Carter: The Sinner Saints #1

by Adrienne Bell

  She stood up from the chair and stretched, lifting her arms over her head. Carter was watching her with a thoughtful expression on his face.

  “How would you like to go down to the spa after that?”

  “Excuse me?” she asked, blinking a few times.

  “It’s been a stressful couple of days. I thought you might like some time to relax.”

  Yeah, right. Breakfast was one thing, but a day at the spa—especially one as fancy as the Grand Capital’s—was a whole other ballgame. The man had to have another motive.

  Ally cocked her head to the side. “And you need to get rid of me for a couple of hours?”

  Carter glanced at the floor. He couldn’t seem to fight the smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “What gave me away?”

  “No one is that altruistic.” Ally cocked out her hip. “What are you going to do while I’m gone?”

  “I just need to plan some things with my team.”

  “Things you don’t want me to hear,” she shot back.

  “Not you personally,” he said. “But the less you know the better off you are.”

  “Ah,” she said, a sudden wave of understanding coming over her. She’d heard this line before. “So, just things you don’t want a journalist around to hear.”

  “Is that a no on the spa day?”

  Ally tilted her head to the side. She was well aware that he had sidestepped her concerns, but that was no reason to turn down one hell of an offer.

  “I never said that.” She turned and headed for the bathroom. “The real question is, how can you be sure that I won’t rabbit on you again once I’m down there?”

  “Because we need each other,” he said. “Whatever happens, we’re in it together.”

  Ally stopped in her tracks. She’d been all prepared for another quip, another smart remark, and another round of laughter. The only thing she hadn’t been ready for was the truth, and certainly not so simply stated.

  She didn’t turn around, but gave a simple nod before continuing on to the shower.

  He was dead right, she thought as she shut and locked the bathroom door. She turned on the shower, and steam filled the room, but she stayed leaning against the door for another minute thinking about what he’d said.

  Their futures were tied together. For better or for worse. She couldn’t break the story without his help, and he couldn’t save his company without hers.

  At least she assumed that was what he had meant. It had to be.

  Ally peeled off her clothes and stepped into the comforting spray of warm water. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, letting the stream cascade through her hair.

  Sure, she and Carter were strange bedfellows, but at least they’d sowed the seeds of friendship out there. At the very least, she didn’t actively distrust the man anymore. That had to count for something, didn’t it?

  Of course, she didn’t usually find herself staring at her friend’s lips, or losing herself in the ocean blue of their eyes. She also didn’t spend a whole lot of time fantasizing about what it would be like to unbutton their shirt and run her hands over their muscles.

  Would he feel like she imagined—a tantalizing mixture of hard muscle and soft skin?

  Ally closed her eyes, under the showerhead. The water sluiced over her, caressing her skin. The heat seeped through her, warming her.

  What would it feel like to press her body against his? To wrap her arms around him? To straddle his—

  Ally’s eyes popped open.

  Dear God, what the hell was she thinking? Since when did she lose control of herself over a couple of strong arms and a chiseled jawline?

  She reached down and cranked up the cold water.

  Maybe, Carter was right. Maybe she could use a little stress relief. ‘Cause right now, she felt like she was losing her damn mind.

  Chapter Eight

  “It’s time for your mani/pedi, Mrs. Ward,” the spa attendant said, poking her head into the eucalyptus-scented lounge where Ally was waiting.

  Ally’s lips pulled down into a frown. She knew she had no right to be unhappy. Carter may have sent her down there for all the wrong reasons, but at least he hadn’t been stingy.

  On one hand, her body had never felt so relaxed in her life. She’d had a massage and a facial. Add to that the time that she’d spent in the sauna and the spa and Ally was pretty sure someone was going to have to roll her back up to her room.

  But on the other, her mind refused to slow down. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d already wasted too much time. It wasn’t like she could spend the rest of the day sipping herbal tea and wearing an oversized bathrobe. She had things to do.

  Okay, maybe that wasn’t exactly true. She’d accepted Carter’s explanation as to why she shouldn’t reach out to anyone in her life, but that didn’t stop her from being haunted by the feeling that she should be doing something. She should be up there helping, putting together the plans to put Fuller away…anything besides being rubbed and rolled out and pampered.

  “You know what,” Ally said, standing up from the overstuffed chair. “I think I’m going to skip it.”

  The woman’s brows arched up. “Are you sure, Mrs. Ward? Your husband has already paid for the service.”

  Her husband. All day, Ally had struggled to get used to people calling her a name that wasn’t hers. It wasn’t Carter’s either. And he certainly wasn’t her husband.

  “I’ll just have to get a rain check then,” Ally said.

  The woman sputtered for a moment, before starting to follow Ally toward the locker room. “W-we don’t really do that,” she said.

  Ally shrugged her shoulders and kept going, passing through the door before the woman could catch up with her. She figured that the attendant must have taken the hint because she didn’t follow her.

  Ally switched out of her robe and into her own clothes as quick as she could. The idea of what secret plans he might be making up there without her was starting to make her brain itch. She needed to be upstairs.

