Dare Me (Take Me 2)

“I’m not playing a game here,” he said, the raw intensity exuding from him.

“Neither am I.”

“Good.” His hand fell away and he took a step back. “Now, what’s your pleasure?”

She grinned, despite the razory tone they’d both taken during their crucial conversation.

“I think…another bath. I’m a little sweaty from nerves and could use the relaxing scent, which I can already smell. It’s heavenly.”

“You want music? Classical, jazz, hip-hip?”

With a soft laugh, she said, “Definitely not hip-hop. I need to wind down. I’m pretty sure I’m cresting hypertension at the moment.”

“Not good,” he said with noted concern.

“I just need to soak for a few minutes.” She spared a glance over her shoulder at the enormous tub, filled to the brim with bubbles. Turning back to Damen, she ventured, “Care to join me?”

He couldn’t resist, of course.

Damen toes off his shoes. Peeled off his sweater, jeans, briefs, socks. Stripping down in front of Nikki got the adrenaline pumping through him and made him impossibly hard.

Slowly undressing Nikki tightened his groin further.

They slipped into the warm water, Damen resting against one high-sloping end of the tub and Nikki settling between his parted legs, her back pressed to his chest.

Neither one of them spoke.

She’d piled her gorgeous dark-auburn hair on top of her head and secured it with a clip. The strands were richly scented, arousing his senses more so than the light aromatherapy of the bath.

His lips grazed her temple.

Her body relaxed, the tension within her dissipating.

He slid his hands over her forearms and up to her biceps, clasping them gently, massaging the lightly toned muscles. Then his hands glided up to her shoulders and he rubbed them with a little more pressure.

Nikki all-but purred under his touch. Her head fell back against his shoulder. He could see her eyelids closed.

She took deep, calming breaths as his hands continued to work her knots and he left feathery kisses against her cheek and neck.

She finally broke the silence, quietly asking, “Do you really trust Garcia?”

He pulled in a long breath. Let it out slowly. He rested the back of his head against the thick towel draped along the rising ledge of the tub.

“Damen?”

“Garcia had the chance to fuck us over. To hand your laptop to terrorists—and attempt to eliminate you in the process.”

He felt the shiver run through her.

“I said attempt,” he whispered, his arms now slipping around Nikki’s waist.

“Right. What about those things she said about suspecting you’d find me, whether you could track me or not with the device? She knew you’d come looking for me? Whether I had the intel or not?”

Damen groaned.

Nikki said, in a lighter tone, “You can just tell me that you weren’t ready to let me out of your sight.”

He didn’t hesitate to counter with, “You clearly weren’t thrilled to let me out of yours, either. You tore through an entire hospital, searching for me.”