He swallowed against the remorse congesting his windpipe. “Avi…”
“No more talk. I have a better use for your mouth.”
There was no way in hell his sweet girl just said that. It was so dirty. Profane. Fucking fantastic. She made it even better by dragging her nipple in a teasing glide over his lips. Groaning, he captured it between his teeth and flicked it with his tongue. She tasted of sunshine and her own sex. Ravenous for her, he suctioned his mouth over the whole of her nipple and drew on the turgid nub with strong pulls of his tongue. Her fingers raked over his scalp, creating a magnificent sting that he felt all the way to his testicles. The unrelenting feather dance along his cock spurred him to new heights. No way in hell he’d last much longer, but he wouldn’t come without her.
He treated her nipples to the same lush devotion he would her clit. There were some women who could climax this way, and he aimed to discover if Avi was one. He could have cheated and used his sex magic, but that felt as much an affront to his skills as using it to pick a lock. Flattening his tongue, he licked a slow lap around her puckered areola before once again worshipping her nipple with a deep, sensuous suckle. Her breath snared in her throat, and her hand drifted to his nape, fingers trembling. The feather fluttered on his cockhead the same instant she surged against him, shaking uncontrollably. With his mouth full of her soft breast, he pitched into a dazzling free fall of ecstasy with her. Her hand replaced the feather, squeezing jets of slippery come from him. He could only imagine the mess he was making of their bellies.
Grunting over that indisputable truth, he continued licking and kissing her nipples for as long as she’d allow him. He still grumbled in protest when she extracted herself from his mouth. A moment later she ran a cloth along his stomach, gently cleaning him of his sexual excess. The magnitude of what they’d done settled over him like a horsehair blanket, leaving him at a loss for words. And an abundance of uncertainties over what the hell to do next. They’d crossed a hazardous line in their partnership. There was no fooling himself that this had merely been training for their cover. Their lusty sex play was no fucking act. He knew it, and he had a bad feeling Avi did too.
She freed him of the wrist restraints, and he shoved the blindfold from his eyes. He drank in her naked form, unable to tear his gaze from her smooth, pale skin and rosy nipples. Breasts that still bore the visible burn from his beard bristles. At least she’d wiped his seed from her. Witnessing his come marking her likely would have resulted in him bending her over the bench and sealing his claim with a proper fucking.
She offered him a tremulous smile. “So, do I get the job?”
This is going to backfire on you. Despite knowing that with every fiber of his being, he gave a resigned nod. “But no more training.”
He wouldn’t fucking survive it.
Chapter Thirteen
Hammond had done all of the tedious work prior to Jerrick’s arrival, which meant minimal time twiddling his thumbs while Hammond input the phony aliases into Tul’dea’s central mainframe.
A grunt fell from Hammond. “You must be running low on aliases to resort to the name Bill.”
“It’s short for Billiam.”
“Billiam? Shit, that’s even dopier.”
Jerrick stacked his arms over his chest and glared at his contact. “Funny, I don’t remember paying for your opinion.”
“You’re a crankier bastard than usual today. Which makes no sense if you ask me. Anyone who gets to be the boy toy of Mistress Scarlett should be the happiest son of a bitch on the planet.” There was no mistaking the ripe humor underscoring Hammond’s dry pronouncement.
“Trust me, I’m smiling inside.” Until he remembered the erotic interlude he and Avi had shared at Lover’s Knot the night before. A memory that’d refused to grant his mind a moment’s rest the last twelve-plus hours.
“I would be too.” Hammond enlarged Avily’s photo ID and gave an appreciative whistle. “In fact, I’d gladly beg for a good spanking if she was the one delivering it.”
You and me both. And therein lay the problem. This was only a cover. Granted, one he and Avi had to make damn believable. And so far, they were doing a bang-up job of it. Yesterday, touching the woman who owned his every waking thought and desire, coming with her…he’d acknowledged the disturbing truth. He hungered for their relationship to be real. Everything within him desperately clung to the fantasy that she was his, that he could hold her, love her, until the last breath escaped his body.
He was literally handing all control over to Avi. If she stripped him of his defenses, his willpower, then what? He’d have nothing to fight his overwhelming need for her.
“You planning to sit here staring vacantly at me all day?”
Jerrick snapped from his stressful thoughts and blinked at Hammond. “What?”
“I know my looks are hypnotizing, but I’m already spoken for.”
Jerrick grunted. “She must have the patience of a saint.”
“No more so than me, waiting for you to deliver that damn promised Ginnish.”
“It’s in the mail.”
“Yeah, yeah. Get your charming ass outta here.”
Heeding Hammond’s surly demand, Jerrick collected his paperwork and saluted a goodbye before heading for the exit. He checked the time on his com. Less than twenty minutes before he was due to meet Avi for lunch. He’d talked her into the convenient, neutral location of the Twisted Thorn.
Realistically, any place that didn’t come with the tempting accompaniment of a nice soft bed was win-win in his book. He just prayed he’d be able to sit next to her without dwelling on the sinful taste of her pussy-flavored nipples.
Yeah, like that was going to fucking happen.
Miracle of miracles, he found an available parking spot in the restaurant’s lot. As he hit the locks, his gaze automatically drifted to the shady corner where his captors had sent him to his knees with the electrolizer gun. In his quest to gain entrance to Rapture, he’d momentarily put his determination to bring a world of hurt down on those motherfuckers’ heads on the backburner. But he would make them pay. Not for what they’d done to him. For threatening Avi.
The danger he’d inadvertently placed her in was a cold reminder of why he had to keep his hands off her. Because he cared for her, he had to protect her. Even from himself.
Especially from himself.
Clutching that determination tight, he crossed the lot and entered the restaurant. He spotted Avi at the same table she’d been parked at the fateful night his world imploded. Unlike then, there was no assclown in an atrocious orange shirt to cramp his style.
He slid in next to her in the booth, using their need for privacy as an excuse to pull her close to his side and brush his lips near her ear. “Did I keep you waiting?”
“Yes. You have a nasty habit of doing that.”
He gave her a mock frown. “What the devil are you talking about? I was always punctual for every single job.”
“Only because I made sure to sync your com with mine and send you a minute-by-minute reminder.”
“Ah yes.” He nodded enthusiastically. “You were a pain in the ass when it came to that.”
She pinched his thigh. Hard. Even that gesture got his cock twitching. “Speaking of jobs, we haven’t talked about this mysterious one I’m helping you with. Don’t you think we should get around to that?”
Shit. Maybe he should have dragged her off to bed. At least it would have distracted her from this sticky topic. “I already told you I don’t have the details to give.”
“Well at least tell me if that line you fed Madam Love was total horseshit.”