The Sapphire Affair (A Jewel Novel Book 1) (20 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Up the stairs. Down the hall. At the door to her room.

His lips were on her neck, making her shiver. His hands were in her hair, turning her on wildly. He couldn’t stop touching her, and she wanted his hands everywhere. Loved how he was relentless in his quest to be as close to her as possible. Her whole body vibrated with desire.

As she reached into her purse for the card key, Jake scorched a trail of kisses along the back of her neck that made her knees go weak. She grasped the doorframe so she wouldn’t stumble.

“You keep doing that right now, I may not even be able to get the door open,” she said, her voice like a feather, her hand slipping as she tried to slide the key through the lock.

“Let me help,” he said, taking the key and sliding it through.

“Showing off your lock-picking skills?”

“No. Showing off how much I want to get inside this room and have you,” he said, his tone rough and commanding. He pushed open the door.

The card fell somewhere on the floor. Who knew? Who cared? She was alone in her room with him. The air-conditioning whirred faintly, and the moon glowed through the glass door of the balcony. He backed her up against the wall.

“Can’t wait,” he said, as if she needed an excuse for why they couldn’t even make it to the bed.

He planted a searing kiss on her mouth that sent the temperature in her even higher. He broke the kiss and traveled down her body, along her neck, past her breasts and her belly. He was close. So close to where she wanted him, and she ached. Simply ached.

“Beautiful,” he murmured as he kneeled on the floor, pushed up her skirt, and reached for the waistband of her pink cotton panties. Her breath turned erratic as a pulse beat between her legs. In one quick move he pulled her panties to her ankles. She barely stepped out of them before he had molded his hands to the inside of her thighs and kissed her there.

Right there.

Where she wanted him. Where she craved him.

Oh God, it felt so damn good. She cried out from the instantaneous crash of pleasure into every corner of her body. Closing her eyes, she gave in to the wild sensations racing through her. He kissed her wetness, flicking his tongue across her most sensitive spot.

Her hands shot into his hair, so soft and thick between her fingers. Quickly, they set a rhythm. She rocked against his mouth, her fingers tightening in his hair, as he licked and kissed and savored. He thrust his tongue inside her and she gasped, racing toward the edge of bliss. Seeing it, chasing it, seeking it out.

Close. So damn close.

“That’s right. This is your first,” he said, his deep, raspy voice thrilling her as he briefly broke contact then returned to her.

She rocked into his face, and he moaned as he consumed her. His own sounds were some of the sexiest she’d ever heard, the soundtrack of his own desire for her.

He groaned as he licked.

That was all she needed.

She shattered. Riding his face. Standing up against the wall. Him on his knees. A chorus of
oh Gods
echoing in the night, like aftershocks as pleasure rippled through her body.

He rose, cupped the back of her head, and arched a playful eyebrow. “Let’s make it a double now.”

She breathed out hard, still riding the waves of a powerful orgasm. “What will you do for your encore?”

The answer came as he unzipped his shorts and rolled on a condom.

Thank Christ.

He couldn’t hold out any longer. Couldn’t wait. Couldn’t deny this.

He’d wanted her since he first laid eyes on her, and he was finally, finally, finally going to have her. She’d been under his skin all week long, and every encounter had amped up his want. Now, that desire ran deeper, beyond the physical. He liked her so much more than he should, more than he had room for in his life. But he ignored all the risks, because this moment was one he wanted to savor in his body.

Every second of it.

He rubbed his erection against her slick heat, his breath hissing at that first delirious contact. “You feel amazing,” he said, then slid into her.

Better than he’d imagined. Hotter, tighter, and more intense than in his fantasies. They fit perfectly.

She gasped, her lips falling open. She looked so deliciously sexy like that, so vulnerable, too. That’s what was undoing him. How much he wanted
all
of her.

“So do you,” she said, that sweetness in her that hooked him coming through even now, even as he took her hard against the wall.

“I’ve wanted to be inside you since that first night,” he said as he filled her, taking a beat to linger in the sheer pleasure of being inside her. “I’ve wanted to feel you gripping me.” He pulled back, then thrust into her again, her eyes going hazy with lust.

She moaned his name. “What else did you want?” she asked, and her question sent the lust in him on a high-speed chase through his bones from the way she craved his dirty words.

“To feel how wet you get when I make you come again.”

“I want to know what that’s like, too,” she whispered. “I’ve never known. Make me feel that way.”

Oh hell, she was going to experience not just multiple orgasms, but exponential pleasure. He fully planned to deliver, and he had every intention of making her cry out in ecstasy again. He reached for her thigh, hooking her leg onto his hip. He went deeper like that, electricity surging in his veins as he drove into her.

Her nails dug into his shoulders, grasping him harder. He dropped a hand between her legs, sliding a finger against her. With that touch, her pants turned fevered, her moans frenzied, as she called out that she was coming again. Crying out his name in his ear.

Bliss. Fucking bliss.

“I love making you come,” he murmured as he pressed a soft kiss to her cheek, slowing his thrusts as she came down from her high.

“It’s so easy with you. Coming is so easy with you,” she said breathlessly.

Masculine pride suffused him from the compliment, but also from the way she responded to his touch. Nothing was better than this kind of connection, this sort of undeniable chemistry. Unless it was one more orgasm for the woman he craved. He lifted both her legs, wrapped them around his back, and crossed the few feet to her bed.

