Rarities Unlimited 03 - Die in Plain Sight

driving into her until—
    Lacey’s hand over his mouth cut off the hot vision he hadn’t even been aware of saying aloud.
    “Holy shit,” she said, leaning against him, trembling, struggling for breath while her heart went wild. “What’s happening?”
    Ian lowered his forehead against hers and grabbed at breath. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”
    She stuck out her lower lip and looked stubborn. “I asked first.”
    He laughed despite the sexual need hammering through his whole body. “You go to my head, darling, among other places.”
    She didn’t have to ask which other places. She could count his heartbeat in the erection pressing against her belly. Normally she would have raked any man up one side and down the other for getting so intimate in such a hurry. What worried her was that she wanted more of Ian, not less. She wanted what he’d described—him driving into her, watching.
    “And no, I’ve never tried to nail a woman the second time I kissed her,” he added. “Sorry about that. I’m wondering what happened myself.”
    “Ho boy,” she said, blowing a stray curl away from her eyes. “Don’t apologize. Must be something in the air today. You got me hotter, faster, than anyone ev—” She broke off, appalled at what she was saying. Groaning, she tried to hide her blush against his chest.
    Gently he lifted her chin until she met his eyes. “You’re not coolingme off here,” he said, but he was smiling the kind of smile that made people trust him with small children and large fortunes. He brushed his lips over her eyebrows, her nose, her cheeks, and inhaled her breath without kissing her. “Come painting with Susa, or let us stay here with you.”
    Thoughtfully Lacey ran her fingertips over the outline of his shoulder holster beneath his jacket. “You’re really her bodyguard?”
    “No, I really work on the security side of Rarities Unlimited. I protect art, not people. Sometimes my boss does favors for the Donovan family, and vice versa. This is one of them. Until I put Susa on the Donovan company plane back to Seattle, I’m on duty. Otherwise I’d be trying the old-fashioned dating thing with you, and would have been since I first heard you coming down the stairs talking about a beer kind of day.” He blew the springy curl away from her eyes and kissed her temple. “Don’t shut me out, Lacey. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering if I let something special slip through my fingers because of work.”
    Lacey looked up at Ian’s dark brown eyes and even darker hair. He wasn’t smiling. He meant every word. “Oh, God, what a mess,” she said in a rush of air. “Why now, when I can’t ?” She bit her lip and looked away, then looked back at him. “Rain check?”
    “Haven’t you heard? It never rains in southern California.”
    “Does that mean no rain check?”
    “I’m not that patient. Never is too long.”
    She closed her eyes and her generous mouth curved down.
    “You said it wasn’t just you,” Ian said when the silence stretched too long. “Who else is in trouble?”
    “It’s a family matter and no one is in trouble. It’s just…awkward.” Really awkward.
    He looked at the stubborn line of her lower lip and wondered what it would take for her to trust him. And then he wondered why the hell it should matter so much.
    “Well, if it’s just awkward, there’s no reason not to go painting, is there?” he asked reasonably. “We won’t ask any embarrassing questions.” Like why you needed a fake name, for instance.
    “Not enough time,” Lacey said, thinking of her grandfather’s paintings hanging out in public like dirty linen. “I have to do something else before the shop opens. It can’t wait. Maybe—maybe tomorrow?”
    Ian would have pushed if he hadn’t sensed that it wouldn’t do himany good and probably would hurt his attempt to get her to trust him. He didn’t have any real sisters, but he’d been raised next door to his first cousins, all four of them girls. He knew when a female was movable and when she wasn’t.
    Lacey wasn’t.
    “Okay,” he said. “Painting tomorrow, six A.M. I’ll pick you up for dinner at seven tonight.”
    She blinked. “Dinner?”
    “I know you eat.” He smiled. “I’ve seen you. I even put the food on your paint table where you couldn’t miss it.”
    “Um, yes, but—”
    “Good,” he interrupted. He wasn’t going to take no for an answer, not with the taste of her still