  As she walked out of the locker room and past the front counter, Ally spotted the attendant on the phone. The moment their eyes met, the woman cupped her hand over the receiver and turned away.

  Maybe it was her clothes. It was one thing fitting in when everyone in the spa were all sitting around in the same fluffy bathrobes sipping tea. It was another when she was walking around the hotel in a ten-year-old sweatshirt with holes in the neckline.

  Yeah, she was either going to have to hide out in the hotel room for the rest of her stay here or pick up a T-shirt from the hotel gift shop the next time she poked her head out. But right now, all she wanted to do was get back to the hotel room.

  Ally blinked a couple of times when she caught sight of the clock near the bank of elevators. She’d been in the spa for over three hours.

  Carter certainly had her number. All he’d had to do was dangle the carrot of relaxation in front of her and she had disappeared for the whole afternoon. Just like he’d wanted her to.

  So much for journalistic integrity.

  Ally took in a deep breath as she stepped inside the elevator. She was being too hard on herself. Carter wasn’t the focus of her investigation. He was the only thing keeping her alive during it.

  It was only natural that her feelings toward him would be complicated.

  Except they didn’t feel all that complicated. If anything, they were painfully simple. She was drawn to him. There was no denying it. It was as if there was some invisible force pulling her toward him.

  And the name of that force was hormones.

  Of course, it didn’t matter how she felt. She was running for her life. She didn’t have the time to worry about jumping a man’s bones.

  No matter how hot those bones might be.

  Ally had almost convinced herself of that when the elevator doors opened and she stepped into the hallway. Her stride slowed halfway down.

  The door of their room was open. It was just a crack, but
it was enough to sound every alarm bell in Ally’s head. There was no housekeeping cart outside, no room service trolley, nothing that would account for hotel staff in the room.

  Carter had said that he needed to plan with members of his team, but what if something had gone wrong? What if Fuller had discovered their location, or Carter had a mole in his company that had sold them out. Her mind spun with terrible possibilities.

  Ally’s heart kicked up. She inched forward, keeping close to the wall, and strained to listen for any sounds coming from inside the room—the faint sound of footsteps or the squeak of metal wheels.

  She leaned in closer, but she didn’t hear a sound.

  The door flew open before Ally could right herself. She stumbled forward in her shock… right into Carter’s hard chest.

  His arms wrapped around her body, steadying her. Red-faced, she looked up.

  “If you wanted to cuddle, you just had to say so,” he said.

  Ally instantly straightened up. “I saw the door was open. I was…concerned.”

  “Understandable.” Carter smiled, slow to release her. “But all is well. I was just coming out to see where you were. The spa said you’d left a few minutes ago.”

  Ally’s brows pulled together. “They were reporting my movements to you?”

  “That surprises you?”

  “So much for trusting me,” she said.

  He shook his head. “You, I trust. Others, not so much.”

  A metallic clink sounded from inside the hotel room, and Ally’s head snapped to it. “Who’s inside?” she asked. “Is it your team?”

  “You could say that.” Carter put his arm around her shoulder. “We were just waiting on you. You’re the missing piece.”

  He swung open the door, but instead of finding a welcoming committee comprised of the terrifying men from his office, Ally found herself face to face with a rolling rack of clothes. Dresses, more specifically. The expensive looking kind.

  A proud-looking woman was standing next to them. Her eyes widened the moment she caught sight of Ally.

  Ally tried giving her a smile, but the woman’s gaze only narrowed as her lips pulled together tighter. So much for first impressions. Maybe she should have stopped in for that T-shirt after all.

  She turned to Carter.

  “Um…what’s all this?”

  He looked down at her. “This is where you get ready for dinner.”

  Dinner?

  “It’s not even four in the afternoon.”

  He shrugged. “I’m told this takes some time.”

  Now it was Ally’s turn to be confused. “I’m sorry. What does?”

  “Being fitted for a dress,” he said. “Then someone is going to come up and do your hair and makeup.”

  Ally’s brows pulled together. “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “I’m guessing that we’re not ordering room service then?”

  A slow smile spread across Carter’s face. “No. We’re not.”

  Ally leaned in closer, and dropped her voice down to a whisper. “Is that a good idea?”

  “It’ll be fine,” Carter said, laying a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

  If he only knew that his touch wasn’t doing anything to calm all those pesky hormones.

  Ally turned back to the rack of dresses. They certainly looked nice. And pricey. She was starting to become uncomfortable with how much Carter was spending on her—even if it was under an assumed name. It was far more than Ally could ever hope to pay back.

  “Are you sure?” she asked one more time.

  “Absolutely,” he said, coming up close behind her. “Don’t you like nice dinners?”

  Ally shrugged. The truth was, she did…not that she could remember the last time she’d been in a fancy restaurant. Lately, most of her dinners had been delivered by a guy in an Alfonzo’s Pizza truck.

  It wouldn’t hurt to mix it up a little, especially if Carter thought it was safe.

  Ally started to flick through the hangers. They were pretty dresses. She looked over at the woman who was standing sentinel next to the rack.

