Lucidity (14 page)

“Parker?”

It had all happened too fast. He hadn’t taken the time to touch her, taste her, or paid enough attention to the exquisitely full breasts that now filled his hands. “Hmm?”

“You never told me what the shooting was about.”

He ran the tip of his tongue around one rosy, peaked nipple, pleased when she sighed. He already loved that sound. “Just Vic, practicing with his pistol. Some of us never get it out of our systems.
He’s
harmless enough.
I
may be in big trouble here, though. How is it possible for you to feel and taste even better than you look?”

“Parker?”

Her voice was barely a tense whisper. He wanted to hear her scream for him. “Hmm?”

“I—I think I hear your cell phone humming.”

She was right. It was an annoying, droning sound coming from the pocket of his discarded jeans. He should’ve buried the damn thing in the snow.

It might be something important. Maybe Shep calling with the location of a new safe house. Or his supervisor, instructing him to stay put—or designating him for reassignment.

Now,
there
was a gut-wrenching thought. Yes, he’d considered leaving her, for both their sakes. But he wasn’t keen on the idea of these people, these manipulators, pulling their personal strings. They were cold, they were blind, and they didn’t give a damn. They had the authority to take him away from her at any time.

But right now, the scent of her creamy sex was intoxicating, and the taste of her skin was too sweet. For the first time in his career—the first time in his
life
—he ignored his duty.

Let the world fall down around them later. These few stolen, secret moments were theirs. “The hell with the phone.” He kissed her savagely, claiming all her attention as she melted beneath him. “I feel another close encounter coming on…”

“At last. Mad Dog Munroe, safely in custody.”

Carly barely managed to suppress a giggle, but she had no qualms about calling Parker “Mad Dog”. Only a crazy man with mutant hormones of his own could manage to jam so much sex into the two hours since he’d saved her from celibacy.

But she was in charge now, and things were going to be different. Peering at him through one narrowed eye, Carly twisted her lips, swollen with his kisses, in an effort to switch her toothpick to the other side of her mouth—and failed. So much for trying to be a badass. How in the world did cowboys make it look so easy?

She settled for grasping the splinter of wood in her teeth, baring them in a wide, taunting sneer. “It’s the end of the road, Mad Dog. There’s a new sheriff in town.”

Parker matched her smile with an inappropriate leer of his own. Being handcuffed to the iron headboard of his bed buck nekkid hadn’t dampened that alpha spirit one bit. “I’m innocent, Sheriff. I swear. I never did any of that thar…uh, whatever I’m bein’ charged with.”

Carly had figured her bodyguard had a softer side. Every man did. She just wasn’t sure her walking deadly weapon was capable of loosening up and having fun. His appetite for her had been nothing less than pure, savage lust, and she’d gladly allowed him the time—and unrestricted access to every orifice of her body—to work it off with blunt-force sex.

But when she finally challenged him to set all of their cares and rules aside, to come play with her, even for a few minutes, she hadn’t guessed he’d be this willing to get into the spirit of the fantasy. One look at her nude body in his bulky vest, assuming a
High Noon
stance, and he was right on board.

“Innocent?” Carly spread her legs, hands on bare hips, and spit the toothpick out. She was actually proud of hitting the floor. “No man’s innocent who can’t settle in one place. Man like that’s got the devil spurrin’ him on. Makes him figure it’s okay to just ride into town and take his pleasure of the young ladies until they can’t resist lov—”

Holy shit. What monstrous slip of the tongue was she about to unleash here? She certainly cared for Parker, but a few orgasms did not a love make.

Although that last one had been damn near enough…

She coughed, clearing her throat of the word she knew she’d regret saying. She would not ruin what time they had together by obligating him to make some sentimental declaration. “Until the young ladies can’t resist him. That, bucko, is a crime.”

Hunching her shoulders beneath the vest that nearly reached her thighs, she pointed an accusing finger at the root of his massive erection. “You and the twins there done had your fun. Time for a reckonin’.”

