Hidden Agenda (15 page)

A smile parted his sensual lips and passion darkened his eyes to green. “I fell in love with you the moment I saw you.”

Eve’s heart danced with excitement. He loved her and she loved him. “I—”

“Don’t,” Matt said, placing his thumb over her lips and cutting off her words. “Don’t,” he repeated, “say anything, my darling. If you feel only half of what I feel for you—show me.”

Rising on tiptoe, she buried her face against his hot
throat. “I love you, Mateo.” She disobeyed him. She’d confessed to Matt that she loved him.

A surging wave of love and passion flowed between them as they clung together, savoring the emotion that made them one.

Eve could feel his uneven breathing against her cheek as he lowered his head and pulled her closer. They stood together, embracing, until their passions cooled.

She inhaled deeply, then let out her breath slowly. The magnificent man in her arms loved her as much as she loved him. “Come,
Precioso
,” she urged quietly, “you promised to wash my back.”

Matt released Eve, stepping back and staring at her face. His hands went to his waist and seconds later his black silk pajama pants lay on the bathroom floor. She stared straight ahead, her gaze locked with his. It was a full minute before her gaze inched downward.

Her heart lurched, her lids fluttered, and Eve shivered from the wave of desire warming her limbs. Matt hadn’t lied. He wanted her; he was aroused, his sex full, straining, and throbbing with desire.

E
ve’s trembling hands grasped the hem of her T-shirt, pulled it up, and drew it over her head. It, too, settled onto the bathroom floor with Matt’s pajama pants.

He extended his arms and she walked into his embrace. Both of their hearts were pounding in a runaway rhythm as desires, repressed for hours, days, and weeks hovered close to the edge, threatening to erupt with every breath.

Swinging Eve up into his arms, Matt headed toward the oversized shower stall. She had wantonly, willfully, and silently given approval to consummating their marriage. Fastening his mouth to hers, he opened the door to the stall and molded her shoulders to the tiled wall.

Matt’s tongue swept over her lips and teeth before plunging deeply into her mouth. His breathing was
slow, controlled, masking the throbbing hardness searching against her groin.

“Oh,” Eve whispered, pulling back to catch her breath.

“Open your mouth,” Matt ordered. She complied and he crooned, “That’s it, Baby.” Her arms went around his neck, bringing him closer. Her tongue dueled with his before her teeth sank gently into his lower lip and drew it into her mouth, while her hands swept up and down his body from his chest to his flat belly.

He couldn’t believe Eve could be so sweet, enticing. His hands were just as busy—threading through the soft curls of her hair and grazing the velvet smoothness of her sweet-smelling flesh.

Matt’s body was out of control, but his mind was methodical. He forced himself to slow down, wanting to erase the memory of Alejandro Delgado from Eve’s mind. He wanted to be the only man in her life and in her memory. She was his and his alone, and he meant to brand his image on her brain.

Reaching out, his right hand searched for the cold water faucet and he turned it on. He turned on the hot, alternately adjusting the temperature until it was lukewarm. The water spilled down their naked bodies, the wetness glistening on their flesh.

They were transported back to their private waterfall and pool, but this time there were no scraps of spandex to conceal their desire for each other.

Matt cradled her breasts in his hands, examining their shape and weight. He lowered his head and drew his tongue around her large dark areolae and erect nipples while soft moans escaped her thoroughly-kissed, swollen mouth.

The pleasure was so exquisite Eve thought she was going to faint. Why was he torturing her? Why didn’t he just take her?

His hold on her body eased, and her head dipped in slow motion. Her mouth claimed his breast and she suckled him as he had done her.

“Eve!” Her name was ripped from his throat the moment her hand slipped between his thighs.

At one time Matt had begged her to touch him, but now he didn’t want her to touch him—not yet. He captured her hands and held them tightly as he guided her down to the tiled floor and buried his face in the tight curls in the valley of her thighs. Eve arched, but she couldn’t free herself.

“No, Darling. Please don’t fight me.”

Eve felt her face flame with embarrassment. His mouth and breath were burning her. “Not there,” she pleaded.

He released her hands and slid up over her body. The falling water beaded up on her flesh like shimmering jewels. “Why not there, Baby? You are as beautiful there as you are everywhere else.”

Eve closed her eyes against his flaming gaze. “It’s not right,” she whispered.

“When two people love each other everything’s right, Eve.” Matt’s voice was soft, coaxing. “There’s nothing wrong or ugly between a husband and wife. Let me show you how much I love you,” he implored softly. “Let me taste you, my love. It will be good; so good for both of us.” Her eyelids fluttered open and she gave him a shy smile. They closed again, long, thick, black lashes resting on high cheekbones. “Do you trust me?” he whispered.

