Undeniable Pleasures You Sexy Thing! Read online

  The apartment was dark and quiet. The better to nab any would-be assassins. So far, he hadn’t spotted anything out of whack. But that didn’t mean in the next moment someone wouldn’t materialize from the dark with his and Jordan’s names carved on his bullet casings. Jordan’s for the massive amount of money her ex had put on her life, his because he stood in the way.

  Still, despite the sexy distraction, he was happy to be away from Colorado Springs.

  A hot, sweaty memory of what had happened two months ago in Florida between him and Megan McGowan slid through his mind. He sucked air in through his teeth, cursing himself and his mind for playing unfair tricks on him.

  Okay, he admitted, maybe it had been about more than strictly sex when it came to his partner’s girl. Not an easy thing to admit, considering he’d been the one to suggest the no-strings, one-night stand. Or that Darius Folsom had been his best friend since grade school.

  He’d silently argued that the illicit nature of their liaison, as well as the fact that Megan was off-limits to him, were largely to blame. But it didn’t explain everything.

  He cursed under his breath. This was all new territory for him, this thinking about relationships. He’d never betrayed a friend before, much less his best friend. And Megan…well, she’d been more than just a way to release the tension related to a case beyond frustrating.

  He heard a sound behind him.

  Jason slowly removed his feet from the stool and stood up, his .38 automatically in his palm, every thought from his head gone as he went on full alert. It sounded like it had come from the direction of the kitchen.

  Just to be sure, he turned three-hundred-and-sixty degrees, scanning the shadows to verify no one had gotten the jump on him while he’d sat lost in his thoughts. Nothing. Jordan, herself, had gone up to her master bedroom—an entire apartment in and of itself—two hours ago, and during his round ten minutes ago, he’d cracked the door open to find her asleep in that mammoth, king-size thing she called a bed.

  It had been all he could do not to climb into it with her…

  He ousted the idea from his mind along with the other unwelcome thoughts and crept silently toward the closed kitchen door.

  He’d thought he’d left it open the last time he’d gone in, but must have automatically closed it, as he’d done often during the day to cut himself off from temptation incarnate.

  The conversation he’d overheard her having with Otto, the guy he knew managed her San Francisco club—reading up on Miss Jordan Cosby throughout the day had been an interesting endeavor to say the least—had only worsened his condition. Leather and oil? He couldn’t seem to budge the image of her and both items from his mind whenever he saw her. It was definitely not where he wanted to be. It was his primary job to protect her, not entertain thoughts of mauling her.

  He reached out and slowly pushed the swinging door inward.

  There he found Miss August sitting on one of the stools at her granite island, spotlighted perfectly by the soft, recessing ceiling lighting, wearing some sexy red number that left just enough to the imagination.

  All things leather and oil loomed large in his mind…

  4

  DAMN, DAMN, DAMN…

  Jason silently re-holstered his firearm and pushed the door the rest of the way open. Jordan didn’t even look up from where she was pouring Cocoa Puffs into a bowl. Then she topped it off with whole milk from a carton.

  “Sorry, did I wake you?” she asked.

  He walked in to stand next to the island, picking up the box of cereal and looking at her with a raised brow. “Middle of the night munchies?”

  She smiled, looking all too innocent…which told him she was anything but.

  Keep the gaze above the neck, he ordered.

  The more he tried, the more he failed.

  The red number she had on was nothing short of amazing. Or, rather, the body wearing it rated that distinction. Jordan Cosby apparently took great pride in keeping in shape and it showed. Her breasts were high and tight, her waist long and toned, and her legs… He swallowed hard. Her legs went on and on and tempted his touch as surely as water drew a thirsty traveler.

  If only he wasn’t afraid he might drown…

  “Want some?” she asked, reaching for the box.

  The movement stretched her across the counter, her sweet ass nearly bare.

  Jason blinked, sure he had to be dreaming. This couldn’t be happening. He’d dozed off in the chair and his subconscious was providing this little peep show.

  She climbed off the stool and rounded him, her bottom making contact with his already stiffening front.

  Definitely not a dream…

  He grasped her arm. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  She blinked up at him, trying to hold on to the innocent angle, although the widening of her pupils in her hazel eyes told him she was all too aware of his condition and the role she was playing in it. “Getting, um, a bowl. Of course.”

  Her scent teased his nose; not the spicy, citrus perfume she wore, but her own sweet musk. “Of course.”

  He released his hold. She not so innocently brushed up against him again as she passed.

  God, this woman was going to be death of him.

  She began pouring cereal into the bowl. He didn’t think he was capable of swallowing a bite, but he didn’t have it in him to refuse.

  Grabbing a stool, he moved it so he was across the counter from her, a safe distance, even though being in the same room qualified as dangerous.

  He realized music played softly. Mellow jazz. He’d spotted a console built into the wall in the front hall earlier. There must be another control somewhere, perhaps in her bedroom.

