Southerin Nights and Secrets (Boys are Back in Town) Read online

  The unspoken like you did hung in the air, suspended on the current of male testosterone and jealousy coursing between them.

  “Good to know, Pete.” Beckett started backing away but not before he got in the parting shot with a cocky wink. “But your timing is still bad and mine might finally be right.”

  Silence covered them like humidity on a summer night in the Shenandoah. Ginger had no idea what to say. She was angry that they thought they could quarrel over her like a prize. She was surprised that Peter had the stones to put Beckett on notice.

  She was stunned that Beckett had implied…something she could not consider.

  He was just being Beckett Sutherland. Rising to any challenge with a careless word and devil-may-kiss-my-ass attitude. She shouldn’t take him seriously. She couldn’t.

  There was something still lingering between Beckett and herself. Lust. But that didn’t mean anything. People went their whole lives without dropping their panties for a guy they thought was hot. When you were an adult you chose someone who would complement you and what you wanted out of life.

  “You want to grab another drink?” Peter asked, completely ignoring the big purple elephant that had landed in between them. His smile was charming but it didn’t quite reach his eyes as he led her off the overcrowded dance floor of people ready for the next song.

  She should say something, clear up what was clearly bothering him but she didn’t know what to say. When Peter dropped the subject she took the easy way out, following his lead as they circulated the room and pressed the flesh. The whole time she could feel Beck’s eyes on her, compelling her to seek him out but she resisted. Nothing good could come of giving in.

  It was a relief when Peter called it a night, pleading his drive back to DC since he had a meeting on Capitol Hill the next day. When he pulled over in front of her building, the silence was heavy, a weight on her shoulders that kept her rooted to her spot in the passenger seat until she could figure out how to explain tonight.

  “So is it right?” Peter asked, breaking the stalemate of their solitary thoughts.

  “Is what right?”

  “The timing. For you and Dr. Beckett Sutherland.”

  She paused. Her brain was making the sound that rang out when they tested the emergency broadcast system, and she couldn’t think straight.

  Peter held his hand up quickly, something in her hesitation or in her expression causing the brisk edge to his tone. “Don’t answer me now. When you figure it out, call me.”

  “Peter. I…” She snapped her mouth closed, examining her jumbled thoughts about Beckett and what happened tonight. “I haven’t seen him in almost ten years. We work together. We have mutual friends.”

  “It’s complicated. Isn’t that what people say?” His tone carried the first inkling of his own emotion, irritation mixed with a teaspoon of anger. She wasn’t sure if it was directed at her.

  “And in this case, it’s true.”

  “That’s fine. Just call me when it isn’t complicated.”

  In the span of a quick kiss on the cheek and a promise to be in touch, Virginia was on the sidewalk in front of her condo and watching his taillights disappear as he turned the corner. Her neighborhood was quiet, and she considered taking a walk to clear her head but her feet were killing her in these ridiculous shoes. Right now, pajamas and her bed were so appealing she almost ran to the elevator in the lobby.

  The doors slid open with a mechanical sigh, and she stepped out into her hallway, fishing in her purse for her keys and almost missing the figure leaning against her door. Beckett was still wearing his dark suit from the party but his tie was gone and his hair was mussed and curling a bit over his collar. The dark of his five o’clock shadow accented his jaw and the full, curve of his mouth. He was sporting one of those grins that made him resemble a lion about to pounce and Virginia shivered with the impact of it.

  “What are you doing here, Beckett?” she asked as she moved a few paces closer. What was she doing? She should be getting back on the elevator and putting as much distance between her and the ghost-of-desire-past haunting her doorway.

  He moved even closer, stopping only when they stood chest-to-chest, thigh-to-thigh. The twist of his lips wasn’t a smile, but it was decidedly and deliciously feral. “You told me what you want and I’m here to show you what you need.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Arrogant son of a bitch. Why did he have to look so good?

