After a while, he lifted his head and looked up at her, his gaze gleaming with unadulterated male satisfaction. "Are you okay?"

She laughed and furrowed her fingers through his thick, tousled hair. "Are you kidding me? I'm better than okay. That was like an out-of-body experience."

He chuckled, obviously pleased that he'd been the one to provide such immense pleasure. "Good. That was just an appetizer. Are you ready for the main course?"

She gasped as he dipped his tongue into her navel, reminding her of how he'd used that decadent tongue on her elsewhere. "If the main course is anything like what you just did to me, I'm going to be one very hungry woman," she said shamelessly.

"I can handle it." Grinning with just enough arrogance to make him look sexy, he moved to the edge of the bed and stood up, then stripped off his boxer briefs. His erection jutted out from between his thighs, hard and thick and more than enough to fill her full, and then some.

A renewed surge of lust spiraled through her. This was the first time she'd seen him completely naked, and just the sight of his fine masculine form was enough to arouse her all over again. He was made up of just the right amount of muscle, lean and powerful and so mouth-wateringly gorgeous she wanted to spend the next hour just touching him, stroking him, and exploring everything that made him so virile and potently male.

He didn't give her the chance. Reaching for one of the foil packets she'd brought with her, he tore it open with his teeth and rolled the condom down the length of his shaft. Then he gently eased her onto her stomach, grabbed her hips, and pulled her downward, toward the edge of the bed where he was standing. Her heels hit the floor, and when she started to straighten, he splayed a hand against her back to keep her upper body pressed flat to the mattress.

"Stay just like you are," he murmured, then caressed both of his hands up the slope of her back, with his thumbs gliding over each notch in her vertebrae, all the way up to her neck, then back down again.

His impromptu massage felt so good, and she stretched sinuously, telling him with soft sighs and deep groans just how much she appreciated his TLC.

His heated palms skimmed lower, over her smooth buttocks, while those wicked thumbs of his traced along the cleft separating each cheek. "You have the sweetest ass," he said huskily, then aligned his hips against hers from behind.

With her high-heeled pumps on, she was the perfect height for this position. His erection was nestled between her thighs, the tip of his shaft gliding through the slick moisture coating her female flesh. Grasping her waist, he moved his hips, mimicking the act of sex, which caused the head of his cock to rub oh-so-enticingly against still-sensitive tissues. With each caress, nerve endings came to life all over again, tingling, tightening, making her toss her head back and moan with the agonizing need for him to be inside of her.

She must have gotten her point across, because with the next pump of his hips he sank into her, much too slow for her liking when she wanted to be taken completely. He pulled out slightly, then surged forward again, teasing her with the promise of another orgasm that he kept just out of her reach.

She was used to quick, lackluster sex that ended after a few hasty strokes, yet despite the tension she could feel radiating off of Ben, he took his time with her, building her hunger all over again. As for him, somehow, someway, he maintained a controlled pace-one that made her desperate for a more frantic mating.

She looked over her shoulder at Ben, and swallowed hard at the sight of them together in such a primitive, uninhibited way that she'd only fantasized about. The dark, hot look in his eyes, and the barely leashed flex of his muscles in his arms and belly as he moved against her, made her shiver.

"Ben, please" she begged softly, when she'd never, ever, pleaded for anything sexual in her previous relationships. "I need you… harder, deeper, inside me."

With a ragged groan, he leaned over her from behind, his chest and abdomen pressing against the slope of her back. Bracing himself with one forearm on the bed beside her and tangling the fingers of his other hand in her hair at the nape of her neck, he gently pulled her head back so that his lips grazed her cheek. She felt completely surrounded by him, a part of him in so many ways-her body, her heart, her soul all his for the taking.

He withdrew and thrust back in to the hilt, finally filling her the way she longed to be filled-beyond what she believed was possible for her to take. And he didn't stop there. He increased the tempo of his strokes, each one a little faster, harder, deeper, than the one before.

"Oh, God," he rasped against her ear between quick pants for breath. "You're so wet. So hot… so fucking tight."

