He's the One Page 12

  When he dropped her off later that night, her lips were still tingling from his kisses and her body was throbbing from unsatisfied needs. From the pained expression on his face, she guessed he was experiencing the same thing.

  She didn’t ask him inside, though.

  He’d made it clear he wanted to wait and she liked what that said about his feelings for her.

  After the first night of torture, Calder was careful not to allow the passion between him and Tabby to flare out of control. He kept the kissing light and their time alone together minimal, which was why he hadn’t taken her to his home yet. Even his well-honed self-control wasn’t up to the temptation.

  The only time they’d come close to making love again was when he’d presented her with the gift of the painting that had so enamored her from the gallery. She’d gotten all teary-eyed and kissed him. They were half naked and panting before he’d been able to rein in his libido.

  She’d gotten testy about it, but he could see she liked knowing she had such a strong impact on him.

  The unwitting temptress was going to be his soon, or he was going to go stark staring mad.

  She seemed to love everything they did together, but when he invited her to the opera, her eyes lit up like stars on a perfectly clear night. When he arrived to pick her up, it was all he could do to take her out to the car and not ravish her right there. She’d donned a silk dress the color of coral flame that accentuated her voluptuous curves. Her green eyes sparkled in contrast and she’d left her hair down in an alluring curtain around her shoulders.

  He was painfully hard the entire drive into Los Angeles. By the time intermission came, his erection was past painful. It was a pulsing ache that demanded satisfaction. He’d listened to her sighs, watched her sensual reaction to the performance, and been tormented by her scent, which revealed an arousal he wasn’t sure she was even conscious of.

  He led her into the pavilion’s reception area, the teeming mass of fellow attendees doing nothing to curb the primal need roaring through him.

  Without considering whether she wanted to go or not, he led her upstairs and into a small hall that was blessedly quiet. He stopped at the first door to his left. He tried the handle. It was locked. Using techniques he’d learned early in his career, he picked the lock and pushed the door open. It was a meeting room.

  He tugged her inside, took a quick look around, but saw no signs it would be, or had been, occupied tonight. He shut the door and locked it again.

  Other than the illumination from the streetlights outside, filtering in through the almost closed blinds, it was dark. It was private. And that was all he needed.

  “What are you doing? What’s the matter?” she demanded, her voice soft in the darkness around them.

  He didn’t answer, but took her lips with an animalistic growl that should have shocked him. This was not his normal technique, but she brought out things in him no other woman ever had.

  She kissed him back, her mouth eager and pliant against his, her breathing erratic.

  Cupping her sumptuously curved bottom through the slick fabric of her dress, he lifted her against him until he no longer had to bend his head to kiss her. She liked that, and wrapped her arms around his head as if wanting to hold onto him for dear life. Did she think there was any chance he would pull away?

  Not bloody likely.

  He nipped at her lower lip. She whimpered and opened her mouth, inviting him inside. He accepted, sweeping her mouth with his tongue and savoring the flavor that was hers alone. Candy sweet and addictive.

  Her small feet brushed against him, trying to find purchase. She made a frustrated sound when they couldn’t and almost kneed him in the groin, but her lips never stopped devouring his.

  When her knee came perilously close to his sex again, he broke his mouth away. “Wrap your legs around me.”

  She was trying to resume the kiss, oblivious to his demand.

  He avoided her seeking lips and spoke directly into her ear, as he was already pulling the skirt of her dress up. “Your legs, love . . . put them around me.”

  “Oh . . . okay.” She obeyed, moaning with sexy abandon when her panty-covered mound rubbed against his abdomen.

  He exulted in her unrestrained passion and kneaded the round cheeks filling his hands with fingers that actually trembled. It had been so long since sex had been this important or this uncomplicated . . . perhaps it never had been. But she didn’t want anything from him, wasn’t trying to manipulate him in any way, and he wasn’t using her attraction against her, either.

  They were just a man and a woman making love because they wanted each other and that felt incredibly good.

  He kissed her again, and to his delight she started moving her pelvis, pressing the hot apex of her thighs against his torso. He sucked on her tongue and she increased the bucking movements of her lower body. He growled, primal desire coursing through him in a hot rush.

  She matched him perfectly.

  He could smell her arousal, could taste her passion, and he could no more stop himself from sliding his hands under the silk covering her ass than he could stop kissing the glorious creature in his arms. Her skin was softer than the silk that covered it.

  “You’re perfect,” he bit off against her lips.

  She moaned something inarticulate in response.

  When his fingertip delved between her cheeks, she went still again. He adjusted his hold on her so that he could reach farther and then slid one questing finger down to the heated moisture of her core.

  She was slick and swollen—everything a woman should be in her lover’s arms—and he shuddered convulsively with the need to be inside her.

  She whimpered again, the sound so hot and sexy, his dick bobbed against the tightened muscles of his abdomen. Pushing against his finger, she forced him to penetrate her to the first knuckle . . . and then the second. Wet, silken tissues clamped his finger like a vice, and he ate at her lips, caressing her even more deeply with his finger.

