Unconditional Surrender Read online

  Fuck!

  He was afraid he’d come just from that taste of her alone. He was far from a novice where women were concerned. He’d had his share and probably someone else’s. He’d experimented with all kinds of erotic activities, but never, ever in his life had he been turned on the way he was with this woman, and he hadn’t even been inside her yet.

  “S-Slade?”

  “Yeah, sugar?”

  “I want you.”

  His laugh was low and guttural. “You have me.”

  “I mean, I want you inside me.”

  He’d hoped to hold off longer, to give her more orgasms before finally taking her completely, but her words snapped his control. In seconds he was off the bed, digging in his pants for his wallet and the condoms he’d stashed there with the hope that he’d get lucky. Damn! Lucky didn’t begin to even touch this.

  Then he was back between her thighs, condom in place. From the moment they’d walked inside her apartment he’d been determined not to fall on her like a starving maniac this time, but to take it slow and easy. To give her the maximum amount of pleasure. But fucking damn, it sure was hard. He took a moment to center himself, pulling in the frayed edges of his control so it wouldn’t be over before it had started. Then, with agonizing slowness, he eased himself into the hot clasp of her pussy, her liquid bathing him, her muscles clamping down on him.

  “Look at me,” he rasped. “Watch me, Kari.”

  She opened her eyes and stared at him with irises darkened to a deep forest green, little flecks of gold dancing in them. Slade braced himself on either side of her and began the slow, erotic glide in and out of her body, her inner muscles clutching at him with a fierce grip. Beneath him she shivered with anticipation. He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to go slowly, to maintain a steady pace, to not rush this.

  But she had other ideas.

  “Harder,” she urged him, hands clutching at his arms. “Do it harder, Slade. Just like before.”

  The first time he’d been inside her, he’d slammed into her so hard it had shaken them both. He remembered now how it had aroused her. He wanted to go slow this time, to make it last, but she was making it impossible. She wound her legs around him, crossing her ankles at the small of his back and pulling him tight to her body.

  Oh, fucking damn!

  The hot wet clutch of her inner walls milked his engorged cock, each movement dragging on it. And all his good intentions disappeared in a puff of invisible smoke. He drove into her time and again, slamming hard, rocking her, and she stayed with him thrust for thrust.

  “Yes,” she breathed in a raspy voice. “Yes. Like that. More. Harder.”

  He rode her, every drag and thrust sending sharp spikes of fire through his body. He was on the edge, his orgasm rising up from deep inside his body. The muscles at the base of his spine tightened and his balls drew up. Sliding one hand between them, he found her clit and pinched it between thumb and forefinger. Hard.

  “Oh, God!” she screamed.

  Every muscle in his body tightened as his control finally snapped. They climaxed together, bodies shaking with the intensity of it. His shaft pulsed inside her heat as he spurted again and again, until there was nothing left. He had emptied every bit of himself inside her. He leaned forward, catching his weight on his forearms, and studied her face. Her creamy skin was flushed with pleasure, her eyes slumberous. He wished he had a camera to capture her just like this, just at this moment.

  He brushed his mouth lightly over hers, then did it once more. Even that soft contact sent shards of pleasure stabbing through him. A shattering release had barely taken the edge off his need for her. Being with her transported him, cleansed him, washed away the clinging shroud of death and destruction that he faced. With her he could tuck away his battlefield persona and pull out the humanity he kept hidden away to do his job. It both amazed and scared him. Could their briefest of encounters have worked all this magic on him? It hardly seemed real.

  “I wonder if I’ll ever get enough of you.” The words were out of his mouth before he realized it.

  Her eyes widened. “Slade?”

  Had he scared her off? Damn.

  “Just tuck that away in a corner of your mind, okay?” Another light kiss. “Our night is just getting started.”

