Bound and Determined (29 page)

He dotted kisses along the edge of her jaw, nibbled on her neck as if he had all night to do nothing more than touch her, revel in her skin.

A hazy, pleasure-filled contentment spread through her as he moved down her body, his tongue taking lazy swipes at her nipples, sucking gently at her.

Bliss rolled through her body, softening muscles, moistening her. She brushed her fingers through the silky dark strands of his hair, delighting in the closeness. Nothing in her life had ever been perfect.

Until now.

As Rafe inched up her body, again to consume her with the fire of a languorous kiss, Kerry spread herself beneath him in invitation.

“I want you. No games, no toys. Just you.”

He reached for a condom on the nightstand. “I can’t think of anything better.”

A rip of foil and a few movements later, Rafe tunneled inside her. She welcomed him with a sigh as he filled her, thick, pulsing, so full of life. Every muscle and nerve in her body was attuned to him, eager to have him near.

Kerry raised her hips, wrapped her legs around him, and invited him in farther.

With a groan, he accepted, burying himself to the hilt inside her. And he stayed, lingering, as if he could barely stand to leave any part of her, even to thrust.

He clasped her cheek in his hand. Their eyes met as he pressed farther into her, making her gasp.

“So good,” he muttered. “So perfect.”

Sweet need curled deep inside her, rolling like waves on a tranquil crystal-clear ocean, at his words. The tender caring in his eyes reached deep into her heart as he withdrew from her body. Kerry held in a whimper of protest—barely—when he clasped her hand in his, fingers entwined, and fused their mouths together. Finally, he entered her again with a slow sure stroke.

Kerry nearly exploded in a pleasure so sublime, it didn’t simply touch her body, but dug all the way down to her heart.

With gazes still locked, he eased into her again. Beyond their body connection, the intimacy of their mating gazes made her feel more attuned to him than ever. His dark face flushed with familiar arousal. Kerry could predict that the muscles of his powerful shoulders would bunch up and roll as he moved inside her. She knew what the widening of his dark pupils meant, the harsh male groans.

“Can’t stay away from you,” he muttered as he thrust into her again.

She met his unwavering stare. “You don’t have to.”

Her words seemed to unleash something inside him. His fingers tightened on her hands, matching the urgency tightening
his mouth, driving his hard strokes into her. He engorged even more. Every stroke seemed to possess her more fully than the last. Pleasure blossomed, grew, spiraled, spun nearly out of control. Kerry threw her head back and moaned his name.

“That’s right. Feel me.
Me
inside you.”

Flesh rippling, she clamped tighter around his cock. Her breathing rushed out of control. Her heartbeat revved like a turbocharged sports car. Even more enthralling was the way he kept looking at her, thrust after thrust, as he filled her with himself.

Love swelled in her chest, threatening to choke her. Would this be the last time she held him? Desperation seized her. She was not ready for her time with him to end. But it would. In less than a day, she would be without him.

Kerry clung to Rafe, holding tight.

Her body raced out of control. Arousal flared beyond her center now, streaming up her belly, down her legs. Every breath was hard to steal. Close . . . so close.

“Babe, I can’t hold out.”

“Don’t stop,” she pleaded.
Don’t ever stop.

Every muscle in Rafe’s body seemed to tighten, his back, the hard globes of his buttocks, the harsh lines of his jaw. Then she lost focus as her world exploded and ecstasy erupted inside her, obliterating all but the love she didn’t dare tell him about. Rafe followed her over the edge with short, sure thrusts and a harsh cry of satisfaction.

After, he didn’t roll away. Half-hard, he stayed buried inside her, stroking her hair with a tender hand as she recovered from the aftermath of mind-blowing pleasure.

But it was the love that lingered.

He wouldn’t want to hear it. She was better off keeping it to herself and saving the humiliation of his quick dart to freedom, away from his crazy abductor turned nympho.

Still, the fact that he could never be hers, would never want to be, stripped away the vestiges of carnal satisfaction. A dull ache thudded in her chest, which felt hollow and painful. Tears stung her eyes, choked her.

