Skin (21 page)

She lay sprawled in all of her naked glory, the white sheets twisted around her hips and through her legs. He took a minute to admire the honey-gold skin and the lush lines of her body. She had great tits, a tight ass, and lots of curves. Like a young Sophia Loren. His dick tingled. She surprised him last night, and she surprised him more now.

Why did it bother him to find Frankie gone from his bed? Had she had enough of him?

It occurred to him that this was what he always wanted the morning after. Solitude. No awkward morning-after conversation. No awkward lies about calling or getting together again. No tears or demands. He woke up and took off. It was what he did. But this time awkwardness be damned.

He contemplated her choice to wake up alone. He wanted her again. Now. Would she resent him intruding into her space? Her bed? He’d always made it a point not to bring a woman home to his place, that way he could just leave. There had been a few times when that didn’t work out and he had to make coffee the next morning, always finding an excuse to send the flavor of the night on her way with a cup to go.

He didn’t like morning-after sex. It said “I still want you.” He didn’t want anyone. His dick swelled. That may have been before, but right now he wanted Frankie again, and maybe even later.

He glanced at the illuminated clock on the nightstand: 5:03 a.m. Maybe a few minutes. He’d wake her up slow.

His body tightened as she moaned and stretched. He watched, mesmerized, as her nipples hardened before his eyes. Her soft moans grew louder, and he wondered what she was dreaming. She bit her bottom lip. He smiled and stepped closer, his body heat rising. The sheet hid her hand, but from the movement of the fabric he knew she was bringing herself to orgasm. He stepped closer and stood at the side of the bed.

He bent over, and just to help her along, he lightly tugged at the sheet. He smiled, his dick filling to capacity as her hand rubbing her clit came into full view. He liked the way her pussy looked. Her soft, dark hair was curled in moisture. Her long fingers swept rhythmically against her mound, and her hips pushed up toward the air. Her moans grew louder, more demanding, her thighs parted slightly, exposing her soft, pink lips.

His dick bucked against his jeans, and Reese couldn’t ignore the pressure any longer. He unzipped his jeans and, following Frankie’s lead, took matters into his own hands. His body lurched against the pressure as he wrapped his fingers around his dick, imagining they were Frankie’s instead. He watched her face, the way her eyebrows drew together in concentration, the way her tits bobbed up and down with the rapid movement of her hand.

He pumped faster, the full force of his erection driving his rhythm. Frankie arched her head back, exposing the long column of her neck, her mouth open as she panted. He increased the momentum of his hand, squeezing tighter, wanting to bury himself deep into that pink glistening pussy of hers.

The sight of her turning herself on was wildly erotic to him. While he’d seen women do it before, none had done it so beautifully, so sexily as Frankie. His breath grew shorter, hotter, louder, hers mirrored his. Her fingers raced faster across her hard clit, the nub standing to full attention, a miniversion of his dick.

The urge to bend down and press his mouth to her hot mound nearly overcame him. He resisted. He wanted to see her come.

Frankie’s body arched and she cried out. The sound of his name sent jolts of erotic electricity through him. He watched her hips buck and writhe as each wave of the orgasm ripped through her.

Reese resisted the urge to bring himself to orgasm. He stood still, rooted to the floor, and waited.

Frankie’s eyes fluttered open. As she focused on his, they widened. Instinctively she grabbed for the sheet.

“No,” Reese whispered, “don’t.”

She halted her attempt to hide herself from his eyes but the flush on her skin told him she was embarrassed.

“That was beautiful.”

She closed her eyes for a moment, then reopened them, this time a flash of mischief lurking behind the hazel depths.

Her hands slid up her waist to her breasts, her hands cupping them. Generous portions swelled around her fingers. Her nipples peeked through. She squeezed and her hips responded, and so did Reese’s hand still wrapped around his dick.

Her eyes locked with his. The tip of her pink tongue slid sexily across her lips. She threw her head back and closed her eyes, her right hand sliding down her belly to her pink glistening lips. She spread her thighs and spread her lips.

Reese shucked his clothes, then knelt on the bed, the musky scent of her sex wafting up to him. His nostrils twitched, the scent of his mate close.

He knew she felt the pressure of his weight on the mattress and she did nothing to stop him. He continued to stroke himself, his dick so full it hurt. He wanted to taste her again, to bury himself deep within her and ride her over one orgasm, then into another.

He loved her shyness, then the boldness she showed when she understood her sexuality. That it was okay to make yourself feel good and all the better when you could enhance another person’s pleasure.

Unable to resist tasting her, Reese dipped his head toward her hips. Waves of sultry heat hit him in the face, her scent stronger. Her thighs parted further, and the heat of his breath reverberated off her thighs.

At the juncture of her thigh and pussy he bit her, taking her flesh and juices into his mouth, then sucking. Her hips jolted, and his lips traveled closer to the core of her. “You smell so sexy,” he murmured against her swollen lips. “I want to eat you for breakfast.” Like he was licking jam from a warm biscuit, his tongue laved the deep rivet that made her a woman. Strawberry-colored swells of her flesh glistened beneath his lips and gently he sucked the twins into his mouth, his tongue swirling, savoring the delicacy that was her.

Her cries of shock and pleasure drove him on. His hips pumped the air, his dick heavy with want. He wanted her hand wrapped around his cock while his face was buried between her legs.

Her hips jerked against him and she opened wider, giving her all to him. As she moved her hands back up to her breasts, one touched his dick. Reese pressed against her. “Take me, Frankie,” he hoarsely said against her. She slid her fingers down the shaft of his cock, then slowly wrapped her fingers around him. His body shuddered and he groaned, pressing hotly into her hand.

