P I Honeytrap (4 page)

Her knees gripped his hips for purchase and she executed a series of shallow bounces followed by a few long, firm, hip-rolling thrusts. Tanner pressed her to him with one hand between her shoulder blades, crushing her breasts against his chest. She rose in mounting excitement which quivered through her clitoris as it moved hard against his body. Her fingers parted her pussy lips to make the stimulating connection intense.

Tanner’s grunts signalled the point of no return and he thrust hard and ejaculated, trying to hold Hayley still as he came. The intense orgasm swept outwards from her centre, tormented by the clitoral stimulation from his fingers, touching her in little, jerky movements. She moaned against him as she climaxed.

‘Oh baby.’ A look of agonised ecstasy crossed his face. She knew he liked the hard muscular contractions of her toned vagina as it clamped around his spent member. One advantage for her and the guys of having so much regular sex.

They stayed collapsed together for a moment, in recovery. Hayley pushed away from his body, making him wince as his over-sensitive cock slipped from her. She had enough to convince any court of his philandering. He couldn’t pass that one off as client hospitality, to anybody. She smiled, satisfied on two scores.

‘Happy?’ Tanner, seeing her reaction, smiled back, hugging her. He rubbed his hands down her thighs and calves and caressed her stiletto-covered feet.

What an ego. She acted too overcome to speak.

Tanner went to the bathroom and got a towel, wrapping it around his waist as he returned. He poured another drink and, noticing her earlier one remained untouched, handed it across to her.

What the hell. She’d earned it. Hayley threw the shot down the back of her throat. It burned away any lingering taste of Tanner in her mouth.

He crawled into bed and, flipping back the edge of the cover, invited her in. ‘Let’s get a little sleep and then we can play some more.’

‘Sounds good.’ Hayley started to pull her panties and skirt on.

‘Hey, what are you doing?’ He looked ready to leap out of bed and drag her back. He knew a good thing when he saw one and clearly didn’t want to let her go just yet. He was the type of guy who preferred to do the ditching.

‘You pour us another drink.’ Hayley indicated her empty glass with a nod of her head. ‘I’m going down the hall to get some ice.’ She did a few buttons up on her blouse and swooped up the ice bucket. ‘You wouldn’t want me walking outside naked, now would you? All that fooling around has left me feeling hot. I think some ice rubbed over my body would be good.’ She could play the dumb tramp to perfection.

Tanner laughed and relaxed. ‘I seem to have that effect on women lately.’

Tell that to your wife. She closed the door behind her, dumped the ice bucket down the corridor on a lamp table, and took the stairs to reception. The desk was deserted as she exited the building and turned the corner to see Paolo with the van fired up, ready to go.

‘Got what you wanted, boss?’ he asked her casually. Too casually.

‘Like you wouldn’t know.’ Hayley and Paolo grinned at each other. He put the van in gear and they rolled slowly out of the lot. Paolo would go back in the morning and spend a little more of Mr Tanner’s money, bribing the desk to get back in and recover his gear. There was poetic justice in that. Hayley would review and edit the footage. No point rubbing her client’s nose in it. Then she would arrange a meeting to hand the damning evidence over. What Mrs Tanner did about it after that was entirely up to her.

They locked the van in the compound behind the office and took their own vehicles home. Operatives were trained never to take the same route twice. Their line of work wasn’t generally dangerous, but there was no knowing when a disgruntled John might put two and two together and came looking for a little payback. She mentally consigned her night’s work with Tanner to the past.

Hayley drove her car slowly past the gym. It looked, to most people passing outside, to be in darkness but a dull tell-tale light burning dimly from the office in the back told her Reuben was working late. He hadn’t stayed open hoping she’d show up, had he?

She put her foot down and sped away down the empty street.

Chapter Three

Hayley preferred to get into the office early. She woke before sunrise and never took long getting into the shower. Every inch of her body had been scrubbed under very hot water last night, like she did following every honeytrap rendezvous, but her morning shower was warm and pleasant and her own favourite way to start the day.

She dressed casually for the office and never wore much more than a little eye-liner and mascara. The other stuff was reserved for her night work. Those were two very different people.

