Exhale (25 page)

She shook her head. She’d call Randy tomorrow and put Iri on a plane back to New Zealand. That guy really creeped her out.

And when Gavin came over later, she’d be sure to tell him about Iri, no matter how distracted she got.

Gavin. Her stomach took another tumble, and embarrassment filled her cheeks with heat. She couldn’t believe she went down on him last night. Still didn’t know how it happened. Maybe she’d been swept away by the moment.

And the sex dream afterward was incredible. But as amazing as it had been, she wanted it to be real. After experiencing Gavin’s touch on her skin and his kisses on her lips, the dreams seemed so…artificial. Like those fake sugar substitutes. Sweet, but never as good as the real thing.

Good news was, at least she’d woken up more rested than previous mornings. She’d started to worry something might be wrong with her. Maybe dream sex was a natural energy restorative.

Maybe real sex was even better.

He’d said he would come back tonight.

She left the girls and Iri to download the DTAGs they picked up today and went into her room where she stripped out of her work shorts and shirt. Stepping up to the mirror inside her closet door, she studied herself.

She poked at her breasts. Still springy, if on the small side. Lifted her chin and pushed at the barely loosening flesh around her neck. Gazed at the stretch marks covering her thighs and hips, and covered them with flattened palms. Her gut had lost some of the definition she used to have, but a few curves remained. Calves and biceps were pretty tight from working on the boat every day. Sun-spawned crows feet lined her eyes. She was already a sunscreen addict, so there wasn’t much else she could do about her skin.

She was no Scarlet.

Zoe had spent her life trying to impress people, worrying whether she was good enough. She’d failed a lot of folks, her mother especially, but not living up to her own expectations had been worse. Perhaps it was time to accept herself like she wanted everyone else to do.

She met her own eyes in the mirror’s reflection and smiled. Despite the wrinkles and the weathered skin, she wasn’t a bad looking broad.

Maybe she could make a
little
room in her life for a guy like Gavin. At least for a couple more months until she had to go home.

Zoe pulled her bathrobe off a hanger and slipped it on. She slunk to the kitchen and grabbed a quick sandwich before taking a shower. All her worries washed down the drain as she turned her thoughts to Gavin.

When the house was quiet and her phone vibrated at nine o’clock, she opened her bedroom window and leaned out to greet him. The shadows outside tamed none of him. No, they cast him as stronger and more dangerous than ever before. He was bigger. Hungrier. Predatory.

He said nothing as he crawled through the window, but his dark, flashing eyes and body stalking toward her spoke volumes.

No doubt about it. Tonight was the night.

Chapter Twenty-four

As Zoe leaned out of her window, flashing a bit of cleavage and greeting Gavin with a sexy grin, he was so glad Jack called off training to meet with members of the Librus Group.

Scarlet was probably still smarting from the dousing Gavin had given her in the Dreaming last night, so
maybe
he wouldn’t be bothered by any more unexpected dream calls.

That crazy bitch was becoming a real problem.

But only one woman was allowed under his skin tonight. He smiled back at Zoe.

As soon as his feet found the floor, Gavin took Zoe’s hand and tugged her into his arms. She smelled like the lavender he’d come to crave, and that subatomic whale song she unwittingly sang curled around his Dreamsense like the tail of a purring cat.

Her hair was damp, and she had on a thin blue satin robe, its sash tied around her trim waist. Bare feet.

God. Damn.

He took her cheeks in both hands and dragged her mouth to his. She closed her eyes and accepted his kiss.

“I almost stayed here last night when I got the call,” he said. “And not because you were giving me the best blow job I’ve ever had.”

Her combination grin and blush injected his heart with a double shot of adrenaline. She dipped her head, aura warming to a simmering red. “Why, then?” she asked.

“Couldn’t stand the thought of leaving you alone.” His finger followed the path of goose bumps along her throat up to her chin. He dropped his hand.

Her gaze cooled and cheeks lost a bit of their color. “Scarlet won’t give you peace until I’m out of the picture. She loves you.”

Gavin flinched. Man, way to kill the mood. “Scarlet doesn’t love anyone but herself.”

“Funny. She said the same thing about you.” She twined her arms across her chest.

“She was wrong.” He pressed his lips together.

