“Relax, Mother—” he snapped. “I’m headed to Kait’s.”
As he pivoted back to the door and yanked it open, he heard Trammel’s relieved grunt sound behind him.
Each step toward his car introduced a new set of aches. By the time he’d unlocked his Mustang and gingerly eased his protesting body inside, he was more interested in a nice, long soak in Kait’s shower than hashing things out with Demi.
Tag claimed that nothing had happened between him and Demi the night before. That he’d picked her up, they’d shared a kiss and he’d dropped her off. Now that some of that red-hot mist had faded from Aiden’s brain, he believed the bastard too.
Tag might be a poacher, but he wasn’t a liar.
Besides, if something had happened between his roommate and Demi the night before Tag would have thrown it at him in the heat of the battle like any good warrior.
Nothing would have hurt like knowing Demi had taken another man into her bed.
Which was the root of the rage he’d directed at Tag. Maybe she hadn’t slept with Tag. But that didn’t mean she hadn’t welcomed some other guy into her bed, or crawled into his. That didn’t mean she hadn’t trolled the bars before, and picked someone else up. That didn’t mean she’d been living like a nun during his last twenty months of deployment.
He swore softly, his fingers rigid around the steering wheel. He’d convinced himself she wasn’t ready for a physical relationship, and that he’d be safe leaving her behind—that she’d be there waiting for him when he returned—like Snow White waiting for her regenerating kiss.
It hadn’t occurred to him that she might go looking for that kiss on her own.
Nor had he thought to question how he’d get past it if she had.
Chapter Three
Yawning, Demi stepped inside the elevator and leaned over to punch the lobby button. With aggravating slowness the doors closed, and after a subtle lurch, the machine began its slow descent.
Seven thirty in the morning was an ungodly hour to be up and about—or at least it was today, after a restless night spent tossing and turning. What she really needed was a gallon of coffee, or an eight hour nap. Or both. Yawning again, she glanced at her wrist watch. The taxi should be waiting below by now. After she dropped the spare set of keys off with the building superintendent, she’d ask the driver to stop somewhere so she could grab a cup of coffee. Although…she grimaced. Chances were, anywhere the driver stopped would have subpar coffee. It was one of the hazards of owning a gourmet coffee stand—nothing tasted as good as the fare she made herself.
Leaning back against the elevator wall, she yawned again and gave serious consideration to canceling the cab and heading back to bed. She could collect her Volkswagen tomorrow, after brewing enough coffee to prop her eyes open.
The lack of competition for car services was the only advantage to starting the day this early—scratch that, maybe not the only advantage. There was another distinct advantage. The bar her Volkswagen was parked in front of was closed. At least she wouldn’t have to run the gauntlet of the Tavern’s clientele, or the risk of stumbling into one patron in particular.
Which reminded her of a third advantage: she could collect her car and return home without anyone—read, Kait or Aiden—being the wiser about her incredible bout of foolishness the night before.
What the hell were you thinking, Demi?
But that was the whole problem, wasn’t it? She hadn’t been thinking. She’d let her hormones grab the reins and charge willy-nilly toward sexual fulfillment. A mistake on her part, at least on her rational, sensible, let’s-make-decisions with our brain, part. Letting her libido out of the cave and arming it with red had been a dangerous miscalculation. It had proved her hormone-sopped brain had no concept of self-control or rational thinking.
She’d been remarkably lucky. Things could have gone so much worse.
In fact, the night probably would have turned dicey without Brett Taggart’s intervention, which she needed to thank him for when he showed up at her door. He seemed like the kind of guy to return a date’s purse, and while their interaction the night before didn’t exactly fall into the “date,” category, she had left her purse in his truck. At some point he was bound to notice it and use her driver’s license information to track her down. If not, she’d have to track him down.
She straightened as the elevator bell dinged and the lobby panel lit up. With painful slowness the doors slid open to reveal a muscled bare chest with a totally ripped pair of six-pack abs. Her body signaled its appreciation of the artwork, by straightening and flushing.
