Hearts in Darkness (7 page)

Finally, she was able to open her eyes all the way. Her shoulders relaxed against Caden's broad chest. And then she realized.

Holy shit! I'm half naked. With a complete stranger. Who currently has his hand up my skirt!

A stranger I've never seen.

Who's never seen me!

What if he thinks I'm a troll? A
plain
troll. Or homely—God, I've always hated that word. Homely. Homely. What kind of word is that to describe a person anyway? Oh God, I'm insane.

The near miss of her orgasm didn't help either. Her body felt strung tight and like fluttery Jell-O all at the same time.

"I guess the power's back to stay this time,” Caden said in her ear with a husky, strained voice.

"Um, yeah.” Makenna rolled her eyes at her conversational brilliance, certain she was in the process of losing whatever mystique she'd had with the lights out.

Still resting her head on his shoulder, Makenna looked down between them and gaped. Caden's shirt was pushed up around his ribs and all down the left side of his toned stomach lay a swirling abstract tattoo that wrapped around to his back. It was stunning against his skin, which wasn't nearly as fair as her own. Before she really thought about it, her finger traced a curve of the black design. His stomach clenched, and he sucked in a breath at the touch. She smiled.

All at once, she
had
to see the rest of him.

Slowly, she lifted her head and sat back on his lap, keeping her eyes on his stomach all the while. She worried about what he might look like, then hated herself for even thinking about something so shallow. She finally resolved to set those worries aside. Makenna admired so much of what she knew of Caden already, there was no way she wouldn't perceive his internal beauty in his physical appearance, whatever it was.

She fought the instinctive desire to cover herself, to pull the two sides of the gaping silk closed, but she didn't want to hurt his feelings. She didn't want to close herself off to him after all they'd shared.

Her skin tingled all over, as if she could feel the path his eyes blazed as they moved across her body. Finally, she took a deep breath and trailed her eyes up from his stomach, over his tight-fitting, threadbare black T-shirt, across the hard angles of the strong jaw she'd nibbled, to his face.

She couldn't stop trembling, her body unexpectedly flooded with adrenaline as she drank Caden in through her final sense.

He was...
Oh my God!
...so damn rugged and...masculine...and just...darkly beautiful.

The enticing angle of his jaw combined with full lips and high cheekbones and a strong brow framing intense brown eyes with impossibly long, full eyelashes. His shaved dark brown hair came to a widow's peak in the center of his forehead. Two small silver loops embraced the left side of his bottom lip. The piercing on his right eyebrow was black metal and shaped like a barbell.

He had a face that, with a certain set of his jaw and eyes, could easily appear harsh, intimidating. But she knew he was neither.

With a shaky breath and a hard swallow, Makenna got up the nerve to meet his eyes. He was watching her look him over, his eyes guarded. Not cold, but not warm either. Despite the intimate way they were still touching, Caden's shoulders bunched with tension, and the muscle in his jaw ticked. She got the distinct impression he was bracing himself for rejection.

She'd just been sitting there gawking without saying a word. Hating the idea he might interpret her silence the wrong way, she blurted out, “You're freaking gorgeous!” Her eyes bugged at her unfiltered honesty. She slapped a hand over her mouth and shook her head in embarrassment. She wished the lights would go off again as the blush roared over her skin.

He smiled. And it changed his whole face.

His eyes came to life, sparkling with amusement and happiness. Deep dimples creased his cheeks, bringing out a boyishness not otherwise apparent in his strong masculine features. He quirked an eyebrow at her as his smile shifted to a smirk so playful and sexy it curled her toes against the outside of his thighs.

She dropped her hands from covering her mouth and rested them against the firmness of his stomach. His playfulness brought out hers and, when she felt his hand twitch where it was wedged under her, she groaned and flew at him.

Caden's emotions were so all over the map he couldn't even catalog them. Panic had unleashed a torrent of adrenaline through his system when the lights flashed on. It was soon clear they were on to stay and, as the panic subsided—thanks once again to the calming balm of Makenna's soothing touch and grounding scent, frustration at the god-awful timing of the power's return made Caden grind his teeth as he attempted to acclimate his eyes to the brightness.

