Explosive Alliance (Wingmen Warriors 9)

She angled a glance his way. "Do you have more secrets?"

"You know more about me than anyone else, more than even Sister Nic since I never fessed up to the fertilizer incident."

Would she realize the importance of how much he'd told her? He'd charmed women for years, but Paige saw through his bull and demanded honest emotions. Scary, and, damn, he hoped she didn't push for more. He'd had enough for one night.

She turned her head to kiss his neck, a perfect mix of soothing and sexy. Kind of like her.

Her soft curves melding to his side spiked his temperature.

He couldn't have her tonight, but that didn't mean they couldn't have some fun, and maybe he would luck into one of her smiles along the way. "Tell me what your room looks like."

She grinned against his neck, a sensual caress of full lips he'd felt along more than his neck the night before.

"Surely I've left the door open enough for you to see in since you've been here."

"I didn't dare look because then I'd start walking toward you, and your brother would jam a shotgun between my shoulder blades."

She laughed as he'd hoped, shifting back to safer ground. "It's nothing fancy really, just delft hues."

"Delft?"

"A shade of blue."

"You'll have to be more specific since I have a Y chromosome."

"Very light blue, like your eyes."

"Got it. Blue walls." He tapped the swing back into motion, the chain creaking in response.

"With white trim." She traced the outside seam of his jeans from hip to knee. "I have an old blue-and-white flowered water pitcher of my grandmother's that sparked the look of everything else."

"What about the bed?"

"You've been wondering about my bed?" She skimmed her hand over his knee to the inside seam.

"Wondering about what you look like in your bed." He grazed the side of her breast with his knuckles, painful when it couldn't go anywhere, but more torturous not to touch her at all.

"It's a large four-poster, all white with a white chenille spread."

"Chenille?"

"Y chromosome again?"

"Definitely."

"It has fringe along the edges and kind of a bumpy woven pattern along the top." She worked her way slowly up the inside seam.

"Okay, note to self for future fantasies about a certain hot Dakota babe." He eyed the skyful of stars and fantasized about flying her somewhere deserted and making love out in the open. "Chenille sounds itchy to sensitive places. Toss the spread to the ground before crawling around n**ed with Paige on the bed."

Much more of this and he wouldn't be able to think. He stopped her trekking hand a scant inch from reaching a destination guaranteed to drain the last of his brain cells. He pressed a kiss to her palm and linked their fingers.

"Sounds like a great fantasy to me." She cuddled closer, her head against his shoulder as she fit to his side. "Thank you."

He didn't have to ask why. Oddly enough he knew she meant thanks for the smile, for holding her shaky hand while tears sneaked past her defenses, for coming back with her

— as if he would have even considered otherwise.

Her breathing slowed and evened out until she drifted off to sleep against him as she'd done the night before. Except, life had exhausted her tonight rather than lovemaking.