Show No Fear - By Marliss Melton Page 0,48

she straddled him, asserting her dominance. “I won’t let you do that.”

“I already made the call,” he retorted grimly. “My guys are clearing it with the station chief.”

Lucy glared down at him. “You did that without asking me?” she breathed, outraged but at the same time painfully aware of his naked body trapped between her thighs.

In the cubby next to theirs, Carlos hushed them.

They both froze, dismayed to have been overheard. Catching Lucy’s face in his hands, Gus pulled her ear to his mouth. “If anything happens to you, Luce, I’ll never forgive myself.”

It was hard to cling to her anger in the face of such loyalty. Teamwork was clearly serious business. “Nothing’s going to happen,” she reassured him. “How would you explain my sudden departure? It’s not like I can just hop on the next bus out of here,” she added hoarsely. “This isn’t about me. It’s about Jay and Mike.” If she ran away like a coward, she would never get her courage back. She’d be all washed up. “Don’t you see?”

The hands on her face slid through the skeins of her hair, over the tops of her shoulders and lower to cup her breasts with reverence. “I want to see,” he murmured convincingly.

Beneath her bra and T-shirt, Lucy’s nipples pearled with a sudden stab of desire. She wasn’t above persuading him to get what she wanted. In this position, she had all the influence she needed. “You would keep me safe,” she avowed, lowering her lips to bestow on him a toe-curling, promising kiss. “Wouldn’t you?” she demanded, rubbing herself enticingly against him.

His breath caught. “Yes,” he admitted hoarsely.

Sitting up, she stripped off her T-shirt and bra, leaving her nearly as naked as he was. “You wouldn’t let anything happen to me,” she whispered in his ear, nipping his earlobe before offering him her breasts.

As he licked and suckled them, she reveled in the silken heat rising between her thighs. With an overwhelming desire to seduce him, she scooted back on her knees, clasped his turgid length, and pleasured him until a helpless shudder racked his frame.

There would be no gentleness this time, she assured herself, no danger of disgrace, no recalling another lifetime, another place.

She worked him over till his breath grew ragged, his muscles convulsed. Not yet, big boy. Slipping off her panties, she climbed the length of his body to assuage the hunger building inside her. Swallowing a moan, she sheathed him fully, then she rode him hard, taking what his body offered to find fulfillment.

“Kiss me,” he urged, but she refused, wary of the tenderness his kisses evoked.

But she couldn’t prevent him from rolling her nipples gently. He slicked his thumb into the sensitive folds spread wide to him, finding with unerring accuracy the center of her pleasure, speeding her heart rate, spurring her toward her release.

Just as she approached the point of crisis, he jerked to a sitting position, pulled her hips to his, and delved his tongue into her mouth, prompting the wave to crash over her. She came violently and helplessly, moaning into his mouth as he convulsed deep within her, mirroring her pleasure.

Keeping their bodies joined, he rolled her under him, put his mouth to her ear, and whispered without rancor, “You can’t manipulate me like some stranger, Luce. I’m your partner. I know you too well.”

And there it was, laid bare. Her stock in trade was lies and subterfuge, but Gus would accept nothing less than who she really was. No agendas, no plots, no secrets.

Relief she didn’t understand rose up within her, bringing a flood of tears to her eyes. Oh, God, not again. She squeezed her eyes shut, unwilling to acknowledge that his words had such a strange and powerful effect on her.

For a long moment, he simply held her, gazing down at her as she fought to keep her tears from escaping, scarcely daring to breathe as he painted invisible lines upon her face.

“Okay,” he admitted gruffly, at last. “You can stay,” he added, “if the station chief allows it.”

Lucy snatched her eyes open, hoping the dark would conceal the moisture in them. “Promise?” she asked, transported by a sense of gratitude and belonging, feelings she hadn’t felt in so long.

He took his time answering as he settled down beside her. “I promise,” he finally replied, pulling her into the circle of his arms. Only he didn’t sound too happy with his decision.

CHAPTER 11

The cry of a masked mountain tanager snatched David’s head off the