TrackingDesire (2 page)

Kelly started to unlock the door to her apartment, but
before she could turn the key the door swung open and her lover, Matt, was
standing in the frame with a large grin on his face.

“Welcome back,” he greeted them, then chivalrously took the
bag from Kelly’s hands and pulled her close to give her a long, slow kiss.

Liv averted her eyes to give her friend a semblance of
privacy. After a moment Matt pulled back and Kelly hummed her approval of such
a greeting.

“Now that’s something worth returning home for,” Kelly
murmured appreciatively.

Liv shook her head but there was a smile on her face. She
was pleased for her best friend and glad to see her so blissfully happy.

“Some of us are hungry!” Julian called from inside the
apartment, laughter in his tone. Both Matt and Kelly looked faintly sheepish as
they entered the main living area. Liv followed them, closing the door behind
her.

“Ah, food. Wonderful,” Will boomed from beside the coffee
table.

Two laptops had been set up, along with a number of pads of
paper and a scattering of soda bottles, glasses of water and other assorted
items. The living room, and the coffee table in particular, had been set up
into a mini-operations center while they brainstormed and tried to work out
their next most logical move.

Liv grinned at the large, strongly featured blond man. Well
into the prime of his life, Captain Will had seen more than his fair share of
action. With his decades of experience, he now led a new team that merged the
talents of a handful of Enforcers and some of his own best operatives from the
police force. Friendly and firm, the man was the epitome of what a commander
should be.

Pulling out two rolls, Liv placed them in his open palms
along with a side of coleslaw.

“Roast beef, salad and coleslaw,” she confirmed.

His grin lit up his entire face. “Excellent,” he replied
eagerly. “Thank you. A man my age can’t miss his lunch. I tend to become a
cranky old jerk when I do.”

Julian snorted from behind him, his gray eyes alight with
laughter.

“You become a cranky old jerk the moment things don’t start
panning out the way you want them to,” he countered. “You just like a pretty
young redhead bringing you food on a platter.”

“I don’t bring anything on a platter for
anyone
,” Liv
demurred, but she sent a warm smile at Will and Julian to take any sting from
her words.

“A salad roll and a roast beef sandwich for you, with a side
of potato salad,” she recited as she gave Julian his order. Liv melted a little
as he sent her a heated glance under half-closed lids.

“Bit of beef is nice for lunch,” he said softly, the
innuendo in his tone making her heart flutter in her chest and her stomach knot
with arousal.

“When you can get it,” she agreed, equally quietly so none
of the others would be able to overhear them. “But a girl has to be
careful—beef can be dangerous,” she continued, more for her own sake than his.

Julian tilted his head and stared at her thoughtfully for a
moment before placing his sandwich, roll and take-out container of salad onto a
clear space on the table.

“Come grab some clean glasses from the kitchen with me,” he
urged gently.

Liv’s eyes automatically scanned the room. Matt and Kelly
sat close to each other on the couch, their thighs pressed intimately against
each other as they spoke, lost in a world of their own making.

Will dug into his roll as he scrolled down on some site he
was researching on the laptop. Knowing neither of them would be missed for a
few minutes, Liv silently placed her nearly empty deli bag on the chair she had
been using earlier in the day and followed Julian into the relative privacy of
the kitchen.

Liv entered the kitchen only a few steps behind Julian. As
she rounded the counter and neared the sink, out of sight of the others in the
living room for the first time all day, Julian instantly closed the distance
between them. He wrapped his arms around her, pulled her flush with his body so
that barely a hair’s breadth separated them.

The warmth of his flesh penetrated through the thin material
of her shirt and his thigh pressed between her jean-clad legs, driving his hard
cock into the warmth of her thigh and bringing their bodies intimately close.
Liv tilted her head up to look at his handsome face, her belly fluttering with
arousal at the heat and desire shining in his soft gray eyes.

