Anything to hold back the shadows. Anything to let her pretend that she was normal. Not some freak. Not someone who couldn’t even do her job anymore.
A woman this man wanted.
His left hand slid down her body. His fingers pressed just below the bottom of her dress.
Her breath caught. Yes. Here. Right here. So what if others were just a door away? She wanted this.
His rough fingertips smoothed up her thigh. Edged higher, higher, a few more inches.
“Fuck. You’re not wearing underwear.” Max’s words came out, gravel-rough, and his eyes narrowed.
She smiled at him and ignored the surge of her heart. “Problem?”
His fingers slipped between her legs. She was already wet for him. Eager and ready.
His breath blew out on a ragged sigh. Two fingers, big and long, pushed through her folds and found her sex. His fingers drove inside, knuckles-deep.
Sam shot up on her toes. Her hands flew up to his shoulders, and she held on tight as electricity whipped through her body. Her nails dug into his tux jacket. Perfectly pressed. Screw that. She tightened the muscles of her sex around him, wanting a fast release, needing that hard pop of pleasure as—
His fingers withdrew.
Max leaned in close, and his lips feathered over her ear as he whispered, “You want to use me for sex?” Those fingers were tauntingly close to the center of her need as he stroked lightly. Petting and teasing.
Sam squeezed her eyes shut.
“Another fast screw and you walk away?” he asked softly, as his arousal rubbed against her thigh. Long and ready, and he could take her right then. Shove her skirt up, slide inside, and they’d both come. “I could be anybody, couldn’t I?” His fingers thrust deep once more, and the stab of pleasure stole her breath. “Doesn’t matter who I am.”
Max’s lips went to her throat and pressed right over the pulse that throbbed too fast. Licked. Sucked.
Yes, yes…
Did it matter who he was? Did it?
“Who am I, baby?” Now it was harder to understand the words as he growled against her flesh.
His fingers continued to drive inside her. His thumb rubbed the nub of her desire. A little more, just a little… Her climax was so close that her body trembled. More.
“M-Max…” She breathed his name. The night air felt good on her flesh because suddenly she was hot, burning up, right there, burning so fast.
And she kept her eyes closed because she didn’t want to see him.
She only wanted to feel. Pleasure. Life. Not the cold touch of death.
The door squeaked, providing a bare second’s warning. “Hey, Max!” A male voice called out. “There’s someone I want you to—”
Max’s fingers pushed deep.
Sam choked back a moan as a rush of pleasure flooded through her body on a hot tide of release.
“Not now,” Max snarled.
“Ah, shit, s-sorry, m-man…” The door slammed shut.
Her breath panted out.
Max raised his head and stared down at her. “He couldn’t see you.”
No. The man would have just seen Max, wrapped around some faceless woman. Not her.
Because she wasn’t the type for casual sex. Wasn’t the kind of woman who tracked a man to a party, ditching her panties and asking him to take her on the balcony. She was the good girl. The quiet one. Always had been.
Her hip vibrated. Not from him, though she could almost expect to—
Christ, her phone!
She slapped her hands against Max’s chest and shoved him back.
His fingers slipped down her thighs. “Samantha? He didn’t—”
Her fingers trembled as she yanked out the phone and read the text. Get back to scene in Melborne ASAP. New body. The message was from Agent Dante. Oh, hell, from Dante.
“I-I have to go,” she told Max and saw his eyes widen.
“The hell you do.” He shook his head grimly and didn’t move an inch. Solid muscle. Angry, aroused male. “You’re not running this time. We’re not finished.”
No, they’d just been getting started, but she couldn’t turn down Dante, not if he was willing to give her a chance on the team. “Max, I—”
He kissed her. He’d made her come without once kissing her, and the touch of his lips seemed shocking. Too intimate. After what he’d just done? But, yes, too—
His tongue pushed past her lips. Tasted her. Took and claimed hers, and she met him head-on.
Sam liked the way he tasted. There was wine in his kiss. Just as there must be champagne on her tongue. Tangy, but sweet.
The man knew how to use his tongue. Knew how to thrust and lick and have her straining to meet him.
Her fingers clenched around the phone. Her ni**les ached, and her sex quivered.
More. More. They couldn’t have all night, but they could have a few moments. Right there.
Sam tore her mouth away. “I-I’m sorry… I’ve got—work.”
He stared at her with his jaw clenched and his strong chin angled down as he studied her. “What kind of work would call you in this late at night?”
He didn’t want to know. Sam let her lips curve. Being fake was becoming so easy. “I work with…” Oh, jeez, but she needed her voice to stop sounding so breathy and weak. “C-computers. I-I have a tech emergency.”
Half-truth. Half-lie.
He blinked. “You—”
“I have to go.” She’d have to change. No way could the others see her in this outfit. It would take an hour to drive out to Melbourne from D.C. Why did Dante want her? And—
Another body? That didn’t fit the pattern. No way. She eased away from Max and reached for the door.
“You’re running again.” Arousal still rumbled in his words. The rough timbre of a man who hadn’t gotten his pleasure.
“No, I’m just walking away.” She didn’t look back. Say something. She knew that she should. Leaving the guy like this—
The old Sam would never have done that.
Then again, the old Sam was dead. She’d died in the water months before when a serial killer had left her broken body in a lake. And these days, it felt like her ghost was all that remained.
Her spine straightened. “Sam Kennedy.” The words came out softer than she’d intended. “My name’s… Sam Kennedy.” She waited, wondering if he’d make the connection to her mother, but there was no flicker of recognition on his face. As far as she knew, Max and her mother had never met face-to-face, and since her mother was in Europe right then, she doubted their paths would be crossing soon.