CHAPTER 19
Jannie
Oh, hell, no.
Even from a distance, Jannie’s stomach twisted. The dangerous metal beast was parked on a helipad suspended between the Mile High building and its adjacent sister structure.
Ugh.
If this was Nick’s surprise, she wanted no part of it. Her brother Adam said that helicopters were bags of bolts with too many rivets and too many moving parts, and she wholeheartedly agreed.
She halted, raising her chin and crossing her arms. “I’m not getting in that thing. Nothing you say can convince me to—”
“Neither am I.”
“You’re not?”
“Absolutely not.”
Jannie’s shoulders sagged in relief.
“I hate helicopters. One rotor vertical, the other horizontal …” He shook his head. “No, thanks. I have no desire to beat the air into submission.”
Perfect description, she thought. “Glad we agree.”
“We seem to agree on many things.”
He extended his hand, and she took it, her mind spinning, her heart rate spiking as his long, warm fingers enveloped hers.
“Then what are we doing up here?”
“We’re going to watch that thing lift off and pray for the passengers,” he snarked.
“Come on.” Nick led her to the edge of the terrace, where the Manhattan skyscrapers glowed in the night under the stars.
It awed her, this city she had longed to see again, the center of world financial power, the perfect backdrop for Nick’s potent, magnetic presence.
“Oh,” she said softly. “It’s so beautiful.”
“You are the most beautiful thing I see.” He raised her hand to his lips, pressing a lingering kiss on her knuckles that sent electric tingles everywhere.
He stepped behind her, his hands resting on her shoulders. “Look.”
Jannie leaned into Nick, reveling in his intoxicating scent and the feel of his hard body supporting her.
Everything below glowed. The incessant honking and traffic sounds were faint up here, the city lights shining in the night. So many windows, most of them uncovered, in so many buildings … in the one at twelve o’clock, she could even see a few late workers at their desks.
To the right, in what appeared to be a residential building, cool fluorescents illuminated a kitchen where she spotted a couple moving about.
Farther down, someone sat in a chair; the flickering light was probably from flipping through TV channels.
This was entirely different from the multicolored, gaudy vibe of the Las Vegas Strip.
It pulsed with a vibrant energy all its own.
Energy that, combined with Nick’s overt masculinity and warmth, quickened her pulse and raised the hairs on her nape.
The rooftop door behind them opened with a loud bang, and Jannie started. Five men approached, nodding politely as they passed by. Jannie watched them joke and banter as they made their way toward the helipad.
“We’re way too close,” she muttered, watching them board.
He chuckled. “We’re at least two hundred feet away.”
Not enough distance, as far as she was concerned. Metal doors slammed shut, and talk became impossible as the helicopter whined to life. Its massive rotor spun faster and faster, whipping the air, blowing wind into their faces, and ruffling Jannie’s skirt.
She grabbed the hem. Nick grinned rakishly, watching her struggle to keep the flapping fabric from flying up.
His eyes devoured her. Jannie slanted a glance at the darkened windows of the aircraft’s cabin, her gaze locking on Nick’s hooded eyes. Something flashed in them, sending a thrill through her middle, and suddenly that little devil on her shoulder popped up.
Recklessly, she let go. Her silky skirt blew around wildly, then wrapped around her waist, exposing her legs and barely there tan thong. She knew it looked as if she wore nothing, the mesh gossamer-thin and completely see-through.
Nick’s eyes flared with heat as he took her in. His gaze flicked to her face, then back to her exposed flesh, his tongue drawing across his full lower lip. He said something that looked like, “Damn, woman.”
For long, heart-pounding moments, the helicopter remained idle. Finally, it lifted slowly, canting forward before banking and lifting off into the night sky, the whop-whop of the rotor blades growing fainter and fainter as it disappeared into the darkness.
Leaving her and Nick alone on the rooftop.
Her skirt fluttered down, caressing her legs with a soft swish as it settled.
Silence descended.
And suddenly, he hauled her against him, drawing a gasp from her as he shoved his hand into her hair and dipped her, opening his mouth to press fevered kisses over her throat. “You pulled a Marilyn Monroe on that poor pilot. Good thing he was still capable of taking off in that damn thing.”
“He probably wasn’t looking,” she rasped.
“If he wasn’t, those other guys definitely were.” He kissed just below her chin. “And that was without a doubt the best part of their nighttime view of New York City.”
His voice, his words, the way his hot tongue traced her collarbone …
She gripped his forearms. “Maybe they didn’t see.”
