Guarded (22 page)

“You have no idea. Like I said, animals don’t lie. I once asked a cat how his leg got hurt, and he told me his mistress’s lover tripped over him as he snuck out the back door when her husband came home.”

“Yeah, I can see why you wouldn’t want folks in your town to know their secrets aren’t safe. Could be bad for business.”

“True.” She nodded. “Did I give you enough information? I can’t think of anything else.”

“It’s not a lot to go on. Certainly nothing I could take to the sheriff’s office. And I feel the need to remind you here, that Deputy Munro was working on the case when we left town. So there is an investigation in progress. I have to be careful not to step on any toes. Elkridge isn’t my jurisdiction. But, I think when we go back there tomorrow, we have a couple of places to start looking for information. Strictly off the record. Anything we uncover that can be proven beyond what a tiger, monkey, or lizard saw, we’ll share with the sheriff’s office, deal?”

“You do
believe
me?” she repeated, rising slowly from her chair.

Dev stood too. “Of course, Shells. I believe you.”

“Yes!” She launched herself at him.

Dev was glad he was standing and could catch her. Her arms went around his neck and she rained kisses over his cheeks interspersed with the words,
thank you, thank you, thank you
.

Dev’s body shook with laughter as he hugged her. Damn, she was the perfect shape. Her body molded to his like God had designed her especially for this moment. For him to hold her in his arms while she covered his face in butterfly-soft kisses.

“I knew I was right to contact you,” she said, breathless, still hugging him. She’d stopped kissing him and was currently squeezing him against her. “I knew I could count on you.”

“We might not be able to prove anything,” he warned.

She tilted her head back to look at him. The fierce determination in her eyes told him she wasn’t about to give up until she found those cubs. “We’ll find them. Between my Dolittle qualities and your incredibly Monk-like ability to solve any mystery, we
will
find them.”

“Shells,” he said, wanting to prepare her for the fact that even when people go missing, they aren’t always found. And with tiger cubs, it could be next to impossible to locate them. But when he opened his mouth, she kissed him. A full-bodied, tonsil-dueling, soul-sucking kiss. And if he’d thought the kisses they’d shared earlier had been incredible, this one melted his socks off.

Or would have, if he’d been wearing any.

Her slender fingers buried in his hair and tugged him down closer to her. She moaned in his mouth and he captured the sound. Her voluptuous breasts were unrestrained beneath her T-shirt. Her pebble-tight nipples rubbed against his chest. And God in heaven, he wanted to taste them. To bury his face between them and spend hours just licking her, pleasing her, tempting her.

And okay, he wasn’t a saint . . . or a monk, he wanted to dissolve in the pleasure too. The bed was just a few feet away. But what if this amazing kiss was only her getting swept away by the moment?

As if in answer to his inner musing and in answer to one of his oldest prayers, Shelley reached between them and cupped him in one hand.

He groaned as she stroked him through his pajama bottoms. Not wanting her to stop, he ratcheted up the kiss.

Normally, he held back with his lovers. He was so big, he worried he would scare them if he let loose his passion. Shells wasn’t scared by the intensity. She kissed him as if to say, “I’ll see that fire and raise you to a solar blast.”

God, she was everything he’d ever imagined. Sexy, soft, and hungry for him. He wanted to do this right. Take it slow. Show her how much she meant to him. How much she’d
always
meant to him.

She slid her cool, slender fingers inside his pajama bottoms and he hissed in pleasure. Fuck slow. At this rate, he’d be lucky if they made it to the bed.

“Shells,” he said, breaking the kiss and wrapping a hand around her delicate wrist. “Slow down.”

She nipped his chin. “Not a chance.”

She reached for him again. His cock jumped, eager for her caress. Luckily, Dev’s brain was still engaged. He twisted his hips away from her.

“You’re not going to tell me you’re shy, are you?” Shelley laughed, trailing her fingers up his chest beneath his shirt.

He laughed too, chills covering his body at her touch. “God, no. I’ve just been imagining you in my bed for the past two days. I don’t want to rush it.”

Shelley froze, her intense blue eyes wide. “Really?”

“Hell, yes!”

