by Jo Leigh
“I should be. I won’t have to leave until around nine tonight, if I go. So, okay. We’ll meet...maybe.”
“Maybe,” she said. A definite improvement, seeing as how they were both still staying under the same roof.
11
AT 5:20 P.M., Kensey returned to the apartment and the most incredible bathroom known to humankind. It had an open shower that curved in a gradual downward spiral and made her feel as if she was at a spa the moment she started walking down the beautiful tumbled stone steps. The walls were made of glass tile, and as she passed, they—like the walls in the rest of the apartment—started changing colors.
A little farther on, there was a towel station and an amenities bar with everything from razors to salt scrubs. Then, as the path continued to curve, the wall colors got darker, greener, and the sounds segued from new age calm to a rainstorm with a dash of jungle.
Finally, she reached the shower itself. It had every possible kind of jet. The one that most impressed her was at the top of the enclosure, a big metal rectangle with lots of holes for the water to come through. The temperature was perfect. It was all perfect. The room smelled verdant and clean and, God knows, she hated to waste water, but this experience was like nothing else and she was going to enjoy the heck out of it.
She closed her eyes and all her troubles vanished. At her fingertips was yet another shelf loaded with soaps, body wash, shampoo, loofahs and sponges. It all reminded her of Willy Wonka for hedonistic grown-ups.
She took her time smelling everything before she decided on what to use. It was a toss-up, but in the end she went with the coconut-scented body wash.
Lathering up awakened her senses to even more pleasure. Thoughts of Holstrom tried to take over, but she fought them back, not wanting to spoil a single moment.
When thoughts of Logan knocked, she threw the doors open in welcome. After hearing his presentation and talking to Sam, Kensey was feeling more relaxed about Logan. Given his goals, it made sense he’d want to hook up with Holstrom. He had all the connections: military, political and the private sector. For Logan to succeed, he’d need as many of those connections as possible.
Of course, if her suspicions about Holstrom and the stolen paintings turned out to be true, Holstrom and his company would certainly take a beating. Jail wasn’t out of the question, although she doubted his corporation would fold. Logan could still come out of this a winner.
In the meantime, she had to find a way to get in front of Holstrom again. Soon. Maybe even tonight.
Her thoughts went back to Logan. Once he knew who Holstrom really was, he wouldn’t want to work with him. He just wouldn’t.
But she couldn’t warn him off with no proof.
She started to shampoo her hair and she couldn’t restrain her moan. Was it possible to stay in this shower forever? She’d end up a prune, but what did that matter when everything felt and smelt so fabulous. And who knew, maybe genius would strike. Some people sang in the shower, but Kensey had always used the time to problem solve. Talking out loud to herself helped her creativity and logic.
In this shower? Hell, she might come up with the cure for the common cold.
She let a few choice images dance behind her closed eyes as she massaged her scalp. Of course it was Logan she imagined. Naked. Hard and gorgeous. “Oh, hell, Logan. Why did you have to be here? Now. The timing’s so bad.” Sighing, she twirled in front of the twelve acupressure massage jets.
She rinsed. And for once she decided she would repeat before she started on the conditioner.
“Hot, hot, super-hot Logan,” she said, loving the acoustics. If she’d had any kind of a voice, she’d have been singing instead of talking. “I mean where did that man go to lady parts school? He should be a full-on professor by now.”
She rinsed off the second shampoo, humming a little “Voulez-Vous” before she added the conditioner.
“I mean,” she went on, singing the first two words, then going back to her speaking voice because even she couldn’t stand her off-key pitch. “Dammit, this is nuts. I’m going crazy trying to stay focused on what I’m supposed to be doing, and all I seem to think about is sex. With that amazing, intuitive, fearless man. And why, why hadn’t I thought to wait until he came home so I could invite him in this shower with me?
“And...” The spray hit her square in the face and she jerked back, blinking. “This isn’t solving anything.”
“Uh, Kensey?”
She screamed. So loud and so long it hurt her own ears. Then she saw the wall. The goddamn wall had two monitors on it. One was her naked...oh, Christ...so naked. More naked than she’d ever been before, even with her hands over her tits. The other was filled by Logan. “What the hell?”
Logan cleared his throat. “I’m guessing you said, Call Logan?”
“I did no such thing.”
He looked as if he was standing two feet away from her in his shirt, tie and slacks. Oddly, his feet were bare, but who cared about that when he was watching her with the same hunger from the other night.
“You must have, because once I accepted the call, there you were. I did try to get your attention.”
“How, by sending a letter? I’m in the goddamned shower,” she said, getting ready to unleash all the rest of her curse words in short order.
“I saw. But you were also talking to me.”
“I wasn’t. I was talking about you. Why didn’t you say something?”
He chuckled low, sounding far too sexy. “Because it was hot? And you’re gorgeous?”
“I am never speaking to you again. ‘It was hot’ is not a good excuse.”
He shook his head, and she rolled her eyes. “There’s nothing stopping you from turning around now.”
