Chapter Five

Rule for success number five:

Passion. It’s all about passion . . .

ONCE she reached the living room, Jolie braced her hands on her hips, her naked body illuminated in the soft glow of the kitchen light, and waited.

The cool air caressed her skin, puckered her nipples. Seconds ticked by. She couldn’t deny that she’d never felt more like a woman. Why did even the thought of Heath Powell make her feel so damn alive?

Chemistry, an unsolved mystery of the universe. Or something like that. If she had sex with him tonight, tomorrow she’d no longer wonder what it would feel like if he touched her. She could satisfy her curiosity and libido at once. Same for him. Then whatever this attraction was between them would be over. Done. Finished. Poof! By tomorrow, everything would be normal again. She would be in control of her life once more.

Down the hall, Heath jerked open the bathroom door. He entered the living room with a white towel wrapped around his lean waist. Water beaded on his broad shoulders that tapered down to ridged abs. He held his clothes in one fist, his gun in the other.

He was unbearably sexy. Jolie found it hard to breathe.

When he caught sight of her, he stopped, stared—and dropped his clothes where he stood. He set his weapon on the arm of the sofa, still within reach. He didn’t even try to bank the hunger on his face.

Jolie panted, aware of how completely naked she was. The feeling went far beyond mere flesh.

He prowled closer, stopping when their bodies nearly brushed and she smelled soap on his skin. “Is this an invitation or are you tempting me with what I can’t have?”

Once she answered him, there would be no going back. “Spend the night with me.”

“You’ve decided I do something for you, after all? Is that why you’re seducing me?”

The words she’d tossed at him earlier had come back to haunt her. Jolie wasn’t surprised he hadn’t let that go. She hoped he wouldn’t turn her down but he might. Heath had chided her for having control issues, yet he’d already admitted he wanted to be on top in the bedroom. Not being the one to initiate might grate his masculinity or rub the in-charge man in him wrong.

“Do you want to analyze my invitation or have sex?”

“I want to have sex. I’ve wanted that since I laid eyes on you.”

Then why had he screwed the blonde at the bar?

It didn’t matter. This was a hookup, not the start of a romance. She had simply cut through the crap and made it easy for them both to scratch their mutual itch.

“I wanted you, too. My bedroom is down the hall.” She headed toward the back of her unit.

Heath didn’t follow. “I said I want to have sex with you. I didn’t say we would.”

She stopped midstride, grateful that he couldn’t see her face. His rejection hurt. She would never reveal how much. Better to pretend that she could simply shrug it off.

“I guess since you’ve already had a piece of ass tonight, I shouldn’t be surprised you’re not ready to go again. I mean, you’re getting older so you must need eight hours of sleep and a little blue pill in between your meaningless fucks.”

“Look at me.” He waited until she turned to face him. His eyes glinted with a biting desire that left her breathless. “Let me rephrase. It’s likely we’ll have sex, probably for the rest of the night. In fact, if we do this, don’t expect to be well rested for your meeting tomorrow. I simply wanted to be clear that you don’t order me to fuck you. You don’t say when or where or how. That’s my role.”

She braced her hand on her hip. “Because you’re the big, dominant stud muffin? Look, that whole taking-orders thing is not how I roll. If you want me, come to the bedroom and we’ll be two consenting adults choosing to have orgasms in a way that mutually suits us both. Or we can drop the idea and you can go find some other nameless bimbo tomorrow night at that meat market of a bar.” She shrugged and tried to pretend his answer didn’t matter. “Your call.”

Heath didn’t say a word, just grabbed his gun and stalked closer, unwinding the towel from around his waist and dropping it to the floor. She gasped, her stare glued to his body. His olive skin, which she suspected was a throwback to some Italian or Spanish ancestor, stretched over bulging muscles, lean sinew, and hard bone. Everything about him looked powerful and determined. His body, his expression, his cock.

Jolie had hit the sheets with some hot guys in her life. Athletes, a few models, some high-powered business executives. Not one had made her breath catch or her heart race like this.

Had provoking him been a mistake?

