Someone Like Her (13 page)

He glanced at the clock to see it was six. “We should get you home.” When he sat up to get out of the bed, she grabbed his arm.

“Not yet.”

“Are you sure?” He wasn’t. No matter how badly he wanted her—and he did, more than anything—there were too many things to consider. She truly was a friend, and he didn’t want to ruin that. What he should do was put her in his car and take her home.

She smiled.

How was he supposed to resist that warm smile and those sleepy brown eyes? He put a finger on her lips when she opened her mouth to speak. “Tell you what. I need to brush my teeth and take a quick shower. You think about it, decide if it’s the right thing for you. I can’t make you any promises, Maria. Can you live with that?”

She didn’t answer.

In the bathroom, he brushed his teeth, his tongue, and then gargled with mouthwash. After a quick shave, he jumped in the shower. The slight buzz left over from the night before faded as needles of warm water struck his skin. It had always pissed off the guys that he never suffered the ill effects of a night of heavy drinking. With Maria in his bed, he was more thankful for that fact than ever.

What had he been thinking to get that drunk? He snorted. Stupid question as the answer awaited him in his bed. What would she decide?

If she was smart, she’d be dressed and ready for him to take her home. A naked female body passed by the shower door before it opened. Maria stepped in behind him. Jake squeezed his eyes shut when she pressed against his back, slid her arms around his waist, and rested her face on his shoulder.

“I’m sure,” she whispered.

So much for doing the right thing. He twisted around and crushed his mouth to hers, nudging his cock between her legs. She arched against him and wrapped her arms around his neck. With his hands on her hips to steady her, he thrust between her legs, groaning when she clamped them together, tightening them around his erection. One more minute and he’d get really stupid.
Note to self. From now on, keep a supply of condoms in the shower
.

He pulled away and trailed his palm over the curve of her hip, down through her curls, and slid a finger inside her. Her sheath was hot—and so damn wet—and he found her clit with his thumb, rubbing tiny circles while his finger thrust in and out.

She whimpered and draped a leg around his thigh, opening herself to him. When she wrapped her lips around his nipple and sucked, he about lost it. Her hand encircled his throbbing cock, stroking him from the base of his shaft to the tip and back down.

Her breath hitched in time with his until they both gulped for air. A shudder traveled through her, his name passed her lips, and he let go, climaxing with her.
Jesus
. He leaned his forehead against hers, the sound of their heavy breaths filling the confines of the shower. He wanted her in bed. Now. Reaching back, he turned off the water, picked her up, and carried her to the bedroom.

“We’re gonna get your bed wet,” she said.

“I don’t care.” He tossed her onto the mattress and followed her down. Finally, he had her where he’d wanted her for almost four years. Droplets of water dotted her skin and he set about licking her dry. Each place his tongue touched, goose bumps appeared and little shivers passed through her when he found her sensitive places. He memorized each time she reacted—just there on the curve of her breast, the spot on her neck just below her ear, here on her inner thigh—all points of pleasure for her he’d pay special attention to as he loved her.

But first, he had to taste her. Needed to. He pressed his face between her thighs and inhaled the earthy musk scent of her arousal. He adored the little noises she made when she came, and he set about enticing her to make them again. A low growl escaped him when she lifted her hips to meet his tongue. Using his mouth, his tongue, and the scrape of his teeth, he brought her to her second climax of the morning.

She tasted so incredibly sweet that he feared no one but her would do for him. When her body calmed, he reached over and pulled a condom out of the night table drawer. Tearing open the package with his teeth, he started to put it on.

“Let me,” she said and sat up, her gaze intent on him. “I’ve never put one on a man before. Show me how.”

“Didn’t your ex-boyfriend use them?”

“He always went into the bathroom to put it on. I guess it was a private thing.”

Jake decided her ex-boyfriend had been a fool, but then, he already knew that. He handed her the condom and lifted to his knees, which put his hard, pulsing erection near her face. “Leave it rolled, start at the tip, and unroll it as you cover me.” Damn if she didn’t lower a fascinated gaze on his cock and the thing jerked, trying to reach her mouth.

She flicked a finger over the tip catching the drop of moisture there, then stuck her finger in her mouth, tasted him, and grinned. “You taste like salty seawater.”

“You’re killing me, Maria. Put the damn thing on me.”

It was as if she were performing a sacred ritual, so slow and precise did she unroll the condom over him, the whole time her gaze focused on his shaft as her fingers touched him to cover him with the rubber. Jake gritted his teeth, clinched his fists, and bore it.

