Sacrifice (4 page)

“Are you staying all night?” he
asked her as he opened the kitchen door for her and stood aside.

“Not this time,” she said, her
voice soothing, compassionate. “I need to get back to D.C. by morning. I have a
luncheon I can’t miss.”

He shook his head. His mother had
her fingers in too many organizations and charities for him to keep track of.
She was a political dynamo, and he hoped Madison realized the gem he had in
her. If Carolyn had her way, she would see the Senator standing in the
Presidential wings. He just hoped she knew what the hell she was doing.

He escorted her to the front of the
house and out to the limo awaiting her. Kissing her cheek, he saw her into the
back of the car and watched as she rode away. She had brought the seeds of his
destruction with the information on Kimberly and the threat endangering her.
God help them both, he didn’t know how the hell he was going to keep his hands
off her.

“Matthews, you and Adams have days,
Lowell and Danford can take nights,” Kimberly informed the four men as they
were escorted by Jared’s housekeeper to their individual rooms. The men were
downstairs, Kimberly was upstairs. Right next door to Jared.

“Will do, Kimberly.” David Matthews
nodded his dark head solemnly, his puppy dog eyes smiling back at her. “Lighten
up, we shouldn’t be here long. Raddington doesn’t seem the type to really like
company.”

Kimberly snorted. Jared had stopped
just shy of rude when they drove in that morning.

“What the hell an ex-Special Forces
soldier needs us for, I have no idea. He didn’t look like he had grown lazy,”
Tim Adams grumped as he tossed his suitcase on one of the two double beds that
filled the large bedroom.

The agents’ rooms were connected,
two to a room, at the back of the house. The rooms were airy and comfortable,
but not exactly homely. Jared evidently wasn’t one to encourage overnight
guests.

“He’ll get used to it.” She
shrugged as though unconcerned, but it bothered her as well.

Jared was considered one of the
best soldiers in the Special Forces when he retired after his father’s death.
His record was impeccable, his mission successes rated at ninety-nine percent.
He could take out all five of the bodyguards sent to protect him, and likely
take on a full assassination team with the advanced notice he had been given.

She focused instead on the four men
she had been assigned. She was aware that Jared had approached her father in
regards to what he considered suitable for a husband for Kimberly. Senator
Madison had been extremely derogatory when he relayed that information to her.

As though I would consider him
,he had told her, derision thickening his voice.
You need restraint,
Kimberly, not a man as deviant as you more than likely are yourself.

Deviant. He had no idea, she
thought in smug satisfaction as she wondered if he had any idea how effectively
she had sidestepped the Trust’s conditions. Anal sex might not be the most
satisfying act, but it eased the fury and the tension that drove her.

But he knew Jared’s interest in her
now, and she knew how the Senator worked. One of the men with her was sent, not
to guard anything, but to report back to the Senator instead.

“Keep your eyes open and keep me
updated,” she told the four as they watched her now. “I’ll get unpacked and
meet you back down here for dinner. The housekeeper said it’s five sharp, no
later. Let’s try not to disturb his routine too severely.”

She actually preferred to make
certain they didn’t disturb Jared at all; he hadn’t looked pleased with their
presence.

Taking a deep breath, she moved
down the hall to the back stairs and climbed them quickly to return to her own
room. It was on the far side, a small suite with a large queen bed that looked
so damned inviting she wanted nothing more than to sink into it. She had spent
nearly a week with little sleep and it was making her sluggish. She couldn’t
afford not to have her wits about her on this job.

She closed the door behind her,
locking it automatically as she moved through the small sitting room and into
the much larger bedroom. The deep forest green carpet cushioned her feet as she
kicked her sneakers off her feet and moved them to the side of the door.

Her suitcase sat on the large
rosewood trunk at the bottom of the bed, opened invitingly, her gown lying on
the top of her serviceable clothing. Closing the lid to the case, she stared
around the room silently. The dark cherry wood furniture made the room seem
warmer, comforting. This room was meant to pleasure, to soothe, and it did that
far too well.

