Give Him the Slip (27 page)

"So, where are you taking me to Sin?" she asked, her
tone full of innocence.

He shook his head at her play on words, then answered.
"There's a bed-and-breakfast up at the lake. We've got a
reservation."

"I don't have any reservations," she said, leaning
toward him, trailing her finger down his arm. "I'm high on life and ready
to live."

She unbuckled her seat belt, leaned across the console, and licked
his neck. Luke shuddered. "Stop that. Put your seat belt back on. It's
against the law not to wear your seat belt."

"So handcuff me."

Luke inadvertently jerked the wheel.
Hell, if she keeps this up
I'll kill us both.
She pouted playfully and he let loose a menacing growl.
Maddie laughed at it, laughed at him, then settled back into her seat, thank
God.

"Oh, Luke," she sighed in her normal-Maddie tone when
they passed the edge of town and hit the open road. "I've been so on edge.
I don't think I realized how bad it was until now. Life's been a roller coaster
and I needed to get off."

Luke knew all about needing to get off.

"Of course," she continued, the teasing note back in her
voice, "now I'm ready for another hard ride."

His foot slipped off the gas pedal.

"That's enough," he told her.

"What?"

"You know what."

"No, I don't." The false innocence in her tone said she
knew exactly what she was doing.

He gave her a sidelong, disbelieving look and she laughed again.
"You know, it's been a long, long time since I set out to seduce a man.
They always seduce me."

She stretched languidly. "I've decided I like being the one
in charge. The one in control. You wouldn't know what it's like to be out of
control, would you, being a big badass DEA guy and all?"

"Former DEA," he corrected automatically, the slim hold
he had on his famous control slipping with every second that passed.

"Former, current, future, whatever." She lightly trailed
a finger up his arm. "You guys are all the same. Big ego, big attitude...
big gun."

He couldn't deny any of it. His gun had grown to an all-time size.
"You have seduction down pat, Maddie. You haven't lost your touch."

"That would be awful. For both of us. I'm told my touch can
be... quite nice."

The speedometer inched upward. So did the tent in his pants.

"I've been dreaming about touching you, you know," she
purred. "Daydreaming. Night dreams. The daydreams were fantasies. Things
we'd do and places we'd go once 'tomorrow' finally arrived. It was a lovely way
to pass the time. Now, my dreams at night were different. At night they tended
to be more erotic. Some nights I'd wake up breathing hard, the covers kicked
all the way off. One night I dreamed of you and woke up wet and ready."

His mouth was as dry as West Texas in July.

"My nipples were tight. Throbbing."

A shudder rippled down his spine.

"I felt hollow inside. I needed to be filled. Kind of like
I'm feeling right now."

"That's it." Luke braked and steered the Maserati onto
the shoulder of the road in a move that had Dale Earnhardt smiling from above.
He shoved the gearshift into park, wrenched open his car door, and paced the
side of the road. Jesus. He had to get control of himself. He was on the verge
of going off like a schoolboy.

"Luke?"

He glanced back toward the car. Holy crap. She'd hung her thong
from his rearview mirror.

He heard the snick of the passenger-side door opening.
"Don't! You stay in that car, Maddie Kincaid. You're the one who wanted
romance. I didn't make all those arrangements at the bed-and-breakfast just to
end up taking you in the backseat of a car."

"Um... your car doesn't have a back seat."

She ignored him, of course. She slipped her shoe back on and
unfolded from the low-slung Maserati. In the hazy twilight, she glowed like a
Titan goddess as she approached him. "What sort of arrangements, Sin
Callahan?"

Sin. Hah. If he was Sin, then she was pure Temptation. In a black
dress. Sans panties.

"Candlelight?"

"Yeah." He turned away from her.

"What else? Satin sheets, maybe?"

"Yeah."

"What color?"

"Green. Emerald green." It was her color.

Delight rang in her voice. "And I'm wearing a red bra. I'll
be your Christmas present to unwrap."

No. He wouldn't live that long. She was killing him. He was gonna
have a heart attack and die right here beside the road.

"The bed-and-breakfast, the holiday, is so far away."

He heard the snick of a zipper. "Want to take a sneak
peak?"

That did it. He could take no more. Luke grabbed her around the waist
and lifted her off her feet. He carried her to the hood of the car and set her
down, cursing his high-dollar sports car. Where was his pickup with its flat
bed when he needed it?

"You play dirty, Maddie Kincaid."

"I play to win."

He kissed her hard, leaning her back on the hood. "Is it too
hot?" he whispered against her bottom lip.

"Burning." She rocked her pelvis against him.

He groaned as his mouth moved in to nibble her neck. "I mean
the car. The hood."

"It's a little warm, but my engine is hotter. Do something
about it, Luke. Do me."

With another helpless groan, Luke kissed her again, harder this
time. He feathered kisses down her neck, over her collar bone. Biting, licking,
tasting, he let her scent wash over him until Luke knew he'd drowned.

Her hands were all over him, pulling at his shoulders, delving
into his hair. Christ, he was only human. Raw sex with a gorgeous woman on a
car hood? What red-blooded man would walk away from that?

Yet still, he fought it, looking deep inside himself for some of
that vaunted control. They were on a little-used country road, true, but a car
could drive by at any time. He didn't want to be caught with his pants down.
Literally.

"Tell me you don't want me," Maddie teased, licking the
sensitive skin beneath his chin. She tugged at his belt buckle, pulled at the
strap until she released it. He sucked in a breath as her fingers found the
button of his fly.

Luke swallowed hard and pressed his forehead against hers. It was
taking every ounce of strength he had not to let loose and bang the living
daylights out of her.