  Virginia stared him down across the scant distance between them. She could feel his heat, his fire as it reached out to her, urging her to come closer with false promises disguised as a guaranteed orgasm. His scent, dark and spicy, was like a drug, addling her brain and making coherent thought impossible.

  No. That was not true.

  Her head was clear. Her head was telling her to get her door open and shut behind her as quickly as possible. Her body was the problem. It was singing with lust. She didn’t need to hear his own siren call because she had her own fucking chorus pounding through her veins and repeating “I want” in a constant loop.

  Her hands shook and the jangle of her keys amplified the tiny part of her brain that shouted this was insanity. Virginia took a step forward, testing out the solidity of the floor under her heels. When she was confident that her legs could carry her to the door, she eased her way around his body, careful not to touch. She could not touch him. That would burn her fragile defenses to the ground.

  “Good night, Beckett,” she forced out with lungs short on air. It came out breathy and far too seductive if her goal was to get him to leave.

  He pivoted on his feet as she slid past him, caging her in between his hard body and the door to her condo. It was a rookie move and she should have seen it coming but she was out of practice with a man like Beckett. Too late. She was surrounded by him and every inch of his enticing form. He moved forward, his arms raised and his hands placed flat against the door.

  “Gin, baby, let me in,” he whispered against her ear, his warm breath brushing the tendrils of her hair against the skin of her neck. She arched her neck involuntarily, her silent plea answered by the fleeting brush of his lips against her lobe. She shivered, her keys almost slipping from her fingers.

  Fuck, she wanted him. Beckett didn’t have to wear her down like the waves crashing against the shore, his power was like the undertow, swirling around her, playfully enticing her farther out into the water. The harder she fought against the pull, the more seductive his movements became. Take this moveshe should have expected him to show up at her door, but she didn’t. It didn’t fit in her ordered plan for her world, and the surprise delighted her inner romantic who refused to see that being swept off your feet usually led to a painful crash.

  She couldn’t let him in no matter how much she wanted to.

  Virginia braced her trembling hand and inserted the key into the lock, twisting until the tumbler gave way and she released the keys to grab the doorknob. Beckett’s hand closing over hers halted her movement and prevented her escape. Or was she planning to invite him in? She had no idea. All she knew was that her blood was hot, her sex was wet, and her heart rattled against her chest like it was trying to escape.

  “Let me in.” His voice was deeper, rougher, and accompanied by a tender scrape of his teeth along her shoulder, lingering on the spot where it sloped upward into the exposed skin of her neck.

  She let out a long, shuddering breath.

  “If you let me in I will fuck you until you cannot move. I know how to make you feel good, and I promise you will feel the pleasure a week from now.” He huffed out a breath caught between a laugh and a moan against her flesh. “You know I can fucking do it.”

  “And then?” she asked, holding her breath the minute the words were past her lips. She knew the answer, knew it like she knew he could keep his bold promise. She still felt him even after nine years.

  “It’s up to you. I can stay all night and fuck you as the sun comes up. Sliding in from behind wh
ile I play with your nipples,” he sucked lightly on her earlobe, the images created by his words and the teasing touch causing her to brace her other hand to reach back and grab onto Beckett’s hip for support. “You always came so hard that way. So wet and tight around me.”

  “And if I don’t want you to stay?”

  “I’ll go. You can use me up and kick me out.” He removed the hand he still had braced against the door and placed it, open palm, against her abdomen, sliding it down until he gently cupped her sex, the heat from his touch seeping through the thin fabric of her dress. She barely fought the urge to spread her legs wider, tamped down the craving to feel his rough hand against her skin. His voice dropped even lower, almost a growl as he continued his siren’s song. “You are making me crazy. I need to be with you, inside you. I can’t think about anything else…” He sighed heavily, the hunger in the sound giving her the chills. “… so open up this door and let me in.”

  The serpent in the Garden of Good and Evil had nothing on Beckett. The Devil had sent down his best fallen angel to lure her into temptation. And damn was it working.