By the time most businesses were opening the shutters, Hayley had been at her desk for a good couple of hours.

When the door opened unexpectedly early, Hayley looked up to see Reuben standing there holding a cardboard cup holder with two takeout drink cartons in one hand and a brown paper bag in the other.

‘I don’t remember ordering coffee and Danish?’ Hayley bit back the note of sarcasm that was definitely in her voice.

‘Fruit smoothie and a wholewheat salad roll. You have to look after your health.’ He slid the items onto the surface of her desk, being careful to avoid the papers there.

Stalking over, Hayley swept her stuff up. She didn’t want anyone seeing confidential files, she told herself. She didn’t want Reuben suspecting the exact line of her PI business either. A wave of annoyance rushed through her. Why should she give a damn if Reuben knew? It was none of his business anyway. Why didn’t he leave her alone, period?

‘You don’t need to look after my health. I’ll look after it myself.’ Hayley knew he was expecting her to say thanks.

The look on his face made her feel a little guilty. He was only trying to be kind. That sort of misguided kind a reasonable guy feels he owes you when you’ve let him fuck your brains out.

‘I just thought –’

‘I know what you thought. You thought you owed me something for the other night. Well, you don’t.’ Hayley wanted to make that clear. She didn’t need Reuben thinking that the other night meant any damn thing more than it did. Sex.

Reuben headed for the door. At least the guy had the sense to tell when he wasn’t wanted. He turned and glanced at her. He looked kind of hurt. Hayley felt another twinge of guilt but crushed it back down. Well, she hadn’t asked him to come round with his vitamin juice and try to shove it down her throat.

She thought he understood. If she wanted sex, she’d come to him. The last thing she needed was Reuben making something more of it. Jeez. They had a good thing going. Why did he want to spoil it?

He turned, with the door half open. ‘I heard the vehicles in your yard last night. Figured you were working late. I thought you might have come by.’

Temper got the better of her. ‘You don’t need to feed me. Or keep a check on the hours I work. I’ll work any damn hours I please. And I’ll come by when it suits me.’ Better to put him in the picture and have done, than for him to think this was going anywhere it wasn’t.

Reuben looked at her. ‘I’m sorry, Hayley. I didn’t think.’ He moved aside to let Alice slip past him into the office, holding the door open for her. Then he left, closing it quietly behind him.

Alice stood and looked at Hayley a moment. ‘Did I interrupt something?’

‘No. Timing couldn’t have been better.’ Hayley wasn’t being sarcastic but she was beginning to feel a heel. The guy was only trying to be decent. And since when did she have anything against decent guys?

Alice’s keen eyes took in the breakfast delivery on the desk. ‘I think he likes you.’

‘No one asked him to.’

‘No one ever asks a man to be nice. It doesn’t work that way. They either are or they’re not.’ Alice’s simple logic made sense. Even to Hayley. ‘And he is.’

Now Hayley felt even worse. She abandoned the filing cabinet and looked across to meet Alice’s admonishing glare. ‘I suppose you think I should apologise.’

‘I just don’t know what you’re all riled up about, that’s all. He only bought you breakfast.’ Suddenly a light appeared to dawn in Alice’s head. ‘I wish a man would buy me breakf – oh goodness.’

‘What?’ Hayley snapped.

‘He bought you breakfast.’ Alice failed to elucidate. It was as if her words were meant to be self-explanatory.

They were, but Hayley wasn’t admitting it. To either of them. ‘What of it?’

Alice took up the document filing that Hayley had abandoned, refusing to look at her boss. ‘Nothing.’ She was instantly busy and intent on her work.

Hayley looked at the back of Alice’s head. Then at the food on the desk. ‘Blast.’ She grasped the two lidded drinking cups, shaking off the cardboard holder, and, balancing one on top of the other, opened the door and left.

Hayley took a deep breath and entered Reuben’s gym. It was already busy with early-morning enthusiasts who were getting in a session before work. She halted at the reception desk and spoke to Tammy with the name badge.

‘Is Reuben in?’ Hayley knew exactly where his office was located but thought it would be far more discreet to appear not to. She imagined that he was probably holed up inside, licking his wounds after his nice gesture got such a hostile reception from her just now. The thought didn’t make her feel any better.