“Do you like the room?”

Kimberly jumped in surprise as she
turned, facing the door on the opposite side of the room that Jared had managed
to open without a sound.

Her breath caught at the swift
punch of desire that contracted her womb and sent heat spreading through the
vulnerable flesh between her thighs. She could feel the thick, warm juice spilling
along the folds there, preparing her for him, making her ache all the more.

He looked good enough to eat.
Leaning against the doorframe, his muscular arms crossed over his chest, his
gaze somber as he watched her. His gray eyes were stormy, the color flowing and
ever-changing as tension thickened the air around them.

“It’s beautiful.” She cleared her
throat, hiding her grimace at the thick huskiness of her voice.

She was so weak. She pushed her
hands into the pockets of her jeans as she fought the need to touch him, to
taste his kiss again. Her heart was racing out of control, the blood pumping
furiously through her veins and echoing in the swollen bud of her clit.

Drawing in a deep breath, she
swallowed tightly as she watched his eyelids lower sensually. She could see the
sexual tension moving through his body. Darkening his eyes, swelling the front
of his jeans.

“You know this won’t work,” he
growled the words at her. “You, here, in this house. I couldn’t even keep from
putting you in the room beside mine, how much longer do you think it will be
before I have you in my bed, Kimber?”

Images too hot to escape flashed
through her mind. His hard body bare, perfect, muscles gleaming with sweat as
he came over her, his powerful thighs moving between hers…

“I didn’t want this. Not for you,
nor me.” She shook her head fiercely, fighting the temptation. And it was a
temptation. The need to go to him, to accept him and to forget the vow she had
made so long ago.

She remembered his kiss, dark and
intoxicating, the sensations whipping through her system as his lips dominated
hers, his tongue forging past hers to take possession of her mouth.

“I know you didn’t. And I know what
we’re both risking.” He straightened from the doorframe. “It’s why I’ve stayed
away from you. It’s why I jack off at night instead of kidnapping you and tying
you to my bed where I can fuck you at will. It’s why I think this is one of the
dumbest things I’ve ever done in my entire life.”

He gripped her shoulders, ignoring
her gasp as he pulled her against him, his head lowering.

She was caught. Helpless. God, he
tasted too good. Too hot and seductive. Her hands gripped his hard waist, her
lips opening for him as his tongue pressed past them, a groan vibrating from
his chest as she met it with her own.

This wasn’t a kiss. It was a
possession. It was a hunger, a temptation and an addiction. And she couldn’t
get enough. She wanted to wrap around him, to lose herself in the pleasure and
the heat that was Jared.

“God help us both,” he growled as
his lips tore free of hers, only to string nipping little kisses across her
jaw, along the line of her throat.

His arms were wrapped around her,
holding her still as he bent to her, his lips burrowing beneath the opened
neckline of her blouse to run his tongue over the smooth, swollen curves of her
upper breasts.

Her head fell back, helpless
against the pleasure, her muscles unable to hold her neck upright now as
streaking delight seared through her.

“Jared.” She arched to him, to his
touch.

Her nipples ached, throbbed for the
touch of his mouth. This was insanity. It was too much temptation, but it was
unlike anything else she had known. This wasn’t an urge, nor was it an exercise
in controlling the fury that sometimes built within her. This was a firestorm taking
over her body and her mind. Heat and lightning and a demand that he only fed as
his tongue licked over the lace edge of her bra.

“You taste as good as I knew you
would,” he groaned roughly. “Like sweet honeysuckle and summer heat. God help
us both, Kimber, I don’t think I can control the need to touch you, to taste
you.”

She had a week to remember this. A
week to regret, to need, to ache for even the simplest, smallest touch.

“Jared.” She fought to find her
breath, to speak past the clawing, brutal arousal rising in her body.

She couldn’t speak further,
couldn’t make anything more intelligent than a long, drawn out cry of
blistering hunger escape her throat as his lips managed to push the cup of her
bra aside enough to allow his tongue to rake the hardened point of her breast.

