She reached out and touched the half-off pants. “Fourth position?” she said, bringing up what he had said when he took off his shirt. “I never did anything to you in a shower that night.”
His answering smile made her swallow. “Don’t believe you,” he said, his hands covering hers on his hips. He stood up, pulling her to her feet at the same time. He pushed her hands downward and his pants slid lower until they fell into a pool around his ankles. He stepped out of them.
Amber bit her lower lip as he slid her hands to his front. She automatically fisted around his arousal. His eyes narrowed as she caressed the length of him.
“Is that what you did before tying that note?”
She shook her head. “I was very…careful.” She really had been. She hadn’t touched him as she had looped the cord gently in the dark. Her naughty joke, she realized now, had really pissed him off.
“Don’t believe you,” he repeated, as he squeezed her hands tighter around him.
He was fiery hot in her hands.
He turned and she reluctantly released him as he pulled her by the elbow. He looked totally out of place in her very feminine bathroom, with its candles and figurines decorating the table by the ornate European tub. He turned on the tap and as hot water began filling it, he climbed in and made himself quite at home. In all her life, she had never seen a sexier picture than a naked man in her tub. She let him pull her in, even though it was a tight fit.
He put a heart-shaped soap in her hand. “Show me how you tied the note,” he invited, turning off the water. She had to smile at the sight of his penis rising up like a mast of a ship at sea. He obviously had more than bathing in mind.
“I didn’t use soap and there was no water involved,” she protested, still smiling.
“Don’t believe you.”
Amber laughed. She could see it was going to take some time to convince Hawk that if she had really touched him the way she now wanted to, he would have remembered it a lot more vividly. She dipped her hands in the water, then soaped her hands until bubbly foam engulfed them.
A few minutes later, he huskily said, “Still don’t believe you. Do that again.”
“Stubborn man,” she observed.
Lily heard laughter coming from Amber’s room as she walked by. She paused in midstep, her heart falling like a heavy stone. Unmistakably male. Her jaw clenched as she listened to the male voice amid the sounds of water and Amber’s laughter. The bathroom was in the far corner of the house, so she couldn’t make out what was being said.
She had a strange feeling about this. It had started right after her phone call, and she had never been wrong before.
Brad was coming here for dinner tonight. He was early. The thought of him in there with her friend gutted her like a knife. How could he…but why not? She had run off the other night, leaving him in a state of need, and a man had to release his frustration somehow, right? And Amber and he were close enough friends….
Lily abruptly turned around. She couldn’t stay here and listen to them having their little private fun in there. She looked at the clock on the wall. Yeah, and she was invited to dinner to talk about the coming interview. She hadn’t answered any of Brad’s or Amber’s calls; they must have concluded that she wasn’t showing up. That was all right. Her appetite had evaporated anyway. She didn’t think she could bear them exchanging intimate glances in front of her while she played third wheel, trying to swallow down food.
You could have had him.She closed her eyes at the memory of Brad and her on the sofa. How he had felt in her hands; how he had tasted. If she had given in to her needs and stayed the night, everything would have changed. Her eyes flew open. Therein lay the problem. She didn’t want any changes. She wanted to stay the course. Bradford Sun would change everything for which she had worked so hard, and she couldn’t afford it.
Perhaps it was better this way. Brad made her feel too damn much. Every time he was around her, she alternately wanted to either hit out at him verbally and physically or grab him by the lapels of his expensive suits and kiss him till she forgot what she was.
What she was…a loud thud brought her attention back to the closed door. And murmurs, mingled with…Lily backed away slowly. She didn’t want to think what those soft sounds meant or what two people could be doing in a small bathroom.
She abruptly turned and retraced her steps back outside. She closed the door quietly behind her and leaned against it, breathing hard. The evening air was cool, yet she felt as if she were standing naked in the dead of winter.
She shook her head violently. No, she wouldn’t think about being naked right now. Too many people were naked around here. She was Lily Noretski and she had sworn never to be naked and cold in any way or form ever again. She had sworn never to feel for anyone or anything. Feelings were for weaklings, and people like her could never be weak. Or they would break. In a million pieces. As she had done once.
Running down the steps in twos, she headed for her car. It was going to be all right. She was strong; she hadn’t given in to those base feelings that made women weak and men powerful. She didn’t care about Amber having sex with Bradford Sun. She slammed the car door shut, fired up the engine, and jammed on her sunglasses. She looked into the rearview mirror and, taking out her lipstick, she refreshed her lips, making a moue at her reflection.
Sex was nothing. She had had plenty of that, with anyone she wanted. As long as she didn’t care, or take the time to know the man’s body, or let him manipulate her feelings, she was all right. She had come precariously close to doing just that the other night. She almost had an orgasm in front of a man. What an idiot. If she had done that, everything would have changed.
And Lily didn’t want anything changed. She took a deep breath and backed out of the driveway. She had a cause and people like her did not sway from the path. People like her…her lips twisted into a bitter smile as she made a turn into the road. People like her had no place in that kind of a world.
She pressed Amber’s cell number on her phone. As expected, her friend’s message service came on. She affected cheerfulness in her voice. “Hiya, sweetie. Have an emergency and will probably not be able to make it tonight. Here are some details that you and Brad can discuss if he shows up for dinner….”
Amber lay on top of Hawk in her bed, her face against his chest. They were still damp from the long bath they had taken. It was the most use of that tub she had had since moving here four years ago.
“You’re very, very good in the bathtub,” she told him lazily.
His rumble of laughter echoed in her ear. “Your being triple-jointed helped, honey.”