Now why couldn’t it have reacted to Brett last night with such enthusiasm? She’d bet he had the same muscled chest and abdomen. Maybe that was the key…getting a good look at his naked torso. How politically incorrect would it be to ask him to take his shirt off when he delivered her purse?
It wasn’t often fate provided her with such a perfect example of eye candy, so she took a moment to appreciate the sight. Hell’s bells, the man was gorgeous—sexier than any of those bare-chested dudes on the legions of romance novels Kait devoured by the sackful.
Her hormones whined, expressing their interest by bombarding her poor spine and belly with an assortment of tingles and chills. Heaven help her, even her palms were sweating. Her gaze traveled up his sculpted body with increasing appreciation—please let his face be just as spectacular!—until they hit the first dusky imprint of an ugly bruise, followed by the first smear of blood.
Whoa…she backed up a bit, and continued her assessment with caution. More bruises shadowed his upper abdomen and lower chest, but it was the next streak of blood that backed her up and extinguished the tingles and chills.
Apparently her hormones and logical brain shared one common characteristic. They were both squeamish at the sight of blood. She was outta here.
She sidled to the right, intending to slip past him. He shifted along with her, blocking her passage, which sent the hair on the back of her neck bolting straight up. Settle down, Demi. He’s not trying to block you in. It was just a coincidence. He simply moved at the same time you did.
She tried to coax some breath into her lungs with that line of reassurance. A coincidence, that’s all. Just a coincidence. He wouldn’t deliberately block her exit from the elevator…would he? Sure, a leashed aura of danger surrounded his ripped physique. But he didn’t emit the crazy vibe, and he’d have to be considerably crazy to try anything in plain view of the lobby.
Clearing her throat politely, she stepped to the right. He mirrored her movement again, blocking her exit. The slow, deliberate countermove stiffened her shoulders. Her eyebrows snapped together. Okay, now the asshole was just toying with her. Scowling, her gaze shot to his face, only to stumble when it fell across a blood crusted chin. A split, bloody lip came into view next, along with red-rinsed swelling along his right cheekbone.
She winced. Hell’s bells, it looked like someone had mistaken this guy’s face for a punching bag. He had to be in too much pain to be planning anything nefarious. The injuries to his face could have affected his vision, too. Maybe he hadn’t even realized he’d blocked her exit. Feeling more charitable, she lifted her gaze and found herself ensnared by a pair of familiar black eyes—glittering, dangerous black eyes.
Swallowing hard, she took a careful step back, scanning the increasingly familiar face. “Aiden?”
What in the world had happened to him?
He stalked forward, directly toward her, backing her up even further. Once he was on the other side of the elevator doors he stopped and reached for the control panel, jabbing the button with his index finger.
Demi swallowed again. There had been a world of controlled fury in that motion. She scanned his battered face more intently. The injuries were fresh…like, an hour fresh. Obviously Aiden was having a bad day. A very bad day—or more likely a very bad morning. She debated reminding him that Kait—his sister—lived on the sixth floor. Except, considering how often he v
isited Kait, he knew where she lived. Then again, maybe the blows to his head had addled his brain a bit.
Should I offer to play nursemaid?
The primitive part of her brain concerned with sex and all things that led to sexual arousal jumped up and down with both metaphorical feet and squealed a resounding YES! YES! PLEASE! But the cautious hemisphere of her brain studied the leashed frustration and fury on his face and decided to pass him off to Kait. The elevator bell dinged, reminding Demi that she still had a taxi waiting and a car to collect.
“Well, I gotta run. Remember—Kait lives on the sixth floor, not the fifth,” she said, stepping to the right. “Number 607,” she added, just in case the beating he’d taken had jarred more than the floor number loose.
Instead of correcting the floor choice, he shifted to the right, blocking her exit again.