Admittedly, she was rather looking forward to this. As much as she loved making love with Parker, she had to wonder about the big guy. He’d already fucked her in the window, the bed, over the bathroom sink, and across the length of the hardwood floor of the suite. Always with her satisfaction in mind, always the aggressive stud.

But he approached his lovemaking exactly as he worked his job. Straightforward, with a single-minded purpose. He was going to come, hard and deep, and she was coming with him, dammit.

Once they’d humped their way into his room, Carly had pounced on the metal cuffs she spotted in his ammo bag, twirling them teasingly around one finger in a silent dare. Would he set the rules, the guns, the assignment aside, even for a short while? Would he play with her? Would he be able to relinquish control?

Instead of his usual mortified grimace, he’d stunned her with a sexy grin, freely offering his wrists.

Game on.

Climbing over his long body from the bottom of the bed, she nearly collapsed into laughter when he whistled just the right spaghetti-western theme music. A few rounds of sex had definitely loosened him up. This playful Parker would take some getting used to.

But his libido was all business, she noted, observing the way his dick bobbed eagerly at her approach. It had barely rested at all in the two hours they’d spent groping each other.

Avoiding the determined salutation of his shaft, Carly licked her way upward, inch by inch. So many textures, from the prickly hair on his legs to the smooth contours of his sculpted abs. Her tongue teased his navel, feathered the firm tips of his nipples, and ran along the straining length of his neck until her mouth was a breath away from his. “Git that happy-assed horse-thievin’ look off your face, Mad Dog. I’m here to make you pay.”

“At your mercy, Sheriff.” He was practically panting, his gaze locked on her breasts, revealed by the opening of the vest. “If I’d known how purty the view from your jail was, I’d have surrendered long ago.”

Carly stirred the coarse curls surrounding his erection with her flaming red fingernails. “Don’t be patronizing. If you behave yourself, this sheriff might consider an early release. If not…”

She was lying to him. Again. Seeing his perfect body laid out like a feast for her to savor was arousing her much too fast to consider drawing this out. Carefully grasping his ruddy, thick rod with her left hand, she lapped the salty precome from the slit of the engorged head, nearly sending him rocketing off the bed. His glans felt hot to her fingers, and his wrists were parchment pale from straining against the cuffs.

“God, Carly.” The Southern accent dissolved, hoarsened by need. She loved that she could make him lose control, thrilled to the gruff way he called her name. It was like an aphrodisiac. She slipped the satiny helmet between her lips. “
Oh, fuck!
”

She purred, laving the silky steel with long, taunting licks. “If you insist…”

Adjusting her position, Carly braced her hands against his chest and eased the pulsing head inside, her body already clenching, eager for more. Slowly, teasingly, she lowered her weight onto him, thrilling to every agonizing inch, holding her breath in pure bliss.

The initial joining was her favorite part of the mating ritual. The bold intrusion of the broad head, the stretching, the claiming. The sense of letting go, of linking to something larger than self. She sighed once his pulsing thickness filled her completely, loving the tremor beneath her that said he felt the same, wishing there was a way to make it last.

Undaunted by his bindings, Parker was the first to move, one slow, undulating roll of his groin that drove him even deeper inside her. His eyes were screwed shut, and the feverish pulse of his cock became a thick throbbing in her lush warmth, more demanding than breath itself. Her body tightened around his and instinctively rocked, the urgent undulating of her spine feeding the sizzling pressure that spread like a flame through her cunt.

His hips responded to her every movement, each thrust weakening her resolve to draw it out. A new position, new discoveries. She shifted. Squirmed. Bit into her bottom lip with the urge to taste flesh as she grew dizzy with want.
There
. His probing penis surged forward, finding her most sensitive spot, a delicious friction that made her want to beg. Carly whimpered and rode him harder as the sensation intensified, each stroke a lover’s beckoning caress.

