Mystery Date (Harlequin Blaze) (14 page)

“Were you keeping an eye on me from the house?” she asked.

“Would it make you even wetter if I said yes?”

She was already there, her clit stiff and beating.

“And what would you tell me,” he said, his mouth close to her ear, “if I wanted to film you this time?”

Leigh didn’t know what to say for a moment. She was filmed all the time for her show, but this wasn’t remotely the same. He wanted her naked on film, recorded for the ages. Her common sense told her no, but she was far, far beyond that.

She said, “Why would you want to do that?”

“Why would any man?” He laughed, disturbing the stray wisps of hair by her ears with his soft breath. “Looking at you makes me crazy, Leigh, and to look at you again and again while you’re coming? That makes me even crazier.”

This
was crazy. Then again, it wasn’t. Maybe this was how she should’ve been all along—insanely deviant, deliriously craving him.

“Yes,” she said, just as she always said to him. She wasn’t even sure where she would draw the line anymore, because she loved the thought of making him happy. It made her happy, too. If there was ever a time when it didn’t...then she would draw that line, but not before.

His hand tightened on her, and she wished she could see his face. But all she could do was imagine dark hair and hungry brown eyes.

Then he left her for a moment. He was setting up the recording device—a smartphone? A tablet? A digital camera? Whatever it was, she was about to be the star.

Number one in his world for this short time.

Even as that thought made her heart sink again—why, when leaving him was inevitable?—her ears picked up another sound.

Something being poured into the water?

When she smelled flowers—bubble bath?—and then felt a foamy cloud brush by her, she knew she was right.

“I said I wanted to pamper you,” he whispered, his lips next to her ear again. “How about a little of this?”

She felt something soft and cushiony on her shoulder, and she pictured everything: his big hands holding a pink sponge; his nails, blunt and smooth as he gripped it; his skin, tanned. He still smelled like leather, and it made her senses tilt.

He took his time with her, bathing her neck as she leaned her head back. Wiping over her upper chest as she relaxed to the sound of water trickling from the sponge. Rivulets streamed down her skin, tickling her.

“Found a dirty spot,” he said, going lower, slipping the sponge below the curve of her naked breast.

She reared up at the contact, her nipple pebbling painfully. “I think all of me is a dirty spot around you.”

He laughed again—she loved that she made him do that—and he washed her thoroughly, taking care with both her breasts especially, then rubbing her stomach and slipping down farther.

When he got to her achiest part, she was terribly ready. Her legs parted as he slid an arm down and around her waist, lifting her up so that she was kneeling on the cement bench underneath the water.

Bubbles frothed against her thighs, adding an extra layer of pleasure while he massaged her between the legs with the sponge.

“You were frustrated when I left you earlier,” he said against her ear. His words were like a vibration that ate its way to her belly, threatening to make her come again. “You wanted more.”

“Did you mean to leave me that way?” she asked.

He didn’t say anything, just pressed the sponge up and against her clit, making her whimper. When he circled there, her hips shifted with every movement.

Finally, he answered. Sort of.

“I’m going to give you more, Leigh. You’ll just have to wait a little longer.”

One of his hands was cupping her breast as he continued to work her between the legs, and she leaned her face against his arm. The material of his shirt was wet, and she would’ve given anything to have seen how the cotton plastered against his skin. She also would’ve died to bring him into the tub with her, but those weren’t the rules of this game.

And if anything, she was getting to be such a good player.

Heat was rising in her like a push of restless water, and she was getting close...so close....

When he took the sponge away, she protested.

“Shhh,” he said again. “Just wait. It’s all about the waiting.”

Was that how he rolled? Making his women wait until he was ready?

Just as she was about to say something to him about it, she heard a humming sound.

And when he slid a long, smooth object down her arm, she knew what it was...and that it had to be waterproof.

First he took the vibrator and swept it ever so gently over her nipple. Just enough so that it was like a whisper, a mere shiver.

