He was glaring at her, angry enough to spit nails, and she felt wonderful. Telling him had raised a crushing weight off of her. She was as light as air, about to float up off the bed “Oh, yes,” she agreed cheerfully. “It's really stupid Believe me, I know.”
“Lazar is a killer shark,” he said roughly. “How can anybody be so stupid and naive and still be walking around alive?”
She smothered a giggle, then tried to look thoughtful and serious. “That's a question I’ve asked myself more than once,” she said. 'The only answer I can come up with is pure, blind luck.”
“Luck doesn't last, babe,” he growled. “You need back-up.”
The brief rush of euphoria began to fade. “I'll think of something.”
“No, you won't. You'll be on the first plane out of SeaTac tomorrow morning. No way am I letting you—”
“Seth.” She cut him off, putting her hand against his hard chest. “You're forgetting something important. It's not up to you.”
Their eyes locked. She grappled with him, on a plane of awareness she had only discovered since they had become lovers, and realized something surprising about herself. Seth was extremely strong, but she could bear the weight of his disapproval, even his anger.
Seth's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “No butterfly, huh?”
She shook her head. “Not anymore.”
“Forget about the bastard, Raine. Cut bait and run. Find someplace where you can live a normal life.”
She blinked for a moment, and let out a startled laugh. 'What's a normal life, Seth?” she demanded.
He looked blank. “Um, a house in the suburbs?” he offered. 'Two point four kids, PTA meetings, summers on the lake? Mini-malls, multiplexes, bake sales, Little League?
Credit card debt?”
Her lips curved in a rueful smile. She shook her head mutely.
He shrugged, defeated. “Whatever. I give up “ he muttered, pulling her close. “I wouldn't know normal if it bit me on the ass.”
“We're two of a kind,” she told him.
He buried his nose in her hair. “I like the sound of that.”
“I'm glad something pleases you, at least.” Her voice was muffled, with her nose squashed against his collarbone.
He pushed her down onto the bed and rolled on top of her. “Nothing I can say will make you get on that plane tomorrow?”
“I've already tried running away,” she said simply. “For seventeen years I've tried it. I promise you. It doesn't work.”
“OK, men. This is how it's going to be tomorrow.” His voice was hard and businesslike. “I'm taking you to work tomorrow, and I'm picking you up. You're not leaving the office without telling me. Call me, e-mail me, beep me, whatever. Do not set foot out of that place without letting me know, not even for a cup of coffee.”
“But I—“
“Lazar wanted you to spy on me, right? Go for it. Seduce me, sleep with me, spy on me. Study every inch of my body, count every hair on my head. You're just trying to make your boss happy, right? The perfect excuse. That's what I call a win-win scenario.”
She was dismayed. “Seth, I think you're overreacting.”
“My clueless girlfriend tells me she's trying to single-handedly take down a powerful, ruthless guy for murder. Then she tells me she has no proof, and no investigative experience. Then she tells me I'm overreacting: Tough shit, babe. This is the price you pay for confiding in me. Do as I say, or I will make your life so difficult, you'll end up giving in anyway, but you'll be exhausted and pissed off, too.”
A foolish smile spread helplessly across her face. She didn't mind one bit how protective and paranoid he was. She would work out the thorny details of coping with him as she went along. It was worth it, for that warm, soft feeling in her chest. “OK,” she said, rubbing her cheek against his scratchy jaw. “I'll keep you informed, if you want”
“I want,” he growled, sliding back under the duvet He arranged her so she was draped over him, her hand resting on his heart.
“Seth?” she murmured.
“Hmm?”
“I know you think Fm a lunatic, but I feel so much better now that I've told you all this.” “Oh yeah? Well, bully for you. I feel like shit.” She hid a smile against his chest and snuggled closer. Her thigh brushed against his penis. Hot and hard. She reached down and stroked him from the base to the tip. He was hugely erect. Again.
He groaned. “Don't get me started. Hands off. Sleep time.”
She took her hand away reluctantly. “Is this, urn, normal?”
“You know how I feel about normal, sweetheart.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Ah. You're referring to my perpetual boner, I take it.” He kissed the top of her head. “Well, I've never had any problems getting it up, but I have never had so much trouble keeping it down until I met you.”
“Oh. I'm, ah, flattered.”
“Don't mind him.” His lazy voice had a hint of laughter in it. “Ignore the savage beast, and eventually hell calm down.”
“You can sleep like that?”
His chest vibrated with silent laughter under her ear. “Let me worry about that,” he said, “Get some rest, for God's sake.”
To her surprise, she realized that she actually could. She was warm and relaxed, curled up on top of him, resting on his strength. For the first time, she wasn't all alone in the dark with her monsters.
What a crazy day. So much had happened, all at once. She had a boyfriend. She was giving him a key to her house. She had confided her darkest, most painful secrets to him. He warmed her, charged her with wild energy and euphoria, maybe even courage and luck.
They were hurtling forward at three hundred miles an hour with no brakes, and she didn't even want to slow down.
She'd never had a dream so delicious, so awash with sensation. Warmth and wetness, luscious heat and light and shifting colors. Touches, melting and swirling. Divine pleasure, as if a god were making love to her. Then the seamless slide into consciousness, the faint morning light that seeped into the room pressing on her eyes. She tried not to wake up, to make the beautiful dream linger and last, but the pleasure didn't fade. It got stronger. She opened her eyes cautiously.
The comforter was folded up from the bottom and flung up over her chest—and Seth was lying between her legs.
Licking her.
She jerked, startled, and he gripped her hips in his hands, murmuring something reassuring. She flung aside the comforter, and he lifted his head just long enough to give her a smug, satisfied grin. “Good morning,” he said, putting his mouth to her again.
She writhed at the delicious intimacy. “Seth, you're obsessed,” she whispered.
He laughed, and her sex vibrated with the resonance of his voice, the sweet, tickling heat of his breath. “Yeah,” he admitted. “I love giving you head The taste of you drives me out of my mind.” He lifted his head and stared into her eyes. “That a problem for you?”
“Dear God, no,” she gasped. His tongue slid up and down her labia, circling her clitoris. He drew it into his mouth, sucking on it with exquisite care. “I just think that you— oh—”
“That I'm what?” he demanded.
“That you're the p-perfect boyfriend,” she stammered.
She couldn't speak, or think. She let him work his erotic magic, lapping and toying with her with sensual tenderness, his tongue flicking and dancing across her sweetest, hottest spot until he pushed her relentlessly over the crest Spasms of bright, hot rapture shuddered through her.
He rested his head against her thigh for a long moment before he sat up. He wiped his face and gazed at her with an odd combination of lust and wonder. “Good morning ,” he said again as he got up.