Hot Pursuit: Hot Zone, Book 5 (10 page)

She closed her eyes for a second, hurting inside as thought of the world without Vic Moore in it. The pain came sharp and unbearable.

She opened her eyes and dared to touch his biceps. “I’m so glad you’re all right now and it wasn’t worse.”

“That’s the kind of life I’m going to have until I retire from the military in about five more years.”

She licked her lips, still tasting chocolate, and didn’t speak.

Vic asked, “Have you decided that you want me to get the hell out of your life?”

What had she decided? He’d asked her to let him know, and the moment of truth had arrived. “You’re one of the nicest guys I know. You’re just as great as you were all those years ago. Why a woman hasn’t snatched you up by now is beyond me. The women out there must be crazy—”

A sound mixed between groan and growl left Vic, and before she knew it, he snatched her from where she sat and drew her across his lap. “Maybe you’d like me to show you some military maneuvers then.”

“Yes.” Her breath quickened as she felt his cock pressing against her buttocks.

Arousal burned low in her belly. Lucy wanted him more than she’d desired any other man, even more than New Year’s Eve. How was that possible when so much was up in the air between them? He wiped out all other thoughts as he kissed her.

Vic’s touch lit her on fire. His mouth teased and played, a gentle invader. So warm. So caressing and sensual.

The phone rang and they jerked apart. The cordless on the coffee table trilled again, and they stared at each other. One more ring and the answering machine answered. While Lucy’s message played, the silence enclosing her voice grew.

A new voice emerged after hers finished. “Hey, Lucy. This is Danny.” His voice sounded clear. His old self. No slurring or shakiness like New Year’s Eve. “I’m sorry about New Year’s Eve. I…look, I want to see you. To get back with you. We have so much to talk about. Okay…um…I’ll talk to you later.”

He hung up.

Frustration coiled inside Lucy. She so didn’t want this. Not now when her body sang for Vic’s in a way that said
this
connection would bring her more joy than anything Danny might have created in her heart and body.

“Call him back.” Vic broke their eye contact and she flinched.

“What?”

“Call him back now and put him out of his misery once and for all. If that’s what you want. If you don’t want to go back to him now’s the time to set him free.”

She shook her head. “I’m not going back. I want you.”

She saw it in his eyes though. The uncertainty. “I’m a one woman man, Lucy. I don’t share.”

“Neither do I,” she said in affirmation.

Okay. If he needed this proof of closure, she’d provide it. She left the couch and made the call, her nerves jumping and snapping. His answering machine picked up, but before the message could come on, Danny picked up.

“Hello?” Danny asked.

“Danny. This is Lucy.” She caught movement in the corner of her right eye and realized Vic had the remote and had located a sport channel. She watched him stare at the screen with pure nonchalance.

“Oh, God,” Danny said over the line. “I’m so glad you called me back. Can I come over and we’ll talk?”

“No. We’re done, Danny. Finished. Please don’t call me again.”

“But how can you say that after everything we went through together?” His voice filled with anger rather than sorrow.

“Because you were screwing another woman when I drove up to your apartment. That’s why. Anything we had died that day.”

“What about you?” His voice went razor sharp with sarcasm. “You were dancing with that freak when I came looking for you New Year’s Eve. Seemed like you weren’t exactly in mourning.”

Pissed that he’d jumped right from sorrowful apology to nasty accusation, it didn’t take anything for her to snap back. “Then I guess what we had wasn’t that special, was it, Danny? If we could both screw other people, it just wasn’t that damned special. Goodnight, Danny.” She rounded the counter, her feet restless. “Don’t call me again.”

She hung up, her heart pounding a mile a minute as she placed the handset back into the base. When she glanced at Vic, he was staring at her, the classic football game playing on the television forgotten.

She shouldn’t be shaking, her heart galloping like she’d been in a race, but she was. And maybe what Danny had said made perfect sense. She had hooked up with Vic right away, jumped into bed with him, found herself falling for him.

She had. Oh, my God, she had. Six months of talking to Danny hadn’t made her fall for him. She’d cared for him, wanted to know him better. She hadn’t fallen in love with him the way she had Vic. For some people a lifetime of knowing wouldn’t do it. For some people all it took was one night.

