They were down to the final round. The guys and Dixie had been joking and chatting with Faith all evening. Sam had wondered how he’d feel, revealing one of his most private lairs to Faith, but he didn’t feel like he’d lost his privacy. Being there with Faith made it better.
She gazed up at him with a look that said, I want you, warring with another look he’d come to know so well—I need to behave. He wondered if she could read him as easily—Be with me. I’ll be good to you.
Torture.
“I just figured out where I know you from,” Bones said to Faith.
Faith swallowed hard and half smiled at Bones. Sam could tell she was too entrenched in the lingering sexual tension between them to give Bones her full attention.
“Where?” Sam asked, coming to her rescue.
Bones was about as clean cut as they came, and when he wore shirts that covered his ink, with his businesslike haircut and serious eyes, he looked as out of place as Sam knew Faith had felt when they’d first arrived. But now, with his five-o’clock shadow, wearing a faded black tank top, jeans, and black biker boots, with his tattoos on display and a beer in his hand, he fit right in.
“The hospital,” Bones answered. “You work with Jon Butterscotch, don’t you?”
“Yes.” Faith snapped out of her Sam-trance and pulled her hands from his body. He knew she worried about her professional image, and he could see that worry filling her eyes. “How do you know him?”
“I’m an oncologist. ‘Bones’ sounded better than ‘Doc.’ I must have seen you there.”
“I sometimes assist him in surgeries.” Her eyes darted to Sam, then back to Bones.
Bones must have caught her nervousness, too, because he smiled and said, “Don’t worry. There’s nothing wrong with being here. Butterscotch wouldn’t care if he knew.”
“Oh, it’s not that.” Her voice quivered with the fib.
Sam put his arm around her, hoping to calm her nerves.
Bones laughed. “I became a doctor so I wouldn’t have to worry about what my bosses thought of my lifestyle. I get it. But, really, I know Jon, and unless you’re out causing trouble, the guy doesn’t care what you do in your spare time.”
She let out a relieved breath.
Bones turned to Sam and said, “But I bet your brother will have something to say about you bringing Faith here. He’s pretty conservative.”
“I’ll handle Cole,” Sam assured Faith more than Bones. He felt her entire body stiffen and lifted her chin with his finger, gazing into her eyes and wishing he could take her worries away once and for all. “I’ve got this. I promise.” He lowered his lips to hers as Bones turned away, and kissed her again, until her body relaxed in to him.
“Okay, lovebirds,” Dixie said. “Faith, you’re up.”
“Thanks, Dixie.” Sam’s eyes were still locked on Faith. “Don’t worry about Cole. I promise you, he’s going to be fine with us. Okay?”
She nodded and stepped away. Sam pulled out his phone and sent another text to Cole as Faith threw her first dart. Need to talk. Please call as soon as you’re back in town. He hated that Faith worried about anything, especially a job she loved so much, but in his heart Sam knew that Cole wouldn’t care what she did with her spare time either. He was too professional to go down that road. Sam was proud of his brother, and he knew that aside from his previous lifestyle, Cole respected him equally. One phone call would ease Faith’s worry, and he’d make a point of it taking place before she had to face him at work.
“Your girl’s got a single and a double,” Bear said to Sam.
Sam shoved his phone in his pocket. Faith’s eyes were focused on the board. Her breathing was calm, her body angled slightly to the right, her right foot a few inches behind her left, and her shoulders were parallel to the floor. Everyone’s eyes were on her as she drew her hand back, her eyes narrowing even further. With the grace of a dancer, her arm came forward, her right foot slid up to her toes, and the dart sailed through the air, landing on the triple twenty.
Everyone yelled, “Shanghai!”
Bullet swooped Faith into his arms and spun her around, laughing as Dixie and Bear joined in the group hug. Faith’s eyes sought Sam’s, full of pride, and as Bullet broke free of the crowd, carrying Sam’s smiling girlfriend to him and placing her in his arms, all thoughts of Cole disappeared.
Faith gazed into Sam’s eyes as she pressed her hands to his cheeks, looking happy and sexy as she lowered her mouth to his. It wasn’t a kiss of unbridled passion, or a kiss that said take me now. It was an unfamiliar kiss, one he wanted to experience for infinity. It was the kiss of a couple sharing a moment, building history, minute by minute, hour by hour.
When their lips parted, she was still smiling. “See what I can do when you’re not making me hot and bothered?”