"Tell me you don't want to take me, right here, right
now." Making quick work of his zipper, Maddie took him in hand and
caressed the tip of his straining penis in a slow circle, then another. With
sensual innocence, she looked up and met his gaze while gently squeezing his
shaft. "Tell me you don't want..."

Running her tongue over her lower lip, she finished,
"More."

He tried counting to ten.

He gave up at three. "Dammit, Maddie."

Slanting her body back, she parted her legs a notch. "Take
me, Luke Callahan."

Okay, maybe he didn't care so much about where he bared his ass.

His head spinning, Luke reached for the wallet in his back pocket.
Tearing into it with one hand and nearly blind with need, he found the condom,
ripped the packet open, then rolled it on.

He pushed against her steamy folds and answered her demand, taking
her with one strong stroke. God, she was tight. Tight and sweet. He knew he
wouldn't be able to hold on long. Nothing in his life had felt like this.

With a throaty moan of abandon, Maddie's head lolled back,
exposing her long neck to the moonlight. "Luke," she breathed.

With a primal urge of possession, Luke cupped her bottom and found
his rhythm, his thrusts deep and desperate. He tried to hold on, hold back,
wanting her pleasure, but captive to the demand of the need her actions had
stoked to a raging inferno.

He couldn't talk. He could barely breathe. Feeling his release
creeping down his backbone, he reached down for the stiff little nub that
topped her wet, swollen flesh. Circling it, plucking at it, Luke urged her up.
He wanted her with him. He wanted her wild.

She whimpered, gripped his shoulders for purchase, and cried out
his name. Luke answered by giving her what they both needed. He moved hard and
deep, feeling the first tremors of her release tingle around him.

Maddie's body tightened and her back arched and she cried out
toward the moon.

As the Maserati roared down the road, Maddie closed her eyes,
enjoying the sensation of wind blowing through her hair as she wondered why she
wasn't embarrassed. She'd never acted so wildly before. Her Wicked Inner Wanton
had taken over and she'd not even tried to stop it. Oh, she could try to blame
it on the wine or the heady sense of freedom she'd felt upon leaving the
restaurant, but the truth was, her Wicked Inner Wanton had wanted a taste of
Luke Callahan since the moment she'd spied his naked magnificence aboard the
Miss
Behavin' II.

Now, she thought smugly, she'd had her taste. Her appetizer, so to
speak.

She couldn't wait for the next course. From tidbits he'd dropped,
she believed he had a banquet planned, and be hanged if she'd let inhibitions or
cautions or concerns about the future deny her this one night of sensual
delight.

"Tomorrow" had arrived, but it would last only tonight.
Maddie intended to enjoy it.

A three-quarter moon rose in the eastern sky as they turned into
the drive leading up to Cottonwood Cottage Bed and Breakfast. A Tiffany lamp
shone in the front window of the two-story Victorian. Charming lanterns
illuminated the front porch. It was a doll's house, complete with gingerbread
and a turret and a huge old magnolia tree perfuming the air.

Maddie took one look at the place and fell in love.

With the house. Just the house. Don't go and be a fool and fall
for the man.

"It's lovely," she said, trying to distract herself.

"I thought you'd like it."

Luke retrieved their overnight bags from the trunk, then took
Maddie's elbow and escorted her up the stone steps to the front porch. There he
reached beneath a ceramic garden gnome and retrieved a key. "Annie is
staying at a friend's place in town, so we have the whole place to ourselves."

"You know the owner?"

"Yeah. She and Mark were high school sweethearts. He was head
over heels for her, then she up and moved away. Not her whole family, just
Annie. She broke his heart. Mark couldn't find out why she left. That was about
a week before the fire."

"But she moved back."

"About a year ago. I ran into her at P-3 yesterday at lunch.
She told me about her place and I thought it'd be perfect for tonight."

"I like a man who thinks ahead."

"I've been thinking about 'tomorrow' constantly."

Luke opened the door and soft music greeted them as they stepped
into Cottonwood Cottage. Maddie smiled with delight.

The room was right out of a magazine, furnished with an
overstuffed sofa and two chairs in a cabbage-rose print, mahogany tables and an
antique rocker placed before the fireplace, where votive candles placed inside
the hearth provided summertime romance. Irish lace curtains adorned the
windows, and antique yellow roses arranged in milk-glass vases perfumed the
air. Maddie fingered one of the many crocheted lace doilies decorating the room
and decided she had to have some of the same for her place. "This is
lovely, Luke."

"Girly," he said, glancing around.

"Romantic," she said on a sigh.

He lifted her chin with a finger and pressed a quick kiss to her
lips. "I'm glad you think so. Now, we have our choice of bedrooms. Do you
want to pick one or"—he winked at her—"shall we just use them
all?"

Suddenly, despite everything that had happened before, despite her
wicked, wanton behavior beside the road and her determination to retain her
free spirit tonight, Maddie grew a bit nervous. A bit shy. She guessed it was
one thing to abandon her inhibitions in the heat of passion, but something else
entirely to do it in the calm, romantic atmosphere of Cottonwood Cottage.

This was the kind of place couples visited. This was the kind of
place where people created memories, the kind of memories Maddie didn't dare
envision. Careful, she told herself. This is a dangerous place.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," she suggested.

"I think we already did." He gave his brows a leering
waggle, which coaxed a laugh from Maddie.

Luke ended up leaving the bags at the foot of the stairs, then he
crossed the room to a tea table, where champagne chilled in a bucket set beside
a plate of chocolate-dipped strawberries. Ice rustled as he lifted the
champagne and checked the label. Moments later, the bottle opened with a soft
pop.