Vic clicked off the television and came around the counter.

He cupped her shoulders. “Okay?”

Comfort soothed the shakes, and she melted under his touch. “I am now. It was a good idea to tell him. We have a clean slate now, don’t we?”

He nodded. “Where do we go from here? What do you want out of this relationship?”

Good question
. “I know that I can’t stop thinking about you. I can’t stop wanting you. Can we take things step by step this week and discover where we land?”

His arms drew her to him, and her arms went around his neck. Nestled close, she couldn’t help but notice how quickly his body reacted to her. His cock pressed against her, and suddenly all she could think about was how to get him out of those jeans. As if he could read her mind, he gently released her.

“Sounds like a great idea.” He drew his sweater over his head and tossed it on the couch. “Is it hot in here?”

“I think it just might be.” She didn’t hesitate. She drew her sweatshirt over her head, unsnapped her bra, and yanked off her sweatpants and panties.

“God, sweetheart.” His voice was strangled, choked on desire. His eyes blazed with it, and he reached down to unbuckle his jeans, unzip and make short work of them. He tossed them on his sweater.

Lucy’s insides blazed with need. His briefs didn’t hide much—his cock strained against the fabric. Her body reacted as if she hadn’t had sex in ages, her desire flooding her with moisture. God, she wanted him so much.

She walked into his arms, and they came together like lightning.

Chapter Eight

Vic groaned as he took Lucy’s mouth. He cupped her sweet backside in both hands and squeezed. She shimmied against him. Fire erupted in his groin, a raging need to fuck and fuck hard. She’d surprised him by upping the ante and stripping so fast. But he liked it and it made him want her even more. They had all the cards on the table now with nothing to hide. Nothing to pretend. They were together for as long as they wanted to be, their consciences clear, their minds blurred while sex took them over.

Her kiss held nothing back, her tongue searching in his mouth, tangling with his. He advanced as she retreated, thrusting his tongue into her mouth and searching her interior with plundering force. Whimpers built at the back of her throat as she clutched at his shoulders, as her nails bit into him with a sting that made him gasp into her mouth.

She lifted one leg and curled it around his hip. He helped her, catching a strong but silky thigh under his grip. Holy crap, he couldn’t take much more of this. He grabbed her butt in both hands and lifted her until her legs wrapped completely around him.

Frantic to be inside her, he tore his mouth from hers. “I want you.”

“Yes.” Her breathy reply matched the desire in her eyes.

Moist heat rubbed along his cloth-clad erection. Oh, yeah. She was wet.

He carried Lucy down the hall like that, her body wrapped around him as if she’d never release him. For a moment he thought he could stay like this, her body a part of him, forever and he’d die happy.

“Vic,” she gasped into the side of his neck as he marched into the dimly lit bedroom.

“Yeah?”

“Please hurry.”

Oh, yeah.

He’d like nothing better than to be deep inside her pussy right now.

She snapped on the dimmer switch and soft light glowed in the room. Her eyes seemed lit from within by excitement, and he wondered if his looked the same. Within a few seconds he’d feel her fire and he couldn’t wait. Need ate him alive from the inside out. He gathered her close, took her mouth and allowed his body to take control over his mind. He wanted to be inside her, but he also wanted her screaming for it, writhing and burning for him to fuck her. He backed her into the bed.

Challenge filled Vic’s eyes, and Lucy knew she could match him. She trembled again, but this time from an overwhelming need to have him inside her. She opened the bedside drawer and tore one condom off the strip. She reached for his cock and admired the thick, long length. She would lick it and taste it later. She needed him inside her this instant. He reached out for the condom in her hand, took it and ripped it open. Seconds later his cock was sheathed. Before he could move, she turned her back to him and leaned over the bed, palms down to present her ass to him.

