He moved back up to her lips, nipped and licked and suckled there too. She arched into him and kissed him back. Her fingers slid back into his hair, and her nails scraped along his scalp. But it didn’t hurt. If anything it only amped his need more.

He flipped the button on her jeans, pulled away from her mouth, and dragged them down her legs. Then he groaned himself when he saw the lacy black panties. “Oh, Evie. You naughty girl. You’re wearing the crotchless panties for me.”

A red tinge darkened her cheeks. She pushed up onto her elbows and looked down her half-naked body toward him.

“Spread your legs.”

Her cheeks turned a brighter shade of red, but slowly she lifted one knee and then inched her legs open.

She was already slick and swollen, and he needed to taste her there. To feel her come apart in his mouth.

He grasped her hips and dragged her to the edge of the bed. She gasped and tried to hold on to the comforter. “Zane—”

He dropped to his knees, spread the opening in her sexy panties, and ran his tongue up her slit.

“Oh, God.” Her head fell back. She raised her feet and planted them on the edge of the mattress. When he did it again, she lifted her hips slightly. Helping him. Urging him on.

Blood rushed to his groin, and his erection grew harder. Hotter. More insistent. He swirled his tongue around her clit, then dipped down to her opening and did the same. Her body trembled. Another moan echoed from her throat. He licked back up to her clit and circled until her elbows went out from under her. And then he suckled.

Her entire body shook. He knew her orgasm was rushing in. Knew the signs. He ran a finger down her slick center as he tormented her with his mouth, then pressed inside until he found her sweetest spot.

The moan that shook her body echoed through every part of him. She tightened around his finger and rode the wave against his lips as it crashed over her. And when it receded, when she was putty in his arms, he kissed his way back up her body, continuing to tease her with his lips, his tongue, his fingers between her thighs.

“Zane . . .”

He loved that breathless, needy voice. Could listen to it forever. He stripped her of the panties, then leaned forward, pressing his hips between her legs until his cock slid along her hot, slick center.

She groaned. Reached for him, grasping his hips and pulling him closer.

God, she was sexy. And hot. And his. All his. Whether she could say the words or not, she’d only ever be his. Pushing both of her knees up and back to open her even more, he rocked his hips forward, circling her clit with the tip of his cock, loving the sight, loving even more every gasp and groan and sexy little moan she made. “Open your eyes, Evie.”

She blinked several times but finally managed to tear her eyes open. And when they were focused on him, when he knew he was all she could see, he slid lower, to her opening, then pressed forward and filled her.

“Oh . . .” Her tight walls clenched all around him. He groaned and lowered his mouth to hers. Slid out and back in. Her knees pressed against his hips, and her hands clamped down on his ass, pulling him into her. “Kiss me. I need you to kiss me.”

He closed his lips over hers, and the taste of her filled his mouth and heart. His tongue stroked hers as he thrust into her again and again. He tried to take it slow, but every rock of her hips against his, every time her fingernails dug into his ass, every time she tightened around him, he lost a little more of his self-control.

“Eve . . .” Sweat broke out all over his skin, slid down his spine. His balls grew to bursting. He planted a fist against the mattress and drove deeper, faster, harder, needing to take her, fill her, mark her as his own.

She pulled her mouth from his. Groaned, “Do it. I need it. I need you. Come for me, Zane. Now. Right now.”

As if she had some magical control over him, his orgasm raced down his spine, shot through his balls, and exploded through every part of his body. He plunged deep again and again, unable to stop, and then he felt her tighten everywhere and heard her cry out his name when she peaked.

Breathless, he collapsed against her, unable to move. Unable to think. Her legs fell open. Her hands slid up his sweaty back and closed around his shoulders while he fought for air. He felt her lips pressing against his temple, felt her heart racing against his cheek, felt her tantalizing fingers tracing light lines over his back, but it was the warmth closing in around his heart that he focused on. A warmth he’d convinced himself he’d never have. A warmth that came only from her.

Slowly, he pushed up on his hand and looked down at her. Her hair stuck out at all angles, her mascara was smeared beneath her eyes, and she still had dirt and blood and soot across her cheeks, her shoulders, different parts of her sexy little body.