Kerry was almost grateful when her cell phone rang. Rafe held tight as she wriggled beneath him, trying to leave the bed. After a moment’s struggle, he let go. She grabbed his shirt and
donned it, then walked across the room to her phone, allowing her first breath not tinged with his clean scent in an hour.

It was just as well; she would have to learn to breathe without him from now on.

R
afe listened with half an ear as Kerry answered the phone. Three seconds into the conversation the familiar voice on the other end made him swear under his breath. Jason. When would the idiot stop chasing Kerry?

And he wished the other guy’s pursuit didn’t make him want to pound someone into the ground, preferably Jason himself.

In a few hours, it wouldn’t be his concern. His gut staged a revolt about that fact. Damn it, Kerry was getting under his skin.

“The investigation is going . . . well,” he heard her say. After a pause, she turned her back to him and murmured, “I don’t know exactly what Rafe and Smikins talked about. What? No, all Rafe said is that he’s confident we’ll know something soon.” She paused. “Coming home? Probably tomorrow. I’ll call you.”

Gritting his teeth, Rafe sat up in the bed and contemplated her narrow back outlined in his shirt as she hung up the phone moments later. Yeah, Kerry was going home tomorrow, sooner rather than later. She had to, before the bitter end got . . . well, bitter, thanks to his lack of relationship skills.
And now that he’d stolen the money from the thief, there would certainly be one pissed-off criminal on the prowl, looking for him. For all he knew, that someone wouldn’t mind trying to extract the information and passwords for the new account out of his hide. If he had thought it through a bit more, he would have acknowledged that Kerry’s safety came first and realized that transferring the money meant the beginning of the end for them.

Shit.

But before that, there was the little matter of her overly friendly “friend.”

“Jason is awfully persistent. Don’t you get tired of having a slobbering stalker?”

She turned and glared at him. Rafe held in a wince. Why didn’t he just shut the hell up? He was good, at least in business situations, about keeping his cool. All that went out the window with Kerry. She knew where he stood about Jason, and hammering her with it every time the prick’s name came up wasn’t going to earn him a Mr. Congeniality award.

Yet another example of why he wasn’t cut out for this relationship stuff, even if it had crossed his mind lately a time or two—or ten.

“Don’t you get tired of worrying about a guy who’s nothing more than a good friend?” she said finally. “Trust me, I know Jason. He’s no more interested in me than I am in him.”

Naïve; that was Rafe’s only word for her. Kerry genuinely believed what she said. Her exasperation told him that. Which told him that she knew as much about men as he did about applying mascara. In other words, zilch.

“He asked a lot of questions about the case.” A moderate change of subject, for which he mentally patted himself on the back. Proof that more thinking before he opened his mouth would help.

“Mark is his best friend. Of course he’s curious.”

Or guilty and wondering what we know
. “Thanks for not telling him what’s going on with the money. No one needs to know but us. If he had anything to do with the theft, he’ll figure it out real soon.”

“I figured you’d say that.”

Good that she’d foreseen Rafe’s desire to keep their plan quiet. But could she guess the next thing he had to say? Rafe doubted she’d have seen this one coming.

Getting the words out wouldn’t be easy. His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. He watched her, lush curves half-visible through the Egyptian cotton of his shirt. She was breath-stealingly sexy. So warm and fun and adventurous. So loyal and loving she’d put her entire life on the line for the brother she loved.

Kerry had taught him new things about women, like the fact they weren’t all shoe-happy twigs with maxed-out Macy’s cards. But she’d taught him about himself, that being with someone else didn’t have to be so damn annoying that he wanted to gouge his eyes out. And he’d always enjoyed sex—loved it, in fact. But with her, an extra spark made the air zing between them, gave every touch the impact of an electrical jolt. Giving that up would be a bitch. But Kerry had also reminded him about fun, about taking risks, that life wasn’t just about working and making money. Sometimes people just
had
to do things. He’d gone on this crazy ride with Kerry for that very reason, and had the weekend of a lifetime.

But all good things came to an end, especially when her safety was at stake.

Gut clenching, Rafe crossed the room. Before he could stop himself, he brushed a rioting gold curl back from her face.

“Kerry, I think it’s time you took me to the hotel. It’s got to end.”

