Chapter 16
“I think you’re trying to seduce me with macaroni cheese,” Ethan declared as he finished off his second helping of pasta and pushed his plate forward on the table. This batch had five different cheeses, as Olivia had explained, but he couldn’t recall them all. He only knew it was the best comfort food he’d ever eaten.
“Is it working?” Her smile was teasing and…yes, there was that lash flutter.
“Yes?”
She frowned. “You’re not sure?”
“Oh, I’m sure. You said the kiss in the bedroom was just a tease. But now I’m to understand this food is seduction? And weren’t we taking things slow?”
“I’m a woman. I have a right to contradict myself.”
“Very well. So what comes next?” He leaned his elbows on the kitchen counter and eyed her. “Dishes or sex?”
“Really? You’re rather forward.” She took his plate and made herself busy over the sink rinsing them off. Her hips wiggled while she scrubbed the plates and glasses.
Ethan decided to show her just how forward he could be. Swinging around the counter, he moved up behind her, nuzzled his nose into her hair, and put his hands on her hips. “Leave the dishes. Let’s make out.”
To his surprise, she turned in his embrace, put her arms around his neck, and kissed him. Her hands were soapy; a glop of suds landed on his shoulder, but he wasn’t about to end this connection.
“Can it be as easy as you make it sound?” she asked before kissing him again. “Just sex? No strings. No commitments?”
“It can.” And it could, as far as he was concerned. He was an adult, and so was she. They could do this, and not have it interfere with the investigation.
He slid a hand down her thigh, hooking it and lifting her leg to hug against his. Pressing his erection against her warmth stirred up an appreciative coo from her.
“You mean business, Mister Maxwell.”
“No business, just fun. Deal?”
“Let the games begin.”
* * * *
Was she really going to do this with a man she was working with? Someone she hadn’t decided was completely trustworthy? He’d been keeping a secret about his father. But…yes, she was going to do this. Because there were no rules at home. Here, where she didn’t have to worry for her job or how a man judged her. Home was her domain. And she was not going to let this moment slip from her soapy hands.
Shoving Ethan’s blazer down his arms, Olivia wiggled it off and tossed it over a kitchen stool. He kept kissing her, lashing his tongue between her breasts. Just the touch she needed.
“One rule.” Ethan’s head popped up and his smile drew her in.
“What’s that?”
“What happens away from the office is between the two of us.”
“Agreed.” She undid the two buttons on his vest and pushed it down his arms. “Now get those cuffs unbuttoned and take off your shirt.”
He did as told while she stepped around the counter and lured him down the hallway, toward her bedroom. Which was a disaster with clothing strewn about and books stacked everywhere and—she wasn’t going to worry about it. The man was horny; he wouldn’t notice the mess.
Ethan caught up to her in the doorway to the bedroom, grabbing her firmly about the waist and pulling her to him. His shirt was unbuttoned, and she glided her fingers up his bare chest. Over the incredible hard abs and solid pecs. The man did have some fine muscles. And if she were an art critic—which she was in a manner—she’d say his sculptor had gotten every inch of his physique just right.
His other hand found the zipper at the back of her dress and pulled it down. The release of the snug fabric always gave her a giddy giggle. It was as if she were being set free from confinement. Sort of like how she felt when leaving her box-like office at Scotland Yard.
“What’s funny?” he asked.
“It’s exuberance,” she corrected him, sliding the dress forward and down her arms, then stepping out of it. She stood in matching black lace bra and panties and, even though the room was dark, moonlight beamed through the window, highlighting her as if on a stage.
Ethan gripped the doorframe with one hand and leaned forward as if to prevent himself from falling against her. “You are one sexy woman, Constable Lawson.”
She winked and crooked a finger for him to come closer. He did, this time tentatively cupping his hands behind her hips and drawing his gaze over her breasts. She had a hard time finding a bra to fit all that bosom, but he didn’t seem to mind.
“You think you can handle all this?” she asked.
“All of you.” He bowed and pressed a kiss to the top of her breast. “Mmm, so much of you to handle. I will touch every bit of you before we are finished.”
Trailing her fingers down his chest, she landed on the coarse hair that queued up from his pants, then slid them behind his belt and tugged him to her. His chest hugged hers, and his mouth landed on hers.
The man knew how to kiss a woman. His kiss was intoxicating. Slow to start and then taking control, he opened her lips with his tongue and teased slowly with the firm tip. Mm… She arched her back, pressing her hard nipples against him, and the bra lace tickled with a torturous tease.
His right hand slid up to cup her breast. With a firm squeeze, he moaned appreciation. He deepened the kiss, coaxing her into his heat, finding those parts of her that demanded attention and making them throb. She needed this. So much.
Falling backward, Olivia pulled Ethan down with her, and they landed on the unmade bed. A pillow wobbled onto her face. Ethan batted it away. He laughed and rolled to his back, and she straddled him. Unbuttoning his trousers, she was careful with the zipper.
“You’re skilled at breaking and entering,” he noted.
“A constable learns all manner of useful skills. Gotta think like the criminal, don’t you know?”
His smile disappeared, and she wondered if she’d said something wrong. To allay that worry, she curled her fingers about his erection. A hefty prize, it was hard and hot, pulsing in her hand. She could not wait to ride him.
With a flick of each of his hands, he dropped her bra straps, and her breasts sprang free from confinement. Olivia leaned forward to brush his stomach with her nipples, gliding upward to his pecs. He cupped them both and shuffled down on the bed so he could suckle one nipple into his mouth.
Gripping his penis, she glided up and down, showing him her appreciation with long, slow, firm strokes.
Without warning, he flipped her onto her back. He smiled at her from between her breasts, then kissed his way to the other nipple. She’d lost hold of him, and so stroked her hand down his broad, muscled back. “What do you do to stay so fit?”
“I run.”
“From what? A mountain lion?”
His chuckle was deep and rumbled in her core with a glisten of promise. Her panties nudged aside, he found her wetness and glided a finger inside her. “Oh, Livi,” he murmured.
She’d never been called that before, but wouldn’t think about it too much because…what he was doing with that finger. The man did know how to get directly to business, didn’t he? He slicked and slid, and then dove inside her, curling his finger forward to rub an area she’d never realized could feel so... “Mercy.”
“I don’t think so,” he said teasingly, and kissed her mons. “I do have another talent, beyond being a quick study with art and forgeries. Want to know what it is?”
“Why don’t you show me?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
A kiss to her mons was followed with another that moved lower, and then another that licked and suckled at her clit. Ethan alternated with long languorous lashes and then quick, flicking flutters. The sensation made Olivia shift her shoulders and arch her back in reaction to the exquisite shivers that brought her so close to an orgasm. But she liked to be filled when that happened, so she clutched at his hair.
“I need you inside me, Ethan.”
“But you’re so close.”
“I want to come around you.”
“Yes.” He moved up, replacing his tongue with his fingers at her clit and the head of his erection fell heavily against her slickness. “You have a condom?”
“Birth control,” she said on a gasp. “We’re good. Inside me, now,” she insisted, feeling she couldn’t stop the orgasm.
He slid into her slowly and steadily, groaning deeply as he bowed his head to between her breasts. He pumped once, then once more quickly. And that was all she needed to fly.