Guardian For Hire: A For Hire Novel (12 page)

Chapter Eleven

Lovely. She was acting so weird he thought she was drunk. Not to mention that her dinner was like a mouthful of hot garbage. She didn’t know whether he was being nice or if his taste buds were on the fritz because he ate it like it was actually decent. She stared at him, teetering on a precipice as his intense gaze burrowed into her.

She could take the chicken’s way out. Claim to be drunk and walk away now, no harm no foul. Or she could woman up and take what she wanted.

“Nope. Not drunk at all. I…” She wet her lips and pushed the words out. “Want you.”

In the blink of an eye, his face changed, as though a light switch had been flipped on, his expression growing so intense that she lost her breath. He crossed the table and pulled her from her seat, sending the backs of her thighs against the kitchen table. Her heart slammed against her ribs as he gripped her sides.

“This is what you want?” he breathed, stooping low so that he was eye to eye with her, his mouth nearly brushing the bridge of her nose as he spoke. She’d never imagined that it would’ve gone so easily, but here he was, playing out her late-night fantasies like they’d been his own.

And maybe they had been. But this was no time for deep thought. It was time to act, to make something happen before she lost her resolve.

“Yes.” She could hardly muster the words. Her body’s response was too commanding, too overpowering. It was a wonder that she’d managed to communicate as much as she already had, since her mind had been so entirely focused on what she wanted him to do to her. What she needed him to do.

An electric surge pulsed through her core, ramping up the heat inside her as his hard bulge pressed against her. His fingers seized her hips, massaging until thrills of sensual pleasure soared through her. He bent low, pressing his mouth to her neck, licking her throat, nibbling his way up to her ear, each kiss burning her. When his hot breath finally touched her lobe, it came with a hissed command. “Say it again. I need to hear it one more time, Doc.”

“I…” Her mouth was dry, and she swallowed hard before she could continue. “I want you. I want you
now
.” The raw need of her tone shocked even her, and a lethal grin spread across his face, so sensual it made her stomach ache.

Without another word, he yanked her shirt from over her head, and her nipples pebbled at the momentary brush of contact. Her heart was pounding in her chest, blood thundering in her ears.

When she was free of her shirt, she took a step back and removed his. Seeing his body, she sucked in a sharp breath. She’d gotten a look at his chest before, but it was even more muscular than she’d remembered, every ab perfectly outlined and contoured, his pectorals the envy of every bodybuilder in America.

“What’s the date signify?” she asked, tracing the tattoo that had enchanted her lightly with her thumbnail.

“The year I joined the service. That’s when I turned my whole life around. Decided that maybe I could make something of myself.” The muscle in his jaw ticked as she sent her hand lower, skimming down his stomach.

She nodded. “And you sure did that. You’re a good man, Gavin.” And he was a whole new level of hot. Without thinking, she reached for the zipper of his pants.

She was going for the button when his grip caught her hard around the wrist and pulled her away.

“Not yet,” he said, his voice deep and husky. “You first.”

He yanked her pants down with almost no effort at all, and a cool rush of air gave momentary relief to the fire that had been building between her thighs. Momentary. In the next instant, however, the fire was stoked when his work-roughened fingertips roamed from her navel to her wet center. He slipped a single digit between her folds.

She bit hard on her bottom lip, her whole body convulsing at the singular touch, and he pulled away until both of his hands gripped her waist. He lifted her half onto the table, and the dishes from their meal clattered to the ground with splintering crash. Neither of them so much as blinked. Nothing mattered but Gavin.

All she could hear was his harsh breathing, the soft hum in the back of his throat as he surveyed her body, tweaking a nipple, palming her flesh. He was like a collector who had finally found the missing masterpiece for his collection. His eyes devoured her, savoring every minute detail.

“I love your birthmark.” He touched her thigh, tracing the heart-shaped brown imperfection on her skin. Without another word, he slid her farther back on the cool wood. “I’ve imagined putting my mouth there a hundred times.”

