Beneath the Secrets: Part One (2 page)

Impatience wasn’t a trait he favored, but his blood ran hot for this woman and his hand moved quickly to swipe the key. On some level, he recognized this was an invitation for trouble. He shoved the idea away as ridiculous as he opened the hotel door and motioned her forward. She didn’t hesitate. In fact, she rushed forward, seeming eager to get out of the hallway.
 

Blake shut the door behind him, sauntering into the room to find her tossing her purse and briefcase on the typical luxury room high back chair by the window. He shrugged out of his leather jacket and tossed it on the king sized bed separating them. “You have my money?”

“I’ll need to review the file.”

He crossed the room, stopping at the desk and pulled the chair out, putting them within a few steps of each other. Blake opened the drawer and removed the file, setting it on top of the desk. He tapped the top of it. “Now you show me yours. Full exposure at the same time.”

Her lashes lowered, and he could almost hear her thinking about her next move, before her brown eyes met his and for just an instant he saw trepidation in her eyes. She blinked and it was gone, but he’d seen it, recognized it for the hesitation and fear that it was, and silently cursed. Holy hell. He was her first gig like this. She wasn’t even sure this was where she belonged but something made her desperate enough to do this. Fuck me. He was going to try and save her.
 

“All right,” she said, and she reached for her briefcase but instead of removing the file, she carried it with her towards him. She stopped at the chair and set it down, but didn’t reach for the file.
 
Instead, she stepped around the chair, close to him.
 

Blake didn’t wait for her to act. He pulled her to him, and maneuvered her against the wall. “Why are you here?”

“I thought we were pretty clear on that point?”

“I’m not.” He pressed one hand to the wall beside her, his body framing hers but not touching it. He wanted this woman, but if he could scare her the hell out of this room without touching her, it would be in her best interest. “Spell it out.”

“I have something you want. You have something I want.”

His body responded to that tease, his cock thickening against his jeans. “And yet you’re in my room, alone with me. You have to know that’s asking for more than a simple exchange.”

“It’s as simple as it gets. You brought my boss a file. If I like what’s inside it, I’m to make sure you’re rewarded. So I suggest you show me your file, Mr. Wright. Otherwise, you won’t be getting anything.”

She delivered the seductive promise with such Grande that he almost – almost – believed he’d been wrong about her, but not quite. “You don’t have to do this, you know?”

“You’re right,” she said. “I don’t. I can walk out of here with my envelope and leave you with yours. I just choose not to.”

“What is it he’s promised you to make you willing to sell your soul and your body for him?”

Her hand slid to his chest. “I have a choice.” She leaned into him and pressed her lips to his. She tasted like the same tangerine of her lipstick, sweet and tangy, tempting.
 

He didn’t respond at first, thinking through what came next, what he should do. She was inside Alvarez’s operation. He had no reason to trust her, or help her, and he wanted her more than he remembered wanting anyone in a very long time. So, why was he hesitating to take what she offered?
 

With a low growl, he slid his hand to her back and called her bluff. If he was right about her, he’d scare the shit out of her and have one hell of a cold shower afterwards. His mouth slanted over hers, tongue delving past her teeth, hand settling on her back, molding her soft curves to his hard body.
 

She melted against him, a soft moan sliding from her throat, her arms wrapping around his neck. Holy hell, he thought again. He could make love to this woman. Make her feel soft, sexy, and pleasured, and enjoy every damn second of it, seduce her into helping him. They had chemistry and attraction that would make this easy to blow off as a hot night that wasn’t as dangerous as it was for her future. But that wouldn’t save her, and she needed to be saved. He didn’t know why he knew this, but he did. The only way to help her was to scare the living shit out of her. To take her places she wouldn’t want to go and force her to see that this wasn’t where she belonged. That meant this was going someplace down and dirty, and hard and gritty.
 

His hand caressed over her side and upward, until he palmed her full, high breast, his fingers finding the already stiff peak of her nipple under the soft silk of her dress and, surprisingly, barely there bra. She arched into his touch rather than pulling away and he knew this was where he set the stakes higher. Where he pushed her.
 

He set her back from him, his eyes meeting hers, searching her face, searching her lovely, passion filled face, and damn it, he wanted her to stay all soft and wanting, just like she was now. But in all good conscience, and he hated he still had one, he couldn’t let that happen.

Blake backed away and sat on the edge of the bed, and damn she looked sexy with her hair down. “Take off your clothes.”

She blinked at him, and her creamy ivory skin paled even further, but she recovered quickly, drawing in a breath and reaching for the zipper running up the front of her dress. His blood thundered in his ears like he was some kind of randy teenager who hadn’t seen plenty of hot woman, and hot flesh, before. What the hell was it about this woman that set off a firestorm inside him? But he knew. His gut twisted with just how well he knew. She was gorgeous, out of her element, and she needed to be saved. Like someone else he’d failed to save. And damn it to hell, he thought he had enough distance from this to be calculated and cold, to finish this once and for all.
 

The dress shimmered down his new temptation’s hips and fell to the ground, leaving her wearing a cream-colored bra and panties set with little diamond sparkles, thigh-highs and heels. He drew in a heavy breath, reeling in the desire he knew he had to control. There was so much more on the line than sex, mostly for her.
 

She reached for her bra and he moved quickly, surprising her, and shackling her wrist. She was flat on the mattress, and beneath him in an instant, one of his legs between hers, because both would have been too much to bare. As it was, that scent of hers, all sweet and flowery, was like fire licking at his limbs. And his cock, which was against her hip, throbbed with the promise of how close he was to the also sweet V of her legs.
 

“You don’t have to do this,” he told her.
 

