by Sophia Rae
The humming of a window unit greeted him as he mounted the stairs, so Nick assumed she planned on staying up there, since it would eventually cool off. When he turned to take the last two steps, he froze. The bed sat in his direct line of vision.
So did Eve. Stretched out, arms above her head, wearing no shirt, displaying one hell of a body.
Why was it again he wanted to keep a physical distance?
Without a sound, Nick took the last two steps and made his way over to her bedside. There was that innocent look again. Perhaps she looked so innocent because she wasn’t back-talking him, he mused.
Because his hands ached to touch her, he folded his arms over his chest and caressed her body with only his eyes. From her perfectly polished red toenails, up her lean legs, to the fringe from her jean shorts laying against her tanned thighs, then onto her little bellybutton.
When he got to her breasts, he lingered. The pale yellow bra barely covered her. With the way her arms were stretched to pillow her head, her lush breasts threatened to spill out of the satiny cups.
He forced his eyes up to her flawless face and frowned when he noticed the dark circles beneath her eyes. The woman didn’t take care of herself enough. Then again, neither did he. Of course, he was used to working for days without adequate rest or food. Eve didn’t deserve living in fear, worrying about her father’s killer running free, scared she might be next. And she sure as hell didn’t deserve the lie he kept from her… No matter how he justified it to himself.
Arguing with her was a losing battle, but he wished she would let him and Grady finish this investigation. The Charleston PD hadn’t closed the investigation, but since it had been a year, they had to put their manpower to more recent cases. But Nick knew if he needed more help, they would be there as well. He couldn’t think of one single reason someone as delicate and loving as Eve should have to get mixed up in this lifestyle. Some may consider him sexist, but if he had his way, Eve would be far away. He didn’t really give a damn what other people thought. Eve’s safety was priority number one.
When she sighed and shifted, Nick refocused his attention. She looked up at him with those bright green eyes and he felt as if he’d been punched in the gut. Her mass of curls spread out like flames over the white pillowcase. She didn’t try to cover herself as most women would, but then, Eve wasn’t just any other woman.
Nick knew right then. He’d lost the battle with his heart. Lost in a way he hadn’t before and the unknown territory scared the shit out of him.
“Why are you staring at me?” she asked in a sleepy voice.
“I came up to talk to you,” he replied, trying to keep his eyes on her face. “I didn’t know you’d be asleep.”
Eve brought her arms down and clasped her fingers over her toned belly. “Why aren’t you sleeping?”
Nick shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “I wanted to apologize to you.”
“Why?”
“Because I was rude in the car.”
A naughty smile brightened her face. “Are you only apologizing for the car? You’ve been rude since I met you.”
Nick shrugged. “Yeah, well, I didn’t hurt your feelings all the other times.”
Eve came up to her elbows and Nick couldn’t help but notice her contracted abdominal muscles. Damn, that woman was built.
“What makes you think you hurt my feelings?”
He cleared his throat. “Any other time you’ve given shit right back, but this time you wouldn’t look at me and you were quiet.”
“My feelings aren’t hurt,” she said. “So now that you’ve cleared your conscience, you can get some sleep.”
Nick didn’t move. Did she think he was that much of an ass that he would brush her feelings aside so easily?
“Eve, I don’t want you to think I didn’t want to open up, it’s just that… Well, I’m private. I don’t open up to anybody,” he explained.
“Duly noted,” she said as she rolled to her side. Away from him. “If you don’t want sleep, I do.”
He’d been dismissed.
Damn. He didn’t want to go downstairs, he wanted to crawl into that bed and curl up beside her smooth, bare skin. He wanted to draw her skimpy shorts down and see if her panties matched her bra. He wanted to taste her again. And again.
Reluctantly, Nick turned and went back downstairs.
Eve had been right. They needed to rest in order to deal with whatever lay ahead—killers, stalkers, missing women. Romance. Nick had to be ready for it all.
***
“Grady called with some information on a missing girl,” Nick told Eve as she followed him into the safe house.
At three in the morning, Eve’s feet were practically screaming from dancing for nearly nine hours. Even though she’d changed into her tennis shoes after her shift, she’d spent way too many hours in stilettos strutting and dancing. Two other women had called off and Eve had to perform more than her usual three times.
“What did he say?” she asked, dropping her bag inside the door.
Nick moved into the kitchen and flicked the overhead light on. “We think the last woman who was taken from the club, Allison Myers, is alive and nearby.”
Achy feet forgotten, Eve snapped her attention to Nick as he pulled a can of soda from the fridge. “What happened?”
Eve watched as Nick took a long, slow drink. “Somebody called Allison’s sister and wished her a happy birthday. The boy said Allison asked him to call.”
“Why do you think she’s nearby?”
Nick came back into the living room and took a seat on the plain brown couch. “The sister said the boy sounded very young and had a strong Southern accent. He said Allison was all right. I guess the sister asked where Allison was and he told her he couldn’t say exactly, but it wasn’t far.”
Eve crossed her arms and shifted from one sore foot to another. “Not far?”
“He hung up before she could ask anything else. The sister called the local feds and happened to speak with an agent named Max Price. His sister was the first girl taken. Carly Price.”
