Dance Away, Danger (15 page)

Okay, maybe this once she could sacrifice her sanity. Tomorrow she would be a responsible adult again.

Tremors shook her, and she’d never felt so free. It frightened her, but she was powerless to stop it. As Matt’s mouth closed over her nipple, and he flicked her woman’s core, she surrendered to him.

****

Damn, Tessa took Matt’s breath away. Her hands tangled in the sheets as her gorgeous body writhed under his touch. Moans rolled off her tongue, fueled the desire raging within him. His own body begged him to slip inside her, to feel the release he desperately needed, but he couldn’t. Not yet. He wanted her to know her life hadn’t ended.

Trouble was, he hadn’t expected to desire her as much as he did.

Enough. He’d think later. If he didn’t feel her sexy, silky limbs and her hot, tight core welcoming him soon, he’d come apart without her. He reached down for his pants, pulled out his wallet and grabbed the condom he’d stuffed in there too long ago. Once he’d covered his erection, Matt reclaimed her sweet lips and plunged his tongue inside her mouth. He caressed her soft skin as he settled himself between her thighs.

“Please hurry. I need you.” She arched her body up to him and her rock hard nipples disappeared in his chest hair. She explored his back, tracing the muscles there, fingering the battle scars almost forgotten.

He pushed himself inside her sweet heaven. She tightened around him and whimpered. God, she was beautiful. She lifted her hips to meet him, to guide him deeper into her body. To match his desire stroke for stroke. She nibbled on his lower lip, closed her eyes, and sank her tongue inside his mouth. Need filled every curve of her face, gave him no chance to contain his release. She unleashed something primal within him. His lips brushed the tips of her breasts as he pushed inside her again. And again.

Holy hell, he’d wanted
her
to lose control, but as he watched her find release again, and as he claimed his own, Matt knew he was in danger of losing so much more than he’d ever imagined.

****

The scent of warm, willing woman lingered on his skin, on the sheets wrapped around his body, but the woman herself had shifted away from him in the night. A measured clicking sound pulled him from the memories of Tessa coming apart in his arms.

Clicking sounds like a...gun.

Matt bolted upright. The sheet pooled at his waist as he waited the seconds it took for his eyes to adjust to the dim light from the bathroom door.

Tessa gasped, lowered the gun. She jerked around to face him, the blanket sliding off one naked shoulder.

“What’re you doing?” He braced his weight on one arm.

“Practicing.” She aimed toward the mirror over the sink and squeezed the trigger. Her shoulders relaxed. “It was the safety.”

“What was?”

“I couldn’t shoot in the alley because I’d forgotten to take off the safety.” Another practice shot at the mirror. “And I figured out how to take the clip out.”

“Good.”

A day and a half before, she’d balked at having to touch a gun. He watched her form as she followed through again. The blanket slid down her back a, revealing more of the body he’d come to know intimately. On her right shoulder, although he couldn’t see it at the moment, she had a tiny tattoo of a rose and its thorns. If he trailed his fingers across her stomach, he’d find the belly button ring that pierced her soft skin.

Tessa Gage. A woman of contradictions. So much of her life he knew nothing about.

So much he wouldn’t mind learning.

“Can you show me how to load it in a while?”

“Of course.” Only if she promised to lose the blanket.

Another try, more trembling limbs, and a healthy dose of determination.

“Tess, why are you shooting in the middle of the night?”

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“I can think of a better way to get rid of your excess energy.” He pulled the sheets away from her side of the bed. Just the thought of sinking himself inside her again forced blood back to his groin in record time.

“I didn’t want to wake you.” She wandered around to his side of the bed and set the gun on the nightstand.

“Don’t worry about me. I can handle anything.” Matt slipped his arm around her waist and settled her beneath him.

She yelped and giggled. “Matt, we need to get some actual rest!”

The carefree, fun-loving sound shot straight through his chest. The feel of her barely-covered body under him threatened to steal all his control. He wanted her. Again.

After her explanation. “We will eventually, but I want you to tell me what’s really with the three a.m. practice?”

“I told you. I couldn’t sleep.” She trailed her fingers along his scars.

“You should never play poker. You’re a horrible liar.”

She shrugged. “It’s stupid really.”

“I have ways to make you talk.” He shifted his thighs against her.

“I bet you do.” She reached under the sheet and stroked his growing erection.

“Tessa.” He pulled her hand away, which nearly killed him.

She stared at him for several minutes. “Last night when you left me in the alley—”

“I never left you.” After all they’d been through together, how could she think he would walk away?

“When I
thought
you’d left me, I was terrified. I thought I was going to die.”

“I told you the first night I would do whatever I could to protect you.”

“I know.” She pressed her palm against his chest and blew out a slow breath, the cool air tickling his skin.

“When my parents died, I was twelve years old, and I had no idea how to survive without them. But Jason was there to pick up the pieces and eventually make me feel safe again. Last night, when I thought I was on my own, I was clueless. Then when I couldn’t shoot Dave, I felt powerless. I never want to go through that again.”

He kissed her forehead. “You are not powerless.” And one to her nose. “I’ve seen you stand up to the fight time and time again, even when I don’t want you to.” And a sweet one to her lips. “You refuse to take a back seat in the investigation, even though it scares the hell out of you.”

“Still, my brother’s missing and hurt, you got hurt, Alice got killed, we’re both hunted, and there’s nothing I can do to make it all go away.”

