Man, it was hot in the room all of a sudden.

“I want to make love to you, Mels. Right here, right now. Matter of fact, I’ve wanted you all along. The instant I saw you in the hospital—that’s when it happened for me.”

Okay…wow. And maybe another woman could have played things coy—but she wasn’t interested in games.

“Me, too.” God, had that come out of her mouth? “I mean, look, it’s been a while for me, so this is all a huge surprise…but there was something different about you from the moment I—” She had to laugh a little. “The moment I hit you with my car.”

That hand of his captured hers again, the stroking resuming.

“Thank you,” he said.

“For what?”

“I don’t know.”

She wasn’t sure she believed that. “Do you really think you’re not attractive?”

“You just saw me in boxers.”

Mels shook her head. “I’m not one of those shallow chicks who needs a guy all jacked up with muscles. There’s so much more to it than that.”

“Maybe, but I’m pretty certain you’d like your man to be able to have sex with you.”

Mels opened her mouth. Shut it. Opened it again.

“Exactly.”

Shit. That probably should have occurred to her, given the other scars on his lower body….

“Straight up, Mels, the only reason I haven’t completely jumped you is because I can’t. I…can’t.” He threw up his free hand and let it fall back down to the bedspread. “And you know what sucks? I’ve been with a lot of women.”

Annnnnnnd that made her chest hurt. “Before you were injured…”

He nodded. “Of all the things for my memory to come back on, right?”

Cue another kick in the solar plexus. “You remember them?”

“I hate it—because I would trade every single random f**k for just one night with you.” He brushed her face with his fingertips and then brought his thumb to her mouth. With the same gentle pressure he’d put against her wrist, he caressed her lower lip. “I’d give up every one of them. Matter of fact, it feels like…a curse to have finally found someone like you, only to have it be too late. And that’s where it’s at. It’s too late for me, Mels, and that’s how you’re killing me. When I look at you, when I see you move, when you smile or take a deep breath, I just…I die a little. Every time.”

Mels felt tears prick the corners of her eyes, an emotion she couldn’t define striking her heart and making it ring.

“You liked kissing me,” she said roughly.

“No. I loved it. I want to be doing it right now. I want…to do other things to you, just to make you feel good. But that’s as far as it would go—and whereas that’s more than enough for me, I know at some point, tonight, tomorrow, next week…it’s not going to be enough for you.”

She pressed a kiss to his hand. “I thought you were leaving.”

“I am. That was just a rhetorical example.”

Maybe. But it gave her a little hope, and she suddenly needed that like she had to have air.

“Mels, I—”

Swooping in, she stopped whatever it was he was going to say with her own mouth. At first, as the contact was made, his lips were stiff against her own, but that didn’t last. Soon enough, he was moving against her, wanting, taking. Licking. Nipping.

When she finally eased back, she was out of breath. “Don’t make up my mind for me, okay?”

It was clear she wasn’t the only one affected, because his chest was rising and falling with an urgency that turned her on.

“I don’t need sex to be happy with you,” she told him. “It’s honestly not that important—”

With a sudden surge, he all but pounced on her, pushing her back against the mattress and kissing her hard and deep. As his body covered hers, his tongue entered her, owning her in a way that was so complete, she hadn’t realized until that moment exactly how anemic any other man had been.

That heat that had sprung up exploded, the blood in her veins going into a roar in the space between heartbeats.

And that was before his hands started to undo her clothes.

29

As things went all Barry White and shit in the hotel room, Adrian backed out of there quietly, passing through the closed door and emerging into the hallway.

Jim had turfed the babysitting to him and taken off as soon as the reporter was at the Marriott, and that was all fine and dandy—but he wasn’t into live p**n unless he was personally involved, thank you very much. He was, however, completely into giving that pair plenty of Devina-free time. Shutting his eyes, he placed his palm on the wood of the exit he’d used and put a seal on the room, not just at its entrance, but all around the inside and into the bathroom.

Then he settled against the tone-on-tone wallpaper and shoved his hands in his pockets.

Now he knew why Jim smoked. Helped pass time when the dead zones came.

Man, that poor bastard Matthias, he thought. Then again, there were worse things than having a limp dick. Plus, that was what happened when you stepped on land mines or bombs or whatever the hell it had been: You blow your shit up, you can’t expect to be able to bone your female—

Down at the other end of the hall, the elevator doors opened and a woman stepped out, along with a daughter who was probably five or six. The former looked like she’d been through a war—or at least a lineup of bouncers: her hair was a mess, her sloping shoulders were strung with bags, and a lone suitcase was trailing after her on wheels like a sulking dog. The kid, on the other hand, was all firecracker, bouncing up and down, running up and back, her voice shrill enough to shatter glass.

Or, in the alternative, make you want to break it with your own head.

Adrian sat back while the parade went by him, keeping himself invisi. But that didn’t last—the little girl picked up on his presence, slowing to a stop and staring at where he was standing.

“Come on, Liza,” the mom said. “We’re down this way.”

“Mommy, there’s a angel here—”

“No, there isn’t.”

“But mommy, there so is! There’s a angel right here!”

“There is no one there. Will you come on?”

As the child just looked at him with big hazel eyes the size of car tires, Exhausto-mom came over and did a drag-away.

But mommy dearest had nailed it, he thought.

