Secret Pleasure Read online

  He was diabolical. Wicked and carnal.

  He slid his tongue into the narrow valley once again and the hungry licks moved back to her clit, circled it, then drew it between his lips to suckle it for just a few, torturous seconds before drawing back.

  Each ravenous stroke of his tongue, each flexing draw of his mouth, rocked her senses and dragged desperate cries from her lips.

  Oh God, it was so good.

  Dancing like living flames over flesh too long denied, his tongue stroked the pleasure she’d been denied for so long, consumed the taste of her, and burned against flesh too long ignored. Thorough, destructive, each greedy lick, each suckling kiss, pulled her deeper into the flames twisting through her senses. Heightened sensation tormented the steadily building desperation to reach the center of the vortex tightening inside her.

  “Damn you, Sebastian,” she gasped as his lips released her clit yet again, his tongue then licking around the tortured nubbin of flesh. “Stop teasing me.”

  His answer was a heated breath of air over the painfully swollen bud and a long, far too gentle lick over and around it.

  “’Bastian, please.” She was willing to beg. For a minute anyway. “Please, you’re killing me.”

  His hands tightened along the outside of her thighs as the tension in his body increased along with the hungry kisses he was torturing her sex with.

  Staring down her body, her eyes connected with his. Lust-filled, a gleam of desperate hunger and rapidly faltering control reflected in his gaze as well as his expression.

  “Please, ’Bastian,” she whispered, trying to lift to him only to have his hold on her tighten as those destructive, heated licks moved lower once again.

  Alyssa gasped a second later as he penetrated the clenched entrance of her pussy with a hard, ravenous stroke of exquisite pleasure. Her vision blurred, her body pulsed as her orgasm threatened to explode through her, only to have him pull back at the last second.

  “No.” Her vision cleared, but the imperative need only grew. “Don’t torture me, Sebastian. Please. Damn you, let me come.”

  Something snapped in his gaze, a sudden knowledge or understanding Alyssa knew she didn’t want him to have. But before she could figure out what she’d revealed his head lowered again, his lips surrounding her clit while two broad fingers began penetrating the snug, clenched depths of her pussy. Stretching her, owning her.

  Each impalement of his fingers working inside her forced a ragged cry past her lips as the tightening pressure of his mouth around her clit sent her senses into a catastrophic meltdown.

  Ecstasy exploded inside her, flinging her into a rapturous kaleidoscope of sensation and blazing heat. Pulses of white-hot electricity sizzled up her spine before meeting the pleasure exploding through the rest of her body.

  She couldn’t cry out. The rocketing orgasm stole her strength and her breath as her body and senses fought to adapt to a release she hadn’t known in far too long.

  Just when she felt the quicksilver ride through the clashing ecstasy begin to ease, her eyes flared open and the flames began consuming her again.

  Eyes wide, her gaze locked on the penetration of her body, Alyssa could only whimper as the crescendo began rising again.

  Glistening with her juices, the bare folds of her sex were parted, gripping the thick shaft working between them. Each forceful stroke stretched her inner flesh with the ecstatic pain she craved.

  “Fuck, ’Lyssa.” The rough, guttural groan dragged her gaze back to his. “Ah hell, baby, it’s like taking you the first time. So fucking tight and hot.”

  The explicit words had her pussy clenching further around the invading shaft, rippling in demand with each thrust inside her.

  Alyssa could barely process any form of reality. She hadn’t remembered the true scope of pleasure she felt at his touch, hadn’t remembered how he and Shane had so completely owned her senses, whether separate or apart.

  Each heavy stroke impaling her responsive sheath, stretching it, blazed a path of intimate destruction. Each stroke inside her body eroded her control further, sent pleasure whipping harder, stronger, through her senses. Fiery lashes of arcing electricity stole reason and reality and when the second catastrophic explosion rushed through her, Alyssa could only whimper with the exquisite pleasure.

