Obsession (2 page)

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t big-bad-boy
Johnny O’Malley. And you know I don’t like Samantha.”

“Sam.” He took another sip of his beer.

He knew she didn’t like that any better, but
she decided to ignore it. “Come home for the reunion?” She stopped
at the bottom of the steps and smiled up at him. She caught a whiff
of something mild and pleasant,
manly
. “I’m surprised.”

He shrugged. “Figured it was time.”

His gaze slid over Sammy like warm chocolate,
making her squirm inside.

“You’ve changed.”

Oh my God!
The same exact thing he’d
said in her dream the night before. “I’ve lost a pound or two.”
More like forty.

“You look damn good.” He took a swig of his
beer. “Guess the single life agrees with you.”

Is that his way of finding out if I’m
still single?
“Doesn’t it with everyone?”

Without warning, the dream came back to her.
Damn! A furnace ignited within her and she was sure lava replaced
the blood in her veins. Her nipples tingled, which wasn’t a good
sign because it usually meant they were turning hard. It was all
she could do not to cross her legs to squash the sudden tingling
there, too.

“It sure does with me.” He finished his beer
and tossed the bottle into a trash can next to the cabin.

Sammy knew John had been married for a few
years to some girl he’d met at a biker bar. As far as she knew
there hadn’t been any children. She finished her water and did the
same thing he’d done, but missed the trash can.

John chuckled. “Want a beer?” He turned
without waiting for her reply.

Sammy picked up the bottle and put it in the
trash. Against her better judgment, she went up the steps and
through the doorway, closing the door behind her. She followed John
to the back where the kitchen was located. He was opening the
fridge door and reaching inside when she caught up to him. When he
turned back to her, he had two bottles in one hand. She reached for
one.

“So, what have you been doing all these
years?” Sammy watched him twist the top off his bottle and tried to
do the same with hers. “No one in the family has really been able
to keep tabs on you.”

“Maybe I haven’t wanted them to.”

He pulled the bottle out of her hand, twisted
off the top, and handed it back to her.

“What, did you miss me?”

“Like a dog misses fleas.”
God, I don’t
even know what I’m saying.
Why am I so nervous?
She knew
why. It was apparent the years separating them hadn’t done anything
to erase her attraction to him, to his bad-boy image and the raw
power of sexuality he exuded. The three erotic dreams she’d had of
him had primed her for sex. She only hoped she wasn’t
transparent.

His response was a crooked grin that was too
sexy and made Sammy uncomfortable. Whatever was happening was
happening too fast. Suddenly, finding out what he’d been doing all
these years paled in comparison to the thought of getting away from
him as fast as she could. Before she made a fool of herself.

Sammy turned, deciding it was time to leave.
“Well, it was nice seeing you again, John. Thanks for the beer, but
I think I’d better go.” She set her bottle of beer down on the
counter while a brief thought crossed her mind that she was running
away. “Maybe we’ll see each other again before I leave.” She tried
to sound nonchalant but was painfully aware her tone was a little
too rushed, a little too shaky.

She heard John put his bottle down on the
countertop behind her and instinctively picked up speed, sensing he
might try to stop her. But that was silly, wasn’t it? She wanted
him, not the other way around. He couldn’t possibly know the
turmoil going on inside her. Damn those dreams! She realized coming
here was a mistake. She was horny beyond belief and not thinking
straight.

She reached for the doorknob and barely got
the door open when he slammed it shut in her face. Sammy spun
around, trapped between the door and his body. Her heart skipped a
beat as she raised her eyes to his. His expression looked almost
fierce, and matched the fire burning in his eyes.

“What are you doing?” Her senses went into
overdrive as the warmth of his body enveloped her, threatening to
suck her in.

“Where are you going so fast? You just got
here.”

He was too close. His warm breath sent a
shiver down her spine. “I’m not in a hurry. I only came long enough
to visit with the girls again.”

John’s gruff chuckle revealed he didn’t
believe her. “You can see my sisters anytime. You expect me to
believe that?”