She couldn’t think clearly when he urged her back against the wall and braced his forearm above her head. The gun clattered against the plaster as he leaned in and loomed above her. The nine-inch difference in their heights suddenly made him seem like a mountain. Though he wasn’t touching her anywhere, he bore a hole through her composure with his midnight eyes. They stripped her resistance while vowing untold pleasure.

Jolie heard rapid little pants filling the silence between them and was horrified to realize they were hers. She couldn’t make them stop. Instead, she settled her fingers on the hard slab of his chest, as if some part of her thought she could push him away if he overwhelmed her. But his stare told her it was too late for that.

With his free hand, he curled his fingers around her nape and pulled her closer. “You must be the most opinionated, guarded, difficult woman I’ve ever met. And I want you so badly.”

Heath bent into what was left of her personal space. His lips hovered just over hers. His hot breath caressed her. He didn’t kiss her, merely waited, studying her. She trembled, her heart thumping wildly, as he surrounded her with his scent, his masculinity, his desire.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

No.

But as much as he overwhelmed her, Jolie couldn’t deny the desperate ache for him. “Yes. Hurry.”

“Maybe this first time. After that . . .” He smiled, leaving her imagination to run wild. “It’s going to take me all night to fuck you properly.”

Heath turned just long enough to set his weapon on the hall table beside her, then closed the distance between them again, bracketing both hands around her face. To her shock, he didn’t push his way into her mouth and plunder. He employed stealth as he slowly settled his lips above hers. He paused, breathing her in as if he wanted to catalog everything about her before he decided how to proceed. His patience nearly made her scream. They were naked. Her body was humming. She was breathless and aching and needy, damn it.

That had to stop.

He was getting to her too fast, but she didn’t know how to stop reacting. And he hadn’t actually kissed her yet, merely teased. Her reactions were unacceptable.

Jolie jerked her face away. Almost instantly, she missed the intimacy of their closeness. It made sense, she reasoned with herself. She’d worn out a couple sets of batteries since she’d been this near another human being.

But trying to fool herself was pointless. This desire eating at her composure and sucking her resistance dry wasn’t like anything she’d ever experienced. Towering and terrifying, yes. But damn if she didn’t feel beyond eager to melt into this man and let him take whatever he wanted.

Heath didn’t pull her mouth close to his or chide her coyness. Instead, he pressed long, lingering kisses to her cheek, her temple, her forehead, then back down to her throat. “I don’t think anyone has ever properly worshipped your body. I intend to change that.”

Jolie’s blood caught fire. She swallowed.

Anticipation. Apprehension. Arousal. The mix bloomed in her belly, burst in her head.

She couldn’t stop herself from angling her face closer and rubbing her cheek against his. He cupped her face and she exhaled, pressing herself to his big, solid form.

He’d barely touched her and he was already undoing her. Normally with a guy, she got naked, enjoyed half an hour of adult time, managed an orgasm or two, and was mentally scrolling through her to-do list before she’d even finished dressing. With Heath pressing her into the wall and his lips working against her jaw, his breaths in her ear, she could barely remember her own name.

“Just kiss me already,” she managed to get out.

Heath cradled her face. With a burning, solemn gaze, he held her still. Every cell in her body strained for more. He tsked. “So impatient.”

Before she could shoot back a snappy reply, he bent and brushed his lips over hers—a second of bliss. Then he backed away, dragged in a shaky breath. His battle-hardened hands still held her in an inexorable grip, trapping her against the wall as he hovered over her and inhaled her slowly.

Jolie couldn’t stand it anymore. She clutched his head, thrusting her fingers into the dark spikes of his hair, and surged up to cover his lips with her own.

She could almost sense his triumph, and Jolie realized he’d played her, ramped her up. And she’d tipped her hand, walking right into his trap.

A moment later, he forced her lips apart and surged inside as if it was his right to take every inch of her. He swept through and slid deep, savoring her like she was the sweetest morsel he’d ever stroked with his tongue. He kissed her as if he refused to let her go.

With a whimper, she melted, clinging, in desperate need of an anchor. She’d worry later about how she would recover from this total breakdown of her defenses. Right now, his touch felt once-in-a-lifetime. This thing between them engulfed her, consumed her whole. She craved even more.

Heath eased back, nipped at her bottom lip, then dragged in a harsh breath. “Wrap your legs around me.”