  Ecstasy whipped through her, around her, and in a heartbeat, of time she felt Sebastian. Felt his heart beating in time to hers, his soul, just as tattered as her own, reaching out to her.

  As the final shudders of her release rippled through her body, she closed her eyes and let her senses relish the pleasure and the bond she could feel only growing stronger.

  Long moments later when Sebastian lifted her, carrying her to the bed, she didn’t allow herself to slip from the cocoon she’d let herself slide into. His gentle cleaning the proof of her pleasure from her was a familiar ritual and one she realized she would have missed if it was neglected.

  Moving into the bed beside her when he finished, Sebastian wrapped one arm around her and dragged her against him, her back to his chest, her head tucked at his shoulder, his hard, warm body wrapped around her. She was surrounded by warmth, by a sense of complete security she’d only felt with him and Shane.

  A hint of a smile tugged at her lips, bittersweet and aching with loss. What was she supposed to do now? she asked herself. How was she supposed to rebalance her life after learning the sacrifices Shane and Sebastian had made for her? They’d fought for her. They had worked to destroy the hold a blackmailer had over them while she’d fought to just survive.

  Her sacrifice hadn’t compared to theirs and still she’d wondered if she would survive several times. They had taken care of what stood between them and her; then they’d come to Alexandria for her. And now, once again, they had to step up and protect her from something else, someone else determined that Alyssa not have the men who had claimed her heart so long ago.

  Wrapped around her, Sebastian’s arms holding her to his chest as they lay on their sides, Alyssa could feel Sebastian, warm and relaxed against her, his heartbeat steady, his breath feathering the top of her head.

  “I always liked this with you,” he said, amusement touching his voice. “Having you all soft and warm in my arms. Cuddling you was always good, ’Lyssa.”

  She hadn’t had much cuddling in her life; it had made cuddling with them so much nicer.

  “Do you remember the night we took the yacht out? We made love to you on the deck until the sun came up, then fell asleep there. Shane and I got our asses burned and you were safe and shaded between us?”

  She smiled. Then, before she could stop, a laugh escaped her. “You two looked so funny,” she said, still smiling at the memory, one she hadn’t allowed free since she’d returned from Madrid.

  “Hell, we couldn’t sit for a week,” he reminded her.

  “And I rubbed cool aloe onto your poor burned butts three times a day.” Turning to her back, she stared up at him, that memory so vivid the pleasure and happiness that filled her then invading her now. “I took care of both of you. Very gently, I might add.”

  He propped his head in his hand, his eyes gleaming at her through the darkness as one arm lay over her midriff. “Hmm, I remember you running around there naked, making us overexert ourselves while we were so wounded.”

  “But ’Bastian,” she whispered up at him, barely holding her laughter back. “It was your butts that were burned, not your—”

  His fingers were laid over her lips before the word could slip free, causing her soft laughter to spill around them.

  “You were very naughty,” he reminded her.

  Sebastian hadn’t seen her smile, hadn’t heard her laughter, nearly enough since returning to her And he’d missed them, desperately. Now he wanted only to hold her, to fill her with the memories that had kept him sane as he waited to claim her.

  “I was just trying to make you feel better,” she pouted, the innocence in her voice, on her face, not wholly feigned. “
The two of you just had such dirty minds all the time.” She rolled her eyes.

  God how she missed just laying in the dark and talking, laughing with him and Shane. Separate or apart.

  Sebastian ran his fingers along her ribs, drawing an involuntary giggle from her as the tickling touch brought an instant reaction.

  “That was just wrong,” she accused, shaking her finger up at him. “I did nothing to deserve that.”

  “Of course you did,” he retorted softly, lowering his lips to brush against hers. “Laughing at our weakness. We were in pain.”

  “’Bastian, you and Shane stayed aroused,” she reminded him, her tone assuring him it still amazed her. “If your pants were off then you were hard.”

