Page 40 of A Real Good Bad Thing

“It sure does,” I said, and later in the day I’d update Andrew on the visit to see if the client had anything more to share from the emails his people were still decoding. I’d be able to tell him what we’d found out too. We had a traceable watermark. Now all we had to do was follow that link back to the stolen funds.

“Hey,” I said, looking at the woman at the wheel, who seemed to be deep in her own thoughts.

“Thanks,” I said genuinely, meaning it.

Her smile was curious. “For?”

“For working with me on this. Your help is invaluable,” I said.

No, it wasn’t just her help I was thanking her for.

It was her trust.

She’d trusted me enough to hand her diamond to me, a relative stranger, and let me out of sight with it.Gratitudewas an inadequate word.

“Thank you too,” she said, softly.

She reached forward to turn up the AC in the Jeep, but froze, staring out the front window. Her gaze had strayed to a man with salt-and-pepper hair headed down the block toward us. He looked…familiar, but I couldn’t place him. “What’s wrong?”

“Tristan,” she said in a strangled whisper. “Shit.”

In a blur, she unbuckled her seat belt, slid from behind the wheel, and climbed on top of me. “Kiss me so he doesn’t notice me.”

No time to think. Just follow orders.In the military, I’d done a lot of that, but this was the easiest command ever. I cupped her face and sealed my mouth over hers. When I looped my hands in her hair and swept my tongue across the seam of her mouth, she moaned quietly and parted her lips.

With one hand tangled in her hair, I took off my cap and put it on her, covering her blonde locks. Ruby smiled against my mouth and murmured, “Quick thinking.”

“Thanks.”

I was positive the guy had passed us, but like hell was I going to stop. Not while she straddled me. Not as she started to slowly rock her hips into mine. And not as she kissed back harder and hungrier, her lips greedy and tasting like tropical temptation. I tangoed my tongue with hers, tasting her lips, devouring her.

She picked up speed and started riding me harder. While I was sure she could get off by humping my hard-on in my shorts, and I wanted nothing more than to hear her little moans turn into full-blown cries of pleasure, getting arrested for public indecency would be counter to our objectives.

I opened one eye and scanned the street. Coast was clear.

“I’m driving,” I said, brooking no argument. “And I’m finishing what you just started. If that’s a problem, you need to tell me now.”

“It’s not a problem,” she whispered, and the look in her eyes was full of lust.

I slid out and walked around while she situated herself in the passenger seat, then I started the Jeep and drove away from the diamond district. In five minutes, I found a parking garage near a shopping center and parked on the quietest level in a space by the wall. Then I tugged her with me into the backseat.

“I owe you a third,” I said, sliding her sexy body alongside mine.

“Pay up,” she said.

“Oh, I’ll make good on my promise. In no time, you’ll be saying my name,” I said as I tugged her close, my hand traveling along the bare skin of her legs. So damn soft. As she stretched out beside me, we locked eyes. The look in hers was vulnerable and hungry at the same time. She wanted this, and she wanted to give her body to me. What a fucking gift.

“Make me…” she whispered, taking a beat and upping the ante, “scream your name.”

She parted her thighs.

Damn, what a brilliant idea she’d had, kissing me on the street. Maybe she deserved a fourth too. For now, I brushed the inside of her thigh. “Challenge accepted,” I said, and she smiled in that sexy-sweet way she had, then her eyes floated closed as I reached the damp panel of her bikini bottoms. I inhaled sharply as I brushed a finger across that lovely wetness. My dick jumped, eager to please her too. To make her back arch and her toes curl.

But this moment wasn’t about me getting off. I wanted her to writhe in pleasure. That was what turned me on most—to hear her cries. To see her lips form my name as she came undone. I slid a finger across her pussy, gliding over her slick heat. Oh hell, she felt fucking fantastic, and lust crashed into every corner of my body as she shuddered and rubbed against me.

I couldn’t resist kissing her. I dropped my mouth onto hers, claiming her lips in a hot kiss as I tugged her bikini lower. She rocked into my hand as I stroked her and kissed her, and whatever resistance she’d had earlier seemed far gone too.

I guessed she liked this ratio too.

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