“I thought we already covered this?”

“Not well enough. You aren’t too far gone to turn back.”

“This coming from a man who has me almost naked in a hotel bed with him?”

“Almost, sweetheart. I didn’t think you’d have the courage to really strip for me. Whatever it is you think working for this guy will fix, it won’t. What do you need? Money? I’ll give you money if you promise to walk away from this and never look back.”

“So I’ll work for you instead of him?”

“No strings. You never have to see me again.”

“Are you seriously trying to save me?” she asked.
 

“Yes. I am.”

She studied him a long moment before her fingers curled on his cheek, the simple, delicate touch, sending a rippling sensation through his body. “You know what they say about those who try too hard to save other people?” She didn’t wait for a reply. “They say they need saving themselves.”

His hand slid to hers. “I’m way beyond saving, sweetheart.”

“So am I,” she whispered.
 

“I don’t believe that.”

“Then you’re looking too hard for something that’s not there.”

“I don’t think so.”

“If I can be saved then so can you.”
 

His lips twisted cynically. “We aren’t even in the same universe. Believe me. I’m lost. You can still be found.”

“You sound so sure.” She reached up and stroked his hair from where it already began to fall from the back at his neck, his fingers tugging it forward. Every time she touched him, his entire body burned. She had no idea how much willpower it required for him not to slide between her thighs and settle in for a long, hot night. “I wonder,” she contemplated, studying him with big, gorgeous eyes, he could get lost in forever, “if maybe we should both try to save each other and then in the morning, pretend we didn’t?”

Or maybe, Blake thought, in the morning he’d fly her off to some tropical paradise, away from this wicked winter hell of Alvarez’s world, and convince her she never has to come back.

The negotiation...

Blake’s mouth came down on hers, and this time he didn’t hold back. He wanted to save her. She wanted to save him. She didn’t have a chance where he was concerned, but the wicked heat of her kiss, the delicate play of her tongue against his, sure as hell would go a long way in helping him forget why that wasn’t possible, at least, for tonight.
 

His hand slid down her neck, over the soft silk of her shoulder and he tugged her bra strap down with him. Her skin was cool and he was hot. He wanted her hot in a nearly consuming way. It was illogical but he really didn’t care. His mouth traveled the delicate line of her shoulder blade and downward. Her fingers played in his hair, her touch affecting him far too easily, but then there wasn’t a lot of softness he let in his life. Normally, he’d snatch her hand, and hold it over her head. He’d do the touching, not her, so why wasn’t he doing that now? Why wasn’t he stopping her? Why the hell was he lingering at the sweet spot at the base of her throat when he could be ripping away her panties and burying himself inside her?

After all, he’d been on the edge before he’d ever met her, ready to finally get what he wanted, what he’d craved for two years. Knowing he was still too far away. His need for an escape, for something hard, fast, and furious, should be driving him. Instead an inescapable, dangerously distracting, need to save this woman, to please her, consumed him.
 

His fingers traced the clip in the center of her bra and unsnapped it, closer to having her completely bared to him. He wanted her bared to him. He wanted her naked, panting, and screaming his name. Blake caressed away the silk of her bra and framed her high, full breasts with his hands. She arched into him, and moaned when his mouth closed down on the rosy peek of one nipple. He took his time, teasing her, licking her, enjoying her, rather than ravishing her, slowly kissing his way downward, until he peeled her panties down her hips.
 

Something dark and needy expanded inside him at the sight of the dark, well-groomed triangle of hair between her thighs. He slid off of the bed, and took the panties all the way down her legs, at the same time he went to his knees, pulling her towards him.
 

She rose up on her elbows, her big brown eyes wide with emotion, without arousal, and yes–there it was again – just a hint of trepidation. No matter how hard she tried to hide the truth, a night with a stranger wasn’t the norm for her. Not even close.

His gaze raked over her lush breasts, his cock thick and pulsing, and he tugged his shirt over his head and got rid of it. He tossed one of her high-heels and then the other. “No shoes, keeps you from running away.”
 

“Then maybe you better take yours off,” she commented.
 

“I never run.”

“Neither do I,” she said. “But even the score. Shoes off.”

His lips quirked at her challenge and he gladly complied. “Satisfied now?” he asked settling her feet back on his thighs.
 

“Not yet,” she said. “But I have high hopes I will be.”

He laughed at that bold statement. She was a contradiction of fearless and fearful that intrigued him. “You will be,” he promised, and one by one, he rolled the lace-topped silk slices down her legs, skimming a path down her long, shapely legs. The woman had a killer body that would have had any man begging to be right here, opening her legs to him. And open she did as he settled one delicate instep on each of his shoulders.
 

He stroked a finger down her core and her legs quivered. “Slick and hot,” he approved. “You sure feel like you want to be saved.”
 

“I’m not sure saved is the word-”

Blake buried his face between her thighs, and suckled her nub. She gasped in surprise and he watched her fall back onto the mattress, her pink painted nails digging into the comforter. He smiled with satisfaction, lapping at her, delicately teasing and licking, even as his finger slid inside her, stroking her. And she unraveled for him, oh yeah she did. Soft moans and sweet nectar that were so sexy and perfect he could have licked her all night, but she wasn’t having it. She shattered for him, her body shaking, arching deliciously against his mouth and hand.
 

And then she rolled to her side, hiding her face, again with a contradiction. The bold beauty who’d challenged him to please her and now the shy beauty who’d just been pleased. Blake wasn’t having any part of her hiding from him. If he was going to influence her, and clearly sex had become his weapon of doing so, he needed to get to her; he needed to connect beyond an orgasm.