Overnight Male (16 page)

For a long time he only sucked hard on her flesh, palming her other breast zealously, reveling in her responding murmurs of delight. Her fingers skimmed down his neck and over his shoulders, settling on the buttons of his shirt, freeing them one by one before pushing it from his shoulders completely. Her hands roved up and down his bare arms now, over his chest, his shoulders, his neck, his jaw, then back into his hair before starting the journey all over again. Finally she dropped her hands between their legs and pushed at the zipper of Joel’s fly, tugging it down until she could tuck her hand inside his jeans.

His cock surged against her fingers in welcome, and she immediately cupped her palm over the head, rubbing, stroking, pushing, until Joel jerked his head from her breast to catch his breath. The moment he did, she levered herself off his lap and dropped to her knees in front of him and, freeing him from his boxers, covered the head of his cock with her mouth. The thrill that shot through him then was exquisite, all heat and fire and barely restrained eruption. So long. It had been so long since a woman had touched him, teased him, tasted him. And never had one been so eager to have him as Lila was then.

“I want all of you,” she panted against his swollen flesh, pushing now at his blue jeans. “Every last inch.”

Joel stood long enough for her to jerk his clothes down around his knees before collapsing into the chair again. Then Lila bent over him once more, curling her fingers around the base of his shaft and tracing her tongue around the head. He made a hazy promise to himself to return the favor later, then sat back to enjoy the ride.

And what a ride it was, pushing him to unimaginable heights, speeding him around sharp curves and through mind-blowing loop-de-loops. By the time Lila crawled into his lap again, this time completely naked, Joel wasn’t even sure where his body ended and hers began.

Oh, wait. Thanks to what she did next, he did actually know that. Because she curled her fingers around his cock and covered his mouth with hers, thrusting her tongue deep inside as she stroked him once, twice, three times, four. Then she dipped her head close to his ear and said, “Let’s go to bed. We’re going to need more room.”

He wasn’t sure how he managed it, but somehow he was able to finish undressing and find his way into his bed with Lila beside him. For a long time they only lay naked side by side, their limbs entwined, their mouths joined, each of them exploring as much of the other’s body as they could reach. Then Lila pulled away a little and, smiling at him in a way he liked very,
very
much, urged Joel onto his back.

When she straddled his waist, he dropped his hands to her hips, gripping them firmly and pulling her toward his chest. She seemed to understand what he wanted, because she rose on her knees and moved forward, climbing over his shoulders and bracing a knee on the mattress on each side of his head. She gripped the headboard as he lifted his head from the pillow, looking down to meet his gaze full-on as he touched his mouth to her sex. She hissed a sound of pleasure at the contact, but she never stopped watching him.

Her expression changed as he licked her tender flesh, however, softening and going slack with every stroke of his tongue against her. She tasted dark and musky and hot, an irresistible combination, and when she finally closed her eyes and threw her head backward, he closed his, too, to better savor the experience. He darted his tongue deftly between the damp folds of her flesh, slow, then fast, then slow again. Then he slipped his long middle finger into her slick canal and ate her more voraciously.

She rocketed upward at the invasion, but he followed her, driving his finger deeper, and licking her harder. She cried out a half dozen times, her body jerking in unison with the sounds, then went completely still, save the shudder her orgasm sent through her. Then, with a final groan of
complete
satisfaction, she collapsed atop him. Carefully Joel withdrew his finger, noting her soft sigh of pleasure when he did. Then, even more carefully, he turned them both so that they lay alongside each other on the bed.

For a long, long time he only kissed her, softly, tenderly, his hand on her breast, hers on his cock, each of them stroking the other with slow, gentle caresses. They hadn’t finished, of course, but Joel knew she needed some time to regroup. No matter. Just touching Lila brought him infinitely more pleasure than even the earthiest coupling with any other woman had.

She finally ended the kiss, but she continued to caress his cock as she said, “I think it’s only fair that I should tell you that I never come more than once. That was why I was trying to hold it off when you…ah…When you…um…When you…uh…”

Joel smiled as he watched her speak, unable to believe what he was seeing. Lila Moreau was blushing. She was stumbling over words he would have thought her very comfortable with. He hadn’t thought her capable of either.

