Keeping Her Close Read online

  It sure felt as if he had meant something, however. I had been attracted to men before, but had never felt anything so strong or all-consuming. I was going to have to be careful if I wanted to come out of this mess with my heart intact.

  Max, on the other hand, seemed unaffected by what just happened. It made me wonder just how many women he had protected in his past, and how many he had kissed. Jealousy sliced through me, quickly followed by disgust. I had no right to be jealous.

  My gaze dropped to his waist as he pushed aside his suit jacket. There was a quick flash of metal at his hip, and I realized he was carrying a gun. I don’t know why, but seeing a gun made everything that much more real. Max wasn’t just some guy I met at a bar. He was a cop, and he was dangerous. He had said that there were death threats made against me. I wasn’t surprised. On the internet, it was easy to brush off negative comments and personal attacks. I could convince myself that those commenters weren’t real, and this was all some sort of game. Now that things were starting to happen in real life, I could no longer ignore just how controversial my opinions had become.

  As if feeling my unease, Max glanced over at me. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine. What are you doing?”

  He turned his cell sideways and used both hands to text, his face intent on the screen. “Texting my partner. If we’re going to be hiding out, then we’ll need supplies.”

  “Of course.” I couldn’t help but feel hurt by his cool demeanor. He had been as turned on as I was at the front desk, I could tell, and the way he just turned it off as if it was just another day at the office made me a little put out.

  Perhaps I was just out of practice, and that was why the kiss had such a strong effect on me. Kami and I had been working that African shelter for almost a month. During that time, I had never tended to my needs. Max’s kiss back there reminded me that I had been too focused on my charity, and not taking enough time for myself.

  Not that I had a boyfriend, or a line of men waiting to have sex with me. I was a bit of a recluse, living vicariously through Kami’s drama-filled social life. The man could find a gay hangout anywhere in the world, even in the wilds of Africa. It didn’t take him long to hook up with a few of the locals and make weekend trips into the city. I had been invited of course, but I didn’t want to intrude. It was Kami’s one night off, and as his boss, it didn’t seem right to follow him around.

  Most of the time I settled for my lipstick vibrator and my fantasies. I only had real sex twice. Once in college so I could say I lost my virginity, and the second with a boy who was so drunk that he had difficulty staying hard. Over the years, I had found that masturbation and a dirty novel was much better than any man. Cleaner and with less complications.

  Now, standing close enough to feel Max’s heat but not close enough to touch, I wondered if I had missed something all those years ago,. The men I had been with had never kissed like that. They didn’t make me feel like that, either. As I glanced up at his profile, I wondered what it would be like to have his strong jaw rub up against my inner thigh or his calloused fingers on my backside.

  Stop it, he’s not interested in you. That display at the front desk was all a show, an act. I hugged my middle and tried to push aside the fluttering in my lower abdomen. “Do you trust this friend of yours?” I asked.

  “Completely. Vash and I went to the academy together, and he’s saved my ass more times than I care to admit. It’s the others on the force that I don’t trust. I don’t know them as well. Any one of them could be working with the people who want to harm you.” He slid his phone back into his pocket, drawing my gaze down.

  “He’s still gathering information,” Max said. “We’ll just have to hang tight until he can get away.”

  I pressed my lips together to hide a smile. Hang tight. It looked as if he already had a head start in that department if that tent in his slacks was any indication. It was good to confirm that he hadn’t completely turned off his emotions yet either, and his cool voice and relaxed stance were covering up a desire as strong as my own.

  “Is there something wrong?” he asked.

  “What?” I forced my gaze up to meet his face and felt the heat rise to my cheeks. I had been caught with my hand in the candy jar, so to speak. It was rude to stare at his erection like a kid at a candy store window, but I couldn’t seem to help myself.

  He cleared his throat and shifted his stance, pulling his suit jacket over his slacks. “I asked if there was anything wrong. You were staring.”

  “Was I?” I swallowed, suddenly feeling nervous. “I’m sorry. I was just thinking about . . .”

  “About what happened?” he asked when I didn’t answer.

  “Yeah.”

  “Don’t worry, it was all an act. That hotel employee was getting a little nosey, and I didn’t want him to start digging too deep.”

  I knew that it couldn’t be completely an act. He was far too aroused to have been faking all of it, but his words still hurt. I wasn’t sure how to respond, considering how much the kiss had affected me.

  “I was faking it, too.”

  He raised his brows. “Were you?”

  I crossed my arms and lifted my chin. “Of course. You aren’t the only person on the planet who can fake a kiss.”

  He started to respond, but then the elevator doors opened, distracting him. I rushed out into the hall before he could call my bluff, hoping that he wouldn’t see my embarrassment. What was wrong with me? I was the daughter of a United Nations representative and an established political blogger. I was above throwing myself at a man, certainly.

  I hurried to the door and stood to one side so he could let us in. Max casually strode up to the room and leaned on the opposite side of the door frame.

  “You weren’t faking it back there. I could tell.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  He nodded. “I know when something is real””

  I snorted. “Do you, now?”

  “Is that a challenge? Because we’ll have a few hours to kill in this room, and I’m sure that’s more than enough time to make you a believer . . .”