A low sound came from his throat, encouraging and happy that she’d chosen this position. A lot of words weren’t necessary. One big hand clasped her hip, then Vic’s cock head probed her pussy lips, eased just inside. She gasped at the heat, the arousal that swung upward in a huge surge. His thickness pushed, tunneling deep. She wriggled and he groaned. As he cupped her breasts and teased her nipples, she moaned softly. Sweet sparks tingled outward from her nipples. He withdrew and then thrust. She gasped again, whimpering as the delicious sensation overtook her. They melted into the motion, her body meeting his, bumping and grinding as his hips circled, pumped, pounded at her. She wanted to beg, but she didn’t, suffering as the arousal spiked so high but wouldn’t send her over. His growls were coming faster, more frequently as he fucked her. They’d lost all finesse, all delicacy. This was raw, primitive sex, and God, how she loved it. He teased her clit. Pinched it.

She unraveled. She screamed softly as orgasm sent her up, tore her into bits, wrecking her composure as she sobbed through the bliss.

Vic wanted more. As her pussy walls rippled over his cock, he pushed in and out of her creamy channel, not caring if she’d finished. No, he wanted her to start all over again. He continued pumping, shoving aside all thoughts of coming.

He pulled out of her, his cock so hard he didn’t know if he could make his own goal. “When I lift you, wrap your legs around my hips. We’re doing it against the wall.”

Yeah, he wanted that and wanted it bad. He saw her eyes widen and knew she liked the idea, maybe was surprised by it. She left the bed, and as he lifted her up, she wrapped her legs around his waist. He turned her about, found the wall. As he eased her down over his aching need, heat encompassed his cock and swallowed him with wet ecstasy. Wrapped around his flesh, Lucy tightened and released. With steady pushes he began to thrust, to find purchase inside her, to create a friction too delicious to endure. He’d never experienced anything like it, never wanted to let it go. As his body pumped into hers, he allowed the feelings to grow with a vengeance. Vic concentrated on the sensation of her pussy clasping him in a tight grip, the way she caressed him. With every movement of his hips, he delved into her silken, wet core. He danced inside it, tried to get as high inside her as he could. Heat poured off him, his body aquiver with a need to climax.

He dared to look at her. Lucy’s head tilted back, her eyes closed, her mouth open as she moaned softly with each thrust.

“Come on, baby. Come,” he managed to gasp.

She clasped her arms about his neck as her breathing hitched. He fought for control, but as his body wanted release, he wanted her pleasure more. With short, stabbing thrusts upward, he drew her body to the top of the precipice. Seconds later, her walls contracted sharply around his cock as a soft, shivering moan left her throat. With equal fierceness, his body let go of the battle, gave up the fight, and exploded in orgasm. He gasped, he groaned, unable to put words to the pleasure breaking him apart. Seconds later they stopped shivering in pleasure, and Vic’s mind sank into the warmest contentment he’d ever experienced.

Lucy awoke some time later, cozy under the sheet and blankets, her body still recalling the amazing night. In the half-darkness she opened her eyes and noted Vic wasn’t beside her. She sat up and looked at the digital bedside clock to her left. Midnight. Only midnight? She felt like she’d been sleeping for hours. She smiled. They’d made love for a long time, slowing down after that initial frenzy. Familiarity might calm their lovemaking some day, but it warmed her inside to think they would have a someday. She hoped. The silence worried her, but she turned on the bedside lamp and saw his jeans on the floor. Unless he planned on walking into the freezing night half-naked, he hadn’t left.

She rummaged in her closet for her red fleece robe and slipped into its warmth. She put on her matching ballet slippers and left the bedroom in search of Vic. Low light filtered down the hall from the living room. Vic stood by the one picture window next to the couch. He stood at the right angle to assure that his half-naked form couldn’t be seen—all he wore was briefs. They molded his backside in perfect and delicious intimacy. She barely managed to tear her gaze off his butt and back to the storm. The view showed snow blowing across the window.

He turned to look at her. “Hey, what are you doing up?”

“You were gone. Is anything wrong?”

“Just a blizzard. Doesn’t look like I’m going any where soon.” He slipped his arm around her waist.

“Did you plan to?” She leaned her head against his strong shoulder.

“Nope.” He nuzzled the side of her neck and sent sweet shivers racing over her body. “I’m not finished with you yet.”

She couldn’t help but frown. “When will you be finished with me?”

His head jerked up, and he stared at her. “You’re convinced I’m going to leave you in the dust, aren’t you?”

She swallowed, her throat aching. “Old habits die hard. Mine, that is. I’m learning to trust again.”