Lethal Exposure (11 page)

“Then stop doing things that make people mad at you. Like coming into their homes uninvited and rifling through their cabinets.”

“Where do you keep the corkscrew?”

“Fourth drawer on your left.” Why was she telling him this? Why wasn’t she throwing him out of her apartment?

Because she was glad to see him. How could she both dislike him and want him so desperately at the same time? It was confusing.

He found the corkscrew, unpeeled the foil from the neck of the wine bottle and plunged the tool inside the cork, twisting with a smooth, practiced motion that told her he’d opened many bottles of wine in his lifetime. She found herself fascinated by his broad palms, neatly trimmed fingernails and muscular wrist.

The cork came out with a soft pop.

Julie gulped.

“Wineglasses?”

She turned to the cabinet to keep from looking at him, took out two wineglasses and passed them to him. He measured out a generous serving of Pinot Noir. “Let’s sit down.”

“How do you know you’re not interrupting me in the middle of something?”

“You were watching the news.”

“How do you know I wasn’t making out with my lover?” she asked. “How do you know he’s not in the bedroom getting his gun to come in here and shoot you?”

He looked completely unruffled. “Do you have a gun-wielding lover?”

She glowered. “No.”

His familiar smirk lifted the corners of his mouth. “Then let’s sit.”

God, but he was infuriating.

He headed toward the living room without waiting for her to follow. “Hey, you’ve got a hamster.” He set the wineglasses down on the coffee table, then walked over to admire Felix in his habitat. “I used to have hamsters when I was a kid. And rabbits and goats and pigs and—”

“You?” She picked up one of the wineglasses and took a courage-bolstering swig.

“Yeah, me.”

She eyed him. From the top of his expensively clipped hair to the bottom of his polished Italian leather shoes. “You don’t look like a farm boy.”

“Commune.”

“Huh?”

“It was more than a farm. I was raised on a commune.”

“Seriously?”

“I am from California,” he said. “I did it all. Slopped hogs, mucked stalls, milked cows.”

“I can’t see that.”

“It happened and I really don’t want for it to ever happen again.”

“So you’re one of those rebellious I’m-going-opposite-the-way-I-was-raised types?”

His grin widened and he sauntered back across the room toward her. “I suppose I am. How ’bout you?”

“How ’bout me what?” Julie stood her ground, even though she wanted to back up and put more distance between them.

His gaze traveled over her, his dark eyes gleaming. “Are you rebellious or a conformer?”

“I used to be a conformer,” she admitted, “but then a few things happened that showed me the error of my ways. I’m giving ‘rebel’ an honest shot.”

“Ah, that explains it.”

“Explains what?”

“The whole, I-wanna-be-a-bad-girl thing.”

She thought of Roger. “I have done some bad things.”

“I seriously doubt that.”

“You’d be surprised.”

“Yeah?” He stepped closer, wineglass held loosely in his hand. “How so?”

She didn’t mean to tell, but the look in his eyes and the need to let him know she wasn’t as sweet and innocent as he thought pushed the admission out of her. “I had an affair with a married man.”

“You?”

Her confession had the desired effect. He looked shocked and oddly jealous.

“I’m not proud of it.”

“Still.” He made a noise of disbelief. “I can’t wrap my head around that information. Not in regards to you.”

“I didn’t know he was married at the time and I broke it off the minute I found out, but I should have seen the signs. Weeknights, my calls always went to voice mail and we could never be together on the weekends. I was just so head over heels, I didn’t want to think about it.”

The disappointment she saw in his eyes hurt more than she could ever imagine. She was never going to let him know that his brother’s future father-in-law was the married man she had an affair with.

“I thought we weren’t supposed to talk about personal stuff,” he said lightly.

She gave him a grateful smile and sat down.

Sebastian followed, sinking onto the sofa cushion beside her. “Instead,” he said, “let’s talk about what happened tonight. We need to get this sorted out between us.”

She tensed and took a sip of wine. It was very good. She had to hand it to him. The man had excellent taste.

“Honestly, Jules, I didn’t mean to step on your toes,” he said. “I was simply trying to save face for Confidential Rejuvenations and Colin Cruz. I was doing my job.”

She pushed a strand of hair behind one ear. “Without any consideration for the consequences?”

