He was hard and engorged in her hand, and she could feel the tension in his body as he restrained himself to focus on making her ready by careful stages.
"I want inside you again, Rachel." Chase moved away from her long enough to strip off his jeans, then lay back and patted his chest. "Come up here. You're on top this time."
"Saving me from rug burns?"
"It's the chivalrous thing to do." He smiled at her, and Rachel felt her heart ache with emotion. She slid onto him, pulling her arms free of the robe to leave it behind so that only her hair covered her.
She opened her thighs to brace against each side of him, resting on her knees and his torso. A hitch of her hips brought her slick vulva into contact with the hard, hot length of his erection. Experimenting with the position, she moved to rock her sex along his shaft. The intimate contact made her breath stutter, made her vaginal walls clench in anticipation.
"Rachel." Chase cupped her ass with his hands and pulled her hard against him. "Take me inside you. Now."
She raised her hips, felt the width of his head nudging against her opening, and lowered herself to sheathe him in a rush of hot, slick flesh. A soft gasp broke from her lips at the exquisite sensation of being so filled, caressed deep inside by his length. "Chase . . ." Her voice was low and hoarse.
"Ah, that feels so good." She felt his fingers dig into the twin globes of her butt, felt him push even farther inside to probe at the opening of her womb. "I want to make it last for hours. And at the same time, I can't wait to come in you again."
His words brought back the visceral experience of
coming with him buried inside her with no barrier between them. The hot liquid jet of his semen in her sensitized flesh had triggered another orgasm, and the muscle memory of it had her clenching around him, trembling on the brink.
"Oh no, you don't." Chase held her hard, not letting her move when she tried to rock on him. "Wait. If you come now, I will, too."
"I don't want to wait," she groaned, turning her head into the curve of his shoulder.
"It'll be better if you do." Chase kneaded her butt, then worked his hands up each side of her spine, relaxing her, soothing her back from the edge.
"I don't believe it gets better." But she smiled into his skin, letting him direct the pace, willing to wait because he wanted it.
"Trust me."
"I do, Chase."
At her words, he wrapped his arms around her in a tight hold and ground his pelvis into hers. "Rachel . . ."
She moved in response, finding a gliding rhythm that brought them together, moved apart until only his head remained inside her, then back together as he filled her again. It felt warm and comforting, satisfying, and more than a little intoxicating having Chase under her, so many parts of their bodies touching. Feeling Chase hard and thick inside her, engorged with need. She reached back to touch his balls and found them drawn tight. "You want to come," she said in a husky voice.
"More than you can imagine. But don't stop. I love the way you ride me. Love feeling you close around me, so hot and tight and wet. I love being inside you."
"I want to come, too." She shivered as she said it, feeling her inner muscles beginning to quiver as a precursor to orgasm. He rocked into her again and hit the pleasure point deep inside her that made her gasp. "Chase."
"There?" He held her tight as they rocked together, their rhythm accelerating, the ridge of his cock thrusting against the spot that made her groan and tighten around him and slide over the edge, helpless in the grip of seemingly endless spasms of pleasure. "I'm coming, Rachel. Take me."
"Yes," she panted, and then let out a low cry as he pumped the hot spray of his seed into her again, pushing her into another pulsing wave of ecstasy.
When they finally stopped, she rested on him and burrowed into the comforting solidity of his arms wrapped around her, breathing him in, feeling him planted as far inside her as he could go, and wondered if she'd ever feel complete without this again.
Rachel woke up alone again, but this time instead of reacting with self-conscious panic over her uncharacteristically abandoned behavior, she stretched and rolled across the bed in a giddy expression of happiness. She felt muscles twinge and pull as she moved, and the evidence of her debauchery made her smile.
Rachel belted the robe around her waist and headed down to get a cup of coffee and a good-morning kiss, serenely confident that the morning after would be as enjoyable as the night before.
Her first hint that her confidence might be misplaced came when she saw Chase's closed expression. Her smile faltered, then faded as she came up to the kitchen area. "I thought I smelled coffee?"
"You did." He turned and opened a cupboard to take out a mug for her, filled it, and held it out to her. Rachel came closer to take it. Her fingers brushed against his in the process, and she drew back in confusion, not sure if the
casually intimate touch was welcome or appropriate in the cold light of day.
"Rachel." Chase frowned at her and turned the cup so she could take the handle without any awkwardness. "Here."
"Thank you." She took the mug and clutched it to her chest, unconsciously moving into a self-protective stance.
He looked at her and shook his head. "I'm sorry. I'm making you feel uncomfortable. That wasn't my intention."
"No?" She sipped at the coffee. Whatever the morning held, all signs indicated that she was probably going to need some caffeine to get through it. "You looked like maybe I was intruding. Or maybe you just woke up and realized you'd brought a strange woman with bad taste in condoms home with you."
"I thought the electric blue was interesting," Chase said, his face unreadable. "And you seemed to like the purple."
Rachel swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump that seemed to have formed in her throat. "It looked good on you," she said carefully.
She set down her cup and wrapped her arms around her midsection. "Chase, I feel like I'm getting some mixed signals here. We made a date to play captive and captor. We had great sex. And then you started talking about making love and gave me definite indications that you were looking forward to seeing me in the morning, and now, well . . . Now I get the feeling that I should have put on my clothes instead of this robe before I came downstairs."
He shook his head. "There's nothing wrong with what you're wearing, Rachel. I want to see you this morning very much. I'm just not looking forward to certain aspects of it."
