Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
Nina wasn’t sure what she was doing, but she knew one thing. She didn’t want to turn back and go to her own room. She’d spent the last two hours with JT. She didn’t know his last name and didn’t care. He didn’t know hers, either. There was something freeing in being JT and Nina.
Not exchanging last names didn’t mean she didn’t know anything about him. She’d found out he worked for his father’s company and his job took him all over the world. He was an utterly charming mix of down-home boy and sophisticated world traveler. He was a good listener. He had a brother and loved his family.
He was so sexy it hurt.
The lift doors opened and he held a hand out, allowing her to go first. He was also a perfect gentleman. After she’d bought him a beer, he’d bought the next round and then had made her choose between having another round or switching to coffee. She got the idea that if she’d had another drink, he wouldn’t have invited her up to his room.
“Tell me something,” she said as she moved to the elegant hallway. At this time of night, it was perfectly quiet. Her own room was several floors below. When the time had come to decide on whose room to go to, she’d insisted on his.
Yes, he was lovely, but she wanted an escape if she needed it.
“I’ve told you a lot. I can tell you more,” he said in that deep Texas accent of his. He followed her off and the doors closed behind him.
She hoped she didn’t need it. She hoped he was every bit the Cowboy Prince Charming he seemed to be.
“If I’d had drink number four, would we be here?” She was curious. She’d had more than one man try to ply her with drink to get what he wanted. It never worked, but she wanted to understand his reasoning.
He stared at her for a moment as though assessing the situation and then he leaned against the wall. “No. I would have made sure you got back to your room, but I don’t know your threshold. I have zero interest in coaxing you with liquor. I would far rather know you wanted me and not some random guy to forget your troubles with. And I didn’t want to get drunk either. Three’s a good limit for me. I don’t need anything to dull this experience.”
He was forthright. She liked that quite a bit, and he hadn’t had a fourth drink either. He’d been perfectly in control. Another thing she liked. She couldn’t exactly come out and tell him she would very much enjoy it if he dominated her sexually. Or could she? “But I am trying to forget my troubles. That doesn’t mean I don’t want you in particular. If you hadn’t been in the bar this evening, I would have settled for a book.”
His lips curled up in the sexiest smile. “What kind of book?”
“Romance.” Somehow she didn’t think he would be derisive. Some people had contempt for the genre, but they were usually the ones who could use it the most.
He moved in, his hand coming up to brush a stray hair off her cheek, tucking it behind her ear. “I like the sound of that. It’s your turn to tell me something. What would the hero of that book you would have read do right now?”
He’d backed her against the wall, but not in a way that felt threatening. He was taller than she was and loomed over her, his broad shoulders blocking most of her line of sight. She was still in her heels and for most men that put her at eye level or taller. Not with this one. It was nice to look up to a man for once. “I think he would invite her back to his room where they wouldn’t shock anyone who happens to walk down the hallway.”
He watched her like he was studying something fascinating, something he wanted desperately to learn. “I happen to know there are only two rooms on this floor, and I saw the couple in the other room go upstairs a few hours ago. They seemed like they were ready for sleep. Not that older couples can’t party the night away, too, but they didn’t seem like the type. So we don’t have to worry about anyone catching us, though I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t be ashamed to get caught touching you.”
He was pushing all her buttons. The good kind. The kind that got her in trouble. “So these are the penthouse suites?”
“Yes. My dad’s company has an agreement with this hotel. We get priority for this suite. We do a lot of business in Dallas, though I don’t live here. I live far enough on the other side of Fort Worth to make it hard to get home, so I stay here, and our suite was open.”
His father’s company must be ridiculously successful, but she wasn’t going to get into that. Money was definitely not the reason she was interested in this hunk of cowboy. She had zero curiosity about his wallet. Now what he had in those jeans of his was another story altogether. “In that case, I suspect the hero would almost certainly kiss the heroine. He might press her against the wall and devour her. He might whisper all the things he’s thinking of doing to her.”
His eyes were on her mouth, as though he was thinking about doing exactly that. “Doing to her? What should I do to you, Nina? Should I take off your clothes? Should I unwrap you like the gift you are, taking my time because this is a present I didn’t expect to get tonight? Should I unbutton that shirt you’re wearing slowly, using every sense I have to catalog how gorgeous you are? Yes, I think that sounds like the way to go. I’ll do it first by touch.”