Jolie didn’t question him. She let Heath drag her up his body and clutched him with her thighs as he snatched up his gun from the nearby table and stalked down the hall.

Inside her bedroom, her relaxing music had given way to something with a dark, steady beat. It sounded primal. Sexual.

As he dropped her onto the bed, he set his weapon on the nightstand and bent to her. Jolie didn’t wait. She surged up to meet him halfway, arms tangling around his neck, legs hooking around his waist again, as she crashed her lips onto his once more. Hungry and urgent, she devoured him, demanding everything he could give her.

Heath had other plans.

He jerked free from her embrace and grabbed her wrists in an iron grip. Then he pinned her arms to the mattress and pressed his forehead into hers while he held her down and settled himself in the cradle of her thighs. “You’re very impatient.”

“You want me. I want you,” she panted. Every hard inch of him covered her. “We agreed to have sex.”

“Yes, a night of it. But you can’t control this. It won’t happen on your timetable. I won’t put my cock inside you in the next three minutes because you’re too twitchy to wait. I’ll fuck you when I’m sure the only thing you’ll give me is your utter and complete surrender.”

His words detonated inside her. Jolie had never been afraid she would give a man too much of herself.

Until now.

“You didn’t demand all that from the blonde earlier tonight.”

“This is about us, you and me. And I want you to spread your legs wider.”

Heath may not have meant to but he’d answered her perfectly. He wanted her more than the blonde, more than his usual hookup. She wasn’t the only one shocked that every touch between them felt as if it burned into both psyche and soul.

Jolie refused to comply. “Not until you find a condom. Top drawer of the nightstand.”

“Oh, we’re nowhere near that. I intend to learn you first. Where you’re sensitive, where you ache, where you’re ticklish, where you liked to be touched . . . and where you don’t. I’m going to map every inch of your flesh until I know it as well as my own name. Once I’m satisfied I can arouse you to a frenzy, then . . .” He dragged his lips up her neck. “Then I’ll fuck you.”

Oh, god.

She drew in a deep breath. Did he feel that way because she was a challenge he wanted to conquer? Because he would enjoy the triumph of seeing her every day for the next few weeks and know she’d given him every part of her? Or because, for some crazy reason, she mattered to him?

Jolie wasn’t sure she wanted to know. In fact, she should stop this—for many reasons.

But she didn’t think she could.

“You talk too much.” Somehow she managed to keep her voice even. “Let go of my hands so I can touch you.”

“You’re not in charge. Shut off your brain. Give yourself to me.”

If she did, he would completely unravel her.

“I don’t need you in my head, Powell. Just my vagina. The point is orgasm, and we’re wasting time.”

“You’re not listening. Or learning. But I have all night to fix that.”

Before she could reply, he eased off her enough to flip her onto her stomach. She yelped in surprise when he pinned her to the mattress with his body once more, hard chest pressed to her back, his fingers curling around her wrists. His breathing sounded rough in her ear.

She struggled beneath his big body. “Get off.”

“I suggest you get comfortable. We’ll be here for a bit.”

She didn’t even have time to question what he meant before he transferred both of her wrists to one meaty hand and clamped them together above her head. Then he nestled his erection between her cheeks and rocked, nipping at the sensitive spot between her neck and shoulder. With his free hand, he wedged his way between her body and the mattress to cup her breast.

She felt overpowered. Taken. Dominated.

And—oh, hell—she liked it.

Jolie didn’t even think about fighting back. With a shuddering gasp, she tossed her head back until it met his solid shoulder. She arched her nipple into his palm.

He ground against her ass again and set his lips to her ear. “You’re sexy as fuck. I like you available for my hands, my mouth, my cock.”

Jolie couldn’t answer when he grasped her nipple between his thumb and finger and squeezed while he skated his lips up her neck in a slow tease. A shiver rippled through her. Heat flashed in her bloodstream. The heavy ache of desire gathered between her legs.

His touch felt so searingly intimate.

“Now let’s try again, shall we? Spread your legs for me. Your pussy is mine tonight.”

No man had ever talked to her this way. Her head told her she should hate it. Her body didn’t give a shit.

She opened herself a fraction, then hesitated. If she gave too much, he’d take the rest—especially her sanity.