  “Nature of the beast,” she said, spooning the sugary cereal into her mouth, her lips curiously left bare of any color he could detect. In fact, he didn’t think she had on a lick of makeup. Another woman might have gone full out. Jordan appeared to know how appealing she was regardless…and that attracted him on level he wasn’t prepared to acknowledge.

  “What beast?”

  She’d pushed a bowl toward him along with the milk. He sat down and poured a healthy portion of cereal into it, and then some milk.

  “Working late. Eating dinner at four in the morning.”

  “Dinner?”

  She smiled at him around a mouthful of Cocoa Puffs. “Mmm. This is the time I usually get home from the club.” She swallowed and then wiped a drop of milk from the side of her full mouth. “Dinner.”

  “Breakfast for dinner.”

  He dug into his own bowl, although it might as well have been cardboard for all he tasted of it. The only thing he wanted to have his tongue against was her.

  She swung her hair back over her shoulder. “Not a cereal man?”

  “Not for a long time.”

  She laughed. “So you cook, then.”

  “I cook.”

  She moved her cereal around in her bowl with her spoon. “A skill I never quite mastered.”

  “Only because you haven’t tried. It’s simple.”

  “Spoken like a man who was probably born knowing his way around a kitchen.”

  “Not quite. But close. My grandmother always insisted my younger brother Jackson and I be able to look after ourselves.”

  A shadow passed over her face. “Being raised with four older brothers and my father, I made a point of never learning how to cook.”

  “Ah.”

  “Ah, what?”

  He shrugged. “Just ah.”

  “Ah always means something.”

  He slowed his movements. “Ah, one of those types. Don’t do anything a man might expect a woman to do. Bucking traditional conventions and all that.”

  “You disagree?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. Not judging, merely remarking.”

  She looked at him for a long moment, as if trying to decipher if what he was saying was true. Apparently satisfied with what she found, she took another mouthful of cereal
.

  “I imagine you’re used to late nights in your job, as well,” she said.

  “Comes with the territory.”

  They ate in silence for a moment and then she asked, “You know Linc well?”

  “Well enough that he talked me into taking this gig.”

  She laughed. A quiet, husky sound that wrapped around him as surely as her fingers might.

  “He’s in Maine.”

  “Maine? What’s going on there?”

  “Nothing.”

  She squinted at him, but didn’t follow up. He was glad, because he wasn’t about to share his friend’s personal business.

  “How do you know each other?”

  “We work together.”

  “You work for him?”

  “No, we work together.”

  “So you’re a partner at Lazarus, then.”

  A statement rather than a question.

  “What? Don’t look so surprised. I do my homework when it comes to anyone associated with any of my clubs.”

  He watched her put her spoon aside and pick up her bowl.

  Dear Lord, please tell him she wasn’t about to…

  He groaned deep in his throat as she lifted the bowl to her mouth and tipped it, drinking the chocolate milk.

  She licked her lips leisurely, and he half expected her to wet her paws and clean the sides of her mouth like a satisfied cat.

  Oh, boy…

  He pushed his own bowl aside, positive he couldn’t take another bite.

  “You know,” Jordan said, leaning against the counter in a way that pressed her plump breasts together. “I’ve been considering ways you and I…um, might make this ordeal a lot more…pleasant for both of us.”

  He got up from the stool, picked up his bowl and hers and placed both in the sink.

  He was surprised to find her in front of him when he turned back.

  His breath froze in his lungs at the way she looked up at him coyly. She placed her right hand against his chest, as if plucking off a piece of lint on the black cotton.

  “I didn’t sign up for pleasant,” he said, his voice sounding rough to his own ears.

  She smiled. “That doesn’t mean it can’t be…”

  The perfectly manicured hand dipped down on his stomach and then brushed against the most sensitive area of his anatomy.

  Air hissed in through his teeth.

  He got the distinct impression she was checking him for size.

  Rather than be offended, or shocked, he chuckled, holding her gaze as he lifted a brow.

  “Find what you’re looking for?”

  Her hazel eyes sparkled. “Mmm…I’m not sure yet.”

  She turned her hand around and boldly grasped the length of his cock through his jeans. He instantly stiffened further.

  Her smile widened. “Oh, yeah. Definitely found it…”

  Damn. He was going to kiss her.

  As much as he told himself he shouldn’t, it had been two months since he’d been with someone. He hadn’t gone that long without since he was stationed overseas. And, damn it, Jordan was the hottest thing he’d seen in a good long while.

  Even better, everything about her screamed ‘temporary.’ There, indeed, would be no strings attached…

  He wasn’t aware she’d undone three of the buttons on his jeans until he felt the heat of her fingers sliding into the waistband of his boxer briefs. Within moments, she had freed his length and weighed him in her palm.

  “Impressive, Mr. Savage.”

  She tilted her head, holding his gaze, her tongue darting out to moisten her lips. “Tell me, do you live up to your name?”

  “What do you think?”

  He grasped her hips and hauled her to sit on the counter in front of him, parting her knees and then stepping between them. She swayed forward to kiss him, but he avoided the attempt, instead reaching for the skimpy straps on the naughty red bit of lingerie she wore.

