Authors: Tori Carrington
R
EGINA’S LIPS WERE
the softest thing his mouth had ever tasted…
Linc tilted her chin up so he might kiss her more fully, amazed at the way his heartbeat sped up and his stomach tightened at the simple contact. Heat, sure and swift, rushed through him.
His cell phone vibrated against his hip.
Damn.
She laughed quietly. “Did the world just move? Or is that your cell?”
He cursed under his breath as he checked the display: Darius.
“I have to take this.”
Regina slid over and he got up, pacing a few feet away before answering.
The last thing Linc wanted to do was leave Regina when she was feeling so vulnerable. But as he took the call, he knew he had to. He’d been neglecting his responsibilities over the past couple of days.
Why, then, was he feeling as if his responsibilities were out of whack and had been for a good long time?
“Can you look after it?” Darius asked. They’d run into a problem at a particularly popular downtown club where they supplied security personnel.
Generally there was no question. And there wasn’t now. “Of course.”
“Thanks, buddy. Call if you run into problems. Oh, wait a minute—I almost forgot who I was talking to. Of course there won’t be any problems.”
Words along those lines usually amused him. But not tonight. He closed his cell and stood for a long moment, his back to Regina. He didn’t want to leave her.
He turned to find her with her own cell to her ear where she still sat curled up on the couch. He stood motionless, mesmerized by the sight of her.
“Mama? It’s Reggie. How are you?” An awkward laugh. “Dumb question. I’m sorry you’re in pain, Mama. The doctor says you’re hanging in there. I need you to fight for me, you hear?” A long pause. “I was telling…a friend of mine about you and magic hour. About how you and Daddy first met. Remember? That was always one of my favorite stories…”
Linc felt oddly out of place listening to her side of the conversation. Which was interesting, considering he’d eavesdropped on nearly every one of her telephone calls over the past week, as well as knew her every move.
“Anyway,” she said after sharing a couple of other memories. “I just wanted to tell you I’ll see you soon. Get well. I love you, Mama.”
Linc went into the kitchen where he could still hear her as she talked to the nurse, thanking her for holding the phone to her mother’s ear and inquiring as to how everything was going. Apparently there was no change. Which could be a good or a bad thing. Only time would tell.
He filled a glass from the tap.
“You have to leave?” she asked from the doorway.
He emptied the bit of water he hadn’t drunk and then placed the glass in the sink. “Yes.”
“Will you be back?”
Her softly said question tugged at something that had nothing to do with sex, yet everything to do with it. “If you want me to.”
She dropped her gaze and smiled. “I want you to.”
“Then I’ll be back.”
He stepped in front of her, smoothing her hair from her face. Even without a lick of makeup she was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Especially without a lick of makeup.
He kissed her lingeringly.
Long minutes later, he groaned. “I better go or I might never get out of here.”
She laughed quietly. “I’ll try not to fall asleep while you’re gone.”
“If it’s too late, I’ll call first.”
She shook her head. “No. Wake me.”
Wake her.
He recalled the other night when he’d wanted to do just that. Now she was giving him permission to.
He let himself out of her apartment and strode toward his SUV, determined to get this job out of the way as soon as possible…
D
ARIUS HAD BEEN RIGHT
to call him. The scene outside the Cave was utter chaos. Squad cars’ flashing lights cast the rowdy crowd in white-and-red shadows. A popular national rock band that had just hit big had been scheduled to appear that night and the owner had requested extra personnel.
Apparently not enough.
Linc climbed out of his double-parked SUV and passed like a bullet through the crowd.
If outside was chaos, inside was hell. If everyone came out of this alive, they’d be lucky.
He slapped his hand on the shoulder of Dominic Falzone, one of Lazarus’s top recruits.
“What’s going on?”
“Damn crowd charged the building. A couple got trampled.” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder where Linc made out a girl and a guy sitting on the floor of a hall leading to personnel offices while a paramedic attended to them. “We got the band out of here a half hour ago, but the people won’t leave.”
He scanned the overcrowded club interior. They were easily a hundred over capacity. The fire marshal was going to have the owner’s balls in a vise if they didn’t get them out before the police got a look inside the joint.
“You try the lights?”
“Of course. They only yelled louder.”
Patrons were squeezed together, arms raised, chanting for the return of the band. A glance at the bar found waitresses standing on top of it, no room for them to maneuver on the floor.
“We stopped serving when we got the band out,” Dominic said.
What an unqualified mess.
Still, in the madness swirling around him, Linc thought about calm and Regina. He wanted nothing more than to be back at her place right then, losing himself in her wetness…
The word caught and held his attention.
