Free His Wicked Ways by Joanne Rock Page B

hem of her shirt, he roved his fingers over the soft skin of her belly, dipping into the smooth depression of her navel. He couldn’t wait to trace his tongue over that same path. Except that, when he went that route with his mouth, he’d be going down instead of coming up.
    For now, his fingers rose up to the smooth satin cups of her bra, a rigid contraption complete with underwire and foam padding. Only, the breasts beneath weren’t the sort that needed uplifting. If anything, Alec imagined they’d have all the more bounce and expanse once she freed them from the prison of hooks and latex.
    Reaching around behind her, he pressed her closer to his chest. Tasted deeper. She was smooth on his tongue like aged wine. Nothing sweet about this woman except maybe her rose perfume. And that, he began to recognize as more traditional and clean than exactly sweet.
    If he hadn’t been on the run and trying to hide out, he would have loved to surround her exotic beauty with rose petals on this endlessly black bedspread. Her scrubbed skin didn’t need any makeup to catch the male eye, but he’d be willing to bet she’d make a visual feast with a little decoration spread around her unadorned body.
    Sliding her jacket off her shoulders with one hand, he unlatched her bra with the other. Amazing how swiftly a man could work if given incentive. Her T-shirt followed in quick succession.
    And then he couldn’t do anything but stare.
    A lush, made-for-sex body lurked under her athletic-style bra and layers of clothing. Full, eye-popping breasts spilled into his hands, soft and warm and tipped with tight pink crests. He moved to taste them when she stopped him.
    “I want you naked, too.” Her words were as clipped and functional as the rest of her, only Alec was slowly realizing that a wealth of passion slept beneath the surface of this lean, mean, martial-arts pro who didn’t embellish her words or her body.
    “You’re sure?” God, he hoped she was sure. Still, he didn’t let her pull off his T-shirt yet, even though her hands wandered purposefully over the cotton. “This is going to change everything with us. If we do this, there won’t be any going back to how things were before.”
    “That’s where you’re wrong.” Bending her knee along the outside of his leg, she shifted her thigh against him and stroked his ache for her into painful proportions. “When all this is over, I’ll still have my job to do.”
    “Do you really think you’ll be able to arrest a man you’ve slept with?” He wrapped his hand around her leg, fingers dipping into the tender hollow behind her knee. He should have known a few kisses wouldn’t erase that cool, aloof streak of hers.
    “I don’t think there’s going to be much sleeping happening in this bed tonight.” She arched her back, just enough to press the warmth of her sex to his groin. Not even her jeans could mask the heat of her. “But if there comes a time I have evidence you committed a crime, it won’t matter how good the sex is between us, I’ll still come after you.”
    “Ever the tender-hearted detective.” Convinced she wouldn’t change her mind now, he peeled his shirt over his head and prepared to fan the heat between them as high as it would go. “And I think you’ve got it backward, Vanessa, since you’ll definitely be coming before me.”

6
    B LESS THE MAN and his orgasm-confidence.
    Vanessa had nearly stopped shaking now that Alec’s full, hot, hard weight settled over her. Between the feather bed beneath her and the fiery male above her, she definitely wasn’t cold anymore. And when she closed her eyes, she still saw Alec’s face outlined in the shadowy room instead of the crazed, venomous glare of her assailant.
    That is, unless Alec stopped kissing her. Touching her.
    She remedied that by arching up to brush her lips over his again. Dropping light kisses along his cheek, she carefully avoided the dried wound along the stark angle of his