Hot as Hell (8 page)

The man bounced back fast.

“You’re not going to ruin good sex by annoying me, are you?” she asked.

“It was
great
, and no.” He folded his arms behind his head and propped his neck up even higher. “But we are at a point where we have two options.”

“You might want to keep in mind where I’m sitting and how easy it would be to castrate you.”

He glanced down. “I am fully aware.”

Full, all right, and with the stamina of a college boy. His skills were endless. “Are you suggesting we go a second round?”

“Believe it or not, I’d prefer that to talking about Henderson.”

Knocking Noah stupid with sex did not seem to work. But she was not ready to talk. Not done feeling. “Me, too.”

N
oah’s grin bloomed into a full smile. “That saves me the trouble.”

“Of begging?”

“Having to say Henderson over and over until you break down and throw yourself at me.”

“Uh, yuck. The man is dead, after all.”

“It’s amazing what a woman will do to evade a conversation she doesn’t want to have, isn’t it?”

This time Lexy smiled. Little did Noah know the flood of happiness inside her came from him, not from avoiding a tough discussion. She could not stop the giddy feeling.

“That’s your theory?” she asked.

“Consider it a proven fact at this point.”

“Say it once and we’ll see.”

One of Noah’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?”

“Test your theory and see if you get me to jump.”

“A challenge.”

“Up for it?”

He glanced at his lower half. “Henderson.”

She crawled up the bed, up Noah’s body, until she straddled his trim hips. If Noah thought this was a game or just some physical reaction on her part—good. He did not need to know her heart was as invested as her sensitive skin.

“It feels naughty to use a dead guy as an aphrodisiac,” she said.

“Don’t say it that way.”

“Isn’t that what we’re doing?” She sort of needed Noah to say no to that one or the mood was sure to wither.

“I don’t need anything but you.” Noah’s body picked that moment to stage a live demonstration. “No photos, movies, diagrams, or names.”

“Let’s see just how hard you can get.” With her breasts pressed against his chest, she leaned down and kissed him.

And wondered what took her so long to get back into this position. It felt right.
He
felt right.

Their lips fused together as if their bodies had never been apart. Wet, warm, and so inviting, his mouth moved over hers in a kiss so deep it pulsed through her nervous system.

When she broke away, he wrapped his arms around her waist and held her close. “Not yet.”

A second kiss followed the first. This one more desperate, harder, needier than the last. All the longing and frustration broke open and spilled through her—through him—as if her mind and heart had been waiting for this moment to burst to life again.

“Take your dress off.” He whispered the order against her lips.

If she was going to cede control, she wanted to do it this way. Naked, in bed, having sex with Noah.

She sat up, deliberately pushing her lower body against his erection. “You sure?”

“Keep that up and I’ll rip that thing off you,” he growled out.

“I like this dress.” She reached behind to the tie around her neck.

“I’d like it better off.”

While she struggled with the knot, he tunneled his hands up her skirt to lay against her bare thighs. “What the hell?”

“Something you weren’t expecting?”

He bunched the skirt in his fist and held it up near her waist to peek underneath. The move exposed her naked legs and most every other part of her lower body. “You’re not wearing underwear.”

“Sure I am. It’s just small.” She tried to kiss his chin, but he was too busy looking at the area between her legs.

“I don’t see…ah, there it is.” With his lips buried in her throat, his fingers slid up until they reached the tiny triangle of black lace that lay over the very heat of her.

“Told you.” The dress ties loosened and fell down and across his shoulders.

“I want to see.”

“My underwear?”

“Everything.”

She felt a tug, heard the screech of her zipper, before the front half of her dress eased away from her body. Cool air blew across her, causing her bare skin to pucker.

“Like that sexy little tattoo.” He peeled down the front of her dress and lifted her breasts out of the built-in bra.

“My underwear doesn’t cover it.”

“It’s been a long time.”

“Not
that
long.”

“Speak for yourself.”

His tongue swirled around her nipple, wetting and arousing until shivers convulsed her shoulders. While his mouth caressed her skin, his hands finished off the zipper and pushed the dress down to her waist.

She shifted her hips until the scrap of underwear rubbed against his cock. “I bet we could make love without taking off another piece of clothing.”

“Have before.”

