My First - Jason & Katie (36 page)

But what in God’s name would Riley Sloan be doing here!?

“Riley?” Chelle spoke his name in disbelief. Trying to make some sort of sense of what was going on, she asked, “Is it...what are you...why are you here?”

“Sightseeing.”

“What?” she asked, bewildered.

“Sightseeing,” he repeated.

“In my bedroom?” she murmured, puzzled. She rubbed her eyes, trying to clear her vision to see if he was really here, in the flesh. After all these years. Live and in person – and in a chair that sat only a few feet away from her.

Was it true? Or was he just a smoking hot hallucination?

Probably the latter, she concluded.

She was most likely experiencing the final stages of her complete and total mental melt down.

Well, she thought sanguinely, I can think of worse ways to lose my mind than imagining the sexiest man in the world in my bedroom with me. If I have to go crazy, at least I have company.

Or, at least I'm imagining I do...

The figment of her imagination smiled at her and said, “Jason called me. Katie was worried about you. She's been trying to get a hold of you for a few days. When she wasn’t able to reach you, she wanted to come home early to check on you. But, since I was already in California, they asked if I could stop by and make sure that you were OK.”

Ok, so maybe not a figment of her addled imagination. She didn't imagine that some sexy hallucination she conjured up would sit there talking to her about phone calls and plane schedules.

She said, “I haven’t gotten any calls from her.” She reached over to retrieve her phone from the nightstand but her arms were so heavy that she didn’t quite make it.

“Your phone was dead. It’s charging in the kitchen.”

She tried to get out of bed, fueled by new urgency, saying, “I need to go call her.”

However, it seemed that even new urgency was not enough to overcome physical deficits, and this proved to be much trickier than she had assumed it would be. The blankets she lay in were wrapped around her tightly, and try as she might to free her arms and legs, it felt as though her limbs were filled with lead. She was having a tough time disentangling herself.

Riley stood and stepped towards her. She stopped writhing and just stared. Good LORD that was a mighty fine male specimen moving toward her! Riley was wearing a white v-neck t-shirt that he filled out like one of the models she used to drool over on the Calvin Klein billboards. (Well, to be fair, she'd actually drooled over them because they reminded her of Riley...)

He looked like a Greek God in jeans.

He stood beside her bed, “I already called them last night after I got here, and I let them know that you were OK.”

He picked up a bottle of water that she hadn’t noticed was sitting on the night stand.

“You got here last night?” she asked incredulously as he twisted the cap and handed the bottle to her. She took the proffered bottle and, as she did, her fingers brushed his.

Her body reacted as if she had gotten an electric shock. A zinging sensation raced from the pads of her fingertips where she had felt his hand beneath hers and zoomed all the way up her arm. She shivered.

Trying to cover up her completely out of proportion physical reaction to this innocent touch, she quickly brought the water bottle to her lips and started sipping from it. She had no idea if she had, in fact, been successful in concealing her reaction. Maybe he'd think she'd been...thirsty? It was worth a shot. When she looked up at him, he DID seem to have a small smirk on his lips. But she could have been imagining it.

“Yes, I got here last night. The landlord let me in. I tried to wake you, but you were passed out cold.”

“Where did you sleep?” she asked as she took another small sip of water. She definitely felt a little dehydrated...in addition to all of the other things that she was definitely feeling.

“I didn’t,” he answered matter-of-factly.

Her brow furrowed, “You didn’t sleep?”

He simply shook his head.

“At all?”

He shook his head again.

Chelle knew that she was still a little (OK, maybe a lot) foggy-brained...but that simply didn’t make any sense. She was certain she would be having the same reaction even if she were clear-headed. Why in the world would he not sleep?

Well, she thought dryly, only one way to find out.

“Why didn’t you sleep?”

“I didn’t want you to wake up and be scared that some guy was in the apartment. Plus, I didn’t know how much you had drunk, so I wanted to make sure you were alright.”

“So you just watched me sleep,” she smiled sheepishly before taking another drink of water, “Sorry that must have been boring.”

His voice dropped an octave and there was almost a growl to it as he said softly, “No, it wasn’t.”

She shivered again, this time solely from the baritone vibrations of his voice. Her eyes shot up to meet his. He looked down at her, his gaze intense and…hot. She felt a tightening in her stomach (and a fluttering a little farther south) from just the expression in his eyes alone.

Wow. He had such amazing eyes.

It was almost as if she could lose herself in them, they were deep and always held so much emotion. She had forgotten what looking into them made her feel. It was like when you didn't eat a favorite food for several years. Obviously, you remembered how much you loved it, but the passing of time makes that memory almost academic.

Until, of course, you taste it again. Then, the flavors hitting your taste buds bring all the memories of every time you ever tasted that food flooding back to you at once, all the emotion connected to it, and you truly remember how much you loved it. And you're amazed that you could have ever forgotten.

When
you put a forkful of that long-forgotten favorite food into your mouth again, it was like a mouth orgasm. This was like that. But with eyes. It was an eye orgasm. An eyegasm, if you will.

She felt her breath begin to quicken.

