Barely Undercover (21 page)

“The kind of sorry I like?” She looked up at him, a dark shadow in the night.

“The kind of sorry that happens when you move and I tie you to a tree instead.”

She sighed a dejected “oh” and then yelped when he delivered a stinging slap to her thigh.

“Of course the kind of sorry you like,” he rumbled as he bent her legs one at a time and positioned her feet in the grass. “Now open for me.”

Softened by liquid lust, Lana dropped her knees to her sides, her body arching upward to take the strain. Apprehensive anticipation ratcheted through her. She was totally open to him. Vulnerable. Her body and her heart…her soul.
 

James’s firm hands traced lazy circles along her inner thighs, moving closer and closer to her throbbing center. He leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to her mound, his breath teasing over her swollen clit. Lana moaned and rocked her hips, seeking more than just his breath.

“Stay still,” he warned, “or I might have to restrain your legs too.” His fingers stroked through her folds, parted her, and then he pressed one finger inside.

Her hips lifted and she gasped, her muscles tensing as she fought the urge to wail and thrash around.

“Not easy keeping still, is it?” His thumb moved over her clit, spreading her moisture around and around in maddening circles, but never where she needed it to be.

“I need to move,” she whispered.

“Not allowed, babe. Keeping still focuses the mind, heightens your pleasure. All that energy has to go somewhere.”

He thrust a second finger inside her, hard and deep. Her strangled cry only seemed to encourage him. He added a third finger, stretching her, filling her, until she was stiff and trembling and willing to answer any question, do anything, if he would just give her release.

Which, apparently, had been his plan all along.

“What aren’t you telling me?” He withdrew his fingers, leaving her aching with need.

Through shallow breaths, she groaned, “You only had ten questions.”

He leaned over and drew a nipple into his mouth. His hot, wet tongue sent her right to the edge, and she stifled a groan of frustration. “Now. Please. Now.”

His eyes darkened and he licked his lips. “Soon. You need to answer the bonus questions first.”

He continued to tease. His fingers curled inside her again and stroked along the sensitive tissue of her inner walls. Then he really began his assault, alternating the stroke of his fingers inside her with the lick of his tongue on her nipples, teasing her until she was trembling violently.

And then he stopped. “I’m waiting.”

Lana’s blood pounded in her ears. Her sex ached. Her clit throbbed. Her body was taut as a bowstring. She had wanted to play, but not this game.

She gritted her teeth and stared up at the sky, letting truth drop from her lips like a falling star. “Fine. You want it. You get it. What I’m not telling you is that I still don’t trust you. Despite everything, I think you’ll hurt me again. Probably worse than last time. Whatever took you away from me before is still with you. I saw it in your eyes when you came to my apartment this evening. I can hear it in your voice. I can feel it when you touch me. Something is holding you back. But I want you anyway. Life is too short. You could have died in that motorcycle accident…”

Or Levi could be coming for her.

Just the thought of Levi chilled her blood and her arousal plummeted. Suddenly the restraints became unbearable, frightening, taking her back to a night she would have cut off her own arm to be free.

“Untie me. Let me up.” Heart pounding, she lowered her hands and tried to sit up. “James. Please.”

“Shhh, babe. It’s okay.” He unfastened the ropes and then lay beside her, pulling her into his chest, his hand stroking gently down her back.

For a long moment she didn’t speak. Just lay beside him, listening to the steady beat of his heart, soaking in the warmth of his hand. Finally her pulse slowed and her throat loosened. “I’m really sorry.”

James traced lazy circles over the curve of her ass. “For what? I’m the one who tied you up.”

“For ruining everything. For freaking out. For telling you how I felt. For being naked in the grass in the middle of nowhere and still being unable to get your pants off.”

He nuzzled his way through her curls to her ear. “You want my pants off, babe?”

Lana’s body went from dejection to shocking arousal in a heartbeat. “God yes. I feel very naughty lying naked in the grass in the dark. I could be persuaded to do all sorts of kinky things. But just…not with my hands restrained.”