She was breathless as his fingers moved to unbutton the top two buttons of her blouse, brushing the skin he found there. He eased the sides back until he could see the tops of her breasts, a slight bit of her bra showing. She was damn glad she’d dressed for dinner with Sandra. She’d thought seriously about going the jeans and T-shirt route but at the last minute had wanted to look somewhat professional. A nice blouse meant a lacy bra.
“Soft, but then I knew your skin would feel like silk,” he said, his voice deep.
A shiver of pure desire went through her and at that moment she wouldn’t have cared if they’d been on the busiest floor in the building. He was all that mattered.
“After I’ve touched, I’ll use my eyes to memorize the sight of you.” He was staring down at the tops of her breasts. “You’re beautiful.” He reached out to trace the puckered scar that sat above her breast. “This is recent. Are you all right?”
It had been a couple of months since she’d taken a bullet from a German working against his country’s best interests. Another corporate spy. “I mentioned I work for a security company in London. It was work related, but I’m fine. I don’t want to talk about it, JT. Could we not?”
He seemed to want to press her, but he finally lowered his head. “Doesn’t matter how you got it. It’s part of you and still oddly lovely.”
He gently kissed the scarred flesh. It seemed to come alive under his lips.
She brought her hands up to touch his arms, running from his elbows up to those shoulders that went on for days. It had been far too long since she’d had sex. That was why her whole body was a live wire waiting to go off. It wasn’t merely the fact that JT seemed to know exactly how to touch her, the words to say to make her skin soften, the muscles loosening and readying.
“I’ll use my lips,” he continued. “I think that’s what the hero would do. He would use his lips and tongue and teeth to explore.”
He was going to drive her crazy. She was ready to get on her knees and submit to the man, if she didn’t think that might freak him out. She would tell him that he should definitely use his teeth on her because she liked a bite of pain. Yes, she wasn’t going there tonight. “He would definitely kiss me. I mean the heroine.”
He lifted his head and brought his lips up to hover over hers. So close that she could feel the heat coming off him. “Would he? Would he put his mouth over hers and devour her like the starving man he is? Would he steal her breath? Would he plunge his tongue in like he’s thinking of something else?”
Like his cock. “Yes. He would do all those things.”
“See, I’m thinking I should read some of those books now. Much more pleasant than the ones I end up reading. No one ever kisses in engineering manuals. It’s a mistake, I think.” He lowered his head and brushed his lips along her mouth. “I’m supposed to know how to make things work, how to ease a machine this way or that so we get the best production out of it. All I want to do right now is find a way to make you melt for me.”
He kissed her again, deeper this time, his tongue sliding along the seams of her lips, and she did exactly what he wanted. She melted, opening her mouth and letting him in. She felt his body move in as though he meant to capture every inch of territory she ceded to him. His tongue slid along hers, drawing her in and plunging deep. Showing her what he wanted to do with his dick.
She felt his hands moving from her neck down to her torso, one palm cupping her breast through her shirt. Her nipples peaked, getting hard and sensitive, and she wished there wasn’t all that fabric between them. He pressed her against the wall and she let her hands roam across his muscled back and down to his ass, which was equally muscled. This man worked. Not merely worked out. He worked. It was there in the calluses on his fingers, which deliciously scraped along her skin. She loved the feel of those work-roughened hands smoothing back her blouse, exposing her to his eyes.
She got lost in his kisses. Drugged by the way the man couldn’t seem to get enough. Over and over he kissed her, pulling her lower lip between his teeth and giving her a gentle nip that went straight to her pussy.
She needed more. More of him. More of his touch, more contact between them, more connection. She needed to get out of her skirt and blouse and show herself to him, see if he could handle what she needed.
His hands tugged at her skirt and she found herself pinned against the wall. His leg moved between hers.
“I want to watch you. I don’t know that I’ll be able to later,” he growled against her ear. “Later, I’ll be too far gone, so I want to watch you this once.”
“Watch me?” She wasn’t sure what he was doing, but he was even closer to her than before, their bodies in intimate contact.
“Watch you come.” He moved and she was on his strong thigh, her toes barely touching the ground.
Her skirt was pushed up around her waist and she could feel the denim of his jeans starting to grind against her. The thin cotton of her underwear was absolutely no protection against the friction he was creating. But they were in the hall and she was off balance.
