Run To You

Spears. When she’d wanted gifts of makeup and jewelry instead of a Bible and rosary.
    “Sorry about the one bedroom.”
    She turned and pressed her behind into the rail. He stood in the doorway wearing jeans and a dress shirt, unbuttoned and open as if it was too hot to close it. Light from inside washed over his left shoulder and down the contours of his hard chest. She bet his skin was warm and still sticky from the shower. She knew thinking like that was dangerous. Getting involved with Beau would be a mistake. One she would regret. “That was quick.”
    Within the shadows he shrugged, then stepped out onto the balcony. “It doesn’t take long to knock the stink off.”
    Her nose wrinkled. “That killed the romance.”
    Above the noise of Bourbon Street, she heard his deep chuckle as he moved toward the rail. “You feeling all romantic, Boots?”
    She folded her arms beneath her breasts and looked at him across her shoulder. More like lust than romance. “It’s a romantic city.”
    He shoved one hip into the railing next to her, so close the open edge of his crisp shirt brushed the sleeve of her robe. “Some parts.” He turned to look out at the city. “Others are very un romantic.”
    She turned toward him and gazed up into his face bathed in an eerie neon glow. “Like you.”
    His head snapped back toward her. “Like me?”
    “Yeah. When you save damsels in distress, that’s kind of romantic. But when you say stuff like knocking off your stink or pissing like a horse . . .” Again her nose wrinkled. “Not so much.” His mouth was just a few inches above hers and she wondered if he would kiss her. Again. If he’d do that thing where she felt consumed, then push her away. Again. She didn’t want to be pushed away. Easily set aside. Again. Getting involved with Beau might be a mistake, but she didn’t care right now. Right now he was filling the hollow places with his warmth. He consumed the lonely ache in her stomach and filled it up with tingling need and curiosity. There would always be time for regret. Later.
    “I usually don’t save damsels in distress.” Beau looked at the neon light vibrating in Stella’s dark hair, and his gaze slid to the mouth and chin pointed up at him. She wore a hotel robe, and he wondered what she wore beneath. “And I’ve never been a romantic kind of guy.” Especially now that he was on the celibacy wagon. A fact of which he had to remind himself as he looked at her mouth pointed up toward him.
    “Never?”
    The tip of her tongue touched the corner of her mouth and he felt it between his legs. “Maybe for an hour here and there.”
    “Here?”
    He shook his head as the ache in his groin prodded him to throw her over his shoulder and take her to bed. “No.”
    She raised her hand and placed it over his heart. Warm skin to soft palm that stole his breath and grabbed his balls in a hot grasp. “Your heart is beating fast.”
    “The air is thick.” Which was true but not the reason his blood pounded in his veins. If anything, his heart rate should be lower at this altitude.
    She untied her belt, and her voice dared him to look. “Liar.”
    And he did. God help him, there weren’t enough MIL conversions or MOS calculations he could do in his head to keep his gaze from sliding past her throat. The material parted just enough to tease him with shadows of her plump little breast, hiding the good stuff from view. The stuff he wanted to touch and taste and feel against him. “Stella, I’m trying to do the right thing with you.”
    “I’m not a child.” She touched his belly, and his muscles turned hard beneath her soft little hands. “I’m a grown woman, and I know the right thing for me.”
    The woman standing in front of him practically naked was definitely not a child, and he couldn’t recall wanting a woman more than he wanted Stella. He raised his hands to the front of her robe. He grabbed the lapels and meant to shut them tight, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t make himself push her away this time. He would. In a minute, but first . . . He wrapped his fists in terry cloth and pulled her to the balls of her feet. Her hard nipples grazed his bare chest on the way up, and he had to lock his knees to keep from falling. Warm skin pressed into his warm skin, and her soft breasts rode his chest as he lowered his mouth to hers. Soft. She was so soft and tasted so good. Her tongue touched his and he fed her long kisses filled with hunger and