She smiled up at him. “Oh yeah.”
He wrapped an arm around her waist and
propelled her into the house. He thought about finding a closet, a
bathroom, any secluded spot he could, and burying himself inside
her until the world went away.
But he kept going, straight through the house
to the front porch, down the steps, and up to a waiting limo. She
looked at him quizzically and he shrugged. “I’m in a hurry.”
He pulled a fifty from his wallet and told
the driver it was his if he’d take them to the guesthouse. The man
looked at him strangely, then nodded and climbed in the front to
start the car. Two minutes later, Matt fumbled with the key to the
front door. He wanted her so frigging bad he couldn’t perform a
simple task like opening a door. She placed her hand on his and
guided the key into the lock. The door slipped open. He turned to
her and had the oddest sensation in his chest.
God, he loved her. He’d always loved her, but
he’d been too stupid to see it. She made him feel alive, whole, and
he needed her so much. But he couldn’t tell her those things
because it wasn’t fair to her. He couldn’t drag her into his life
until he knew what it was going to be.
He swept her into his arms and across the
threshold. When he kicked the door closed and set her down, her
fingers tore at his bow tie.
She started on the shirt studs, but he
grasped the edges and yanked so the studs went flying.
Her hands splayed over his chest; then she
was yanking his T-shirt up and out of his trousers, pressing her
hot mouth to his abdomen. He threw his head back, groaning.
“Evie—”
Her quick fingers slid his zipper down.
Somehow, he found the side zipper of her dress and tugged it until
her breasts sprang free. Her nipples pebbled. He was dying to suck
them, dying to make her squirm beneath him. Before he could act on
those thoughts, she shoved his shirt and jacket off his shoulders,
trapping him with one hand twisted into the fabric. He could get
free, of course, but it was damn exciting to watch her take
control. To be at her mercy.
“I have to be in you.” His voice sounded
strange to his own ears.
“All in good time.” She let go of the jacket
as she dropped to her knees in front of him, all gorgeous, tempting
woman. Her moist lips parted. “Don’t you want this?”
Matt closed his eyes as his head fell back.
Want it, hell. He’d die if he didn’t get it.
She freed his cock from his pants and stroked
it until electricity zinged from his scalp to his toes. When her
lips parted and she took him inside that gorgeous, lush mouth, he
thought he’d come undone in half a second.
It was lust, but it was more than that. So
much more. He felt this woman in his blood, his bones. He felt
incredible when she was with him. Couldn’t imagine another woman
doing this to him.
Her tongue swirled around him, flattened
against the underside of his aching cock, and tickled the tip until
he was gripping her head and gasping. He couldn’t let her finish
it, couldn’t let it be over so damn fast, and yet he wanted nothing
more than to thrust between her lips and give himself up to the
nirvana.
She made the decision for him. She grabbed
his ass with both hands, held him hard against her while she sucked
him. He couldn’t have stopped the crisis if he tried. His hands
threaded into her hair, held her gently yet firmly. If she wanted
to stop, she could.
But she didn’t.
Her mouth and tongue were magic, lashing him
forward until he was like a speeding train incapable of stopping.
He’d wanted to come inside her, and yet he thrust into her willing
mouth one last time—and lost his ever-loving mind.
When she’d drained him, he shuddered and
groaned and felt like he was falling into a bottomless crevasse the
pleasure was so intense. His knees gave way until he was on the
floor at eye-level with her.
“Holy shit.” Those were the only words he
could manage.
* * *
What was she doing here? For a second, as
Evie stared into Matt’s glazed eyes, panic twisted her stomach into
a knot. She’d spent the last day and night with Mama and Sarah,
getting them all settled at Aunt Betsy’s. There’d been calls to the
insurance company, another visit from the police, a steady parade
of friends and neighbors bearing food and small gifts.
She hadn’t planned to see him again. It was
simply easier to let him walk away before the vise around her heart
squeezed tighter.
But she couldn’t do it. She’d realized as she
sat there listening politely while yet another person dropped off a
casserole and talked about dead bodies and kidnapping that she
wanted these next few hours with Matt, no matter what happened at
the end of them.