“More,” he demanded.

“I’m not a contortionist.”

He grunted in her ear. “I’m not a tosser. If you want this, open up. Give yourself to me.”

Jolie was debating whether she’d rather have this pleasure or her wits. He ended her indecision when he worked his hand from her breast, down her stomach, finally sliding his fingers across her swollen sex, pausing over her most sensitive spot. “You wanted this. Let me give it to you.”

“I wanted it my way.”

“A polite, meaningless fuck. We’ve both done that with too many others to settle. Now stop fighting me or I’m going back to the sofa.”

He gave her a spine-melting incentive, brushing a lazy circle over her hard clit.

She bit her lip to hold in her cry but the tingling bliss was more than she could fight. She parted her thighs.

“That’s better.” Satisfaction laced his gruff tone. “Just a bit more, then I’ll see about getting as deep inside you as a man can be.”

That sounded like heaven, and Jolie didn’t have the strength to resist.

She spread her legs even more and lifted her hips, gyrating up on his thick staff still planted between her cheeks. His low, masculine groan tore through her body. Goosebumps covered her skin. The heavy throb between her thighs demanded more of him.

“Do something.” She didn’t know whether she was begging for mercy or ecstasy.

He settled his palm possessively over her mound, his fingers pressing her sensitive button again. “Move with me. Show me the motion you like. Let me feel what gets you off.”

She barely managed a little moan before her hips rolled in a slow, grinding glide that quickly undid her. Jolie found herself gasping, gripping the blankets, falling apart. Every moment only multiplied the staggering pleasure until she couldn’t breathe, until she surged faster and held her breath, waiting for the moment she’d finally know satisfaction at this man’s hands.

He didn’t disappoint.

With skillful fingers, he rubbed her and amassed a heavy knot of need between her legs. The swell of sensation was big. Huge. And as it began to crest, Jolie knew it would be unlike anything she’d ever felt.

Then he sent her over the edge in a cascade of beautiful agony that gripped her entire body and shook her to her core. The pleasure held her immobile as she howled out a scream of satisfaction. It morphed into a low, agonized groan as it went on and on. It was unlike any sound that had ever fallen from her lips.

The ecstasy wouldn’t let go. She had no control because Heath forced her to accept every sensation while he pinned her down with his powerful body and clever touch. He held her captive even as he gave her exactly what she needed to soar.

“That’s it.” He kept strumming her clit. “Take it. Let me hear how good I make you feel.”

No way she could refuse him, so she merely rode the wave of sensation for those long, incredible moments, crying out as the rest of the world fell away.

Slowly, the euphoria tapered off, dissipated, leaving her a heap of humming gratification. She melted into the mattress as her breathing recovered slowly. Crap, he must have turned her brain to goo. Nothing mattered now except bliss.

When had orgasm ever been that intense? He put anything battery-operated to shame.

“You’re gorgeous.” He rose and she heard a whisk of a sound that vaguely registered as a drawer opening but she was too wrung out to investigate. A ripping sound commenced a moment later. “But I want to look at you when I slide my cock inside you and fill that snug pussy with every inch I’ve got.”

Jolie lacked the energy to tell him how badly she wanted that, too. Or to move. But when he rolled her onto her back and eased between her legs, towering over her, his closeness wired her body all over again. Sexual need blazed from his midnight eyes. With one hand, he stroked his sheathed cock. With the other, he gripped her thigh.

She gasped helplessly, wanting once more.

“Look at you. Cheeks flushed, muscles lax, cunt swollen. I don’t know when I’ve seen a sight so pretty. If you want more, open to me. Spread your legs wide.”

“You say that a lot,” she mumbled.

“Because that’s how I want you.”

For once in her life, she didn’t argue, just complied, planting her feet wide and dragging a fingertip down the valley between her breasts as she sent him a come-hither stare.

His glittering gaze followed her movement as he covered her with his own body, sliding his lips up the swells of her breasts, to the sensitive column of her throat, before he took her mouth like he had a fever only she could slake. A second later, she felt the thick head of his shaft probe her opening. Once he found the fit, he began to push in.

The climax had swelled her flesh, and she’d already seen that lack of size wouldn’t be an issue with Heath. She relished the challenge of taking all of him.