Memories hit her from every direction. Making love in cars, on tables, in a restaurant bathroom, and in the conference room at work. She always had a healthy attitude about the more fundamental part of the relationship. With Noah she could experiment at will. He never balked. Never said no. Never judged or made her feel dirty.

“I want to see you,” he said in a rough, sexy voice.

“You first.”

He lifted his polo up and off. “Now your turn. I want all of you.”

A thought floated through her mind. The one issue that could put a quick and not-so-satisfying ending to the evening. “I don’t have anything.”

He was too busy nibbling on her breasts, weighing them in his hands, to look up. “Uh-huh.”

“Protection. Condoms.” She tugged on a piece of his hair until he turned his face to hers.

“What?”

“I’m not taking anything. We can’t—”

“Bathroom.” He plunged his hands down the back of her open dress and over the skin exposed by her thong. “In my Dopp kit on the sink.”

“Come prepared, did you?”

“Two months, Lexy.” He held up fingers to emphasize his point. “A man will grab on to any possibility after two months of depending on his own hand for a little relief.”

She cupped his face in her hands and treated him to another kiss. This one, in part, a thank-you for the resourceful side of him.

“You poor thing,” she said with as much fake concern as she could muster over the thrill zinging around inside her.

He lifted her off him and patted her butt. “Get the condoms and take that dress off.”

“Wow. One blow job and you get demanding.”

“Or we could talk about why you’re in Utah…” He let his voice trail off before he winked at her.

“You play dirty.”

“Baby, I will do anything, say anything, to get inside you and be with you again.”

That was all it took. A few words and her body grew all dewy and ready. Seeing his tan body sprawled on white sheets, naked with a full erection, only made her more wet and more willing.

To torture him, she shimmied out of her dress, shaking her hips from side to side as she slid the blue silk down to puddle on the floor. All that remained was a swath of see-through black lace and the tiny palm-tree tattoo right above the junction of her pelvis and thigh.

Noah did not hide his appreciation as his gaze wandered down her body and settled on her lower half. “Take it all off, Lexy.”

She grabbed the condom box so fast she knocked the rest of his toiletries kit onto the floor. His toothpaste landed in the toilet.

“What was that splash?” he asked.

She dumped a packet on his stomach. “Did you really want me to take the time to find out?”

“I’ll buy a new whatever it is.”

She hooked her thumbs through the thin string of her underwear and pulled them off. The temptation to hide that had hit with her other men passed right on by when she was with Noah. When she straightened up, she stood open and ready.

This was Noah. He knew her, had cherished her body so many times that he knew it as well as she did.

“You are so damned beautiful.” A mix of awe and lust thickened his voice.

He never failed to make her feel desired. And when his body responded, when his attention focused solely on her, she wanted to believe in him. To give him time to open up and trust her. But this moment was not about forever. This was about sex and a release of tension.

She threw one leg over him, bringing her sex in direct contact with his. “Is this what you wanted?”

“It’s a start.” He traced his fingertip over her tattoo with a reverence that made her breath catch.

When his palm traveled to her center, then down and just inside her, smiling was the last thing on her mind. Tiny fire-bursts exploded behind her eyes as her head fell back and his finger circled her most sensitive area.

Mouth on her breasts. Hands between her legs. The combination sent her skin raging into a wild frenzy. It was as if every inch of her body came alive under his touching.

Two fingers dipped deeper inside her, stretching her, sending a gush of wetness over his hand. “Noah…”

“Tell me you want me.”

Now was not the time for game playing, so she gave him the truth. “I want all of you.”

“Ride me.”

Exactly the position she had been thinking about ever since he sat down next to her and started babbling about her being missing. Her favorite position. Eye to eye, able to watch the punch of desire hit him. See his shoulders tense from the force of holding back the orgasm that threatened to rip through his body.

“Now, baby.”

She could not agree more. “Now.”

The urge rode her as hard as it did him. Rather than engage in flirty banter or seduce, she followed his command. Her hips lifted. His hands and gravity did the rest. Full to the point of bursting, she sank down. Hard. He expanded inside her, growing to the sharp edge of pain. To the point where every sensitized nerve ending screamed in awareness.

“Ride.” His teeth scraped across her collarbone, making her jump, then sink down on him even deeper.

Part of her wanted to stay there with him buried inside. Not moving and no questions. No problems. Just the slap of desire combined with the drive to fulfill every fantasy.

