Still Mine (20 page)

She punched his shoulder in response. He offered her a corny grunt and rolled onto his back in mock injury.

“Fetish, huh?” Following him, she lifted a thigh over his body, pressing her knee into the mattress. He grasped her hips, settling her on top of his groin.

“Yeah, although I don’t think it’s a kinky one, just the rather basic sort of desperation to get you back into my bed.”

He sounded so needy. It was tempting to just let everything flow. Forget about the past and embrace what was at hand without judging. Flattening her hands against his chest, she absorbed the steady throb of his heart. Her attention lingered on the rise and fall of his chest as she threaded her fingers through his chest hair, each little tactile sensation worthy of notice. The hands resting on her hips slid up to her breasts, cupping both globes as she tipped her head back, closing her eyes while enjoying the rush of delight.

Paul wasn’t sure she was real. The moonlight washed over her skin, turning her translucent. Every inch of her awash in silver. All the science residing in his brain made little sense as he felt his emotions rise and take command. She was smooth and curvy. The biological reasons didn’t matter. He wasn’t interested in thinking any longer, only feeling, touching the forbidden thing that had always tempted him. Running a hand from her breast to her belly, he listened to the intake of breath his touch solicited. She lifted her head and angled her face towards his, the silver moonlight glittering off her eyes.

A powerful need surged through him. Something dark moved across his soul as he sat up and wrapped his arms around her. Capturing the elusive thing that had haunted his dreams. Rolling her over, he pushed her thighs wide with his body, catching the scent of her spread sex. His cock twitched as he nuzzled against her breasts, sucking one nipple and then finding the second one. His hands gripped her shoulders as he trailed kisses across her belly.

Jo gasped as Paul pushed her thighs wide. There was a firmness to his touch that held her on the border between apprehension and fear. Just a slight prickle of worry taunting her as he spread the folds of her slit and his breath teased her clit. He stroked it with a single fingertip, and her body jerked, a whimper escaping her lips. Looking up across her body, his gaze found hers in the dark.

“Sure you don’t enjoy those CIA agents who crave control?” Dark and husky, his tone wasn’t something she recognized. She shivered and watched his gaze drop to her spread labia. His finger made contact again, this time remaining on her clit in a slow rubbing motion while he watched her face.

“Pushing your buttons is strangely attractive at the moment.”

“Paul…”

“Yes?”

Pleasure spiked through her, wringing her body as it twisted with need under his touch. Her brain didn’t want to think; she was too distracted by what he was doing.

“I’m known to be ruthless with my projects.” His finger increased its speed, dragging every bit of her attention towards him and his touch. Her heart accelerated as she watched him look down at her spread sex and then back towards her face.

“I made a mistake when I didn’t apply the same devotion to keeping you.” He increased the speed again. This time need shook her, tightening under his touch as her hips lifted towards him.

“Adjusting my approach isn’t so difficult. In fact, I think you just might learn to enjoy it.” He slid his fingertip down the center of her slit to the opening of her sheath. He teased it, rubbing through the slick folds before thrusting deep into her body. She arched, her hands clawing at the bedding beneath her as he moved and trapped one thigh beneath his shoulder.

“You’re mine, and I’ll happily prove it to you, Jo.”

His head lowered and she gasped as he sucked her clit into his mouth. Her cry hit the ceiling and her eyes closed, everything falling away except the pleasure. His tongue slashed over her labia, shooting delight up into her channel. He worked his finger in and out of her body, her hips pressing up towards his mouth. Need pulsed through her in a rapid tempo, her hips bucking as a climax tore through her. It raced through every cell she had and she cried out, a gasp leaving her mouth as she dropped back into reality to find her husband watching her.

He looked hungry. Like a starving man. She recognized the desperation because she shared the emotion. Loneliness was cruel and cold, but together they could keep warm.

“Come to me, Paul.”

Holding her hands out, she smiled as he moved up her body, his arms cut with muscle that was as hard as the cock he thrust smoothly into her body. She slid her hands around his shoulders, grasping his hips with her thighs, and joined his rhythm, lifting her body to take his demands. The bed shook and time froze as he held off finishing, driving her back towards another climax. Framing her face, he locked stares with her. The tension filling her body made her frantic.

