In Too Deep (37 page)

Moving further onto the mattress,
he settled into the cradle of her hips and pinned her wrists above
her head. He kissed her, keeping the touch of his tongue to hers
lazy and sensual. When he judged every protest was out of her
system, he rolled to the side and plucked a little silver foil
wrapped object from the nightstand and quickly un-wrapped
it.

Piper jerked at the sound. “I
thought you wanted to take it slo—” the slight note of indignation
was cut off when he slid the unwrapped Hershey’s Kiss into her
mouth. Her lips closed and he could’ve sworn her eyes rolled up in
her head.

“
Chocolate.” She made a low
orgasmic sound as she rolled the morsel around.

What was with women and chocolate?
Maybe this wasn’t one of his better ideas. He’d hoped to hear those
sounds exclusively when she came—again.

Then Piper opened her eyes to
half-mast. “You are so getting lucky tonight, Westlake.”

“
I’ve more where that came from,
but you have to earn it.”

And he proceeded to introduce her
to the rules of his game, one by one.

He devoured her mouth until
neither of them could breathe without gasping, suckled and kissed
her breasts until she moaned his name, laved his tongue down to the
line of her panties, and then stopped. Rewarded her with another
dose of chocolate.

She swore a blue streak before he
shut her up by popping another Kiss into her mouth.

“
You’re a teasing bastard,” she
groaned around the chocolate.

“
Yep.” West stripped her panties
off. “One chocolate left, Pipe.”

He leaned down and kissed her
again, loving the taste of chocolate and the tang that was uniquely
Piper. “And you’ll have to work for it.”

Licking his way down her
delectable body, he paused only long enough to shuck off his pants
and boxers, returning to kneel between her thighs.

“
I want to touch you,” she
said.

“
You do touch me.”

Piper’s hands glided up to his
chest, her thumbs stroking his nipples before sliding down to trace
the line of hair below his belly button.

His breathing snagged. “God, you
have no idea how you touch me.”

West slid down her body,
positioning his mouth right where he wanted to be. His fingers
unfurled the delicate pink folds in front of him and he wrestled
with the temptation to bury his lips there. He could make her come
hard in minutes, but as he’d told her, there’d be no rushing
tonight.

West took his time, delighting in
the soft, musky smell of her, the velvet taste of her arousal as he
circled his tongue over the bundle of nerves at her
core.

Women could keep their chocolate.
He’d take the heaven between Piper’s legs any day.

“
Please, West.” It wasn’t the
first time she’d pleaded.

He licked her again and slid two
fingers inside. Piper moaned and he pinned her to the bed with his
free hand to keep her writhing hips in position.

“
Like that, huh?” His cock pulsed,
wanting desperately to replace his fingers as her inner muscles
contracted. Seconds later, Piper cried out, her body jerking hard
under his hands.

West rolled on a condom and joined
her, not giving Piper a chance to come down from her high before he
thrust into her. Slick sweetness encased him as he palmed the curve
of her ass and lifted her so he could drive deeper.

God, she felt
incredible.

“
West—”

His name a shattered gasp on her
lips he pulled back, teasing his cock at her swollen entrance until
he had her undivided attention. Hazel eyes dueled with his,
alternately begging and then demanding he take them over that last
obstacle.

Not yet.

He stretched her arms over her
head once more and explored her mouth with confident strokes of his
tongue, at the same time sliding his hips forward.

Tight, hot, and his.

He trailed kisses along her jaw.
“Watch me, baby. Don’t shut me out.”

With slow, steady thrusts, West
moved within her. The tension built layer upon layer, exquisite
friction that inflamed every inch of him until his balls were about
to explode from the pressure of holding back one mother of an
orgasm. Liquid heat beneath him, Piper urged him faster, but he
wouldn’t be rushed.

He released Piper’s wrists,
cupping her face in his hands and keeping their gazes
entwined.

“
Why are you torturing me?” She
shut her eyes and writhed beneath him, which did some erotic things
to his trapped cock.

West nibbled her bottom lip,
touched her closed lids with gentle fingers. “No cheating. Keep
them open and I’ll give you what you want.”

Silky black lashes flickered open.
“I want you.”

Not enough. Not nearly
enough.

Because she owned him now, each
disconnected part of his heart made whole by her claiming. There
was no retreat, so he didn’t hold anything back. Frustration, need,
desire, denial, desperation.

Love.

Everything he had inside, he gave
to her. Trapped by her soul-filled eyes, West let go, trusting
instinct and emotion to carry them both home.

***

Piper drew her legs higher around
his hips as he thrust into her, another languid pulse of pleasure
spiralling outward from her core.

West rolled them over until she
sat astride him, then reared up so she was seated impaled in his
lap—eye to eye, nose to nose, mouth to mouth. He cupped her jaw and
kissed her again, pulling back a fraction so that when he breathed
out, she sipped his breath into her lungs. He surrounded her,
completed and filled her.

And it was his absolute focus as
he moved gently within her that stirred the first flutters of
another orgasm deep inside. How could she hold on to her resolve,
when to look at his face emptied everything out of herself, except
him?

When he gave her that killer
smile, and said “Come with me, baby,” she quit fighting the
inevitable. West asked for her heart and she handed it over without
a murmur of protest. But could he see it? Could he tell by their
visual connection she’d taken that last step and fallen in love
with him?

Before Piper could figure it out,
the staggering wave of her second climax slammed into her. She
cried out West’s name, letting his endless blue eyes take her into
the abyss.

***

No wandering hands or lingering
kisses woke West the next morning.

Instead, the growl of an outboard
motor and a male voice hollering his name snatched him from a very
pleasant dream. He’d been about to do Piper on his kitchen table,
so being woken by someone requesting to board The Mollymawk pissed
him off no end.

