Need You Tonight (36 page)

Keep reading for an excerpt from the next Loving on the Edge novel by Roni Loren

N
OTHING
B
ETWEEN
U
S

Coming soon from Heat

12:35 A.M.

Georgia Delaune had never been particularly drawn to illegal activity. Or taking risks.
Or, okay, fine—sexually deviant behavior. She was woman enough to admit what this
was. So finding herself hiding in the dark, peering around the curtains of her second
story window with a set of binoculars, should’ve tipped her off that she was officially
losing her shit. But since moving into the house on Fallen Oaks Lane six months earlier,
she’d known this moment was coming. Before now, she’d convinced herself that she’d
just been catching inadvertent peeks and unintentional glimpses. Her neighbor would
surely shut his curtains if he didn’t want to risk being seen, right?

She groaned, lowered the binoculars, and pressed her forehead to the window frame.
God, now she was blaming the victim.
He gets naked in the confines of his own home. A home that’s on a tree-lined corner
lot with tons of privacy and a six-foot-tall fence. How dare he!

This was so screwed up. What if he saw her? He could call the cops and she’d be slapped
with some Peeping Tom charge—or Peeping Tomasina, as the case may be. That’d be an
epic disaster. Especially when the cops found no information on a Georgia Delaune.
Plus, afterward, she’d have to move because there’d be no facing her neighbor again.
Not after he knew what she did at night. And there was no way in hell she was moving.
It had taken too much time, effort, and planning to find this spot, to finally feel
even a smidgen of security and safety. These walls were her only haven and she had
no intention of leaving them.

But despite knowing the risks, when she saw a lamp flick on in the window of Colby
Wilkes’s bedroom, she found herself dragging a chair over to the window and lifting
the binoculars to her eyes. It took a second to adjust the focus, but when the lenses
cleared, the broad, wet shoulders of her dark-haired neighbor filled the view. Her
stomach dipped in anticipation.

He wasn’t alone.

She’d known he had friends over. She’d seen the group going in when she’d closed her
living room blinds earlier that night. Two women and three guys, plus Colby. Later,
she’d heard water splashing and the murmuring hum of voices so she’d gone into her
backyard for a while to listen to the distant sounds of life and laughter. That world
seemed so foreign to her now. Being surrounded by people, having friends over, relaxing
by the pool. She couldn’t see anything from her backyard. Colby’s pool area was blocked
by the house and bordered by trees. So she’d lain in her lounge chair out back, closed
her eyes, and had imagined she was a guest at his party, that she was part of that
laughter. And she’d also found herself wondering what would happen afterward.

Now she knew. Colby had stepped into his bedroom, obviously fresh from the pool with
his dark hair wet and only a towel knotted around his waist. And he had company with
him. One of Colby’s friends, a tall blond guy who was also sporting a towel, had followed
him in. And then there was a woman. She wore nothing at all. Georgia’s lip tucked
between her teeth, heat creeping into her face. She
so
shouldn’t be watching this. But she couldn’t turn away. She’d learned rather quickly
that her dear neighbor, despite his affable grin, Southern-boy charm, and straight-laced
job, was a freak in the bedroom. Threesomes were only part of it. After her last relationship,
it should’ve turned her off, sent her running. Guys with secrets. Fuck no.

But the first time she’d caught sight of Colby bringing a flogger down on a lover’s
back, Georgia had been transfixed. She’d been completely stuck on her latest writing
project at the time. But after watching Colby drive a woman into a writhing, begging
state, Georgia had gone into her office, opened a new document, and had written until
the sun had broken through the curtains the next morning. Before she knew it, her
thriller-in-progress had taken a decidedly erotic turn. Thankfully, her editor had
loved the new direction. So now Georgia, in her guiltiest moments, told herself these
stolen moments at the window were all in the name of book research.

Yeah. Even her sleep-deprived brain didn’t buy that one.