  “Who knew you could order a dress from your hotel room?” Ally joked.

  The woman let out a small huff as she rolled her eyes.

  Everyone but her, apparently.

  ***

  “You realize those people thought I was a prostitute,” Ally said the moment Carter had closed the door on the gaggle of people leaving their hotel room.

  “Really?” he said as he turned around. He’d hardly paid any attention to the people in the room with them. His eyes had only been on Ally.

  “Oh yeah,” Ally said with an exaggerated nod. “All of them. A hooker getting the full Pretty Woman treatment.”

  “Does that bother you?” he asked as he leaned his back against the door, taking in the sight of her.

  They’d draped her in shimmery fabrics, fluffed her hair, blackened her lashes, but nothing fundamental had changed about her. She was still Ally, just like the first night he’d met her. The set dressing might change—this time a little finer than the last—but the fire burning underneath was the same.

  And that fire…

  “Not really.” She shrugged her shoulders, trying to play it cool, but Carter could see the real answer in the burn of her cheeks.

  “Don’t worry about any of them,” he said, pushing off the door and walking toward her. “You’re beautiful.”

  “I’d better be after how much you’ve spent on all this,” Ally said, sweeping her hand from the top of her head down the length of her dress.

  He reached down and enveloped her hand between his own. He relished the feel of her warm skin against his.

  “I didn’t say they made you beautiful.”

  He looked down into her clear blue eyes and the glow in her cheeks intensified.

  He’d been thinking about her all day. He’d called down to the spa several times to check in on her. He’d told Mason that it was because he was concerned about her safety, and while that was technically true, it wasn’t the whole truth.

  He didn’t like her out of his sight for reasons that had nothing to do with security.

  “So, are you finally going to tell me where you’re taking me?” she asked.

  “To the restaurant on the second floor.”

  “Chef Marcel’s?” Her brows shot up. “You weren’t kidding about wanting to go someplace nice.”

  “Have you eaten there before?” he asked.

  Ally cocked her chin to the side. “What do you think?”

  “I think you’ll enjoy it,” Carter said. “The chef’s filet mignon is the best I’ve ever had.”

  Her lips quirked up. “You’ve got expensive taste.”

  “It’s not about price,” Carter said, shaking his head. He inched closer, not letting go of her hand. “It’s about appreciating all the exquisite pleasures life has to offer.”

  The glow was spreading from Ally’s cheeks, down the long column of her neck, over the slope of her shoulders, disappearing underneath the elegant neckline of her dress.

  He wondered just how far her blush had traveled. If he slid the straps of her gown down her arms, let the fabric fall to the floor, what would he discover?

  Carter pressed his lips together and swallowed hard.

  Damn, it was a tempting thought…but one he couldn’t follow. Not right now, at any rate.

  He’d spent the afternoon fine-tuning a plan with Mason and now it was time to see it through. His men needed him in position exactly at six forty-five.

  Carter glanced over at the clock.

  Six thirteen.

  They had thirty-two minutes. He supposed they could get a drink at the bar. It would be safer down there. Suddenly, Carter wasn’t sure how much more time he could spend alone with Ally without needing to know if her lips were as soft as he imagined.

  “We should probably make our way down to the restaurant,” he said.

  “O-okay,” Ally said. Her mout
h stayed slightly parted, the tip of her tongue flicking out to wet the swell of her lower lip. Carter’s eyes snapped to the sight.

  He turned and tucked her hand into the bend of his elbow.

  Yeah. It was much safer downstairs.

  Chapter Nine

  “So are you going to tell me the real reason you’ve brought me here tonight?” Ally asked the moment they stepped off the elevator and started walking down the long hallway that led to Chef Marcel’s.

  Carter kept his head straight ahead, and Ally’s jaw tightened. She was quickly learning that he didn’t like to look at her when he lied.

  “I thought you might be hungry,” he said. “Isn’t that reason enough?”

  She narrowed her eyes as she stared at him. Yeah, she hadn’t bought it back up in the hotel room, and she wasn’t buying it now.

  Of course, she’d been too swept up by his compliments and proximity when they’d been upstairs to say anything. There was something about the way his warm caramel gaze fell over her, like he might want to skip dinner altogether and get right to dessert. And then there was the touch…oh Lord, his touch. Even now Ally could feel the tingles radiating out from where his fingers had caressed the back of her palm.

  No wonder she’d lost the ability to speak.

  But now that she’d had a few moments to take a breath and calm down, she could finally get around to calling him out.

  “I’ve had plenty of dinners in jeans before,” she said.

  “But tonight you don’t have to,” Carter said, tucking her closer to his side as they crossed through the open archway into the restaurant.

  Ally opened her mouth to ask again, but closed it the moment she started to look around. Chef Marcel’s had to be the nicest restaurant she’d ever been in.

  Crystal chandeliers hung from the carved paneled ceiling. Leather chairs and bar stools were tastefully arranged in the mood lit lounge. Just beyond the bar area she could see the dining room and its sophisticated modern, but not trendy, design. Walls of windows looked out across a panoramic view of the city.