Twice the Temptation

AS AVERY LED THE WAY UP a narrow stone stairway to the tower floors, Brie was very much aware of Cody following behind her and of the parchment envelope she still held tightly in her hand. Before they’d left the bar, Cody had informed her of his theory about the man in the stalled car being Marielle Radtke’s partner. It made sense.

At the top of the stairs, Avery turned down a short corridor. “The sisters keep a suite of rooms on this level.” He indicated a door as they passed it. But he didn’t stop until they reached a large, ornately carved oak door at the end of the hall.“There’s no key,” Avery explained as he punched numbers into a keypad. “MacFarland Investigations set up the security, and not even the staff has the code. You’ll be perfectly safe.”

When the door swung open, Brie stepped into a small space that’s sole function was to house a circular iron staircase that wound upward. All the light came from either above or the hall behind them.

“If there’s anything you want, use the room phone to contact me,” Avery said.

The door swung shut with a solid click that seemed to fill the small space.

All Brie wanted was the man standing right beside her. For a moment, the silence stretched between them. She moistened her lips.

It wasn’t that she was having second thoughts. It was just that this was new for her. Oh, she took risks, all right. You couldn’t be faint of heart and embark on a singing career.

But those risks had been professional, and she’d always had a fall-back plan. Caution had always been the number one rule in her personal life. And she had no fall-back plan with Cody. There was only this time. This place.

She tightened her grip on the parchment as she turned to him. His face was shadowed in the filtered sunlight that fell from the room above, but she could see his eyes. And what she saw was exactly what she wanted.

She took a step forward.

He did the same.

They were almost touching.

“There’s something I need to talk to you about, and then you need to rest,” he said.

“Later,” she said. “Right now, let’s pretend.”

“Pretend?”

“Yeah. Let’s imagine that no one is trying to kill me.” She took another step forward. “For now, there’s only me and you. Nothing else exists.”

“That’s the problem. When I’m with you, nothing else does.” He set down the backpack and the duffel. Then he lifted his hands, pulled the fastener off of her pony tail and threaded his fingers through her hair. “I promised myself that I wasn’t going to do this.” He skimmed his hands over her shoulders and down her arms.

“What you said was we’d never make it to the bed,” she reminded him.

“Yeah.” Settling his hands at her waist, he drew her so close to him that she could feel every line and angle.

Brie linked her arms around his neck and drew his mouth down to hers. Then rising up on her toes so that she could close that last little distance, she said, “Show me what else you promised yourself not to do.”

“How about this?” His mouth brushed over hers—once, twice—tasting, teasing, testing. He hadn’t kissed her like this before, as if he had endless time and intended to take it.

Fast was what she’d had in mind. That was what she’d anticipated. But the way his teeth nibbled on her lip, the way his tongue licked at the corner of her mouth—how could she have known she needed this?

His tongue toyed with hers, tangling, then sliding away as layer after layer of delicious pleasure built. Time—the precious amount that they had—seemed to spin away as they stood in the stairwell of the tower and dust motes danced around them.

She wasn’t even aware of just when the rhythm of the kiss changed—only that it had. Warmth blossomed into heat. When his teeth sank into her bottom lip, fire shot to her toes. His flavors were darker now, richer, the movement of his mouth on hers faster. Not patient any longer, but desperate. With lips, tongue and teeth, he drove her to the edge of reason until he drew everything from her. Everything.

And he kept on taking. Her heart had never beat this fast. She was sure of it. Until Cody, her body had never ached and pulsed like this. She’d never dreamed it could. Now, she wanted more. What else could he show her?

And she wanted him to show her now. Right now.

She wasn’t sure if she’d said the words or merely thought them, but he spun her against the door and took his hands on a desperate, meticulous journey from her throat to her breasts, then down her torso to her waist. She dug her fingers into his shoulders, scooted up and locked her legs around him.

For one glorious moment, they were center to center, heat to heat. But it wasn’t enough.

She was driving him crazy. The pressure of that slim body locked around his drove him to the edge of reason. That was all Cody could think as he turned and braced his back against the wall. Her hips were pumping now, and each movement stoked the fire in his loins that had already reached flash point.

With a groan, he dragged his mouth from hers. “Wait,” he said.

“Can’t.”

And she didn’t. She continued to move against him, faster and faster.

“Can’t,” she said again. “Can’t quite…”

Cody was pretty sure he could. And soon. He could feel his own climax starting to build at the base of his spine. “I want to be inside of you.”

He wasn’t sure he could survive another ten seconds if he wasn’t inside of her. He took a stumbling step forward, then dropped to his knees. Even then, it took all of his strength to push her away and settle her on the second step.

With lightning speed, she reached for the snap on his jeans.

“Wait,” he said again. “There’s something…”

“What?”

He shook his head, trying to clear some portion of it. “Protection…I—”

“Got it covered. I’m on the pill.”

“Good.”

They attacked her clothes together, pulling at her jeans. She scooted up another step while he dragged the denim down her legs and tugged off her shoes.

“Hurry,” she said, grabbing again at the snap of his jeans.

“There’s probably a bed upstairs.” He managed to get the jeans down his hips.

“Later,” she said as she dragged the T-shirt over his head.

“Right.” He had to get his hands on her again. This time on her skin. He pulled her T-shirt off, and bracing her against the stair railing, he ran his hands over her—those graceful shoulders, the swell of her breasts and that strong, lean torso. Lifting her up a step, he took his mouth on that same fast journey.

Her taste flooded him—so sweet, so hot. So necessary.

“Now. Right now.”

Had he said it? Had she?

All he was sure of was that when he looked into those glorious eyes, he wanted her more than anything.

They moved together, he pulling them torso to torso, she wrapping her legs around him.

Keeping his eyes on hers, he said, “Now. Right now.”

Then with one savage movement of his hips, he drove into her. Her slick core clenched around him, drenched him and pulled him even deeper.

For one moment, neither of them moved. He wished he could stop time. To keep both of them right there, teetering on the brink of pleasure and release. But he had to have more. Lifting her hips, he withdrew, then plunged into her again.

When she cried out, gripping him even more tightly as her climax ripped through her, something inside of him snapped. Holding her close, he lifted her and then drove into her again and again.

Her nails dug into his back as her body moved with his, matching his speed—faster and faster, almost on the edge of violence—until he felt the second climax move through her.

Mine, he thought just before his own release shattered him.

When reality finally trickled in, Cody’s heart was still pumping fast, his breathing was still ragged. And Brie was lying beneath him on the iron stairs.

Cursing himself silently, he rolled, taking her with him, and when he felt the press of the stairs against his own back, he cursed himself again.

“You all right?”

“Mmm.”

“I’ll bet I left marks on your back.”

She raised her head, met his eyes. “If you did, they’re worth it.”

He laughed, and just that slight ripple of movement through his body had her core tightening around him. He saw first shock and then pleasure move through her as she climaxed again.

Even as he gripped her hips, she braced both hands on his shoulders and smiled down at him. “Let me see if I can return the favor.”

Then she began to ride him, slowly at first. But the heat snaked through him, hardening him inside of her. And then they were racing again, faster and faster, driving each other higher and higher, until she shattered with him again.

CODY TRIED TO PACE OFF his nerves while he waited for Brie to finish primping in the bathroom. His plan to use her as bait to trap a killer was a go, and the clock was ticking on putting that plan into action.

No time for second thoughts, he lectured himself. Especially when he didn’t have an alternative.It had been a while before he and Brie had made it up the stairs to the tower room, before they’d showered and made love again, before he’d told her about the trap he wanted to set that night.

“I’ll do it,” she’d said.