Hero Duty (17 page)

‘But not the chocolate cake?’ His cheeks dented with the hint of a smile.

‘Nope.’

Their desserts arrived. The triple-chocolate wow cake looked as amazing as ever. Brodie had three scoops of vanilla ice cream in a sundae glass. Someone had added a paper cocktail umbrella. Jessica snorted with laughter at the umbrella and at Brodie’s expression.

Eating triple-chocolate wow cake was a serious and intense experience, so it was convenient that Brodie was given to silence. Jessica concentrated on the cake, savouring the velvet chocolate-mousse and sharp raspberry freshness, the creamy-white chocolate layer and cookie crumbs.

She licked the spoon.

‘Hell, Jessica.’ Brodie leaned in. ‘That’s not dessert. That’s freaking foreplay.’

She dropped the spoon.

He leant in further and kissed her.

He was right. Vanilla tasted delicious. On him, it even beat chocolate.

Applause and laughter from the neighbouring tables broke the moment.

‘Let’s go.’ Brodie left a fifty-dollar note on the table and hauled her up.

Their waitress was grinning from ear to ear.

Jessica blushed and followed him out. Not that she had much choice. Her hand was clasped firmly in his. It was a totally unnecessary precaution: She’d have followed him anywhere.

‘The hotel has a gym,’ he said. ‘If I spend an hour or three there…’

She pulled him to a halt in his marathon sprint for the car. ‘No.’

He looked at her. Even in the uncertain street lighting, the gold in his eyes showed.

It took all of her courage, but she put herself out there. ‘Make love to me.’

The red lanterns of Chinatown turned Jessica’s hair to molten gold. It spilled through Brodie’s fingers as he fought for self-control. He’d started this, kissing her across the table, but he’d been going quietly out of his mind. The way she tasted the chocolate cake, enjoyed it, her agile tongue darting out to swipe cream from her lips. His brain had short-circuited. He’d wanted her tasting him.

They’d only known each other half a week and she could hardly be more emotionally vulnerable. He tried to hammer common sense over the fire pit of need roaring in him.

‘I don’t do casual sex,’ Jessica said. A fine tremor ran through her. It was obvious that she wasn’t comfortable talking about it, but she wanted this — wanted him — and for that she held his gaze and her nerve. ‘But this isn’t casual. I respect you and I like the care you take of me, for me. I’m not asking for a commitment.’ She bit her lip. ‘The attraction is there between us and I want its promise of joy. I want to share it with you.’

Two days ago he’d shut down the fever between them. He’d thought they and their worlds were too different. He had been afraid of the damage they could do one another. But maybe his body knew better than his brain. He could trust Jessica to care for what was between them: possibilities.

Then again, maybe he was just hot for her.

Words were clumsy. He cupped her face and felt the subtle shift of muscles as her lips curved in a tentative smile. ‘Yes.’ He took her mouth.

Her weight hit him. He wrapped both arms around her and brought her as close as public decency and clothes allowed.

She wriggled, trying to get closer.

‘Car,’ he managed.

She kissed his jaw.

‘Hotel.’

‘Yes.’

‘Jessica.’ A plea for mercy.

‘I thought you’d say no,’ she whispered. ‘Being protective and heroic.’

‘I want you too much.’

She shivered.

He groaned and hurried her to the car. ‘Don’t kiss me,’ he warned when she hesitated to get in the passenger door. ‘I want the hotel room and privacy to play.’

Her breath caught, betraying her emotions as she slipped into the car.

Once behind the driver’s wheel, he placed her hand on his thigh. ‘No higher or there’ll be an accident.’ But he needed the ongoing sense of connection.

Jessica squeezed and her hand retreated to his knee.

Who knew knees were erogenous zones?

He leaned back at the traffic lights, eyes on the red light, and lifted her hand to his lips. It was no polite kiss. He pushed his tongue between her index and middle finger, parting them.

‘How far to the hotel?’ Jessica asked.

The lights changed to green. He replaced her hand on his knee and accelerated.

***

Jessica slid her hand from Brodie’s knee to midway up his thigh, his self-declared ‘safe’ zone. In resisting temptation to travel further, she was doing her bit for road safety. The thought would have made her laugh, if she weren’t so turned on.

