Real Men Last All Night (7 page)

Dick Wickstrom was the ASAC, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, for the narcotics and weapons department, and a tight-ass if there ever was one.

Rizzo managed to make Zane smile at the same time he shook his head. "Get to shopping then. And be careful."

"I'll be in touch next time I have something to report." She turned and looked over her shoulder. "Otherwise I'll be out shopping."

By damned, they got what they needed. Now he just had to prepare teams of RED agents to come down on the warehouse to make the bust.

After having watched Georgina Rizzo walk out the door of his office, it hit him like a hammer to the gut. Rizzo's undercover assignment made him remember just how dangerous his occupation was. He withdrew his personal cell phone. He should call Willow and cancel their lunch date.

Then he remembered that of all things, Willow didn't carry a cell phone. She'd said it was because she didn't believe in them. He'd have to change that, too, so she'd have one for emergencies.

Zane pinched the bridge of his nose.
Christ.
The more he thought about her, the more possessive he felt.

Not a good path to head down, Steele.

If only he could get whatever it was in his chest to agree with him every time he thought of Willow.

Friday, three days after they'd met, Zane sat across from Willow at a deli on School Street. She was a lot like his sister—unapologetic when it came to eating in front of men.

No prissy girl picking at her food to look like she didn't eat much. Willow ate with enthusiasm and enjoyment.

She was so pretty with her sun-streaked hair, her smooth, heart-shaped face. Every movement she made was graceful. Taking her to bed was what he thought of every time he saw her. Hell, even when he didn't see her he fantasized about her long golden legs wrapped around his hips, her slender arms linked around his neck when she brought him down for a kiss.

No, pretty didn't describe her. Beautiful wasn't enough, either. So much about her made it difficult to explain just how special she was.

And he loved to watch her no matter what she was doing.

"What?" She looked up from her thick barbeque pork sandwich. A touch of barbeque sauce was at the corner of her mouth.

"A little sauce." Zane reached across the table and wiped the sauce away with his thumb, just to skim his fingers over her face. She always smiled when he touched her, and every time her smile did something to his chest. An ache, a longing that told him he was in deep shit.

She moved her lips just enough to draw Zane's finger into her mouth and suck. He nearly groaned out loud.

Willow let his now wet finger slip from her mouth. "Don't want to waste any," she said with a "wicked glint in her sea-blue eyes.

God, he wanted to take her now. But they'd agreed to slow things down and they'd only had lunch together every day since that incredible dinner and night afterward. Because Willow spent Saturdays with her aunt, she would spend this Sunday with him and his family, then him alone.

It was the alone part he was looking forward to.

Zane leaned back in his chair. "How's the preparation to defend your dissertation going?"

"You remind me of my aunt." That "was something Zane wasn't '■; so sure he liked hearing. "Every day she presses to make sure I'm preparing and not off doing something

'impulsive' like she says I do a lot."

"Like meeting me?"

Her lips quirked. "Yeah, she wasn't too crazy about me going out with a man the same day I met him and not getting in until three a.m. Even though you are Secret Service."

"I wouldn't have approved, either." He narrowed his brows. "And you promise to never do it again, right?"

She gave a mock salute. "Yes, sir!"

"About that dissertation."

"I've been going to the public library every day and making my last revisions on my laptop." Willow pointed at her purse, which was resting by her feet. It was large enough to hold her laptop, which was both slim and small.

With his memory for details, Zane wasn't surprised he remembered the design was something his youngest sister, Rori, was into, a brand called Coach. Not something his sister Lexi would go for—
-she
wouldn't be caught dead with something designer if it wasn't part of her undercover work.

Willow took another healthy bite of her barbeque pork sandwich. "Can't wait to meet everyone in your family on Sunday," she said after she finished chewing. "I just have my younger twin sisters, so it'll be fun to be around a really big family."

"Well, now you'll get almost the whole experience." Zane held his own barbeque pork sandwich, ready to take another bite. "Almost the whole bunch. Our brother Ryan is Special Ops in the Marines and who knows where he is right now."

