Fixing Justice (8 page)

Blowing her nose with an unladylike honk and sniffling like crazy, she watched him warily while angrily scrubbing the tears from her eyes. “I said get out Draegyn. I don’t want you here.”

She was trying to conceal her distress with a flash of female bravado, but he wasn’t fooled for a second. It wouldn’t take much for the waterworks to start flowing again. “I get that Victoria, and I’ll leave you to it once I know you’re alright.” His eyes narrowed when he spied the way her hands trembled as she twisted and crumpled the tissue she held.

Stomping her foot, she tried snarling at him, and he wondered if she realized just how adorable she looked. “I don’t want any help. Leave me be,” she hiccupped as fresh tears streamed down her blotchy face.

Not knowing exactly what to do, Drae’s inner good-guy took control of the situation. Going to her, he grabbed hold in the same moment that he sank down onto the loveseat, effectively bringing her down onto his lap. When her perfect ass thumped against his hardness, he had to swallow quickly and shut his eyes for a second against the blazing desire that shot through him.

“Tell me what’s wrong, honey,” he murmured as his senses filled with an awareness of her that emptied his brain of coherent thought. She smelled like an apple orchard, and something else, a scent unique to her alone. A curtain opened inside his walled-off heart exposing a place waiting to be filled. He hadn’t expected to feel the way he did with her body trembling in his arms. Holding her tight, he sat there for an eternity as she sobbed into his t-shirt. Liking the way she fit so perfectly on his lap wasn’t helping any. In fact, it wasn’t helping at all. He let her cry it out, running his hands up and down her back in slow strokes meant to soothe her anguish.

Speaking in a gentle voice he told her over and over that everything would be all right, although he had no idea what that meant. He just knew her tears were ripping him apart. As the crying slowed, he laid his chin against the top of her head. They fit together like puzzle pieces, and it felt oddly right. Eventually, she raised her head off his chest.

“Oh my God,” she cried. “I’ve snotted all over your shirt!” Squirming like a fish tossed on dry land, she wiggled off his lap, diving for the box of tissues. He stood when she did, quickly adjusting his jeans when the bulge under his zipper pulsed uncomfortably.

This time when she bent over, he was treated to the sight of her bottom clad in a pair of skimpy pajama shorts, with the hint of her ass cheeks peeking out. Turning to him with a tissue to use on his shirt, an arc of electricity surged between them when her hand touched his chest. Her sweet brown eyes turned a deeper chocolate, flaring at the contact, but she didn’t move away. They both stared where her small hand lay on him while his chest rose and fell with each deep breath he took. Her fingers pressed lightly on a spot just above his heart.

He growled her name in warning as the tether he kept himself on snapped. “Victoria.”

She looked up at him, blinked once. And then again. When her eyes moved to his mouth and didn’t look away, he felt like he was falling out a window. The final straw came when her tongue peeked out and swiped along her lips. At the delectable sight, his hardness throbbed and his heart all but thundered out of his chest.
Fuck
. He didn’t hesitate, just gathered her into his arms and crashed his mouth onto hers. She opened under the onslaught, answering his desire with her own. Victoria Bennett tasted like heaven with sweet, hungry lips that eagerly devoured his. Kissing her was like nothing else he’d ever experienced.

He needed to be closer to her, wanted to feel her body arching and writhing beneath his. Putting his hands on the back of her thighs, he scooped her up into a more intimate fit while guiding her legs around his waist. Moving them to the nearest wall he slammed her against it, holding her in place, grinding his hips against her. She was like holding wildfire in his arms. Everything about their kiss was hot and over-the-fucking top in seconds. Dueling tongues invaded and swirled while sounds of their panting split the air. How long they stood there, devouring each other with a hunger that rocked his world, he couldn’t tell and didn’t care.

Spurred on by a fierce yearning for more, he rushed a shaking hand beneath her top to cup one of her perfect breasts. He swept his thumb repeatedly against a tight, little nipple and moaned like a dying man into her mouth. Her arms tightened around his neck and shoulders as her tongue slid against his own in slow, erotic swirls. It wasn’t until the sultry scent of her arousal pierced the sex-fueled haze in his brain that he realized what they were doing. And where it was headed if he didn’t put the brakes on. Fast. Wrenching his mouth from hers, he stared down at her, astonished at how quickly they’d gotten out of control.

It took a minute, with each of them sucking in oxygen, for sanity to return. She pushed against his chest, and he reluctantly eased her off his body. A deep blush accompanied the horrified look on her face. It was clear from her stunned expression that she hadn’t expected something so incendiary to flare between them any more than he had. Drae reached out to swipe his thumb against her bottom lip where the telltale signs of saliva were all that remained of the deeply satisfying kiss they’d just shared. He didn’t want her to put too much thought into what had exploded between them so he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. Turned out it was the stupidest thing he could have said.

“It was just a kiss, Victoria. No big deal.” Suddenly, the distinct flavor of foot-in-mouth invaded his senses. She looked at him like she’d been struck.

“Please let yourself out the same way you got in.” And with that, she turned and fled to the safety of her bedroom where she slammed the door with a resounding thud. The sound of a lock turning was going to be her final statement of the night.

He stood stock still for long moments, head hanging with hands on his hips, while he struggled to find control.
No big deal? Really Drae?
He couldn’t believe he’d been such an insensitive dick. Who was he trying to kid? What they just shared was wilder and hotter than any other kiss in the history of kissing. Even her tongue fit him with perfection, and what had he done? Told her it was nothing.

With retreat as his only option, Drae let himself out of her apartment, making sure to engage the lock on the door before pulling it shut behind him. A very cold shower was in his immediate future if the fire burning out of control in his pants was any indication.