The guilt wasn’t enough to make her stop, though. Especially now when Colby was grabbing
for the knot on his towel. She held her breath. The terry cloth fell to the floor
at Colby’s feet, and everything inside Georgia went tight.
Holy heaven above
. She’d watched—oh, how she’d watched—but never before had she been able to see everything
in such intimate detail. The binoculars transported her, took her by the hand and
dragged her into that room with those strangers. Colby was right there in front of
her—strong, beautiful, aroused. His hand wrapped around his cock and stroked ever
so slowly, taunting her with unashamed confidence. No, not her. The woman. God, Georgia
should look away. But need rolled through her like thunder from an oncoming storm,
her fingers tightening around the binoculars.

The other man had stripped, too, and although he was gorgeous in his own right with
his polished, movie-star good looks, Georgia was drawn to the rough-around-the-edges
brawn of her neighbor. Every part of Colby hinted at the wildness he hid beneath his
surface—dark wavy hair that was a little too long, the ever present stubble that shadowed
his jaw, and a body that looked like he could bench press a Buick. He was the opposite
of the pressed and creased, Armani-clad businessmen she’d been attracted to in her
former life. He was the guy you’d be wary of on first glance if you ran into him in
a dark alley—the cowboy whose hat-color you couldn’t quite determine straightaway.

Perhaps that was why she was so fascinated with him. She’d learned that danger often
hid behind the gloss of an urbane smile and perfectly executed Windsor knot. Colby
had none of that. But regardless of the reason for her attraction, she couldn’t stem
the crackle of jealousy that went through her as the other man laced his fingers in
the woman’s hair and guided her to take Colby into her mouth.

The view of Colby’s erection disappearing between the lips of some other woman was
erotic. There was no denying that. But it also made Georgia’s jaw clench a little
to hard. She could tell, even from the brief moments she’d been watching, that this
woman was with Colby’s friend. They were a couple and Colby the third party. But it
still activated Georgia’s
He’s mine, bitch!
reflex.

Georgia sniffed at her ridiculous, territorial reaction, and tried to loosen the tension
gathering in her neck.
Sure, he’s yours, girl. You can’t walk down the street without swallowing a pill first,
much less go on a date if he was even interested in the weird, spying chick next door.

But she shoved the thought away. She didn’t want anything tainting these few precious
minutes. This wasn’t about dates. Only when she stood at this window did she feel
even a glimmer of her former self. This was her gossamer-thin lifeline to who she
used to be, to the capable and confident woman who would’ve never hidden in the dark.

Before long, the blond man eased the woman away from Colby and guided her toward himself,
taking his turn. Georgia lifted the binoculars upward, finding Colby’s face instead
of focusing on the scene between the other man and his woman. What she found lurking
in his expression wasn’t what she expected. There was heat in Colby’s eyes, interest
for sure, but as she stared longer, she sensed a distance in those hazel depths. Like
he was there with them but other . . . separate. Alone. It probably was only because
the other two were a couple. Or maybe it was just Georgia’s mind slapping labels on
things to make herself feel better. But regardless, it made her chest constrict with
recognition. She didn’t know what it’d be like to be in a threesome. Or how it would
feel to have a lover kneeling at her feet like he did. But she knew loneliness. And
for those few seconds, she was convinced Colby did, too. She pressed her fingertip
against the cool glass of the window, tracing the outline of Colby’s face. Needing
to touch . . . something.

The glass may as well have been made of steel, the yards between the houses made of
miles.

But she couldn’t walk away. The night went on and there she sat, watching the three
lovers move to the bed, the woman being cuffed to the headboard. The two men lavished
her with hands and mouths and tongues. It was like watching a silent symphony, the
arching of the woman’s back the only thing Georgia needed to see to know exactly how
these men were affecting their willing captive. The melancholy feelings that had stirred
earlier had quickly been surpassed by ones much more base and primal. Georgia could
feel her body growing hot and restless, her panties going damp.

When Colby braced himself between the woman’s thighs and entered her, Georgia trained
the binoculars on his face, unable to handle the image of him having sex with another
woman. Her mind was developing quite the ability to focus on the fantasy and block
out the unwanted parts. She only had a view of Colby’s profile, but she watched with
rapt attention as his jaw worked and his skin went slick with sweat instead of pool
water.