Before her brain had even registered that James had moved, he had flipped her over, tugged her ass up in the air and spread her legs with a thick thigh.

“All fours,” he rasped as he smoothed his hands over her rounded cheeks, sending little quivers of lightening straight to her core.

Lana pushed herself up and bit her lip as she listened to the sound of a belt buckle being undone, a zipper pulled down, boots and clothing thudding on the grass.

And then the
unsaintly
crinkle of a condom wrapper.

Moments later, his bare chest was pressed tight over her back, his hands on the grass beside hers, his cock, thick and heavy between her thighs.

“This is new.” She wiggled her bottom against him and giggled when he growled. “Kinky.”

“I aim to please.”

“Although, this isn’t really the kind of kinkiness I had in mind. To be honest, I don’t even know if it makes the kinkiness cut.”

James chuckled. “Resources are limited, as is my self-control. Right now, this is the best you’ll get. After we take the edge off, I’ll take you over to the trees and show you just how kinky I can be.”

Lana turned her head and kissed his cheek, wiggling against his hardened length. “A little helpful advice. Your aim is off. Too far outside. I think you should go left and try for a central position. Once you’re in, you’ll score big.”

His body shook with laughter. “Whose game is this anyway?”

“Yours, I hope.”

James licked his way around the curve of her ear, his breath hot and moist on her skin. “Mine.”

His hand slid over her hip, dipping into her center and then out to spread her moisture over her clit. Her eyes slitted closed at the startling sensation and the heady feeling of being totally surrounded by his heat and his intoxicating scent of fresh soap and worn leather.

“Not wasting any time, are you?” she mumbled between panting breaths. “No buildup. No teasing. No foreplay.”

“What do you think we’ve been doing all evening? Every time I looked at you in those leathers I wanted to throw you down on the grass and take you right there. And then you…on the motorcycle…” His breath caught. “I need to know you’re ready for me because you’re gonna take me deep, and you’re gonna take me hard, and you’re gonna take me rough and dirty. And when you come baby, you’re gonna come screaming my name.”

Lana sucked in a sharp breath. She’d thought watching James on the racetrack, his taut, muscular body wrapped over one thousand pounds of speeding metal, was as good as foreplay could get. But his words took her arousal over the top.

His gentle touches became firmer, more insistent. Lana’s body tensed, spiraling near and nearer to her peak. “That…would…be…now,” she rasped.

James pulled away, and then his hands were on her hips, digging deep. He slid through her wetness, pulling her back as he pushed inside, until he was deep, deeper than fingers could go. Lana’s eyes watered as the overwhelming fullness eased into exquisite pleasure.

With a groan, he moved within her, sending tremors through her body. Then he eased out and thrust back in. Her sex clenched around him and she gritted her teeth against the urge to scream or whimper or both.

Holding her steady, he pounded in and out, surging like the tide within her, filling her ear with whispers of all the things he wanted to do to her—dirty things, naughty things, wicked things. Each thrust took her closer and closer to the edge, until she was coiled tight and ready to explode.

“Now,” she growled.

With a chuckle, he slid his hand over her hip, seeking out her swollen clit. One stroke. Two. A pinch. And then the world sheeted red as pleasure surged through her body like white lightning, spreading outward to her fingers and toes.

Before the waves subsided, James tightened his grip on her hips and hammered into her until he became impossibly hard, swelling against her sensitive tissue. With a low groan, he came inside her in long heated jerks.

For a long moment he rested on top of her, his body like a warm blanket. Finally he eased out and knelt behind her, pulling her back into his chest. Lana turned and rested her cheek on the soft mat of hair and listened to the drum of his heart as she soaked up the comfort of his embrace.

“How did you find this place?” she said softly. “It’s so beautiful. Quiet. Peaceful. Private. It’s like a little oasis in the middle of nowhere.”