Her hips responded, as did her hand. In a long, slow sequence she pumped him. Voraciously he licked and sucked her pussy. Frankie moaned, and her fist tightened around him. He felt her body flush hot, so close. He slowed his momentum. His fingers dug into the flesh of her thighs, and he steeled himself. He was so close to total explosion, but he wanted to last longer, give Frankie more pleasure, hear her call his name again as she came.

In slow, sensuous swirls, his tongue played with her clit, her thighs strained against his hands. The feast pushing them both to the brink. He sucked her clit into his mouth, flicking it with his tongue and sliding a finger into her hot, wet depths.

“Ah, God, Reese, that feels so —” Her cry of pleasure, combined with his moans of want, the slurping of her juices, and the slap of his balls against his thighs sent him reeling.

When she licked the head of his cock, his earth moved.

His body jerked against her mouth, and this time when he took her clit into his mouth, Frankie’s body shuttered against his mouth. “Reese,” she cried out, and the vibration of her orgasm hummed through him.

Her soft breath against the head of his cock was all he needed. He groaned and jerked hard as she milked him in a slow, sensuous pump. In a wild release he came, his seed coating the high curve of her breasts. Her hands continued a low slide up and down his shaft to the head of his dick, his semen adding lubrication, until there was nothing left in him. He collapsed on the bed next to her.

For several long minutes the only sound in the room was their labored breathing.

Reese rose up on an elbow and peered at Frankie. He liked his vantage point. Her steamy pussy still twitched, and her tits sat high and proud against her glistening chest.

“Sorry about that,” he said, pointing to her glistening breast.

She wrinkled her nose as if just noticing his little gift. “Eww, thanks for that.” She reached for a tissue on the nightstand.

As she cleaned him from her chest, Reese turned and watched and smiled.

Frankie threw the wet tissue at him and he dodged it. “Next time you do that, I’m going to smear it all over you.”

Reese pulled the twisted sheet off the bed, then straightened it. He slipped in beside her. He rolled onto his side and traced a finger around a taut nipple. “So you’re saying there will be a next time?”

She slapped his hand away and rolled over, presenting her back to him. “Just because I have sex with you doesn’t mean you own the rights to me.”

“I guess I’ll have to find someone else to use all of those condoms on.”

Frankie rolled back to face him. “Look, Reese, I’m not saying no more sex, I’m saying let’s not make this any more complicated than it has to be, okay?”

Reese smiled and traced a finger along her cheekbone. “Sex is the most uncomplicated thing I know.”

She nipped his finger when it traced her bottom lip. He smelled like her. She found it highly arousing. Holding the tip of his finger between her teeth, she wagged it.

“Hmm, maybe for a man —” The minute the words left her mouth she regretted them.

He smiled and moved closer. “Frankie, you disappoint me.”

She pushed his finger away and moved back against the pillows. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

He moved where she had just been. “What did you mean?”

“Women have to worry about getting pregnant.”

“We used a condom.”

“You never know, it could break.”

He nuzzled her throat and her skin warmed. “Always a possibility, but not in our case. But I understand what you mean. I promise to be very careful.”

She sighed and decided she recovered enough not to look like a cling-on. “Glad to hear that.”

“So does that mean I can get another condom?”

Frankie smacked him and rolled out of the bed. She grabbed the blanket at the foot of the bed and wrapped it around herself. “We need to get out of here.”

Reese sat up. “We have another hour.”

“I have a spread to do, and that means getting the hell out of here.”

“In light of everything that’s happened, I don’t think Carmel is wise.”

She hobbled toward him, cocooned in the blanket.

“I’ve seen everything you own, you really don’t need to cover yourself.”

She shook her head. “We need to get to Carmel.”

He frowned. “I’m against it, we’ll go to Santa Cruz for the beach shots.”

“Your protest is so noted. But we’re going to Carmel.” Reese opened his mouth to protest but Frankie held up her free hand. “I have my reasons, and while I agreed to allow you to call the shots, this point is not negotiable. You’ll have to trust me.”

She flung off the blanket and stalked to the bathroom door. She opened it and threw him a saucy look over her shoulder. “There are two showers in this place, and I’m not sharing mine.” Before she closed the door, she called back to him. “I need coffee.”

Reese stood for a long moment and stared at the closed door. He didn’t bother to contemplate going through it. Instead, he contemplated Francesca Donatello. She was quite a concoction. A woman who enjoyed sex but could turn off the afterglow like a man and get on with business. And he was sure that because of her adamancy the Carmel house held the key to both his business and hers. The sixty-thousand-dollar question was, would she trust him enough to tell him what it was?

He was a patient man. He shrugged as he padded his way to the other bathroom and plotted ways of getting information out of her and getting her undressed at the same time.

As the cold water sluiced down his body, Reese decided that going to Carmel was not a bad thing. Whatever Frankie was looking for down there would only help to serve the case. Besides, his team had been sitting on the “beach house” for a week. Zero activity.

Frankie hurried to answer the insistent knock at the hotel door. “Who is it?” she called, figuring it was Jase. Frustration erupted. She was going to tell that man just what she thought about him.

“Room service.”

Ah, yes, coffee. Reese was more than just a pretty face after all. She was about to open the door, but she remembered Reese’s precautions last night. At an angle she looked through the peephole. A nice-looking middle-aged man in uniform smiled as if he knew she was looking at him.

Satisfied, Frankie unlocked the door, swung it open, and screamed.

R
eese toweled off, contemplating the many ways he would get Frankie out of her clothes, keep her safe, and milk her for information.

Unlike Jase, he was convinced at this point Frankie was a target, not the trigger. Keeping her alive was paramount, and it would ultimately draw out the trigger man. He was convinced the person who killed Santini was also the same person who wanted his daughter next to him.