“When I what?” he said, still grinning.

“When you…you know…”

“What, you can’t even say it?”

She shook her head.

His grin broadened. “Lila Moreau? Can’t talk dirty?”

Her blush deepened. “Not with you,” she said.

The words surprised him. “Why not?”

She ducked her head. Very softly she told him, “Because it’s not dirty with you.”

The thrill that shot through him then was nearly overwhelming. He told himself not to read anything into her comment. But something inside him…splintered at hearing what she said. Then whatever it was burst open completely. And then it spilled happiness and a strange kind of completion through his entire system.

“What is it with me, then?” he asked quietly.

But she only shook her head and repeated what she’d said before. “I can’t come again, Joel,” she repeated. “I never have more than one orgasm. And we haven’t even…” She sighed, obviously impatient with her lack of articulation. “We haven’t even…finished. But I want us to…finish. I just don’t want you to think I’m not enjoying myself because I don’t have another orgasm. Believe me, I’ll enjoy myself plenty.”

He smiled at that. “You’ll enjoy it even more when I make you come a second time.”

“You won’t make—”

He moved his hand between her legs and fingered her gently but thoroughly, loving the sound she made, because it was so similar to the ones she’d uttered just before climaxing that first time.

“I will,” he told her with utter confidence.

And he proceeded to do just that.

More than once.

W
HEN
L
ILA AWOKE
,
the room was bathed in the pewter light of very early dawn. She lay on her belly half atop Joel, who lay on his back beside her, her hand opened over the center of his chest so that she felt the slow, easy thump of his heartbeat beneath her palm. The arms he’d wrapped around her before the two of them fell asleep still embraced her, and his head was turned toward hers. Her left arm was draped over his hard torso, her left leg was nestled between both of his, and she marveled that, even in sleep, he was fully erect. She smiled. That boded well for later.

She opened her hand wider, loving the feel of his dark hair against her palm and his warm flesh beneath her fingertips, and wondered why it felt so good to wake up like this. This was new to her, this postcoital touching. Normally, once Lila came, she went. Orgasms were great, but she hadn’t been lying to Joel when she’d told him she normally never had more than one. And usually one was enough to tide her over until the next one. Usually, after experiencing that physical release, she wanted nothing more from a man for a while. But even though she’d touched and tasted every inch of Joel during the night, she still wanted to be with him. Still wanted to explore him. Still wanted to marvel at all the ways their bodies fit together.

She just wanted to keep looking at him. Touching him. Being with him. She had no idea why.

He began to stir, as if even her one soft touch had been enough to rouse him. When he opened his eyes and saw her gazing at him, he smiled, a delicious, toe-curling smile that made her think everything in the world was just about perfect. And although Lila knew better than most people that the world was a far from perfect place, something about Joel just then made her feel as if perfection was still possible. And, if she was lucky, only moments away.

“Good morning,” he murmured in a satisfied voice that made a ripple of pleasure curl through her.

“Good morning,” she replied in much the same way.

He lifted a hand to her hair, pushing it lightly over her shoulder. Then he traced his finger along her collarbone, dipped it into the divot at the base of her throat, skimmed it along the line of her jaw. Gentle, tender touches, every one. But every one set a fire wherever his skin made contact with hers.

There hadn’t been much gentleness or tenderness in Lila’s life, and she still wasn’t sure how to react to it. As a child, she had yearned for it, but as an adult, she’d been philosophical. Adults outgrew the need for gentleness and tenderness, she’d always told herself. Gentleness and tenderness made adults vulnerable. Made them weak. In her line of work, gentleness and tenderness could even get a person killed. She wasn’t a gentle, tender person, and she hadn’t thought a man with such traits could be attractive.

But Joel was both, and he more than attracted her. She just couldn’t quite get a handle on exactly what it was he made her feel. Other than, at the moment at least, incredibly aroused.