God, she couldn’t wait, didn’t want to. There was no longer simple movement between them but a desperate drive for relief, for release, an urge to rut more primitive than anything she’d ever known. Parker growled beneath her, hips thrashing, cuffs clanging against metal as he virtually lifted her with the force of his final climactic jolts.

And what began as a simmering quiver between her plumped lips quickly and violently possessed every muscle of her body, hurling her into darkness with a shuddering, take-no-prisoners surrender.

The frantic pounding of his heart soothed her, slowly regulating her breathing long after she’d collapsed, satisfied and limp. Lazily stroking the broad chest, she found herself smiling. He made a nice, sturdy mattress. She could imagine herself sleeping there contentedly for a very long time.

“I must say, ma’am,” he drawled decadently. “I do admire the way you sit a horse.”

“Just a matter of breakin’ your mount right and proper, mister.” She drew in a deep breath, too tired to move.

The steamy release of the radiator sounded from the opposite wall as he sluggishly stirred. “You’d best hand over the key now, Miz Carly. Fun’s fun, but I can hardly protect you like this.”

“Key?” She snuggled closer, tugging at his tether and laughing into the curve of his neck. “Oh? Is there a key?”

“You know very well there is.” His voice was muffled in her hair, but the meltingly gentle tone of it did not escape her. “The one that keeps me bound. Let’s not pretend anymore. You’ve had it all along.”

Chapter Thirteen

Parker found her in the common room of their suite, curled up on the small sofa and wearing one of his long-sleeved shirts. Carly’s eyes were glued to the news report on television, a shadow of cleavage in the cut of the neckline. No sexy nightgown this time. But 100 percent cotton had
never
looked so good on
anybody
.

Evening was already fast approaching. She’d lit a small blaze in the brick-lined fireplace to help combat the room’s cold, since he’d been too busy to put the patio door back on its track. He’d lingered with her too long, couldn’t get enough of her.

His wife had been right. He was a maniac once he got going. He couldn’t say whether there was a God, but burying himself inside this woman seemed pretty close to his idea of heaven. Hell, the snack break hadn’t even come into play.

The phone messages he’d finally retrieved indicated that Shep had tried to reach him several times, but Parker’s attempts to return the calls had failed. He wouldn’t be surprised if Vic had a jammer on the premises. Leaving a trail by using the old man’s landlines was not an option. He’d find a clear space outside with less interference in a few minutes. He just needed to touch her once again.

Stealthily moving behind her, he wrapped his arms around her neck and kissed the crown of her head. He loved seeing her in his shirt, as if she
belonged
to him. “I fall asleep and let you off your back for half an hour, and you come in here to watch the
news?
Was the sex that boring?”

“Come and sit with me,” she said simply. “You need to see this.”

Settling in beside her, he was surprised when she resisted his effort to pull her into his lap, determinedly maintaining her seat.

Second thoughts about what had happened? It would be the best thing for both of them, but he fervently hoped it wasn’t true. One day in bed with her had only whetted his appetite for more.

Parker remained silent and watched news about the economy, foreign affairs, and extreme weather until Carly laid a hand on his thigh, turning up the volume.

The news anchor was a young black woman. Beauty contestant with a brain he figured, and the ability to appear concerned when the script was serious, teasing when it was not. At this moment, her smile was coy and flippant.

“That rogue asteroid astronomers have been watching for months is garnering a bit more interest in the scientific community. As it turns out, Apothos 2012 will be coming a few million miles closer than originally anticipated. It still presents no threat to our little blue planet, but scientists view this as a prime opportunity to study this visitor from the outskirts of our galaxy.”

“The scientists’ deflection has failed.” Carly’s voice was flat, without emotion. “It’s coming.”

Parker’s stomach heaved violently over. “Sonofabitches. Damn the sonofabitches. I’m beginning to see how they’re working this. If the problem had been resolved, we wouldn’t be hearing anything about it, right? They don’t want to incite a panic quite yet, so they’re dribbling information out a bit at a time.”