Dominic asked, “Shall we try crowd-control-scenario one?”
“No. Too large. We’ve got to get the crowd outside to disperse before even thinking about moving these guys out.”
Dominic nodded. “What do you propose?”
“Band nearby?”
“Yeah. They’re in a limo a few blocks up in case they can make it back in.”
“That won’t be happening. Get them back to their hotel. Then tell the limo to circle back here. Stop a block up.”
Dominic squinted at him. “I don’t understand.”
“You will. Just do it.” He patted him on the back and then made his way through the crowd toward the main bar where he conferred with the owner, sharing what he had in mind.
Fifteen minutes later, he got the call that the limo was parked outside.
“Good,” he said to Dominic on his cell. “Now go outside and spark the rumor that the band is inside the limo…”
His plan worked as intended. The people waiting outside ran to meet the limo, leaving the area outside the club free.
As soon as he received the thumbs-up, Linc nodded for the owner and staff to leave.
Then he reached for the fire alarm, which activated a vigorous sprinkler system and loud alarm. He stood unblinking, watching as the crowd safely made its way for the doors, getting soaked in the process.
R
EGINA COULDN’T BE
sure how much time had passed when she blinked her eyes open to the darkness of her bedroom. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours. She moved and the novel she’d been reading fell onto the floor. She frowned at it. Damn. She’d fallen asleep. Again.
The clock told her it was after eleven.
She swung her legs over the side of the bed, still fully dressed. That’s funny. She’d been reading so she’d had the lamp on. She couldn’t remember switching it off.
She heard a sound from the other room. Goose bumps rushed up one arm and over to the other.
Linc?
For reasons she couldn’t fully form, she had the sinking sensation it wasn’t him. For one thing, he never seemed to make a noise when he moved. Which said a lot considering how big he was. For another, there were no lights on anywhere in the apartment insofar as she could tell. And she definitely remembered leaving one on so Linc could see when he came back.
She quietly got up from the bed, cringing when the bedsprings gave a quiet groan.
Silence.
Had she been imagining things? Could the sounds have come from the next apartment rather than inside hers? Or was someone outside perhaps working on their car?
She stood stock-still, listening, hoping she could hear any noise over the sound of her own hammering heartbeat.
There! Definitely a sound coming from the other room.
Her breathing sounded loud in her own ears. She looked around for something with which to whack the unknown visitor. She found nothing short of the lamp. And even that was too big and unwieldy to consider using.
Taking short, measured steps, she tried to recall her self-defense classes, but all that came to mind were the boxing techniques she’d learned most recently. To keep from hurting herself, she silently removed her rings and stuffed them into her front jeans pocket.
She stopped to the side of the doorway, gathering her wits about her and drawing in a silent breath. Then she peeked around the side, trying to make out shapes in the other room.
A figure stood near the window apparently going through her books.
Linc? No. This person was shorter, smaller, but obviously a man.
She eased back against the wall and closed her eyes. What to do, what to do, what to do…
Her cell!
She stared at the bedside table where the phone lay. She ordered her legs to take her to it so she could call 911. But the limbs refused to cooperate.
Then, as she watched, the instrument lit up and gave a shrill ring.
Regina’s heart nearly leaped from her chest.
She charged the nightstand even as noises grew louder from the other room. She fumbled with the phone, noting Linc’s name in the display before hearing her front door slam.
“Hurry!” she shouted upon answering. “There’s someone in the house!”
L
INC WANTED TO PUNCH
something. He didn’t care what. Just so long as he could experience the satisfaction of his fist hitting a hard surface.
He’d been three blocks away when he’d made the phone call to Regina to check if she still wanted him to come over, but it might as well have been three miles. He’d stepped on the gas, but by the time he arrived, whoever had been in her apartment was long gone and she was on the phone with 911.
Now, an hour later, the responding officers had just left and Linc was so upset he didn’t think he could sit down.
“Thanks for coming so quickly,” Regina said quietly from where she stood leaning against the doorway to the kitchen rubbing her arms.
He hadn’t come quickly enough, to his way of thinking.
In fact, he should have never left.
He glanced around at the mess the intruder had made. Books were strewn over the floor, her sofa had been slashed, two plants had been turned over.
“I wonder what he was looking for,” she whispered.
He knew what the guy was looking for, namely, the money from the bank robbery. Moreover, he knew exactly who the guy was.
He searched her spooked face, wishing he could erase the fear there.
He didn’t need to ask her any questions. The police had done that while he listened. Even if he hadn’t heard her answers, he wouldn’t have needed to say a word.
