Wanted (Hostage Rescue Team Series Book 8) (18 page)

Zoe shifted in the tub, slid an arm behind her to grasp the length of his erection. He stilled her with a negative grunt and pulled her talented little hand away from him. “None of that.”

She made a frustrated sound. “But can’t we just—”

“No. No buts.” They couldn’t, and that was that. Doctor’s orders.

He pulled her out of the tub, dried her off, and carried her wrapped in a towel to their bedroom where he laid her down on her side of the king-size bed. She dumped the damp towel on the floor and reached for him when he slid in beside her and drew the covers up around them.

Snuggling against his chest, one thigh draped over his, she sighed and drew her fingertips over the swell of his right pec. Clay buried his face in her hair and inhaled, still shaken, unable to forget that horrible feeling of helplessness when he’d pulled up and watched the car hit the building, then Zoe falling out of the passenger side. He’d been sure she was shot.

“I love you,” she murmured. “I knew you’d come rescue me.”

He tightened his jaw, still not letting himself off the hook for failing her tonight. “You rescued yourself. I’m just sorry I didn’t get there sooner.” It was hard to swallow, that he hadn’t been able to protect her again.

She was quiet for a minute. “What a surreal night. I almost died, but then we got to hear our baby’s heartbeat for the first time.” Her voice was filled with awe.

He stroked a hand over her bare lower back. Her skin was so soft, he loved touching her. In spite of the quiet and her being safe, all his senses were heightened somehow, his mind unable to let go of the fact that someone had almost taken her from him tonight.

He’d be lost without her. Wrecked. She was his whole world.

And in the entire year they’d been together he’d never lain beside her like this, hard and aching, without being able to do something about it. Normally he would absolutely have his face buried between her thighs by now, or have his cock deep inside her sweet warmth. Zoe’s sex drive was almost as strong as his, one of the reasons they clicked so well together.

The mental images those thoughts evoked made him want to groan. Her needs came first though, and right now she needed comfort.
Non-sexual
comfort. “How are you feeling now?”

“Good. No cramping.” Her breath was warm against his neck. She shifted, rubbed those luscious breasts against him and he clamped his hands on her hips to still her.

But he couldn’t stop from kissing her. The primal need to touch her all over, reassure himself that she truly was okay, overrode everything else.

Cradling her head in his hands, he tilted her face up to him. “Zoe,” he rasped, then took her mouth in a deep, searching kiss.

She slid a hand into his hair, fingers clenching tight as her lips parted. His tongue delved inside to stroke hers, his heart beating wildly as he tasted her.

Hunger roared through him, fueling the possessiveness warring with the need to protect. He gently rolled her to her back, kissed his way down her chin, her neck, breathing in her clean, sweet scent.

A sudden lump formed in his throat.
My precious raven
. What the hell would he have done if he’d lost her? She was the light to his darkness, filling his life with joy and love. She was everything and he needed her so much he could never put it into words.

With a soft sound of need she arched her back, pushing her breasts up toward him. He could feel the heat rising beneath her skin. “Touch me,” she begged. “I need you to touch me.”

He’d meant to comfort and soothe her, not turn her on, but with how revved up he was there was no way he could refuse that plea.

Cupping the soft mounds in his hands, he heard her swift intake of breath, saw her bite her lip in the dimness. Still sore, and a little bigger than normal if he wasn’t mistaken. He gentled his hold, spread his fingers out to cradle them and lowered his head to rub his mouth over their softness, one after the other.

Zoe squirmed on the bed, both her hands drawing his head down. “Please,” she whispered.

“All right, baby, I know.” Leaning down, he pressed a gentle kiss to the top of each before letting his tongue glide over the hard nipples.

She gasped and lifted up more. “Just…gentle.”

He remembered. Right now was all about taking care of her. The way he would for the rest of his life, if she’d have him. Because there was no way he was waiting to make her his forever after this.

Lapping gently at one hard peak, he was rewarded by her tiny cry of pleasure and her fingers digging into his scalp, a silent plea for more. Her skin smelled like the lemon sugar soap he’d used on her in the bath. Reining in the raging need to take her, he worshipped her sensitive flesh with his lips and tongue until she was writhing and pushing his head down her body.