Riley took a step back from the side of the bed and cleared his throat. “Why don’t you take a shower or a bath or whatever and I’ll go make some breakfast.”

He turned and started towards the bedroom door, walking with purpose.

“Umm, I’m not sure there’s anything to make.”

He stopped mid-exit. Without turning back to face her, he said lightly, “Then I’ll go down to the market on the corner. Do you have any requests?”

Riley stood perfectly still and Chelle took a moment to appreciate the view from the back. Man, he looked as good going as he did coming. His back muscles were taut beneath the thin white cotton of his t-shirt, and HOLY MOLY, he had a perfect rear-end. He had the kind of physique that people carved marble statues of.

It really wasn’t fair for one man to be that insanely hot.

“Chelle?” He turned back towards her, and she realized belatedly that she had let the silence go on an uncomfortably long time.

She immediately shot her gaze up to his face, her eyes becoming as big as saucers. Embarrassment cause
d heat to race up her face, coloring her cheeks a deep red, she was sure.

She was pretty certain that he had caught her staring at his backside, but he didn’t make a comment about it.

“Huh?” she asked innocently.

“What sounds good for breakfast?”

The corners of his lips twitched as though he was trying to suppress a smile.

Well, even if she had been caught, at least Riley was too much of a gentleman to call her out on it.

“Oh, right. Umm, yeah. If you could just get me some orange juice and maybe bread for toast that would be good,” she stammered. She wasn’t sure if her stomach could handle much more than that.

“Got it,” he smiled and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him – but not before he favored her with a small wink. She smiled weakly. So, he had seen.

She flopped back on the bed, letting out a loud groan as she covered her face.

“Oh, and Chelle?” she heard him say as the door cracked back open.

She popped back up into a sitting position, and said, “Yes?” in as non-nonchalant a tone as she could manage.

“Take a picture next time,” he said, a light teasing tone playing at the edges of his voice, “It'll last longer.”

RED HOT PRIVATE EYE SERIES

Novella

Coming June 2013

Sneak Peek from Scandalous

As Dominic and Cristal were escorted to their table by a bubbly blond waitress, Dominic tried desperately to get his body under control. Walking around with a hard on in a crowded restaurant was as uncomfortable as it was inappropriate. His valiant efforts paid off. He had just managed to lower the flagpole when they arrived at their designated table.

Cristal slid into the booth, giving him an incredible view of her perfect heart-shaped rear. He closed his eyes
, trying in vain to erase the image from his mind. No luck.

Des
ire quickly returned, flooding through his system like lava in his veins. His fingers itched to touch her, and he tightened his hands into fists. All of his blood was racing to his groin.

Good God, man, you're not some horny teenager, he chided himself. You're a professional. This behavior is ridiculous.

Shaking his head, he took his place in the booth across from Cristal.

This view of her was not any less appealing, he found. Her silky brown hair fell in a perfect wave, a soft curl across her milky smooth shoulder. Her full lips screamed for attention, and they were certainly getting it from him. He wanted to crush her against his chest and press his lips to her luscious, plump ones. He eyed her pouty lower lip and imagined tracing his tongue along it, and then lightly nipping it with his teeth.

“Well, they’re not wasting any time,” Cristal said, excitement lacing her voice. Her body tensed like that of a bird of prey who had a quarry in its sights.

She pulled out her phone and began to nonchalantly pretend to text as she actually snapped photos and took video clips of the woman they had been hired to follow.

“You have a visual?” Dominic asked, all business, and worked to keep his tone neutral. He didn't want it infused with the sexual charge he was currently battling. He didn't want her to realize the power she had over him.

“Affirmative,” Cristal said triumphantly, and placed her phone flat on the table, sliding it over to him.

Dominic glanced down and saw the photo. It showed their mark, seated in a secluded booth and engaged in a full lip lock with her “co-worker.”

“It still blows my mind that people who are messing around go to public places. Sure, it makes our job easier, but come on...The Cheesecake Factory? Why would you risk it?” Cristal shook her head as she pulled her phone back, ready to record any further transgressions for posterity.

“I think sometimes the danger of being caught adds to the heat, the drama. It's usually not about anything more than excitement,” Dominic said. He shook his head. He had always thought that if you needed to go outside your relationship to get your kicks, it was time to find a new relationship. But if people did that...well, then half of his income would disappear, so que sera sera.

The waitress came and took their orders. It was clear during the process that she only had eyes for Dominic – quite literally. She looked at him even while Cristal gave her order, and directed questions about Cristal's salad to Dominic.

Dominic, who was used to such attention just as he assumed Cristal must be used to it from members of the opposite sex, found the whole encounter amusing. He barely gave it a second thought.

What did catch his attention, however, was the sudden stiffening of Cristal's posture.

“Something wrong? Did you lose visual?” he asked crisply, immediately back in the game.

Cristal looked at him coolly, “I still have visual. They're probably playing footsies because the tonsil hockey has subsided.”

“Then what’s with the stiff back and shoulders?”

She raised her eyebrows, haughty, and spoke in an airy tone of voice, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”