Beneath the Secrets
Page 17

A shiver raced down her spine and Kara knew Blake felt her tremble even before he challenged. “Scared? Or did I just hit a nerve?”
He was hitting all kinds of nerves. She was wet and hot and…“I’m naked and it’s cold, and where would I hide anything at this point?”
“Only one more place I can think of.” Suddenly he was on his knee at her side, tugging down her thong and all but lifting her to rid her ankles of the entanglement of clothing there. Almost instantly, his mouth was at her hip, lips teasing the curve between it and her waist. A shiver ran down her spine, her body sensitive to every touch of his hand, every movement he made.
He splayed a hand on her belly, and more anticipation swelled inside her as he lazily caressed her there, his fingers going lower each time, but still not low enough. She could barely breath for the desire to push his hand where she wanted it, where he knew she wanted him. And when his lips pressed to her hipbone, she was so ultra sensitized that it was as if they scorched her skin, burning her like hot coal would a cold night.
“Perhaps here,” he suggested, his fingers finally sliding between her thighs, into the silky wet heat of her aroused body.
“Yes,” Kara whispered, unsure what she was answering, besides ‘here’ being exactly right in every way. There was nothing but the desire she felt for this man, and the way his thumb flickered over her swollen nub. The way his lips, tongue, and teeth, were trailing the length of her waist to hip. She wanted that mouth to go lower, to replace his hand, to lick her and taste her and…he slipped two fingers inside her.
Panting, she wished her hands free from her blouse around her wrists behind her, wished she could whisk fingers into his hair to steady herself. Blake’s free hand palmed her inner thigh, widening her stance, making her feel even more unsteady. She swayed and his palm curved on her leg, holding her. All the while, his fingers were doing delicious things, stroking her, caressing her. Kara moaned, tingling all over, unable to hold back the sound of pleasure.
“At least I know you enjoy your work,” he said with a low voice that was downright burning with acid.
The insult jolted Kara back to realty, and she stiffened, her hot blood going icy. What was wrong with her? How had she let herself get lost in this man? He was the enemy. She was just another whore to pleasure him before he did who knew what to her to make her pay for Denver. Suddenly being bound and at his mercy wasn’t erotic at all. It was dangerous. He was dangerous. She, well she was just a fool.
Adrenaline exploded from Kara and she acted without thought, seeking escape. Swiftly, she twisted around, managing to take him off guard, and he wasn’t able to stop her. She wobbled without her hands free though, and he was already on his feet, wrapping her in his embrace, and melding their bodies together.
“Easy now, sweetheart,” he warned, his long hair falling loose from the clasp at his neck, and damn it, it made him look sexy. Like a sexy ass**le who was probably a murderer just like Mendez.
“I’m not your whore or Mendez’s,” she hissed.
“You f**ked me for a bonus in Denver.” His voice was hard, his eyes even harder.
“I told you that wasn’t part of the job any more than tonight is.”
“That’s not what Mendez said.”
Kara’s stomach knotted with this news despite already assuming as much. Suddenly, she was intensely aware, and resentful, of her ni**les pressing into his chest, of her being naked and him fully dressed. “You both have the wrong girl, then.”
His hand went to her hair, twining almost roughly around a section. “So it’s okay to drug me but not f**k me for money?”
There it was. A verbal slap. How had she expected less? “You’re here. You got the job. Isn’t that what matters?”
“If the results what you want, then the means to which you get it with doesn’t matter. Is that how you sell things to yourself?”
“I never intended to sleep with you,” she blurted, unsure why it was so important he believe her, unsure why her voice trembled when she never lost her composure. “It just happened.”
“I thought it was necessary?”
“I could have drugged you without staying.”
His eyes narrowed. “I doubt that, sweetheart.”
“Do you even remember how I drugged you?”
His expression darkened. “Why don’t you tell me.”
“How I did it isn’t important.” She drew a breath and let it out, softening her voice. “What’s important is that I didn’t have to get naked to do it. I didn’t. I promise you. I stayed by choice.”
“By choice,” he said, his voice tight, gravely.
“Yes,” she whispered. “By choice.”
He stared at her long and hard, and the air thickened around them. She felt his muscles coil beneath her touch, sensed the anger in him begin to shift, change. His gaze darkened, heated, flickering with something she couldn’t read, something intense, that quickly turned scorching hot. Desire radiated off of him, consuming her in the process. Suddenly she felt him everywhere, inside and out. His fingers flexed in her hair and it was as if a band had been pulled tight and snapped between them. They moved at the same time, leaning into each other, reaching for more, whatever more might be.
His mouth slanted over hers, his tongue pressing past her teeth, stroking deep, tasting her, claiming her. Passion overcame her, washing over her in a wicked flush of tingling skin and the tremble of her legs. But there was more than passion and desire. There was so much more. Too much more. There were emotions she didn’t understand, emotions that were dangerous with a man who could destroy her. And there was relief, crazy ridiculous relief, that he knew the truth now. That he knew that she hadn’t slept with him for anyone but herself. She cared what he believed of her when she shouldn’t care at all. It was insanity. He made her crazy, opened her up inside and exposed something raw and vulnerable that she didn’t want exposed. She shouldn’t even want him to touch her, but oh yes, she did, and to the point of barely being able to breath for her need for him.