he said.
"I do."
"Well, I like it, too." He grinned. "In the work comes the reward."
She laughed but when his head went forward again, she wound away and climbed up onto the bed. His teeth flashed white on a smile. With a couple of deft moves, his trousers were down and kicked aside. He set something - she guessed a condom - on the bedside table and then he came to her, ready to resume where they'd left off. Instead of letting him take the lead, she pounced and drove him onto his back.
Craning up, he laughed. "Hey, you play rough."
"Is that a complaint?"
His back met the mattress again. "No, ma'am."
Leaving her panties on, she came closer and feathered her lips over his small flat nipples, down over his ribs. She dotted hungry openmouthed kisses in four spots around his navel. Then her head went down.
Grazing her nails over his scrotum, she held his shaft in her other hand and rolled the full length of her tongue around that hot rounded tip. Beside her head, his hand fisted into the coverlet as his hips arched up. Smiling to herself, she circumnavigated a few more times before, squeezing lightly, she slid farther down.
He throbbed in her mouth, and at the back of her throat she tasted a little of him...a tease of what was yet to come. His palm slid up over her shoulder to knead her nape as she moved and stroked, and his erection hardened more. Deep, maddeningly sexy sounds rumbled through his chest and body, vibrating over her lips and lower. He began to move and his strokes on the back of her head became more instinctive. Immersing herself in all her senses, she shifted until she was embedded between the V of his legs and he couldn't escape. She doubted he wanted to.
She'd thought she could handle him, but the width and thrust soon became too much. A moment before she could slide her lips away, perhaps reading the signs, he reached down to ease her up. He didn't roll her over but rather held her on top by gripping her high on the back of one thigh. Grabbing the condom, he rolled on protection then expertly pushed up and in. A rush of euphoria doused her inside and out. So many endorphins, she felt intoxicated...floating on a slipstream that was about to take her unbelievably high.
Her lips ran over the damp slide of his brow before she came away to look into his eyes as he smiled softly, moving and coaxing her sizzling fuse closer to that beautiful big bang. She was balanced, on the verge, when he held her cheek and whispered her name.
A heartbeat later, his erection drove in to the hilt, hitting that single perfect spot. As the orgasm took him, he squeezed her thigh, she let out a gasp and the universe contracted before blowing wide apart.
Chapter Sixteen
They spent Sunday together at her place, not working, not stressing. Just unwinding, her reading a novel, him watching sports on TV. Cole didn't think he'd ever enjoyed an entire day of doing nothing before. He felt guilty. Rested. A small part of him even felt at peace.
For the most part, however, he was thinking about Guthrie and Tate - how bad that day when Tate had almost been abducted could have turned out. Brandon had been brought into the loop. His father insisted that he keep Judge on the case, too. Nothing Cole could do about that. But he wanted those animals, and whoever was behind this whole sordid mess, found and appropriately dealt with. Fast.
The next day, Cole visited Taryn in her office. She said she'd get together what she could from the survey, given they'd been called away early. He said he needed a more definite budget projection. Then she asked whether she ought to start organizing host auditions. Between leaving her office and stealing a drugging hot kiss, Cole told her to hang off for now.
Tuesday night he spent over at her place. He watched on while she called for that cat to come in from the cold. Later they'd had pizza and watched a movie neither of them saw much of. Wednesday night Taryn stayed at his place. Thursday, he was back at hers and she was still calling in that stubborn pregnant cat. They'd had Chinese and he'd told her about the time the boys had built a cubby house in the backyard and it had collapsed with him inside.