At Any Cost (13 page)

Such an innocent kiss shouldn't have brought so much untamed heat. The contact sparked not only on her lips, but also in a pleasant tingle that raced across her arms, over the tight points of her nipples, and down her torso before settling at her clit.

Nick's mouth parted to deepen the kiss and Livy responded. Her sigh became his before he returned her breath to her. She lost herself to the moment, to the press of his firm lips, the hold he had on her that somehow anchored her and freed her at the same time. Too soon, he pulled away. He took her hand in his and helped her from the truck. A tremor rocked through her thighs, the muscles tense and twitching from the adrenaline that remained in her system.

“I've got you, Livy.” The words carried much more weight than a simple reassurance. The warm timbre of his voice enveloped her and she leaned into him to bathe herself in the heat of his body as well. She couldn't allow him to be her security blanket and yet she clung to him as though he could shield her from every evil in the world.

As much as it pained her to leave his side, Livy pulled away and took his hand. She led the way across the snowy driveway and up the stairs to the front porch. Nick eased her keys out of her hand and unlocked the deadbolt. She looked up into his face and the intensity of his expression held her rapt.

Nick lowered his mouth to hers until his lips hovered a hair's breadth away. “When we're together, I don't care about anything but you. Nothing else matters. It scares me.”

Livy knew exactly how he felt. From the moment they'd met she'd violated her own rules and safeguards. She'd thrown caution to the wind. She'd drawn him closer when she should have pushed him away. Nothing else mattered, not the life she'd made for herself, her own safety, not even the past that she'd tried to bury. Nothing mattered but Nick. “I know. I feel the same way. And it scares me, too.”

Relief washed over her the second Nick put his lips to hers. Livy melted against him, gave herself over to the moment, the way his mouth felt as it slanted across hers, the thrust of his tongue. His taste, his masculine scent. The way his arms came around her and held her tight.

He turned the knob and eased open the door. Livy didn't worry, didn't fear anything as he backed into the house and brought her with him. He'd proven tonight that he'd take care of her and for the first time in Livy's life she knew the comfort of someone having her back. God, it felt good.

The sound of the door closing behind them barely registered. Nick reached behind her and the snick of the deadbolt as it engaged was nothing more than white noise in the back of Livy's mind. They stumbled into the tiny foyer and with their mouths still joined, kicked off their boots and shrugged out of their coats. Nick tugged at the button of Livy's jeans and slid them to her thighs. She shimmied them down around her ankles and discarded them somewhere by their boots and coats.

“The bra,” Nick murmured against her mouth. “Lose it.”

Apparently he'd meant it when he told her he wanted her wearing nothing but the sweater. Livy reached behind her and unhooked the clasp. She pulled her arms out of the straps and tugged her bra out from under the sweater. A growl of approval gathered in Nick's throat as he kissed her more fervently. His tongue met hers in a wild, slippery tangle that conveyed all of the urgency Livy felt and then some.

“Get rid of your underwear.”

Livy jerked them down and kicked them off.
Done and done.

Nick pulled away. He took several steps back and his heated gaze scalded her as it wandered from her feet—still clad in her thick winter socks—up the length of her body. “You look better than I thought you would.” His voice went low and husky, a sensual rumble that Livy swore she could feel in her pussy. “I'm going to fuck you while you're wearing that sweater.”

God, she hoped so.

“But first, I'm going to do all the things I promised I'd do to you last night. And if Simon interrupts this time”—Nick flashed a sinful smile—“he's spending the night outside.”

Livy hoped Simon behaved. Because if he didn't, she'd help Nick kick his furry butt out the door.

Chapter Fourteen

Goddamn
. Nick didn't think he'd ever seen a sexier woman. The bulky, large knit sweater skimmed Livy's bare thighs and the gaping neckline slipped off one shoulder. Even the thick wool socks she wore turned him on. He was absolutely going to fuck her while she wore that sweater. He might even make her keep the socks on.

