Various States of Undress (10 page)

Damn . . . he loved fantasizing about women’s bodies, but with Carolina, it was the whole package. He couldn’t separate her smile, her laugh, or her witty remarks from her breasts, her hips, or her delicate hands. Hands that he wanted all over his own body.

He was in big trouble here.

“Maybe Agent Evans will get through today,” Carolina said.

I hope not.

“That would be good,” he said noncommittally.

“Because you look really tired,” Carolina went on. “It bothers me that you have to worry so much.”

He pulled flour and sugar from a cabinet and plunked a bottle of vanilla next to them on the counter near the sink. “I’m not worried.”

“Then why do you look like a deer in the headlights?”

He gave a nervous laugh.

She was silent a moment. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Feel great, but that sofa bed’s not the best. I’m all stiff.” He laughed again—the sound coming out like machine gun fire. Damn it to hell! He was an idiot. Placing a mixing bowl on the counter, he gave her another quick smile. “Anyway. I’ll have these ready soon.”

“Looking forward to it.” She stood up and stretched. “I’ll make a fire.”

You already have.

Jake brushed the thought away and tried to focus on cooking—on efficiency of movement, skill, and concentration. Fifteen minutes later, he set a steaming, mostly successful-looking platter of pancakes on the counter, but the entire time he’d been making them, his mind had never strayed from Carolina. He wanted her, and nothing he could do to distract himself would change that. What the hell was he going to do?

Put out plates, napkins, syrup, and butter—that’s what.

When he was finished, he glanced over to where she was curled back in the recliner, flipping through a magazine. “Breakfast is ready.”

She looked up with a smile. “Great.”

“Uh, where do you want to—”

“Yeah, there’s isn’t a kitchen table. Why don’t we just eat by the fire?” She unfolded her legs and walked to the counter, eyeing the spread. “Wow. This looks wonderful. I . . .” She smoothed the front of her gown. “I’m going to change clothes. Just a sec.”

Jake’s hand shot out and took her arm. “Don’t.”

“I look—”

“You look beautiful,” he said.

She glanced at him uncertainly.

“I mean . . . that you’re fine as is. It’s just pancakes.” He gestured toward the counter. “Have some.”

With a hesitant nod, she reached for a plate. After filling it silently, she watched as he did the same and then he poured two cups of coffee. They took their breakfast to the raised hearth, using it as a table.

Carolina knelt down and raised her mug in salute. “To snowy mornings and delicious pancakes.”

Jake grinned and clinked his mug to hers. “Let’s eat.”

She placed a forkful of pancake into her mouth and closed her eyes. “Mmm.”

He stared.

“Oh my God. So good,” she continued.

“Thanks.” Jake pressed his knees together and shoveled half a pancake into his mouth.

“If you cook like this every morning, I hope Courtney never makes it up the mountain.” She took another bite and moaned again.

“Who?” Jake managed.

“Courtney. Agent Evans?”

“Oh, her.” Jake nodded, chewing. “Well, she has to eventually.” He put his plate on the hearth and checked the watch on his wrist. “Actually, I need to do my check-in.”

Springing up, he grabbed his phone from the coffee table and concentrated on dialing. Evans answered on the first ring.

“Care Bear secure,” Jake announced.

Carolina groaned, but he ignored her, pacing into the kitchen.

On the other end of the line, Evans coughed. “Copy. Uh . . . Jake?”

“Yeah?”

“There’s a problem.”

Immediately, his eyes went to the windows, then to the alarm pads. His gun was in his hand less than two seconds later. “Standing by.”

“No, no. I mean . . . I can’t get up there,” Evans continued.

“What do you mean?”

“I just
told
you what I meant.”

Jake gritted his teeth. “Why can’t you make it?”

“Well, have you looked out the window?” Evans actually laughed.

“Of course I have. There’s a shit-ton of snow.”

“And more coming. There was another avalanche last night, this time closer to Jackson. The road to the cabin might as well be non-existent, and there’s no way I can chopper in. White-out conditions are expected for the next several days.” She paused. “How are your supplies?”

“Fine. So what are you saying?” Jake glanced at Carolina, who appeared to be focused on her plate, but he knew better.

