Robyn Grady - At The Playboy's Command

With her breasts brushing his chest, she kissed him until he didn’t know which way was up. With each passing second he only knew he wanted to feel her velvety warmth wrapped moist and snug around him.

“Maybe we should think about a condom,” she said as the kiss slowly broke.

He’d planned to enjoy foreplay for a while longer but with her mouth working down his throat again and his fuse near ready to blow, he’d go with her “protection now” plan.

Stretching, he lifted the package he’d set earlier on the bedside table. He ripped the wrapping with his teeth and rolled the condom on with Elizabeth on her knees, hovering like a vision above him. His hand was barely away before she took his sheathed length and, maneuvering her hips, gradually eased down and over him.

Sucking in a breath, Daniel grabbed her rump and held her still. A line of sweat slid from his temple as that internal time bomb ticked and pulsed loud and hard. Eyes squeezed shut, he groaned out a short laugh.

“You want to embarrass me?” Make me finish too fast.

“I want to enjoy you. I want you to enjoy me.” With his hands on her rear, she began to move. “You have more condoms, don’t you?”

Eyes still closed, he smiled. “Oh, yeah.”

Her palm slid over his wet forehead as her hips rotated in a slow, sensual circle and, for the first time in living history, Daniel let the bedroom reins slip from his grasp. He’d been sexually physical with the opposite sex in all the best ways. But gazing up into Elizabeth’s dreamy face now, something fundamental shifted inside of him. And as the burn of imminent release turned from red to glowing white hot, Daniel was helpless to deny it.

She was unlike anyone he’d ever been with before. Unlike anyone he’d ever met. As his touch trailed up her slender waist and he weighed the perfect curve of each breast, Daniel closed his eyes again and concentrated on the pure heaven about to break.

Thank goodness they had all night.

A noise in the late-night hours woke Daniel from a deep sleep. Blinking into the misty light, he wondered where he was. It came back not in a blinding flash so much as a welcome warm rush. With her perfumed scents drifting over him, he moved carefully onto his side. Elizabeth lay nestled close, curled up, her hands a pillow beneath her cheek.

That warmth stirred and became something deeper and hotter in his chest. He felt the smile on his face as he reached to gently touch her hair, fair and silver threads splayed out in the lifting shadows.

And then he heard the noise again and an unsettling feeling gripped him. His senses shifted to concentrate. When another scuff sounded, directly below at the front door, he sat bolt upright.

Elizabeth made a sleepy, humming sound and shifted her arms to stretch above her head. Her eyelids fluttered, her gaze found his then her drowsy smile dawned in the dark. Her voice was a sultry drawl that sent his sexual antennae aquiver.

“Hey,” she murmured, “I remember you.”

He wanted to wrap her up and kiss the inviting words right out of her mouth, but he couldn’t dismiss those noises. It was probably a coyote bumping around, but Daniel couldn’t stop a snapshot of Bradford Price from creeping into his brain.

Blackmail … Baby …

He couldn’t shake the unsettled feeling. That noise again.

Heart lurching, he threw off the covers then heard Elizabeth shift, sit up.

“Where are you going?”

“Nowhere. Just outside.” On his feet, Daniel found his trousers. He wouldn’t bother with the shirt.

“What’s outside?”

He held up a warning hand. “Just stay put.”

“Daniel, what is it?”

“I don’t know. Probably nothing.” He came back to dot a kiss on her crown. “I want to make sure.”

“Well, you’re not going alone.”

“For God’s sake, Beth, do as I say.”

Daniel realized he’d used the shorter, more familiar derivative of her name at the same time she pressed her lips together and threw back the cover, too.

“No.”

He wanted to stride off ahead, but, man or woman, this was her property. He couldn’t stop her, unless he manacled her to the bed. Hell, that might not even hold her.

On the way out, she grabbed a silk robe off the chaise and, with her lashing the tie, they double-timed it down the stairs. At the bottom, in the dark, she caught his shoulder.

“I’ll get a rifle,” she whispered.

Daniel recoiled. Not if he could help it. He didn’t want a potentially bad situation made worse. And he knew from experience, where guns were involved, things could always get worse.

He shooed her around and close behind. “Just don’t go doing anything brave.”

Gingerly, he unlocked the door and, as the cool air brushed his skin, he cast a wary glance around the quiet grounds. All seemed routine. The night was tranquil. The low lawn lights shone across strips of grounds. And still, unease rippled up his spine.

Then, way off down the driveway, an engine ignited. A quick flash of headlights as the vehicle hit the main road and then the rumble faded into the distance. Cursing, Daniel thumped the doorjamb. He’d known it wasn’t his imagination.

Elizabeth stepped forward and nudged his ribs. “Told you there was nothing to go get all edgy about.”

He cocked an eyebrow at her.

“You do realize trespassers just left your property, right?”

Maybe someone who was aware of her sympathies with Abigail’s camp and her Yankee architect. Maybe someone who, under the cloak of night, wanted to show Elizabeth she was backing the wrong side.

But Elizabeth only laughed. “They weren’t trespassers, silly. Don’t you see something missing?”

Daniel had taken a breath, ready to tell her to go back inside so he could call the sheriff, when the truth of what she’d said slapped him upside the head. Turning around, he examined the lawn and sank into himself. Of course, that’s what didn’t fit. Those blasted flamingos were gone.

Thank God. And for more than one reason.

Nonetheless, he wouldn’t shake the feeling that something big, bad and unlawful was going down in Royal. Something gritty he wanted nothing to do with. Elizabeth, either.

While he scowled around the parameters, she threaded an arm through his and gave it a tug. “C’mon, cowboy. Let’s go inside.”

Giving in, he turned, but stopped again when his bare foot met with an object that shouldn’t have been there. Frowning, he crouched and collected an envelope. On the front was handwritten scrawl.

To Elizabeth Milton.

Grunting, he flipped it over. “Appears someone’s desperate to get in touch.”

Elizabeth slipped the envelope from his hand, ripping open the seal as they moved into the house. After flicking on some lights, she slid a single sheet out. She read to herself, every so often nodding solemnly.

As the seconds ticked by, Daniel craned to have a look.

“Who’s it from?”

She waved the letter as if it were nothing more than a local flyer. “A friend.”

“What friend?” he demanded, following as she flicked on more lights and headed down the hall.

“I, er, don’t exactly know.”

Daniel’s hackles went up. If she was in trouble, he wanted to know. And he wanted to know now.

Stopping in the kitchen, he set his fists low on his hips. “I think you’d better tell me.”

At the granite island counter, she sized him up as if suddenly, after spending hours of giving herself so completely, she wasn’t so sure she could trust him. But then she exhaled. Her slender shoulders in the black silk robe slumped and, setting the letter down, she grabbed the empty coffeepot.

“Someone needs help.”

His hands lowered. Now they were getting somewhere.