Billionaire Bodyguard (7 page)

She slammed the planner shut. “N-no, nothing like that.”

Yeah, right
.
“Your upgrades are in progress.”

“Really, that’s all it took?”

“I told you it would be painless.” He sealed both panels, tapped another code into his laptop, and his downloads zipped through to completion.

“As a bonus of the upgrades, you’ll be linked to my private Stone Security server that’ll send you upgrades automatically from now on.”

“That’s very generous. I didn’t expect that.” Her face softened with a gorgeous look of trust that took his breath away. “I can’t thank you enough.”

“I can think of one way.” In the next second pulled her into his arms. Their bodies sealed together. She offered no protest as his arms tightened around her waist. He murmured low, “I want to give you what you need. What we both need.”

Her back straightened against the wall. “I know…” She didn’t stop him as his mouth fastened on the side of her neck.

In the dark, touch became more powerful. Sensation overtook reason. Heat and need pulsed through him. He drew on her skin, sucking in the taste of her, memorizing her texture. He dragged his lips up her throat, whispered in her ear. “Let me touch you.” His tongue traced the curve of her ear, dipped into the delicate canal.
She shivered. “I can make you forget about everything.”

“That’s the problem,” she murmured. Her body refuted her statement by pressing harder against him.

An invitation he gladly took. “Just you and me.”
He glided his palms up her bare arms.
“Right here, right now.”

When she exhaled, he inhaled. Nothing existed outside this moment. She consumed him.

He scattered kisses over her face, the corners of her mouth, her chin as her head tipped back. “I want to make you feel beautiful.”
Make you need me
. “Make you sigh and then make you scream.”
Can’t get enough
. “Remind you how good it was the first time.”
How it can be even better
.

“I remember.” Her lashes fluttered closed. Lingering resistance drained from her, and she went slack in his embrace. He guided her arms up around his neck. Her nails scraped through his hair. His whole body throbbed.

“Damn, what you do to me.” He pressed his barely contained erection against her hip.

“It’s mutual.”

He captured her lips and didn’t hold back. He poured scorching need into his kiss. His tongue dove deep, curled around hers, conquering her mouth with every sweep.

If he had more control, he’d spend hours kissing her. He wasn’t that man tonight. Not with bright-hot desire coursing through his veins with a vengeance.

His hands roamed over her curves. When he cupped her breasts, her nipples tightened and she arched into his greedy palms. He kissed a path down to her cleavage, shoved her neckline aside along with the lacy edges of her bra. He plucked her nipples with his tongue, tugged them with his teeth. Her soft moans set him on fire. He wanted to tear away the fabric that kept him from tasting every glorious naked inch of her. His hands moved lower, fingers splaying over her backside, pinning her against his rock-hard length.

When he closed his fists, her dress bunched between his fingers. He inched it higher, gliding his hand down until his fingertips met skin. He groaned into her cleavage. Then he slid his touch up her thigh, lifting the hem of her dress. He traced the satiny line of her panties to the juncture of her thighs. He found her damp with proof of desire. He edged the cloth aside, gliding his fingers along her smooth slit, moving in a slow sensual rhythm.

As he stroked the moist crease, her hips rolled with his motions. She whimpered approval. Nothing compared to how amazing her slick heat felt coating his hand. He angled his wrist down and slid his middle finger inside her. His thumb moved in swift circles against her clit.

Shaking, gasping, she stood on tiptoe as he took her to peak. Her inner muscles gripped his finger and the ridge of her clit pulsed against his thumb. She released a sexy cry as he gave her a double climax.

She sagged against him, replete. He withdrew from her heat.

He would’ve stayed right there and made her come again, but if he didn’t unzip his fly in two seconds
he’d burst through it. He needed to bury himself deep inside her, before the flame of desire burned away his last threads of sanity.

“Your bed.
Now.” His breath seethed in rapid bursts.
“Or I’ll take you right here against the wall.”

Instead of leading the way, she froze. Her inviting warmth suddenly retreated. She tensed all over and untangled herself from his arms.

The message finally hit his lust-fogged brain. She was doing it again, damn it. Denying him just as he crossed the threshold of her trust, shutting him down. The rejection was maddening. “What the hell happened?”

“Something that shouldn’t have.”

He clenched his teeth. “Sorry, sugar, we already went there. Remember?”

“Not again. I can’t do this.”

Don’t-touch-me
vibes battered his libido into submission. His sexual high screeched to a halt. “Why?”

“It isn’t right.”

“What’s not right about this?”

“Everything.
I don’t know. I can’t explain.”

“You can sure as hell try.”

“I promise it has nothing to do with you.”

He spread his arms to state the obvious. “I’m the one bursting at the seams. So don’t tell me it’s got nothing to do with me.”

She went silent.

He glared at the ceiling. “Unbelievable.” He scraped his hands through his hair, horny and pissed off. “I should’ve known this was coming. You fire me up and then leave me high and dry. I’m done with this game.”

Her eyes snapped. “I’m a game to you?”

“You’re the one making up the rules as you go along. You tell me.”
His
strangled tone of accusation and sexual frustration made her shut down even more.

“Accept it, Logan. I can’t give you what you need.”

He wasn’t convinced. Especially with afterglow bright in her cheeks even as she crossed her arms like a shield over her heart. “Did you bother consulting me on the subject?” he demanded.
“Because I can guarantee you’re exactly what I need.”

“I’m not talking sexually.” Misery coated her voice. “In every other way.”

