Wicked Pleasures (4 page)

L
INC WAS SWEATIER
when he finally returned to Regina’s apartment than after his morning ten-mile run when the air temperature was at least twenty degrees hotter. He let himself into her apartment, tearing into the box of condoms he’d just purchased as he strode toward her bedroom. He should probably climb into the shower first, but…

The hell with a shower.

He stopped in her bedroom door. She was right where he’d left her. Beautiful, bare…and fast asleep.

For the second time that night, he let out a string of curses.

This was not happening…

He stood in the doorway for a long moment, taking in the way her hand rested on her upper thigh, the curve of her breasts, the sound of her soft snores.

He knew she’d been on the job since early that morning. He also knew she hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before. And, of course, worry over what had or had not happened had probably worn her out on top of the physical stress.

He thought about catching that shower and then climbing into bed next to her, rousing her from sleep. But considering they barely knew each other, he decided that wouldn’t be much better than taking advantage of her while she was intoxicated.

Damn. Damn, damn, damn, damn.

He quietly put the half-opened box of condoms on her nightstand and then reached to push a soft curl from her brow before covering her with the top sheet. She was so out of it, she didn’t move a muscle.

Moments later he stood outside her door, battling back the urge to go back inside. He thought of a handful of phone numbers he could call, but no matter how much he wanted release, he only wanted it with the woman sleeping in the apartment behind him.

Another run, maybe. Yes. And a nice, long, cold shower…

T
WO DAYS LATER
, Regina tightened her boxing gloves and then gave the punching bag another one-two whack. Over the past year and a half, she’d taken nearly every self-defense class available. Then, at the health club she’d joined, she’d stumbled across boxing classes. The physical activity made her feel better somehow. One of the pros suggested it was like aiming darts at a picture of someone unlikable…but better. She agreed.

Especially now.

She still couldn’t believe it had happened again. She’d woken Sunday morning to find herself pretty much in the same position Linc had left her, a box of condoms on the nightstand along with a note: “Didn’t want to wake you.” He’d signed it simply “L” and included his phone number.

She’d beat the pillow down and then gone to the gym to do a better job on a punching bag.

She couldn’t even allow herself to entertain the idea of calling the number he’d left so she might apologize.

At this point, she wouldn’t be surprised if he never wanted to see her again.

She lost focus and the bag swung and hit her in the shoulder, nearly knocking her off balance.

“You’re supposed to hit it, I think, not the other way around,” Vivienne said from the doorway of a connecting room filled with other fitness equipment where the majority of club members worked out.

Regina caught the bag and then wiped the sweat from her brow with her bare forearm. “Every now and again I like to let it think it stands a chance.”

“Speaking of hitting things, you ready to hit the showers?”

She sighed. “Yeah.”

Thankfully, Vivienne hadn’t mentioned Friday night again, both of them back into the regular workweek swing of things. Viv was a paralegal at a midsize law firm, and Regina had attended classes in the morning, then worked the lunch shift at the diner. They met three times a week at the club, depending on their schedules.

She’d debated telling her friend about Linc’s visit to the diner Saturday night, then decided against it. There was no sense saying anything if she was pretty sure she wasn’t going to see him again.

She grimaced as they walked to the showers. Besides, she didn’t want to chance her friend’s asking to be included in any future goings-on.

“Oh, he’s new,” Viv said, openly appreciating a guy lifting weights as they passed.

Regina gave an eye roll as she untied her right glove with her teeth and then pulled it free. “You’re impossible.”

“No, I’m single.” She put her arm over Regina’s shoulder. “And so are you. Now, where are we going to eat afterward…?”

“H
EY
,
EVERYTHING ALL RIGHT
?”

Linc stared at where Jason Savage stepped in front of the crosshairs of his semiautomatic rifle, blocking the target. He swung the weapon so it pointed toward the dirt of the Lazarus training grounds.

“Shit, Savage. I could have shot a hole the size of Colorado in your ass.”