  I shook my head in disbelief. “I’d like to see you try.” As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I regretted them. What was I doing? Someone out there was trying to kill me and here I was, flirting like some schoolgirl. This was ridiculous. I had contacts to talk to and Kami to check up on. There wasn’t any time for this nonsense.

  “Challenge accepted, sweetheart.” Inching closer, Max’s features turned predatory.

  My throat suddenly went dry. “You don’t have to—”

  He stopped inches away from my body. I could feel the heat radiating off him in waves. He was so hot, so undeniably male. I had all I could do to not throw myself at him like some sort of groupie.

  Seconds passed, and he didn’t touch me, didn’t speak. Slowly, my desire gave way to awkwardness and confusion.

  “Well?” I finally said as I waved to the door knob behind him. “Aren’t you going to do something?”

  He twisted his lips into a half-smile and dropped his gaze to my chest. “I’d love to . . . do something, but I can’t.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m not going to take you out in the hall like some crazed animal.”

  “I—I don’t understand.”

  “The door, Tess. We need to open the door to the room.” He brushed his finger over the top of my breast. His heat pushed through the cotton sweater, then trickled down my torso until it reached my lower abdomen. “You’re the one with the key.”

  “Oh, right.” I wanted to step back, to grab the key and retreat to safety, but there was something in his gaze, something in the way his finger brushed over my breast that had me rooted to the spot.

  “Unless you would rather have me do it for you.”

  My breath caught as he reached out and slid his fingers underneath the low-cut seam of my shirt.

  His warm fingers made it all too easy to remember the kiss we h
ad shared only a few minutes before. I held my breath as he reached deeper, slipping his fingers along my skin and sending tingles of anticipation running through me.

  Then abruptly he retreated and waved the room card in the air between us. As he turned toward the door, I started breathing once more and tried to use the moment to gather my wits.

  I lifted my chin as he flicked open the door and breezed past him with as much dignity as I could muster.

  “Hold that thought.”

  “What?”

  “I said—hold that thought.” He closed the door, tossed the card on the table, and moved about the standard-size room, pulling the cream curtains shut and peering underneath the navy-and-white bedsheets.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I need to secure the area. Can’t have anyone peaking in on our little game.”

  “Our little—” I fisted my hands and ground my teeth. “This is not a game.”

  “No?”

  “No. You’re supposed to be protecting me, not trying to seduce me.”

  “Trying to—” He turned to me and smirked. “I’m not ‘trying to’ seduce you, my dear. I’m succeeding.”

  “Of all the egotistical—”

  He nodded in my direction. “You’re so revved up that I can smell your desire all the way over here on the other side of the room.”

  I made a sound of both surprise and disgust. Was my attraction to him really that obvious? “You cannot—”

  “Hey, hey,” he said, raising his hands in mock surrender. “It’s okay. I get it. It’s been a while for me, too.”

  “What? I’ll have you know that I—” I pressed my lips together before I could tell him about my lipstick vibrator. Something told me that he’d only laugh at my confession.

  He shrugged. “Like I said, it’s no big deal. The whole team has been busy preparing for your arrival. We’ve all been working overtime, which means there hasn’t been any time for fun.”

  I crossed my arms. “And I suppose you have a girl waiting at home for you to have fun with?”

  “Not one, a whole line of them.”

  “Are you serious?” I asked.

  He snorted and moved to the end table.

  More than anything I wanted to smack that smug expression off his face. He was a good kisser, real good, but he wasn’t the end-all-be-all of male hotness. “Well, if that’s the case, you can call one of them up to help you pass the time. You can consider the challenge off.”

  “Sorry, no can do.” He rounded the bed and stepped toward me. Instinctively, I stepped back. The man was tall, very tall, and I was unused to having other people around me look me in the eye.

  “What do you mean, ‘no’?” I asked as I backed up against the wall.

  He placed his palm next to my head and leaned in close. “I mean, the challenge was issued and accepted. There’s no turning back.”

  “Don’t be such a pig.”

  “A pig? I’m not being a pig, I’m being kind. We both know how much you like it when I kiss you.”

  “I already told you: I was acting.”

  “Acting.”

  “For the guy behind the counter. Just like you.”

  He nodded. “Okay—prove it.”

  “What?”

  “Prove it.” He tilted his head to the side and studied my face. “If you’re so good at acting, then you should be able to replicate the kiss we had downstairs without any problem.”

  “You kissed me, if I remember correctly.”

  “You kissed me back.”

  He had a point, and I could tell from his expression that I wasn’t going to get him to move away until I gave him what he wanted.

  “Well?” he asked.

  “Fine.”

  “Fine?”

  I placed my palms on either side of his cheeks. “Fine.” I pressed my lips against his before I could change my mind. The kiss started out clumsy and awkward, but then he parted his lips, and my desire returned one hundred fold.

  The familiar fresh taste filled my mouth, and as my tongue brushed against his, he moaned and inched closer.

  I didn’t think it was possible, but the kiss was better the second time around. There was something sweet about it, something curious that left me craving more. There was no fumbling here, no drunken sloppy mess. Max was a skilled professional, and I knew in that moment that sex with him would be better than anything I had ever experienced before—even with my lipstick vibrator.

