“Well? I’m waiting,” Gwen said to Brooks as she moved a little closer to him. And then closer still until she was almost standing in his space. “Show me something, Brooks.”
“On second thought, it’s late,” he told her. “Why don’t we wait until tomorrow, when we’re both fresh? I’ll call Ty and ask him to come by so he can give both of us a proper demonstration.”
“Tyler?” she asked, not really following him. “Why Tyler?”
“My older brother is a security expert who picks up bodyguard gigs on the side. What that means is that he’s up on all the latest self-defense techniques. He’s also the one who can show you what to do in an emergency.”
She appreciated Brooks offering her his family’s expertise, but she wouldn’t presume to take advantage of any of them. Brooks was the one she had an actual relationship with, not any of the others, as nice as she thought they all were.
“But you’re a private investigator. You can’t tell me that you don’t have a few handy moves at your disposal,” she said.
Damn, Brooks thought. Gwen was standing much too close to him for him to be thinking clearly. Even so, he did give it another try.
“Again, tomorrow would be a much better time for this. We’ll both be more clearheaded then.”
Gwen inclined her head, looking up into his eyes. Suddenly, she really wanted to feel his arms around her. “You know, clearheadedness can be highly overrated at times.”
He felt himself growing progressively attracted to Gwen, and that was dangerous. “Gwen, you and I have a professional relationship,” he explained. “I can’t disrespect that relationship by stepping over the line.”
He could only hope that he sounded more convincing that he felt because he was weakening by the moment.
“It takes two to overstep,” Gwen told him. Her heart was racing at an ever increasing speed, causing her throat to throb.
Brooks could feel her breath on his face, could feel his own desire growing to such proportions that he was having a very difficult time being able to manage it.
“You know, you’re making this very hard, Gwen,” he murmured.
“How hard?” she asked, her voice hardly above a whisper. It was drawing him in quicker than he would have ever thought possible.
“Damn near impossible to resist,” he told her in all seriousness.
“Then maybe you shouldn’t be trying so hard to resist,” Gwen advised just before she brushed a kiss against his cheek.
“Gwen...”
His intention was to warn her off, to make her back away from him. How he wound up pulling her to him in a crushing embrace was something he couldn’t quite understand. All he knew was that it happened, anyway. And once it did, once he was holding her against him, the resulting flash of desire that shot through his veins made it impossible for Brooks to walk away from her.
But for the sake of his conscience, he gave it one last try. He put the situation into her hands. “Damn it, Gwen, don’t you know that you’re supposed to run?”
“I am,” she breathed against his mouth as she kissed him again.
He drew his head back to look at her. He felt as if he had stepped into quicksand and was sinking incredibly fast.
“Run away from,” he emphasized. “Not toward.”
Gwen smiled at him. “I’ve never had a very good sense of direction,” she answered, every word separated from the next by more and more passionate kisses.
Good intentions only went so far before they completely disintegrated. He could feel that happening right at this moment.
Catching her up in his arms, Brooks began to kiss her in earnest, abandoning himself to the passion that was alive and well and raging through him like a wildfire that had gotten out of control.
His bedroom felt as if it was a million miles away, Brooks thought. The sofa was a great deal closer, especially in light of the fact that their clothes were quickly being shed and meeting the floor at a breathtaking pace.
This continued until there wasn’t a shred of clothing separating their bodies.
Gwen’s breathing grew more rapid and harder as she felt his hands gliding along every curve.
His touch was gentle.
She hadn’t expected that. She would have thought that once they were at this point, Brooks would have moved quickly to satisfy the urges she was certain were raging through him.
Instead, his focus seemed to be entirely centered on her pleasure.
Brooks had gently pressed her against the light gray sofa cushions and rather than just take what was so willingly, so completely available to him, he took his time making love to every part of her.
He caressed her, stroking her body as if that, for the moment, was enough for him. That in turn led to more and more activity, more time devoted to making every area of her body respond and almost sing in reaction to his gentle touch.
Brooks feasted on her lips, the slope of her throat, the heaving area just above her breasts.
Each and every part was carefully addressed, carefully worshipped before he continued moving on to yet another part and doing the very same there that he had done to the area before.
This was different, Gwen thought, her head all but spinning out of control. Different from any of the other times she’d been with a man.
She would be the first to admit that her experience was limited, but never in her wildest dreams would she have ever thought that lovemaking could approach something this wonderful. The other times had been just whistled tunes in the dark while this, this was an entire symphony.
And it continued.
Though Gwen truly loved absorbing what was happening to her, she didn’t want to be just a passive recipient in this lovemaking. She wanted to be able to make Brooks as crazy as he was succeeding in making her.
With a mighty effort, she pulled together the last of her ebbing strength and turned the tables on easily the most passionate lover she had ever had the good fortune of encountering.
Stunned, Brooks found himself on his back, his shoulder blades sinking into the deep pile cushions as the amazing woman he had thought he was bedding was working her lips along his pulsating body. Her warm lips were anointing it and making him desperately yearn the way he couldn’t recall ever yearning before.
Definitely not anywhere near to this extent.
