Free Fatal Exposure by Lia Slater Page B

The man was good for the physical stuff but that was it. That was where it ended. If she could manage to keep her mouth shut, she could probably get one more night of sex out of him before she moved on. And maybe find out where he lived in case she wanted to locate him again. Just for the sex. Really.
    The mirror over the sink reminded her of the long day she’d had. Her cheek was pink and slightly swollen, and the dark circles under her eyes made it seem like she’d aged ten years in the past few hours. She sighed, wrapped some ice in a towel and gathered the courage to join him.
    When she walked through the door, he had on a pair of black boxer briefs and was sitting at the edge of the bed rifling through a duffle bag.
    “How are you feeling?” He looked up only for a moment.
    “Fine.” One word answers were the best way to go. “You don’t look fine.”
    “Mmm.” Not a word but cursing at the man probably wouldn’t get her laid. She crawled onto the bed, still completely naked, but he didn’t even give her the courtesy of a glance.
    “Why don’t you take these?” He swiveled around to face her with a brown prescription bottle in his hand.
    “Those?” She raised an eyebrow. “What are you trying to do, drug me?”
    He shook his head but still didn’t make eye contact. “They’re pain killers for an old injury I’ve got that flares up from time to time. A couple of these, and you won’t feel a thing, I promise you.”
    She arched her body toward him and circled her finger over her nipple. “What if I want to feel something?” she asked in the sultry voice she’d used a billion times at the club.
    He blinked. “What?”
    Why was it so much easier to play a seductress when you were named after a flower? “Nothing,” she
    said, giving up. She placed the ice-packed towel over her cheek and tried to forget how horny she was. The bed creaked as he stood. “I’ll get you some water.”
    “Whatever,” she mumbled, reminding herself that survivors didn’t beg. If Kade didn’t want to see her anymore after tonight, then to hell with him. Oh, who was she kidding? What would one more try at seduction hurt?
    ****
    Kade didn’t look in the mirror as he filled the plastic cup. How could he when the man looking back at him was nothing but a pathetic, selfcentered prick?
    Ava Lureau deserved better than what he had planned for her, and it sickened him. But there was no other way around it.
    If she weren’t so innocent and loving, pleasing him so readily with her beautiful body, then what he had to do would be easier. Cut and dried. Regrettably, he knew as long as she let him, he’d take everything she had to give. Just like a drug, he was quickly becoming addicted to her. He longed to please her—every part of her. Fill her. Possess her. Protect her.
    He walked back into the bedroom and saw her lying there with the comforter only partially covering her naked body. God, he wanted her, and he wasn’t sure he would ever be able to get enough. Maybe if he were to have her just one last time before she found out his identity. What could it hurt?
    She was going to despise him anyway.
    After spilling out two of the pills into his free hand, he walked over and sat beside her. “Here, take these.”
    She met his eyes while pressing the towel filled with ice against her cheek. “I don’t need it.”
    “They’ll help you sleep.” He watched a droplet of water drip down her neck from the makeshift ice pack.
    “I don’t want to sleep.” She sat up, and the wet bead ran down between her supple breasts. Instinctively, he grew hard as he imagined following that path with his tongue. The taste of her, the soft creamy feel of her, just the thought aroused him.“Please, take the pills,” he ordered himself to say. She pulled the pack from her cheek and set it down on the bed beside her. “Don’t you want me?”
    she asked. “I know I look like hell, but...I don’t know. We could have one last fling before