Forgotten Sins

Chapter 12

Josie struggled to stay calm as she stared at Shane. “You remember me?”

He frowned deeper and rocked back in her office chair. “Yes. At a coffee shop. You were wearing a blue yoga outfit that showed off your ass.”

Josie snorted out a laugh. “The day we met.”

“Yeah.” Shane focused on her face, his smooth Southern drawl deepening. “Some guy was bothering you. I asked if you needed help.”

“I said yes.” She wrinkled her nose. “I felt like such a wimp. But you helped.” Her hero. Right from the first moment. He’d stepped in and dragged the jerk outside. Then he’d come back inside and bought her an iced coffee. “You said I was smart, not wimpy.”

“I remember.” His gaze ran over her face. “Your hair was shorter and you had a tan.”

“It was California. You had a darker tan, too.” And biceps that made her want to take a bite. So maybe now he could explain why he’d been stalking her before that day. She cleared her throat. “Remember anything else?”

“Not yet.”

But he would. What would happen then? “Did you find anything about your past?”

Shane kicked back in her chair, overwhelming the gray leather. “Not really. My military record is good; lots of missions dealing with problems on our soil. A couple of biological problems from factories.” He frowned. “There’s more. I know it. But I haven’t gained access yet.”

“What about your brothers?”

His face turned to stone.

Josie studied him. He seemed like one cold bastard. But he wasn’t. Fire burned hot through him, so hot he forced ice into himself. To keep control. God, she used to want to make him lose it. Completely. Just with her. Only with her. She licked her lips.

Sparks flashed into his eyes in response. His gaze dropped to her chest.

Her nipples hardened to sharp points. She licked her lips again and swallowed. Her nerves fired. Oh man, this was a bad idea. “Shane. Stay focused.” Her voice came out breathy.

“That tone. I remember it.” His voice lowered to a rumble that wrapped around her heart. “Sexy as hell. Almost as if you’re whispering, your breath heating my cock.”

Jesus. The way he talked. Husky. Male. He used to whisper her name in her ear as he came. As if she was the only tether he had to this life. As if she was everything he needed.

Desire slid to temper. She wasn’t everything he needed. He’d left. “Knock it off. It isn’t going to happen.” Liar. The word echoed through her head. She was such a liar.

“Yes, it is.” His eyes darkened until nearly black. “Maybe not right now. I’ll wait until we figure this out.” He leaned forward, forearms on her desk. “But make no mistake. It is going to happen.”

Her sex clenched. “What did you discover about your brothers?”

“Nothing. Not a thing.” Anger tightened his jaw. “I found a couple military academies with pictures; nothing like the place I saw in my dreams. I searched their names, my name, hospital records. Death records.” His eyes swirled with emotion at the last. “Nothing.” He threw a pencil on the desk. “That’s not all.” Rising, he extended one hand into the kneehole of the heavy oak desk and casually lifted it a foot from the floor. “I’m seriously strong.”

Josie stood. Her heart slammed against her ribs. Nobody should be able to lift the desk so easily. “Apparently.”

He let the desk drop with a thud. “Did you know that about me?”

She tried for a nonchalant shrug. “I knew you were strong. Not that strong.” Apparently the guy had hidden more than his past from her. Who the hell was he? Anger began to slide through her veins. What was she doing even thinking about trusting him again?

“Close your eyes. What do you hear?”

She kept her eyes open. “The hum of the heating unit.” Other than that, silence echoed through the night.

Shane shook his head. “A block away a couple is having a spat about the tip the man left at dinner.” He stalked around the desk. Toward her. “The elevator has gone up twenty-three times in the last couple hours; gone down twenty-seven times.” His hands reached out to grab her forearms. “I need thirty-three steps to walk from here to the elevator. There are three exits from this building where I wouldn’t be seen.” His gaze dropped to her neck. “Your pulse rate increased when I grabbed your arms. I can hear it.” The large hands tightened around her biceps. “And you’re a liar. When you say it isn’t going to happen, you’re lying.”

He tugged her into masculine hardness, into incredible heat.

His palm slid up her neck until his fingers tangled in her hair—slowly, deliberately. He tethered her in place, his eyelids dropping to half-mast.

Goosebumps rose on her skin. Caution warred with desire. She jerked her head back—or tried to. His hold tightened, holding her where he wanted her. She couldn’t move. Shock and then flames licked through her.

His lips took hers, firm and determined. Her thighs dampened. He groaned low, bending her back, his hunger igniting hers.

Josie’s mind spun. He wasn’t asking. Gone was the care with which he’d always treated her. Pure, raw passion replaced thought.

Everything inside her melted as desire lit her on fire. While he’d always been passionate, this was new. Intense and dangerous, his hold showed no mercy.

He slammed her against the desk, the hard length of his body sliding against hers. He cupped the back of her head, his mouth moving over hers. A sharp nip triggered her to open her lips in protest, and he dove in, his body pinning her in place.

Hunger ripped through her veins.

His tongue stroked hers. The desk pressed into her back and she stiffened. He lifted her and plopped her atop the desk, her knees on either side of his hard hips, the skirt pooling up. Heat filled her sex. Her core rubbed against his erection.

“See what you do to me,” he rumbled against her mouth, giving her a reprieve to breathe. “From the first second I saw you in that coffee shop, you’ve done this to me.”