Julian lowered his lips to hers and the world tilted on its
axis. Liv relished this first intimate contact of lips upon lips, loving the
softness of his mouth and immediately wanting more. After a second of nearly
blinding electric sensation arcing between them, Julian deepened the kiss
hungrily. Liv felt nearly overwhelmed by the force and passion of their first
kiss.

She wrapped her hands around the warmth of his back,
clenching her fingers tightly into his shirt. Despite their clothes she could
feel the heat of his passion radiating through to warm her skin. And as his
thigh pressed between her legs more firmly, she rode him slightly and could
feel the thick length of his arousal press against her leg.

Somehow they grappled to get even closer to one another,
neither wanting any distance between them. Desire exploded through her body and
a fiery passion ignited, searing Liv’s senses and making her blind, deaf and
dumb to anything other than the sensations this man gave her. Julian’s hand
cupped her ass cheek as he tugged her even closer to him, so she balanced half
on his thigh and he carried some of her weight.

Tilted into him, riding his thigh, Liv could feel every
point where they touched along her body, and craved more contact. Her hand
reached out to stroke over his jeans and cup his groin. She could clearly feel
the definition of the thick length of his cock, hot and aroused through the
denim. Liv rubbed him, wishing they were naked and able to better explore each
other.

“I want you naked,” she confessed huskily, desire thick in
her voice.

Julian chuckled and kissed her again, his teeth nipping
lightly at the fullness of her soft lower lip.

“We’ve been parrying with one another every time we speak,”
he pointed out. “I wanted you from the moment I saw you in your office cubicle,
Red. While I’m not one to deny a lady practically anything, we’ve waited this
long already. Surely we can wait a little bit more so we don’t give Will, Matt
and Kelly an earful?”

“I don’t know,” Liv teased lightly. Her heart hammered as
the husky tone of his voice, thick with need, grated over his nickname for her.
The moniker had her blood pounding with hunger. She rubbed her hand faster and
harder over his erection, wanting him as eager as she was. Liv moved her body
in time to her masturbating him, riding his thigh and pressing her breasts
against his chest as she simulated exactly what she wanted to do to him.

“I’m feeling rather worked up right now,” she panted, her
heart accelerating madly as her passion for this man grew in leaps and bounds
as they touched one another so intimately. “I do hate waiting.”

Julian groaned and his fingers closed tighter around her
ass, digging into the tight muscle there.

The pressure sent a zing of electric passion straight into
her pussy, her clit rubbing eagerly against the seam of her jeans and arousing
her further.

“Waiting is supposed to make the culmination even more
explosive,” Julian muttered against her lips.

Liv shivered as he stroked his tongue out and licked her,
the sweet taste of him assaulting her senses and urging her to throw caution to
the wind and indulge in what they both so clearly desired. Liv didn’t care if
the others could overhear them—she simply wanted to let this burgeoning passion
between herself and Julian explode.

“I don’t think passion and anticipation is something we have
a problem with.” She laughed. Teasingly, she nipped his full, soft lower lip,
then rasped her tongue out to lick away the small sting.

With their faces so close together she could see the flecks
of blue and green in Julian’s gray eyes. Lust had blown his pupils wide open
and Liv couldn’t help but grin a little at the intensity of their reaction to
each other. She might still have private concerns about the safety of her heart
and their compatibility, but she couldn’t deny the sizzling and overwhelming
attraction even if she wanted to.

“How much risk are you willing to take?” she purred
temptingly. Her hand stroked his cock through the denim of his jeans, moving
faster as their breath increased to hard pants as they worked themselves toward
the point of no return. Liv wasn’t even sure she wanted their first time
together to be this—a quickie up against the sink in her friend’s kitchen—but
she couldn’t help herself. She reacted so strongly to Julian that it was a need
more than a mere whim or want.

“I’m willing to risk everything for you,” Julian replied
seriously.

