Текст книги "Big Bad Wolfe"
Автор книги: Danielle Doolittle
Соавторы: Elle Doolittle
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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 10 страниц)
Chapter Ten
Sitting behind her desk hours later, she could still feel her skin tingling in the wake of his attention. Sarah knew she was grinning like an idiot but couldn’t stop the corner of her lips from lifting if she tried. After Falon told her about his past, she figured he would make some excuse and leave. She hadn’t been planning on him rolling her on her back and showing her how to enjoy the present.
She felt a little uneasy about how he would react in the light of day. She had woken alone this morning and wasn’t sure if that was for the best or not. Last night she felt a connection grow between them, but what did he want from her now? She had a feeling that connections were strictly in the no-no column for Falon Wolfe.
These thoughts were what kept her butt in her chair instead of marching next door and dragging him by his expensive silk tie into the ladies’ room for an afternoon quickie. She would leave the next step up to him. He probably would shut down again if she tried to take the lead again anyway.
“Hey.” She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of Marcy’s voice.
“Jeez!” she said, holding a hand over her racing heart and glared at her friend. “What the hell?”
Marcy placed her hands on her hips. “What’s with you? It’s not like I snuck up on you.”
“Right. Sorry. I guess I was just caught up in …”
“In thoughts of tall, dark, and brooding next door?”
She felt her face heat, a sure sign the other woman would pick up on. There was no use in denying anything.
“He … may have stopped by last night.”
“What?” Marcy let the door close behind her before taking a seat across from Sarah. “Did he stay the night?”
“I’m not sure.” And that was what was bothering her the most. She wasn’t sure if he had waited until she had fallen asleep to sneak out of her bed. Or if he had waited until early morning to return to his hotel in order to keep up appearances. With Falon, she didn’t know where she stood.
“How can you not be sure?” Marcy studied her for a moment. “I can’t believe he’s that bad.”
She felt herself blush further and had a feeling that if she were outside it could be seen from space.
“Just the opposite actually.” She sighed. “God, Marcy. I didn’t know it could feel so good.”
“But?”
But the man was so in control that it almost felt like making love to a machine, a very talented, very conscious machine. But he was someone too systematic to have been lost in the moment. She couldn’t bring herself to say these things. She could only shrug.
“I don’t know.” And that was the crux of the problem. She didn’t know if he would ever be as lost as he made her feel. She wanted him to fall into her body and what she made him feel. And as desperate and needy as it sounded she wanted it all to mean something to him.
“I get it,” Marcy said after a beat of silence.
“Do you? Care to let me in on this little secret because I’m not sure I even understand it.”
“You want him the way every woman wants a man.” She could only raise a brow at her friend. “Not that way. Yes, you want his hot bod. But you want him in the ways that matter. I get it. Trust me, I do.”
She didn’t want to think about what her friend was implying. How could she want a man like Falon? Really want him? The image of waking up beside him suddenly assaulted her and she knew she was in deep trouble because Marcy just may be right.
“I don’t think so, Marcy.”
Marcy looked at her for a moment before giving a negligent shrug. “Whatever you say, cupcake. If you want Mr. Control to break, it sounds like you need to deploy drastic measures.”
“Drastic how?”
“Do you own anything in black lace?”
***
Falon sat behind his borrowed desk getting nothing accomplished. Again. This idleness grated against his nerves and put him on edge and it was all her fault. After Sarah had fallen asleep last night, he had quickly pulled his clothes back on and left before he gave into the urge to curl his body around hers and sleep.
Now he felt like a coward for slipping away under the cover of darkness. Damn it. He hadn’t signed on for this. When his body reacted to Sarah, he thought it was the perfect solution while in town. He thought that they both knew the score, but it seems along the way he somewhere slipped. Somehow that tiny woman had him thinking things he hadn’t entertained in years.
He felt his teeth grind together as his jaw tensed once more. He could do this. He just had to remember his priorities. Do the job and move on. No connections, no emotions. They were dangerous, uncontrollable. It didn’t matter how sweet sinking into Sarah’s heat was or how beautiful she was colored by moonlight. Shit. When had he started waxing poetic?
“Get it together, Wolfe.” He ran a hand down his face. “She’s just a woman. Like all the others.” For some reason, his words echoed hollow in the room. Maybe he should end it now before he did something he would regret. Like fall in love.
