Heart Trouble (14 page)

It was important that he tread carefully here. The last thing he’d ever want to do was embarrass her. Women were funny about their sex toys—some treating them like trophies, others bringing them out privately and only when necessary to relieve an ache. Knowing Erin, she used them to help her fall sleep. Getting her off was just a pleasant side effect.

She didn’t have a huge assortment, and there was nothing shocking. No ten-inch dildo the size of his forearm. No strap-on or cock lock, thank God. They were actually pretty tame. He reached inside the drawer and selected three items—a little bullet vibe made of pink silicone, an average-sized purple vibrator made of slick plastic, and a small bottle of lube. Understanding the way Erin’s body responded to him already, the lube would be unnecessary, but he’d prefer it be handy just in case. He placed them on the bed beside her hip and grabbed a condom to add to the pile.

As he settled himself on the bed, her soft giggle drew his attention back to her face. Even though he was glad to hear it, he had to question the reason for it. He quirked an eyebrow at her.

“You picked the two I never use. The batteries might even need changing.”

“We’ll find out soon enough.” Sean smoothed his palms up and down her sleek legs, massaging the muscles in her calves before he planted her feet flat on the bed.

“Tell me why you never use those two.”

“Well, I call the little one the wasp.”

“Because?”

“Because despite the small size, it packs a big punch.”

Kissing his way up her stomach, he asked, “And the purple one?”

“I’m sort of indifferent about it.”

He laughed, charmed by the stain on her cheeks as she confessed such intimate details. “Why? What’s wrong with it?”

“Too small, and the lack of texture is a definite minus. You don’t know these sorts of things when you order them off the Internet. It’s a bit of trial and error.”

“Why not visit a sex shop, where you can browse?”

“Oh God, no. What if I ran into a patient, or worse, a colleague? That would be mortifying. The Internet is much easier and discreet, even if the results are mixed.”

“Tell me about the rabbit,” he said, drawing his fingertips up her rib cage just to watch her beautiful skin prickle with gooseflesh.

“Ah well, it gets high marks across the board. Even Tess recommended it. Why didn’t you pick that one?”

“Did you give it a name?” he asked, ignoring her question.

“No, but I think from now on I’m going to call him Sean Jr.”

Christ
. He was done for when it came to her. Way in over his head, drowning, not a chance he would walk away from this unscathed in the end if she kicked him to the curb.

Thrilled by what she said though, he nuzzled the side of one delectable breast. “Why?”

“Because he’s very good at getting me off.”

Sean bit down on her nipple just hard enough to hear her moan. “Are you trying to speed things along here?”

“Not at all, but I can guarantee that if you used the rabbit on me, it wouldn’t take long.”

“That’s why I didn’t pick Sean Jr.” He grabbed the purple vibrator, twisting the switch on the bottom. It hummed to life in his hand. “I’m in the mood to be a tad bit evil tonight.”

“I was afraid you’d say that.”

Placing it against her clit, he swirled his tongue around her nipple. Her body bowed beneath the pleasure the toy and his mouth wrought. He switched to the other breast, scraping her nipple with his teeth, soothing the sting of pain away with his tongue.

He eased the vibrator inside her pussy, getting it slick before pulling it out to tease her clit some more. When the muscles in her stomach tightened, Sean moved the toy away.

“You’re exposing your sadistic side.” Her voice had gone husky, soft, just a hint of teasing edge.

Leaving the temptation of her breasts, he kissed her mouth once, drawing his tongue along her bottom lip. “Didn’t know I had one till I met you.”

Sean sat back on his haunches between her spread thighs. The erotic picture she made stole his breath, caused his cock to throb inside his briefs. Her hair tumbled wild across the pillow, nipples pinched tight with arousal, blue eyes a little wary as she watched him. The flushed, slick perfection of her pussy. And all that pale skin. Lust and sin incarnate.

He wanted to tell her he was falling for her, open his mouth and let the truth tumble out unchecked. But he still wasn’t sure he could trust it. They were caught up in the intensity of this case, thrust together by extraordinary and dangerous circumstances. Would things between them feel just as heated and strong once it was all over?

