver vehicle. He stepped around the small vehicle to its rear, took the bag of food, ensured everything he had ordered was in the bag, then closed the window. From there, he stepped around the vehicle again to the first screen and completed the transaction.

After a few seconds, the car silently went into gear and drove away. A crunch of gravel, a turn, and then nothing.

Landon watched it go, then turned back toward the apartment, where Kristina waited. His stomach growled. In his lust, he had been ignoring how hungry he was. His entire perspective, in fact, had shifted. The more he searched through the parts of himself, how he was feeling, what he'd been thinking about, he realized a clarity had descended where before there had been a tangle.

They'd had sex. She held the same lust for him that he held for her. Something had fit into place.

It was just one thing, but at that moment it felt like the world in his hands.

Or dinner. God, he was starving. Quickening his pace, he hurried back to the apartment.

***

After Landon left, Kristina set the timer on her comm and went to get the gun out of her bag. That done, she took it with her into the bedroom to check on Tom.

He was still sleeping peacefully. He'd always been able to sleep anywhere and through just about anything, but she was still glad he hadn't picked an embarrassing moment to wake up. She might have never recovered from the humiliation.

After
that,
though, she really hoped he'd wake up soon. She was pretty sure she was still in shock that it had actually happened. And that she didn't feel any regrets. Not yet. This close to the afterglow, it was impossible. But knowing herself, it would probably come eventually. Guilt-free sex was not one of her strong suits.

The door to the apartment unlocked behind her while she was still mulling this over. Her heart dropped. She ran quickly to the door between the bedroom and living room and dropped into a crouch. She brought the gun up and aimed it at the door.

“Landon?” she called out.

“It’s me,” he said.

His head popped around the door’s hinges and into view.

She let the gun fall down as his eyes opened wide.

His hands went up, the bags of food hanging awkwardly. “You’re not messing around, are you?”

“Sorry," she said, her heart still racing. "You were faster than I thought you'd be.”

"It's fine." He dropped his hands and stepped through the door. "Is Tom okay?"

She licked her lips, still recovering from the scare. What was the matter with her?

Deep breath. "Yeah," she said nonchalantly. "He seems fine."

"Good." He held the bag of food up. "Then we can eat!

She salivated at the smell of the food in the box. Her stomach felt like an empty pit. “Yeah," she said.

She swallowed, then walked toward him. Did they kiss, here? What exactly were they?

He made no motion toward it as she approached, so she just took the bag from him and backed away a couple steps.

He looked at her skeptically. "Is everything okay?"

She shifted side to side on her feet. "Is there any way to get Tom hooked up with a tablet or something? Maybe use a monitor like you use with Recalls? I’m just worried he’ll have a bad reaction and his heart will fail or something.”

Landon hesitated a moment, then smiled indulgently and gave her a short nod. “Honestly, it’s overkill, but if it will make your dinner better then I’ll hook him up.”

“Could you please?”

Landon walked to the couch where the Recall equipment was still set up, gathered it in his arms, then headed for the living room. “You can start eating without me,” he called behind him. “This will only take a minute.”

She hesitated, then took the bag to the counter. Before she forgot, she took her comm out of her pocket and turned the timer off. Then she opened up the bag.

The smell of the salty, savory goodness inside had her mouth watering all over again. Wow, that smelled good.

She got out a pair of plates and filled hers up with a burger and fries. They had even provided little tubes of ketchup. Three of them, in fact. She looked back into the bag. There were two more burgers in there, and two more boxes of fries.

Something for Tom, she realized.

Guilt followed. She should have asked him to do that. If Tom had woken up with nothing but omelet ingredients in the house and the greasy smell of burgers and fries in the air, he wouldn't have been too happy.

When she looked up he was there. Sharp cheeks. Slightly crooked nose, dark eyes. Hair so short it barely peeked above her fingers when she ran her hands through it, as she wanted to do again. His skin a little darker than natural but still incredibly sexy. Still impossible to look away from.

“Do you approve?” he asked.

She nodded with a smile, not sure if he was talking about the food or him and not caring either. “Is Tom all set?”

“He’s in REM right now. I have it set to notify both my comm and yours if he starts to come out of it, or if there is any change in his vitals.”

“Which means?”

“Which means, as far as his immediate health is concerned, you can relax.”

Another smile, so big her cheeks hurt. "Thank you. And thanks for getting him food too. I'm sure he'll appreciate it."

"You are welcome."

Without anywhere to sit, she moved her plate a little ways down the counter to give Landon room to plate his own food. Then she dove in.

Maybe it was because she was starving, maybe it was because she'd just had awesome sex. She didn't know, but this juicy burger was
amazing
. She was so captivated by it, it took her a moment to notice Landon had moved down right next to her.

"Good?" he asked.

She nodded, her mouth too full to speak. He smiled.

They both ate their burgers quickly, the salty and fatty goodness a pretty rare treat for Kristina. She mostly cooked either fish or ate vegetarian at home. Even though she worked out at the gym a lot, gaining some extra pounds was definitely something she wanted to avoid. Plus, too much of it made her feel sluggish.

Every once in a while, though, some greasy food was damn good. She was picking at her fries when he spoke next.

"Did you get anything good from Dunn?" he asked. He'd already set his plate aside and seemed to be lost in thought. "I hadn't been able to ask you that yet."

She swabbed a couple of fries through the ketchup on her plate and turned to him. "Maybe, actually. She gave me a list of dates that she claims Brantley met up with Fordelli."

His face lit up. "Really? Why would she do that?"

"She seems to be pretty upset that he would be losing faith in your business and looking to make another deal," she said with a shrug. She adorned the last of her fries with ketchup before looking up into his dark eyes. "Something about her relationship with your mentor."

She popped the fry into her mouth while Landon stared off into the distance, seemingly lost in thought. It dawned on her that this news probably meant more to him than her. For her, it was data she wanted to corroborate. He already had more information than she even knew.

"Why did she want to talk to you in person?" he asked at last.

Kristina shook her head. Her brain was switched on now. "Probably wanted to avoid a trail if she sent it over email. You know. The paper she gave me isn't even labelled, it could be anything."

"Can I see it?"

"It's in my blazer pocket. Hang on."

"You don't have to—"

But she was already walking back to the entrance room, where she'd draped her jacket across the plush brown chair. She dug through the pockets, found the paper, took a quick look at Tom to see he was still sleeping the same as ever, then walked back across the hardwood floor and into the kitchen.

There, she found him seemingly in a trance.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

He blinked then gave her an apologetic look. "Yes. Just thinking. Do you have the list?"

She handed it to him. He scanned the sheet over quickly. "I wonder how she got this," he murmured.

"Do you think it's real?"

"Do you not?"

"I don't know what to think," she said. "Earlier at the office both her and Brantley's secretaries sounded like they were concerned about their bosses. Brantley with all these meetings and Dunn with a second comm."

"The secretaries told you that?"

"Yeah. I think everyone at the office is very worried about the potential loss of the golden client and they want to do anything they can to help get him back."

She'd meant it as a joke, but he didn't smile. "I see," he said. "That's not a lot of loyalty."

She had nothing to say to that. Worrying about the loyalty of subordinates was not something she had much experience with.