Tori couldn’t believe how fast she had come undone in Draegyn’s arms. One second they were standing there, and the next, he had her anchored against the wall while his tongue invaded her mouth and his hips bucked against hers. She’d never,
ever
experienced anything like that before. When the insanely sexy lips she’d been staring at crashed on her own, she’d lit up like a Chinese firecracker. Feeling hot and cold at the same time, she wriggled against his solid frame trying to climb inside his skin in a need to get as close to him as humanly possible. Where had all that passion come from?

Touching swollen lips with fingers that still trembled; she tried to calm her careening emotions. No big deal indeed. Of course it was nothing to someone like him. There was enough proof to be found on the Internet of his sexual dalliances to make that statement hit home with cruelty. For a man like him, there was nothing special where her kisses were concerned. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for her. That was the very first time she’d experienced the mind-numbing desire she read about in books. Nothing she’d experienced in her pitiful, lackluster sexual history had even come close to what Draegyn St. John made her feel. She. Was. An
Idiot
. A desperate idiot if her response was any indication. He was probably laughing at her right this very minute.

Tori shuddered with embarrassment as vivid, colorful images of her climbing all over him dressed in a sleep outfit with tiny undershorts that barely covered her ass danced in her mind. Oh yeah, that and her snot and tear stained face greedily sucking on his mouth. What a splendid picture it all made. Groaning aloud, she knew the images would probably haunt her forever.

Peeking cautiously from behind the door she’d slammed in his face, Tori made sure he was gone before leaving the bedroom. The minute she stepped into the living room, her senses erupted with memories of what had taken place. He may have said it was no big deal, but even she knew a hard-on when she felt one. Especially when it had been grinding against her core while her thighs were open wide and gripping his waist. Remembering the way his warm hand had sought out her breasts and teased an aching nipple into taut attention made warmth flood between her legs. As if she weren’t wet enough. He might have said it was nothing, but his body told a different story. Maybe if she had been more aggressive and taken what she’d been dreaming about they’d be in her bed right now doing a hell of a lot more than just making out.

Realizing that Draegyn must have come looking for her when she hadn’t attended the movie night get-together, she wondered why he bothered. It wasn’t like they’d been forming a friendship. On the contrary, she’d been avoiding him like the plague. It didn’t make sense that he would even have noticed her absence. God. She really wished she had more confidence where men were concerned. Maybe she wouldn’t be suffering from such a lack of experience if she’d ever managed to come out of her nerd-shell and find some hunka hunka burning love to do more than turn out the lights and see to his own gratification. She just wanted somebody to see her. She wondered if that sounded weird.

That was what all the boohooing had been about earlier. When feelings of being trapped by the past shook her, she wondered if she really was the scheming nobody the papers portrayed. Had she insinuated herself in the trappings of Wallace’s lifestyle, only to turn on him when his flaws became apparent? It certainly didn’t feel like the truth, but she knew that was what people thought. Hauling ass away from that life might have looked like she was running but fading into the background seemed somehow safer and easier. At least until a certain seriously hot secret agent appeared in her life.

Well, there was nothing she could do about it now. Making a total fool of herself in his arms certainly wasn’t fading into the background behavior. Knowing she had to see him at work every day only made things worse. If she caught him laughing at her, why, she’d what? Smack him? Fall at his feet? Grovel for his attention? None of those scenarios held much appeal.

A symphony of sighs split the air as she climbed into her fluffy bed and flicked off the light as she tried to get comfortable. Unfortunately, her body wasn’t ready to simmer down. Still keyed up, she shifted around under the sheets trying to find a cozy spot. When her mind clogged with thoughts about what it would be like to share a bed with Draegyn, she squeezed her eyes shut as lusty fantasies taunted her.

Shit and fuck
. Twisting and turning she tried to settle down but all she could think about was the way her nipples still ached and stung as they rubbed against her nightclothes. What would it have been like if he’d taken one of the tender nubs into his mouth and sucked? Hard. Would he groan with delight? Would she cry out and beg for more?

“
Aaargh
,”
she moaned, lifting the sheet, exposing her body to the cool night air. Pounding her hands on the mattress in frustration she squinched her eyes shut even harder in a desperate attempt to banish the pulsing desire heating her body.
Please let me get some sleep
.

In the silence, Tori made out the faint snick of an old, wind-up travel clock on the bedside stand. Each tick seemed to match a rhythm in her body that was making it impossible to fall asleep. Tick.
Pulse
. Tick.
Throb
. Tick.
Surge
. Every time she shifted position, the fabric abrading her nipples was a torment. Recalling how perfectly her breast felt in Draegyn’s warm hand drew an agonized croak of desire rumbling up from her melting core. The dampness between her legs was only making matters worse.

Snaking a hand across her stomach, she reached into her pajama briefs, aware all the while of the heat radiating in waves from her sex. She’d touched herself before. What woman hadn’t? The thought of stopping to locate her trusty vibrator was quickly squashed. The mechanical device certainly did the job but she sometimes felt afterward as if she’d been hanging on to a belt sander. There really was such a thing as too much when it came to those battery-operated toys.

Would Draegyn be gentle or would he demand more from her than anything she’d experienced before? She shuddered at the thought. Biting her lip while exquisite tension raced through her body, she found the pulsing bundle of nerves and circled the swollen nub until her hips began moving against her fingers. Tori was crazy wet and practically at the brink. There was something decidedly wicked about how she must look. Sprawled on the bed, hand inside her pants.
Oooh
, how she wished Draegyn would reappear at this very moment and replace her trembling fingers with his. The visual of them, naked and sweaty on the bed, exploded in her brain. It wasn’t more than a few seconds later when her insides tightened and clutched.