But her body refused to wait. Without a message from her brain, her hips moved. She slid and retreated, pushed and pulled through the sucking pressure, until her body bucked on top of his.

His hands locked against the tops of her thighs. His tongue tickled her breasts. Every sensation and touch tingled until the clamping sensation made her gasp with pleasure.

She rode faster, clenching her thighs against his hips with all her strength. Anything to ease the spiraling pressure, to make her body explode into a thousand tiny pieces. As if sensing her need to break free, Noah rubbed his forefinger along her clitoris. Circled and pushed down against the slick nub. With his touch, the tightness holding her lower body hostage sprang free. She shuddered from shoulder to knee as a scream of satisfaction tore through the room.

She grabbed the headboard as she fell forward. It was either that or land against him with a hard smack. The position pushed him even deeper. His whole body shook from the force of the plunge, as the orgasm sped through him.

A shout still echoed in her ears moments later as she roused her satisfied body enough to slip off him and lay across his chest.

With her ear pressed against him, heavy breaths bounced around his lungs and vibrated against her ear. She fell asleep wondering how she would ever go another two hours, let alone two months, without him.

H
ours later Noah rolled over to check the time. After five and still dark. The world outside their door remained quiet except for the rustling of shrubs from the night breeze.

“Makeup sex is amazing,” he said to the quiet room.

Lexy stiffened in his arms at the comment just as Noah mentally predicted she would. After three rounds of swallow-your-tongue fantastic sex started off by one of the best blow jobs in the history of oral sex, Lexy held on to this bizarre idea that their relationship ceased to exist.

“Problem?” he asked as if he didn’t know.

“We are not back together.”

He slid his hand down and pinched her bottom. “Feels like it.”

She got her revenge by digging her nails into his chest.

“Ow!”

“That was just sex.”

“You sound like a…”

“Man?”

“Maybe we do better when we don’t talk.”

“The sex was about burning off extra adrenaline,” she insisted.

“Which time?”

When her hand hovered in chest-hair-attack mode, he covered it with his. Best to keep her palm flattened against his chest and out of jabbing range.

“Everything caught up with me. Being scared and surprised. The detective’s accusations.” Lexy’s voice picked up speed with each phrase. “That’s it.”

“Even when you were going down on me?”

“Do you have to be so crude?”

She seduced him and insisted he was the one out of control with lust. Uh-huh. Talk about denial. “What should I call it?”

“It’s…you could say…” She sighed. “Okay, going down is fine.”

“You sure? I have some other naughty terms we could use.”

“Are you twelve?”

“Let’s just say it had been awhile.”

Too damn long. So long that he got light-headed when she had hit her knees in front of him. When his zipper came down, he had to grab on to the mattress to keep from throwing her on the bed and stripping her naked. And was he happy he did. Being on the receiving end of all that pent-up sexual need was a damn fine thing.

“You can stop acting like a boy who’s just touched his first breast now,” she said.

“You brought it up.”

“And I am infinitely sorry for that.” She laid her head back down on his chest. The move sent her silky hair falling over his bare skin.

“My original point was—”

“You had one?”

He tapped his fingers against her head and talked louder. “My point was that what I just experienced was not the lovemaking of a woman who just needed to get some.”

“Sex.” She batted his hand away from her hair. “And, stop doing that.”

“Use whatever word you want, but I’m not wrong.”

“It’s about what you said earlier. About the time that’s gone by. It had been awhile for both of us.”

Thinking about her having sex made him think about William. And that made him furious. Noah forced his body to relax. “You better mean it had been awhile since the last day we made love which, unless my memory is fading, and it isn’t, was the same day you gave the ring back and stormed out of my office.”

“I walked.”

“You mentioned something about Karen and staged a dramatic exit.”

“I left the room.”

“The office talked about it, and our screwed-up sex life, for weeks.”

“Do you really want to have a discussion about your wife now?”

“Ex and never.” He swallowed what little bit of his pride was left and asked the question that played in his head without end. “Speaking of other partners, how is William going to handle us getting back together?”

“We’re not.”

Focusing on the ceiling kept Noah from yelling. “You know what I’m asking.”

She sighed long enough and loud enough to make him think she was going to evade the question. Again.

