The cold fury racing through him wouldn’t abate. It poured through him like a waterfall, powerful and fast flowing. It gave him strength and clarity, especially as he heard the engine of Amy’s car fade into the distance.
Adrenaline surged through him as he considered what could have happened had serendipity not led him around the back of the casino in time to see Woods leaning on Amy.
He looked at Woods, whom he wanted to pound into the fucking pavement. If she ever found out, his mom would be pissed he hadn’t taught the guy that respect was spelled with two fists and a kick to the balls so hard Woods would be singing soprano.
Thoughts of Amy flashed through his mind. He’d not been able to hear much of what had been said, but he could tell from the body language that something wasn’t right. While Amy’s upper body was all tension, her lower body was in perfect fighting stance.
“Let’s go back inside,” Cabe instructed.
“I don’t know what you think you just interrupted, but it was nothing more than me offering to mentor a talented dealer,” Woods said.
Cabe had to give him credit for a ballsy response. “Listen. I’ve seen her in the casino. Good-looking woman and good at what she does. But she’s your employee, dude.”
“Faulkner, Cabe is right,” Sokolov said through clenched teeth. “You do not need a lawsuit from a young woman saying you sexually harassed her.”
That got Woods’s attention. He straightened as he stared at Amy’s taillights leaving the parking lot. “I didn’t sexually harass her.”
“Let’s go,” Cabe said, pointing in the direction of the staff entrance. His blood was still boiling. Whichever way he looked at it, Woods was a dick. If he was being a handsy boss, then he was a dick. And if he was grooming Amy, he was a dick … even if he was a dick that might give them a lead.
An hour later, with the situation under control and a whiskey he didn’t want lining his stomach, Cabe called a cab. He needed to see Amy. Needed to see how she was. In the heat of watching Woods with his hands on her, his only thought had been how best to extract her, an elemental need to get her to safety. But now, with the streetlights racing by as the cab sped down the highway, he could acknowledge that his actions had also been driven by the most primitive of feelings. Possessiveness. And a need to protect her from another guy who felt she was public property.
His phone rang. “Cabe,” he said, gruffly.
“Boss,” Harley said. “With respect, what the fuck was that?”
Cabe ran his hand over his face. There was no value in pretending he didn’t know what Harley was talking about. “I took care of it. I had it covered.”
“And so did I. It’s what you pay me for, remember? Only I wouldn’t have been the one risking my cover.”
A moment after Cabe had intervened he’d realized that. “Fair comment. Look, can we talk about this tomorrow?”
There was a sigh at the end of the phone. “Sure thing. For what it’s worth, I get why you had the death stare going on. You have more restraint than I do because I might well be up on assault charge if I’d had to go in there.” And with that, Harley hung up.
When Cabe reached Amy’s neighborhood, he got the driver to drop him a couple of blocks away. His heart was still racing, and no amount of slow and steady breathing was going to still it. The streets were quiet, the tourists having long since gone back to their hotels when the bars and restaurants had begun to close down for the night. Only a handful of stragglers remained.
Using his key, he let himself into the building and took the elevator to her floor. When the elevator opened, he walked to her door but refrained from unlocking it, even though she’d told him it was okay to use the key he’d been given at the beginning of the op. Instead, he knocked, wanting to give her time to compose herself and decide whether she even wanted to see him tonight.
A shadow ghosted the peephole.
Smart woman.
He heard the telltale rattle of the chain and slide of the deadbolt before the door opened.
“Are you okay?” she asked before he had a chance to speak. Her hair was damp from the shower and she was no longer in her uniform. Her pale pink tank was so thin he couldn’t help but notice her erect nipples. Her navy blue sleep shorts were loose and covered in flamingos. But it was her eyes, wide and bright, that held his attention. She was worried about him, and the thought warmed him in places the whiskey hadn’t reached.
“I should be asking you that. Did he hurt you?”