  She made a high-pitched, desperate sound and he knew she was close. He wanted her to go over.

  Her legs were locked around him so tightly, breathing was a challenge, but he wouldn’t ask her to relax her hold for anything. He needed her unbridled passion. He would settle for nothing less than the pure honesty of her response, so different than the world he had left behind.

  He moved his hand so his finger slipped out of her silken heat and searched out her swollen clitoris. He swirled and rubbed, then pressed . . . then swirled . . . then pressed again.

  And she came, arching her body, convulsing in pleasure.

  He muffled her cry of completion with his mouth, swallowing it as appreciatively as the finest wine or most decadent dessert known to man.

  Unable to stop, needing as much as she would willingly give, he played her straining body. After only seconds, she convulsed again, throwing her head back, her throat locked on a silent scream and her legs going so tight they threatened to crack his ribs.

  Then the tension in her body snapped and her head fell forward onto his shoulder, her torso resting against his. Sighing breaths shuddered in and out of her body as he cradled her close.

  He kissed her temple, licking the salty sweat there, the silver path of tears from her eyes. “You are amazing, Tabby.”

  “You’re the amazing one, Calder.”

  He didn’t argue. He was still hard as a rock and it was taking everything he had not to throw her down on the tabletop and thrust inside her silky, swollen heat.

  After a few minutes of utter bliss and sheer torture, she unhooked her legs from behind his back. “Let me go.”

  He did as she asked, gently lowering her to the ground and releasing her. She dropped to her knees. At first, he didn’t know if it was because her legs were too weak to hold her, but then she touched the buckle on his belt and he knew what she wanted.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Tabby.”

  “Oh, yes, it is. I want to taste you.�
� For an introverted bookseller, she could sound bossy when she wanted to.

  And he couldn’t begin to pretend he didn’t want to feel her luscious mouth on him. He moved a few feet backward so he could lean against the wall. “I’m all yours.”

  She giggled and the sound entranced him.

  But all thought fled when she undid his pants and pulled his throbbing member free. He thought he was going to come from that simple touch, but he managed to hold on.

  Chapter Five

  She explored him with her fingertips and her tongue, making sexy sounds of pleasure when she licked moisture from his tip.

  She engulfed his head in the heat of her mouth and curled both hands around him. Her movements weren’t practiced, but they were passionate and he bit back the shout of his release in an embarrassingly short time.

  She didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she acted rather proud of herself.

  He couldn’t help smiling. “They rang the second bell for taking your seats.” He had acute hearing, a benefit in his profession. “If we hurry, we’ll be able to watch the second half of the performance.”

  “I’d like that.”

  Later, when he dropped her off at home, she snuggled into him for a good-night kiss.

  “Did you enjoy the opera?” he asked as he pulled away, wanting nothing more than to stay, but there were things they needed to talk about before they took what would be an irrevocable step for him.

  She smiled saucily. “I liked the intermission best.”

  “I did, too, love. Will you come by my house for lunch tomorrow?”

  It was Sunday, the only day her bookshop was closed.

  Her smile fell away from her lips, leaving them looking kissed and vulnerable. “Yes, I think it’s time.”

  Tabby showed up for lunch fifteen minutes early. Calder opened the door on her first knock.

  She didn’t even get a greeting out before he pulled her to him for a passionate kiss.

  He swept her inside and then stepped away from her. “This is every bit as difficult as I thought it would be. Lunch and conversation first. All right, love?”

  She nodded, unable to make her still yearning lips form words.

  They were eating on the deck overlooking his private beach when he broached the subject of his past. “Your friends’ speculation about my past wasn’t far off.”

  “You’re an earl hiding out in America because you don’t want the title?” she quipped.

  “Actually, I am MI6.”

  “Are as in you’re still a spy?” Oh, great. She had fallen in love with a man whose life couldn’t be more different and less likely to meld with her own.

  “At the moment.”

  She swallowed, wishing she could cling to the implication it was a temporary condition. “I see.”

  “I doubt it.”

  She frowned, not liking the amusement lurking in his brown gaze while her heart felt like it was going through the shredder. “Even a small-town bookstore owner knows that trying to make a lasting relationship with a spy is asking for trouble.”

  “So, you finally acknowledge I want more from you than an entrée into your sister’s life or a quick coupling we both forget about soon after the fact?”

  She rolled her eyes. A lot of good that did. “Yes, but I don’t see how that can work. My life is here . . . your life is there.” She waved her hand toward the east. “What are the chances? Unless you want me to move to England?”

  He shook his head and her bleeding heart plummeted. So much for sacrificing her comfortable existence for love.

  “Your life is here. Your bookshop. Your family.”

  “Yes, I know. I’m the one who lives in my skin,” she said with more acerbity than she wanted, but he didn’t need to rub it in.

  “Tabby, I don’t know if I can explain this very well, but I’m not MI6 because I want to be more than anything else in the world.”

  Hope stirred beneath her battered emotions. “Then why are you? It’s not exactly an easy job to come by.”

