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He seemed to like that.
Then the beat slowed, became dark and intimate, and he tucked her against his chest, his chin against the top of her head as she closed her eyes and felt him in every beat of her heart.
His hands stroked up her back, over the silky blouse she wore. The one he had unbuttoned to the tops of her breasts and gazed at her. With one hand buried beneath her hair, his lips stroked over her brow, her cheek, her lips.
She whispered a sigh, her lips parting for him, feeling his kiss as she would have felt a caress clear to the depths of her spirit. He touched her that way. Just the thought of him touched her that way.
“You’re mine,” he whispered into the kiss as her lashes fluttered open. “Remember that, Sair. All mine.”
“Always yours, Ethan.” She would always belong to him, even if she had to run to protect him. And she would have to run soon. After he fell asleep tonight, perhaps. Very soon. Because she couldn’t risk allowing him to be hurt.
But for now, she could hold on to him, feel him holding her. Because this was her dream. And this man was her heart.
Cooper pulled her against him, feeling her slight form moving with him as his eyes narrowed on the entrance of the bar. The guy that stepped in was no biker, drinker, or weekend partier.
He wore black jeans, a jacket in the middle of summer, and he was packing heat. Cooper watched as three of his bouncers moved between them and the new visitor. Finally, with a grimace, the stranger left. But Cooper knew his face now. Hell, he had his face. He glanced to Jake, who caught his eye and nodded. They had him on the security camera; all they had to do was run it now. He watched as the assistant bartender took over and Jake headed to the office.
“What are you doing, Ethan?” She lifted her head now, her gaze suddenly too somber, too filled with shadows.
“Dancing with you.” He touched her cheek, cupped it. “Protecting you.”
She shook her head before pressing her forehead into his chest and he knew she was fighting her tears. He’d seen them glittering in her eyes, felt the shudder that raced down her spine.
“Come on.” He caught her hand as the song ended. “I want to show you something.”
Sarah let Ethan pull her through the dance floor, back to the bar where they moved into the narrow space Jake called his domain, and to the door at the far wall. There was no way to get back there except through Jake, and the bouncers closest to the bar.
The music became muted as he closed the door and led her through
a short hall to a flight of rough wooden stairs.
“Where are we going?” she asked, loving the feel of her hand gripped in his, the warmth of it, the implied connection.
She shouldn’t love him so, she thought. She should have held a part of herself back. A part of her heart.
“This is my home away from home.” He unlocked the door at the top of the stairs and flipped on the switch. Soft, muted light filled the room.
There was a bed at the far end of the room. A large bed, strewn with pillows.
“And no, I’ve never had another woman up here.” He closed the door and locked it behind him as she moved to the bank of monitors that sat over his office desk.
On one side of the room a tinted window looked out over the dance floor. She realized it was what she’d believed was a mirror on the wall above the dance floor.
There was a single shaded window by the bed, thick rugs, a table with two chairs, and a lamp hanging over it. Simple. Basic. Yes, Ethan would have come here to work, for the quiet, to brood perhaps. She could easily see him brooding here.
She turned back to him slowly.
He had stripped off his T-shirt and dropped it to the couch that sat against the wall, beside the bed. He toed his boots off, the amber in his gaze deepening as she slid her sandals from her feet and her fingers began to unbutton her shirt. Removing it, she quickly unhooked her bra and dropped it from her shoulders.
She needed him. Needed him until the ache was like talons of hunger tearing at her. She unbuttoned her jeans as he tore at the belt cinching his hips. They moved together, undressed together.
She pushed her panties and jeans down her legs as he did, stepped out of them, and stepped toward him.
“God, I missed you, Sair.”
She was in his arms. He lifted her, holding her to him as he kissed her, devoured her lips, and carried her to the bed he had never shared with another woman. The bed that would only know the two of them.
The firm mattress cushioned them as he laid her back. It had been three days. She wasn’t content to lie back and just be touched. She wanted to touch.
