Honeymoon With A Stranger. Frances Housden

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СКАЧАТЬ eye to eye as she inquired, “Don’t you know a euphemism when you hear it?”

      “You mean you’d prefer me to use a much more earthy term?” he asked, then ducked his head, quick to hide his grin. And there it was, a bug behind the antique iron frame supporting the sway-backed spring base.

      Damn Zukah. That one would have to go. Somehow he’d have to make it look like an accident, so that the Algerian kept thinking he was as dumb as they were both acting at the moment.

      Her voice came down to him, “Actually, I meant instead of making love.”

      “With you, chérie—” he punctuated his words with a couple of crude kissing noises “—I always make love.” Then putting a finger to his lip, he pointed behind the headboard.

      He had to admit she was quick on the uptake. While he turned the attic into a pool of darkness for a second time, she contrived to make smooching noises on the back of her hand.

      Within two minutes he’d shed his jeans and was slipping into bed beside her.

      Tonight, though it might be uncomfortable, he kept his shorts on as a concession to Roxie, the first time he’d worn a stitch to bed since junior high.

      He felt her body heat seeping under the covers, calling him closer, or maybe that was the dip in the mattress.

      It took him a couple of seconds to realize she had been lying there rigid from the moment he hit the sheets. Time to take up the slack before his macho reputation took a dive with whoever was listening. “Chérie, I want you out of those clothes.”

      He sat up making the bed groan and finished with “Now isn’t that better?”

      Better for whom, Roxie wanted to ask, but instead infused her voice with steam heat. “Much better. Come closer, I want to feel you against me,” she told him, counting on his promise not to jump her bones. After all, they were in this together.

      The gasp he uttered satisfied the devil in her, but she wondered if he felt all that kissing of the back of her hand was worth the effort he put into it.

      Then all thought vanished as he moved his lips to the fine skin inside her wrist.

      Her pulse raced. Darn, she knew he could feel it hiccup when his lips lingered on that particular spot before moving to the inside of her elbow.

      No better. Her skin was so sensitive there that his tongue felt as rough as a cat’s as he licked at it.

      His breathing became labored and heavy and all too real, the sound of it making her head swim as her own breaths mimicked the noises he made.

      This had to stop. He could forget trying to seduce her, she wasn’t about to roll over and think of England or even France for that matter.

      “Oooh, Mac,” she groaned, thrusting off his hand so she could reach for a mental life raft.

      Whoa, Mac told himself as he came up for air.

      The sensation of her pulse jolting against his tongue was enough to tempt a saint to forget his vows.

      It was a small leap from there to remembering the view he’d had through the shower curtain. Blood rushed into his groin.

      Instead of sipping, Mac wanted to plunder. Wanted to feel her body under and over his, while he discovered some of the many delights Roxie had to offer.

      Thank God one of them had some sense.

      But it should have been him who pulled away, not Roxie.

      He’d come up against some fantastic-looking women in his time. It was one of the hazards of his occupation. Damn, he couldn’t count the number of bad beautiful women who worked for the enemy.

      Only one had gotten past his defenses, though, and he couldn’t let that happen again.

      And why would he? He wasn’t a fool, and he wasn’t about to risk blowing his cover by sweeping Roxie into his arms and really making love to her.

      Time to get back to playacting.

      “How’s that feel, chérie?”

      “Wonderful.” The word seemed to tremble from her lips as he moved up higher in the bed. Her breath feathered across his shoulder as the dip in the mattress threw them together. Double damn.

      He pushed her away and sat up, but worse was to come. She eased up, elbow resting on her pillow and, in an impassioned whisper that rippled across the last threads of his control, said, “Oh, Mac, take me, take me now.”

      Thank God, he felt her shoulders shake. She was laughing.

      A small miracle, but he grasped it in both hands.

      Action. That’s what he needed. Holding the brass headboard with one hand, he began to bounce. Desperate times called for desperate measures, the occasional grunts from his efforts would have to pass for passion.

      When the headboard accidentally banged against the wall, he did it a few more times. Serve them right if he deafened the pervert listening and made Yves of the many hands go crazy with lust.

      That thought led straight to another, a brilliant explanation for the bug at the head of the bed breaking.

      He heard an odd hiccup from Roxie, somewhere between laughter and tears. He gave her a nudge in reply with his knee and the game was on, Mac thumping the wall while Roxie kept time.

      It was he who had trouble muffling his laughter as she did the classic coffee-shop scene of exaggerated moans. And Mac’s body felt exhilarated and exhausted at once, as if they’d really made love.

      The headboard hit the wall another couple of times, as he yelled loud enough to deafen anyone listening. Out of breath, he slid under the covers that no longer felt cold. “Was that good for you, chérie?”

      Roxie sounded genuinely sleepy. “Mac, you’re the best. Night…” He felt her roll onto her side, facing away from him.

      Too bad his performance hadn’t done anything to cull his aching need. Listening to her moan had exacerbated his condition to the point of torture.

      But wondering how it felt to be inside her, to be the one who made her sigh and gasp, would be more kill than cure, and his mother never raised a masochist. No sir.

      True American patriots, his mother and father had served their country with diplomacy in embassies set in some of the most far-flung countries of the world.

      Serving the United States had become ingrained in him from the time he was a small child. That’s what had made him the man he was today, a man of honor. As for the different roles he played, the lies he told, they didn’t count.

      At first the pretense had simply been a way to serve his country, but after meeting Jason Hart, they had become a means of keeping the world safe from terrorism.

      He turned his back to Roxie.

      Sleep wouldn’t find him as easily as it had her. He still had work to do, Thierry to contact. An hour passed slowly in the heavy silence.

      Finally, СКАЧАТЬ