SinCityTryst (7 page)

“Cab fare,” he tossed back over his shoulder as he hit the
ground running. “I’m catching the red-eye back to San Francisco tonight.”

Chapter Ten

Sara yawned and morosely turned off the small television set
in her bedroom. Her eyes felt gritty and swollen, testament to a short night
filled with tears and self-recrimination. She stumbled into her kitchen and
blinked against the early morning sunrise that stole into her one-bedroom
apartment in San Francisco’s Noe Valley.

Ugh. Her head was pounding. She needed strong, undiluted
coffee after downing an entire pint of chocolate-chip cookie dough ice cream by
herself when she got home and watching too many reruns of
The Golden Girls
.
Apropos, she’d thought when she found herself unable to sleep after getting
home around three in the morning, since at the rate she was going she would
probably find herself alone and barren into her golden years.

She was pouring the grinds when she heard the knock on the
door. Frowning, she walked over to the door and hesitated. “Who is it?” she
called out, wondering who would be disturbing tenants so early in the morning.
There was no reply, just another sharp, short rap. Sara reached for the
deadbolt, opened the door and gaped in shock.

“Ethan! What are you doing here?”

He still looked glorious to her, despite his rumpled
appearance and the tired set of his shoulders. He didn’t answer her right away,
but devoured her hungrily with his golden eyes. Belatedly, she realized that
she was wearing torn leggings and a moth-eaten, oversized nightshirt with her
crazy hair in an early-morning disarray. And she still smelled like airplane.
Crap. She hastily tucked her curls into an impromptu knot at the base of her
neck and crossed her arms across her chest protectively.

“What
am I
doing here?” His voice was incredulous.
“Baby, what the hell are
you
doing here?”

Sara blinked and stared down at her bare feet. “I’m…I’m…”

“Running away again?” he supplied. Her head shot up to look
at him and he glowered back at her, as if daring her to contradict him.

“Don’t be ridiculous! W-why would I be running away?” she
replied in her defense. “It’s like I told Angie, I had something important to
do…here,” she said, gesturing vaguely inside her apartment.

“I see,” he replied evenly. “More important than, I don't
know, hanging around long enough to wake up beside me and finish what we
started with your vibrator?”

Sara yelped and clapped her hand over his mouth, her eyes
wide and cheeks pink. “Keep your voice down! The walls here are paper thin, and
my neighbors might hear you.”

Just then, the door to Sara’s neighbor across the way opened
and both of them swiveled around to see wizened and gruff old Mr. McIntyre peer
out into the hallway from over his reading glasses. With a pointed harrumph, he
shuffled along the corridor in his bathrobe and slippers as he was wont to do,
combing the sparse hair on his head as he made his way to the mailboxes on the
ground floor.

Mortified, Sara turned her chagrined gaze back to Ethan and
tried to ignore the way his warm gold eyes twinkled with laughter above her
hand. “Mind if we finish this inside?” he mumbled into her palm.

Ignoring the simmering heat in her belly at the feel of his
lips against her fingers, Sara let her hand fall away as if scorched. “I, uh,
really don’t think that’s necessary,” she admitted, edging back into her
doorway, rocking awkwardly on her heels.

Ethan pressed close but stopped short of actually taking a
step into her place. He spoke softly, but resolutely. “Sara, please. We need to
talk.”

The simple words were somehow beseeching, and it shredded
what was left of her shaky willpower. He was so big and handsome standing there
in her tiny Victorian doorway, looking like an avenging Norse god, that it set
her teeth—and body—on edge. Gesturing lamely into her apartment, she finally
capitulated.

“Fine. Come in.” She turned and walked back to the kitchen
counter, twisting her hands nervously into her roomy shirt as he followed her
inside and closed the door behind him. Immediately the room seemed twice as
small, the breadth of his shoulders taking up most of the view. “I was making
some coffee. You want some?” Not really waiting for a response, she resumed
pouring the grinds into the base of a French press.

“It’s industrial strength, since I hardly got any sl—eeeeep!
Ethan
!” Sara shrieked as she found herself lifted and airborne, and she
could only clutch at a thickly muscled forearm as he spun her around and
grabbed her up, plunking her unceremoniously on top of the kitchen counter and
stepping between her legs. Sara’s eyes fluttered closed at the blissful,
punishing pressure of his firm, masculine lips against hers. He rocked her lips
open with his own, and his tongue boldly swept in to taste every soft, secret
corner of her mouth, catching her startled, breathy cries with his own.

