Hot Number (21 page)

She let her head drop back against his
shoulder, luxuriating in the thrum of water over her nipples and
breasts while his hands teased and tantalized down below. His cock
and fingers were close together now, pressing hard between her legs
from behind and stroking in front, both so maddeningly close to her
throbbing clit. And then his index finger found the hard little bud
and her body involuntarily arched away from him. He pressed his
hand over her mound and pulled her back to ride the hard ridge of
flesh between her thighs.

“Nick,” she gasped, barely able to stand
upright on her trembling legs. “Honestly, as wonderful as it is, I
don’t think I can tolerate any extended foreplay right now. I can’t
believe I’m saying this, but I need you to thrust your penis into
my pussy. Immediately.”

Oh, dear
. She wasn’t sure she’d ever
said the word
pussy
before in her life, but if he kept this
up who knew what would come out of her mouth.

He gave a choked chuckle that soon turned
into a low growl.

“Your wish is my command, ma’am.” He teased
her clit while he pulled the little strip of panties aside and
gently thrust two fingers into her swollen sheath. She felt her
inner muscles clench, wanting so much more, wanting all of him
inside her. He stroked her for a bit, driving her crazy, then he
withdrew his fingers and pressed the head of his cock through her
soft folds.

“This is what you want, baby, isn’t it?” His
voice rumbled against her neck.

“God, yes,” she breathed, almost overcome
with the both the steam of the shower and the heat flooding her
body as he slowly parted her. With one smooth stroke, he pushed all
the way in, stretching and filling her with raw, vivid sensation.
He was so deep inside her it felt like his shaft had penetrated all
the way to her heart. She felt wonderfully and completely
stuffed.

“Oooh. Your penis is quite extraordinary, you
know,” she gasped, her brain melting under the sensual onslaught.
He stroked in and out, bringing her up on her toes. “Unhhh. Not
that I’ve had all that much to compare it to, of course. But it
really is…ooof…delightfully rampant.”

Nick made a noise somewhere between a laugh
and a pant. “I love it when you talk dirty like that.”

Sadie didn’t know whether to giggle or wince
at her own idiotic commentary. “Now you’re mocking me, you ravaging
beast.”

“I would never mock you,” he said, suddenly
sounding dead serious. “Not when we’re in this position,
anyway.”

He moved his calloused hands up to her
breasts, alternately pulling then gently squeezing her stiff,
aching nipples. Pinned against the shower wall, Sadie felt
completely at his mercy, captive of his strong body and his driving
cock. He was every bit the sheriff now, and the hard-as-nails
Marine. In control, dominating, overpowering. She loved every
second of it.

She pressed her hands against the wet tile
wall, gasping with pleasure as he pounded into her. Never could she
have imagined something like this happening to her. Being so
dominated, so constrained as a big, hard man ravished her. But with
Nick Saxon, it was all good, all safe, and yet wildly exciting.

And unbearably intense. If she didn’t climax
soon, she just might dissolve into liquid and disappear down the
drain.

Sadie could hardly believe the next words
that popped out of her mouth. “Um, I don’t mean to complain, but
could you do it a little harder and faster, Nick?” Her voice
wobbled with the force of his thrusts, but it still wasn’t quite
enough to make her come. “I know you’re trying to be gentle, but I
won’t break, you know.”

He gave a breathless laugh. “There you go
with that dirty talk again.” But he quickened the pace of his
thrusts, plunging so deep into her that his heavy balls slapped
against her bottom. She loved the sound of their bodies coming
together, loved that every stroke vibrated through her clit, making
her gasp with spiraling pleasure.

Suddenly, Nick slowed, and then stopped.
Sadie just about screamed. “Sheriff, what the hell are you
doing?”

He pulled out. “I want to look in your eyes
when you come.”

She pivoted to face him. Water glistened on
his face and his jet black hair was a flat, shiny cap atop his
head. She’d never seen those onyx eyes quite so intense. His jaw
was rigid with desire, his neck and chest muscles taut with
anticipation. His penis, long and slick from the shower and from
her, bobbed under the powerful jets of water. Looking at all his
hard, male flesh made her even crazier with desire.

