Too Much Temptation. Lori Foster

say, Grace?”

      She reached out and flattened a hand on the wall for support. “I need to sit down for this.”

      “I want you, Grace. Never doubt that.”

      With her eyes still south of his navel, she swallowed hard, licked her lips, nodded. “I already said okay.”

      “It’d help,” Noah ground out, “if you’d demand an apology or something.”

      Grace snorted. “I’m not stupid.” She forced her chin up and met his gaze squarely. “Besides, I want you, too.”

      Drawn against his will, Noah moved to stand in front of her. She made him feel savage, but she also made him feel protective. “Everything is a mess right now, Grace. No way can I get serious with another woman, no way do I even want to.” Her big eyes were direct, unblinking. “All I want, all I really need, is sex.”

      “Okay.”

      Noah squeezed his eyes shut. “I wasn’t finished.”

      “Sorry.”

      He looked at Grace and saw heated anticipation in the way her eyes had darkened and dilated, in how her cheeks flushed. In how hard she breathed. Signs of arousal, and damn but he felt them, too. The woman could make him insane.

      “Grace, I’m not a refined man.”

      Her lips curled, her eyes got heavy. “You are the best of men.”

      “No, damn it!” Her faith humbled him, but he had to make her understand. “I was raised more on the streets than not. I’m hard, inside and out.”

      “I know.” She gave his chest and arms a telling look. “Your body is…well, I’m speechless. You’re magnificent.”

      His hands curled into fists; the little witch was seducing him and he had to make her understand. “I like to work hard, play hard, and I like to fuck hard.”

      Her mouth slowly fell open.

      “I can pull my punches in a lot of ways when it comes to dealing with others, to fitting in with my grandmother’s world.”

      “It’s your world, too,” she insisted fiercely.

      Noah wrapped one arm around her waist and covered her mouth with his free hand. “Quit trying to defend and protect me and just listen to what I’m saying.”

      Eyes rounded, Grace curled her hands onto his shoulders for balance, but she nodded.

      “You’re right that what happened last night only happened because I was drunk. No, damn it, don’t start looking embarrassed again. If I hadn’t wanted you all along, it wouldn’t have happened. But I did, and then you showed up here and…I was just drunk enough to stop thinking about what I shouldn’t do and start thinking about what I’d like to do instead.”

      “Noah.” Her lips moved against his hand, igniting him. “We both want the same thing.”

      He pressed his fingers more firmly against her mouth. “I want sex. Hot, wet, grinding sex. I want a woman who’s willing to give me her body in any way I want it. But until I get everything else squared away, that’s all I want. No commitments. And God only knows how long that’ll take.”

      She gave an exuberant nod.

      Noah dropped his forehead to hers. “Grace, you don’t know what you’re offering.”

      She caught his wrist and gently freed her mouth. “I’m offering you anything you want. Anything.”

      An explosion of lust made him tremble. He felt on the verge of violence, his need was so strong. “So if I tell you to get naked, to sprawl on the bed, you’ll do it?”

      She blanched, but after a few seconds she said, “If you’re sure that’s what you want.”

      “And when I tell you to spread your thighs so I can kiss you?”

      It took a moment before she understood, and then hot color flooded her cheeks. “You don’t mean…” Her voice was a croaking whisper.

      “Yeah, I damn well do mean it. I want to kiss you everywhere, Grace, especially between your legs.” Then, just to push her, he added, “I’ll want you to kiss me everywhere, too.”

      “Oh.”

      She sounded intrigued.

      Noah gently shook her. “I told you I don’t play nice with sex, Grace!”

      Her breath came in small pants as she purred, “We can play however you want.”

      Sweat broke out on his forehead, on his back. His muscles all rippled with tension.

      Through his teeth, he growled, “I’m not going to be satisfied screwing in the dark, under the covers. I’m not going to be satisfied once a week, maybe not even once a day. When I take you…” What the hell was he saying? “Grace, I’ll want to hear you yell and moan and see you squirm and feel you with my hands and my mouth and my tongue, all of you, inside and out. And then I want you to beg for more, until we’re both too damned tired to move or even breathe. I want—”

      She launched herself against him and kissed his chin, his neck, his chest. “Noah!”

      He caught her up and headed for the bed, ready to self-combust. Grace squirmed against him, touching him everywhere, as fierce in her hunger as she’d been in his defense.

      They fell across the bed together. Noah caught her mouth and plunged his tongue deep, tasting her, stealing her breath. His hand closed over her breast and they both froze, groans echoing between them.

      “Grace,” he rasped, feeling her taut, swollen nipple with his fingertips. Her back arched hard.

      And the phone rang.

      He easily ignored it—until the answering machine picked up and his grandmother’s strident voice sounded over the line. “Noah, you’d better be there. Something has happened to Grace.”

      Something was about to happen to Grace.

      Agatha continued. “We argued yesterday—thanks to you—and now she’s not here when she’s supposed to be and no one can locate her. You know she’s never late, and she absolutely never misses work without notice. I’d appreciate it if you’d give me a call. If she doesn’t show up soon, I’m notifying the police.” The line went dead and the machine began rewinding.

      Grace stiffened beneath him and Noah, feeling sluggish, levered himself up. “Grace?”

      “Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod! What time is it?” She twisted beneath him, looked at the clock and fairly exploded off the bed. “I was supposed to attend a meeting over an hour ago!”

      Noah watched her with narrowed eyes. “Forget the damn meeting.”

      “I can’t!” She shoved her long hair off her face and frantically began gathering her clothes. “You heard what Agatha said. She’ll call the police.”

      “So?”

      Grace looked amazed that he didn’t understand. “So I’d just die if I caused that kind of fuss!”

      The tee was now twisted, Grace’s nipples were ripe and pointed and Noah needed to come, damn it. He needed that a lot.

      Grace stepped into her worn, wrinkled skirt. Apparently, despite their new agreement, she intended to leave. Right now.

      Noah sighed. So much for her accommodating his sexual whims.

      “I’m dying here.”

      “Oh Noah.” She snatched up her bra and began struggling into it—once again beneath the T-shirt. She looked emotionally pained and deeply sincere. “I’m sorry. Really.” She turned her back, whipped off the shirt and yanked on her sweater in record time. She sat on the side of the bed, but when Noah reached for her, she reached for the phone.