He smiled. His hand went to his tie, and that was off in two seconds, followed by the quickest unbuttoning in the world. “I was invited,” he said. He tossed his shirt behind him. Put his hands on his belt. “But if you want me to leave, I will.”
“Does this thing do playbacks?”
He glanced at the monitors. “No idea.”
“If it does, you have to destroy yours. Is that clear? No copies. And I don’t want to hear a single solitary word you think was cute or funny or anything remotely like it.”
He crossed his heart. On his very bare chest.
She lowered her hands. “Well, I suppose you can come in. But would you run and get a hammer out of the toolbox so I can pummel your memory to bits?”
“I don’t know where the toolbox is.”
“That’s all right,” she said, relaxing her shoulders. “I’ll find it tonight when you’re asleep.”
“Fair enough.”
She covered her face with her hands and shook her head. She loved that the tension had turned to something else, something almost playful, but she didn’t understand why it required her to be humiliated.
“Hey, I’m taking off the important part here,” he said.
“And...?”
“I’m only this way because of you.”
“A gentleman would have said something.”
“A gentleman would have been an idiot.” He unzipped his pants, dropped those and his briefs in one step, and when he stood straight again, he really was impressively hard.
Then he closed his eyes in what looked like pure frustration and crouched down out of the frame. When he stood again, he held up three condoms.
“Optimistic?” she asked.
“Inspired,” he replied.
She turned to the wall. “End Call you stupid, stupid computer.” It blinked out before the sentence had ended. She thought she remembered now. She was pretty sure she had said, “Hell, Logan,” but the water must’ve distorted her voice, making it sound like, “Call, Logan.” Sometimes she really hated computers.
&nbs
p; He joined her, all naked and fabulous. The apartment seemed to approve of its matchmaking as the tiles had gotten awfully colorful. And then, just audible over the sound of the jets, the background music started played “Sexual Healing.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. Until Logan pulled her into a kiss that could’ve melted the snow off all the mountains in the forty-eight contiguous states.
* * *
NOT ONLY WAS Kensey as beautiful wet as she was dry, she’d just given him the best explanation-slash-hard-on ever. But he was glad the monitors were off now and she was kissing him like there was no tomorrow. It had been a weird couple of days, but he was beginning to understand her disappearing acts. Too much sex on the brain had been a problem for him, as well. Right now all he wanted was to make them both feel good.
Running his hand down her neck to her chest, he lingered on the smooth skin underneath the warm water. Lingering over anything when he was this hard was difficult, but he wanted to make her desperate for it.
He cupped her breast and kneaded gently. This was exactly where he wanted to be. “You know you could have a career in film screams if you wanted one. That sounded like something from Hitchcock’s collection. Very impressive.”
“You would have screamed, too, if you’d been on my end of things.” She winced. “It was loud, wasn’t it?”
“I don’t know. I’m thinking I could get you to top that.” He smiled. “No terror involved.”
She met his gaze and didn’t move except to part her lips, which made him reach down and part her other lips.
“What are you—”
He kissed the question right off. Although he did like talking to her. When she wasn’t being all mysterious, they were good sparring partners. Kensey was a lot of things he liked.
He liked how she looked all wet. He’d never understood why chick flicks made it appear as if kissing in the rain was sexy, but now he got it. Although it helped that this rain was hot, or maybe that was just Kensey.
The way her body pressed against him trapped his cock between them. Soon enough he realized there was a rhythm to the way she moved her hips, which matched each push of his fingers.
A quick look when he went to kiss her neck showed him that the damn walls were pulsing, too. Everything synchronized. It was compelling. Something he’d never experienced before.
He moved his lips to the shell of her ear. “Look at the tiles,” he said.
A few seconds later, she said, “Oh, my God.”
“I know.” Then, as a little experiment, he pumped a little faster.
She matched his pace, thrust for thrust. It took a few seconds, but the walls joined in, along with a sudden deep blue coming from the showerhead above them. By that time, though, he wanted more than pretty lights and hot water.
As he slipped his fingers out of her wet heat, he bent over, the water sluicing down his back as he took her nipple in his mouth. He tasted water first, which somehow made things even sexier, until he tasted Kensey. That outdid everything. It was a precise taste, not just skin. Kensey’s skin. His mouth filled with want for the rest of her, the salty sea taste of her sex, the spot behind her ear that made her tremble.
He moaned, and he heard it as if they were in the ocean...no, a river heated by the sun, ripening her flesh and his desire.
Fingers touched the back of his head. Her palm seconds after. He wondered if her eyes were open. Was she watching him lick and swirl his tongue, with even a small idea of how much he wanted to both keep doing this and slide his cock inside her?
Soon, that wasn’t enough, either. He rose and kissed her, pulling her body against his, not just to show her how hard he was, but to let her know what he wanted.
She surprised him, though. Her hand slid between them and curled around his cock. His head reared back. Luckily, he didn’t choke on the spray from the showerhead, just coughed. He might have choked, though, the way she was rubbing him, slow and careful, putting a little more tension just under his glans, then swiping her thumb over the slit.
