had all of Spike’s attention.
“Louis said he was bringing good news. What would you make out of that?”
Careful. “I’d probably make some of the same guesses you’re making. But I wouldn’t get in the way of the law.”
Her determined concentration on the table didn’t fool him. The lady could become hard to handle because she wouldn’t take directions easily unless they made a lot of sense to her.
“The connection has to be found.” She sounded stubborn.
“If there is one.” He slid his rump forward in his chair and carried her fingertips to his mouth. “Heed what I say and don’t meddle. Your life is too important to risk. I won’t let you lose it over money.”
Her startled eyes rose to his face.
Absently, Spike kissed the very tips of her fingers, ran his tongue across them. Vivian said, “I like you doing that. It makes me dizzy.”
“Actually this is a bad idea,” he said, speaking deliberately as if he were discussing the boudin rouge, only with less enthusiasm.
“Is it?”
She was an enigma, and irresistible. His voice might sound cool but what he felt was anything but cool. He’d better back off.
“How about you?” she asked. “Tell me something about you and what you want.”
“I want a better life for Wendy,” he said and Vivian wouldn’t allow herself to remark that he was holding her hand too tightly. “She’s fine now, but she’ll need more and I’ll give it to her. She’s always going to feel loved and it’ll never mean anything to her that her mother…left. Wendy will go to college. She’ll get whatever opportunities it takes to get her to her full potential.”
“I know you’ll make sure of that.”
The flashlight on the floor cast uplights over his face. His gleaming eyes held a faraway expression.
“And you?” she asked. “What do you want for yourself?”
He looked at her and there was nothing faraway about him now. Spike studied only her face and for so long Vivian could scarcely bear the wait. Finally the corners of his mouth tipped up and he said, “I want you. It’s wrong for me to say it, but it’s true. Already I feel I’ve known you forever and I want to know you better. But it couldn’t work out. Even if you’d have me, we’d have to sneak around to be together.”
“Because you’re afraid I’d hurt you, or Wendy. It’s Wendy you worry about most and I like you for that. But are you really thinking about the whole picture, or just about sex?”
His eyes never left her face and he didn’t flinch. “I need that, too. I want that, too. But I’d settle for kissing you—for now. Just to see how we like it. You probably wouldn’t want that when I have nothing else to offer you.”
Vivian looked at their joined hands and inched them toward her. He stopped her, kissed her palm, pressed it against his neck and leaned slowly closer.
She heard his breathing, focused on the distinct contours of his mouth. He stopped moving toward her and she almost panicked at the thought that he might not kiss her.
His eyes closed. His lips found hers in a soft, careful kiss. She heard their mouths part, but almost at once he drew the tip of his tongue across her lips and nipped lightly. They shifted their faces, noses bumping gently. Vivian felt his features, the beard stubble, feathered her fingers over his brows, his closed eyes.
Spike maneuvered her to face him, pulled her forward until her knees were between his thighs. He held her head and stroked the corners of her mouth. Vivian pressed her mouth into his, passed her tongue over the smooth insides while his thumbs at the corners of her lips, rubbing, aroused her.
He heard her pant, felt her tongue meet his and shifted on the chair. The little white tank top had wriggled up and when he sought her waist he found a bared midriff. With each touch, she moaned, and he moaned with her. He found the indentation in her spine, between her hips, slid a hand beneath her jeans and held her smooth bottom, let his fingers graze the dip between the cheeks.
And Vivian rubbed him, his neck and shoulders, his sides, across his chest. She pinched his flat nipples and he thought he’d lose the last vestige of his control. Abandoning his mouth for his chest, she trailed her tongue over his skin, gradually lowered her head and sucked a dozen places on his belly.
Vivian didn’t want to think about anything but the way he felt, and the way she felt with him. His abdomen, tight and inflexible, tasted salty. The sensation that came when he slipped her tank top from one shoulder stopped her breath. He bent over and kissed her there. His hands passed from her ribs to the sides of her breasts. And she burned, her nipples, deep in her womb, between her legs where flesh turned hard and erogenous. It swelled, throbbed.
In one swift motion, Spike pulled her from her chair and astride his thighs and, as she’d known must happen, he stopped kissing her. He held her in strong arms, such strong arms she couldn’t catch her breath.
Beneath her, she felt his erection. He wanted her as much as she wanted him. He pushed the distended ridge behind his zipper against her center. “Spike?”
“This is going to sound crazy,” he said against her face, rocking her, dipping his tongue rapidly into her mouth and, always, breathing like a suffocating man. “I want you so bad it hurts.”
“I want you,” she told him. It was too late for pride.
“Vivian, I don’t just want sex with you.” He gave a short laugh. “Not that I don’t need that enough to make me want to take you no matter what the cost might be. But if I can’t have all of you, all the time, I’m not going to do something that’ll mean you’ll walk the other way if you see me coming.”
She pushed a hand between them and massaged the hard length of him.
Spike captured her wrist. For moments he closed her hand even harder over him and let his head drop back.
Just as quickly, he pulled her hand from him.
“I’d never walk away from you,” she said, leaning on him, pressing her face into his shoulder. “Not unless you told me to.”
They came together in a frenzied burst. He kissed her wildly and didn’t confine himself to her mouth. Rocking her on top of his distended penis, he pulled her top above her breasts, held his tongue between his teeth while he narrowed his eyes to look at her. Beads of sweat broke out on his brow and upper lip.
Vivian couldn’t stand waiting. She thrust herself toward him and he buried his face between her breasts. His mouth, settling over a nipple, pulled a cry from her and she moved him to the other breast. She put her feet on the floor either side of him and stood, pushing his head back while she tried to get closer and closer.
Spike unzipped her jeans and slid his fingers inside her panties. Her hips jerked against him. He’d just about lost it all. Even knowing he should stop, not because he didn’t want her but because common sense told him to, he still couldn’t bring himself to leave her on the brink.
Seconds passed