“You’re beautiful,” he said in a thick voice
as he slid the soaking wet panties down her legs.

Sadie stepped out of them and kicked them
away. “Thank you for the compliment. But please get back inside me
right now.”

Nick reached his hands under her thighs.
Understanding immediately, Sadie gave a little hop until he had her
in the air, her legs wrapped around his waist, her back flat
against the shower wall. With one strong arm under her bottom, he
used the other to guide his cock into her sheath. Her thigh muscles
quivered as he impaled her, pinning her hard to the wall. They both
groaned as she pulsed around him.

He was right. As erotic as the other position
had been, Sadie loved seeing his face as he drove into her, filling
her not only physically, but with an intense emotion she couldn’t
and didn’t yet want to name. All she wanted was to
feel.
Feel his magnificent body under her hands, her nipples rubbing with
delicious friction against the hair of his chest, his cock driving
into her with hot, hungry surges.

Panting and near the edge, she moaned as she
trailed kisses over his neck, his ears, his cheeks, his lips—every
place she could reach. For once, she couldn’t think of a single
coherent thing to say.

Nick pulled her into a shallow arch and
lowered his head to her breasts, licking each of her nipples, his
breath hot and wet as he sucked the tips until they grew even more
rigid with an almost painful arousal. She surrendered completely to
his dominance, able to gasp only broken words—shameful things she
knew she’d be embarrassed to recall later.

But she didn’t care. Nothing mattered but
Nick and the earth-shattering lust or whatever the hell it was that
flowed between them. Some dim part of her brain looked on in
amazement that a man like him could crave her so much. Crave
her
—Professor Sadie Bligh, math geek and perpetual
wallflower.

“Oh, my. Oh, my, oh, my!” Every thought in
her brain imploded like a collapsing star. Pleasure screamed
through her, winding tighter and tighter until she convulsed
against Nick’s chest with a high, keening wail.

His muscles like iron, Nick ground into
her—once, twice—and then he clenched his jaw, his face distorting
with the force of his orgasm. His cock pulsed inside and he held
her tight until she collapsed, her legs trembling as she began to
ease down to the floor of the shower.

Nick shut off the water and followed her
down. They subsided onto the tile in a tangled heap of limbs, spent
and gasping for breath. Sadie let her head fall onto his chest as
her reason slowly returned, the cooling shower beginning to clear
the haze from her brain. And as reason returned, with it came the
unnerving sense that her little Vegas fling had just morphed into
something a whole lot more dangerous to her heart.

Man, we destroyed these steaks,” Nick said
after doggedly chewing his way through the first mouthful.

Sadie tentatively poked her dry-looking filet
with her fork, then pushed it off to the side. “The salad and
grilled vegetables suit me just fine.”

Women
, Nick thought, unable to hold
back a sigh. What was it with them and salads?

“It’s my fault,” she said apologetically.
“I’m the one who started us down the highway to sexual abandon.”
She tilted her head and gave him a thoughtful inspection, her damp
curls falling softly around her glowing face. “You’re turning me
into a wanton woman, Sheriff. And I must say I think I like
it.”

He grinned as he refilled her wine glass.
“True. But I’m the one who insisted on the shower.”

The memory of what they’d done in the shower
would stay with him a very long time. It wasn’t the first time he’d
had shower sex, but this one had been in a league of its own. Their
slick bodies had meshed in perfect accord. Holding Sadie in his
arms had made him feel like he was at the beginning of something
new—a fresh start, and a respite from the often grim march of days
that his life had become.

As for the sex, well, she’d said she couldn’t
get enough of him, and he believed her. He felt exactly the same
way.

Despite the ruined steaks, the evening would
have been perfect had it not been for the ugly task that lay ahead
of him. It hung like an executioner’s blade over his neck, and he
knew there were so many ways that the conversation could go off the
rails. But the longer he delayed, the tougher it would be. Better
to do it now, while the buzz of lovemaking was still strong between
them.

Watching her on the monitors today had made
him realize he knew precious little about her. She was from
Chicago, but what did she do for a living? He was equally in the
dark about her family. He’d been so busy answering her
questions—and having mind-blowing sex—that he’d neglected to ask
many of his own. And he’d made too many assumptions. Had she been
distracting him on purpose all along?

