CHAPTER TEN
Winters toed the bodies, rummaged through their pockets, and pulled out a set of car keys before he turned to Mia. Frozen in place, she hadn’t moved from the wall, manning her assigned spot. Her jaw was tight, her lips pressed into a straight line, and her eyes as round as the backlit O in the motel sign high overhead. Her skin had paled in the dark night.
Ah, man. He’d worked so hard to make her trust him. To make her think he was safe. Now, her face screamed stranger danger, and her stance said the woman was about to beat feet. All in all, she’d reverted back to when he pulled the shoulder toss move on her post-airport.
“Mia, honey.”
Her jaw dropped and hung wordlessly. Not good. Not. Good. At. All.
“It’s a really bad time for you to go into shock.”
“Not. Shock.”
“Whatever it is, I need you to snap out of it.”
“I’m safe. You… Took care of them, just like you said.”
He jangled the keys to catch her attention. Mia focused on him, dazed. He lofted the key ring her way. She caught them one-handed while still plastered against the wall. Not a bad catch.
“Get their car and drive it over here.”
She nodded, peeled away from her brick support, and obeyed without question, parking it in the unlit spot he pointed at. Winters popped the trunk and tossed the first man in, then the second. He eyed the parking lot in a quick sweep. No other cars struck him as suspicious. No one exited the karaoke bar. They were all alone.
Violence had never before been an aphrodisiac. Hell, it wasn’t now. But protecting her, isolating her from dangerous men, that shit was downright carnal. His blood rushed to his cock. A savage possession reared up.
Her dark eyes flicked over him, making his cock ache for her, and she hissed. “I told you to be careful. You could’ve been hurt.”
He was by her side in an instant, pinning her against the wall again. God, he should be careful with her. But the temptation on her face, the flash in her gaze, promised it’d be impossible.
“You doubted me?”
“No. No. I didn’t doubt you. I just…I didn’t know what else to say just then.”
Not giving her a second to make the same mistake twice, he slanted his lips over hers. It’d been too long since her lips covered his. Everything in the parking lot was a game. All part of the dance.
He needed her embrace to wash away the violence coursing through him. The need to battle dissolved as soon as she opened her mouth wide, wicking her hot tongue across his.
Mia knotted her hands in his hair, pulling him to her. Her mouth molded onto his, her body molten against his hands. Mia was just as hungry as he was. If that wasn’t one of the hottest things ever…
Her legs snaked up his, and she pushed against him, firing everything he tried to ignore. Her hands clawed his neck, making him hard within seconds. Miss Khakis-and-Cardigan had been so deceptive. Dressing sugar sweet but with an inner temptress.
“Maybe I am invincible. What’d you call me, GI Joe?”
“Shut up, Colby.” Her mouth punctuated the command with a kiss.
Their room was steps away, the key in his pant pocket. Both her legs encircled his waist, grinding her onto his erection. Christ, he needed to make it to that room. He needed privacy right this second. Winters pushed the door open, supporting her tight ass on his forearm, and kicked it closed behind them. Seclusion couldn’t have come fast enough.
He paused in the dark room. His free hand slid across the wallpaper. He had to find the light switch. There wasn’t a chance in hell he’d miss watching this.
He flipped the switch.
Two bedside lamps illuminated the cheap room in an amber glow. She deserved better than this, but there wasn’t anything he planned to do about it now.
Winters leaned forward over the bed, placing her on the mattress as quickly and gently as he could manage. Given the circumstances, it wasn’t a tender moment.
Her nails dug into his back. Nope. She didn’t need gentle. What the hell was he thinking? Just like that kiss in the truck. She wanted. She needed. And the wicked glint in her eye told him just as much.
The showy rip in her shirt that had tested him all day was done for. He grabbed the edge and tore. It split but gave him no relief as the air rushed out of his lungs and his mouth watered. She was gorgeous.
“I hated that shirt anyway.”
“I’ll buy you a new one. That shirt teased me all day. It was payback.”
Her pink lace bra was sheer. Her full breasts begged for his tongue, his lips. He thumbed one through the lace, and she arched her back, rolling her head to the side. “There was no teasing.”
“The hell there wasn’t.” The bed sank down as Winters nudged her legs apart to kneel between them. “You’re beautiful. Breath stealing, knock me on my ass gorgeous.”
She laughed and turned away from him.
“No, you don’t, Mia.” He bent over and cupped her face, pulling it back to him. “You okay? You need me to back off?”
“I never said I wanted you to stop.”
He smoothed a palm over her flat stomach. Torn fabric lay at her sides, framing her. He leaned over and brushed her nipple, teasing with his lips. She groaned, and her hips rocked. Her khaki pants. His tactical pants. They were so opposite, but right now, so connected.
With each swipe across her pebbled nipple, she twisted, offering approving cries, and pushing her breast into his mouth. Her backside lifted off the bed, making his insides corkscrew tight.
“You like that?”
“Uh-huh.” She nodded, doing great things for his ego.
“I’ve wanted you naked and underneath me since we squared off.”
“Pretty sure,” her eyes danced, “that’s why I tried to kick you in the balls.”
“So it’s like that, huh?” He closed down on her nipple, giving her more tooth than tongue.
Her fiery purr escaped on a breath, and he wanted her lips around his dick worse than he could have imagined. He traced a path up her arms, letting his fingers crawl across her creamy skin.
He’d take everything he could, anything she would offer, and relish it. This would all go away too soon. The tightness in his chest, the attraction to his opposite, it would disappear when they arrived home. He needed to make the most of it, and get her out of his system. Out of his head.
