Secret Seduction (4 page)

He said nothing. Just stood waiting beside her. A powerful, comforting presence. He felt like a bodyguard. Strong, silent, but muscles coiled, ready for action. They stared out the window, watching the rain coming down. She was so aware of him, her skin prickled.

“Really,” she said. “You don’t have to wait with me.”

“I don’t mind.”

The earnestness in his eyes unnerved her. Why did he have to be so nice? She wasn’t accustomed to the men she met in bars being so chivalrous. Neither was she accustomed to the rampant fantasies circling in her head. She kept imagining him hot and hard and naked.

Oh, God, it had been far too long since she’d gotten laid. She was a hormonal disaster. All it would take was one kiss from those rugged lips of his and she’d melt like candle wax. And judging from the look he was giving her, he knew it.

“You want to go back to Emilio’s?” she found herself asking. “I could use another drink.”

“A drink isn’t what you need,” he said.

She dared to look him in the face. There was no mistaking the glimmer in his eyes. He wanted her as much as she wanted him.

The air around them snapped with sexual energy. His gaze hung on her mouth and he angled his head lower.

Was he going to kiss her? Right here in the lobby with the desk clerks watching them from the registration counter?

She could see the invitation in his eyes, but he wasn’t crossing any boundaries. She flicked a tongue out to lick her lips, egging him toward that kiss.

“There’s a taxi.” He nodded toward the street.

“Is there?”

“Which is a damned good thing, but I was just about to ask you to stay.”

“Were you?”

Vanessa knew a crossroad when she saw one. Take the well-traveled fork and you knew you could stay safe. Take the fork that disappeared into the undergrowth, and while there might be adventure, you were also taking a big gamble.

It was stupid. She knew it as she was doing it, but all she could think of at the moment was how his eyes promised the pleasure of great sex. Sex that would help her forget all about the lousy day she’d had.

She wrapped a hand around his forearm. “So ask.”

He blew out his breath and pulled from her grasp, but he took hold of her chin and tipped her face up to his.

Outside the thunder boomed.

Vanessa’s heart galloped.

Tanner brushed his lips over hers. Not so much a kiss as the inherent promise of one.

All the air left her body.

Then he dipped his head lower and lightly pressed his mouth to the pulse beating in her throat. Heat shot through her body, pooling low in her abdomen. The first pinch of pure passion fisted inside her.

“Tanner.” Her voice came out in a choked whisper.

His lips were back on hers in a feather-soft kiss, and Vanessa simply had to have more. Against all common sense, she curved her body against his and opened her mouth. He inhaled sharply and slipped his tongue between her teeth. She came undone.

Languid heat curled through her body. Was it so wrong to sate the yearning sexual needs she’d been holding at bay for such a long time? Would it be so terrible to have a one-night stand with this man? They were both mature, consenting adults. They were both unattached and attracted to each other. What could possibly be the harm in letting nature take its course?

He deepened the kiss, breaking the last tenuous thread of restraint she’d managed to hang on to until this moment. Why not? As long as she kept her heart out of the fray, as long as she accepted this for what it was—a one-night fling—everything would be all right.

No expectations, no regrets, just mutual pleasure giving and receiving. She was a physician. Vanessa was aware of how important a healthy sex life was to mind, body and spirit.

He pulled back and looked into her eyes. The question was there. He was waiting for her to answer it.

“Tanner.” She breathed. “Get us a room.”

He studied her face, his hand on her shoulder. “I don’t want you to do anything you’ll regret. Are you certain this is what you want?”

She didn’t know where the word came from, but it was completely heartfelt. “Absolutely.”

FUMBLING, TANNER TRIED to slip the electronic key through the card reader while still kissing Vanessa. After three attempts and a couple of well-timed curse words, he got the door open and they tumbled inside.

Vanessa giggled. Funny, she didn’t seem like a giggler. It was probably the tequila.

The door slammed closed behind them.

Her mouth was on his and her arms were around his neck and they were sort of dancing around the room. They fell onto the bed. Tanner was on his back. Vanessa straddled him.

She tugged his shirt from his pants and plowed her hands underneath the hem to plane her palms over his belly. Then she lowered her head and planted hot kisses around his navel.

His body burst into flames. His blood burned and his cock throbbed. He hadn’t been with a woman in four years. Not since Maria. He told himself that’s why he was so hard, so blindsided by lust. He couldn’t even think straight. He knew he shouldn’t be doing this. He was her secret bodyguard and he was about to screw the woman he’d been hired to protect.

He was breaking the number one rule of the bodyguard’s code: Don’t get sexually involved with your protectee.

But the sweet, intoxicating smell of her warm body and the taste of her hot lips and the feel of her soft flesh made him forget his job. At the moment he was all male, awash in testosterone and desperate to have this woman.

She traced her thumbs over his nipples and Tanner groaned aloud. He grabbed her hips and pressed her flush against his pelvis, letting her see exactly what she was doing to him.

The bedsprings creaked beneath their weight. He didn’t care how noisy it got. He had to have her or go mad.

He flipped her over, pinning her to the pillow-top mattress, and speared his fingers through her mass of lush black hair, holding her in place while he ravaged her mouth with kisses.

She wrapped her legs around his waist, simultaneously opening her mouth and letting in his tongue. She tasted incredible. Rich and robust and sexy.

“I want you, Tanner. I want to feel you, all of you,” she murmured against his mouth.

“We’ve got all night. Let’s take our time,” he said, as much to convince himself as well as her. What he wanted was to hike up the hem of her skirt, strip off her panties and plunge right into her.

