Living Dangerously

Chapter Sixteen



By late morning of day two, Julie slammed Ari’s script closed and stretched. This screenplay had her itchy in all the right places. The love scenes were detailed and hot. She’d forgotten just how hot. Or maybe she was just more in tune with good sex after the other night. Just what she needed, to be hornier than hell with a man who didn’t seem to want to do anything about it. She made an executive decision. She planned on pulling answers out of this man’s mouth no matter how long it took and since she had sex on the brain...

“Why don’t you have a girlfriend?”

His double take in the rearview mirror might have made her laugh if she’d been in the mood, but she instantly regretted the personal question. Sometimes her mouth ran ahead of her brain.

“What?” he asked.

Oh, hell. May as well shoot for the finish line since she was already out of the blocks. “Quit stalling. You heard me.” She shifted her extended leg and felt the pull in the stitches as she leaned forward in between the front seats. His clean aftershave wafted up her nose and she took a long covert whiff. God, he smelled good, but she wouldn’t let that detour her. “You’re funny, smart.” You smell like sex on a stick. “You dive in front of bullets. Why don’t you have a girlfriend?”

He opened his mouth, closed it and opened it again. “I don’t know. Why don’t you have a boyfriend?” He passed a string of cars on the right and ate up the road like a monster.

Touché. “Even though I asked you first, I will answer you honestly. There is a lot of baggage that goes with dating me. When I’m working, my hours are brutal, and when I’m not working, the press is brutal. Your turn.”

He shrugged a broad shoulder as he hit the left blinker and passed a slow-moving semi. “We have crazy hours in common. I’m at the mercy of my boss’s schedule. Most women don’t want to put up with that.” A faint nod accompanied his next words. “And it’s possible I can be a little closed off, which also tends to drive a stake into a relationship.”

Interesting that he recognized the problem. “If you know you’re closed off, why don’t you do something about it?”

He huffed, almost a laugh, but not quite as he eased into the right lane. “I guess old habits die hard. Besides—” she barely heard him and had to learn even farther forward, “—maybe I don’t know how to change.”

Her heart melted in a pool of empathy. What had happened to this brave man to make him so introverted? They were nearly polar opposites in that respect. “Did your past girlfriends try to change you?” She already knew the answer.

“I don’t know that they tried to change me. I think they wanted something I couldn’t give.”

She knew how that worked. She’d tried to get back into the dating pool after Lucas, and the first guy she’d taken seriously enough to let into her bed had dumped her because she hadn’t been adventurous enough in the sack. Not that she planned to reveal that bit about herself to Troy. “Sounds like you tend to keep things casual.” A giant fishing expedition on her part.

He knew it too, because his lips quirked up and turned his face from handsome to killer sexy. “In the past, yes. But life keeps throwing surprises my way and I’d be stupid to ignore a good thing when it’s in front of me.”

Not if, but when. So was he talking about her? Did she call his bluff or was it too early? Maybe it was time to sneak out of this conversation while she still had her dignity. “I thought I’d take a break from my script if you want to put a CD in. Sorry again about the quiet. But if music is on or television is playing, I can’t concentrate on the words in front of me.”

“It’s okay.” He reached into the console, pulled out a CD holder and handed it to her. “Here. Pick whatever you want. Hope there’s something you like.” He eased back into the right-hand lane.

She loved his hands. Large, capable, short, neat nails. Lucas had been a nail shredder, and finding bits of his fingernails under tables and by the bed had grossed her out.

Julie forced her gaze from Troy’s hands to his music collection. The newest Seger Hughes CD caught her attention, and she pulled out the disk and handed it forward. “I didn’t peg you as a Seger Hughes fan.”

Troy took the CD and eased it in the player. “His old songs were a little obnoxious, but I really like his new stuff. Much more my style.” So he didn’t like hard driving rock and roll, but he did like alternative rock with some mellow acoustic.

“Personally, I’m one of his diehard fans. He could sing my grocery list and I’d be like ‘woo-hoo, go Seger!’ I meant to pick this up when it came out, but I was working, then time just got by me and I forgot.” The lyrics to the smash hit “Ashley Here with Me” filled the car. “This is a great song.”

Troy nodded as he tapped his thumb on the steering wheel in time to the beat. The endless white line of the road seemed to stretch into forever.

“You know, I’ve met the Ashley he’s singing about in the song.”

“Yeah?” He glanced at her in the rearview mirror.

“Yeah. She was my stunt double’s roommate. She had a terrible accident during the production of Dangerous Race. She had a rough recovery, but she’s fine now. A few scars to show for it, but I’ve discovered that scars mean you’re a survivor.”

