Page 21 of Fully Loaded

Holy freaking shit.

Chapter

Eight

Christ. Dani’s lithe little body straddled his lap, and the only barriers stopping his dick from going exactly where it belonged were their pants. The material had to go. He shaped his palms over her heart-shaped ass and flicked his tongue inside her mouth again.

She moaned and arched against him, pressing the crevice between her thighs that much closer. All the blood left his head and filled his cock. His member twitched and thumped against his pants, demanding to be released. He pulled his mouth away from her delicious lips to nuzzle her throat. Her feminine scent swarmed his head as he kissed the column of her neck.

A niggle of hesitation gnawed at his insides, but there was no fucking way he was pulling the brake on this. It wasn’t that he feared he’d regret sleeping with her. Where Dani was concerned, regret didn’t linger when it came to sex. Nor was it that he didn’t want to complicate things between them. Right now, he cared about one thing only: getting inside her.

No, the doubt had nothing to do with all the real reasons they shouldn’t be intimate right now and everything to do with the stark, nearly sobering fear that getting naked with Dani would cause her to distance herself.

Ah, shit. He closed his eyes and pressed his face between her full, perky breasts.

She wiggled against him. “Brock. Why’d you stop?” Her throaty question was enough for him to bring his fingers to her pants. He couldn’t form a cognizant thought.

“I want you so damn bad,” he said against the creamy skin at his mouth. He licked the top of her breast and she gasped.

“Honey, if you have any reservations about fucking, you’d better say so now.” He worked his index and middle finger inside the waistband of her pants and stroked the delicate lace beneath.

Her body tensed and her nails curled into his shoulders. If she didn’t give him the green light, he would burst. Her chest flattened against his and she curled her arms around his neck in a hug.

No.

“We shouldn’t do this,” she said. “I want to . . . believe me. But if we do, we’ll regret it. You know that. Things will never be the same between us. But maybe we can be friends now.” Her voice broke on the words, and pain expanded in his chest.

He wanted to be angry. To toss her from his lap and run the streets of the damn city until his blue balls went away. But he couldn’t do any of that. Not when she clung to him as if he were a lifeline.

He forced his head to nod and retracted his fingers from the warmth of her underwear. “All right.” Hell, he sounded like a petulant teenager. He didn’t agree with her, but he had no choice but to respect her decision. Even if it fucking sucked.

She leaned back in his arms and he lifted his gaze to take in her face. Her luscious lips were plump and pink from his kisses. The clear blues of her eyes clashed with the black eyelashes that framed them, creating the brightest aquamarines he’d ever seen. A rosy tint speckled her cheeks and neck. She tucked her hair behind her ears and dragged her top teeth over her bottom lip. God, she was beautiful. She wiggled on his lap, separating their crotches. He ached for the closeness of her heat.

“Are you mad?”

He pressed his hands to the sides of his thighs to stop himself from touching her. “No. ’Course not.”

A shadow crossed her face and guilt marred the light in her eyes. She knew him better than that.

He forced a half grin and chucked her under her chin with his knuckle. “You know you can’t resist for long and I promise, when we do have sex, your legs will be shaking.”

She snorted out a laugh but her skin flamed red.

There was that sound he’d missed so much. Her laugh. It drew him in from somewhere deep inside his chest and pulled at the memories in his brain that had refused to forget her all these years.

“Very funny.” She clambered off his lap and worked strands of her hair around her fingers. She might have just shot him down with the emotion of an ice queen, but she sure as hell didn’t seem confident in her decision.

He couldn’t blame her. They had serious issues, and if they were home right now, none of this would have happened. Hell, she still wouldn’t be speaking to him. The last thing he wanted was for her to regret sleeping with him. But goddamn, he wanted her more than anything he’d ever wanted in his life.

“Can I ask you something?” Her fingers fell from her hair and she mindlessly straightened the bedding they’d wrinkled moments before.

“Shoot.”

“Earlier, when I said you were a criminal, you said, ‘Who said I still do that.’ Did you get out?”

He picked up his tattered shirt from the floor and tossed it in the trash. No point trying to remove the blood or sew the bullet hole. He went to his bag, dug out a fresh shirt, and weighed his words.

“I don’t do heists like we used to. I have a different operation, but I wouldn’t say it’s much better. Just less risky.” He pulled on a long-sleeved white shirt and nodded at his injured arm. “Thanks for helping with that.”