Текст книги "Ex-Con: Bad Boy Romance"

Автор книги: Shiloh Walker

Соавторы: M. S. Parker
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He asked his next question, “What does the job entail?”

“Watching her.” I jabbed a thumb at Carly, hurrying to answer before she did her thing. “I keep reporters back, watch for suspicious activity, and if she needs protection, I provide it.”

“I can see you providing the protection. Even watching for suspicious activity. You’ve always had an eye for trouble.” He rocked back in his chair. “Problem is, instead of avoiding it, you usually dove right in, fists up and ready for blood. Are you certain this is the right job for you?”

“Mr. Sampson.”

Ryan leaned forward and now I could see him as a lawyer, all slicked up and polished, ready to argue with some judge, or another lawyer. “I’m sorry, I know you need some answers from Bobby, but if I could...”

Detoine held out his hands.

“You didn’t see him that night.” Ryan smiled. “We did. He didn’t know who she was, and even though she tried her best to knock his head off his shoulders with her purse, once he realized there was a problem, he waded through a good twenty reporters and put himself between her and them. That’s what a good bodyguard does, puts himself between the person he’s hired to guard and harm. More than that, he took both Jake and myself down.”

Detoine’s eyebrows shot up. “Is that supposed to be a good thing?”

Ryan chuckled. “I’m a former cop. Jake did eight years in the army. And Bobby took both of us without breaking a sweat. That proves he’s strong, determined, and a survivor. Plus, he cares about Ms. Prince.”

I tried not to shift in my seat. I couldn’t believe Ryan was saying that with a straight face after what he’d caught Carly and me doing. Almost doing.

“If I was being offered five thousand dollars, I’d care too,” Detoine pointed out.

“He’s tried several times to walk away,” Ryan countered. “He says with his past, he’d bring more trouble than he’s worth. I believe he’s wrong.”

I hadn’t known I was going to have to listen to them talk about me like this. I could feel the heat creeping up the back of my neck.

Detoine’s focused shifted back to me. “You want to walk away from a job that pays five grand, Bobby? That’s more money than you’ve seen in a long while.”

My head was pounding. Rubbing the back of my neck, I stared out the small rectangle that served as a window. “I just don’t want anybody to have trouble because of me. I’ve caused enough.”

Moments ticked by.

Detoine finally blew out a rough breath. “Kid, I just don’t know what to make of you, you know that?”

Since I didn’t know how to answer, I didn’t bother.

“Okay, I’ve just got one more question.”

I looked at him.

He stared at me with grim eyes. “You’re not going to like it.”

“I haven’t much liked anything about being here, sir,” I said honestly.

“Then you’re really not going to like this, but I have to ask.” He very pointedly didn’t look at Carly so when he first said it, I wasn’t quite sure what he meant.

The question was just so…so…bizarre, it didn’t make sense.

Finally, I leaned forward and spoke in a carefully controlled voice. “Would you repeat that?”

“Bobby.” Elbows braced on his desk, Detoine said softly, “I need to know if you’re providing any other services to Ms. Prince. Anything other than what you’ve explained here.” He hesitated, and then added, “Personal services.”

I looked over at the woman next to me. Her face was white, her lips pressed into a nearly invisible line. I could feel Jake and Ryan shifting behind me and knew it was taking all of their self-control not to intervene.

“You’re serious,” I said, turning back to Detoine. “You think this woman is paying me to sleep with her?” If it’d been just Detoine and me, my question would’ve been a lot less polite.

“Sex for money has been known to happen.” Detoine looked pretty damn uncomfortable with the situation, and that was the only thing that let me keep my temper in check. His gaze skittered away from mine, and he busied himself tidying up his desk. “I realize this is terribly personal and uncomfortable, but the question needs to be answered.”

“Why?” Carly demanded coldly.

I glanced at her and saw that she had two spots of color high up on her cheeks. I suddenly realized that she might have been embarrassed at first, but now she was pissed off. Like swing-her-purse-at-someone’s-head pissed off.

Detoine looked up, but didn’t meet her gaze. “It just does.”

“No.”

Carly whipped her head around and glared at me, anger turning her eyes to blue fire. “Don’t you dare give him the satisfaction of an answer.”

“I have to,” I said softly. Then I looked back at Detoine. “The answer is no, Detoine. I’m not being paid for personal services. And you can also tell Dale Mitchell to fuck off.”

