Page 25

I clambered onto the mattress, smoothing it over myself.

She seized my shoulders, swinging her thigh up over my lap and straddling me, those beautiful little tight-tipped breasts right at mouth level.

I pressed my face to them hungrily, kissing and stroking and suckling those small, puckered nipples while she shivered and gripped me closer.

She leaned her head forward, making all her thick, fragrant red-brown hair tumble around my head.

I was lost in her scent, her taste, her strong, slender body moving against mine.

I suckled those perfect, exquisitely sensitive breasts.

She swayed over me, sliding her pussy lips up and down the length of my cock.

The sensual stroke felt like a sweet, teasing lash of a tongue.

Undulating up and down, offering her breasts to my mouth.

My hands moved hungrily over her, committing every detail to memory.

The voluptuous swell of her taut ass cheeks.

The sweet little dimple right above them.

Her warm, ticklish curtain of hair. The strength and hunger in her embrace, the soft catch in her breath as she moved against my body.

I suckled her, pressing my dick up eagerly against her hot, slick core, petting her clit with it, a slow, slick push and pull. She squirmed and struggled toward her pleasure … and exploded again, arching and gasping. I held her, braced against me, as pleasure pumped through her.

That was more like it. Maybe it wasn’t quite ten orgasms yet, but whatever. I would make my quota. I’d persist through the day, into the night, into tomorrow. Into forever.

I was a man with something to prove.

Color had begun to return to this feast for my eyes. I could see the sheen of sweat on her lip, her forehead. I could see the deep red blush of her lips. The little line between her brows that I had noticed before was almost gone. She looked relaxed. Lush, sensual.

I gripped her hips, and lifted her up off my cock, positioning myself with my fist below her.

She steadied herself on my shoulders, swaying, nails digging delicately into my skin like kitten claws as I rolled my cockhead around her slick, drenched opening, and then drove upwards, pulling her down.

Letting her take in all of me. Her snug sheath clenched and squeezed eagerly around me.

She made a soft, startled sound. “Oh,” she murmured. “I can’t move.”

“You will,” I promised, surging up to thrust deeper inside her hot, slick depths.

Then her cell phone rang.

We froze, staring at each other. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

“Do you usually get calls at this hour?” I asked.

“A lot of my clients are night owls,” she offered. “They’ve gotten used to me being up at that hour, too.”

“At six a.m.? Jesus.”

“Sorry, but I just have to see if it’s one of my sisters.”

I lifted her off me. She slid off the bed and padded over to the table where her phone lay. She stared at it for a moment. The phone kept buzzing.

“Not your sisters,” I said.

She shook her head. “No, it’s one of my clients.” But she didn’t decline the call or turn off the phone. She just stood there, frozen and conflicted.

I let out a long, even breath. It would be a dick move to get angry and possessive of her time and attention. Even if all this crazy shit hadn’t just happened. I wasn’t going to be that guy anymore. Not today. Not ever.

“Answer it,” I told her. “Go for it. I know you want to. It’ll just torture you if you don’t.”

She shot me a grateful look and answered the call. The volume was up, and I could hear the guy’s voice very clearly.

“Nancy? What the hell? Are you there? Why did it take you so long to pick up?”

“It’s six in the morning, Peter.” She perched on the edge of the futon. “What do you need?”

“I thought of a great new order for the songs in the liner notes for the vinyl.”

“Oh, no,” Nancy said. “No way, Peter. You’ve changed them three times already. Let it go. If Shepard doesn’t have those liner notes by nine-thirty, the vinyl won’t make it into the catalog at all. You’re making it hard for me to make this happen for you.”

“But I just realized it now, Nance! It makes way more sense if I put ‘The Road to You’ at the end. Sometimes these flashes come at the last minute, you know? It’s part of the artistic process. Sometimes it requires a deadline.”

“Sure, but why is it always me who has to scramble?”

“Don’t be crabby, Nance. Enid and I have been busting our asses. We live, eat, sleep, and breathe this album. Believe me.”

She let out a sharp sigh. “Yeah. Well, I’ll meet you at your place at …” she peered at the digital clock. “Seven, okay? I don’t think I can get there before.”

