Instant Temptation

CHAPTER 21

The next morning TJ stood in front of the lodge doing a last-minute equipment check with Nick.

Stone had already left for his trip to Eagle Falls at the crack of dawn, and Cam had just driven off for his trek to Squaw Peak.

TJ looked at his watch. In half an hour he’d be gone, too. And yet all he could think about was not the trip, not the clients, not the shitload of work this was going to entail without help, but Harley.

“She coming?” Nick asked.

“Who?”

Nick gave him a don’t-be-stupid look. “The woman who left that bite mark on your neck who.”

TJ put his fingers to the base of his throat, vividly remembering lying on Harley’s bed with her hot little bod squirming all over his as she’d sucked on his skin.

“Annie see that?” Nick asked.

“No. Why?”

“’Cause if she finds out you’re just playing with Harley, she’s going to kick your ass. She loves that girl.”

“Harley’s a grown woman, not a girl, and she bit me. How do you know she’s not just playing with me?”

Nick laughed. “Play is your middle name, man.” He studied TJ a moment, and slowly his smile faded. “Huh. That’s interesting.”

“No, there’s nothing interesting.”

Nick was still looking at him, as if maybe he could read right through the bullshit and into his soul. “Are you, TJ? Playing?”

Yeah.

Fuck.

No. No, he wasn’t playing.

And he had no clue what that meant. All he knew was that for two nights running, he’d gone to bed with a bad case of DSB.

Deadly sperm buildup.

He thought he’d taken care of that problem in the shower this morning, but apparently not.

“So.” Nick was still looking at him oddly. “Is she coming or what?”

“I don’t know. She told Katie she would, but-”

“Look at that, the mighty TJ Wilder actually not knowing something. Even more interesting.” He smiled and clasped TJ’s shoulder. “She’s good for you.”

“How the hell did you get to that conclusion?”

Nick shrugged. “She keeps you guessing. Takes away your careful plans and control.”

Well, Nick had him there. Harley absolutely played havoc on his plans and shot his control all to hell. He heard her truck on the road before it came around the turn and exchanged a look with Nick. “She’s coming,” TJ said to Nick’s smirk.

Harley pulled into the driveway, turned off the engine, and hopped out. The early sun played with her shiny hair and fair skin as she stood there, hands on hips, eyes covered by dark sunglasses. She wore a pair of hip-hugging cargoes and a snug, long-sleeved Henley, both of which were normal clothes for that type of life, but nothing about his heart rate felt normal. He slapped his clipboard against Nick’s chest and headed for her.

Her glasses hid her from him but he knew by her stillness she was watching him. As usual, she wasn’t showing much, but he knew her, knew to look past the exterior. She wasn’t quite sure why she was there, and was even less sure if she wanted to be. “You came,” he said softly when he was near enough that no one could hear them.

A small, slightly embarrassed smile curved her mouth. “Twice now, actually.”

He let out a low laugh even as his brain bombarded him with the memory of how she’d looked when she let go for him, how she’d clutched him close, as if she needed to assure herself that he was right there. And he remembered her eyes when she burst, those usually sharp brown eyes losing focus, practically rolling up in her head as she’d come hard.

And great. Now he was hard. He needed another shower.

“So where’s Stone?” she asked, looking around.

“He already left.”

She blinked. “I thought he needed a co-guide.”

“That would be me.” He paused, studying her face. “I thought you knew.”

“No.”

“Still interested?”

She didn’t answer for the longest sixty seconds of his life.

“I guess it’s fitting,” she finally said. “After all, I do owe you.”

“I like the sound of that, but it’ll have to wait, since we have an audience.”

She both blushed and laughed, and then met his gaze. “I meant about the backpack. And thank you, by the way, it’s perfect.”

He reached for her hand, ran his thumb over her knuckles. “Glad you like it.”

“You knew I would, but it wasn’t necessary. You’ve already done so much-”

“No tab.”

“So you’ve said,” she murmured. “But…”

“But what?”

“But you’re the one who keeps giving. Your time, your expertise, your resources…”

“Anything. Anything you need.”

“Now, see, that,” she said softly. Looking confused and a little anxious to boot. “I don’t get it. Because in return, I don’t give you anything. I mean I drive you crazy, I’m sure, but that doesn’t count.”

He shook his head. Then let out a low laugh and nodded. “Okay, yeah, you drive me crazy,” he admitted. Hell, he’d told her as much. “But you also make me laugh. You make me feel good. And sometimes, Harley, when you think I’m not paying attention, you look at me like…”

“Like what?” she whispered.