“Callum,” she said, asking for more in other places, places that were weeping and hurting and...

He pressed his lips against her ear, then sucked her lobe inside his mouth, warm, wet, swirling his tongue while submerging the vibrator under the water and over her belly.

And did he know the right place to use it—just above her mons. She quaked inside, not knowing how much longer she could last.

The combination of him sucking on one of her biggest erogenous zones and the vibrator down in taboo territory was making pinwheels of color revolve on her eyelids, and she slipped down into the water. The only thing holding her up was his arm.

“Not yet,” he said, still pressed to her ear. “A little longer....”

She made a sound of desperation, but he was cruel, taking the vibrator and resting it at the very center of her, between her folds, over her clit.

The vibrator had nubs, causing sweet friction, and she heaved in a breath and grasped for the edge of the tub.

Too much. And too little. She wanted
him
inside her. Wanted it so badly.

Tiny bangs in her belly were counting up to an orgasm, but somehow he was stretching her out, definitely making her wait. Yet she was close to begging him for it. She wouldn’t do it, though—that was probably why he was playing this game with her, wanting to see if she begged.

Instead, she pressed her face against his arm even harder, biting—not enough to break skin, but enough.

Of course, he laughed, but he sounded surprised, too. Just as turned on as she was.

“I think that means you’re ready,” he said.

She wondered if she would always be, just for him.

When he eased the vibrator up and into her, the buzzing sensation made her cry out. Instead of biting him, she was digging her nails into his muscled arm, grinding her hips as he moved the length in and out of her.

“Damn you,” she said against him.
“Damn you.”

If he said anything in return, she didn’t hear it. Her hearing had been blocked by the thud of her pulse, which mocked the one deep in her core.

Boom...boom...

In and out, humming, making her shiver inside with prickles that were building into an enormous shudder.

Boom, boom...

Her body felt as if it were starting to fall to pieces, dusting apart like sparkling debris.

Boom, boom—

As she banged all the way apart, she felt as liquid as the water, becoming one with it while she fell down, down into its embrace.

When Callum brought her out of the water with a giant sucking splash, she gasped for air, clinging to him.

Just as much in the dark as she’d ever been with that blindfold still over her eyes.

* * *

L
IKE LAST TIME
, he disappeared as stealthily as he’d appeared. But unlike last time, he’d caressed her and held her as she recovered.

Still blinded by the material over her eyes as well as her need for him. Still addicted.

There hadn’t been much to say afterward, only some awkward laughter while she joked about the force of her orgasm. Then she’d made as much small talk as she could.

“What’s next?” she’d asked. “That’s up to you,” he’d said. And she’d mentioned something about going to the stables to pass the time until dinner, which she would let someone else make for him tonight. Maybe she’d do breakfast for him?

All the while, she’d been hoping he’d tell her what
he
wanted next. Naturally, he hadn’t. He kept her in the dark in more ways than one.

Before he’d left, he’d done something curious—touching her face with his fingertips, as if memorizing this moment.

But why would he do that when he had it all on film?

After he’d gone and she’d taken off the blindfold—not before the five minutes he’d asked her to wait had passed—she’d dried off with a towel from the pool house. Then she’d gone to her room, where she’d dazedly put on some jeans, a long shirt and her boots.

Was
she only one of many girls who’d gone through this with him before? She couldn’t stop thinking of that, couldn’t stop wondering why it was starting to matter more and more as this date went on.

But that was the wrong approach to take, wasn’t it? Callum had given her something she’d never expected when she’d auctioned off that basket: some confidence. She still wasn’t sure she could always keep off her weight, but why did it matter with Callum? He’d never see her in person if she gained those pounds back and she would never witness his reaction. In the end, she decided, he’d at least given her some light inside of herself. She could shine it on the person she wanted to be right here, right now.

She could do anything with him and never regret it.