“Don’t tense up.” His voice had gone deep, commanding. “I’ve got you. I’m not going to let you fall, and I want you to stop worrying about anyone seeing us. It doesn’t matter. Trust me. Come for me.”
He was taking control in a way that did it for her. Even before she’d worked at The Garden, she’d known this was what she’d needed sexually. There was no backstory that had sent her looking for a dominant partner. That was something a lot of romance novels did get wrong. Oh, she knew some people who came to the lifestyle that way, but not the majority. It was simply how she was wired. She accepted it about herself, and that made it so easy to let him take control.
She relaxed and moved against him, matching the way he rubbed her, holding on to his shoulders as he found a rhythm. It didn’t matter that her pussy was wet, her arousal likely seeping into the fabric of his jeans. It didn’t matter that the lift doors could open at any minute. All that mattered was the heat and pleasure starting to build in her system.
“That’s right. Take it. I want you to have it because I fully intend to be inside you the next time you come,” he said. “We’re going to go into my room and you’re going to take off every stitch of clothing and offer yourself to me. You’re going to be mine all night long.”
She couldn’t think of anything else she wanted to be. His. All night. For a single night she didn’t have to worry about the mistakes of the past or what she might do with her future. All that would matter was letting this man bring her pleasure, finding joy in bringing him some, too.
Sandra had been so right. She needed this. It was a night off from more than work. It was a night off from being the martyr she’d become. With JT she didn’t have to be the woman who’d fucked up her whole career. She could be nothing more than a partner in bliss.
He pressed up, and the pressure that had been building exploded in the best of all ways. She held on to him, looking him in the eyes as she took everything he gave her.
It was one of the most intimate experiences of her life.
“That’s what I wanted.” JT eased her down until her feet were on the floor. But not for long. He almost immediately leaned over and picked her up like she weighed nothing at all. Her shoe fell off, but he turned anyway. “I’ll get it for you later, Cinderella. Now it’s my time.”
She didn’t care about the shoe. The shoe could get lost. All that mattered was more of him.
His dick was dying, but it would have to wait because if there was one thing JT knew, it was that he wasn’t going to let this woman get away from him. She was fascinating and he wanted to spend time getting to know her, seeing if they could work. Suddenly the mission he had to go on seemed more like a blessing than a curse.
Except she didn’t know she was going on the mission with him. She didn’t know his father had to stay home and her primary contact was now him.
He glanced down at the woman in his arms as he managed to get the door to the suite open. She looked happy and languid, her hair mussed and lips slightly swollen from his kisses.
He’d put that look on her face. He had zero doubt she would be competent in the field. She would command a team while she was working, and he planned on letting her call all the shots on this op. He would be her way in, arm candy so to speak, but when they were alone, it would be his time and he would be in charge. He would indulge her on every level, learn what she liked and give it to her, but in the bedroom, she would obey him.
That was how he would keep her. Give her more pleasure and attention than any other man had ever given her. They would have a couple of weeks before she went back to London. A few weeks to show her how it might be between the two of them. A try-out affair to see if they had a future.
“This place is gorgeous. Was that a pool table?”
Actually, it was, and it might be perfect for what he wanted to do to her. They would eventually make it to the bedroom, but that pool table was the right height. He turned and strode back. “This is a massive suite for one man, but it was a last-minute thing. I’ve got a meeting tomorrow afternoon that I hadn’t counted on. This was the easiest place for me to stay. Usually we put up executives and their families here.”
“What business is your father in?”
He shook his head. He wasn’t going to have her put on her investigator hat tonight. She’d find out soon enough in the morning. “Nope. No business talk tonight. You didn’t want to talk about work. Neither do I.”
He didn’t want to lose her. He knew damn well why she’d wanted to come up to his room instead of going to hers. She was a smart lady who wanted an out if she needed one. He didn’t intend to give her a reason to leave.
He set her on the edge of the pool table, her legs dangling off. It was dark but he didn’t want to turn on the lights. The staff had been in for turndown service, but he’d stayed here enough to know the best way to illuminate this particular room. It might also get her mind off what he did for a living. He walked to the window and pulled open the drapes, letting the lights of the city wash the room in color.