She planned to enjoy every last minute of
them, too. She ran her fingers along his jaw and shivered when he
repeated the motion. They were kneeling on the floor, facing each
other, touching with nothing but fingertips to faces. It was
heartbreaking and beautiful, and tears gathered in the corners of
her eyes.
He caught one as it escaped, rubbed it
between his fingers, and then gathered her to him. He pressed her
back on the oriental carpet, stretched out beside her, and kissed
her so tenderly it made her heart ache.
“I want to make love to you, but I think I’m
about to fall asleep. You slayed me just now.”
Evie laughed. It’d been an exhausting couple
of days for them both. “Why don’t we just lay here for a while
then?”
She watched the rise and fall of his chest as
he settled beside her, then turned and curled herself into him. It
felt so right, just lying here with him like this. They were still
half-dressed when they fell into a doze in the middle of the living
room floor.
When she woke sometime later, night had
fallen and the house was dark. Matt was still beside her, his hot
skin sizzling into her where they touched. She moved gingerly,
trying not to wake him, but he lifted onto an elbow beside her. His
fingers ghosted along her collarbone.
“You awake?”
“Yes.”
“Me too.” His hips flexed. He was hard and
ready, and brightness flared inside her as his lips found hers and
stole her breath away. She knew this time he was taking control. He
was no longer pliable, no longer content to allow her to take the
lead.
He stroked her skin with tender fingers until
she thought she’d die if he didn’t touch her where she most wanted
to be touched. She gripped his muscular shoulders and clung to him
as he kissed her. Her body throbbed with need. All she wanted was
for him to strip her dress away and join his body to hers.
He pushed away from her, his breathing as
unsteady as her own. “We’re going to need a bed for all the things
I have in mind tonight.”
He got up and helped her to her feet. They
hurried down the hall to the master bedroom; then he was deftly
removing her dress the rest of the way and sliding her
undergarments from her sensitized skin.
He pushed her back onto the bed, her butt on
the edge, and dropped between her legs. There was no mistaking what
came next. She was already so hot for him that he seemed to know
better than to waste any time. He lowered his head and touched his
tongue to her clit, then sucked it between his lips while he
inserted two fingers inside her.
Oh God, she was going to die. Her body
clenched around his fingers. She wanted more. More than just his
fingers and tongue. She wanted him inside her, stroking hard,
driving her over the edge.
But he wouldn’t give it to her. He was going
to torture her with this, same as she’d done to him earlier. The
pressure of his fingers increased, the tempo growing faster, while
he manipulated her with his hot tongue. She came hard, gasping his
name.
Before the tremors ceased, he’d pushed her
higher on the bed and settled between her legs. He was inside her
with one long stroke, right where she wanted him to be.
“It’s amazing with you.” He withdrew and slid
into her again, shuddering so hard she felt the movement in her
core. “It always has been.”
She laughed brokenly. “This is only our third
time together. Like this, I mean. You inside me.”
“I know. And I stand by the statement.”
She felt a tear slip down her cheek.
“Matt—”
She wanted to let the words out, wanted to
tell him how she felt, but she couldn’t place that burden on him.
Not when he only wanted now.
“I know.”
“You have no idea what I was going to
say.”
He kissed her. “No, but I know it
anyway.”
Whatever she might have answered was lost
when he rocked into her harder and faster, suddenly losing the
control he’d always enforced on himself. Their bodies slammed
together in a desperate rhythm, rising and falling, straining as if
it were the last time, slipping across the bed as the need consumed
them both.
Her climax took her to dizzying heights
before dropping her in a long undulation of pleasure so deep it
stole her breath. Matt followed, grinding into her one last time.
“Evie,” he said as he found his release. “Oh God, Evie.”
He hovered over her, his weight on his
elbows, his hips gently rocking against her. He was still
deliciously hard.
Hot tears spilled down her cheeks, surprising
her with their suddenness. She turned her head away, hoping Matt
wouldn’t notice the wet trail in the dim moonlight stretching
across their sweat-dampened bodies.
