Midnight Kiss (19 page)

“No,” he answered. “You have to be strong. And hard. And sharp as a blade.”

“Yeah.” But she didn’t look like a woman who’d won
a debate. Her face tightened with hurt for the briefest moment. Her gaze fell, hiding her thoughts.

“You can’t be soft,” he continued.

She raised her chin and hardened her expression, but her eyes still glinted with sadness. “Good, because I’m not.”

He swept his gaze over her body again. She looked soft as all hell right now. “Sometimes,” he murmured. “Sometimes you are.”

Panic flashed over her face and she put her hand to his chest to shove him. “I’m not!” She proved herself by pushing him hard, but his back was against the doorjamb and he didn’t move an inch. She, on the other hand, leaned into him with the effort.

Instead of sliding out the door, Noah slid his hand beneath her hair. He held her neck still, and he kissed her.

There was no softness for a moment. Elise was still straining, pushing him harder to the wall, mouth tight under his. She made a little noise of shock that was neither pleasure nor horror.

She’d said kissing him was a mistake, but she
had
kissed him, damn it. So he waited out her surprise. He tightened his fingers and stroked his thumb down her neck and brushed his mouth over hers. And he waited.

“Mmm,” she murmured, still not offering a hint of what that sound might mean.

But he’d waited two years, a few more heartbeats shouldn’t matter….

Her fingers ceased pushing and curled into his shirt. Her lips parted and her breath sighed over his mouth, spreading the faintest of pleasures. Noah chased that
pleasure with his own mouth, opening her, tasting her. Her quick intake of breath was no neutral noise this time. The hitch in the sound coincided perfectly with the first touch of his tongue against hers.

Two years he’d waited to slide inside her again, and Noah growled with the satisfaction of it.

Her hand tugged him closer, and Noah let himself be pulled all the way into the room. He slammed the door with his heel and put his hands on Elise Watson.

Despite both their words, she
was
soft. Her neck was soft, and her shoulders, and her back. Her skin felt delicate as butterfly wings, despite the strength of bone and muscle beneath it. For a moment, he meant to be gentle, but then Elise curved her hand to the shape of his skull as she pulled him tighter to her. She wasn’t delicate. She was hard and strong and ruthless, and that strength had been the cornerstone of all his fantasies about her, so Noah shoved the gentleness away and kissed her harder.

Her nails slid down his neck, sending sparks shivering down his spine.

He tipped her head back. She panted as her mouth lifted from his, and Noah’s blood surged in response. He kissed her chin and the tender skin of her neck. “You’re soft here,” he murmured. She shook her head in denial. “And here.” He shaped her shoulder, edging his thumb over her collarbone. Her growl was almost a sigh.

He shouldn’t do this. He’d spent two years avoiding her so he wouldn’t step across this line, but the line had disappeared when she’d curled her fingers into his neck. And she was single, finally, and Noah hadn’t had a girlfriend since that night in Madison.

His mouth slipped lower, sucking at the place where her neck curved into her shoulder, pulling her head farther to the side. She didn’t fight him. She didn’t say no.

When he slid his hand down her chest, her skin rubbed heat into the palm of his hand. He felt her shivering as if it was his own.

“You’re soft for me, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” she moaned, and her moan turned to a little sob when he tugged her towel away.

The sight of her naked body weakened him for a split second, and Elise pulled free. Her hands framed his face and she kissed him again—her mouth was as hungry and desperate as his, like they were fighting to get more from each other. The idea inflamed him. He turned their bodies and eased her back against the door before dropping down to kneel before her.

“Noah,” she gasped, “what…?” Whatever she’d been about to say, she forgot it when he closed his mouth over her nipple.

“Oh,” she sighed. “Yes.”

Noah couldn’t count the number of times he’d imagined a scene like this, and Elise was everything he’d fantasized. One of her hands clutched his head. The other pressed his hand as if to keep him from letting go. Noah ached with want at the way she tried to control him even as he gave her what she wanted. He bit her nipple, gently, then he swirled his tongue around her. Her whole body jerked against him. For a moment, he worried he’d hurt her, but then she moaned and her fingers slid between his. She dragged his hand up, away from her breast, sliding it over the skin of her chest and her neck.

