The Hunter (17 page)

Amber had bitten him without thinking. The idea that Lily…No, no, she would never allow Lily to ever see him naked again. Hawk McMillan ought to be locked in a jar like a genie, to be summoned by she, and she alone. She ran a hand down his muscular back, shocked at her own possessiveness.

“Never say another woman’s name while you’re naked with me,” she warned.

“I’m not naked.”

True. He hadn’t had his clothes torn apart by a sexual animal. She wanted to explore him as closely as he had her. “Easily remedied. A shower.”

He finally lifted his head and she had to stop the sharp intake of breath. She had thought he sounded satiated, but he still had
that
look in his eyes. He sat back on his haunches, pulling his T-shirt over his head. “Okay, fourth position,” he said, voice muffled. He wadded the shirt into a ball and cocked his head. “What is it?”

Amber closed her mouth and blinked. She couldn’t take her eyes away from what had caught her attention. Running through Hawk’s right nipple was a very thin but very real band of gold. She shifted her gaze upward and caught him watching her. The image fit him somehow—a secret pirate—and her eyes shifted back down again, this time a lot lower. With a very big bird boldly jutting out between the vee of his pants. She wanted to see the rest of him.

“Just admiring,” she breathed out. He really was magnificent. His face might look like a male model’s, but that physique didn’t look gym-made. She held several belts in martial arts; she recognized a trained fighter’s body. From the muscle-corded arms, to the broad chest, to those amazing cuts on his stomach, he was, simply, a fantastic specimen of a man. And all she wanted was to get a closer look at that nipple ring.

“Keep looking like that and we might not make it into the bathroom.” His voice had lowered a notch. “I’m still not quite in control, Amber.”

She caught something underlying in Hawk’s words and returned her gaze to his face. Something had happened in the last few days to him. She was pretty sure of it. Once he had stepped into her bedroom, he hadn’t even bothered to reach the bed before he had taken her.

And he
had
taken her. There was no other word for it. He had given her the kind of mindless pleasure she had only read about, had wanted to experience all her life. She was surprised by how emotionally involved it was: To allow a man to take her like that needed a bond of trust, a willingness to let the other person take the lead.

Yet this had been more than that. If he had just wanted some kind of quickie to slake his male needs, he wouldn’t have taken the time to give her so much pleasure. No, he had come looking for her because he knew she would understand him.

It was ridiculous. She didn’t know the man. Yet somehow, intrinsically, she had bonded with and trusted him.

She reached out and touched the half-off pants. “Fourth position?” she said, bringing up what he had said when he took off his shirt. “I never did anything to you in a shower that night.”

His answering smile made her swallow. “Don’t believe you,” he said, his hands covering hers on his hips. He stood up, pulling her to her feet at the same time. He pushed her hands downward and his pants slid lower until they fell into a pool around his ankles. He stepped out of them.

Amber bit her lower lip as he slid her hands to his front. She automatically fisted around his arousal. His eyes narrowed as she caressed the length of him.

“Is that what you did before tying that note?”

She shook her head. “I was very…careful.” She really had been. She hadn’t touched him as she had looped the cord gently in the dark. Her naughty joke, she realized now, had really pissed him off.

“Don’t believe you,” he repeated, as he squeezed her hands tighter around him.

He was fiery hot in her hands.

He turned and she reluctantly released him as he pulled her by the elbow. He looked totally out of place in her very feminine bathroom, with its candles and figurines decorating the table by the ornate European tub. He turned on the tap and as hot water began filling it, he climbed in and made himself quite at home. In all her life, she had never seen a sexier picture than a naked man in her tub. She let him pull her in, even though it was a tight fit.

He put a heart-shaped soap in her hand. “Show me how you tied the note,” he invited, turning off the water. She had to smile at the sight of his penis rising up like a mast of a ship at sea. He obviously had more than bathing in mind.

“I didn’t use soap and there was no water involved,” she protested, still smiling.

“Don’t believe you.”

Amber laughed. She could see it was going to take some time to convince Hawk that if she had really touched him the way she now wanted to, he would have remembered it a lot more vividly. She dipped her hands in the water, then soaped her hands until bubbly foam engulfed them.