She went on her tiptoes then, her
hands holding his head, pressing him closer, harder to her.

“More,” she gasped as he licked
again. She wanted to feel his lips closing over her, drawing on her, sucking
the tight point into his mouth.

“I was going to stay away,” he
muttered gutturally. “I wasn’t going to taste. To touch…”

He lifted her against him, moving
her to the bed, laying her back against the comforter as he moved quickly to
her side. His lips covered hers again and the storm inside her body fed on the
growing hunger of his kiss.

Kimberly was only distantly aware
of his fingers at her blouse, tearing the buttons from their holes; his
calloused hands were sensually rough, demanding as he pushed the material aside
and quickly loosened the catch of her bra.

She couldn’t fight them both. She
was starved for this. This something that his touch held that no others ever
had. As though a stroke of his finger alone was a narcotic to her senses.

“Son of a bitch, I’ll go to hell
for this for sure.” There was no pausing between her lips and her pierced
nipples.

Kimberly’s back bowed, arching
tightly to him as a cry tore from her throat. His lips covered one aching tip
as his fingers went to the other. Nimble and hot, his tongue rasped over it as
his mouth drew on her, tugging at the little gold ring that pierced the center
of the elongated tip.

His fingers plucked at the other.
Pulling at the gold ring, sending shards of desperate, fiery heat flowing
through her body as her fingers gripped the fabric of his shirt, pulling at it,
eager to feel his skin against her.

This was the stuff of her dreams.
Jared overtaking her, forcing the pleasure from her body, giving her no time to
think, to fear.

“I want to touch you,” she moaned,
shuddering from the exquisite sensations ripping through her body. “Let me
touch you, Jared.”

He growled back at her. She didn’t
know if it was a yes or a no.

“Now.” She bucked against him,
pulling harder at the shirt.

“Fuck no.” His head rose from her
reddened nipple as his hands gripped her wrists, jerking them above her head
and holding them with one hand as he stared down at her, his gaze dark, sexual.
“Don’t touch me, Kimber. Not now. Not like this. I’ll end up doing something
we’ll both regret.”

Kimberly fought for breath.

“You can have me,” she whispered.
“Like Sax…”

She couldn’t deny him, not any
longer. She was too hungry, too wild for his touch. She had thought she could
hold herself aloof. Thought she could deny her need and his lusts, but she knew
now it wasn’t going to happen. This wasn’t just a need. It was a craving, an
addiction.

He stared down at her, his chest
rising and falling as quickly as hers, his face flushed with his arousal, with
his lusts. She could see the battle waging in his eyes, the desperate need for
anything she would offer, the knowledge it would never be enough.

“It’s all I have, Jared,” she
whispered painfully. “All I can offer.” But it wasn’t. Not really. She had the
heart she was terrified he already held.

His head lowered, his forehead meeting
hers as he stared into her eyes.

“Such a pretty little rear you
have,” he whispered, his voice suggestive, dark with lust. “Do you know how
many nights I’ve dreamed of you, Kimberly? How often I’ve lain awake hungry for
you?”

She licked her lips, weakening
desire washing through her body.

“I’m here,” she whispered.

His hand rose to her face, his
fingers smoothing over her cheek with a touch as soft as a whisper.

“Here you are,” he agreed. “And yet
you’re further away than you ever were.”

Kimberly watched in confusion as he
loosened her wrists and forced himself from her. And he did force himself. She
could see it in every line of his body, in the tight, angry grimace of his
mouth.

“What do you mean?” She shook her
head, pulling the edges of her shirt together as he rose from the bed and stood
staring at her from beside it.

It broke her heart, needing him as
she did and knowing she could never have him and keep the vow she had made to
herself and to her mother. A vow that was weighing down her soul more and more
by the day.

He shook his head shortly. “I have
to get the hell out of here before I take something you don’t want to give. And
that would only hurt both of us.”

Before she could speak, he stalked
through the connecting doorway, closing the door firmly between them.

“But I do want to give it to you,
Jared,” she whispered bleakly. “More than you know. More than you will ever
know.”