  He eased himself from her body to deal with the condom. Then he was back beside her, pulling her against him, her head nuzzled into the side of his neck. Sliding his hands beneath her, he stroked her back, tracing the length of her spine with his fingertips before dancing lower to follow the nicely rounded curve of her ass. With a lazy stroke he slipped them into that hot cleft, tracing its length, stopping briefly to press fingertips against the hot puckered little opening. God, he remembered the unbelievable feeling of his cock in that hot, dark tunnel, her screams as he’d dragged his cock slowly in and out, reaching hard for the control she robbed him of so easily. He squeezed one of the plump cheeks and she sighed, arching her hips for him, the curls covering her mound feathery soft against his renewing cock.

  He needed to take it easy, not go at her as if he were a sex-starved maniac. This time he wanted to draw everything out, make sure every moment gave her maximum pleasure. Maybe it was the desire to imprint himself on her so no other man would measure up. Whatever the reason, he had ten days to see where this went, ten nights for them to enjoy each other. He planned to spend as much of it with her as he could. Get to know her. They had a connection, and that scared the shit out of him. Men in his line of work were death to relationships, in more ways than one. He’d have to make sure she knew that.

  But not now. No, not yet. After this leave he’d figure out what to do next.

  “I never thought I’d see you again.” Kari murmured the words into the crook of his neck, her breath a soft puff of a breeze as she spoke.

  “Same goes.” He slid one hand up the soft arch of her thigh and around to her mouthwatering buttocks again.

  “Do you believe in fate?” she asked.

  He gave a short, rough laugh. “I didn’t think I did, but I may have to re-examine that position. Because if it wasn’t fate that brought us to both parties five years apart, I don’t know what it was.”

  “I don’t even know anything about you.” She wiggled against him as he continued to smooth his hand over her curves.

  “I could say the same.” He had to concentrate on what he was saying, because her reaction to his caresses was lighting a fire in his own body again. His cock, so recently depleted, was making its demand for attention known once more in what had to be the quickest recovery in his history.

  “No, you know I’m an assistant prosecuting attorney for Bexar County. You might not know it’s for the criminal trial division.”

  “I’m impressed.” And he was. She had to be sharp, intelligent and fearless to have won a spot on that staff. “Is that what you did in Chicago?”

  She wriggled against him, distracting him for the moment. Maybe he should hold off on the conversation until later. His body was certainly voting for that. But she was more than just a warm body to him. His interest was piqued and he had to satisfy it.

  “Yes.”

  “What made you move to San Antonio?” He wanted to find out what forces of the universe had brought them together again. Was it his imagination, or had she tensed beneath his touch? “Kari?” he prompted when she didn’t answer.

  “I needed a change of scenery.” She kept her face buried in his skin. “Change of direction. A change in…everything. I, uh, heard about the opening here and applied for it.”

  He sensed there was a lot more to it than that but he also knew this wasn’t the time to push it.

  “I’ve never seen you in court, but I’m guessing they’re damn lucky to get you.”

  She finally looked up at him and the corners of her full mouth turned up in a smile. “Thank you for saying that, but I think you might be biased.”

  “One of these days I’ll get to see you do your thing, though.” He
tucked a finger under her chin and tilted up her face. “Would that be okay with you?”

  “I think I’d like that.” She squirmed in his arms, her thighs bumping into his ever-swelling erection.

  She pushed herself up slightly. “Okay, you told me you’re Army. Are you stationed here? At one of the local bases?”

  “Not exactly. I’m based at Fort Bragg. In North Carolina.”

  “Oh.” She wrinkled her forehead. “Are you in some kind of special unit or something?”

  “You could say that.” He rubbed his jaw. “I’m Delta. Delta Force.” He didn’t usually tell that to the women he was with. Of course, the kind of women he’d chosen to be with weren’t the type he’d trust with anything more than his name.

  “So…a warrior.”

  “But with drawbacks.” He locked his gaze with hers. “I’m here for ten days this time, Kari. I’d like to spend as much time with you as I can.”

