Hot Velocity(10)

He frowned. “Practice?”

“I haven’t been on a date since high school. Spending time with you is like being on a date. I could use the practice.” She laid her hand on his chest and stared at her fingers, not into his eyes. “I wouldn’t expect you to stick around. And when you leave, I promise not to be heartbroken.” Her voice softened, fading away with the last word.

He couldn’t resist, he had to kiss her. She was too beautiful when she was embarrassed. T-Rex bent and skimmed his mouth across hers.

She lifted her chin and forced the connection to be more than a brief touch. Her other hand rose to cup the back of his head.

There was no going back. He crushed her body to his, the evidence of his desire pressing against her soft belly.

After plundering her mouth, he dragged his lips across her chin to suck her earlobe between his teeth. “This is insane,” he whispered.

Sierra tilted her head to the side, giving him better access to her ear and to her neck. “Completely,” she responded, in a breathy voice, curling her leg behind his.

Holy hell, what was he thinking? This woman was too recently divorced. If he took her now, he’d be taking advantage of her when she was at her most vulnerable.

Though he wanted to swing her up into his arms and carry her into the bedroom, he fought that urge, broke the kiss and took a step back. He breathed in short, tight breaths, clenching his fists to keep from taking her back into his arms.

She stood in front of him, her lips swollen from his kiss, her chest rising and falling as quickly as his. “I’m sorry.”

“Why?” he asked.

“I must have done something wrong.” She shook her head, her eyes glassy, a pucker on her forehead.

“You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m the one who almost screwed up.” He took her key from her and slid it into the doorknob. “Go to bed, Sierra. Sleep. I don’t want to be your next mistake. Save yourself for a better guy who’ll stick around.”

Before she could say another word, he angled her through the door and closed it between them. It had to be one of the hardest things he’d ever had to do.

With leaden steps and tight jeans, he continued down the hallway to his room, entered, closed the door behind him and leaned against it. What had he been thinking?

Sierra Daniels was strictly off-limits. She’d been abused, for heaven’s sake. Freshly divorced and vulnerable, she would only be hurt if he made love to her. As much as she tried to convince him that she needed “practice,” she needed a lot more than that. She needed to learn to love herself before she loved another. Not that he was anyone to give advice on love and romance. He was one big failure in that arena.

Pushing away from the door, he grabbed his shaving kit and a towel and headed across the hall to the shared bathroom. A cold shower would help to douse the raging desire that had almost cost him his control.

Ten minutes later, he climbed out of the shower, dried off and wrapped his towel around his waist. With his shaving kit in hand, he walked out of the bathroom and almost ran over Sierra bent over in the hallway, collecting from the floor an array of shampoo and conditioner bottles and a tube of toothpaste.

“Sorry, I’ll get out of your way.” She shoved all the items into a torn plastic bag, gathered them to her chest and finally glanced up.

Her gaze started at his shins and climbed to the towel, pausing at the tent his instant desire had created.

T-Rex groaned. He’d need thirty minutes more in an ice bath to tamp down the intense heat that exploded inside when Sierra’s gaze swept upward.

What sweet hell was this? He gripped her elbow and brought her to her feet. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said, her cheeks bright red.

“Good, because now I’m not.” He turned her toward the bathroom and gave her a gentle nudge. “Go, before I forget how to be a gentleman.”

* * *

SIERRA STAGGERED INTO the bathroom. The door closed behind her and she finally remembered to inhale. Then her breaths came in ragged gasps. She pressed a hand to her chest, willing her heartbeat to slow.

Seeing T-Rex in nothing but a towel had taken her breath away. The man had the broadest, most anatomically perfect chest of any man she’d ever seen in person or on television. But the evidence of his desire had captured her attention, shoving every other thought completely out of her head. He’d been hard for her.

Before she’d headed for the bathroom, Sierra had gone to her room, her hormones hopping, her libido so stimulated she hadn’t been able to settle into a chair or in bed. She’d wandered around the room, counting the number of steps it took to get from one side to the other.

