DONOVAN (Gray Wolf Security, #1)(153)
I pulled her back against me and kissed her temple lightly. “Then I’m honored to be the one to show it to you.”
She turned and ran her hand slowly over my bare chest. I was wearing pants, but no shirt. If not for my pump, I might not have been wearing pants, either. Her hand moved slowly over me, touching me like it was the first time she felt free to touch me. Her fingertips brushed my nipples, her thumb rubbing the edge of my CGM sensor. She ran her hand over my abs, her fingers doing a staccato over my muscles. And she watched her fingers move like it was the most fascinating thing she’d ever seen.
“How did we end up here?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Why did you chose my dad’s private investigation firm?”
I lifted the hair off of her neck and slid my hands over her throat. “I picked him out of a group of four I saw on the internet.”
“Just randomly?”
“Just randomly.”
“We’re here together because some reporter found out something she shouldn’t and some idiot tried to cause a rift between you and your brother.”
“I’ve heard odder stories.”
“I hated you that first night.”
I didn’t know whether I should laugh or be offended. “Why?”
“Because of the way you made me feel when you touched me.”
I didn’t laugh. I groaned.
“It was pretty hot.”
“Do you think it was just because we were strangers? Because we both knew it was just an act?”
“Maybe. Or maybe it was because we’re soul mates.”
She shook her head. “I don’t believe in soul mates.”
“Too bad. I do.” I rubbed her neck again. “Don’t try to analyze everything so much.”
“That’s what I do. I don’t know how to do anything else.”
I lifted her chin and kissed her. “Go put some clothes on. I’m going to show you the Riverwalk, and we’re going to relax. Forget about all this; forget about the emails and the threats and whatever else. Let’s just pretend that we’re a normal couple on a brief vacation on a Tuesday morning. Okay?”
Her smile was back, that smile that had melted my heart from the moment we first met.
“Okay.”
I watched her cross the room, slipping a pair of well-worn jeans from the bag we’d stopped by her place to pick up last night. I liked them, liked the way they looked on her. So much better than the dresses that made her so uncomfortable. It was time I got to know the real Adrienne.
I was looking forward to it.
Chapter 20
Adrienne
“It’s almost peaceful down here.”
Lucien smiled like it was a secret he had known all along. And I guess he probably had.
“Better than hanging out at my office all day, right?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
He cut a corner off of his waffle and offered it to me. “Peaceful and great food, too.”
“Okay, enough patting yourself on the back.”
He just smiled like he’d created this entire place just for me. And that made me smile because I could almost believe he would have if he’d been given the opportunity.
We were sitting in an outdoor café on the Riverwalk, sipping the most incredible cinnamon lattes and eating food I would never indulge in under normal circumstances. But these weren’t normal circumstances, were they? This was me and the guy who made my heart do funny things in my chest whenever he looked at me. I never thought I would find a guy who would make me feel that way. When I was in the Army and my fellow soldiers were greeted at the airport after a deployment by lovers who cried when they jumped into their arms, I thought that was a romance that couldn’t be sustained over the long run. It was great then, after a long absence. But things would be so different in a couple of months or even a year after their departed soldiers were around the house, bored, getting on their nerves.
I could almost imagine Lucien waiting for me in a hangar somewhere, roses in his hand, an anxious expression on his face. I could almost imagine that I had finally found my reason to stay alive and come home in one piece. I could almost imagine that he could be my person back home, my one.
“What?” he asked, a slightly puzzled look coming into his eyes.
“I was just thinking that the Riverwalk is beautiful and all, but I wouldn’t mind seeing the inside of the hotel room again.”
“The hotel room is…”
It took him a second. But then he smiled. “Waiter!” he called, pushing his plate away and reaching for his wallet. I laughed, almost feeling like a carefree teenager for the first time. Ever.
The hotel we were staying in had a lobby that opened onto the Riverwalk. It was crowded—I guess some sort of conference was happening in one of their conference rooms—but we managed to bypass the chaos and make our way to an empty elevator. Lucien pulled me into his arms as the doors began to close, but then someone stuck a hand between the doors and barged his way onboard.
“Sorry,” the guy said, a knowing look in his eyes as he tried not to look too closely at us. But he wasn’t the only one. A woman called out for someone to catch the door as it began to close again. Lucien, the gentleman that he was, pushed the open button on the panel.