Sexual Games [The Heroes of Silver Springs 8] (Siren Publishing Classic) (12 page)

Thaddeus glanced at his wristwatch. “It’s eleven o’clock. Holy cow,” he said on a laugh as he followed Cameron out of the restaurant.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to keep you out so late.”

“Did you hear me complaining?”

“No.”

They walked in a companionable silence back to the parking garage, the time passing far more quickly than Thaddeus wanted it to. He followed Cameron to his car.

“Do you want me to walk you up?”

“No, it’s late. You probably have an earlier day at it tomorrow than I’ve got scheduled. You should get out of here, but if you get a chance to break away tomorrow, I’d like it if you could stop by the challenge.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Thaddeus gazed into Cameron’s eyes and knew he wasn’t getting a brush-off line. The man really would stop by if he could find the time.

Cameron reached for his hand, and the contact sent electric sensations speeding through his system. His heart pounded against his ribcage. Anticipation with a trace of trepidation tightened his throat and cock.

“Thanks for, you know, asking me out tonight,” Thaddeus managed to say as he fell, not for the first time that night, into the blue sea of swirling promises and desires in Cameron’s eyes.

“Thanks for accepting.” Cameron’s gaze dropped to his mouth, intent igniting that sea of desire, and Thaddeus felt his lips part. “I had a great time.”

Thaddeus started to say he did, too, when Cameron kissed him. His lips were soft, moist, and he took Thaddeus’s parted lips for the invitation Thaddeus hadn’t realized he was issuing, but thank God he had. Cameron pushed his tongue into Thaddeus’s mouth and a world of sensations exploded through his mind and body.

Aw, God, he tastes good.

Thaddeus met Cameron’s tongue stroke for stroke, reveling in the remnants of the pinot noir that lingered in his mouth to mix with an innate flavor he suspected he would forever remember as belonging only to Cameron.

Cameron put a hand on his hip and drew him against his body, hard plane to hard plane. Thaddeus wrapped an arm around the man’s neck, angling his head and allowing Cameron to deepen the kiss. The man blew his mind, dancing his tongue over his, licking his teeth, pulling back ever so slightly to nip his bottom lip before plunging inside again. The kiss was hot, full of desire and lust, and Thaddeus knew it wouldn’t stop there if they had been anywhere besides a public parking garage.

It did stop, though. Slowly, Cameron drew back, and the look of utter torment in his now-darkened eyes took Thaddeus’s breath away.

“You’re right,” Cameron whispered. “I should get out of here.”

Unable to find his voice, Thaddeus nodded and stepped back.

“I’ll see you again soon, okay?”

Thaddeus swallowed hard. Emotions too intense to define clogged his throat, but he managed to speak around them. “I’d like that.”

Cameron’s lips unfolded in a sinfully sexy smile as he slid into the Corvette and started the engine.

Thaddeus turned and walked to the elevator. For the first time in hours, Adrien popped into his mind and he realized he knew all he needed to. If Cameron was that other man, he understood more than he wanted to why Adrien hadn’t been able to walk away. He’d been on only one date with Cameron, shared four glorious hours and a single mind-blowing kiss, and he already suspected leaving when the time came was going to be harder than hell.

* * * *

Mallory pulled her trench coat tighter around her body and called Jackson on her cell as she walked to the elevator in his parking garage. It surprised her when he answered at two thirty-eight in the morning sounding completely alert.

“What’s wrong?”

Her step faltered at the sound of his voice, the urgency in his tone, and trepidation clashed into the anticipation pumping through her veins. “Good, you’re awake.”

“Yes, where are you?”

“About to step onto the elevator downstairs.”

“Here?” His voice rose an octave. “Mallory, you shouldn’t be here. What if someone sees you?”

She glanced behind her at the deserted parking garage, then up at the security cameras. Yeah, she had taken a risk by coming here tonight after ending her shift at Stardust. She planned to make damn sure that risk was worth every second.

“No one will see me as long as you open your door, handsome. I’ll be up in a jiffy.” She ended the call before he could say anything more just as the doors to the elevator opened. She didn’t give herself time to think or time to reconsider her plan. She stepped onto the elevator, pushed the button for the third floor, and let out a heavy breath. Tonight, it was time to play. Jackson wanted games, and she had the perfect one in mind to keep him from talking either of them out of it.

The elevator stopped at the third floor and the doors opened with a soft swoosh. “Game on,” she whispered and walked on legs that wanted to shake, straight to his still-closed apartment door. Her knuckles barely hit the wood before the door swung open and her breath caught in her throat.

Sweet God of hormones.

Jackson stood before her wearing only a pair of pajama pants that rode low on his hips, his cell phone in one hand, and an expression fierce enough she almost turned tail and ran. He shifted to his right, giving her space to enter. Inspired, she trailed the tip of one fingernail from his right bicep across his chest to his left bicep as she walked passed him into his apartment. She didn’t go far, stopping close enough she could still feel the heat of him behind her.

She spotted a sleeping figure on his couch. Perfect! They weren’t alone. She hadn’t expected them to be, knowing he had two firefighters from Silver Springs staying with him for a few days. It fell exquisitely into her plan.

She heard a soft click as he shut the door behind her and she turned to face him. A sliver of moonlight peeked through the curtains on the living room window, affording her just enough light to see and be seen.

“Mallory, what—”

She lifted a finger to his lips, silencing him as she rose to her tiptoes and whispered in his ear. “Shush, you don’t want to wake your guests. It’s time to play the silent game, slick. Are you in?” She licked his earlobe between her teeth and gently nipped it before stepping back a fraction of an inch. Before he had a chance to answer, she shrugged off her trench coat and let it fall in a pool of leather at her feet.

* * * *

Holy Mother of God.

