He didn’t hear her. He didn’t hear anything except his heart pounding as they filled their plates and joined Zane and a couple of bigwigs from Mountain Glen at a table near the back. Introductions went around, and Mike busied himself with finishing the chicken marsala and roasted potatoes and going back for seconds.
“How does Sienna like teaching?” Zane asked when everyone else had left to mingle.
Mike watched her talk to some women near the bar. “I guess she likes it all right. She’s good with those kids.”
Zane dipped his roll in some gravy and gave him a long look. “Heard Al’s back in town.”
Bile rose into Mike’s throat. “Yeah.”
“He staying?”
Mike shrugged. “Not if I can help it.”
“He was in longer than you?”
Besides his mother, only Zane knew the truth about L.A. “He had weed on him when the cops pulled us over. Got an extra seven months.” Wasn’t long enough, not by a long shot, but at least it had bought Mike some time back in Pine Point to get his own life on track.
“You ever hear from your ex?”
“Fuck, no.”
Zane finished his roll and took a long swig of beer. “She never got charged with anything?”
Mike shook his head. “Just smart enough to not get caught.” He shoved back his chair, done with talking about the past. “Gotta get another drink.”
“Hurry back,” Zane said with a grin. “The auction’s about to start.”
But Mike wasn’t interested in who might be buying or selling tonight. He’d put in his time. The only thing he wanted now was to get the hell home. He walked over and put one arm around Sienna’s waist. “You want to get out of here?”
She looked up in surprise. Then her expression morphed into a grin. “Sure.” She glanced at Becca, who was fiddling with the microphone. “Should we say goodbye?”
“Already did.” He gave Zane a wave as they headed for the lobby. Outside, light snow fell, silhouetted by the lights. Mike tucked Sienna’s hand into his as they waited for the coat-check attendant and the valet. Ten seconds with her skin against his, and all his desire from the dance floor returned. She hadn’t said a word. He had no idea whether he was taking her back to his place or hers. All he knew was the magnetism drawing him to her.
She tugged on his hand.
“I think the attendant—” he started to say, but she crooked a finger and beckoned him across the lobby. With a quick glance left and right and then one lifted brow, she pulled him into the ladies’ room.
“What the hell are you—?” he began, but the next thing he knew, her mouth was on his, and he stopped caring about anything else.
Chapter Twenty-One
“We’re gonna get caught,” he said as Sienna backed through the heavy gilt door.
“Maybe. Maybe not. All those animal lovers are probably in the ballroom right now outbidding each other to see who gets to take home the Springer Fitness gym membership.” She took a quick survey of the restroom. Three stalls, three sinks, and a large sitting area with a fancy red loveseat and paintings hanging on the wall above it. She’d never done anything like this before, but she didn’t want to wait any longer to touch him. Mike turned her on simply by grinning at her from across the room. She’d almost come in his arms on the dance floor.
She pulled his mouth to his and whispered, “While I get to take home Mr. Springer himself.”
At that, he lifted her in his arms like she weighed nothing. Sienna wrapped her legs around his waist and felt every inch of his lean, hard body meet hers. She hadn’t slept with a guy in almost six months. She hadn’t seriously dated anyone in over a year. Yet a few short weeks back in Pine Point, and the tiny, tightly constructed wall inside her had started to crack. He kissed her, and she stopped thinking about everything else. His tongue moved inside her mouth, slow and deliberate. His hands cupped her ass as he braced her against the ledge of sinks. Everything inside her went hot, and she threaded her fingers through his hair, wanting him closer. He moved his lips to her neck and closed over the spot where her pulse jumped.
“You drive me crazy,” he murmured.
She nodded, unable to form a coherent response.
He slid his hand down her arm, but when he reached her scar, he stopped. He brushed his thumb over her skin, tracing the white line. He looked at her without speaking.
“Sophomore year of college,” she said, her voice rough. “Low point in my life.”