That trick with his tongue and her fingers…she’d felt it where it was meant. Never had taking a risk been so fantastically rewarded, and they’d barely started.

‘Walk in front of me,’ Brodie said at the hotel. That he felt like her was evidenced by the strain on his zipper.

She brushed her hand against him in the shadows of the hotel’s underground car park.

His fingers dug in at her hip. ‘Play-time’s upstairs.’

Hot.

In the lift, they played pretend. Let’s pretend we’re not really indulging in public foreplay. He positioned her in front of him, their bodies skimming the edge of touching, only his fingers at her hip making the connection real. It intensified the impact of his thumb rubbing slowly.

The lift was empty, but there were cameras.

The trek down the hotel corridor was exhilarating. Jessica imagined that this was like parachuting. She was free falling. It was glorious.

Brodie slammed the door of the suite shut behind them and backed her into the wall. He tugged undone the front tie of her peasant shirt and cupped her breast through the thin silk of her bra. He swallowed her moan as he rubbed the excited nipple over and over again.

She hooked her leg around his. He lifted her, grinding in. She pushed at his T-shirt, trying to get it up, off, and got distracted by the feel of his warm skin and the muscles hard and moving beneath it as he flexed.

‘Naked,’ he said.

‘Yes.’ Fervent.

He set her on her feet, but instead of stepping back to strip, he stripped her shirt off. Then, his eyes on her breasts where the thin silk of her bra shivered with her rapid breathing, he stripped off his shirt.

She reached behind, unclasped her bra and dropped it.

His hands made a better support than any bra. They shaped her breasts, playing with the pouting nipples while he watched the show and she watched his face. It was harsh with desire, all angles and promise of male power.

She writhed — there was no other word for it. Strippers only simulated the natural expression of sheer pleasure and frustration. She was living it. Her back arched, thrusting her full breasts demandingly into his touch.

‘All night,’ he said. ‘That shirt, the hint of your breasts, across the table. Dessert.’

He took her left breast into his mouth and sucked, hard.

She orgasmed. It shuddered through her, a tidal wave of response and wanting. Satisfaction that wasn’t enough.

He was strong. He held her through it and as she panted against the wall, coming down, he lowered her elastic-waisted skirt and kissed her silk knickers.

Her soft cry of pleasure echoed the inner shock of ecstasy. She slid down the wall, falling forward on to him as he went easily backward onto the carpet. She opened her mouth in what was less a kiss and more an orgasmic need to taste him. She licked his shoulder, tasted salt and man, and wriggled down, setting her mouth to his taut nipple.

He jerked beneath her and thrust a hand through her tangle of hair. He dragged her back up to his mouth and kissed her dominatingly. It was all about taking all of her — and she gave it.

‘Not a hotel-room floor.’ He got them both up, on their knees.

She touched the button of his fly. ‘Anywhere. With you. Now.’

He groaned and caught her hand, placing it on his chest. ‘Bed.’ But he unzipped his fly, carefully. ‘You’re killing me.’

She looked and approved. ‘Next time I get to touch.’

‘Killing me.’ He lifted her over his shoulder, stood and stalked to his bedroom. He bounced her down on the bed, stripped and came down on top of her.

Nothing had ever felt better. ‘I still have my knickers on,’ she whispered.

He rolled. Now she was on top. She dealt with the knickers problem. They lay a moment, body on body, just looking into each other’s eyes. That was hot, too. Then he tugged her down for a full-on kiss that lit the fuse again.

He nudged. She went willingly onto her back, her thighs parting and her reward was his hand stroking, teasing, testing as the kiss continued and she burned higher and faster. ‘Brodie.’

‘Want you ready.’

Her hands slid all over him. ‘Anymore…’ Her breath and body hitched as he hit the spot and retreated. Maddening. Exhilarating. ‘…I’ll explode.’

‘Do that, darling. It’s amazing.’ He slid two fingers inside her and hit the spot, again. ‘Amazing.’ His expression was fierce and tender, possessive, as he watched her.

And then, finally, he nabbed a condom, put it on and entered her.

Nothing, nothing, nothing had ever felt that good.

He took his time, he took care, and the effort showed in his rigid, strained muscles.

‘There you are.’ She smiled.

‘Home,’ he said weirdly. His control snapped.

He had power and he knew how to use it. He drove into her hard.

