Deadly Ties (15 page)

“And I need to be pegged?”

Taylor shook her wet head. “Yes. For my peace of mind. I don’t know. I just--I don’t know.”“What are you worried about?”

When all else failed, Gavin had learned to go back to the starting question.

“Everything.”

“Another everything? Taylor, you can’t worry about everything. Most things work themselves out.” One long, wet lock fell forward and he tucked it behind her ear. She shivered as he traced the small shell shape with his finger.

“He didn’t call, Gavin. I tried Lieutenant Morris earlier, but he wasn’t in.”

Ahhh. “I’m certain things are fine, or he would have called by now.”

“Maybe.” She ran a hand absently through her hair.

He didn’t like her worrying like this. Gavin was mad as hell at the fact someone had broken into her house and vandalized her private living space. That Ryan hadn’t talked for almost three hours still infuriated him. But raw fury and yeah, fear, crawled through him at the thought of what could have happened to Taylor. However, there was little Gavin could do about any of it, at present, other than take their minds off of it all.

“You swim like an eel,” he told her, slipping his hands from her shoulders down her back, his forefingers on each side of her spine.

She bowed up, bring her breasts even closer to him. His gaze dropped to the barely hidden nipples. Not exactly hidden. She was obviously cold as he could easily see the points of her breasts through the thin, black material.

“Exactly how long were you watching?” Her head cocked to the side.

He didn’t raise his gaze, wondered what she’d do if he just leaned in and kissed one.

“That’s for me to know.”

“You don’t think I knew you were there?” Taylor wiggled slightly, shifting her position on his lap, and what little blood he had managed to control thus far went racing to his groin.

Gavin grunted and placed his hands on the curve of her waist to keep her still. She hadn’t known he was there, in the shadows watching her slice through the water as though she’d been born in the blue depths. Taylor had remained oblivious for almost fifteen minutes. He knew the moment she felt him watching her. Her strokes had stopped and she jerked up in the water. No, she hadn’t been aware of him, but he had damn sure been aware of her.

“You know, you’re even more sexy all wet,” she murmured, one hand lifting to streak

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through his hair while the other slid over his shoulder and down to his chest, her nails slightly scraping .

“You think I’m sexy?” Gavin couldn’t keep the smile out of his voice. “Funny. I was thinking the same thing about you.” He pulled her even closer. Her long legs bent on either side of him as he leaned back against the edge of the pool.

Her smile…. God he loved her smile. Those dimples just tugged at him and made him want to kiss her until neither of them could think.

She pulled her lower lip between her teeth. On a whisper came, “I’m glad you called when you did.” Her head shook and she leaned into him until their chests were almost touching. “I’d thought of you all day long, even though I tried not to. I was really looking forward to our little afternoon.” Her sigh breezed against his mouth. “I’m sorry if I seemed ungrateful earlier, I just--

it’s been.…”

When Taylor stopped, he supplied, brushing a thumb across her bottom lip. “A bad day?”

Her tinkling laugh flirted between them. “Not the worst, granted, but it still ranks among them.”“I have a prescription for a bad day.”

Her dimples were driving him mad. Russet brows rose in mock fascination. “Oh, doctor, please tell.”

“Have I told you, I like it when you get all sassy?” White teeth flashed at him and the corners of her eyes narrowed on her smile. Gavin continued, “Why don’t I show you my cure for bad days?”

He leaned into her closing the distance between them. Their lips met, parted, and tongues tangoed, first meeting in a gentle dance, only to duel in furious abandon. Her breasts grazed his chest. Just three little swatches of cloth separated him from all what he wanted.

Gavin moved his hand, traveling up her stomach, over the triangle of spandex covering one breast. Taylor sucked in a quick breath. His hand continued on to that long smooth column of throat, where he wrapped his fingers around to caress her nape. Her shiver brought a smile to his lips. Gavin gentled the kiss, drawing it out. He stretched his hand across her waist, rubbing her hipbone until she squirmed against him. She tilted her head to the side and Gavin kissed the pulse, felt it beating beneath her jaw. Dimples. He kissed back to the side of her mouth, where his tongue delved and tasted those curious little dents.

Her whispered giggle had him pulling back.

“No one’s ever kissed my dimples before,” she told him, in that lowered voice made for seducing.

“This is first for me too. Virgin Dimple Kissing.”

Her chest vibrated against his as her laughter filled the air.

“Shhh,” he warned her. His parents’ bedroom was directly above the pool. He might be over thirty, but he still didn’t relish the thought of his mother looking down on him making out in the pool with a girl. Some things were better for parents not to see, in his opinion.

“Sorry,” she whispered against his mouth before her lips lowered to his.

Gavin was so taken back that she kissed him, he sat frozen for a moment. Her tongue explored the edge of his lips, before dipping down the side of his neck. At the base, near his

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collarbone, she gently suckled and Gavin almost came up off the step.

Grabbing her head in his hands, his fingers lost in her hairline, he kissed her as he wanted to all evening. His wasn’t a gentle kiss, or a longing kiss, but one of possessiveness, of expectations, of want, and Taylor returned it stroke for stroke and caress for caress.

Their hands glided over wet, slick skin. Gavin cradled the side of her face in his hand as he kissed her jaw line, the length of her neck and her chest, tasting all those little water droplets. His hands followed his mouth to cradle the sides of her breasts. She wasn’t overly endowed, but he didn’t care. She was made perfectly to fit in the palm of his hands. His thumbs flicked out and rubbed their centers, bringing a low moan from Taylor. The sound filled the night air around them. He no longer cared who looked out a damn window. He leaned close and pulled one nipple into his mouth through the material. She arched, pressing her breast against him as her hips shifted on his.

