Before she could point out to him that he’d raised the wrong hand, or question the way he’d phrased his promise, her cell phone buzzed, and two seconds later there was a knock at the door.
Checking her cell, she found a one-word text message from Andy confirming the identity of their visitor. As she hurried to the door, she glanced over at Sam who crossed his feet on the coffee table and took another long drag of his cigar.
A king of the castle ensconced on his throne as his lackeys hustled around him. Yet there was no sense of entitlement about him. No smug satisfaction. So why did she have the feeling she’d fallen into some sort of trap?
Even though she knew who was on the other side, Rosie checked the flat screen monitoring the camera they’d mounted outside. Their visitor’s identity confirmed, she opened the door.
“Hi, Sandy, what brings you here at this hour?”
Sandy stepped into the foyer and gestured to Kris who trailed behind her carrying two banker’s boxes.
“Chad asked me to bring over the files of clients we’ve had for the past two years-he figures there might be something in them about Sam’s stalker.”
“Where do you want ’em?” Kris asked.
Rosie jumped when Sam spoke from directly behind her. “Why don’t you take one box back to your apartment? Rosie and I can start going through the other box here.”
How did such a large man move so quietly?
Sam relieved Kris of the top box, but before he could disappear down the hall to his study, Sandy stopped him. “Oh and, Sam? Chad wants you to give me your Blackberry-he wants to give you a new number. John is loading some program on my computer to catch anyone going into my address book.”
“Hang on a sec, I’ll get it for you.”
Sam headed to his office while Kris ambled back to what Rosie now thought of as their temporary headquarters, leaving her alone with Sandy. Rosie made small talk, but noticed that Sandy kept shuffling her feet and not meeting her gaze. “Sandy? Is something wrong?”
“It’s just… I’m surprised you’re…” Sandy glanced down the hall, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. “Forget I said anything.”
“Something’s bugging you, Sandy, I can tell. So spill.”
“I’m just didn’t expect to see you at Sam’s place, that’s all. I figured you’d be monitoring the cameras and Kris or Andy would be here.” Sandy shrugged and shuffled closer to the door. “You know it’s nothing. Really. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Sandy?” Rosie fixed her with a glare. “You knew I was heading the team, so why are you surprised I’m here.”
Sandy’s gaze darted toward the hallway to make sure Sam wasn’t nearby before she leaned in and lowered her voice to a whisper. “When Sam and Chad were discussing who to assign to the team and Chad said he wanted to assign you as lead op, Sam said he didn’t want you guarding him.”
Rosie stiffened as her pride in being named head of his team evaporated in a red haze. How had she forgotten the look on his face, or how he’d snarled at Chad when he’d realized she was in on the meeting. That feeling she’d had in the elevator hadn’t been an illusion. “Was it me personally he objected to, or just any woman?”
Sandy’s gaze dropped briefly, darted back to the door. “Sam said…” She took a deep breath. “Sam just said he didn’t want you guarding him. He was fine with Andy and Kris.”
He’d lied to her. Outright lied.
Oblivious of the flames about to erupt from Rosie’s ears, Sandy kept talking. “Sam didn’t want to have any bodyguards at all-you should have heard them arguing, I’ve never seen Chad get so riled up. But he was definitely against having you on his team.”
“Here you are, Sandy.” Sam walked into the foyer and handed Sandy his Blackberry. “Thanks for runnin’ those files over. Make sure you expense your mileage. And don’t let Chad make you work too late tonight, you hear? There’s nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow.”
“It’s no problem at all, Sam.” As Sandy gave Rosie a hug good-bye, she whispered. “Don’t make a big deal about it, okay? He’s a guy and you know how guys are.”
Hitching her purse up on her shoulder, Sandy fled the foyer, leaving Rosie shaking.
No wonder he kept offering her a beer-he’d been trying to find a way to get rid of her. If she’d accepted, she’d have given him grounds for dismissal.
Sam wandered toward the kitchen. “I was fixin’ to make some dinner. I could grill us some chicken and toss a coupla sweet potatoes in the oven. We could finish it all up with that pecan pie you bought.” Normally she found the way he pronounced pecan more like pehcawn sexy, but now his drawl shredded her nerves.
“No, thank you.” Rosie turned her back on Sam and marched to the spare bedroom. She pulled her suitcase from the closet, tossed it on the bed.
“Is there a problem?” Sam said from the doorway.
