Instant Temptation

CHAPTER 19

Harley knew TJ was braced for her answer. How to tell him that making the decision wasn’t the problem? Facing it was. Because if she did as she should and sent him home, she’d always wonder. And if she did what she wanted and ate him up for lunch, she was going to get good and hurt.

Yet that seemed intangible at the moment, with his hands on her, his eyes dark and sexy as he waited.

He wanted a sign.

Lifting his head, his eyes met hers, silently waiting on her to take the next step. Just one little step, that was all she had to do, and he’d get her to where she wanted to go, she knew him that much. Trusted him that much.

Through the last of her resistance came one thought-he brought what she’d been yearning for.

Passion.

He brought it without strings, and she was hungry enough for him that the promise of it overrode common sense.

“Harley?”

Into show and tell instead of words, she sank her fingers into his hair and dragged his mouth to hers, kissing him long and deep.

Apparently he got the message. His fingers tugged the cups of her bra down and stroked her bare nipples. When her legs threatened to give, TJ solved that problem by sliding a rock-hard thigh between hers.

She slipped her hands beneath his shirt and felt warm skin, hard sinew, and the beat of his heart, faster now, not as steady. Keeping her eyes locked on his, she shoved up his shirt.

Reaching up, he tore it off over his head.

Oh good Lord. If he hadn’t been holding her up, she might have slid to the floor. He was so beautifully made she leaned in and took a lick. Buoyed by the shuddery breath that escaped him, she did it again, her tongue catching on one of his nipples.

Swearing softly, he tightened a hand in her hair and lifted her head for a plunging, deep kiss as he pulled off her tank top. Lifting his head, eyes still dark and heated, he watched as his fingers trailed up her arms, then slid her bra straps from her shoulder.

She let out a shuddery breath when his lips and teeth gently nipped the skin he’d exposed. “Bedroom,” she said.

He took her hand and led her there without hesitation. Nudging her inside the room, he shut and locked the door behind him, leaning back on it to look at her from beneath sleepy, sexy eyes. “You sure?”

In answer, she let her bra fall to the carpet.

“Okay, you’re sure,” he said on a shaky breath. Pushing away from the door, he headed toward her, then nudged her onto the bed. With a knee to the mattress, he followed her down until he was over her, his forearms flat on either side of her head, his big hands on her jaw, the tips of his fingers in her hair. His hair was a sexy mess from her fingers. She took a deep breath and inhaled the scent that was TJ, all warm, heated male.

He smiled and kissed her, soft and slow at first, giving her time.

She didn’t need it.

Running her hands down his gorgeous back, she cupped his most excellent ass and pulled him in, hoping to get him hot and heavy again.

He lifted his head and raised a brow. “In a hurry?”

“As a matter of fact.”

He was smiling when he skimmed a hand down her belly, heading for her shorts, and suddenly she realized-it was broad daylight. What the hell had she been thinking? It was bright in the room. He’d be able to see every single fault on her body. “You know, I’m thinking maybe-”

He shook his head. “No thinking.”

“Yes, but it’s so light, and-”

“I want to see you.” His voice was low and husky, and as if it possessed the magic to both calm and seduce her, her body arched up into him.

His mouth was still curved in a smile as he looked deep into her eyes, a warm, sexy smile that held lots of promise as his hands came up, his thumbs caressing her jaw. “It’s going to be okay, Harley.”

“Yeah, well, you know I can’t turn my brain off. It’s a problem-”

He kissed her. Long and wet and deep, and just like that, her brain obeyed his silent but effective demand and turned right off. He kissed her for long moments, revving her up again as he held himself braced on his elbows, careful to keep his weight from crushing her.

As for her, careful had flown the coop. In fact, she was feeling as far from careful as she could get, practically writhing with need beneath his long, hard body.

Unconcerned with the state she was in, he ran a large warm hand over her throat, her collarbone…her breast, where he paused to play with the pebbled tip. “I love your skin.” He bent to suck on her neck. “So soft…”

His skin wasn’t bad either, all sleek and smooth and hard, and suddenly she blessed the bright daylight. She couldn’t stop touching him, running her hands over him, moaning when he slid a thigh between hers, spreading her, making room for him to lie between her parted legs so that his hard sex cradled against her core.

God, she wanted him.

His mouth between her breasts, he turned his head and slid his tongue over a nipple. With a gasp, she arched up into him, gliding her hands beneath the loose waistband of his jeans, squeezing his ass again, pressing him into her.

Obliging, he rocked into her, and she shivered. “Off,” she said, slipping her hands around to try to pop open his jeans so that she could get her hands on something else. He kneeled up, giving her access, and she hummed in pleasure as her fingers wrapped around him.

He was big and hot and velvety smooth. When she stroked him, he let out a sound that reminded her of a huge wild cat, like he was both growling and purring at the same time as he thrust up in her hands.