“I’m saying that we need to set some goals and specifics. Meaning—we need some time to figure out how to get me up there. Quietly. The press has no clue where she is and we want to keep it that way. The chief ordered me to stay put until Monday of next week while we work on a plan. Copy?”

Jake didn’t speak for a moment. “Affirmative.”

“Thanks. Check in as usual. And Jake?”

“Yeah?”

“Relax.” Evans chuckled. “Read a fucking book or take a nap every now and then, okay? You deserve a week with light duty.”

She hung up and Jake stood there in the kitchen, staring at his phone. How was he supposed to live in agony for a whole week when he was two seconds away from taking Carolina to bed right
now
?

“What’s up?” Carolina asked casually.

“Evans is still stuck.”

“Oh.”

He walked back to the fireplace and crouched next to her. “Yeah. For a week. Well, almost a week. Today’s Tuesday, right?”

She nodded.

“Evans plans to be here next Monday.”

Carolina’s brown eyes went wide. “Oh,” she repeated. “That’s April Fools’ day. Maybe she’s just kidding and she won’t show up.” A smudge of syrup near the corner of her mouth gleamed in the firelight.

Before he could stop himself, Jake reached out a thumb and gently wiped it away. “The Secret Service doesn’t kid around. So . . . I have to be honest with you.” He put the pad of his thumb to his tongue and licked it.

She took a shuddering breath. “About what?”

He stared at her for another moment, gazing into her sparkling brown eyes. If she’d been any other woman than the daughter of a sitting United States president, he would have pursued her in nothing flat. She was gorgeous. Smart. Fun. And for an entire week he could pretend that she was his. Despite what he’d told her, there was a better than average chance that they
wouldn’t
get caught. And after this stint in Wyoming, he could just ask to be reassigned. It would be tough, because he didn’t want to imagine not guarding her. Could he walk away from her that easily?

“Jake? What do you need to be honest about?”

He nodded and the words tumbled out of his mouth. “About the fact that I want to take that plate out of your hands and throw it on the floor. Then I want to pick you up and take you into the bedroom. And then I want to lay you on the bed and make you mine.”

A moan of wind outside blew snow against the windows, but Jake didn’t even glance up. He just stared at her, waiting.

She stared back, her eyes luminous. “Do it.”

T
WO SECONDS LATER,
the plate was pulled from her hands, and Carolina sucked in a breath as it crashed to the hearth. She raised her arms. “Jake.”

With a growl, he lifted her, dragging her up against his chest. Warm, strong hands trailed up the backs of her bare thighs and suddenly she was in his arms, her head cradled against his chest.

She felt limp. She felt electrified. She felt
everything
.

When he shouldered his way through the narrow bedroom door, heat rushed into her face at the sight of the rumpled bed, because a nearly voyeuristic moment stole her senses. She’d thought about being with him so often over the past couple of days that she could almost see herself on the bed, Jake moving rhythmically on top of her.

She sucked in a breath.

“You sure?” he murmured, pausing at the foot of the bed.

“You know my answer,” she whispered.

“I want to hear it.” He bent and touched the tip of his hot tongue to her neck.

“I want you. I want to be with you.”

Silently, swiftly, he walked around the side of the bed and laid her on the pillows. Gazing down at her through half-closed lids, he reached over his shoulders, pulled his shirt over his head and threw it on the ground.

She stared at him, her mouth half-open. “Oh.”

His lips quirked up, and he swung onto the bed, straddling her, his thighs pressing against hers. Before she could say anything else, he bent down, capturing her face in his hands. She tilted her chin up to welcome his kiss. It was hot, slow, and lingering—igniting the fire that she’d tried so desperately to keep banked.

She smiled up at him, a rush of relief mixing with that fire. She didn’t have to hold back any more—didn’t have to pretend like her desire for him, her yearning to be with him, didn’t matter. It did matter. And she wanted to enjoy every second of it while it lasted.

Her hands drifted up from the blankets to rest on his waist. The skin there was firm and warm. She skimmed her palms up his chest, her fingers curling on top of his wide shoulders. In the light from the lamp on the nightstand, his skin was smooth and inviting. She wanted to taste it. But just as she dragged her mouth from his, he deepened the kiss, groaning into her mouth.