“Now what?” she asked when she finished.

“Now this,” he said and pulled her onto his lap so that she straddled him. Twisting them around, he leaned back against the headboard. With his hand, he guided his cock into her. “Ride me.”

She snickered. “Like a horse? Why not, you’re built like one.”

He looked into her eyes and smiled. “I seriously doubt that, but hey, I have no problem with you thinking so.” She sank down on him and he hissed. “You have no idea how long I’ve thought of us doing this.”

“Me, too, Jake. Me, too.”

She then obeyed and rode him hard. Had she thought of them together like this for as long as he had? Her breasts bounced in front of his face as she found a rhythm she liked, and he gave into the temptation to suck a nipple into his mouth. Yeah, maybe he could be faithful to one woman as long as it was Maria. He stopped thinking as a pressure built deep within him, a need to claim her, make her his.

“Jake!” She stilled, then trembled, as she shattered around him. Her inner muscles clinched around him, and she buried her face against his neck, her breaths warm on his skin.

“Maria,” he answered and let go, coming so hard he stopped breathing for a second. “Maria,” he gasped, his mouth pressed into the valley of her breasts.
Maria.
Her name a song, one too beautiful to ever belong to him. But there she was—his fantasy—straddling him and calling his name.

She nuzzled his neck. “When can we do this again?”

He chuckled and slid his hand down her side, cupping her bottom. As soon as possible he wanted to say, but he needed to think about what he was getting into with her. Then there was the conversation he needed to have with her brother, hopefully without any fists involved. He wouldn’t sneak behind Kincaid’s back to see the man’s sister.

Jake gave her one last long kiss. “Up, Chiquita. We need to get you home.”

Her eyes searched his. “Damn you, you’re already sorry.”

She pushed hard on his chest and swung her legs over the edge of the mattress. He grabbed her hand. “You’re wrong. I’m far from sorry, but I have to put all my focus on the operation. You’re a distraction I can’t afford right now.”

“Whatever.” She pulled away and headed for the bathroom.

“I hate that word,” he muttered.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

M
aria grabbed an orange soda from the fridge.

“Where the hell have you been all night?”

She squeaked and spun, banging her hand on the refrigerator door. “Ouch! Crap, Logan, you scared me.” Reaching over to the light switch, she flipped it on. Her brother sat at the kitchen table, a cup of coffee in front of him. “I thought you were spending the night at the hospital.”

“I did. Came home to shower and change. Answer my question.”

“None of your business.” She plopped down at the table. “I’m twenty-four years old. I don’t need your permission to spend the night away from home.”

His lips thinned. “He’s no good for you.”

“You’re probably right, but then again, he might surprise us both.” She traced a finger through the condensation the soda bottle had made on the table. “I want him, have for a long time. The only way you’re gonna stop me from going after him is to lock me in my room. Even if you dared to, I’d find a way out and head straight for Jake.”

“Then understand this. The day he hurts you, and that day will come, I’ll fire him. After I kill him, that is.”

She reached over and grasped his hand. “No, you won’t. If he screws up on the job, then fire him, by all means. But I’m going into this with my eyes open, and you can’t get rid of him if it doesn’t work out for us, no matter the reason. That just isn’t fair to Jake.”

One of the best scowlers in the world scowled. “You really piss me off sometimes, you know that? First you won’t listen or take my advice, then you tie my hands so I can’t beat the shit out of him when the time comes.” His eyes softened. “I just don’t want to see you hurt, brat. Is that so wrong?”

God, she loved her brother, her protector. She stood and walked behind him, wrapped her arms around his chest and kissed his cheek. “No, and I love you for it. I need to change and get over to K2. Jake will be there all weekend planning his mission, and I intend to help. I want everything to go as safely as possible for him and his team.” She also wanted to make sure he didn’t end up back at one of his hangouts later. No more cheap perfume on Jake if she had anything to say about it. Logan’s grunt said he’d give her the necessary rope to hang herself.

He pushed away from the table. “I’m headed back to the hospital, but I’ll stop by later.”

After changing into jeans and a sleeveless top, her hair pulled up in a ponytail, Maria backed Sally out of the garage and drove to K2. She wished Logan hadn’t assigned this mission to Jake—she didn’t have a good feeling about it—but it was what Jake did for a living, and she wasn’t about to complain.

As it was Saturday, the front door of K2 was locked. Maria pushed the code on the inner door, and walked into the main room. Jake stood over a table with maps spread out in front of him as his two team members, Rick Bayne and Brad Stewart, looked on.

