by Melissa Blue
Stop. Thinking.
“You all right, lass?” Tristan didn’t bother to bring his gaze down to hers, but his Scottish accent reached out and wrapped around her.
That too was effortless. He was the epitome of sex, desire and temptation without trying. She was going to have a heart attack by the end of this exchange. Her field was filled with men and she’d learned to keep up with innuendos, to never falter under blatant offers of sex, but this effortless seduction and flirtation just might undo her. A smart mouth made a soft behind, and Tristan seemed to have every intention of testing out the theory.
“Hand,” she muttered.
A part of her wished he’d leave it right there. Her brain piped up, listing all the reasons she shouldn’t want him to touch her. She’d just met him. Who the hell knew what kind of man he was? The primitive side didn’t care.
They continued to move through the hotel. At every corner signs let them know they were headed on the right path to the class they needed to attend. The noise level held at a decibel she’d never experienced. If Tristan’s hand hadn’t been a serious concern, she’d have tried to observe the conversations swirling around them.
“You’re tense.” Tristan frowned down at her.
Labs had beeps, whirs. People made their own distinctive noise. “It’s loud in here.”
He made a soft noise and nodded. “You spend all your time in a lab with relics.”
“Dead men tell no tales, but their relics do.”
He scoffed. “Sounds like scintillating conversation you have.” He hesitated before pushing her against the nearest wall. His brows furrowed, but his body blocked out any passersby. “Are you shy?”
Was it that obvious? But then she noticed how damp her hands felt. Yeah. It was. “I’m not a fan of crowds.”
He took in the people around them. They went in and out of the convention rooms. People poured out of every square space, and the noise of it all jangled her nerves. He sure as hell didn’t help. Tristan was too close. His musky scent of spice and man filled up the distance between them.
His slacks rubbed against her bare legs as he edged closer. “Tell me about your work.”
She blinked, surprised at the demand. He looked like he was going to hem her up against the wall and break their agreement about holding hands only.
“Where do you want me to start?”
“I’m interested in carbon dating. Ian’s told me about what he does over the years, but that’s the one thing he has no real clue about.”
Doubt crept in at his request. “You really want to talk about this?”
He placed his other hand above her right shoulder. “I don’t expect folks to really ask about what we do, and that’s usually when they ask.”
A thought hit her sideways. Jocelyn had stressed to be on alert at all times with him. The man was slippery. He captivated her, had distracted her from reason with just a smile. That should have made her not like him, much less trust him. “I bet you’re a car salesman.”
The gray in his eyes glinted. His smile was effortless and dipped in sin. Her heart kicked. She had no doubt the authenticity of his smile because of the way it lit his gaze, but goodness.
Tristan nodded. “Used to be a con man. I do honest work now as a carpenter. The world never has a shortage for men who are good with their hands and have a strong back.”
She didn’t think he meant work, but she couldn’t tell with him. Everything he said sounded like a double entendre. Maybe he meant it to, and if you took one of his statements down a road filled with sweat and naked bodies, he wouldn’t put up much of a fight to correct you. Her cousin definitely hadn’t prepared her for this.
“Uh,” she started but lost the train of thought.
The warmth of his hand shifted from above her shoulder to her collarbone. His fingertips caressed her bared skin and trailed to her chin. His touch was soft, firm, and shot straight down to her stomach. She bit her lip to keep in a moan.
Heat and need filled her at the simple touch and it probably showed in her gaze. More than likely she poured out the kind of pheromones that let him know on some primitive level she wanted him to keep caressing her.
He nodded. “There you go. You’re looking wary again instead of frightened. We can’t be having the latter.”
“You’re touching me.” She pointed out the obvious.
“I am.” He didn’t look sorry for it. “And I don’t plan to stop until you look less scared.”
Her spine straightened at the accusation. “I’m not scared.”
“No?” His brows rose, and he took another step forward. One leg invaded the space between her thighs.
She suddenly wanted to jerk her hips forward and hope the hard muscle of his leg would press against the ache his stare and touch ignited. Blood rushed from her heart and other limbs to assist the basic sexual need to have him lift his leg so she could straddle it and for once in her life let go.
He seemed like the kind of man who wouldn’t bat an eye that they were standing in a hallway, right next to the class they’d have to enter. He’d steady his leg against the wall, grip her hips to guide her straight to an orgasm, and still he wouldn’t be satisfied until her come dampened his slacks.
And because it seemed like he was that kind of man, she had to take control as always. Common sense had vacated the moment she stopped breathing air that wasn’t scented with spice and man.
She pushed back her shoulders and they met the cold hard wall behind her. “Crowds unnerve a lot of people. Factor in the noise, the number of people in one small enclosed space, and my reticence to dive headlong into it makes sense. I wasn’t prepared for this. I’m thinking of all the ways we’ll likely get caught. And once again you’ve broken our hands-only rule. Do you blame me?”
No emotion graced his face for a moment and then he threw his head back and laughed. “You’d be amazed by what a man can do with just his hands.”