When she was fully perched, he spread her legs apart as wide as he could manage, but still he didn’t touch her sex again. Instead, his palms pressed to her quaking thighs while his lips trailed over her body, tracing a line from her knees, up her thighs, past her hips, around the swell of her breasts. It was torturous work, sensual and hypnotic, sending waves of need through her with each touch.

He stared at her for one long instant before stooping low and catching one of her nipples between his teeth. She squeezed her thighs together, trying to contain the pressure his mouth was creating, but it was no use. Every second she was growing more restless for his touch in the one place she’d been dreaming of every night for a week.

She bit back her pleas, but her mind willed him lower. Surely he could see the effect he’d already had on her. He must want more. She
needed
more.

As if sensing her struggle, he dove, the heat of his lips connecting with hers in a fierce, needy kiss. His fingers trailed over the light smattering of downy hair between her thighs, tugging gently, then harder. It was stimulation overload. All the while, his tongue explored her mouth with sensual determination, licking and sucking on her bottom lip before pulling her in deeper, every movement making her wetter, forcing her heart to beat faster.

It was all too much. Her body was ready to collapse in on itself, and the only way to survive was to ease the building pressure herself. With one hand still propping up her body, she reached between her thighs and began caressing herself, sending sparks of wildfire through her. Her body shook with every stroke, and she breathed a sigh against his lips. So close. So very close…

“That’s so hot,” he ground out, pulling away from her to watch as she tried to soothe the ache pulsing inside her. The old Sarabeth wanted to cover up. To stop and hide her face. But the new her loved the needy look in his eye as he clung to her every movement. When she finally stilled, panting and damp with sweat, it was because her body needed his.

Now.

“Please, Gavin.”

…

That was all he needed to hear. He pulled her hand away and dropped to his knees, landing straight in front of the sweetest sight he’d ever laid eyes on. He’d thought that her birthmark was scintillating the first time he’d seen it, and he’d known that her body was killer, but he had no idea exactly how perfect she’d look, splayed out as she was, on his kitchen table. It was a wet dream come true.

He took a deep breath, mesmerized by how beautiful every inch of her body was, and in the next instant he was tasting her. His tongue explored her lips, tracing her slit before pushing deeper. When he met with her clit, she fell back, her thighs shaking against his firm grip. Her back arched hard against the table and she strained toward him, her broken gasps like music to his ears.

He worked her with his tongue until whimpering moans became muttered cries. Taking it as his cue, he slipped a finger inside her gripping channel and she screamed.

“Sorry,” she rasped, clasping a delicate hand over her mouth.

He pulled back and shook his head, running his tongue over his mouth. “There’s no neighbors to hear you, Doc. Only me. And trust me, I want to hear it all.”

She gave a shaky nod and lay back down, and he returned to what was rapidly becoming his favorite pastime until he heard her soft cries begin anew. “That’s right. Let me hear you,” he ground out.

“Yessss.” She screamed a hoarse, needy cry, and his cock throbbed, desperate to fill her. “I need you inside of me,” she chanted, her body bowing and quaking.

It was too much for one man to endure. With one last lick, he rose and gazed down at her. She was gorgeous. Her bottom lip was red and swollen from her biting down on it, and it made the cherry red of her cheeks that much more seductive. Her hair was wild tangle around her, her lids heavy with want. Her rosy skin begging for his touch.

He needed to deliver.

He straightened and yanked his pants off.

Her eyes were wide as she stared. “You weren’t kidding about that eight inches.”

He barked a laugh and took her in his arms, nibbling on the hollow of her collarbone before responding, “You been thinking about that a lot, Doc?”

He didn’t think her cheeks could have turned a deeper red, but he’d been wrong.

“I think this conversation is distracting from the matter at hand—” She wrapped her fingers around his shaft, giving him a firm pull and licking her lips. “Don’t you think?”

