The Pleasure Seekers

Before he knew that’s what he had in mind, he was tugging her close and tilting her chin up so he could look directly into her face. Her mouth hung open slightly, both in surprise and, he guessed, anticipation.

He kissed her.

REGINA’S EVERY MUSCLE melted like a marshmallow over a fire. Funny, Linc seemed to taste exactly like that. Somewhere in the recesses of her mind, she understood that it was because he’d had a piece of Trudy’s chocolate-marshmallow pie. But right then, she couldn’t seem to concentrate on anything beyond the way her heart pounded an uneven rhythm in her chest, and how her mouth watered with the desire for Linc to deepen the kiss.

Then he did…

His tongue stroked hers in a slow, deliberate way that robbed her of breath and made her tighten her hands where they rested on the hard muscles of his upper arms. He leaned into her and she discovered, with a silent moan, that his arms weren’t the only hard thing she was able to feel.

The memory of having taken his long, thick length into her mouth the night before might have made her blush…but not now. Right now, all that was on her mind was the desire to enjoy tasting him without the blurriness of drink.

“Damn,” he said quietly as he broke off the kiss but made no move to resume walking.

“What?” she whispered.

He looked into her eyes and the impact was just as powerful as his kiss had been.

“I never thought I’d hear myself say these words. Your place or mine?”

Her throat was so thick she nearly couldn’t speak. “Which is closest?” she managed to whisper.

“Yours.”

“Then mine it is…”

LINC HAD BEEN THINKING about this moment ever since forcing himself to push Regina away the night before. And it was proving sweeter than he could have imagined.

Twenty minutes after their kiss on the sidewalk, they stood in her bedroom, a small lamp from the living room casting a soft, red glow against her skin where she stood naked in front of him. The moment they closed the front door, they’d come together like a couple of thirsty travelers, kissing and tearing at each other’s clothes as they stumbled their way to the bedroom.

And now here they both stood, about to fulfill what had begun the instant their gazes met at the club last night.

Regina’s fingers skimmed around the girth of his erection and then firmly grasped him. The air hissed from his mouth at her confident touch. She moved her hand, causing his hips to buck involuntarily.

He wanted to be inside her. Now…

He drew her closer, kissing her deeply, reveling in the feel of her taut nipples against his chest, her hand trapped between them. He skimmed his fingers down her back and over her firm bottom, then sought out her shallow channel from behind. He groaned without sound. So wet…so ready…

“Protection,” she rasped.

He continued kissing her. “What?”

“Condom. Do you have one?”

God, she tasted like ripe fruit. “No. Don’t you?”

She made a low sound and then stepped back, leaving him practically panting in front of her.

“Oh, hell. You’ve got to be kidding me.” He ran his hands over the top of his close-cropped hair several times in barely concealed agitation.

This wasn’t happening. Not twice in as many nights. If he were a superstitious man, he might think the Fates were trying to tell him something. But he wasn’t and even if they were, he had no intention of listening.

“There doesn’t happen to be a drugstore that delivers, would there?”

Her laugh released a bit of his pent-up need. “Nope. Although that’s a good idea. Think of the business they’d get.”

Damn. Damn, damn, damn, damn.

He reached for his jeans that were near the bedroom door. Leaving her standing there, looking so ready to be made love to, had to be the most difficult thing he’d done in a good long while.

“Where’s the closest place?”

“About a mile up the road.”

“Of course. It couldn’t be up the block, could it?”

She reached for her clothes.

He caught her hand. “Don’t.”

She blinked at him.

He scooped her up and deposited her on top of her bed. God, but she looked so incredibly sexy, her honey-brown hair tousled around her face, her mouth swollen from his kisses, her breasts full and accessible. It was all he could do not to beg her to go without protection just this once.

“Don’t move a muscle,” he said.

Her laugh was almost gigglelike, touching something inside him.

He couldn’t have moved any faster for the door had he broken into a run.

REGINA LAY BACK against her bed, listening as the door slammed closed behind Linc. She smiled and snuggled deeper into the bedding, squeezing her thighs tightly together, delighting in the tiny shivers that swept over her skin.