  “I thought that was how it was supposed to be.” He smirked. “Would you have had it any differently?”

  As she cast him a look from the corners of her eyes a little smile barely tempted her lips. “Well, probably not,” she admitted. “I was afraid the two of you were going to strain something, though, as often as you made use of those hard-ons you were sporting. Hell, I thought I was going to strain something.”

  “Ah now, that we would have never allowed.” Not even in a million years. “Straining you was something we would have never done, sweets. We needed you far too desperately.”

  Tucking her closer to him, he let his lips whisper over her shoulder, feeling her fingers stroking absently at his arm as she lay comfortably against him now.

  “When I woke that morning, and you and Shane were gone, I knew something was wrong,” she whispered. “I felt you leave the bed, but I was so tired, I fell back asleep. About two hours later, I woke again. I swore I heard you and Shane fighting and I couldn’t imagine why.”

  Sebastian closed his eyes, remembering that meeting with Fernando, the black rage that had filled him, and the overwhelming grief.

  He tightened his arms around her. “Our sweet ’Lyssa, we conquered the evil dragon and came for the innocent princess. Did we not?”

  “You did.” A smile tugged at her lips again before easing away.

  “Smile for me, ’Lyssa,” he whispered against her ear. “Give me just a moment to bring you joy once again, to warm you as Shane and I used to.”

  “You two were crazy,” she said softly, staring up at him, her hand lifting to cup his cheek. “The two of you are still crazy.”

  “We are?” His brow arched. “I remember stepping into our bedroom to see you perched rather unsteadily on the back of a chair, preparing to crash to the floor. You terrified me.”

  “I knew what I was doing,” she assured him archly, her nose lifting. “I rarely fall.”

  He snorted at that. “You lie.”

  “I don’t— ’Bastian, no.…” She giggled as his fingers ran up her ribs again, tickling the little spurts of laughter from her smiling lips, and the warmth of her happiness wrapped around him.

  God, he needed this. Needed to hear this, to hold her, to feel her against him, to hear her pleasure and her joy.

  They both needed it. Needed to feel her, to remember that time with her, to reaffirm what they had fought for all these years. And in the darkness, with him wrapped around her, her laughter drifted around him like silken threads, warming him in her pleasure. In the heart and soul of the woman he’d never been able to forget.

  His sweets. His ’Lyssa.

  22

  Alyssa heard Shane enter the living area of the suite the next night. Sebastian had warned her he would be spending the night consulting with Khalid over the file they were still trying to decrypt at the Sinclair Club offices, which meant Shane had finally come in from dealing with the various investigators who had arrived concerning the explosion.

  It was nearly midnight and the work that day on her office repairs had gone much slower than she’d liked.

  Moving from the bed, not bothering with the slippers next to her bed, or her robe, and opening the door, she leaned against the frame, crossing one ankle behind the other as she stared at him.

  He’d showered, and he looked tired. It still amused her that he and Sebastian were making use of the suite her father had given them upstairs rather than just using hers.

  “Sebastian’s at the club?” she asked, watching him closely.

  “Khalid needed help tracking that program Ian found on the computers,” he snorted. “It’s driving them crazy.”

  She nodded slowly, swallowed with a tight movement, and remained quiet.

  “Everything okay?” he asked.

  She frowned back at him. There were days men were just too damned complicated. She’d always known that.

  “Do they know anything about the explosive yet?” She asked, rather than giving in to her frustration.

  “That could take a day or so.” He grimaced. “The FBI has the investigation from this point, though Langley sent over one of their explosives experts to go over it as well.”

  Langley. The CIA.

  “Were you and Sebastian working with the CIA while I was in Madrid?” she asked, frowning. They hadn’t seemed ultra-secretive or James Bond–ish at the time.

  “We were recruited in college.” He shrugged, watching her closer. “Sebastian and I both attended college here in the states. Our recruiter and trainer was someone well known to us, and our families, which made it easier to cover training missions during holidays.”

