Claim & Protect Page 21

  He’d said it a little tongue in cheek, but the sincerity behind his sky-blue gaze buzzed through her like a live current.

  “Now are you gonna come dance with me,” he asked, “or do I have to skulk back to our table like a loser who struck out?”

  This time it was her who had to fight back a smile. “Okay. One song, but then we reevaluate.”

  True to his word, he really was an excellent teacher, starting them off to one side so he could ease her into the rhythm before he steered her into the main flow. By the end of song, she wasn’t even counting anymore, just following his lead and enjoying the feel of his body close to hers.

  “Dare to go one more?” he said close to her ear.

  The new song’s tempo was just a little faster than the last, nothing nearly as quick as some of the others she’d heard. She’d made it this far and hadn’t stumbled. Surely she could make it through another one. “Okay.”

  His answering smile alone was enough to make the gamble worth it. Pure pleasure coursed through her blood and mingled with the flood of adrenaline in her system. In the end, she didn’t just make it one more song, but two, and had even made it through a few spins without falling flat on her face. As he’d promised, she traipsed back to the table by his side, out of breath and smiling so big her cheeks ached.

  She climbed up on her stool. “That was fun!”

  He chuckled and maneuvered himself between her thighs, the stool’s height lining her hips up perfectly with his. And didn’t that just make her think of an entirely different dance? “Never doubt me on a dance floor, darlin’.” He nodded toward her beer bottle. “You want a fresh one?”

  More like two if she was ever going to come back down from her surprise thrill ride. “Please.”

  That intense, brooding look flashed across his face, and her sex clenched at the promise behind it. He palmed the back of her head and skimmed his lips against hers. “You’re gonna say that a lot later. I suggest you start practicing in your head now, along with yes, sir and no, sir.”

  She gasped against his mouth, and he captured it with a long, leisurely kiss. When he lifted his head, it was all she could do to uncurl her hands from around his neck and let him go. No man had ever affected her the way he did. Never left her wet and aching from nothing more than a kiss.

  Heck, who was she kidding? Trevor didn’t even need to kiss her. She’d been primed and ready to take him with just a look. She watched him walk away, his sexy, confident stride and the way his T-shirt and jeans clung to his muscular body drawing feminine appreciation along the way. But he was hers. Maybe not long-term, but for now she’d soak up every second.

  Vivienne’s teasing voice barely registered over her rioting thoughts. “I do believe our girl is well and truly smitten.”

  Trevor disappeared into the crowd.

  Natalie sighed and swiveled back to the table. “He’s a really good dancer. I mean, I guess I should have assumed. He does everything else perfect.”

  Vivienne rolled her lips inward as though biting back a comment.

  Ninette snorted and Sylvie guffawed loud enough to make the guys playing pool drop their conversation and take notice.

  Jace’s mouth twitched a second before he looked away.

  Natalie studied each of the women. In less than one sentence, she felt like she’d gone from heaven to dancing through a land mine. “What?”

  Vivienne raised both eyebrows. “He hasn’t told you?”

  “Told me what?”

  Viv eyeballed Ninette and Sylvie.

  Both shrugged in a Don’t look at me motion.

  “Jace?” Vivienne said.

  Jace sucked in a slow breath and shifted his gaze to Natalie. “You care about my brother?”

  All at once, the noise and music dropped to nothing. The air around her sparked with a potency reserved for thrill rides and life-changing moments. She swallowed as well as her suddenly parched mouth would allow. “More than I think he’s comfortable knowing.”

  He studied her with a fierceness she felt all the way to her soul and took his sweet time doing it. He twirled the toothpick at the corner of his mouth. “You accept the parts of his past he’s not proud of, you won’t have to tell him you care. You’ll show him.”

  His gaze slid to Viv, and he nodded.

  Viv grinned huge. “Is that the royal go-ahead?”

  Jace gave his wife a smoldering look that said she’d pay for her jab in the most delightful way possible. “More like a little nudge to get these two going.”