He knew what she wanted, was dying to give it to her. No sex, but they both needed at least this much. The intimacy of him tasting her, pleasuring her with his mouth.

At her belly he paused and rubbed his face against her skin. Her stomach was still flat but soon it would start to swell as their baby grew. A miracle. He pressed kisses along it, played with the dangly bat-shaped belly button piercing she wore, then moved down to the smooth, sweet place between her legs.

Zoe spread her thighs for him, the muscles there already trembling with the force of her need. “Clay…”

He closed his hands around her hips. “Lie still for me, raven. I’ve got you.”

She whimpered but did as he said. The scent of her desire was making his mouth water. Clay bent and kissed that soft, slick flesh, licked tenderly.

“Ah!” Her grip on his hair tightened, the muscles in her thighs and belly pulling taut.

“Shhh,” he whispered, splaying a hand over her abdomen to keep her still. He slid his tongue into her warmth, savoring her taste, reveled in her soft cry and the bite of her nails in his scalp.

I love you, he told her with each caress of his tongue.
Love you so much
.

Pulling his tongue out, he slid it up to caress her clit, all swollen with need. With the tip he drew tiny circles and spirals around it, tender licks alternated with burying his tongue deep inside her warmth while she squirmed in his grip. As she grew hotter he slid his hands up her body to play with her nipples, gently, in consideration of their soreness.

Her moans grew louder, more needy, the change in her breathing telling him she was close.

“Clay, I need—”

“Shhh.” He knew exactly what she needed.

He lowered one hand between her thighs to gently ease two fingers partway inside her, carefully stroked her G-spot in time with the rhythm of his tongue, slow and sweet against her clit.

“
Yes
. Baby, don’t stop…” Her voice was tight, breathless.

He couldn’t stop even if he’d wanted to. She was like a drug and he couldn’t get enough of her. The thought of ever having to live without her tore him up inside. She was his, dammit, and his alone. He already had a plan, was going to do it right, surprise her as soon as everything settled down.

His cock throbbed, his arousal level so high he felt light-headed. Zoe cried out, her inner muscles contracting around his fingers as her orgasm hit. She never held back with him in bed, totally uninhibited in her response, always letting him know what she wanted and needed, giving as much as she took.

He groaned as she came for him, sweet and perfect against his tongue and fingers, waited until she relaxed before lifting his head, his fingers still partway inside her.

Zoe opened her eyes, rolled her head on the pillow to stare down at him, satisfaction and love glowing in her gaze. “I needed that,” she said on a contented sigh.

“Me too.”

One side of her mouth lifted. “But I’m not done yet.”

He started to shake his head. He wanted inside her so bad, but… Right now he wanted to hold her tight, stroke her hair while she fell asleep. She was always so giving with him, in and out of bed. She deserved the same from him and he wanted to show her that her needs came before his. “We can’t.”

“I know. So come up here and straddle me instead.” She licked her lips, her gaze sliding down to his aching cock, and he repressed a shudder.

“Zo…” He was dying for what she was offering, to forge that most intimate connection with her. And she knew it.

“Come up here,” she repeated, her eyes pleading. “I’m hungry for you, too.”

When he hesitated for a second, she grew impatient. Sitting up, she reached for his hips and tried to drag him upward.

He automatically grabbed her wrists to still her. “Lie down.”

Her golden eyes glowed up at him in the dimness. Cat eyes. Sultry and mysterious. “Then come up here and let me taste you.”

God help him, he couldn’t say no. Not when she’d almost been taken from him tonight. Not when he knew she craved claiming him this way.

Heart pounding against his ribs, cock so hard it hurt, he slid a thigh across her body and settled on his knees above her, straddling her chest. He was still holding her hands, but that didn’t stop her from raising her head with a hungry little hum in the back of her throat, her soft lips brushing across the sensitive crown of his erection.

“You know what I want,” she whispered against the soft skin.

Yeah, he did. A show of dominance, because it turned her on to surrender to him.
And because she knew he craved it as much as she did.

