Then he paused again. "I"m a petroleum engineer." Well, she"d backgrounded him and discovered as much. So far he was telling her the truth. "The company I worka"workeda"for in Houston was aggressive, expanding rapidly, the stock price going through the roof. It didn"t feel right to me. After the Enron scandal, I started wondering. As other companies lost value and their share prices plummeted, we kept expanding. I don"t know, it just seemed too good to be true. "

She glanced at him. He hadn"t mentioned the company by name, but she knew from her background check that it was a huge Fortune 500 firm with thousands of employees around the world.

"I know, stock price isn"t really my area, which is why I didn"t listen to my gut for a long time. Then I saw something. A report on a South American field that had been falsified. It was a fluke I even saw the thing. It claimed a huge potential oil field in an area where we"d found none. I know because I wrote the original report. "

She glanced over at him. "Wow. What did you do?"

"I kept quiet and started snooping. An old buddy of mine works for the FBI in Las Vegas. I called him. End of story. "

"Then why didn"t you fly straight there?"

"No flights. I booked at the last minute. Besides, I wanted to throw the dogs off the scent." It wasn"t the end of the story, not by a long shot, as she could tell by the way he shifted his body away from her and stared out his window, jaw rigid.

The company was a household name. A rare success story in hard economic times. If it was a house of cards waiting to collapsea she thought about the blow to the economy and who knew how many shareholders. "Wow. "

"Yeah. Wake me when you want me to take a turn at the wheel," he said, and pulling his cap low and closing his eyes, he settled back once more.

She drove until her back was beyond sore and her stomach growling. They were in a little town off 1- that she"d never even heard of. There was a strip of motels, a shopping plaza with a Wal-Mart, some fast food places, and a couple of gas stations.

She pulled up in front of the Wal-Mart. "I need to pick up a toothbrush and a few things, stretch my legs, and get something to eat. "

He nodded and glanced around. "We might as well stay here tonight. I"ll pick up some food and meet you back here. "

Twenty minutes later they were arguing.

Adam had not only picked up burgers and fries, but he"d checked them into the c.o.c.kerel Motel.

"This place should be called the c.o.c.kroach Motel," she complained bitterly, as she gazed around the room. There was a strong smell of antiseptic in the room and stains on the carpet that looked like they were covering up for something worse. The beige walls had yellowed from cigarette smoke and age.

The bed had a dip in the middle visible from where she stood, just inside the entrance, as close to out the door as she could get. And there was a coin box attached to the plastic "wood" headboard.

"I chose it because the parking lot backs onto the highway. We can get out fast if we need to. "

"You are getting paranoid." He"d even made her park at the opposite end of the lot from their motel room.

She rolled her head around on her neck, conscious that she was stiff from driving for eight or nine hours. Adam had offered to take the wheel several times, but she knew she"d be more bored as a pa.s.senger.

"Come and eat," he said. "It will make you feel better. "

Surprisingly, food did make her feel better. She was conscious, as they sat at the small cracked table in the corner, that there was only the one bed, and the way it dipped in the middle, they were going to be intimate whether they liked it or not.

She had a feeling she was going to like it.

Once she"d demolished her burger and half her fries, leaving Adam to finish the rest, and she"d sipped the last of her cola, she said, "I"m going to take a shower. "

She grabbed her plastic bag of new stuff and the makeup kit from her trunk. She went into the tiny bathroom. At least it was clean. And the water was hot, pounding against her naked flesh until she tingled. She thought back to the kiss she and Adam had shared earlier and tingled even more.

She soaped thoroughly and even managed to shave her legs with the pink plastic razor she"d purchased. She dried off, applied skin lotion, and pulled on the blue sleep shirt she"d bought. She stared at herself in the scratched mirror and shrugged. Usually when she wanted to seduce a man, she had a few more weapons at her disposal.

When she emerged from the bathroom, Adam"s gaze heated as he looked at her, and she felt as s.e.xy as though she were wearing her expensive lingerie and the French perfume she only applied when she wanted s.e.x.

He grabbed his own toiletry bag and almost sprinted for the bathroom. "I"ll be fast," he said.