He didn’t feel like an angel. Never had, really—and Eddie’s death had taken away any small sense of responsibility to live up to the name. That dead SOB had been the standard to measure himself against. The one who was good and true. The compass…

Unable to stay still, Ad pushed himself out of his lean and headed for the elevator. Jabbing a finger into the down button, the doors opened immediately, the car that the mother/daughter pair had used still in place. On the ride down, he made himself visi, fixed his hair in the bronze mirrored panels, and straightened his leather jacket.

The prep work did nothing to improve his image. Then again, the problem was his expression. He looked like he was ready to bite someone’s head off.

Ding!

As the doors opened, he stepped out and long-legged it to the bar. Unfortunately, the place wasn’t seedy enough to attract the kind of woman he was after: no half-dressed Goths in the mix, with Prozac smiles and knees that liked to fall open—but that didn’t mean he couldn’t find a volunteer.

Taking a seat in a darkened corner, he let his need for sex waft out from his body.

And whaddaya know, every woman who came in, walked by, or even registered for a room all the way across the lobby looked in his direction.

The waitress who’d served him and Jim the night before came right over. “Hi.”

Her smile was half-lidded and really not professional. Especially as her eyes drifted down everything he had to display.

Which happened to include an unapologetic hard-on.

“What can I get you?” she drawled.

She was good-looking in a way that was tied primarily to her youth. Skin was glowing, hair was lush and healthy, body was banging. A closer gander at her features suggested that if you added twenty years and twenty pounds she’d be anonymous in middle age, but he was all about the here and now anyway.

“They give you any breaks at this place?” he said in a low voice.

“Yeah.” Smile got even bigger. “They do.”

“When.”

“Ten minutes.”

“Where can I have you.”

Her lips parted like she needed more oxygen. “Where do you want me…?”

“Here. Now.” He glanced around the bar. “But that would give people a helluva show.”

As his eyes swung back, he looked her up and down, and pictured f**king her from the front, her legs wide around his hips, his c**k going in and out as he watched the sex….

Okay, the theory didn’t really excite him as much—but that was the difference between p**n and true penetration. The actual? That was what he was after.

The conversation with his waitress around The Plan was hushed and quick, but it wasn’t a business transaction. She was not a whore being bought; she was a red-blooded woman who wanted a good f**k just like he did.

With things set, Adrian left the bar, his body humming, his heart cold as a meat locker. As they’d discussed, he hung a louie and took the ornate stairwell down to the spa. On the descent, the sound of his heavy boots echoed up into the marble ceiling, and the scent of sea salts and minerals and perfumed oils made him want to breathe through his mouth, not his nose.

He sneezed when he got to the bottom, but at least he didn’t have to go through the glass doors of the spa. If the shit smelled this strong on the outside, the interior would probably melt his sinuses.

Taking another left, he went down a whitewashed hall that was marked with black-and-white photographs of half-naked chicks in geometric poses. The door at the end was marked with a discreet Staff Only sign, and he waited at it with no patience whatsoever, breathing that thick air that clogged his lungs.

Shit. He couldn’t breathe—

His waitress opened up and grabbed his hand. “This way.”

It was a different world on the far side. No pictures, no smooth walls, just old, exposed brick and flooring that had a worn groove down the center. But it wasn’t like he’d come here to enjoy the scenery—at least, not the hotel’s.

Looking over her shoulder, the female smiled in a manic way, like this was more fun than she’d had on her shift for, like, ever. “If anyone sees us, you’re my cousin from out of town, okay?”

“Sure, whatever.” Provided no one caught them in the act. Kissing wasn’t going to be the half of it.

He followed her into a staff room that was in shambles, all kinds of bags and clothes strewn around mismatched furniture, the combustion of multiple perfumes creating a stale smell that made the place seem hotter. On the other side, there was yet another door, and this one opened up into an even dingier hallway that was clearly the colon of the original hotel structure.

And currently used, at least partially, as a storage area: Lined up against the rough walls, banquet chairs were stacked six to eight feet tall, the brass of all those legs and the bloodred velvet seats providing some kind of cover.

“We have fifteen minutes,” she said, putting her arms around his neck.

Adrian took the woman’s mouth like he was going to take the rest of her, hard and deep, his tongue extending and finding hers. In response, she clawed at his back, her nails digging into the leather of his jacket as one of her legs lifted from the floor and curled around his thigh. With rough hands, he popped her skirt up. She was wearing stockings that had looked professional enough in the bar; in reality, she had them pinned to a garter belt, and was sporting a thong.

The cheeks he grabbed onto were firm and high, and he spun her around in front of him, her hair swinging in a circle as she faced the sweaty brick wall. Getting down on his knees, he bit one side of her ass, sinking his teeth into her flesh as he took that thong south.

The sexual urge he rode had nothing to do with her. She was just the living, breathing equivalent of a StairMaster, something to work his edge off with, a vessel to pour the overspill of his anger and frustration and grief into.

And given the ease with which she met him here, and kissed him here, and was letting him do her here…he had the feeling this was not the first time she’d let herself get used like this.

Maybe she was using him for the same reason.

With the thong around her ankles and her skirt up over his head, he went down on her from behind, taking her with his mouth, penetrating her with his tongue. She tasted good, her electrolyzed sex supersmooth and ultrawet against his lips, everything fragrant and clean, as if she had standards for herself.