Executive Protection(68)

If he could get her out of his system, this would be the way. She grunted with the repeated impacts and put one hand on the sectional for balance.

Changing his angle just a bit, he continued the driving pace. He couldn’t quiet her cries this time. She came with a sound that echoed in the room. A few more thrusts and an unending wave of pleasure engulfed him.

* * *

Lucy lay awake long after that bronco ride on the living-room ottoman. His hard pounding had sent her through the roof with a million rockets shooting off, but what had that been all about? Luckily, Sophie hadn’t woken. The urgency with which he’d made love to her could have been due to his current certainty that he would never be able to be with her unconditionally. Well, if there was one goal she had this weekend, it was to teach him that love didn’t end. After he left this beach house, he’d never be able to forget her.

That was the theory, anyway.

He lay beside her asleep. They were in his room now, farther away from Sophie’s but close enough in case she needed them. She curled against him. It was still snowing outside. They’d be stranded for at least another day. While Sophie was engrossed in all her new presents, she planned on sneaking Thad into dark nooks and crannies of the house for quick reminders of how good it was between with them.

More and more, Lucy was convinced they had the makings of a lasting love, the kind Thad didn’t believe in. Yet.

Pulling the covers all the way off him, she climbed onto him. He stirred, beginning to wake. This was how she wanted him, unsuspecting, waking slowly to her loving.

When his eyes fluttered open, she leaned over and kissed him softly.

He moaned and his hand came up, fingers sinking into her hair. He held her to his mouth, falling into the slowness just the way she planned.

Lucy didn’t hold back. She kissed and touched to convey the way she felt. Unvarnished, unguarded. Genuine. She truly felt there was something real going on between them. Why didn’t, or wouldn’t, he accept that? She didn’t know. But she did know that if her opening to him didn’t reach him, nothing would.

She kissed him all over his body, slowly gliding her hands as she went. His neck, his chest, his stomach. She trailed her tongue up and down his hardness. When she finished, she stretched on top of him. His hands went to her back, her breasts mashed to his chest. Looking into his eyes, letting him see all, she kissed him purposefully.

When he could take no more, he rolled her onto her back.

She let him part her legs and push into her. When he stayed deep inside her without moving, she inwardly cheered. Taking her lead, he spent time kissing and touching her. Beginning with her mouth, he traveled downward, treating her to the same pleasure. Endless moments of sensation tickled her, full of meaning, more than they’d shared so far. She could feel it. He slid back and forth a few times, gentle and slow, and then slid completely out of her to kiss the lower regions of her body.

Back up to her mouth, he pushed into her with more force. When he began thrusting harder, she stopped him.

“I want it slow,” she murmured.

A low groan rumbled from inside him, but he slowed his pace. Taking her hands in his, he gripped her and pinned her to the mattress while he moved with excruciating slowness. He watched their joining and then looked into her eyes.

Intense pleasure built up, circling in her groin and spreading. He thrust hard once and withdrew, thrust again.

It was too incredible to slow him down. She tried to stifle a cry, turning her head and shutting her eyes to the intense feeling.

Thad rammed into her without mercy. “Lucy,” he groaned. “I...can’t...”

“Do it.” All that mattered was his hardness in her. “Do it.”

With a low growl, he rose up onto his hands and let loose, pounding her hard and deep. Lifting her legs, she opened her knees, held them with her hands to keep them wide so that she could take all he had to give. From there it was a matter of seconds and the world flew away.

Lying flat with him collapsed on top of her, both of them recovering, she realized what had just happened.

“Damn it,” she complained. “I wanted it slow.”

He chuckled low and intimate into her ear. “No, you didn’t.”

She smiled with wicked appeal. Thad hadn’t actively tried to purge her. They just couldn’t get enough of each other.

Unconditional, Lucy reminded herself. After this weekend, he could not place any conditions on their relationship. In that, she could not compromise.





Chapter 17


All the way to Kate’s estate, Thad withdrew more and more. Lucy watched it like a flower closing at the end of a hot day. Servants helped them unload the Jeep. Inside, Sophie ran to her room, excited about having two dollhouses to play with. She’d be busy for hours.

“There you are.” Kate glided into the entry with a big smile and clever, observant eyes. She hugged Thad, leaning back for a close look, and then Lucy. “Well? How’d it go?”

“Great,” she said.

“Sophie enjoyed it,” Thad added.

“What about the two of you?” Kate hadn’t missed how stiff they both sounded.

“The storm kept us in the house for a couple of days, but we managed,” Lucy said when Thad’s brow lowered as he looked at his mother.

“Hey, you’re back,” Darcy interrupted at just the right moment. He greeted Thad and Lucy, and then to Thad said, “I need to talk to you.”