Winters grabbed hold of her wrists, pinning them above her head. She resisted and met him with a kiss that short-circuited his head. Her hips thrust toward his, then she bit his lip. Hell yeah. Not the reaction he expected. It was so much better.
“Give me my hands back, Colby.” She screwed her legs tight on his thighs. Her hair splayed out on the bed, wild in every direction.
“Not a chance, doll.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Mia, honey, if you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn’t plan your mission correctly.” He wanted her to tear at his grip, to come apart while he held her in place. He wanted to see her, from head to toe, rocked in a cataclysmic orgasm.
His legs held their ground, and he undid the top button of her pants. As if he hit the slow-mo button, he dropped Mia’s zipper one stilted frame at a time. The pleasurable torment made his cock strain for its release.
He wedged his fingers past the tight opening in her pants, between her legs, and smiled in satisfaction when he found the damp underside of her lace panties. Her zipper bit at his wrist, but it didn’t matter.
She rubbed her sex against him and struggled to shift her pants down.
“That’s my job. These will come off when I say you’re ready.”
Moaning exasperation betrayed her. “Colby, now.”
He moved to her side, and she kept her legs open, rocking her against his touch. Winters immobilized her. One hand above her head. The other pressed against her mound.
He pushed the damp lace aside. One finger, then another, slid across her. If he thought he’d know how smooth and silky, wet and wanting she’d be, he was wrong. Stroking her was so far past pleasurable.
Her pants shifted over her hip bone. A small tattoo caught his eye. A symbol. Artful and delicate.
“You have a tattoo.”
“Hm-hmm.”
“What’s it mean?”
“Survivor.”
“Didn’t expect that.”
“It seems like you haven’t expected me at all.”
So true. His fingers dipped into her, then withdrew. A small shudder coursed through her body. He encircled her sensitized bud of nerves, so slick with her juices.
Mia struggled to lean up, straining against the wrist hold. She wants to see?
And like she read his mind, she said, “I want to watch you.”
He was wrong if he thought he couldn’t get any harder, and he’d never been so close to losing it before.
“You can see.” His throat hurt with guttural vibrations. He didn’t recognize its sound.
“Not as much as I want to.”
He released her hands, and she arched into him, digging her nails into his shoulder blades. She clawed for blood. Marking him as hers. She could leave scars for all he cared. He’d own that constant reminder.
Her legs opened wider, straining at her pants, then she pulled from him and unclasped the front opening of her bra. Her swollen breasts fell free and taunted him. She was intentionally trying him. It was a game of who could distract who more. And it was fucking awesome.
“I told you I was calling the shots here. That’s the only reason you got your hands back.”
“I got my hands back because–”
He stopped her with a suck on her bare nipple.
She bucked against him, then ran her hand over her breasts, massaging. “You were moving too slow.”
Too slow? He was worried about moving too fast. His mind spun circles. Christ, if he died on this op, she’d be to blame because she was killing him.
He gave her ass a swift lift and tugged off the pants and small scrap of lace covering her, tossing it aside. She lay naked before him, a smile lighting her face. She wanted him. Trusted him. That was no small feat after the days she’d had recently.
He wicked his fingers over her wet folds with more pressure, tightening his attention on her clit. Arousal poured off of her, musky and mouth-watering.
“Stop teasing me, Colby.”
“Honey, we’ve only just begun.”
“I can’t handle it. I need release. Now.”
“You will.” It was a promise he would keep more than once.
“Please.”
He tried to shush her.
Mia reached for him. “Don’t make me beg.”
He rolled between her legs and kissed. She tasted extraordinary. Sweet and memorable. Her pleas broke off. Harsh breaths forced past her lips.
“You’ll come so hard, you’ll forget the hell you’ve endured.” He’d do anything to wipe the attacks from her memory.
“Promise me.”
“Promise.”
He spread her wide, lashing his tongue over her. Her juices wept down his chin. Mia flexed toward him, calling his name. Damn straight, she could wear out his name. He loved hearing it pour off her tongue.
She fisted the comforter in one hand and drifted her other down her stomach. Her fingers met his tongue. The sensation whipped lightning-fast down his spine. She grazed, dancing with his kiss, and moved him swifter and harder. Her cries were louder, her legs spread further, heels digging trenches into the mattress.
He paused to watch. She wasn’t shy and thank God, because this worked for him in ways he didn’t know. A possessive need flashed, and he joined back in, his tongue commingled with her fingers.
“More.”
Sure thing. He’d take orders from her. He speared her tight entrance with two fingers. Mia clamped around him. Such a tight pussy. Liquid fire coating his fingers. He’d explode if he entered her. She deserved better than an eight second rodeo, which was all he’d probably muster at the moment. He tried and failed to recount the steps of cleaning his rifle. He tried to list the phonetic alphabet. Backwards. Zeta. Yankee. X-ray. Nothing helped.
“Colby,” she said breathlessly. “Don’t stop. Harder. I need more.”
Harder. He could do harder. He could do whatever the hell she told him to do. He grabbed her ass, holding her tight against his mouth. She pulled from him, pushed toward him, but it didn’t matter.
Finally, he couldn’t handle anymore and rumbled into her sweetness, the vibrations tearing the last shreds of her climb into an untamed climax. She bucked hard against his mouth, her hands ripping through his hair. She could pull every last strand out if it meant that orgasm was as strong as it sounded. She cried his name and cursed him. He forced her through it until the last of her ripples crossed his tongue, and she went limp.
One deep breath, then another. He released her from a grip that may have been far too tight. Marks outlined where he held her in place, but the satisfaction on her face did something barbaric to his need for her.