Redline Lover: Take Me, Lover, Book 1 Read online

  She didn’t know what she felt, besides confused. “We agreed to have sex while I’m here. This isn’t sex.”

  Adam’s dark eyes held hers. His lips twitched with what looked suspiciously like humor. “Most women complain if there isn’t any foreplay.”

  “This is foreplay?” Maggie waved a hand in the direction of the picnic basket.

  “I can’t believe you’re complaining. I plied you with food and alcohol and gave you an orgasm.” Adam snagged her waist and rolled onto his back, taking her with him so that she landed on top.

  “You’re torturing me,” she muttered into his shirt. She stretched herself on him like a cat, hoping to torture him back a little. “If you think I’ll break first, though, you’re wrong.”

  “You were wrong in the shower.” His voice rumbled in his chest. With her head resting against it, she could feel the vibration, along with the rhythmic thud of his heart. His erection pressed against her belly. His hands shaped themselves over her ass and squeezed. “What makes you think you’re not wrong now?”

  “I got mine and you didn’t,” Maggie returned, feeling smug. She slid her thighs to the outside of his and rocked her body against his.

  “Wrong.” Adam stroked her butt, making her want to strip away her pants so she could feel his hands on her bare skin. “An appetizer makes you hungrier than going without. I gave you an appetizer, and now you want the main course.”

  “Aha. So you admit you’re torturing me.”

  “Foreplay isn’t torture. It makes sex better.”

  Maggie raised her head and gave him a disgruntled look. “How long are you going to make me wait?”

  He gave her a slow smile. “As long as I think you can handle it.” He ran his hands up her sides, cupped her face, and drew her down for a kiss.

  Chapter Six

  Two days later, Adam wondered if he’d made a mistake. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, delayed gratification leading to greater satisfaction. But from the minute Maggie had joined him for their noon date, he’d felt the tension vibrating off her and known she was as wound up and in need of release as he was.

  She’d raced up the stairs ahead of him, and planted her mouth on his the second he’d gotten the door closed behind them. The feel of her lips on his, her tongue sliding in between, and the crush of her body against his had sent him into overdrive.

  Now he had Maggie stripping in his bedroom as if a horde of demons would drag her to hell if she was too slow, and a raging case of sexual frustration that had him ready to spill himself just from the sight of her bare torso when she peeled away her shirt and bra.

  For the first time in his adult life, he wasn’t sure he could last long enough to make sure his partner enjoyed herself. Hell, he wasn’t sure he could last long enough to get all the way inside Maggie before he started coming.

  “I can’t stand it,” Maggie panted as she yanked her panties off and hurled them to the floor. “I need you inside me now.” She came towards him, naked and urgent, grabbed his shirt, and hauled it up. She stopped at his chest and made a low sound, then buried her face against him. He felt the soft press of her breasts and the hard buds of her nipples as bare flesh met.

  The sight of her made his balls tight, and the feel of her skin touching his made his cock throb. His arms locked around her as if she’d triggered some reflex. Her hands fumbled at his pants, undoing the button and pulling down the zipper while her mouth set his skin on fire. She kissed and licked her way along his pectorals, then his abdomen, pulling out of his grasp as she dropped to her knees, easing fabric over his hips and down his thighs, freeing his penis in the process.

  Her soft mouth met the rigid shaft that strained towards her. Her soft hands cupped his balls as she parted her lips and enclosed him.

  “Maggie. Stop.” His hands wove into her hair and tugged.

  “Don’t want to.”

  “You’re killing me.”

  “Good.” Her tongue curled around him and danced up and down his length. He heard a foil packet tear and then she was rolling a condom onto him faster than he would’ve believed she could manage it.

  He gave a short laugh and reached down to pull her to her feet. She wound her arms and legs around him, kissing him open-mouthed. He cupped her ass and lifted her higher, until his shaft slid between her legs and rode along the slick folds of her sex. He backed her up against the wall and rocked his hips into her, his cock gliding against her cunt, almost but not quite entering.

