Nautier and Wilder

PROLOGUE

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Not in a million years. Not even one day past forever.

Because she knew the kind of man he was and she knew he was exactly the kind of man she had sworn she would never allow herself to have.

Yet it was happening.

Suspended between complete disbelief and mind-numbing pleasure, Piper Mackay found herself mesmerized by Jedediah Booker’s kiss.

Her lips parted.

Her fingers curled around his wrists, though in protest or simply to find something to hold on to, she wasn’t certain.

What she was certain of—she hadn’t expected this.

His broad fingers splayed into her hair as his palms cupped her cheeks, holding her in place for his kiss. His lips slanted over hers, rubbing sensuously, and sent spikes of heat burrowing through her senses.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

It wasn’t supposed to be so sexy.

The feel of his hard, muscular body against her smaller one, pressing her against the wall at her back, had her knees weakening at the eroticism of the position. The feel of the hardened length of his shaft as it pressed against the towel covering him, throbbing against her stomach, was almost too intense to bear.

She wanted to touch him.

She wanted to run her hands over his hard, powerful body and feel the flex of muscle beneath the darkly tanned flesh. She wanted to do more than stand, frozen, on the verge of fleeing in fear as his tongue flicked against her lips, teasing her to taste him in turn.

Just one taste.

She could take just a moment to experience what she had promised herself she would not tempt.

The wild, erotic promise of Jed’s possession.

Her tongue peeked out, touched his, then lingered.

A moan slipped free; completely against her will and her better judgment as she allowed his lips and tongue free rein in the kiss they were initiating.

A deep, rough male growl sounded in his throat as his hands slid from her face and moved quickly to her hips. Before she could process the move, before she could make sense of it, Piper found herself lifted, her legs parting, the soft material of her skirt falling back over her thighs, and the broad, fiery heat of Jed’s cock throbbing, hot and naked, free of the towel, against the silk of the panties shielding her sex.

She could have protested.

She would have protested.

But it was so good.

Everything was just so good.

The lush eroticism of the kiss, the heat of his hands against her flesh, the seductive, sensuous pleasure beginning to blaze through her senses. It was so good that resisting was impossible.

His hands clenched on her rear, kneading the rounded curves as his hips rocked against her, sending shudders of pleasure racing through her.

He slanted his lips over hers, one hand sliding from the curve of her ass, and she found herself gripping his thighs with her knees as his hand pushed beneath the soft cotton shirt she wore.

Piper fought to breathe.

She was lost in a world of sensation and pleasure. He held her to him as his hand slid up her side, calloused palms rasping against her flesh just before his fingers curled around the bare mound of one breast.

Finding the hardened tip with his thumb and rubbing against it, he found another way to throw her senses into complete chaos. Her nipples were so sensitive, so responsive, that even her own touch had the power to make her gasp.

Jed’s touch, so much more experienced and knowing, had the power to do much more.

His touch against the ripened bud had the power to bring her nearly to release. Playing with the little bud, he rolled his thumb over it before gripping the pebble-hard tip between his thumb and forefinger. Sharpened spikes of sensation tore along the nerve endings to her clitoris before slamming into her womb.

Piper tightened her thighs against his hips, rocking with him, rubbing herself against the broad thickness of the heavy cock throbbing against the heated folds of her sex. Sharp waves of hunger rushed along nerve endings that seemed newly awakened, created only to respond to Jed’s touch. Sensitized and now greedy for sensation they throbbed and ached for more and more.

It was so good.

It was too good.

“Piper, sweetheart . . .”

His breathing was as rough as her own, ragged; he was fighting to draw in air as he tore his lips from hers and buried them at her neck.

Tipping her head back, Piper fought to increase the sensation of his lips brushing against the sensitive flesh at the curve of her shoulder. The feel of the tip of his tongue tasting her and awakening a sensual hunger she hadn’t known existed inside her.

Digging her nails into his bare shoulders, she told herself just a few more seconds. She would allow herself to experience the pleasure, the incredible building heat burning through her body, for just a few more seconds.