And staring at her, he knew it was more than that “just fucked” look that flushed her cheeks and made her look sexier than any woman he’d ever met. It was everything she’d admitted to him earlier.

A one-sided smile slid across his lips. “You’re a mess.”

She brushed her fingers over her cheek. “I didn’t have a chance to shower like some people.”

His smile widened. Easing back, he slid out of her, then grabbed her around the waist and lifted her off the bed.

“Archer!” She gasped. “What do you think you’re doing now?”

“Taking you to the shower. I’ve been fantasizing about a repeat of what we did last night.”

She sucked in a breath, but the look in her eyes said she wasn’t about to protest. She glanced down at his naked chest as he carried her into the bathroom. “I don’t see a belt on you anywhere.”

“Oh, baby. If it involves leather and bondage, you know I’ll find a way to make it work.”

She chuckled as he reached into the massive stone shower with multiple showerheads and flipped on the water. A sigh slid from her lips when he stepped in, still carrying her, and the hot liquid slid over both their bodies. “I’m probably going to regret this tomorrow.”

“Never, Eve.” He lowered her to her feet, lifted his hands, and brushed the wet hair away from her face. “With me, you are never, ever going to regret this. That, I promise.”


Olivia leaned against the wall outside the men’s locker room at the Seattle Athletic Club and looked right and left. Nerves danced in her belly, and she checked each face that passed, reassuring herself none were the men who’d abducted her.

The club was located only a few blocks from Pike Place Market, and the people coming and going in the early evening hours were yuppie city people, not terrorists or kidnappers or any kind of threat.

Her fingers shook as she adjusted the big sunglasses Landon had bought for her, pulled the baseball cap lower over her eyes, and tugged the long-sleeved T-shirt down, hoping no one could see her bruises.

He hadn’t been happy when she’d checked herself out of the hospital, but she couldn’t stay there. Every moment in that room made her feel like a victim, and she refused to be one. She was alive. She’d survived. No matter what they’d done to her, she’d won. And she wasn’t about to let a few days rule the rest of her life.

That’s what her head told her. Her heart was another matter.

Stay tough. Stay strong.

She looked toward the locker room door again, then down at the phone Landon had given her when he’d gone inside, searching for anything to take her mind off remembering. He was everything she should be afraid of after her ordeal. Big. Muscular. Scarred in numerous places. With huge hands he could use to crush her in a second if he wanted. And when she remembered the way he’d gone after those men in that yard before she’d fallen over the fence, she knew she should be terrified of him. But she wasn’t. There was something about him that comforted her. Something that made her feel alive. And right now, she didn’t care who or where that came from. She was hanging on to it like it was her last lifeline.

“Everything okay?”

Her head shot up at the sound of his voice, and she exhaled a breath of relief when she found him standing right in front of her. She hadn’t even heard him come out of the locker room. But she was so glad he was here now. More relieved even than when she’d been freed. “Yes. Did you find it?”

His smile was pure victory when he patted his pocket. “Bingo.”

He closed his hand over her elbow and turned her back toward the front of the club. Heat tingled across her skin. She liked his hands. Liked them against her. Liked the way they made her feel.

People glanced their way. She knew they made an unlikely pair. Her, bruised and frail, and him, buff and muscular. As they moved into the lobby, she found herself wondering if he was married, if he had a girlfriend, or even what kind of woman he was interested in.

Probably one like that brunette over there in the tiny spandex shorts and skimpy sports bra. One with a small waist, huge rack, and voluptuous hips. Not a skinny, small-breasted schoolteacher from Idaho.

She was suddenly aware of the way the clothes he’d brought her at the hospital hung off her frame. She’d always been thin, but she’d lost quite a bit of weight this last week—more than she’d thought. And glancing over the hard bodies around her, she was also achingly aware of the sallowness to her skin, her dirty hair beneath the ball cap, and the fact she wasn’t wearing a stitch of makeup.

No, she definitely wasn’t his type, and she was smart enough to know that what she was feeling for him was hero worship. He’d saved her life. On a normal day, he wasn’t the kind of guy she’d even look twice at. She didn’t even like muscles.