  She expected a ferocious fear to attack her nerves, to send her scurrying as far from him as she could get. An army of carefully constructed men in Beckett-proof armor to keep her from doing something stupid. But this didn’t feel dumb. She knew how this was going to end. They would come together with all the lust and passion and chemistry that had erupted between them the minute they’d laid eyes on each other across the busy university quad, and then he would be gone like a shadow disappearing into the dawn.

  But this time she knew the way it would end, and she was prepared to walk through the fire of Beckett’s touch and then walk away.

  No. Not walk away but toward Peter or someone like him who would be able to give her the life she needed. The calm life. The settled life.

  One night to exorcise the demons.

  One last night to be reckless with the man who made her feel like the Virginia who hadn’t been left to pick up the pieces of an alcoholic mother, who hadn’t had to play mother to a little sister, who didn’t have to pretend that she agreed with all the people who said her father was a great man. One last night to be Ginger.

  Virginia took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, searching her mind for any stray doubts or second guesses. There were plenty of third, fourth, and fifth guesses but she knew what she needed to do…what she wanted to do.

  “Beyond this point lie dragons,” she whispered as she turned the doorknob and slid her door open.

  Once inside she left Beckett to lock the door behind them as she threw her purse on the table and turned on two small lamps. It wasn’t dark, the room cast in a warm glow, the shadows deep but not scary. Enough light for her to see her lover. And she wanted to see him, all of him.

  “Take off your jacket,” she ordered, turning on her heel just in time to see Beckett’s mouth twitch with his reaction to her words. Humor, hot and dark, battled with the lust in his eyes but he complied, slipping off the article of clothing and tossing it on a nearby chair. She didn’t hesitate to voice her next request “Now your shirt.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Virginia watched him as his long fingers worked his tie free with a silky rasp of fabric and dropped it onto the floor at his feet. Their eyes remained locked, their breathing heavy and loud in the stillness of her living room as they took a step into their shared past. Memories of the two of them together, of the times when he’d gotten naked with her flashed through her mind. Sometimes fast and urgent, other times slow and teasing, it was always good. The anticipation building until she was ready to crawl out of her skin, until she became a woman she didn’t even recognize.

  The woman she was tonight.

  Beckett undid the final button on his shirt and the need to touch him moved her forward. One step. Two. And then her hand on his bare chest, the flesh under her palm hot, the chest hair crinkly and tickling her hand. She traced a path to his right nipple, fingering the barbell piercing that hadn’t been there all those years ago. Beckett sucked in a hard breath at her touch, growled low in his throat when she tugged on the metal.

  “Fuck that feels good.”

  “Yeah?” She tugged again, her belly warming when he growled again. If they felt as good as they looked on him, he had to be in heaven.

  “Keep doing that, baby,” Beckett said, lowering his head to brush his mouth against her jaw, the outer shell of her ear, and down her throat. He made his way back to her mouth, hovering just over her lips, eyes locked on her own. “Damn. You make me so hard.”

  “That’s the point, isn’t it?” she asked as she pushed him back from her with one finger. His eyes flared with surprise and when he took a step forward she backed up two. “No. You stay.”

  The flash of his white teeth in a playful grin told her that he was willing to follow her lead and that was good. Necessary. This was sex. Sating her body’s stupidity. This was not a new beginning for them, none of that nonsense about timing. She needed to have him fill her, to make her come and then leave like he always did, and she’d be done with haunting memories of Dr. Beckett Sutherland.

  “I’ll stay but you’ve got to lose the dress.”

  “Really?”

  “Don’t act like you don’t want to get naked with me, Gin.” He ran a hand over his abdomen and her eyes could do nothing but follow as her own fingers itched to glide over his skin. She didn’t bother to deny what was the gospel truth. “And all I want right now is to see the sweet body you keep hidden under your clothes, to touch, lick, suck, and taste every inch of you.”