  She frowned. “What about the guys that are with you?”

  “I’ll work it out. Besides, I can spend time with them during the day when you’re working.” He traced the outline of her mouth with his finger. “But the nights belong to me. That work for you?”

  Heat flared in her eyes, a hungry look that made his erection swell to the point of pain. Jesus. He’d never get enough of this woman.

  She ran her tongue over her bottom lip. “Yes. It does.”

  He’d figure out how to handle it with his men. Meanwhile, he had other things on his mind.

  “Kari?”

  “Uh-huh?” Her words were soft and languorous.

  “I don’t suppose you keep any lengths of rope around here, so where do I find your scarves?”

  Chapter Five

  The man sat in his apartment, staring out of the window at the vista of downtown Chicago but not seeing it at all. In front of him his laptop sat open, the screen showing nothing at the moment. He lifted the rocks glass with his favorite Scotch splashed over ice and took a slow sip. Only the satisfying burn of the liquor coursing through his system allowed him to rein in his frustration.

  Where was that fucking little bitch? Where in the hell could she have gone? She’d disappeared like so much smoke in the air without a trace. He’d tried every legal site listed. He’d looked for legal journals and publications. Then, frustrated, he’d gone to every search engine he could think of with no results. Putting her name into them only brought up references to Chicago or her professional bio. Like him she had graduated from Northwestern and from Stanford Law School. She had become a bright shining star in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office under Ross Delahunt. There was plenty of press on the cases she’d tried and her spectacular record of success.

  He had watched her in the courtroom and seen the brilliance of her behavior first-hand. Juries were fascinated by her. She was always well-prepared when she tried a case, her evidence right on the money. Her interrogation of witnesses often had them squirming and her summations were nothing less than genius. He had admired her from a distance, until that no had longer satisfied him. No, he had to express his feelings. Carefully, he’d told himself. Don’t want to scare her off. He didn’t know if she was in a relationship or not. She was obviously a very private person. Nothing of that kind had turned up on his research and he couldn’t exactly ask people without raising eyebrows. Either way, however, he wanted to ease her into one with him.

  But nothing had worked. He’d managed to find out that she had not been impressed with his gifts. In fact, as the process had worn on, he’d heard she was actually afraid. She and Delahunt had called the police, for fuck’s sake. And all he had wanted was to woo her, to show her he cared so that when he revealed himself, she’d be happy about it.

  Perhaps he shouldn’t have broken into her apartment. But if he couldn’t touch her, he could at least touch her personal things. That, however, had tripped some kind of switch with her. Then breaking in at night, well, it had seemed he’d scared her to death. The next thing he’d known, she’d slip off the radar completely.

  She had to be working somewhere, he reasoned. She wasn’t independently wealthy. But how could she just disappear as if she’d never existed? It didn’t seem possible.

  He rose and went to his bedroom, opened one of the small top drawers in his dresser and took out the piece of silk. Her panties. He’d taken them from her apartment the first time he’d broken in. They were a pale lavender, bikini-style, edged with a narrow band of dark purple lace. Whenever he held them in his hands he imagined them on her body, the lace resting just above her mound, the rest of it covering her pussy. He wondered if she waxed. God, he’d give anything to see her bare, all that soft pink skin his for the tasting and touching.

  Now he lay on his bed, on top of the covers. He took off his shoes but left on his clothes. Very carefully he unzipped his fly and took out his cock. He rubbed the silken garment over it, becoming instantly excited.

  He closed his eyes and began to stroke himself, visualizing his love as if she were standing there before him. He moved his hand faster and faster, stroking himself harder, until he erupted, spilling his juice all over his hand. When he could move again, he lifted her silk panties, the feel of the fabric soft in his hands. He used them to clean himself, the delicate material so arousing against his skin he was afraid his cock would harden again. Finished at last, he rinsed them in his sink. He’d dry them and put them back so he would have them to use again.

