Smart and Sexy

by Jill Shalvis

  “Tell me,” she whispered, putting her hands on his chest to push free. “Is everyone okay?”

  He slid his hands down her arms, taking her wrists, lifting them over her head so she couldn’t move, leaving her stretched out on the wall for him.

  “Noah—”

  His mouth was busy at her jaw, her neck…and she lost her train of thought. “Uh…”

  Holding her upright with his hands, his body, the thigh he’d thrust between hers, she discovered that the darkness lent a freedom all in itself. She found herself riding his thigh, wishing their clothes would fall away, so that there was no barrier between them.

  His clever, clever mouth found a way beneath her sweater. Dragging her bra cup aside with his teeth, his warm breath teased her nipple, and she thought she’d die of pleasure. Then he gently rubbed his jaw over it.

  Another sound escaped her throat at that, and then he leaned in and sucked her into his mouth. Her knees buckled, but with his thigh between hers, she wasn’t going anywhere.

  Nor she did she want to. It was a startling realization, and when he let her hands go to unbutton her sweater, she clutched at him. “Noah,” she gasped. “Please tell me what happened out there.”

  “They’re gone.”

  She knew he was in one piece, no bullet holes, but she ran her hands over him again just to feel him, to be sure. “I can’t keep doing this to you, I won’t—”

  “You’re not.” He cupped her breasts, his fingers driving her straight to heaven. Unable to stop herself, she touched him too, ran her hands over his shoulders, his belly…the hard bulge behind the button fly of his jeans, loving the raw, hungry sound that escaped him when she outlined him with her fingers. Pressing her face into his neck, she just breathed him in.

  “They’ll be in Cabo,” she whispered. “I’m going to tell them again, that I don’t know where the money is, and that killing me won’t change that.”

  “They still won’t believe you. But the cops can—”

  “No. They said no police or they’d hurt Kenny. And now you. They’ll hurt you.”

  “Princess, it’s not me they wanted.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “If you knew who they were, then Shayne’s brother could—”

  “Noah.” Guilt ate at her. She did know who they were. “I, um…” She swallowed hard. “I haven’t told you everything.”

  He went still.

  She closed her eyes, but it didn’t matter. The closet was still pitch-dark, and she was still about to really screw everything up. “I know who the men are.”

  Noah shifted, and she heard a click, and then the closet was flooded with light.

  Noah’s body still pressed hard against her, his eyes unfathomable. “You said you didn’t know who they are.”

  “I know,” she whispered. “I’m sorry.” Sorrier than he could ever know. “I think…I think I should go to Cabo alone.”

  “Over my dead body.” He said this so evenly it took a moment for her to process the words.

  “Hey,” Shayne said through the door. “You going to stay in there all night, because we’re getting tired of trying to eavesdrop from out here. Can’t hear a damn thing.”

  Noah never took his gaze off Bailey. “Go away,” he called out.

  “Yeah. Can’t do that.”

  It was hard to think with his body pressed against hers, with his hands…oh Lord, those hands. One was still on her breast, the other cupping her bottom, pressing her against the hard ridge in his jeans. “Noah,” she whispered.

  “Right.” He pushed away, waiting while she straightened her clothes, the ones he’d just been trying to get her out of, then opened the door.

  Shayne was propped against the wall, arms casually crossed, all laid-back and easygoing stance, but nothing about his eyes was laid-back and easygoing.

  “Where’s the ‘we’?” Noah asked him.

  Shayne lifted a shoulder. “Lied. I sent Brody on my last charter; he’s gone until morning. You can thank me later. Maddie needs you to sign something ASAP. She’s waiting at her desk.”

  “Fine.” Noah turned to Bailey. “I’ll be right back.”

  Shayne waited until Noah was out of range before he looked at Bailey. “So.”

  “I’m so sorry about the visitors.”

  “Yeah. Bad-Breath and Shit-For-Brains said you were a dangerous and crazy thief.”

  Bailey lifted her chin. “I realize that you have no reason to believe anything I say, but I’m not a thief.”

  “Well then, it’s a good thing I don’t listen to people whose necks are wider than their brains, isn’t it. Look, I make up my own mind on people. And my mind says you’re in over your head, but you’re not a thief. In any case, Noah believes in you, and that’s good enough for us.”

  Bailey stared at him, a little stunned at the blind trust. Before Noah had come along, she’d have said she didn’t believe such a thing even existed. And now…and now she only wished she could bring herself to experience it firsthand instead of simply witnessing the beauty. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “Don’t thank me yet.”