Without giving it too much thought, she braced one elbow on the window ledge to hold
the binoculars steady and let her other hand drift downward. Her cotton nightgown
slid up her thighs easily. Somewhere her brain protested that this was wrong—sick
and sad. She had a perfectly functioning vibrator in her bedside drawer. She had an
imagination strong enough to fuel an orgasm without doing this, without watching the
man next door screw another woman. But her starved libido didn’t seen to give a damn
about morals or ethics or pride right now. There was need. And a solution. Simple
as that.

As Colby’s lips parted with a sound she could only imagine, Georgia’s fingers found
the edge of her panties and slipped beneath the material. Her body tightened at the
touch and the little gasp she made reverberated in the dead silence of her bedroom.
Colby’s head dipped between his shoulders, and Georgia imagined it was her he was
whispering passionate words to. That deep Houston drawl telling her how good it felt
to be inside her, how sexy she was, how he was going to make her come. He would be
a dirty talker, she had no doubt. No sweet nothings from Colby Wilkes.

She closed her eyes for a moment as she moved her fingers in the rhythm of Colby’s
thrust—long, languid strokes that had a fire building from her center and radiating
heat outward. It wouldn’t take long. Her body was already singing with sensation,
release hurtling toward her. But she wouldn’t go over alone. She forced her eyes open,
the binoculars still in her grip, and found Colby again. His dark hair was curling
against his neck, sweat glistening at his temples. And she knew he had to be close,
too. Every muscle in his shoulders and back had tensed. All of her attention zeroed
in on him, and in her mind, the touch of her own fingers morphed into his—his hands
and body moving against her, inside her.

Every molecule in her body seemed to contract, preparing for the burst of energy to
come. Her breath quickened, her heartbeat pounding in her ears. And right as she was
about to close her eyes and go over, Colby jerked his head to the side toward the
window. His hazel gaze collided with hers through the binoculars—a dead-on eye lock
that seemed to reach inside Georgia and flip her inside out.
He knows
.

But she was too far gone for the shock to derail her. Orgasm careened through her
with a force that made the chair scrape back across the wood floor. She moaned into
the quiet, the binoculars slipping from her hand and jerking the strap around her
neck. The part in the curtains fell shut, but she didn’t notice. Everything was too
bright behind her eyelids, too good, to worry about anything else but the way she
felt in those long seconds.
Enjoy. Don’t think. Just feel.
The words whispered through her as her fingers kept moving, her body determined to
eke out every ounce of sensation she could manage.

But, of course, the blissful, mindless moments couldn’t last forever. Chilly reality
made a swift reappearance as her gown slipped back down her thighs and sweat cooled
on her skin. She sat there, staring at the closed curtain and listening to her thumping
heart. Colby
couldn’t
know, right? His gaze had felt intense and knowing because the binoculars had made
him seem so close. But her window was dark, her curtains darker, and the moon was
throwing off enough light that it would make the glass simply reflect back the glow.

But her chest felt like a hundred hummingbirds had roosted there, beating their wings
against her ribs. She wet her lips and swallowed past the constriction in her throat.
She had to look. Would her neighbor be striding over here to demand what was going
on? Would he be disgusted? Embarrassed? Angry?

God, she didn’t even want to think about it. She wanted to turn around, get in bed,
and hide under the covers. But that’s all her life had turned into now—hiding. And
though she couldn’t fix that situation, she refused to create another one. So she
forced herself to lean forward and peel the curtains back one more time, leaving the
binoculars hanging around her neck.

What she saw made the hummingbirds thrash more. Colby wasn’t even in the room anymore.
His friend was now with the woman in the bed, and both seemed totally absorbed in
each other. Did that mean that Colby had left and was heading this way to confront
her? She was about to go to the front of the house to check the yard but then paused
when she realized nothing had changed about the view. Nothing at all. If Colby had
been concerned about a nosy neighbor, he hadn’t bothered to close the curtains or
warn his friends. Surely, he would’ve done that.

She sat there, debating and worrying, but soon Colby returned to the bedroom. The
man and woman had finished. Colby had on a pair of boxers and had brought clean towels
in for everyone. He didn’t look concerned. He didn’t glance over at the window. He
seemed perfectly relaxed as he helped untie the woman’s hands, kissed her forehead
in a friendly gesture, and then left his friends to sleep alone.