Chapter Six

 

 

Bellamy came awake with long, hard fingers between her legs and a hot, wet mouth at her breast. The room had lightened, so she knew it was morning, but as Joe’s mouth slid down her torso, she found she didn’t care much what time it was. His big hands spread her thighs, wrapping around them to hook her legs over his shoulders as he buried his mouth in the slick folds of her sex.

“Joe,” she moaned.

“Shush. I’m busy.” He put his mouth to her again. She dug her heels in his back. He growled against her, feasting, tongue driving deep. Then his mouth closed around her clit, sucking hard, and he thrust two fingers inside her.

“God!” Bellamy cried out, doing a full body arch, driving her hips deeper to Joe’s mouth. She reached for it but, still, the climax that slammed into her somehow surprised her. It happened so fast.

Joe continued to finger fuck her and suck her most sensitive flesh. She moaned, whimpered, straining for more. He pulled his fingers out, dragged his tongue through her slick heat, and she shuddered against him. Then she felt him pull away from her and she lifted her head. “No,” she whispered.

“Not leavin’ you, baby,” he whispered back. “Gotta get gloved.”

He reached for the nightstand and then moved back to her, giving her his mouth, kissing her even as he angled his hips away. She hoped, please, God, that meant he was rolling on the condom.

In another second she felt the tip of his cock glide through the dewy folds of her sex, and then he was inside.

“Oh, my God,” she breathed against his lips. “Yes.”

“Fuck, yeah,” he groaned and took her mouth again in a deep, wet kiss as he pounded into her. He kissed her, moved his mouth to play at her neck or nip at the tips of her breasts. And the entire time his hips drove against hers, his cock pistoning in and out, driving her ever upward.

He moved a hand between them, thumb to her clit, pressing in, circling, coaxing her over the edge. A couple of minutes later, with a low shout and hard slam of his hips, Joe joined her.

He pressed deep and stayed there, his face buried against her throat. Bellamy felt his ragged breaths turn smooth against her neck as his hands, gentle, slow, roamed over her, shoved under her to take her with him when he rolled to his back. He curled one hand gently around her nape and brushed his lips against hers then skimmed the tip of her nose with his and let his head fall against the pillow. Those pale blue eyes warmed with a smile. “Now, that’s the way to start the day,” he murmured. His fingers lightly squeezed the back of her neck. “And today you’re not gonna talk me out of sharing a shower with you.”

She didn’t even try.

And it was brilliant.

~ * ~

When Bellamy and Joe walked through the outer door of the security office, Laura was standing next to Yancy’s desk. They both stopped their conversation and looked from Bellamy to Joe and back again. Without giving either of them a chance to comment on her being thirty minutes late, she asked, “Where’s Paul?”

“He’s not in yet.” Laura followed them as they walked through her office into Bellamy’s. “Do you think that means he’s quit?” she asked, her tone hopeful.

“I should be so lucky,” Bellamy muttered.

“Do you want me to hang around for a while, until he shows?” Joe asked. “Give you some moral support, if nothing else.”

Some of the rigidity went out of her shoulders. Just the thought that he cared enough to offer, but trusted her abilities to leave it up to her, alleviated some of her stress. “No, that’s all right,” she told him quietly. “I can handle Paul.”

“I just hate that you have to,” he responded, moving closer. “If I could, I’d remove everyone and everything that causes you grief, so I could give you a good life.”

She was surprised she didn’t melt into a puddle of goo right then and there, his sentiment made her so giddy. Unable to stop herself, she rested her palm against his lean cheek, and went up on tiptoe to place a gentle kiss on the corner of his mouth. “That’s sweet,” she whispered. “But how would I recognize the good without the bad?”

“Well, I know it’s not possible,” he rejoined. “Doesn’t mean I don’t want it.”

It took Laura clearing her throat for Bellamy to even remember her assistant was in the same room. Cheeks flaming, she moved around her desk and plopped down in her chair.

“That’s sweet and all,” Laura said, walking closer to the desk, “but we have a full schedule today. Ian’s already been in looking for you, and Tyler called, wanting to go over security arrangements for the game next Friday.”

Bellamy huffed a sigh. Some days there just weren’t enough hours to accomplish everything that needed done. “Okay, get Tyler on the phone for me, please. I’ll talk to him, then I’ll go see Ian.”

“Uh-huh.” Laura shot a look at Joe that Bellamy was surprised to see held some rancor. “See what happens when you’re half an hour late to work?” she asked with a wink. She obviously meant her remark to be teasing, but Bellamy picked up the edge to her tone.

“Laura?” she asked. “What is it?”

“Nothing. Sorry.” Her assistant turned and walked toward the door. “You’ve got enough on your plate without having to worry about me. It’s nothing.” She went into her office, pulling Bellamy’s door closed behind her.

“What was that all about?” Troubled, Bellamy looked at Joe.

He was still staring at the door separating the two offices. He dropped into one of the armchairs in front of her desk and asked, “How long has she worked for you?”

