The tho
ught of Alyssa taking her clothes off little more than ten feet away from him invaded his mind. He tried not to think of her naked and wet. He needed to concentrate on work, on doing his job, on keeping them alive.
Fat lot of good it did him. The minute he heard the tap turn on, all he could imagine was hot, steamy water sluicing over her slender curves. Scented suds sliding, gliding over her skin, over those lush breasts, down her back and over the curve of her sweet ass.
His dick throbbed painfully in his pants. Damn. He wanted her. Badly.
Before he did something really stupid, such as suggest he join her in the shower, he fired off a text to Abbott, bringing the SSA up to speed and asking about Rolston’s current status. When his BlackBerry dinged a couple of minutes later, Noah stifled a curse.
ACKNOWLEDGED.
Acknowledged?
“What the fuck,” he muttered. Dammit. He was hoping for more. He was hoping for an explanation. Like how long was he supposed to keep up the Rolston ruse?
He had more questions, too, but they were of a much more personal nature. Like what exactly was he supposed to do about Alyssa? There wasn’t any sense in denying he was physically attracted to her. Every time he looked at her, he thought about sex. A whole lot of sex.
And he wasn’t alone on that score. Not that he was vain, but he’d seen the heat simmering in her eyes, the way she looked at him, as if she wanted to devour him in one sitting.
Feeling even more frustrated, he stood and walked to the sliding glass door. Maybe some fresh air would help, he thought as he pushed the slider open, then stepped out onto the sun-drenched balcony. Using the ledge for support, he leaned forward, resting his forearms on the concrete railing. Maybe he’d catch some of that sunset Alyssa kept promising him.
Problem was, he wasn’t all that interested in the sunset. He needed food, sleep and sex, and not necessarily in that order, either.
He was restless, he realized. Hell, he probably needed a vacation, too. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d taken time off work. His buds were planning a rafting trip on the White River sometime in the next couple of weeks. He probably should take them up on their offer and make arrangements to go with them. Enjoy the fresh air, do a little communing with nature and sleep under the stars. Nothing wrong with wanting to take it easy for a change. What was wrong with wanting to kick back with friends d catch a buzz while lazing around the campfire every night for a week?
Not a damned thing.
“Hey, Chuckles?”
Noah, dammit. His name was Noah.
He shoved off the balcony ledge and walked back inside the room. “Yeah?” he called out as he slid the screen door closed and latched it. Not that he expected anyone to scale the building to get into their room three floors up, but old habits died hard.
Noah turned around and practically swallowed his tongue. Standing in the space between the mirrored closet doors and the bathroom stood Alyssa, steam billowing out behind her. He blinked, and couldn’t help being stunned into silence. The sight of Alyssa wearing nothing but a stark white towel and a smile nearly drove him to his knees. She looked ethereal, like a mirage. A very tempting, sexy mirage that had him moving sex up to the top of his list of immediate needs.
Alyssa might not be an expert at much of anything, especially the bodyguard business, but she knew the look of a man when he wanted a woman. And the heat blazing in Chas’s eyes had her reading him loud and clear. He wanted her.
Talk about arousing. Endless possibilities ran though her mind with lightning speed, each one more erotic than the last, making her breasts tingle and her inner thighs grow damp in anticipation. Need awakened inside her with a vengeance, demanding to be quenched. Denial was not an option.
The words she’d been about to speak upon exiting the bathroom evaporated into the thin, humid air surrounding her. When she opened her mouth, no sound came out, no protest, no acknowledgment of her body’s answering call to his. She couldn’t even manage a sigh. She just stood there staring at him, wondering where he’d been all her life.
She knew the answer. Up until eight hours ago, he’d been busy living his own life three thousand miles away. His life was on the other side of the country; hers was here, in Los Angeles. She didn’t believe in long-distance relationships. In her opinion they were a waste of time and money because in the end, they were rarely successful.
What the hell was she thinking? She’d only just met the man and she was already hot for him. The word slut hung on the fringes of her consciousness, but she pushed that annoying bitch aside and concentrated on Chas and the sexual awareness radiating from both of them. For the space of a half a dozen heartbeats, she didn’t care that he’d just walked into her life. In those few brief seconds, she was blissfully conscious of a variety of intense sensations rippling over her skin, and not a one of them unpleasant.
With agonizing slowness, he walked toward her. Never in her life had she been so wholly aware of another human being as she was this man. She didn’t understand it. She wasn’t sure she wanted to. A blushing virgin she was not, and she’d been to the rodeo a time or two. But this was different. Exactly how she knew that, she couldn’t say, but she knew. Deep inside, she just knew.
He stopped in front of her and slid his hand along her jaw, settling it at the back of her neck. He must’ve taken up all the oxygen in the room, because all of a sudden she couldn’t breathe.
His green eyes simmered with desire, making her body ache—for him. He dipped his head and skimmed his mouth along her jaw to her ear. “I’m going to kiss you,” he said, his voice all husky and hot.
She melted. Her vocal cords continued to fail her, so she nodded. Yes, she thought. Kiss me. Kiss me now.
Bless his heart, he did, gently at first, with a soft, tentative brush of his lips against hers. But then he moved his tongue along the seam of her lips, changing the tempo. She opened her mouth and he swept his tongue inside to tangle with hers.
Her world spun out of control. Without an ounce of hesitation she wreathed her arms around his neck and hung on for dear life. With her body pressed up against his, the knot from the towel she’d tied at her breasts dug into her tender flesh, but she didn’t exactly care. All that concerned her was that Chas keep kissing her.
He shifted and urged her even closer. She had no trouble discerning exactly how aroused he was, either. That was no gun pressing against her. She knew because she’d spied the holstered weapon slung over the back of the chair when she’d first come out of the bathroom and couldn’t find him.