“Let your hair out.” The braids were cute but he preferred to see the golden-brown locks free and wild around her shoulders. Livy complied, taking the band from one tasseled end and then the other as she unraveled the braids and combed her fingers through the wavy length.

Stunning.

“I think I'm at a disadvantage.” Livy's husky murmur made Nick's cock even harder than it already was.

“Why's that?”

A sweet, seductive smile curved her full lips. “You're wearing a lot more clothes than I am.”

Nick flashed a cocky grin before stripping off his shirt.

Livy laughed. “That's better. Together, we make a whole outfit.”

Funny, sexy, with a quick wit and a body he wanted to drop to his knees and thank God for. If Livy really was the woman Joel Meecum was looking for, Nick could finally understand why the man would risk his freedom for a second chance at her. A wave of possessive jealousy flared in his chest. Nick never wanted another man except him to ever look at Livy, ever touch her again.

“Now we're even,” he said.

Livy nodded. “Fair enough.”

The time for playfulness was over. Nick wanted to get to business, down and dirty, and make good on all of the promises he'd spoken low in her ear. He approached Livy slowly as though the slightest movement might cause her to bolt. When less than a foot of space separated them, Nick reached out and gathered the hem of Livy's sweater in his fists. The soft, fluffy fabric slid over her bare skin and for a moment he simply used the bulky length to caress her.

Livy's eyes became hooded. Her breath escaped her lips in shallow pants. Nick brought the sweater over her hips and pushed the fabric up her torso before easing it back down into place. He reached around and cupped her ass through the knit, squeezed the yielding flesh hard enough to elicit a low moan from her parted lips before he eased the sweater over the rounded cheeks and up the curve of her back. His fingers grazed bare skin and Nick sucked in a breath before covering up the very parts of her he couldn't wait to explore. His time with Livy might be short-lived and he was going to make sure he made the most of every single goddamned minute.

“God, I want to touch you. Taste you. Kiss every inch of you.” Nick buried his face in Livy's hair and breathed in her clean, fragrant scent. He hadn't realized that snow had a smell until he came to McCall and that's what Livy smelled like.

“What's stopping you?” she murmured with the slightest hint of humor.

Livy liked the game as much as Nick did. Building up the tension with banter and stalling tactics. Prolonging their agony until they couldn't wait another second. Livy gave as good as she got, and Nick planned to give her as much as she could handle.

“Your nipples look fantastic underneath that sweater,” Nick remarked.

Livy's mouth quirked into a half smile. “That didn't answer my question.”

By the time he finally took her, Nick doubted he'd last more than a couple of minutes. He couldn't remember ever being so worked up. “Show me.”

“Show you what?” she asked innocently.

“You know what. Do it.”

Livy pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. Slowly, she reached up and eased the gaping neck of her sweater down until it revealed the puckered pink tip of her breast. Nick's cock pulsed in time with his rushing heartbeat and he swallowed down a groan. Livy had the most perfect tits he'd ever seen. They molded perfectly to his palm and filled his mouth without overwhelming him. She eased the sweater back up, hiding her breast from his greedy gaze.

“Let me see it again,” Nick said.

“Uh-uh.” Livy's teasing tone nearly brought him to his knees. “If you want to see it, come and get it.”

Nick never backed down from a challenge. Livy let out a playful squeal as he rushed at her and swept her up in his arms. In such a short amount of time he'd managed to banish her fears and shift her focus. He was more proud of that feat than his entire arrest record. It might've been stupid to make assumptions but there was no way around it. Nick believed that Livy was a victim and that she deserved to be happy. Any contribution he made to that happiness made him feel like crowing.

Their eyes met and Nick kissed her. Slow at first and then with more purpose. Livy's arms came around his neck and he thrust his tongue between her parted lips. She met him with equal fervor and before long they were both breathless. Nick reached up and jerked the neck of Livy's sweater down to reveal the breast she'd dared him to come and see for himself.