  “Not quite the party boys everyone thought you were, huh?” she reflected.

  She’d already known that, though. Not that she’d ever suspected they were some kind of agents, but she’d known they weren’t the playboys they were rumored to be.

  “We didn’t party much after meeting you anyway,” he said somberly, his blue eyes trained on her, his expression intent. “We were at a crossroads of a sort at the time.” He shrugged. “We could have taken positions as information assets only and gone on with our lives, or slipped into covert status. After we lost you, we took the covert assignments.”

  “Why would you do something so dangerous?” she asked, terrified now of the danger they must have been in. “You were essentially spies for a foreign government. If authorities had known—”

  “There were those in the government that knew.” His lips quirked humorlessly. “Spain and the U.S. aren’t exactly enemies. Sebastian and I were specifically targeted because of the De Loren name and the position our family held politically, both in Spain and here in the states. We had a certain level of protection. It also afforded us certain privileges and help in identifying the person responsible for those pictures and the blackmail.”

  But she hadn’t known. She hadn’t been able to worry about them, hadn’t been there if they were hurt. She hadn’t had enough memories to sustain her if the worse had happened.

  “Are you still with them then?” she asked, wondering if that danger would continue to haunt them.

  His lips kicked into a small grin. “One of Summer’s demands the night we slipped into your room, after Harvey’s attack.” He grinned, then shrugged. “We were getting out anyway after eliminating the threat of those pictures against you. But she demanded we clear the CIA junk out of our lives before coming to you. She made sense. We couldn’t have concentrated on completing those last assignments if we’d have stayed. She knew that.”

  “Why did the two of you do that, Shane?” she whispered then; the thought of the danger they had both no doubt faced would give her nightmares, she was certain. “Why risk your lives in such a way?”

  “Seemed like a good idea at the time.” His lips quirked ruefully. “It was a good idea at the time. But the time for it passed. We’re just disowned, disavowed misfits now.” He gave a hard shake of his head. “Making Fernando do that to ensure no one has such a hold on our families again wasn’t easy. He’s still furious that Father went along with it.”

  Sexual tension filled the room, racing around them, heating the air and settling over her flesh, sensitizing it and making it ache for his touch. The conversation wasn’t in the le
ast sexual, but the hunger was still there.

  “I never understood what it was about the two of you,” she said nervously as he stopped in front of her, one hand reaching up to brush her hair back from her cheek. “Why I couldn’t ache for just one of you.”

  “You completed us,” he whispered, his lips lowering to her ear, brushing against it, and sending tingles of heat to race across her flesh. “So sweet, and giving…” His lips moved along her neck. “So perfect that neither of us were willing to walk away.”

  One hand cupped the back of her neck, the other settling at her hip as his tongue flicked against the sensitive area just below her ear. “We missed you, baby. We missed you bad.”

  The words whispered over her lips just before his kiss exploded through her senses. With one arm wrapped around her back Shane pulled her to him with a sudden, unexpected movement as his lips claimed hers, pulling her into a storm rioting with carnal hunger so quickly there was no time to assimilate it.

  His tongue swept past her lips, claiming her, branding her senses, and unleashing her from any control she might have had over herself.

  She’d missed this with the same agonizing regret that she’d missed Sebastian’s seduction of her senses. Missed the completion they’d given her each time they touched her.

  Shane’s hands slid down her back, rasping the silk of her gown over her skin, the warmth of his palm creating a friction that sent pleasure lancing through her. Reaching her hips, he bunched the material, pulling it up her body before breaking his possession of her senses and stripping her of the material in one smooth, unexpected move.

  “Shane…” Breathless, surprised, she stared up at him as his gaze moved down her naked body.

  “God, look at you,” he whispered, catching her wrists and pulling them over her head, his expression tightening with the sexual need running rampant through both of them now. “So fucking pretty.”