Chapter 21
Harlan hadn’t wanted to waste a second after Storm stated her wish to make love again. Heat filled her eyes as she kissed him on the sand. They had rushed back to the hotel room hand in hand, him pulling her along to keep up and her laughing with each step. He wanted to take her right there on the beach, but that wasn’t safe or smart. He wasn’t one to put on a show either. She was his and his alone. For now—or for as long as she said.
He allowed them to take the elevator back up to their room. Ten floors were too many to climb when the urgency to rid her of her clothes was licking at his heels like flames from a burning building. He also didn’t want either of them too tired to carry on. The elevator had provided a much-needed moment for kissing and touching anyway.
In the quiet of the hotel room designed for couples starting their lives together, something he never thought he’d see the inside of again, he stood before her by the foot of the bed. Tiny dots of dimmed light in the ceiling offered enough glow to see her.
“I want to undress you.” His words scratched against his dry throat. He wanted to give himself over to this woman.
He was a man who planned for every scenario. He could calculate risks and avoid disaster, yet falling for Storm would most likely end in destruction for him.
She looked up at him with warmth in her eyes but didn’t say anything. He took her look as his go sign and brushed the strap of her dress off her shoulder. She shivered under his light touch. He wanted to take his time, to make it last as long as possible for both of them. Their future was uncertain. He may never get another chance to love her.
He placed a kiss on her neck. She tasted sweet and salty from their walk along the shore. Her fingers scraped against his chest, her touch pleasantly distracting. He needed to focus. Tonight was about Storm.
He pushed the other strap down her arm and the dress puddled to the floor. She stood before him in just her panties, the rest of her bare and accessible to his caress.
“You’re beautiful.” He ran his fingertips over her nipple and down her stomach.
“Thank you.” She undid the button of his pants and pushed them to the floor. She sucked in a breath at the sight of him.
“I hope that’s the sound of pleasure.” His own pleasure escalated as she raked her gaze over him. He wanted her to look and to feel so he could touch her too.
“You are an amazing sight with all your ripped muscles and obvious desire for me.” She gripped him then and this time, he gasped for air.
She worked him over with her gentle artistry. One hand stroked and gripped. The other explored the hills and valleys of his chest, back, and butt, leaving a stream of warmth on his skin that could only be cooled by her locked around him, yelling his name. He couldn’t stand there any longer putting up with the torture and pleasure she dished out. His legs paid no mind to the command of his brain and wobbled under him.
He gripped her bottom and pulled her against him, her breasts pressed against his chest. Her curves softened his hard edges. He dipped a finger in her panties to see if she was as turned on as he was.
She tilted her head back and closed her eyes. “Harlan.” His name turned to honey on her lips, and he wanted to lick every sweet spot on her body.
“Yes?” He kissed her neck, her shoulder. He took her breast and nipped and sucked until her grip on his erection became frantic.
“More,” she said between clenched teeth.
“Do you like what I’m doing?” He dragged his finger in and out of her, taking it slow. Letting her desire build. They had all night.
She pressed against his hand.
“Look at me.” He waited for her gaze to find his. “Tell me that you like it.” He slowed his touch further.
Her eyes were filled with yearning. She gripped his wrist and pushed against him with her hips, but he wasn’t going to let her get away that easily.
He scooped her up and placed her on the bed before sliding on it next to her. His fingers traced a lazy line from her knee up to her breast and then back. He could watch her all night and he wanted to watch her come over and over.
She pushed him onto his back and straddled him. The heat between her legs scorched him. “Let me tease you for a little while.”
“Is that what you think I was doing? Teasing you?” He couldn’t help but smile at her sitting above him. He reached for her breasts, but she pushed his hands away.
“Are you saying you weren’t doing that?” Her fingers resumed their exploration of his front side.
“Since we’re new at this, I wanted to research what gets you hot. Find out where your limits were.” He had liked what he’d seen so far. She may not want to say with words what she liked, but her body left no confusion.