She seriously thought it was her fault he’d gotten hurt? If nothing else, her courage to confront Walgren in the alley, first for her and then for him, made her even more captivating.

“Hey.” He pinched her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “We’re alive, we’re safe, and we’re still hunting the truth. Those are the most important things.”

“I just wish I wasn’t....” She lowered her lashes and drew circles on his chest with her nail. “…such a failure.”

His gut knotted. “You are the most amazing woman I’ve ever known and you are anything but a failure.” He leaned down and took his time kissing her thoroughly. “Yes, you can be a pain in the ass sometimes….”

She rolled her eyes. “Gee, thanks.”

“Plans don’t always go the way we expect. That doesn’t make us failures. We’re human. It’s what we do afterward that makes us heroic, and you didn’t cower. You pushed on.” Yet another kiss and he lowered his body onto hers. Her thighs opened to cradle his manhood, and her nipples hardened against the hairs on his chest. “Tessa Gage, you are my hero.”

She slid her arms around his neck and tugged him closer. “I’m not sure I completely agree, but thank you.”

He had wanted to give her pleasure, give her something else to think about for at least a few hours, but he wondered if she wasn’t giving him something, too. With her heart on her proverbial sleeve, a situation Matt had always worked hard to avoid, Tessa unleashed a kind of desire he hadn’t allowed himself to experience for years. He wanted to protect her tender soul for just one night and yet he refused to care about the consequences. They both needed comfort, and he would do everything in his power to see that they got it.

Tomorrow they could return to being intimate strangers.

****

Tessa peeked between the blinds to watch the snowflakes drift toward the ground while warmth surrounded her from the heater across the room. Her towel lay across her thighs. Already the sky held the darkness of a winter evening even though it was only breakfast time. Matt leaned against the headboard, his long legs stretched out in front of him. Soft voices from the TV revealed the high-stakes news stories of the state.

She crossed her feet at the ankles. Her fingertips thumped on the wooden table. A few days before she’d done the same activity in her own kitchen, cradling a steaming cup of with not a care in the world except for getting her new dance routine memorized in time to teach it.

Would she ever have a normal life again? Of course, figuring out how to stay alive should take precedence. And how to keep from latching onto Matt Rylan.

In a matter of days, he’d beelined straight to her heart. He’d gotten under her skin, threatened to overtake her soul, and she damn well didn’t want him there. Yes, he’d kept her safe for almost three days, but she couldn’t afford to get wrapped up in him and how he made her feel.

Granted, the sex had been wonderful, better than she’d ever thought possible, but it hadn’t done what it was supposed to do. She’d gone to bed with him to soothe him, to soothe herself after the harrowing situation in the alley, and yet she couldn’t even look him in the eye.

Why? Because the gentle way he touched her, the care he’d shown her throughout their night, made her believe maybe she could have the happily-ever-after she’d always said was a pipe dream. He had no desire to settle down and commit to a family. But maybe someday she could find a man to love her, to earn her faith, and to share her dreams with.

She jumped up and rolled her towel into a ball. This was crazy. She needed to not think about Matt lying naked beside her.

Sex. It had only been a physical act to console two injured people.

Then how come she felt raw, more vulnerable than she’d ever imagined possible?

She tossed the damp towel into the tub, pivoted, and reclaimed her seat by the window.

The TV clicked off, and he scooted to the side of the bed. With his feet on the floor, he draped his forearms over his thighs. “Talk to me.”

“Huh?”

“What’s on your mind?”

No way in hell would she share the thoughts laying siege to her brain. Though another thought, a safer one about the case, had also been niggling at her.

“We’ve got to trust each other, Tessa. At the moment, we’ve got no one else. Something’s bothering you or keeping you awfully quiet. What are you thinking?”

“I’ve got an idea to help us gather more evidence for Jason’s theory, but you’re not going to like it.”

“Okay.” But it wasn’t. Already his shoulders tensed.

“I think we should go see Brian Koswich’s widow.”

He shook his head and jumped up from the bed. “Absolutely not.”

“Matt, hear me out.”

Twice his lips opened to share his protests, but he closed his mouth before any words escaped.

“Trust me.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Go ahead.”

“I don’t like it any more than you do, but like you said yesterday, our opportunities to do some digging are disappearing fast. We have no other leads and we still need more hard evidence or at least solid theories. Talking to the widow might give us something.”

“Like what?”

“Maybe Brian’s murder is the key to unlocking the situation. She may be our last hope for information before we get caught or killed.”

“We’re not even sure where the woman is.”

She rummaged through her pile of papers, slapped one on the table in front of him, and pointed. “There’s a street sign and a picture of the widow on the front steps on another one of these pages.”

Still no agreement, but he did scan the sheet.

“At the moment, we’re sitting ducks and my brother’s reputation is shot to hell. At least I’ll feel like I did everything I could for him and you.”

“What do you mean for me?”

“To clear your name; to let the world know you didn’t kidnap me.”

He’d sacrificed so much for so many other people in his life; he deserved to be left in peace.

“My ass is in just as much trouble as yours and your brother’s. No, I didn’t kidnap you, but I’ve assaulted cops and security guards, stolen cars. Even if we manage to clear up everything with Walgren and whoever else is working with him, I’m still going to face charges.”

I’m so sorry
. Yet those words were too little too late. He was right, and it was her fault.

****