She wanted to know, more than she wanted control. “I bet you could do a lot, but I think we’ve established that we’re a hot and heavy newlywed couple.”
He dipped his head, crushed his mouth to her neck. The move was so unexpected she did moan. He didn’t lick her, just let his mouth trail up to her ear. “Anyone looking at your flushed face and my reaction to it will assume what we’re going to do once this class is over.”
Oh. My. God. “Mission accomplished, then.”
“Not quite.” He stretched the words out and could have meant anything. “See, we were asked in a very subtle way to ensure they got into their dream home.”
Keri could think as soon as he moved. Now all she could do was feel his warmth. She lifted a hand to his chest. It was as solid as the wall behind her. “And that means?”
“We need to get chummy with all the members of the association. Let them fall in love with us. Everyone loves a couple who is in love.”
She breathed in. Spice. Man. Sex. “Not the sickeningly sweet ones.”
“Then we won’t be sweet.”
His leg, his chest and the way his breath feathered against her ear was a constant distraction that needed her full attention. But then his plan clicked into place. “You want to con them. I thought you did honest work.”
He chuckled. The soft air from it tickled her ear. “Why do you think my brother asked me to do this?” he asked. “I have a cousin who is the spitting image of him. So what do you say, Keri? Are you up for a little fun?”
“A little con,” she corrected and tried to get her brain working. “My cousin only asked me to show up for the class.”
“And why is that?” He sounded interested, but his lips were busy brushing against her neck.
She sighed, hoping this would never come up. “I’m currently between jobs.”
He pulled back. “So a few hours of fun won’t kill you.”
She thought about it, because she could again with his mouth gone. “We don’t even know what these people look like.”
“Oh,
but I do. I told you, my brother wanted this. He sent me all the details after I agreed.”
She gasped. “Jocelyn knows?”
His gaze followed the line of her neck and he looked pensive. “Maybe you can call her and ask if she wants you to do everything and anything to get her the home.”
She snorted. “Of course she would want me to.”
He smirked. “Are we agreed, then?”
Her cousin had warned her about Tristan, but this didn’t seem like a bad idea. It was a few hours at best and it had been a long while since she’d done anything, something that made her pulse kick. If looking at him did that, what would it feel like to play along with his scheme? And this felt like helping her cousin’s cause. And that was probably how a con man conned.
Yeah. She was right. She’d have a heart attack by the end of this. “I’m in.”
He straightened, taking his warmth and scent with him. “We have thirty minutes before class. More than enough. We’ll start you off easy. Just look like you want to bite me and we’ll work our way up from there.”
Maybe she hadn’t noticed before because Tristan was a lot to take in, but he’d left the top buttons on his shirt undone. His throat was thick like a football player’s. Yeah. She could imagine and even want to sink her teeth into his skin. He probably tasted like the best bad decision she ever made.
“Just like that,” he murmured.
She blinked. “What?”
He laughed again. “I think you’re ready. And look who just walked by. The head honcho, Montgomery.”
Her palms were on the verge of weeping sweat. “And all I have to do is look like I want to bite you?”
“Aye.” His burr thickened on the single word.
Well, she had the easy part. “I’m ready.”
CHAPTER THREE
Tristan tossed a worried glance toward his partner in crime. She’d fidgeted the first twenty minutes of class until he slipped his hand under the table and grasped her bouncing leg. He kept his hand there for the next two hours and forty minutes. Touching her seemed to be the only thing to keep her from flipping her wig. All he wanted to do was slide his hand up, and that made those two hours and forty minutes torture while he tried to readjust his prick with no one the wiser.
At the end of the class Keri looked like she was on the verge of rambling and probably confessing they weren’t a real couple. Well-wishers on their marriage littered the walkway since most of the sessions had let out at the same time. If he hadn’t forced reform down his throat, he may have continued to make a life out of crime. But Keri should stay far, far away from it. She shouldn’t even flirt with the idea of breaking a single law if this was how she devolved afterward.
He grabbed hold of her elbow, excused them and pulled her into the nearest stairway. The door clicked soundly behind them and the noise level from the convention echoed off the empty staircase. The muffled voices were loud enough to keep the starkness in her gaze.
“Take a deep breath,” he ordered.
Her cheeks puffed up and she blew a few strands of hair out of her face. He added adorable to words he’d never used, but it applied to her.
“I’m blowing it, aren’t I?” she asked. “We did good. Everyone likes us. Well, they like you and I’m sort of added to the package.”
“They liked you too,” he reassured her in a calm voice. His heartbeat grew steadier, seeing she’d be okay. “Really they did, especially when you stopped looking like you’d get sick on their shoes.”
She narrowed her gaze, looking better already at the veiled insult. “You pinched my ass. I thought we had an understanding.”
She’d be fine. The worry he had disappeared. He snorted. “You were blowing it. I had to do something.”
“And pinching my ass was the answer?”
He shrugged. “You giggled and blushed. It worked.”
She gasped, looking appalled. “I did not giggle.”
