“Is this a relationship?”
“I don’t know.” He looked so pained, so frustrated, she didn’t push.
“We’ll focus on the problem at hand right now,” she offered.
His game face came over his features like a robot mask. “Right. That’s exactly what we should be doing.”
She went to step out of his arms, but he didn’t let her go, tugging her over to the couch instead. He sat down and pulled her right into his lap.
“This is focusing on our problem?”
“Part of my job is making you feel safe right now.”
“I do feel safe.”
“You’re saying sitting in my lap doesn’t make you feel safer?”
“No, I’m not saying that.” It didn’t make sense, because really it shouldn’t make any difference, but she didn’t want to move.
“Good.”
“What now?”
“The big boss is maki
ng some phone calls. They’ll need the data and youinterpretation of it, but then the spooks will move in on Luminescent Pharmaceuticals.”
She snuggled more firmly into his lap. “What’s your role in all this?”
“Keeping you safe.”
“Don’t you want to be in on the takedown?” she asked, as she rubbed her head against his shoulder.
“I want to be your hands-on bodyguard.” It sounded like a promise of something else entirely.
She decided to go for the joke, rather than press for him to acknowledge what he was really saying . . . if he was saying what it felt like. “Sounds dirty.”
“Sexy maybe.”
“Sexy definitely.”
“Good.”
“Speaking of sex.”
“We’ve got forty-three minutes until the others arrive.”
“Let’s not waste it.”
And they didn’t. Though he did insist on taking a few minutes to set up some complicated contraptions on the windows and door before carrying her off to bed and once again blowing her mind with pleasure.
CHAPTER 8
His friends turned out to be a lot like she’d expected. Which meant they reminded her of Roman and Max. Though one of them was a woman. They set up a rotation of guards, but Max stayed with her all the time.
Someone else might have gotten sick of spending so much time in a hotel suite, but she was used to working on her thesis for days at a time. Besides, she had the distraction of Max.
Totally delicious and wonderful, he used sex to help her work off the tension of being cooped up in the same two rooms. She didn’t need to go running when he loved her into a puddle of exhausted pleasure. Sex, the perfect cardio.