Taking in the room I’m sad but then I step further in and look down at him. Fuck, he’s beautiful, yes the scars aren’t pretty but they did nothing to obscure a face so beautiful I couldn’t have drawn it so appealingly if I tried. His body, even foully treated is still muscular and well defined, he looks a little thinner than what seems healthy. His hair is a thick inky black and long, to the nape of his neck, most former soldiers continued with the close clipped cuts of their time in service. He has a strong face that’s surprisingly Roman in its classical features. A long straight nose is prominent below a wide brow, his jaw is heavy but his chin is clipped. He has sharp cheekbones and then he opens his eyes and I stop breathing. Eyes a deep and dark sapphire blue meet mine, so blue, so intense I feel like I’m drowning in them. Then he smiles, his mouth simply tips up and a kick of instant longing shakes me, his lips are perfectly molded not too thin not too thick. I would love to draw him but I wouldn’t do him justice.
“Hey, there beautiful.” His voice is husky from sleep and the dark, smoky timbre slides right down my spine.
Forcing air into my starving lungs takes a moment and words fail me, all I can do is smile back, dazed, “Hi.”
A dark eyebrow goes up and he moves fluidly, I’ve seen the movements before, the muscles controlled and flexing with movement isn’t new to me being around so many former soldiers, what’s new is that I can’t take my eyes off of him. Standing he’s bigger than he looked lying down, while at likely an even six foot, he’s wide and broad and everything about him conjures up the word thick, his thighs ripple below the tight jeans. He’s in a skin tight white undershirt tank and all I can think is the better to see him in. He stops only a few feet away and it takes a moment to realize his eyes have been roaming over me and I’m breathless when they finally come back to my face.
“You’re Zoe, Taylor’s secretary or assistant, right?”
Damn it, Taylor’s name pulls me back to reality. I nod, “I’m Zoe Lawrence and I’m here to take you back to Austin with me.”
At my words, his face shutters and his eyes darken. Without a word he turns and flings himself back on the couch. He’s sitting up, his head back, staring sightlessly at the ceiling and his voice is dull, “No, you aren’t.”
His reaction and words sting, no, no, this isn’t happening. Lust, that’s all I’m feeling and it’s only because it has been a long since I’ve been so close to a living breathing man as beautiful as he is. I’m cold and empty and I don’t deserve love when I can’t give it back. Those were words all three of my past lovers had shouted at me. Once might have been bad luck, twice could maybe be I was picking the wrong person but three times and I’m out of the game. Because they were right, I don’t want to be empty and cold but if I was then I have no business going into a relationship knowing I can’t give back what I’m given. It isn’t fair and it isn’t right, so for three long years I’ve buried my needs and simply bought a very good vibrator. It doesn’t matter if he’s gorgeous, he’s off limits. Sam has been through enough pain in his life, I have no business adding to that. Just because I can have him, doesn’t mean I should.
Swallowing down the soft words I want to say, is hard but necessary, Sam doesn’t need or want platitudes and murmured words of consolation. If I’m going to get a reaction, I would have to poke the bear and hope to hell he doesn’t poke back. Forcing ice into my voice, I poke. “Why the fuck not?”
Shock has his eyes back on me, “Excuse me?”
“I said, why the fuck not? Give me one good reason why you want to stay here in this festering wound you have going on. Why the hell won’t you come to Austin? This is a great job, work you could do in your sleep, that’s important and means something and you’ll be well paid for it. Austin is a great place to live over this humid desolate place. Why do you want to stay here?”
Shaking his head, he runs a over his face, over his scarred left cheek and over the ear that was now barely a shell. No, is all I can think. He couldn’t possibly be hiding because of those scars, but it was clear in all the things he didn’t say.
“I don’t have to explain myself to you. I don’t need the money and Austin is full of hippies and pretty damn humid most days too.” He’s talking to the ceiling again.
I poke harder, “That’s a bunch of bullshit. You hiding because of your scars is also bullshit, without them yes you would be so gorgeous it would have been unfair to the competition but even with them you aren’t unattractive. You’re still very appealing.” Fuck, I sound breathless. It was his fault, he’d gone still at my words, then his eyes found mine. Trapped in his heavy gaze, my whole body is tight with need. Fear of him seeing it has me breaking contact and my eyes are down, focused on a beer bottle. I shoot for boredom and I hit it, maybe too well. “Besides, you’ll be working with a bunch of men who won’t give a damn about that.”