He raised her wrist to his mouth and kissed the scar so sweetly she wanted to cry. “I’ve had a few of those low points,” he whispered. “Glad it’s just a scar now.”
“Me too.”
He slipped his palm beneath her sweater, and when he touched the bare skin of her belly, she jumped. The automatic faucet behind her turned on with the motion, and suddenly a spray of cold drenched her from behind.
“Oh, shit.” She jumped. They wriggled away from the sinks.
“Hell, Sienna, I’m sorry. Let me see.” He turned her around and ran the flat of his palm down her back. “You’re pretty wet.”
“Yeah,” she managed to say. She braced both hands on the sink and savored the feel of his hand on her back, running from the damp hair at her neck to the curve of her hips. He did it again, then a third time, slower. By the time he slipped her sweater down her shoulder to kiss it, she’d almost come undone.
He began to move against her, one hand holding her hip, the other moving back around to tease beneath her sweater and cup one breast. Oh dear God. The rough lace pressed into her sensitive skin at his touch, and he squeezed just enough that she melted. Her eyes closed. He pulsed against her, and somehow it didn’t matter that they were fully clothed, that he’d barely touched anything at all. The beginnings of an orgasm hummed through her, and the sensation both startled and scared her. She rarely came with a man. She rarely let down her guard that far. Messed up, maybe, but becoming vulnerable in the moment of release meant she trusted the guy. And she didn’t trust. She couldn’t. Too many people had hurt her in the past.
“Open your eyes,” he said, his voice guttural with want.
She couldn’t. She’d lose this moment, this feeling of perfect rhythm.
He tightened his hands. “Sienna. I want you to watch us.”
With effort, she opened her eyes and stared into the mirror. She’d never done anything like this before, but the effect was nothing short of astounding. Her cheeks were flushed, her mouth slightly open. He panted with every thrust against her, and the sound and sight of them together, of them wanting each other, pushed her over the edge. Her hips pressed into the counter’s sharp edge, her head dropped back, and everything inside her exploded. Her legs shook. Her arms shook. A whimper left her lips, and if someone had walked into the restroom at that moment, she couldn’t have done anything except continue riding this wave.
When she opened her eyes again, Mike was watching her in the mirror. He brushed his lips against her cheek. “Now that’s what I call foreplay.”
She laughed, the sound breathless and echoey in the high-ceilinged room. It felt as though she’d walked a high wire all the way to the other side. Terrifying. Giddy. You’ve crossed a line, she told herself. No going back now.
Mike pressed a kiss to her temple. “What do you say we go back to my place and try that with clothes off next time?”
* * * * *
Mike couldn’t keep his hands or eyes or anything else off Sienna. Their clothes landed in piles across his floor. He didn’t turn on a single light. As soon as he’d pulled into the driveway, they’d rushed upstairs without words, felt their way to his bedroom, and fallen onto the bed with arms and legs entwined. Fragments of sentences started and stopped in the silence, like Oh, God I… And I love when you… But he didn’t want to talk. He wanted to taste her, to feel her, to forget everything else except the pur
e pleasure of having Sienna in his bed. The faint moonlight through his window fell on her skin, dimpled with gooseflesh as she moved above him. She dropped kisses on his mouth, his jaw, his naked chest, then worked her way down until all he felt was her hair across his belly.
Mike groaned. So damn good. So damn long since he’d touched the skin of a woman’s back. God, he loved the softest spots, the places that made her flinch when he stroked them, so he did it again. And again. He tried to keep track of how many times she came as he roamed his fingers and tongue over her body, but he couldn’t. Only after he finally climaxed deep inside her did she stretch out beside him with a satisfied smile.
“Oh, honey,” she said after a long moment. “That was amazing.”