He shrugged and settled back against the couch. “In my book it was a win-win situation.”

“Colin checked himself out of rehab.”

“He didn’t have a choice.”

“Because you gave him an easy out.”

“There’s an easy solution. He can do private one-on-one sessions with a doctor.”

He rested his right foot on his left lower thigh and balanced his wineglass on his right knee, his index finger and thumb lightly gripping the stem of the glass. All they needed for a seduction was a roaring fire and sexy music. Her gaze fixed on the thickness of his fingers and her breathing quickened. “Julie.”

“Yes?”

“You’ve got to understand my position.”

“Colin has an addiction to sex and he’s going to get in serious trouble. Who’ll be there to bail him out the next time something like this happens? And unless he gets treatment, something like this will happen again.”

“I’ll be there to bail him out.” Sebastian smiled. “He hired me as his publicist.”

“You don’t get it, do you?” Julie huffed. “A one-on-one session with a doctor isn’t as effective as group therapy. You’re putting Colin’s image—and the money he makes for the people who invest in his image—over his well-being. Where did you get such skewed values? From the commune? Or from rebelling against it?”

Sebastian looked genuinely puzzled and that was the hell of it—the man didn’t see anything wrong with putting style over substance. He was so into the Beverly Hills lifestyle he couldn’t see beyond his own nose.

“I do want to apologize if I’ve upset you.”

“Is this a true apology?” she asked. “Or is it one of your PR apologies, manufactured to get what you want?”

His eyes met hers. “And what do I want?”

“You want to get me into bed again.”

He laughed. “We’ve never been in a bed together, Jules.”

Julie took a big gulp, draining the rest of her wine. The man bedeviled her and she had no idea how to handle her muddled feelings toward him. “Then why are you here?”

“I told you. I don’t want you to be mad at me.”

“Why do you care?”

“Honestly, I don’t know.”

That gave her pause. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure him out. One minute she thought he was just a glib, arrogant playboy and then out of the blue, he’d get this look of abject longing on his face. A look that said he’d missed out on something important and he didn’t know how to fill the empty hole in his life.

Of course, if she were to say this to him, she had no doubt he would merely laugh at her attempts to psychoanalyze him. She didn’t know why she was even trying to figure him out.

“You confuse me,” Sebastian said, voicing her very thoughts about him. He set his glass on the coffee table and leaned closer to her.

“How so?” she whispered, struck by how much she wanted him to kiss her and her fear that if he did, she wouldn’t be able to stop kissing him.

“You’re sweet and innocent on the outside, but tough on the inside. How’d you get so tough? You have brothers?”

“Only child,” she said, her gaze hooking on his lips. The man had gorgeous lips. Full and wide and well-defined. There were women who’d kill for lips like those.

“You should be spoiled rotten, but you’re not,” he said. “More paradox.”

“My dad died when I was fourteen. I had to grow up fast.” She shouldn’t be telling him this. She didn’t want to tell him anything about her personal life. Why was she telling him this?

“My mom died when I was ten,” he continued.

“Is this a ‘poor me’ contest?” she asked, trying to steer the conversation away from their past. “One-upping each other to see who had the saddest childhood?”

“If it was,” he said smoothly, “I guarantee I’d win. But I don’t let the past define who I am. I’m a self-made man. I take all the credit and I accept all the blame for who I am.”

She did admire that quality in him. As a nurse in a rehabilitation setting, most people she ran across were looking for someone to blame for their problems. It took a lot of hard work in therapy to get them to realize that more often than not, the person in the mirror was the source of their problems.

“You told me you had a brother. Any other siblings?” she asked.

“Linc’s my half brother. Same mother, different fathers. No other siblings.”

“Did you and Linc grow up together?”

“We did.”

“Is your brother older or younger?”

“Linc’s five years younger.”

“Are you two close?”

“We are. Were.”

“You guys have a falling-out?” She leaned back against the couch and studied him. She was feeling nice and fluid from the wine and she couldn’t remember why she was mad at him. He was too darned cute to stay mad at.

No, not cute. This guy was seriously handsome. He was so damned handsome, her chest tightened.

He stretched an arm around the back of the couch. She could feel him, even though he wasn’t quite touching her. Heat radiated off his body, washing over her in waves.

