Actual Stop (Agent O’Connor #1)(43)

“What?” Allison wanted to know.

“Nothing. Just ready for bed.”

“Well, the books are done. Jamie and Robert should be stopping by here to pick up the surveys for their respective sites any minute. Don has his already?”

“Yeah, he picked them up when you went downstairs to grab dinner. He has the earliest report time, so he wanted to try to get some sleep.”

“I’m going to run to the bathroom real quick. That way we can get out of here the second they’re gone.”

I nodded absently. “Sure.”

My mind was reeling as I pushed thoughts of Lucia from it for what had to be the hundredth time that day and again ran through the long list of issues I needed to be concerned about for the next fifteen hours. I yawned as I bundled the surveys into piles by their respective sites and read over my notes once more. I always had the lingering feeling I was forgetting something whenever I did an advance. As a result, I had a probably annoying habit of going over my paperwork repeatedly, scouring my notes as I both dreaded and hoped something would jump out at me as a glaring omission.

I was incredibly focused on my task, which was perhaps why I didn’t realize Allison had returned until I felt her cold, wet fingers lift the curtain of my hair and stroke the skin just above my shirt collar.

Startled, I whipped my head around and winced as an electric zing shot up the right side of my neck. Allison was standing almost directly behind me wearing a strange half smile. Her hair was free and tumbling down over her shoulders. Her expression stopped me cold.

“Feel better?” I somehow managed to utter after what felt like an eternity of staring at her.

Allison nodded and took a step closer, which forced me to turn a little more in my chair to maintain eye contact with her. Her smile widened, and she placed her hands on my shoulders, gently turning me so I was once again facing my desk. My eyes fell on the notes I’d been rereading, but I didn’t actually see them. I was too distracted by Allison’s touch, which’d caused my insides to turn somersaults and goose bumps to break out all over my body.

“You just hurt your neck, didn’t you?” Allison asked me. Her voice was low and had a surprisingly borderline-intimate tone that made my head spin with a mixture of desire and confusion. When her strong fingers began gently kneading the area in question, I had to force myself not to whimper.

Instead, I settled on a slight shrug. “It’s fine.” I might’ve felt a twinge in my neck just now, but the feelings she was currently invoking in me completely overshadowed that discomfort. Completely.

Allison hummed and continued running the pads of her thumbs up and down the column of my neck. She was standing as close to me as she could get, her hips pressed against the back of the chair in which I sat.

I let slip a small sigh of contentment, and my eyes fluttered closed as Allison broadened her explorations to include my shoulders. It was a strange experience, having one form of tension being coaxed from me while becoming slave to another. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, so I attempted to think nothing at all. Want to guess how well that worked?

“How’s it coming?” Allison leaned closer, and I could feel the barest brush of her breasts against the back of my head.

I held my breath for a moment as her words slowly penetrated the fog enveloping my brain. Coming? Almost. Wait, what? Oh. She was talking about the surveys. Right. Work. I chastised myself for being so easily distracted, but my efforts were halfhearted. “Uh…Good. I’m done. See?” I held a packet of surveys up where she could see it.

“Good,” Allison murmured, allowing her hands to slip from my shoulders and trail over my upper chest, not quite far enough to be touching my breasts, but close enough that my nipples had contracted almost painfully, and I was definitely having trouble breathing.

My pulse stuttered, and my mouth went dry. Some small part of me screamed at myself to break the spell. Through my stupor I kept trying to remind myself that just because I clearly—and unfortunately—still had feelings for Allison, she didn’t have any for me. Her rubbing my shoulders meant absolutely nothing. I’d hurt my neck. Her offer to help was no cause to get carried away on the fleeting wings of hope. What I’d thought I’d heard in her tone was no doubt wishful thinking, and looking for hidden meaning in any of this was not only counterproductive and bound to end up with me getting hurt, but also just plain stupid.

After an internal struggle, I cleared my throat to speak, but what I’d planned to say would forever remain a mystery because a voice called my name.

“Ryan?”

“Huh?” I snapped my head up and looked at Allison, who was staring at me with a confused, worried expression.

“Are you okay?”

I frowned. She was standing a good two arms’ lengths away from me. How the hell had she gotten all the way over there? Holy shit, had I just fallen asleep? Had I just dreamed that entire thing? Oh, my God! Had I said anything? I groaned and dropped my head into my hands, thoroughly mortified.

I could see through my eyelashes that Allison was still watching me carefully, her expression pensive. She took a step closer, and I tensed. If there were ever a time to wish the earth would literally open up and swallow me, now would be it.

“Allison? Where are you?” a familiar voice called. Even through my considerable embarrassment, I couldn’t suppress my grin as I recognized those tones. The woman always did have impeccable timing. I’d have to remember to reward her for that.