Feel the Heat (23 page)

She still had a hard time believing there was more danger out there waiting for her, something so intense that Troy refused to leave her side. Where on earth could it be coming from? And what happened when he was satisfied she was safe again? He couldn’t just back out of missions forever. She didn’t even want to think about him leaving.

This connection between them had exploded without warning, and she was still trying to wrap her brain around it.

“I can smell your brain burning, sugar,” he teased. “Heavy thoughts?”

“Maybe.” She wet her lower lip. “Just thinking about…stuff.”

His hand stilled for a moment. “Yeah? What kind of stuff?”

“Oh you know. This and that.”

He chuckled. “I think I need you to be a little more specific than that.”

She managed a sip of wine without spilling any. “I keep going over and over in my head what you said about some kind of danger still out there waiting for me. I can’t imagine what it could be.”

He caressed her cheek with his knuckles, skimming her face from cheekbone to jaw. “I didn’t mean to get you upset. And I could be totally wrong. Seeing demons where there aren’t any. But my gut tells me there’s still some kind of unfinished business.”

“But the stalker has been caught, and the media frenzy has died down. Nothing leaked out about my visit to Clark Hauser. Are you sure it isn’t just residual feelings from the past couple of weeks?”

He shrugged. “Maybe.” He tilted his head enough to brush a kiss across her forehead. “Or maybe it’s just an excuse to stay around here. Would that be so bad?”

“Of course not.” She nibbled her lower lip. The “special connection” phrase still rattled around in her brain. She wanted to ask him about it, but she didn’t want to push if she was getting the wrong idea. Still, he’d expressed feelings for her when they made love, and she didn’t think he was the kind of person to say things he didn’t mean. She just didn’t know how far he wanted to carry this.

“Okay, spit it out, sugar. What’s got you so tied up in a knot?”

“I know you passed on the rescue mission in Canada and you assured me they didn’t need you.” She shifted slightly so she could take another sip of her wine. “But you can’t just hang around here indefinitely. Other missions will come up where they need you. What happens then?”

“You mean what happens with us?” He took her wineglass and placed it on the coffee table, then turned her in his arms. “I haven’t really wanted to push you, Lauren. You’ve been through a real ordeal, capping it off today with your session at the hospital. But when I said I wanted things for us, I meant it. And not just for now. Forever.”

Her heart gave a funny little skip. “Are you sure? You’ve seen the kind of baggage I come with.”

He cupped her cheek and looked directly into her eyes. His own had deepened to the color of rich roasted coffee. “I don’t toss the word ‘love’ around lightly, Lauren. I think it’s something to be said only when it’s absolutely right. I know it’s what I feel for you.”

Her heart did that funny little stumble again, and she felt almost giddy.

“I…” She stopped. She’d never said this to another man but it just felt so right with Troy. “I love you too. I just didn’t want to—”

“Read something into my words that isn’t there? Lauren, I say what I mean and mean what I say. And what I’m saying is I love you. I didn’t want to come at you with it too soon and scare you away, but let me assure you it’s the real deal. Things might have happened fast, but that doesn’t mean we’re not solid.”

He lowered his mouth to hers, his lips pressing firmly against hers. When his tongue brushed lightly against the closed seam she opened for him at once and he swept into her mouth.

And there it was, that electricity. The chemistry. The erotic sizzle that burned through her body. Yet it was so much more than that. She felt it clear through her soul. Troy’s fingers raked her hair back from her face, and he tilted his lips to give himself better access. He licked every inch inside her mouth, running his tongue across her teeth and her gums, thrusting deep in her throat. By the time he lifted his head, she could barely think straight.

“Does that answer your questions, sugar?” His eyes burned with desire. “This isn’t just a physical itch I need to scratch. You’re worth so much more than that. I want to spend my life with you.”

“I want that too.” She couldn’t tear her eyes away from his.

“Honey, some people are together for two years and never feel what I feel for you. What we feel for each other.” He showered light kisses along her neck to the hollow of her throat. “You need to understand that life for me often moves at warp speed. You’re right. I could be tapped next week for a mission that needs my particular skills. I’d be gone with no real idea of when I’d be back. It could be two days or two months. Can you live with that kind of routine?”

