For this particular man.
Borne on his arm and the swirling water, Arabella stared blindly up at the skylike ceiling and slid her hands through his wet hair. Feeling him dip and taste, dip and kiss, dip and delight.
Her legs tangled with his and her ponytail swirled around them and she hovered there in a suspension of pleasure, oblivious to everything except him.
I think you should know that...
He jerked his head up suddenly and swore. With a splash, his hand grabbed hers and her feet hit the bottom of the pool.
“Wha—”
“Someone’s out there,” he said under his breath. He was practically propelling her right out of the hot tub and she stubbed her toe on the step as she gained her footing and yanked at her top.
In one fell swoop, he grabbed up his shirt and her towel and their shoes while she snatched the strap of her book bag, upending the lightweight chair in the process. The racket it made echoed against the travertine and Jay didn’t even stop at the control panel to kill the hot tub jets. Their feet slapped wetly on first tile, then soundlessly on carpet as he pulled her around a corner and into an alcove next to a large metal ice machine.
“Who was it?”
“Sshh.” He cupped her head against his chest and edged deeper into the alcove. There wasn’t a lot of space for their bodies and it was so dark she couldn’t see. Only a slight gleam of light reflected over the stainless steel of the ice machine.
Adrenaline rushing through her veins, she slid her arms around him and huddled close despite the bundle of shirt and towel caught between them. His heart beat as fast as hers. She knew because she could feel it pulsing against her cheek. When his hand drifted upward and grazed her bare breast, desire cramped hard inside her. Until she realized he was just pulling up the straps of her halter to tie it behind her neck once more.
She pressed her forehead against him and suddenly wanted to laugh. And not being able to do so exacerbated the need to.
When the ice machine suddenly vibrated loudly and belched out a fresh batch of cubes somewhere in its metal innards, a muffled snort escaped, despite her best efforts to contain it.
She felt his chest rumble with silent laughter, too. His head dipped and his lips brushed her ear. “Sshh.”
She clung to him even more tightly, plastering her mouth against the bulge of his biceps. His rumbling silent laughter increased and he twisted slightly, picking her up at the waist and pressing her back against the narrow wall behind her. “Sshh,” he murmured again and then kissed her.
She forgot about laughing, then.
She twined her arms more tightly around his shoulders and her calf knocked into the ice machine as she mindlessly wrapped her legs around his hips.
His weight against her was heady. The rub of his tongue against hers delicious. When his head lifted too soon, she slid her fingers into his hair and pulled his head back. “Don’t go,” she said against his mouth.
He let out a sound, equally muffled. Half exultant. Half frustrated.
All perfect to her ears.
He dragged his mouth from hers, running it along her cheek. “It’s the cleaning crew,” he whispered. “Hear the vacuum?”
She hadn’t. Not above her pounding pulse and the ice maker and the rush of music inside her head whenever his mouth touched her.
“Stay here.” He disentangled himself from her. “There’s a security camera in the hall around that corner. So stay here.” He edged out from their hiding hole.
If there was a camera, why was he leaving?
She didn’t have a chance to voice the question, because he was already gone.
She exhaled deeply and unwound her book bag strap from her forearm where it had twisted around without her notice. She slid it over her head crosswise then stuffed his shirt inside. She was cautiously feeling around the floor with her foot for the towel that she’d dropped when he returned.
He grabbed her arm. “We’ve got to be fast.” He pulled her back around the way they’d come, then he pushed her head down while they dashed—bent nearly in half—through the weight-lifting section of the fitness center. The lights were all turned on now, clearly illuminating them if they were noticed. His route made little sense to her, but there was no time to argue. Not with the way he dragged her along after him.
On the other side of the room, one person was using the big vacuum, another was polishing surfaces and a third wielded some sort of wand that emitted a fine cloud over the workout equipment.
None of them so much as glanced their way, not even when Jay pushed open the same one-way door they’d used to enter.
They slipped through, and he held on to the edge of the door with his fingertips, gingerly letting it close with a soft snick.
As soon as it was closed, Arabella dropped her bag on the ground and started laughing. “I can’t believe they didn’t see us!”
Jay’s laughter was deep and rich, too. His hand curled around the back of her neck and he pressed a fast kiss to her lips. “So much for a therapeutic soak.” He grabbed her hand. “The pool’s free game, though. What do you say?”
“I dropped my towel. And you don’t even have one.”
In answer, he grabbed the strap of her bag and pulled her around the side of the hotel to where the pool was located. “Good grief,” he said as he hefted the bag. “What’re you carrying in here?”
“Notebooks.”
“Full of what?” He curled his arm as if he was weightlifting. “Feels like you’re carting around a couple of my grandmother’s
