Strictly Seduction: Watch Me

“How does dance and the newsroom fit together?” he asked. “I haven’t quite figured out the connection.”

Her lashes lowered and he could feel the sudden tension in her. “One of my teachers in high school once worked at Julliard before she had a car accident and a back injury she never fully recovered from. Her family owned some property in our community so she took a job teaching English, which was her second major. Anyway, she found out how intrigued I was by ballerinas and she secretly started teaching me to dance.”

“Secretly?” he asked, sensing there was a whole lot of pain behind this story, and wanting to understand it, to understand her.

“My parents wouldn’t have approved,” she said. “When I told you the town I grew up in was like the town in the movie Footloose, I wasn’t joking. When I started dancing in college my parents were sure the devil had stolen their only child’s soul to test their faith. It was…difficult.” She waved a hand as if to wave away the problem. “Long story short, when a television station came to a career day at my college, I hit it off with one of their recruiters, and they offered me a job. It wasn’t dancing, but the production end of things really struck a chord with me. I like making things come together.”

“It seems pretty darn stressful.”

“It is, although that only makes it all the more rewarding when everything does come together.” The kitten meowed and the shadows in Meagan’s eyes disappeared. “She’s just too cute. I think I’m in love.”

In love. The words hit him hard. He’d never been in love. He’d never before even said the word in the same sentence as he had a woman’s name. But Meagan…there was something about her. She made him feel things he’d never felt. One night. Right. That had been a joke. There was no way one night would ever be enough with this woman. These past few hours had proven that to him.

Sam watched her playing with the kitten, digesting what she’d told him, wanting to press for more. And there was more. He knew there was, but he forced himself to take things slow, not to pressure her. He got why this show meant so much to her now though. She has a passion for dance that she’d had to walk away from, and now had a chance to experience again in some way.

“I think your new cat needs a dog pal,” Sam said.

“A Lab, right?” she asked. “A cat and a Lab, like you said you had on the military base.”

He liked her reference to what he’d shared with her during the vet visit. “Exactly.”

“Well, then,” she said. “If the show gets renewed for a second season, I’ll get Sam a Lab to celebrate.”

“Sam? As in me or the cat?”

“I guess you could share.” She looked away, as if she realized she’d inferred he’d still be around then, involved in her life. And if she didn’t, he sure did.

Sam slid a finger under her chin, lifting her gaze to his. “That sounds like a deal to me.”

Suddenly, they both moved into each other’s arms and were kissing wildly, passionately, hands roaming, tongues teasing.

“Either tell me to leave now, Meagan,” he rasped near her ear, “or tell me to stay and make love to you.”

Her fingers stabbed into his short hair, shoving his head back so she could search his face. “I know I should tell you to go. I do. Every piece of me says that work and pleasure are a bad combination but—”

“Stay or go, sweetheart.”

Seconds ticked by like hours before she whispered, “Stay, Sam. I want you to stay.”

11

SAM CONFUSED HER. He seduced her. And with his big body pressed to hers, her skirt up to her hips, his hot mouth devouring hers, he consumed her. She didn’t want to be consumed by Sam, but at the same time, it was all she wanted—and she wanted it so badly, wanted him so badly, the mere existence of clothing between them was like sandpaper against her skin.

“One night,” Meagan panted against his lips. “We do what you said in the restaurant. We get this thing between us out of our systems.” But even as she made the declaration, she doubted that possibility. There was something about this man that drew her, that reached insider her and spoke to her.

“We can try,” he replied, and before she could question his answer, his mouth slanted over hers. Meagan’s resistance to that kiss lasted all of a second. She’d fought this attraction to Sam for so very long, and she had no more fight in her, not where he was concerned.

His tongue caressing hers, and she could taste the hot coffee they’d drank at the vet clinic. It reminded her of how he’d been there for her, both when Kiki jabbed at her, and when she’d wanted to help the kitten.

Meagan didn’t resist as Sam pulled her to her feet and picked her up. He was big and strong, and it felt good to just be with him. To just forget everything except for what was happening right now.

They went down on the bed together, him on top of her, the weight of him, the feel of him, as erotic as anything she’d ever felt. As right as anything she’d ever felt. Again she thought of him by her side tonight, facing challenges with her, and it had been good. Too good. It scared her. He scared her. She’d never had anyone create this kind of feeling in her. She could lose herself to this man, her identify, and just then, she didn’t care.

“I’ve wanted you since the first time I saw you,” he whispered, his lips by her ear, his hand sliding through her hair, down her shoulder, over her breast. “Do you remember when that was?”