“Yes. I trust you.” She sighed.

“Do you love me?”

She blinked up at him, a slight frown marring her smooth forehead. “Of course I love you.”

His brooding lower lip widened with a smile. “Make me happy, Eve. Let me taste you.” She nodded tentatively, consenting.

He touched his lips to hers and increased the pressure until he felt her respond. He didn’t want to frighten her, but to bring her maximum pleasure, and that meant unleashing her inhibitions and releasing her fears.

Eve clutched Matt’s shoulders tightly and caught her lower lip between her teeth as he began his exploration. She tried but couldn’t stop her little whimpers and breathless moans when his mouth staked its claim on the soft, wet folds of her sex. She arched as his tongue swept over the tiny bud of flesh in a flicking motion. The motion sent explosions throughout her body, rocking her womb.

She couldn’t control her trembling legs as Matt pulled them up and over his shoulders. Her composure slipped and her head thrashed wildly. What began as small waves increased and rocked her womb until she cried out loudly with the magical force which took over her body, lifting her higher and higher until she was thrust beyond reality. He gathered her to his chest, and she couldn’t talk or move. Her heart raced uncontrollably as she clung to him.

“Still afraid, Darling?”

Her fingers searched his chest, discovering more scars hidden under the furred thickness. “No,” she gasped. “It was wonderful.”

Matt smiled. “Thank you for sharing with me.”

Eve returned his smile, oblivious to the water falling on their prone bodies. “I should be thanking you. You’ve made me feel like a woman for the first time in a very long time.”

He kissed the tip of her nose. “And I’m hoping it won’t be the last.”

“It’d better not be,” she teased.

He shifted, rising to his feet and pulling her up with him. “I promised you that I’d wash your back.” He reached for a bath sponge and squeezed out a glob of shower gel from a plastic bottle hanging from the shower head.

He washed her hair and body, and Eve returned the favor. She lingered between his thighs and he moaned in frustration. Kissing him deeply, she tasted herself on his lips. Her tongue traced the outline of his mouth and she shivered when he growled deep in his throat. Her hands and mouth charted every inch of his flesh, discovering several more scars on his large, hard body.

Their roles changed. Eve realized the power she wielded as Matt slumped against the glass doors, groaning under her touch. That all ended when he reversed their positions, lifted her effortlessly, and entered her newly awakened body.

Her soft gasp of pleasure made the blood pound in his head, and he forgot everything. There was no mission, no outside world. There was only Eve.

He felt her tight flesh stretch to accommodate his swollen appendage before her body closed tightly around his manhood. Her body was made for his, and he marveled at the perfect fit.

Her desire rose again, matching the fury of his as
flames of love consumed them, leaving behind floating cinders of shattered ecstasy.

Matt slid to the floor, taking Eve with him. He had no way of knowing that the moisture streaming down her cheeks was not water, but tears of awakened passion.

“
Te amo
,” he whispered against her ear.
And thank you, Harry
, he added silently, gathering his wife’s limp body from the floor.

Eve pushed back the sheet and slipped from the bed, hoping not to wake Matt, but found her wrist caught between his strong fingers.

“Where are you going?”

Leaning over, she pressed her cheek to his solid shoulder. “I don’t know about you, lover, but I need food.”

Matt’s grip moved up her arm and he flipped her over his chest. He kissed her passionately. “I need you.”

“Later,” she mumbled between the soft, moist kisses. The weak light streaming in through the windows indicated the dawn of another day. “Only one of us can cook, so I suggest you’d better let me go while I still have the strength to prepare something palatable.”

Matt kissed her hard, then fell back and stared up at her radiant face. After sharing the shower they had spent the night discovering each other’s bodies, and he was overwhelmed by Eve’s passionate response to his demanding lovemaking once she’d overcome her initial inhibitions.

He picked out the short curls pressed to the sides of her head, rubbing the soft strands between his fingertips.
He visually examined the woman who’d been thrust upon him—the woman he’d married and fallen in love with.

Her large dark eyes watched him watching her, and for a brief second he detected a look of sadness passing over her delicate features.

“What’s bothering you, Darling?”

Eve’s brow wrinkled and she closed her eyes. “I don’t know how to explain it, but right now I feel so guilty because I’m so happy.”

Matt pulled her down to lie beside him, and shifted to face her. “There’s nothing wrong with feeling happy.”

She opened her eyes and stared at her husband. “How can I be happy and not have Chris?”