  With each passing second, the strength drained from my muscles, and I was thankful for the wall behind me. I sank back into the hard surface, then groaned as he pushed his weight up against me.

  “Hold on,” he whispered as we broke the kiss.

  “What?” I gasped and clung to his shoulders as he lifted me up into the air. I instinctively wrapped my legs around his hips, loving how his erection pressed up against my body. He felt so hard, so solid. He squeezed my backside, lifting me up and adjusting me against the wall. Then he covered my lips once again. This time, I met his tongue, challenging him, drinking him in until the room around us dissolved into a sea of passion.

  “Oh God,” I whispered as we broke once again for breath. I leaned my head back onto the wall, trying to collect my thoughts. He used the opportunity to kiss my neck, and I groaned as his hard teeth nipped my skin. I pushed my fingers through his thick hair, then clawed his shoulders as he kissed his way down to my shoulder.

  “Tess,” he murmured as he cupped my breast. Pressing it up, he kissed my nipple through my sweater, creating a wet spot. Pleasure rippled through me, and suddenly I wanted to get out of my clothes. I wanted to feel his skin pressed up against mine. I wanted him over me, inside of me. As I dug my fingers into his back, he pressed his hips deeper into the apex of my thighs.

  “Yes.” I wiggled against him, wanting more, needing more. Then his mouth crashed over mine, and for a long, heady moment, I knew nothing but desire.

  Chapter Five

  Tess

  The kiss was incredible, just like I knew it would be. Max could say what he wanted, but I could tell that he needed this just as much as me. As seconds passed, the sense of urgency inside of me grew. I clawed at his back and shoulders, desperately wanting to feel his skin against mine.

  He broke the kiss and I gasped for air, arching my back and pressing my pebbled nipples into his hard chest. The motion exposed my neck, and he took advantage, kissing and nipping his way down toward my shoulder.

  “Oh, God.” He felt so good. I tugged the edge of his jacket, but couldn’t get it off his shoulders. Max sensed my frustration and set me down just long enough to peel off his jacket and shirt. Then I was in the air again, and as he carried me over to the bed, anticipation tingled over my skin.

  After he set me down on the soft mattress, I slid my fingers over his shoulders in fascination. The other two times I had sex, it was with young men, barely out of high school and fumbling over me with their long and lanky bodies. Max was solid male, and his hard, muscular frame was better than all my fantasies combined. As he lowered himself down over me, I placed my fingers on his chest, fascinated not only by the dips and curves, but by the fine dusting of hair along his skin. It tickled my fingers and reminded me of just how much I had been missing out in my reclusiveness.

  He kissed me once more, and I stretched out my fingers, captivated by how hard and masculine he felt. As he invaded my mouth, he slid his fingers down over my body, gathering the fabric of my shirt in his fingers. We broke apart, and with a quick pull he lifted me into a sitting position and lifted my shirt over my chest. I gasped as he kissed the upper part of my breast, right above the seam of my plain and practical white bra. (Why didn’t I wear my sexy black one instead?)

  “Do you have a condom?” he asked as he slid his hands around to my back.

  “Huh?”

  “A condom.”

  I pushed through the erotic haze and tried to make sense of his words. “Uh, no.” To be honest, the thought of protec
tion had never entered my mind. It had been several years since I had been with anyone.

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  “But we can’t do anything if—”

  He glanced up from my skin and flashed me an easy, seductive smile. “There are other things we can do.”

  I raised my brow. “Other things?”

  “Oh yes.” He eased his finger under my bra strap. Immediately the pressure against my chest eased. Smiling, he straightened and pushed my bra up toward my shoulders. “Here, let me show you.”

  I gasped as he took my nipple into his mouth. He felt so hot, so wet. My tip hardened under his touch, and pleasure spread out over my skin, causing a dull ache to form between my thighs.

  “Do you like it?” he asked after he flicked his tongue over my tip.

  “Yes.” I threaded my fingers into his hair as he took me into his mouth again. As he worked on one, he gently squeezed the other, stimulating both sides until I was groaning with need.

  “I could do this all day,” he said as he switched from one breast to the other.”

  “Please don’t.” I tightened my grip in his hair as another bolt of pleasure shot through me. “I don’t think I could take it.”

  He chuckled and let my nipple slide from his mouth. “You have such lovely breasts.” He squeezed the sides of my chest, pushing my mounds together. “They’re just the right size.”

  “Not too small?” I had always been willowy in shape, and had felt that both my chest and hips were a little small for most men’s taste.

  “They’re perfect.” He flicked each of my nipples with his tongue, then slid his hands down my sides. “I shall return to those later.”

  I stared at him in confusion. “I don’t understand.”

  “You will.” After laying me back down on the mattress, he leaned over my body once more, kissing a slow, sensual line from my chest to my abdomen. While most people considered me skinny, I wasn’t muscular, and my belly was rather soft and squishy. I also had a small paunch that most clothes hid, but now, with my shirt off and his gaze so fixed on my body, I was starting to feel a little self-conscious.