I didn’t argue. I felt safer with it there—in spite of the fact it also felt a little dangerous having him this close.
He kept an arm around me for the duration of the climb as well as the walk down the long hallway to my guest suite.
Stopping just outside the door, I turned to face him. “You going to write now?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
Jack nodded, standing close and speaking softly. “Yeah. You going to bed?”
“In a little while. I want to take a bath first.”
That information seemed to pique his interest. His posture stiffened, and his muscles visibly tensed. His voice sounded strained. “You like baths?”
“Lovethem,” I confessed. Oh boy. My voice had that loose, happy sound it inevitably got whenever I was tipsy. Maybe I wasn’tperfectlyfine.
Oh well, I wasn’t driving, and Iwashappy. It had been a great night.
“Your bathtub is thebest,” I informed him. “I mean—not that I took a bath in it—I didn’t. I just saw it the day I was in there changing out of my wet clothes. I might have sat in it for a minute too, but I kept my clothes on, I promise. And I didnottest out your very soft-looking bed.”
I crossed my heart in a gesture leftover from childhood. Jack chuckled.
“It’ssobig,” I went on. “Your bathtub I mean—not your bed. Although that’s ginormous, too. And your tub has that fireplace right there beside it and an ocean view. Wow, I sound really weird, don’t I? Lusting after your bathtub.”
“Lucky bathtub.”
Jack’s eyes smoldered, and his voice was a low purr, like that of a reclining tiger. The combination knocked me off-kilter, causing me to lean back against the closed wooden door for support.
From this angle I had a great view of Jack’s neck. His Adam’s apple traveled the strong column of his throat in a slow rise and fall.
“I never use it myself,” he said softly. My focus had shifted from his throat to his lips, which were slightly parted in a lazy smile. A beautiful smile.
My head was so light and dizzy I barely managed a reply. “You don’t?”
“No. I prefer the shower. Maybe we should trade rooms.”
He was probably kidding, but I shook my head. Which wasn’t helping with the dizziness. “No. I wouldn’t put you out of your room. I’m already imposing enough.”
“You’re not imposing, Bonnie. You’re a joy to have around—as if you didn’t already know my staff has fallen in love with you. I’m afraid there’s going to be a mutiny.”
“No. They love you, too,” I argued. “Sooooo much. You should hear how they talk about you when you’re not around. They think you hung the moon.Andthe stars—even though sometimes you’re Grumpty Dumpty.”
He grinned, edging even closer and placing one hand on the wall over my head. “And what do you think?”
The sound of his voice, so low and rough, stole my breath. His head was bent down toward mine, our faces aligned.
We weren’t touching, but there were mere inches between us. I was agonizingly aware of his body—so big, so warm, so solid and unapologetically masculine.
Jack’s chest rose and fell, his rapid breaths audible. For a moment neither of us spoke. We just looked at each other, our breaths mingling in the dark hallway.
“I think…” My thoughts scattered, and my pulse did a little fluttery thing as Jack’s gaze dropped to my lips.
Was he going to kiss me? The fluttering became a frantic flapping.
He was so close I could sense the heat of his skin, smell the fresh laundry scent of his shirt and the yummy guy-shampoo scent of his hair. And I couldfeelhim—or at least part of him—grazing my upper hip.
Either he had one impressive package, or he’d taken to stashing a steel pipe down his pants in case he might need to do some impromptu plumbing.
It would take only a slight shift of my body to determine which it was and bring me into delicious contact with that hard length.
A shot of heat darted between my thighs, waking nerves that had been dormant far too long.