His facial expression didn’t change, but his lashes flickered. That was all. Just the quickest flicker, not even a blink, really. But it was enough to confirm what I’d suspected.

Dale was the entire reason I was here. The fucker.

“Some detective with a grudge questions my motives for hiring a bodyguard and the two of us have to be subjected to...” Her hands gestured in front of her like she couldn’t find the words to describe what was happening.

“Now, Ms. Prince,” Detoine said, moving to defuse the situation. “This is just a routine interview. Considering the rather exorbitant fee you’re paying him, I had to make sure there was nothing else involved. That’s my job.”

“Exorbitant?” She laughed, but the sound was brittle. “Five thousand is pocket change to me, Mr. Sampson. I’ve spent that on a spa day without blinking. Hell, I might’ve spent that just on clothes for Bobby yesterday. I don’t even look at the bill for things like that.”

Blood rushed to my face and I found myself staring at the soft, steel gray trousers that had been delivered to the hotel just that morning. Five thousand dollars? That hadn’t been the number I’d seen...

Fuck. The suits. She’d put a rush job on the suits. For all I knew, the damn suit they expected me to wear later that day cost five fucking grand on its own.

Detoine cleared his throat. “What’s pocket change to you is several months’ income to others.”

She stood up abruptly and leaned across the desk. “That’s not the point. We’re here because a cop with a grudge got his jockey shorts in a twist and you fucking know it. Don’t you? But you can’t tell that cop to fuck off, can you? You have to act like me wanting Bobby to work for me is something...sordid.”

I stood up.

“Carly.” I caught her elbow. She stiffened, and I knew she was going to pull away. Leaning in until I could smell her apple-scented shampoo, I whispered, “You asked me not to quit. Now I’m asking you to do something for me. Let this go. It won’t help.”

Slowly, she straightened. A shudder wracked her body and she turned to face me. “It’s not fair,” she whispered. “You went to jail. You did your time.”

My heart twisted. What had I done to deserve her protection? Her faith?

“You don’t get it.” I brushed her hair back from her face, forcing my hand not to linger. “Whether or not I did my time doesn’t change the fact that his brother is still gone. Nothing brings him back. He’s always going to hate me. And he has a right to.”

“So he gets to abuse his badge?”

I didn’t have anything to say to that.

“No.”

I looked up at Detoine’s quiet voice, except he wasn’t looking at me. He was focused on Carly and his eyes were gentle, understanding even.

“No cop has a right to abuse his badge, not for anything.” He sighed and then leaned back in his seat, skimming one hand back across the neat crop of short black hair. He focused hard on the wall for a moment, and then shifted his attention back to me. “Bobby, if you would, sit. Please. Ms. Prince.”

I sat. A moment after I did, Carly did as well, but it was pretty clear from the rigid line of her spine and the way she swung her foot that she wasn’t happy about any of this.

Yeah, well, neither was I. Shame twisted my gut up as I shoved back out of the chair to pace the small confines of the office. I knew exactly how many strides I could take before I had to turn around. Three. Pivot. Two strides – he had a massive file cabinet and it blocked the western wall. Turn. Three strides back.

“Bobby.”

He came out from behind the desk and intercepted me on my third lap. “Come on, kid. You know as well as I do that I’ve got a job that needs to be done.”

I shot him a look.

Yeah. He had a job. His job, too often, involved questions or actions that were embarrassing as hell, but dignity wasn’t a part of my life anymore. I’d given up that right when I’d taken a life. I got to piss in a cup on a regular basis, and any time some cop decided he didn’t like the look of me, I ended up with my face against the wall while he searched me for weapons or drugs.

“I know you’re doing your job,” I said levelly. Turning my head, I stared out the window as I answered his question. “No, I’m not being paid to have sex with Carly Prince.”

Then, because I was worried about her, I slid her a look. Her eyes were snapping and hot, staring lasers straight into Detoine’s head. But he was still looking at me.

I sighed, “Hell, just look at her. You think she needs to pay somebody for sex? Men would sell their soul to share her bed.” The last bit just slipped out, but I didn’t take it back.

It was true, after all.

I heard, and felt, the reaction coming from Jake and Ryan, but I didn’t look at them. Never let it be said that I didn’t know how to burn my bridges in spectacular style.

Detoine looked even more uncomfortable now, and he rubbed his hand across his scalp. “Like I said, kid. I’m just doing my job.”

“Your job sucks.”

He gave me a grim smile that said he sometimes thought the same damn thing.