“I don’t like his fiancée.”

“Roger Marshall’s daughter.”

“Yeah.”

“Why don’t you like her?” Julie asked. She felt odd about Roger’s daughter. Because they were fairly close in age, she couldn’t help wondering how his daughter would feel if she learned her father had had an affair with a woman near her own age. The thought made her sick to her stomach. “Is she a bad person?”

“No.” He inched closer.

Julie focused on Sebastian’s lips in order to keep from thinking about Roger’s daughter and how hurt she’d be if she knew about the affair. “Does she have bad habits?”

“Not really. She’s obnoxious about recycling.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“She’s too opinionated.”

“Oh, so she’s too much like you.”

Sebastian frowned. “She’s not like me at all. I just think she’s not the right one for Linc.”

“Is that true? Or is it that you don’t like that she’s taking him away from you?”

Julie could tell she’d hit bone. Sebastian’s eyelids lowered and he assessed her for a long moment. “I think you ask too many questions,” he said. “You’re pesky that way.”

“Maybe you don’t ask enough questions.”

“What can I say? I’m a shallow guy.”

“Honestly?” She pressed a palm to her chest. “I would never have guessed.”

“Sarcasm. Cute.”

He moved closer still and Julie didn’t retreat. She was tipsy on wine and his handsomeness. He hovered mere inches from her mouth now. He looked like every fairy-tale prince ever written about. She inhaled his intoxicating scent, which was a combination of rich red grapes, the citrusy hint of bergamot and the lively tang of spearmint.

Julie sighed. “I can live with shallow.”

“I can live with pesky.”

Then he did what she’d been aching for him to do from the minute he walked through her door.

The other kisses he’d given her were nothing like this. Those kisses had been sensational, sure.

But this kiss…

This kiss!

It was like a kept promise. It was the ultimate summer vacation. It was the longed-for Christmas gift. It was the opposite of overhyped. It was simply the most erotic thing she had ever experienced in her twenty-nine years on earth.

His tongue was sublime velvet. His lips were nectar of the gods. But what really rocked her world were the feelings he evoked in her.

She heard a humming deep inside her, and an electric tingling raced through every nerve ending. Her nipples tightened. Her skin burned. Her sex dripped for him.

“Julie,” he whispered against her mouth, “you taste so damned good.”

Did he feel it, too? This wild rush of chemical reaction?

His hand slid up underneath the back of her T-shirt. He pulled her closer. His erection was iron against her thigh. Oh, yeah, he felt it, too.

Her body burned wherever his mouth touched—her cheek, her chin, her forehead, her eyelids.

Sleeping with a guy you’d just met was risky behavior, she knew that, but oddly enough she felt safe with Sebastian and she had to trust her feelings. She knew what she wanted and her gut was telling her she wasn’t wrong about him.

Blindly, without purposeful thought, Julie lightly ran her tongue along the pounding pulse at the juncture of his throat and collarbone. He tasted salty. His rugged skin tightened beneath her mouth and a rough groan escaped his lips.

The pressure inside her was so intense she couldn’t stand it a minute longer. Julie tugged at his pressed dress shirt, popping off a few buttons in her hurry to get him naked. He wore a white T-shirt underneath and he didn’t protest when she grabbed it in her fists and tore it off his body.

The ripping sound was so satisfying. Good girls didn’t recklessly rip up clothing. She liked being a bad girl.

“Hey, babe, slow down,” Sebastian cooed. “You’ve got nothing to prove.”

“I want you inside of me,” she growled. “And I’m tired of waiting.”

His eyes darkened, glittered wetly with a challenge. “You want it hard and fast?”

“Yes,” Julie demanded and then nipped his bottom lip up between her teeth.

Her declaration inspired him. He raised her up with his arms, pinned her against the wall, spearing his knee roughly between her legs. Goaded by her, abandoning all restraint, he lowered his head and took her mouth like a hostile invader taking over a country.

Savagely, he plundered her mouth until she was breathless and quivering. “This the way you want it?”

“Yes,” she declared again through gritted teeth. “Give it to me hard.”

She had to have him inside her or go mad. She didn’t know where this sexual aggression was coming from. It wasn’t like her. But that was good. Healthy.