‘I think he’s in the back. Do you want me to call him out?’ Tammy eyed the two containers with amusement flashing across her face, as if she was used to seeing soppy, adoring women bearing gifts, looking for Reuben.

It irritated Hayley immensely. ‘I’ll just go out back, if that’s OK.’

It wasn’t, apparently. Tammy narrowed her eyes and then put on a smug expression, as if she was the Guardian at the Gate. It made Hayley want to knock her teeth down her throat. ‘Is he expecting you?’

‘No. I can definitely say he isn’t.’ Hayley began to walk towards the office, as Tammy glared knowingly and picked up the phone.

‘I’m phoning him to say you’re coming through,’ she called to Hayley’s departing back.

‘You do that.’

Reuben’s door was ajar. Hayley heard him talking on the phone and he looked up just as she appeared in the doorway. Her stomach clenched. He was a really sexy looking guy, with intense green eyes, and she wasn’t sure if it was that or the guilt that stopped her in her tracks. She shook it off.

‘It’s OK. She’s here right now. I’ll take it from here. Thank you Tammy.’ He hung up.

‘Got yourself a little watchdog?’ In the mood she was in, Hayley couldn’t resist a snipe. The truth was she wasn’t good at saying sorry.

‘Tammy’s a cool kid.’

‘I get the impression she wouldn’t like to hear you calling her a kid.’ If Hayley could read a person’s looks right, and she could, Tammy thought differently about Reuben than he professed to think about her.

‘Is that what you came to tell me?’ There seemed to be a lot of cool around the place today. Reuben wasn’t planning to make this any easier for her. And he’d better not go thinking she was jealous of a kid or he’d be wearing his sunshine juice all over his head.

‘I came to say thanks.’ Even now, she couldn’t just say it. Out loud. I’m sorry.

‘For what?’ Reuben looked her square in the face.

‘For the breakfast. It was nice of you to think about it.’ Hayley stood there, still holding onto the cups, feeling lame.

‘Nice?’ He was going to make her pay.

‘Thoughtful.’

‘Thoughtful?’

‘If you’re going to repeat everything I say we’ll be here for a very long time.’

‘You’re not really saying very much.’

He was still smarting and she knew what he was hinting at. ‘OK. I shouldn’t have been so snarky back there.’

‘No. You shouldn’t.’ Reuben crossed his arms over his broad chest.

‘It’s just –’

‘What?’ Reuben looked like he really wanted her to tell him what was eating her. But she just couldn’t talk about it. Never had and never would. He would just have to live with it. Or not.

She ignored the question and held out one of the drinks. ‘Perhaps we could have breakfast together?’ It was the closest thing to sorry she could manage.

‘Are you hitting on me, Hayley?’ Reuben smirked in that sexy, playful way that usually melted her sterner side.

She answered his smile with a rueful one of her own. He’d forgiven her. Alice was right. He was a nice guy. Anyone else would have rightly told her to shove it.

‘I’m offering you your breakfast back. Well, your share of it, anyway.’

Reuben stepped forward and took the cup from her fingers, letting his linger on hers far too long. It sent a shivering thrill running up her spine. Damn it, she liked him.

‘I wasn’t checking up on you, Hayley,’ he said, unclipping the lid from his drink. He took a long swallow and she watched his Adam’s apple bob up and down as the liquid slid down his strong throat.

‘I know.’ Hayley sipped hers through the lid opening. She also knew she had way overreacted.

‘Do you?’ He looked intently at her.

‘I’m sorry.’ Suddenly she could form the words.

‘Me too. I shouldn’t have come barging in like that, thinking I could just get you to drop everything, for me.’

‘It was a nice thing to do.’

‘Will you stop saying
nice
. It isn’t particularly flattering to a man to hear a sexy woman refer to him as
nice
, you know.’

‘It was Alice who said it first.’

‘Now, Alice I don’t mind thinking that. But you. I’d rather you thought something else when you thought about me.’ He put his drink down but made no further move towards her.

‘You reckon I think about you?’ she remarked. They were back to their old teasing ways. It was safer ground. This she could handle.