Noah noted this with only the barest attention. He was too busy shaping his other hand to the naked curve of Elise’s hip and considering which of his fantasies to indulge. But before he could decide, she pulled his hand all the way to her mouth and closed her lips around his index finger.

“Oh, God,” he whispered against her nipple. All he could think was that this was
Elise.
Noah had lost his mind.

H
IS FINGER SLID FROM HER MOUTH
. Elise grabbed his wrist to try to keep him where she wanted him. She’d waited a long time to act out her fantasies.

But here was a new fantasy. Noah rising to his feet, face beautiful in its intensity. She felt so vulnerable, standing naked before him. She felt…soft.

She closed her eyes against the vulnerability, and then Noah was kissing her again, his hands roaming over her shoulders and her breasts and her hips. The door pressed cold against her naked back, but Noah was all heat against her front. She couldn’t keep track of his hands. They were everywhere, everywhere…and then her awareness focused on one spot. On one hand. On one pair of fingertips that edged down her stomach with the faintest pressure.

His fingers dragged down, torturing her, and finally they slid over the most sensitive spot on her body. Heat bloomed in a fiery rush over her skin. Her need felt almost violent, it built so quickly inside her. And Noah…Noah was still completely dressed in his suit and tie, while she wore nothing at all. Trembling at the pleasure that raced through her at every circle of his fingertips, Elise reached for him and jerked his shirt
free of his pants. She caught a flash of tanned, flat stomach before she slid her hands beneath the cotton and touched his body for the first time.

He felt strong, his skin stretched like a sheet of pure heat over hard muscles. Those muscles jumped as she explored him. Before long, Elise had tilted her hips toward him and used his belt to pull him closer. She wrapped one leg around his hips and pulled him tight against her. When he pushed her hands away and finished unbuckling his belt, she looked up to his face and shivered.

Noah James looked desperate in his need. He watched her like he’d spent two long years wanting nothing more than this, just as she had. Two years of need did not make for soft wanting on her part. She
needed
him.

His belt opened with a clink. Her heart pounded so wildly she couldn’t hear the zipper, but she watched as he pulled a condom from his pocket and tore it open. She helped him slide it on, frantic to have him inside her. And when he lifted her and braced her against the door, Elise wrapped both legs around his waist and took him deep.

So deep.

It was perfect. Unforgiving and delicious.

She curled her arms around his neck and pressed her face to his shoulder. “Noah,” she whispered. “Noah.” Every breath she drew was filled with the scent of his skin. He filled every corner of her body.

It had only been a few months since she’d had sex, but it felt like she’d been empty for years. Noah’s strokes took on a slow, brutal rhythm.

She was going to come already. Gravity pushed her
hard against him, rubbing her in just the right way. Sweat trickled down his neck, and Elise pressed her open mouth to his skin. He was sweating for
her.

This was a dream. It must be a dream.

She clutched him tighter as her body squeezed him. Noah cursed. She felt his hands shake where they gripped her. “Oh, God,” she whispered into his damp hair. He slid against her one last time and her nerves stretched to the breaking point then snapped.

“No,” she moaned, but it was too late. Her body had betrayed her and all she could do was ride the ruthless waves of her climax.

She sobbed his name and held tight to his shoulders when he came with a strangled groan.

Gradually, the world returned, bringing with it a strange silence. Her heartbeat slowed, and she could hear the sounds of both of them panting, but all the rushing emotion that had taken her over was gone. It was just Noah and her, alone. The door was ice against her back. The frame of the fire-escape plan pressed into her shoulder blade.

Noah’s breathing slowed, but Elise suddenly felt like she might be drowning.

“Oh,” she said softly as she carefully lowered one leg and then the other to stand on her own once again. Before she could start babbling excuses or questions or horrified exclamations, he took a deep breath and said, “Hold on a sec.” He disappeared into the bathroom.