The shrill whistle of the kettle distracted them both, and Amy hurried to the kitchen to turn it off. “I’m fine,” she said, although her voice faintly wavered. “Do you think we blew it?” She shook her head and sighed before opening the cupboard to get two mugs. “I should have gone with him.”
What the hell? “Can I look at you?” he gestured to her side.
Amy sighed and nodded.
He took a step toward her and gently lifted the hem of her tank that had risen as she’d reached for the mugs. A series of bruises ran up her hip, and his fingertips almost matched them perfectly. “Son of a bitch,” he cursed. “He left marks on you.”
“They’ll fade,” Amy said with a shrug. But the wariness in her eyes told him that Woods had both scared and hurt her. “What happened after I left? And what were you doing with Sokolov?”
Cabe took her hands, then her wrists, and then her arms, turning them carefully to look for injuries. Her skin was soft and warm, which made it even harder to accept that some asshole had held her so tightly that he’d left purple and red marks behind. “I drank a watered-down whiskey and told him he was lucky you didn’t call the police. He now thinks he owes me one.”
“And Sokolov?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, but suffice it to say he now owes me one too. I’ll tell you the whole thing tomorrow, but for now let me look after you.”
Her hands began to shake in his. “We almost blew it tonight. You shouldn’t have been around the back of that building. There was no reason for you to be there.”
“Amy, keeping you safe is my priority.” Gently, he put his arms around her and held her close.
“Your priority is those women and the money laundering,” she said, her words muffled against his shirt. “I can take care of myself.”
In spite of the situation, he felt the corner of his lip twitch. Her ability to stay focused on their goals was stronger than his own. And he wondered when he had become so affected by her that he’d lost his usual concentration. He brushed his lips to the top of her head as his body absorbed the fact that she was pressed up against him.
Her arms slid around his waist and held him tightly, and his hand trailed to the base of her back.
“I know,” he said, quietly. “But did you honestly think I could leave you with him?”
Amy leaned back a little but thankfully didn’t step out of his arms. He hadn’t realized until they were holding on to each other that he needed the reassurance that she was okay as much as he wanted to provide comfort. “It’s part of the job, it’s part of being in deep cover. Shitty things happen. Sometimes you have to be the one doing them to belong, to get the information you need. Sometimes you need to be on the receiving end. You know this.”
Cabe sighed. “I do. But it’s killing me.”
“Because I’m a woman?”
Cabe looked down at her fresh face scrubbed clean of makeup. She had no idea how vulnerable she looked, how sweet her pink lips were wiped clean of the vixen red she’d worn. “No, Amy. Because it’s you. I hate to see the people I care about get hurt.”
Amy ran her hand to his face and cupped his jaw. “You’re a good man, Cabe Moss,” she whispered.
He tugged her close, then repeated her actions until his palm cupped her cheek. They did nothing but gaze at each other, and Cabe knew they were at a turning point. He wasn’t strong enough to walk away, but it needed to be Amy who made that decision. Instead, he stood and savored the way her body lined up flush against his, the way her breasts pressed firmly against her chest, the way his hand rested on the sweet curve of her ass.
“I don’t think I can keep pushing you away, Cabe,” she said quietly.
Cabe pressed a kiss to the top of her head and pulled her closer. There was tremendous comfort in the way her head lay against his chest. “I don’t know that I can spend months wondering what it could be like between us, either.”
Minutes passed by, or it could have been mere moments, but Cabe allowed his heart rate to settle now that he knew that in spite of the bruises, she was actually okay. Lazily, he ran his hand up and down her back.
Her hands began to move, exploring his biceps, down his ribs. The movements shifted from quiet curiosity to a sexual teasing that began to drive him crazy. It tickled as she dragged the tip of her finger around his waist, dipping an inch below the waistband of his jeans.
“Maybe one time would take the edge off,” she murmured.
With a firm grip, he lifted her face toward his and gazed at her intently. “Be certain,” he growled.
“I am,” she replied, lifting to her toes.
