“You’re in pain. Not thinkin’ straight.”
She dug her fingers into his hair that always slightly curled on his nape. “Ross…you know that’s not true.”
He swallowed hard enough to make his Adam’s apple work up and down.
Then he kissed her again with an urgency that rocked her to the core. Her insides trembled. Her pussy ached and her panties were soaked. She rubbed on the bulge in his jeans, shaking for more…more of Ross…more of everything.
Each stroke of his tongue over hers stole her mind. When he glided his hand over her hip, she recalled his drawled words… They’re perfect.
She worked her hands across his broad shoulders, learning the power coiled within of them. Landing on his spine, she did the same, memorizing each contour of muscle until she could draw them out in her mind if she wanted to.
He tore from the kiss, staring at her mouth and panting hard. “I need to stop, but goddamn if I can.”
“Don’t,” she murmured, searching his eyes. Her belly dipped at the expression he wore—a dark heat of desire she’d never seen on him or anyone else before.
Desire for her.
“This moment could ruin our friendship.”
“Or start a new one,” she argued.
“I want to do things to you that your past three lovers never even thought of.”
Her insides melted. Juices flooded her panties.
“I want you to show me.”
“Fuck, honey…” He dropped his head as if battling himself.
When he raised it again, she read the promise in his gaze, jolting her back to that moment he climbed into the back seat during the snowstorm and waited for her to join him.
He pulled her shirt off before she could think. When he kissed a blazing path down her throat to the crests of her breasts, she closed her eyes and sucked in the feel of the man guarding her with his life.
“Beautiful.” He dotted a perfect line of kisses from the top of one breast to the other. Her skin pebbled at the warm caresses.
She worked his shirt up, gliding her palms over his skin that was velvet coating iron. He moved to help her remove the garment, and their gazes caught and held as he popped the clasp of her bra.
“There’s no coming back from this, Pippa.”
She shook her head. “I don’t care. I want you.”
As he exposed her breasts, he groaned. With one fingertip, he teased her straining nipple with the faintest of touches. So soft she wondered if she imagined it. But then he lowered his mouth to her bud and took it between his lips and she knew this was no dream.
A sharp need made her rub against him as he sucked her nipples into hard peaks. He drew on her, gently at first and increasing the pressure until she thought she’d die from want. When he moved to her other breast, circling her nipple with his tongue first and then drawing on it the way he had the first, her insides clenched.
“I’ve never been so…close to coming,” she rasped.
He raised his head and slanted a look at her. While holding her stare, he settled his hand over her pussy. Her soaked panties were no barrier against his hot fingers as he stroked her lightly. So lightly. She shook and clutched at his shoulders.
“Kiss me,” she begged.
A groan escaped him as he captured her mouth and strummed her clit with torturous precision. He knew just how to string her out, turn her inside out and drive her toward an end so big that it almost frightened her.
The pain in her leg vanished, replaced by white-hot passion. As his fingertip crested her swollen clit once more, she sucked in a gasp. Quivering on the precipice.
“Fuck, are you gonna come for me? I haven’t gotten started, honey.” He shoved to his knees, hooked his fingers in the sides of her panties and pulled them off, very gently when he reached her calf.
With a dark look, he spread her legs and covered her clit with his mouth. She stifled a scream, drowning in bliss. Or what she perceived to be bliss before he teased her clit with purposeful sweeps of his lips and tongue.
Writhing, she arched off the bed. He sucked on her nubbin. Then he slipped the point of his tongue through her folds and thrust it into her pussy. Juices soaked her—and him. She gripped his shoulders tighter with each pass of his tongue between clit and entrance.
Ross was everything she knew he’d be—and more. And if she wasn’t already halfway to loving him by now, then him giving her the orgasm of her life made her tumble the rest of the way.
Chapter Seven
He drove his tongue into her clenching, contracting, fucking soaking wet walls, his brain locked on one thing--getting more of her. His cock stood at full erection, throbbing and about to burst.
A knock sounded somewhere in the distance. Pippa twisted her hands in his hair and…
More knocking.
He raised his head as a final shudder of release ripped through her body and she collapsed to the mattress.
Tap tap tap. More insistently.
His haze of lust fled in a blink as he realized someone was knocking at the motel door, and he sure as hell didn’t think it was housekeeping delivering towels.
Pippa tensed. “The door,” she whispered in a voice dripping with fear but throatier from her release.
Setting his palm on her stomach to calm her, he rose to his feet. “Cover up. I’m going to answer it.”
Without bothering to put his shirt on, he unlocked the door and opened it a crack with the chain still in place. Roman stared back at him.
Tossing a look toward Pippa, he stepped outside to speak with him.
If the guy questioned why he was shirtless, he didn’t ask. He was all business as he spoke.
“Word came in from your brother. I guess he tried to reach you, but you didn’t answer.”
“Pippa was shot. I was taking care of her,” he said tightly.
Roman went on, “Those two guys who attacked you were ID’d by the police who picked them up. One was DOA and the other will live to pay for his crimes. Both are common hired thugs.”
“Fuck. That solidifies my suspicion that somebody knows where Pippa’s headed. I don’t believe we were followed, though. I think they hit gold when they found us at that rest stop.”
Roman nodded. “I’d say you’re right. They know you’re headed to Seattle for the conference.”
“They’re hired to take me out and kidnap Pippa.”
“Any chance of you not taking her to Seattle?”
Ross expelled a breath. “I don’t know. But I’ll try to convince her not to attend that conference. The thing they’re after is the topic she’s speaking about, unless I’m totally wrong.”
Pines swayed in the wind sweeping through the hollow where the motel was located. Ross stared at them for a beat, considering a new tactic. “We can go to Seattle, lead them into a trap and tie the noose.”
Roman lifted a fist, knuckles out. “That’s the best plan I’ve heard today. I got your six, man.”
Ross bumped knuckles with him. “We’re only staying long enough for her to rest and clean up.”
“I’ll follow when you’re ready.”
They began to part ways, when Roman swung back. “Ya know, I’ve seen this a couple other times.”
Ross narrowed his eyes. “Seen what?”