The first rule in arms safety was never to step into the path of a loaded weapon. What in the hell was his friend and business partner thinking? Of course, Jason had always run more on guts than strategy. Thankfully, he had the natural ability to pull it off.

His friend grinned. “Yours is about the only gun I’d dare step in front of.”

Linc unloaded the weapon and slid the ammo magazine into his back jeans pocket. Jason walked with him toward the main building.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Jason said. “Oh, wait. Of course you didn’t answer my question. You never answer my questions.”

“Everything’s fine.”

Savage opened the door for him and he passed through. “Right. And if it wasn’t, would you cop to it?”

Linc stared at him.

“Didn’t think so.” Savage followed him to the arms room. “I think that’s the longest I’ve ever seen you spend on target practice.”

Linc hadn’t noticed the time passage. He’d merely experienced an intense urge to squeeze off a few rounds. To make himself feel useful.

And to stop thinking about how a certain sexy female had looked sleeping in her bed naked.

“Needed to put the time in,” he ground out.

Jason wasn’t known for asking a lot of questions. Especially ones he wasn’t likely to get answers to. Which made his asking this one stand out.

Was his agitation that obvious?

Since Saturday night, when he’d left Regina asleep alone in her bed, he’d thought it a good idea to take a step back. And he had. He watched her as she went to work at the diner. He’d followed her to the library. And he’d tracked her remotely via his cell phone when he couldn’t be near her.

Speaking of which, she should just be finishing up at the gym. He checked his cell. She was still there, but she wouldn’t be for long.

“Hey, I was hoping to talk to you about something,” Savage said, leaning against the prep table where Linc cleaned his weapon before putting it away in the rack against the wall.

“Shoot.”

“Dangerous word to use, considering.”

“Considering you stepped in front of my barrel, you mean?”

“That, too.”

Linc cracked a smile.

He waited for Jason to get around to whatever he had to say.

Finally, his friend cleared his throat. “Look, you know everything that went down in Florida…”

Linc squinted at him.

It had been a great trip for the company, in that they’d found a crucial piece of information that kept the search for little Finley going. It had been bad, though, in that Savage had slept with Megan, a Lazarus partner who was another partner’s girl.

“Anyway, things haven’t exactly been, well, the same since…”

His words trailed off.

“Go figure,” Linc offered.

Jason nodded his agreement. “Yeah. Which is why I’m thinking of maybe pushing up the date on opening that satellite office in Baltimore.”

Linc finishing wiping down the M16 and placed it in the rack behind him.

“I haven’t talked to anyone else about it. I thought I’d run it by you first, you know, see what you thought.”

Linc faced him and crossed his arms over his chest. “How soon you talking?”

“Tomorrow too soon?”

They certainly had the resources for the expansion. Business income had already overshot their original forecasts by four hundred percent, and the next three months looked to double that again.

He checked his cell.

“Am I keeping you from something?” Savage asked.

Boy, he was really slipping when it came to keeping his thoughts to himself. First at the firing range, now with checking his cell phone. Of course, here he was surrounded by others trained in the art of observation, but he had the feeling he’d be just as transparent to an outsider.

“There’s somewhere I need to be,” he admitted.

Jason quirked a brow. “Need help?”

“I got it.”

Jason pushed away from the table and slapped him on the shoulder. Savage was one of the few men Linc allowed such familiarity. Others risked physical injury even thinking about making such a move. “Well, think about what I said.”

Linc gave his friend his full attention, considering the implications of his suggestion. “You’re serious about this?”

“I’m serious about it.”

Linc nodded. Then it seemed to him it was only a matter of time before it would happen…

R
EGINA CURLED HER
legs under her on the love seat and called her mother again; again, there was no answer.

She left a second message and then sat for a long moment wishing she’d gone ahead and gotten that cell phone for her mother last Christmas. At least then, she’d be able to text her. Or if she was out somewhere, she could still reach her. Her mother was active, what with her job at the supermarket and volunteer work. But it was after ten on a Monday night. Where could she be?