He tugged open her shorts, then pulled them and her panties off, tossing both over his shoulder. Pushing her legs apart, his hands slid from her knees to her inner thighs, caressing as he went, teasing her into a writhing mass of desperation.

“Easy,” he whispered, and then slowly, with devastating precision, outlined her with the pad of a single finger, back and forth until she was so wet and ready that she was crying out for him, begging. No easy way about it.

“Please,” she gasped, thrusting her hips up mindlessly. “Oh, please.”

He slid two fingers deep, and on his second long, slow, sure stroke, she exploded.

While she struggled to return to her senses, a couple of things hit her at once. Not only had she done it again, come without warning, she actually had a death grip on him, and her teeth were clamped on his throat. She was panting for breath, her hand still wrapped around his hot and pulsing length, mindlessly stroking him.

“Harley,” he whispered in a raw voice, and thrust into her hands, clearly close.

And then-her front door slammed-the worst possible sound that she could have heard in that moment.

“Christ,” TJ groaned, his face tight. His whole body tight.

Harley struggled to catch her breath. “You locked my door.”

“Yeah.” He rubbed his jaw to hers, his thumb brushing over her center again, making her jerk. “Maybe they’ll go away.”

“Harley!” Skye yelled from the living room. “I need you!”

With a low breath, TJ rolled off her to his back, flinging an arm over his eyes. “Fuck.”

Yeah. Just what Harley had hoped to be doing. She sat up to apologize, pulling TJ’s arm away from his face. His eyes were closed and he was chewing on his bottom lip, breathing hard. She ran a hand down his tight abs, but he groaned and caught her hand, stopping her. “I’m going to need a minute.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. I might cry, but I’m okay.”

“I owe you,” she said softly.

“I’ve heard that one before.”

“Harley!” Skye yelled again. “Who’s the guy?”

Harley held her breath. “What guy?”

“The one with you.”

“There’s no-”

“He left his shirt on the floor, inside out. Which indicates he was in a hurry, or otherwise occupied. Am I interrupting something good? ’Cause I can come back. How close to done are you?”

“Shoot me,” TJ muttered.

Harley’s gaze ran down his gorgeous, sinewy, tightly wound body, stopping where his jeans were completely undone, leaving little to the imagination. Her mouth watered. “I’ll do you one better,” she whispered. “I’ll shoot her.”

TJ rode home, a spectacularly uncomfortable thing to do since he was hard enough to pound nails. He entered his cabin fifteen minutes later and found Cam and Stone sitting on his couch, a game on his flat screen, his six-pack between them. “Girls’ night out?” he asked sarcastically.

“It’s called Wedding Evasion,” Cam said. “Katie and Emma are working on the shower.”

TJ raised a brow. “Katie and Emma together in the shower? And you’re here?”

“The wedding shower.” Cam narrowed his eyes. “Are you picturing Katie naked?”

“Yes,” TJ said. “With Emma. They’re good in the hot water together. Thanks for the visual.”

Now he had both Stone and Cam snarling at him. Good. Their moods all matched perfectly. TJ kicked Stone’s feet off the coffee table so he could get to his own damn couch, and plopped between them, grabbing a beer.

They watched the game in silence.

“That second Alaska trip is a go,” Stone said at the commercial. “Six more weeks gone. If you want it.”

“I want it.”

Stone lifted a brow.

“What?” TJ asked him.

“I thought maybe you’d want to stick around, seeing as you’re doing something with Harley.”

“I’m doing what with Harley?”

“I don’t know. You tell me.”

Keeping his gaze on the TV, TJ took a pull of his beer and said nothing. Yeah. He was doing something with Harley. He just wasn’t sure what exactly.

He knew what he wanted. He wanted her. In a bed, for longer than a single orgasm.

But he also wanted more.

Since that “more” happened to fall in a pretty big gray area, he hadn’t been able to define it. “The game’s back on.”

They were silent until the next commercial. Cam spoke first. “Heard you gave the Harley quite a ride.”

TJ snapped threatening eyes in his brother’s direction, and Cam let out a sly grin. “Oh wait, you were on your Honda and with a Harley. Sorry, man. My mistake.”

“You’re a dick.”

Stone put a hand to TJ’s chest to hold him back and shook his head at Cam like he was shocked at his stupidity. “You’ve been sitting on that one, haven’t you? Bet you practiced that one in the mirror.”

Cam grinned. “Too good to pass up.” He looked at TJ. “You and Harley stop sniffing around each other and do the deed?”

“I’m going to kill him,” TJ said conversationally to Stone.

“Can’t. We’re triple booked this week, remember? We’ll lose clients.”

“It’d be worth it.”

“Let him earn his keep first,” Stone said, and when Cam opened his mouth, Stone simply covered Cam’s entire face with his hand and shoved while keeping up the conversation with TJ. “If you still want to kill him after he brings in the dough this weekend, I’ll help you.”