5

Chapter Five

“Matthews, you and Adams have days, Lowell and Danford can take nights,” Kimberly informed the four men as they were escorted by Jared’s housekeeper to their individual rooms. The men were downstairs, Kimberly was upstairs. Right next door to Jared.

“Will do, Kimberly.” David Matthews nodded his dark head solemnly, his puppy dog eyes smiling back at her. “Lighten up, we shouldn’t be here long. Raddington doesn’t seem the type to really like company.”

Kimberly snorted. Jared had stopped just shy of rude when they drove in that morning.

“What the hell an ex-Special Forces soldier needs us for, I have no idea. He didn’t look like he had grown lazy,” Tim Adams grumped as he tossed his suitcase on one of the two double beds that filled the large bedroom.

The agents’ rooms were connected, two to a room, at the back of the house. The rooms were airy and comfortable, but not exactly homely. Jared evidently wasn’t one to encourage overnight guests.

“He’ll get used to it.” She shrugged as though unconcerned, but it bothered her as well.

Jared was considered one of the best soldiers in the Special Forces when he retired after his father’s death. His record was impeccable, his mission successes rated at ninety-nine percent. He could take out all five of the bodyguards sent to protect him, and likely take on a full assassination team with the advanced notice he had been given.

She focused instead on the four men she had been assigned. She was aware that Jared had approached her father in regards to what he considered suitable for a husband for Kimberly. Senator Madison had been extremely derogatory when he relayed that information to her.

As though I would consider him,he had told her, derision thickening his voice. You need restraint, Kimberly, not a man as deviant as you more than likely are yourself.

Deviant. He had no idea, she thought in smug satisfaction as she wondered if he had any idea how effectively she had sidestepped the Trust’s conditions. Anal sex might not be the most satisfying act, but it eased the fury and the tension that drove her.

But he knew Jared’s interest in her now, and she knew how the Senator worked. One of the men with her was sent, not to guard anything, but to report back to the Senator instead.

“Keep your eyes open and keep me updated,” she told the four as they watched her now. “I’ll get unpacked and meet you back down here for dinner. The housekeeper said it’s five sharp, no later. Let’s try not to disturb his routine too severely.”

She actually preferred to make certain they didn’t disturb Jared at all; he hadn’t looked pleased with their presence.

Taking a deep breath, she moved down the hall to the back stairs and climbed them quickly to return to her own room. It was on the far side, a small suite with a large queen bed that looked so damned inviting she wanted nothing more than to sink into it. She had spent nearly a week with little sleep and it was making her sluggish. She couldn’t afford not to have her wits about her on this job.

She closed the door behind her, locking it automatically as she moved through the small sitting room and into the much larger bedroom. The deep forest green carpet cushioned her feet as she kicked her sneakers off her feet and moved them to the side of the door.

Her suitcase sat on the large rosewood trunk at the bottom of the bed, opened invitingly, her gown lying on the top of her serviceable clothing. Closing the lid to the case, she stared around the room silently. The dark cherry wood furniture made the room seem warmer, comforting. This room was meant to pleasure, to soothe, and it did that far too well.

“Do you like the room?”

Kimberly jumped in surprise as she turned, facing the door on the opposite side of the room that Jared had managed to open without a sound.

Her breath caught at the swift punch of desire that contracted her womb and sent heat spreading through the vulnerable flesh between her thighs. She could feel the thick, warm juice spilling along the folds there, preparing her for him, making her ache all the more.

He looked good enough to eat. Leaning against the doorframe, his muscular arms crossed over his chest, his gaze somber as he watched her. His gray eyes were stormy, the color flowing and ever-changing as tension thickened the air around them.

“It’s beautiful.” She cleared her throat, hiding her grimace at the thick huskiness of her voice.

She was so weak. She pushed her hands into the pockets of her jeans as she fought the need to touch him, to taste his kiss again. Her heart was racing out of control, the blood pumping furiously through her veins and echoing in the swollen bud of her clit.

Drawing in a deep breath, she swallowed tightly as she watched his eyelids lower sensually. She could see the sexual tension moving through his body. Darkening his eyes, swelling the front of his jeans.

“You know this won’t work,” he growled the words at her. “You, here, in this house. I couldn’t even keep from putting you in the room beside mine, how much longer do you think it will be before I have you in my bed, Kimber?”

Images too hot to escape flashed through her mind. His hard body bare, perfect, muscles gleaming with sweat as he came over her, his powerful thighs moving between hers…

“I didn’t want this. Not for you, nor me.” She shook her head fiercely, fighting the temptation. And it was a temptation. The need to go to him, to accept him and to forget the vow she had made so long ago.

She remembered his kiss, dark and intoxicating, the sensations whipping through her system as his lips dominated hers, his tongue forging past hers to take possession of her mouth.

“I know you didn’t. And I know what we’re both risking.” He straightened from the doorframe. “It’s why I’ve stayed away from you. It’s why I jack off at night instead of kidnapping you and tying you to my bed where I can fuck you at will. It’s why I think this is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done in my entire life.”

He gripped her shoulders, ignoring her gasp as he pulled her against him, his head lowering.

She was caught. Helpless. God, he tasted too good. Too hot and seductive. Her hands gripped his hard waist, her lips opening for him as his tongue pressed past them, a groan vibrating from his chest as she met it with her own.