  “You’d be surprised, or at least I was. I wanted adventure, wanted a career that used both my brain and my brawn, as it were.”

  “And . . .”

  “And I got hired by the organization right out of university. I made agent very quickly and have enjoyed my job, though I’m not necessarily proud of all I’ve done to achieve success.”

  “Like what?” Had he killed people?

  “I seduced women with the intention of procuring information. I developed friendships for the same thing.” He sighed. “I’ve never actually killed anyone, but I have shot two agents from opposing governments.”

  “Does all that bother you?”

  “A little, but I have to be honest . . . not much. I did what I had to do to protect my country.”

  “And now?”

  “Now I’ve met a woman I want more than an adrenaline-pumping career.”

  “Me?”

  “You. Haven’t you figured out yet that you generate more excitement in my life than ferreting out dangerous national secrets?”

  “Oh.” It wasn’t the brightest response, but she was reeling inside from an emotional overload.

  “I’ve been considering settling here in Port Diamond, but whether or not I stay depends on you.”

  She didn’t know what he wanted, what he was asking exactly, but she did know one thing. “I love you, Calder. I want you to stay.”

  There was a blur of movement and then she was being lifted from her chair against a hard, masculine chest. The desperate intensity of his kiss stunned her, and at first she was too taken aback to respond.

  He pulled away, his gaze probing hers. “Tabby?”

  “Calder . . .”

  “You said you loved me?”

  “Oh, yes, I do . . .”

  “You want me. I know you do.”

  She smiled at his arrogance. “Yes.”

  “Now?”

  “As you English blokes are wont to say, not beforetime.”

  He grinned at her mock cockney accent and then frowned. “But you hesitated.”

  She looked coyly up at him, when she’d never looked coy in her life. “I think starting somewhere less than mach speed might help.”

  Incredibly, his sculpted cheekbones streaked a dusky red. Nevertheless, the smile he gave her was all confident, sensual male. “I think I can handle that.”

  And then he kissed her again, but it was nothing like that first kiss, so desperate and urgent.

  His lips brushed hers as softly as butterfly wings. Barely there and then they were gone, only to come back again and again, and each time she tried to cling. Only he kept the touches light, making her hunger for the deep kisses of the night before.

  She moaned with the urgency of her need.

  When he’d teased her lips into swollen sensitivity, he moved his mouth onto her cheek and she discovered that her lips were not the only sensitive skin on her face. He blew softly in her ear and then bit down gently on the lobe. She arched toward him and shivered convulsively.

  She held onto his shoulders, knowing to let go would mean sinking into a puddle of aching feminine desire.

  His lips moved onto the column of her neck, and the sensual shivers wracked her body as each kiss heightened her sensitivity to his touch.

  She’d worn a tank top, giving him free access to her bare skin all the way to the upper swell of her breasts. He took advantage, pressing small, nibbling kisses all over and tasting her with the very tip of his tongue until he reached her neckline. He stopped there, with his mouth hovering just above her skin.

  She made a small, animal-like sound of need, unable to stand his teasing anymore, and he laughed softly, his breath hot against her.

  Then he tugged her top up from the hem until her bra-encased breasts were revealed. “You’re beautiful, Tabby.”

  She couldn’t respond; she was too busy experiencing the way he laved her cleavage with his tongue. It felt like she could come right then, without a
ny further preliminaries. Unbelievably, she was more excited than she had been the night before.

  He flicked the front clasp of her bra open and peeled it back to reveal her already hard nipples to the air.

  Her breathing fractured. “Suck them, Calder, please.”

  He did, taking one into his mouth and tugging on it with just enough pressure to send her body convulsing in a miniclimax.

  She gasped, her body rigid with pleasure. “Oh, man, Calder, you’re good at this.”

  Husky laughter vibrated against her breasts. “I’ve had a lot of practice.” He licked her nipple, swirling his tongue around the aureole, but not taking it into his mouth again, as if he was building her toward another climax.

  He probably was.

  She sucked in air.

  Then he stopped moving and she whimpered.

  “I shouldn’t have said that.” He sounded embarrassed, irritated with himself. “I’m sorry, love.”

  It was her turn to laugh, but the sound was breathless because she could barely force her lungs to take in air over her skyrocketing excitement. “I don’t mind. If your, um . . . enhanced experience is what makes you such an amazing lover and capable of giving me this kind of pleasure, I’m certainly not going to complain about it.”

  His mouth moved back to hers with lightning speed and he spoke against her lips. “Tabby, you’re so bloody perfect. I love you.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked, despite a wealth of evidence in favor of his words.

  Years of living in her sister’s shadow had taken a toll she hadn’t fully appreciated until this moment, when the man she loved spoke his own love to her.

  He cupped her face and looked her square in the eye. He didn’t say anything, but it was all there for her to see in the intensity of his dark gaze: knowledge of who and what she was because he’d taken the time to find out. Not only did he know her on a level she would have thought impossible, he approved of what he knew.