She caught his gaze in the mirror again before he concentrated on the road. “What about you? Any scars besides the one I caused?”

He scowled. “You didn’t cause any scars.”

“Fine.” She totally disagreed with him, but it wasn’t worth arguing over. “Whatever.” She looked at her hand. “I’ve got three perfect marks on my palm from when I was running through the house with a fork. I fell and the fork stuck into the soft spot under my thumb. Man, did that hurt.” She laughed at the memory. Her mother hadn’t been able to pull the fork out easily. “And it bled all over Mom’s favorite kitchen rug. She was not a happy camper.”

He smiled. “How old were you?”

“Eight. I learned quickly why you shouldn’t run with knives and forks in your hand. What about you? Any childhood injuries that left their mark?”

He chuckled and shook his head the tiniest bit. “A few.”

She waited and when he didn’t elaborate she said, “Liiiiike...”

His jaw clenched then loosened. “I broke my toe during my first move into an apartment building. I was trying to load a refrigerator onto the moving truck, but the hydraulic lift collapsed and landed on my toe. Crushed it. On the way down, it took most of the skin off my shin to the bone.”

Julie crinkled her nose in sympathy. “Ouch.”

“Yeah. Wasn’t a good day to be me.”

Another hit song from Seger’s CD began, and Julie sang along softly. “Always Believe” talked about how someone’s love could make a person whole. She’d always wanted a love like that for herself. She thought she’d found it with Lucas, but that certainly hadn’t been the case.

“You got quiet,” he said.

Not only had the song ended, but several more had also played. Thinking about Lucas had taken her right out of the conversation.

“I got the impression that you liked it quiet.” It was a risk to say that, but one she wanted to take.

He glanced at her through the mirror. “You’re probably right. But I like hearing you talk. I like your voice.”

Warm fuzzies sprang up in her chest. For some silly reason, she flushed. “Well, that’s nice of you say, but I’d rather not talk if it’s going to be a one-sided conversation.” He was a smart man. He had to know what she implied between the lines.

“Fair enough. I’ll do my best to keep up.”

Wasn’t this interesting? “Okay. My favorite color is purple. What’s yours?”

“Green.”

For several hours they talked about music, cars and the crazy price of gasoline, which led to politics and oddly enough Saturday Night Live. They were both fans of Tina Fey. Troy’s answers might have been abbreviated but he was talking. That was good enough for Julie.

That night, outside of Des Moines, pretty much replicated Denver with one exception. By the time Julie got out of the bathroom, Troy had taken off his own boots before passing out on the king-size bed. Her frustration nearly blew the lid off her cool, but she refused to beg for it. She thought for sure after all the conversation that he’d be more inclined to be physical. Unless the more he got to know her, the less he wanted to be with her.

Well that sucked.

Julie kept her nose buried in her script most of the next day for a few reasons. One, she really did need to do her homework for the movie role, and two, baring her soul to Troy only made her more vulnerable and she didn’t like the feeling. If he wanted something between them he was going to have to do his part.

On the fourth night, they arrived in Erie, Pennsylvania. The last stop before they reached their destination.

“We’ve got a shorter day tomorrow,” he said, tossing their luggage onto the racks he’d set up. This room also had one bed, but Julie had learned that sleeping with him hadn’t necessarily meant sleeping with him. The place had been recently remodeled with new dark green carpeting that matched the flowers on the peach comforter.

She came out of the roomier than normal bathroom, surprised to see Troy right in front of her. She edged over to give him room to pass, but he didn’t budge. She glanced up and froze as his hot, penetrating stare drilled into hers. He looked at her and looked at her until her blood raced in her veins.

Hello, Mr. Dodge the Sex. Was he finally cracking under the pressure?

“You’re not asleep,” she said. Apparently she’d lost her brain if that was the best she could come up with.

He nodded, his gaze roaming to her mouth and back to her eyes, but didn’t say anything. Stroking a hand through her hair, he bent closer to her mouth. Julie’s heart nearly exploded. Moving in slowly, his lips came down over hers, soft and insistent, and she melted at his touch. She let the crutches fall when she snaked her arms around his neck and held him closer.

His stubble rasped against her mouth as they kissed and the burn felt sexy, hot. She loved the feel of his hand palming her head, how his fingers dug into her hair, the way his tongue moved inside her mouth, dueling with hers in a sweet, sinful, erotic slide. She rubbed against him, felt his erection straining his jeans and pushing low against her stomach. After long minutes of kissing, he pulled back, breathing hard, his hand cupping her head.

“I’ll be right out, okay? Give me a few minutes.”