She smiled at him. “I’ve watched Faith do it for a long time. Mia and the other wives handle it. I’m a lot stronger than people give me credit for, so there’s no reason I can’t fit right in. Besides.” She touched her fingers to his stubbled cheek. “For the first time in my life, I fit right into a group. All of the Phoenix wives have psychic gifts and connections to their husbands. For once, I’m not the odd man out.”

He kissed her forehead. “I’d say you fit right in.”

She laid her head against his shoulder. “Emotions are a difficult thing for me,” she told him. “My psychic abilities and the resultant notoriety have made me suspicious of people. I don’t always trust their motives. But I trusted you the minute I met you.”

“We have time to work out whatever details we need,” he went on, “but as soon as the team is back from Canada, I’d like for us to get married.” He frowned. “Do you think your family will give us a problem?”

Lauren laughed. “You mean because they think I’m a nutcase, and now I’m about to marry a man I’ve known for less than a month?”

“Not funny,” he told her. “Lauren, I want this to be a good thing all around. Maybe we should back it up a little if you think it will be a problem.”

She wound her arms around his neck and pressed herself against him, her heart thudding against her ribs. “The only problem would be if you changed your mind. I never thought I would find someone like you, Troy. Something like
this.”
She swallowed a laugh. “You just leave my family to me.”

His kiss was gentle this time, a light touching of lips. An affirmation of emotion. His big hands massaged her back, gently kneading her muscles. She loved the slightly rough calluses on his hands and the strength of his lean fingers. The residual strain from the day, the situation, everything, eased slowly away under the rhythmic motion on her shoulders and neck.

He took his time as his hands coasted over her body, outlining her curves. She closed her eyes, leaning into him, the hard muscled wall of his chest solid and secure. A delicious warmth spread through her, and a lassitude that washed away the tension of the day. Troy seemed to know exactly where to touch her and how.

Without her realizing it, the atmosphere shifted. One minute they were lying there, both of them finally relaxed, Troy soothing her with his clever touch. The next, desire burned hot and bright inside her, a desire so fierce and overwhelming it was almost painful.

He slid his mouth from her lips to her cheek, inhaling the scent of her skin before moving on to lick the spot behind her ear where his touch always sent shivers skating down her spine. Half-lying against him, she could feel the swell of his cock beneath her hip and pushed herself against it. It flexed beneath the denim in response to her touch.

“See what you do to me?” His voice was husky.

“Mmm.” She turned her head to look at him through half-lowered lids. “You should see what you do to
me.
”

“My pleasure. Always.”

Although she had never been forward with men, for a lot of reasons, she’d never been shy and retiring either. Just wary. She’d learned early on that most men found her an oddity. But with Troy she’d somehow been open from the beginning. Saying and doing things without feeling restrained.

With agonizing slowness, he eased her sweater over her head, tossing it to the side. His lips were warm as they coasted over the upper swell of her breasts followed by a leisurely swipe of his tongue. Her hardened nipples pressed against the thin silk of her bra, aching for the hot wetness of his mouth. When he finally closed his lips over one of them she moaned with satisfaction. Somehow, it was more erotic to her with that flimsy barrier between them.

Her hands came up to clutch his head, gripping his hair as he moved his mouth to her other breast. Her other nipple. When he bit down gently on it she cried out with pleasure. Troy’s big hands caged her ribs, lifting her to his mouth as he nibbled and sucked, tormenting her pebbled tips while blood raced in her veins and her liquid soaked the crotch of her panties.

If she had a sane thought at all, it was that a month ago sex held little or no interest for her, based on past experience. Now, one touch from Troy Arsenault and she went up in flames.

At last, he released the clasp on her bra, slid the straps down her arms and dropped the garment next to her sweater. Palming her breasts, he proceeded to skate his tongue over every inch of their surface with slow, agonizing licks. Lauren squeezed her thighs together as the pulse in her womb vibrated through her body.

She held his head firmly against her while she squirmed on his lap, the thickness of his erection practically burning itself into her through their clothes. Desperately she tugged on his shirt, yanking it from his jeans and trying to pull it over his head.