  She clutched at his shoulders and arched into his thrust. The movement pushed the head into her folds. Maggie made a guttural sound, and then to his disbelief the slick, tight flesh that enclosed his head began to tighten rhythmically while her body bucked and writhed in orgasm.

  He felt his balls contract in response and thrust deep, burying himself in her to the hilt in a single stroke, swallowing her moans as he came so hard it nearly blinded him. He barely noticed when her heels dug into him and her nails raked his back.

  Maggie’s head fell back and she went slack against him, eyes closed, breath coming hard and fast in the aftermath.

  “Hey.” He rocked a little inside her, luxuriating in the feel of her naked body locked with his. “You okay?”

  “Fine.” Her eyes blinked open, midnight blue. “That was a near thing.”

  She had no idea. “I think we can do better the next time.”

  “I don’t think we can top that, but I’m willing to try.” She dropped her head onto his shoulder and nuzzled his neck, tightening her limbs around him.

  “Maybe not better,” Adam conceded, walking with her to the bed. He withdrew and lowered her onto it, then covered her body with his. “We’ll just make it last a little longer.”

  “Well, hell, Adam, if you drag the foreplay out for two days, you can’t expect me to last long.” Maggie gave him a disgruntled look, then nipped at his lower lip before tangling her tongue with his.

  She tasted hot and sweet and intoxicating. Her body under his felt smooth and soft and so right that for a minute he imagined having her there more than six weeks in the future. It made a dangerously seductive fantasy. But reality was something else.

  Something fierce and primal thundered in his blood at the thought of what reality dictated. The future could take care of itself, Adam decided. They had now, and right now he had Maggie exactly where he wanted her. Naked, willing, and in his bed.

  “Be right back,” Adam muttered in a hoarse voice as he broke the kiss she’d been drowning in.

  “Um.” Maggie stared up at him, feeling dazed and sex-drunk. She’d arrived at the garage in a fevered state of need after two days of waiting for Adam to end the torture he’d sentenced them both to. She had to admit his strategy was sound. She’d had the most intense orgasm of her life. Too bad she’d started having it the instant he’d started to push inside her. But she wasn’t going to apologize for being too fast off the starting line when it was his fault she’d been in that state to begin with.

  She sprawled in a tangle of limbs, her body loose from pleasure, watching his tight butt as he walked away to take care of the spent condom and get a replacement.

  Good thing he had a big box.

  He wasn’t gone long, which was good, because her body hadn’t had nearly enough contact with his. She almost moaned in relief when his skin met hers, flesh to flesh, no barriers between them.

  “Took you long enough,” Maggie whispered. She slid her fingers into his short hair and pulled his head down to hers for another kiss.

  His tongue touched hers, slid along it, then withdrew. His lips devoured hers as if he was as hungry for her as she was for him.

  Her hands moved lower, feeling the flex of muscle and tendon as he levered himself up and pushed his legs between hers. His hard shaft pressed against her slick opening.

  “Tell me you’re ready,” Adam muttered. His hips rocked into hers. Her flesh opened for him as he found his angle and increased the pressure.

  “Mayb
e not quite as ready as last time,” Maggie said with a little laugh that turned into a sigh as he slowly pressed forward, penetrating her an inch by inch, giving her body time to adjust to the length and thickness of him inside her.

  “Good.” He ground his pelvis against hers, sending his cock so deep she could feel him at the entrance to her womb. “If you start coming like that again, you’ll take me with you. I want it to last this time.”

  It couldn’t last. The very thought made the back of her throat ache. But she’d take everything she could get for as long as it did. Maggie hooked her legs around him, hugging him with her thighs, the small change in position intensifying the deep penetration he was giving her.

  “Adam.” She arched under him, feeling his chest hard and hot against her breasts, his legs rough and strong between hers, inside her as far as he could get. “Make it last.”

