He’d be smart to keep his distance, but the proximity tonight had doubled his desire for her. The whole time they’d been talking, he was hiding an erection. What was it about Iris that got to him so completely?
“I’m going to need a change of clothes,” she said. “And a quick shower. Also, you might want to bring some fresh gear with you to my house.”
“Why?” The thought of needing to put on a different set of clothes for any reason, had his groin humming once more.
“Call it an instinct, though it’s closer to prescience this time. Trust me, you’ll need some of your things at my house.”
“All right. I’ll take your word for it.”
She sighed. “But after that, where do we find Big Nuts this time of night?”
CHAPTER THREE
A few minutes later, Iris had her arms pinned around Connor’s neck as he flew her through the air. With his arm tight around her waist and her feet balanced on his boot, the t-shirt was drawn up to the bottom of her buttocks. To anyone below, she would have been fully exposed. But Connor had taken them to an even higher altitude than before. This meant, of course, that she was frightened half out of her wits and worked hard to keep from repeating her strangling technique.
Yet at the same time, desire flowed through her once more. Her breasts were flat up against Connor’s muscled chest and as he maneuvered through the air, his pecs would tighten and release, teasing her badly. Each time, she had to repress a moan of pure pleasure. It had been a long time since she’d been with a man. She’d had a few casual relationships since her alter, but nothing significant.
She’d been married for two years when she entered Five Bridges with her sister. She’d lost so much because of the alter, something she tried not to think about very often. Grief was never a simple process and hers, because she’d had to leave a husband she loved behind, was still a decade old, still hurt, and might always be an ache in her heart.
Even worse, she’d been pregnant at the time and the alter had taken the life of her little girl.
But holding onto Connor in such a tight embrace reminded her how good life could be. In this moment, she could set everything aside and remember what it had been like to desire someone like mad, to want to be only with him, to need to share his bed.
He slowed down as he passed over Sentinel Bridge. “Take a look, Iris. I know flying unsettles you, but you won’t believe what I’m seeing. I think your bike is still intact. And don’t worry, I have you.”
She hadn’t planned on releasing her iron grip on his shoulders and neck, but the mention of her Trib cruiser had her easing back. When she’d made enough space to see, she looked down. At the same time, Connor slowed in the air.
The first thing she saw was a pit on the bridge about fifteen feet wide. But Connor had been right, her bike was still there, a good ten feet from the edge of the hole. Rubble was everywhere.
Not surprising, though the bombed-out section was cordoned off, several TPS officers directed traffic around the gaping hole. The reality was simple; the drug lords only made money if humans kept moving through Five Bridges and spending their weekly earnings.
“You’re body’s grown stiff, Iris. You mad?”
“It seems so disrespectful to Jason and Sadie. Couldn’t the bridge stay closed for five minutes?”
“You know what our world is.”
She sighed and when he began picking up speed, she once more wrapped her arms securely around his neck. “I know, but it really bugs me.”
“I hear you.”
Connor zipped her through the air back to Elegance. At least she didn’t have to give him directions, a thought that made her chuckle. Was it only a couple of hours ago that she’d looked up into the night sky, hunting for him?
“Something funny?”
“I’m not sure. It’s hard to know how to react to all we’ve been through, and the night’s not over yet.” Absently, she ran a finger along the short shoulder seam of his tank. The hilt of his sword was pressed into her right hip and she could feel his Glock against her left.
Connor had given her a canvas bag for her belongings, which he now carried in his free hand along with his own travel bag slung over his shoulder. The man was thoughtful.
When he began his descent toward her house, she suggested he land in the backyard. “I’d rather my neighbors didn’t see us on the front porch.”
“Good idea.”
Slowly, he eased past the huge tree to the small patch of lawn she kept in the middle of her jungle-like garden.
Once she stepped off his boot, she took the canvas bag from his hand, then told him to make himself at home. She headed
inside, but left the French doors wide to make sure Connor knew he was welcome to come in.