His mouth moved over hers with shameless purpose, his tongue stroking hot and deep, over and over, until the tension in her body eased and he felt her melt against him. Letting her shoes drop back to the floor, she entwined her arms around his neck and kissed him back with equal heat and passion.
Triumph was very sweet, indeed.
Grinning, he lifted his mouth inches from hers, just enough to taunt and tease, and she whimpered in protest. He chuckled huskily, knowing he almost had her exactly where he wanted her. “Are you sure you still want to go?” he whispered against her parted lips.
Her answer was to hook one of her slender legs around his hip, so his shaft rubbed against the damp silk lining her panties. “You so don’t play fair.”
He’d take that as a yes. “No, I don’t play fair,” he agreed as he guided her a few steps backward, toward the bed. “Not when it comes to getting what I want, and in this case that would be you . Again. And this time, I want to be on top and in charge.”
She laughed, the sound so sexy it made him ache to get back inside her. “You can certainly try,” she said, all sass and brazen challenge.
With a playful growl, he tumbled her back onto the mattress. Before she could scramble away or switch their positions, he moved over her, holding her down with the weight of his body as he proceeded to show her who, exactly, held all the sexual power this time around. After a while she gave in and let him have his way with her, multiple times-at his leisure and in his own good time, which drove her wild in the process.
He liked that. A whole lot.
Being with a woman had never been so hot, so fun, and so satisfying. He couldn’t seem to get enough of Nicole, though he did his best to sate his hunger for her throughout the night, until he’d wrung every last bit of pleasure from their bodies and they finally collapsed into sexual exhaustion.
Nicole couldn’t stay. Oh, she was certainly tempted to indulge in a sleepover with Nathan. To wake up all warm and snuggled next to him and enjoy lazy morning sex with a man who knew his way around a woman’s body and had awakened all those erogenous zones that had been dormant for way too long. A part of her definitely wanted to have breakfast with him, possibly even spend the day together getting to know him better, and therein lay the problem for her.
Tonight was supposed to be all about a dark, gorgeous stranger, a few hot orgasms-a one-night stand meant to slake those carnal needs that had built over the past six months of celibacy. Nathan had done the job admirably and generously. Except between the shared laughter, the playful teasing, the intimate conversations and lustful groans, he’d become more than a sexual object for the sole purpose of giving her pleasure. He’d become real to her-a man with an honorable past as a marine, the younger brother to three older sisters, and a man who embraced his job as a surveillance supervisor.
There was nothing awkward about being with him, nothing to make walking away from him simple or easy. Because somewhere along the way he’d gone from being her temporary fantasy guy to the kind of man she knew she could fall for, given the chance.
And that knowledge scared the hell out of her.
Instinctively she knew spending more than this one night with him would be detrimental to her emotions, and quite possibly her heart. That warm fluttering in her belly when she glanced at him, combined with a deeper yearning for something more, was a complication and distraction she didn’t want or need in her life. For her, it was all about self-preservation, because Nathan had the ability to mess with her head and her goals as a journalist, and she wasn’t about to get sucked back into a situation that consumed her to the detriment of everything else that was important to her.
That’s why she was getting out while the getting was still good, while she could think straight and make the decision without her mind being fogged with the afterglow of phenomenal sex. And right now was the perfect opportunity to make her getaway, since she still had the advantage of being cloaked in anonymity. She hadn’t given Nathan any personal information for a reason. She hadn’t checked his name on the dating scorecard as a match, and that, at least, would help her make a clean break with him.
Wanting to avoid any morning-after awkwardness, she knew she had to slip out in the dark of night while he was sleeping. Quietly and carefully, she edged off the bed. She stepped into her underwear, picked up her shoes from the floor, and gave him one last look to tuck away for future dreams and fantasies.
He was snoring softly, the endearing sound making her smile. The sheet was tangled around his waist, and she memorized what she could see of his hard, muscular body, the stubble on his jaw, and the roguishly long hair that had felt like silk between her fingers. Undoubtedly, he was a gorgeous, masculine work of art she was going to miss more than she cared to admit.
Swallowing the regrets rising within her before they threatened to overwhelm her, she tiptoed out of the bedroom and made her way down the hall to the living room. She was grateful the lamp next to the couch was still on, which kept her fumbling-around to a minimum. Finding her dress in a heap on the floor, she quickly put it on, then made her way to the table in the foyer where she’d left her purse.
She absolutely hated leaving like a thief in the night, without a good-bye or an explanation, and that thought had her reaching into her handbag for a pen and the small notepad she kept with her. Tearing off a clean sheet of paper, she wrote, Nathan, thank you for an amazing night. I had a great time. Nicole. Then she placed the note beneath his car keys, where he was certain to see it at some point tomorrow.
She grabbed the strap of her purse, but just as she turned away, the bottom of the bag brushed across a file folder on the edge of the table and knocked it to the floor. The contents spilled out, and she whispered a curse beneath her breath at her clumsiness as she knelt down to retrieve the papers and photographs now strewn across the ground.
She picked up a picture of a pretty, young blond girl and what appeared to be an investigative report. At first, she gave the summary an indifferent glance, but a familiar name caught her attention and made her pause and take a second, more careful look.
Preston Sloane .
She knew she ought to stuff the items back into the folder without another glance, but as a journalist she had a curiosity streak a mile wide. What she’d discovered made her question Nathan’s connection to a man surrounded by controversy when it came to his private life.
Unable to ignore what she’d inadvertently found, her reporter instincts kicked in, overriding the twinge of guilt pricking her conscience. She didn’t have time to sit there and read through all the notes and reports at her leisure without the risk of him catching her, so she did the next best thing. Pushing aside the little voice in her head telling her she was straddling a fine ethical line, she pulled her BlackBerry from her purse and took close-up pictures of the contents of the file to peruse later. Within minutes she had everything back in its place and was quietly slipping out the front door.
On the drive home, she mulled over what she’d discovered, her mind spinning with her own thoughts on Preston Sloane. Once she arrived at her apartment, she headed straight for her bedroom, closed the door, and began uploading the pictures she’d taken to her laptop. She changed into her favorite pair of short PJs, crawled into bed, and began reading the information she’d copied from Nathan’s file.