“Not at all.” She grabbed the clothes she’d put in the top drawer and tossed them into the suitcase.
He leaned his shoulder against the doorframe, his forehead furrowing. “Then why are you packing like there’s a four alarm fire on the floor below?”
“I’ve decided to switch off with Kris or Andy. We’ll all be happier that way.” Well, she wouldn’t be. Goddamn, when would men realize that just because she was only 5’1 and didn’t have a penis didn’t mean she couldn’t provide proper protection or run an effective op?
“Happier? You wanna tell me why you think I’d be happier with them? What bee crawled up your- What’d I do to send you running like someone tied a bottle rocket to your tail?”
She whirled, her arms held rigidly at her side. “Oh, let’s see, you wanted someone else protecting you, not a little bitty woman who wasn’t a former Navy MP or D.C. City cop or CIA spook. And then when I asked you earlier if you had a problem with me being on your detail, you lied to me. Outright lied! I’ve put up with a lot of crap, Mr. Watson, but I don’t tolerate lies. You don’t want me guarding you, fine. But you should have said that when I asked.”
“I didn’t lie. I never said I didn’t want you protecting me because you were a woman.”
“But you told Chad you didn’t want me assigned to you, didn’t you?”
“Yes, that part’s true. But-”
“Ay bendito. I knew it.” She advanced on him. “Just because I’m short doesn’t mean I can’t take you down-just ask Kris or Andy. Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I’m not a damned good shot. I’ve been trained in counter-surveillance, and bomb disposal.”
“I know that, I-”
“Just because I’ve never worn a uniform or carried a badge doesn’t mean I can’t guard you. I’ve been on details guarding an Oscar winning actor while he was making that movie down in Savannah and got him to safety when the barricades failed to hold back hundreds of screaming fans.” Then the asshole had expected her to put out in the limo. “I’ve protected those three country music singers-did I mention how much I hate country music-and let’s not forget the gentleman from Saudi Arabia with his three wives and sixteen kids, or the dozens of women from the Safe and Sound program.”
“I know you’re good at your job. That wasn’t why I wanted someone else.”
“Ha! So you did want someone else. You admit it.”
“Yeah, I already admitted it. But-”
“But you don’t trust me to protect you.” She closed the cover on the suitcase and zipped it.
“I trust you. But-damn it! I wasn’t objecting to you because you’re a woman, Rosie. Well, yeah, it’s sort of because you’re a woman. Aw, hell, you’re reading this all wrong.”
“For all your bullshit about equal opportunities, it’s still just bullshit. You want to be a big macho he-man who guards the ‘little woman’ but God help you now it’s the other way around.”
“Rosie-Ms. Ramos-”
“I’ll stay until Chad can get someone else over here to replace me, but then I’m out of here. And not just this assignment but D.C. I refuse to work for someone who doesn’t respect my abilities. I’ll expect you to approve my transfer first thing in the morning. Because if you don’t, then I’ll file a lawsuit for sexual discrimination.” She stopped talking, the words clogging her throat. Oh Lord. Fifteen minutes ago, she was feeling so proud and now she was about to walk away from the job she loved.
“Goddamn it, I don’t want you to leave Hauberk, Rosie. I didn’t want you guardin’ me because I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to keep my hands off you!”
The breath whooshed from her lungs. Of all the excuses he could have given her, that was one she wasn’t expecting. A blast of heat, of desire, filled her veins, headed straight for her nipples, her pussy. “You-”
“You drive me crazy, woman!” Heavy hands landed on her shoulders, spun her around. “All you have to do is walk by and I get hard. I’m so hard right now it hurts.”
A glance down proved him correct.
Her traitorous eyes refused to return to his face, instead they sent a message to her knees to drop down to the floor, to her hands to cup him, caress him, free him. Her traitorous tongue flicked out and licked her upper lip in anticipation of taking that impressive erection into her mouth. Luckily enough, a part of her mind retained just enough control to override those urges.
“All I can think of is getting you out of those clothes and beneath me, Rosie. I know that you could slap me with a sexual harassment suit just for saying that. But it’s true.” He muttered something about the difficulty of herding cats-whatever the hell that meant-then moved closer, the heat from his body like a blast from a foundry. “I can tell when you’ve been in a room by the scent of your shampoo. That’s all it takes to stop my brain from workin’. Then my dick takes command.”