"Oh, I hope not," she muttered to herself.

Chapter Five.

Adam tried to keep his erection under control in the shower, but the d.a.m.n thing had a mind of its own. He could almost feel it pulling him back toward the other room, where Gretchen waited, and based on the steamy glance she"d sent him, she had more than sleep on her mind.

Washing at the speed of light, he dried himself so fast he left damp patches everywhere and had to force himself to take the time to shave. He didn"t want to leave whisker burn on Gretchen"s creamy skin.

He opened the door naked to the waist, casually holding his damp towel in front of his distended boxers, and paused at the strange noise. It sounded like a commercial washing machine grinding away.

"Hey, look at this!" Gretchen said.

She sat cross-legged on top of the bed showing acres of tanned leg and grinning at him. She and the bed were both rocking.

If it was possible, the sight made him harder. Her long T-shirt clung lovingly to her form, and from the easy jiggle of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, there was no bra under there.

Even as he crossed to her, the grinding whirr hiccupped to a halt. "Oh, my ride"s over. "

"Not hardly." He dug into his loose change piled on the side table and stuck in a couple more quarters. She giggled in surprise as the bed started up again.

He watched the sway and jiggle for another minute and decided a mortal man could only take so much.

Shucking his boxers, Adam crawled on behind her, sliding his legs to the outside of hers and snuggling up behind her.

"What are you doing?" she asked somewhat breathlessly.

"Vibrating. "

She giggled, but that eased to a sigh when he lifted her heavy tangle of damp hair and kissed her nape. Not even the cheap, bottom-grade motel soap smell could disguise her own spicy-sweet scent. It was in her hair, in the curve of her shoulder. He breathed her in as his hands caught her under the b.r.e.a.s.t.s and pulled her in tighter.

His c.o.c.k, already hard and straining for her, nestled against her vibrating b.u.t.t while his hands explored her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. She moaned and leaned her head back against his shoulder as he molded and teased them, touching and playing with nipples he"d never seen. He wondered what color they were, and couldn"t wait to find out.

But not yet.

He planted his hands on her shaking knees and trailed them slowly up her open thighs.

He almost yelled with victory when his questing fingers discovered, not cotton panties, but warm, damp curls. He stroked them a little as she sighed and shifted, then he moved lower to where she was open and hot, slippery with excitement. He dipped his middle finger inside and felt his c.o.c.k clench. Soon, buddy, he promised silently.

He scooped some of her own lubricant and, opening her with his thumb and outside fingers, touched the red hot tip of her with his juicy middle finger. He could have remained like that and let the bed do the rest of the work, but that would have been too easy. And based on the panting he heard, too quick. So he traced a slow, lazy circle around the hard, quivering nub. Around and around.

She raised her hands behind her and grasped the back of his neck, turning to kiss him with sinuous need.

Even their lips were vibrating.

The bed was ridiculous: cheap, noisy, and garish. Like having s.e.x on a carnival ride.

He was so hot, he was about to explode.

Grabbing a condom from where he"d hidden a couple under his wallet on the night table, he readied himself and then lifted Gretchen.

She hovered over him for a minute, resisting impalement, taking him in her hands and holding him against her hot spot. "You"re like a human vibrator," she said in a low husky tone.

"I"ll be a human volcano in a second. Get on here. "

She did, lowering herself hard and fast, her back to his front. The angle was different, the fit of her p.u.s.s.y tight and wonderful. He stripped her shirt from her to enjoy the view of her long, graceful back and to reach all of her, unimpeded.

They were both close enough to the edge that she didn"t bother to ride him, just settled back, brought his hand once more to her c.l.i.t, and let the bed do the rest.

Everything was jiggling, hot, wet, tight, squeezing, tighter yet. Little helpless cries emerged from her throat and she did some shuddering that had nothing to do with the bed.

As o.r.g.a.s.m gripped her, her body tightened and milked him until he couldn"t stop the explosion that rolled out of him, on and on.

The roar of the bed stopped and his cry of release was loud in the sudden silence, where he hadn"t bothered trying to stifle it. Her own cries were as abandoned.

