Fixing Justice (40 page)

Frown lines showed between eyes that bored into hers with an icy blue intensity that forced her to swallow the lump in her throat. For a second she glimpsed a fierce hunger in his gaze that quickly vanished as he shielded his expression with a slight dip of his head. “Thank you for coming,” he murmured solemnly.

The corner of her mouth quirked upward. “I wasn’t given much choice.” When he didn’t move or say anything else, she shifted uncomfortably and started fidgeting with the strap of her bag. “Are you going to ask me in or am I to wilt out here on the porch?”

Draegyn’s eyes snapped to hers as a warm riot of color washed across his features. “Oh, sorry. My bad,” he said, pushing the door open wide allowing her to pass by. Her senses prickled when she picked up the scent of minty toothpaste and the subtle hint of spicy bodywash as she skimmed close to his body.
So much for calming my heartbeat
, she thought darkly.

“Living room?” he asked, signaling with his hand to the large open space at the bottom of a three-stair descent from the foyer. Tori grasped the handrail making her way on legs turned to jelly, wearing the very same strappy sandals she’d worn the last time she was here.
Perhaps that wasn’t such a good idea
, she thought as a riot of images reminded her what had passed between them flooded her brain.

She was tossing her bag on the enormous sectional sofa, taking in the breathtaking views visible through the two-story wall of windows offering an unparalleled panorama of the desert landscape when he asked if she’d like something to drink. After a clumsy shake of her head in the negative, Tori reconsidered and asked for some water. She’d need something to head off the dry mouth attacking her senses.

Handing her a glass filled with water and chunks of ice, he gestured for her to sit.
Ah, so polite
, she thought. It was as if they both needed this veneer of composed civility in order to deal with each other. One part of her wanted to jump on him and tear his lying, cheating ass to pieces. The other part still wanted to jump on him, but for entirely different reasons.

Tori took a large sip of the icy water and cleared her throat. “How was New York?”

Drae watched as the sip she took slid down her throat. It was all he could do to remain seated and not lunge at her like a dying man in need of one final desperate connection. His mind had gone blank when he opened the door and found her standing there in a white sundress edged in black with thin straps that showed off her arms and shoulders. Her dress was simple and enticing, gathered beneath her breasts, ending above her knees with an embroidered handkerchief hem that made her legs look fantastic. Sitting as she was, with one leg draped over the other, smoothing the material covering her thighs, she looked angelic and damn desirable. The urge to lean in close and press his lips against her delicate collarbone had Drae reaching for his drink to cool the sudden thirst he felt.

Get your shit together, man
. Lusting after his wife wasn’t going to help matters. There it was again. That word.
Wife.
A couple of weeks ago the term seemed like a loathsome curse. It has been rolling off his tongue rather easily in recent days.

“New York was business,” he shrugged. “Nothing too strenuous, but talking about an assignment isn’t why I asked you here.”

She seemed to be weighing what he said with an undercurrent that made him feel uneasy. Quickly assessing her body language for clues he noted the rigid tension in her torso and how she was sitting ramrod straight on the edge of the sofa, her back no where near the soft cushion behind her.
Fuck.
Not good signs.

“Business, mmm hmmm.” she murmured. He detected a hint of sarcasm. Also, not good. Maybe a quick apology for leaving so quickly and never once contacting her would take some of the wind out of her sails.

“A day late and a dollar short, I know, but I really did intend to stay in touch with you, Victoria. Things just got,” he looked away with a grave expression, “complicated.” Oh Jesus. The way her eyes smoldered at his choice of words didn’t bode well for this conversation or their relationship.

“Complicated, you say?” The arctic blast coming from her unsettled him.

Attempting to change the dynamic, Drae tried to shrug off further mention of the time he’d spent on the east coast hiding from not just her but his whole life. “Yeah, yeah. You know. Business. Nothing to write home about.”

