DeliciousDanger (20 page)

“You’re right. I’m sorry.” His voice was husky as she pulled
her hand away. “I don’t want to embarrass you, but hell, Kelly, I want to fuck
you in the worst way. Feel the hot walls of that sweet little pussy tighten
around me. Milking me.”

“Rick, I…” She glanced over her shoulder to make sure they
were still alone.

He blew out a long breath and gave her one of his killer
smiles.“But that doesn’t mean we can’t tease each other a little, right?
Meanwhile give me one of those great kisses and then we’ll both try to sleep.”

“Oh, right,” she laughed.“Sleep.”

“We can meet in our dreams,” he whispered and tugged her
head down to his.

She thought it a testament to the man’s natural vigor that
even in his debilitated state he wanted to be inside her. His fingers sifted
through the flame of her hair again. They were still trailing in the strands
when his nighttime medication kicked in, his eyes closed and he drifted off to
sleep.

She slipped beneath the six-hundred-thread-count cotton
sheets on the fanciest rollaway she’d ever slept on. She should be drifting
easily off to sleep in this luxurious nest but her body thrummed with such
intense sexual anticipation she wondered if she’d ever get to sleep.

The connection was there. She knew it. She just hoped it was
as important to Rick Latrobe as it was to her. That it wasn’t just the urgency
and danger of his situation ramping up his feelings. She’d have to guard her
heart very carefully.

* * * * *

“Morning, beautiful.”

The husky voice was like a verbal caress as Kelly opened her
eyes. For a moment she couldn’t remember where she was or whose bed she had
slept in. Then she turned in the direction of the voice and saw Rick looking at
her, his vivid blue eyes hot and devouring.

“Hi.”

Now what? Kelly was sure someone would be along for his
morning routine. She should make herself scarce.

“Um, Troy will be in here in a minute to help me with some
stuff.” Was he reading her mind?“I just thought you should know.”

“Oh.” Then she realized what he was saying. “Oh! Okay. I
have to take Xena out anyway.”

“You’ve got time to shower if you want.” He gave her his
devil’s grin. “I won’t let him peek.”

She felt her face flush. “Thank you. I’ll be quick.”

She slid out of bed as gracefully as she could and made a
dash for the bathroom.

How did I get into this?
she asked herself over and
over as she took a fast shower, brushed her teeth and braided her hair.
What
in hell did I let myself in for? We had great—make that off-the-charts—sex but
really, we hardly know each other. Yes, there’s something there but is it just
a product of this situation?

Same old question, same old answer.

I hope not.

Thanking all the gods and goddesses that she wasn’t a slave
to makeup, she brushed gloss onto her lips, then knocked on the door and
called, “Safe to come out?”

“Come ahead,” Rick yelled and she could hear the mischief in
his voice. “I’m properly indecent.”

She cracked the door, peering around the edge. When she saw
Troy standing beside the bed, the sheet pulled up to Rick’s waist, she hurried
into the room. Pulling Xena’s leash out of her purse, she snapped it on the
dog’s collar.

“We’ll be back in a bit,” she told the men.

“There’s a door at the far end of the hall on the first
floor that leads into a green area,” Troy told her. “Probably the best place
for you to go. I already told security to be on the lookout for you.”

“Thanks.”

“Wait!” Rick called.

She turned, halfway toward the sitting room. “Did I forget
something?”

“You sure did. My kiss.”

She slid her glance over to Troy.

“I, uh, need to get another pack of bandages,” he told them
and loped out of the room.

Kelly moved over to the bed, Xena woofing beside her. Rick
reached out for her with his right hand and pulled her close.

“Just one kiss. To hold me until later.”

The kiss was just as steamy as the others had been and she
wondered if she might incinerate right where she stood. Just a simple contact
between them set every nerve in her body sparking and her blood pulsing. She
had to restrain herself from crawling up on the bed beside him and feeling his
body next to hers. “That’s enough.” She broke away, trying to catch her breath.
“Xena needs attention too.”

“Hurry back,” he told her.