Chapter 7

I waited until we were outside before I looked at them, but it was only in their general direction. I couldn’t meet anyone’s eyes.

“I can find my own way back.”

“Back where?” Carly hadn’t looked at me, not even once, since we’d left Detoine’s office, but her wide blue eyes swung around to meet mine now and she scowled.

“Back home.” I jerked my shoulder in a shrug, my gaze sliding away from hers. “I know this wasn’t what you thought you’d be getting when you...” Ridley was the only one not staring at me and, after a moment, it hit me. “You still want me to work for you.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Carly sounded confused.

Blowing out a breath, I shifted my gaze to Jake. He was the logical one of the bunch, and definitely the one in charge. If Carly would listen to anyone, it’d be him. He looked tired today, but what did I know? “Talk some sense into her.”

“I’ve been trying to do that since she was just a kid, Bobby.” He shook his head, a fond smile on his face. “It’s not going to happen.”

She rolled her eyes at him, and came toward me. “Look, you think I’m going to change my mind because some asshole cop decided to jerk your chain? I’m not.” She made a dismissive motion with her hand, her expression serious. “All it does is make me that much more determined to keep you with me. I bet you anything he did this because he thought it would make me write you off.”

Carly came closer, so close now that I could smell something soft and gentle on her, something that complemented the apple shampoo. Maybe the lotion she’d put on a few minutes ago. I didn’t know what it was, but I liked it. It was...soft. Soft and gentle. There was no room for soft and gentle in my life. Maybe it was stupid, because standing there, close to her while the wind teased her hair and she studied me, I felt that loss keenly. My mom hadn’t been soft, but she had been gentle. Sometimes too gentle. Life had chewed her up and spit her back out, too. I’d learned young that gentle didn’t survive in the real world.

Carly had a look in her eye now, the kind of look that made me think that life had tried to do the same to her, but it hadn’t worked. Still, she had that soft and gentle feel to her. Not weakness. Hell, no. She was one of the strongest people I knew. With her, it was caring, compassion. Hope. Some people, they never really lost it, no matter what the world did. Somehow, they just kept believing in things. In people.

And, for some crazy reason, Carly had decided she was going to believe in me.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, my voice gruff.

“Because.” She shrugged and turned away.

“That’s not an answer,” I said to her back.

She swung around, walking backward with a grace that belied the four-inch spikes she called shoes. With a wide, easy smile, she said, “That’s the best you’re going to get for now. Ask me again in a few days.”

***

That night sucked even worse than the morning had, and it was far worse than the past night. It was so bad I was ready to gouge out my eye with the dessert spoon before we’d been there thirty minutes. I knew it was the fucking dessert spoon because Jake had hammered that fact, and several others, into my head over the span of two hours. We were attending a dinner banquet, and while Jake, Ryan and the ever-silent Ridley would get to stand in the shadows, I would, apparently, be dining with Carly.

“If I’m supposed to be a bodyguard, why am I sitting at the table and eating?” I asked during a break in the conversation. I kept my voice low. I was getting the hang of the subtle thing, I thought.

Carly didn’t seem to agree. She kept a smile on her face even as she leaned in closer and murmured, “Not here.”

I pinned a glare on her, but I didn’t ask again.

She picked up her wine glass and took a sip. Then she held it to her lips and sighed. “It’s complicated. You’re doing more than being a bodyguard at the moment. I’ll explain later.”

Before I had a chance to press her to explain now, some guy who had to be twice her age said her name. He was standing on my other side with the sort of look that said he fully intended to take the seat at her side as soon as I moved.

Carly clutched at my arm and gave him her signature smile. “Oh, it’s so good to see you, Hank. I hope you understand if I keep Bobby with me, though. It’s his first time to one of these and he’s nervous.”

“Of course.” The smile Hank gave back didn’t fit his words.

He walked around the table and took the seat across from her as I pulled out her chair, pushing it back in the way I’d practiced.

I sat next to her, stiff and uncomfortable, but ready to do what needed to be done for my job. When I felt her tense ever so slightly when Hank leaned forward, I realized that I no longer needed her to explain why she wanted me to sit next to her. Although the width of the table separated them, something about her body language was subtly broadcasting it was nowhere near enough space.

I shifted my attention to the guy, my jaw clenching.

