Author: Lorelei James

She chuckled and the vibration zipped up, like his dick had become a lightning rod. Holly began a game of tease and retreat. Sucking. Backing off to paint his purple cockhead with little whips of her wet tongue. Then swirling her lips over the thick ridge separating the stem from the tip. Breathing on the damp spots, sending a rippling quiver up his belly as her fist jacked him off. The humming, sucking sensations danced across his skin like fire.

Then she’d stop, nuzzle his inner thigh and start over again.

Was she aware her firm grip at the base of his dick acted like a c**k ring? That he teetered on the brink, craving that molten blast of release, only to be jerked back?

Nick watched her reveling in the power, almost as if it were a new experience.

Nah. Couldn’t be. Holly held men enthralled every damn night. She was used to power.

Wasn’t she?

When Holly looked up at him from beneath lowered lashes, his balls drew up hard as chestnuts.

“I’m gonna…you don’t have to…” Nick could scarcely get the words out and he stopped his h*ps from bumping up.

“Don’t you dare deny me. Give it to me. All of it. Now.” The hand circling the base of his c**k loosened and moved in tandem with Holly’s bobbing, intensifying the pressure of her mouth.

“Oh. Yes. Like that. I’m fixin’ to… Fuck!” Nick clamped his hands on Holly’s head and slammed deep as wave after wave of come pulsed out his twitching c**k and coated her tongue.

The roaring in Nick’s head was as loud as the whirlpool jets had been earlier. Once he was fairly sure he wouldn’t slip into a coma and drown, he slumped back against the wall with a drawn-out sigh.

Water splashed as Holly retreated.

He missed her warmth and the touch of her hand on his body. Nick’s eyes flipped open.

A cute set of lines wrinkled her forehead as she squinted at him. Wariness stayed on her face, in her eyes, as she kept backing away.

Nick slithered into the tub and stalked her. “You’re running out of places to go. And I don’t understand why you’re trying so hard to get away from me anyway.”

“I-I…” She licked her lips. “Did you like that?”

“I loved it.” He hauled her into his arms, pressing their upper bodies together. Man. He went half hard again at the sensation of those heavy br**sts rubbing against his bare chest. “I kinda got the impression you liked doin’ it.”

Holly nodded against his neck. “It shocked me you weren’t in a hurry to get off. Every time I’ve done it before, it’s been like, get me off, or get me close to the point so I can stick it in you.”

“Been with some real winners, haven’t you?”

“Yeah.” Holly’s lips glided across his collarbone. “Will you think I’m some kind of freak if I admit I haven’t really had that much experience in the…ah…dating world?”

“How much inexperience are we talking here?”

She shrugged.

“Darlin’, you brought it up.” Nick lazily trailed his fingers up and down her back.

“Five,” she blurted.

“Five what?”

“I’ve slept with five guys.” Holly angled to look in his eyes. “Including you.”

Nick kept his surprise in check. His cop side searched her eyes and her face for the lie. Finding none, a purely primitive male instinct of mine mine mine rolled through him. He reconnected their mouths in a kiss so tender he felt her satisfied sigh slip into his soul.

Suddenly she stiffened and broke free when his tongue swept between her lips. “Oh, you probably wish I would get a drink first—”

“No.” He sucked on her tongue before releasing it. “I wanna know how my come tastes in your mouth.” Then Nick swamped her with kisses that caused her to writhe against him. Kisses that plainly said she wanted him again as much as he wanted her.

This time Nick backed away first and rested his forehead to hers. “Again, Holly. Like this. Wrapped tightly together, looking in each other’s eyes, slipping and sliding as we’re making love in a cocoon of water.”

She scattered kisses over his jawline to his ear. “But all the condoms are in the bedroom.”

“Damn. Then I guess I’ll have you all slippery and wet in bed.” He helped her stand. His gaze traveled down her long, curvy torso and zeroed in on the droplet trickling from her belly button. He placed his mouth over that shallow dent and sucked the water out.

Holly gasped and goose bumps popped up across her skin.

When she turned, giving him a glimpse of that fabulous ass, he groaned. “I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave.”

Straddling the tub, she gave a sexy butt wiggle before she spun back around. Her face distorted as she lost her balance, listed sideways, and crashed to the floor.