Still hard, still wet with sweat, with the covers tangled around one foot, he nodded. She crawled into the crook of his arm and lay there. I’ve never had this. Hot sex, yes. Hot, sober sex? Not in a long time. And never with someone like Sienna, a near-perfect package, and not because of her brains or killer body, but because in addition to all that, the scar tissue built up around her heart meant she’d struggled through life the same way he had.
He couldn’t tell her about L.A. Of course not. But she might understand his reluctance. She might understand that his shit from the past needed to stay there.
As if reading his mind, she ran one hand down his bare chest. Her fingers tickled him, and he caught her hand in his. He pressed her fingers to his lips. “Want to stay?”
“Yes.” She raised herself onto one elbow, still naked. “I guess that friends thing wasn’t such a good idea after all.”
“I don’t know.” He traced the bottom curve of her breast. “We are still friends, aren’t we?”
She smiled. “Of course. Just with some added benefits.” She pressed a kiss to his shoulder. “Tell me about you.”
Mike shifted and stuck one arm behind his head. Shadows played on the ceiling as clouds drifted over the moon. “What do you want to know?”
She traced the outline of a red and black dragon that began on his shoulder and twisted down to his elbow. “When did you get this one?”
“I was twenty-one. And, no, it doesn’t mean much except I liked the design.” He stretched out his arm and turned it in the moonlight.
“Dragons are supposed to be powerful,” she said.
He flexed, and the body of the dragon seemed to grow on his biceps. “Then that’s why I got it.” He leaned over and kissed the tip of her nose.
“What about that one?” She pointed to his other arm. A sunburst covered his shoulder. Small black footsteps walked away from it, down to his wrist.
“Twenty-three.” He refused to entertain the memory of Edie picking it out. “It’s a reminder to keep the sun at my back. Keep looking ahead, shit like that.”
Sienna nodded. He could feel her gaze moving over the others. Before she could ask the meaning behind Never Again, he laced his fingers through hers. “No tattoos for you?”
She shook her head.
“Ever think about it?”
A curl fell over her nose, and she blew it out of the way. “Not really. They’re too permanent. I think I’d choose the wrong one, and five or ten years later, I wouldn’t like it anymore.”
“There’s always that possibility.”
She put one bare leg over his, and desire stirred in him again. “What happened out in L.A.? If you don’t mind my asking.”
He minded. He minded so much it hurt, because if he told her the truth, she’d be halfway out the door before he could finish. He rubbed his nose. He watched the pattern of the light on the ceiling. “I made some bad decisions,” he finally said.
“How long were you there?”
“Almost eight years. I left right after high school with the older buddy of a friend of mine. He had a lead on a construction job, said it would pay really well.”
She dropped his hand and sat all the way up, cross-legged. Her eyes lit with curiosity. “So how’d you like California?”
“It was hot.” He chuckled. “And crowded, at least where we mostly worked, in Anaheim.”
“Eight years is a long time. I bet your mom was glad when you came back.”
“She was.”
“She ever go out and visit you?”
Once, the month after he went to prison. He did his best not to think about her drawn, white face looking at him under the supervision of an armed guard. “Nope. She’s not really a traveler.” He sat up and rolled Sienna so she lay on her back beneath him. Propped on his elbows, he ran his cheek along hers. She touched the small of his back and laughed.
“Tell me about you.” he said. He lowered himself until he lay beside her. One hand rested on the gentle curve of her belly.
“What do you want to know?”
If she might change her mind about staying in Pine Point. If she thought about him half as much as he thought about her. “What’s it like going to school for so long?” he asked instead.
She laughed, and her diaphragm rippled under his hand. “Sometimes it’s exhausting. But it’s also… I don’t know. Exciting. I love school. Always did.” She made a face. “Classes and my teachers, anyway. The other kids, not so much.”
“No? School was the only place I sorta felt like I fit in.”
“That’s because you had tons of friends and a different girlfriend every other week.”
He moved his hand north until it touched the underside of her breast. “Not tons. And not every other week. You used to eat in the library,” he said with a smile. “I do remember that.”