  And he did, rocking into her with slow, steady strokes that drew the pleasure out until they were both lost in it. Their heartbeats fell into syncopation and gradually sped up together as need built. Her eyes met his, dark with a passion she knew was matched in her own, and heard her own shuddering indrawn breath mingled with his.

  Desire swelled like a wave, lifted them both, and broke over them. Her body was so attuned to Adam’s the pleasure seemed merged as well as shared, his spilling into hers and flowing back again.

  Afterwards, he rested his forehead against hers for a long moment. Neither of them said anything. There didn’t seem to be any words for the storm of need that ended in this hushed calm. They rested together, bodies still joined, hearts pounding as if they’d run a race. Then Adam shifted to lay beside her, holding her in the circle of his arms, his fingers tracing the back of her head and the curve of her cheek with a tenderness that would have left her wordless if she hadn’t been already.

  “That makes twice Maggie’s joined you for lunch,” Pete said, leaning over the engine compartment of the truck Adam had been working on when she arrived. “I guess you’re not scared of a girl.”

  Given the marks she’d left up and down his spine, it might’ve been smart to be afraid. Or at least wisely wary. But all he felt was the deep sense of well-being that came from having a fundamental need satisfied. Adam made a non-committal sound and checked the battery connections.

  “I’m glad,” Pete said. The serious tone made Adam look up. “You deserve to have something more than work to look forward to.”

  This sounded like dangerous ground. “There’s nothing wrong with work.”

  “Not as long as that isn’t all there is.” Pete jerked his head towards the office. “Speaking of which, you have a package to deliver.”

  A rush of adrenaline fueled his body. “It’s enough for me.”

  “If you really believe that, you’re dumber than I look.”

  “I have what I need.”

  “Uh-huh.” Pete gave him a skeptical look. “You do now. Let me know if you feel the same way when she leaves your ass cold a second time.”

  “It doesn’t matter how I feel.” Adam felt his face harden, felt lead form in his center.

  “The hell it doesn’t.”

  Adam shook his head. “It doesn’t, and that’s why.” He made a gesture in the direction Pete had first indicated. “You know what she’s doing while she’s back here? Trying to get a story.”

  “So give her one.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  Pete gave him an exasperated look. “Not the whole story. Just enough truth to make her believe that’s all there is.”

  “And then what?” Adam felt the urge to tighten his hands into fists and deliberately relaxed them instead. “Live with the lies?”

  “It’s not lying. It’s withholding information on a need-to-know basis. She doesn’t need to know.” Pete shrugged. “It’s the Washington way. She grew up here. Half her friends’ dads couldn’t talk about what they did for a living. It wasn’t that long ago that the NSA still pretended to not exist.”

  “She’d think I was lying about something else,” Adam bit out. “She’d find out I was gone when I was supposed to be at work, and she’d connect the dots. They’d be the wrong dots, but I wouldn’t be able to tell her the truth. You think she won’t leave my ass cold when she thinks I’m cheating on her? I’d rather she walked away now and left us both with the memories.”

  “Memories should be real comforting. Let me know how that works out for you.”

  “Shut up, Dr. Phil. I have a package to deliver.”

  Chapter Seven

  “How’s it going with Adam Richards?”

  Maggie ran a hand through her hair and adjusted her cell phone, wishing she could’ve put this call off longer. “He doesn’t want to cooperate.”

  “And you dropped the story immediately, because journalism is about being nice? I repeat, how’s it going? Have you got an angle? A starting point?”

  “Well, he said he quit racing because he thought it’d get him killed,” Maggie said.

  “He lied,” her boss said, certainty ringing in his tones. “Drivers don’t quit and they don’t get scared because they never believe it can happen to them. Did you push for the real story?”

  “Um.” She winced, remembering all the details of that exchange. “Not exactly.”

  “Define not exactly. Use little words.”

  “I’m involved with him.” That seemed a little blunt and incomplete so Maggie added, “Again.”

