“There weren't any shots left in the gun,” Tony told him. “I lied and banked on the fact that you wouldn't have been smart enough to count them when they were fired.”
Jimmy cursed, colorfully, and Tony clipped him across the temple with the butt of the gun, knocking him out with a blow that he actually restrained.
Amber swallowed. “I guess you're a better actor than I gave you credit for,” she said with a hiccup. “I believed you.”
“That was what sold the deception,” Tony assured her. He hadn't liked leaving her with such minimal protection, but he knew that as long as both of them had believed it, it would work.
Amber nudged Jimmy with a toe, drawing in a breath. The unconscious man didn't move, but Tony wasn't going to take a chance. He found a roll of duct tape on a shelf in the mechanical room, and bound his arms and ankles with more roughness than was strictly needed.
Amber helped tear off pieces of the tape, then stood back when they were finished. “You really are my white knight,” she said, lifting her face to smile shakily at Tony.
Tony couldn't speak, too overwhelmed by the emotion rising in the wake of adrenaline and fear. He was suddenly, keenly aware that they were both still naked. What had become almost pedestrian was sharply important again, and he could not resist the silky velvet of her skin.
His first gentle touch raised goosebumps on her arm. His second made the breath catch in her throat, and he could see the fragile pulse at her throat quicken.
“The mechanical room has a lock,” he suggested, voice husky with need. He wasn't sure how he was going to get politely back across the pool deck with the hard-on that was rising.
Amber didn't answer, only followed him into the dim room and scratched his arms lightly with her nails. Her eyes told him that she was feeling as much need and desire as he was, and he was unsurprised to find that she was wet and pliable when he sent questing fingers to her nether lips.
“Yes,” she breathed as he stroked her.
He cast about the room for a comfortable place to take her, but she was gripping him with more urgency now, and drawing him down to the floor, too consumed with her rising lust to care for comfort.
He willingly followed.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Amber felt like she was on a roller-coaster. She had spent the day afraid for her life, for Tony's life, and for their freedom. She had never realized how important another person could be to her, and now that the danger was past, she wanted nothing more than to be close to Tony, to feel his skin against hers, to feel him inside her, to have his big shoulders under her hands.
When he touched her, it felt like her nerves were on fire. Rational thought was gone, and when he stroked her lower lips, she thought she might explode.
But it wasn't enough, she wanted him closer, more a part of her, so she reached out and cupped his big, hard erection, drawing him towards her waiting entrance.
; He gasped at her fingers, and shivered in need. Amber arched up to meet him, and he responded with the same urgency and animal desire that she was feeling.
He entered her with admirable restraint–Amber could feel him holding himself back, trying to stay gentle and controlled, and she was desperate for more. She was elemental, wild, and filled with need and lust.
She moaned, drawing him faster, and clawed at his muscled back, begging him wordlessly to hurry, to take her faster, harder, and when it worked more slowly than she needed, she bit him, drawing an excited yelp from him.
They rolled together on the utility room floor, colliding into a shelf with nearly disastrous results, and ended with Amber on top, straddling him. He thrust up at her hungrily, and she met his need with her own, riding him and clawing frantically. She wanted him deeper, closer, harder, and drew him into herself as if she could devour him.
He groaned, and drew her down for a kiss that completed her.
And then they were one, thrusting together in perfect sensual symmetry.
There was no thought for the hard floor or the hum of machinery, or for the trauma and stress of the frantic past day, it was only two of them, perfect mates fitted perfectly together like pieces of a puzzle. They slid and frenzied together in beautiful, musical harmony, and crested into a peak of pleasure that sweated out the last of their fear and anxiety.
Afterwards, they lay together for a long moment side-by-side, panting, until the discomfort of the cold floor finally penetrated their sexual afterglow.
Amber sat up, and felt an unexpected amount of satisfaction and soreness. “If this were a spy movie, they'd run the credits now,” she said, rubbing at a spot on her shoulder that had gotten bruised.
“If this were a movie, they would have faded to black over the credits some time ago,” Tony laughed with a rumble.
“Depends on the rating,” Amber laughed back at him, then sobered. “What really happens now?” she asked.
Tony's eyes met hers intensely. “You're my mate,” he said. “I belong with you, wherever that ends up being.”