“No!”
“Well…” She kissed his neck, her lips pressing softly just below his ear. “What about right here?”
He tried to maintain his irritation as her words whispered over his neck. “Right where?”
“Right here in bed?” She turned and put her knees on the bed so that she straddled him. “Wouldn’t that be comfortable?”
“I’m beginning to hate that word.”
“Are you?” She pushed him down until his back hit the mattress. “That’s too bad.” She whipped off the T-shirt so quickly that Eric blinked in shock at the sight of her bare breasts. “Because I love being comfortable with you.”
“Well…” He blinked again, or else his eyes fluttered shut a little when she rolled her hips into him. “I guess hate is a strong word.”
HE DIDN’T UNDERSTAND. Beth could see that. But she couldn’t explain without revealing everything, and she couldn’t do that now. Not tonight, when it might be their last night together. Still, maybe she could make him understand with her body.
She pushed up his shirt and pressed her breasts to his skin. “It’s so nice to feel I can do anything with you. But maybe that’s just me.”
She kissed him finally, a slow, deep kiss as he spread his hands over her naked back, but when he slid his hands beneath her underwear and pulled her tighter, Beth broke the kiss and pushed up with a smile. “But maybe comfortable isn’t kinky enough for you. Is that it?”
He answered her smile, then flipped her over so quickly she shrieked. “You’ve made your point,” he growled.
“Have I?”
“Yeah.” Eric slipped his fingers beneath her underwear, then he cupped his hand over her sex. “But I still say you’re using the wrong word.”
She was sensitive from too much sex already, and when his fingers slid along her, Beth gasped at the shock of pleasure. Suddenly, her mind was working again. Moving too fast. The sex wasn’t mindless anymore. It was…full. Of emotions. And worries. And fears that it meant too much. Because she didn’t want it to stop tomorrow. She didn’t ever want it to stop.
As he stroked her, she slid her leg along his, opening herself to him, letting herself feel the pleasure and the anxiety all at once.
Tomorrow, if she called Luke and lied to him, Eric wouldn’t understand. He wouldn’t forgive. And she’d never feel his fingers slide inside her again. She’d never arch into his touch with a whimper.
His thumb strummed her clit and she cried out. “Is that comfortable?” he murmured.
Beth shook her head. It wasn’t. It was wonderful and awful and too much.
“I don’t want to be easy to you, Beth.” He slipped free of her and his strong hand curled over her hip to turn her over. She went willingly, laying her cheek to the bed, closing her eyes against the bittersweet anticipation.
He didn’t understand. She couldn’t tell him.
His hand shaped her ass, his fingers pressing rough into her flesh when he squeezed. His other hand wound into her hair, and this time when he slid his fingers along her sex, she sighed his name.
She loved him like this. Intense and in control. She loved it that he held her still and stroked her until she begged. “Please,” she whispered.
But she had no idea what she was begging for, because even after she came, even after she cried out and arched up and her body clenched around his fingers…she was still whispering, “Please.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
“ROLAND KENDALL CALLED. He’s ready to deal.”
Eric dropped the hose he was using to clean a tank, slipped off his gloves and switched the phone to the other ear. “Are you serious?” he asked Luke.
“They seem pretty intent on talking. He and his lawyer are heading over to the D.A.’s office right now, and I’m on my way to meet them. I think the pressure finally worked, and just in time. We were working up the arrest warrant on Monica Kendall and we made damn sure he was aware.”
“Great news. Call me as soon as you know.”
Eric hung up and got back to his cleaning with a smile. This year was finally starting to shape up. He’d been at work for two hours, and things were falling into place. The two grocery accounts had been fine with waiting a week for their shipments, the mechanic had called and said the piece would be in a day earlier, and the microbatch Eric had started was almost ready for second fermentation. He was thinking he’d probably age it just for kicks, but he could make that decision later. Hell, he was free to do whatever he wanted for a few more days. Wallace had finally called to say he’d be back on Tuesday.
In the bigger scheme of things, Graham Kendall might be coming back to the United States to face trial. It wasn’t as if he’d murdered anyone, but damn, it would feel good to see him get time for the hundreds of people he’d stolen identities from.