Frustrated, Demi stopped to glare. “I don’t have time to play these games, you asshole. Let me through.” The elevator doors started to close, and she glared harder. “I’m serious, Aiden, I’m in a hurry.”
“Yeah?” He raised a pitch-black eyebrow and subtly shifted his weight over his feet as though he were prepared to stand there all day. The doors shut. With a jolt, the elevator started to rise. “Where are you headed without your driver’s license or car?”
Without…
For the first time, she noticed the t-shirt slung over his shoulder and something black and shiny and leather tucked under his left armpit. Something that looked frighteningly like her missing purse.
She groaned beneath her breath.
“It’s the perfect size,” he said, pure challenge in his glittering black gaze as he grabbed her purse with his left hand and held it aloft like a football.
Don’t ask, Demi. Don’t ask. Do you really want to know what he’s talking about?
It didn’t help that he seemed to vibrate at some low-level frequency—like a force field that was about to explode and shower her with sparks.
“To carry a whole party pack of rubbers,” he continued, without her participation. “Something to fit everyone.” When she didn’t respond, he raised his thick black eyebrows even higher. “Just how many guys were you planning on picking up last night?”
His question dropped into the elevator like a dare. Or maybe a threat.
She could hardly pretend she didn’t recognize the purse, or know what he was talking about. Her driver’s license was in that purse, and from his fixation on the condoms, there was little doubt that he’d opened the damn thing and recognized who it belonged by her license.
Coughing to clear her throat, she sighed. “You know Brett.”
He smiled grimly. “My roommate.”
Oh wow…just…wow. Did she know how to pick her partners in crime, or what? She’d suspected they might know each other…but roommates? How humiliatingly unfortunate. She’d never told Brett who she was looking for, but Aiden was an intelligent guy—he’d probably figured it out.
Her cheeks turned into a blast furnace, emitting so much heat she could feel it burning down her neck. “Look, I don’t know what Brett told you, but—”
“He took you home.” Grimness bonded to accusation, and hardened his voice and face in concert.
She shuffled her feet, grimacing, her face getting hotter and hotter. She could hardly deny the accusation. Her purse had been found in Brett’s truck.
“Well, yeah, and I left my purse in his truck, but—”
“You kissed him.”
Demi stopped to stare. Was it her imagination, or had his body actually swelled by a couple of inches at that last comment? She shook her head, brushing the impression aside. Her imagination was certainly working overtime this morning.
“Yeah, well…” She stumbled into silence. This conversation was clearly headed for embarrassing territory. Time to jump ship—or in this case, elevator—and live to be embarrassed another day. She edged around him to the control panel, but the elevator dinged before she even touched it, and began to slow. “Well, thanks for bringing my purse over, but I really have to go. I have a cab waiting to take me to my car.”
“Cancel it.” His voice was autocratic. “I’ll take you over to pick it up.”
“No offense, but you aren’t taking me anywhere looking like that,” she snapped back, making sure her voice was every bit as dictatorial as his had been. “Everyone will assume I’ve been kidnapped by a serial killer.”
He scowled and looked down. “It’s not that bad.”
Demi rocked back on her heels, rounding her eyes in exaggerated shock. “Have you looked in the mirror recently? I’m surprised you weren’t pulled over on your way over here. You look like someone put you through a meat grinder.”
Okay, maybe he didn’t look that bad, but she had no intension of hanging out with him on the half-hour trip over to pick up her car. For some reason her meeting with Brett and her purse full of condoms had chapped his ass big time. She could just feel a lecture coming on. A big brother kind of lecture. The kind she’d heard him give Kait on numerous occasions. And it would be beyond humiliating to endure a lecture on sexual safety from the very guy she’d intended to track down and tempt into sexual shenanigans.
The elevator doors slowly rolled open.
“After I’ve cleaned up, and we’ve had a conversation,” he clarified, irritation still crackling in his eyes. “I’ll run you out to pick up your car.”
“Thanks for the offer, but I have other plans, and we don’t have anything to talk about.” She tried to walk around him, but he blocked her again.
