Page 5 of Marrying the Enemy

She waved in a lame Here it is gesture. She had opened the drapes when she rose. The view of the river and the historic architecture on the far side was beautiful.

“It’s great,” he said, not taking his eyes off her. “Do you have condoms?”

Wow. She held his stare and swallowed the heart that had risen into her throat.

She could have demurred and told him he was moving too fast, but he wasn’t. That was the weirdest thing. In any other case, such earthy bluntness would turn her off, but something more intuitive inside her was responding to his wavelength. She liked knowing he was feeling exactly as urgent as she did. It flooded her with erotic heat and more yearning than she could stand.

“Yes,” she replied, because Hailey had made sure she knew there were some in the nightstand if she needed them.

“Do you want to show me where they are?” He sounded as though he was being deliberately careful and neutral, not sarcastic. Perhaps he realized how aggressive he was sounding and wanted to give her an opportunity for second thoughts.

All she had to say was “no.” She could easily tell him she’d rather go on her run and would see him at breakfast. She could open the door and say nothing at all. Her hand was still on the latch.

But her fingers were twitching to explore his smooth arms and she wanted to nuzzle her nose into his throat. Her lips were still dying for the press of his and the rest of her... The rest of her really, really wanted to know how his naked body would feel against hers. How his erection would feel inside her.

Her knees felt wobbly as she walked into the bedroom and opened the nightstand to take out the box. She set it beside the base of the lamp then kept her back to him, struck by bashfulness.

His weighty steps were silent on the thick carpet, but she felt his energy like a force as he arrived behind her. The heat of his body pressed like a physical touch against her back.

“What are you wearing under that?” His voice was a velvety caress in and of itself.

She turned and started to lift her hands to the zip, intending to show him, but realized she was still holding her phone. She tossed it onto her unmade bed and took hold of her collar with one hand, then slowly, slowly, drew her zip down.

He watched the descent of the tab the way a cat gave its single-minded attention to an unsuspecting prey, but his chin dipped in the smallest nod of approval as she let the jacket fall open to reveal her mauve bra.

“Sexy, right?” she said of its flattening fit.

“Very,” he said in a low rumble.

He stepped closer and touched her chin. She thought he was going to kiss her, but his gaze slid to her throat. A faint smile eased the line of his stern mouth. He trailed his fingertip down to where he’d left the barely-there shadow of a love bite.

“I want to cover you with those.” His voice was raspy from his late night and something else. Want?

“Maybe I’ll do the same to you,” she suggested boldly.

“Be my guest.” He took hold of the open edges of her jacket and drew her into him.

She instinctively brought her hands up, but they only landed on the satin smoothness of his bare upper arms.

“You drove me crazy all night, Evie.” He released her jacket and his wide hands slid inside to splay against her bare waist.

She gasped at his hot, possessive touch. Her skin tightened and tingled while her brain short-circuited over the way he had turned her name into an endearment.

“All I could think about was having your long legs around my waist. Around my neck.”

Oh, that was dirty. Why did she find it so titillating? A helpless sob thrummed in her throat.

“My roommate might come back,” she warned, voice as abraded as his.

“Does that turn you on?” He traced tickling patterns in her lower back that made her squirm in reaction and press closer to him in an attempt to escape it. “That we might get caught?”

“No.” Yes. A little. Her senses were being bombarded by a lot right now. The heat and hardness and scent of him. The touch that was both light and merciless at the same time. A sense of anticipation and wonder and nervousness of the unknown.

“Do you want to lock the bedroom door?” he asked.

She should, but his hands were sliding into her shorts at the back, pushing them off her butt cheeks along with her underwear, leaving her backside bare to the cool room and the exploring massage of his hot palms.

It was incredibly disconcerting. She felt vulnerable and wicked and turned on. His roaming, claiming touch incited her to the point she could hardly speak, let alone move to do something so practical as...

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