Sammy’s eyes grew round. “If you think I came
here to see you then you’re crazy. I’ve spent the last twenty
years—” When it dawned on her what she’d been about to say, she cut
herself off.

John finished her comment for her, hitting
the nail right on the head. “Trying to forget me?” His tone was low
and sexier than Sammy remembered. The cockiness of youth was gone,
replaced with the firm, deep tone of experience.

Keep it light, Sammy.
She tried to
laugh off the notion. “You wish!” She put her hands on him to push
him away. “Please move.”

“Why? Do I bother you?”

There was no way she was going to show him
what he was doing to her. She’d worked too hard pretending she
didn’t like him during their brief acquaintance to ruin it now by
swooning at his feet.

He leaned in closer. Sammy gasped and tried
to shrink back against the door. She kept her hands flat against
his chest, trying not to notice how rock hard his pectorals were.
Or that his cock was hardening. Their lower bodies were flush and
the feel of his erection caused a warm flow between her legs.
Sweet Jesus!
She was going to jump his bones if she didn’t
get out of there soon.

“John, please. I have to go.” Was that panic
in her voice? “I should never have come in.”

John grabbed her by the wrists and forced her
arms above her head, pinning them against the door. He ignored
Sammy’s gasp. “You’ve got that right, baby. You’ve been running
from me since we were teenagers. Well, I made myself a promise,
Sam. The next time I got you to myself, I was going to find out if
fucking you was as sweet as I’ve dreamed it would be.”

His words and the raw expression on his face
fueled the fans of Sammy’s hunger. She couldn’t draw her gaze away
from the sensual glitter in his dark eyes. Her mouth parted because
she found it hard to breathe. She struggled briefly against his
hands, knowing she wouldn’t be able to break free. Finally, giving
up and breathing heavily, she stared into his eyes.

“Do you really want me to let you go, Sam?”
He slowly lowered his head. “Haven’t you ever wondered what it
would be like between us?”

She shook her head.

“
Liar.”

He slammed his mouth down on hers. It didn’t
take Sammy long to lose what little resistance she had before
melding into the kiss eagerly, proving to him that she was a liar.
When his tongue sought entrance into her mouth, she willingly
parted her lips. Once their tongues meshed all hell broke loose.
John released her wrists to trail his hands down to her breasts.
She lowered her arms to wrap them around his neck.

As his mouth worked against hers, Sammy’s
desire grew until the tingle in her taut nipples spread to her
aching pussy. She arched against his hard frame, moaning with
pleasure when his hard cock throbbed against the apex of her
thighs.
Yes!
She needed him. Needed to be filled and loved.
The need coursing through her body was intense and demanded to be
fed.

But at what cost? Sammy wasn’t too far gone
to realize making love to John would be a mistake, and she would be
the one to get hurt. After he got what he wanted he’d be gone
again. She’d let herself enjoy his rough kiss a minute more and
then demand he let her go. Only when his hands roamed over her hips
to cup her bottom, she realized she might have waited too late.

She turned her face to break their heated
kiss. “John, this is silly. We can’t do this.” Then why was she
closing her eyes and moaning as he rubbed himself against her
pussy? She had to be strong. But where was she going to find the
strength to ignore that her breasts were crushed against his chest
and her nipples were so hard they burned?

She felt his hand curl into the hair at the
back of her head. He forced her face back around so their eyes
could meet, his expression fierce with arousal. He was clearly
nearing the end of his control. It shocked, yet thrilled Sammy to
see what effect she had on him. She was thankful her responses were
less visible.

“I’m not afraid of you, John.” Sammy knew it
seemed silly to say, considering she’d been clinging to him and
kissing him a second ago.

“I don’t want you to be afraid of me,” he
said gruffly. His nostrils were flaring. His sensual mouth turned
hard. “I want you to stop running from me.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Using all of the strength she could muster, she jerked out of his
arms. “You were a little too wild and unpredictable for me. I
wasn’t running from you, I just ran toward something better.”

