“Oh, thank goodness,” she muttered, hurrying forward and pushing past him to get inside the room he’d just exited.
Eyebrows rising, Tiny turned to watch her snatch up her discarded gown and lacy underthings to rifle through them quickly.
“What is it?” he asked, when she cursed and dropped the destroyed clothes with disgust.
Sighing, she glanced over, and admitted, “I was going to go get some blood from the SUV for Stephanie. The keys were tucked into my bra when we started out through the sewers, but they aren’t here.” She scowled unhappily. “They must have fallen out when I took that tumble in the sewers.”
“Hmm,” Tiny murmured, his eyes sliding over her in the new clothes. The black joggers had NYC down the side seams, they were a bit large and riding low on her hips, while the black tank with NYC across the breasts was hugging her curves lovingly. I did good, Tiny decided. She looked sexier in the outfit than he’d thought possible…and the keys had been lucky to be nestled between her breasts for even a few minutes.
A disgusted cluck from Mirabeau made him force his eyes away from her body to her face as she sighed unhappily, and said, “I guess I’ll have to call Lucian and tell him. He’ll have to send out someone with keys or send a new SUV altogether.” She gave an exasperated huff. “God, he’s going to be so pissed. It completely defeats our having snuck out of the church the way we did and sloshing through the sewers. Leonius or one of his men could follow whoever delivers the keys and—”
“We don’t have to call Lucian,” Tiny said quietly, and Mirabeau turned startled eyes his way.
“We don’t?” she asked hopefully.
He shook his head. “I can get us into the SUV and get it started without keys.”
“You can?”
She was peering at him now as if he were a god. It made him smile wryly. While he liked that she was looking at him like that, it would have been nice if it were for a different reason than that he could help her avoid calling Lucian, he thought, then admitted, “It’s one of many more dubious skills I possess. I had something of a shady past before Jackie’s father took me under his wing and taught me to be a PI. If not for him, I think I probably would have become a criminal. Fortunately, he caught me while I was still young.”
Much to his surprise, the words made Mirabeau’s mouth widen into a full-fledged smile. Moving toward him across the bathroom, she chuckled, and admitted, “That touch of shadiness just makes you even more attractive.”
Tiny felt his eyebrows rise and smiled. He was certainly attracted to her and had hoped it was returned, but while Marguerite was hoping they were life mates, and Stephanie had made a comment or two about their lusting after each other, he hadn’t really seen any evidence of it from Mirabeau before then. He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her, but she had been all business up until that moment, so he said, “More attractive? You do find me attractive then?”
“Oh, yeah,” she assured him huskily, glancing down and running one finger lightly along the bare skin just above the towel around his waist.
Tiny sucked in a breath, his stomach jumping and his body along with it. He wasn’t at all surprised to see his towel tenting outward as little Tiny came to roaring life. Neither was he surprised that Mirabeau’s smile had widened even farther and now had a satisfied edge.
Her eyes were beginning to glow with what he knew was evidence of her own desire when she lifted her face to his again, and her voice was a soft growl as she said, “After this assignment is done, we’ll have to do something about that.”
Tiny was already reaching for her, and her words didn’t stop him from drawing her forward to press against his chest and other less flat parts.
“Why wait?” he growled, then covered her mouth with his. He kissed her with all the desire he’d been experiencing since joining her in the tunnels. His mouth was demanding, and even though he was getting a response, he knew she was holding back, that her sense of duty was struggling with her own desire, and she wasn’t giving him all of herself.
Breaking the kiss, he began to nibble his way across her cheek to her ear, and whispered, “We’re on a break right now. Stephanie’s safe and probably sleeping, and we have a couple hours before dawn…consider this a dinner break.”
Mirabeau pushed him away so swiftly, he thought at first he’d somehow offended her, but then she kept pushing, urging him away from the bathroom door and backward across the bedroom to the king-sized bed. Tiny felt it bump up against the back of his legs, then Mirabeau was pushing him back onto it and climbing on top of him to straddle his toweled hips.