  Her heart, warmed only seconds before, chilled.

  “Because while I’m not locking up the silver, I do think you’re dangerous.” He looked pointedly past Bailey, where beyond the reception area, Noah was bent over Maddie’s desk, pen in hand.

  Bailey looked at him, too. Hell, she couldn’t stop looking at him. Long, built, gorgeous, he was nodding at something Maddie was saying. His hair had fallen over his forehead, and he carelessly shoved it back. Maddie reached up and squeezed his arm, and he tugged at a strand of her hair.

  Easy affection.

  Easy camaraderie.

  God, to have people in her life like that. She had Kenny, she knew that no matter what Noah thought, but Kenny had been gone a long time, and nothing about that was going to change.

  “Bailey.”

  Bracing herself, she met Shayne’s sharp eyes.

  “Be careful with him.”

  Even standing as casual and at ease as he was, the worry sat heavily in every line of his face, and her immediate reaction of defensiveness softened. “Noah is in no danger from me, Shayne.”

  “Isn’t he?”

  If anyone was going to get hurt when this was over, Bailey was fairly certain it would be her. She was already nursing a broken heart. “No.”

  He looked at her for a long moment, then nodded.

  “Thank you for what you did today,” she said. “For everything. Please tell Brody, too. I can never thank any of you enough—”

  “Yes, you can.” He glanced at Noah, then back at her. “You can thank us by not hurting him.”

  And then he walked away.

  Bailey watched him go, drawing in a deep breath, then slowly letting it out.

  Noah was a wanderlust, a man who lived gleefully on the edge of danger and adventure, and had the scars to prove it, both inside and out.

  She couldn’t hurt a man like that…

  Could she?

  Or had she already, by not trusting him? The truth was, it was herself she hadn’t trusted, not him. And she needed to tell him that.

  “Hey.”

  Whipping around at the hand on her shoulder, she stared into his face.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  In spite of what she’d done—and not done—he was taking her to Cabo. Now. Her heart squeezed. “Noah—”

  “Look, I don’t want to argue about this.”

  Male code for, I’m done with this conversation. “Same plane?” she asked.

  “Yes.” But he didn’t look at her, and in fact, led her to the front door of Sky High Air, not to the tarmac. Pulling her outside, he kept a watchful eye on everything around them as he lead her to a sports car. Night had fallen, though as was typical for Southern California, the temperature had not.

  “This isn’t a plane,” she said, eyeing the BMW.

  “Nope.” He unlocked the door and waited for her to get in, whi
ch she didn’t.

  “Aren’t you going to ask me about the men?” she asked.

  “I’m done asking. I want you to tell of your own free will.”

  Blind trust. “I’d…like to do that, but I also really need to get to Cabo. Are we driving there?”

  He sighed, and scrubbed a hand over his jaw, making the two-day growth there rasp in the quiet air. “You need some sleep. Hell, I need some sleep.”

  “But—”

  “Whatever we’re going to face down there, we can face in the morning.”

  She looked into his face and saw exhaustion, and knew it was mirrored on her own as well. “I can get another pilot—”

  “I said I’d fly you there, and I meant it. Just come home with me for tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll take you where you need to go, I promise.”

  He was tense, braced for battle, but even she wasn’t that selfish. He’d done everything she’d asked and more, so much more. It was her turn. She nodded, and going up on tiptoe, pressed her mouth to his jaw. “Thank you,” she whispered against his skin. “Thank you for doing this.”

  With a low sound, he banded his arms around her and squeezed tight, burying his face in her hair. “Cabo,” she heard him whisper, and then shudder. “Jesus, it figures.”

  She lifted her head to look into his eyes. “What do you mean?”

  He stared at her for a long moment, then shook his head. “Nothing. Let’s go.”

  He made a quick stop at a local pizza joint for a large pizza and a six-pack of sodas, and when she looked at him, he sighed and added a salad as well.

  Not used to having her mind read, or having someone even care what she thought for that matter, she found herself smiling.

  He didn’t smile back, but took her hand. He drove about ten minutes into the Burbank Hills, up a winding road where at the apex of every turn she caught a breathtaking view of the city below. Finally, he pulled into a long driveway and stopped outside a house with more of the breathtaking view.

  He turned off the engine, let out a breath.

  “Pretty house,” she said.

  “I rent it.” He looked at the place as if still half surprised to find himself living there. “I’ve never lived in a house before.”