“Hi,” she said.

Rick and Brad gave her big smiles, but Jake’s expression remained blank. He wasn’t happy to see her. Too bad. “I’m here to help. Give me something to do.”

“There’s really nothing I can think of,” Jake said.

She met his gaze, let him see the determination in her eyes. “Then think harder.”

“What about letting her confirm our in-country contact’s able to fulfill our list of requirements?” Rick suggested.

“After that, she could do the background on our target,” Brad added. “Both those chores together would save one of us three or four hours computer time.”

Maria shot Brad a grateful smile. The guys had nicknamed him “Elaine” because he had the hots for Elaine on
Seinfield
. Rick they’d named “Tennessee.” She could sit and listen to him talk in that sexy southern drawl all day.

She took Jake’s sigh as a sign of surrender, and grabbed a pen and paper off the table. “Contact and target’s name?”

Information in hand, she left them to their planning and walked into the office she used whenever at K2. As soon as she graduated, it would be hers permanently; the plan was for her to take over the legal side of the business. From the day Logan had bought her a computer at the age of ten, she’d fallen in love with the thing and all the wonderful information hidden in such a little box.

Growing up poor and considered trash by her schoolmates, she’d spent her lonely hours looking up famous actors, reading about their privileged lives, envying them. From there, she’d ventured into studying ways to get rich so she could one day buy a pretty dress or spend a day at a spa. She’d learned the stock market inside out, researched companies and their potential for investment.

When she was fifteen, she’d begged Logan to give her a thousand dollars to play with. Bless her brother, he’d handed it over without the first blink, and she’d appreciated that it hadn’t been easy at the time for him to come up with that much money. In eight years, she’d grown that one thousand to over fifty thousand, and she now handled all of her and Logan’s investments.

There was nothing she couldn’t find on a computer, and the thrill of discovery still elated her. Brad had claimed it would take one of them four hours, but it took her a little less than two to complete. She was contemplating what she could do next to help when Jake stuck his head in the door.

“How’s it going?”

She slid a file to the end of her desk. “Here’s the background on Chad Sinclair, aka Abdul Haq. Everything’s in there from the moment he took his first breath to now, what he likes to eat, his first girlfriend, and so on. Your contact in Egypt has managed to obtain all the items on your list but two—three pairs of night vision goggles and the C4. Why do you need C4?”

He grinned. “Never know when you might want to blow something up.”

Jeez, boys and their toys. He better not blow himself up. “Well, anyway, he e-mailed that he’s meeting a source tonight and should have everything you asked for.”

“Good.” He approached her desk and picked up the file on their target. “The guys want to go to Seaside for a fish sandwich. Want to come with us?”

“I really should run by the hospital and say hi to Dani. Why don’t you come with me and we’ll get a quick burger or something after.”

He glanced at the doorway, indecision on his face. “Probably better if I don’t,” he finally said. “You don’t need to come back. Go and enjoy your new nephew and the rest of the weekend.”

Stupid, stubborn man. “I’m coming back this afternoon, and I’ll be here tomorrow. This operation is happening too fast, and you guys need all the help you can get.” She stood and picked up her purse. “See you in about two hours.”

Deciding to turn the tables on him and see how he liked it, she stopped at the door. “I want to thank you for last night. It was the most amazing night of my life, but I’m putting whatever’s happening between us on hold until you’re home safe. I suggest you do the same.”

It was the most amazing night of her life? Jake stared at the empty doorway. He’d tried all morning to put her out of his mind, but she was there anyway. Her soft sighs, the way she clinched around him when she came, how she’d called out his name when she’d shattered—how was he supposed to put that on hold?

He could give her a thousand amazing nights, wanted to. Angry she could so easily put them on the back burner, he slapped the file against his thigh. Striding into the main room, he thrust the folder at Bayne. “Memorize this. You, too, Stewart.”

Sally was backing out of the parking space when he opened the passenger door and jumped inside the Mustang. He glared at Maria and dared her to say one damn word. All he got from her was a sweet smile and silence. Why he was so pissed off, he hadn’t a clue other than the fact she was very talented at messing with his mind.

Hadn’t she just given him the space to concentrate on his mission? Wasn’t that what he wanted? He’d never been so indecisive in his life about anything, and now she had him acting like a yo-yo on the end of a string. This was all new to him, this wanting only one woman, and he didn’t have a road map for the trip she was taking him on. Small wonder he’d gotten drunk the night before.

