6. Chapter 6
Chapter six
She rose onto her toes and kissed me.
I caught her shoulders, meaning to stop her. The intention lasted about half a second. Her mouth was warm, desperate, and too good at firing up the hunger I’d fought while in her office.
I broke the kiss and turned my face enough to breathe. “Isabella—”
“No.” Her fingers tightened in my shirt. “I need this.”
“We need to go.”
“I know we do.” She kissed the corner of my mouth, then my jaw, then dragged her lips down my throat. “But this is my one chance to have you and for you to want me back.”
My grip tightened on her shoulders. “This isn’t why I came here.”
“I know.” Her eyes lifted to mine, and she gave me a chaste kiss. “That’s why I want it.”
The words hit low.
So did her hands.
“You stopped from going too far in my office because you said I didn’t owe you my body.” Her fingers tightened in my shirt. “I’m giving it to you now. Don’t make this another thing a man decides for me.”
She grabbed my hips and pushed me back a step.
“You’re the hottest man I’ve ever kissed,” she said, breathless but determined not to let go. “And that’s not the only thing.”
“Stop. This isn’t the time or place for this.” I took a half step away from her.
“No.” Her fingers curled in my shirt, tugging me closer. “This is the only time and place. There’s so much about you that makes me want things I shouldn’t. You came into my office like a brute, and you still treated me better than the men who smile while they use me.”
She yanked my hips forward, our bodies colliding hard enough to make her breath hitch. Fuck, this wasn’t a complication we’d built contingencies for. I was a long way from getting her out the door.
She leaned in and whispered, “It was my job to come after your club. But I didn’t expect you. A dangerous Irishman with a temper and an actual code of honor.”
“Careful. There’s only so much restraint in me, and you’re burning through it fast.”
Her mouth brushed mine again as her hands moved to grip my ass. “Maybe I don’t want the restrained version of you.”
I reached for my phone, forcing her to let go and putting a bit of distance between us.
She stiffened immediately.
“Please don’t make this a team decision.”
“They need to know we’re delayed.”
“Tell them I’m scared,” she demanded, her eyes locked on mine. “That’s all they need to know.”
I studied her for a second.
Then I pulled the phone out of my pocket, unlocked it, and typed fast.
She’s panicking. Need a few.
Rory answered first.
Copy.
Nik’s text came in right behind it.
Get a move on.
I thumbed the screen off and set the phone on the edge of the table next to the sofa.
Isabella watched it leave my hand. “They’re going to come in, aren’t they?”
“Not if I keep answering.”
“And if you don’t?”
I looked at her. “Then you’ll meet Rory, and he won’t be nearly as charming as I am.”
A quiet laugh slipped out of her.
“You’re charming?”
“On my better days.”
“Is this one of those?”
“No.” I leaned down, my nose an inch from hers. “This is the day you need to get dressed, pick up that bag, and walk into a new life that has nothing to do with me.”
She nodded, but she didn’t move toward the bag.
Instead, she came right back to me.
Her hands caught my face this time, firm and unhesitating, and she pulled me down until our mouths were almost touching.
“Lachlan,” she whispered, and hearing my name from her lips did more damage than it should have. “In another lifetime, I would have wanted you. Not your money. Not your protection. You. The man who was furious with me and was still willing to come to my rescue.”
My hands closed around her wrists. “Don’t.”
“You’re the kind of man I would have wanted a forever with.” Her mouth trembled against mine. “But tonight is all I have, and I want something to remember when I’m no one.”
“Isabella—”
“I know. I know. We have to go.” Her thumb brushed my jaw. “I know we do.”
Then she kissed me again.
This time, I stopped pretending I didn’t want it.
She drove me back into the wall with her mouth on mine and her hands on my chest. My shoulder hit hard enough to rattle the door, and I caught her waist, spinning us until her back hit the wall. I meant to pin her there, to give myself one second to stop this, but she used it against me.
