Page 59 of Blood Money

The drive back to the city was torture for Gray.

At some point Alex had taken off her coat, and that damned little sweater hugging her beautiful breasts tormented him worse than Afghani sand mites, but in a totally different way. Her intoxicating scent was all around him, in his nose and his lungs, burrowing under his skin into every pore. By the time they got off the New York State Thruway, he was enveloped in alternating clouds of confusion and unexpected clarity.

As the miles sped by and rolling fields gradually gave way to houses and apartment complexes, Gray revisited his conversation with Cassie. Their talks always helped, and he thanked God she didn’t take any of his shit and never held back telling him when he was being a dick.

Sooner or later he had to start trusting again. Marina betrayed him and others because she wanted money. Lots of it. To this day, he couldn’t stop kicking himself for not seeing that greedy aspect of her personality. Marina gave one hell of an Oscar-winning performance. As much as it killed him to admit it, the bitch played him good. But Alex wasn’t Marina.

A feminine sigh interrupted his thoughts. Alex’s sleeping profile made his gut clench at how stoically beautiful she was and how vastly different she was from Marina. Where Marina was dark-haired and dark-eyed, Alex was blond and blue.

Marina’s personality was loud, bubbly, and vivacious, while Alex’s was more subtle, beckoning to him like a lighthouse beacon through a thick fog. Both women were stunners, but unlike Marina, Alex’s beauty went much deeper.

As Gray maneuvered the car into an E-ZPass lane at the entrance to the George Washington Bridge, he remembered how Marina could charm the camos off a Marine in two seconds, and that’s exactly what she did to stay alive. She used people, something Alex would never do. If anything, the Pyramid was using Alex, and she was handling it the only way she knew how. By protecting Nicky.

Gradually, traffic merged onto the bridge, and minutes later he headed south on the West Side Drive. As the traffic eased, so did the pressure on his heart.

Alex was an amazing woman. There’d been serious physical chemistry between them from the moment they met. Later, he’d come to respect her as a hard-working single mother. When the shit hit the fan, either a person’s inner demon was exposed, or their courage under fire became evident. Gray shook his head, annoyed that he hadn’t recognized it before.

Alex was courageous to the core.

By the time he parked halfway down the block from Alex’s apartment, his black and white perspective on what she’d done was blurring fast into the gray zone. He felt lied to by both women, but acknowledging the differences between the two was like plunging his head into an ice bath. Marina’s lies were all about herself, her greed. Alex’s lies were about protecting someone she loved. Whatever else she was hiding was most likely for a very good reason and not something that would hurt others.

He shut off the engine, and in the ensuing silence his wall of mistrust began to crumble. Perhaps when this was over they could try again. For now, all his energy had to focus on protecting Alex at the meet tomorrow. There was no way he’d let those assholes hurt her.

Alex covered her mouth with her hand as she yawned. “Sorry I fell asleep on you.”

I wish.

“You needed it.” He reached out and tucked a lock of her soft, blond hair behind her ear, and his knuckles brushed her cheek.

She fixed wide eyes on him. Her breasts rose and fell beneath her sweater. She opened her mouth to say something but stopped. Gray’s gaze dropped to those rosy pink lips. He wanted to kiss her senseless. Instead, he yanked the keys from the ignition. “We should go inside. It’s getting dark.”

As Alex wiggled into her coat, her sweater tightened across her breasts. Gritting his teeth, Gray shoved the car door open and was relieved when the cold, biting wind hit his face. He looked up and down the street, and by the time he rounded the car to the sidewalk Alex’s coat was on and her body mercifully cloaked. Leading the way to her apartment building, he kept a watchful eye ahead, turning periodically to check around and behind them.

Only when they were inside her apartment with the door locked and dead-bolted did Gray relax. But as he removed his suit coat and stuffed his tie into one of the pockets, it hit him like a grenade—the hard part of the night was only beginning.

Hard-on, to be more accurate.

Spending another night alone with Alex was going to be the toughest assignment he ever had.

She had removed her coat and now stood staring at him from across the small living room. There it was again, prickling his skin. Electricity…sparking and crackling between them like a desert lightning storm. Powerful. Sharp. Exciting and difficult to resist.

Cold. Shower.

He cleared his throat. “Mind if I use your shower?”

Alex shook her head. “Of course not. I’ll wait here. It’s through my bedroom. There are towels in the bathroom closet.”

“Thanks.” He grabbed his overnight bag from the floor where he’d left it earlier that morning.

Moments later, he stepped into the shower and turned on only enough hot water to keep from freezing his ass off. As the cool water sluiced down his body, he waited for the expected relief. Taking himself in his hand, he began stroking, struggling to find much-needed release, but it wasn’t working. He didn’t want to make himself come. He wanted to come inside Alex. Hell, just being in her bedroom was enough to make him envision what it would be like making love to her. Lying on top of her naked body, her long legs wrapped around his ass, her incredible breasts jutting out while he licked and sucked her nipples.

But she’d forbidden him to touch her again.

Ah, shit.

He cranked the water handle to full-on cold. With a frustrated groan he rested his hands on the shower wall, his muscles tightening in response to the icy stream of pounding water. When his brain could function again, he washed his hair and scrubbed himself clean, then shut off the water and grabbed a fresh towel he’d draped over the curtain rod.

The smell of something warm and hearty drifted into the bathroom, and Gray’s stomach grumbled. Neither of them had eaten all day, and he was hungry enough to chow down on an entire side of beef.