“I can spell it out if you want me to,” he added.

“We work together,” she said in a terse, clipped voice.

“You and William?”

“Yes.”

“At your marketing firm?”

“You’re even slower after sex.”

“Hell, a few more times and I’ll talk backwards.”

The rich, warm sound of her laughter filled the early morning. “The things you say.”

“Don’t evade the topic.”

“Noah, you’ve got it all wrong about William and my feelings for him. There’s nothing romantic going on. I hired him to come aboard and take over some extra work for me.”

“So you’re not—”

“Extras like Stuart Enterprises.”

Noah sat up and took her with him. “You handle the company’s work.”

“For now.”

She wasn’t just running away. She was getting lost from him forever. “No fucking way.”

“That’s why he was meeting with Gray. Someone needs to handle the marketing and PR for the expansion.”

With his hands on her shoulders, Noah set her a few inches away from him. “Why didn’t Gray tell me that?”

The sheet she held up to her breasts kept slipping. Most of it was tucked under him, and he had no intention of moving so she would have more for a cover-up.

“You can ask my brother that the next time you see him.”

Damn right he would. “I’m in charge of the expansion.”

“The business end. This is the other end.”

The end he planned to share with Lexy. Which meant she was removing herself from everywhere he would be. Whatever was going on in her head had to do with more than an ex-wife and a few secrets.

“Why the hell are you turning family business over to a complete stranger?”

“My marketing firm has taken off. I have more business than I can handle.”

Since she did not give him eye contact, he assumed she was only telling half of the story. The less annoying half. “But that’s not the only reason. Me. I’m the problem with you continuing to work at the company.”

She exhaled for what felt like forever. “Yes.”

“For God sake’s, Lexy. Why?”

“It’s time to move on.”

The woman would be the death of him. It was only a question of which would give out first, his mind or his body. “All of this is because I didn’t explain that I was married ten years ago to a woman who ceased to matter long before you and I even met?”

She plucked at the sheet. “That’s only a little piece.”

Her continued refusal to look at him ratcheted his anger up a notch. He lifted her chin so he could see those big green eyes. “I didn’t get it then. I don’t get it now, Lexy.”

“I know.”

That was it. No further explanation. He kept trying and she kept cutting him off.

“What about us? We’re good together.”

“It’s just sex.”

She kept pushing and pushing. “Stop saying that.”

“Fine, but the point is the same.”

“Funny but what happened in this bed felt like more than just two people getting hot and sweaty.” It sure as hell meant more to him.

“To you.”

Her swings kept getting lower. “Then I guess you were just keeping me quiet.”

That stubborn chin of hers inched up. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“So it’s just a coincidence that when I brought up Henderson’s name—a subject you wanted to avoid—you stuck your tongue in my mouth.”

“There’s no need to be vulgar.”

“That’s who I am. That’s part of the past you’re so damned determined to drag out and discuss.”

She slapped her hand against the sheets. “Would it kill you to open up to me?”

“I could ask the same of you.”

Her shoulders tensed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. As usual.”

“Think back to last night. I walked into your room and found a dead guy in a puddle of blood on the floor. Turns out, you know this dead guy and had a tense chat with him just a few hours earlier. You even lie to the police about him.”

“I didn’t lie.”

“You didn’t tell the truth. You know Henderson as more than some guy you saw walking around the resort grounds.” Noah leaned against the headboard. “Admit it, babe. You’re hiding a few secrets of your own.”

“You’re badgering me.”

“I’m trying to prove to you how you have one set of rules for me and another for yourself.”

Nervous energy radiated from her. Hands in motion. Muttering. Every sign of her anxiety rose to the surface except for the one where she lost control and threw her clothes and belongings all over the room.

He reached out and folded her hand in his. “Just tell me what I need to know about Henderson. What I should know to keep you safe.”

“I don’t need—”

“Hell, even if you killed him, just tell me why so I can figure out how to get you out of it.”

Surprise registered in her wary eyes. “You would accept it if I murdered someone?”

“I figure if you killed someone, they needed killing.”

The logic made sense to him. You killed to protect and when ordered to do so. He learned that lesson a long time ago sitting in the muggy heat at Fort Benning, Georgia, while attending the Army Sniper School. He put those skills into action all over the world killing on command for his government.