And then her fingers feathered lightly along the most intimate part of his body, making him ache for her so badly that he was afraid all this would be over before it ever had a chance to reach culmination.
To prevent that, he caught her hand, wrapping his own around it and drawing her hand away from him.
Executing a quick move, he caused her to change places with him. With her body below his, Brooks linked his fingers through hers and raised her arms above her head, all the while kissing her with slow, passionate deliberation.
Melting her.
He could feel her responding, feel her breathing hard against him, her body causing his own desire to grow in ever greater proportions.
Brooks moved his lips slowly, ever lower along her body, worshipping every part of her until he had managed to work his way down to her very core.
His tongue darted in and out at a very deliberate pace, causing her to cry out in mounting ecstasy as she arched her back, bringing her body even closer up against him. She greedily absorbed every delicious nuance that he was offering.
Suddenly surprised, she cried out his name as the first deep, intense climax seized her body and then exploded.
Exhausted, she sank back against the cushions only to feel him beginning a second round.
When that, too, took her prisoner and crested, she gasped, all but dissolving in a veritable puddle. She immediately felt almost contrite because she’d had this wondrous experience, but he had yet to join her.
The next moment, she felt his body moving up along hers. And then she was looking up at him.
His eyes were locked on hers and she knew what was coming.
Her mouth curved in an open invitation. “Just in time before I ran out of energy,” she whispered.
“The trick,” Brooks said just before he entered her, “is to conserve your strength.”
With that he began to move.
At first slowly, lyrically. And then faster and faster until they both found themselves racing together to the very highest part of the mountain looming ahead of them.
Their hearts racing, their souls all but intertwined, they took the plunge together. They were wrapped up in each other’s arms and experiencing the very height of this most exquisite experience.
Together.
They held on to each other tightly, savoring every nuance, every bit of the fireworks that were going off within them until the very last of the experience was nothing more than a fading memory.
Gwen desperately tried to hang on to the euphoria until there wasn’t anything left of it.
Very slowly, she let out her breath, waiting for her heart to get back to normal.
That took longer.
“And just how,” she asked breathlessly as she turned her head toward Brooks, “is that maneuver supposed to protect me?” Her eyes sparkled in amusement as she waited for his response.
“Well, for one thing, whoever’s trying to put you out of commission will be too damn tired to make a single move after something like that,” he answered her, trying to keep a straight face.
It was hard, considering the euphoria still going on inside of him.
She raised her head just a fraction in order to look at him. “So, do you have any other moves to show me?” she asked.
“Any other moves?” he repeated. “I’m damn lucky I’m still drawing breath. I’d say let’s go to bed, but I’m not sure that you left me enough strength to make it up the stairs.”
She pretended to be surprised. “You mean you’re actually tired?”
“Tired?” He laughed at the understatement. “Lady, I’m halfway past exhausted, on my way to dead.”
Gwen laughed softly. Then, before he knew it, she was drawing her body up along his very slowly, very seductively, creating another wave of excitement that Brooks felt he was unprepared to handle.
“Really?” he asked in wonder. “You could actually go another round?”
“Well, you never know what you’re capable of until you actually try,” she told Brooks, punctuating each word with a quick, fleeting kiss that seemed to grow in dimension and breadth until it turned into a passionate, fiery meeting of two souls.
“You are the devil, Gwen Harrison,” he declared, surrendering to what he felt was happening deep within him. “But heaven help me, I can’t think of a better way to go than this,” he rasped, giving himself up to the flashes of passionate desire that were going off inside of him.
They made love again.
This time it was even more energy absorbing than the first time and every bit as exciting and stimulating. Brooks had no illusions that what was happening between them would be something that lasted. But while he was caught up in its grip, he intended to make the very most of it and enjoy being with this woman. Enjoy making love with her until there was nothing left inside of him to give.
And when it was over this time, they fell asleep in each other’s arms, holding one another as if to keep the dream from fading.
Brooks woke up suddenly the next morning to the feel of her hair brushing against his chest. It created a warm, fuzzy feeling that he savored for as long as he could.
He opened his eyes reluctantly, searching for a way to make the feeling continue, if only for a moment longer although he yearned for more than that.
But he was nothing if not a realist and he knew that he had already exceeded his personal limit when it came to his happiness quota.
Hell, he was probably in arrears by half a century because of what he and Gwen had shared last night.
Still, aware that he was likely risking everything, he moved his head, leaning in and kissing the very top of hers.
Gwen stirred against him, making murmuring noises that told him she would be awake any moment now.
Even though she was still asleep, he was already missing this moment, missing the warm, pliant woman in his arms and most of all, missing making love with her although he knew he was being incredibly selfish.
Last night might just have to last him a lifetime, he thought, trying to come up with a way to somehow make that happen.
He was being greedy but something about all this had made him feel that maybe, just maybe, making this last could be possible if he only went about it in the right way.
That was the moment that it suddenly hit him. And the second that it did, he tried to block it, to deny it because it only happened that way in country songs and low-budget movies.
But even recognizing that, he couldn’t talk himself out of it.
Like it or not, he had fallen in love with Gwen Harrison.