different towns, went to different high schools, and didn’t seem to have had any contact prior to attendance at Rose College.
She went through the Butcher-Payne employees yet again, to see if she missed something. When Nora’s doorbell rang, she jumped.
Embarrassed even though no one saw her reaction, she walked cautiously to the door and glanced through the peephole.
Duke.
Nora opened the door. Before she could say anything, Duke said, “You disappeared.”
She tilted her head. “Hardly.”
He stepped across her threshold without an invitation. She stepped back. She’d had to, to avoid touching him.
“You didn’t tell me you were leaving headquarters,” he said.
“I didn’t know I was supposed to.” It took all her willpower to look him straight in the eye and not remember the kiss. “I told Jason,” she said.
She stepped back again, though he hadn’t moved. He smiled, a Cheshire cat grin, as if he knew something she didn’t.
He stepped all the way in and shut the door.
She turned away from him and walked down the hall toward the dining room where she had her work spread out in front of her. “I’m working,” she said over her shoulder, hoping distance might extinguish the growing heat between them.
“You’re always working.” He was right behind her, and his long legs cut the space between them quickly.
She hardly thought he was one to judge, and she spun around to tell him just that.
Duke was mere inches behind her. His right hand wrapped around her neck and pulled her mouth to his without hesitation, without asking permission, without a doubt in his mind that she would resist.
She didn’t.
Her mouth opened, her body pressed against his and Duke pulled her closer, his left hand around her back, under her shirt, molding her back, holding her tight against him.
Everything fell away, the pressure of her job, the memories of the past, worry for her team and her sister and the victims. Everything disappeared, and it was only the two of them, her and Duke, as if nothing else mattered, nothing else was important but for the first time in her life giving in to what she wanted.
Duke had been right when he said she’d never factored in her dreams in any decision she made.
She made a decision for herself right now. She wanted Duke Rogan, and she was going to take exactly what she wanted.
Nora pulled his T-shirt from his jeans, ran her hands up his hard, broad chest. Her thumbs circled his nipples and Duke’s hand fisted in her hair as he tightened his grip, his tongue shooting into her mouth, mimicking sex. She shivered, a moan trapped between their lips, and wrapped her arms around him to keep from falling to her knees.
His free hand grabbed her ass and held her up, his fingers massaging her, squeezing, teasing. Between them, the temperature rose and Nora burned. She grabbed the ends of Duke’s T-shirt and pulled it up; he grabbed it with one hand and pulled it over his head. She stared at his sculpted body, wasted when hidden by clothes. She swallowed, but her mouth was dry, and then he was kissing her again, a kiss that promised her everything she’d wanted but denied herself. A kiss that told her he wasn’t going away, a kiss that told her he knew her better than she knew herself, and that from the beginning she’d wanted him.
He was right.
His hands came between them, flicking her blouse open with confident fingers, exposing her flesh and lacy white bra. Her head dipped back as his firm lips moved from her mouth to her jaw, his tongue tracing a line that sent hot chills racing along her nerves, down to her neck where he lightly bit her, then drew her skin into his mouth, leaving her breathless.
He fell to his knees, his face against her chest. He unhooked her bra with one hand, tossed it away without thought, his mouth drawing in her breast without hesitating, then switching sides, back and forth, his hands moving as if they knew exactly where she wanted to be touched. Nora’s breath caught in her throat when his hands pulled down her slacks with an impatient jerk, and then squeezed her ass, his mouth moving down her stomach, past her waist, until his tongue flicked out and tasted her through her panties. She gasped, a high-pitched yelp that sounded nothing like her, caught between foreplay and sex. Her knees buckled, her legs spread, and she began to sink to the floor, but Duke held her up, one hand supporting her back, the other pushing her most intimate place closer to him, where his mouth suckled as if he were dying of thirst.
She couldn’t see, she couldn’t think, the edge of the cliff was there, in front of her. She grabbed Duke’s shoulders, holding on as if she would drown; a rainbow of light burst, and she exploded with a cry that sounded far, far away.
She tried to catch her breath while trying to find his mouth with hers. But instead of kissing her, he hauled her up off the floor, and over his shoulder as if she weighed nothing. Duke carried her down the hall to her bedroom. He tossed her on the bed and she finally opened her eyes and saw him, looking as hot and needy as she felt. His skin glistened with perspiration, and between her dining room and her bedroom, he’d lost his jeans. He towered over her naked, his cock long and hard in front of him.
“God, you’re gorgeous.” His voice growled, rough and gravelly, as he bent over her, his hands on either side of her head, slowly, until he kissed her again.
Duke had wanted Nora English since the first time he’d seen her four years ago. Every time he’d consulted with her squad, before the arsons, he’d wanted her even more. One look at her, and he’d known she wanted to explore him just as much, but she wouldn’t let herself. Nora never gave herself a minute to indulge in what she wanted. He needed her to open up to him, to talk to him, so he could find out everything about her, why she was so driven, so serious, so dedicated. He needed her to open her body to him, just like this, though her wanton response was far more thrilling than he’d imagined. He thought he’d have to work harder, but as soon as he called her out for her feelings, she caved, and he loved it. She was an open book, and everything he thought he knew about her was both very right and wrong at the same time. Nora was everything she appeared to be, but
And here, now, the way she looked at him, giving herself fully and completely to him and their mutual pleasure was turning him nearly desperate with lust.
He wanted slow and easy, he wanted to show her how strongly he felt about her, but the depths of his desire were greater than he could control. He gave, she took and returned everything back, her hands firm and unwavering in their exploration of his chest, his back, and then she reached down and grabbed his cock and squeezed. A guttural growl escaped his chest.
He swallowed her mouth, grunting with restraint as she moaned out his name.
“Nora,” he whispered into her ear, sucking the lobe, kissing the soft, delicate skin behind her ear. “Nora,” he said again, “You had me from the beginning.” He kissed her neck, her body moving beneath him, her hands moving back up his body, her short nails scraping neither too light nor too hard up his back, but with confidence.
She grasped his hands, squeezed, and pulled them above her head, trapping herself beneath his body, holding tight, her body moving to a tempo they both heard in their collective heart.
He didn’t need a road map, his body moved into position, his cock twitching between her legs as it sought ground zero. When he touched her, she gasped, her eyes fluttered closed, and her heart raced against his chest.
Duke sank slowly into her, a nearly primal groan vibrating his chest. Nora gasped beneath him and held her breath, her mouth open, her eyes closed, her face an open book of pleasure tinged with discomfort. He realized then that she was sharing something precious with him, that she didn’t jump in bed with just anyone, that she was