Not since Maria had a woman made him so hard. Who was he kidding? Until Vanessa, he hadn’t even thought of another woman. This felt strange but good. Healthy to be able to feel something again.

It’s neither good nor healthy. You’ve been hired to protect her. You’ve got to stop this.

It was a rational thought, but the ability for any rational action was lost when she angled her head up to take his earlobe between her teeth and nibbled.

Outside the storm raged. Rain pelted hard against the third-story window. The scarlet-neon hotel sign threw a red glow into the room. Vanessa’s smile was wickedly naughty as she dropped her head back to the mattress and looked up at him, her lips glistening.

She splayed a palm against the flat of his chest and pushed him away.

“What is it?” he rasped huskily. “Have you changed your mind?”

“Sit,” Vanessa commanded, getting to her feet and patting the mattress with her hand.

Tanner obeyed.

She stepped away from him and in that soft red glowing light slanting through the window, she slowly begin to disrobe, sliding down the zipper of her dress, easing the capped sleeves over her shoulders, exposing inch after tantalizing inch of light caramel skin.

He gulped. What a show.

Finally, the silky dress floated down her body to pool at her feet. She stepped out of the garment, but Tanner didn’t notice. He was too busy staring at the hot vision of her in a black lace bra molded to her high, sumptuous breasts.

His hands tingled with the need to touch her, to fill his palms with the weight of her bosom. He wanted to run his tongue over her skin, taste her rich womanly flavor. He wanted her in the most elemental way. At least for tonight, for this moment. She was the antidote to his malaise.

Tanner’s attention fully captured, his gaze tracked from her chest to the smooth curve of her belly to her black satin thong panties, clinging so provocatively to her sweet, luscious ass.

Then slowly she raised one leg and cocked her stilettoed foot on his thigh, the thin heel digging lightly into him. “Undo me.”

His fingers felt big as sausages as he fumbled with the delicate buckle at her slender ankle.

Her breathing was shallow and quick.

The buckle was stubborn.

Not looking so smooth, slick.

In irritation, Tanner slipped the strap under her heel and just peeled the shoe off her foot, leaving the buckle still fastened. He tossed the shoe over his shoulder. It landed with a plop on the other side of the room.

“Give me,” he said, indicating her other foot.

She complied, putting her bare foot on the floor and extending her other leg across his outstretched palm. Touching the sensuous curve of her calf proved more than Tanner could handle—he had to have her now. He dispensed with the second shoe, then wrapped his hand around that delicious calf and lay back against the headboard, pulling her with him.

Vanessa made a soft noise of half surprise, half pleasure. She was atop him again and his arms went around her waist. Her breasts were pressed against his chest and her head was cocked back.

She was ogling him as if he was something interesting she’d found in a novelty store. Her look was both unsettling and provocative.

His fingers went for the clasp of her bra.

She reached back and closed a hand over his fingers. “Not so fast, Tex. It’s your turn to remove an article of clothing.”

He didn’t need any more encouragement than that.

Tanner pulled his shirt over his head without bothering to unbutton it, and toed off his shoes. Her fingers were plucking at the waistband of his pants, working the snap and zipper almost simultaneously.

She shucked the pants down his legs, Tanner lifting his hips to help. His slacks quickly joined her dress on the floor. He and Vanessa were left in their underwear staring into each other’s eyes.

Sharp appreciation increased Vanessa’s awareness as she drank in Tanner’s muscular body. The man was a work of art.

A flash of lightning flooded the room in split-second illumination, emphasizing the intensity of what was happening between them. A myriad of sensations pelted her. The sound of his ragged breathing. The heat of his flesh. The scrape of his beard stubble as he claimed her mouth in another kiss.

Passion surged high within her, increasing the sexual drive that had been building since their dance at Emilio’s.

He tasted robust and piquant, like the roasted coffee they had shared at dinner. She was thirsty for more.

Their tongues played, gliding in and around and over each other. The tender slide of his palms underneath her breasts as he made her bra disappear became a hungry hunt to increase her pleasure.

The burning urge to stroke him, to travel the tempting terrain of his body compelled her.

She ran her fingertips over his belly, exalting in the way his taut stomach muscles quivered at her touch. His low groan lit her up inside. She tracked her hand lower, finding her way through the coarse curls to glide her palm up the long, hard length of him.

Excitement stirred her blood. A murmured whisper of delight slipped past her lips at the sexy feel of him pulsating in her hand.

Her body clenched, anxious to have him inside her, filling her up, making her whole, but she didn’t want to rush things. She wanted to savor this moment, savor him. It took every ounce of will she possessed, but Vanessa forced herself to hold back. She knew he was worth the wait.

He eased her hand from his shaft and pulled his mouth from hers. “You keep doing that and I won’t last two minutes.”

Tanner kissed his way down her neck to her swollen and achy breasts. His mouth settled over one straining nipple, sending a coil of heat firing like an inferno into her blood.

Her body grew heavier, more languorous until it seemed to liquefy into his. He forsook her nipples and returned to making idle circles around her breasts, until once more he was back, pulling and plucking the straining peaks.

She writhed against him.

He circled back.

This time she moaned through clenched teeth when he reached her nipples at last and rolled them between his rough fingers.

Her breath came out in low gasps and her entire body felt aroused. Nibbling her ear, he lifted her up onto his thigh.

His lips tugged on her earlobe. She delighted in the sensation as he began to suckle on her flesh and the ruby stud nestled there. She shuddered at the wetness of his tongue, the heat of his mouth.

He spread his legs and, in the process, pried hers apart with his knee. His hand slid down her breast and across her inner thigh. His other hand gently massaged her buttocks.