He ignored her, dipping his head until his lips were just a whisper away from her ear. The plaster of the hallway was cool against her naked back, but she wasn’t cold. She couldn’t be. Ace had one hand planted on the wall on either side of her face, and his lean frame blocked her front, not touching, but oh, so close.

  “Letting someone take care of you doesn’t make you any less self-sufficient.” His breath fanned over her ear, and she couldn’t hold back the shiver.

  “And you…like to…take care of people?” God, was that her voice? It was low, husky with desire. Completely inappropriate.

  This was a bad idea. A bad, bad idea. Where had the severe, untouchable Ace that she knew gone?

  I don’t care.

  “I’d like to take care of you,” Ace growled before nipping at her earlobe. Piper couldn’t hold back the moan.

  He ghosted his mouth over the curve of her jaw then the super sensitive skin of her lips. She quivered under the feather-light touch, opening for the kiss that she craved.

  Instead, Ace eased back, placing space between them. Abruptly he turned away from her, scrubbing his hands over his face before seeming to come to a decision. He held out a hand for her. Confused, she let him tug her down the hallway toward her door, digging her heels into the industrial carpeting once there.

  “What the hell was that?” Tugging her hand free, Piper placed her fists on her hips. “Are you just teasing me? Going to poke fun at me tomorrow for being all over you?”

  Ace just stared at her for a moment—she was pretty sure she’d shocked him, but she had no idea why. Finally, a dark laugh escaped his throat, and those granite eyes locked with her own.

  “I find this situation anything but amusing.” He closed the distance until there was nothing more than a slender ribbon of space between them. “I don’t get tempted…ever. And yet, ever since you kissed me today, all I can think about is what you’d look like with your legs wrapped around my neck.”

  He did not just say that.

  “Jesus, Ace.” Piper’s mouth went dry, and she ran the tip of her tongue over her lower lip. His eyes tracked the movement intently, and she felt a surge of moisture between her legs. “How the hell are we supposed to work together tomorrow?”

  “No idea.” Sucking in a deep breath, he pressed his forehead to hers. “All I know is that I want you.”

  Against every shred of good sense that she possessed, Piper felt her knees weaken. That wasn’t fair. Saying things like that while he stood there looking all smoldering and delicious—how was she supposed to put up a fair fight?

  Danger, danger.

  “I…” Closing her eyes, Piper stretched out a hand for the last shreds of self-control in her arsenal. “It’s a bad idea. A really, really bad idea.”

  I can’t give in. I won’t.

  “It’s a horrible idea,” Ace agreed, and when she opened her eyes the feral glint in his eyes had her pulse stuttering. “But right now, when I can see your pulse beating at the skin of your throat? When I can see the flush on your skin and know that it’s because of me? I don’t care.”

  “Ace.” Piper’s voice was weak. “If we do this, it will be really hard to go back to what we usually are.”

  “And what are we, usually?” Ace’s voice held no trace of the humor she’d expect during this absolutely bizarre conversation. No, he was completely serious.

  Serious about seducing her.

  “Pains in each other’s asses.” She smirked, only too happy to try to lighten the intensity that weighed down the air between them. The smile slipped from her lips as he clasped her around the waist and dipped her back, forcing her to hold on tight.

  Oh, swoon.

  Who knew that the sexy doc had these kinds of moves in his arsenal?

  “I want you. But I need you to understand what this is before it happens.” Supporting her weight with one hand splayed over her back, Ace used the index finger on the other to trace over her lips. The touch moved down, painting a line on the column of her neck.

  Before this happens?

  His fingers on her skin made her shudder, but she still found herself aggravated by his words. Yet another person making a decision for her?

  No, thanks. No matter how much her body wanted him.

  “I certainly do.” Her sarcasm held little weight as she melted into his touch.

  Slowly, Ace brought them back up to a standing position. Holding her gaze, he cupped one of her wrists in his long, capable fingers, then the other. He tugged gently, emphasizing that he held her captive with his touch.