Seconds later, just as it occurred to Elise that she was stark naked, Noah stepped back into the room. One quick zip of his pants, and he was fully dressed again, if a bit rumpled.

Something tingled under her breastbone and spread
out from there. A fizzy mix of mortification and joy and sheer disbelief. Just as she was reaching to cover herself, Noah met her eyes, and the seriousness in his gaze stopped her words.

“We’re both exhausted,” he said, slipping off his suit jacket. “We’ll figure this out later, all right? For now, we need sleep.”

Elise glanced at the clock. It wasn’t even seven, but it felt like two in the morning. For a few long seconds she was frozen by the door. How could they not talk about this now? How could she get into bed with him without knowing what was going on between them?

Panic tried to rise up in her chest, but Noah was pulling his tie free of its knot and toeing off his shoes, and her body felt weak and heavy. Her muscles yearned beneath her skin, swaying her toward the bed. “All right,” she whispered, ignoring the fact that her voice was downright
soft,
and she rushed for her suitcase.

She’d just had sex with Noah James, and the very fact that she wanted to cuddle up naked with him was enough of a reason to pull on panties and an old T-shirt. Sex was one thing. Cozy, sweet cuddling was another. That was an intimacy she could not grant.

When he spied her pajamas, Noah raised an eyebrow that implied she was a coward, but he stripped down to his boxer briefs and stopped there.

Elise slid beneath the covers and stayed solidly on the left side of the bed, but Noah’s respect for her boundaries ended with underwear, apparently. He turned over, pulled her close, and kissed the top of her head. “Mmm,” he murmured. “You’re even softer now.”

“Shut up,” she snapped.

He chuckled against her hair, but her words worked. He
stopped talking. His body lay heavy against hers, making her feel small and feminine. “Noah—” she started, but he shook his head, his lips brushing her temple.

“We’ll talk, Elise. But give me a little while. I’ve been up for two days and I just had a mind-blowing orgasm. My brain isn’t in top form. We’ll be okay for a few hours.”

She should make him leave. She should’ve never let him in. This had been an awful mistake, and letting him sleep in her room would only complicate the issue. But in the end, she spent too much time thinking, and his breath grew even and deep against her. And he smelled so good, and his arm was so warm across her waist.

Elise closed her eyes, then she carefully curled her body so that their skin touched in as many places as possible. He’d never know, and she was too tired to pretend anymore.

“M
S
. W
ATSON
!”

Elise drew a deep breath of spiced air and purred with pleasure. She’d been dreaming of Omaha and snow-swept plains, but now she was so warm. As if she were stretched on the sun-heated sand of a tropical beach. “Mmm,” she sighed. The beach curved around her and eased her into a hill of hot sand.

Somebody rudely pounded on the door that stood next to the coconut palm. But why in the world was there a door standing on the beach?

Her eyes popped open. A chest came into view, dusted with dark hair. She squinted at a flat bronze nipple.

“Ms. Watson?” a muffled voice yelled.

“Holy crap!” she yelped, lunging upright.

Noah’s eyes opened, but they were heavy with sated exhaustion. “Good morning, beautiful.”

“Oh, crap,” she cursed, her gaze sliding toward the door. “Just a second!” she screamed.

“Ma’am,” the voice said from the hallway. “I’m sorry to wake you, but the security team had a small issue and we’re unable to locate Mr. James.”

Her eyes slid back to Noah’s naked chest. And stomach. And the hair that trailed down muscled abs to
disappear beneath his underwear. What the hell had she done?

As she watched, Noah frowned at the door and reached for the phone he’d set on the bedside table. “Dead,” he muttered. “I guess two days is its limit.”

Shaken to the core, Elise jumped from the bed and rushed for the dresser. Where the hell was her phone? “Um… I’ll track him down,” she called, still trying to place the voice. “And, uh…Miller?”

“Yes, ma’am?”

Okay. Good. She still had this under control. She looked at the clock and let out a sigh of relief. It was only six-thirty. “I’ll meet you in the conference room in ten minutes.”