‘Plenty. What are you thinking about me right now?’ His eyes were darkening. His jaw tightening, and not in an angry way.

Hayley was thinking she knew where this was heading. Teasing was their foreplay. ‘I’m thinking that you’re not thinking straight.’

‘How do you know what I’m thinking?’ Reuben folded his arms across his chest again. It was as if he wanted to contain something big that was building inside him. ‘Are you thinking it too?’

She was. ‘It’s too early in the morning.’ It wasn’t.

‘That’s what you say when you know you shouldn’t be drinking. Not when you’re about to have sex.’

‘What makes you think I’m about to have sex?’ They both knew she was. Her pussy was throbbing like a homing beacon. On, off, on, off. Guiding him to her.

‘Do you have anything more pressing that you need to be doing, right now?’

The tone of Reuben’s voice had her mind so firmly fixed on impending orgasm, especially when he said “pressing” like that, she could hardly remember what her schedule was. ‘Alice is there. She can deal with things.’

‘That’s a no, then.’

‘But the gym is full of people. And the Rottweiler.’

His brow crinkled. ‘I don’t have a –’ Light dawned. He shook his head at her. ‘You leave Tammy to me.’

A ribbon of jealousy quirked through her gut. She dismissed it. Stupid. Tammy’s just a kid. And Reuben was just physical release. Really physical release.

He picked up the phone on his desk and waited. Hayley watched him, feeling a restless energy crawling across her skin.

‘Tammy? Which of the sauna cubicles is free?’ He paused. ‘Thanks.’ He hung up and grinned at Hayley. ‘Nothing like working up a sweat to start the day.’ He guided her gently before him through the door, his hand in the small of her back.

‘And you so like something to give you a helping hand doing it.’ Hayley realised for a moment that Reuben was the only one she ever allowed to push her around. Even if it was only literally.

‘Is it me that’s making you smile, Hayley?’

‘Don’t look so smug. I was just thinking I always end up hot and sweaty when I’m around you.’

‘The way you like it?’

It was true. Going out for dinner or something with Reuben would be just too weird. And what had put that idea in her head anyway? That wasn’t what Reuben and she were about. Was that why she had kicked off earlier? Because bringing her breakfast had just made things weird? She was glad things were back to normal. No relationship stuff. Just hot sex.

Reuben wondered if Hayley had any idea how hot she looked in those cut-off jeans and T-shirt. He doubted she saw herself that way. The natural look suited her so much. With a toned body like that and such a beautiful face, why bother to add any meaningless decoration? She must have guys begging just to spend time with her. Not that she ever seemed to notice them noticing her.

He’d seen all those testosterone-stuffed macho guys at the gym giving her the eye. It had made him want to protect her, right from the start. Maybe that was why she came in so late to work out, to avoid them?

Not to spend time with him. The thought didn’t rest easy.

She’d made her views on guys perfectly clear. She didn’t talk to him about it. Didn’t have to. And he never asked. He figured if she wanted him to know anything, she’d tell him. He was just grateful that she’d found her way into his gym and his life. And that she sometimes let him service her needs. Actually, it was often. She was a red-blooded male’s dream. Hot and up for exciting sex. No pretence. She was not interested in all that boyfriend/ girlfriend baggage. He should be ecstatic, but with Hayley he’d quickly got to a place where he wanted more.

He’d nearly blown it today. Thought that was the last he’d see of her. All over some stupid healthy breakfast. All over trying to show her that he cared for her, much more than just for the great sex. But here she was. And he wasn’t going to waste a minute of it showing her how hurt he was. She’d come back to him, hadn’t she? And he knew what she came for. The only thing she came for. So what’s a guy to do?

When he’d seen her standing in his doorway, his pulse had started racing. It was still racing. For a moment he’d thought she was going to fling the drinks in his face. He’d even thought for one stupid minute she might be acting a little jealous about Tammy and he liked it. Frankly, he didn’t know what he thought except he was so glad she was standing there, in his office, he wanted to kiss her.

He always wanted to kiss her.

It was about the only thing she’d never let him do. She sure was a complicated woman. But he wasn’t going to fall out over a simple little thing like that either.