The copout infuriated him. “I’ll decide what you can or can’t do for me.”

Her head snapped up as if he’d slapped her. When she looked at him, her gaze burned with disgust. “Thanks for deciding my worth. At least I know where I stand.”

Too late, he realized how his half-cocked statement sounded. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

“Isn’t it?”

Between her biting allegation and his own remorse, he felt like he was handcuffed and getting his mug shot taken. Nothing he did now would change the situation.
“Fan-freaking-tastic.”

The statement hung empty in the air because she’d already gone to the closet to turn on the lights. Brightness roared to life like an incinerator.

She didn’t even look at him as she grabbed her coat. “I need my car for tomorrow.”

“I figured.” Resentment coated his tone, although longing hounded him. Twenty cold showers wouldn’t douse the need still raging in his blood.

“Then let’s go,” she said tightly.

Dismal silence filled his SUV as he drove her back to the office. This wasn’t how he’d planned tonight.

As his sexual fever wore off and the savage hunger died down, he saw the mistake he’d made. He should’ve given the invitation and let her come to him—the way he had the night they’d slept together. Now he understood on that night she’d still felt in control, she’d made the choice instead of him initiating the seduction.

Then again, he’d been dishing out hints left and right since she started working for him. In the past six weeks she’d made every excuse to sidestep the obvious.

Despite their crazy mutual attraction, she’d kept herself in check and he hadn’t. Could that have been a bigger clue?

Then, there was his suspicion about her unmentioned past. She had her own demons to face, issues she didn’t want his help solving. Even though that was his nature. He was the guy who stepped in, fixed what was broken, and got the job done.

Damn. Rick was right. Logan had a type—the unattainable woman. A pattern he ought to break. Tonight.

If only it was any other woman but Allison. Then he’d walk away without a scratch, without looking back and wondering what could’ve been…

Maybe Allison was right, he considered ruefully, careening through the ice-covered streets of downtown Denver. Gasoline and fire only mixed once, before you discovered the result could become an uncontrollable inferno. Maybe their volatile attraction was more than either of them could handle.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
.

He didn’t like being backed into that corner. Maybe that’s how she’d felt tonight. Hell, he didn’t know. And she sure wasn’t in the frame of mind to tell him.

Either way, she’d leave in six weeks—apparently this was what she always did, from what he’d seen in her apartment.

He turned a sharp right into the Stone Security parking garage and steered toward her lone car in the lot.
“Here you are, safe and sound.” Lingering frustration darkened his tone.
“Uncompromised.”

“So you think.” She reached for the door handle.

“Allison—”

She paused. He slapped his palm against the steering wheel, wrapped his fingers around the curve, knuckles white. He looked away.

There was nothing left to say. The dead silence cued her to open the passenger door. She slid out and slammed
the door shut.

Pulling the collar of her coat up around her ears, she walked to her car. Her still-heated breath frosted in the air making it hard to see. She fumbled for her keys.

Logan’s engine revved and he peeled out of the parking garage. She didn’t blame him, but it served as the exclamation mark punctuating a dismal night.
She blinked away the sudden swell of tears.

On her way home, she stopped at the drug store—just to ease her mind. She didn’t need their attraction
and
the fear of pregnancy hanging over her working relationship with Logan. She was sure the test would read negative, just as it had the nights she’d held her breath and prayed her ex-husband hadn’t gotten her pregnant during his leaves from duty. So far, the tests had offered overwhelming relief, and she hoped the same of this one.

When she arrived home, she peed on the stick and then paced her tiny living room. “It’s nothing. Stop worrying,” she told herself.

The past six weeks flashed through her mind.

At the recent security convention, she and Logan had struck up conversation several times, since he kept miraculously appearing everywhere she went. Before the event ended he’d asked her to join him at the hotel bar, refusing to take no for an answer. No harm, she’d figured. He was fantastic eye-candy, full of wit and charm, and he’d lured her with the promise of a lucrative opportunity to use her skills to further his company. His confidence, and her secret attraction to him,
had led to great conversation. It hadn’t taken long to see where things were headed. Her pent-up sexual desire won out over her usual detachment. She hadn’t slept with a man since leaving Trevor four years ago.

She’d gladly let him talk her into stopping by his hotel room so he could go online and show her his security systems. She’d known where that would probably lead. She’d gone anyway. She’d wanted him to claim her, needed to feel his strong arms around her. She’d
enjoyed his subtle,
seductive pursuit. It had been forever since she’d felt chemistry or attraction the way she did with Logan.

Once they were alone, the second he’d touched her, she let all dormant desires out to play. The muscular perfection of his body, the way her pleasure came first, and the appeal of no-strings-attached bliss let her shed her fear of intimacy. His kisses promised long-denied pleasure, and his mouth and body had delivered.

Pulling in a tight
breath, she shoved those sexual thoughts from her mind. Yes, Logan was male perfection. Yes, the way he touched her convinced her no man on the planet could make her feel the way he did in bed.

That did
not mean she’d give up the personal and psychological freedom awaiting her in France for an affair of the heart.
Her heart had led her down terrible paths. Had let her forgive people who didn’t deserve forgiveness. She couldn’t lose her heart to someone again. All that led to was hurt and betrayal.

She forced her restless steps toward the bathroom. She shut the door behind her.

Taking a deep breath, she exhaled. Assured
herself everything was fine. She looked at the results.

Two pink stripes.

Oh, God
.

The truth slammed into her. She staggered back.