Chapter 4
The bell rang at eleven in the evening. Then again at eleven-fifteen and eleven-twenty.
Hiro stacked his hands behind his head, stared up at the ceiling of the small hotel room he’d been given, ignored the summons from the woman he would crawl on hands and knees for, and tried to think of the least erotic things he could imagine.
Intestinal cramping due to polluted groundwater.
The wart on Sobo’s chin, which I used to have to pluck the hairs from.
The time the rope bridge gave out near the Arabian Sea and we almost died.
Actually…the memory of the way Mandy had gripped his wrist, her brown eyes gazing trustingly up at him as she dangled above certain death and he did his absolute best to inch them to safety…
Well, it wasn’t erotic exactly, but it reminded him of why he loved her so much.
Her trust, her sense of adventure. The way she didn’t see him as anyway less because he hadn’t been born into one of Scotland’s ruling families, the way she had. The way she was always optimistic, even when it came to their future.
The future they couldn’t share.
Because, no matter how accepting and generous she was, Amelia was the sister of the Duke of Effinghell and her sister was married to the Duke of Bestinbum. She wasn’t Mandy, she was Lady Amanda. She was somebody.
And Hiro? Hiro was her brother’s bloody butler.
Muttering a curse his grandmother used to hurl at him, he rolled to his side just as the clock struck the half-hour. Unbidden, his gaze darted to the bell.
It hadn’t rung after the third time, and he wasn’t certain how he felt about that.
On the one hand, he was pleased Mandy had given up on needing him, realizing that it would destroy her reputation if it was rumored her male servant went sneaking through the hotel in the dark hours to visit her suite.
On the other hand, that kiss today in the cemetery had only fired his blood, his want. Christ, he needed release, and because he couldn’t have it, his bollocks ached even more.
Life was simpler when they were trekking through the Colorado mountains or sailing down the Danube.
“Fooking hell,” he muttered, pushing the sheets out of the way and sitting up. Perhaps he should take himself in hand. A good frigging would at least help him sleep.
He glanced at the bell again. She was letting him sleep.
The knock on his door startled him so much that he almost yelped. But he was up and moving before his brain registered what he was doing, his hand on the latch before he remembered he was nude.
That at least made him pause. “Who is it?” he called gruffly.
“I am tired of you ignoring me.”
Fook fook fook. Hiro wrenched the door open to see Mandy standing there in the hall, draped in a silk robe, hair down around her shoulders.
“What in the absolute shit are you doing here?” he hissed as he grabbed her wrist and yanked hard.
She was smiling when she fell into the room with more force than necessary, tumbling into his chest and managing to kick the door closed behind her. As she reached up to wrap her arms around his neck, the front of her robe slid open to reveal she was wearing not much of anything beneath it.
Ah. Clearly a planned seduction.
“I see you are ready for me, love,” she teased coquettishly.
And despite his irritation, Hiro’s body responded to her nearness, to her curves. Almost against his will, his arms wrapped around the red silk, pulling her closer, tighter.
“What are you doing here?” he growled again.
Then, because it was obvious what she was doing, he continued, “You could have been seen, Mandy! What in the name of Christ do you think your brother would do if he heard you were sneaking through the back corridors of Edinburgh’s best hotel practically naked? ”
“I am wearing a robe,” she pouted. When he continued to glare, her expression eased to one of exasperation. “Oh, Hiro,” she sighed. “Sometimes I think you care for my brother more than me.”
She couldn’t have surprised him more if she’d slapped him. Hiro reared back, staring down at her in horror. “What? Why would you say that?”
“Because, love…” Her fingers idly played with the hair at the nape of his neck. “Whenever we can steal a moment together, it is as if his specter is here in the room. Glaring at you over my shoulder, and you are terrified of him.”
His gaze flicked between her serious eyes, looking for the truth.
Is that what she thought?
That he was…what? Thinking of her brother when they made love?
To hell with that! Just having her in his arms now, even if it was in this cramped single room, was doing wonders for his distraction. When she inhaled, her breasts pushed against his chest, and between them, his cock jumped at the thought of her tight wetness.
So he managed to rasp, “I haven’t thought of Alistair once when you’re in my arms.”
“Bullshite,” she snapped, sounding remarkably like Hamish. Her sister’s parrot, not the blaggard. “You are afraid of him, or afraid of me.”
“I’m afraid of what will happen to you, if you continue down this path.”
“Down what path?” she challenged, rocking her hips forward, so her pelvis cradled his hardness. “Loving you?”
Groaning in surrender, Hiro lowered his lips to hers, claiming her. Allowing her to claim him.
They fit together perfectly.
It was one of the things he was addicted to, Hiro could admit. The way she matched him perfectly: strength, courage, joy. It was as if they lived to be two halves of the same whole.
She completed him, and this kiss was no exception.
It wasn’t until he was lowering her to the bed that he realized she’d shed her robe along the way. All the better. Fleetingly, he wondered how he was supposed to get her back to her suite without anyone noticing—the corridors of a hotel were never truly empty.
Then she squeezed him in a very sensitive area, and he groaned in satisfaction.
Here and now, they had each other.