“I assume they couldn’t trace the call?”
Nick shook his head as he rested the soda can on his hard stomach and crossed his ankles in front of him. “It came from a pay phone a couple of hours southeast of Charleston.”
“Then maybe that’s where she is.”
“Maybe,” he agreed. “Or maybe it’s a deterrent to throw us off.”
“I don’t think so,” Eve argued. “There would be no reason after two months for someone to call out of the blue. I think Allison made friends with this boy and convinced him to call her sister. She wants us to know she’s alive. There were no other phone calls with any of the other girls.”
“Grady’s working with the local feds to search the area where the phone call came from. He’s going to call me when he learns something. This Max guy is keeping him informed.”
“That’s it?” Eve asked in disbelief. “You don’t want to go there and look for ourselves?”
Nick’s eyes leveled on her. “No. We’re staying put working at it from this angle. When is your meeting with this other guy who wants to hire you?”
“Friday.”
“Fine. We’ll be ready.”
Eve waited for him to say something else, but he took another drink and looked away—as if he couldn’t look at her anymore. Something had flickered in his eyes when he’d asked about the meeting. His feelings weren’t a secret… He didn’t want her going through with it, but backing down now wasn’t an option.
Since Nick seemed to be done with chit-chat, Eve lifted her bag and went upstairs without another word. The man infuriated her. One minute he only showed concern for her feelings, the next he became angry and cold.
Nick had so many different layers to him—Eve couldn’t even begin to peel away the first one to see what truly made the man.
Eve threw her duffle onto the bed and stripped down to nothing. She’d taken some of the new c
ostumes from the club to try on in privacy. She wanted something…“wow” for Friday night. Something that would make this Roman guy take notice and want her. The thought of such a horrid man wanting her should be repulsive. Instead it just made her more eager.
She pulled out the red leather bustier and slithered into it. Once she was certain she wouldn’t break a rib if she moved, she bent down to slide the matching G-string up her legs. She looked around the room, but there wasn’t a mirror. The bathroom had one. The bathroom downstairs…where Nick slept.
For a second Eve contemplated not going down there, but hell, the guy had seen her strip for several nights now. It wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen before at the club.
Except now they were alone. No music, no lights. Just the silence of the night and some lustful feelings she couldn’t shake. Eve called down the steps to him, but he didn’t answer. Maybe he’d gone outside to call Grady or he’d already fallen asleep.
She tiptoed down the stairs, grateful when she didn’t see him on the couch and even more grateful only a small table lamp was on, giving off a pale, glowing light.
She gathered up all her nerve and streaked across the room…just as Nick opened the bathroom door.
Wearing nothing but a towel and perfected muscle tone under bronzed skin.
For several long, tense moments, they said nothing. Eve found herself mesmerized by the iridescent drops of water clinging to his broad shoulders. Had he felt this hot when he’d seen her in only a towel after her shower? Both times?
“I thought you might be outside,” Eve finally said. “I…um…needed to see a mirror and there wasn’t one in my room.”
The thick towel circling Nick’s waist did a poor job of hiding his growing erection. “You don’t need a mirror. You have to know how you look in that.”
His thick voice sounded almost strained. Eve was really wishing the floor would open up and swallow her. Why had she thought she could handle the risk of running into him wearing this seductive outfit?
Because she hadn’t counted on him wearing only a scrap of terrycloth.
“I’ll just go back upstairs and finish trying on my costumes,” she informed him, but remained rooted to the hardwood floor.
Steam from his shower filtered out around him. Black strands of wet hair fell across his forehead in disarray. His bandage had been removed, revealing a nasty cut on his perfect flesh. The fresh, clean scent from him enveloped her and the very last thing she wanted to do was go upstairs.
If she was honest with herself, she really wanted to pull that towel off and finish what they’d started yesterday.
“This is not good,” he said, taking a step toward her.
Eve instinctively stepped back. “No, it’s not. That’s why I’ll go back upstairs and you will stay down here. Tomorrow we can laugh about this.”
Nick kept walking toward her as she retreated. “This isn’t funny.”
When Eve felt the side of the couch against her legs, she stopped. “Nick, we have to be adults about this. Sleeping together isn’t going to accomplish anything, and we’ll just be mad at each other tomorrow.”
He stepped within inches of her and smiled. “Actually, I think it would accomplish a lot, and as far as tomorrow… It doesn’t exist.”
Eve wanted to give into her desire and his persistence, but…
“Would you back up? I can’t think with you so damn close,” she said, raising a hand to his chest.
Dumb, dumb move. Now instead of pushing him away, she flattened her palm against his skin—his irregular heartbeat under her fingertips. She snapped her eyes up to his. The heat shimmered in his eyes and she knew it mirrored her own. With one hand still on his chest, she brought the other one up to his freshly shaven jaw line.
“I don’t want to want you,” she confessed as her eyes drifted up to meet his.
Those dark, penetrating eyes roamed over her face. “I didn’t want this either, but I’ve given in to the inevitable. Since I pulled you into that alley and caught sight of your tempting body beneath that excuse for a robe, I knew I had to have you.”