She finally found her cell phone, left on the bathroom counter and emitting an occasional plaintive beep from beneath the towel she’d used to dry her hair. Clutching the phone tightly in her fist, she caught sight of her own crazed eyes in the mirror. She’d gotten drunk, argued with Noah James and then had sex with him against a hotel-room door.

A one-night stand with a man who could barely tolerate her. Things had been tense between them before. Now they’d be…

“Oh, God,” she whispered.

It had seemed like a good idea last night when she’d been tipsy and half-naked. But no…that wasn’t true. It had seemed like a really bad idea, and that had only added to the excitement of being shoved up against a wall and shagged like crazy.

“Oh, God.” Her cheeks burned at the memory. He hadn’t even taken off his
shoes.

“Elise?”

She whirled around in time to see him throw the sheets aside and stand up. Oh,
God.

He wore gray boxer briefs that left nothing to the imagination. But she didn’t need her imagination, did she? She’d seen it all last night….

“What’s going on with my team?” He ran both hands through his hair and stepped toward her.

“I don’t…I don’t know. It’s…”

“Did they leave you a message?”

“Oh. Probably. Let me…” He was right in front of her now. If she raised her hand, she’d touch his broad, muscled chest. Or that enticing bulge in his underwear. Elise blindly pushed a button on her phone and forced her eyes to the screen.

When he brushed past her, Elise jumped out of the bathroom as fast as she could. Water rushed behind her when he turned on the shower.
Her
shower.

She’d fallen down the rabbit hole.

The room spun around her.

The toilet flushed and the shower curtain rattled. “What’s going on?” he called past the noise.

Elise shook her head and made herself focus on the phone. “Messages,” she muttered, frowning over the password she’d used for eight years. Finally, she accessed the five messages and listened to them with her eyes clenched shut, one hand pressed to her mouth.

The first message was just a routine check-in. The second was a calm inquiry into whether or not she’d seen Noah James after he’d driven her back to the hotel. The last three were increasingly frantic messages from various team members. No one could find Noah James, and by six in the morning, they’d finally registered that no one could reach Elise either. The security question,
it turned out, was rather inconsequential, especially in the face of two missing senior team members.

“No, no, no,” she whispered. They’d all figure it out now. Every single one of them.

“Elise!” Noah shouted.

She shook her head frantically, rushing for the bathroom just as the shower cut off. “Shhh! Be quiet! There’s nothing going on. One of the satellite branches lost power for a half hour, that’s all. But now everyone is going to know! You’ve got to—”

“Know what?”

“That we—” Elise snapped her mouth shut and glared. Not an easy accomplishment. Noah had pushed back the curtain, and he casually toweled himself off as he watched her with raised eyebrows.

“You know exactly what I mean. You’ve got to get the hell out of my room. But what are you going to tell them? What will you say?”

His brow snapped down. “I’m going to tell them my phone ran out of power.”

“They went to your room, and you weren’t there. Then they couldn’t find me and… This is a disaster!”

“Elise—”

“Wait! I’ve got it. I know where you were last night. You met up with those flight attendants. It’s perfect!”

Noah stepped out of the shower, his deliberate movements giving him a menacing look. Or maybe it really was a menacing look. “What are you talking about?” he growled.

“Last night,” she said simply. She very carefully kept her eyes on his face. “We were tired and…the tequila. It was a mistake. I’m your supervisor—”

“A mistake.”

Something dangerous glinted in his eyes. Elise swallowed and told herself she was backing out of the bathroom again only because he was stark naked. And damp. And ten inches away. She hid on the other side of the door. “Hurry up!” she hissed.

She needed a shower too, but it would have to wait. Elise faced away from the bathroom as she switched her T-shirt for a bra and clean blouse. When she turned around, she was confronted with Noah standing there, towel around his waist. Stupidly, she reached down to cover the sight of her underwear with her hands.

Noah’s gaze slid down to the shield of her fingers, and when his eyes rose to meet hers again, she read disappointment in the pale blue depths. “Unbelievable.”

“What?”