Just like her pussy heated and creamed whenever she smelled his aftershave. Or heard his deep chuckle floating through the office. Just like her breasts ached watching him roll his cigar between his fingers, wishing it was her nipples he was touching.
So why did her chest hurt hearing him say what she’d fantasized about for months? Because he was lying. For all his smooth words, he was trying to find some lame ass explanation to weasel out of having her as his lead op.
“That’s why I asked Chad not to assign you. Not because I don’t trust you to guard me. But because I don’t trust myself to leave you alone.” His voice dropped an octave. “I want you, Rosie. And not as my bodyguard.”
“I don’t…I don’t believe you.” Why wouldn’t her knees support her? What had happened to all the oxygen in the room?
“You want proof?” He pulled her until her breasts mashed into his chest. Before she knew it his lips were pressing against hers in a hard hungry kiss.
His tongue lightly stroked the seal of her lips. One of his hands cradled her head, holding her in place, his thumb toying with the skin below her ear, rhythmically stroking, calming her. His other hand kneaded her behind, pressing her against his erection. “Do you feel what you do to me? Do you believe I’m not lying when I say I want you?”
The hoarse entreaty melted all her objections like they were snowflakes at a Fourth of July barbeque. The moment she relaxed, he slipped his tongue between her lips. As he plundered deeper, he made a sound deep in his throat, of approval, of desire, of need. His hand dropped from her neck and slid to the front, brushing the side of her breast.
When his thumb flicked across one nipple, it was her turn to moan.
“Rosie,” he whispered. He moved the hand cupping her behind to between her thighs, his fingers stroking her clit through her jeans, setting off a firestorm of sensation. “Do you know how many times I’ve imagined going down on you, how I’ve wondered what your sweat cream tastes like? Did you know that after I watched you doing your stretches in the gym this morning I had to go back to my shower and pretended my cock was inside your pussy instead of my own palm.”
While her head was screaming to run, reminding her of the thousand ways this would come back and bite her in the ass, her hips arched into his touch.
She wasn’t aware he’d moved at all but she found herself laying down on the bed, with him kneeling over top of her just like she’d fantasized. Except this was real. She hoped it was because if it was a dream, her vibrator would need a new set of batteries by morning.
To her surprise, her blouse gapped open, exposing her lacy beige bra.
When had he undone her buttons?
He broke their kiss, his warm breath heating the side of her neck, the roughness of his beard abrading her skin. A tug at the clasp of her bra, and he exposed her breasts, their cinnamon nipples cinched into tight points.
“Baby, you’re so beautiful.” His tongue laved one, then the other in a tender stroke. Seconds later he latched onto one and pulled it into his mouth, suckling it deep.
This wasn’t supposed to be happening. She had to stop him. She had to… Oh, sweet Lord, it felt so good.
Her fingernails dug into his shoulders when his fingers unsnapped her jeans, drew them down over her hips. His fingers, long and blunt, snaked beneath the thin band of her thong and teased her labia apart, setting fire to her as her juices drenched him.
One finger penetrated, stroked deep inside her while he sucked harder on her breast. Another finger joined the first.
The hell on him stopping, she had to help him. She had to have him inside her. All of him.
He was murmuring now, telling her what he wanted to do to her, what he wanted her to do to him. Things she’d never before thought she’d wanted. Things she’d never considered. Things she now had to try. With him.
The heat built as his fingers pressed deeper, his thumb whisking over her clit. The room darkened as she squeezed her eyes shut, concentrated on the sensations building within her. She arched her back, moaning as he teased her, tormented her by bringing her to the edge before slowing his movements, taking away the precipice she wanted to plunge over.
“Please.”
His lips left her breast and feathered over her stomach. They lingered on the spot right above the thin patch of hair before tasting first one hip, then the other. Her breath left her in a rush when his lips fastened onto the spot his thumb had been avoiding. His teeth rasped over her sensitive clit, his tongue licking on either side. Slow and then fast. Her body tensed as everything focused on where he touched her, inside and out.
“So sweet, just like I knew you’d be.” His words set a vibration through her tissues that rebounded until they touched the aching spot teased by his fingers.
She pushed his head back down and changed her “please” from a request to a demand.
Whether he touched her with his tongue or his thumb she never knew but the full body orgasm that erupted drove her breath from her and sent every muscle quivering.
She drifted off the bed, out of the room, floated high in the sky, among the stars that exploded on the back of her eyelids and left her to flutter back down to the soft silken covers beneath her.