  She swallowed hard, forcing down the moan that bubbled up in her throat. It hurt, tamping down her want but she needed to maintain some control, to keep this in perspective. Pleasure with Beckett was too closely linked in every molecule of her body, muscle memory with her heart being the organ that responded to him the quickest. Not this time.

  She was going to keep her feet on the ground, no free fall. Only pleasure. One night.

  Virginia took the few steps necessary to stand in front of Beckett, so close she could hear the whisper of friction where the silk of her dress brushed against his body. His eyes were the darkest of topaz pupils blown with his arousal, his breathing quick and heated, his lips teased by the hint of a grin.

  She couldn’t help responding. Sex with Beckett had sometimes been slow, sometimes rough, sometimes quick, but it was always fun.

  “If you want to see me naked, then you need to make it happen.”

  He didn’t even blink. She knew because he never broke eye contact as he moved his hands to her back zipper, forearms resting on her shoulders as he leaned in closer and grasped the zipper. He gave a little tug on the metal pull and she sucked in a quick breath at the movement.

  He dipped his head as he eased it down, his mouth warm along the exposed flesh of her neck. Virginia shivered, not from the exposure of her nakedness to the cooler air in the room but from Beckett’s touch along her spine, following the path revealed by the opening zipper and ending just above the top of her ass.

  “Your skin is flawless,” he whispered, dipping his long fingers below the edge of her dress and under the strap of her thong, into the cleft of her cheeks. She pushed back into his touch, silently begging for him to drift lower and tease the place where she ached. “Your body begs to be touched all over. Let me.”

  He moved back slightly and she did nothing to stop the low mewl of protest when he removed his hands.

  “Sssh. I want to see all of you.”

  Beckett’s long fingers gripped the top edge of her dress and pushed it down, letting go when the weight of the fabric pulled it down to the ground in an exhale of silk.

  “Goddam, you make me want,” Beckett closed the small gap between them, his large hands grasping her hips and holding her in place with an almost bruising grip. “Don’t fucking move.”

  She didn’t. Couldn’t. She was too intrigued to see what he would do next.

&nb
sp; He dipped his head, his mouth mapping the lines of her body. His tongue was wet, leaving shivery swaths of flesh behind that made her want to writhe against his hold. Over the curve of her shoulder, the ridge of her collarbone, dipping in the cleft between her breasts.

  She sucked in her breath, holding it as he stalled his movements, his mouth hovering over the taut nub of her nipple. His exhale was warm, moist, and teased her flesh through the lace of her strapless bra.

  He looked up, the dark shield of his eyelashes lifting and giving her a peek at the deep whiskey of his eyes. “Remember. Don’t move.”

  “I…” she licked her lips. “I …no.”

  “Good girl.”

  Then he lowered his head again, wasting no time in covering and sucking her through the lace. Virginia’s knees trembled, threatening to make her sway on her feet but she braced her body against the urge.

  Beckett’s mouth was hot, bathing her with liquid heat. The suckling pulls, the scrape of teeth and the extra friction of the lace against her was the most exquisite torture. She was wet in between her legs, dying to reach down and touch her clit but tamped down the impulse. Beckett would get her there and while he was a wild ride, she didn’t want to rush the journey.

  “You taste like spice. Making my mouth water and my dick ache,” Beckett murmured against her skin as he abandoned her one hard peak and attacked the other with a tender bite. He pulled back the lace this time and if his touch with the fabric barrier had been mind-blowing this was like an earthquake.

  She couldn’t help it. Her hands lifted on autopilot as she threaded her fingers through the dark, unruly waves. Her grip tightened with his intense suckling, and she did nothing this time to stop the curl of her back over him as she pulled him closer, encouraging him to take her deeper.

  He groaned with her intense reaction and suddenly she needed to fill her mouth with his taste, with his length. It had been too long for hermonths since she’d taken a loveryears since she’d had the one who eclipsed all others and she desperately wanted to try it all at once. Wanted him everywhere, all at once.