Hank was staring at Carly the same way I would have stared at her if we’d been alone back up at the hotel. He didn’t let the fact that he wasn’t alone with her bother him. Nor did he let the fact that she was clearly not interested bother him. This guy didn’t know how to take a hint. My hands curled into fists. Maybe I needed to make the hint a little less polite.

“I’ve been hoping we might have a chance to have a drink together while you’re in town. It’s been a long time since we’ve talked, Carly.” His voice was so oily, I could’ve run a car on it.

I didn’t look directly at her, but I could see how her nails were digging into her palms. Going on instinct, I curled my arm around her shoulder. She leaned into me and I felt the tension drain out of her body. Carly smiled at Hank.

“My schedule is pretty full this trip, Hank. With the foundation meetings and the opening of the school, I’m slammed.”

Then to my surprise, she reached up and touched my cheek. Electricity shot through me and I tried to keep it from showing.

“I had a little bit of time, I thought, but...” Her thumb brushed against my bottom lip. “Fate sort of intervened.”

When I tipped my head down to look at her, she was staring up at me. The look on her face was enough to remind me that it had been a damn long time since I’d had a woman beneath me. Or on top of me. Or caught between me and a wall. Bent over a table. Any position at all.

Her breath caught, a blush rising on her cheeks and I forced myself to look away. Shit. This was definitely not the time or the place.

“You look at a woman like that for too long, she’s going to start thinking she needs protection,” Carly said, her voice soft and silky.

I tensed. She couldn’t think I’d ever hurt any woman, let alone her. “I would never–”

“I meant a different kind of protection.” She tossed me a quick look. “I feel like you already know what size bra and what color panties I’m wearing.”

I sucked in my breath as I caught her meaning. Then her fingers brushed my thigh under the table. Fuck. My muscles tensed and jerked in response to that light touch.

“Bobby?” she said my name in a low voice.

She was going to be the death of me.

Instinctively, I tipped my head closer. She reached up and laid her hand on my cheek. Now my instincts were fighting a war. One part of me was telling me to put my mouth on hers. It was a damn nice mouth, wide and soft and lush, the kind of mouth a guy could spin entire fantasies around. And I’d already had a taste of it.

But the other part of me was saying all the things I already knew. She was out of my league. I didn’t deserve her.

Ryan and Jake would kill me.

Plus, we were in public.

But then she took the matter out of my hands, leaning and pressing her mouth to mine. I could’ve stopped her then, but I didn’t. I kissed her back. Her lips parted, and I traced the entrance with my tongue. She sighed and opened wider. When her tongue came out to tease mine, I closed one hand into a fist. My cock started to pulse, stirring to life. The scent of her, the taste, went straight to my head, and just as I was about ready to reach out, catch one of those curls she’d left trailing down her neck, Carly pulled back.

A flash of white out of the corner of my eye had me tensing. I’d forgotten we weren’t alone. She put a hand on my shoulder.

“It’s just the cameras.”

I didn’t quite realize what she meant until the flash came again. Before I had a chance to react, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to mine in a quick, chaste kiss. Another camera flash. I felt oddly frozen and then she pulled away. I stared at her, a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

She wiped at my mouth as she murmured, “Smudge proof, my ass.”

I caught her wrist. “What are you doing?” I could barely keep my voice under control.

“Do you really want to wear my lipstick? Harlot red isn’t your color, Bobby.” She gave me a sensual smile.

A low chuckle that was devoid of true humor had me looking up. I pushed my own feelings aside. I had a job to do, and it didn’t include anything about me.

“Well, I’ll admit, when I saw the news clips of the two of you, I had no idea things had become so...intimate.” Hank was staring at us with a greasy sort of smirk on his lips.

I gave him a hard glare and watched as that smug, sneering look on his face faltered, then faded away completely. Only after he was no longer looking at Carly, I allowed myself to look away.

A moment later, there was a faint noise from the podium. It was time for whatever in the hell it was to start.

***

It was boring, that’s what it was.

The problem with boring was that it left me with too much time to think, and almost every single thought centered around Carly and the sleek, silvery-blue dress she wore and how much fun I could have peeling it away.

It had been nearly twelve months since I’d had sex.

The first thing I’d done after I got out was sit through a full physical and health screening. Disease was rampant in prison, and I’d lived with that fear for pretty much my entire incarceration.

To my relief, I’d gotten back a clean bill of health just a few days later. The first chance I had after that, I’d found myself a bar, and when the opportunity had presented itself, I’d gotten laid. I didn’t remember her name, and I was pretty sure she didn’t remember mine either. We’d had a box of condoms and we’d used the entire damn supply in a single weekend.