Now wasn’t the time for wondering.

Sliding the vibrator back inside her, he leaned in close and blew across her damp clit. Just that brief bit of contact made her hips roll. Her head turned toward her bicep. Teeth bared, she moaned and bit down on the soft flesh of her inner arm. Sean grasped his balls through his briefs, tugging hard enough to bring himself back from the edge.

He worked the vibrator in and out of her, watching it get wetter with every slow, torturous stroke. She might not come this way after what she’d told him about disliking the texture. So he moved it to her clit instead, just barely brushing the swollen bud, replacing the toy inside her pussy with his fingers. First one, then another. And damn was she wet and hot. So fucking tight. The heaviness in his groin grew. He resisted the need to free his cock and plunge himself balls-deep.

“Sean,” she gasped, her spine arching, chin tilting up.

He’d planned on drawing the gratification out, making her wait as long as he could stand it himself or she cried mercy, but fuck that. He wanted to feel her come around his fingers while he watched her body wind tight, then break apart. It was the only reason he didn’t use his mouth on her. The view from where he sat was too amazing.

She thrashed her head on the pillow, hands curled tightly around the slats of the headboard. The muscles in her stomach quivered. A deep flush spread along her chest and up into her throat. Perspiration glistened in the bow of her top lip. He could feel sweat gathering on his skin too, around his hairline, at the base of his spine.

Sean laid the vibrator vertically against her clit, increasing the pressure he applied. Her entire body grew taut as a bent branch. The handcuffs rattled against the wood, and he worried for a split second she might hurt her wrists before the tension inside her broke.

A ragged noise bordering on pain slid from her throat. Her pussy clenched around his fingers, and more wetness coated his hand as he covered her with his palm, holding the tip of the vibrator in place so he could draw his other hand down her quivering abdomen. Her thighs tried to close, but his body blocked the movement. Then the maelstrom inside her ebbed to a final subtle shiver.

“Jesus Christ, turn it
off
,” she said, meaning the vibrator that still sat humming away.

Maybe he
was
being a little sadistic.

Sean withdrew his fingers from her body, letting the toy roll into his palm where he switched it off. He was breathing as hard as she was, and he hadn’t even come, although he was close. The front of his briefs, stretched by a raging hard-on, bore a damp spot as proof. Just the slightest touch and he might go off, and sitting there looking at her beautiful body, flushed from orgasm, wasn’t helping matters any.

Erin drew a giant shuddering breath and blinked open her eyes. She dampened her lips with her tongue before saying, “If you pick up that damn wasp, I’ll never let you touch me again.”

Chuckling at her threat—a serious one, judging by the fierce look in her eyes—he stretched out next to her, propping himself on one elbow so he could check her wrists. They were pink where she’d pulled at the cuffs, and the wood of the headboard bore a few new faint scratches, but her skin wasn’t raw or bruised.

He grabbed the key and unlocked one wrist so he could free her from the bed, easing her arms down. “Are you getting sore?”

“No, but I bet you are.” She gave his dick a pointed look while she flexed her shoulders.

“We’ll take care of that in just a minute. Sit up.”

“If you’ll uncuff me, I’ll take care of it right now.”

It was a tempting offer but… “You’re not running this show, remember?”

“Oh, right.” She chewed on her bottom lip as he moved her to her knees, securing the cuffs behind her back. “Do you think I’m a control freak?”

Cupping the back of her head in his hand, he kissed her, letting the heat and hunger build back to a rolling boil. When she leaned into him, he pulled away.

“Not a freak, no,” he said, nipping at her mouth, then her throat. “I do think it’s natural to want to try and control what seems like an out-of-control situation for you.” He piled pillows against the headboard. “Like now, for instance.”

Or when a certain cop pretty much takes over your life.

Sean shucked his briefs, ripped open the condom, and rolled it down his stiff cock, then sat back against the pile of pillows, all while Erin watched, a slight frown pinching her brow. He’d let her get deep inside her own brain again.

If she was going there, he was about to give her something besides her controlling nature to work through. Try to show her a side of herself that she didn’t know existed, or she refused to acknowledge. Maybe one day she’d learn to accept that it was okay to lean on someone else once in a while. It didn’t make her weak, just human. Only she saw it as a flaw. She was wrong.

