Scalded (2 page)

The man put off enough heat to melt the polar icecaps all by himself.

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He didn’t move from the spot where he’d been standing, but his soft voice still carried through the inky darkness. “You never told me you’re if you’re single. In fact you never even told me your name.”

“I’m nobody.”

And that was the truth. In meetings with hot, sexy men she wasn’t even a small blip on their radar. Not willing to risk heartache, Halli chose to leave it that way.

Her life was perfect or at least getting closer to it every day. The last thing she wanted in her life was a man mucking up her plans and goals. No matter how badly she ached to have him pound his way inside her.

* * * * *

The slamming of a screen door snapped her back to the present.

“Reed? Is that you?” Tina stood on the porch, staring out into the darkness. “I was just trying to call you. Why are you standing out there in the driveway?”

“I’m trying to get this good-looking woman to tell me her name,” the hunk answered.

Tina’s silvery laugh floated out into the air. “That’s Halli. She’s my friend. We just finished up a, um, party here. Oh, listen.” She clattered down the stairs on the four-inch heels she always wore. When she reached Reed she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

“I tried to catch you but Rick got, um, tied up and wants to know if tomorrow night’s just as good.”

Reed Whateverhisnamewas gave a nonchalant shrug. “Sure. No problem.

Everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, fine. But as long as you’re here, would you do me a huge favor?

Halli’s got all these huge cases she lugged here. I’d feel better if someone followed her home and carried them up the stairs for her.”

“Tina!” Halli’s jaw dropped. “I don’t need a stranger to tote my cases for me. I’m perfectly capable of doing it myself.” She was waiting for Reed to comment on the 11

Desiree Holt & Allie Standifer

contents of the tub that had spilled out, but he just kept looking at her with amusement dancing in his eyes. She wondered if it was really possible for the ground to open up and swallow someone, because if so, now would be a good time.

“Hush. I know how heavy they are. I was just getting Rick to do it, but this is so much better.” She flashed a grin. “You’d better give in ’cause it’s going to happen.”

”My pleasure.” He winked at Halli. “Just lead the way.”

“Listen—” she started.

“Haven’t you learned not to argue with Tina? Just give me your address in case I lose you along the way.”

Halli kept looking in her rearview mirror on the drive to Jolt, torn between trying to ditch the guy with the maple syrup voice and getting a better look at him. How had she gotten into this situation, anyway? She had barely met this guy. But if Tina sent him off with her he had to be okay, right? Right?

She parked her car in the space by Jolt’s back door and climbed out, thankful once again for the two big lights the owner of the building had erected back there. Lordy, she couldn’t wait to get out of here and into her dream house.

Soon! Soon! Soon!

As she unlocked the trunk of her car headlights swept over her, a car pulled in two slots down from her, and the hunk ambled toward her.

“Looks like I got here right on time.” He reached to take the first case from her, his warm hand closing over hers.

Halli was completely unprepared for the flash of awareness that shot through her.

She quickly snatched her hand away and dug into her purse for her keys.

“I could really do this myself,” she insisted.

“And give up my chance to play white knight?” he joked. “Lead the way.”

Sighing, Halli climbed the outside stairs to her second floor apartment, Reed right behind her.

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“You live over a store?” The curiosity in his voice was evident.

She nodded. “The apartment came with the lease. It’s my store. A coffee shop. Sort of.”

“I closed your trunk,” he went on as he waited on the landing for her to unlock her door. “Not that I think anyone could easily run away with one of these things but I’d hate to have to chase anyone down, just the same. And arrest them.”

“Arrest?” She pushed open the door and stood aside for him to enter. “Oh, right. If you were coming to see Rick about an old case you must be a cop.”

Duh!

“Reed Brody, at your service.” He made a sweeping mock bow in front of her.

“Are you robbery like Rick was?” she asked.

“No. Cybercrimes.” He grinned. “The geek squad. But there’s a possibility one of his unsolved cases touches on something I’m working on. Okay. Where shall I put the, uh, goodies?”

