Julie Leto – Something Wicked (страница 8)
“I’m not—” he started, but with a girlish laugh, she pushed him over onto his back.
Grabbing the damp towel from his shower, she proceeded to undo all signs of their previous lovemaking so they, apparently, could try again.
When she was finished, she placed a chaste but charged kiss on his lips. Then his chin. Then in the center of his chest. When she reached his belly button, he felt a stirring in his groin that had him clutching the loose sheets.
“You will be,” she promised, swiping her tongue over the tip of his sex. “Trust me, you will be.”
THE FLAVOR OF HIS SEX in her mouth was elemental and arousing beyond anything Josie had ever imagined. Musky and hot and with a bite that reminded her of whiskey drunk straight from the bottle, she couldn’t resist plying her tongue and teeth and lips until he lengthened and hardened. She caressed his sacs, slipping her fingers far between his legs, knowing she was driving him crazy. And loving every minute.
“Josie,” he rasped. “Josie.”
She hummed her acknowledgment of her name, loving the sound on his lips, reveling in how she’d zapped his energy or, at the least, changed the course of his energy from the dark aura she’d sensed when she’d first found him into the pure, white-hot need that surrounded him now.
Wrapping her fingers around him, she allowed the full length of his flesh to play against her palms.
“Stop,” he commanded.
With a grin, she looked up at him, asking why with her eyes.
He dug his hands into her hair and, though she could tell it wasn’t easy, he pulled her up over him.
“Why are you here?” he asked.
His sex was hot and hard against her stomach. She wiggled involuntarily, hissing with pleasure at the feel of him so close, yet not nearly close enough.
“To bring you home,” she answered honestly.
“And you thought sleeping with me would convince me to come along quietly?”
She kissed him, trying to ignore the quiver of her aroused clit and how desperately she wanted him to touch it, touch her.
“I’d never want you to come quietly,” she replied, the innuendo punctuated by the way she slid on his body. She pressed her pelvis against his, but with a groan, he braced her hips with his hands and pushed her off. But he didn’t push her far. He stretched long against her, and dragged his hand lazily up and down her side, pausing to cup her breast until she arched her back.
“I can’t go back, Josie. I can’t make love to you again if you think—”
She tossed her head from side to side. “I don’t want to think, Rick. Do you? Really?”
His reply was a kiss. Long and soft and sensual so that she nearly forgot the other body parts screaming for his attention. His attendance to her lips and mouth and tongue enraptured her so completely she thought she might climax from this alone.
Then he moved to kiss along her chin and down her neck, suckling on the pulse point she was certain was fluttering at a rapid pace.
“I can’t believe you found me.” His breath was hot against her flesh.
“You weren’t easy to find.”
“That was on purpose. Not everyone looking for me wants to make love.”
“Then I guess I’m special,” she replied.
“Good God, yes. But it’s also why I have to stop. Why you have to leave.”
He flew off the bed, off of her and grabbed a second towel from behind the bathroom door. His absence instantly tore at her and she slid the top sheet over her, though she made no move to get up or get dressed.
“Don’t send me away,” she said. “I can help you.”
“You think I’m the hunter, don’t you?”
“You’re a cop, Rick. The evidence proves—”
“Evidence can be misread and manipulated,” he spit. “Did you want Mac and Lilith to be tried for the mayor’s murder?”
“No, of course not. But that’s not the worst thing that happened that night.”
Her chest tightened. “What, then?”
He shook his head. “I’m not dragging you into this.”
“I’m not delicate, Rick,” she said. “I came here willingly. Because I wanted you. And because I want to help you. But those are two entirely different things.”
She gasped when he slid onto the ground, kneeling beside the bed. “I can only satisfy one of your needs then. Don’t have delusions about the other.”
Josie felt a little crack near her heart, but she ignored the pain and focused only on the here and now. Did he think she’d give up only after one roll in the hay? Having him inside her, connected to her in the most intimate way possible, had only strengthened her resolve. She’d do whatever was necessary to get him back. And that certainly included more than making love, which she considered more a gift to herself than to him.
“I don’t have any delusions,” she replied, taking his hands and pulling him back onto the mattress. “And I’ll put my expectations aside if that will make you come inside me again.”
She tore away the towel, draped her leg over his hip, then moved so that his sex was once again aimed at the precise spot where she wanted him. Instantly, her body reacted, sending a trickle of moisture to kiss the tip of his hard, curved head.
“That’s all you want?” he said, a smile teasing the corners of his mouth.
She laughed and rubbed her breasts against him, igniting a flame in her nipples she knew only he could douse. “Oh, no. That’s not all I want at all.”
His eyes half-closed, she finally felt the muscles in his shoulders relax. Not much, but enough for her to work with. Enough to give her hope beyond the morning. “Tell me.”
“Why don’t I show you instead?”
5
WARMTH, CENTERED DIRECTLY between her breasts, woke Josie with a lazy smile. Was it Rick’s breath causing the sweet sensation radiating on her skin? She fluttered her eyes open at the same time she reached across the bed.
Cold.
Empty.
Gone?
She shot upright. An instant chill sent her scrambling for the sheet.
“You’re awake.”
It took a few moments for her to banish the last vestiges of sleepiness and realize that, while gone from the bed, Rick hadn’t abandoned her. Had she dreamed him leaving? Sneaking away in the dead of night? Leaving her to plunge back into search mode, only this time, she wouldn’t find him.
“You okay?” he asked.
He was sipping a caffeine drink from a slim aluminum can.
She blinked rapidly to force the moisture from her eyes, then cleared her throat. “Sorry. I had a bad dream, I guess.”
Only she didn’t remember a dream. Just running.
Rick turned back to the window. Sunlight, tinged gray from a convergence of clouds outside, testified to morning. After plopping two pillows behind her, Josie sat back and watched him, wondering. From his perspective, she’d gotten what she’d come for—the night of lovemaking he’d promised her after their first date, which had never come to pass. She knew without asking that he intended to leave her soon, to part company so she could go home to her ordinary life while he continued his quest for…what? Revenge? Justice? She really didn’t understand why he’d taken this fight against magical evil so personally. Though afraid that asking might send him running sooner rather than later, she simply had to know.
“Why are you doing this?”
He finished the drink, crushed the can and tossed it into a wastebasket beside the bathroom door, all without moving from his spot by the window.
“Someone has to,” he answered.
She frowned. “Someone is. Quite a few someones. You left before anyone had a chance to explain how things work in the magical world.”
“Anyone, as in Lilith’s sister? The one who manipulated a crime scene?”
Josie swallowed deeply, wishing she had some of the stimulating drink to kick her brain into gear. She was so not a morning person.
“Mac and Lilith are your friends. Did you want them to go to prison, maybe even get the death penalty with such high-profile victims, for doing precisely what you’re doing now? Or were you planning to testify for them in court? Tell a judge and jury that witches and warlocks exist and were attempting to take over the city?”
He snorted and turned back to the window, his stare lost between the grimy slats. Josie dragged the sheet around her naked body and scooted to the edge of the bed. “No one would believe the truth and you know it.”
“I didn’t want to believe it,” he admitted.