Her hands clamped down on my shoulders and she jumped, locking her legs around my hips. I caught her under the thighs, and my body answered with a hunger that had no interest in my better judgment.
I tried to pull my mouth from hers. “We don’t have time for this.”
“Then don’t waste it talking.”
Her teeth caught my lower lip, and the last of my restraint took a hit. She kissed me rougher, pressing herself against me, hips working into mine with enough need to make my body stop listening to my brain.
I should have put her down.
Instead, I carried her to the old sofa in the middle of the room and went down with her still wrapped around me. The springs groaned under our combined weight. Her hands were already on my jacket, pushing it off my shoulders.
“This is a bad idea,” I said against her mouth.
“Probably.”
Her hands went to my belt.
I caught her wrist. “Slow down.”
“No.” Her eyes flashed, and for the first time since I’d walked in, the fear gave way to something hungry and reckless. “I’m done slowing down because men tell me to wait. Wait for the right time. Wait for permission. Wait for them to decide what happens to me.”
My hands dropped to her thighs as she worked my belt open with ease.
I pulled at the hem of her oversized sweater, and she lifted her arms long enough for me to drag it over her head.
Her hair fell across her face. She shoved it back, breathing hard, cheeks flushed, eyes locked on mine.
She arched her back and bit her lip as my hands glided up her curves.
I shoved her bra to the side and cupped one breast; my other hand grasped the nape of her neck and drew her to me.
Then I crushed my lips to hers and kissed her again; it was reckless and furious as our tongues tangled.
Hunger took over as I devoured her mouth, losing myself in the taste of her need on my tongue.
Her fingers dug into my shoulders, then slid down my chest, tearing the buttons of my shirt open while her hips rocked against my length.
Her palm slid lower over the front of my pants, and she smiled when she found how hard I was for her. She stroked me through the fabric, studying my face as her confidence grew with every broken breath she pulled from me.
Then in a flash, her hands smacked against my chest, and she shoved off and stood before me, her dark hair wild around her face, her warm brown skin luminous in the low light.
Her leggings came off fast. There was nothing hesitant or modest about her as she straddled my knees, tugged open the button on my pants, jerked down the zipper, and grasped the waistband with surprising strength.
I lifted my hips just enough to help, and she dragged my pants and boxer briefs down to my ankles in one hard pull.
My dick sprang free.
I kicked my pants the rest of the way off.
Everything about this was fast, messy, and past the point of good sense.
When she rose over me, I caught her hips.
“Wait,” I huffed, the last working part of my brain forcing the word out. There was no way I wanted to spend the rest of my life wondering if a woman I’d never see again could end up having my son.
She froze, lips parted and brows drawn, irritation cutting through the heat between us.
I leaned down, fished the wallet from the pants on the floor, and found a condom. The wallet slipped from my hand and hit the floor near the sofa. I didn’t care.
She chuckled and took the foil from me, tore it open with her teeth, and rolled the condom on with hands that knew exactly what they were doing.
Her knees came to rest on either side of my hips as she settled her pussy over my cock and began stroking her wet heat over my length.
“Mmm, fuck yes,” I groaned as the pressure slid over the head of my cock.
She moved faster and leaned over me, her hands circling my throat, my pulse beating beneath her grip.
“You like me taking charge of your pleasure, don’t you?” she purred.
I answered by fisting the back of her hair with one hand, catching her hip with the other, and flipping her beneath me.
She gasped at the sudden move, and the tension of this carnal insanity drove me into motion.
At any fucking moment, Rory and his team could come bolting through the door, and the thought had my pulse hammering in my ears.
Her legs were already sprawled wide, so I drove into her.
She smirked, sinking her nails into my ass and meeting every hard stroke as our bodies pounded together. I reached down and pinched the taut nipple I’d freed from her bra. Her mouth formed a tight O as she whined, “Oh, yes. I like it rough. Fuck me harder, Lachlan.”
Well, damn. I’d never imagined an uptight city attorney would be such a sexy little menace.