A slice of blue cut through Zoe’s aura, and she snapped her gaze to his. After a long moment, she stepped to the bed and sat in a swirl of movement. “I had sex with you in my dream last night.”

He smiled. “Yeah. You did. And you owe me a set of bed linens. Or three.”

Gavin knelt on the floor before her, nudging his waist between her legs, and caught another whiff of her hair. He could almost see the heat rising from her skin.

“What for?”

“Since I started hanging out in your dreams, I’ve been changing my sheets more often than I do my socks.”

She laughed and brought the back of her hand to her mouth. Red settled into her cheeks.

“You’re even more beautiful when I make you blush.” He touched her soft hair.

Re-crossing her arms, she leveled her gaze on him, nipples poking through the satin. Though all her signals screamed, ‘Go ahead,’ her aura told a different story. The disjointed, shifting colors didn’t quite fit together. Uncertainty?

“So what’s it gonna be, Gavin Cassidy? Is your psycho ex-girlfriend going to leave us alone long enough to finish what we started last night?” The words must have been her way of coming off tough, but the quiver in her voice botched the delivery. Her aura trembled. Along with a muscle in her cheek.

He rested his elbows on her knees and stared into her eyes. “I want you, Zed. All of you. But something’s holding you back.” He folded her hands into his. “What is it?”

She loosened the sash at her waist and let the robe fall open. “Nothing. I want you too. Right now.” The flippant way she said it set off a dozen alarms in his head. Like she was prepared to fuck him just for the sake of fucking. Marking it off her To Do list or some shit.

He had to know she was all in with him because he had a feeling sex—
making love
—with Zoe Morgan would bear no similarity to the groupie boot knockings he’d performed like a well-trained monkey hundreds of times before. Spread legs, insert dick, pound for five minutes, retreat…

Fuck and run
so
wasn’t an option here.

Unmoved by the promise of what the open robe had exposed, he didn’t look past her eyes. “If I wanted a wank, I could have done that before I left home. I’m not interested if you’re not into it. Emotionally.” He broke free of her stare. “Or whatever.”

Her pursed lips quivered. Shy eyes turned downward. So this was what the real Zoe Morgan looked like. This was the diamond hiding under all the tough girl shit she fronted.

Her vulnerability stole his breath.

“Are you sure this is—
I’m
—what you want?”

He slid hands under her arse and yanked her core against the cock about to bust out of his jeans. “What do you think, Zed? Does this feel like a man who’s not interested?”

Her muscles tensed, and an eyebrow arched.

“I’m pretty sure I know what I want.” He slid his gaze down her neck to the breasts rising and falling in quick gasps, then returned his focus to her eyes.

She held her arms out. “I’m not built like a twenty-four-and-a-half-year-old anymore.”

No, she looked better. “You’re perfect. Shut up.”

“Do you have…uh…” She sucked on her bottom lip.

Caught off guard, he drew in a breath, held it a moment, then blew it out in a rush. “Ah, yeah. I always have condoms. I mean, I keep them because my mates need them. And I like for people to be careful. I’m always careful—”

Fucking hell. He ran a hand through his hair. Now wasn’t the time for an explanation. He produced a square packet from his back pocket and laid it on the bed beside her.

“Good. I’m glad we’re clear on that.” She faced the window and exhaled. Her shoulders drooped.

Her doubt was contagious. What if all of his experience amounted to nothing but a ho-hum ride for her? What if he came too fast? Or, shit, what if she didn’t come at all?

He caught Zoe’s profile. He needed her like he needed air to breathe.

Fuck it.

He tackled her to the bed. Her fingers slid slowly around his shoulders, up the back of his hair as they kissed. Eager hands shoved the satin open and found her breasts, stomach, and hips. The tightness in her muscles ebbed as he rubbed a palm over a tight nipple, up and down, back and forth. All natural, beautiful, and soft. Perfect.

Raging to get inside of her, he forced himself to take his time and enjoy her body, to explore every inch before imbibing. This was real. Not the Dreaming.

His muse was
real
.

Eyes closed, she tongued and bit his lip like she had last night. Eyelashes tangled, auras mingled, bodies entwined. Her fingers undid the button on his jeans, slid the zipper down, and freed the sex-starved beast from its cage. He pushed the annoying pants down with awkward tugs and kicked them over the side of the bed. She twisted a hand over his cock while working his mouth. The competing sensations drove his reason straight off a cliff. Fuck, he was dizzy.