Halfway to Pensacola’s Baptist Hospital, Maria reached over and slipped her fingers around his. As the warmth of her hand seeped into his, his blood pressure lowered along with the irrational anger. There wasn’t another woman on the planet who could have such an effect on him. That had to say something. He just had to figure out what.

He expected her to say something funny or, more likely, a snarky comment. God knew, he deserved it. She didn’t say anything, just held his hand and drove. He leaned his head against the seat and let everything go except for the way her hand felt in his—like that was where it belonged.

When she had walked into K2 earlier, he’d had to bite his tongue to keep from ordering her to leave. As part owner, she had as much right to be there as he, more even. His fear she would disrupt his concentration had been groundless. She’d stayed out of their way and he’d been comforted by her presence in the building. For sure, she’d saved them a lot of time.

“Thanks, by the way,” he said.

“For what?” She glanced at him with those warm chocolate eyes.

“For helping us out.”

A pleased smile spread across her face. “No problem.”

That was another thing about her. He’d known her for years, and she was always ready with a smile, rarely got upset about anything. It wasn’t that she never lost her temper. She did, and when it happened it was something to behold, but it never lasted long and next thing he knew, she was laughing again. Maybe because of the horror of her childhood she’d learned not to let things she couldn’t change bother her. Someday, he’d ask her.

“Here we are. I can’t wait to see baby Evan again. I hope Dani’s awake so I can tell her how beautiful my nephew is. She was asleep yesterday when I was here.” She chatted on about babies and how she couldn’t wait to get Evan home so she could spoil him.

Jake walked by her side, listening to her as they rode the elevator up to the fourth floor, smiling in amusement at the way her hands were constantly in motion as they walked down the hall to Dani’s room. If he tied her hands together could she still speak?

She came to an abrupt halt. “Why are you chuckling?”

Because . . . he was happy, content.
Contentment.
He rolled the word around in his mouth. It was something he’d never strived for, but he liked the feeling. He put his arm around her shoulders and got her moving again. If he told her he was laughing at the way her hands waved around in the air when she talked, she would probably slap him with one of them.

“I was chuckling over your enthusiasm for babies. I just never realized you liked them so much.”

“Well, who doesn’t? I adore Regan and love playing with her. Now I’ll have two kids to spoil rotten.”

The sparkle in her eyes as she talked about babies mesmerized him. Did she want to have children someday? He’d always pictured her as a lawyer, a career woman running K2 alongside her brother. Never had he imagined her as a mother, but suddenly he could see her with a babe in her arms, a little girl or boy with black hair and coffee-colored eyes.

“You want kids?” he asked.

Her lips formed into a soft smile. “Yeah, someday.”

Something very new to him took root and branched out, traveling through his veins like a fast-growing weed to all parts of his body. A possessive need to bind her to him—to be the one to give her babies—hit him with such force that he almost turned and walked away.

Snotty-nosed kids running around at his feet had never been on his agenda. He needed a vacation. Alone and somewhere quiet so he could think all this shit through. Was he ready to give up his lifestyle for a wife and kids? Even a week ago, he’d have given an adamant “no, not happening.” Now he was picturing a woman—specifically, this woman—with
his
baby in her arms and liking it.

It was too much, too fast.

Still reeling, he followed her into Dani’s room. The boss didn’t comment about his being with Maria, but his expression wasn’t particularly friendly.

“Hey, you two. Isn’t he beautiful?” Dani said of the bundle cradled in her arms.

“You make a beautiful mother, Dani,” Jake said. And she did. There was a glow about her, a shining kind of thing he couldn’t put his finger on. Would Maria look like that when she held her child in her arms?

Maria perched on the edge of the bed and trailed her knuckles over the baby’s cheek. “Oh, he is beautiful, and his skin’s so soft.”

Jake glanced at the boss. Damn if he didn’t glow, too. The new father’s eyes shone with pride as he gazed at his son, and Jake found himself envying Kincaid. He needed to get out of this room before he started begging Maria to make a baby with him.

“Your son’s a handsome devil, boss. Fortunately, he takes after his mother in looks. Listen, I’ll step outside and give you guys some privacy. Dani, it’s great seeing you. I’ll stop by the house tomorrow after you get home. I have something for little Evan.”

Dani lifted her gaze from the baby and smiled. “I’ll look forward to it. Thanks for stopping by, Jake.”

He fled the room and walked down the hall a ways before stopping and leaning back against the wall. What was wrong with him? All that domestic bliss scared the bejesus out of him . . . at least, it used to. Now, here he was staring at babies as if he had a damn biological clock ticking inside him.