She groaned at the feel of Heath easing deeper and clutched his shoulders, refusing to let go.

Gripping her hips now, he shoved with an impatience that fed hers. He reared back again, plunging even farther inside her. She mewled out her approval, wriggling for more.

“Give me your hands,” he insisted.

Jolie had no illusions about what he wanted. She shouldn’t like being held down, overpowered, used. Heath was the only man she’d ever met with the guts to do that to her. A warning voice in her head told her she was giving him too much of herself.

She’d worry about that later.

When she unpried her fingers from his shoulders, he gathered them in one hand and shoved them to the mattress over her head as he slammed inside her, filling her up completely.

Her flesh burned as she stretched to take him. With the head of his cock, he prodded a tender spot deep within her no man had ever touched. It set off a pain-to-pleasure chain reaction unlike anything she’d felt.

With a keening cry, she arched her back, writhed against him, and rocked her hips.

He tucked his arm around her waist, palm at the small of her back, and held her immobile against him. “You’re not dictating how I fuck you.”

“Hurry.” Jolie wrapped her legs around him. “Please . . .”

“Ah, there it is, the pleading. That’s so sweet, love. Have you ever begged a man?”

Briefly, she considered distracting him with a kiss or telling him it was none of his business. But he eased out almost completely, then in once more, bottoming out at the hilt. Sparks lit her body. Jolie closed her eyes and let sensations overtake her. She didn’t concede defeat very often, but tonight she admitted he had far more experience and know-how in the bedroom than she could fight.

“No,” she gasped out as he nudged that sensitive spot again.

“You’ve never let a man have control of you.” Satisfaction laced his voice.

“No.”

He hissed out a breath as he stroked deep. That knowledge was clearly a pleasure to him all its own. “You like it. I can tell. You’re so wet. And already tightening around me. I hate that I haven’t had the chance to suck one of those plump nipples yet but I will. I’ll make you feel my mouth all over your body before I fuck you again. That’s a promise.”

His words destroyed her. Involuntarily, her flesh clamped down on him harder. Yes, she’d always enjoyed sex but . . . this didn’t feel like mere intercourse. He was making a statement.

Even fearing he was ruining her for other men with every word and each possessive push inside her, Jolie couldn’t stop herself from yielding to him.

“I want that,” she gasped, seconds away from another screaming climax.

“I do, too. You’re so close.”

Yes, his climax must be nearing, too, right? His accent thickened. His cock swelled. His heart slammed against his chest as his pace quickened.

“Don’t hold out on me,” he coaxed. “I feel you arching. You’re ready, aren’t you? Let it go. Give it to me.”

Jolie would give him her pleasure; she didn’t see any way to stop that. The question was, how was she going to keep him from taking something she could never have back, like her heart?

***

PASSION rushed like a raging river in his head, thick, strong, swift. Heath pulled back, then ground into Jolie again. Bloody hell, he’d never experienced a desire so overwhelming it nearly drowned him. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t escape. So he gave in—and quickened his pace.

With every thrust, he inched her up the mattress. The bed frame squeaked. Her cries turned high and sharp. His gut torqued up. The orgasm would tear him open but it was too late to pull back. Too late to stop.

Heath threw everything he had into possessing Jolie Quinn. This might be their only night together but he intended to make damn certain she never forgot it.

He clenched his teeth, breathing roughly against the raging pleasure. “Open your eyes.”

Her hands curled into fists. She squeezed her eyes shut even more tightly as her little whimpers filled the room. She rocked beneath him in perfect sync, wanting the ecstasy every bit as badly as he did.

But she failed to do what he’d asked. Like in everything else, Jolie tried dictating the terms. He intended to make sure she understood she couldn’t control this. He would take care of her.

If Heath had more willpower, he would have made her wait, forced her to burn in the fire between them before he let her scream in release. But the fuse on his imminent explosion already felt too short.

Still, he’d be bloody damned if he came before her.

“Look at me,” he growled, hearing the Liverpool of his youth slip into his voice.

Again, Jolie didn’t comply. Every part of her body clenched and coiled as she strained against the explosion that would splinter her control. Her silence felt like a barrier between them, as if she shied away from sharing this startling, searing ecstasy with him.