He stiffened and his arms tightened around her. “Christine, the woman in the picture, was a recreational pilot. We came out to Surrey quite often so she could keep up her flying hours. We flew over here one time and it stuck in my mind.”

Lana looked up at his stark expression. “How did she die?”

Although his gaze slanted down at her, his lips stayed closed. After the intimacy they’d shared, his silence hurt, but then she hadn’t shared her past with him—at least not the things that mattered.

She rested her hand on his chest. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

He drew in a ragged breath and stroked his hand down her hair. “I want to tell you. It’s just…hard. But you should know because she’s the reason I left and why I don’t know if this can work.”

Lana’s blood chilled but she forced herself to stay calm, still. Listen. Not one of her strongest abilities.

His voice rough, he said, “She was my partner when I was a beat cop, and then my lover. And then we got engaged. It was against the rules, but we thought we would sort it out after we were married.”

“I can’t believe you broke the rules,” Lana said lightly.

“First and last time. I learned my lesson the hard way.” His voice tightened and on impulse Lana turned and wrapped her arms around him.

“Keep going.”

His fist clenched and unclenched against her back. “One morning we were getting ready for patrol and she got a text. I picked up the phone to hand it to her and saw who it was from. He was a homicide detective who’d been fired for…unethical behavior. He wasn’t a friend of ours and no longer part of the department so I read the text.”

Lana’s heart squeezed and she inhaled sharply. She didn’t need him to tell her what it said.

“He was married.” James’s voice broke. “He had kids. That made it ten times worse for me. There aren’t many things left in the world that have meaning, but to me marriage is one. I didn’t ask Christine to marry me lightly. I thought of it as a lifetime commitment, an enduring partnership and an unbreakable bond. You don’t run away from a marriage. If something is wrong, you try to fix it. You don’t break the trust.”

Lana’s stomach clenched and nausea roiled in her belly. He could not have said anything to make her feel worse than she did right now.

“I didn’t tell her I saw the text,” he continued. “I asked her if she was having an affair. She lied to me. I didn’t pursue it. I wanted to give her time to think about it. I trusted her to tell me the truth.” His arms squeezed Lana tight, and she closed her eyes to fight back the tears of her own betrayal.

“You can’t stand lies,” she whispered, more for her benefit than his. Lost in his memories, he didn’t respond.

“Just before noon we were called out to an abandoned building. Someone had reported a fire. Christine raced inside and ran up the stairs. Protocol was for us to go together. One on point and one as backup. I told her as much, but she was still angry at me for accusing her. She said she needed space. She went up alone.”

His voice caught in his throat and for a moment Lana feared he wouldn’t be able to continue.

But he did. Gritting his teeth, he said, “It was a trap. Retaliation by a drug gang for a bust that had happened a few days before. They wanted to kill a few cops to send a message. Didn’t matter who we were. I had to fight four of them off before I could get to the stairs. But by then it was too late. They’d been waiting for her.”

“Oh God.” Her arms tightened around him. “Oh, James. I’m so sorry.”

James drew in a ragged breath. “I blamed myself. I knew better than to get involved with my partner. We couldn’t be objective, professional. If she hadn’t been angry she would’ve waited for me, let me take point. I would’ve been the one to die. That bullet was meant for me.”

A chill shot through Lana’s body. Suddenly, the grass that had seemed so soft prickled her skin and the cool air became cold. “She made her choice.”

“Easy to hear. Hard to accept.” He kissed her forehead. “I knew I couldn’t go through that again, losing someone I cared about. I thought it would kill me. And I cared about you…”

“So you left,” she whispered, “sooner rather than later.”

He rested his chin on her head. “I was offered the assignment and I jumped at the chance. There was an undercover operative already in place, although the DEU didn’t tell me who he was, and he’d come up with a story to get me in that night. I watched you sleep for hours and tried to decide if I should wake you. In the end I took the coward’s way out. Probably the first time in my life. I didn’t think I would be able to go if I had to look into your eyes and say goodbye. And I was worried you would change my mind. You can be very persuasive.”