It took no time at all for her brain to segue back to the bathroom scene from the night before. One instant and she was there, seeing his body naked -
"Oh, yeah, hi." She turned away quickly. "This'll be for delivery. Yup, that's me. Large pepperoni and sausage. Yup. No, no drinks ... No, I don't want a second pizza for free... .No, no wings ... No, thanks, we don't need - No cinnamon wedges, either." For God's sake, it took longer to shut them down about the "deals" than for them to masurprisex, and drive out the damn pizza. "Great, thanks."
Hanging up, she squared her shoulders and pivoted around again -
Veck was standing right behind her, his lids at half-mast, his body so much larger that it appeared when he was five feet away from her.
She didn't move. Neither did he.
"Do you believe confession is good for the soul?" he said darkly.
"Yes ..."
"Then I have something I'd better tell you."
Oh, God, this was why they told you not to mix business and pleasure: As their eyes met, she was not thinking about the case. She was thinking she might have to do a little admitting of her own.
I saw you naked last night and you're beautiful.
"What," she breathed.
I want you even though I shouldn't.
Swallowing hard, she said, "Tell me ..."
Chapter 11
Veck knew he shouldn't answer his partner, and he sure as hell shouldn't have come around to stand this close to her. The right move would have been to start cleaning up the mess he'd made with the food - instead of creating another one.
Except he'd seen her staring at his body, and the expression on her face had been a hard, driving hunger. Surprising ? Yes. Satisfying? Could be if they followed up on it.
The trouble was, that was not the kind of thing you could tidy up with soap and hot water.
"What?" she whispered.
"I want to ..." The word was so crass that he kept it to himself.
"Say it."
He leaned in and put his lips by her ear. "You know exactly what I want."
"And I want you to say it."
"You sure about that. It ain't nothing nice."
Before he could retreat, she reached out and put her hands on his hips. Her touch was light as a shadow falling across his body, but he felt the burn all through him. And one thing was certain, if she drew him to her? She was going to know exactly what was on his mind.
The hold on him tightened. "Tell me."
His voice dropped to a growl: "I want to f**k you."
As she moaned a little, he kept going. "I want you naked. Under me. And I want to be inside you." He dipped down and ran his mouth over her neck. "But I know you specialize in conflicts of interest, so you are damn familiar with all the reasons this is a bad idea."
Cue her backing away. Or him stepping off.
Neither of them moved.
Shit, his body was teetering on out of control, his erection pounding to get free and do what it did best. Which meant that if they were going to do the right thing here, the strength had to come from her.
"Slap me," he groaned. "Push me away ... for God's sake, lock yourself in the bathroom or something. Because if you don't, I'm going to - "
"Kiss me."
God, the tone she used: That was a command, right there. And who was he to disobey an order? Especially from a superior?
Veck reached out and wrapped an arm around her waist. With a hard, impatient pull, he yanked her against his body. Next move was to take out the tie in her hair and throw it on the ground.
Man, she was edible with that stuff not pulled back, the red weight down around her shoulders, looking like it was more than ready to have a man's hands in it.
As he gripped the nape of her neck and locked on, he was damned aware that he was dominating the hell out of her, taking control of her body, holding her like he meant to shove her onto her kitchen table and kneel between her legs so he could suck on her sex.
But then again, that was what he wanted to do to her.
"I'm sorry," he said, aware that he was apologizing not only for what he was about to do, but for all the shit racing through his mind, all the down-and-dirty he wanted to put them both through.
And then he sealed their fate by sealing their lips.
Her mouth was soft under him - and so were her br**sts against his chest and her hips against his c**k ... she was soft and hot, the kind of thing he wanted to seep into and stay in awhile. But even as his pelvis curled in and his erection pulsed, in the back of his mind, he knew that conflict of interest was not the biggest problem they had. As much as he was pretending to be back to normal, he was ripped raw on the inside, between the shit in the woods and the update on his dad.
And he was worried Reilly looked like exactly the kind of Band-Aid he needed ...
It was the last logical, decent thought he had.
As he penetrated her with his tongue, his arms tightened up and his lower body arched again, the squeeze and stroke on his c**k juicing him even further. And that was before he felt the shudder that went through Reilly. Clearly, she was right there with him, especially as her nails bit into his shoulders and her thighs split, giving him an opening to push one of his legs through.
With an internal curse, he shifted her around and eased her down on the table, on top of the paperwork she'd just printed out. Images of her with her legs over his shoulders and him licking up the center of her core made him think he might have done some false advertising with his F-bomb.
Well, not false, really. He was just adding a very vital tourist attraction on the way to the big event.
His palm swept down to the outside of her thigh and he lifted her leg, rubbing himself even closer to where he ultimately wanted to be. Breaking the suction of their mouths, he buried himself in her neck, nipping and licking.
"Let me see you," he groaned into her throat. "Let me ..."
Inside, another voice said.
Abruptly, he lost his rhythm, pulling out of the spiral and looking up. Now his heart beat for a different reason.
"What is it?" she said.
His eyes flashed around. Except there were no shadows darting around her rooster kitchen. No creaks of floorboards or squeaking hinges. Nothing staring in through the windows.
After a moment, his adrenaline faded, and he became aware once againwhere they were and what he'd been doing with her.
Maybe it had just been a really loud internal thought.
Which considering what had happened with Kroner the night before didn't make him feel better at all.
Her hand came up and lay on his cheek. "Are you okay?"
"No." He refocused on her face. Felt her body beneath his own. Heard her deep breaths. "But I don't want to stop. You're real to me ... and I f**king need that right now. I need ... you right now."
She was not like the other women he'd had: Her smart eyes saw too much, knew too much. Hell, he'd been naked in front of her from the first moment he'd met her - and that should have sent him running in the opposite direction. Instead? He just wanted the shit out of her.
"Then take me," she said, pulling her shirt free of her skirt.
He didn't give her more than a split second to change her mind: as he had with her lips, he ped in, running his hands under the opening she gave him, making contact with a whole lot of warm female skin. And then the buttons came free as if they had the same objective he did: all-access.
He reared up when the last popped open... . Holy f**k.
Red lace. Intricate red lace over a set of perfectly proportioned br**sts.
Which meant that through the little cutouts, he saw her ni**les, tight and straining.
"Do you like what I bought today?" she asked hoarsely.
"Not bad." He cleared his throat as his voice cracked. "Not bad at all. But what's underneath is even hotter."
With smooth grace, her hands went up and traced the bra's thin, bright straps ... then drifted down to the hard tips that, as she arched, begged for him.
On a growl, he shoved up her skirt and maneuvered himself between her legs, spreading them further with his hips as he went for what had caught his eye: Drawing her into his mouth through the amazing bra, there was the rasp of the lace against his tongue, but also peek-a-boos of the pink, tight flesh beneath.
Wasn't long before that was so not enough.
With a rough, impatient hand, he tugged the cup down, revealing her nipple.
"Fucking hell ..." he bit out. "You are - "
Uninterested in him talking: in a rush, her fingers grabbed onto the back of his head and brought him downward to her breast. As he sucked her in, she jacked up off the table, and that movement, that jerking, demanding shove snapped what last restraint he had. All at once, he took over, pushing one of his arms under her and lifting her further, using his other hand to go right between her thighs, to that heat behind her hose and her panties.