My balls drew up, but there was no way I’d come before she did. Propping myself up on one elbow, I kissed her hard, continuing the fevered pace. I slid my hand between us and stroked her clit with my thumb.
That did it.
She squirmed underneath the pressure, and I swallowed her moans, refusing to let her pull away from my mouth. Her walls trembled then clenched around me, dragging the last of my control with them. I let go and came hard and fast.
Breaking off the kiss, I pushed up and watched her as I rode out the last of her orgasm.
This was definitely not part of the extraction plan, but fuck if it hadn’t burned through the tension between us. But there was no more time to waste. Nik and Rory’s patience had to be worn thin, and it wouldn’t be long before they sent men through the door.
I rested my forehead against hers, our breaths slowing into something close to normal.
Then my phone buzzed on the side table, and reality came back hard.
I pulled out of her and stood. “We’re done waiting. Get dressed.”
Her face changed. “Lach—”
“Now,” I said, stripping off the condom and tossing it on the sofa next to her. I jerked my briefs and pants on, tucked myself back in, and fastened them. “My men are already wondering what the hell is taking so long.”
“I know.” She climbed off the sofa, legs unsteady enough that I reached for her before I could stop myself.
She caught my hand for balance, then let go. “I understand you’re in a hurry. Just give me a second.”
“We don’t have a second.”
“Don’t be in such a rush.” She adjusted herself back into her bra, grabbed her sweater from the floor, and pulled it on. “I’m not walking into a new life half-naked because your men have a schedule to meet.”
Despite everything, a rough laugh broke out of me.
“Come on, let’s go.”
She snatched her leggings and shimmied into them in a flash while I buckled my belt and straightened my shirt.
I watched her get dressed as if what had just happened between us was nothing out of the ordinary. The woman was a puzzle. Young, beautiful, and smart, yet stuck in a cartel world where any day could be her last for pissing off the wrong man.
Holding on to the back of the sofa, she slid her feet into a pair of short black boots that I hadn’t noticed sitting by the corner. Then she leaned forward, picked up a black leather jacket draped over the arm of the sofa, and glanced over her shoulder.
She smiled as if she were genuinely happy, and it tempered the regret already rising in me.
My conscience was battling it out between the greedy lust I’d given in to and the need to protect a woman in the clutches of violent gangsters.
Jacket in hand, she walked up to me, rose onto her toes, and kissed my cheek. Her eyes gleamed with mischief, and all I could do was stand there and wonder where the hell her future would take her.
“Thank you,” she said. “You have no idea how many times I thought about having you since you came storming into my office and threatened me.”
“I guess that’s what happens when you fuck around with an Irishman’s livelihood,” I teased, stamping a kiss on her forehead.
“Yeah, yeah. Like they say, fuck around and find out. Right?” she mocked, reaching into the pocket of her jacket.
Another buzz vibrated on the side table.
I stretched over and grabbed my phone, then remembered I’d dropped my wallet on the floor. Dropping to one knee, I braced a hand on the seat cushion and searched under the edge of the sofa. I was still reaching for the damn thing when a sharp sting hit the side of my neck.
At first, I thought a wasp had gotten me, but that didn’t make any sense.
Then heat poured under my skin.
My fingers brushed familiar leather and closed sluggishly around the wallet. I started to stand, but my muscles didn’t follow through, and I fell back onto the sofa. My phone and wallet slipped from fingers that no longer obeyed me.
My mind and body misfired as dread burned through every fiber of my being.
I dragged my head sideways just enough to find her only a couple of feet away, an injector in her hand and her head cocked to the side.
She stood there, sneering at me as if I were pathetic.
I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t move. The room swam, blurred and warped at the edges. That was the worst part. I could still see a clouded version of the room, the paint samples on the wall, my wallet open on the cushion beside me, but I couldn’t connect thought to movement.
I tried to ask her what the hell was going on, but my tongue had gone thick, and the words came out in a slur.
This was all wrong, spinning out of control in a slow-motion haze.
Damn it to hell.