Heat: A Soldiers of Fortune Romance (9 page)

I’m used to the five-nozzle automatic steam shower I’ve had installed at my penthouse these days, but there’s an old world nostalgia that hits me when I manually crank on the water in Reagan’s clawfoot tub. The loofa that played a very soapy and
very
x-rated roll in my dreams of her last night is hanging there on a hook by the shower-head, and a surge of lust hits me again as the scent of her soap and her shampoo hit me. I think of her standing in this very tub last night, her skin pink and wet, her breasts rising and falling as she breathes in the steam, and the water running over her stomach and her hips to trickle down between her legs.

Jesus, get a fucking grip, man.

I’m so hard thinking about Reagan that I’m practically about to rip through my briefs, so I shuck them down my thighs, annd
that’s
when the door barges open.

She’s clearly just stumbled out of bed, and it’s the sexiest fucking thing I’ve
ever
seen. She’s wearing these thin little white panties that are clinging tightly to every curve of her hips and every crease between her thighs, and this sheer lacy nighty thing that I can see
right
fucking through.

“I, oh-!” She trips over whatever she’s about to say as I whirl around, and then she’s just
staring
at my cock. Her mouth is open in this sexy as fuck way, and I can feel my dick actually jump as her tongue
barely
slides out to briefly wet her lip and then it just feels like time stops. We’re frozen in this moment, barely three feet away from each other and yet neither of us moving or saying a damn thing. And there is
so much
I want to say that I almost can’t think, but at the same time, I don’t want anything in the world to shatter this moment.

We stand there in silence for the longest three full seconds in the world before she starts to slowly back away. She’s not leaving, she just backs up against the door frame, her eyes stuck on my erection.

“Hudson-“ She breathes, her eyes wide and blinking quickly and her chest rising and falling with her breathing. Something about her saying my name like that breaks me from the freeze, and I’m moving towards her before I know what the fuck I’m doing. But dammit if she’s going to move, or leave, than she better fucking do it now before I crush those pouty, sexy fucking lips with mine and take her right here in the bathroom.

I’m right in front of her, my pulse raging in my ears, her eyes still haven’t left my dick. Slowly, she draws them up, slowly shaking her head but her cheeks are bright red and her breath is coming in these cute little gasps; “You’re-“

She swallows heavily and licks her lips again, and all I can think about is watching those lips wrap around my shaft.
 

“Say it,” I growl out, my eyes flashing as I hold her trembling gaze with my own; “Say the word.” I want to tear those panties from her body and sink my cock into her right here against the bathroom wall, but I
need her
to tell me she wants me first. I’m already feeling like I’m breaking every vow and all the trust in the world with William and Logan and Bryce, and she
has
to make the first move or this is nothing, as much as I
know
we both want this right now.

“We- we can’t-“

I grab her wrist and push them back tight against the doorframe behind her. She whimpers and shivers, and this tiny moan falls from her lips, and God help me I’m going to take her right here in about three seconds.
 

She arches her hips forward in
just
the smallest of movements, and my cock
just
grazes against the bare skin of her hip and she shivers; “Hudson-“

“Say the word Reagan.” I growl, leaning down until I’m practically breathing the words against her lips. It’s taking everything I have not to shove my tongue into her mouth and fuck her right up against the wall; “Say the fucking word and I’ll-”

“No!” She gasps, the spell suddenly broken as she pushes me back. My stomach drops as she’s whirling around and bolting out the bathroom door, leaving me standing here with heart in my throat and my cock rock hard.

Day one of watching Reagan Archer; I am
not
going to survive this campaign.

P A S T

I’m fussing with the the hemline of the white dress again, even though Quinn and my friend Cassy have already told me a
thousand times
that it looks great on me. The problem is, the dress
does
look good, I’m just not sure it’s really
me
, you know?
 

“Seriously, stop playing with it, you look hot.” Quinn is every inch the world-weary college girl home on break; twenty-one going on forty and
totally
jaded about, like, you know,
everything
.

I make a face at her; “I’m not trying to look
hot
, Quinn, it’s a
family
graduation party.” A family event, I might add, that our Dad is
actually around for
.
 

“Well, too bad, cause you look hot. That dress makes your tits look
great
, by the way.”

“
Quinn!
”

“Oh stop being a prude.” She sticks her tongue out at me before she stops and seems to look past me, and her brow arches and a little grin creeps across her face; “Well
hello
.” She slides her sunglasses down her nose an inch or so; “Don’t look now, but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that thinks you look hot in that dress.”

“Huh?”

“No,
Reagan-
” She hisses as I start to turn; “I said
don’t
look now!” But I’m ignoring my older sister as I turn around, and suddenly lock eyes with possibly the most attractive looking man I’ve ever seen. His piercing blue eyes flash at me, boring into me so much that I feel a warm flutter hit me even from 100 feet away across the gardens. He says something to the other suited guy he’s talking to, and suddenly he’s walking over to where we’re standing,
 
his eyes never really leaving me as he strides towards me.