She turned to face him, her hand clappeda"too latea"over her mouth. They cracked up together, falling to the bed and laughing like crazies.

"Not a bad ride for a couple of quarters," he said into her ear before kissing the ear, then her cheek, then her throat. He"d have gone for her lips but they both needed to get their breath back.

"They"re pink," Adam said.

"Hmm?" She was still floating, feeling far too wonderful for a woman staying in a budget motel, and whose office had burned up that morning.

"Your nipples. I wondered what color they were. "

"Oh." If the tingling was any indication, they were getting pinker by the second. Pointier, too. "What else did you wonder?"

"How they"d taste." He leaned over and took them into his mouth, one at a time, doing things with his tongue that had desire drumming in her veins once more.

"This time," he said, raising up until his lips were only a whisper away from hers, "I want to make love face-to-face, so I can watch you when you come. "

The sound that came out of her throat was part gasp, part moan, and quickly swallowed when his mouth came down on hers.

Without the racket and jostling of machinery, lying here, naked and staring into each other"s eyes was as intimate as anything she"d ever experienced. They"d left the light on, and she could see that his chest hair was as black as that on his head, and that there were a few freckles on his shoulders. Nice shoulders, solid, dependable. As though he carried responsibility with ease. A man you could rely on, she thought.

This time they took time to play and to explore each other"s bodies. She discovered he was ticklish when she licked his belly, and that the skin at the side of his ribs was corn silk soft.

And she learned that his c.o.c.k fit nicely into her fist and when she squeezed the tip, a pearly drop emerged. She rubbed it around the head until it gleamed, and Adam was groaning helplessly.

Since he was currently learning her intimate parts as though he"d be required to draw them from memory, she was so hot herself she had little sympathy to spare.

Still, she didn"t want him coming until he was deep inside her, so she reached for a new condom and took her sweet time rolling it on.

She was feeling very much in control of things when she felt herself flipped on her back so fast and so hard it reminded her of the first time they"d met, when he"d tossed her to the bed and jumped on top of her. Then she"d been scared, now she wasa not scared.

"Enough play. I need you now. "

She blinked up at him, trying not to squirm. "Okay. "

He held her gaze with his blue, blue one and entered her as though he were entering a cathedral, quietly and reverently.

Okay, now she was scared. No woman should feel so intimately connected to a man she"d just met. That spelled danger.

She shouldn"t look into his eyes while he loved her so sweetly; that was more dangerous still. She should crack a joke, change positions, she shoulda With a quiet sigh, she arched her hips to take him deeper, increasing the connection between them.

She gasped at the heat that flared, each slow, deliberate stroke driving her both higher and yet deeper into something that was outside her experience. He felt it, too, she was certain. His gaze was hot with more than s.e.xual desire.

"Adam, Ia "

But what she"d planned to say, she had no idea, and after a second"s silence, he gripped her hips, locking their bodies more tightly together. She reached down and cupped his b.a.l.l.s, squeezing gently.

"Oh my G.o.d," he cried. "I can"ta"" His cry was cut off by a groan as his entire body clenched and shuddered.

It was that uncontrolled rocking against her that set her off, her hips jerking hard against his as the tremors ripped through her and a sob of pure ecstasy poured from her mouth.

But, for all the writhing and trembling coming from both of them, neither broke eye contact.

It seemed Adam had slept only minutes when something woke him.

"Get up. Adam, get up." Gretchen"s voice was tense and urgent. It was the tone as much as the words that had him blinking to full alertness.

She stood beside the bed, her hand ice cold as she shook his shoulder.

"What is it?"

"Two men. Hanging around my car. "

He didn"t say a word, but scrambled out of bed to the window. Through the blinds, he saw them. They were circling; one was bent and staring into the windows. And it didn"t look like they were car shopping. "s.h.i.t. "

"Could be car thieves," she said, but he knew from her tone she didn"t believe that.

There were much better cars in the lot.

"Start packing," she said.

"What are you doing?"

She had the phone in her hand. "Calling nine-one-one. The cops should keep those guys busy while we sneak out of here. "