He wasn't content to simply look, though. Nick sealed his mouth over her dainty nipple and sucked. Livy's body went liquid in his embrace and a soft sigh graced his ears. He swirled his tongue around the hardened peak, took it gently between his teeth. The pace of Livy's breathing increased. Nick bit down harder and he was rewarded with an impassioned gasp that made his shaft ache and his balls tighten.

God, he wanted her. Wanted her more than anything. His need to make her his far surpassed any obsessive career ambition he'd ever had. For months Nick had thought that nothing could compare to the high he experienced when he arrested a criminal who'd been on the run. He'd been wrong.

The high he experienced with Livy surpassed all of it. She was a drug he couldn't get enough of, an addiction he didn't want to kick. He doubted he'd ever be able to get her out of his system no matter how many times he had her. And nothing, not his job or his own convictions, was going to change that.

He attended to one breast, and then the other. Livy's head lolled back on her shoulder and her hands abandoned his neck to grip his shoulders while her nails bit into the skin. Nick kept one arm around her waist and he reached down with the other and slid it between her thighs. A groan worked its way up his throat as his fingers slipped through the wetness of her pussy, already swollen and dripping for him.

“Livy, you're so wet.” As though she needed the confirmation. Her thighs were coated and sticky. Nick spread her arousal over her outer lips and up over the curve of her mons. Her breath hitched and her thighs trembled beneath his fingers. “And you smell good enough to eat.”

Livy let out a gust of breath and sucked it right back in. The sound shivered pleasantly down Nick's spine. She cocked a challenging brow. “Isn't that your plan?”

Hell yeah it was.

He guided her to the recliner and urged her to sit. Nick went down on his knees and eased the chair back—not enough for her to lie down, but just far enough to give him access to what he wanted—and eased either leg around the chair's arms. He settled himself between her spread thighs and his breath caught somewhere between his sternum and his lips.

Nick let out a contented groan as he sealed his mouth over her sex. Just as honey-sweet as he'd imagined. Livy's hips rolled as a low moan filled the quiet. Nick reached beneath her and scooted her closer to the edge of the chair and Livy's legs went wider still to offer him unhindered access to her. He swirled his tongue over her clit before sucking the tight bundle of nerves between his lips. Livy gasped, her back bowed, and her thighs twitched on either side of Nick's cheeks.

“Holy shit, Nick. Don't stop.”

A smug smile settled on Nick's lips as he did just that. A tight, desperate whimper escaped her and he dragged his finger from the apex of her sex, down to the opening. He stroked the outer rim and she squirmed. “Does it feel good?”

“Yes,” she all but panted. “Which is why I said, don't stop.”

Nick chuckled. He leaned forward and blew lightly over her soft, wet flesh. A shudder rocked Livy's body and her hips thrust up to meet his mouth. “If I keep going,” he said, “I won't stop until you come.”

His words coaxed more of those sweet sounds from Livy's lips. “Promise?”

Nick didn't need to tell Livy he always followed through; he'd show her. He picked up where he'd left off and ran the flat of his tongue from her opening back up to her clit. Livy squirmed in the chair, her breath raced and her thighs twitched. Nick settled back at her clit and flicked out with his tongue in teasing strokes before increasing the pressure with the flat of his tongue and then sucking her bud into his mouth.

With every pass of his tongue, every gentle flick, each pull of suction, Livy's cries became more desperate. Nick reached up and cupped her breast through her sweater. He teased himself as much as he did her with the veiled contact as he used the fabric to brush over her hardened nipples. Her back arched as Nick plucked at the peak before he focused his attention on her other breast.

The slight tremors that rocked Livy's body intensified as Nick increased the pressure of his tongue. Without penetrating, he used the pad of his forefinger to caress the sensitive skin of her opening and when he dragged his teeth over the hood of her clitoris, Livy came apart without preamble.

Her pussy contracted against his mouth. Her thighs shook. Cry after desperate cry echoed out in the silence. Her back arched and her hips bucked. Her fingers came around her knees and she gripped them so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Nick brought her down from the high with gentle passes of his tongue and soft caresses that eased her cries into quiet sobs of pleasure. He swore he could feel the racing of her heart, each and every one of her heavy breaths, in his own chest. And Nick had only chipped the surface of the things he wanted to do to her.

