A Score to Settle (13 page)

She took her time answering. “I would be pleased to prosecute that man as part of my job. But, for me, it’s not personal.”

Daniel had a hard time understanding how these life-or-death issues could
not
be personal. But he had to tread carefully here. If Jamie figured out what his true intent was, she would find a way to stop him.

“So this case is nothing personal? Just business?”

She nodded curtly.

“What was that kiss all about then?” Just saying the word
kiss
caused every part of Daniel’s body to tighten. They were in the middle of an argument, and all he wanted to do was kiss her again. And again.

Jamie, her gaze locked with his, licked her lips and swallowed. “Th-that kiss is immaterial to this discussion. We were talking about the justice system. Our work.”

She made perfect sense. Yet somehow Daniel had gotten the whole thing mixed up in his mind. If he could find closure, check this one item off his list, he could move on to other things.

To Jamie.

The news about the DNA had given him real hope for the first time in a very long time. For Jamie, the stakes were professional. For him, they were very, very personal. And she didn’t get it.

“You’re right. Immaterial. Completely out of line for me to even bring it up.” With that, he leaned in and kissed her again.

“That doesn’t make it…”

He kissed her again, harder this time, placing his hands on her shoulders and pressing her against the back of the sofa. A delicious lethargy stole over her body as the kiss intoxicated her.

Yes, he was right, she did want him.

After a few moments, or maybe it was a few minutes, he came up for air. “You were saying?”

She had to search her beleaguered brain for her argument. “Mutual desire…doesn’t justify…”

“We’re both single…”
Kiss
“…unattached…”
Kiss
“…consenting…”
Kiss
.

Why not? She sensed there was a good reason to resist Daniel’s appeal, but she couldn’t come up with it. “Jamie.” He whispered against her ear. “I haven’t felt this good about anything in years. It feels
right.
I want to celebrate. I want to make love to you.”

Jamie’s cynical side clamored for attention. He was manipulating her again. Like most men when they wanted something, they said whatever it took to get their way.

But somehow none of that seemed to matter. She wanted to be with him at least as badly as he wanted her.

She didn’t kid herself that he was serious about her. Lowly county prosecutors from the wrong side of the tracks didn’t become the girlfriends of billionaire oil tycoons except in fairy tales.

But as Daniel nibbled on her earlobe, waiting for a yes or no from her, she didn’t care much what the future held. She’d been attracted to Daniel from the first time she’d seen him lying naked on that massage table, and her hunger for the man had done nothing but build.

It
did
feel right. For this moment, anyway.

“Daniel?”

He stilled, tense, waiting for her to reject him. “Yes?”

“Is the door locked?”

“My staff knows better than to walk in here when I’m in a meeting. Not unless the house is on fire.”

“I don’t care. Lock it.”

“Happy to.” Tucker followed him, and he nudged the dog out the door before locking it. Then he returned to Jamie and put his arms around her. “Is that a yes, dear Jamie?”

“It is.” Something still nagged at her, but she shoved it aside. Daniel Logan was going to make love to her, and she was damn well going to enjoy it.

He kissed her neck and she wiggled with anticipation. Committed, now, she was downright eager.

“Are you protected?” he asked almost casually as he deftly unbuttoned her blouse with one hand and she slid farther and farther down until she was nearly horizontal on the buttery-soft leather sofa.

Of course he would have to ask. A man in his position didn’t risk paying astronomical child support to some enterprising young lady.

“Yes.” At the urging of her father years ago, she’d gotten an IUD so she didn’t have to worry about birth control.

One careless moment could derail your whole career.

She’d never been sure why he felt that way, since her conception hadn’t been even a speed bump in his career, unless an occasional birthday gift…
Damn.

Her father. That was the thing that was bothering her. Daniel still didn’t know her relationship to the man who had sent him to death row.

Daniel had her shirt all the way unbuttoned and was working on the front clasp of her bra.

“Daniel. Daniel, wait. I have to tell you something.”

His fingers went still. “It can wait. Can’t it?”