  “You’re not the only one who needs to check the goods first,” he said quietly.

  He tugged the straps down over her arms until her breasts sprang from the front of the material. Her nipples were hard and rosy, the mounds as full and firm as he’d expected them to be.

  “You approve?”

  He rasped his thumbs over the stiff nubs, absorbing her shiver as he did so even as he hummed his approval.

  Then his hand moved against her crotch…

  The silky material was soaked straight through. He slid a fingertip inside the edge, finding her as bare and as soft and juicy as a ripe peach.

  She began to say something, but gasped instead when he slid his finger inside her shallow channel and then farther still, until her hot, tight flesh squeezed him.

  Nice…

  He stared into her hooded eyes, taking in her flushed cheeks, her ragged breathing. Then he finally lowered his mouth to hers, fully intent on taking every last thing she offered…

  5

  THE GRANITE COUNTERTOP was cool against Jordan’s bottom, but Jason was so very, very hot…

  She shivered in anticipation of his kiss as he finally leaned into her.

  Yes…

  While she’d hoped her bid to gain his attention would work, she hadn’t expected this degree of success. Well, she’d had a little help from Otto’s Christmas gift. She knew firsthand there were few men who could refuse a little whisper of red nothing. Of course, she normally didn’t have to rely on such measures. But as Jason’s tongue tangled with hers, mmm, yes, the little bit of work she had to put into the seduction was definitely paying off.

  The last man she’d slept with had been Rick. Over four months ago. Call her cautious, but after his arrest, she’d decided perhaps she should take a closer look at the men she dated. As a result, she hadn’t been able to shut her mind down even when the sexual urge hit. She didn’t want to find herself being subpoenaed to testify at another trial ever again.

  If what Rick had been accused of creeped her out a little…well, that was between her and her journal.

  Jason nudged her knees a little farther apart and stepped closer still, until his long, hard length pressed against her moist softness. She shivered again.

  Yes…

  Normally it took a few glasses of wine and dancing and a night’s worth of suggestive glances to get her this turned on. But as Jason stroked her breasts and kissed her deeply, a pool of dark need spread within her, growing deeper with each shallow breath she took.

  His fingers worked down her trembling stomach to settle between her thighs. She wriggled a little closer, glad she’d waxed two days ago, something she usually didn’t see to herself, but with so much time on her hands, and given the jungle that had been growing, she’d decided to do it…and had cursed herself for hours afterward.

  Now she purred as he stroked her soft flesh with his index finger before dipping it inside her.

  Sweet heaven, she was going to come…

  She gasped as her muscles melted into a shimmering, rippling puddle, staring at him in shock and bliss as a moan reverberated against the back of her throat.

  Wow. She must have been in a sorrier state than she’d thought.

  She clenched her knees against his hips, wanting…needing to feel him deep inside her.

  He moved away.

  Jordan blinked, her shock burning into surprise at the abrupt response. She watched, speechless, as he turned and tucked himself back into his pants. He uttered a long line of curse words.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, restlessly licking her lips.

  He slid her a look of pure want. “This…you and me…shouldn’t happen. And it isn’t going to. Not on my watch.”

  Her entire body throbbed with wanton desire. “Are you kidding?”

  He stared at her. “Honey, there are two things I never joke about—sex and war.”

  She squinted at him. “And which category would you classify this as?”

  He considered her for a long moment. “Both.”

  He st
rode from the room as if he were ducking live fire.

  Jordan remained on the counter, gaping at the empty air he’d left in his wake, trying to wrap her head around what had just happened.

  Seriously? Had he really just left her hanging like that?

  Then again, she’d reached orgasm. If anyone had been left hanging, it had been him.

  Which made no kind of sense at all.

  She glanced down at the lingerie, which was little more than a belt around her waist at this point. She considered pulling the straps back up, but instead slid from the counter and allowed the scrap of silk to pool around her feet. Snatching it up, she headed for the stairs and her bedroom where she hoped she could find a toy up to handling unfinished business.

  As for Mr. Savage, well, he had another think coming if he expected her to continue pursuing him after tonight. She might have been desperate enough to try to seduce him this time, but not even she was stupid enough to invite another rejection.

  A damn shame. The preview she’d been given told her they would be very, very good together.

  WHAT IN THE HELL HAD he been thinking?

  Jason closed himself in the downstairs guest bathroom and ran ice-cold water in the sink, splashing handfuls over his face in a losing battle to regain control over himself. His cock was still painfully hard. His breathing still ragged. He stilled his hands against his face and took a deep breath. Hell, he even smelled like her, for Pete’s sake.

  He grabbed a towel and dried his face then turned to lean against the sink, sucked in a deep breath and searched for something guaranteed to make his dick go limp—namely, the other topic he never joked about.

  In an instant, his mind’s eye filled with a desert scene a half a world away. It had been hot as Hades and his team had been caught in a Waziristan valley with no cover and surrounded by hostiles.

  He, Dari, Linc, Megan, Eli Stark and Barry Lazaro had been under heavy fire for more than an hour. Things didn’t look good.