She was startled by the hint of emotion she heard in his voice. He levered up on one elbow, turned so they were much closer now and reached up to cup her cheek. He pulled her down into a tender kiss, and this time he took his time exploring, slowing the pace from their earlier reckless haste.
Slowly but with a firm hand, he nudged her over onto her back, his mouth never leaving hers.
Where before they’d been impatient and eager, now he seemed determined to be patient and gradual.
“I’m glad you came to KGI,” he murmured into her mouth. “I can’t imagine the team without you.”
She felt him reaching toward the nightstand, and then a moment later he rose up just enough that he could roll on the condom, and a bare second after, he slid into her in one firm push.
She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his body, pulling him even closer until they were molded against each other, flesh on flesh, no part of their bodies not touching in some way.
He rocked and undulated his hips, leisurely drawing out their pleasure, all the while making love to her with his mouth. Covering her face and neck with tender kisses.
It was a complete change from earlier when every kiss, every touch had been hot and frantic, almost a race to completion. That had been sex. Pure, unadulterated, hot sex.
But this?
This was different, and it unsettled her even as she allowed herself to fall over the edge with him. Because this wasn’t just sex. It felt a hell of a lot like making love. And she hadn’t reached that point with Derek even after two years of being with him.
CHAPTER 4
THE peal of an obnoxious cell phone ringtone startled P.J. into wakefulness. She’d been having the most awesome, erotic dream, and it irritated her to be so rudely yanked from it.
She stretched and yawned, feeling oddly rested, and promptly bumped into a hard male body.
Her eyes flew open. Oh shit.
David Coletrane was in her bed.
She’d had hot monkey sex with Cole.
They’d also made tender, sweet love, and maybe that was what bothered her the most, because she couldn’t just brush it aside as a one-night stand. Couldn’t chalk it up to blowing off some steam and walk away from it, pretending it never happened.
She was so fucked and now she had to face the awkward morning-after stage.
The phone quit a moment and then started up again as she lay there admiring Cole’s beautiful physique. He muttered something and then promptly leaned over, blindly grabbing for his fatigues that had been discarded the night before.
She got a prime view of his ass, and oh Lord, what an ass it was. Every part of him was delicious, and she continued to stare dumbly as he grabbed the phone and put it to his ear.
Reality had a way of dumping a cold bucket of water over her head. She was positively numb over what she’d done. What they’d done. It was quite possibly the dumbest thing she’d ever done, and she’d made some pretty stupid decisions in her life.
This was going to fuck up everything.
“Cole,” he said shortly. “Yeah, Steele, what’s up?”
P.J. froze. Goddamn it. They were being called out on a mission. Today of all days? The one time she’d given in to temptation and had crazy, insane, all-night sex with her teammate, not to mention pouring her guts out to him, and they had to be called out now?
Cole’s expression was grim, and then he said simply, “I’ll be there.”
He ended the call and then turned slowly to meet P.J.’s gaze. On cue, her cell started ringing and she was contemplating the most modest way to sprawl over his body to reach her phone when Cole reached down and snagged it for her.
“P.J.,” she said crisply, not wanting even a hint of what she’d spent the night doing to come through that phone call.
“P.J., this is Steele. We’ve been called up. How fast can you make it back out to Tennessee?”
She glanced over at her clock to see it was quite early. “I’ll head to the airport and see what I can get standby on. Should be able to get out this afternoon.”
“Let me know fast. If you can’t get on the first flight, we’ll send a Kelly jet for you.”
“Will do,” she murmured, peeking at Cole from the corner of her eye.
She hung up and then took a deep breath, preparing to deal with the awkwardness.
“Guess we should go,” she said lamely.
“Yeah, we can hop a ride to the airport together,” Cole said.
He lay there completely unbothered by his nudity while she was sitting up, covers pulled to her chin as mortification swept over her.
She shook her head forcefully. “No. We go separate.”
Cole frowned. “That’s stupid, P.J. We’re here together. Why on earth should we leave separately when we’re going to the same damn place?”