Double Dare (13 page)

He simply wanted all of her.

Finally, they reached her door. Sam sighed
with relief, while Lou fumbled in her purse for her key. A line
emerged between her delicate brows, and Sam caught himself before
he lifted his thumb to smooth the wrinkle away. “I-I can’t find it.
I know I put it in here.”

“
Let me look.” Sam took the
purse from her, although his big hands felt awkward as they fumbled
through the tiny bag. His search proved futile as well. Damn. He’d
have to call the front desk.

“
It’s not in here. Either
it’s still in your room, or you’ve lost it. Come on,” he told her.
“We’ll call the front desk from my room and get someone up here to
open your door.”

Lou smiled sleepily, jerkily nodding her
head. “Mm-kay. Thanks.”

Sam slid the card into the electronic lock,
opened his door, guided Lou in, then helped her settle on the side
of his bed. She looked small and forlorn and a little bit confused
in her drunken state. Like him, he suspected the buzz had begun to
wear off and a draining weariness had settled in.

The alcohol had gathered in another place as
well. Sam winced, then excused himself to the restroom. “I’ll only
be a minute, then I’ll make that call.”

Lou nodded again, her lids drooping.
“Mm-kay.”

Sam grinned, then went to take care of
necessary business.

When he came back, Lou had curled up on her
side and gone to sleep. The light from the lamp gilded her curls,
painted pale shadows on her rosy features. She was beautiful,
utterly beautiful; and for the life of him, he couldn’t tear his
gaze away. Desire still thickened his blood, but a gentler passion
coursed there as well, leaving him content to simply look at
her.

Sam braced his hands at his hips, fighting
the alien emotion which had seized him. Watching a woman sleep
shouldn’t affect him this way, he reasoned, alarmed at the
intensity of his feelings. Shouldn’t make him feel like his heart
would swell out of his chest. Shouldn’t make an odd emotion crowd
his throat. Shouldn’t make his hands tremble.

But it did.

On the precipice of an emotion he wasn't
prepared to name, Sam drew back. He looked away, then like a lonely
sailor seeking a home port, his gaze returned to Lou.

Aw, hell.

Something warm, hard and decidedly male was
spooned against Lou’s back. Were that not disconcerting enough to a
woman who didn’t recall going to bed—much less inviting someone to
join her—the big hand attached to the male presently cradled her
breast in the softest of embraces.

However, the same could not be said for the
hard ridge of arousal pressed intimately to her backside. 

Common sense told Lou she
should be alarmed, even frightened. She should try to slip from
this bed without waking Sam, and put as much distance between them
in this tiny room as possible. Unfortunately, she had the most
overwhelming urge to, well, for lack of a better
term…
wiggle
.

Closer to him.

A warm sensation of desire had started deep
within her and instinctively she knew Sam was the only man who had
the ability to assuage it, if that was even the right word. Were
there words for this? It seemed improbable.

A few blurry memories filtered back to Lou.
Sam joining her for dinner, accompanying her to the bar, his firm
but reassuring hand at her back. Sam laughing with her, his face
relaxed, his usual tension replaced with an easy grin designed to
set her pulse aflutter. Sam’s heated gaze as it had met hers, the
reciprocating energy that drew them together. Sam guiding her out
of the bar.

From there, Lou only remembered lying down
the bed. Presumably, she’d gone to sleep.

But why had she gone to sleep in Sam’s bed?
she wondered. Lou knew from what she saw in her immediate vision
that this couldn’t possibly be her room. It was too neat.

Without conscious thought, Lou’s body
responded to Sam’s nearness and she wriggled closer to him. Sam’s
incoherent grumbling stirred the hair at her nape, even as his hand
tightened around her breast, causing her nipple to pucker. He
flexed his hips, sliding the hot, hard length of him more closely
to her.

A shiver danced up her spine. Liquid head
spread through her limbs and gathered at her center. Lou squeezed
her eyes shut, alternately swearing at and savoring the intense
pleasure which arced though her. Need tightened within her, forcing
her to swallow, to maintain some semblance of control.