With his hands on her hips, Dev walked her backward until her knees hit the edge of his bed. She fell back and Dev leaned over her, supporting his weight on his hands beside her shoulders.

Damn, the woman epitomized sexy. Not cover-model-starve-yourself-waif perfection. No, Shelley was a real woman, incredible curves, soft skin, and the most beautiful blue eyes he’d ever seen.

“I’ve wanted you in this bed from the moment you bent over me in the street.” He loved the way her eyes softened at his words. Like she was melting for him. Only fair. He’d melted for her long ago. “I’ve wanted you in
my
bed since the first time you tutored me in college.”

She frowned at him now. “But you set me up with Cam?”

Fucking brilliant!
He’d made her think of her ex.

Dev rolled to her right side and propped his head up on his fist. “I didn’t set you up with Cam. I was running late and asked him to tell you.”

Realization dawned on her face. “Oh, and he arrived as I was getting mugged.”

Dev didn’t flinch at her statement. He should have been there to protect her. Instead, Cam the asshole had been her hero. Her lover.

“So why didn’t you ever ask me out?” Shelley rolled onto her side and mirrored his pose.

“You were with Cam after that,” he answered honestly.

Shelley bent her knee and rubbed her calf against his. “I’m not with him anymore.”

“I see that.” Dev scooted a little closer to her, so that with just the right angle, their lower bodies would touch.

She propped up on one hand and leaned over him, forcing Dev to lie back. He stared into her blue eyes, now dark with arousal. Her cloud of red hair formed a curtain around their faces. “So . . .” she whispered, sliding her right leg over his body until she straddled him. “What are you going to do about it?”

*   *   *

D
EV
DIDN
’
T
HESITAT
E.
One large, warm hand wrapped around the back of her neck, the other around her waist and he kissed her with so much ferocity, Shelley wondered if he wasn’t trying to suck out her soul. Oh, fracking God, the man could kiss.

He tugged her tightly against his body, threw his leg around her hips and in one deft move, he flipped them over until Shelley was between the black Egyptian cotton bedspread and Dev’s rock-hard body.

And still he kissed her. Dev wasn’t a run-the-show kind of lover either. He moaned in pleasure as she met him stroke for stroke.

Dev plucked her right nipple through her thin sleepshirt until the pleasure of it bordered on pain. Then he switched to the other. All the time never breaking that soul-searing kiss.

Too many clothes.

Shelley tugged the hem of Dev’s tee up his back and ran her hands over his smooth light-mocha skin. God, the man was so cut, he even had well-defined back muscles. She delighted in gliding her fingers over his narrow hips and up his back, but she kept running into his bunched-up shirt.

She headed south, feeling his tight butt through the cotton pants; she gave it a gentle squeeze. Dev moaned into her mouth and ground himself against her.

More. She needed more. Her knees fell apart until Dev was grinding himself, through their clothes, at her core. Oh. Dear. God. He was huge all over. The pleasure was too much to bear. Too much to stop.

And still, they had on too many clothes. “Dev,” she panted, turning her head and tugging at his T-shirt again. “Off. Take it off.”

He leaned back long enough to rip it over his head and kissed her again. The man could have won an Olympic gold medal for kissing.

She shoved at his pajama bottoms until her hands came into contact with his perfect round backside. It flexed and bunched beneath her fingers. Dev arched his back and pulled his lips away from hers.

“Stop, or I’ll finish before we get started,” he warned. Then he bent down and lightly bit one of her nipples through her top.

It was her turn to arch her back.

He suckled her through the cotton until her aching tip pressed against the damp material, threatening to pop through it. And just like when he’d used his fingers earlier, he switched to the other breast until she had two painfully erect nipples pressing against the wet cotton of her shirt.

Dev sat back on his heels, straddling her hips, and looked down at her. The heat in his gaze made her shy. She reached to cover her damp breasts with her hands, but Dev stopped her by manacling her wrists with his own. “Don’t hide. You’re beautiful, Shells.”

“I’m in a wet T-shirt, Dev,” she pointed out.

“Best damn one I’ve ever judged.”

She arched an eyebrow. “And how many have you judged?”

“Just one. No one on earth could be sexier than you.”