There was a fresh burst of anxious talking on the line, but she cut it off.

“Later, Peter. Really. It’s too early. I can’t concentrate yet. Tell me about it when I get there.”

She closed the call, and looked around, as if waking from a dream.

“Whoa. I totally forgot the liner notes for the vinyl, and the appointment with Shepard. My mind was wiped.” She shot me an apologetic look.

“I’m sorry to cut this short, because this has been the most wonderful night I’ve ever had.

But I’ve got to get myself moving. I’ve got a million things to?—”

“No,” I said. “You cannot do the million things, Nancy.”

She froze, eyes narrowing. “Excuse me?”

I couldn’t stop the rage from bubbling up, hot and dangerous and caustic. “What would it take to convince you that you can’t go flouncing around, la-di-da, and do your fucking errands like nothing even happened tonight?”

“The hell?” she said slowly. “Liam. I do not flounce. And they are not ‘fucking errands’. This is my job. It’s how I support myself.”

“You can’t support yourself if you’re dead.”

She flinched. The words were a blow, as I had meant them to be. “Jesus, Liam. You’re overdoing it.”

“You’re coming up to Latham with me. Where I can protect you.”

Her mouth dropped open. She let out an incredulous laugh. “Oh! Am I? Wow. Thanks so much for discussing this decision with me.”

“You have no grip on reality,” I said.

“On the contrary. It’s you who needs to get a grip.” Her voice shook. “Don’t think that I don’t appreciate what you did for me last night. But just because I’m in your debt, don’t start thinking that you’re the boss. I have a life, and I have to?—”

“That’s what I’m trying to help you protect! Not your work, Nancy. Not your career. Your life. Do you see what I’m trying to say here?”

“Liam, I’ll be perfectly safe in the light of day,” she assured me. “This city is swarming with millions of people?—”

“Two of whom came at us with a knife last night!”

“I promise, I’ll be in company the entire day,” she said. “And I’ll take car services, taxis, rideshares. I have to drop by Peter and Enid’s place this morning, and they’ll go with me for our appointment in midtown by nine-thirty, and I?—”

“I’ll take you to your appointments.”

Her eyes widened in alarm. “No way. That would be stressful and uncomfortable. I’ll be racing from pillar to post, and I can’t concentrate if you’re watching my every?—”

“Deal with me. Or come back to Latham.”

That was my father’s voice, coming out of my mouth. That overbearing, cringe-inducing, bullying tone. She was responding to it badly, and who could fucking blame her. It was unbearable. I should know.

“To Latham,” she repeated, incredulous. “With you. While my livelihood goes to hell. What do I do there, Liam? Spend my days lolling in your bed, legs in the air? It would be fun, but it’s not a long-term solution!”

“I never said it was,” I snapped.

Aw, shit. Wrong thing to say. The hot color drained from her face. “I see,” she said. “Of course. Since this is just a temporary thing. We’re fuck buddies, right?”

Shit. “Nancy, that’s not what I meant. It’s just that you can’t?—”

“I can do whatever I want, Liam. The meeting this morning is with the biggest production company I’ve ever done business with. If I flake out on them, they’ll never take me seriously again.”

I gathered my clothes and pulled them on.

“Don’t try to justify yourself to me,” I said.

“You can’t convince me that your professional appointments are more important than your safety.

” I pulled on my shoes. “Get dressed. I’ll take you to your client’s apartment.

But you are not walking out of this place alone. ”

Her chin went up. “It’s not up to you. I can get a car.”

Two strides put me in her face, tilting her head back. Words came out that I was powerless to stop. “Don’t push me,” I snarled. “You will give me this one. You owe me that. Actually, you owe me more than that. But you will do me this courtesy today.”

Or else. Her throat bobbed. They both felt the menace in my tone.

I’d never tried to intimidate a woman. Never even dreamed that I would be capable of it. But look at me, throwing my weight around like an asshole. Actually wondering what I’d do if she called my bluff.

My aching dick had some good ideas.

She wrenched her chin away from my hand, turned away and started getting ready.

My bluff had worked. She’d backed down.

And the predatory beast inside me was as disappointed as hell.