She gasped and a smile crossed her face. Not a sexy smile, though he still found her sexy. No, this was a smile of wonder. He moved to the second window and opened those floor-to-ceiling drapes and let the night in.
“Wow. That’s beautiful.” She slipped off the pool table. Her skirt had slid back down her thighs and she’d kicked off her other shoe. Her hair had come down around her shoulders. She hadn’t bothered to rebutton her shirt, so he could see a creamy expanse of skin as she joined him by the windows. A light rain streaked the glass and the world seemed softer than it had before he’d walked into that bar.
She was the beautiful one. While she looked out over the neon city, he watched her. With her shoes off, she would fit perfectly right under his chin as he cuddled her close. If she danced with him, she could easily lay her head against his chest while they swayed to the music.
“It’s like the whole city is laid out for us,” she said, her palms against the window.
He moved behind her, letting his hands find her waist and moving to her hips. “I want you laid out for me.”
She turned and her fingers went to the buttons of her blouse. Her expression had gone serious, her eyes heating as she looked at him. Slowly, she undid the little pearl-like buttons, easing the shirt off. She let it drop to the floor. It left her in a cream-colored bra that pushed her breasts up and held them in lace like the jewels they were.
“Take it off for me, Nina.”
Her hands went to the clasp of the bra, twisting and releasing it before she offered it to him. He took it and her shirt, draping them both on the back of the sofa. This room was part library, part game room, but tonight it would be all about pleasure. “The rest of it. I told you what I wanted.”
“Yes, sir.”
She couldn’t know what that word did for him. Years of his life he’d spent not understanding what he needed from a partner. It was one of the best things that had come from Mike up and leaving him alone to take care of their family. He’d been invited to Sanctum because of Mike, and that had made a huge difference in his life. It taught him what he needed, what made him happy. What eased his soul.
Something settled deep inside him as she slid her skirt off and then dispensed with the lacy underwear that covered her. When she stood in front of him completely naked, trust in her eyes, he knew this was going to go beyond anything he’d had before.
He stepped up to her, letting his hands cup her shoulders and bringing her hair around so it hung down in auburn tresses that skimmed the tops of her breasts. He traced a line from her neck down to one tight nipple.
“Tell me what you like.”
“I like you.” She didn’t move, didn’t press herself up so he touched more of her. She simply stood there as though content to wait. “I’ll likely like anything you do, JT. You know those romances I like to read? A whole lot of them are kinky.”
Fuck. His groin tightened, and he wasn’t sure his dick could get any harder. She was offering herself up to him in the sweetest of ways, and he was determined to stay in control. “Then go sit on the pool table.”
She hesitated. “JT, I’m not exactly…how to describe this…”
It was obvious what she was talking about. He leaned in close and moved his hand to touch the mound of her pussy, to slide through all the delicious cream he found there. She’d had an orgasm and it coated her. It also was making her hesitate for fear of getting something messy.
Wealth had its privileges. “Don’t worry about the pool table. Don’t worry about the staff having to clean up. Don’t worry about anything but how we can make each other feel. Now sit on the pool table and spread your legs for me.”
“You want to be in control of this, don’t you?”
“I do,” he replied. “I want you to let me take control. I want you to trust me with your body and your pleasure.”
For a moment he worried she would walk to the sofa and get her clothes. That he’d misread her. But she crossed the room and gracefully placed herself on the edge of the elegant pool table. He’d stayed here many times, had played at that table while he talked business and drank Scotch in that good old boy way things tended to work in his world, but he would never be able to be in this room again without seeing her sitting there.
She slowly, carefully, spread her legs. “Better?”
So much better. Perfect. She was fucking perfect.
He pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it on the sofa with hers. He was prepared. Always a Boy Scout, he had a condom in his wallet, and he’d moved it to his pocket when he’d realized where this was going. He crossed the space between them and placed it on the edge of the pool table.
Then he moved between her open legs, making a place for himself there. It was right where he wanted to be, where he needed to be. He wanted to be naked with her, but he couldn’t risk it yet. He still had things he needed to do to her, to show her how he could worship her body.
He kissed her, tangling his fingers in her hair and using them to hold her where he wanted her. A little shudder went through Nina, accompanied by a low moan that let him know she’d liked that twist he’d given her hair. Naturally this was the woman he connected to, the one he shouldn’t have.
Was absolutely going to have.