"Eight, nine, still big either way." Willow sipped some of her lemonade through a straw in her Styrofoam cup. She glanced at her watch before setting her lemonade on the table.

"Hey, gotta run. I'll be late for work if I don't get going."

Zane stood at the same time she did and caught her by the shoulders before he kissed her long and hard as she kissed him back. He wanted to do more than kiss her, damnit.

When they parted, she picked up her purse and gave him one of her smiles that always punched him in the gut and made him wonder what the hell he'd gotten himself into.

"Now I'm
really
in the Land of the Friggin' Giants." Five-foot-four Lexi Steele planted her hands on her hips as she looked from the five-eleven Willow to her three over-six-foot-tall brothers. The diamond piercing at her belly button winked in the sunlight and Willow wondered what the Chinese symbol meant that surrounded Lexi's belly button.

By the spark in Lexi's green eyes, Willow could tell Zane's sister was comfortable with her shorter height and wasn't serious as she glared at everyone around her.

Now Willow could report back to her friend at work, Linda, that Zane
did
have older brothers almost as sexy as he was.

"But I'll take you each on one-on-one," Lexi was saying, and it was obvious she meant it.

From what Zane told Willow, Lexi was a smail package but she "kicked ass."

"How about we go three-on-three?" Zane's brother Troy said. Willow tried to keep a straight face as she rubbed her damp palms on her jean shorts. The afternoon sun and humidity had her pulling her hot pink tank top away from her chest, too.

"Okay." Lexi looked around at her three older brothers, and their twelve-year-old brother who was already taller than she. "I'll take Zane and Willow over you buffoons." Willow high-fived Lexi as she said, "These boys will go down fast."

She wasn't kidding. She'd played ball from junior high through Four years of college and was even asked to try out for several WNBA teams as point guard. But for Willow, basketball was meant to be fun, challenging, and her break from studying. It hadn't been her life's ambition.

Within fifteen minutes, after several jump shots, easy passes, lay-ups, and three-pointers, all three of the huge Steele brothers, including Zane, stared at Willow as if she'd come from another planet.

"You've got a ringer." Troy shook his head as he looked from Willow to Lexi. "We should get a handicap."

"I want to be on
her
side," the twelve-year-old shorter brother, Sean, said to Zane. "Trade ya."

Zane studied Willow and said, "Not on your life," as if he wouldn't trade her outside of basketball, either.

Heat flushed Willow's cheeks as she stood on the three-point line and palmed the ball.

She glanced at Lexi who was grinning.

"Oh, you boys are so going to die," Lexi said with an evil laugh.

Lexi might be five-four, but she weaved around the men with ease and made several of her own jump shots as they started another game of three-on-three. Zane was just as good as Lexi.

The two men and younger boy on the opposite team held their own pretty well, but they never stood a chance.

After destroying the brothers five games to zero, everyone was pouring sweat except for Willow who wasn't really winded, just damp from perspiration, mostly from the heat and humidity. She'd never lost her endurance after so many years of playing one of the most demanding sports out of all athletics that required extensive cardio training. The five miles she ran every morning was barely challenging. It was mostly to help keep her fit.

Zane put his arm around her shoulders and Willow noticed that < everyone around them just about dropped their jaws. Zane didn't seem to notice as he said low enough for only her to hear, "You're full of one surprise after

another." "

"Lemonade and whiskey pie," Mrs. Steele called from the front door.

Everyone picked up their jaws and bolted for the house. "Dibs on the biggest piece!"

Sean yelled as he beat his older brothers up the steps and onto the porch.

Willow wanted to lean into Zane, but that might have been j pushing it in front of his family Apparently bringing home a date was something Zane had never done before—which didn't surprise her in the least.

She looked up at Zane. "Whiskey pie?"

He gave her one of his heart-melting smiles. "An Irish dessert, of course. Mammy grew up on Irish cooking and that's what she serves from appetizers to desserts." They reached the steps. "And not one of us complains."