A few minutes later, he huskily said, “Still don’t believe you. Do that again.”

“Stubborn man,” she observed.

Lily heard laughter coming from Amber’s room as she walked by. She paused in midstep, her heart falling like a heavy stone. Unmistakably male. Her jaw clenched as she listened to the male voice amid the sounds of water and Amber’s laughter. The bathroom was in the far corner of the house, so she couldn’t make out what was being said.

She had a strange feeling about this. It had started right after her phone call, and she had never been wrong before.

Brad was coming here for dinner tonight. He was early. The thought of him in there with her friend gutted her like a knife. How could he…but why not? She had run off the other night, leaving him in a state of need, and a man had to release his frustration somehow, right? And Amber and he were close enough friends….

Lily abruptly turned around. She couldn’t stay here and listen to them having their little private fun in there. She looked at the clock on the wall. Yeah, and she was invited to dinner to talk about the coming interview. She hadn’t answered any of Brad’s or Amber’s calls; they must have concluded that she wasn’t showing up. That was all right. Her appetite had evaporated anyway. She didn’t think she could bear them exchanging intimate glances in front of her while she played third wheel, trying to swallow down food.

You could have had him.
She closed her eyes at the memory of Brad and her on the sofa. How he had felt in her hands; how he had tasted. If she had given in to her needs and stayed the night, everything would have changed. Her eyes flew open. Therein lay the problem. She didn’t want any changes. She wanted to stay the course. Bradford Sun would change everything for which she had worked so hard, and she couldn’t afford it.

Perhaps it was better this way. Brad made her feel too damn much. Every time he was around her, she alternately wanted to either hit out at him verbally and physically or grab him by the lapels of his expensive suits and kiss him till she forgot what she was.

What she was…a loud thud brought her attention back to the closed door. And murmurs, mingled with…Lily backed away slowly. She didn’t want to think what those soft sounds meant or what two people could be doing in a small bathroom.

She abruptly turned and retraced her steps back outside. She closed the door quietly behind her and leaned against it, breathing hard. The evening air was cool, yet she felt as if she were standing naked in the dead of winter.

She shook her head violently. No, she wouldn’t think about being naked right now. Too many people were naked around here. She was Lily Noretski and she had sworn never to be naked and cold in any way or form ever again. She had sworn never to feel for anyone or anything. Feelings were for weaklings, and people like her could never be weak. Or they would break. In a million pieces. As she had done once.

Running down the steps in twos, she headed for her car. It was going to be all right. She was strong; she hadn’t given in to those base feelings that made women weak and men powerful. She didn’t care about Amber having sex with Bradford Sun. She slammed the car door shut, fired up the engine, and jammed on her sunglasses. She looked into the rearview mirror and, taking out her lipstick, she refreshed her lips, making a moue at her reflection.

Sex was nothing. She had had plenty of that, with anyone she wanted. As long as she didn’t care, or take the time to know the man’s body, or let him manipulate her feelings, she was all right. She had come precariously close to doing just that the other night. She almost had an orgasm in front of a man. What an idiot. If she had done that, everything would have changed.

And Lily didn’t want anything changed. She took a deep breath and backed out of the driveway. She had a cause and people like her did not sway from the path. People like her…her lips twisted into a bitter smile as she made a turn into the road. People like her had no place in that kind of a world.

She pressed Amber’s cell number on her phone. As expected, her friend’s message service came on. She affected cheerfulness in her voice. “Hiya, sweetie. Have an emergency and will probably not be able to make it tonight. Here are some details that you and Brad can discuss if he shows up for dinner….”

Amber lay on top of Hawk in her bed, her face against his chest. They were still damp from the long bath they had taken. It was the most use of that tub she had had since moving here four years ago.

“You’re very, very good in the bathtub,” she told him lazily.

His rumble of laughter echoed in her ear. “Your being triple-jointed helped, honey.”

She bit his chest. “You liked that, huh?”