He lifted his mouth from her body long enough to yank it off himself, then groaned as her hands found his nipples through the soft hair on his chest. She scraped her fingernails over them, loving the sound that rumbled up from his throat when she touched him.

She heard the zipper slide down on her jeans, then his hands lifting her enough to slide them and her panties off. There was something so erotic about lying there naked except for her shoes, with Troy still almost fully dressed. She started to sit up and reach for his jeans, but he pushed her gently back into the couch, arranging her to his satisfaction.

Kneeling between her thighs, he lifted one leg to drape over the back of the couch with the other trailing on the floor. He bent forward and blew a puff of warm air over the curls covering her mound. Lauren’s breathing quickened with anticipation, her body crying out for his touch. With the first deliberate lick of his tongue along the length of her slit, every nerve in her body fired.

He hummed in appreciation, the sound vibrating through her slick channel and echoing everywhere inside her. She tried to lift her hips to him, silently begging him for more, but he seemed determined to take his time. He licked every inch of her pussy lips with long, unhurried caresses, the stubble of his beard a sensuous abrasion on the soft skin of her inner thighs.

When she tried to clasp his head with her thighs he murmured, “Uh uh,” without even lifting his head. He shifted slightly so his broad shoulders kept her legs as wide apart as possible, his tongue still tracing its erogenous path along the sensitive flesh of her cunt. When his teeth closed lightly over the throbbing nub of her clit her hips bucked. Troy rested his forearm across her hips to hold her firmly in place while he slowly drove her crazy.

God, he’d never get enough of her taste. So sweet and delicious, like ripe juicy fruit with a hint of tartness. He could get drunk on it. Easily. And her scent. Strawberries and woman mixed in a completely tantalizing fragrance. Sliding two fingers into her soaked pussy, he wiggled them and rubbed them against the sensitive skin until he found her G-spot. When he curled his fingers to rake the tips against it, the sounds she made turned him on more than he already was.

His cock was hard enough to break off if he bumped into a wall, and he had to exert every bit of control to keep himself from thrusting into her right that moment. But he enjoyed bringing her to climax with his hands and mouth almost as much. Watching her body as her release built, seeing the flush of sexual heat on her soft skin was something he’d never tire of. Never in his life had he found himself addicted so quickly and so thoroughly to a woman.

Of course, he’d never met a woman before Lauren Cahill who he knew in an instant was the other half of himself.

Working his fingers in a steady rhythm, he clamped his lips over her clit again and sucked hard. And just like that she exploded, her juices flowing into his mouth like water from a well. His arm pinned her to the couch while her hips jerked and twisted and tremors shook her body. As the quaking slowed, he removed his fingers from the hot clasp of her pussy walls and trailed the tips of them down between the cheeks of her ass. One fingertip pressed against the tight little ring of her anus, massaging the taut muscle.

She writhed at the pressure, but rather than drawing away from it, she pushed against his touch. His entire body tightened as an image of his shaft inside that dark, hot tunnel blasted through his brain.

Slow and easy, he told himself. Lauren might be somewhat experienced, but he had the sense she was still naïve. He was glad, because the things he wanted to do with her, the things he wanted to teach her—he wanted to be the only one ever to enjoy them with her. He wanted to be a lot of firsts for her.

“Don’t move, baby.” He rose and brushed his mouth over hers. “Stay just like that.”

He shucked his jeans and boxers, pausing long enough to reach into a back pocket for the condom he’d stuck in there earlier. With his constant need for Lauren and the heat that detonated between them whenever they were alone, he figured it never hurt to be prepared.

He stood next to the couch, tearing open the foil wrapping, but when he would have rolled it onto his begging cock Lauren reached out a slim hand and plucked the latex from his fingers.

“Let me,” she whispered.

At the touch of her slim fingers on his aching dick, Troy clenched his fists and dug his nails into his palms to maintain some semblance of control. Waiting for her to sheathe him was pure torture, but the hungry look on her face made him stretch for every vestige of control. She rolled it on with excruciating slowness, her eyes never leaving his face.