He was right. If she brought up the subject of her father right now, it would kill the mood completely. “Never mind. It’s not important.” At least, it didn’t seem very important in this context.

What difference did it really make that her father had prosecuted Daniel? She’d never been close to her father. She’d had only a handful of face-to-face meetings with him, during which he preached and she absorbed what she perceived as his wisdom. She was in no way directly connected to the miscarriage of justice that had put Daniel away.

She smiled, made herself relax again.

Why was she fighting this so hard? As Daniel said, they were two consenting adults and there was no ethical or moral reason they couldn’t make love.

She sat up and stripped off her blouse and jacket at the same time. Her bra followed. Daniel stared at her with hungry eyes, like a kid who’d just won the biggest stuffed animal at the carnival.

“Can I touch?” he asked almost shyly.

She wondered if she was his first since prison. If so, he’d hardly been more than a kid the last time he’d been with a woman. She took his hand and guided it to her breast. The muscles of her abdomen spasmed as he touched her.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said reverently.

A deer head mounted over the fireplace seemed to be looking at her accusingly. She closed her eyes and shut out all distractions, focusing on the feel of his hand on her breast, his thumb caressing her nipple.

For the second time that day, he pulled the clip out of her hair and dug his fingers through it, massaging her scalp as he massaged her breast.

Jamie slid her feet out of her shoes and reached for the side zipper of her pants. She wanted to be naked, to open herself completely. She wanted to feel the texture of his skin, feel the heat of it touching her.

“I don’t want to let go of you long enough to get undressed,” he said. “Isn’t that insane? But I’m afraid you’ll evaporate.”

“I’m here, Daniel, and I’m not going anywhere.”

He let go of her to quickly unbutton his shirt and peel it off, revealing a chest that was tanned to a golden brown. The skin was smooth, with just a light dusting of hair at the center.

His jeans came next. Her mouth went dry as he shoved them down his legs, revealing a pair of navy boxer briefs that showed every inch of the extent of his desire for her.

Then the underwear was gone, too, and she couldn’t take her eyes off his beautiful male anatomy, standing proudly, ripe for her taking.

Suddenly, more than anything, she wanted to take him in her mouth and shower her attention on him. She’d heard men preferred the activity over all others, because it was the only time a woman’s attention was focused solely on his pleasure, forsaking her own.

She wouldn’t be forsaking anything. Without any conscious decision she sat up straighter, reached for him, placed her hands on his hip bones and urge him to stand in front of her.

“What… Oh.”

Jamie took him into her mouth, exploring him from the base of his shaft to the tip with her eager, curious tongue and lips while he filled his hands with handfuls of her hair.

“Um, Jamie…” The words came out on a groan and she realized he was fighting for control. “I want to be inside…”

She released him. “Yes. Yes, I want that, too.” Their first time, perhaps their only time, she wanted him to climax inside her.

Jamie raised her hips from the sofa just long enough to shuck her pants and panties, kicking them out of the way as she grabbed Daniel’s wrist and pulled him down on top of her.

His weight crushed her and she loved it, feeling pinned and helpless for a few seconds as he adjusted their positions, insinuating himself between her legs.

“I’m not hurting you…?”

“No. Oh, Daniel, please. Now.”

Even before he entered her, heat pooled between her legs and her skin tingled all over, forecasting what she knew was going to be an explosive orgasm.

She threw one leg over the back of the sofa, opening herself to him. She was wet and ready for him, her whole body throbbing with need. Reaching between their bodies, she grasped his erection. They both groaned as she guided him into her. But it wasn’t as if he couldn’t find her on his own. He pushed inside, paused, pushed deeper, paused.

She was hyperventilating, and she forced herself to clamp her mouth shut, breathing through her nose as he took possession of her, sheathing himself even more deeply, and she spread her legs wider to give him full access.

He was nearly nose to nose with her, and he looked deeply into her eyes. “Jamie.”

That one word was a powerful aphrodisiac. It said he knew to whom he was making love, that she wasn’t some interchangeable collection of female body parts.