“What gets you hot?” Her tongue set a match to his skin. She wrapped her mouth around the tip of him and obliterated his mind.
Her mouth was magic, hot and wet around him. She looked up with fire in her eyes. He couldn’t look away, needing to see her tear his insides apart. He would not last if she continued breaking his world into a million tiny pieces with everything she did, and he had one goal for this evening. Gripping her shoulders, he pulled her to him. He kissed her until his mouth hurt from their craze.
He wanted to make it last, to stretch out their time together. But keeping a lid on his control proved difficult.
“Harlan, I can’t wait. I need to…” Her words stalled out.
He tucked her under him so they were pressed together, every part of them touching. “You need to what? You can tell me.”
She brushed her fingers through his hair. “You make this easier than I thought it would be. I want to feel all of you inside me.”
“I didn’t want to rush.”
“Please. Hurry. Rushing is what I want.” She gripped him again and he could not wait any longer.
Joining their bodies wasn’t smooth or subtle, but he wanted to make her completely his and she met him each time as if she too had something to claim. He thrust into her, losing himself.
Their gazes held on tight while they held hands and jumped from the cliff of this unexpected and torched affair into the abyss.
He didn’t care if he ever returned.
* * *
Storm woke with a start. She must have fallen asleep sometime after she and Harlan made love. The room was drenched in shadows as the light from around the resort slipped into their room from the open windows. They hadn’t even bothered to close the curtains. She doubted anyone could see them this far up, but if they had, they had been in for a show.
She smiled to herself. Her body ached in all the right places. This time they were rougher, and she wanted more. More of this man who could coax words from her that no one else had ever been able to. And play her body like a maestro with a fine-tuned violin under his expert touch.
She reached for him on the other side of the king-size bed, but he was not there. The sheets were cool under her hand. Sitting up, her gaze searched for a sign of him. His clothes were no longer on the floor. No light spilled from under the bathroom door. She strained to hear a sound from the other room, but only silence met her.
She turned on the bedside lamp and blinked against the intrusion as the dark hurried into the room’s corners. Empty. Harlan was not there. His gun was not on the bedside table where he had left it and the safe was open. Where had he gone?
She didn’t want to think that he would have left her in the middle of the night without so much as a goodbye. Not after what they shared and not after his determination to help her. But this afternoon, he had been gone a while before she had called him about the knocking at the door. When he had returned, he didn’t have any food for lunch with him.
Storm pulled the thick terry robe from the closet and wrapped herself in its warmth. He could be in the living area. But that was empty too. She checked around for a note, but there was none. Even the balcony was absent of her man. Oh, he wasn’t her man, was he?
She didn’t even know who he was, and she had given herself to him so willingly. Heat burned her cheeks. What kind of a college president behaved the way she had these past couple of days?
This wasn’t a honeymoon or a vacation with a lover. She was frightened for her safety and having sex with a stranger. A stranger who had left her alone in the middle of the night without word of where he was.
She had an idea and hurried back inside to her purse to find her phone. She powered it up and sent a quick text to him.
Where are you?
She would wait one minute and then turn it back off. Unless he had taken himself to the hospital, wherever he was he should answer. Or had he hopped on a plane and gone to this sister he spoke of. A sister she didn’t know for certain existed. It never occurred to her to even ask for identification.
He had arrived with the police and she had accepted him at his word. What if her killer had hired Harlan to pretend to help her and Harlan was actually out to get her?
Her heart pounded in her ears. She covered them with her hands to make the pulsing stop. She was getting ahead of herself and behaving as if she were a teenager. Harlan had been nothing but kind and helpful. He had protected her, returning when she called about the person at the door before she discovered that person was Robin. He had made love to her with tenderness and care in his eyes.
That desperate need between them was exactly that—between them. She had wanted him as badly as he had seemed to want her. Was anyone that good of an actor? Impossible.
She hoped.