Redeeming Her SEAL (ASSIGNMENT: Caribbean Nights Book 9) (8 page)

He did it for no other reason than the fact that he needed to solve his Anderson problem. It was the only thing that could have gotten him within ten feet of her in the first place. Why not continue the trend?

“I have a good team of guys,” he told her as he relocated the snorkeling equipment still parked in the lone chair and then slid into it. “I picked the best of my platoon to come with me. They trust me. Follow me. I—”

This was ridiculous. How was he supposed to sit here and talk about his guys to a woman who didn’t understand the bonds of friendship? His temper started bubbling again, and that wasn’t going to work, not if he didn’t want to end up on the other side of the door, frustrated and fighting a hard-on.

Except that seemed to be how they rolled these days. Gone was the easy attraction and simple desire. Everything had layers now, even something as elemental as a physical reaction.

Yet he seemed incapable of staying away from her, constantly pushing his way back here. Something was wrong with him if masochism had become his default.

Rolling her shoulders, she sighed. “I know Jared’s been causing problems for you. I’m sorry.”

His gaze flew to hers, but she seemed sincere. “Then you know I have to resolve it, one way or another. His injunction against commercial ventures is killing my business. The coral reef off Countess Cay is undergoing restoration. We can’t snorkel there. Ilhota Rosa is a key part of my income stream.”

That was the only thing that mattered. Not their history, not the fact that it was physically painful to be at odds with Audra, and definitely not the images in his head of what he’d like to be doing with her instead of talking.

“My report didn’t help.”

Good, she wasn’t playing dumb. Maybe this conversation was finally going to happen like it should have from the beginning. “No. If anything, it made it worse. I have an idea that might work, and I need your help.”

She rolled her shoulders again, grimacing. Obviously, she was in pain or at least experiencing a good bit of discomfort. To hell with that. They couldn’t have a rational, adult discussion if he was going to spend the whole of it concerned about her.

Charlie stood and skirted the desk, coming up behind her, shushing her squeak of protest as his hands slid into place at her neck.

“Let me,” he said simply, and she relaxed under his ministrations as he kneaded her shoulders. “Did you fall asleep in a weird position or something?”

“You could say.” She whimpered as he moved up her neck, massaging the place where her neck met the base of her skull. “You don’t have to do this.”

Her warm skin felt like heaven under his roughened fingertips and bled into his embattled soul. “Yes, I absolutely do have to.”

Though he’d really intended it as a utilitarian way to relieve her stiff neck, the position reminded him of the first time he’d had his hands on her bare back, when she’d asked him to apply sunscreen. She’d been wearing a tiny green bikini that day, and he’d used the lotion as an excuse to get his hands on her body, taking far more liberties than he should have.

Kind of like now. His movements slowed involuntarily as his fingertips reacquainted themselves with her contours.

Audra had a gorgeous body that two years had not changed. Shame it was covered with this rather nondescript dress that would look so much better on the floor. The fabric was in the way of where he wanted to touch her. Without thinking twice, he slipped his hands beneath the neckline.

God, she felt so good, and his mind went fuzzy as all the blood in it drained away for a locale much further south.

She sucked in a small breath as he pressed his thumbs against the soft flesh on either side of her spine, then worked outward along her shoulders. The motions were supposed to be relaxing, but her body vibrated with more tension the longer he rubbed, and every ounce of the heavy awareness coalesced in his groin.

“Are you trying to bribe me into helping you, Charlie?” she murmured. “Because you’re going to have to do something a lot better than this to convince me.”

Well, that sounded like a challenge he could rise to, as the tenting in his pants would indicate. Good thing he was behind the chair, or his raging hard-on might become the subject of the conversation. But then again, she’d plainly declared her preference for her plastic toys and rejected him at the same time. Seemed like she’d been throwing down the challenges right and left.

“I was thinking,” he said with as much calm as he could muster, considering every fiber of his body was on fire. “If the injunction is against commercial ventures, maybe we could add something to our excursion to get around it. Maybe educate people on the dolphins’ habitat and the things that make it a wildlife preserve.”

“And you need an expert to provide the materials. Sorry, I have a job.”

“You owe me,” he countered. “The reason this is happening is because of your report. Which never would have been filed if Anderson hadn’t gotten a burr up his butt.”

“How is that my fault?”

Excellent question, one he would love an answer to. “I’m wondering the same thing. Everything was fine between Anderson and Aqueous Adventures when we first opened shop, and then somewhere along the way, something changed. What was it?”

She froze under his palms. “What makes you think I have any insight into Jared’s mind? My relationship with him has nothing to do with you and vice versa. I… don’t know what happened to make him suddenly flip out like he did.”

She was lying. He could feel the tautness mounting under his fingertips as it twanged through her body. It sparked his temper, but this time, he let it ride, because if that’s how she was going to be, all rationality flew out the window.

“Relax,” he murmured and toyed with the zipper at the neckline of her dress, then slid it partway down her back. “I’m not finished here.”

“Yes, you are. Zip up my dress.”

“I will. In a minute.”

His need had taken on a dark edge—to possess, to reclaim. To erase the memory of any other man from her skin.

Audra pulled away from Charlie’s hands and shot to her feet. He let her go and crossed his arms, carefully keeping the chair between them so he didn’t reach for her. She still had the right to say no, regardless of whether she’d be denying herself something that it was obvious she wanted.

Fine. He could play it her way. When he put his hands on her next, it would be because she’d begged him to. He was tired of dancing around this explosive heat that still simmered between them and tired of the specter of Jared Anderson that put a pall over everything.