“Um, what do I do?” He’s definitely walking towards us, and I definitely have no idea what to say to a man that looks like that.

Quinn laughs; “Ugh, you
talk
to him, psycho?” She sees me biting my cuticle and pulls my hand away from my mouth; “Yeah,
don’t
do that. Just, be normal and be yourself, ok?”

Yeah but myself is an awkward, gawky bookworm, despite the sexy dress my sister picked out for me.

“You know you
are
going to have to talk to guys at
some
point when you go to college, Ray,” she says grinning as she winks at me and starts to walk away.

“
Wait!
Where are you
going!
” I hiss at her.

She sticks her tongue out at me; “Go get get ‘im, tiger.”

I’m opening my mouth to yell something at her back about deserting me when I hear his voice for the first time; “Congratulations, Reagan.”

The voice is like honey and leather; smooth and smokey and yet older-sounding than the man who looks barely much older than I am standing in front of me.

“Uh, hi.” I say, feeling flushed as I turn to him.

Smooth; very smooth
.

Up close, I can see the tiniest glimpses of tattoo ink peeking out above his shirt collar or at the sleeves of his Armani suit, hinting at something much less
polished
beneath. A $5,000 suit and visible tattoos? Color me curious. Up close like this, I can see the thin white scar on his chin, and combined with that crazy charming smile and those hints of bad boy ink, I realize that more than just being the most attractive looking man I’ve ever met, he also might just be the most
dangerous.

I can feel my blush spreading up my cheeks as the thought hits me; the kind of blush that I
hate
because it makes my cheeks pink, which looks weird and not in a cute way if you’ve got red hair like mine. He’s grinning at me though with that totally charming and utterly disarming smile, and those piercing blue eyes are flashing and its like I’m under some kind of spell.

…You know, the kind of spell where I apparently can’t say
anything
without sounding like a total weirdo; “So, how do you- I mean, how did you get-“

Wow, was I really about to ask ‘how did you get invited?’
I shake my head; “Uh, sorry. I guess I meant to ask your name, not, you know, accuse you of party crashing or something.”

He laughs, and the sound is like warm silk and smoke, which makes something tingle inside of me; “Oh, yeah sorry, I never even got to that part.”

God
that smile is freaking
criminal
it’s so attractive, it’s like I just want to-

“Hudson,” My heart skips a beat; “Hudson Banks.”

Shit
. And just like that, I’m over it.

“I work with- “

“You work with my Dad.” I say evenly. Ok, spark gone; mystery butterflies dead.
 

Hudson freaking Banks. I can’t
believe
I haven’t recognized him from the corporate gala event Dad threw a year or so back. Of course, back then I was too busy hating our Dad for dragging us to his stupid event and too busy sulking in the corner with a book to bother being introduced to anyone. Anyone like Hudson Banks; one of “The Guys” my father is always palling around with in whatever conflict zone he’s in this week. The charm suddenly looks more like smugness to me; the cool confidence now arrogance as I realize that
this
is one of the people it seems my father would rather spend time with than his own family at his own home.
 

Hudson frowns a little, seeing the way my smile falls from my face, and he opens his perfect mouth to say something when suddenly something blonde and
loud
crashes into him; “
Heeey baaabe
.”

I can see him wince, and see his jaw tense up, and I almost have to grin at his discomfort. I mean I thought
my
dress
was a little too flirty for the occasion, but this girl looks like she might be a stripper.

“
Hiii
, I’m Chastity.” She says, sticking out a hand covered in tacky looking jewelry with big fake nails.

Ok, I take it back, this girl is
definitely
a stripper. I can’t even help but let the grin spread across my cheeks as I see the frown deepen on his. Whatever charm he was trying to work on me - and I
refuse
to admit that it
was
; working, that is - is now being totally shattered by this bimbo, and that thought is
extremely
amusing to me in that moment.

Hudson clears his throat; “So, uh, you’re going to be in New York for college in the fall I hear?”

I’m momentarily confused how he knows that, but I nod; “Yeah, Columbia. It was that or Cornell, but I really liked the idea of being in the city-“

“
Oh
my
God
.” Hudson’s stripper-date has her mouth wide open, her eyes glazed as she shakes her head at me; “I
totally
gave up corn too. It has
so
many carbs it’s like
crazy
, am I right?”

Wow.

I can see Hudson’s eyes flash as he cringes, and it only makes me grin even more and nod enthusiastically at her; “That’s, uh, yeah that’s terrific.
Good
for you-”

“Chastity.” She says with a smile, holding out her hand as if we didn’t
just
do this thirty seconds before; “Like the virtue.”

I almost lose it completely; you just
can’t
make this stuff up, folks.