Hot Number (11 page)

Disconcerted, she squeezed her eyes shut and
tried to control the almost frightening sense of need surging
through her body. Need for physical release, yes, but something
more. Something she couldn’t name but that she wanted Nick—and only
Nick—to give her. She sucked air into her lungs, fighting for
breath. Fighting to remember that this was just a Vegas fling, and
not something that really mattered.

He nuzzled once more then lifted from her
breast. A hand came up under her chin, gently forcing her head up.
Warily, she opened her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” His deep, dark eyes were
narrowed, but his voice sounded amused.

She blinked as she stared back at him,
letting the simple yet surprisingly complicated question sink into
her bones. Sheldon had never asked her a question like that during
sex, nor had she expected to engage her brain in emotionally
analytical exercises with only her panties on. And nothing was
wrong. Not really. After all, how could something that felt so
right have anything wrong about it?

Damn.
Sadie had hoped her anxiety had
finally taken a long overdue sabbatical, but it rippled down her
spine like bone-chilling Chicago sleet.

“I’m not exactly sure what you mean,” she
hedged. The wall suddenly felt cold and unforgiving against her
back, something she hadn’t noticed until now. “Um, am I doing
something wrong?”

His easy smile provided some measure of
reassurance, the warmth of it drifting over her like a soft mist.
He brought his face close, leisurely tasting her lower lip before
kissing her with a tenderness that made her heart clutch. A few hot
moments later, he drew back.

“Not at all,” he said, sweeping a slow,
possessive hand down over her chest and stomach. Her knees
practically buckled on the spot. “But there’s more tension in this
little body than in a fishing line with a marlin on the hook.”

Her anxiety made her seek reassurance in a
joke. “Are you saying I’m a cold fish?”

Nick laughed. “Hell, no. Baby, I’m so hard
right now I want to throw you on the bed, spread those pretty legs
wide, and ride you till I make you come at least three times.”

Mercy!
Sadie swallowed, both wildly
excited and a little unnerved by that particular image.

He ducked his head to look her in the eye.
“Am I going too fast for you?”

She repressed a groan. Was it that obvious?
Hell, this was one time she wished she were like Cassie. Her friend
would know exactly what to do to make sure a man never had to ask
that particular question. “I’m sorry. I’m trying hard to relax, but
I wasn’t this nervous when I had to make a presentation before two
thousand people in Stuttgart last year. Stupid of me, isn’t
it?”

He gave a laugh that sounded more like a hum
while he slid his index fingers into her panties and tugged them
until they fell to her ankles. “What kind of presentation was that,
Ms. Bligh?”

Oh, great!
That would certainly kill
the mood—confessing to the sheriff that she was a math
professor.

“Oh, you know. Just business,” she said
vaguely, sucking in a tight breath as his hands moved up her body.
“Nothing you’d be interested in.”

To her relief, he let the subject drop. His
hands drifted up until they rested on her shoulders, cradling her
with a gentle, stroking touch.

“There’s only me here, Sadie, and I’ll never
judge you. Besides, didn’t we agree that I’m in charge, at least
for now? I’ll take care of you, I promise.”

Though a hint of amusement still colored his
deep voice, Sadie also heard understanding. The coil of tension
inside her started to slowly unwind. Somehow, even standing totally
naked in front of a man she’d met only yesterday didn’t feel quite
so risky.

He studied her, his gaze patient and his
hands gentle on her body. “We don’t have to do any of this if you
don’t want to. Just say the word and I’ll stop. But if you want me
to keep going, you’ve got to try to let go. Do and say whatever
feels right. You can trust me.”

A quiet sincerity rang through his words. She
did trust him, more than any man she had ever met. But if she let
herself think about that stunning fact, the anxiety would come
screaming back in a heartbeat. What they were doing couldn’t
possibly be anything so serious. It was supposed to be about fun,
about being outrageous and sexy and silly. She needed to lighten up
and, like Nick said, just let go.

Pretend to be brave and you will be
brave.

She switched on a bright smile. “All right,
then. Fair enough. And along the lines of saying and doing whatever
I want, I think it’s time for you to unholster your pistol,
Sheriff,” she said, reaching for his belt buckle.