The old Julie had been too meek, too mild, too romantic by half. She embraced her passion. Let go of her inhibitions and submerged herself in sensation.

He ripped off her shirt the way she’d ripped off his, exposing her black lace bra underneath. Sebastian flicked his tongue all along the edge of the skimpy material and then suckled her nipples through the lace.

Julie burned.

Moaned.

She ran her hands down the length of his bare back, slipped her palms past the waistband of his pants, cupping his hard, tight buttocks. So nice!

Using his teeth, he pulled her bra down, leaving it tangled, almost immobilizing her arms.

Gently, oh, so gently, he bit one of her nipples. His sharp teeth against her tender skin made her gasp in surprise, but it didn’t hurt. In fact, what she felt was the exact opposite of pain. It was physical pleasure of the highest order.

He loosened his grip on her, letting her slide down the wall while he did dizzy things to her with his tongue. Julie went for the button and then the zipper of his trousers, fumbling in the process, but finally managing to get his pants down.

Sebastian was eager to help. He gripped her buttocks, tightly pushing her up to meet his penis straining against his navy blue silk boxer briefs.

“Get ’em off,” she muttered, and in a second he was fully exposed for her to feast her eyes upon.

Julie sucked in her breath at the glorious sight of the naked man. He was just as fine as she’d imagined he would be.

“Screw me,” she said fiercely, amazing and thrilling herself with her brazenness.

“Get the condom out of my pants pocket,” he said. “And roll it on me.”

“You brought a condom with you?”

“You bet I did. Whenever I’m around you I can’t keep my hands to myself.”

For some reason, that thrilled her. She retrieved the condom from the pocket of his slacks, tore the packet with her teeth and then dropped to her knees to roll the condom on him.

“Come here.” He reached down to her, pulled her up off her knees and shucked down her pants. Then he thrust into her hard and quick and took her breath away. But she was so dripping wet for him he slid right in as if he’d always belonged there.

The air smelled of their lust. He made a hissing sound of absolute pleasure. “You feel so good, babe. So tight and warm.”

They made love like feral animals. Scratching and grappling. Banging against the walls. Arching their bodies—slippery with sweat—into each other.

Wildly giving vent to heated moans and deep-throat yelps, their mating was feverish and mindlessly, purely elemental. Julie wrapped her legs tight around Sebastian’s waist. He held her with her back pressed against the wall, slamming into her.

“Harder,” she begged.

He complied, pounding her until her sex throbbed with the sweetest ache in the entire world.

“More, give me more.” She wanted him as deep inside her as he could get.

He silenced her with a kiss, but his thrusts became even more fervent as he plunged deeper and deeper until she feared his big, hard cock would rip her right in two.

Sebastian plowed one hand up the back of her neck, threading his thick fingers through her hair. He pulled her head back, exposing her throat. He suckled on her skin, moving kisses down toward her breasts again.

She reached down to caress the shaft of his penis as it slipped in and out of her. She brought up her fingers, dripping with her own juices, and smeared the wetness over her swollen breasts.

Sebastian opened his mouth wide over her nipple, taking in as much of her flesh as he could, suckling her as if he wanted to swallow her whole.

Julie gasped, almost sobbing with the exquisiteness of the sensation.

He groaned her name and then he just groaned. He kissed her hard, thrusting his tongue in her mouth as his cock thrust up hard inside of her.

She was close. So damned close.

His corded muscles tightened against her, his buttocks stiffened. He was close, too.

Blood pulsed hot and fast through her veins. Her womb clenched. She looked into his eyes and he looked into hers and time simply evaporated.

“You keep doing that and I’m gonna blow.”

“Doing what?”

“Squeezing me like that.”

“Like this?” She flexed her inner muscles.

He groaned. “Vixen.”

She grinned.

“Please don’t make me come yet. I want you to go first,” he said, slowing his rhythm. “What’s it going to take?”

She touched the tip of her tongue to her upper lip. “You’re doing it.”

“Come for me, sweetheart,” he crooned, his voice low and guttural. “I want to see your face when you come.”

Sebastian moved faster then and deeper than she ever thought possible.

In an instant, Julie felt sensations splintering inside her. Orgasm clutched her. She moaned out his name and all the air left her body as explosion after explosion rolled through her body.