This wasn’t a kiss. It was a possession. It was a hunger, a temptation and an addiction. And she couldn’t get enough. She wanted to wrap around him, to lose herself in the pleasure and the heat that was Jared.

“God help us both,” he growled as his lips tore free of hers, only to string nipping little kisses across her jaw, along the line of her throat.

His arms were wrapped around her, holding her still as he bent to her, his lips burrowing beneath the opened neckline of her blouse to run his tongue over the smooth, swollen curves of her upper breasts.

Her head fell back, helpless against the pleasure, her muscles unable to hold her neck upright now as streaking delight seared through her.

“Jared.” She arched to him, to his touch.

Her nipples ached, throbbed for the touch of his mouth. This was insanity. It was too much temptation, but it was unlike anything else she had known. This wasn’t an urge, nor was it an exercise in controlling the fury that sometimes built within her. This was a firestorm taking over her body and her mind. Heat and lightning and a demand that he only fed as his tongue licked over the lace edge of her bra.

“You taste as good as I knew you would,” he groaned roughly. “Like sweet honeysuckle and summer heat. God help us both, Kimber, I don’t think I can control the need to touch you, to taste you.”

She had a week to remember this. A week to regret, to need, to ache for even the simplest, smallest touch.

“Jared.” She fought to find her breath, to speak past the clawing, brutal arousal rising in her body.

She couldn’t speak further, couldn’t make anything more intelligent than a long, drawn out cry of blistering hunger escape her throat as his lips managed to push the cup of her bra aside enough to allow his tongue to rake the hardened point of her breast.

She went on her tiptoes then, her hands holding his head, pressing him closer, harder to her.

“More,” she gasped as he licked again. She wanted to feel his lips closing over her, drawing on her, sucking the tight point into his mouth.

“I was going to stay away,” he muttered gutturally. “I wasn’t going to taste. To touch…”

He lifted her against him, moving her to the bed, laying her back against the comforter as he moved quickly to her side. His lips covered hers again and the storm inside her body fed on the growing hunger of his kiss.

Kimberly was only distantly aware of his fingers at her blouse, tearing the buttons from their holes; his calloused hands were sensually rough, demanding as he pushed the material aside and quickly loosened the catch of her bra.

She couldn’t fight them both. She was starved for this. This something that his touch held that no others ever had. As though a stroke of his finger alone was a narcotic to her senses.

“Son of a bitch, I’ll go to hell for this for sure.” There was no pausing between her lips and her pierced nipples.

Kimberly’s back bowed, arching tightly to him as a cry tore from her throat. His lips covered one aching tip as his fingers went to the other. Nimble and hot, his tongue rasped over it as his mouth drew on her, tugging at the little gold ring that pierced the center of the elongated tip.

His fingers plucked at the other. Pulling at the gold ring, sending shards of desperate, fiery heat flowing through her body as her fingers gripped the fabric of his shirt, pulling at it, eager to feel his skin against her.

This was the stuff of her dreams. Jared overtaking her, forcing the pleasure from her body, giving her no time to think, to fear.

“I want to touch you,” she moaned, shuddering from the exquisite sensations ripping through her body. “Let me touch you, Jared.”

He growled back at her. She didn’t know if it was a yes or a no.

“Now.” She bucked against him, pulling harder at the shirt.

“Fuck no.” His head rose from her reddened nipple as his hands gripped her wrists, jerking them above her head and holding them with one hand as he stared down at her, his gaze dark, sexual. “Don’t touch me, Kimber. Not now. Not like this. I’ll end up doing something we’ll both regret.”

Kimberly fought for breath.

“You can have me,” she whispered. “Like Sax…”

She couldn’t deny him, not any longer. She was too hungry, too wild for his touch. She had thought she could hold herself aloof. Thought she could deny her need and his lusts, but she knew now it wasn’t going to happen. This wasn’t just a need. It was a craving, an addiction.

He stared down at her, his chest rising and falling as quickly as hers, his face flushed with his arousal, with his lusts. She could see the battle waging in his eyes, the desperate need for anything she would offer, the knowledge it would never be enough.

“It’s all I have, Jared,” she whispered painfully. “All I can offer.” But it wasn’t. Not really. She had the heart she was terrified he already held.

His head lowered, his forehead meeting hers as he stared into her eyes.

“Such a pretty little rear you have,” he whispered, his voice suggestive, dark with lust. “Do you know how many nights I’ve dreamed of you, Kimberly? How often I’ve lain awake hungry for you?”

She licked her lips, weakening desire washing through her body.

“I’m here,” she whispered.

His hand rose to her face, his fingers smoothing over her cheek with a touch as soft as a whisper.

“Here you are,” he agreed. “And yet you’re further away than you ever were.”

Kimberly watched in confusion as he loosened her wrists and forced himself from her. And he did force himself. She could see it in every line of his body, in the tight, angry grimace of his mouth.

“What do you mean?” She shook her head, pulling the edges of her shirt together as he rose from the bed and stood staring at her from beside it.

It broke her heart, needing him as she did and knowing she could never have him and keep the vow she had made to herself and to her mother. A vow that was weighing down her soul more and more by the day.

He shook his head shortly. “I have to get the hell out of here before I take something you don’t want to give. And that would only hurt both of us.”

Before she could speak, he stalked through the connecting doorway, closing the door firmly between them.

“But I do want to give it to you, Jared,” she whispered bleakly. “More than you know. More than you will ever know.”