It was far past time to dispense with all of it.

“Y
ou’re still tense,” Charlie said quietly in case she had a mind to bolt. “Sit back down and let me take care of you.”

She shook her head as she grappled with her dress, which kept falling off one shoulder and then the other, but she couldn’t seem to calm down long enough to reach the zipper since he’d conveniently left it at the halfway mark at the dead center of her back. Shame.

“Not that way,” she shot back, her voice a little shaky. “There’s nothing I need you to take care of that requires my dress to be unzipped.”

That put a smile on his face.

“I completely disagree.” There was a spot on her shoulder where her flesh was the sweetest, and he’d very much like to put his mouth on it. “But I can make that work if you want to stay dressed.”

Before she could protest, he crossed the room and shut the door with a soft click and then turned to survey the battlefield. Nothing to be done but clear it.

“It’s unacceptable to spend your nights with a vibrator when you have so many more options to choose from,” he said, catching her in his sights and holding her fast.

Her gaze traveled down his length and back again, clearly picking up on the option he’d meant—him. And didn’t hate the idea, whether she’d intended to communicate that or not.

“I prefer my vibrator.”

More lies. Her face gave her away, and he was enjoying the raw thrill of watching her slide into the idea of something wholly male in place of her toys.

“You’ve clearly forgotten how good it was between us.” He advanced on her, and she didn’t back down. Which totally turned him on. “If that’s the case.”

“Oh, and you’re planning to remind me?” Her eyes flashed as she stood her ground between the desk and the chair, one hand to the valley between her breasts as she held up the dress that just wouldn’t stay put. “We already went through this. In the alleyway, if you recall.”

“With crystal clarity. That’s why this is so necessary.”

“What’s necessary?” But the heat in her eyes told him she already knew the answer.

He didn’t mind spelling it out anyway.

“For me to touch you,” he murmured. “Inside and out. As deeply as I can go. But that’s just for my benefit, because I should get something out of this too, and I like the way you feel when you’re so hot and wet for me that you can take all of my fingers at once. You need to be so full of me that you don’t think about Anderson ever again.”

Yes. That was exactly what needed to happen. For every orgasm he gave her, that specter between them would slowly fade until it vanished completely. That was the only thing that would work to banish the third leg of this triangle. It was sheer brilliance.

She laughed, but it was a poor, thin substitute for the kind of laughter they’d once shared. But this wasn’t about recapturing the paradise they’d fallen into the first time around. It was about getting to the point where he could function while in her presence. About burning off his thick lust for her so he could get back to normal outside her presence, where he didn’t think about her every waking second. And most of the sleeping ones too.

Once Anderson wasn’t a factor, his heart would stop feeling like it was being run across a cheese grater.

“Honestly? I don’t think about Jared,” she informed him.

“Fantastic. Then you’re going to have no problem remembering whose name to scream when I’m tonguing you raw.”

She shuddered but didn’t blink. Which meant he could see how very much she wanted that radiating from her depths.

“I’m at work. I don’t intend to do a lot of screaming.”

Which wasn’t the same thing as saying she wasn’t okay with his head between her legs. “We’ll see about that. Based on your reaction the other day, I can have you climaxing in about five minutes.”

“I’m not having sex with you.” She held up a finger as he opened his mouth, likely because she knew exactly what he’d been about to say. “And I mean any iteration of it, as I’m aware that you define sex as anyone in the vicinity having an orgasm.”

He grinned. “Planning to invite some people to watch?”

Groaning, she glanced heavenward. “How did we get on this subject again?”

Easily. Because the awareness sizzling through the atmosphere wouldn’t allow them to focus on anything else until they bridged the gap between then and now. One last time, then he could give up the ghost, forget about her, and let her get on with a life that could never include him. Until he got her naked and quivering in his arms, neither of them could ever fully move on.

It was closure. And he desperately wanted that. For both of them.

“Audra,” he murmured and held out his hand. “Come here.”

There was a second when he thought she was going to reach back, and then she shook her head, crossing her arms over her midsection. “I don’t think so.”

“Curious about something.” He cocked his head but didn’t lower his arm, because the invitation remained in effect as long as he was behind the closed door of her office. “What do you think I’m planning to do, rub meat all over you and throw you into a pit of wolves?”

That’s when she laughed with a throaty note that he heard in his dreams sometimes, and it skidded across his skin in a way he hadn’t anticipated. He wanted to hear it again.

“I don’t know what you’re planning to do, but I can honestly say wolves was not on my list of top ten.”

“Not on my list either.” Her gaze met his, and a glimmer of something precious spanned the space between them. Once, they’d made plenty of lists together, and he’d missed their easy banter, the flirting that had led them to check off the items one by one in as many fun and creative ways as they could. “But I do have a list. Shall I run it down for you?”

She didn’t answer, and he took that as an affirmative. Which would have been the case even if she’d said no.

“First, I’m going to kiss you. Second, I’m going to pull up the hem of that dress and put my hands on your thighs. Then I’m going to spread them. Fourth, you’re going to lie back on that desk, and I’m going to part your folds. Then lick you from bottom to top.” Her lungs hitched with a tiny satisfying gasp, and he lost his place as his erection grew painfully hard at the promise of that sweetness in his future. “Where was I? Number six?”

At her nod, he chanced stepping closer, hand still extended.

“What if I just show you?” he murmured and fluttered his fingers for emphasis, aching to sink into her. And then dropped the final hammer. “I don’t have any condoms. This is one hundred percent about you.”