He leaned back to get a good look at her, and the robe opened wide, revealing a living treasure. She tugged the material over the sides of her hips, but not before he caught a glimpse of jagged white lines etched into her tanned upper thighs. Scars?

She brushed a hand across her forehead, and her cheeks went pink. Her chest rose and fell with hurried gasps. Mindful of her self-consciousness, he traced slow circles over her skin and smiled when she shivered.

She closed her eyes. Her lips eased into a relaxed pout.

When he dropped a trail of kisses across both breasts, down her middle to just below her belly button, she gasped and her knees popped up. He spread her legs open with his mouth, and a different kind of tenseness took control of her. Her aura went heavy with red. Though red was a cautionary color that usually meant ‘stop’ in Realis, to his Sentinel eyes, the color screamed, ‘Go, go, go!’

So he did.

Down he went, and he didn’t relent until her hips wrangled the prize away from his mouth. He stopped himself from growling, focusing instead on the brilliant blue eyes gazing down the length of her body at him. Mouth still wet with her sweetness, he stalked forward, cock dragging across her skin along the way, and dug into her lips with unquenchable Fire.

While their mouths ebbed and flowed together, her legs came up and hugged his. Under his weight she grabbed his cock as if yanking a disobedient dog’s chain. His head spun from the mix of pleasure and pain.

She coaxed him toward her, just as his logic circuits slammed to life with blaring white radiance.

“Wait,” he croaked, looking around. “Where’s the condom?”

“Shit.” She hissed and sat up with him, patting down the wrinkled bed covers. Her chest heaved. Christ, so did his. They bumped heads.

All the foreplay they’d worked so hard at perfecting suddenly became an awkward dance filled with missteps and squashed toes.

But after a moment, her hand emerged from the sheets, the missing packet nestled between two fingers. With a victorious smile, she tore it open, pitched the wrapper aside, and rolled the latex over the head and down his shaft. Condom expert. Hmm.

“Last chance to bow out,” he whispered.

She kissed him hard and long. No tongue this time, but desire was evident in the web of the arms and legs cocooning him. Fucking beautiful black widow.

“Too late to stop now. Let’s just keep it quiet. The walls are thick, but—”

He eased her onto her back and pressed the tip of his cock against her wetness. Her eyes narrowed. A hand groped and pulled him inside. Her face contorted as she stretched and tightened around him. Jesus fucking Christ. She panted, and her head fell against the mattress. Where the fuck was the pillow? He was hurting her. He started to pull out.

“No,” she whispered, clenched teeth flashing in the dim lamplight. “Deeper.” She grasped his left forearm, and Water currents stirred up under his tattooed skin.

He paused. “Are you sure? I don’t want to hurt you—”

“I want you inside me. Now.” Hard-Ass Morgan cracked the whip and half-snarled at him.

He’d never had a woman tell him what to do in bed. Arousing was an understatement. With her in charge, the temperature in the room climbed to downright steamy.

Sliding against her slick core again, he licked his lips. She shifted her hips up a little, he pushed forward, and she welcomed him inside. Eyes locked onto his, she watched him and responded to his every move. She met his thrusts, twisted just the right way at the right moment, rubbed her breasts against him. The soft chirps of her kisses filled his hot ears.

Not more than a few minutes into it, he almost lost control. Suppressing a “Fuck,” he pulled out to stop himself from coming. She stroked his shoulders. Fire ignited and Water crashed on his arms.

Eager to pleasure her again, he shifted lower, slipped two fingers inside her, then dove in with his mouth, working her clit. He hadn’t been a fan of going down on his dates before, but Zoe’s sweet taste and the way she opened up to him was so fucking erotic.

She ground against his tongue and thrusting fingers until she mewled. When her soft, throaty moans intensified, he stopped. Couldn’t have either of them coming before they’d put in more quality time. She tossed a fistful of hair out of her eyes. He licked his fingers, pumped up his erection with a few quick strokes of the palm, and grinned.

“You’re an awful tease. I can’t believe I’m doing this with you.” Her voice was low and raspy.