He had to get out of there. Pushing back from the desk he left the office, his long strides carrying him toward the door. He would have made it out of the building if a brunette powerhouse hadn’t blocked his only escape.
Hand on her shapely hips, Marcy looked ready to do battle. He felt his stomach drop.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Out,” he growled, motioning for her to step aside. He had no patience to waste on being polite. The woman merely arched a condescending brow before sliding to the side allowing him access to the door once more.
As he passed, he couldn’t help thinking he saw a smug smile on her face. He was sure of it when her laughter followed him into the elevator. For the first time in nearly ten years, Falon entertained the idea of taking the afternoon off.
***
“I can’t believe I’m actually doing this,” Sarah said under her breath as she watched the young hotel employee she shamelessly flirted with to let her into Falon’s room unlock the door.
“S’unlocked.” Her unknowing partner in crime looked a little nervous. She smiled at him, hoping her nerves weren’t showing. It wouldn’t do to back out now. Not when she talked herself into going this far, made goo-goo eyes at a boy she wasn’t sure was of legal age, and stopped by that pricey lingerie shop on the way.
She thanked the young man before tentatively entering the room. She was hoping Falon hadn’t returned yet. When Marcy called and told her he had left the office, she almost scrapped her plans, afraid he would be waiting behind the door. Looking around the empty room she realized a part of her was hoping he would be.
“Now or never,” she said, looking around the sitting area before heading to the bedroom of the suite.
Talking to Marcy this afternoon had made her realize that her heart needed to know she wasn’t just another notch in Falon’s bedpost. She needed to know she wasn’t the only one feeling the connection that sizzled between them. This was the last attempt she would make to reach beyond his walls of ice. If he didn’t respond, she would know there was nothing beyond the sexual heat between them.
That she could deal with. It was not knowing and never going after what she wanted that would kill her. This thing with Falon had made her realize she had been giving up on what she wanted her entire adult life. She had altered her career when she lost her family because her grandfather had no one left but her. She felt she owed it to him to give up her dreams as she watched him deal with the crumbling loss of his only son.
She didn’t regret her choice now. She loved working for the agency, but she wasn’t going to let the possibility of heartache keep her from her dreams any longer. And if she were going to be completely honest with herself Falon had been a dream of hers for far too long.
Focusing on the task that brought her to breaking and entering, she unloaded her cache onto the bathroom counter. She had one shot to get the Iceman to open up and she prayed she was ready to accept the consequences.
***
Falon slid the slim plastic card that served as a key into the slot in the door. He couldn’t believe he had skipped out of the office. Things were moving along ahead of schedule, but that was no excuse for his irresponsibility. He was missing a meeting with one of the agency’s biggest clients to come back here and wallow in the quagmire of his thoughts and self-pity. What the hell was wrong with him?
The soft glow of candles didn’t register in his muddled brain until he had removed his suit coat and placed it over the back of a chair. That’s when he noticed hundreds of wicks dancing around the sitting area and leading into the bedroom. What was going on?
A chill shivered down his spine and setting at the small of his back, he wasn’t sure if he should leave the room and call security or investigate. The delicate smell of honeysuckle—an aroma he would forever associate with Sarah—drifted from the bedroom, making up his mind. What was the little minx up to?
He toed off his shoes and loosened his tie before slowly crossing the room. In the bedroom was a picture that would forever be seared in his memory. Sarah lay, sprawled across the bed he had been sleeping in for weeks. She wore nothing more than a few strategically placed scraps of black lace that he supposed passed as lingerie. They looked more like sensual barriers designed to drive a man beyond all reason. Just hiding her delicately tipped breasts and the heaven at the juncture of her thighs, he could commiserate with all those men driven to madness by a woman.
He wasn’t sure his restraint could withstand the torment her supple body presented. A woman had never tested him as much as Sarah. She spoke to a primal part of him that he had worked so hard to suppress, bringing to the forefront the essence of a man he was afraid to be. Swallowing in an attempt to wet his suddenly dry mouth it took him a moment to gather his thoughts.