“You never fail to amaze me.” He lowered her to her feet and whispered in her ear, “I’d love to see what you can do when you are hot and bothered.”
“Then maybe you should heat me up when we’re alone, Braden.”
Invitation accepted.
Sam settled up with the guys, keeping a firm arm around Faith. They said their goodbyes, and a few minutes later the fresh air touched his warm skin, doing absolutely nothing to cool Sam down. Before the door even closed behind them, she was in his arms. Sam backed her up against the building, their mouths fused together, their kiss ravenous. She clung to his back as his hands moved over her ribs, his thumbs brushing the underside of her breasts. She moaned, making him ache to fill his palms, his mouth, to feel her nipples taut and eager against his tongue. Her hips rocked forward, making him harder than he’d been all night. If he didn’t get them out of there now, he wouldn’t be able to focus enough to drive.
He reluctantly pulled away. “Let’s get out of here.”
She put her arm around his waist before he even got his around her. Man, did he ever love that. Claim me, baby. Make me yours.
At the bike, he took her face in his hands and gazed into her eyes. Unbridled passion brimmed back at him. He took her in another rough kiss. His lips were hard, his tongue searching, his body desperate, and when she pushed her hands into his hair and held on tight, he groaned. He kissed her mouth, her chin, her jaw, and buried his face in her neck, kissing, sucking, wanting.
“Sam. Oh God, Sam.”
A tiny voice in the back of his head told him to regain control, but when she dug her nails into his back, it sent currents of fire through his veins. He kissed his way back up to her ear, running his tongue around the rim, then sucking the lobe into his mouth.
“Ohmygod.”
She panted as he nibbled and sucked, licked, and teased the sensitive skin just beneath her lobe. When her hands shoved beneath his shirt, hot and eager, clawing at his back, he reminded himself they were in a public place—and he’d promised to behave. He was so far past wanting to behave he couldn’t even spell the damn word. He fisted his hands against her hips to keep from tearing her clothes to shreds and drew back from his delicious appetizer.
“Faith.” One look in her ravenous eyes stole his next words. “Home. I’m taking you home.” His hands shook as he lifted her onto the bike.
She clung to his forearms, her eyes pleading for more. He was powerless to keep his distance. He straddled the bike, facing her, and took her face in his hands.
His emotions poured from him like liquid. “How many times have I held you like this in the last twenty-four hours?” He didn’t wait for an answer, and he had a feeling she couldn’t have answered if she wanted to. She was flushed and had a lustful, dazed look in her eyes.
“I’ve never held another woman so possessively. A kiss was the last thing on my mind with anyone else. Your kisses consume me, and holding you like this, eye to eye, feeling your beautiful face in my hands, brings us that much closer together. If all we ever had was kissing, it would be torture, but I could live with it.”
“God, Sam,” she said breathlessly. “Kiss me.”
He claimed her eager mouth in a series of hard kisses. The sound of a bike roaring to life jerked him back to their surroundings. Their lips parted, but neither looked toward the noise; the current between them was too magnetic. Sam touched his forehead to hers, cupping the nape of her neck and trying to calm the adrenaline coursing through him.
“Home, baby. I’ve got to take you home.”
**
THE NIGHT AIR did little to clear Faith’s mind on the ride to her apartment. Being pressed against the man she wanted so badly, combined with the vibration of the bike, didn’t help her think any more clearly. By the time they arrived, all she wanted was more of Sam, and she could tell by the tightness in his jaw and the way he fell silent on the way up to her apartment that he was fighting the same internal battle.
The silence pressed in on her as she fished out her keys. She wanted Sam pressing in on her. The restraint in his eyes made her heart swell. He was behaving because it was what she’d wanted, but now, as they each waged their silent battles, she wished she’d never made such a big deal out of not doing more than kissing the other night.
She pushed the key into the lock, and Sam’s arms came around her waist. His hot, glorious mouth lavished her neck with openmouthed kisses, stimulating her every ion. She pushed the door open but rested her head back against his rock-hard frame, giving him better access to anything he wanted. His hand slid up the front of her shirt and over her rib cage, causing a full-body shudder. His other hand turned her chin toward him, and he claimed her in a full-on assault of her senses. He plundered and took, kissing her roughly and filling his free hand with her breast. His thumb brushed over her nipple in a slow circular motion with master precision, just hard enough to send tingles of lust straight down between her legs. She tried to turn and face him, but he held her in place, his hard length pressing against her backside as he deepened the kiss, consuming her—body, mind, and soul.