“Together.”

He barked the single word at her as his body bucked between her thighs. She lifted to him, clawing at his arms when the climax broke through them both. The hot spurt of his release triggered a final tightening of her sheath around his length. She forgot to breathe as the tremors rippled through her, and Paul collapsed on top of her. For long moments there was nothing but the powerful thumping of his heart against her breasts.

Then he rolled onto his back. The night air brushed across her body, letting her know that she was covered in a fine coating of perspiration. It was too much effort to move though, her body unwilling to even adjust her position to something more dignified.

“Come here, Jo.”

His voice was groggy but thick with rich satisfaction. The bed rocked as he turned and slid an arm beneath her shoulders. Tugging her against his side, one hand stroked over her shoulder as he tightened his hold slightly.

“Right here. You sleep right here.”

Too tired to care, Jo was too content to move. She lacked any energy to quibble over details or issues from the past. The moment was full of bliss, the sort that she’d longed for every night since being handed a folded flag. Contentment wrapped around her as solidly as the arms holding her. There was only the sound of his heart as she drifted off into slumber that for the first time in years didn’t include dreams of the man she’d lost.

Her dreams were full of the stroke of his fingers as he molded her against his frame. The touch of skin-to-skin contact that no memory could duplicate. It was tender, warm and intoxicating with intimacy.

She was surrounded by love.

Paul listened to the sound of her breathing long after Jo had fallen asleep. She muttered, rolling away from him. Propping his head in his hand, he turned onto his side to see her. Sleep didn’t hold any appeal next to the chance to actually watch her through something more than a photograph.

Her scent filled the bed. Reaching out, he smoothed his fingers over her arm as she hugged a pillow, presenting her back to him. Another little sound filled the bed as she sighed and settled down. Stretching his legs, he moved across the space she’d left between them, pressing his body along her back while draping an arm around her waist. He cupped one breast, shifting as she stirred. Shrugging, she tried to shift away again but he held her, following her.

By morning, the bed was a disheveled mess. There was a headache sitting behind his eyes from lack of sleep but a smile decorated his lips. Sitting on the side of the mattress, he smoothed the blanket up, over her bare shoulder, before leaving the room.

Dawn was just turning the horizon pink as he stepped into his discarded pants. Picking up the rest of his wardrobe, he left and covered the short distance to her quarters to shower without waking his wife.

Fatigue nipped at his body but his brain had always been at war with the natural need for rest. He often woke in the middle of the night, a solution running through his brain like a freight train, sleep an impossible thing until it passed.

Today, he had another reason to be at his desk early. The sooner he began the day, the sooner he’d be free to resume his marriage. Jo had a good point about sex not being the thing that needed attention. A grin lifted his lips as he picked up her towel from the night before. It was cold and still damp from sitting in a heap. Tossing it in the laundry pile, he flipped the shower on.

She was correct but so was he. Intimacy wasn’t the only key to reuniting them but it sure broke the ice effectively. Still, he craved more. Her observations about his living quarters slapped him into noticing how sterile his life really was. Tonight, he’d find a way to listen a little more to her, absorb the warmth that had been missing since she was removed from his life.

A wide smile curved his lips as he stood under the cold shower spray and his cock still hardened.

He’d try her methods and then they’d experiment with his ideas a little more too. At any rate, early to rise…early to bed.

Chapter Nine

Waking up alone frightened her. Jo bit her lower lip as she tried to clear the slumber from her brain. Confusion lingered for an agonizing moment as she looked around the room, fearful of finding herself in her tiny condo. Paul nothing but a dream once again.

The male desk in front of her sobered her instantly. Her gaze moved over the dark screen of the computer and the pristine neatness of the desktop. Standing, she moved towards it.

A pad of paper waited, without even a single mark on it. It wasn’t new though, paper was missing. Only one pen and one pencil in a holder designed for a dozen, the cap placed perfectly on the end of that pen. A stapler and tape dispenser stood lined up while a test of the top drawer showed her that it was locked. But many of the letters on the keyboard were worn off, betraying the amount of work that had actually been done at the desk.