  “Oh, fer Pete’s sake,” Sylvie blurted. “What they’re tryin’ ta tell ye is that Trevor spinnin’ ya round the dance floor is tame compared ta the dancin’ he used ta do.”

  Ninette covered her mouth and Jace chuckled.

  How the heck could dancing have anything to do with Trevor having a past he wasn’t proud of? “You mean, like professional dancing?”

  This time it was Vivienne who giggled. “Oh, it was professional all right. As in a male stripper.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  This had to be what a rabbit in a predator’s sights felt like. Ever since Trevor had leaned in, nuzzled Natalie’s neck and murmured, “Need you in my bed and my cock inside you,” the air between them had sparked with a delicious yet dangerous current.

  Trevor held open the door to his room and waited for her to step through. Why she was so damned jumpy and didn’t just waltz on through she hadn’t a clue. True, Vivienne’s little info-bomb had surprised her a little, had even sent her mind off on all kinds of interesting tangents, but there was something else going on between them. A shift she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

  She stepped through the entry and wandered deeper into the room. Unlike her suite, his space was more in line with a standard hotel layout, but the décor suited him perfectly. All the furniture was huge, made of rich mahogany and accented by rich upholstery in chocolate and soft taupe. One look at the bed and she nearly swallowed her tongue. Logically, she knew it couldn’t be bigger than king-size, but with the thick wood posts stretching toward the ceiling at each corner and the decadent silk comforter, it looked like a sinful playground for a giant.

  Trevor coiled one arm around her waist, swept her hair away from her neck, and pressed a lingering kiss to the sweet spot behind her ear. “Wanted you in that bed since the second I walked through the door this morning. Posts like that make it damned handy to tie a woman up and have his way with her.”

  A shiver too potent to hide waterfalled from her shoulders to her knees, and she gripped his forearm at her waist just to be sure she didn’t crumble to the floor.

  He nipped her earlobe and ground his hips against her ass, making it vibrantly clear he was already primed and ready to go. “You open to that kind of play?”

  Was she? Sure, she’d had fantasies. More so since Trevor had sauntered into her life, but the real deal was a whole different matter. She couldn’t just imagine away the parts of her post-baby body that sucker punched her confidence, and if things didn’t go well or had a lackluster impact, he could easily lose interest.

  The people-pleasing thought doused her as thoroughly as a frigid plunge through an icy lake. She wasn’t that woman anymore, and Trevor wasn’t Wyatt. He didn’t lie or point out her defects. He encouraged her. Pointed out all the things about her he found beautiful and sexy instead of every place she was lacking. “I’ve never done anything like that.”

  His big hands skimmed up her rib cage and cupped her breasts through her thin white sweater. He plumped them and teased her rapidly hardening nipples with his thumbs. “Didn’t ask if you’d done it. I asked if you wanted to.”

  Yes. The answer rang loud and clear in her head, but didn’t quite slip past her lips.

  “It’s okay, darlin’.” He kissed a path down her neck, his lip
s and tongue warm against her skin, lulling her deeper and deeper. “Won’t ever ask you to do anything you don’t want to.”

  “I want to.” The second she said it, her heart kicked into double time and her belly clenched. She might be scared to death, but she’d be pissed at herself if she didn’t take the chance. Worse if she let any doubt about her interest pile up in Trevor’s head. “I don’t have a clue what to do, and I’m a little worried I’ll do something wrong, but I want to.”

  “Not tonight.” He scraped his teeth along the tender spot where her neck and shoulder met, not quite a bite, but not tender either. “Soon, and only when we’ve got plenty of time to explore. Right now I’m too hungry. Want to strip you down and bury myself inside you.”

  His phrasing brought to mind Vivienne’s surprising revelation, and all the curious questions and images she’d entertained on the way home bubbled back to the surface. “Can I talk to you about something?”

  Trevor froze, his hot breath buffeting against her kiss-slick skin and his arms tightening around her. “Something wrong?”