What pissed him off more was the
tangle of naked limbs sprawled across his body shifting away as
Piper woke. She stumbled out of bed, taking the sheet with her,
leaving him bare assed, his good-morning-sunshine hard-on
waving.

She wound the sheet around her
body and tucked the ends in the notch made by some delectable
cleavage. Catching his gaze on her breasts, Piper hiked the sheet
higher.

“
Well?” she said in that snitty
tone he’d come to adore. “It’s not like I can get Mum’s dress on
before our visitor boards.”

He stretched, satisfied at the way
Piper’s gaze honed in on a certain part of his anatomy. If he
hadn’t recognized Noah’s voice and figured the cop wouldn’t be
paying them an early visit to congratulate him on being one of the
studs at the auction last night, he would’ve stormed out of the
stateroom and told Noah to take a hike.

Footsteps squeaked in the hallway
followed by a sharp rap on their door. “You in there,
West?”

Since he and Noah and Ben were
mates, Noah didn’t feel the need to adhere to the concept of
receiving permission in order to trespass his cop-ass all over
Ben’s boat.

“
Yeah, hang on, Noah. Let me get
some pants on, for Christ’s sake.” West rolled off the bed, sending
Piper, who’d abandoned the sheet for his shirt, a sorrowful
look.

Acres of velvety skin disappeared
under his shirt as she buttoned it up. Damn. Twenty minutes and he
could have her twined around him, panting and screaming his name
again.

A pregnant pause from outside the
door and a muffled rumble as Noah cleared his throat. “I’m sorry to
wake you too, Piper.”

A blush rose from below the collar
of his shirt, staining Piper’s neck a rosy pink.

“
Crap,” she mouthed.

Did she really think anyone left
on Oban didn’t know the score after last night’s bidding
war?

“
It’s fine, Noah,” Piper called
out, while half bent over and flinging periwinkle stalks
aside.

His shirt crept further up her
thighs as she ducked down to peer under a chair. God, what a sight.
West scooped up the scrap of red lace from beside the bed and
dangled it under her nose before holding it high out of her reach.
“Looking for these?”

Piper tickled his ribs until he
relented and dropped her panties. She snatched them up before they
hit the floor, hurling a look that could crack the eggs he’d
planned to make her for breakfast. “You’re a funny guy,
Westlake.”

“
Baby, I live to make you
laugh.”

“
Get your pants on and go see what
Noah wants.” She turned away—but not before he’d caught a glimpse
of curving lips.

West grinned back and yanked on
his rumpled suit pants. “Yes, dear.”

“
Bite me,” came the muttered
reply, as Piper vanished into the tiny en suite and slammed the
door.

West stepped outside their room.
Noah, dressed in his police blues, leaned against the opposite
wall. He spoke into his phone, harsh lines carved into his
forehead.

Something serious had happened and
here West was, underdressed for the occasion.

Noah disconnected and met West’s
gaze. “I’ll buy you a beer in apology later, mate, but this is
important. I need to speak to Piper too.”

West’s stomach dropped to his
knees and he sucked in a harsh breath. “Did something happen to her
family?” he murmured, with a quick glance over his
shoulder.

Noah shook his head. “Nothing like
that. They’re fine—they’re all fine.”

West held up a finger. “Then give
me a minute to grab her some spare clothes. She’s not a morning
person and she won’t be happy to greet you in her current
get-up.”

Noah sent him a crooked smile.
“Don’t get distracted.”

Ten minutes later they found Noah
on the aft studying the filler cap of The Mollymawk’s fuel tank.
Piper had swapped his shirt for the spare tee shirt and shorts she
kept in the single cabin.

Noah’s expression had Piper’s gaze
flat-lining into pure, concentrated cop. “Tell us.”

“
We’ve got a missing person. Gavin
Reynolds.”

“
And you’re here because…?” West
said.

Noah directed his next words at
Piper. “Gav had a run-in with your brother last night before the
ball. Kezia provided me with a statement that Gav inappropriately
touched her in the parking lot. Ben found them and
intervened.”

“
Son of a bitch,” Piper
hissed.

Son of a bitch, all right. West
gritted his teeth and focused his gaze on the sea. Good thing Gav
was missing, because when he woke up with a hangover under some
tree he’d be the center of a shit-storm of hurt. He and Ben would
see to that—and it sounded like Ben had already given him lesson
number one.

“
By ‘intervened,’ you mean Ben
beat the shit out of him,” said West.

“
In a manner of speaking.” Noah
shoved his hands into his uniform pants. “Gav’s mate, Trent,
contacted me early this morning. Told me Gav planned to row out to
The Mollymawk last night and dump sugar in the tank. He sat in the
park and watched Gav in his dinghy head off at around ten, and then
passed out on the bench. He didn’t see him make it to the boat and
when he woke at sunrise, the dinghy hadn’t been returned to its
usual spot.” Noah paused, rocking back on his heels. “And we all
know how anal Gav is about his ‘spot.’”

“
Understatement.” A slow curl of
unease wound through West’s body. “Trent went to his
house?”

“
Yeah. Gav wasn’t
there.”

“
The dickhead could’ve contacted
you before Gav went out on his revenge mission.” Piper walked over
to the gas tank and bent over for a closer look. “You’ve already
organized a house to house?”

Noah nodded. “No sign of him yet.
Thought I’d better check The Mollymawk to see if he’d made it out
here.”

“
We arrived at about half-eleven
last night and everything was locked up,” West said. “We didn’t see
any sign of Gav’s dinghy when we rowed out.”

Noah ran through more questions,
ending with a thorough examination of the gas tank, which didn’t
appear to have been tampered with.