“Sweetie, it’s so hot. Let’s go swimming when we get to the motel.” She stroked his thigh languorously and wiggled her shoulders so that her boobs jiggled, laughing inside when his body tightened and the rod behind his pant zipper ballooned to dangerous proportions.
* * *
Axe suppressed a grunt and tried to will away the waves of arousal flooding his body. He eyed Leanna’s stroking hand while two opposing voices fought in his mind. The hot, horny devil egged her on, willing her to slither toward his throbbing cock, visualizing those tight baker’s hands gripped around his piston. The strict warrior growled and bit back a curse. He was stronger than this, and he had a job to do. This was business, not pleasure. The devil, as always, had the last word.Why not a little pleasure as long as she’s safe?
Maybe not his pleasure, but nothing wrong with giving her something to distract her from danger. Right?
Drool collected under his tongue, and he suppressed the urge to swallow, not wanting to clue her in to how aroused he was getting. Would his cock explode in his pants? A wet dream come true would let her think she had control.
He was glad for the sunglasses, allowing him to shut his eyes. As if not seeing the lioness clawing at his leg would cut off his dick. But he had to try. He had forty-five minutes in the back seat of a taxi with the only female in the world he could want and not have, and he realized how stupid he’d been to stoke the fire.
He should have slept with a gang of strippers the night before, or at least relieved himself in the airplane toilet. It had been excruciating to pee in his condition, but he couldn’t stomach jerking off in such desperation. He was a man in control of his appetites. He doled them out as rewards, and he was able to do without when keeping his eye on the goal.
Too bad Leanna was so good to look at, and she was making all the moves designed to make him squirm.
It wasn’t easy keeping entirely still like stone as the taxi squeezed through the toll booth onto the highway.
Large and small trucks sped by. Axe could imagine the drivers looking down into the back seat and spying the splay of lush brunette hair covering his groin, the head bobbing up and down while tactile fingers caressed his balls.
Despite all the hormones churning through his system, he was able to inhale slowly, sipping air through his nostrils and turn his face toward the window. The cool glass frosted by the air conditioning was welcome, although not a fraction cold enough to freeze his surging blood.
“After our dip in the pool, we can sip margaritas and take a siesta like all good Mexicans do,” Leanna said, removing her hand from his thigh. It left a sear mark like a branding iron, but now that it was gone, Axe wanted it back, not exactly at the same spot, but close.
She pawed on his chest, exposed under a thin V-necked T-shirt. Right. He’d thrown his leather jacket into the trunk with the other luggage. It would have come in handy in hiding his erection, but no use asking the taxi driver to stop.
Forty minutes.
He tried to meditate, humming oms and ums in his brain to keep from responding. He’d already made the mistake of kissing the biting baker and opening the door to the fantasies he’d been suppressing all these years.
Leanna was to be observed and protected. Those were his orders. He wasn’t supposed to help himself to her bodily delights or encourage her to openly fawn over him. What had gotten into him to threaten the kiss?
Sure, he’d wanted to shut her up, and truthfully, he’d only meant to goad her into backing off. Ding, ding, ding, wrong decision with a hot-blooded tornado.
Thankfully, the taxi was air-conditioned, because Leanna was seriously burning him to a crisp, exploring every square inch of his chest and shoulders with her firm hands and tactile fingers. Her touch triggered ripples of rapturous lust, spreading like floodwaters over a parched desert. The vixen deserved to be thrown down and taken, spread-eagled and pounded until she screamed.
But he had to retain control. Control was power, and he wasn’t going to let a mere woman overpower him with her wiles.
Axe couldn’t even take a deep breath, because it would let her know she rattled him. So, he slowly let air seep in through his nostrils, hoping to inflate his lungs without letting on how much she affected him.
Unfortunately, he got a nose full of tantalizing and spicy perfume mixed with a note of citrus. Nothing sweet and floral about this dynamo. Her scent spelled sex with capital letters, and he could practically taste the mouthwatering juices she would spill all over his tongue when she came.
He turned his face toward the window and kept his eyes on the road. Thank goodness, they were in another country, and he had a cover for his behavior. His family didn’t know where he’d gone, and technically, he was following their directives.
There was nothing wrong with getting close to a target by any means possible to protect her. Besides, protecting her meant protecting an important part of his family—a precious person growing up apart from the rest of them.
Thinking about her always threaded a deep pang through his heart, but he had a job to do and no time or energy for painful emotions. He let out a stale breath and concentrated on the countryside flying by.
The terrain was flat and boring, miles and miles of farmland and shrubs. The air was thick with smog, and he could barely see the saddle-shaped Cerro de la Silla, a natural mountainous monument located near the city.
“After a hot, sweaty siesta, we’ll cool down in the shower and stop by a cantina for happy hour,” Leanna continued her blatant tease.
He couldn’t think of a comeback, especially since sweat threatened to dampen his shirt, so he pointed at the center dip of the green mountain formation. “Think that saddle’s big enough for you?”
She removed her sunglasses and narrowed her doll-like eyes. “Are you saying I have a big behind?”
“I’m wondering how big your appetite is for riding.”
She fixed those dark-brown eyes on him and licked her lips long and slow, circling her tongue around the entire circumference. “I’m betting you can’t outdo me.”