  “Never? Not growing up?”

  “Definitely not while growing up. When I came to the States, I got shuffled around a lot. That kind of stuck with me, and I did the same once I was on my own. Shayne and Brody were my home base in LA, and when I was in town, I always just stayed with one of them.”

  “What changed?”

  He lifted a shoulder. “We started earning money, and decided we were too old for the whole frat thing.” He turned to her. “Ready?”

  “Noah, you don’t have to put me up tonight. I—”

  He grabbed the food, got out of the car, and shut his door.

  Okay, he definitely wasn’t big on conversations that weren’t going his way. Coming around, he opened her door, and they walked up to the house. On the porch, he put his hands on her hips and pulled her close. “Let’s be clear on this one thing at least. I want you here.”

  She’d held him up at pen-point. She’d dragged him all over California. And what had he done? He’d protected her with his life.

  She owed him. Whether he wanted to believe it or not, she did. She owed him everything, but at the very least, she owed him more of the truth. “Noah.” He was close, so very close. She’d never done the trust thing while staring someone in the eyes from inches away. “The men…they’re cohorts of Alan’s. They…they know me. I’m sorry if I didn’t tell you before, but they said if I told anyone, they’d kill my students and Kenny, and then me.”

  “Bailey.” His voice was terrifyingly gentle. He pressed his forehead to hers. “They’re not going to kill you until they get their money.”

  “But you—”

  “They’re not going to get a chance at me either.” He tightened his grip on her. “Or you. I’m not going to let it happen.”

  It took her a moment to speak. “Still, taking me to Cabo is above and beyond the call of duty.”

  He just looked at her, and again she sensed something within him, something that didn’t have to do with her. “Excluding what we’ve been through,” she said carefully, “I just get the feeling something’s wrong.”

  He let out a harsh laugh and covered his eyes, and her curiosity changed into alarm. “Noah?”

  He dropped his hand and looked at her. “It’s nothing.”

  “Now who’s not trusting?”

  “We’re not talking about this.”

  “Now there’s a male statement I’ve heard many times before.”

  His jaw tightened. “Don’t lump me in with the other men in your life.” His eyes were fathomless, his big body tense, yet loose. Battle ready.

  Something was wrong, she could feel it. Something he didn’t want her to know. He was tough as hell, she knew this firsthand, but she couldn’t help but wonder, Who did he go to when he needed someone?

  Shocking, how much she wished it could be her.

  But he’d been on his own for far too long. Maybe he let Shayne and Brody close, but they’d been together forever, and she’d bet her last dollar, if she’d had one, that he didn’t easily open up with anyone else.

  Still, she wished…“I can’t lump you into the same category as the other men in my life.” Going on was one of the hardest things she’d ever done, but he had to know this much about her. “They’ve all been clean-cut, soft-spoken, overly educated—” She let out a laugh. “The kind of man a mother dreams of for her daughter, you know? In fact, it was that whole fantasy thing that sucked me into Alan’s orbit.”

  “Yeah. And I’m not exactly the clean-cut, soft-spoken, overly educated kind of man your mother would have wanted for you.” Noah leaned back against the door and crossed his arms. His hair fell into his eyes, but even if it hadn’t, those eyes were shuttered from her for the first time since she’d stabbed him in the shoulder with her pen. “I get that.”

  “I’m trying to explain,” she said.

  “You’re trying to tell me that I’m not your type. Got it loud and clear, Princess, believe me.” He unlocked the door. “Unfortunately, your type or not, you need my help, which means you’re stuck with me until we finish this thing.” Movements just a little jerky with temper, he gestured her inside.

  But he’d so thoroughly misunderstood, she just stared at him, not moving inside. He actually thought she was rejecting him. She wished she could tell him that was the last thing she’d ever do, but those words, here and now, weren’t fair, because they weren’t going anywhere with this.

  They couldn’t.

  And given all she’d put him through, why would he even want to?

  But he pulled her inside, and with one last searching look into the night, shut the door.

  She knew they hadn’t been followed; he’d never have allowed her to stand outside if they had been. But on the other hand, she’d not expected Stephen to tail her as closely as he’d managed for days, and that in itself was more than a little unsettling. “Noah—”

  “Look, let’s just eat.” He headed toward the kitchen with the pizza. “Afterward, I’ll show you to the spare bedroom.”

  “Noah.”

  He just kept walking away from her.

  Chapter 19