His laugh wasn’t what she expected. “Safe,
predictable Pat.”

She’d married the good brother when she’d
really wanted the other. But even as young as she’d been at the
time, something had warned her that a life with John wouldn’t have
amounted to much. He’d lived on the edge.

Since John was between her and the door,
Sammy backed farther into the tiny room, afraid of the
determination in his eyes. Afraid of the desire coursing through
her blood, almost rendering her incapable of breathing. She didn’t
want him touching her again, yet she’d never wanted anything so bad
either. Much more of his particular brand of foreplay and she’d be
begging him to fuck her.

He moved closer. Sammy took another step
back. “Yes,” she agreed. “He never ended up in jail.”

The briefest flicker in his gaze was his only
reaction to her comment. He reached forward, touching a loose curl
resting against her temple. Sammy’s heart skipped a beat. She tried
to swallow but her mouth was too dry. The heat of his knuckles
against her skin scorched her. She had to get away from him soon,
before she said the hell with it and went for it.
Maybe that’s
what he wants. To see if I’m still susceptible to him. Is this all
a game to him?

“As soft as I remember.”

Sammy thought back to the day before her
wedding. He’d taken a hold of her ponytail, jerked her head back,
and planted a long, hot kiss on her mouth. After her initial shock
and resistance, the passion had exploded like an inferno between
them. Their hands began to search and explore each other at a rapid
pace, catching Sammy off guard until she found the strength to
stop.

She’d nearly called off her wedding to Pat
after that, the guilt of wanting another man eating away at her.
But then reason sank in and she realized there would be no future
with a man who lived on the wild side.

Gazing into each other’s eyes now, Sammy
slowly pulled her head back until the curl slipped from his
fingers. “We’re not kids anymore. You can stop playing with me.” It
was the only thing she could think of to say.

“No, we’re two divorced, consenting adults
who are free to fuck each other’s brains out for the first time in
twenty years.”

Oh, God!
Her panties became soaked
with the visual his words conjured up. Unable to speak, she could
only shake her head. The next step she took away from him brought
her up against the fridge. She caught her breath as he slowly, and
with a lazy smile, closed in on her. God, if he backed up that
predatory gleam in his eyes she would be lost this time.

“And I’m about to show you how this man
plays.”

As soon as his mouth covered hers, Sammy’s
willpower to ignore his sexual pull disappeared, replaced with an
all-consuming desire to yield to him.
Everything.
His mouth
was firm, strong, demanding, and she welcomed his tongue against
hers with a low, satisfied moan. He responded with a groan, and
then lost control and crushed her against the fridge as if she
could absorb him.

They turned wild, moving against each other
with a hunger that escalated with frightening speed. Sammy’s hands
roamed over John’s hard body, discovering the muscles beneath his
T-shirt, feeling them flex under her fingers. Only she wasn’t
satisfied with touching him through his clothes; she wanted to feel
his warm flesh beneath her palms. She lifted the hem of his shirt
and wormed her way underneath. As soon as her hands touched his
warm skin it set off a fresh wave of madness between them.

John’s hands were at her waist and without
warning he lifted her off her feet. Sammy instinctively wrapped her
legs around his waist and moved her arms up to wrap them around his
neck. He broke their heated kiss and put his mouth against her
neck, sliding his hands down and over her ass to hold her securely
in place.

“I’ve thought about what it would feel like
to fuck you all these years, Sammy, even when you belonged to Pat.
But we’re both free now, and by God, today I’m going to find out
the answer.”

His words were followed by a bite that sent a
thrill through Sammy. She shuddered, her clit throbbing with
arousal, no longer caring about anything but feeding the emptiness
inside. Three years of abstinence had taken a toll and she prayed
this wasn’t another one of her dreams that would leave her hungry
and yearning.

As he walked them to a room that turned out
to be a bedroom, he kept his mouth against her skin, teasing her
with warm kisses. Not breaking contact, John lowered her to the
bed, following her down and crushing her into the mattress with his
weight.