His teeth raked against the side of her neck as she felt his body tighten further. A low groan of male pleasure echoed at her ear.

“I could lose myself in you, Piper,” he groaned in building lust. “So fucking easy.”

Oh, God, what had she gotten herself into?

She had known not to enter his room.

Some part of her had known he was still there.

The temptation had been overwhelming.

Like some damned ninny in a suspense novel, she had crept right in. At the very moment she had closed the door behind her, certain he must be gone, he’d stepped from the bathroom, obviously having just left the shower.

Had she had the good sense to leave?

Hell, no.

“Jed.” Whispering his name, she fought to hold on to him, fought to remember why this was a very bad idea.

“Piper. Sweetheart . . .”

The room was spinning—no, Jed was moving. Wrapping one arm around her hips, he turned, bearing her to the bed and laying her back against the sheets he’d slept on the night before.

The subtle scent of male warmth and the dark hint of the cologne he wore lingered on the bedclothes, surrounding her and sinking into her senses. She felt surrounded by him, overwhelmed by him, and unwilling as well as unable to fight against the pleasure clouding her mind.

Before she could even consider protesting, the soft cotton shirt she wore was pushed over her breasts and the sensitive, tight peak of her nipple was suddenly surrounded by the wet heat of his mouth. It happened so quickly, with such heat that her senses immediately exploded with sensation.

Piper jerked upward, a moan rasping from her lips as her eyes closed in rising pleasure.

The lash of his tongue over the sensitive peak sent sensation spiraling from her hardened nipple straight to the clenched, aching depths of her vagina. The tight, swollen bud of her clit pulsed with need. Heat flushed her body, and the slick dew of arousal dampened the swollen folds of her sex and the silk of her panties.

Pushing her fingers into the overlong strands of his hair to hold him to the tingling, heated bud of her nipple, Piper felt herself giving up—giving in.

The pleasure was too intense.

The need that had risen over the past year since her sister had moved out of the inn their mother owned to live with her fiancé was only burning with a greater, fiery hunger.

Had she been insane when she had taken her mother’s offer to move into Eve’s suite just days after Jed had moved into the room beside it?

Had she known this would happen?

God, she had.

She’d known she would end up in his bed, and she knew he’d break her heart.

He wouldn’t be able to help it. He would destroy her.

That thought, that fear, had a reality check suddenly clicking in her mind.

“Jed. Jed . . . not a good idea,” she cried out, even as she lifted her hips to grind the mound of her sex more firmly against his cock while he palmed both breasts.

“My best idea yet,” he muttered, his voice hoarse as one hand slid to the bend of her knee to lift it higher along his hip.

His hips pressed and rolled, grinding his shaft more firmly against her clit and soaking her panties with her juices as he used both hands to press her breasts together. His lips moved from one hardened nipple to the other, licking and suckling, pulling repeated moans from her lips as her ability to fight against the pleasure dissipated.

She’d dreamed of this.

She’d fantasized about it for far longer than the past year.

“God, I love how you taste,” he muttered, his head lifting, his lips coming back to hers as he gripped her nipples between fingers and thumbs and played with them erotically.

His tongue pressed against her lips, parted them, met hers, and stroked against it with heated demand.

He wasn’t asking for anything, definitely not the right to have her.

He considered her his due.

That thought sent a wave of trepidation racing through her, only to disintegrate beneath a harder, deeper kiss as one hand left her breasts to stroke her thigh.

“Damn, Piper.” He tore his lips from hers to blaze a trail of fire down her neck to her breasts once again as strong, knowing fingers pressed beneath the elastic of her panties.

Lifting her hips, angling them to the fingers pressing closer to her clitoris, Piper could feel the slickened fall of damp warmth spilling from her, preparing the sensitive flesh for his touch.

She was so ready for him. So ready to have his fingers delve into the feminine folds that ached for his touch that she felt poised on a pinpoint of agonizing arousal.