“You will have your son,
Preciosa
. I’ve promised you that I’ll get him back.” He brushed a gentle kiss across her forehead. “You belong to me, Eve, and Chris will also belong to me, because he is a part of you.”

Lowering her head, Eve buried her face against his chest; the medals suspended from the thick, gold chain around his neck pressed against her cheek. “You picked the wrong time of the month to make love to me.” They’d made love several times without the benefit of protection.

Matt was enchanted with her display of shyness. “It’s never the wrong time, Baby. Nothing would please me more than for you to have our children.”

She kissed his breast. “I suppose you’d want a son to carry on the Sterling name.”

He anchored a finger under her chin and raised her face to his. “I already have a son, Eve. Your son will
be my son.” He gave her a sensuous smile. “I think I’d like to have a daughter. A little girl with her mother’s perfect face and body and—”

“And her father’s golden eyes,” Eve interrupted softly.

Smiling, Matt pressed his lips to her hair. “Now that I think about it, I don’t know if I want a daughter.”

“Why?”

It was his turn to frown. “When I think of what I used to do with other men’s daughters, I don’t think I’d survive watching her grow up into a woman. And I don’t think she’d appreciate her father meeting her dates at the door with a gun or knife in his hand.”

Eve pulled out of his embrace, sitting up. “You wouldn’t!”

Matt shifted his eyebrows, trying not to laugh. Eve thought he was serious. “Of course not. I plan to teach her to ride and shoot. And I’ll dry her tears whenever she falls or when some guy stands her up on a date. Then, I’ll go looking for him and break both of his legs.”

Eve shook her head, laughing. “You’re impossible, Matthew Sterling.”

He gathered her to his chest. “And you’re incredible, Mrs. Sterling. I’m exhausted and starving, but I still want to make love to you.”

“Later,” she whispered, pushing against his firm hold.

He released her and watched as she slipped out of the bed. He had come to know every facet of her delightful body: the length and strength of her long slender legs, the shape of her well-groomed hands and feet, the full firmness of her perfectly shaped breasts that were perched high above her narrow rib cage, and the velvet smoothness of her skin, whose color and texture reminded him of a luxurious sable pelt.

Folding his arms behind his head, Matt closed his eyes. One phase of his mission had proven successful. Now all he had to do was uncover Joshua Kirkland’s mole and find the child he had come to think of as his stepson.

“Get out of the kitchen and leave me alone!” Eve shouted at Matt, her voice drowning out the melodious sound of taped music coming from the stereo player on a countertop.

He retreated a few steps. “Are you certain you don’t need my help?”

She poked a long-handled, wooden spoon in the middle of his broad chest. “Go. Why don’t you shave? You look scruffy.”

Matt rubbed a hand over his whiskered cheeks, glaring at Eve from under lowered eyebrows. “You’re kind of ornery today, aren’t you?”

“I’m not ornery, as you put it, Mateo. It’s just that I can’t put together a dinner for guests if you continue to sample everything I put out on the table.”

In a motion too quick for the eye to follow, Matt captured the spoon, threw it to the floor and pulled Eve into his arms. “Loosen up, Darling,” he crooned in her ear as he led her into a smooth dance step, keeping perfect rhythm with the Spanish love song.

How could she loosen up when he couldn’t keep his hands off her body? He’d disappeared from the house for several hours earlier that morning, then returned with the news that he’d invited a friend and his wife for dinner.

She’d panicked, wondering how she was going to plan a dinner with only hours’ notice. However, Horst
Van Holt’s magic freezer had provided the ingredients for a paella: chicken and chorizo. She’d ordered Matt to the fish market to bring back the seafood: clams and shrimp. She had taken advantage of his absence to clean the house and defrost the chicken and sausage.

Eve relaxed against Matt’s body, giving in to the hauntingly sensual voice of the vocalist and the pulsating Latin music. “Where did you learn to dance?” she questioned.

Matt lowered his chin to the top of her head. “It’s an old story, Sweetheart.”

“Tell me about it.”

“It’s about a girl I once had a crush on.”

“I want to hear about it, anyway,” Eve insisted. She wanted to know everything she could about the man she’d married.

“Abigail Carson was the daughter of the wealthiest black man in Lubbock, and every boy in the whole county thought himself in love with her. And I was no exception. Abby wore fancy clothes and drove an expensive car, while I was lucky if I got the pickup on weekends. She was a few years older than me, but she invited me to one of her parties because I looked older than sixteen.

“Her mother served fancy food to her daughter’s fancy guests, and I couldn’t pronounce half of what I’d eaten. After dinner came the dancing, and Abby asked me to dance with her.” He pulled back and stared down at Eve’s amused expression.