Wanted by the Boss: Sleeping with the Boss / Cowboy Boss / Billionaire Boss. Maureen Child

that had told him to buy a couple of the dusty packages of condoms he’d found on a back shelf. ‘‘Stop-and-shop gas stations carry a lot of items these days.’’

      She dropped backward onto the mattress and arched her hips as his fingers brushed the juncture of her thighs. She sucked in a gulp of air and released it from her lungs slowly. ‘‘Thank heaven, you’re a careful shopper.’’

      He watched her through narrowed eyes. Flickering light played across her features as she practically vibrated under his touch. ‘‘One of my many gifts.’’

      ‘‘What’s another?’’ She lifted her hips into his hand, her breath hitching as his fingertips stroked her center.

      ‘‘You’re about to find out.’’ Rick’s heartbeat pounded in his ears. Blood rushed through his veins, creating a heat that made him feel as though he were standing in the center of a roaring fire. His breathing strangled, he gave into the urges riding him and grabbed her legs. Pulling her quickly around, he turned her abruptly on the mattress and yanked her toward him.

      ‘‘Hey!’’ She grabbed at the sheets beneath her as if holding on.

      ‘‘Shut up, Ryan.’’

      ‘‘Excuse me?’’ She lifted her head to stare at him.

      Tugging her to the edge of the bed, he spread her legs with a gentle touch, then sank to his knees in front of her. ‘‘I said shut up.’’

      ‘‘What the he—’’ She stared down at him. ‘‘Rick…’’

      He looked at her and his breath stopped. Candlelight danced in her eyes and brushed her skin with a soft golden haze. She looked beautiful and wild and lush enough to steal a man’s soul.

      If he let her.

      Rick wouldn’t.

      He just had to have her.

      ‘‘Trust me,’’ he whispered, his voice a hush, lost in the fury of the storm beyond the cozy, softly lit room.

      Lifting first one of her legs and then the other, Rick laid them across his shoulders, then scooped his hands under her bottom. Her body trembled and she arched her hips, squirming as if trying to free herself. But she wasn’t trying hard.

      ‘‘Rick, you don’t have to—’’ She reached one hand out to him.

      ‘‘Like I said—shut up, Ryan.’’ He locked his gaze with hers as he took her. His mouth covered her center. Her eyes went wide, her mouth dropped open and air rushed from her lungs in a whoosh.

      She watched him take her, and feeling her gaze on him fed his own hunger. He licked her soft flesh and she whimpered, threading her fingers through his hair and holding him to her as if afraid he’d stop. She needn’t have worried. He couldn’t stop. The feel of her body melting beneath his touch inflamed him. Her sighs filled him. He tasted her, dipping his tongue within her tender flesh, sending her higher than she’d ever been before.

      One hand kneaded her bottom while he swept the other around to dip first one finger, and then two, into her depths. She shuddered, lifting herself into his mouth.

      ‘‘Rick, that…feels…so…good. Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop.’’

      Her broken voice, her breathy words, carried on the next clap of thunder, and he instinctively gave her more, pushing her farther, faster.

      Eileen moved with him, rocking her hips, reaching for the wonder she knew was waiting for her. She watched him, unable to tear her gaze from the sight of him taking her so intimately. His gaze burned into hers. Candlelight flickered over his features and he looked dark, dangerous and too damn good.

      He lifted her bottom off the bed and she was dangling in his grasp, his mouth the only stable point in her world. His hot breath dusted her most intimate flesh and his fingers and tongue worked her body into a frenzy of sensation that pooled in her center and spiraled throughout her insides. Her heartbeat drummed in her ears. Her breath staggered. She couldn’t hold out much longer. Couldn’t make it last, despite wanting his mouth on her forever. The end was crashing down on her and she rushed to meet it.

      She cupped the back of his head, holding him to her as she cried out his name. He kept kissing her until the last of the tremors subsided and, when she thought she might shatter, he eased her back into the middle of the bed.

      Her vision blurred as she looked up at him, kneeling between her legs. ‘‘You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?’’

      ‘‘I try.’’

      ‘‘Well, you’re doin’ fine,’’ she assured him, and told herself that it didn’t matter if her heartbeat was somewhere around three hundred. If she died of a heart attack right now, she’d meet death with a satisfied smile on her face.

      ‘‘Glad to hear it.’’ He grinned and leaned over to snag another condom from the bedside table. As he tore the foil packet open, he looked back at her. New desire shimmered in his eyes, sending a wicked spiral of want and need spinning through her. Surprise and pleasure shifted inside her, opening her to more sensations, making her wonder where this was all leading. Making her stop and think. Which she didn’t want to do at the moment.

      Thankfully, Rick splintered her thoughts and sent them packing when he asked with a wink, ‘‘Ready to go again?’’

      Six

      In the candlelight, his skin gleamed like polished oak. Every well-defined muscle stood out in sharp relief and all Eileen could think of was that she wanted to trace every inch of his body with her fingers. Her lips. She wanted him as she’d never wanted anyone before. She couldn’t seem to get enough of him. And that thought shimmered briefly in her mind before she set it aside to explore later.

      There would be plenty of time for thinking once the sun came up and their one-night bargain ended. For now…there was Rick. Nothing else.

      ‘‘Sleep,’’ she said, ‘‘is vastly overrated.’’

      ‘‘Is that right?’’

      ‘‘Oh yeah,’’ she said, and squirmed slightly on the bed, scooting closer to him, feeling the brush of his hardened body against her core. ‘‘It’s a known fact. You don’t need more than twenty minutes sleep a night to function at your best.’’

      ‘‘That’s a relief,’’ he said, pulling the condom from the packet.

      ‘‘Wait,’’ she said. ‘‘Let me.’’ She snatched the condom from his grasp. Half sitting up, she covered the tip of him with the pale latex, then slowly, sinuously, rolled it down along his length.

      He sucked in air with a hiss.

      Her fingers folded around him and squeezed gently.

      His eyes closed and a muscle in his jaw twitched.

      She touched him, sliding her fingers up and down the hard, solid length of him, then stopped to boldly cup him. His eyes opened and the candlelight reflected in those dark depths made him look dangerous again as he pulled her hand away.

      ‘‘That’s it,’’ he muttered, and leaned over her. He grasped both of her wrists in one tight fist, holding her hands against the bed, high over her head. She writhed and twisted beneath him on the bed, moving into him, lifting her hips, inviting him in.

      Rick surrendered to the fury pulsing within. Desire scratched at him. Need howled inside him. Hunger raged in him. And when he pushed himself into her body, it all escalated. His heartbeat raced, his blood pumped and his breath staggered in and out of his lungs. All he could hear was her sighs. All he could feel was her breath as he lowered himself to kiss her. She nibbled at his mouth and planted her feet on the mattress to rock her body against his. She was all.

      She was everything.

      And for tonight, she was his.

      Releasing