Hell.

He transferred both her wrists to one hand, held them above her head in a gentle but firm grip, then reached down to grip the base of his erection. Zoe lowered her head to the pillow and licked her lips once more as she waited, her gaze riveted on his cock.

This was way more than just physical, for both of them. Clay could see the same wild, desperate need he felt to connect this way reflected in her gaze when she looked up at him.

Unable to stand it a moment longer, he gave her what they both wanted and guided the head to her waiting mouth. Those soft, luscious lips parted around the crown, her tongue darting out to tease him.

Clay sucked in a breath, his entire body going taut. It was so fucking hot, how she enjoyed sucking him off, but this time even more so because of how amped up he was. He was driven by the need to mark his woman, take the pleasure she so freely offered, and be claimed by her in turn.

Because the surrender went both ways. He was hers, every part of him, the good and the bad, for better or worse.

But something felt off. He loved exerting his control during sex but right now this position felt fundamentally wrong. He wanted to give, not take.

Releasing her wrists, he eased from her mouth and turned so that he was sitting with his back against the headboard, her head in his lap.

Zoe rested her cheek on his thigh and took him back into her mouth. His hips lifted when her lips closed around him, a rough groan tearing from his chest. He cradled her head in his hands, caressed her hair and scalp the way he knew she loved.

The soft swirl of her tongue nearly undid him. He lifted his hips a little more, pressing deeper into her mouth.

Scalding pleasure blasted through him. His head dropped back on a deep moan, all his muscles trembling. God, she destroyed him like this. So sexy, so open and giving.

Lifting his head, he forced his eyes open and watched as she sucked at him. Slow, luxurious pulls of her mouth, erotic swirls of her tongue, her cat-eyes drinking in his every reaction, her love and need for him reflected in her gaze.

Clay let her see what she did to him, let the pleasure wash through his system, fill him up until the need to come beat at him with every heartbeat. A tender unraveling.

“God, Zo,” he gritted out. His heart was pounding out of control. “More, baby. Swallow me.”

Holding his gaze, she took him deeper. Swallowed. And he was done for.

Release punched through him, hard and fast. Hands fisting her hair he let out a throttled roar, threw his head back and savored every second of sweet ecstasy she gave him with each pull of her mouth. When the pulses faded at last he was weak, trembling all over.

Panting for breath, he sagged back against the headboard, gently cupped her jaw as he withdrew from her mouth then shimmied down onto his back to pull her atop him. She made a murmuring sound and wound her arms around him, melted under the kiss he gave her.

He kissed her deep and slow, tasting both of them, the driving need to imprint himself on her still powerful. She was so damn strong and loving, and all his.

Gonna make you mine forever soon, raven.

But he didn’t want to spoil the surprise he had planned.

After a few minutes kissing all over her face, he lowered his head to the pillow and looked at her. Her eyes were drowsy now, her expression telling him she was more than satisfied, at least for the moment.

Holding her close like this filled him with awe and gratitude. He knew she’d reach for him again before the night was out though, and a dozen ideas about how he could give her more pleasure played in his head.

“My gorgeous raven,” he murmured. He loved her so much it made him ache inside.

A sleepy smile curved her mouth. “My gorgeous hero.”

Some hero, he thought in derision. He hadn’t done anything to save her tonight, but he was glad she saw him that way. Because he would always do everything he could to protect her.

Rolling to his side, Clay brought her with him, the feel of her naked body snuggled against his soothing the last of the jagged edges of fear inside him. His fingers drifted up and down her silky spine, slid through her long hair. “Sleep now.”

“Hmmm.” She cuddled closer, kissed his chest. “Love you.”

“Love you too. Forever.” No one was taking her from him. And no one was ever threatening her safety again.

He held her close as she drifted off, her head resting over the heart she owned completely.

Clay awoke when his cell started ringing on the bathroom counter where he’d left it earlier.

Zoe sat up but he stayed her with a hand on her shoulder and rolled out of bed, rushed to the bathroom. The caller ID showed DeLuca’s number. “Bauer.”