CHAPTER 13 #4
Something moved under the bunched sheets at his feet. Her gaze snapped to the covered figure. Two tan paws emerged, and Jannie’s ears picked up a very familiar doggie grunt, the kind Rolf always made when he stretched.
Unbelievable; the stinker had slipped out of her room to sneak into Nick’s bed. This was unthinkable in her world. Dogs slept on their own beds, on the floor. At her house, No dogs on the furniture or on the bed was written in stone.
She wondered if Nick didn’t mind Rolf being there or if he didn’t know. Either way, it was about to be addressed.
Tiptoeing forward, she grasped the corner of the sheet and pulled it back.
Rolf froze mid-stretch. He didn’t lift his head but gave Jannie a startled side-eye, with the white prominently showing.
He looked so stunned and panicked that a laugh bubbled up her throat, and she couldn’t hold back a snicker-snort.
“Busted,” she whispered.
She raised her hand to signal him to get off when Nick’s leg suddenly jerked, knocking Rolf to the floor. The dog rolled, then scrambled to his feet and whined, but to her surprise, he didn’t even look at her; he turned his full attention to Nick.
Clucking her tongue, Jannie gained eye contact, faced the door, and pointed. The dog’s answer was a sassy bark.
“Quiet,” she hissed through clenched teeth.
Snapping her fingers, Jannie glared at him. What the hell had gotten into her dog?
“Jannie?”
Her stomach dropped.
Through her peripheral vision, she saw that Nick’s forearm still shielded his eyes. For a moment, she considered bolting, pretending she hadn’t heard him.
“Jannie,” he repeated in a gravelly voice that went straight to her core.
Jannie couldn’t help it; she turned.
And found Nick blinking, his forearm now on his forehead, looking ridiculously hot with that ripped bare chest and sleepy eyes.
He sat up, dragging a hand over his face.
She licked her lips. Lord, but he looked sexy with bedhead. She did her best to keep her gaze off his erection. “Um … hi.”
He blinked. “What is it?”
It’s hard.
Her heart started beating erratically. Forget breathing normally. She shifted from one foot to the other.
“I was looking …” She cleared her throat. “I couldn’t find Rolf.”
Nick frowned in evident confusion. “He’s right there.”
“Now he is. I guess you didn’t know he was in your bed.”
“I did. It’s fine. He’s no trouble. Are you, buddy?” Nick smiled at Rolf, who gazed at him adoringly. “You could have left him here. I wouldn’t have minded.”
“I do mind. He isn’t allowed in bed.”
The tent was even taller now.
Nick cleared his throat.
Shit. He’d caught her looking.
She tore her gaze away and focused on his intense, dark eyes, now fully alert and glinting with amusement.
“Anything else you need?” he asked.
You, deep inside me.
His expression changed then, no longer amused.
No, those eyes were filled with something else now. “Let me rephrase that. Is there anything else you want that I can give you?” His voice was thick.
She couldn’t have answered if she tried.
He made a sound low in his throat.
And then, the sheet began to move aside.
Suddenly, she couldn’t get her lungs to work.
Oh God.
Slowly, slowly, the sheet dragged to the side, and Jannie realized Nick had grasped a fistful of fabric and was pulling it off his lower body.
He smirked. “Keep looking.”
His invitation triggered a strong pulse and a tingling, throbbing ache inside her that intensified with every passing second.
His gravelly voice, his beautiful body … She should leave, but she couldn’t seem to move or look away. His left leg came into view, and she shuddered at the sight of his thick thigh, catching half of her lower lip between her teeth.
“Tell me to stop,” he said.
God help her, she couldn’t.
The sheet was now perilously close to exposing him. Watching in crazed anticipation, she swore she felt her pupils dilate. This 3:00 a.m. version of Nick was so different from the daytime gentleman pilot, but it was just as hot—no, a million times hotter.
She should go.
She didn’t move.
To her relief and sudden disappointment, he stopped pulling, leaving the fabric right at the juncture of his thigh. “Do you want me, Jannie?”
God, yes. So badly.
He must have read the truth in her expression because he nodded. “When are you going to finally take what you want?”
She stared at him. Sitting there, partially covered, he was the very picture of masculine temptation. She didn’t think it was possible for what the sheet concealed to grow longer, but it did.
Her mouth actually watered. She swallowed.
His fiery eyes taunted her. His hand fisted over the sheet beside his concealed erection.
Was he going to grip himself? Why was she dying to see him do that?
He held her gaze, and she trembled at the sight of nighttime Nick and the magnetic force emanating from him, flowing directly into her.
A bead of moisture appeared on the fabric.
Her eyes nearly rolled back in her head.
“What’s stopping you?”
Two steps. Just two steps, and she could be on that mattress straddling him. Learning every inch of his beautiful, powerful body. Bending over him, kissing him senseless, pinning his wrists in place on either side of his head.
She wanted …
He spread his arms and turned his palms up. “Whatever you want, Jannie,” he urged in a low voice.
She couldn’t take what she wanted. Couldn’t risk ruining everything if her desires didn’t align with his.
Her hands clenched into fists. “I want to get my dog and get some sleep.”
She couldn’t look at his face. Didn’t want to see his reaction.
“Good night, Nick.” Summoning all her will, she snapped her fingers and pointed. Rolf immediately trotted out, and Jannie followed, closing the door firmly behind her.