Fatal Exposure (2 page)

Ava brushed her breasts against his chest, and he sucked in a breath. Her nipples hardened achingly from the friction...and from his reaction. Or maybe it was because she hadn’t had sex in so long. It was lonely being on the run. Heck, who was she kidding? She’d always felt somewhat isolated. Even in a room full of people. And nothing or no one could ever quite squelch that glum feeling.

It might have had to do with the fact that she’d never had a real family. Her mother died when she was six. After the funeral, she moved in with her only other relative, an elderly aunt, until she passed away just after Ava’s seventeenth birthday. From then on, her friends were her family. Well, what few friends she chose to have.

But none of that mattered at this moment.

“What’s your name?” she asked him again and ran her fingertips over the curve of his lips—full, powerful and tempting. She let her leg fall off his to straddle his solid thigh. Her pussy jolted from the contact, threatening to drench her panties, and him in the process. Damn.

Get a hold of yourself, Ava
. She cleared her throat and tried to concentrate on the show.

“Kade,” he answered, without blinking.

“I love that name,” she lied. His name didn’t make a damn bit of difference to her, but his wallet did. Why the hell hadn’t he pulled it out yet? Maybe it was time to scoot along to the college boys. At least they came prepared. “And what do you do for a living, Kade?”

“Traveling salesman,” he murmured.

“Oh, and does that pay a lot?” she asked, hoping he’d take the hint. A girl had to eat.

He eyed her lips as he spoke. “Enough to get what I need.” Then his gaze slowly lifted to meet hers. “And what I desire.”

She held her breath for a moment as she took in his seductive tone and penetrating blue eyes. There was no doubt he was used to getting everything he wanted with or
without
having to pay. Hell, she was proof of that as she stood there pressing her mostly naked body against his hard, masculine chest, massaging her fingers over his scalp, down his neck and up again.

She should move on, but something was keeping her in his presence. It was an odd mixture of feeling protected and scared shitless at the same time. Imagining waking up enveloped in his strong arms was the clincher. It had been a long time since she’d felt that comfort.

Ava swiveled around, angled her ass against his groin, and swayed her hips as she ground into his jeans. The bulge in his pants grew, hardening against her bottom. As she realized the extent of his length and thickness, her body heated, and her pussy pulsed with need.

She wondered how he would feel inside of her, filling her, stretching her. This place was all about fantasy anyway. Usually the patron’s fantasy, but what was the harm in indulging her imagination just this once? With this man, who she was sure could have any woman he chose?

The coarse hardness of his jeans grazed her ass and, as she rolled her hips back just so, she felt the solid column of his erection against her center. Her cheeks flushed with sudden awareness, and her pulse thundered in her chest. She’d done this a hundred times before but not once had she enjoyed it, not once had her head spun with possibilities. Before she could snap out of her haze, his hand slid around her waist, down her pelvis and began rubbing against the thin, now-wet strip of cloth covering her pussy. She didn’t push him away. She couldn’t. The shock from the pleasure he brought her was too overwhelming.

Jarred and the other two bouncers were busy throwing one of the drunken boys out of the club.
Good
. She leaned against Kade’s solid chest and let her eyes roll back. His long rough finger forced the strip of useless panty aside and dipped into her wetness. She caught her breath, both startled and excited by his boldness...and how hot she was for him. God, how long had it been since she’d been touched like this?

“Does that feel good?” His deep voice rumbled into her ear as his finger kneaded into a sensitive spot deep inside her snug walls.

She nodded, paralyzed to move any other part of her body—one single finger bringing her close to a fast climax. Rough, long, and deep, it slid up into her slick channel. Then out as it rubbed against her sensitive clit. Then in. Out. In.
Oh, God
. This was crazy. Never had she let a stranger do something so personal and in such a public place. And with her job at risk too.

Her thighs weakened with slices of pleasure cutting through them. She panted and dug her fingers into his muscled legs as her pussy danced with tiny pulses.

Before she could come
or
pull away, he drew his hand back and dropped it at his side, leaving her empty and cold. “I want to continue this somewhere private,” he said, sounding confident he’d get his wish.

Focus, focus, focus
.

Ava gulped and straightened. Her legs wobbled underneath her as she gathered her wits and readjusted her panties as casually as possible. She should be used to men coming on to her, treating her like a piece of meat, but this time had been different. This time she’d let herself be vulnerable.

“I’m not a whore,” she said over her shoulder, suddenly feeling completely naked in more ways than one.

She puffed out a breath, irritated with herself for allowing him to touch her, and for liking it too much to stop. Just how far would she have let him go? How far did she
still
want it to go? His proposal was annoyingly tempting.

“That’s good because I’m not going to pay you.”

He stood up behind her, dropping his head to right above her neck. His warm, cinnamon breath swept across her bare shoulders. “Just finish the job I already started.”

She spun around and perched her hands on her hips, wanting him to know she wasn’t intimidated by his brashness. With a bravado she didn’t feel, she looked up into his pale blue eyes, swallowed her rising nerves, and said, “Why are you still here?”

He quirked up his mouth in a smirk. “I’m not a man who likes to waste time,
Lily.
” He said her name with all the falseness they both knew it contained.

“I’m not a woman who jumps on command,” she snapped back. The guy had a lot of nerve.

“No?” His brows squinted together as he lifted the guilty finger and licked it, his tongue consuming the bodily juices that still clung to his skin. Her juices. He winked. “Sure tastes like you do.”

A surge of heat pulsed where his finger had once been, but she did her best to ignore it. “Sorry, sweetie.” She gave him a once-over and desperately tried to look unimpressed. “I don’t fraternize with the customers.”