Eve took a deep breath. He hadn’t used the most romantic words, but right now, she didn’t care. His skin was so slick, so hard under her hands. He looked at her as if she were the most amazing woman in the world. And her panties were so damp, she just knew she would start dripping onto the floor. So she gave in.
Courage she didn’t know existed built up from deep in her and took over. She slid her hands down to the towel, unhooked the knot and let it fall silently to pool around his bare feet.
“Then take me.”
Chapter Six
Eve’s low, throaty words registered in his head, but he couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe this would actually happen.
Nick slid his hands up her arms. She trembled beneath his touch. “If you’re going to change your mind, you’d better tell me now, because in about five seconds, I won’t be able to stop myself.”
The wide, naughty grin she offered told him all he needed to know. This woman wanted him as much as he wanted her. Thank God.
He kicked the towel out of his way as he plunged his hands into her mass of thick, curly hair. Hauling her up against his damp, naked body, all the pent-up need he had came flooding out.
Those lush, leather-bound tits pressed against him. The tops of her smooth bare thighs rubbed against his. And when her full, pink lips parted, he took the plunge.
She answered his demanding kiss with demands all her own. As if bracing herself, she held onto his biceps, squeezing him as he swept his tongue across hers. Her warm, sweet taste filled his mouth.
Finally. He was finally going to know what Eve felt like beneath him, on him. Around him.
Nick roamed his hands down her back until he came in contact with her firm, bare ass. He filled his hands with her, lifting her up off the floor until his cock rested against the triangle of red leather covering her sweet mound.
Eve let out a short moan when he lifted his mouth from hers.
“As much as I love this outfit, it has to go,” he demanded in a voice he didn’t recognize as his own.
Still keeping his hands on her ass, Nick let her body slide back to the floor. He stepped back, just enough for her to undo the little hooks down the front of the bustier.
As she undid them one by one, Nick’s heart thumped faster. His dick throbbed harder.
Her hands trembled as she freed her breasts. As soon as the garment peeled away from her body, she looked up, uncertainty swimming in her eyes.
“The panties, too,” he croaked out.
Damn. Her high, full tits mocked him. Only inches away, her nipples peaked, begging to be sucked on. As Eve hooked her thumbs into the side strings of her panties, Nick stopped her.
“Wait. Let me.”
He stepped forward, bent his head and sucked on mauve bud. He couldn’t wait another second to taste her aroused flesh. He circled her nipple with his tongue, gliding his hands down her small waist. Sliding his hands through her panties, he inched them down over her slender hips until they fell freely around her ankles.
Nick moved to the other nipple as Eve stepped out of her last restraining piece of clothing. Never breaking the contact with her taut nipple, Nick wrapped his arms around her midsection and picked her up.
“Wrap your legs around my waist.”
When Eve complied, Nick sat on the sofa so she could straddle him. The tip of his penis came in contact with moist, hot flesh. His hands roamed back up her body, stopping at her chest. He rubbed the moisture from his tongue into her skin. Once she glistened from his touch, he cupped her breasts—one in each hand—and thumbed her nipples.
“Nick.”
“What?”
“I…I can’t take it,” she panted. “We need a condom.”
“Shit.” Nick released her long enough to reach over to the side table where he kept his wallet. He retrieved the foil packet and had it in place in no time.
His h
ands came back to settle on her hips. In one forceful, determined move, he pushed her down, until her tight glove enveloped him.
Her tight glove.
Fuck.
Her body stilled for only a second before she rested her hands on his shoulders. She kept her eyes closed as Nick began to move.
Right now he didn’t care that she hadn’t told him. All he cared about was how damn good it felt to be buried so deep in her after days of fantasizing.
Using only his hands, he eased her hips back and forth until she began to set her own rhythm. Her lids remained shut as she chewed on her bottom lip and gripped his shoulders. Small, pleading moans escaped her.
Now that she had the hang of it, Nick lifted his hands to her breasts. She arched her back, tilted her head back and rode him harder. His own hips jerked in response. He didn’t want to lose it, not before she received pleasure.
With her head still back, her body rocking in sync with his, Nick snaked a hand down to where they joined. He touched her, just so, until her head snapped up, her sea-green eyes flew open, and she screamed.
The hand he’d had on her breast came up to the back of her neck. He pulled her mouth against his own and swallowed her cries of pleasure.
As her inner muscles constricted around his cock, he continued to stroke her core as his tongue danced with hers. Her short nails bit into the skin of his shoulders and Nick lost it. He came hard and fast. Just the way he liked it.
Once their convulsions ceased, Eve’s head fell onto his shoulder. Her warm breath tickled his skin. He let one hand rest on her inner thigh. The other still covered her breast.
Well, hell. Now what? Should he proceed with caution? Try to be sensitive? Just come out and ask her?
“Is there a reason you didn’t tell me you were a fucking virgin?”
Her lax body instantly stiffened against him. Okay, so maybe he hadn’t used the best approach.
Eve jerked her head up. “It wasn’t any of your business,” she snapped.
“The hell it wasn’t.”
Nick took her slender waist in his hands and lifted her off his lap. She disentangled herself from his legs and stood, trembling before him.