He gaped at her in shock. She’d disregarded his only request, put herself in a great amount of danger and now she had the nerve to jerk his chain?
Splaying her fingers over his rib cage, she stepped closer, insinuating every inch of her body along the length of his. He was breathing heavily, instantly aroused, and he knew she could feel it, but she didn’t back away. As her fingertips trailed over his leather shoulder holster, he realized she was toying with him, the same way he’d toyed with her at the mission. The difference was he hadn’t been bluffing. If she thought he wouldn’t give her exactly what she was asking for, right here, right now, she was in for a hell of a surprise.
“Don’t play with that, sweetheart,” he warned, moving her hand away from his gun. “It might go off.”
“I was kind of hoping it would,” she replied breathlessly.
He pushed her back onto the hood of the truck, hooking his hands under her knees and placing himself between them. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she threaded her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck and brought his mouth down to hers.
Groaning, he crushed himself against her, thrusting his tongue into the heat of her mouth and shaping her body with his hands. He was desperate to touch every part of her, taste every inch of her. She kissed him back hungrily, accepting everything he had to offer, letting him know he could have her any way he wished.
Too keyed-up to wait, he wrenched his mouth from hers. “Take off your shorts,” he said hoarsely, stepping back to release the buttons at his fly.
She stood, fumbling with the clasp and zipper, then pushed her shorts down her hips. After a brief hesitation, she hooked her thumbs in the waistband of her panties and stripped them off, as well. Then she boosted herself back on top of the hood of her pickup truck and spread her long, lovely legs for him.
He thought he might go off then and there.
“Lift up your top,” he added, as an afterthought. Her eyes burned into his, smoke-dark, as she raised the hem, exposing her breasts. While he watched her nipples tighten in the cool night air, he felt more blood pulsing to his groin, making him painfully, impossibly hard.
Sinking to his knees before her, he laved each one thoroughly, flicking his tongue over the wet, puckered tips. Gasping, she braced her hands on the hood of the truck and arched her back. With a low groan, he dragged his mouth from her breasts to her belly, sliding his hands along her inner thighs. The scent of her arousal beckoned, and his mouth watered for her taste, but he didn’t go lower until she writhed and whimpered, pushing down on the top of his head.
Her loss of inhibitions was his undoing. Abandoning any attempt at delicacy, he thumbed aside a damp, silky curl and licked at her slick flesh until she stiffened and cried out. Clutching her fingers in his hair and holding him to her, she climaxed against his mouth.
The last of his control shattered with her.
Half carrying, half dragging her inside the truck, he laid her down on the bench seat. The space was tight, barely enough room for him to get on top of her, but it offered a semblance of privacy. If someone drove by, at least they wouldn’t see her spread-eagled on the hood.
Pushing her thighs apart with his hands, he freed his erection and thrust himself inside her, showing even less finesse with intercourse than he had with oral sex.
Her body tensed at the intrusion, and he knew she’d paid the price for his impatience. With a phenomenal effort, he held himself motionless. She was sleek and tight, pulsing around his cock like a silken fist. He was afraid he might come even if he didn’t move.
“Are you all right?” he asked, scarcely able to form coherent words.
“Yes,” she said, raising her knees slightly, as if seeking a more comfortable position.
The subtle movement sent him right over the edge. Gritting his teeth, he pulled back and drove deep, again and again, feeling how wet she was, tasting her on his lips, wishing he could make the incredible sensation last forever.
Instead it lasted about ten more seconds.
He withdrew as far as he dared and buried himself in her snug heat one last time, his entire body quaking with the power of his release.
Afterward, he lay stretched out on top of her, panting, too sated to consider the full ramifications of his actions. It had been the fastest, most ill-planned, and least well-executed sexual experience of his life. But by far the best.
As she shifted beneath him, he became aware of how uncomfortable she must be, pinned to a vinyl seat under about one hundred eighty pounds of dead weight. He was in a damned awkward position himself, his legs sticking out the open passenger door, the gearshift prodding his ribs, the steering wheel pressing into his right shoulder.
He lifted himself up and pulled out of her, a warning bell clanging through his head. “I didn’t use anything.”
“I noticed.”
“You did? When?” Jerking his pants up, he buttoned them haphazardly.
“When you, um, started.”
He found her shorts and panties on the damp grass at his feet and handed them to her. “Why didn’t you stop me?”
“I should have,” she agreed.
Stunned by his lapse in judgment, he slammed the passenger door and went around to the driver’s side. He waited for her to dress, growing more appalled by his own behavior with each passing second. The least he could have done was to pull out before he came. In the heat of the moment, the thought had never even occurred to him.
Beside him, Sidney zipped up her shorts with a slight wince and fastened her seat belt.
He groaned, covering his eyes with his hand and putting his head against the steering wheel. Not only had he failed to protect her, but he hadn’t been any good. He’d fallen on her like an animal, pounded into her like a madman, and gone off quicker than a teenager.
So much for waiting until she was no longer a part of his investigation.
He snuck another glance at her, noting the displeasure on her face. She’d probably felt nothing more than annoyance. Hell, she’d been so tight, and he’d used her so carelessly, he might even have hurt her.
He’d never lost control like that. Ever.
“I’m sorry,” he said. Apologizing for an abysmal sexual performance was another first for him.
She stared out the window, tears filling her eyes.
Muttering a curse, he started the engine and drove home, all of the satisfaction he’d taken from her body dissolving into cold, hard remorse.
Sidney sat beside him in miserable silence, feeling like a total failure. Experiences like this were the reason she’d given up on sex. A flood of past disappointments washed over her, leaving her feeling awkward, empty and bereft.
At twenty, tired of Samantha’s taunts and Greg’s unwanted advances, she’d given her virginity to a sweet but clueless college boy who’d pretended she was his ex-girlfriend the entire time.
Her second attempt at intimacy had been even worse. Samantha had set her up with one of Greg’s law school buddies, and Sidney found that she actually enjoyed his company. Adam was charming, handsome and experienced. She’d been genuinely infatuated with him until, after a dozen chaste dates, they’d finally gone to bed together.
Sidney had tried to relax and go with the moment, but it was difficult not to read a man during prolonged physical contact. Adam had been thinking he might have to embellish upon his performance when he gave Greg a detailed account of their sexual encounter, because it wasn’t going very well.
It was kind of hard to derive any pleasure from his touch after that.
Her last and most recent effort before Marc had been with Bill Vincent. She was reluctant to enter another relationship that would fizzle as soon as it got to the bedroom, but they’d been friends long before they became lovers, so he knew about her psychic abilities. Having been forewarned, Bill was quite skilled at blocking his thoughts from her. He was also warm and generous, but she never lost herself in his embrace like she did with Marc.
After a lackluster courtship, they parted as friends, and Bill told her a secret of his own: he preferred men.
It topped off her trio of shame.