“You are beautiful,” he whispered.

Her fingers splayed against his head, urging him on. In one deft movement, he untied the string holding up her top and let it fall, the ribbons floating in the water like lazy black snakes.

He left the back strap buckled. He’d get to it later, after all, he uncovered what he wanted to see.

The moon had banished most of the clouds and he could see the creamy paleness of her breasts against the pink softness of their centers.

“Beautiful.” Gavin lowered his head to kiss the valley between her breasts before giving them equal attention with his hands, his mouth, his tongue. He twirled his tongue around her nipple before pulling it into his mouth. Taylor moaned against the back of her throat. He followed the moan up her neck, to catch it in his mouth.

His fingers rippled over her ribs down to her hipbone, and up the curve of her legs to her knees where he drew circles on them. She shifted on him again, still astride him, her knees bent on either side of his torso, she leaned down and blazed a hot wet trail down his neck, his chest.

When her teeth scraped his nipple, he couldn’t remain quiet.

“Taylor.”

He moved his hands down her legs to curve around her muscled calves. Their mouths met again in a hungry dance of passion.

Gavin had to touch her. His fingers trailed up the inside of her legs, over the bony cartilage of her knees to the soft, supple skin of her inner thighs. Her breath shuddered into his mouth.

Teasing her he trailed a single finger on both sides of the edge of her bikini bottoms.

Taylor’s breath hitched. Slowly, so very slowly, he slipped his thumbs beneath the elastic. Taylor whimpered into his mouth as he touched her heated core, gently pressing in, then retreating.

“Easy,” he calmed her.

God, he wanted to be inside her. Now. He was so hard, he hurt.

His thumb flicked over the tiny bundle of nerves that he knew could send her over. He slipped another finger under the barrier between them and then another, promising what could come. Taylor’s breath went ragged as she kissed him with as much passion and want as was coursing through him.

When his finger filled her, Taylor arched against him sighing out his name. “Gavin…”

She was hot and tight. He worked another digit into her, working his fingers deep, his

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thumb flicking back and forth over her clitoris. With his other hand, he reached behind her and caressed her bottom, watching her as her head fell back and the moonlight bathed her in its pale glory.Her hips rocked against his hand, her chest panted in the moonlight and Gavin just watched the beauty take hold.

He pressed and circled his thumb.

“Oh God, Gavin.…” When he felt her tighten around his fingers, he pulled her head up to look in her eyes. As the climax ripped through her, she vised around him, and her eyelids slid down.Gavin pulled her to him and ravaged her mouth.

“I want you out of this damn thing now,” he said into her mouth.

Her throaty chuckle answered him. “I might need some help there.”

Gavin was already working on the drawstring of his swim trunks. Taylor’s arms slid from his shoulder to unhook the back of her bikini top. As she leaned up to remove the rest of her suit, a light from the upstairs window glared down and caught them in its illumination.

Both jerked their heads around, though Taylor was off his lap and now neck deep in the water looking for her top, no doubt.

Damn.

Just before the light went back out, Gavin thought he saw a man standing at the balcony doors, behind sheer curtains, directly above the pool.

Well, hell.

“Oh God,” Taylor said, mortification clear in her voice. “Oh. My. God.”

He turned and gave her his attention. She was quickly working herself back into her bikini top. The evening had effectively been doused.

“That was your father!” Her furious whisper was not lost on him. “Oh my God!”

Gavin swam to her, but she ducked out of the way, tying the ribbons back behind her neck.

“Taylor.”

“I am almost thirty years old and I will never be able to look either one of your parents in the eye again.
Never
!” Her voice was so incensed he couldn’t help but laugh.

“You think this is funny?” she fired at him.

“No, actually, I don’t.” He still wanted her, so much he ached, and it was obvious to him that wasn’t going to be happening tonight.

“I have not been this…. I can’t believe.… What if they
saw
us?” Taylor flustered was a sight he had yet to see. This was a new side of her. She swam to the side of the pool and started to get out, but Gavin followed her and gripped an ankle.

“I already forgave you once for that tonight,” she said, turning to him.

Gavin shook his head. “Come here.”

“No.”

“Why not?” Three heartbeats later and he was wondering what she was going to come up with. “I’m going to bed that’s why.”

“At least one of us can,” he muttered. Had there not been an interference she might be going to sleep in his bed--okay, maybe not to sleep--but Gavin was smart enough to know this

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was not the time to voice such a thought.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Gavin pulled her to him. “Don’t I even get a good night kiss?”

Her heavy sigh filled the air. “No.”

“Come on,” he coaxed.

She muttered to herself. Something about lack of passion and cold fingers.

“What?” he asked.

She huffed. “Nothing.” She tried to wiggle out of his hold, but stopped. “What are we doing?” she asked him,

He thought it wise not to answer.

“I’ve never been in this situation before. I mean your parents … and all the … all the.…”

She waved a hand. “Rest.”

“The rest?” Gavin wondered what she was talking about now.

Taylor looked away. “You know…. The rest.”

Gavin had to bite the insides of his cheeks to keep from laughing. “By the rest, you mean me driving you crazy with lust?”

Taylor tried to jerk away from him, but he was having none of that.

“Will you let me go?” she asked him.

“No.” He pinned her against the side of the pool, rocked against her so she could feel his erection. She gasped. “Answer the question.”

She shook her head at him. “Yes, that’s what I mean. I’m not good at it.”

“Not good at what?” Now he was lost.