She caught herself rubbing her arm and then looked toward the dark apartment window. The sun had long since set over the Rockies.

It would probably be a good idea to get to bed early. She had a long day ahead of her tomorrow with double shifts and classes. But she felt inexplicably restless. She went back to the living room and stared at her course books lying open on the coffee table. Then her gaze drifted to her silent cell phone. Before she knew what she was going to do, she had the phone in her hands and was pressing the name she’d entered yesterday morning.

But when Linc answered on the second ring, she hung up.

“Oh, good going, Ace. Like he doesn’t know who called him.”

Regina knocked the silent phone against her forehead and scrunched her eyes closed. Of course, there was always the chance he wouldn’t call back…

The cell rang.

She took a deep breath and answered.

“Did you just call me?”

Regina bit her bottom lip and released it. “Um, yeah. Sorry. I don’t know what happened.”

Yes, she did. She hung up like the coward she was.

A quiet chuckle.

“Look, I, um, don’t quite know how to say this but to come right out and say it. I’m sorry about the other night.”

A heartbeat of a pause. “What for?”

She smiled. “Okay, then I’m not sorry.”

“You may find this hard to believe, but women fall asleep on me all the time. I’m used to it.”

It was her turn to laugh. “You’re right. I do find that difficult to believe.”

“Okay, then, I admit it. You are my first…in that regard,” he said. “And that it’s happened twice…well, a less confident man might take it personally.”

“Well, good thing you’re not a less confident man, then, isn’t it?”

She enjoyed the moment of quiet flirting even as she slowly paced across the room.

She cleared her throat. “Um, you want to give it another shot?”

She started at the words the moment she said them.

Was she making a booty call? It was after ten o’clock and she was inviting a man over. A man she hadn’t officially dated.

If it looked, smelled and sounded like one, it was a pretty good bet it was one.

Yes. Definitely a booty call.

“I don’t know,” he said.

The cringe turned to a wince. Bad enough to be making the call, but to get shot down once you did?

His chuckle tickled her ear. “I’m not sure even
my
ego could take a third time.”

She briefly closed her eyes. “Oh, trust me, there isn’t going to be a third time.”

I
T TOOK EVERY OUNCE
of self-discipline Linc had not to get out of his SUV where he was parked in front of her building and walk the twenty steps to Regina’s apartment.

He’d been going crazy all night watching her through the windows. First she’d eaten dinner. Then she’d studied. Then she’d called her mother and gotten no response before calling him.

He’d been startled when he’d watched her pick up her cell and then hear his own cell ring.

And he’d been exceedingly amused when she hung up.

He started the SUV and drove off. She’d likely be looking for him to pull up in about twenty minutes, so it wouldn’t be a good idea to be seen getting out of a car that had been parked at the curb all night.

He didn’t go far. He wasn’t about to leave her place unprotected. So he drove a few blocks up and backtracked, parking a little farther up her street out of eye-shot of her windows, but close enough for him to note any unusual comings and goings.

Twenty minutes later, he started the SUV up again and moved it back right in front of her place and got out.

Those twenty minutes ranked up there as some of the longest of his life.

Sex. Pure and simple. And the fact that he hadn’t gotten it from her yet. That’s what this was. Nothing more; nothing less.

He knocked on her door and she opened it immediately. The dampness of the ends of her curls and her change of clothes told him she’d taken a quick shower. The look in her eyes told him she’d been looking forward to this moment as much as he had.

She wore a simple pair of jeans that were anything but simple on her curvy frame, and a plain pink T-shirt that was anything but plain.

Damn, but she was beautiful.

And sexier than any woman had a right to be no matter what she was wearing.

He cleared his throat. “Hi.”

She smiled. “Hi.”

And then he was kissing her.

Linc wasn’t clear on how he’d moved from point A to point B so quickly. All he knew was that one moment he was closing her apartment door and the next, he was pretty near swallowing her whole.