“Don’t cry, Evie,” he whispered. So much for
that thought.
“I can’t help it.”
It was too hard to keep it bottled up when
she was so desperately in love and knew she would lose him in the
morning. She’d thought she could do this, could spend this time
with him and accept what he offered. She’d been mistaken.
He silenced her tears with a kiss. “I’ll come
back whenever I can.”
Evie pressed her fingers to his lips to stop
the words that would wrap around her heart and make her hope for
something that would never happen. “Don’t make promises, Matt. Just
give me tonight.”
HOT HEADQUARTERS WAS LOCATED IN a nondescript
secure compound they shared with a post communications facility. An
array of satellite dishes sat along one side of the hardened
structure. Electromagnetic pulses couldn’t get in or out, making
what went on inside secure from enemy interference.
Behind several layers of security—RFID,
mantraps, lasers, and fingerprint analysis—the military’s most
elite counterterrorist force gathered and trained for missions
ranging from the standard hostage rescue to ops considerably more
complex. Colonel Mendez oversaw the program, and he’d been bucking
for a facility that belonged solely to HOT for the past few
years.
Matt hoped the colonel got it. He’d never
know, however, because he wasn’t going to be here. Regardless of
what happened, he’d made a decision. And he was surprisingly okay
with it. He’d loved this job for so long, but it wasn’t the only
thing he loved. There was more to life than HOT, and he’d realized
it as he’d lain in bed with Evie. His job fulfilled him, but she
made him feel so much more. With her, he felt as if he belonged.
There’d been no emptiness in his soul, no regret, fear, or
anxiety.
She’d fallen asleep against him, her soft
breath on his skin, and he’d been overwhelmed with emotion. She was
safe, and that was all that mattered to him. His childhood friend,
his tormenter, his Evie.
He strode through the last layer of
security—as an escorted guest—and down a ramp to HOT’s ops center.
His escort, a private first class who’d known him for the past
year, saluted him and pivoted on a booted heel. It wasn’t strictly
kosher to leave him unescorted when his badge had been revoked, but
the PFC was gone. Matt appreciated it more than he could say. He’d
stride into the ops center with a guest badge, but he wouldn’t have
the embarrassment of an escort into what used to be his
territory.
He passed through the last door and into the
hub of HOT. Communications guys sat at desks with giant screens
overhead. Colored dots detailed where each of the HOT squads was
located at any given moment. He couldn’t help but notice that his
team’s dot was currently inactive. The officer of the day looked up
as Matt rolled through and nodded.
Matt headed toward the set of rooms that
housed his team. Kev, Billy, and Jack were at their desks. Chase,
Ryan, and Nick weren’t there yet. The guys snapped to attention and
offered him a salute. Two desks remained empty, their occupants
gone and their slots not yet reassigned to new men.
Matt returned the salute and continued to his
office, unable to talk with anyone just now. He knew their eyes
followed him, knew they were concerned, but he needed these few
moments alone. He’d already made his decision, but he wanted to
feel what it was like to be a part of this place one last time.
He stepped inside his office and put his
briefcase on his desk. He didn’t sit down. His Army greens were
crisp, confining. He was unaccustomed to wearing them. In the
field, he wore a combat uniform that moved with him like a second
skin. He placed his beret beside his keyboard and looked around one
last time.
Typically, the hearing would take place at
the JAG office, but HOT had a thing about associating with the
regular Army—they didn’t. So the hearing to determine his
competency would take place here, in HOT HQ. He glanced at his
watch. An Area Defense Council attorney would arrive soon to
represent him. He smiled grimly to himself. No private shark
lawyers like Mrs. Doucet allowed. If she had been, well, who
knows?
He closed his eyes as he leaned against the
desk and thought of Evie. He remembered silky smooth skin, raspy
breathing, and a woman who rocked his world like no one else ever
had. He’d made love to her as many times as he could that night.
He’d put Misty Lee’s brothel toys to good use too. Who knew hot
cinnamon oil, a leash or a studded collar could be so fun?