Tempt Me (12 page)

Her eyes rested on his
hand.

Then he placed his other
hand on her hip.

Rocki fell back against
him. When he pushed two fingers inside her pussy, she whimpered. “I
like watching myself touch you,” he muttered, staring at their
reflections. “You're so damned gorgeous.”

Rocki panted, rocking her
hips against his hand.

“
How do you like
being touched?”

She groaned. “I
don't think you need my help.” She moved harder, faster
against his touch, riding it.

Wet—she was wet,
wild...amazing.

Still staring at her, he
tested the weight of her breast with his other hand. Warm, full and
soft—so damn soft. He squeezed her nipple. “What about
here?” He bent his neck, raking his teeth over her shoulder.
“You want to be touched here? How?”

“
Cole...” she
whimpered his name.

“
Tell me. Show me.”

She covered his hand with
hers. Smaller fingers guided his, and they both watched as she had
him squeezing tighter, just a little tighter. And she continued to
ride his other hand.

When he felt her tighten
around his fingers, though, he pulled away.

Rocki cried out, grasping
at his wrist.

He evaded her, lifting
his fingers to his mouth, licking them clean. Then he tangled his
hand in her hair and tugged her head back, kissing her. It was
rougher, rougher than before, but from under his lashes, he watched
her. She shuddered and arched back against him, pressing her ass
against his cock.

The top of his head
almost came off.

Tearing his mouth away,
he rasped, “On your hands and knees, Rocki. I want to watch
this.”

“
Damn it, you want
to kill me.” She shuddered and then eased forward, bracing her
weight on her hands, spreading her knees for him. Then she lifted her
head, watching him through the mirror.

Cole stared at the round
curve of her ass, up over the line of her back, then into the mirror,
meeting her eyes. As he gripped her hips in his hands, he watched
her. As he pressed the head of his cock against her entrance, he
watched.

“
Are you sore?”
he asked.

Her lashes dipped low.
“Just a little. I don't care.”

He eased backward,
pushing his fingers inside. She was slick. Slick and wet, tight,
gripping him as he tested her. “I don't want to hurt
you.”

“
I want you to fuck
me...I don't care if it hurts a little or not.” Rocki
gave him a wicked smile, one that would have turned his blood to lava
if she hadn't already done that.

“
Bad girl,”
he whispered. “Damn it, why didn't I ever see the appeal
of that before now?”

“
Hmm. Maybe because
you hadn't met me?”

He didn't waste the
breath to answer. Staring down, he wrapped his hand around his cock
and pressed against her, watching in the dim light as the swollen
folds of her sex yielded to him. Hot, slick...so soft it was killing
him. He was shuddering by the time he'd buried himself to the
hilt, shaking and sweating when he pulled out for the first time. And
already almost to boiling point in under thirty seconds.

But he held off,
spreading his hands wide over her hips and holding her steady when
she tried to drive the rhythm.

When she pressed back
against him harder, faster, he tangled his hand in her hair and
forced her upright, pulling her body against him. She gasped and
stared at their reflections, her eyes dark, her mouth parted. It was
the most erotic sight—

“
Look at how
beautiful you are,” he rasped, stroking a hand down her middle
and teasing her clit with his finger as he rocked against her in a
slow, teasing circle. “Stop trying to rush this.”

She tightened around him,
grasping at his wrist, a startled cry falling from her lips. “Cole,
please—damn it,
please
!” She arched her back and
those full, beautiful breasts lifted, her nipples swollen and tight.
At the same time, she twisted her hips a little, still impaled on his
cock.

Swearing, he shifted,
pushing her to her knees and then farther, until she was spread out
beneath him. He surged against her, hard, fast, driving his dick into
her soft, wet pussy and shaking as she cried out his name and started
to come.

It was, Cole knew, the
sweetest damn thing he'd ever experienced. What he didn't
know was how he'd gone this long without it—or how he'd
ever manage to survive without this...without
her
.

Rocki woke to the smell
of coffee.

Popping one eye open, she
stared at the simple white mug sitting on the bedside table. Then she
opened the other eye and saw Cole leaning against the bed, cradling
his own coffee.

“
Is that cup mine?”
she asked blearily.

“
Yes. If you want
it.”

“
I want.”
Awkwardly fighting with the sheets, she sat up and reached for it,
cupping both hands around it and all but whimpering at the smell.
“Caffeine. Gimme. I want.”

Cole laughed.

As she took the first
sip, he stroked a hand down her back, combing it through her tangled
hair. She was afraid to even look at it just then, afraid to look at
herself. He, of course, looked perfect.

“
A fellow caffeine
junkie.” He grinned at her after she'd polished off most
of the first cup.

“
Nothing beats
caffeine as a wake-me-up. Except maybe sex.” She slid him a
smile as she said it.

“
Nah. Sex always
beats caffeine.” The hand on her back stroked lower, curved
around her hip.

Her heart skipped a beat
as he sat his cup down and went to his knees. “Speaking of
which...”

She needed to wash her
face, damn it. She needed to pee. She should probably brush her teeth
again. And she was a little sore—

But all he did was rest
his head on her thigh and rub his thumb in slow circles over her
knee. “How are you feeling?”

“
Um...I'm
fine.”
If you don't mind me getting a little choked up
here
, she thought. Swallowing around the knot in her throat, she
lifted a hand and let herself play with his golden hair. “Stop
worrying so much. I've had sex before, you know. It just hasn't
been recently.”