“Yes,” she said, barely finding her voice as he pressed kisses along her jaw. She could feel his arousal, thick and hard between her legs. She could feel herself shaking with desire. She couldn’t believe she was here, like this, with Sam. “You tried to take the Dr. Pepper I’d paid for, that had gotten lodged in the machine.”

His eyes found hers. “I paid, too. You knew that. You just wanted to fight with me.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck, a smile tugging at her lips. “Maybe.”

His lips brushed hers. “Why?”

“Why do you like to fight with me?”

“Call me a sadist, but it turns me on when you throw darts at me with your eyes.”

She laughed and said his name, simply because it felt right on her tongue. “Sam.”

The mood shifted with that one whispered word. Gone was the playful banter. Sam leaned in and kissed her, a soft, gentle kiss, a short slice of his tongue teasing hers. So light, so simple, but so intense, so completely overwhelming. And when he pulled back to look at her, to study her, his blue eyes simmered like crystals in the sunlight, desire burning deep in their depths. But there was more in his expression, so much more. There was tenderness, and it was so unexpected, it stole her breath away. His fingers teased her breast. Her skin burned wherever his fingers touched, and goose bumps chased the heat.

He reached up and pulled his shirt over his head, tossing it aside. She traced the rippling muscle of his shoulders, his arms. He was beautiful, the kind of man that was sculpted from hard work and sweat, but in his case, from honor and bravery, from serving his country.

He worked the buttons on her blouse, struggling to unhook them. She did it for him, and she didn’t shy away when his gaze held hers, and that act held meaning. She wanted him to know that she was willingly undressing for him, not doing it in a moment of complete abandon like in the truck. This was a choice, and one she wasn’t going to let herself regret.

They didn’t speak, as if they were both afraid some magical spell would be lifted and this would end before it ever began. Once the buttons were unhooked, his lips kissed her collar bone, his fingers traced the top of her black bra, shoving down the silk to tease her nipples. Meagan moaned at the intimate exploration, her thighs aching, her body hot with need that only Sam could answer.

When finally her blouse was off and her bra, too, Sam worked her skirt down her hips, taking the slash of black panties down with it. She’d barely kicked away her shoes before he tugged her to the end of the mattress, and went down on his knees between her legs. He caressed her then, and she trembled with anticipation.

“Just so you know,” he said. “I’m going to do everything to make sure one night isn’t enough for you.” His lips pressed to her stomach, his fingers sliding into the wet heat of her body.

No. One night wasn’t enough. Right now, it felt like too much. Too much pleasure, too much desire, too much yearning. But no. Not enough of Sam.

SAM TOOK HIS TIME with Meagan, savoring every blissful second with her. How he’d ever thought sex would work Meagan out of his system, he didn’t know. His lips traveled the dip of her flat stomach, the curve of her hip. His nostrils flared with the soft feminine scent of her perfumed skin. He moved lower down her body. His breath teased her clit, and she arched into him, silently asking for more. Her sex tightened around the two fingers inside her, telling him he was pleasing her. And pleasing her was exactly what he burned to do.

Sam’s cock thickened, his body pulsing with the need to be inside her, reacting to how readily she responded to him. With any other woman her willingness to give herself to him wouldn’t have impacted him with such force. But with Meagan, it did. It did because he knew she didn’t give herself easily. It mattered because she meant something to him, because what she felt and needed and wanted mattered to him in a way it had never mattered before.

Sam lapped at the swollen nub, his fingers gently massaging the tight wet heat of her body. Her soft moans driving him crazy, pressing him onward to hear another and another. He lifted her leg over his shoulder, licked her and teased her until he felt her body clench and begin to spasm. Slowly, delicately, he suckled her, easing her through her release.

To his surprise, she covered her face with her hands, as if she were embarrassed. She was one big wonderful surprise after another, this woman. Feisty and confident one minute, and insecure and sensitive the next. Sam kissed her stomach and slid her farther onto the bed. “You’re beautiful. I loved doing that to you.”

“Sam,” she said shyly, her lashes fluttering, her cheeks turning rosy.

He smiled as he watched her blush. “Don’t go anywhere,” he told her before he moved away from her to finish undressing.

She lifted up on her elbows to watch him, the timidness of moments before sliding away. Her gaze lingered on his body, her expression hot with interest. And when she scraped her teeth over her bottom lip, his cock jerked and hardened. He started for the bed, and then silently cursed his eagerness, grabbing his pants and pulling a condom from his pocket.

And though he was beyond aroused, beyond reason, he didn’t miss the distressed look that flashed across her face. “I don’t carry condoms with me, sweetheart. I wasn’t, however, going to miss a night with you because I didn’t have one. I got a few when we stopped at the store.” He tossed two extras on the bed.