Not bloody happening.

With a curse, he nestled deep inside her pussy and went utterly still.

Her eyes flared wide with shock, then panic. That beautiful begging he’d wanted from her once more returned.

“Heath?” Her breath hitched.

“Do you feel the burn?”

She arched, struggled to writhe under him even as he held her still. “Yes.”

It took every ounce of his restraint to slide back and in again with a slow stroke designed to kindle her senses, rather than plow deep and send her over the edge. “Want me to relieve your ache?”

“Yes.”

“You want to come?”

She nodded frantically, eyes squeezing shut again. “Yes!”

“Then look at me. Watch me while I fuck you.”

For once, she gave into his demands, lashes lifting to reveal those startling green eyes. In reward, he ramped up the pace of his thrusts until tingles skittered over his skin and up his spine, until her little cries slid over his senses like a lick to his cock, until he saw her pupils dilate and her mouth fall open and ecstasy begin to transform her face.

God, even in pleasure the woman looked fierce with a burning stare and gritted teeth. She was a warrior fighting for what was hers. Heath liked that. He loved watching the moment the full brunt of ecstasy rolled over her senses and crushed her mental armor. Finally, he glimpsed the vulnerable woman beneath.

It set him off like nothing else.

Heath rocketed inside her again, plagued by a need he didn’t understand to take her, affect her, mark her, own her. Make sure she only ever wanted him.

Before he could tell himself how foolish and unrealistic that was, his pleasure catapulted up and orgasm roared through him. The overwhelming crest of sensation clawed through his gut, overtaking his system. She screamed again, clamping on him like a vise. Then he cried out in sublime ecstasy, knowing Jolie wasn’t the only one moved by this night.

Even as satisfaction rolled heavy and languid through his body, Heath withdrew, rolled over, and stared at the ceiling, panting wildly. What the bloody hell had just happened? Despite the fact they no longer touched, he felt her keenly beside him. He knew what she smelled like, sounded like, looked and felt like when she climaxed. He didn’t know how he would ever stop wanting her again.

“That was great,” she said, swallowing. “Thanks.”

He turned to stare and found her face almost devoid of expression. She’d thanked him with all the passion of someone showing appreciation for a coworker who’d done her a favor.

Did she actually think he believed her impassive shit? Or would accept it?

“Yes, it was. Should I thank you as well?” He rolled onto his side and propped his head on his elbow to stare at her. “Should we have a meeting later and compare notes about how much we both enjoyed it? Perhaps analyze it for its merits and drawbacks and come up with an action plan on how to improve the next fuck?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” She rose and reached for her plain gray top.

As if they were through for the night. Not even close.

What she needed was a giant dose of intimacy. If she could erect her defenses moments after the orgasm ended, then he had to keep tearing them down. Tomorrow, she could go back to her bossy, charming self. But tonight, by god, she belonged to him.

Heath leapt to his feet and stepped on the cami before she could reach it. “You promised me a whole night.”

Finally, she turned to stare at him. “Surely you don’t mean . . . again?”

“That’s precisely what I mean.” He tore off his condom and deposited it in the nearby bin. Then he grabbed her little gray cotton scrap and tossed it out of the room and down the hall before he shut the door and faced her. “I want to taste you. Right now. Fresh from the orgasm I gave you.” When she hesitated, he raised a brow. “It’s more personal, intimate that way. You’re not afraid?”

Jolie looked terrified. But she lifted her chin and soldiered on. “Of course not. But we’ve kept the neighbors awake long enough and we both have a meeting in the morning.”

“I don’t care about the neighbors or meetings right now. I care about getting between your legs.” He sauntered toward her, watching a fresh glow creep up her chest, pinken her cheeks. “I care about making you feel good. I care about being inside you and hearing you scream for me again.”

He maneuvered her down to the bed, onto her back. When she lay blinking up at him, torn and aroused against her will, he fell to his knees and took her thighs in his hands, spreading them wider.

“I don’t think—”

“Precisely. Right now you shouldn’t think at all.” He couldn’t resist baiting her because he knew she would give in. “I’ll make that possible. C’mon, love. Give everything to me.”