Overkill(61)

Zach brought his anger under control, then said in a quiet voice, “That wouldn’t fix it.”

Bing gaped at him and must have seen in his expression what he was trying to convey, because the older man groaned and dragged his hand down his face. “Oh Jesus. It’s like that?”

“I know. Bad timing.”

“Oh, ya think? You go for years screwing indiscriminately, and you pick now to—”

“Stop there, Bing.” Zach pulled a clean t-shirt from his duffel bag and worked it over his head, then picked up his key card, went over to the door, and opened it. “Go back to your room before you get arrested for indecent exposure. I’ll warn Kate to expect fallout tomorrow.”

They stepped into the hallway. Zach tapped on Kate’s door. She opened it and poked her head out. Seeing the two of them, she said, “What?”

“Are you watching TV?”

“I’ve seen all I want or need to.”

“That’s what you think,” Bing muttered as he went into his room and shut the door.

Kate looked at Zack. “That had an ominous ring to it.”

He walked into the room, backing her up until he was fully inside and the heavy door had swung shut behind him. “Someone on our flight took pictures and videos of us together, then leaked them to the media.”

She deflated. “Oh. He did bring me into it.”

“Not by name.”

“Yet.”

“Yet.” He described what was being broadcast. “There’s nothing there we have to be ashamed of. But we do appear to be, uh… familiar. Holding hands on the armrest and… so forth.”

He made a helpless gesture. “Looking back, I should have booked us on separate flights. Something. If Clarke is the one behind this exposure, we played right into his hands. I’m sorry as hell, Kate.”

“I’m the one who should be apologizing. Less than a week ago, you were living privately and peacefully, which is what you craved. You were doing fine until I came barging into your life.”

She was wearing her red eyeglasses, a long, sloppy t-shirt, and white socks, the toes of which peeked out from beneath baggy pajama bottoms. The outfit was a far cry from her snug-fitting pencil skirt and stilettos. Her remorse made her look like a waif whose puppy had escaped through a gate she’d left unlocked.

In that moment, in spite of the hell raining down on him again, a warm tide of emotion filled his chest and spread down into his belly. It was gratitude and gladness. He was damn glad that she had busted up his private, peaceful life.

Quietly, he said, “I wasn’t doing all that fine, Kate.”

He went to her, took off the red glasses, and set them on the dresser. Then he kissed her lips with tenderness. She made a faint whimpering sound. He eased back and saw in her incredible eyes a yearning that matched his.

He wrapped his arms around her, lifted her off her feet, and carried her over to the bed. He eased her back onto it, pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside, then followed her down, his knee nudging hers apart.

With their legs interlaced, he hovered above her. “Are we gonna do this?”

She nodded and placed her hands on either side of his face. “Yes. But please be careful with me, Zach.”

He lightly ran the backs of his fingers along the slender curve of her collarbone. “I would never hurt you.”

She gave him a wicked grin. “The warning was for you.”

Then she angled herself up and nipped his lower lip with her teeth. Before he had time to laugh, their mouths were fused. She lay back and took him down with her, twining her fingers up through his hair while she lent herself entirely to their kiss.

God, she was good at it, shifting between seductress and supplicant, and expert at both. When they had to pause for breath, their lips remained touching, flirting with feints and parries meant to entice. He touched the tip of his tongue to the bow of her upper lip where she’d licked off the vanilla-flavored foam. “I’ve wanted to do that ever since Wholly Ground.”

She pushed him up to better see him. “What?”

He snuffled. “Nothing. I’m just happy to be here doing this.”

“Me too.”

Again, he dabbed that alluring spot with his tongue before they settled into another long, deep, blood-drugging, mind-blowing, cock-killing kiss. He slid his hand beneath the hem of her t-shirt and settled it on her stomach. When she sighed and made a belly dance move of encouragement, he reached higher to caress her breast.

Her nipple was firm against the center of his palm. He ground it lightly, and as it grew harder, he buried his face in her neck and breathed hotly against silky skin that smelled like dessert.

He left an open-mouthed kiss there before inching down, planting damp kisses through the soft cloth of her t-shirt even as he gathered it up from the hem. By the time he reached her breasts, they were uncovered, beautiful and ripe with arousal. He kissed them in turn, nuzzled, then drew the tip of one into his mouth.

Kate moaned his name and began to move restlessly against him. He continued to play his mouth over her breasts as he pushed his hand into the waistband at the back of her pajamas and splayed it over her ass, that adorable ass that had captured his interest right off. He palmed it to draw her up and over until she was making those evocative, undulating motions against his erection.

He growled swear words initiated by pleasure.