Midnight Kiss (Virgin River #12)(68)

Elise slid beneath the covers and stayed solidly on the left side of the bed, but Noah’s respect for her boundaries ended with underwear, apparently. He turned over, pulled her close, and kissed the top of her head. “Mmm,” he murmured. “You’re even softer now.”

“Shut up,” she snapped.

He chuckled against her hair, but her words worked. He stopped talking. His body lay heavy against hers, making her feel small and feminine. “Noah—” she started, but he shook his head, his lips brushing her temple.

“We’ll talk, Elise. But give me a little while. I’ve been up for two days and I just had a mind-blowing orgasm. My brain isn’t in top form. We’ll be okay for a few hours.”

She should make him leave. She should’ve never let him in. This had been an awful mistake, and letting him sleep in her room would only complicate the issue. But in the end, she spent too much time thinking, and his breath grew even and deep against her. And he smelled so good, and his arm was so warm across her waist.

Elise closed her eyes, then she carefully curled her body so that their skin touched in as many places as possible. He’d never know, and she was too tired to pretend anymore.

CHAPTER FOUR

“MS. WATSON!”

Elise drew a deep breath of spiced air and purred with pleasure. She’d been dreaming of Omaha and snow-swept plains, but now she was so warm. As if she were stretched on the sun-heated sand of a tropical beach. “Mmm,” she sighed. The beach curved around her and eased her into a hill of hot sand.

Somebody rudely pounded on the door that stood next to the coconut palm. But why in the world was there a door standing on the beach?

Her eyes popped open. A chest came into view, dusted with dark hair. She squinted at a flat bronze nipple.

“Ms. Watson?” a muffled voice yelled.

“Holy crap!” she yelped, lunging upright.

Noah’s eyes opened, but they were heavy with sated exhaustion. “Good morning, beautiful.”

“Oh, crap,” she cursed, her gaze sliding toward the door. “Just a second!” she screamed.

“Ma’am,” the voice said from the hallway. “I’m sorry to wake you, but the security team had a small issue and we’re unable to locate Mr. James.”

Her eyes slid back to Noah’s na**d chest. And stomach. And the hair that trailed down muscled abs to disappear beneath his underwear. What the hell had she done?

As she watched, Noah frowned at the door and reached for the phone he’d set on the bedside table. “Dead,” he muttered. “I guess two days is its limit.”

Shaken to the core, Elise jumped from the bed and rushed for the dresser. Where the hell was her phone? “Um… I’ll track him down,” she called, still trying to place the voice. “And, uh…Miller?”

“Yes, ma’am?”

Okay. Good. She still had this under control. She looked at the clock and let out a sigh of relief. It was only six-thirty. “I’ll meet you in the conference room in ten minutes.”

She finally found her cell phone, left on the bathroom counter and emitting an occasional plaintive beep from beneath the towel she’d used to dry her hair. Clutching the phone tightly in her fist, she caught sight of her own crazed eyes in the mirror. She’d gotten drunk, argued with Noah James and then had sex with him against a hotel-room door.

A one-night stand with a man who could barely tolerate her. Things had been tense between them before. Now they’d be…

“Oh, God,” she whispered.

It had seemed like a good idea last night when she’d been tipsy and half-naked. But no…that wasn’t true. It had seemed like a really bad idea, and that had only added to the excitement of being shoved up against a wall and shagged like crazy.

“Oh, God.” Her cheeks burned at the memory. He hadn’t even taken off his shoes.

“Elise?”

She whirled around in time to see him throw the sheets aside and stand up. Oh, God.

He wore gray boxer briefs that left nothing to the imagination. But she didn’t need her imagination, did she? She’d seen it all last night….

“What’s going on with my team?” He ran both hands through his hair and stepped toward her.

“I don’t…I don’t know. It’s…”

“Did they leave you a message?”

“Oh. Probably. Let me…” He was right in front of her now. If she raised her hand, she’d touch his broad, muscled chest. Or that enticing bulge in his underwear. Elise blindly pushed a button on her phone and forced her eyes to the screen.

When he brushed past her, Elise jumped out of the bathroom as fast as she could. Water rushed behind her when he turned on the shower. Her shower.

She’d fallen down the rabbit hole.

The room spun around her.

The toilet flushed and the shower curtain rattled. “What’s going on?” he called past the noise.

Elise shook her head and made herself focus on the phone. “Messages,” she muttered, frowning over the password she’d used for eight years. Finally, she accessed the five messages and listened to them with her eyes clenched shut, one hand pressed to her mouth.

The first message was just a routine check-in. The second was a calm inquiry into whether or not she’d seen Noah James after he’d driven her back to the hotel. The last three were increasingly frantic messages from various team members. No one could find Noah James, and by six in the morning, they’d finally registered that no one could reach Elise either. The security question, it turned out, was rather inconsequential, especially in the face of two missing senior team members.