Grasping her waist, he helped her climb astride his lap. Once she was steady on her knees, he guided her down onto his cock. It felt so fucking good to slide inside her his eyes almost crossed from the warm clasp of her body accepting him. Once she’d sunk all the way down his length, he splayed his hands across her thighs. “Time for round two, sweetheart.”

Chapter Thirteen

“Are you going to help me?” Erin winced at how needy and petulant she sounded.

She had some vague idea about what Sean was trying to do, or at least she thought she did, but that didn’t make fucking him with her hands cuffed behind her back any easier.

“No,” he said.

She clenched her teeth together, biting back words of frustration.

“Come on, sweetheart. You can do this. Ride me till we both come. It won’t take—” Erin cut his words off with a hard kiss. She was just coaxing his mouth open when he put one finger on her breastbone and pushed her back. “No cheating.”

Just to be a brat, she squeezed her inner muscles as hard as she could. Sean grunted, his fingers digging into her thighs, before he said, “If you don’t start moving, I’m grabbing a toy, and this time I won’t stop until the batteries
are
dead.”

“All right, fine,” she huffed, because she knew he’d make good on the promise.

While he waited, she worked at centering herself, testing her balance and range of motion, then lifted her hips. The drag of Sean’s cock over swollen and sensitive tissues made her head tip back in renewed pleasure. But the more she tried to move in a way that would get them both off, the more frustrated she grew. His hands rested just above her knees like solid lead weights. He kept his eyes trained on her mouth, his own lips parted, denying her eye contact. Something was missing.

She felt…lost.

She’d just thought she was at Sean’s mercy earlier when she was handcuffed to the bed—that was nothing compared to being a hairbreadth away from him yet feeling as though it were miles.

She wanted a more intimate connection besides where their bodies were joined together. She wanted him to touch her, kiss her, hold her as if at any moment she might slip through his fingers like sand. She wanted to feel his hands heavy and desperate in her hair. She wanted to feel directed and manipulated and worked over, sore and spent in the aftermath.

And she wanted to do the same to him. To feel his hot skin beneath her fingertips, his breath on her lips and throat, his heart thudding against his rib cage as the fire and frenzy built between them. Thrill in the way his body shuddered against hers when he came, and to know she’d been the one who did all those things to him.

He’d been her grounding rod through this awful, frightful storm. He’d become her anchor, her comfort, her sanity. Being dependent on someone else scared her to death. The fear sat like latex on her skin—sticky, stifling, and tight.

But this…this all-consuming want she felt for Sean… It had seeped into the very marrow of her bones to become a part of her. It should be just as frightening as the dependency, but it only struck her as being solely right.

All at once, she stopped moving.

You should learn that it’s okay to be vulnerable once in a while.

He’d done this on purpose.

The breath left her lungs in such a rush that Sean’s eyes jerked up to hers. His hands tightened on her knees, before they relaxed again.

“Why’d you stop?” he asked. And he might have been trying to appear unaffected, but the thickness of his voice, the quickness of his breaths, said differently. Not to mention the fact that he was still hard as a rock and wedged tight inside her.

“Because I…” Why was her mouth so dry? She swallowed, licked her lips.

Those deep green eyes flicked back down to watch her tongue move across her mouth. “Tell me, Erin.”

“Because I need to be close to you.”

“Closer.”

She nodded, knowing from the tender look in his eyes he wasn’t correcting her on their physical proximity.

A small, satisfied smile played across his lips as he unlocked the handcuffs and tossed them aside. Her arms twined around his neck while his went around her body, pulling her against him until they were touching from thigh to shoulder. Skin to skin. A blade of grass couldn’t have slid between them. Then Sean’s hungry mouth found hers, and they began to move again.

Their efforts were fluid and natural, languid yet strong. This time bliss rose in a sweet, sure promise. His gaze caught hers and held it. He slid his hands beneath her ass to help lift and lower her over his cock. With each downward stroke, his broken breaths warmed her skin—tiny groans like blessings, and
God
. It was all so flawless.