“You knew where the library was?” she teased.
He took her hand in his and drew her arm around his naked back. “I fantasized about having sex in that library,” he whispered into her ear.
She leaned back to look at him. “You did not.”
“Up against the book shelves.” He moved his hand down her spine, curving around her belly until his fingers tickled the spots already turning wet again.
Yes, he’d had a good time in high school. Nothing mattered too much, and no one ever stabbed him in the back.
She wriggled closer. “I didn’t feel like I fit in until I went to college,” she went on. “I got my bachelor’s degree in Exceptional Education and taught special ed for a year, but that wasn’t really my thing. So I went back and took more classes.”
“Tell me again what you’re studying?”
“The psychology of personality development. It’s a fancy way of studying how and why people develop the personalities they do. Kind of like the nature-versus-nurture debate.”
“And you came back to Pine Point to do that.” Mike withdrew his hand.
“Well, yes, but—” She rolled onto her side to face him. “What’s wrong? Why does that bother you?”
He cleared his throat. “Are you studying me?”
She touched his face and didn’t answer.
“Is that’s what’s going on here?” His voice grew gruff. Shit, he’d misread a situation yet again. He went to get up, but she took his arm.
“Mike. No.” She squared her gaze on his. “I’m not here with you for any other reason except that I want to be.”
He pulled in a breath. He wanted to believe her.
She dropped her hand to his thigh. “I want you.” She crooked a smile. “I want this.”
His eyes closed in pleasure. They didn’t talk after that. He moved above her, taking it slow, making her cry out for his touch, and when it was over, they fell asleep in each other’s arms. It was the first time he slept straight through to morning in over a year.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sienna woke in stages, first with awareness of the arm around her, then of the sun streaming through the window above her head, and finally, the sensation of coziness under a blanket of just the right weight and softness. She’d
stayed the night. She hadn’t woken up once. Unbelievable. And scary as hell.
“Good morning,” Mike murmured into her ear.
She turned over and smiled. “Good morning.”
He ran one hand over her messy hair and down her bare shoulder. “You want some coffee?”
“I don’t want anything.” She snuggled closer to him and closed her eyes.
“I have to go to work,” he said after a few minutes. “You could have breakfast with my mom if you want.”
At that, she sat straight up. “You’re kidding, right?”
He grinned. “Yeah. She’d love to see you though. I doubt she’d care you spent the night.”
“Maybe next time.” Was there going to be a next time? She bit her bottom lip and hoped she hadn’t sounded presumptuous. Without looking at his expression, she climbed out of bed and gathered her clothes from around the apartment. Good Lord, how had her bra ended up in the kitchen? And she could only see one boot from the bed. He didn’t bother to dress, and the naked view of him walking into the kitchen turned her on all over again. This wasn’t what she’d had in mind when she’d returned to Pine Point for research, but…damn.
The smell of coffee filled the apartment a few minutes later, and then Sienna heard the shower run. For a long moment, she sat on the edge of the bed looking at her scar. He asked me about it. And then he kissed it. Most other guys she’d dated had avoided even looking at it. Wasn’t hard to know that a scar like that came from drawing a razor blade deep into the skin, watching the blood flow and hoping for a quick release from the pain. But Mike had only looked at and then moved on, as if it meant nothing more than the color of her eyes or the shape of her chin. Her heart fluttered, and she put one hand to her bare chest. I’m in a whole lot of trouble if I fall for him.
She dressed, poured herself a cup of coffee, and then sneaked into the bathroom. With one finger, she pulled back the shower curtain.
He had his head under the spray, so he didn’t see her at first. The water ran down his body, every inch of it muscle and nearly half of it covered in tattoos. He didn’t have any scars that she could see, but then again, all the artwork would do a good job of hiding them. Her insides went warm all over again at the sight of his nakedness, and part of her wanted to strip and jump under the water with him.
Spring Secrets: Pine Point, Book 3 Page 13
