Chapter 8
Bailey felt as if she’d swallowed her tongue. Or maybe that was just her heart, which had landed in her throat.
They were coming.
The day had just been one long Mr. Toad’s Wild ride.
Still holding her immobile and silent, Noah flicked his light over the penthouse door and found the keypad. Reaching out, he hit 6-9-6-9.
The door clicked open.
“At least he was consistent,” he murmured, and pulled her inside. “Listen to me,” he instructed over his shoulder as he kept guard at the door. “Hide. Don’t come out until I come for you.”
Through the dark she looked at him making a stand at the front door, shoulders broad, body braced.
He was going to try to protect her.
But he had no idea what he was up against. Hell, she barely knew. She was too exhausted to think. She was cold and tired, and truthfully, just about ready to give up. “No,” she whispered, shaking her head. This wasn’t going to happen. “No way. You can’t do this for me; you have to-”
“Hide, Bailey.”
She grabbed his hand to try to turn him to face her, desperate to make him understand. He had to hide, too. “Noah-”
“And stay hidden.” He shoved something into her hand. His cell phone. “If I don’t come for you in ten minutes, call for help.”
“Where are you-”
The door shut in her face.
“Going. Ohmigod.” If he got hurt, or worse…With a half sob, she whipped around and used the penlight to view the penthouse condo.
She couldn’t see much with the narrow beam of light, but it appeared the place was still overly done in wealth: cool tiles, warm woods, expensive art on the walls, and a ridiculous amount of silk pillows on the overstuffed furniture.
Stay hidden.
Noah wanted her to stay hidden while he, an innocent in all this-never mind that there didn’t seem to be an innocent bone in his very fine body-dealt with her mess.
Hopefully while staying alive, very alive.
Please, Noah. Please stay alive.
She moved down the hallway toward the master suite, which she’d never actually slept in. Alan had never invited her, other than the time she’d toured the place at the inspection phase.
Now she wondered why. Had he stashed his hidden fortune here? If so, she’d know soon enough because Alan enjoyed keeping his safes behind his pieces of art.
It’d amused him to keep his private things in plain view.
The master bedroom was so big she couldn’t span it all within the small beam of light. She took in the artwork on the walls, then began pulling out the pictures to peek behind each.
At least two minutes had gone by. She knew Noah had said to hide, but she had to finish looking.
She moved back down the hallway into the living room and checked beneath the art there as well. Nothing. She went to the front door, put her eye to the peep hole, and saw…
Nothing, just an inky blackness.
A third minute had gone by, possibly a fourth.
Oh, God.
Where was he? The thought of something happening to him because of her made her feel sick.
And where were the people on the elevator? Was it possible they didn’t know what floor she and Noah had gone to?
Or maybe they’d sent up an empty elevator to trick them, and they were taking the stairs, too, in which case Noah had walked right into a trap.
She put her hand to the handle and nearly wrenched open the door, but managed to get a rein on her panic. Running out into the dark hallway wasn’t going to help anyone.
Think.
Alan had spent some time here. He’d probably had meals…
Using the light to find her way into the gaping huge kitchen, she eyed the walls. No pictures. No safe-
Wait. Had she just heard something?
Heart in her throat, she eased open a drawer. And then another, and another, until she found what she’d been looking for-a steak knife. Fisting it, she whirled around, ears straining.
The sound came again, so slight she couldn’t be sure she’d really heard anything. She gripped that knife like a lifeline. There. There it was again, but she couldn’t pinpoint the location. Hide. Trying not to hyperventilate, she hunkered down, her back to a cabinet, trying to make herself as small as possible. Plus she wasn’t sure her legs could support her weight. She clicked off the penlight. Reaching behind her, she opened the cabinet doors. Please don’t let there be spiders in here, she thought, turning to crawl in. It smelled musty, and-
And she nearly jumped right out of her skin when from behind her, fingers wrapped around her ankle, then tugged her back against a hard chest. In one motion, she was unceremoniously relieved of her knife. She braced for a stabbing pain as she opened her mouth to scream, but a hand clamped over it. An arm came around her hips, holding her immobile.
She’d seen all the horror movies, she knew what came next, so she bit his hand.
“Ow, goddamnit!”
Noah.
He hauled her back up against him. “Goddamnit, I told you to hide.”
Adrenaline whipped through her. He’d scared her half to death-a real feat tonight. “I was hiding! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did they get you? Oh, my God, you’re in one piece, right? Where are they-”
Again his fingers covered her mouth. “Momentarily stuck in the elevator. The keyword here being momentarily. Now, can you please stop moving?”
Got it. Don’t move. Not a problem, he had her back to his chest, her butt to his-
Um.
Oh, boy. And now that she knew it was him, she became aware of his hands, one across her front, just above her breasts, the other low on her belly, which she sucked in as she tried not to wonder what he could feel through her sweater. “What part of don’t move didn’t you get?” he asked, tightening his arm, making her realize she was wriggling all over the place.
And that her wriggling had…affected him.
Now neither of them moved. In fact, she barely breathed.
He was hard.
He was hard, and if she turned her head, she could kiss him-
“We’re going to get what you came here for,” he said in her ear, his voice a mere whisper. “Then we’re going to go back down the stairs. Silently.”
How could he concentrate on their situation with an erection pressing into her bottom? She couldn’t. She couldn’t think of anything but what it would be like to go for it, right here in the dark, just two strangers in the night. She had a feeling he could show her all that had been missing from her life, that he could relieve this odd and building pressure within her, or at least try.
“No noise,” he reminded her. Taking the penlight back, he gave the kitchen one quick glance-over. Outside the kitchen window, the night was utterly black. No moon, just a foggy layer that blanketed most of the stars from view. Inside, things felt uncomfortably close and intimate.
Having circled the room, he came close again. She could feel the heat of his body, and given how chilled she felt, she almost wished he’d come in even closer.