Cabe claimed her lips with his own, savoring their softness. Sensations flooded him. The minty taste of her toothpaste, the soft moan that escaped her throat, the way her hands gripped his skin suddenly as if she needed his strength and support to remain standing.
The thought that she needed him fueled his already rising lust. Without a thought, he lifted her into his arms. As much as he was dying to simply give in to baser urges and take her where they stood, he wanted their first time together to mean something. Because it would be the first of more. Even though he had baggage to work through, he knew this wasn’t a one-night stand.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and he ran his hands along her thighs until he was able to cup her ass. Not once did they break the kiss. His tongue found hers before they reached the bedroom, and he pressed her against the hallway wall, taking a moment to drive them both wild. His dick was hard and lined up perfectly against her warm heat. Knowing there was nothing between them except a layer of denim and soft cotton sent sparks of excitement running down his spine.
“Goddamn, Amy,” he groaned. “I want you in the worst possible way.”
Amy placed her hands on either side of his face. “And for tonight you have me.”
For tonight.
The words sounded ominous, but he would deal with them in the morning. Right now, there was no coming back from the ledge they were standing on. He took her weight in his arms again and walked the remaining distance to the bedroom before laying her gently down on the bed. The room was small, the bed smaller and made of wrought-iron, which meant it was likely to squeak like a motherfucker. But disturbing the neighbors was the least of his concerns.
Especially when Amy’s white-blonde hair spilled out across the pillow as she bit down on her lip. “You seem to have way too many clothes on for what we have in mind.”
Cabe reached for the buttons of his shirt. Despite the fact he very easily could have pulled it open, sending buttons skittering across the floor, he wanted to prolong the moment. It would be too easy to strip naked and be inside her in record time. But they both deserved more. They deserved the anticipation that came before great sex. From the way Amy’s eyes flared as she watched his fingers undo each button, he knew he’d made the right decision.
He pulled his arms out of the sleeves and draped the shirt over the chair next to the bed. Before he took off his jeans, he needed to see more of her. To touch her and taste her before his own desires got the better of him. Gently, he placed his hands on either side of her head and kissed her again, his mouth moving over hers as he devoured her sweetness. Cabe knelt between her thighs and reached for the hem of her tank.
Amy lifted gently as he slid his hands along her ribs, his thumbs brushing the taut nipples that had been teasing him since the moment he had walked into her apartment. When she lay back down, he took a moment to take her in.
“You’re beautiful, Amy,” he said.
* * *
Cabe leaned forward and kissed his way along her jaw, down her neck, and along her shoulder. The action made her shiver, made the hair stand up on the back of her neck as she squirmed beneath him, his body as aroused and turned on as her own.
“Please,” she gasped as he covered her nipple and sucked it deep into his mouth. Her back arched off the bed as her hands slid into his hair, holding him exactly where she wanted him. God, the way his tongue moved against her, over her, swirling around her.
Cabe lifted his head for a moment. “I love how sensitive, how responsive you are,” he said roughly.
But she wanted more. She writhed as he replaced his mouth with his hand and shifted to her other breast, repeating the action of swirling his tongue around her taut nipple before sucking firmly until she cried out his name.
Cabe kissed his way along her stomach until he reached the waistband of her shorts. Raising himself up on his arms, he looked into her gaze. His eyes were heavy, darkened with the same desire swirling through her. “We still good, Ames?”
She loved that he’d asked. That he’d given her a moment to cool things down, to tell him to stop. But she didn’t. “We’re good, Cabe.”
To show him just how good they were, she raised her hips to enable him to lower her shorts, and being the gentleman he was, he slipped them down her thighs. Amy glanced down at his erection. Dear Lord, his jeans had to be cutting his dick in half.
“Naked may be your best look, Ames. I love your smooth skin, and the curve of your breasts, and the flat of your stomach, and even this narrow strip of hair.” He removed her shorts from around her ankles and then settled in between her legs, easing her thighs over his shoulders as he pressed his lips to the crease of her hip.
