Cut and Run(15)

Her breath caught in her throat as her belly tightened. This was what she’d been craving since she’d last seen him four days ago. She wiggled the slacks over her hips and let them fall to her ankles. She stepped out of them and hung them and her blouse next to his clothes in the closet. Knowing he was watching, she slipped off her lace bra, panties, and lace-trimmed thigh highs. When she turned, he was no longer by the bed but standing inches from her. He still wore his khakis, but he’d stripped off his shirt.

Again, she didn’t hurry. Let the anticipation build. Let the wanting grow so sharp that it cut away everything in her life.

He glided his hands along her waist, but instead of pulling her toward him, he turned her toward the mirrored closet door.

This was also how it went with them. Neither wanted to look into the other’s eyes. She didn’t want to see him as a person. And she guessed he was pretending she was the woman he still loved. His hand slid over her buttocks and squeezed hard enough to make her try to squirm away.

He reached around and cupped her mound, rubbing it until she was wet. When she began to wriggle, he drove his fingers between the folds. She sucked in a breath, not raising her eyes to his because she didn’t want to see him. She only wanted to feel.

His zipper opened, she heard the rip of foil, and he fumbled only for a moment before he pressed the tip of his erection against her bare skin. She flattened her hands against the mirror and arched toward him. He spread her legs and pushed into her with one hard thrust so abruptly her breath caught in her throat.

He hesitated, allowing her body to adjust to him. Again, no kisses. No words. Just patience for her body to fully open. When the tightening eased, he moved inside her slowly as his fingers pressed against her now very moist center.

He’d learned very quickly which buttons it took to set her on fire, and he was pressing them all. A moan escaped her lips as he shoved into her harder with a fevered thrust she’d not experienced with him before. The tight control he always maintained had slipped, and she could feel a creature inside of him stirring.

He pushed into her faster, and she found herself racing toward the edge of an abyss that she so desperately wanted to tumble into. With him inside her, the world faded, and she could simply surrender to sensation.

A groan rumbled in his chest, and for the first time she opened her eyes. He was staring at her with a mixture of pleasure and pain.

She pushed his hand away and pressed her fingers to her clitoris. He gripped both her hips with his hands, and he thrust as she drew tighter and tighter circles around her core.

And then a fuse lit, caught fire, and the explosion propelled her over the edge into the void. Her eyes closed, she arched back, and he thrust into her one last time before his body stiffened and the muscles in his neck flexed.

Both stood still, breathless and savoring the last remnants of the climax. He smoothed his hand over her belly in a possessive, almost regretful way, as he slowly pulled out of her and stepped back.

He vanished into the bathroom, and as he discarded his condom, she reached for her panties and bra. She shimmied into both and sat on the edge of the bed as she pulled her thigh highs on. He came out of the bathroom and shrugged on his shirt. She stepped into her pants and tucked in her blouse. Without a word she turned away from him, and he zipped them up. She worked the left and then right shoes on, and then tipping her head and jostling her hair back, she put her earrings back on.

He was buttoning his shirt, but she could again feel him watching.

She picked up her purse, caught the rigid set of his jaw. “Keep me posted on the Ledbetter case. And be safe, Captain.”

“Will do.”

As she moved past him, he caught her arm and held her. She watched, uncertain. And then he leaned in and for the first time, kissed her on the lips. It was still hungry, but there was also something deeper entwined with the desire.

When he pulled back, she moistened her lips. “A kiss? Are we going steady, Captain?”

“There’s nothing steady about us.”

“Thankfully, no.”

He released her arm. “Why’d you say yes to me the first time?”

“I don’t know.” She’d been very self-conscious that first time he’d entered her, and he must have sensed it had been a while.

Now without another word, she left the hotel room, the door shutting behind her as she made her way to the elevator. Wanting and loneliness trailed behind her, and she quickened her pace, knowing sooner or later they’d catch up to her.



In his car outside the Driskill Hotel, he tugged at the cuffs of his custom-made shirt, pleased that he’d blended so well with the city’s finest in their swanky hotel. There was a time when he would never have made it past the front door. The bellman would have taken one look at his ripped jeans and dirty hands and called the cops. But those days, he kept reminding himself, were long gone. Not only would he never go back, but he would do whatever it took to keep them as far away from him as possible.

He’d have followed Faith if not for the Texas Ranger who’d caught the elevator just as its doors were closing. He had seen the Ranger arrive earlier and noted the two had exchanged a few words, but then they had appeared to go their separate ways. Until the elevators.

So Faith and the Ranger had a thing. Interesting. No one else had seemed to notice them. Attention to detail was what had gotten him off the streets and earned him a reputation as one of the best to call when a problem needed to be discreetly taken care of. Granted, this latest list of names was going to be a challenge, but that’s why he got paid the big bucks.