Burned Hearts (22 page)

I set my glass on the mantel. Did the same with Dane's. Then stretched on tiptoe to kiss him. A cautious gesture, to further gauge his mood. Whether I might be able to sway him from his angst. When I pulled away, he smirked. The sexy, bad-boy one that made my insides sizzle.

“Really?” he challenged as he crooked a brow. “
Now
you play it safe?”

“Just testing the waters. You can be very intimidating when you want to be. Which is like all the time.”

A heartbeat later he swept me into his arms and marched off to the bedroom.

Amsel wasn't in his bassinet, so I figured Rosa had him nestled somewhere close to where she worked. Her current vice was sewing clothes for the baby. Given her creativity and skill set, I was on the verge of offering to help her financially launch her own clothing line, if that was what she wanted. I didn't even bother shopping for Amsel, because he had several new outfits every week, thanks to Rosa.

Dane kicked the door shut behind us. He set me on my feet and then swiftly pinned me against the wall, his hard body pressed to mine. Gripping my wrists, he raised them above my head. His eyes blazed with heat, residual rage, and need. The heady combination made my blood sing, my body tremble.

“Understand that I can't live without you.” His green irises were piercing, hypnotic.

“I can't live without
you
.”

“We can't take any more chances. If you're burning to help in some way, talk to me.”

“The only thing I'm burning for right now is you.”

His mouth crashed over mine, claiming me in a possessive kiss.

He held me captive with one large hand around my wrists while he palmed my breast, squeezed roughly, exciting me even more. Then he worked the buttons on my lightweight sweater and hastily brushed the material aside. His warm fingers blazed a trail down my stomach to the button fly of my Levi's. He ripped open the flap and shoved a hand inside my panties.

I was already ridiculously wet for him. From the moment he'd pinned me to the wall.
Oh, hell
. Long before that.

All of the passion and ire radiating from him was a huge turn-on.

Maybe I was too much of a ragged-edge girl after all. I couldn't seem to help it, and knowing how worked up Dane was only made me hotter for him.

His fingers glided over my dewy folds, stroking wickedly. His tongue twisted with mine in a searing kiss. With his brick wall of a chest against my breasts I was virtually immobile, and that heightened my arousal.

I was his. I belonged solely to him. He owned me. Every inch of me, inside and out, to the depths of my soul.

I spread my legs wider and he plunged two fingers into my pussy, the sizzing, erotic invasion ripping through me. I broke the kiss and gasped for air. He stroked faster, with skill and determination. The heel of his hand rubbed my swollen clit.

“Oh, fuck.” It'd been so, so long since we'd been this caught up in each other, this intimate.

I knew I was going to come quickly. And I was going to come hard.

His mouth skimmed along my neck. He bit me, suckled the skin, swept his tongue over it.

My fingers curled into my palms, my nails digging as the urge to claw at him seized me. I was restless and squirming slightly against him, as much as I could. His erection pressed to my hip and it made me even wilder, knowing how hard he was for me.

His fingers pumped and I could have screamed from the ecstasy building fervently. But the sound lodged in my throat along with a lusty moan.

“I need to feel you, Ari,” he said in a strained voice. “I need to feel you lose it for me.”

“So close,” I muttered harshly. “Dane, you're making me crazy.”

He found that magical spot deep within me and massaged with just the right tempo, just the right pressure. Swiftly, heartily. Until an intense thrumming took hold of me, an incessant, demanding beat.

“Oh, God,” I rasped. My body writhed, my pulse raged, my heart hammered. “Yes, oh, God, yes. Right there. Don't stop. Oh, fuck.
Right. There.
Dane!”

I erupted, every inch of me going up in flames, quaking from the powerful release.

“Damn it, Ari. Baby.”

Ah.
There was the coveted term of endearment. Dane had forgiven me for going against his wishes.

He continued caressing that perfect spot while I soared. He said, “I love it when you come undone for me.”

“So fast,” I semi-lamented. I didn't mind how rapidly he got me going. It was just a little embarrassing that I lost myself so easily.