Jackson dropped his cell phone and didn’t spare it a glance when he heard it shatter on the tiled foyer floor. He heard Thaddeus stir on the living room sofa and he waited a beat, silently thanking the good Lord above when the other man didn’t wake.

Jackson’s gaze fell down Mallory’s body—her very naked, very spectacular body—and every ounce of sanity he possessed plummeted to his cock. He had seen her practically naked before in the club outfits she’d worn on assignments but never all the way there. The view was incredible. His attention swept over smooth, bronzed flesh silvered by the moonlight, her full, voluptuous breasts, her flat stomach with that damnable bellybutton ring that always drove him out of his mind, and down to the V between her legs. He found smooth-looking flesh there, too, hairless and beckoning for him to discover exactly how silky that part of her truly felt.

Was he in?

Hell, yes!
And so far over his head he couldn’t remember how to swim for the surface.

She didn’t give him even a nanosecond to respond. Gaze locked with his, she backed him against the door, flattened her amazing body against his, and every thought in his head of putting an end to her little silent game flew out the living room window.

Jackson had held her before but never skin-to-skin, never like this. She was all soft curves and heated flesh, and when she licked her lips, his gaze was instantly there. The sight of her moist, pink tongue grazing softly, sultrily over her lips made his cock dance in hopes of equal attention. Hopes he couldn’t find the strength to tamp down.

She drew out the moment. Her soft breaths moved hot and seductive over his lips, seeped through his skin, and took possession of his control. She’d had enough. He saw the evidence of that in her gaze. No more waiting. No more dancing around. She intended to put an end to it all tonight. But had she had enough to let him in all the way?

The question got lost in the sexual fog clouding his brain as she closed the distance between their mouths. Her lips brushed his in a kiss so light, so tender he might have imagined it, except she barely pulled back before she did it again.

Something inside him snapped. He wound his arms around her, flattening one hand on the small of her back and delving the other beneath her hair to cup her nape, and yanked her harder against him. He tasted the victory in her kiss as she swept her tongue into his mouth. She laced her fingers through his hair and held his head firmly in place.

The snap morphed to an explosion in his mind, his body, his very soul. He could no more stop it than he could stop his own heart from beating. Her kiss hardened, quickened. Her tongue danced over his in a brisk pace of control and heady need.

He let her have the control, let her feed her need, and knew he would damn himself for it later. She moved one hand from his head, covered his on her nape, and guided it down between their bodies to her breast, showing him where she wanted to be touched.

He covered her breast with his hand, squeezed, and felt her sigh into his mouth. She left his hand there, skimmed the backs of her fingers down his side, leaving a sizzling trail in their wake on her destination to the elastic waistband of his pajama pants.

She moaned, a barely audible sound, as she drew back, nipped his bottom lip and licked her way over his jaw and down his neck. Her fingers dipped beneath the elastic of his pants, danced between the material and his flesh, and splinters of anticipation stabbed in his cock. Her mouth continued its downward exploration, planting wicked kisses on his neck, her teeth grazing over his collarbone, her tongue licking a path over his left pec. Her other hand left his head to curl over his right shoulder, her palm caressing his flesh as it slid down his bicep.

Momentarily distracted by that hand, he sucked in a startled, utterly tortured breath when her other hand pushed into his pants and her fingers curled around his shaft. His head fell back against the door behind him, his eyes closing as she lifted his cock out of his pants and stroked his length. He squeezed her breast harder and her grip on his cock tightened in turn. A primal, animalistic growl rumbled in his throat. He nearly let it slip when he felt her body start to slide down his.

He lifted his head, his gaze landing first on Thaddeus’s sleeping form on the sofa barely fifteen feet away. He caught her shoulders and she looked up at him from beneath lashes over eyes darkened by desire and naughty intentions. Remembering her game, both unable to stop it and determined to let her play it through, he shook his head. The last thing he wanted was for Thaddeus to wake up right now and see this.

He shoved his throbbing cock back inside his pants, swept her into his arms, and carried her to his bedroom, not bothering with the light. Her arms wound around his neck and she held on tight, taking him down with her when he laid her on his bed. Realization struck him like a physical blow. He eased back, putting his weight on his hands as he lifted his upper body and stared down at her. Moonlight spilled through the opened curtains on his window, and he knew she could see him as clearly as he could see her. He couldn’t hide even a smidgen of the emotions wreaking havoc on his mind, his body, or his heart. They were all there in his expression and in his eyes for her to see.

This was Mallory gazing up at him, her long, autumn hair fanning the sheet on his bed. This was Mallory with her arms locked around him, her naked flesh pressed to his, her legs spread on either side of his hips.

Christ, how many nights had he laid in this very bed dreaming of this, aching for this so badly he thought it might kill him? He swallowed, his throat tight with words he wanted to say, pleas he wanted to make.

You’re so beautiful.

The expression on her angelic face, so full of desire, heat, arousal, and eagerness, made her more arresting than ever. He let his attention move down her body, over her breasts, pausing at the bellybutton ring he wanted to circle with his tongue, then stopping at where their bodies pressed together. The scent of her pussy drifted up to tease his senses. He felt her wetness through his thin pajama pants, knew he would find a slick, creamy treat if he touched her there.

She moved one hand to the juncture of his neck and shoulder and his gaze slid back to hers.

I love you.

He knew he did. He always had. He wasn’t scared to admit it, but it would sure as shit scare the hell out of her if he did right now.

Please, don’t fuck this up, Mal.

He knew she wanted this to end with sex, knew she would walk out come morning if he didn’t do something to take away her fears. The trouble came in realizing long ago that he didn’t have a clue what to do to help her.

The look on her face softened, and he thought he caught a glimmer of tears in her eyes as she shook her head, then blinked. A band constricted around his heart, one he feared would squeeze the life out of him far too soon.