He surged forward, pinning her in place with his lips, his tongue sliding against hers. One of his hands began a journey down the column of her neck, across her collarbone, inside the opening of her nightgown. His large fingers trailed over her breast and then he covered it with his palm, rubbing rhythmically. Her response was lightning fast—heat scorching from her pebbling nipple to her core. She moaned, raising her hips, her belly brushing against his hardness.

His lips pulled away, only to settle near her ear. He let out a low, sexy humming noise. “You’re so beautiful. Do you know that?”

She couldn’t think of what to say. Just like the first time he’d kissed her, she was sinking, consumed with the shock of pleasure—of his hands on her body, of her fantasy coming true. The only response she could give was instinctual. She moved her hands over his shoulders, down his rock-hard arms. Her hips rolled up again and she threaded her fingers through his hair, silently urging him to take her.

“I want to see you,” he continued, his voice a soft burst of warm breath near her ear.

She shifted her head on the pillow and trailed kisses along his jaw until she reached his lips. She kissed him once and pulled away.

“Jake, I want—”

She broke off with a whimper as his thumb dragged slowly across her nipple.

“Anything,” he said against her mouth.

She closed her eyes. “Take me.”

With a growl, he sat back on his heels, reaching between them to grab handfuls of the nightgown and drag it up over her thighs. When it was bunched up near her waist, his hands suddenly stopped and his fantastic green eyes went wide with wonder.

“Oh, God,” he said. “You’re
not
wearing anything underneath this.”

She smiled dreamily at him. “It’s a concealing garment.”

“Not anymore,” he muttered, his hands moving again. Dipping his head, he kissed her skin as it became exposed to the cold air. When his lips brushed the underside of a breast, she closed her eyes, silently begging his mouth to move up . . . to . . .

His lips closed over the tip of the breast and sucked.

There. She drew in a breath and braced her hands on his shoulders. “Jake . . .”

“Shh.”

A few seconds later, he pulled her nightgown off and dropped it on the floor. As his gaze moved over her, from her parted lips, to her breasts and lower, her skin felt positively electrified. She ought to be shy. Embarrassed, even. But with him—everything just felt right. Completely connected.

Gazing up at him, she nestled her head against the pillows and let her arms fall to the sides, palms up. “I’m yours.”

His chest rising and falling rapidly, Jake swung off her and stood up, reaching for the waistband of his pants. She watched, not moving, as he pulled them off. She stared at his lean hips, his muscular thighs, and finally, her gaze flicked up to his taut belly and then down, following the trail of hair that ended at large erection.

She glanced up, met his heated gaze and then dragged her heels up the bed, raising her knees. She parted her thighs slightly.

A second later, Jake was between them, his chest pressing against hers, his fingers digging into her hips, his mouth opening over hers. His kiss pushed her into the pillows and she raised her knees higher, bucking against him, sliding her belly against his hardness.

When her arms came around his back, Jake moved a hand, reaching between their bodies and his fingers cupped her mound. She gasped as a large thumb slipped into her cleft and began to circle. “Jake.”

“So hot,” he murmured.

She moaned, sliding her palm down his chest and lower, until she felt him, incredibly hard. Settling her hand around him, she began a rhythm of her own, and he tensed above her, pausing for a few seconds, his jaw tight. When his thumb began to move again, quickly pressing into her, spirals of pleasure spiked through her, and she dragged her hand away from him, hitching her body up.

“Now,” she breathed. “I can’t wait.”

“Are you . . . that is, are we safe?”

She nodded. “I’m on the pill.”

Slowly, Jake pulled his hand away from her and guided himself to her center. He leaned forward, bracing himself on the headboard, his big chest brushing against the side of her face. She breathed in, drugging herself with his warm, spicy scent. Her knees drew up against his sides and she gripped his arms as he entered her slowly. Her mouth dropped open.

“Okay?” Jake’s voice was a deep rumble.

She nodded and licked her lower lip.

He pulled his hips back and pushed forward again, stretching her farther.

She moaned, the spirals of pleasure starting again. He matched her moan with one of his own and thrust again. And again. Each one was faster than the last and by the time her orgasm had built to shimmering torment, her arms were wrapped around his neck and his fingers dug into her hips.