“Like I’m worth something to you.”

“TJ.” She stared at him, her eyes two fathomless pools he could have drowned in. “You always have been.”

Simple words. Simple sentiment. Both went straight through him and warmed him in a way he hadn’t realized he needed warming. “And you wonder what you give me,” he murmured, reaching for her. But the front door on the lodge opened, and his clients came out to sit on the porch.

“Is that them?” Harley asked incredulously.

“Yeah.” They were trust-funders and sorority sisters. Ranging in age from nineteen to twenty-one, all some form of bottle blond, and in spite of his firm and absolute instructions to wear comfortable outdoor weather gear, they wore string bikinis, short shorts, and enough coconut oil to grease the entire WWE.

He’d read their files. They were skating through Cal Berkeley on their daddies’ dimes. They claimed that this trip was a “back to nature” trek, and that they were matching the price of Wilder Adventure’s fee toward a suitable “outdoor” charity to be named later.

He hoped that was true.

Annie was serving each of them a mimosa, per their request. She looked like she was battling either morning sickness or an aversion to their discussion, which was currently stuck on the party they’d all been to the night before last, where three out of the four of them had “scored.”

Jesus. He was getting old. He and Harley headed toward Nick, and the three of them moved to the porch together. TJ introduced Harley as his co-guide and photographer.

The girls-Shelly, Tandy, Lani, and no shit, Kitty-eyed Harley with varying degrees of disinterest.

“We’re not that much trouble, TJ,” Kitty murmured. “You could handle us on your own.”

Harley turned to TJ and gave him a look that he wasn’t sure he wanted to interpret. “How about it, TJ? Want to…‘handle’ them on your own?”

Shelly-or was it Tandy-smiled. “We’ll be good, very good.”

Harley was still looking at TJ as she deadpanned, “Yeah, TJ, they’ll be good.”

“Excuse us a moment,” he said to the girls. “While I confer with my co-guide.” He grabbed Harley’s wrist just as she started to back off the porch.

No way in hell was she getting away.

“Nick will get you loaded,” he said over his shoulder. “Harley and I need a quick meeting.” He tugged her into the lodge and shut the door.

“Aw, they’re sweet,” Harley said as he tugged her through the main reception area and down the hall, walking fast enough that she had to run to keep up with him. “You can save all that money you were going to pay me and-”

“I’ll be saving nothing. I need the bodyguard.”

Her eyes went to his body. “A bodyguard,” she said doubtfully.

“You have no idea. They tend to think the guide comes as part of the trip. It’s awkward to fight ’em off.”

“Yeah, right. Are we really having a meeting?”

“Yes.” Right past the kitchen was a small pantry/storage area.

He opened the door and pushed Harley in ahead of him.

Harley turned in the small closet area to face TJ. “You always have meetings in here?”

He shut them in, gripped her hips, and backed her up against the door, pressing his lower body to hers, hard.

Apparently he was done talking.

And she promptly lost her ability to think clearly. Hell, she’d given up thinking clearly when she’d first parked and saw him. His look was your basic Gorgeous Alpha Outdoor Guy. Sturdy boots, cargo pants that fit across his butt perfectly, lightweight tech jersey-which looked and fit like a standard tee but was a quick drying, thin, webbed material that clung to his broad-as-a-mountain shoulders-and dark shades. He’d shoved those to the top of his head, revealing a slight sunglasses tan line on his temples and sharp green eyes, which softened whenever he looked at her.

He was drop-dead sexy.

He made her lose control, every single time. She couldn’t even think about it without feeling a rush of heat to her very core. It shocked her, what he could do to her with a simple kiss or touch. If they ever actually got completely naked together, she’d probably go up in flames.

Hell, she might go up in flames right there, the way he had her up against the door. “I take it the meeting is called to order?”

“Yeah. Take notes.” He slid a hand down her back, her thighs, then back up again, pausing to squeeze her bottom with a rough groan before settling a hand at the small of her back to hold her close.

She wanted to wrap her legs around his waist.

“God, Harley. I’ve been on the edge for some time now, and nothing’s worked. Don’t ask me why or how, but being with you works.”

Yeah. Her, too. At least when their tongues were tangling.

“You have a way of getting beneath my skin,” he said softly, spreading his fingers wide on her lower back so that the very tips of them slid beneath the waistband of her pants.

“Something else we agree on,” she said a little breathlessly, extremely distracted by those fingers. “But you’re leaving next week,” she whispered, more to herself than him. “For Alaska. Two jobs in a row. That’s like three months.”

