meant she’d let down her guard and ask him into her heart. She knew she couldn’t risk that, couldn’t allow him to be put in that kind of danger.
She pulled the blanket over her face, trying desperately to shut him out.
Chapter Twelve
Tess opened her eyes. Wherever she was it was nearly black. The only visible source of light came from a flickering table lamp across the room. A strange twist of fear gnawed on the fringe of her nerves.
Somewhere in the near-darkness, an ancient air conditioner wheezed, sounding as if it was on its last legs. The strong smell of onions drifted on the air and teased her nose.
She lifted her head, wondering where she was and how long she’d been asleep. There were no restraints on her arms and legs and the realization that she wasn’t in her cell deep inside the center settled over her. The motel room. She was inside the motel room. Ryan had helped her escape.
Confused, she rolled over and bumped up against something solid. Someone slept next to her.
Ryan, of course. There was only one bed in the room, and he really wasn’t about to sit up all night. After she’d fallen asleep, he’d obviously crawled into bed next to her and conked out.
He was rolled up on his side, his back to her. Through the soft glow of the lamp, she could see the broad expanse of his shoulders beneath his T-shirt and the fringe of dark hair lying along the back of his neck.
She reached out, her fingers lightly skimming the fringe of hair. The strands were soft and fine, like silk feathers of a tiny bird. The ends curled slightly around her knuckle and she smiled. He needed a haircut.
He didn’t have much time for himself since she’d come into his life. Everything had been turned upside down, turned on end. But he hadn’t balked. Hadn’t run off or booted her ungrateful butt out of his life. Even when she’d told him to push off and leave her alone. He’d stuck by her, just as he said he would. Patiently waiting her out. Determined to help her no matter what.
She could feel the warmth of his body radiate upward, heating her face. Both shoulder blades were hard and pronounced beneath his T-shirt. Feeling like a voyeur, as if she was somehow taking advantage but unable to stop herself, Tess lifted the sheet and allowed her gaze to skim lightly, greedily over his body. The jangled hum of her nerves quieted, flooding her instead with a sweet liquid warmth.
His hard butt and lean hips dented the sagging mattress, and she reached out and lightly traced the deep indentation above his hipbone, just above the elastic of his boxers. His skin was dark and tanned against her white skin. The contrast was startling. Delicious. She slid her hand down over the cloth of his shorts to the top of his thigh.
She lifted the sheet a little higher, her eyes devouring him. He had long muscular legs, corded and covered with dark hair, so long they almost hung off the end of the mattress. She was pretty sure she’d never felt small next to a man before, but Ryan’s body seemed built to do just that.
Without thinking of the consequences, she slid closer, pressing her body up against him, molding herself to him, savoring the feel of his firm butt against her soft belly. He mumbled something in his sleep, and Tess paused, holding her breath.
She didn’t want him to wake up. Not yet. She didn’t want him to stop her investigation, and she knew she couldn’t handle his rejection. His caution. She wanted, no she
She slid a hand up beneath his shirt, pushing it out of the way, and she pressed her lips to the indentation of his spine, gently kissing and inhaling his clean, masculine scent.
His skin was smooth and he had a small birthmark, a tiny brown freckle directly below his left shoulder blade. She kissed it and then gently touched it with the tip of her tongue. Tasting. Memorizing. She pressed her lips to it again, marking it as her own.
She slipped an arm around him and his shirt whispered beneath her hand. Her fingertips brushed across the hair on his chest, and he shifted, his hips moving backward until they pressed tight against her belly, sending another burst of warmth shooting through her.
Her hand slipped lower, sliding across the firm muscles of his flat stomach and coming to rest directly below the waistband of his boxers.
“Keep that up and we’re both going to be in for a big surprise.” His voice sweetened the stillness of the room, like smooth honey.
She moved her hand lower. “How big are we talking? Big? Or
He laughed, and she felt the shake of his long body against hers. But even as he laughed, he shifted his body a bit and moved as if to sit up. And in that single instant, her body mourned his coming desertion.
She tightened her arms around him, holding him to her and wishing with all her heart that she could capture and hold the essence of him inside her soul-all his power, warmth and goodness.
She pressed her cheek against the center of his back and savored the steady beat of his heart through his skin and the reassuring rhythm of his breath. He reached down and gently pulled at her hands. “Tess, you know this isn’t right. Let-”
If he deserted her now, Tess wasn’t sure she’d bounce back. Somehow she had to make him understand, make him realize how much she needed him. “Please,” she whispered, a small sob catching in her voice. “Please, don’t push me away.”
He froze, every nerve in his body seeming to still at once.
“I really need you right now,” she said.
“Tess, we can’t-”
She tightened her hands and braced her body against the rejection in his voice. Her lips moved against his skin, “Please, Ryan, just hold me. Hold me and make love to me. I promise you no regrets. No guilt.”
He shifted, turning to face her, and Tess immediately slid closer, pressing the length of her body to his and wrapping a bare leg around his. She shuddered with pleasure as his hand slid down her side and came to rest on her left hip, his fingers curled to fit the curve of her body.
“Whatever it is you need, I’m here for you,” he said. “You only need to ask.”
He bent his head and touched his lips to the pulse beating frantically in her neck. It quickened with the slow erotic brush of his lips over her skin. She moaned softly, asking for more. He moved his lips slowly down the length of her neck to the hollow of her throat. His tongue gently teased her and encouraged her, and he only stopped to slide off her shirt.
And then he was back, gently gliding his mouth over her skin to the tips of her breasts. His tongue teased and taunted, and she tangled her fingers in his hair, holding him to her and urging him not to stop.
He set her heart racing and her mind spinning. How did he manage to reduce her to this tangle of hot emotion so quickly, so easily? What was it about the man that confused and excited her all at the same time? Whatever it was, she didn’t want to question it. Didn’t want it to ever stop.
She didn’t care that he made her feel vulnerable and open. She didn’t care that being with him meant something dangerous and forbidden. All that mattered was his scent. His feel. His caress. And they all surrounded her and overwhelmed her and made her head whirl and dip with anticipation.
She stretched her hands over her head and arched her spine. He sank lower, using his skilled tongue and hands to make her body hum with expectancy, and when he rose up over her, sinking the length of his hardness into her warmth and moistness, she cried out his name and went with him over the edge into another kind of glorious oblivion.
RYAN’S BODY SHUDDERED and rocked with his release, and he buried his face against the side of Tess’s neck, inhaling her sweetness, an intoxicating blend of soap, toothpaste and something uniquely Tess, a citrusy scent that reminded him vaguely of oranges.
He held her against him with a fierceness that surprised even him. “You’re incredible,” he whispered, shifting his body to lie next to her, worried his weight might crush her beneath him.
How was it that one minute she seemed so indestructible, so damned capable and the next she seemed vulnerable, almost fragile?