She felt giddy and high and feverish, and none of it had a thing to do with alcohol. She skimmed her hands over her hypersensitive breasts, catching her breath at her immediate response to her own touch. Her nipples were so hard and achy. She swallowed, edging her right hand down her trembling abdomen. She spread her thighs slightly and slid her fingers into the damp tangle of curls there. She stretched her neck, realizing she could come so easily…

She slowly drew her index finger the length of her shallow crevice, unable to remember the last time she’d been so wet and needy. Correction, unwilling to. All she wanted to think about was the here and now. And Linc…

She recalled their interaction last night in bits and pieces, but nothing had prepared her for holding his length in her palm tonight. So long, so big…

She groaned as the tip of her finger dipped into the pool of heat between her legs. Her heartbeat quickened and just like that she achieved orgasm…

6

LINC WAS SWEATIER when he finally returned to Regina’s apartment than after his morning ten-mile run when the air temperature was at least twenty degrees hotter. He let himself into her apartment, tearing into the box of condoms he’d just purchased as he strode toward her bedroom. He should probably climb into the shower first, but…

The hell with a shower.

He stopped in her bedroom door. She was right where he’d left her. Beautiful, bare…and fast asleep.

For the second time that night, he let out a string of curses.

This was not happening…

He stood in the doorway for a long moment, taking in the way her hand rested on her upper thigh, the curve of her breasts, the sound of her soft snores.

He knew she’d been on the job since early that morning. He also knew she hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before. And, of course, worry over what had or had not happened had probably worn her out on top of the physical stress.

He thought about catching that shower and then climbing into bed next to her, rousing her from sleep. But considering they barely knew each other, he decided that wouldn’t be much better than taking advantage of her while she was intoxicated.

Damn. Damn, damn, damn, damn.

He quietly put the half-opened box of condoms on her nightstand and then reached to push a soft curl from her brow before covering her with the top sheet. She was so out of it, she didn’t move a muscle.

Moments later he stood outside her door, battling back the urge to go back inside. He thought of a handful of phone numbers he could call, but no matter how much he wanted release, he only wanted it with the woman sleeping in the apartment behind him.

Another run, maybe. Yes. And a nice, long, cold shower…

TWO DAYS LATER, Regina tightened her boxing gloves and then gave the punching bag another one-two whack. Over the past year and a half, she’d taken nearly every self-defense class available. Then, at the health club she’d joined, she’d stumbled across boxing classes. The physical activity made her feel better somehow. One of the pros suggested it was like aiming darts at a picture of someone unlikable…but better. She agreed.

Especially now.

She still couldn’t believe it had happened again. She’d woken Sunday morning to find herself pretty much in the same position Linc had left her, a box of condoms on the nightstand along with a note: “Didn’t want to wake you.” He’d signed it simply “L” and included his phone number.

She’d beat the pillow down and then gone to the gym to do a better job on a punching bag.

She couldn’t even allow herself to entertain the idea of calling the number he’d left so she might apologize.

At this point, she wouldn’t be surprised if he never wanted to see her again.

She lost focus and the bag swung and hit her in the shoulder, nearly knocking her off balance.

“You’re supposed to hit it, I think, not the other way around,” Vivienne said from the doorway of a connecting room filled with other fitness equipment where the majority of club members worked out.

Regina caught the bag and then wiped the sweat from her brow with her bare forearm. “Every now and again I like to let it think it stands a chance.”

“Speaking of hitting things, you ready to hit the showers?”

She sighed. “Yeah.”

Thankfully, Vivienne hadn’t mentioned Friday night again, both of them back into the regular workweek swing of things. Viv was a paralegal at a midsize law firm, and Regina had attended classes in the morning, then worked the lunch shift at the diner. They met three times a week at the club, depending on their schedules.

She’d debated telling her friend about Linc’s visit to the diner Saturday night, then decided against it. There was no sense saying anything if she was pretty sure she wasn’t going to see him again.

She grimaced as they walked to the showers. Besides, she didn’t want to chance her friend’s asking to be included in any future goings-on.

“Oh, he’s new,” Viv said, openly appreciating a guy lifting weights as they passed.