Her breath hitched at the tone of his voice. Julian stating
such an intimate thing as if he had already thought seriously about it
surprised her and scared her a little. When he continued, she knew without a
doubt that he wasn’t talking about them having a quickie anymore, but something
far more meaningful.

“What about you?” he asked, turning the tables on her. “How
much are you willing to risk?”

Julian watched as his words really sank in to Liv’s mind.
Her luminous green eyes widened and her soft pink tongue flickered out to lick
at her full lips. Warm red hair waved and lightly curled around her face, the
tresses falling below her shoulders. His fingers itched to run through the soft
strands, but having neatly cut to the heart of the matter between himself and
Liv, he didn’t want to sway her attention back to the physical powder keg
waiting to explode between them.

“What do you mean?” she stalled, and Julian clicked his
tongue in faint disappointment.

As a Retriever she often put herself into tricky
situations—her work was frequently both physical and highly demanding. Sometimes,
he knew, people who had taken the objects she set out to recover were not keen
to hand them back. While her job, strictly speaking, was not a dangerous one,
neither was it a simple desk job or a laid-back, paper-pushing career.

Liv seemed happy to go through all kinds of risks, but in
the half a dozen or so times they had met up in recent weeks, she had seemed
determined not to take even a step toward opening her emotions or her heart to
him. Julian couldn’t help but feel curious why. It seemed so contrary to what
he saw beneath her exterior when it came to her work and her loyalty toward her
friends.

“Red,” he drawled, enjoying the way his nickname for her
rolled off his tongue. “You know exactly what I mean, but I’m happy to spell it
out for you.”

Because he could, Julian dipped his head and lightly brushed
his lips against hers, fluttering a series of kisses against them that made his
erection throb in his jeans. With his thigh between her legs, he could feel how
his gentle kisses made her limbs wobble uncertainly.

“I’m willing to follow where this leads,” he said simply,
hoping the naked truth in his words would penetrate whatever doubts she seemed
to be holding on to. “I’m happy to risk everything I have to see where this
could take us. I’m prepared to open myself up and discover what we could grow
into with each other. Usually I don’t move this fast to express myself, but I
really feel we could have something utterly wonderful. I just can’t tell
whether you’re willing to take that same risk.”

Liv stroked his chest, her fingers delicately tracing
patterns through his thin shirt. Julian could feel the warmth of her fingers
even through the material and his cock twitched hungrily. Canting his hips into
hers, he thrust his cock against her soft, flat belly. She sucked in a hard
breath and Julian crowed internally to see the physical evidence of her desire
for him and her reaction to his heavy arousal.

“You don’t think I’m a bit too…exuberant for you?” she asked
with a slight tremble in her voice. Julian’s eyebrows rose in surprise and he
tugged a curl before twining it around his finger.

“I could just as easily say I had concerns I might be a
little boring and solid for you,” he countered. The worry didn’t change his
mind or scare him away, but it was something he’d already acknowledged to
himself and thought through. He shrugged a shoulder and pressed a kiss to the
tip of her adorable nose. Liv look startled for a moment, then smiled
lasciviously.

“I think it would be far better if, instead of over-thinking
the hell out of this and going over the what ifs and maybes, we just tried it
to see where it goes,” he finished. “Besides, the old saying that opposites
attract is a cliché for a reason. You’ll help me to explore my wilder side, and
I can be a steadying influence on you and help to keep you grounded.”

The smile that blossomed over Liv’s face was one of such
beauty and sensual promise that Julian literally lost his breath for a moment.
She unzipped his jeans and reached inside and under his boxer-briefs to fist
his prick with her pale, slender hand. With a supple movement that had him
groaning with pleasure, she smoothly stroked the length of his shaft up and
down.

“Liv…” He panted. She pressed her lips to his, her tongue
entering his mouth and parrying with his in a sensual taunt he could not deny.
She continued to fist him. This time she circled her thumb over his head.
Slowly, drawing out the anticipation of the moment, she spread the pre-cum that
had leaked from his slit over the large, darkly flushed, sensitive skin of his
tip.