He was so close to touching her clit. So close to caressing that heated bud of sensitized nerve endings that she could swear she could feel the warmth of his fingers as they neared her.

So close . . .

A heavy knocking at the door had them stilling.

Piper struggled to open her eyes, meeting his gaze as his head jerked up from where his lips had strayed to her midriff.

“Hey, Jed, we have to run.” Elijah Grant was on the other side, his knuckles rapping against the glass of the patio doors across from the bed once again. “You ready?”

“Please,” she whispered, suddenly desperate that she not be seen here, with him, all but naked and fucked in his bed.

Oh, God, what was she doing?

* * *

Jed could see the sudden panic flaring in her gaze. The instant withdrawal the second she consciously realized just how close she was to having given in to him wasn’t lost on him. The hunger that kept them bound to each other wasn’t going to go away. No matter how hard he fought it, no matter how desperately she denied it.

“Give me ten minutes,” he called out to Elijah. “I’ll meet you at the bikes.”

She was trembling beneath him.

The feel of the subtle tremors racing through her delicate body had the power to piss him off as nothing else could. It was like this every time he neared her, every time the hunger flared between them. She would tremble, get that look of wariness in her eyes, and instantly retreat.

He was damned sick of her retreating.

“Why are you scared of me?” Focusing his gaze back on her, careful to keep his voice too low to carry beyond the room, he demanded an answer.

“I am not scared of you.” Determination and fiery stubbornness filled the deep sea green of her eyes and tightened the kittenish features of her face.

“Then what are you scared of?” Lowering his voice further, Jed brushed his lips against the swollen curves of Piper’s while fighting the nearly overwhelming need to steal another kiss. To forget his partner was awaiting him and that now was not the time to make slow, easy love to her.

He would never pull himself from her if he did.

Elijah could walk in on them and it wouldn’t stop Jed from having her.

“Don’t you have to go to work or something?” she muttered instead as she pushed at his shoulders. “Let me up, Jed, before Elijah starts picking the lock.”

Elijah sure as hell wasn’t above it if he thought the situation warranted it.

“What makes you think he would pick the lock?” He knew Elijah would do it, but what made her think he would?

Piper rolled her eyes up at him.

“Do I really look that stupid to you, Jed?” Mockery filled her gaze as he levered himself from her body.

He watched silently as she hurriedly pulled the shirt over the swollen mounds of her breasts and pushed the material of her skirt back down her legs before sitting up quickly.

A second later she was standing and sliding her feet back into the sandals she had somehow managed to lose. Or had pushed from her feet as he picked her up moments ago.

“You don’t look stupid at all.” Arching a brow, he strode to the chair across the room where he’d laid his clean clothing earlier.

Pulling boxer briefs over his legs and then the raging erection that refused to soften, he sat down, never taking his eyes from her, and pulled white socks over his feet.

She wasn’t saying anything more.

Her arms were crossed beneath her breasts in a classic defensive posture as he almost gave in to the urge to sigh wearily.

Standing, Jed picked up an ink pen from the table next to him before moving to her once again.

She always carried her date book, with a small sketch pad in it, with her. At the moment, it was tucked in the side of the cleaning carryall she’d placed on the floor when she entered the room.

Bending, he pulled the five-by-seven leather-bound journal from the side pocket, flipped it open, then quickly scrawled his cell phone number in the back. The sketch pad enclosed with it was filled with colorful sketches of clothing designs and scrawled with notes. He would have loved to flip through the new designs he only glimpsed, but knew from experience she’d become immediately defensive.

“What’s that for?” she questioned warily as he finished.

Tucking the book back in place, Jed straightened and stared down at her with a sense of heavy disappointment.

“When you decide you can give me a chance to prove that I have no intention of tying you down, Piper, then give me a call.” Yeah, he knew at least part of her problem.

Strong men, men born with the same arrogant determination her Mackay brother and cousins possessed.

Capping the pen, he tossed it to the bureau close to the bed, then turned and moved back to the clothing he’d abandoned moments before.