“
Hmm.” He
pressed his lips against her leg. “I just want to make sure.
Because I damn sure plan on keeping that first date. And the second.”

“
You're
really fixated on that second date, huh?” She managed to get a
real smile in place by the time he lifted his head, managed not to
look so wishy-washy and sentimental—not even a date, yet,
hello
.

But her heart wasn't
much listening to reason, and it didn't help when he stood up
and braced a knee next to her on the bed, cupping her face in his
hand. “Is it going to scare you away if I tell you I'm
already fixating on the fifth date? The tenth?”

“
Ahhh...” She
stared at him, blinking. Fifth...tenth?

He stroked his thumb over
her lip. “Is that a yes? Do I need to slow it down?”

“
I don't
know.” She leaned away long enough to set her coffee down, then
she wrapped her arms around his waist, snuggling her head against
him. “Part of me is thinking I'm already rushing it. The
other part of me feels like...hell. I feel like I've been
missing this for a long time.”

They stood that way for a
long, long while, his hand stroking her hand, her face pressed to his
belly. Then she sighed. “Maybe we're rushing it a little.
We can rush it for as long as it feels right. If we need to pull
back, then I guess we'll know.”

C
hapter
Eight

“
No news, I take
it?”

Five days had passed with
no new incidents...and no answers.

Clayton stood with Rocki
in her shop, looking terribly uncomfortable and terribly out of
place, especially with his sister standing a few feet away and
holding up a new, modified corset that Rocki was putting out for the
spring line.

With his face a brilliant
shade of red, he deliberately turned his back on Lacey and said, “No.
No news. There weren't any prints on the box that we can link
to Dwayne. Nobody reports seeing anybody fitting his description in
the area. For the past five years, he's lived in
Seiverville—quite a ways from here.”

A ways, but still
drivable
, she thought. She'd rather just
know
one
way or the other if it had been her ex who'd left the destroyed
flowers, who'd sent the pictures.

“
You haven't
gotten any new deliveries? No new cards?”

“
No, Clayton.”
She sighed and pushed her hair back.

He stared at her, a
familiar look on his square face. Seconds ticked by and he didn't
blink.

“
Damn it, you
moron.” Irritated by the staring contest, Rocki shoved off the
counter. “I said I'd tell you if anything happened and I
meant it. There haven't been any cards, any deliveries, not
anything.”

He sighed and pushed a
hand through his hair. “Sorry. It's just...” His
voice trailed off.

But the look in his eyes
said everything. Rocki turned away, pressed a hand to her belly.
“Clayton, I'm not ignoring this. I know how serious it
is.”

“
Do you?”

She looked back over her
shoulder, trying to ignore the ache in her chest at the look in his
eyes. But she couldn't ignore the fear that lived inside her,
couldn't ignore the nerves or the anxiety. “Yes. I do.”

“
But—”

Lacey came up to stand
between them, and Rocki could see the indecision on her face. She
wanted to side with both of them—her brother and his fear for
Rocki, and Rocki, as well, because Rocki damn well knew Lacey likely
wouldn't have handled things much differently.

Lacey laid a hand on
Clayton's arm and said, “Ease up, bub. She's being
careful, okay?”

“
Careful isn't
always enough.” Clayton shook his head. “Rocki—”

“
No.” She
held up a hand, cutting him off. “I don't want to hear
this. You think I don't realize how badly I screwed up back
then? I
do
, I get it. I screwed up then when I didn't
report him. It won't happen again.”

“
You sure about
that?”

“
Damn it, Clayton,”
Lacey snapped. “
Enough
.”

“
No.” Rocki
shook her head, barely sparing Lacey a look. “This is between
us now, Lacey. I appreciate the concern, but I can handle it.”
Setting her jaw, she focused on Clayton, barely resisting the urge to
throw something. At his head—that thick, rock-hard skull. “You
think I don't realize how serious this is.”

“
I'm pretty
damn certain you
don't
.”

“
And I'm
pretty damn certain I
do
.” Crossing her arms over her
chest, she stared at him.

“
Then why didn't
you call when things first started getting weird?”

Rocki shoved both hands
into her hair and tugged, a strangled scream escaping her. “Damn
it, Clayton, you're being an asshole, you know that? I got some
fucking cards. Unsigned, with pictures of me. That was
it
.
There was nothing written on them, nothing said. If I'd done
anything
then
, a report would have been filed...and if it had
been a cop who didn't know me taking the report? I would have
been brushed off and you damn well know it. As soon as I had
something sort of concrete, I
called
.”

Pinching the bridge of
his nose, Clayton mumbled under his breath.

“
What?”

Lowering his hand, he
glared at her. “Part of me is pissed off knowing that you may
be right.”

“
I
know
I
am.”

“
The other part is
thinking that you're a cop's wife...” He paused,
cleared his throat. “You
were
a cop's wife. You
know what to say, when to say, how to say it to make them take you
seriously, Rock. And damn it, you could have just found out when I
was on shift. You know I'm always there when you need me.”

“
I do know that.
And when I
did
need help, you were the one I called,”
she said, her voice gentle. Sighing, she made herself think past the
anger, the fear, the nerves. This was Clayton, her friend for so many
years. She'd known him for as long as she'd known Lacey.
He'd always been there for her. She knew he worried. “Clay,
try to understand...I was doing what I thought was right—trying
to be careful without jumping to conclusions.”