“Sarah?” His voice came out a husky mess causing him to wince. He didn’t want her to affect him this much. He didn’t want the feeling of warmth that was unfurling in his chest as the fact that she had done all of this for him registered, amping up his arousal. She had planned this seduction of his senses, wanted him to find her like this, open for him to devour. The thought sent a lightning bolt of heat to the groin causing his already painful erection to harden further.
He hadn’t realized he was moving until he stood directly over her. He watched in amazement as she regarded him with eyes made sleepy with arousal. Her tiny hand playing delicately with her collarbone stole his attention as the sensual movement made his teeth hurt with the urge to follow those fingers with his mouth, teeth, and tongue.
***
Sarah lay on the bed looking up at Falon, feeling more powerful than she ever had in her life. When she heard the door open, she felt a flutter of nerve in her belly as fears flashed through her brain, the image of him laughing at her attempt at erotically seductive at the forefront.
Then she saw him silhouetted in the door and all thoughts of fear fled as arousal hit her like a freight train. The idea of being on display for him was a stronger turn on than she expected. Seeing his eyes glitter in the candlelight as he took in the room then finally landed on the bed and more importantly her body wantonly spread across it.
When he growled her name, she felt her womb clench in primitive response. She wanted this man and the fact that she was the reason his chest rose and fell in shallow breaths and she was the cause of the impressive tent growing behind his zipper emboldened her.
She watched through lust-lowered lids as his nostrils flared and his gaze followed her hand along its slow journey across her collarbone. Watching him watch her had her skin tingling and a steady ache throbbing between her legs. She was trying desperately to keep her rebellious body in control when every fiber of her being was urging her to have his weight upon her.
“Are you sure about this?” Falon’s glittering eyes never left her exposed body. “You know my rules, Sarah, I’m leaving in a few weeks, and nothing is going to change that.”
She crawled to the edge of the bed and took hold of his tie. Two could play at this game, if he was going to try and distance himself from that was happening here she was going to make it as hard as she possibly could to do so. Reaching up and taking the end of his expensive silk tie in her hand, she began to slowly wrap it around her fist, drawing his face closer to hers. “Just shut up and kiss me.”
She barely had time to finish her whispered command before he was taking siege of her mouth, claiming it as his own and branding her forever. She dove into the sensations headfirst fully prepared to drown in the ecstasy she knew he could bring her.
Before she knew it, she was lying on her back ripping at his shirt in desperate need to feel his skin upon hers. His hands were tracing every inch of her as if trying to memorize her every dip and hollow while he frantically returned her kiss. Each thrust of his tongue had her hips bucking in an involuntary movement as old as time. Her body recognized its match and would settle for nothing less than his full invasion.
She let herself get lost in his expert hands for a moment, loving the feel of his lips and tongue tracing an erotic line from her lips down her jaw and throat. He was driving her crazy. When she finally ripped his shirt free of its buttons, forced it down his shoulders, and felt the shuddering response of his body to her touch, she pulled herself back to her senses.
She needed to take charge of this situation before he so expertly reduced her to a puddle of need. Pulling the tie that miraculously stayed around his neck over his head she wiggled out from under him, despite his growled protest.
“Ah, ah, ah,” she purred in response. “We’ve played by your rules long enough. It’s my turn.” She indicated that he lay on the bed. “Trust me.”
She held her breath as she watched her words clear some of the lust from his eyes. She knew she ran the risk of him ending things now with her words, but she needed to know if he would let her take the lead. He studied her for a moment before nodding once and lying rigidly upon the mattress.
Letting out a relieved sigh, she moved to straddle his hips and that impressive appendage that was straining to be released. Leaning down she let her lace-coved breasts rub his chest eliciting a hiss from them both.
“Good boy,” she whispered into his ear as she grabbed his hands and placed them on either side of his head on the pillow. “Keep them there or I’ll have to get creative with this tie of yours.”
She ran the silk tie down his chest to make her point and delighted as the rows of muscles there contracted at the contact. Following the cool fabric’s path with her lips, Sarah breathed him in. His warm, smooth skin under her fingers and mouth felt so right she nearly wept. As she moved lower, his stomach dipped in response to the abrasion of teeth and tongue. She couldn’t get enough of his taste.