“Nice line,” she said, making a joke because the intensity in his stormy eyes and the sincerity in his words were too much. So beautiful that she needed to do something or risk getting all weepy with him.

“Not a line,” he said, frowning slightly. Then a glimmer of something teasing lit his eyes and he gave her a cocky half grin. “But it might have been the ‘Vets Do It Doggie-Style’ that convinced me.”

Shelley glanced down at her shirt, mortified. “Oh, frack. It was a gag gift from a lab partner for graduation.”

“If it’s embarrassing,” he said, fingering the hem, “how about we just take it off?”

In one fluid motion, he sat her up, stripped off the top, and tossed it over his shoulder. He had her on her back again before she could blink.

And yes, God! This was even better. Skin to skin. His chest muscles rippled against her flesh. Again, she slid her hands beneath his pajama bottoms and squeezed his perfect ass.

“More,” he said, loosening the pull-string of her bottoms. “Damn, Shells, I don’t know how much longer I can wait. I wanted our first time to be slow, but you’ve got me aching for you. I need to be inside you now.”

Shelley shoved at his hips, trying to force his pants down, but only succeeded in almost knocking him off the bed. Laughing, he let go of her to step out of his clothes. She took the moment to shake her bottoms and panties down her legs.

Then Dev was gloriously naked. His cock stood proud, jutting toward her. Moisture glistened on its tip. And she wanted to taste him. She crawled across the California king-size bed and Dev climbed on it, meeting her halfway.

Lowering her head, she licked him from tip to base. Dev shuddered, clasping her shoulders. When he didn’t try to stop her, she did it again. This time, swirling her tongue over the tip, licking every drop of the salty moisture, while she gently cupped his sack.

“Shells.” His voice was guttural, strained. “Please.”

She licked him again, trailing her tongue along the vein running down his shaft. He groaned.

“Do you like that?” she asked, already knowing the answer. She lazily tasted him. He shuddered, his fingers tightening on her shoulders. “Do you want me to do this?”

She took him completely in her mouth. She had only slid halfway down his cock when he wrenched away.

“I want to be buried deep inside you when I come.”

“Do you have any condoms?” she asked, stroking a hand down his length.

“Yeah. Hang on, just let me . . .”

He opened the drawer in his end table and pulled out an accordion of individually wrapped condoms. Dev’s elbow knocked into the lamp on his nightstand, knocking it to the floor.

The room darkened, but the moonlight still made it possible to see his gorgeous smile. His two front teeth were slightly crooked, but he was still the most handsome man she’d ever seen.

“Now, where were we?” he asked, covering himself, protecting them both.

“I think we were about to start a game of chess.”

Dev laughed. “God, I love your sense of humor, Shells.”

Then in one long, deep stroke, he pushed himself inside her, all the way to the base.

Her every nerve ending sizzled with the pleasure exploding through her. Was it possible to come that fast?

Dev withdrew slowly and . . .

Oh, hell, fracking YES.

She was unraveling from her center outward. Pleasure pinged every nerve ending from her toes to her eyelashes. Sensations crashed through her entire body. Wave after wave of passion washed through her until she didn’t want it to end.

And Dev was still moving, like a man on a mission. He grinned at her, closed his eyes and continued to push harder, push her higher until she was flying.

Somehow, she reached down from the heavens and grabbed two handfuls of his perfect, naked butt. He groaned her name, was flying with her. His orgasm set off another one in her. This one so intense, when it faded to the lovely afterglow, all she could do was lie boneless beneath him. Dev, amazing man that he was, found the strength to shift his weight to one side so that he still covered her body but didn’t crush her.

For several long minutes they lay together unmoving. Shelley, sated and more content than she’d been in years, didn’t want to move. Ever. Again.

Dev gestured to his flagging condom-covered erection and said, “I need to take care of this.”

He kissed her head and slid off the bed. Seconds later, he was back, tucking her beneath the covers.

He spooned behind her, wrapping one muscled arm over her chest.

Shells peeked an eye open and saw the tattoo encircling his bicep. “When did you get that?”

Dev mumbled something into her hair she couldn’t understand.

“What?”

“Long story,” he said, yawning. “Tell you tomorrow at breakfast.”