He was aware of her watching him as he pulled on his jeans, secured the belt he’d already pushed through the belt loops, then pushed his arms into the white, long-sleeved dress shirt he’d chosen to wear.

White was for meetings; dark colors were for on the job. And all of it was bullshit, despite the sense of fulfillment he was getting from it. Far more fulfillment than the daily lies and undercover crap he was forced to practice.

“Why would I be afraid you could even come close to tying me down, Jed?” she finally asked, her lips curling into an amused little smile of disbelief. “Really? Do you think I’m attaching more to this”—she waved her arm toward the bed—“than what you intend?”

Using the chair once again, he sat down, pulled on his boots, and never took his eyes from her.

“Let’s hope you were,” he told her as he finished and rose to his feet once again. “Because, trust me, Piper, I have more intentions than you could ever imagine.”

There was the fear.

It flashed in the bright green of her eyes and tightened her expression as she fought to hold back the response. Hell, she was fighting to hide that fear from him, and he hated it.

“Good Lord,” she muttered, suddenly reaching down for her bag. “I’m out of here. Remind me to make damned sure you’ve left before I come in to clean your room again.”

“I wouldn’t put chains on you, Piper.”

She paused, her hand on the doorknob, her face turned from him as her head lowered.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The edge of anger in her voice wasn’t nearly as well hidden as he was certain she would have liked.

“Yeah, you do, Piper.” He rejected the instant denial she gave the moment she turned her back on him. “You think if you take me as a lover then you’ll be exchanging your brother’s protectiveness for one far more permanent.”

“My brother’s protectiveness? Is that what you call it?” She turned back to him then. “Trust me: They named my brother well when they nicknamed him Dawg. He’s tenacious, and guards his territory like a junkyard dog. And he sees every damned one of his sisters, as well as our mother, as his territory. It wouldn’t matter who we took as lovers, he’d still be hovering over us like a damned pit bull.”

There was no anger or heat in the words, only a sense of regret and uncertainty. In the past year, her life hadn’t exactly been her own, as her brother did everything in his power to ensure the danger that had threatened her older sister didn’t touch the younger ones.

“Nevertheless,” he said softly. “I wouldn’t put ties on you. I wouldn’t treat you as though you didn’t have the good sense to understand whether your life was in danger or not, and the intelligence to know whether you can live life as usual, sit tight, or just plain hide.”

She watched him warily. “You’re the same type of male Dawg, Rowdy, and Natches are.” She finally informed him, and it was clear she believed it to the bottom of her soul. “Having you for a lover would be like sleeping with human handcuffs.”

God help him, he swore he could see the pain and disillusionment filling her very soul. It was in the weariness of her voice and the soul-deep certainty that filled it.

“I would defend you with my life,” he admitted. “But I would also defend your right to a life, Piper. When you decide you’re tired of being a frightened little girl rather than the independent woman I know you are, then let me know. Perhaps once you’ve figured out which you are, then we can resume all the pleasure we were interrupted in this morning.”

Her shoulders tightened, defiance and denial immediately flashing in her gaze.

Jed didn’t hang around to hear her argument or her reasons for her beliefs; they would just piss him the fuck off.

He knew the past year had been hell on her and her younger sisters. Eve, the eldest, had pranced from the suite she’d lived in for the past five years and moved in with the government agent she was now engaged to, perfectly content to fight her battles of independence and keep her opinions private within the secured houseboat they were currently living in at the lake.

Eve had left her younger sisters to face the fallout with her brother and cousins. Her sisters, though, had never been given a full explanation of why that overprotectiveness had suddenly increased, or when it would end. Though he knew Piper had her suspicions.

Jed couldn’t explain what had happened either, not yet, not until he knew Piper understood his intentions where she was concerned.

But hell, in order to make her understand them, he was going to have to figure them out himself.

One thing was certain: He intended to have her in his bed. And he sure as hell didn’t intend to let her go anytime soon once he had her there.

Hell, why couldn’t he imagine ever letting her go, period?