With agonizing slowness, she hand-fucked his cock. Julian’s
eyes threatened to flutter closed in pure bliss as she dragged out the motion
of lifting her fist and pressing it back down into a slow, sensual rhythm. He
rocked his hips forcefully to press himself farther up into her, eager to urge
her on in her ministrations to his prick.

“Fuck!” His breaths came hard, his heart thudding like a
drum in his chest. “Red, you’re killing me here.”

Cheekily, she rubbed her breasts against his chest. He could
feel her peaked nipples rasping between them through the thin material of her
shirt, and he groaned deeply.

“Shhh,” she cautioned, “they’ll hear you in the next room
and interrupt us, wanting to know what we’re doing.”

Julian gulped. He had entirely forgotten they were at
Kelly’s apartment, in her kitchen no less, and were supposedly brainstorming
and making plans. Everything had flown out of his mind except for the feel of
Liv against his body, her hand clenching him tightly and the intoxicating taste
of her.

“Circe,” he swore. Julian craved more of her—he wanted to
feel her over every inch of his body and longed to smell her scent on his skin
and between his sheets. “Touch me, Liv. I need to feel you on me, or I just
might burst.”

She turned them around so he could hitch his ass up and rest
some of his weight on the edge of the sink. With her free hand she nudged his
legs apart and, docile under her touch, he did as she indicated.

Watching Liv kneel at his feet and pull his aching shaft free
from his jeans made his mouth dry out in instant, hot arousal. Not for a
million dollars would Julian have shifted his gaze as he watched Liv open those
soft, moist, pink lips, spread them around his cock and swallow him in one
smooth motion.

As his prick entered her mouth, those gorgeous lips wrapping
tightly around him was easily the most erotic sight he had ever seen. She
looked up at him with large deep-green eyes as she swallowed him. She bobbed
her head and sucked him hard.

Her dark-pink lips were a colorful contrast to his pale cock
with the faint darkness of purple veins barely visible through his skin. She
swallowed him whole, a feat he wouldn’t have believed someone as petite as her
could possibly manage. How the hell could she fit him down that slender throat
of hers?

“Circe,” he cried. Julian struggled to breathe as she
continued to trace her tongue nimbly around his sensitive head. The exquisite
sensations shot sparks of electricity through his groin and deep into his
belly. Julian felt his balls tighten.

Nimble, naughty fingers played gently over the sensitive
skin of his scrotum. All too soon he could feel the erotic tension heightening
as his climax neared. The sultry manner with which she stroked over his skin,
delicately tracing a heated line from the base of his balls back to his anus,
had his muscles clenching in desire and delicious, titillating torment.

Lifting her lips to the very tip of his head, she circled
her mouth around him, stringing hot, moist kisses over the plum-sized top of
his cock. His prick wept, leaking clear fluid that she eagerly lapped up, yet
another sight he drank in with a hungry gaze. Breath huffed in his lungs and it
took everything he had not to moan wantonly, cant his hips harder against her
mouth and urge her to do more.

Julian reached down to fist a hand lightly in her hair, her
soft, curly waves stroking delicately over his skin. Eagerly, he thrust himself
up into her wet and open mouth, guiding her with his hand so he could fuck her
throat. The intimacy of the moment was not lost on him and his heart beat
faster and faster as she made noises of pleasure, clearly enjoying it as much
as he was.

Liv peppered a string of tender, enthusiastic kisses down
the length of his shaft, licking at and laving his overheated skin. Julian
couldn’t have kept the low, deep moan from falling from his lips any more than
he could order the sun to not rise the following morning. Vaguely conscious of
the others in the next room, Julian tried to keep his voice as soft as possible
so as to not arouse suspicion, but he struggled to hold himself in check,
unable to control himself given the way Liv was touching and caressing him so
intimately.