“Not helping.” He grinned back. She did it once more. He pushed her away, slightly. “All right. Here’s what we need to do. Because I can’t be trusted to stop touching you. You go upstairs. I’ll be up in a minute.”
“Methinks you’re already up–”
“Jaysus, no mercy with you, is it? No quarter given?”
In confirmation, she pushed back against him one more time.
“Witch,” he hissed, jumping to the side, laughing. “Go.”
She stepped away, turned back. “3524.”
“I know.”
As she opened the door she glanced back one more time and said, “You’ve got your key?”
“Worried I might not show?”
Honestly? Yes. She was worried she’d somehow imagined him. That she would go back inside and it would all disappear as magically as it had appeared. Her disappointment poised like a guillotine about to drop. But Nick said, “I’m the ’round-the-bend guy, remember? See you in five.”
SEWANEE WAS STANDING in front of the window in the living room when she heard the key card turn the lock. She spun around, and the moment Nick came through the door with that energy he possessed that calmed the very air, she took off her eye patch.
That he had no reaction only affirmed her decision.
She clasped her hands behind her back and leaned against the window, saucily crossing one ankle over the other. The epitome of casual.
He smirked at her, fully aware of what she was doing. “Comfortable?”
She smirked right back at him. As he walked into the living room, he took off his jacket, draped it on the back of the couch. He loosened his tie, took it off altogether, threw it on the jacket. Unbuttoned the first three buttons of his shirt. The lights in the room were low, but the neon seeping through the windows highlighted the leisurely striptease. He began to roll up his sleeves. Slowly, with all the hurry of a sadist. He shook his head slightly. Looked down at his task. “What am I going to do with you?”
His voice had taken on a grit she found she didn’t mind at all.
“What do you like?” he asked, his eyes finding hers.
“Everything?”
“Sounds good to me.” His smile nearly ran off his face. “Where to start, then?” He finished with his sleeves and put his hands on his hips. “You know what I want? To be James Bond right now. Not have to think about the next move. It’s just right there.” He snapped his fingers. Sewanee smiled. “Don’t worry, once we get going, I’ll be fine. It’s merely that first . . . you know. Move.”
She laughed. As far as she was concerned, he could start anywhere. She was a buffet. Take a little bit of everything! Start with dessert! Who cared? She needed to say that, to say something, he was waiting. But she wasn’t sure what.
And then she was.
“I have a question.”
“Oh, no worries,” he said, “I’m tested and clean.”
God, she hadn’t thought of that. What was wrong with her? She felt like the buffet had closed right as she’d gotten to it.
“And I have a condom. A few.”
The doors opened again, just for her. She took a breath. “Not what I was going to ask, but good to know.”
“Ask your question. I love your questions.”
She swallowed. “When I was dancing. You were watching me. And I think you were thinking something. Were you?”
The slight awkwardness of the past few moments evaporated. The room got warm. He stared at her. His gaze went molten, as it had in the club. “Yes.”
“About me?”
“Yes.”
“About something you wanted to do to me?”
He hesitated for the space of a breath. “Yes.” He clearly interpreted her silence as embarrassment, because he prompted her with, “Would you like to know what I was thinking?”
“No.” He deflated slightly. “No, I don’t want to know. I want you to do it.”
Nick stilled. “Alice.” Alice? She had to remember who she was. “Wouldn’t you like to know–”
“No.”
“You don’t want to know–”
“Do. It. To. Me.” With each word her voice walked down a flight of sultry steps.
He took a long inhale. A longer exhale. “Feck me.” He assessed her. “Say stop at any point and I stop.”
“I trust you.” Lord knew why, but she did.
He ran his tongue over his bottom lip, thoughtfully. He jerked his chin at the lower half of her dress. “Are you wearing anything under there?”