She’d left the door unlocked for him.
Instead, Billy Johnson had used it to gain access to her apartment…
He was thankful she didn’t appear to know it had been Johnson. A thought that left him with mixed feelings.
“Do you keep any valuables in the house?” he asked. “Anything anyone would know about?”
Her hand fluttered to the side of her throat. He followed the movement, wanting to place his mouth where her fingers touched. “I don’t have any valuables.” She gestured toward the small LCD television that was no larger than a computer monitor. “He didn’t even touch the TV.”
Of course “he” hadn’t. Mostly because “he” had been looking for the money he was convinced she’d taken from him.
Linc moved toward the door.
“Where are you going?” she asked, pushing away from the wall anxiously.
“The applicable question is, where are we going?”
“And the answer?” she asked as she gathered her purse, which had been rifled through.
“To Lazarus to pick up some security equipment I can install.”
“Tonight?”
“Tonight.”
Her smile was faint, her gratitude evident as she preceded him through the open door.
I
T WAS WELL
after 3:00 a.m. She’d sat in Linc’s SUV while he’d gone inside an impressive compound just outside town and then they’d returned to her place. While she cleaned up, he installed a dead bolt on her door, some sort of complicated locks and sensors on her windows, and an alarm system with a security code she had to key in every time she came and went. She couldn’t imagine how much the sophisticated equipment would cost on the open market, but she did offer to pay him in installments for the value. He’d refused.
So she’d gone about showing her appreciation in a completely different way…
Now, after two hours of hot sex, they lay back in bed, Regina finding it almost impossible to believe just a short time ago she’d been terrified, afraid she’d never feel safe in her own apartment again.
She stretched from where she lay stomach down against the mattress, running her bare leg against his, her sex swollen and on fire…and hungry for more.
She’d never experienced this sort of insatiable desire for someone before. No matter how long they went, she wanted more. And still more after that.
“Damn, what you do to me,” he murmured as if hearing her thoughts.
She hummed her response and leaned her hip against his. She felt boneless, completely and utterly satisfied.
She felt his hand on her bottom, the heat of his touch radiating everywhere.
Oh, boy…
She wiggled suggestively.
“You can’t possibly want more.” His voice was rough.
She hummed again.
“Aw, hell…you’re going to be the death of me…”
His hand nudged toward the apex of her thighs from behind and she caught her breath. “Yeah, but what a way to go, huh?”
Linc rolled toward her and up to all fours. He sheathed himself, nudged her knees apart with his and then grasped her hips. She all too willingly lifted to her knees, sighing when she felt his tongue against her back, igniting tiny little flames everywhere it lapped. She stretched her neck, giving him access to the nape. He bit down slightly and she gasped, the chance to catch her breath denied her when he positioned himself against her from behind.
She moaned, wanting him inside her. A wish he didn’t immediately grant her as he curved a hand around her hip and found her clit from the front, giving a gentle pinch.
Regina threw her head back and raised so her arms supported her, giving her the leverage she needed to bear back against him. But rather than give her what she wanted, he compensated for the move, continuing to stroke her from the front and run the thick, hard length of his erection between her swollen folds from behind.
She swallowed hard, her entire body seeming to tremble from head to foot.
“Please…” Her voice sounded foreign to her own ears.
She rocked forward and back in rhythm to his strokes, attempting to force entrance whenever the tip of his erection rested near the core of her wetness.
Finally he repositioned himself where she wanted to feel him most and entered her slightly.
She moaned in sweet abandon…then groaned when he withdrew again.
By the time he entered to the hilt, her womb contracted and she reached crisis level. But rather than stop, Linc continued his deep strokes, drawing out her orgasm and coaxing her back to join him.
Regina had never felt so possessed by something larger than herself. So at the mercy of her emotions, sheer, blissful sensation. She barely recognized herself in the woman she’d become, one given over to abandon, unfettered, unleashed.
She lifted until she was kneeling, reaching behind her to grasp Linc’s hips. She turned her mouth into his kiss, the world little more than a hazy red cloud around them.
Linc took advantage of her new position, curving one hand up to cup her breast, the other to stroke her externally even as he continued internally.
Regina never wanted it to end…never wanted him to withdraw…to stop. She wanted them to remain as they were, right that moment, forever.
He rocked into her even as she arched into him, tension swirling and tightening deep in her belly, with each pinch of her nipple, every flick of her clit, the shear sensation of him filling her.
He groaned into her ear, his hand coming up to cup her chin possessively, holding her still as his rhythm increased. She arched her back to allow him deeper access. And when he came, she came with him.