After going downstairs, she headed in the direction that Callum had instructed her to go earlier before they’d said ta-ta. When she saw the stables, she felt like her old self again and not the pampered guest that Callum had made her: she was the girl who loved horses and who went for long rides when she was at home.

It didn’t take her long to find a beaut of a mare in the stalls—a paint with big dark eyes—and she fell in love right away.

“Hey, darlin’,” she said, reaching out her hand and allowing the animal to sniff it, getting to know her.

Footsteps sounded behind her, and she backed away from the stall to avoid spooking the horse. Callum had sneaked up on her earlier. What if he was doing the same thing now?

She turned around. A man was standing near an office door, leaning against the frame with his Stetson tilted back on his dark head and his gold eyes gleaming. His skin was a rosy-tan hue, as if he had some south-of-the-border in him, and...

Leigh’s pulse jittered just looking at him. A tall-drink-of-water cowboy, right here in front of her.

Callum?

But then he spoke, his Western accent thick, his voice not Callum’s at all. “That’s Bessie Blue. I think she’s taken a shine to you.”

The man stuck out his hand, coming toward her to introduce himself.

“My name’s Adam,” he said.

* * *

H
E WAS GOING
to hell for this, wasn’t he?

But after Leigh had let him know that she intended to visit the stables, the idea had slammed into Adam, and he’d run with it.

Would it really do any harm to take their date a twisty step further? What if he could meet her one time only, face-to-face, as a regular guy? It’d be the
only
time, and then he’d go back to being Callum.

The idea sounded stranger than anything he’d done with Leigh so far, but, heaven help him, as soon as the notion had hit him, he’d realized how much he wanted to see the color of her eyes without a blindfold. Yet a more perverse side had wanted to know how she would react to seeing
him,
the guy from college. And as soon as he’d thought of it, he’d known that this would give him some peace of mind, tying up the loose ends of his fascination for her and allowing him to let go of it once she went home.

No harm in it, he’d thought.

So he’d told Jerry, the regular groom, that he could spend the rest of the day off. Adam had easily taken over his position on the ranch since he was more than familiar with how one ran. But first he’d changed his shirt, which had gotten wet during his latest rendezvous with Leigh.

The hot tub...the bubbles...the nail marks she’d left on his arm, causing him pleasurable pain....

But he could just hear his best friend and conscience now if she knew what he was up to.

“Unbelievable,” Beth would say. “Now I know for certain that you’ve got a heart of stone.”

But he could withstand the lash of words. He would merely tell his confidante that there was nothing romantic going on with Leigh.

God, even in his head his excuses sounded flat. Maybe he
did
have a heart of stone these days. Granite, more likely.

He didn’t need Beth to tell him that, or that he was probably pulling this stunt because he wanted Leigh to know that this was him without really telling her. In a way, he was even reliving that party from his freshman year, and he wanted to see if she would get a sparkle in her eye if she recognized him.

In some bent way, games like this allowed him to keep a canyon between him and any woman he was attracted to.

See? He didn’t need a shrink to tell him what was what. He already knew damned well.

But what the hell had possessed him to make this date even more dangerous than it already was? It was probably because he wanted to see if his real name rang any kind of bell in Leigh. And as she’d run her gaze over him, Adam had thought for a hot moment that she
had
recognized the college boy he’d been then.

Yet in the aftermath of that first gaze, he hadn’t seen any sign of recognition on her face at all, and with a combination of disappointment and relief, he’d made his way to her, holding out his hand in greeting.

When she introduced herself, her cheeks were flushed, just as they had been in the bedroom after he’d put the blindfold on her the first time. And her eyes...

They were the most astonishing shade of dark green he’d ever seen.

Altogether, she was a breath of fresh air with her smile and that playful little dimple in her chin, and it was nearly surreal standing in front of her like this—two people under normal circumstances meeting each other. A cowgirl and a cowboy—one who dressed this way only when he retreated to this ranch.