He put a finger under her chin and nudged it up to look into her eyes. “Maybe. And eventually you’re leaving, too. Colorado, remember?”

He was a wanderer at heart, and she was hoping to become one. “I remember.” When he nuzzled his face into her hair, she closed her eyes. “So what are we doing?”

“Not sure, but it feels damn good.”

“Temporarily.”

His mouth worked its way over her jaw. “Sometimes temporarily is all there is,” he murmured against her lips.

It wasn’t a question, but he was asking her something, and she knew what. “You think we could do that?” she asked. “Get involved, then walk?”

“We’re not asking me. We’re asking you.”

Right. He’d made a living out of temporary. But she never had. And yet with him, this…thing, this desperate needy thing, she didn’t want to walk away from, not yet. “I have been wanting to expand my horizons,” she finally said.

A heated smile was her reward, then a gentle bite on her lower lip, which made her gasp. Taking full advantage, he slid his tongue to hers.

The shuddery moan that drifted to her ears was her own, she realized, dazed, as he pulled her shirt from her pants so that he could get beneath to bare skin, both of them sighing with pleasure when he did. He hooked his fingers in her bra and gently tugged the cups down, rasping his thumbs over her nipples, groaning into her mouth when they hardened for him.

She would have collapsed to the floor, but he had a hard thigh between hers holding her up, which was a good thing, because then he shoved up her shirt, bent his head, and took her into his mouth.

Her head fell back and smacked the door. One of his hands slid up her back and cupped her head, protecting it as he worked her breast, teasing her nipple with his teeth, then sucking it between the roof of his mouth and his tongue, hard.

Plastered between his body and the door, she cried out his name, and her mind and body began a countdown to implosion. Her hands were all over him, reaching whatever she could, beneath his shirt, his pecs, his shoulders, his biceps, digging in when he nibbled his way to her other breast.

“God, Harley,” he whispered hoarsely against her skin. “You’re so beautiful. You taste so good. I want-I need-to taste the rest of you.”

He already had her writhing against him, so she was pretty much putty in his hands as he kissed her neck and reached for the button on her pants.

She needed her mouth on him, too. Now. Hell, at that moment, with him sliding a hand inside her underwear to squeeze a bare butt cheek, she’d have happily said yes to anything he wanted.

To everything he wanted.

Someone banged on the door right behind her head, and she nearly went into heart failure.

“TJ.” It was Nick. “The natives are getting restless.”

TJ took his mouth off Harley’s throat but left one hand on her breast, the other in her pants. “Give them another mimosa.”

“Another mimosa and you’ll be carrying them to their kayaks.”

His thumb brushed over her nipple, and she had to bite her lip hard to keep from making a sound. “Five minutes,” TJ told Nick, watching Harley’s face.

They heard Nick’s sigh, and then silence.

Harley hadn’t moved. She’d held herself still as need and panic pulsed through her veins instead of blood.

“Breathe,” TJ murmured, smoothing back her hair to press his mouth to the sensitive skin beneath her ear when she gulped in a breath.

He nibbled at her earlobe, his arms tightening on her as he continued assaulting her senses, one hand sliding farther into her panties. He had long arms, and she understood that was a bonus as he reached even farther, and then farther still. And when he found her wet and ready, he groaned deep in his throat.

“TJ,” she gasped when he slid one of those long fingers inside her. “We can’t-”

He added another finger, gliding them in and out of her, using the wet pads of those fingers to graze over ground zero.

As unbelievable as it was, she felt her toes curl. She was going to go over for him. “TJ,” she choked out, trying to squeeze her legs together to prevent it, but he had a thigh between hers, holding her open as he stroked her. God. “It’s your turn-I can’t-TJ!”

“Christ, I love the sound of my name on your lips,” he murmured, kissing said lips, taking her lower one between his teeth and tugging just enough to have her hiss out a breath. “Say it again,” he demanded softly as he gently but firmly stroked her, and when she helplessly complied, moaning his name, he smiled roughly against her. “Yeah, like that.” He grazed her nipple again, watching from beneath hooded eyes as hers drifted shut in pleasure.

They flew open again when he dropped to his knees.

“Wait! What are you-”

“Just relax. This will only take a few minutes.” When his hands tugged her pants to her thighs, her hands went to his hair. She meant to tug him up, even tightened her fingers in the silky strands to do so, but then he pushed her thighs open as much as he could with her pants at half mast. “You’re so wet,” he whispered, and glided a thumb over her, opening her up for him.

“TJ,” she managed, but then he leaned in and kissed her, there, using his tongue in the exact right rhythm her body needed.