That had been a little over eleven months ago.

Since then, the only relief I’d received came from my own fist.

But I was pretty certain that even if I’d had sex three times a week, and twice on Sundays, my body would still have been misbehaving around Carly Prince. She seemed to drag it out of me. The mischievous grin, the way she watched me, the way she moved...oh yeah. I’d want her no matter what.

Now, as the third speaker of the night was escorted onto the stage, I found my eyes studying the elegant lines of Carly’s profile, the pretty bow of her lips, the curve of her jaw down to her neck. The dress she wore had an odd sort of sparkle to it, as if the designer had crushed up jewels to make it.

It clung to her breasts, accentuating her curves while still looking elegant, demure, even. It slid down along her torso, along her waist and hips, ended a few inches above her knee. I could only imagine what she wore under it. That sparkly thing fit like a glove, and while I was positive she had on something underneath it, I preferred to pretend she was naked.

Completely naked.

“...Carly Prince!”

The sound of her name jarred me out of my erotic stupor and I moved, half on autopilot. Jake and Ryan had walked me through what I was supposed to do, and I was already on my feet, drawing her chair back by the time the spotlight found our table. I could only hope that my suit jacket would cover the partial-erection I had, thanks to the direction my thoughts had gone.

She gave me a wide, open smile, and when I offered my hand to help her stand, she accepted as though we’d done this a hundred times. I escorted her up to the stage and passed her hand to one of the men there, then stood off in the shadows to wait for her to return.

Hands folded in front, I let my gaze roam over the crowd, just as I had seen Jake and Ryan doing. I was half-listening, but paying more attention to any potentially dangerous threat that might’ve presented itself.

On the stage next to me, Carly started to speak.

Her speech, I realized moments later, was all about second chances.

***

Things began to blur as we moved back and forth to events regarding what I soon realized was the music program Carly was funding in her father’s name.

The dinner I’d escorted her to had been a two thousand dollar a plate fundraiser and the place had been sold out. While I was glad she was raising money for the program, I couldn’t imagine paying two thousand dollars for a dinner where I’d have to listen to boring speakers.

The program itself, however, wasn’t boring. It was going to be multi-faceted, and despite myself, I was interested. Music lessons would be offered to disadvantaged youth, but there would also be a program for the politely named ‘troubled’ youth. Troubled like I’d been.

Sometimes I wondered what I might have been, who I might have been, if I’d realized I had better options. I’d made my choices knowing full well they were the wrong ones, and I had nobody to blame but myself, but her speeches about second chances made me think about what might have been.

We spent most of the day following the dinner dealing with stuff at the music center. Or rather Carly did, while we stood around looking stupid in suits and sunglasses. At least, I was pretty sure I looked stupid. Even with his arm in a cast, Jake looked like a natural.

Carly was exhausted when she got back to the hotel, and collapsed into bed almost immediately, while the rest of us stayed up to watch basketball. The Kentucky Wildcats had done pretty well so far, and I wasn’t opposed to them continuing on to the tournament.

My opinion on the matter provided some good-natured ribbing from Jake – and twenty dollars in my pocket when his team lost.

“Sucker’s bet,” I told him. “Anybody could have seen they were going tonight.”

It wasn’t until everybody else was asleep that I realized how long it had been since I’d just sat around bullshitting with a bunch of guys just for the hell of it. It had been...nice. Sitting in there, talking to guys who knew about my past and didn’t care. I liked it.

And I only had a couple days left.

That thought left me in a foul mood the next morning, and it wasn’t going to be a good day anyway. It turned out to be a lot worse than I’d planned. It wasn’t just less than stellar. It fucking sucked.

It turned out to be a tooth-grinding exercise in patience and bullshit as Carly made the rounds to all the local news stations, and then a couple of radio stations on top of that. At each one, she talked all nice with everybody and in turn, people played nice back – right up until they had her in front of the camera, and then they asked questions that were either borderline rude or right over the line.

The exceptions were the radio stations, and by the time we reached the last one of the day, Carly was dragging, and I was ready to hit something just to relieve some of the tension.

Preferably one of the assholes who were treating Carly badly.

“Is it always like this?” I asked Ryan, keeping my voice low as we stood in the corner, watching through the windows as she chatted with a couple of DJs.

“Like what?”