The position of his head in the soft curve of her neck allowed him to drink in Makenna's sexy nakedness. And she was...all peaches and cream skin and pert rosy nipples and feminine curves. A milky way of muted freckles ran across the top of her right breast and Caden swallowed against his desire to taste that decorated patch of skin with a long lave of his tongue. The creamy paleness of her thighs highlighted the tan on his dragoned arm where it was still wedged between them, his hand disappearing under the hem of her pulled-up skirt. Even from outside the silky fabric of her panties, Caden could feel the warm wetness of her arousal. His hand absolutely throbbed to resume its movements. He hoped like hell she'd give him the chance.

Caden was so lost in his pleasure at seeing her body he didn't at first realize she was pulling away until his headrest disappeared. He sucked in a breath and girded himself. His mind raced with worry over what she'd think of him. Makenna was a professional, educated, highly intelligent woman. Where she was well adjusted, he was anxious and withdrawn. She looked classy in her gray suit with its little white pinstripes, while he didn't even own a suit and rarely wore anything but jeans except when he worked. Her skin was pure and unblemished, while his was inked, pierced, scarred. Caden wore his past on his body; in fact, he'd used the pain of the tattoo and piercing guns to work through his survivor's guilt. He cringed and clenched his jaw as he wondered what her cop brother would think if they ever met.

Caden cut his eyes from her abdomen to her face as she sat back. Unconsciously, he raised his knees to give her better support as she still straddled him. He watched her face and eyes carefully, looking for any clue, but he couldn't decipher her expression.

And Makenna...Makenna was so very pretty. The hair he already loved was a rich medium red that fell in a mass of loose curls over her shoulders. The way it was parted created a wavy cascade across her forehead and over the edge of her right eye. Her cheeks still bore a flush from their earlier activity, but her skin was otherwise pale and smooth like porcelain, which made her pouty pink lips stand out in contrast. He didn't think she had on any makeup, nor did she need it.

The longer she looked him over without saying anything, the more Caden tensed. His neck and shoulders stiffened as he forced his muscles to stay still under her intense gaze. He could imagine her mentally compiling all of his oddities: “Huge tribal tattoo covering half his abdomen, big dragon down the arm still trapped between my thighs, multiple facial piercings, big ugly scar on the side of his shaved head...” And that wasn't even all of it.
Great
, he could almost hear her thinking,
what the hell have I been kissing in here?

He trapped the side of his tongue between his molars and bit down, using the pain to distract himself from his worries. If she didn't say something soon...

His jaw dropped open when her eyes finally settled on his. For being pale blue, they weren't the slightest bit cool, but instead exuded the same warmth he already associated with her personality. The weight of her gaze pinned him, as if time was halting and he was balancing precariously on the edge of a cliff, waiting to see whether he'd fall off or be caught by her acceptance.

When her words finally came, Caden couldn't interpret them at first, so different were they from the awkward polite rejection he was expecting.

Gorgeous.
Freaking
gorgeous. Hardly. But, Christ, I'll fucking take it.

Her embarrassment at her outburst released all Caden's tension. He smiled at her until she threw herself at him and literally kissed the silly grin right off his face.

He caught her in an embrace and wrapped his strong arms around her slender shoulders and held her against him. Their kisses went from urgent and needy to deep and languid. She pulled away to breathe, but he couldn't resist pressing his lips to hers for a few more chaste kisses.

She sat back from him and looked down. She fidgeted with her hands, which finally worked their way to the scalloped hem of her pink silk blouse and pulled the edges together across her chest.

Caden cocked his head to one side to figure out what her movements meant. He frowned when she crossed her arms as if to hug herself and worried at her bottom lip with her teeth. “Hey, Mak—"

Out of nowhere, the elevator began moving downward. Makenna gasped. A flashing light caught Caden's eye. The round L was blinking on the bank of call buttons. He figured the elevator was resetting itself by returning to the ground floor, which a more modern elevator would've done when the power first went out.

He squeezed Makenna's biceps. “I'm guessing we're gonna have some company when these doors open,” he said, glancing down at her disheveled clothing.