His breath hitched anew when she snapped the button of his wool slacks and her intentions were made clear. His hips instinctively rose in acknowledgment allowing her to move the fabric and his boxer briefs below his hips. When his erection sprang free, she could only sit back on her heels and admire before taking him in her palm. Fascinated by the texture of velvet over steel, she teased him with her fingers before placing kisses to the hollow of his hips, moving closer to her destination.
She felt the bed shift and lifted her eyes to see his eyes screw shut tight in pleasure, holding the headboard like his life depended on it. Watching a bead of moisture form on the head of his erection, she supposed that it did. A secret smile danced across her lips before she lowered them and placed the first kiss to the straining flesh in her hand. Running her tongue along a bulging vein, she felt her own arousal heighten at his strangled groan. Taking him into her mouth was more sensual than she thought possible. She had never done this before but from the grinding of his hips and the grunts of pleasure she was certain she was doing something right.
“Enough.” Suddenly his hands were around her waist and hauling her up his body. “If your intention was to drive me crazy you’ve succeeded.”
Sarah was stunned by the unbanked heat she saw blazing in his eyes before he stole her breath in a kiss she was sure to recall well into old age. Falon made quick work of her minuscule lingerie and soon she felt his hands on all her needy places. Rebuilding the desire she had pushed back to bring him to the brink.
Moaning into his mouth, she thrust her hips into his hand as he increased the pressure of his talented fingers. His other hand tangling in her hair anchoring her head so he could devour her. This is what she had been missing from their previous lovemaking, this sense of his urgency that if he didn’t have her he would cease to exist.
She let herself get lost in the feelings he was creating, enjoying the ride up the mountain of sensations. She felt the pressure build and knew if she didn’t stop him she would fall over that edge and into the stars and she wanted to take him along.
Breaking the kiss she pulled his hands back to the pillow. “Tut, tut. Do I need to make good on my threat,” she breathed against his heated skin.
He sucked in a breath and looking about to issue his own challenge when his hands clenched into fists and he relaxed his arms. Sarah was momentarily stunned by his submission, but the pulsing of his need against her sensitive folds distracted her.
Right … first things, first.
She reached over his body and retrieved a foil packet from the nightstand. Using her teeth to tear it open, she quickly sheathed him before aligning their bodies. She hovered above him, his pulsing heat poised at her entrance waiting for him to open his eyes. When his gaze tangled with hers, she slowly lowered onto him, taking him to the hilt.
She sat, unable to move, unable to take her eyes away from his while her body grew accustomed to his invasion. Something passed between them in that moment of quiet stillness. It was like something inside Falon cracked and seeped into her as she gave a piece of herself to him. The burning need and emotions in his eyes propelled her into motion as she slowly slid up his length then lowered again, pulling a gratifying growl she felt rumble deep in his chest.
The next moments were a jumbled mix of unrestrained need and passion. Sarah flew to new heights while Falon placed himself in her hands, giving her the control of the moment and trusting she would be there with him every step of the climb and the inevitable fall into the stars. When they reached the peak, they came crashing down together in a symphony of breathless moans and satisfied hums.
Falling onto his chest, she tried to catch her breath as she came to grips with the new world he had forced her to see. She was barely aware of him rolling her onto her side and kissing her brow. When he slid from the bed to dispose of the condom, she felt a shiver rack her body.
“Don’t go anywhere,” Falon said, looking down at her with tenderness she never thought him capable of. Noticing her chill, he placed the comforter below her chin. “I need to go take care of the fire hazard you set up in the other room.”
Too stunned, she could only absently nod. Somewhere during their mad rush to completion a piece slid into place. Her world had tipped on its axis and now she was faced with the reality she wasn’t sure she was ready for.
Chapter Eleven
Sarah lay on the pillow of Falon’s shoulder as he idly traced patterns on the bare skin of her back. She should feel sated, satisfied, but the only thing she was feeling in the wake of his loss of control was guilt. Sure her body was pleasantly humming with the aftermath of his skill, but her mind was circling around the fact that she just played the only man she ever loved.
When he returned from blowing out the candles, he had taken her into his arms again. Playing her body in the sweetest torment as he brought her to the point where waves of sensation pulled them both under. The undertow pulled them both out into a sea of fireworks.