While still fucking her.

Yep. He did it. He stayed inside her because he did not want to leave. Not ’til he attempted to send her up and over another peak. He lowered her to the bed, picking up the pace, thrusting into her.

“Wrap your legs tight around me,” he told her, and she hooked her ankles over his ass as he moved inside her. He took her like that, as deep as he could, hoping to hit that magic spot inside her that could send her over the edge again.

Because hell, he was nearly there himself. If he was going to have any success at this hat trick, it needed to be now. Right the fuck now. Not later.

“Fuck. I can’t hold back,” he muttered, and the base of his spine ignited, his muscles tensing, as lust stormed through him, marching across his bones, taking no prisoners.

As his climax crashed into him, he heard the most glorious sound.

Her. Crying out again. Writhing beneath him. Grabbing his hair, calling his name, coming undone. “Oh God, oh God, oh God.”

He was so damn happy.

He lay next to her, hot, sweaty, panting, and sated, as they floated down from the clouds.

“Third time’s a charm,” she said, then kissed him, and he kissed her back. Soft, slow, lingering.

“Can I stay the night?” He didn’t want to leave. Couldn’t imagine being elsewhere. Her room was the only place he wanted to be.

“You’d better.”

They didn’t fall asleep right away. They stayed up, chatting in the afterglow of great sex. Sometimes, conversations were made easier because of the endorphins already flowing. They talked about work and some of their favorite jobs. She told him about a dive trip in the Bahamas that she’d loved, and he shared more of the Stradivarius story. When he finished, she ran her fingers once more against the scar on his forearm and whispered sweetly, “I like this. It’s sexy. It says you’re rugged.”

“You like your men rugged, Steph?” he asked, brushing a hand through her soft hair.

She shrugged, snuggling closer in his arms. He liked having her like this. He pressed his nose to her hair, inhaling her.

“I do,” she said. “It says you can do things. My ex did nothing. But you—you work hard, and I like that.”

He smiled. “I try. I like working, and I like that it enables me to take care of my family.”

She sighed, a happy, contented sound that worked its way under his skin. That weaved through him, seducing him. He had to be careful or he would start feeling things for her. Dangerous things that he had no room for in his life.

But the way his heart tripped just being near her told him he was already there.

She turned to face him. “This is crazy,” she said, gesturing from him to her. “And it’s everything we said we shouldn’t do.”

He kissed her forehead. “I know.”

“But yet you want to spend the night.”

“I do. So much,” he said softly, letting a sliver of vulnerability slip through. He didn’t usually show this side of himself, but he couldn’t find his resistance tonight. It was gone, and he was done searching for it. “For some reason, I can’t fight this right now,” he said softly, running a thumb over her chin. “You have your hooks in me.”

She mimed latching on to him, and he laughed, then wrapped an arm around her. She felt so damn good in his arms. So right. She wasn’t a bit like Rosalinda. She wasn’t a mercenary. She wasn’t conniving. Steph had so much at stake, so much to lose. Like him, she only wanted justice. She only wanted to do the right thing. He told himself this situation wasn’t remotely similar to the Medici job, and that reassurance made it easier to say the next thing. He took a deep, fueling breath, then laid it out. “What do you say we stop fighting this and just give in for the rest of the time we’re here?”

“We’ve done a pretty bad job at resisting,” she said, tap-dancing her fingers across his chest. “So I’d say giving in to an island tryst sounds a hell of a lot more fun than fighting it. Besides, I like working with you, and I like the way you work on orgasms for me.”

He chuckled deeply. “Excellent. Count on more. Because I am enjoying this so damn much. I’m enjoying
you
so much. More than I ever expected to,” he said, then kissed her once more.

Soon, darkness cloaked them, and the peaceful, easy feeling with her lying in his arms almost made him forget why he was here.

The job. The jewels. The bounty he was hunting.

He fell asleep thinking of diamonds and her. Steph and diamonds, and soon the two were blurred together.

Early the next morning after teeth were brushed and orgasms were administered, Steph and Jake parked themselves on the end of the bed and worked on the plan for the art gallery. The morning sun shone brightly through the sliding glass door of the balcony, lighting up the room and their work.

They had blueprints. They had a road map. They would be following it later today. In no time, they’d be Robin Hooding and Batmanning their way through the gallery right around lunchtime. The art on display was all frameless, which narrowed the location down to a storage room or office.

Jake’s stomach rumbled. Steph raised her eyebrows. “I have a crazy idea,” she said in a stage whisper.

“About how to get into the art gallery and find the diamonds?”

“No,” she said, patting his flat belly. “It’s about breakfast. What would you say to ordering some room service? This might not be a fancy hotel, but it has the best eggs and toast. And they actually have these little tiny jars of honey for the toast that are weirdly amazing.”

“Say no more,” he said, sweeping out his arm gallantly. “Eggs are my second favorite food in the world.”

“After ice cream,” she said with a wink.

“Or maybe after weirdly amazing honey,” he joked.

A half hour later, wheels rolled by outside the room, then a knock sounded on another door. Steph popped up from the bed. “I think they got the wrong room,” she said, heading to the door and peeking down the hall. Ah, there was the waiter with a tray and two plates of eggs and toast. She waved to him.