And she was eagerly returning his hungry attentions.

It seemed both of them were intent on making sure she didn’t fall asleep again…

Damn, but she tasted good. Like toothpaste and hot female. And that she knew how to kiss was a bonus he’d already discovered but still marveled at. She had the type of mouth he could kiss for hours without paying any attention to time passage.

Well, normally. Right now, he knew a need so great to be buried deep inside her, he could concentrate on little other than reaching that destination pronto.

He palmed her breasts through the soft cotton, but it wasn’t enough, so he tunneled his hands under the cotton before doing away altogether with the uncooperative material and the silky bra underneath.

Oh, yes…

She nicely filled his palms, the rose-colored tips stiff and pouty. He dragged his mouth from hers and bent to pull one of her nipples against his tongue. Her soft gasp filled his ears and her hands stilled on his back as he laved attention on her breasts.

He heard the pop of the buttons on his jeans and felt cooler air as she opened his fly. Still, he was unprepared when she slid her hand down the front of his Jockeys.

His breath hissed between his teeth when her hand wrapped around his erection.

It felt as if she was stroking his entire body with her fingers. When she might have dropped down to give him a repeat performance of their first night, he held her shoulders firm and kissed her instead. He was afraid if she put her mouth on him again, this would all be over before it started.

He unzipped her jeans and worked his fingers down between the soft denim and even softer skin, finding her as wet as he hoped she’d be.

Ready.

He scooped her up into his arms to her surprised giggle and carried her to the other room.

“What, foreplay done?” she whispered, kissing his neck.

“We’ve had four days of foreplay. I think it’s time we finally got down to the main event.”

“I couldn’t agree more…”

He felt her shiver as he laid her down and made short work of the rest of her clothes and his. He was amused she’d not only left the box of condoms on the nightstand, but that she’d immediately opened a packet with her teeth and had one ready to sheath him with.

Linc gritted his teeth at the feel of the cool latex combined with her hot hands.

Then he nudged her knees apart and hovered over her, taking in the open want in her eyes as he bent down to kiss her…and then kiss her again.

He felt her hand on him again, this time guiding him to her waiting wetness. He paused, his heart beating an uneven rhythm in his chest as he entered her slightly. So tight…so hot…

She made a sound in the back of her throat and arched her back. He slowly entered her to the hilt, uncertain if the moan he heard at finally being joined together had come from her or him. Or a combination of both.

R
EGINA’S ENTIRE BODY
burst into flame the instant he entered her.

A sigh began somewhere at the tips of her ears and traveled the length of her down to her toenails as she surrendered to the fire, gave herself over to it, allowed it to swirl in and around her, consume her every part.

Yes…

She’d felt, tasted the length and girth of him. But neither had prepared her for how wholly he filled her. His arms strained with the effort to keep himself above her. She wrapped her hands around his bulging biceps, wondering at his sheer size and strength. Then he stroked her again and she threw her head back, overcome with sensation. A long, deep moan drifted from her throat and it took her a moment to realize he was kissing her. She returned his lingering attentions, tangling her tongue with his even as their bodies tangled together in other ways, her legs curving around his, their hips coming together and apart, him inside her.

It had been so long since she’d felt such complete bliss. So connected to another human being. She was aware of the thick thrum of her heartbeat, the trembling of her womb, the essence of every part of him.

He drew back from the kiss and made a low sound in the back of his throat, urging up her own pleasure principle at the knowledge that she had done that…that they were experiencing this together. She slid her hands down over his chest, around his back and down to his behind, reveling in the feel of his movements even as she met him thrust for thrust.

His rhythm quickened, stealing her breath away. She moved her arms to brace herself against the mattress, trying to steady herself. Not only from the rocking of their bodies, but for the impending climax.

And then her hands were twisting in the bedsheets, the heat of the fire within her building unbearably high—until it exploded altogether…