A sexy grin spread across his face. “Room at the hotel across the street. Come over when you’re done here. You won’t regret it.”

Before she could respond, he grabbed his coat and headed across the room toward the door.

****

Kade Gavin stepped out into the biting cold air and finally let out a breath. What the hell was he thinking? It was as if the woman had put a spell on him and made him forget his whole purpose for being in there. He had lost his entire focus when she moved against him in her seductive way. Her lush, petite body at his fingertips had pushed him over the edge. Almost to the point of picking her up in his arms and removing her from that shit hole of a joint. He shook the vision out of his thick skull. He had a mission to complete and none of it involved being anyone’s knight in shining armor. Just the opposite, actually.

What a fool he was for telling her his real name.

“Fuck,” he muttered and stepped across the street. He’d been watching her for the past few days. As a PI, it was his job to observe, but it had never resulted with him getting a hard-on or fantasizing about his target’s full breasts under his caress. But the fantasies had built up every time he saw her swaying her hips on that stage or wrapping her toned legs around that pole.

“Knock it off, Kade,” he mumbled as he reached his hotel room. He was doing it again. Envisioning. Imagining. What was so different about her? None of the other women at the club had this arousing affect on him.

Get a grip.
This was a job. If she showed up later, he’d play it off. It would help if he knew she was definitely the girl he was looking for, the one he was being paid to hunt down. But he wasn’t positive. Take away the red hair and those obvious brown contacts, and maybe she could pass as the petite woman in the fuzzy photo he’d been given. It was all the information he had besides the description Zack Moreno had given him—long blonde hair, green eyes, and full C-cup. Not much to go on, but at least that had cut it down to two prospects. The one who called herself Poppy fit the description to a T, and then of course there was
Lily
, trying so hard to disguise herself.

He walked into the hotel room and fell onto the bed. His mind raced as he let the name slide off his tongue. “Ava Lureau.”

I’m coming to get you
.

****

Snow lightly fell around Ava as she stood outside her hotel room. A chill wind blew past so she pinched her jean jacket shut. The pink and blue neon sign “Girls, Girls, Girls” buzzed across the street. Three months ago, she’d chosen this place because of its convenient location...and because they took cash and didn’t ask for identification. But now she wished she were anywhere but here. She was too close to the mysterious blue-eyed stranger. Two rooms down to be exact.

The temptation to knock on his door was overwhelming.

She was more than entranced by the tall, broadshouldered man who had branded a desire in her so deep she ached to have it quenched.

And spending another lonely night in a cold, bland hotel room all by herself wasn’t exactly a thrilling thought. Waking in the middle of the night whenever she heard strangers outside her room window didn’t warm her heart too much either. It was frightening to think she was a thin door away from some depraved lunatic. Or Zack Moreno. Was there a difference?

She shook his image from her head once again. She should be used to being alone, but the fantasy of having a safe, normal life with a loving husband and family always crept into her mind. It was silly, really. The only thing she needed to concentrate on now was survival, and if that meant being on her own for the rest of her days, then so be it.

“You’ve got the wrong room,” a deep familiar voice said behind her.

Ava swung around to see Kade standing less than two feet away with sprinkles of snow falling onto his dark hair and a brown paper bag in his hand.

“No. No I haven’t.” She backed up against her door and pulled the key from her jean jacket pocket.

“See?”

He stepped closer and towered over her. “You have a room here.” It was a statement, not a question. He stared at her with a blank expression.

“Why? And for how long?”

His leather blazer opened as he reached inside to pull out his own key. She fought back the urge to wrap her arms around his waist and cuddle up against him, indulging in the warmth of his body.

“Uh, not too long. My house is, um, being fumigated,” she said, using the same lie she’d used at least a dozen times in the past couple of months.

“Your house? Is it near here?”

“Why do you want to know?” No one else had cared to ask, and she hadn’t quite worked out that detail of her fabricated life yet.

“Just curious.” His mouth quirked up to half a grin. “Want to get out of the cold? Your lips are turning blue.” He rattled the bag in his hand and caressed her face with a gaze that warmed her insides. “A beer and some company on a chilly night?”

Company. What a concept. Besides work, she didn’t allow herself to have that.

For a good reason.

She opened her mouth to say no, but a pang of loneliness deep in her chest forced her to close it. Her dark, dreary room was all that awaited her. The stiff comforter that never quite warmed her. The small television that had a lousy signal. The romance novel she’d read for the hundredth time. The telephone that never rang.

It all sounded so bleak and depressing. And cold. God, why was she always so cold?

She looked at Kade and could almost see the warmth emanating from him. How would it feel to be wrapped up against him for one night?

What could it hurt? One night with a gorgeous man.

Ava nodded once and gestured toward his room. Her room was out of the question since she couldn’t remember if she’d hidden her contact case or thrown away the bottle of medium auburn brown hair dye—

or any other self-incriminating evidence. Not that she was a criminal. Far from it. But she
was
a survivor. If anything was true, it was that. And she didn’t want to make any stupid mistakes to jeopardize the only thing she had going for—her beating heart.

Beating faster every second she was in Kade’s company.

As Ava Lureau, never would she have thought of going into a strange man’s hotel room, but as
Lily
, it almost seemed natural. Besides, what if he turned out to be someone she could trust? How wonderful would it be to have someone on her side? To protect her, to keep her safe...to fight for her. Maybe she was being unrealistic and foolish, but what could she possibly have to lose that she hadn’t already? Just this once she’d allow herself to play out a fantasy to see where it took her.