She clutched on to his hard forearms to keep herself upright. A protest caught in her throat when his head rose so he could pin her with a look. Danger glinted in those dark gray eyes. Possession. Promise. A hard flush covered his rugged face. “Say yes, Josie.”

“Yes.” The word came out before she could think.

He didn’t wait for a qualifier, not that her mind was working fast enough to invent one. Reaching past her, he swept files and papers to the floor. Broad hands circled her wrists, and he lay her back. He flattened her knuckles on either side of her head, palms up. “Keep your hands here.”

Her fingers curled until nails bit into her palms.

His gaze slid to the buttons of her shirt. He quickly flipped them open, smoothing the shirt apart to reveal her plain cotton bra. Hunger flared in his eyes.

So much she couldn’t speak. She could barely think.

“Ah, Josie.” He flicked open the clasp and the material sprang apart. “Finally, something I remember. You and us. This. The prettiest pink nipples in the world.” His hands dropped onto hers, holding them against solid oak as he lowered his head toward her breasts.

Fire. He engulfed one nipple in the heat of his mouth. Her eyes fluttered shut, and she pressed up against him. She’d forgotten. How had she forgotten how warm he could be? The inferno in that dangerous mouth? So unreal. Enhanced like his strength? She lifted her legs to encircle him, pressing her feet into his ass. Pressing him harder against her. Her hands ached with the need to touch him, and she tried to tug loose.

He kept her in place.

His mouth wandered to the underside of her breast, where he nipped before taking the other nipple in his mouth. A low hum of appreciation echoed against her flesh.

“Shane,” she moaned, moving against him.

“Let me play.” He placed wet, open-mouthed kisses up her chest to her throat. “If I remember correctly… there’s a place right about here…” His tongue flicked at the base of her neck. The hollow near her shoulder. She shivered. “Yeah. I remember right.” Heated lips closed over her flesh and he suckled.

His idea of playing had always destroyed her. In a seriously good way. The Southern drawl he’d let loose flashed craving through every nerve she owned. “Please. Let go of my hands.” The plea came unbidden. She needed to touch.

“This time,” he mumbled against her neck, lifting his hands to quickly shift her and remove all clothing except her panties. His hands went to her breasts while his mouth found her earlobe.

She grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it over his head, her palms spreading across the muscles in his chest. So much strength. She’d missed him. Missed this. She bit her lip. Power infused her. He wasn’t the only one remembering.

She traced a long scar along his abs, loving the way the skin shifted. Trembled. She wandered around to the base of his back to caress a spot just above his tailbone. He growled against her neck. Oh yeah. She remembered that spot. Her hands dove into his jeans. Commando. No boxers or briefs for her man. Some things never changed.

His boots were kicked off, and he yanked open the clasp on his jeans to drop them to the floor. The ties on the sides of her panties snapped in two. He grabbed one buttock and lifted her off the desk, positioning himself at her entrance. “Josie.” With a swift plunge, he impaled her, balls deep.

Her body clenched around him. Her back arched. Jesus. She’d forgotten how big he was.

His mouth dropped to hers, taking, plunging, overwhelming. His hands molded her breasts. He tweaked a nipple. Fire lanced through her to where they joined. She pressed her feet into his butt and started to writhe against him.

“Wait.” He hissed against her lips. “Wait a minute. You’re not ready.”

A craving filled every pore in her body. Her sex was wet, her clit throbbing with a need so great she wanted to cry. “I’m ready. God, I’m ready. Move or I’ll kill you.”

His hand manacled around her hip, lifting her into him. His other slid up her back, clasping her neck. Holding her in place. Taking her.

He pulled out, then pushed back in. Slowly, as if testing the waters. He plunged in hard. His name tumbled from her lips. Fire ripped along the nerves inside her. Tissue swelled. “Faster.”

He moved faster.

Harder.

Plunging in and out, consuming everything in the room, even oxygen. She couldn’t breathe. She didn’t care. Her feet pressed into his ass, her thighs tightened around him. Her nails dug into his shoulders, biting his skin until his mouth took hers again. His tongue thrusting in time with their bodies. So much. Definitely too much.

Her heart swelled. No, no, no, not her heart. She focused on the spiraling feeling deep inside. The physical. The overwhelming heat.

He angled his body up. His cock slid over her clit.

She exploded.

Her mouth opened on a rough scream, and he swooped in, taking the sound into his own body. From her breasts to her toes, she spasmed, riding the waves. While he rode her. Somehow harder and faster, his thrusts full of fury and need. With a hoarse growl against her mouth, he came. Heat filled her.

Memories threatened to suffocate her. The thought slid away as his climax triggered another one in her, and her entire body went rigid. She threw her head back, thighs tightening around him, the thrum of her bloodstream whooshing in her ears.

Pleasure. So deep and hard, it cut.

Her body went limp. A soft sigh escaped her as she relaxed, releasing his hips. Her feet slid from his body. She panted in air, trying to fill her lungs. An ache set up around her mouth.

Taken.

She licked her lips.

Swollen.

Her entire body was swollen.

Throbbing.

But man, she felt good.

Panic followed bliss. Kind of. She didn’t have the energy for full-on panic. So much for her heart. She’d loved him from the moment those unique gray eyes twinkled at her at that coffee shop. Shane had rescued her that day, just like in a romance novel. Just like members of a family did for each other. When she’d given her vows, she’d meant them. In her lonely, solitary life, she’d given her heart once and once only.

She’d never get it back.