“He’ll find us in a second. Go out to the car and wait for me there. I’ll come out after I finish this set.”
“No. I’m taking you with me.”
“Sean, I need the money I can make here tonight. I can’t just leave.”
He cupped her jaw, his emotions in a jumble, every one of them stronger than anything he’d ever felt before. “I have more than enough. Take what I have and leave here with me.”
She looked at him sceptically.
“I . . . This is all very foreign to me,” he said. “I . . .” What could he tell her that would get her out of there? “I didn’t understand when we first got here. I thought you were coming to your lab. To work.”
“Erica!”Mitch was getting closer.
“Wait here.” She slipped through yet another door and returned with her coat. She pulled it on over her skimpy underclothes while Sean stood quietly, trying to collect himself. He was aroused and protective and alarmed all at once.
“There’s another way out,” she said. “Let’s go.”
Six
They took a side exit out of the building, one that Mitch would never think of, and jumped into her car. She started the motor and pulled away, drove a short distance and then stopped. Geared herself up for what she needed to say.
“Something happened to me when you stepped into my apartment,” she said. “The things I’m feeling . . .” She shook her head, unsure how to continue without sounding like a love-struck idiot. But that was exactly how she felt. “I haven’t felt this way about anyone since Andy was killed. I’ve neverbeenwith anyone . . .”
He touched her then, on her hand that rested on her thigh, sliding his open hand under hers until their palms touched. The contact was electric.
“It’s not always this way?” he asked. “Between men and women?”
It was obviously a rhetorical question. She leaned towards him as his hand closed around hers, and kissed him softly. Then she drew away and put the car in gear, burning rubber as she started for home.
They drove in silence, and Erica could not remember ever being so aware of a man before. He was tall and imposing, possessing a strong presence, a kind of poise or self-assurance that radiated off him in waves. He made her want to wrap herself up in him for the strength and security he could provide.
There’d been no one in her heart since Andrew, but she knew to the depths of her being that Sean Dugan had the potential to move in alongside her first love. Her rational mind told her that it wasn’t possible, that she’d only known Sean for a few hours. She’d done extensive coursework and research in neuro physiology and biology, and knew that her endocrine system was telling her brain how to react to this man.
But her heart and soul told her it wasn’t just hormones.
He rested his hand on her thigh as she drove, and she pushed her coat aside so that the skin of his palm touched her thigh above the silk of her white stocking. She wanted him to slide his hand up, to make her body sing with pleasure. The change in his breathing pattern indicated that he wanted it too, but he kept his hand where it was and caressed her gently.
It was fortunate that at least one of them was in control or they were liable to crash. Shivering with the most incredible sensations flowing through her veins, she drove the last block to her apartment with a building impatience.
She found a parking space and pulled into it, then put her hand on his where it rested on her thigh, and moved it where she wanted it. His fingers touched her silk panties and he made a strangled sound that mirrored her own hard, hot arousal. “I want you,” she whispered. “Come upstairs with me.”
She quickly unsnapped her seat belt as she threw open her car door and stepped out. Assuming Sean was right behind her, Erica made a dash towards her apartment building, but was startled by someone who darted out from behind a large SUV. He grabbed her, closing a filthy hand across her mouth, and started to drag her towards the vehicle.
“Come with me, Mona,” he rasped, using her stage name, and she knew it was Sandino.
Her heart pounding in her throat, Erica tried to scream, but it wasn’t necessary when her attacker dropped her suddenly.
Sean had grabbed the stalker by his jacket and then spun him around. Erica pushed herself up to her feet and looked for some way to help Sean, but she didn’t even own a cell phone to dial 911. She felt paralysed. Part of her knew she should run up to the apartment and call the police, but her legs would not move. She could only watch helplessly, as Sandino beat Sean to a pulp.
But Sandino wasn’t winning. Erica couldn’t see Sean’s exact moves, but his technique wasn’t like anything she’d ever seen in action films. He moved like a big, wild cat – smooth, quick and deadly, and without regard to gravity. Sandino must have wondered what hit him before he slid to the ground, unconscious. Sean tossed the brute into his vehicle, then came to her, pulling her into his arms.
He bent for a kiss and Erica pulled him to her, feeling his shudder deepening their kiss. She wanted him desperately, in a way she’d never wanted anyone, and sensed his need to touch her, too.
He broke the kiss and touched his forehead to hers, pausing for a moment, breathing heavily, yet never letting go. “Are you all right?”
She was still shaking with all the adrenalin rushing through her body, but somehow managed to nod. “I don’t have a cell phone. We should go up and call the police.”
Sean didn’t reply, but just slipped his arm around her waist and jogged to the apartment building beside her. Impatience roaring inside them, they hurried up the stairs, and, when they finally entered her apartment, she closed the door behind them and fell into his arms.