“Have you ever killed anyone?” she asked in a voice so soft he almost did not hear her.

“Yes.”

Lexy did not need to know the particulars. He made a promise to keep the filth of his past away from her. Despite her family’s wealth, her life had not been easy. She lived with parents whose eccentric ways brought them in contact with the police and numerous mental health professionals on a regular basis.

She was the strong one in the family. The normal one. The one, along with Gray, who kept the public image of the Stuart family as clean as possible.

Noah wanted her to find the peace she craved. To not have to be in control all the time. He could not give her normal. He had no idea what that even was anymore, but he could give her stability. He just could not get her to take the offer to take him.

“Have you killed more than one person?” She squeezed his hand as she asked the question.

“Yes.”

“Did those people need killing?”

Those clear eyes of hers held no judgment. Intelligence lingered there. Some residual desire. No disgust, even though Noah knew he deserved it.

“I believed so at the time, which is why they’re dead.”

He noticed the slight narrowing of her eyes.

“What do you think now?” she asked.

“I don’t know.”

The answer was as truthful as he could be. His world centered on a few simple principles. Things were right or wrong. This idea that life consisted only of shades of gray amounted to nothing more than a sad excuse, as far as he was concerned.

But killing on command long ago ceased to make sense to him. He traded his fatigues for suits, traveling around the world for commuting to work, shooting for investigating. All of those changes made sense when Lexy stood by his side. Without her, everything shifted and the world he carefully crafted turned to ash.

“I take it this all happened while you were in the military,” she said.

The way she phrased the comment put him in the position of having to lie to her. Rather than break that internal promise, he answered the question he needed her to ask.

“While I worked for the government, yes.”

She stayed quiet for a few seconds. She stopped the fidgeting, but her concentrated stare did not let up.

Just when he thought he would have to do something drastic to break the silence, she talked. “Did you recognize Henderson?”

“From this afternoon?”

“From our office.”

“You lost me.”

She stared so long that he thought she was going to stop talking. Then she piped up again. “Henderson learned security from us.”

The words did not make sense to Noah. Separately, yes. Together, no. “What?”

“Ron Dexter trained him in technology and computer investigations. Henderson attended our conferences and classes. He was in our offices. Any of this sound familiar?”

Along with Gray, Noah considered Dex his closest friend. They worked side by side developing programs and plans at work. Dex handled technology. Noah handled the hand combat stuff. Gray ran the business part. They made the perfect trio.

“Not even a little bit.”

“Tell me the truth, Noah.” She grabbed his arm with an intensity that struck close to pleading. “You can evade and ignore the rest, but don’t lie about this.”

What the hell was going on
? “I never met or even laid eyes on the guy before I saw him with you this afternoon. The only other time I saw him was facedown on your bedroom floor.”

“Noah…” Her gaze searched his face.

“I promise.”

Her grip on his arm lessened as the tension on her face eased. Finally, she nodded.

“What does any of that have to do with you being in Utah?” Noah asked.

Her gaze slid to the window. The sun would not come up for about an hour, but she appeared fascinated by the darkness.

“Lexy?”

“I recognized Henderson. I knew he had trained with Stuart Enterprises.”

“And?”

“Nothing. That’s it.”

Another half-truth. “Lexy.”

She pulled away from him. “You don’t believe me.”

“Picked up on that, did you?”

Her mouth dropped open in an almost comical look of exaggerated indignation. “Well, I…”

“Yeah?”

He waited for her to come up with something. A lie, an odd excuse. Anything.

“I refuse to dignify that comment with a response.”

“Come on, Lexy. Dignify it.”

She chose to punt instead.

“I’m going to shower.” She started to get up.

The tackle stopped her. He caught her in mid-escape and threw her back on the bed. Under him with her hands pinned near her head, steam from her fury rose up to greet him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” She shouted the question at him.

If talking did not work, he would try the one thing that always did. “We’re going back to the plan you put into motion last night.”

“Is this the plan where you’re an overbearing jackass?”

“While that’s fun for me, I was thinking more along the lines of the one where I make love to you.”

“You think I’m going to—”

“Yeah. Many times.”

She rolled her eyes, but her skin warmed beneath him at the suggestion. “Your ego is outrageous.”

“It’s either sex or stay in this position until you spill the rest of what you have on Henderson.”