Goodies. Could I just die right now and get it over with? Tina, Tina, why did you do this to
me?

She pointed to the corner of the living room where she kept the cases. “Um, you can just leave it right over there.”

“No problem.” He grinned at her as he straightened up. “You carry a large supply of this stuff?”

Her face had to be flaming red if the degree of heat was any indication. “Those are my samples.”

“Samples?” His eyes lit up.

Uh-oh. Wrong word.

“To demonstrate.”
No, that wasn’t right, either. Could she just keep her mouth shut?

“I’ll just get the rest of your stuff,” he said, chuckling.

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Halli stashed the smaller tub of items on a shelf when Reed came in with the second case, her keys jingling in his hand. As he parked it on the floor beside the first one, she had a chance to get her first good look at him. Maybe six feet, but all muscle, as she could see outlined by his knit shirt and soft denim jeans. When he bent down the denim stretched taut across what she was sure was the finest ass she’d ever seen.

Not that she’d seen that many.

When he unbent and turned to face her, the first thing she noticed were his eyes, hazel with flecks of blue and green. His short sandy hair was a shade lighter than his eyebrows and lashes, and he had— Oh, wait, were those—

“You have dimples! I’m a sucker for dimples.”

Halli clamped a hand over her mouth. Did she really blurt that out?

He was barely two inches away from her now, and when he smiled those dimples flashed again. Damn! Dimples just did it to her. Made her nipples peak and her panties dampen and her body sit up and take notice.

“Well. Thank you very much. I’ll tell Tina you completed your assignment.”

But Reed didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave. Shoving his hands in his pockets he let his gaze travel over everything. Comfortable but inexpensive couch and chairs, ditto dining room set. The small kitchen against one wall divided from the rest of the space by an island counter. Against the wall her one extravagance—a state of the art television.

“So you live here,” he said in a casual tone.

“Yes.” She tried not to sound defensive. “Saves on renting someplace else.”

“I assume you have a bed someplace?”

A bed! Oh, he wanted to know if she had a bed.

Her thighs trembled and her pussy pulsed.

Wait, was she nuts? She’d known the guy for five minutes, but apparently he had some kind of sexual karma that was insistently wrapping itself around her.

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“Halli?”

“What? Oh, yeah. A bed. I mean, um, yes, I have a bedroom. Through that door.”

She pointed.

“What’s the other door?”

“My, um, storage room. Where I keep supplies for the shop.” God. Could she sound any more idiotic?

“Interesting arrangement,” he observed.

“Economical,” she reminded him. “So, um, don’t you have to get going?”

The dimples flashed again. “Trying to get rid of me so quickly? I swear Rick and Tina will vouch for my sterling character.” He moved a step closer. “I haven’t gotten a proper thank-you for lugging those cases up the stairs.”

Halli’s pulse raced. “T-Thank you?”

“Uh-huh. All delivery men get a tip, and this is mine.”

She couldn’t move as he pulled her close enough to him that they were touching from shoulders to knees. One hand splayed across her back while the other cupped her head and held it still as his mouth descended. His lips were warm and smooth, infusing their heat into hers. She didn’t think just the touching of mouths could produce such instant sexual arousal, but Reed Brody brought a whole new meaning to kissing.

His lips brushed back and forth against hers, like the whisper of velvet, teasing without really touching. The tip of his tongue flicked out and traced the seam of her mouth, tasting, tasting, before his teeth nibbled at her lower lip. She moaned softly, and when her mouth opened his tongue slipped inside, moving easily through that warm, wet cavern.

Halli clutched at Reed’s shoulders, lightning-hot sensations zinging through her.

The muscles in her cunt quivered as the tiny bundles of nerves woke up and fired. She pressed harder against Reed’s muscular body, all rational thought having fled at the first touch of his mouth.

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When the hand on her back moved around to slide up her ribs and cup her breast, she arched into his touch, her nipple pressing into the hollow of his palm, tiny pinpricks of heat lancing through it. And all the while Reed’s tongue continued its sensuous dance in her mouth, coaxing her to higher and higher levels of heat.