She nodded, her breathing choppy. Looked like she might get to work off that frustration after all. God, the last two days sitting behind him, smelling him, watching his hands on the wheel and imagining those sex scenes from the screenplay had made her nearly daffy with lust.

Troy moved into the bathroom and she snagged the box of condoms she’d brought from home and set them on top of the nightstand drawer. After that kiss, she didn’t see him backing out of a night filled with smokin’ hot sex. Granted, she had hardly any clue what Troy thought at any given time, but that kiss said way more than words.

It would’ve been nice if she’d had something sexy to slip into, but her oversized, black Dangerous Race T-shirt was worn to soft, comfortable cotton. She eighty-sixed her underwear. No reason to make him work for it.

Less than ten minutes later, Troy emerged from the bathroom. Deliciously shirtless and all hard muscle and washboard abs. Wearing a pair of straining black boxer briefs, he could’ve been a cover model for Calvin Klein underwear. He’d shaved off the sexy stubble, but it didn’t make him any less sexy. He had a rugged face, full of sharp angles, and his intensely focused eyes made her feel like the only woman in the world. He slid under the covers next to her and pulled her halfway beneath him. His gaze drilled into hers before he settled his lips on her again in a minty fresh kiss.

The explosion of heat and lust happened immediately. Julie’s need to have him washed over her like a swift current. She lifted her leg to wrap herself around him and a burst of pain shot across her thigh. She gasped and he pulled back.

“I knew we couldn’t do this.” He sounded absolutely convinced as he smacked his hand on the mattress.

“Of course we can do this. I just have to be careful, that’s all.” She reached up and kissed him and it took only a half second for him to get back on the lust train. His hands skimmed over her side, felt the curve of her breast and dip of her waist. His heat radiated through the fabric separating them. “Gotta get out of the clothes,” she said between kisses.

He grunted and pulled away long enough to strip off her top, then his lips skated to new territory and Julie lost her mind in the sensation of his lips, tongue and hands on her breasts.

She moved her leg and gasped again. Troy looked up, his eyes narrowed. “I’m not doing this if it’s going to hurt you.”

That must have been the reason he hadn’t tried anything the past two nights. He’d been worried about hurting her, so he’d purposely avoided the possibility. Now her cuts and scrapes had faded and she looked much better. Why hadn’t she figured it out sooner?

“It only hurts because I keep forgetting about my leg and want to wrap it around you. Can you blame me?” She grabbed his ass and squeezed. “I just want to lock you to me. So sue me.”

He wasn’t smiling. “I’m serious. I’m not doing this if it’s going to hurt you.”

“It’s going to hurt me more if you don’t.”

He dropped his head and she couldn’t see his face, but she read the indecision in his body language. The idea that he might really avoid making love to her because of her stitches made her crazy.

“What if we make it so you can’t hurt me?”

He lifted his head, concern and torment in his eyes. “How?”

“I don’t know. There has to be a way.”

His eyes narrowed, his gaze got hotter. “I might have an idea.” He looked up, then glanced over his shoulder. “What if I tie you down?”

Her heart stuttered then banged hard against her ribs. Her mouth went dry. That was exactly the kind of scene she’d read in Ari’s script. Had she imagined Troy tying her down as she’d read the pages? Damn straight, she did. The idea sounded so erotic she felt even more moisture between her thighs.

A nervous chuckle vibrated in her throat and his smile grew wider.

“It’s funny you should mention that because my character gets tied down in the film I’m doing with Ari. It’s a woman’s journey to find herself. To find the confidence to be who she wants to be and not who she’s told to be.”

“You sure don’t have that problem. I can see how this film might be a stretch for you.” He lifted an eyebrow and she smiled up at him. He gazed at her as his thumb lightly stroked her temple. He was so unbelievably sexy.

She couldn’t wait to get started. “Okay then. Let’s do this.”

“Really? Tie you down? To the bed? Right now?” He shook his head as if she’d given him one more thing to wrap his brain around. “I didn’t really expect you to say yes.”

He dropped his head again, but this time he laughed and Julie’s heart soared at the sound. In the time they’d been together, he’d grinned and chuckled but he’d never laughed until now. The sound cut straight through her. She wanted to keep him laughing.

“Did I say something funny?” she deadpanned.

He laughed harder until he rolled off her and onto his back. She propped herself on an elbow and watched him, fascinated. When he finally wiped a hand down his face and looked at her again with his dark eyes sparkling with lust and trouble, she had her answer.

“I’ve got two scarves in my bag for my wrists and we can tie a few pairs of socks together for my ankles,” she said.

He shook his head as a devastating grin curved his lips. “We won’t need the socks.” His low voice whispered in the quiet room. “I’ve got some rope in my car.”