Coming back to awareness to find herself snuggled up to his side, his hands tracing the lines of her body had nearly brought tears to her eyes. How could she have thought this wounded man cold? Reserved and protective of his heart, yes, but the man she could feel watching her with tendered resolve was not cold.
“What are you thinking?” he whispered.
Here goes nothing.
“About you.”
“Is that so?” He chuckled.
She nodded into his warm chest, running a hand down his rather impressive stomach and smile. “About how I’ll never think of you as the Iceman again.”
He froze and she thought she ruined the moment before she felt his knuckle under her chin bringing her eyes up to meet his.
“You thought that?” he asked, searching her gaze.
“At first, yes.” Sarah looked for a sign in his face that it was okay to continue. When she noticed his remained open to her, his eyes clear of the chill of indifference, she felt confident in continuing. “You seemed so different.”
That caught his attention. His eyes sharpened and some of that calculation returned to cool his warm eyes.
“Different from?”
How much to tell him? She didn’t want to hide anything from him, not anymore, but she was afraid how it would look if she went forward with “from the last time you brought me to screaming orgasm.”
“When I said that I didn’t know you in college that wasn’t exactly the truth.” When he pulled back a little, she hurried on. “I knew your roommate, Jim, pretty well. He helped me through the loss of my family.”
And it was the night that I went looking for him that I found you and a little piece of myself, she didn’t say the words that balanced on the tip of her tongue.
“Anyway, it wasn’t like you weren’t a living legend in out dorm or anything,” she tried for nonchalance but failed miserably.
“We lived in the same building?”
She nodded¸ unsure if he was upset about this revelation.
“Same floor actually. Not surprised you don’t remember me, I didn’t exactly run in the same crowd.” She sighed. “Anyway, I had seen you around”—understatement—“and, like nearly every other girl I knew, had a mild crush on you.” Even bigger understatement.
She tried to smile and failed. “This doesn’t make things weird now, does it?”
“Weird? A little.” When she tried to wiggle out of his arms, he tightened his hold. “It’s weird that you were right there and I never noticed.”
“Yes, well, you had other things to keep you busy,” she replied tartly, remembering the trail of hearts Falon left in his wake that year. Including hers.
“I’ll admit to letting off a little extra steam my senior year,” he answered. Amusement at her obvious jealousy danced in his toffee eyes before being replaced with something darker.
“What is it?” She was almost too afraid to ask. She didn’t want to watch him shut back down.
“Just remembering … my grandfather asked me to take a position in his corporation that year. He said that he wanted to make up for the mistakes of his past and wanted me to take my rightful place in the company.” He released a bitter laugh. “I turned him down flat. I was so determined not to become a man like him.”
“What kind of man is he?” She had been wondering since Falon first mentioned the man and couldn’t help asking.
“A man who would disown his own flesh and blood for not living up to the pompous standards he sets.”
The venom in his voice made her wince. There was yet another secret there and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know all of the details. Instead, she kissed a trail up the column of his throat delighting in the rough texture of his stubble as her lips found their way to his. She would worry about the implications of what he was saying later. Right now, she just wanted free his mind of everything but the feel of her skin on his.
***
Her hair dripped onto the tiles of the bathroom floor as she rushed to silence her phone. Falon was still sleeping in the other room and she didn’t want to wake him just yet. She still needed to figure out what she was going to do. What had started as a challenge of her own perceptions of the young man Falon had been had grown into something that, frankly scared her shitless. She could see now that her actions weren’t solely to prove to him that he wasn’t this block of ice, but that she was proving to herself that she wasn’t that undesirable creature he had made her believe she was all those years ago.
The fact was she had changed nearly as much as he had. She wasn’t that wide-eyed little girl half in love with a man she didn’t know anything about. Life had taught her a few valuable lessons and she had a feeling that the events of nine years ago weren’t as simple as they appeared.
Glancing at the name flashing across the screen of her phone she figured answering now would save her hours of harassing calls. Not wanting to risk ruining it she turned it on speaker.
“Hey.” She tried to keep her voice low.
“Hey yourself.” Marcy’s voice bounced off the walls of the posh bathroom.
“Shhh.” She huddled over the phone trying to block the noise with her body.
“I take, by the volume of your voice, you’re not alone.”