Unable to help herself, Lou turned ever so
slightly. She wanted to see Sam in the vulnerable state of sleep.
Thick lashes, that a just God wouldn’t have bestowed upon a man,
fringed those incredible eyes hidden beneath his pale lids. His
lips looked soft, yet firm and curved sexily as though he were
savoring a particularly delightful dream. Dark stubble shadowed is
angular jaw, giving his relaxed features a roguish air.

Lou longed to rasp her thumb against that
jaw, to trace the slope of his brow and feel the baby soft patch of
skin high on his cheek. A tender emotion bloomed in Lou’s chest.
She wanted to learn his face with her fingertips the way a blind
man might study a sculpted work of art.

Sam’s eyes fluttered, then slowly opened. A
sleepy, contented smile curled his lips into a grin which took the
very breath from her lungs. Then he drew her closer, more secure in
his warm embrace.

Lou didn’t breathe, silently praying that
realization wouldn’t come too quickly. She watched his eyes clear,
awareness come by degrees. One…two…three…bam! He tensed and drew
back a fraction.

Lou knew she shouldn’t, knew she’d be making
a mistake that would undoubtedly cost her dearly. Not only was her
pride at stake, but her heart was at risk as well.

But need surpassed reason and she simply
couldn’t stop herself. Lou turned her head and gently brushed a
tentative kiss against Sam’s lips, silently taking his dare.

Sam hesitated…then groaned, an agonized growl
that sounded as though it had been ripped from his very soul.

Then he kissed her back.

Not a light kiss, like Lou’s, but a deep,
dark kiss that promised sin and fulfillment, rapture and wicked
torment. Lou felt her limbs relax with a sigh that made even her
bones melt.

“
Lou?” Sam murmured against
her lips.

“
Wh-what?”

“
Are you sure? You’ve got
exactly three seconds to decide, then I—”

“
I’m sure,” she replied
without hesitation, secretly thrilled.

“
Thank God,” Sam breathed
raggedly.

He shifted onto his side, his hand molding
possessively to her hip. His fingers were warm as they played along
her skin, caressing her, arousing her. An excited heat thrummed in
her veins as Sam’s hand slid beneath her short skirt and eased it
down. His lips never left hers, his tongue plunged and retreated,
swirled and teased, then started the whole dizzying dance all over
again.

When he’d disposed of her skirt, Sam’s clever
fingers went to work unbuttoning her blouse. He did this with a
dexterity that surprised Lou, but she couldn’t think beyond that
because suddenly Sam’s hot mouth closed around her nipple.
Sensation flooded her. Lou’s eyes fluttered shut, and she
surrendered to his tongue, every suckle, deep within her womb. The
pleasure he was giving her was almost too much to bear, and she
arched and writhed beneath him.

Sensing what she craved before she scarcely
knew it herself, Sam loomed above her, dark and brooding. Need
radiated from every inch of his incredible frame. He settled
himself between her legs, his weight landing in just the right
place. Sam’s heat enveloped her, she breathed him in with every
breath, and the sheer joy was nearly too much for her.

Feeling exposed compared to Sam’s
still-clothed state, Lou tugged his shirt from the waistband of his
shorts, then drew it over his head. She’d admired his chest before,
but obviously hadn’t realized what masterpiece it truly was.

Fine muscle and bone, sinews and ridges, all
comprised a torso that would make Michelangelo’s statue of David
weep with shame. Lou smiled as her fingers traced hungrily over
Sam’s ribcage and chest. She scraped her fingernails over his
nipples, making him groan with a pleasure she reveled in.

“
Lou,” Sam
warned.

Emboldened, Lou lick one flat brown nipple,
feeling it harden beneath her tongue. Sam sucked in a harsh breath,
then rumbled and latched his own mouth on her breast. He sucked
hard, dragging the tightened peak across the roof of his mouth,
making Lou gasp in delight.

Then he eased down her belly, kissing each
and every rib, before his tongue swirled around her navel and dove
inside. Stiffening from the shock of pleasure, Lou’s thighs tensed,
quivered, then opened wide.

Then, to Lou’s astonishment, Sam’s mouth
continued moving down. Suddenly hesitant, Lou attempted to clamp
her legs together, but Sam stayed her with a touch of his hand.

“
Open for me, Lou,” Sam told
her. "I want to taste you.”