* * *

And not just your run-of-the-mill, wow, that-was-a-great-orgasm amazing. What Nick had done to her went far beyond that trivial bullshit. Like, holy-fucking-shit-I-think-I-just-died-and-went-to-heaven amazing!

Livy slumped in the recliner, her legs completely useless, her arms as solid as Jell-O. And not the kind you could pick up with your fingers, either. The kind that required a spoon it was so Jell-O-y. Her heart beat a frantic rhythm in her rib cage and her breath raced. She hadn't even lifted a finger and she felt as though she'd just sprinted a 5k without stopping. True, she was a little out of practice, but she was pretty sure that even if she'd been screwing her way from one end of the state to the other over the past four years, none of those experiences would compare to Nick.

Just,
wow
.

Her fingers wandered over the fabric of what had officially become not only Nick's, but also her favorite sweater in the universe. Nick's heated gaze raked over her body and she shivered. His nostrils flared and his jaw squared as he eased himself up and kissed a path up one thigh to her bare hip and over the sweater before his mouth latched over her breast. He nipped at the hardened peak before bringing his mouth to hers. Livy tasted herself on his lips as he deepened the kiss and it reawakened the flames of her desire that hadn't even had a chance to smolder.

“I think you need to let me return the favor,” she said, breathless.

Nick's eyes widened a fraction of an inch and his jaw flexed. Indecision marred his expression and a smug sense of satisfaction crested in Livy's chest. He wanted to control the situation, prove to her that he was a man of his word in all things, and yet, the thought of her putting her mouth on him was enough to lure him from his path.

She wanted to pump her fist in celebration.

Nick liked to talk the talk . . . Livy wondered what would happen if she turned the tables. “I want to put my mouth on you, Nick. I want to suck, lick”—she gazed up at him from lowered lashes—“maybe even bite. I want to taste you.” His lips parted and his brows came down over his dark eyes. Livy licked her lips, slowly, to accentuate her point and he let out a forceful gust of breath. “Wouldn't you like to see me on my knees?” She smiled sweetly. “In this sweater?”

Livy's cheeks heated. Something about Nick made her totally unashamed to say things that she'd never usually utter. Sure, she had the vocabulary of a sailor, but not a porn star. Still, Nick had managed to set her on fire with his dirty talk and she wanted to do the same for him.

Nick unfastened his pants so quickly you would have thought they'd been soaked in gasoline and Livy held a match. Her legs wobbled like a newborn fawn as she stood up from the chair. She gripped onto the waistband of Nick's jeans and tugged them down over his ass the second he got the zipper down. She turned him so their positions were reversed and gently pushed on his shoulders to ease him down into the recliner.

“Socks on or off?” she asked mostly to herself as she pulled his jeans and underwear the rest of the way off and discarded them beside her. “I think on.”

Nick smiled and heat bloomed from Livy's chest and spread outward. She ran her palms up the length of his thighs, through the crisp dusting of hair, and her gaze settled on the length of his erection that protruded proudly from his hips. There wasn't anything about Nick that wasn't impressive and Livy realized that no guy she'd ever been with—and there weren't that many—could ever hold a candle to him. Pure. Masculine. Perfection.

Livy reached out and stroked her palm down the length of his shaft. Nick sucked in a breath that quickened her pulse and she marveled at the velvet smoothness that encased such rigid strength. She brought her lips to the glossy head and kissed him there. She kissed the crown, along his shaft, at his heavy sac and his thighs. Then, she kissed her way back up to where she'd started. Nick's thigh muscles went taut beneath her touch and his breaths were nothing more than well-contained pants. Livy flicked out at a bead of moisture that gathered at the tip and captured his salty-sweet taste on her tongue. Nick gave a low moan that only served to push Livy to go a little further.