“Falon is sleeping in the other room.” She blushed while glaring at her friend through the phone. “What do you need at seven in the morning, Marcy?”
“Oh, just enjoying a nice cup of coffee and a beautiful sunrise.”
“Seriously, cut the crap, Marcy.”
She heard her friend sigh into her phone. “Okay, I was just wondering if the mission was accomplished. Did you bring that man to his knees, begging you to put him out of his misery? Did you finally get the Big Bad Wolfe back for the way he treated you all those years ago?”
She was about to answer when she heard the soft sound of fabric rustling. Afraid to look toward the half-open door she already knew the worst had happened. Swallowing hard, she forced herself to meet Falon’s arctic glare. From just the look, she knew he had heard every incriminating comment Marcy made.
“What? Wolfe got your tongue?” Marcy’s joke fell flat.
“I’ve got to go.” Sarah’s voice sounded hollow as she ended the call, her eyes never leaving the cold accusation aimed her way.
“Falon, I can—”
“It was all a game, then?” His harsh question made her wince. “What was it, Sarah? Did I turn you down for a date in college? Did you spend hours in your little box of a dorm room pining after a man you could never have?”
“No, Falon. I—”
“Enough.” The command rippled across her skin and she knew whatever tenacious relationship they forged the night before was over. “I don’t want to hear your excuses. Just know this, Sarah. I came here to do a job, and that job comes first. Doing you? That was just icing on the cake. I never intended to keep you. This was just a temporary thing, a way to burn off steam built up by dealing with idiots who can’t control their own finances.”
With that parting shot, he left her shivering in the middle of a hotel bathroom feeling cheaper than she ever had in her life. He was right to be angry with her. This whole thing started with her wanting to prove to the both of them she was a woman worth wanting. She hadn’t planned on their emotions coming into play or breaking a man she thought infallible.
Quietly she gathered her clothes, putting them on as quickly as possible. She knew attempting to talk to him now would be useless. She could only hope time would make him more receptive to what she had to say.
***
Falon heard the door quietly click shut and threw his fist into the wall. The pain radiating up his arm barely registered over the tight ache in his chest. When he was pulled from sleep by the hushed sounds of Sarah’s voice from the bathroom, a few erotic thoughts pulled him from the mattress.
He was fully prepared to make his dirtier fantasies come true while covering her body in soapy water when he heard another voice coming from the steam-clouded room. Not wanting to eavesdrop but unable to walk away once he heard his name mentioned, Falon stood in shock just inside the half-opened door. What he heard pulled him down from the high realizing he wanted to be with Sarah had given him. Hearing she had just played him for some petty college-age revenge burned a hole in his now vulnerable heart.
It hadn’t been real. Not of what she said or did was been because she felt anything other than an obvious deep-seated anger directed at him. Falon reacted the only way he knew how. He cut her deeper than the wound she had delivered to him. As the words left his mouth, a part of him wanted to frantically draw them back and beg her to forgive him. As he watched her crumple under his verbal barrage, the satisfaction he usually felt when besting a foe was absent.
Lying in the cooling bed that still smelled of Sarah and their lovemaking, he pushed his tenderness for her behind the cold wall of his resolve. She had used him, lied to him, she didn’t deserve his sympathy. He squeezed his eyes shut trying to dispel the image of her standing in the bathroom, dripping water onto the cold tiles, looking at him like he was crushing her world.
Swearing, Falon sat on the edge of the mattress. It didn’t matter what she looked like in those moments when he lied and said she didn’t matter, that she was only icing on the cake. It was all a game to her anyway. None of it was real. The why did it feel like he was throwing away something so rare he may never find it again? Because, he let his stupid heart go and fall in love with the woman. He should have listened to his brain, but every time Sarah was near his heart spoke so much louder. It took letting her take control, trusting her to not let him fall to see how loud that voice was. And where did it leave him? Abso-fucking-lutely nowhere.
He ignored his conscience as it reared its head, reminding him he had set out to use her as his own private plaything. But that was before. Before she worked her way under his skin and stole a part of him he would never get back. So maybe it was partly his hurt pride that made him jump to conclusions about the conversation he overheard but it didn’t change what Sarah had done. He could deal with a lot of shit from people but someone deliberately working their way beyond his walls to bring him down from the inside was unforgivable.