He would deal with the ramifications later. Tonight, all that mattered was making her his. She didn’t know it, but she was going to be his for a lot longer than a night.
He tangled their tongues together, loving the way she moved with him. It was easy to kiss Nina, like they’d done it a thousand times before. There was nothing awkward about kissing her, just an easy sensation that told him this was right.
He moved from her mouth, kissing along her jaw and down her neck. He kissed a path to her breast, easing over the scar he was certain was a bullet wound. It reminded him that she was here to do a job.
He would have the story of how she got that bullet wound. He would have all her stories in the end.
But for now he would settle for something other than words coming out of her mouth.
He licked her nipple, tonguing the tight bud before sucking it between his lips.
A shudder and a moan went through her and her hands moved to the table behind her, balancing her. It had the added plus of thrusting those gorgeous breasts his way, making it easier for him to lavish them with affection. He moved from one to the other, taking in how her breath hitched, the way she squirmed when he gave her the edge of his teeth.
“You like that.” He nipped her, biting down just so she could feel it.
A sweet moan came from her. “I do.”
He nipped her again and then dropped to his knees. Yes, the table put her at exactly the right height for what he wanted to do. “I suspect you’ll like this, too.”
He spread her knees even farther apart and leaned in. That was one gorgeous pussy. He could see the pink bud of her clitoris swollen and poking out of its hood after her recent orgasm. The little pearl needed even more affection.
“Do you think you’ll like this, Nina?” He liked saying her name. He liked it even more when she was staring down at him, her lower lip between her teeth and heat plain in her gaze.
“Oh, please. Please, JT.”
Well, he didn’t like to disappoint a lady. He leaned in and kissed her, letting her scent wash over him. It was better than any perfume. It was her essence, her arousal. He could bathe in that scent and be perfectly happy.
And her taste. It coated his tongue. He parted her labia, settling on her clitoris as he eased his finger inside. She was tight but slick with arousal. She would take him easily, but he wanted to give her more.
“I want you to come on my tongue,” he said against the warm flesh of her pussy. “Do you understand me, Nina?”
“Yes,” she replied in that heavenly accent of hers. So polished and educated. He loved the fact that he could make that accent go deep.
He thrust in and out with his finger, curling deep inside her and looking for the perfect spot to make her go off like a rocket. She was primed and ready for another orgasm.
He was the man to give it to her.
His blood thrummed through his system as he focused every bit of his being on her. This was what was missing from his other sexual encounters. He’d always been able to hold a bit of himself back, but he wanted to drown in this woman. He lost himself in her taste, the soft feel of her flesh, the sounds of her crying out as he found the perfect rhythm.
He kept it up until she shuddered and fell back against the table.
He got to his feet, licking the taste off his lips. He wouldn’t get enough of her. Not tonight. Maybe never. She was different.
He shoved his jeans down. Next time he would get naked with her, but this would do for now. He couldn’t hold back a second longer. He needed to get inside her. He stroked his cock and rolled the condom on as he stared down at her. She was the very picture of lush femininity, with her skin flushed and her eyes half closed, her hair tousled in a halo around her head. The lights from the city played on her skin, and he memorized her in the moment.
She reached a hand up. “I want to be with you.”
He pulled her up and to him until their chests were bumping and mouth fusing again. Her legs wrapped around his waist, arms enclosing him, and when she shifted, he could feel his dick against her pussy.
“Yes, that’s what I want,” she whispered against his lips.
“It’s everything I want.” He found the globes of her ass, lush and soft, and used the leverage to force his cock inside.
Pleasure swamped his senses. She was tight around him as he eased out and thrust back in. “You feel perfect to me.”
Her head fell back and her eyes closed as if she couldn’t quite keep them open. “Your cock feels like heaven.”
Even through the physical pleasure, he heard her words and they did something for him. Women wanted him for different reasons, but always underneath all of it lay the fact that he was the heir to Malone Oil. No matter what, that fact was between him and his lover. Most of the women in his life wanted something from him. Nina wanted his cock. Nina wanted his affection.
He could give all of it to her.
He let himself go, thrusting in again and again. She held on to him, wrapping him up in the heat and silk of her body. He held on to her as she shook in his arms, and then it was his turn. He let the pleasure wash over him.
He kept her wrapped up even as he started to come down from the high.
He knew one thing. He wasn’t going to let her go.