Her hips arched from the bed the moment he ran his tongue along her core. She was already wet, desperate for him, wanting him to fill her and take her outside of herself, if only for tonight.
Cabe circled her clit, deliberately avoiding the very place she ached. He placed his hand on her mound, holding her still while adding his thumb to maximize her pleasure.
“Cabe,” she gasped, shocked at the breathy sound of his name coming from her mouth. “Please.”
He looked up and studied her with those dark eyes, and intuitively she knew he understood what she wanted. But he held out, deliberately let the moment build between them. When he dragged his tongue straight up her center, flicking her clit before sucking it into his mouth, she cried out, the sensations too much. Ruthlessly, he added his finger, sliding it deep inside her before easing it out to add another.
“You taste so good, Amy,” he said, taking a moment to watch his fingers slide out of her core. He curled them upward as he pushed back inside her, reaching for the place guaranteed to get her off. “I can’t wait to see you come, can’t wait to taste you, can’t wait to feel you come apart in my arms.”
Amy began to shake beneath him. She teetered on the edge of orgasm, the glorious moment just before the fall that she tried to hold on to for as long as she could, savoring it before rushing over. “Oh, god, Cabe. I’m so close,” she gasped, her head turning from left to right on the pillow as she stepped closer to the edge.
“I’ve got you,” he said, before he rapid-fire flicked his tongue across her clit.
It bore down on her and she felt the shaking intensify, felt the orgasm explode.
Lights flashed behind her eyelids as her orgasm took over. There was no sense of time or place. No scent or smell or sound. Just an inordinate pleasure that came from being so deeply in touch with her own body that nothing else on earth mattered.
Cabe softened the strokes of his tongue. They were less urgent, less desperate, more forgiving, savoring instead of dominating her.
She lifted onto her elbows and looked down at him, his dark eyes catching hers as his tongue flicked the top of her clit. She couldn’t help but to gasp.
“For the record,” he said, before running his tongue over his lips. “I intend to do that as many times as you’ll let me.” His voice was gruff and deep. “Because you taste delicious. But right now, I just need to be inside you.” He stood and pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, reaching inside it to pull out a condom that he placed on the bedside table before returning to the foot of the bed.
Amy crawled to meet him there, sitting at the end of her bed. She reached for him, pulling him closer so that she could undo the buckle of his belt. She could see the outline of his erection. There was no doubt Cabe was well endowed, but she wasn’t some naive virgin worried about whether it would fit. Her only thought was how would she emotionally survive what they were about to do.
Once the buckle was open, she looked up and met Cabe’s gaze. It was dark, potent. Like a storm cloud, revealing just a hint of the power of which it was capable. When she ran a fingertip along his length, Cabe muttered a curse but never took his eyes from hers.
Amy unbuttoned his jeans and pulled down the zipper. As her thoughts turned to lowering his jeans, Cabe stepped back and kicked off his shoes. “Fuck this,” he said and slid down both his jeans and underwear, catching his socks as he pulled them off his legs. “Sorry.” He grinned as he crawled back up the bed, taking her with him. “I couldn’t wait any longer. And if you’d touched my cock one more time, this would have been over before it started.”
The sight of Cabe’s incredible naked body leaning over her, resting on his arms, had her tongue-tied. She knew she should say something. Or smile. Or move. But emotions caught in her throat. She wasn’t sure what she was in that moment, other than his.
Cabe’s face suddenly was lined with concern. “Are you okay, Ames?” he asked, brushing her hair from her forehead.
Amy swallowed deeply and then nodded. “Overwhelmed, in a good way.”
When his lips brushed gently against hers, she knew he understood what she was trying to say. As he reached over to the side table and grabbed the condom he’d dropped there, she took a deep breath. Quickly, he ripped the packet open and pulled the condom on.