  “No.” She turned in his arms, the edge in his voice triggering an instinctive need to soothe and calm whatever anxiousness she’d created. “Nothing’s wrong. I just...” She smoothed one hand along his sternum and focused on the navy-blue cotton stretched tight against his pecs. “Vivienne told me something tonight, and I was curious.”

  “Told you I wouldn’t keep secrets from you. Something you want to know, just ask.”

  She swallowed and bit her lip. “I told her how good of a teacher you were. You know...when we danced.” Forcing herself to look up, she sucked in a deep breath. “She mentioned that you used to...um...”

  Before she could find the right word, his body went rigid and his eyes flared. “You mean that I stripped.”

  Oh, shit. Clearly she’d gone and stepped somewhere she shouldn’t have.

  His harsh voice scraped as hard as stone against stone. He dropped his arms and edged a cautious step back. “That change things for you? About me? About us?”

  Change things? How on earth could something so small change anything?

  You accept the parts of his past he’s not proud of, you won’t have to tell him you care. You’ll show him.

  God, she was an idiot. Jace had tried to tell her, and she’d utterly bungled things. She closed the distance between them, frantic to fix the hurt she’d caused. “It doesn’t change anything. Not how I view you, or how I view us. I asked because I was curious.” Her cheeks flamed hot as August asphalt in Texas, but she forced herself to keep going. “I asked because after she told me, I couldn’t stop thinking about what you’d look like. How that was something I’d like to see.”

  A little of his tension left him, and he frowned hard enough his eyebrows made a sharp V. “You’re not freaked out?”

  “Freaked out?” She huffed out a short laugh at the absurdity of it. “Not in the least. I mean, surprised, yes. Jealous, absolutely. But not even close to freaked out.” She ran her fingertips along his jawline, so strong and proud, exactly like the man. “Why would you think I wouldn’t accept you and all the past that goes with you? I let a man bully and dictate my life for eight years. Gave up my career because he said I should, but you didn’t think less of me.”

  “That’s different. You had a kid to look out for.”

  She smiled big enough her cheeks strained. “And you were a young man out on his own for the first time. You’re gorgeous now. I can only imagine what you looked like then. If I were you and had the skills, I bet I’d have done the same. What man wouldn’t want to drive women nuts and make money doing it if they had the chance?”

  He ducked his head. Not the polite way he usually did when he was trying not to let her see him smile at something goofy she’d done, but one that spoke of unease. The same discomfort she battled every time their clothes came off.

  “Trevor, look at me.” She waited until he complied and nearly staggered beneath the raw vulnerability in his eyes.

  “It was stupid,” he bit out. “All I saw was the money and the women, and I jumped in. I was good at it, so the money only got better.”

  Her smile hopped back in place. She couldn’t have stopped it if she’d tried. “I bet you were.”

  The playful approach seemed to work, because his frown turned into a sheepish shrug.

  “I think you’re amazing,” she said. “You’re honorable. You’re disciplined. You take care of the people you love. It’s everything you’ve done that makes you who you are today, and I’m absolutely crazy about you.”

  That got his attention, a hint of the predator who’d ushered her across the threshold perking up and taking note. “Crazy, huh?”

  She nodded. “Crazy and curious.” She untucked his T-shirt and splayed her hands above his rippled abs. “You can’t blame a girl for learning such a juicy thing about the man she’s sleeping with and wondering what it would take to get a private show.”

  “Not sure I’m up for that.”

  She cocked her head and smoothed her hands higher up his chest. “I think I understand. Somewhere along the way, you got it screwed up in your head that what you did was something to be ashamed of. I’m the same way with my body. You keep telling me I’m beautiful and that having a baby didn’t make me less desirable, but my brain hasn’t quite caught up.” She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. “I’m just telling you, I think the mere idea of you doing that is sexy.”