Including Zane's parents, the eight members of the Steele bunch sat at the incredibly long table. The only one missing was the brother who was in the Marines. Willow sat between Zane and Lexi.

Mrs. Steele must have spent at least a couple of days cooking due to the amount of food that had been piled on the table both times they'd sat down that day. Now there had to be enough desserts for each person at the table to have his or her own pan or platter full.

"Cool," Lexi said as she reached for a platter with what looked like battered and deep-fried lumpy somethings. "Apple fritters, too." Ah.

The way the 'whole family dug in, Willow figured she'd have to jump in if she wanted a taste of the apple fritters and whiskey pie. But Zane slid a slice of pie onto her plate, winked and smiled when she looked at him. Melt.

God, he was so devastatingly handsome when he smiled like that. He made her feel like warm chocolate and she wanted to pour herself all over him. Tonight. Definitely tonight.

"I love your family." Willow interlocked her fingers with Zane's as they entered his home.

"You loved kicking their asses at basketball, that's why." Zane brought her flush against him as they stood in his front room. "You wouldn't say a word as to how you learned to play so well. What, were you with the WNBA?"

"Almost." Willow smiled as she slipped her hand from his and wrapped her arms around his neck. She leaned even tighter against the hard ridges of his body. He was so warm and he felt so good and smelled so fabulous. "A few teams tried to recruit me at the end of my four years at NYU. But I opted for concentrating on graduate school instead."

He kissed the corner of her mouth. "What other secrets do you have?"

"You'll just have to find out." Willow reached up and kissed him. Thrill after thrill started rolling through her belly as Zane grew more demanding in his kiss and his hands roamed her body.

"I need you so goddamned bad right now." Zane kissed her ear, her jaw, her chin as he unfastened the button to her jean shorts. He pushed her shorts and panties down to her thighs. Zane took her by her shoulders and turned her so that she was facing the stone fireplace in his living room. "On your hands and knees, on the I throw rug."

The excitement running through Willow had her senses on fire as she obeyed. She felt the brush of Zane's jeans as he knelt behind her, heard the zipper— Then felt the sudden thrust of Zane's cock inside of her.

Willow gave a shout of surprise as he entered and started taking her hard and fast.

"You've been teasing me all week." He leaned over her while sliding his hands beneath her tank top and pushing her bra up over her breasts. "Now it's time to get even," he said as he pinched her nipples as hard as he was driving in and out of her. "I like the way you get even," Willow said, hardly able to get the words out. She might not get winded at basketball, but Zane some-how managed to steal her breath every time they were together.

"This isn't anything, honey," Zane said as he moved one of his hands down and rubbed her clit.

Willow gasped and almost climaxed. It was one of the most erotic things they'd done.

Being on her knees with her thighs spread only as far as her jean shorts would allow her to felt delicious. Zane took her from behind while still clothed, his rough jeans rubbing her soft skin and stimulating her even more.

All of this combined with the feel of his erection inside her, the way he was stroking her clit while using the other hand to pinch first one nipple, then the other—she could barely hold on.

"I've wanted to be inside you every damned day this week." Zane's voice was a rough growl. "And now I'm going to take you until you're too weak to stand."

"I'm already too weak," Willow moaned as he continued his hard thrusts. "You're going to wear me out."

He pinched one of her nipples hard and she moaned even louder. "You weren't even breathing hard after five games of three-on-three. I think you can handle several good fuckings."

Willow began to tremble as her orgasm came closer and closer.

"Feels so good to have my cock inside your tight, slick pussy with no rubber between us."

"Yes. Good." Willow was almost dizzy from breathing so hard and all the sensations rolling through her body. She couldn't begin to get out a coherent sentence if she tried.

"That's it, honey," Zane said as she trembled harder and nearly crossed her eyes from the power of her oncoming orgasm. He rubbed her clit harder. "Come for me now."

This time her cries were like choking sobs as her climax broke through her. She felt as if her body fractured, with pieces flying and scattering into shards of glass that glittered all over the floor.