“Oh, Jesus, Sadie.” Nick groaned at her lame
joke. But he shucked his jacket and attacked his shirt buttons as
she pulled the black leather belt from around his waist. She
unzipped his slacks and they dropped to the floor, revealing tight,
white briefs that contrasted sharply with the bronze skin of his
taut abdomen and muscled thighs.

But it was his erection, straining against
the cotton fabric that transfixed her. Never had she imagined, much
less seen, a penis of such, well, epic proportions, for lack of a
better phrase. The broad, dark head had breached the waistband,
obviously eager to be released from its confinement. The fact that
she had put Nick in such a state of heightened arousal was both
thrilling and more than a bit terrifying.

Then, in one swift move he shucked his
briefs. Sadie let out a startled little gasp.

Fortunately, Nick either didn’t notice it or
decided to ignore her ridiculously clichéd reaction. He wrapped his
arms around her and walked her backwards toward the bed until they
fell together onto the smooth surface of the duvet. His big body
came down on her in a mass of smooth, unyielding muscle.

He didn’t lie on top of her for more than a
few seconds. Instead, he eased up onto his hands and knees,
straddling her as he took possession of her mouth. Sadie curled her
fingers around the back of his head, stroking into the thick hair
at the nape of his neck as she opened up to him, melting into the
wet and hot open-mouthed kiss. But Nick didn’t stop with her mouth.
He moved over her, planting slow, passionate kisses on her
forehead, between her eyes, on her nose, on her lips, on her chin,
in the hollow of her collarbone.

When he reached her nipples she groaned,
trying to draw her legs up and open to relieve the ache building
between her thighs. Without lifting his head from her breasts, Nick
shifted his body so she could spread her legs wide. Feeling more
than a little wanton—and, she was happy to note, enjoying it—Sadie
tilted her pelvis and brought her damp cleft directly into contact
with Nick’s naked thigh. Contractions rippled through her lower
body, arching her back with a shock of pleasure.

He made a satisfied, growly noise low in his
throat, tonguing her nipple as he pressed his leg onto her
now-aching clit. She had to clamp down hard on the throbbing deep
between her legs, or else she’d pitch over into a climax before
they even started. This was too good—hell, it was better than
anything she’d ever experienced—to let it end so soon.

She let out a long, hissing breath, trying to
settle her pounding heart as Nick lifted his head from her breast.
But when he gave her a hard nudge with his thigh, she almost lost
it, throwing her head back with a strangled cry.

“You like that?” His voice was dark and
rough.

“Um...yes,” she managed as he continued to
move against her. Lord, if he kept that up, she wouldn’t be able to
hold on much longer.

As if he’d sensed that, Nick slid away and
began moving down her body, trailing kisses of fire from her
breastbone to her belly. He stopped just above her damp curls.

“Do you want more?” he murmured.

Was that a trick question?
Sadie
raised her head, doubt penetrating the haze of lust that had turned
her brain into a bowl of oatmeal. Of course she wanted more, but
what exactly was he talking about?

“More would be good,” she said
cautiously.

He gave her a wicked, utterly masculine grin
before dipping his head between her legs.

Oh! That.

Sheldon had never much liked oral
sex—certainly not giving it, anyway—and Sadie had never felt
comfortable pushing him. But she had always wondered what it would
be like to experience that particular thrill at the hands
of...well, at the mouth of a man who really knew what he was doing.
Lucky her, it looked like she was about to find out.

Settling between her thighs, Nick eased her
legs farther apart. Even in the dim light she could see the hungry
look on his face. The hard angles of his cheekbones and jaw seemed
set in stone, and his eyes focused on her body with so much
intensity that it made her dizzy. No one had ever gazed at her like
that, like she was a truly sexy and desirable woman, not just some
geek from the math department. God, being so open and exposed
before him and seeing that expression on his face was almost enough
to make her come right then and there.