  “Again? You were an item? You didn’t mention this when I told you to get a story.”

  “Not exactly an item,” she mumbled. “We had sex.”

  “So, a one-night stand.”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Define not exactly for me. Again.” Lloyd Johnson’s voice took on a tone of exaggerated patience that did not bode well.

  “There were a lot of nights.” And a lot of sex, but Maggie figured that went without saying.

  “Your relationship was limited to nights?”

  “No, our relationship was limited to sex. Day and night.”

  “I see,” Lloyd said after a brief pause for more information that she didn’t offer. “So you were involved. And now you’re involved with him again.”

  “Right.” She was glad at least one thing was clear.

  “Exclusively?”

  “Well, I wasn’t seeing anybody else.” Maggie frowned. “And unless he cloned himself, he wasn’t, either.” She’d never thought about that before.

  “This explains why you’re not thinking like a journalist.” She heard a creak that told her Lloyd was leaning back in his chair. Something he did when he was thinking. “You’re too close to the subject. If you dig, what you learn can affect you.”

  She flashed on her body wrapped around Adam’s while he braced her against the wall. She was close to the subject, all right. She couldn’t have put a piece of paper between them. “So you’re saying I’m motivated to not dig.”

  “I’m saying you need to think like a journalist. If you’re involved with this guy, don’t you want to know the truth about him?”

  The words might’ve been aimed like arrows at a target. They hit a bull’s-eye in the center of her denial. Maybe she didn’t want to know the truth about Adam. Maybe she didn’t want to have to make any difficult decisions. And she wouldn’t have to if she just kept him in the compartment marked “off-limits” and told herself she was only allowed to know one part of him.

  “I don’t think I did, no,” Maggie admitted. “But you’re right. I’m involved, and I should know the truth.”

  “So you’re going to do the story now?” Lloyd asked.

  “I’m going to do the story now.”

  “Good.” He hung up.

  Maggie clicked the off button and dropped her cell back into her bag. She’d been in an emotional haze ever since she came back. Lloyd had ripped the blinders off. Clarity might not be the number one thing a person in the grip of full-blown lust wanted, but she needed it. Especially since she was p
retty sure blind lust didn’t lead two people to sexual exclusivity that lasted through a six-month separation and picked back up where it left off.

  If she was interviewing herself, she’d call bullshit over the claim that the relationship was just sex.

  She’d missed Adam while she was gone. Not just his body, not just the physical connection, the intensity of sexual chemistry. She’d missed his voice. The little smile that sometimes played around the corners of his mouth. The way he held her while they both drifted off to sleep. The look in his eyes when he woke up and saw her beside him.

  She’d missed the quiet contentment of just being together, the silent morning routine they’d fallen into before they went their separate ways for the day, parting with a kiss that was a promise to come back together later.

  The obvious truth was undeniable. She was in love with Adam. And if she put aside her own insecurities and emotional baggage and thought objectively, the facts indicated that he felt something for her. He wanted her as much as she wanted him. He’d been deeply bothered by the way she left. A casual lover would have shrugged and moved on. What they had wasn’t casual. Not to either of them.

  So it was time she learned some more facts. Why had Adam left racing? Possibilities chased through her mind. The most obvious was one she could fully understand him keeping private; what if he’d been forced to for medical reasons?

  The awful prospect of something dangerously wrong with Adam closed around her heart like a fist and squeezed. She couldn’t draw a full breath.

  Maybe nothing was wrong physically. But Lloyd was right. Drivers didn’t just quit. There was a reason, and since she was involved, she needed to know the truth, whether or not there was ever a story. More than a career opportunity was at stake.

  Researching her subject was the obvious starting point. Maggie pulled out her laptop, connected to the internet, and got to work. While she searched for old news pieces on his career to fill in information gaps, she began compiling a list of all the facts she knew about Adam. When he started racing. How he’d moved from one level to another. His military service.