“Sadie?”

She looked up from her plate, casting him a
smile so sweet it made it hard for him to breathe. “Yes, Nick?”

“I was just thinking that you know a fair bit
about me, but I know almost nothing about you.”

Her eyes rounded with surprise, and possibly
caution. “You do have a point, but I’m not sure there’s all that
much worth knowing. I haven’t led a very interesting life, at least
not until the past couple of days.” She turned up the wattage on
her smile, which only fed his suspicion.

He stretched out in his chair, trying to look
more relaxed than he felt. “I doubt that. Anyway, I don’t even know
what you do for a living. And you haven’t mentioned your family at
all. I’d like to know more about you, especially since we’re...” He
let the words trail away.

“Haven’t we been keeping busy doing other
things?” she said, her smile playfully warm.

Answering a question with a question
.
She was probably just trying to be cute and sexy—not that she had
to try—but it still came off like an evasion. She didn’t want to
talk about herself or her past.
Why?

“True, but fair’s fair,” he said. “I’ve
practically told you my life history. What I do, the Iraq stuff,
what happened to my dad, what’s going on with my mom. It’s think
it’s time for you to open up, at least a little bit.”

She dropped her eyes toward her lap for a
moment before raising them again. “You do have a right to demand a
degree of reciprocity,” she finally said. “All right, Sheriff. Ask
away.”

Shit.
Why the hell did she have to
keep calling him that, especially now? Resisting the urge to take a
deep breath, Nick throttled back.
Time for a new
strategy.

“I could ask you straight out what you do,
but let me try to guess,” he said, hoping to make it sound like a
game.

Her eyes narrowed. “Well, okay, but good luck
with that.”

“Let’s give it a try. I figure that with all
those fancy words that roll off your tongue, you’re some kind of
academic. Or maybe a writer. Not a journalist, though. I’m thinking
more along the lines of a novelist, or a screenwriter.” Maintaining
his easy posture, he watched for her reaction. “Am I getting
anywhere close?”

She was working to keep her expression blank,
but the little jerk of her body told him his guess had hit close
enough to the mark.

“Not bad, Sheriff. Not bad at all. But
there’s obviously a big difference between what you call an
academic, and some sort of professional scribbler. Which one are
you putting your money on?”

Nick had spent all afternoon thinking about
little else, putting together the small clues he’d gathered over
the last few days. She didn’t look like any professor he’d ever
seen, but he went with his gut. “I’ll say an academic.”

Her eyes widened, but then she gave him a
disdainful look, pursing her lips. “Oh, come on, Sheriff. You’re a
professional. You can be more specific than that, can’t you?”

He paused to sip his wine, making her wait.
“With your brain, you’ll have a Ph.D. for sure, so you probably
teach at a university or a junior college.”

Her mouth quirked up, reluctantly, he
thought. “Good instincts. You might make a decent gumshoe if you
ever want to change careers. But keep going.”

What did she teach? That seemed almost a
no-brainer, given her manner of speech. “You’re a professor of
English. Probably something really inaccessible,” he said with a
chuckle. “Like James Joyce.”

“Good Lord, no, Sheriff.” Sadie shook her
head as if he’d just said the dumbest thing she’d ever heard. She
pointed an index finger at his head and said “bang” before blowing
away the pretend smoke from her imaginary gun. “James Joyce,
indeed. Sorry, you lose.”

Irrationally, Nick started to get annoyed.
What the hell did he expect? He’d started this game. “Okay,
philosophy, then. Philosophers like big words.”

She laughed. “A little better, but that’s
strike two. Care to go for the strikeout?”

Damn
. One more miss and he’d feel like
an idiot. “Nah, I give up,” he finally conceded.

“Chicken,” she said, giving her head a sad
shake.

Nick put on a wounded look. “Hey, I did get
pretty damn close.”

“True enough. You did very well, I have to
admit.” She raised her glass in toast to him. “So, I’ll put you out
of your misery. I teach mathematics at the University of
Chicago.”