* * *

Troy tested the last knot. Julie could get free anytime she wanted, if she wanted. She lay under the covers because he wanted to unwrap her one slow inch at a time. He’d tied her ankles spread-eagle to the bed frame and her hands together above her head, then secured her to a wood slate on the headboard. He’d used scarves around her wrists, and wrapped hand towels around her ankles to keep the rope from abrading her soft skin.

“How’s it feel?” he asked. He still wasn’t sure about this and God knew it exceeded his wildest imagination when it came to this woman.

“Fine. Kind of sexy.” Her face flushed with the admission.

“Anytime you want me to stop, all you have to do is tell me to stop.” His dick was so hard already he didn’t see how he was going to manage this. Knowing she was bare under those sheets and waited for him to do whatever the hell he planned on doing to her maxed out just about any thought process in his brain.

“And when you don’t hear me tell you to stop, it means you keep going.” She looked at him with so much trust in her eyes that he shook his head, unprepared for the humbling feelings that fought for space in his head, in his chest. She didn’t belong to him. This game didn’t mean to her what it meant to him. He was sure of it. Almost.

“What are you thinking about?” She cocked her head to the side, concern in her eyes, when he was the one concerned about her. “I know you won’t hurt me.” She smiled, a wicked smile that sent more blood rushing south to his already hard dick. “In fact, I’m counting on you to make us both feel really good.” She flexed under the sheets and the words that were becoming common to his brain flashed again. F*ck it.

He crawled over her slowly. He’d thrown on jeans and a T-shirt to get the rope from his car and the idea of her naked while he remained dressed aroused him even more. If that was even possible.

Starting at her neck, he feathered kisses below her ear, across her jaw. Her breathing faltered already and he’d just started. The blanket still separated them, but he felt her muscles flexing beneath him, felt her strength as she tried to move against him.

“Don’t move,” he told her. It was a command and her breath hitched. If she wanted him to take control then he planned on doing just that. He grabbed a fistful of the sheet and slowly pulled it down her chest, revealing more silky skin with every inch. His lips trailed behind until the sheet barely covered one peaked nipple. He licked her through the cotton, took the hard bud between his teeth and applied the tiniest bit of pressure. She gasped, nearly hissed, but she didn’t tell him to stop.

When the cotton was plastered wet to her breasts, he pulled down the fraction needed to reach her hot skin. She cried out when he sucked her into his mouth, gently at first, then with more pressure. After a few minutes, he trailed his mouth to the other breast and gave it the same attention. A light sheen of sweat already coated her skin. His too. This research might’ve been good for her, but it was killing him. He continued his descent, deciding that going down on her would be easiest on her leg.

Inch by inch the cover came down and as each new bit of skin came into view, he kissed, nipped and licked. Her stomach contracted with the contact of his tongue to her navel.

Damn, she was so beautiful, letting him have his way with her. The sense of power he expected had materialized as the need to please. She may have been tied down, but Troy felt bound to satisfy her, intent on giving as much pleasure as she could possibly handle, then giving her more.

“Please,” she whispered when he still hadn’t uncovered her fully, but she didn’t move and he thought she deserved a reward for that. He lowered the sheet, but kept the edge at the halfway point of her little patch of honey-blond hair. He ran his tongue along that spot and she moaned.

Goddamn this was more fun than he ever dreamed. “Should I stop?” he murmured, trailing the sheet the next few increments and exposing her to his gaze. Her scent made him dizzy with lust. He wanted to dive in and take her hard and fast with his mouth, but he held himself back.

“No, God, please don’t stop. Please,” she begged breathlessly.

She was soaking wet. The sheets damp beneath her.

Just like the other night when he removed the thong, he used his teeth to remove the last few inches of the sheet. She trembled beneath him and her skin pebbled where he touched. He couldn’t remember when he’d spent this amount of time seducing a woman, loving every inch of her before actually making love to her. He kissed the inside of each thigh, tortured her with his hot breath and reveled in her choppy panting.

The rope had some give, so he snaked an arm underneath her good thigh and settled between her legs for the duration of the flight. He used his finger and his tongue at the same time and her legs stiffened. She tasted exotic and dangerous, like the best moonshine on the planet. He could get drunk on her taste. He circled her * teasingly with his tongue as his finger pushed inside her. After a few minutes, she tried to inch down, tried to take more of him, feel more pressure, but he backed off.

“I said, don’t move.”

She lifted her head, then just as quickly slammed it back down, digging it into the pillow and moaning her frustration. He loved it.

“Are you going to be good?” he asked, teasing her * again with quick lashes of his tongue.