He settled back between her thighs, his weight over hers solid and true. He kissed her again, this time with more force, more pressure that quickly had her moving beneath him. Oh, god. She needed this, she wanted him, no matter how bad the idea was for their careers and the operation at hand. There was no room in her mind for that now, though, because it was filled with him. Filled with the vision of him standing at the foot of the bed, those ridiculous abs of his for which he must work so hard rippling as she’d run her fingers along his erection. Filled with the way his warm skin currently pressed up against hers in a way that made her feel vital, needed and … safe.
Amy ran her fingers across his broad shoulders and down his back, feeling the muscles move beneath his skin. “I want you,” she whispered against his ear.
“Well, that’s a good thing,” Cabe said as his hand slipped between the two of them. “Because I happen to want you too.”
The feel of his head against her entrance made her sigh. He didn’t press in straightaway as she’d expected. Instead, he slid against her, the sensation of him rubbing against her clit almost having her come again. “Cabe,” she groaned.
Cabe continued to rock against her. “Just imagine how incredible it’s gonna feel when I slide deep inside you, if it feels this good now.”
He tucked his arm under her knee and lifted it, opening her to him. She felt exposed and vulnerable, but one look in Cabe’s eyes told her she didn’t have to worry. He’d take care of her, she knew he would. Just like he’d done today. At the risk of everything else, he’d put her first.
This time when he slid back and then pushed forward again, he entered her. “Amy,” he gasped, pressed his lips to hers. “Fuck, Ames, you feel so good.”
Dear god. She’d known he was large, but he stretched her.
Cabe pulled back, and eased himself back into her, to the hilt. This time it was her turn to cry out, to gasp against his lips, to suck in air as if she were going to die if she didn’t take her next breath. She could feel Cabe twitching deep inside, not coming, but pulsing in contrast to the rest of his body that was tense. “Jesus, Ames.” He pressed his forehead next to her on the pillow. “Is it crass to tell you that you have the most perfect pussy? I need a minute.”
Amy felt the power that she’d laid squarely at his feet drift back into her as she realized she was doing this to him. She was the one making him weak. She was the one who had him turned on to the point that he could barely move. And she began to move. Gently undulating her hips, just moving a fraction back and forth until she was the one who needed more. Until she was the one who needed the pressure on her clit.
For a minute, Cabe remained stationary. Then he lifted his forehead and eyed her. “You call that giving a guy a minute?” he asked, but the grin on his face told her he was onto her, and he began to move with her. Pulling out and sliding deep, over and over. Hitting her in the places she needed it.
He slid his hands beneath her butt and she felt him lift her, move her until he was moving at such a pace that she could barely draw breath.
This was so much more than sex. It was a claiming, an owning on a level she had never known before. “Oh, yes. Just like that,” she gasped as he tilted her hips so he was driving upwards, not just back and forth. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d ever come twice, but it was a rare occurrence and one that hadn’t ever happened during her early encounters with a new man. It had only happened once a lover had got to know her and had gotten to know the things she liked and wanted.
But with Cabe, everything was different. It was like he knew, somehow, exactly what she needed. How she wanted it to get off.
She lowered her hands to his butt, relishing the way the taut skin and tight muscles flexed beneath her hands as he pounded into her.
Amy kissed his neck, and he found her lips.
She tightened her grip, and he raised her hips.
Their bodies moved together as if they’d been made for each other. For this very moment.
She closed her eyes and felt the orgasm begin to build.
“Yeah, Ames,” he growled. “I can feel that.” His words came in breathless grunts. “Chase it with me.”
Oh, god.
She needed to come. Which was incredible, seeing she already had that evening, but she knew she could get there. Knew she would get there with him again.
And soon.
Cabe pressed his lips to hers. It was fierce, and reckless, and she wanted more. Wanted everything.
“Oh, yes,” she cried out when the dizzying sensation, that first tremor of sparks, began deep in her core. At some point, she stopped breathing, stopped worrying about anything else as the sensations took over.
“Ames. God. I’m right with you,” Cabe gasped against her lips.
His eyes met hers as they came together.
And for that moment, there was nowhere else she wanted to be.