"Oh." Rachel licked her dry lips and nodded. "Like the part where you tell me you're sorry if you gave me the wrong idea because I've jumped to conclusions, read too much into what was just sex. Just fun. It's okay, Chase, I'm a big girl. I knew what I was getting into from the beginning."
"No, you didn't." Chase came toward her and settled his hands on her arms. "You thought you had an agency date. You thought you had a match who wanted the same thing you did."
She stared at him, uncomprehending. "I don't understand."
"I know." Chase sighed and said, "You're owed a refund. You were a hard match, and there wasn't any profile in the company's client database that was compatible."
Rachel shook her head. "No. Mark told me there was a match."
"Not in the client database."
She shook her head again, swimming in confusion. "What are you trying to say, Chase?"
"That I'm not a client of the Capture Agency. But I am your match, Rachel. Mark didn't lie about that. He just didn't tell you that he ran your profile against something other than the client database."
"What?" Rachel's stomach felt clenched and hard. "Then how did you come into the picture?"
"My profile was stored in the original test database." Chase rubbed her arms as if he could feel how cold she'd gone under the thick fabric of the robe. "It's been there since the early design stages, when I wrote the compatibility matching program. I had to have something to work with, so I entered my data. When Mark couldn't find a client
match for you, he ran my profile against yours. I was coming to tell you that there'd been a mistake when I joined you in the conference room."
Rachel opened her mouth and closed it again, speechless. She shook her head and tried again. "Why?"
"Why did I let you believe I was a client? Because I wanted you. Because I didn't want you to go looking for sexual excitement with another man when I could give you what you wanted." His hands tightened on her arms and his eyes bored into hers, his pupils dark and dilated with emotion. "Because you fell into my arms and I didn't want to let you walk away."
"Oh." She nodded dumbly. "Good reasons. I think."
"I didn't expect this, Rachel." His hands gentled on her arms and stroked up to her shoulders to nudge her forward. Rachel took a half step that brought her up against him, and his arms circled her, keeping her there. "I thought I could play my part, give us both something we needed, send you on your way with your curiosity satisfied and some happy memories. I didn't expect to want more, and you probably didn't, either."
He brought a hand around to cup her chin and lift it up. "You do want more, don't you?" His eyes searched hers, and Rachel saw the hint of vulnerability there and realized that her answer was important to him.
"Yes." She gave him her answer without hesitation. "I want more. I didn't expect that, either. I didn't expect to feel so tangled up with you, so immersed in the fantasy. But, Chase, how much of that is just sex and how much is real?"
He gave her a half-smile and tossed her own words back at her rephrased. "There's no
just
about the sex we've had.
And everything that's happened between us was real. It doesn't get any more real." He lowered his head to kiss her with deliberate thoroughness. Her lips softened and parted for his, unable to resist, unwilling to shut him out. Chase deepened the kiss until Rachel felt her heart racing and blood rushing in her ears.
When he finally ended it, he rested his forehead against hers and rocked her in his arms. "I'm aware that we need time to get to know each other better, but I do know the real you, Rachel. And I know that I want you this morning more than I did yesterday."
"I want you, too," Rachel admitted. Not much point in denying it, since she'd just finished playing tongue tag with him. "But you lied to me. Or at least, didn't tell me the whole truth. So where do we go from here?"
"Where do you want to go?" Chase walked her backward until she came into contact with the kitchen counter.
"I don't know." She took a deep breath and let it out, trying to think. "You could tell me just exactly who you are, for starters. Why would Mark set us up like that?"
"Mark worries about me. He's been looking for a match for me for years, apparently, and you finally fell into his clutches. I'd apologize for that, except that it brought us together and I'm not at all sorry you're here with me now."
"Then you're a hard match, too."
"Just like you. To answer the rest of your question, I own the agency," Chase said. "I wrote the compatibility matching program and used it along with the money I made at a more conventional software company to start the business."
"So you're a programmer." Rachel took a minute to absorb that. "I did want a smart man."
"That was in your profile," Chase agreed.
"You don't dress like a programmer." She gave him a guarded look.
"Mark is my personal shopper. He has excellent fashion sense. Or so he tells me."
Rachel nodded slowly. "Should I be jealous of Mark? Is there some history between you two?"
Chase raised a brow at her. "If you don't believe I'm firmly in the hetero camp, I'd be happy to lay you and any suspicions you have about my sexual orientation to rest."
That made her go light-headed, but Rachel drew in a deep breath and forced herself to focus. "Good to know. But not an answer. Why would Mark be looking for Ms. Right for you?"
"He's a good friend, and he worries." Chase rocked his pelvis into hers and tightened his arms around her simultaneously. "And there has not been a woman, right, wrong, or indifferent, in my life for longer than I care to admit."
"Which brings up another point." Rachel laid her palms against his chest and pushed back, not hard but enough to get his attention. Chase loosened his hold and let her put a little space between their bodies, which allowed her to look into his eyes more easily. "We had sex without condoms. Twice. I assumed you'd been through the same testing I had."
"I have been. You can see the records if you want. When I used myself as the test profile, I went through the whole process."
It took a beat for the implications of that to register, and when it did, Rachel felt her jaw sag. "You haven't had sex with anybody since you set up the company? Why?"
"No, and thank you for reminding me how long it's been." He scowled at her, and Rachel fought the urge to laugh.
"It's only been a few hours," she pointed out.
"I have a lot of time to make up for." Chase kissed the corner of her mouth.
"Which doesn't answer my question," she said, unable to resist turning her head just enough to let her lips brush his.