She hadn’t had much time to look at Dogwood House when
they’d arrived the day before. Now, as she wandered through the wide area in
back of the graceful building, she was impressed by the carefully manicured
lawns and landscaping, the beautiful dogwood trees and the scent of freshly cut
grass in the air. Bearing no resemblance of any kind to a hospital or nursing
home, this was definitely a place for the very rich and famous to hide from the
prying eyes of the media or anyone who might want to do them harm.

Xena investigated every inch of space, lifting her nose now
and then as if testing the wind for a scent of danger.

There is nothing here to be afraid of.

“Well, that’s good,” Kelly told the dog. “I think that’s why
they brought Rick to this expensive fortress.”

But the danger is far from over. Be alert, Kelly.

“I think that’s why they brought
us
here. So we can
sense anything they might not be aware of.”

Besides, this way you and Rick can spend time together.

Kelly burst out laughing. “You wouldn’t be trying to play
matchmaker, would you?”

Her laughter was interrupted by a sudden growl from Xena who
instantly was back beside her.

“Whoa, Xena. What’s going on?”

“Excuse me. Miss Monroe?” The voice came from behind her.

Kelly whirled, heart tripping in an erratic beat. A man in
the Dogwood House security uniform of navy blazer and gray slacks had come up
so silently only Xena had been aware of him.

She pressed her hand to her chest. “Wow. You gave me a bit
of a scare here. You know who I am?”

“Yes ma’am. Sorry if I frightened you. I just heard you
talking to someone but I don’t see anyone else here.”

“Oh, that.” She let out a shaky laugh. “I was talking to my
dog.”

He lifted one eyebrow. “Your dog?”

She waved a hand at the air. “Yes. Don’t most people?”She
looked down at Xena. “Anyway, we’re done here. Come on, girl.”

The guard nodded politely to her on her way back in but she
could feel eyes on her as she led Xena to the elevator and rode up to the
second floor.

Rick was up and sitting in a chair when she came back into
the room, the first time he’d been out of bed since she arrived. His hair,
grown longer since he was in Maine, was wet and finger-combed back from his
face, he was freshly shaved and wearing a clean t-shirt and sweatpants. Relief
coursed through her. Better. He was really better.

In front of him was a table set for breakfast for two.

“I don’t know what you usually eat,” he told her, “so I hope
bacon and eggs is okay.”

“Fine. Anything is fine. Should you be up like this?”

He nodded. “Troy’s actually been getting me out of bed every
day so I can exercise my muscles and build up my strength. I can’t lie around
forever.” He lowered his voice. “I can think of some very healing exercise,
can’t you?”

Kelly laughed. “Aren’t you being a little overambitious?”

“Just hopeful.” He winked. “You never know until you try.”

She eyed him critically, seeing the telltale outline of the
bandages beneath his t-shirt. But if Troy said it was all right she had to go
along with it. The man knew what he was talking about.

“Come on.” Rick gestured toward the table. “Don’t let the
food get cold, Red.”

Red. She liked the nickname.

She was fascinated watching him eat, seeing the play of
muscle in his arms as he lifted his fork or his cup. She couldn’t stop looking
at the strong planes of his face, the line of his jaw, the mane of sun-streaked
hair.

“Your breakfast is getting cold.”

She looked up, startled. His eyes danced with amusement. She
lifted her coffee cup to distract herself. And him. “Sorry. I was just thinking
about something.”

“I hope it was the same thing I was thinking about.”

Fire blazed in his eyes and Kelly nearly dropped her cup.

The electric awareness between them was hard to miss. Anyone
coming into the room—Troy, who spent more and more time in the sitting room
with his laptop and cell phone, or Dan or Mike on their brief visits—politely
did their best to ignore it. But Rick used every excuse to pull her close to
him, to touch her, to steal a kiss from her.

By the end of the day she realized a routine had been set up
to guarantee his safety and it seemed to be working. Janet had given orders
that none of the staff was to enter the suite. Troy handled the medical side
and their meals were left on a rolling table in the hallway, the aide knocking
to let them know whenever it arrived. She was with him every moment and Xena
never moved from Rick’s side, not even to sleep next to Kelly. When any of the
partners came into the room, the dog became instantly alert and watchful.
Although she knew them and Kelly had signaled them as friendly, it was obvious
she trusted no one where Rick’s safety was concerned.

