The cop started firing questions.
And there went the rest of her morning.
***
“Thanks for taking me home.” Alice stood in front of her door. Her hair had dried. No more water droplets slid down her body, but every few moments, she’d shiver.
He’d already given her his jacket. When he’d gotten her into his rental car, he’d bundled her into the jacket that he’d left inside previously. It swallowed her, covered some of her delectable skin, and, oddly, just made her look sexier.
“I suppose you’ll be wanting this back.” She began to slide off the jacket.
“Keep it.” Okay, he needed to be a whole lot less growly. He cleared his throat. Tried again. “I can get it later.”
“Oh, are we making a date to see each other later?”
He put one hand on the doorframe near her head and deliberately leaned in toward her. “You’re inviting me inside.”
“That sounds like an order. How odd.”
Through clenched teeth, Saint said, “Alice, will you please invite me inside? Because I’ve had one real bitch of a morning that involved some bastard shooting at me and an unfortunate dip in a cold-ass fountain. I need to dry off a bit.” Lie, he was plenty dry. “And we need to talk.” That part was the truth.
Her lips curled in a slightly taunting, but ever-so-sexy smile. “I like it when you beg.”
Fuck, he had not—
“Sure, you can come in.”
Baby, one day soon, I’ll have you begging.
“That way, you can thank me properly.”
She turned away. Unlocked the door. She’d had the key hidden in the tiniest pocket imaginable inside the waist of her shorts. And because he was on edge, because she’d just pushed him, he decided to push back a little.
Two can play this game. “You want me to come inside and fuck you properly? Is that what you said?”
She went very still.
Okay, fine. Shit. Too far. He’d back off. Apologize. He’d—
Alice glanced over her shoulder at him. Her gaze was deep and mysterious. Her tongue slid over her lower lip. “Yes.” Soft. Husky. “I think I’d like that.”
Every muscle in his body jolted. “Don’t tease.” Bitten off.
“I wasn’t.” A pause. “Were you?”
He…
She was heading inside. He followed because there was no force in this world that could have stopped him in that instance. When it came to Alice, no, he wasn’t teasing. But he knew just how dangerous the situation was between them.
“Be sure to shut and lock the door, would you?” Alice called back to him. “The world we live in is so very unsafe.”
He’d already kicked the door shut. Locked it. Now he pressed his shoulders against it so he would not spring at her. “We need to talk.”
“I thought you wanted to fuck. You’re a confusing man.” With her back to him, she grabbed the edge of her sports bra and just did some sort of shimmy with her body as she tugged the tight material over her shoulders and head. Then dropped it. The bra hit the floor. Her back stayed toward him the whole time, so he couldn’t get the view he truly wanted.
Saint choked down his lust. “Why did you save me?” He needed to know before anything else happened.
“Maybe I thought you were worth saving.”
Those words pierced straight through him.
She kicked out of her tennis shoes. Ditched the socks. Shoved her shorts off her hips so they could rustle onto the floor. Alice stepped daintily out of them. “I smell like fountain water, and I’m pretty sure they dump a ton of chlorine into that thing, so I’m going to shower. Join me if you like.”
He could not take his gaze off her ass. “This is a dangerous game.”
“But that’s the only kind of game we both like, isn’t it?”
She never looked back.
He watched her ass sway away from him and just as she turned for the door on her right, he surged after her. He ripped off his shirt as he chased Alice. Kicked away his shoes. Then he rushed into the room after her—Alice’s bedroom. He was in her bedroom. He could smell her in there. That sweet, light, flowery scent. White furniture. That fashionable, chalk white paint. A decadent bed with sturdy posts and high mattresses. A few books on her nightstand. No photos. Jewelry to her right and the thunder of a shower already coming from the left. She’d left the bathroom door open.
Saint could think of a thousand reasons why this was a mistake, and one very real reason why he wasn’t going to walk away.
I have never wanted anyone more. There was something about Alice that called to him. Something that had pulled at him from the very first moment. Something that had awoken within him when he’d first seen her picture. And when he’d met her in real life…
Like to like. Was that what it was? Was he pulled to Alice because he could feel the same darkness in her that he carried? Because with her, he could stop pretending to be so fucking good?
Who am I kidding? I’ve never been the good one. Memphis was the good one. The one who did things right.
Saint…He was the one who liked to hunt in the dark.
His steps were silent as he headed toward the bathroom door. Steam already drifted lightly in the air. Alice stood beneath the spray of the water. He could see her, standing behind the glass door of the shower. She turned toward him slowly. Gave him a fantastic view of the most perfect breasts he’d ever seen. Alice smiled at him…
And the shower door clouded over because of the growing steam, obscuring his sight of her.
Fuck that.
He finished stripping in record time. His fingers curled around the long bar handle for the shower door, and he yanked it open.
“I get it,” Alice murmured as the steam wrapped around him, too. “This changes nothing. When you get proof that I’m an evil murderess, you will still lock me away. It’s the heat of the moment.”
His gaze swept over her. Tight, pert nipples. Curving hips. Sensual legs.
“We’re riding an adrenaline high. We’re not in perfect control. It’s not every day that you survive an attack on your life,” Alice continued in that same, soft voice. “It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just sex.”
He stepped closer to her. Pulled the shower door shut behind him. Saint drank her in, memorized the sight of Alice, even as he shook his head.
“Do I have something wrong?” Her voice took on a careful edge. “I thought I’d covered the basics well for you.”
“You have everything wrong.” He advanced.
She retreated, just a little. Just enough that she was pinned between his body and the shower wall. Water sprayed onto them both.
Her chin lifted. “Then why don’t you explain things to me?”
He’d rather be kissing her. But, sure… “I ride adrenaline highs all the time. They don’t make me want to fuck the nearest woman.”
A laugh sputtered out of her. That elusive, real laugh that he’d discovered he was hungry to hear. “Good to know,” Alice said.
“I don’t think you want to fuck the nearest man, either.” Jealousy twisted in him. Surprisingly sharp and deep. Don’t think of her with someone else. His hand rose and brushed back the wet hair on her cheek.