Then he was gripping her hip with one hand, his other coming around to hold her breast with firm possessiveness, and he was pushing into her and he felt so rigid and so long in this position that ísa bit down hard on her lower lip at the sheer, raw pleasure of it. It only took her two strokes to come, the evening of watching Sailor working shirtless, his little kisses and touches, having aroused her to nymphomaniac status.
He didn’t last much longer, thrusting deep into her body and sinking his fingers into the flesh of her hips as he grunted and came. Falling slightly forward onto her back in the aftermath, he pulled her hair back so he could nuzzle a kiss to her neck. “Now we’re both dirty.” He sounded highly pleased by that fact.
ísa was turning into goo as a result of the affectionate contact. “How big is your shower?”
The answer was not very… and just big enough.
ísa ended up pinned to the wall a second time around while Sailor stroked out of her slow and deep, with all the patience in the world. Her legs were jelly by the time they finally stumbled out of the steamy cubicle. Sailor threw her one of his T-shirts to wear while he pulled on an old pair of jeans that hugged his butt just right.
Sitting themselves at the kitchen table, they both got to work.
At some point they took that work and stretched out in bed and ended up falling asleep. Dawn the next morning and ísa scowled at Sailor as she went to pull on her clothes from yesterday. “I can’t believe I’m going to be doing the walk of shame. Pack a change of clothing. You’re coming to my place tonight.”
Not looking the least bit sorry, he drew her mouth down to his. And since he was warm and naked and in a playful mood, she soon found herself tumbled back into bed. It was fast and deliciously hard this time since Sailor had to get ready for work.
ísa should’ve felt used, but how could she when he snuggled a kiss into her neck afterward and said, “See you at dinner?”
But deep inside, a part of her worried.
And even deeper inside, it hurt.
Because what ísa needed was the one thing she couldn’t ask from Sailor. To do so would destroy them both.
36
The Photo Creepster Strikes Again
íSA DIDN’T HAVE ANY TIME to look at the security footage before work; Harlow had managed to fall off his bicycle during a morning ride and injure his leg. After receiving a call from him just after she reached the office, she rushed to the hospital where she spent long minutes calming him down.
“Jacqueline won’t fire you for being a couple of hours late,” she said. “Even the Dragon understands physical injury. She fractured her ribs six months ago, remember?”
ísa didn’t waste her breath on asking him to take the day off.
Harlow was tough enough to work through the pain of the cuts and abrasions, and he wouldn’t have agreed to any such demand anyway.
“I swear you’re part dragon,” she said after driving him in to work, with a stopover at home so he could change.
A delighted grin. “Thanks!”
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
Harlow laughed at her stern response, his eyes bright behind his spectacles.
As a result of the late start, she was still scrambling to catch up at eleven when her mother stalked in and threw a newspaper on her desk. It was open to the business section. ísa’s eyes went straight to the image of her walking out of a restaurant holding a large bag emblazoned with the restaurant’s logo; the dinner she’d picked up for her and Sailor last night.
The headline was: No Faith in the Fast Organic Product?
“Fast Organic isn’t live yet!” ísa threw up her hands. “What am I supposed to eat? Air?”
“It’s the asshole I won’t sleep with,” her mother said, icy fury contained in a custom skirt suit of deepest plum. “He’s out to smear us, but you aren’t exactly helping. Be a little discreet for goodness sake.”
ísa glared at her mother. “You realize this means some creep is following me around?”
“Or maybe it’s someone who knew you were going to be picking up the takeout.” Jacqueline raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t go there, Mother.” It was a hard rebuke, ísa holding the green of Jacqueline’s eyes. ísa might be furious at herself for her inability to deny Sailor her heart, but she would not permit her mother to throw dirt on his name.
Her mother threw up her hands. “Get to the bottom of this, ísa. This tiny-penised asshole’s vendetta could sink our entire launch plan—we need to cut off his mole.”
Calling in Ginny after Jacqueline left, ísa said, “Wipe my schedule for the day. Push anything urgent to Mother.” It was time Jacqueline got a taste of her own medicine. “I’m going to be focusing on another matter.”
Ginny was wide-eyed but nodded. “What shall I do if she yells at me?”
“Tell her I’m working on the project she assigned priority.” ísa was going to get to the bottom of this no matter what it took.
* * *
SAILOR SCOWLED AT THE PHOTO of ísa in the newspaper. “This is bullshit.” He turned his phone screen toward Gabe, who’d turned up to help him for a couple of hours before he had to attend a team meeting.
His brother’s scowl was just as dark. “Total BS,” he agreed. “Anything you can do?”
“If someone’s stalking her to get photos, then the black sedan I saw parked across the street yesterday might have something to do with it.” It had been there when he and ísa came around from the back of the site. “Keep an eye out for it.”
Gabe nodded as he began to pound in a border piece Sailor had already finished. “Sail, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Why are you so hell-bent on proving you’re not like the piece of shit who fathered us?” It was a potent question.
Sailor clenched his teeth and continued to work on the next part of the border. His brother didn’t push him, the two of them working quietly together until Sailor said, “It’s not rational. I’m just a little bit fucked up in the head.”
Gabe’s steely eyes met his across the garden bed before his older brother blew out a breath. “Yeah, so am I.” Gabe didn’t speak again for a while. “Your ísa know all this?”
“I’m easing her into the crazy slowly. Don’t want to scare her away.” Light words, but he was deadly serious.
Gabriel’s lips kicked up, those incisive gray eyes intent. “You’re nuts about her, aren’t you?”
Sailor thought back to how damn good it had felt to wake up with her today; he could still feel the warm softness of her in his arms. “I’m fucking terrified that I’ll lose her.” He sat back on his haunches. “What woman is going to stick with me while I drive myself to the edge to finish what I’ve begun?” Especially a woman who’d already been let down so many times.
His brother didn’t have any answers for him, and when ísa called to say she couldn’t make dinner because she had to drive Harlow home and make sure he’d be okay, Sailor felt another droplet of fear. It was already beginning, the distance. On the heels of the fear came harsh determination.
Fuck that.
ísa had met her match in Sailor “Bullheaded” Bishop.
* * *