Chapter Seven

Holly’s shoulder smacked into the tile as she hit. Her leg twisted, scraping her knee on the lip of the tub as she tried to keep from doing the splits. Naked. Her arm ended up pinned underneath her body and as she rolled to free it, she whacked her forehead into the metal base of the shower stall.

She squeezed her eyes shut at the immediate burst of pain and the flash of embarrassment.

Oh yeah. Holly North; grace personified.

“Shit!” Water splashed her prone body as she heard Nick hopping out of the tub. “Holly? You all right?”

Good Lord. The last thing she needed was to see his look of pity, so she didn’t answer or move.

“Sweet baby, open your eyes for me.”

Sweet baby? Her eyes flew open at his new term of endearment. He’d crouched, focusing his gaze on her forehead. “Let’s get some ice on that before it swells up more.”

Great. It must look hideous if Nick was concerned it could look worse.

He stood and grabbed two bath towels, draping one over her front and one over her back. Before she could protest, he lifted her into his arms.

“Put me down. I can walk.”

“Screw that. I like carrying you.”

The hard set to his jaw meant arguing was futile. So she kept mum as he strode into the bedroom.

With infinite gentleness, he laid her on the bed. He dried her wet body and tossed the towels on the floor. He propped his hip next to hers and brushed the damp tendrils from her cheek. “Where else are you hurt?” Nick caressed her arm. “Here?”

Holly shook her head.

“What about here?” His fingertips traced every bone in her ribcage.

She shook her head again.

“I can see the scrape on your knee. But do you feel like you twisted either ankle?”

Another head shake.

“Are you hurt anywhere else?”

She nodded.

“Where?”

“My pride,” she choked out, failing to hold back the tears. “God. I’m such a klutz. And now I’ve ruined the whole night.” Holly closed her eyes and sobbed.

Nick didn’t vanish at the sight of a woman’s tears like most men she knew. Rather, he held her hand and repeatedly feathered his thumb over her knuckles, while stroking the sopping wet hair from her face.

Finally she regained control and looked at him. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. Accidents happen. If I’d’ve been on my game, I woulda gotten out of the tub first and then helped you out so you didn’t fall.” He grinned. “But I was too goddamn busy staring at your ass to be much of a gentleman.”

Holly managed a small smile.

“Will you be okay for a minute or so while I get some ice for that bump on your pretty head?”

“Yes. But I suggest you put on a robe or I’ll have to beat back all the women who see you n**ed and will follow you to the room. And I’m not exactly in fighting form.”

“Now who’s the sweet talker?” After kissing her palm, Nick stood. Robe on, ice bucket in hand, he grabbed the keycard off the nightstand. “Be right back.”

“Why don’t you just leave the door cracked open so you don’t have to mess with the keycard?”

He whirled back around. “Because we’re in a strange place and we have no clue about who might be in the room next to us. All it takes is one little slipup, they could slip in and you’d be another statistic.”

“But—”

“I’ve seen it happen in my line of work, Holly, more times than I care to count.” Without another word, Nick left and clicked the door shut behind him.

While timing the throb throb throb of her pulse, she speculated as to what line of work Nick was in. With his remark about statistics and his earlier paperwork comment, she guessed he did something in the insurance industry. With his abundance of charm, he’d be a helluva salesman.

Holly imagined him rapping on her office door, wearing that dimpled cowboy grin and refusing to take no for an answer…as he took her against the filing cabinet. As he took her in the cushiony, adjustable office chair. But her personal favorite? Nick taking her across her desk immediately after he swept everything from the top. Slamming into her as the ca-chunk ca-chunk of the calculator spewing miles of tape echoed in the background.

She allowed a secret, smug smile. For once in her life, the reality of a man was so much better than her fantasy.

The lock snicked and the object of her desire slipped back into room. Nick’s not-so-quick perusal of her body reminded her she was completely naked. It was unusual she hadn’t bothered to cover up in a bout of modesty. Why was it she trusted this man so easily? So quickly? So completely?

Nick headed for the sink and was back with a makeshift icepack. “It’s not much, but it’s better than nothin’. It should keep the swelling down.”

“Thank you.” She shivered.

“Cold?”

“Nah. Laying here wet and n**ed with an ice pack on my head is like cozying up to a fireplace.”

He smooched her nose. “Smartypants.” Then he crawled beside her, yanked up the bedspread and covered them both.

“Mmm.” It amused Holly that Nick invaded her space and was cuddly as a teddy bear, not to mention hot as a furnace.