Slowly, drawing out the moment, Nick parted
her tender flesh. He slid one finger into her sheath, now so creamy
wet and so unlike any other time she’d had sex that she wondered if
this really was her body. When he withdrew the slick finger and
massaged it over the hard little nub at the top of her cleft, Sadie
finally and completely let go all the words and emotions she’d been
bottling up inside.

“Oh, yes. Oh, God, that is so amazing,” she
gasped as luxurious surges of pleasure rippled out from beneath his
stroking finger. She squirmed in delight as he dipped two fingers
into her this time, stretching her with a delicious ache before
returning to play with her swollen clit.

“Yes, Nick! Just like that, with both
fingers. It’s wicked what you’re doing down there. In fact, it’s
downright sinful. But for God’s sake, don’t stop or I’ll have to
kill you.”

Oh, dear.
Worst time ever for her
bizarre sense of humor to surface.

Nick rose up for an instant and fixed her
with a bemused frown. She gave him a weak smile. “Sorry. Just
kidding,” she murmured.

With a slow shake of his head, he resumed his
efforts, this time with his tongue. Sadie grabbed a fistful of
duvet in each hand as rough velvet pressure stroked through her
folds, sending electrical shocks rocketing through her body.
Desperate to move, eager to ride the building wave, she tried to
arch her back but big hands planted on each hip held her down. Some
distant part of her mind told her to reject his control, to resist
her growing vulnerability to a man who was all but a stranger, but
her body knew better. Her body, all on its own, had come to trust
him.

Already, tiny spasms were layering one on top
of the other, contracting the muscles deep in her pelvis. It had
been so long. For years, she’d convinced herself that sex didn’t
matter, relationships with men didn’t matter. Mathematics was her
true lover, a lover she understood. One she could count on until
her last breath on Earth.

But as much as she loved math, it had never
given her an orgasm. Nothing and no one had ever given her an
orgasm like this.

Nick shifted his hands from her hips and slid
them beneath her, tilting her bottom up off the bed as he claimed
her with his mouth. His tongue licked a scorching heat over her
clit, circling it and teasing it for what seemed like endless
minutes until finally he took mercy on her and sucked directly on
it.

Something detonated deep within her. Sadie
let go of the duvet and dug her fingernails into the iron muscles
of his shoulders. “Yes! Yes, that’s it, dammit, dammit, dammit! Oh,
God, Nick. I’m coming. Now!”

Shudders racked her body as she writhed in
bliss, holding his head tight against her as she sobbed out her
climax. He rode her through it, stroking his tongue softly through
her heat until the contractions began to fade. Eventually, she fell
back onto the bed, gulping air in an effort to catch her
breath.

Nick raised himself onto his elbows and moved
up beside her, dropping kisses in a reverse path from his earlier
descent—up past her bellybutton to her breasts, neck and face. When
his lips touched hers, they were still slick and hot with her
essence. It was unbearably erotic.

“You are a wicked man, Nick Saxon,” she
whispered in a thready voice. “That wasn’t an orgasm—that was a
supernova.”

His grin, combined with the rumpled black
hair that stood up in short spikes from his head, made him look
years younger than the gritty security officer who had seemed so
dangerous yesterday. And a whole lot more fun.

“You’re welcome, ma’am. But don’t think we’re
done here. That was just the appetizer.”

“I gathered as much,” she said, lifting
herself onto one elbow as he rolled off the bed. Nick picked up his
pants and fished out his wallet, quickly finding a purple foil
packet.

A spurt of excitement jolted her spent nerves
back to life. “I was certainly hoping you might have one of those.”
She’d been on the pill during the Sheldon years, but went off it
soon after he left for Switzerland. And she hadn’t brought any
condoms to Vegas with her, which probably said more about her own
lack of self-confidence than anything else.

No need to worry about that now.

“Marines are always ready for action,” Nick
quipped.

As he ripped the top off the packet, Sadie
heard the Marine Hymn blare out from somewhere close by. She
blinked, and for a ridiculous moment her sex-dazed brain wondered
if he’d bought some kind of specialty condom.

Nick gave a low curse. “Jesus, I’m sorry. I
really have to take this call.” He grabbed his sport coat, ripping
the cell phone from the inside pocket.