  “I don’t think that you do.” He lifted those bound wrists until they were held together in front of him. The sight of those hands on her skin, hands that had saved lives, had her pulse drumming against her rib cage.

  “What do you mean?”

  He paused, and she could see an inner battle reflected in his eyes. Then his jaw clenched, and he jerked her forward, pressing her breasts against his body. She hadn’t been able to wear a bra with the backless silk, and the material abraded her nipples as she pressed against his solid form, teasing them into peaks.

  “Let me make it clear. I don’t just want to fuck you. I want to own you.” He smiled darkly, wickedly, and her pulse picked up steam yet again.

  Holy. Shit.

  Piper felt as though her skin had been dipped in molten gold—she was hot, so hot, every possible inch on fire. What the hell did he mean?

  “What the hell do you mean, own me?” She blurted the words before she fully thought them through. They surprised her; they also seemed to surprise Ace, who barked out a startled laugh, though the heat still simmered in his eyes.

  “I mean that while you’re with me, I’ll take everything you have to give, and then I’ll take more still.” He exhaled slowly, his breath warm on her skin.

  Heat flared even as the rational part of her brain screamed to be heard.

  “Rumor has it that you don’t keep the women you own for very long.” Her words were harsher than she intended, but for some reason she didn’t much care for the thought of those other women.

  The intent on Ace’s face faded quickly, replaced by blankness.

  “I don’t.” He shook his head. “There won’t ever be more than sex between us. I need to make that perfectly clear right now. It’s probably enough to make a woman like you run.”

  “Excuse me?” Piper’s face folded into an instant glare. God, how was this man so hot and also such an ass? “What makes you think I want more than that? You’ve got moves, Doc, but you’re not irresistible. I’m a big girl. I can handle myself.”

  “Dr. Dawson, you’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen. But you have innocence embedded right into your skin.” He smirked, and Piper hissed out a breath.

  Why was it so hard to believe that a woman couldn’t have sex without wanting more? Was it because Ace knew that she’d dated Estevan?

  If anything, that doomed relationship experiment had just cemented her ideals. She was never going to be tied down again—not by a place, not by a person.

  She’d show him.

  “I see I’m going to have to force your hand.” Piper tugged at her captive wrists. He held her a moment longer than was necessary, and knowing she was at his mercy—at least during sex—had heat settling in the depths of her belly.

  But she couldn’t let him win. She tugged again, and he finally let her go. Knowing it would piss him off, she turned toward her apartment, then looked over her shoulder and beckoned with one finger.

  “Earlier today, you said that you’d give me anything. This is what I want. One night with you, to get it out of our systems.” He wasn’t the type of man who came when called, or who enjoyed being manipulated, and she could see the banked anger in him. Continuing the last few feet to her door, she held her breath, wondering if he would come, or if she had pushed it too far.

  She had her keys in the doorknob, the door open a crack, when she heard his steps, firm on the carpet behind her. She gasped as he spun her around, then slid his hands up under her skirt to clasp the curves of her ass. He lifted her as if she weighed no more than a child—and she really, really did—and before she could even take another breath, her legs were around his waist, and her back was pressed against the door on the inside of her apartment.

  “Well, then. This seems pretty clear. I want you. You want me. What are we waiting for?” Ace held perfectly still. His breath rasped in and out, mingling with her own. He flexed his hips, and Piper’s sex clenched when the evidence of his arousal worked against the damp heat between her legs. “Be sure.”

  “Oh, I’m sure.” Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she dug her nails into the muscles of his back. He hissed at the sting, then crushed his mouth to hers. Triumph surged as he immediately demanded entry to her mouth with a thrust of his tongue, sweeping inside to claim and conquer.

  Piper responded, meeting his tongue with her own. She arched her pelvis into his, savoring the knowledge that he was hard like this for her. She squirmed against him, desperate to get closer even as the heat they generated sealed them together.