Bliss. She tipped her hips to meet each thrust and then as he built it, she wrapped him up in her arms and legs and fell over the edge of the world.

Like always, Brodie caught her.

***

He’d just finished loving her, his chest was still heaving and he wanted back in. Brodie had found that Jessica gave everything. There was no pretence, no holding back. She enjoyed the hell out of what he gave her, and she gave that joy back to him.

He was on his side. She lay on her back, her mouth open, tiny puffs of breath telling of the wild ride. Her breasts — he cupped one possessively — rose and fell, the nipples flushed like her lips. The discreet headboard lighting tinted her skin with gold. He’d felt her golden hair fall around him when she wriggled off her knickers. He looked forward to feeling it again, teasing his skin as she loved him.

He kissed the side of her mouth.

She smiled, angled her head just enough and invited the real deal.

It felt good, stroking his tongue into her mouth, remembering being inside her.

‘Mmm.’ She shifted her hips and shoulders, digging into the bed, doing her own remembering.

Reluctantly, he broke the kiss. ‘Back in a tick.’ Condoms weren’t romantic. He dealt with it. Returning to the bedroom, seeing her watching, waiting for him. That was romantic.

He’d known the sex would be mind-blowing. She was beautiful. Their attraction was strong. What he hadn’t anticipated was that moment of connection. He’d never had that before; a moment when all the jumble of living just stopped because he was right where he needed to be.

With Jessica.

He pushed the emotions and the problems out of his mind and crawled into bed. Instantly, she rolled into him. He hooked her knee over his thigh. Her breasts pressed into him.

‘Three orgasms,’ she said.

‘Not enough?’

He felt her laughter. He grinned.

‘You said I could play.’

He lost his grin, turned his head on the pillow.

She was watching him intently, a smile hidden.

‘Go for it, sex kitten.’

She laughed and pounced.

***

Jessica was high on great sex, her inhibitions lost somewhere in the pleasure fog, and Brodie was spread out before her like some love feast.

She started with his mouth because the male-satisfied challenge curving it had to be answered. Plus, he had a fantastic mouth. Her tongue was her weapon. She traced the lower lip.

He parted his mouth, inviting her in.

She traced the upper lip, slipping just inside to the tender wetness.

He cupped her breast, massaging.

Okay, well that just might accelerate her voyage of discovery, but she could be strong. She flicked his tongue with hers, retreated and indulged in a long, lazy kiss. She broke that, and traced a line along his jaw, down his throat and sucked the skin near its base.

‘You gonna give me a hickey?’ He was casually curious.

She raised her head to meet his eyes. ‘Nope. I have other things to suck.’

He swore.

She hid her grin by returning to task. Throat gave way to shoulder. She traced a path to his nipple. Two nipples. Double pleasure. She circled, licked. Sucked. And headed down.

Too soon, ages later, Brodie hauled her up, sheathed himself and slammed her down on him. ‘Ride me.’

Her back arched in absolute pleasure. She was oh, so ready.

Eyes locked with his, taking all his power, she rode him. And once she’d found it — her fourth — he waited her out, touching her, petting her, then flipping her to her back and finishing it. Gloriously.

‘Incredible.’ She managed one word before exhausted, sated, sleep claimed her.

***

Jessica’s mouth woke first, then the pleasant tingle spread. Her eyelashes fluttered, preparing to open, so she crinkled them closed. This was too good to rush.

She felt Brodie smile as he kissed her.

‘Morning, Jessica.’

Since the kiss had ended, she sighed and opened her eyes. She smiled. ‘Morning.’

Stubble darkened his chin and cheekbones, emphasising the contours of his face.

She stroked the back of her fingers over the prickliness. ‘Is it early?’

The curtains were drawn, but there was sunlight peeking in.

‘Nearly eight.’

‘Oh-eight-hundred,’ she teased.

‘Yeah.’

She shifted, willing to convince him to stay in bed a while longer, and pulled up short. ‘Ow.’

‘Jessica?’

‘It’s okay. Sore muscles.’ She took in his concern and blushed faintly, the inhibitions she’d lost last night, roaring back. ‘Not the sex. The assault course.’

‘Ah. We were energetic, glad it wasn’t that.’ His hand lay warm over her tummy.

She ignored the protest of her muscles to cuddle close.