“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.