She sat straighter, if that was even possible, untangled her legs and then re-crossed them. “I see,” she answered bitingly. “That’s it? Complicated business?”

So much for changing the subject. Apparently she wasn’t going to let this go. Apprehension gathered in his stomach. He thought she might say something else, maybe ask a question, but she surprised him with a display of reserve that did nothing to settle his nerves.

“Go on.”

Thinking a quick conversational pivot might help level the playing field, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “You look very pretty. I like the dress.” He knew it was the wrong thing to say when her expression froze.

“Alright. Cut the crap St. John. You had Alex practically cattle-prod me down here for reasons that remain a mystery.”
Shit.
This wasn’t going as he’d hoped. Not by a long shot. “New York was business. It was complicated and you like my dress. Is that what you wanted to see me for? A fashion critique and some lame explanation for your time away?”

Her fire seeped into his senses making reason and whatever he planned on saying vaporize in the heat. The chocolate eyes he dreamed about were shooting flames of red and gold his way, practically burning him alive.

“No,” he answered quietly, his voice turning to a low growl as frustration and desire clashed inside him. Something snapped, as it always did when she got in his face, and he knew in that instant he was in over his head. “Seeing you had nothing to do with explaining away where I’ve been and everything to do with wanting to taste you coming on my tongue.”

Victoria’s shocked gasp filled the air a second before her hand shot out and soundly slapped him across the face. Appalled by his own lack of finesse, Drae thought he’d reel in his crude words until he caught the glimmer of sexual tension light up her expression.

“You’re a pig!” she screamed. “A lying, cheating pig, and I …..”

He cut her off, leaning sharply into her body space, his face inches from hers. “Oh yeah? And you’re a bitch, lady. A tart-tongued hellcat!” She never failed to surprise him, predictably throwing him off with a taunt or gesture that fed the excitement arcing between them. To his astonishment, she stuck her tongue out at him, grunting aggressively as she raised her hands in the space separating their bodies and tried to shove him back. The second her small hands pressed against his muscled chest, he was a goner.

It wasn’t a case of who reacted first because they each launched at the other, Drae grabbing fistfuls of her hair as he yanked her head closer while Victoria flattened herself against him, their mouths crashing together as the simmering passion surrounding them burst to life. Fueled by intoxicating desire and emotions tinged with anger and frustration, they kissed like fucking maniacs. She whimpered, he growled, and it got hotter and more frenzied by the second. This was what they did. First some fireworks and then they lost their clothes with unbelievable speed.

She wrenched kiss-swollen lips away from his, gasping. “We can’t do this.” He remembered saying something similar the last time they were together. Bloody hell.

“Yes we can,” he snarled, sucking her pouting lower lip into his voracious mouth. “You
want
me to fuck you. I can feel it, taste your desire. Don’t lie to me Victoria.”

Tori was visibly trembling in his arms as he took the stairs two at a time, in a Rhett Butler-ish display of masculinity that scattered her thoughts and banished whatever resolve she’d imagined would keep this very thing from happening.

She didn’t know this woman, the one wiggling desperately in an attempt to crawl inside his skin, but she was beginning to understand there was something about the energy they created whenever they came together that brought her to life. Pretending couldn’t change that nor could any of the thousand safeguards she hoped would protect her heart and body from wanting him as desperately as she did.

“Dammit Draegyn,” she groaned, sinking her teeth into the flesh on his neck. His fingers gripped her more forcefully as she worked her tongue against his skin, sucking wildly while he hurried them into his bedroom. Tori let out a startled cry when she felt herself gliding weightless through the air as he threw her aggressively into the middle of his enormous bed. Somewhere along the way her sandals had slipped off, and having been tossed unceremoniously onto the plush mattress, she landed with a thud, legs askew with her dress hitched up around her hips.