  Her mind was full of flashes of brightly colored light. This…oh God, what had she been waiting for? Yet she knew, somehow she knew, that this riot of sensations wasn’t just because of the physical act itself.

  No, it was because she was with Ace.

  “More,” she demanded, rocking against him again. Ace slid her down his body in response, his fingers tugging the ties at the back of her dress at the same time.

  The top of the dress fell, leaving her breasts completely exposed. She shivered when Ace growled, then palmed both mounds, squeezing tight.

  “Fuck.” He stroked his hands over her flesh, and she arched into the touch. When he reached her nipples, the firm strokes tightened, and he plucked at the rosy tips with a touch that bordered on painful.

  She cried out, and he stopped. She growled, and he continued, but this time his caress was designed more to tease than torture.

  “If at any time you don’t like what we’re doing, you just say so, okay? Nice and clear.” He rolled his fingers, then tugged again, as if testing. Piper felt her body come alive under the spark of pain.

  “Are you saying you don’t think I can handle it rough?” On the contrary. She was rapidly discovering that the harder his touches were, the more she liked them.

  He stopped completely, and she hissed. He arched a brow, a look of warning on his face.

  “I’m talking about anything. Anything that we do.”

  “Trying to scare me off?” She wasn’t scared, not really, but the severity of his expression sent a small frisson of apprehension skittering down her spine.

  What did he have in mind?

  “You should be scared.” Gaze locked with hers, Ace lowered his hands from her breasts. He traced over the softly rounded plane of her stomach, then slid his hands inside the bottom half of her dress. One swift tug and it was down, pooling around her ankles. “I wasn’t joking when I said that I wanted to own you.”

  As always, his cockiness irritated the hell out of her, even as heat surged between her thighs. As she wrestled with the choice between telling him to go to hell and just shoving him down and getting on with things already, his eyes widened.

  “Sweet Jesus. Why aren’t you wearing any underwear?” Grabbing her hips, he lifted her free of the dress pooled around her ankles then made no effort to hide his interest in her center. “Have you been walking around like that all evening?”

  God, but catching this controlled man off-guard was just…awesome. She smirked up at him.

  “I never wear underwear.”

  Ace closed his eyes, his jaw working. She eyed him curiously.

  “What are you doing?”

  He slit open one eye. “Counting to ten. Otherwise I’ll push you too far too fast and you’ll run screaming in the night. And I can’t let you do that before I feel you come on my cock.”

  Sweet Jesus, indeed.

  “Get it through your head, Dr. Lennox. I’m not running anywhere.” She mimicked his arrogance, even though she was trembling like the surface of a lake on a windy day.

  He moved like lightning. She squealed when he again picked her up, cradling her against his chest. She felt cherished as well as desired. It was an entirely new sensation for her, and her pulse beat in double time.

  “What are you doing?” Nerves added to the potent mix as Ace effortlessly carried her across her small apartment to the large window that broke up the wall of the living room. He traced his lips along the curve of her neck as he slowly slid her down his body, then spun her to face the glass.

  “You just informed me that you never wear underwear. Guess what that means?” One at a time, Ace lifted her hands and pressed them palm down against the clear surface.

  “Easy access?” A hand at the small of her back eased her forward until her naked breasts were against the cool glass. She shivered as she noted the delicious contrast between the cold pane and the heat of her skin.

  She yelped at a sharp slap on her hip. Oh, hell no. Had he just spanked her?

  Indignation was on her lips, but the heat between her thighs incinerated it to ash.

  “What it means is that tomorrow, when we’re in the emergency room, I’m going to have a big problem.” Ace delivered another smack, this time over the curve of her right ass cheek, and she couldn’t hold back either the cry, or the moan that followed it.

  She shouldn’t like this. It shouldn’t make her hot. Yet her body was responding like he was giving her something that she’d craved her entire life.