“Yes. Please, yes,” she gasped. “Please, Troy.”

“Please what?”

“Please make me come. Please, I have to come.”

Troy pushed two fingers inside of her and hooked them against her inner walls at the same time as he stroked her * hard with his tongue. The neighbors probably heard her cry out from three doors down. Her orgasm milked his fingers as she flew apart and each contraction throbbed against his tongue.

When she finally came down, when the last shudders faded, her legs went limp. He glanced at her thigh to make sure all that straining hadn’t done anything to the stitches. Nope. They looked fine.

Reassured with her tied down, he felt better about making love to her despite the injury. He shucked off his jeans and underwear as he worked his way back up her body, then he knelt between her legs and looked his fill. He stripped his T-shirt over his head. Her gaze shifted to his dick. His insanely hard dick.

“Condoms on the end table,” she whispered huskily.

He’d been planning on a condom, saw them waiting on the table. But her assumption that he needed one right this second changed his mind, for the moment.

“Who said I needed a condom?”

Her eyes flashed, a ghost of a smile quirked her lips.

He couldn’t believe he even said that. The words were out of his mouth before the thought. But he had serious plans for those beautiful lips. Plans that didn’t require a condom. “How bad do you want me?” he asked, teasing one breast with the rough pad of his finger.

“Bad,” she croaked. “Really bad.”

“Are you hungry, Julie?” He had no clue where any of this was coming from. He’d never played like this with anyone. Sex had been sex and that had been the end of it. Sure, he’d been in just about any position imaginable, but he’d never taken control—this kind of possession—to this level.

She licked her lips and his dick twitched. He wasn’t sure he could bring himself to do what his dick wanted him to, what his words led her to believe he might do. But she looked so damn tempting spread out on the bed. If she wanted him to stop, she only had to say so. If he kept telling himself that, he could continue. Maybe.

Jesus, this was absolutely killing him.

“I didn’t hear you,” he said, rolling a nipple between his fingers. “Are you hungry for me?”

She nodded, licked her lips again with her gaze locked onto his straining dick. “Yes.”

Carefully, he moved up her body and straddled her chest. He leaned forward to stick a fluffy pillow under her head and she took him in her mouth. The hot, wet warmth surrounded him, made him groan. That she took control before he was ready nearly made him laugh. She wasn’t following the script. But seeing how this whole thing was ad-libbed, he probably got what he deserved.

He cupped the back of her head as she worked him with her tongue and mind-bending suction. He thought his heart might pound out of his chest as more blood flowed south. Watching her take him the other night had been surreal enough, but this took surreal to a whole new level. Her eyes were closed and her cheeks flushed red as she strained to suck all of him.

He had Julie tied to a bed while she...

Pressure built and coiled low, the hot, wet tunnel of her mouth shot him closer to the edge. Closer, closer... He pulled out before he unloaded. It was too damn good and he wasn’t done with her yet. Reaching for the table, he grabbed the condoms, ripped one open and covered himself. He got into place between her open thighs and, careful of her injured leg, he shoved in. He swallowed Julie’s gasp as he sealed his lips to hers and pushed his tongue deep into her mouth. She tasted of sex and all kinds of lust. She made his fantasy real as she strained and moaned beneath him. He pumped into her hard, but controlled, driven by the need to come, the need to make her come. He pulled out and rammed back in, his hips slamming against hers.

Julie panted and her muscles flexed under and around him. The tight sheath of her inner walls squeezed him until his brain fogged over in a sexual haze and all he could do was dive back in for more.

Shit, he didn’t want to hurt her, but every sound she made, every taut muscle in her body drove him closer to the edge. Relinquishing complete control only gave her more power.

“Like that?” he asked roughly.

“God, yes,” she huffed. “Just like that.”

His lips crashed down on hers and he couldn’t hold back another second. His orgasm shot through him like a f*cking missile, exploding in hot spasms that shook him from head to toe. Julie stiffened beneath him and he felt her contractions around his throbbing dick, felt the power of her release even as the shudders of his waned.

Breathing hard, he rested on his elbows, not ready to move off her and lose the connection, lose her heat. He reached up and loosened the knot holding her wrists. Her arms came around him tight in one of the most intense moments he’d ever shared with a woman.

“You okay?” he whispered.

She shook beneath him and he didn’t know if laughter or tears caused it. He pulled back and looked into her eyes, bright with tears and the reckless grin curving her lips. “I’m freakin’ fantastic. How are you?” The energy behind her voice confirmed what he already knew. Sex revved her up and after this, she was just getting started.

Troy laughed and held her close, loving the fast beat of her heart against his chest.

Loving her.