Shock blanched across her face. She paled, but didn’t make a sound. Lips pressed together, she nodded mutely as she tried to turn away.

“It’s safer this way, babe,” he said, grabbing her hand and bringing her face-to-face with him again. “Like you said, the thief could be some murderous psycho, and I don’t want him finding you.”

She stared for a long moment, eyes darkening with emotions he couldn’t begin to name. “What about you?”

“I’ll take care of myself. I want you out of the thief’s path. To everyone who’s a suspect, you act like you know nothing about the money.”

Nodding, Kerry extracted her hand and backed away. “Morning soon enough for you?”

Rafe glanced at the clock. It was just past midnight. Getting into the hotel would be a pain in the ass at this hour. They might even have given his room away by now, so he’d have to call to get another. The bank was closed, so the thief would likely be unable to check the bank records until morning.

And—okay, he admitted it—he wanted to steal another few hours with Kerry.

“Yeah, morning is fine.”

Another silent nod later and she retreated to the bed, slid in, turned off the bedside lamp, and shut her eyes. Her every muscle screamed with tension. She looked ready to burst. With relief? Tears? Anger?

God, he was so not equipped to guess about this woman-emotion stuff.

He crawled into bed beside her, aching to touch her while he could. “Please don’t be upset. It’s for the best.”

“I’m not upset.” Her voice was as stiff as a well-starched shirt.

And when he tried to curl up to her, her entire body turned rigid and she shifted away.

Because their bargain had more or less ended and she owed him nothing else, or because she cared and thought he was rejecting her?

Damn, he hated trying to guess. Hated worrying about how she felt. Usually other people’s emotions didn’t bother him. He never gave them a single thought. Kerry . . . He’d spent plenty of billable, productive hours worrying about her feelings. Hell, for all he knew, she wasn’t hurt right now, but having a sudden attack of PMS. This was why he sucked at relationships.

“Be pissed if you want.” He rolled away from her, onto his back.

“I said I’m not.”

“Real convincing, too. I’m thinking of your safety.”

“And getting back to that comfortable life where computers kept you company, no one gave you a birthday party, and you didn’t have to care about anyone but you. I expected that.”
Anger laced her voice. “Believe me, I never expected a rich, brilliant city slicker to stay with a scale-challenged suburban waitress.”

“What?”

“I mean, sex is one thing. I’m young and female, so why not, right? But I never expected to be more to you.”

Had she wanted to be? Rafe put the brakes on his suddenly pounding pulse.

“You’re not the kind of man to truly want a woman who’s still working her way through college,” Kerry went on, “who will probably never wear a single-digit size of clothing other than shoes, who resorted to crime because she couldn’t afford a private investigator.”

Scowling, Rafe sat up and rolled her to face him. “You make it sound as if I think you’re not good enough. Or that I’m a snob, or somehow think I’m better. What kind of bullshit is that?”

“I’m just stating facts.”

He snorted. “Incorrect ‘facts.’ I’m not better than you or anyone. I turned a hobby that nearly landed me in prison into a lucrative business. That was damned lucky.” He grabbed her by the shoulders. “I’m the son of an alcoholic and a desperately unhappy woman who barely spoke English. There’s a big claim to fame. And if you make one more derogatory comment about your size, I’m going to smack that ass until it turns as red as a cherry.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’d probably like that.”

Rafe joined her attempt to lighten the moment. “Who says you wouldn’t?”

“You’re impossible.”

Rafe could barely stand to look at that heartbreaking mouth, her downcast eyes.

So he placed a long, still kiss on her lips and backed away. “This isn’t real. You have a life; I have a life. If anything, you’re too good for me. I’ve never known anyone with such a big heart. I don’t have the ability to . . . care for people the way you do. I’m not wired that way. Relationships and I—we just don’t get along.”

“But just tonight, you just risked everything to help me—”

“I didn’t say I was a total shithead.” He raked a hand through hair he already suspected looked like it had been
styled by Medusa’s hairdresser. “Look, you needed help, so I helped you. It’s my good deed for the decade. Staying together . . . it puts you in too much danger and doesn’t make sense. My flight leaves in about twelve hours.”