Damn, her touch was magic, sending bolts of desire coursing through him. His stomach tightened with every movement as she continued to work him up and down. The only thing that kept him from exploding was the memory of her wet, pink center. He needed to bury himself deep inside her and never, ever come out. But first he needed to get her onto a bed. No way their first time was going to be on the kitchen table.

Now to hope there would be a second time…

He pushed her hand away, ignoring her groan of disappointment.

“Come on.” He scooped a forearm under her knees and hoisted her into a fireman’s lift before starting through the living room.

“Where are we going?” she squealed, laughing. He wanted to answer, but the press of her supple breasts against his back was distracting as hell.

He swatted her bottom gently, and she sucked in a breath.

“That’s for asking questions,” he muttered.

There was a tiny pause, then with the slightest hint of a smile in her voice, she asked, “What did you say?”

He spanked her again, harder that time, and her body squirmed. So fucking hot. The woman was going to be the death of him.

When he got to the top of the stairs, he pulled open his bedroom door and sprinted to the bed. He laid her in the middle of the sheets as he had in each of his nightly fantasies.

This time, he didn’t need to spread her thighs apart. She opened them to him, the best invitation he’d ever received.

“Jesus, you’re beautiful.”

Her smile reached her eyes, and she hooked a come-hither finger toward him.

One thing was for sure. There was no way in hell she’d have to ask him twice.

She held her arms out, and he slid over her, leaning down to kiss the tips of her breasts reverently. It was impossible to decide which part of her to touch from one moment to the next, her pale skin was all so soft and inviting. As he went, the ruby blush in her cheeks traveled downward, tinting her breasts with a delicate pink that only made them that much more enticing.

He thumbed her center, her wetness perfect and ready for him. He was harder than a hammer, and every second was more of a struggle to get through than the last.

“Gavin, I need you,” she begged.

He growled and lunged for the bedside table, fumbling until he’d yanked the drawer open and gotten what he needed. With a quick tear of foil and both of their desperate hands on the job, he was sheathed and ready for her. Without another word, he reared back and balanced himself on his elbows. Her face was a mask of need as he cupped his cock and pressed it into her, inch by straining inch. She was impossibly tight, almost to the point of pain, so wet and warm that her body seemed a perfectly molded paradise just for him.

“You feel so fucking good,” he breathed. He watched as she shook beneath his every movement, her legs hooked around his back to pull him farther into her sweet core.

Her hips rocked against him in mesmerizing circles. Every thrust was an invitation to finish it. Every flutter of her eyelashes, every soft moan, beckoned him to grip those toned thighs and pound, fast and hard, in and out of her until she was filled with him. His body demanded it, but he held back, waiting…waiting.

“I want to watch you,” he murmured, pulling back to make space between them.

She smiled and traced a finger slowly down her body, past her breasts, until she met her core. Her fingers moved as she rubbed her clit, soft moans escaping her lips with every delicate motion.

She tightened around him, her movements becoming frantic, and the blood pounded in his ears as her body dragged him toward the precipice.

“Come for me, love,” he commanded softly. “I want to see it.” Her cries were low at first but grew louder, and louder still as he flexed his hips faster and deeper with each thrust.

Then her walls quaked around him, squeezing and pulling, sucking at him as tremors racked her body. Her legs wrapped around him. Her back arched, and he couldn’t hold back anymore. He gripped her thighs and ground into her in long, hard strokes. It was primal and savage, his need to fill her, but there was no controlling it. With a growl of his own, he collapsed onto her, his needy mouth closing on her neck as he came in hot, frantic spurts.

Long moments passed before his pulse finally steadied and she stirred against him. With a sigh, he pulled away, rolling to his side. He didn’t look at her. It was an uncomfortable thing, but there was a decision that needed to be made, and he wouldn’t be the one to make it. Was this going to be something she regretted instantly or…

“Well, that was…that was fun,” she breathed. He turned back to find her sitting with her legs slung over the side of the bed, smiling, her arms crossed over her still-rosy chest. She looked more relaxed than he’d ever seen her. Hope lodged in his heart, and he grinned back.