Yet there was no hint as to what might have been written or typed at the workstation. Picking up the pencil, she began shading the paper in light strokes. A fine imprint from whatever had been written on it began to take shape. Her hand froze as she realized what she was doing. Ripping the page free, she crushed it before tossing it into the trashcan. Snooping through Paul’s work blackened her. She was gathering information on him, as if he wasn’t a person entitled to privacy.

A chill shook her and she hugged her arms. Casting a look at the rumpled bed, she bit her lip as her brain began to work on the tangled mess of her life. Ross Locke was out there in what had been her life with a job she enjoyed but couldn’t swear she loved. It was the challenge that had drawn her to the warrant squad. She’d reached the peak but knew, like every other deputy, that time would end her stay on the mountaintop. Dodging bullets was for the young; wisdom soured the experience as you faced your own mortality.

That left her with Paul.

A husband she loved but wasn’t sure she trusted. But one thing was clear, she couldn’t have them both. In the shower, she let the water wash the last of the sleep from her eyes. She needed her attention sharp, but more than that, she needed to understand her own emotions.

Where was the coffee? It promised to be one hell of a day.

Especially the part where she faced the man she’d spent the night with.

“Seems like I need to place you on report, Dr. Benate.”

Nolan Durant never gave much away by the sound of his voice. Today, the tone was smooth and unreadable, like a drill sergeant. “Conduct unbefitting a gentleman.”

“Jo thought so. To tell the truth, I’d enjoy knowing there was a report making the rounds with all the particulars of just where my wife spent last night.” Swinging around in his chair so he faced Nolan, Paul pointed a single finger at him. “You need to get the details in though, she was buck naked.”

Nolan offered him a dry cough. “I heard there was a blanket involved.”

Paul shook his head. “I like my version better. Besides, she’s my wife.”

The major rolled his shoulders before moving farther into the hangar office. “Which is exactly why I told my men to forget it.”

Paul eyed the man he’d spent the better part of two years with. “Let ’em read where she spent the night. I married her.”

“It’s just a piece of paper that doesn’t mean spit if the commitment isn’t there.”

Paul shot Nolan a glare. “If six years of celibacy isn’t committed, I’m not sure what would qualify.”

“You sound mighty sure of that, Doctor.”

Paul stood. “I am. Andraluph was the kick in the ass I needed. I love her. It’s not fading. It’s got a better chance of eating me alive than being forgotten.”

“Glad to hear it. You’re going to need that confidence.” Nolan pegged him with a hard look as his hands locked behind his back in a formal stance. “I’ve got three birds inbound courtesy of the marshals office. It appears they don’t appreciate the hospitality we’ve extended to Deputy Benate.”

“How in the hell did they find her?”

Nolan’s eyes brightened. “My guess is your wife knows the answer to that question.”

It was a stunning blow. One he hadn’t seen coming. Pausing for a moment, Paul considered the memory of last night. He felt betrayed as he turned and cleared the outer door of the hangar office. Maybe it was irrational to be angry that Jo had reached out for help in escaping him, but nothing about her ever made logical sense.

She was his.

“How did you do it?”

Paul’s voice was dripping ice. Turning to face him, Jo took a long moment to study his expression. Anger kept his face taut but there was also a shocked look in his eyes.

“Do what?”

“This isn’t a game, Jonnie! Contacting your boss is a major breach of security.” He caught both her shoulders and shook her before pushing away from her with a snarl. “It was stupid. I thought you were smarter than that.”

“Oh, you’ve got some gall, Mister Wizard.” Keeping her voice low, she refused to yell and grant him the victory of making her lose her temper. Oh no, she’d sent that letter in a calm and collected state of mind. “This isn’t about intelligence.”

“Bullshit! It was stupid, Jo, really dumb.”

Propping her hands on her hips, she held her temper in check. “It was necessary.” He looked surprised for a second as her words hit him. “I told you, Paul, the sex wasn’t what was broken. Did you think that a few trips to bed would just wipe the slate clean? So tell me, what happens when age catches up with us and passion isn’t burning up our attention anymore? What then?”