“You look pretty strong,” she said, squeezing his bicep.
“I’m no body builder, but—”
“How about a body lifter? My body, I mean.”
He smiled. “Not a problem.” Although if she kept on with those strokes, he might not make it past putting on the condom. “Wait, I need a—”
She grinned. “You put them on the amenities tray.”
“Don’t go anywhere,” he said, and reluctantly removed her hand while he went to grab the condoms.
Kensey had stayed right where she was, but she hadn’t wasted the few seconds he’d been gone. She’d been touching herself.
Damn. It was smoking hot.
He kissed her, hard, lifting her arms around his neck, then reaching under those gorgeous thighs and lifting her into position. Once he felt sure of his hold, he kissed her. Her lips were right there, so how could he skip that? A few minutes later, he said, “Reach between us? Guide me home?”
The look she gave him was meltingly hot, but her hand was already moving. This maneuver could be tricky, and just in case she lost her balance, he moved them close to the wall.
Although she was slim, she wasn’t tiny, but she felt great in his arms. She moaned and laughed, then took his sheathed cock and guided him in the right direction. By the time she released him, he was good to go.
She tightened her legs around his hips, her arms around his neck.
“This will only be chilly for a moment,” he said, surprised that his voice was so rough. He moved to the right, until the massaging jets hit him on the back, before he turned them around. Now, they were both getting the full experience of the overhead rain, and while he braced himself against the tiles, she would enjoy the massage.
He hoped that wouldn’t be the best thing she felt.
“You’re a genius,” she said, raising herself up an inch or so, then relaxing her legs.
“And you’re a gymnast,” he said.
She laughed, and then started to ride him in earnest. He could feel her glutes tighten, which made her inner muscles squeeze him until he had to recite a few football stats so it wouldn’t end yet.
But he didn’t want her doing all the work. He was able to push in further, and she was free to concentrate on the right muscles.
“Good God, this is...” She finished the thought with a cry that made him forget his own name.
“We make beautiful music together, don’t you think?”
“I can’t carry a tune.”
“You are so wrong,” he said. “This is a symphony.”
She let out a laugh, and they lost the rhythm, but only for a moment.
“You don’t believe me? Listen.”
She closed her eyes as he kept the pace languorous and sweet. He could tell the moment she heard a very real symphony coming from the hidden speakers all around them.
“Oh,” she said. “Do you know this piece?”
“Not a clue. I just know we’re conducting.”
Her kiss was her agreement, and it spurred him to adjust her position. It wasn’t easy, but she yelped when he hit the bull’s-eye. Now when he lifted her and let her drop, he rubbed against her clit. The sounds she made were all he could hear. The panting Ohs, and then his name. Not just once. Escalating, as he went for broke. He didn’t have long, but she fell apart first. Seconds before him.
And didn’t that feel better than anything he could remember.
12
IT TOOK A long time for Kensey to catch her breath and find her feet as he let her down. Part of it was due to the raw sensations that still made her body thrum. It was amazing to her how in sync they’d been with each other. It had been effortless, which was at once thrilling and frightening.
When they’d been face-to-face, i
nches away from each other, something in her heart had shifted.
“You okay?”
Kensey turned her head to look at him. They were both leaning against the cold tile while the panel of jets blasted hot water across the wide shower to keep them warm in front. “Very okay. You?”
He grinned, then he leaned over to kiss her. “I’m waterlogged. How do you feel about moving this to the bedroom?”
She nodded, although this was a great stopping place. Truth was, she wanted to stay in bed with him. But she couldn’t use Logan as a place to hide. She needed to figure out her next move with Holstrom, even though the thought made her queasy.
She turned off the shower while he went to gather towels. When they met up, he’d tied a small towel around his waist. The bath sheet in his hands was for her.
He wrapped the towel around her and started drying her body with it. It was tender and sexy all at once.
She grabbed a smaller towel for her hair, and he asked her to rate the showerheads from one to ten. It turned out to be a lot harder than she’d imagined, especially when he showed his disagreement by squeezing her butt or her boobs and making an obnoxious buzzer sound. She loved how they could go from being so passionate to flat-out silly in a matter of minutes. She surprised him, giving Logan Jr. a squeeze when Logan ranked the crisscross shower mists more highly than the massage jets. But they both gave the giant rain shower top marks.
With both of them reasonably dry and her bed calling to them, she took Logan’s hand and led him into the adjacent room. The walls were soft again: pastel waves of blues, greens and purples. It was like being under the ocean, especially with the ceiling full of cotton-ball clouds dotting a perfect sky.
Dropping their towels, they scooted under the covers and made themselves a little nest in the center of the mattress. Logan’s arms went around her, and her leg went over his thigh, touching as many places as possible.
Logan kissed her, ran his hand down her back, pressed close. He wasn’t hard or anything, but that was fine. She liked this type of snuggling. Soft, sweet. The scent that had infused the room was intriguing.