“You’re doing it to me again. But this time…” He threw a hand toward the bed.

Panic finally exploded in her chest. What had she
done?
No, she hadn’t jumped on him this time, but she’d opened the door with only a towel around her. She’d let him in. He was a man, and she’d presented him with a little free action.

“No one can know, Noah. Please. My job!”

“Sure. I understand. Want me to go out the window?” He snapped his towel off and spun back to the bathroom, leaving Elise with a brief but thorough glimpse of his taut behind. Her knees weakened, but that was probably lack of oxygen. Her lungs were working too hard, too fast. She dressed herself while Noah stomped around, snatching his wrinkled clothes off the floor. She tried to keep from hyperventilating.

“Noah,” she said when he reached for the door. He froze, back tense, neck tight. He waited, and she
realized she didn’t have any idea what she meant to say.
I’m sorry
or
Did you mean it?
or
I’ve wanted that for so long.

She couldn’t manage any of them. In the end, she just said, “Make sure no one’s in the hall.”

His shoulders rose higher, as if he were protecting himself from a blow. He took a deep, quiet breath. And then he left.

She didn’t feel better. She felt worse. The panic swirled inside her chest, more like heartache and sorrow than pure fear.

But this was work. Nothing more or less than that. So Elise brushed her teeth, fixed her hair, and dusted on powder and blush. And then she went back to work, ignoring the ache in her muscles and her heart.

“H
EY, MAN
,” Tex Harrison drawled from behind Noah’s back as he poured himself a coffee in the bank’s break room.

“Yeah?” Noah’s tone wasn’t polite, but he marked it as a great triumph that he hadn’t actually punched anybody in the two hours since he’d gotten out of Elise’s bed.

“I heard you were a naughty boy last night.”

Coffee sloshed over the edge of Noah’s cup, burning the tip of his thumb. He didn’t notice the pain, because he was busy trying to stop the movie playing in his head. Elise, against the door, both legs wrapped around his waist as she tilted her hips to take him deeper… Noah cleared his throat and squeezed the mug tighter. “Excuse me?”

“The flight attendants? Dude, everyone is talking about it. You’re a rock star. Listen, can I go with you
tonight? I don’t mean for some sort of group scene, but surely you can’t handle another night of all three—”

Noah spun around and stalked from the break room. Behind him, Tex muttered, “Jeez, I’d think you’d be in a good mood.”

He did not turn back and throw a roundhouse at Tex’s jaw. He did not slam the door of his temporary office. He didn’t do anything except sit down in the chair, place the coffee slowly on a coaster, and force himself to breathe in and out. In and out. Calmly.

She’d done it again. Made a fool out of him. Apparently Elise Watson’s attraction to him only kicked in after a few drinks. Tequila made him palatable, but the cold light of day reminded her of her real feelings. She didn’t like him.

At least this time he hadn’t broken up with his girlfriend for her.

He breathed. In. And out.

This time, the outcome was bad, but less complicated. They’d had a one-night stand. People did that all the time. He should be happy. It
had
been mind-blowing. Enough said.

Except there were all those unsaid things, wrapping strings around him, pulling so tight they cut. The sweetness of her skin. The heat of her mouth. The way she’d curled into him in the night, a tiny sigh drifting past her lips when he’d stroked her back. There was the sound of his name in her breathless voice, and the strangled scream of her climax. And there was the fact that he’d fallen hard for her a long time ago, long before she’d kissed him in that crappy little bar.

He’d thought Denver would be far enough to free him, finally. He’d been wrong.

“Damn it,” he said softly.

She’d said it was a mistake. Again.

Noah should’ve known better.

Her voice drifted down the hall, and he held tight to his anger so as not to expose any other emotions.

“Flight attendants,” he cursed, hitting the computer mouse too hard. Now he had to put up with the winks and nudges of half the team, as if he were a member of a fraternity instead of an important financial institution.

At least the job was almost over. As soon as he discovered the source of the discrepancies, they could turn the bank over to its new buyer and be on their way. Two days, tops, and he’d be free of Elise Watson. Again.