worthy of the endeavor, and she knew that wasn’t so. She’d never tried setting the bar too high; that simply wasn’t a consideration. But lowering her expectations hadn’t been an answer either. For the first time, a man like Payton had made her feel normal and accepted…even attractive. She was wholly unprepared for how he made her feel, and it scared her, yet she couldn’t cut and run.
“You’re such an idiot, Jess,” she muttered, running another hand through her damp hair. Finally, she shrugged. “Oh hell, this is business. This ain’t no prom date.”
She clenched her jaw and rolled her eyes, raising her hand one more time. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on his door and waited, listening for any sound from inside the room. Other than the faint drone of the ice machine down the hall, she heard nothing out of the ordinary until the slide of a chain and the tumble of a dead bolt told her she didn’t have to knock again.
When the door opened, Payton squinted into the bright hallway, dressed only in navy pajama bottoms.
“Hey…what’s up?” The deep rumble of his voice hit the pit of her stomach and bolted through her body like a tantalizing spark that she never wanted to end.
“Ah, hi.” She grinned and rocked on her heels. “I, uh…”
Words failed her as Payton raked fingers through his tousled blond hair, brushing loose strands from sleepy blue eyes. While he was distracted and not fully awake, she took advantage of the moment.
She trailed her eyes down his bare chest and rock-solid abs, not doing a very good job at exercising restraint. She had never seen a man who looked so good in the flesh. His broad muscular chest and arms made her feel petite and feminine, an odd sensation that left her confused about who she was and what she wanted. And the stubble on his chin made him look dangerous and overloaded with testosterone, a serious addiction for her. Everything about this man left her hungry for more.
“I need to…talk.” She swallowed, wincing after she heard a noticeable gulp deep in her throat. “That is, we need to…” Finally she sighed and asked, “Can I come in?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Payton stepped aside to let her by, leaving the tantalizing smell of his warm skin in his wake. She walked into the dimly lit room and stared at his rumpled bed, a sight that sent a rush of heat to her face…and other parts of her body.
Slowly, she turned toward him as images flashed through her mind of him—of them together—the feel of his hands on her breasts and his warm wet tongue on her skin. She had something important to tell him, but standing here now, all she craved was a simpler life. All she wanted to be was a woman alone with a man, free to do whatever was in her heart.
Gazing at him now, she thought she saw hunger stirring in his blue eyes—or was that merely wishful thinking on her part? She had no idea and didn’t care, but she heard the sound of own voice in the back of her mind.
A beautiful woman dropping by his hotel room in the middle of the night sent one clear message to Payton’s brain. For him, at this hour, things got real simple. Jessie probably had something important to say.
And generally that involved talking. Talking didn’t rate high on his list of favorite things to do with his mouth at this time of night.
And to complicate matters, she looked like she just stepped out of the shower, and smelled of herbal soap and flowers. All he wanted to do was wrap her in his arms and kiss her. She was a strong intelligent woman, but he sensed a part of her was broken inside—a part he wanted to protect. Jessie had an edge of sadness to her, but that wasn’t the main thing on his mind right now.
Dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt, she hadn’t worn anything provocative. But with a woman like Jessie, her sensuality had more to do with her than anything she put on her body. When she walked by him, real slow, her thighs flipped his switch. And with her damp hair and clothes, her nipples had tightened from the AC he had blasting in the room. A major distraction. He wasn’t sure he could stay focused. But what always sent him over the edge with Jessie were her lips. He caught himself staring at them all the time, like a starving man eyeballing a thick juicy steak. He had it bad.
And at this hour, with her all to himself in his room, he felt his need for her, exposed and raw. He couldn’t hide his feelings, not anymore. Against his better judgment, he took a step toward her and his body reacted. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to say a word. Speaking would spoil the moment, sever whatever connection they had between them. He wanted her to make the first move, and searched her eyes for the trigger.
Did she feel the same? Why was she here…at this time of night? Payton licked his lips and swallowed, hard. What came next would depend on her.
“I’ve got something,” she began, avoiding his gaze, “that I think you should know.”
After a long awkward silence, he finally said, “You came to talk?”
His question stopped her cold. She blinked twice, unable to hide her immediate reaction.
“Well…yeah.”
By the look on his face, she hadn’t misread the situation. It was not her wishful thinking. Payton hadn’t expected conversation. It would have been easy for her to make the first move. And only the good Lord knew how much she wanted to do just that. She sensed he would have followed her lead, but she owed him an explanation. If he still felt the same after she told him why she’d come, maybe she’d let sweet nature take its course.
“Damn, it’s freezing in here, Alaska boy. You got the AC cranked so you don’t thaw?”
“What can I say? I like it cold.” He went to the thermostat and turned down the air-conditioning. “I got a jacket you can wear if it’ll help.”
She might have taken him up on his offer, but by the look on his face, it seemed as if he hoped she wouldn’t.
“No, really. I’m good.” She rubbed her hands together and began. “Someone came to my apartment a little while ago. That mystery blonde from the explosion wasn’t a figment of my imagination after all.”
“What happened?” He locked his eyes on her and wouldn’t let her go. “What did she want?”
“Besides practicing her breaking and entering skills? She had an interesting way to get my attention.” Jess pulled a chair from the desk and sat. When she did, Payton slumped to a corner of his bed. “And she’s prone to drama, but basically she told me her name is Alexa Marlowe. She wouldn’t tell me much about the organization she works for, except to say it’s a private international alliance that specializes in criminal cases with tough jurisdictional boundaries. I figured it for a well-funded vigilante group, but I could be reading into it. I have no idea if she was telling me the truth. At least, not until I can do a little digging.”
“What else did she say? Did she tell you anything about Nikki?”
In record time Payton had made the leap she’d expected. If the blonde had been there that night, she could’ve seen Nikki and helped her out of the inferno. He was shooting for the Cliff Notes version of her story, and she couldn’t blame him.
“She told me the name of the Russian, Stanislav Petrovin. And it was like you figured. Alexa pulled me from the fire and had called out to you, so I’d be found. She chased after Petrovin through a tunnel and barely escaped the blast. After she got clear, she heard helicopters, but in the dark she couldn’t tell where they went.”
Jess got up from the chair and joined Payton on the mattress, touching his arm as she continued.
“Alexa said she didn’t see Nikki in the control room. As far as I’m concerned, that means one thing. If Sam doesn’t find your niece’s body at the bomb site, we’ve got no choice but to assume she’s with the Russian.”
It had been days, and they would have no idea where the bastard took her. She didn’t say those words aloud, but that thought would hit him soon enough.
“But Jessie, why did she tell you all this? What did she want?”
“She wanted the documents that I saved from the fire.”
“What? You gave them to her?” Payton stood and walked to the far side of the room, his back to her, hands on his hips. After a long moment, he asked, “What do you think she’s after?”
She got up from the bed and joined him, only getting a glimpse of his profile in the dim room. Partially drawn curtains painted his bare chest with a strip of city lights. And with the rain, the glimmer dappled his skin in rainbow-colored prisms.
She searched for words to comfort him.
“I believe she’s after the bastards who took Nikki, Payton. And it sounds like she’s got the resources to make good on her promises. But that doesn’t mean we sit around and wait. Seth still has copies. I don’t think she knew I