I look up and his eyes are back on the ceiling, I want to yell at him, he doesn’t believe me.
“I’m not going, take your sweet little ass back to Austin and tell Taylor you tried.”
If I had taken the time to think about what came next, I would never have done it but the ability to think around Sam seems to have left me the moment his eyes met mine.
Six steps are all it takes to get to him and I come down on him, straddling him. My right hand steadies me high on his chest and my left hand is caressing his scarred cheek. My lips move lightly over the tight, smooth skin. “This isn’t a good enough reason, not when even with your scars you are still beautiful.”
He’s frozen beneath me and then he breathes again and his hot breath is against my ear. The feel of him against me, below me, is almost overwhelmingly drugging. I melt into him and then his hands are at my hips. His hands are large and burn where they touch, it’s a shock and then I feel him harden at the heart of me. My body isn’t my own, a rush of heat floods my pussy, preparing for him and desperate to have him inside me. Only the pain of my nipples so hard they ache against the wall of muscle that is his chest pulls me back into myself. Oh my fucking god runs through my frozen mind again and again and I try to pull away. Sam’s grip tightens on me and pulls me tighter, my only warning is a rush of breath against my lips and in the next instant his mouth is on mine.
His lips are silky and soft as they flutter over mine in light, delicate touches. I open for him, without hesitation, wanting more, needing more. It isn’t enough for him and a gentle sweep of his tongue comes over my parted lips. I gasp as the touch tugs at somewhere deep inside me and open wider for him. His tongue sweeps inside me with cautious strokes of tasting and learning. He tastes sweet and shockingly minty, it’s only then that I realize he smells clean too as if he’d showered recently. My hands move into his hair, reveling in the feel of the thick, silky strands and my fingers tangle, unable to let go of him. I moan with the need for more, his kiss to be deeper. Beneath me, he grows harder and I can’t fight the nee
d to rock against him. Sam growls into my mouth and I swear I can feel the vibration of it to where he is pressing his hard cock into me. His kiss becomes hunger and fire and with greedy need I respond with the same hunger and scorching fire.
Vaguely, the sound of my ringing phone battles past the haze of desire, it stops and I sink back into Sam, until it starts again. Damn it, the only person who did that is Taylor, sanity rears its ugly head. Taylor, fuck. Tearing my mouth from Sam’s, I roll off and away from him. Fighting my body and attempting to take in air I reach for my purse. I had dropped it onto the end of the couch, before I’d taken leave of my senses and thrown myself at Sam. Fighting to even out my breathing I refuse to look at Sam, my focus on Taylor, on the job I was sent for.
“Zoe, what the hell? Why did it take so long to answer your phone? Five times, I was about to call the damn local sheriff.”
He’d called five times? Shame and a blush flare over me. “I’m sorry, I left my purse in your truck. When I pulled up I thought he wasn’t home and I didn’t think it would take long.”
The lie doesn’t roll off of my tongue and Taylor sounds hesitant, “So what’s going on? Are you on your way back with him or not?”
“I’m working on that. Can I call you back?” It’s not a question and Taylor doesn’t take it as one. Running a hand through my hair I look up to find Sam in front of me. Shit, his eyes are everywhere taking in everything and I have the sinking feeling that I’ve awakened a dormant volcano. Damn it, I have well and truly poked the bear and now I have to pay for it.
Sam reaches out and takes the phone from me. It went easily. “He’s hung up already.” He tosses it on the couch and pulls me up by a tight hand around my wrist.
My stupid body doesn’t fight him but my mind struggles weakly to do the right thing, “No, Sam, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that when I don’t want to get involved with anyone.”
His eyes don’t miss a thing and when he pulls me up against him, hands at my hips again, I want to curse out loud as I melt into him again. “Don’t want to get involved with anyone or me?”
I can’t fight the shudder that runs through me at his question, and he has his answer. Eyes dark, his mouth covers mine and this time the kiss is wickedly enticing, and full of sex filled promise from the very start. My hands go up and around his neck because I’m terrified my knees won’t hold me up. Sam’s grip tightens on my hips and his hard length is burning into my stomach. Longing to know the feel of his body against me, his hard cock inside me, has me so wet my panties are wet and clinging uncomfortably to me. It shocks me, I’ve never been so wet, so needy before. The shock is enough to give me the strength to push away from him. His expression of dazed confusion tells me I only got away because I surprised him.