Page 83 of I Dream of Danger
His tone must have tipped her off because her head tilted and eyes narrowed as she studied him. “Mac,” she said.
He waggled his eyebrows. “I feel something strongly, too.” He grabbed her hand and placed it right over his dick, and ah, man. It happened again. He’d been semi-hard, and at her touch, at that massive warmth he always felt when she touched him, he just turned hard as steel. “You can feel it.”
Her hand cupped him. “It’s quite a…sensation,” she murmured.
Mac thrust himself further into her hand. “Yeah. I have a strong feeling you should be doing something about this. Forget about those other guys. Rescue me.”
Catherine laughed and pulled him down for a kiss. She looked excited and happy, just what he wanted.
Mission accomplished.
* * *
“We’ll get her back,” Nick said quietly, and Elle looked up in surprise. Knowing how protective he was, she imagined he’d tried to distract her, with sex probably, because she was apparently easily distractible that way. With him, at least. But Nick went right to the heart of what she felt.
“God, I hope so.” She twined her hands and pulled them apart, an old trick. “I can’t bear the thought of her in their hands. Sophie’s nice. Good and gentle, you know?” She looked up at him.
His face was tender. “I know. Like you, like Catherine. Would it help you to know that Jon and Mac and I haven’t failed a mission yet? Except for the one where we were betrayed.”
Elle smiled. “Actually, it does help.” And it did. If anyone in the world could rescue her colleagues and her best friend, it was Nick, with the help of his friends. Lines of friendship becoming lines of salvation.
They were sitting up in bed, Elle leaning against Nick’s strong shoulder. Finding comfort from just the physical contact. He placed his hand over hers, lacing his fingers through hers.
“Let me show you something,” he said quietly in her ear.
“To distract me?”
“Yeah, that too. But also because it’s beautiful and we should take time to notice beautiful things.”
Elle twisted her head around to look into his face, eyes wide. Nick, a philosopher?
His mouth quirked. “You don’t have to look at me like that. I’m not an animal.”
She cupped his face with her free hand. “No, you’re not.” As a matter of fact, he had being a full human being down pat. It was a new way of looking at him, and it hit her heart with the force of a blow. He looked tired, new lines in his face. He and Mac and Jon were hunted men, and yet instead of thinking of keeping themselves safe, they protected an entire community.
He had taken her problems entirely upon his shoulders, so naturally that it was only now that she realized he’d done so.
She’d been almost blinded by her sexual attraction to him and the very strong emotions he evoked in her. She’d seen him as almost superhuman, something more than a man. And he was, but he was also a man. Who presumably felt tired and despondent, who might be sad that his life as a soldier had been trashed, who felt the weight of responsibility for the many souls in Haven who depended on him and his teammates.
But he never let that show.
She saw the full man now. With all his many strengths and very few weaknesses. She was one of his weaknesses.
“Show me,” she whispered. If there was something beautiful he wanted her to see, she wanted to see it.
“Okay. Brace yourself.”
She blinked in surprise.
Nick reached for something, pressed something, and Elle’s breath caught in her lungs.
The walls of the room had simply…disappeared. It was as if the bed had been magically transported into the forest by a benevolent wizard. All around them was deep snow in the moonlight, a bright moon barely visible among the clouds. It had snowed earlier and the forecast was for more snow, but for now, the scene was calm, gentle. Picture postcard perfect in an imperfect world.
“Like it?” Nick’s deep voice was right against her ear and she shivered. Everything felt so…magnified. The beauty of the scene—their bed magically transported to an enchanted forest—the love she felt for the man beside her. The intense affection she was starting to nurture for the outlaw community she’d joined.
“I love it. How did you—” Her voice caught because he was kissing the oh-so-sensitive skin behind her ear and because his hand was smoothing up her thigh, taking her nightgown with it.
“Hmm?” he purred. She felt the vibration of his naked chest against her back. Nick slept naked, which she thought was a bit of overkill. He was a temptation dressed. Naked he was simply irresistible.