Regina gave an eye roll as she untied her right glove with her teeth and then pulled it free. “You’re impossible.”

“No, I’m single.” She put her arm over Regina’s shoulder. “And so are you. Now, where are we going to eat afterward…?”

“HEY, EVERYTHING ALL RIGHT?”

Linc stared at where Jason Savage stepped in front of the crosshairs of his semiautomatic rifle, blocking the target. He swung the weapon so it pointed toward the dirt of the Lazarus training grounds.

“Shit, Savage. I could have shot a hole the size of Colorado in your ass.”

The first rule in arms safety was never to step into the path of a loaded weapon. What in the hell was his friend and business partner thinking? Of course, Jason had always run more on guts than strategy. Thankfully, he had the natural ability to pull it off.

His friend grinned. “Yours is about the only gun I’d dare step in front of.”

Linc unloaded the weapon and slid the ammo magazine into his back jeans pocket. Jason walked with him toward the main building.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Jason said. “Oh, wait. Of course you didn’t answer my question. You never answer my questions.”

“Everything’s fine.”

Savage opened the door for him and he passed through. “Right. And if it wasn’t, would you cop to it?”

Linc stared at him.

“Didn’t think so.” Savage followed him to the arms room. “I think that’s the longest I’ve ever seen you spend on target practice.”

Linc hadn’t noticed the time passage. He’d merely experienced an intense urge to squeeze off a few rounds. To make himself feel useful.

And to stop thinking about how a certain sexy female had looked sleeping in her bed naked.

“Needed to put the time in,” he ground out.

Jason wasn’t known for asking a lot of questions. Especially ones he wasn’t likely to get answers to. Which made his asking this one stand out.

Was his agitation that obvious?

Since Saturday night, when he’d left Regina asleep alone in her bed, he’d thought it a good idea to take a step back. And he had. He watched her as she went to work at the diner. He’d followed her to the library. And he’d tracked her remotely via his cell phone when he couldn’t be near her.

Speaking of which, she should just be finishing up at the gym. He checked his cell. She was still there, but she wouldn’t be for long.

“Hey, I was hoping to talk to you about something,” Savage said, leaning against the prep table where Linc cleaned his weapon before putting it away in the rack against the wall.

“Shoot.”

“Dangerous word to use, considering.”

“Considering you stepped in front of my barrel, you mean?”

“That, too.”

Linc cracked a smile.

He waited for Jason to get around to whatever he had to say.

Finally, his friend cleared his throat. “Look, you know everything that went down in Florida…”

Linc squinted at him.

It had been a great trip for the company, in that they’d found a crucial piece of information that kept the search for little Finley going. It had been bad, though, in that Savage had slept with Megan, a Lazarus partner who was another partner’s girl.

“Anyway, things haven’t exactly been, well, the same since…”

His words trailed off.

“Go figure,” Linc offered.

Jason nodded his agreement. “Yeah. Which is why I’m thinking of maybe pushing up the date on opening that satellite office in Baltimore.”

Linc finishing wiping down the M16 and placed it in the rack behind him.

“I haven’t talked to anyone else about it. I thought I’d run it by you first, you know, see what you thought.”

Linc faced him and crossed his arms over his chest. “How soon you talking?”

“Tomorrow too soon?”

They certainly had the resources for the expansion. Business income had already overshot their original forecasts by four hundred percent, and the next three months looked to double that again.

He checked his cell.

“Am I keeping you from something?” Savage asked.

Boy, he was really slipping when it came to keeping his thoughts to himself. First at the firing range, now with checking his cell phone. Of course, here he was surrounded by others trained in the art of observation, but he had the feeling he’d be just as transparent to an outsider.

“There’s somewhere I need to be,” he admitted.

Jason quirked a brow. “Need help?”

“I got it.”

Jason pushed away from the table and slapped him on the shoulder. Savage was one of the few men Linc allowed such familiarity. Others risked physical injury even thinking about making such a move. “Well, think about what I said.”

Linc gave his friend his full attention, considering the implications of his suggestion. “You’re serious about this?”

“I’m serious about it.”

Linc nodded. Then it seemed to him it was only a matter of time before it would happen…

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