  He tangled his fingers in her hair and studied her face. For a moment, it was like they were back out on the dance floor, the two of them connected by something more than physicality even without the music or movement. “We’re a pair aren’t we? I’m embarrassed about flaunting my body, and you’re gun-shy about showing yours.”

  She laughed, a surprised body-shaking chuckle that echoed throughout the room. “You have a point.”

  A roguish grin tilted his lips and he walked her backward toward the bed. “Maybe we should work on that.”

  “Work on what?”

  “Our hang-ups.”

  The backs of her knees hit the bed. “I thought that’s what we were doing.”

  Instead of guiding her to the mattress like she’d expected, Trevor spun them around, perched on the edge of the bed and pulled her astride his thighs. “Dad always says action’s more powerful than words, so I’ll make you a deal. You dance for me, I’ll dance for you.”

  “Yeah, that’s not going to happen. You proved you’re an exceptional dancer and teacher tonight, but I think we both know I’d have face-planted with anyone else. A lap dance would take my embarrassment to a whole new level.”

  “Darlin’, you are many things, but rhythmically challenged isn’t one of them.” Gripping her hip with one hand and palming the back of her head, he guided her mouth to his and ground his cock against her sex. “Every time I’ve had you against me, you followed my rhythm just fine.”

  As if to prove his point, he slanted his lips against hers and led them in an entirely different kind of dance. She followed as easy as he’d claimed she would, tangling her tongue with his and circling her hips so the seam of her jeans and his iron shaft pressed just right against her clit.

  She gripped the hem of his T and tried to pull it up.

  He caught her wrists and eased them away. “Oh, no.” He nipped her lower lip. “I think I’m on to something and we’re not getting distracted.”

  He tugged his billfold out of his back pocket and tossed it toward the head of the bed. “Don’t need that yet.” As in the condom, or as it was these days, condoms. The way they’d gone through them, she was a bit surprised he didn’t start carrying around a man purse to haul their supply.

  “What are you doing?” she said.

  From his other pocket, he pulled out his smartphone. “Just getting the right m
usic. Hard to get into the mood if you don’t have something to work with.”

  “Oh my God. You’re serious.”

  “Hell, yes, I’m serious.” He eased her off his lap, stood, and rounded toward the nightstand, thumbing through something on his screen along the way. “You think I’d pass up a chance to see you peel your clothes off and swing your pretty hips? I might be slow sometimes, but I am far from stupid.”

  He plugged the device into the alarm clock’s cradle and punched a few more buttons. Music filled the room, a slow, sultry song she’d heard a thousand times on the radio and the absolute last selection she’d have expected Trevor to have on his phone.

  “Ariana Grande?”

  He shrugged and settled on the bed. “I favor country, but I work in a pub and shit grows on me.” He stretched his legs out in front of him, crossed them at the ankles and laced his hands on his stomach. She might have been ready to bolt for the door, but he looked as at-ease as he’d be watching Sunday afternoon golf. “‘Dangerous Woman’ seemed fitting.” He paused long enough to cock one eyebrow in a silent dare. “Unless you’re not up for owning it.”

  Every muscle from her thighs to her shoulders trembled and her heart chugged in a ragged, uneven beat. “Trevor, I can’t do this.”

  “You told me once there wasn’t anything in this world you couldn’t do if you set your mind to it. I want you to see how beautiful you are. Want you to see how hard and ready you make me.”

  “That’s not fair. I don’t have a clue what I’m doing.”

  He paused for a single heartbeat, but it was enough to punctuate his words with the utmost sincerity. “I’m scared too, Nat.”

  The stark confession obliterated all the arguments piling up on her tongue. “Why?”

  “I told you. I view that part of my life as a stupid move. People find out what I did and they look at me different. Like I’m a joke. I can stand up to a hell of a lot, but if you looked at me that way, I’m not sure how well I’d rebound. So, yeah. I’m scared, too. But if it helps you come to grips with the fact that you’re fucking sexy as hell just like you are, I’ll happily put myself at risk.”