tangle of wiry dark blond curls to shove on his hips so he’d sit down. Liam sat, knees splayed but cuffed by his pants at his ankles. Aubrey debated leaning in for a taste of him, but the urgency pulsing through her veins insisted she hurry rather than linger. Judging by the taut tendons of Liam’s neck, she knew he teetered just as close to the edge of control as she.
She quickly removed his shoes, socks and pants and tossed them aside. Bracing her hands on his thighs, she levered herself to stand before him. The desire in his eyes poured over her like heated oil, burning, but in a good way. An incredibly arousing, blood-boiling way. Not something she’d previously experienced.
He lifted her hands, sketched a nerve-tingling erotic kiss in each palm with his tongue and then transferred her hands to his shoulders. His satiny skin stretched tight over corded muscle. She couldn’t resist tracing each swell and crevice, and raking her fingers through the coils of burnished gold spattering his chest.
Liam’s hot mouth found one breast. His talented fingers teased the other. When he devoured her that way, stroked and molded her that way, Aubrey didn’t feel inadequate, unwomanly. Despite the breathtaking release he’d just given her, her body tightened once again, hungry for more. “Please, Liam. I can’t wait.”
He lifted his head, his gaze locking with hers, and then he reached for the bedside table, opened the drawer and extracted a square packet.
Condoms. She’d forgotten. So unlike her. But then everything about today was beyond her realm. She’d never fallen in instant lust, never become intimate with a near stranger.
He slowly rose, sliding inch by inch of his hot skin against hers. For heart-stopping seconds his shaft burned against her navel and then he leaned back and ripped the packet open with his teeth.
Aubrey stroked his back, his waist, his firm buttocks, bringing her hands around to curl her fingers around his thickness and cup the heaviness below. Her thumb found a slick droplet and smoothed it over his silky skin.
His breath whistled through clenched teeth. He muttered a curse and ground out, “Enough.”
He brushed her hands aside, donned protection and urged her onto the bed. With one foot still on the floor, Aubrey leaned back across the oyster-colored sheets and lifted a hand, beckoning him into her arms. The mattress dipped under his weight. His hands, hot and slightly rough, cupped her bottom and lifted as he stood beside the bed and positioned himself. Aubrey’s breath caught in anticipation and then gushed from her lungs as he plunged deeply, filling her with a solid thrust.
He withdrew and thrust again and again. She arched to meet him and then reached up and curled her fingers around his nape to pull him closer. Liam planted his hands beside her head. His molten blue gaze locked with hers and his biceps bulged as he slowly lowered until his chest hairs teased her breasts. His breath stirred the fine hairs on her neck and then finally, finally, his lips sealed hers. She hooked one leg around his hips, drawing him back each time he withdrew and urging him to go faster and deeper as everything inside her twisted tighter and she raced toward another climax.
Ecstasy hit hard and fast, rocking her and robbing her breath. She threw her head back and cried out as Liam slammed into her and groaned as his own orgasm undulated over him.
Breathing heavily, he collapsed to his elbows and buried his face beside hers on the bed. Aubrey traced the line of his spine and he shivered against her. The weight of him, the heat of him, blanketed her in a sensual cocoon. A satisfied smile curved her lips and a sense of well-being flooded her, weighting her limbs and her eyelids. Bliss.
Her racing heart and laboring lungs slowed and then with a sudden icy shower her conscience washed away the haze of desire.
What had she done?
She’d taken the enemy to bed and in doing so guaranteed she’d disappoint her father yet again, because she couldn’t sleep with Liam and then betray him.
Aubrey stiffened beneath Liam and then shoved hard against his shoulders. He forced his drained and satiated muscles into action and rolled to her side, reluctantly disengaging from the slick heat of her body.
She pressed her fingers to the pleat between her eyebrows. Regret tightened her features and flattened her luscious, kiss-swollen mouth.
Liam’s stomach clenched as reality sank in.
“That shouldn’t have happened,” Aubrey whispered as she reached for the sheet, dragging it across her body and sliding to the edge of the bed.
“Probably not.” No probably about it. This afternoon had been a mistake. They both knew it. Chalk it up to his unerring ability to choose the wrong woman.
“I have to go.” She clutched the sheet with one hand and reached for her skirt with the other. The bed sheet tethered her inches short of her goal, and she didn’t look like she wanted to release it and let him see her naked. Ridiculous, considering the taste of her still lingered on his lips.
He scooped up her skirt, passed it to her and then raked a hand through his hair. “Aubrey—”
Without looking at him, she held up a hand like a traffic cop. “Please. No post mortems.”
What could he say? There could be no future in any relationship between them. And for the first time in Liam’s life that bothered him. Until now he’d been the king of dead-end-and-damned-happy-about-it relationships.
He rolled his tense shoulders. Blame it on all the new shiny jewelry being shoved in his face at EPH. Wedding and engagement rings had multiplied like bacteria among the staff—Elliotts in particular. His grandfather’s aim might have been to increase productivity with his little competition, but what he’d done was run off employees and cause a rash of romances.
“Would you like to shower first or—”
“No. No, I need to go.” She shimmied her skirt over her long, lean legs and her round, tight, bare butt. Watching her move made his pulse accelerate and his groin tighten all over again.
“Can I call you a cab?”
With her arms crossed over her chest, she shoved her feet into her shoes and bolted out the bedroom door. “No. Thank you.”
He yanked on his pants, ducked into the bathroom to ditch the condom and followed her into the den. She dragged on her top, shrugged on her jacket, snatched up her purse and briefcase and wasted no time hustling toward the door. She still hadn’t looked at him. That stung.
“Aubrey, wait.” He planted a palm on the door, holding it closed.
She paused with her hand on the knob. Her spine remained steel-girder stiff, and she kept her chin tucked as if she wanted to hide from what had just happened.
Well, didn’t that make him feel like a damned prize?
Her scent, a heady floral mingled with hot sex, filled Liam’s lungs as he inhaled. He battled the unaccustomed urge to smooth her tangled hair and straighten the tucked-under collar of her blazer. “We used protection and I’m clean, but if you need anything you have my numbers.”
She turned and met his gaze. Panic and regret darkened her eyes. “I won’t call, Liam. I can’t.”
“Yeah. I guess you’re right. My family’s in enough turmoil without throwing an affair with the enemy’s daughter
