Lucy Monroe - Satisfaction Guaranteed

He didn’t look appreciably cheered by her admission. “I feel like a green agent lately.”

“Why?”

“I should have let Prescott walk with you in the maze. Nothing could happen to you with all of us so close by, but I couldn’t stand the idea of you being alone with him like that. Even for a little bit.”

“Are you sure you aren’t just getting into your role so deep, you’re internalizing projected feelings?”

“You thinking about taking up psychology, Sunshine?”

“I read about actors doing that…even writers feeling the emotions of their characters so deeply it affects their moods.”

“I’m not an actor and we hired a ghostwriter to generate the books for my Ethan Grange persona.”

“But you do play a role…you’re playing one right now.”

“No, Beth, right now, I’m Ethan Crane and I’m sitting on the sofa with a woman who drives me insane with desire and the need to protect her. That’s not a role, that’s the real deal.”

Beth didn’t want to believe him. Because if she did, her defenses were going to crumble. But his green eyes glowed with sincerity. His body radiated both a heat that wrapped around her and a sense of security she could not dismiss.

He meant it. He wasn’t talking about forever. Neither of them was. But he was talking about having something more than physical lust in the here and now. He was talking about feelings mirrored in her own heart. The case had brought them together. But it was genuine feeling that kept them both from being able to ignore the intimacy between them.

She licked her lips, feeling wary, nervous, and filled with scared hope. “When you touch me, things go a little crazy.”

“When I don’t touch you, I go crazy.”

“I don’t want to be responsible for you losing your focus.”

“I’m not used to these feelings. I’ll admit that. I want things with you that I haven’t wanted with another woman, but I’m learning to deal with that. Pretending the feelings aren’t there won’t work.”

“Pretense is never as powerful as reality.” She should know. She was an expert on fantasy.

He moved so both his hands cupped her neck. “I’m learning that.”

“I’m scared, Ethan.”

“Why, baby?”

“I don’t want to love you.”

“You said that before.”

“And you said sex wasn’t love.”

His thumbs brushed along her jawline, tilting her head just a little. “It’s not.”

“It feels like it.” The words were out before she knew they were on the way, but she wouldn’t take them back.

Neither of them was going to hide from this truth.

“Then we’ll deal with the emotions when and if they come. I’ve never run from trouble, Sunshine, and you’re no scaredy-cat yourself.”

She wondered how he’d worked that one out. “Self-preservation isn’t cowardice.”

“Sometimes it is.”

“I’m not a coward.”

“No. You’re not.”

“You’re too good, you know that?”

“Am I?” Even those two words were seduction personified.

“Yes.” She met his gaze, the hunger in his eyes matching her own. “Kiss me, Ethan. Kiss me like you mean it.”

“I do mean it, baby.”

There was no time to answer because his lips were on hers, possessing her with a tender determination that felt different than anything they’d shared before. But then it was different. They were both admitting that it was more than physical. That love might very well be lurking beneath the explosive desire they shared.

The woman she’d known herself to be a month ago would have run from that knowledge and the possible ramifications it could have on her heart and on her future. She’d learned painful lessons from her parents and Alan. But that Beth had not yet known the depth of Ethan’s passion, or her own. Even so, she hadn’t been able to walk away from Alan and what he represented.

Yet the feelings she’d had for him were a misty reflection of the deep well of emotion Ethan stirred inside her. She had no hope of turning her back on him and what he was offering, but she wouldn’t hide from the truth this time either. She wasn’t going to weave fantasies in her head about the kind of life they could have together.

Ethan was an agent. First, last, and always. She wouldn’t ask him to give that up and she’d never make the mistake of assuming he was going to. If they had a future. And she would not pretend he’d offered that either. He’d used the phrase for now more than once. He wasn’t thinking in terms of a life together, but he also wasn’t dismissing the possibility.

He was being honest with her and she could be no less with herself.

She wanted and needed this man and all he would give her.

He lifted his head. “I feel like you’re not with me on this, Beth.”

She’d been responding, but he’d sensed her mind was elsewhere. He was so in tune with her, it was scary.

She smiled. “I was thinking.”

“About us?”

“Yes?”

“Good thoughts or bad thoughts?”

“Mostly good.”

He brushed his lips over her eyes, closing them. “I’m an overachiever, Beth.”

“I noticed that about you.”

“I’m not going to settle for anything less than great thoughts…” He slid his lips along her cheek and bit her earlobe gently. “Spectacular thoughts…” He licked her ear, sending shivers along her nerve endings. “Deeply erotic and pleasurable thoughts.”

“You aren’t?” she asked on a breathy whisper, concentrating on the feel of his mouth on her and keeping her eyes shut so the world she knew was only where their bodies connected.

“No.” His lips were back to playing with hers. “Now, think about this.”

This kiss was pure carnality. He wanted her thinking about nothing but the passion igniting between them and used his considerable expertise to guarantee it. His tongue was hot and tantalizing against hers, taking possession of her mouth with a marauder’s confidence. She’d never kissed a man who could make her feel the things Ethan did with his mouth.

It went beyond the physical response of her body to something deep inside her that responded to him as if he was the other half of herself.

As the kiss went on and on and on…she did what she’d been aching to do since he took his shirt off. She smoothed her hands over the hair-roughened contours of his chest, memorizing every indentation and muscular formation with her mind as well as her fingertips. He was so perfectly, utterly masculine. And she loved that. She felt like Eternal Woman simply from touching him.

He shuddered, making a very male sound of appreciation against her lips as she caressed him. His skin was hot satin against her hands. It had only been a couple of days since they’d made love, but she felt like it had been forever. She was so hungry for him. Ravenous. Starving. Her nerve endings each craving the food of their mutual passion.

She pushed him backward, straddling his hard hips and aggressively responding to his kiss, all the while her fingers kneading him like a cat establishing its territory. His body shook with laughter as if he found her assertiveness funny, but she didn’t care. He wasn’t pulling away and this was what she needed.

She rubbed herself over the hard bulge straining against the seam of his trousers and his laughter abruptly ceased-to be replaced by a low, feral groan. He gripped her hips and surged up toward her, caressing her sweet spot through the layers of fabric with a long glide. She rode him like that, fighting the guide of his hands, wanting to set her own pace.

He let her go and she rocked zealously against him. She was dimly aware of his hands on the zip of her dress and then she was naked from the waist up, her bodice bunched up around her hips. Air cooler than her body brushed breasts swollen with desire and nipples beaded with almost painful desire.