“Julie,” Sebastian whispered. “Jules.”

He shoved into her one last plunging thrust and she felt the convulsive throb of his release let loose.

“Jules,” he whispered again. “Bright as diamonds.” He buried his face against her neck and held her tight.

Slowly, in a tangle of hazy lust and sweaty limbs, they sank to the floor.

LIMP AND SATED, Julie lay snuggled in Sebastian’s arms. The man had not disappointed. The thought of all the other delicious things they could do together made her shiver.

Sebastian shifted her closer to him, spooning against her with his strong male body. She thrilled to the warmth and size of him. He was large enough to take care of her. It was not a progressive, modern thought, but the primal woman in her couldn’t help thinking it.

He held her loosely. Letting her know he was there, but she could easily pull away if she wanted.

She didn’t want to pull away.

He kissed her temple.

This felt so nice. Almost as good as the sex. She could stay like this for the rest of her life.

Whoa! Don’t get attached. It’s just sex.

It sounded good. It was what she wanted, but even as she struggled to concentrate on nothing but his physical attributes and how sensually their bodies joined, she couldn’t help hoping for something more.

Stop the fanciful thinking.

There couldn’t be anything more between them because…

His distracting fingertips reached up to feather her hair back off her forehead. His fingers caressing her temple felt so good she almost forgot what she’d been thinking about.

Oh, yeah, she couldn’t allow there to be anything more than sex between them because every time she made love with a guy she fell in love with him and invariably got her heart broken. This time, things were going to be different. This time, she was going to live in the here and now and just enjoy the ride. No expectations, no guilt, no Cinderella dreams or castles in the sky.

But deep down inside, she knew Sebastian was different from either Phillip or Roger.

You can’t let that influence you.

What did she want from him?

Sex. That was it. Sex and the ability to switch off her emotions from her body.

“I’d like to do that again,” Sebastian murmured, his warm breath tickling her ear.

“Now?” Julie didn’t know if she was up for another round like that one. Not this quick.

“Now, later, whatever I can get. I’m jonesing for you, babe.”

She shifted in his arms so she could see his face. His eyes were sultry, his lids half-lowered. Her heart bumped into her chest. “You’re not getting addicted to me, are you?”

He looked surprised. “Are you getting addicted to me?”

“I don’t even like you, why would I get addicted to you?” Julie nudged him to show she was kidding, and he nudged her back, apparently getting it. Like it or not, the man was tuned in to her frequency.

“Do you even like me?” He cracked a smile.

“No.”

“Aw, come on. Why not? I’m fun and I know how to have a good time.”

“You’re also arrogant, conceited, high-handed, egotistical—”

“Don’t forget vainglorious,” he teased.

She tangled her fingers in the tuft of dark hairs at his chest. “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”

“Nope.” His eyes were languid and tender and calm and she allowed herself to loiter in them. She reached and swept a finger across the tips of his midnight-black lashes, drew it down the angle of his nose and then landed on his mouth and traced the angular outline.

He shifted and for the first time, she saw the tattoo on his shoulder. It was small, about the size of a quarter, done in blue ink. An eagle in flight. She pressed her lips against it. “What’s this?”

“Youthful indiscretion,” he said.

“Were you in the military?”

He shrugged. “Nope.”

“Why the eagle?”

“It symbolizes freedom.”

“Free as a bird?”

“Something like that.”

A calm settled over her. I have chosen the right lover. He’s not going to get attached.

“It’s good,” she said.

“Good?”

“That you value freedom.”

“I suppose.”

She propped herself up on one elbow. “Why?”

“WHY WHAT?” Sebastian asked.

“Why is freedom so important to you?”

“I guess I hate the thought of missing out on something.” Sebastian pushed the tip of her nose with an index finger. He loved lying here looking at her. Her eyes were so earnest. He laid an arm around her waist, savoring the feel of her soft, silky skin. He was so glad he’d come here tonight, even if she was peppering him with questions. “Probably because I missed out on so much when I was a kid.”

“Like what?” She snuggled closer to him. “What did you miss out on?”

“Having a father, for one thing.”

“You never knew your dad?”

“I knew who he was. He was a son of a bitch.”