Dead After Dark (Companion #6.5)(90)
Trey would love to know why she wanted to find Ekkbar.
“I just want to ask him a few questions.” Unless the cursed Hindu got near Sasha, at which time Trey would dispense the bastard into a million pieces. “We’ve got to behave naturally and not look like undercover agents,” he pointed out as they reached a stadium on his right where he’d played a few football games. He stepped into Piedmont Park, guiding them to the concrete route that wound throughout the park he and Sasha used to jog along.
His conscious questioned the real motive for bringing Sasha here.
Okay, so he wanted to spend a little time with her tonight. Where was the harm in talking? He’d missed that as much as everything else about her.
“I wish it was summer,” Sasha mused, drawing Trey from his thoughts.
He smiled as they reached the bridge where she always admired thick clusters of yellow flowers during the summer. A middle-aged man in a newsboy cap yanked his beagle’s leash to keep the dog out of a bed of pansies. Trey kept an eye on their surroundings, though few people were out this close to midnight.
“Haven’t been here in a while,” she murmured after they crossed the bridge and neared the stone and brick overpass decorated with ceramic tiles and halfhearted graffiti attempts. Had he unconsciously routed them to where he stole his first kiss from Sasha?
Maybe.
Probably. But that didn’t give him license to do so again.
So stop thinking about how hot she looks in leather and lace. He grabbed at a new topic. “How’s your family?”
“Same dysfunctional group you knew, except now I don’t have to deal with them on a daily basis. Rowan lives with me.”
“I’ll have to say hello when I take you home.”
Sasha caught herself before shouting no at Trey. She could just imagine Rowan flying at his throat, trying to kill him. “She’s a little under the weather right now.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
Her eyes inadvertently shifted to his mouth. The same mouth that could be hard one minute and soft the next. Trey was making her nuts. How could he be so indifferent to her after she’d pulled out all the stops to dress for him? Couldn’t he pay a little attention and flirt? Her ego could use the boost. He was all business. She would be too if she could stop thinking about how she had only one night with Trey and wanted to enjoy some of it. Was that too much to ask?
One night because of Ekkbar. That slimy worm must have seen her with Trey last night and was playing with her. He was better socialized than she’d expected.
Trey stopped near the crossing beneath the old Park Drive Bridge overpass. The same spot where they’d shared a first kiss. Every intelligent brain cell she had said to turn around and walk away, far away from Trey.
But all the nerves in her body were doing a great job of convincing her she could weather a kiss without losing her heart again. She was an adult this time, one who should be capable of convincing a man to kiss her—or more—then go on with her life.
She wouldn’t mind a rousing night of “or more,” but the chances of that were probably as good as convincing him to stay after the end of this week. Trey seemed to be reconnoitering the area, not paying her any attention. She could fix that.
Sasha stretched her arms above her head and took a deep, deep breath, turning so her top shimmered in the ambient light. She wiggled her leather-sheathed bottom.
Trey’s eyes whipped to hers. His gaze rippled with heat as it trailed every curve below her neck.
So he wasn’t as indifferent as he acted. Good start. When he sliced a suspicious glance back at her face, she offered her innocent expression and grimaced as if the move caused pain.
“Are you okay?” His brows cinched together.
“I’ve got a kink, down low,” she said, then drew another breath and exhaled, twisting to arch her back. “Could you . . . rub it?”
His Adam’s apple floated up and down with a swallow. “Rub what?”
Sasha should feel guilty and not encouraged. “My back. I sit at the computer too long every day.” She turned around.
Nothing happened at first. She remained with her back to him, unwilling to quit now. He grasped her gently at the waist with both hands and started working his thumbs slowly up each side of her spine. His touch sent streaks of heat across her sensitive skin. She wanted to moan over the incredible feel of his hands, wanted more than that. When his fingers reached her shoulders, she turned, her chest a breath from his.
“My brother used to hug me and crack my back. Think you could do that?” She poured on the innocence and held a straight face. Tough act to pull off when she wanted his hands between her legs.
Trey wrapped her in a hug that sent her thoughts tumbling back to when she’d turned to him for escape from a family plagued with problems, for comfort and . . . for love. He slowly lifted her up against him. When her hip met his, she felt solid proof he was still just as affected by touching her as she was by his hands.
Oh yes, very affected.
He groaned into her hair. Hot breath raked her skin.
She folded her arms around his neck and kissed his throat, then ran her tongue along the bottom edge of his ear.
He shuddered and turned his face to hers, pausing for a fleeting second before his mouth captured her waiting lips, the kiss powerful and filled with longing that melted her heart.
No one else had ever made her feel anything close to this cared for in all these years. She’d grown out of her tomboy looks in her mid twenties, but Trey had always found her attractive. Where other women had been intimidated by his stature, she’d enjoyed a male that made her feel feminine.