He looked up at the bright light directly overhead, illuminating his features as if by daylight. “Oh, they saw everything, all right.”
He backed her against the railing, gripping her leg and wrapping it around his waist. His warm hand slipped under her skirt, smoothing over her skin, raising goose bumps and sending a million shock waves through her middle.
“Did you like that, Jannie?” With gentle fingers, he caressed her backside, barely touching, making a dull throb begin to pulse deep inside her. “So many pairs of eyes on you?”
God help her, she shouldn’t have, but she did.
Jannie closed her eyes, saying nothing.
“Did the thought of six grown men looking at you and getting rock-hard turn you on?”
The throb was quickly becoming an ache; the thong no longer could contain her arousal, and she felt it, hot, at the apex of her thighs.
Nick’s thumb was nearly there, just grazing, so close to the spot where she so badly needed his touch.
“Think about them, so hard for you …” He ran his thumb just alongside there, back and forth, sliding easily. “Six of them, including me. People in these buildings may have seen it too. Tell me, does that do it for you?”
She couldn’t speak, not with the way he was touching and talking to her, and with the feel of his rigid length against her belly.
She tilted her hips, pressing into him.
“That mouth of yours won’t tell me.” His thumb circled, brushing lightly. “But that’s OK, because this—” another pass “—this says it clearly.”
She swallowed, her knees threatening to buckle as the world started to spin in a whirl of golden lights. The overhead light illuminated him in silver, making him look like something not quite of this world.
“God, look at you.” Three fingers replaced his thumb, stroking, upping the sensation to nearly unbearable. “What should I do about this?”
Damn him, he knew exactly what to do about it.
“What do you think you should do?” Her voice was raspy.
She fully expected filthy words to pour out of his mouth, graphic descriptions of exactly what he wanted to do and how he would do it.
But then his hand stilled. He lowered his head, taking her lips tenderly, his body trembling. When he broke the kiss and looked down at her, his eyes were dark fire.
“I think,” he said in a low voice, “that I should worship you.”
Her lips parted. She stared at him. This tall, powerful man, who could easily surrender to basic urges and set upon her like a beast, was holding himself back.
For her.
A heady feeling washed over Jannie, so intense she dared not look at him. But she could still see him from the corner of her eye, feel the heat radiating from his body, and sense the crackling energy between them.
He leaned to speak directly in her ear. “Beautiful girl.”
A violent shudder bolted through her. She wanted to look at him, but for some reason, she kept her eyes fixed on the glittering phallic buildings below, almost afraid to meet his gaze.
Because she knew it wasn’t only lust she’d see. And she didn’t know if she could handle it.
He waited a moment longer. Kissed the sensitive place just below her ear.
“Turn around,” he said.
She did. Goose bumps arose on her skin from her scalp to her fingertips.
His touch, gliding along her arms, intensified the sensation, and then he sank down, slowly, deliberately, his hands on her the entire way.
Until she realized he was kneeling behind her, his hands sliding under her skirt, and she couldn’t stop herself from turning her head to look.
Nick’s eyes were closed, his face the picture of serenity. His lips were parted, and she thought she saw them move, as if he were uttering some sort of chant or prayer. My God, the man was kneeling on concrete and didn’t even care.
“Grip the railing.”
It was a quietly spoken command. No other way to describe that tone, one she had never heard from him before. Chest heaving, Jannie obeyed, caught up in the erotic wave that swept over them both.
His hands slid between her knees. “Aren’t you glad you need to be twenty-one to even set foot in this building?
” His fingers smoothed higher, higher … “Any minute,” he continued, “someone could step through that door again. Or another helicopter could come here to land. Maybe even the same one, and those guys would have more to look at.” His fingertips slid to her backside, massaging gently, then more insistently.
He lifted her skirt. “This back view.” Squeezed her cheeks. “Jesus Christ.” A pause. “Do you like this, Jannie? Me, on my knees behind you, getting ready to worship you, when anyone can walk in on me doing it?”
Oh my God.
The lights began to swirl and shimmer before her eyes.
“Answer me.” His voice was raw.
“Yes,” she admitted.
“Someone out there might be watching.”
A soft whimper escaped her.
“You like that.” It wasn’t a question. He gripped a fistful of her long hair and tugged. “Unzip your dress.”
He wasn’t only going to do things to her under her skirt; he meant to have her naked.
Flutters exploded across her middle.