She closed her eyes and shuddered. His words were just as urgent as the unbearable pressure building between her legs and setting her aflame once again, as reckless as the demanding, aggressive way he plunged into her again, and again, and again. He overwhelmed her with desire and need, showed her what it was like to experience passion in its rawest form, and ultimately ravished her senses with the kind of emotion that was so dangerous to her heart.

A heart that was falling in love with Ben Cabrera.

Still, she accepted it all, savoring each moment, each feeling that was directly connected to this man.

He continued plunging into her with devastating effect, and incredibly, she could feel another climax rippling through her. A soft, mewling sound escaped her lips as her inner muscles contracted, squeezing hard around his shaft.

Her spontaneous response was all it took to trigger his own orgasm, and he came with a low, hoarse growl that reverberated through her entire body.


Chapter Eleven


THREE days later on the following Wednesday, Ben was sitting in the reception area of The Big Event, attempting to keep his focus on the same spy novel he'd been reading when Christine had ambushed him with her plan to seduce him on Sunday night. He kept reading the same paragraph over and over, because his mind just couldn't concentrate on the story line.

From one of the back rooms, he heard Christine and Madison talking, their animated conversation punctuated with an occasional burst of laughter. So far, since the night at the charity event, everything had been quiet in terms of anything happening to Christine, for which Ben was immensely grateful. Then again, he wasn't making it easy on anyone he didn't know to get close to her without a thorough interrogation. He was glued to her side when they were out in public, his instincts razor sharp at all times as he shuffled her from the car to her office, or wherever else she needed to go.

For now, she was keeping her outside errands to a minimum and only attending to things that were urgent. Weeding out the unimportant stuff would help to keep her as secluded as possible for the next week, until the election was finally over.

They spent their days at The Big Event, and went straight home at night and ate dinner at her place. That gave them a whole lot of alone time together, and Christine was quick to make good use of their long evenings-with sex, in lots of adventurous, daring, uninhibited positions. As if her inner seductress had been unleashed during their first time together, she'd become this insatiable, frisky, and zealous lover, eager to make up for lost time and the mediocre experiences that had left her physically unsatisfied in the past.

And even knowing they'd be parting ways in less than a week, he was so damned helpless to resist her sexy, tempting allure. Or anything else about her, for that matter.

The front door to The Big Event swung open, and Ben glanced up to see Kevin-a good friend and coworker at ESS-entering the place. Wearing one of his carefree grins, the other man strolled toward where Ben was sitting on the couch in the reception area with his feet propped up.

"Working hard as always, I see," Kevin wisecracked. "How is it that you always seem to get the cushy jobs?"

"It's all about charm and good looks, both of which you lack," Ben ribbed right back, glad to see a familiar, friendly face to break up the monotony of his day.

Kevin smirked as he dropped into the comfortable chair next to the couch. "I'm sure the hot babe I was with this weekend would disagree."

"It only takes a woman a few drinks to turn what looks like a frog into a prince." Grinning, Ben closed his book and regarded his friend curiously. "Other than busting my chops, what brings you by my neck of the woods?"

Kevin tossed the file folder he'd been holding on to the table in front of Ben. "I had the day off and I thought you might want to take a look at your next assignment, and get familiar with the logistics of the case before starting the job next week."

"Thanks. I appreciate that." Reaching for the folder. Ben flipped it open and quickly scanned the cover sheet, which contained an overview of the assignment. "Surveillance on an insurance fraud case. Those are always a load of fun," he said dryly.

"I'm sure it will be much more exciting than my security detail at the Art Institute watching over the Van Gogh exhibit for a week."

"You might be right about that," Ben said, and chuckled. Closing the folder, he set it aside and reclined back on the couch. "So, what's been going on at the office while I've been out?"

Kevin spent the next forty minutes bringing Ben up to speed on the latest happenings at ESS, including the new cases that had come in during his absence, and ending with an update on Joel Wilde's upcoming nuptials to Lora Marshall, which were set for that weekend. During that time, Madison left the office to run some errands, leaving Christine alone in one of the back rooms.