Sara felt as though every nerve in her body was alive and
singing, and kissed him back with equal fervor. The riotous sensations shimmied
and sparked along her skin, and when Ethan’s warm hands left her face to curl
over her full bottom and bring her pliant form flush against the hot, hard
length of him, all her reservations scattered like wind-blown ash. With a small
whimper of defeat, she relented and coiled her arms around his neck and hung on
for dear life, wrapping her legs around his lean hips and rubbing her hot,
pulsing core against his enormous tented erection.

Without lifting his mouth from hers, he grasped her around
the waist and strode over to one of the chairs around her kitchen table,
settling her in his lap. There, he tore his lips away and they both sucked in
some much needed air as he rocked her tantalizingly against the huge bulge in
front of his jeans while his large hands roamed over her hips and lower back.

“Let’s get something straight right now, darlin’,” he
rumbled as he smoothed back the tendrils of hair away from her face. Her eyes
were wild and bright with need. “Never—ever—run away from me and think that I
won’t come after you. You are mine, baby, and I always protect what’s mine.”

Sara gulped in astonishment—and fierce, blazing joy—at the
blatantly possessive statement, before her doubts kicked in. “I…didn’t think
you’d really notice.”

Ethan stiffened in shock. “How the hell can you even think
that?” he said harshly, shaking her a little. “Of course I noticed! Do you know
what you put me through? I thought we were finally on the same page. We make love
for hours and fall asleep together, only to have you sneak away without telling
anyone.” His thunderous expression was enough to have Sara bite her lip in
sudden regret. “I ought to paddle that gorgeous ass of yours until you’re too
sore to run away ever again.”

“B-but, we didn’t,” she said, thrumming with desire at his
words and at the same time so incredibly self-conscious and wary. “Make love, I
mean.”

His eyebrow arched and his eyes flashed dangerously. “Why do
you say that, baby?” he asked with deceptive casualness.

“Well, we didn’t actually get a chance to…we only, um, you
know, with the vibrator…” Sara felt certain that she was a glowing, radioactive
red from embarrassment. She couldn’t finish her sentence, couldn’t say out loud
that he had plied her with her fake pink cock until she’d come like a banshee,
but hadn’t given her the real thing.

Ethan’s mouth twisted sensually as he grasped her inner
thighs with his large, work-roughened hands, plying the soft, fleshy area near
the crease of her thigh until Sara thought she’d go mad with the drugging
sensation. “Baby, don’t you know by now that everything I do with you is making
love?” he said in a low rumble, lowering his head to her navel and nudging the
hem of her baggy shirt up with his face. He pulled the waistband of her
leggings down along with her panties and pressed a hot, open-mouthed kiss
against her belly, right above the small triangle of fleecy dark hair. A
strangled whimper escaped Sara, and she shifted restlessly in his hands while
trying to tug her shirt back down. She had a sudden flashback of the stripper’s
waspish waist and miniscule shaved pubis encased in the G-string, and tried
harder to tug Ethan face and fingers away from the damp curls at her pulsating
core.

“Don’t, please,” she pleaded as she began to thrash. “I’m
ugly down there, Ethan…”

“No,” he countered, shaking her a little. She immediately
stilled, startled by his intensity. “No, baby, you are not ugly, anywhere.” To
punctuate the point, he brought them both to their feet and claimed her slack
mouth in an almost bruising, forceful kiss that made her groan deep into his
mouth. When he tore his mouth away, she had her hands buried in his hair and
they were both breathing like wolfhounds.

“Will you let me show you, now?” he implored, his body
radiating tension and need. “I need to have you again. It’s been too long, and
I need you so badly.” Sara felt dizzy under his regard, unable to look away as
she clung to him. The look in his eyes made her heart skip several beats and
tremble from within.