“Well, that’s what we wanted,” Dan commented that afternoon
when Xena sniffed him all over again. “We certainly got it.”

Nights were becoming a challenge, however. The second night
Rick coaxed her to climb up into the bed with him, holding her against his
uninjured side. She made sure to close the door first. She couldn’t lock him
away from Troy if he needed treatment but a closed door would certainly be a signal.
Xena lay on the floor where Kelly had signaled her to be at rest.

“I refuse to let you do anything,” she told him sternly.

“Oh?” he teased. “How about this?”

His hand slipped beneath the hem of her sleepshirt and
inched past the elastic band of her bikini panties. When his fingers found the
heat of her pussy she didn’t know which of them groaned louder.

“I promise this won’t injure me,” he breathed against her
ear. “But holding back might do me serious damage.”

“You’re incorrigible,” she whispered. Widening her thighs to
give him better accessibility.

“Take off your panties,” he told her, already trying to push
them down her thighs.

Kelly easily slipped them off, dropping them to the floor
beside the bed. Then Rick’s hand was back, big and warm, sliding over her wet
heat and cupping her mound.

“You have no idea how many nights I’ve thought about doing
this,” he told her. “When I was shot and riding the hard edge of pain, the
thought of your sweet little cunt was the only thing that got me through it
all.” His fingers moved up and down inside the lips, massaging the slick flesh.
“What I really want is my cock inside you. Here.” One finger slid into her
channel, then out. “And here.” It moved lower, between the cheeks of her ass to
her sensitive anus.

Kelly jumped at the electric jolt of the touch and clenched
her ass around the probing finger.

“The very first minute it’s possible,” he told her in a
voice rough with need, “you’re going to feel my cock here. And then all of you
will be mine. Got that, Red?”

Kelly shivered at his words. “That implies a lot more than
you might be willing to give,” she told him. It was hard trying to form
thoughts when his fingers had returned to her pussy and were stroking and
rubbing every inch.

“In my line of work when you know something’s good, you
don’t let go of it.” He licked the shell of her ear. “What about you, pretty
girl? What are you willing to give?”

Everything. All of it.

“All of me,” she told him in a soft voice. “Always.”

“When this mess is over we’re making plans. I just want you
to know that.”

Anything else she might have wanted to say was lost in the
sensations sweeping over her. Rick stroked her clit, circling it with the tip
of his finger until she thought she would go mad with the rampaging desire.
When he slid two fingers into her she clamped her thighs together, holding him
inside.

His soft chuckle vibrated in her ear. “That what you want?”
he asked, moving his fingers in and out.

“Oh. Yes. Please.”

Her hips moved, matching the rhythm of his hand, pushing down
hard every time he thrust inside her. She could feel her orgasm gathering deep
inside her. When he pulled his hand away she cried out in protest.

Rick shoved away the sheet and blanket covering him. “Come
up here, Kelly. Straddle me.”

“Oh, Rick, I don’t think…”

“Right. Don’t think.
I’ve
been thinking about this
all day. I’m a lot stronger than you think. Shit, I’ve crawled out of hellholes
feeling worse than this. It’s what I do. I can really handle this, Red. What I
can’t handle is not being inside you for one more day. But you’ll have to do
the work.”

“I don’t want to injure you.”

“You won’t. I’ll guide you.” When she glanced at the door he
said, “I told Troy to stay the hell away tonight. If I needed him one of us
would yell.”

“What about—”

He reached beneath his pillow and pulled out a condom,
grinning. “I got it out of my kit today when I shaved.”

Her laugh was a breathless sound. “Talk about planning
ahead. Okay, okay. But if I hurt you—”

“You won’t. Get over here.”

Biting her lip, she eased herself over his body, keeping her
weight on her knees. She took the condom from him and rolled it down on his
very hard, very erect cock. Then, using every bit of control she could muster,
with Rick’s hands at her waist holding her, she lowered herself onto his erection,
bit by bit, until he was completely inside her.