After ten laps, she’d forced herself to sit at the little desk and dump out the contents of her purse. She rearranged them and placed them back in the different compartments, assigning a specific pouch for the stun gun. She didn’t want to waste time hunting for it the next time she needed to defend herself.

Once she’d completed her inventory and repacking of the items in her purse, she turned on the television in the corner and flipped through the channels. Nothing had appealed to her, or taken her mind off the man in the room next to hers. She turned off the television, grabbed the plastic grocery bag of toiletries she’d brought with her from her apartment, panties and a nightgown and headed for the bathroom across the hall.

She’d almost reached the door when the bottom fell out of the bag, spilling her shampoo, conditioner, lotion and toothpaste onto the floor. She’d dropped to pick them up when the bathroom door opened and...and... Sweet heaven, T-Rex had stood in front of her.

Standing in the bathroom he’d vacated, Sierra burned with the heat of her desire. Never in her life had she been that strongly attracted to any man. Not even during the early days of dating Clay. Yes, there had been a mild form of lust. But this was something entirely different. The feeling consumed her and made her lose focus on everything else.

Sierra shook herself, set her things on the counter and stripped out of her clothes, determined to push the man out of her thoughts. No man should have that much control over her thoughts and imagination. It could only lead to heartache and losing herself once again. She’d come too far in her self-realization to backslide now.

In the shower, she scrubbed her hair, face and body, trying to ignore the sensitivity of her nipples and the ache between her legs. She would not succumb to her desire.

T-Rex had laid it out for her. He wasn’t staying. And he hadn’t invited her to leave when he left. Not that he should. They were strangers, having known each other for only a few short hours.

She rinsed the suds out of her hair and turned the shower to its coolest setting. Anything to chill the heat inside her body. If she didn’t get a grasp on her physical reactions to the man, she’d never get any sleep.

Dressed in her nightgown, her hair wrapped turban-style in the towel, she eased open the door. The hallway was clear. A stab of disappointment assailed her.

“Idiot,” she muttered beneath her breath. “Like he’d be interested in you. And you shouldn’t be interested in him.”

The door across the hall opened and T-Rex stood in the frame, wearing jeans and nothing else. “Did you say something?”

Her cheeks flamed. “No, just talking to myself.” She scurried for her door. “You weren’t kidding about paper-thin walls, were you?”

He chuckled. “No, I wasn’t. The couple who’d been in the room on the other side of me were very loud in their lovemaking. I had a hard time facing them in the morning.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about me. I won’t be making a whole lot of noise,” she babbled. “I don’t think I snore, and once I’m out, I don’t get up for anything short of a fire alarm.”

“Good to know.” His gaze swept her from her head to her bare feet, his eyes flaring as he skimmed over her bare knees and calves. “Good night.”

His glance warmed her from the inside, spreading heat to her chest and lower to the juncture of her thighs.

“Yes, good night.” She rushed through her door and closed it before she did something stupid like falling into the big marine’s arms and begging him to make love to her. Wow, he had charisma in spades. How did women resist?

With little hope of sleep, she lay on the bed. The headboard rested against the wall she shared with T-Rex. If the walls were as thin as he’d said, he could hear her if she cried out.

After Clay had attacked her twice that day, Sierra felt more reassured having T-Rex on the other side of the wall. And she had the stun gun, should she need it.

For a long time, she lay in the dark, staring up at the ceiling. Sleep eluded her. She found herself listening for sounds from the other room, wondering if T-Rex was having trouble sleeping, too. The next thought that popped into her head was the big question: Did he sleep in pajamas or in the nude?

Sierra moaned, rolled onto her side and punched her pillow. This was not going to work. Thinking of a naked man would not put her to sleep anytime soon.

“Everything okay in there?” a deep, resonant voice said from the other side of the wall.

Sierra yelped and sat up.

“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. I heard you moan and thought maybe you weren’t feeling well.”