He did his best not to laugh, but a smile leaked out. Tristan had spent a good deal of his adulthood around folks who’d seen more than their fair share of life. Being around her was refreshing. He knew people, he knew women. He suspected Keri wouldn’t take life so seriously she’d ignore adventure when it came to call. He hoped that was something about her that would never change.
“You giggled like a nervous schoolgirl,” he said. “That gave me the opportunity to look at you with longing. That sealed the deal. If Jocelyn and Ian don’t get an acceptance, then there’s just no hope for them.”
His words teased out the beginnings of a smile, but not quite. “You think so?” she asked.
“I’m good at what I do. You weren’t too bad either.”
She snorted. “Lies.”
It was, but she’d finally calmed completely. He let her go but chose to stay in her space. He liked being there. She had a warmth and purity about her. And a smart mouth.
“So, now you’ll be going back to your ordinary life?” he asked. “What do you plan to do?”
She leaned against the wall. Her tongue flitted out and ran across her bottom lip. “Don’t know.” She sounded breathless.
He took another step and this one had only one thought behind it—touch her. “A shame, really. Who knows when we’ll see each other again.”
She shrugged, but the action was filled with nerves. “You probably wouldn’t recognize me anyway.”
He lifted her chin with his finger. “I’d know you from your scent alone.”
“Oh.” She was breathless again, and again he stepped closer.
Her words penetrated and he frowned down at her. “Now, why wouldn’t I recognize you?”
She gestured to herself with a wave of her hand. “I don’t usually dress like this. Never really grew out of my tomboy phase.”
“You like football? And I’m not talking the jacked-up rugby Americans play.”
“I’ve caught a few rugby games on TV, but I have to admit I got distracted by the mud and small shorts.”
Honesty. Refreshing. He’d tried to live by that rule of thumb as much as possible. For the first time in a long time, he had something of truth, of value about himself that could impress a woman. “I used to play when I was younger.”
“You did?”
The way she pushed out her breath drew his gaze down. From his vantage point he could see nothing but cleavage. Her breasts were full, round and delectable. “You watch rugby, but it’s a shame you don’t wear these kinds of clothes all the time.”
Just to test the waters, he let his fingers brush the edge of her dress. Her eyes widened, but she didn’t giggle or tell him to stop. Now he wanted to see her irises darken. And she wanted him to. Otherwise she’d have likely told him hands only again.
“You have beautiful legs that you should show off all the time,” he said.
And to prove his point he ran his finger over the supple skin beneath the dress. Higher until his finger caught on the band of her panties. There was too much bare skin for it to be anything but a thong. He hissed out a breath.
“What are you doing?” she asked with trepidation, but she shifted closer to his hand.
Her reaction told him all he needed to know, but he asked, “Do you want me to stop?”
She shook her head. “Just curious, because we’re in a stairwell and no one’s here to see if the newlyweds are hot for each other.”
Her eyes hadn’t darkened yet so he pushed. “This isn’t for show.” He hooked his finger on the thin strap and tugged. “Again, I’ll ask, do you want me to stop?”
“I just—I’ve never— No. Don’t stop.”
He let his other hand get tangled in her hair and closed his fingers in the strands. “Can I be honest with you, Keri?”
She swallowed. “Seems like a good idea.”
Up until now honesty had only kicked him in the balls. The unvarnished truth didn’t turn her away. “Pretending to want you has made me want you.” The words felt thick in his throat.
Her eyes widene
d. “Interesting.”
“That’s all you have to say?” he teased.
“There’s plenty, but I’m…having trouble. Things like this… I’m no good at words.”
He tsked. “Kind of hoped it was just me who had you tongue-tied.”
Her gaze rose to his lips. “Not yet at least. That’s why you have your hands in my hair, right? You plan to kiss me?”
Here he was planning seduction, and she wanted to be literal. He couldn’t help but be smitten. “Auch, woman. You don’t announce it, you just do it.”
Her gaze lit. “Like Nike?”
Fuck if he wasn’t suddenly charmed. “Aye.”
“Okay. Okay. We can do this. We can kiss, but not announce it. And you’ll just have your hand on my underwear while you do it. I can do this.” Her cheeks flushed, but she bit her bottom lip, likely to quiet the pep talk.
Unease started to bleed through the lust. He loosened his hold on her hair. “You’re not a virgin, are you?”
She laughed, shaking her head. “Would you make it special with candles and everything?”
Tension leaked out of his shoulders at her reply. He told her the answer she expected to hear. “Fuck, no. I’ll be too busy running in the other direction.”
She seemed to take measure of his words. “I expected nothing but corrupting of innocents from you.”
Not anymore, he started to answer, but that would keep her from focusing on his hand. He felt a twinge at skirting the truth, but he could see she would lose focus if he didn’t distract her. He didn’t quite know how they ended up down this path, but he couldn’t seem to steer them from it.
He didn’t want to either. So answer her with another lie or the truth? The truth. “Every man has a moral code and he lives by it from experience, not from principle alone.”
She pursed her lips. “How many virgins have you run from?”
