When he’d agreed to be part of the speed-dating event, he never would have anticipated that this was how the evening would end. It was a pleasant surprise, and while the Ramsey assignment was definitely in the back of his mind, there wasn’t anything he could do about the case tonight.
He intended to enjoy a few hours with Nicole-a mutual satisfying night of hot sex-and in the morning, they’d go their separate ways. They’d already established she wasn’t interested in anything serious, and neither was he. It was the perfect arrangement. They were two adults attracted to each other, and they were taking advantage of the chemistry between them. It was a straightforward, cut-and-dried situation, and exactly what he needed before he immersed himself in Preston Sloane’s sordid world.
Arriving at his house at the end of a cul-de-sac, he pulled his silver Audi Coupe into the garage and she parked in the driveway behind him. He got out of his car, noticed she was in her vehicle and on her cell phone, and waited for her to finish the call. Most likely, she was letting someone know where she was, just in case. Smart girl.
Less than a minute later she was walking toward him with a sultry smile on her lips-just for him. He held his hand out to her, and she placed her fingers against his palm and let him lead her inside the house, through the kitchen, and into the adjoining living room. He flipped a switch, and a lamp next to the leather sofa illuminated the area in a soft glow.
She looked around, taking in his basic furnishings, making him see the interior of the house through her eyes. “Sorry the place is so empty and sparse. I used to live in a small studio apartment and I’ve only had this house a few months. I haven’t had time to buy more furniture.” And he honestly didn’t need much.
Smiling, she set her purse on the long table situated in the entryway where he’d left his keys, then started back toward him, a playful glint in her eyes, along with a whole lot of heat. “All that matters is that there’s a bed somewhere.”
He liked the way she thought. “There is. I have a really nice four-poster king-sized bed with a pillow-top mattress.” A completely new mahogany bedroom set had been his only indulgence when he’d moved in, and now he was glad he’d splurged.
“I can’t wait to see it,” she said, but it was obvious by the single-minded way she tugged his shirt from his pants and pushed it up and over his head, right then and there, that she wasn’t in any big hurry to rush off to the bedroom.
Neither was he. They’d get there, in time.
He tossed the shirt aside and sucked in a sharp breath when she splayed her cool hands low on his abdomen, then slowly skimmed her palms upward, using her fingers to familiarize herself with the hard planes of his chest. Her soft hands felt amazing on his skin, and when her thumbs grazed his taut nipples, he couldn’t contain the groan that ripped from his throat.
His response seemed to set her off, too. She went in for a kiss, nipping at his bottom lip as her hands slid back down to the waistband of his trousers and started unbuckling his belt, her movements quick and impatient, as if she couldn’t wait to get to the main event. She was back to being the aggressive one, and at the rate she was going he knew that once she had his aching shaft in her hands this encounter was going to spiral into a hot, fast, no-frills coupling that would be over in minutes.
Normally, he wouldn’t complain, but there was so much about this woman he wanted to savor-with his hands, his mouth, and eventually, his entire body. For him, there was no rush. They had all night, and he planned to make the most of those hours together-and that meant taking charge of the situation before he was too far gone to think straight.
Grasping her wrists, he pulled her hands away from his belt and drew his head back, breaking the contact of her lips on his. She looked up at him in confusion, and he took advantage of her momentary bewilderment to guide her back a few steps, until he had her pressed up against the nearest wall and his thighs bracketed hers.
Her eyes widened in surprise, and he smiled at her as he straightened her arms back to her sides, then flattened her palms against the cool surface behind her. “Keep your hands against the wall, and no touching.”
She arched a brow, though her blue eyes had gone all dark and smoky at his command. “That hardly seems fair,” she murmured, but didn’t appear too upset at the role reversal.
He shrugged unapologetically. “My house, my rules,” he said as he trailed his fingers along the gentle swell of her hips and the indentation of her waist, tracing the lean lines of her figure through her dress. He couldn’t wait until she was naked and he could touch her bare skin and explore her sensual curves.
She blinked her lashes lazily, though the rise and fall of her breasts told him just how aroused she was. “And if I break them?”
Leaning into her, he brushed his lips against the shell of her ear. “There are consequences, of course.”
She shivered in excitement. “Ummm, that just might be worth being bad.”
He chuckled, amused by her feisty attitude. Lifting his hands, he threaded his fingers through the soft curls at the side of her face and met her velvet blue gaze. “Back at the restaurant, I let you have the first kiss. This one’s mine. And remember,
He dipped his head and took her mouth in a soft, chaste kiss. She groaned in frustration, clearly wanting more, and he made her suffer a bit longer, because it was so much fun to do so. He licked her bottom lip, teasing her, and gently nibbled the soft bit of flesh with his teeth.
She whimpered, her lips automatically parting, tempting him to take what she was offering, and it was more than he could resist. With his hands entwined in the silky strands of her hair, he angled her head to the side, aligning their mouths for maximum pleasure, and deepened the contact. His tongue sank into the sweet, hot depths of her mouth, and he finally kissed her like he’d been dying to. In an instant, lust and need collided in a combustible combination of liquid heat and uncontrollable passion.
God, she was like an addictive drug he couldn’t get enough of.
Untangling his fingers from her hair, he dropped his hands to the zipper at the back of her dress, and she arched away from the wall so he could pull the tab all the way down to the base of her spine. When he was done, he ended their kiss and nuzzled the side of her neck, his mouth open and hot and damp on her skin as he dragged the sides of the dress down her arms, all the way to her waist, trapping her hands at her sides in the knot of fabric.
She gasped, the soft, shocked sound darting straight to his groin like a physical caress.
He inhaled a deep breath against her throat. She smelled warm and sweet and fragrant, and the scent only added fuel to his hunger for her. He wanted to taste her, everywhere, and he planned to start with the breasts he’d bared.
She hadn’t been wearing a bra-a pleasant surprise he’d discovered as he stripped away the top portion of her dress and felt those mounds graze his bare chest. He moved back just enough to look his fill of her. She was perfectly proportioned to her slender waist, her breasts small but firm, and as he watched her nipples puckered tight.
He didn’t hesitate to take one into his mouth, his lips pulling and sucking on the engorged tip while his tongue stroked and swirled and eventually soothed her taut flesh. She moaned and moved restlessly against him, and he felt her fingers gliding across his belly as she reached for his zipper once again. She tugged on the top snap, and his cock leapt to attention when her palm cupped the thick bulge straining the limits of his trousers.
Somehow, she’d managed to free her hands and was disobeying his order. For that, he bit down on the curve of her breast, just enough to create an erotic sting to remind her of his no-touching policy. She drew a sharp, startled breath and returned her hands to her sides, her palms pressed against the wall.
“You’re cruel and merciless.” Despite the pout on her lips, her eyes gleamed with arousal and a deeper, darker desire that told him just how much she liked him calling the shots.
Lucky for her, he was about to get more ruthless.
He shoved her dress over her hips, and when it slid down her legs and pooled at her feet she stepped out of the circle of fabric and kicked it aside. Unable to help himself, he eased back just far enough to take in the provocative view of her wearing nothing more than white lace bikini panties and a pair of strappy high heels that made her gorgeous legs look endlessly long.
With all those frothy blond curls tumbling around her shoulders and that lithe body wearing only sheer white panties, she looked like a wanton angel. And she was all his. Every inch of her. Reaching out, he slid his hands beneath her pretty breasts, cupping and gently squeezing the weight of them. He rubbed his thumbs across her nipples, and her head fell back against the wall, her lips parted, and the oh-so-sexy moan she sighed added to the
