“Yes.”
The carnal exploration of his fingers soon had her writhing sexily, and he knew she was close. He stretched above her and brought them eye to eye. “I want to watch you lose it.”
He was stingy with the pressure of his thumb on the outside, drawing out the pleasure, holding off until she released a low keening, and then he curled his fingers forward inside her, creating a gentle squeeze between the two pressure points.
She clamped her lower lip between her teeth. Her back arched as she raised her hips and ground against his hand. Into her ear, he poured a litany of love words, sexy words, dirty words. Finally she coasted down, and her lazy eyes fluttered open.
He laid a soft, tender kiss on her lips. “Beautiful.”
“You are.” She reached up and pushed her fingers into his hair. “And much sweeter than you let on.”
“Me, sweet?”
“Hmm. With your daughter. With me.” She outlined the shape of his lips with her fingertip. “You’re not so tough.”
“Say things like that, you’ll ruin my reputation.”
“I promise not to give you away if you’ll kiss me again.”
“Thought you’d never ask.” He obliged her, sending his tongue deep into her mouth and savoring the taste he was coming to know, to need.
When they pulled apart, she rocked against his erection. “That’s going to leave a bruise on my stomach.”
“We can’t let that happen, it being such a pretty stomach and all. Any ideas?”
She crooked her finger for him to lower his head and then she whispered what she had in mind. He looked at her in shocked wonder. “Have you been spying on my wet dreams?” He focused on her mouth, on that full lower lip, and when he placed the pad of his thumb in the center of it, she stroked it with her tongue.
In a voice thick with arousal, he said, “I need to shower first.”
They showered together, and the soapy navigation they conducted over each other was inquisitive, extensive, and ended with him leaning against the back of the shower, one hand braced on the tile wall and the other on the glass door, hanging on for dear life, praying that he would survive the avid action of her mouth.
She got out first, dried, and wrapped herself in the familiar robe. “I’ll make breakfast.” She left for the kitchen.
He toweled off and moved around the bedroom gathering his clothes and putting them on. They were uncomfortably damp, but they would have to do. He was slipping Joe’s pistol into the holster when Holly returned, carrying a cup of coffee.
“This will get you—” She stopped when she saw that he was fully dressed except for his windbreaker. “What are you doing?”
“I need to go before it gets any later.”
“Go where?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“You don’t have a car.”
“That’s a problem I’ve got to fix.”
“Crawford!” she exclaimed.
He pulled on his windbreaker. “What?”
“You can’t just leave on foot.”
“That’s how I got here.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I told you last night. Stay alive. If I can.”
“Get Otterman before he gets you.”
“Or Georgia.” He hated even voicing the possibility, afraid of making it an omen. “Because if Otterman wants to get to me, he’ll eventually go after her. And the surest way to protect her is to remove him from the planet.”
“You would kill him?”
He just looked at her, then away, saying, “I can’t do anything until I find him.”
“When you do?”
“I’ll have to wait and see.”
With a solid thump, she set the cup of coffee on the dresser. “What are you going to do?” she repeated, enunciating each word.
“Stop asking, Holly,” he said with matching testiness. “I won’t tell you.”
“Is it lawful?”
“Mostly.”
Her brow was knitted with worry and rising anger. “You don’t trust me?”
“I trust you completely. I trust that you’ll always tell the truth. Which is why it’s better for me that you don’t know everything. About anything. If you have a problem with that—”
“I have a problem with you taking on Otterman by yourself.”
“That’s the way I operate.”
“Which is the height of arrogance and conceit.”
“Yeah, well, think what you want about my ego. I know why I’m doing this, and I’ve gotta get at it.”
He moved toward the window, but she stepped in front of him. “If you break the law, you’ll destroy any chance you have of getting Georgia.”
“Your deal with Joe destroyed any chance I had.”
“That’s behind this morning-after mad dash? You’re angry?”
“No, I’m not angry.” But his near shout sounded angry, so he lowered his voice to a more controlled volume. “Could I fuck you like I did if I was angry?”
“Last night you said you hated me and still wanted to.”
“But I wouldn’t want to wake up with you. Yeah, the sex was great. But I liked waking up next to you almost as much. If circumstances were different—”
“What circumstances, Crawford?”