Burying her face in his neck to temporarily escape the
disconcerting fierceness of his gaze, she nodded. She felt as though she would
burst into a million pieces from the sheer joy of being in his arms again. Her
defenses were shattered; he had come after her and against all odds was letting
her know he wanted her, had always wanted her. She simply didn’t have the
fortitude to deny him. Shielding the love for him that was no doubt shining out
of her eyes, she stroked his raspy cheek and whispered ardently, “Yes, please,
Ethan. I want to feel you inside me.”

He stole her mouth again and again in deep, searching
kisses, his tongue parting her lips and tangling with hers. Sara’s eyes
fluttered closed in acquiescence as his dark, intoxicating flavor washed over
her. His deep groan of satisfaction made her heart sing.

Suddenly he stood with her in his arms, causing her to
shriek and her legs to fold around his lean hips for leverage. “Don’t let go,”
he ordered as he strode across the room while carrying her without a hint of
exertion. He tumbled her on top of her queen-size comforter before she knew
what was happening. He crawled toward her on all fours, looking every inch like
a determined predator that had spotted its prey.

Damp and throbbing and breathless, Sara felt herself warm
even further under his appraisal, and she bit her lower lip nervously, trying
not to cover herself with her hands or the decorative pillows against her
headboard. Ethan’s eyes were molten with heat and fascination, and he gently
pulled her plump lower lip from between her teeth with his thumb. Unable to
resist, Sara’s tongue snaked out to sample the tart flavor of his skin, curling
around his thumb daringly. As her mouth wrapped around the digit and suckled
softly, Ethan snarled and snatched her up tightly against him again.

She panted and moaned against his plundering mouth, and
Ethan swallowed the sexy sounds while watching her through heavily lidded eyes.
His mouth left hers briefly to press hot, biting kisses along the length of her
neck, nuzzling into the rapidly beating pulse at the base of her throat before
claiming her swollen lips once more. Sara sighed and parted her lips, allowing
his rough, velvety tongue to sweep into the warm cavern of her mouth and tangle
with hers. He tasted warm and addictive, and his long fingers threaded
themselves in her dark tresses as he sampled her mouth hungrily, giving her no
reprieve. Their mouths created a warm, wet vortex so erotic it had her
practically screaming into his mouth.

“Tell me…you want me,” he demanded in a tight voice between
moist kisses, lambent desire etched into every feature of his arrestingly
handsome face.

“Oh god, I want you,” she replied, her lips a whisper away
from his. He bit at her soft mouth encouragingly, claiming her lips again in a
hungry open-mouthed kiss that had them both straining against each other.

“And that you need me,” he murmured, his fingers digging
into her hips as she traced his lips with the tip of her tongue.

Sara smiled as she looked up into his dark, fathomless eyes,
alight with desire and a deeper, headier emotion that she was terrified to
identify. “I need you, Ethan. So much.” She was rewarded with another
soul-stirring kiss as he shifted her in his lap, causing her eyes to flutter shut
and her back to arch at the breathtaking sensation. She’d never been on top
before, and it was a heady feeling to be sitting astride him.

“And that you won’t run away from me again.” He gripped her
tightly, almost as if he was terrified of her leaping off him.

She shook her head. “No, I’m right here. I won’t run away.”
Her legs were like jelly and weren’t likely to support her any time soon, not
while he continued to grind his enormous erection into her like that…

“Tell me you love me.”

Huh? Stunned, Sara balanced on the precipice between
mind-altering desire and disbelief, unsure of how to respond. Loved him? Of
course she loved him, the big lout! But…she didn’t want him to know that, not
until she was sure of how he felt first! She could only look at him with huge,
unsure eyes, her breath choppy and loud, her damp palms pressing against his
broad chest even as she strained to get closer to his nether parts.

“I…I…” she gasped, unable to utter the words rising in her
throat. No! She wouldn’t say it first! If he didn’t feel it back, it would
destroy her, leave her defenseless and small. Her eyes stinging with regret,
she wordlessly shook her head as he tried to bring her mouth under his again.

“Say it,” he whispered hotly against her trembling lips,
biting at them. As if sensing her recalcitrance, he yanked her soft shirt over
her head, but stopped short of pulling it off her completely. Instead, he
brought her arms back down with the fabric tangled around her elbows and
forearms, effectively trapping them to her sides and causing her naked breasts
to thrust up as she struggled against the sudden confinement.