I tried to figure out how to say it, and then finally jutted my chin toward the DJs. “Well, those guys are being pretty decent. But the TV people...it’s like they were baiting her, just trying to get her upset.”

“They were.” Ryan sighed and shrugged. “And this wasn’t even a bad day. Local news stations don’t ever get that bad since she does have ties to the community here. Well, I won’t say never, but they aren’t like Barbara Walters or anything.” He checked the time and then looked over at me. “There’s no privacy for anyone anymore, Bobby. If you’re in the public eye, there’s even less. She didn’t ask to be in the public eye. She was just born there. I guess she could’ve moved to Montana, raise horses...” He shrugged. “Disappear. But she feels like she owes it to her dad’s memory to not completely vanish. People want some part of him to hold on to. She’s it.”

“She doesn’t owe people her entire life.”

“No.” Ryan shook his head. “She doesn’t. But that’s Carly for you. She doesn’t do anything half-assed. Her father left a legacy behind in a lot of ways. She just wants to make sure he’s remembered.”

“She gives up an awful lot of herself for that.”

We both watched as she rose from the table, a smile on her face and shadows under her eyes.

“Yeah.” Ryan nodded. “She does.”

***

One day left.

That thought had me out of my room and pacing, standing at the window and staring outside instead of sleeping. I didn’t need much sleep most of the time. Came from having been in prison, I supposed. I’d been a killer, but not the biggest badass, which meant I’d had to watch my back. Which meant staying awake as much as I could. Sometimes I craved it, but couldn’t manage any more than a couple of hours, and then there were times when I’d crash, and sleep for twelve hours straight. But today wasn’t one of those days.

I couldn’t shut my brain down, and part of it was because I was too busy wishing I hadn’t taken this job. As soon as it was gone, I would be reminded of everything missing in my life. Not just the decent food, although I sure as hell hadn’t minded having room service once I’d adjusted to it.

No, what I was going to miss were things like listening to Ryan and Carly bitch at each other in the morning. Seeing Carly stumble to the table in next to nothing, and then watching her smile at me once the caffeine hit her system. It was probably for the best, though, because that smile of hers was starting to get to me. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could resist her...

A door creaked open.

I lifted my head and looked, watched as she slid out of her room and padded toward me, wearing one of those miserable excuses for a nightgown, some slippy looking thing that was the color of midnight. It skimmed just a few inches below her ass and made her skin look even softer than usual.

I missed soft things.

“Can’t sleep?”

Even her voice was soft, and I turned my head to look back outside because looking at her was more temptation than I needed.

“Still not used to the quiet, I guess.” I shrugged.

I tensed when she came up behind me and slid her arms around my middle. Her lips were satin against the back of my right shoulder. I closed my eyes. Fuck.

She started to trail a line of kisses across my shoulder. With a sigh, I reached down and caught her hands, turning around even as I stepped away from her.

“What are you doing, Carly?” I asked after I’d put what seemed to be a wise distance between us.

Ten feet was safe, right?

Ten feet made it hard for me to catch the scent of her skin, although I could still remember it. And no amount of distance would undo the memory of her mouth moving under mine, or wipe away the memory of her taste. The sight of her skin and weight of her breasts that night Ryan had interrupted us...

She apparently didn’t like the distance.

Ten feet became eight feet, then five.

I’d put my back to the bar, and now she stood just two feet away, the crazy corkscrews of her hair spilling more than halfway down her back. I wanted to twist my hands in it, pull her up against me and get lost in her.

And I would get lost, I knew. If I let myself, I could lose everything in her, for her.

Her gaze dropped down to my mouth and my dick gave a hard, almost vicious twist.

She closed the remaining distance between us once more and reached up, touching my mouth. I caught her wrist.

“What are you doing?” I asked again.

“Isn’t that obvious?”

She leaned against me, and through her thin nightshirt, I felt all of her and it was like feeling heaven. Hot skin, soft woman and sweet curves.

But in the back of my mind, I kept seeing those white flashes from a dozen cameras.

“We were interrupted last time,” she said.

“We were in public,” I reminded her. “In front of a bunch of cameras.”

She’d done that on purpose too. I hadn’t brought it up, but I wasn’t an idiot either. Just because I spoke with a drawl and had spent time in prison didn’t mean I wasn’t smart. I was intelligent enough to figure out that she’d had me sit with her because she could kiss me in public, in front of the media. She could shut down that asshole Hank, and give the press a new story to chase for a while.