“That’s one possibility.” He finessed the last stone into place. “Our mission is accomplished.”
Adair drew in a deep breath and let it out. “What do we do next?”
Thunder roared and lightning flashed brightly enough that for a moment she could see him quite clearly.
“Let Daryl and Vi know. Notify Sheriff Skinner so that he can get someone up here to stake out this part of the garden starting tonight. Then we wait.”
“That’s it?”
Cam met her eyes. “I know your affection for detailed plans, but aren’t you ever tempted to just go with the flow?”
Only with you, she realized. They were kneeling together on the smooth rocks that formed the floor of the arch. Even in the dim light that radiated from the penlight she’d set aside, he looked triumphant, like some warrior that had just won a battle. And she wanted him more than she’d ever wanted anything. Anyone.
And she’d just kissed him under the stone arch.
Panic streaked its way through desire. The kiss didn’t matter, she told herself again. It couldn’t matter. If any two people were mismatched, it was Cam and her.
Which was why he made the perfect fantasy. That’s what fantasies were about. The impossible. The things you think can only happen in your wildest dreams. But she and Cam were happening.
“I do like plans. And missions. Right now I have another one for you.” Carefully, she set the flashlight down. “We won’t need this.” Then she tugged his T-shirt out of his jeans. “You won’t need your clothes either.”
“Sounds like my favorite kind of mission.”
He helped her pull the shirt over his head. Even in the shadows she saw the excitement in his eyes darken to something else, something that had fire racing along her nerve endings. But when he lowered his head, she angled hers, avoiding his lips at the last moment.
“No kissing yet. Once we start that, my brain turns to toast.” She gave his ear a quick nip. “I want to touch you first.”
“Touch away.”
She ran her hands over his shoulders, then slowly down his chest. There was so much to absorb—the smooth taut skin, the hard muscle beneath. Even the tickle of hair under her palms sent a separate thrill rippling through her.
“I can’t seem to stop wanting you,” she murmured as he moved her hands lower.
“It’s a mutual problem.”
His breath hitched when she slipped her fingers beneath the waistband of his jeans. Their fingers collided, then tangled as they worked on his belt. When it was finally freed, she pushed his hands away.
“My turn. I’ll let you know when it’s yours.”
The sound of his jeans unsnapping seemed as loud as the rumble of thunder overhead. And the rasp of the zipper as she eased it down was exciting, erotic and irresistibly enticing.
“There was no time for me to do this in the cave.”
“We were busy with other things. Let me have my turn and—”
The sentence broke off as she slipped her hands beneath his briefs, found him and freed him.
Their gasps intermingled, then thunder rumbled again.
“Oh, my,” she breathed. Her experience wasn’t vast, but what she was looking at went beyond anything she’d imagined. She ran her fingers up the length of him and felt the tremor move through him. “When you have toast for brains, you miss things.”
“There are other things you’re missing. Right now. Say the word.”
“Not quite yet.” The huskiness of his voice had added one more thrill to the mix as she wrapped her fingers around him. When he groaned, power sang through her bringing fresh pleasure.
“I have a plan,” she murmured.
“It better not take long.”
With a soft laugh, she met his eyes. Then before she could lose her resolve, she leaned in and gave his ear a quick nip, then licked the pain away with her tongue. “I just want to taste you. Try it. You might like it.”
Cam wondered if he had a choice. Ever since she’d closed her hand around him, he’d lost all the strength in his arms. By the time she’d used her teeth on his shoulder and moved lower to take his nipple into her mouth, he was sure he was losing his mind. Each flick of her tongue, each scrape of her teeth, each flutter of her breath on his skin created sensations so sharp, so intense they took his breath away. Her mouth left a trail of heat that seemed to sear away his flesh right to the bone.
And all the time, she moved her hand gently on his shaft, up and then down. Up and then down, guiding him into a rhythm that she controlled.
Then she was finally where he wanted her to be, but he still wasn’t prepared for what he felt when she flicked her tongue over the head of his penis. The intensity of the pleasure was so great, so consuming. And the ache that it left in its wake was something he’d never experienced.
The only thing he could seem to move was his eyelids. So he watched her as she used her tongue on him. Moving lower to the base of his shaft and then up again as if she were devouring some delicious treat that she’d been starving for.
New sensations battered his system. Agonizing. Amazing. When she took him fully into her mouth, he thought his heart would simply burst out of his chest. No other woman had ever aroused him like this. Seduced him like this. Destroyed him like this.
The power was hers. His entire world had seemed to narrow to the wet heat of her mouth as it drew him in, then released him. And each time she did, he felt parts of himself melting and merging with her.
He wanted it to stop. He wanted it to go on.
Adair was drowning in him. How could she have known that a man’s skin could have so many textures, so many flavors? Or that making a man tremble, making him moan, could be so arousing? So amazing? She’d never imagined that she had this kind of power, the kind that brought only pleasure.
Nor could she have imagined her own greed. She couldn’t get enough of the taste of him. The textures fascinated her, steel wrapped in velvet. Sensations poured into her, filling all the empty spaces.
When he reached for her, his hands trembled at first, then gripped her and lifted her so that she straddled his thighs.
“Adair.” His voice was barely a rasp, but when she started to move, he held her still. “Protection.”
Once the word registered in her brain, she met his eyes. “I’m good. Pill. Still my turn.”
Then lifting her hips she lowered herself onto him.
The moment she took him in, enclosed him, he began to move. She felt the storm that she’d been building in him since her first touch break free. His thrusts were desperate, violent. This was what she’d wanted. Dreamed of. Then he drove her beyond what she’d ever imagined into a pleasure so dark, so intense that she was blind from it.
“Cam.” He was all she knew as he poured himself into her and she shattered.
* * *
ADAIR WASN’T SURE how long they lay tangled together against the stones when the ringing of a cell phone forced them back to reality. Cam managed to get to his just as it rang for the third time.
“It’s Daryl.” Holding it so they both could listen, he said, “Problem?”
“Not on this end. But the storm ended about ten minutes ago, and Vi’s beginning to worry about the two of you.”
“We’re fine now that we’ve dismantled a very nice military issue bomb.”
“No shit,” Daryl said. “Sorry I missed it. But Sheriff Skinner called to check on Vi and he’s on his way up here. Seems that using Edie at the diner as his investigator has paid off. Hazel Gallinger who runs the General Store caught our friend Banes talking to a stranger on one of her security cameras. Skinner wants to know if the guy is MacDonald.”
“Do me a favor and call him back,” Cam said. “Tell him we need that extra man he offered to send up here tonight. And tell Vi we’re on our way.”
14
IT WAS JUST before seven when Sheriff Skinner inserted the security disc from Hazel Gallinger’s store into the DVD player in the main parlor. One of his deputies along with Skinner’s dog were currently on stakeout duty in the stone arch. Another of the sheriff’s men was patrolling the grounds. Daryl and Wes had checked the security system and made sure all the windows and doors were locked.
While they’d provided Skinner with more details on the bomb they’d discovered and the attacks their latest intruder had made, Vi had fixed sandwiches and tea and wheeled the refreshments in on a cart.
In Cam’s opinion, they made a pretty motley-looking crew. Skinner looked tired as he pressed a button on the DVD player and then pulled up a ladder-back chair. Daryl had chosen a spot closest to the screen on a love seat next to Vi with Alba snuggled between them.
As the TV screen flickered on, Cam’s gaze shifted to Adair who sat cross-legged on the floor. While they’d waited for Sheriff Skinner to arrive, he and Adair had used the excuse of getting caught in the rain to fit in a quick shower and change of clothes.