“Baby, you can reach back that way in a tight space and move your sexy butt again anytime.” His hand covered her derriere. “I love your ass. So perfectly round and silky. With enough meat for little bites. And the little tattoo on the right side near your thigh drives me crazy. Why did you choose to have one there?”

Heat rose in her face. “You sound like you’re talking about food,” she said lightly.

“And I was doing quite a bit of eating,” he teased. “That trail of little roses that led the way. I felt like Hansel and Gretel eating bread crumbs.”

He caressed the spot where she had her tattoo. “There you go with food again,” she said.

Using his other hand, Hawk nudged her up into a sitting position, her thighs spread on either side of him. She looked down at him, enjoying his nakedness as much as he was hers. He traced the pattern of the flowers in her thigh, his finger following each rose until the stem disappeared.

“You must have done this during a vacation.”

She expelled a breath when his fingers moved lower. “How do you know?”

“It was just an assumption. You must have shaved for the bikini,” he said, and his smile was very wicked. “I’m just trying to imagine you lying there spread out for the tattoo guy.”

Amber flushed. “It was a biker festival,” she told him.

“A biker party, huh? Interesting. Somehow I don’t see you as a biker mama, Amber.”

She laughed. “It was the most rebellious thing the daughter of missionaries could think of to do, although to this day my parents really don’t know about the tattoo. Just that I spent a whole weekend with bikers.” She laughed again at the memory. “My girlfriends and I wanted to put our tattoos somewhere sinful. The tattoo place was run by a couple, and the woman there suggested this.”

“I like it. It makes me want to go down on you again.” His gaze traveled intimately up her body. By the time it reached her eyes, her whole body was on fire from his leisurely inspection. “Shave for me. I want to see the rest of it.”

“What do I get in return?” The sight of his tanned hand on her fair skin was erotic.

“I remember another position you owe me.”

She leaned forward, putting her hands on his shoulders. “For an unconscious man, you seemed to remember all kinds of things I supposedly did to your body.”

His lips quirked. “You mean to say you didn’t climb on top and take advantage of me, like you’re going to right now?”

“I didn’t climb…I know, I know, you don’t believe me.” He was already positioning her. “Hawk, if I were doing all those things, shouldn’t you let
me
be in charge?”

“Later.”

He was too sure of himself. He opened his legs, effectively widening her thighs. There was the sensation of pressure as he guided himself inside her with one hand and pushed her down on him with another.

“You’re a control freak,” she whispered as she slid down on him.

“Yes.”

She ignored the arrogance of his reply as she enjoyed the thick feel of him. He lay there contentedly as she adjusted to an easy rhythm; she could feel his eyes watching her as she abandoned herself to enjoyment. He trailed his fingers along her tattoo as she moved up and down, not quite touching her, just enough to make her go a little faster.

The shrill from her private line cut through her haze of pleasure. Her eyes darted to the phone on the night table by them. The tone told her it was the direct line linked to her study. Shit. She caught the time on the alarm clock. Shit, shit. Brad. She had forgotten about the dinner. He sometimes called her from the study when he got in early.

Hawk didn’t stop her from answering the phone, but his hands on her thighs made it impossible for her to disengage her body from hers. She leaned over to get the phone.

“Hello? Hi…Brad.” She almost lost balance as Hawk began to sit up. She held on to the phone tightly. “I’m fine, just running a little…late.”

Amber couldn’t do anything as Hawk pushed her back against his raised thighs. Just in time, she stopped the groan that rose in her throat as he thrust upward. She glared up at him. His eyes had an unmistakable glint in them.

She cleared her throat again. “No, no, I’ll be down there soon.” She ignored, or tried to, the hands cupping her breasts. He leaned forward and she jerked forward at the feel of his mouth on her nipple. This time she couldn’t stop her gasp. “Oh! I mean, have some…wine.”

She slapped at the teasing hand traveling down from her rib cage, but there wasn’t much room to maneuver, not when she was trying to have a conversation at the same time. She leaned back helplessly against Hawk’s thighs as his thumb mercilessly began its external assault. Sitting on him, impaled, there was no escape. And Brad was asking about Lily.