Alexis tossed her legs off the bed, the rest of her body following suit, and she tugged at the soaked oversized T-shirt clinging to her heated skin. She flexed her toes against the cool floor, savoring the relief on the bottom of her feet. She was half tempted to lay her entire body on the old hardwood.
Opening the bedroom door, another wave of heat from the narrow hallway assaulted her, but as she made her way into the living room, the air cooled significantly. It was refreshing as the cross breeze from the open front and back windows glided across her skin.
“Hey, what are you doing awake?” Cliff asked, his gaze pulled away from the laptop. She wondered if he ever slept. “Thinking about your mom?”
She had been. After Dylan and Preston left the apartment, she and Cliff launched another software application that came up empty on searching her mother’s name. Cliff assured her that he would reach out to his contacts to see if they could learn anything more, but her fractured heart broke by the minute.
She didn’t want to lie to Cliff, but she also didn’t want to discuss her parents anymore, so she settled by telling him that she was too hot.
“You’re welcome to rest out here if it is cooler. I can take the bedroom.”
God, this man was a saint. Since she arrived, he’d been bending over backward for her. And what had she done for him? Not a damn thing.
“Actually, think I could just hang out here with you for a while? I’m not very tired.”
Cliff closed his laptop, basking the room in darkness. “Met your quota for sleep?” he joked as the television across from him came to life. He immediately turned down the volume.
“Something like that,” she giggled as she moved to sit beside him on the couch, a good foot away from each other.
“So, tell me, Alexis, what’s something about you I won’t find in your government file.”
“Is this how we get to know each other?”
“Something like that.” He repeated her words and she turned to look at him, both of them smiling widely. Even with the bluish tone from the television casting light on their faces, she could see how tense he was. Alexis wished that she could witness him relaxed, carefree.
“Something not in my file,” she mused, moving her glance toward the ceiling. “Um, when I was little, I thought I’d become a veterinarian. I loved animals. Still do. What about you?”
“I tried to keep tabs on you since you left Carson two years ago. Lost track about a year later.”
Her mouth hung agape at his confession. She never would have expected that he would have monitored her. Any other time Alexis would feel violated, but right now, she felt a sense of elation.
“I looked you up after the first time Dylan teamed us up together. There wasn’t much in your file, as you know, but I was curious none-the-less.”
In a movement so quick, Alexis found herself straddling Cliff’s lap. Their faces were only an inch or two apart and the growing hardness between his legs pressed against her smoldering center.
One of Cliff’s strong hands dove into her hair, clenching the strands as he tugged her face closer.
“Why did you look me up?”
Softly Cliff replied, “I wanted to make sure that you were real,” before he smashed their mouths together, his strong hold controlled every tilt of her head and twist of her neck.
He possessed her, fully and completely. And as his tongue peeked out, seeking entrance, she willingly obliged, loving the way he explored her mouth. On their own, her hips began to rock against him, searching for the hard friction of his erection. A moan escaped her lips as his other hand trailed up her thigh, his thumb moving toward her panties.
Cliff pulled his lips away from her mouth and began leaving a path of kisses from her jawline and down her neck.
“My real name isn’t Cliff,” he mumbled against her skin and Alexis made a mental note to ask for more information on that tidbit later.
In one quick swoop, he lifted the shirt off her body, leaving her bare except for a pair of pale pink cotton panties.
“God, you’re fucking gorgeous,” he groaned before leaning forward and capturing one of her nipples in his mouth. “And sweet,” he added as he moved toward her other breast. The wetness cooling her heated skin.
“Cliff, please,” she cried out, her hips rocking against him as his hand tried to hold her still.
“What is it you want, Alexis?” Cliff peppered kisses along the tops of her breasts, his tongue sweeping out as he reached the valley between them.
“I want you, your lips, your tongue, your cock, all of it.” Her voice sounded breathy to her own ears and so unfamiliar. She had no time to wonder what siren had taken over her body as Cliff slipped his hand down the front of her panties. The second the pad of his finger brushed against her clit, she jerked in his arms, the sensation both foreign and welcome.
Pressing his lips against her mouth, he murmured, “You’re so fucking wet and hot. I can’t wait to slip my dick inside you.”