She had about a second to consider the dangerous wolfish expression on his face before he fell on her, thrusting a knee between her thighs as his mouth mimicked the onslaught on her neck and shoulders that she’d just subjected him to. He was like a glorious beast, undone by primal instincts, feasting on her flesh as wild, grunting sounds tore from his throat. This was what it must feel like to be eaten alive, devoured.
Oh God. Please don’t let it ever end
, she thought.

She wrapped a leg around his thigh, grinding sinuously against the hard muscle encased in soft denim as her dress shifted out of the way leaving only delicate white panties covering her body. Clutching at his shoulders, she curved an arm about his head, crying out each time his teeth sank into her neck. There was something basic and exciting about his bearded mouth scraping along her skin that made her quiver uncontrollably. She liked the dapper secret agent look very much but nothing quite compared to this rough, savage side of him. Panting, her hips rocking against his thigh, Tori whimpered raggedly close to his ear.

Draegyn pulled back from his ravishment of her neck and searched her eyes. “You
will
come on my tongue and when you can’t take the pleasure any more,” he growled, stopping only to run his tongue along the seam of her mouth, “I’m going to make you beg, Victoria. Beg me to come inside you.” She gasped at the rawness of his words, trembling and shaking as a flood of moisture drenched her panties. The scent of her arousal filled the air around them leaving little doubt how badly she wanted him.

With a sudden whoosh, he reached down, grabbing the hem of her dress and yanked it over her head. Tori was aware of the rapid rise and fall of her chest as she struggled to find air. With each deep lungful of oxygen, breasts swollen with need, inched closer to his mouth as he lowered his head in agonizing slow motion. Hovering so close that her nipples reacted to the warmth of his breath, he touched the tip of his tongue to one of the aching nubs and growled, “Tell me. Tell me what you want.”

Her leg gripped his thigh as she shimmied against him. “Oh,” she moaned. “Please, Draegyn. Put your mouth on me.” His hand cupped her breast, bringing it to his waiting mouth, while his tongue flicked her swollen nipple as she cried out in an agony of wanting. When his lips sucked her breast forcefully until most of it was throbbing in his mouth, she nearly came apart as the pulse from his suckling matched the one deep inside her. She couldn’t stop her hips from bucking, as liquid heat poured from her body.

Incapable of anything but feeling, Tori writhed and moaned as he repeated the same actions on her other breast while his hand pinched the nipple he’d teased, rolling it deftly between his fingers, stopping to massage the plumped mound as her excitement rose off the charts. He kept both hands cupped around her breasts as his wicked mouth placed damp, open mouth kisses between her mounds, slowly leaving a wet trail of desire down the center of her body. Tori’s hands had ceased to function, flung wide, clutching loosely at the bedding beneath her.

At a spot just below her navel, he licked her with the flat of his tongue then turned his face and bit her sharply at the waist. She was shaking uncontrollably, her legs moving restlessly, searching for relief from the agony of pleasure he was wringing from her. Was it wrong that she thrilled as his trembling hands ripped her delicate panties to shred in his haste to uncover her? She didn’t care. There was something beyond exciting about his untamed forcefulness.

“Mmmm,” he groaned, leaning in to inhale the tangy aroma of her desire. “So sexy.” She couldn’t help but think he owned her response. Every sweet, throbbing pulse and the moisture she felt spreading across her inner thighs. It was all his. Lost in a wave of sensation, Tori canted her hips in invitation as he laughed, pressing a hand against her abdomen. “What are you trying to tell me, honey?” A single finger drifted softly along the length of her unfurling slit.

She hissed at the teasing touch, her head rolling from side to side. “Is this where you want my tongue?” he asked hoarsely as his fingers spread the liquid pouring from her until the lips of her sex quivered beneath his caress. She tried to tell him but no words came, only a low strangled groan. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he said, shifting their positions until she was spread before him as he pressed her thighs open wide. Pushing both hands under her bottom, Draegyn lifted her into his waiting mouth, making Tori come completely undone as his tongue licked her once, from bottom to top, stopping to swirl around the swollen nub of her desire before suckling hungrily on her tender flesh.