“You're fantastic.” His lips slid over mine. A whisper of a kiss. “And I'm just getting started.”

Elation trilled down my spine.

My gaze narrowed on him. “You're not planning on making love to me, soft and sweet, are you?”

Mischief glimmered in his emerald eyes. “No.”

I let out a delirious sigh as the tingles ran rampant. “Feel free to make me pay for disobeying you.”

“Oh, I will.” He released me but scooped me into his arms again. He strutted across the room and tossed me not so gently onto the bed.

Excitement shot through me.

I went up on my knees and reached for his tie, unraveling it. Then I freed the buttons on his shirt from their small holes and ran my fingers over his hot skin. His sculpted muscles flexed beneath my touch. Leaning forward, I kissed his chest, flicked my tongue over a small nipple. He let out a low, sexy sound.

His fingers tangled in my hair, loose about my shoulders and cascading down my back. My lips trailed over his pecs, then along the valley in between, to his cut abs. The beauty of him never ceased to astound me. To arouse me.

Dane's edgy perfection had drawn me in from the very beginning. Touching him and tasting him hitched my excitement. I inhaled his enticing, stimulating scent, so dark and virile.

As I made my way back up to his collarbone, his neck, his strong jaw, I asked, “How long do we have?”

“However long you want,” he told me in his desire-roughened voice.

“That'd be forever.”

“Then forever it is.”

I stared quizzically at him.

He gave me a shadow of a grin, though it was mostly a scorching look. “I provided depositions. Juries are deliberating. The FBI wants me to stay under their surveillance, but there's no reason to remain in their safe houses when I can be here. We have state-of-the-art security, FBI agents along the perimeter. And with Vale dead and Horton soon to be on his way to prison, I don't see a problem with being here. I'd
rather
be here.”

“I'd rather you be here, too.” I kissed him, our lips slowly tangling. Then my tongue slipped inside to sweep over his. A groan escaped him.

I got a bit more aggressive, wrapping one arm around his waist, my palm flattening against the rippling muscles of his back. I raised my other hand and threaded my fingers through his hair.

He didn't let me keep the lead for long, of course. He toppled me until I was flat on the mattress, him partially on top of me. His tongue delved deep into my mouth and he turned our kiss into a smoldering, soul-stirring one. I simply gave myself over to it—to him.

When restlessness set in, I shoved his shirt over his broad shoulders and down his arms, tossing the material aside. He divested me of my sweater, reached around to unfasten my bra, then palmed my breast again, caressing firmly. My spine arched as I pressed against him, loving the feel of his skin, his hunky body.

His thumb whisked over my taut nipple, back and forth, tightening the small bud. His kiss went on and on, until I'd all but forgotten my own name, where I was, what our argument had been about earlier. I had a feeling I was in for angry sex, and that was perfectly fine by me.

Dane's head dipped to my breast and he curled his tongue around my nipple. Then the tip flitted against the pebbled peak, making the sensitive flesh tingle.

“Dane,” I urged, “I need you inside me.”

“Not yet. I have a little lesson to teach you.”

A shiver of delight ran through me. He was good at his “lessons.”

Still, I taunted him. “You haven't made love to me since Amsel was born. Don't you want me?”

He harrumphed. “That's not even worthy of a response.”

“Don't make me beg.”

“Oh, but I like it when you beg. And you will.”

He scooted off the mattress and removed the rest of my clothes. I lay sprawled diagonally, the thick duvet beneath me.

Dane pulled the long silver satin sash from my robe, draped along the bench at the foot of the bed, and rounded the corner. The headboard was a low ledge with polished wood on top and the rest covered in tufted distressed brown leather that matched some of the oversized chairs scattered about and the sofa in front of the fireplace.

He crouched down and, I presumed, wrapped part of the sash around the leg of the bed frame to secure it. Then he eyed me seductively and said, “Arms above your head.”