"Oh, yeah, right,” Makenna mumbled. She braced herself on his shoulders as she stood. He helped her up. Their movements together turned awkward and clumsy and...just...felt all wrong. He frowned and rubbed his hand over his scar when she moved back to “her side” of the elevator and faced the far wall to put herself back together.

When the elevator came to a hard stop, Makenna glanced nervously at the doors as she smoothed over her hair with her hands, then leaned down to pick up her suit jacket.

Thump. Thump.

Makenna squeaked at the unexpected pounding, her hands flying to her chest. She stumbled a little where she'd been trying to step into one of her heels.

Suspecting, Caden started to say, “It's likely just—"

"Arlington County EMS,” came a muffled voice. “Anybody in there?"

Caden answered with two pounds of his fist against the still-sealed crease between the doors. “There are two of us,” he said as he leaned toward the door.

"Just stay calm, sir. We'll have you out of there in a minute."

"Roger that."

Caden looked to Makenna, worried about the noticeable silence that had come between them in the past minutes.

She stretched a hand forward hesitantly. “Um, sorry, you're...” She pointed at his feet.

Caden glanced down and saw he was standing on the strap of one of her bags. “Oh, shit, I'm sorry.” He stepped back and leaned down to retrieve it for her at the same time she did.

They knocked heads. “Ow,” they both groaned.

As they reeled back from each other, the doors inched apart. An audience of curious onlookers peered in as Makenna and Caden stood there holding their heads and looking awkward and relieved and embarrassed all at the same time.

Makenna felt like a complete idiot, not just for bumping into Caden, but also because the burning tightness behind her eyes told her tears were about to well up.

She thought she knew what his bright smile and sexy smirk and those yummy kisses had meant. But then he gave her those chaste little pecks that tasted like good-bye and didn't say anything. She'd told him he was gorgeous—
freaking gorgeous, thank you very much, and he was...is, so, yeah, there's that
—and he hadn't said...anything.

She just knew he'd be disappointed in her appearance. Caden was interesting and edgy and a little dark, and oozed a wounded sexiness that made you just want to make his world all better. Makenna could only imagine how conservative, how boring, how
plain
she must look to him. For God's sake, she wasn't even wearing any makeup today. Well, she had been wearing lip gloss, but that had obviously come off a while ago...

She took a deep breath as she slipped her toe-pinching heels on. The doors finally eased open. The rush of cooler air felt fantastic against her overheated skin.

"M.J., are you okay?” Raymond asked, his kind, aging face full of concern.

She slung her bags over her shoulder as she mustered a smile for the building's evening lobby receptionist/guard. “Yep. Still in one piece, Raymond. Thank you."

"Well, that's good, good. Come on out of there already.” He reached a wrinkled brown hand out as if she might need his assistance to walk.

Three firemen stood behind Raymond. Their laughter startled Makenna. She frowned at them, wondering what the hell they could possibly find funny about two people being trapped in an elevator for hours on end.

"Grayson!” One of them cackled behind his hand. “Don't worry, man, we're here to save you.” The other firemen guffawed.

Makenna glanced over her shoulder in time to see the scowl on Caden's face.

"Laugh it up, Kowalski. You're a goddamned comedian.” Caden clasped hands with the guy teasing him. They nudged shoulders in that guy-greeting kind of way.

Raymond led Makenna away from Caden and his fireman friends and chattered on and on about an electrical transformer failing and something about a secondary underground cable and... Makenna didn't really know what he was talking about because she was trying to listen to Caden's conversation.

One of the firemen broke away from giving Caden a hard time and walked over to her. “Are you all right, ma'am? Do you need anything?"

Makenna worked at a faint smile. “No, I'm fine. Just hot and tired. Thank you."

"Have you had anything to drink since you were in there?"

His question made Makenna's throat tighten. She
was
thirsty, now that he mentioned it. She nodded. “I had a bottle of water."

"Okay. That's good.” He turned to Raymond. “All right, Mr. Jackson. We're all clear, then.” The two men shook hands. “The fire marshal will be by in the morning about these elevators."