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” This time the protest didn’t come from her. It came from Chester, who was standing on the other side of the open elevator door. Chester was her best coffee customer—a tall, stork-like man who lived on the third floor and hit on her daily with all the awkward intensity of an agoraphobic introvert. He blinked at them, rocking nervously back and forth, as though he couldn’t decide whether to charge forward or back up. “Are you okay, Demi?”
Before she had a chance to respond, Aiden hit the close door button. “She’s fine, and this elevator’s full.”
“Now wait a minute,” Chester said, bobbing his head and blinking his eyes in unison, a nervous tick of his that had the unfortunate effect of making him look more stork-like than ever. An impression further enhanced by his long, thin honker of a nose.
She could see the sheen of anxiety in his olive-colored eyes and instinctively sought to reassure him. “I’m fine, Chester,” she said as the doors started to close. “This is Aiden, Kait’s brother.”
“Well, that’s all well and good, but—”
The door shut and started to rise. But before it reached the next floor, Aiden punched the emergency stop button.
“What are you doing?” Demi’s voice rose as sheer frustration flooded her. He’d effectively caged her. Now she’d have to listen to his brewing lecture. Damn it.
“You don’t want to talk,” he reminded her, something dark and dangerous and…sexy in his voice. “So we’ll just have to find another way to communicate.”
She took a cautious step back, eyeing him warily. “Look, it’s none of your business what I do, where I go, or what I have in my purse.”
“I’m making it my business,” he said, stalking toward her with determined steps.
In no time she found her back flush against the wall of the elevator while chills raged up and down her spine and butterflies exploded in her belly. Her eyes widened as he leaned over her, bracing his left palm against the wall next to her shoulder.
“Look,” she sputtered, bracing her palm against his chest as his right hand rose to cup her chin. “There’s obviously been some kind of a misunderstanding here.”
“No misunderstanding,” he murmured, his lips hovering a hair’s breadth from her mouth. “You have a purse full of condoms and no one to use them on. I’m offering my services.”
Wha…wha…what?
Had he just said what she though
t he’d said? Or were her ears playing tricks on her?
Her head swam as his scent—a hot earthy musk with the slightest metallic undercurrent—flooded her lungs and fogged her brain. Hell’s bells, he smelled so good…like hot, vital male. But he felt even better, his chest hard and hot against her hand. The steady thump of his heart against her palm acted like a shot of pure adrenaline, spiking her own heartbeat and breathing.
He brushed his lips over hers once, as though he was conducting some kind of test—which she must have passed, because he settled his mouth over hers.
Hell’s b—he was kissing her!
She wouldn’t have believed it, except his tongue had snuck inside her mouth and was doing all sorts of wicked things inside there…wicked, delicious things—like stroking her tongue and the inside of her cheeks and sucking every bit of oxygen from her brain.
Her mind went woozy, and her muscles limp. She leaned forward, pressing her body full length against his. He dropped the arm he’d braced against the wall, and wrapping it around her waist, dragged her even closer, until they were pressed shoulder to shoulder and thigh to thigh.
It quickly became evident that he hadn’t been joking about making use of those condoms. In fact, from the feel of his mouth on hers, and his penis pressing against her belly, he was quite enthusiastic about the offer.
She’d spent months dreaming about him, but the reality burned every one of those erotic dreams from her mind. His body was hot and hard against her, rigid muscles sheathed in fire…fire that burned through her skin and sparked an answering flame within her. Her arms lifted, circling his thick neck. She pressed in closer and closer, her mouth moving urgently beneath his. And then, suddenly, he hissed and jerked back.
Off balance, her muscles weak and shaking, she almost dropped to her knees. Would have, if not for the arm he still had wrapped around her waist. He waited until her legs started working again before dropping his arm and stepping back. A broad hand rose to his mouth. Her lethargic gaze followed it.
Hearts Under Fire (Operation: Hot Spot Book 1) Page 4