A tickle along my clit made me press my legs together. He'd tied me up before. On more than one steamy, erotically tormenting occasion. It was always a challenge to keep my cool when I desperately wanted to touch him. But what he did to me took a backseat to the desire to have my hands all over his body.

So I gave him what he wanted—knowing he'd give
me
exactly what I needed. All of him.

He bound my wrists as I wondered what creative tactic he had up his sleeve. Dane was capable of going to great lengths to pleasure me until I reached the breaking point. Was an expert at it, in fact.

I loved his bedroom antics and, given the tension still exuding from him, I had no delusions he intended to teach me a thing or two about defying him when it put me in the line of fire.

Sure enough, he snatched the silk tie I'd heaped on the floor with his shirt and then placed it over my eyes like a blindfold, securing the ends.

I bit back a grin of anticipation. Clamped my teeth down on my lower lip to keep from blurting out how insanely turned on I already was.

This was his game, and I let him play it.

Until I heard the ice cubes plopping into a glass.

“Hey,” I protested. “You restrained me and then went for a cocktail?”

“It's well deserved,” came his confident tone. “The punishment and the cocktail.”

“The only point you're making is that you can resist me.” I added a little pout, for good measure.

With a low, sexy chuckle, Dane said, “Trust me, baby. Resisting you is impossible. That doesn't mean, however, that I can't make you burn a bit brighter for me.”

I heard him circle the bed, then felt the mattress dip at my hip. His heat enveloped me as he leaned in close and brushed his lips over mine, giving me a taste of glorious him and his expensive scotch.

“You are such a tease,” I playfully complained.

“You can't imagine how damn gorgeous you look, naked and tied to my bed.”

“I thought it was our bed.”

“I'm being territorial at the moment.”

“You're territorial
every
moment.”

“Do you intend to make me drag out the suspense?”

I sighed. I desperately craved him, wanted him more than I wanted my next breath. “For God's sake, touch me.”

He laughed softly again. The rich, sensual sound seeped through my veins, turning my blood molten.

“For the record,” he told me, “it's difficult to just observe. Trust me when I say, you're pushing all of my buttons.”

“Yet another reason for you to get on with this.”

“Hmm. So eager. But I am enjoying the show. The way you're twisting and twining that luscious body of yours.” His tone dropped a notch. “And those tempting breasts…”

I literally felt his heated gaze on me and the moisture pooled between my legs. “Dane, you're not playing fair.” I couldn't see him, after all. Couldn't watch him watch me. Couldn't touch him. “You're making me crazy,” I repeated.

“Then I'm better at teaching you a lesson than I thought.”

“I get it. You went nuts over something happening to me. Now
I'm
going nuts over
nothing
happening to me!”

“Nothing?”

I could envision his quirked brow. With a moan, I said, “Okay, plenty of things are happening to me right now. Most notably, my insides are blazing and my pussy is throbbing with a very demanding need for you.”

“Know that I want you just as much. In the meantime…” He seemed to settle more comfortably alongside me, without really touching me. Though I sensed his presence, smelled him. Wanted him more and more with every second that ticked by.

“Dane.”

“Shh.” His warm breath blew over my skin.

Every tantalizing moment that passed had me antsier, held me more spellbound. He was a master at making me forget everything else but him. I was fortunate in that I had a houseful of self-sufficient people who all vied for baby time. I didn't have to worry about Amsel, knowing he was in excellent hands. I could drown in the bliss Dane created in our private slice of heaven.

He said, “I've waited an extremely long time to just enjoy you again, without looking over my shoulder. Without worrying who was betraying me or how it might impact us.”

“Agreed,” I said, slightly breathless. “That would make me think you were more inclined to have your way with me.”

“Oh, I intend to have my way with you,” he assured me in a dark, rousing tone. I only wished I could see his eyes, because I loved the intensity that glowed in them.

While I wrested against restraints and the overwhelming need for him, I felt him shift once more. Heard him sip from his glass. The cubes jingled.

Then … nothing but silence.

I caught my lip again. Held on to my breath. Was bathed in suspense long enough that every fiber of my being cried out for him.