“We should probably try to get some work done today,” he said—gently, tenderly—as he pushed his hand into her hair and sifted the dark tresses over his fingers.

“We should,” she agreed as she skimmed her hand along his chest and over his neck.

“We got a little sidetracked before we could finish sharing the details of our respective discoveries yesterday,” he added. He brushed his fingertips over her cheekbone, then along her lower lip.

“Yeah, we did,” she agreed before lightly nipping the pad of his thumb as it went by.

He smiled. “We should get right to it, then,” he told her. He dropped his hand to her breast, drawing his thumb slowly along the lower curve.

“We should,” she concurred, pushing her hand down the length of his torso.

She kissed him then, rolling her tongue into his mouth, only to have him meet her halfway with his. As they kissed, they continued to caress and stroke each other.

They were lying side by side again, clinging to each other, gasping for breath, groping for coherent thought.

But the thoughts that bubbled to the top of Lila’s head were anything but coherent. In fact, they were ridiculous. Because they all seemed to involve her and Joel together as a unit, and in ways that had nothing to do with the assignment they were supposed to be completing. Like coordinating, not covert operations, but grocery lists. And instead of the two of them trying to figure out how to take out the bad guys, she saw them trying to figure out whose turn it was to take out the garbage. In place of deciphering secret codes, they were programming their new TiVo. Even when she pictured them in bed together, it wasn’t to see them panting with hunger, but sipping coffee and sharing the Sunday paper.

Harmless scenes, not hazardous ones. Domestic bliss, not dangerous liaisons. Lives of absolute contentment, not desperate achievement. Of serenity, not ferocity. Lives plural, she marveled further, not life singular. The realization of the direction in which her thoughts had traveled stunned Lila to the point where she could only lie on her back and gaze at the ceiling and wonder who had placed a pod from outer space by her bed while she was sleeping. Because an invasion by body snatchers was the only explanation that made any sense. Never in her life had Lila Moreau entertained ideas of sharing that life with anyone, never mind in ways that involved grocery lists and Sunday papers. Unless it was to be relieved that her life included none of that crap.

But it wasn’t relief she felt now. It was…something else. Something she dared not try to identify.

“What are you thinking about?”

It was the last question Lila wanted to hear anyone ask at the moment. That it was Joel asking only made her feel that much more…

Oh, God. Terrified, she realized. She only recognized the emotion now because she had felt it so often as a child. It had been decades since she’d been frightened of anything. But now she was terrified by a question of less than a dozen words. She, Lila Moreau, the most ruthless, most fearless, most dangerous woman in the world, had been brought down by five simple words.

Then she realized it wasn’t the question that had her so scared. It was the answer.

So she lied when she told him, “I’m thinking that as nice as this is, it’s not what we should be doing right now.”

She glanced over at Joel in time to see what had been a radiant smile go dark. And she fought the urge to say something—anything—that might bring it back again. Instead, she told him, “We have an assignment we need to complete. ASAP.”

He nodded without much enthusiasm. And she told herself she was only imagining the sarcasm in his voice when he said, “Right. I keep forgetting you’re working on a schedule here because you have to be at a wedding in six days to stand up as best man for your former partner.”

Actually, that hadn’t been why Lila was thinking they needed to finish up as soon as possible. In fact, she wasn’t even thinking they needed to hurry in order to save the world. No, it was only her sanity she was worried about saving at the moment. They needed to bring in Sorcerer quickly so she could stop being plagued by thoughts like the ones that had invaded her brain this morning.

Only after Adrian Padgett was in OPUS’s custody would her connection to Joel Faraday be severed. And only after her connection to Joel was severed would she stop thinking about things like grocery lists and appliances and coffee in bed. Only then would she stop entertaining ridiculous ideas like how nice it would be to stay with him after the assignment came to a close. Like, for instance, forever. Only then could she go back to feeling like herself again. Like the ruthless, fearless, dangerous—
solitary,
dammit—woman she was. The woman she liked, dammit. The woman she wanted to be, dammit. The woman who was perfectly happy alone, dammit. The woman who didn’t need anybody.