  Chapter Six

  Kari opened her eyes to full sunlight slanting in through the windows and the warm body of a man curled around her. She couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. In Chicago she’d been too busy for far too long building her career as a prosecutor and establishing herself to be distracted by relationships. Then for the past two years she’d been so on edge because of her unknown stalker she had stopped bringing anyone home with her, even for a few hours. Or going to someone else’s place.

  Of course, if she were honest, the real reason was the one night with her then unknown lover. After that night, no man had been able to measure up. Hadn’t been able to make her body react as it had with him. Hadn’t been able to haunt her dreams. The stalker had just turned out to be an excuse she told herself.

  If she’d never seen Slade again, would she have continued to walk away from every other man?

  She smiled to herself. Good thing she didn’t have to.

  And good thing she’d moved hundreds of miles away from her phantom stalker. Army or not, Slade Donovan would not want to be bothered with a woman who had some crazy after her, disrupting her life. He wasn’t looking for that kind of entanglement. Of course, she didn’t know what kind he was looking for, so—

  “I can smell your brain burning from here.”

  The deep Texas drawl sent shivers through her and woke up every hormone in her system.

  “I’m not sure I have any energy left in any part of my body to burn,” she teased.

  “I’ll bet I could stir some up.” Slade brushed her hair away from her face and nipped the shell of her ear.

  That sent plenty of burn through her body, especially right there between her thighs. She squeezed them together, trying to still the insistent throbbing that had blossomed the moment he’d touched her.

  “Do you have someplace to be today?”

  When she tensed, every muscle in her body tightening, he slid his hand around and pulled her even closer to him. She could feel the soft curls of hair from his chest imprinting themselves on her back, the hard wall of muscle, the muscular thighs and, of course, most of all, an erection she was sure would win awards. That was a memory that hadn’t faded. In fact, it was even better than she remembered.

  “I was planning to spend it with you. I just need to call my guys first and make sure they’re set for the day.” His low voiced came from against her shoulder. He licked the outer shell of her ear before dropping his mouth to nip at the tender place where her neck and shoulder met. “I guess I should have
asked. Do you have things to do?”

  If she did, she was wiping them from her calendar. “No. I’m good.”

  “Yes, you are.” His deep voice rumbled. “Very good, as a matter of fact.”

  He slid his hand down over the swell of her stomach to her mound, slipping one finger between the lips of her cunt and sliding it lightly over her clit. The inner throbbing increased in intensity.

  “Oh.” The word escaped on a soft puff of air.

  She was more aware of the touch of him this morning, more conscious of everything. His fingers were strong, masculine and slightly calloused from whatever he did for the Army. The sensation of them abrading her skin with such an intimate touch sent shivers racing through her.

  Slade kept up a slow, gliding movement, adding another finger and rubbing on either side of her hot nub. She began to move her hips back and forth but Slade pressed his hand hard against her wet flesh, holding her still.

  “I think you need to learn about following orders.” His voice was thick with lust.

  He turned her over, arranging her on her stomach, sliding a pillow beneath her. If she was hot before, she was burning up now.

  “This good?” He bent down and put his lips close to her ear. “We did this in Chicago. You good to go again?”

  She nodded, so turned on she couldn’t speak. She remembered every bit of that night in vivid living color. Slade told her about a BDSM club he’d been to, said much of it wasn’t for him, but some things? Damn! They just turned him on. When he’d shown her, they’d turned her on too. She’d felt the imprint of his hand on her ass for weeks after the redness had faded away, the sensation making her so hot when she’d gotten home she’d yanked her vibrator out of her nightstand drawer and turned it on even before she’d been fully undressed.

  “Better,” he growled. “Much better. Remember. No movement.”

  She gave a deliberate wiggle, knowing the response it would elicit. Sure enough, he brought one hand down and slapped one cheek of her ass. In an instant lust exploded inside her, her pussy vibrated and she wriggled back against him.