As she filed her nails, she thought of her shop, wondering what her customers thought about it being closed for the past two days. In all the years her father had owned it, and in the past year of her ownership, the store had never been closed during the week.
It was difficult to consider that three days before, her life had been sane and normal. Now she was in a motel room in the middle of the Ozarks, hiding out from men who wouldn’t hesitate to kill her to get what they wanted. She was cooped up with a man she hardly knew, yet trusted with her life, a man she knew she was dangerously close to falling in love with.
She finished her nails and put the file away, then went to the curtains at the window and peeked out. Tony… She had a feeling there was a child within the man, a child afraid to reach out for love. And she didn’t know how to do anything but love him.Oh, Libby, you’re such a fool,she thought, letting the curtain fall shut again. Of all the men in the world, she had to be falling for a private detective whose personal demons made the men chasing them look tame. Damn, but sometimes life was incredibly unfair.
* * *
They ate dinner in silence, then cleaned up the dishes and put them away. “I’m going outside to look around,” Tony said when they were finished. She nodded, almost grateful for his absence. There was a tension between them that she couldn’t seem to dismiss, one that nothing seemed to dispel.
After he was gone, she went into the bathroom. She might as well get ready for bed. Hopefully they would get up early the next morning and get back on the road to solving this whole mess.
After her shower, she pulled her sleep shirt on. Perhaps it would be best if she was already in bed and asleep before he came back. Maybe that would ease the awkwardness of another night spent together in the intimate confines of the bed.
She got beneath the sheets and waited for sleep to overtake her. She’d just about drifted off when she heard the click of the door unlocking. “Libby?” he called softly in the darkness.
She didn’t answer. Instead she didn’t move, feigning sleep. She relaxed as he went into the bathroom and started the water in the shower. Her body tensed in anticipation as moments later she heard the shower stop, and she waited breathlessly for him to join her. She’d felt the sexual tension between them all day long, and now she sensed an explosion in the air, an explosion that seemed as inevitable as morning following this night.
He came out of the bathroom and even in the darkness she could feel the sudden energy crackling. She held her breath as he eased into bed next to her. She didn’t move, knowing an accidental touch would destroy the tenuous control she had left.
She was aware of his breathing, not the deep, regular patterns of a sleeping man, but rather the short, shallow breaths that spoke of suppressed emotions.We should be sleeping, preparing for tomorrow and whatever danger it might bring,she thought. But how could she close her eyes and sleep with him lying so close to her, his heat surrounding her, enveloping her?
“Libby?”
She didn’t know whether to answer him or not, but she had a feeling he knew she wasn’t sleeping. “Yes?” she answered, surprised at the dryness of her mouth.
“Truth or dare?”
Again she hesitated, afraid to answer…afraid not to. “Truth,” she whispered. She could feel his tension and her body reacted with a tension of its own.
“If I tried to make love to you right now…would you stop me?”
“No.” The word seeped out of her on a breath of air that was caught in his mouth as he kissed her. His lips were hot, insistent, plundering hers with a hunger that overwhelmed her.
As his lips worked to devour hers, his hands slowly moved up the inside of her T-shirt, stopping to reverently caress the fullness of her breasts.
At the touch of his hands, Libby moaned into his mouth and arched herself against him, wanting to be closer, wanting to lose herself completely in the passion that exploded between them.
Tony wanted to take his time, to savor the sweet silkiness of her skin, the taste of her mouth. But as she sat up and pulled her T-shirt over her head, then beckoned for him to do the same, he knew there was no way he could control himself enough to take it slow and easy. He’d been beyond slow and easy before he’d even touched her.
He sat up and pulled his shirt over his head, gasping as her fingers immediately danced across his bare chest, raising hundreds of goose bumps of pleasure.
His mouth slowly nibbled down the length of her neck, licking and reveling in the small gasps and moans of pleasure she emitted. He wanted to pleasure her fully, he wanted to take her with him as he rode the tide to fulfillment. He wanted her to feel the same things he felt…and oh, was he feeling. His blood surged powerfully in his veins, and his heart thudded erratically. Every nerve ending in his body sang in anticipation.
She moaned again as his hungry mouth fastened on her breast, caressing and rolling the turgid nipple with the tip of his tongue. She tasted of honey and wine and forbidden fruit, and he feasted on her flavor, insatiable as an alcoholic drinking whiskey.
As he feasted on the sweet fullness of her breast, his fingers slid teasingly beneath the waistband of her panties. She felt her quickened breath, her heart flutter dangerously fast. Slowly he pulled the wisp of silk over her hips and down the length of her legs. Once she was completely bare to his touch, he took off his own jockey shorts, wanting her to feel the power and strength of his desire.
Then it was his turn to gasp and cry out in surprise as she took him in her hot hand, stroking him gently with butterfly caresses, forcing him to fight for control.
She moved beneath him, placing her hands on the broad expanse of his back, beckoning him to move over her, into her. With a throaty groan, he slid into her warmth, trembling violently at the exquisite sensation of velvety heat. For a moment he didn’t move, simply remained buried in her glorious fire, afraid that he would shatter into a million pieces and it would all be over before it had truly begun.
Slowly he moved within her, closing his eyes as ripples of pulsating pleasure swept through him. She met his thrusts eagerly and her hands clawed at his back as if trying to pull him completely inside her.
His movements took on a frenzy as he buried himself deep and hard within her, and she met him with a frenzy of her own.
And suddenly she was there, and he was there with her. As she cried out, her body quivering, Tony shook with the explosion of his own release. He gasped and clung to her tightly, reluctant to let the feelings end. He’d never felt this way before, he’d never felt the sensations he felt at this very moment. And he was terrified that he would never experience them again.
