had to destroy it. Sinking her fingers into his hair, she shifted even closer so their mouths were just touching. “So. You really want to…” She wrapped her legs around his waist, thrilling to his quickly indrawn breath. “Talk?”
Now both hands held her bottom, hard, his fingers squeezing. She was so close to him they’d melted together. And because she’d spread her legs wide, wrapping them around his waist so satisfactorily, the tip of his penis…oh, yes, nearly slid home.
Nearly. Because he held back. Everything. “You want me?” he asked, his voice rough and serrated, his mouth so close to hers, but not close enough. His hands still gripped her bottom, holding her slightly away, so that his wonderfully hot, hard, huge erection only teased the very center of her universe.
“I think that’s fairly obvious,” she answered.
“Then talk to me.”
“Uh…”
Looking fierce and hot, and so damn sexy she wanted to gobble him up in one bite, he stroked her again. This time his chest lightly brushed her nipples, and she could barely breathe.
“Maybe you skipped the birds and the bees lesson,” she said. “But you should know, talking has little to do with wanting you.”
He looked down at her breasts, two hard, aching points brushing against his chest, and groaned. Slowly he lifted her up a little, dipping his head so he could rub his jaw across the very tips. “Can Pete find you here?”
No, she wouldn’t talk about this, even if he’d forced a pathetic, needy whimper from her throat.
“Cassie?” Another little stroke with his not-so-little penis. Her entire body quivered, dancing on the very edge of an orgasm she wanted with all her heart.
“Can he?” he growled.
She stared down at his mouth, wanting it on hers. At the look, he groaned low and deep. His fingers, still supporting her, glided farther down her backside and dipped between her legs. Unerringly found her flash point.
Unable to help herself, she thrust against him and he groaned again, the sound melding with hers. She’d never had an orgasm without purposeful, calculated thought before, and yet here she was, quivering on the very edge without a thought in her head other than…more, please, more.
They weren’t very far out in the water. Not too far to miss the fact that her cell phone was ringing. She stared at the spot where she’d left it while he stared at her.
“You get a lot of calls?” he asked hoarsely.
“Very few now that I’m off work.” She closed her eyes, then jerked them open when she felt his mouth slide over hers in a far too brief kiss.
Bending his head, he sighed and rubbed his jaw lightly over her breasts, making them both moan again. “Get it,” he said and with one last perfectly aimed stroke with his fingers, gently unwrapped her legs from around him. “It might be important.”
Walking out of the water, feeling him alongside her, Cassie wondered at the amazing control of the man. She wondered how he’d gotten that way, and—
And all else fell from her mind as she scooped up the phone from her towel. She’d missed the call. But the caller had a New York area code that didn’t belong to her agent. And then the phone rang again…same number. “Hello?” she said.
“Hello, Cassie,” said Pete. “I’m here and you’re not.”
Cassie looked up into Tag’s face and felt the blood drain from her own.
6
“YOU HAVEN’T CALLED,” Pete said in a congenial voice. “Even though I know you had some…car trouble before you left. Why didn’t you call, Cassie?”
Very aware that Tag stood less than a foot away, still as gloriously naked as was she, Cassie didn’t say a word. Pete’s voice gave her goose bumps, as did his casual reference to how he’d slashed her tires.
“We’re friends,” he went on. “Friends, Cassie. And we’re so much more than that, too. Did you know I haven’t come to find you, not because I couldn’t, but because I wanted you to come find me?”
His words disturbed her, made her feel sick. She’d liked this man, had let him into her life, and that her instincts had been so far off, so wrong, cut deeply.
“We belong together, you know this,” Pete said in her ear. “We were meant to be. I’m going to make it happen.”
Her skin crawled. “No—”
“Yes.” His voice hardened. “You can’t treat me this way, Cassie, vanishing from my world like this. It’s not okay. Friends don’t do that to one another.”
“Friends.” Suddenly she felt cold, so very cold, and she grabbed for something to cover herself. That it happened to be Tag’s T-shirt didn’t stop her; she shoved it over her wet head and body, then wrapped her free arm around herself. “Funny you use that word. I don’t have any.”
“Cassie.” His voice was low now, conciliatory, quick to soothe. “Just tell me where you are, I can make it all up to you.”
He was insane. And she hadn’t seen it until it had been almost too late. “Don’t call me again, Pete.” She clicked off, tossed the phone down by her sandals, and stared off into the night, telling herself he still had no idea where she was or he’d have come for her by now.
Tag came up beside her. He was still looking at her with his sharp, probing gaze, still naked and apparently unconcerned about that fact. She knew male models, tons of them, and had never seen a man so comfortable in his own skin. He was beautiful, and the way he looked at her…in another place and time she might have been tempted to let herself weaken for him.
Who was she fooling? She had weakened for him, had very nearly trusted him with anything he wanted to do. Good God, what was wrong with her? He was a sheriff, of all things, a man with authority and power over her if he so chose, and more than that, he was his father’s son. No doubt Sheriff Sean Taggart couldn’t be trusted any more than Richard could be, and yet she’d nearly…
He pulled his jeans over his still-wet body but didn’t fasten them. He looked like a Greek god standing there next to her, staring out into the night.
Until he turned to look at her. Those eyes of his weren’t a god’s. They were a cop’s. “Pete.”
“Yes.”
“Another threat?”
“He’s upset because he can’t find me.”
“Well, thank God for small favors.” When she didn’t answer, he sighed, put his hands on her and pulled her close. That her body wanted to be even closer felt like a betrayal. “You’re not going to ask me for help,” he guessed.
“No.”
“Then I’m going to ask you.” He shook her lightly until she locked gazes with him. “Let me help you, Cassie. Please. Let me do this for you.”