“She’s been with the organization longer than I have.” Bellamy glanced from the door to him. “What are you thinking?”

“Maybe she has an issue with your promotion? Maybe she has an issue with your relationship with Keaton?”

Bellamy scowled. “I don’t have a relationship with Daryl Keaton.” She leaned forward and rested her forearms on her desk, clasping her hands together. “I’m sure she’s just tired. Or something. She’s not my stalker, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“How can you be sure?”

In her mind, Bellamy went back over her time with Laura, and nothing jumped out at her as strange or stalkery in the least. “No, I don’t buy it,” she told him. “I know Laura. And I trust her. She’s not Keaton’s stalker.”

“Whatever you say. If I were you, though, I’d find out what that was all about, sooner rather than later. At the very least, you don’t need a feminine version of Paul Anderson running around.”

Dear fluffy lord, he was right about that. “Bite your tongue,” she told him.

His grin flashed white in his tanned face.

“I have Tyler Dare on the line for you,” Laura said over the intercom.

Bellamy looked down and saw that the first line was the only one lit, and it was flashing red, indicating the caller was on hold. She pressed the intercom button. “Thank you, Laura,” she said then picked up the phone. “Hey, Tyler. Laura said you called earlier about arrangements for next Friday?”

“Yeah, thanks for getting back to me.”

“Of course. Listen, Joe’s here in the office with me. Let me put you on speaker phone.” She pressed the speaker button and replaced the receiver in its cradle. “You there?”

“Yep.” He paused, then asked, “Joe?” His voice held a tinge of confusion.

She looked across at her lover and rolled her eyes. “Yes. Joe. Joseph Maddox. You know, the threat assessment expert you hired.”

Tyler chuckled. “Can I call you Joe, Joe?”

“You can call me Maddox,” came the deep-voiced reply.

Tyler laughed again. “All right, all right. Let’s get down to business.”

The next twenty minutes were spent going over security measures in place for the game coming up in seven more days. “We’ve hired additional security for the event, off-duty police officers,” Bellamy told Tyler in wrap up.

“Good. I know we’d talked about that. Maddox, we still on for our meeting this morning?” Tyler asked.

Joe twisted his wrist to look at his watch. Bellamy found herself fascinated by the play of muscles and tendons in his wrist and forearm as he moved. “Sure,” he said. “I’ll leave in a few minutes.”

They ended the call. When he stood, she did, too, and walked around to his side of the desk. “I wish you could stay longer,” she said, her voice soft and going husky around the emotion she couldn’t hide. It was amazing how important, how necessary, this man had become to her in such a short amount of time.

He looped his arms around her waist. “Me, too.” Leaning down, he kissed her, a caress that started out gentle and sweet but quickly became more.

Hot.

Wet.

Wild.

When he lifted his head, they were both breathing heavily. He swiped his thumb across her swollen lower lip then placed a light kiss on the corner of her mouth before sliding his nose alongside hers. “I’ll be home in time for dinner,” he told her. “You want to go out?”

She shook her head. “I’ll cook something. Any preferences?”

He gave her waist a squeeze before moving away from her. “Not picky, baby. Whatever you fix, I’ll eat.”

“Boiled spinach with vinegar?” she asked, naming one of the most hated foods she’d been forced to eat as a child.

He made a face but answered readily enough, “If you fix it, I’ll eat it. Maybe not happy to, but I will.”

She laughed and bumped her shoulder against his arm as she walked with him to the door. “I won’t fix spinach,” she said.

He opened the door and stopped. “That’s good to know.” He grinned and lightly chucked her under the chin. “See you later.”

“Yeah.” She watched him walk through Laura’s office, then the outer office, her gaze fixed on that fine, fine posterior. Then she looked at her assistant. “Are you all right?” she asked softly.

Laura waved one hand. “I will be.” When Bellamy went to ask more, Laura waved her off again. “I can’t talk about it right now, okay? I’ll get too emotional.” Even as she spoke, Bellamy could see tears glittering in her assistant’s eyes.

“Okay,” Bellamy said. “But when you’re ready, I’m here for you. Anytime, anywhere. Right?”

Laura nodded. “Right. Thanks.” She attempted a smile that fell flat.

Bellamy walked to the doorway to the outer office and peeked out. “Paul’s not here still?” she asked at large.

Yancy looked up from a yellow legal tablet. “Haven’t see him yet,” he mumbled around a wooden pencil held between his teeth.

“You goin’ old school?” she teased him.

He grinned. “Sometimes it helps to work out problems longhand. But always with a pencil. Never with a pen.”

Bellamy returned his smile and turned back into Laura’s office. “When Paul gets here, please have him come see me.”

Laura grimaced. “I don’t envy you that meeting, at all.”

“I know, right?” Bellamy lifted her hair off her neck and held it up a moment. Then she let the thick tresses go and went back into her office. She had a lot on her plate today. Better get started