Lou’s hesitation melted beneath the desperate
heat in Sam’s voice. She felt his lips move along the insides of
her thighs, felt his warm breath fan her curls, then he parted her
tender folds and stroked a finger over the sensitive flesh. Before
Lou’s body could respond to the erotic delight, Sam’s mouth was on
her.

Lou bucked gently from the bed, a cry caught
in her throat and her eyes shivered shut. The sheets fisted in her
hands. “Oh, my…” she breathed and said nothing more.

Sam treated to her to this mind-numbing form
of sweet torture until Lou simply couldn’t bear it. She grasped his
shoulders and dragged him to her, her lips feasting on him. Her
hands molded to his buttocks, then made the short journey to the
front of his shorts and she cupped him intimately.

Sam’s member jerked and pulsed beneath her
hand, making Lou smile in a very womanly way. The knowledge that
she held this power over him as well aroused her all the more. Lou
eased the button from the hold and made quick work of the zipper.
Sam’s shaft sprang forward, straining toward her touch.

“
Lou…” Sam murmured again,
his voice roughened with desire.
For
her
.

Lou disposed of his shorts
and boxers, then took him in her hand and explored his impressive
anatomy. For the briefest moment, Lou thought,
This won’t work! It’s physically impossible
. But common sense prevailed. It had been working since the
dawn of time. Obviously her body had been made to receive and
accommodate his. Still…a sliver of doubt remained.

“
You’re killing me,” Sam
growled, moving between her opened thighs. She felt the hard length
of him sliding between her folds. Back and forth, he glided,
stimulating the tiny button of desire nestled at the top of her
sex. He moved faster, and Lou whimpered and strained against
him.

Instinctively, she brought her legs up and
anchored them at his waist.

“
Are…you…sure?” Sam rasped
again, stroking her faster and faster, his gaze intense as it bored
into hers.

“
Yes!” Lou cried, feeling
her release crest. Her body arched beneath his, overwhelmed with
erotic bliss. “Oh, yesssss…”

“
Then look at me,” Sam told
her.

Lou’s eyes met his, then he drew back and
pushed slowly into her, burying himself to the hilt. Lou gasped as
a shard of pain lanced through her, but the pain was soon replaced
with a torment, a yearning, beyond words.

“
I’m sorry,” Sam told her,
concerned etched in every line in his face. “I know—”

Lou flexed around him, tentatively gripping
him with her feminine muscles, eliciting another anguished growl
from Sam. Mercy. Not only would it work…but it felt good. “A-aren’t
you supposed to move?” She certainly wasn’t an expert, but she’d
seen enough romantic movies to get the general idea.

Sam’s face went comically blank, then he
chuckled. “You want me to move?” He flexed his hips, drawing out,
then slowly sliding back into her.

Oh, yeah, Lou thought, feeling that delicious
pressure build again.

Sam withdrew, then plunged. Withdrew, then
plunged. “Like this?”

“
Th-that’s good,” Lou
murmured, closing her eyes again, happy beyond measure to give him
all of herself.

A thought occurred to Lou as Sam’s powerful
body repeatedly sank into her, bringing her to another, deeply
satisfying climax.

After last night, she didn’t appear to be in
any danger of succumbing to an alcohol addiction—but becoming
addicted to Sam, however, was a very real danger. Lou knew only too
well that she’d just fallen head over heels in love with her
adventure guide.

Too bad he’d never let himself love her
back.

Sam couldn’t begin to aptly describe the
myriad of emotions coursing through his heart and mind. When he’d
first succumbed to Lou’s sweet kiss, he’d thought he’d live to
regret making love with her.

Truthfully, he simply couldn’t help himself.
He’d been perpetually aroused and intrigued by Lou since the moment
he’d met her. By nature, Sam wasn’t a rule breaker. He lived by his
own guidelines and for the most part, never deviated from the
self-imposed restraints.

Lou had shattered his restraint. She’d gotten
too close. She’d slipped past every carefully placed shield and,
with the east of a cat burglar, sneaked past his guard and stolen
his heart.

Then she’d systematically
made him abandon every client/guide rule, and
this…
this
was the
mother of all no-no's. Romantic involvement with a
client.