He knew her body better than she did.

It should have shocked her, but she couldn’t obsess over that at the moment because he was making slow stroking motions, holding her hips still for his ministrations, his mouth hot as he sucked and bit, feeding her into a desperate frenzy, and she felt her body tighten, felt every single muscle clenching in sweet agony.

His hair was falling over his forehead as he gave her his fierce, full attention, and unbelievably, as she watched him, she felt the first shudder hit her. “TJ,” she cried out, shocked, overwhelmed that he’d been able to get her there again, right there on the edge.

“You taste as good as I thought you would.” Then he sucked her into his mouth, nudging her right over that edge, and she exploded.

She was halfway back to earth when the knock came again.

“Goddammit, TJ!” came Nick’s hushed voice. “Annie’s going to kill one of those silly girls if you don’t hurry! She’s blaming Not-Abigail.”

“Coming.” TJ cocked his head up at Harley, grinning at the double meaning.

Harley was still leaning against the door, unable to move. TJ righted her clothes for her while she just stood there breathing like a lunatic, shaky as hell. When he’d finished, he leaned into her again, forearms flat on the door on either side of her head, and with his mouth against hers, smiled, eyes warm. “Hi.”

Her lids felt heavy but she managed to look at him. “Hi.”

His hips were pinned to hers, pushing against her so that she could feel every solid inch of what was waiting for her, if they ever got that far. “I can’t believe you-that I-” She closed her eyes again and shook her head, desperately trying to slow her racing heart and put a thought together. “I’ve never been like this, you know. Never have been able to-”

“You’ve never come with a man before?”

Her eyes flew open and she met his steady, patient gaze. “No, I have. Of course I have, I just…not this easily.” She squeezed her eyes shut again. “It’s a problem.”

He frowned as he ran his thumb along her jaw. “Problem?”

“Every time you touch me, I…” She grimaced.

He smiled. “Come?”

“Yes!” She took a drag of air. “You have to stop that.”

“I don’t think I can.”

“You have to! It’s your turn!”

His eyes darkened. “Ever since you told me about that night at Long Lake, I’ve racked my brain trying to remember it, trying to make sure I didn’t hurt you, that your first time was memorable, and I can’t.” He shoved his fingers into his hair, standing there, arms up, taut and strained. “It’s been killing me.”

She gaped at him. “So is that what this has been? You trying to make it up to me?”

He didn’t answer but she saw the truth in his gaze, the soft regret, the heat and desire, and even more devastating, the affection, and it did the unexpected.

It softened her.

For once he seemed unable to read her. He was quietly watching her, and when she didn’t speak, he rubbed his bristly jaw to hers. “Are you okay?”

Funny, but she was. Maybe even better than okay. Sure, this probably was going to end in heartbreak, but that was for the future. She’d always lived for the damn future and she was tired of that. For once she was going to live in the moment.

And enjoy every single second of it.

At least for the next week anyway. Putting her hands to his biceps, she turned them, pressed him to the door, cupping his face to brush her mouth over his jaw. She was trying to find the words to tell him how okay she was, that he had nothing to make up for, but found herself distracted by how his body felt held between the door and hers, how deliciously hard he was.

Everywhere.

Her hands slid down his chest and he groaned. She kept moving, over his belly, heading for gold.

“Goddammit, TJ!” came Nick’s voice through the door. “I’ve been out there alone for fifteen minutes. Those girls have grabbed me at least twice, and I think Annie went looking for her gun.”

“Fuck.” TJ let out a long, shuddery breath and straightened, jaw tight. “Ready?” he asked Harley.

“I am.” She glanced down at the huge bulge in front of his cargoes. “But I don’t know about you.”

“Baby, if I was any more ready, I’d bust out of my skin.” He closed his eyes. “Now don’t talk to me for a minute. I’ve got to picture somebody’s grandma naked.”

She heard the laugh burst out of her as his words bathed over her, infusing her with a power she’d never felt before. She’d never been sexually aggressive, so when she found herself reaching out and running a finger over his zipper, and the hot length beneath it, she shocked herself.

A sound of raw desire tore from deep in his throat. “Harley.”

She did it again.

With another one of those sexy growls, he grabbed her wrist and gulped some air in. “Not helping.” He opened the door and gently shoved her out in front of him. “Go.”

She looked at him over her shoulder, and he groaned again, squeezing his eyes shut.

She felt another surge of that power and confidence, and unable to hold it back, she smiled.

He took it in and helplessly matched it. “Killing me here, Harley. Killing me.”