“I’ve never been to bed with a woman who sold sex toys before.”

“Huh?” Her brain was lost in a thick fog. “Bed?”

His hand moved up to open the buttons on her blouse, popping them through the buttonholes one at a time, slowly.

“Uh-huh. Bed. Because I think that’s where we ought to take this. Pretty quick, as a matter of fact.”

“Wait.” She gulped in air, trying to clear her head, but he had her blouse open now and was tracing the upper swell of her breasts with the tip of one finger.

“I don’t think we can wait much longer,” he crooned.

“B-But I hardly know you. I don’t just fall into bed like that.” Except for him she’d be happy to make an exception.

His mouth was just touching hers now, and his finger had dipped into the cup of her bra, searching out the hardened nipple. “I’m Detective Reed Brody. Thirty-five. No priors. No wives or old girlfriends hanging around. I do have two brothers who are a pain in this ass but they aren’t here at the moment. Thank God. Okay? Now we know each other. And you don’t have to fall into bed. I’m going to carry you.”

“B-But you don’t know me. Ohhh. I can’t think when you do that.”

He pinched her nipple again. “That’s the idea. And you can tell me all about yourself. Afterward.” Before she could say anything else, he lifted her in his arms.

“Which door?”

Completely undone, she pointed to the one leading to her bedroom. He managed to open the door and carry her to the bed. The light from the living room spilled inside, 16

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the only illumination in the room. When Reed placed her on the bed he found the switch for the bedside lamp and flicked it on.

“I want to see what you look like. Every bit of you.”

How was it possible that just his voice made the cream gather in her pussy and her womb contract? She’d never been with a man who had that effect on her before. She sat on the edge of the bed, the look in his eyes heating her blood and making her pulse drum erratically. With infinite slowness he removed her blouse and her bra, pausing after he did to kiss each breast then pull each nipple into his mouth. His tongue teased each pebble until she thought they would burst.

When he lifted her to her feet she rose, boneless, shimmering with anticipation. He popped open the button on her slacks, lowered the zipper and slid the fabric down her legs, his thumbs caressing the sides of her thighs, making her shiver. He hooked his fingers into the elastic of her tiny thong and, as he pulled it down to her ankles, he dropped to his knees, burying his face in the softness of her pubic curls.

“You smell like ten kinds of heaven,” he whispered, lifting each of her feet so he could toss the thong aside. “More. A hundred kinds.”

Nudging her thighs apart, he peeled open her labia and ran his tongue the length of her slit. New freshets of honey streamed onto his tongue as it slipped through her folds.

The sounds of satisfaction he made strummed through her.

Halli braced herself on his shoulders as he continued to lick and nip, pulling at her clit with his teeth. When he released her thighs and stood up she wanted to cry in frustration.

“Gotta get my clothes off, sugar,” he rasped. “This doesn’t work too well if only one of us is naked.”

When his clothes lay in a heap on the floor, he yanked back the coverlet on her bed, nudged her backward and lay down full length beside her. The moment his fingers probed at her hungry cunt shock waves rocketed through her. She squeezed her thighs together, trapping his hand, her hips jerking as his fingers curled and found her G-spot.

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His breath fanned over her face as he leaned close to her. “Do your toys feel this good? I think we should try them next time.”

“N-Next time?” God. She wasn’t sure she’d survive this time, the way he was rubbing his thumb over her clit and stroking his fingers in and out of her pussy.

“Uh-huh. I’d try them this time but I don’t think I’m going to last long enough to get them out of their cases.”

He bent his head and pulled one of her nipples into his mouth. His cock pressed against her thigh, long and thick and hot. She wanted it inside her. Now. Right now.

But she didn’t want him to move his hand either.

He took the choice away from her, moving to kneel between her thighs, trailing kisses through the valley between her breasts, nipping at her navel before pulling her clit into his mouth and sucking on it.

“Ohhhhhh.” The long, drawn-out sigh rolled up from somewhere in the back of her throat.

“I know what you want, sugar,” his thick, hot voice said. “And you’re getting it.