He withdrew almost all the way until she whimpered, then plunged inside again, his stroke hard and swift this time. After a few moments, unless she’d lost track of time altogether, he paused again, still struggling for control and driving her to the brink of insanity.

She deliberately moved against him.

“No wiggling.”

“Do that again, Daniel.”

“Only if you want this to end way too soon.”

She never wanted it to end. “Then take your time.” Still, he repeated the long withdraw, and again plunged inside until it felt as if he were reaching down into her core and touching parts of her psyche that had lain dormant her whole life until now. Frothy emotions bubbled up inside her, uncontrollable yet strangely pleasant.

Eventually he found the control he’d been striving for and began to stroke her in earnest, working her into a frenzy.

This wasn’t sex. It was a slow stairway to heaven, not even on the same plane as any encounters in her past.

Daniel’s strokes intensified, and what had started as a leisurely stroll turned into an Olympic sprint. When she finally couldn’t take the tension a moment longer she relaxed her body with a whimper, giving over complete control.

The pleasure was the most intense she’d ever felt as tingles rippled from her core outward in wave after crashing wave.

Daniel released the grip on his self-control and tensed, his whole body rigid. Jamie wrapped her arms and legs around him, practically absorbing his climax along with him.

Gradually she became aware of their physical surroundings again—the feel of the leather against her naked bottom, the afternoon’s winter light spilling through the blinds and that blasted deer head looking down on her.

Idiot. What have you done?

Their bodies were slick with sweat, as if they’d just run a marathon. Physically she was exhausted, spent down to the last penny. She wondered how in the world she would put her clothes on and stroll out of this room as if nothing had happened.

But she would. Gossip about her and Daniel would get back to her office like wildfire and kill her career. If anything was left of her career.

Daniel eased himself off her, swinging her legs over the side of the sofa, sitting down, then pulling her against him.

Cuddling. Nice touch.

“You wanted to tell me something?”

Of course he would remember. “It was good for me, too.”

He laughed. “Sorry. But I was rude to put you off so abruptly. It seemed like it was important to you and my lust got the better of my manners.”

Now wasn’t the time. “It wasn’t important.”

Maybe he didn’t have to know. If she didn’t tell him, no one else would. No one knew.

“Would you mind if I dressed?” she asked. “I feel really odd, knowing your house is crawling with servants. I mean, what if the house really does catch fire and someone has to run in here to save our lives?”

“You get used to servants. But go ahead. As long as I can watch.”

She felt slightly self-conscious—which was ridiculous, given what they’d just shared—as she pulled on panties and bra, pants, shirt, all while Daniel observed appreciatively.

“Not
quite
as interesting going on as they were coming off, but not bad.”

When she was dressed, he quickly donned his own clothes, his movements graceful and economical. He was right, it was fun to watch.

“Now what?” she asked. She had no expectations. Really, none.

“I have a luxurious apartment on the third floor where I install all my lovers. You’ll have everything you need, and your only responsibility will be to please me.”

The shock must have showed on her face, because he laughed. “Jamie. God, what you must think of me. I’m kidding. You act like I have all the answers, and I haven’t got a clue. I was hoping you’d tell me.”

“Unfortunately, I think we have to pretend this never happened. We’re professionally involved.” Why was she saying this? Was she making a preemptive strike so he couldn’t reject her first? She didn’t want to go back to their previous amicable but strained way of being around each other.

But lying down in the path of a herd of runaway cattle wasn’t her style, either.

The look he gave her was inscrutable. “Fine. Once you get official word of the DNA results, we’ll decide together how to proceed.”

“Okay, but keep in mind, if you want me publicly connected to this thing, I’ll soon be a disgraced and jobless former prosecutor.”

He shook his head. “Don’t be so sure. If there’s anything I can do to shore up your professional reputation, I’ll do it. But presented in the right light, I think you can come up smelling like roses. You took the courageous step to right an injustice, and you’ll catch a serial killer in the bargain.”

It sounded good when he put it that way.