  “Every time that we cross paths tomorrow, every time I see you in those little blue scrubs, I’m going to know that you’re not wearing any panties.” Ace pressed himself against her, his front to her back, and circled his hips. The steel of his cock pressed into the small of her back, and her nipples pebbled against the glass in response. “Every time I see you, I’m going to think about how easily I could have you. How I could just lower those scrubs and take you, anywhere, anytime.”

  “I—” Whatever she was going to say lodged in her throat as Ace placed his hands on her hips and dragged them on a slow, intentional trail up the sides of her torso. The curve of her waist, the stripes of her ribs…he woke nerves everywhere he touched, making her press instinctively back against him.

  “Ace…Ace, I want—”

  His hand slid from the side of one plump breast to lightly tug her hair, making her gasp.

  “No talking.” His voice was lined with a different kind of steel, a tone that she couldn’t help but respond to. “No thinking. Just feel.”

  She should have been mad at that—he wanted her to shut her mouth? Seriously?

  But…everything he’d done so far had felt so damn good.

  She could always talk tomorrow. Once they’d gone their separate ways.

  Piper couldn’t hold back a moan as he pressed his lips to the nape of her neck. He trailed hot kisses down her spine, adding in little nips and licks that left her panting.

  When he reached the base of her rib cage, he actually growled.

  “Where do you sunbathe?” His fingers stroked over the place her bathing suit usually covered.

  She stayed silent, and he chuckled darkly.

  “Good girl.” He continued to run his fingers over her skin, spanning her waist. “These tan lines drove me crazy all night. So fucking sexy. And the thought of some other man seeing you in whatever tiny thing you were wearing to get these?”

  Without warning, he moved a hand between her legs, sliding his fingers between them. She pushed against him, desperate for him to slide them inside—for something, anything to relieve the pressure she felt there.

  Instead he found the swollen nub of her clit, circling it as he dropped fully to his knees behind her.

  “Yeah, you’ve got lots of sexy little secrets.” Circle, circle. Piper stiffened with the pleasure coiling inside of her. She didn’t have to think about his order now—obeying was all she could do.

  “No panties. Tan lines. It’s going to take everything I have to stay focused on the job tomorrow. I think you need something to think about, too.”

  To Piper’s absolute shock, Ace sank his teeth into the curve of her hip, hard enough to leave a mark. She hissed against the bite of pain, which quickly mixed with the insane amount of pleasure that rocketed through her.

  “I’m going to fuck you right here. Right against the window.” His tongue soothed the sore spot even as her mind revolted. “This is a busy neighborhood. Someone is bound to walk by. Do you think they’ll stop to watch?”

  Oh God, oh God. Piper knew she should speak up, should tell him no. She didn’t want that.

  Except…the idea of some nameless, faceless stranger watching as Ace claimed her?

  It made her weak in the knees with need.

  “You’re thinking again.” Ace palmed the globes of her ass in his big, capable hands, separating them and at the same time bending her at the waist to give him more access. “I see I’m going to have to distract you from that.”

  She gasped as he spun her around, the cool glass pressing against her shoulder blades as he opened her wide, exposing her most intimate places. But when he dipped between her spread thighs and slowly worked his tongue inside her dripping core, her thoughts incinerated in an explosion of white that sparked behind her eyes.

  “Aah.” She couldn’t have formed a coherent sentence to save her life. Rearing back at the sudden onslaught of sensation, she pressed against the slick glass, searching for something to support her as Ace took her over.

  Never. She’d never felt anything like this—an all-consuming sensation that she simultaneously hated and loved.

  At her feet, Ace used his thumbs to spread her wide. Pulling from her tight channel, he swiped the flat of his tongue over her clit, through her heat, then worked it in again.

  Her hands slipped limply off the glass, grabbing him by the hair, holding him tight. His laugh vibrated through her flesh, and a painful noise escaped from her throat.

  One of his fingers worked inside, then a second while he freed his tongue. She whimpered at the loss, then cried out as he rocked those fingers back and forth.

 

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